Ep 68 Should John McLaughlin Retire Media Training March 8

Should tv talk show host john mclaughlin retire.

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

Interesting bit of newsmaker criticism and media criticism caught my eye in the Huffington Post the other day about TV talk show host John McLaughlin, the long serving host commentator of the PBS show also seen on some NBC stations, the McLaughlin Group John McLaughlin here's what the review said and this is from a reporter or commentator of top vintage post Ron Mawangawa Excuse me. It's a very difficult last name to pronounce, but he writes 82 year old television host John McLaughlin appeared particularly off his political game this week. He stumbled mistaking the Economist for an FT magazine to a puzzled looking FT editor and panelist Christia Freeland. And there were many other verbal missteps, gaffes and woozy stumbles on the half hour McLaughlin Group which was launched in 1982. So all in all pretty strong critical article suggesting maybe it's time for McLaughlin to retire. He is after all advancing in age. I mean he I am a spring chicken next to John McLaughlin. Let's let's not kid ourselves. Now here's the interesting I saw John McLaughlin the other day and I have to tell you he did seem a little lower energy than in the past. True Confession I was a regular regular McLaughlin Group fan in the 1980s into the 90s. Watched it every single week. I'm not a regular watcher anymore, but I did see him the other day and he did look shrunken. Lower energy, lower volume, a little bit slower. So this criticism resonated. But that's not what's interesting here folks. Here's what's interesting. I was looking at the criticism and then I looked at the date of this particular critics review of John McLaughlin asking whether or not he should retire. May 7, 2009. That's right folks. Seven years ago John McLaughlin was 82 years old. Seven years ago. He's now about to be 89. He's basically a few months shy of 90 years old and he's still hosting the show. Meanwhile, I have not heard of this particular author Ron before or since. What's the real lesson here folks? To me the lesson is own your own TV show, own your own podcast, own your own media outlet. Certainly there was a time if you are a top network reporter, newscaster, Walter Cronkite Beloved icon Age 65 out Many TV networks had a rule you had to be gone at 65. Yes, there are exceptions. Barbara. Walter was able to hang on until she was about 190, but that's the exception. Most news organizations, most TV networks, most cable networks have a sense of, well, this person isn't appealing to the youth demographic. Let's push him out. John McLaughlin, I give him credit. Other people say, you're too old. He doesn't care. He keeps on dealing with he. And I should point out, I'm not a particular fan of his politics or even his insights. But I give John McLaughlin credit for doing what very few people did back in the early 80s, and that is start their own TV company, their own production company. Go out and hustle and get your own guest, get your own sponsors. Most important, create your own network. Now, nowadays, with audio podcasting, many of you, most of you are hearing me through an audio podcast with YouTube. We see this more and more, and yet so few people do it. John McLaughlin was somebody kind of washed up in Washington. He was a press aide for Nixon, kind of disgraced himself, saying, in the dark days of Watergate, Richard Nixon will go down in history as the greatest, most moral leader of the last half, the middle half of the 20th century or something like that, frankly, was not that well respected in Washington political circles or media circles. He had a little column in National Review, but beyond that, he was kind of scraping by, was in his early to mid-50s. And that's when he decided, I'm going to do a TV show, and I'm going to do it differently from how other people do it. And the first show or two wasn't that great. He had too many mainstream political reporters who were frankly, boring. And then he got in a group of people, the Robert Novaks, Pat Buchanan's of the World, and it clicked and there were fireworks. Now, you might love John McLaughlin, you might hate him. That's not the point. Or his show. That's not the point of me doing a commentary on that today. But it is to point out that if you're really thinking about the long run, the long haul, your future, your retirement, your golden years, I do believe you need to think about owning your own show. Now, I realize some of you are listening to me from the purchase of large corporations and governments, and you're not really thinking in those terms what next. Your current job might end, but your interest in whatever subject matter you're dealing with probably won't. And people can talk about, oh, Tim Ferriss is a hot podcaster, and he is, he is a good podcaster. People can talk about Cereal, the fantastic radio show that has been downloaded more than a hundred million times. But the funny thing is, and some of you have heard me comment on this before, if you go into the podcast app from itunes and you look at the new and notable, not necessarily the new, but the notable podcast, many of them are ones like the McLaughlin Group guy's 90 years old. Pat Robertson, who is just a couple of years shy of 90, who's been broadcasting continuously since 1960. Bill O'Reilly, who broadcast for years and years and years in numerous markets. Nobody thought much of him, who broadcast every single day for three years on Fox from 96 to 99 without really getting much attention or many ratings. There he is at the top of the new and notable. In addition to being number one for all cable news, he has a huge audience in the podcast world. So at some point Bill O'Reilly could be pushed off the airways at Fox, but he certainly could go on to have a long career just broadcasting from his basement, if he chooses to, from his perch on itunes. Or for that matter, he could do it on YouTube. So the real lesson here I want you to think about is long term. And for those of you who are 25, it may seem ridiculous to be thinking about your retirement years. Let me tell you folks, they get here sooner than you realize. But why retire if you actually enjoy what you're doing and enjoy talking about what you're doing? Which is why what you can do on a TV show or radio show. So that's why John McLaughlin to me, is a role model in many regards, because he had the smarts, the wherewithal to own his own show. And when you do that, nobody tells you to retire except for yourself.

