A Letter to Juliet Schor About My Analysis of Her Body Language

I'm feeling bad about a video I released evaluating a 2-minute clip of Juliet Schor's body language.

I thought you know what, let's dig me into a deeper hole.

You can see my evaluation at the end of the blog; but first, I want to avoid devaluing the prestige of Juliet Schor.

You don't apply to speak at Ted, you get selected.

Imagine the invite... we'd love to feature YOU on the Ted Talks platform.

Bonus: you're going to get 2 million views on a Saturday.

It's not, "Oh really, why did you select me as a speaker?"

It's more like, "I'm an economist and Professor at Boston College and Harvard. I have a Ph.D. I've earned more awards than you are old, made appearances on TV shows across the country, been featured in all major magazines, have 6 best-selling books, and my speaker fee is 20K!

And who are you again?"

Me:

I'm just a guy who watches speakers with the sound off.

I'm only looking for strategies I can share with my clients.

In fact: I asked for feedback on the post... I got a really great response from my good speaker friend. He said:

"You asked if you were being too harsh. In my humble opinion: I don't think your criticisms are too harsh. I'd like to see them balanced with more comments about the things that she is doing right. You did comment about some of them but I'd like to see more. I'd like to see enough good comments — whether it's about the talk, the speaker's credentials, the work the speaker does, or whatever you can find — to show me that you still have genuine respect for the speaker. If we feel that you've lost respect for the speaker, it taints the way we take in your criticisms. When you're doing a blow-by-blow, as in this case, we need positive stuff as we go along as well as negative stuff."

Wow, he's right, and I have genuine respect for you, Juliet Schor. I think that what you have achieved is extraordinary. You've worked incredibly hard and I'd love to have your Wiki page.

If I had the chance to sit in on any of your presentations, I would love to. I am a great audience member. I loved your Case For A 4-day Work Week Ted Talk, and agree 100%.

I'd like to work 3 days per week.

My clients know that I watch speakers with the sound off. Then I do speaking exercises that are developed by watching speakers with the sound off. We test the speaking gestures, and I always ask the audience which gesturing they like better.

I often have speakers perform speeches with no voice; basically charades.

The truth is that thanks to the speaking world, (which I'm going to be blogging about more and more) my clients, who would normally never use body language... are given an opportunity to use and SEE the body language in action.

When my clients see results in real-time they love it. They want to learn more.

That's how I draw conclusions and support my opinion.

That's what I missed in the video.

I did not say, "In my professional opinion."

Full transparency, it is my professional opinion; however, I'm also hoping the video does react with somebody and they look me up. I want more people to find me.

I imagine Juliet never reading this...

The reality is that only a handful of people pay attention to me right now.

A handful! That's all I really talk to online, even after years of being in the speaking industry.

That's sad... and also the reason for a New Year's resolution for a 90-day networking action plan. I've had more traffic and online interactions in the last 60 days than in my previous 5 years.

I'm going to post and just keep posting with consistency.

I've already got some good feedback that will help me create unique speaker content online.

To conclude, Juliet Schor, and anybody that who noticed the absence of positive commentary... it is my sincerest apology if I offended you.

Juliet, you are a highly intelligent presenter, and you have a wonderful smile.

Sincerely,

Devin Bisanz

Haven't Seen The Video?

Watch the 90-second version on TikTok: just click this link.