by Kate Koronis | Jul 24, 2026 | Article, Featured
Lasting influence depends on communication, but communication depends on something deeper: an organized mind. Before we learn to speak well, we must learn to think well.
The difficulty in expressing one’s thoughts, in finding arguments to defend the position, or even to form it, in listening to other people’s arguments, and in producing counterarguments are signs of an unorganized mind. Education is supposed to sort this issue out, but conventional education is rarely capable of doing it. Traditional education often develops literacy and subject knowledge, but it rarely teaches students how to organize complex thoughts, construct arguments, examine opposing views, and communicate ideas persuasively.
People who received a generic education struggle to communicate. Our timelines are filled with people who are struggling to express their thoughts. It becomes a problem for those who want to become influencers, thought leaders, and authors, because influence requires communication. Communication is not the ability to produce words. It is the ability to transmit organized thought. The quality of communication depends primarily on the quality of thinking behind it.
Communication skills are a byproduct of an organized mind, but not a guarantee of excellence in communication. An organized mind is the foundation of communication skills. Communication itself still requires deliberate practice, but without organized thinking, that practice produces style without substance. An organized mind is one that can distinguish facts from opinions, recognize assumptions, arrange ideas logically, support claims with evidence, anticipate objections, and explain conclusions clearly. Only organized thinking can sustain meaningful communication. However, nowadays we find ourselves in a situation where the emphasis is placed more on communication techniques than on the foundations of communication – the thought process.
Neither organized thinking nor communication skills appear overnight, just like no one becomes literate instantly.
We are not born with a special gift to communicate and the ability to think clearly – it is a result of an education (self-education) process.
History knows people with speech difficulties who were great communicators. Take, for example, Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf. Helen Keller reminds us that communication is not fundamentally about speech. It is about conveying meaning. Despite being unable to see or hear, she became an author, speaker, and activist because her ideas were worth communicating. Her success was impossible without organized thought.
Yes, some people can find it easier to articulate their thoughts; others will find it extremely challenging, but every one of us can decide to build necessary skills and achieve the goal of becoming a charismatic speaker, author, and brilliant communicator.
Where does a person desiring to learn organized thinking and communication start? You start with clarity in the subject you want to communicate. Understanding your topic, passion, and convictions is best to begin with. The next step will be finding arguments that strengthen the position. Then understand counterarguments and how to respond to them in multiple ways. This is called the organization of one’s mind. We start with one topic and gradually expand to other areas of our interests and life.
After organizing thoughts around one specific area, we can start training ourselves to share them. I think the best way to express thoughts at the start is to talk on camera. It allows us to feel more secure than if we spoke in front of a live audience and to take enough time to prepare, analyse outcomes, and improve. Later, we can move to public speaking in friendly and familiar environments. After that, the next step is to try speaking to an unfamiliar but welcoming and understanding audience. This should be followed by communicating with an audience with opposite views.
Communication skills development should be gradual and in this order. Many people possess clearer ideas than they can express because fear interrupts retrieval, organization, and articulation. It comes from sharing raw ideas with an unwelcoming audience and an audience with opposite views too early. The lack of proper conditions was the reason many of us never progressed in forming and expressing our thoughts. Critical parents and siblings, bullying at school, and dominating bosses and coworkers later convinced us that we should not speak out. Thus, there was no need to train articulation.
Now, in the era of influence marketing and personal branding, communication is a must-have for those who want to share ideas, attract customers, and build followership. Many of those appearing in our timelines are unable to express their thoughts, and they have no idea how bad their communication is, and how undeveloped their ideas are. They are often told to just keep producing content. Practice improves fluency. It does not automatically improve thinking. Repeating poorly organized ideas simply makes someone more fluent at expressing confusion. We have to start with the organization of the mind. And that is what many coaches and personal brand advocates are missing.
The influence does not start with posts. The impact does not begin with recording yourself on camera.
Just like one of the greatest mentors of the ancient world, Apostle Paul, spoke of love, saying that a declaration of love without its foundational attributes sounds like the clanging of cymbals – empty – today we can say that without thought organization, all speeches, preaching, keynotes, posts, articles, podcasts, YouTube videos are empty sounds.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal
Apostle Paul ( Bible, 1st Corinthians 13:1)
This phrase is followed by the main attributes of love. Paul did not merely define love in one sentence. He unpacked it through a series of carefully distinguished characteristics. Whether one approaches the passage theologically or rhetorically, it illustrates organized thinking applied to a profound idea. Paul seemed to have invested in the idea of love if he came up with sixteen different attributes. It required time and organized thinking to compose what we know of today as the “Hymn of Love”.
We can become very productive today with the use of AI. It can compile more attributes of love, crafted better than Paul’s. But it doesn’t make an “author” of the prompt a better thinker. AI can help organize our thoughts, but in most cases it just overwhelms us or covers up for our inability to think. If I can use all the AI in the world, it does not make me a great thinker and communicator. It does not make me even an average one. But understanding how to organize our own minds takes the work with AI to a totally new level.
We often think that influence starts with publishing and promotion of our content. It doesn’t. The influence begins when we discipline our minds to organize ideas and communicate them clearly. Every article, post, book, YouTube video must start with an organization of our mind.
by Kate Koronis | Aug 31, 2025 | Article, Featured
A dozen lonely people sit in a row of slots and pull the lever of the slot machine over and over again, mesmerized by the information on monitors.
The brain is eagerly waiting for this information.
The brain knows that the probability of getting three strawberries in a row is very low.
The brain keeps analyzing every combination and gives the order to get a new piece of information.
The owner of the brain pulls the lever again.
The brain’s main and default function is to collect information to save, maintain, and improve our lives. To help us survive. Here, in front of the slot machine, it malfunctions. It was supposed to stop this activity as useless. But the hope of getting the information that is beneficial keeps it vigilant.
