The Random Word Trick for Bulletproof Public Speaking | Brenden Kumarasamy

#025: Brenden Kumarasamy, the founder of Mastertalk, has garnered extensive expertise in public speaking and communication. His background in accounting and transition to coaching individuals on effective communication strategies positions him as a credible and knowledgeable resource in the field. Through his YouTube channel and coaching practice, Brenden offers practical insights and guidance for professionals seeking to refine their public speaking skills and build a compelling personal brand. With a focus on delivering impactful and tangible results, Brenden's approach provides a valuable foundation for individuals looking to enhance their communication abilities and leave a lasting impression through public speaking engagements.

00:00:00 - The Origins of Communication Fear
00:01:37 - The Journey of MasterTalk
00:03:32 - Identifying Business Opportunities
00:05:12 - The Ideation of MasterTalk
00:09:40 - Practical Communication Tips
00:11:57 - Overcoming Communication Challenges
00:13:44 - The Question Drill
00:14:22 - The Video Message
00:16:30 - Applying the SIT Framework
00:22:39 - RQV on Easy Mode
00:23:20 - Overcoming Introversion for Business Success
00:24:18 - Building Confidence with Video Messages
00:25:12 - The Importance of Practice
00:27:38 - The Power of Storytelling
00:34:53 - Pitching Yourself Effectively
00:35:17 - Wrapping Up
00:35:30 - Contact Information
00:35:41 - Brendan's Condition
00:36:04 - Connecting with Brenden

Brenden Kumarasamy's Links:
IG: @masteryourtalk

Dylan's Links:

• 🎙️Podcast: BusinessConfessionsPod
• 📽️YouTube: @BizConfessions
• 📷Instagram: DylanWillx
• Linked-In: /dylan-williams

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Past Guests: Chandler Saine, Daniel Martinez, Stratton Brown, Lee Maasen, Nico Lagan, Daniel Roman,Tim Branyan, David Van Beekum, Nick Hutchison, Deirdre Tshein, Sanchez Zehcnas, Christina Lopez, Keigan Carthy, Hemant Varshney, Taniela Fiefia, Jennifer Blake, Nicki Sciberras, John Chan

Transcript

Track 1: 0:00

Why do we struggle so much with public speaking?

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 0:02

Oh, gosh, I totally missed that. Yeah, man, I would say, why do we struggle with communication? I have a lot of theories on this Dylan. And the one I think that I want to share is the one that I feel makes the most sense to me when I thought about it, which is where do we start giving presentations in a formal way? The answer is school. And in school, whether you live in the States, whether you live in Canada, whether you live in any part of the world, we all present in elementary school, in middle school. But here's the thing, Dylan, all of those presentations have three fundamental problems, right? problem is that all of these presentations are mandatory So you don't wake up one morning and say hey dill You want to get breakfast and present all day? Nobody says that or does that problem or two is you don't get to pick the subject? So it's never hey dylan. What are you passionate about? are you passionate about business? Are you passionate about communication? Are you passionate about podcasting? Yeah, you gotta you got to talk about You got to talk about Shakespeare and poetry and that's your life. And then number three, which is the worst one, Dylan, is every presentation is tied to a punishment, meaning that if you don't do a great job, not only do you not get a pat on the back, you get a slap in the face. And that happens hundreds of times in our childhood. And we get conditioned to believe that communication is a chore. So it becomes one. And that's where I feel communication fear starts

Track 1: 1:30

So Brendan, what do you do?

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 1:32

for sure. So what do I do, Dylan? what do I do? I love this intro. So you just ask questions. It's funny. Yeah, man. So what do I do? my name is Brendan. I'm the founder of master talks. The master talk is both a YouTube channel and a coaching practice. I started to help people communicate ideas effectively that I need to learn how to do myself. So there you go. We're all learning, but how I started Dylan, which I think is more interesting when I was in college, I studied in accounting and in accounting. you're studying that it's it's not somebody, it's not something you would do in communication. It's, it had nothing to do with my field. started doing these case competitions. Think of it like professional sports for nerds. So while other guys, my age are playing rugby or football or soccer or basketball sports, you probably wouldn't see me playing as a kid. I did presentations competitively, not because I had a passion for it, because I wanted to get a job in accounting. And then as I got older, I slowly developed a passion for it. And I started coaching the other students on how to speak, not for money. I just wanted them to win competitions. And I accidentally got really good at communication coaching. So then in 2019, when I got a great job offer at IBM, I worked there for two, three years. started Mapstruck as a hobby, primarily. It mostly just started as a series of videos, and now we're active on Instagram and LinkedIn and all that stuff. Because I was watching experts on social media sharing advice on communication, and then I was like, none of this really makes sense to me. Like, how do you actually apply this? So I just started making videos, and it just took a life of its own.

