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

3 Nov 2014 · 2 min

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2:12

TJ Walker (The Habit Influencer) discusses a notable poor live-TV presentation by General Motors spokesperson Rick Wilde during the 2014 World Series. Walker describes Wilde as nervous, incoherent, and apologetic during a sub-one-minute speech and uses the example to advise non-professional speakers to rehearse repeatedly on video (about 30–40 times) until comfortable. He contrasts this incident with a separate Michael Bay stage incident and emphasizes not to wing short on-camera remarks or rely solely on small note cards.

Questions this video answers

Less than one minute.

About 30 to 40 times.

Chapters

People are still talking about certain highlight moments from the 2014 World Series. Unfortunately, they're talking about the moments where General Motors spokesperson Rick Wilde gave one of the worst presentations ever on national tv. Folks, I feel sorry for the guy. Rick Wilde, he's not a professional spokesperson. He is. He holds a different function with a car company. But you saw him on national tv. I've provided a link below in the description and you can see for yourself. But he seems out of breath, nervous, flustered, lots of ums, stumbling over words, being incoherent, at one point apologizing. And this is less than a one minute speech. Folks, the lesson here is not to avoid public speaking, but you've got to practice a whole lot of times on video. Now, he may have talked it out loud, he may have looked in the mirror, but I'm willing to bet almost anything he didn't practice it again and again and again on video. Staring at a cell phone or webcam or an iPad and looking at himself speaking to the point where he was comfortable with it, because it's really hard to come across any more awkward and uncomfortable than he did. Now, if you're not an experienced speaker, if you're not on national TV every day, here's what happens. That camera goes on, the mic goes in your face and you're like, oh my God, you can't think clearly. So I understand. But the whole point is you shouldn't be thinking then. You should just be delivering what you've practiced 30 or 40 times already. So, Rick, you'll get over it. People will forget. It certainly wasn't as embarrassing as the Michael Bay incident at the convention in Las Vegas last year where he walked off stage. It wasn't anything that bad, but still, it is a reminder to all of us, if you're in a new speaking situation, keep practicing on video until you're completely comfortable. Don't try to wing it and have the little 3x5 card out there for a 30 second speech. That doesn't really work either.