200. Four Keys for Focused Communication: Live Lessons from Our 200 Episodes

This live Q&A with host Matt Abrahams celebrates 200 episodes of Think Fast, Talk Smart. In an age of endless content and information, how do we ensure our communication cuts through the noise? Across 200 episodes of Think Fast, Talk Smart https://www.fastersmarter.io/, host Matt Abrahams has discovered four essential ingredients that help messages rise above the chatter: concision, relevance, accessibility, and precision. “Attention is our most precious commodity in the world today, and we need to make sure that we engage our audience so we get their attention,” says Abrahams in this special 200th episode. How do we capture and keep that attention? As he’s explored with guests throughout the show, effective and engaging communication — from all kinds of people and in all kinds of places — is concise, relevant, accessible, and precise. In this special 200th episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, host Matt Abrahams shares insights gleaned from hundreds of conversations with communication experts, followed by a live Q&A with listeners from around the world. From crafting compelling elevator pitches to managing speaking anxiety, this celebration episode offers practical advice for focused communication that is sure to be the focus of your audience’s attention. Episode Reference Links: Jenny Luna https://www.fastersmarter.io/guests/jenny-luna/ Ep.78 Three Guiding Principles for Successful Communication https://www.fastersmarter.io/78-three-guiding-principles-for-successful-communication/m Connect: Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart Premium https://www.fastersmarter.io/premium/Email Questions & Feedback >>> [email protected] Transcripts >>>Think Fast Talk Smart Website https://www.fastersmarter.io/200-four-keys-for-focused-communication-live-lessons-from-our-200-episodes/Newsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>>FasterSmarter.io http://fastersmarter.io/Think Fast Talk Smart >>>LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/think-fast-talk-smart/,Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thinkfasttalksmart/, YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6caGRBUYZCmgDGM2RK6mxKB9jG_ccmm3Matt Abrahams >>>LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/maabrahams/ Chapters: (00:00) - Introduction (03:30) - Concision in Effective Messaging (06:42) - Make Your Message Relevant (12:34) - Ensuring Accessibility (16:46) - The Importance of Precision (22:45) - Craft an Impactful Elevator Pitch (26:33) - Build a Stronger Vocabulary (28:29) - Communicating Numbers and Data (30:58) - Responding When Caught Off Guard (32:57) - Confidence for Speaking and Presenting (35:55) - Steering Conversations Back on Track (38:28) - Dream Podcast Guest (39:29) - What’s Coming Next (41:09) - Conclusion ******** Thank you to our sponsors. These partnerships support the ongoing production of the podcast, allowing us to bring it to you at no cost. Learn more about how Notion https://www.notion.com/?utm_source=podcasts&utm_medium=thinkfast can support your business at notion.com/thinkfast. https://www.notion.com/?utm_source=podcasts&utm_medium=thinkfast Join our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning Community and become the communicator you want to be. https://learning.fastersmarter.io/?redirect_from=podpage

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Matt Abrahams?

  In the moment, conflict is difficult for everyone. In our October newsletter, out now, you will learn ways to help yourself handle these challenges better. Not only do you get specific advice, we're also providing an infographic to help you remember. Find our newsletter on the Think Fast, Talk Smart LinkedIn page or at fastersmarter.io under Resources.

• 0:25Matt Abrahams?

  It's celebration time, and when I celebrate, I like to invite the world, literally. I'm Matt Abrahams, and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Welcome to this extended, live episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast, recorded in honor of our 200th episode. Jenny Luna and I hosted two live events to celebrate the show's anniversary. Now I invite you to listen in to the highlights, where I share some thoughts on how to make your communication engaging and focused, along with answers to questions from our listeners around the globe. It was especially exciting to be joined by two premium members live on video. So let's get to it. Here's Jenny.

• 1:09Speaker 01

  Good morning, or good afternoon, good evening. Welcome to this live episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart. I'm Jenny Luna, the founding executive producer, and we are so excited to get into our content and our Ask Matt Anything for today. Thank you so much for being here. I'd like to bring Matt on to get started, so without further ado, please welcome your host of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Matt Abrahams. Good morning, Matt.

• 1:37Matt Abrahams?

  Good morning, Jenny. Thanks so much for being here. Can you believe it's 200 episodes? This is amazing.

• 1:44Speaker 01

  Yes, I remember when we pushed publish on episode one, hoping that maybe 10 people would listen, and now we have people again, Argentina, France, Kentucky. It's so exciting to have hit this milestone.

• 1:58Matt Abrahams?

  We need to do a world tour and go visit all of these people. It's amazing. There are people from all over the world. Thank you all for tuning in today and for listening to the podcast.

• 2:07Speaker 01

  So Matt, are you ready to get started? I think people are ready to hear what you're going to share today.

• 2:12Matt Abrahams?

