Webinar: Secrets, Tools, and Techniques of the Confident Speaker

The following transcript was auto-generated from the video version of the webinar. Please excuse any typos / inaccuracies.

Keith Wolf:

Welcome to another webinar. We hope you enjoy this one. I’m Keith Wolf. I’m the managing director of Murray Resources. We’re a Houston based recruiting firm and I’m also the CEO of ResumeSpice. We a career coaching and resume writing service. I’m so excited about today’s webinar because public speaking is one of the most dreaded tasks in the business world. And I think we can also agree. It’s also one of the most important. So whether you’re on a webinar like this, or you’re making a live presentation or you’re going on a job interview, the ability to clearly and effectively communicate is absolutely critical. Our speaker today is professional author and speaker Jane Latz. Jane works with organizations and individuals all over the world who want to communicate with greater clarity, confidence, and credibility.

Keith Wolf:

She uses her background as a speech language pathologist to design programs that are truly transformational. She’s appeared on a number of media outlets, including the today’s show. And she also has a very active YouTube following where she has 28,000 subscribers and over a million views. So Jane didn’t ask me to say any of that, but I added that because clearly her message is resonating with that large audience. Before we get started, we have a few housekeeping items to go over the webinar’s going to be 60 minutes and we’re going to do our very best to end at 3:00 PM central. But if we do go over, think of it as a free bonus, we want to make sure Jane shares all the information she’s prepared without having a rush. We’re also going to answer as many live questions as we can. And the good news is if you need to drop off the call at 3:00 PM, you can do so.

Keith Wolf:

We are recording the webinar and you will be able to watch it later if you miss anything. And we always get this question. So we’re going to answer it again. We want to make sure everybody knows that you are on mute and we can not hear you. And we can not see you. There are almost 500 people on this call, so everyone’s going to stay on mute and we’re going to make sure we can hear Jane. We will be sharing the slides from this webinar with everyone who registered. Okay. So with that, Jane, are you ready to go?

Jayne Latz:

All right. So let’s get started and you should have seen me smiling ear to ear with some of what you were saying. So thank you for that introduction. Do you get nervous speak quickly or at times forget what it is you want to say when asked to present in front of others. I know the answer for many of you is in fact yes, but it doesn’t have to be. And first, before we go into becoming a great presenter, we need to develop communication skills so that you will always be able to present with power, purpose and impact. Your voice is the key to your success. How you’re saying what you’re saying. There was research out of Austin, Texas from a company called quantified communications that says that how we say something matters twice, as much as what you are actually saying. Think about those presentations that you’re working on.

Jayne Latz:

I know many of you spend late evenings crafting the perfect slide deck, but are you working twice as hard on how you’re delivering the presentation? There has been a great deal of research on voice and that article, the first of the wall street journal articles that I was in was called, is this how you really talk? And it resonated around world. I got clients as far as Hong Kong, because people didn’t realize that they could change how they sound. Now don’t everybody call me and tell me, you hate the way you sound, because that is natural. Because when we hear ourselves, it’s called bone conduction. We hear it through the bones in our head, as opposed to the way others hear us, which is through air conduction. But we’re talking about the voices that may be too high pitched maybe too whiny, too nasal speak too quickly, strong accents.

Jayne Latz:

And yes, as you heard, my background is in speech pathology. So we can change the way you sound. There is research that says that extraordinary, deeper voices, voice will lead to leadership positions and to being retained longer at companies. So let’s talk about some additional research, Harvard university, Carnegie foundation, and Stanford collaborated and found that 85% of professional success comes from strong people skills and soft skills. And I know for so many of you in this audience, you are fully aware of that, but the only 15% comes from the technical knowledge. And I just spoke to a group of IBM people on, on Tuesday, they were on. So thrilled with that research. My takeaway for you is that how we say something matters. Now I want to share one of my favorite quotes with you from a member of an organization that I’ve been in for many years called national speakers association.

Jayne Latz:

And she says, and if I asked you for your definition of public speaking, we probably get hundreds of different answers, but I love her as the best, everything we say, when we leave our house in the morning as public speaking, now I should see some heads nodding. What does that mean? That means that every phone call you make every one to one meeting, you have one on three, one on five. Speaking of course, to hundreds and thousands, that’s all public speaking, how we say something matters. So what are we going to accomplish in this hour? By the end of this presentation, you will have increased awareness. And I love to stress increased awareness. While some of you will change behaviors after just for one hour. Most of you need the ongoing practice, but you will, after this presentation have increased awareness in the ability to connect and engage your listener from your very first word, to be able to deliver your message more strategically, to develop a confidence speaking style, to have a voice, to match your talent, skill, and expertise, and to be more memorable.

