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

27 Jan 2018 · 2 min

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2:28

A short coaching clip by TJ Walker advising a client who must read a two-minute statement to the United Nations Security Council. Walker emphasizes strict adherence to the approved text while recommending practical delivery improvements: rehearse the reading multiple times, record and review it, use very large printed font, and employ contractions to sound natural.

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Public speaking Question of the day. This one comes from New York, a client working with the United Nations. Dear T.J. i have to read a two minute speech to the United Nations Security Council at 3pm today. Any tips in this regard? Well, that's a very specific type of speaking situation where you've got a lot of people listening, it's being translated, it's going in a lot of different places. There's a lot of diplomatic sensitivity. So it's different from a lot of speeches where I would say just have a couple of notes and then tell stories. You've got to read it just the way it is because your statement has been approved by lawyers and all sorts of other diplomats. So it is a different situation. There are some things you can do to come across much more effective. For starters, I would practice reading the speech out loud, ideally half a dozen times. I mean, it's only two minutes long. So if you read it half a dozen times, that's only 12 minutes. If you listen to each one of those, that's only 24 minutes. So for something this big, carve out 24 minutes. I would also record it. You can use the memo recorder on your cell phone to listen to it or record it on video and watch it. Final tip, print out the document in really large font. Font is this large. If you can see it three, four, five times bigger than normal. It's just so much easier when you're standing up and you're going to have the paper, presumably paper not a screen further away than if you were sitting down holding it in front of you. It's easier on the eye and it's just easier to deliver with really large font. Plus, if you forget your glasses or your glasses steam up or something, it removes the need for the glasses. So practice it, rehearse it, and even if the lawyers have approved everything, make sure you use contractions so it sounds natural. Don't say can, not say can't. And that will make you come across more believable, more comfortable, more confident. Good luck. I'm TJ Walker. I teach people how to speak effectively to the media and live audiences. If you want to improve your own speaking, please go to mediatrainingworldwide.com and download a couple of my books for free.