Ep 222 Will Your Clothing Color Affect Your Speaking Audience August 9, 2016

Does the color of your clothing affect your speaking audience?

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

One of our Regular viewers on YouTube writes in e writes in with this question. Does the color of your clothing affect the audience, your speaking audience? It could if you have something that's really, really distracting. The rule of thumb, I believe, for color and clothes in general is that what you're wearing shouldn't distract your audience and it shouldn't confuse them as to who you are and what you're about. If you are a photographer, let's say you're a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer of war zones, it's going to be kind of confusing to your audience if you're wearing a traditional banker's business suit and pinstripe because it just, it's not what people associate with a photographer in war zone. If you are a conservative, straight laced value mutual fund manager, having jeans and a Hawaiian shirt is probably going to confuse people too. So the main thing you need to do is think about what am I trying to communicate and then what is it that the audience is going to expect from me in someone in my role? Now I work with bankers and billionaire hedge fund managers. I also work with dairy farmers. So I don't tell anybody this one size fits all. You've got to dress appropriately. The dairy farmer's jeans and work clothes and boots are a lot better than a suit and tie. There are some things you do need to take into consideration when other variables are involved. So let's say, for example, you're speaking at a national convention and there are going to be a thousand people in the room. Most of them might not actually be looking at you. They might be looking at a big screen, a jumbotron, an imag image magnification up above you. Sometimes the left, sometimes the right. Sometimes in the middle of a big convention hall. That means they're getting, they're not actually seeing you, they're seeing a video image of you. So now we do have to take into consideration issues involving the video camera and distortion. Several things I do recommend people avoid anytime they're going to be in front of a video camera, whether they're speaking to a live audience and it's the image magnification, or if they're going to be on TV or doing any kind of video interviews. Avoid white. It tends to be too bright, becomes the dominant thing on the screen. You want your face to be dominant. You want people to focus on what you're saying. Not necessarily Something that's brighter than anything else. Black can be too hard to light. It can be too dark. Black can Outfits can be slimming in real life. On video, it can actually make you look heavier because you don't see where the body ends, the arms, where the torso blends into the arms. If you're sitting in a chair, for example, you can blend in. Sometimes it looks like just a floating head. So I would avoid black. Bright red can bleed and pixelate on a video camera. Stripes, herringbone, complex patterns, small patterns can just get fuzzy. It's not the end of the world, but if you're getting fuzzy on a screen, it's just distracting. If you're not going to be on a Jumbotron, if you're giving a speech to 20 people and you want to have a herringbone jacket or dress or outfit, then by all means, I don't think that's a problem. The main rule of thumb though, again is you don't want to confuse your audience. You don't want to distract them. You want them to focus on who you are. And certainly if you're the chairman of Benetton and you're a clothing company all about color, well, you better not have a bland, boring color. You better have some really interesting, beautiful colors standing out. Most of you are listening to me on itunes now or one of the other podcasting features, but this is also a video show on YouTube seen on Flickr and Facebook. So you may have noticed I'm wearing a somewhat boring, bland tie. It's kind of a dark, dark blue tie. It's not a white shirt. It's an off white shirt, has a light blue tint to it, but by not being white, it isn't quite as dominant or bright. I have a gray suit on. Is this the most exciting clothing? No. I just don't want people to notice my clothing. I want them to focus on what I'm saying. And since so many of my own customers and clients do work in traditional banking, finance, government and they wear suits, I dress the same way. So that's why I'm dressed this way. It works for me. It may be a horrible strategy for you, depending on what niche, what industry you're in. More questions in just a moment.

Do you have a speaking related question for number one USA Today best selling author TJ Walker? For more than 30 years, Walker has been a public speaking coach and media trainer to presidents of Countries, Prime Ministers, CEOs, Nobel Peace Prize winners, professional athletes and Ms. Universes. Send your questions to infoediatrainingworldwide.com or on Twitter JWalker.

