From Shy to Confident: Philip Sessions on Communication Mastery and Confidence

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Ever felt like your shyness is holding you back from becoming a confident speaker? This episode is for you! Host Tim Newman sits down with Philip Sessions, a public speaking coach who transformed from a shy child into a powerful communicator.  

Philip shares his personal journey and the lessons he learned along the way, from the power of storytelling to the role of self-development in building confidence. They explore how effective communication can enhance personal and professional success, why listening is key to better conversations, and how networking can help unlock new opportunities.  

Philip also discusses the unexpected connection between engineering and coaching, emphasizing that structured thinking and problem-solving skills can help anyone become a more effective speaker. He highlights the importance of practice, preparation, and mindset in overcoming fear and delivering impactful messages.  

Key Takeaways:  

• Confidence is built through action – Start speaking, even if it feels uncomfortable at first.  
• Storytelling is a superpower – It helps make your message more engaging and memorable. 
• Listening is just as important as speaking – Understanding your audience makes your message more impactful.  
• Networking and personal connections matter – Building genuine relationships can open doors in ways you never imagined.  
• Silence is powerful – Learn to embrace pauses instead of filling them with “um” and “ah.” 
• Engineers can make great coaches – Their problem-solving mindset translates well into communication coaching.

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Episode Transcript

Tim (00:08):
Welcome to Speaking with Confidence, a podcast that's
here to help you unlock thepower of effective public
speaking.
I'm your host, tim Newman, andI'm excited to take you on a
journey to become a betterpublic speaker.
Today's guest is PhilipSessions.
He's a Christian husband, girldad and the most persistent
person you'll ever meet.
Philip went from being the shy,quiet guy to one who commands

(00:29):
any room he enters.
Through his persistent effortsand transformative communication
methods, he has helped hundredsof business owners build
confidence and clarity in theirspeaking, which has transformed
their lives and businesses.
Philip is an engineer by degree.
He learned in his earlycorporate years the power of
communication and has leveragedthat to do more of what he truly
enjoys, which is helping people.

(00:50):
So welcome to the show and acouple things.
Number one I can't believe thatyou were ever shy and I love
that you're a girl dad, sowelcome.
Welcome to the show.

Philip (01:01):
Yeah, tim, thanks for having me.
And it's funny with my in-laws.
Same thing as my, especially myoldest one.
She's just super outgoing.
And so they say, oh, just likePhillip.
And it's funny because my momshe's like no, he was very quiet
.
Actually I had three sets oftubes in my ears by the age of
three and so I actually went tospecial ed instead of pre-K

(01:23):
because I couldn't hear andtherefore I couldn't speak, and
I graduated after like sixmonths.
But just kind of funny storythere, if you will, because I
couldn't speak or I didn't speakand being shy like that wasn't
me when I was young.
So now people see me and theyknow where you were shy or
anything like that.

Tim (01:40):
And then seeing my oldest daughter and how outgoing she is
, it's like just like philip andlike well, that wasn't me when
I was serving, well, that that'sinteresting, that the tubes in
the ears and and how thataffects you know, um, our, our
infant development and beingable to speak, um, and that that

(02:00):
actually does say, that doesbring a lot in terms of, you
know, our personalities andthose types of things,
especially at that young age.

Philip (02:09):
Yeah, but did you have brothers and sisters?
Yeah, I've got an older sisterand a younger brother.
And one thing I was going tomention there with the
development my mom's talkedabout it.
Obviously I didn't know, but Ihad started kind of talking and
then I actually regressed in mytalking because of not being
able to hear and, based on whatthe doctor said, it just sounded
like more like that's whatpeople when they talk to me.

(02:33):
It sounded like I couldn'tunderstand it or couldn't hear
it because of all the fluid inmy ear.
So I mean I just think aboutfrom our perspective, anything
that happens with our kids.
It's like, oh man, do we getworried?
I can't imagine for my parentsand God bless those people that
and I'm sure it's because youlove your child, you know you
had the special needs child andyou're dealing with that and I

(02:54):
hope I never deal with that.
But I know if I have thathappen with my children, that I
will still love them the sameway and everything.
But I can imagine as a parenthaving what you quote, unquote
normal kid and all of a suddenthey're regressing and it's like
are they becoming special needs?
Like what's going on here, andyou get worried about your child
and everything, so I can onlyimagine how my parents felt

(03:15):
during that time as well.

Tim (03:18):
Yeah, I've got a special needs brother.
He's my youngest brother, he'sspecial needs, um, but I mean
that's all I've ever known withhim and I know I kind of know
the story there and and some ofthe things that happened and but
I mean he, he's just my brotherand that's, that is what it is.
But my oldest grandson was kindof you know I don't know the

(03:41):
full story with you, but it'skind of in your boat just had to
get tubes in his ears for someof the same reasons.
And you can really see hisdevelopment in terms of
communication from the time hegot his tubes in his ears, which
I believe has been about sixmonths now, to now how much more
he is responsive and talkingand really interacting really

(04:04):
with everybody.

Philip (04:06):
Yeah, and to kind of bring that to adults.
I think it's the same thingwhen we learn how to actually
communicate.
I know for myself when Istarted learning how to
communicate better and focusedon you know what is the other
person saying, what do I feellike they're trying to get from
this conversation, or justlistening to them and and how
they feel about the situation orwhat they're saying, rather

(04:27):
than listening to respond, Istarted noticing that
conversations got a lot betterand so that's kind of the tubes
in the ear kind of thing.
We tend to do, that you know,we got the, I guess, cotton in
our ears, cotton balls, we don'tlisten, I'm not listening and
I'm just going to say what Iwant to say, kind of thing.
And those conversations andthey're not really even a
conversation because of one sideit always go South.

(04:50):
There's such poor interactionswith somebody because we're not
listening.
So we, you know we need tolisten more in order to
communicate better.

Tim (04:59):
Yeah, it's, it's, it's funny, that's.
It's kind of kind of ourpolitical situation right now.
Right, Nobody wants to listen toanybody else, and what I tell
people is I say, if you justactually be open to listening to
what somebody else has to say,you may actually learn something
.
You know, you may jog your brainto think about something from a
different perspective.
You may actually be able tochange somebody else's mind if

(05:21):
you're listening to what they'resaying.
And you know that goes reallyacross the board in pretty much
anything that we do.
You know, as me as an educator,and I try and tell my students
these types of things if youlisten to you know your
classmate, if you listen to me,if you listen to other educators

(05:43):
, and then you go and you go outinto the workforce and maybe
what I say doesn't necessarilyfit, and then you're going to
actually maybe learn somethingfor the way this person over
here is doing it and or maybeyou can say I've tried it this
way or what have you.
But you know, if we don'tactually listen to what other
people are saying, this isreally what we get in society,

(06:05):
is what we have right now.

Philip (06:06):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And then the other side or twoand this is an example of
somebody that I know they grewup with some friends in school
and one time because they hadjust heard at church and
everything that, hey, you haveto be baptized in order to be
saved and if you're not baptizedyou're going to hell, and all

(06:27):
this stuff, and as a child theydidn't understand how to have
that conversation.
But because they basically toldtheir friends because they
weren't baptized they were goingto hell, at a younger age their
friends wouldn't talk.
When religion came up theycouldn't talk to their friends
anymore.
And it's a sad thing in that,not just with religion, I mean

(07:00):
religion, politics, I think, arethose big touchy subjects, if
you will, that a lot of peopledon't want to talk about and get
easily offended by, which awhole different subject on that
of why I think that is.
But when you have conversationslike that, you never know how
detrimental that is to the whatcould have been a relationship
that you have with somebody.
So the way we communicate, evenif we believe in something,
even if it is completely true,the way we communicate it to
somebody, we have to be gentlewith that truth, especially
something like if we go back tothe religious thing like, hey,

(07:20):
you're going to hell because youdon't believe this way or you
didn't do this thing thing.
If we go back to the religiousthing like, hey, you're going to
hell because you don't believethis way or you didn't do this
thing, whoa, like that's.
That's a harsh way to say it.
Even if it is true, we stillhave to say it in a loving and
kind way and then help theperson come to understand that.
I mean and of course there aretimes where it's like Nope, this
is it, this is what you have todo.

(07:40):
It's cut and dry and I go backto my manufacturing days with
that and it's all about that.
But there's time, there's atime and a place for that.
But the more we can just learnhow to communicate the way the
other person wants tocommunicate, the better it's
going to be.

Tim (07:54):
Exactly.
And you know, if you have to bebaptized, be saved.
I would spend my entire life atthe at the altar, being
baptized.
I mean, you know we do stupidstuff all the time and you know,
and it's funny, just you knowthat's part of being human,

(08:14):
right, yeah, and accepting itand owning it and moving on, but
it's I don't know.
So let's talk about yourspeaking journey.
So you know, I learnedsomething already the tubes.
But you know, how did youreally transition from being shy
and quiet to where you aretoday?

(08:35):
I mean, talk about the wholegamut, the good, the bad, and
when you actually realized thatyou were really good at this,
because you know your energy andyour presence, you know, is big
.
I mean, I've seen you, you andI have communicated in the past,

(08:57):
I've seen you in other videosand I've listened to other
podcasts that you've done, andwhen you, when you start talking
, you can feel that thatpresence, you can, you can feel
that energy.
So so talk about your, yourentire journey.

Philip (09:10):
So my entire journey.
So we go back there.
I guess three years old orwhatever, with the tubes.
Fast forward to third gradeactually is where I can really
think back.
I've never actually shared thatthat tube story, so I guess it
goes back further than Inormally talk about.
I've never actually shared thattube story, so I guess it goes
back further than I normallytalk about.
But third grade I missed a dayof school.
I come back the next day andbecause I was so quiet, my

(09:30):
teacher I said hey, what did Imiss?
She looks at me and I stilldon't know to this day if she
really meant it or not.
But she said you weren't here.
Like that's how quiet I was,that she counted me as being
there, being present in theclass, even though I missed a
day of school.
Fast forward to high school.
I started kind of opening up tofriends.
Only Like I'd be more talkativewith friends and everything

(09:52):
like that, but outside of likemy friends group I really
wouldn't talk too much.
Going into college, I wanted tomake a change there.
I wanted to be more outgoing.
So I started being moreoutgoing to people, except for
when I wanted to romanticallypursue a woman, and then I was
still shy and introverted andwouldn't talk to women in that
manner, trying to pursue them togo on dates and stuff like that

(10:14):
, and so it was still theshyness.
And then really it was two jobs,kind of back to back.
So I had one in oil and gas inthe Houston Texas area where I
was doing all of thecommissioning on these LAX skids
, which is lease automaticcustody transfer basically
counts the amount of oil thatmoves from customer A to
customer B.
I was going up to North Dakotastarting these up and yet I was

(10:37):
getting called a young, dumbengineer.
I was the one getting blamedfor all this stuff and I ended
up getting laid off from thatjob but I just felt so little
there.
And then I ended up going toanother job in Georgia and at
that company it was another oiland gas company I would go into
these engineering meetings and Iwas like one of four engineers
and I had 90% of the talkingtime in the meetings because of

(11:01):
all the projects I was workingon.
Now there were a lot likesmaller projects versus the
other engineers, but still inthe hour meeting.
I'd probably speak for 50minutes of the hour long meeting
every single week.
And yet my manager would talkdown to me time and time and
time again.
And that was finally a catalystfor me, because I went, because
it was a small company.

(11:21):
So I went to the president,which is basically his manager,
and talked about it, like hey,what can I do?
I just don't know what to do.
I feel like I can't speak up.
Anytime I say anything, I'mbelittled and all these things.
And basically the president waslike well, I'll talk to him,
but unfortunately you're justgoing to deal with people that
are assholes.
And I'm like wow, okay, welcometo life, right, people that are

(11:44):
assholes.

Tim (11:44):
And I'm like wow, okay, that doesn't make me feel good,
yeah, exactly I mean, I guessthat's true, but it was just
kind of this, enough's enough.

Philip (11:56):
And I started getting into self-development and had
been to a couple of businessconferences, but it was like,
finally, enough was enough.
And so I decided, from thattime that job on and this was
2017, 2016, 2017, somewhere inthere that was going to make a
change.
And at that same time, likedoing self-development, I
thought about doing a podcast.
I kind of put it off, andthat's where the journey kind of
started to change for me, causeI went, I moved back to green,

(12:19):
I moved to Greenville, southCarolina, went to Georgia, moved
back to Greenville, southCarolina, and I had went to this
networking event and asked themhey, how do you start a podcast
?
Cause I did, like everybodyelse, I had the podcast, I had
an idea, I didn't start it.
And so I asked them and the guysays, well, just start it, just
do it.
And I'm like, yeah, and then,but then of course he gave me
some good advice, luckily, butit was more yeah, just do it,

(12:40):
which is really the best adviceyou can get.
And so finally, I started justdoing it.
And so, through this, beingtired, sick and tired of being
put down going to these businessconferences and seeing these
speakers and how they couldchange a whole room.
They changed my life and theychanged the whole room.
And then starting my ownpodcast was really the beginning

(13:01):
of that journey for me toreally get into it.
So this was again 2017 timeframe, so it's been almost eight
years since I started doing myfirst podcast and everything and
so from that point forward,just doing podcasts basically
weekly since then I've had sometransitions and stuff different
podcasts and things of thatnature and getting on

(13:22):
conversations like thisnetworking of stuff different
podcasts and things of thatnature and getting on
conversations like thisnetworking.
Just finding ways to put myselfin front of people, to have a
conversation one-on-one or infront of a groups has really
helped me transform and kind ofthe catalyst for me to really
take it to the next level wasactually an opportunity I had at
BMW manufacturing, doingleadership and transformation,
and so they actually sucked mein doing presentation skills and

(13:46):
that was what kind ofsolidified for me there's
something here.
Other people need this as well.
It's not just me and I hadwanted to start to change lives
and do more, which is why Iwanted to become a speaker, so I
could speak to the masses, butwhenever BMW identified that
need for their company, Irealized this is something I
could do outside of this andthat was kind of the catalyst

(14:08):
for me to really start helpingother people and not just myself
with that speaking.
So that's it.
Try to be condensed, but thatis really the journey for me to
get into speaking and now beingon awesome podcasts like yours.

Tim (14:23):
Well, I appreciate that.
You know I tell people I'm justa regular guy.
You know I don't say big words,I'm really kind of simple and
direct.
And you know, as I listen toyour story, there's a lot to
unpack but there's also a lot tolearn.

(14:44):
I mean from just from aleadership perspective.
You know your, your previousmanagers and even the owner of
the of the company.
You know being a leader isn'tjust, you know, owning something
or being in charge of people toteach and mentor and, for
whatever reason, they didn'thave the knowledge, didn't have

(15:05):
the skills, didn't have the timewhat have you to mentor you?
And that didn't happen.
And I think that, for anybodywho's listening, you know
anytime that you're in aposition where you need a mentor
and the people that aresupposed to be doing it aren't
there, search it out.

(15:26):
There's a ton of people outthere that are so willing to
help and they can be communitybased, they can be
professionally based People.
Generally people are verywilling to help and they want to
help.
But you have to be willing toask that question.
You have to be willing to putyourself out there and say I
need help, can you help me withthis?

(15:46):
Or what have you?
And I think some of the thingsthat you're doing, especially
when you're put in charge ofleadership development in BMW,
which you know at the plant thatyou're at, that's a pretty big
ask, it's a pretty big task.
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot ofpeople that are working there
that are looking up to you andobviously you know you're you're

(16:07):
doing a good job.
What?
What are you still introvertedon a regular?
You know, in your normal life,because you know, when we do
these things, yes, we're infront of people and yes, we're
talking, but generally, you know, the majority of people are are
introverts, we're notextroverts.
So the majority of people arelike us.

(16:30):
You know, outside of doingthese types of things and being,
you know, the front person,we're just kind of shy, quiet in
the background.
So are you still like that on aon a normal, regular basis?

Philip (16:44):
I would say my natural tendency is to go back towards
that, but I know, with my goals,where I'm trying to go, that I
can't be that way.
Typically when I getintroverted is whether it's a
networking event or it's around,you know, a group of people
that I don't necessarily knowthem all.
I tend to find myself where I'mlike oh, I'm good, I'm just

(17:04):
going to kind of stay here, I'mgoing to talk to the people that
I know or not really be thatoutgoing, and it's really
strange with, like, not not anetworking event, but being at.
I can't think like maybe it'slike a friend's birthday party,
but there's like a lot of otherpeople there that like we're all
getting together or whateverreason we're getting together,
but I don't know them all.
I tend to find myself where I'mlike yeah, I don't really want

(17:27):
to be a people person right now,but I realized that and I have
to tell myself this all the timethat the person I want to be
has to go, do those things whereI want to go.
I have to be in front of people, I have to network with people,
I have to talk with people, andthe only way for people to get
to know me is for me to get toknow them, for me to start that

(17:51):
conversation with them, becausemost people don't want to have
that initial start, andespecially for us guys.
The hardest one when you'resingle, is going up and talking
to a random girl, but it's thesame thing whether it's a girl
and you're you're trying topursue them in a romantic way,
or if it's a CEO of a company orfor whatever it is you're

(18:12):
trying to do.
That initial start is sodifficult.
Hey, my name's Phillip, butafter that it gets, it gets
easier.
I'm not going to say it's 100%easy, but it's just that, going
up and just doing that.
And so I tell myself a lot oftimes that these things okay, I
need to at least go talk to fivepeople at a networking event.
Okay, I've got to put myselfout and do this.
Or again, I try and look at myfuture self.

(18:34):
Where am I trying to go?
Am I trying to build mybusiness?
How can I build that business?
Okay, I need to be talking topeople.
People need to be knowing aboutme.
I need to have thoseconversations.
Who does that person know that?
I don't know, and everything.
And especially as we're buildingup our business or really
trying to build our owncredibility, our personal brand.
Usually the people that don'tknow us are the ones that are

(18:58):
going to promote us more.
I mean going back to what youtalked about.
Obviously we haven't known eachother for that long, so you had
no clue.
I was a shy person, so youidentify me as being this
confident and bold person, butmy family, people that I know
from grade school, from highschool, even they identify me as
that shy person.
And so for us to be able tochange our identity,

(19:20):
unfortunately a lot of times wehave to be around other people,
people that don't know our pastselves, and so that's kind of a
hack there for you to be able todo that.
But you have to start gettingto know other people because
they're going to be the onesthat are going to start to
promote you.
They're going to see you inthat light that you're trying to
personify yourself as and I'mnot saying be fake, but you're

(19:40):
trying to be a new person.
If I want to be a good husband,I have to act like a good
husband's going to act.
I can't just oh, you know, I'm ahusband, I'm married, cool, so
I'm a good husband now, but thenI sit around and I do nothing
and I'm sloppy and then I justhave my wife at my beck and call
no, that's not a good husband.
A good husband is going to takecare of the yard, is going to

(20:02):
try and help with the dishes, isgoing to give a lending hand
when the kids need help, andeverything trying to be
proactive.
That's a good husband.
Of course there's other things.
I'm not saying just thosethings, but I am actively trying
to pursue being a good husband.
So whatever you're trying to do, you have to actively be
pursuing it and it's not justfake it till you make it.

(20:28):
It's be it until you become itmentality, and so that's what I
try and do and that's so.
Yeah, I still have those shy,introverted tendencies, but I
realize if I want to go whereI'm trying to go, who's the
person I have to be to be that,and that's not that shy person.
I have to be the outgoingperson.

Tim (20:42):
Yeah, I like the be it till you become it a lot better than
the fake it till you make itRight.
I mean, I think the fake ittill you make it doesn't sound
real, it doesn't sound authentic, but the be it till you become
it, I mean that does sound morereal.
Yeah, I mean that does soundmore real.

Philip (20:59):
Yeah, which really goes into what you mentioned about.
Like I have the energy when I'mon podcasts and on videos and
stuff like that, and Iappreciate that compliment.
I love hearing that that itmeans I'm doing the right thing
and everything, and I've beenworking on that and trying to be
more energetic on these things.
But it really comes back to theintentionality because I truly

(21:22):
believe that I am trying and Iwant to put this through how I'm
saying it I'm trying to helppeople.
Yes, of course I want to beable to build my business and be
able to make money and stufflike that.
You know we all have to do thatto be able to put food on the
table.
But I'm more concerned abouthelping people than making a
dollar today.
I know eventually I'm going tomake it and of course I need to

(21:43):
make some kind of money.
But I'm more concerned with theperson and because of that and
I equate it to commission breathpeople can sense when you're
speaking, when you're trying tobe genuine and authentic and
nice and all these things.
They can smell it a thousandmiles away and it's it's

(22:03):
commission breath, but it's, youknow, speaker's breath.
I'll call it if you will.
People can tell that you're notactually being true about that,
and so it's about actuallyhaving the care behind it.
That's how that energy comesout when I'm speaking and when
other speakers are speaking,because they truly care or they
truly believe in their message.

(22:24):
Again, going to salespeople, ifI, if I don't believe that this
product is that great and Italk about it as oh, here's the
features and here's why it's sogreat, you're going to tell I'm
just saying it because that'sjust the facts about it.
But when I truly believe in itand talk about it from a place
of of true belief, you're goingto believe in that product

(22:45):
because you believe me, and sothat's what you need to have.
You need to have that beliefbehind it, the feelings behind
what you're saying, for peopleto really feel that and get that
energy from you.

Tim (22:57):
Exactly and and if at least I believe this, if that's
you're, it's going to pay off,it's going to pay off.
I mean it's you know, you'reyou're not selling now, you're,
you're, you're, you're helpingpeople and in the end, you're
going to get so much more inreturn.
And not that we do it, not thatwe help people for that return,

(23:18):
but that's that's what ends uphappening, because you're
building a relationship.
Everything isrelationship-based, it's all
people-based, it's all in.
You know, people talk about AI,this and AI that, and
everything's going to be AI, butat the end of the day, it's
still going to be aboutindividual and personal
relationships, and the betterthat you are building personal

(23:39):
relationships, the better offyou're going to be, the better
off everybody agreed, agreed.

Philip (23:45):
And you know you talk about ai.
I mean I think about ads on onfacebook or all social medias,
this, that and the other, foryou know, constantly cold dms,
all this stuff.
I get more business by havinggenuine conversations with
people or knowing somebody whointroduces me to somebody else.
So I've had a relationship withthe first person they
introduced me to their, a friendof theirs, and now we have that

(24:09):
mutual connection.
I get more business from thatthan trying to spam the DMs,
from trying to run ads and stufflike that, while those are
things that need to be done andthey are effective.
I get more business fromgenuine connections versus doing
cold connections or just goingstraight in for that pitch that

(24:30):
sell and everything.

Tim (24:32):
Exactly I don't know if you saw this article that came out
probably two weeks ago thenumber of AI podcast hosts and
podcast guests.
When I, when I read, read thatthat that there's like thousands
of them, that that really kindof blew me away, that that there
are, that there are AI podcasthosts and AI podcast guests, and

(24:54):
I would think that you knowpeople would be able to ferret
that out Right, but maybe not, Idon't know.

Philip (25:04):
I mean and then the other side of me too, like I
mean, if it's a good message,maybe, maybe that that works,
maybe it's a good thing.
I mean I don't know, but Ithink it really should be
genuine people.
It's kind of scary what I cando.
I mean kind of another side tothat, like there's like ai
girlfriends now.
I mean and there's people,people online making money and

(25:24):
they just have some kind of aiaccount and these use usually
sleazy accounts, if you will, or, yes, a triple x kind of
accounts, but they're makingtons of money and it's not even
actually them because they'regetting.
Ai is getting that good,unfortunately.
But I still believe, at the endof the day and we kind of
talked a little bit offlineabout the, the political
spectrum and everything and howthings seem to be shifting

(25:47):
there's become, there's gonnabecome, a shift with that too.
Like right now, ai seems to bethe easy button.
People are willing to go tothat.
It's a thing, oh, it's, it's acool thing, it's the buzz thing.
I think there will still aplace for AI, but we're going to
start seeing more genuineconnections be that thing.
And we saw that with 2020, withCOVID.
We saw where people went fromlike, oh, we didn't really want
to connect, and now we want toconnect more.

(26:09):
And actually I think I've got apost coming up that'll talk
about this.
But my wife and I were out toeat and we're like, oh my gosh,
that server was awesome.
But then we got to think aboutafterwards Like she, she was
polite, she smiled, she came byto ask what we were doing.
But that was about it Like shedidn't really go above and

(26:30):
beyond.
She did some very basic stuff,but the the level of service now
has gone down so much thatanybody that does what used to
be the basics is above andbeyond almost, which is really
pathetic.
So I say that to say to anybodythat's trying to have genuine
connections or trying to begenuine in their speech by you

(26:52):
just doing the basics, you'regoing to be leaps and bounds
ahead of anybody using AI orpeople not even trying, or they
just have that speaker breath onthem and everything.
So just be genuine and I knowit's a buzzword, but be yourself
and you're going to attractpeople.
And it's going to take longer,for sure, but it'll be more

(27:15):
sustainable in the long runit'll be more sustainable in the
long run.

Tim (27:19):
Yeah, and the payoff at the end it's going to be much
bigger than you could everreally imagine.

Philip (27:27):
Yeah, and the shift is coming back to.
People want more genuineconnections.
People want to meet in personmore.
That shift is coming back.
It's just going to take sometime.

Tim (27:39):
So where'd you learn how to tell stories?
I mean because the storytellingis.
It's hard, it's not easy, youknow, especially when I talk
about my, my students and myclients we'll talk about
confidence here in a little bitbut they don't number one.
They don't know who they areand they don't even know how to
express.
You know their story.
Everybody has a story and it'snot wrong.

(28:02):
Your story isn't wrong becauseit's yours, but you just have to
figure out how to tell it, tocompel people.
And I guess, at the end of theday, why is that story important
and what is it that you wantthem to do with that story?
Or to change your life, or whathave you?
So where did you learn how totell stories?

Philip (28:26):
Really just getting reps in through podcasts and stuff
like this is really how I kindof came about it and really just
assessing what was I saying,what made sense, and then what I
do now.
Any analogy that I try andshare.
I go based on the audience.
You know, what is the audiencetrying to get out of the message
that I try and share?
I go based on the audience.
What is the audience trying toget out of the message that I'm
sharing and who is the audience?
And just to give an example,and so I like to use a lot of
examples and analogies.

(28:47):
So politics is always just aneasy one to talk about.
So if I'm in a room full ofconservatives, I can talk about
conservative things orconservative politics, whatever,
and it's going to relate withthem.
But if I start talking aboutsome woke ideology, they're
going to be like, oh my gosh,who is this guy?
Get them off the stage.
They're not going to want tolisten to me.
And so that story is eitherrelatable because it's a more

(29:10):
conservative type story, or it'sunrelatable and really
offensive because it's a woketype story.
Not that either one isnecessarily right or wrong, but
it's the audience and howthey're going to perceive that
message.
And so for me, really, how Ilearned was through podcasts and
continuing to tell my story andrefine it and figure out how to
say it better and more preciseand which, I think, without you

(29:35):
know, more compact andeverything more concise and
everything, but then learning toalso think about my audience,
rather than just, oh, here's mystory, let me blabble on for for
10 or 15 minutes.
So what would be most beneficialfor my audience and there's
little things I'll pick up andtake out, depending on who the
audience is and everything andin the direction we're trying to

(29:56):
go with the podcast in thiscase, or what I want to go and
have as a takeaway for theaudience that I'm speaking with
and so that's really how Icontinue to refine and develop
and change it based on thataudience, because it's not only
just about learning how to starttelling stories and really how
stories are, you know, do well,is because it's relatable to

(30:19):
that audience.
So really just getting the repsin first of all, but then start
thinking more about youraudience first and then.
Okay, now how would this partof my story relate with that
audience or what can I do tohave analogies if it's not part
of my story to relate with theaudience and my message at the
same time.

Tim (30:40):
That's how.

Philip (30:40):
I would do it and how, how I went about doing it.

Tim (30:43):
I mean two points that are so important.
You know the the audience andrepetition.
I mean, you know, to me it'salways about the audience and
you know go back to what yousaid about the podcast you just
have to do it.
You have to, you have to tostart doing things and the more
you do them, the more you'regoing to learn, the better that
you're going to get you know,the more that you can refine

(31:06):
that message.
And you know it's it's it's soimportant.
You know there are certainthings that we do and you know,
just from an educationalperspective, you know we just
have to do right, you just haveto go do it and try it and get
better at it.
And then there are other partsof it where, okay, we need to

(31:28):
teach you how to do it and whywe're doing it this way, right,
but you know, there's so manypeople you talk to, pretty much
anybody who's done a podcast.
They've heard oh, I wanted todo it here and I didn't do it,
and I didn't do it and I keptputting it off and somebody said
just do it, and that's.
There are certain things youjust have to just do and figure

(31:49):
it out as you as you go alongand get better at it as you go
along.
And so, you know, I've gotanother podcast with this one
that I've been doing for acouple of years.
This one just started inFebruary, so almost a year old.
And in doing this, you knowtalking about, you know,
professional development andtalking about becoming, you know

(32:10):
, better communicators.
What I've found is that thereare so many people in the
coaching space that come fromengineering backgrounds.
I mean, it's incredible.
I would say probably one infive people, maybe even more
than that, that come fromengineering.
And you know, I tell people allthe time that I'm a marketer,

(32:35):
public relations guy, what we dois not rocket science, it's
about talking to people, it'sabout building relationships,
right, and I say it's not rocketscience.
And then, you know, I met a newfriend who's an actual rocket
scientist, who's now helpingpeople you know become better
public speakers, and had a goodlaugh.

(32:55):
I said you don't have to be arocket scientist to do this.
But, excuse me, and I thinkwhat it is is because of the
content and the way thatengineers and STEM professionals
think about things.
That type of information isreally difficult to share for
the lay person, and so you haveto find ways to do that.

(33:17):
Why do you think that is?

Philip (33:21):
I actually didn't know that a lot of engineers ended up
becoming coaches, but I know.
For me that's what helped meexcel in my career, because I
have a background in controlsengineering, which is, and my
wife when I say, or when Italked about doing this, she'd
be like I.
My wife when I say, or when Italked about you know doing this
, she'd be like I don't knowwhat he does there.
But basically I automate theprocess of how cars are built.

(33:44):
So I go in and create a programthat tells devices when they
can and cannot move and it'smonitoring them at all times and
stuff like that.
And so I had to find ways tobuild, to quote unquote, dumb
down what was going on,especially to management.
And I found, as I was able tostart communicating that better,

(34:04):
that people would come to memore to ask those questions.
So they won, they knew I knewwhat I was talking about from
the technical side, but theycould come to me and understand
what the actual issue was,because, especially in these big
corporations, you're alwaysanswering to somebody.
So you need to have theinformation because,
unfortunately, as you go higherup, you know less and less
technical stuff or youunderstand less and less of that

(34:26):
technical nitty gritty stuff,and so they have to be able to
explain it in a way.
So I guess, kind of naturally,just through learning to
communicate better, I found outhow to actually think about.
How is my audience going toperceive this?
What is their backgroundknowledge on this?
And so if I say control systemsor PLCs, most audience probably

(34:47):
like what in the world is that?
A PLC is a programmable logiccontroller or an industrial
computer in other words.
And so, like you know, talkingthrough this and learning how to
speak with people like that arenon-technical people, I guess
was really just how it kind ofhelped me with my engineering
side of things and then helpedme really grow and develop my

(35:08):
career, which again goes back tohow speaking helped me out.
And I think that's why, becauseyou have the technical aptitude
and you can think logically asan engineer.
But then you, if you've gottento that point where you've grown
beyond just engineering, you'velearned to kind of communicate,
you can then become a bettercoach, because now, yes, you

(35:30):
know the technical stuff andreally with engineering it's all
about learning and applying andthen literally reverse
engineering things, and I thinkthat's why they become and I
didn't realize.
Like I said, I didn't realizeit was one in five that were
engineers.
But it makes a lot of sensebecause we're able to take data,
we're able to take informationand parse it out, reverse

(35:50):
engineer it and say here's whatyou should do, here's your steps
.
Is that's a lot of what we doon a repetitive basis.
We try and figure out a way tocreate a process out of things,
rather than this oh, we'llfigure it out, we'll just kind
of do it.
No, we're always trying tostreamline things and that's
just how our mind thinks.
So, going into the coachingspace, whether it's speaking
business, whatever it is, we cantake that information and

(36:14):
understand it in some way, shapeor form.
And I've talked to my wifeabout this because I'm like,
yeah, you know, I work on stuffall the time.
I have no clue what I'm doing,but I have to figure it out
Right.
And so, as a coach, you'recoming in not knowing a lot of
the background information onthe business, not knowing a lot
of background information on theperson, but as an engineer,

(36:35):
you're used to that already.
So you're able to take verylittle information and be able
to figure out some kind ofprocess, some kind of plan and
you're able to problem solvethrough that.
And so I can see why so manyengineers become coaches because
of that, because they have theaptitude for it.
Those are used to not having alot of information and making
something happen.

(36:55):
I mean, I've had plenty of jobsas well where you go in and
you're like, hey, can you fixthis?
I've never seen this systembefore, I've never been in the
program.
But yeah, yeah, I'll figure itout.
And you just go in and youstart looking around and of
course, the management's sittingthere.
Well, aren't you done, dude?
I've never even seen this thingbefore, I don't even know what
this is, but I'm figuring it outfor you.
And then you figure it out andthey're like, oh, my gosh, that

(37:17):
was great.
And it's like, yeah, okay.
And then you move on and youmight not even do that ever
again, but you had to figure itout kind of on the fly.
And so I think that's why to meyou know, just thinking about
it here in the moment that'sprobably why a lot of coaches
are engineers, because they canproblem solve and they can take
small amount of information.
And they can take a smallamount of information and

(37:38):
actually make something out ofit.

Tim (37:40):
Yeah, that's kind of my thought too.
You ask questions, right, andthen you can process that
information and then ask otherquestions.
The critical thinking abilityto build on things and to get to
the point.
And, if you think about it, yougot kids and you've got to.

(38:06):
You're you're teaching thesekids from teaching them how to
eat, teach, teach them how touse a fork, right, yeah, and you
find ways to do that.
Sometimes it's it's you know,it's, it's trial and error.
You teach them how to read.
You're teaching them how to getdressed, teach them how to tie
their shoes.
These are all processes andrequire communication from you

(38:29):
as a parent to a child, aninfant, a toddler.
What have you that?
You're teaching them brand newthings and you're finding ways
to make that connection for them.

Philip (38:41):
Really, this is no different, it's just on a bigger
scale, with a bigger scale,with more money, with more
technical issues and problemsyeah, exactly yeah, just find
finding ways to be able to, totalk through that and help
somebody with that next step,because everything has some kind
of process.
It's, and it seems like a lotof people want to kind of start

(39:04):
in the middle, Like, no, let's,let's either start at the end
and reverse our way back orlet's start at the beginning and
go to the end.
It's, it's not about startingin the middle and we'll kind of
go each way and figure it outLike and and.
But unfortunately, too manypeople want to do that.
Right, you need to figure outfrom the beginning what's going
on and, like you said, askingthose questions.

(39:26):
I mean, as a coach, it's suchan important thing to ask
questions for clarity.
Those clarifying questions getmore clarity on it.
What's happening, what happenedbefore this to get us to this
point?

Tim (39:37):
And you know where was either where was the disconnect
or where was the light bulbmoment and say that, wow, this
is the right thing that weshould be doing.

(39:59):
You know, that's more how Ilook at it.
Let's go back and figure outwhere to start.
What were the steps?
How did we get here?
Now, I can, I can go backwards,but I would much rather start
at the beginning and then andthen figure it out.
That way too it's.
You know, we, we all processthings and think about things

(40:20):
differently, but I've never beena person to start in the middle
and go to me.
That just doesn't make anysense.

Philip (40:28):
Yeah.
Well, I mean even with speaking.
I'm sure you've had thisquestion.
You know what can I do to getbetter at speaking.
You know this, that and theother.
It's like, ok, well, you cananswer the question.
Ok, hey, you know, get yourphone out, start doing videos.
Or, you know, have vocalvariety, this, that and the
other.
You can list off so many things.
But that person might notactually need to worry about

(40:50):
vocal variety, or they may nothave a lot of ums and ahs, or
they may actually look at thecamera when they're talking
instead of looking at the screento simulate eye contact if it's
on video or whatever.
They might not have thosethings.
So you need to just start.
So those that are trying to getinto speaking, trying to get
better at speaking, startspeaking, start doing these

(41:11):
videos, whether you just recordit and leave it on your phone or
you actually post to socialmedia or you start doing a
podcast.
You have to get started so youcan know what you need to
actually work on.
Because if I do a video and I'mflawless, I never say an um and
ah.
Well, why do I need to gosearch a video?
How to remove filler words?
I don't.

(41:32):
So you got to start somewhereand know your baseline and then
you can start working on thosethings.
So even if, before going to acoach, figure out what those
things are and your coach shouldstart with that, hey, let's get
some videos together.
Show me show me how you speakingand then we can start talking
through that.
Hey, let's get some videostogether, show me, show me how
you speaking and then we canstart talking through that.
But unfortunately and I thinkthere's a lot of coaches that
just want to hear if we're goingto start this or you're going

(41:53):
to you talk about your marketingbackground, okay, rather than
saying, hey, so what are youdoing for marketing right now?
Okay, you need to start runningads and we need to get your SEO
together.
And when you know, when you getthat website revamped, blah,
blah, blah, like all thesethings.
But actually I don't even havea website, so we need to build
it.
I can't revamp it.
Or I don't have SEO because Idon't have a website.
There's all these things Likeokay, so where are you at?

(42:15):
We need to figure out whereyou're at first so we can know
those next steps.
And unfortunately, especiallywith speaking, people want to
know how to get better atspeaking, but they hadn't even
started, right?

Tim (42:25):
So you've got to get started.
Yeah, and you know, when Ifirst started, you know, when I
was teaching, I kept telling thestudents you got to stop the
uhs and the ums.
And I just kept kept tellingthem that.
And then finally somebody saidyou keep telling us that, but
you don't tell us how.
And that was a light bulbmoment for me.
You know, because you know, forme it's just you just do it

(42:47):
right, you just and that's hadto show them the process of you
know, the us and the ums are afunction of preparation and
confidence.
Yes, and so how do we, how dowe prepare and how do we become
more confident?
Now we have something we canactually talk about and work on

(43:07):
to get better at.
It's not just stop doing itright.

Philip (43:11):
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
I was going to say that, likethat's the thing, when you know
what you're talking about,you're going to have I mean,
we're all naturally going tohave the ums and ahs.
I'm sure you and I both havesaid several of those in this
podcast.
Both have said several of thosein this podcast.
Now it's a little bit ad hoc.
We're not scripted here, soit's not as much.
I mean, so you're going to havethose, but when you know what

(43:33):
you're talking about, especiallywhen you're going on a stage,
you give a keynote, you shouldknow what you're going to talk
about.
So a lot of those ums and ahsshould not be there, because one
, you know what you're talkingabout.
But but to that preparation,like you said, if you're
prepared and you know whatyou're going to talk about, I
would say 99 of them should begone.
That's usually we don't likesilence, so you got to get

(43:54):
comfortable with silence too.
But it's usually because wedon't know what we're going to
say next.
And then, because of not beingcomfortable with silence, uh,
and then you start talking againbecause you just want to have
something there to fill in thevoid of silence.

Tim (44:09):
Right, and that's that's it .
And I like also, like we said,be comfortable with silence.
Yeah, you know, the idea ofsilence and pause is teaching
them how powerful they can beused, how powerful they are if
they're using, you know, in theright spots.
But that's you know.
That's's different discussionfor a different day.
Yeah, yeah, you know.

(44:29):
So how do you help people buildconfidence?
Because, you know, I mentionedit you know, most young
professionals don't spend anytime really and maybe I was the
same way thinking about who theyare as an individual, who they
are as a person.
You know what are their values,you know those types of things,
and their confidence level inthemselves is so low.

(44:52):
How do you help them, you know,actually build confidence?

Philip (44:57):
Twofold here.
So one really start gettingthem to get reps in when it
comes to, especially on thespeaking side, get reps in with
speaking, doing videos, when itcomes to, especially on the
speaking side, get reps in withspeaking, doing videos.
But then the other side of thisis a mindset shift.
You feel like you don't know alot about something because you
know how much you don't know.

(45:17):
And I'll give a good littleengineering example here.
A lot of people I've been doingsome interviews here lately and
asking like hey, you know wheredo you rate yourself as far as
like Microsoft suite or Googlesuite, when it comes off all the
tools there and they're like oh, you know nine out of 10, but I
know there's some more I canlearn.
And I started thinking aboutfor myself like where would I

(45:38):
actually rate myself at?
And honestly I'd probably ratemyself like a six or so because
I know how much I don't know,especially when it comes to
Excel.
There are so much in Excel andI'm always having to go Google,
okay, how to do this in Excel.
So I realized that while I canbe proficient on a basic level,

(45:58):
I know there's so much more thatI don't know.
And I say that to say.
A lot of times this lack ofconfidence comes in because when
you're an expert in a certainarea, you realize just how much
you don't know and you feel like, well, I can't teach that
because I haven't mastered itcompletely.
But teaching something to otherpeople most people you know,

(46:21):
the general population thethings that are basic to you are
really not even basic.
That's probably like a 201 or a301 class for them.
They need something even morebasic than that, and so I really
try and instill the confidence.
But let them understand andknow what's basic for you is

(46:43):
actually what people need fromyou.
They don't need that next level,which is what you're trying to
learn, unless it's all peoplethat are on your same level.
Then, yes, they're going toneed that next level, but you're
probably not going to beteaching them.
But if you're teaching somebody, it's typically the things that
are more basic to you now, andI like to think about that
framework of something that yourtwo or three year younger self

(47:07):
you wish you would have known.
Then those are the types ofthings that you're teaching and
not necessarily what you don'tactually know right now.
And so it's the twofold onegetting reps in, but two
shifting that mindset tounderstand that it's really the
basics that you're teaching on,not necessarily that advanced
stuff that you have finally juststarted learning that most

(47:29):
people want to and need to learnfrom you.
On whatever subject is thatyou're teaching on, yeah, that's
so critical to understand.

Tim (47:41):
I also think it's important for those people that you're
teaching this subject matter to,to see you as the professional
or the master, the teacherwhatever you want to call it the
expert that they see yougetting better in certain areas
as well.
They see you go through thestruggle.

(48:03):
They see you go through theprocess of trying to get better.
You go through the struggle,they see you go through the
process of of trying to getbetter.
And you know, as a for examplefor me, you know, six, seven
months ago, I couldn't take aselfie because I don't know
where to look.
You know, and and my, my excusewas well, men don't, men don't
do that.
That's not what men do.

(48:24):
You know we're not meant to dopouty lips.
So, you know, just duck lips.
But you know, since startingthis podcast, you know I'm doing
these videos, I'm on camera alot and you know I'm practicing
and getting better.
And they see this, they seethis progression and they see
that it's work.
They see the reps and itdoesn't just happen overnight.

(48:48):
Anything that you want to begood at takes time and effort.
I mean, it's the whole idea of10,000 hours.
You know, go back to you knowagain.
I come from the sport industry,so I go back to you know, the
all-time greats Kobe Bryant,michael Jordans, tiger Woods,
tom Brady's how much time diddid they practice and practice

(49:16):
the fundamentals and go over andover and over and over?
And even when they were playing, you know, before, up until
they retired, they stillpractice fundamentals over and
over again.
Getting those reps in Speakingis no different.
You have to be able to do that.

Philip (49:31):
Yeah, completely agree there.
Yeah, getting those reps in.
And I think about I saw somevideos the other day.
I was going through likeYouTube trying to put more
videos that are on that I was aguest appearance on for podcasts
and everything into a littlefolder on my YouTube channel and
I was seeing one from likethree years ago.

(49:51):
I'm like, oh man, I forgotabout that one and then I
started watching a little bit.
I'm like, oh my gosh, like ah,I sounded terrible and it's just
constantly we're getting betterand we're learning more and
we're finding new ways to bebetter at that.
So if you're trying to get intospeaking, you just got to get
started and I found the easiestway for me is one podcast, like

(50:14):
guesting on podcasts, but moreimportantly that, doing your own
solo episodes.
When I started doing my ownsolo episodes, that helped me be
able to start to articulate amessage and have bullet points
that support that overallmessage and learning how to go
from speaking and oh man, itfelt like this was forever and I
spoke for three minutes on atopic to being able to start

(50:35):
speaking for 10 or 15 minutesand really beyond that, like I
can kind of.
Okay, here's an idea and I canstart speaking on it for about
10, maybe to 15 minutes,depending on the subject,
without preparation.
But if I start preparing I canget 15, 20 minutes easy.
And doing a podcast episode isa lot different than going to
speak on stage, because it'ssomething you typically have
down more but I can speak for alot longer.

(50:57):
But before that was really doingvideos.
So my two suggestions if you'retrying to get better at
speaking, start making videocontent for social media,
because people still, eventhough we see a lot of videos
out there, a majority of peoplestill are not posting videos.
And second thing is start doingsolo podcast episodes and then,
if you want to get into theguesting realm, go and do that,

(51:20):
whether you have a guest on yourpodcast or you go be a guest on
other people's podcasts.
Start finding ways to be ableto start speaking on subjects
that you enjoy and talking withpeople and having those
conversations.
That's going to help you somuch more than studying and
listening to podcasts like thisto get better at speaking.

Tim (51:38):
Exactly.
I mean, it's, it's, it's so, soimportant.
And I like the whole idea thatyou mentioned about you know
doing solo episodes.
Because you doing solo episodes?
Because, on top of being ableto speak that long on, you can,
you can structure it so thatbecomes logical, so it becomes

(52:09):
that story, so that it becomesum, something that people want
to listen to, as opposed to justextemporaneously talk about
things.
Oh, and I forgot about this andI forgot about that and the
other piece let's talk about youknow confidence from the
standpoint of um, about you knowconfidence from the standpoint

(52:35):
of volume, tone, enunciation.
You know, I had a conversationwith a student a couple weeks
ago and I was trying to get himto explain something, something
that he said he had knowledge inand he really did have some
good knowledge in it.
But I had to keep asking him tospeak up.
You know I can't hear you.
Can you repeat yourself?
I didn't understand what yousaid.
How important is it to speakwith authority?

(52:57):
You know, speak so people canhear you.
Enunciation, changes in volume,changes in tone to to really
bring that message home.

Philip (53:13):
It is so important.
And actually this goes back toone of the best pieces of advice
I got early in my career from amanager who really wasn't a
great manager, but I was goinginto these companies being a
programmer trying to figure outthe problem, never been at the
plant, never seen the programbefore, and he told me, no
matter what, go in there withconfidence and don't let them
know, even even if you don'tknow in the moment, because

(53:34):
you're not going to know in themoment about the problem and how
to fix it.
Don't let them know that youdon't know.
And that stuck with me and so Ialways just went in that like
hey, you know I can fix this,like yo, give me some time, I'm
going to look at this and reallykind of giving that plan.
And so where was I going withthat?
So I would say that, havingthat confidence because of what

(53:58):
he said, with that if you showthat you don't know what you're
doing, they're always going towonder does Phillip actually
know what he's doing?
You could fix a millionproblems at their plant, but
they will still question youevery single time because you
lack that confidence in yourself.
And so when we're going andspeaking in front of people, you

(54:19):
have to have that confidence.
If I told you you know the skyis blue, if I said it like that,
you're like, wait, you don'tknow the sky is blue.
If I said it like that, you'relike, wait, you don't.
You don't know if the sky isblue or not.
But I said, hey, the sky isblue.
I'm like, oh, yeah, the sky isblue, yeah, I believe that.
Or if I was like, hey, the skyis green, like OK, ok, and you

(54:41):
know, I thought it was blue.
I mean, obviously needs to besomething more.
You know, not like that.
But you know, if I come in withthat confidence in my voice and
I say it more as a statement,people are going to believe me
more.
And another example for you whenyou're going in and I'm sure
we've all done this when you'regoing into some building you
know department store, whateverit is and you go in looking like

(55:02):
you know where you're going,people don't stop you.
But when you go in there andyou're kind of like looking
around, like oh, I'm not surewhere to go, people stop you.
Hey, you know, can I help you?
Can I help you find whereyou're trying to go?
So it's just literally thatshift in hey, you act or you
sound like you know where you'regoing, so that confidence is
imperative for people to listento you.

(55:24):
And so when you're trying topresent on whatever it is, you
have to have that confidence inyour voice and in your body
language that you know whatyou're talking about, that
you're here to deliver somethingfor people.
You believe in your message.
So it's imperative.
So hopefully those analogieskind of helped explain that.

Tim (55:41):
Yeah, and when you said, the first thing I started
thinking about is as a tourist,if you're in a city and you're
looking around, you're going tostick out like a sore thumb.
So if you go to New York City,if you go to any major city,
don't be looking around, justwalk like you got a purpose, go
to point A to point B, andyou're not going to be targeted

(56:03):
by all those other nefariousthings.
I don't think anybody's everbeen to Vegas.
You ever been to Vegas?
Yeah, I've been to Vegas.
Yeah, so you?
I mean some of the stuff thatgoes on there.
No, I don't want that car, justjust, just keep on walking,
just keep on walking.

Philip (56:18):
Well, it's it's funny you say that.
So I was in Scotland, I was ona work trip over there one time,
but I was, um, I went toEdinburgh for, uh, just go for
like a weekend thing and likenot work stuff, and I was like I
was heading towards the castleand it was so funny Cause like
it's really funny.
But uh, I'm going there and Ihad my GPS out.
I'm like okay, but I guess Ilook confident.

(56:39):
I had a group of Americans stopme like hey, do you know how to
get to the castle.
And it was funny because, like,here I am, I'm from america,
this is my first time ever andonly time ever being in the
country.
And they come to me asking meand I'm like well, I'm american
as well.
They're like, oh, we got afunny, fun laugh.
But then I'm like it's rightthere.
They turn around and you cansee the mountain now or not the

(57:00):
mountain, the castle like howyou got there exactly wasn't
directly to it, but i'm'm likeit's right there on top of the
hill.
It's that big building overthere, but it was just really
funny because I had thatconfidence that it looked like I
knew where I was going.
These other Americans asked theAmerican how to get somewhere.
That's crazy.
That's crazy.

Tim (57:18):
Yeah, confidence is extremely important.
That's us being Americans, wayto go.

Philip (57:24):
We did it.
We did it.
Yeah, that's us being Americans.

Tim (57:26):
Way to go, we did it, we did it.
Yeah, so is there anything thatwe didn't talk about that you
think audience should know about?

Philip (57:32):
No, I think.
I think that, especially forconfidence type stuff, I think
we really covered everything.
I just want to emphasize againjust get started.
It's the most annoying piece ofadvice, but it's really the
best piece of advice.
Or, as Nike says, just do it.
If it's something that's onyour mind, go ahead and do it,
because you're going to startthinking about it and you're

(57:54):
going to overthink it, and thenyou're going to procrastinate
and it'll be six years later andsomebody else will say the same
piece of advice.
So, just get started, becausefor you to get to where you want
to go, you have to do thingsthat you're not doing Now.
You have to start doing thingsthat your future self will be
doing.
You know again, be it until youbecome it.

(58:16):
Start acting in a manner of theperson that you want to be, and
eventually you're just going tobe that person.

Tim (58:23):
Exactly so.
You also have a lot of things,good things going on.
Tell us about that.
I mean, you've got the podcast,you've got your trainings,
you've got your courses.
Tell us about what you havegoing on.

Philip (58:36):
Yeah, a lot of things.
So trying to get on more stages, more podcasts like this.
I also help with publicspeaking coaching, but then,
another endeavor that I havebecause of getting myself on
podcasts and leveraging virtualassistants I actually started a
virtual assistant agency, whichis something that's a lot of fun

(58:57):
for me because it's really awin-win-win, because I help pair
busy people salespeople,business owners with virtual
assistants, primarily from thePhilippines, be able to get more
things done, really buying backtheir time so they can focus on
the things that they reallyenjoy doing, such as being on a
podcast, rather than trying toreach out to everybody

(59:18):
themselves personally trying tobook the call that and the other
.
They can have a virtualassistant do that who's happy to
do that on their behalf andeverything, and so that's really
the other thing I have outsideof the podcast speaking sessions
is the name of that podcast anddoing the public speaking
coaching and a digital coursepresent with influence is that
virtual assistant agency.

Tim (59:40):
And then of course the family.

Philip (59:42):
I guess I forgot.
You know you brought upbusiness stuff with the family
as well.
So three-year-old andeight-month-old, I've got my
hands full there as well.

Tim (59:49):
Yes, you do, you know, enjoy that time with them
because it goes by so incrediblyfast.
And I know people are going tothink I'm nuts for even saying
this and thinking this, but I'vegot three grandchildren now.
The oldest is almost five.
And it hit me and I don't knowwhy, it's just the way my brain

(01:00:12):
thinks.
I said to my daughter last weekI said you know, she's halfway
to being, halfway to being 18.
And she's almost five.
I'm thinking this time flies byso incredibly fast and
especially at that age they growup so fast.

(01:00:33):
And honestly, I was talking tomy other daughter on the way in
to the office today.
Her son is.
He was born July 7th, so he'salmost six months old, and I
said you know, a week is like adog year.

Philip (01:00:51):
Yeah.

Tim (01:00:51):
I mean they, they changed so so quickly.

Philip (01:00:55):
And.

Tim (01:00:56):
I was.
You know I was.
I was guilting her.
I said I haven't seen pictures.
I haven't seen, I haven't seena picture of him in a week.
You know he.
I mean, what are you doing?
That's your job as a mother tomake sure that I'm getting you
know pictures on a daily basis.
And we had another conversationabout technology that I had no
idea about.
So she taught me about, youknow, whatever.

(01:01:19):
It's not really important, butI had no idea that she'd been
uploading pictures to a sharedaccount that I had no idea about
anyway.
But but you know, they take up.
They take up so much time, butit's, it's joyous time.
It's time that you, that youwant to be able to spend it with
them.
So please, please, please,enjoy it.
But where can people if I don'tknow?
You don't want people workingwith your kids, but you know

(01:01:43):
where can people come and meetyou and work with you to help
get better public speaking.

Philip (01:01:49):
Uh, the place I liked the most is Facebook, so the
real Phillip sessions and that'sPhillip the one L awesome.
I'll find me all over.

Tim (01:01:58):
I'll put that in in in the show notes.
And again, I really like youknow that, that you call your
business, which is speakingsessions.
I mean it's catchy, I mean Iguess you can do that with your
last name, but it's awesome.
Well, philip, thank you so muchfor taking some time with us
today.
I really, really do appreciateit.
I think it was an awesomeconversation.

(01:02:18):
Yeah, thank you, take care,We'll talk to you soon.
Be sure to visitspeakingwithconfidencepodcastcom
to join our growing communityand register for the Formula for
Public Speaking course.
Always remember your voice hasthe power to change the world.
We'll talk to you next time,take care.