Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Dolores Hirschmann: Master Public Speaking | Marketing | E77

Episode Date: August 19, 2020

Are you ready to level up your public speaking skills? On today's show we are chatting with Dolores Hirschmann an internationally recognized strategist, Clarity coach, TEDx Organizer, Speaker & Author. She has over 20 years experience helping entrepreneurs, companies & organizations realize their potential — by guiding them to CLARITY — to define their CORE IDEA, message and market strategy needed to reach their next level of growth. As a speaking coach, Dolores guides speakers to go from successful professionals to thought leaders in their field. She is also a TEDx Organizer, and has authored two books that focus on effective communication ‘Stand Out The TED Way’ and ‘18 Minutes of Impact.” In this episode we’ll uncover the difference between what you do and what you stand for, we’ll get her insight on how to better gain clarity in your life and we’ll learn key tips for nailing your next speaking engagement.   Follow YAP on IG: www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting Reach out to Hala directly at [e-mail] Follow Hala on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Follow Hala on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yapwithhala Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com

Hey, young and profitors, it's Halle. As our avid listeners know, one of my favorite ways to kick off the show is to read the reviews we're getting off Apple, CastBox, YouTube, and any platform that enables you to leave a review. This week, I'm celebrating reaching over 10,000 subscribers on Castbox. Shout out to everyone who left us a review in celebration. Matt Quant, Isabella Vogue, Kate P., Celine Conti, Stephanie Garnica, and so many more. Here are three reviews. I want to shout out off cast box. This one is from John Newyen. Halataha does her research on all her guests, which elevates her podcast to another level. Well done, Hala. And this one is from Judith Christon. Yap has so much value, worth the listen.

And lastly, from Jonad Iqbal. This is such an amazing podcast. Hala gets amazing guests and asks them insightful questions. Definitely a podcast worth listening to. To everyone out there, if you enjoy the show, the best way to thank us is to leave us a five-star review on Apple or your favorite platform. And if you can't leave a review, share your thoughts on social. Take a screenshot of you listening on your favorite podcast app and tag us on Instagram stories

at Yap with Hala or LinkedIn at Halataha. I'll definitely reshare the post and I can't wait to hear what you think about the show. You're listening to YAP, Young and Profiting Podcast, a place for you. where you can listen, learn, and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Halitaha, and on Young and Profiting Podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life, no matter your age, profession, or industry. There's no fluff on this podcast, and that's on purpose. I'm here to uncover value from my guests by doing the proper research

and asking the right questions. If you're new to the show, we've chatted with the likes of ex-FBI agents, real estate moguls, self-made billionaires, CEOs, and best-selling authors. Our subject matter ranges from enhancing productivity, how to gain influence, the art of entrepreneurship, and more. If you're smart and like to continually improve yourself, hit the subscribe button because you'll love it here at Young and Profiting Podcast. Today on the show, we're chatting with Dolores Hirschman, an internationally

recognized strategist, clarity coach, TEDx organizer, speaker, and author. She is over 20 years of experience helping entrepreneurs, companies, and organizations realize their potential by guiding them to clarity, helping them to define their core idea, message, and market strategy needed to reach the next level of growth. As a speaker coach, Dolores guides speakers to go from successful professionals to thought leaders in their field. She's a TEDx organizer and has authored two books on effective communication, stand out the TED way, and 18 minutes of impact. In this episode, we'll uncover the difference between what you do and what you stand for. We'll get Dolores' insight on how to gain better clarity in your life, and we'll learn key tips for nailing your next speaking

engagement. Hey, Dolores, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. I'm so glad to have you on. Thank you so much for having me today. So for those out there who don't know much about you, you just introduce yourself to our listeners and share a bit about yourself and what you do? Absolutely. So I am a clarity coach. What does that mean? I help people clarify their idea worth sharing, the message that will have an impact in the world and clarify the way to scale their business. Awesome. And so from my understanding, you work with speakers, entrepreneurs, authors, and executives, and you really clarify or help to clarify their message. based on our research, I learned that you really found this true purpose and this expertise

