Whitney D. Walter of ‘Harness Your Power’ On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Effective speakers know how to use supporting resources without them becoming crutches. Let’s be honest here. No one wants to watch you read directly off of a PowerPoint presentation or repeat exactly what was just shown in a video. These things should support your speech. Not the other way around.
At some point in our lives, many of us will have to give a talk to a large group of people. What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker? How can you improve your public speaking skills? How can you overcome a fear of speaking in public? What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker” we are talking to successful and effective public speakers to share insights and stories from their experience. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Whitney D. Walter.
Whitney is the founder of Harness Your Power, a company dedicated to helping professionals reach their career goals and achieve their full potential. Whitney is a professional development expert, a Microsoft-certified PowerPoint Specialist, and holds an MBA from Florida State University. Whitney has spent years mentoring others in Corporate America and continues to aid in the success of professionals across the country by offering professional guidance through in-person and virtual trainings, various publications, and via her website www.WhitneyDWalter.com.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I was born and raised in Florida. I only have two siblings, so it was a small but very close family unit. As you can imagine, we spent a lot of time at our neighborhood swimming pool, hanging out at the beach, and exploring different water parks.
I’ll admit I was a nerdy kid growing up. I was all skin and bones with big glasses and I definitely preferred being inside reading over group activities of any kind. (Laughs)
That didn’t change much in high school either. I had a small group of friends but mostly kept to myself, focused on my grades and my part-time job. Maintaining good grades was very important in our household so that was always the first priority. By the time I got to 11th grade, I had enough credits to graduate so I decided to start college early.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
You know, I realized how much I enjoyed teaching others when I got my first job. I was hired to be a cashier at Target when I was 16. After just a few months, I was moved to the guest services department and from there I started training other new hires.
The interesting thing about it was that I spent most of my days training people who were 2 or 3 times my age. I realized that teaching others allowed me to connect with and even have a positive impact on people who, otherwise, I might’ve thought I had very little in common with.
Ever since then, every job I had involved some aspect of teaching or mentoring others. It just happened naturally.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
When I was in my mid-twenties, I went through a major period of transformation. I had just gotten out of a long-term relationship that ended very badly and having the ability to advocate for myself in my personal life kind of became the catalyst for advocating for myself professionally too.
I made a conscious decision that I wanted to get promoted at work within a certain time frame and I started to be much more vocal about my expectations with my manager. When I had my monthly one-on-ones, I would bring my own agenda items to discuss and one of them was always “When am I getting promoted?” or “Why haven’t I been promoted yet?”.
I know that might sound crazy but I realized that if my intentions weren’t known then I couldn’t expect to magically achieve my goals. And it absolutely led to some uncomfortable conversations but those discussions shed light on how I could improve and be better positioned for success.
I ended up getting 3 promotions that year. I also started traveling the country and speaking in front of hundreds of people.
It was truly a year of personal and professional transformation.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Oh, I’ve made plenty of mistakes! How do I choose just one? I think I made a lot of mistakes by thinking I could “wing it” in scenarios that warranted more due diligence.
I can recall one occasion where I agreed to give a presentation on a topic that I didn’t really know much about. Instead of spending time familiarizing myself with the concepts in the presentation, I waited until the last minute to review the corresponding PowerPoint deck and, although I was a bit nervous, decided I could riff if there was a moment or two when I needed time to think of what to say next.
The presentation went surprisingly well but everything fell apart when the audience started asking questions. I stumbled my way through two or three and then decided all of the remaining questions were “so good” that I would rather reach out to them with answers directly after the presentation ended.
I wasn’t laughing at the time but thinking back I have to giggle at the overconfidence and what I’ve learned since then.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
That person is definitely my mother. She has always pushed me and my siblings to be better. If we’re feeling discouraged, she’ll remind us of what we’ve accomplished and how we have the potential to do even greater things.
Over the years she has been the leader of countless brainstorming sessions for job searches, interviews, entrepreneurial aspirations, and more.
When I was a kid, she supported my idea to sell candy to my fellow students at school. When I was 19 or so, she encouraged my numerous side hustle ventures like reselling items online and delivering phone books. Yes, I said phone books. (Laughs)
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging and intimidating. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
First, I would say that you have to become a person that sees every failure as an opportunity to learn something new instead of a reason not to do something. It’s not easy — and I’m still working on it every day — but you’ll find that this tiny mindset shift makes you so much more willing to put yourself out there.
And that’s actually my second piece of advice. You have to put yourself out there. I know that as women, we often feel like we have to be the best and greatest before we will give ourselves credit but sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith.
The last thing I would recommend is to be a person who never stops learning. If you’re always eager to learn more and improve your craft you’ll go far.
What drives you to get up everyday and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
Simply put, I find it tremendously fulfilling to help others. I often think about the advice I wish someone had given me early in my career. I’m talking about everything from tactical skills to how to think about certain professional situations and opportunities. If I can share what I’ve learned over the years with someone else and help them to reach their goals faster than I did then it was a good day.
