November 24, 2025 • 31 mins
Episode Summary:
In this engaging episode of "Did She Really Say That?", host Katrina van Oudheusden, affectionately known as Chef Katrina, chats with Karin Reed, a four-time award-winning author and seasoned broadcast journalist turned entrepreneur. The conversation dives into the evolution of Karin’s career, from her time interviewing the likes of President Clinton and Muhammad Ali to founding Speaker Dynamics, a company dedicated to enhancing virtual communication skills. The episode is filled with laughter, valuable insights, and practical tips on becoming a more effective communicator on camera, perfect for the digital age.
Key Discussion Points:
Transition from Journalism to Entrepreneurship:
Karin's journey from NBC broadcast journalist to the founder of Speaker Dynamics.
Balancing personal life and career after becoming a mother.
Speaker Dynamics and Virtual Communication:
Introduction of the MVPs of on-camera success: Mental mindset, Vocal variety, and Physical factors.
How to connect authentically with a virtual audience.
Tips for Virtual Presentations:
Visualizing your audience to enhance authenticity on camera.
Leveraging your webcam as a conduit to connect with viewers.
Overcoming the challenge of maintaining energy and presence in virtual meetings.
Practical Advice for Women in Business:
Importance of surrounding yourself with a supportive team.
Seeking mentorship and the value of bartering expertise.
Guest Bio:
Karin Reed is a celebrated author and communication coach who shifted her career from a successful broadcast journalism career with NBC to founding Speaker Dynamics. Her work has empowered countless professionals to enhance their virtual communication skills, making significant impacts on how teams connect and collaborate globally.
Recommended Resources:
Speaker Dynamics University:
Online platform offering courses to improve virtual communication skills.
Contact Karin:
Email: karin@speakerdynamics.com
Special Offer:
Karin offers a free online course valued at $75 for the first 10 listeners who reach out via email, mentioning this podcast.
Thanks for listening! If you are enjoying our podcast, leave a comment below. We love hearing from our fans and other female entrepreneurs! We are collaborating to make business better for every woman! Feel free to share this podcast on your favorite social platform. And if you are listening on any of the podcast platforms, we would love it if you could post a 5-star review. Please, help us get our message out! Together, we discover how each woman has the power to unlock another woman when we are open about what we are redefining as women in business.
About Your Host: Katrina van Oudheusden
Former Chef at Walt Disney World® Resort, Restaurateur, Speaker, and CEO of Truth Bomb Marketing. Katrina is a sought-after consultant for small business growth among female entrepreneurs.
She created a revolutionary business training method called ‘CreatHER™ Business Rewire’. Weaving together time, money, and business growth by preventing burnout and strengthening female leadership skills.
Alongside the CreatHER™ Planner, women are finally experiencing less stress in all areas of their lives. When the focus begins with HERself, women discover a freedom to dream big, increase revenue, and design a marketing strategy that works for them.
CreatHer Money Revolution: http://creathersummit.com
Blog: https://truthbombmarketing.com/blog
CreatHER Planner: https://truthbombmarketing.com/creather-planner-2026
CreatHER Reset: http://truthbombmarketing.com/reset
CreatHER Business Rewire: https://truthbombmarketing.com/creather-business-rewire/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I it's. Yeah, Oh my God.
So you just walked into our conversation on Did she really
say that? And you're gonna love this
conversation I'm having with Karen.
And I did this on purpose. I actually started this
recording a second early. So you capture that last
laughter from Karen because we're rolling over here talking
about pickleball and scoring, because sometimes we think
(00:20):
people make up scoring for games.
And I truly believe this not only in sports, but I also think
this is in card games because I started playing.
So welcome to this episode of did she really say that I am
your host Katrina, but that alsoknown as Chef Katrina and
today's episode, I promise you ladies, is going to be one that
you're thoroughly going to enjoy.
Why? Because Karen is an amazing
(00:42):
freaking four time award-winningauthor and I could go through
all of her accolades like nobody's business.
But one thing that really stood out with me when I first met
Karen and started talking with her was does anybody have like
Zoom video meeting fatigue? Anybody.
The world. The world, right So what was
(01:03):
interesting as I was going through her bio and reading
about this, you know, she's written books about how to host
better company meetings. Oh my God, do we need that
amount? All of us.
And as you're building businesses as women, one of the
things that we do have to do is get together with our teams.
And so there is this sense of always being on camera.
And what's funny is that we don't always, always know how to
(01:24):
be on camera and actually interact with people the right
way. So inside of this, what Karen's
also built is speaker dynamics. So we are going to be talking
about, ladies, how to give voiceto your business #1 how to step
out and actually how to fall in love with the camera.
Because I hear over and over again, Karen, I don't feel
(01:45):
comfortable from the camera. I don't know how to talk to the
camera and I feel like I look stupid.
And it's just about all of that.So we hear it all.
So let's start with your journeyfirst and foremost.
So you're a broadcaster turned entrepreneur like.
By accident. By accident you go from just one
(02:08):
end of the spectrum of an employee news broadcaster like
an amazing to like I'm known entrepreneur teaching speaker
dynamics and meeting. So yeah, talk to me about.
That OK, I'm gonna give you likethe the quick synopsis of how I
got from here to there because that actually makes sense if you
if you hear the trajectory. But on the face of it, you're
like, wait, how did this happen?So I began, as you mentioned, as
(02:31):
a broadcast journalist. I work primarily for NBC, which
is one of the major news networks in the United States
where I'm based, interviewed everybody from President Clinton
to Muhammad Ali, won various awards a lot.
Yeah, it's pretty cool. That was.
That's pretty good, she says. It's so nonchalant.
She's like, I just interviewed these people.
Like, how cool is that? Like there should be plaques
behind you just having all the people that you've actually
(02:52):
interviewed. I think that.
Well, that is an Emmy behind me,which I had in my attic for a
really long time until my kids are like, why do you have this
up here? I'm like, oh, I guess I should
take it out like, but I, you know, I just didn't think about
it. So anyway, so I had a pretty
successful career as a broadcastjournalist and it was
supervised, she says. Pretty successful career,
ladies. I hope you're resonating with
(03:14):
some of this because I think some of you ladies do the same
thing she does. We downplay our brilliance.
So, Carol? Brilliant.
I am very comfortable in my own skin, Katrina but I think
there's a big difference betweenconfidence and arrogance.
So if I'd be sitting here and like puffing up my own resume,
that would feel very inauthenticto me.
So. But I, I really enjoyed what I
did. But I, you know, for all the
(03:35):
days out here, you'll relate to this.
If you've had children, you knowhow priorities can shift.
So I had two kids a year apart, and that was not planned, but it
was joyful, of course. But TV news is not a business
where family life and professional life mesh together
well. So, you know, I had a situation
(03:57):
where I was called out on a big story and I was like, can't you
call somebody else? That should not be the response.
It should be me excited to go cover the big story.
