Ep. 9: MasterTalk

SUMMARY:
Brenden is the founder of MasterTalk, a YouTube channel he started to help the world master the art of public speaking and communication. He coaches purpose driven entrepreneurs on how to master their message and share their ideas with the world.

 When I met with Brenden, I thought our conversation would focus mostly on the skills and confidence to master the art of public speaking, but in actuality what we discussed went a lot deeper than that.

 Brenden explains how our ability to be successful in our relationships and our businesses is grounded in our ability to communicate. Brenden also provides tangible actions we can all take to start improving our communication skills today. 

 I learned so much from my short conversation with Brenden, as I am sure you will too. I hope you enjoy this week’s Tackle Tuesday episode.

LINKS
Website: https://www.mastertalk.ca/ 

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendenkumarasamy/

YouTube: masteryourtalk

Instagram: masteryourtalk 

Transcript

 Johanna Pagonis  0:01  
My name is Johanna Pagonis, and welcome to tackle Tuesday. Tackle Tuesdays a podcast series that tackles different issues in the workplace. We explore topics such as leading with emotion, diversity and inclusion, and how to create resilient and agile work cultures. Today's episode is sponsored by Sinogap Solutions, leadership consulting, where we are experts in workplace culture. We make it easy to survey your employees and uncover actionable insights that will help you create a great company culture. This week's episode I had the opportunity to interview Brendon Kumarasamy. Brendon is the founder of master talk a YouTube channel he started to help the world master the art of public speaking and communication. He coaches purpose driven entrepreneurs on how to master their message and share their ideas with the world. When I met with Brendon, I thought our conversation would focus mostly on the skills and confidence we need to master the art of public speaking. But in actuality, what we discussed went a lot deeper than that. 

Brendon explains how our ability to be successful in our relationships and our businesses is grounded in our ability to communicate. Brendon also provides tangible actions we can all take to start improving our communication skills today. I learned so much from my short conversation with Brendon. And I'm sure you will, too. I hope you enjoy this week's tackle Tuesday episode. So thank you so much for being on tackle Tuesday. Today. I'm really excited to have this discussion. How are you today? Very good. How about yourself?

Brenden MasterTalk  1:46  
I'm doing pretty good. Thank you.

Johanna Pagonis 1: 47
Alright, so I wanted to ask you doing a little bit of research on your background, I noticed that you you currently work for IBM correctly as a business transformation consultant. But you're also an entrepreneur,

Johanna Pagonis  2:01  
whose purpose and passion is helping others achieve success by overcoming their fear of public speaking. Is that accurate?

Brenden MasterTalk  2:09  
Yes. Is this like an interrogation?

Johanna Pagonis  2:12  
No, not at all. I was curious as I'm trying to make the link between the two on my own and I have some guesses. But before I give you my kind of interpretation of how the two link, can you talk to me a little bit about how you went from a IBM business transformation consultant, you still there you still work at IBM. But how did you make that transition also to becoming an entrepreneur and really focusing on public speaking? Is there a link between the two?

Brenden MasterTalk  2:38  
Yeah, absolutely. So basically, it's the short story. If you'd asked me at 19 what I wanted in life. The last thing on my mind to be a YouTuber, I thought that was something rich people did read, I grew up in a in a low middle income family in Laval, which is a small city near Montreal in Canada. And all I wanted to do was to make money, you know, get out of poverty, it wasn't rocket science. So essentially, the goal is to be a senior partner at McKinsey, or IBM for us 30. That's basically the goal. So what I did when I went to business school, as I did these things called case competitions, so think of it like professional sports, but for nerds. 

So other guys my age, you know, playing football or soccer or something, I was using that same competitive energy, but applying it to presentations. So for three years, I presented 500 times coach dozens of people on communication, you know, went up against all the best universities in the country. And then when I graduated, I was fortunate enough to land a great job, but IBM. What happened after that is I realized, as I was on the fast track to being an executive there, I kind of just stopped and asked myself, is that what I want to do in life? Is there more to just being an executive and being there as great. But I also realized that a lot of the content on communication on YouTube in particular sucked. 

