Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

“The ability to handle yourself in interviews and other high-pressure situations can make the difference in getting the job and achieving your goals.”
A successful interview is more than answering questions well. It’s an opportunity to communicate what sets you apart and demonstrate the value you can bring. Preparation, structure, and storytelling can help you do that with confidence. In this Quick Thinks episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Matt Abrahams and communication teacher Laura Joyce Davis share strategies for preparing for job interviews. From identifying what differentiates you to structuring answers and telling memorable stories, they explain how to present your experience with clarity while staying authentic and human.

Takeaways:
  • Preparation makes confidence easier. Identifying what sets you apart and stockpiling stories, examples, and evidence helps you answer questions clearly while staying present in the moment.
  • Structure turns experience into a stronger answer. Frameworks like “What? So what? Now what?” help you connect your skills and experiences directly to what matters to the interviewer.

Activity:
  • Build your interview bank. Create a simple bank of three strengths you want an interviewer to remember. Under each, add one story, piece of evidence, or testimonial that proves it. Use the bank to quickly assemble relevant answers rather than memorizing responses to individual questions.

Episode Reference Links:
Connect:

 Chapters:

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (00:56) - Preparing for Your Interview
  • (03:37) - Structuring Your Answers
  • (05:02) - The ADD Framework
  • (07:51) - Practicing for the Interview
  • (09:16) - Storytelling That Stands Out
  • (10:39) - Conflict, Beats, and Transformation
  • (14:28) - The One-Minute Story Exercise
  • (15:32) - The Importance of Pre-Work
  • (16:45) - Conclusion

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Creators and Guests

Host
Matt Abrahams
Lecturer Stanford University Graduate School of Business | Think Fast Talk Smart podcast host
Guest
Laura Joyce Davis
Writer | CEO & Co-founder of Narrative Podcasts | Podcast Producer | Coach

What is Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques?

One of the most essential ingredients to success in business and life is effective communication.

Join Matt Abrahams, best-selling author and Strategic Communication lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, as he interviews experts to provide actionable insights that help you communicate with clarity, confidence, and impact. From handling impromptu questions to crafting compelling messages, Matt explores practical strategies for real-world communication challenges.

Whether you’re navigating a high-stakes presentation, perfecting your email tone, or speaking off the cuff, Think Fast, Talk Smart equips you with the tools, techniques, and best practices to express yourself effectively in any situation. Enhance your communication skills to elevate your career and build stronger professional relationships.

Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes. Subscribe now to unlock your potential as a thoughtful, impactful communicator. Learn more and sign up for our eNewsletter at fastersmarter.io.

The ability to handle yourself in
interviews and other high-pressure

situations can make the difference in
getting the job and achieving your goals.

My name's Matt Abrahams, and I
teach strategic communication at

Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Welcome to this special Quick
Thinks episode of Think Fast,

Talk Smart, the podcast.

Today, I am thrilled to be live inside
the Think Fast, Talk Smart Learning

Community with many of our community
guests, some who have been here for a long

time and some who have just joined us.

I encourage all of you to check
out the Learning Community.

Lots and lots of resources and
access to people, including myself.

We have an AI coach and lessons
and quests to all help you learn

and hone your communication skills.

Today, I am joined by Laura Joyce Davis.

Laura is on our team.

She's an author, a teacher of
communication, and she'll be helping

me as we go through today's content.

So today, I'd love to share with you
some best practices around how to

prepare for job interviews and any
time you have to brand yourself and

talk about what you do and how to
differentiate yourself from others.

So to get started, it is
critical that you think about the

opportunity you have before you.

Spend time thinking about the job and
what differentiates you from others.

What makes you stand out?

What are the key characteristics
and experiences that can help you?

And once you've identified those,
come up with two to three themes.

A theme is a general idea that
supports your differentiation,

what makes you unique and special.

So, for example, you might be
somebody who is really good at

multitasking, doing many tasks at once.

Perhaps you are an expert
coder in some language, or you

have high proficiency in AI.

Those all can become themes.

And these themes, again, are in
service of differentiating you.

And you should be able to articulate
that theme clearly and concisely.

Once you have the themes identified,
it is great to stockpile support for

your themes A theme is simply a claim,
I am really good at multitasking.

You have to show that, demonstrate that.

So stockpile and collect examples
that support this, and there's

some specific types of examples
I would like you to think about.

First, think about testimonials.

These are third-party voices that support
you and what you're talking about.

So if I say I'm really good at
multitasking, maybe a former boss

or colleague has said something that
reflected my ability to do that.

So you have a quote or a
testimonial from that person.

Perhaps you've received some
kind of acknowledgment or

award that you can mention.

So having a list of ideas
that support your theme,

testimonials being one of them.

Another is stories or anecdotes
you can tell, as well as data.

If you have any data that support what
you are good at, you include that as well.

So perhaps you finished a project
under time and under budget.

Perhaps you saved the organization
some amount of money or time.

Have those stockpiled.

That is, keep them.

I have friends who interview a lot,
for good or for bad, and they have

spreadsheets full of themes and support.

So we start by thinking about the job
and what differentiates us, or the

opportunity and our differentiation.

