Only 3 Components of an Inspiring Message?

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Carmine Gallo presented to the Stanford School of Business that there are 3 components to an Inspiring Message.

The inspiring message could be about a direction for a company, a pitch for a product, any selling, convincing, or co-opting leadership presentation.

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To be inspiring to others requires first that you be inspiring to yourself.  Make your passion become your hallmark.  You must fall under the spell of your own inspiring message.  As that happens you can take advantage of the 3 components to an inspiring message.

First the message has to be understandable.  Before it can become an inspiring message to someone it has to transfer from your brain to that of someone else.  To lodge there it must be understandable.  Know your audience.  Speak in their terms, using examples that are familiar and accessible.

Second, it must be memorable.  It needs to resonate so well in your audience’s brains that it echoes and finds purchase there.  There is no secret about this.  There once was a man who lived alone in his log cabin under a thatched roof.  His skill was highly valued and there was always food left at his door.  Once each month he would walk the five miles into the village and was greeted by throngs of children and even many adults.  They all would head for the town square with anticipation.  For you see, he was their Storyteller.

You have probably guessed the “secret” to the second component of an inspiring message.  What we are conditioned to find memorable are stories.  You don’t have to look very far into the success of major religious leaders, teachers, and others with influence to find storytelling at the heart of their inspiring message.

Third, it must be emotional.  We make decisions with our “heart” more that our head.  An emotional message is an inspiring message.  It pulls at us in a visceral way that we are often unprepared to resist on a rational level.  If you are going to include numbers in your message they must be given life, perspective, and be made relevant to your audience.

Look at how these three components of an inspiring message weave into and support each other.

To be understandable it has to reach people on the rational and emotional levels,  to be memorable it must be understandable and driven by emotion, to be effectively emotional it must travel in a story that touches us deeply.

Carmine Gallo’s presentation on the three components to an inspiring message.

 Think of a time when you have listened to an Inspiring Message?

It may have been a coach, a military leader, a political leader, or a clergyperson.  It may have been from someone trained to give an inspiring message or from someone who was just so passionate with an emotional story that they hit upon the technique.

Have you ever given an inspiring message to others?  Do you remember being so full of belief in your message, that you boiled it down into and understandable package, drew your audience in with a story, and fueled it all with your passion?

I remember dreading with a sick to the stomach feeling the checkout line in the grocery store.  I knew with a sad certainty that I would not be able to afford all that I had put into my cart.  I would arrange the items in the cart as I went up and down the aisles so that the absolute most important items were grouped together.  These would go on the belt first and I would ask for a subtotal.  If the subtotal was less than what I had in cash then another item from the cart could be added.  Sometimes one of the vital things had to be removed instead…

I remember the embarrassment and nausea that that all too frequent experience held.  Until finally I had had enough and made a choice followed by action.  I began a home business to supplement my income.

I responded to an inspiring message of hope and personal empowerment that resonated with me.  My self image did not include continuing on in that manner.  So, I made a change and rekindled the passion that I had years earlier.

You can find that passion within you too.  You once believed that anything was possible, you’ve simply forgotten it.

Take this Inspiring Message to heart.  You are entirely capable of pulling out of whatever rut events have guided you into.  You need the right vehicle, say a four-wheel-drive with plenty of horsepower!

Ready to get out of that rut?  You Bet!! 

Click on the image below to find out how.