in terms of clarity and providing clarity to others in life. When you immigrated to the U.S., you were just 25 years old, you were newlywed, and some of those personal experiences and things that you went through helped you realize that providing clarity is really your true calling in life. Could you unpack that for us and share that story with us and how you came to be such an expert? Right. Absolutely. So I'm originally from Argentina. That's where my accent is. Spanish is my first language. And yes, I came to the U.S. I married my husband who's American at the age of 25. And I, you know, immediately we didn't live in a city so I couldn't have access to like the traditional corporate job. I have a background in business. And I soon became a mom by the age of 27. So it was kind of a mix of of what can I do while I'm a mom. And I did what most of us will do is like what. in front of me. And so I took different jobs. And in the trajectory of becoming a mom of four, working for a non-profit and starting my own businesses, at the age of 38, I was like,

what am I all about? Like, I was confused. And I went back to school. I started coaching. And studying coaching gave me kind of the tools to start unpacking myself in some ways and to start finding clarity in my journey. Because I think that it comes a moment in our lives where we look back, especially if you are creative or you don't have a traditional career path, that you look back and you're like, what am I all about? I've done this, I've done that, but nothing makes sense. And when I was doing that process of exploration and launching my coaching business, I realized that in one way or another, whether I was five years old, because I asked my mom and my siblings, or at the age of 30 or 40 in my different jobs, I was always playing a role

of pulling pieces apart to understand the whole so that I could build a new version of whatever it was. And so I decided to apply this to a place where I've always found a lot of ease and satisfaction, which is speaking, messaging, and entrepreneurship as a whole. So today I really work with service entrepreneurs, many of which feel like they are one more of a many, one more coach, one more accountant, one more consultant. And I help them understand how they are unique, how to communicate that uniqueness and stand out and grow their business based on that. Yeah, that's really cool. And it reminds me of something that I talk to a lot of my guests about, which is a lot of young people, they feel like they don't know how to discover their talents.

And it's kind of always like right under their nose. Like, for example, you know, you may be really good at designing a room or like, you know, setting up a room really nicely. and it's a talent that you have and kind of everybody knows it, but you internally haven't realized that like you're supposed to be an interior designer or whatever the example might be. And so for you, it was this clarity. People said that you're really good at finding clarity and helping to distill down to the really meaningful parts.

And then you've based a whole business around that. So that's really cool. Yeah. And how that came about because, you know, you get to almost the last mile. And as you say, the last mile of clarity is, under your nose, you cannot see it. And so when I was 40 and launching my coaching business after

I had become a coach, I was doing great. I loved it, but I felt there was something missing. Like, I felt like there was a piece that I was missing something. So I asked myself, what would I do all day for free? And the answer to that was I would hang out with people with really big ideas. And back then, I had already been a TEDx organizer. And in doing so as a volunteer, I realized how much I enjoyed and that I did have kind of a skill set to help our speakers that were putting on stage distill their message to their true essence so they could build their talks from the idea out instead of from the story in. Yeah. And that's another important point that you just mentioned, the fact that you were willing to, you volunteered, you did it for free,

and that experience led you to realize that, hey, I can actually, you know, make a living and love doing this for a living. And I think that's super important. A lot of people think I'm too good to intern or too good to work for free. I personally interned for three years at a radio station, and that's how I fell in love with radio. So I think it's very important to get those experiences and find out what you're good at and what you like to do. Yes. And there's nothing that brings clarity more than action. True. So let's get more of an insight in terms of your perspective on clarity. I was listening to a couple interviews that you were on and you described in one interview that clarity is like an onion. So when I think of clarity, I really think of like one thing. You're like

laser focused on one thing, but I guess that's not your understanding. Can you tell us more about this onion representation? Yes. And so it goes along with action. Is that, that we can only take action on what we are, have some level of clarity right now. And as we take that action, it will be revealed the next layer of clarity. You know, some people, especially young people, I have a daughter who's 19, who's like, oh, mama, I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do. And I said to her, like, what is it that excites you right now? You might not define what you're going to be doing at the age of 40 by taking action on that

that you do have clarity right now, then you're going to be peeling one layer of the onion all the way that you'll get to the essence of your work. I mean, it's okay if it takes a few years to find your thing. I feel like right now, I'm in a really good place. I love what I do, but I know that I'm not even close to being done. I mean, I am loving what I do, and I know that this work will reveal another layer of me that when I get there, I will have clarity of what that is. I don't know what it is right now. So it's more important to just have clarity, like, in the moment, rather than trying to think about the future. It's more about, like, what do you feel is right right now and take action upon that?