We come up with two or three clear themes,
and then we have support for each theme,

and the key in the support is variety.

So you want several different examples
of the different types of support.

Once you have that information
in hand, it's time to practice

talking about that information.

I am a huge fan of structure.

Structure is a logical
connection of ideas.

So in a job interview, in an opportunity
where we get to share about ourselves,

maybe making small talk or at some
kind of networking event, you want

to avoid just rambling and listing.

Instead, packaging your information
up in a structure can really help.

There are two structures I'd like for
you to take away from our time together

today in our learning community.

The first is one I talk
about all the time.

What?

So what?

Now what?

What is the information you're sharing.

So what is why it's important.

And now what is what you can
do with that information.

What?

So what?

Now what?

So if I were to be describing a
particular project I worked on that

I think is relevant to answering a
question or differentiating myself,

I might start with the what, here's
what the project was, and describe it.

I might then move to the so what, the
value that the project had for the company

as it related to our KPIs or our goals.

And then the now what would connect
my topic, whatever the story

was, to the opportunity at hand.

What does it mean for that?

So what?

So what?

Now what?

is an incredibly valuable tool.

The next structure I'd like you
thinking about is excellent for

answering questions, and it has
similarities to what, so what, now what.

And this is what I call ADD for

adding value.

When you're asked a question, I
believe you should do three things.

First, answer the question
clearly and concisely.

I, for a long, long time,
was a hiring manager.

I grew a team once from two people
to eighty-five people in a year and a

half, so I did a lot of interviewing.

And it is amazing to me the
number of people who don't

answer the question asked.

So we have to answer the
question clearly and concisely.

Next, we have to give evidence or
support that reinforces that answer.

And then finally, we need to make
sure we connect that answer to the

person who is asking the question.

So let's imagine you wanted to interview
me to be a teacher of communication

at Stanford's Graduate School of
Business, the job I currently have.

You might say, "Hey, Matt, what's your
experience?" So I would answer like this.

I would say, "I have over twenty-five
years of experience teaching communication

skills. I've taught at the undergraduate
and graduate level, as well as in the

corporate world, from very small startups
to Fortune One Hundred companies." What

that means is I can tailor my material to
be specific to the needs of your students.

So you see, I answered the
question clearly and concisely.

What's my experience?

Twenty-five years.

And then I gave a reinforcing example.

I've done this before, undergraduate,
graduate, corporate world.

And here's what it means for you.

It means that I can tailor my material.

We often assume that people can
understand the relevance or the value

of our answer, but the reality is they
don't always make that connection.

So make it explicit.

Now, you don't have to answer
every question in that order.

You could go in reverse order.

I could say, "If you hire me, I'll
tailor my material to be specific

to the needs of your students.

I've done this at the
undergraduate, graduate level,

and in the corporate world.

I've been doing this for
twenty-five years." I just did

DDA, relevance, example, answer.

So if you have themes that you are aware
that differentiate you from others, if

you have supporting ancillary material,
and you have practiced structure for

how to respond, what, so what, now
what, answer, detailed example, describe

relevance, two different structures.

Then when you are in an interview,
in a small talk situation, in a

networking situation, all you have
to do is assemble your answers.

So when somebody asks you a question,
you think, "That question relates to

this theme. This theme connects to
the support that I've already thought

about." And by being able to assemble,
it's easier on you cognitively.

The demand is less, which means you
can focus more effort on connecting,

on listening, on being present,
which in and of itself makes you

appear more confident and engaged.

And confidence and engagement
are important in networking

and interview situations.

So theme, stockpile, practice
structure, and you are ready to go.

Now, the next step is to actually
practice for these situations.

How could you do that?

Part of practice is just this
preparation, thinking it through.

But more importantly is
actually speaking it out.

So get with a friend, a
colleague, and practice.

Do a role play or use an AI tool.

Go to your favorite LLM, say,
"Interviewing for a job of this

type with these types of people,"
and have it ask you questions.

Again, not to memorize your
answer, but to practice.

This is like doing a drill.

If you've ever played a sport, chances
are you've done practice and you've

done drills, and these drills help us.

So there's preparation,
and then there's practice.

And in doing the preparation and practice,
you prepare yourself, and you will

feel more comfortable and confident.

So that's the methodology and process
I'd like you to take away from this.

Now, there's one element that
is absolutely critical that will

make you stand out even more, and
that is your ability to tell a

good, effective, efficient story.

Stories are great ways to reinforce
what you're saying, but many

people don't tell good stories.

They go too long.

They go too short.

There isn't a point.

So I have asked my colleague and
friend, Laura Joyce Davis, who

has helped immeasurably behind the
scenes to bring content to you.

And Laura, welcome.

Thank you for joining us inside the
Learning Community, and I would love

to turn this over to you to share
with all of us a, a few tips on

good, effective storytelling skills.

Thank you so much, Matt.

It's so great to be here with all of you.

And I want to just start by
asking why are stories important

for interviews in particular?

The thing that I wanna share with
you today is to just think about how

stories are important for three reasons.

