All right all right. All right welcome back to the Thrive time show on your radio. It is the number one business coach radio show on the planet. If you are looking for a business coach and someone to teach you what you specifically need to do to build a successful business to help you scale your existing business you have found your radio show. My name is Clay Clark I’m the former SBA Entrepreneur of the year and normally I am joined with Dr. Robert Zoellner Inside the Box that rocks. But today we are joined with Carlton Pearson who is a guy that many people in Tulsa know because he famously gave over five thousand sermons throughout his career. He actually is a best selling author and he was personally mentored by Oral Roberts. He became a very successful evangelist and then he decided that he changed his religious views and he has been called a heretic. He’s been featured on national news stories about his change in his views and his faith or lack thereof. But one of the things that I’ve appreciated about knowing Carlton over the years and knowing him personally is that he is a phenomenal communicator and he is a guy who is a gifted orator and a gifted speaker and he was mentor directly by Oral Roberts himself. He actually introduced Carl and introduced the Suza conference the big conference that went to the maybe center year after year that featured speakers like T.D. Jakes and so his life is now being made into a movie and that the movie is going to star Martin Sheen as Oral Roberts.
And the the main the lead actor that’s going to play the part of Carlton Pearson his name is Chiwetel Ejiofor. But you might not know the name but if you’ve seen the movie 12 Years a Slave and if you haven’t you should see it. 12 Years a Slave is a phenomenal movie in it. It’s a it’s a portrayal of a character by the name of Solomon Northrup who ends up being captured and taken as a slave when he once was a free man. And anyway there was an Academy Award winning movie and a phenomenal actor. And then you have Danny Glover will be in the movie and you have Rashad. I mean you’ve got an all star lineup there it’s going to be a really neat movie. Whether you agree with Carlton’s religious views or not this is not a religious show and this is not a political show but we are going to have him on the show today. And we’re talking about how to develop your confidence as a speaker how to become a successful communicator. If you’re just tuning in what we’re listening to now is an interview that I actually had with Carlton Pearson talking about how you and I can develop more confidence as a public speaker.
First of all words are powerful. They’re creative. They are inventive. They are the most sacred trust that you have the ability to use them. Nothing is more powerful than language. We spell words but words also spell us and cast spells upon us. You’ve heard of a spellbinding speaker. You really are in chanting. That’s where we get the word Cantor in the Jewish synagogue or the or the incantation the chanting the repetition the vibrations the beat of the heart into the pulse. Now people only breathe fast when they’re nervous or they’re hyped or hyper or exhausted or exerted. That’s a sign of tension. You don’t want to create tension. You want to create intention. So if you speak deliberately and intentionally and articulately and accentuate words that need to be central It’s like it’s almost like making love to the crowd.
You did something years ago where you were talking when your services and you were talking about I was your grandmother but you you you were able to tee up the story and then you went into that song farther along. Mm hmm. And yet the way you see I just watching you going he is not in a hurry. It came across as though you were being very intentional and I felt as though you were talking to me. And everybody else felt that way as well. So talk to me about speaking to an audience of one how you’re able to do that what are some of the moves you need to do to sound like that.
Some people have the mentality and it’s really healthy. This is my time. And then there’s another one. This is my term. And then there’s this my termination. Everybody has time but you have a term. You have to focus on why you’re there what time and what term how much what what is my term it’s my term or it’s my turn to turn to the term to create something between you and that audience. And if you go with that in your mind OK I’ve got 15 minutes to turn this crowd on. Make them receptive. Get their juices flowing. Impregnate them and then do the after play.
Now I want to ask you this because this is something that you know I think people may be critical about people who’ve spoken in the world of of televangelism in the world of sales and the world of anything where they’ve influenced people and it has ever involved money. And I always tell people with public speaking make sure that you have the motive right. And then sometimes the methods that people argue with make make sense. I want to ask you. I mean what are other. I mean where’s the ethics there of of the method. You know and the motive it seems like you can actually motivate an audience to do almost anything good or bad.
