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#20 · How to Project Manage 150 Reels/Month (+QA)

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How have you improved your speaking skills? Clearly it's a strength of yours — any advice?

I don't really have a straight-line path here beyond just talking constantly. I used to do door-to-door sales for a long time, where being perceived as articulate mattered a lot. I did tons of sales in the years after, cold calls, cold emails leading to booked meetings, and my Upwork application strategy required recording a large number of videos daily where I had to speak clearly on camera. I wish I had a clean two- or three-step program to give you, but in reality the vast majority of this skill just came from doing it a lot, to the point where my brain is just wired to talk in a way that seems reasonably put together.

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What’s the best way to improve speaking skills, and can you lose the ability if you don’t practice?

Speaking is a skill like any other. My door‑to‑door experience—knocking on 500‑1,000 doors a month, about 50‑80 a day—gave me the repetition that built articulation. The best way to improve is to combine that volume with some review or coaching; more volume can solve the strategic gaps others try to fix with less volume. If you can’t afford a public‑speaking class, just pick up the phone and pitch 200 people a day. Your brain is a sponge for inputs and outputs; with enough practice you’ll reach the same competence. People who win by volume tend to be more competent than those who just follow a guru. And yes, you can lose the ability if you don’t use it—use it or lose it. After a dry season, jumping back onto a sales call or seminar feels difficult, but just like a heart surgeon needs their first surgery, you need to get back into it.

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Have you always been able to speak so fluently on camera, or did you develop it through deliberate effort? Does it have anything to do with the books you read, or did you have to adjust when you first started recording?

Massive action is the real answer. I went door-to-door for about 15 months, talking to 50-80 businesses a day — roughly 20,000 conversations spent articulating a need and then solving it, which is really just the perception of value. Before that I raised money for a child-sponsorship charity, talking to all kinds of people on the street, which forced the same articulateness. That volume of reps built the skill; reading books didn't really make me more articulate. When I first got on camera there was a real “what the hell is going on” period, since there's no person in the room to talk to. But I've come to realize a lot of people talk to themselves out loud when they think no one's around — being on camera is basically the same thing, just seen by tens of thousands of people. Once you stop treating the camera as anything other than talking to yourself, it becomes natural after enough reps.

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What tips do you have for speaking more clearly and reducing filler words in long‑form videos and sales calls?

The simplest hack is to talk a tiny bit slower; slower, consistent speech lets listeners increase playback speed, making you sound more articulate. The other hack is to gain experience by speaking a lot—years of daily sales, especially cold calling, forced you to explain problems, solutions, and fit in simple terms, which crystallized your ability to articulate complex ideas. Repeating the same pitch tens of thousands of times built mental ‘rivers’ that make clear speech effortless. For immediate improvement, just slow down a little; you’ll perform much better.

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