Your Intended Message

Facilitate a Productive Strategy Meeting: Anthony Taylor

Align your team, strategy and actions

How to get your team on the same page

Episode 189 (Anthony is based in Vancouver, BC)

In this conversation with Anthony Taylor we explore:

• The challenge and process of aligning the elements of the strategic plan
• The importance of focusing on one destination
• How to think of the organization first and your department second
• Why culture is central to strategy
• How long should your strategic plan be?
• The necessary questions around priorities and resources
• The relevance of vision, mission and values
• The importance of clarifying your intended message to your team
• How many pages should your strategic plan be?

About our guest Anthony Taylor:

Anthony is the CEO of SEM Strategy, which facilitates strategic planning for SME companies and non-profits. 

Learn more about Anthony and the services of his company here

https://www.smestrategy.net/

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Excerpts from this conversation with Anthony Taylor:

Anthony, as we prepare to wrap up, if you could sit down with a business leader, who's planning to have a how redoing type meeting, you know, let's review. We put together the strategy last year, and it's time for him to get him or her to get together with their team.

And if you could give them one, two or three pieces of advice going into this meeting to make this meeting more effective checking in, how are we doing? What, one, two or three pieces of advice would you offer?

Just before I do, I just want to say thank you for having me on that your intended message podcast. It's been super fun. I love this conversation.

And so for leaders that are about to get into how we're doing meeting, and a couple kind of best practices, I think one is focus on creating a safe space with your team.

Okay, and when we say safe, you know, we can't say necessarily psychological safe, we tried to talk about accountable, but really have the intention clear, you know, we're trying to focus on the process versus the people.

So if you can kind of separate the individuals from the outcomes and just say, hey, the purpose is to look at the outcome. And I'll give you the agenda is what did we do well, and what didn't we do well, and focus not on who did it or who didn't do it.

Look, as a company, you'll have everybody more willing to discuss criticism and challenges and that kind of thing. So focus on process versus people. Number two, is create the framework for like, why are we doing this? You know, we're doing this review, so that we can move forward to that next level.

And so if everybody is clear about what the next level is, then they'll recognize kind of what's at stake for doing the review. And the way that I say it a different way or way to reframe it is the work that we put in is a function of our goals.

If we have small goals, it'll be Don't we have to do less work for it. It's less challenging. So if we have big ambitious goals, then we need to do big ambitious work to get there. So it kind of helps you overcome those challenges. So one process and people to have something big at stake. And if there's a third one, just make it fun. team's got to be out, you know, sometimes it's stressful.

They have to be out of work. It's psychologically heavy work. You know, just make it enjoyable. Say, Hey, we love our jobs. We'd like to work we do, hopefully, like your job. And saying, like, Let's just enjoy today. It doesn't need to be doom and gloom. Let's take the opportunity to celebrate all of the good things that happened in the year.

And then you'll say, Wow, we actually accomplished more than we thought. Most people just focus on the negative versus looking at like, hey, the only reason we have as much negative bad stuff as much stuff we didn't do is because we did so much they built the next level that's more challenging.

That's just levels. So if you can get your team doing that, and focus on continually improving, focusing on the process and having something bigger at stake, you'll have a great meeting, and your team will be even more aligned than before.

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Leadership Lessons from a former Preacher :Richard Hagen

What can business leaders learn from religion and preaching?

Model organization culture by studying religion

Episode 188 (Richard is based in Glasgow UK)

In this conversation with Richard Hagen we explore:

• How to tell an old story in a more compelling way
• How to craft a disruptive message to change the relevance
• How to place your audience on wobble boards when you start
• The difference between a gimmick and truly being disruptive
• How leaders can connect with their audience through empathy
• How to expose the controversy to grab their attention
• Why emotional connection must precede information

About our guest Richard Hagen:

Richard severed as a Catholic priest and preacher for 20 years. He runs a book, online course and transmedia publishing company.

Learn more about his services at https://hagendoes.com/

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Excerpts from this conversation with Richard Hagen:

What lessons can you take from there from being a preacher? To help business leaders improve their communication, and especially the presentation skills? What can you take right away,

So you've hit on something quite profound about that kind of whole religious environment.

