Why Elon Musk is a properly good public speaker, how he probably doesn’t even know it, and what you can learn from him.
Elon Musk, the real-life Tony Stark, and Billionaire owner of Tesla Motors and SpaceX.
If you’ve ever watched any of his speeches it would be easy to say on the surface that he’s not a *natural* public speaker.
He even admits it himself….something few people so successful would do.
I’m such a bad public speaker! Damn.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2019
And yes, he doesn’t fit into many of the natural boxes us speaker coaches use to judge someone’s effectiveness as a public speaker.
In many of his speeches, it doesn’t seem like he’s practised much. Some coaches will preach lyrical about the need to spend 20, 30 or even 40 times as much prepping for your speech as you do delivering it.
You’ll always hear him stopping, starting, ‘umming and ahhing’.
He often doesn’t start as strong as he could do, instead, he starts warming up and getting into his stride nearer the middle to end of the speech vs. the start.
Some even complain about the clothes he wears in public launches, that it’s distracting or failing to contrast against backdrops.
All of which are valid criticisms which can be found on most speaker coaches checklists.
But, there is something Elon Musk has which no speaker coach in the land can teach.
Neither can billions of dollars buy it.
It’s something which even Musk himself probably doesn’t even know he has.
But, it’s something that does set him apart from most public speakers.
And it’s something which, if you have it, will let you off the hook for almost every other public speaking faux pas.
Authenticity
He has a 100%, 24 carat gold authentic personality.
He is always himself, he’s always real, he’s always authentic.
He tells personal stories well and keeps it real when he does.
Instead of boasting about the $1.5 Billion he made from sale of Paypal, he simply remarked in one speech that prior to Space-X he “did a few things on the Internet” – humble brag, or just kinda funny?
He recognises he’s not the best public speaker, and it’s this vulnerability as someone who just wants to improve the world and doesn’t have anything to prove with it, which we buy into and admire.
When he speaks you can see his brain working, trying to find the right words to choose to explain even the most complex subjects, the likes of the future of AI or how we’re going to power the world in the next few decades, in the most simple to understand way possible.
And of course, he’s so down to earth – he’s the master of self-deprecating humour.
As you can see in the following video…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx567LQO1N4
What can you learn from Musk?
Be you, be real and be authentic.
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Need a public speaking coach?
Do you want a way to become a better public speaker and need someone to help you maximise and sell the real, authentic YOU?
As a storytelling and public speaker coach I can help you do just this.
Email me directly for a quick chat to see how I could help: info@peterbotting.com
Image by Maurizio Pesce from Milan, Italia – Elon Musk, Tesla Factory, Fremont (CA, USA), CC BY 2.0, Link
