00:00:00: impulses and perspectives the DIKT expert talk hosted by Nikolai Behr how

00:00:09: can we effectively use the time in lockdown during the covered nineteen

00:00:14: crisis today we're speaking with a real expert he's not only one of the most

00:00:20: well-known and most successful media trainer worldwide he is also one of the

00:00:26: best-selling online course creators welcome TJ waka could be with him TJ

00:00:34: just tell us what is so good in using online courses now during the covered 19

00:00:41: crises this is the perfect time to share your expertise with the world this is

00:00:48: the time you can make an online course write a book conduct a webinar interview

00:00:54: with someone you've always wanted to talk to people have time these days so

00:00:59: there's never been a better time to collaborate with people to do joint

00:01:03: ventures to network to talk to them through GoToMeeting zoom Skype or any

00:01:09: other way so you told me you have four hundred twenty thousand students

00:01:15: worldwide and the number is growing especially now in discovered 19 times

00:01:23: why didn't the people had time for online courses beforehand well online

00:01:30: training has been around for generations I've been doing online training since

00:01:36: 1998 and I failed miserably for the first decade and the second decade it's

00:01:42: only been in the last couple of years where the audience started taking off

00:01:48: and then just in the last two months since the coronavirus started it has

00:01:53: really taken off a lot of things just people need an extra incentive to do

00:01:59: something they're not used to doing and with the lockdown around the world so

00:02:04: many people got tired of watching TV shows they got to the bottom of YouTube

00:02:09: or Netflix and they figured I might as well use this time to

00:02:13: to learn a new skill improve an existing skill because either I'm unemployed and

00:02:19: need a job or my industry my career is in crisis and I better build my skills

00:02:25: so that I'm even more valuable in this new world order we're gonna be in

00:02:31: whether it's a recession or a depression what skills you would recommend to train

00:02:36: in these days especially looking if so many people are now unemployed and the

00:02:42: market for new jobs will not be bigger than next time well one piece of advice

00:02:47: I have for anyone is focus on what your real goal is is your going to have a job

00:02:54: or is your goal to use the skills and talents you have and to make the money

00:02:59: you need to support yourself and where I'm going with that is I think anyone

00:03:05: who is unemployed right now should spend at least half of their time creating

00:03:12: their own business now you might not think of yourself as a business person

00:03:16: or as an entrepreneur but there's only so many hours of the day when you can

00:03:21: send out a resume or respond to a job board and these days there's not that

00:03:26: many new jobs opening up so go to plan B which is start selling your own services

00:03:34: figure out what is it you do that someone else would pay for and

00:03:39: recessions and depressions are great times to start this I should know 20

00:03:45: years ago during a recession I couldn't get a job and that's when I started my

00:03:50: training business I didn't think of myself as some business genius I did so

00:03:56: out of necessity and it forced me to really focus on what is the one skill

00:04:03: and the one service I can sell now two months may go by and you get a dream job

00:04:09: great what did you lose by starting your own business nothing but if two months

00:04:15: three months six months go by and you don't get that job now maybe you've

00:04:21: built up a practice whether you are someone who does internet bar

00:04:27: getting weather you design websites whether you assemble first-aid kits and

00:04:33: mail them to people everyone has a certain skill a certain talent that they

00:04:37: can do better than others and with the internet you can market yourself I'm not

00:04:43: suggesting you go take out a big five-year lease on an office space work

00:04:49: from home keep your overhead near zero but start marketing your services

00:04:57: because we just don't know when jobs will ever come back what criteria

00:05:03: are important if I choose an online course you've got to figure out what are

00:05:09: you interested in because part of what's going on in the online world is you have

00:05:15: to be self-motivated unless you were in a traditional elementary or high school

00:05:21: or college program there's typically no one there grading you and saying oh you

00:05:27: didn't do this you better go back you have to pick courses that you really

00:05:32: want to dive into because you genuinely want to learn that should be the main

00:05:38: criteria and then you've got to figure out am i learning just for fun which is

00:05:42: fine or am i doing this because I want to learn a new skill set so if you

00:05:49: really want to know how to for example put on a successful webinar to make

00:05:55: money promote your business then people really ought to sign up for your new

00:06:00: course on how to do even ours because that will help them in their immediate

00:06:04: need webinars can be great ways of promoting a new business having people

00:06:10: get familiar with who you are learn about your services build a comfort

00:06:15: level with you so the offers in the market in the

00:06:22: online market are very big so there are courses from a lot of companies who

00:06:27: offer these courses if you have several courses doing like a programmers

00:06:34: language you like to learn what is the criteria to choose specifically this

00:06:41: course look it's like buying anything else if you go to Amazon and type in

00:06:47: webinars how to conduct a webinar you'll see hundreds and hundreds and

00:06:51: hundreds of books if you go to you to me.com type in webinars in german people

00:06:58: are likely to see your course and maybe just a few others and they can look at

