This week in the world’s #1 newsletter on leadership communication:

• Your audience ignores 99.99955% of what you say​
• On the Show: The Best Speech Ever ​
• Think Fast, Talk Smart ​

Your Audience Ignores 99.99955% of What You Say

Hi Reader,

This very second, your brain is taking in 11 million bits of information. That's like reading three books.

Consciously, though? You process about 50 bits. Fifty, out of eleven million.

So you're aware of roughly 0.00045% of everything reaching you.

The figures come from Nir Eyal's new book, Beyond Belief. The result: "we live life through a keyhole" of attention.

Why does that matter? Because everything you want happens downstream from attention.

But "the brain doesn't pay attention to boring things," says John Medina, molecular biologist and author.

Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham goes further and puts it bluntly: "Contrary to popular belief, the brain is not designed for thinking. It's designed to save you from having to think, because the brain is actually not very good at thinking."

Yet in business we communicate as if none of this were true. As if the keyhole problem didn't exist and the brains in front of us were just waiting for more stuff to process.

What to do about it?

It's simple. Don't fight the brain. Work with biology, not against it. As Angus Fletcher put it on my podcast: "business isn't logical, it's biological."

Here's how:

1/ Don’t be boring

Ask yourself: how can I make this a little more interesting?

2/ Lead with your point

Not the context, not how you got to your conclusion – just say the thing. People decide in about a second whether to keep reading or listening, so don't make them wait.

3/ Make it concrete

"We're driving operational efficiency" pushes the audience away. "We cut the wait from three weeks to three days" sticks. The brain holds onto specifics and forgets the abstractions.

4/ Use contrast

The brain is great at understanding different. But bad at understanding better.

5/ Speak in quotes

The Gold Standard. Here’s how.

6/ Raise the stakes

Give people something to care about – a risk, an opportunity, a story. No stakes, no attention.

7/ Make it new and surprising

Telling people what they already know is the fastest way to lose your audience.

8/ Pick one idea

Just one. Then make it bigger. Working memory is tiny, and a message carrying five priorities delivers none of them. Choose the one that matters and let the rest go.

⬇️Someone who understood this gave the best speech ever.

ON THE SHOW

The 5-Step System For a Speech Nobody Forgets

▶️ Episode 342 on YouTube, Spotify or Apple.

The best speech ever lasted 10 minutes. (ok, I may be biased:)

It includes an iconic line: "Ich bin ein Berliner." Four perfect words in imperfect German.

In 1963, John F. Kennedy stood on a balcony near my house and said something simple and short. He told an audience of 450,000 exactly what they craved to hear.

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961, and Germans were disappointed by the USA’s timid response.

Kennedy came to Berlin to tell Berliners “You are not alone”, and to tell the world that a system – communism – that had to build a wall to stop its people from leaving isn’t the future.

I recorded a short video on location to give you a full breakdown of the 5-step system behind JFK’s speech and how to apply it for your own signature talk.

PS: And no, "Ich bin ein Berliner" doesn't mean "I am a doughnut".

​​​

Think Fast, Talk Smart

How to Turn Great Ideas Into Communication That Lands

Back in late May, I visited Stanford University in Silicon Valley to record an episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart with bestselling author Matt Abrahams (Think Faster, Talk Smarter).

And now, the episode is out. Listen and watch on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple. We talked about a problem I see all the time: Great work doesn’t speak for itself.

You can have the best product, the smartest idea or the strongest strategy. But if people don’t understand why it matters, it won’t get the attention it deserves.

That’s why you need message-market fit: finding the words, stories and ideas that make people immediately understand the value of what you do.

In just 20 minutes, Matt and I explored how to get there, including:

→ Why you should communicate outcomes, not products
→ How to find messages that resonate and stand out
→ Why storytelling helps people make sense of change
→ How to build a personal brand without making it all about yourself
→ How to communicate your value with greater clarity and impact

It was a fun, fast-paced conversation about something I care deeply about:

helping you turn great ideas into communication that lands.

And recording it at Stanford made it even more special.

Have an inspired weekend,

Oliver

Eo Ipso Communications GmbH

c/o Mindspace

Uhlandstraße 32, 10719 Berlin

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