October 1, 2025 • 43 mins
Send me your feedback on this episode!
Most leaders think they have a content problem. In reality, they have a communication problem.
In this episode of Aspire for More with Erin, I sit down with Eva Daniel — founder of The Speak Shop, former speechwriter for Dave Ramsey, and one of the Top 20 Communication Experts in the U.S. — to unpack the power of words, storytelling, and clarity in leadership.
Eva believes communication isn’t a “soft skill.” It’s the leadership skill that determines whether your team trusts you, your message lands, and your influence grows.
Together, we explore practical tools and habits that help leaders move from nervous or unclear to confident and compelling. Whether you’re leading a team meeting or standing on a stage, this episode will help you communicate in a way that people remember — and act on.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why clarity is confidence and how leaders can eliminate confusion in their messaging
- The 50-25-25 Rule that will change how you prepare for presentations
- Why every meeting is a stage — and how to show up with presence and impact
- The surprising power of pauses, grounding, and even potato chips for nervous speakers
- How to distill your message into a North Star sentence people will never forget
- Why leaders don’t have to be naturally charismatic — communication is a skill anyone can learn
Resources & Links:
- Connect with Eva Daniel and The Speak Shop → [click here]
- Join the conversation with me on LinkedIn → [click here]
- Subscribe to Aspire for More with Erin wherever you listen to podcasts
New ED's Playbook to Creating and IMpactful Community Cultrue
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Follow me on Facebook where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.
Follow me on Instagram where I educate, equip and empower family members how to proactively care for their elderly loved ones.
Join my email list where I will lift you up, and send tactile advice weekly to support you to grow your experience in your senior living career.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
EriN (00:00):
Words are invisible, but they shape everything that we
do.
They can launch wars, healmarriages, inspire movements,
and destroy leaders.
As senior living leaders,entrepreneurs, and
communicators, we live and dieby the words that we choose.
And today's guest, the esteemedEva Daniel, has spent her career
(00:20):
helping leaders sharpen theirwords, so their messages don't
just land.
They linger, they stay with us.
They ruminate in our minds tocreate change from serving as a
speech writer for Dave Ramsey,how honored are we to have her
here to being named one of thetop 20 communicate communication
experts in the US even knows onetruth that every leader needs to
(00:44):
hear.
Communication is not a softskill.
It's the leadership skill.
And today she's here to tell us,or to show us.
And tell us why that is.
And I'm also a member of herspeak school, which I have to
say is a really good investmentin yourself.
So Eva, thank you for being heretoday.
Eva (01:06):
Aaron, thank you so much for having me.
And I love even just thatbeautiful setup you had on the
words that you chose becauseyou're exactly right.
Our words have impact, and asleaders, our words have even
more impact on so many people.
So I'm excited to be part ofthis discussion today.
EriN (01:22):
Yes.
I wanna give Speak School alittle bit of a shout out at the
beginning I found you onLinkedIn.
I found you through yourcontent.
I found you to be veryrelatable.
I, so if you're not followingEva Daniel, you need to, because
she gives a lot of great, freecontent out there to learn how
to use words appropriately.
But the Speak School, it is agroup cohort to learn about an
(01:47):
outcome that all of us want,which is to be better
communicators, better speechwriters and presentation givers.
So tell me, tell us a little bitabout that, and why the group
component works so well.
Eva (01:59):
One of the things I love about group coaching, and this
is true on our communicationskills, it's true as business
owners, as leaders, is thatgroups help sharpen you.
You can, we can all get in ourecosystem, especially when it
comes to public speaking, whichpublic speaking can be such an
intimidating thing for a lot ofpeople.
A lot of us maybe are a relyingon public.
Speaking skills of a class wetook in high school or in
(02:21):
college.
Maybe we didn't even have one,or maybe we joined a
Toastmasters club, back in ourearly twenties.
But public speaking skills donein community have such a great
potential to change.
your speaking as a leader, andone reason why is just because
of feedback.
Oftentimes we're just notgetting good clear feedback on
our communication.
(02:42):
Maybe we're, our only kind ofpracticing is get delivering it
in front of our bathroom mirrorthe day we're gonna give it.
Or maybe, our spouse, who ofcourse is either, I always
jokingly say your spouse is notthe best person to give you
feedback.
'cause either they're gonna beway too honest or maybe not
honest.
Enough, depending on how longyou've been married.
Yes.
And so the thing I love aboutgroup coaching is it allows you
(03:04):
to share your ideas, share yourthoughts, and get real life
feedback on how your content isactually hitting people that are
not as familiar with you or yourcontent.
It can feel like we're reallyclear in our communication
because we all have this curseof knowledge.
We know so much about our fieldsand our industries and these
things that we're passionateabout.
(03:25):
Oftentimes though, when it comesto translating those ideas,
whether it is in a speech orpresentation, or even if it's
through a writing or a socialmedia post, oftentimes what we
think is being really, reallyclear.
It's not at all clear to thepeople that are listening
because they aren't as close tothat content as we are.
So one of the things I've lovedabout establishing this
community is.
(03:46):
One, just the breadth ofindustries.
I mean, it's been so fun gettingto know you being in the senior
living space and other people inthe school are in wildly
different industries.
We have people in tech, we haveprofessional speakers.
We have people that are justgetting started in their
speaking career, full range andgamut of industries and
individuals.
And I think that we can really,truly learn so much from each
other.
(04:06):
And then also just with anygroup coaching.
I think there's just this levelof intentionality.
Speaking for all of us can beone of those things.
The more you regularly arespeaking in front of others,
that hopefully the easier it'sgonna become, the stronger
you're gonna become.
And having that regular cadenceto intentionally be focusing on
your speaking can really levelup your speaking skills.
EriN (04:30):
Yeah, it's true because I will tell you as somebody who is
embarking on the journey ofbecoming a professional speaker,
Sometimes you don't even knowwhat to ask, and to be in a a, a
group of other people who areasking questions that you
wouldn't even thought to ask is.
There is so much value in that,and that is why I love the group
setting and I try to getinvolved and connected as much
(04:53):
as I can.
Um, and to be able to say that Iam in, a group with somebody who
wrote speeches for Dave Ramsey,I have to say.
Hey, look at who we're talkingto today.
You know what I mean?
So tell me what that was like.
Oh, before this I was talking tosomebody about your potato chip.
(05:14):
Um, piece of advice.
Oh yeah, this one.
My
Eva (05:15):
favorite.
That's one of my favorite tipsfor people.
EriN (05:18):
Yes.
so if you are going to be on astage or gonna lead a meeting
and you're really nervous,whether it's before a resident
council or a family meeting, oryou know, whatever it is.
Eat a bag of potato chips.
You have permission
Eva (05:31):
from a speech coach.
We're talking plain like yellowblazed bag potato chips.
And the reason why is becausethe salt eats away at the phlegm
in your throat.
The oil lubricates your throat.
And the grease settles ofstomach.
If you have nerves, so you'veheard it here.
If you want to level up your,work on those nerves, eat potato
chips.
(05:51):
And there's a, there's so manydifferent tips.
You know, sometimes publicspeaking can feel overwhelming,
but oftentimes there are these,like, these little tips and
tricks that professionalspeakers know how to do.
They can make such a differencein your speaking from eating
those potato chips or groundingyourself in, in the first minute
of speaking or showing yourpalms.
There's a lot of these likelittle.
Things, little nuances that youcan do that can really change
(06:14):
the way that you are, you'reperceived.
Yeah.
And I think you asked about DaveRamsey Yes.
What that was like.
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, it was such a wonderfulexperience.
For anyone listening that'smaybe not as familiar with Dave
Ramsey, he's a financial expert.
He helps.
People save money, get out ofdebt, plan for their future.
He has a nationally syndicatedradio show.
And so several years ago when Iwas, I was in the radio industry
(06:36):
for a really long time, whichturned into audio.
And so when I first saw the, theposting for a speech writer
position at Ramsey SolutionsDave's company, I thought, oh my
goodness.
I feel like this job descriptionwas written for me.
But at the time, I was.
Pregnant with my third and I waslike, who applies for a job when
they're pregnant?
My husband's like, well, you do.
And I'm like, I guess I do.
(06:58):
And so I moved cross countryright after the birth of my
third to work for Dave, and itwas such a joy I worked for,
wrote for Dave, and then he hasan entire team of speakers.
They're very talentedindividuals and I always say
that so much of being.
Speech writer for people is justhelping them pull out their
stories, their ideas, theirthought leadership, and helping
(07:20):
them convey it in a way that canreally resonate with the
audience.
And so it was so fun.
I learned so much.
And I even feel, we were talkingabout the Speak school a moment
ago.
I feel like I am such a studentof speeches and speakers and,
and what works and just evenwith the evolving landscape with
AI and how do we use that in ourspeaking and all of these other
things, I feel like I'm as.
(07:41):
Student right alongsideeverybody else.
And honestly, I learned so muchwhile working for Dave and one
of those biggest things was howmuch time and effort he put into
his craft.
You know, I think a lot of timeswe can see these people on
stages, we'll go to a conferenceand we hear, we see sometimes we
see big names, Simon Sinek andJohn Maxwells.
(08:02):
And sometimes, you know, we'lljust be at our industry
conference and it'll be a bigname in our industry.
We'll think, oh wow, they'reamazing.
I would love to be like that.
Or I would never be that good ofa speaker.
But what we don't see is justthe hours and the time and the
dedication they've put into it.
Public speaking is a skill justlike any other.
It's learned, it's developed,it's grown over time, and anyone
(08:23):
can be become a better speaker.
Now, that's not to say thateveryone has the same level of
it factor, you know that we'reall gonna make, you know, a
million dollars a year's.
Speaking.
I mean, that'd be nice, Erin, ifI, I can't, I'm cheering you on
to get there.
you know, we all want, but whatwe all can do is become the best
version of ourself on the, onwhen we're giving a
presentation, the most authenticversion of ourself.
(08:45):
We can feel confident in whatwe're saying and we can be
confident in our delivery.
And I believe that about eachand every person.
EriN (08:52):
Yeah.
It starts with the Lays potatochips for sure.
It starts with
Eva (08:55):
potato chips.
All you
EriN (08:56):
gotta do.
It's true though.
I think when I started thisprocess, I would, in the
community, I would run standupmeetings and then our pep rally
meetings, like a 15 minutemeeting that a lot of people
struggle with in our industrybecause you make it a 15 minute
meeting, all of a sudden turnsinto a 30 to a 45 minute
meeting, and then it loses it'spower and its impact because now
(09:20):
it's time wasted instead oftime, saving.
and I love how you have saidleaders don't have a content
problem.
They have a communicationproblem.
and it's how to be effectivewith words.
And, and that's a struggle forme and goes to your point of
practicing because when I firststarted, I thought that I could
(09:45):
just whip out a presentation theway that I whipped out a standup
or a pep rally and just go upthere.
But.
It is a skill, it is a practice,and I wanted to give everybody a
book and I'm learning how togive people a chapter and it's,
that's a great way to put it.
It's really hard when you knowall this stuff and then you're
(10:08):
asking me to distill it down to.
some tension, some problemsolving, some trust, and then a
few points.
And I'm like, no,
Eva (10:16):
I have so much fun.
I want them to have everythingand sometimes we wanna give
chapters when they need a pageor a sentence.
Yes, yes.
And you know, that's one of thebiggest things and.
Earlier this year, I had theprivilege of working with
Jefferson Fisher and anyone thatdoesn't follow Jefferson Fisher,
he's a brilliant communicator.
He wrote a great book called TheNext Conversation.
He does these incredible 62ndreels about communication, and
(10:40):
one of the things that I was sostruck by was how he's able to
say so much in a minute.
Because he really intentionallychooses his words.
And that's not to say, you know,there are spaces that we do
naturally, you know, in an idealworld, we have a long time to
think about this presentation.
The reality for a lot of us, yougo to work and you find out your
(11:01):
coworkers sick, and now you'representing the thing in an hour.
Or you don't necessarily havethis super long timeline to
like.
Perfectly craft all of thewords.
The good news though, is thereare some really practical things
you can do to create yourpresentations quickly, even if
you are on a shorter timeline.
And one of the big ones is justreally being clear on what that
(11:22):
presentation is and getting, nomatter if you're presenting for
an hour or that 15 minutes orfive of just going, okay, I'm
gonna take a step back.
And if I had to distill thisentire presentation down into
one sentence of what it's about.
What is it about and gettingthat clear North Star one
sentence line for whatever yourpresentation is, because that
(11:43):
can really start helping youdrive what stays, what goes in
the presentation that you'redelivering.
EriN (11:50):
Do you know this hearing that, how much anxiety that
gives me because it's reallyhard.
Eva (11:55):
It is really hard.
EriN (11:57):
you made a comment that made me feel better because I
was.
Doing this and the tension andlike this, the inner dialogue
that I was having about thesepresentations, you made a
comment about how thewhiteboard, I think it was a
whiteboard, that it's full ofall these ideas and the hardest
part is to take it down to onesentence or one sentence and
(12:20):
four points on an outline orwhatever that is.
you make it sound like it's.
Hard, but you say it in such asweet way that it's hard.
It doesn't see, it doesn't feellike the war that's happening on
the inside of me.
It's,
Eva (12:32):
it's so hard.
And even I was speaking inAtlanta a couple months ago and
they asked me to speak on atopic that's a little bit
outside of what I, my, I'm stillthink my parents are still
shocked.
I've made a career talking abouttalking like I feel kind of
vindicated from my childhood,but often when I am asked to
speak, I.
Speak about speaking, whichsounds kind of meta, but in this
case, I was asked to speak aboutpersonal branding with kind of a
(12:55):
communication spin, which is,I've worked really hard on
personal branding posting onLinkedIn as I know you have too,
Erin.
So that's something I'mpassionate about, but it's not
like the normal topic.
And so when I startedbrainstorming, I mean, it was.
Ridiculous.
So many things brainstormed.
And then I was like, well, whatstays and what goes?
And that's again, back to kindalike that community piece.
And you don't necessarily haveto join, you know, you don't
(13:16):
have to hire a speech coach orjoin a speech community.
But what you might need is justa friend, a few colleagues to
help you pick through.
What is the most important thingfor your audience to know?
Because sometimes it soundsbeautiful and simple.
Just get it down to that withNorth Star, that driving sense.
I don't even know how I have ahundred things everybody needs
to know.
Yes.
So sometimes just having anoutside perspective, whoever
that might be in your life, tohelp you figure out, okay, what
(13:39):
are the most important thingsfor me to cover?
EriN (13:41):
So do you feel like that one sentence is that's the
content.
And then the communication ofthat is, it's like for us in the
senior living world, in theskilled nursing world, standup
is a 15 minute meeting and thethe point behind it is to know.
(14:02):
What's going on in yourcommunity?
What success is for that day,what tours are going, and it is
about how to be successfultoday.
I suppose that would be the onesentence that standup is how are
we defining success today?
Eva (14:16):
Yeah.
How are we, so that's your onesentence.
How are we defining successtoday?
And there might be five things.
Five things we're gonna befocusing a day or seven or three
depending on, you know, I'm sureit varies a little bit from team
to team that's even giving thatkind of presentation.
But yeah, keeping that northstar that, like how are we gonna
define success today?
It gets down to these threethings, these five things,
these, and so keeping thatclarity and then of course I,
(14:37):
you know, I'm a huge fan ofstorytelling, be stories maker,
content stick.
So our communication is not justrelaying facts.
And information, a lot of thatcan be done.
You know, I can't tell you howmany presentations I have heard
over the years.
That could have been an emailsending the slide deck because
that, you know, you need to keepin mind like you not, your slide
(14:57):
deck as a presentation is thepresentation.
But what can you add that can'tshow up in the email?
Well, your passion, yourstories, your humor, your human
to human connection.
You have all of those things asgiftings to you as the
communicator.
So don't waste those moments bysharing things that like,
really, some of those tacticalthings might be able to be sent.
(15:18):
In another form ofcommunication.
So really utilizing thosemoments that you do have with
your team and treating them as agift because people are giving
you the most valuable resource,which is their time.
Mm-hmm.
Now, I mean, they might begiving you their time'cause they
have to be there because it's amandatory meeting.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
But either way, it's still like,mm-hmm.
Hey, you have this captiveaudience.
Like use it to the best of yourability.
EriN (15:38):
So in meetings, whether it's an hour long meeting, let's
say it's a manager meeting orit's.
A group coaching or apresentation, what is your
advice for when people cansimplify their message?
So they act on it not just hearit.
Eva (15:56):
Well, let's talk about the two components, both the con,
that content side and then thedelivery side.
EriN (16:01):
Yeah.
Eva (16:01):
One thing with meetings, I can't tell you even just
professionally.
Now, of course I work for myselfthe last few years, but I can't
tell you professionally howmany, dozens, hundreds of times
I've been to meetings and therehasn't been a lot of clarity on
the front end really even.
Mm-hmm.
The meeting's about, doeseverybody need to go?
Am I participating in thismeeting?
Am I just going to listen to youtalk?
So some of those clarifyingthings on the front end of every
(16:23):
meeting you have just TA saying,Hey, the purpose of the meeting
is this.
Maybe just sending a few bulletpoints ahead of time if you're
not doing this in terms of likeflow or what we're hoping to
cover.
And as from a contentperspective as the presenter
being really clear what the callto action is.
If there is one, not everysingle presentation we give has
(16:43):
this very clear things thatpeople need to do.
Sometimes we're just informingpeople, sometimes we're giving
updates, but it never hurts.
At the end of your pre, first ofall, at the beginning of your
presentation, give them, this isthe one piece of high advice we
learned in high school that I'ma big fan of, which is telling
them what you're gonna tell'emand then tell'em and.
Tell'em what you told them.
So at the front of yourpresentation, yes.
Tell them where you're going.
(17:03):
Hey, today we're gonna talkabout how we're gonna win, you
know, success today, let's justsay it said stand up.
Success.
Today as a team, we're gonnatalk about three things.
Be really clear on where you'regoing, and then go that order.
I always say in every singleaudience is a Susan from
accounting.
Susan from accounting likes lifeto be in a logical, linear flow
that makes sense.
(17:24):
There's a lot of people in yourrooms that are Susan, they wanna
know where you're going.
I mean, you and I might be bigidea creative people, and I can
just ride wherever you take me,but there are always gonna be
people in the room that wantclarity.
So when you can give that aheadof time before the meeting even
is a meeting, be clear on whoneeds to come, what the purpose
of the meeting is, what thegoals of the meeting are.
Assuming that you're doing thosethings and you have your content
(17:46):
that's structured in, ideallyyou're gonna add in a story.
If every speech or presentationideally is solving a problem,
hey, what problem are we facing?
What's the solution that's 15minute standup on success?
the problem is we don't wannahave a unsuccessful day.
The solution is we need to havea successful day.
Here are in the ways that we'regonna make that happen.
(18:06):
Being really clear, if there isa call to action in your content
of what do you want people to dowith what they heard?
Sometimes I always say the bestpresentations are one that layer
in both a short term and a longterm action.
Short term might be, Hey, beforeyou leave this meeting today.
Do the sign in sheet or sign upor scan the QR code, and then
(18:29):
maybe there is a longer termthing that you need them to be
working on, because by the endof the quarter, we need to have
accomplished whatever the thingis, but being really, really
clear on what that is.
From a delivery standpoint,you've already addressed a
little bit.
We, we were joking, but it istrue about the potato chips.
But there are a few other thingsyou can do to command the room
better when you're giving apresentation and a meeting.
(18:49):
And one of those is make sure.
You have back to the content forjust a second.
Make sure you have a strongopen.
So many of our presentationsstart with, um, so, um, okay.
Well, you know, Aaron asked meto, um, come and, well, you
know, when I was thinking abouttoday, I was thinking about, and
we haven't really said anything.
Instead, I want you to startwith confidence.
Oftentimes, I recommend.
(19:10):
That might be diving right intothe center of a story.
Sometimes if it's more meetingbased, it might just be an
interesting fact.
But what is a hook, a tease,something interesting?
Your first sentence, you don'twaste it on pleasantries, you
dive right in.
Mm-hmm.
But from a physical, you know,nerve standpoint, I always
recommend, let's just say you'rekind of in your conference room,
you know, 15, 20, 30 people whenyou walk to the front.