00:07:01: your reviews they can look at your credentials and try it out now what

00:07:06: happens in many online platforms since it's still a relatively new medium is

00:07:13: they do a lot of the credible ones do a lot of things to make it easy for a new

00:07:18: customer to feel comfortable with the product so for example when someone buys

00:07:24: my complete public speaking course on udemy.com or my complete communication

00:07:29: skills course they have a 30 day window to get a 100% refund so they can

00:07:37: actually take the whole course like it and decide and I just don't feel like

00:07:43: paying one click they get a full refund it's much harder to do that if you go to

00:07:49: a bookstore buy a book and you've turned down half the pages they're gonna look

00:07:53: at you in a somewhat skeptical manner if you go to a local college and sign up

00:07:59: for a semester and halfway through you want your money back that's tricky

00:08:04: but with the more reputable online training platforms they want to make it

00:08:10: easy for you to hop in so if there's really no risk you can get a money-back

00:08:15: guarantee so would you specifically look for a

00:08:19: money-back guarantee and recommendations I would look for recommendations I would

00:08:25: look at reviews and a money-back guarantee can't

00:08:32: so you teaching communication skills so this is suitable for every business

00:08:38: person and is there or that way we would start if doing a communication skill

00:08:45: course I have a hundred and fifty five online courses on the udemy platform but

00:08:52: if someone wanted to improve their communication skills I would recommend

00:08:57: they go to my complete communication skills course it really is everything

00:09:01: soup to nuts it's about 30 hours long and you can do

00:09:07: as much or as little of it as you want you can really go deep and get advanced

00:09:12: training or you can just do the first half hour whatever platform you use and

00:09:18: whatever teacher you is I do think for communication skills you want someone

00:09:24: who can give you personalized feedback so when someone takes one of my online

00:09:28: courses they have homework they have to record themselves on video post that

00:09:35: video on the student Q&A page or the student Facebook page and I watched the

00:09:41: videos and give people feedback and critiques now they don't have to do it

00:09:46: but that's ultimately the best way to learn as you know from your own media

00:09:51: and presentation training practice people need to not just sit back watch a

00:09:57: great speaker like you or some other world leader they need to actually speak

00:10:03: themselves be recorded watch it figure out what they like and what they don't

00:10:08: like so that's what happens in all of my online communication skills courses

00:10:14: public speaking courses body language courses PowerPoint and presentation

00:10:20: skills courses how much time does a student meet a day to watch these

00:10:25: courses or what would you recommend well I have everything from one hour course

00:10:31: to a 30 hour course and this is like anything else in life the more time you

00:10:37: put into it the more you get out of it if I wanted to all of a sudden become

00:10:42: fluent and jerk I could study it for five minutes once I

00:10:47: could study it an hour a day for a week I could study it two hours a day every

00:10:54: day for the next year well which way do you think I would get better at speaking

00:10:58: German the more time you put into something the greater return you get the

00:11:04: good news about public speaking is it's not as hard as learning a new language

00:11:08: you don't have to spend two hours a day for a year the main thing is you have to

00:11:15: practice speaking on video until you love what you see on that screen that's

00:11:22: the real magic moment I find for some people they may be able to do that in 15

00:11:29: minutes other people may need to spend ten hours but that's the ultimate secret

00:11:35: of being a confident speaker of getting rid of your fears is if you can look at

00:11:40: a video of yourself and say wow that person is pretty interesting I wouldn't

00:11:46: mind watching and listening to that person because most people when they see

00:11:50: a video of themselves speaking their first reaction is oh wow that's really

00:11:56: boring that's awful I wouldn't want to watch

00:11:59: that person that's the typical response most of my students have and most of my

00:12:05: clients have doesn't matter if they're a prime minister the president of a

00:12:09: country a Member of Parliament most people when they watch themselves speak

00:12:15: think that they're boring and awful and the problem is quite often that's true

00:12:22: so it's all about storytelling so at the moment we're still in lockdown and no

00:12:29: one knows how long this will go on for but do you think when the lockdown is

00:12:36: gone and people can meet again and can have big meetings and big trade fairs

00:12:43: and will public speaking be same attractive as before covered 19 or will

00:12:51: people now stick to online and stick to zoom and and big

00:12:56: video conferences I think human beings have an innate desire to connect with

00:13:03: other human beings in person so I do think that there will be conventions

00:13:08: conferences meetings in the future but it could be severely diminished and it

00:13:12: may be five years I don't really know certainly I'm not an expert on on

00:13:19: infectious diseases but I can here's one thing I can guarantee you the better you

00:13:25: are at communicating and speaking specifically to tell people about your

00:13:31: services your products your skills the better off your career is going to be no

00:13:37: matter what no one really knows what's going to happen with various diseases

00:13:42: and lockdowns but the one thing we know is that if you can communicate your

00:13:48: value to others it can only help you and that's why I see myself first and

00:13:54: foremost as a subject matter expert who can communicate I don't see myself as a

