386: Secrets to Powerful Public Speaking from Expert Alex Holzer

[00:00:00] Get out there, I'm Alex Holzer, Communication Coach at Game Your Voice. Would you have the confidence to get up on camera in front of an audience and sell your products or your services?

[00:00:11] Right now you might not have it, but join Yitzchok and I for a great conversation on Mind Your Business and you'll gain that confidence and gain your voice. Welcome to another episode of Mind Your Business! I'll be catching up with Alex Holzer.

[00:00:27] I'll get your heart rate accent, right? He's from Australia. He is an expert in public speaking and gaining your voice. In fact, his organization is called Gain Your Voice and he helps executives worldwide on how to become a great public speaker and to master the art of communication.

[00:00:45] And on this episode of Mind Your Business, we are catching up with Alex Holzer, Communication Coach and founder of Gain Your Voice, Alex welcome to Mind Your Business. Thank you very much Yitzchok, glad to be here in the United States, here in person working with you.

[00:01:06] In the United States, how long could you come off the plane? You're from Melbourne, Australia. Yep, just a happiness skip on the Kenguru when we made it here. But happy to be here on the ground being busy and good to see clients in the flesh.

[00:01:21] So we're going to hear more about that first. Tell us a little bit about your backstory or background. I have two simultaneous careers before I moved into communication coaching.

[00:01:33] For over 10 years was running a paint business. We manufactured out of paint for the art industry, very colorful, very exciting business built an online store. Took a concept that a chemist had produced and turned it into an entire business, which was really exciting.

[00:01:52] And at the same time I've got a background in higher education in high school and adult education. So it kind of works together that a career in selling, in explaining, and giving over messages. And I've been in public speaking for many, many years kind of as my hobby.

[00:02:12] So teaching what I've been good at has somehow moved into becoming gain your voice and teaching people to speak. I'm sure you familiar with the Warren Buffett quote about he has on his wall a diploma from Dale Carnegie.

[00:02:32] That's it. Even though he went to other Warren Buffett, Warren Buffett doesn't need any explanation to our listeners who he is. He has won the diploma on his wall from Dale Carnegie and he said, public speaking.

[00:02:45] And that he says, will differentiate you in the marketplace and your entire value again as a whole quote about it. So I'm getting your voice. This is what it's all about. First talk, let's talk about the pain point.

[00:03:00] How often is it where someone rises through the ranks? They're a CEO, they're a leader, they're an executive. They just don't have great communication skills. What do they do about it? Is all hope lost? No, you call a coach. Oh, hope is not lost.

[00:03:17] I want out of the park. Okay. But that's exactly that's exactly the pain point and especially in the professional services. If you take somebody rising through the ranks in a law firm, they've studied hard through school through college,

[00:03:31] through university to get their degree. Then they start working their way up the ranks in the industry. They're at the back in the back office dealing with paperwork and tedious stuff, not facing people. Right. Ten years of that and they kept someone's eye and they get a promotion.

[00:03:46] Now they've got to bring clients in, speak with them in the boardroom, go out to lunches and they've spent 20 years ignoring their interpersonal skills.

[00:03:55] It's a massive issue because the company now want them to be the face of the company and their missing is communication is at the heart of it now. And that's what's going to make you the one to get the promotion and it's gone missing.

[00:04:09] It's gone a while for so long. So a lot of companies will invest in training app their junior partners or have them on a pathway to being coming apart and are at associate. They will invest in what we call the soft skills.

[00:04:24] Then less tangible, you don't always get the diplomas for them but they are what make the person. They are what allow them to be able to actually operate with their credentials that they've got. These soft skills will allow them to operate.

[00:04:39] Now people that reach out to you is it on the company level that they realize their staff can benefit by having an executive and executive communications coach or is it the people themselves within a company that say, you know what?

[00:04:55] I could get ahead if I really ace my communication. 50, 50. It's got to be an in tune business leader to realize that.

[00:05:07] Okay but now I'll sit with a friend of mine recently and he explained how this supervisor in the company he was at had left the job and there was a vacancy. It was between him and another woman who were sort of on an equal level.

[00:05:22] He said it was purely because of the way that I spoke to the superiors that I became her boss.

[00:05:28] We worked side by side, she had a certain attitude, she didn't understand how to work with people and I was just being a menge and they picked me over her instead of us being on equal pay I became her boss.

[00:05:41] And it was communication skills, EQ skills that was the difference. That was the difference, yeah right that was the difference, Ada.

[00:05:48] It seems that founding gained your voice was connecting to that in your life right you talked about it sounds fascinating to I also happen to be an artist and you created pains for the art and space as fascinating.

[00:06:03] So you connected the dots along the way. How important is that for someone to connect the dots and then to kind of tap into their passion and take it and turn it into what they do for a living.

[00:06:16] I think there's this two points over here on a bed day I'll be hash on myself, you know and say you're doing well, you got some clients you took yourself to the next level why didn't you do this 10 years ago.

[00:06:29] Why did you have to struggle to get here to be successful? Why didn't you do this when you were 22 and get yourself on an amazing pathway and the answer is that I wasn't ready.

[00:06:39] Although I was in a very different industry, what I did there prepared me for this. And although public speaking is something I've been doing throughout my life it's been my skill.

[00:06:49] I wouldn't have had the business know how. I wouldn't have understood how to present to companies, how to prepare it in a commercial sense, how to prepare the offer for people, how to understand what business people what their pain points are.

[00:07:03] I've had the experience on the ground to understand my new audience now, understand the business world. I had to go through that and it's only now that I'm ready.

[00:07:13] And I think the second point is you're saying is to tap into your passion. A lot of people want to tap into their passion but I don't think that's concrete enough for people. It's not specific enough.

[00:07:26] In the art industry, I was very reactive. I managed the business but I'm not an artist. I'm not a chemist to understand why this product is special. I'm not a frame, I'm not a gallery creator. I'm just a business owner.