Even while I understood this malfunction, my own brain was already setting me up for the same game.
“Ok, Kate, you are going to roll this slot machine first thing in the morning,” I said to myself, opening my eyes after a night of rest, and smirked.
The thought was funny at first. Expecting that someone would stop and read my yesterday’s Facebook post and think with me brought sorrow. I felt like Harlequin, the fool entertaining without being understood.
Over 100 people have seen my post. If one were to read, one would react to my thoughts in some way. The brain malfunctions in front of the screen with Facebook content in the same way it does in front of the slot machine monitor. Users scroll, waiting for a big win. But what information are they waiting for here? Definitely not something that will stop them and invite them to think.
Thinking people are not sitting with the Facebook app open and waiting for a good, deep thought to enrich them with the next scroll. They wait for emotions. Scroll. No luck this time. Scroll again. Maybe, with the next scroll. One more and one more… the timeline is endless, so is the scrolling.
I am not a fan of any timeline anymore. Not Facebook, not YouTube reels, not any other. But I still try my luck when I post results of my thinking and learning process, with the expectation that someone will be interested in discussing it. Where? On Facebook? And the fact that I know that no thinking people would scroll the Facebook timeline and still wait to catch some with my post makes me no different from those people in the casino slot machine section.
I have successfully cut off the scrolling habit with a firm decision to stop it forever, and there is no reason to ever reconsider this decision. But I haven’t realized until now that waiting for the Facebook audience to appreciate deep thought is my brain’s malfunction. Social media is not for thinking.
Next thing, I went to the links of bloggers and thinkers I have saved for myself to read. Usually, those are long reads. Sometimes they are short and deep. I felt relief like a non-smoking person would after walking out of a place full of smokers with a dense curtain of poison in the air.
If I don’t expect someone to share deep content in a Facebook post (most of those people simply don’t have that account), why do I expect someone to read mine?
I don’t say that my content comes from a higher intelligence than any of my friends on Facebook. But I do say that Facebook is not a forum for thinkers. I can only reserve it for the marketing materials I will produce. Because it is a marketplace for shallow information and quick wins, just like casino slot machine rows.
Millions of lonely people scroll for useless information, and awareness itself feels like the only real jackpot.
by Kate Koronis | Jun 1, 2024 | Article, Featured
Many people don’t realize that things can take time to form before they become visible. This lack of understanding often leads to impatience, especially in business. Often, people invest for a few months and then get disappointed when they don’t see results. However, it is crucial to understand that everything, depending on its magnitude, takes time to become visible. The bigger the business or project you’re building, the more time it will take to show its true potential. Patience is the key to achieving greatness. In this article, we will explore various examples of how time plays a significant role in the creation of remarkable things.
“Good things come to those who wait.”
Proverb
The first time I launched a 6-month intensive program that helped individuals become public figures from almost zero backgrounds, I witnessed that motivation was wearing off in my students due to the time it takes to become a public figure. Despite enrolling in a 6-month program, their minds were not ready to work for months without being able to demonstrate anything to the world.
I understand them, as I was exactly like that until I learned that all great things develop in unknownness and unspotted, unseen. It takes time to learn this skill. Few people in my life were actually living like that, building in solitude. One was one of my mentors, Dr. Sunday Adelaja; another was my work partner, musician Blynx. Both were building and accumulating products without showing them to the world. Little by little I was adopting this philosophy.
I did not feel like accumulating six months of work in the beginning. I could hardly hide the ideas I had, let alone the things I had started to do. I always wanted to share ideas and intentions. I felt a burst of energy from that. But actually, it turned out that more energy accumulates when we are hiding the product we are working on. The anticipation of the day this product will see the world grow every day. You know that the time will come to reveal your work to the world, and it brings joy and excitement. Whereas if you share the ideas and intentions upfront, it is like you are throwing out the energy.
“Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.”
Molière
This experience taught me a valuable lesson about the importance of patience and the invisible clock that governs the fruition of all significant endeavors. Just like my students struggled to see the immediate results of their hard work, many of us often forget that the most remarkable achievements develop in the unseen, taking time to manifest. Just as I learned from my mentors and colleagues, it’s crucial to understand that everything worth achieving requires time. Now, let’s look at a list of various examples that highlight how different things take time to become visible and impactful.
A list of different things and how long they take to become visible:
- Human baby – 9 months
- Elephant calf – 22 months (almost 2 years)
- Tree (from seed to sapling) – Several years, depending on the species
- Butterfly (from egg to adult) – A few weeks to months
- Chicken egg – 21 days
- Human habits – About 21 days to form
- Writer’s book – Months to years
- Film production – Months to years
- University degree – 3 to 4 years
- Startup company – 3 to 5 years to become profitable
- Wine (aging) – Months to years
- Construction of a house – Several months to a year
- Artist’s painting – Days to months
- Technology innovation – Years
- Athlete’s training for the Olympics – Years
- Space mission preparation – Years
- Bamboo growth (some species) – 3 to 4 years to mature
- Real estate investment – 5 to 10 years to see significant returns
- Diamond formation – Millions of years
- Formation of a mountain – Millions of years
- Coral reef growth – Thousands of years
- Formation of petroleum – Millions of years
- Evolution of a species – Millions of years
- Fossilization process – Thousands to millions of years
So, you see, the most amazing things, the things that make us feel awe, all take time. Patience is key in any endeavor, especially in building something great. Keep this in mind as you work towards your goals. The invisible clock is always ticking, and understanding the time required for big results can lead to greater satisfaction and success in your endeavors. Remember, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Embrace the journey, trust the process, and let the anticipation of revealing your work to the world fuel your perseverance.
