Fluff Kills Influence—Here’s How to Fix It

I’m not sure if you were aware…. but it turns out that fish can swim!

The other day my wife and I were watching an episode of one of our favorite shows, “Alone”. The premise is this: Take a bunch of wilderness survival experts, let them bring ten objects of their choice, drop them off in some remote location and they film themselves as they survive (ALONE) as long as they possibly can. They can be rescued at any moment, but the last one standing wins $500,000.

Its an amazing testament to the power of human endurance, and the series is filled with equal parts heartbreak and triumph. And the irony is not lost on us: Sitting there, sprawled on our couch in comfy warm clothes with food aplenty in the fridge?… we are about as far away from their meager existence as possible.

But eating raw cut vegetables as snacks really makes you feel like you are suffering with them.

Occasionally, the show producers will add factual blurbs on the screen to add context to what the participants are doing. For example, it might tell you how many calories their handful of berries have. Or how far away bears can smell fear. But this past week as one participant was putting bait to a hook in efforts to catch a fish, the producers decided to add this little pearl of wisdom:

“Fish tend to be hungriest in the late afternoon after swimming all day”

Read that again if you please.

According to the show producers, why are fish hungry in the afternoon in particular?

Because they SWIM all day.

I laughed and turned to my wife asking, “Well what else would they be doing? Its not like they’re walking… or sitting on a couch. Of course they’re swimming. They’re fish!”

In their infinite wisdom, the show producers decided to enlighten us, the dear viewers at home, of the shocking truth that fish?… swim… all day. Maybe the intern copywriter was really struggling, or maybe the editors were desperate and digging at the bottom of the barrel for SOMETHING to put on the screen. But whatever the case, their little factoid was redundantly obvious and made the producers look kind of ridiculous.

That’s because it was fluff.

What does this have to do with influence and success?

Abraham Lincoln once commented about a political opponent: “[He] can compress the most words in the fewest ideas of any man I ever knew.”

When you communicate to others… and especially when you intend to influence people to choose you… how much of what you say is fluff?

When we get nervous it’s common to use fillers, go on tangents, and anxiously keep talking… all while?… the Decision Maker waits for a break in your barrage of words. And if your words and behaviors give people the materials to build their perceptions of you, then when you communicate fluff, that negatively influences how people see your value.

What are some strategies to reduce this? Here are three idea’s I’ve personally used to improve my communication skills:

1. RECORD YOURSELF, AND THEN LISTEN BACK. As a professional speaker and musician… I’m here to tell you that recording yourself and listening to it is one of the quickest ways to see what needs to be cut. It may be painful and embarrassing, but when you switch your paradigm to being a listener I GUARANTEE you will find things that can be eliminated.

2. PRACTICE IN FRONT OF SOMEONE YOU TRUST. Have you ever done a mock interview? Or maybe even practiced your pitch in front of someone else? They will be able to give you clear and helpful feedback on what works and what doesn’t. It also pushes you to prepare in advance, and enables your message to become ingrained into muscle memory.

3. REHEARSE AGAIN & AGAIN. When the time for action comes, the time for preparation has ended. When you are in front of a Decision Maker, you need to have your message down COLD. If you don’t? Your flight/fight/freeze response kicks in and you start sounding like a dumb dumb. The ability to rehearse your message frequently and consistently is one of the secrets to all GREAT communicators.

So as you think about your communication skills, or as you consider your pitch or key message… what is fluff? What can be cut? How can it be simplified? What’s unnecessary? I’ve found that great Communicators are taught… not necessarily born. You can grow and improve.

I’m excited to unveil a tool I’ve developed to help you discover your natural gifts in communication while also learning how you can improve.

Discover Your (Unique) Influence Persona: The Key to Getting Chosen

Influence is a balance between your natural innate abilities and your hard earned skillsets. Learning to leverage and improve both (and cut the fluff) will make the difference in helping you rise above the noise and influencing people see you as the obvious choice.

And the more you work at it, one day you’ll find your ability to communicate your value and stand out from the crowd to be as natural as…

Well, just like a fish in water.

Christian

CHRISTIAN HANSEN has gone behind the scenes in some of the biggest organizations in the world to find out the reasons why some people get chosen and why others don’t. As the #1 bestselling and LinkedIn Top Ten ranked author of “The Influence Mindset: The Art & Science of Getting People to Choose You” Christian helps teams and organizations who want to stand out and be the obvious choice. With degrees from Brigham Young University and The London School of Economics, he’s helped thousands of individuals position and sell themselves. A fan of international communication, history, and choral music, he currently lives in Utah with his wife. Reach him at: TheChristianHansen.com