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My nephew's questions during a job helped me simplify my explanations
I was putting in a berber carpet at my brother's house the other day. My ten year old nephew kept asking why I used a knee kicker instead of just laying it down. Explaining it to him showed me that I often use too many technical words with clients. Now I start by showing how good stretching keeps the carpet smooth, which helps everyone understand better.
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marksanchez3mo ago
How often do we do that, throw around words that just sound like noise to people? I was helping my buddy look at mortgages once and kept saying "amortization" like it was nothing. He finally told me to just say if the payment covers the loan itself or not. Now I catch myself all the time before using those big words. It makes things so much easier for everyone.
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Ever tried asking a friend to repeat your explanation back to you? I test my own descriptions that way now (like having a buddy explain a router bit back in his own words). If he can't say it simply, I know I need to drop more of the shop talk.
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jakejones3mo ago
Well, my clients probably think I'm speaking another language half the time.
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amy_anderson2mo ago
You know that old saying about if you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't really understand it yourself? I read something like that once and it stuck with me. It's so easy to hide behind fancy words when we're not totally sure of our own point. Makes you wonder how much clearer we'd all be if we tried that simple test first.
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