Visualize Communication Success with Justin Ledford
Below is a time-coded transcript of the entire interview.
yeah
0:05speaking the show about effective speaking in public to the media at work
0:15and in life speaking with TJ Walker
0:25my guest today is as close as it comes to a natural-born salesman as I’ve ever
0:32encountered Justin ledford is with us by the age of 18 he sold more than a
0:37hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars worth of cutco knives
0:42I don’t know what that is but it sure sounds difficult by the time you is just
0:47a college it sold more than a million dollars almost 2 million dollars worth
0:51of other products he’s also the author of visions to the top a millionaire
0:57secret formula to productivity visualization and meditation Justin
1:04thanks for joining us
1:05TJ thank you so much for having me i really appreciate it
1:08so is it a myth or is there such a thing as a natural-born salesman
1:13um I think it’s a myth because anybody can be taught how to communicate with
1:21people effectively and anybody can be taught how to sell a product especially
1:28if they find a passion behind what they’re selling you know at the end of
1:32the day we’re all selling herself and meeting with people i mean we’re always
1:38selling herself and so I believe it’s a myth
1:41I fortunately had great training great mentors and I literally learned from the
1:47best of the best in the business and just followed after them and did what
1:52they did and had great success from that philosophy follow the best I want to
1:58hear about your mentors in the beginning in a moment the first share with us one
2:04of your top nuggets from the book visions to the top what are people gonna
2:09learn from this
2:10wow that’s a great question i truly believe that more and more people need
2:15to access their inner spiritual self what i mean by that is we all have the
2:21ability to close our eyes focus on our breath and we all have the ability to
2:26some people call meditation it’s actually known as visualization Olympic
2:32athletes they they all do this stuff
2:35Michael Phelps he just won the gold medal
2:38two girls in the volleyball arena in the Olympics they just won the gold medal as
2:44well and in their interview they talked about visualization as being the key to
2:49their success
2:50visualization is a practice where you in the quietness of your home or your
2:55office you close your eyes and you see your day as if you want it to happen so
3:02i have put together the the four phases of visualization and basically it i
3:08teach people how to access a calm state phase one is just being focusing on your
3:16breath
3:16phase two is past successes or you’re focusing on you you literally go back in
3:25time and you see past images in your mind images that were you want in life
3:30or a moment in time where you are happy somebody gave you love a moment in time
3:35where you were celebrating and that’s in your past and you cycle through multiple
3:40times of your past that’s past images future vision future visions is phase
3:48three
3:49that’s where you focus on how you want your day to go and you see your day as
3:54if it’s happening right there before you at the highest level of success what you
3:59want to achieve for the week
4:01see those things unfolding before you and what you want to achieve for the
4:05month or the year I go as far as five years 10 years 15 years and the practice
4:11is anywhere from five minutes to 30 minutes every morning and I’ve studied
4:17literally like some of the most successful businesspeople spiritual
4:22leaders athletes celebrities and there’s one thing in common its visualization so
4:31let me play devil’s advocate with a moment because I i certainly think that
4:35visualization can be an important part of any successful persons toolkit and
4:42I’ve heard Michael Phelps talk about that as well but i also know that for
4:45example Michael Phelps has watched in detail all of his gold medal
4:51winds from the swimming sessions he’s actually not just visualized himself
4:57winning gold he’s watched video of himself watching gold and he’s been able
5:02to see the ultimate vision video in front of him so I so my frustration is
5:08when it comes to communication is I often hear so-called public speaking
5:14experts say close your eyes and visualize a standing ovation or
5:19visualize your audience loving you and my point is don’t even think about doing
5:26that until you’ve practiced your speech on video and actually seen a vision of
5:33yourself on video speaking the way you want it
5:36tell me at are very contradictory or am i off base now you’re absolutely correct
5:40you actually have to practice
5:43I mean there is a study but published by some russian scientist and they took for
5:47group of Olympic athletes group one did 100-percent physical training group to
5:53did 75% physical training and twenty-five percent mental training
5:56group 3 50 50 physical and fifty percent mental group for they did 25-percent
6:03physical training and seventy-five percent mental training and they found
6:07that over and over group for was the one who outperformed all of them
6:12yes they did their physical training twenty-five percent of the time and
6:15seventy-five percent of time they did their visualization the reason this is
6:19because our mind literally the neuroscience behind it are mine gets
6:24wired even though we’re just sitting there closing our eyes and tapping into
6:28those emotions and feelings and senses and imagery our mind don’t knows no
6:34difference it wires itself as if it’s already happening and yes you do have to
6:39take action
6:40you do have to practice some of the greatest speakers tony robbins zig
6:45ziglar jim rohn they off you know as well as I know TJ they practice there’s