But you have advice like, Oh, you should imagine everyone out there naked. What kind of advice is this? no sense whatsoever. So it's all PhDs in the in the platform, and they didn't really know what they were talking about. So I started making videos from my experiences in university. And over time, my production got better, I got better. But the point is to draw the link to the to Jonah. If I never want it to be a technology consultant, I never would have built a communication skills necessary to do master talk in the first place. So one led to the other.

Johanna Pagonis  4:23  
Okay, so how come you need public speaking as a technology or business transformation consultant?

Brenden MasterTalk  4:29  
Oh, right. So communication is not just about business, I think it's everything that you do, as you probably are aware of. So whether you're in corporate meetings with executives, or you're pitching, you know, services, you know, Technology Services, whether you're having a difficult conversation with the person you love, or whether it's the children that you're trying to manage. Everything that you do is communication. And the more the faster we understand that the better not just our lives will be, but our relationships, our businesses and the way that we see or the process of how we meet new people will also change. So that's why it's extremely vital in an IBM it's definitely no exception.

Johanna Pagonis  5:05  
Yeah, I totally agree. What were some of the key learnings that you learn from your all you said you spoke 500 times you said, right publicly? What were some of the things that you learned about public speaking and mastering the art of public speaking?

Brenden MasterTalk  5:21  
Right? I would say the biggest one, I'm probably at 1000. Now, for be honest, but wow, I think what I learned, but the reason why I'm saying this not to be cocky, or anything, because it's because half of those times, I gave the same presentation. Out of the thousands of presentations that I probably have thousand 200, or something, almost half of them was the same one. What does that mean? 

Johanna Pagonis  5:43  
Wait, what was it on? 

Brenden MasterTalk  5:44  
It's my keynotes that I give to clients and stuff, you know, like my keynote on communication. 

Okay. So the reason why that's important is the lesson for people is everything that we do every skill that we have, let's say we're trying to learn piano together, we have two options, right? Number one is get a bunch of music like 15 songs, we figured out from Mozart, that's going to work, but we're not Mozart. And the other option, which is easier for both of us is let's pick one song and get it right. So then we'll read a fancy gala or an event and there's a piano there, and you look at me go printed, let me go play that one song everyone's gonna come up to and go, Wow, have you been a pianist for many years, and you're gonna respond, uh, you know, no big deal. I've been practicing, I'm really good at this thing. 

Even if you only know, one song. And we do this with everything cooking, you're cutting the same vegetables. Your second kid, the first one, you have no clue what you're doing. The second thing, you probably have a better feel of what's happening. We don't do that in public speaking, though. Because most of the presentations we give to our clients, to our teachers to our bosses, we only give one time. And that's why we're not very good at public speaking, as with the greats do is they take one or two presentations, but presented so many times that every second is perfect.

Johanna Pagonis  6:56  
Oh, that's great idea. So practice, obviously is the key.

Brenden MasterTalk  6:59  
Right? And something I'll add, because there's a business related show, I'm sure a lot of you're thinking right now, especially if you work in change management or something like that. You're like, well branded my change projects change all the time, right? Like I got, I can't present the same thing over and over again. So my reply to that is I want you to think about your passions outside of work. So then you might answer something like, 

Oh, well, you know, I mentor, a group of kids in my city on leadership. I was like, Okay, what do you talk about? The go, Oh, well, the five traits of being a leader, I was like, exactly. That presentation is what we call a repeatable presentation. Because you can present the same content over and over and over again, to different groups of kids or adults, right? So you need to find that presentation for you. For me, it ended up being communication for you. It's probably something related to your business, or even your very podcast, like this show. It could be a presentation, where you talk about the mission, what what you aspire to get out of it. So find that thing for you, and you'll be a master no time.

