Anthony Robbins power talk

Towards the end of the 80’s Tony Robbins came up with a brilliant idea, creating a monthly audio program of interviews with top lead experts in many different fields, from self-improvement to relationships, from financial investment to good health , as well as remarkable individuals who experienced extreme conditions and had a lesson to teach to fellow human beings.

The result of this initiative was the audio program (originally sold on tape through infomercials in the United States) called “Powertalk”. The first original series is made of 38 audio tapes of about one hour each, in which Tony interviews 17 remarkable people, often celebrities in their chosen field. There is also a second series but I have no idea whether it is made of different interviews or it was just a subsequent partition of the first original series.

The structure of each episode is always the same: in the first part Tony chooses a particular subject (communication, people’s rules, transformational vocabulary, etc.) and explains its theory about it in detail. This section is often enriched with personal real life experiences of Tony’s, never disclosed in other audio programs (Get the edge, PPII, Lessons in mastery, etc.). At the end of this section Tony advices a book for the month and briefly talks about it. In the second part of the episode there is the proper interview, where Tony asks very meaningful and sharp questions to the celebrity and tries to get the most important learning and lessons out of them. Often times it sounds as if they both have a great time together and laughter is very common. The geniality of this program is that, sitting in your car or in your home, you can have a top leading expert of his or her field explaining to you in detail what he/she learned in a lifetime of focus and dedication to the subject in question. It is way more effective than reading a book, because information flows easily and informally and people go straight to the point, as if they were having a meaningful chat with a friend, not having to fill pages and pages of paper to please a publisher. Tony is always very humble and he puts himself in a learning position, even though he has the tendency to add bits of his theory here and there sometimes, mostly to test his own founding in face of the celebrity . The question structure changes widely according to the profile of the person interviewed but the last question is always the same: how would you like to be remembered ? which touches the inner cords of the the celebrity and often causes very deep answers.

In conclusion, I believe the Powertalk series is essential listening for every true Tony’s fan. In the next articles, I will write a short review of each episode.

Marco