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Going to the Mail by the way, on every program we take any question you send about public speaking or media training and answer them here. And also if you have criticism, commentary on anything said in a previous show, feel free to send it in. You can post it on Twitter jwalker, you can email Info Here's a response to a show I did several weeks ago about charisma. For those of you who missed it, let me summarize by giving my somewhat controversial opinion that there is no such thing as charisma. And when people call someone charismatic or say that person has no charisma, really all they mean is that person is a good public speaker. And if they say they have no charisma, quite often it means that person is not a good public speaker. That is my thesis. One of my regular viewers wrote in and took issue with that. Fine. This comes from Chike Iluzu. He writes in to answer your question because I had posed a question to all of you listeners. If you think that charisma is more than public speaking, then name to me somebody who is a great speaker and you happen to like their politics. And yet most people would say this person has no charisma and you think this person has no charisma. And on the other hand, name for someone. Name me someone who's a horrible speaker, but you would maintain has a lot of charisma in other people would say that person has charisma. That was my challenge and TK Took me up on that. I appreciate him, says TJ in answer to your question, Ted Cruz is a good public speaker, but is not charismatic. This is evidenced by the fact that he is not liked by his peers, colleagues, and as far as I can tell, he's never convinced any of them to do anything for him or with him. This brings me to my criticism of your definition of charisma. You are ignoring that the term may apply to people who are not famous, people who may work in an office with 10 people and never have to give a speech. And I wrote back to GK and I want to share with you those thoughts that my hunch is that you don't really like Ted Cruz's politics. And I have to admit they're not my cup of tea either. But Ted Cruz is obviously charismatic to somebody because he was outspent in his bid for the United States Senate by a guy who had $24 million. And Ted Cruz only had 1 or 2 million bucks and yet he still won that Senate seat. I think to people who like Ted Cruz's politics and who voted for him, Ted Cruz is wildly charismatic. Now, as I'm doing this, Ted Cruz is still a candidate for the presidency. This is being recorded February 25, 2016. And he might not be a candidate much longer, but he has certainly lasted much longer than most candidates and he has a fervent following. So I'm going to disagree with gk. I do think that Ted Cruz is considered to be charismatic by a lot of people, and it is because Ted Cruz is an excellent public speaker. Now, now, GK does point out that I am neglecting someone who may be perceived as charismatic, but just works in an office of 10 people and doesn't ever give speeches. I do know what you mean. There are some people who are just a lot more likable. They're more popular People sort of want their approval more, even though that person isn't particularly famous or rich or successful by many measures and may be a part of a small organization. I would simply say that person is more popular, more likable, more charming. Not necessarily charisma. I'm defining charisma as the ability to convince people to follow you to do something they might not otherwise want to do. Part of leadership, the ability to get people to like you and they're not even sure why at a larger level. So that's why I'm not including just the guy who's or the woman who's more popular in your office. Now, CK also writes that please note that Pope Francis reads his speeches and hardly speaks the language of most people that consider him charismatic. Folks, here we are talking about politics and religion, so I'm no doubt going to offend some of you. Here's what I would contend if you think that Pope Francis is charismatic, wonderful. I'm not going to try to talk you out of it. I do think that many people feel Pope Francis is charismatic simply because they have such a respect for the office of being a pope. So they think that any pope is charismatic. There are a number of people who like this pope's political positions. They're more liberal than previous popes because they like his positions. They'll say he's charismatic. But I defy you to find someone who isn't a Catholic or isn't someone who respects the papacy inherently and is also not in favor of the particular liberal policies this pope has, who also feels this pope is charismatic. I don't think you're going to find someone like that. Or if you do, it's such a ridiculously small proportion. So to me, that doesn't meet my definition of charisma. So I'm going to respectfully disagree with now. He wrote back to me. I shared with him some, by the way, I don't always do that for a lot of you. If you take the time to write to me and give something thoughtful, and that's what Most people on YouTube or blogs do, which is just put nonsensical hatred, I'll actually respond to you. I'll respond on this show and I may write you a personal letter too. So he writes back and says, tj, you define charisma as the ability to move people in a direction regardless of likability, then I do see your points. I have to agree that on a broad level, voting results back up that Ted Cruz appears charismatic to some. I hope that the pope does come across as charismatic because his ideas are a pleasant change to some on the liberal end. But to support what you're saying, I would add that he does do a couple of things you teach in your videos. He leaves his audience with distinct things to remember his recent quote about Donald Trump, for example. And he is generally positive body language. He smiles and he tries to comfort people. So we found some common ground there. Chike, thanks so much for for writing. Appreciate your thoughts as always. And folks, don't hold back. If you can agree with me or disagree with me, you can write in I especially appreciate it when someone takes the time to give an honest, intelligent response or criticism because here's my real problem historically, I've been doing videos on YouTube for a decade is that if I criticize the speaking skills of a particular politician, the people who like that politician will just attack me, call me an idiot and say that I'm a political hack for the opposing party, even though I'm not talking about the person's political beliefs. And if I praise a particular politician, then the enemies of that politician do the same thing. Attack me, vilify me. And folks, I'm a big boy. I can take it. But it's not particularly fun or interesting to have to spend time educating people that you're not a political channel. You're just trying to analyze the speaking skills. So any comments, you have, questions, you have, disagreements, more than happy to have them, especially if they can be intelligent and insightful.