(19:31):
I encourage everybody to groundthemselves wherever you're
speaking.
And what I mean by that isyou're consciously planting your
feet shoulder width apart,you're dropping your shoulders,
opening your arms up andsmiling.
These, you're glad to be there.
You're not rocking back andforth.
You're not putting a hand in apocket.
You're not talking before you'reactually settled at the front of
the room.
You're commanding the moment.
(19:51):
A big thing that can happen.
We start talking too fastbecause we're excited, we feel
rushed.
Maybe we really don't have 15minutes of content.
We have 30 that we're trying tocram into 15, and we just get
going really fast.
So I always say one of the mostcommanding ways you can increase
not only the confidence that youhave in you, but that others
have in you, is to slow yourpace and pause, let your ideas
(20:12):
sink in.
Let your stories sink in and usemore pausing throughout your
presentation.
Pausing can also help you reducethose fellow words.
Oftentimes, our words are goingso fast, it's having trouble
keeping up with our brain, andthen before we know we're
creeping in all of thesedifferent fellow words.
So pausing can help with that aswell, of just saying, I'm glad
you know, kinda almost mentallytelling yourself, wow, I'm not
(20:34):
in a rush.
I'm glad to be here and haveplenty of time to present my
information and intentionallyusing pausing can command the
room and the attention of theroom.
EriN (20:43):
I will say that pause is very intimidating.
It is, when you use it as atool, at first you're just like.
What do I do with this?
With this pause
Eva (20:54):
and one of things, but too in my pausing is we wanna make
sure that they are intentionalpauses.
Not the awkward pregnant pausewhere it looks like you've lost
your space and are grabbing forany thought in your head.
I'm talking about intentionallyusing a pause to let your ideas
sink in.
Yes.
It's Maybe move on with yournext idea.
I know it is.
When people, as a speaker, thepause feels forever to forever.
(21:16):
Three seconds catching thatbeat.
I love the way looping back toJefferson Fisher, he calls it
the conversational breath beforeyou start.
Just kind of like taking thebreath and then starting in, but
taking those, taking just alittle bit of a beat throughout
your presentation to pause.
EriN (21:34):
I am comfortable now.
I, I have been more intentional,but you know, the pause for the
speaker does feel like forever.
She's not lying about that, evenif it's just three seconds.
But if you ask somebody aquestion and then no one like
responds.
Or that is another pause thatfeels a little unnerving because
(21:58):
then as you're a speaker andyou're like, am I not
connecting?
Am I not engaging?
Is this just a shy room?
You know?
And then, and then when you arecreating the content and you
really are planning for a fiveminute dialogue.
And no one's talking.
It's just like, okay, now whatdo I do?
You know, there's so much doing
Eva (22:17):
One thing I recommend there.
I love humor.
I think humor and communicationis one of the best ways that we
can level up our presentations.
So when we're thinking aboutthose pauses that feel super
awkward, I think it can be veryhelpful as a speaker to just
have a couple pocket jokes Ifyour content does fall flat.
Let's say you were planning on afive minute discussion and
(22:38):
people aren't jumping in withany ideas and you're thinking,
okay, what am I, what am I doinghere?
So having just a couple lightpocket lines that you could
have.
So for example, for me, one ofthose is I'm a mom of four, and
so I'll say something like.
Oh, well, you know, I'm a mom offour.
I can wait all day, you know, orI have a lot of patience.
That's funny.
Funny.
It's not overly funny.
That's funny.
We're not having tears runningdown our face.
(22:58):
But oftentimes humor is just alittle bit of levity or a little
bit of self-awareness, and Ialways like to challenge my
clients to think throughanything that you're gonna try
into presentation, whether it'saudience participation.
Maybe you're trying a prop.
Maybe you're incorporating someother creative elements just in
your head.
Have a little bit of a plan B.
If it doesn't work, you thinkit's going to work, but it never
(23:20):
hurts to go.
Okay, I'm gonna open up fordiscussion.
It's gonna be this lively,amazing discussion.
Okay, what am I gonna do if noone starts discussing?
What would be a line or whatwould be just so kind of almost
like troubleshooting things ifthey don't work, let's say same
goes even, let's say you'replanning on playing a video as
part of your presentation, yougo to play the video.
Oh no, the audio doesn't work orpeople can't hear it.
(23:41):
And it's not that you're like,dooms Danish, like planning
everything.
But if you are doing a few ofthose intentional spots where
you were thinking they weregonna be high audience
engagement within yourpresentation, just kind of
thinking through a little bit ofwhat that plan B could be, can
help you in the moment feel moreconfident if you open it up and
no one's participating.
Yeah,
EriN (24:00):
so true.
Okay, just to recap all thethings that we've done so far,
'cause we have a few more pointsthat we wanna do, but eat potato
chips if you're nervous.
It helps everything and then nothave too much information.
In your meetings or in yourpresentations, what's the one
point that you want to make, theone sentence that you want
people to walk away from?
(24:21):
I probably have 10, but what'sthe one?
And I help chat.
GPTI asked chat GBT to help mewith that too because I have 10.
I'm like, can you please distillthis down to what my one
sentence is?
You know, I do that sometimes.
And that the power of the pauseand the clear messaging is
really important.
And I, well, going back tomeetings in this recap is people
(24:45):
need to know why they're comingto the meeting and what they're
gonna gain from it.
Especially if we're, if we're anew leader and we're trying to.
Bring meetings into the fold andyou have a lot of resistance and
they don't know what's in it forthem.
That's where that one sentencein defining success is, this is
why we're having the meetings,and if you can't say that,
(25:08):
you're not gonna get the buy-in.
Eva (25:11):
Exactly.
And to that, and I love that youbrought through the what's in it
for them.
Because the entire time youraudience is listening to you,
they're kind of, they'reprocessing through, what's in
this for me?
Why should I care?
And so even doing a little bitof the pre-work on your
presentation, I always encourageclients to think through.
Okay.
When I'm thinking about thespeech, this presentation, what
(25:31):
do I want my audience to know?
What do I want them to feel?
What do I want them to do?
Have those be your guiding ofthe content, just so that you're
really clear and the audience isclear of what's in it for them
so that they are more engaged inyour presentation and they can
see that clearly.
EriN (25:48):
Yeah.
I was helping one of my coachingclients get ready for a big
presentation that she was doingand.
I was like, define your mission.
define what you want them.
And it was basically what yousaid.
Tell them what they're gonnaknow.
Tell'em what you want them toknow.
Tell them you know where you'regoing.
And then you know, at the endwhat they do know.
And because when you do that,you do command the room because
(26:12):
you are telling, you know,you've got, you're confident up
there.
And that's what that clear, thatclarity is.
Um, the other thing I wanted tobring up, I, I listen a lot to
John Maxwell and this was reallyfunny.
he was talking about howeverybody thinks he's so good at
speaking and he's talking about,and people wanna be who he is
today.
(26:32):
And I do listen to him and he isreally good.
He is really good at, yeah, he'ssaid several times.
Eva (26:37):
Met him a few times.
he's a great speaker,
EriN (26:40):
but he's like, I wasn't this good all the time.
And he goes, and he, he saysthis over and over is like, you
wanna know why I am this good?
Because I've done this 12,000times.
Eva (26:51):
Yeah, it gets back to that, that practicing and rep.
Yes.
And then also there is a level,the, the higher the stakes.
I mean, we always wanna show up.
Well, even just for a team, wecan do that.
I would say though, obviouslythe.
The bigger the audience.
And by big audience, I don'tmean the number of people, I
mean the impact it will have onyou, your team, your business.
(27:12):
Sometimes the biggestpresentations we'll give because
maybe we're gonna be selling ourcompany and it's just handful of
investors.
So as far as like big, or itcould be a big room or
conference, but also making surethat you, put the time and
intention that that.
You know that that merits, doyou need to spend 15 hours for
five minute presentation onMonday?
I hope not.
Mm-hmm.
I hope you can create it a lotquicker.
(27:32):
Mm-hmm.
But if you're asked to speak ata really big industry conference
where you're gonna be able torepresent your company in front
of thousands of people, I.
I hope that you're spending moretime and intentionality and
really refining and practicingit through, so making sure that
you're giving enough time.
And then the other thing too,there's another, do you follow
Terry plt?
He was an Obama speech writer,so he said, no, but I got his
(27:55):
book.
I was gonna say, he has afantastic book.
He has, he's really, regardlessof, you know, any political
stance that anybody is, his bookis really, really great.
And one of the things he has inthere that I love is a concept
he calls, 50 25.
25 that 50% of your time shouldbe spent.
Thinking about your topic.
Yes.
You know, brainstorming,thinking through 25% is in that
writing, but making sure youreserve 25% of the time to
(28:18):
working on the delivery.
I can't tell you how many timesI have seen presentations where
I know either Visa the persontold me afterwards, or I could
just tell that the very firsttime they were delivering it was
in front of a live audience.
That should never be your firsttime.
Mm-hmm.
Delivering it.
Make sure you reserve.
There's gotta be a point whereyou say, I'm no longer working
on my content.
(28:38):
I'm gonna make that switch tostart working on my delivery.
And being stronger in that area.
EriN (28:44):
Yeah.
I, I don't think I, I think Iunderestimated, a I am one of
these people who feel like I cancha I should change content all
the time, which is, well, it'skind
Eva (28:55):
of fun too.
And you're passion is about yourindustry,
EriN (28:57):
you know, like the more you read, I'm like, oh, I should
put that in there.
And it's just like, Aaron,you're gonna have to let this
go.
But it is practicing it andfeeling it.
And not putting as much on theslides.
I went, there was a time where Iwas putting everything on a
slide, and I think some of itwas my own safety net.
and now it's like, feel themessage, which I always felt the
(29:19):
message, but it's like, Erin,just feel the message.
You don't have to make theslides.
You know a book'cause that's toomuch.
Yes.
Eva (29:27):
and it was just fascinating.
just yesterday here in theNashville area, I attended this
event, which is kind of like,almost like a local shark tank.
It was founders and funders.
So people were pitching their,they had three minutes, there
was nine presenters and theyeach had three minutes.
Chip present their company,their pitch.
And I couldn't believe how muchwas on these slides.
And I was at the back of theroom and I'm in my forties now,
(29:49):
so my vision is not what it usedto be and I couldn't read them
the angle I was at.
