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

GOP frontrunner Dr. Ben Carson under fire for fabricating parts of his biography. So here's the situation. Ben Carson has for years told people that he received a full scholarship to West Point, the military academy. This has been a part of his identity, and he turned it down because he knew he wanted to be a doctor. Now, it turns out he never even applied to West Point, therefore, he couldn't have turned it down. They don't give full scholarships because they have no tuition. So he's been criticized by some and those in the media and his opponents for just fabricating things, and that destroys your credibility as a candidate. Now, I'm not an apologist for Ben Carson. I'm not really a fan of his. His politics or his presentation style. But if I'm analyzing this purely in terms of his crisis communication skills, how he's handling, how this is going to damage him, what he needs to do, I don't think this particular charge is particularly devastating because what happened was he met with General Westmoreland, one of the most powerful generals in the nation, when he was a high school student. The general basically assured him, we want people like you. You could come and be a star here. And at this point, Dr. Ben Carson was an academic star in high school. He was clearly destined for huge success. He obviously, at least to me, could have gotten in. So it's not that much of a stretch for him to say, basically, he turned it down. It was kind of a verbal offer. I don't think this is the sort of thing that his fans, his admirers or supporters are going to see as just something beyond the pale, as a fabrication. It's kind of a connecting of the dots in a way that sounds a little more favorable. I frankly don't know many people who don't do that in life. Now, in public life, can that sometimes come back to haunt. Yes. My guess is this is not the sort of thing that's going to hurt him. There are a lot of other comments he's made that may, if there's more digging. I mean, he has talked about violent episodes from his youth where he stabbed people and almost injured them seriously. At some point, if that doesn't come out with a little more factual basis, that could hurt him. But the particular West Point issue I do not believe is going to hurt him at all. Now, coming up later this week is the next Republican debate. What's going to happen? The polls have shifted since the last debate. Ben Carson has now gone from number two to number one in the polls. I do think you can expect to see at least some attacks, if nothing else, from Donald Trump against Ben Carson. For the most part, the other Republican candidates have kept a hands off approach to Ben Carson because I don't think they really perceive him as the guy who's eventually going to get the nomination and they want his support. So they've treated him very gingerly. The big challenge for all of these Republicans is how can they say something interesting, captivating something that will appeal to some base of supporters in a way that is seen as authentic. And of course, the big question for Jeb Bush is can he do anything to not be seen as hapless, as ineffective, as toast? That's the current media narrative that Jeb Bush's campaign is all but ended, it's all but over, that he's a horrible debater. This does prevent create an opportunity for Jeb Bush. The expectations are so low for him that if he comes out swinging, he comes out much more dynamic. If he really engages, there is the chance that all the headlines Jeb Bush comes back to life. Jeb Bush roars back to life. Jeb Bush shows his Media Training paid Off. As you may recall, as we discussed earlier last week, Jeb Bush has now gone through media training with Roger Ailes, former media training partner. So we'll see if any of that training has created some results. We'll see. The big challenge for all the other candidates, how can they distinguish themselves? Someone like a Governor Kasich, I don't really know what he can do. He's positioned himself as the responsible, as the grown up, as the serious, thoughtful, sober realist in the party in these debates and that has gotten him not much of anything. I'll be analyzing the debate here the day after, so please tune in and look at the analysis in the analysis there. I'd love to hear your opinion as well. By the way, as always, post your comments on Ben Carson, the Republican debates right here in the comments section, whether you're watching this on YouTube, Facebook or anyplace else. Also in the news, Kate Middleton, part of the royal family in Great Britain. There's been story after story for the last three days that she has essentially been muzzled. One of the backgrounders in all these stories is that she has a deathly fear of speaking. She did a horrible speech or interview a few years ago and has simply not gotten over it. The other strand is that the Queen and other members of the Royal Family communications team are afraid she's too candid, that she's too up front, that she essentially spills the beans and says things that are not on message. I don't really know what the situation is. There have been reports that she's receiving more media training. She's not one of my clients, but to me it seems a horrible shame to have someone who is articulate. She's clearly articulate if you've seen her speak before. Good looking, whose only purpose for being is to create public relations and