Curiosity Sparked: How to Make Quotes Impactful in Presentations

What is the best way to use a quote? Quotations. When you're giving a speech or a presentation, the best way to use a quote is when it really crystallizes an important idea you want your audience to think about and it is said in a pithier way than what you would say yourself. So there's a right way of using quotes and there's a wrong way. The best way is you've actually read the writings of this thinker, you've seen it in the context of a full paragraph, a full page, a full book, or an article. It struck you as emotionally and intellectually relevant and you now want to share it with your audience. That is what I believe is the best way of using a quote when you're giving a presentation. The worst way to use a quote is to just search the Internet and look for random quotes to back up some idea you have. One of my least favorite is a quote that's falsely attributed to Albert Einstein. That the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Anytime I see someone use that quote, and I see it virtually daily, it tells me they didn't do their homework. They just did a quick cut and paste. Virtually. By the way, there's one thing about Einstein, brilliant guy. But anytime you see a quote in a story, a book, a speech attributed to him, typically it was just made up. He never said half the things that are assigned them. So unless you've read it in an actual interview, he said, or in a writing a book, don't use it because you will destroy your credibility. Now, sometimes people use quotes to make themselves look more important. If I dress up enough important philosophers with big ideas, people will think I'm big. Sometimes it can make you look insecure or pretentious. So I would recommend use quotes from famous writers, thinkers, philosophers, people you respect, but doing it. Do it sparingly and do it with a purpose. Hi, I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. We are live. This is your time to ask me anything. Ask me any question at all you have that relates to communication skills, personal development, and we are here for you. We're joined by my fantastic. Our fantastic community manager, Barb Tomlin Moss Miller is here. We'll be taking your comments, questions. You can always join us live and speak through our streamyard connection. You can also post your comments and we'll react to the chat in real time. If you're watching this on Demand and we've already finished the live cast, feel free to post your questions right Here, we'll answer them in the next one. We do come to you live every Single Thursday, typically 10:45am Eastern Time, New York time for about an hour. And it's an open free for all. So any questions you have, if you want to show videos of yourself, I'm happy to critique them. If you want to promote your YouTube channel or your Facebook, anything else, we're happy to promote it. If we can do it as a lesson for others on how to improve communication or as an example of great communication. So thanks so much for joining us. We've got Barb here, we've got Moss here. Hello to everyone and thanks for being a part of the community. Moss, we spoke earlier on our livecast on the Facebook group and I wanted to give you more opportunity to talk about your own journey as a communicator, as someone improving your communication and your immediate communication challenges in upcoming interviews. Now, you've been on a number of interviews. Now I want to know what specifically have you been trying to do to improve each interview?

Well, first of all, I think there was a lot of good hints on indeed itself. They have some tutorials about, especially about these video interviews, which are often the first step these days in the job hunt. For example, to remember to, you know, look at the camera certain times, not, not at the screen because that way you get better eye contact when you're talking.

Great tip. And you're talking about the website. Indeed.com I n d E-E-Com. Correct.

Right, right. As a matter of fact, they even had a feature, I don't know if they still have it, where you could actually look at some other people's resumes that, you know are your competition in this campaign or job hunt, you know, and see which ones you think are better than yours, you know, which, which are need a lot of work. And I've often helped other people with their resume because I've done some writing and I, you know, I enjoy editing and hunting out any typos because sometimes that, you know, there might be a typo in the resume and you don't realize it and that can hurt your chances of getting an interview, unfortunately. I mean, you know, with these job hunts, they're, they're trying, sometimes they're just trying to eliminate people. So a typo can eliminate you.

Well, that's sometimes, always because these days with the Internet, someone post a job opportunity on DEED or any other website, they've got 10,000 people automatically emailing it. So they have to figure out a way of eliminating 99.9, sometimes 99.99% of applicants. And certainly typos are a way of doing that. Moss, I want to commend you for helping people review their resume and look for typos. It certainly is important and a poorly written resume or one with typos can get you eliminated. But I also want to recommend to you and to others where you can really help someone get a job is by helping them prepare for their interview. Because remember, no one's hired or very rarely is anyone hired off a resume. The only thing a resume does is get you to the next level where you have an interview and everyone who got the interview. If 10,000 people applied and 10 people got the interview, everybody had a resume good enough to fulfill the job. So now it's up to how you communicate in the job interview. That's where I believe not enough people help their friends, family members, colleagues, prepare for the actual job interview. And the best way of all, frankly, is just to call someone on Zoom or some other online platform. Don't talk about the interview, don't talk about the job. Actually do an interview. Pretend if you're helping out a colleague or a brother or a co worker, prepare for a job interview. Actually take on the role of the interviewer. Ask them questions, record the whole thing. It's free up to what, 10 minutes on Zoom if you have a free account. And then watch it together. That's how you can. That's the equivalent of helping someone spot a typo in their resume. You can also help them essentially spot a typo in how they're interviewing. Because if they're doing something where, for example, if I'm looking down here at you the whole time, Moss, now I'm looking at you. If I'm doing an interview this way, I'm going to make a horrible impression because it's going to make the person interviewing me act like I'm ignoring them. Even though I'm actually looking at you. I'm ignoring the camera. Now, Moss, I do want to give one quick tip on what I something I think you can do to help your on camera presence when you're doing interviews through Zoom. I would really recommend you get rid of the digitized backdrop. I understand it's possible and in a pinch it's better than someone seeing a messy hotel room or something. But I just find it fuzzy and the pixelation around your head or when you move parts of your hair disappear, I just find it distracting. The other thing, and I know we've mentioned this before, Moss, I would Highly recommend you get some more light on your face. Now today you could argue I actually have too much light on my face. I seem to be over lit. But I'd rather you be over lit than under lit because right now it's just too shaded. I can't see your face carefully. And what is every horror movie have? It has the care, the character in the shadows. We don't want to seem like a shadowy figure when we're applying for a job. Now right now, I mean, I've got a full studio with all kinds of fancy lights, but right now I'm just using a ring light. I think it costs 20 bucks on Amazon. If you're trying to get a professional job, it's worth spending 20 bucks. But even if you don't do that, just get a lamp from your house, put it on the other side of your camera or your webcam, take the lampshade off and see how it looks. We need to see your face right now. I can't really see your eyes. I can't see your face clearly. I see Mahmoud has joined us. We'll be joining him in just a moment. But Barb, I'm wondering if you have any other thoughts you want to share with tips on how people can come across better when they are doing a job interview, especially if it is through an online platform like Zoom or I believe indeed even has one.

