Communications Czar Podcast

The featured Guest Czar for this episode of The Communications Czar Podcast, Tracy Lamourie, turned her calling into a profession and has become an internationally award-winning public relations executive. Lamourie, the founder of Canada-based Lamourie Media, is no slouch when it comes to creating a buzz around worthy causes. Her career was a natural outgrowth of her activism and dedication to social justice. Her first foray into the uncharted waters of public relations was in response to her advocacy for an innocent man whom she had never met. His name was Jimmy Dennis and he had been sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Lamourie and her husband, Dave Parkinson, who worked as telemarketers to pay the bills while devoting all of their spare time to raising global awareness of his plight, Dennis was eventually exonerated and released. Now Lamourie counts Dennis, a musician, among the hundreds of people she represents in a myriad of industries.

The lessons that Lamourie shared in her interview are numerous, however, in the interest of providing the most impact for your brain and eyeballs, I will limit them to the Top 5 Lessons That a Rockstar Publicist Can Teach You.

1. EVERYONE Can Benefit From Building a Personal Brand
2. You Already Have What It Takes to Build Your Brand
3. Stop Underselling Yourself
4. Don't Be Afraid to Share Your Wins
5. Keep at It!

"It's really a situation where your own self-doubt is the only barrier," Lamourie states. "Believe me when I say there are a million opportunities on the internet, literally thousands of podcasts about everything where your story would be a perfect match. There are so many forums now. If you are not using these forums and you're just doing your work, you're falling behind. You're literally falling behind," Lamourie warns.

Take her advice and put yourself out there. Start building your personal brand, share it with the world, and see what comes back to you.

You can reach Tracy Lamourie, founder of Lamourie Media at: www.lamouriemedia.com and if you are lucky enough to be able to work with her to promote your business, project or cause, be sure to mention The Communications Czar Podcast for a special rate!

The idea of a new job with a higher salary, better working conditions, more intellectual stimulation, and lots of new opportunities for advancement sounds great.

There's a giant roadblock that comes between many people and their dream jobs: interviews. Job interviews likely share the same space as root canals on your list of fun ways to spend your day.

Before starting PracticeInterviews.com, Guest Czar Jeff Sipe spent more than a decade as a recruiter, including 5 years at Google, conducting thousands of job interviews so he knows exactly what you need to succeed.

Some of the many insights Jeff shares in this episode include teaching you how to:

*Curate Your Examples

*Make Yourself Memorable by Providing Visual Details

*Take Control of Awkward Questions

*Use the Benefits of Video Interviews to Your Advantage

*And more!

The last piece, and most critical, is to take those examples and actually practice with another human being because speaking it out loud is a game-changer," Sipe relates. Practice answering questions of varying degrees of complexity in multiple ways. Move over, Nike; when it comes to the best advice for crushing your next interview, Sipe says, "Just Verbalize It!"

Jeff has tons of great advice, free downloads and more on his site: www.practiceinterviews.com

Jeff does a YouTube Live every Wednesday at 10am Pacific where you can get your questions answered and he has a slack channel that you can access through his website.

Watch Jeff's YouTube Channel for more than 150 great videos with interview tips and answers to your interview-specific questions and dilemmas: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs-7SAP1mhEQF1NlubjSzqQ

Find out how you can work with Jeff and his team to prepare for your next big interview at: www.practiceinterviews.com

Listening Ambassador, Lyn Lindbergh, the featured Guest Czar on this episode shines the spotlight on some of the common practices that undermine our ability to connect with one another.

Lindbergh's role as a Listening Ambassador was an outgrowth of a need that she saw in society, "I was thinking to myself, so many of our issues, so many of our personal struggles this year are coming out of a need to just be heard and be seen and coming out of quarantine, we just want connections and it comes out of listening. Its' a constant, lifelong practice," she enthuses.

If you want to build better relationships with clients, coworkers and your family, you'll want to listen to Lindbergh's advice and discover:

*The Cell Phone Mistake That You are Probably Making

*How to Curb Your Interrupting Habit

*The Importance of Cues for Appropriate Eye Contact

*And more!

The bottom line when it comes to listening, according to Lindbergh, is "The more you help the person who is talking feel like you actually care about what they are saying, the more they are going to share and the more honestly they are going to share and the more honestly and deeply they share, that's power for you, that's powerful, I think sometimes people mistake that listening is a thing of weakness and letting the other one talk over them no it's understanding, it's connecting in your communications." That's a true Communications Czar manifesto if ever there was one!

Check out Lyn's book, Listening 101, her "Be A Better Listener Now" Podcast and find out more information about her programs at: www.ListeningSkillsShop.com

For more information on this podcast, free articles and downloads, visit: www.communicationsczar.com

Well here you are, almost four weeks into the new year and all those goals and plans that you had resolved to take action this year are, well, pretty much exactly where they were on New Year's Day. They are in your head or your heart and maybe even written down on paper. Your goals seemed so doable when you first committed to them.

Unfortunately, life and work and family and all the other things that pull at you got your attention and you got sidetracked. The days and weeks slipped by and you are starting to think that you will never achieve that goal or turn that dream into reality.

Fortunately, our Guest Czar, author, speaker, and podcast host, Christina Eanes, is a productivity expert who specializes in helping people transform their personal and professional lives. Christina shares exactly how we should be talking to ourselves if we want to get back on track and take action on achieving our big goals in life.

Christina also shares her recommendations for great books and resources to help us on our journey to improve the way we talk to ourselves and achieve our goals.

Check out Christina's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christina+eanes

Or her websites:

ChristinaEanes.com

QuitBleepingAround.com

SecretToSuperProductivity.com

LifeIsAnEscapeRoom.com

Or the books and resources that Christina recommended:

Taming Your Gremlin by Rick Carson

Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by BJ Fogg.

Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine

You can take the free Self Sabotage Assessment on PositiveIntelligence.com

Please listen in for the special tribute to our beloved co-host, Tom Guarino, at the end of this episode.

Guest Czar, Aman Agarwal, founder of global educational company Sanpram Transnational, joins us from New Delhi to teach us how to make complex subjects understandable and interesting to any audience.

Aman's unique educational and professional background make him well suited to bridge the chasm that exists between the worlds of the technical and non-technical. In addition to training as an engineer in India, he traveled to China to study liberal arts. "Everything I learned about how to teach and how to explain things better came from my liberal arts background," he told me. "I was a student of filmmaking and foreign languages and history; and these three disciplines, put together, whatever I know about teaching and explaining things, it comes from there."

These experiences helped Aman form his unique perspective on how professionals in the tech sector, finance, pharmaceutical sales – or any situation where you need to present complex or detailed information or products to people to laypeople – can do so in a manner that will be easy for the audience to follow, engaging for them to listen to, and compelling for them to act upon.

Listen in and learn how you can:

*Follow the lead of filmmakers and design presentations that draw your audience in from the start

*Use easy to follow visuals to support your message

*Create a presentation that makes your audience the stars of the show

*And more!

Check out the Aman Agarwal's website, www.sanpram.com, to learn about the world's first technical fluency training program.

Meet our newest CommunicationsCzar, Brenden from MasterTalk. Brenden is a young purpose-driven entrepreneur and YouTube star who is singlehandedly democratizing communication training.

Brenden will teach you:

*The importance of "having dinner with your audience"

*3 Daily Public Speaking Exercises to elevate your speaking skills

*What you can learn from comedians

*The importance of working on foundational public speaking skills first

* How to convince your audience that you understand them as much as they do

* How to encourage participation and involve more people in you video meetings

*The keys to confidence

*And more!

You'll enjoy learning from Brenden and sharing in his zeal for communication skills training and his passion to upgrade the way people think about public speaking.

To learn more about Brenden, search for MasterTalk on YouTube – and while you are there, check out the great new video that he just posted, "3 Lessons from Rappers for Presentations," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRpqoQghyGM

Episode Transcript: https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/shared/egl_sZinANHD6pvLKVrdsC-Pil3yM0T9zYZWXAy-h5KN6ORiw24K5HzZ1aQP6XZef8VyRG10FqJ7fegem3QF0iXmgHk?loadFrom=SharedLink

If you're in business, the reality is that it's not a matter of "if" but "when" you will need to have a crisis communications plan ready to roll out.

Crisis Communications Czar and author of the new book, "Breaking Bad News: 12 Essential Crisis Communication Tools, Jeff Hahn joins us to give you his tips for:

*Avoiding common mistakes

*Assembling a Rapid Response Team when a crisis occurs

*Picking the right spokesperson

*Developing a Holding Statement

*Creating your own Digital Newsroom

Don't resort to the "Ostrich Paradox" by being underprepared and in denial. Join us for this enlightening and refreshingly sensible approach to developing and executing a crisis communication plan for your business.

You can check out Jeff's free downloads, order the book and find out more information about Jeff Hahn's work by visiting: www.breakingbadnewsbook.com

Are you about to walk into a contentious room? Do you want to win over an angry crowd at a public meeting? The best approach, according to former Palo Alto City Manager and columnist for the International City/County Management Association, is to try to get to know your opponents before you take them on in public.

Listen in and discover how you can:

• Appropriately acknowledge opposing opinions
• Comfortably move away from the podium
• Use the right kind of microphone
• When it comes to visuals, keep them simple and impactful
• Prepare to answer the questions you hope no one will ask
• Keep your head up and stay loose under pressure
• And more!

Our Guest Czar for this episode, internationally known Author and Communications Expert, Mike Aguilera teaches us how to be more persuasive on Zoom – and in real life!

Join us and learn how you can:

*Speak in a way that puts people at ease and makes them feel comfortable opening up to you

*Use your hands to compliment your message

*Look more confident on Zoom

*Develop a mindset that will facilitate rapport.

From word choice to mindset, Mike shares useful tips and techniques, based on neuroscience research, to help you improve your ability to connect with people.

Listen and learn from this episode's featured Communications Czar, author, and networking guru Ali Scarlett.

You will learn: How to avoid common networking mistakes and missed opportunities.

Why saying "Thank You" is not always a good idea.

How to build your professional network in person and online.

Get a sneak-peek into Ali's new book, "The Clever Connector: The Easiest Way to Become Powerful, Regardless of Your Situation. The Underdog's Guide to Networking with Billionaires, Celebrities, and Executives."