Joe McCormack on Profound Brevity

Joe McCormack on Profound Brevity

Dispatches from BMA14: a Series of Short Reports from the Tell Your Story Team at #BMA14 in Chicago

Mccormack Business Communication
Joe McCormack presents at #BMA14

 

Joe McCormack Marketing partner
Joe McCormack

Profound brevity. A crucial skill in business communications, a beautiful concept, one that I personally applaud, one that I hope more of us can attain.

 

One of my favorite sessions at #BMA14 was led by Joe McCormack, Managing Director, Sheffield Marketing Partners, and author of Brief. His point? Go deep, but keep it simple. We’re all too busy for long-winded, blustery talk. No one’s going to listen if you go on too long. People will tune out. Your email will be deleted.
Joe McCormack Author of Brief

 

There’s a difference between superficial brevity, when you just don’t know that much and therefore you have to keep it short; and profound brevity, when you know your subject so well, you’re able to distill it down to the essential facts and talk about it succinctly. Where to start the trimming? What’s the right level of information you need to be sharing? It’s a matter of learning to separate the essential from the superfluous. Preparing an outline of your message and visually mapping it out is an effective approach to begin to separate the wheat from the chaff.

 

Profound brevity. A brilliant reminder on the importance of being pithy; to practice restraint on what we don‘t say.

 

And with that, I’m out.