March 19, 2025 • 24 mins
Join us at www.landthetalk.com
Neha Negandhi is a Public Speaking Coach specializing in brand storytelling. She has built Storytellers Table, a dynamic community where entrepreneurs and business leaders harness AI to power their brand stories and command the public stage. A TEDx Speaker with over 10 years of stage experience, she brings the precision of a trained journalist and former WMLB Atlanta radio host to master the art of storytelling in communication. Her marketing and media expertise spans Fortune 100 companies including T-Mobile, Starbucks and Turner Broadcasting.
Neha's Website and sign up for her bi-weekly newsletter: https://nehanegandhi.com/
Get More Info on her Storytellers Table community: https://nehanegandhi.com/story-teller/
Neha's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/publicspeakingcoachtedxspeaker/
Neha's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@neha-negandhi?si=gLrO2bTu5GDUopAs
Neha Negandhi is a Public Speaking Coach specializing in brand storytelling. She has built Storytellers Table, a dynamic community where entrepreneurs and business leaders harness AI to power their brand stories and command the public stage. A TEDx Speaker with over 10 years of stage experience, she brings the precision of a trained journalist and former WMLB Atlanta radio host to master the art of storytelling in communication. Her marketing and media expertise spans Fortune 100 companies including T-Mobile, Starbucks and Turner Broadcasting.
Neha's Website and sign up for her bi-weekly newsletter: https://nehanegandhi.com/
Get More Info on her Storytellers Table community: https://nehanegandhi.com/story-teller/
Neha's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/publicspeakingcoachtedxspeaker/
Neha's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@neha-negandhi?si=gLrO2bTu5GDUopAs
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The first challenge is the audience that faces you in
the mirror. I'm serious, and I'm going to say this
again because it's just so important. The audience that faces
you in the mirror is the biggest hurdle you have
to get over.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome back to Land to Talk.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I am your host, Robin NC Daniel, and we have
a special guest.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
We have Neaha Na Gandhi in the building.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
She is a public speaking coach, a ted ex speaker,
and just an all around amazing woman that I'm excited
to learn more about.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I am super excited to be here. Thank you so
much for inviting me.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
So let's jump right in.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
What got you into coaching speakers because it seems like
such a specific Niche talk to me about your path
to become a public speaking coach?
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Goodness gracious. Well, let me tell you.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I one of the modest that I live by is
that I will move mountains to make things happen. So
in after my corporate career sort of like fizzled out
because I decided to have children and decided to stay
home with them, I became a freelance journalist and after
that I got this amazing opportunity to interview and write
(01:22):
an article about a Nobel Peace Prize winner. His name
is Kayla sh Shatiarti and he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
And after that conversation and after that article, I was like,
this conversation needs to expand, it needs to grow, it
needs to go to a bigger audience. So then I
decided out of the clear blue that I was going
(01:44):
to have my own radio show and ask me how
many people I knew in the Atlanta radio market. That
many zero and from there. From there, this was before COVID,
I knocked on radio station doors, and this is back then.
I think you could have done that and looked like
you were a total crazy person. But I knocked at
radio stations doores and now I'm like, hello, I need
(02:05):
to have a radio show at this station. And they
were just like, that's not how it works. And I'm like, well,
tell me how it works. And time passed. I did
the work and I got my own show. And after
doing my own show, where listen, I've never had a
show before, I was a kind of the first time
that I've ever been on hosted my own radio show,
(02:27):
and my first guest on my show was CeeLo Green
Like he walked in the studio and was a guest
on my show. Yes, And from there a couple of
years that I did this, I had Zach Brown band,
and I had B fifty two's and you name it.
I mean, these were people on my show and we
were talking about how to create social good using their
platform and it was just something that they all wanted
(02:50):
to talk about, and so had my show for a
couple of years. And from there I had an opportunity
to give a ted X talk. And once I decided
that this was the right step at that right moment
in time to do, after I did it, which let
me just tell I think this is what we're going
to get into too. I think there's some misnumbers out
(03:10):
there because giving a ted X talk is a lot
of time. There's commitment that leads up to giving that talk.
I think, Robin, you will agree with me about this,
and I think people don't know that. You know, for me,
the process was six months, six months you know, from
audition to you know, the day that I actually you know,
(03:32):
gave the talk. So it was like a commitment, you know,
showing up, rehearsing and doing all the things. So knowing
all that, I then decided, Hey, a lot of people
after the talk were like, how'd you do it?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
What'd you do? What was the process?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
And I'm like, let me let me see if this
is something that you can like. It is just an
exchange that we can like, really, you know, get into
and it is. And so that's what I do now.