  Absolutely. So thank you, Jenny, and let's go ahead and get started. Welcome to this live version of Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. And this is our 200th episode. So let's make sure that we sit back, relax, and enjoy learning about how to put mind over chatter. These are lessons and best practices that we've taken from our guests across all of our episodes to help us be more focused. The reality is this, many of us are constantly being bombarded with information, requests for our time. We all need to focus our attention.

• 2:55Matt Abrahams?

  In fact, I believe attention is our most precious commodity in the world today. And we need to make sure that we engage our audience so we get their attention. To me, engagement is nothing more than sustained attention. How do we get that attention and how do we keep it? And in order to do that today, we're going to talk about all the ways in which we can help our audience to focus on our message. Focus is critical to getting the attention and engagement that we need. And to do this, we're going to cover four major concepts. Concision, relevance, accessibility, and precision.

• 3:37Matt Abrahams?

  And with each one of these, I'm going to introduce what the concept is all about. I'm going to give you an example that I've come to learn through our guests or some research that I've done, and then finally make some suggestions that you can implement to help make sure that your communication is focused and engaging. So let's get started. Concision is all about making sure that you are tight and focused in your message. Many of us, when we communicate, we ramble. We say more than we need to. Now, those of you who've been listening to the podcast for a while know that my mother has a really famous saying that I try to live my life by. Tell the time, don't build the clock.

• 4:18Matt Abrahams?

  Many of us become clock builders when we communicate, either because we're discovering what we want to say as we say it, or we want to show the world that we know so much. We must be focused. We need to use the fewest possible words we can to get the information across. In a very noisy world, being concise is what can cut through that clutter. We have to think about what is the least amount of information that we can convey to help get our point across. Many of us, especially when we create slides, think it's all about how much can we put on to help the audience. And in fact, it's more about how much can we take away. This is something that became very clear to me when I interviewed Hillary Price.

• 5:02Matt Abrahams?

  Hillary is a friend, she's an undergraduate colleague of mine, and she is an amazing comic strip author and artist. She writes the Rhymes with Orange comic strip, and it is amazing to read her funny and often insightful work. Now, many of you are listening in and aren't able to see what I'm showing, but I'm showing a one-panel comic. And that's what Hillary does. She has to get her entire story across, make her point, make us laugh in one panel. And what she does to help her do that is she comes up with an initial idea, she pairs it down to be as simple as possible, and then she tests it out to see if it works. So what I'm showing on the screen that some of you can't see is she had this idea of,

• 5:47Matt Abrahams?

  wouldn't it be funny if we turned a snail shell into a recliner, a chair? So she toyed with lots of ideas that would get at the punchline, that visual image of a snail reclining. Snails move slowly, why would they need to rest and recline? And what she ended up coming up with after testing it with several people is this notion of two snails reclining in their shells, watching a stream of other snails go by with their briefcases on their shells, and one of the snails reclining turns to the other and says, "Isn't retirement great?" Every time I see this comic, I get a little bit of a chuckle, and... And it reminds me how important it is to start with the one idea, pare it down, test it out to help.

• 6:32Matt Abrahams?

  And therein lies the advice. You want to make sure that your messages are simple and clear. You want to test them with others and ultimately make sure that your bottom line is up front. In the US military, they instruct all of their communicators to bluff. Bottom line up front. Make sure it's clear and it's noticeable. If you've ever been driving down a freeway, a motorway and seen a billboard, you need to be able to look at that billboard and understand what it says very quickly. When the bottom line is up front, it can help you. So we are concise by making sure that our messages are clear, we are focused, we test

• 7:13Matt Abrahams?

  them, and we think about what is the least amount of information I can put to get my idea across. So concision is key, but so too is relevance. If you've been listening to the podcast, and I know many of you have for a long time, you have heard frequently our guests say it is important to make sure your content resonates with your audience. It's relevant. It has some meaning to them. They say it in lots of different ways. Be audience centric, it's about them, not you. However, it comes out, it's critical to make your information relevant. We pay attention to things that are important to us. So as a communicator, you need to make sure that your message resonates and is made important

• 7:56Matt Abrahams?

  for your audience, which means we have to understand who our audience is. We have to take the time to think about their needs. Most of us, when we communicate, we focus on what we want to say. And instead, it's all about what does the audience need to hear. It's not about what you want, it's about what they need. So we have to do some thinking about who they are. We have to understand what's their knowledge level. All of us listening to this now have been in a situation where we have had somebody talk about something that we either didn't know a lot about, or we knew already everything they were saying. Either case, it's very uncomfortable. If I already know it, I'm bored. I'm wasting my time.

• 8:40Matt Abrahams?