Well, personally, I think that more and more of the interviews are being done via online video. And I think it's really, really critical that everyone addresses their presence, their online presence via video before they go job searching. And I think also we're seeing in the country today people are living a lot longer. They're feeling more vibrant and alive in their 60 to 80's I was seeing just this last, this last week on Facebook, people were celebrating, they were, you know, doing things at 85 and I'm like, what? And they're online and they're making a fortune. So it's all about their presence. And some of them, because it was like, what is the magic that they have? And number one, it's the voice. And I think just like today, I'm coming on audio only. And if your presence, if you come across sincerely, that's absolutely essential. And the way to be able to master that is just simply participating in other live sessions. Just like what TJ is having here today on YouTube to jump in and just participate, to get over, you know, any hesitation that you have about being present, whether it's via audio or video. And I think it's because mas, we've been following your journey here for what, three weeks now, I think. And I think, you know, we've touched on, you know, the importance of the lighting and those kinds of things. There are just some basic elements that we all have about interference in our audio, that background noise. We have to be present, we have to be aware of what's going on around us before we press the button to participate. And as a prospective employer sitting there, they have all these applications they're looking at, and it's going to be that person that gets the job, the one who really stands out, because we all know that resumes can be manufactured, you know, and it's a question of. You sell the reality of what is on the resume through your voice and through your visual actions. So if you can. And there's also limitations because of bandwidth in certain areas that people can't really appear on video and they're restricted to audio that they have to. You know, your voice is the number one thing as you're coming out to shoot when you. When you're on the interview, and the warmth, sincerity of it and making your presentation and then go to your visual element, even if your visual. Just like I have, you know, an avatar icon today, even in those avatar icons that you pick, that's critical. And I noticed that in interviews of young people and they will put like their favorite game or rock star or something as their avatar and they're applying for a job. Don't do that. I mean, your voice is number one. You have that perfect opportunity to give that presentation to your prospective employer. And you can do that by voice first and by video second and following whatever rules that they have. Now, if it's a zoom meeting, the. That's a little bit different animal than what you have here in the live that we're streaming through YouTube. We have different tools to work with, but what we're expecting here on YouTube is that we're drawing from your camera directly. So you need whatever elements like you're able to. That's one of the features on this platform that we're using, streamyard. You can actually do what you're. The. The background, you can fade that out and so forth, but you need to pay attention. You personally need to pay attention to the control of your tools, your hardware and your software and your microphone and so forth. And all of that's important to a prospective employer because they're going to have to pay to have someone train you if they really want your core skill set. And you don't have those skill sets, then you're going to have to be trained. So if you have those other skill sets, so much the better. And quite frankly, I don't work for Udemy, but this is another pitch for that platform. There are very affordable classes you can get there to help you with that. So that's my story. And you know what? I don't think that anyone. My question to TJ is where we are in life today is how much prejudice you feel that there is in online job search. Because we have folks who are speaking English as a second language. We have folks of different ethnic backgrounds. And just like when we appear, like I'm here appearing on video. I'm sorry, on audio, you know me, you know my hair color, you know exactly what I look like. But you're my prospective employer, and we haven't met yet. You only have my visual icon, that icon to go on. And so that's again, why I was saying it's so important about even the audio icon we choose, because you can have a. You draw a specific conclusion on the impression of me through that icon that I use.

Great points, Barb. Thanks so much for sharing. And, you know, let's do something a little bit different in this session today, because I really want this not to be just a talk session, although we're clearly talking. I want people to really get improvement in their own lives. So we're going to go to Mahmud in just a moment. But here's the thing, Moss. I want you to get a lot out of this today. So here's what I'm going to ask. In about five minutes, I'm going to ask either Mahmut or Barb or both of them to actually interview you for a job. We're going to do a simulation right here. If you're up for it. Let's just do a simulation. And, Moss, what I want you to do is I want you to go find a lamp in the house and plug it in in front of you, because I want to see what you look like. I'm just seeing this shadow.

I have a lamp head and what I usually use this room when I'm interviewing.

And that's okay.

The sun comes right in, you know, so I get more.

The other thing is I want you to take. I want you to take the. There's three things I want you to do. Gets up to you. I want you to get a lamp and I want to see your face, number one. Number two, I want you to turn the digitized background off. I just want to See what? I don't care if it's the messiest room ever. I just want to get rid of the digitization. If it looks horrible, no employer will ever see it. Number three. I'm sorry, Barb.

Can he move to. He said that wasn't the setting that he usually interviews for a job on. Could he possibly just step out quickly and come back in in that environment so we can see even better? Let's be as close to real as we can.

