Courtroom Humiliation, Soup Scandal and the New Right-Wing Woke

Hello and welcome to this special edition of Filtered with TJ Walker. It's during the holidays, so we're not doing everything live. But still coming to you every day with top analysis of major news stories. In the news today. Campbell's Soup. Wow. Talk about a crisis situation with a real egg on their face. One of their own executives just trashing Campbell's Soup like you cannot imagine. This does not look good for Campbell's image or brand. I'll share with you the details of that. Also, huge, huge embarrassment for the Trump administration. The case against James Comey essentially laughed out of court. We'll talk about that in more detail. Pete Hegseth being tough on a former military official. Now US Senator Mark Kelly threatening him with sedition. More details on that in a moment. And a new congressional candidate in Texas. Believe it or not, it's the Shamwow guy from infomercial fame. All that plus taking your questions on the most effective way to create PowerPoint design. All that and more right here today on Filtered. Welcome to Filtered with TJ Walker. Thanks so much for joining me today. I am recording this in advance because right now when you see this, I'm traveling on the way to North Carolina to visit family for the holidays. I will be coming to you pretty much every day. But a slightly more laid back version of the show. Not using teleprompters today, but still giving you the same analysis I would any other day based on the real messages behind the stories of the day. This just in today at the time of recording, James Comey. The case against James Comey that the United States government was pursuing, in addition to the case against Letitia James, the New York attorney general essentially laughed out of court. Now, this is not exactly a surprise given the legal acumen of the current Department of Justice, but still, it's seen as a huge humiliation. So here's what happened. A federal judge on Monday tossed out the criminal charges against James Comey and Letitia James, saying the appointment of the prosecutor was invalid. And those of you listening on the podcast, you may need to come over to YouTube to see this. When I say prosecutor, I am using air quotes, scare quotes, because this, this Lindsay Halligan character was a joke to begin with. She'd never had a single day's experience prosecuting anyone, not even prosecuting a ham sandwich. And she was given, in theory, one of the most consequential cases of our time. Now it turns out her own boss is considered so incompetent, the way she rushed into this appointment, all to appease her boss, the current President of the United States. As you may recall, Trump ordered his Attorney General to find something, anything on James Comey, kind of the way he tried to order the Secretary of State of Georgia to fine him 11,000 votes back in 2020. Well, he didn't like Comey for criticizing him for writing books, saying naughty things about him. So he instructed his Department of Justice to find some way of prosecuting him. So prosecutors did as they were told. They looked, they looked, they looked. No actual prosecutor could find any case of wrongdoing. No actual prosecutor with even one minute of experience in the prosecuting game could find anything that they believed any jury in the world would find a crime. So they all stepped down, they resigned, they left. Finally, Pam Bondi said, let's just keep digging until we get to the bottom of the barrel. Finally, they found this Lindsay Halligan, who had. She does have a law degree, we'll give her that. And apparently it's from an accredited law school. She did have experience as an attorney representing insurance claims. That was the sum total of her experience. And lest I be remiss, lest I be accused of trying to be politically correct, I'll just spell it out for you. She was hired because she's really good looking. Lindsay Halligan, if you haven't seen, looks like a former beauty queen, because. Drum roll. Priest. Big surprise here. She was a former beauty queen. She actually had more experience in the multiple times she was in the Miss Colorado beauty pageant. She had more experience doing that than ever prosecuting a single case. So she botched all sorts of paperwork trying to get these indictments ready and signed and sealed. Turns out she never even showed the actual indictment to the grand jury. Just sort of said, hey, here, signed this, don't look at, is essentially what happened. As horrible as that is, as unprecedented as that is, that's not why, believe it or not, the case was thrown out. It was thrown out because she should not have been appointed in the first place. So that's what's so bizarre about this and beyond belief, humiliating. Now, others have weighed in. Alisa Adamson served in the U.S. attorney's office in the District of Columbia. She called out the Trump's Department of Justice for a series of procedural errors and said, quote, I thought the case was a choose your own adventure of procedural errors. And here we are. Because this was a huge one. Halligan being appointed after the 120 days of the interim appointment had been exceeded was a huge problem. So she'd been appointed not through the normal process, but through an interim process that had lapsed and