  If I don't know it, I'm panicked. I need to learn it. So we need to target our messages to be relevant and hit the sweet spot of what people know. And then we can scaffold and build from there. We also have to think about what are our audience's concerns, hesitations and resistance? We know for ourselves that when we listen to somebody, we are constantly filtering what they're saying through our beliefs. We might be saying, "That doesn't make sense," or "That's not feasible. It costs too much." So when we're communicating, we need to think about our audience's areas of concern and resistance. And then finally, we need to think about what motivates our audience. We have known for a long, long time in social science

• 9:21Matt Abrahams?

  that if you understand your audience's motivations and connect what you're saying to those motivations, they're much more likely to listen and follow through. So we have to take time to think about our audience. And then finally, we need to make sure that we leverage emotion. We connect through emotion. I make something relevant for you, salient for you, by invoking emotion that's appropriate in the moment. One of the most fascinating conversations I had when I was writing my book, Think Faster, Talk Smarter, is I interviewed the gentleman who's in charge of all Lego manual writing. Many of us have built Legos at some point in our life. I, to this day, when I'm really stressed out, will still put a Lego kit together.

• 10:05Matt Abrahams?

  It's much cheaper than therapy, and it's got just enough focus for me to get in that flow state that we've actually done an episode on before. And in talking to the person in charge of Lego manuals, and by the way, if you've ever seen a manual, you'll remember there are no words. It's only images. He told me two things that were fascinating. First, before you can ever write a Lego manual, you have to spend at least a year, sometimes a year and a half, learning about your audience. A Lego manual designer can tell you the difference between what a six-year-old can do and an eight-year-old can do. They've studied to that level of detail. And because they know the audience so well, they can craft manuals that really resonate

• 10:50Matt Abrahams?

  and are helpful and not distracting. And then the other thing that I found so interesting, they design their manuals to have emotion in them. And you might be thinking, emotion, it's just an assembly set of instructions. If you think about it, if you've ever built a Lego model, you know that you could make every single page, every single step, the same number of pieces and the same number of moves. But what they found is people aren't that excited to get through building the model if every step is the same. So instead, they build emotion. Some of the steps they make very easy and you can do it quickly and see the results. Others, they have more complex moves. They make it so it's a little more challenging. So as you go through building Legos, you're having an emotional experience, which makes

• 11:34Matt Abrahams?

  it relevant and motivational. Who knew that you could learn so much about communication from building Legos? So what are the take home messages here? It's important to make something relevant, that we first do our reconnaissance, reflection in research. We need to take the time to know who our audience is, which means we might have to ask them, take a survey, talk to people who know them, maybe even cyber stalk them. Check out their LinkedIn profiles, look at their company bios, maybe they post blogs or Substacks. Go check that out to give you insight into what's important. Another great way to make things relevant is to connect with people through using their

• 12:17Matt Abrahams?

  names or inclusive language, like the word "you." When we hear our name, we pay attention more. Never forget, growing up, whenever my teachers would say, "It's time to do math," I would think they were talking to me because my name is Matt and sounds similar. When we hear our name, we pay more attention. It's more relevant. So too, when we use the word "you." Next time you're on a virtual call, Zoom, Team, Meet, whatever, I want you to use the word "you" more frequently and you'll see people snap to attention and look at the camera. And you can do things easily, like say, as you might be wondering, by using specific language that calls people out. You make it relevant. And finally, build curiosity. Human beings are curious.

• 13:01Matt Abrahams?

  If I get you interested and provoked to learn more, it makes it relevant. We want to learn. So anything you do, like asking questions, or setting up a puzzle, or taking a poll and people want to know the results, that builds curiosity. So it's all about concision, making it focused and relevant. And then we have to think about accessibility. Many of us, when we communicate, we talk about complex issues and ideas. Some of you are technical in dealing with technical coding, for example. Some of you are in finance, dealing with numbers, and others are doing scientific work. Complexity is critical in the work that you do and the communication that you have.

• 13:45Matt Abrahams?

  So we have to make sure that we can make that content accessible without oversimplifying it. We don't want to dumb it down. We want to make it so people can understand it. If we oversimplify, we actually do ourselves an injustice. Because when people think, oh, this is simple, it's not that hard. And then they come to realize the true complexity. They can question your credibility. They can get frustrated. So we need to find ways to make it so they understand. And there's a big barrier in our way. We all suffer from the curse of knowledge and the curse of passion for anything that we spend a lot of time talking about. So we need to make sure that we overcome that curse of knowledge and that curse of

• 14:30Matt Abrahams?

  passion. The only antidote is empathy and curiosity. You have to be curious to understand what does the person know about what I'm talking about? What could I help them learn so they understand it at the same level I do? So your own curiosity is critical. And then you have to be empathetic enough to change and adjust your communication. Many of us just start on the path of communicating and don't change. We need to adjust and adapt to make sure we make our content accessible. And when we do so, we have to make sure we avoid acronyms. Technical terms and jargon. That language can distance ourselves and make our concepts more difficult for people to understand.

• 15:13Matt Abrahams?

