Is Your Speaking Benefiting Others?

“Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.” – Napoleon Hill

No matter what age you are, you know something that people want to learn; a lot of people. You have gifts no one else has but wish they had. You have skills that no one else has but wish they possessed. You have insights that no one else has but many want.

You do the world no good if you keep your gifts, skills and insights to yourself. One person to me said it this way, “Your “tribe” is out there and they are trying to find you.”

I say your “tribe” because your tribe is not only your audience you are speaking to. Your audience is certainly in your tribe. But it is only part of your tribe. Your tribe is everyone who resonates with your content.

This could be someone in Malaysia who needs a pep talk and gets one from your latest blog they saw on the Internet. This could be someone in South Africa who watches a You Tube video of you on the very subject foremost in their mind. And this could be someone in the town next to where you live who has followed your podcast for years.

If you want your content to resonate with your tribe in whatever form this takes, you need to do three things: (1) determine what your tribe wants, (2) determine what your tribe needs and (3) give your tribe a call to action.

Determine What Your Tribe Wants

Do you know what your tribe wants and expects from your speaking. If you don’t, you run the risk of missing contact with your tribe. Remember, the delivery of your content should be all about your tribe and not about you.

So how do you find out what your tribe wants and expects. First of all, your tribe’s wants and expectations should be determined way before you are delivering content to them.

There are several ways to determine what your tribe wants. You could ask them through e-mail, a poll you distribute to them, by calling them on the phone, texting them and a number of other ways. The key here is to ensure you get them to tell you what they want.

You can find out what your tribe wants by asking them face-to-face or asking them in an e-mail or in a survey.

A mistake speakers sometimes make is assuming what their tribe wants is always what they need.

Determine What Your Tribe Needs

What your tribe wants and needs may be the same thing from time to time, but more often than not they will not coincide. Your tribe’s wants are relatively easy to determine. Not so with your tribe’s needs.

To determine what your tribe needs, start with collecting a myriad of information like demographics, expertise, gender, ages of your tribe and many more factors. All this information is inputted into your “melting pot” of ideas and slipped into your “content funnel” to resolve your final content.

After determining this information, ask yourself questions like, “What kind of information would my tribe need to advance their careers?” or “What frustration of my tribe can I alleviate if I gave them certain information?” or “What information could I give them to better their lives and the lives of those who matter to them?”

Answer questions such as these and your tribe will race to your next newsletter, presentation and podcast.

So, now you know your tribe’s wants and needs have to be determined before you can develop your content to be delivered to them.

But delivering what your tribe wants and needs is not enough to transfer maximum knowledge and cause your tribe to do something useful with your content in their lives. In all your deliveries no matter what form you must give your tribe a call to action so they can make a positive change in their lives from your content.

Give Your Tribe a Call to Action

I am sure you have heard Knowledge is Power. This is not true. Only Applied Knowledge is Power. How many presentations have you attended where you are asking yourself right after the presentation, “This was a great presentation, but what do I do with this information?”

Your tribe traded their time to attend your presentation or read your latest blog or listen to your latest podcast.” Make their return on investment (ROI) of their time as clear and as actionable in their lives as possible. Be as explicit as possible for what you want your tribe to do next.

Amateur speakers leave their tribe to figure out what is the ROI for their time. Expert speakers make the ROI clear and actionable in his/her tribe’s lives.

Always, always, always have a call to action at the end of your delivery for your tribe to do something with the content you delivered. This article is no different. At the end, I will give you three calls to action.

To get the most out of this article, make action plans to accomplish these calls to action and do them according to your plan. Make your action plans Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound (SMART). This is the only way for your tribe to continuously improve their personal and professional lives.

So to ensure your tribe gets the maximum transfer of your knowledge and acts on this, (1) determine what your tribe wants, (2) determine what your tribe needs and (3) give your tribe a call to action.

Use your gift of speaking to benefit others and, therefore, make the world a better place to live!

Call to Action

• Do research before your content delivery to determine what your tribe wants

• Do research before your content delivery to determine what your tribe needs

• Give your tribe a call to action for each of your main points of your content delivery




“The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven’t thought of yet” – Ann Landers





DiBartolomeo Consulting International’s (DCI) mission is to help technical professionals to inspire, motivate, and influence colleagues and other technical professionals through improving their presentation skills, communication, and personal presence.

Contact DCI at
info@speakleadandsucceed.com or
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