There are millions of articles, books and stories out there. Yet, there’s always a way to cut through the clutter. No matter how much information exists, some people are still able to communicate in a way that gets and keep your attention.

Here’s how you go about it.

Saturation of information has already been achieved. However, the client is always looking for something new, different, easier, better etc.

And that's why no matter how much stuff is churned out, your voice can still be heard. It's also the reason why you should get better at:

1- Being able to write

My theory is that “practice” is pointless. Of course, it’s not meaningless, but you have to take a position to see if you can prove something or not. Now, like everyone else, I believed that practice was everything you needed to get skilled at something.

“Practice, practice, practice, practice – we’ll turn that into a song.

A theory that seems to appeal to you might be completely wrong, but let’s say you have a different take on things. Usually, the best approach is to assume that things aren’t as good as they seem. Hence, I believed that perspective in drawing was difficult. I also thought that using a camera in manual mode meant sacrifice to the camera gods.

And so on, the list goes on. You run into a belief system that is like the sword of Excalibur. It’s wedged in the rock. To be a better explainer, you have to have at least some doubt in the system that exists and try to provide a little insight into a different way of doing things.

It wasn’t even much of a debate. I lost every time because she said, ‘Practice does help.’ And I had to agree. But I knew that there was something wrong with that idea. Why? Because when there are twenty random people in the room, practice doesn’t guarantee a result.

Even in the now overly famous experiment of 10,000 hours, K. Anders, the author, couldn’t say who would make it. Some people reach a certain level in fewer hours (say 8,000 hours), while others get it in 15,000 hours. Well, whatever the reasoning behind the practice, it’s nice, but who has those many hours anyway?

I said, “It’s not practice, it’s a pattern”. And I think I knew I’d just won the Renuka vs moi battle. I knew it because she confirmed my new concept. It was indeed the pattern that mattered—and matters. However, to explain something that seems entirely new, you have to be new.

You have to break a tiny piece of the Excalibur sword, not the whole sword. And somehow you have to win the Renuka vs you battle. However, sometimes just solving the problem isn’t the end. You have to have an elegant analogy to explain the concept.

Let’s wander down that trail, shall we?

“I used to play three-four high-pressure games, and then on the weekend, I couldn’t walk around the block. I pushed myself,” she said. Then she went on to explain all the symptoms of burnout, such as constant fatigue and disinterest.

“The problem with burnout,” she said to me, “is that you’re at peak performance level right before everything falls apart.”

But it does. Let me give you an extremely brief analogy that goes like this: A rocket is at top speed and on target, right before it runs out of fuel.

It’s more of a “like” statement. It’s like “stepping in dog poo”, like “making sure the avocado is at the correct ripeness”. It’s like this, or like that. You begin with a single statement and build a story around it. The personal story of the hockey player is a good one, but it only hits home when you hear about the rocket. That’s when you have to stop and think: Am I the rocket?

Hence, when I started out trying to sell The Brain Audit, I was already competing against tens of thousands of sales and marketing books. Just trying to explain myself would work. I could say “I’m a marketing coach”, and someone would take notice. However, what I decided to do was to isolate “one word”. That word happened to be “hesitation”.

As you probably know, that’s how the “seven red bags concept” came about. The concept works for selling the book, but it would work just as easily if you were writing a report, an article, or selling a workshop. If you simply slip in a personal story, that’s not going to cut any ice.

People can relate to a story, but they often struggle to share it with others. They haven’t lived the life of the hockey player, but they sure can relate to a rocket hurtling through space, only to lose all momentum instantly.

You often don’t need to do a lot to go from boring to elegant. You start with boring—that is incredibly important. If you want to start with “elegant”, well, that’s almost too much pressure. Once you’ve put your boring analogy on paper, that’s your starting point.

You just have to take something so out of the realm of the topic that it feels “creative”. Like “sandwiching” when learning about article writing. Or “roller coasters” when talking about how the brain continues to scan for problems.

Or how “getting the avocado to the right ripeness” is like playing the stock market. You don’t have to think about the analogy. You feel it immediately. It’s grounded in something tactile or emotional.

If an analogy of a sharpener seems too boring, talk about a blunt sharpener. If it’s about a mobile phone on low battery, talk about the last 1% that seems to linger forever. The tweak is always something small that no one is thinking about, and you’re just making a tiny change.

You have your theory that’s slightly against the grain.

Those two are cool, but it may not be enough. We must consider the third factor: multiple angles to explain the same thing.

The Brain Audit seems to suggest that instead of leading with a benefit or solution, you should start with the problem. Then, there's a litany of examples. How many? Let's make a list.

Well, I barely remember writing them, but the point is that no one seems to notice. Why is this the case? The answer is “pushback” or “objections”. If we were to examine the first point in this article, it suggests that we introduce an idea that goes against the grain.

If you're going to be slightly out there, then you're more likely to get objections. The angles of explanation are directly proportional to the pushback. If the idea is easily understood, then people don't need a lot of detail. But the moment you start to say something like “orange juice for breakfast is a terrible idea”, they want to tie you to the stake.

That's what's going to decide how many angles you use to explain the concept. You will also need to alternate some explanation with the angle.

Story/analogy

You've brought up a concept, but you can't dump everything on the reader just yet. Hence, let's assume the reader believes that “reviews or testimonials” are effective. Your article is about “reverse testimonials”, which suggests that the testimonial shouldn't be “nice” at the start.

Instead, the testimonial should demonstrate realism. The reader isn't ready to suddenly drop their point of view and hug yours. In the case of the reverse testimonial, you'd have to explain concepts such as:

As you tackle the stages, you must help your reader understand each idea with a story or analogy. That's how you chip away at the concept and develop a very sound explanation.

Which is why some explanations seem so much better than others, and how you can stand out, despite “everything” already being covered.

And that's how I win the discussion battle with Renuka, too. Though not all battles.

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