Most speakers know that they should create content that motivates. Even if you’re not a motivational speaker, at some level, your presentation needs to have inspirational messages in it because it opens people up to your message.
Inspirational messages get people to take action. If people don’t feel inspired to do something, to change something about their life, then it doesn’t matter what you tell them, they just won’t change.
Think about how many times you’ve given someone advice and they didn’t listen. And then they go about ignoring your advice and make things worse. And you know you feel like saying, “See…I told you so.”
If someone is shut off to what you’re saying then it doesn’t matter if what you say is true, they won’t do anything with it.
But if you create content that motivates people at the same time then you’re opening their mind up…they’re more likely to pay attention to you and do what you tell them to do.
But how do you create content that motivates?
Lets say you’re an expert on sales.
And lets say you’re talking to an audience about how to be an insanely great copywriter.
One piece of content you’re going to talk about is ‘headlines.’ You’re going to tell the audience that they need to create good headlines because without the great headline, nobody will read the rest of the copy.
But how do you make it so it’s more inspiring?
Well…you have to set them up and pre-frame them.
Maybe you say something like, “I know that most of you in here are serious about becoming a great copywriter. And what I’m about to tell you is going to take your game to a whole new level. I first did this when I was 20 years old…I was broke, I was living in the streets, and I knew that something needed to change.” Then you tell them a little story…
And now you tell them about the headlines. But you’re not done.
You go on to say, “Look…I know some of you know this. Some of you know that you should have great headlines. But there comes a time when you have to stop knowing and you have to start doing. If all you want is an average level of success then you don’t need to know this. But if you don’t want to be average, if you don’t want to be normal…then you need to step it up. Learn how to write great headlines. Become the best.”
And you can keep going from there.
Motivational content really boils down to one thing…
It’s all about saying things in a way that people will naturally agree with.
If you’re speaking to a group of people about sales and you’re telling them some cool sales technique then you know that they’re at the event with the specific purpose of getting better. And more importantly, when you say things like ‘none of you in the room are average or you wouldn’t be here.’ Then what do you think you’re doing?
Do you think anyone in that room is going to say to themselves, “Oh he’s wrong, I want to be average.”
Of course not.
Motivational content really boils down to creating a lot of yes statements. It’s all about saying things that people agree with.
Now it’s also important to understand that there are different levels of this.
You can be very intense and really tell it like it is. Most of the time, when you REALLY tell people the truth, it doesn’t create a sense of agreement, it actually does the opposite and can close them off.
And that just depends on the person you’re talking to. That’s why you can be more direct with certain people and they won’t get offended.
It’s like a girl who asks if she looks fat. Most women want to be told no. But one girl might be asking because she needs someone to give it to her straight. She’s mentally prepared to hear the reality that other people see when they look at her. So when you say, ‘yea you’re pretty chubby’ well…she doesn’t get mad, she just uses it as motivation to get fit.
So you can actually be too truthful at times and that’s why you can’t confuse being truthful with saying things people agree with.
Truth doesn’t need people to agree with it, it just is. Gravity doesn’t care if you think it’s true or not, it doesn’t care about your opinion…if you jump off a building, you’re going to die.
But when you’re creating motivational content, you have to focus on agreement. Focus on saying things that hit the emotions and make people say, “AMEN brotha, AMEN!”
If you want to see a master at this then watch Joel Osteen. He’s the big time pastor on TV and you can just google his name and watch his sermons. Now I’m not Christian or religious or anything, in fact, I’m Jewish…but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t learn from this guy.
Most people say things like, “Oh I’m not religious.” Or “I’m a different religion so I don’t believe in his message.” But that’s not the point. He’s a master at speaking and it would be stupid of you to not learn something from someone who’s great at what they do.
When you watch Joel Osteen, notice that he’s preaching to the choir. He’s always giving yes statements and people always agree with what he’s saying.
Think about how well received he would be if he went on stage and said things like, “Look guys, Jesus didn’t really exist. He’s not the son of God.” Do you think people would listen to him? They would immediately boo him off the stage.
When you create content that motivates, you have to say things that people agree with or you’re going to find yourself being silently booed. People might not boo you out loud but in their mind, they’re just not going to do what you want them to do. Whether thats buying your product, hiring you for another gig…if people don’t agree with you, they silently ignore you.
Content that motivates is content that hits people’s emotions.
It has nothing to do with the actual words and it has everything to do with what those words mean to the people listening to them.
If you walk up to an entrepreneur who’s an Atheist and you say, “Jesus has got your back. He’s going to help you build your business.” Then that entrepreneur is going to say, “Oh geez, stop with this Jesus thing.”
But if you want up to an entrepreneur who’s really religious and say the same thing, “Jesus has got your back. He’s going to help you build your business.” Then that entrepreneur is going to say, “Yea I know. He’s going to get me through the tough times.”
It’s the same words, but the meaning changes based on the person listening to those words.
So when you’re creating content that motivates, you have to be very aware of who’s listening to your content.
All in all, it just boils down to hitting people’s emotions and understanding how your words affect the people listening to what you’re saying.
And that’s how you create content that motivates.