6:50the presentation or their pitch or their whatever they wanted to come across
6:56multiple times before they went onstage
6:58the book is visions to the top a millionaire secret formula to
7:03productivity visual
7:05zation and meditation Justin ledford thanks for being our guest
7:10you’re very welcome okay stop timeout let’s pull back the curtain now that was
7:15sort of the typical length of an interview if you were on let’s say a
7:20public radio show or NBC’s Today Show Good Morning America 56 minutes now
7:27let’s step back for a minute just it and tell us what we’re trying to accomplish
7:33their how did you prepare how do you typically prepare for an interview like
7:37that how do i typically prepare for an interview like we just had
7:41yeah I literally get into power pose
7:44there’s something called power poses and weak poses and imagine you’re standing
7:48there with your chest out
7:50you have one hand on the table your your your focus on your breathing
7:54that’s a power pose and then imagine the week pose where you’re here maybe one
7:59hand is on your chin or your arms are crossed
8:03you’re slouching over they’ve done Studies on power poses and weak poses a
8:08person who’s in a power pose their brain releases testosterone and decreases
8:13cortisol levels whenever they’re in a week pose it’s the opposite
8:17they lose testosterone and increased cortisol so long story short what that
8:22means there is a woman in the Olympics recently and all ten girls are 11 girls
8:27are about to race and run for the sprint from the jumping over those little
8:31things and one of these ladies was in a power pose jumping up and down constant
8:36state of a power pose and the other girls are just standing there literally
8:41not doing anything and it was mind-boggling to me because I knew what
8:47she was doing
8:47I knew she was increasing her blood with testosterone and we’re reducing cortisol
8:53from the power pose long story short once the gun was fired
8:57she flew down the track and beat everybody house this house this
9:03associated with communication when you’re in a confident state or also
9:08known as peak state you feel confident you feel ready and that’s how I prepare
9:15i show up in that state of mine confidence
9:19and a peak state with my chest out ready to take on whatever somebody has to
9:23offer and Justin this probably won’t surprise you it might surprise some of
9:28our listeners I’m standing right now are you standing or sitting i’m standing
9:32both hands on my hips chest out
9:35ok it we’re two peas in a pod and we didn’t we didn’t coordinate that advance
9:41the other just practical reason I think it’s a good idea to stand for podcast
9:46interviews radio interviews is you’re more likely to gesture move your hands
9:51you’re more likely to breathe more deeply and I’m not someone who stood
9:56historically puts a lot of emphasis on the whole breath thing but i do think
10:01standing and not being all slumped over is an advantage for any sort of spoken
10:07presentation I agree
10:09whenever you’re you can breathe in you you have more time to think and respond
10:15instead of being so like it’s easy
10:19I’ve been on stage before my first you know presentations and business and I
10:23wasn’t breathing and i noticed i started getting nervous
10:26so it’s important to take a breath when you’re in front of you know we have we
10:30have professional communicators here listening to us it’s important to take a
10:34breath calm your mind and focus on what you need to focus on to close that deal
10:40or get your point across
10:41let’s talk about focus what was your specific goal in the interview we just
10:45did and what were the three or more or fewer messages you really wanted to
10:50leave with the audience my specific goal on I really truly believe I’ve had a
10:57crazy amount of success before the age of 30 have made millions of dollars i
11:01have multiple businesses that produce millions of dollars in business and it’s
11:06all because my goal is I want more people to tap into their inner power
11:11self their their level 10 life i want more people to understand that we can
11:17all visualize I give keynote messages all the time literally twice a month and
11:24whenever i do the visualization practice i see people with huge smiles I see
11:29tears coming down her face while their eyes are closed going through the
11:32this so what I want people to realizes we all have a great power within us we
11:38sometimes forget you know it’s like going to the gym the first time you go
11:42you might not be so strong you might run it might be difficult but the second and
11:46third and fifth and tenth time you start to enjoy yourself running that’s your
11:51physical body
11:52I’m talking about your inner mental clarity and focus and and that whenever
11:57somebody starts tapping in that regularly that’s when they start to
12:01become more powerful so my purpose is to help people tap into visualization and
12:07meditation ultimately so they become more productive and fulfill their dreams
12:14so let’s ask our audience let’s ask them to give you feedback if you picked up on
12:20those messages from the interview
12:21feel free to to send a tweet to Justin and your twitter handle is with your
12:30Twitter handle
12:30oh my goodness it’s that’s a great question i am i why and for that you
12:38know I think presumptuous my why I’m on my wife desert my wife handles all that
12:43well but you don’t have to use Twitter my question should be actually what is
12:48the social media outlet you prefer people communicate with you on it so
12:54they can find me on instagram at just ledford dot-com somebody took justin so
13:01it’s j ust led ffordd or you can obviously find me on Facebook Justin
13:07ledford or of course my book visions to the top . com it has a contact form or
13:12just inlet for.net no good rule for those of you hosting podcast don’t
13:19assume everyone thinks the same you to who
13:22same as you do i’m assuming people like to give out twitter for instant feedback
13:27but instagram is the perfectly fine social media outlet where I am
13:32profoundly ignorant so i’m showing my pious there so thanks for thanks for
13:38sharing that and go ahead and contact him on Instagram with any thoughts you
13:44have on the messages now
13:46mention anthony robbins I it’s been probably 10 years but I’ve been to one
13:49of his seminars he doesn’t awful lot with visualization so do many of the
13:55other self-help gurus you mentioned what’s different about your approach how
14:00do you how do you communicate differentiation in your brand of and i
14:07don’t mean this pejoratively self-help but it is help for business people in
14:11more than just business but life
14:13how do you differentiate your take on visualization well one of the things
14:17that I do with the audience that is listening to me whether it’s in a
14:21keynote environment or if the reading my book are listening to the audiobook is
14:27there’s something called a dreams list and it’s you know what is a GPS do a GPS
14:33takes you to point a to point b as fast as possible and we all have dreams that
14:39we might not be fulfilling because we forgot about him
14:42we we are busy with work our family and whatever the case might be so what I do
14:49is I tap into people’s dreams and simply put allow them to just get out a pen and
14:54paper and we write dreams list physical intellectual spiritual emotional
15:00material psychological and we go through several others and then we list out 325
15:06per category and the thing about it is when people don’t know what they want in
15:11life how can they expect to get it when you go shoot up up bow and arrow you
15:17have to know what you’re trying to hit and that’s the concept with the dreams
15:22list so I tie the dreams list into the visualization practice and when I’m
15:26guiding somebody through the visualization practice i say certain
15:30things where they’re able to see what they want to happen in their dream so I
15:37might need money might not be i’m not a guru or anything I’m just a normal guy
15:41who has had a lot of success before the age of 30 and i tribute that too hard
15:47work and visualization and our guest today is justin leopard he’s the author
15:53of visions to the top a millionaire secret formula to productivity
15:57visualization
15:59and meditation it is available on amazon i read the kindle version lot of good
16:06nuggets there i would urge you to check it out
16:09by the way this program is brought to you by media training worldwide if you
16:14would like a free no-obligation media training or presentation training course
16:20more than a hundred videos good media training worldwide dot-com and click on
16:26the online school you can get that no obligation course Justin you do several
16:32keynote addresses to various audiences conferences all over the country in the
16:37world every month
16:39what is your signature story that is an awesome story so when I was 18 years of
16:45age I was having great success like you mentioned selling cutco knives which is
16:50a really high-end kitchen knife that’s made here in America and i cut my up i
16:56was about to cut a pumpkin
16:58i sat down on the floor to get better leverage i pulled a brand new knife out
17:02of a sheath i put the pump the knife inside the pumpkin with my right hand I
17:06put my left hand on the pumpkin and I push down and before I know that I i
17:12dropped the knife for some reason and I felt this rush of heat go straight
17:17through my hand I stood up and my hand was on fire and then all the sudden just
17:22split open from out from my from my thumb all the way down to near my pinky
17:28and at that moment I said to myself do not freak out I literally said that over
17:34and over don’t freak out
17:35don’t freak out what I I think I would be freaking out and because i knew i
17:39could die if I’d freaked out blood
17:41I mean I don’t straight up man blood was gushing hitting my ceiling
17:46I was hitting my fan was all over me all over my house my couch everything so I
17:50ran inside my bathroom grabbed a purple towel rush wrap it around my arm went
17:57outside started screaming for you by yourself i myself this is the day after
18:01Halloween I went outside and I’m screaming how
18:04path as long as I can and two people walk by me because my my apartment is
18:10facing the the parking lot they thought I was joking they were literally
18:14pointing at me like huh that’s funny good prank and I’m screaming for help
18:19fortunately somebody showed up by the grace of God at the you know nick of
18:23time
18:24drop me off to the hospital and I drop me off at the wrong location i had to
18:29run to the ER and it with every run the blood was pumping from my arm with every
18:36step and I get to the window and I’m like help help the lady said no no
18:42you’re fine just go sit down will be with you in a minute
18:45I remember saying some curse words to her and hitting the window that she was
18:50behind because I was dying you know and I go to the door
18:56the big blue doors and I kick through the doors with all my might
19:00ice cream how as loud as I can and the doctors they all they’re pushing
19:06patients this is behind the ER where doctors are supposed to go only and they
19:10all look at me and start running to me I fall on the ground and i’m on the ground
19:16bleeding out and this guy comes up to me he takes the purple towel off me it was
19:21blue but now it’s purple and he looks at my hand he’s like oh my god what cut you
19:27and I looked up at this guy and right in his eyes and I said cutco have you ever
19:34heard of it it’s okay i was still trying to sell the guy even though as died but
19:41that was a great moment of my life I’d say that was a signature moment in my
19:45life from that moment I realized you know I could make the choice to their
19:50prescribing drugs because of the serious pain that I was in I I could have made
19:55the choice to you know be a victim and play the victim mentality and all
20:01woe is me but instead i realized that we are powerful we can accomplish anything
20:07we want life and i decided to say no to what their prescribing and and heal
20:14through my mind through meditation through prayer through this
20:18organization there’s a guy named dr. Emoto he studied water and the cells of
20:23water something i highly recommend your audience look at and i decided to heal
20:29myself and within a month the doctor by the way the doctor said you’ll never use
20:33your hand again he told me right in my eyes and I looked at him I said I will
20:38not accept your diagnosis and then I woke up in a couple days later you know
20:45within a week I was that back out in the field closing deals meeting with people
20:50having a good time because i live by the five-minute rule if something happens in
20:54my life and it’s bad or good
20:57let’s just say it’s a bad it happened I can’t change it so why dwell on the past
21:03you know some people get upset and bring it up a week or two or a month later for
21:08me the five-minute rule i can i found out when i first learned about this
21:12about 11 years ago I can be super upset stop my feet you know bigger and moan
21:17but then it after five minutes I did that for like 30 seconds and i’m like
21:23okay well I’m supposed to do this for five minutes and I’m already done I
21:26don’t have anything else to complain about
21:28so after doing that the fourth or fifth time I realized you know what I can’t
21:32change it so let’s just focus on what I can focus on and what I can achieve so
21:38that’s the moment in my life I’d like to share with your audience
21:41anytime we go through challenges those are really just opportunities to see how
21:46we’re going to take it we’re gonna grow from it or put our tail between our legs
21:51and become weaker from it i chose to grow from it so how did you really start
21:57selling your career at age 14 I was someone who was more comfortable public
22:05speaking certainly than most kids i was one of these little student government
22:08nerds running around giving speeches all the time and I had no problem doing that
22:14but I could never sell anything I always came in last place for the magazine
22:18sales in the candy sales for the various your baseball team your Cub Scout Troop
22:24and I did try to sell i don’t know if it was cutco knives but some sort of direct
22:30sales thing I went out three days I think I sold nothing i was a kirby
22:36vacuum cleaner salesman for three days so nothing so I have tremendous respect
22:42for anyone especially the young age you can do that how did you do that
22:45well i was actually mowing yards and doing odd jobs painting houses anything
22:50of that nature at a young age I grew up in kind of a humble background you know
22:55we didn’t have everything
22:57some of my friends more blessed and fortunate to have a nice home nice car
23:02and my family went through a divorce at a young age and it was really
23:07challenging I never wanted that to happen with my future family so I
23:11realized it was mostly about money
23:14the fights and stuff in my growing up so I realized I never wanted that so i
23:19started as an entrepreneur at a young age I was that weird guy you know
23:23selling candy in school I was you know selling the football tickets and and
23:29just having car washes and and I always always like always very entrepreneurial
23:34and one day I was painting a house i got a phone call while i was on a ladder and
23:40was a guy named matt storm never remember it
23:43he called me is super hot outside in Texas and asked if i was looking for
23:47work I spilled the paint all over the house so obviously I was upset while I
23:51was talking with him but he told me one of my friends had a lot of success which
23:56I knew that guy was very successful
23:58I went in for an interview and the rest is history and I just knocked it out of
24:04the park once i got trained and started learning under the top people in the
24:07business and what was the key to that just the ability to walk into any store
24:13home and not worry about doors shut in your face or rejection is a numbers game
24:18or how much of it is about just being a great communicator and good listener
24:23once you’ve got someone
24:24well you know in any business whether you’re dealing with CEOs are trying to
24:28close a prospect or you’re dealing with your wife or husband or children you
24:32have to know you have to listen to them and I wasn’t afraid of hearing no
24:38because you’re right it is a numbers game so I’d go in people’s houses and
24:43just first and for
24:44most how to win friends and influence people it’s a great book I wanted to
24:49become their friend first and foremost and by doing that if they like you and
24:54they trust you then we’ll do business with you
24:56so that’s what ended up happening people people like me because I was friendly
24:59and I had a great product so they ended up buying it
25:04so how’ve you continue to improve you obviously started honing your speaking
25:09skills even if it’s just one on one when you’re 14 15 and selling knives
25:15how do you continue to improve as a speaker and what what motivates you to
25:20watch TED talks to watch old Ziggler videos you watch that’s a great question
25:25I’d say what motivates me I listen to podcasts literally every day on my way
25:29to my office i rarely watch TV unless it’s something very specific beneficial
25:35knowledge because we are what we put inside of ourselves and if we’re
25:39listening to you know top-performing people speak and we’re listening to you
25:44know the best of the best
25:46then it’s going to rub off on us you know our level of income is in direct
25:49proportion to the level of how much we’re growing personally and we r who we
25:56surround yourself with so i try to surround myself with you know very
26:00successful people I’d like i said i don’t watch very much TV unless it’s a
26:05documentary or something specific i do listen a TED talks all the time I love
26:10your podcast and multiple other people’s podcast knows that if you could share
26:15with and thank you by the way but share with us some of the names of other
26:17podcast you find particularly helpful very very good question i’d say Mady a
26:22with millionaire mind set is one very good show podcast another one is how
26:29Elrod with achieve your dreams
26:33another one is the front row factor with John Roman the smart passive income
26:39podcast with pat flynn those are a couple that just stick out to me but I’d
26:45say the one that inspires me the most is John Roman the front row factor and how
26:49I rod achieve your dreams never heard of those so i will check those out
26:54certainly heard of pat flynn and do subscribe to his
26:56podcast but the others are new to me so I will double-check that those out and
27:03get the best speech you ever saw someone in person not necessarily on video or
27:10Franklin Roosevelt’s inaugural address but someone you saw in person the best
27:14speech ever saw in person was in 2008 with a man named matthew kelly he wrote
27:19the rhythm of life that book changed my life
27:22he also wrote the dream manager that book also had a big influence of who i
27:28am today Matthew Kelly is from Australia he’s got this crazy awesome
27:33Australian accent and he went up on stage and just dazzled me with how he
27:38spoke his words and told his stories and it was just great man i left that
27:44conference feeling like I was on fire and that was the best speech ever
27:48listened to
27:49ok and my next question it’s okay did not mention somebody by name but can you
27:54think of the worst speech you ever so on person to me it’s peter low of the whole
28:00success seminars to me he always seemed like sort of a bad parody of a
28:05motivational speaker but is there anyone you can think of and if you want to just
28:09describe them that’s okay too
28:11I can I can’t on honestly think of like a bad speech that I’ve listened to I am
28:17I could say that I’ve seen speeches where people weren’t prepared where they
28:22were shuffling through their notes where they weren’t connecting with their
28:25audience where they weren’t getting their audience engaged
28:31those are I can’t nail one person is the worst speech I’ve ever heard but i can
28:36say those simple things that if you’re not connecting with your audience you
28:40know shuffling your papers you’re not prepared if you’re standing in week
28:44poses like i mentioned people can sense this stuff and those are some of the
28:50things that i would say I’ve noticed bad speakers do any other major influences
28:57on you as a communicator when you were growing up in particular TV announcers
29:02are politicians you admired or respected because of their speaking skills
29:06honestly my baseball coach he wasn’t like a
29:09you know the famous or anything but he had a really really big house and he had
29:13a baseball field in his backyard and he was a drill sergeant and some when the
29:19Marines or something like that and just the way he spoke to us he was caring but
29:24at the same time he was Stern he was you know passionate and that the heat of the
29:29moment like when we were in our baseball championship games but he was also you
29:34know common collected when he needed to be
29:36I didn’t really watch much TV grown-up sorry don’t have had nothing to be sorry
29:42about i’m sure you will not be on your deathbed regretting a little TV you
29:46watched yeah you just gave me a flashback talking about your baseball
29:51coach I remember for completely different reasons the speech of my
29:56little league football coach i was in fifth grade and everything out of the
30:01coaches they were two coaches mouths was an obscenity and how I was brought up in
30:07a very sort of cloistered protective Leave It to Beaver family great family
30:13and your parents were mild mannered conservative southern baptist and I just
30:19had never really heard a curse word other than you know once every five
30:23years in a major crisis and i just remembered having this terrible you like
30:31depressing almost like a slap in the face what I heard it from the football
30:36coaches so it is amazing the things that can stick with you now for me that was
30:42more than 40 years ago and that’s amazing you brought that up because
30:46things are ingrained in our subconscious mind forever
30:51that’s a fact and sometimes we can get rid of those things but our subconscious
30:56is like it’s like that you know hey you say the tip of the iceberg
31:01while our conscious mind is the tip our subconscious is underneath the water its
31:05deep its vast it goes on and on and on and on and that’s your subconscious mind
31:10clicking and saying hey remember that moment and i truly believe I mean that
31:16I’m not the only one like i said i’m not a group if you know how to program your
31:19subconscious mind you can achieve anything you
31:22life i learned this 11 years ago when i first started in business and I’ve been
31:27doing it since $YEAR and helped a lot
31:31our guest is justin ledford he is the author of visions to the top a
31:36millionaire secret formula to productivity visualization and
31:40meditation available now on amazon and especially the kindle edition the 1i
31:47read by the way this is speaking with TJ Walker you have any questions comments
31:54suggestions for guests in the future criticisms critiques send it to me
31:58directly on twitter at TJ Walker you can also email me TJ at media training
32:06worldwide . com
32:09is there anyone else you respect now in the business world political world media
32:16world as a communicator and we’re not really talking about their politics or
32:21even what business there in but just their ability to communicate as far as
32:25ability communicate i would say how alrod he is the creator of the miracle
32:31morning which is incredible book that changed my life
32:35he’s one of the best speakers that I’ve ever listened to
32:38same with jon berghoff jon berghoff is not very well known but companies hire
32:43him like Vitamix he helped that company go from i think it was 50 that 50
32:49million to over 200 million and one year he isn’t very effective communicator i
32:56don’t really keep up with current events as much as some people do
33:01I’m kind of in my own bubble of personal growth I like to listen to your podcast
33:05and the other podcast i mentioned and then go close deals with people that’s
33:11pretty much what i’m doing throughout the day or giving speeches at
33:14conferences let’s talk about speeches you were speaking in an early age making
33:20sales of your painting gigs everything else one-on-one but was the first time
33:25you spoke and said you so okay that’s an actual speech it’s more than five people
33:30it’s not just a schoolroom
33:32what was your first speech my first speech I’d have to say would be actually
33:39at a cutco vent when I was 18 years of age I had an awesome summer I was
33:44produced over at five hundred thousand dollars in sales personally and over a
33:48hundred twenty-five thousand dollars as a manager I train people and taught them
33:52how to sell and I was in room with 500 people in Arizona at a big conference
33:57and I remember just the feeling of just nailing that conversate that that speech
34:03people standing up clapping it was a great feeling man
34:07well that’s if only we could all have so many nice successes to start with that
34:14is it a good benchmark some people have great first speeches son like Barbara
34:20Corcoran the famed real estate investor who is now on shark tank always talks
34:25about our very first speech she stood up 1,000 people and her just throws nothing
34:31came out of her mouth and she ran out of the room
34:34it’s but things turned out for her to you know speaks all over the place it’s
34:38a muscle TJ it really is my first speech ever
34:41it was a childhood play and school I don’t know how old i was i was a sheriff
34:46and I remember being nervous and you know feeling anxiety as a kid I remember
34:51these feelings today and the first time I didn’t do so well and then the second
34:56time and third that you know you get better with practice
34:59they say practice makes perfect but i like to say if you try to practice
35:03perfectly
35:05that’s how you get it perfect and any star athletes have bad days had
35:11strikeouts
35:13what are some of your bad speeches surely you must have had some that
35:16weren’t quite as smooth as the first one
35:18some of my bad speech is let’s see i was trying to I’m trying to think my worst
35:26speech i I’ve been brutal stages before I I’ve tried fallen off the stage before
35:33that stuff my worst speech ever happened when i was $DAY i was young I you know
35:4119 years old I started to try to sell to real estate agents inside of their
35:45office
35:46so I’m used to one-on-one personal person i tried to do business to
35:50business sales but the thing is i have to go in and do a team meeting where
35:55there’s like a hundred or two hundred real estate agents and I tried that and
35:59the people in my business that do that phenomenally but when I tried it I
36:03didn’t do so well and I didn’t have that immediate success that I would use to
36:07having so i decided to stick with my strength my strengths were one-on-one
36:13with the people you know I’ve been referred to and that’s the thing with
36:17your with your communicating your audience that communicates find out what
36:21your strengths are and focus on those strengths
36:25that’s what you want to focus on that’s what I do in my business and in all
36:31parts of my life as well and its really helped me go very far by focusing on my
36:36strength I do agree that that’s generally the best way to go too many
36:43people obsess over the the two-percent area where they’re not doing something
36:46right
36:47so for example i am just not a good stand-up comic i took a stand up comedy
36:51class 20 years ago never got to the point where I really felt like it was
36:57working even with a test audience of friends in the stand-up comedy class and
37:02you know what I just don’t do stand-up comedy and no one’s been disappointed
37:08on the other hand i was doing an interview at ABC couple years ago my
37:16wife was with me and she said you started every single answer using the
37:22word well I didn’t say our arm but I said well so i did have a problem there
37:30and i decided to improve so I wrote out the word well but the International no
37:35sign around it like no left-hand turn no parking and I tape that sign on my cell
37:40phone computer and a few other places and drastically reduce it so we all have
37:47flaws i know i’m certainly not perfect
37:52do you see any flaws you have now as a speaker where are you still trying to
37:56improve as a communicator
37:57yeah
37:58I feel I definitely have flaws and I feel I always find myself doing things
38:03last minute I i like to rush I like that feeling of showing up in a peak state
38:10and just nailing that moment so I should probably spend more time planning and
38:14preparing and by what i mean by that
