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PODCAST
The Uncorked Conversation
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EPISODE #8
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If you’re a soul-guided entrepreneur, speaking with confidence about who are, what you offer, and to whom is critical to your business success. In this episode, I offer 5 ways to communicate more confidently, how I overcame my fear of introducing myself as a life coach, and how to polish and deliver your authentic elevator speech. We also explore ways in which you can own your expertise, the key to preparing, and so much more.
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Listen + Subscribe on iTunes or PodBean.
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The Uncorked Conversation Podcast with Allyson Scammell
Episode #8: How to Communicate with Confidence + Own Your Elevator Speech
You are listening to the uncorked conversation podcast with Allyson Scammell episode number eight. Hello and welcome to the uncorked conversation, a podcast for soul guided passion filled women entrepreneurs who want to uncork big magic in life and business without burning out.
We’ll get to the truth of how to uncork our core gifts, the ones we keep hidden inside., and how to infuse those gifts into our personal and professional life in a way that feels like.
magic.
Also uncover how to truly experience the joy of the journey through smart time management and planning. I’m your host Allyson Scammell. Let’s uncork.
Hello shantipax nation how are you doing today? I’m so excited about today’s episode. I want to talk about a hugely important topic that is directly related to unocorking our core gifts and our authentic nature and that is how to communicate confidently.
If you’re a soul guided entrepreneur where you’d like to become one. Then speaking with confidence about who you are what you offer and to whom is critical to your business success.
And I’m not just talking about your ability to make a sale. It’s also so important for you to convey the level in which you believe in yourself and your offerings. And that comes through. In communicating confidently.
And not in a fake it until you make it kind of way but in a very real and authentic own in this kind of way. Your ability to own your 30 second elevator speech speaks directly to your belief in yourself and when you own that it shows.
In today’s episode I’m going to offer you five ways to communicate more confidently how I overcame my fear of introducing myself as a life coach and how to polish and deliver your authentic elevator speech.
Let’s get started.
The first way to communicate with more confidence is to speak about topics within your zone of genius your zone of genius is your unique power Hendriks gay talks about it at length in his wonderful book
The big leap there the skills that you are exceptional at and no one does quite like you. We express our core gifts for example with in our zone of genius and all of the things that are housed within your Soane of genius are the things that you will be able to speak about and communicate about with the most competence.
Knowing your topic inside out makes you so much more confident. Yes that might sound obvious but I think there’s many many times where we’ve been asked to put on the spot or even volunteered to speak about things that we don’t feel 100 percent confidently talking about.
For example I used to serve as a subject matter expert on humanitarian affairs during military trainings and exercises and I would rather play certain humanitarian actors that show up prominently in humanitarian disasters and who either interact or don’t want to interact with the military in those responses.
And during one exercise in particular I remember being assigned a role in which I did not feel confident. It was a role I had never played in real life. In response to a humanitarian disaster or a post conflict response. And I did not feel confident.
I did the best I could and I feel like I delivered the goods. But it was uncomfortable for me. I definitely wasn’t in my zone of genius. I wasn’t coming from a true place of authority as someone who had served in that role. I had only observed others playing in that role and I just wasn’t at my best. And so what I did was I was very quiet.
I did not offer my perspective very often. I played down my part. So this is a common response to not communicating within our zone of genius. We just don’t communicate. We don’t say anything even when we have something really really valuable to contribute. We’ll stay quiet.
What I should have done is gone to the organizers of the training and said hey look I have expertise in these other areas. Can you please assign me to these other areas. But I did not do that and I just took the role they gave me and therefore I wasn’t able to confidently communicate the material the way I would have liked.
So if you have control over what you’re communicating choose topics that you feel like are in your zone of genius it doesn’t mean you need to know everything about it. It doesn’t mean you’re not still learning. It just means it’s a topic where you feel like you have a lot of experience you have a lot to say. You feel very confidently talking about it.
I also want to mention when we create from our edge meaning when we’re creating on the edges of our comfort zone. So we’re testing new things trying new thing. Experimenting and sometimes when we don’t have it all figured out yet and we haven’t had a lot of time to test and to get feedback and to try again that can affect our confidence in being able to talk about whatever it is we’re creating.
So I would say if you can’t talk about it with confidence to just let it ride it’s still in your zone of genius. But you’re also letting the ideas formulate the ideas come together and then maybe in one month or five or a year from now you will be able to talk about it with great confidence. But it also is very exhilarating to share when you are creating from the edge.
So be willing to open up about your experimentation about your creative process and just find your zone of authenticity that space free like while I’m testing this new thing out and I’m not really sure and share that from a place of honesty and confidence and take it from there. The second way to communicate with more confidence is to own your expertise.
And especially when we’re new in the game we can really doubt what we have to offer we can doubt our products weakened doubt our services weaken our expertise on whatever it is we offer whatever it is we want to offer.
We can doubt our core gives when we doubt our expertise. We communicate with less confidence that is definitely a byproduct of that and those to whom we are communicating feel that they feel that lack of confidence and they. React to that either by not signing up for whatever it is you’re offering or not.
Wanting to further their relationship with you when whoever you’re talking to may need exactly what you have to offer. So this is why developing that confidence can be so important. So how do we overcome this. Well first and foremost we need to be aware of any thoughts or limiting beliefs that. Are getting into our expertise loop.
For example I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t have enough experience. I don’t have enough years of experience other people in my profession have more experience. All of this. I’m not enough. It’s not enough thinking. And clear that up by questioning your thoughts is it true you can do Emotional Freedom Techniques to help you.
If there’s a free if t training on my Web site that you can sign up for that takes you through exactly how you can useF.T. to help you dissolve these limiting beliefs. You can sign up at shantipax dot com. But the point is be aware of the thoughts that are affecting your. Confidence in your expertise. And question them. And then the second.
Thing to ask yourself is am I doing everything that I can to really be an expert in my field. And of course we’re always learning and we can always learn more. There’s never an end to our expertise like we’ve we’ve become full expert and there’s nothing else to learn. I mean that day never comes. But maybe there is new information out there for you to learn.
So sometimes we get so caught up in the creating creating creating creating building the business doing the branding and the marketing that we do neglect our own learning. And you hear a lot from guys like Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffett and they talk about the importance of spending 30 minutes a day just to learn.
And that’s pretty extraordinary and I think a lot of us don’t take the time to do that because we feel like we don’t have the time. There’s too much going on for us to take 30 minutes and crack open a book or watch a TED talk or something like that. So maybe if you’re doubting your expertise you can carve out some time in your week simply for learning.
Go to your local bookstore and buy three books specifically related to your field. Tons and tons of free resources everywhere. So couple google searches and sign up to some blogs and subscribe to some podcasts directly related to your field of expertise. I find Facebook groups to be a great way to get good information in the field so whatever field you’re in.
Find a Facebook group related to that and very often someone will post. Hey what podcasts are you guys listening to now. And it’s a great way to get information on books podcasts blogs that are out there. That can serve as an inspiration to you and maybe some mentoring as well as helping you to deepen your expertise in your field.
The third way to speak with more confidence is to speak about the things you feel most passionate about. Whenever you’re super passionate about a topic and you’re really speaking from the heart. It is so much easier to convey that passion with confidence because it means so much to you as we go through our entrepreneurial journey and we’re learning new things and offering new things what we felt really really passionate about two years ago might be slightly different today or it’s a different aspect or something new you learned.
Getting back to that concept of creating from our edge. So always speak about things that are within your zone of genius that you feel like you can speak about really confidently and the things that you feel most passionately about.
At this point in your life like at this point in my life I feel so passionate about uncorking our core gifts uncorking our true authenticity. And I have been coaching people on core gifts for four years now but it’s really this year 2018 where I really want to emphasize the uncorking.
I want to emphasize why we walk up and I want to understand that so I can help people. Uncorks is going beyond just identifying the core gifts. It’s going to that space where we really can own it and share it. So this whole idea that we spend so much time and effort trying to caulk up the best parts of ourselves gets me so fired up.
I am so passionate about this topic and this is the topic that I’m choosing to speak about at this point in my journey. So it’s all within my zone of genius but it’s just slight nuances and we want to follow. When we’re speaking with confidence about the things that are most passionate to us to day. The fourth way to speak with confidence is to prepare so obvious right.