Fantastic point. Bar. The third thing I want you to do. I want more energy in your voice. I'm not asking you to be Jim Cramer and yell and scream and be a hyperactive infomercial guru, but I am going to be very blunt with you. I want you to get a job. I want you to have the career you want. But the energy I'm hearing from you does sound a little bit like a tired old man. I want you to have energy in your voice. I want you to imagine you're with three of your best friends from high school and you're talking about some big game or something that's exciting you, and you're in a noisy restaurant and there's a birthday party over here and there's a band over here. You're not yelling at them, but there's more energy in your voice. That's what I want you to do. And let's. So if you need to sign off, we'll do that, but come back in five minutes or you can just leave it on. I'll take you off screen, but I want us to really see some tangible improvement. And you for. For you to get a lot out of this. So please, please get everything ready. Quick program note. At the end of our program, I'm going to be doing a deep dive analysis of the communication skills of somebody you might not be familiar with. Ali Abdal. He is a personal development YouTube sensation. He's only been on for a handful of years. He already has 4.4 million subscribers. He has a brand new book out that I'm or 4.8 million subscribers. He is a British doctor who's quit the practice of medicine because he's so wildly successful with his YouTube channel. And he is somewhat. Born in Pakistan, raised partially in South Africa, moved to England and is now one of the most wildly successful YouTubers. I think there's a lot to learn from how he speaks and how he speaks on camera. I'll be giving a deep dive analysis of his communication skills for the last 15 minutes or so of our live session. But first Up. He's been very patient. Let's bring on Mahmoud. How are you today? And bring your microphone on. If you could turn your microphone well. Oh, I didn't. Let's see. There you are. Mama, I'm not. You know, that's odd. I'm seeing you below, but I'm not seeing you on the big screen. Barb, did I do something wrong with our technology because I added him.

Yeah, something isn't going right because I can see him on camera in the green room down below.

Yeah. And let me, if you don't mind, Barb, I'm going to remove you and see if that changes anything. Huh? Now we've never seen that before. One of the beauties. Oh, we just lost him. So it may have been a connectivity issue. So for those of you watching and saying, well, you're on YouTube, what is this all about? We are using a platform called Streamyard that allows us to go live and not just read a text because that's kind of impersonal, but allows you to join us on video and audio so we can have a real conversation. Barb, I know you. You're the one who got me on Streamyard. Can you let people know a little more about streamyard, what it does, the innovation and why you find it a useful resource?

Well, I have been using Streamyard since its early beta days. I know both of the founders and before they even sold Streamyard and they are still, you know, they're the head of Streamyard for the new corporation. And I so excited about what they were able to do because they listened to us, to the creators, to their, their audience about the product that was developed and we needed a tool that was basically press and play and to be able to run that from our web browsers. So as long as you have a Streamyard account, a link to Streamyard, you can create a video and distribute it to multiple destinations. And the. They in Fact just passed 100,000 subscribers to their YouTube channel this last week. Had a big celebration and, and every Sunday the founders go live to support their customers and listening to them, what they want, what they need. So Streamyard is actually filled with all of those tools that were based on customer feedback. So just shortly, I, you know, it's just, to me, it's the best live streaming, web based live streaming tool there is on the market today.

So.

So I'm sold.

And I can tell you, I personally enjoy it. It's so much better than if we went live and all anyone could do is type in a little text because Then it's just TJ the whole time. And that can be a little boring. Or it would mean I have to bring guests into my studio, which logistically is so much more time consuming and so difficult and is limiting. Barb is not going to be convenient for you to fly from New Mexico or Oregon every week, come in. But we can join this way and see each other and hear each other. So I'm glad for that. Momin is back. We're going to go to him in one moment. But Barb, one quick question. I know that OBs I've used in the past that would let me go to sort of any platform I could stream live on Facebook and Twitter, I believe, and Twitch. I know that Streamyard lets us do Facebook and YouTube at the same time.

Are you going?

But if we want to, and I'm not saying I want to, can we also go live on Twitter and LinkedIn and Twitch?

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. All of that stuff you've got. We have all those alternatives through streamyard. But I can tell you, since Stream Yard was developed and through all that experience that we've had in live streaming, the more you stream to simultaneously the more issues you have and in taking care of your audience. So on each one of those that you choose to like, for instance, today we are every week on Thursday we stream this live from both our Facebook group, which is where our community base is, and to YouTube. And so back on Facebook I have that tab open, so I'm seeing what's happening there and on YouTube. And if anybody comments on Facebook, we can see it here inside the studio and bring those comments up. And I am not handling the community aspect as you will on YouTube. If there are live comments there, we see them on the screen. Just like the only comment we've seen so far today is this one. And just saying nice to meet you, nice to connect. And that's done through the comments that are directly on YouTube. So in every destination that you choose to stream simultaneously to, you need to have someone monitoring those comments so that their feedback while it be behind the scenes. And you can choose when you're live in the studio, you can choose to present them on screen. And this gets back to that icon thing is that if their icon is visual on the screen with the comment just like this from YouTube and you can see that he or she has chosen that icon and that's what's on there. And that's just another marketing opportunity for everyone. So it's very important to remember those great.

And I believe this is our good friend from Korea. We'd love to have you actually come on and say hello. So if you can, if you can connect with us, that would be absolutely great.

He needs to unmute his mic.

Yeah, mama, let's go to you now. And then again in just a few minutes, we're gonna do. We're gonna do a live simulated interview with Moss Miller and. Okay, how are you? Thanks for joining us.

Okay, I'm fine. So thanks for again allowing me to inter in the stream. So last thing, in the last stream you mentioned about. About some important aspect which is about putting more content in quantity on social media. So I have no issue creating more content and posting more video. But the only thing which is kind of burial for me is that I am little confused. Like what actually should I make videos about? Right. So I have different, you know, different knowledge about different subjects. Like freelancing. I did some. I read some books and some other stuff as well. So what exactly niche do I need to follow or in the beginning or I just need to put some random videos to in order to get some good at making videos.

So interestingly, you bring up this very topic because the gentleman whose video I'll be critiquing for communication skills, Ali Abdaal, addresses this a great deal. What he recommends for someone just starting out is don't worry about it, just do whatever you want. He says, no one's going to watch your videos anyway. It's what's more important is you get into the habit of making videos, that you learn how to enjoy it, that, that you learn how to. The process, that you learn editing, even if you're not going to do the editing in the long run to learn every step of the process. Because seven years ago he was doing blogs about his life and sitting around.

And some singing videos. Cover videos.

What's that?

I mean, he was doing like cover videos, Medical vlogs, like that.

Yes. So he's done a lot of things and then. Then he sort of fell into the niche of productivity and then he went deeper and deeper and deeper. So he's a big believer of you. You find your niche by exploring and by experimenting with a lot. I mean, I've done a lot of experimentation. I've done political talk radio shows and TV shows. I've done a lot of things. And this is the niche that it's a combination of. I like it, I'm good at it, and there's a strong demand for it. Some of those other niches I mentioned, I may have had two of Those, but I didn't have all three. So especially you're a young man, you may just want to experiment with different things, get in the game. And you may do, you know, 50 videos in the next six months. Three of them really take off. And it just so happens that, that two of those three are on a subject that you have a real passion for. Maybe it's a new passion, you decide to go deeper in that.

Yes. So I just want to get into this thing about making content instead of not worrying about that I should not look take eye into analytics in the beginning. So at least post some videos 50 to 60, then I will figure out like what's working and how people are responding to that thing.

If I heard you correctly, you shouldn't obsess over it and overthink what to do. Get into the game. You know, everybody wants to be Mr. Beast these days. So they're thinking about, well, how can I find 29 Lamborghinis to blow up? That's not where he started. He started in his bedroom, just his voice talking about, I believe, Minecraft. He did massive experimentation with all sorts of silly things and nobody paid any attention for about five years. It was the constant iteration, the constant experimentation and on his side, the quest to become just a tiny little bit better, 1% better for the next one. That's ultimately what made him succeed. So, Muhammad, I want to give you and sort of the new experience right here. I want you to interview Moss Miller for a job. We're going to bring him on. And mama, there's no pressure on you if you ask the dumbest question in the world. Doesn't matter because sometimes interviewers for jobs can ask dumb questions. If you forget what to ask and you repeat yourself, that's okay. Nobody's being judged on the quality of their questions. The only judgment is the quality of the answer. So I'm going to bring on Moss, I'm going to exit the stage and when I.

Hello, Moss, how are you?

Hey, good, how are you today?

I apologize, I may have accidentally removed my, my audio by doing that. So what I want to have happen is for Moss for you to just give in 60 seconds a basic summary of the type of job the industry just so mama has a general conception of what to talk about. And then I want to do a five minute interview. The other thing, Moss, I need you to really think of. Your backdrop looks fine. Your lighting is a little better. How close is the lamp to you? Because you're left.

The lamp is overhead. But I'm using The sunlight coming in from the window opposite me.

Okay, so my recommendation. Never use an overhead light. I have all my overhead lights turned off because that's creating. There. That's the second thing I was going to ask is your head was down here. Your head is way down here. It makes everyone look like either a little boy or a hunched over old man. That's not a good look for me. Your head should be touching or almost touching the top of the screen. It's still too low, so I need you to adjust. Yes. No, it's still. That's much better. Now, what we see is the left side of your face. What's your right side of the face is still shadowy because the sun's coming in from the other side. Can you move everything so the sun is in front of you? Is that possible?

No, because I'm. I'm using my wife's artist table, and it weighs a ton.

Okay. All right. So in the interest of time, we have to hop in. It is an improvement.

I have to get a fill light for over here. I see what you mean. Yeah.

Yes. You need more light on your face. Okay, I'm gonna be quiet. I'm actually going to exit. And, Mohammed, I want you just to keep asking him questions until I come back on and stop you. Moss, I want you in 60 seconds to give him a briefing. The number one thing I want from you, Moss, is I want you to sound excited about this job opportunity. I want you to sound excited about what you do. I'm not saying age discrimination doesn't exist, but there are a lot of people. Barb, you and I are old enough to remember Jack LaLanne. He was really active till he was about, what, 97 years old and doing talk show appearances and selling blenders and everything, because he was this whirlwind of action and energy. You don't have to be exactly like him, Moss, but I want more energy from your voice. Okay, Moss, go ahead and brief Mahmud right now on the industry position and what you're after.

Okay. Well, Mahmoud, nice to meet you. And I do feel some commonality with you, what your experience is, because I've been doing work as an IT contractor for over 20 years, and I've been very fortunate to work for some of the best.

I apologize, Moss, one second. Let's not. We're not going to start with a job interview yet. I just need you to give Mahmut a briefing on the type of company, the industry, so he can frame it with questions so that when I say start, he's Going to start off with, so tell me about yourself or why are you a good fit for this job? So I just need a back. I just need really 30 seconds of background for him. Tell him what industry you're in quickly and what type of position so he can formulate halfway intelligent questions. Okay.

Okay. Well, the industry is technology. My specialty is desk side support, and I've been doing it for many Fortune 500 companies in the Stanford, Connecticut area. But now I've relocated to Austin, Texas, and I'm looking to get an assignment in this market. You know, I had an interview yesterday, running.

