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September 2, 2025 40 mins
Effective Communication and Pitching Techniques.

Key Takeaways
  • Barbara teaches a 3-part formula for pitches: problem, solution, transformation
  • Confidence and practice are key for improving public speaking skills
  • Recording yourself and getting constructive feedback helps refine your pitch
  • Tailoring your pitch to different audience members is important but challenging
Topics Barbara's Background and Expertise
  • Developed communication techniques while living abroad and teaching languages
  • Specializes in helping introverted leaders become authentic, powerful speakers
  • Uses a dual approach combining anxiety management and presentation skills
  • Emphasizes clear language structure to decrease cognitive load for listeners
Effective Pitching Techniques
  • 3-part formula: clearly define problem, present solution, describe transformation
  • Tailor pitch to audience's knowledge level and priorities
  • Practice and refine pitch, but don't memorize word-for-word
  • Record yourself and get constructive feedback to improve
  • Be aware of verbal tics or habits that could distract from message
Overcoming Public Speaking Anxiety
  • Have introverts exaggerate enunciation, volume, tone to expand comfort zone
  • Focus on developing confident body language and energy
  • Use exercises like shouting motivational phrases to build confidence
  • Remember that charisma isn't required - confidence is key
Adapting Pitches for Different Audiences
  • Interview audience beforehand to gauge knowledge and priorities
  • Consider tailoring pitch for different roles (e.g. CEO vs IT manager)
  • Be prepared to answer unexpected questions without losing your place
  • Refine pitch over time based on audience reactions and questions
Next Steps
  • Check out Barbara's website boldglobal.com for more information

  • Practice recording and refining your pitch using Barbara's 3-part formula
  • Look for Barbara's upcoming memoir about her experiences in Italy
  • Subscribe to the Make the Grade podcast for more business tips

In this episode of the Make the Grade Experience Podcast, Dr. Steven Greene sits down with Barbara Boldt, a transformational communication coach who helps introverted leaders grow into confident, authentic speakers. Together, they break down the mechanics of effective pitching and public speaking, exploring how clarity, confidence, and storytelling can turn nerves into influence. Whether you’re an entrepreneur preparing to pitch investors, a student walking into an interview, or a professional looking to sharpen your communication skills, this episode delivers practical tools to elevate your message. Key Takeaways
  • 🎯 The Three Elements of a Pitch:
    • Problem — Define the challenge clearly and vividly.
    • Solution — Show exactly how your product/service addresses the problem.
    • Transformation — Demonstrate the tangible benefit and impact.
  • 🗣 Clarity is King: If your audience struggles to understand, your message is lost. Grammar and structure matter because they reduce “cognitive load” for listeners.
  • 💡 Confidence is Learned: Great communicators aren’t “born.” Skills can be taught, practiced, and improved through deliberate techniques.
  • 📖 The Power of Storytelling: Stories make pitches persuasive, relatable, and memorable — much more than raw information ever could.
  • 🤝 Audience Matters: A technical pitch for engineers won’t land the same way with executives or investors. Always tailor your language and style to the people in the room.
Quotes Worth Remembering
  • “It’s not what you say, it’s what they hear.” — Dr. Steven Greene
  • “A pitch without an ask is not a pitch.” — Barbara Boldt
  • “Sales is really teaching.” — Dr. Steven Greene
  • “Confidence comes from methodology, not memorization.” — Barbara Boldt
Resources & Links
  • 🌐 Connect with Barbara Boldt: boldtglobal.com
  • 💼 Find Barbara on LinkedIn: Barbara A. Boldt
  • 🎧 Subscribe to the Make the Grade Experience Podcast: [Your Podcast Link Here]
About the Host Dr. Steven Greene — known as The Success Doctor — is an educator, entrepreneur, and coach who has helped thousands of students and professionals achieve their goals. Through his “Triangle of Success” framework (Product, System, Mentoring), Dr. Greene equips people with the tools they need to thrive in school, business, and life.