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So folks, I do like to ask questions of you. This is a two way street. I want to know who do you think is the most charismatic speaker alive today? Number one in your country, two in the world. And you do not have to limit it to the English speaking world. I do confess that I unfortunately see almost exclusively English speaking business people, presenters, politicians talking because I only speak English. So I do apologize for that. But I do know that we have listeners from many many countries, more than 100 countries all over the world listening and watching this program. So I would like to know if you want to nominate someone, but I'd like to know who is the most charismatic speaker and you can really just rephrase this. Who is the best speaker you know of today in your country and in the world. I'm often asked this question by clients that I work with around the world. Typically my response is in the English speaking world, Americans, Bill Clinton Europeans who speak English, Tony Blair of the most recent 30 years, Ronald Reagan into that mix of CEOs, certainly Steve Jobs stands out. Those are my favorites. And again, I'm using people across. Here's the problem. I say Bill Clinton, people want to attack me, say oh yeah, you're some such and such. And then I mentioned Ronald Reagan. The other people attack. Folks, I'm being nonpartisan here. So I would like to know not about who you like politically, but who you like as a speaker and why do you like them? Why do you think what they do is so effective? Certainly there are tons and tons of speakers beyond that list. Now, again, apologies, you may have noted that list is very male that I just gave. It's very white. You know what, for those of you listening, I am a white man, so there is some bias. Oprah Winfrey, fantastic speaker, wonderful speaker. Elizabeth Warren, the senator from, from Massachusetts. And this is good. My next nomination is going to surprise a lot of people because her reputation has gone way down. But in 2008, the Republican convention that year, Sarah Palin gave a fantastic speech. I have seen Sarah Palin give speeches when she was on fire, lucid, made sense, funny and interesting. I wouldn't put her quite in the pantheon of the greatest speakers in the world today because to many people she has become a joke. And I don't mean just her ideological foes. She's genuinely said so many stupid things that are of a nonpartisan nature that have sullied her reputation. But she certainly has given great speeches in the past. I do know some people and I haven't watched enough of her to tell who really like Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany as a speaker. But I'd like to know who you admire, who you respect. So please send me your comments, J. Walker on Twitter. You can post them right here on the blog and you can also post your thoughts on, on our page, Facebook, if you're watching the video there or if you are on LinkedIn, any other social media outlet where you are listening to or watching this show, we'd love to hear from you. So please, please let me know about that.

