TJ Walker uses Bill Clinton's 1988 convention speech disaster as a case study. Clinton mocked himself on Johnny Carson, then spoke 300 times a year until he became a confident public speaker and won the presidency in 1992.
Questions this video answers
1988.
1992.
More than 300 speeches per year.
About 15½–16 years out of office.
He charges for about 1 out of 10 speeches (10%).
Chapters
In 1988, I had a chance to address the entire nation. I was nominating my party's candidate for President of the United States. At the convention. Unfortunately, I went on a little too long. It was not my best speech. In fact, it was roundly condemned, booed, I was ridiculed. I was called long winded, mechanical, uninteresting. The only positive note in the whole speech when I said in conclusion and everyone clapped. And it wasn't because of praise. They were just happy I would sit down. Four years later, I addressed the convention again after having given the worst speech of the entire Convention of 1988. This time I gave an acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for President. My name is Bill Clinton. So what are we to learn from that? These days, most people, even if they don't like Bill Clinton, would concede he is a great public speaker. But that was not always the situation. In 88, his political future dimmed. It was such a bad speech, he was roundly ridiculed by the so called liberal media and everybody else. It was considered universally to be a complete bomb. How did Bill Clinton handle this speech? Disaster. He very wisely went on Johnny Carson's Tonight show and made fun of himself. Johnny Carson put out an hourglass as soon as Clinton started speaking to measure how long he was as a way of mocking him. And Clinton laughed. He showed everybody that he could laugh at himself. He didn't take himself too seriously and he looked like a winner. On the Tonight show. He came across as genial, charming, likable, funny, and with just a great sense of humor. So he took something that was profoundly negative and spinned it the other way. He didn't just stop there. He continued to make speeches. Obviously running for the Democratic nomination four years later, when he spoke at the 1992 convention, he started off by saying, I ran for President for one reason only. Pause. I wanted to continue the speech I started four years ago. Everybody laughed, cheered and roared. It was a sign that all was forgiven, that he knew he'd progressed a long way and awareness of his own shortcomings. So what's the real lesson here? The lesson is, no matter how bad you make a speech, no matter how big a bomb you have, you can always come back. You can always go on to improve your reputation as a speaker and actually be wildly successful. In the case of Clinton, it was only four short years later he went from being in the political doghouse to being President of the United States. That's not a long time. The thing about Clinton, people don't understand is it's not just that he likes to speak or he's good to speak. It's that he speaks so often, he speaks in excess of 300 times a year. And I am recording this in the summer of 2016. So he's been out of office for 16 years, 15 and a half years, but he still gives more than 300 speeches a year. This is someone who loves speaking, and he loves speaking a lot. And by the way, he only charges for 1 out of 10 speeches. Most of the speeches he does not charge for. So the real lesson here, don't let one bad speech convince you you can't speak or you need to hide. And number two, speak often. Speak regularly. You'll get better and better and better. And if you have a bad day, over time, people will forget it because you've had so many other good speeches to make up for it.
