A segment of a TJ Walker live-stream where he argues that humans are highly visual and presenters should use images and physical props to make messages memorable. He illustrates with Steve Jobs’ envelope demo for a thin laptop and describes his own ‘toolkit’ approach to corporate public-speaking training—using pre/post materials, videos, and follow-up—to create lasting impact. He cautions presenters to avoid gimmicks unless the prop genuinely aids audience memory.
Chapters
The human brain is very visual in nature. That's why it's easier to remember someone's face than how they spell their name on a business card. That's part of the appeal of PowerPoint when you use it effectively is you're using images. But remember, that's only one tool, the PowerPoint slide. You can use good old fashioned props things in real life. So, for example, to use this Steve Jobs example again, when he introduced a new ultra thin laptop, he didn't just put up a slide and put up the specs, you know, 8 millimeters wide. He didn't put up a slide at all. He said, how thin is this new laptop? He walked over to a table, picked up an envelope and pulled the laptop right out of the envelope. It said, it's this thin. That whole thing cost about 50 cents for the cost of an envelope. And yet it made such a powerful, powerful impression, made people excited about the product, made them think, wow, that's going to be so much lighter, thinner, cooler to have than some big clunky laptop I've been used to. Again, this is a company that had an unlimited marketing budget. He could have had his team spend six months and hire every kind of Hollywood director for every kind of fancy video to show this new product. It was a 50 cent envelope that demonstrated how thin it was. And it was a simple prop. It worked even though he was in front of thousands. So always ask yourself, is there some tool you can use to make your idea come alive and resonate with people? So for example, sometimes corporations and governments will call me. They'll want a proposal about how I can do public speaking training for their leaders. Sometimes one on one, sometimes group. And my big selling pitch is frankly that I don't just show up for a day and get people on camera. I have a whole toolkit, intellectual property courses. So sometimes I don't do this all the time. Sometimes I feel like it might be cheesy, but I'll actually remind them. I'll say, look, I have an extensive toolkit to help you for a whole year. And in this toolkit I've got online trainings, I've got books, I've got videos, I've got the ability to rehearse with anyone. I train after the day of training in live Skype video before their next speech. If they call me or text me with any questions, I'll answer them in a personalized private video. I'm here for you. I've got other tools. I'll be sending you follow up training videos every single day for the next year. So I use this tool metaphor and I do sometimes someone might think it's cheesy. You have to be willing to take a risk from time to time of the people who hire me, if they'd never heard of me before and they talked to five other public speaking training firms, they'll often mention that they really like the fact that I've got this whole extensive toolkit and it's not just a one shot day of getting there, putting people on camera. They like the pre training, the post training, all the follow up. So this image helps me communicate my message. Now in this case it wasn't a 50 cent envelope, but this only cost me, I think $9 off Amazon. So you may have other props, other tools that work and you might not like that. That's okay. Don't use a prop if you think it's too gimmicky, if you think it's too cheesy. But if you think it will help your audience, and that's the real test, understand and remember your message, then by all means do it.