That's kind of your viewpoint about it? Exactly, except that, of course, you have to have a through line that is kind of tie with maybe a big, big dream. And so it's not completely random, but it is about getting to the dream space. takes a lot of layers of accomplishment that you might don't know how you're going to, I don't know, make that million dollar whatever business, but you might know what to do right now that will be conducive to that bigger dream. So the bigger dream is still there and it is a through line, but the clarity of what to do right now can only be within the context of your reality right now. Why do you think that people have such a hard time having clarity?

they're looking for absolute certainty and clarity. Like right now, we're in kind of strange times. And people are asking like, well, I need to know. I need to know. I'm like, it's going to go back to school. Am I going to go back to work? And there's no answers. And I think for a while, the first few months of this pandemic,

we were all kind of frozen because we'd rather not take action because we don't know. But now I think you're starting to see a shift where people are saying, okay, I need to take some action, you need to make some plan. I need to budget something, make decisions, even though I have no answers or the government has no answers. It's almost like when you are driving at night, you drive a car at 60 miles per hour, and the only thing you can see is what your headlights will show you. And you don't know there's an experience of there being a road in the past. And you typically don't slow down. You don't even think about it.

You just drive. we don't do the same with life. Sometimes if we only see as far as our headlights, if we only see as far as the next year or the next month, we tend to feel that's not safe, so we'd rather lean back and not move forward, not take action. Yeah. So we at Young and Profiting Podcasts, like,

we're like all about actionable steps in order to improve ourselves. We're all about action, right? So let's just take me for an example. I'll give you a scenario and maybe you can give me some advice on how I can get more clarity. So for me, like, opportunity is abound. This podcast is really blowing up. I started it two years ago. It was a small hobby.

You know, now I have thousands of listeners. We're a number one how to podcast. I've got a huge following on LinkedIn, one of the biggest influencers on there. And now all of a sudden, all these opportunities are coming my way. I worked full time at Disney streaming services, and I'm being internally recruited for like another position that's really interesting. On top of that, I'm starting a marketing agency, and without trying, it's like specifically for podcasters.

I've got all of these big podcasters that want my services, like without even really trying, and I'm scaling my team and trying to figure out how I can accommodate those podcasters and launch those services. And so I've got all these options, but I obviously can. can't do, I'm not superwoman. I'm trying my best to be, but, you know, it's just a lot. And I'm like, you know, starting to feel like I'm going to burn out if I don't choose not to do something, right? How can I be clear on which thing I should let go of? What kind of lifestyle do you want to have 10 years from now? Definitely money is a driver. That's not the only driver, but it's like I work really hard.

And so I want to be very successful and compensated for what I do. I also want to be able to be to have like a voice and be able to help people and provide like self-improvement. So like I know for a fact, like I don't want to get rid of the podcast. I knew that. It's more of like balancing this corporate job or becoming an entrepreneur. Like that's like where like I feel like I'm just like at a crossroads. Yeah. So I think it's important for you to clarify what does that look like in 10 years and just make a list. And what does your ideal day look like? Does it give me a Tuesday 10 years from now and what are you having for breakfast? Where are you having breakfast? I want you to like write it down as a word journal on present tense. That's going to give you a lot of insight of what you are working to work. Kind of what I said, like you kind of need a throughline dream and then you'll be able to get clear of what needs to happen next. And then you need to kind of make a list of what is the position. So if we're speaking honestly, your dream, I'm assuming.

will be to be an independent, financially abundant entrepreneur that has an impact and a voice with a platform. Yeah, that sounds perfect. And so the question there is, what are the levers, what are the tools that you could use to get there and get there faster in the least effort, right? Why not? And so as far as your corporate career, you want to look at it at how much value can I add to this corporate career while they keep on adding value. You have a great brand behind you. Disney is a great brand. So how far can you add value to them while they are at value to you as a personality, as a personal brand, right? And when is the limit where that's not going to add anymore? In economics is the diminishing return, right? When we are hungry, when we are

thirsty, the first drop of water is huge. And then it's going to be a diminutionary term. We will stop being thirsty. So when is it that your corporate path will stop adding value to your personal brand? Oh, wow. That's really interesting. I'm being very honest and strategic here in that you want to be partnering with a brand and give it your best because they will position you just by their association. Yeah. And then there's a moment where there's not going to be a lot more or return on that investment of time. And you will be ready to move on. Yeah, I think you make a great point.