Track 1: 3:11

Wow. All from starting with an idea you had or helping somebody else. it's funny how a lot of our passion, I can't really say passions, but a lot of how we get going in business opportunities start from what people ask us the most for and what we're already teaching others. And then the smart ones pick up on that and then create a business around that. So that sounds like what you've done here.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 3:38

Sort of. I don't, I won't argue as I'm as smart as you defined it to be. I think half of that journey was just following a whim, just follow your own intuition, because you're right. and I think the reason why a lot of people don't fall into that bucket or don't figure it out is because often. What feels easy to us is what the world needs. What feels obvious and easy to us. But if it feels obvious and easy to us to begin with Dylan, we wouldn't think it's valuable to other people. It's so in my case, saying to get rid of your ums and ahs, opening up your eyes more. pausing more effectively when you share ideas, knowing how to practice this effectively comes really easy to me, but it's only later in the journey. When I started posting videos, it actually was at a conference. I went to something of greatness, which is like an event that a podcaster named Lewis house hosts. Every year in Columbus, Ohio, he doesn't in LA now, but at the time it was in Columbus, never been to Ohio in my life. Never thought I'd ever be in the state of Ohio in my life. And then I go there and I start talking to people about this YouTube channel that I make at this point, I didn't have a single client and it wasn't making any money doing this. And literally like 15, 20 people said, Oh my God, I really need this. And I was like, why? And they're like, Oh, I need this because I need to get better at speaking. I need to do this. And then I realized. Then I picked up on what you said, which is like, Oh, people are actually willing to pay for this stuff and coaching. and there you go. Everything else figured itself out.

Track 1: 5:03

You said you had a YouTube channel. Did, where did the idea to start a YouTube channel? Hey, I help a public speak, I'm gonna start a YouTube channel. what was the idea or ideation right there?

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 5:12

To be honest, Dylan, I'm not a hundred percent sure how the idea exactly for the YouTube channel came from, but I'll give you kind of the hints that came. I was in my last semester of college, which was, September to December of 2018. this point I had coached 50 people on how to speak, right? I always say like the best coaches are people who would have done it anyways. So I just love, I never make any money. I just coach 50 people because I'm very competitive. I'm like the Michael Jordan. Nobody cares about that's the way I describe myself. So it's I was the Michael Jordan of case competition. I did 50 case competitions. I coached a bunch of people from around the world. But. it's case competitions. Nobody really cares about this. So my last semester, one of the people I was coaching, his name is Aziz, we're sitting down. It's like an Iranian guy and he had a really thick accent. So I was helping them get rid of it for his competition, but he didn't really need to fix it too much because he was competing on the accounting team. so as long as he worked out his figure a little bit and he sat me down one day and he just asked me this question that I think sparked master talk, which was How did you learn how to speak? And I went, what are you talking about? he's Brenda, you coach like 50 of us on how to speak. Like literally this is what I would do at night, Dylan. While other people had to go out partying though, I didn't have my first year of partying in college. It's my idea of partying was like 10 PM, PM, not AM PM was I'm coaching the international business team. And then I watched them. I give them feedback. And then the next room in college is like accounting team is presenting at 10 30. Then I go into 10 30. So I finished at 2 AM. I'm just like coaching all these teams. And then I go, I don't really know Aziz. And then he said, What do you mean? did you watch Ted Talks? Did you watch YouTube videos on speaking and I was like, YouTube videos on speaking, so I just got curious. So I just started, I just Googled, which I've never Googled before. Public speaking tips. I did it on YouTube and then I pressed enter. And then a lot of people today who are my colleagues now, I was a lot more immature back then, so they were like enemies back then when I was younger. So I would like open these YouTube videos, Dylan and I would start watching. These videos back then I was like hitting on them. I was like, not in that way, but like bashing them. I was like, Oh my God, these tips are horrible. Like they're too academic there, but now I understand. Cause I'm friends with them now. So that makes a lot more sense why they came from that frame because they're PhDs in communication. So they leave communication in a very theoretical scape. Whereas the me, when I was watching these videos, I was like, if. No, I actually would have said this. I would have done this differently. I would have said this differently. And that happened again with podcasting. So I listened to maybe five, 10 communication experts, and I would listen to them talk in a podcast and I go, if I was on this podcast, I wouldn't have said that I would have said this instead. And that, I think that culmination sparked master Tom.

Track 1: 8:00

That's really good. That's, I was wondering where that ideation came from too. you can also, or it sounds like too, you could, a lot of what was being done was the academic side of it. You probably could have taken it a different way and I haven't seen your YouTube channel though, but I'm sure that you probably had your own little spice you could have thrown in there and done something a little differently.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 8:22

can't expand on this because I think this is like a more communication focused podcast too. So your audience might be curious in that is, is it real? It's really based on the incentive system, Dylan. So if you're a PhD in communication, chances are like Alex lion, who is the person I was talking about, like he's done very well on YouTube. followers or something on YouTube. he's like in his fifties, but he's a faculty professor in New York city. getting paid a six figure salary to just teach a class, right? Cause he did his dissertation and now he's this, whereas my situation is very different. Hey, I was never getting really paid to do communication. So I added like a lot of naivete going into the industry because I didn't really study communication. I even do it as a degree. So I didn't have any preconceived notions about speaking in the second piece is the coaching practice. So how a coaching practice works, Dylan is if I don't get you the result. get to eat, to keep it simple. If I don't get Dylan or Michael or John or Julia, the result, they won't tell their friends about me and I can't grow the practice. So I can't use theoretical means. And then the third one is just for personal reasons. I felt that just wasn't helpful to the average human being. the frame I always like to use is like the single mother who has seven kids. How does she benefit from this? she doesn't benefit from academically focused videos. She'll benefit from what I share, which I think is easier and more down to earth. A

Track 1: 9:47

So what are some practical tips that we could actually start now for communicating?

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 9:52

hundred percent Dylan. so let's start with the definition, which is what is, how do I define communication for me? Communication is like juggling 18 balls at the same time. of those balls is eye contact. One of them storytelling, one of them is body language. One of them has is to speak concisely. One of them is facial expressions. One of them is knowing how to tell. Amazing structured presentations and the list goes on I can get really overwhelming for people. So the question I needed to ask myself, Dylan, is what are the three easiest balls to chuckle? So if you ask somebody on the street, right? Somebody random on the street. if you had to give me advice on getting healthier, what would you do? Everyone, even the person who is obese will give you the same advice. They'll say, Oh, you got to eat healthier. got to work out more and you got to watch your diet. Yeah. Or potentially do like a gym membership or something, but if you ask the same question to the general public on communication, no, one's going to really know the answer. They'll go speak more, talk more, but it doesn't really work. So I'll give you my version, which is called RQ. So what does RQV stand for? Let's start with R the random word exercise, pick any word you want phone, camera, Cloth, eyeball, mouth, basement, floor, and create a random presentation out of thin air on the spot. And this serves two purposes. The first one, for those of you taking notes, is if you can make sense out of nonsense, you can make sense out of anything. So if you can make sense out of tissue boxes, when you go back to your subject matter expertise, you're going to be fairly confident in that delivery. And then the second piece is small talk. So what is small talk at the end of the day, Dylan, it's two strangers having an unprepared conversation, right? So if you can talk about avocado toast and trophies and battery boxes, when you go back to your subject matter expertise, or just small talk, which is the same questions over and over again, you're going to be a lot more comfortable in those settings. And that's exercise number one.

Track 1: 11:56

Okay. Kind of forgot my train of thought, what I was going to say. Sorry. I have a few other questions I was going to go through. I was like, Oh, probably shouldn't ask that right now, but, okay. Sorry. I am.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 12:07

It's all good. Do you want me to go to Q?

Track 1: 12:10

yeah.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 12:10

just go

Track 1: 12:10

Yeah. We'll edit. Yeah. We'll just edit. Sorry about that. I was. I didn't want to jump the gun on that too. Cause I knew that you had two more that you're going to go to. All right, go ahead and go.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 12:20

No worries. No worries. Honestly, I messed up at the beginning of this interview too. Cause you just asked a question. I was like, I just

Track 1: 12:24

No, I love it. That's it's good. I love that kind of stuff, man.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 12:27