They connect you with others, they show
your values and your experience in a

memorable way, and maybe most importantly,
they give you an opportunity to share with

somebody you just met who you really are.

They can give these very deep
insights very, very quickly

into the kind of person you are.

So the three things that every
great story has are conflict.

We sometimes think we have to appear
as strong and put together, and we

want to, of course, be professional
and put together in interviews.

But remember that sharing a conflict,
something difficult that you've been

through that you've been able to overcome,
that's one of the best stories you can

tell in an interview because it gives
you a chance to be vulnerable, but at

the same time, to really put forward
some ways that you've contributed to, you

know, a past organization or a team that
you've been a part of or even a family.

So conflict is number one.

The second thing is beats.

Every story has beats, and what I
mean by story beats is it has scenes.

If I tell you a story about the time that
I overcame that big conflict, I'm going

to have one beat where I tell you about
what the world was like before, you know,

very briefly, I set the stage, maybe
give you a tiny little moment of once

upon a time, everything was going great.

The second beat might be, and
then one day I woke up and I got

this call that changed everything.

And then the next beat might
be, and then what happened?

What did you do next?

Those beats are essentially
what happened in the story.

They're your plot points, your action.

And every moment of action, you
can do this very, very quickly,

and I'll give you an exercise to
practice for that in a moment.

But remember that something
has to happen in a story.

It can't just be an anecdote.

It can't just be one little
moment where you feel a certain

way or something happened.

You gotta tell us what happened
next and how you reacted to that.

And then finally, transformation.

So we've got conflict,
beats, and transformation.

Transformation is where you
get to show what happens to

you because of the conflict.

You get to give us a little insight
into the way that you react to something

difficult, something challenging, maybe
even something that is a weakness of yours

that you have turned into a strength.

And not in a way that feels
phony or that you're pretending.

This is genuine, and it'll require
you to do a little digging probably

to really think about this, to think
about first, what are your weaknesses?

That's your conflict.

And then how have you transformed?

You know, maybe your weakness
is that you are naturally a

really unstructured person.

You find it really difficult to
keep track of a lot of details.

Maybe your story is that you have
seen that weakness, you've recognized

that it's a challenge for you
that you have to overcome, even

if you're naturally a certain way.

And so you start to put together a story
about you went to a training to learn how

to master Microsoft Excel, or you learned
how to manage a team by really thinking

through the different steps in a project
to get to completion, and now you're the

most organized person that anybody knows.

And you can tell that story very quickly
using those story beats of those key

moments and talk about how, "Hey, this
is still how I'm hardwired, but I figured

out how to make this actually a strength
because I'm aware of this weakness." And

the question, why do you wanna work here?

if you can use the framework
of the story of my life has

led me to this job here now.

and What am I gonna say to show the story
of my whole life led up to this moment?

think back to the things that are
genuinely true of you, the experiences

that you've had, and how can they add up
to this weird combination that somehow

works because it is genuine of, okay,
all of these different pieces have come

together for this specific thing now.

So the last thing I want to say, I
wanna give you a little homework to

practice, and you can use some of
the suggestions that Matt was making

about using an AI tool or recording
a voice memo or talking to a friend.

I want you to tell the story
of your life in one minute, and

I want you to time yourself.

The best way, by the way, is if
you can do it with another person,

but you can also record yourself.

I want you to think about the job
that you want, and the story of your

life should lead you to that job.

Then I want you to set the timer again
and do that two more times, the story of

your life in one minute, but each time
you tell it, you can't use any of the

details that you did the previous time.

So each time you have to
come up with new details.

It has to be just one minute.

What this will do is it will force you
to get deeper into your own story and

to think of things that aren't obvious.

Thank you so much, everyone.

This has been so fun to share
with you, and I hope that some

of these tools have been helpful.

Laura, thank you so much.

The idea of really thinking through
how we put our stories together

can differentiate us and help
us to be more clear and concise.

I really like the idea of identifying
challenges, of thinking about the

beats, and really using the practice
techniques that you shared to really help.

And I'd like to end by simply saying, the
pre-work you do around understanding how

you best fit and differentiate, creating
themes, stockpiling information, and

then leveraging the ideas that Laura
shared around how to craft a big story,

this will truly differentiate you, and
you will come off as authentic and real.

In a world where AI can perfect and
polish everything, being human and being

able to tell your story in an authentic
way will really make a big difference.

Thank you, Laura, so much
for joining me today.

Your insights into what makes for
a good story really augments the

overall process for differentiating
ourselves in interviews and networking.

I hope everybody is taking away what
we can do in advance to prepare,

how we can actually practice, and
so we can end up delivering our

best selves in these situations.

Thank you for joining us for this
Quick Thinks episode of Think

Fast, Talk Smart, the Podcast.

I really appreciate Laura and her
insight around beats in stories.

Really thinking about those
beats, those areas you emphasize,

can be incredibly valuable.

To learn more about these interviewing
skills and other communication

skills, check out our back catalog.

We have hundreds of episodes to teach you
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And be sure to check out our Learning
Community at fastersmarter.io/learning

to learn skills and tools to help
you deal with the issues that are

confronting you in your communication.