Question coming in from the YouTube channel TJ what do you do when you throw up on camera? I saw this question. I thought I was being goofed. What a ridiculous question. But then I remembered, oh, yeah, President George H.W. bush was famously photographed and video recorded throwing up. I believe he was at a state dinner in Japan, became ill and did, in fact, vomit. It was recorded. I think really the only thing you can do is laugh, apologize to your guest, laugh it off, and don't act like you're bothered. And I think George H.W. bush was a pretty good sport about it. If you act annoyed, if you tell people, don't talk about that, they're just going to want to talk about it more. The other thing is you need to help replace that image people have of you by just getting out there and speaking and being interesting and engaging as often as possible. It's not directly analogous, but I think back to the nominating speech that Bill Clinton made in 1988 at the Democratic convention nominating Mike Dukakis. Clinton's speech was considered awful. He was booed. It went on too long. It was panned universally. But the very next day, he went on the Johnny Carson show and let himself be mocked. He laughed at himself, went out and made another 300 great speeches that year. The next year, the next year, people forgot about it. That's really all you can do when something embarrassing happens. Now, if you are someone who's a prominent newsmaker and you know their video and this doesn't happen to many of us, believe me, it hasn't happened to me. But if you are a head of state and you know that there's just always video cameras on you and you do feel ill, the only advice I could give is just try to excuse yourself and get away as quickly as possible if you think there's even a chance of something like this happening. Because if it does happen, you're going to be seeing video of it for years to come. Next question. Would you have Newt Gingrich as a guest on your show? Now we're starting to have guests, and I may actually be switching the format of this podcast to include a guest every single episode, and I'd like your feedback on that. And the guest will be people who are known as excellent communicators. Newt Gingrich is a fascinating case in that very polarizing figure. To Democrats, to liberals, he at least was considered the most odious character on the entire American political scene. To many conservatives, Republicans, he was a Hero. And to many, he still is. In answer to your question, would I have him on this show? I certainly might. Newt Gingrich does many things well as a communicator. When I think back to his rise to power, it wasn't because he was universally loved by his fellow Republicans in the United States House of Representatives. In fact, many detested him. But he was extraordinarily disciplined from a communication standpoint. He went after Jim Wright and spent years communicating the idea that Jim Wright, the then Democratic speaker of the House, was the most corrupt speaker in the history of the country because he'd taken, I believe it was $12,000 in book royalties in a way that was a little bit funny, bulk sales. And Newt took that message and he had tremendous, tremendous discipline. He hit it again and again and again and again. And for years he would tell anyone who would listen, any reporter the same story. He would travel around the country, meeting with editorial boards, trying to get them to criticize Speaker. Right. And at some point he was successful. It did in fact work. And that is what gave him his first leadership position, the fact that he was willing to attack the Democratic speaker more forcefully for longer, for years. And quite frankly, that's what it takes to really communicate in the modern world. It's constant repetition, sometimes for years now, something Gingrich doesn't do well. And I just did it one wants. He uses the word frankly as his am and ah, there have been times in interviews where I've seen Newt Gingrich say frankly a hundred times he's not as bad at it lately. So he's certainly not a perfect communicator. And there's a part of him that sort of revels in annoying people and angering anyone who doesn't agree with him. But I do have to give him massive credit for his message discipline and getting results. Now, the irony of course is he got rid of Speaker Wright for bulk sales for 10, $12,000 or so for his speaker rights book. Newt Gingrich, after he was selected as speaker, promptly did a deal with Rupert Murdoch, who has all sorts of business dealings with the federal government, did at the time as well for $4.5 million. Now, Gingrich did have to backtrack from that, but it was almost comical. The irony, long answer to your question. Sure, I would have Newt Gingrich as a guest on the program to talk about his communications strategies and tactics, but I'm also open to other people you'd like to suggest. The focus for people I interview are going to be people who have demonstrated excellence in communication, whatever field they're in, whether they're professional full time communicators or not, dissecting, deconstructing, exactly what they do so that we can all learn from it. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. As always, may all of your presentations in life be a huge success.

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