Ep 190 Public Speaking Lessons from Chewbacca Mom July 8, 2016

Chewbacca mom has been seen by more than 150 million people. And she's made half a million dollars from just one video. What's going on here?

Speaking the show about effective speaking in public to the media at work and.

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Speaking with TJ Walker.

Now, you might have missed it. I didn't see it the first few weeks it happened. This is an intriguing sign of our times. I don't necessarily mean a bad sign, but it is something that you just would have never heard of. Ten years ago, 20, 30, 40 years ago, there is a woman named Candace Payne who lives in Grand Prairie, Texas. She made a very simple video. She was in her car coming back from Kohl's. She put on a Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a character from Star wars. If you're not a Star wars fan. And I'm not a huge Star wars fan, although I've seen movies. I've seen the movies and I knew what Chewbacca was. She posted a video Facebook on May 19th of 2016. It quickly became the most watched Facebook Live video ever. It went to 150 million. I don't even know how many views it has now. It has so many views, it's been shared millions and millions of times now. This video got so much attention that sponsors started giving her things. Kohl's gave her thousands of dollars worth of product. Because she mentioned Kohl's and talked about them in a nice way. That's where she got it. Disney World has given her trip. She's become a mini celebrity. She's been invited to go on all kinds of late night talk shows, morning talk shows. I mean, this woman has become celebrity now. I watched the video. I'm hard pressed to even describe the video to you. You'd have to just, just Google or go on Facebook, Chewbacca mom or go on YouTube Chewbacca Mom. And you will see this video. And she comes across as just sort of a nice, mildly eccentric, friendly, little bit goofy mom who's having a little bit of fun. Now, to me, the fascinating thing is if she had done that in a blog post, if she had written would not have received 150 million views. I seriously doubt it would have had even 150 page views. There's something different about this experience. Watching it, hearing the funny voice, hearing her talk about it, getting a sense of who she is in a video form that you just don't get from text. Why is that so important? And what does that really mean to most of us? I'll share those thoughts in a moment.

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So what's the lesson here folks? Is it that we should all quit our jobs, sit around, do one silly stupid video doing something goofy once a day and make half a million dollars a day? Is that the lesson? No. Anyone tells you they know how to do that, they have a code to do that. They're lying to you. They're trying to fool you. They're trying to steal your money. Truth is, it's very hard to predict these things. A lot of it, frankly, is luck. A lot of it is random. And it's extraordinarily hard to set out to do a video that's going to go viral and you'll be rich and famous. Doesn't mean you can't try to be clever or entertaining from time to time. But it is extremely hard to that's not what this woman tried to do. It just happened. So I do not think that is a viable business strategy to just go out and make a wacky video. Unless you've been training and have a lifelong passion for comedy, you don't mind making nothing for the first five years. That's a different issue. To me. The bigger issue here is simply the power of speaking and the power of video. It's not that this woman said anything wildly profound. It was just the sort of fun that she exuded. The zest for life, the slight zaniness, the sense of she's a good mom, cares about her kids, but wants a little fun for herself. And there was just nothing artificial about it. There's nothing fake or phony about it. It was just so real. Guess what? That's something you need to exude. Even when you're giving a so called serious formal business speech to your board of directors. The more you can seem real, the more you can seem like you're simply having a conversation and sharing something that other people might find useful. Those are good qualities. Whether you're Chewbacca mom making a silly video that's seen by 150 million people, or you are giving a Monday morning staff meeting to five colleagues simply exuding the sense that you're a real person, that you're comfortable that you're talking to someone in the moment that you're not giving them some big sales pitch and that you want to share something with them that can enhance life and make it easier, better for them. Those are good qualities that all speakers can benefit from. To me, that's the real lesson from Chewbacca Mom. The other thing that did strike me as fascinating is the difference in audiences on various platforms. Because at the time I checked out her video, it only had 50,000 or so views on YouTube, and yet it has more than 150 million views on Facebook. So part of what that tells me is don't limit yourself to any one platform. That's why with this show that you are listening to or watching now, you can listen to it on itunes, stitcher, and about 20 different audio platforms. I am on YouTube where most people who do watch it on video find it. But I don't just put the YouTube video on my Facebook page, on my Facebook business page. I actually upload the video directly to Facebook so that it's on Facebook's platform and not just a link back to YouTube because Facebook wants to encourage people to stay on Facebook and they make it go live, not live in real time. But if your mouse is over it or you're on my page, you'll see the video running as it does for anyone. And I also post my videos on Flickr, Vimeo, dailymotion, and a few other sites because again, you just don't know each medium is different. What works in one medium might not work for another. What works on one platform doesn't necessarily work for another. The final big thought I really want all of you to think about is really how simple it is to make video. You've heard me say this before. I try to practice what I preach by coming to you with a new video audio seven days a week. But this woman has reached 150 million people. She didn't spend money on a TV crew or camera crew, lighting, makeup crew, any of that. To me, it looks like she just threw up a cell phone and captured the video. And it's just more power. You reach a lot more people that way. So how does that apply to the rest of us? Believe it means anything you do where you're communicating with someone, especially if it's in text, do it in video as well. If you're thinking of emailing a text proposal to a prospect, why not do a video now? I'm talking against my own self interest now. Because one of the competitive advantages I've had in the last three years or so is every single prospect who reaches out to me. They've never heard of me. They just say we found you on Google. We want a proposal for a day of presentation training or a day of media training. What I do is I give them a personalized video every time. Now I only spend two minutes doing it and it's not nearly as funny or entertaining as Chewbacca Mom. And I'm not wearing a Star Trek or a Star wars mask either. But you know what? To those prospects, they like it because no one else is sending them a video. Everyone else is sending text. So to me, this is just another reminder that people like video doesn't mean you shouldn't do text. And by the way, I should mention one of my books has just been re released and it's on Sale now for only 99 cents. Secret to foolproof Presentations is on Amazon so I'm still in favor of text. But there's nothing like the power of video and Chewbacca MAM shows. You don't need fancy production, you don't need script writing, you don't need editing. Just talk. Say something interesting or say something fun. Do that. You might not reach 150 million people, but you will reach people. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me today. As always, may all of your presentations in life be a huge success.

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