# The words that kill your authority: stop trying to sound impressive

- **Episode:** [205](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/205.md) (2025-06-12)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** authority, language, impressive-words
- **Time:** 6:33–9:41 (start 393s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/205?t=393](https://truthliesandwork.com/205?t=393)

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[6:33] Al Elliott: Can we talk for a second about the words that kill your authority? Because this was one of the things that we first came across you with. We're talking about particular specific words. I've got written down here that you once wrote, stop trying to sound impressive and start sounding useful. Can you start off by telling us what you mean by that?
[6:52] Cheryl Robinson: Yeah. When you listen to newbies in industries, recent graduates, they use a lot of fluff and jargon that should not be added into sentences. And you want to show the value that you bring and what current project for the company you're working on. So I did write down. A sentence that shows how you can tell when people want to sound impressive, but all that comes across is a bunch of nonsense. So, per our synergistic discussion, I'll proactively interface with cross-functional stakeholders to ideate scalable solutions that That ladder up to quarterly KPIs. And these are things that you hear recent graduates and newbies into industries say. There is so much in that sentence that could just be cut down to, um, talking to our partners and we'll get back to you on what we're working on. That is how you can break down that sentence. And I wrote an article about how when people use fluff words or too many fluff words, too much jargon, that it makes you sound like you're new and not know what you are talking about. And as you climb the ladder, people get more to the point
[8:41] Al Elliott: Is it an insecurity, do you think, that people are trying to hide behind these fancy terms?
[8:47] Cheryl Robinson: One, I think it's insecurity. Two, I think that it's just people thinking that they are quote unquote the best thing that's ever walked out of college. And three, I think it's what they're taught. And when you have young professionals going to networking meetings for young professionals, This is what you hear all the time. But instead of going to young professional networking groups, they should be going to just regular networking groups. And then they would understand, oh, people above me at different levels, they speak differently and they act differently. But when you have a room full of early 20-year-olds, that's all you're gonna hear. So you think that's the correct way to do it