In this episode of the Make the Grade Experience Podcast, Dr. Steven Greene — The Success Doctor — welcomes transformational commun
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, guess what time it is,
doctor Steve Green, the Success Doctor, host of the Make
the Great Experience podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
It is late August twenty twenty five. Can you believe it,
people out there in podcast listener and viewing land. I
just seems like yesterday it was New Year's and if
you remember, we had that really awesome New Year's podcast
at twelve o two am, which actually is still the
most listened to podcast this whole year because we talked

(00:37):
about goal setting and it's importance. Today I got another
guest today. I'm back with guests. I love having guests.
Barbara Bolt a transformational speaker, a coach, a facilitator, and
the owner of Bolt Global LLC. Pretty impressive, huh you say?
Transformational communication coach who specializes in guiding introverted leaders on

(01:01):
their journey from not wanting to be seen to becoming authentic.
Imagine somebody being introverted anyway. She takes them and turns
them into powerful public speakers using a unique dual approach

(01:21):
that combines anxiety management with presentation skills development. So, Barbara,
I don't want to pay pressure on you, but you
better be a super dynamic speaker. Here, listen. Let me
tell you something. I'm just I'm going to just opine
here for a second. I don't care what you're doing.
I don't care if you're in sales. I don't care
if you're in politics. I don't care if you're a teacher.

(01:43):
I don't care if you're anywhere. Public speaking skills number
one fear in the world. Right, Some people are less
afraid to jump off a bridge than speak at public
I'm afraid of heights, Believe me, my friends. I can't
go up like you know, there's wind. You go up
on top building. I got a glad floor. I'm like, I've
got like white knuckles holding on to the railing. I'm

(02:03):
afraid of heights, but I have no problem with public speaking.
Go figure anyway, Barbara, welcome. I am really happy to
have you here. I think it's going to be really important.
We do a lot of stuff with success, but we
don't always talk about actual mechanical skills that people need
because a lot of people got it up here. By
the way you and podcast listening, I'm pointing to my head. Okay,

(02:24):
in my head, it's visually okay, visual image not people
got it upstairs, right, but they can't get it out,
they can't communicate clearly. So this is the topic is
very important to me. I feel very strong about this.
I do a lot of coaching in this realm as well. Barbara,
let's start out with this. Okay, Well, just tell us
a little about yourself. How did you become this transformational
communication coach? What's your little backstory here?

Speaker 3 (02:46):
First of all, doctor Steve, thanks so much for having me.
We met kind of serendipitously, and I'm really glad to
be on your podcast.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Indipulously somebody looked that up there you go.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
I intend to use some sort of big words.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
It was fate. It brought us together.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Keep going, Okay, it did bring us together. So basically,
everything I know about communication I learned living abroad. Interestingly,
I learned other languages and taught my own, and then
taught a lot of people whose first language wasn't English
to communicate clearly in English. And I developed this technique

(03:22):
and methodology that my brain sort of hears what's not
in order or what's not well structured, pardon me, well structured,
and I'm able to help people restructure their messages. I
also pay a lot of attention to language. And I
know when the first time we talked you that resonated
with you. You said that you also, yeah, clarity is

(03:45):
super important, and yeah, people don't like the G word
that grammar they yeah, they hate that. However, language structure
makes a difference. Language is that you know, so grammar's
there for a reason. It helps people. If you use
proper grammar, it helps you to be more clear. So

(04:07):
I can sign it sound like a preachy teacher sometimes,
but really it's about what is going to get your
message into the mind of your listener with the least
cognitive struggle. We want to decrease that cognitive load for
our listener. And if we pay attention to our language
and the structure of what we're saying, it can really

(04:28):
help our listener get our message.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
I love this. There's an old saying it's not what
you say, it's what they hear.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
So I got to ask you this, This is almost
a total sidebar. How many agents can you speak?

Speaker 3 (04:42):
I say, parts of four. Generally, my English is pretty fluent.
I'm fluent in Italian molto abastanza beni ancora. I mean
it'spent a lot of years that I haven't lived in Italy.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's like so sexy sounding.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Oh you should hear me when I'm swearing at my computer.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
The language of a more Maybe I.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Should try that.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
I'm usually boy, we had English, Italian? What else?

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Some French? I lived in a French for six years
and then traveled there for another eight. German was the
first language I studied in aung Yah, schlecht Deutsche.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
I know, I know it's a very limited German. Okay,
so let me ask you a question. Let me ask
you a question. I don't think anybody is going to
disagree with this statement. It is very important to you're
able to communicate clearly. So how do you take someone
who's introverted, shy, reticent, maybe not completely comfortable with the

(05:57):
language anyway, Like you don't want me doing a pot
cash to interview in Spanish? That wouldn't go, well, no,
it wouldn't. I can if I can speak Spanish to
get by, like at a resort, you know, or something,
but you uno maservice that sort of thing. But so
is it? Is it mindset? Is a technique? Is it
building confidence? Is it all the above? You know, what's

(06:19):
your take on this?

Speaker 3 (06:21):
It's definitely building up confidence, I would say, But what
I find is that introverts have to expand their zone,
their comfort zone, and it's really very somatic. It's like
something that happens in their body. They have to they know,
you know, their comfort zone is pretty limited at the beginning.