And so I was just like, oh.
Such a reminder again that likeyou not your slide deck as a
presentation.
Yes.
And you have to keep in mindmultitasking, people are trying
to read this slide'cause you'renot as the speaker, maybe you're
not covering everything on it.
So I'm trying to read thisslide.
I'm listening to you, plus allof these room dynamics.
Go minimal on your slides, put alot less on there than you
(30:12):
think, and then follow up afterthat meeting with a more robust,
hey, for those of you who wannago deeper or wanna see that, you
know, see more of the researchor more of the findings.
Doing a follow up with thatrather than trying to present it
all visually behind you.
EriN (30:26):
Yeah.
The other thing, the exercisethat we worked on last, Speak
school was really interesting.
It's like role play withyourself when we talked about
tone and pacing and energy.
And if you really watch the bigspeakers like Dave and John and,
some of the, you know, it's sofunny, I can't think of female
Eva (30:49):
Well, like
EriN (30:50):
Mel
Eva (30:50):
Robbins or
EriN (30:51):
Jamie Fern Lima or, yes, yes, yes.
I listen to those podcasts.
they really focus on.
You can, like, if you really payattention to the technicalities
of what they do, you can hearthe tone, you hear the pacing,
you know what I mean?
And, and the energy of it.
(31:11):
And it does engage you more.
Eva (31:14):
It does.
And vocal variety.
Yeah.
That is one of the best deliverytools.
And there's a lot of aspects tovocal variety, and you can get
really nuanced, but for most ofus, couple of the biggest things
we can do to bring more varietyat our voice is just thinking,
speeding up and slowing down.
Speed going faster when you'rereally excited.
And then.
Pausing to let that big ideasink in or going slower when
(31:37):
that, you know, that thinghappened to you.
And then loud, you know, loudthe volume loud or being quiet
to emphasize things.
And then yeah, the emotionaltone of what is the emotion you
want associated with the storyor the thing.
But there is so much that can besaid about vocal variety, but it
is one of those things that justnext time, even your, I always
(31:57):
say, one of the best places tolearn about speaking and your
own speaking.
Listening to others.
We are all hearing a lot ofpresentations throughout the
week, whether it's a work,whether it's a webinar we
caught, whether we go to, youknow, a church of some kind,
whether we're listening topodcasts, whether we're at
conferences and we hear 15speakers in three days.
Whatever the scenario is, thenext time you are listening to
(32:18):
another speaker, just observeabout them.
What do I like about theirspeaking?
That I might be able toimplement my own communication?
Mm-hmm.
Or, wow, what is something Idon't like about their
communication that I wanna makesure that I don't do.
Even just that simple questionsof what do I like, what do I
don't like?
And start being more of anobserver, first of all, that can
help you be more active when youare.
(32:38):
Sitting through, you know, 15,15 keynotes in a few days if
you're at a conference.
But it also, you know, kind ofhelps you be more engaged and in
tune with your message as well.
And hopefully you'll be able toobserve some things that you
really like, whether it is vocalvariety or if you're self-aware
listening in your self-awareenough to know, oh, you know, I
don't think my body language isas good, or, wow, I use a lot of
(33:01):
filler words.
Well, next time you hear aspeaker.
What are they doing with theirbody?
Body language?
Mm-hmm.
Do they use a lot of fillerwords and let's just say you
observe.
Wow, that speaker wasincredible.
I struggle with filler words.
I didn't see them use any, go upto them afterwards and say, Hey,
I loved, I know you're this wayas a speaker.
I love it when people come upafter I'm done speaking to talk
to me and go up to them and say,I loved your presentation.
(33:24):
I struggle with filler words.
I know that.
I noticed you hardly had any,what's, what's your secret?
You'd be amazed at just how muchyou can learn that way about
your own speaking and even justdetermining, you know, our goal
is never to be a carbon copy ofsomeone else.
The world already has a DaveRamsey and a John Maxwell.
you need to be the best versionof you.
But one way you do get there isfiguring out, well, what is the
(33:45):
best version of me?
Mm-hmm.
And for those areas that maybeare I, I know they're a little
bit weaker.
I don't love the way that I comeacross.
How can you work on those areasin your speaking?
And a lot of times it just comesfrom observing other great
speakers.
EriN (33:57):
It really does.
Speakers and practice, I mean,and
Eva (34:01):
practice.
EriN (34:02):
It is practice.
and I'll tell you, I, I didn'tlove, this is my own thing, like
pausing and speaking to myself,but when I was practicing my
presentation, I could tellbecause I did that.
It was like I became aware andit really is doing what you
(34:23):
don't wanna do it.
that's the practice of it.
Because if I wanna becomebetter, I have to be aware of
that vocal variety.
And I don't know if I would've,it would've been as, in the
forefront if we had not had thatmeeting.
And this is not just forpresentation.
Speaking.
This is for your meetings insideyour company.
(34:43):
Inside your business, becausewhen we talk about legacy and
burnout, and trust building,trust breaking trust, avoiding
burnout, accelerating burnout.
Really communication is the keybecause if we're not
communicating well enough,people don't know what we're
thinking and we're getting angryat them, or we're getting
(35:04):
frustrated at them and it'sbecause we didn't tell them or
we didn't clarify what we know.
And I think a lot of the burnouthealthcare is facing and a lot
of different industries isbecause we're not clear.
We're not communicating and.
you know, one of our lastpoints, Eva, you know, if a
leader wants to grow theirinfluence and their longevity
(35:25):
and their role and communicationis the problem, how do they find
the confidence to stop making ita problem?
Right?
Start focusing on it and.
Becoming better.
I feel like we touched on that,but
Eva (35:42):
we've already kind of hit it I think a little bit.
Yeah.
Is one is just self-awarenessand making the choice of.
Yes.
I believe that public speakingand good communication skills is
the best way to grow yourself asa leader, grow your company.
So let's say you also kind ofhave that self-awareness of
going, okay, I wanna improve.
I'm really busy, I'm runningfrom thing to thing to thing.
I don't have time to like joinmembership sites and read books
(36:04):
and like great for them.
Mm-hmm.
I just always encourage peopleto think of as being a five
minute a day investment, fiveminutes a day.
Intentionally work on yourcommunication.
Mm-hmm.
Maybe that's just five minutes aday, one conversation a day.
Let's say filler words are aproblem, one conversation a day.
I'm not waiting until I have abig meeting or whatever, just
one conversation a day with myspouse or a a, you know,
colleague.
I'm gonna consciously try toreduce my filler words, just
(36:26):
that five minutes.
Five minutes a day, or maybe foryou it's, wow.
I think that my vocal varietycould be better.
Just one conversation I'm havinga day, just normal conversation
with my teen, you know, my teen,my teen kid, I'm gonna work on
my vocal variety.
They won't know that you'redoing it, but the way that
you're applying these skills ona daily basis, just a normal
conversation, are the thingsthat translate to how you're
(36:46):
communicating at work.
And in those meetings.
And then of course, for thosethat are like, no, I'm the type
of person I want to overhaul.
Obviously there's.
So many great communications,you know, local clubs from, you
know, NSA chapters orToastmasters or Dale Carnegie
courses, as well as obviouslylike online ones like I do, or
you know, if you want to keepgoing up that spectrum.
(37:07):
But even just reading books.
But a lot of times I think itjust gets down to just that
awareness to go, wow, I'm gonnaspend five minutes a day
thinking through my bodylanguage or how I'm
communicating, or wow.
I'm not even presenting at thisnext meeting, but the CEO of our
company is, or our CMO orwhoever is, I'm gonna just
observe them as a speaker and,and what do I think, what do I,
how do I feel like that theyorganize their content?
(37:28):
That helps you become moreengaged even in the meetings
you're in instead of.
S you know, subtly scrollingyour phone or computer, like
actually be fully engaged in themoments you're in and lean into
your becoming a bettercommunicator.
EriN (37:41):
Yeah.
Becoming is the key word.
And you will gain trust if youcommunicate consistently and you
follow up and follow through.
Yes.
I, that is one area that I wasreally good at inside of a
community that I have doubleddown now.
As a strength and learning howto turn that into, to a
(38:01):
business, which was reallyimportant.
I didn't understand that thatwas a strength I didn't
understand until you look backand you realize that's what I
was really good at, wascommunicating it was preparing
them, validating them, and then,prepping them for what's to
come.
Like when you can do that to allof our stakeholders in any
(38:21):
business.
You've got trust.
And when people know their roleand their value, you know, they
will work harder for that.
And that's why I am wanted Evahere today to be able to, I.
Really communicate just howimportant, words and language in
our communication style is.
(38:41):
But since you are such a valuedcoach and inside, the speaking
world, I have one fun questionfor you.
Yes.
You've coached some of thebiggest voices in business.
So impressive.
What separates forgettablespeakers from unforgettable
speakers?
Eva (39:01):
The biggest thing is your ability to tell stories.
Yeah.
If it's a, it's an art form, butthe best speakers in the world
have learned how to communicatetheir ideas through stories
because stories make our contentstick.
EriN (39:16):
Mm-hmm.
It is true.
Someone asked me once, do yougive me an analogy that you
remember?
And I'm just like, what ananalogy.
and it was an analogy.
It was a story that I heard of aspeaker tell, and I've never
played golf before and it wasabout golf.
I don't even know what it meanton the golf course, but I
(39:37):
understood what it meant.
Like in life, my time isvaluable.
Eva (39:40):
Yeah.
And it's amazing how thosestories can, can stick with us.
And then, the other thing kindof within that is really
striving to be a thought leaderin your space.
recognizing the, moment in timeto share the message that is, on
the inside is, that's obviouslyanother thing that makes me the
creative speakers, but the skillI know we can all learn is,
(40:03):
well, we can all learn to bemore of thought leaders, but
storytelling.
EriN (40:06):
Yeah.
So true.
People remember stories.
Alright, Eva, tell us how peoplecan get in touch with you, um,
if they are interested in yourservices and creating excellent
speakers, and joining the SpeakSchool.
Eva (40:20):
They can find me@thespeakshop.com and there I
have, I have newsletter and allsorts of things.
You can find information on allthe things I'm doing and then
you and I met on LinkedIn.
I'm very active on LinkedIn.