Jayne Latz:

Now, this is a good time for me to tell you to please use the chat. I am looking for the chat, but I know it’s there, but hopefully you all can find the chat. So for starters and, and, and Keith will tell me what’s coming in because I’m not going to pay attention to it. But I want to know with a Y not a yes, don’t even take the time to write. Yes. I want to know with a why, if this is why you are here, just give me a Y and say, yes, this sounds like a great way to spend my next hour. If not, don’t leave. Tell me what you did want to expect. And Keith will share that with me, but before that time, and just keep those questions and comments coming, because this is interactive. Carmine Gallo says master the art of communication and a new world opens where you can influence people and inspire others more successfully than you’ve ever imagined.

Jayne Latz:

So now is a little bit of the beginning of our interaction. What makes a great presenter and why is it important to be a strong presenter? Now I have my answers, but one of the things I find in these presentations is you have many more reasons. And I would love to hear them as well. Just recently, I updated based on the feedback I got, because it’s so nice to hear what you think, which might be separate than what I think. So being a strong presenter will build better relationships. And isn’t that what your business is all about. Build others confidence in your skillset. Perhaps you read about me, perhaps you saw one of my videos, but after today, hopefully you will realize I know what I’m talking about. I’m a master of my craft. It will build your leadership skills. It’ll position you as a subject matter expert and something that’s important for many of us it’ll build your business and your brand.

Jayne Latz:

So that’s why it’s certainly it’s worth overcoming the fears, the anxieties and the nerves to be a strong presenter. So now let’s talk about your presentation style, and this is setting the framework for the rest of the hour. When I talk about presentation skills, it’s almost in my world, synonymous with communication skills. If you’re not a strong communicator, you can’t be a great presenter and you can’t be a great presenter if you’re not a great communicator. So number one, we’re going to throw out five different topics, rate them one to three. Hopefully you have a pen. So you can do this. High math. Total will be 15. I want you to think about your volume. I hear from nanny. And I will say this topic. I especially hear from females that say, they’ll say something in a meeting and no one really responds. And then the male colleague will say the same thing and everybody jumps all over it.

Jayne Latz:

Like, it’s the greatest idea. If there’s women that can relate to that, say why in the chat box? So are you being heard when you’re on the telephone or people asking you to repeat what you just said, rate yourself one to three on that three, being the strongest. You have a strong voice like mine. One being you’re barely audible clarity. Clarity is essential to delivering your message, being clear and articulate both in your delivery and the content rate of delivery. We all know who the fast talkers are. I’m a new Yorker. And today I will be talking quickly to fill a lot of great information, but hopefully you’ll notice that it’s not so fast that you aren’t able to process everything. I say. I’ve heard from so many people that they’re new Yorkers. They’re from dentists. Well, they’re from Columbia. They’re from Spain. They’re fast talkers is that you does your message get lost because of how quickly you’re delivering it and your body language.

Jayne Latz:

What does your body say about you? This is one of my favorite topics. I could probably speak an hour about this alone. All of this we are going to get through. And two, but body language is just one that I have a lot of fun talking about. And lastly, just to make it a quick five point scale, I throw a lot into communication style. Do you tend to ramble? Do you use too many filler words? Like, you know, any word that does not add content to your message is a filler word. My barometer is no greater than two and two minutes. Otherwise research has said that you will sound indecisive and less confident. So get rid of those filler words up, speakers, the tendency for you to have your voice go up at the end of a sentence. Instead of making a statement again, I could speak about all of this at in greater length at different times, but score yourself, take a minute, add that all up because this is the framework of the rest of the hour. Feel free to throw into the chat. What number you got, because if we have wool fifteens, then we can just chat about the weather it’s storming right now in New York. But it’s great to know if I hit the relevant points for so many of you.

Jayne Latz:

Okay? So let’s talk about your challenges. And I do know I’m not seeing the chat box, but I do know that many of you are throwing in your comments. And what I do want to hear is what your challenges are from that list. What resonated with you. And by the way, if it wasn’t on my list, please feel free to put it in the chat. Because if we have time, I’d be happy to incorporate it into the presentation. So tell me your challenges, tell me your score and we will continue. So the very first step of being an effective communicator is connecting to your listener. I remember when I first went to graduate school, undergraduate undergraduate for speech pathology. I remember learning that communication is a two way street. You have a speaker and you have a listener, but how often are we with someone who only knows about the speaking part?

Jayne Latz:

So we need to be a good listener and a good communicator. So let’s talk about some of these techniques. First it’s about establishing eye contact and that is on and off the virtual platform in person. I want you to look at your audience. If it’s one, three, five, if I’m in a room with 25 people, I’m presenting in a company to about 25 people, I always say, is there anyone that I have not looked at during this presentation? And I have never gotten someone to raise their hand 25. I want you to be able to be comfortable. Connecting people, do business with people they trust. And that’s how we develop that relationship. The virtual platform. I know it’s hard for so many. We’ll talk about it a little later, but eye contact as a step through your camera next is vocal engagement. And hopefully you’re noticing some of my vocal engagement.