Johanna Pagonis  7:56  
Okay, I'd like to speak a little bit to motivation. You You gave the example of piano and I thought that was actually a really good example, because I used to play piano as a kid. And then after I finished my PhD, I was like, Well, I have some extra time on my hands. I'm going to learn how to play the piano again. And Brendan, what I found frustrating was I got bored learning the same song it is so fun. You don't you don't you know very little about me, you had no idea that I was learning how to play piano again. And one of the ways I was trying to learn how to play piano was play the same song over and over to master it. 

But what I found really challenging was I got bored, fast. And I assume that may happen with people trying to master public speaking and, and use that method around practicing that same keynote over and over again, what are some what some advice you would give to somebody in terms of maintaining that motivation, because I, I also assume like, trying to learn the same song over and over again, one of the reasons why I get frustrated is because there's maybe one part of that song, I keep screwing up over and over again, right? And I just want to I get frustrated and want to do something different. So what are some of your advice to that?

Brenden MasterTalk  8:59  
Right? So there's actually a simple question here. And how to solve this once and for all, because I get this a lot from my clients to kind of bothers me too. And the question that you need to ask yourself, is who suffers from your inability to take action, every day, that you make the decision not to do the thing 400 times not to practice the same thing over and over again, you need to get very clear on the person that you're hurting. So for most people join them. Option A is do the thing, play the piano, start the podcast, you know, I don't know. Yeah, spend more time with their families doesn't matter what the thing is. 

Okay. Option B, is watch Netflix. Right? Simple. Yeah, yeah, there's nothing on the line. It's just like, Well, I mean, I've a PhD I'm doing if I don't need to play piano who gives a crap I have a successful business, who cares? Whereas with public speaking or with me, particularly, my ultimatum option is do the thing. Yeah, option B. Watch millions of people suffer. What do I mean by this? Julie has a 16 year old girl in her high school, she loves to lead. She's future leaders going to be amazing whether she's an executive and technology, whatever she wants to do, she's going to become except one problem. She's deathly afraid of public speaking. So what does she do? She does what any other six year old girl her age would do. She would go on YouTube. So she learns all of her stuff. She types public speaking tips, and what does she find? She finds a bunch of old white dudes in her 70s. 

You don't know anything about public speaking. So she looks at these people and goes, Well, I guess this is not for me, she closes her laptop. And that belief system that she'll never be a great speaker will never change. Unless I do something about it. Every day that Brenda decides not to make videos, he is saying to that girl that I don't care about you. And that will never happen with me. That's why I write my content two and a half years ago that I have content right until 2023. Why? Because I'm so obsessed with jewelry, I know exactly the consequence of me not doing the thing. So if you're not clear, of course, you're going to watch Netflix.

Johanna Pagonis  11:10  
Great. So what I'm hearing you say like know your purpose, what I hear coming in. I love this because I spoke to it's almost as it's almost as if every guest I speak with when I ask them, like why do you do what you do? Or what are some of the key learnings. They always share about their purpose and how that's motivated to keep going forward? And just overcome any challenge. It's sustaining. It's that in your motivation that people have. So what I hear you say is this is my purpose. It's really to help other people be successful in their life. And being able to communicate in a confident way is key to that. And so every day that you decide to watch Netflix and not not get up and pursue your passion, fulfill your purpose, it's disadvantaging other people. Yeah, like that.

Brenden MasterTalk  11:55  
Now, you're essentially like to put it like a paint a picture here, you're essentially making people wait in a line that doesn't have an end. Right? I like that.

Johanna Pagonis  12:03  
Okay. So number one is practice makes perfect, right? Finding that inner purpose around why it is that you're doing what you're doing to keep that inner Mater, inner motivation going? What are some other challenges that, like, what are some other root cause fears that people have when it comes to speaking that you like, you've done this so many times, you've coached people? What are some other things that people have told you or expressed to you around their fears around public speaking?

Brenden MasterTalk  12:28  
Right, so a couple of things. So one thing that comes to mind right now is this question that I'd love for people to reflect on, that helps them find their ideas and their purpose and things like that. And it helps you reduce the fear as well. And the question is, how would the world change? If you were an incredible speaker? If you're one of the best speakers on the planet? How would the world be different? And if your answer to that question is, uh, you know, get like a promotion at work? You know, answering it the right way. But if the answer instead is, Hey, you know, I would, I would have a lot less conflicts with the people in my family, because there's a lot of miscommunication that I can manage better. The business partners that I work with, I can work better with them, the way that I can travel, I can go to another city, and not know the language. And for some reason, I don't understand. I can understand.

That is how you paint a good picture to this question, the more clear you are at that, the more confident you'll be. And the best example of this, I started coaching C level executives to CEOs, the just 23, who the hell am I to coach people on communication. But that's the point. Because I believed in a future in a world where other people can have access to the tools that had to offer for people that gave me the confidence, not some glass of water. 

It's that belief system, what I stood for, that got me comfortable really fast in those types of situations. In other words, the fear is still there, I still look at an executive and go, why am I still in the room, but the world and how I imagine it is much more important than the fear. So the fear gets crushed every single time. 

Johanna Pagonis  14:03  
I like, your approach to it, because it's even watching your YouTube videos. It's not necessarily here are the five things that you do to get onto a stage and speak publicly. What I hear you talking about is not public speaking. But like you said, when we first started a conversation, you're looking at communication as a holistic approach to improving people's lives, including your own. And when it comes to Mastering the Art of communication, whether you're on a stage, whether you're giving a podcast, whether you're you're having a conversation with your coworker, it's about understanding what the ultimate goal is, and it's to improve work. It's to help achieve organizational outcomes, to improve relationships or other people's lives. And if you put that at the focal point, then you'll overcome your fears and accept those challenges that come your way and keep trying to practice and improve. Am I understanding that correctly?

Brenden MasterTalk  14:54  
Absolutely. And I'm happy to give a specific example to show that I have 10 interviews Today, I started interviewing at 7am. And I'm going to be done at 8pm. Right? So why do I keep saying the same message over and over and over and over again, because there's two people who are listening to us right now, that would never have known about me if I didn't have this 30 minute call, but didn't have this conversation. And those two people need to know about me, because one of them is a mental health advocate. And the other one is struggling with communicating with their families and their cause. So I need to be there for those two people. If you're really focused on the goal, doesn't matter how it's better to do this 1000 times, I'll do it 1000 times if it gets the outcome that I'm looking for.

Johanna Pagonis  15:38  
So I'm going to take a bit of a detour for some of the questions I wanted to ask because you just said something that made me think of something, somebody's listening to this. And they're like, I feel like I have an important message to give. And I want to share it broadly. Now is the time if you think about it, because we're social distancing, many of us are working from home. And because the power of technology or the advantages that it gives us, we can actually connect with people on a global scale. So somebody is listening to this. And they're like, I like what Brendon does. I like his purpose. And I love like, the guy has 10 you said 10 interviews today. Right? Okay, so what are some of the things that you do to get out there? Because they say, I think that's another fear that people have, like you said, you focus on your purpose and your mission. But then how do you actually take that step forward and connect with people and just put yourself out there and do it? What are some of the things you've done?

Brenden MasterTalk  16:25  
Absolutely. So the first part of that is articulating with a key ideas, an easy, simple exercise to help you with that. So the exercise goes as follows. It's your last presentation ever. After you present, you die. Okay, that's the context I'm setting. You can speak for as much as you want, you can talk for two hours, you talk before you talk for seven minutes, it doesn't matter. But your audience will not remember your name, your title, or even your content. But they'll remember one sentence, what do you want the sentence to be? That is what we call your ultimate key idea. 

