Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Delivers Media Training Masterclass

Actor Dwayne the Rock Johnson is a master at dealing with the media. Let's take a look at one of his recent clips posted on Instagram.

Everybody, I got some pretty good.

He starts off with a big, happy smile. Always a smart thing to do.

Good updates for you regarding our People's Fund of Maui. Got some great news.

He's focusing on the positive now. He's been criticized in the weeks leading up to this for being a part of a fundraising scam in the eyes of his critics. And yet he was very, very positive to not start off defensive, negative in any way.

Some awesome news, actually, that I'm very grateful to share with you guys.

And the news is this talking about things being awesome. He doesn't look down. He doesn't look angry. He doesn't look upset.

Thousands and thousands of survivors, the families they have now over the past couple of weeks started to receive their first round of fun.

He's coming across as very conversational. He does not appear to be using a teleprompter. He doesn't sound memorized. He's not glancing down at the script. He's just talking as if he's talking to one friend.

They're receiving their money and I got to tell you, it's been the most.

He has good lighting on his face. He appears to be holding his cell phone, doing this. So not coming across like some big fancy movie star who's got a big TV production set there doing it just like anyone else would in a backyard, perhaps on his cell phone. His head is moving, his face is moving, and that makes him look more comfortable, confident and relaxed.

The most gratifying and moving thing is receiving all the messages, all the videos and the messages from the.

He comes across as humble. He says it's gratifying. He's talking about the positive experience this has been not complaining about. How dare anyone criticize me. I donated $5 million. There's no sense of feeling sorry for himself.

Coming through, survivors from the families, of course, who, whose. Whose lives have been devastated by the horrific fires.

Great focus on message. He's trying to keep attention away from the controversy around his fundraising efforts and instead focusing on actual victims of the.

Crisis that hit our island of Maui. Thank you guys so much for the incredible messages. I realize right away of what this actually means.

He's coming across as empathetic, emotional. He says, I realized right away his hand motions are in sync. Now he only has one hand to move because the other one's holding the phone, but it's coming across Very genuine and making him seem more likable means.

And what it, what it to all of you, as all of you have expressed to me, is that this is.

A step all of you have expressed to me. So he's moving his hands in sync with his message. So he's not holding papers or just holding all the technology. The hand movement is very much in sync with what he's saying. That makes him come across as more sincere, more comfortable and confident.

This is a step, and for many of you, it's the first step and getting back up on your feet and, and, and taking those first couple of steps of life and, and getting your life back.

And very descriptive language. He's talking about the story of the people who had their lives devastated in the fires in Maui. He's telling the story of other people in need. He's not talking about how he has, I'm sure, in his view, been unfairly attacked for trying to do a good.

Thing, taking control back of your life and what that means. So thank you so much.

He's not trying to make it perfect. He didn't go back and have his team edit out the there. He left the in very important. It makes the whole thing seem unscripted, unedited, and that is more powerful for your incredible messages.

I'm so grateful that you.

He doesn't just say he's so grateful, he's showing it. The smile across his face, the head movement, everything is in sync.

You guys have started to receive your first round of funds. I also want to take a moment to acknowledge all the messages that I did receive because I pay attention to everything and I take receipts. I keep.

So here he's talking about the controversy. So we're a minute and a half in to his four minute video and only now does he surface some of the tensions related to the criticism of his involvement in this fundraising effort.

Seats is when we first launched the fund, there was some backlash that came with launching the fund. And I want.

So he is acknowledging he's not just sweeping it all under the rug. He's not saying everything is great. He's acknowledging there was in fact a backlash.

I want to address and acknowledge that backlash right now. And here's what I have to say.

About so very important wording. I want to address and acknowledge. He's not saying, I agree with the people who said I was awful for trying to raise money and donating $5 million of my own money. But he says, I want to acknowledge it and recognize people for their opinion. So very important, subtle way he did.

That, that I get it and I completely understand and I could have been.

