TJ Walker says continuous feedback is how you get better at public speaking, like learning to write in first grade. He asks students to rate his Udemy course, message him directly with criticism, and post what they remember from his presentation. Memorable messages, not praise, prove whether speaking actually worked.
Chapters
When you went to first grade and tried to learn how to write, you had feedback. You had a teacher tell you, well, you left out a period here. You didn't capitalize there. You didn't have a comma. You needed feedback in order to get beyond the basic beginner level of someone trying to form the Alphabet and to write. Well, it's the same thing when it comes to speaking. But here's the thing. It doesn't matter if you're a beginner in intermediate or advanced. The secret to becoming better as a speaker is constant feedback. And let me practice what I preach. Because in a moment Udemy is going to ask you to give a rating on this course. I know it's early, but already you formed impressions. You've either thought, wow, this guy TJ is wasting a lot of time talking about how great he is, or he's giving me good practical tips right away. So I do want you to rate the course, but if you find anything that isn't great, I want you to write to me right away. Message me. Because as many thousands of speeches I've given, I'm still learning, I'm still getting better and I'm trying to improve this course too. So if you see something you don't like, or if there's an element you're not happy with, send me a message and I'll try my best to improve this course right away. Now, here's the thing. You're not going to hear from most people. Here's where most speakers, whether they're beginners or advanced, fail. And it's also something you're not going to find in the Udemy section when they're asking to review you. But it's what I'm going to ask you. It's a way for you to jump start over the competition. The thing to ask when you practice in front of someone or you're giving a real speech, don't ask them what they think. Don't ask them am I five star worthy? People aren't going to want to hurt your feelings. The real question, the significant question is what do you remember from my presentation? Ultimately, you want your audience to of course, have a good feeling about you, feel like you're comfortable and confident, understand you, but you want them to remember your messages. That's really what's most important. How else are they going to take the actions you want? So that's what I'm going to do for you right now. In addition to asking you to rate the course, if it's meeting all of your expectations and to send me feedback on anything you don't like. Beyond that, I want you to post in the discussion group right now exactly what you remember so far from this presentation. What sticks out as most valuable, as most interesting is most helpful. Because if you write down in the discussion, oh, TJ Is very professional. He's smooth, he's engaging, he's comfortable, he's confident. If that's what you write down, it means I failed completely.
