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

Speaking with TJ Walker Dissecting the communication skills and practices of World class Leaders.

Welcome to this weekend edition of Speaking With TJ Walker. If this is your first time to the program, this is not the best place to start. Most of our shows are in depth interviews, longer format, we're a little shorter on the weekends and without guest, but this is the program where we dissect how world class leaders communicate and they could be leaders in any field. Now in the past I've interviewed a lot of communication experts, but we're now change. Well, I wouldn't say changing, pivoting, altering or expanding the format to include CEOs of consumer products companies, technologists, people in the health, wellness industries. We're going wide but still focusing on the particular niche of communication and specifically how people can communicate effectively. This is the time of the week where I answer your questions. So if you have any questions, you can write to me throughout the week. Tjediatrainingworldwide.com and the email is in the show notes as well. And this is where I typically answer them. This is also where I look at more topical news items, dissect those from a communication standpoint. Now, we do talk about political issues because politicians are constantly communicating. They're in the news, they often make gaffes and they are great subjects for learning and talking about issues. But this is not a purely political show. So if I say something that is critical of a politician you like or praising somebody you don't like, please don't get all bent out of shape. I'm not trying to use this show to proselytize and convert you of anything. So let's hop right in. Some of the top stories that were in the news Hillary Clinton, of course, getting a lot of news coverage in the last week for her illness, pneumonia, being off the campaign trail, she resumed campaigning got a lot of attention. Her own campaign aides admitted they blundered by not being completely transparent as soon as she fainted and was whisked away to aid over the past weekend. They've now said they should have put out information a lot faster. I agree. Big suggestion I have for Hillary Clinton and really any major presidential campaign these days is I think they should be podcasting frequently almost in real time. Now Hillary Clinton has started a podcast and she's done, I guess, three episodes and getting a lot of downloads, a lot more popular than mine, but it's not really tied into that much that's topical. Here's what I would do if I were in charge of communications for the Hillary Clinton campaign. And I would do the same for Trump. And that is I would just have one staff member follow the candidate around at all times and capture everything on audio. And then when they are in between news events, if they are in between campaign events and they are in a car, in a bus, in a limousine, in a plane, just have them comment on what the top story is of the day, what their top message is of the day, and, and to answer questions that come in from voters and from reporters, and then just edit it down to the good stuff that you want. And that way you're constantly putting out a stream of content for your voters, your supporters, and for the news media. Does this mean you should never, ever do interviews again? No, but it would be a great way to get a higher percentage of the eyeballs and ears of people who want information about campaigns. And it's just such a simple, easy technology. So that's my free advice to both the Trump campaign and the Hillary Clinton campaign. In other news of a crisis, media perspective. North Carolina, my I can't quite say home state because I was born in Pennsylvania, but I moved to North Carolina when I was in kindergarten. I was 5 years old and did K through 12 there, college there, still have family there, friends there. So I consider that my home state. And they've been in the news lately because of their HB2 piece of legislation that makes it illegal for cities to allow transsexuals to go to the bathroom of their choice. Talk about a solution in search of a problem. This has caused a firestorm around the country where the North Carolina legislature and governor have been castigated as transsexual homosexual bigots and is just supporting hysteria. So first it was musicians, the Jimmy Buffetts, the Bruce Springsteens of the world boycotting North Carolina. That didn't hurt too much, truth be told. Then the NBA said we're going to boycott. That hurt. But now they're really getting cut to the bone. The Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament is not going to allow games to be played in North Carolina. And people in North Carolina love basketball. Believe, as Trump would say, believe me, they really, in this case, it's true, they really do love basketball. I grew up watching ACC basketball. Nothing was bigger than the rivalry between University of North Carolina and NC State when I was a little kid. Then I went to Duke and our big rivalry with, with North Carolina. So it's a big deal there. I frankly don't see how North Carolina changes its reputation until it elects different political leaders who rescind the bill, they can say they are being judged unfairly. You know, they get to make judgments within their state. But businesses, organizations, whether it's the NBA accident or Apple, can make their own judgments. And right now the judgment is North Carolina is run by a bunch of bigots who don't deserve money coming in from other places. In other news, Colin Kaepernick, forgive me for butchering his name. There's nobody who watches professional football less than I do. But he's a professional football player, has generated a lot of attention for not standing for the national anthem. This has gone on for a couple of weeks now, and he's been pilloried by some who don't like his stance. Now he is fighting back aggressively, donating large sums of money to charities he believes will help fight discrimination. So I think he's starting to get a lot more support. And in winning the public relations battle, I don't think that he can really complain about losing corporate sponsors. You can't necessarily be an activist