What You Offer Decides Who You Attract
- suneel172
- Aug 29
- 3 min read
Sweetness attracts ants.
Food attracts rats.
Every offering has its own natural audience.
What you bring to the table decides who gathers around it.
In communication too, what you say, how you say it, and the energy you radiate.
These determine the kind of audience you pull in.
An adept speaker doesn’t rely on a single trick; they build an arsenal of ways to connect.
Just like different magnets pull different metals.
Different Baits, Different Catch
Sweetness attracts ants → Charm, humor, and lightness pull those who crave an instant sugar rush.
Food attracts rats → Utility and practical benefits draw the pragmatic, solution-seeking crowd.
Flame attracts moths → Passion, intensity, and fire draw those who want to be inspired and awakened.
Light attracts seekers → Clarity, wisdom, and vision pull in truth-hungry minds.
Shade attracts the weary → Empathy, reassurance, and calmness connect with the anxious or tired.
Flowers attract bees → Beauty in words, metaphors, and storytelling attracts those who love imagination.
Gold attracts thieves → Success and confidence may also bring envy or criticism; attraction isn’t always positive.
Silence attracts thinkers → Pauses, depth, and reflective tones speak to the contemplative.
Noise attracts attention → Shock value grabs ears, but not always hearts or loyalty.
“Every message is a magnet. The question is—what kind of metal do you want to draw in?”
The Speaker’s Arsenal
A truly impactful communicator doesn’t depend on one approach.
They carry multiple “attractors” and deploy them strategically:
Stories – To captivate the emotional heart.
Facts & Data – To engage the analytical mind.
Humor – To disarm resistance.
Analogies & Idioms – To make abstract ideas tangible.
Tone & Delivery – To set the mood.
Empathy – To win trust.
Anecdote: When the Wrong Attractor Fails
A colleague once shared how he bombed his first corporate keynote.
He came armed with endless statistics, charts, and dense reports.
Ten minutes in, the audience of young managers looked restless and disengaged.
Why?
Because data wasn’t their attractor—they wanted relatable stories, inspiration, and practical takeaways.
Contrast that with another instance: a speaker at a student event started with heavy business jargon.
The audience was cold.
Then he pivoted—he dropped the jargon and told the story of his first job rejection and how he bounced back.
Suddenly, the room leaned in. Students love stories; they see themselves in them.
The same speaker, different bait—and the difference was night and day.
“The wrong attractor repels faster than it attracts. The right one creates instant connection.”
Matching the Magnet to the Metal
Different audiences need different hooks:
A room full of CEOs → Brevity, clarity, vision, and strategy.
A hall of students → Relatable stories, humor, and motivation.
A mixed public audience → A balanced recipe—sprinkle facts, wrap them in a story, and season with humor.
A workshop group → Practical tips, exercises, and real-life applicability.
“An adept speaker is less a performer, more a chef—adjusting the recipe to the palate of the audience.”
The Bigger Lesson
You cannot attract everyone with the same bait.
Ants don’t chase flames.
Moths don’t nibble sugar.
Each has its own draw.
Similarly, in speaking:
Don’t force one style on every audience.
Build versatility—have stories, data, humor, empathy, and clarity ready.
Most importantly, know when to use what.
Final Thought
The mastery of speaking lies not in having one powerful magnet but in carrying a full box of them.
And choosing the right one for the right moment.
If you’d like to learn how to build your speaking arsenal and adapt seamlessly to any audience, join me in the Impactful Speaking programme—a 12-week journey designed to make you not just a speaker, but a communicator who resonates.
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