38:17I kind of live in the philosophy of ready shoot aim instead of the
38:23philosophy of set of the philosophy
38:25ready aim fire so it helps me in the past but it’s also hurt me in the past
38:33so I should probably be more prepared
38:36that’s one of my flaws and speaking of not being fully prepared
38:42can you think of your i’ll give the opportunity positive to your worst media
38:47interview ever
38:48and your best media interview my worst media interview ever and my best okay so
38:55I’m gonna start with my best my best interview ever or speech ever
39:01it was funny enough it happened last week I was a keynote speaker at a
39:05conference in Arizona or it could have been a two months ago in Houston there
39:10they both felt the same just awesomeness if that’s even a word that the speech
39:15was titled visions to the top obvious in my book and I basically felt like tony
39:20robbins because the room was interacting their answering questions people came up
39:26on stage and I did some mental psychological techniques on them the
39:31connection in the room was it was really on point at the end of it people were
39:35crying during in at the end people were crying with joy the negative ones in the
39:40room they ended up being cheerful and happy and the managers of each division
39:45they contacted me afterwards and they said their teams were noticeably doing
39:49better in performance and more productive so that would have to say one
39:53of my best training some cells people in different states especially that last
39:58statement that people were contacting you after the fact seeing an actual
40:02change of performance because that’s the hard part getting a tier or standing
40:07ovation for a lot of people can be easy but it’s all forgot
40:12sometimes hours even minutes later
40:16yeah you got to give them like a plan of action you know okay so what did we
40:20learn today
40:21one two three and then you know you get them something to do rather than feel
40:28people they will remember how you made them feel but if you give them a plan of
40:32action with that feeling they’ll go home and do that action since you made them
40:37feel great now my worst interview man thats I i don’t want to sound like i
40:44don’t consider anything but i’m i’m really trying to have a hard time my
40:49worst interview okay so this was I here we go
40:52I was on bourbon street at the crowne plaza hotel I was a keynote message for
40:56young college students who were also in sales and there was just a lot of
41:02distractions i’m going to blame it on the distractions like bourbon street and
41:05you know a TD and these kids I was the last person to speak so they were ready
41:10to get you know go and have fun
41:13someone to blame it on that but I also that does seem like a less than ideal
41:18scenario and inform hat for a serious interview is a
41:23I well remember when I was young on Bourbon Street and listening to people
41:28pontificate on anything serious who is not the top priority and you know as far
41:32as your audience goes like if I have found that the introduction is the
41:37biggest one of the most important things the district manager he didn’t introduce
41:42me properly
41:43he just like hey this is just left he’s awesome let’s let’s hear him talk
41:47instead of what I’m used to this guy has succeeded ah he’s doing great and here’s
41:53why you should let you know the introduction whenever you’re meeting
41:56somebody or introducing somebody make that person feel special and what
42:01happens is they become more receptive to you and open to listening and this is
42:06slightly different but related how do you introduce yourself let’s say you’re
42:10at a speaker’s convention or some conference and all the sudden it’s 30
42:16people the room and they say okay let’s all go up us all stand up and introduce
42:19ourselves for 20-30 seconds how do you introduce yourself in that situation
42:24because I know a lot of people who are articulate and accomplished suddenly
42:30turn into just the most boring name rank and serial number people when that
42:36happens first of all I would stand in a power pose and I would smile and that’s
42:43a how’s everybody doing and I get some odd get some interaction with the stage
42:48or with the group whoever i’m talking to and then if there was no interaction i’d
42:53say i’m sorry i can’t see very well and I put my hand on my ear and say how is
42:59everybody doing in the next thing you know everybody’s like we’re doing great
43:02so I get some interaction and then save guys my name is Justin ledford i’m not a
43:08guru I’m just a young man who has a passion and a dream to help people
43:12become a better version of themselves
43:14I’ve had a lot of success before the age of 30 and i just have a message
43:20it’s inside my book visions to the top I teach people how to use visualization
43:23how to use meditation and ultimately live a dream fulfilled life you know
43:29that’s basically what i would do
43:31I’d say whether whether you’re super successful in life or maybe you haven’t
43:36made it to the success that you want
43:38it’s like a buffet platter it has nuggets of wisdom inside of it that can
43:43teach anybody at any walk of life and that’s something you’re interested in
43:48you should come check we should have a conversation and I did it with a smile
43:52and just a hot you know waving my hands people can sense if you’re if you’re
43:57stuck up and stubborn and you know I like to have fun with life i wear
44:02flip-flops you know I’m just a laid back kind of dude who home wearing Crocs
44:07right now myself away but with we heard two peas in a pod it sounds like an
44:12awesome i want to hear from you I don’t certainly want to end on a negative note
44:18but i do want to know what you think is some of the worst communication advice
