Interlocking Parts
Build a mental menu of battle-tested story modules you can snap into any conversation.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 80%
Feifer keeps a mental menu of interlocking parts — small, self-contained units of story or insight, each attached to a theme he wants to be known for. Nothing is written down and nothing is scripted. The build loop is empirical: when something interesting happens or he talks to someone interesting, he tests the material live, on a podcast, on stage, or in conversation. If it lands and adds value, he refines it and it joins the menu; if it doesn't, it dies. Each surviving part he knows cold — not the words, but the point and the beats. In a live conversation he rifles through the menu in real time and snaps in whichever part fits the question. The result is speech that is prepared but not recited, and the discipline is constant alertness for what might become the next part.
Origin
Extracted from Young and Profiting. Feifer's version emerged from his own interview and stage practice; host Hala Taha describes the same mechanic under a different name — the story journal, learned from speaker Eric Edmeades, where you define your recurring themes and fill in the stories that live under each.
Core principles
- 01Modules beat scripts — a script can't answer an unexpected question.
- 02A part earns its place only after it demonstrably works on a live audience.
- 03Refinement comes from testing in public, not from writing at a desk.
- 04You should be alert every day for material that could become a new part.
- 05Know the point and the beats of each part, not the words.
How to run it
- 1
Define your themes
Name the handful of topics you want to be known for and be asked about. These become the categories the parts hang from.
Pro tip Hala Taha's are fear, overcoming rejection, and skill stacking.
Watch out Themes should match your brand's slice, not everything you've ever done.
- 2
Collect raw material under each theme
Fill each category with the real stories, experiences and insights you actually have. This is inventory, not yet a part.
Pro tip New raw material arrives every time something happens or you talk to someone interesting.
Watch out Material you haven't lived isn't yours to use.
- 3
Test it live
Try each candidate out on a podcast, on stage, or in conversation. The live audience, not your judgment, decides whether it works.
Pro tip Low-stakes conversations are cheap test surfaces before a big stage.
Watch out An untested part will fail exactly when it matters most.
- 4
Keep what lands, refine the beats
If it works and adds value, refine it and keep it. Learn the point and the beats — how to say it, where it goes — but never write it word-for-word.
Pro tip Feifer's parts have never been written down.
Watch out Memorizing the wording makes you sound scripted and blocks adaptation.
- 5
Rifle and snap in
While a question is being asked, run through the menu and select the interlocking part that fits. You already know it works and how it lands.
Pro tip Before an appearance, pre-select which parts are relevant to that audience.
Watch out Forcing an irrelevant part in because you like it costs you the audience's trust.
- 6
Stay alert for the next part
Feifer's standing instruction is to be alert every second of your day to what could become an interlocking part. The menu grows by attention, not by scheduled writing.
Pro tip Capture the raw item immediately; test it later.
In the wild
Asked about being a champion of change, Feifer doesn't improvise — he narrates the mechanic in real time, saying that as the question is being asked he's rifling through his head for the interlocking part he knows will fit. He then deploys the dogfish head story: Sam, the founder, capped his runaway 60 Minute IPA at 50 percent of sales rather than let it become 80 percent and brand him as a one-beer IPA company. Feifer knows the beats cold — the pain, the people screaming at Sam in the street, the $300 million sale. It's been told enough times that he knows exactly where it goes.
→ A prepared, high-impact answer that reads as spontaneous, delivered to a question he couldn't have known was coming.
Inspired by speaker Eric Edmeades, Hala Taha built the written cousin of the same system. She created chapters for the topics she talks about most — fear, overcoming rejection, skill stacking — and filled each with the stories she has under it. Before going on a podcast, she reviews the journal and picks which stories are relevant to that specific audience, then keeps them in mind for the episode. She's explicit that it isn't reading a story word-for-word; it's remembering experiences.
→ Easier, more relevant appearances, with the right material pre-loaded rather than recalled under pressure.
Common mistakes
Scripting instead of modularizing
A written-out script can't respond to the question you actually get asked. Parts are portable; scripts are brittle.
Adding parts you've never tested
A story is only a part once a live audience has confirmed it works and adds value. Untested material is inventory, not a tool.
Not choosing parts per audience
Reaching for whatever you like best rather than what's relevant to this audience wastes the mechanism. The point is fit.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone regularly doing interviews, podcasts or stage talks who wants to sound sharp without sounding scripted.
Not ideal for
Formal, single-delivery presentations where an exact written script is required.
From the transcript
“it's a menu of interlocking parts that I have in my head that I'm every time some new thing happens I talked to somebody interesting…”
“as you're asking me a question right now I'm rifling through my head to the interlocking part that I know is going to fit”
“you need to be constantly every second of your day alert to what can be your interlocking part”
From the episode
Jason Feifer: Stop Resisting Change
Jason Feifer