Should I tell my audience how happy I am to be speaking here in front of them today?The following comes from TJ Walker’s upcoming book “The Wisdom of Your Audience” Your Speechwriter: “This is a classy way to begin a speech. It shows a proper level of respect for your audience.”Your Director of Business Development: “You must tell your audience how happy you are to be there. We don’t want to offend anyone.”You: “I would feel rude if I didn’t tell everyone how happy I am to be there today. Plus, this will give me time to calm down and figure out what I want to say before I really get going into the speech.”Your Audience: “We don’t give a d*%n if you are happy to be here at this stage of the relationship (we just met you a few seconds ago). Why don’t you forget talking about yourself for a few minutes and tell us something that is interesting to us. And if you do talk about yourself, make sure it is actually interesting and is not a boring, mundane, trite cliché like “I’m happy to be here this morning.’”

I am fine-tuning a new rating system for evaluating public speakers. Here is a sneak-preview. If you have somone you wnat me to rate. Send me a note and a video link to tj@tjwalker.com. 

The WalkerSpeak™ Rating (0-50 rating)

Movement
Message
Memorablity
Motivation
eMotion

The WalkerSpeak™ Rating system judges speakers based on five criteria:

1. Movement. Does the speaker move his/her body/hands/face/eyebrows/voice in a natural, comfortable and confident manner? (0-10 pts)
2. Message. Does the speaker have a clear, understandable and relevant message for the audience? (0-10 pts)
3. Memorablity. Does the speaker use memorable stories, case studies and examples or does the speaker dump data and remain abstract? If the person uses PowerPoint slides, video clips, or other media, does the speaker use the media in a visual, memorable manner (i.e. images only and one idea per slide or image) or does the speaker use the media as a boring crutch for holding text and bullet points. (0-10 pts)
4. Motivation. Does the speaker motivate the audience to take a specific action? (Note: the speaker is not being judged by the standards of a cheesy “motivational speaker.”) (0-10 pts)
5. eMotion. Does the speaker connect with the audience on not just an intellectual level but an emotional level? (0-10 pts)

General Ratings

40-50. An outstanding speaker who communicates substance with style
39-32. A competent, above-average speaker
31-26. An adequate speaker 
25-21. Not a painful speaker to listen to, but little communication occurs
20 and below. A problem speaker who needs major improvement in style and substance

The WalkerSpeak™ Rating was created by TJ Walker, founder of The Speaking Channel www.speakingchannel.tv and the CEO of Media Training Worldwide. Walker has conducted presentation training for thousands of executives, CEOs. Prime Ministers, Nobel Peace Prize winners, Miss Universes, athletes and celebrities since 1984.
 

I confess, I underestimated the power of blogs. For years I treated them as just another distribution method, like a fax or an email service. Now I have come to learn (belatedly) that blogs are their own end, in and of themselves.

For years I told people that I blogged. I did, indeed, write a daily column, occasionally about stuff in the news. And this column was posted at either www.tjsights.com  www.speakingchannel.tv. But I wasn’t writing a true blog. I wasn’t connecting to the greater blog community and I wasn’t linking to the rest of the world. I was simply taking an old-media world column and shoe-horning it into a different format. It wasn’t working.

I stand chastened. Today is the first day of my first real blog. Here are a several guiding principles I plan to follow over the coming years:

1. I will take you into my world of working with high level leaders around the world on their speaking skills.
2. I’ll take you through the many processes of refining the speaking craft.
3. I’ll frequently point out my own flaws and mistakes as a speaker and ask that you learn from my blunders.
4. Political leaders will be a frequent focus of this blog, but I will examine only the speaking skills of leaders. Of course I have views on political ideas themselves, but I have found that there is no way to start a discussion about political values without politics consuming the discussion and driving away the 99% of people who don’t care to enter a political debate. Please don’t presume to know anything about my politics because of how I rate a politic ian’s speaking skills (you will be wrong).
5. I will explore all areas of spoken communication in life, not just so-called “formal business presentations” that constitute the bulk of my business running Media Training Worldwide.
6. I will give honest assessments and ratings of speakers around the world, and I will let you do the same (even if that means giving me a low rating to one of my own speeches).
7. Everything I share with you will be based on a combination of personal experiences speaking, experiences training people around the globe, plus my attempts to analyze and synthesize everything else I can find that is written about or discussed as it relates to speaking.
8. This blog is primarily about you. And by you, I mean someone with an interest in speaking, spoken communication, public speaking, and everything else that goes into talking to people. However, I am going to draw upon many personal things that happen to me, as they relate to speaking. No, I won’t tell you about what breakfast cereal I ate or what movies I like (unless a movie has a speaking focus), but I will tell you about personal mistakes and blunders I make while speaking to large audiences or even one-on-one situations.
9. While I will try to write every day for you, I will try to use the medium that is the most effective way to deal with speaking, i.e. video, even though it is not as convenient as typing.
10. I want to hear from you. Please send me your questions or suggestions for topics for this blog to tj@tjwalker.com.