I keep notes here. Most of these are related to travel, work, or books.
TJ Walker Taught Me To Communicate
ManagementUdemy: Complete Communication Skills #
TJ Walker has been teaching this topic for decades. Go search at Udemy. You will find his 20+ years of lessons all rolled into a gigantic course. His clothing and age vary wildly in the videos, to the point where a relative might watch some of these and get a nostalgic tear in their eye.
These are notes I took.
All communication #
All communication should be judged by what your listeners retain. And whether they then do something.
Your goal is to be memorable and to have a call to action.
Powerpoint #
His preference: don't.
There's no such thing as "a tech talk", "a data talk", "a formal defense", "a powerpoint presentation". He says there's only two kinds of presentations: ones that achieve an action by the listener and ones that don't.
And Powerpoint slides have to be the icing of your talk, not the talk itself. During your prep time, assume that the power could go out or the screen in the room is not visible to everyone. Well, if you have a sheet there's still a talk. So in that case, consider just having a piece of paper (single piece should last you up to one hour!), and walking around the space.
But if you DO choose Powerpoint... #
If you must PPT: one idea per slide as an anchor to your talk.
Or consider: just an image per slide, nothing else.
Write, prepare, practice the whole thing, without starting to write the ppt. Once you have a talk, author the slides. This forces them to hold no info: just be icing and reinforcement.
When you present the talk, never face the slide and read it. There should be nought to read anyway.
Use w or b to turn off the slides while you talk. Hit any key to resume.
Get a clicker-changer that does not multifunction: stay small, just a clicker. He doesn't like slide changer assistants (to me he is being silly 80s-man).
One weird way to do a Powerpoint #
Wild idea: his rhythm for ppting is:
- with no slide, start your point
- no slide, give an example story
- still no slide, maybe teach a mnemonic
- finally a slide: reviewing the point - and the slide is just a diagram or photo, few or no words
Golden rule - your ppt goal is for the audience to take some action, going forward. So, memorize in them a couple of your points. That means 2 to 5 points, tops. Your lists and high detail belong in a handout, or website they can hit later, or it is a great excuse to get their email address so you have an excuse to get in touch with them.
Who's the boss? Bad presenters let the powerpoint control them and prompt them. Don't do that. You be the boss, the ppt works for you.
Abstraction is your enemy #
But TJ, I don't have a story for that part.
His response is, that probably means its not an important point.
Story-i-zing Things #
Stories have details.
They have settings.
You have emotions, the other people have full names, and you speak dialogue.
This should feel like a radio drama.
Mention the weather, avoid pronouns, have 5 senses (sounds, tactile, ...). BUT DON'T GET SHAGGY: do all this briskly enough that Meg Domroese doesn't fidget.
Introducing yourself #
Remember, your goal is to be memorable and to have a call to action.
So even when you're at a camp or meeting and it is time to go around in a circle, he witholds his name for a bit.
Don't say name/job/company at beginning!
Do:
1 - start by posing a problem they can relate to.
2 - then say your name
3 - incentivize them to interact with you later, with a freebie or an intrigue of mystery
4 - 30 seconds maximum
Sheet of paper #
One sheet: it's a bad speech if you can't talk from a single sheet.
No levels of indenting or hierarchy.
Your triggering your stories.
Remember you should only be making 5, 3, or even 2 points. Studies show that nobody will hang onto it otherwise. In which case, why did you even talk?
Mark Twain said, "Sorry for the long letter; I didn't have time to write a short one."
Your talk made for Powerpoint during a power failure should still work, because when you were writing a TJ-style talk, you edited your talk down to a single piece of paper, adequate for walking around the space - you only wrote your Powerpoint slides at the end, if you are TJ Walker, so a tech failure shouldn't bother you. You revert to that single piece of paper.
Content of a story #
Describe a real problem.
Relate a real conversation about that.
Emphasize how you all felt.
Solve the problem.
Persuasion #
Know the finish line.
It's a numbers game. Aim for 75% failure.
Improve a little bit each time: always be getting 2% better. It adds up. But to do that you need a feedback mechanism, a reflective practice.
10,000 hours rule.
During your brainstorming, tabulate all that is appealing about your message, and then realize that just a couple will apply to a particular person. Do the lengthy or improvised work of sizing up the listener before you pitch. A real pro can do this in real time because they have thought it all through and have clarity on who wants what from their product.
Don't load too much info. Nobody was ever persuaded by a huge bullet point list. But they might be persuaded by one of the bullet points. If so, why bury it? Remove those other bullet points!
If you record your practice talk, watch it with the sound off. Look for your level of engagement based on only body language. See eye contact below.
Once you write your pitch, go back and edit the pronouns. Consider rewriting the perspective wherever possible: first person should shift to second person. Prefer you to me, and yours to mine.
Talk less. Talking less might mean spacing out your phrases. It might mean listening to them when possible.
The Eye Contact #
90% of us do windshield wiper eyes when we publicly speak. We sweep the room, hitting all the corners. TJ says it's a major, major advantage if you can switch that over to a Bill Clinton eye style.
Bill Clinton will talk to one person, for 4 or so sentences, face to face. Then move along and repeat that.
Don't multitask your listeners #
Just talk.
Just show some text.
Just give a handout.
Second most important advice #
Besides incorporating stories, and limiting the number of take-home messages, TJ's main recommendation is that you record yourself practicing the talk on a cell phone. And for 10x benefit, you show it to a person or two who can offer feedback.
We had no time to rehearse #
It's probably untrue. You have time for what you make time for. You made time for other things, instead of rehearsing. He really admonishes that you not spend too much time on the handouts or slides. Rehearsing is more important than last minute fiddling. That sort of polishing of the slides can expand to fill an entire afternoon or evening - time that is better invested in rehearsing.
If you were handed the slides that morning #
Sometimes there sincerely is no time to rehearse. If someone hands you the slides, because they are sick, or called away, then you need to read through them, and decide on which 2 or 3 points you will really lean into and make your own.
One to one talks #
The power move here is to get them to share. Get them to talk. It changes their emotion, which changes their remembering. TJ's golden rule is: they didn't remember? Then you wasted your time.
Tip: show up with a little 20 questions (not 3 questions) sheet, to spur and keep your Qs on track.