Book Review: Smart Brevity by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz

The average person spends fewer than 15 seconds on web page clicks. Recognizing this ultra-fast-paced noise of words, three co-founders of Axios and Politico wrote Smart Brevity to “cut to the chase of communication.” Their motto that “Brevity is confidence, length is fear” drives this 200-page book loaded with expertise to make communication more effective, efficient and memorable. Since the average person checks their phone 344 times a day, Smart Brevity is the answer to breaking through the fog of words.

Why are we reading this book?

It’s one thing to target your customers, it’s another to actually grab their attention. Smart Brevity got our attention in a heartbeat. Each page of this power-packed book is filled with one clear, concise idea after another. We think it should be required reading for people in business, particularly marketing, sales and management, as well as students, or anyone who wants to improve their written communication skills and quickly get their message across.

Backstory:

Before the internet, marketing communications required people to read printed documents for information about a company or product. With the onset of the internet’s super-fast cyber highway, communication became 15- to 30-second soundbites. The authors of Smart Brevity run a media company and make their living from writing words that influence demanding readers. Yet they recognized the urgent need to say more with less.

Challenge:

The premise of Smart Brevity makes sense in theory, but the authors also knew there would be resistance to its ideas. One author’s wife hated the project. Also, research showed that employees in major companies with $1 billion dollar payrolls spent 50 to 60 percent of their time on communication with no real training for how to effectively achieve it. Other challenges included the belief that “this is how we’ve always communicated” to no one taking up the rally cry to change it.

Solution:

Smart Brevity is an encyclopedia of solutions. The authors succinctly communicate their talking points, a demonstration of what they’re teaching. Every page offers quick tips and innovative non-stop ideas to effectively say more with less. Each chapter cover page features a Smart Brevity chart that shows both a word count and estimated reading time. For example, “Short, Not Shallow” contains 843 words and estimates a 3-minute reading time. We also approximate the number of ideas presented to be in the high hundreds.

Summary:

The authors took on the challenge of changing the communication writing style that has been entrenched since 1980. They achieve and exceed their goal with a book that will make you a sharper communicator and a better leader. While we didn’t do a word count, we did calculate the total reading time. We think this book is the best 100-minute investment you’ll make to save time, write less and “speak in a crisp, clear voice.”