For me, it's simple. I just believe that anyone can master public speaking, I can give you all the tips, all the handbooks, all the programs, all the stuff, everything is on that one sentence. I think anyone can do it. I'm living proof of it. And from that key idea, the next question is then how to promote it. So when I started master talk, I wasn't doing 10 interviews a day. I don't even know what an interview was. I just took a phone. I started speaking out what I thought was the truth. And I thought it was a stupid idea. And I thought what I had to say was stupid for the first six months to until somebody told me I wasn't stupid. Right? The people that I was coaching for three years, you know, and university, because I wasn't talking out of my mouth or like out of my you know what, like, I knew what I was talking about. I was just not very confident on camera. 

They just came up to me, they said, hey, Brenden, I've been watching all your videos, and I just want what freely Why? Because back then my videos are really grainy, you can just go check my first couple of stuff. It's really bad. It's my mother's basement, no budget, no phone, nothing. But after the 10th person came up to me and said, Hey, I think you're onto something I kind of just said, Oh, looks like I do have an idea. We're checking. Now let's think about promoting this. And then I gave my best friend like, like a quarter of my salary to do all my professional stuff. And now that led to what it is today. But it didn't start that way. It started with, you know, a phone and just an idea. So my advice for people is you as Jay Shetty says... 

Oh, he says, The big vision always starts with the smaller version of that vision, you have a goal of impacting million people start with one, then go to two, then go to four, Double, double double. I started with Master talk presenting the three people, the three people who didn't really give a shit about public speaking, rather just me. And then you know, speak probably a couple hundred now these days, but once but the key is like you didn't start there. For and then over time you went?

I love that. Okay, so there's like four things that I wrote down that are like key points to this conversation. So one is understand your purpose. Right? Why you're doing what you're doing, because that will maintain and sustain you during challenging times is that inner motivation that we all need that, yeah, that inner reinforcement. The other one was have a key idea. So understand what your purpose and your passion is, and then have that one key idea that you can then formulate into a phrase or a sentence. And you know what mine is actually I inherently believe what drives people to excellence is igniting their passion through their purpose.

Johanna Pagonis  19:20  
So all the things that you're saying are aligning to that one key phrase that I have. The other thing I heard you say was, you don't have to be perfect. But you have to practice to get a certain level of confidence, right? But you don't have to wait till you reach perfection. And let's be honest, there's really no such thing. You just need to get out there and do it. And over time, you can go back and see how you've progressed, but you need to start somewhere. So understand what that goal is right? Like you said is it if the ultimate goal is hundreds of people start with just a couple and then just get out there and do it. And you said something else that I think is key I always say there there are certain ways that people learn. Like one is through self reflection. Think about how it went and how it can improve. But the other one is we learn with and through people getting feedback, you said getting feedback. So I think that's important. You said, when you got that, that feedback that what you're doing was important, and it was impacting people's lives for the better, that was also motivating for you, correct? 

Brenden MasterTalk  20:17  
Absolutely. I think the key is that by forcing yourself to be surrounded by a community of people who want to see when you feel forced to win, like the best, the best example I can give this, if you tell everyone about your idea, that's the best way of doing the idea, because then people will be like, hey, join it to just start that podcaster. But if seven people come up to you and ask you like, oh, let's say you got to start that podcast, though. So share your idea with everyone. Okay, wave play?

Johanna Pagonis  20:44  
And what are some other ways that you get feedback from people? Do you solicit feedback Do you go and ask for I'm sure a lot of people will come and just give you feedback around how you've improved their lives. But have you actually intentionally gone out and got in it?

Brenden MasterTalk  20:55  
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I'm very obsessive with that. So an example I can give. That's kind of the difference between a top 10 speaker and a top 1%. Speaker is a top 10 speaker, the top 10% I mean, we'll think about their audience, they'll go I wonder who Joanna is, you know, I wonder what she'll do in the audience. I wonder what she believes that no industry thinks and then they'll present top 1% speaker goes and talks to you. Hey, john, how are you doing? What do you want to get out of this? What do you what do you aspire to do? What do you dream about? 