All right, that's all the background I think we need. We're gonna hop right in. Do not stop talking until I come back on and say stop. I want us to get my full minutes down. And remember, Moss, your job is not to answer questions. Now you do have to answer questions. Your job is not to answer questions. Your job is to help Mahmoud decide. Not only are you great, but you're the best possible person for this job. And it would be a huge asset to his organization to bring you in. And you would be a joy to work around. That's your job. So a yes or no answer isn't. Is never fulfilling any of those things. So keep in mind, everything out of your mouth needs to be fulfilling those things, giving him reasons to hire you. So, for example, someone you know says, so can you tell me about yourself? Everything out of your mouth has to be relevant to why they should hire you. It's not. Well, I like to go fishing in my off time, and I went to this college and I was in this fraternity. Nobody cares about that at this stage. Everything has to be looked at through the lens of here's the question they asked, but here's really the question they're asking, which is tell me more information about why you're great for this job. Better than. Okay, I'm going to be quiet now. And mama, as soon as I get off, I want you to ask the first question. Do not stop talking for five minutes.

Okay? Hey, Mose. How are you? How are you doing nowadays?

Good. How are you today?

I'm also doing great.

I'm.

Nice to meet you. So tell me about yourself, what you are doing, and how is your life going on. Are you happy with your work or not?

Well, I've been. I've been very happy with the work I've been doing. I've been very fortunate back in the New York area to have worked for some of the major corporations like IBM, Pindi Bose, and doing what you know, IBM called death side support court, where you not only, you know, repair computers but you also help to alleviate some of the stress from some of these middle managers who come in, you know, their, their laptop isn't functioning properly. Okay, get it up and running.

I got you. So you are, you're saying that I am good at fixing the laptops or these IT items like laptop computer etc. So my question is that like why should I hire you? Because you have some experience and you can do that. But what's the some uniqueness point that, that, that make, that makes you different from other candidates that I have shortlisted so far?

That's a good question, Mahmoud. But the reason I've done so well is because working with middle managers, they tend to be in my age group. So you have, you know, some commonalities, experiences in life and you get to know these people not just as, you know, machines but as people, you know, because it's not the computer, it's the person that you have to associate with.

I truly understand using that you will be good at communication and dealing with clients and some upper members of the company. Right?

That's, that's exactly right. And in addition to working with middle managers, I've worked with everybody from workers on the factory floor who have to get certain reports out quickly and they don't. And for example, it's Stanley, Black and Decker. They didn't understand why some of these print jobs took so long. And the reason why is because the print server was like 500 miles away. So the job would have to go out over the network and come back to Danbury. And what I did for them is to show them it wasn't their printer that was slow, but it was just this network we had to deal with. And then we ended up addressing that very shortly thereafter to get that connection improve, improved with fiber optic so that these print jobs wouldn't take so long to complete. Because when you're on the factory floor, everything, you have a schedule for everything, you have to get that workout every day. You know, with Danbury, the helicoil division, you know like one commercial airliner has 300000 helicoils.

Okay.

Tremendous volume. So product they had to get out.

So you say that I'm good at solving the problems that actually comes in that particular area, particular industry. So yeah, that's a great thing and I really appreciate your, what your experience so far. So why did you get away from your last job, previous jobs, why did you, did they just fire you? Are you just you know, get away from that company by yourself. Is that the salary thing? What are the some, you know, cones or different negative points that. That shifted you to get away from that particular job?

Well, no, what happened was my last job in Stamford with Sinveo, a big printing company, and that contract ended. So my employer was actually TCS Tata Consultancy Services, and they wanted me to do another assignment in White Plains, New York for New York Life. And I had had some experience with New York Life years ago, supporting some of their equipment via IBM. And I worked for a company that represented IBM to New York Life. But my wife wanted to relocate to Austin for a number of reasons, so she didn't want me to take this other job. It wouldn't have been fair to New York Life, so. So that's why. That's not now, yo.

It seemed like it was your personal reason instead of professional reason, so I got you. Yeah, I truly understand. So let's say in my company, if I give some, you know, it's like if I give you some infected computer, PC or laptops, and. And if I give you some assistant, can you show us your work or can you work for trial to us for two to three days just to analyze your progress and what's the maximum exposure we can expect from you?

For sure, if you wanted to sample my work, I'd be happy to do a small project for you. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, working on a workstation, I'm a perfectionist. And whether it's one workstation or hundreds, each one has to be just so and. And tailored perfectly to the user's needs, his applications, his great. And so on and so forth.

All right, we'll stop right there. So, first of all, mom, and fantastic job of interviewing, one of the things you may actually want to consider is how to do sample rehearsal interviews with freelancers, since you're already talking about freelancing. So sometimes doing little experiments like this can open up opportunities you've never thought of. It's just an idea that popped into my head. So I'm going to ask mom at first for his reaction, then I want to ask Barb. But really, really two questions. Would you hire Moss? And what did you like about his answers? What stood out that was positive, interesting, useful. And then I will ask one third question, which is what's one suggestion you have for Moss on how he can improve for his next interview? So let's start with that again. First question, would you hire him? Number two, what positive messages stuck out as memorable? Number three, One suggestion on how you think he could improve Ahmed.

Okay, so firstly, thank you so much for giving this opportunity. To be honest, I really interview you know, very dearly to of two people. So yes, I would say I will. There could be two condition for hiring yes or no. If I say yes, the reason is he's willing to give his invest his time to show his work like to you know, show us some trial project for us. So I think if he has some confidence on his work, he has, he has some expertise, years of experience. So I believe this would be right candidate in terms of doing the actual work, the technical work. Right. Which is the actual skill for repairing the stuff. Right. Second thing, that he's good at communication and management about people, about some high rank people of company. So I, I think he will be good for that as well. But he need to understand our rules and regulation of company first. Right. What are the environment we are going to create? Right. What are the rules and regulation? How to communicate. Well, we need to basically like give us our environment. Right. Or give some lectures about that on weekly basis, something like that. And third question, like what's the suggestion? Like I like basically I would say if you can just add more energy energy in your voice and if you can be more little flow fluent in speaking and you can make a better eye contact then it would be more great rest. Everything is fine.