It's an environment of rituals, of repeated practices, of physical movement of chants, of common phrases, common language, common stories and narratives.

And that is both incredibly powerful, and incredibly constricting. And so as a preacher, what are the challenges is how the heck do you get someone to hear this story that one of the parables, for example, they've had, literally 1000 times?

How do you get them to hear it, not just to let it kind of, boy, yeah, I know this one. But to hear it perhaps for the first time, in a really profound way, and be touched by it, be changed by it, and go out with your narrative shift.

Because if you've been living in a constricted model, and you want to create an empowering vision for somebody else, then you've got to do something that the hearing that they feel it the case that the the the are inspired and moved by it.

And that's the biggest challenge. And I think it's a it's a big challenge, any business leader or any business as when we are surrounded by by the a world of sameness, and a world where in your own business, there are rituals, there are narratives, there are common phrases, or we don't do it that way here or the said, do that.

But you know, we'll just do what we've always done. You know, so these narratives are all operating these rituals are operating as a leader, what is it you need to do to disrupt that in a healthy dynamic way not to break it, but to disrupt it.

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There's no question that if you keep saying everything the same way, people don't hear it anymore. It doesn't get noticed. And so you somehow need to disrupt how it's received or perceived, in order to for people to do exactly that saying, uh huh. I thought I understood that. But I didn't understand and now I do.

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Shouldn't a business leader be presenting a vision, something that people want to stand behind and move forward. And that that is something that is not just data, it is something which is profoundly personal for everyone in that organization, it makes a difference for them.

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Diversity Plus Inclusion: Simma Lieberman

Diversity and Inclusion are two parts to the formula

How to encourage those that are different to fit in?

Episode 187 (repeat of #32) Simma is based in California

In this conversation with Simma Lieberman we explore:

• The difference between diversity and inclusion
• What it means for people to feel safe, understood and valued
• How to encourage productive and creative workplaces
• The magic formula of "breaking bread" together
• Why we need to start with open conversations
• How leaders can encourage inclusion on their diverse teams
• How to tap into the hidden brilliance of people

About our guest Simma Lieberman:

Simma is known as the "Inclusionlist". She works with organizations to build upon diversity and enhance inclusion to tap into the brilliance of diverse people. 

It starts with an open conversation. You can start with the conversation with Simma to learn more about her programs and services at 

https://simmalieberman.com/

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Excepts from this conversation with Simma Lieberman:

And I look at work cultures in terms of who's in the organization, how do people feel about working in the organization, if they feel included, if they really feel included, or if they're made to feel included, then they feel like they belong.

If they feel like they belong, it means that then they're very comfortable to attributing their best work attributing the genius in the organization, they're willing to take risks, they're willing to stand to be willing to speak up. And when people don't feel included when they feel excluded, they don't feel part of the organization.

And they're more afraid to share their ideas. They don't really see how they fit into the whole organization. They don't have a sense of belonging. And they're just there. And oftentimes, people will leave if people don't feel included in organizations, they don't feel like they're really being valued as an individual, they're gone.

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Diversity is all the differences and similarities that people bring to the workplace and the complexities and tensions that go along with that.

You want to have diversity. But oftentimes, when people think diversity, they just think representation of people who look different.

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Ask and Get More Referrals: Joanne Black

Get more referrals for your business

If you hate cold calling - listen now!

Episode 186 (repeat of #21) Joanne is based in California

In this conversation with Joanne Black we explore:

• Why referrals can be a lucrative source of new business 
• Why you need a repeatable referral getting process
• How to get over the fear of asking for referrals?
• How to stop cold calling and start warm calling
• The magic phrase to ask client to get more referrals
• And much more about referrals...

About our guest Joanne Black:

Joanne is considered to be America's leading authority on referral selling. She is the author of "Pick Up the Damn Phone" and "No More Cold Calling:.

Visit her website https://www.nomorecoldcalling.com/

       

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Excerpts from this conversation with Joanne Black:

Are you asking every one of your clients for referrals?

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I added a question on the last round. Would you be willing to be a referral to this company?

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Everybody loves referrals, and we just love receiving them. But it's not an outbound proactive, intentional approach. And so what I did is, I said, What do I need to do to close that gap? And make referrals? Not only common sense, but common practice?

And, would you and I developed a very straightforward system to make it happen, because I'm a salesperson. I don't like complicated. So it's simple. It's not easy, because if it were, everyone would be doing it. And referrals are our biggest competitive differentiator, because when we're introduced, we get in, we get in early, we have time to build relationships and make connections. We get the inside track and we hear things no one else does.

That's the power of referral selling.

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And therefore a better way to ask the question would be, who are one or two people you know, I should meet? Or who are one or two people in your network? You can introduce me to?

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Take Control of Your Executive Career: Martin Buckland

How to package and sell yourself as a desirable product

Why you need to be the brand manager of your career

Episode 185 (repeat of #14) Martin is based in Horseshow Valley, Ontario

In this conversation with Martin Buckland we explore:

• The most common and most damaging resume mistakes 
• The pivotal mind shift that career builders need to face
• How to identify your key benefits and sell yourself
• Why accomplishments are far more relevant than responsibilities
• How to tell your STAR stories
• Get your resume past both computer and human screening
• And much more about career transition and building

About our guest Martin Buckland:

As a globally acclaimed Executive Career Coach and Executive Resume Writer, Martin has helped thousands of individuals across the world manage their careers, climb the corporate ladder, and land the job they deserve.

Martin is a Subject Matter Expert in nurturing the careers of EMBA candidates and alumni, ambitious professionals, mining executives, and the C-Suite community in over 74 countries since 1993.

After a distinguished Law Enforcement career, specifically with the renowned London Metropolitan Police and Scotland Yard, Martin retired and started Elite Resumes. Martin provides career management services customized to the client’s job level, sector and career goal.

Learn more about Martin Buckland and his services at the website: https://aneliteresume.com/

Follow or connect with Martin on Linkedin at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbuckland/

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Excerpts from this conversation with Martin Buckland:

Martin Buckland. What's your personal brand?

I am an expert in helping nurturing coaching senior executives and other business professionals with a lot of ambition to reach their career goals. Now,

I noticed a lot of specific words in there. So you're looking senior senior executives, and you're only looking for ambitious ones you're not looking for you don't want to help the lazy ones. lazy ones can stay away. Exactly. So if they come to you, they right off the bat. They're saying that okay, I'm willing to work at this.

Yeah. So career management is a full time gig. You know, especially when you're in career transition. So you have to work at your career management.

Sadly, people don't they have no idea on career management. So when you're when you're gainfully employed and you should always be managing your career, I don't want to see you disappear off LinkedIn, you don't have to be on LinkedIn as much as you did when you were in career transition.

But once in a while, show me you're there it shows, do some activity, share some content, share a blog, or comment on something, or publish your own blog.

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Be active on social media. If you avoid social media, I can't find you and you can't find them. On social media. If you haven't got LinkedIn profile, you're committing career suicide, but then not only just having a profile, you need to be active on that profile, you need to fill it in from top to bottom because it's, it's it's scroll, you can scroll all the way down.

So make sure you're active on social media. Convert to the sales mode, which we talked about earlier.

You are selling yourself to the market. And then make sure you have an up to date resume or CV ATS friendly. And then just keep up your network, your network you need to network network network. We're in a network age. If you don't network, that's going to bring that's going to diminish your chances of getting up to the top level.

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Persistent and Consistent Communication: Jeff Blackman

How can you be more persistent and consistent with your messages?

What does intelligent valuable repetition feel like?

Episode 184 (repeat of #11) Jeff is based in Chicago

In this conversation with Jeff Blackman we explore:

• The correlation between intelligent repetition and execution
• The challenge of a first grade boy unable to pronounce "listen and rabbit"
• The lifelong impact of that first grade teacher
• How not to sound like everyone else when opening a first conversation
• How to instantly connect when you answer, "What do you do?"
• Critical words that enhance your credibility and perceived value

About our guest Jeff Blackman:

Jeff is a speaker, author, success coach, broadcast personality and lawyer. He heads Blackman & Associates—a results-producing business-growth firm. Jeff’s clients call him, a “business-growth specialist.” His customized Referrals: Your Road to Results learning-system, helped one financial services client—generate $230 million directly from referrals, in only 23 months!

