It’s been almost a year since I became a VC operating partner.
Since then I’ve done a lot of work with capital allocators across asset classes, from venture to private equity, and I’ve learned from some of the best in the game.
The most principled and disciplined of them have a way of talking and writing that signals they have nothing to prove. Concise, clean, confident. Without ego posture..
I realized I needed to level up how I communicate.
So I built an AI framework for it - which you can now download below.
Quiet Confidence: the secret to sounding like someone with nothing to prove.
I’ve watched the same dynamic with my tech and corporate clients for years. Anytime there’s power asymmetry, in role, hierarchy, or reputation, it shows up in emails, Slack messages, strategy docs, and decision memos. The writing comes off as insecure, needy, entitled, egotistical, or combative.
And almost none of it is visible to the person writing it.
The Six Hidden Power Leaks
Most of us run a few of these without ever seeing them.
An unclear ask. “Let me know your thoughts” gets no decision back
Social validation. Gushing to make the other person feel good, or look good
Unrequested rationale. Nobody asked why, and you told them anyway
Over-explaining. You make the case, then make it again
Hedging. “I think we could probably look at maybe” leaves them guessing
Apologizing. “Sorry for the delay” opens on a debt
One test catches all six. If you can cut a sentence and lose nothing but reassurance, it was a leak.
Senior people write short for two reasons: They don’t have much time and they don’t worry about proving themselves. Their work and ideas speak for themselves.
You can write this way from any seat. Done with principle rather than posturing, it signals that you want to relate to people as a peer, not as a subordinate.
Quiet Confidence Is Free on GitHub
Quiet Confidence is a voice register skill that you can download and use.
Install it inside your preferred AI, and it catches the leaks you can’t see in your own writing, whether emails, slack, decision memos, working docs, etc.
It includes a highly structured set of principles, practices, and examples.
GitHub is a software code repository. Traditionally used by open source developers, it’s now a popular AI infrastructure. Why? AI runs on documentation. GitHub is built for managing any code base, and with AI, language is the new code.
This is a small demo of what we’ve been building with Storied AI. It’s a set of 30+ Narrative Intelligence® skills that get your ideas funded, bought, and believed in, that you can call through an MCP connector right inside Claude and ChatGPT.
Quiet Confidence is one small example.
Three ways to use it:
Paste prompt. No setup. Paste it into any chat, then paste your draft
Claude skill. One file, installed once
Custom GPT. A build kit for your own GPT in ChatGPT
Use it anywhere you’re managing up, down, or across.
Short codes for calling the skill include: “quiet confidence” “GP register”
If Quiet Confidence leads to a holy f*ck balls experience, hit reply and tell me.
And if you can, star the repo. It’ll make my mother proud.
Michael
P.S. When you’re ready, here’s three ways I can help:
If you want a second set of eyes on your narrative, reply and tell me more
If you need narrative architecture, I help CEOs & operators do just that. Apply for Q3
If you need a keynote speaker, I do them on a select basis. Let’s talk