Jayne Latz:

Yeah. It’s a great way to gain people. Engage people, keep them interested in what you’re saying. And again, we’ll definitely delve into that a little bit more. Tell personal stories throughout this presentation. I will probably weave in some stories I never know in advance, which ones will come out, but the stories make it more relatable and people can connect. And remember I often use golf stories at this time of year. So what a great way, because if there’s someone in that, the audience that’s a golfer, they always want to talk to me about where I’m golfing. You know, what’s my handicap and you know, everything else today. It’s a storm. So no golf today. And don’t forget to smile. Let’s jump right into developing vocal presence. One of the first videos I produced during the pandemic and the quarantine, because I wanted to develop so content for people out there on how to communicate more effectively was about vocal presence.

Jayne Latz:

So the very first thing I want you to remember is that our vocal source comes from our abdomen, our belly. If you take yoga, you know that if you take martial arts, so while I’m talking right now, while I’m talking, I want you to sit up tall, uncross your legs. If they’re crossed, think about a string, pulling you up to the side ceiling. And all I want you to do while I’m talking is inhale through your nose for the count of three, and then slowly exhale for the count of five. I’m going to keep talking while you do that. But I want you to breathe in for the count of three slowly, exhale for the count of five while you’re doing that, I know you’re thinking, well, what does this have to do with speech? And I’m going to get there. But before I get there, I want you to also get comfortable with breathing because this can be your best friend in preparing and those nerves before a presentation breathing.

Jayne Latz:

I worked with the president of a hedge fund last year, who was very comfortable speaking in front of three and five and 10, and very comfortable speaking in front of 300 to 400 people. But he was not comfortable when it was 30 to 60. Why? Because over 300, it was dark in the room, 30 to 60. He saw the people. Why do I bring this up now? Because once we mastered breathing, he went on to present. I am not kidding. 35 times on a weekly basis around the country and the world. He’s the president of a hedge fund. He was bringing in business and just the breathing helped them. So that’s tip number one on reducing stage fright, but we’ll get to that later. First, we need that vocal presence to engage our listeners. So now we’ve practiced breathing. What I want you to do now is we’re going to inhale and on the exhalation, I want you to count to 15.

Jayne Latz:

I do not want you to overthink this. So it’s like this one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Let’s just go to 10. Did you hear how strong I was everyone do that? Now take that breath in one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. For all of you that stayed strong. Great. I expected that go to 15 later and then to 20, and then to 25, if you need to develop vocal presence, use your abdomen, not your arteries, not your chest develop vocal presence. Another really fast exercise on this is to time yourself, take a breath or from the belly, say, ah, and hold that for as long as you can. I’d like to see every one of you hold it for at least 17 seconds, but then build on it. So now we’ve got a nice, strong voice, but what happens if we just use that strong voice all the time, but happens when you’re listening to someone who’s monotone, you fall asleep.

Jayne Latz:

So I talked about the women who often don’t project their voice men. I hear more often from my male clients that they tend to be monotone and that’s okay. That’s what I’m here for. There are many people who are monotone. We do not want to put our people to sleep. So let’s learn how to use focal engagement, vocal variety. So here’s an example of in monotone voice sales figures are up 30% this year. If I spoke like that for the rest of the hour, you would definitely all go to sleep. Now I’m excited. Sales figures are up 30% this year, last year they were down. And now I’m so excited that they’re up 30% here changes the whole sentence. The sales figures are up 30% this year. Now that might sound easy. When I have more time, I go into breakouts and I have people give feedback to each other. It’s not always so easy. When you get the slide deck, practice, use a recorder, use a friend, use a family member practice and make sure that you are in fact using the pitch, the tone and the pause to have vocal engagements.

Jayne Latz:

Have you ever received a voicemail message that you needed to replay once, twice, maybe three times any wise in the chat box, has anyone received? I know I get them all the time. Maybe that’s because I do communication and people call me because they can’t be clear on the phone, but that’s our livelihood now more than ever. So if we are not being clear on the phone, we’re losing business. Clarity is essential in any aspect of public speaking. And remember we talked about public speaking, being anything we say, when we leave our house in the morning, there are many words in standard American English that differ just in the final sounds mad mat, home pose, tray trade. If you swallow the ends of your words, as many do the listener, the audience, the prospect, the client has to play back. What was just said. And while they’re playing it back, you’re still talking and the message is lost. So there was research many interviews with managers, HR, and staff from 400 companies. And they found that companies with 100,000 employees lose $62 million per year to the misunderstanding. That’s an average of 624 per employee. Now I like to help people get jobs, just like all of you. I’d like to see people move up the corporate ladder. I can help them if they are not communicating well.