If you are a powerful speaker Well if love is the motive and it is always the motif but it’s the motive the motif is a is a decorative sign or pattern how you decorate or parent is one thing but when when they feel they have to know the same as people don’t really care that you know until they know that you care once they feel you really interested in them more than yourself or your message or the product you’re selling. Once they’re convinced that they can trust that you love them or that at least you care for them you’ve got them.
So what were other oral Roberts had the right motive there what are some of the other moves that he taught you. What are some other moves that you saw he said Wow that is something that I learned and I adapted it and adopted it put it into my own you know quiver so to speak and now it’s become you know you’ve obviously moved on and you’ve you’ve edited and you made your own broader What is what doesn’t move or two that he taught you using subtle self-deprecation relaxes an audience and gives you the right to address them because it puts you on a level that suggests very powerfully that you relate to who they are and that you’re not just hung up on who you are.
You already know you’re a celebrity or a celebrated person or that crowd wouldn’t come to you. So that’s not something you need to sell. You don’t really have to make them no celebrate you anymore. Your objective is to make them celebrate themselves. So you turn the attention on themselves and again you are the the the umpire umpire because there’s a Russell there’s there’s there’s a battle going on there’s a fight there’s an argument always going on. So you’re a referee and you are a a arbitrator or see yourself as a bridge that sort pontiff him. I think that’s pretty reasonable pontificate. You’re building a bridge between where the person is and where they want to go or where the person is or where you want them to go.
So you’re actually an architect you’re a contractor you are a instructor you are a humorist you use comedy wit and timing and syncopation and you walk on a certain cadence to prevent decadence or death it because there’s something being born and something dying all the time in that in that meeting did you script out your talks when you were preaching it at the peak the apex of your ministry.
Did you did you script them all out. I mean how much of an outline were you bring into the table for every event because it seemed to me that you really really knew your stuff.
Well I’ve never been good at making outlines and I never did. I just talk now with the Scripture was my outline because I would use as the base and I would just kind of stand there. And I don’t really work on sermon sermons work on me. And when that thing has worked on me it works in me. And when I get out in the crowd it works out for me. It works on me in me and then out of me it’s it’s it’s a pretty normative process once you’re committed to it.
Now if you’re not committed to it you’re just borrowing some energy for a minute. The thing has to be in you you’re if you’re a public speaker that’s not just a function that’s a reality. Everywhere you go everywhere you go you are speaking publicly even if you don’t use a word. So the energy and the end signals that you create when you enter a room when I say what’s working on you. I out almost everywhere I go I ask what’s what’s working for it. I say what’s working for you. And then I ask what’s work what’s not working for you if you made a comparison between what’s working for you what’s not working for you which would be the longest list in their minds. Then is that you saying now what’s working on you what keeps you awake at night. What’s the it’s that you find difficult. Scratching difficult. What’s what’s eating you. Because that’s important. And then what’s working as you. How do you show up in the world in your relationships at home schooled on the job home with your neighbor how do you show up. What do you cause to occur when you enter a room or a conversation. And then finally what do you perceive to be working against you. Because the answers to all those questions determine how you function in the universe.
How you identify with yourself and with people what you indicate what is the significance of your being pretty listing who says How do I prepare I have a speech to deliver you know today it’s Saturday I want to deliver next Saturday what kind of preparation should somebody be doing.
Well I see that with the word reparation. What do you need to repair in your life in your thinking in your vice. The people come to you because they feel something is in disrepair. So again your preparation has to has to connect directly with your reparation you repair something or torn ligament or torn idea or broken dreams something that’s chipped or or a broken start healing yourself and left the message that you’re presenting be a part of your be cathartic to you. And when you walk in there you are so healed by what you’re sharing with those who feel that they need to be repaired. Your preparation has come to your reparation. Make the thing work for you make it work through you make it work as you.
And to you and then it’s done. Experience what you’re saying. They will too.
Now you’ve you’ve watched speakers struggle. You’ve seen speakers bomb. We’ve all seen speakers just absolutely fair fail to deliver. It’s just it’s awful and we feel bad. We almost want it run up on stage and hugged these people. Talk to me about where you feel like people are getting it wrong as it relates to preparation.
When you are in disrepair and you have not really your your false advertising when you have not lived what you’re saying the cognitive dissonance eats you up on the stage and exposes you as a fraud.
