Tommy Hilcken On 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be confident. Once you get good at what you do, have confidence. Step up and be noticed. There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and you must never cross that line. Being better at public speaking never makes you better than anyone else, yet we must develop the confidence to walk with a bit of a swagger.

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 Tommy Hilcken.

Tommy Hilcken is a public speaking coach, a Toastmasters Humorous Speech Champion, a motivational humorist, and founder and principal of Toolbox Talent, which provides entertainers, facilitators, motivational speakers, and experts of ceremony for corporate, community, and private events.

With over 30 years of experience, Tommy has performed more than 6,000 speaking and magic/comedy engagements. Studied under the infamous and one of the world’s most popular and beloved motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, Tommy combined his love for magic with a natural passion for comedy to define and capture his future. As a life success coach, he has worked with individuals and families from every walk of life, as well as celebrities and professional athletes.

As a motivational humorist and keynote speaker, Tommy believes in using laughter to help his audience learn, embedding a crafted message that best serves the audience, and delivering value to any business meeting, community event, or private gathering. He has helped others break through their fears and challenges, move away from those things holding them back, and towards full career fulfillment.

He is a Toastmasters Humorous Speech Champion, a member of the National Speakers Association, and a certified life success coach by the Proctor Gallagher Institute, founded by speaker, author, coach, and mentor Bob Proctor.

Tommy was one of six children raised in Guttenberg, NJ, where he loved sports and being with people. As a child, he developed a deep commitment to family that helps define him today and he extends his nurturing to those with whom he works. When not helping others achieve their life goals, Tommy enjoys blues music, sports, and trout fishing. He is married to Cheryl and together they have three children and three grandchildren.

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 grew up in a little town called Guttenberg, New Jersey great little community 4 by 10 that’s four blocks wide by 10 blocks long. I lived on Wiffle ball, stickball, and hanging on the stoops. It was right across the river from New York City and simply just a great community with a great bunch of kids. We still get together all these years later; everybody knew one another, everybody knew what everybody stood for. It was a great way to grow up. Back then, did I have thoughts about being a public speaker? Probably not. One thing I did realize early on growing up in Guttenberg, you had to have good verbal skills, or nobody would ever see you or hear you. It was noisy in the schoolyard.

What brought you to this specific career path?

What brought me to this career path was my good friend from Guttenberg, Mondo, with who I grew up with. He owned a magic shop. Mondo showed me a magic trick, and I fell in love with entertaining with magic. I was making money doing it six months later, and six years later, I turned it into a career. I guess it was a natural, and it just had to come out of me, but I love being on stage, I love holding a microphone, I love being in front of an audience.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened since you began your career?

My career is now 33 years long, so picking a favorite thing that happened or something exciting along the way would be tricky to choose.

I’ve done over 7000 performances in my life, but here we go. I will choose this as I started to grow as an entertainer, I began to be seen more and more by people who could hire me, and one day, I was hired by the New York Yankees. Growing up right across the river, from the Bronx right across from Manhattan, being a lifelong Yankee fan, this was a dream come true. Not only was I doing what I love, but I was also doing it for one of the greatest baseball teams in the history of baseball and living out my childhood dream of someday being on the field at Yankee Stadium.

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?

Sometimes mistakes are a lack of awareness. I was hired to do a clown show, and I had no idea what it took to put together a clown outfit. I had no makeup, and I used my nephew’s diaper cream for the white around my eyes.

There were a few lessons there.

1. The show must go on.
2. The secret to success was to raise my awareness of what it took to become a professional and perform professionally.

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?

I am genuinely grateful for the mentor I had in the clown business. In the 1990s, clowning was huge; it was big; it was everywhere. There’s no longer a clown school; there’s no longer a circus, so clowns are rare to see. Back in the day, my mentor Fred Collins was the owner of Mecca magic in Bloomfield, NJ; he took me under his wing taught me all the skills I needed to be a professional clown and entertainer.

Soon after, I had asked him the most critical question if I was going to be in showbiz and I love doing the show, can you teach me more about the biz. Fred taught me how to be a great clown; he also taught me how to run a business. I was then able to earn a living doing what I loved.

If you love or genuinely enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll never work a day in your life, and that indeed has happened to me.

Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seemed daunted by the prospect of failure?

Go out and fail!

If you choose something as a career and love doing it, remember, it will be challenging at times. There is a lot to learn. You have to learn how to market yourself and sell yourself. My advice to anyone looking to be self-employed is to remember it is not for the faint of heart; it is not as easy as it seems, and it takes a lot of work. I’ve enjoyed listening to motivational speakers and self-help tapes throughout my career. Soon after starting my career, I discovered the great Zig Ziglar. He was known as one of the most incredible motivational speakers in the world. I studied with him and was reminded personal growth always precedes professional development. I had to grow as a person before I grew as a professional. I learned a great lesson from Zig that helped me push through: Stinkin Thinkin was that failure was an event and not a person. Wake up the next day and get back at it.

What drives you to get up every day and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the rest of the world?

This is not a dress rehearsal. Make the most of every day. I am a people person. I might think that I like being in front of audiences, but I want to BE with audiences. There is a big difference. I genuinely love hanging with people sharing things that can help them. I can take their mind off where they are and get them into a place of fun, even for only a little while. One of my favorite things about my job in a profession I chose was bringing joy to the world. Laughter is the best medicine.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?

As a speaker and entertainer, once you learn how to hold the microphone and get in front of an audience, there are multiple ways to get out and do business right now. I’m working on a thing called Magical Motivation.

It’s a magic show that includes a motivational talk or a motivational talk that includes magic. It depends on the day! It is a great way to get a message across as people learn more in a fun environment.

Where do you see yourself heading from here?

I will continue to do what I am doing. Helping others see a different view of the world with my speaking, training, and entertaining

Can you please give your favorite life lesson quote?

“My primary purpose is to help people get what they want — to help them believe in their unlimited potential, to define their goals and pathway toward those objectives, and to take the steps that will bring them there.”

Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

As I mentioned, I’ve been around many motivational speakers and a lot of inspirational people. Earl Nightingale (One of my all-time favorites) said: “Everything in the world we want to do or get done we must do with and through people.” I’m a people person, and I realize that I must help as many people as I can to become successful for me to be successful. If I have learned something that may be helpful to you I must share it with you and teach it to you. That’s what it comes down to people helping people. After some thought, here are the five things you need to be an effective, professional public speaker.

What are your Five things you need to be a highly effective public speaker?

1. You must be trained; everyone thinks they can go out there and be a public speaker. Many people can speak in public, but not everyone is a public speaker. Some skills and talents must be developed, and you can only get that through training. Find someone or a company you’re comfortable with and learn the skills needed to become a professional public speaker.
2. Be confident. Once you get good at what you do, have confidence. Step up and be noticed. There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and you must never cross that line. Being better at public speaking never makes you better than anyone else, yet we must develop the confidence to walk with a bit of a swagger.
3. Be prepared If you’re going out and giving a presentation, always remind yourself to put it together. You never want to go out and wing a presentation. Winging it is for the Super bowl. Your audience would know just by reading your body language if you prepared or not. As my man, the late great Zig Ziglar would say, you must plan to win; you must prepare to win.
4. Do the Biz To become a successful public speaker, you need to do public speaking, and the only way to do public speaking is to become better at the biz. Showbiz, being on stage, holding the microphone, that’s the show. That’s the part we love to do. That’s right; speaking is what we get to do. The business, the back end, the paperwork. All the stuff most people don’t want to do. That’s what we’ll get you stage-time. It’s the business, the back-end stuff, that helps you become a professional public speaker.
5. Love what you do. Enjoy what you’re doing. If you’re going to be a public speaker and you’re going to be in front of people, let them know that you love what you do. They should be able to read your passion right from the start. The only way to influence another person is by example. If you are a professional public speaker, behave like one. If you are going to impress someone, it’s only through example. Show you have charisma and can own the room. Have a purpose for yourself, have a purpose for your presentation. A purpose that serves your audience.

Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome the fear of speaking in public?

I have been asked hundreds if not thousands of times by workshop attendees why do I fear public speaking? Through my years of training and meeting people, I’ve concluded that most people do not fear public speaking; what they fear is being judged. I remind them every time we move and walk through a store where we are being judged. If you’re going to walk on stage, understand you’re being judged and get used to it. Once you feel comfortable being judged, you will be much more comfortable with public speaking. All these thoughts can be erased with proper training.

If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I think it is essential for the world to have better communication. Communication builds relationships. Looking someone in the eye creates trust. We’re connecting through texts and emails and videos and all sorts of good stuff, but we’re losing human to human connection.

I love people, so I’d like to see people get back to connecting with people. I hope we can remember that people have a heartbeat and the only reason we’re here is to serve one another. You can have everything you want to if you are willing to help other people get what they want. I’m saying communication is the key. I hope we get back to communicating one to one and talking to people like people again.

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why?

Yes, there is a person I would love to have lunch with. My Rock & Roll her Eric Clapton. I’ve been to many concerts in my life and have met with many performers. I’ve never gotten to meet Eric Clapton/ Meeting him would be fabulous. I enjoy his story, and I love everything about his music. I have seen him over 15 times!

Social Media

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommyhilcken/

https://www.facebook.com/presentationskillsexpert

https://www.instagram.com/tommyhilcken

This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!