Can I tell you how many times I haven’t prepared to speak to something to someone and it’s fallen flat because I didn’t prepare.
For those of you who are familiar with Cappi Coleby and her index of how we learn and create and take action I am a classic quick start so I like to act before I even think like that my first instinct is to jump in with both feet and that can get me into trouble a lot because I don’t do the required factfinding.
I don’t prepare I just jump in and so I’ve learned time and time again that although I find it exhilarating to jump in. It needs to be balanced. There needs to be some preparation and so I always even if I’m very passionate and. I’m very knowledgeable on the topic about which I’m talking I always prepare.
And I prepare by speaking. I prepare by going through and saying what I’m going to say all the time I spend in my car for example with my 2 year old. I am either listening to podcasts or practicing various topics and ideas and ways of communicating for future podcasts that I give. So that is a time when I’m tooling about with my daughter that I practice speaking and. I hear right now is trying to grow up thinking it’s very very normal just to speak to yourself constantly.
And she is getting a lot of exposure to personal growth podcasts at a very young age. So we’ll see how that plays out in her life. But I spent a lot of time preparing for these podcast episodes. I spent a lot of time speaking through topics I’m going to speak about webinars and live events I do. I practice practice practice.
And I also find it thrilling to just act off the cuff but nothing beats rehearsing what you’re gonna say and I have lots and lots of recordings of me speaking whether it’s podcasts or women are recordings or tell the class recordings. And I always listen to them. I can hear especially ok with these podcasts. I can go back and edit out my ohs and ums but it’s especially useful to listen to Speaking alive so you can identify what’s going well and where you can improve.
You can catch all the filler words the ums and the kinda sorta riffs. Now let me say something about kind of and sort of. Those are confidence strainers. When I say it’s sort of important to uncork your core gifts because it’s kind of like living your.
Full sort of life and it’s kind of liberating to sort of own that and kind of own your expertise you know so it is critical to uncork your core gifts to live your fullest past life that you can live down no kind of no sort of it’s truly important fairly.
All of those fillers are doubters.
There are subtle doubters of what you’re saying and I know you don’t doubt what you’re saying you’re just doubting yourself you’re doubting yourself as being an expert in the information you’re conveying so it’s normal to sometimes say um you kind of sort of but if you go back and listen to recordings of you speaking you’ll be able to identify them and you’ll be able to have more awareness the next time you’re speaking.
So you can try to edit those out and the same can be said with I think I believe sometimes it works very well and sometimes you have to qualify a statement with I think or I believe but sometimes it’s okay to just say it this way. It’s critical that we learn uncork our core gifts. Is much stronger than I think it is important that we learn to uncork our core gifts.
So yes I think that and yes you can disagree with me but I’m just going to own it because this is the uncorked conversation podcast and I really really believe this to be true. That it is really important for our growth the growth of our soul that we uncork our true authentic nature and then what are really really smart people that I look up to who agree with me and agree with that. So I just make a bold statement that this is it. Because let’s face it everything we say is our belief.
So saying I think I believe to qualify a statement can sometimes be necessary especially if it’s something that you feel is your personal belief but if you think it’s a global truth just go ahead and say it. Say the global truth without. I think I believe just say. It’s a fundamental part of our path that we can uncork core gifts. Boom and a fifth and find a way to communicate with confidence is to.
Practice how you prepare.
And so this means everybody prepares to communicate differently. I’m a QuickStart so I just like to go but if you’re like. A fact finder kind of person and public speaking or communicating to others doesn’t come supernatural to you then you probably have to take a lot of notes. So decide how preparing to communicate looks and works best for you and that takes practice.
So are you someone who needs notecards. Do you need it written out word for word. Do you need it. Bullet points do you need. Just like the start of a sentence and then go for example when I prepare a podcast. If the information I’m preparing is more technical.
And I feel less confident about speaking off the cuff about it. I write it word for word and I read it word for word from my notes and I try to read it in a conversational way but it is read word for word otherwise I am just reading from bullet points.
So for this podcast episode I feel very confident about all the information I’m providing for you. So all I have is about a half page of bullet points that are serving as markers as the main points that I wanted to make throughout the podcast. And there’s nothing else so I’m not reading any sort of script for this podcast. But. I sometimes write a script when it is like I said it’s a specific point that I don’t feel like I can speak about extemporaneously and then I need some notes to help me and that is perfectly great.
