How to communicate your idea in 30 seconds or less.

The ‘3x5 card’ technique.

Adam Bouchard
Published in
3 min readMar 17, 2017

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The following image portrays a typical conversation between an entrepreneur and someone else.

How most startup founders talk about their business idea to strangers

You’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but your audience is starting at zero.

Here is a technique to help you communicate your idea in a few short sentences.

The 3x5 card technique

An index card is an intentional constraint designed to describe only three key talking points within a few sentences.

  1. What — answer their first question first.
  2. Why — connect on a similar belief
  3. How — give them a vision of how it works

Intentional constraints are beautiful. They give boundaries so you may concentrate on what is important.

Here is how to practice your talking points —

Breath in, then say one talking point within a single out breath.

One breath for each of the three.

Here are a few examples:

Examples of 3x5 cards for Agilion, Steady Momentum and Software Planner

What — answer their first question first.

Short and sweet. Tell me what your business is.

Give me the one-liner.

I don’t want details. Just what is it.

If it takes you longer than 3–5 seconds to say it, then you’re doing it wrong.

Why — connect with your audience on a similar belief.

https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action

Simon Sinek gave a popular TED talk about a model to convey messages starting with why, how and what. It is a useful framework to help leaders connect and inspire their audience to action.

I recommend watching his TED talk.

I’ve leveraged his model with success in communicating ideas over the years.

However, in everyday conversations, I find it more natural to shift emphasis on the why after you answer a quick what for your audience.

The why talking point is designed to invoke an emotional connection.

Do not worry about market research, technical jargon or anything else as you write your why statement.

Write the why statement from your heart.

It is what you believe.

Allow the explanation of your why to be authentic.

If people believe what you believe, then you will form a connection.

If they don’t, they might not get it or care about your idea. It’s probably not worth trying to convince them otherwise. If you’re a startup founder, then keep moving on to other people who believe what you believe.

Remember, practice breathing in and then delivering your why statement with conviction and clarity in a single exhalation.

How — give a vision for how it works

Your last talking point provides some vision for how your business or product works.

For example

  • Steady Momentum is a private online community and ships you customized journals every season.
  • Agilion leverages an exceptional team to build software through the Agilion Way.

It will be tempting to explain more details on how it works.

Don’t do it.

Rather, let yourself be open, and provide space for your audience to ask questions if they are interested in learning more.

If your audience gives you a polite smile, nod, and changes the subject, then you may want to keep refining your ‘3x5 card’ :)

Good luck!

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