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go all right welcome to Quick show my name is Greg Matson and I am your host in this episode we've invited Jason huet
who was inducted into the prestigious speakers Hall of Fame one of the youngest ever inducted with the cpae
Council of peers award for excellence he was invited to be part of the Middle East Tour and support of the US military
in Kuwait Afghanistan and Africa and he is the author of the promise to the one
welcome Jason thanks for having me Greg this is cool to be a part of this with you yeah I'm excited to talk about this
I I love public speaking I do public speaking uh nothing like what you do but
I want to talk about this a little bit because it's fascinating that for most
of us it is the number one fear I mean you can talk about you know put someone
up on the edge of a cliff compared to public speaking and most people are gonna say well I'd rather be up on the
edge of the cliff I do not want to get up in front of a hundred or a thousand people and speak why do you think there
is such a fear among people to get in front of someone and speak well it is a a very vulnerable
position to be in when you're standing in front of people that are expecting to hear you say something
profound or funny or interesting and you're perhaps terrified of just being
able to deliver anything at all and so I understand that fear I've I've come overcome some of it not to the extent
that I've heard it can be for some people but you know anytime that we're going to fail at something or we're
worried about it that makes things really difficult and so I can understand where people come from with that I can
say that I would say that standup comedy is scarier than
speaking you follow your place a lot easier yeah trying to make people laugh
that's the really the scariest level of them all but I think that uh there are ways to overcome those things and it's
it's obviously something that I've been able to make a living at for years and I'm very blessed for that so you do use
comedy in your presentations uh did you always do that I mean you speak in front of large
audiences uh organizations corporations and others what did you just say okay I need to
start adding this in or was that something natural for you my natural
leniency is into comedy and and entertaining people and making them smile in some way whether it's doing a
character a voice something that will bring their imagination forth and so the
comedy really was somewhere that I just lean into naturally I use that as a kid that made me have friends that made
people talk that was always an easy thing for me and so teaching comedy is a little bit tricky but finding that
that's something that I've needed to lean into is somewhat of a signature move that I've used my whole life that's
what I've really been known for is the guy that was funny but that could teach something that was profound or that
moved us into some place of inspiration or leadership so that's what I've leaned into would you say that that is rare to
have someone that can be both comedic and profound well that's a cool question I I
don't think so because if you know a comedic person they usually have a profound place from which it came and
unfortunately I think that a lot of the people that are great at comedy aren't taken serious enough for the philosophy
that they're actually teaching through it the best comedy that I enjoy is the comedy that makes you think it makes you
reassess something and I love that type of comedy and so I believe that a
majority of the people that are comical are very profound thinkers but sometimes the comedy gets in the
way so do you I mean I'm guessing you you're asked several times you know what what
allows you to get up on a stage in front of someone or many people and not have
that fear do you still have a fear how long have you been doing this well I've made a living on stage now since let's
see it's 2024 since 20 000 so almost a quarter of a century okay are you over
all the fear then oh absolutely not I have never really had huge stage fright
just in terms of dependent upon the event so if it's something that's really important to me personally I remember
having the opportunity to open for certain acts that really intimidated me
but there are other times when I would be in front of 10,000 people and didn't even think about it uh it's actually
hard for me to be in front of 30 people than 10,000 and that's because that is
when you have the energy of 10,000 people you know you're going to get them in an easier way in my opinion than with
30 people that's a way harder proposition because you don't know if they're going to come along with you
it's kind of more of an intimate setting and so I've had to adjust through the years as to how to make that work it's
it's more of a hey we're having a conversation whereas in front of 10,000 people it's always been a presentation a
show and so that makes it easier because you're almost swallowed up by the the
amount of people watching you and you know that a bunch of them are going to come along and that'll infiltrate throughout the audience yeah it's almost
seems to me because you know I don't know I think the largest group I've ever spoken in front of maybe is 1500 or
2,000 but it it seems to me that when you're in front of that large of a group
there's because it's not as intimate there there you look out at the individuals and there's not as much it's
not they're not as much an individual you have a group right so the the
vulnerability is almost spread across the risk is spread across so many
different people it's almost the opposite of what many people might think it's like you've got a blanket there in
