I am asked to provide advice frequently as a blogger. Learning to give good advice has helped me reach more people.
You can be a coach, entrepreneur or leader if you know how to offer advice.
You can be disrespectful and upset people if you give the wrong advice.
Remember that you don’t know all and don’t possess all the knowledge in the world.
Some of my advice can be useful, and some cannot. When you remove your ego, the wisdom that you offer will be much better.
What’s the Best Advice to Give?
Tell a story.
Stats and dry information don’t motivate people to change their behavior or to listen to your advice. You can make your advice more relatable, human and real by using storytelling.
I don’t remember statistics, facts or figures. If you are not a successful trivia contestant who has a knack for memorizing facts and figures over the years, you should always tell stories when you offer advice.
Keep your story concise and short. Avoid telling a story of 90 minutes.
Tell the story in a way that your audience will understand. Ted.com is a great example of how professionals give advice by telling stories.
Break it up.
Complicated or long advice is unlikely to be taken in.
Your audience will be able to follow your advice if you break it down into small, simple steps. Focus on the key points and keep your advice as simple as possible.
What message can you convey to someone who listens to your advice?
The power of threes is what I’ve found to be most effective. If possible, try to include three key points or steps in your advice.
Structure your work well.
Like a well-structured speech, good advice follows a similar format. The structure of a good speech includes an introduction, body and conclusion.
Your brain, that old computer in our head that we call the brain, will be more likely to remember your advice.
Structure your advice logically and in a manner that makes sense. Start by focusing on your most important advice or consider the timeline. What happened first? Or what are the steps you start with?
Respect others.
People email me all the time asking questions like Should I be a stripper? and Should I kill myself?
It is important to lead with respect, because anything less could cause your audience not to take your advice or worse still, to use it to hurt themselves or increase their pain.
Don’t speak down to your audience. Not everyone has the same superpowers as you. You can still be of service to them even if your own situation is different.
You have your own problems and no one wants to be treated like a child. You are not perfect. When you give advice, keep this in mind.
Your audience will respect you even if they disagree with your advice if you first respect them.
Focus on the main point.
You’ll need to be direct if your audience is made up of millennials. As our attention span continues to decrease, those who are able to get straight to the point in this new economy of attention will be successful.
You may have great advice, but if you don’t know how to get straight to the point, it won’t be taken seriously.
You can get your audience to listen to you by respecting their time. You can even tell them in advance how long it will take you to deliver the advice.
When giving advice, you don’t have to share your personal story. You should focus on giving advice that encourages people to act or change their minds. Adopt the mentality of “All Killer, No Filler.”
Inspirational.
Advice that inspires works. This is something I’ve seen in my own audience over the past few years.
People want to be motivated. You can get attention by inspiring people. Inspiration is uplifting and positive energy always wins.
Inspiration without action is meaningless. One-off advice sessions that don’t inspire action are not helpful.
Think about how to inspire people and get them to act.
Your own experience is the best guide.
Storytelling is something we’ve already discussed. Often, people will tell stories without mentioning their own experiences.
Your own experience is the best kind of advice. Your advice is unique because no one else has the same experiences or stories as you.
This is a fact you should be aware of early on if you plan to make a business out of your advice.
We all have stories to tell. My coaching clients often tell me that they do not. Every time I test this theory, I discover that everyone has personal experiences to share.
You may be surprised at how valuable your personal experience is.
Your advice should be based on their specific problem.
Many people offer advice without understanding the problem of their listeners. Advice that is most effective is based on the problem of the listener.
You need to know how to adapt your advice to the audience if you want it to be effective. It’s easier than it sounds.
My problems are all rooted in the same place. We aren’t as unique as we believe our problems are all in our heads.
You’re wasting time if you only give advice without solving the problem. In every piece of advice I give, I try to refer back to the problem my audience is facing.
Obsess over the problem, and you will find that your advice is effective.
Inject emotion.
Your own emotions are the best way to guide your advice. Another practical way to encourage people to act is to link your advice with emotion.
Many people overlook the importance of injecting emotion into their advice. They are not brave, they are not authentic and they lack vulnerability.
We can all recall when someone was emotional when giving a speech, or when we had the same feeling as the person who gave us advice.
Your advice can be universalized by using emotion. All of us have experienced sadness, joy or other emotions in our lives. If you want your audience to change quickly and dramatically, include this in your advice.
Final thoughts
You’ll have the tools you need to offer advice next time. Advice is a gift and should not be taken lightly.
Advice is given solely to help others. Do not forget this.
