The Communicate Influence Podcast

Alain Hunkins is a leadership expert who sits at the intersection of the science and the art of leadership.

He has a deep understanding of the psychology of leadership, and his new book, Cracking The Leadership Code, reveals the in valuable principles and practices that Alain has developed and refined during the 20+ years he's worked with leaders.

In this episode, you will discover Alain's gift for translating complex concepts from psychology, neuroscience, and organizational behavior into simple, practical tools that can be applied on the job.

Alain's definition of leadership is anytime any of us are trying to influence anyone to get something done. "That is leadership. And if you think about it, we're all leading ourselves every day. If the cornerstone of good leadership is connection, the first person that I need to connect with is myself."

Leadership today is in pretty poor shape. In fact, says Alain, only 23 percent of leaders are effective.

Problems Inherent In Hierarchy and Power

Says Alain: "If you look at the nature of hierarchical organizations, which most of us work in . . . it is a hierarchy for most of us. There's someone you report to. One of the challenges of hierarchy is that when people get into positions of power, power is an intoxicant.

"So, when people are in these positions of power, they're not likely to say: 'I'm in this leadership role. What my job is to do is to unlock the potential in others. And the best way to do that is to ask the people I lead - and this is a servant leadership mindset they would be having - is to ask them, What can I be doing better to serve you?'.

The key, says Alain, is that we learn to take feedback, and then we apply it. "But to take feedback, we have to be willing to be much more malleable with our egos. And for many of us, that's just that's too scary."

Seek feedback

Alain sees the solution in managers learning to stop taking feedback so personally, or as an afront to their value as a human being.

Alain says the keys are in leaders seeking feedback, coaching, and developing self-awareness.  One of my colleagues, Tasha Eurich, has this wonderful book called Insight. And she says only about 12 to 14% of the population has any real degree of self-awareness. So do things that will bump up your level of awareness so that you can be much more effective!"

Alain has worked with tens of thousands of leaders in over 25 countries, and served clients in all industries, including 42 Fortune 100 companies. He delivers dynamic keynotes, seminars, and workshops covering a variety of leadership topics including communication, teambuilding, conflict management, peak performance, motivation, and change.

Author of more than 400 articles, and been published in Fast Company, Forbes, Business Insider, Chief Executive, Chief Learning Officer, The Association for Talent Development, CEO Refresher, and the American Management Association.

With his Master’s in Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Professional Theater Training Program, and a BA from Amherst College, Alain also serves on the faculty of Duke Corporate Education, ranked #2 worldwide in 2019 by Financial Times on its list of customized Executive Education programs. Alain has  lectured at UNC Kenan-Flagler’s business school and Columbia University.

Discover Alain on LinkedIn or at AlainHunkins, where you can also read about his 30-day Leadership Challenge.

Sponsored by Podthreads.com - threads for podcast lovers!

Many entrepreneurs write a book to grow their business and develop influence.

When it comes to writing and publishing, a number of options exist for ghostwriting, author coaching, publishing, or self-publishing. But none offer the unique services delivered by PublishedAuthor.com.

Josh Steimle, entrepreneur and author, founded Published Author to deliver the crucial missing components - thought leadership and influence. 

"Through my experience and talking to author-entrepreneurs, I know that a book is the best tool to help entrepreneurs educate their team on their philosophy and the culture they want to create," explains Josh. "With a book at the centre of a thought leadership system, entrepreneurs will attract attention, build authority, and grow their business.

"A book is something every entrepreneur needs because of the authority and credibility it brings."

Josh is a speaker and coach. He used his book, Chief Marketing Officers At Work, and thought leadership to generate over $10M for his digital marketing agency, MWI. He's written three books and more than 300 articles in publications like Fortune, Time, Forbes, Fast Company, and Mashable.

He says he's not just helping entrepreneurs write a book, "We're helping them to set up a thought leadership system. It might be that they also want to do public speaking, launch a course, or a membership group. Or they may want PR, or to launch their own podcast.

Published Author works with entrepreneurs in different ways, depending on budget, time commitments, skill set, and interests.

"With every Published Author client, the first question is: Do you want to do this yourself? Or do you want somebody to do it for you? Client's can write a book themselves, or they can hire a ghostwriter to write that book for them," says Josh.