And I just lost some of that because at the time I had all my
family in, we were having almostlike a family reunion.
I just wanted to spend time withthem.
And I'm like news breaks when news breaks and not on your
(04:19):
schedule. So I just got to a point where I
needed to to make a change and Idid.
So it looked like this. I left my OK, very successful
broadcast career and my pretty significant income to become and
literally this is on the relocation papers for my
husband, the trailing spouse, Karen Reed trailing spouse.
(04:43):
I was like, Dang, should I get the business card?
That is fantastic. So, but I did it just because
I'm like, I've got to come up with a new chapter in life.
So what happened actually prettyquickly is I ended up doing a
lot of on camera spokesperson work where I was hired by
whatever company wanted to hire me to be their on camera persona
(05:07):
and did it well and got a lot ofuptake on that.
And it was interesting because one of my early adopters was
actually a really big tech company and one of their
executives who I had been alongside of on camera said to
me afterwards, she's like Karen,I, I'm doing all these videos.
(05:29):
I hate how I'm coming across, can you help me do it better?
And I'm like, huh, can I, I don't know, I, I know what I do,
but can I translate it into a methodology that other people
can adopt? And so I, I worked on it.
I came up with something called the MVPS of On Camera Success,
which is the mental mindset, vocal variety and physical
(05:50):
factors and apply that curriculum to a new business
which is Speaker Dynamics. So it began helping people to be
better on camera communicators. So that was like in 2010.
This was well before Zoom was something that we just.
A decade before, like the rest of the world, caught up with
(06:10):
Zoom. Right, right.
So I started teaching people whowere usually at the executive
leadership level because they were delivering messages via
video to global teams. Global.
Oh, you were using a tool like Skype that no longer exists.
Any well, it was that or it was people who had to go into their
studios that they have on campusor studio that they rented out
(06:32):
and they had to deliver their messages through a video.
Now that particular company thatI originally was asked, can you
help me? They have an amazing studio set
up. So it was, you know, fully
decked out. I felt super comfortable in
there because that's what I did for my entire career.
But I realized that my comfort level in front of the camera is
(06:53):
very different than the vast majority of the world.
So it really became organic and how it grew because they say,
hey, this Karen Reach is really good at helping you be better in
this environment. And I was at the director level
and up and I was working with all these big companies.
It quickly expanded though to helping people speak with ease
across any platform. So that was on camera, but it
(07:14):
was also in person and through those virtual communication
tools. So as as you mentioned, that
became mission critical somewhere around 2020 and the
business blew up. So I remember I was doing this
webinar, I was a subject matter expert for a big video
collaboration company. And the webinar was with a guy
(07:37):
named Doctor Joe Allen, who was a meeting scientist.
And he was coming at it from themeeting science perspective.
I was coming at it from the video communication perspective.
And we were talking about what what happened to meetings in the
future. And we said, oh, in five to 10
years, you know, we will see a lot of virtual meetings with
video at their core. So all the things that we said
would happen in five to 10 yearshappened like 2 weeks later
(07:59):
because it was what happened. Seriously.
That quick of a time. Yes, two weeks later, yes, holy
crap. And so.
Talking about serendipity. I know it was crazy.
So yeah, the the decade overnight success.
But you know, I remember gettinga phone call maybe beginning, it
was probably the end of March from a, a big pharma company and
they're like, Hey, we heard about you.
(08:21):
We need to launch a product fully virtually and we need you
to train the entire enterprise. And up to that point, I've been
doing basically work with like the executive leadership team
and, and doing workshops and individual coaching.
I'm like, wow, training the whole enterprise.
That's a lot of workshops and soIA lot.
(08:41):
Of work how to? Scale How to expand So I
expanded my team. I developed an online platform
to help people improve their virtual presence and their
ability to connect through the the camera and, and the business
has just snowballed since then and it's it.
But I tell you, I feel like I amthe queen of Google when it
comes to being an entrepreneur because I the learning curve is
(09:03):
so steep from a business perspective.
And I still don't think I'm thatgreat at running a business.
I mean, I think I'm really good at coaching.
I think I'm really good at helping people to perform well
whenever they communicate. But as far as like all the other
stuff, I have a great team around me who keeps me on track
and I'm very grateful for that because I'm not a detail
(09:26):
oriented person, I'm really not.Well, I mean, if you're putting
together courses and methodologies, you have some
detail. If you're in front of a camera,
you have some detail. So there is a sense of that one.
So let's let's give our listeners a couple of quick tips
on best ways to engage with a camera because I know like I
said, a lot of women are, I don't look good.
I don't know what to talk to. It feels inauthentic.
(09:48):
So what have been kind of some of your tips and hacks for this?
So the biggest hack, which sounds so simple but it's
actually so hard, is visualizingyour viewer.
So whenever I am speaking through a camera, I'm not
thinking about speaking to a piece of glass.
I'm thinking about the person onthe other side who is receiving
(10:11):
the message. I'm thinking about what they
look like, how they might be responding to what I'm saying.
Like right now, if I'm not, do you use video?
You do use video. You don't use video for this,
Katrina, whenever you're like. Yeah, I do.
Use video. OK, so for those of you who are
also listening, so I am looking into my webcam right now.
And for those of you who are seeing this, it appears that I'm
(10:34):
making good eye contact, right? But this goes against all my
natural impulses because what I want to do is look at Katrina
exactly. But when I look at Katrina, then
it looks like I'm not making eyecontact.
It looks like I'm looking maybe to the side and down.
And that creates this barrier toconnect between you and me.
(10:57):
So what I do is I'm looking through the camera.
The camera camera is a conduit to your conversation partner.
There's no other way to reach them.
And I'm imagining you respondingto what I'm saying and even out
of my peripheral vision, like I can see you're not.
And that's like an encouragementthat somebody is actually
listening. And if you visualize your viewer
(11:19):
and think about truly talking tosomebody on the other side, it's
going to automatically make you appear more authentic and more
like yourself. Because whenever you're talking
to a webcam, we have a tendency to be a muted version of who we
are. Like sometimes you see somebody
who's normally really animated face to face and they're like,
(11:41):
you know, half their personalityhas been sucked out of them,
but. Every aquatic they've become a
very. Robotic.
Very mundane. It's, it feels like they're
like, I don't know, it's like they've gone into a coma and now
they're right. And, and there's the reason for
that is when we talk to people face to face, our body language,
our facial expressions mirror that of our conversation
(12:02):
partner. But when you're talking to a
camera, you don't get those social cues.
And so that's when you become flattened, your affect becomes
flattened. So it requires us to almost have
more energy when we're speaking through a camera lens to come
off across as more like ourselves.
So I, I also like to think aboutit as you know, if you're having
a conversation with somebody on the phone and you can tell how
(12:25):
old I am because I'm going like this.
But but whenever you are talkingto a family member or friend,
your animation is likely the same, even though you're not
able to see them as it would be if you were face to face,
because you're imagining them. You know that when you say
something sarcastic that the person on the other end is going
(12:47):
to roll their eyes and you're envisioning that.
