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

10 Jul 2015 · 2 min

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1:35

TJ Walker responds to a viewer (Adida) who feels nervous at the start of talks. He advises opening with something interesting and useful to the audience (not canned greetings or data dumps) and to avoid memorizing a perfect line. He also recommends practicing on video—especially the first minute, repeating it several times—to build comfort quickly.

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Adida writes in and says, tj, I am a tentative talker. After I get through the first two or three lines, I'm more comfortable. But it's a rough start. What can I do to improve that? Well, Adida, I do think you are on the right track by being concerned about being great and comfortable right from the beginning. Not 30 seconds in or after 2 minutes or 3 minutes, but right from the beginning. Here's one tip that I think will solve your problem. Make sure you have something interesting to say to your audience. First thing out of your mouth. And I don't mean memorize it. I mean just talk to them. One of the problems people have is when they start their speech, it's Good morning. As you know, my name is TJ Walker. I'm president of Media Training Worldwide. Before I start today, let me tell you about the boring history of my oh my gosh, that's awful. I should be nervous. Don't start your presentation just dumping data, going through the boring cliches most people do. Don't try to memorize some perfect, witty. Just talk to people. Start off by saying something that's really interesting and useful to your audience. Do that and it becomes practically impossible not to be comfortable. The other big tip? Practice on video. Pull out your cell phone, your iPad, your webcam. Practice your whole speech. But go ahead and practice the first minute three times. That will only take you three minutes.