TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

What do you do if you have to give a boring speech on a boring topic that everyone's already heard before?

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

So this is a question that I do get from clients from time to time. TJ this is a boring topic. I'm just going through the safety regulations. I'm talking about why people have to put their hard hat on when they come into our plant. How do you make something that is boring? Maybe you've heard it a thousand times. Maybe your audience has heard it a thousand times. Or do you just go through the motions, check the box and say you've done it and not worry about it? Well, I have bad news for you. I'm not going to let you off the hook. I do believe that you can make any presentation in the world boring or you can make any presentation in the world interesting. It all depends on how you do it. Your thought, your planning in advance. Perfect example. In May of 2016, the New York Times did a fascinating profile on a number of airline attendants who have decided to tweak their safety presentations. You know what I'm talking about, right? Pay attention, passengers. This is how you fasten a seat belt. Your exit doors are here. If you're in the emergency room, blah, blah, blah, blah. We've heard it thousands of times. Guess what? It doesn't have to be boring. Believe it or not, there is an airline attendant. She has a video on YouTube. This is Mary Cobb. I just watched it. 22 million views. 22 million. That's a heck of a lot more than I've ever watched my YouTube channel or listen to my audio podcast. I'm ashamed to say. What is she saying that people don't say hundreds, if not thousands of times a day on an airplane. She's telling people how to fasten a seat belt where the emergency doors are, that you can't smoke on the plane. Stuff that isn't inherently that interesting because everyone's heard it hundreds of times or every time they've ever been on an airplane. But she does it with humor. It's unexpected. So when she says that on this plane, smoking is prohibited, but then she adds, and so is complaining and whining, it gets a chuckle because it's not expected. Now, I'm not going to try to redo her entire comedy routine. And in fact, professional comedians watching the video would say, well, she's rushing it. She's stepping on her humor. It's not that she's the world's greatest comedian. But within the context, if every single person who's giving your presentation in your shoes is never, ever, ever using humor and you now interject some humor, will you stand out as the funniest person in that position ever? If the very same person goes to a comedy club and everyone is expecting comedy, well, then the standards are much, much higher. But I'd urge you go to the New York times.com nytimes.com and just search airline stewards or, excuse me, airline attendance May in 2016 and you will see a number of profiles. One airline attendant dresses up as Elvis and does the whole presentation in Elvis. Now, am I suggesting that it's your next Monday morning staff meeting where you're going over quarterly report numbers, you have to dress up as Elvis? No. It might seem stupid to people and who knows, they may think you've lost your mind and you get fired. That's not the point. The point is not that everyone has to dress up as Elvis because this one guy did. The point is, do something a little out of the ordinary, a little unexpected, and you can get people to pay attention to stuff even when they think they already know it, even when they've heard it before, even when they're not necessarily enthusiastic about listening to you. It is possible. More in a moment.

For a free, no obligation online public speaking or media training course, go to mediatrainingworldwide.com and start learning today.

So much innovation in life, I believe, comes from people who are frankly stuck in rather mundane fields. And I put myself in that sometimes. But think about it. Think, think, think. Think about, how can I do this better? How can I put a new twist on it? And so I give a lot of credit to these airline detendants because they are told, here's the exact message. Convey this. We have to check a box or the FAA will be angry with us. We could be fined. But instead they look at it and say, how can we use this to create a better experience for our passengers? How can we create a nice little smile on someone's face? That is something I believe you can do in any presentation the world. And I hope this doesn't sound egotistical or grandiose or like I'm bragging. But when I decided to enter this field of presentation training in media training, it frankly wasn't very glamorous. I didn't know anybody who made much more than what an assistant manager at Burger King would make. And it wasn't a particularly glamorous field training. But I found that if you just keep focusing and you try to be creative, well, you can do all sorts of interesting things. You can write books and go on the Daily show as I've done. You can create podcasts and videos seen by people around the world. You can travel all over the world if you build a reputation of doing interesting, creative, exciting things. So you can find anything no matter what the topic is, no matter how boring or mundane it is. If you really think about it, figure how can you do it a little differently? Maybe you're not going to be as humorous as these airline attendants, cracking jokes, getting people to laugh every two seconds. Maybe you're not willing to dress up as Elvis and put on a wig and a fat suit. That would seem too ridiculous. I don't think I would do that. That's not the point. The point is give some real thought to how you can take a body of information that people might not even be that enthusiastic about and look at it in a new light. Somehow show the absurdity in it. Somehow show the silliness in it. Get people to sit up and think, I never quite heard it like that before. Because if you can do that, you can be a great communicator regardless of the topic. That's what's key. More in 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.

By the way, I do mean what was just said to you with the voiceover a moment ago? If you have questions, we will answer them. I occasionally have friends, even family members who say, well tj, what's going to happen if you run out of questions? How are you going to do a Daily Show? Are you ever worried about that? And truthfully, my answer is no. My biggest worry, frankly, is I'll have so many questions from people that I won't be able to answer everyone's question. Now, this show is still in its infancy, it's only five months old, and there's still plenty of opportunities for you to get your questions answered. But I have a backlog of hundreds of questions that clients of mine have asked over the years that I haven't even gotten to yet. Speaking is such a fundamental activity. Every human being has to speak, present, talk. If you're really, really rich and you don't have to work anymore. You still have to give instructions to your staff, your servants, people who work for you. If you're incredibly poor. And, folks, I don't mean to sound like I'm making fun of this. I'm not. If you're incredibly poor, you may have to give a fundraising pitch on the streets, begging people for money. It's not what we commonly think of as a speech, but it is a presentation. My clients all over the world constantly will tell me, well, T.J. i don't make speeches, but I have to give a talk. All right? I don't give speeches, but I have to be on this panel conversation. And my point to all of them is it doesn't really matter what you call it if you're talking to other human beings. And it's not simply saying you loved or hated the football or the soccer game last night, but you're trying to convey some idea, some information. That's a presentation. That's a speech. You can be sitting down talking to one person. You can be standing, talking to 20,000 people. It's still a specific action. It's a specific skill. It is presenting ideas while speaking to people. And it's something you can either do an awful job at a great job or avoid at all costs and therefore do an awful job. My job here with this podcast, this TV show, is to give you the tools, the information you need, so that you can improve your skills. So that no matter where you speak to the news media at a press conference, a speech in front of 50,000 people, or talking one on one with someone interviewing you for a job, that you're going to know how to consistently come across, your best to come across the way you want to come across and to have people really understand your message and take the actions you want. You're speaking to 50,000 people because you want their vote for president. You want their vote for president. If you're talking to one person in a job interview, you want them to say, sally, Jane, Jim, we'd like to offer you the job. Will you accept the job? That's what you're after, a job interview. The situations are a little bit different. The message is going to be different, but the actual process and the goal is exactly the same. You're talking. You want people to understand you, remember you, and do what you want. That's what this show is about. Thanks so much for joining me today, and I hope you can join me tomorrow and the next day. We're here for you seven days a week. I'm TJ Walker. As always, may all of your presentations in life be a huge success.

Speaking with TJ Walker is the number one rated daily streaming TV and radio show devoted to all aspects of speaking and communication. If you received value from this show, then please subscribe to it@mediatrainingworldwide.com Please review the show, leave comments and and share it with your friends and colleagues today.