Testing My Message: How I Knew that My Message was Something People Need

[#WhatsMyMessage Day 7]

“Mic, test, 1 . . . 2 . . . 3  “

Before I give a talk, I make sure that all of the technical stuff works.

I go through my slides, making sure that the file’s all good, and I make a back up file just in case something gets corrupted.

I make sure the wires work, especially the wire that connects my laptop to my LCD projector. When I don’t own the LCD, I make sure that the client’s projector is compatible with my software.

I also test the sound of my videos, making sure that when I play my video, audio comes out and is understood (not garbled).

Finally, I made sure that the microphone’s working — that there’s a brand new battery, for the wireless. And that sound levels are just right. Not too loud, and not too soft.

Why go through all the trouble?

Because in the past, I’ve experienced these fails.

One time I was all pumped up for a talk. Only to find out that my file got corrupted! Another time, the LCD projector didn’t work with my computer.  Still, in one occasion, I prepared a very touching video to cap my talk, just to find out the audio wasn’t working. The tech had to do some problem solving, but it already disrupted the momentum of my presentation.

It pays to test things first.

“Going public . . . immediately!”

When I found my message — Live a Fired Up Life — I knew I had to test it out first. Otherwise, I’d be wasting much of my time (and other people’s time), and resources. I felt that when I’d be spreading my message, I wanted my momentum to be continuous so I can build it up faster.

So, here’s what I did.

I started to blog first. It started with one of those free blog sites. So, I made fireduplife.blogspot.com, and published my first article immediately. Soon enough, I upgraded to buying my own domain, thefireduplife.com.

I shared to my posts to my facebook account, and I was surprised that I got some really good feedback.

One would say, “Thanks Kirby, I really needed this today. May I share?”

Another would comment, “Please write more…”

On some posts (okay, many posts!), there would be zero feedback, zero engagements. I realized that when I started to sound “preachy” like giving advice, less people would appreciate it. Then I noticed when I was just sharing a recent experience and connecting to a realization about being fired up, it would resonate with more people.

So, my way then of communicating would be through anecdotes and analogies.

The “testing ground” called the internet!

The internet, for me, was the best way to test my message.

One time, I posted something about “How to be a Better Speaker” — and in just a day, I got a surprising 400 shares on my blog! Knowing this, I realized that there’s a potential about teaching people on being a speaker. So, right way, I created my Fired Up Speakers Online Course. I figured that it’s one of the many ways for people to Live a Fired Up Life!

Then I started to experiment on twitter. How do I spread the message of Living a Fired Up Life on that platform? Since we’re only allowed 140 characters on twitter, I felt that I just had to go straight to the point. I did just that, and it was working. Again, some of my tweets did really well, and many others didn’t resonate.

With the tweets that got a lot of retweets, I expanded them to be full blog posts, and I also used them for my newsletter.

Did my message help people?

After many tests online, I got a lot affirmations that it was a message that helps people. I may have discovered a message that I was passionate about, but the big question would be whether the message is something that will be able to help other people. After doing a lot of tests online, I went to test the message with groups by giving talks and trainings bearing the Fired Up message.

I saw that people responded well to this.

They were shouting, “Fired Up!” with a passion! I saw how the message gave them a vision of themselves, and how it created hope for their careers and for their business.

This gave me greater conviction that living a Fired Up life was the one message I wanted to proclaim.

Test your message

Once you’ve found your message, the best way to verify it, is really to test it — if people need to hear what you have to say or not. Otherwise, your message is just for yourself. If you’ve tried sharing your message and it doesn’t resonate with people, try to reword it, and test it again.

Now that I have tested my message, and I saw that people responded to it, then I thought, “What’s next?”

I realized that I had to drive RESULTS. People listen to results.

Next, learn about my journey in getting results using my message Live a Fired Up Life.

View my book writing process for this post: