Speaking with Confidence with Cat Matson: communication coaching for humble leaders

As a self-diagnosed neurodiverse, big-picture thinker, who bounces between ideas and projects, I tell myself I’m not consistent.

I further tell myself that consistency is a key ingredient to ‘success’ and so, it follows, that if I’m not consistent I can’t be successful.

The thing is, I have evidence that proves I AM consistent. I have a 606 day streak on insight timer, and an 88% consistency rating on my health app.

So, in this week’s episode I’m sharing what I think is the link between consistency and confidence, and how I’m ‘hacking’ my apparent love of streaks to develop consistency, and confidence, in other areas of my life.

Listen in to hear:

• The role of consistency in building confidence

• How I use small rituals to develop self-trust

• The impact of tracking habits on confidence

• How to practice speaking skills daily

• The importance of self-awareness in confidence building

• The connection between confidence and communication skills

Got a question or comment? Leave it right where you’re listening or find me on instagram - @catmatson 

Want my new juicy bundle of resources? Discover why you ramble and the antidote, stop umming and ahhing and get my Clear Communication Playbook. Find out more here

You can’t speak with confidence if you’ve ‘lost’ your professional confidence … and I’ve had too many conversations lately about ‘how to get your confidence back’ to ignore.

So in this episode I’m chatting about the times that I’ve lost my professional confidence, and some techniques I use to get it back.

Listen in to hear:

• What’s caused me to lose my confidence at different times of my professional life, both as a business owner as well as when I was working in local government

• My ‘talking to myself’ technique for countering negative internal dialogue

• An end-of-day ritual that can help reorient your mind from ‘what sucks’ to ‘what’s working’

• The importance of proactively interacting with others for validation and feedback

• A reminder that it’s perfectly human to lose confidence and it doesn’t mean you’re broken

Once you’ve listened, I’d love to know your thoughts. Let me know what this conversation sparked for you either right where you’re listening or over on instagram - @catmatson 

Want my juicy new bundle of resources? Stop rambling and get my Clear Communication Playbook. Find out more here

Most people shy away from the thought of being noticed, let alone ‘famous’.

But if you want to make a difference, grow a business, make an impact or even just get promoted, a bit of ‘work fame’ might be just what you need.

Leanne Hughes has written the book she wishes she had 10 years ago, providing a real look at how everyday people become ‘work famous’ and in doing so, make a bigger impact in their world (without being a diva).

Listen in to our discussion to hear:

• Why ‘good work’ no longer speaks for itself and why you need to toot your own horn a bit more

• Why, while humility and fame seem to be mutually exclusive, humble leaders can become ‘work famous’

• Practical, easy to implement, tactics you can use today to build your profile

• Why AI is making it even more important for us to develop our professional reputation

• Why developing your ‘work fame’ is actually an act of service, not arrogance or selfishness

You can get a copy of Leanne’s book, Work Fame, here

Follow Leanne on Instagram here:

How do we find the courage, or the skill, to speak up for issues we feel strongly about when there is a real risk of consequences?

That’s exactly what I’m exploring in this episode.

I’ve recently decided to focus my ‘change the world’ energies into one cause - housing affordability - and in doing so I’ve had to confront my concerns about negative consequences.

Being seen as ‘political’.

Being seen as a left-wing hippie (proud to be one, if I’m honest).

Potentially losing work because of my views.

There can be real risks that need to be managed when we speak up, so I’m sharing the process, the thinking, that I’m using to feel ‘safe enough’ to speak up.

Listen in to hear:

• Why ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ is shitty advice

• How I’m both amplifying others’ voices as well as speaking up myself

• How I assess the risk of speaking up, and then manage those risks (not eliminate them)

• Why being mindful of, and speaking into, nuance and complexity is important

• How to NOT get caught up in well-meaning but not productive moral outrage and righteous indignation

• How I’m ‘practising’ in lower risk environments

• Why I’m choosing housing affordability out of all the other causes I care about

Other episodes mentioned:

174 - How Personal Is Too Personal

170 - How To Make A Difference Over The Long Term

171 - Managing Conflict & Disagreements - 

You can follow and DM me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/catmatson/

And you can get into a deeper discussion on substack - https://catmatson.substack.com/ 

If you overthink or second guess how you're going to express yourself in team meetings, this episode is for you.

In our reluctance to NOT appear 'bossy' we sometimes overthink our messages, try to facilitate a discussion when really, our recommendation is appropriate and prioritise consensus over getting things done.

Inspired by a real conversation in my Communicate with Impact program, in this episode I'm sharing some practical and mindset tips to help you say what you want to say, with authority and credibility, without sounding pushy, bossy without feeling awkwardly assertive.

Listen in to hear:

• Mindset shifts for confident recommendations
• How to own your expertise in meetings
• Language hacks to soften any potential harshness
• Moving from asking for permission to making direct recommendations
• The impact of imposter syndrome on speaking up

Other episodes mentioned: # 7 - Why Me? Overcoming 'I'm Not Good Enough'

Get my FREE How To Stop Rambling Masterclass

I've become very present, recently, to how our work-from-home, online world, is reducing our casual conversations.

And with that, we're losing the key human skills of building relationships through conversations.

