Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

“The tools of communication have changed, the human brain has not.” 
In a world of endless content and shrinking attention spans, getting your message heard means giving people a reason to care. For Carmine Gallo, a communication coach, author of Viral Voices, and CEO of Gallo Communications, that starts with understanding what captures the brain’s attention: emotion, relevance, and a compelling story. In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Gallo joins Matt Abrahams to explore the timeless principles behind persuasive communication. From crafting attention-grabbing hooks to using analogies and storytelling, he shares practical techniques for making your ideas more emotional, clear, and memorable.

Key Takeaways:
  • Attention starts with making people care. Emotion and relevance help your message cut through the noise, giving your audience a reason to listen before you ask them to absorb your ideas.
  • Great communication follows timeless patterns. Hooks, analogies, and structured storytelling make ideas easier to understand and remember, regardless of the platform or technology used to deliver them.

Activity:
  • Build the hook. Take a presentation, pitch, or message you’re already working on and write a one-sentence opening that answers your audience’s unspoken question: “Why should I care?” Make it relevant, specific, and compelling enough to earn their attention.

Episode Reference Links:
Connect:

 Chapters:

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (00:56) - Capturing Attention
  • (03:30) - Timeless Communication Patterns
  • (06:46) - The Persuasion Toolkit
  • (10:49) - The Three-Act Structure
  • (15:30) - The Final Three Questions
  • (19:54) - 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
Carmine Gallo
Author, Instructor, Communication 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.

Perfecting your persuasion and increasing
your influence can help you in your

communication, both at work and in your
personal life My name is Matt Abrahams,

and I teach Strategic Communication at
Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Welcome to Think Fast,
Talk Smart, the podcast.

Today, I look forward to speaking
again with Carmine Gallo.

Carmine was my guest in episode 103.

He's the founder and CEO
of Gallo Communications.

Carmine is a communication coach,
Harvard Graduate School of Design

lecturer, and the author of several
really influential and important books,

like Talk Like Ted, The Presentation
Secrets of Steve Jobs, The Bezos

Blueprint, and his new audiobook, Viral
Voices: From TED to TikTok, Persuasive

Techniques for the Digital Age.

Welcome back, Carmine.

We had such a great
conversation last time.

I appreciate you being here.

Thanks, Matt, and thank
you for inviting me.

Should we get started?

Yes.

Excellent.

Your new audiobook is based on the
premise that the brain does not

pay attention to boring things.

In today's hyper-distracted attention
economy, what is the first thing a

communicator must do to bypass the
cognitive spam filters that come up?

I love the fact that you
brought up the brain doesn't

pay attention to boring things.

If that's all our listeners get from
today's podcast, that will significantly

improve their communication skills.

Because the brain, when it doesn't have
to pay attention to something because it

deems it not a threat or not essential for
survival, it'll move on to something else.

Very happy to do so.

And it'll conserve energy.

So the challenge that we all have
as communicators is how to, like

you said, get through that filter,
how to grab the brain's attention.

And we do that by raising
the signal through the noise.

And there's a lot of
noise out there today.

The best way for a communicator to get
their ideas across is to strengthen

the signal, and that will cut through
the noise, cut through the filter,

capture the brain's attention.

And what I've been taught by
neuroscientists and many people who I've

interviewed is that there are two primary
ways of getting through those filters.

Right now, especially in the age
of AI, we do have something unique

that AI does not have: emotion.

Joy and fear are two of the most
powerful emotions, and that's why

social media prioritizes threats.

"If you don't do this now, you'll be
in trouble." Those go viral because

it ignites the threat response.

Or on the other hand, on business
presentations, business communication,

"If you do this, if you take
these three steps, you can thrive

in the age of AI." So that gives
me some, something to hope for.

But as long as things connect to
an emotion, that is the principal

way of cutting through that noise,
getting through that filter.

The other way is make sure that whatever
you say applies to the audience.

Because the other question that
the brain is asking itself is, why

should I care about this person?

Why should I care about the content?

So for example, in this podcast, you
should care because what Matt and I

are going to discuss will help you
build the career that you dreamed

of and thrive in the age of AI.

So listen up, because we're gonna
give you a lot of good tips.

Wow, what a great hook.

So it's about relevance and salience,
and it's about emotion, and that's what

helps the brain focus and gets people
engaged, and I really appreciate that.

And many of us don't
start from that place.

In Viral Voices, your new audiobook, you
explore a multitude of communicators.

