TJ Walker opens every media training by recording the client answering questions on camera, then plays it back and asks them to list their strengths first. He avoids the demoralizing list of flaws, focusing instead on what they already do well before tackling delivery and message.
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So let me reveal some important trade secrets that I probably shouldn't even tell you. Bad for my main training business. But I do want to share it with you. Here's how I start every media training I do, whether it's with a world famous politician, a billionaire CEO, or just a 20 year old who's getting ready to be interviewed by a college newspaper, it's exactly the same way. They come into the room and before we've exchanged pleasantries, before we've had coffee, I just say, hey, can I ask you a few questions? I turn the video camera, the light right on them, I stick a microphone in their face and I start asking questions. Now, it's not confrontational. It's not, do you beat your spouse or did you steal this money? It's just asking them questions about what they do and, and it doesn't matter about the audio quality, the video quality. In fact, I'll just have a mic that's not even attached to the camera as a prop just to give them a sense of, oh, this is really happening. So I'll do that for a minute or so, sometimes a little longer if it's one on one. If I'm working with a dozen people in a day, I may only ask them one or two questions for 20 seconds. Then I'll have the person sit down and I'll ask another couple of questions. And I sit down. Then here's the interesting part that you'll find incredibly useful if you do it. I turn the light off on my camera, I put the mic on the floor, I sit back and I say, ah, so how'd that feel? When the camera's on you, that's when they come alive like, oh, tj, that was awful. I don't think I did well at all there. And I'm rolling down, recording it the whole time then, and that's for maybe 15, 20, 30 seconds. Then I say, okay, one last question. I will turn the light on, pick up the mic, straighten up, and I'll say, what do you want to get out of today? What has to happen today in this training session for you to consider this an incredibly worthwhile use of your time? That's how I start the training. And the whole thing may only take 90 seconds. Sometimes it could go five minutes. Then I tell the person, okay, we're going to watch this. I want you to be a harsh critic of yourself today, but I want you to be a fair critic. And a fair critic points out not just weaknesses, flaws, but also strengths. So I want you to watch this, get out a clean sheet of paper, put a column down the middle, talk about what you like, don't like. But again, I want something on both sides of the column. Okay? They agree. So then I play the video. They're watching it. Typically, you see looks of for the standing one. And then it goes right to the seated one. Then it goes to the secret one. Now, quite often there's a little bit of a laughter. I didn't know you were recording that. And then the final one. Then I stop the video, have the person stand up, turn the light on. I say, okay, now give me your critique. But here's the catch. I only want to know what you liked about how you came across. I don't care about the substance yet. I don't care about your messages. I just want to isolate what you're doing. Well, and forgive me, I'm letting you know right now, I will be rude. I will rudely interrupt you if you start talking about things you don't like. Because the first thing we're trying to learn here is how to correctly watch yourself, critique yourself to figure out what your strengths are so we can build them. People think the real value is learning what not to do, and the real value is learning what to do to do, what to do more of. Now, sometimes people say, well, I didn't like anything. But quite often they'll say, well, my voice was okay, I guess my speaking speed was okay. I wasn't shaking. There's always something. Now, occasionally they won't see it, but others in the room. If you are doing a group training, a rehearsal session, if it's just you working with one client or one customer, they may say, I hate everything. It's going to be up to you to isolate what they're doing. Well, this is critically important. I believe most trainings are flawed because the trainer wants to show how smart he or she is. So they do a longer interview up front, and then they'll tell the person 73 things they're doing wrong. And technically they're correct. They are doing those things wrong. So the client, the colleague, the CEO, the executive thinks intellectually. Boy, I'm learning a lot. Wow, this trainer is really smart. But boy, oh boy, the lesson I learned is, I'm horrible. I should jump out a window or I should never do interviews. That's the lesson they learn. Emotionally, you've destroyed them. They want to go kill themselves practically. So my recommendation, never, ever, ever say anything negative the first time you're looking at their bit again, we're going to do a dozen videos during a training set. If you have a longer day, even if you just get 15 minutes on the way to an interview, I'd recommend you do three or four interviews and perhaps this one, you. You shrunk down to just one short one. So that is the first important step is you've got to record them in these different situations. Then you have to force them to just isolate the things that they like. And for you to say what you like, you've got to build a sense of a base. You got to give people a sense of. Here are my core communication strengths, absolutely critical. Before you do anything else.