Jayne Latz:

So now we’ve got vocal power. We have clarity, we have vocal engagement, but I think I might’ve seen on some of the chats as they were coming in. I might’ve seen the word fast. Some people might say they speak too fast. Feel free to click. Yes. If that resonates with you and I’m in the right track. Yes. Great, great. So why do I have Winston Churchill here? I have Winston Churchill here because I am now going to give you one of my favorite quotes from Winston Churchill. And I am going to say it two times first, the way so many of you might sound cause I’m seeing a lot of yeses come in and then a little more strategically. And that will be the beginning of becoming a phenomenal public speaker. So first let’s recognize, ready for the quote. Winston Churchill once said the three most difficult things a man can do is to climb a building, leaning towards him, kiss someone, women leaning away from him and deliver a public speech. Now Winston Churchill once said the three most difficult things a man can do is to climb a building, leaning towards him, kiss a woman, leaning away from him and deliver a public speech. What was different? This I really want to hear in the chat box. What you hear different between that first and the second message. Many of you know that the first way is the way you sound. Yes. Pauses. Thank you. Elizabeth speed. Word emphasis. Yes. You can process the imagery better. Yes. Yes. Clear and concise.

Jayne Latz:

When you’re delivering information on your business, don’t we always have two points, three points. We want people to always understand the three points, but they are completely lost. If you go quickly, as I just showed you, when you use the strategic delivery, everything crystallizes, the emphasis is better. People can process it. There’s meaning and color and humor to what is being said. So how do we do that? That doesn’t happen overnight. Again. Remember my goal for you is increased awareness. So it doesn’t happen overnight. We use use a strategic marketing system and by the way, I am a terrible, horrible author. Sorry, I just am reaching this. I am a terrible author, nowhere in my material today. Do I talk about this great book, which is so incredibly relevant to all of you and I’ll tell you why I’m bringing it up. It’s called communicate the corporate ladder.

Jayne Latz:

How to succeed in business with clarity and confidence. And I’m bringing it up now because this whole system is clearly see how thin the book is. It’s very simple, quick read. It’s clearly explained in detail more than I can do today. There’s practice paragraphs. And by the way, everything we talk about is in that book. And yes, it’s on Amazon. So we just use a strategic marketing system. One second, two seconds, three seconds. This will be life changing when you practice and master it. So Reba McEntire said to succeed in life. You need three things, a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone. If we would have rushed through it again, the humor would have been lost. It takes practice just yesterday. I was working with one of my clients who does something like two webinars a day, every day, but he’s a very fast talker and he has an accent.

Jayne Latz:

So the message is frequently lost. I told him, send me your intro, send me your, your closing. Let me Mark it for you. And let’s practice that way. And what a difference. I have many clients who an assistant will Mark up important presentations. They have to say people who have pitches, it’s so easy. So get comfortable with the pause and one great way to practice. Yes. I love giving ways to practice because what good is just listening. If I don’t give you ways to practice so that you can really improve all of this, remember what I said? You will increase awareness, but it’s the practice whether alone or with my team, it’s the practice that will make the change. So nothing is more important than your name. I bet all of you, but there are so many times someone introduces themselves and I can’t get their first name.

Jayne Latz:

I don’t know where the first name begins and ends. So I didn’t make up my name just for this example. My name is Jane lats. It’s probably a simple as Jane DOE, but I work with people from around the globe. So if you are from China or India, Japan, you weren’t raised with someone named Jane lats. So if I don’t put in that little pause, you’re not going to get it. Another passion is I’m the founder and CEO of corporate speech solutions. I want to make sure that if you have to leave a meeting early and you can’t get my business card, you can at least run to Google and Google the company immediately. Whether you have an acronym or a company that’s more than one word, make sure to use the pause.

Jayne Latz:

I even just threw in here because I want you to get comfortable with the pause. I use my background as a speech language pathologist, to work with individuals and organizations that want to communicate with greater clarity, confidence, and credibility. Does that give you an idea of what I do practice for pause in your introductions. Now again, one thing I love to do when we have more time is going to break out rooms and practice this again. It seems so simple, but it’s not. Some of you might have three syllables in your first name, three, four or five in your last name. If you do not that pause, people will have a hard time understanding you. So I do want to make sure that you under you practice this again. You’ll have the slides. When you get to this, I want you to practice Jane lats, of course, but your name into it.

Jayne Latz:

Another way to think about it is tonal. So I want you to hear the tone involved here. My name is Jane. I’m going up. I’m bringing you up, letting you know that there’s more than enough. I’m pausing. Relax. Now you know that my name is done, whether it’s three syllables or not. Name us pause, last name. Excellent. Okay. Just peaking when I introduce myself, people here. Interesting. Interesting. So if people are having a hard time with your first sound, now, you know the key, remember that vocal power. Sometimes it might just be that you’re not powering up your voice, use the abdomen, good power. And again, that calamity, so many people swallow. The they’re not polished with how they’re articulating their sound. So practice this. Okay.