"A lot of the bestselling books out there are not written exactly by the author, but are the author's idea. The ghostwriter sits down with the author and interviews them, gathers the entrepreneur's knowledge and expertise, and turns it into a book. "

Masterclass, Mastermind, or Done-For-You

For entrepreneurs wanting to write their own book, Published Author offers a masterclass in which they get group coaching, information, the Published Author workbook, and any help and support they need.

The next level is Published Author's mastermind group. "Mastermind is a smaller group of eight to 10 entrepreneurs," explains Josh. "We meet weekly, help each other out, answer each other's questions. They get one-on-one coaching,  and a lot more attention. They also get other services as part of that mastermind."

The highest level is the Published Author full service, for entrepreneurs who want Published Author to managed every aspect of their book's creation. Obviously, the book contains the entrepreneur's ideas.

 With the full service, Josh manages the whole process, including hiring the right ghostwriter, sourcing a publishing company, along with any other experts for the entrepreneur's needs. These could include book publicists, podcast producers, or PR and marketing pros.

"At this level, we're providing many services to help them entrepreneurs get what they need to, getting them out there as a successful author with a successful book launch."

Links: PublishedAuthor.com, JoshSteimle.com

Curtis Holland is a voice over artist who narrates books, podcast ads, announcements and more. He’s been working for just over a year in voice over. And when Curtis isn’t not narrating, he is a full-time drama teacher at an international baccalaureate school in Asia.

This episode is a great listen for anyone who gives presentations, does a lot of public speaking, or wants to get into voice narration work.

In this episode of the Communicate Influence podcast, Curtis gives listeners tips on how to improve your presentation voice, how to warm up, and how to take care of your voice and vocal cords. 

Curtis got into voice over work at the start of the pandemic, and has been progressing ever since. He has his own studio at home, and is busy narrating books, ads and many other things. 

In this interview with Sheelagh, Curtis explores:

• What's involved in setting up your own studio at home
• The best kind of mic to use
• Warming up your voice with vocal exercises
• Taking care of your voice, mouth, and vocal cords
• Following the right diet to take care of your mouth
• Exercising for improved lung capacity, which helps with reading aloud
• Taking care of your overall well-being for a better voice.

Curtis regularly posts helpful videos on Instagram, and you can find him online at https://www.instagram.com/curtisvova/

Podthreads.com!

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This episode is sponsored by Podthreads - a new online clothing store for podcast fans!

When regular host Sheelagh Caygill was in England last year, Karen Unland and Mack Male - both seasoned podcasters - kindly produced an episode for Communicate Influence listeners. 

Karen and Mack are the the co-founders of Taproot Publishing, an Edmonton-based media company whose mission is to help communities understand themselves better. Karen was a newspaper journalist; Mack was a software developer and blogger; they combined their talents and experience in 2016 to try to solve the problem of shrinking local media.

In this episode, you’ll hear them outline the challenges facing local journalism, why a strong local media ecosystem is important, and what they’re trying to do about it. 

Here are some resources to add context to their conversation:

• What Killed The Newspaper? Google Or Facebook? Or…?
• Mind the Gaps: Quantifying the Decline of News Coverage in Canada
• Here’s how some for-profit local news outlets are building subscriptions
• The media consumer’s dilemma
• Business idea earns Taproot a LION Award nomination
• Mack launched a podcast hosting service in 2006!
• Karen started the Alberta Podcast Network in 2017
• Taproot’s current podcasts: Speaking Municipally and Taproot Edmonton Presents: Igniting Innovation

How to support your local media startup and the ecosystem that nurtures it:

• Share your stuff: Put the indies on your news release list and keep them in mind for story pitches.
• Spread the word: Share what they publish and recommend them to others.
• Join or subscribe: If the outlet sells memberships or subscriptions, invest a little.
• Buy their services: If the outlet sells ads, sponsorships or other services, invest a little more.

Wherever you are in the world, if you are interested in Spotlight or Taproot Publishing’s other B2B information services, contact [email protected]. 

If you are in Edmonton, see what Taproot Edmonton has to offer. You may be particularly interested in the Media Roundup.

In last week's episode, Kim Scaravelli discussed managing Twitter in 30 minutes a day. 