They know the crowd picks that up almost in seconds. If they come there they have honest earnest intentions to be helped. And you come in there as a quack a doctor that doesn’t really have your stuff together. They lose it and their energy they’ll withhold their acceptance and when they reject you and you’re standing on that stage you die. If you don’t make them won’t you they will reject you and the energy the deadly negative energy and emotions and rejection makes the stage a a hanging loose and you get it home if you’ve ever wanted to become a successful speaker or a more skillful orator or communicator you definitely want to come back after the break it’s more with Carlton Pearson teach us how to become effective and powerful presenters.
All right. Thrive nation Welcome back to the thrivetime show on your radio. What’s the number one business coach radio show on the planet where we teach you everything you’ve ever needed to know to start or grow a successful business. Now typically on this a business coach show focused on business school with out the b.s.. I am joined with Dr. Robert Zoellner But today he is out expanding his vast entrepreneurial empire expanding his businesses. And so I am today going to give you a rare treat if you’re just now tuning in. We are joined today with Carlton Pearson Yeah that Carlton Pearson you know the guy that used to be the head pastor of a mega church in town called higher dimensions. Yeah. That Carlton Pearson who was featured on the news media for being a heretic. Yeah. That Carlton Pearson while his life is being turned into a movie called Come Sunday that will star Martin Sheen who will be playing Oral Roberts in the lead character the guy who played the main character from the movie 12 Years a Slave. To tell a for and I miss I mispronounced every time I’m doing my best here. He is going to be playing Carlton Pearson in the movie and also stars Danny Glover and so Carlton is swinging by the box that rocks here we had a chance to sit down with him and we’re going to talk about religion or politics but I am going to dive down deep into how to become an effective speaker.
There’s so many thrivers out there like you who want to become a better communicator a better speaker a better presenter and you’ve you’ve you remember Carlton Pearson you remember being being such a great speaker. And so he’s going to teach us his moves here. And I sat down with him during an interview and we’re talking right now about how to develop increased confidence if you are a developing speaker. So again if you’re if you’re just now tuning in you’re listening to Carlton Pearson whose life has been is being made into a movie called Come Sunday. And we’re rejoining the conversation the interview that he and I had about how to develop more confidence as a speaker.
So if you think back about your career you know in all those talks you’ve ever done what in your mind goes down as your single best talk you ever delivered or one of the best and why conviction conviction when you are conviction and convinced convinced of a means to become a victim of or have victory over when you are convicted. You become totally convinced that what you’re saying works for you and will work for them. It doesn’t take long for them to know that you really believe what you’re saying because you’ve experienced it more than expressed it. If you’re just expressing it without experience it weakens the energy when you’ve actually experienced the financial success or finding a place of peace or a consolidation of the soul. When you’ve been healed you can heal others. So the constant reparation you always when you’re when you are working on an agenda and you’re doing pushups and sit ups and running in place and you know you’re you practicing your breathing you’re well prepared and well prepared. And when you present yourself in the contest the people in the audience knows the guy did his work.
You watched. You’ve probably seen you probably grew up with watching Martin Luther King Jr. deliver these powerful talks. And he would say things like darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that. And the audience would just melt and he would say I have a dream. Talk to me about the impact of Martin Luther King Jr. is speaking style on your speaking style and why he was such an effective speaker in your mind.
It’s like a hypnotist uses the power of suggestion to change your reality. When you stand on that stage hypnosis the Greek word for sleep you put to sleep every adversarial element in that person everything that is adverse or in opposition to what you’re presenting. So you’re actually manipulating and negotiating and navigating an ocean of energy and vibration and you’ve got to be you’ve got to know how to be a navigator to do that. And you’ve had you’ve got to have some experience on the scene. You did it with water and water can have sudden storms. I was raised in Southern California are in San Diego on the Pacific Ocean Pacific the Latin word for peace. Actually the Pacific Ocean is the most stormy of the seven seas. But when Cabrio went from San Diego to the South Pacific he didn’t experience any song storms so he named that body of water. Pacific Ocean. Now what you call a thing is how you experience the thing. And and we are when we’re born we are 90 percent or 80 percent water by the time we’re adults we’re 60 percent. But the brain is always 80 percent water and nothing responds to vibrations like water. Water is a metaphor for Spirit. You know when I say we’re not just human beings looking for a spiritual experience we are we are spirits having an earthly encounter. So how do I relate to the moisture in human beings. We find the first nine months of our existence and water swimming. That’s our first familiarity.