I help people take out the arms and ahs of
their talk and really elevate their stage presence and deliver
a first class talk.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
So with your work, naha, talk to me about some
of the challenges that you see consistently show up with
your clients and maybe some ways that folks at home
could avoid those challenges if they're experiencing the same thing.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Gosh, I think, and I say this a lot to
my clients. The first challenge is the audience that faces
you in the mirror. I'm seriously, and I'm going to
say this again because this is so important. The audience
that faces you in the mirror is the biggest hurdle
(04:50):
you have to get over. If you can understand that
you have the natural ability to speak. It is an
irrational fear that eighty five percent of the people that
live in the United States don't want to speak in public.
I mean, they are more afraid of death than speaking
in public. To me, that is that's completely insane. So
(05:16):
I really talk about how we can get over the mindset,
how do we reframe the mind to then accept the
fact that you have this natural voice, and how to
get you to get all the words unstuck from your throat,
because they're all there if you just you know, massage
(05:37):
them a little bit. And I know y'all all can't see, right,
if you just if you massage it a little bit,
they are just ready and willing to come out. We
just need for you to get over that first time, right,
And once we can get that past that hurdle, then
all the doors.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Seem to break open and ready to open.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
In fact, can I just say one of my clients
working with now is a physician. She's a doctor, and
you know, before she and I started working together and
one to one on one coaching, you know, she was like,
I don't know, naw, what am.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
I going to say?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I've got to give all these talks this she got
this this lined up, and she didn't know what she
was going to get up there and say.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
We worked at it.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
The biggest thing we worked on it is the first
thing she said was, I don't know, like I'm going
to lose my memory. I'm gonna I don't know where
I'm going to say, how I'm going to say, and
what I'm going to say. Let me tell you the
biggest hack to do that with tell stories your talk.
You will never get lost in your talk when they
(06:38):
are anchored around your stories. So we worked on it
and worked on it and worked on it. This woman
grew up in a village in South India. Her grandfather
was an iron vedic healer, had people lined up on
the sidewalks waiting to see him. And she didn't think
that was a story. I was like, oh, lord, as
(07:00):
not a story. I don't know what would be. So
we started incorporating that. This woman now has been invited
to be one of five physicians to speak and present
at Capitol Hill.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
So bravo, bravo. But this can happen.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
This can happen once we get over the first hurdle,
we can start addressing, you know, the other hurdles about
you know, getting rid of the ums and us getting
past the what are up of my hands, what are
up of my eyes?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
What I'm on my feet?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
All of that we can get over, and then we
start working on getting you to start remembering your talks
using stories.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I have a few follow ups.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
I'll try to get to them all, but I have
a feeling once you respond to this one, I'm going
to have a whole different path because this is going
so well. So you mentioned natural, right, and this is
something that is a trigger for me because one of
the frameworks, or my primary framework that I'm working on,
is the same method, and one of those pieces is natural.
(08:04):
And I find that many folks, and including myself, this
is something that I struggle with as a speaker, as
a professional, as a dad, is making sure that I
am not diluting my message by making it too complicated.
So talk to me about being natural, talking in your
regular voice, not having to put on your professor cap
(08:24):
every time you get on stage. In some ways that
folks can find the core of who they are on
a natural level.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Oh my gosh, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I don't know any way other to talk, and I
don't know how to coach anybody else to talk other
than what's in your heart, right, Because as I talk
to you.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
As I've already mentioned, your words.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Your voice is here, it's already here, right, it's those.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
It's already stuck inside.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
We just got to find a way to get it
out of you, right, And that's what I do. So
I don't know of any other way now for me.
If you want to put on a different hat because
you may be talking to a different audience, great, okay.
I'm all about tailoring your talk to your audience. For example,
(09:16):
if you're speaking to a convention of medical doctors, that
is going to be a very different talk than you
going into and speaking to a convention of social media influencers.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
That is fine, That is fair, and I.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Am all with you and I will coach you all
day long, but we will never compromise in the fact
that your voice, the way you present yourself in its
full authenticity.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
And I understand that word has been.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Overused, but it is so so important. And when you
talk about public speaking, that the root of how you
stand and how you talk is stasis.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Foundationally.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Now, we can move some phrasing around, use different anecdotes
when we're talking with different audiences. Maybe you pull down
different stories from your experiences that you then relate to
your different audiences. Great, fine, good, two thumbs up. But
stay in your lane. Stay in your lane. They the
(10:23):
audience wants to hear from you because you are there
to deliver that message at that moment in that stage,
and they want to hear from you.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
So that is very important and very nice, very nice.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
So I'm going to go to my next follow up
because it makes sense. So the ums in the eyes.
