Eben Pagan teaches how to create content that is 4x clearer and 10-100x more valuable by using the four learning styles framework. He reveals why 75% of audiences don't understand content and provides a complete system for eliminating miscommunication.
Creating Valuable Content
Eben reveals that most content value doesn't come from the information itself, but from connecting solutions to customer challenges and eliminating misunderstanding. He explains why 80% of communication is typically misunderstood and how this costs creators their audience connection.
Drawing from Harvard researcher David Kolb's work, Eben teaches the four learning styles that correspond to different questions people ask when learning. He explains how addressing all four styles dramatically reduces miscommunication and increases content value.
Eben provides specific guidance for serving each learning style: motivating why learners with benefits and consequences, giving what learners theory and science, providing how learners with specific action steps, and activating what if learners with immediate implementation guidance.
“If you use all four of these learning styles, you will communicate very clearly and it will be very, very valuable to your audience”
— Eben Pagan▶ 11:24
Use the four learning styles framework to communicate in four different ways: motivate with why (benefits and pain avoidance), explain what (theory and concepts), show how (specific action steps), and encourage what if (immediate action with success indicators).
“Most communication is misunderstood. Most of the things that we say to each other, most of the things that we write to each other, most of the things that we communicate they don't get across”
— Eben Pagan▶ 2:07
Most communication is misunderstood because people communicate using their own learning style instead of adapting to their audience's different learning styles. There are four main ways people learn and understand information.
“The first learning style asks why, why do I need to learn this? The second learning style asks what, these are the theoretical types. The third learning style asks how and they need a recipe. And the fourth learning style asks what if”
— Eben Pagan▶ 6:29
The four learning styles are: Why (motivation and benefits), What (theory and concepts), How (specific action steps), and What If (implementation and results). Each style asks a different question and requires different types of information to understand and learn.
“You need to motivate them both with pain and with pleasure. If you're teaching someone how to lose weight, you need to say to them, if you learn and use what I'm about to teach you, you will lose weight”
— Eben Pagan▶ 7:30
For why learners, you must connect what you're teaching to specific benefits they'll gain and pain they'll avoid. Use both positive motivation (what they'll get) and negative motivation (what they'll avoid) to engage them before teaching the actual content.
“Give them the theoretical, the conceptual, the history, the science. If you can talk about a scientific study that was done, you can get online and do a little bit of research about any studies that were done about the topic”
— Eben Pagan▶ 8:35
For what learners, provide theoretical background, scientific studies, historical context, and conceptual frameworks. Research relevant studies online, explain the science behind your methods, and give them a big-picture understanding of how everything fits together.
“Each of the action steps should be very specific. You would actually want to write down exactly which foods to eat and when. You'd want to write down exactly what the exercises are and how to do them”
— Eben Pagan▶ 9:39
Action steps must be extremely specific with exact details. Instead of general instructions, provide precise information about what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Each step should be clear enough that someone can follow it without additional interpretation.
A complete framework for creating valuable content that eliminates misunderstanding and connects with all learning styles
Address Why Learners
Motivate with both positive benefits they'll gain and negative consequences they'll avoid if they don't learn what you're teaching
Serve What Learners
Provide theoretical background including scientific studies, historical context, and conceptual frameworks that explain how everything fits together
Guide How Learners
Give very specific step-by-step action instructions with exact details about what to do, when to do it, and how to implement each step
Activate What If Learners
Get them into immediate action with clear guidance on what to watch for to determine if the technique is working or not working
Content value comes primarily from connecting solutions to customer challenges and formatting for clarity, not just from the information itself
Eben states 'Most of the value isn't in the information itself. Most of the value is in the connecting up of your solution with a prospective customer's challenge'
Communication is mostly misunderstood because people communicate using their own learning style instead of adapting to others' styles
Eben explains 'Most communication is misunderstood...because we've never learned that there are multiple ways to learn, multiple ways to communicate, and because we've only learned our own style'
Saying something four different ways reduces misunderstanding probability from 80% to very small - each repetition cuts misunderstanding in half
Eben provides specific statistics: '80% probability of being misunderstood' for one way, '40%' for two ways, cuts in half again for three ways, and 'very small probability' for four ways
Complete communications must include introduction, conceptual and practical teaching, and action-oriented wrap-up to be self-contained and understandable
Eben outlines the structure: 'introduce your idea...give the conceptual and practical, you teach the theory and you teach the action steps and then at the end you need to wrap up, summarize and get the person to go out and take some action'
