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

22 Nov 2016 · 2 min

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2:00

TJ Walker reflects on studying great speakers and deciding which rhetorical devices to adopt or avoid. Using Ronald Reagan as the central example, Walker explains Reagan favored simple, plain language over classical rhetorical flourishes (e.g., Kennedy-style phrases) in the television era, and he urges speakers to study past masters but adapt to modern audiences and trust their own discernment.

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I knew Jack Kennedy personally, I liked him and I thought he was a great public speaker. But I decided when I entered public life, I didn't want to use the ancient rhetorical devices that Kennedy made so famous when he said things like, and I ask my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. I thought it was brilliant rhetoric, but I just believed in the modern TV age that it would seem stilted, that it would seem contrived. So throughout my public life, I tried to avoid classical rhetorical devices and use simple, plain language. Forget the rhetorical devices. Simplicity. I wouldn't set up things like, and I say to you today, I would just say it. And you know what? It worked out pretty well for me. I did earn the reputation of being the great communicator. My name is Ronald Reagan. The real lesson here is great communicators are constantly studying other communicators, not just to mimic them and steal and borrow from them, but to also figure out what they don't want to do. Ronald Reagan made a very conscious decision that he didn't want to use old fashioned rhetorical devices because he believed in the modern TV era. It just seemed too stilted. So yes, you should study other speakers, study the classics, go back on YouTube, look at Teddy Roosevelt, look at FDR, study great speakers. But you also have to look at it through the prism of modern times. Your audience and what you think will play well. You've got to use your own discernment, be your own editor. Ronald Reagan was a master at this. You can be too.