Can you please STOP talking!

Earlier this week I had an introduction meeting with a potential new client. Essentially, the kind where both sides are quietly working out whether there's a good fit or not.

I asked my usual opening questions. Simple ones. The kind designed to get a feel for where someone is, what they're working on, what matters to them, where they're wanting to go and so on.

What followed was…well....worth sharing!

Long answers. Drifting answers. One thought bleeding into the next, circling back, adding more, then more again. I genuinely lost track of what the original question was. By the end of it I was exhausted, distracted, yet curious.

Now here's the part that stayed with me. When we finally got to talking about what she might want to work on, she was clear that communication wasn't really a weakness. She didn't feel it needed much attention!

Ah - the cost of doing nothing!

More is not more. It just feels that way.

This is one of the most common patterns I see (day in, day out) and not just with new clients. Across boardrooms, pitches, meetings, and introductions, the belief quietly persists that saying more signals more: more credibility, more depth, more value. Surely the more I talk, the more they'll like me, right?

It doesn't work that way. It signals the opposite.

When you over-explain, you make people work. When you drift, you make people wait. When you can't find the end of your own sentence, you make people doubt whether you've really found the point at all.

And there's another thing that happens. Something most people don't notice in the moment. There's a little voice that shows up somewhere in the middle of it all, quietly saying: why are you still talking? And instead of stopping, most people speed up. Add more. Try to land somewhere. And fade out without ever really arriving.

The room feels it. They just won't tell you. So, sadly the feedback loop breaks too!

What this means for you!

Before your next meeting, your next pitch, your next moment in the room, ask yourself these three questions:

What is the one thing I need them to hear?

What can I cut without losing the point?

If I had thirty seconds, what would I say?

Brevity isn't a shortcut. It's a skill that can be learnt. It's a muscle that needs work. But doing it well signals something important - that you've done the thinking before you opened your mouth. You respected your audience.

The most memorable people in any room aren't the ones who say the most. They're the ones who make every word count, they're the ones that have the impact.

So here's your challenge. Next time you feel the urge to keep going, stop one sentence earlier than you think you need to. See what happens.

I'd love to hear how it lands.