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

So what are the latest apps designed to help public speakers.

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

The New York Times recently did a major review of a number of new apps out designed to help public speakers and business people who are about to give presentations. I want to give you a review of the review. One of the apps we've already reviewed on this program called Ummo. This is and I'm sorry to sound cute or lame, but I feel like it should be called Lame O. Not because it doesn't do what it's promised promised, but because I just think it is steering people in the wrong direction. Um O is designed to help you count your ums and eliminate your ums. In my experience, ums are not a big problem for most people. Giving a boring, unmemorable data dump for a speech is what most people have a problem with. If you eliminate the ums and you're still boring and nobody remembers it, you've still failed, failed as a speaker. That's my problem with the app, the Ummo app, and that is going for a couple ofbucks on iOS. On Apple, there's another one called Toastmaster Timer which is free. You know you're getting what you pay for there. It helps you time your presentations. But pretty much every cell phone has a timer for that. I'm not quite sure you would want it. There are apps, one called Teleprompter Light. This is free on iOS. There's another one called a Prompter. It's free on Android. I'll give you my assessment of those in just a moment.

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So reviewing the latest apps out for speakers, presenters, business people who are giving presentations, here's the big problem with using the teleprompter for speeches and presentations, especially if it's an app on a phone. If you are holding up your phone, looking at it while you're giving a speech, I guarantee you the only thing anyone's going to remember is you holding up your phone and using it in front of people. Now, let's say you're doing it for a video that's perhaps not quite as bad. Many of you, in fact most of you today listening are in fact listening to this program on itunes and on cell phones. You're listening to the audio version of this. But I in fact am making this a video first. I then strip out the audio. So those of you who are watching this program on YouTube, you can see me and I'm not using a teleprompter right now. Now, you can't necessarily tell by looking because with a teleprompter you don't see it. But most of you have figured out that I'm not using a teleprompter. Why is that? It's because I sound like a real human being. I do not sound like I am reading a teleprompter because I do not sound the same with the same volume and the same tone and the same speed. That's what happens to people who use teleprompters unless they are professional news anchors and they read teleprompters three hours a day. Now, I am in front of the camera a lot, but I don't use a teleprompter. Not because I can't sound conversational, but because it takes so much time. And I don't think it's a good role model for most people because most business people, political people, people in government and non government organizations to use a teleprompter is so much more time consuming and more difficult than simply using a piece of paper for their notes. So for that reason, I do not recommend people use teleprompter. Are there occasionally exceptions? Sure. You've got a couple of very specific facts and numbers that you want to use for promoting a particular client or customer or something that you have. It's not the end of the world, but in general you're much better off just occasionally glancing down at a sheet of paper. Other apps that are mentioned, and software. Oh, there's of course, Microsoft PowerPoint. Why you would necessarily want that on a cell phone, I'm not completely sure. Although you could project it right from your cell phone and hence not have to carry around a laptop. So that does make sense to me. And that's free on iOS and Android. So if you do use PowerPoint slides, of course I recommend you not use text on your slides, but you use images exclusively. You can now show your PowerPoint directly from your cell phone. Here's my concern. It's just much easier to mishit something on a cell phone tap the wrong way. If you're using a laptop, all you have to do is hit a large space button or an enter button and you can advance. You can also plug something in to use a remote and a remote that's easier to touch than a cell phone. With a cell phone there's a lot of things. So I'M a little bit nervous about most people using their cell phone for their PowerPoint and not having an actual keyboard attached. That's a bigger space and that isn't as easily tapped the wrong way. Or having a remote control that is specific just to the presentation you're giving and not something that's a whole cell phone. So that is my concern there another app that was reviewed, Find, and that's spelled P H I N D. The New York Times says it's a clever feature that lets people search using photos of real world places. It's free on iOS. I guess it could help, although I'm not quite sure why you can't find a photo you want just from going to Google, typing in the word and hitting images. I always seem to have good luck finding thousands of pictures that way. Now there's one little nugget I do want to point out to you buried in this fairly lengthy review from June 9, 2017 in the New York Times. It says, lastly, don't forget the smartphone's camera app. Making a video of yourself can be a powerful way to spot mistakes, assuming you can get over that icky feeling of watching yourself on camera. It's this little nugget that's actually the most important part of the entire article. And I'm not faulting this reporter. This person's a reporter. This person is not a presentation expert. No reason why they should have advanced expertise. But let me tell you why that one sentence is the most important part of this entire article in just a moment.

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So I find this article in some ways sad, but also expected, and that people always tend to put importance on things that are completely irrelevant and minimize what's most important. It says, lastly, don't forget the smartphone's camera app. It should say firstly or just first focus on your cameras. Your cell phones camera app. That should be the number one technology that you use if you're preparing a presentation. Now the next sentence in the story says, making a video of yourself speaking can be a powerful way to spot mistakes. Guess what? That's not why you should practice your speech on your cell phone camera. It's not to spot the mistakes, it's to spot what works. It's to figure out what are you saying that's actually interesting and memorable. You cannot go into a speech fixated on avoiding mistakes. If you do, you're destined to fail. That's a horrid I mean, a lot of people do it that way. It's a horrific way of doing it. You should focus first and foremost on good ideas presented in a way that's interesting, memorable. And the role of the camera is you keep practicing until you like what you see. The other sentence in this review just again, it totally expected, cracks me up, but is also sad. It says, assuming you can get over the sometimes icky feeling of watching yourself on camera. Maybe you don't like watching yourself on camera. Most people don't. Guess what? I make very few guarantees in life, but I make you this guarantee. Nobody in your audience cares about how you feel. Nobody cares if you feel icky watching yourself. All they care about is themselves. They care about are you speaking to them in a way that's interesting and memorable and engaging, and are you giving them useful information? They don't care about you. So if you want to be a good speaker, the first thing you've got to realize is nobody cares about you. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's true. I mean, to me, the absurdity of this, it's like saying, okay, it's a hot day, you have to give a speech. Now, assuming you're not too lazy, actually take your pajamas off and put a business suit on and give a speech. But hey, if you're feeling lazy, by all means, just go give your speech naked or in old dirty pajamas. You would never see that in an article in the New York Times because it would strike people as absurd. It doesn't matter if you're more comfortable in your bathing suit or your pajamas. You're not going to go give a business speech in your pajamas because everyone would think you're an idiot. And yet, for some reason, it's considered perfectly acceptable to tell people, well, only practice on video. If it doesn't make you feel icky, you're comfortable with it. Absolute absurdity. But that's the world we live in. So to summarize, there's two pieces of technology I highly, highly recommend you don't need them on your cell phone. The first is a good old fashioned piece of paper. Put your notes, here's my notes for a week's worth of shows. For those of you who are watching this on video. Best piece of technology defined as a tool that helps you do something, a piece of paper. And the best piece of technology to help you refine your performance is your cell phone video camera. You've got practice not to look for mistakes, but to keep practicing on video until you love the speech and the speaker you see. Do that and technology will be your best friend. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. May all your presentations in life be a huge success.

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