Pat robertson is one of the most persuasive presenters, speakers America has ever produced. He's a famous TV evangelist, broadcast entrepreneur and politician. Pat Robertson, studied to be in the ministry. His father had been a United States senator. So he grew up in a fluent, powerful sort of upper crust society. He went to Yale Law School, then he had a change of heart, went into the minister, went to seminary, went to the ministry and decided he was going to reach people through television, he bought a low power TV station, and figured out what his monthly net was.
It was $7,000 a month. So he figured if we could get 700 people to pledge to give him $10 a month, he'd have $7,000 you'd be able to stay on the air. So that's how we started the 700 Club. He bought a TV station and started asking people for money. Here we are, it's 55 years later and he is still going at it 58 years later. And he's not slowing down.
He has a massive TV Empire, the Family Channel, he's still on the air every day. He ran for president in 1980. didn't do that well, but did shape American politics a great deal and is still wildly influential. What pat robertson did is he fused together several formats. He has the preacher side of him talking about his particular religion. But he also had a lot of the elements of traditional talk shows he had different sidekicks over the years, sometimes entertainment, sometimes cooking segments, all things to build a larger audience. When you see him speak, even to this day, he has a twinkle in his eye You might not like his politics, you might hate his politics.
But he has this twinkle in his eye, this cherubic smile on his face. He just has this ability to make people feel warm and to like him and to make you feel like he's warm and friendly, even if he's saying hateful things, which, to his critics, he does a great deal. He's conversational. He's fluent. He has a certain area addition to what he does, the way he speaks. Good Ivy League lawyer, PhD, clearly an educated, bright person, but still able to explain things in simple terms.
To reach a mass mass audience. The other thing I have to give them credit for, and this is something you're seeing as a consistent pattern. great communicators are great in part because they do it every single All day, for weeks for months, for years for decades, for half centuries. and beyond. You probably noticed we don't have a lot of people on this list that I'm spotlighting who did a weekly talk show or who did three speeches a year, there's simply not enough time under your belt to get really good at it. So I hope if nothing else, you take away the lesson, whether it's from pat robertson or others, look for more opportunities to speak.
Seek out your own opportunities these days, anyone can start a YouTube channel, pat robertson had to do it. Give him some credit. He had to do it the hard way you had to go out and buy a TV station and then get 700 people to pledge to give him money. You don't have to do that anymore. If you want to share your views with the world so take a look. Learn what you can borrow what you want.
Disregard what you don't like.