I was like, wait, what? Yeah. so Q what is Q speaking of questions stands for the question drill. I'll tell you a story around this a few years ago when I started guesting on podcasts, I was horrible at it. Like terrible. I remember cause I was really young at the time too. Like I started creating content. I was 22 I did my first podcast interview and I was 23, which is five years ago, almost at this point. And some guy asked me a very difficult question that I did not know the answer to, which was, where does the fear of communication come from? And I was like, New York city, Florida. So I didn't know the answer, but obviously I gave a better answer because that was your first question. So that's the answer I give now. But at the time I didn't know that and I was really embarrassed. I felt dumb. So how did I fix this? single day Dylan, I answered one question about my expertise. Every day. So day one was, what tips do you have for introverts, Brendan? Day two was, okay, let's assume somebody knows nothing about communication. What is the first thing that you would tell them to do? Day three is what's your vision for master talk? Day four is how do you work on your facial expressions? So on and so forth. And if you answer one of these questions every day for a year, Dylan, you'll have answered 365 questions about your expertise and you'll be bulletproof. And that's the question. the last part to that is how can people apply that? So there's a couple of different frames. The most popular one that I like to use is the job interview frame. So a lot of people listening to this podcast, they'll probably have a job interview at least one more time in their lives. So practicing questions like, tell me about yourself, things like that is really good. The second piece is the small talk frame. Where it's you're gonna get asked a lot, are you? And you can practice. It's great. I'm good. I like life is great. I always like to say life is a gift. that's

Track 1: 14:15

You're going to, yeah.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 14:16

So everyone's got their thing. So you practice like what's, the weather outside, whatever. And that's the question.

Track 1: 14:21

And then what's the right, man,

14:26

Guys, real clear. Think about this. Share this episode with someone. It could create an ideal and you'd be responsible for that. You never know what opportunities that could create. All right, guys, I'll let y'all get back to it. Thank you.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 14:42

And then V is the video message. So the video message is really simple. Dylan, all you do. Is you pick somebody you love in your life. It could be a brother, a sister, a child. It could be a mother, a brother, a friend. And you just send them a 20 second video message. That just says, Hey, I'm thinking about you. Here's one thing I appreciate about you. And there's only one rule. You are not allowed, under any circumstances whatsoever, to retake the video. Whatever you make, is what you send. And I take this to another level, I call this my signature move, called the BVM. So the BVM stands for Birthday Video Messages. So on people's birthday, I literally have a Google Calendar that tells me, Dylan, whose birthday it is. it's a business partner's birthday. It's a client's birthday. It's a good friend of mine and on their birth. I'll put a stupid 15 hat on that I got from Amazon, like a birthday hat, and I'll send them a video and just go, whose birthday is it today? It's yours. And people love that stuff. So that's how I would encourage people to do just send a few videos. The first couple of times is nauseating, but after 20 or 30, you get used to it pretty quick.

Track 1: 15:53

that's good. that's a really good business move to, just building up your contacts and interacting with, people to, I'll get their random thought one day of, I haven't talked to this person. I'm going to send them a text, and I'll do a gratitude text. Hey, haven't talked to you in a while, but the voice and working on the speech that would, that's what I need to do now is just create a little short little video. Hey, I was thinking about you really appreciate everything you've done. And then. One take and send it.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 16:18

And that reaction is exactly why I started master talk. So now you see how all the dots connected, right? It's this idea. Practicality it's Oh, now I know what to do. I see where the gap is. This is what I need to focus on first. And every exercise I teach is really aligned. There is can Dylan or somebody in this audience take it and run with it immediately? And that's really where I think the missing part of these types of conversations are in the context of communication that I'm trying to fill

Track 1: 16:45

Yeah. So we've got the basics down. We've got the, what we can practice to make better. how do we bring this to like a group setting and speaking in front of crowds?

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 16:54

for sure. So I'll give you another one of those 18 balls. So for crowds is a little bit different.

Track 1: 16:58

Yeah.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 16:59

you mean, obviously like you're presenting in front of a group of 50 people, right?

Track 1: 17:02

Yeah.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 17:03

Yeah, very simple. So here's the simple idea. It's called puzzle. So we all know jigsaw puzzle, those little toys used to play as kids, like thousand pieces. on the dial here, the question on the table to think about Dylan is, I was like saying that the question on the table, which is fun, fun to say, is if you're working on a puzzle, which pieces do you start with first and why? And answer to that question is the edges. The corner pieces they're easier to find in the box because they got the little edge together and then you put them around and then you work your way in the middle. That's it. Why am I bringing this up? I'm bringing this up because whenever we prepare for any form of presentation, unfortunately, we do the opposite. We do the opposite. So we shove a bunch of content down the middle. We ramble throughout the whole thing. And then the last slide sounds something like this. yeah, thanks. Not really effective, right? the advice is really simple. next time you give a presentation, apply puzzle. Just practice the edges first. Your introduction, do that 10, 20 times. Seems like a lot of work. Oh, Brendan, the introduction is like So long. This is such a long exercise. Not true. Your introduction is two minutes, right? Dylan. So two minutes times 20 times at the very most, this is a 40 minute exercise. It's not that long. So if you do it 10 times or five times, we're talking to 20 minutes. That's it. Same thing with the conclusion. What's a great movie with the terrible ending. Last time I checked terrible movie, right? like with TV shows like game of Thrones, like great show, terrible ending. So all we think about is the terrible ending. it's the same thing with the last. Peace is just practice the last two minutes of your presentation 10 to 20 times another 20 minute exercise and then tackle the middle. The middle is a little bit more complicated. It's not as simple as the tips I'm giving out right now, but I'll make it easy. I'll give you the easiest framework that I teach, which is exactly what me and you are doing right now. Okay, S. I. T. S. I. T. stands for story insight. Tell a story that leads to the insight of your talk. We should really do this more. this is really important for us to focus on. everybody should have children. I don't care about this, right? Like the, that's the insight. The story behind the insight and then T is just a tip, a practical idea on how you found this. And for those of you who are paying close attention to this podcast interview, you'll notice I use it a lot. So for example, when I was talking about the question drill, I didn't just go, this is the tip. I told the story. I said, Oh, Dylan, five years ago, I really sucked that podcast. There was some guy. I've said that story like 300 times, dude, like on podcast, but for everyone listening to this is the first time they're hearing that story. So they're like, Oh my God, this story is so good. So then I get to the insight then the T is more like how to apply the question drill. So then I said something like, I think I remember saying job interviews and then somebody pushes me sometimes and goes, what about for introverts? I go, cool. Don't even do it in front of people, write out the answer to the question, open up your free voice recorder app on your phone and just record yourself. Answering the question, right? And that's how you apply sit. And that's how I would structure presentation.

Track 1: 20:17

So I feel like you can apply the SIT framework to a lot of things. even in small talk and meeting, new people or, any kind of conversation that you're having. I want to give you a challenge here on this end. So use the SIT framework for what's a topic that actually I'm going to give you a random topic that I think you'll know a little bit about maybe or something like that. And we'll go through it like that. That I want to see it played out. headphones. All right.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 20:45

Absolutely.

Track 1: 20:46

you're walking, you're in a conference or you're at an event or something and somehow you're speaking with somebody and then headphones get brought up, take it from there on how you did the sit, framework.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 20:58

Absolutely. let's see what I can pull out. So headphones. I remember Dylan, I was younger, speaking on the concept of headphones, even when I was broke. I had no money in my bank account. I bought myself a pair of 400 headphones. And the reason is because my house is really loud. Either my dad's yelling, my mom's yelling, my sister's yelling. They couldn't concentrate. Whereas the second I put those Bose headphones on, I got a better pair of headphones. I started. To cancel out the noise around me and my life just got a lot smoother. A lot of negativity just went away or just a lot of yelling. Like tomorrow I'm going to the airport a lot of people are going to be yelling at there, but there's a lot of noise at the airport when you got a nice pair of noise, canceling is really effective. So yeah, man, I highly encourage that you get a pair and the best way to do that. I found it's I looked online and then you can just look on Amazon. I was like the reviews, like I got the Sony MX four hundreds and I really loved them. So just make sure it's compatible with that. And that's how it would apply. Said in this case,

Track 1: 22:00

Oh, that was good. That's really good.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 22:02

you pushed me though. you made me do two, three of my exes at the same time.

Track 1: 22:06

Yeah,

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 22:07

to do the random word X's and sit at the same time. That was cool. It just

Track 1: 22:11

but it just goes to show how much practice that plays out and how that works. I feel like a lot of people probably already do that without even knowing it, but the ones that have practiced this and are good at public speaking, you're good at, good on their feet on speaking and everything. Something that I've been trying to work on. I'm just throwing stuff, free willy here, but, Something I've definitely worked on and that's why I wanted to get you on the podcast too and pick your brain on it. No, that's really good. So something else I want to talk about, not everybody is as outgoing as me and what would you say for the person who's more like the introvert?

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 22:42

for sure. So the key here, Dylan is. It's the same drills RQV still applies, but what I always like to say, it's RQV on easy mode. let's go back to the random word exercise where you pick a word. So I just did that with headphones. I just created a presentation out of thin air, right? So the key here is for the introverts, cause that's most of the people I coach. Anyways, I go, Hey, who said you had to do that in front of people? You can do this in the shower, you can do this when you're walking your dog, you can do this alone when nobody's home. You can do this with children, so it's fun for you. do it in a way that's comfortable for you. Because even if you do it alone with nobody around you, the progress is still pretty similar, I've found from my experience. You'll still get the results for doing it a hundred times, for sure. In the context of question drills, who said you had to practice questions in front of other people? You don't need to be on this scary podcast, answering Dylan's questions on the fly. that's not the point. That's what I need to do. But for you, it was a little bit more introverted. Just do them alone. Pick if you've got a job interview coming up, that's always my favorite one. Or if you're a business owner, sales calls, right? Just write down the questions that people are asking you on sales calls and just review them. So every day, just pick one, just one question and just write out your answer to it alone in the basement, a dark cave where nobody can hear you. And then you just open your phone, voice note, record yourself just speaking. Don't even worry if it's good or not. And just go from there. That's cute. And usually it happens with the V Dylan, with the video messages is if you did the random word exercise a hundred times and the question drill a hundred times, even if people don't believe me right now, they actually get very confident very quickly. I know it sounds really simple as exercises, but people get so confident Dylan, like they just get really comfortable with video messages, but if you're still scared, don't send video messages to strangers, start by sending video messages to yourself. Just literally open a phone and just send a video. Just go Hey, me, hope you're having a great day. really appreciate. And you say one thing you appreciate about it yourself. And then the next day, do it again. And you still get the same result. I don't, by the way, I'm just telling you from experience. Like I said, it's that practicalness, right? That I really bring to the table. It's no, I work with people directly. So I know what works and what doesn't work. Meaning I've never met an introvert. So like most of the objections I get around video messages is usually around, which is legitimate. It's like sending it to people. They don't know, That's fine. But like your brother or not even a brother because it could be weird culturally too, but like a best friend. Nah, that's fine. If people do the first two correctly, they'll have the guts to send this to the people that they care about. That's that. That's the idea. A

Track 1: 25:23

Yeah. What I've gained here and gathered a lot of this is just practice. It's with anything. And I think we and I know I have, it's, I have not sit down and practice on the way I speak. it's something I think in college, I took a, public speaking class that I'm pretty good at BS and people, I feel like, I can just get up there and talk about anything, I just, cause I enjoy talking, but something I haven't been, I would per se, I speak well at though, I can just go and talk about a random subject and just pull it out of my butt, but it just goes back to, and you've just enforced this even more that, It's just practice. It's the same thing. Have a framework, have something you can practice and just do that repeatedly, repetitively. And then that's where it comes from.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 26:08

hundred percent. And the only thing I'll add to that is it's not your fault, right? That you didn't practice. I think the bigger problem that I wish more people would be aware of is you don't know what to practice, how to practice, when to practice, like in my effective communication class in school, bro, they gave me a B plus me. how am I supposed to get a B plus? I'm the person teaching the world communication. They give you, give me a B. I'm so mad about that. As you can tell, but you get the idea. It's because those classes are not geared towards actually getting you to speak, they still have a class average to meet your, my final exam and effective communication was still a multiple choice quiz that was like 300 questions. So there's nothing to do with Actually speaking, whereas now, hopefully through this conversation, people know what to practice now. So they know what to measure themselves against. So like in fitness, it's okay, did you work out three times a week? You can just check off the box. Don't even worry about the workout, what kind of workout it is, what kind of system you're following. Just worry about the reps. But now you, we know what those reps are that actually lead to the result. Okay, I didn't send a hundred video messages. So I can't judge myself on whether I can do them or not. I haven't done a hundred question drills, so I can't really judge myself on whether I can do them or not. Same game with the random word exercise. And this is my favorite part is when somebody does the random word exercise the first time, it always changes their mindset around it because their feeling is always, I can't do it, Brendan. I was every time Brendan, I can't do it. I was like, cool, try it once. And they're like, Oh, I was like, just do it. And they did it. And I was like, cool. So what's your takeaway? They're like, actually, I could do this. cool. Now just get better at it. And that, and then we have something tangible to work through.

Track 1: 27:42

All right. I want to do the, I'm going to put myself on the spot here. I'd love to do the random word exercise. but going about it, am I just talking about one thing or do I have a framework that I'll follow on the random word exercise?