So when you create spirit you remind the audience or the person if it’s just an individual of their essence of their essential being. You’re reminding the people of what they already know I’d forgotten. I think where we all come here knowing but we experience amnesia between the womb and the tomb. We forget that we agreed to come here and then we panic and that creates all the tension on the planet. Now that’s a mystical approach to it of course but that’s the way I operate. I know that I’m talking to water and I’ve got to stir it up. I’ve got to clean it up. Take the murkiness of the mutter and muddiness the insanity or then on unsanitized water it’s still water. It’s just so murky and it’s that the person is insane because there’s no sanitation. So you help them clean and clear or clarify first that there are water and why and how to flow.
You are perhaps the deepest human I’ve ever been around. And I want to ask you this because this is this is a kind of a deep thought I. Every great speaker seems to have a spiritual common denominator. They seem to be able to arouse and to get the audience to totally come alive in a way that is almost hypnotic almost mystical all the things that you’ve done all the adjectives you’ve used. But yet when you hear these things and you’re trying to learn how to becoming a speaker you’re going this is a little weird you know. So walk me through I mean if I’m on the edge right. If I’m on the precipice of becoming a great speaker I’m a good speaker I’m a good speaker I’m a solid B minus Carlton and I looking at the great speakers yourself President Obama Martin Luther King Jr. Tony Robbins Oral Roberts and I’m going Well I just I don’t want to dip my toe in the spiritual side the mystic. I don’t want to hop in to that. Educate me what do I need to do here.
I love the verse that says Faith comes by hearing the word. Hearing is the secret. Where we get the word acoustics.
All right Thrive nation when we come back more with the conversation with Carlton Pearson. We’re talking about how to become an effective communicator or how to become the very best speaker that you can be. However if you want to learn how to take your business to the next level. If you want to discover the proven path. If you want to learn specifically what you need to do to achieve that time freedom and financial freedom that you’ve been striving for you must go to thrive time showroom. Click on the button conferences read those reviews and book your tickets to the next in-person thrive time workshop. It’s located on the left coast of the Jenks river at the beautiful river walk. It’s the thrive time in person 2 day 15 hour workshops. Don’t miss out
All right. All right. And all right buddy. Just tuning in for the first time you are now tuning in to the Thrive time show on your radio. My name is Clay Clark the former SBA Entrepreneur of the year sent here on a mission to help you get into a great financial position. On the Thrivetime show we talk about all things related to becoming the most successful business person that you could possibly be. And many of you have e-mailed us over the over the last year and I have text us and asked the same questions repeatedly and the question the common denominator was hey how how can I become a more effective speaker. We’ve had people come out to a workshop and say Man that was awesome. How can I learn to become a speaker like that how can I learn to put on workshops like that. How can I improve my communication skills. And then if you do some research you’ll discover that Warren Buffett said that the training that he received in public speaking from the Dale Carnegie Institute made the biggest impact on his life of any training he ever received. So you start to realize that the people who are the most successful people on the planet are all good at communicating. Communication skills are absolutely paramount to your success.
In fact if you read a book called There’s a book called Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman in that book he has exhaustive research that shows no matter how much intellectual intelligence you possess you possess if you cannot emotionally connect with others and inspire others to take action you’re going to have a very hard time in life and especially in the game of business. So inside the studio we brought in Karl Pierson no Carlton Pearson I know that he has a definite stigma because he’s the guy who started a mega church and then switched religions. He actually was featured on the national media for being what most of people in the evangelical circles would call a heretic in his life is being made into a movie right now starring Martin Sheen as Oral Roberts. And the main character from 12 Years a Slave The Academy Award winning actor from 12 Years a Slave will be playing the part of Carlton Pearson in the upcoming movie it also stars Danny Glover it’s going to be big. And so we have Carlton on the show today though we’re not talking about religion and not talking about politics we’re just talking about the thing that he did so well for so many years and it was delivering a powerful presentation. This man gave over five thousand sermons. Any given Sunday he had to bring it. And so he’s going to be teaching us his moves today for developing more confidence as a speaker and on how to become a more powerful presenter. Whether you’re presenting in a small group a mid-sized group a large group you need to nail down these communication skills and so now we’re going to tune back in to the interview that I had with Brother Carlton Pearson here in the Thrivetime show the word hearing is the Greek word coup.