The list is large, and they're very
different from Barack Obama to MrBeast.

Is there a common denominator between a
historic presidential address, let's say,

and a highly engaged viral YouTube video?

And if there is, what is it and
why should we care about it?

The one big lesson that I learned from
two years of doing the research on

Viral Voices is something that I think
everybody needs to understand, and

that is that the tools of communication
have changed, the human brain has not.

So now you're talking about the
human brain, which is a 350,000

year construction project.

TikTok has not been around long enough to
rewire our brains, but there are patterns.

If you look at patterns, they're
very similar, which was the cool

thing about the people I interviewed.

You mentioned Barack Obama and MrBeast.

Okay.

What are the similarities?

Both are storytellers.

Different types of stories, different
audiences, different platforms, but

they are both skilled at weaving
together a narrative that makes

you wanna be a part of the story.

I interviewed Barack Obama's speechwriter,
his name is Terry Szuplat, who also now

teaches at the university level, and he
told me that a good speech has things

like structure, a melody like a song.

I said, "Like a song?

What do you mean by that?" He said,
"Let's take a look at some speeches."

We broke down some speeches.

And that's the cool part about
having an audio original, because

then you can cut to the speeches.

So Barack Obama, "Yes we
can," those three words.

But the way they wrote it at the end
of a sentence provided a melody to it.

So what the speechwriter was trying
to show me is that everything

starts with good writing, but
writing is part science, part art.

And you have to think
about what's the structure.

MrBeast has a three-act structure,
much like a good Hollywood film.

He understands that here's the status
quo, here's the problem we're gonna

solve, here's the conflict that's going to
arise if we don't solve this problem, but

together we're gonna solve the problem.

So the, it's, uh, very much structural.

So you can learn something
from great communicators.

That's the point.

You can learn something about
the written word and delivery

and melody and construction.

You can also learn how to grab
people's attention quickly

and keep their attention.

I think all great communicators in
different platforms have something to

teach us, but above all, there's patterns.

The fact that we are communicating
through different tools, different

techniques, we're still communicating
with the same old brain we've had.

And so those lessons learned in the
past apply today, and I appreciate

you delineating many of them.

And I love this idea of communication
having a musicality, a melody to

it, and you see that in many of the
most admired communicators we have.

A lot of your new work is
around persuasion, influence.

As you look back, not just in the work
you did for Viral Voices, but in your

esteemed career, can you identify two
or three persuasion techniques, tools,

or tactics that you think everyone
should have in their influence toolkit?

The hook, the analogy, the context.

Hook is important, especially now more
than ever, because of social media.

So it is important to, what
they say, stop the scroll.

If you're doing a podcast, if you're
doing any type of social media,

you've gotta stop people from just
scrolling and moving on blindly.

How do you create a hook
that grabs their attention?

Again, great communicators
do this all the time.

Let's go back to 1998.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page were
here as Stanford graduate students.

They came up with a new search engine
called Google, and they crafted a

one-sentence pitch, and the pitch went
like this: "Google organizes the world's

information and makes it accessible."

They used that pitch when they
went to meet with Michael Moritz

of Sequoia Capital, one of the big
venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.

I interviewed Michael Moritz years ago,
and he said he still remembers that

line because it grabbed his attention.

Then the follow-up was,
"Oh, that's interesting.

Can I see a demo?

Does it work?

Then we can talk about finances." But the
hook he said, he didn't call it a hook,

he said that one line meant everything.

And now if you go on social media, go on
TikTok, and all these content creators are

trying to teach you how to grab people's
attention in the first three seconds.

Get to the point, get to it quickly,
make it relevant, tell people why they

should care, and they'll start leaning in.

You asked for top three
persuasion techniques.

Okay, so think about the hook.

Analogy.

Analogy is something I'm really
focused on these days because great

communicators tend to use more
analogy than average communicators.

An analogy's comparing two things
to show their similarities, usually

used to take something that's
abstract and make it familiar.

Warren Buffett is the king
of analogies and metaphors.

So every time you watch CNBC, you'll
always find an analyst who says, "I love

this stock because this company has a
moat around it." Well, I looked that up.

This whole thing about the moat, it
has barriers to entry, makes it hard

for competitors to enter that space.

This whole idea of a company or
stock having a moat, that comes

from a newsletter that Warren
Buffett wrote about 40 years ago.

So it stands the test of
time because it's a shortcut.

Start with a hook.

Make sure you have
analogies and comparisons.

And something we've
already mentioned, context.

Make people care as soon as possible.

Because from what I've learned from
neuroscientists, the brain is asking

itself the question, "Make me care.

Why should I listen?" Otherwise, the
brain has a lot of other stuff to

do, and it, it gets bored easily.

Make them care right at the beginning.

This new platform, this new software that
we're gonna talk about today is going to

save us X amount of money, which means
that we're going to have a better career

here at the company, and we can hire
those 10 new staffers that can support us.

Make it relevant.

Tell people right up front, "Here
is why you should listen to the rest

of my presentation." And they will,
but you have to hand it to them.

Hand it to them on a platter.

Absolutely.

So you've given us the HAC,
hook, analogy, and contents.

HAC.

And what I want everybody who's
listening and watching to recognize is

what Carmine did is, as he went through
that, he gave you the information.

He said what it was, the hook, the
analogy, explained what it was, and

then gave a concrete example, and that's
another way to help the brain learn.

You give an idea, and
then you reinforce it.

And you did that expertly
without calling attention to it.

I want to get into the details
and the mechanics of some of

the things that you've studied
and you write and talk about.

You rely on, a lot on
the three-act structure.

And you talk about beats.

And I'd love for you to share with
us how we can apply things like

the three-act structure and beats
to our everyday communication.

Not a TED Talk, not when we're
doing a big presentation.

When we're on a Zoom, a Team, a
Meet, when we're having our normal

interactions, how can we leverage
these tools to help us be better and

more engaging in our communication?

Every Hollywood movie that's
successful has a three-act structure.

So three-act structure, set
up, conflict, resolution.

That's very easy to apply in almost any
pitch, presentation, a Zoom meeting.

Folks, here we are today.

Here's the problem with where
we are today, and here's how

we're gonna solve that problem.

That's easy.

I like this idea called beats.

I enjoy talking to screenwriters because
they're really good storytellers, and

everything that they talk about applies
to business presentations in some way.

So they started telling me about
beats, and I guess anyone who's done

screenwriting knows exactly what that is.

Within the three-act structure,
there are scenes, important scenes.

For example, in every rom-com
ever made, there's the inciting

incident, the catalyst, as some
people call it, the catalyst.

The meet cute, that's when Hugh Grant's
character bumps into Julia Roberts

on the streets of London and spills
orange juice all over her blouse,

and it just so happens that his
apartment is right down the street.

The adventure begins.

Without that incident,
there's no adventure.

Now start thinking about entrepreneurs
and some of the stories they tell.

It's the same thing.

Everyone has an inciting incident.

That's part of the appeal.

Two friends driving to work.

One friend is upset because he got
charged a $40 late fee on a VHS

copy of Apollo 13, and he thought to
himself, "There must be a better way."

His other friend, who was an entrepreneur
trying to think of some new ideas,

said, "Maybe we can make video rental
work better," and Netflix is born.

Now, it takes a few years in
between the inciting incident

and for Netflix to really get
going, but the incident is there.

And notice something about that inciting
incident, which if you look it up,

you'll see that story everywhere.

There's two details in that incident.

There's a $40 late fee,
and there's Apollo 13.

There have to be a couple of details to
make it sound like it would have happened.

That's the art.

That's kind of the art of creating a beat.

But a beat is important.

I've talked to a lot of investors, too,
and they often ask, "What's the origin?

Why did you start this company?

Why did you come up with this idea?"
There's always an inciting incident, but

people don't think about it that way.

They just go right into
their product or their idea.

Instead, think more like a storyteller.

How would a screenwriter
write the story of your life?

Include the structure.

Include a few catalysts
or inciting incidents.

Through, in every screenplay, there
has to be a all is lost moment.

Some people call it the all is lost.

Joseph Campbell in the 1940s
called it the belly of the

beast, descent into the abyss.

It's all the same thing.

This is the low point.

So now listen to Brian Chesky
talk about the origins of Airbnb.

You had the catalyst, the inciting
incident where they rented out air

mattresses to people coming into town.

Airbnb is born.

But then they go through a lot of ups
and downs, and at one point, Brian

Chesky said this many times, "We couldn't
even afford milk for the cereal, but we

were relentless, and we had to pivot,
and we were innovative." So it kind of

gives you this sense of who they are.

But he always goes back to
the milk and the cereal.

That's the low point.