This week, Kim, founder of Trust Communications, looks at how to select the right social media platform for your business. That's right, you don't have to have a presence on every platform, only the ones that will perform for your organization.

Kim says the first thing that you should do is consider social media as another part of your marketing, which is part of your business plan, which is part of your strategy for growth. 

So before you jump into all of these different platforms, ensure you really should have a solid strategy in place. And your strategy should include things like really knowing who your ideal audience is, because that's going to tell you where those folks are on social media. 

An example would be if you are a B2B brand, and you are selling specifically to people who are managers, HR people, or C-suite executives, then LinkedIn is a really important place for you to have a presence.

If on the other hand, you are selling, say, beauty products, primarily to millennials, and you're selling them directly online. Why are you on LinkedIn? Instead, you need to be on Instagram.

In this episode, Kim discusses: 

• Thinking strategically about your social media plan
• Understanding your audience
• Assessing the skillset in your organization to see if you need outside resources to help manage social media
• Determining what kind of content you'll produce
• Building authority in your niche
• Assessing your results.

Kim discusses a lot more in this episode, and provides examples of use on social media platforms, and why social media should be fun!

Find Kim at TrustCommuncations.ca

In this week's episode, we have an incredibly valuable conversation with Kim Scaravelli, about how to manage your Twitter account in just 30 minutes a day.

Kim, a communications pro and owner of trust communications in Halifax, Canada, is an expert when it comes to social media. She shares tremendous value in this episode. In fact, it's almost like a free Twitter management class!

If you're new to social media, or feeling overwhelmed, and spending too much time on Twitter, you'll definitely get a lot out of this episode.

Key points from Kim:

• If your ideal audience isn't on Twitter, you don't need to be there
• Twitter has a voracious appetite. So there's really no point in taking your brand onto Twitter, if you are going to tweet once or twice a week
• Understand your brand voice before tweeting
• Use a content calendar, such as Buffer
• Tweet at least eight times a day
• Offer your followers value, don't keep tweeting ads for your product or service
• At least four times a day, retweet something by someone else, and don't just retweet, comment on it so your followers understand why your retweeting the content
• Timeless tweets often give more value.

Kim also covers other points about doing impactful shoutouts, and be sure to interact with those who have interacted with you.

Says Kim: "At the end of the day, it's social media, it's not torture media. If this is the most stressful part of your day, you spend, you know, two hours a day doing social media and six hours a day complaining about it, stop!

"Once you actually get that hang of it, and you're actually talking to people, you're having conversations with people, then it's fun," she explains. "It's just like a coffee date. Or it's just like saying 'Hi' to somebody in the bank lineup. Relaxing is one of the keys to success on any kind of social media."

You can find Kim on Twitter at twitter.com/KimScaravelli, and at Trust Communications.

This episode is sponsored by the Published Author Podcast. If you're an entrepreneur who wants to publish a nonfiction book to grow your business, then this is the podcast you've been waiting for. The Published Author Podcast will help you become an author and show you how to build a thought leadership system around your book. With this, you can grow your business land speaking gigs, grow your tribe, and lots more. Go to Published Author for more details!

Despite the pandemic, the podcasting industry had a good year in 2021, with lots of new content, and a record in advertising spend.

Podcasting and radio industry expert James Cridland is today's guest on this episode of The Communicate Influence Podcast. He takes a look at some of the emerging trends already visible in the first few weeks of this new year, and looks at what may lie ahead. 

He foresees a robust year, with more exciting and diverse content on the horizon.  Key areas of focus in this episode:

• The impact of Amazon's purchase of Wondery 
• Amazon will make more acquisitions in 2021
• Spotify's growth, and competitor attempts to keep pace
• Why privacy will be a growing issue in the coming year
• Podcast advertising revenue's continued growth
• Growth of other revenue streams, such as pod merch
• The types of shows people will probably want to listen to in coming months
• QR codes have had a resurgence in that they are a simple way of letting people subscribe to a podcast show
• Why podcasts that are no longer updated aren't a concern. Known as 'podfade', this can be due to the fact that it's a limited series.

Be sure to check out James' newsletter/podcast Podnews, and his new podcast show Podland.news , hosted by James and Sam Sethi.

