Excerpt from a TJ Walker live-streamed talk on public speaking. Walker uses Adolf Hitler as a historical example to analyze effective (but morally abhorrent) rhetorical techniques—particularly the power of pause, pacing, and emotional buildup—and advises speakers to pause briefly after being introduced to convey confidence and authority.
Chapters
When I was introduced to speak in front of large, large rallies, tens of thousands in sports stadia, I would wait. I would pause after standing and just not say anything. I would reflect, pause, look down. Sometimes 30 seconds would go by, sometimes a minute, sometimes even two minutes. The crowd was confused, there would be a hush, there would be increased anticipation. 3 minutes, 4 minutes, sometimes as much as 5 minutes would go by. I would just stand there in front of people, in front of the microphone. Then and only then would I start to speak. When people absolutely were craving for words from me. And I would often start with a whisper, but then I would build and build and build to an emotional crescendo. I'm talking, of course, about Adolf Hitler. Of course. Hitler was a despicable person, the worst person of the 20th century, perhaps of all time. Murderer of more than 20 million people. That's why it's even more important to figure out how someone like this came to power to safeguard against it. And when you analyze Hitler's career, you have to really factored. What are the assets that brought him to such a high level of power? It certainly wasn't his looks. He was short, unimpressive looking, balding, not at all good looking. It wasn't his wealth. He had no wealth. It wasn't influential family. He had no great family connections. When you look at all of the assets that are traditionally viewed as huge positives for someone rising to major political power in a country, Hitler didn't have any of them, except for one. He was a great public speaker. That's how he rose to power. He could galvanize an audience, he could bring them to tears, he could get them to march and go anywhere he wanted. He was an extraordinarily powerful, gifted public speaker. But he wasn't always that way. He learned he put a tremendous amount of time thinking about how to get a better response from his audience. But just this one trick. I'm not suggesting that you stand for five minutes when you're introduced to speak. That would seem weird and odd these days. But what I am suggesting before you speak, you've just been introduced. Stand, pause for a couple of seconds. What that does is send a signal to the audience that you're not rushing, you're not nervous, you're composed, you're completely confident, you're surveying the landscape. You are non verbally acknowledging people looking around the room. By doing this, you will come across as much more confident, comfortable and authoritative than other speakers. And I don't mean to sound like I'm endorsing anything about Hitler. Certainly not his ideology, his policies. But there are a number of things he did that were quite effective as a speaker that are completely apolitical. We might as well learn from them.
