3 games to improve your public speaking at the national sales meeting

You can detail data, product info, and disease states

But when it comes to public speaking you want to run off the NSM stage and hide in your hotel room.

Good news. It’s not YOU. It’s the way public speaking is taught.

And lucky for me, I've got Brenden 🎤 Kumarasamy, the founder of MasterTalk.ca, to walk us through some more simple games to ramp up your confidence, fast.

You have an impact to make -- and I know you're willing to do the things that others aren't to make it.

Want to learn even more from Brenden?

Mastertalk: https://www.mastertalk.ca/

YouTube: https://lnkd.in/g8cBeTeQ

LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/g-gdtKJb 

In this episode, Claire Davis interviews Brenden Kumarasamy, the founder of Master Talk. They discuss the fear of public speaking and how it stems from negative experiences in the education system. Brenden emphasizes the importance of reframing communication as a tool for impact. He shares three key principles to improve public speaking: the random word exercise, organizing thoughts, and doing what others aren't willing to do. By practicing and gaining confidence, individuals can stand out in their industry and achieve better results.

(Below is an AI Generated Transcript. There may be errors)

Claire Davis  0:00  

Hey, hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of today's medical sales leaders where today I am speaking with somebody who is near and dear to my heart because the first time I heard him teach me about public speaking, I pulled my car over to not miss a single word. So today I have Brenden Kumarasamy with me here on the podcast. It is so good to see you, Brandon. Thanks for all you do. How are you doing today? What's going on out there in Montreal?

Speaker 2  0:28  

Life is beautiful, Claire, thanks for having me as well. It's always great to see you. Yeah, weather's good. We're finally enjoying the summer for oneself. So life is great. How about you? How is Spokane Washington?

Claire Davis  0:39  

You know, you're gonna have to remind me what summers like because we just had a 60 degree Fourth of July yesterday. And it's a far cry from me growing up in Northern California days, but it's good. It's good. If you love to do any kind of outdoor activity. This is the place are you into like hiking, biking, trail running? spelunking, anything like that.

Unknown Speaker  1:02  

Hiking sometimes. Not the other things though.

Claire Davis  1:05  

Okay, well, this place is full of all that. There's a ton of trails, which is great. But yeah, you just have to wait for the right weather to do that kind of thing. What do you do for fun in Montreal?

Speaker 2  1:17  

I wish I had things interesting to say I would say most of my time is like spent listening to podcast. Sometimes I go clubbing with my family. That's super fun. That's like a fun side thing that we do. But most of my pastime is yelling at friends over dinner on super heated topics. We just go to a restaurant and yell it out. That's super fun, too.

Claire Davis  1:35  

Oh, nice. Yeah, you just pick a nice classy place. white tablecloth real chill vibe. And start a shouting match about something really exciting.

Speaker 2  1:46  

Yeah, let's let's remove the word classy. Maybe it's more like $1 like chicken place but

Claire Davis  1:52  

Well, that's what I love about you Brennan is you are if anything, you are authentic. And and I know that you are incredible conversationalist among all kinds of different speaking styles. So would you mind introducing yourself for us today and telling everybody who you are and what you're doing today?

Speaker 2  2:09  

absolutely clear. So my name is Brennan course, I'm the founder of master talk. Master talk is both a video and a coaching business. It's a YouTube channel, I started to help the world master the art of communication, public speaking. And I also have a coaching practice, right train ambitious entrepreneurs, and executives to be the top communicators in their industry.

Claire Davis  2:29  

And you're still doing free master classes on their on to I am Oh, man, I attended one of them. It was phenomenal. And the reason we're talking today is because I work with medical sales, folks. And while I must say that they are some of the most gifted communicators when it comes to translating, you know, resources and products for physicians, when it comes to public speaking, they're just like us, as the US today says, right? And so the reason I'm chatting with you today is because I'm wondering if you can help unlock for us why it is so tricky for people who are used to communicating everyday for work to get up on that stage and to do it with confidence. So first, is this something that you see commonly?

Speaker 2  3:16  

absolutely clear. So the way that I think about this is let's start with this. Where does the fear of communication come from specifically public speaking? And you're not? And I first got that question. I used to answer something like San Diego, because I was like, who knows? It could be San Diego LA. And I thought about it a bit more. And I found probably an answer that's more suited for the people listening. It all starts in the education system. Where did we learn how to give presentations? High school, elementary school, even if High School is probably like 20 years ago, for some of us. That's where the habits start. But the problem clear, is all of those presentations have three things in common. The first problem is that all of them are mandatory. We don't wake up one morning and say, Hey, Claire, do I get breakfast and present all day? Nobody really says that. So that's number one. Second problem, every presentation you've given. You don't really get to pick the topic and it's always different. So it's never clear what you're passionate about. do podcasting build resumes like traction? No, it's you got to talk about the finesse sauce. You got to deal with it. So like okay, Shakespeare. This we'll figure this out. And then problem number three, which is the most important one is every presentation is tied to a punishment. So if you don't do a great job in school, nobody Pat's you on the back it says don't worry, Brenden and Claire, you'll get it right the next time. Now they go yeah, by the way, your dreams are just over. Just forget it. Your grade is like 30% of it's gone. Your life is over. You might as well just quit school now. So that's the environment that we're played it. Yeah. So that's the problem. So what's the summary? The summary is we grew up thinking, like communication is a chore. And nobody wants to get better at doing the dishes.

Claire Davis  5:11  

That makes so much sense. Because it's not like we grow up and we're afraid to speak. I mean, at least if my kids are any example, they're ready to talk my ear off, and they were at one years old, right? But I guess when you put it that way, there's a lot on the line for people because it's a sink or swim. And then when they sink, as we all do, when we're learning, it becomes a huge kick to the pride. Right? And do you feel like that's where the fear stems from? Is that kind of rejection we feel when we're on stage, and we bomb, which is so likely when you're new, isn't that?

