Business Book Review: Get to the Point by Joel Schwartzberg
In Get to the Point, Schwartzberg provides a razor-sharp manual for the art of public speaking.
My Rating: ★★★★
Length: 128 pages
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
Released: 2017
Key Takeaways for Personal Branding
In his book, Get to the Point, champion public speaker, Joel Schwartzberg, shares a very clear point:
“The biggest mistake people make in public communication: sharing information, but not selling a point.”
Without a point, everything you say is pointless.
Get to the Point outlines three key tests any communication must pass:
The ‘I believe’ test: Can your point be made in an ‘I believe that…..’ statement?
The ‘so what’ test: Also known as the ‘duh test’. Is this a truism everyone knows or is there a counterargument?
The ‘why’ test: Remove meaningless adjectives, which Schwartzberg dubs ‘badjectives’. Ensure your point communicates specifically why it matters.
Schwartzberg reminds us to have a unique point of view. One that sells a value proposition. This is critical to personal branding. It’s what differentiates us in a noisy marketplace.
Using Schwartzberg’s concepts, there is no room for fencing-sitting. He dismantles presentations that give a ‘book report’ style summary - where people present topics rather than points. And fail to do the heavy lifting for the audience in clearly explaining its relevance.
‘Selling’ is often shrouded with negative connotations. But, Schwartzberg advocates that if you aren’t selling an idea, you’re simply failing to provide value.
Favourite Quotes
Too many people making speeches and not enough people making points.
A point is a contention you can propose, argue, defend, illustrate, and prove. A point makes clear its value and its purpose.
To maximize impact, a point should be sold, not just shared or described.
Whatever you gain by squeezing in multiple ideas, you lose twice over by diluting the impact of each.
Effective communication hinges on one job and one job only: Moving your point from your head to your audience’s heads.
Our “traditional” measures of success—like compliments, applause, laughter, and smiles—are fairly useless as indicators because they don’t tell you if you’ve successfully delivered your point.
Before every event, ask yourself this: “What does this particular audience want and need from me?
In Get to the Point, Schwartzberg demonstrates his crystal-clear communication skills. Each word earns its place in this highly succinct book. There is no sign of what Schwartzberg calls ‘spilt ends’ - anything that dilutes the point.
Seth Godin describes this book as the manifesto for giving talks that make a difference. I won’t be writing another speech without it. The testimonials suggest it should be required reading. If it were, perhaps you’d experience more communications that actually get to the point. If you want to avoid any of your communications being labelled ‘pointless’, this is the book for you.
Get to the Point by Joel Schwartzberg: Available on Amazon.
