TJ Walker breaks down how to improve at speaking: record yourself, watch it, pick one specific habit to change, adjust it, and repeat. Focus on single tweaks like adding pauses or cutting filler words. Share videos publicly for accountability and feedback.
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Ultimize. Most people think improvement comes from doing more, and that's partially true, but it's not enough because you can repeat the same mistakes over and over again and never really get better. Let me show you what I see all the time. Someone records a video, they watch it, and their reaction is, I don't like that. That's it. No specifics, no adjustment. Then they record another one and they do the same thing. That's not improvement. That's repetition without learning. Now here's the bad version of that. You watch your video and think, well, that felt awkward. So what do you do differently next time? Hmm, maybe nothing because awkward isn't actionable. Here's the better version. You watch your video and say, okay, let me analyze exactly what's working, what I like so I can do more of it because there's always something. And then you try to figure out what am I doing exactly that I don't like that I can change? And you might think, well, I'm speaking too quickly. Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Now you have something specific, something you can actually change. Let me give you a real example. You record a video, you watch it, and you notice something. Every time you finish a sentence, you immediately start the next one. No pause, no space. It feels rushed. Now instead of saying that wasn't great, You say, next time I'm gonna pause for 1 second after each main point. That's a real adjustment. Then you record again and you focus only on that, not everything, just that one change. By the way, pausing is key. I've never in my life seen a great motivational speaker, whether it's Les Brown, whether it's Anthony Robbins, any of them, who didn't pause a lot. Pausing is so crucial because it allows people to think, allows time for them to reflect, allows time for them to process what you just said, and it's a way of showing importance of what you're doing. Here's another example. You notice you keep saying, um, or you know, instead of trying to eliminate it completely. You say, I'm going to slow down and replace those with a pause. Okay, now you're improving. Let me show you the contrast. The bad approach is to try to fix everything at once. You get overwhelmed, no real progress. Far better to fix one thing at a time. The result? Something steady and visible improvement. I've used this with my motivational speaking clients for years, also with executives and leaders, people who want to and need to improve quickly. And the fastest progress always comes from this method: record, watch, identify one thing, adjust, repeat. That's it. Now I want to clarify here, I am recommending you actually speak daily and share it with the world. If you're not willing to do that, at least practice on your own. Watch, figure out what you like, don't like, but there's extra added pressure if you know not only are you gonna see it, but everyone in the world could see it. Now you're not gonna have billions of people watching your views, your videos initially, but some will, and that will toughen you up. That will make you a better motivational speaker. So let's be clear, whether you're sharing with the world or just yourself, you need to record yourself. So you can get feedback and get better. You don't need someone else to tell you what to fix necessarily, but sometimes they can tell you that you're repeating yourself or that you're ending on an uptick and it makes you sound like you're doubting yourself. Sometimes it is good to get feedback from other people, but most of the time you can see for yourself what's working and what isn't working, but only if you record it and Watch it. You watch your video and think, I'm not clear here, or I lost my energy here, or that sentence didn't really make any sense. Good if you're noticing that. That awareness is what drives improvement. Here's the idea to install: one video, one improvement at a time. Not 10, one. Because if you improve one thing every time, after 10 recordings you're a lot better. After 30, you're dramatically better and it doesn't feel overwhelming. It feels manageable. So stop asking, "How do I get great at speaking?" and start asking, "What's the one thing I'm going to improve in this next recording?" That's how real progress happens, not through intensity, through consistency and focus. It's also, while you may note that Anyone you think of is a huge YouTube sensation or TikTok star or really, really good, has a huge following on any social media platform that has video. They may have very different styles, but the one thing that's consistent is they are good speakers because they didn't get 10 million subscribers overnight. They got it typically over years in years of repeated posting, years of speaking on video. Now, some of them may consider themselves motivational speakers, like a Gary Vaynerchuk, others don't, but regardless, the sheer act of speaking on a daily basis, or at least a weekly basis, in video, online, getting feedback from people, makes it virtually impossible not to be a really good speaker. And you become really good at motivating an audience, whether you call yourself a traditional motivational speaker or not. You may be a cooking expert. You may be an expert in getting people to invest in a savvier way. But ultimately, every great speaker is a motivational speaker in the sense you're trying to motivate your audience to take some specific actions to help themselves.