I post a lot of regular publicspeaking tips there and so I
would love to connect withanyone there on LinkedIn as
well.
But the speak shop.com and onLinkedIn.
(40:40):
And on LinkedIn, I'm Eva RoseDaniel.
EriN (40:43):
That's right.
I really got a lot of benefitfrom her emails and from her
post.
So definitely give her a followthat is important.
Just remember, leadership isn'tabout titles or tenure or how,
how high up the food chain thatwe go.
It really is about the wordsthat you use and the clarity
that you bring because when youare clear, you are kind and
(41:05):
everybody simers down andfollows.
hopefully creates a buy-in andfollows in and does their job.
So thank you Eva, for being hereand teaching us how to use our
words with courage, clarity,that's really important.
So thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
And for all my listeners,always, you know what to do.
Aspire for more for you, knowingthat you're already enough.
(41:31):
Have a great day.
Words are invisible, but they shape everything that we
do.
They can launch wars, healmarriages, inspire movements,
and destroy leaders.
As senior living leaders,entrepreneurs, and
communicators, we live and dieby the words that we choose.
And today's guest, the esteemedEva Daniel, has spent her career
(00:20):
helping leaders sharpen theirwords, so their messages don't
just land.
They linger, they stay with us.
They ruminate in our minds tocreate change from serving as a
speech writer for Dave Ramsey,how honored are we to have her
here to being named one of thetop 20 communicate communication
experts in the US even knows onetruth that every leader needs to
(00:44):
hear.
Communication is not a softskill.
It's the leadership skill.
And today she's here to tell us,or to show us.
And tell us why that is.
And I'm also a member of herspeak school, which I have to
say is a really good investmentin yourself.
So Eva, thank you for being heretoday.
Eva (01:06):
Aaron, thank you so much for having me.
And I love even just thatbeautiful setup you had on the
words that you chose becauseyou're exactly right.
Our words have impact, and asleaders, our words have even
more impact on so many people.
So I'm excited to be part ofthis discussion today.
EriN (01:22):
Yes.
I wanna give Speak School alittle bit of a shout out at the
beginning I found you onLinkedIn.
I found you through yourcontent.
I found you to be veryrelatable.
I, so if you're not followingEva Daniel, you need to, because
she gives a lot of great, freecontent out there to learn how
to use words appropriately.
But the Speak School, it is agroup cohort to learn about an
(01:47):
outcome that all of us want,which is to be better
communicators, better speechwriters and presentation givers.
So tell me, tell us a little bitabout that, and why the group
component works so well.
Eva (01:59):
One of the things I love about group coaching, and this
is true on our communicationskills, it's true as business
owners, as leaders, is thatgroups help sharpen you.
You can, we can all get in ourecosystem, especially when it
comes to public speaking, whichpublic speaking can be such an
intimidating thing for a lot ofpeople.
A lot of us maybe are a relyingon public.
Speaking skills of a class wetook in high school or in
(02:21):
college.
Maybe we didn't even have one,or maybe we joined a
Toastmasters club, back in ourearly twenties.
But public speaking skills donein community have such a great
potential to change.
your speaking as a leader, andone reason why is just because
of feedback.
Oftentimes we're just notgetting good clear feedback on
our communication.
(02:42):
Maybe we're, our only kind ofpracticing is get delivering it
in front of our bathroom mirrorthe day we're gonna give it.
Or maybe, our spouse, who ofcourse is either, I always
jokingly say your spouse is notthe best person to give you
feedback.
'cause either they're gonna beway too honest or maybe not
honest.
Enough, depending on how longyou've been married.
Yes.
And so the thing I love aboutgroup coaching is it allows you
(03:04):
to share your ideas, share yourthoughts, and get real life
feedback on how your content isactually hitting people that are
not as familiar with you or yourcontent.
It can feel like we're reallyclear in our communication
because we all have this curseof knowledge.
We know so much about our fieldsand our industries and these
things that we're passionateabout.
(03:25):
Oftentimes though, when it comesto translating those ideas,
whether it is in a speech orpresentation, or even if it's
through a writing or a socialmedia post, oftentimes what we
think is being really, reallyclear.
It's not at all clear to thepeople that are listening
because they aren't as close tothat content as we are.
So one of the things I've lovedabout establishing this
community is.
(03:46):
One, just the breadth ofindustries.
I mean, it's been so fun gettingto know you being in the senior
living space and other people inthe school are in wildly
different industries.
We have people in tech, we haveprofessional speakers.
We have people that are justgetting started in their
speaking career, full range andgamut of industries and
individuals.
And I think that we can really,truly learn so much from each
other.
(04:06):
And then also just with anygroup coaching.
I think there's just this levelof intentionality.
Speaking for all of us can beone of those things.
The more you regularly arespeaking in front of others,
that hopefully the easier it'sgonna become, the stronger
you're gonna become.
And having that regular cadenceto intentionally be focusing on
your speaking can really levelup your speaking skills.
EriN (04:30):
Yeah, it's true because I will tell you as somebody who is
embarking on the journey ofbecoming a professional speaker,
Sometimes you don't even knowwhat to ask, and to be in a a, a
group of other people who areasking questions that you
wouldn't even thought to ask is.
There is so much value in that,and that is why I love the group
setting and I try to getinvolved and connected as much
(04:53):
as I can.
Um, and to be able to say that Iam in, a group with somebody who
wrote speeches for Dave Ramsey,I have to say.
Hey, look at who we're talkingto today.
You know what I mean?
So tell me what that was like.
Oh, before this I was talking tosomebody about your potato chip.
(05:14):
Um, piece of advice.
Oh yeah, this one.
My
Eva (05:15):
favorite.
That's one of my favorite tipsfor people.
EriN (05:18):
Yes.
so if you are going to be on astage or gonna lead a meeting
and you're really nervous,whether it's before a resident
council or a family meeting, oryou know, whatever it is.
Eat a bag of potato chips.
You have permission
Eva (05:31):
from a speech coach.
We're talking plain like yellowblazed bag potato chips.
And the reason why is becausethe salt eats away at the phlegm
in your throat.
The oil lubricates your throat.
And the grease settles ofstomach.
If you have nerves, so you'veheard it here.
If you want to level up your,work on those nerves, eat potato
chips.
(05:51):
And there's a, there's so manydifferent tips.
You know, sometimes publicspeaking can feel overwhelming,
but oftentimes there are these,like, these little tips and
tricks that professionalspeakers know how to do.
They can make such a differencein your speaking from eating
those potato chips or groundingyourself in, in the first minute
of speaking or showing yourpalms.
There's a lot of these likelittle.
Things, little nuances that youcan do that can really change
(06:14):
the way that you are, you'reperceived.
Yeah.
And I think you asked about DaveRamsey Yes.
What that was like.
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, it was such a wonderfulexperience.
For anyone listening that'smaybe not as familiar with Dave
Ramsey, he's a financial expert.
He helps.
People save money, get out ofdebt, plan for their future.
He has a nationally syndicatedradio show.
And so several years ago when Iwas, I was in the radio industry
(06:36):
for a really long time, whichturned into audio.
And so when I first saw the, theposting for a speech writer
position at Ramsey SolutionsDave's company, I thought, oh my
goodness.
I feel like this job descriptionwas written for me.
But at the time, I was.
Pregnant with my third and I waslike, who applies for a job when
they're pregnant?
My husband's like, well, you do.
And I'm like, I guess I do.
(06:58):
And so I moved cross countryright after the birth of my
third to work for Dave, and itwas such a joy I worked for,
wrote for Dave, and then he hasan entire team of speakers.
They're very talentedindividuals and I always say
that so much of being.
Speech writer for people is justhelping them pull out their
stories, their ideas, theirthought leadership, and helping
(07:20):
them convey it in a way that canreally resonate with the
audience.
And so it was so fun.
I learned so much.
And I even feel, we were talkingabout the Speak school a moment
ago.
I feel like I am such a studentof speeches and speakers and,
and what works and just evenwith the evolving landscape with
AI and how do we use that in ourspeaking and all of these other
things, I feel like I'm as.
(07:41):
Student right alongsideeverybody else.
And honestly, I learned so muchwhile working for Dave and one
of those biggest things was howmuch time and effort he put into
his craft.
You know, I think a lot of timeswe can see these people on
stages, we'll go to a conferenceand we hear, we see sometimes we
see big names, Simon Sinek andJohn Maxwells.
(08:02):
And sometimes, you know, we'lljust be at our industry
conference and it'll be a bigname in our industry.
We'll think, oh wow, they'reamazing.
I would love to be like that.
Or I would never be that good ofa speaker.
But what we don't see is justthe hours and the time and the
dedication they've put into it.
Public speaking is a skill justlike any other.
It's learned, it's developed,it's grown over time, and anyone
(08:23):
can be become a better speaker.
Now, that's not to say thateveryone has the same level of
it factor, you know that we'reall gonna make, you know, a
million dollars a year's.
Speaking.
I mean, that'd be nice, Erin, ifI, I can't, I'm cheering you on
to get there.
you know, we all want, but whatwe all can do is become the best
version of ourself on the, onwhen we're giving a
presentation, the most authenticversion of ourself.
(08:45):
We can feel confident in whatwe're saying and we can be
confident in our delivery.
And I believe that about eachand every person.
EriN (08:52):
Yeah.
It starts with the Lays potatochips for sure.
It starts with
Eva (08:55):
potato chips.
All you
EriN (08:56):
gotta do.
It's true though.
I think when I started thisprocess, I would, in the
community, I would run standupmeetings and then our pep rally
meetings, like a 15 minutemeeting that a lot of people
struggle with in our industrybecause you make it a 15 minute
meeting, all of a sudden turnsinto a 30 to a 45 minute
meeting, and then it loses it'spower and its impact because now
(09:20):
it's time wasted instead oftime, saving.
and I love how you have saidleaders don't have a content
problem.
They have a communicationproblem.
and it's how to be effectivewith words.
And, and that's a struggle forme and goes to your point of
practicing because when I firststarted, I thought that I could
(09:45):
just whip out a presentation theway that I whipped out a standup
or a pep rally and just go upthere.
But.
It is a skill, it is a practice,and I wanted to give everybody a
book and I'm learning how togive people a chapter and it's,
that's a great way to put it.