Jayne Latz:

What does your body say about you? This is one of my favorite topics and we are doing pretty good with time. So I’m going to share on and off the platform. These are actual pictures of clients of mine, but I decapitated to protect the innocent. The one on the top was being honored by an organization who was front page title, story of a magazine for this organization. And he was preparing for his speech and there he was on a platform and he’s picking his nails. Does that exude confidence. This gentleman with the water bottle, high level executive in a professional sports team and national sports team, this one’s playing with it. Oh, and he had no idea. When we do an assessment, we do a kind of a quick video. He had no idea he was rolling the bottle the entire time. This person fidgeting with a pen, this one playing with his fingers.

Jayne Latz:

I have a whole bloopers album on my phone. People don’t realize when they’re nervous and uncomfortable, what they’re doing, paperclips pens, they torture their hands. You should see some of my slides. So let’s talk about head to toe, how to exude executive presence on and off the platform. Let’s start from the top. I already talked about that string for posture. If you are on the virtual platform, hopefully you can see, I have that string pulling me up to the ceiling. Be sure when you are on a virtual platform that you’re positioned correctly, that you take up kind of the middle, third of your screen. You don’t want to be kind of all in. That’s a little scary and you don’t want to be what I call a shrinking violet. And you definitely don’t want to be hunched over because immediately I will know this, that your voice is not powerful.

Jayne Latz:

So good posture, eye contact. We talked about, look at the, look at the people. Look at all the people don’t stare. Don’t look at a spot on the wall. All of those are kind of old wives, tales, look and engage the people you’re speaking with. Use your feasts smile. Don’t you all watch some of these zoom meetings on news reports where you see shock. You see smile, you see expression, you see confusion, but all of that helps your listener. And it’s a part of nonverbal communication. And don’t forget to smile. I saw someone this morning, give such a nice tip what they said, and I am going to copy his tip right here. For many of you that aren’t natural smiles like me. I smile all the time, take a posted and literally put a smiley face on it. I think we all can do that.

Jayne Latz:

And then just post it right by your camera. So it reminds you to smile and it makes you smile. What to do with your hands on and off the platform. We do not want to look like any of these people. So if you’re sitting in a meeting interviewing with people, whether one side or the other, you don’t want to fidget. So make sure that your hands are planted. Keep away pens, paper clips. If you tend to kind of clasp your hands, put one hand on one side of the chair, the other on the other side. Yes. Thank you Todd. I know it didn’t work with my, my background. Trust me that there is a little smiley face now on my camera. Thank you. I love that feedback. So keep it.

Speaker 4:

Your hands are part. So you don’t

Jayne Latz:

Fidget when you fidget. You’re letting the other person, if I have job seekers on this call, they will know you’re nervous. And by the way, going back to vocal presence, there’s a book called the exceptional presenter by Timothy Cagle. And he says that people with strong, powerful voices are perceived as having greater confidence than people with softer voices. I didn’t share that earlier and I’m throwing it in now because it’s the same point with fidgeting. You don’t, you may not always be confident, but we want you to exude confidence. And if you’re fidgeting, you are not exuding confidence. If you are standing and giving a presentation and yes, we will be standing in front of each other. Again, if you’re standing your hands belong in neutral position down at your side, men, that does not mean in your pocket. It means down at neutral position because you want your hands to be expressive. Even though I’m here on a virtual platform. I think you’ve seen my hands a few times. Hopefully not too much. You don’t want them to be distracting, but you do want them to be expressive. So don’t put them in the pocket. Don’t class them in front or behind. Let them be in neutral position. You can hold a clicker. That can be your security. I myself, when I’m live, I put the clicker down because I love to have my hands freely expressive. So remember all of this on and off the platform.

Jayne Latz:

Talk about some of those fear reduction techniques. And by the way, if anyone’s interested and I should have said, this is something, a presentation where you can have your phone available. You can text the word speech to two to eight to eight, and I will send you 10 tips to reducing stage fright. We’re going to share five right now, but I am happy to send you all 10. Yes, there are so many techniques. The whole idea is to build your communication skills and then build your presentation skills. So, number one is simply, as I mentioned before, breathing inhale, slow, inhale, slow exhale. Hopefully when we practice that earlier, you did feel a little more relaxed. There’s a reason why we, we there’s apps. I have an app that comes up on my, my iWatch, my, my Apple watch that actually tells me to breathe.

Jayne Latz:

I don’t necessarily listen for the full minute, but it does tell me the breathe, but there’s a reason for all of that. So simply practice inhale, exhale, two, three times, four times before you’re going into one of those meetings, face the fear. I love this. We run a group. It’s now a virtual group. So any of you can join it. It’s called speak to lead. And if you go to my website, which is right here under upcoming events, you will see speak to Lee. That is ongoing two times a month. Every month, all our members are invited and to do presentations throughout the year. What better way to get better? We have an expert who will give feedback. And then the whole group gives feedback. We had someone we asked to do a presentation two weeks ago and she didn’t want to shy. Petrified did not want to.