[00:07:40] So whatever I did any time I had any initiative, the competition had done it already. Because they were ahead of the game. They run by artists. So I could manage but I wasn't leading.

[00:07:52] I needed to go into something where I could be a thought leader. Where my opinion counts and even on my first day in the job, I could turn around and tell the senior people, I think you're doing it this way or the other way.

[00:08:04] I can come in as a young person and say to a CEO, you know what? You're doing great. But here are a couple of tips that can change things. That might have cost you a deal here or there.

[00:08:13] I need that confidence. That's not just tapping into my strengths. It's actually a strength that I really know well that I understand properly and that I've thought it through.

[00:08:23] But perhaps that also takes years to actually work it through that thoroughly that I can have the confidence to go up to people and say, you're great. You're most senior than me. You're most successful than me.

[00:08:33] But this is my specialty and this is my area of expertise and this is where I'm going to help you. Now let's before I get to my next question, how can people find out more about your amazing work?

[00:08:44] The easy way is GYV. That's for gain your voice. So GYV.com.au, but if the dotta you throw us people off, you can go to gainyourvoice.com. Oh, yeah both. Great voice.

[00:08:56] You're a last answer. Really triggered a key question if I may. It's a little bit of a delicate one.

[00:09:05] You had used an example about your speaking with a CEO and like you're doing everything great. But okay, how do you approach an executive CEO or any top leadership position?

[00:09:20] Where you know from your experience, you're looking at it and you know he could be so much more successful. He mastered the skills.

[00:09:29] But he's not ready to hear you. He's not ready to listen. He's not like I do it perfectly. You're going to tell me a come on Alex. I'm the CEO. How do you navigate that?

[00:09:44] I think this this follows the same theme of your questions my teaching career and perhaps dealing with teenage boys.

[00:09:51] GYVsmeer. I think that gives me an extra little insight over there. You've got a manipulate people. You've got to just be encouraging and be nice and say you know what? Next time you want to prepare for a speech, I'm happy to come in and listen to you.

[00:10:05] That's very nice. I'll be your audience. I'll sit and listen or you know and it might just happen that you've got stuck on a sentence and you needed some words.

[00:10:13] I happened to be there at the time. I didn't come in and overtly tell you that I'm going to take the pen out of your hand.

[00:10:19] I'm just going to be your ears. But I'm positioning myself to be there to be able to help him. You can't. You can't help a person that I want help but you can put yourself there.

[00:10:30] And as soon as they look up, they say hey, you know, that guy's available.

[00:10:35] All right. Now at the beginning of the show, we talked about we touched on your from Australia but you travel frequently. Of course, you have clients around the world that you also sometimes you work with zoom or any other platforms.

[00:10:47] But you also come in person you travel frequently. So I have to ask you. You know, work life balance is a is not just a cliche concept.

[00:10:58] It's something that really the ones that are our cognizant of it and their mindful of it are far more successful because they don't. They don't have executive burnette. They don't drain themselves out. They know how to balance it.

[00:11:14] Can I, you know, be direct and ask you how do you manage it? I mean, you're on these flights. I'm not going to ask you if you fly coach or first class or business class.

[00:11:23] But, you know, going back and forth to Australia is a drag. I mean, if I may put it okay. So question putting it to you people like to say that your business should serve you rather than you serve your business.

[00:11:38] But, you know, I don't want to take as an excuse to take off time all the time. COVID was difficult everywhere in Australia where we live two years basically of lockdown working from home was tough and I think it taught people to rethink the way they work.

[00:11:56] For me personally, I needed after that to shift to something that I can do wherever I am. My personal circumstances led me to not being able to go into work for a long time and I needed to shift into something that I could run from my phone.

[00:12:10] I can run Zoom meetings anywhere from my phone. I can run the invoice saying I can do my social media. I can reply to emails. So, at the moment I'm traveling, quote unquote on vacation on a work vacation and traveling.

[00:12:24] I'm coming in here. I've scheduled a few hours work here. A few hours work yesterday. I'm meeting clients. I can do that and balance a vacation at the same time.

[00:12:32] By the same token when I'm at home, I can pick an afternoon and tell my wife we're going to take off for lunch and go for a walk and just reconnect. Even though it's business hours because I do put in that time maybe on New York time tonight.

[00:12:47] Maybe at other times and I've got clients, the commitment is there. I'm making the commitment I'm working my hours, I'm connecting with people and if it's not nine to five, it works otherwise.

[00:12:57] We've learned that we can do things in different ways so I do. I'm often working at 11, 12 o'clock at night which is morning New York time. It's nice the house is quiet, I get an hour or two's work and I'm happy after that. It's been really good.

[00:13:11] So I can take off at other times. It's not as if I'm using as an excuse.

[00:13:15] If you sit back and you look at it and you say, am I putting the commitment in and I can I restructure things to suit my lifestyle then I will successful at the end of the day?

[00:13:28] Alex, what type of range of industries or people that you coach and interact with and help them get to the next step in life? So someone said to me, yes today your client tell is anybody with a mouth. It's a pretty wide range of people right there.

[00:13:46] Yes it's very hard to to tie down who is my ideal client and give them you know an ideal client avatar and try and work that out. But I break it into two categories and I generalize over here. I call them students and professionals.

[00:14:03] Okay. Now they may be anybody of any age but the student for example, I'm working with them to build their personal development skills. They don't need public speaking right now. They may need it in 10 years in their working job.

[00:14:16] So at the moment it's a long-term picture and we're just developing their personal development and we're working on self-confidence skills, working on communication skills in a very broad sense and that's sort of a long game.

[00:14:29] The professional is somebody who needs it right now to get ahead at work. Right. I need to speak at that AGM. I need to speak for the pitch to those investors. I've got an event coming up where I need to do it. I'm a coach.

[00:14:45] I work really well with one-on-one with my clients but I need to start doing groups. I need to start speaking up a conferences to promote my business. They sell operators. They need that skill. So that person has got a target in mind.

[00:14:57] They'll come to me and say there's a conference in three months. I've scheduled myself in there. I need to prepare that presentation. So there's the short term goal oriented people. And then there's the long-term people who just want to build their skills.

[00:15:09] And we're going to do it on the slow burn. So those are the two sorts of categories that I work with. Interesting question. Do you also benefit? Let's say a banker. Someone who's not going to present that a conference but they're meeting with people all the time.

[00:15:24] Do you benefit them in any which way and how? 100% 100%. I say I don't teach public speaking. I teach self-confidence and personal development. I teach communication. My angle and my approach to get in there is through public speaking.

[00:15:41] That's the approach that I'm really teaching personal skills. I'm teaching communication skills. If that communication skill, I have one client at the moment. She came back for her next session and she says,

[00:15:51] Alex, since last session, I've been speaking up more confidently with my sisters or sisters in law. Unrelated issues. Totally unrelated and her personal life. But the strategies that we've worked on have helped me over there too. Now, obviously your strategies are for people that engage in your services.

[00:16:14] But perhaps without giving away the fourth, could you even share a trick or two just so that the audience gets they understand why we reached out and got Alex's or here on the show? So my main approach is what I call the why, the what and the how.

[00:16:32] That's my structure that I work with. The why is the first question you've got to ask yourself is why I'm either one speaking?

[00:16:39] Why am I up there speaking today? If you're going to be thrown up there on the stage, what's the event? Why not anybody else in the room?

[00:16:47] That's probably 50 or 60% of the job. Forget about putting pen to paper and writing down anything. You're going to be able to justify to yourself why I use the one speaking.

[00:16:58] And when you can justify because I am the CEO of the company, I am the one to develop this product. I am the father of the brimitz for boy. I am the person who's hosting this event for whatever reason.

[00:17:10] Or I'm the neighbor who is so close and can share this perspective. When you know why you're there, then you can start to figure out what needs to work now. What needs to happen?

[00:17:22] So the second part of the process is the what and what is your message? The content, what am I sharing today because you could share anything you want. But once I know why I belong in this setting that everybody dictates what I should be sharing.

[00:17:35] Once I know why I'm there and what I'm sharing, then the how is just the method. Am I going to do it with you? Am I going to do it with statistics? I'm going to use a slideshow presentation handouts question and answer format.

[00:17:47] There's a million different ways you can go about it. I think a lot of people think you've got to be funny. You've got to be engaging.

[00:17:53] So my first thing when I'm preparing a speech is to Google the top one lineers that I can use to introduce the speech.

[00:18:00] And they're going to fall flat. You've got to come there at the end. You start with the why get to the what, the how which is just the method of connecting that comes last.

[00:18:12] The jokes will fit them's way in. The stories will find their way in. Once you've got the clear framework of what you're talking about and why it's you delivering it.

[00:18:22] Alex, you're obviously very passionate and emotionally involved in giving over your your talents imparting your talents to your clients. Why is that so important? I just like an interesting question. I can imagine you're like you come in and say listen.

[00:18:40] I wanted to show you know kind of cutting dry this is how you need to do it. Let me share it with you. Why does that not work and you kind of have to master the EQ side of things? Yes, we're not to share everything. Okay.

[00:18:54] I had good answer next question. No, no, no, I know you. The passion is my secret. That is the total secret. It bothers me. It bothers me to sit and watch somebody struggle when they have a message to share. So I'll give you to give you two examples.

[00:19:12] I was working within a high school. They were doing a public speaking program where each class will set a task what to speak about by their own teacher.

[00:19:23] They presented to their class and then the teacher went along and selected the best to go and then give it over to assembly to the rest of the high school. And I said in on those classes and listen to them and gave some feedback. A student got up.

[00:19:39] Mid level in the class not the biggest star, nice kid got up and he presented nicely and swiftly. It was a really nice story that just fit the whole program. And he's teacher thought he'll do well to go and do it in public.

[00:19:53] So he tapped him. He told me I've got some time to speak to him. We prepare him for it. He gets up and sure enough, he's got two friends over the side of the room.

[00:20:03] Who as soon as he starts speaking they make eye contact and they get him giggling on stage. And I'm standing at the back of the room. I would normally be limited to stay in my place.

[00:20:14] But I really felt for him because the kid had worked hard and he had something nice to share. So before we lost the audience, I walked up to the front. Wow stood up the front next to him and I just told him listen.

[00:20:28] Take a deep breath and in contrast to my usual coaching style, I said just look down. Don't make eye contact with anybody. Read the first few lines from your page and just get the ball rolling.

[00:20:42] You can get yourself back into it because you've got something good to share. He got through it without that much confidence, but he got through it.

[00:20:50] And I watched as he walked out of the room. One of his friends came over and slept him on the back and said, Wow. Wow. That's what they don't see in advance. But if they're gonna get that then it would hurt me to see them not get there.

[00:21:05] You had it all prepared. You had it already. I want you to get to that moment and get that feedback that will help you for every one. Let's talk about distractors. I mean this story really brought it home.

[00:21:18] Can you expand on the concept of a breaking a conversation? Now in that case someone threw through that boy off of Kiel, not the more off his balance. Sometimes a person is having a conversation and something happened to get a text.

[00:21:37] They got a phone call, they got a WhatsApp, etc. And it just knocked them off Kiel. Meanwhile they need to get back on their game. Almost before you jump in with the answer, I'm familiar with baseball. Imagine a picture is pitching a perfect game.

[00:21:52] It's the sixth inning and he gives up a hit. He could still get a shot out. He could still throw a one hitter.

[00:22:02] But many times they basically, once the I broke a perfect game and many managers know you just got to take the guy out because they unravel. What's your suggestion technique on how to deal with that type of such an unnerving situation?

[00:22:21] I'll give a simple example someone's driving down the parkway and they have a tie blowout. Or they start skating on black ice. The driving, everything is going smooth and now they're thrown off course. So I had an early client, he was a principal in the school.

