What I learned…

A sign of maturity is your ability to separate how you feel from what you do.

You can FEEL unmotivated and still do what needs to be done.

A lesson a mentor once told me: Every conversation is an audition. You never know if a single moment will completely change the trajectory of your career. Take every opportunity seriously.

The better you get, the more you can do. But just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

The paradox of success is the more successful you become the more opportunities you have to say no to.

Arnold Schwarzenegger on being different:

“Normal people can be happy with a regular life. I was different. I felt there was more to life than just plodding through an average existence.

I'd always been impressed by stories of greatness and power. Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon were names I knew and remembered.”

Entrepreneur and author Derek Sivers on mastery:

“Mastery is the best goal because the rich can't buy it, the impatient can't rush it, the privileged can't inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work.”

I just spoke at my former college.

When I walked into the room and saw how full it was, I'll be honest, I got a bit nervous. Whenever there's a lot of people, I have a tendency to retreat inside my shell.

But it ended up going better than I could have imagined, and many people commented that I was an articulate, clear speaker.

I am still far from being a great public speaker, but I figured I'd share 3 simple tips that were top of mind after the event.

People said whenever I spoke, it was clear and easy to follow.

While I didn't rehearse my answers, much of what I spoke about, I had written down before in some capacity (whether it was journaling, this newsletter, or the 2nd book I’m working on).

The topics we covered (how to land an internship, how to start making content, how to cold email someone, how to build a brand) were topics I had thought deeply about and had strong opinions on.

I remember listening to a podcast where David Perell asked scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson how he was such an articulate speaker.

"Hardly any sentence in public that comes out of my mouth unless I've written it down before." Neil said. "People say 'oh, you speak so poetically', No. I've thought out those words before."

Since I had written down what I thought on the topics I knew were going to be discussed, it helped me with this second tip.

A trap in public speaking is only having one speed. Some people speak in all legato, which is long, flowing, and blends together until the audience loses the thread.

“Hi my name is Jay Yang and today I want to talk to you about how to land an internship, build a brand, accelerate your career and the reason I want to talk to you about all three of these topics is because I really am super authentically passionate about those topics and uh yeah so thanks for having me.” 🤮

Others speak in all staccato, which is short and choppy and robotic.

“Hello. My name is Jay. Yang. Today. I want to talk. To you. About 3 things.” 🤮

Legendary copywriter Gary Provost once wrote that the best writing has a rhythm to it. Similarly, I think the best speakers speak rhythmically (by varying sentence length).

During the Q&A, someone asked whether you should prioritize quantity or quality when starting out in content.

I said: “The path to quality is paved with quantity.”

Then I let that breathe for a second before continuing…

At the start, you don't know what quality looks like yet, so you have to go through a ton of reps and iterations to figure out what works. It’s not quality vs. quantity. It’s quality through quantity.”

Short sentences create emphasis and longer ones carry the explanation. The audience needs both.

Stories work for making a point vivid.

There are many definitions for “Story”. The hero's journey, the 8-part arc, etc.

I like a simpler test: can the audience picture what you're saying?

If I tell you I walked into a restaurant and saw a chair flipped over on its side, you can picture that. THAT is a story.

Someone asked how to overcome the initial phase where all your content isn’t performing well.

I said: "I think of creativity like an old faucet. When you turn it on, at first you have to let the dirty gunky water out before the clean, fresh water comes out. Content is the same way."

Steps work when someone needs to actually do the thing.

Another student asked how to start an account from scratch and go viral. I walked them through my thought process.

Step one: WHY.

What are we optimizing for? Are we trying to be a full-time influencer? Are we trying to use content to land a job or internship?

Step two: WHAT.

I define brand as the consistent pairing of two relevant things.

At the start of the event, the MC introduced us and listed off our accomplishments. THAT is branding. He associated us with cool accomplishments.

Once you know why you are creating, you can reverse engineer the skills, character traits, and beliefs you need to associate yourself with to create opportunities.

Step three: HOW.

Once you have that list, you basically have your content strategy. Everything you publish should reinforce one or more of those associations.

If you wanted to land a role as an assistant coach for an NBA basketball team, you might start a video series where you break down your favorite team's offensive and defensive plays and explain how you would tweak them. Then you would tag that team's coaches and staff in each video to increase the likelihood that they see them.

So, first start with WHY. Then define WHAT. Then you can work on the HOW.

Frameworks work when you need the audience to remember your answer.

Another person asked, "how do you make your cold email stand out?"

I said, Follow the 3S's: It needs to be specific, simple, and strategic.

First, specific.

Your email needs to feel tailored to the person you're sending it to. You wouldn't write a love letter and address it, 'to whom this may concern'. Similarly, your email shouldn't feel like you are mass sending this to many people.

Second, simple.

Entrepreneurs and CEOs are busy. They don't have time to read a novel. My favorite cold email of all time is from this 16 year old kid who cold emailed the CEO of Snapchat. He said, "My name is X, and I want to work with you, here are 3 reasons why…" and then included 3 bullet points.

Third, strategic.

When you ask, "how can I help?" or "I want to work with you" or "can I pick your brain?" you put the burden on the other person to figure out who you are and how you can help.

Instead, do the work upfront. Research the other person, do an audit on them and their business to figure out what problems they're having, then send a pitch deck, sample piece of work, or demo video to them to SHOW you both WANT the opportunity and can DO the opportunity.

The question I always ask myself is, "How can I reduce the friction it takes for the other person to say yes?" And you can do that by making sure your cold email is specific, simple, and strategic."

Notice how I recapped what I said. People are quick to forget. Recapping makes sure they remember.

Another point: people can only really remember 3 main points per idea. So try to keep your frameworks to 3 things.

Are there other cold email tips I could’ve shared? Sure. But if you add more without structure, you risk overwhelming the audience.

I hope this was useful.

Write down what you believe. Speak in periods, not commas. Remember stories, steps, and frameworks.

Until next week,

Author of You Can Just Do Things

Ps. Roasted 🤣

Pps. What’s your favorite public speaking tip?

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