The book is the theory. This is the gym.
Make Your Point is a daily-practice companion to Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond by Jay Sullivan. Where the book teaches the principles, the Sprint helps you build them into habits.
Where this came from.
Like a lot of people, we read Simply Said and underlined half of it. Jay Sullivan's five principles — focus on the audience, say less, structure your ideas, listen before you answer, lead with authenticity — are simple, true, and almost impossible to apply consistently without practice.
That's the problem with most books on communication: they teach you principles you forget the next time you open Slack.
We built Make Your Point to be the practice partner the book deserves. Twenty-five short exercises — one per weekday for five weeks — that turn each of Sullivan's pillars into a daily habit.
Why we called it Make Your Point.
It's what the book teaches.
Jay Sullivan's whole argument is that great communicators lead with the point and back into the reasoning — the opposite of how most of us write. The brand is a small daily reminder of that principle.
It's a command, not a description.
The course isn't about communication — it asks you to do something, every weekday, until you communicate differently. Most courses describe a topic. This one asks for action.
It covers everything we teach.
Making your point applies to a Slack message, a memo to leadership, a discovery call, a 1-on-1, a hard conversation. The course is one engine; the brand fits all of it.
The five pillars of Simply Said.
Each pillar gets a full week in the Sprint. Five days, one skill at a time, with a predictable rhythm: notice, practice, apply, stretch, integrate.
Audience focus
It's not about you.
The first principle of the book and the first week of the Sprint. Most professional communication fails because the writer is thinking about themselves. The shift is small but powerful: every time you open a meeting, write an email, or start a presentation, ask what does this mean for the person on the other side?
Succinctness
Say less. Mean more.
Sullivan is allergic to jargon, padding, and the corporate habit of using ten words where two will do. Week 2 of the Sprint is a workout in cutting: paragraphs in half, sentences to a single thought, jargon to plain English. You will be amazed how much you've been over-explaining.
Structure
Start with the point.
Beginning, middle, end. Recommendation first, reasoning underneath. The opposite of how most of us write — and how almost all great communicators do. Week 3 trains the structural muscle through writing drills and real-world challenges.
Active listening
Hear them before you answer.
Communication is a dialogue. Most people listen to respond, not to understand. Week 4 of the Sprint slows you down: fewer statements, more questions, the discipline of the full pause. The exercises are small but unsettling — in the best way.
Authentic leadership
Show up as you.
Great leaders don't perform; they tell the truth. Week 5 closes the Sprint with the hardest pillar: trading certainty for honesty, polish for presence. By Day 25, you'll write a letter to your future self about which habit to keep building.
How a typical week works.
Every week of the Sprint follows the same five-stage rhythm — so the habit becomes automatic.
Notice
A journal prompt that surfaces how you communicate today.
Practice
A writing drill inside the app: rewrite, cut, sharpen.
Apply
A real-world challenge for your actual workday.
Stretch
A harder version of the same skill.
Integrate
A capstone you actually send, say, or use.
Why daily practice?
A book can teach you what to do. Only practice changes what you do.
You don't get better at golf by reading books about swings. You don't get better at speaking French by reading a grammar guide. And you don't get better at communicating by reading great books about communication — though you should read the book.
You get better by doing small, deliberate reps in your real life, every weekday, until the new way is your default. Five minutes is small enough to fit into any workday. Twenty-five days is short enough to feel like a sprint, not a slog.
Who this is for.
Anyone whose work depends on being understood. Engineers explaining technical decisions to non-engineers. Designers presenting work to stakeholders. Salespeople running discovery. Managers running 1-on-1s. Founders pitching. Marketers writing copy. Individual contributors writing status updates.
It also includes parents, partners, and friends — the principles travel.
If you've ever sent an email and wished you'd written it differently, this is for you.