44:23out there because anybody can call themselves a communications expert or
44:27are you communications guru that to use that word that I think you’re not a huge
44:32fan of what i want to know what some of the best
44:35communication advise you think there is that isn’t it either isn’t followed or
44:41people just don’t stop to think about but I also want to know what bad advice
44:46is out there that you think people should really tion absolutely that is a
44:51great question and I will say as far as like the best advice goes you know
44:58there’s a quote that I’ve i live by
45:01let’s see if I can find it it’s from jim rome and he said I’m having a hard time
45:07finding it would be basically said your level of income is in direct proportion
45:14to the amount of time you spend growing yourself and as far as communication
45:20goes know who your audiences that’s one of the best piece of advice know who
45:26they are know what their struggles r know what their strengths are know what
45:31they’re trying to accomplish know where they’re having difficulties and if you
45:37can know that come from a place of value
45:40how can I offer value to this audience whenever I got that in my head by
45:46offering value people that helped me in my communication tremendously so that’s
45:52a one of the best pieces of communication that people rarely follow
45:56know your audience and offer value to them now
45:59did you ask me about the worst communication advice yes I’d say worse
46:05communication device
46:07great question uh going up and not being confident not looking people in the eye
46:15not connecting with your audience not interacting with them these are things
46:20I’ve mentioned before but I’ve seen it before when they’re up on stage in there
46:24they’re just kind of going through the motions you know conceded like that’s
46:29not good you want to connect with your audience and get them interacted that
46:34would be my tip and are there ways of interaction that just don’t work out i
46:41will be honest with you I personally just
46:44really don’t like it when a speaker gets up and says how’s everyone doing today
46:51or you know who here wants to make more money to me always feels very contrived
46:58and like they’re manipulating me it’s like okay I have to raise my hand and
47:02say something
47:04how do you how do you make this judgment between the right amount of engagement
47:09versus something that can maybe half the audience likes be the other half thinks
47:13is cheesy and manipulative
47:16that’s a great question you really got to feel your audience out and they’re
47:20you’re right TJ there’s people who don’t like don’t like that stuff so there’s
47:25ways around it
47:27what you do is you change their physiology and what I do is when i
47:31noticed that kind of weirdness in the audience
47:33I’ll get them to say everybody stand up please grab all your belongings
47:37I need everybody to take a deep breath in and a lot of times as they need to
47:41breathe and then ok next I want you to turn to your neighbor on your right and
47:45give my little massage turn to your left and give a little massage and that
47:49changes their physiology changes their mental state and then if I see it again
47:53in the presentation I will literally all guide the audience if it’s a one-on-one
48:00will walk somewhere else and change the atmosphere if it’s a group presentation
48:04i’ll change it up and we’ll go we’ll all get them to move into a different
48:10location
48:11whenever it’s like a hundred or 200 plus people will have everybody switch seats
48:15that changes the philosophy physiology of people and it kind of throws them off
48:20a little bit and then they’re they’re back in peak state and final question
48:27just what is it you want my audience to do well the is av audio sounds
48:34pretentious amari audience what am I rush limbaugh been doing this for 50
48:37years now what you want the listeners to the bizzle of this show to do
48:42well you know obviously I appreciate asking i would love your audience to
48:46pick up a copy of my book i’m actually for your audience i’m giving away that
48:49first two chapters for free just so they can get a feel for it
48:53I want them to read that at visions to the top .
48:57Tom against visions to the top calm and if you like it be a supporter join our
49:03Facebook community there’s people all around the world
49:06I never would have expected this Russia China Japan all over Europe emailing me
49:11everyday telling me how this tactic or this technique has really helped them
49:16and business are in their health so I want your audience to become the best
49:20version of themselves and that how does that happen it happens by personal
49:25growth whenever people are personally growing that’s when better better this
49:31begins it allows them to focus on contribution and and living a better
49:37life you know as well as I know TJ whenever you learn something new you
49:42want to share it with somebody right of course
49:46so I want your audience to be the best communicators possible learn how to
49:51visualize and definitely pick up a copy of my book visions to the top calm and
49:56they could find you on facebook just by typing in Justin ledford that is correct
50:01they can search for genocide for addition the time that’s led f 0 rd
50:06that’s correct and also my website
50:08Justin led for.net Justin led for.com and.net 3 w’s . Justin ledford . net and
50:18we’ll post a link to that in the show notes as well
50:21Justin thanks for being our guest today again the name of the book visions to
50:25the top a millionaire secret formula to productivity visualization and
50:31meditation available now on amazon
50:34Thank You th-thank you speaking with TJ Walker has been brought to you by media
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