Anyone with basic sales skills knows confused people don't take action. If your job depends on others acting upon your ideas, you will get through to them much more often if you learn to **draw** those ideas. I end up explaining _something_ to _someone_ every day, so to improve my communication skills I recently read this book.## Why buy this instead of another book?If you're like me and are primarily looking to improve your communication skills, you might be inclined to buy a "drawing 101" type book. I've been down this road and it's hard to recommend as a first step.Those books tend to focus on concepts like drawing accurate 3D perspective, human figure drawing, shading/shadows, etc. Those are great skills to have, but it's way overachieving if you're just trying to get ideas across. I would say it's icing on the cake, but it's more like sprinkles _on top_ of the icing on the cake.## OK so...what, exactly, is in the book?To oversimplify, the book covers the following topics:- Sketchnoting 101: What is it? Why do it?- Sketchnoting Process and Structure: How does it work? What does it look like?- Basic Sketching Skills: Help! I can't draw.I didn't completely understand the whole book would be fully illustrated, somewhat like a children's book. So it's sort of a living example of the principles, and there are also many sketchnote examples specifically included. It's very engaging and makes it easy to get through.Although it's a fast read, take the time to stop and practice drawing the simple shapes mentioned in the text. You're wasting your time if you don't. If you can't draw your way out of a paper bag, the drawing tips toward the end of the book will get you going and build your confidence.One more tip: watch the videos. You will pick up great details like how Mike holds the paper flat and works in a slow, deliberate manner. This yields a clean, simple style that works as well on a whiteboard or iPad as it does on paper.