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 27:53

Great question, Dylan. Then we'll jump into it. to give you a word. So the idea here is I don't like to prescribe frameworks to the random word exercise. I'll tell you why. A good way of thinking about this is we do not get points for doing the exercise, right? We get points for doing the exercise a lot because like our life, right? a lot of things that happen in, let's at work or at school as the better example is fundamentally structured. It's okay, to pass this exam, to go to this college, you need to get this result and do this correctly. So we're all trying to pass the death test. But the reason that fails in communication is because life is fundamentally unstructured. Unstructured, not structured, but unstructured. Typical example, you're in, you're in corporate, your boss calls you and says, Hey Dylan, I actually need you to jump in this meeting in five minutes and take over. My daughter is sick, I need to run to the hospital and see what's going on. And you have zero context on the project, you have zero context on what's going on, but you gotta jump and figure it out.

Track 1: 28:48

Yep.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 28:49

that is what the random word exercise tests for. If I ask 10 different people to do the word tree, they'll all give me 10 different answers. One person will talk about their tree in their front yard, and how they used to lie against it and read a book. second person will go, will tell a sob story about how their parents, her parents, or their parents, Cut the tree because it was getting old and it's going to fall on their car. The third person is going to talk about how much they love nature and how they go to natural parks, but nature parks, every year, they'll tell a story around that for the fourth person and the list goes on. We'll talk about how boring trees are. They have nothing effective to say on trees. That's the idea. Find your own stuff your word, Dylan.

Track 1: 29:31

Destiny. Okay. How long do I have to think about it?

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 29:35

I would rather you jump into it right away and think about it as you're talking.

Track 1: 29:39

Okay. So when I was a kid, I would think about what I wanted to be when I get, when I was older. And when I got older, that thought, that story that I told myself began to fade. So I couldn't remember anything of What I wanted to be when I grew up, when I grew up. So I started telling myself a new story and I had done that repeatedly, actually through life and every chapter of my life, I tell myself a new story. So whether I wanted to be an astronaut or a firefighter or the president of the world, I always told myself a story in my head. And when I did I fully believed in it because that's just what I told myself so much to where it affected my actions throughout the day. What I, the story I told myself in the morning, the subconscious thoughts that I had would resonate with the story that I'm telling myself through that chapter of life. So what I've done here is I've actually created my own destiny and by doing so I've created the life that I wanted to live. So my tip for you would be, think about the story that you tell yourself. And the destiny that you want to live. So how was that?

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 31:00

That was excellent Dylan.

Track 1: 31:02

And I did not know I was just throwing, I was pulling that out, but I had to start somewhere. And then I bled it in there.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 31:09

The most important feedback point is that you did it for the first time.

Track 1: 31:13

Oh yeah.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 31:13

the key. And I love that you became the example for your own audience. It's it's not about being perfect. Yeah, sure. There's some things we can work on, but the goal here is the first one is always the hardest. But then after you've done it once, you're like, actually, it wasn't that bad. It was bad, but it wasn't bad. And then you'll do it again, and then you'll start doing it with kids, you'll start doing it with nieces, nephews, friends of yours, and before you know it, you'll have done it a hundred times too.

Track 1: 31:35

And it's, and I know it's for me, it's something that I avoid and this is something how it's funny. This is why I podcast now, because I knew I was not good at public speaking and I probably need to get better at public speaking. So why not get in front of a camera and speak, to other people. So I figured that'd be my easy way out. and then also. I've been trying to build up my personal brand lately, so I have to get in front of the camera and I tell myself I can't do a retake. So I'll just record things and just throw it out there. And I don't care. Luckily nobody cares right now, but yeah, that's my take on it.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 32:05

That's exactly the right attitude you should have as well. Like I was saying earlier, you adopted that exact philosophy without even talking to me, which is, I'm not allowed to retake the video. And the reason that works so well, is that's the exact philosophy I followed. The first year of mass truck in 2019. So five years ago, I just opened my phone. I created an eight minute video. That's why I didn't edit it. Nothing. I just put it out. And then after you do 50 of them, you get pretty good on camera pretty quickly. And then you go, wow, I can do a lot of great things.