I heard you mention that a couple of times, and
that's something just in my normal speaking I have ums
and eyes. But as a speaker, I find myself trying
to mentally police myself. We have so many speakers in
(11:00):
our community who struggle with this, whether it's on stage
ums and ahs, or it's just at the office interactions
like that. Talk to me about some tips on how
folks can really manage that and be mindful of you know,
those ums and odds and that's those those filler words.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Uh as I just say.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Right, yeah, just so well man, okay.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
So true, right, so true. Look, here's the thing. Use
the power of a pause.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
When you feel the arms and ah's coming and you
it's inevitable. That's that's again speaking naturally if we wanted
a robot to come up there and delete all of
our filler words like a cap cut dust for us
and our videos, then that's.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Who we would have had, right, So be real. I
sometimes and.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I'm you know, listening to a speaker that I really
like on a stage and in you know, perhaps they
do have a couple of arms and us, I'm like.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Yes, I relate to that.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I'm yes, so a couple of them are okay. If
you feel like it's like getting to the point that
it's getting you to get lost in your speech, then
use the power of a pause.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Breathe.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
When you breathe inhale and exhale in and out of
your nose. You know, it signals to your nervous system
that I'm here to be calm. And it is way,
oh okay to take an intentional pause and even extend
it into silence if you need to get back to
(12:47):
your central certain self, right, it is way okay, It
is way okay, And it is also okay to give
yourself some grace. I think we get so lost and
too well well they think, and I've just fallen apart
and I forgot or I X, Y and Z and
if you are on stage or platform or virtual and
(13:09):
somehow things get derailed.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Things happen. Okay number one, own it.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Own it, Breathe, and then say, hey, you know, I
was going to talk to you about this, but I'm
just going to switch gears and I'm going to talk
about this now, and then we're going to come back
to the other thing that I was just going.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
To talk to you about.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
An audience will love you for it, will love you
for it, all right, So I say, pause, breathe, be
real with your audience, and then move on with grace.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yep, love that.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
So you mentioned a little bit earlier that folks that
you work with sometimes have some struggles with memorizing, where
you or your client had some struggles with that. So
talk to me about some way that folks can.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Really lean into storytelling.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Would you recommend them kind of having like a bullet point, uh,
you know, kind of framework for it so they can
memorize it or remember the stuff, or would you actually,
you know, suggest that they write out the story and
then just tell it in their own voice.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
What recommendations do you have for storytelling?
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Oh gosh, that this is.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
My thing, this is my jam. If we were going
to talk about with my jam list. This is my
jam right here. So I love stories, and I this
is what I do. I ask my clients tell me,
tell me this, don and other, and I give them
different props. Right, what's your most this moment at that moment,
and we talk about them. While they're talking about them,
(14:44):
I'm taking notes because I'm a trained journalist, right as
I mentioned, So.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
I'm taking notes.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Then I recap their story in in something as I
would in a published and I use that in an
air quote way, so I give it back to them
in a way that they could possibly read it in
an article in a magazine. So it makes it so
much more digestible to them. I call it breaking it
(15:12):
down into knowledge nuggets. What is the beginning of it?
What is the start, what's the problem, what is you know,
what is the struggle part of your story?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
And then what is the conclusion?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Tie it all up, make it pretty for us, okay,
And so that's how I present it back to them.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Right, do you have a question.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
I have a quick question because I don't want to
leave this. Do you type it and give it to
them or is it in the conversation?
Speaker 1 (15:36):
No, I type it and give it to them. Yes,
I do. I type it and give it to them.
And there's several of them. Right, like, this is your
story about your childhood. This is a story that you
can use when you want to give a problem example
about a challenge you've overcome. This is something that you've
done that X, Y, and z. Right, we have all
these different prompts and I give it to them in
(15:58):
a three or four page doc. Then we practice, We rehearsed,
because listen, nobody wants to hear the story about Okay,
well you know the I.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Was, you know, the farm and in the band camp. No, no, no, no, no.
Zoom in. This is what I tell people.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Zoom in, bring this in to that point in the
story that is going to lead us on a journey
to the struggle and then to the conclusion. So we
zoom in and then we break it down into knowledge nuggets,
and then we share and we practice, practice, practice, and
(16:36):
goes back. This goes back to the beginning of our conversation.
Public speaking. If you want to get those words that
are launched into your throat, flex the muscle, flex your
speaking muscle.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
That's good, you're rolling.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
You're out here dropping some grade eight nuggets.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Serious, Oh my god, invite me back.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, yeah, we'd love to have you back.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
This is season one of the show, so we were
going to take a little hiatus in the summer for
a few weeks.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
And we'll come back and fall, but we'd love to
have you back. Hey, I have another follow up question.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
So you talked about these prompts, So a lot of
what we do here is also making sure that folks
could get access to people like you who have services,
but for the people who might not have the resources
to hire someone giving them actionable tips to do it themselves.