It's really hard when you knowall this stuff and then you're
(10:08):
asking me to distill it down to.
some tension, some problemsolving, some trust, and then a
few points.
And I'm like, no,
Eva (10:16):
I have so much fun.
I want them to have everythingand sometimes we wanna give
chapters when they need a pageor a sentence.
Yes, yes.
And you know, that's one of thebiggest things and.
Earlier this year, I had theprivilege of working with
Jefferson Fisher and anyone thatdoesn't follow Jefferson Fisher,
he's a brilliant communicator.
He wrote a great book called TheNext Conversation.
He does these incredible 62ndreels about communication, and
(10:40):
one of the things that I was sostruck by was how he's able to
say so much in a minute.
Because he really intentionallychooses his words.
And that's not to say, you know,there are spaces that we do
naturally, you know, in an idealworld, we have a long time to
think about this presentation.
The reality for a lot of us, yougo to work and you find out your
(11:01):
coworkers sick, and now you'representing the thing in an hour.
Or you don't necessarily havethis super long timeline to
like.
Perfectly craft all of thewords.
The good news though, is thereare some really practical things
you can do to create yourpresentations quickly, even if
you are on a shorter timeline.
And one of the big ones is justreally being clear on what that
(11:22):
presentation is and getting, nomatter if you're presenting for
an hour or that 15 minutes orfive of just going, okay, I'm
gonna take a step back.
And if I had to distill thisentire presentation down into
one sentence of what it's about.
What is it about and gettingthat clear North Star one
sentence line for whatever yourpresentation is, because that
(11:43):
can really start helping youdrive what stays, what goes in
the presentation that you'redelivering.
EriN (11:50):
Do you know this hearing that, how much anxiety that
gives me because it's reallyhard.
Eva (11:55):
It is really hard.
EriN (11:57):
you made a comment that made me feel better because I
was.
Doing this and the tension andlike this, the inner dialogue
that I was having about thesepresentations, you made a
comment about how thewhiteboard, I think it was a
whiteboard, that it's full ofall these ideas and the hardest
part is to take it down to onesentence or one sentence and
(12:20):
four points on an outline orwhatever that is.
you make it sound like it's.
Hard, but you say it in such asweet way that it's hard.
It doesn't see, it doesn't feellike the war that's happening on
the inside of me.
It's,
Eva (12:32):
it's so hard.
And even I was speaking inAtlanta a couple months ago and
they asked me to speak on atopic that's a little bit
outside of what I, my, I'm stillthink my parents are still
shocked.
I've made a career talking abouttalking like I feel kind of
vindicated from my childhood,but often when I am asked to
speak, I.
Speak about speaking, whichsounds kind of meta, but in this
case, I was asked to speak aboutpersonal branding with kind of a
(12:55):
communication spin, which is,I've worked really hard on
personal branding posting onLinkedIn as I know you have too,
Erin.
So that's something I'mpassionate about, but it's not
like the normal topic.
And so when I startedbrainstorming, I mean, it was.
Ridiculous.
So many things brainstormed.
And then I was like, well, whatstays and what goes?
And that's again, back to kindalike that community piece.
And you don't necessarily haveto join, you know, you don't
(13:16):
have to hire a speech coach orjoin a speech community.
But what you might need is justa friend, a few colleagues to
help you pick through.
What is the most important thingfor your audience to know?
Because sometimes it soundsbeautiful and simple.
Just get it down to that withNorth Star, that driving sense.
I don't even know how I have ahundred things everybody needs
to know.
Yes.
So sometimes just having anoutside perspective, whoever
that might be in your life, tohelp you figure out, okay, what
(13:39):
are the most important thingsfor me to cover?
EriN (13:41):
So do you feel like that one sentence is that's the
content.
And then the communication ofthat is, it's like for us in the
senior living world, in theskilled nursing world, standup
is a 15 minute meeting and thethe point behind it is to know.
(14:02):
What's going on in yourcommunity?
What success is for that day,what tours are going, and it is
about how to be successfultoday.
I suppose that would be the onesentence that standup is how are
we defining success today?
Eva (14:16):
Yeah.
How are we, so that's your onesentence.
How are we defining successtoday?
And there might be five things.
Five things we're gonna befocusing a day or seven or three
depending on, you know, I'm sureit varies a little bit from team
to team that's even giving thatkind of presentation.
But yeah, keeping that northstar that, like how are we gonna
define success today?
It gets down to these threethings, these five things,
these, and so keeping thatclarity and then of course I,
(14:37):
you know, I'm a huge fan ofstorytelling, be stories maker,
content stick.
So our communication is not justrelaying facts.
And information, a lot of thatcan be done.
You know, I can't tell you howmany presentations I have heard
over the years.
That could have been an emailsending the slide deck because
that, you know, you need to keepin mind like you not, your slide
(14:57):
deck as a presentation is thepresentation.
But what can you add that can'tshow up in the email?
Well, your passion, yourstories, your humor, your human
to human connection.
You have all of those things asgiftings to you as the
communicator.
So don't waste those moments bysharing things that like,
really, some of those tacticalthings might be able to be sent.
(15:18):
In another form ofcommunication.
So really utilizing thosemoments that you do have with
your team and treating them as agift because people are giving
you the most valuable resource,which is their time.
Mm-hmm.
Now, I mean, they might begiving you their time'cause they
have to be there because it's amandatory meeting.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
But either way, it's still like,mm-hmm.
Hey, you have this captiveaudience.
Like use it to the best of yourability.
EriN (15:38):
So in meetings, whether it's an hour long meeting, let's
say it's a manager meeting orit's.
A group coaching or apresentation, what is your
advice for when people cansimplify their message?
So they act on it not just hearit.
Eva (15:56):
Well, let's talk about the two components, both the con,
that content side and then thedelivery side.
EriN (16:01):
Yeah.
Eva (16:01):
One thing with meetings, I can't tell you even just
professionally.
Now, of course I work for myselfthe last few years, but I can't
tell you professionally howmany, dozens, hundreds of times
I've been to meetings and therehasn't been a lot of clarity on
the front end really even.
Mm-hmm.
The meeting's about, doeseverybody need to go?
Am I participating in thismeeting?
Am I just going to listen to youtalk?
So some of those clarifyingthings on the front end of every
(16:23):
meeting you have just TA saying,Hey, the purpose of the meeting
is this.
Maybe just sending a few bulletpoints ahead of time if you're
not doing this in terms of likeflow or what we're hoping to
cover.
And as from a contentperspective as the presenter
being really clear what the callto action is.
If there is one, not everysingle presentation we give has
(16:43):
this very clear things thatpeople need to do.
Sometimes we're just informingpeople, sometimes we're giving
updates, but it never hurts.
At the end of your pre, first ofall, at the beginning of your
presentation, give them, this isthe one piece of high advice we
learned in high school that I'ma big fan of, which is telling
them what you're gonna tell'emand then tell'em and.
Tell'em what you told them.
So at the front of yourpresentation, yes.
Tell them where you're going.
(17:03):
Hey, today we're gonna talkabout how we're gonna win, you
know, success today, let's justsay it said stand up.
Success.
Today as a team, we're gonnatalk about three things.
Be really clear on where you'regoing, and then go that order.
I always say in every singleaudience is a Susan from
accounting.
Susan from accounting likes lifeto be in a logical, linear flow
that makes sense.
(17:24):
There's a lot of people in yourrooms that are Susan, they wanna
know where you're going.
I mean, you and I might be bigidea creative people, and I can
just ride wherever you take me,but there are always gonna be
people in the room that wantclarity.
So when you can give that aheadof time before the meeting even
is a meeting, be clear on whoneeds to come, what the purpose
of the meeting is, what thegoals of the meeting are.
Assuming that you're doing thosethings and you have your content
(17:46):
that's structured in, ideallyyou're gonna add in a story.
If every speech or presentationideally is solving a problem,
hey, what problem are we facing?
What's the solution that's 15minute standup on success?
the problem is we don't wannahave a unsuccessful day.
The solution is we need to havea successful day.
Here are in the ways that we'regonna make that happen.
(18:06):
Being really clear, if there isa call to action in your content
of what do you want people to dowith what they heard?
Sometimes I always say the bestpresentations are one that layer
in both a short term and a longterm action.
Short term might be, Hey, beforeyou leave this meeting today.
Do the sign in sheet or sign upor scan the QR code, and then
(18:29):
maybe there is a longer termthing that you need them to be
working on, because by the endof the quarter, we need to have
accomplished whatever the thingis, but being really, really
clear on what that is.
From a delivery standpoint,you've already addressed a
little bit.
We, we were joking, but it istrue about the potato chips.
But there are a few other thingsyou can do to command the room
better when you're giving apresentation and a meeting.
(18:49):
And one of those is make sure.
You have back to the content forjust a second.
Make sure you have a strongopen.
So many of our presentationsstart with, um, so, um, okay.
Well, you know, Aaron asked meto, um, come and, well, you
know, when I was thinking abouttoday, I was thinking about, and
we haven't really said anything.
Instead, I want you to startwith confidence.
Oftentimes, I recommend.
(19:10):
That might be diving right intothe center of a story.
Sometimes if it's more meetingbased, it might just be an
interesting fact.
But what is a hook, a tease,something interesting?
Your first sentence, you don'twaste it on pleasantries, you
dive right in.
Mm-hmm.
But from a physical, you know,nerve standpoint, I always
recommend, let's just say you'rekind of in your conference room,
you know, 15, 20, 30 people whenyou walk to the front.
(19:31):
I encourage everybody to groundthemselves wherever you're
speaking.
And what I mean by that isyou're consciously planting your
feet shoulder width apart,you're dropping your shoulders,
opening your arms up andsmiling.
These, you're glad to be there.
You're not rocking back andforth.
You're not putting a hand in apocket.
You're not talking before you'reactually settled at the front of
the room.
You're commanding the moment.
(19:51):
A big thing that can happen.
We start talking too fastbecause we're excited, we feel
rushed.
Maybe we really don't have 15minutes of content.
We have 30 that we're trying tocram into 15, and we just get
going really fast.
So I always say one of the mostcommanding ways you can increase
not only the confidence that youhave in you, but that others
have in you, is to slow yourpace and pause, let your ideas
(20:12):
sink in.
Let your stories sink in and usemore pausing throughout your
presentation.