I would love to share the importance of self-advocacy — especially for women. Knowing what you want and deserve and being vocal about it works wonders.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
We’ve got a lot of exciting stuff in the pipeline! I’m planning to reopen enrollment for my digital course, The Polished PowerPoint Playbook, soon. I’m also in the process of writing a book about how to land your first six-figure job that’s completely based on my personal experience. Oh, this is actually the first time I’ve mentioned that publicly. You’re really getting the scoop! (Laughs)
I’ve got some pretty grand ideas for the future too. I’d love to put together a conference or summit that brings women together to discuss personal and professional development topics. Because it’s really all connected. That’s still in the brainstorming phase but it’s definitely on my list.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
That’s an easy one. All things come together for good. I’ve lived by this scripture for as long as I can remember. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been disappointed by something in life only to find out it was truly for the best later on.
I’ll tell you a quick story actually. Years ago, I had the opportunity to apply for a managerial role in the department I was working in. At the time, I was one of the most tenured people on my team. I had quite a few other managers encourage me to apply and even one who said I was a shoo-in for the role. I applied and the interview went very well. Needless to say, I was pretty confident that I would be offered the position.
A week later, the position was offered to someone else and I was pretty devasted. I didn’t understand what went wrong. It really bothered me for a while.
Fast forward a few months later, the person who received the promotion was suddenly given an additional team to manage which effectively doubled his workload overnight. At that time, I was working full time and going to school full time so there is no way I would’ve been able to handle all of that at once. I actually ended up feeling very grateful that I didn’t get the promotion.
I guess that wasn’t as quick a story as I thought it would be. (Laughs) But I always think back to that as a lesson learned and it reminds me that everything happens for a reason.
Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.
- The first tip I always give is to know your audience. And beyond that, try your best to understand your audience. Whether you’re speaking to them to inform or entertain you need to know where their minds are when they sit down to listen to you speak. Are they excited about the topic at hand? Skeptical? Hopeful? What questions might they have throughout your speech? Thinking about the answers to questions like these will allow you to position yourself and your message in a way that your audience will better relate to.
- Next, effective speakers are master storytellers. It doesn’t matter if they are talking about data or current events. There is a story somewhere in those numbers or seemingly mundane details. You just have to find it and shed light on it. Believe it or not, our brains naturally connect to and remember stories better than facts and figures. You can use that to your advantage.
- Effective speakers also know how to create and maintain audience engagement. Ever wonder why so many speakers ask how everyone is doing at the beginning of a speech? That’s a prompt to encourage audience engagement. The more engaged your audience is doing your speech, the more likely it is that they will not only understand and remember what you’ve talked about but they’re also more likely to take action afterward.
- Effective speakers know how to use supporting resources without them becoming crutches. Let’s be honest here. No one wants to watch you read directly off of a PowerPoint presentation or repeat exactly what was just shown in a video. These things should support your speech. Not the other way around.
- Finally, one of the biggest differences I’ve seen between good and great speakers is the constant dedication to improvement. I mentioned the importance of being a person who never stops learning earlier and I can’t emphasize this enough. Great speakers are always doing something to improve whether that is practicing new speeches, watching recordings of prior speeches, soliciting feedback from trusted colleagues, or studying other speakers. They never stop learning so they never stop growing.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
One word; practice. I’m not trying to minimize the fear by any means but that is truly the best way to get over a fear of doing anything. Anyone who performs in front of crowds of people is going to be nervous starting out — even if you’re a talented singer or an amazing magician.
With practice comes confidence and you can start small. I always say big goals should be broken down into bite-sized chunks. start by practicing out loud in front of a mirror or camera. then, practice in front of a few family or friends. If your speech is work-related, practice in front of colleagues.
Try to figure out ways to expand your audience slowly. Before you know it, you’ll be comfortable speaking in front of hundreds of people!
It’s worth mentioning though that having a fear of public speaking is totally normal. There have been numerous studies that have polled audiences ranking public speaking as the number one fear even above death itself. Isn’t that crazy?!
So I always like to say that having the courage to speak in front of a room full of people — no matter how big or small that room is — is a very desirable trait. Even if you make a few mistakes or stumble over your words, there’s someone in the audience admiring the fact that you were brave enough to get up there.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
That’s such a good question. I would love to inspire a movement related to emotional intelligence and empathy. I think we would all be so much better off if we were just a little bit more understanding of ourselves and each other.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
You know, as a person who has dedicated so much of my life to teaching others, I would love to have a conversation with Malcolm Gladwell. He’s my favorite author and I truly admire his ability to take very complex concepts and break them down into the simplest ideas.
I also think he does a phenomenal job taking sensitive topics — like racism, sexism, and classism — and explaining them in a way that feels very disarming and relatable.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
Yes, I am! You can find me @whitneydwalter on all social platforms.
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
That’s so kind! This has been great! Thank you so much for having me.
Whitney D Walter of ‘Harness Your Power’ On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
