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    Get to the Point!: Sharpen Your Message and Make Your Words Matter
    Get to the Point!: Sharpen Your Message and Make Your Words Matter
    Get to the Point!: Sharpen Your Message and Make Your Words Matter
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    Get to the Point!: Sharpen Your Message and Make Your Words Matter

    By Joel Schwartzberg

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A communications coach shows how to identify your point, strengthen it, stick to it, and sell it with this quick and sensible guide.

    Every time you communicate, you’re trying to do something, change something, or move someone to action. You’re trying to make a point. But the only way to make a point is to have a point. And the surprising truth is, very few communicators know their points or even understand what a point is, rendering them pointless.

    Communications expert Joel Schwartzberg says a point is not just a topic, an idea, or a theme. A real point is a proposition of value. It’s a contention you can propose, argue, illustrate, and prove. In this concise and practical book, you’ll learn to identify your point, strengthen it, stick to it, and sell it. Whether you want to improve your impact in speeches, staff meetings, pitches, emails, PowerPoint presentations, or any other communication setting, Schwartzberg’s novel approach teaches you how to go from simply sharing a thought to making a difference. Which would you rather do?

    IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award silver winner in the Business & Career category

    Next Generation Indie Award Winner in the How To category

    “If you don’t have something to say, then don’t say anything. Joel Schwartzberg takes that simple edict and turns it into a manifesto for giving talks that make a difference.” —Seth Godin, author of Linchpin

    “Good ideas too often get lost in a jungle of muddled thinking. In Get to the Point!, Joel Schwartzberg supplies useful tools to deliver your points with impact and elegance.” —David Brancaccio, host and senior editor, Marketplace Morning Report
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateOct 16, 2017
    ISBN9781523094134

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    Reviews for Get to the Point!

    4.5/5

    68 ratings10 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a valuable resource for improving communication skills, particularly in public speaking. The book provides clear instructions and guidelines for concise and effective communication. Many readers appreciate the practical strategies presented in the book and plan to refer to it in the future. Overall, this title is highly recommended for professionals and individuals looking to enhance their communication abilities.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I read it in a day. They really 'got to the point'. Joel provides specific tools you can use to be concise in your communication while using the book itself as a meta example.
    • 5/5
      Incredible book! Great for people who struggle with putting together cohesive thoughts into words. Highly recommend!
    • 4/5
      Informative. If your relatively new or never read a book about public speaking (Even if your good at it) I recommend this book.
    • 5/5
      I am definitely going to read this book again, its points will help me convey my ideas more succinctly and colorfully.
    • 5/5
      It makes me involved whenever I read it. Must read for professionals.
    • 5/5
      I believe this book will make you a precise communicator.
    • 4/5
      A book that offers individuals several keys to success when it comes down to public speaking and more specifically getting to the point. I will be taking some of the strategies presented and use them for public speaking in general .
    • 5/5
      This book is on point. It has clear instructions on what to do. Guidelines here will help you avoid rambling talks. Just press play.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Will refer to this book over the course of life, even if it is just for reminders. There are some excellent points there, so definitely check it out.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I haven't read it yet, but it's well worth the experience.

    Book preview

    Get to the Point! - Joel Schwartzberg

    Introduction

    When I was in sixth grade, I gave one of my first formal speeches. Wearing a blue three-piece suit and wide clip-on tie, I competed at a forensics tournament and gave a speech about the neutron bomb, a now-obsolete device designed to minimize property destruction while maximizing human destruction through radiation.

    I know, fun stuff for an 11-year-old.

    When asked what my speech was about, I simply said, The neutron bomb. It was a classic book report: lots of information about what I cheekily called an explosive issue, yet it took no position on the issue whatsoever.

    I think about that speech often—not just because it was the beginning of a thrilling competitive journey I would continue for the next 11 years—but because it also represents the biggest mistake people make in public communication: sharing information, but not selling a point.

    I see that little me in many of my students and clients: important and talented people with critical things to say, yet who deliver simple who, what, where book reports, or simply ramble with no clear direction.

    These are salespeople who never say, This product will increase your profits, activists who never say, This approach will save lives, designers who never say, This style will inspire interest, and business leaders who never say, This system will make us more efficient.

    One could wave an accusing finger at our educational system, our media models, even our parenting styles, but I’m less interested in why people are making too many speeches and too few points; I’m more interested in helping them identify and successfully convey their points.

    I ended my competitive public speaking career with a national championship in 1990, and what I learned during that time and even more since then is this: no matter who you are, how you’re communicating, or who you’re communicating with, you benefit tremendously from having a point. After all, without one, everything you say is pointless.

    No one is better qualified or equipped to make your specific points than you are, so I hope this book elevates your ability to effectively champion your ideas.

    1

    The Big Flaw

    In more than ten years as a strategic communications trainer, I’ve seen one fatal presentation flaw more often than any other. It’s a flaw that contributes directly to nervousness, rambling, and, ultimately, epic failure, and most speakers have no idea that this flaw is ruining their presentations:

    They don’t have a point.

    They have what they think is a point, but it’s actually something much less.

    And here’s the deal:

    You have to have a point to make a point.

    You have to have a point to sell your point.

    You have to have a point to stay on point.

    Many articles about public presentation shallowly advise you to have a clear point or stick to your topic but leave it at that. Nowhere have I seen the critical missing piece: how to formulate an actual point and convey it effectively. It’s like a nutritionist simply telling you to eat well, then handing you a bill. Good luck with that.

    The stakes couldn’t be higher. Simply put, without a point, you don’t know what you’re talking about. What you end up with—and what we see so often now in many different settings—is too many people making speeches and not enough people making points.

    Once a presenter has a point, the next most important job is to effectively deliver it.

    What do I mean by effectively? Simple: If the point is received, the presenter succeeds. If the point is not received, the presenter fails—regardless of any other impression made.

    As you read this, you’re probably imagining a classic public speaker in front of a packed audience. But the truth is, every time you communicate, there’s always a potential point. Whether you’re giving a conference keynote speech or a Monday morning status report, talking to your mother or your manager, composing an email or creating a Power-Point, having a real point is critical to getting what you most want from that interaction.

    This book will help you make the most of those moments by showing you how to identify your point, leverage it, nail it, stick to it, and sell it. It’ll also show you how to overcome presentational anxiety and train others to identify and make their own points.

    Of course, knowing you need a point is useless if you don’t know what a point is . . . and most people don’t. Let’s start with the basics, kicking off with a famous I believe.

    I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

    —Martin Luther King, Jr.

    2

    Know Your Point

    We all know a thing or two about points. After all, we refer to points all the time:

    Get to your point!

    What’s your point?

    Please stick to your point.

    Yet all too often, people confuse a point with something else: a theme, a topic, a title, a catchphrase, an idea. We believe a good speech can simply be about supply-side economics, the benefits of athleticism, the role of stepmothers, or the summer you spent in Costa Rica.

    But none of these are actual points.

    Imagine a child’s history paper on the American Revolution. If you asked him for his point, he might say it’s about the American

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