Jayne Latz:

Last night. Last night was Wednesday. Last night, she stepped up to the plate. She faced her fear and she did an amazing job. We were so proud of her. I watched the video replay. One of my trainers does the training and I was smiling at you or the ear. She faced her fear and she rocked. So, so you can do it. You can. And that brings me to the next one, positive affirmations. You know, you could do it be your best cheerleader. All you need to do is tell yourself I can do it. I’m a rock star. I’m the expert. Why are they in the company doing it? When I know more than them, I know some of you can relate to that.

Jayne Latz:

Don’t use the negative. I can’t do that. Oh, I’m not good enough. Oh, I don’t like my voice. No, that there’s no one better than you to do it. So remind yourself how knowledgeable you are, how talented you are. And as you develop the communication skills that we’ve been talking about, you know, that you will use great vocal engagement to engage your listeners from the very first word who better than you remember your successes. You know, for some of you, you, might’ve given a presentation a while back and maybe it’s been awhile and you’ve just been asked to give a presentation and you were so nervous. Oh, we get those calls from so many people. I had a call from a partner in a very large CPA firm to give you an example. She had just had a meeting with 65 of her partners and she was a mess. She was so petrified, but she knew that in other circumstances, she had done a great job. So remember your successes, give yourself the positive affirmations, face, the fear and breathe.

Jayne Latz:

And lastly, practice and prepare. We just finished a really wonderful training program in this sports team that I alluded to earlier quite a number of key executives. And when we just did the post test over the past two weeks, it was amazing. The thread between all the people that were in that training was that they all now know the key is the preparation and the practice. My clients ask me all the time, how much do you practice? And I always say as much as I can fit in. Now, obviously if it’s something I’ve done a lot of I will, I don’t, I just need to review it. And especially if they’re coming frequently, but if it’s something I newly created or a newly crafted, or I have some new material in it, I always say as much as I could fit in, I don’t get nervous.

Jayne Latz:

I love speaking. But again, number five, practice and prepare, practice and prepare. So I had to throw this in because you’re on the phone all day long. You’re calling people all day long. Let’s tie it back to that man on the phone, we want to make sure you are leaving an impression. Public speaking is everything we say. When we leave our house in the morning, I’m not going to read all 16 because you could just download it from the website. It’s a free resource. But I do like to highlight a few really important tips, the first five or so are everything I talked about already. It’s vocal power, making sure you breathe. As soon as you go to pick up the phone, clarity, the pause more important than you can imagine, but here’s a few other tips. One, make sure you say your number two times.

Jayne Latz:

And I know many of you know that, but say the number upfront. My name is Jane lats with corporate speech solutions. My number is (917) 841-2965. I’m calling to confirm that we are on for where the meeting at three o’clock on Thursday. Again, my name is Jane lats. And my number is, and I repeat my number. You want to give your number upfront. And for many of you, it takes practice to do that because you don’t want people to have to replay your very long winded message to get to the number. And very often the number that they call from is not the number they want you to return the number two. So you do have to listen for it. So put the number right up front. The next really important tip is again, I work in a global world. I work with non native English speakers to help them to become clearer and more confidence and move up that corporate ladder.

Jayne Latz:

And so we’re all in a global world. We all speak to people from all over the world every single day. If we take a shortcut with a number, someone who doesn’t speak English as a first language might lose the number. So what do I mean by that? The number again is (917) 841-2965. You don’t want to do a shortcut and say 29 65, we’re 3,100. It takes twice as long for a non native English speaker to unravel that shortcut. Be a great communicator, take your time. So let’s bring it all together. We are doing great with timing, and then we certainly are going to be able to open it up for questions.

Jayne Latz:

Your voice is the key to your success. How you say something matters twice, as much as what you are actually saying. And by the way, I didn’t tell you research on body language, your body language is 55% of your communication. It’s 55% and your voice in other research is 38%. That only leaves for all of you technical people out there. Have you counted yet? Have you figured it out only leave 7% for words? So again, it’s how you say something that matters. Clarity. Be sure to be clear, both in the delivery and in the content rate of speech. We now know it’s about the strategic delivery of your message style. I didn’t spend a lot of time on rambling, but when research has been given to several groups of CEOs and I do this research all the time and I give them five different communication behaviors, someone who speaks too quickly, someone who mumbles, someone who has a soft voice, someone who has a strong accent, someone who rambles, always when asked which communication behavior interferes most with business success.

Jayne Latz:

It’s the person who rambles. So be sure to be concise, a great little acronym, think of CPR, be CRA press concise, precise, and relevant. And last filler words are barometer. As I said earlier, is that you shouldn’t use greater than two into two minutes using more than that will make you sound indecisive and less confident. I just posted my newest YouTube on that topic. And it’s a fun one. So be sure to check it out action items for all of you, because I want to make sure to give you a homework things to think about. So remember to engage your listener from that very first word, deliver your message strategically, use the proper tone to deliver the proper message, be sure your body language and enhances your message. And remember that little sticky with the smile. Be sure to smile and connect. So another gift my gifts keep coming.

Jayne Latz:

And if you end up texting me and you get on my mailing list, you’ll see, I give lots of gifts. So how to stand out from the crowd. We have created so much content around the virtual platform since the quarantine started. And this was our first one. We now have a tip on a vocal presence on the virtual platform, body language on the virtual platform. But this one is some general tips. So I wrote free download, but if you text this as not on my website, like the other one, and I should add it, I just haven’t had a chance. So just text me two, two eight, two eight, text the word speech in caps and get your copy of this. I want everyone to have anything they want. So let’s stay connected. This is so important for all of you. I create a one minute video tip every week, one minute last year, it was one minute on presentation skills.

Jayne Latz:

We put all 52 into a booklet. That’s available as a product on my website. It’s like $6. It’s 52 tips to presentation. Success might be a fabulous download for all of you, but this year it’s interview tips. It’s career tips, how to get that job, how to move up the corporate ladder, how relevant. So I want you to have my tips. And as Keith mentioned, and I am so appreciative when we started these tips three years ago, we had 225 subscribers. And just because of these tips, I am up to 28,000 this week. I’m not too huge for influencers out there, but huge for a communication company. And you know why? Because as people have said to me, everyone has one minute. So go to YouTube, go to Instagram or go to the LinkedIn. Of course, for all of us business professionals, LinkedIn is the place of choice. Literally, I’m going to stay here for a minute, open your phone, open it to the camera and hold it right up. And you will be able to connect with me on LinkedIn. How cool is that in closing? If you can speak, you can influence. If you can influence you can change lives and don’t forget that how you say something matters. Now. I think we pretty much used a lot of the time. I almost timed us to perfection, but I do want to now open it up to questions. I’m sure that we had a few questions. Keith, if you want to bring them to me.

Keith Wolf:

Hi there. Okay. So that was wonderful, Jane. Thank you. Thank you. We do have a couple of questions. Well, we got lots of questions, hundreds probably trying to go through a lot of them, but one is, we didn’t really talk about this part of it. So, you know, some people are fine with the prepared remarks and their presentation, but what about when they get to the Q and a, what are some tips for handling questions on the fly when they’re not prepared necessarily for all the questions that are going to come at them.

Jayne Latz:

So that’s great. And we feel so strongly about that. That even from that very first assessment that we do, we ask an unscripted question because we want to see how people do when there is no time to prepare. That’s where we find all the, the issues. Of course. So number one, breathe. I’m telling you, I’ve given you the tools. Breathe, give yourself time to think for all of you that are very fast talkers. Half of that problem is that you’re so quick to respond. So breathe, use the strategic pause because that will give you the time to think on your feet. Hopefully that helped. No, that makes sense.

Keith Wolf:

How does somebody speak without it? And you probably got into this and some of these tips, you know, would be useful, but how do they speak without sounding nervous? How do they guard the fact that they’re nervous and hide that when they’re talking?

Jayne Latz:

That’s great. Again, the breathing I can’t over, I mean, I know it sounds so simple, but it’s pretty valuable. There’s also a lot of vocal warmups. You know, if you go smack into a meeting, smack into an interview and you’re petrified and you know, especially now you might not have anyone to talk to. You might not be quarantined with a family. You have a warmed up, your voice do vocal warmups. One of my favorite stories is when I was on the today show, it was a Friday. And if you all know, there’s always groups that perform. And while they were doing hair and makeup, what was going on right next to me, the singers, and these were huge nationally, internationally renowned bands. They were all doing vocal warmups. And I laughed. I’m like, they should only know I’m going to be talking about them, the rest of my career, because even these international musicians had to warm up their voice. So don’t go in cold.

Keith Wolf:

What about tips for folks who are, they’re searching for the words they have their presentation, but they just sort of sometimes struggle finding the right words or if they don’t have everything perfectly scripted, I guess, along those lines, is it better to have everything perfectly scripted or to go off?