(06:43):
So what I often do is have them do exercises
that force them to exaggerate. They exaggerate the annunciation, they
exaggerate the volume, they exaggerate the tone to the point
of possibly even feeling a little bit ridiculous. But what
that does for them is shows them that they have
it in them to communicate that way. And then when

(07:06):
they come back to a sort of middle place, it's
a little bit more expressive than maybe where they started.
So it's and they gain confidence as they put themselves
out there. It's developing an alternative style of communication that
they can turn on when they need it. But they

(07:27):
have to know where they're headed, right, They have to
know what that energy and their body feels like, so
they know if they turned it on enough in front
of a room or in a meeting where they want
to impress their boss or whatever.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
The case might be, or clients, right, could.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
Be clients, Yeah, I actually use a Steve Jobs text.
It's his communit his commencement address, and the language in
it is just fun. He's like, stay foolish. And I
can't remember all of it, but there are all these
fun phrases that are short.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
It's Stanford or something. Where did you remember that?

Speaker 3 (08:05):
I think it's Stanford. I think it's the Stanford commencement address.
And I've got it broken down into bits and in
big print. And I used to have my students run
around the room shouting this and stamping their feet, and
it's all about energy in the body. Is a lot
of it for the for the introverts.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
This body language transcends spoken language right.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
Often, like Tony needs to be coherent with this is.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
A fantastic podcast, I'm saying, I podcast cling on that. Okay,
I was making it up. Now I'm saying, but no,
you can express something like like no no no no
like sometimes are and this is another sidebar. I'm sorry

(08:51):
to distract it. I know there are languages, kind of
more primitive languages that don't even have tents. The way
they express tents is by your is your inflex your voice? Right? Yeah?
Like Hebrew, like somebody's really old languages haven't evolved like
some of the newer ones. Okay, let's turn this a
little bit to business, right, Okay, with business, somebody's trying

(09:12):
to make a sale. Somebody's trying to present something. Let's cool,
call it a pitch. How do you define a pitch?

Speaker 3 (09:20):
A pitch for me is time limited, so it's short.
Generally speaking, it can expand or contract, but generally no
more than fifteen minutes, no less, you know, thirty seconds
a minute can be at the low end. So concise,
concise focused a mix of informing and persuading, and we

(09:41):
need to be more toward the persuasion side of that
equation or that continuum in order to get people to
take action. If you're only informing your people are not
going to be as likely to take action as if
you build in some persuasive techniques. And really, as you know,

(10:01):
the best one is story. Now, that's why we encourage
people to tell stories as part of their pitch, because
that's what grabs the audience. It's what creates an emotional
response in that audience. It's relatable, yes, yeah, And frequently,
especially tech entrepreneurs or people who are in a technical
field will tend to overload on the info side and

(10:24):
they'll give too much information too soon. You really, you know,
you have to hook that audience member to thinking, Wow,
this is something I want to know more about before
you do an information dumpy.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
You know, it's interesting, Barbara Is. I think the implication
when you say you're sort of training people that are
coming from a foreign language, the implication of Spanish, Italian, German,
Arabic finish. But in a sense, think about this in
a sense, a lot of these highly technical job it's

(11:00):
almost a foreign language. If I'm an engineer and I'm
used to talking to other engineers, you know, you know
the mechanical quadrant, blupa sata duba, you know that interfaces,
you know, like it's it's basically a foreign language. It's
the same, you know, same with medicine, right, Like I've
been in situations where people my family had medical stuff
and the doctors talk to each other. I have no

(11:21):
idea what they're talking about. I mean, if you translate,
they're saying, no, he's got a broken leg. But it's
you know, the subadificis fracture of the models medius And
you're like, what like English, so it sometimes it isn't
just what we classical we would think about as foreign
language as right, it's it's it's making sure. Like the
way I say it when I when I train on

(11:42):
this little bit is you got to relate at the
level of your audience. Yep. And then there's always the
emotional piece. I completely agree with you on that. So
a pitch is essentially me or you or anybody you're
going to train to try to convey what they want
their audience to hear. Right, So what's the basic purpose
of that? Is it to make a sales? It to
build rapport? Is it? Is it all the above?

Speaker 3 (12:03):
Well, pitch is always wanting some people to do something.
So you could want them to buy something. You could
want them to invest in your startup. You could want
them to join your startup. So you're always But for me,
a pitch is not a pitch without an ask. It
You must ask for something and give a.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Short example, like a one or two sentence example on
the fly.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
Oh gosh, So we sell palelettes ecological palettes. They decrease
the use of wooden pallettes in warehouses. They are safer,
they cut down on medical emergencies and we would like

(12:45):
you to try our but compostable palette to prove to
yourself that you can save money.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
So there's your ask, right.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
That's the ask. I did do a super good job
of outlining the problem.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Well, but the point is you gave information, you gave
a validation that what kind of call it, and sales like, Okay,
here's what we do, here's why it's important in your case,
it's safer, help, good for the environment, et cetera. Then
you got your call to action. So when you're training
people on this, I come to you say, Barbara, I

(13:20):
really feel like I know my subject. People love me.
I'm so good looking, so charismatic, but I just can't
seem to convey that. Do you have a formula? Do
you have a system that you might use that would
help people to construct a pitch?

Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah? I do, and I call it the heart of
the pitch. So you always have to paint a clear
picture of the problem that you're solving. And the way
I have people do this is think about your solution
and what is important for your audience to know about
that solution. What do they have to get We very

(13:59):
carefully the words that they're going to use to describe
their solution, which is information. Then we backpedal to create
a story that incorporates all of those aspects that you
want to talk about in your solution. So you build
into that problem story something that relates to each part

(14:19):
of the what problem your solution solves, so that when
you get to speaking about the solution, your audience goes, oh,
of course the problem is this. Of course this solves
this issue. And then you go back to the story
to create It's what I call transformation, but it's really

(14:42):
the benefit. What is the benefit that that solution provides.
How is the life of a person who interacts with
your solution different? And it very much follows the hero's
journey template. Right, there's a problem. People are in a pit,
they're in a b they're struggling. They discover your solution,

(15:03):
they interact with it, and this is how their life
changes once they've interacted with that solution. And my belief
is that no matter how long your pitch is, no
matter what pitch purpose, your pitch has, that piece, those
three elements need to be there, and they need to
be The vocabulary that you use needs to be carefully crapped.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
This kind of a bullet point way because I want
everybody out there to understand this, because this is super important.
I really can't underscore. If you're in sales, you're in marketing,
you present, you're in teaching, it doesn't matter. The three
things you got to have in a pitch are number.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
One, problem that you solve clearly painted for your audience.
Number two is solution that you offer.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
So the solution to that, In other words, the number
two answers number one right.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
And then transformation is the difference that that solution makes beautiful.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, so hey people, you can't hear my podcast because
your phone's dead. Let's send you a new phone in
the mail and imagine how much better your life would
be when you can listen to the Make the Great
Experience podcast with doctor Stephen Grant and my guest today
Barbara Bolt. By the way, this is a transition into
our little station break for a second. So again you

(16:18):
are listening to the Make the Grade podcast. I hope
you're enjoying it. Our guests Barbara Bolt. Basically, she teaches
you how to do a good concise sales pitch or
introductory pitch. And because she has a formula, she has
a system anybody ever listened to this podcast before we're
like episode three hundred. Have I ever talked about having
a system for everything? I know? I know it's incredible,

(16:41):
isn't it? Barbara? Yes, sir? What are the people out
there saying? Well, this makes sense. It's easy for Barbara
because she's been doing it for well, Barbara's like thirty
years old, let's say ten years. You know, it's second
nature to her. But I'm, you know, an introvert. I'm
not really as confident as she might be, or as

(17:02):
maybe even as Steve is public speaking, I don't know
if I'm going to be able to do this. What
do you say to that?

Speaker 3 (17:09):
Well, what I would say is that the method the
having the methodology can give you the confidence to then deliver.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
That's very important, right You Practice makes perfect.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
You absolutely need to practice, and you need to not memorize,
but you need to learn your pitch so that you
can deliver it in a way that's relaxed and because
people if you just memorize, you're going to forget stuff. Yeah,
you won't be able to get back to where you
need to be. But if you there's memorization involved in

(17:40):
the learning process. But You want to get to the
point where it's so automatic that even if somebody asks
you an off the wall question, you're not thrown. It
doesn't throw you for a loop. You're able to answer
that question and pick up to get back to where
you want it to communicate what you want to communicate,