[00:22:38] And he was speaking at the 12th grade graduation in front of the board of the school and in front of the parents and in front of everybody. He was a young principal so it was his first time getting to give such a big address.

[00:22:51] Qualified teacher, but to speak now in public was a big deal. He called me over with a couple of sessions. He explained to me how he had structured his speech and he really understood who he was addressing and what his message was.

[00:23:03] We tied up a couple of lines, but it was really good. It was a well prepared speech. And he was practicing as much as he could. He really put a lot of effort in.

[00:23:12] He got up there on the night halfway through the speech, the power went out on his microphone. You can't prepare for that. You can't prepare and I was again, I felt for the guy and I'm watching him what he going to do. I'm helpless.

[00:23:28] It might have cost him a couple of seconds, but it wasn't long enough for anybody to get out of their seats. It wasn't long enough to lose the audience and someone's going to go looking for a cable or a plug or call on a nutritionist.

[00:23:41] Nothing, he just soldiered on. He took a deep breath, he cut himself, he's got a good strong voice. And he just kept going and towards the end of the speech, they got the mic working again.

[00:23:52] He understood you're driving down the parkway. You are going to be in control of your vehicle. When you are speaking at the podium, you add the driver of the room. The audience are your passengers and you're taking them with you.

[00:24:06] If you have a tyre blowout, grip that wheel and make sure you can deal with the car and make sure it doesn't spin out of control, you're limited in what you can do, but remember you're in control. Don't let other circumstances control you.

[00:24:18] You've got to keep control of situation. You may have to adjust, but you always got to remember as a speaker, you are the driver. And you are leading the audience. Don't let them or their distractions overtake you.

[00:24:30] Make sure that you can ride that wave somehow. You can twist, you can turn, you can maneuver, but you are still driving and you are in control of what you're doing.

[00:24:40] Incredible advice. I mean, I think about, well, let's pray. There's never any turbulence, but these flights to Australia. That pilot has got to be hands on the wheel so to speak, whatever they have to be in full control.

[00:24:59] How can people find out more information about your range of services? So on the website, giv.com.au I have a free course, which they can click on over there or they can get the full course which they pay for.

[00:25:14] The other option is they can check out my LinkedIn page and I share just about every business day. And I take them behind the scenes. I'll explain, I'll share with them an experience with a client, their challenges, how I respond to them if I'm preparing for a speech

[00:25:32] or if it's a day after a speech, how that went, how the audience reacted, what my sort of process was getting through that, and I'll really get to know the way I think. In theory, if you go through a couple hundred of my posts on LinkedIn,

[00:25:46] you don't need to get any sessions, but that's a lot of work to read through. And of course, when people reach out directly, then they could discuss their particular challenges, which is why it's of course all over the world. Yeah, that's all customized for them.

[00:26:01] Alex, can you break down the mental versus the physical aspects of public speaking? There are a couple of parts to the question, but first, even just start with that, there's mindset and then maybe there's some other physical preparation,

[00:26:16] how to use the hands, how to body language, and I don't mean to ask you for all the secrets, if you could share with the viewers, the listeners of mind your business, some of how that works in terms of async public speaking.

[00:26:37] My belief is always at the mindset controls at all. I think we've touched on this already that a lot of the tips and tricks that you'll hear around, they don't always work for everybody, and they're controlled by a filter that you put in with your mindset.

[00:26:55] They get the right mindset, then you view everything a certain way. The mindset that I have is if we all understand what a community is. A community, again, is something intangible. It's something somewhat abstract. We don't know exactly what it is, but we don't have to feel it.

[00:27:13] We know whether it's a community within business, home community, broader community, sports club. We know what a community is. Everybody contributes, everybody's a giver and a taker, and we're all working within our strengths. This one is a seller.

[00:27:27] This one is a buyer. Everybody does something else, and we create this community. If community is the noun, then communication is the verb. It's the activity of community. The way to behave community is to communicate, which means,

[00:27:44] on a very deep level, you're not getting up there to speak, and then it's just you spoke. You're communicating with an audience. There's a given a taker. There's a buyer and a seller. You're sharing a message with them.

[00:27:57] When you say something, yeah, when I talk to you in a coffee shop and we have a meeting, then our conversation has a buy-in of 50-50. When I'm getting up and speaking in public, it's me 99% versus a very small, audible,

[00:28:13] buy-in from them, but there is a response from them. There's always got to be two-way traffic. It's sharing your conversation. That's what it's all about. When a person gets that right, then the audience are front of mind all the time.

[00:28:26] How the audience are going to understand it? How they're going to be able to pack that message up and take it home? Whether you've lost them because you're trying to thwart it to convolut it, whether your language is unclear, all of these different things fall into place.

[00:28:39] Is that analogy going to be appropriate? You just checked in with me about the baseball one. You're not sure, do I understand? I should understand you got to know. I'm coming from a different culture. But you're thinking it through who am I,

[00:28:52] where do I come from? Can I use that? It should be okay. It should be safe because you're thinking about the audience as you say it. So once you put that filter on and you say this is not speaking, this is communication.

[00:29:04] Communication is a two-way street. Then everything else starts to fit into place. So yes, I do need to check where I'm standing. I do need to breathe. I do need to slow myself down. I do need to understand the pace, the way I speak.

[00:29:19] I do need to be very careful about fill-a-words. My students know my clients know that I am unemission. They don't use any of those fill-a-words like all of those things they're just out. You don't know what to say. Keep quiet.

[00:29:35] So what's the worst thing that's going to happen? And I did this live with an audience recently. I spoke slowly like this. Okay. And I asked them, what did you think? They all said they thought that I was searching for the right word. Right? I was being deliberate.

[00:29:55] So what's the worst thing that could happen? People think that you're smart. That's the worst. Don't use words that are distracting. Don't do that. You're not sure. Stop. Breathe. And again, gain control of yourself.

[00:30:08] You were spinning out of control because there was some nerves as soon as you feel those nerves. Just stop and breathe. I have close friends. They know when I get up to speak. They're going to have to wait five seconds.

[00:30:19] So I'm going to take a few deep breaths before I start just to make sure that I'm balanced. I don't want things to snowball. How important is it to the extent possible that when someone is going to speak publicly,

[00:30:34] they should actually go there ahead of time, scope out the room. Maybe check out the mic system when they're able to help point is that. Super. Super important. And every speaking coach is going to tell you this. One of their top three things check out the location.

[00:30:48] Super important. You want to know where you're going to be standing. You want to know your view of the crowd. How are the crowd going to see you? And I've had this at times where I've been placed behind the pillar.

[00:30:58] Just the way they manipulated the room and things were moved around. And lucky, they had a live stream. They had a big projector at the back of the room because it was a large hole and that helped. But you never know where you're going to be.

[00:31:11] Very, very well worth while doing that. Now body language and eye contact. Now let's imagine someone speaking in front of a room of two, three hundred people. And they have notes or maybe they're working with the path.

[00:31:28] To choose this PowerPoint thing, I should get to that's a separate question. Because that's really do it. Don't do it. Okay. And what are the tricks there? But someone they're reading from their notes and there's a sea of people.

[00:31:42] Two hundred, maybe five hundred a thousand, whatever the case may be. What are some techniques or is it important to be mindful of making eye contact of body language when you're in front of you just a massive sea of people? I contact the must. It's an absolute must.

[00:32:01] Even though it's hundreds of people. Yeah, I know people will avoid it because they scared. But again, once you shift from public speaking to communication, I'm talking to somebody. I can't talk to nobody. I'm not here to talk to anybody.

[00:32:16] We talked to a lot of somebody exactly exactly right. So I, I, I, I, I can pay that to an email blast. You have a customized that the phone field dropped everyone. I'm talking to 10,000 individuals. Right. But it's just all of them at once.

[00:32:33] If you're communicating, you want to share a message or somebody. If you want to share a message with them, then don't look up at the wall. Look at them. Anything that builds a connection, you want to do. Anything that takes away and distract. You don't want to do.

[00:32:46] That's the very simple rule is walking up and down the stage. Going to be distracting. If you do it too fast.

[00:32:53] If you do it in your stumble, but if you do it in line and with the speed of your voice and how you're sharing a message and we take it to here. And then we went back to there. Then it works.

[00:33:05] Again, I'm sharing a message with you. Are you on board with me or have I lost you? If I've done something that's going to build communication, I bring it in. All right. Now we'll, we'll ask that big question that always comes up when someone's going to present PowerPoint.

[00:33:22] No PowerPoint. I'm sure you've been asked this hundreds of not thousands of times in your role. It's a big one. It's a big one. It depends if you've got a lot of content to share.

[00:33:35] If it's a technical address, you're going to take them through a workshop and there's a lot of information that I would say yes. However, I would limit the PowerPoint to be more like chapters than individual pages.

[00:33:52] So that when you're talking about a topic, the slide behind you is another way of the audience connecting with your message.

[00:34:00] Not that they have to read every line there and I'm clicking and I'm going and I'm going, you know, like in the old days on the blackboard, you're to copy down the notes, till he wiped out the board.

[00:34:08] It's just there to help you are the one who's sharing. You've got so much information and they can't keep track.

[00:34:15] On your slide, somewhere you can have a bar that shows them the steps along the way. Just so they know which tab is open at the moment. Where are we in the process?

[00:34:23] It keeps them engaged, it keeps them involved. It allows them to when they're absorbing your information and they're thinking it over themselves.

[00:34:30] They can look up at the keywords on the board. They can look up at the headlines on the board. They can look up at that flow chat. But that flow chat should be relevant for five, six minutes of your talk. Not that you're constantly changing it.

[00:34:41] It should be there to support your message. Next key question as it relates to public speaking is as cadence, voice, the flow voice should one intentionally sometimes speed up or slow down or raise their voice or whisper in order to kind of keep the audience engaged.

[00:35:03] Absolutely. But that and this is the big one. It's got to be genuine. Now if I take a real life case study, we have two different styles of speaking. You're a much more open personality than I am.

[00:35:18] You're a more friendly type, you're laughing the middle of a question and it's engaging. Should I then start laughing there when I'm answering you? But you know what, but it's cooked doesn't he's built thousands of viewers and listen to his personality.

[00:35:32] So should I copy? No, because it doesn't work for me. It's not I do need to be me. But what I can do is I can say you know what? It's got to very open and his personality comes through when he's speaking.

[00:35:45] My personality is different, but you know what? I'm going to get the confidence to throw in a couple of Aussie words in the middle. Because if that's something that I can do, see the accent came on now wasn't here earlier.

[00:35:56] But I felt open enough to in my own way to share something that's natural for me. I didn't look at what you were doing. I was looking more at why and how you were doing it.

[00:36:08] And that's what I want to learn from. I actually had this in the car a couple of weeks ago. I'm driving somewhere. I had a big speech to give. I can't remember what it was. It's bugging me.

[00:36:18] I was 80% prepared. I was comfortable. I was confident. I'm driving in the car and I put some music on. It was a nice song and that song happened to be from a recording of a live concert, which I had listened to it a hundred times before.

[00:36:34] I'm enjoying this song and I switched it off halfway through. I remember exactly where I was driving. And I'm like, do you know why you enjoyed this? You enjoyed this because the manager of that concert.

[00:36:45] You went to time, you sang and went to build it with the crowd and you had to finish off with a great hit. That's what's missing in your speech. You haven't got the ending prepared.

[00:36:55] So stop the song and listen to what those managers were doing and put that into your own work. You need to prepare the ending. It just struck me there.

[00:37:06] So it's not necessarily, they're doing music. I'm doing speaking. That's fine. But the thought and the process and the planning is the same. And if you're impressed by their planning, put that planning into your own work.