I mean, you could just feel
yourself struggling with it.

Yeah.

So stories have structure.

They have three parts, and a beat
is an important inciting event

that has specific detail to it.

And if we're planning a meeting, we
can think about it in terms of beats.

Where is the important incident?

How do I want the flow to be?

We so often just think we have
all this material to get across,

but we can actually architect our
presentations, our meetings, our

conversations by focusing on the beats.

And I like that analogy.

Beats are things that we have in music.

They are timed, and they provide a point
of focus, and we can build those in.

Well, you've been in this seat
before, so you know before we end,

I like to ask three questions.

One I create just for you, and
the other two are similar to

everybody I've interviewed.

Are you up for that?

Sure.

So you have spent a lot of time
on your most recent audiobook.

Was there a specific tactic or realization
from all of those conversations

you had that fundamentally shifted
your perspective on how to be a

better communicator or persuader?

Tools have changed, the brain has not.

Because whether I spoke to speech writers
or people who wrote presentations years

ago that went viral, we could look at
Steve Jobs, the Steve Jobs 2007 iPhone

presentation, that's viral, okay?

In a little different way than a cat
meme, but it went viral on its own

platform, and viral videos, like we
just talked about, content creators,

they follow the same structure.

And Steve Jobs, that was all storytelling.

And how many stories did he tell?

Three He didn't give you 12, three.

And you and I both know that three is
a really good memorable number to have.

So that's the big takeaway.

Big takeaway was tools of communication
have changed, human brain has not.

Study psychology.

Study behavioral psychology.

Study the way the brain
processes information.

You'll be a much better and a
more effective communicator.

It is, in some ways, very
simple, but very insightful.

And thank you for that.

Since we last spoke, you've had an
opportunity to work with and talk

to and coach many more speakers.

So I'm wondering for question two,
if the answer has changed, who is a

communicator that you admire and why?

You're getting me on during a
time where Apple is celebrating

its 50th anniversary, okay?

So I'm a little biased and jaded right
now because at home on my bookshelf is

the brand-new beautiful David Pogue's
book, Apple: The First 50 Years.

I'm still gonna say Steve Jobs because
I'm, I've been reminiscing and I've been

watching even before he had slide decks
and before PowerPoint, before Keynote, he

was still crafting a story, a story that
brought you in and made you to believe

in something bigger than the product.

So he gave people a reason.

He gave people an identity.

Here's to the crazy ones, the square
pegs in the round holes, the people who

aren't satisfied with the status quo.

And then he said in a presentation, "Some
people think they're crazy, but in that

craziness we see genius." Okay, when I see
this I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I want to be a

part of this." To this day when I see that
presentation, I want to be a part of that.

That's a storyteller.

That's a storyteller.

Tony Fadell, who worked side by
side with Steve Jobs, created the

iPod, went on to found Nest and
had success in other companies.

He was asked not too long ago on
a podcast, "What is the biggest

lesson you took away from Steve
Jobs?" He said, "Storytelling,

storytelling, storytelling."

I know Tony and he definitely
is a good storyteller and

learned a lot from Steve Jobs.

Question number three, our final question.

What are the first three ingredients that
go into a successful communication recipe?

Now more than ever we need to
focus on emotion because emotion

is something that AI doesn't have.

So it can write pretty well.

It's improving with grammar.

Doesn't have emotion.

So I think the three have
to start with emotion.

Make it emotional.

Make it understandable,
clarity, and make it memorable.

Emotion, clarity, and make it memorable.

I think if you have those three
elements, you'll certainly

stand out as a communicator,
'cause not everybody does that.

I appreciate those three.

Thank you for summarizing them.

Starting with emotion, starting
with that connection, then following

with clarity, really important.

And those two together I
think help lead to the third,

which is making it memorable.

As was this conversation, as
I knew it would be, Carmine,

thank you for your insight.

Thank you for bringing the past, in
some cases the distant past, into

the present and helping us understand
how it will help us in the future.

I really appreciate your work.

I wish you well on Viral Voices.

It is a great listen, and I
encourage everybody to continue

to hone and develop their skills.

Thank you.

Thank you for the invite.

Thank you for joining us
for another episode of Think

Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast.

To learn more from Carmine,
please listen to his episode 103.

This episode was produced by Katherine
Reed, Ryan Campos, and me, Matt Abrahams.

Our music is from Floyd Wonder, with
special thanks to Podium Podcast Company.

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