  One of our guests, a friend and a colleague at Stanford Business School, Huggy Rao, shared on our podcast this notion of jargon monoxide. It suffocates your communication. Make sure that you define your terms and your acronyms. That helps people understand. I learned a lot about this when I talked to an editor at CliffsNotes. Now, some of you might be too young or perhaps in places around the world where you're not familiar with CliffsNotes. Way before we had generative AI, if you needed a little help understanding something that was complex, or maybe you were a student who didn't do all of your work, not that I'm admitting that happened, you would refer to CliffsNotes and they would give you a summary of what you needed to learn

• 15:58Matt Abrahams?

  and give you detailed examples to help you understand it at a deep level. And what CliffsNotes did is they utilized several techniques that all of us can use to be more effective in our communication. They would use things like analogies, comparisons. If you're learning about Romeo and Juliet, comparing it to maybe a sporting event where you had two adversarial teams can be really helpful. You can diagram things out. If you look at CliffsNotes, especially the versions today that are online, they have lots of diagrams to help you understand stories and plots and mathematical thinking. You can backward map, start at the end and explain how you got there. That's a really important way to make complex ideas more accessible. And then finally, you can show it.

• 16:43Matt Abrahams?

  Show a video, show a picture, draw a chart. All of these are ways to help us make technical concepts more accessible. I challenge each of you to really take a moment to reflect on the language you use and some of the things that you communicate and think about, how can I make them more accessible so my audience can focus and really get the meaning of what I'm saying? So with concision, relevance, and accessibility, we make it pretty far on our way to being engaging and focused. But there's one more stop on our journey. We have to be precise. Precision is all about being exact. We really have to help our audience focus by being exact in what we're doing.

• 17:26Matt Abrahams?

  And the best way to do that is to have a clear goal. I believe all high-stakes communication must be goal-driven. To me, a goal has three parts: information, emotion, and action. In other words, what do you want your audience to know? How do you want them to feel? And what do you want them to do? Know, feel, do. The knowing is the information you want to get across, tailored to the amount of complexity, as well as what's relevant for your audience. The feeling, we've already talked about. The ability to help people feel draws them in, makes it relevant. Do you want people curious or concerned? Do you want them excited or fear of missing out? Do you simply want them feeling confident? Think about that emotion. That helps you be precise.

• 18:11Matt Abrahams?

  And then finally, in most communication, we strive towards action. We want people to do something. Make sure you are clear on what that action is, so much so that you could measure to make sure it happened. Helping you be precise is to help set expectations. Think of yourself as a tour guide when you communicate. Tour guides are very precise about where they're taking you and where they're not taking you. That way, you can focus on the journey. You need to be the same when you communicate. Set expectations of where you're going in your content so people can relax and know what's coming. And then if you've ever heard the podcast or read anything I've written, you know I believe structure is really important. Many of us in our communication, we just ramble and itemize information.

• 18:56Matt Abrahams?

  We just list things out. As human beings, we are not very good with lists. As a matter of fact, I can only remember three things when I go to the grocery store. If I need to buy more than three, I have to write it down. We just don't remember lists. Structure replaces lists. Our brains are wired for structure. Structure is just a logical connection of ideas.

• 19:19Matt Abrahams?

  This notion of being precise was made very clear to me when I spent some time talking to the people who produce and edit the Dummies books. You might be familiar with these books. These books cover a wide range of topics, everything from how to code and use technology to how to travel and enjoy a particular city or country. The Dummies books are designed very specifically to help you precisely find your way through them. They use what they call wayfinding. When you get a Dummies book, you can get through it in many different ways. You can go through it from page one to whatever the page ends, or you can go through it by following a certain path that icons make, or certain expertise levels that you have.

• 20:01Matt Abrahams?

  So there are lots of ways to get through the material. They precisely take you on the journey you need to have with their material. They don't take you through everything. So what does this mean for our communication? When you communicate, make sure you not only have a clear goal, as we talked about, but that you have themes that relate to that goal. Think of it this way: if you were ever going through a job interview, you want to make sure that the person interviewing you precisely comes away with a clear idea about who you are and why you're a good hire. So once you have your goal, create themes that represent ideas and concepts you want to get across, and make sure that those are clearly stated. So you, if you're interviewing, might want to demonstrate that you're very adept at

• 20:46Matt Abrahams?

  learning new skills. That's a theme. And then you can support that theme, so they precisely understand exactly the skills that you bring to the table. Now, once you have the themes defined, you have to structure that information. Remember, structure is a logical connection of ideas. My favorite structure in the entire world is three simple questions: what, so what, now what? The what is the information you're getting across. It could be your update, could be your answer to a question, could be your feedback that you're giving. The so what is why is it important and relevant to the person you're speaking to? We talked earlier about how important relevance is. And then the now what are the precise, exact steps you want to have follow next.

• 21:27Matt Abrahams?