His bestselling books include; the new 5^th edition of Peak Your Profits!®, Stop Whining! Start Selling!, Opportunity $elling®, RESULT$ and Carpe A.M. • Carpe P.M. – Seize Your Destiny™.

Learn more about Jeff and his services and obtain free resources at the website www.jeffblackman.com

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Excerpts from this conversation with Jeff Blackman:

I really work with my clients on an ongoing basis with the significance of intelligent valuable repetition and I tell them that repetition and reinforcement is what eventually drives internalization and internalization is what drives execution.

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George: Jeff so what do you do?

Jeff Blackman: George my clients’ say, I’m a business growth specialist. I help folks like you CEOs, your senior leadership team, sales people and other executives sleep really well at night and then I pause and typically what happens is they say - well how do you do that?

George everybody is different what’s cooking in your business. So, I make it all about you. It is not about me and that's when it leads into the ability to ask really good questions.

So, at a minimum I’m going to encourage your listeners now to develop what I call their dynamic dozen and a dynamic dozen Georgia’s at least 12open-ended need development questions or power probes they begin with a who, a what, a when, a where, a why, a witch, a how or a tell me more about. They cannot be answered yes or no.

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The Dirty Dozen Words and Phrases that Sabotage your Intended Message: George Torok

What are the words that sabotage your intended message?

Stop saying these words that label you as a poor communicator

Episode 183 (repeat of #138)

In this episode George Torok offers his insights about:

• Why your words matter and how to weed out the landmines
• The common phrases that we use without thinking about their meaning
• What perceptions people might form of you when you use these words
• Why you need to be in control of what you say and stop blaming others
• The dirty dozen phrases to stop using now!

George Torok is a specialist in communication skills. He coaches executives to deliver their message more successfully. That might be in conversation or presentation.

Learn more about his programs and the results of his clients at 

https://www.speechcoachforexecutives.com/

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Excerpts from this episode:

Another one that might come under this category is - everybody knows.

Well, maybe not. Maybe everybody doesn't know. And by the way, who is everybody?  Who is the everybody you're talking about here, which is a vague reference. What does that mean? And when you say everybody knows what if someone in the audience doesn't know, how did you make them feel? So avoid these insulting phrases?

The next category comes under self diminishing and false modesty, self diminishing and fall modesty. What does that mean? Well, how do you feel when you hear the speaker using these phrases?

In my humble opinion? Are they really being humble? Are they being humble? If you say you're humble, you're not humble. The Dalai Lama is humble and never says, in my humble opinion. 

If you stating an opinion, then state your opinion. If you're stating a position based on your experience, by the way, your experience is more valuable than your opinion, in my experience in my observations, but my humble opinion, you right off the bat said, Okay, it's a humble opinion.

So we might as well just not listen, a variation of this is my two cents worth. If all you've got is two cents, we don't want to hear it, keep it Keep the change. And we're only looking for the big dollar ideas here. Forget your keep your two cents to yourself, you're wasting your time.

Another variation is, well, I'm just saying. I'm just saying. And people say that, almost as if they're apologizing for what they said, I'm just saying, well, if it's valuable, it's valuable. If it's not, you don't have to add saying I'm just saying adds no value it doesn't modify does nothing to make the point stronger.

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If you're looking for more ideas on presentation skills, and you haven't yet, be sure to sign up for the weekly tips on present superior presentations.

And you can do that at  www.TorokTips.com

Remember to come back every week because most of the time we interview guest experts on communication from around the world. So far, we've had guests from 14 countries, which gives us a terrific perspective.

And every once in a while, you can tune into one of these solo shows where I will offer you some of my insights.

Remember, if you want to get your message across, get rid of the dirty dozen words and phrases that sabotage your message so that you can deliver your intended message.

If you liked what you heard, tell your friends and post your five star review on Apple podcasts because that helps more listeners find us come back every week for more practical insights to help you deliver your intended message.

I'm your host, George Torok

If you found this helpful and entertaining, be sure to listen to the upcoming Weed Word Alerts. They are short rants about silly words that people say.

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What other silly words and phrases do you add to this list?

 

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How to be more in control of your business: Erin Marcus

How to clarify your direction and stay on track

The magic formula of intent, responsibility and action

Episode 182 (Erin is based in Chicago)

In this conversation with Erin Marcus we explore:

• The importance of being more in control of yourself
• The need for black and white language in a grey world
• How to develop and employ litmus tests for yourself
• The importance of debriefing every event, project or activity
• The role of both emotion and logic in every buying decision
• Recognizing the dangers of insecurity and desperation
• Aligning your marketing plan with your personality
• A powerful daily exercise to keep you moving toward your short term goals

About our guest Erin Marcus:

Erin Marcus is the founder and CEO of Conquer Your Business, an
international company helping driven entrepreneurs and small business
owners get the financial and emotional freedom they need to build a
business and a life they're proud of.

Having made the successful leap from corporate executive to
entrepreneur, Erin uses that experience, along with her MBA education and
street smart upbringing, to help her clients reach heights they never
dreamed possible. And have fun doing it!

She is host of the podcast, Ready Yet?

Learn more about her podcast and her services at

https://conqueryourbusiness.com/

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Excerpts from this conversation with Erin Marcus:

You're either moving towards your goal or away from it.

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And one of the things that I learned being immersed in that world is soft language and euphemisms, just give you an out rate soft language and euphemisms for the reality of your situation makes you think you have more time to take care of something makes you think things might not be as hard as they are.

And so to your point, it's a test. I use very bumpers in my gutters, strong litmus tests to set my stage for better decision making.

And that suggests that we need to be willing to make bad decisions and admit that.

I make tons I do. Oh, my God. You can't screw things up more than I've screwed them up. However, it's your decision. And you can't sit back and say, well, it's not my fault. I tried. And they didn't let me.

Yeah, I mean, and I watched that play out over and over and over again. Because the truth is, there's a lot of things in, you know, just, let's just keep in careers and business. There's so much that has to change.

There's so much that has to change with discrimination and access and representation and opportunity. There is so much that has to change. However, you as one individual do not have time to sit back and wait for that change, before you create the life you want for you.

That type of systemic institutional change can take a while. Why would you wait for it? Why would you give that much power away? By waiting for things to happen waiting for change. And I know it's you know, it's an outcome of different dynamics in our society, it's easier to blame other people than take responsibility to wait, you know, the litigiousness of if that's where it is that it is now.

Right, the litigiousness to repeat a potentially new word of our society, like there's this thing we have done to create blame. And it doesn't have to be so myopic, right? It doesn't have to be you whether or not this institution is right or wrong doesn't mean that I don't have to take responsibility for myself.

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And I'm a big fan of debrief. I analyze everything, as we record this, we're coming into November, and there's a lot of people that are going to be doing their business planning. Business Planning is something that happens daily.

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The Secret Language of Success: Jeff Buehner

How to leverage the power of imagination

What is your super-power that you might have forgotten?

Episode 181 ( Jeff is based in Utah)

In this conversation with Jeff Buehner we explore:

• Lessons from the writings of the richest man on earth (its not who think)
• How to direct your self-talk for better results
• What are the seven secrets of Sultan Musa of Mali
• The special language that you can use everyday
• Why the words are less significant when using this language
• What can you find 'out there somewhere'
• The magic of an "out of body experience"
• Understanding the role you are playing and why
• How your subconscious mind controls your life
• The impact of your imagination, beliefs and feelings
• How to guide your feelings to boost your success
• How to create and maintain your vision
• The lesson metaphors from Aladdin and the Magic Lamp

About our guest Jeff Buehner:

Jeff is author of the bestseller, The Sultan's 7 Secrets. He started as a struggling concrete contractor who didn't like talking to people. Within a year of learning the secrets, he had a $20 million dollar company.

You can buy his book on Amazon or get a free copy of the video version here

https://sultans7secrets.com/

 

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Excerpts from this conversation with Jeff Buehner:

 

Unless you're speaking this special language in a way that attracts it. So we're going to jump into that, because that's the intended message. And right now you are sending a message to the world. And you're getting back exactly what you're saying in this language. So if there's anything in your life that you're not happy with, you need to change your intended message.

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The next thing he learned is that not only did he have two bodies, but he had two minds working simultaneously.

So there's the conscious mind, that's the part of us that we think of us second. But then there's something called what he called the Veiled mind, the hidden mind. But we can relate to this, because we've all kind of been made aware of this concept of a subconscious mind.

So if I use those two terms interchangeably, you'll understand the Veiled mind, and the subconscious mind. And he said, The veiled mind, is the mechanism that really controls and steers your life, it determines what you get out of life, what your personality is, where you're headed, what you experience, what how much money you're going to have, how many friends you're going to have, how energetic and vibrant you're going to be. Or if you're going to be like really tired all the time and sickly, it determines all of this.

Now, it makes all these important decisions about your life, based on one criteria, and that is what it believes, is true for you.

Or, in other words, what role you're playing what it believes your role is. Now, this is the part that really struck me, all of us are simply playing a role that we're dedicated to, we get into character, and we stay in character.

So if you think of the conscious mind, as an actor, and the subconscious mind as a really good stage manager, that's what you're dealing with. Now, the stage manager is going to set the stage of your life, cars, houses, friends, money, career, all of its going to set the stage of your life with everything that it believes to be congruent with the role you're playing.

And it will pretty much keep everything off the stage that isn't congruent with that role.

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How to look more confident when you speak: Dianna Booher

Convey more confidence in a meeting or hallway conversation

Be intentional with your body language

Episode 180 (Dianna is based in Dallas, Texas)

In this conversation with Dianna Booher, we explore:

• Techniques to convey more confidence when surprised
• How to speak up in a meeting with more intention and confidence
• Nervous body ticks that can sabotage your message
• How to train your body to send positive signals
• How to slow down a conversation while demonstrating calm and comfort
• Handy transition phrases to keep audience attention
• How to handle a brain freeze
• How to encourage your team to participate more readily in meetings

About our guest, Dianna Booher:

Dianna Booher is the author of 50 books—all published by major US publishers (Penguin Random House, Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins, McGraw-Hill), with these available in 62 foreign editions.

As a communication consultant and presentation coach, Dianna has among her clients more than one-third of the Fortune 500 organizations.

Dianna hosts Booher Book Camps, where she helps professionals develop their own bestsellers to get their “intended message” out into the world.

www.BooherBookCamp.com

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Excerpts from this conversation with Dianna Booher:

How people how business leaders can feel and look more confident when they are speaking whether it's a presentation or whether it's simply a meeting discussion, when you work with your clients to help them look and feel more confident.

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One that sort of universally applicable is in your body language.

When you start to speak. If you picture somebody right now standing up to give a briefing or something in your conference room. If they look like they're conferring on their notes, their their eyes are downcast, they're fidgeting, they're stepping back and forward, stepping back and forth. That's nervous movement.

And that tells you that they're not confident about what they're about to say, that may not be your intention, that may not be what you're thinking. But that's how people interpret they interpret monotonous, or repetitive gestures.

Like some people just swirl their hands around often, or they'll put their hands in the pocket out of the pocket in the pocket out of the pocket, or they take one step forward, one step back one step forward, one step back, I used to call that when I was teaching classes on presentation skills, the dance step, you know, the two step,

Your body language communicates, I'm confident, I believe in what I'm about to say, I have some great information that's going to be useful to you. Or it says, I'm really not quite sure that this is going to land correctly, or got the right points with the right audience. They're picking up all of that, from the moment you stand up from your chair, to walk to the front of a conference room, to being on stage, seeing you walk up, you know, I don't care if you're a celebrity speaker walking down an aisle to music, you either look confident and like you're relaxed and going to enjoy the time with them. Are you down? And that communicates a great deal.

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So larger movements look more confident.

Yes, taking up more space. You walk into a room and somebody who's walked in, they put either their iPad or their their laptop right in front of them.

And then they throw a jacket over the next chair, and then they pull that chair back so that they can see the angle, they want to be their perspective, they choose that they're taking up space.

But I'm just saying that body language communicates attitude.

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