Here's one thing I want to make sure that you understand. And is that because I run businesses, I've sold businesses. And the truth is there's two parts to you scaling to the level that you want in financial abundance and is understanding business in such a way that you are extraneous to you making a lot of money. Yeah. So because you eventually want to manage a very profitable set of businesses that don't depend on you showing up on a podcast every day.

Totally. And it might be premature to have that conversation. But when you can start creating a brand that is bigger than you and that you can have a systems and a team that can run, for example, your podcast, your marketing agency part, you should be able to run that almost without. you. And that's all about system. That's what I just did when I sold my business, one of my businesses. At Yap, we have a super unique company culture. We're all about obsessive excellence. We even call ourselves scrappy hustlers. And I'm really picky when it comes to my employees.

My team is growing every day. We're 60 people all over the world. And when it comes to hiring, I no longer feel overwhelmed by finding that perfect candidate, even though I'm so picky. Because when it comes to hiring, indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post noticed. Indeed, sponsored jobs help you stand out and hire fast by boosting your post to the top relevant candidates. Sponsored jobs on Indeed get 45% more applications than non-sponsored ones according to Indeed data worldwide. I'm so glad I found Indeed when I did because hiring is so much easier now. In fact, in the minute we've been talking, 23 hires were made on Indeed according to Indeed data worldwide. Plus, there's no subscriptions or long-term contracts.

You literally just pay for your results. You pay for the people that you hire. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com.com. Profiting. Just go to indeed.com slash profiting right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash profiting. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, Indeed is all you need. Yeah, it's so true. That's the most important part and that's the hardest part. It's just to get systems in place where you're not the only reviewer and approver and need to be involved in every single decision. That's how things become really stressful, really fast. Yeah. Yeah,

I mean, that's one of the things that we do. So right now, while I share that I can help people clarify the message, the truth is master's in clarity. I own, I mean, most of my time is spent on outside facing conversations with podcasts and stages. 90% of the work is done by my team. Wow. Because I have systems. And we now are doing systems for our clients so they can double the size of their businesses without them using more of their time. That's one of the things that we're doing right now.

That's very cool. So let's get back to clarity. One thing that one of my researchers brought up to me when we were talking about you, Shiv was telling me, what about if like you're just too attached to your clarity and you run the risk of overfitting and your outcome that you want is so clear when you need to pivot or when an opportunity comes your way, you actually don't see it because you're just too clear on your end goal. How can we have clarity but be nimble enough to pivot when we need to? Yes. So that's the difference between talking about what you do and talking about what you

stand for. So when you're anchored in what you stand for, it's much easier to pivot. than focusing on this is what I do. For example, if I were to say I'm a speaker, I only speak on live stages because I like to shake hands. That's great. I have so much clarity. That's all I do. Come, COVID, you're screwed, right? And so is it about speaking on stages and shaking people's hands or is it about helping people, I don't know, shifts their mindset so they can have a bigger life? So understanding the difference between what you do and what is the idea behind your work is what will let you shift how you do it when something happens. It's the doing that doesn't change.

That is harder to change. But if you're clear on what is the ultimate outcome and the ultimate outcome is usually less tangible, then you will find another path to achieve that outcome. Does that make sense? Yeah. So it's not necessarily what you're going to do. you're doing in the moment. It's the underlying purpose of it all. Yeah. So let's think about a company like Amazon. I mean, I remember when Amazon started because it was 1997, because I had been already working

on digital spaces. And in 1997, I know you were a baby. In 1997, what they did at that time was they were a bookstore. They were the place where you would find books that were hard to find. but their proprietary system or the main patent was about easy payment online, which back then was very cumbersome. And they patent something called One Click Pay. So if you think of Amazon, you really think about buying something really easily. They don't care what they sell. Right now they'll sell you a cow like this. They will sell you anything on Amazon. Because what their proprietary system is, is that you, you'll sell you. ease of buying something online. And so they've changed stuff, but the core state. Yeah. I think that's

really interesting. The other thing I want to talk about is the law of attraction related to clarity. And so there's this quote by a famous novelist. His name is Paulo Cuelo. He's from Brazil, which is you probably know of him. And he says, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. And so when it comes to clarity, do you believe in when it comes to like a phenomenon with law of attraction and like metaphysical views and things like that? Do you have any perspective on that? Absolutely. We cannot accomplish what we don't know we want or know what it looks like.