The Future is Spoken isn't just the name of a new podcast, it's a phrase that illuminates the fact that voice will dominate marketing and PR in coming months and years.

Voice technology is now ubiquitous. We speak to our voice assistants at home, to our smartphones, and to our vehicles. Some people talk to lighting and temperature control systems in their homes.

Voice technology is the next big thing, and organizations that are early adopters are using the technology to create new opportunities for customer service.

Shyamala Prayaga is a globally recognized voice technology pro and founder of the Digital Assistant Academy. The Academy was launched this month and is offering its first course, Voice Interaction Design.

The course will qualify people to work with businesses and organizations as a voice designer. They will help create an organization's unique voice, with a human touch.

In the Communicate Influence's latest podcast episode, Shyamala explores the rise of voice, what it means for the marketing and PR industries, and what makes the Digital Assistant Academy unique. She also discusses her new podcast - The Future is Spoken!

Listen here, and be sure to share this episode with interested colleagues and friends! (SC include link)

It's hard to believe that not every leader is a good communicator.

Our guest Nick Meir explains that this is because we think of communication as mostly spoken. But in Nick's view, communication is essentially the "movement of information" and so body language and micro-expressions are part of that movement of information.

With this definition, it's easy to see how a leader's body language can impact a workplace culture and even subjugate people.

Leaders have to be aware of their blind spots and micro-expressions. Employees will notice everything about a leader, because they are always looking for information. And if there is an absence of information or a vacuum, employees will fill in the gaps.

"Leadership is about great communication, that movement of information, and that always has to be positive," explains Nick. "That doesn't mean it always has to be good news, but it should be a positive exchange, regardless of the message."

Nick explains that this is partly due to the way the brain is wired. Humans are wired to detect subtle clues, especially from first impressions.

The second important takeaway from this episode is that leaders must be aware of their audience. Everyone who has achieved success in the world has understood their audience, what makes them tick, and how to engage them. That's what successful businesses and leaders do as well. They then talk about what their audience cares about.

Nick believes leaders should always ask themselves "Why should they care?" before they speak, and if they can answer that question, they will be successful. As well, be who you are, be yourself, and be pragmatic, be honest and be open.

Leaders who are autocratic tend to create a culture of fear. So becoming self-aware is a process that leaders have to want to be. If leaders put on a persona when they arrive in the office, or behave differently in different situations, then employees will detect this.

Blame culture is one of the worst manifestations of a dysfunctional workplace culture. "When you see hundreds of people being copied in on an email, you know that there is a real problem of fear and blame in that work environment."

Being a leader is a very lonely job, Nick adds. There are only a few people who a leader will trust, and that's just part of the job. So in that sense there is a distance between the leader and their team.

Communication is all about sitting back and relaxing, and delivering information in your way, in your words, and in your style. Good leaders also have to be great listeners, because again, listening is communication as it is moving information from one place to another. Bill Clinton is a memorable example of great listening, because people always remember how attentive he was when he listened.

If comms people try to map a leadership style onto a leader, it often doesn't work. Leaders have to establish their own voice.

About Nick Meir:

Nick moved from being a journalist at the BBC into communications. He held various roles before launching his own agency, A House Called Alice, based in London, UK. Nick delivers executive coaching, training, and corporate journalism for several high-profile global clients.

You can find Nick on LinkedIn.

This episode is sponsored by the Digital Assistant Academy - Setting the Standard in Voice Technology Learning

Every year across the world, hundreds of journalists move from the newsroom or the classroom into the world of PR, communications, or marketing.

The good ones possess great storytelling skills, and know how to get information out of people.

However, communications and marketing are very different worlds form journalism, and journalists must develop a whole new set of traits to succeed in these industries. For example, patience, diplomacy, likability, and teamwork are highly valued in comms and marketing.

If you're a journalist thinking about making the move, Nick Meir has a lot of guidance and pointers for you in this episode.

He also discusses current issues in communications, working with the c-suite, and employee engagement.

Nick moved from being a journalist at the BBC into communications. He held various roles before launching his own agency, A House Called Alice, based in London, UK. Nick delivers executive coaching, training, and corporate journalism for several high-profile global clients.

You can find Nick on LinkedIn.