front of you instead of hey I've got 50 people here and I if I'm looking at one
or the other and I can Zone in on their reactions to what I'm saying that might be even more vulnerable yeah it's an
interesting spin on that because you can obviously say to yourself well I'm just performing and whoever's watching
watches I used to think I'm performing to a humongous crowd and this is so fun and now now I kind of Zone in on a
couple of people maybe like a triangle method where I'll pick someone over here for about you know 10 seconds to talk to
and then I'll Zone over here for 10 seconds to talk and then I'll look over here and I'll find the faces in the
crowd so that it doesn't feel like I'm just performing for a crowd but rather trying to have that intimate
conversation with that one person and that's actually changed for me even the
way that I speak and perform in front of that many people and it's made it even better so there are different variations
on how you can handle it now I have done public speaking and I actually really
enjoy it right the the option of what some people might say about it you
obviously enjoy it for me there is a certain
energy that comes from I I don't and I wouldn't say it's
all presentation I'm sure for some people it is right where you're it's all presentation and and
performance I I don't feel as much that way when I speak I I to me it's it's
much more the interaction between you and the people that you're speaking to smaller group
maybe it's more instruction I do a lot of instruction um larger group maybe it's not quite as much that way but that
I think I I remember as a kid in church for example you know having to speak I
was just scared to death right absolutely scared to death I go on a mission I come back I everything just
changed at that point and to me it's like if someone who would be afraid to
speak could actually sense that once kind of feel that there's almost uh
there's a reward I think for speaking in front of people something that gets you energized
yeah no there is absolutely a reward and I find it interesting to hear you talk about being a kid talking at church and
then going on a mission and that sort of thing because I have been for the last year I've been the stake Mission prep
teacher and so it's a 7:30 a.m. non-mandatory class and so essentially
it's an audition every week to make sure that you do well enough that they'll come back the next and I'll tell you not
knowing if we're going to have an audience every week I don't know if I've been as terrified about anything in my
entire career and I find that interesting that as my job I get in
front of thousands of people and I'm I do great I get standing ovations I make
good bucks right and then I have a Sunday morning lesson that I might have
six kids show up to and I don't know what's more intimidating having a bunch of sleepy teenagers that you're trying
to inspire and help them feel the spirit that's a really big ask and so I found
that uh yeah in front of the big crowds it feels like a presentation it's a
performance um I can I can do my best to engage in an intimate or interactive way
but with six kids at a church meeting that has to be a conversation that has
to be interaction lots more questions way more stories and
examples that are that are applicable to them rather than just sort of my pontification that I can do on a stage
in front of lots of people when you speak do you have do you
grade yourself oh heck yeah do you give yourself a rating when you're done it's like okay I did real well and is that
usually based on you or is that based on the response of the audience used to be
based on the response to the audience great question I used to come off the stage and I would say gosh I I hate
myself that was horrible because they hated me and that that can happen other times where they love you and you get
the standing ovation and they're high-fiving you but I have since gone to the place of saying I know that that was
great even though the standing ovation didn't come I I once saw something
happen Greg that I found interesting they were taking so many notes that they weren't
clapping and in the past I would have taken offense to that I would have been like why aren't they clapping and
laughing well they weren't clapping and laughing because they were looking down writing down what I had just said that's
a huge win and so instead of the standing ovations that I used to grade myself on it's more now the conversation
following where people come up to me and say gosh I thought I was just here to hear a nice funny leadership speech and
instead I'm going to go home and be a better dad I just made these promises to myself and I go yeah that's a success
right there so I grade myself quite a bit on uh I record every presentation
and I go back and listen to it as well just to make sure it was as good or bad as I thought and then yes I do I do hang
on to those ones that are really really great and I say awesome I nailed it what made that different and then the ones
that didn't land I can tell that I said something just a little bit off in the beginning and it set the wrong tone and
then we we did okay I mean I've never had a speech or a presentation that was a bomb but things that didn't go as well
as you'd hope for sure do you think
that is there an and I'm asking this even though I think I know the answer
but are there certain types of personalities that are just going to do better is someone who is an extrovert
for example just going to be a better public speaker as compared to an
introvert you know what what is it that makes you said you were pretty natural
to begin with you know what what makes a a natural public
speaker yeah I was extremely EXT extroverted as a child uh on my mission
