In today’s episode, I’m sharing with you my interview on the Power Your Purpose podcast with Megan Accardo. I share some of my best speaking tips, strategies and insights. Plus we get personal talking about my hearing loss and how that’s affected my career, and core elements of my signature talk.

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the topics we cover:

• Why setting your intention before any important conversation will guide you toward greater success in communicating your message
• How to use video to accelerate relationships, especially in this virtual working world (and how to get out of your own way and not focus on your own fears and insecurities while using said video)
• The importance of practicing conversations, but why you should NOT write actual scripts (hint: use only bullet points!)
• Why using storytelling is an incredibly important tool to show possibility and evoke emotion in those you are speaking to
• And so, so much more!

My hope in sharing this conversation is to not only give you access to this content, but also be an example to you for what it might sound like to speak on different kinds of stages. Let me ideas, analogies, frameworks and general vibe unlock something within you to make your content even better.

I can’t wait to hear how this one resonates with you.

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Episode Show Notes

Talking is hard, here’s why.

(16:35) Most of us have so many ideas that we want to share and then we open our mouths, and it does not come out anywhere as we intended. The tone is off, the words get jumbled, we don’t know if we make sense. All these things happen.

There’s this mistake that we make where we put so much pressure on ourselves to get it right or get it perfect the first time it comes out of our mouth. That’s just not how communication works. Communication, this idea between your head and your mouth, it’s like a muscle and you have to learn how to work it. 

4 Tips for Boosting Your Influence Speaking

• Set your intention before any speaking engagement. 

(20:18) Taking a moment to breathe and set your intention before you speak, you’re inherently going to elevate the experience for the audience, because you’re thinking of them, not yourself.

Center yourself and think, what do I want this conversation to feel like? How do I want to come across? What kind of energy is that going to bring to the party?

• Use video.

(21:40) In this world we’re living in right now, video and virtual is pretty much the norm these days.  Take that extra moment to show your face and send a video. That accelerates not only the trust factor, but it accelerates your relationship building which is really critical for networking and business. 

• Prep with bullet points, not with scripts. 

(23:21) Jot your thoughts down before you hit live on a camera. Put it on a post-it note so you can pin down what you want to come across and make sure you hit what you really want.

Mistake people make when they write scripts…(and what to do)

When they write it out first, they use written vocabulary. For example, I might write down the word ‘therefore,’ if I was writing a blog post but I would never say ‘therefore.’ This is true. 

When you speak it out, you will talk naturally so just note the difference.You have to think about your language differences. Just pay attention to that and the more you say it out loud, the better you’ll get.

Little trick you can try when you’re creating  a video…

Put your bullets on a post-it note. Ripped it off a pad and you can just set it and just put it right underneath your camera. Your talking points right there. It’s beautiful, so you don’t have to remember everything. 

• Use stories to show possibility and evoke emotion. 

(24:48) When you use stories in your presentations, people can just stop thinking for a moment and fall into it, then you can back it up with your facts and figures but do not forget the power of stories, especially, virtually everybody right now is trying to truncate everything into these short little snippets. 

If you focus on trying to make it as concise as possible, but miss the mark on hitting the emotion through story, it’s a big missed opportunity. Hit the stories, evoke emotion and these will make you get even better.

How to be authentic in a world where authenticity is an overused phrase

(35:26) I find when you balance confidence with humility authenticy clicks.

Knowing (and sharing) that you don’t have all the answers, that you’re still a work in progress while maintaining confidence that you can and will help people. When you show up confidently, with that heavy dose of humility beautiful things start happening. 

Dealing with negative feedback

Every transformation you have is going to bring a new level of necessity. There’s going to be a new level that you’re gonna have to fight through. When you start getting negative feedback, celebrate it because it means that you’re making some noise. 

But you have to start thinking about how you are going to build up your resilience because you have to protect your own image for yourself. Ask these questions: 

• Who are you? 
• What do you stand for? 
• And how are you going to protect that through your growth? 

If you’re not thinking about that now, you can’t put yourself out there on stages. 

Tune into the episode with the player on the top of this page, or read the full episode transcript here.

And if you enjoyed this episode, shoot me a message on Instagram and tell me the one thing that resonated with you most!

Links mentioned in episode:

Power Your Purpose Podcast with Megan Accardo
The Power Your Purpose is a place to learn how to create a life of true purpose by maximizing your impact, influence and income.