JOSEPH McCORMACK is the founder and CEO of Sheffield Marketing Partners. Sheffield specializes in message and narrative development, and also provides video production and marketing communications services to help package stories to suit the right audiences. Joe has more than 20 years of experience as a senior marketing executive helping companies develop strategic communications that make them stand apart in a challenging marketplace.

Foreword xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Preface xvii

Part One Awareness: Heightened Awareness In a World Begging for Brief 1

1 Why Brevity Is Vital 3

Get to the Point or Pay the Price 3

Executive-Interrupted 5

Who's Responsible for Adapting When the Message Is Not Being Heard? 9

Timing Is of the Essence 9

BRIEF Balance: The Harmony of Clear, Concise, and Compelling 10

A BRIEF Timeout 11

2 Mindful of Mind-filled-ness 13

Brevity Is Like an Instant Stress Release 13

Battling Overcapacity 14

1. Information Inundation-The Water's Rising 15

2. Inattention-The Muscle Is Weakening 17

3. Interruption-The Rate Is Alarming 19

4. Impatience-The Ice Is Thinning 21

What Does It All Mean? 22

Your New Reality: There's No Time for a Slow Buildup 22

Test Yourself 24

Examination of Brevity 24

A New Professional Standard 25

3 Why You Struggle with Brevity: The Seven Capital Sins 27

Why Is It So Difficult? 27

1. Cowardice 28

2. Confidence 29

3. Callousness 29

4. Comfort 30

5. Confusion 31

6. Complication 31

7. Carelessness 32

4 The Big Bang of Brevity 35

A Success Story 35

Part Two Discipline: How to Gain Discipline To Be Clear and Concise 41

5 Mental Muscle Memory to Master Brevity 43

The Exercise of Brevity 43

6 Map It: From Mind Mapping to BRIEF Maps 45

Your 11th Grade English Teacher Was Right 45

An Outline Is Missing, and So Is the Sale 47

Mind Mapping and the Modern Outline 49

BRIEF Maps: A Practical Tool for Delivering Brevity 51

How a BRIEF Map Can Be Used 52

Wrong Approach: Bob Chooses to Share but Not to Prepare 52

Right Approach: Bob Prepares a BRIEF Map and Maintains Executive Support 53

BRIEF Maps: What's the Payoff? 57

7 Tell It: The Role of Narratives 59

I'm Tired of Meaningless and Meandering Corporate Jargon. I'm Ready for a Good Story 59

Where's the Disconnect? When a Story Is Missing 62

The Birth of Narrative Mapping: A Way to Organize and Deliver Your Story 64

Rediscovery of Narratives and Storytelling: Breaking through the Blah, Blah, Blah 66

Listen, I'm Ready for a Story 67

Think About Your Audience: Journalism 2.0 and the Elements of a Narrative 69

Narrative Map (De)constructed 75

Seeing and Hearing Is Believing: The Story of the Evolution of Commerce 76

8 Talk It: Controlled Conversations and TALC Tracks 81

Risky Business Trip 82

Controlled Conversations Are a Game of Tennis, Not Golf 84

TALC Tracks-A Structure for Balance and Brevity 84

Be Prepared for Anything 86

Audience, Audience, Audience 88

9 Show It: Powerful Ways to Make a Picture Exceed a Thousand Words 91

Show-and-Tell: Which Would You Choose? 91

You Can See the Shift 92

Seeing Supersedes Reading 93

A Visual Language 94

Connect an Image with Your Story 96

Momentary Magic: Infographics in Business 97

Breakdown of Complex Information 98

The Age of YouTube and Business 99

TL; DR: Too Long; Didn't Read 101

10 Putting Brevity to Work: Grainger and the Al and Betty Story 105

Part Three Decisiveness: Gaining the Decisiveness To Know When and Where to Be Brief 111

11 Meeting You Halfway 113

Defeat the Villains of Meetings 113

Meeting Villain #1: Time 114

Meeting Villain #2: Type 115

Meeting Villain #3: Tyrants 116

Change the Format and Tone-Make It a Conversation 118

Put BRIEF Back into a Briefing 119

12 Leaving a Smaller Digital Imprint 123

The Digital Flood 123

BRIEF Hall of Fame: Verne Harnish 126

From Social Media to Venture Capital 128

Social Media Squeeze 130

13 Presenting a Briefer Case 133

Practicing What You Preach 133

The Discipline of Brevity 134

Putting the Power Back in PowerPoint 138

Training as a TED Talk 139

14 Trimming Your Sales (Pitch) 143

Shut Up and Sell 143

Billboard on a Bumper Sticker 144

Time to Be Convincing and Concise 146

Cut to the Customer's Chase 149

15 Whose Bright Idea Was That Anyway? 153

Your Big Idea 153

A Mission-Critical Narrative 154

Clear Picture with Radical Focus 157

The Entrepreneur's Dilemma: Mixed Messages 158

Tailor Your Pitch to Your Investor's Needs 161

16 It's Never Really Small Talk 165

Brevity as a Conversational Life Raft 165

Momentary Misgivings Stall Momentum 166

Walk the Walk; Talk the Talk 168

17 Help Wanted: Master of Brevity 173

Not the Time for Anxious Rambling 173

Let Others Lead the Conversation 175

Talking Your Way out of a Job Offer 177

18 I've Got Some Good News 183

Pay the Favor of Brevity Forward 183

Let the Brilliance Shine Through 184

Speak the Language of Success 186

Get into the Habit of Saying, "Thank You" 187

19 And the Bad News Is... 189

The Bright (and Brief) Side of Bearing Bad News 189

Give It to Them Straight 190

Serving up the S#&$ Sandwich 192

20 Got-a-Minute Updates 197

The "Say-Do" Ratio 197

Be Prepared to Be Lean and Drive Out Wasteful Words 199

The Most Important Question: Why Am I Here? 204

Part Four Being Brief Summary and Action Plan 207

Resources 219

Notes 221

About the Author 225

Index 227