(18:02):
because sometimes you know, people will ask you a question
just to just to throw you off or.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, especially especially in like a high stakes like you know,
six figure million dollars sale. Right. True or false? Everybody's
pitch is perfect the very first time they do it.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
No.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
False, everybody's pitch is perfect the tenth time they do it. No,
probably not exactly. It's an evolving process.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
Well, and I always say a pitch is a living thing.
You know, it's never it never is just static. You
always are going to modify it in some way. You
shouldn't reinvent it every time.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Bad answer, because you're true or false every time you
do the pitch. It should be exactly the same.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
No, absolutely not, because your audience is different exactly. We
are like brilli, same on the wavelength.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
No, but it's true. This is so true, and I
love to hear you say it because of valid these
things I said for a long time. So here, Okay,
it begs the question how do I know? And maybe
I don't completely? But how do I feel confident? Because
I think that's one of the things you're suggesting is
a self confidence. How do you feel confident that the
way I'm going to communicate whatever particular version of my
pitches is going to resonate with my audience. Now I

(19:11):
have an answer I'm thinking of, but I want to
hear what you say.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
I think the only way that you know that is
by the questions that people ask.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
If you ask them or you ask them.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
Right, I mean, the questions that are asked when after
you deliver your pitch are so instructive because if there
are questions about clarity, like what do you mean? And
could you say that again, it means you weren't clear,
so you need to work on that. But if there
are questions about substance, like tell me more, that's really interesting,

(19:45):
then you know you've been successful in delivering that pitch
to that audience because you grab them and they want
to know more.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
See one of the things I teach people to do,
and you may although it hasn't been part of your
formerly yet, it may be, so I don't want to
steal your thunder is I have people before they do
a pitch, it sort of many interview the audience. Let
me ask you a question here, Uh, how how how
important is you define to you define a solution to

(20:14):
whatever the problem is? Well, you know we're six months out,
we're in budget whatever, Oh we need it yesterday, because
that could that's information that you might modify your pitch, right, and.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
It also can tell you how much they already know.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Here's another good question. What have you already tried to
do or what have you already done to solve the problem. Well,
we hired eighteen consultants. They all sucked. I hope you're
not the nineteenth Steve, not Barber Steve. That's another good thing,
right if you're if you're ninth in the batting order,
so to speak, you got you might have you might

(20:50):
be under a stiffer scrutiny than if you were first. Right,
they got to make sure you're clear. Another good question
to ask is this, what's your time frame to have
this solution implemented? Now? They might say, well, you know,
we got a project and it's going to roll out
in three months we'd like to have it sold by
then they might say, OMG, we're losing money every day

(21:11):
because the bleed that we have here or whatever. So
you know, what have you tried before? How important is
this to you? I think I'm doing that order, but
you know, what's your time frame? These are simple questions
that are not out of line in a presentation, right all,
I'm coming out of left field. So let me ask
you this, and feel free to expand on this. What

(21:32):
are the benefits of using a system having a formula
like you have to constructing your pitch. There's a chance
for you to kind of toot your own horn here.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Well, I like my system or my order, but I
think the benefit of it is that it saves time
and energy because you don't have to reinvent the wheel
every time. If you know that, no matter what it
is that you're pitching, you need these three elements, and
you'll need other elements too. You know, sometimes you need
market size or sometimes you need to explain your business model,

(22:03):
but those the problem solution transformation. If you know that
that's what you need every time, then you can kind
of plug and play. If you know whatever solution you
are trying to sell you know that you need to
very clearly and beautifully paint a picture of the problem

(22:23):
that that solves, and communicate clearly the difference that it makes.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Somebody's sitting out going this is awesome. I need to
get a hold of Barbara. How do they reach you?

Speaker 3 (22:36):
My website is www dot bold global dot com. It's
boldt right Das and David tasn't tom As.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
I always be in the show notes, of course, but
keep going.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
Right, and that's the easiest way is to go to
my website. I'm also on LinkedIn as Barbara A.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Bold.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
I use my middle initial on LinkedIn, But yeah, reach out,
send me a direct message.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
There are lots of well are you primarily of one
on one consultive? Is a group? Is it asynchronous? How
do you do it?

Speaker 3 (23:07):
I primarily do one on one coaching, and I do
I will do groups if I'm asked. I do speaking
to groups, more speaking to groups and than actual kind
of coaching to groups. But yeah, I like to work
one on one and I do virtual, and sometimes it's hybrid.
It depends if people are local or if people are

(23:28):
not here, you know, not in the Detroit area.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
So are you in like Greece or something. Right, now,
where are you living now?

Speaker 3 (23:34):
I live in Farmington, Michigan. I'm state Side's.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
That's like the middle north of the United States.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yes, I do not call it Midwest because I'm from Iowa,
which I consider to be the true Midwest. But yes,
Michigan is north.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Mid You know what they call people from Michigan.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Michiganders, Yeah, which is like a funny word.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Somebody told me that. I'm like, really, that's like a
weird word. Yeah, I guess it's no better than Pennsylvanians.
I don't know, but Michigan.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yeah, I know, it's kind of funny. I heard another
version of it the other day, but I can't think
of it. But yeah, Michiganders where I'm an Iowan by birth,
But that.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Kind of makes sense, like iowin Pennsylvanian and it can't
be Michigan. Right.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
It's awkward, it gets awkward, but they're very proud people
from Michigan or vice.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
One more question for you, What's what's the best way
to practice a pitch? Is it to kind of do it,
maybe record yourself on your phone and play it back.
Is it to find some friendly fire?

Speaker 3 (24:38):
You know?

Speaker 2 (24:38):
Maybe friends of yours. There going to be a friendly audience.
Is it just what do you recommend? Because people I do.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Think that recording yourself and listening back to it is
very instructive because you'll hear things you don't expect to hear.
I would say, if you're going to give your pitch
to and to someone else to get feedback, you to
make sure that they're not the people who are your
mom and dad. You know your mom and dad are
going to say that's great. But what you want is

(25:07):
you want to author. Yeah, you want constructive feedback, but
not bashing feedback either. So you have to find people
you can trust. And actually what's really good is to
pitch it to somebody who knows nothing about what you do.
That will help you with clarity because they will just

(25:28):
if you aren't using language that's accessible to them, they'll
tell you immediately like what are you talking about? Or
I don't get that, and then you'll know that you
need to change some words because your language is not
at a level that everybody can understand, you know, and
if people are pitching to investors, you can't assume that

(25:48):
people who are looking to make money will understand the
tech or will understand some of them do. Some of
them have a medical background or a technical background, but
not all. So you really have to as I've.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Worked with people who are going into a presentation and
you got you got like the IT guy there, you
got the CEO, there, you got the CFO, you got
this person, you got the bean counter, you got the tech,
you got the marketing, and it's almost like you need
four pitches. Yeah, I challenging. I mean, and another thing
which we won't get into, but sometimes you're in a team.

(26:22):
I've had situations so I was a part of a
team with three or four people doing a team pitch.
Oh wow, Yeah, that's a whole whole different dynamic. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
I did a presentation for Project Management International last year
and our actually was earlier this year. But one of
the women in the audience asked that very question. She said,
I'm pitching this project and I need resources and I
but I've got all these different people in the room
who have different priorities. You know, how do I deal
with that? Yeah, it's challenging.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
When you say you got to get it reminds me
of the Rodney danger Field joke. Guy goes to doctor
and the doctor says, Hey, you know you're not doing well.
You drink too much. Doctor. I don't like what you're saying.
I want a second opinion. Yeah, you're ugly too. I
don't get into respect anyhow.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, we date ourselves.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, so listen. I first of all those you out
in podcast land, this is great information, Barbara, Thank you, really,
thank you a lout for sharing very well, because I
think people undervalue, or maybe under I don't give me
a better word, underappreciating, underappreciate the importance of clear, concise,

(27:32):
lucid information as you present. If you do it well,
it creates an air of subject matter expertise. If I
do a lousy presentation, you're probably thinking this guy knew
he's talking about.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
Right.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
If you're clear, if you're precise, if you're on point,
it's like, oh okay, maybe if we don't buy from
this person, at least they were impressive. Yeah, okay. And
that's a learned skill, that's a practice skill you've done
in a certain number of times. Right. Is there anything,
as we're going to kind of wrap up here, you
have not gotten to about this that you want to

(28:05):
share with our listeners and viewers.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
Well, I think the the as a parting shot here,
I would simply say everybody's got their own style, and
you don't necessarily have to look like someone else that
you've seen in order to be successful. But you do
need to know if you have any habits or ticks

(28:28):
that are going to distract from what you say or
how your message comes across. So there's a lot of
self awareness involved in being a good communicator.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Like you don't want to say like like every eighth word.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
Like right yeah, or you know you know, you know,
you know, you.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Know, you know you know, And for better worse, people
do have habits like that. It's not a personality flaw,
it's just you're like I used to have a job
when I was in college education teach people to be teachers,
and one of the things was elocution, which is fancy
word for speaking right. And we used to say kids
can be cruel, Like if you're a teacher and you

(29:09):
get a habit and you kids pick up on it,
they will they'll beat you up on it. Right, if
you're a teacher and you're always saying you know, you know,
you know, or like like like the kids like like
like because we use that because they thrive on like
annoying the teacher, right, or if every time you pause
uh uh or oh or like. Sometimes you have to

(29:32):
be very cognizant of these habits sometimes and sometimes it's
it's it's almost like a reprogramming of your thought and
your speaking process.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
So you have to train yourself to catch yourself. It's
a process, but you can do it. But the first
thing is to have somebody just snap their finger every
time you say right or like, so you become aware.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, and it's the same thing sales is really teaching.
You know, everybody knows me. It's sail by edge cation.
That's my thing. I should get a T shirt that
sets up You got like a nickname Barberson, the pitch,
the pitch woman or something. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
No, I don't have any nicknames that I know of.
I mean, people could call me something behind my back,
but I don't know.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
They wouldn't do that. Well that you need to create
your own right, Like I'm the success doctor. Other people
called me. I didn't make it up myself. You should
be like the pitch the perfect pitch person that I
like that has an alliteration, The perfect pitch person person.
But then they would sort of suggest like singing, you know,
like the perfect pitch.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
All, yeah, that's the thing that the perfect pitch the
movie comes up.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yeah, but then you but it's a conversation starter. Oh
do you teach vocal training?

Speaker 3 (30:39):
No?

Speaker 2 (30:39):
No, no, I teach people how to do sales presentation. Right.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
Well, that's exciting and set yourself apart, right like.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Barbara, I'm going to w you the perfect pitch person.
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
I feel anointed anyway.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Oh, somebody's called me sorry about that. Don't they know
not to call him? A podcast? All right, so listen
our guest today, Barbara Bolt. Okay, we talked about in
a formula for constructing a piece that motivates your audience
and take action. She's got a plan. You gotta know
your problem, you gotta know your solution. You got to
have this transformational thing. Got to be confident, You got

(31:15):
to have a self projection. That's clear. I'm leaving anything out, Barbara.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
No. I mean some people might think they have to
be charismatic, but they really don't confidence. You can speak
confidently without necessarily being totally cruel.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
So she's got a way to teach you this. You
go to her website, right yep.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
And there's lots of forms on there in different places
that book a call or send me an email or
whatever you want to.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Do there you go, give me one sec here you
have to respond rib notes here, all right, So listen,
Do you have anything coming up? Anything you want to plug?
You doing a program, you speaking and singing in Vegas,
anything like that. You got anything you want to plug?

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Your not singing in Vegas. I am working on my book,
which is a memoir are I'm hopefully on track to
get that manuscript out by the end of this year,
so it'll be coming out next year. It's called leap
Land Live. How moving to Italy for love became a
journey of self discovery and it's quite entertaining actually.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
So, so you moved to Italy, I assume for some guy.
I did, and hopefully it worked out.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
It did not did not work out with that guy,
but I stayed he.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
Was Italian or American?

Speaker 3 (32:32):
He was Italian. He was Italian. But yeah, I went
back to live with him after I'd met him on
vacation and it was an unmitigated disaster. But I was this.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Might be a whole other episode.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
Oh it could be. It's very fun. It's a fun story.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Part Italy.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
I moved initially to Tuscany, Umbria. It was a Tuscan
Umbrian border. I was there for about eight months, and
then I ended up in Milan.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Near Florence, Siena of that kind of area.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
Yeah, I was. Actually I studied Italian in Peruja, which
is more Umbria.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
And then all right, can you say this an Italian
cosa will make the great experience? Podcast is the best?

Speaker 3 (33:14):
Oh dear.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
English, but the great that's the name of the podcast, right,
or you could just say Steve's podcast is the best.
I just want to hear the Italian. It's like a.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Song podcast Stefano.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
It's like, yeah, you ever see the Adams Family. You
got to be at least.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
Yeah, You're like it's like a fish called Wanda.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
So really when you speak French, yesh, same thing? Real quick?
You want to play my my favorite podcast game. Okay,
there's a little spice bar, but then notice was coming
well the fave five. No, no, it's easy. We just
will learn a little bit about you. Okay, I can
answer in any language you want. I want to say,
I'm going to give you a topic you tell me

(33:57):
your favorite thing in that topic. Okay, okay, this one
or should we jump right in?

Speaker 3 (34:03):
Oh? You can jump right in, all right?

Speaker 2 (34:04):
Color? Blue? Blue? A yeah, azul Spanish? I don't know what.
How do you say it in Italian? Almost the same? Yeah,
sounds so much better in Italian? Blue sounds like you're
throwing up? Is azula? Favorite food? I think I got

(34:30):
a guess here. You lived in Italy? Favorite food?