good priority for Great Britain. It seems a shame to muzzle someone like that because when you look at the royalty, they're not actually wielding political power anymore. They don't actually get to decide off with the head or banish people. It really is just PR for Great Britain. And when you muzzle potentially one of your best spokespersons, it does seem a bit of a shame. So I think at some point they've got to bring her out and, and let her speak freely and give her more and more media opportunities. Yeah, I mean she can just show up and get her picture taken and it generates millions of dollars of publicity there. But you're really minimizing it, her capabilities by not letting her speak and do interviews. Other items that caught my attention in the news over the weekend. I don't want to embarrass the college, but there's a college putting out an ad for an adjunct professor for public speaking. It's an entire semester and the pay was $2,000, $650. If you really add up the amount of time traveling to the school, preparing for it, delivering the lectures, grading students, the other paperwork. This is a minimum wage job. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why most people in the world are horrible public speakers. Our entire training system in America, K through 12 college graduate school, is geared towards saying this thing that actually controls most people's destiny in their career. Their ability to communicate is so unimportant that the teachers who do it should be paid less than what McDonald's hamburger flippers are paid now. I say this with no bitterness because it benefits me. That's why I have a thriving public speaking training practice is people can't get it. That's why I'm not a trainer on how to write English, because everybody has received thousands of hours of formal instruction on how to write English, K through 12, college and graduate school. But this is a perfect example of how the traditional academic world pays little respect, no respect to spoken communication folks. There are economics professors, I remember reading in the Wall Street Journal 10 years ago, there are economics professors, places like Princeton that make $500,000 a year and they may be worth it New York Times did a major study on NYU administrators who get beach houses bought for them and no interest loans and loans forgiven to buy them beach houses. Because apparently having administrators happy is more important than teaching your students how to speak. Again, I don't want to sound bitter. This works to my advantage. But those of you paying for higher education are getting shortchanged when it comes to public speaking skills. Also in the news, Quentin Tarantino, he has really stepped in it with the perceived criticism of police officers. They are threatening boycotts. They are angry, they are upset. He is now going into defensive rebuttal mode. He was on Bill Maher's show on HBO Real Time this past weekend. I thought handled himself very well. He did not say all police officers are murderers. He did criticize specific police officers in specific cases where injuries and deaths occur. I think Quentin Tarantino is going to come out of this ahead. It's one thing if you're running for public office and you're dependent on the Police Benevolent Association's endorsement. Quentin Tarantino is not a politician and I think this is not going to hurt him. Controversy can sell movies. There are some crisis management experts who say that he's ruined his reputation. I think that's overstating it. And look, I love police officers. I'm protected by police. I value those who have making the sacrifice. It's a dangerous job. But I do think there are a lot of police officers who are amazingly thin skinned and their union representatives are amazingly thin skinned where any criticism at all is perceived as you're hating police officers. I. I don't think the American public sees it that way. I think there's a more nuanced view I want to point out to you, and I'll provide a link in the show notes here. But there is a reference to a book, Lend Me youe Great Speeches in History, written by William Safire. And the 6min website has done a review of this. They do an excellent job. I'll link to it. This is a book that came out decades ago. It's in my library. I've read it. This is a review of great public speaking related books. I'm linking to it in the show Notes. Take a look at it. If you're someone who cares about public speaking, if you have a passion for public speaking, this is a book that needs to be in your library. It goes into the history, the nuance of great speeches, the political context. William Safire, no longer with us, but truly a word maven, truly someone who was a great speechwriter and had a love of words and language. I would recommend that to you. So thanks again for joining me. We're changing formats here. I'm doing more of a show format. If you have any questions about any aspect of public speaking speaking to the media, post them right here and I'm happy to answer them the next day in the show. Also, if you haven't done so yet, I'd like to offer you an opportunity to get, at no charge, my online public speaking course or my online media training course. Just click the link below and you can get at, no obligation, access to the entire video based series, public speaking training or media training. So please do that today. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me.