So again, he says, I get it, I understand. Doesn't say I agree. He's not saying he thinks he was wrong because that wouldn't come across as very sincere. How could he realistically say he was Wrong for donating $5 million to help needy people better?

And next time I will be better.

I could have been better. So that is showing his critics, hey, I've listened to you. I am responding in some way. You have some validity now. He's not saying I should have given my entire net worth. He's not saying I should have given a billion dollars. He did, if reports are accurate, give $5 million. But he says he could do better. Well, anybody could do better. I could do better at this. Anyone could do better at anything. So it's a positive statement and yet hard to pin down for further criticism. How do you think Dwayne Johnson is doing in this video? Post do you like it or not? Post in the comments below. You're getting any value so far from this video. Smash the like button right now.

And I understand, you know, money ain't falling out of the sky and it's not growing on trees.

Not afraid to use the word ain't. He's coming across as colloquial. It doesn't sound like a lawyer wrote this to get him out of a jam. So he's coming across as down to earth.

And there's a lot of people out there who's living paycheck to paycheck.

Great empathy. He's talking about people who are poor, living paycheck to paycheck and don't have a lot of extra money to donate to people who are victims of a fire.

And I get it. And I know what that's like. I've lived paycheck to I get it.

So again, he's not saying, I agree with you and I was wrong. He's saying, I understand your viewpoint and what made you upset and angry.

Paycheck. Seven bucks. I know. I know what that's like. And when you are living paycheck to paycheck, I don't want to speak for.

Every I know what that's like. So he's exuding tremendous empathy with the people who criticized him. So he's not telling them they're wrong. He's not fighting. He's not debating. Typically, unless you're on a political talk show, you don't ever win by fighting. He is recontextualizing, putting things in perspective and showing empathy, which is one reason why he's such a popular entertainer.

Everybody, I'll speak for myself, but I feel it's connected when you're living paycheck to paycheck. I was easily pissed off and I.

Was frustrated, using very simple language, emotional language, letting people know he can relate to their fears, concerns and anger.

And the last thing you want to hear when you are living paycheck to paycheck is someone asking.

So now he's voicing the actual concerns of his critics. This is extraordinarily powerful because it's very difficult to continue to be angry with someone when they are telling you exactly how you feel. So much of what makes people angry is the sense that you don't understand my feelings. And he is expressing right there that he knows exactly what people are feeling and why they're angry, even though he's not saying that he necessarily did anything wrong.

You for money, especially when the person asking you for money already has a lot.

So he's showing self awareness here. He knows he's rich, he knows that we know he's rich. And he's not trying to hide that. So he gets some points for that out of money.

So I get it. I understand. I've never launched a fund before, but I'm a quick study and lesson learned.

So he's saying he's learned lessons, he's admitting he was in fact ignorant on fundraising before, and he's essentially thanking people for showing some criticism and helping get him.

So thank you. And I also feel that's one of the greatest things about my social media platforms and the transparency that we have and the relationship that we have that we keep it real.

So again, there's the occasional snapping. He's not doing it too much. The head movement, the face movement. He's really coming across with great empathy. You get the sense that he really does have genuine affection for his fans, his audience, people coming to watch him. He has hundreds of millions of followers on Instagram, and this is one of the reasons why he's not afraid to speak directly to people. In this modern era, media training is so much about doing exactly what he did right here. Picking up the phone and speaking to your audience, speaking up to your fans, not going through publicist, not demanding final cut over an edit for removing a quote in Vanity Fair, but talking directly to people. And this is why Dwayne the Rock Johnson is a master communicator. If you're trying to improve your own presentation skills for when you're speaking to the media on Instagram, YouTube or CBS, then you may want to consider going to our High Stakes Presenter program. Click the link below in the description and it's on the page now. High stakespresenter.com for a free presentation training online course to help you. Now if you really want to know how to master the media, we don't have time right here to talk about the messaging process, the sound bite process. That's why you're going to want to go and watch this complete Media Training A to Z video right now. If you want to build your own communication skills media skills, then smash the subscribe button right now and click for all notifications.