Great Mama, thank you for that analysis. And Moss, I do think you boosted your energy level some. I saw improvement, I heard improvement. But as mom had pointed out, boosting it even more I think would help. Okay, Barb, if you're. If you're with us and able to join us, we would love to your analysis if you are available.

I really think that it helped tremendously to move into the environment you're actually doing your interviews in. I, you know, it upped the game right away and I think the most important thing is bringing your energy to the table too. And of course TJ and Mama pointed that out. But I, at this stage of the game, I. And what you're doing, I. It's. You hit a hot button for me because you're in Austin. My brother worked and retired from Dale and I've had to do much in that area myself and I think you're gonna. You might be. It might be beneficial for you to get out and do some networking locally so that you can kind of warm up in the community, in the technology environment and whatever these potential employers are that you're addressing is man, do your homework on them beforehand because you are in a very competitive market and I don't think you'll be the prejudiced. There'll be an age prejudice in positioning. You have an awesome voice and that's what you know in tech support and what you're doing, it's really important to be, communicate well and you've got that going for you. So I, you know, I really think it's doable and I, but I do think, because when I was behind the scenes here, I was looking, I wonder if this is, I was on Google, searching, I wonder if this is still going on in, in use in Austin and that, and I mean there are technology networking groups. This Next on the 8th it says top tech at Torchy's Tacos in downtown Houston. You know, and there's all kinds of these opportunities on meetup for you to do that. And so I think it's something that you might want to explore just to help you socialize yourself in the environment. We're talking Texans here, Moss. I've had a lifetime of communicating with Texans and you gotta be big on your gestures and that smile is absolutely essential that it's coming through in your voice and in your presentation when you're actually on video. But you can do that and you.

Don'T have to wear a cowboy hat. But Barb is absolutely right. Barb does, yeah, it's sort of good to connect with people and yes, get out there and meet people and socialize. Now forgive me, I don't have these statistics right at my hand, but I, but I've certainly read that, you know, 30 years ago, 97% of jobs did not come through people answering one ads and sending in their resume. It came through personal connections, word of mouth, networking and that. Thirty years later, it's the same thing. So just because you can send 800 resumes out a day, it feels efficient. A lot of times you're much better off going to one networking event, having two in depth conversations with people, right. And one of that leading to a job because you're there. In Austin, there's so many startups they do not have the bandwidth to place an ad and filter through 2,000 resumes. And I can tell you this, as a small business owner myself, all of a sudden if I need someone, the thought of having to post an ad and get resume, it's overwhelming. So what do I do? I reach out to people I've already worked with, I've already partnered with, I've done some project with, I've done something with. I mean one of the things you may want to do is just start spending half of your time working in startups for maybe no pay or maybe slight small pieces of equity and then they get funding and then you get brought on. It's just an idea. But whatever you do, I recommend do not spend all of your time in front of a computer at home.

Right.

Sending out resumes.

I will just. I'm sorry, but Austin is a hot button for me. And honestly, Mosh, you got to do the networking in, in Austin to really get exceptional positions. When my brother, I helped open that door at Dell because I knew Michael Dell, you know, because of what I was doing at that stage of my life. But it was all about the people connection and Texas is really big on that. I can't stress it enough. And so meetup groups are. They're alive and well and it would be a great. Because they actually have, some of them actually have opportunities for, you know, just, just like what you did here virtually with Mohammed today is to be able to go through interviews, but you can get referrals from those groups that are golden. And I, you know, if you can just get in the door and I think that you will do extremely well.

And the beauty of Austin is it's, it's easy to network because there's like a 10 block by 10 block downtown area where everyone from the tech industry is going every night through fantastic bars, restaurants, clubs. So it's easy to meet people there. I've only been there three times, the last time during south by Southwest conference. It was fantastic place, place to meet people.

Yes. Lastly.

Yeah, nonprofit work is a, is a good way to do that if it's something, you know, closely like the technology and nonprofits to be able to make that connection through just some. If you're going to give time away, give it to a worthy nonprofit that's tied to technology. Look for that opportunity. So.

Okay, so can I say something?

Go ahead.

Sure.

Okay. Lastly, I would say you are doing very good and you have the skills that is required to actually get the job done. So as for communication, and communication, I would say fake it until you make it right. So do not, do not be like nervous or, you know, I'm also like you as well. Like, and, and I have, I don't have too much experience as you got. So you have the experience of my age. Right. So I would say like, I am speaking now, but I don't. If I don't have any, you know, internal motivation, I will just make it fake. Like people, people cannot judge. Is it fake or real. So fake it, the communication and, and the expression and keep a little bit smile and, and until you get into the point where you have the intrinsic motivation becomes so smart, so harder and get more so then, then you will be at some particular stage at that moment. Right. And secondly, I would say like you can obviously make network and make website about yourself, about your portfolio and you can promote it on Google business, right? To get the map of your, you know, address about your company or your office and read some books about businesses. Right. So there is a book I would say is 100 million offers. So it's a great book for getting leads and sales. So this will help you to become more, to generate more sales in your business and leads.