the court says, well, she wasn't lawfully appointed. She's not lawfully appointed. The indictment can't stand. So this is just a comedy of errors and yet it's not particularly funny. Where do we go from here? Adamson says unless the Department of Justice follows proper process and procedures, the cases have now been dismissed and probably delivered a humiliating defeat to the Trump administration. Those are not my words, but the words of a former prosecutor with a lot of experience. So what are we to learn from? What are we to take away from this? This administration is sending a message loud and clear. We don't care about the law, we don't care about procedure, process, what judges thinks. If we say get em boys, we mean get em boys and let the chips fall where they may. If we're laughed out of court, okay, at least we messed up Comey. We messed up his accounting. We cost him a lot of money. We humiliated him. Hey, we still win. That seems to be the attitude. So James Comey, those of you who've watched this show know I'm no fan of his. I think he is in fact up there with J. Edgar Hoover, probably the worst head of the FBI ever because of his singularly boneheaded decision to hold a press conference 11 days before the election in 2016, which certainly by my math and most people's accounting swayed the entire election in favor of Donald Trump. For that, I think he will go down in history as one of the worst public officials ever. But that doesn't mean he should be indicted just because he said unpopular things or things that Trump didn't want to hear. Two wrongs don't make it right. What do you think? Post your comments. I'm not live today, but I will be watching this video, the responses to this video. So I would love to hear from you. Back in a moment. Talking about this crisis of what's happened at Campbell's. This is not completely shocking, but still wildly, wildly embarrassing for the Campbell Soup Company. Want to communicate like a pro? Go to mediatrainingworldwide.com Millions have already transformed their speaking skills. Why not you? This show doesn't run on a lot of corporate sponsorships or big media backing. It runs on caffeine and your support. If you like what you're hearing and want to say thanks, you can buy me a coffee. Really? Just go to buymeacoffee.com TJ Walker it's quick, it's easy and yes, it helps cover editing, hosting and staying relatively ad free for as long as possible. Buymeacoffee.com TJ Walker, your 395 makes a real difference. Welcome back to Filtered. We're here during the holidays. This is a special holiday edition of the program. Let's dive right into the next issue. This is fascinating to me from a crisis communication standpoint because this is about as classic as it gets. This story is courtesy of the Daily Mail. It's a British newspaper, and it's about Campbell's Soup. Now, full disclosure, I grew up eating Campbell's Soup. It was one of the few things I ate. Chicken noodle soup, chicken rice with soup. I was a picky eater. Plus, the cooking wasn't that great in my household. So Campbell's Soup has a special part of my history. I don't drink it anymore. I don't eat it anymore. But here's what's going on. Robert Garza of Michigan filed a lawsuit against Campbell's on Thursday and released audio that he says features Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer Martin Bailey. He provided the recording to Detroit's Local 4 News, which broadcast parts of it. This must have gone over really well in Detroit. In the audio, a speaker identified as Bailey, this vice president of Campbell's is heard saying, we have S H I T. He said it out loud for effing poor people. Okay. This is from the company's own vice president. We have something that sounds like shirt minus an R for effing poor people. That's how he describes the product they're selling. Who buys R again? Shit. I don't buy Campbell's products barely anymore. It's not healthy now that I know what they Fs in it. And I'm cleaning it up for our family audience here. But apparently this was all on tape. The speaker also referenced bioengineered meat. Wow, that sounds yummy. He says, quote, this is all on tape. I don't want to eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3D printer. While bioengineered foods are allowed for sale in the United States, the Daily Mail points out companies are required to label such products. Campbell's has disclosed that its canola corn, soybean, and sugar beet are grown from genetically modified scenes. To be clear, there's been no scientific evidence that genetically modified food causes people problem. Now, the Campbell Soup spokesperson put out a statement. We are proud of the food we make, the people who make it, and the high quality ingredients we use. The comments on the recordings are not only inaccurate, they are patently absurd. Well, look, I have looked at the label of Campbell's and the amount of salt in that and other stuff, I wouldn't need it now. I can't count. I can't comment on every single product they have. I don't know what all they have, but they're basic chicken noodle soup. Chicken soup with the things I grew up on is really not very healthy. So here's the other spin they tried to say. They said, keep in mind the alleged comments are made by an IT person who has nothing to do with how we make our food. If the recording is legitimate, the comments are unacceptable. They do not reflect our values and the culture of our company. Mr. Bailey is temporarily on leave while we conduct an investigation. Okay. This is humiliating to say the least. And is this going to destroy the Campbell's Soup Company? No. I don't think that many other customers are buying Campbell's Soup because they think it's the healthiest food. Nor do I think a lot of rich people buy Campbell's Soup. And we're thinking, well, I can afford any soup. This is the highest quality. I'm going to buy it. So it's not like they were found literally poisoned. This is not a Tylenol type scandal, but I do think it is a problem. Now, apparently this recording was an hour and 15 minutes long and he went on a rant about how disgusting his co workers were. Effing Indians. Don't know an effing thing he's alleged to have said. Now, why he would say all these things in general, I don't know why he would say something and have it recorded. Whether he. I'm assuming he didn't know it was recorded, but the situation around that is a bit murky. Let's step back for a minute. What do you do if somebody in your company trashes your product? Now, if they just make up something crazy. If this employee had been quoted saying, I happen to know Campbell's is putting in a medicine that is going to turn your children into zombies. And it's clearly not true. It's absurd. I think you can state this is. This is categorical nonsense. We have evidence. We are now suing the person for defamation and slander. And you can make a very forceful case in this case. That's not what the person, the vice president, the IT vice president said. He says, for poor people and it's effing disgusting and it tastes like shirt without the R. So you can't really have a rebuttal against that. That's an opinion. They did try to minimize it by pointing Out. This is an IT guy. He's not making the soup. He's not back there stirring things around. He's not the chef coming up with the magical recipe. He's just an IT guy. So therefore, you shouldn't really give it any credibility. The problem is it does come across as credible. It rings true. And that's the biggest problem. If someone in your organization, whether you're a political office, someone running for governor, or you're the CEO of a publicly traded corporation, that's the real problem is when you are attacked from the inside. And the problem is not that someone was lying about you. The problem is that is when someone's saying the truth. You heard the expression the truth hurts? Well, sometimes it really does. And in this case, I think the truth does in fact hurt. And this guy got fired. It's going to be interesting to see how much backlash there is because of this termination and how people feel about it. So word to the wise, even if it's your best friend, you got to be really, really careful about trashing your own place of work, because it's going to be very useful as a weapon for anyone who doesn't like your company. For any competitor, it's going to be extremely useful. See, you got to be careful about that. I'm not saying never trust anyone. Never trust a family member, friend. Never say anything that you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the paper. That's not realistic. That's not humanity. But I do think that you got to be careful about someone you don't know. And that can happen. If someone seems friendly, you just met them. Maybe it's a bunch of people at a bar or restaurant. People are laughing, having a good time. It can seem at the time to be like you're being irreverent and self deprecating. The problem is, if it gets out to a larger audience, it just looks awful. So what does Campbell's do about this? I don't think it's such a strong hit that people will be talking about this a year from now, six months from now, maybe not even three days from now. But it is a hit. There's no doubt about it. Because let's face it, Campbell's had a nice long run. I know. When I grew up, I didn't even know there was such a thing as fresh soup. I'd never tasted any in my life. I thought, soup, Campbell's, it's the same thing. If you want soup, you have to have Campbell's. Well, no, you don't. I'll never forget. I just moved to New York City in 1995, and it was only a season or two since the infamous Soup Nazi episode from Seinfeld. Rand. I was staying at a friend's house a block and a half away from the original Soup Nazi store restaurant. And I would see these people lined up in the cold, in the winter, 20 degrees out there, lined up a block and a half away, standing out there freezing for this soup from the Soup Nazi. And I remember thinking, what a bunch of rubes. Soup is soup. There's nothing that great about soup. Why would you stand out there and wait? And one day I was walking by. The line was short. I had nothing to do. I thought, okay, just for some giggles, I'll stop off at the Soup Nazi. Because I'd been a Seinfeld fan and I bought it, I tasted it. I'm like, what's this? It blew my mind. It was so tasty and so vibrant. I mean, to me, it was unlike anything I'd ever tasted for soup. It's because I'd never had fresh soup before. So maybe that's tells you more than you really want to know about my own childhood. But it was an eye opening experience. Now these days, fresh soup is commonplace, in part because of the Soup Nazi episode. You've seen an explosion of fresh soup chain restaurants all over the United States and fresh soup being available at other restaurants. It's a part of our culture. So is Campbell's going away? No. They fought so long and so hard for shelf space at every major grocery store that they're not easily going to be knocked off, and no other soup company is going to easily grab their space. But make no mistake about it, this is a black eye when your own employees are saying horrific things. I wish I had some glib, quick, easy out for the people at Campbell's, but unfortunately, the easiest solution is also the hardest solution, which is try to make a better product. Try to reduce the salt. And I realize you take the salt out, a lot of people don't like the taste as much, but it is profoundly unhealthy. And it is relatively inexpensive, which is why, as the IT executive points out, it's popular. I'm using his words now. It's popular with poor people. If you still like Campbell's soup, that's fine. I'm not suggesting you don't consume it, but I do feel for these the crisis communications team folks at Campbell. Fortunately for them, it's not an issue of tampering or out and out poisoning. So I think they will live to see another day where more cans of soup fly off the grocery shelves. We'll be back in a moment with another hot topic like what you heard. Don't let the algorithm bury us. Subscribe now@substack.com jwalkersuccess want direct access to me live? Want to unlock bonus episodes, behind the scenes takes and full access to my premium courses? Then become a member today. Just go to tjwalker.com members and choose your preferred platform, YouTube, Patreon. Whatever works for you. This isn't just another subscription, it's a full access pass to the tools, coaching and content that can transform your communication and career. Tjwalker.com members, I'll see you inside. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in the news for saying he will actually go after United States Senator Mark Kelly for the crime of sedition, believe it or not. So here's the situation. The Defense Secretary is legally still the name. It's not the war secretary. That's just a pretend name. The Defense Secretary called the senator's remarks urging troops not to follow illegal orders to be, quote, despicable, reckless and false. Okay, what's the real message here? Pete Hegsett is essentially saying the Nuremberg defense should work in America. Now. At Nuremberg, soldier after soldier said, hey, I was just following orders. Wasn't my idea to kill Jews or 6 million other people either. And it's considered by everyone to be despicable. If you are a soldier in the United States or any country where people honor and respect human dignity, you have the right to ignore illegal orders. That's all that Senator Mark Kelly was saying. He wasn't saying, oh, if you don't like the president or the color, the fake orange color of his skin or his bad hair, you don't have to follow his orders. The that's not what Senator Mark Kelly said. What he said and five other Democratic members of the Congress who've all served in the military or in the intelligence fields, said is reminding soldiers, as they are reminded in basic training, that they have the right to say no to illegal orders. So if your sergeant or a general came to you and said, just shoot every third red haired lady who walks by on the street, you would have the right to say, no, I'm not going to do that. That is patently illegal. There's no plausible, plausible rationale for that. Any sane, moral person who's had any sense of history of the 20th century realizes you can't give an individual soldier the option of saying, hey, I was just following rules. Don't judge me. You are judged. Soldiers are going to be judged by history and by courts of law. Now, Senator Kelly was selected out of the six members of Congress who made this video, which we spoke to you about last week. He's the only one singled out because of a legal loophole. He's a retired Navy captain and astronaut. That's right. He risked his life, not just the battle, not in the battlefields, but up in space. He appeared in this video with five other lawmakers. But since he is retired military, he's still actively under their jurisprudence. He was in essentially his whole career. So he could be called back to active duty at some point. And because of that, he's under this, this military law, essentially. But I got to tell you, this is nothing but Pete Hegseth strutting again, as is his wont, beating his chest, showing people I am the tough guy who can pander to Donald Trump better than anyone. These senators and members of Congress had the goal, the unmitigated goal, to make us look bad in front of soldiers. We don't like that. So rather than have a debate or an honest disagreement, we're just going to say it's seditious. And as Trump did last week, Trump said they should be put to death. Now, by the way, I have to point out this was condemned when what Trump said last week and what Hegseth is saying this week has been condemned not by the MSNBC crowd or the Miz now crowd, not by far left radicals, but by centrist and Republicans and by mainstream members of the military establishment, because they understand if. If a military is going to have authority in a society run by civilians, there have to be some norms that transcend the military. And one of them is, as an individual, a soldier cannot be expected to follow an order that is patently illegal. Why is that relevant today? Well, because this president is routinely asking soldiers to do things that are condemned by the United nations and condemned by international ethicists and by anyone who has a respect for international law. So, quick recap. What's happening is the president wants to be the tough guy against Venezuela. Doesn't like some of the leaders down there. Well, I don't like them either. Thinks that they deal with drugs. I'm sure they do. But then makes the leap of saying, well, here's a boat. It's close to Venezuela, or it came from Venezuela. Might be a drug dealer. Rather than capture them, do research, have a tribunal, bring them into international court of law, make a case against them. Let's just kill them right now. Let's just bomb them and kill them. Now, this has happened repeatedly in recent times. And it's not Trump flying the drone or going down there and pushing buttons or pulling a gun. It is members of the military doing it. Now, it's true that Senator Mark Kelly and the other Democrats didn't say which laws exactly they think were illegal. And you could make the case they were guilty of being ambiguous. But last time I checked, you don't put someone to death for being ambiguous in the United States. It's not a crime to be ambiguous. Now, it's especially rich from this crew talking about sedition, given the seditious acts, the traitorous acts that did happen on January 6, 2021. So it's not that sedition never happens. It's not that traitorous activities never happen. It's not that no one ever suggests, you know, maybe hang Mike Pence. But the person who suggested that don't hear Pete Hegseth saying, that person should be given the death penalty. So Trump wrote on his social media site, hang them, George Washington Wood. So this is Pete Hegseth saying, hey, boss man says this, I'm going to top him. I'm going to go even further, and I'm going to just mess with this guy. Senator Mark Kelly, who does he think he is? Just because he served his whole career in the United States military honorably, just because he risked his life flying into space, Just because he had to stand by Abelly, Why his own wife, the former member of Congress, Gabby Giffords, was nearly paid with her life when a deranged madman shot her? Just because he's done all those things. Well, that doesn't give him the right to state facts in a truthful way that make us look bad. He doesn't deserve that. So that's what's happened. Fortunately, I'm very happy to see that this is not breaking down as a partisan issue because there are Republicans who have condemned Pete Hegseth. There are, and the Trump administration who support what these Democrats have done. Mark Kelly. Now, again, I'm here as a sane, sensible centrist. I don't care what party you're in. At some point there's going to be somebody you care about, a family member, you, your son or daughter, grandchild of yours who could serve in the US Military. And there could be a president who represents a party that you don't like, and you don't like him or her at some point, and they could give an order that really defies all rationale, all sense of justice, all sense of human dignity. And you're going to want that loved one of yours to have the right to say, no, I'm not following that illegal order because that is in fact what America is based on. If you want to conserve the values of our military, you have to believe that the values of our military are not the values of the Third Reich. We do not allow people to say, hey, just following orders. I didn't question whether it was patently illegal or immoral or or a war crime. I just did it because I was following orders. That's not the way our country worked. It is the way other countries have worked, and it didn't turn out very well. I'm T.J. walker. This is a special holiday edition of Filtered. I will be coming back to you regular live times later this week once we get through the holidays. But I am traveling today. I hope you're getting ready to enjoy some turkey if you're here in the United States or whatever your favorite treat is. If you're a vegan, whether you're eating tofu, whatever it is, I hope you are enjoying yourself and having some good family time. Back in a moment with another interesting issue about a candidate you might not have thought of until just now. Filtered is brought to you by the following you don't need a new degree. You don't need another expensive coach. You need the right communication habits and I'll teach them to you in just a few minutes a day. @mediatrainingworldwide.com I've created the most comprehensive library of online communication and personal development courses anywhere. You'll learn public speaking, media training, persuasion, executive presence, and more. These are the same methods taught to world leaders, but now they're affordable and accessible to everyone. You can start for free and upgrade anytime. Go now to mediatrainingworldwide.com confidence isn't a personality trait, it's a skill. And it's trainable. 