So when you practice how you prepare you figure out what is the best formula for you to practice whatever it is you want to communicate and to rehearse so you can get more and more confident with it and especially you want to practice those points that feel fuzzy for you that are new or that are you’re creating from your edge you’re feeling less confident about those are the specific points that you really really want to.
Practice until it comes off very confidently. And then this gets us to your elevator speech your elevator speech is who you are. As an entrepreneur and what you represent and to who. And I had the hardest time when I first became a life coach. Oh my God there was almost shame in it because I’d come from this old career.
That people really looked up to and respected in and had status in it had all these kind of sexy aspects to it and then I went from that to I’m a life coach and it was just like what and I had a really really hard time with that and I did not own that I did not own my elevator speech. I hung my head in shame.
I’m a life coach now but I used to do this. So you can respect me and like me because I did have this very high status career in the past. So that’s ridiculous and in time and with practice. And with practising how I prepared and with getting into my zone of expertise and getting into the things that I feel most passionately about I was able to slowly and slowly own that I’m a life coach and on my elevator speech.
Now I find that if I’m talking to people way outside the life coaching personal growth world it’s best for me to say hi my name is Allyson Scammell. I run a business to help women entrepreneurs start grow or scale up their business boom. And I can say that with a lot of confidence and if it’s an audience who’s used to me and used to this world I will say I helped soul guided women entrepreneurs uncorked big magic in life and business without burning out.
And I love my tagline. I love that I own it. Deadest my elevator speech people and I even did a four part Facebook live on that one sentence to really break it down because inside that sentence has enormous meaning like enormous lifetimes and lifetimes of meaning all injected into that one sentence.
And obviously in my 30 second elevator speech I’m not gonna get out those lifetimes of meanings. But what I try to do is infuse my energy my passion my belief my expertise into that one sentence and into my elevator speech.
And so when it comes out I look someone directly in the eye I smile. I. Hold my body posture with confidence and say Hi my name is Allyson Scammell, I’m a master certified Life Coach and I help women entrepreneurs sole dated entrepreneurs uncork big magic in life and business without burning out. I didn’t get there overnight. It took me years to get to that point that I was capable/ .
I practiced and practiced and practiced and I coached and I coach and I coach and I tweaked and refined and tweet and refine and I went out there. I got out there I went to events I went to networking events I hosted my own events and I talked to people.
And not only did I talk to people in the coaching profession which makes it a whole lot easier. I went out to people who had no idea what a life coach was who thought it was weird and squishy and wishy washy. And I especially practiced introducing myself and. My elevator speech in those environments where there was possibly skeptical or unsure audiences and that’s how you can really really work on communicating with confidence when you get out of your ideal people’s zone.
And it has happened so many times I had to not make this up when I’ve been outside of my people’s zone and I introduced myself and someone says oh my god are you serious. My wife is a life coach or I’ve been looking for a life coach or like in the most unexpected places.
I find people who have been looking for someone just like me so never ever assume that if you’re at an event with a spouse or a friend and you feel like you’re totally like no one would be interested in your offering your services your expertise. You are likely wrong.
And if you’re being introduced don’t say well I used to be a teacher used to be that I’m honest now but I used to be that. Talk about who you are today. And offer it with confidence and I guarantee you there will be someone there who wants to hear more. So dear friends my challenge for you is to start communicating and start communicating to small groups big groups any groups one person 50 people it doesn’t matter.
And communicate about topics within your zone of genius. And when you communicate own your expertise communicate about the things you feel most passionate about. Always always always prepare. And always practice how you prepare and practice your elevator speech over and over and over again until it just comes out of you so naturally and so confidently that you really really could say to anyone.
If you are liking this content which I certainly hope you are I ask you to please subscribe and leave a rating and review on iTunes so more people can find us. Until next time dear friends, stay uncorked.
Are you looking for a tribe to call your own, join us at the uncorked cabal. We’re a band of rebel dreamers and schemers thinking of new ways to uncork big magic in life and business without burning out. Find a link to join on my website shantipax.com
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