Looking for a Simply Said workbook or companion guide? Here's what actually exists
Jay Sullivan's Simply Said doesn't ship with an official workbook. Here's what readers use instead to turn its five principles into practice, including a daily-practice companion built directly on the book.
There's no official workbook, exercise packet, or companion guide published for Jay Sullivan's Simply Said. The book itself is the resource — it lays out five principles for communicating better at work, with stories and examples, but no accompanying practice materials. If you finished it wanting somewhere to actually apply what you read, here's what's actually out there.
What exists for readers who want to practice
- Your own notes. Many readers keep a running list of the moments from the book they most want to apply — a specific phrase, a rule of thumb, a before/after example — and revisit it before writing something important.
- General-purpose journaling. Reflecting on a recent email, meeting, or conversation against the book's five principles (audience focus, succinctness, structure, listening, authenticity) is free and requires no companion product — just discipline to do it consistently.
- A structured daily-practice course built on the same principles. A few programs, including Make Your Point, turn the book's five principles into short daily exercises with real writing drills rather than leaving the "how do I practice this" question to the reader.
Why "reading" and "practicing" need different tools
A book is built to teach you a model, not to make you rehearse it. That's not a flaw in Simply Said specifically — it's true of almost every business book. Turning "I understand the five principles" into "I do the five principles under deadline pressure" takes repeated, deliberate practice on your actual writing, which a book by design doesn't provide.
Where Make Your Point fits
Make Your Point is a 25-day Sprint built directly on Simply Said's five principles — one short exercise per weekday, five to ten minutes, using real writing drills (rewrite an email, cut a paragraph, sharpen a subject line) and real-world challenges you try in your actual meetings and inbox. You don't need to have read the book first — the course teaches the principles through practice — but if you have, this is the closest thing to an official way to apply it. Day 1 is free, and the full course is free during launch — no subscription.
We are not affiliated with Jay Sullivan, his firm, or his publisher. Make Your Point is an independent practice tool inspired by his book.
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Reading about this is the easy part.
Make Your Point turns these principles into 25 short daily exercises. Day 1 is free.
Make your first point — free