TJ Walker visited Cairo with an Egyptologist named Latifah who earned only $15 from a $300 tour. He argues that technical skill alone isn't enough; people must market themselves online, share videos, and ask for money to increase what they make.
Questions this video answers
Cairo, Egypt.
About $300.
$15.
Presentation skills training and media training for executives (for a major construction company).
Yes — he recorded videos of her explaining sites on his cell phone.
Chapters
A few years ago, I found myself in Cairo, Egypt. I was conducting a presentation, skills training and a media training workshop for a number of executives over a period of days. Executives that worked for a major construction company. My client was nice enough to hire me a tour guide. And it wasn't just any tour guide. It was someone who was a trained Egyptologist. Latifah was her name and she really knew her stuff. So I had a driver and I had the Egyptologist telling me all the significant facts about major places we went. We went into the great pyramids. She was able to explain everything. Tj, this is where. And it was just amazing, the detail Latifah was able to explain to me. I really felt like it was an enriched cultural experience. And of course I did the touristy things to like get getting up on the camel and getting my picture taken in front of the great pyramids. But I learned a lot too, about a great ancient civilization. Went to the great museum. She was there with me, guiding me through. And it was a true educational process. And it was clear she really knew her stuff. She had trained for years, undergraduate, graduate degree. At some point I did feel compelled to ask. I didn't know how much the whole day had cost, but it came out that the day was about $300. And I did ask her, well, I'm just curious, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but how much do you get of this Latifah? She said, oh, I get $15. Well, I kind of felt bad and almost embarrassed. And of course I did give tip, but I asked her, I was like, why are you doing all this for some other company? Why don't you just market yourself, get your own customers and charge $300 and you'll have a much, much more lucrative income. And she told me, I just never really thought about. I'm not much of a marketer, didn't have a business card. I said, do you have any videos of yourself? Because you explain things beautifully. Voice is great, easy to understand for Westerners. I don't know why you couldn't have a big thriving business. So before you know it, I'm pulling out my cell phone and I'm capturing videos of her. Explaining this in part because I want to help her, in part selfish reasons. I just wanted more information for myself. But I told her, you know what, I'm going to email you all these and you can start your own website, start marketing yourself, make 20 times as much money that way. She was very excited about this wrote down her email, captured the videos. When I got home, I'm ready to send her the video. Of course, I'm showing my wife, family, friends, all my great videos and I'm excited about sending these videos to her. And then I look at my own handwriting. I can't make out what it was. I guess I tried to send the email, bounced back. Not an email address. So I never got the videos to her. I didn't help her at all. Unfortunately, she never reached out to me. I did give her my card and she didn't reach out. If she had, I would have sent her the videos right away. What's the point of all this? She's a great presenter, she has tremendous knowledge, great animation, engaging voice, engaging insights, and she was making $15 a day. Now, I'm not trying to say that money is the only thing that matters or that somehow that makes her a bad person. My only point is the difference between somebody who makes $15 a day and $300 a day or even $15,000 a day isn't necessarily their education level. She has more formal education than I do. It isn't necessarily how well they communicate or their voice or their looks. Quite often it just comes down to, are you willing to market yourself? Are you willing to show people how well you speak? Are you willing to ask people for money? So the reason I point this out and the reason I tell this story is I do think that whether you are an executive within a corporation or you're someone aspiring to be a professional speaker or trainer, it's not enough to have the technical skills. You have to actually be aggressive at marketing yourself, putting videos of yourself up. I might not be the best speaker in the world, I might not be the best trainer in the world, but you're going to have a hard time going on YouTube and finding more presentation skills videos, public speaking training videos, or media training videos from anyone in the entire world. You're not going to find anyone with more videos than I have. I'm putting myself out there. You can go on this platform or any other and try to find someone who has more public speaking or presentation skills courses. You're not going to find anyone with more. So whatever flaws I have, I. I'm not afraid to put myself out there. And if you want to be successful, I believe you have to do the same.