I realized that the extroversion was in order to make friends and then the
introversion showed up in with a fury as an adult and so to make a living as a
person on stage people always figured you must be the most extroverted guy well I'd rather be reading a book at a
party in the corner than talking to anybody so I am an absolute introvert who survives on
extroversion in because of the need to make a living and so can I say that yes
an extrovert would be easier on stage for them probably upfront but I can tell
you this the most extroverted people I know make the most conf confusing
speakers and the reason is because they're trying to appeal to everyone in the audience essentially they're trying
to make friends with everyone the the best speakers I've seen are the more
introverted the more self you know um introspective they're the people that
can connect with the people on a really deep level and if you look at the greatest comedians greatest performers
greatest actors I believe that and speakers a majority of them are the most introverted people that have used that
ability on stage to connect with someone intimately as if you would in a one-on-one conversation as an
introverted type person I hope that answers that question yeah that's that's that's pretty interesting uh so you're
saying that someone who's extroverted well all all or often times they're looking for approval in
some way maybe yep okay almost just a little too much in terms of and they can
be very entertaining they can be very funny but their thought process process perhaps is not as linear as would be
needed to connect with you know a majority of the people around us are introverts you know if we do the dis
method we know that s for Safety and Security is the number one of all of those those are the people that are
majority listening and so yeah I think that from what I've seen from the extroverted people uh they they do not
connect as well although they're very entertaining they're fun and we need we are looking for someone who will
intimately deliver something to us that we can say wow that that really connected with me in a different
way who would you say today are individuals you know today it's it's as
a getting in front of people is a matter of doing a podcast for example or being
on YouTube right it's that you're in front of a lot more people are in front of a lot more people today than ever
before in the history of mankind who are some people that you think do connect and that you may that are either
from movies television YouTube or whatever it might be and what do you and
is it just because they are is it their message or is it the way that they
speak yeah I I haven't thought about it that way but the people that I certainly
connect with are the ones that I invest in so whether it's investing my time or
my money I'm going to go buy their book I'm going to listen to their podcast I want to consume as much as I can get out
of them I know that Jordan Peterson for me has been someone I've really resonated with he says some really tough
stuff and that's hard for a lot of people to take but that resonates with my personality I'm I'm very much uh you
know there are people like Joe Rogan who has a very popular podcast I've only listened to a couple of episodes because
I don't resonate as much with his style but I do like the way that he does his
presentations um there's a guy named Tim Ferris who wrote the 4-Hour Work week
and he has probably the most popular podcast in the world and uh I've I met
Tim over 15 years ago right as he was starting to get famous and what's interesting about these guys is that
they resonate I believe there's personality there's Charisma but then
there's this ability to get the right things out of people they're asking questions to too so essentially like
yourself you're a journalist you know whether you like it or not you're running a podcast you've got you're
asking questions you are absolutely a journalist now and the better questions
that you ask the better answers you can get out of the guest that's the reason that people start to listen or would buy
a book or would want to follow you online and and so uh when we resonate
with people in that way it can absolutely change the way that people see us and I think that there's a reason why some
people have a few followers and others have millions and uh you know look at
Taylor Swift I mean gosh it's like she's in the news every second and this is her
time for sure but she is connected deeply with a lot of people for over a decade and now she's continuing to
bridge more gaps and it's really interesting to see her at the Super Bowl for example that they cut away to her I
think eight to 12 times Super Bowl to a pop star I find that interesting but I
heard a take from Gary Vee who's also connected with a lot of people with his voice and the recordings Gary Vee said
that uh it's neat to see that fathers are now watching football with their
daughters because their daughters want to see Taylor Swift so Taylor Swift is making this connection for fathers and
daughters I never thought about it that way I want to hear more from Gary Vee because he says things like that yeah
that's interesting so it from what you're saying it seems like whether if you're giving a
presentation you know or you're speaking then in some way to make a connection if
you're not asking the questions you're at least implying or you're making
someone ask themselves the questions absolutely great way of saying it man
yeah when I'm when I'm speaking my whole reason is to be up there and and make
the audience asks what is in this for me and I help them answer that I help them
