The video is a motivational compilation in which Evan Carmichael introduces a discussion on public speaking, featuring insights from Warren Buffett, himself, Gary Vaynerchuk, two unnamed speakers, and John C. Maxwell. Buffett frames public speaking as a long‑term asset that can benefit a career for decades, warning that avoiding it becomes a liability. Carmichael expands on the value of speaking for entrepreneurs, arguing it accelerates idea adoption and team building, yet stresses it isn’t the only path to success; he uses a rabbit‑versus‑swimming analogy to illustrate focusing on one’s unique strengths while still encouraging everyone to at least try speaking. Vaynerchuk emphasizes that effective communication starts with listening. The next speakers highlight communication as a two‑way street and discuss authentic expression, noting that truth is subjective and that sharing one’s personal truth invites others to do the same. Finally, John C. Maxwell defines “connecting” as the ability to identify with and relate to others, linking it to influence, leadership, and the five key traits of successful presidents (vision, pragmatism, consensus‑building, charisma, trustworthiness). Throughout, the speakers encourage self‑awareness, deliberate practice, and leveraging communication to amplify influence and achieve personal and professional goals.
Chapters
Good morning, Believe Nation. It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe that you have something special that when you unleash it, it will be able to change the world. So to help you on your journey, today's message is practice public speaking. Over to you, Warren Buffett.
One of the things you would want to be sure to do is, whether you like it or not, get very comfortable— it may take a while— with public speaking, for example. I mean, that's an asset that will last you 50 or 60 years, and it's a liability if you don't like doing it and are uncomfortable doing it. That also will last you 50 or 60 years, and it's a necessary skill.
So I'm a big fan of public speaking. I think if you can learn how to speak It can dramatically improve the ability to communicate your ideas, to get your message across, to grow your business, to build a team. But I don't know that I would call it a necessary skill. I think, you know, whatever it is that you want to do, you need to be able to bring people on board to your idea, right? As an entrepreneur, it's really, really hard to have success just being a solo person. So you need to be able to communicate your idea to one-on-one people, to group settings, and then to large group settings. And you're, your ability to be able to do that well will help you grow a lot faster. If you can't communicate your ideas very well to people, it's gonna be a lot harder to get your project off the ground. That being said, and again, this is something that I do for a living, right? I massively appreciate the value of being able to communicate ideas and be a public speaker. But that being said, it's not the only way to win. I wouldn't call it a necessary skill because there's a lot of other ways that you can stand. There's a lot of other ways to win. There's tons of people who you've never heard of who are billionaires who suck at public speaking. The thing is though, if that's gonna be something that you ignore, then you have to really, really, really be great at something else. You have to be off the charts amazing at something else. If you are a really poor public communicator, then you better be insanely good at something else. And so for me, it's back to that teaching a rabbit how to swim versus how to hop. Rabbits are great at hopping and suck at swimming, and if you try to teach a rabbit how to swim, they're going to be average at best. If you say, "Forget about swimming, focus on hopping," you could be really, really, really great. What is that equivalent in your life, in your business, for you, your talents, your skill sets? What's the hopping for you and ignoring the swimming part? I think it's a skill that everybody should at least try. You shouldn't just write it off and say, this isn't for me, this sucks, I'm never going to be a great speaker. I think it's a good skill set if you can develop it, and so it's worth giving a shot. Just like entrepreneurship, I think everybody should at least try to get that idea that they have in their head out there. At least try to be an entrepreneur before writing it off. Before you write anything off, before you say that that food is not going to be good for you, or that activity is not going to be good for you, at least try it. Give it a shot and see if it feels right, and see if you want to continue to push forward and learn more on it. But the most important thing I think is a self-awareness to figure out who you are, where you really want to focus on, what you have Michael Jordan level talent at, and the ability to be among the best in the world. You're going to apply yourself, dedicate yourself, practice hard every single day, figure out what it is that you can hop at, be that bunny for, and go all in on that skill. And so the question of the day today is, I'm curious, what are your thoughts on public speaking? How good are you at speaking? Is it something that you want to get better at, or you're going to totally disrespect it and go focus on something else? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please share it down in the comments below. I also want to give a quick shout out to Rob Barco. Rob, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. I really appreciate the support, man, and I hope you're enjoying the read. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love, and I'll see you guys again tomorrow morning for another shot of en-espresso.
This is gonna blow away people, especially your fan base. Listening. You know, I speak a lot, and I talk over people, and I'm loud and intense, but All of my success has been predicated on listening, whether I'm doing it with my ears or with my eyes.
Skill I use is probably communication, which I think is building on what Gary said. I think communication is a two-way street, but being able to articulate and communicate what it is that I'm trying to communicate is something that I find I focus on all day long, every time I speak.
How do you communicate authentically? How do you figure out what to say and what not to say in a way that's authentic? And what Fred says, and I really believe this is true, is it starts from the fundamental understanding that there is no truth. There's my truth, there's your truth, that everything is subjective. And so if you always start from the position of this is what I believe, I don't expect you to believe it, I don't think you have to believe it, I'm not saying it's true, you can actually always communicate authentically. Because if you walk in the room, and this gets worse as you get more senior, here's the answer, You're not giving anyone else any room to say anything. And if you walk in the room and say, I believe this for this reason, what do you believe? If you share your truth in that language, you give people room to authenticate, to communicate authentically. And that is hugely important to these relationships at any stage.
Connecting increases your influence. In every situation. For the foundation of the teaching today, I want to make sure that we really have a grasp of why connecting with people is so vital. So if you'll go to the very first sentence in your notes, the number one criteria for advancement and promotion for professionals is an ability to communicate effectively. That I do believe. I think the ability to connect and communicate is the number one criteria for success with your family, with your marriage, with your children, with your friends, in the workplace, the marketplace, in the community. If you have the ability to connect with people, if you can communicate and connect, not just communicate, it takes you and literally gives you and I a decided edge over others in the advancement of what we're trying to accomplish. For example, in your notes, presidential historian Robert Dalek says that the success— that successful presidents exhibit 5 skills and qualities that enable them to achieve things that others don't. So he's talking about leaders and presidents and people. What makes some achieve better than others? Here's the 5 things they do well. Number 1 is vision. Number 2, pragmatism. Number 3, consensus building. The ability to put together a team and get consensus. Number 4, charisma. And number 5, trustworthiness— being a trustworthy kind of a person. Now, what is interesting about these 5, these 5 things that set the better presidents apart from maybe the average ones— 4 of the 5 deal with connecting. Vision is definitely a connecting skill, the ability to cast a future vision. Consensus building, getting people to work together, you have to be able to connect to do that. Charisma, of course, that's why people follow the, quote, the Pied Piper. And trustworthy. 4 of the 5 of the skills needed to be successful as a leader had a lot to do with connecting. So let me define connecting, because that's what this book is all about. Connecting is the ability to identify with people and relate to them in such a way that it increases our influence with them. In other words, we can identify with them until they say, "He or she understands exactly what I know and what I'm going through," and we can relate with them until we, because of that ability, we begin to increase our influence with them. And of course, what do I teach about leadership? Very simple. Leadership is influence.