Where we get things where the acoustics and the acoustical sound has to do with the reverberation reverberations or the resignation resound or repetitions the things that bounce off the walls you lower buildings in this building is really alive. A singer loves that. Bands like if you’ve got to the thing going to bounce around. Now you hear sounds the the Hebrew word or the Greek word for sound is a cost. English words echo. Echo is a sound out of the past. Light travels 186 thousand miles per second light years the distance and light can go in when you are at that speed. Several trillion miles sound on the other hand travels only about eleven hundred feet per second. So you can see a lot farther and faster than you can hear. But faith doesn’t come by saying Faith comes by that which balances itself around in your soul. You hear it when you sleep you hear it when you wash in the car when you’re filling it up when you’re eating when you’re when you’re bathing in and. It never leaves you that cold that sound reminds you of the past which is the original purpose for which you came to this planet. You have to feel a sense of destiny to feel a sense of destination. The Latin word for Destiny day means to to intensity.
Estonia means to stand with intensity. To be intentional and to be attentive to what you’re here for that is having focus. So if you see and feel and sense and no conscience coincidence your Latin with science with no science means knowledge. So speaking is an art a science and a grace it’s art a science and a pace. Art Science and a space. Because when you speak to this the word is pure it is coming out of you its breath when you pneumoniae the word.
Long is Pneumon pneumonia or breathing or breath. That’s why talking slowing it down and breathing regularly and rather than hyperventilating to slow down the breath and let your lungs inhale and exhale. And if if a certain light was on either of us speaking you could see the moisture.
Every time somebody speaks microscopic particles of moisture come out of their mouth and maybe that’s why I don’t like flying on planes very much.
I don’t know I don’t know. Nelson 73 Iver’s carotid is getting deep. He’s getting into the marrow getting into that very specific beyond the epidermis kind of training about how to become a great orator a great speaker. Now one of the things you have to do to become a great speaker is you have to know what you’re working with. You just have to know what skills you have and what skills you don’t have. Some of you listening right now are phenomenal musicians you’re just very talented with music you’ve developed that skill after years and years. Hours and hours of practice. Others of you are funny. I mean you are a funny person. People tell you oh my gosh you are so funny. You are hilarious and others of us are very detailed. You’re very into the details you’re very precise. You have a quick wit. You memorize things quickly but you have to take an inventory of the skills that you have before you go out there and become the best public speaker that you can be. If you don’t do that you’re going to put yourself in a really awkward situation where you get up on stage and you’re unable to deliver what the audience has booked you for because you weren’t able to clearly set the expectations for the person booking you as to what you can deliver. And I’ll just give an example. I mean years ago I remember when my company deejay connection began to take off more and more companies would reach out to me and want to hire me as a speaker. I wasn’t marketing myself as a speaker.
I didn’t have speaking literature I didn’t have pricing I didn’t but I was honored to do it. I mean something as a deejay kind of in the pecking order of life. You know there’s there’s there’s a carnie. And if you apply for a job as a carnie that the carnie meaning from the word carnival worker if you get denied then what happens is then you apply to be a disc jockey and that’s how I became a disc jockey. So would you become a good disc jockey maybe you get to move up and become a politician or maybe become a speaker than a politician so I guess it goes like this you go from the Carni to the d.j to the public speaker to the politician. Well anyway I was asked to speak for Hewlett Packard. I’ve spoken for Val Spahr paint. I’ve spoken for Maytag university. I mean there’s some pretty massive companies O’Reilley auto parts. These people have paid me to go speak. And when you get up there to speak and you don’t know how to do it well it just feels weird.