[00:37:17] Now Alex, I just have to have a separate reflection on what to just unpack with you. Just share in such an amazing way. You obviously self reflect, meaning you were able to tap in. Most people would go right past that and like,

[00:37:34] I'm really sad and I'll be fine and I have the experience. So 80% I'll get through it whatever. You're listening to a song and yourself analyzing yourself and like, and then you, I'm going to hit pause right now because I get what I'm missing in my speech.

[00:37:53] I'm blown away by that. I love that kind of stuff. Like you have to be self aware to appreciate what's going on around you in order to make yourself better. Yeah, some my kids know that I talked to myself a lot and it's a healthy thing.

[00:38:07] You know, like absolutely what happened to daddy. No, they're already. Yeah, we do that. They know I'm preparing a speech. They know the house was quiet. I'm walking around in my own just in my head preparing.

[00:38:22] I might just be the beginning and maybe this point, I might be that point. I'll do the whole thing at once. I'm just working on different parts of it. And so if the speech is going on in your head all the time, the self reflection somewhere comes along.

[00:38:36] It's it's coupled with what I like to call self awareness. I don't like to be critical, but you do need to have self awareness. Yes, you've got the confidence. Yes, I've done it before. I can wing it on a high level. It's going to work.

[00:38:52] But I'm working on this. This is a job. This is something that it's my profession. It's something that I take very seriously and it's always there operating the back of my mind. I sit down and listen to recordings of myself all the time.

[00:39:03] That must be challenging. I love it. You love it. Yeah, I do.

[00:39:07] Because you really, but I mean being critical on yourself. It's hard. I'm not being critical. I'm listening to it and I tell people to do this as a practice exercise to record themselves and re-listen. It's very hard.

[00:39:20] It's very hard. It's very hard. But what they do is you're being both the presenter and the audience at the same time. Amazing. It's amazing advice. It's just not easy. Yeah. Because in your head you know what you're going to say. Right. You know how you said it.

[00:39:36] You know the moment right now you're listening to it and lies an outsider. Right. That's not what I meant to say. Right. You're starting to hear, you know what that did come out well. In my head I was scared of that. It sounded nice.

[00:39:49] It was okay. I could have used a different word. You're going to get the audience reflection yourself. You want to be the audience and the speaker. You want to get that communication beautiful. That is a great tip, but not easy. Wow. It's work. It's really work.

[00:40:06] How before I get to my next question, how could people get in touch with you? My phone is always on. It's on 24.7. What will they take at that probably? Yeah. Back on my website, giv.com.au or gainyourvoice.com.

[00:40:21] Is where everything is available. They can contact me through there. They can get free training through there. And they can go to the LinkedIn page to get a little bit more in depth behind the scenes content.

[00:40:32] I ask a little bit of, I don't know if it's a wacky question but you know why is it that when someone comes in with an accent they have an edge? That's a reality.

[00:40:45] I remember reading years ago there are some companies, especially marketing companies that will hire as their secretary, someone a foreigner. Specifically for that reason. Like, hello. I'm not going to try to do an invitation. You're here. Why is it that way?

[00:41:03] I think it's a very smart from a business point of view. I'm talking to the marketing guy. I think it's a very smart move. I had a client. It lives here in New York grew up in Australia and he's studying and working in America.

[00:41:18] One of his first questions was, my accent is not Australian and not American. And I'm scared that I'm looked at in a strange way or work. Now, I didn't want to say to him that if you call any large company today,

[00:41:34] you're getting somebody with an Indian accent helping you. So nobody's bothered. Every call center has got foreigners and we all understand and we all make it through. So don't worry, it's fine. Great. But I think from the marketing point of view we need to stand out some way.

[00:41:52] We need to have a way of having it little edge. One of the marketing gurus that was following says that you know, you try climbing a mountain. If it's got smooth edges, you slip in your fall.

[00:42:01] It's only because of the imperfections that we have grip and we can connect. And that's what people connect to. That's, I mean, a lot of people bring up AI all the time. Right. And I had a rabbi come over to me. Young rabbi in a shawl.

[00:42:15] You had to give a, you'll legit a funeral. He says listen, I used chat GPT. I put in certain prompts and I checked it over and it gave me something amazing. And I was like, don't ever do that again. Don't do that. That's not personal.

[00:42:30] You can't be perfect. You can't be a computer. Have your imperfections and own them and be who you are and people get to know you for that. Amazing. Amazing stuff. You're sharing. Amazing content. Thank you, Alex.

[00:42:44] Here's a key, a key question. Someone gets up. They're going to, they're speaking in front of a large audience. It's 100, 200, 300 people, whatever it is. And something's off. They're not connecting, whether it's the lines, the jokes or even what they're communicating.

[00:43:04] And, you know, after a few minutes of people just on their phones, they're just not. First, first part of the question is, what could someone do in order to try to prevent such a scenario?

[00:43:17] And the second part is, out. They're in this scenario. What are they doing now? That's a trick you want. That's a trick on. But I think you've already alluded to it. The prevention is the best cure.

[00:43:28] And that's why I take my clients through a journey of the why the what and how. Because if you do so, you've really put it all together. And I've had this at times when I've spoken to tricky events.

[00:43:42] It's been hard to find the common connect between the different parties and who and what. And when it's been tricky, there've been times when I've spent weeks doing soul searching on the why pad, why and who am I to speak at this event?

[00:44:00] And then it's only the last day and a half they're written the speech. Because I need to really, really feel comfortable with them and know what can I share that can work with the people.

[00:44:10] That's the most important. We're really, I'm doing most of my work is on the mindset and I'm really getting comfortable doing what you're doing. When you've got that, so you've prepared for your audience then you shouldn't get those surprises.

[00:44:24] Okay. You remind me now I was at an event where somebody hired a comedian. Okay. He was a highly regarded comedian. Had a good career was well known. He got up went through like a 40 minute routine. His content was funny and nobody laughed.

