Book of the Month - January 2024
Smart Brevity
Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz - ISBN: 978-1-5235-1697-1 - 2022
Authors:
Jim VandeHei
Jim VandeHei is the co-founder, CEO and Chairman of Axios, a media company focused on breaking news and invaluable insights across business, politics, technology and the world. Axios helps readers and viewers get smarter, faster across the consequential topics reshaping our country and lives. As CEO, VandeHei has steered Axios into becoming one of the most celebrated digital media success stories of the past decade. VandeHei is also an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning docu-news series, “Axios on HBO.”
Before Axios, VandeHei co-founded and was CEO of Politico, the media company that upended and revolutionized political and policy journalism in Washington, New York, and Europe. Overseeing the editorial and business teams, VandeHei was the leading strategist behind its highly scalable and successful business model. Before this, VandeHei spent more than a decade as a reporter, covering the Presidency and Congress for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. He was named National Editor of the Year in 2016.
VandeHei is from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
Mike Allen
Mike Allen is a co-founder of Axios, a news and information platform focusing on business, tech, politics and other topics shaping the future.
Mike is responsible for Axios editorial coverage and writes the flagship daily newsletters, Axios AM and Axios PM.
Mike was a co-founder of Politico, where he created the Playbook franchise and helped build the company for its first decade. He has been named several times to Vanity Fair's “New Establishment” list.
He is also an alumnus of TIME, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and The (Fredericksburg, Va.) Free Lance-Star.
Allen is from Orange County, Calif., and graduated from Washington and Lee University.
Roy Schwartz
Roy Schwartz is the co-founder and President of Axios, a media company focused on breaking news and invaluable insights across business, politics, technology and the world. Axios helps readers and viewers get smarter, faster across the consequential topics reshaping our country and lives. As President, Schwartz has led Axios through multiple fundraising rounds, overseen all company strategy and business operations and most recently launched Axios HQ, an internal communications software platform to help teams communicate more effectively. Schwartz also serves as executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning docu-news series “Axios on HBO.”
Under his leadership, Axios was listed as one of Fast Company’s “World’s Most Innovative Companies 2018” and announced as Washington Business Journal’s “2021 Fastest Growing Companies.” Schwartz has been named as one of DCInno's 2016 "50 on Fire" for marketing and advertising, and as 2015 FOLIO 100 “Corporate Catalyst.”
Schwartz is the former chief revenue officer for POLITICO. Prior to POLITICO, he was a Partner at Gallup’s management consulting practice in Washington, DC and California advising Fortune 500 companies on employee and customer engagement.
Schwartz was born in Israel and grew up in England. He has a bachelor's degree and M.B.A. from the University of Maryland.
Brief Synopsis:
Brevity is confidence. Length is fear. This is the guiding principle of Smart Brevity, a communication formula built by Axios journalists to prioritize essential news and information, explain its impact and deliver it in a concise and visual format. Now, the co-founders of Axios have created an essential guide for communicating effectively and efficiently using Smart Brevity—think Strunk and White’s Elements of Style for the digital age.
In SMART BREVITY: The Power of Saying More with Less, Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz teach readers how to say more with less in virtually any format. They also share communications lessons learned from their decades of experience in media, business and communications.
Insights:
“You can’t rally people around a strategy or an idea if they don’t understand what you’re saying—or zone out.” - pg 14
“Smart Brevity, in written form, has four main parts… 1. A muscular tease, 2. One strong first sentence, or “lede”, 3. Context or “Why it matters”, 4. The choice to learn more, or “Go deeper.” - pgs 24-25
“Data has a funny way of humbling you. It left us naked, fully exposed to the truth: Almost now one was reading most of our words. We filled holes in newspapers, but they were black holes, sucking in our time and energy. Yours too.” - pg 36
“Have the courage to take your hands off the keyboard” and “Blobs of text make the eye sad.” - pg 37
“Pope Francis, in September 2021, told Catholic priests in Slovakia to cut homilies from 40 minutes to 10, or people would lose interest.” - pg 44
“Cowards hide in clauses.” - pg 48
Should I read it or skip it?
Over the last few months, I have been challenged to streamline my communication style. If you haven’t read “Listen Like You Mean It” by Ximena Vengochea, I suggest learning to listen first. However, communication requires clear sending as well as receiving. So in Smart Brevity style, here is my review:
If you shorten the amount of words you use by being intentional and smart, you will increase your communication ability.
Why It Matters: Most people suck at communicating their thoughts and use lots of words to cover up their inability to trim and to be intentional with what they say.
Going Deeper:
The Smart Brevity style can give you tools to be better at communicating.
The less you say the more you say.
The better at communication you become in a world of people who suck at communication, the more you will stand out.
Go get a copy of this book, read it and start your journey to better communication today!