Speaker 2  5:48  

Absolutely. And to build on what you said, Claire, with, which I completely agree with, it's the memories we hold as a kid when doing that activities. Let me give you an example. That's more common. Let's say we think of sports. Right? So in the context of sports, let's say a little boy, let's say 10 years old plays basketball. No, no one's hitting you with a basketball. If you miss the shot, when you're playing outside with your friends, you're gonna just throw in it, you're having fun. And then as you get older, those are the memories that stay with you as you get as you're 30. You're 14, you're playing these basketball games, and you're watching the game. And you're when you think about your childhood, only great things come Oh, I remember he used to play basketball. But imagine a different scenario, Claire, what if that same boy when he was playing basketball, I hit him with the basketball every time he missed the shot, when he grew up liking basketball,

Claire Davis  6:44  

probably not.

Speaker 2  6:48  

Stop, stop playing basketball. But we're doing that with our children with communication, right, whenever they miss the shot, they get punished for it. So as they get older, whenever they're on a stage, whenever they're speaking, they only have negative emotions, negative memories around communication. And that helps them learn the wrong lesson, which is that communication is a chore because it isn't. Communication is a way to share impact. It's a way to share ideas. It's a way to help other people. And when we're able to reframe our minds with this question, How would your life change? If you are an exceptional communicator? Then you go hmm, I don't really thought about that. And then you start thinking about the positives of communication and see it as a tool for impact.

Claire Davis  7:32  

Oh, wow, I love that. Okay. So say, say in a perfect world, you know, you you are encouraged as a young person to be a great speaker, and you're rewarded when you try, right. So we erase a little bit of the fear and the discipline mentality when it comes to early public speaking. So what would you say to somebody who says, Okay, I've got the gumption, I feel confident, I'm going to try to be a great public speaker. Where do they start?

Speaker 2  8:02  

Absolutely. And it always goes back to this principle, then I'll show you my easy, threes clear, is the idea that if you communicate 20% better than your competition, you will stand out 100% of the time. So what does that mean? That means everything that we're going to share today is actually not that hard. But it helps you build a little bit more confidence over and over. And it's those winds that stack up over time, that create that confidence, and how you communicate an idea. So let's go through those three things. The first one is called the random word exercise. So it's super simple. Pick a random word I know, you know, this exercise, right? Your phone or tablet yoke, pick a bunch of random words, and create random presentations out of thin air. So another question is for medical sales, people listening to this, why should you care? Because you're probably thinking, Oh, my God, I'm in President's Club. I don't care about this. Why should this matter? The reason is simple. If you could make sense out of nonsense clear, you couldn't make sense out of anything. And that's really the magic of the random word exercise, is it allows you to do the harder thing. So whenever you have to give a presentation with colleagues in the medical sales profession, and you practice avocados yesterday, you could talk about medical sales, that's to live, that's what you breathe. That's what you are. But you talk about tissue boxes, and you have a good time doing it. Everything else in your life and your career and your presentations will become a joke.

Claire Davis  9:29  

Oh, wow. Yeah, right. Well, and it's so interesting, because when you do start from that base level, and you say, Okay, if I can speak about this coffee mug for a minute, and for anybody listening, you know, that's in medical sales and started another sales organization, likely you've been asked to do this exercise in an interview, so a lot of times it'll be okay. Tell me about what kind of pizza you are. Right? Or if you were a style of Italian dinner, what would it be? And why, which always made me scratch my head. And I don't know why they're always associated with food. But but once you start being able to talk about normal everyday things, is it because you're comfortable with organizing your thoughts? Or is it because you're just practicing?

Speaker 2  10:23  

I would say it's both clear in the sense that when we think about the fear of communication, right, how do you get rid of that? Well, the quick answer is you don't because the fear is always going to stay there. Like for me if Elon Musk called me while we're having let's say dinner in Spokane, I don't know if I'm you

Claire Davis  10:39  

are you are so terrified to get a restaurant.

Speaker 2  10:47  

Buttery crab. We're probably fighting over who gets the less. And what's the Elon Musk? He goes, you know, Brenden, I wrote like your YouTube videos. Do you want to coach me come out tomorrow? P whatever you want? Would I be scared of that? Yeah. I would. Even if I'm the expert on the call, and I yeah, I coach people, and I have success with it. But there's always a level where all of us are fearful. So how do we overcome that? Practice? Absolutely. organizing your thoughts. The third thing I would add to what you said, Claire, is doing what most people aren't willing to do in medical sales. So you get the results that no one else in medical sales gets. So let's use the random word exercise. Okay, you said it's very common in your industry. So let's let's play this out. What percentage of people in medical sales? It's kind of a rhetorical question, we'll do the random word access 10 times probably 50%. Let's say, What about 100? times? Maybe like 5% 7%? What about 200 times? Now we're really starting to say 1%, less than 1%. Maybe one person. But here's the thing clear. It only takes 200 minutes to do the exercise 200 times. So what's the punch line? The punch line is, I'm not asking for 200 minutes out of your day, because that's over three hours of your life. It's a lot of time. I'm not asking for 200 minutes out of your week, or even your month or even your year. Can you give me 200 minutes out of your life. Because if you do that, you'll have an internal confidence and internal knowing that when you go into any meeting, any presentation, you'll look at everyone in the room, and you'll think to yourself, I've done the random word exercise more than all of these medical sales people come by. There is no way I'm going to mess up that presentation. And that's the mindset that I forced my clients to take on. If you do more than everyone else, you'll get the results that nobody else is

Claire Davis  12:56  

fantastic.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai