If you give advice incorrectly, then you’ll risk being disrespectful, pissing people off and not helping others to take the positive action that will assist them. Removing your ego from the advice you give makes the quality of your wisdom much higher. As a blogger, I’m asked to give advice a lot.
Tell a story
Storytelling is how you make your advice human, relatable and real
- Always include stories in any advice you give
- Keep it short and concise
- Chunk the story down into what happened, and more importantly, what your audience can learn
Use your own experience
Your experience is the best advice you can give
- No one has the same story or list of experiences as you, so that’s what makes your advice truly unique
- All of us have experiences worth sharing, and some people don’t think they have any
- When you test this theory, you find out that most of us do
Inject emotion
Emotion can make your advice feel universal
- Be bold, authentic, and vulnerable
- Put emotion into your advice if you want to influence your audience to make a real and rapid change
- We’re all human and emotion unites us
- Use emotion to connect with your audience
Final thought
Giving advice is a privilege and it should never be taken for granted. The sole purpose of giving advice is to help someone.
Get to the point
Your advice may be amazing, but it will never be heard if you can’t get to the focus
- Respecting your audiences time is how you get them to listen to your advice
- Focus on advice that will lead people to take action or think differently
Chunk it down
Chunk your advice down into simple steps that your audience can follow
- Focus on key takeaways
- Aim for three steps or three takeaways if it’s possible in the context of your advice
- What can someone listening to your advice takeaway with them
Make it inspirational
Advice that is simultaneously inspiring and motivating works
Relate Your Advice Back to Your Audience’s Problem
The best advice is tied back to the listener’s problem.
- Ask the audience to tell you about their problems, and research their problems on websites like Quora and ask them for feedback.
- Become obsessed with the problem, and your advice will be effective.
Structure
High-quality advice has a solid structure
- An introduction, a body, and a conclusion
- This makes the advice easier to follow and more likely to be retained by the brain
- Start with your most important point or think about the timeline in relation to your advice
Be respectful
Don’t talk down to your audience
- Appreciate their situation
- Lead with respect
- Even if your audience disagrees with your advice, they will respect you if you respect them first
- No one likes to be spoken down to and you have your own issues
