Imagine trying to explain an issue more complex than Einstein’s theory of relativity in 30 seconds or less? It sounds daunting but, take heart, most of us do it every day without even realising. Think back to your schooldays and the delicious eureka moment when a knotty problem made sense because a teacher distilled it into something simple.
Good leaders do the same. They know that communicating well means speaking with clarity while structuring their thoughts into clear, simple, understandable sound bites. A powerful message can be easily lost if it’s drowned in verbosity, or if the speaker doesn’t know when to stop. We all have a body clock that’s tuned to wake us up in the mornings, but how can we train that same mechanism to act as a verbal brake?
1. Practice with a Timer
Timing yourself while speaking is scary – but put the fear aside. Choose a subject, set the timer to thirty seconds, hit the record button on the cell phone, and talk. To make things easier, imagine you’re speaking to a friend – or even a journalist. When the thirty seconds are up, listen back to the recording and be ruthless in your judgement. Better still, get the opinion of somebody trustworthy. Ask yourself simple but important questions such as: What landed, what didn’t, what needs to be clearer? Repeat the exercise and, over time, your mistakes will become fewer as your confidence improves.
Use the same routine for the twenty-second soundbite. The time restraint won’t be as intimidating because the techniques will already be familiar. Remember, practice makes perfect.
2. Train Your Internal Brake
Some people talk too much while others say too little but all of us have a natural instinct to keep talking. However, good communicators have an advantage as they know when to stop – and you can too.
Start by recognising when you’ve made your point. Don’t ignore your gut instinct or the tiny internal click that says “Enough!” Over‑talking doesn’t strengthen your message: it dilutes it. Resist the temptation to add “just one more thing.” Instead, let your words land naturally without further embellishment.
3. Strip the Message to its Bare Bones
One reason why people struggle with their soundbites is because they try to squeeze too much information into their answers. It’s understandable when the clock is ticking loudly and time is running out, but it’s also counterproductive as the heart of the message gets buried beneath layers of unnecessary detail. My advice is to strip the message down to its essentials and remove unnecessary clauses, caveats, and embellishments. Producers are more likely to invite you onto their shows if your soundbites are clean and crisp.
I knew a radio producer who used to say to her guests before she hit the record button:
“I’d like thirty seconds of righteous indignation please.”
And they always delivered. Righteous indignation focuses the mind so much better than fluff.
4. Lead with the Headline
Headlines make stories, which is why these tabloid classics are so memorable: “Headless Body in Topless Bar”, (New York Post), “Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious” (The Scottish Sun), and the notorious “Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster” (The Sun).
The humour may be obvious but the entirety of the stories is captured in a handful of words – and that matters. Nobody expects you to speak tabloid lingo, but if you want your soundbites to hook the listener’s attention, follow the headline logic: begin with the conclusion – not the build-up, that comes later; keep the focus on the main issue; and emphasise why the story matters. These steps will anchor the listener to your story.
5. Use Clean, Concrete Language
Good interviewees are at their best when they talk in short, clear, jargon free sentences with everyday words and expressions. It’s how they connect and hold the attention of their audience. Listeners prefer simplicity – and are less forgiving when they don’t get it. Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss discovered this the hard way when she appeared on BBC local radio stations to defend her infamous “mini-budget”.
Her answers were jargon heavy and audiences couldn’t understand what she was trying to say. Communicating under pressure isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to be torture as long as you remember that clarity always beats cleverness.
6. Structure Your Thought in Three Beats
Cognitive specialists claim that people are more likely to remember in threes. The human brain stores information in small, tidy clusters, and three is the smallest number that feels whole. Think of the trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), wishes from genies, the beginning, middle, and end of a sentence, or the three little pigs – would four have been better? Probably not!
A 30 second message holds up when its point, reason, and implications are clearly spelled out. Conversely, sound bites can describe a problem, why it matters, and outline what follows next. The trick is to structure your message into three clear beats that listeners will instantly recognise and respond to.
7. Watch Your Pace
Former US tennis champion Arthur Ashe was bang on the nail when he said:
“The only difference between the pros and the amateurs is that the pros have trained their nerves.”
It’s perfectly normal to feel nervous when you’re outside your comfort zone – even seasoned professionals feel moments of tension. Nerves can either paralyse or make you go faster, which is fine if you’re an athlete but not when you’re talking. The key to a good delivery is calmness as it signals to the audience that you have authority and control. Check out the blog From Stage Fright to Spotlight: How to Own Every Interview or Public Speaking Gig: https://juliettefoster.com/from-stage-fright-to-spotlight-public-speaking-interview-tips
8. Listen to Yourself as a Stranger Would
When you talk, try listening to your words as if you’re hearing them for the first time. Ask yourself whether the message makes sense immediately, without needing context or further explanation. Would someone remember the essence of what you said an hour later, or would they forget it the moment the conversation moves on to something else? If the answer is no, make some further refinements. Cut out anything that obscures your meaning and aim for a message that doesn’t rely on your personality, tone, or presence to make it succeed.
9. Practise in Real Life
Everyday moments are a good way of strengthening your clarity. Most people hate queuing but queue conversations are a good way of testing whether you can explain something simply and quickly. Work updates are an opportunity to lead with the headline and to stop once the key point is made. Social interactions let you practise delivering a clean sentence that carries meaning without extra detail. When you get into the habit of only saying what’s necessary, communicating under pressure becomes much easier.
10. Aim for Clarity, Not Performance
Speaking successfully is about getting out your message, not impressing people. It’s important to focus on meaning – not delivery – and to let the substance do the work. The strongest 30‑second messages feel effortless because they’re stripped of anything that distracts from the point. They’re simple, grounded, and confident without tipping into performance territory. When you stop trying to sound impressive and instead focus on being understood, your communication becomes sharper, calmer, and more memorable.
Conclusion
One thing I’ve learned from my years in the media is that speaking clearly and with purpose always wins. Live broadcasting is exhilarating but there’s nowhere to hide when the transmission light turns green and the spotlight is on you. In those moments you learn very quickly what works and what doesn’t. Those are the things you never forget because they shape your communication skills long after you’ve left the studio and the transmission light has gone red.