Pausing can also help you reducethose fellow words.
Oftentimes, our words are goingso fast, it's having trouble
keeping up with our brain, andthen before we know we're
creeping in all of thesedifferent fellow words.
So pausing can help with that aswell, of just saying, I'm glad
you know, kinda almost mentallytelling yourself, wow, I'm not
(20:34):
in a rush.
I'm glad to be here and haveplenty of time to present my
information and intentionallyusing pausing can command the
room and the attention of theroom.
EriN (20:43):
I will say that pause is very intimidating.
It is, when you use it as atool, at first you're just like.
What do I do with this?
With this pause
Eva (20:54):
and one of things, but too in my pausing is we wanna make
sure that they are intentionalpauses.
Not the awkward pregnant pausewhere it looks like you've lost
your space and are grabbing forany thought in your head.
I'm talking about intentionallyusing a pause to let your ideas
sink in.
Yes.
It's Maybe move on with yournext idea.
I know it is.
When people, as a speaker, thepause feels forever to forever.
(21:16):
Three seconds catching thatbeat.
I love the way looping back toJefferson Fisher, he calls it
the conversational breath beforeyou start.
Just kind of like taking thebreath and then starting in, but
taking those, taking just alittle bit of a beat throughout
your presentation to pause.
EriN (21:34):
I am comfortable now.
I, I have been more intentional,but you know, the pause for the
speaker does feel like forever.
She's not lying about that, evenif it's just three seconds.
But if you ask somebody aquestion and then no one like
responds.
Or that is another pause thatfeels a little unnerving because
(21:58):
then as you're a speaker andyou're like, am I not
connecting?
Am I not engaging?
Is this just a shy room?
You know?
And then, and then when you arecreating the content and you
really are planning for a fiveminute dialogue.
And no one's talking.
It's just like, okay, now whatdo I do?
You know, there's so much doing
Eva (22:17):
One thing I recommend there.
I love humor.
I think humor and communicationis one of the best ways that we
can level up our presentations.
So when we're thinking aboutthose pauses that feel super
awkward, I think it can be veryhelpful as a speaker to just
have a couple pocket jokes Ifyour content does fall flat.
Let's say you were planning on afive minute discussion and
(22:38):
people aren't jumping in withany ideas and you're thinking,
okay, what am I, what am I doinghere?
So having just a couple lightpocket lines that you could
have.
So for example, for me, one ofthose is I'm a mom of four, and
so I'll say something like.
Oh, well, you know, I'm a mom offour.
I can wait all day, you know, orI have a lot of patience.
That's funny.
Funny.
It's not overly funny.
That's funny.
We're not having tears runningdown our face.
(22:58):
But oftentimes humor is just alittle bit of levity or a little
bit of self-awareness, and Ialways like to challenge my
clients to think throughanything that you're gonna try
into presentation, whether it'saudience participation.
Maybe you're trying a prop.
Maybe you're incorporating someother creative elements just in
your head.
Have a little bit of a plan B.
If it doesn't work, you thinkit's going to work, but it never
(23:20):
hurts to go.
Okay, I'm gonna open up fordiscussion.
It's gonna be this lively,amazing discussion.
Okay, what am I gonna do if noone starts discussing?
What would be a line or whatwould be just so kind of almost
like troubleshooting things ifthey don't work, let's say same
goes even, let's say you'replanning on playing a video as
part of your presentation, yougo to play the video.
Oh no, the audio doesn't work orpeople can't hear it.
(23:41):
And it's not that you're like,dooms Danish, like planning
everything.
But if you are doing a few ofthose intentional spots where
you were thinking they weregonna be high audience
engagement within yourpresentation, just kind of
thinking through a little bit ofwhat that plan B could be, can
help you in the moment feel moreconfident if you open it up and
no one's participating.
Yeah,
EriN (24:00):
so true.
Okay, just to recap all thethings that we've done so far,
'cause we have a few more pointsthat we wanna do, but eat potato
chips if you're nervous.
It helps everything and then nothave too much information.
In your meetings or in yourpresentations, what's the one
point that you want to make, theone sentence that you want
people to walk away from?
(24:21):
I probably have 10, but what'sthe one?
And I help chat.
GPTI asked chat GBT to help mewith that too because I have 10.
I'm like, can you please distillthis down to what my one
sentence is?
You know, I do that sometimes.
And that the power of the pauseand the clear messaging is
really important.
And I, well, going back tomeetings in this recap is people
(24:45):
need to know why they're comingto the meeting and what they're
gonna gain from it.
Especially if we're, if we're anew leader and we're trying to.
Bring meetings into the fold andyou have a lot of resistance and
they don't know what's in it forthem.
That's where that one sentencein defining success is, this is
why we're having the meetings,and if you can't say that,
(25:08):
you're not gonna get the buy-in.
Eva (25:11):
Exactly.
And to that, and I love that youbrought through the what's in it
for them.
Because the entire time youraudience is listening to you,
they're kind of, they'reprocessing through, what's in
this for me?
Why should I care?
And so even doing a little bitof the pre-work on your
presentation, I always encourageclients to think through.
Okay.
When I'm thinking about thespeech, this presentation, what
(25:31):
do I want my audience to know?
What do I want them to feel?
What do I want them to do?
Have those be your guiding ofthe content, just so that you're
really clear and the audience isclear of what's in it for them
so that they are more engaged inyour presentation and they can
see that clearly.
EriN (25:48):
Yeah.
I was helping one of my coachingclients get ready for a big
presentation that she was doingand.
I was like, define your mission.
define what you want them.
And it was basically what yousaid.
Tell them what they're gonnaknow.
Tell'em what you want them toknow.
Tell them you know where you'regoing.
And then you know, at the endwhat they do know.
And because when you do that,you do command the room because
(26:12):
you are telling, you know,you've got, you're confident up
there.
And that's what that clear, thatclarity is.
Um, the other thing I wanted tobring up, I, I listen a lot to
John Maxwell and this was reallyfunny.
he was talking about howeverybody thinks he's so good at
speaking and he's talking about,and people wanna be who he is
today.
(26:32):
And I do listen to him and he isreally good.
He is really good at, yeah, he'ssaid several times.
Eva (26:37):
Met him a few times.
he's a great speaker,
EriN (26:40):
but he's like, I wasn't this good all the time.
And he goes, and he, he saysthis over and over is like, you
wanna know why I am this good?
Because I've done this 12,000times.
Eva (26:51):
Yeah, it gets back to that, that practicing and rep.
Yes.
And then also there is a level,the, the higher the stakes.
I mean, we always wanna show up.
Well, even just for a team, wecan do that.
I would say though, obviouslythe.
The bigger the audience.
And by big audience, I don'tmean the number of people, I
mean the impact it will have onyou, your team, your business.
(27:12):
Sometimes the biggestpresentations we'll give because
maybe we're gonna be selling ourcompany and it's just handful of
investors.
So as far as like big, or itcould be a big room or
conference, but also making surethat you, put the time and
intention that that.
You know that that merits, doyou need to spend 15 hours for
five minute presentation onMonday?
I hope not.
Mm-hmm.
I hope you can create it a lotquicker.
(27:32):
Mm-hmm.
But if you're asked to speak ata really big industry conference
where you're gonna be able torepresent your company in front
of thousands of people, I.
I hope that you're spending moretime and intentionality and
really refining and practicingit through, so making sure that
you're giving enough time.
And then the other thing too,there's another, do you follow
Terry plt?
He was an Obama speech writer,so he said, no, but I got his
(27:55):
book.
I was gonna say, he has afantastic book.
He has, he's really, regardlessof, you know, any political
stance that anybody is, his bookis really, really great.
And one of the things he has inthere that I love is a concept
he calls, 50 25.
25 that 50% of your time shouldbe spent.
Thinking about your topic.
Yes.
You know, brainstorming,thinking through 25% is in that
writing, but making sure youreserve 25% of the time to
(28:18):
working on the delivery.
I can't tell you how many timesI have seen presentations where
I know either Visa the persontold me afterwards, or I could
just tell that the very firsttime they were delivering it was
in front of a live audience.
That should never be your firsttime.
Mm-hmm.
Delivering it.
Make sure you reserve.
There's gotta be a point whereyou say, I'm no longer working
on my content.
(28:38):
I'm gonna make that switch tostart working on my delivery.
And being stronger in that area.
EriN (28:44):
Yeah.
I, I don't think I, I think Iunderestimated, a I am one of
these people who feel like I cancha I should change content all
the time, which is, well, it'skind
Eva (28:55):
of fun too.
And you're passion is about yourindustry,
EriN (28:57):
you know, like the more you read, I'm like, oh, I should
put that in there.
And it's just like, Aaron,you're gonna have to let this
go.
But it is practicing it andfeeling it.
And not putting as much on theslides.
I went, there was a time where Iwas putting everything on a
slide, and I think some of itwas my own safety net.
and now it's like, feel themessage, which I always felt the
(29:19):
message, but it's like, Erin,just feel the message.
You don't have to make theslides.
You know a book'cause that's toomuch.
Yes.
Eva (29:27):
and it was just fascinating.
just yesterday here in theNashville area, I attended this
event, which is kind of like,almost like a local shark tank.
It was founders and funders.
So people were pitching their,they had three minutes, there
was nine presenters and theyeach had three minutes.
Chip present their company,their pitch.
And I couldn't believe how muchwas on these slides.
And I was at the back of theroom and I'm in my forties now,
(29:49):
so my vision is not what it usedto be and I couldn't read them
the angle I was at.
And so I was just like, oh.
Such a reminder again that likeyou not your slide deck as a
presentation.
Yes.
And you have to keep in mindmultitasking, people are trying
to read this slide'cause you'renot as the speaker, maybe you're
not covering everything on it.
So I'm trying to read thisslide.
I'm listening to you, plus allof these room dynamics.
Go minimal on your slides, put alot less on there than you
(30:12):
think, and then follow up afterthat meeting with a more robust,
hey, for those of you who wannago deeper or wanna see that, you
know, see more of the researchor more of the findings.
Doing a follow up with thatrather than trying to present it
all visually behind you.
EriN (30:26):
Yeah.
The other thing, the exercisethat we worked on last, Speak
school was really interesting.
It's like role play withyourself when we talked about
tone and pacing and energy.
