To get a message to have longevity, meaning and a lasting appeal, it must be:
Clear- Get to the point. What do you want people to do or think differently? Usually an emotionally charged message begins with everything that went wrong, who did what and why the speaker has been wronged. I want to pull my hair out listening to people complain about their problems and I learn to tune out quickly.
A better way to approach any communication is in a neutral tone, engage an active voice and get to the point. Following this you can layer in your reasons why.
Relevant-Speak to your audience not to your problems. Think about why this is important or relevant to your listeners.
Promoted often-To stay top of mind, you need to keep in front of people. It helps to re-promote your message but with a twist to keep people's attention. A busy and distracted workforce already stretched to the max needs something fresh and interesting just to get there attention.
Once you have people's attention, know that you won't keep it for long as attention spans are at an all time low.
I was a motivational speaker for a utility company where one of the other guest speakers helped the group draft short, impactful messages for their customers. Utility companies are known as being reliable but not fast paced, creative or innovative.
It was a stretch for them to think outside the box and build dynamic, short, creative messages. The guest speaker encouraged them to draft short impactful communications, implement them and track results.
I came back to deliver a motivational speech a couple years later and found that the campaigns were very successful.
I enjoyed being a motivational speaker for the utility company. Interesting that when you build a motivational speech, relevance and audience focus are some of the key ideas you use to craft the message.