The event planner comes up to you and says hey you’re going to be on in 10 minutes and you say good good good great great idea. She’s like are you OK.
So kind of like you’re sweating no no no I’m fine I just I sweat profusely when I do talks and she says you’re your flies unzip Oh I’m at. 70 I’ll go if that’s how you feel before you do a public speaking of it. You’re
not alone. I
think many many people start to get the sweats they start to shake. It’s hard to speak fast. It’s hard to not make sense and it just feels like it’s exploding in front of all of your peers if that’s you don’t fear we come back brother Carlton Pearson is going to teach us how to get the most out of the skills that you have been given as a speaker.
Boom it’s the prime time show on your radio. My name is Clay Clark of the former U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the year sent here to help you financially improve your situation and to learn those practical business skills that they just will not teach you in college. I don’t know what the deal is. I went to college at Oral Roberts University. I also went to Oklahoma State University and I also went to St. Cloud State University and I remember going to St. Cloud State. We had a class called social science where you’re in a room with 350 other students talking about you know the concept of time space. The Mayans the Incas the Mayan calendar whether it was going to end in our certain demise of the calendar screwed up somehow. And we’re just learning about civilizations and Freud didn’t it just the whole like psychology it was just a whole ridiculous exercise in futility. And after I went there for a year at St. Cloud State University I transferred to Oral Roberts University and Oral Roberts University. I had two more years of also classes that had nothing to do with anything that I’ve ever been asked to do in my professional career. I’m studying humanities. I’ve never had to deal close because of my vast knowledge of the Mesopotamia River Valley. I’ve never had a huge deal close because of my knowledge of cuneiform. I never closed the deal because I’m able to plot a sloping you know where you go to those graphs and you plot a slope on it. I’ve never been able to achieve success because of my Mass.
My mastery my mastery of diagramming sentences. But I can tell you one thing that has paid me and will pay you more than any other skill in the world. It is this your ability to communicate and to influence others your ability to get other people to do what you need them to do. Your ability to motivate other people your ability your ability to influence people your ability to negotiate with people your ability to communicate effectively. And so for today’s show I wanted to bring on the master of communication and a guy who’s been an unbelievable business coach in my life a guy who’s helped me on a very practical level in the world of communication. Now he he is very controversial. He’s not a guy that I will take spiritual advice from. He’s not a guy that I agree with let’s say religiously or politically but he is a guy who is sincere in his desire to help people and he is a phenomenal speaker. The man that I’m talking about today is the man who’s given over 5000 sermons. What would that be. Could you imagine what it would be like to give 5000 sermons. He’s a guy who was personally mentored by Oral Roberts and Oral Roberts who actually be plant will actually be played by Martin Sheen in the upcoming movie about Carlton Pierson’s life called Come Sunday. Carlton Pearson will be played by an academy. And to get the Academy Award nominated actor We’re also going to have Danny Glover in the movie it’s going to be worth seeing.
And Carlton Pearson has made a big impact in my life in the world of speaking so I asked him to come on to today’s show to help us to help you to help me become an effective speaker because we’ve all been to a speaking event we’ve all been to a Chamber of Commerce event. We’ve all known somebody who’s a good friend of ours and maybe it’s even happened to you when you get up to speak and you just bomb. And then would you finish bombing you have to keep going for another one hour another 45 minutes. It’s the worst feeling in the world for not only the audience but for you. And so I have a sound clip from the movie Billy Madison that I think is a great example of what it feels like to not know what you’re doing as a speaker and the kind of reaction that you may get from the the audience so here we go. Mr. Madison.
What you’ve just said. Is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point. In your rambling incoherent response. Were you even close to anything. That could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room. Is now dumber for having listened to it. I swear to you no points. And may God have mercy on your soul. Ok a simple wrong would have done just fine.
OK you get the point. Billy Madison delivered a speech that at no point made sense and he was ridiculed publicly but because of it. You don’t want that to happen to you. So what next brother Carlton Pearson is going to be teaching you how to get the most out of the God given skills that you have as a human. You know how to take the skills that you have today and how to use those to become the most effective speaker possible.
Knowing what you’re working with. Talk to me about the importance of as a speaker to know what you’re working with what your skills are and what your skills are not.