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I thought that perhaps I had picked up a story from three or four years ago. But this guy, Vince Shlomi, forgive me if he's. If I'm mispronouncing his name, he used to be very well known in infomercials. He's running for Congress in Texas. According to a filing with the state's Republican Party, he's running against an incumbent John Carter, who's 84 years old. Okay, I don't think he's the John Carter. He's in all the movies at 84 years old. He's older than Biden at this point. He's older than Trump. And maybe, just maybe, it's time to move on. That's the sentiment, apparently, of Vince, the infomercial guy. But here's what caught my eye. He said in 2025, the Shamwell Towel guy, he told Fox News he's running for Congress because he, quote, wants to destroy wokeism in Congress. He wants to destroy wokeism in Congress because apparently there's so much wokeism in the current Congress, which is controlled entirely by Republicans in the House and Republicans in the Senate, most of whom have been running against this phantom boogeyman of wokeism for a long time now. And he's motivated by, quote, the political infighting in the country to run, and he wants to make America happy. I gotta tell you, I've seen some really awful campaign announcements and messages in my time, having worked with a lot of political candidates, not only in the United States, but around the world. But you. But you always have to look at every. Any campaign in the context of its time, its period. Something that worked in 2008 doesn't necessarily work in 2016. Something that worked in 1988. I was reminiscing with a friend just the other day about 1984 in North Carolina, where I grew up, and saying, hey, Jim Hunt, he's a Mondale liberal. That used to be the big attack. Before everyone was called a communist or member of the radical left. They were called a Mondale liberal. That was supposed to be the ultimate burn. If you are Republican running against a centrist Democrat or even a conservative Democrat. It worked. So that has kind of morphed into being too politically correct, being a part of the left, the radical left. And then things sort of settled the last half a dozen years on woke. Initially it was a reaction very specifically to things like certain academics saying you should always identify your gender because someone could see themselves as a they and as non binary. And if you didn't all automatically say I'm a him or I'm a her, you're insensitive. And so it that started to define what WOKE is, but since then it has morphed into this gigantic gooey blanket tossed on essentially anything conservatives don't like, to the point where I would argue it is an absolutely meaningless term other than it has come to represent intolerance. And therefore you could say that there is a real problem with wokeism today, but it's right wing wokeism on campuses around the country. We've documented that right here, unfiltered in the case of certain words not being able to be used, like global warming or the environment even, you can't say it race, you can't say in certain colleges and high schools and elementary schools in America. So there is a problem with wokeism, but I don't think that's what the shamwow guy is talking about. So again, if we were back in the day when the Democrats still controlled Congress and sort of the peak of wokeism, arguably, say 2020, you could make the case that maybe he had a good message. But you kind of get the sense that this guy has been watching nothing but infomercials and then sort of looked at an old speech by Ron DeSantis from a year and a half ago and said, oh, that sounds like a good topic. I'm a marketing guy, let me market myself on this. Seems like a hot topic. And you're several years too late now. Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, really got big on this about three, four years ago. He said, this is my ticket, I'll be the next Trump if I can just talk about how I kill wokeism. And I'm the guy who destroyed WOKE in Florida memorably. He said Florida is going to be the place where Woke came to die. And he beat his chest about how tough he was on being anti woke. And he ran for president last year and guess what? Nobody liked him. He got about one and a half votes the entire campaign and he embarrassed himself. So now we got a guy who says, okay, it's a year and a half later, it's the next election cycle. It would be two years later, 2026 and Shamwow guy wants to run for Congress because it is controlled by I guess radical left wokeism. If that's what you consider Mike Johnson. I do hope some reporter Fox News won't do it, but I hope some real reporter will ask him exactly who are the people writing all these woke laws from the Congress, Especially in the last two years when it's been a Republican anti woke speaker of the House, Republican anti woke leader of the Senate, a Republican anti woke President who signs or vetoes legislation. So at some point good messages have to have some internal consistency. They can be wildly inconsistent to other people who have different premises. But there's got to be some form of internal consistency and I don't see it here at all. Now some fun facts about this guy, Ben Shalom. He was arrested for aggravated battery after a fight with a woman who was also arrested back in 2009. Now