Track 1: 32:32

Yeah, it's pretty cool. Whenever you start. I actually recorded a video today about this. It's, try something new, get out of your comfort zone and just try something new. You're going to be bad at it. everybody was bad at something. Just it's the fear of you're avoiding it, and once you stop avoiding it and you just put yourself out there and do it, you'll figure it out as you go. and that's just, It's even with this, I like, I was nervous about this little thing, and I'm, I usually don't get nervous, but it's something new that I haven't actually per se practiced and then put it out there and we did it. So that was really cool. I'd love to know more. I've been working on my, I guess I would say like elevator pitch for people or for myself whenever meeting new people, been networking more. can you have, do you have any tips for, working on the elevator picture? Like when you first meet somebody?

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 33:19

Yeah, for sure. Dylan, I'll give you, I'll give you what's on my mind right now, which is with what I think people do wrong, which is a lot of people focus too much on what they do. They don't focus enough on why they do it in their dialogue. So let's say. You're asking somebody what they do in their elevator pitches. Usually. Dylan. hi, my name is Brendan and I'm a communication coach. So that's usually, yeah, like I help clients speak better. So it usually ends though. That's how most people elevator pitch or at a networking cocktail. the right way to do it in my view is it depends on the setting, how casual is versus formal. But my, but these days I don't really attend that many formal settings. I'm tired of them. that's why I just coach privately. And I'm, I just. Coach people individually is, is you do is you start with who you are. Hi, my name is Brandon, whatever you tell people, that you do Hey, I make YouTube videos on public speaking and all that stuff. Then you go into why you do it. Here's why I did it. And then I tell a little story from college and how I want to make sure that the whole world has access to free information on speaking. then the last part of that, if it's more casual, I'll add a fun fact. So I'll say something like, which is true. I speak three languages fluently, but I can karaoke at night. And then I go, thanks. So that's what I would do is just speak. and, that only applies by the way. If you're a lot of your identity is tied to work. So in my case, I'm a workaholic. I'm very open about it. Like it's my identity. I love to work. I really enjoy it. My family knows it, whatever. So my introduction is going to mirror that. But for somebody else whose core value is not work. It's family. Then I would encourage you to talk about family more. So you say, Hey, this is what I do, but I have three kids. I have a beautiful wife and blah, blah, blah. So that's what they focus on. So just focus on what is the core piece of your identity. I think that just that is a fundamental improvement in how you pitch yourself.

Track 1: 35:14

Yeah. So what I took from that kind of is tell a story. yeah. In a way that's more memorable or something that's going to catch somebody off guard, or maybe not the exact way you would explain it, tweak it a little bit. And then, always end with something that someone's going to be, somebody will remember some kind of itch or punch. Yeah. At the end.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 35:35

By the way, I got a drop in four minutes.

Track 1: 35:37

Oh, you're good. That was my, actually my last question I had for you.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 35:41

cool.

Track 1: 35:41

I was going to ask you, I was going to ask you something else. you made me forget it now.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 35:46

Yeah.

Track 1: 35:46

Anyways,

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 35:47

a lot on this podcast.

Track 1: 35:48

I know man, and I'm getting over this. If you can't tell him I'm congested, but, it's,

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 35:53

actually. So

Track 1: 35:54

I am so like foggy brained anyways, right now. Brennan, where can people go and find out more about you? They want to get ahold of you.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 36:01

for sure. Dylan. Thanks for having me on the show. This is super fun. One of the few shows I get caught off guard. so thanks for that.

Track 1: 36:06

Love it.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 36:06

that. I

Track 1: 36:07

Glad I could do it.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 36:08

Yeah. Yeah. That was super fun. and you did it without even wanting to. So there you go. That's great. so the easiest way to keep in touch Dylan is to actually DM me on Instagram. So my handle is master your talk. Your is spelt Y O U R. So master your talk. Just send me a DM and let me know you listened to the episode with Dylan and let me know what you take, what you took away. And if you do that, I'll reply with a voice note. Love to hear from you.

Track 1: 36:32

man, I appreciate you coming on today.

brenden-from-mastertalk_1_03-27-2024_153306: 36:33

For sure Dylan, thanks for having me.

36:36

Hey, if you're still listening, hopefully you got some value out of this or amusement. Either way, I really appreciate you for listening. My goal with this podcast is to build something of value while also showing others that it's possible to do the same. And what I mean by that is, I'm not perfect at this. I fumble, I stutter, and I just want to show that it's okay. If you've been putting something off, This is me telling you to go for it. So I need your help in growing this and there's two main ways a podcast grows. One is through ratings and reviews and two is through word of mouth. So I can only do it with your help. If you can leave me a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify as well as post this to your social and it doesn't grow without you. Thank you. Talk to you all next week.