And if you really watch the bigspeakers like Dave and John and,
some of the, you know, it's sofunny, I can't think of female
Eva (30:49):
Well, like
EriN (30:50):
Mel
Eva (30:50):
Robbins or
EriN (30:51):
Jamie Fern Lima or, yes, yes, yes.
I listen to those podcasts.
they really focus on.
You can, like, if you really payattention to the technicalities
of what they do, you can hearthe tone, you hear the pacing,
you know what I mean?
And, and the energy of it.
(31:11):
And it does engage you more.
Eva (31:14):
It does.
And vocal variety.
Yeah.
That is one of the best deliverytools.
And there's a lot of aspects tovocal variety, and you can get
really nuanced, but for most ofus, couple of the biggest things
we can do to bring more varietyat our voice is just thinking,
speeding up and slowing down.
Speed going faster when you'rereally excited.
And then.
Pausing to let that big ideasink in or going slower when
(31:37):
that, you know, that thinghappened to you.
And then loud, you know, loudthe volume loud or being quiet
to emphasize things.
And then yeah, the emotionaltone of what is the emotion you
want associated with the storyor the thing.
But there is so much that can besaid about vocal variety, but it
is one of those things that justnext time, even your, I always
(31:57):
say, one of the best places tolearn about speaking and your
own speaking.
Listening to others.
We are all hearing a lot ofpresentations throughout the
week, whether it's a work,whether it's a webinar we
caught, whether we go to, youknow, a church of some kind,
whether we're listening topodcasts, whether we're at
conferences and we hear 15speakers in three days.
Whatever the scenario is, thenext time you are listening to
(32:18):
another speaker, just observeabout them.
What do I like about theirspeaking?
That I might be able toimplement my own communication?
Mm-hmm.
Or, wow, what is something Idon't like about their
communication that I wanna makesure that I don't do.
Even just that simple questionsof what do I like, what do I
don't like?
And start being more of anobserver, first of all, that can
help you be more active when youare.
(32:38):
Sitting through, you know, 15,15 keynotes in a few days if
you're at a conference.
But it also, you know, kind ofhelps you be more engaged and in
tune with your message as well.
And hopefully you'll be able toobserve some things that you
really like, whether it is vocalvariety or if you're self-aware
listening in your self-awareenough to know, oh, you know, I
don't think my body language isas good, or, wow, I use a lot of
(33:01):
filler words.
Well, next time you hear aspeaker.
What are they doing with theirbody?
Body language?
Mm-hmm.
Do they use a lot of fillerwords and let's just say you
observe.
Wow, that speaker wasincredible.
I struggle with filler words.
I didn't see them use any, go upto them afterwards and say, Hey,
I loved, I know you're this wayas a speaker.
I love it when people come upafter I'm done speaking to talk
to me and go up to them and say,I loved your presentation.
(33:24):
I struggle with filler words.
I know that.
I noticed you hardly had any,what's, what's your secret?
You'd be amazed at just how muchyou can learn that way about
your own speaking and even justdetermining, you know, our goal
is never to be a carbon copy ofsomeone else.
The world already has a DaveRamsey and a John Maxwell.
you need to be the best versionof you.
But one way you do get there isfiguring out, well, what is the
(33:45):
best version of me?
Mm-hmm.
And for those areas that maybeare I, I know they're a little
bit weaker.
I don't love the way that I comeacross.
How can you work on those areasin your speaking?
And a lot of times it just comesfrom observing other great
speakers.
EriN (33:57):
It really does.
Speakers and practice, I mean,and
Eva (34:01):
practice.
EriN (34:02):
It is practice.
and I'll tell you, I, I didn'tlove, this is my own thing, like
pausing and speaking to myself,but when I was practicing my
presentation, I could tellbecause I did that.
It was like I became aware andit really is doing what you
(34:23):
don't wanna do it.
that's the practice of it.
Because if I wanna becomebetter, I have to be aware of
that vocal variety.
And I don't know if I would've,it would've been as, in the
forefront if we had not had thatmeeting.
And this is not just forpresentation.
Speaking.
This is for your meetings insideyour company.
(34:43):
Inside your business, becausewhen we talk about legacy and
burnout, and trust building,trust breaking trust, avoiding
burnout, accelerating burnout.
Really communication is the keybecause if we're not
communicating well enough,people don't know what we're
thinking and we're getting angryat them, or we're getting
(35:04):
frustrated at them and it'sbecause we didn't tell them or
we didn't clarify what we know.
And I think a lot of the burnouthealthcare is facing and a lot
of different industries isbecause we're not clear.
We're not communicating and.
you know, one of our lastpoints, Eva, you know, if a
leader wants to grow theirinfluence and their longevity
(35:25):
and their role and communicationis the problem, how do they find
the confidence to stop making ita problem?
Right?
Start focusing on it and.
Becoming better.
I feel like we touched on that,but
Eva (35:42):
we've already kind of hit it I think a little bit.
Yeah.
Is one is just self-awarenessand making the choice of.
Yes.
I believe that public speakingand good communication skills is
the best way to grow yourself asa leader, grow your company.
So let's say you also kind ofhave that self-awareness of
going, okay, I wanna improve.
I'm really busy, I'm runningfrom thing to thing to thing.
I don't have time to like joinmembership sites and read books
(36:04):
and like great for them.
Mm-hmm.
I just always encourage peopleto think of as being a five
minute a day investment, fiveminutes a day.
Intentionally work on yourcommunication.
Mm-hmm.
Maybe that's just five minutes aday, one conversation a day.
Let's say filler words are aproblem, one conversation a day.
I'm not waiting until I have abig meeting or whatever, just
one conversation a day with myspouse or a a, you know,
colleague.
I'm gonna consciously try toreduce my filler words, just
(36:26):
that five minutes.
Five minutes a day, or maybe foryou it's, wow.
I think that my vocal varietycould be better.
Just one conversation I'm havinga day, just normal conversation
with my teen, you know, my teen,my teen kid, I'm gonna work on
my vocal variety.
They won't know that you'redoing it, but the way that
you're applying these skills ona daily basis, just a normal
conversation, are the thingsthat translate to how you're
(36:46):
communicating at work.
And in those meetings.
And then of course, for thosethat are like, no, I'm the type
of person I want to overhaul.
Obviously there's.
So many great communications,you know, local clubs from, you
know, NSA chapters orToastmasters or Dale Carnegie
courses, as well as obviouslylike online ones like I do, or
you know, if you want to keepgoing up that spectrum.
(37:07):
But even just reading books.
But a lot of times I think itjust gets down to just that
awareness to go, wow, I'm gonnaspend five minutes a day
thinking through my bodylanguage or how I'm
communicating, or wow.
I'm not even presenting at thisnext meeting, but the CEO of our
company is, or our CMO orwhoever is, I'm gonna just
observe them as a speaker and,and what do I think, what do I,
how do I feel like that theyorganize their content?
(37:28):
That helps you become moreengaged even in the meetings
you're in instead of.
S you know, subtly scrollingyour phone or computer, like
actually be fully engaged in themoments you're in and lean into
your becoming a bettercommunicator.
EriN (37:41):
Yeah.
Becoming is the key word.
And you will gain trust if youcommunicate consistently and you
follow up and follow through.
Yes.
I, that is one area that I wasreally good at inside of a
community that I have doubleddown now.
As a strength and learning howto turn that into, to a
(38:01):
business, which was reallyimportant.
I didn't understand that thatwas a strength I didn't
understand until you look backand you realize that's what I
was really good at, wascommunicating it was preparing
them, validating them, and then,prepping them for what's to
come.
Like when you can do that to allof our stakeholders in any
(38:21):
business.
You've got trust.
And when people know their roleand their value, you know, they
will work harder for that.
And that's why I am wanted Evahere today to be able to, I.
Really communicate just howimportant, words and language in
our communication style is.
(38:41):
But since you are such a valuedcoach and inside, the speaking
world, I have one fun questionfor you.
Yes.
You've coached some of thebiggest voices in business.
So impressive.
What separates forgettablespeakers from unforgettable
speakers?
Eva (39:01):
The biggest thing is your ability to tell stories.
Yeah.
If it's a, it's an art form, butthe best speakers in the world
have learned how to communicatetheir ideas through stories
because stories make our contentstick.
EriN (39:16):
Mm-hmm.
It is true.
Someone asked me once, do yougive me an analogy that you
remember?
And I'm just like, what ananalogy.
and it was an analogy.
It was a story that I heard of aspeaker tell, and I've never
played golf before and it wasabout golf.
I don't even know what it meanton the golf course, but I
(39:37):
understood what it meant.
Like in life, my time isvaluable.
Eva (39:40):
Yeah.
And it's amazing how thosestories can, can stick with us.
And then, the other thing kindof within that is really
striving to be a thought leaderin your space.
recognizing the, moment in timeto share the message that is, on
the inside is, that's obviouslyanother thing that makes me the
creative speakers, but the skillI know we can all learn is,
(40:03):
well, we can all learn to bemore of thought leaders, but
storytelling.
EriN (40:06):
Yeah.
So true.
People remember stories.
Alright, Eva, tell us how peoplecan get in touch with you, um,
if they are interested in yourservices and creating excellent
speakers, and joining the SpeakSchool.
Eva (40:20):
They can find me@thespeakshop.com and there I
have, I have newsletter and allsorts of things.
You can find information on allthe things I'm doing and then
you and I met on LinkedIn.
I'm very active on LinkedIn.
I post a lot of regular publicspeaking tips there and so I
would love to connect withanyone there on LinkedIn as
well.
But the speak shop.com and onLinkedIn.
(40:40):
And on LinkedIn, I'm Eva RoseDaniel.
EriN (40:43):
That's right.
I really got a lot of benefitfrom her emails and from her
post.
So definitely give her a followthat is important.
Just remember, leadership isn'tabout titles or tenure or how,
how high up the food chain thatwe go.
It really is about the wordsthat you use and the clarity
that you bring because when youare clear, you are kind and
(41:05):
everybody simers down andfollows.
hopefully creates a buy-in andfollows in and does their job.
So thank you Eva, for being hereand teaching us how to use our
words with courage, clarity,that's really important.
So thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
And for all my listeners,always, you know what to do.
Aspire for more for you, knowingthat you're already enough.
(41:31):
Have a great day.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.