Communication Secrets that Power Amazon's Success

Ideas don’t sell themselves. If you want to persuade others to act on your ideas, you need to be an effective communicator. 

We’ve recently hosted a special masterclass with the one and only Carmine Gallo as a guest speaker. 

Carmine Gallo is a communication coach for the world’s most admired brands. He’s a Harvard instructor, leadership advisor, and bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than 40 languages. 

The focus of the masterclass was on his latest book, The Bezos Blueprint – Communication Secrets That Power Amazon’s Success.

​​The book includes unique insights that will help anyone improve their communication skills. Gallo examined more than two decades of Bezos’ letters to shareholders to reveal the communication strategies behind Amazon’s success.

In the masterclass Carmine Gallo explained that great communicators have three qualities. They are storytellers, simplifiers and mission keepers. 

At a high-level, here are some concepts that Gallo explained: 

Storytellers

• Storytelling is a competitive advantage for leaders
• The neuroscience of storytelling: when a speaker tells a story, the brain of the speaker and that of the listener are in sync
• The difference between a story and a good story 
• The structure of good stories
• How entrepreneurs can tell their origin story

Simplifiers 

• Simple is the new superpower. The ability to take complex information and make it simple to understand is key
• Short words are best and old words when short are best of all. For example, “Turn off the lights when you leave the house” is better than “Upon departing the premises, please reduce the illumination in the abode.” 
• Use short words to talk about hard things
• The more complex your concept, the simpler the language should be
• Use language that 13-15 year olds can understand
• One way to simplify your message is to follow the rule of three

Mission keepers 

As a business leader, having an idea about what your mission is isn’t enough. You also need to be the keeper of that mission.

For example, Amazon’s mission is to be ‘Earth’s most customer-centric company’. Jeff Bezos has always been the keeper of that mission. He was the repeater in chief. He shared the same message (‘Our mission is to be Earth’s most customer-centric company’) over and over from day one. 

If you’d like to learn more about the three qualities great communicators have, here’s the recording. I hope you enjoy it! 

If you want to become a more confident presenter, take the Confident Presenter Scorecard. Answer simple Yes/No questions, get an instant score plus suggestions for improvement. It takes less than 3 minutes. Once you complete the scorecard, you’ll receive a free pdf copy of my best-selling book Confident Presenter.