🔤 MAXIMIZE Your Influence ROI
First principles thinking for communication
Hey there! I’m Robert. Welcome to a free edition of my newsletter. Every week, I share my story of building my dreams in public with bootstrapping a startup in AI, Alignment, and Longevity. These newsletters include my reflections on the journey, and topics such as growth, leadership, communication, product, and more. Subscribe today to become the person and leader that people love, respect, and follow.
What if the reason you’re not being heard… is because you’re saying too much?
I used to think clarity came from saying everything.
“So here’s why we made that decision… well, actually, let me back up…”
I’ve been this person.
I’ve seen this person.
You’ve seen them too. The one who’s still talking... 30 minute later.
Eyes glaze. People tune out.
And then it hit me.
My problem wasn’t what I was saying.
It was how much, and how.
That moment changed everything.
Every time you speak or take action, you are spending social and political capital.
This capital is wielded in your influence.
Social capital is the goodwill and trust you build with others, enabling you to influence them and get things done. Simply put - you get more of this if people like you.
Political capital is the influence and credibility you accumulate within an organization, allowing you to sway decisions and push initiatives forward. Simply put - you get more of this as you deliver on impactful projects and make a name for yourself while doing so.
Maybe you don’t realize it, but that is true.
So the question becomes…
How do we maximize the impact of our words…
while minimizing the cost of our influence?
Maximize influence impact, and minimize influence cost.
Let’s talk about the first principles of communication.
🔤 This Week’s ABC
Advice: First principles of Communication
Breakthrough: 3 Simple Questions To Upgrade Your Communication
Challenge: Try it!
📖 Advice: First Principles x Communication
I made a simple image a little while ago, to demonstrate the way that I see the communication problem.
Communication is hard, because it’s a game of telephone all the way down. Intent gets masked by noisy bias and subjectivity.
Ideally, you want what you think to match what they understand.
This is the ideal case.
But, in reality, you usually get this…
Each step introduces distortion because of:
Internal filters: Your emotions, biases, and assumptions shape what you say.
Expression limits: Words can only capture so much of your intent.
Listener’s filters: Their emotions, past experiences, and biases color how they hear you.
Cognitive processing: Their brain makes meaning based on their own understanding—not necessarily yours.
In my original article, I shared the Non-Violent Communication framework as a great tool.
But we were just talking about 1 on 1 communication.
What about 1 to many communication?
Many of the core concepts still applies: the idea that we’re all human, and centering conversation around observations leading to empathy and understanding with clear expression of needs and requests.
Those are first principles that work in any communication.
Though, with 1 to many communication, I find that brevity and the stickiness of your words (B = what you say) matters a lot more.
The reason is because in a 1 to many communication setting, everyone is introducing their own distortion into this game of telephone.
The more words you literally say, introduces more chances for them to misunderstand your intent (A = what you think)
So, what do you do in a 1 to many communication setting?
🚀 Breakthrough: How Great Leaders Maximize Influence ROI
Now that we understand that it’s a game of solving for minimizing distortion, let’s revisit the idea of Influence Impact vs. Cost (cost of social and political capital).
From a first principles basis, the goal of a leader is to be the green line.
Leaders must communicate well, to maximize their influence impact vs. influence cost.
Said another way:
Communicate in a way that lands and lasts—without overspending your trust, reputation, or time.
That’s the Green Line:
Where what you think → becomes what you say → becomes what they understand
…with minimal distortion.
But there’s a catch.
If you want what you say to really live in their heads, then you need to be much more thoughtful and empathetic to your audience.
The #1 Distortion Multiplier?
Talking without Listening.
Without empathy and listening, your ideas lose signal.
They get warped by…
Misunderstood language
Biases and heuristics
Cognitive overload
Irrelevant details
Your good intent dies in transmission.
Without skills in empathy and listening, you cannot communicate well.
Because without truly understanding your audience (through empathy and listening)…
You cannot maximize the effectiveness and impact of what you say (B),
tied to what you think (A),
to maximize 100% of the intent and message converted to their understanding.
3 Key Questions To Maximize Influence
Here are 3 key questions to ask yourself, if you want to maximize the effectiveness of a 1 to many communication forum.
Why would they remember this? (value)
How will they hear this? (packaging)
How will they understand this? (biases)
Note that “they” is centered in all of this.
The takeaway: to maximize influence and minimize its cost, you must grow to be able to best empathetically understand your audience.
Plus, it makes you a better and happier person!
Win-win, right? (:
Next week I’ll share exactly how I would tackle these 3 questions for a 1 to many high stakes presentation situation.
I go through these weekly, and am never anxious about maximizing my influence while minimizing cost.
And I’ll show you how you can do it too.
💥 Challenge: Try it!
Before your next meeting, message, or update…
Write your message.
Then ask:
Why would they remember this? (value)
How will they hear this? (packaging)
How will they understand this? (biases)
Revise accordingly.
Try it out and share with me if you do—you’ll see massive gains fast!
Liked this article?
💚 Click the like button.
Feedback or addition?
💬 Add a comment.
Know someone that would find this helpful?
🔁 Share this post.
P.S. If you haven’t already checked out my other newsletter, ABCs for Building The Future, where I reflect on my founder’s journey building a venture in the open. Check out my learnings on product, leadership, entrepreneurship, and more—in real time!
P.S.S. Want reminders on entrepreneurship, growth, leadership, empathy, and product?
Follow me on..