Jayne Latz:

No, definitely not perfectly scripted. Definitely not be human. Be authentic, be natural, do not use a script. Um, bullet points are okay, but not a script and we’re human. So there are many times where I’m doing a presentation, especially live. Uh, for some reason, I think I get more into storytelling when I’m live. Um, and there’s times where I’ll stop and say, now, where was I? Where was I going? And someone will shout out where I was, I’m human. So it’s not so terrible. To just forget, but if you just can’t think of the word, like, you know what the word is try to describe it. You know, as a speech pathologist, I worked with stroke patients for 20, 25 years and that’s one of the most characteristic things is word finding. So that’s the beauty of using my skillset as a speech pathologist into everyday business. So let’s say I cannot think of the word for this item in my hand. And I wanted to talk about it in my presentation. If I said, I need something to write with bingo, everyone knows what I need. I need a pen and pencil a magic marker. I need something. So don’t be so focused on just that word. Try to describe it in another way. Your meaning and intention will be checked. It’ll be recognized. Got it.

Keith Wolf:

That’s great. We had another question around just the pitch of the voice. So this person says they have a very hoarse voice. So what are some exercises they can do to strengthen their voice and change the pitch?

Jayne Latz:

So for some pitch or a little different my best answer, not knowing the person, not hearing the voice is either call me or call a speech pathologist because not to get you scared, depending if you’re really using the term course. If it’s a chronic coarseness, you, there might be something going on again. You might be using the term horse and it might not be a horse. Voice pitch is different. Pitch can change and that’s easy. But if it’s horse, I would recommend either calling a speech pathologist or going to ear nose and throat. I do not mean to scare you, but I’m not hearing you. So I just want to clarify that.

Keith Wolf:

Got it. What about this person is asking if when they have an interactive presentation, they ask for questions. They ask for some interaction from the crowd, but it’s just not coming. How do they overcome that awkwardness and get past that call on people,

Jayne Latz:

Come on. People when I’m live, when I’m with people, I just call on people. I, you know, people come into meetings and presentations shy. If you go to my website and you go to my speaking page and you look at my first video, you’ll I don’t want to take the time. I was the shyest kid growing up, shy, shy. Is that a lesson shyest, young adults. And I was that person who would never open her mouth. If there was, you know, interact, you know, call for interaction, never. Now I sit up front and I’m the first one of course, to speak if I’m given the opportunity, but call on people all of a sudden, assuming you do it in a warm, friendly, engaging way, that helps to bring people into the interaction. Another great way for interaction. I’m so sorry. And I love doing this. I used to do it in person and now break out rooms are great, but when I’m in person, I now have a lot of exercises where I say, turn to the person next to you. And that warms up the crowd as well.

Keith Wolf:

That makes sense. Maybe, maybe an easy one for you to answer. I don’t see any water near you or any, anything that, Oh, there it is. Okay. Do you, do you recommend people have a drink and

Jayne Latz:

Absolutely, absolutely. On Tuesday when I spoke to this group of IBM or as I was talking about the 10 ways towards effective communication, just a whole different thing. And number five was be hydrated and you’re a hundred percent right? In public speaking. It’s your best friend. You must always have it with you. Number one, you must drink water. You must keep yourself your vocal lubricated to avoid that dry hack that so many people get. You must, must, must also for the person who wants to know how to respond to a question they weren’t prepared for. What’s better than Thinking while you take a sip of water. So it can also be your crutch. So yes, always have.

Keith Wolf:

That’s great. That’s great. It’s three Oh five here. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna end it there. I know we probably have more questions and we can spend a lot of time.

Jayne Latz:

I have one because I quickly saw, and I don’t know if there’s still, but someone asked for the title of my book again. So can I put it up? And it is on Amazon, everybody. It’s on my website. It’s on Amazon. It’s very appropriate to everyone here. Communicate up the corporate ladder. There’s more to it. But once you put that in, it’ll pop up an Amazon, how to succeed in business with clarity and confidence. It’s a long title. But when I was working on it, my editor kept saying, what is it you do? Why do people come to you? And the answer was always, I’m the day. I’m the call that comes in the day after a performance review. So I am here to help people communicate up the corporate ladder. And I think someone saw LinkedIn just find my name on LinkedIn. Jane laughs.

Keith Wolf:

That’s perfect. And folks who have signed up for our webinars before and attended our previous webinars, you know, that we send a followup email. So we’ll include that information in that email. We’ll also include a Jane will be copied on that email. So you’ll have her email address right there in handy. So yeah. Feel free to get in touch with Jane. I know she would love that and yeah, just thank you. Thank you so much for being on this call and really appreciate it. Anything to add before we go, Jane.

Jayne Latz:

Well, I want to thank you all for attending. I want to thank you, Keith and Murray Resources for inviting me. This was fabulous. I hope one day that I get to do this live in Texas or wherever people are. I’m happy to go anywhere and better days or be virtual in these days, but thank you so much to Marie resources to resume spice and to you Keith, for putting this fabulous program together.

Keith Wolf:

It’s our pleasure. Thank you so much for attending. Have a great rest of your day, everybody. Thank you, Jane. Thank you everybody out there. Okay.

Jayne Latz:

Safe and healthy. We have to say that.

Keith Wolf:

That’s right. Thank you everybody.