10. He Learned His Mic Skills On His Old Job, Not His New One
Although Barrett describes himself at university as a shy, quiet lab geek, its clear that he has the gift of the gab naturally. You dont get a brash confidence like that on the mic if youre an introvert. Nonetheless, he credits his recruitment job with teaching him a lot of the techniques, flair and self-belief necessary for truly impressive public speaking:
"I think that its definitely something that comes quite naturally to me, but its mainly due to my background. Ive done a lot of work with recruitment, which involved me giving sales pitches and things like that and spending a lot of time on the phone selling my services to people. I think my skills on the mic come from that just the fact that I basically had to pitch to some of the top directors at some of the biggest companies in the U.K. and try to win their business. I learned a speaking style from doing that for years projecting confidence and being strongly spoken and being able to get my ideas across to a guy like a major director or a financial director of one of the biggest companies in England. You need to sound confident at all times, and I think the fact that I did that certainly helps my microphone style and my promo skills..." - Baltimore Sun, Nov 19 2010
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