But I do that with everyone, I have probably had the most one on one conversations with eight year old girls in my industry, hundred percent, because I go up to him. And I go, like when I started, and I was very insecure at the beginning. And I was telling everyone about my accomplishments, and all my client lists and all that nonsense. And then at the end of the eight year old would come up to me and go like, I like you. But what's IBM? What's, what's the CEO? Like? Is that like letter? And then I was like, I was looking at them. And I was like, Oh, you don't know what to see. Oh, is it? She's like, No, no, it was. And that's when I had to change my tune. I was like, oh, breaded, you're too complex here. You to glow to change the way that you play. Most speakers won't even get to that conclusion. 

They won't, they won't see that eight year old as a valuable piece of feedback. resume. Anyone who's listening to my videos, my youngest client is six years old for the record redzone listening to her to like, Oh, am I explaining stuff in the right way? So So yeah, get don't just think about your audience, obsess over them, talk to them, understand the psychology of who they are. So that when Rebecca is 10, is asking you for public speaking tips, you'll realize that she's not asking you for tips. She's asking for a boost of confidence. She's saying bread in my whole life. Nobody told me I was a good speaker, could you be the first one? Right? That's the key.

Johanna Pagonis  22:39  
I don't know how many articles I've read that said the businesses that will succeed through this time are the ones that have a social focus. And the way I interpret that is they care about the people they serve. They care enough to ask those questions to get feedback and to say, what can we do better for you? And that's what you do? Yeah, you you obsess over them. I like that. Another thing I tell people, too, is sometimes when I get nervous about speaking, it's not because I feel like I'm gonna screw up. Okay, well, yeah, you know, maybe a part of me is a little bit nervous that I may trip up on a word, but I know that's not make or break a speaking gig. Right? What I'm more afraid of is, will what I say resonate with people, will it improve their lives? Will they give a shit about what I have to say, I do everything that I can to ensure that I'm on point before I get on that stage, that I've connected to the people in that audience to find out what it is that they need. And then they research the shit out of it to make sure that what's in there is relevant. I don't know how many keynotes or people we've brought in speakers we used to brought bring in, and I was like, they just, they just phoned it in. It was kind of like, yeah, I'll take another speaking gig. Sure. Another $3,000. Why not? It's a little inconvenient for me to squeeze it into my schedule. But I'll show up.

Brenden MasterTalk  23:55  
Love how much you care. It really resonates with.

Johanna Pagonis  23:58  
Okay, question about presenting virtually. Okay. So it's one thing to present in front of an audience and I love a live audience. So it's like you get immediate feedback from people, that can be very energizing. But when you do it through, like zoom, let's say and, and a lot of people out of respect, they will, their mics will be off and their videos will be off and all you see are either a black screen with somebody's name, or like a picture like a, like a profile pic that they have that's up there. And there is no, there is no immediate feedback from people's expressions. How do you how do you deal with that?

Brenden MasterTalk  24:34  
Absolutely. So the way that we need to think about the online world versus the offline One is if I'm in person, right? You know, in Alberta, I'm giving you guys a presentation in person. If I was the keynote instead of that other guy. And I've given him sharing ideas. What happens is the advantage I have is I can see how you're reacting to me in real time. Right? So let's say I say a joke. That's example like to use. So to things are gonna happen. Number one, the jokes gonna be fun and you're gonna like, Man, this breaded guy. He's so funny. He's like so charismatic, or to, which is more likely to look at me and go, this guy is not funny who hired this clown anyways? Right? 