The four learning styles framework from Harvard's David Kolb dramatically increases understanding and decreases miscommunication
Eben credits 'David Kolb, a Harvard expert' and learned it from 'my mentor and friend Wyatt Woodsmall' - this system 'dramatically lower[s] the probability that there will be a misunderstanding'
Why learners need motivation first - they can't hear you until you connect what you're teaching to their desired benefits and avoided pain
Eben explains 'for the why learning style, they can't hear you until you've connected up what you're about to teach them with the benefit or the result that they want' and provides weight loss example with specific pain/pleasure language
What learners need theoretical and conceptual information including science, history, and big-picture understanding
Eben specifies 'give them the theoretical, the conceptual, the history, the science' and suggests 'get online and do a little bit of research about any studies' with weight loss body fat science example
How learners require very specific step-by-step action instructions with exact details about what to do and when
Eben provides specific example: 'Step one, eat this food. Step two, do this exercise. Step three, keep a journal' and emphasizes 'each of the action steps should be very specific...exactly which foods to eat and when'
What if learners need immediate action steps and guidance on what to watch for to determine if the technique is working
Eben explains 'what if learners, they need to go out and take an action' and recommends 'tell them what to watch for. Say, as you're taking action, here's what to watch for to see if it's working'
Content value comes primarily from connecting solutions to customer challenges and formatting for clarity, not just from the information itself
▶ 1:36Communication is mostly misunderstood because people communicate using their own learning style instead of adapting to others' styles
▶ 2:07Saying something four different ways reduces misunderstanding probability from 80% to very small - each repetition cuts misunderstanding in half
▶ 3:16Complete communications must include introduction, conceptual and practical teaching, and action-oriented wrap-up to be self-contained and understandable
▶ 4:19The four learning styles framework from Harvard's David Kolb dramatically increases understanding and decreases miscommunication
▶ 5:56Why learners need motivation first - they can't hear you until you connect what you're teaching to their desired benefits and avoided pain
▶ 7:30What learners need theoretical and conceptual information including science, history, and big-picture understanding
▶ 8:35How learners require very specific step-by-step action instructions with exact details about what to do and when
▶ 9:39What if learners need immediate action steps and guidance on what to watch for to determine if the technique is working
▶ 10:14Claim: “The value of content is primarily in the information itself”
Reframe: Most content value comes from connecting solutions to customer challenges and formatting for maximum clarity
Claim: “If you communicate clearly once, people will understand”
Reframe: Most communication is misunderstood - you need to eliminate misunderstanding by saying things four different ways
“The value of what you teach isn't just in the information itself. In fact, most of the value isn't in the information itself”
“Most communication is misunderstood. Most of the things that we say to each other, most of the things that we write to each other, most of the things that we communicate they don't get across”
“Eliminate misunderstanding. Don't just try to get your message across. Work to eliminate all possibility of misunderstanding”
“If you use all four of these learning styles, you will communicate very clearly and it will be very, very valuable to your audience”
Secret Making Information Value
Discover the secret framework that transforms ordinary information into high-value knowledge products that customers actually want to buy.
Discover Pulse Marketing
Discover why Eben Pagan calls persuading in print the ultimate business skill that transforms not just your marketing, but your entire way of thinking about customers and products.
Powerful Communication Strategies
Learn how to increase the perceived value of your information products by 10x to 100x through refined communication strategies that make customers feel like your content was created specifically for them.
Coaching Strategies
Business Frameworks
Common Mistakes
Human beings don't know how to value information - it's not obvious to us how much information is worth, so the best information marketers focus on creating packages with high perceived value and translating that value effectively
Eben explains that successful information marketers who make the most money excel at creating information packages with high perceived value and translating that value to customers
Create standalone concepts that are understandable all by themselves - complete modular units of knowledge that set context, provide techniques, and enable immediate action
Eben describes creating 'complete stand alone bodies of knowledge' that include context setup, techniques, metaphors, examples, and action steps so listeners can understand and take action immediately
Marketing and advertising offer the highest leverage in business - you put in little time, effort, and energy, and get a lot of result back
Eben explains leverage as 'you spend a little bit of money, and you get a lot of money back' and positions this as fundamental to business growth
Within marketing, the highest leverage comes from mass marketing, and mastering it requires first learning to persuade in print
Eben states that once you learn print persuasion, 'you can translate that skill into other mediums like audio for podcasts or radio commercials, video for television commercials or online video'