Well it’s about the what Captain camp or decapitate has to do with headship or leadership in the head is the vision the speaking the smelling or sensing the hearing and the thinking that sends the communication to the rest of the body. When you know you are in charge you are the head. The people know it is not arrogance it’s confidence. You are working with people who have come to you with problems or needs or questions that are just coming there for the fun of it. Most of them are intentional. Not all of them. But most of them are some of them because they were paid free to go them. But there are some people that really are intentional. Find them by the Spirit just or just know that they’re there and so start communicating to that establishing the relationship establishing the headship because they’re going to hear what you see hear what you hear hear what you think hear what you sense or smell with your nose. There’s a fragrance There’s a perfume there’s there’s an odor if you will. Sometimes it’s foul. So you’re you’re sorting through all of that and it just takes a few minutes for a responsible speaker to read the room and ready the room.
And then put it out there so somebody out there is listening and they have humor as one of their core skills. You know humor has really I mean there could be many many different elements but there are six that I have identified that I like to focus in on. One is jokes. You have the ability to deliver some jokes. Talk to me about how you deliver a joke properly to an audience and how you don’t deliver a joke.
Well I didn’t tell a lot of jokes but I did tell a lot of humor story. There you go. Yeah mine mine. There was usually something I experience or came. The timing was right. The tone was right and the tool was right but laughter the script says do with good like a medicine. So laughter literally scientifically does release endorphins in the body which is the chemical in the chemistry that causes healing or restoration. So you’re always bringing healing and restoration to people at whatever means is necessary. Humor almost always works. When I was speaking in the south there were a lot of times I spoke in the south in the 70s when black speakers were not welcomed or at least they weren’t wanted. They were welcomed using water. They were not the choice. So they didn’t put my I would not allow them to put my picture in the paper on anything that suggested I was black they just know I was coming from you and or a student in Carlton sounds like a very you can be neutral it could be but I could be African-American or Caucasian. Yeah it beats Hussein. Hussein Obama voters. They didn’t know. So when I when I walk in step up on that stage in living color sometimes there was a gasp.
Even people who had asked Can I speak a can of course will instead on house until I got there. So what I would do every place I would break the tension with humor a racial joke that was self-deprecating to me. And and before they knew what could make a judgment. They were laughing. Do
you recall any of the jokes that you would say or any kind of self-deprecation joke that you used back in the day can you recall any of those don’t put on the spot but can you recall any of those.
One of the ones I often tell this is my friend Randy and I know we’re all action singers would. He would always make fun of my lips my big lips. And I mean they walk up to me and say hey person are those your liver you’re wearing a turtleneck.
Just one that only you could tell that joke.
Yeah I can get by because it’s about me. And they would go on. And one time I said you know Randy had me tell you something when God made the black man when he got to his lips a new sense of creative ingenuity and architectural design came over him and he began to need those lips and fluffed those lips and pulled them out and spread them out and make them pretty and make them elegant. And when he made the white man he just took a razor blade and spit his face and said No.
No I want to. I want to ask you now with jokes. There are people who are. Who are they. That’s their move. That’s their super. They have this ability to deliver a joke and we all know somebody who every time they deliver a joke everyone goes oh that was very funny to talk to me about maybe why you didn’t use jokes. What kind of people should be using jokes I mean how do you deliver a joke so you have delivered some jokes in the past.
What does the Speaker how do you go out there and deliver a joke well you have to first feel the room. No I already know I am a joke by being there because I’m black in that setting. Now that’s in another setting it’s a total living in the South when I had to break the tension and say aha here’s Carlton Pearson in living color you know is going to be hard on it and then everybody will start laughing because you could tell that most of them didn’t know that I was going to be black or that I’d have an integrated team and that I would be the leader would that happen to me in South Africa I was the first African-American first man of color to ever lead an integrated team.
Wow. During a party you can tune back in tomorrow to hear the rest of this fascinating interview about becoming a powerful presenter with Carlton Pearson. But in the meantime in between time you do your thing and I’ll do my bit get up to thrivetimeshow.com. Subscribe to the podcast and book your tickets to the in person workshop