00:14:01: professional speaker even though I used to be president of the National Speakers

00:14:05: Association in New York for the United States and I see a lot of people frankly

00:14:12: my age and that that age not youngsters who are really struggling now because

00:14:17: their whole identity was I'm a professional speaker and I have to speak

00:14:22: from the platform and that's what I do and they're viewing what they do through

00:14:28: a very narrow lens I am a subject matter expert on the field of communication and

00:14:35: personal development and I speak and I speak professionally but I frankly don't

00:14:42: care if I'm on a stage with 5,000 people because I speak to people literally

00:14:49: every single day I make a new video every single day I hold up my cell phone

00:14:54: and I give a tip on public speaking or communication or personal development

00:15:00: sixty seconds or less and then I quit I do it in literally one take 60 seconds

00:15:07: or less and then I post it on 12

00:15:09: different social media platforms and I don't have 10 billion people watching

00:15:15: every month but I certainly have more than a hundred thousand views every

00:15:21: single month of people watching me speak about what I do professionally so does

00:15:27: that make me a professional speaker again not in the traditional sense of

00:15:32: you're up on a stage and Anthony Robbins was before you and not that sort but it

00:15:37: is speaking and it is creating value and it is a part of my own marketing for my

00:15:46: own business that results in income I saw a video you

00:15:52: posted recently where you talked talked about routine daily routine and

00:15:58: discipline in doing so can you can you talk about this a little bit my main

00:16:04: area of expertise and where I spend most of my time these days is helping people

00:16:09: build habits influencing themselves for 30 years of my life I professionally

00:16:15: helped people influence audiences how do you speak to an audience to influence

00:16:20: the action you want and it occurred to me that the audience that really has the

00:16:26: biggest impact on our lives is ourselves so if we learn how to speak to ourselves

00:16:32: to influence ourselves that's the biggest payoff of all so I do speak to

00:16:39: people right create courses on personal development but I use a communication

00:16:45: angle what I have found is that most people all day long are subjecting

00:16:51: themselves to messages through this we get text messages all day notifications

00:16:57: all day from Facebook emails from Amazon saying you bought this you'll probably

00:17:02: like this we're getting thousands and thousands of messages reminders

00:17:09: notifications triggers triggering us to take action and yet

00:17:15: who's really looking out for us it's very easy to destroy your productivity

00:17:20: cycling all day long from checking Facebook checking LinkedIn checking

00:17:25: Twitter answering emails answering texts you can go through a whole day act like

00:17:32: you're being productive and accomplish absolutely nothing so what I do in my

00:17:37: personal development online courses is I teach people how to influence themselves

00:17:43: using a system I call selfie speak programming you simply go to your phone

00:17:48: and you go to the memo record and then you literally tell yourself the habits

00:17:55: you want to do every day you just do it once and then you hit click you can

00:17:59: listen to it so for example several months ago I updated my selfie speak

00:18:05: program and it's less than 15 minutes long but I tell myself every day TJ

00:18:11: you're going to do 40 push-ups this morning you're going to do a dozen

00:18:17: pull-ups today you're going to start your day with a glass of water you're

00:18:21: going to write 500 words every morning on personal development issues I

00:18:27: actually lay out these specific habits I have a hundred of them that I want to do

00:18:32: every single day so I tell myself what it is and then when I first wake up and

00:18:39: I'm still a little groggy I just listen to it and it's telling me what I want to

00:18:46: do and when you look at the big influences in the world it's not

00:18:51: necessarily both who are the biggest influencers in the world it's it's the

00:18:55: Facebook's of the world it's the googles it's the Netflix when Netflix wants you

00:19:01: to give them your credit card number and give them money every month

00:19:07: they don't send you a book on the thousand best movies to watch that's not

00:19:12: what they do they don't ask you to go to a three-day

00:19:15: seminar and walk across coals no they bombard you with emails and text

00:19:22: messages and images that's what they do when you look at the

00:19:27: people who have the most influence in the world today the Coca Cola's the

00:19:32: McDonald's the Facebook's it's because they're constantly in your face with

00:19:39: messages could be a billboard or a TV ad in the case of McDonald's or coke

00:19:45: Facebook it's notifications its emails oh look what your friend will come any

00:19:50: of your friends like this because they want to influence your behavior Facebook

00:19:56: makes money the more time you spend on the Facebook platform that's good for

00:20:01: them it's not good for you so one of the things I program myself to do is to not

00:20:07: look at Facebook more than about five minutes a day that way I can allocate

00:20:14: more time that I want to spend on doing things like making online courses and

00:20:19: talking to interesting intelligent entrepreneurs like you and your audience

00:20:24: thank you very much TJ we learned a lot one of the best thing for me I think is

00:20:31: that you're the best influencer for yourself and you should use that more

00:20:35: than being influenced by others thanks a lot for your insights into the online

00:20:40: course business and all the best for you and your family and your friends through

00:20:45: this crisis because I thank you bye bye hope to see you soon

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