So who am I? Hi, I'm TJ Walker, I'm president of media training worldwide. Sounds like a big fancy company. Well, it's a one person company. And I'm essentially a freelancer. Now, I've been freelancing for 25 years, but only the last 17 years have been successful.

I want to shorten that learning space for you. So you don't have the lien dry hears that I had, for many years. My area of expertise is teaching people how to speak effectively, how to get speeches, how to speak to the news media, how to speak during a crisis. That's what I do. And I've developed a whole business around this now. When I started my company, I had about $400 in my pocket, that's all I had to my name.

I was living in a slum in the poorest section of Ozone Park right next to Kennedy Airport, in Queens, New York. I didn't even have a chair to sleep. Sit on, I lost so much and all my life savings from a few failed internet startups. And I really had nothing but one old VHS video camera, one old computer, and I was sitting on the floor, tapping away, sending out prospects, emails and newsletters and calling people even cold calling people. But from there, I built up a very successful business. These days I trained people all over the world.

I've trained in 30 countries. I've worked in nearly every continent. I've trained presidents of countries, Prime Ministers, Nobel Peace Prize winners, Miss universes, Senators, members of parliament, you name it, and I coach them and train them. Typically doing one day, one on one and small group workshops and seminars, but I also train people in public workshops in New York City and around the country. I have online courses where I train people from 175 countries, on 50 platforms around the world. And I've also sold books and videos and DVDs and CDs and every other sort of product.

And I have made, frankly, a nice living for myself. This course isn't about guaranteeing you millions or I won't go into the specifics. But I have a very nice living that's able to support me in a lifestyle that I enjoy. And an exciting lifestyle that takes me all over the world, meeting interesting people, successful people in every single industry. There were times when I started off thinking wow, I should have played it safe and gotten the cushy corporate job or gone the whole wall partner route. Now I'm glad I didn't.

I've got an independence. A freedom and intellectual freedom to do whatever I want creating videos, books, DVDs, you name it, and the freedom to pick and choose interesting clients from all over the world. So I really enjoy my lifestyle. And I enjoy what I've been able to create as a freelancer. This course is about giving you tools to help you do exactly the same thing, regardless of what your niche is. I believe that in this economy we're in right now very different from when I started out many years ago.

In the current economy, it's critical to have a freelancer mentality and it's also the way to really enjoy your career and have the longest career and the most interesting career possible.