Great insights. Mohammed Moss, I just want to leave you with one final thought. It's something to just think about. I'm not telling you absolutely do this but, but I want you to at least consider addressing the elephant in the room and try to make perceived weaknesses into strengths. One of the things you can say to people is, you know, one of the advantages I have of having worked in this industry for decades is I've really learned patience. If I don't know the answer to something, I know sometimes it's the eighth Google search and the ninth video I had to watch on YouTube to find the answer that was buried in 23 minutes. And I have found with a lot of younger people, if they can't find the answer on a quick TikTok video in 30 seconds, they're just quick to call tech support. And if your tech support people are like that, then people get frustrated. So I think that one of my values that I bring here is I really have patience and I'm not afraid to just keep sitting, keep searching, looking for Google calling tech support if I another tech support if it's an outside vendor, until I learn the solution to help the person I'm working with. Something like that. We have to go. Thank you so much to Moss and mama and Barb and everyone. You're welcome. And our good friend from Korea who's with us. So thank you for all of you who stayed live. If you're watching this on demand, remember we are do this every Single Week Live, 1045 Eastern Time, New York Times on Thursdays and it's open, free for all. You can ask me anything. You never know what might happen. Today we did an actual simulated job interview for Moss and Moss, I would recommend you go back and watch this video. Fast forward to the section where you're on and really look at it and do a critical analysis of what did you like, what did you not like? What do you think was better? I want you to really use this so you get the most out of it. So please do that. Also, anyone watching, if you haven't already subscribed to this YouTube channel, please do. And we just went through a name change. It went from YouTube.com media training to YouTube.com j walkersuccess. So it's kind of the new brand since we're not 100 focused on media training anymore, but more broadly, communication skills and how you can use those to be successful in all aspects of your life. So please subscribe to the channel and please leave comments. If you got any value out of this today, Mohammed or Ma, leave a comment on the video. That would be the algorithm and everything else and getting more people to see it. So thanks so much. I'm going to go right now.

Little last question as content. Yes. So what do you suggest about scripting the video? Should I write word by word script or just make the important key points and explain in our own words?

You know, they're very successful people doing it both ways. A lot of wildly successful YouTubers and people who do video online, script every word, write it, rewrite it, tweak it.

Okay.

There's a young woman who's just a few miles south of me in South Florida who is one of the top people in the world for doing YouTube shorts. She does everything 33 seconds long. She writes and rewrites and rewrites the script and each one gets like, you know, 20 million views. That works for her. Someone like Ali Abdaal who we'll come up with in a moment. He's doing the structure, big points, but he's not writing out word for word. And someone like Gary Vaynerchuk doesn't script anything. And he is arguably one of the most successful social media stars in the world and has been for 17 years. I personally have tried both ways. I'm much more comfortable and much faster not scripting. But you can experiment both ways and you try something you might not, you might like and be more comfortable with scripting.

Yes.

I personally just don't like slowing it down and typing it and uploading it to the teleprompter, even though I have one right here. But everyone is a little different. You can experiment. Yes, Bob. And I'm sorry, we do have to go. I've got to hop right in with our final segment, but thanks for everyone stopping by. And again, please feel free to. To Continue. So now we're gonna do a segment. I'm making a quick, you know, note to my editor that this is something we want to pull in for a separate segment. We'll make this into to a separate video. And I forgot to keep sharing. Let me share my screen. And we're going to share this video with audio. And I'm going to give you my analysis of Ali Abdul. Okay. He's one of the top communicators online and a rising superstar in the world of social media. Ali Abdal. He has gone from being a university student and a medical doctor to being one of, if not the most successful productivity expert on YouTube. What can we learn from his communication skills? Let's take a look.

Hey, friends, welcome back to the channel. So this is one of my favorite books. It's called Someday is Today.

And it's one of the things you notice about him is he sounds like he's talking to one friend. He sounds like he's in a coffee shop just chatting away. And yet everything he says is highly intelligent, thought out, planned. Although he's not reading a teleprompter now, by background, he has 4.8 million subscribers as of the day we're shooting this. And his channel is growing astronomically. He's publicly on track to surpass last year's revenue where he made $5 million through various revenue streams. So he's, he's clearly highly successful, but he does have his own style. As you've noticed, he speaks relatively quickly. Let's listen more.

Filled with incredibly actionable, helpful, practical advice for achieving more of the things we want in life. It's written by an incredible guy called Matthew Dix, who has survived three near death experiences, including ridiculously bad car crash.

And also so look how he's leaning on his elbows. He's conversational, he seems relaxed. Now, this is a set in his own apartment in London. It's nicely lit, his face is very clear, but it's a relatively simple production. And he's typically just wearing a T shirt. He's at this point now what most people would consider very wealthy, grossing 5 million a year, netting a couple of million dollars a year profit. But he's not feeling the need to put on some Savile Row suit or show off fancy toys. But beautifully lit room and he keeps things relatively simple. His production is simple, nice background music, but he's not doing Mr. Beast videos way out and doing crazy things. He's really just talking.

So being held at gunpoint at the age of 22 and these experiences forced him to reconsider what he was doing with his life and what he achieved. And he went from being someone who was completely broke, living in his car and working at McDonald's to becoming a best selling author, world champion storyteller and award winning journalist.

I would so in this part he may actually have this written out as a script because in my mind this doesn't sound completely conversational. But but for the vast, vast majority of his videos, he does sound like he's just having a conversation. And that means pauses, repetitions, thoughtful asides and that's what makes him interesting to listen to. Whether he's doing a two minute video, 30 second short or a two hour podcast, it's always conversation.

Sure that I was going to die that day and I will.

We'll fast forward and a note to my editor when we're turning.

These are seven tips that will help you.

We'll cut that part out now. He does have nice simple use of graphics that spice up the talking head video, but he doesn't overwhelm people with graphics.

Achieve more of what you want in life. Let's get into it. Tip number one, the parking lot practice. So when I first started writing my book Feel good productivity. I felt like I had to do it in the right environment.

