https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/how-to-articulate-yourself-intelligently

3 methods to articulate yourself intelligently

First, we need to build our inner album of greatest hits.

If you want to articulate yourself intelligently, you need a pool of 8-10 of your biggest ideas that can be connected to almost any topic. Then, when it’s time to write or speak in any situation, you have a starting point that you’ve already thought through hundreds of times before.

 

Why do you listen to your favorite musician?

Because they have a specific sound or style that you enjoy. Most of their music sounds the same with slight variations here and there. You can listen to a few seconds of their song and know exactly which artist plays it.

 

The same applies to being a creator, writer, speaker, or just a person who wants to be able to articulate themselves.

You need to write or speak, thousands of times, until your best ideas are obvious. By nature, you must repeat yourself, because the most important ideas deserve to be repeated, and how else are you going to refine them?

 

Throughout my journey as a “writer,” I’ve realized that writing is so much more than stringing sentences together. If thinking were a puzzle, writing is putting the pieces together.

 

So, if you want to become articulate, you should probably start writing. That is, you should start writing intentionally, because you already write every single day.

 

You text your family and friends. You email your prospects, clients, and coworkers. And depending on your work, you may write project outlines, feedback, proposals, and more.

 

If you really think about it, the foundation of media (which is how you or your employer gets your work in front of people and persuades them to care about your work, so you can survive and get paid) is writing. Media, right now, is what everyone is fighting for. If you want to succeed in any venture, you must go where the attention is, and you must take your piece of the pie. Right now, the attention is on social media, YouTube, podcasts, and advertisements like Facebook ads. All of which require you to articulate persuasively in the form of video scripts, posts, sales copywriting, post captions, and anywhere else that someone is reading a written post or spoken script, which is nearly everything.

 

That’s how you practice articulating your ideas. You set aside time to write about the topics you want to be articulate with. As a bonus, by posting your ideas in public (literally one 10 second extra step), you get direct feedback in the form of engagement as to which are the most impactful. Building an audience also doesn’t hurt. Free distribution for your work, product, or service is great.

 

Beginner – The Micro Story

The mind is a story engine.

 

Humans can’t help but pay attention to a story, especially if it’s short and impactful. Once you learn how to do it well, you can effectively short-circuit someone’s brain into being interested in the topic you are talking about.

 

The foundation of a story is transformation. This does not have to be a transformation about a specific person, like in a novel. A transformation can be as simple as introducing a problem and giving a solution.

 

If we want to make that a bit more impactful, here’s how you structure what you want to say:

 

• Problem – state a relatable problem that you’ve observed or experienced before. This grounds the idea and makes people curious about the solution (storytelling in a nutshell).
• Amplify – illustrate how that problem leads to a negative outcome if it is not solved. This both increases the desire for a solution and makes the solution perceived as that much more valuable.
• Solution – state the solution to the problem. In a short paragraph, this can be one sentence or a short list. In a long newsletter, article, or script, this can be all of the key points with their explanations. The problem and amplification would account for the hook.

 

 

Intermediate – The Pyramid Principle

The Pyramid Principle is a communication framework that structures ideas in a hierarchical, logical way to make information more palatable and persuasive.

It’s pretty simple.

• Start with the main idea (the key conclusion or recommendation)
• Support it with key arguments (usually 3-5 key points)
• Provide detailed evidence (data, examples, analysis)

Unlike most content today that waits to give you the answer until the end of the video, this takes an answer-first approach.

This works perfectly with our example from before about Hormozi on a podcast.

If his answer to “What is the greatest skill to learn?” was:

“The single greatest skill you can develop is the ability to stay in a great mood in the absence of things to be in a great mood about.”

That can serve as the answer at the top of the pyramid.

Then, he could support it with key arguments as to *why *that is the greatest skill to learn. All you have to do is ask "why" 3-5 times and provide solid reasoning.

After that, he can give examples from his own life, data about being in a great mood, or anecdotes from clients.

 

 

Advanced – Cross Domain Synthesis

 

• Problem and amplify – your introduction should state a relatable problem and illustrate what happens if that problem is not solved.
• Cross-domain synthesis – note patterns or concepts from your other interests that help support your argument. If I’m talking about deep work, I can use the concept of entropy from physics to illustrate how distraction works. This teaches my audience something new, and I can sleep well knowing that all other deep work content out there does not do this.
• Unique process or solution – give a list of ideas or steps that best solve the problem you introduced at the beginning, solidifying the transformation. These should come from your own contemplation rather than someone else’s prescription.

 

writing is like legos with ideas, and ideas come in predictable forms. If you understand those forms, you can guide your mind to brainstorming what to write next. Here are a few easy ones:

• Pain point – if I don’t know how to start writing or speaking, I start with a relevant pain point, and ideas start to flow from there.
• Example – once you've started, you can throw an example in anywhere. This grounds what you are saying.
• Personal story – think of a time in your life that relates to what you are writing about. This can go anywhere.
• Statistic – research a truthful statistic that adds more authority to your point.
• Metaphor – explain a complex idea as if you are talking to a child. Alan Watts is incredible at this.
• Quote – include a quote that justifies what you are saying. Quotes are easy because they are almost always great ideas.
• Reframe – give people a different perspective on the point you just discussed.
• What, how, or why – when all else fails, simply ask what, how, or why? Thinking is questioning.