But if you're talking to somebody, you know when you're
ordering pizza, you're probably not going to have the same level
of animation because you're not picturing that person on the
other side. So you become flatter.
Whenever saying you have to havesome imagination.
You have to, you have to have that mental.
It's the mental mindset. So I talked about the MVPS.
(13:07):
The mental mindset is critical. Literally think about somebody
on the other side. You can't see them, but you know
where they are. The the camera is the portal to
your people, and you need to pour your energy through that
portal or else you'll come across as as less a lesser
version of you. The mundane, the empty and the
(13:31):
soulless. Right, exactly, because there's
also the people who are like, I know I'm supposed to look in the
camera and then they look like they're dead in the eyes and
like they're being, you know, held hostage and they're in a
hostage video. Like you don't want that either.
So and you don't stare into the camera.
You you look away all the time when you talk to people face to
face. Same is true whenever you're
you're talking on camera. And then you can sneak those
(13:52):
peeks at you know, your people that you're talking to and and
check out their non verbals and read the room.
Agree. So this show is all about
challenging dynamics. We know we call it.
Did she really say that? So has there ever been a moment
when you spoke into a client or as a speaker or entrepreneur,
(14:13):
said something that had somebodygo, holy crap, did she really
say that? Well, I mean yes, I mean for.
One thing well. I certainly don't have I, I
don't have much of A filter, which I mean, I think that's
inherited. My mother has no filter either.
But I think it's all in tone, right?
You know, you even got to get away with saying stuff if you
(14:35):
say it in a way that comes from a place of kindness.
And so I, I try to always, like,I tell my kids, be, be a force
for good wherever you are. And I try to be a force for
good. But sometimes it's a matter of
actually telling people what they need to hear, even though
it might be a little bit painful.
So I have many examples of this,but one of the things that I
(14:58):
want. To hear an example, I'm yeah,
I'm dying to. Listen to so I was working it
was a high level executive senior VP and this person was in
the tech in the tech industry. English was not his first
language and he had to say the word digital on a regular,
(15:18):
regular basis. And so he's he's delivering
these messages both like in person and on camera.
And he would say, dig it all, dig it all the digital age, the
whatever, you know, the digital transformation.
And because he was at this loftylevel in the enterprise, nobody
would correct him. What like this, he's going to be
(15:40):
mortified, you know, because it was, it was AUS based company
and his audience was primarily US based.
And so they all know that he's saying it incorrectly.
So I was like, and I'm not goingto, I almost said the name.
I'm glad I didn't say the name. I'm like, hey, Joe, it's not
Joe. I need to talk to you about your
pronunciation of this word because it is off.
(16:02):
But we're going to figure out how we can help you to do it
differently. And So what we ended up doing
was having him write it phonetically in a way that made
sense to him in his first language.
So it, it was, I'm sure everybody around us was like.
I can't believe. She said that to him.
(16:22):
But I feel like that's so important.
It the same thing happens like when when people have bad audio
on their their virtual calls, you know, you'll have some
senior leaders who sound like they are talking from a tin can
and nobody tells them. I tell them.
I don't understand that. Like come on, audio is like the
number one. Your video could suck all
(16:45):
together, but your audio needs to be on point.
Yes. And there's actually an amazing
study that came out from Yale this year that gives some data
behind what we kind of knew anecdotally that indicates if
you have poor audio quality on avirtual call, you might be
perceived as less intelligent. People will have an automatic
(17:05):
negative response to your content that you're delivering
regardless of the merit of it, and they consider you to be less
credible. So why the heck would you allow
bad audio to happen anywhere in your sphere of influence?
So I'm it's not going to happen on my watch.
So I'm going to tell them. And I think that that's so
important and, and people appreciate it.
(17:28):
You know, it goes back to that commercial like can you hear me
now? Right.
Yeah, right. It's like if you have to say
that over and over again, that'swhy the cell industry worked on
getting better cell service, because nobody wanted to like
have this broken, crackled conversations.
So exactly, audio is is really critical, more so than even
visual. Yes, absolutely, totally agree.
(17:50):
Yeah, and the data supports thattoo.
I love the fact that they're still researching and finding
this information. So in in reference to.
So speaking dynamically is what your your business is.
Yes, Speaker Dynamics. So speaker dynamics.
So what's the difference, the biggest difference that that you
can share with us between speaking live to an audience and
(18:13):
speaking to a virtual audience? What's the biggest difference
you've seen in Present? Either doing it yourself or
helping your client overcome that gap.
So I think for speaking in person, you get your energy from
the audience. Whenever you are speaking
(18:34):
virtually, you have to generate that energy from within.
And what is so interesting from my perspective is to see people
who are in sales, for example, sales folks hated virtual and
continue to hate virtual becausethey're people, people and they
want to interact. That's how they gain their
(18:57):
energy and their, you know, they, they feed off of it.
Yeah. And they can't as easily in this
environment, at least not in theway that they've been accustomed
to. You know, their playbook that
they've been using successfully for so many years wasn't, is not
available in virtual. And it, it's so frustrating for
them and you know, but, but whatI would say, what I would
(19:21):
challenge them with is, you know, this virtual environment
is physically distant, but very intimate.
You know, so if you think about it, you're as close to your
conversation partner as your eyes to your webcam and their
screen to their eyes. So if you like translate that to
in person, you're like a couple feet away from the person you're
(19:45):
talking about. And even when you know for the
course of, of writing the books,I end up writing three books
with Joe Allen, the meeting scientist.
And, and we talked about virtualmeetings, hybrid meetings and
just meetings overall. So for, for those of you who are
entrepreneurs and you're like, Idon't think I'm running my
meetings. Well, there's help.
There's a lot of help out there.Thank God for you.
(20:06):
Well, there's still a lot of really bad meetings going on out
there, but just let me throw this metric at you.
According to Joe's research, forevery bad meeting that you have,
you create three more meetings to clean up the mess.
Nobody wants that you make like the first one good like you're
saving your calendar so much. Oh my gosh, absolutely.
(20:30):
So anyway, I, I think one of thethings that I tried to help
people understand is you just have to know how to connect this
way and not think about it as performing to a piece of glass,
but rather we're just in a conversation.
We're in this close conversationspace and you don't want to go
into presenter mode. So I can share a story about
(20:53):
this if you're interested. I am.
Totally interested in presenter mode Go.
So I was actually hosting live coverage from a big companies
conference. So I basically manned what they
called their news set. I was their news anchor of this
and it was a revolving chair of guests who would come sit down.
(21:14):
I'd interview them for like 10 minutes and they'd leave.
I, you know, I, I didn't even know who was coming up next.
I just basically hand me, they hand me notes.
Yes, exactly. So wow.
Person sat down across from me and we had just a couple minutes
just to say hello and we were having this really great
conversation. I'm like, oh, this is going to
be such a good interview. And as soon as the red tally
(21:37):
light went on, which is the light that is on top of the
camera that indicates you are alive, she went into professor
mode, which that that's what shewas as as her, you know
day-to-day job. She was a professor.
And she starts projecting her voice and doing big gestures
and, and was talking to me, who is albeit like 3 feet away from
(21:58):
her, as if I was at the back of the room, you know, seminar
room. And it was so bizarre.
And I'm like, what happened to you?
We're having this great conversation, which would have
played really well, you know, through the camera, but you
flipped a, a switch that should never have been flipped.
So, you know, and, and we can, we have a tendency to try to
(22:20):
communicate in the exact same way no matter what the platform
is. And it's very, very different.
So, you know, stay in that conversation space if you are
virtual and if you are playing to a live audience, fill that
room and understand how you can reach every person in that room.
So it's not just talking the first couple rows, it's it's
(22:42):
being inclusive of all and make sure that you are genuinely
trying to connect with people throughout the room.
I love that and I think part of that is making that eye contact
as you like look at people, especially if you're doing it
virtually. So my question for you as we
wrap up this, there's two questions I have before we we
head off. Unfortunately, I feel like we
should be able to talk for hours.
(23:03):
Nobody would listen to that Katrina.
Oh. Come on, probably not, but I
like to short switch to the point.
So Kieran, from a business perspective, you said, you know,
you're not great at business, but if there was a piece of
advice that you could impart on women in business, no matter
where they're at on their journey, what would be something
you'd want to share with them? Oh.
My goodness, surround yourself with people who do things much
(23:25):
better than you do though, I feel like.
You're asking me to surrender what I do best.
Yes. I mean, delegation is not really
my top skill either, but I recognize that especially when
the business expanded, I'm like,I can't do this all and if I try
to do it all, I'm going to mess things up.
So recognize when that tipping point is better yet, don't even
(23:49):
get to that tipping point. Find somebody who has
complementary skills and can allow you to grow in a way
that's not going to be, you know, making you pull, pull your
hair out. So that is the number one thing.
The number two thing is just look for people who have built
businesses before you successfully in a way that feels
(24:10):
authentic to you and then ask them how he did it and, and
allow them to mentor you. I've tried to do that with some
other folks in my world and, andit's so fun just to see them,
you know, grow and surpass what I've done.
So I feel like it's really important to have good
mentorship and there's a lot of women especially who are very
open to taking on that role. So, Dave, have you paid for
(24:33):
coaching and for expertise? And I have not paid for coaching
per SE, because I'm very fortunate that I can often do
barter because communication is something that I can do pretty
well and a lot of people might struggle with it.
So I'll do something along that line that actually works pretty
well. And I want to give women that
(24:55):
gift and just reiterate what Kerry just said is that
bartering is still a viable, profitable piece of your
business if you can find a valueexchange that has you both win
at the end of the day. And that means it might not be
the barter, might not be the transactional value, but it
helps increase the profit of either business.
(25:15):
Don't be afraid to do that. I think so many times we hear
that it's got to be a money exchange for money exchange.
But there is something to be said in a bargain.
Yeah. And I also, I'm, I'm a big fan
of just, you know, let's just have coffee and talk.
Like if I have like my calendar's pretty chock full,
but if I have time and, you know, we can actually just sit
(25:39):
down. I'm happy to share, you know,
the lessons that I've learned along the way, even if it's a
matter of, OK, you're going intoa contract with a really big
firm and they're going to throw all of like this boilerplate
insurance requirements at you. Here's how you get around that
if you are a solopreneur. Like things that I had to figure
out that I don't need general commercial auto insurance like.
(26:01):
Yeah, right. But I'm happy to share that and
and pretty transparent and in how I got from here to there.
I love that. So what's next for Speaker
Dynamics? Great question.
So I'm currently building out a master trainer program, which is
exciting. Yeah.
So because, you know, I have a small team, we are small but
(26:24):
mighty, but I feel like there's an opportunity to really expand
the footprint and help people ata much larger scale learn how to
communicate better. So that is what I'm I'm working
on right now. Thanks for asking.
Karen, you have your work cut out for you because if you've
met the younger generation, communication is not their
number one skill set at this moment.
(26:45):
And I'm not dissing my younger generation.
I'm just noticing it coming froma aspect of having taught into
the school industry within the last couple of years.
Yeah, it is something that I feel like we're really
struggling with is how to communicate and do it
effectively. Yeah, you know, and it's funny
because so I've, I've two boys who are actually really good
(27:05):
communicators. I and I can't, I thought, but I
feel like I did not teach them. I feel like I have the least
credibility in my own home. My my one son spoke at his
graduation. I didn't even know he was
speaking until I got there. I'm like, you didn't think about
like actually practicing in front of me.
That's great. He did amazing, but it was
funny. So I do see some folks who are
(27:27):
really standouts, but I, I, I also think they, they are at a
disadvantage because, you know, frankly, with so much that
happened related to COVID and, you know, just not being able to
develop those communication skills in the way that we were
forced to and having so much screen time that they're inward
focus as as opposed to outward focus.
(27:49):
It it's hard to get the reps in to build those skills.
Yeah, and it is it's a skill setand and it's something that I
think that, you know, we can continue to develop.
And, you know, I invite people to that are listening on it to
connect with Karen. So I know you have a really cool
special giveaway. Do you remember what it is?
It's basically the 1st 10 peoplewho send you an e-mail get from
(28:14):
this podcast, right? So they get a a free online
course with you. Oh, that's right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I think.
Oh. Lady crap, like I almost fell
over as I'm sitting here puttingthis.
So yeah, ladies that are listening, if you're one of the
1st 10, go e-mail Karen like right now.
Yes, karen@speakerdynamics.com mentioned that you listened to
(28:36):
this this podcast. Thank you for Katrina.
I actually forgot that that's what we were doing that was.
Freaking fantastic. Yes.
And and so because of the expansion of the business, we
created Speaker Dynamics University, which is our online
learning platform. And it it helps to, as
mentioned, improve virtual presence.
And there are a variety of courses on there and you can
(28:59):
select one of them and we'll getyou in there and you can
immediately begin to improve your comfort level speaking
through a webcam. And I love that because it's a
$75.00 value that you're literally giving away.
And again, this speaks to the heart of Karen and everything
we've talked about, right? It's like, let me mentor, let me
help, let me, you know, make a difference in your world because
(29:21):
you can pay it forward. And I think that's the beauty of
this is like it is a pay forward.
And Karen, your gift today has been absolutely amazing in this
conversation. So I really want to say thank
you for being on here with did she really say that?
And just having an honest, fun conversation around what it
means to speak to a camera, you know, connect with your
(29:41):
audience. And and just as women in
business, the authenticity you've shared about, you know,
building a business hasn't been the easiest thing.
And I love the fact that you sayit does require a team.
Women, stop trying to be a solopreneur or you know,
whatever you're calling yourself, trying to be
superwoman, I think and it startcollaborating, you're going to
(30:02):
find way more joy in your life. I totally agree.
Yeah, preaching to the choir here, Katrina.
Thank you. Any last words of wisdom from
you, Karen, before we wrap up this episode?
You know, the only thing I can think about, Katrina, is, you
know what I always tell people whenever they're struggling with
communicating virtually is, you know, the camera might change
everything, but it doesn't have to change you.
(30:23):
Being yourself is the key to being good on camera, being
authentic. Don't seek perfection.
So maybe you're like, I'm not camera ready, my hair's not
looking perfect and I have my makeup done.
That does not matter. It's all about communicating in
full and communicating in an authentic way.
(30:44):
Well, I love having you here, Karen.
I'm hoping to have you back if you're open to this and we can
have a whole other conversation around what you're building next
and what that looks like. So, but I just want to say thank
you for your time, your energy, your presence here today is
amazing. You are amazing.
I ladies that are listening, I know I have a little bit of a
cold running in the background. That's why you're hearing my
voice scratching today, but on this amazing episode.
(31:06):
And as always, thank you for your time and attention.
Ladies, connect with Karen. Her details are in the show
notes down below. Wherever you're listening, or if
you're on YouTube or on our website, connect with her, reach
out and take advantage of that special offer she's gifting to
you because this is an opportunity for you to improve
your speaking, your camera presence.
(31:27):
And we know as we get more and more into the digital age, you
need to be able to communicate your message very effectively.
So thank you, Karen, appreciate you, and we look forward to
seeing you and having you, all the listeners back on our next
episode.
I it's. Yeah, Oh my God.
So you just walked into our conversation on Did she really
say that? And you're gonna love this
conversation I'm having with Karen.
And I did this on purpose. I actually started this
recording a second early. So you capture that last
laughter from Karen because we're rolling over here talking
about pickleball and scoring, because sometimes we think
(00:20):
people make up scoring for games.
And I truly believe this not only in sports, but I also think
this is in card games because I started playing.
So welcome to this episode of did she really say that I am
your host Katrina, but that alsoknown as Chef Katrina and
today's episode, I promise you ladies, is going to be one that
you're thoroughly going to enjoy.
Why? Because Karen is an amazing
(00:42):
freaking four time award-winningauthor and I could go through
all of her accolades like nobody's business.
But one thing that really stood out with me when I first met
Karen and started talking with her was does anybody have like
Zoom video meeting fatigue? Anybody.
The world. The world, right So what was
(01:03):
interesting as I was going through her bio and reading
about this, you know, she's written books about how to host
better company meetings. Oh my God, do we need that
amount? All of us.
And as you're building businesses as women, one of the
things that we do have to do is get together with our teams.
And so there is this sense of always being on camera.
And what's funny is that we don't always, always know how to
(01:24):
be on camera and actually interact with people the right
way. So inside of this, what Karen's
also built is speaker dynamics. So we are going to be talking
about, ladies, how to give voiceto your business #1 how to step
out and actually how to fall in love with the camera.
Because I hear over and over again, Karen, I don't feel
(01:45):
comfortable from the camera. I don't know how to talk to the
camera and I feel like I look stupid.
And it's just about all of that.So we hear it all.
So let's start with your journeyfirst and foremost.
So you're a broadcaster turned entrepreneur like.
By accident. By accident you go from just one
(02:08):
end of the spectrum of an employee news broadcaster like
an amazing to like I'm known entrepreneur teaching speaker
dynamics and meeting. So yeah, talk to me about.
That OK, I'm gonna give you likethe the quick synopsis of how I
got from here to there because that actually makes sense if you
if you hear the trajectory. But on the face of it, you're
like, wait, how did this happen?So I began, as you mentioned, as
(02:31):
a broadcast journalist. I work primarily for NBC, which
is one of the major news networks in the United States
where I'm based, interviewed everybody from President Clinton
to Muhammad Ali, won various awards a lot.
Yeah, it's pretty cool. That was.
That's pretty good, she says. It's so nonchalant.
She's like, I just interviewed these people.
Like, how cool is that? Like there should be plaques
behind you just having all the people that you've actually
(02:52):
interviewed. I think that.
Well, that is an Emmy behind me,which I had in my attic for a
really long time until my kids are like, why do you have this
up here? I'm like, oh, I guess I should
take it out like, but I, you know, I just didn't think about
it. So anyway, so I had a pretty
successful career as a broadcastjournalist and it was
supervised, she says. Pretty successful career,
ladies. I hope you're resonating with
(03:14):
some of this because I think some of you ladies do the same
thing she does. We downplay our brilliance.
So, Carol? Brilliant.
I am very comfortable in my own skin, Katrina but I think
there's a big difference betweenconfidence and arrogance.
So if I'd be sitting here and like puffing up my own resume,
that would feel very inauthenticto me.
So. But I, I really enjoyed what I
did. But I, you know, for all the
(03:35):
days out here, you'll relate to this.
If you've had children, you knowhow priorities can shift.
So I had two kids a year apart, and that was not planned, but it
was joyful, of course. But TV news is not a business
where family life and professional life mesh together
well. So, you know, I had a situation
(03:57):
where I was called out on a big story and I was like, can't you
call somebody else? That should not be the response.
It should be me excited to go cover the big story.
And I just lost some of that because at the time I had all my
family in, we were having almostlike a family reunion.
I just wanted to spend time withthem.
And I'm like news breaks when news breaks and not on your
(04:19):
schedule. So I just got to a point where I
needed to to make a change and Idid.
So it looked like this. I left my OK, very successful
broadcast career and my pretty significant income to become and
literally this is on the relocation papers for my
husband, the trailing spouse, Karen Reed trailing spouse.
(04:43):
I was like, Dang, should I get the business card?
That is fantastic. So, but I did it just because
I'm like, I've got to come up with a new chapter in life.
So what happened actually prettyquickly is I ended up doing a
lot of on camera spokesperson work where I was hired by
whatever company wanted to hire me to be their on camera persona
(05:07):
and did it well and got a lot ofuptake on that.
And it was interesting because one of my early adopters was
actually a really big tech company and one of their
executives who I had been alongside of on camera said to
me afterwards, she's like Karen,I, I'm doing all these videos.
(05:29):
I hate how I'm coming across, can you help me do it better?
And I'm like, huh, can I, I don't know, I, I know what I do,
but can I translate it into a methodology that other people
can adopt? And so I, I worked on it.
I came up with something called the MVPS of On Camera Success,
which is the mental mindset, vocal variety and physical
(05:50):
factors and apply that curriculum to a new business
which is Speaker Dynamics. So it began helping people to be
better on camera communicators. So that was like in 2010.
This was well before Zoom was something that we just.
A decade before, like the rest of the world, caught up with
(06:10):
Zoom. Right, right.
So I started teaching people whowere usually at the executive
leadership level because they were delivering messages via
video to global teams. Global.
Oh, you were using a tool like Skype that no longer exists.
Any well, it was that or it was people who had to go into their
studios that they have on campusor studio that they rented out
(06:32):
and they had to deliver their messages through a video.
Now that particular company thatI originally was asked, can you
help me? They have an amazing studio set
up. So it was, you know, fully
decked out. I felt super comfortable in
there because that's what I did for my entire career.
But I realized that my comfort level in front of the camera is
(06:53):
very different than the vast majority of the world.
So it really became organic and how it grew because they say,
hey, this Karen Reach is really good at helping you be better in
this environment. And I was at the director level
and up and I was working with all these big companies.
It quickly expanded though to helping people speak with ease
across any platform. So that was on camera, but it
(07:14):
was also in person and through those virtual communication
tools. So as as you mentioned, that
became mission critical somewhere around 2020 and the
business blew up. So I remember I was doing this
webinar, I was a subject matter expert for a big video
collaboration company. And the webinar was with a guy
(07:37):
named Doctor Joe Allen, who was a meeting scientist.
And he was coming at it from themeeting science perspective.
I was coming at it from the video communication perspective.
And we were talking about what what happened to meetings in the
future. And we said, oh, in five to 10
years, you know, we will see a lot of virtual meetings with
video at their core. So all the things that we said
would happen in five to 10 yearshappened like 2 weeks later
(07:59):
because it was what happened. Seriously.
That quick of a time. Yes, two weeks later, yes, holy
crap. And so.
Talking about serendipity. I know it was crazy.
So yeah, the the decade overnight success.
But you know, I remember gettinga phone call maybe beginning, it
was probably the end of March from a, a big pharma company and
they're like, Hey, we heard about you.
(08:21):
We need to launch a product fully virtually and we need you
to train the entire enterprise. And up to that point, I've been
doing basically work with like the executive leadership team
and, and doing workshops and individual coaching.
I'm like, wow, training the whole enterprise.
That's a lot of workshops and soIA lot.
(08:41):
Of work how to? Scale How to expand So I
expanded my team. I developed an online platform
to help people improve their virtual presence and their
ability to connect through the the camera and, and the business
has just snowballed since then and it's it.
But I tell you, I feel like I amthe queen of Google when it
comes to being an entrepreneur because I the learning curve is
(09:03):
so steep from a business perspective.
And I still don't think I'm thatgreat at running a business.
I mean, I think I'm really good at coaching.
I think I'm really good at helping people to perform well
whenever they communicate. But as far as like all the other
stuff, I have a great team around me who keeps me on track
and I'm very grateful for that because I'm not a detail
(09:26):
oriented person, I'm really not.Well, I mean, if you're putting
together courses and methodologies, you have some
detail. If you're in front of a camera,
you have some detail. So there is a sense of that one.
So let's let's give our listeners a couple of quick tips
on best ways to engage with a camera because I know like I
said, a lot of women are, I don't look good.
I don't know what to talk to. It feels inauthentic.
(09:48):
So what have been kind of some of your tips and hacks for this?
So the biggest hack, which sounds so simple but it's
actually so hard, is visualizingyour viewer.
So whenever I am speaking through a camera, I'm not
thinking about speaking to a piece of glass.
I'm thinking about the person onthe other side who is receiving
(10:11):
the message. I'm thinking about what they
look like, how they might be responding to what I'm saying.
Like right now, if I'm not, do you use video?
You do use video. You don't use video for this,
Katrina, whenever you're like. Yeah, I do.
Use video. OK, so for those of you who are
also listening, so I am looking into my webcam right now.
And for those of you who are seeing this, it appears that I'm
(10:34):
making good eye contact, right? But this goes against all my
natural impulses because what I want to do is look at Katrina
exactly. But when I look at Katrina, then
it looks like I'm not making eyecontact.
It looks like I'm looking maybe to the side and down.
And that creates this barrier toconnect between you and me.
(10:57):
So what I do is I'm looking through the camera.
The camera camera is a conduit to your conversation partner.
There's no other way to reach them.
And I'm imagining you respondingto what I'm saying and even out
of my peripheral vision, like I can see you're not.
And that's like an encouragementthat somebody is actually
listening. And if you visualize your viewer
(11:19):
and think about truly talking tosomebody on the other side, it's
going to automatically make you appear more authentic and more
like yourself. Because whenever you're talking
to a webcam, we have a tendency to be a muted version of who we
are. Like sometimes you see somebody
who's normally really animated face to face and they're like,
(11:41):
you know, half their personalityhas been sucked out of them,
but. Every aquatic they've become a
very. Robotic.
Very mundane. It's, it feels like they're
like, I don't know, it's like they've gone into a coma and now
they're right. And, and there's the reason for
that is when we talk to people face to face, our body language,
our facial expressions mirror that of our conversation
(12:02):
partner. But when you're talking to a
camera, you don't get those social cues.
And so that's when you become flattened, your affect becomes
flattened. So it requires us to almost have
more energy when we're speaking through a camera lens to come
off across as more like ourselves.
So I, I also like to think aboutit as you know, if you're having
a conversation with somebody on the phone and you can tell how
(12:25):
old I am because I'm going like this.
But but whenever you are talkingto a family member or friend,
your animation is likely the same, even though you're not
able to see them as it would be if you were face to face,
because you're imagining them. You know that when you say
something sarcastic that the person on the other end is going
(12:47):
to roll their eyes and you're envisioning that.
But if you're talking to somebody, you know when you're
ordering pizza, you're probably not going to have the same level
of animation because you're not picturing that person on the
other side. So you become flatter.
Whenever saying you have to havesome imagination.
You have to, you have to have that mental.
It's the mental mindset. So I talked about the MVPS.
(13:07):
The mental mindset is critical. Literally think about somebody
on the other side. You can't see them, but you know
where they are. The the camera is the portal to
your people, and you need to pour your energy through that
portal or else you'll come across as as less a lesser
version of you. The mundane, the empty and the
(13:31):
soulless. Right, exactly, because there's
also the people who are like, I know I'm supposed to look in the
camera and then they look like they're dead in the eyes and
like they're being, you know, held hostage and they're in a
hostage video. Like you don't want that either.
So and you don't stare into the camera.
You you look away all the time when you talk to people face to
face. Same is true whenever you're
you're talking on camera. And then you can sneak those
(13:52):
peeks at you know, your people that you're talking to and and
check out their non verbals and read the room.
Agree. So this show is all about
challenging dynamics. We know we call it.
Did she really say that? So has there ever been a moment
when you spoke into a client or as a speaker or entrepreneur,
(14:13):
said something that had somebodygo, holy crap, did she really
say that? Well, I mean yes, I mean for.
One thing well. I certainly don't have I, I
don't have much of A filter, which I mean, I think that's
inherited. My mother has no filter either.
But I think it's all in tone, right?
You know, you even got to get away with saying stuff if you
(14:35):
say it in a way that comes from a place of kindness.
And so I, I try to always, like,I tell my kids, be, be a force
for good wherever you are. And I try to be a force for
good. But sometimes it's a matter of
actually telling people what they need to hear, even though
it might be a little bit painful.
So I have many examples of this,but one of the things that I
(14:58):
want. To hear an example, I'm yeah,
I'm dying to. Listen to so I was working it
was a high level executive senior VP and this person was in
the tech in the tech industry. English was not his first
language and he had to say the word digital on a regular,
(15:18):
regular basis. And so he's he's delivering
these messages both like in person and on camera.
And he would say, dig it all, dig it all the digital age, the
whatever, you know, the digital transformation.
And because he was at this loftylevel in the enterprise, nobody
would correct him. What like this, he's going to be
(15:40):
mortified, you know, because it was, it was AUS based company
and his audience was primarily US based.
And so they all know that he's saying it incorrectly.
So I was like, and I'm not goingto, I almost said the name.
I'm glad I didn't say the name. I'm like, hey, Joe, it's not
Joe. I need to talk to you about your
pronunciation of this word because it is off.
(16:02):
But we're going to figure out how we can help you to do it
differently. And So what we ended up doing
was having him write it phonetically in a way that made
sense to him in his first language.
So it, it was, I'm sure everybody around us was like.
I can't believe. She said that to him.
(16:22):
But I feel like that's so important.
It the same thing happens like when when people have bad audio
on their their virtual calls, you know, you'll have some
senior leaders who sound like they are talking from a tin can
and nobody tells them. I tell them.
I don't understand that. Like come on, audio is like the
number one. Your video could suck all
(16:45):
together, but your audio needs to be on point.
Yes. And there's actually an amazing
study that came out from Yale this year that gives some data
behind what we kind of knew anecdotally that indicates if
you have poor audio quality on avirtual call, you might be
perceived as less intelligent. People will have an automatic
(17:05):
negative response to your content that you're delivering
regardless of the merit of it, and they consider you to be less
credible. So why the heck would you allow
bad audio to happen anywhere in your sphere of influence?
So I'm it's not going to happen on my watch.
So I'm going to tell them. And I think that that's so
important and, and people appreciate it.
(17:28):
You know, it goes back to that commercial like can you hear me
now? Right.
Yeah, right. It's like if you have to say
that over and over again, that'swhy the cell industry worked on
getting better cell service, because nobody wanted to like
have this broken, crackled conversations.
So exactly, audio is is really critical, more so than even
visual. Yes, absolutely, totally agree.
(17:50):
Yeah, and the data supports thattoo.
I love the fact that they're still researching and finding
this information. So in in reference to.
So speaking dynamically is what your your business is.
Yes, Speaker Dynamics. So speaker dynamics.
So what's the difference, the biggest difference that that you
can share with us between speaking live to an audience and
(18:13):
speaking to a virtual audience? What's the biggest difference
you've seen in Present? Either doing it yourself or
helping your client overcome that gap.
So I think for speaking in person, you get your energy from
the audience. Whenever you are speaking
(18:34):
virtually, you have to generate that energy from within.
And what is so interesting from my perspective is to see people
who are in sales, for example, sales folks hated virtual and
continue to hate virtual becausethey're people, people and they
want to interact. That's how they gain their
(18:57):
energy and their, you know, they, they feed off of it.
Yeah. And they can't as easily in this
environment, at least not in theway that they've been accustomed
to. You know, their playbook that
they've been using successfully for so many years wasn't, is not
available in virtual. And it, it's so frustrating for
them and you know, but, but whatI would say, what I would
(19:21):
challenge them with is, you know, this virtual environment
is physically distant, but very intimate.
You know, so if you think about it, you're as close to your
conversation partner as your eyes to your webcam and their
screen to their eyes. So if you like translate that to
in person, you're like a couple feet away from the person you're
(19:45):
talking about. And even when you know for the
course of, of writing the books,I end up writing three books
with Joe Allen, the meeting scientist.
And, and we talked about virtualmeetings, hybrid meetings and
just meetings overall. So for, for those of you who are
entrepreneurs and you're like, Idon't think I'm running my
meetings. Well, there's help.
There's a lot of help out there.Thank God for you.
(20:06):
Well, there's still a lot of really bad meetings going on out
there, but just let me throw this metric at you.
According to Joe's research, forevery bad meeting that you have,
you create three more meetings to clean up the mess.
Nobody wants that you make like the first one good like you're
saving your calendar so much. Oh my gosh, absolutely.
(20:30):
So anyway, I, I think one of thethings that I tried to help
people understand is you just have to know how to connect this
way and not think about it as performing to a piece of glass,
but rather we're just in a conversation.
We're in this close conversationspace and you don't want to go
into presenter mode. So I can share a story about
(20:53):
this if you're interested. I am.
Totally interested in presenter mode Go.
So I was actually hosting live coverage from a big companies
conference. So I basically manned what they
called their news set. I was their news anchor of this
and it was a revolving chair of guests who would come sit down.
(21:14):
I'd interview them for like 10 minutes and they'd leave.
I, you know, I, I didn't even know who was coming up next.
I just basically hand me, they hand me notes.
Yes, exactly. So wow.
Person sat down across from me and we had just a couple minutes
just to say hello and we were having this really great
conversation. I'm like, oh, this is going to
be such a good interview. And as soon as the red tally
(21:37):
light went on, which is the light that is on top of the
camera that indicates you are alive, she went into professor
mode, which that that's what shewas as as her, you know
day-to-day job. She was a professor.
And she starts projecting her voice and doing big gestures
and, and was talking to me, who is albeit like 3 feet away from
(21:58):
her, as if I was at the back of the room, you know, seminar
room. And it was so bizarre.
And I'm like, what happened to you?
We're having this great conversation, which would have
played really well, you know, through the camera, but you
flipped a, a switch that should never have been flipped.
So, you know, and, and we can, we have a tendency to try to
(22:20):
communicate in the exact same way no matter what the platform
is. And it's very, very different.
So, you know, stay in that conversation space if you are
virtual and if you are playing to a live audience, fill that
room and understand how you can reach every person in that room.
So it's not just talking the first couple rows, it's it's
(22:42):
being inclusive of all and make sure that you are genuinely
trying to connect with people throughout the room.
I love that and I think part of that is making that eye contact
as you like look at people, especially if you're doing it
virtually. So my question for you as we
wrap up this, there's two questions I have before we we
head off. Unfortunately, I feel like we
should be able to talk for hours.
(23:03):
Nobody would listen to that Katrina.
Oh. Come on, probably not, but I
like to short switch to the point.
So Kieran, from a business perspective, you said, you know,
you're not great at business, but if there was a piece of
advice that you could impart on women in business, no matter
where they're at on their journey, what would be something
you'd want to share with them? Oh.
My goodness, surround yourself with people who do things much
(23:25):
better than you do though, I feel like.