[00:44:42] Wow. One woman who thought bad for him kept on laughing just to, you know, to try and be nice. I, yeah, yeah. I think he realized himself is my guy. It's content was nice but it wasn't the crowd to really, or the setting or whatever it was.

[00:44:56] You know what? He sat down afterwards and had dinner with everyone and was nice conversation at the tables this week. Right. But they just didn't work. I felt for him like somebody who had booked him didn't put the audience in the presenter together.

[00:45:11] So yeah, prevention and planning in advance is really where I come in. What you can do on the spot that depends on who you are. If you have content then you can switch gears. You can switch tracks.

[00:45:24] But if you're a one trick pony, I only have what I was told to say. Then you're stuck. You're really stuck.

[00:45:31] But if you're there because I am a professional. I am an expert in this field. It happens to be the what I thought was relevant today is not relevant. No problems.

[00:45:40] I have more to talk about. There's a lot more to me. There's a lot more depth to me than I can share something else that's meaningful to you.

[00:45:47] If you're up there because you own the stage because you are a person with experience and we think to share, okay. I thought I was going to share the following.

[00:45:56] I won't. I'll share something else. That's fine. I can do that as long as I haven't been scripted and stuck. You must follow these notes.

[00:46:05] I'm not asking for all the secrets. But just since you're the pro on this, someone is getting up to speak and they're given 25 minutes. Either either they lost track of time and they realized they only got through half of their content. There are 20 minutes already.

[00:46:26] There are similar questions. Someone was present here that they asked to end the next three minutes. What does someone do when they only got through a portion of their content? And there's a very limited window of opportunity left to finish everything. What do they do?

[00:46:44] This is where again high school teaching comes to the rescue. We have guest speakers at high school. We tell them the bill is going to go at 10. Come on baby. Most important role in the book is you finished by 10. 39.

[00:46:58] If you go within 10 seconds of the bill, you've got kids running outside to play. And the whole speech is lost. Correct. And it's hard. I've got so much to share and I've got stuck in traffic. I can't find it doesn't matter.

[00:47:10] If you want anything to stick, finish on time. And it's hard. And it's very hard. You've prepared and you've got content. But again, if you're thinking of your audience, what are they going to take home with them?

[00:47:24] That's really your end goal. Your end goal is not that I got up and I delivered a great presentation. Two for empty walls. It's really that my audience heard something and took something home with them.

[00:47:37] Maybe today I shared less. Maybe. But they got something. And yeah, inside it's hard. I've prepared and I've worked on it. There was going to be a great story and I was going to nail it.

[00:47:49] It's not time for it. If I say this to I'm going to lose them. So do you call it? Do you call it the 1040 rule? I love that. That you're letting it. That's true. And it's the bells going to go off. It's the 1040 rule.

[00:48:01] It should be. Yeah, I think we're going to coin that now. It's great. The 1040 rule. Guess what? You're if someone runs into the bell, it's gone.

[00:48:09] That's it. And by the way, just I mean, I know it came up. But how important is it to be mindful that someone gave a great presentation? But there's some damaging aspect to their presentation at the end.

[00:48:21] It's almost like, you know, it's a made to harvest. It's gone. Yeah, because that's it's all the same principle. I'm sharing a message with them. Success for me is when they go home and share it at home. That's what success success.

[00:48:39] Success is not on the stage. Success is when somebody said it over. When I get people coming back to me saying, I heard what you shared last week. That means that someone heard it appreciated it and shared it with their friends. That success. That's when there's been communication.

[00:48:56] Now, this is an interesting point when someone becomes successful at public speaking. Does it have an impact on other aspects of their life as well in terms of communication? Or it's just like when they got up and speak, they'll know how to be a great speaker.

[00:49:10] No, no, no, no. As I said, I don't teach public speaking. It's ironic because I teach people how to communicate effectively, which means that their message should get across. They should be able to give it over. And then I don't do that myself.

[00:49:25] I say public speaking, but I don't mean public speaking. I mean communication. I mean that when you're sitting with a friend and talking, there are people who are shy, they're introverts or they're just not confident to share a message.

[00:49:37] It might be just at the dinner table. I had clients who wanted me to work with their children to be able to say it's part of the shop is table. At home with the family. That is so beautiful. I was very impressed by the parents.

[00:49:49] Right, I was saying the parents are so self-aware that they're molding that child. And that child, you gave that child some confidence, built him up. It's not just for his brunmit's for speech.

[00:49:59] I want him on a regular shovels or it's yomptiv. I wanted to be able to speak just in our home. He's not reaching his potential. I've had a great time with those kids.

[00:50:09] It had a great time with them, but I was really, really driven by the passion of the parents. That was so motivating, so motivating. The next question has to do with how co-commenting hummedina.

[00:50:22] Your from Australia, you travel frequently, meet with clients here in the US, but your from Australia. And there's different styles, different vernacular, different approach, different... How do you handle that in terms of yourself and in terms of your interaction with clients?

[00:50:41] It is something that I have to think about. I had a very interesting experience. Doing about two weeks work in a school, co-educational high school. Eighth grade, roundabout. I speak to men, I speak to women. I hadn't done teenagers together in a mixed group for a long session.

[00:51:03] And I was wondering, whenever I gave sports and allergies, all the boys were in it, one or two other girls. Then when I shifted to other allergies, they all came in. And as you say, being self-aware, I was kind of picking up for the next class,

[00:51:20] do I need to adjust my analogies? But at the end of the day, the content is the content. At the end of the day, it's communication. And if you think about it, yeah, I don't know everything about American culture. I know enough to be able to be clear.

[00:51:35] I really got to go back and say, is my content clear. Is my message or a clue? There's something that they can understand. Somebody can get up, be soft spoken, have a broken English,

[00:51:48] and not have a loud voice, be very slow and deliberate, but they're a master what they do. And the audience will sit and listen. It may be difficult, but they'll do it because the content is real, and it's meaningful.

