What Is Your Message?

Define the Message You’ll Share

Daphne loved the idea of speaking. She wanted to grow her makeup and beauty business but she wasn’t sure how to get started with speaking. Her mentor told her to focus on first defining her message.

Every speaker needs a keystone message. But building this message can be tricky. Where do you start? What do you say? How much should you talk about yourself? These are important questions and here are a few answers for you.

Determine Your Audience

Before you can begin crafting a message that connects with your listeners, you need to get clear on who you serve. Who is it that you’re passionate about reaching? Who is your product or service for?

For Daphne, she knew her audience would mainly be women in their twenties to fifties. But she narrowed it down even more by choosing to focus on mothers. That means when Daphne started looking for events where she could speak, she focused on ones that catered to her community (busy moms).

Focus on the Problems

The next step in defining your message is focusing on the problems your audience faces. Try to make a list of the top 10-20 problems that your community regularly brings up to you. This may be a mix of big and small issues.

Daphne’s list included issues her audience complained about like: dark circles under their eyes, lipstick that didn’t stay all day, and foundation that appeared cakey or cracked.

Offer the Solutions

Now that you’ve had a chance to consider what problems plague your community, think about how you can offer them the solution. Chances are, you’re already offering the solution even if you don’t realize it.

Maybe your audience complains about the lack of information about writing copy for Facebook ads. But you have a free opt-in report on this topic. You can mention this solution in your presentation.

Show Off Your Results

As you offer solutions, be sure to share proof that what you’re teaching really works. Using the above example, you’d want to share the story of a woman who earned an extra $10K thanks to following your copywriting tips.

But keep in mind that results don’t have to be monetary. Daphne shared a message from a client who found she was more confident and felt more in charge of her life now that she knew her makeup looked great.

Share What Makes You Different

At this point, you’ve got the audience excited. They know there’s a solution out there for the problem they have. But how you handle this next part of the process is important. You want to make sure your listeners see that you’re the solution to their problems. If not, they may go and do business with one of your competitors.

Daphne pointed out her makeup brand was different because it wasn’t tested on animals and was entirely vegan, containing no animal byproducts. This made her stand out in the audience’s mind and gave them an extra reason to try her business over someone else’s.

As you work through the steps above, you’ll get many ideas about what you can speak on. Be sure to keep a notebook handy so you can write down your thoughts and use them as you craft your speech.

Fran Watson