TJ Walker turns 53 and argues that public speaking is one skill that gets better with age, unlike athletics or music. He points to Zig Ziglar, Art Linklater, and Warren Buffett as speakers who improved throughout their lives. He offers a free public speaking course at MediaTrainingWorldwide.
Chapters
Happy birthday to me. Okay, folks, why am I being self indulgent? After all, one of the first things I teach you and all of my clients is when you're speaking, talk about stuff of interest to your audience, not yourself. Nobody really cares about you unless you're an immediate family member or friend. I don't know why you'd care. It's my birthday, but here's why I bring it up. I'm 53 today, and in many aspects of life that could be considered old. I am in fact too old to ever become a player in the National Basketball Association. In fact, a year and a half ago I was out on the basketball court, fell down and it made me realize I'm too old to even play pickup basketball. It's just too jarring on the bones. If I go down now, I'm a fairly competitive tennis player, but I'm too old to ever become a professional tennis player. These are the reality. Those are facts, folks. Doesn't bother me, but here's why it's significant to you and this program. 53 is not too old to get better and better and better as a public speaker. Public speaking is one of the few skills in life that you can actually get better at your whole life until the very end. Now, I understand if you're infirm, if you're on an oxygen mask, you can't be a great speaker. Then necessary, you can't improve. But as long as you can talk, you don't even have to be able to stand. You can be a compelling public speaker. That's, to me, what is exciting about it. My potential as a professional athlete or professional musician is extremely limited. That is it ain't happening. My potential as a public speaker, my view at this point is still completely unlimited. Now I've had some successes, I've had what I thought, great responses from audiences, 50, 100,000, even a couple thousand. But I'm hoping to speak to tens of thousands in the future. And the sky is the limit when it comes to public speaking. Think of some of the best speakers. Zig Ziglar was more than 80 years old, was speaking till almost the end of his life when he passed away just a few years ago. Art Linklater, who was a well known TV personality from the 50s and 60s and 70s, continued to give great keynote speeches into his mid 90s. Warren Buffett is a highly in demand speaker at business conferences and he's north of 85. So when you have a birthday, and hey, we're all aging, when you have a birthday, you may realize that certain life goals maybe aren't going to happen. Your window of getting dramatically better, your window of becoming truly world class, may, in fact, have closed. I'm not trying to rain on your prey, but that's just a fact. But do keep in mind, when it comes to your ability to communicate, to speak, to present, to be commanding in front of an audience, you can get better and better and better. So please give that some thought on your birthday. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks so much for joining me. And thanks for the well wishes, those of you who sent them. By the way, if you haven't done so yet, give yourself a birthday present earlier this year. Go to Media trainingworldwide and sign up for the free online public speaking and media training course. I'm TJ Walker. May all of your speaking opportunities in life be a huge success.
