Smart Brevity Quotes

“Mike picked up a tip listening to a speech by an executive of BJ’s Wholesale Club that we use—and you should too. Mike thought he knew all the secrets of public speaking, but as he waited to go onstage after the executive from BJ’s, he heard him start and end his speech with these words: “If there’s only one thing you remember from this talk . . .” That’s a great way to signal unmistakably what matters most and what you want people to take away.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Avoid long paragraphs, always. Stick to two or three sentences, tops. Then try to avoid long blocks of consecutive paragraphs. Use bolding, bullets, charts and Axioms to break up the flow. Big blobs of bloviation bite (say that five times fast”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Learn to identify and trumpet ONE thing you want people to know. And do it in ONE strong sentence. Or no one will ever remember it.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Something went haywire in our evolutionary journey that turned us all into long-winded blowhards armed with a few fancy words in reserve.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“All you can do is the next right thing.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Explain the significance and context • Write the words “Why it matters,” bold them and slap a colon at the end. • Think about the person you listed as your target audience. • In one sentence, explain the reason you are sharing this with them as bluntly and briefly as possible.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Keep it simple—and short: Complexity confuses. Abstraction alienates. Length loses. You can unite people around a common understanding of an important idea or update by writing in short, direct sentences and by losing the clever insider-isms or fancy clauses.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Is race/ethnicity/religion/national origin relevant? . . . Using the descriptors when they’re not relevant or without explaining their relevance perpetuates harmful stereotypes.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“If you’re not communicating inclusively, you’re not communicating effectively. Why it matters: We’re talking about being accessible, relatable and credible with everyone in your audience—regardless of gender, race, color, religion, gender identity, age, physical ability, sexual orientation or anything else.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Mission matters. Find ways to pull your items back to the soul and purpose of your organization. “Why it matters” is the perfect device. • It is impossible to overdose on this: Your mission begins to sink in only when you’ve annoyed yourself with repetition.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Axios In-House Newsletters Lights On from our revenue team . . . Cranes from Axios Local . . . Click Clack from our web-traffic guru . . . The Funnel from our head of growth . . . The TopLine from our sales warriors. • Those are just a few of the newsletters regularly published by Axios execs using Axios HQ—for their bosses, their teams and their colleagues across the company. Why it matters: This gives winners a forum for sharing best practices, encourages healthy competition among business units and gets rid of silos—everyone has visibility on what everyone’s up to. Between the lines: For the cofounders, these updates are an early-warning system for anyone’s activities that might be veering away from company goals. In one Sunday evening, we can be sure everyone’s on track and spot pockets that need our attention, encouragement or kudos. • And here’s our favorite part: When we have one-on-one meetings with our leaders, we’re already caught up. So we can use that time to talk through innovations, insights, bottlenecks, disruptions.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“A magical thing happens when you communicate crisply and transparently: You cut out all the employee gossip and pot-stirring that come from being confused or kept in the dark.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Axios is currently a more than 500–person start-up with a lively, hyper-ambitious, insanely transparent culture. Every employee owns equity in Axios, and we’ll answer any question, with two exceptions—how much someone makes and why someone left. We stay silent on those two out of respect for individual privacy.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Always be closing. Like any salesperson worth their salt, you won’t get what you want without specifically and directly asking for it. Just fill in the blank: I called this meeting and created this deck so I can get _______ or teach you ______. • This, distilled into as few words as humanly possible, is your final slide.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Keep it short, stupid. Educational theory shows we can process a presentation best if it has one big idea, backed by three to five points. It’s like Smart Brevity anywhere else.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Molecular biologist John Medina found that images = lasting recall. He discovered that adding an arresting image can increase recall to 65 percent, compared to 10 percent if a person simply hears it.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Nancy Duarte did a popular TED Talk after studying the rhythm, arc and content of famous speeches, including Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” and Steve Jobs’s iPhone launch in 2007. The Smart Brevity version of her “secret structure” of great speeches: • Describe the status quo: how the world or topic exists today. • Contrast with your lofty idea—ideally, the point of your speech. • Move back and forth from what is and what could be. • Make a call to action. • End with a vivid portrait of utopia if they embrace your idea.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Why it matters” is the most common and effective Axiom. People are busy, their minds cloudy. They yearn for context even if they don’t know it or express it. Bold the words “Why it matters.” ➋ After “Why it matters,” explain in one sentence—or at most two—why the information in your first sentence is important. • What will it change? A policy, a business line, a strategy, an approach? • What does it signal? A shift in thinking, a trend? • What’s the larger context? Is this an anomaly, intriguing, eventful? Relevant to something you previously discussed?”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“The Axios audience team found that roughly 6 words is the optimal subject line for emails—short enough to show all words in a mobile phone format.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Mike thought he knew all the secrets of public speaking, but as he waited to go onstage after the executive from BJ’s, he heard him start and end his speech with these words: “If there’s only one thing you remember from this talk . . .” That’s a great way to signal unmistakably what matters most and what you want people to take away.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Most readers are in a state of what consultant Linda Stone calls “continuous partial attention.” • As a Yaros study puts it: “This is NOT multitasking but a user constantly thinking about the next alert, text or email.” • That’s arresting: Even when they’re looking at your words, many readers aren’t paying attention. And even if a reader cares, you may not keep their attention. “Time can limit engagement even with content for which we have interest,” Yaros writes.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Talk to someone else (or yourself—no one will know) about the point you want to make. • It’ll be clearer, more interesting and more urgent than anything you’d ever come up with if you sat down to “write.” ➍ Then write it down. Write down that one thing you want the reader, viewer or listener to remember if it’s all they take away. Write that before doing anything else. • Then try to shorten it to fewer than a dozen words—less is more. It should be a declarative statement or data point, not a question. Make sure it’s new or essential. Scrub the weak words and delete any soggy verbs or adjectives. ➎ Then stop.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Talk to someone else (or yourself—no one will know) about the point you want to make. • It’ll be clearer, more interesting and more urgent than anything you’d ever come up with if you sat down to “write.” ➍ Then write it down. Write down that one thing you want the reader, viewer or listener to remember if it’s all they take away. Write that before doing anything else. • Then try to shorten it to fewer than a dozen words—less is more. It should be a declarative statement or data point, not a question. Make sure it’s new or essential. Scrub the weak words and delete any soggy verbs or adjectives.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Write like a human, for humans. Be simple, clear, direct. Be conversational. Authenticity and relatability are essential ingredients. They help people become more willing to hear you and remember what you said.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Focus on ONE person you are targeting. ➋ Plot out ONE thing you want them to remember.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“We hide our insecurity in additional words,” says Ross, CEO of Edelman, the global communications giant. “Your message is lost, your sincerity is in question—and your competency gives me pause, because you’re all over the place.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Nowhere do we disguise, distort and deflect our true feelings more than when giving and getting feedback. Very few people have the confidence to be direct. We tend to dance around tough-but-necessary conversations.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“We could end every chapter in the book with “Then stop!” That’s the part that trips people up. We hide the good stuff in piles of words. We make people deduce what we’re trying to say instead of just blurting it out. Don’t be fancy—be effective.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“We tend to think too much about what we want to say versus what others need to hear.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

“Nick liked to tell a story of the (possibly apocryphal) directive he gave to one of his reporters when Senator Harry Reid, the former Democratic leader, announced his retirement. “I don’t care what the fifth word of the story is,” he said, “as long as the first four are ‘Reid Won’t Seek Reelection.”
― Jim Vandehei, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less