[00:52:04] For somebody to get up with all the possess and all the showbees training, but they're nothing to share. It's horrible. And you see that sometimes the politician at the end of their term. They're leaving office, so they don't have what to work on anymore.

[00:52:19] So they're just, it's just fluff. It's well practiced, but there's nothing of substance. Or am I? Yeah, the substance and the content is really what it's all about. So your accent's different, your examples were different. It doesn't matter.

[00:52:32] With time, you'll work on those. You'll get there, but then not what's going to make it or break it. What's really going to give it across is good content. And if there's good content there, then we can work on the packaging.

[00:52:44] Now an interesting question is that applies to executives and people going, you know, heading up the corporate ladder. There's EQ skills, there's interaction, but there's also new tools today. LinkedIn, for example, especially in the corporate setting. How important is it for one to maintain a proactive LinkedIn presence?

[00:53:07] And what tips would you suggest from your vantage points? Well, my vantage point is being a solo operator. Okay. I am my business. That's what it is. It's me. It's my coaching. It's my knowledge. It's my recordings, but it's all me.

[00:53:24] So shifting from my paint business, where I had a social media profile running nicely, which I managed, but everything was the paint. Everything was at work that people made and created using my paint and I was hiding behind it. I knew I'm shifting businesses.

[00:53:41] I'm coming into a business with about me. I need to be me. And so therefore all of my LinkedIn posts have a picture of myself. I say, I brought some Instagram to LinkedIn. I brought that game where it's always a picture of myself.

[00:53:55] The picture doesn't have to relate to the post. It's not about that, but it's about putting myself out there. You know that guy is available. And we're seeing it in the corporate world as well. People are always suggesting, don't use a corporate branding. Put your face.

[00:54:09] Even though you're a partner and you represent the company and whatever you do, people want to connect with people. Yeah. That's the bottom line. The second part of it is that it's a way to practice getting yourself in front of an audience.

[00:54:24] Now if somebody's nervous, put up your post, prepare it well. Okay. Post it and ask which of you phone for two hours. If you're too nervous to see if there's any responses and you're constantly refreshing waiting for likes, don't worry about it. Please post that and goodbye.

[00:54:40] Or if you're Jewish, post it on Friday afternoon. And so you can't see it for 24 hours. Just take the pressure off. And guess what? You will get responses. You will get something validating. Someone's going to leave a comment. Someone's going to notice you.

[00:54:54] You didn't have to step up on stage yet, but it was a way of sharing your message with an audience with a barrier. It was an indirect way of sharing your message. And that really starts to build you and you say, you know what, I can't share tidbits.

[00:55:08] Maybe I can actually get up on the stage and do it too. Alex, before I get to my last question, this was an incredible episode of Mind Your Business. What is the website? How could people find out more information to find out about your services?

[00:55:23] Yeah, so again it's a GYV. That's for gain your voice. So GYV.com.au or gain your voice.com. My last question. You touched on it a few times during this amazing episode and a few minutes ago. But let's face it, we're human, right? We're human.

[00:55:41] A person is going to give a big presentation. Or are they going to a corporate board meeting? They're nervous. They have, right? They're, you know, the jitters and they're just nervous. What is it a tip? Maybe besides alcohol. It's always good. Okay.

[00:56:01] To go in there and then like, I got this one. I could do it. I could do it. What's a great tip to master that? So I said there is a difference between nerves and anxiety or debilitating nerves.

[00:56:20] If you have an athlete who's going to play on the big stage it's a world series playoff. Something major. World cup, you know? Yeah. We have, you know, down where I live. We have big stadiums. 100,000 people at the big match. There are some players who are playing. Right.

[00:56:41] So they're playing an open one. I think it's okay. So, well, there have been players. You know, you have your top-seated players. They want to play on Santa Cot. They want the night match on Santa Cot with the world audience.

[00:56:53] If you put them on the second court, they're upset. The hold on is more pressure on Santa Cot. I know, but I'm the number one seat. And I thrive off that. I need the crowd and I need to fight and I need to write that.

[00:57:05] The single wants a roaring crowd in the audience. They want to be crowd. They want the people there. And they want them shouting and they want to work with that. So, yes, are they nervous and they get on stage?

[00:57:17] Do they walk out and they go, whoa, whoa, whoa, look at this? Yes, but those are excited nerves. Great. The psychologists will tell you that it all comes from the same place. That's tingling nerves of excitement. That's not debilitating nerves. And if you feel that, that's good.

[00:57:32] You're human. You're taking in the moment. You're recognizing the moment. Which is what you need to do. You don't want to be blasier about it. You want to actually appreciate, doesn't it be crowd? And that's fine. I'm good with that. That's amazing.

[00:57:44] When the nerves are debilitating, that's a problem. That's a whole separate issue. But then again, the preparation and the knowing. There's one line I'd like to say. Please. Which is when it comes to stage fright. I always tell my clients there's only one justified form of stage fright.

[00:58:01] And that is when you ask yourself the little voice that the near says to you, why you up there? Oh, and you can't answer the question. Ouch. If you can answer the question, you can say, you know why I'm up there? Because I'm experienced.

[00:58:15] Because I'm a guy who's played 200 games. They want me to play in the world series. That's why I'm up here today because I've trained for this because I can do it. There's nerves. At some moment, I'll go overcommit. Got that. But that's just understanding the moment. Okay.

[00:58:29] We'll work our way into it. That's fine. But if I can't justify why I'm there, then I got a problem. If I can justify to myself why I'm there, then I can overcome everything else because I know that I belong.

[00:58:40] Alex Holzer of Gain Your Voice, what an incredible addition of mind your business. Alex, this is incredible. Thank you. Thank you very much. I hope the audience serve gained a lot from this. I'm going to get great feedback on this one. Thank you.

[00:58:55] Thanks for watching this addition of mind your business. And we love to get great feedback. There were so many tips that Alex shared on this show. Please share your favorite one in the comments section below.

[00:59:07] And subscribe and you'll be updated on the next edition of mind your business.