and expect corporate concerns to continue having their dollars flow to you. It doesn't work like that. That's not unfair. If he were to get fired from the team, kicked off the team because of his stale, yeah, that would be unfair. But nobody has the right to corporate sponsors. Sean Hannity has lots and lots of corporate sponsors. I don't is that fair? But it's not that I have the right to corporate sponsors and Sean Hannity doesn't. He's got a much bigger audience than I do and that's why it's going in that situation. Let's switch over. This is sort of the top stories. We'll also take your questions on the Saturday show. I always appreciate your questions. This question came in from a regular listener and viewer. This is from Bob, who is also a professional in the industry. And I want to read for you his specific question. He says that's not it. Sorry, wrong question here. He asked specifically, tj, are small businesses and medium sized businesses using podcasts these days? And is there any proof of actual return on investment for small businesses? So here's my answer to him. And some of the information comes from Lipson Rob Walsh, who is sort of the guru of helping people like me figure out how to navigate itunes. Lipsyn is the hosting service for my podcast. According to him, about half of podcasters quit after the sixth episode or before the sixth episode. So if you quit before the sixth episode, I would say categorically you've received no benefit from your podcast. It was a waste of time and money. And about two thirds of podcasters quit before the 23rd or right after the 23rd episode. And I would say for them, pretty much no benefit at all. It was wasted time. You didn't get over the hump or you didn't find the right mix or the right format. So a complete waste of time. There is a small subsection of people who continue and they get value at some level. Now, for some people it's additional business consulting, different revenue streams. Maybe they sell books. There's value that way. For a tiny subsection, they get to the threshold where they have more than 5,000 downloads per show and they can sell advertising. And some people, like Tim Ferriss, apparently make millions from their show. Malcolm Gladwell's show now has huge, huge audience. And if monetized properly, that's going to be a huge money maker. That's a small, small subsection. So an answer to your question, Bob, most people lose money. What's different about podcasting is it cost relatively such a small amount of money compared to traditional broadcast TV shows, movies, Broadway shows, or even network radio shows, because for only a couple thousand dollars, and that's doing things somewhat the big way, you can go all in podcasting, and then you're investing your time. Now here's the part I think people forget about, though. They say, well, you know, only a small section of podcasters make money, so why bother? Well, that's always been the case with television shows because gazillions of TV pilots are made every year. Most never get on the air. Those that do only a subsection then get picked up and purchased for a whole season. So most people who produce TV shows completely lose all of their investment. The difference is, a TV pilot, you could spend half a million, you could spend one or two million dollars. A podcast, you've maybe spent a thousand, maybe $2,000, and maybe some monthly hosting fees, a few other things, 100, maybe 200 bucks a month. But it's a relatively small investment and the risks are very low. And if you can make it work, if you can get over the threshold, then it's sustainable and without boring you with all of my own tedious details. Bob asked me, and so I told him about how it's benefited me personally. I've had a number of, not a huge number, but I have had several clients hire me just because they like my podcast, and they've hired me to train them on how to do the same thing or to consult with them on other aspects of how they communicate in an audio video format. So for me, it's already paid off. Am I making millions from it? No. Is my audience so large that I'm making money from advertising at this point? Am eight, nine months into it? No. It's not that big, but it's going up. I'm enjoying it. I'm learning and I'm having people reach out to hire me to teach them the same things I'm learning here. So it's kind of a positive cycle of virtue. And as I look at the long term, this is something I want to do not for the next year or five years, but for decades. I might not always be able to hop a plane and go through a gazillion time changes and do a week long training, 12 hours a day in India as I have in the past or in war torn zones where I'm occasionally brought to. But I can always talk. At least I hope I can. And I can do it from home. That's a home studio. That's the beauty of Podcasting. So some of you heard my commentary on the passing of John McLaughlin, the longtime TV talk show host and pundit. I wasn't a big fan of his politics, but I was a fan of his business model, of he owned his own show. Nobody could fire him even when he was so old he could barely talk. And he did his own show until almost the day he died, just a few months short of 90. Same with Phyllis Schlafly, longtime conservative icon, media figure. She was 92 years old, still active in politics, still publishing books, newsletters, going on tv, holding press conferences endorsing presidential candidates because she had her own power base, she owned her own media. So did John McLaughlin. And we can't all get million dollar sponsorships from General Electric the way John McLaughlin did, but we can all own podcast. That to me is what's exciting about it. Thanks so much for tuning in this weekend. If you have particular issues you'd like to hear me address on the YouTube channel and the YouTube videos are more daily and relate to breaking news. But if you want to see it you can always go to the YouTube channel YouTube.commediatraining or send me your questions, comments and I'll address it here on the weekend program. I'm TJ Walker, hoping that you have an absolutely fantastic weekend.

Thanks for listening to Speaking with TJ Walker where the communication skills and practices of work world class leaders are dissected.