You're asking me to surrender what I do best.
Yes. I mean, delegation is not really
my top skill either, but I recognize that especially when
the business expanded, I'm like,I can't do this all and if I try
to do it all, I'm going to mess things up.
So recognize when that tipping point is better yet, don't even
(23:49):
get to that tipping point. Find somebody who has
complementary skills and can allow you to grow in a way
that's not going to be, you know, making you pull, pull your
hair out. So that is the number one thing.
The number two thing is just look for people who have built
businesses before you successfully in a way that feels
(24:10):
authentic to you and then ask them how he did it and, and
allow them to mentor you. I've tried to do that with some
other folks in my world and, andit's so fun just to see them,
you know, grow and surpass what I've done.
So I feel like it's really important to have good
mentorship and there's a lot of women especially who are very
open to taking on that role. So, Dave, have you paid for
(24:33):
coaching and for expertise? And I have not paid for coaching
per SE, because I'm very fortunate that I can often do
barter because communication is something that I can do pretty
well and a lot of people might struggle with it.
So I'll do something along that line that actually works pretty
well. And I want to give women that
(24:55):
gift and just reiterate what Kerry just said is that
bartering is still a viable, profitable piece of your
business if you can find a valueexchange that has you both win
at the end of the day. And that means it might not be
the barter, might not be the transactional value, but it
helps increase the profit of either business.
(25:15):
Don't be afraid to do that. I think so many times we hear
that it's got to be a money exchange for money exchange.
But there is something to be said in a bargain.
Yeah. And I also, I'm, I'm a big fan
of just, you know, let's just have coffee and talk.
Like if I have like my calendar's pretty chock full,
but if I have time and, you know, we can actually just sit
(25:39):
down. I'm happy to share, you know,
the lessons that I've learned along the way, even if it's a
matter of, OK, you're going intoa contract with a really big
firm and they're going to throw all of like this boilerplate
insurance requirements at you. Here's how you get around that
if you are a solopreneur. Like things that I had to figure
out that I don't need general commercial auto insurance like.
(26:01):
Yeah, right. But I'm happy to share that and
and pretty transparent and in how I got from here to there.
I love that. So what's next for Speaker
Dynamics? Great question.
So I'm currently building out a master trainer program, which is
exciting. Yeah.
So because, you know, I have a small team, we are small but
(26:24):
mighty, but I feel like there's an opportunity to really expand
the footprint and help people ata much larger scale learn how to
communicate better. So that is what I'm I'm working
on right now. Thanks for asking.
Karen, you have your work cut out for you because if you've
met the younger generation, communication is not their
number one skill set at this moment.
(26:45):
And I'm not dissing my younger generation.
I'm just noticing it coming froma aspect of having taught into
the school industry within the last couple of years.
Yeah, it is something that I feel like we're really
struggling with is how to communicate and do it
effectively. Yeah, you know, and it's funny
because so I've, I've two boys who are actually really good
(27:05):
communicators. I and I can't, I thought, but I
feel like I did not teach them. I feel like I have the least
credibility in my own home. My my one son spoke at his
graduation. I didn't even know he was
speaking until I got there. I'm like, you didn't think about
like actually practicing in front of me.
That's great. He did amazing, but it was
funny. So I do see some folks who are
(27:27):
really standouts, but I, I, I also think they, they are at a
disadvantage because, you know, frankly, with so much that
happened related to COVID and, you know, just not being able to
develop those communication skills in the way that we were
forced to and having so much screen time that they're inward
focus as as opposed to outward focus.
(27:49):
It it's hard to get the reps in to build those skills.
Yeah, and it is it's a skill setand and it's something that I
think that, you know, we can continue to develop.
And, you know, I invite people to that are listening on it to
connect with Karen. So I know you have a really cool
special giveaway. Do you remember what it is?
It's basically the 1st 10 peoplewho send you an e-mail get from
(28:14):
this podcast, right? So they get a a free online
course with you. Oh, that's right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I think.
Oh. Lady crap, like I almost fell
over as I'm sitting here puttingthis.
So yeah, ladies that are listening, if you're one of the
1st 10, go e-mail Karen like right now.
Yes, karen@speakerdynamics.com mentioned that you listened to
(28:36):
this this podcast. Thank you for Katrina.
I actually forgot that that's what we were doing that was.
Freaking fantastic. Yes.
And and so because of the expansion of the business, we
created Speaker Dynamics University, which is our online
learning platform. And it it helps to, as
mentioned, improve virtual presence.
And there are a variety of courses on there and you can
(28:59):
select one of them and we'll getyou in there and you can
immediately begin to improve your comfort level speaking
through a webcam. And I love that because it's a
$75.00 value that you're literally giving away.
And again, this speaks to the heart of Karen and everything
we've talked about, right? It's like, let me mentor, let me
help, let me, you know, make a difference in your world because
(29:21):
you can pay it forward. And I think that's the beauty of
this is like it is a pay forward.
And Karen, your gift today has been absolutely amazing in this
conversation. So I really want to say thank
you for being on here with did she really say that?
And just having an honest, fun conversation around what it
means to speak to a camera, you know, connect with your
(29:41):
audience. And and just as women in
business, the authenticity you've shared about, you know,
building a business hasn't been the easiest thing.
And I love the fact that you sayit does require a team.
Women, stop trying to be a solopreneur or you know,
whatever you're calling yourself, trying to be
superwoman, I think and it startcollaborating, you're going to
(30:02):
find way more joy in your life. I totally agree.
Yeah, preaching to the choir here, Katrina.
Thank you. Any last words of wisdom from
you, Karen, before we wrap up this episode?
You know, the only thing I can think about, Katrina, is, you
know what I always tell people whenever they're struggling with
communicating virtually is, you know, the camera might change
everything, but it doesn't have to change you.
(30:23):
Being yourself is the key to being good on camera, being
authentic. Don't seek perfection.
So maybe you're like, I'm not camera ready, my hair's not
looking perfect and I have my makeup done.
That does not matter. It's all about communicating in
full and communicating in an authentic way.
(30:44):
Well, I love having you here, Karen.
I'm hoping to have you back if you're open to this and we can
have a whole other conversation around what you're building next
and what that looks like. So, but I just want to say thank
you for your time, your energy, your presence here today is
amazing. You are amazing.
I ladies that are listening, I know I have a little bit of a
cold running in the background. That's why you're hearing my
voice scratching today, but on this amazing episode.
(31:06):
And as always, thank you for your time and attention.
Ladies, connect with Karen. Her details are in the show
notes down below. Wherever you're listening, or if
you're on YouTube or on our website, connect with her, reach
out and take advantage of that special offer she's gifting to
you because this is an opportunity for you to improve
your speaking, your camera presence.
(31:27):
And we know as we get more and more into the digital age, you
need to be able to communicate your message very effectively.
So thank you, Karen, appreciate you, and we look forward to
seeing you and having you, all the listeners back on our next
episode.
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