But regardless, what happens is I can see if I can see Johanna not laughing, that gives me an indicator, oh, maybe I should change up my to maybe I should talk in a more inspiring fashion. I don't have that luxury in the online world. I'm sitting in my basement. And with a bunch of black screens, even better, actually, in this very conversation your video is on we're one on one. And I have zero clue how you're reacting to me. Why? Yeah, cuz I'm not looking at you to Anna, I'm looking at the camera lens. So it gives you the impression that I'm looking at you directly. But I'm not. I have no clue if you actually enjoyed this, right? That's the point. So when you have a zoom call with 20 to 25 people and all those cameras are offering the cameras are on that little tiny screens. So the punch line is the joke that I said in Alberta, I have to say what the same energy, the same positivity, the same rigor. 

And assume it's funny, right? And that is the challenge. So how do we fix this, the way that we fix this is two ways. One, is by having a perfect, like a critical zoom call. So essentially, what you do is you get 15 people that you don't particularly like or super critical on you and they just criticize everything about you. They go dread What's this, what you got over there? What's this, uh, you know, or be better, you know, the way that I'm dressed, you know, my hair, and my audio and all that stuff. And the way that I speak, of course, so that when I go into the actual keynote, everything is flawless, because I already got ripped apart in that virtual room. Second thing that you could do, that's more important, actually, is, imagine the perfect audience. 

What do I mean by that? When I started podcasting slash doing online presentation, it's very bizarre, because strangers are asking you questions about your life, and you're just there. Why are they asking me these questions? So weird. But over time, what happens is the perception that you have of your the person who's asking you questions, your audience changes as you gather positive feedback. So it goes from Who's this Joanna person to Wow, Joanna's putting a lot of work to really serve her audiences in our local communities in Alberta, I should really show up for an imagine as if I've known her for many years. And that's how I show up now as if we've known each other for a very long time, that takes a while to get right. But over time, is to get the right feedback, that belief system will eventually become true.

Johanna Pagonis  27:29  
Perfect. Thank you so much. I think that will, that's really important to hear. I've never, I've never heard anybody put it in that way. And that's actually a good learning for me. So as you're speaking like, I'm glad I asked this question, because I actually want to know the answer to it. So thanks for sharing it. Okay, we're getting close to the end of our talk. So I want to ask you, there's this thing I just started my husband gave me the idea is like, make put this in every single interview that you give. So this is the second time I'm asking it, and it's called keep it, start it and drop it. So when it comes to master when it comes to communication, let's keep it broad, not just public speaking, but communication in general. The things that you've learned through your own practice the things that you've seen other people learn from you coaching them, what is one thing you would keep, start and drop.

Brenden MasterTalk  28:17  
You have a smart husband? I love it. This is a great question, what would I keep? So the number one thing I would keep is my obsessive focus on on the audience. At the end of the day, doesn't matter how good or bad you are as a speaker. That's why we say introverts are better speakers, because they're much better at focus on their audience, because they listen more to them. took me a long time to get that right. So I wouldn't give it up. I would keep it.

So what I wouold start doing if I was new, is I would start doing the random word exercise. What this does, essentially is you pick a random word, and you start building presentations out of thin air. So what this does, and I'm happy to demonstrate if you want but basically what you do is you create these these works these presentations through like orange juice, and that gives you a lot of confidence. When you practice something you really know a lot about like purpose and, and change management, all that stuff. 

Number three, what would I drop? I didn't do this for long. But I probably dropped the ego I had in the first three months when I thought it was the best speaker in the world. That's probably what I would drop or what is it would have made me much better three months earlier. 

Yeah, so one of the reasons I got really good because remember, a lot of people my age have a lot of ego, right, especially in the early 20s. I just got lucky that I had really good group of friends who run me through all of it and they'd be like you're the worst speak have ever seen in my life even today, actually. But but but it keeps it keeps the ego in check. It keeps you it keeps you humble, because remember to get the best in anything. You need to be willing to take feedback from everybody. And I'm obsessive about that. That's why I'm always talking to eight year old girls. 57 year old executives, I'm always thinking, but how people Converse and how they have conversations. 