believe that they can do it too I mean Greg when I started my career I was just presenting something that would make
them laugh and that was it and that was fine but now I'm presenting something that makes them laugh and that opens up
their heart so that their mind can then learn what's in it for them and how they can do it for
themselves do you think that let's say say someone is afraid to
speak um they learn to get over that and maybe you've got some ideas on
how that might work but let's say they learn to get over that is that how will that affect them I
mean apart from you might think well it's just very linear I'm just going to if I can learn to speak in front of
people then I can do I can actually give a talk without at church and not not
freak out right but I don't know it seems to me like there's something more to it than
that that it might actually have a larger influence and maybe change in
your life does that make sense yeah that's cool I would I would say that the
some of the ways to overcome the fear of public speaking is to first of all book
something and go do it whether that's accepting the calling in church or the request to speak in the meeting
that would be one way another way would be to create opportunities to go do it now you might wonder why would I want to
go book something that I'm fearful of doing well the best ways that we can
progress in life is by failing I truly believe it we some people call it failing forward I've written about it
calling failed frequently I like to say that you know the more that I fail the
closer I get to success and we've heard the Thomas Edison you know 10,000 tries before the light bu came on he was just
getting closer and closer and uh there are things that we can either have forced upon us that will make us fail or
that we can choose to do and it's not that we're never going to be scared of
it I mean Greg I still sweat before my heart starts beating before I speak at
church because I'm I'm like impostor syndrome or am I prepared enough or
what's brother Jones in the back that doesn't like what I did at Scout camp five years ago going to think you know I
mean there's all kinds of things that we have in our mind but I bought an ice
bath a couple of months ago it's called The King cool plunge and I said it in the 50 degrees
it's you know you're supposed to have it down in the 30s apparently and I can't even do it but if I have it in my 50s
I'm still scared to death of doing it every day I have to talk myself into it but I made a promise to do that so I go
face that fear every day it's actually made me healthier and it makes me realize that if I can just eat that one
frog every morning just like Brian Tracy wrote about that uncomfortable thing that I absolutely don't want to do but I
know is good for me then I have to go get in that ice bath and so it's the very similar thing with uh speaking I
mean I'm terrified every time I open that ice bath but I still get in and I
know it's good for me so yeah go go prepare a talk try it out on a group of people at
dinner try it out in a conversation maybe a couple of phrases here and there to see how it sticks see if it works now
book that speech go talk in front of people for 15 minutes as if it's your own little Ted Talk talk about something
you're familiar with you're an expert at you're good at I think if I were to ask
anybody in a private conversation about a hobby or something they're really interested in they could talk for 15
minutes without breathing practically and so what could you talk about that
you're passionate about that what's interesting about speaking that I love
that helps people with personal development is that when you make a promise to yourself and you keep it
that's where confidence grows and so when you say I'm going to go do this and I'm going to speak even though I'm
terrified once you do it you'll be proud of yourself even if it didn't go as well as you'd hoped even if the jokes don't
land even if the story didn't hit like you thought it might or the tears didn't come well keep trying keep doing it the
closer you get to it the the better you'll feel about yourself I think that there's a real powerful principle there
of self esteem creation or magnification in the doing of the speaking and I think
that's a wonderful thing I think also if you're speaking to groups that you
know that that's another issue right it's it's no one's a profit in their land so to speak and so it's when you're
speaking to someone you know it's like you're worried about it I I have this sometimes terrible trait which is I
just don't care usually what people think right and that can be a positive and a
negative right but but I can see how people you know for example again just
speaking in church or speaking at a group where they know they're gonna know people there it's just what is so and so
going to think of me right what is he gonna think of me what is she going to think of me in doing this and and I can
see how that would be debilitating for individuals and somehow I don't know how
you get over that I I don't I haven't gone through that same process so I'm
not someone who can speak to it but uh I I do think that's an issue for a number of people it's the vulnerability that
you talked about yeah that's a great point because I think about it this way I know that when I first started
performing I absolutely absolutely did not want my family to come and see me yes you know and I know that that's
actually been an issue with my own children in sports or doing a performance themselves with piano or
singing or acting and so they always say please don't come or please don't you
know let me know you're there and there is something about that that I fully
resonate and understand I can say that uh this is the technique that I've used
