Your Song in Their Head: 5 Steps for Memorable Messages

Ever get a song lyric stuck in your head and it’s so compelling that you download the song, look up the lyrics, and rock it the next time you’re at karaoke with friends? Compelling messages are like that song lyric, except in this case, the lyric is the thought you sparked with your story, talk, or experience, and the song itself is what your listeners do based on that spark.

If you’re ready to make the leap from informative talks to inspiring and memorable messages, here are 5 steps to get started.

1) Define your audience specifically. Look for specifics that your audience has in common with one another and with the ideas you are presenting.

2) Pick one takeaway. People can only absorb so much at once. Too many takeaways and you dilute their attention decreasing the chance they retain anything other than a vibe.

3) Kill your darlings. Fire-hosing the audience with too many facts and stories hurts memorability. Cut anything from your talk that isn’t contributing to your one takeaway – even if you love the phrase or image.

4) Be relatable. You want the audience to have their own ‘aha’ moments of discovery. Their own “oh I know just what that’s like”. Use the commonalities you identified in step one to bring your information to life with what-ifs, metaphors, story snippets, and other techniques that allow the audience to form personal connections.

5) Involve your listener. Considering, discussing, comparing, and remembering are all actions! If your audience is doing some of the work of co-creating their experience with you, you increase the chances they will remember and keep thinking about your primary point.

Your audiences aren’t just empty glasses waiting to be filled with your subject matter. When you invite listeners to imagine themselves as the hero of the story, consider something that has no easy answer, or remember an event they experienced that echoes the story you are sharing, that’s when connection deepens, and messages stick in the mind. Like a tune they keep humming. That’s the power of interpretation. Rock on rock stars!