How to Articulate Your Thoughts Clearly in 30 Seconds or Less (3 Ways to Think Fast Before You Speak)
You’ve had it. That brilliant idea, the groundbreaking insight — it’s right there, at the tip of your tongue.
It seemed clear in your head, but when you tried to share it, the words seemed to evaporate. We’ve all been there: stumbling over our words in a job interview, struggling to explain a complex concept to a colleague, or fumbling through a presentation. People who can articulate their thoughts well appear to be more persuasive and influential, which makes this skill more important.
I had to learn it the hard way.
Instant Respect, Influence, and Charisma
Pain plus reflection equals progress — Ray Dalio
I will never forget what my coworker once said to me after going for a quick lunch.
“Can you please stop saying ‘you know, the thing’ and get to the point?!” she said with a frown, irritable. It was one of the most painful, annoying, yet profound wake-up calls of my life.
I went straight to YouTube surfing and book bingeing and searched how to remove ‘uhms’ and ‘ahs’ and become better at saying your thoughts. Fast forward to today, just a few weeks ago, I led a status update meeting and presented to one of our directors as the assistant BA of the project. After the meeting, our team’s product owner gave me feedback “That was actually really good Jono. You are actually a good communicator. No filler words. You went straight to the point which made you sound like you really know what you’re talking about, which you do.”
When you lock in your focus to sharpen your vocabulary, removing filler words, suddenly your friends and colleagues start to respect you more. Their eyes move off from their phones to you and the next thing you know, all the attention is on you. That’s the power of being able to articulate your thoughts clearly and concisely.
That being said, let me share with you now three of the many powerful ways I learned to articulate my thoughts fast and clearly, anywhere and anytime.
1. The Power of Analogies: People only listen to what’s familiar
Last Friday, October 25, Rogan just interviewed Trump, and three days later, the video has 30+ million views.
This makes me think back to one of the older JRE episodes when he had Patrick Bet-David, owner of Valuetainment as a guest. On the episode, PBD questioned the odds of Rogan having Trump as a guest on his podcast.
Here’s how PBD made Rogan consider having Trump on his podcast:
When you think about sports or you think about fights, what is the boxing world if Frazier vs Muhammad Ali never happens. What is the UFC world if DC vs Jon Jones doesn’t happen, or Khabib vs McGregor doesn’t happen and they’re both at their peak and those fights don’t happen. We can go on with sports with baseball, with interviews Oprah Winfrey Michael Jackson. Let’s fast forward 20 years from now, 2043, we’re doing a podcast here at 75, that’d be one hell of a podcast at 75, and we look back at the list of podcasters, who are the greatest podcasters of all time, Joe Rogan at the top. And it’s like “dude but he never interviewed that guy Trump.” I’m gonna be like ‘what are you talking about? Let me get this straight, the greatest podcaster of all time never interviewed Trump? That’s crazy, why not? It had to be personal, it had to be this. Look, you’re gonna interview him that nobody is going to interview. You’re gonna ask questions that you wanna know about. As a friend, as a guy that’s in the same space as you, and you’re the Michael Jordan or Tom Brady of the space, I’m encouraging Michael and Brady to consider this.
“So there you go that’s my pitch to you,” with a smile on PBD’s face. “Alright, I’ll consider it.” Rogan smiles back. They both share a laugh afterward.
Analogies are metaphorical, familiar truths that are similar to the idea you’re articulating. They make your arguments more believable because they are universal truths people can cross-check in their minds.
If you articulate your thoughts with analogies, you win both their minds and hearts.
2. The Harry Dry Rule: You can’t talk you can only point
People will get lost in whatever you’re saying unless you point to something specific.
Harry Dry, writer of the successful Marketing Examples newsletter explained the ‘you can’t talk you can only point’ rule using ‘gold’ as an example. You can say a bunch of things about gold that it’s a great investment, that it never goes out of fashion — and essentially you’re just talking. Or you can just “point” at the graph of gold for the last 50 years and show it goes in this direction. Or you can point to the last financial crash and point at what happened to gold at that time. Pointing versus saying is specific versus vague.
Pointing to references people know (or can learn from you) gives your thoughts more weight and power because people can vividly visualize the idea you’re trying to articulate.
3. Frameworks: Stop rambling information and group your ideas
Frameworks are a way to organize information that listeners can follow so they don’t get overwhelmed.
For example, you might observe I used “the power of three” framework to get my arguments across in this piece of writing. Instead of writing unorganized paragraphs about how to articulate well, I grouped the concept of articulation into 3 sections i.e. analogies, point of reference, and frameworks. This allows your listeners or readers to chunk huge piles of information into manageable chunks in their heads.
You’ll often hear great thought-leaders and authors use frameworks:
- “Here are 3 things I want you to understand about leadership”
- “Here’s the 7 baby steps approach to make your wealth”
- “I’ll cover two main ideas: the mindset to become more confident and actions you can take today to start building self-esteem”
Group your ideas into frameworks and watch your listeners wait for what you’re gonna say next. It gives them what to expect in the journey they’re going to have with you.
Frameworks act like train stations that passengers use as their guide to their destination.
How to Articulate Your Thoughts in 30 Seconds or Less
In most conversations, people often memorize what they’re going to say which is the greatest mistake to make.
Don’t obsess about getting the explanation 100% right but rather focus on the big idea you want to deliver first, and then apply one of the frameworks mentioned. If you can’t think of anything at the moment, you can reply “Tell me more about that. What exactly do you mean?” This buys you time to structure your big ideas into frameworks, references, or analogies.
Once you have the structure, don’t fall into the trap of memorizing what to answer. Go straight at it and practice. In step by step essence, your thoughts process could go like this:
- What’s the big takeaway
- Choose an articulation format: analogy, references, or frameworks
- Have the structure in your mind and fill in the details on the spot as you explain
Here’s a real-life example. Let’s say a friend of yours asked you for an advice about overcoming procrastination:
- Takeaway: Change your state and plan your projects.
- Two-part framework as your format: The reason why you procrastinate is because of these two things — uncertainty and overwhelm.
- Expand on your takeaway + framework on the spot: Uncertainty and overwhelm make you freeze because your mind doesn’t know what to do next. The solution is to change your state so your body feels more certainty and you need to plan your projects into manageable chunks so you don’t feel overwhelmed.
Never leave your ideas incomplete ever again. Never leave your conversations strained ever again.
In a world overflowing with information, the ability to articulate thoughts is how you standout.
