The Art of Resonance: Crafting Messages That Stick and Inspire
- Michael Amenta
- Nov 18
- 6 min read
Updated: 21 hours ago
It may not be coincidence that public speaking is often cited as the biggest human fear, yet communication skills are one of the most highly desired skills for employers.
Fortunately, much like we all can be good artists through very little effort, we can also significantly improve written and verbal presentation skills with a few small changes.
One idea only
People don't have the capacity to recall much information. To combat this, give your audience focus and clarity with only one idea per communication. This principle is also helpful for determining how to start and how not to “bury the lead”. To ensure you’ve followed the formula, draft a succinct "TL;DR" to verify that your communication focuses on the one idea.
It's also best to ensure your one idea is relevant to your specific audience. If you’re delivering the message again to a different group, take the time to tailor your introduction to their known interests and to your core message.
Keep it short and simple
Shorter communications are simply more impactful*. The "Gettysburg Address" was only 272 words, MLK Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech was 471**, and Hollywood's oft-quoted Braveheart and Independence Day speeches were 139 words and 128 words, respectively.
Make it fresh
People don't like being lectured. Their attention will fade if they sense they're being talked at. To combat this:
Start strong. Start with a provocative statement, question, or story. Don't begin by introducing yourself and what you're going to talk about—your audience likely knows that information already.
Make it dynamic. Incorporate participant engagement by polling the audience (e.g. hands up, fist to five, or digital polls), diversifying your tone of voice and body language, and using humor. If you’re writing, use diversity in sentence length and structure to infuse interest and musicality into the piece.
Use visuals sparingly. TED talks illustrate this point well — the focus is on the speaker until a simple visual is displayed only at key moments. This principle also translates to slides. The McKinsey format uses one visual per slide that emphasizes its one insight (which is stated in the slide title — “Sales slip 3% in April from lower average receipts”, not “April sales results”). All other details are omitted and are instead covered in remarks, Q&A, or appendix.
Construct three statements
Many speakers disagree on whether to memorize their speech or let it flow. For impactful statements, words must be chosen carefully, but if one tries to memorize too much, it can be overwhelming and undermine the polish of key lines. To gain the benefits of both, memorize your opening and closing lines, as well as your key idea. The rest can flow from there.
Key Idea
Repetition is very helpful to reinforce your key idea, often without the audience knowing that you're doing this. For example, in one of the most popular TED talks of all time, Simon Sinek’s key idea is: “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”. Simon repeats this statement six times to ingrain his point.
Opening and Closing
As previously mentioned: start with a question, statement, or story, and then close the loop in your final words.
For example, Simon's TED talk opens with a universally-felt question “...how do we explain when others achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions?”. He then answers this question in his closing line: “it’s those that start with why that have the ability to inspire those around them...”.
Flow
To achieve flow in between your opening, closing, and key idea, the "accordion method" can structure and internalize your content without memorization. For this, perform a rough draft of your speech in the allotted timeframe; then do another rehearsal in half the time. Continue reducing time until you do a version in just 30 seconds—that's the heart of your content. Then, add back time in subsequent repetitions until you're back at the allotted timeframe. By then, you'll have internalized the pillars of your speech while keeping the content dynamic and flexible.
Connect emotionally
Aristotle's Rhetoric stated that the key to persuasiveness is for the communicator to have logos, ethos, and pathos. Logos is about making the idea credible and of interest to the audience (established in the 'one key idea' section above), while ethos is about the communicator having credibility, authority, and goodwill to the audience (addressed in the 'practice' section below). Finally, Pathos is about building an emotional connection to the message, which is best established through storytelling.
Storytelling still provides enormous value in a world where technology gets a lot of focus but emotional resonance drives real business decisions. Fortunately, there's no shortage of experts with advice on the subject:
Ira Glass, host of the Peabody-Award-winning and Pulitzer-Prize-winning This American Life, on story subjects: Don’t tell the story from your perspective—nobody cares that much about you—and don’t tell it 100% from the subject’s perspective. But do include both. Seeing how you interact with the subject is what creates the moments of likability, tension, and humor. You and your subject are the characters and how you interact is the drama.
Matthew Dicks, winner of nine Moth GrandSLAM storytelling competitions, on the five-second moment and starting your tale: Great stories have round characters with brief climactic moments of transformation. For example, in Star Wars, Luke's skepticism in the force gives way to a five-second moment to turn off the targeting computer; and Han's selfishness gives way in a five-second moment where he provides covering fire for Luke in the trench. These moments of transformation are what make the entire movie emotionally powerful, so make sure your stories include them as well. Matthew also has a great tip on starting a story—simply name a location and an action: e.g. "I was on a roadtrip with my brother when...".
Dan Roam, author of five bestselling books on communication clarity, on storyline formats: Information can be conveyed in a variety of formats, including "the report", which is a flat readout; "the explanation", which enables insights with the information; "the pitch", which recommends a solution that will overcome a hurdle; and "the drama", which inspires a new way of looking at the world. No one gets promoted by providing flat reports, so structure your communication in other formats if you can (especially the drama). If you don't have a recommendation or time is short, at least ensure that your report follows Matt Abrahams' "What? So what? Now what?" format. What's the situation? Why does it matter? What are the next steps?
Finally, when you don't have a personal anecdote or when you’re speaking for an organization, a vision statement is a great way to provide a story for the audience to relate. Vision statements are most useful in high-level terms, rather than specifics that may not be relatable to every individual in the group. For example: "we exist to discover novel ways to reduce carbon in the atmosphere and bring them to scale", not "we exist to plant one million trees".
Practice for poise and polish
It's true that all of this advice can feel moot when one has anxiety about the act of presenting. Fortunately, there are things that can help, such as breath work, staying in character, and convincing your body that nervousness is the same as excitement. In addition, if you blank on your words, you can: take a breath, repeat your previous point or core message, or ask the audience a rhetorical question about your topic.
However, these tips may still feel empty for those who feel acute performance anxiety. In that case, there's no tip better than practice. Find opportunities (e.g. Toastmasters, improv, or company-sponsored classes) to get as many reps as possible to expand your comfort zone.
Resonate with impact
In short, to impress and persuade your audience in any communication:
Present one well-constructed idea,
delivered in as few words as possible,
with the core idea repeated regularly,
with maximum pathos,
and frequent practice.