  Maybe it's, "Let's set up another meeting," or "Ask me certain questions," or "Let's get into some brainstorming." What, so what, now what is a great tool to help you be precise. And when it comes to starting your communication, you want to make sure that you start with impact. Start like an action movie. Many of us have a preamble or a buildup that distracts from the precise thing we're trying to get to. Think about how action movies start with action. Now, I'm not saying jump out of a plane or crash a car. I'm saying ask a question, tell a story, give a startling statistic, take a poll. These are all ways that you can precisely and exactly get your audience's attention.

• 22:11Matt Abrahams?

  So you can introduce them to your themes based on your goal and through your structure, make your point very clear. So taken together, concision, relevance, accessibility and precision. Help us to more effectively engage and focus our message. All of us can benefit by having engaging, focused communication. And it is my hope that you take away some of these best practices and apply them to your communication. So you can definitely think fast and talk smart. We'll be right back to finish our conversation. But first, we're going to take a quick break for a word from our sponsors. Their support covers the cost of production, so we can bring you this show for free.

• 22:55Matt Abrahams?

  This podcast is sponsored by Squarespace. The best communicators don't just get their message across, they make it easy for people to know what to do next. Your website can do the same thing. With Squarespace, you can build a polished online presence that clearly shows people who you are, what you offer, and how they can work with you. If you offer coaching, consulting, classes, or other services, Squarespace lets you showcase those offerings, take payments, and use Acuity Scheduling so people can book time with you directly. And with built-in analytics, you can see how people are finding and engaging with your site, helping you make smarter decisions about where to focus. So your online presence doesn't just look professional, it helps people take action.

• 23:37Matt Abrahams?

  Go to Squarespace.com/thinkfast for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code THINKFAST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Hi, Matt here. Sometimes the biggest obstacle to getting something done isn't the idea, the plan, or even the budget. It's finding the right person to help you execute. And the longer that takes, the easier it is to lose momentum. That's where today's sponsor Upwork can help. Upwork gives businesses fast access to highly skilled freelance professionals across areas like marketing, design, software development, AI, and business operations. And with Business Plus, you can access the top 1% of talent on Upwork.

• 24:21Matt Abrahams?

  AI-powered shortlisting gives you a curated list of freelancers matched to your goals in under six hours. So you can spend less time searching for the right person and more time actually moving the work forward. Visit upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That's upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U.P.W.O.R.K. dot com. Upwork.com.

• 24:48Matt Abrahams?

  Jenny, I'd love to have you join me back. And let's take some questions from our global audience.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  We're going to kick this off with a question from our premium member. So I'd like to invite Aswath Kulcarney to come ask his question. He's from Pune, India. Thank you so much to all of our premium members.

• 25:06Matt Abrahams?

  So great to be joined by you. Thank you so much for joining us.

• 25:10Speaker 02

  Thanks a lot, Matt. And first of all, congratulations to you and your entire team for such a significant milestone. It's great to have 200 episodes and I'm sure there'll be 2,000 more, hopefully.

• 25:20Matt Abrahams?

  Oh, wow, I hope so, yes.

• 25:22Speaker 02

  And thanks for helping me cross off one item of my bucket list to be a part of a podcast. So many a times I find myself in a situation where time is limited. So what are the key ingredients for an impactful elevator pitch? And also, is there a change in the ingredients of the recipe when the audience, the receiver of the pitch, might already know of me versus they don't know me, I'm new to them? So I'd love to hear some thoughts on that.

• 25:49Matt Abrahams?

  Yes, thank you for that question. And there's so many important points there. So let's start with being time crunched. I think what we've just discussed, this notion of concision, relevancy... Accessibility and precision really are key when you're time crunched. So we really have to be focused. Now, if you have time to plan your pitch, then you can really think through what's the most essential ways that I can get my point across. If it's spontaneous, you get in the elevator and you happen to be with somebody who's curious, maybe an investor, maybe a leader in your organization who wants to help support you, and you haven't planned it out. Again, think to yourself, what's my goal? What is most important and relevant to this person? What's the bottom line that I want to get across?

• 26:33Matt Abrahams?

  So even in the moment, you can do that focusing. So we have to get down to that focus through the techniques we've talked about. Certainly, it matters based on who the audience you're speaking to. If they know you and you have some credibility and some track record with them, you can start in a different place. Perhaps you remind them. You might say, remember back in that project we worked on a long time ago? Well, I have an idea for a new project. So connecting what they know about you to where you want to go forward helps you. You don't have to build up that credibility. For somebody who's new, who doesn't know you, you might have to establish the credibility, either through your position or through the things that you have done. What's critical when you are establishing your credibility, and we've talked about

• 27:17Matt Abrahams?

  this before, is you want to show, not tell. You don't just want to recite what's on your LinkedIn profile or resume. You want to tell stories that demonstrate your expertise rather than just itemizing. And then finally, you asked, how do you pitch effectively? I have a pitch structure that I really, really like. This structure is different than what's so what now what, where you have to think of those categories. This is actually a set of sentence starters. You just finish these sentences and you have a pitch. What if you could so that, for example, and that's not all? What if you could so that, for example, and that's not all? If you finish those sentence starters, you have a good pitch.

• 28:00Matt Abrahams?

  So let's say I'm trying to get somebody to sponsor the podcast, which is something we do try to do. I might say, what if you could help people all around the world? Improve and hone their communication skills so that we hear the diverse voices and ideas from people who have really important things to say. For example, imagine helping people learn to be more persuasive and influential so that they can get their ideas and things that they want. And that's not all. By teaching people these skills and connecting through a global podcast, you build a sense of community that can help further people's learning. Simply by saying, "What if you could?"

• 28:44Matt Abrahams?

  So that, for example, and that's not all, you can quickly put a pitch together. So Schwad, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you also for being a premium member and taking advantage of the extra content that we provide. Jenny, do we have some other questions?

• 28:58Speaker 01

  So we would like Basiana Rehoba from Silicon Valley to come on and ask her question.

• 29:04Speaker 03

  Hi.

• 29:05Matt Abrahams?

  Hello.

• 29:06Speaker 03

  Congrats on the big milestone. Thanks for having me as a premium subscriber. Here's my question. What's your take on the best way to build a stronger vocabulary? Is it lots of reading the way to go? Are there any kind of books or genres you recommend?

• 29:23Matt Abrahams?

  Thank you so much again for being a premium member, for asking a really important question. You know, it's not just for non-native speakers who need to learn to use more words or improve their vocabulary. It really is for all of us. A couple of ways to think about doing this. One, if you want to become a better writer, you should read a lot. If you want to become a better speaker, you should speak a lot and watch others who speak well. So by observing others and listening to their language, not to copy and mimic, but to get good ideas for what words might be appropriate. That said, what's most important is that you get your meaning across, and you don't always have to use just the perfect word.

• 30:04Matt Abrahams?

  A lot of my students, especially those who are newer to English, in my case because they're taking a class in English, they feel like they have to say it exactly right. There is no one right way to say things. There are better and worse ways. So rather than fixating on just... Just getting the right word, focus on getting the meaning across. Yet it never hurts to bolster and build your vocabulary. I'll tell you a way that I've built my vocabulary. My mother loves to play the word game Scrabble. And ever since I was a little kid, we would play Scrabble. Still to this day, we play Scrabble. And in doing so, I've learned a lot of words. So find an activity that's fun for you that uses words. Maybe it's doing a crossword puzzle or reading some kind of material you're interested in.

• 30:50Matt Abrahams?

  And use that as the vehicle to help you learn more words. Thank you for that question.

• 30:54Speaker 01

  Yes, we've got one from Maji who's joining from YouTube. And I love this question because we have some episodes that talk about it. What's your advice for communicating numbers, figures, percentages? How do you craft a compelling story around that type of content?

• 31:10Matt Abrahams?

  Yes, we recently had Miro Kazakov on. And earlier we had Chip Heathon. And both of them talked very specifically about how to leverage numbers. It starts by understanding where your audience is at regarding the concepts and numbers you're talking about. If they have a deep understanding of the numbers, then you can actually start at a different place than if they don't understand it. So it's not just about getting the numbers across. It's about understanding how people will relate to those numbers. And both Chip and Miro shared with us that it's the stories you tell around the numbers that help people. There's some good evidence that says it's hard for us to remember numbers. What helps us is if we put it in context, put it in a story.

• 31:54Matt Abrahams?

  And context here means two things. One is a story. So help people understand what does this number mean? So if I give you a revenue number, what does that mean? Help me understand the deals that were closed, the products that were released that got us to that revenue number. Plus, you need to give context. Help us appreciate what that particular number represents. I once worked with a very senior leader of an international bank. And as part of his presentation, he shared how much money went through that bank every day. And he shared an astronomical number. My bank account will never see a number that big. And I said, what does that number mean? And he did some quick math and he said, it's roughly 25% of the world's money. And I said, say that. Do you see how that gives context?

• 32:39Matt Abrahams?

  You say the big number and then you give the context and that helps us to understand. So it starts by knowing your audience. You then have to show through story what those numbers mean. And you have to give context so people can appreciate them. And finally, when possible, use charts and graphs that are appropriate and understandable by visually representing the information appropriately. You can do a lot with data representation that can confuse people. But if you help people see it, it makes it stick. So thank you for that question. Really important. Most of us deal with data.

• 33:12Speaker 01

  Thank you, Matt. And if you are interested in more, episode 49 and episode 189 tackle communicating with numbers. Okay, are you ready for our next question?

• 33:23Matt Abrahams?

  I am.

• 33:24Speaker 01

  Sometimes you're always put on the back foot by a certain person in a meeting. So how do you communicate back in that scenario?