So look at the natural smile and the movement. He's not having the book image just show up automatically. He's not afraid to stop, pick up the book and show it to people. By the way, I've pre ordered his book, not a review copy, I gladly paid for it. I am going to do another video shortly where I predict his book will become a number one New York Times bestseller and a number one USA Today number one Wall Street Journal bestseller and presumably the top of the bestseller list in London as well because he such a powerful communicator and has done such an excellent job communicating with his audience and building a true community of people who care about his ideas. So I can't recommend the book by saying it's great content. But having looked at his content and watched it for now only a few months, but hundreds of his videos, I can't imagine that it's not going to be a great book. And I feel very confident in predicting it is going to be a huge runaway bestseller.

Felt like I had to go into a coffee shop and have my little latte next to me and my headphones on and I wanted the environment to be perfect. Otherwise, you know, for some reason I felt this writer's block.

And he always is moving his hands. One of the biggest myths out there is that good communicators, professional communicators, shouldn't move their hands. He uses his hands almost like a symphony conductor. They're always moving. They're high, low, wide, and they are very expansive in their movement.

And I felt like I couldn't do.

This in a way that makes them seem completely comfortable, confident, and relaxed.

But Matthew's approach to this is completely different. And his approach has actually changed the way that I approach my creative work. And I think you can get a lot of value from this as well. And one of my favorite quotes from the book is that productivity is not as pretty. Now, we've all seen those examples of, like, you know, the students that are, like, doing the notes in, like, the most elaborate, colorful method possible. We've seen the sketch note.

See that? This just does not sound scripted. He's living it. He's sharing it. His hands are moving. He's not afraid to look down in the moment. So everything he's doing is coming across as conversational and relaxed. Now, interesting thing about his voice. He does technically speak faster than I typically recommend to people, but he speaks in such a clear way, such a distinctive way. And by putting his pauses in proportionally the right way compared to his other flow, it's easy to understand. Most of the time, many people speak quickly, even the same speed as his. And it's hard to understand because all blurring together. He will rush occasionally, but he's not afraid to pause and slow down. It's that variation in his speed that makes the whole context of it still work and come across well, no, we've.

Seen all these people with their, like, incredibly pretty desks and everything, and it just looks like such a productive vibe, and it looks very pretty. But the point that Matthew is making is that true productivity does not have to look pretty. And the example that he talks about in the book is where he was early for a dentist appointment, and so instead of just sort of waiting in the car or, like, scrolling TikTok or whatever the thing was, instead of doing that, he decided to just sit on the side of the road in the parking lot, get out his laptop, and continue writing some more of the novel that he was working on.

So, great lesson for all of us. He's not going out and hiring a film crew and spending a fortune making a movie. This is simple B roll that anyone could get. But he's not relying on just talking kid. He is illustrating his key points, giving his examples. But there's a simplicity to it. He's really just talking, he's delivering insights. Now he has his own sites a lot, but he also delivers the insights of productivity books and books on habits that he admires and respects. But he does it in a way where it doesn't sound like just a boring book review. He's delving into the insights, giving practical examples and doing it like what I would imagine your smartest friend from college and you haven't seen in a few months and you get together for coffee, hey, what's new? This is that guy who's really smart, really interesting and you want to listen to it. And even if you're busy for another appointment, you're like, hey, do you have time for another coffee? Because this guy is just fascinating to listen to. And it's not because he is younger, better looking than I am, but it's not because he's the best looking guy or the tallest or most muscular or any of that. It's because of his ideas. And you hear in the tone of his voice a passion for the ideas. And you hear in the tone a passion for sharing those ideas to help people get better. And that's why he is such a compelling communicator.

Working on during here's one thing you.

Need to do before buying so Ali Abdaal is a fantastic communicator. I would highly recommend if you want to improve your own communication skills, especially if you aspire to be an online communicator on YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, any online platforms. Spend a little time watching this guy because he has gone from nowhere to superstar status in a relatively quick period of time. And here we are in Now, November of 2023. A couple of years from now, he may be a household name. I certainly think he's on par with getting up with the James Clears of the world, the author of Atomic Habits, who has sold his book to tens of millions of people. I can't predict that Ali Abdaal's book is going to be that successful, but I do predict it's it's going to be a huge international bestseller. In part not because it's the best written book and it might be the best written book, I haven't read it yet. But because of his ability to speak, his ability to communicate on a daily basis with people all over the world who watch his videos. So for that reason I do recommend that you learn from him, watch him regularly. Not to copy him or mimic him, but to get ideas on how you can communicate even more effectively. And also, frankly it's just great motivation. I mean, here was a guy who did everything the traditional way. He was an immigrant. He was born in Pakistan, spent time growing up in South Africa, then moved with his family to Great Britain. Excelled in school. He's obviously highly intelligent. Number one in his class. Graduate from Cambridge Medical School, had a job as a doctor in the British system, making by his accounts about $35,000 a year. Started doing as a side hobby. But it grew and grew and grew and grew. And all of a sudden he's like, I'm making a million dollars a year on YouTube. $36,000 a year as a full time doctor. I think I'll go and deeper, I think I'll go deeper in YouTube. And he abandoned his medical practice or his job as a Doctor to go YouTube full time. And it certainly seems like it's working out well for him because he is, I believe, helping millions of people all around the world with his insights, his motivation and his helpful productivity tips. So check him out. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks so much for joining me. Thank you. If you got any value out of this, please like this video. Subscribe Sign up for notifications. Share the video if you don't like YouTube and someone drug you here to watch this but you like Facebook or something else, I do post videos every single day on basically every major platform. So Whether you're on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, if you could search for TJ Walker success, you will find my channel or my home on that platform. Please like it there? Subscribe to it there. Leave comments there. Thanks so much. I'll see you next time. Bye.