Amy Carroll » Speaking Tips » Making Your Messages Stick Part 5

Making Your Messages Stick Part 5

(Made to Stick is now available through our resources at Proverbs 31 Ministries.  It may cost a little more to buy it through our ministry, but every dollar goes to reach more people for Jesus.  Please consider adding this neon orange book full of great stories and advice to your shelf.)

We’re getting to the end of our series, but don’t leave yet.  This week is important, and next week is the grand finale!!

This week, the Heath brothers give us the 5th key:  Emotional.  Here’s what they have to say about the importance of making our messages emotional:

“Belief counts for a lot, but belief isn’t enough.  For people to take action, they have to care….  it’s not about pushing people’s emotional buttons, like some kind of movie tearjerker.  Rather the goal of making massages “emotional” is to make people care.  Feelings inspire people to act.”

The Heath brothers give lots of good example, but I immediately thought about Hallmark commercials.  I’m a woman who cries easily, so those commercials completely do me in.  There were two of their commercials that changed my actions this year.  The first was for Mother’s Day and the second followed for Father’s Day.  In each commercial, it featured parents of adult children who had saved all their cards through the years. 

I’m a compulsive declutterer, but those commercials made me think about what’s worth saving.  They made me think about what I’d like to have to remind me of my children when I get older.  They compelled me to start saving items that show a progression of my children’s growth.

That same idea can be applied to our messages.  We need to evaluate each message with the question, “Will this message make my audience care so that they will want to embrace change?”

We can create emotion by appealing to self-interest.  We can also create emotion by appealing to the audience’s sense of greater good.  Speakers inspire change by presenting the benefits of change. 

If this gets your hackles up, it shouldn’t.  Our children’s pastor used to say over and over again to our kids, “God’s ways are always best.”  He didn’t say that they were always easiest or prettiest or least painful, but in a short, simple proverbs he told kids the truth.  It’s the same truth found in Psalm 103: 2-5, “Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits–who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,  who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

As women with such a God, we should be able to easily pronounce His benefits in a way that makes people care!

Blessings,

Amy

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One Comment

  1. Kelli Wommack says:

    And not only do we want to inspire people to change, but we want to empower them to change. I think a lot of times speakers inspire others to change, but the “next step” or the practicality of that change is not considered. We need to give them tools to empower change. Just a thought. What do you think?

    and by the way….I am thrilled to have won the giveaway of the speaker service. I was able to share my “God story” with Amy yesterday. I am always amazed at how personal God is with us.