given Pete Hegseth and a lot of other credentials, top members of this administration, I guess arguably you could say that's a plus in his favor. Maybe that helps him get an endorsement from Trump earlier. I don't know. The fact that you have been arrested for battering a woman, I think in the current climate in at least one political party is an advantage. So whether he's able to milk that all the way to Congress, I don't know. I will say that he certainly appears to be much younger than the 84 year old incumbent. And many people across the spectrum, and I count myself in on this too, do think it's time for more young people to enter politics. And by young I mean these days. You could be 65 years old and you're young compared to a lot of members of Congress like Charles Grassley. So we'll see. He is a talented communicator, he's good on tv. You can't count him out. Certainly this district in Texas seems like it's going to send a Republican to office. There's no doubt about it. We'll see how much infomercial money he banked from back in the day and whether that's enough to carry him through. Because with enough money in a district where someone in your party can't lose, quite often the person with the most money does in fact win more in a moment. Want a shortcut to powerful communication skills? Download the TJ Walker Success Library, five of my best selling books for only 9.95. Go to TJ Walker.com books instant access. Big impact I've had. Welcome back to Filtered. I'm your host TJ Walker. This is a special holiday edition. We typically do these live every single day so you get the absolute freshest. I'm doing this the day before, recording this on Monday, November 24th and getting ready to travel myself for the holidays. But I still wanted to give you insights and analysis on news that broke just since our live show this morning. I'm going to end the show as I always do, taking questions from you. This one comes from my student Ibrahim, who is a student in the complete Storytelling course for speaking and presenting. The question is, how do you how does visual design influence how your message is understood by the audience? Your visual design has a massive influence on how your audience understands your messages, remembers them and can acts on the butt not in the way you typically think. It's not about the right logo design or picking the perfect colors for the fonts, or arranging the fonts. No, the number one thing you can do with a visual presentation, a PowerPoint is have one image per slide where someone sees it and within two seconds can instantly understand the idea you're trying to communicate and connect it with some purpose of your message that is the most important. I've seen companies spend tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars on visual design elements for their PowerPoint and not a single person in the audience remembered anything about it. Might not have hated it, but it was completely unmemorable because it was too abstract, too many numbers, too many bullet points, too many complex lines and graphs and charts. Whereas I've seen other people take one picture, put it up for one second and everyone got it and it drove home the point. I often in my own PowerPoint presentations on how to give an important presentation stress to people. Narrow your message down to a handful of points, do that before you do anything else with your presentation and that will increase your chances dramatically of being successful in your speech. Most people had the mistake of doing a big data dump. So when I'm telling you to prepare for your speech, think about this first and I pull up a slide. It's just a simple picture of my own hand with five fingers on it. Is it a great visual design? No. Does it ever win any graphics awards? No. But does it work? Yes, it does. People remember. I have people come up to me years later, sometimes holding out their hand with the five fingers, saying hey tj, I'm still narrowing my speech down to five ideas just like you said, and I'm the best speaker in my company every time. So that, my friend, is the most important thing about the visual design and how it has an impact on your audience. And unfortunately, most people these days still think of a PowerPoint as just the poor man's, the poor woman's teleprompter where they're putting up a bunch of words. Anytime you put text on a PowerPoint slide, you're wasting your time. Don't take my word for it. Test your audiences in real life. I guarantee you they're not going to remember those words unless it's one word with an image on it and it somehow resonates. If you want to have words, give people an email, give them a book, give them handouts. You don't need to put it up on a big screen. Think of the best movies you've ever been to that you like. I don't care if you love Wicked or Mission Impossible, unless they're just trying to tell you. Langley, Virginia head of the CIA, 98%. What you see in a great movie, it's never text. It's one scene at a time, one conversation, one action bit at a time. That is the most effective way to use visuals in your presentation. I'm TJ Walker, hoping you're enjoying a great holiday week. I will see you tomorrow, which is the day after when I'm making this. We are recording this in advance. Thanks so much. See you later.