Could you share just a couple of prompts that maybe
could get a self starter going to see if they
(17:34):
could start to, you know, carve out their story.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Oh wow, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
As long as they're not as long as they're not
trademarked or copywritten or what.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I don't want to.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
And that's great.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
No, No, I'll give you all the trade secrets, all
of them, all day long and then twice on Sunday. Okay,
So listen, here's what I recommend.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Get a hope up, a kind of novo.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
You go down to the store, you go down to Target,
you get onto any store, get yourself a notebook. When
you get a pen and a notebook, which I always
have a notebook. Okay, you physically write down things. It
gets your brain to start working differently. Now, on that
(18:21):
notebook that you're gonna get, you're gonna take on each page,
you're gonna write a prompt. Things that make me happy,
next page, things that made me sad, next page X.
You just start writing things that I found challenging, things
that have accomplished in life, things that have that I
got a gold medal for or something right like, all
of these things you're gonna write, and then you're gonna think.
(18:43):
You're gonna sit there and you're gonna think, and you're
gonna write these are things. I mean, it can be
bullet points, it can be phrases, it can be whatever
came to mind. It can be like, oh I was,
you know, talking to my mom and this happened. Whatever,
whatever it is that's gonna help you. Only you out
what that story is. And then after you go through
pages and pages that that's you're going to start understanding
(19:05):
which ones are the most valuable, which ones are the
is the audience going to then have the universal theme
of you know, challenge, overcome, a winning moment, this and
this right, think about all the Disney movies that you
and I watch, Think about them all.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
What's the underlying theme?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
There is always something, you know, rags to riches, you know,
girl falls in love with boy, you know this or that.
There is always a universal theme. So what is that
universal theme that every single person in that audience has
gone through as well? You find those stories because every
single one of us has gone through it, every one
(19:46):
of us.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
So you find them, You break.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Them down into the knowledge nuggets like you and I
have just talked about, and then you start sharing them.
And if don't tell me you don't know how to
share them either, people, because I know that they are
Your audience are social media whizzes. Okay, you've got the
influenzas of the influencers on this and on listening to this,
So get your phone, record your story and start sharing it.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Very nice.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
So earlier on you mentioned the audience that faces you.
You have any recommendations for folks to really dig deep
and connect with the person in the mirror so they
could get over that hurdle.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Wow, yes, yes, be kind be kind to that person,
because that person that's staring at you in the mirror
needs for you to be positive and say, hey, I
can do this. I can move mountains too, right, I
can move mountains too. And if you start with that that,
(20:50):
if you set your mind to I really want to
tell my story. I want to get rid of the
arms and uhs and really share something with the people
that are around me, so then I can help them
to learn from my learnings. If you could do that,
if you can look in the mirror and say that
(21:11):
to yourself, I'm here to help people to learn from
my learnings, you will really make an impact on those
around you. Because I promise you that I want to
hear from you. I want to hear from you. I
want to learn from you, and it's only your voice
that I want to hear it from.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
So please do that.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Please be kind to that face in the mirror, because
that person needs to feel and hear your kindness.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
And receive it. Receive it.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Right when you're speaking to yourself in that mirror positively,
and you're saying to yourself, I need to or I
would like to, or I intend to serve the audience,
then be able and be ready to receive that, be
able to be ready to receive that, because that's important
because if you're going to steer back at that bere
and be like, no, not for me, I don't know
(22:03):
who the person is that's talking in the mirror. No, no, no,
then you know we got to work on it. We
gotta work on it. We gotta be nice to each other.
We gotta be nice to ourselves. And that starts right here.
You gotta be kind to that person in the mirror. Yes,
promise me you'll do that. Steps up, starts, tall starts all.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I love that. I love that.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Nahaw, this has been super duper productive, so many nuggets
and we gotta have I feel like we could do
this for another hour, but I wanted to make sure
that I saved some time for you to let people
know where they can get in contact with you and
if they were interested in maybe taking you up on
your services, how they could move forward with that.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Oh my gosh, well yes, So please go to my website.
Go to nihana gandhi dot com, easy said, easier to spell,
and e h A N e g A n dhi
dot com. It's got so much information on there for
you that I again I want you to first master
(23:10):
the audience that's in the mirror. That's where we start,
right and so if that's someplace you want to start,
then let's do this. I also have a community called
Storyteller's Table, so we bring together speakers and storytellers that
we and we just nurture them. We love on them,
we connect, we share, we tell stories, and we really
(23:33):
do it in a very positive and affirmative way, which
is you know what I'm all about.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
So if you're interested in.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Just getting into a community with other people that just
want to hear you and you can listen to them,
join us a Storyteller's Table. First event, if you will
allow me a little plug. First event is on March
twenty fifth, So I don't know when this is going
to air, but if it does airs as much twenty fifth.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah, we'll get it out in time to make sure
that folks can hear about it. We'll try to get
it out in next week or two. So, Nah, I
appreciate your time, but more importantly, I appreciate you taking
time to share a little bit of your light with
me and our audience, and we look forward to having
you come back for season two.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Thank you and thank you so much for this opportunity.
You've been such a delight. Thank you so much.
The first challenge is the audience that faces you in
the mirror. I'm serious, and I'm going to say this
again because it's just so important. The audience that faces
you in the mirror is the biggest hurdle you have
to get over.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome back to Land to Talk.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I am your host, Robin NC Daniel, and we have
a special guest.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
We have Neaha Na Gandhi in the building.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
She is a public speaking coach, a ted ex speaker,
and just an all around amazing woman that I'm excited
to learn more about.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I am super excited to be here. Thank you so
much for inviting me.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
So let's jump right in.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
What got you into coaching speakers because it seems like
such a specific Niche talk to me about your path
to become a public speaking coach?
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Goodness gracious. Well, let me tell you.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I one of the modest that I live by is
that I will move mountains to make things happen. So
in after my corporate career sort of like fizzled out
because I decided to have children and decided to stay
home with them, I became a freelance journalist and after
that I got this amazing opportunity to interview and write
(01:22):
an article about a Nobel Peace Prize winner. His name
is Kayla sh Shatiarti and he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
And after that conversation and after that article, I was like,
this conversation needs to expand, it needs to grow, it
needs to go to a bigger audience. So then I
decided out of the clear blue that I was going
(01:44):
to have my own radio show and ask me how
many people I knew in the Atlanta radio market. That
many zero and from there. From there, this was before COVID,
I knocked on radio station doors, and this is back then.
I think you could have done that and looked like
you were a total crazy person. But I knocked at
radio stations doores and now I'm like, hello, I need
(02:05):
to have a radio show at this station. And they
were just like, that's not how it works. And I'm like, well,
tell me how it works. And time passed. I did
the work and I got my own show. And after
doing my own show, where listen, I've never had a
show before, I was a kind of the first time
that I've ever been on hosted my own radio show,
(02:27):
and my first guest on my show was CeeLo Green
Like he walked in the studio and was a guest
on my show. Yes, And from there a couple of
years that I did this, I had Zach Brown band,
and I had B fifty two's and you name it.
I mean, these were people on my show and we
were talking about how to create social good using their
platform and it was just something that they all wanted
(02:50):
to talk about, and so had my show for a
couple of years. And from there I had an opportunity
to give a ted X talk. And once I decided
that this was the right step at that right moment
in time to do, after I did it, which let
me just tell I think this is what we're going
to get into too. I think there's some misnumbers out
(03:10):
there because giving a ted X talk is a lot
of time. There's commitment that leads up to giving that talk.
I think, Robin, you will agree with me about this,
and I think people don't know that. You know, for me,
the process was six months, six months you know, from
audition to you know, the day that I actually you know,
(03:32):
gave the talk. So it was like a commitment, you know,
showing up, rehearsing and doing all the things. So knowing
all that, I then decided, Hey, a lot of people
after the talk were like, how'd you do it?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
What'd you do? What was the process?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
And I'm like, let me let me see if this
is something that you can like. It is just an
exchange that we can like, really, you know, get into
and it is. And so that's what I do now.
I help people take out the arms and ahs of
their talk and really elevate their stage presence and deliver
a first class talk.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
So with your work, naha, talk to me about some
of the challenges that you see consistently show up with
your clients and maybe some ways that folks at home
could avoid those challenges if they're experiencing the same thing.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Gosh, I think, and I say this a lot to
my clients. The first challenge is the audience that faces
you in the mirror. I'm seriously, and I'm going to
say this again because this is so important. The audience
that faces you in the mirror is the biggest hurdle
(04:50):
you have to get over. If you can understand that
you have the natural ability to speak. It is an
irrational fear that eighty five percent of the people that
live in the United States don't want to speak in public.
I mean, they are more afraid of death than speaking
in public. To me, that is that's completely insane. So
(05:16):
I really talk about how we can get over the mindset,
how do we reframe the mind to then accept the
fact that you have this natural voice, and how to
get you to get all the words unstuck from your throat,
because they're all there if you just you know, massage
(05:37):
them a little bit. And I know y'all all can't see, right,
if you just if you massage it a little bit,
they are just ready and willing to come out. We
just need for you to get over that first time, right,
And once we can get that past that hurdle, then
all the doors.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Seem to break open and ready to open.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
In fact, can I just say one of my clients
working with now is a physician. She's a doctor, and
you know, before she and I started working together and
one to one on one coaching, you know, she was like,
I don't know, naw, what am.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
I going to say?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I've got to give all these talks this she got
this this lined up, and she didn't know what she
was going to get up there and say.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
We worked at it.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
The biggest thing we worked on it is the first
thing she said was, I don't know, like I'm going
to lose my memory. I'm gonna I don't know where
I'm going to say, how I'm going to say, and
what I'm going to say. Let me tell you the
biggest hack to do that with tell stories your talk.
You will never get lost in your talk when they
(06:38):
are anchored around your stories. So we worked on it
and worked on it and worked on it. This woman
grew up in a village in South India. Her grandfather
was an iron vedic healer, had people lined up on
the sidewalks waiting to see him. And she didn't think
that was a story. I was like, oh, lord, as
(07:00):
not a story. I don't know what would be. So
we started incorporating that. This woman now has been invited
to be one of five physicians to speak and present
at Capitol Hill.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
So bravo, bravo. But this can happen.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
This can happen once we get over the first hurdle,
we can start addressing, you know, the other hurdles about
you know, getting rid of the ums and us getting
past the what are up of my hands, what are
up of my eyes?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
What I'm on my feet?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
All of that we can get over, and then we
start working on getting you to start remembering your talks
using stories.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I have a few follow ups.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
I'll try to get to them all, but I have
a feeling once you respond to this one, I'm going
to have a whole different path because this is going
so well. So you mentioned natural, right, and this is
something that is a trigger for me because one of
the frameworks, or my primary framework that I'm working on,
is the same method, and one of those pieces is natural.
(08:04):
And I find that many folks, and including myself, this
is something that I struggle with as a speaker, as
a professional, as a dad, is making sure that I
am not diluting my message by making it too complicated.
So talk to me about being natural, talking in your
regular voice, not having to put on your professor cap
(08:24):
every time you get on stage. In some ways that
folks can find the core of who they are on
a natural level.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Oh my gosh, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I don't know any way other to talk, and I
don't know how to coach anybody else to talk other
than what's in your heart, right, Because as I talk
to you.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
As I've already mentioned, your words.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Your voice is here, it's already here, right, it's those.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
It's already stuck inside.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
We just got to find a way to get it
out of you, right, And that's what I do. So
I don't know of any other way now for me.
If you want to put on a different hat because
you may be talking to a different audience, great, okay.
I'm all about tailoring your talk to your audience. For example,
(09:16):
if you're speaking to a convention of medical doctors, that
is going to be a very different talk than you
going into and speaking to a convention of social media influencers.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
That is fine, That is fair, and I.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Am all with you and I will coach you all
day long, but we will never compromise in the fact
that your voice, the way you present yourself in its
full authenticity.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
And I understand that word has been.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Overused, but it is so so important. And when you
talk about public speaking, that the root of how you
stand and how you talk is stasis.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Foundationally.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Now, we can move some phrasing around, use different anecdotes
when we're talking with different audiences. Maybe you pull down
different stories from your experiences that you then relate to
your different audiences. Great, fine, good, two thumbs up. But
stay in your lane. Stay in your lane. They the
(10:23):
audience wants to hear from you because you are there
to deliver that message at that moment in that stage,
and they want to hear from you.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
So that is very important and very nice, very nice.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
So I'm going to go to my next follow up
because it makes sense. So the ums in the eyes.