You've heard about vision boards or mental rehearsing practice by athletes a lot. I remember when I was preparing for one of my TEDx events, I was really clear of the experience I wanted to have. I even had the dress I wanted to wear in my head. I hadn't found it. But it was so clear to me in my imagination what that day would feel like and what it would look like to the point that the dress I was thinking just showed up on my feet and I bought it and it was perfect and it worked. right? And so absolutely it's like when we know what we want, we can start leaning back and allowing it to show up and follow the signs. It's just confusion that generates that mixed or confused vibration, energetic vibration, and it rejects that that we want.

Yeah. It's like basically allowing like your subconscious to allow you to make decisions without even realizing it that brings you closer to your goals. I feel like that's the power and the law of attraction when you know exactly what you want. You say it out loud. You repeat it all the time. You really believe it. You feel like you already have it. And then I feel like the world really opens up. That's what I've, based on my experiences, anytime I really believe that something is going to happen, the universe kind of just opens up and allows things to happen and brings opportunity in. Absolutely. And you become, there's a great book from Dana Wilde called Train Your Brain. And she talks about something called unconscious ignorance. And it's this concept that when we don't know what we want and you don't even know that it's possible, even if that thing was in front of you, you wouldn't recognize it. Because your brain is not trained to look for it. But when we're clear what we want, we start looking for hints or ways. to get there, and so we won't miss the signs that will point us in the right direction.

That's really cool. I've never heard of that. It's called unconscious ignorance. Yes. Very cool. Train the Brain is the name of the book, and Dana Wilde is the author. Very cool. Maybe I'll try to get her on the podcast. Oh, I can do an email intro. Oh, that'd be awesome. Okay, so let's move on to your expertise around preparing for public speaking engagements like TED Talks. You're the author of 18 minutes of impact, move your audience to action the TED way. What was your motivation to write that? So after volunteering, as I was sharing, I recognized a couple of things. I recognize that even season speakers struggled with effective communication. And I also recognized that audiences were hungry for clear, crisp ideas, not long conversations that left them confused. And so I decided to use everything

I learned coaching tech speakers and put it in a book to teach anybody who is addressing audiences for any purposes in any stages to help them kind of organize their thoughts in a cohesive way by sharing my seven steps to write your talk process that really works in meeting the audience where they are and take them on a journey introducing the topic that you're expert on. Yeah, and so I'm going to dig deep into all the different things that you talk about in this book. One of the big points is that people need to know what their idea is and know how to explain that idea in a short and concise way. First of all, why is it so difficult for people to kind of boil down what they want to talk about in a concise way? And how does that hold them back from

having a good speaking engagement. Yeah, so let me give you a very specific example that probably you and your listeners have all experienced it because it's not that hard. You go to a networking event and someone says, what do you do? And you proceed to explain exactly what you do to the detail of how you do it, right? Well, I work with people twice a week and I coach them on XYZ and then they go on my honor program, which I love to, blah, blah, blah. People get glazy eyes.

They don't listen to you. and they kind of like shut down. But when you, someone says, what do you do? And you say, I help people move from point A to point B. And then you close your mouth and you let it sink in and let them get curious and ask for more. Now you hook them. And now you're in a conversation. So that's a sinness and clarity that is focused on exactly what problem you solve is what people are looking to hear.

because I believe that we are humans and that we are walking around the world with these antennas in our head. And those antennas are attuned to anything that we are suffering from. Let's say, you know how you, have you ever heard or have you ever had a girlfriend or someone who's pregnant? And all of a sudden, like they see everybody is pregnant. And they are just like attuned to anything baby related. Or a couple of years ago, we got a puppy. and the puppy was like, oh my God, it was a mess. And so all of a sudden, if there was a post or some comment or something on puppy training,

my antenna would go up and I would click on it, right? So it's kind of like the same thing that we're just talking about, the unconscious ignorance is just you want to communicate in a way that you can match the antennas if the antennas are tuned to how you solve a problem or what problem you solve, more to the point. And so most people don't do that. Most people focus on all of the work. Like people would say, well, I've developed a proprietary methodology that does XYZ. It doesn't matter that you developed a proprietary methodology.