In this episode I'm 'working out loud' on this 'trend' ...

Listen in to hear:

• my 'evidence' for this diminishing human skill of conversations and connection
• why relationships are a key part of a successful (meaningful, satisfying) career or business
• how conversations - imperfect, flawed, unscripted - are the building blocks to relationships
• why I think we need to consciously create time to build relationships - and not just through asynschronous text and voice notes, or social media comments

I would love to know what you think. Leave a comment below.

I'd also love to answer your questions in a future episode - leave them below DM me on instagram

And if you'd like to better understand why you ramble, and how to manage it, you want my FREE How To Stop Rambling Masterclass

It will probably suprise you to learn that, despite being a communication and speaking coach, my natural tendency is to ramble.

In fact, it was my rambling, and my deep frustration that I wasn't making sense to my colleagues (despite my intelligence and experience) that inspired me to start my business and podcast.

So in this episode I want to share what I now understand to be the causes of my rambling, and how I manage it so I can be an impactful communicator, without stifling my thought process or my personality.

Listen in to hear:

• how it was reading about split-brain experiements that was the 'a-ha' for me about what I now understand is verbal processing
• the gorgeous experience with a friend that had me realise that verbal processing wasn't necessarily normal (who knew?!?!)
• the reasons why verbal processing works for different neurodivergent minds (and what rings true for me)
• how I signal to my listeners, when I can, that I am 'thinking out loud', so I can still 'think' but they don't have to follow the (crazy-to-them) details
• why feeling like I need to defend my position will also cause me to ramble, differently to the verbal processing style
• how I'm learning to trust my contribution without third party credibility
• and how, when rambling really isn't ok, I manage to collect my thoughts and land them to move my listener closer to where I want the to be

Also mentioned in this episode.

• My FREE SpeakEASY Community Call, Friday 3 July. Click here for details
• My IMPACTFUL newsletter - subscribe to be the first to know of future SpeakEASYs and other events

• The book: 'Who's In Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain' by Michael Gazzinaga

Want to ask a question? Let me know what resonated? Instagram is the best place to do that, or, if you're listening on Spotify, simply comment here!

What happens when you take a few deep breaths?

You feel better. Every time.

Well, your messages need breathing space, both at a micro-level as well as at a macro-level, and that's what I'm talking about today.

As I click over into the next century(!) of this podcast with episode 201, I'm changing the pace and style (a smidge) of these podcasts.

Listen in to hear:

• how the algorithm-obsessed rule of 'consistency' does not mean frequency (even though we've conflated the two)
• why any good message needs space around it to breathe and to be received
• how I'm approaching visibility and 'findability' while pushing back on the notion of volume
• why I think less really is more
• my thinking on more 'working out loud' episodes rather than 'teaching' episodes

Mentioned In This Episode

Episode 200! (it's the episode before this one!)

How To Stop Rambling Masterclass - it's free and it's on-demand. Get it here

A milestone episode, the 200th, deserves a celebration! 🥳

To do just that, in this episode I’m answering a series of listener questions about speaking, podcasting and speaking highlights, as well as sharing what I’ve learned, and what’s coming next, for the Speaking with Confidence with Cat Matson podcast.

Listen in to hear:

• The most popular episode of all time

• The common mistakes people make when they start working on their speaking skills

• The ‘thing’ that keeps coming up, over and over again, in my coaching work

• The number one insight I’ve gained, as in, the ONE THING that is most impactful when communicating

• What surprises me the most about this podcast and this work

• My speaking highlight (and no, it’s not the biggest stage I’ve spoken on)

• How I record these episodes without a script and keep my voice calm and inviting

• Why I think speaking in THE MOST valuable skill you can have

• What I’ll be sharing in episodes 201, onwards

Also mentioned in this episode:

The most popular episode of all time - How To Get The Right Words To Come Out

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6zvje5YEEpFaEejTa9TFay?si=0c4f43ba393841d2

The interview with Denise Duffield-Thomas

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Yfa9VK2Hf0r7Dj50W07v1?si=9J3n_ebUQD2hCH58z2kBzg

The interview with Dr Martine Rothblatt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp5w47HjLKM 

My newsletter, Impactful, on substack (best way to hear about the cool stuff coming up)

https://catmatson.substack.com/

Instagram - where you can chat with me about anything ☺️

https://www.instagram.com/catmatson/ 

Nothing is obvious to the uninformed ... yet so often when we communicate we assume that our audience knows what we're talking about.

I've been reading award entries this week and so many of them don't make it obvious what they do. It's a lost opportunity for them to make an impression and to make an impact with the judging panel.

It's not just award entries where this happens though:

• describing your business
• describing your role in government
• introducing yourself at networking functions

In this episode I explain how to make it simply obvious to your audience.

Listen in to hear:

• why nothing is obvious to the uninformed
• how to think about what you do so you can describe it in a way that lands
• how thinking in 'sesame street terms' might help you simplify your message
• how being cute, jargonistic or extra clever doesn't help
• my simple framework for explaining what you do, simply

To learn more about my Earn The Right Framework, listen to

Episode 7 - Why Me? Overcoming I'm Not Good Enough

Help me celebrate 200 episodes. Leave a question or a toast below or, head over to instagram and leave your question or toast there

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