Public Speaking Not a Wrestling Match: Just Say Something Interesting

12 Mar 2024 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:39

A short YouTube monologue by TJ Walker advising speakers to stop trying to "own" or "control" the room and instead focus on saying something interesting and useful to the audience; doing so will make listeners pay attention (turn off phones, engage).

Chapters

All right, just stop it. This idea that you have to own the room. Control the room. There's this whole cult of super macho speakers who want to treat public speaking like it's a wrestling match. Well, no, it's not. You don't have to own the room. Control the room. Start by doing one thing. Control your own mouth. Say something interesting. If you can say something interesting to the audience, something useful to the audience, they're actually going to sit up, pay attention. They're going to take their cell phone, turn it off and put it down. That's all you have to do. So don't worry about bench pressing more and wrestling people and controlling the room. Just say something interesting, please.