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Oh, ma Udico, spaghetti, consugo diplomet oral.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
I gotta tell you, I've been Itarly four times. The
Italian food. I love Italian food anywhere, but it is
so it is el fantastic in Italy. It is, It's
very fresh.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
It's really really good.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah. Music, musica, Oh.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Elton John is my favorite musician.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
You got a favorite song?

Speaker 3 (34:59):
Oh? Damn, I love Daniel. I love almost all the Yeah.
That's no.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Favorite place. You've been to many one you want to
go back to?

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Uh? You know, there are lots of places. But I
lived in Lausanne in Switzerland for six years, and that
Lungo Lago as you walk along the lake and you
have the view of all the Alps, that is really
kind of hard to beat.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
It's bellissima lago means lake in Italian Italiano.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
Yeah, lungo lago is the walk along the lake, So
that's how you say that. Hugo lamo, lago di como
see and lago di Genevra.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
That's not far from Milan Como.

Speaker 3 (35:43):
No, it's not. I went there many times.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Hobby hobby.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Oh gosh, people ask me that and I never know
the answer, which is terrible. But I would say one
of my hobbies is making sure I stay in touch
with my friends. I'm a person that reaches out and
reconnects with people.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Well done, fave rito cinco? Correct or not? How you
want a bonus? Sixth question?

Speaker 3 (36:09):
Oh sure?

Speaker 2 (36:11):
Favorite podcast host doctor Stephen Green, incredible continues one hundred
and forty seven straight people have gotten that right? Well,
who else would we say? That's actually French, but there's
probably Aalian version. All right, So listen, we have some
fun here, but we also learned a lot. Barbara, thank

(36:34):
you very much, gracias grazzi.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
Prego prego And it's not a sauce, that's not a pizza.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
It means you're welcome in Italian. Listen, let's sum it up.
Sales pitch pitch super important, more importante, right Barbara, If
you don't know how to do one, you're not comfortable whatever.
Now maybe you're even doing a language not comfortable in.
This is your solution. So here's your problem. Your sales
pitch is not so good. What's your solution? Get some help?

(37:05):
Reach out to Barbara Bolt at her website. What's your
website again?

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Quick? Www dot Bold Global dot com.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
B O l dt bo l d T. What's the
transformation before my pitch stunk? I went to Barbara's website,
I set up appointment, I worked with her. Now it
is it works.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
Yeah, and you know your pitch works if you get response,
that's how you know it works. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Such I gotta say this. I'm sorry it didn't work
out with your man in Italy.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
Love.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
You know that's not the topic of this podcast. If
you get that answer, let me know. I'm still trying
to figure it out to I've been married tents. Yeah,
not so easy every day, but we make it work.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Listen. We got a lot coming up in the Maktree podcast.
This is all I asked you. I had fun doing this,
especially when I have a really fun guest like Barbara.
But it's not about fun. It's about the value. I
want you to have better tools to be a better
business person, to be a more successful business person, a
more confident business person. I don't care what you're selling.
I don't care what you're repping. You don't even have

(38:16):
to be in business. You could be a student going
to interview in a job interview just as important, right,
and the whole here is to bring you these skills
from people who are really good at it. People are
doing this every day. So all I ask I should
like this is please subscribe to the podcast, and please
share this with other people who you think this made benefit. Okay,

(38:36):
it's a little tiny tenchy weeny. They got to do
this a push on a button click. Thank you very much,
of course. Now if we want to take another step
and give an incredibly positive five star review, how you
say five stars in Italian?

Speaker 3 (38:49):
Sinco?

Speaker 2 (38:53):
It just sounds so nice in Italian. One of these
days I can come. I'll come out to a Michigan.
We can go out, have some pasta together.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
There's a lot of really good Italian food in Philadelphia, big.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
Huge diaspora.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
ALTI Ben that's what we started malto Benny. Yeah, take
it down to little Italy. I'll get some real Italian food.
It's real Italian in Philadelphia if it's got a red
and white checked tablecloth, picture of Frank Sinatra on the
one and Dean Martin Perry Comb on the wall, and
then you know it's legit. And the that's not in
a wine glass or like a triangle or like they

(39:30):
serve it to you like that little round sort of
juice cup. That's how they drink.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
Oh, that's because wine is just part of food. It's
part of the meal.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
All Right, we're gonna wrap this up. Barbara again, thank
you very much. I hope everybody got value of this.
Please comment below the podcast. Thank you so much, and
you know, let's talk about I'll see everybody next time.
We got the next three or four podcast or guests.
I'm interviewing several guests this week and next week. They'll
probably all hit in about a week or two. So
you got a lot to look forward to. A rivederci arivederci.

(40:04):
There we go, Thanks again, Thank you,
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