I heard you mention that a couple of times, and
that's something just in my normal speaking I have ums
and eyes. But as a speaker, I find myself trying
to mentally police myself. We have so many speakers in
(11:00):
our community who struggle with this, whether it's on stage
ums and ahs, or it's just at the office interactions
like that. Talk to me about some tips on how
folks can really manage that and be mindful of you know,
those ums and odds and that's those those filler words.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Uh as I just say.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Right, yeah, just so well man, okay.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
So true, right, so true. Look, here's the thing. Use
the power of a pause.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
When you feel the arms and ah's coming and you
it's inevitable. That's that's again speaking naturally if we wanted
a robot to come up there and delete all of
our filler words like a cap cut dust for us
and our videos, then that's.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Who we would have had, right, So be real. I
sometimes and.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I'm you know, listening to a speaker that I really
like on a stage and in you know, perhaps they
do have a couple of arms and us, I'm like.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Yes, I relate to that.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I'm yes, so a couple of them are okay. If
you feel like it's like getting to the point that
it's getting you to get lost in your speech, then
use the power of a pause.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Breathe.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
When you breathe inhale and exhale in and out of
your nose. You know, it signals to your nervous system
that I'm here to be calm. And it is way,
oh okay to take an intentional pause and even extend
it into silence if you need to get back to
(12:47):
your central certain self, right, it is way okay, It
is way okay, And it is also okay to give
yourself some grace. I think we get so lost and
too well well they think, and I've just fallen apart
and I forgot or I X, Y and Z and
if you are on stage or platform or virtual and
(13:09):
somehow things get derailed.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Things happen. Okay number one, own it.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Own it, Breathe, and then say, hey, you know, I
was going to talk to you about this, but I'm
just going to switch gears and I'm going to talk
about this now, and then we're going to come back
to the other thing that I was just going.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
To talk to you about.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
An audience will love you for it, will love you
for it, all right, So I say, pause, breathe, be
real with your audience, and then move on with grace.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yep, love that.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
So you mentioned a little bit earlier that folks that
you work with sometimes have some struggles with memorizing, where
you or your client had some struggles with that. So
talk to me about some way that folks can.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Really lean into storytelling.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Would you recommend them kind of having like a bullet point, uh,
you know, kind of framework for it so they can
memorize it or remember the stuff, or would you actually,
you know, suggest that they write out the story and
then just tell it in their own voice.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
What recommendations do you have for storytelling?
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Oh gosh, that this is.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
My thing, this is my jam. If we were going
to talk about with my jam list. This is my
jam right here. So I love stories, and I this
is what I do. I ask my clients tell me,
tell me this, don and other, and I give them
different props. Right, what's your most this moment at that moment,
and we talk about them. While they're talking about them,
(14:44):
I'm taking notes because I'm a trained journalist, right as
I mentioned, So.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
I'm taking notes.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Then I recap their story in in something as I
would in a published and I use that in an
air quote way, so I give it back to them
in a way that they could possibly read it in
an article in a magazine. So it makes it so
much more digestible to them. I call it breaking it
(15:12):
down into knowledge nuggets. What is the beginning of it?
What is the start, what's the problem, what is you know,
what is the struggle part of your story?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
And then what is the conclusion?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Tie it all up, make it pretty for us, okay,
And so that's how I present it back to them.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Right, do you have a question.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
I have a quick question because I don't want to
leave this. Do you type it and give it to
them or is it in the conversation?
Speaker 1 (15:36):
No, I type it and give it to them. Yes,
I do. I type it and give it to them.
And there's several of them. Right, like, this is your
story about your childhood. This is a story that you
can use when you want to give a problem example
about a challenge you've overcome. This is something that you've
done that X, Y, and z. Right, we have all
these different prompts and I give it to them in
(15:58):
a three or four page doc. Then we practice, We rehearsed,
because listen, nobody wants to hear the story about Okay,
well you know the I.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Was, you know, the farm and in the band camp. No, no, no, no, no.
Zoom in. This is what I tell people.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Zoom in, bring this in to that point in the
story that is going to lead us on a journey
to the struggle and then to the conclusion. So we
zoom in and then we break it down into knowledge nuggets,
and then we share and we practice, practice, practice, and
(16:36):
goes back. This goes back to the beginning of our conversation.
Public speaking. If you want to get those words that
are launched into your throat, flex the muscle, flex your
speaking muscle.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
That's good, you're rolling.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
You're out here dropping some grade eight nuggets.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Serious, Oh my god, invite me back.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, yeah, we'd love to have you back.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
This is season one of the show, so we were
going to take a little hiatus in the summer for
a few weeks.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
And we'll come back and fall, but we'd love to
have you back. Hey, I have another follow up question.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
So you talked about these prompts, So a lot of
what we do here is also making sure that folks
could get access to people like you who have services,
but for the people who might not have the resources
to hire someone giving them actionable tips to do it themselves.
Could you share just a couple of prompts that maybe
could get a self starter going to see if they
(17:34):
could start to, you know, carve out their story.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Oh wow, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
As long as they're not as long as they're not
trademarked or copywritten or what.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I don't want to.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
And that's great.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
No, No, I'll give you all the trade secrets, all
of them, all day long and then twice on Sunday. Okay,
So listen, here's what I recommend.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Get a hope up, a kind of novo.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
You go down to the store, you go down to Target,
you get onto any store, get yourself a notebook. When
you get a pen and a notebook, which I always
have a notebook. Okay, you physically write down things. It
gets your brain to start working differently. Now, on that
(18:21):
notebook that you're gonna get, you're gonna take on each page,
you're gonna write a prompt. Things that make me happy,
next page, things that made me sad, next page X.
You just start writing things that I found challenging, things
that have accomplished in life, things that have that I
got a gold medal for or something right like, all
of these things you're gonna write, and then you're gonna think.
(18:43):
You're gonna sit there and you're gonna think, and you're
gonna write these are things. I mean, it can be
bullet points, it can be phrases, it can be whatever
came to mind. It can be like, oh I was,
you know, talking to my mom and this happened. Whatever,
whatever it is that's gonna help you. Only you out
what that story is. And then after you go through
pages and pages that that's you're going to start understanding
(19:05):
which ones are the most valuable, which ones are the
is the audience going to then have the universal theme
of you know, challenge, overcome, a winning moment, this and
this right, think about all the Disney movies that you
and I watch, Think about them all.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
What's the underlying theme?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
There is always something, you know, rags to riches, you know,
girl falls in love with boy, you know this or that.
There is always a universal theme. So what is that
universal theme that every single person in that audience has
gone through as well? You find those stories because every
single one of us has gone through it, every one
(19:46):
of us.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
So you find them, You break.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Them down into the knowledge nuggets like you and I
have just talked about, and then you start sharing them.
And if don't tell me you don't know how to
share them either, people, because I know that they are
Your audience are social media whizzes. Okay, you've got the
influenzas of the influencers on this and on listening to this,
So get your phone, record your story and start sharing it.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Very nice.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
So earlier on you mentioned the audience that faces you.
You have any recommendations for folks to really dig deep
and connect with the person in the mirror so they
could get over that hurdle.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Wow, yes, yes, be kind be kind to that person,
because that person that's staring at you in the mirror
needs for you to be positive and say, hey, I
can do this. I can move mountains too, right, I
can move mountains too. And if you start with that that,
(20:50):
if you set your mind to I really want to
tell my story. I want to get rid of the
arms and uhs and really share something with the people
that are around me, so then I can help them
to learn from my learnings. If you could do that,
if you can look in the mirror and say that
(21:11):
to yourself, I'm here to help people to learn from
my learnings, you will really make an impact on those
around you. Because I promise you that I want to
hear from you. I want to hear from you. I
want to learn from you, and it's only your voice
that I want to hear it from.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
So please do that.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Please be kind to that face in the mirror, because
that person needs to feel and hear your kindness.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
And receive it. Receive it.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Right when you're speaking to yourself in that mirror positively,
and you're saying to yourself, I need to or I
would like to, or I intend to serve the audience,
then be able and be ready to receive that, be
able to be ready to receive that, because that's important
because if you're going to steer back at that bere
and be like, no, not for me, I don't know
(22:03):
who the person is that's talking in the mirror. No, no, no,
then you know we got to work on it. We
gotta work on it. We gotta be nice to each other.
We gotta be nice to ourselves. And that starts right here.
You gotta be kind to that person in the mirror. Yes,
promise me you'll do that. Steps up, starts, tall starts all.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I love that. I love that.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Nahaw, this has been super duper productive, so many nuggets
and we gotta have I feel like we could do
this for another hour, but I wanted to make sure
that I saved some time for you to let people
know where they can get in contact with you and
if they were interested in maybe taking you up on
your services, how they could move forward with that.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Oh my gosh, well yes, So please go to my website.
Go to nihana gandhi dot com, easy said, easier to spell,
and e h A N e g A n dhi
dot com. It's got so much information on there for
you that I again I want you to first master
(23:10):
the audience that's in the mirror. That's where we start,
right and so if that's someplace you want to start,
then let's do this. I also have a community called
Storyteller's Table, so we bring together speakers and storytellers that
we and we just nurture them. We love on them,
we connect, we share, we tell stories, and we really
(23:33):
do it in a very positive and affirmative way, which
is you know what I'm all about.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
So if you're interested in.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Just getting into a community with other people that just
want to hear you and you can listen to them,
join us a Storyteller's Table. First event, if you will
allow me a little plug. First event is on March
twenty fifth, So I don't know when this is going
to air, but if it does airs as much twenty fifth.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah, we'll get it out in time to make sure
that folks can hear about it. We'll try to get
it out in next week or two. So, Nah, I
appreciate your time, but more importantly, I appreciate you taking
time to share a little bit of your light with
me and our audience, and we look forward to having
you come back for season two.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Thank you and thank you so much for this opportunity.
You've been such a delight. Thank you so much.
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