If you’ve ever given a speech and you ask for a testimonial and you get it, you probably know it has value in many ways. Presuming you wouldn’t get a testimonial unless it was of a positive nature, one of the things it does is it tells you you have hit a chord, hit the mark, touched people. This particular speech I gave was about sun protection and skin cancer.

Aside from any money you might make, really reaching people is a powerful validation, and a great motivator for continuing to give speeches.

Another validation, perhaps even more powerful, is to receive a separate comment made by an individual in the group. To this point, I received a letter from a woman who had been in the group to whom I was speaking. She wrote that after hearing me speak she went to see her dermatologist and he had discovered some skin damage that was of concern and that she would be getting treatment for it, and she wanted me to know that she took this action as a result of listening to me.

Now I was the one who was touched.

This letter was completely unsolicited, but a good reason for inviting feedback (I give a form to every individual). It lets people know you’re open to receiving the good, the bad and the ugly (well, maybe not the ugly). And this paves the way for someone to drop you an unsolicited email to you sometime after the speech is given.

I didn’t plan this out but I recall that some of the people in the group started asking questions just a few minutes after I began. I must have given off an open-to-hear-you vibe and it made for a much livelier evening than if I had just talked endlessly.

So, when you go to give a speech, by just keeping openness in mind, not only will you be giving something precious to your audience, but you yourself may receive unexpected and prized jewels as a result which will make your life much richer and deeper than if you had kept the channels to communication closed.