for helping people get over their fear of public speaking and if you can speak to an an anonymous audience that's way
better for sure but if you have to speak in church let's say and you're concerned about it well arrive early make sure
that you can get up from the seat go sit in the seat where you're supposed to sit and then stand up and check the podium
and check the mic lean into it lean back test things out just a little bit and
then watch the room fill in I like to look at the people that walk in and see
them as individuals and think about how I can help them with what I'm about to
say and know that they absolutely don't want to be up there speaking either and
so in essence I can tell to myself that uh and I do say this I say they're
cheering me on I know they're cheering me on and in the past I used to tell
people hey look no one wants to see a train wreck I mean it's fine to watch it on video but if you've seen one in
person that's just gruesome so nobody wants to see that now I've switched it around to say everyone wants to see you
succeed I truly believe that they're cheering us on they want to learn something they want to laugh they want
to feel the spirit they want to feel better about themselves they want to be happy that you are the one that spoke to
them that day and they are cheering you on in their soul I believe almost a 100% of people watching
us are cheering us on yeah that's a good way to look at it I think also you bring
up the point of you know you're trying to make you're trying to you're trying to create something positive for the
audience and so if you can feel the purpose of that instead of it just okay
I got to get through this and this is a a check on my checklist and it's a huge check on my checklist but okay I've got
a purpose here and if I can really work with that purpose then then there's something Beyond me it's Transcendent
right it's something Beyond on me that is pulling me through this absolutely not just myself now you talk a lot about
leadership and motivation in your in your speeches um you bring something up
and you I've got a quote here from you it says why set a goal when we can make a promise what is the difference because
everyone's always talked about how important it is to set goals look at them uh a lot of coaches for example are
going to go through this and whether it's in sports or life coaches or whatever it might be and you've got
these goals set so that you can focus on them and maybe you break it down and and work toward it in smaller goals what
what would be the difference between a goal and a promise yeah I I don't mean to uh
discount the power of a great goal at all but I do love that phrase because it makes people sit up and think what is he
saying so usually I'll give that phrase of why set a goal when you can make make a promise usually I say that after a CEO
or a founder of a company has just introduced me after he has spoken about
all the goals that they missed from the last year and so I'll just say everybody your
founder just talked about all the goals you guys missed and so I like to say why I said a goal and you can make a promise and that's not to say goals aren't
important of course they are but if you set a goal and you miss it you just said another one whereas if you make a
promise and break it that's a oneand done so what are your sacred goals what are
your non-negotiables what are the right promises you're going to make and keep because goals are
particulars and promises are proclamations so what can you Proclaim
you are absolutely going to do no matter what that's your promise now the goals
can help you reach that for example if I set a goal to get to the gym every
single day that's really great great but I might be on the road and I might not be able to get to the gym and so what
can I do nothing have I broken the have I lost the goal well if I made a promise
to say I'm going to do things that are healthy for my body I'm going to sweat every single day in some way in order to
be as healthy as I can then then my goals can be shifted so I didn't get the
gym that day but instead I did Jumping Jacks in my hotel room or I went for a
walk and then a run I'm still going to hit those goals even though I'm going to
now miss out going to the gym my promise is to my health and so it might sound a
little bit like semantics and it it's a play on words for sure but A promise is certainly stronger than a goal and when
we break a promise to somebody and especially to ourselves uh there's quite a bit more of a gravity to that than if
we just miss a goal that we could reset that's a really interesting point I mean as you're saying that I'm thinking about
uh you know I'm thinking about gospel principles right and it's like okay well am I going to set a goal to get back to
God or am I making a promise that I'm actually going to do what I need to do
to be with him right it's it's that is a big difference no question I I like I like how you said that and I think what
if God said it this way in the scriptures he Saidi have a goal that you're going to come back to me
versus I promise you I'll make a way for you to come back yeah a little bit of a
different in the gravity of that Pro yeah big difference no question no question well Jason thanks so much for
your time really appreciate you coming on love talking about these things one of these days I've got to get out there
and uh see you speak well thank you for having me on I appreciate it a lot and I
I appreciate your audience I hope that this has resonated with someone listening and they'll have a little more confidence getting on that St and
sharing that which only they can and that's keeping the promise great thanks so
[Music]
much