Johanna Pagonis  29:59  
That's perfect, yeah, cuz a certain amount of ego is important because it gets you to take risks and put yourself out there. But if it gets in the way of asking for feedback, because you know that there's always an opportunity to improve. And if your ego gets in the way of that, then you're never going to improve. So I like I like that. Okay. Now, a couple of last words, because the last question I want to ask you share with our listeners, what are you working on right now? What is it that you would like them to know? And how can they connect with you, but before that, any last words that you would like to share?

Brenden MasterTalk  30:32  
Absolutely. I always like to give my favorite piece of advice, which is a life tip. And the life tip is my favorite quote, which is a follow, be insane. Or be the same. You want to be like everyone else, that's totally fine. But if you made it 31 minutes into this conversation, you probably want to do something different with your life. So my advice and the only piece that matters now, if you want to do something great, you need to learn the art of insanity. Don't you find it bizarre that a 22 year old kid started a YouTube channel not on blogging, not on pranks on a comedy skits. But on public speaking and communication tips, went on to coach CEOs of companies at the age of 23, but also still lives in his mother's basement is talking to a mattress doesn't own a car doesn't want him moving out of his mother's house. So he's 30 karaoke in eight different languages and dances alone in his basement an hour a day. How do any of those decisions make any sense at all? And that, my friends is the punch line? When all of the decisions that you make in your life mattered to the only person that matters? Which is you? You're probably making the right decisions.

Johanna Pagonis  31:40  
Oh, wonderful. Thank you. One other thing is, you know, I'm from Montreal, originally, my family's there. So the next time I'm back, and we can actually socialize again. We're gonna go karaokeing. 

Brenden MasterTalk  31:51  
definitely open for that.

Johanna Pagonis  31:53  
It's my favourite thing. Okay, I'm gonna cut this out of the podcast, but I'm gonna share a quick story with you. I was in Mexico, last I think last May. And with my husband and we just went to this one big Hacienda area and the hotel that we were at. And it was dead. There was like five people. They had a karaoke thing going on. And it was completely outside. I'm like, I don't mind karaoke in front of a large audience. But that day, I was just, you know, I was like, you know, five people. I'm in the mood for that. So I sign up for my, my, my song, what do you call that like the song that I always like to warm up to? It's like, either I have to see their Hotel California, from the Eagles or Holiday from Madonna. So I guess I'm aging myself. But so I sign up, and then it starts to pour. So everybody has to kind of go into the shelters and it's much smaller. And while I was waiting to sing, I down to a couple of gin tonics, I start, I'm trying to act like Madonna singing, I'm calling on the audience to join me and there's like 20 year olds. I don't even know if they've ever hopefully they heard the song holiday from Madonna, but they're all just kind of staring at me. And I'm singing. It was like the worst karaoke experience I ever had in my life.

Brenden MasterTalk  33:02  
But that sounds amazing to me. We have to keep it in the show.

Johanna Pagonis  33:07  
Okay, okay. I'll keep it in the show.

Okay, last question. How can people connect with you? I'm gonna put all your contact information in the show notes that you'll share with me. But what are some other ways that they can connect with you? And what is it that you want them to know about what you're working on right now?

Brenden MasterTalk  33:23  
Absolutely. You know, for those who want to check out my YouTube videos on public speaking and learn pretty much everything that I have to offer on the subject. That's master talk in one word, if you want to send me a message directly and get in touch, ask me a question, comment and how you found the show. And feel free to message me directly on Instagram and the handle. So that is master your talk.

Johanna Pagonis  33:42  
Perfect. This is we did this interview on a Saturday morning and it for me it was a great way to start the weekend. So I just want to thank Brendan from Master talk for joining me and spending 34 minutes of his life with me. I truly appreciate it and I walked away with some new learning. Well, thank you so much, Brenden for your time. Have a great rest of the day. And thank you everyone for listening. And I look forward to tackling the next issue with you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai