When I present a speech or write a blog article, I am very good at explaining what I want my audience to know and how they can use what I am teaching them. This is good because my audience can learn from my speeches and articles. However, if I focus only on the WHAT and the HOW, I am missing a key ingredient.

What is this ingredient? It is answering the question: WHY? Why should my audience care about what I am sharing with them? Why should they adopt my ideas or use what I am teaching them?

Use Stories

One way to include this important ingredient in your speeches and articles is to include stories that prove what you are saying. A story can be entertaining. It can also be enlightening and inspiring. It can show your audience why they should care about your message by demonstrating how it has impacted other people.

For example, I often teach people how to be self-directed leaders and how to be more organized. I do this by sharing techniques like daily action plans and setting weekly and monthly objectives. These are powerful and effective techniques that help you to have direction in your life. But WHY should my audiences adopt these strategies in their own lives?

This is where a compelling story comes into play. I can share a story about how these strategies have improved my life. Personal examples of how daily action plans and weekly and monthly objectives have improved my life and helped me to be a self-directed leader can illustrate why these strategies have value.

This is a good start. An even better approach would be to have a story about how I helped another person adopt these strategies and the positive impact it had on their lives. Having personal stories is good. Sharing success from other people’s perspectives is even better.

Tell Your Audience How They Will Benefit

When listing out what you want your audience to do, and how to do it, explain WHY they should do it. For example, when I teach you to use daily actions, I want you to know that it will help you to fulfill your responsibilities and make progress towards achieving your goals. Committing to putting tasks on a daily action plan is choosing to do those tasks. When you follow through on your daily task lists you will be more productive and get things done.

Always be sure to include WHY your audience should use what you are teaching them. Explain the positive effects it will have on their lives and the way it will change their lives. Use examples that prove what you are saying.

For example, before I started using daily action plans, I would often forget to send email reminders to my fellow club members about upcoming meetings for our public speaking club. After I adopted the habit of creating daily action plans, I put sending these emails as action items on my daily to-do list, and I have never forgotten to send these emails since then.

Explain Both the Positive and Negative

One way to convince your audience why they should use what you are teaching them is to share the positive impacts it will have on their lives. Another approach is to show them the negative impacts it will have on their lives if they don’t adopt the strategies and techniques you are teaching them.

For example, I teach people how to be self-directed leaders in my speeches and blog articles. If you don’t adopt the strategies I teach, then you may be less organized and you may forget to act on important responsibilities and deadlines in your life. This can make your life more difficult if you tend to be disorganized and often forget important events and commitments in your life.

When you give examples of the negative impacts of not using what you are teaching, you can then share a story showing how what you teach helped someone overcome the negative consequences you warn your audience about. This could be a very convincing argument that can help your audience to embrace what you are teaching them.

Conclusion

When writing a blog article, or giving a speech, remember that you need your audience to understand WHY you are sharing your message with them. You can talk about WHAT, and HOW, but if you don’t explain WHY you are telling them what you are telling them, then your audience may not accept or act on your message.

My WHY for this article was to stress the importance of always explaining the WHY behind your message whenever you speak or write a blog article. When your audience knows WHY you want them to use what you are teaching them, and WHY they should change their lives to adopt your strategies, then they are more likely to act on what you are teaching and to embrace it in their own lives.

So, when you prepare your next speech or article, include the WHAT and HOW that you want to teach your audience, and also explain WHY you are teaching it to them and WHY they should care about what you have to say. Share with your audience how they will benefit from what you are teaching them. Provide examples and stories that prove what you are saying. This will increase the impact of your message and make you a better speaker and writer.