• 33:32Matt Abrahams?

  Sometimes people will say things that are surprising to us, challenging to us, unexpected, and we can be on that back foot where we're really caught off guard. In that moment, we feel incredible pressure to respond right away. And we don't need to. We can take a beat. We can say, let me think about that for a second. Or we can ask a question to get more detail. What makes you think that? Or how did you come up with that idea? We want to avoid being accusatory and escalating if this happens to be a conflictual situation. But by asking a follow-up question, that gives you a little bit of time to think, to address your emotion, which likely you'll have in that moment. Similarly, you can do a paraphrase. A paraphrase simply acknowledges what you've heard.

• 34:16Matt Abrahams?

  It doesn't mean you agree. It simply means, I heard you. And in that moment, you can actually begin formulating your response. Paraphrasing is a lower order cognitive skill, which is just a fancy way of saying, we can do it and begin thinking about what we want to say next. So in those moments where you're really thrown back and you might have strong emotion about it, you need to give yourself just a fraction of a second to collect your thoughts, to take that deep breath and respond. So again, you can ask for the time. You can ask a follow-up question and/or you can paraphrase. That can help you get back on track. And I guess the last thing I would say is, in many situations,

• 34:59Matt Abrahams?

  you can always respond later or add to your response. We feel like we have to do it all now and we have to do it all right. If somebody really throws you for a loop, you can respond and then follow up with another conversation, an email, etc., later. It doesn't all have to be done perfectly in the moment. But I certainly know how awkward that can feel. I have been in those situations often.

• 35:22Speaker 01

  Makes me stressed just thinking about it. Our next question is from Dolores, and she asks if you have recommendations on improving our confidence when speaking.

• 35:31Matt Abrahams?

  Oh, my. Absolutely, Dolores. Thank you for asking that. That is one of the very first things I began studying. Even as an undergrad, I did research and published some work on managing anxiety. This was something that was very real in my life, and I have committed myself to trying to help people really become more comfortable and confident. If you go to fastersmarter.io, that's our podcast website, and go to resources, there are a whole bunch of resources there on many things, including English language learning content, including how to be more influential and negotiate better. But there's a whole section there dedicated to managing anxiety and becoming confident. So definitely take time to look at that. We have many, many episodes on the topic as well

• 36:15Matt Abrahams?

  from experts like Kelly McGonigal, Andrew Humorbin, Aliya Crum. These are world-leading experts on how to manage anxiety and how to be more confident when you communicate. Let me share just some really quick ideas. Whenever it comes to managing anxiety, and I notice I use manage. I don't believe we can ever truly overcome our anxiety in communication. Those of us who study this believe it is innate to being human. We see it in every culture. We see it develop around the same time in people in every culture. It's part of being human. But we can learn to manage it. And when you go to manage that anxiety and to become more confident, and those two are related, the more anxiety we have, the less confident we are, the more...

• 36:58Matt Abrahams?

  Ways we have of dealing with our anxiety, the more confident we can become. You have to take a two-pronged approach. You have to manage symptoms and sources. Symptoms are the things that we physically display, and sources are the things that initiate and exacerbate that anxiety. Everything from taking a nice, deep breath, all the way through rethinking your approach to being more present-oriented and connected. Lots of resources in our podcast episodes and lots of resources at fastersmarter.io. Please take the time to get better at your confidence so that you can really deliver your messages in a way that resonates and you feel good about. Thank you for that question, Dolores. Really important.

• 37:38Speaker 01

  I just want to add, Matt, that something that I'll never forget from the podcast is when Kelly McGonigal, a guest and a collaborator of yours, said, "When I feel anxious, it means that I care." And that was always a great reframe that I use. It means I'm passionate. It means I'm excited. And if I can use that reframe, I care. And that's why I'm feeling anxious. I still think about that today.

• 38:01Matt Abrahams?

  Kelly is wonderful, and that advice is great. We can actually see our anxiety as a sign that we are excited, that we're focused, that this is important for us. When I teach, when I give presentations, when I do this talk we're doing right now, I get nervous, and that tells me this is important, and it helps me focus. So you're absolutely right.

• 38:20Speaker 01

  All right, our next question is from Marcin, and they ask, "I occasionally deal with stakeholders who go too far on a tangent or change topics. How can I politely bring the conversation back on topic?"

• 38:32Matt Abrahams?

  Marcin, thank you for bringing that question up. Many of us struggle with this, where we have an agenda, sometimes literally, sometimes just in our head, and we end up on these tangents when we bring our agenda or ideas to other people. I believe the most useful tool for getting things back on track is paraphrasing. It's a way of interrupting somebody who speaks too long. It's a way of redirecting people who take things to the side or off-kilter. A paraphrase simply highlights something that they've said. It's not a complete repeat of what they've said. It's highlighting some key idea, acknowledging it, and then pulling it back to where you want to go. So imagine we're having an implementation discussion.

