Name: 5 Speaking Traps That Make Smart People Look Insecure
Uploaded: 2026-02-26T08:47:38.000Z
Duration: 14 min 33 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

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There are five communication traps that even the most intelligent people fall into without realizing.

And these traps don't just make you look unprepared or unqualified, they make you look insecure.

Because even as a communication skills and public speaking expert for over the last decade, I still fall into these traps.

And if you don't become aware of these traps, you keep wondering why people overlook your ideas, why they interrupt you, and

why they only listen when someone else repeats the exact same point you've already made.

But imagine walking into a meeting, knowing exactly what habits quietly destroy your authority, and

then removing them so people instantly take you seriously.

So in this video, I'm going to uncover five communication traps, the deeper reasons why you do it, why I used to do it, what it signals to others, and

this one is the hardest for smart people to see in themselves.

Trap number one, the delivery blind spot.

Some of the most brilliant minds of our generation will remain completely invisible to the world.

Because when they speak, 100% of their cognitive capacity goes into what they say, and

I mean, for the next 15 seconds, just have a listen to this clip of this brilliant physicist sharing something deeply profound.

So the last statement means what I've given you is only a hint of this fact.

But deeper investigations from the starting point show that somehow the notion of what space and time is at short distances is quite different in string theory from what it is.

Did you also struggle to get through that?

They were so focused on the content, what they were saying, and

they were paying no attention to their delivery, how they were saying it.

And that is what causes a lot of smart people to lose authority, the reason why they stay invisible, because they haven't learned the art of engagement, the art of effective communication.

And this is the fascinating reason why most people don't focus on their delivery.

Many people grew up their entire lives being rewarded for their expertise, for their technical knowledge and for their skills, not their communication.

At school, at university, even early in your career, you were graded on technical knowledge and technical ability, not delivery, not communication.

So you subconsciously develop this belief.

If the idea is good enough, delivery shouldn't matter.

Because if you don't focus on delivery when you speak, they're going to think you don't believe in what you say.

Even if you do, they'll think you're boring, even if you think you're not.

And they'll feel as if you're not confident in what you're saying.

With your technical skills, you're a genius.

But if your communication skills are a three out of 10, people will find it hard to listen to you.

Remember that initial physicist that I showed you from before?

The one that was a little boring who didn't focus on delivery.

Now I want you to watch a physicist like Neil Degrasse Tyson, who's an incredible expert, but

In textbooks, they have to fit the moon on the same page as the Earth.

So you think moon is much closer than it actually is.

If you drew earth as a natural 3 inch size circle on a textbook page, the moon would have to be several pages back from that.

And wasn't that much more easy to listen to?

50% of your time goes into you focusing on the words.

And then the other 50% you need to focus on your delivery.

And the easiest way to do this is by using the vocal, visual and verbal framework.

When you're talking about something serious, speak with a lower pitch.

But when you want to convey passion, speak with a higher pitch.

Now visually match your facial expressions to the tone of your words.

If you're talking about something fascinating, show that fascinated look on your face and verbally simplify your words.

Stop using complex jargon to try to sound smart.

This is just the generic list of behaviors that you can apply to your communication immediately.

But if you want a more personalized list of behaviors that's specific to your communication style, I created a free three part video series that's going to help you identify those specific behaviors that are specific to you, that you can use and apply to yourself to improve.

And if you want access to that, just click the link in the description below or check out the QR code.

Trap number two, the imposter disclaimer.

This trap shows up when people start their sentences like this.

I'm not the best person to answer this, but.

I haven't really thought this through, but this is you disqualifying yourself even before you speak.

When you use it in the wrong context, it sounds like this, I can't listen.

I'm probably not the best bomb technician in the world.

I'm probably wrong with this one, but I'm just gonna go cut the red one.

Did we unnecessarily buy a smoke machine just for this scene?

Okay, I know that's a very dramatic example, but I'm a dramatic kind of person.

Now, obviously you're not defusing bombs in your job every day, but

emotionally, it has the same impact when you pre disqualify yourself like that.

At the start of a meeting or before an idea, before a suggestion, people panic a little on the inside.

They think to themselves, wait, if you don't trust your answer, why should we?

And suddenly your idea loses credibility before it even leaves your mouth.

Now, why do some of the smartest people do this?

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5 Speaking Traps That Make Smart People Look Insecure

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