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Folks, we're coming to the end of another show and I want to take just a moment to first of all, thank you for joining me and I wanted to get your feedback on something I have done. These shows typically 15 to 20 minutes long. The reason I picked that length is I wanted to answer couple of questions, two, three, sometimes more questions. I wanted a little variety and I wanted to give people a sense that this is a full show and not just a segment or a one off or a short little topic. Traditionally, when I've done YouTube videos over the last 10 years, I pick one topic, focus on just one thing, and take as much time as it did to cover that. It could be 45 seconds, it could be three minutes, but it tended to be less than 40 minutes long. For this particular speaking podcast, I'm doing the 15 to 20 minutes in part because even though it's in video and those of you watching me are saying, well, obviously it's video, I see you, tj. Most of the audience for this program is the podcast audio audience. People absorb and use podcasts differently than they do for video. For video, you have to be right there. You have to watch it. You can't really do much else. You can't drive, and at least you shouldn't be driving and watching a video on YouTube. And if any of you are driving now and watching this, please stop it. You can't be working out. There's a whole lot of things you simply can't do if you're watching video. Audio is different. You can be walking to work, you can be on your subway, on a train, plane, and most important, you can be driving. And if you're driving, if you have a half an hour, 30, 45 minutes. A lot of people I know here in the Long island area commuting to New York, their true, true door to door time is two hours plus. So they could spend as much as four hours a day commuting. So if they're on trains and standing and on subways and walking, it's a bit cumbersome to have to find a new podcast every two minutes, three minutes. That is the opposite of convenient. So quite often people like podcasts of a greater length, 60 minutes, 90 minutes. If you have a 90 minute commute, and it's interesting, a 90 minute podcast is great. So I'm doing these podcasts a little bit longer because I do want to make it easier for the podcast audience to listen, click in and not have to be changing every two, three, four minutes. So if you have a sense, a strong feeling, a strong belief that podcasts should be shorter or longer, let me know. I'm constantly trying to tweak this. You may have noticed I'm not using quite as many sound effects and video effects, opening and closing certain segments. I'm trying to make it just a Little smoother and a little less produced, even though it's not a highly produced show. In fact, we do no post production editing for this show. But I'm always looking for suggestions on how to improve. How do you feel the audio quality is? Let me take you behind the scenes a moment. Since I'm doing this in video and audio, those of you watching in video, you can see the LAV microphone. It's a relatively small microphone, but no different from what a network news anchor would use. And it's on the lapel in my jacket. Now this is a not a cheap microphone, it's a couple hundred dollar microphone. It's a fairly high quality microphone. But I'm doing this because this is what you need to have it look like television, look like a TV show. If I were doing this purely as an audio podcast, I would use a different microphone. Here's a microphone I'm using. If I am doing something purely audio, it's a blue snowball. For those of you listening, I'm holding up a large microphone that looks like something you would see in a radio station that is for most people, most time going to capture higher quality audio. But if I have that in front of me the whole time, then it doesn't look like a TV show. It looks like I'm trying to shoehorn a radio show into a TV show. And I'm trying to do something that works for both. I'm trying to make this work for people who want to watch it as a TV show but also have audio of a high enough quality for those of you who just want to listen to it. The question is, is it working? Am I getting the best of both worlds or am I shortchanging one world or the other world? I'd love to hear from you on any aspect of how the show can improve technically. You may have noticed that the edits are somewhat abrupt when it goes from the intro to then me talking. The reason that is I don't use a mixer. I'm not mixing the audio input from one place into another. What I'm using is a simple software program called Wirecast. So when I start this program, I take a mouse in my right hand, I click record and I have a little window at the bottom of my screen and I can see myself on it. So when I see the arrow on and the red light on and I see myself, I know I'm being recorded. When I want my opening intro graphics to play, I just take the mouse, I click on it, the record button is still on and I Can see it playing on the screen in front of me. And when it gets to zero, I just take the mouse click, I go back to the picture of me and I see myself on again. So there's pluses and minuses to this approach. The plus side is I save massive amounts of time because the second I hit the stop button, which in my case is just the space button on my keyboard, the show is over. That's it. I do no editing, no post production, no insertion of ads or intros or special effects. It's all completely done. Now. The downside is you don't have that perfect fade in and fade out. And my voice talking over the intro little music. It doesn't sound quite as polished as an NPR radio show or certainly some of the fancier, more widely popular podcast. But I had to make a decision. Do I do seven shows a week or do I do maybe one a month where it's heavily edited? And it's also about interest level. I just personally don't enjoy that. The other reason I do it, this style, is because since the show is about speaking and public speaking, one of the things that makes people nervous about speaking is there are no do oversight. You screw up. You don't get to edit yourself in front of your audience. You're exposed, warts and all. So occasionally you'll see a lapse or you'll hear a lapse of four seconds where I didn't realize, okay, that last intro has stopped and I haven't started talking yet. There are occasional little things like that. I hope they're not so great that it makes you want to give up on the show. What I am hoping is that you see how someone can speak in a somewhat articulate manner, in a conversational manner, and convey ideas, because that's ultimately what public speaking is. That's ultimately what you have to do when you're speaking to the media. If I edit everything and give myself three and four and five chances, then that really isn't teaching me the skill of how to be good in front of people, the platform, or in front of people in a boardroom. So I'm trying to practice what I preach and demonstrate how you can do this. Might not be perfect, but it can still sound coherent. You can still put it all together in a way that's valuable to people. One of the big lessons I teach all of my clients is don't worry about the occasional or, or, or, you know, your audience will forgive that. What they won't forgive is if you're boring and you don't say anything interesting or memorable. Say something interesting and memorable. And if you have an occasional blunder or mistake or there's a quiet pause for a few seconds, no one will know or care. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks so much for joining me. As always, may all of your presentations in life be a huge success.

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