Ep 121 How Does Elon Musk Rate as a Public Speaker April 30, 2016

How does entrepreneur Elon Musk rate as a public speaker.

Speaking the show about effective speaking in public to the media, at work and in life Speaking with TJ Walker.

So this is a question emailed to me from a regular listener and viewer of the program writes in tj, I'd be very interested in hearing your opinion of Elon Musk, the famed entrepreneur. His speaking abilities. He does not have a dynamic speaking style and he even looks uncomfortable speaking before a crowd. But I don't think his audience cares because his content is so good. When he did the unveil for the Model 3, I found myself wanting to get on the list to buy one and apparently a lot of other people thought so as well. I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on what Elon Musk does well and what he does poorly. Thanks. Well, and forgive me, I'm not going to put clips of Elon Musk speaking in the audio portion of the show or the video portion of the show. The rights to secure something like that can be prohibitive and time intensive and I don't want to get into any rights battles. So I would ask you to simply go to the easiest way. Go to Google and go to YouTube. Type in Elon Musk on YouTube and you'll see him speaking in a variety of situations. The number one thing Elon Musk does right when it comes to speaking is he has something interesting to say. Fantastic electric car, self driving cars, solving the world's energy crisis, solar power, batteries, bullet trains. This is a guy who consistently has interesting ideas. That is his number one strength as a speaker and that frankly covers a lot of other flaws. There are plenty of people in the world who go to Toastmasters and I'm not against Toastmasters. I'm all in favor of Toastmasters. But there are many people who go to Toastmasters and work and work and work on the form and the craft of speaking, but they never have anything interesting to say. They're never going to get a huge platform the way an Elon Musk does because they simply don't have ideas interesting enough, different enough to strike most people as captivating or worthy of time. Elon Musk is doing big things. He has had a tremendous track record as an entrepreneur and just the audacity, the scope of what he goes for with his business ventures is quite awe inspiring. Even if you don't like some of his products, even if you haven't been a fan of investing with him, there's still something big there. Aristotle wrote thousands of years ago that when you're judging a speaker, there's really three things you need to look at. There's how they speak, there is what they're saying, and there's who they are as a person. And what Elon Musk has going for him is that who he is, his track record of success precedes him into the room. People have such a respect for him that they pay extra close attention. Many people consider themselves huge fans of his, think he's a genius and are predisposed to listening, listening carefully. Those are huge assets you have as a speaker. Anytime you can get that, the next thing he has is the content. He is delivering content, whether it's about luxury, high end battery operated cars, whether it is about self driving cars, whether it's about bringing solar power to the masses, he consistently has the content. Now, where I would fault him is the form. He does seem, to my eye anyway, nervous when he speaks. There's stammering, there's uhs and ums. He doesn't have the poise, the composure, the movement of an Anthony Robbins, or for that matter other business speakers like Steve Jobs, or for that matter Warren Beatty. But he still is a commanding speaker. More on that in just a moment.

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If you YouTube search for Elon Musk and see his most recent speech, one of his product unveils, he had something that I do see more and more of. It wasn't just a PowerPoint screen with one image. It was what appeared to be a 20 foot tall screen all the way across a stage that looked like it was 60ft. Very, very dramatic. Lots of colors, special effects, dramatic. And you see him walking on the stage, certainly it brings some razzmatazz to a new product launch. I don't want to sound like I am denouncing it for most people. However, it won't mask the fact that if you have a boring speech, the special effects and razzmatazz won't actually help. I don't think it hurt him. And frankly, when you have his success record with businesses, with bringing in investors, with financing, you don't need to be a better speaker. Elon Musk speaks perfectly well for what he's trying to do. He's not trying to be a motivational speaker on the circuit and have people give standing ovations just for everything he says. He's speaking for business purposes, to put a spotlight on his products, on his services, on his New developments. He's doing an excellent job. The reason I think this is so important for people to realize is if you actually look at any 12 minute stretch of his, you'll see things that you would say, well, that's a problem. Oh, he said. He said his movement was a little awkward. He stayed in one place for too long. He stammered a little. Yeah, that's okay. Don't worry about it. I see so many of my clients around the world fixate on the fact that they said an ah or an um or stammered for two seconds. That's not what you should worry about. Focus on the bigger things, having great ideas and bringing passion to it. People will forgive the other minor little blunders. Now, it's not that you should look at him and say, well, he stammers and says, ah, no. So I should stammer and say, ah, no, no. That's not the lesson at all. Because chances are you are not as great of an investor and as a business person and as a CEO as Elon Musk is. Chances are you don't have the net worth and you haven't created as new many businesses and employed as many new people as Elon Musk has. And therefore, the flaws you put forth in your presentation aren't going to come across the same way as his flaws. He has so many strengths that outweigh the flaws. His flaws, in my view, just don't matter. Any room he goes in to speak is going to be standing room only because people are fascinated by him and his story. This leads me to the real lesson of Elon Musk. I do get a lot of people contacting me all over the world. Tj I want to be a speaker. I want to be a professional speaker. And my answer to them is, fine, there's nothing wrong with that as a goal, as an aspiration. But the speakers who have the most impact, the speakers who have the largest audiences, speakers who are frankly paid the most, are people who never in a million years thought of themselves as professional speakers. They are people who set out to accomplish a goal. They had a huge, huge goal. They accomplished it, and they had a huge success. They then speak about their challenges, what they did to overcome those challenges, how they succeeded, and they have lessons for other people. Those are the people who are in most demand as speakers. Doesn't matter if you're Richard Branson. Doesn't matter if you're Elon Musk, Gary Vaynerchuk, none of those people. I guarantee you, if you'd gone up to them when they were 15 years old, said, you know, what's your career ambition? Oh, I want to be a professional speaker. No, that's not what their goal was at all. Their goal was, was to accomplish something in the business arena, and they did that. So if you want to be a great speaker, it's not enough to have the hand gestures just straight and the eye contact for 2.2 seconds and to never say ah. And, um, you can do all of those things and never rise above the level of mediocre speaker. You want to be a great speaker, you have to have truly interesting ideas, and you have to accomplish something that your audience respects. I don't mean to sound like it has to be financial. You don't have to be a billionaire. You could be a neighborhood volunteer. And you cleaned up an old empty lot on your street corner that was an eyesore for 20 years. And everyone else in your neighborhood that you're now speaking to really, truly respects that and appreciates that you now have stature and credibility when you're speaking to your neighborhood group. So by no means does it have to be purely financial or business success, but it does need to be about something you've done that your audience can relate to and that they respect. If you do that, believe me, they're going to forgive any other blunders you make, the occasional or your shirttail hanging out, or any of those things. Have a great idea. Talk about how you've actually made a difference in the world with your ideas. Share it with passion. And if the uhs and ums come out, it's really not going to matter. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. May all of your presentations in life be a huge success.

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