Captivate the Room

I’ve got a great episode for you today, stop watching your videos!  or audios or any playback for that matter. I know, it goes against the grain of what you’ve always been taught.

I recently had the opportunity to speak at a few events and one of the highlights of those presentations was speaking about shades of feeling within shades of feelings and just how far we can take the nuances of delivering ALL of our own shades.

In today’s episode I’m riffing on the big voice lessons I learned last year, the toughest year of my life.  I’m also talking plans, big plans for 2023.

Resistance and results, it’s much harder to get the results you want with resistance.

Welcome to the show!  Today as we head into a new year, I want to talk about resistance and not just the obvious resistance.  I want to talk about the sneaky kind, the kind of resistance that feels like you are making the right choice, you are playing big. 

You aren’t your subconscious has tricked you into believing you are great onstage even though you aren’t sounding great right now. 

Your subconscious wants you to believe that everyone loves you and that you really have nothing else to learn.

This is resistance, this blocks the kind of results you can have.

Resistance has to go; it’s never going to serve you and will always keep you from making the impact you want. 

Resistance is protection and when you go to that place where you feel you need to defend your position or get a nerve hit on the ego, then it’s time to shine a light on where you are holding back, where you are playing safe.

I see the people who go all in on working on their voice get massive results, their entire inner game changes, their revenue and following, confidence and ability to captivate the room ALL go to the next level.

But, the people who want to resist what I'm saying, push back, need to prove or be right, they get results but nothing like what the non-resistant people get.

In 2023 you have no room to “think” we love you and that you are great at connection, no, it’s time to take your voice to the next level.

If you want to be assessed on my new podcast, email [email protected]

Welcome to the show!

I’ve got a great friend and business associate with me today, Ashley Ferguson from TrueNorth is here and we are going to dive deep into the value of learning and development.  I’ve had the pleasure of working with Ashley and the colleagues of TrueNorth for going on four years now.  I love bringing people from this amazing company on the show.

My conversation with Ashley is especially important because she gets the value of the work that I do and the value of always improving, learning and developing.

I think you are going to love this conversation!

 

Guest Bio

With over 15 years of human resource and people strategy experience, Ashley Ferguson proudly leads TrueNorth's award-winning Training & Development team. Fueled by a passion for helping people achieve their full potential, Ashley has spent the past three years developing programming that harnesses the power of TrueNorth's workforce in exceptional, collaborative and resourceful ways, while ensuring they feel a sense of connection and belonging to something greater.

Ashley serves on the Eastern Iowa Workforce Development Board, where she is the Chair of the Youth Committee. She also volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters and local youth sports programs. Ashley studied Cinema & Art History at the University of Iowa. She lives in Iowa with her husband Mike and three children, Madalyn, Marshall and Maddox.

This is a bit of a heavy episode I’ve been told by my team.  I think heavy is okay if it serves a purpose.  I recently got scammed, significantly and I am incredibly frustrated b/c in both instances, I could hear the foreshadowing of what was going to come in their voices.  I knew it but instead of trusting what I heard, I trusted the words that were spoken to me.

I’m sharing my experience for a number of reasons but most of all to create an awareness of what you are doing with your voice and your words and what you want to put out in the world.  I want you to play the long game, not the short game and especially not the scam game.

In today’s episode I’m reflecting on losing money and being scammed in two very different ways but in both cases, I saw it coming.

What words are you choosing when you teach and sell?  Are you able to honor those words or are they just words?

On another note, what do you hear when you hear voices?  Have you ever been scammed?  In retrospect did you see it coming? 

While this episode may be heavy, I hope you find value in it.

Voice experience, don’t miss it!  December 8th 7pm CST register here:  https://www.captivatetheroom.com/vemasterclass

Turning on, performing…nope, this is never going to work and will suck the life out of you and your business.  Yet for years, this is how we taught.  Unfortunately, some people still teach that you have to perform in video or on stage or sales calls.  Some people just do it because it protects them.  After all, if I’m a character of myself, an on version and you don’t like me I’m still safe.

Today I’m covering one of the many sounds that can cost you your ideal prospects, sales, and return customers. And that’s the lilt.

 

Lilt is one of the ways we affect our voices–it’s where your voice lifts up at the end, making everything sound like a question even when it’s not. 

 

The problem with lilt is it can consciously and unconsciously be interpreted by your listener as asking for permission; that you aren’t the expert you say you are. It creates the feeling that you don’t know what you are talking about. 

 

Having a lilt is not bad–it can be a powerful choice in certain situations. Part of what I do with my students is uncover what sounds truly belong to them and what don’t. 

 

More often than not I find that the lilt is based out of a cultural habit or motivated from pleasing people. None of that is bad, it’s important to know whether your subconscious is tricking you into using the lilt to protect your heart and hamper your truest expression.

Today, I’ve got a question for you.  Voice is like…?  I recently heard my friend and former student Rita of Unbox Your Gift Podcast interview a politician.  In that episode Rita asked this woman a question about politics but the question was so profound and so relatable to voice that I had to do an episode on that very question.

Some say we are in an economic downturn.  I say, you need your voice more than ever if that’s the case.  In a moment in time when it seems like working on one’s voice would be a luxury, it’s actually one of the most critical things you can work on.