• 39:16Matt Abrahams?

  We're bringing some kind of product or service to the market. And we're talking about the process and all the things we need to put in place in order to be successful. And you take us on a tangent by starting to talk about some other company launching their product, and it really doesn't directly fit. You might be talking about how they set up a special marketing campaign and going into that campaign. And I might just interrupt with a paraphrase and say, "Marketing is certainly very important. I appreciate you bringing that up. The next item on our agenda talks about how we're going to communicate this to the market." So it is the politest way I know to stop a conversation's direction and pull it back. You acknowledge something of value, and then you link or bridge back to what you're saying.

• 40:00Matt Abrahams?

  And you might be thinking, "Gosh, Matt, that's really rude." Well, the reality is, if you're leading that meeting and you let the tangent go, you're actually being rude to everybody else. You're taking their time in a direction that they didn't expect. So while perhaps being rude to one person, even though I don't think it is being that rude, not paraphrasing actually is rude to the other people. So the best way, I think, to get things on track is to use a paraphrase. By the way, you should have a clear agenda upfront so you can always refer back to it. Having an agenda anchors where the conversation and communication is going. If you don't have an agenda, then going off on tangents is expected. That's what brainstorming and ideation meetings are all about.

• 40:43Matt Abrahams?

  They have a goal, but they don't have a specific agenda. You don't want all of your decision-making meetings to turn into those kind of meetings. So thank you for that important question, Marcin.

• 40:53Speaker 01

  We have time for about one more question, and then I'm going to jump in with a question as well, if you don't mind. This one's a little fun. It's from a LinkedIn user who asks, "If you could interview anyone in the world, time is no issue. Who would you want to have on the podcast?"

• 41:09Matt Abrahams?

  Oh, there's so many. People I'd love to interview. I've spent a lot of my time thinking about spontaneous speaking. And if I could interview one person, I would love to interview Robin Williams, the comedian. He was just so amazing in his ability to think fast and talk smart and do so in a way that was topical, timely, and incredibly funny. When I was a teenager, I had the good fortune to see him perform live. I am not kidding you. My stomach hurt for two days afterwards. And I think I only got a third of the jokes. And I'm convinced that much of what he did was just in the moment. He just responded to what was going on. So I would be fascinated to learn his thoughts and process to really understand.

• 41:54Speaker 01

  Okay, Matt, I want to know what you're most excited about. What's coming up for Think Fast Talk Smart and for you?

• 41:59Matt Abrahams?

  Thank you. And Jenny, you and the team behind the podcast have been so incredibly important in getting us to where we are. And I think we're all excited about expanding our community. The community of Think Fast Talk Smart is global. People will get together, like book clubs around episodes and talk about episodes. I know places around the world where people come together and practice their communication with each other and they simply met through Think Fast Talk Smart. So I really want to help expand the community and give people opportunities. We're exploring new and different ways of bringing content to people. Our latest episodes, we did a mini series on spontaneous speaking. The first episode dropped today. It's a different approach. It's not just an interview format.

• 42:42Matt Abrahams?

  So I'm curious to see how people respond. And ultimately, we're trying to extend and expand our premium offering to really give people the in-depth tools that they're interested in. So I see only bright future ahead. I love this community. I love learning and helping others to learn. And I look forward to the input and feedback from everybody who takes advantage of Think Fast Talk Smart. And from the bottom of my heart, I am deeply grateful to not only the people that help bring the show to all of you, but to all of you who listen.

• 43:11Speaker 01

  Great, Matt. This has been such a fun Ask Me Anything episode. I love getting to watch you do what you do live.

• 43:19Matt Abrahams?

  Thank you, Jenny. And thank you for being a critical part of all of this. I encourage everybody to share Think Fast broadly with their friends, their family, their coworkers. We'd love to hear from you. Thank you so much.

• 43:34Matt Abrahams?

  Thank you for joining us for this special 200th Think Fast, Talk Smart! the Podcast episode, recorded live as part of an AMA, Ask Matt Anything. To hear another live episode with listener questions, please listen in to episode 78. This episode was produced by Catherine Reed, Ryan Campos, H. Ash, and me, Matt Abrahams. Our music is from Floyd Wonder. With thanks to Podium Podcast Company. Please find us on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to subscribe and rate us. Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram. And check out FasterSmarter.io for deep dive videos, English language learning content, and our newsletter.

• 44:17Matt Abrahams?

  Please consider our premium offering for extended Deep Think episodes, AMAs, and much more at FasterSmarter.io/premium. Before we wrap up, I just want to say thank you for listening. It really means a lot to hear how people all over the world are using these ideas in their own lives. It inspires me and the whole team that brings you this show. If you want more episodes and resources, feel free to follow, subscribe, and explore past conversations. We're grateful for your support of Think Fast, Talk Smart.