That might matter later when I'm curious about it. But just tell me exactly what problem you solve in the world. And let me get curious and ask you more questions. Yeah, I think that makes sense. It's basically like getting them engaged by not giving away too much information and only giving them the most powerful thing that they would be interested in. Exactly. And then let that sink in and then let them say, oh, that is very interesting. Tell me more. And then you go into as deep as you want to go. In marketing, there's a way of

looking at marketing that's called push and pull, right? You probably know this. Push is when you're pushing information down people's throat. Pull is when you create an environment where the market is pulling information out of you. It's actually the same in education. I work a lot in online education. You know, you don't want to push, we're talking about, you know, a lot about virtual teaching right now because of kids. You don't want to be in a situation where you're pushing stuffed on kids' throats because they're stuffed literally. They're not hungry for more information. And you cannot feed someone that's not hungry in the real world. And also you cannot teach. you cannot give information to someone whose brain is saturated at that time.

And so when you create a pool kind of conversation where you give a little bit of information, you allow the audience or the person in front of you to get it, digest it, and say, oh, I want more. Then you're starting to have a dance of you providing something and then they're pulling more or they're ready for more. Yeah. And that's more effective because they're engaged. They're part of the conversation.

They're steering the conversation. And so it's just all in all a better experience. So let's dig deeper on having a connection. I know that one of the biggest struggles that speakers have is that they can't connect with their audience. They can't move them to actually taking an action. You know, when you have a speaking engagement, usually you want them to do something, whether it's buy your product or, you know, schedule a coaching session.

Whatever it is, you want to drive them to some sort of. outcome. So what are the reasons why speakers can't connect with their audiences and then how can they better connect with them? Yes, and I see that all the time. And I always say it's kind of like dating. It is a balance of when you ask for that action and what are you asking in return. Think about this way. Let's say that you meet someone, you go on that first date and they say, do you want to come meet my parents next weekend? And they'll say, hell no. Like, no way. It's too soon. Right. And so there's just a cantance to what you're asking that next action to be. And usually when that action is wrapped around something that they want, that you want them to do for you, it's less likely that they'll take that action. But when that action is more gifting and giving to them, they're more likely to take it. So things like buying my product can be hard to take action on a quote unquote first date engagement, like this is the first time we met. The other thing is many people say, well, let's book a consultation as a follow-up.

The truth is that I think that's uncomfortable because chances are that consultation is really about you selling me something, so I'm not ready for that. So you want to play the what's called the give, give, give, get game to some extent. And it's like, how much more can you give these people to get them to trust you and engage with you before you are asking something from them. Yeah. That reminds me of social media, actually. That's the same thing with social media. If you're building a community on social media, you want to build their trust, provide value, provide value, provide value. And only once they trust you and they're engaged with you is then you want to actually offer them some sort of services.

Some people do it backwards. They think that they're just going to build a community by offering services and it's like, no, you need to actually provide value and build trust and then you can offer your services. That really reminds me a lot about social media as well. Absolutely. I did something called trust funnels that follows exactly that. Oh, that's interesting. Do you want to tell us more about that? Sure. So I don't believe in sales funnels. I believe that a sale is a consequence of a trust-based relationship well built. And that by the time, that the person gets to know you, if they have the need of the problem that you solve,

that they will choose you because they now feel safe with you. And so while the trust funnel, if you want, is a play on words, and it's not very different from a sales funnel, I think it matters how you approach the whole process and the intention that you have. and that when you focus on building trust-based relationships, every step of the way, every action, let's say, your market or a prospect client takes on the top level, they are actually, every time they open your post or read your newsletters or subscribe to your podcast, let's say, they're actually paying you.

They're just using a different currency. They're using the currency of trust. And that currency of trust will eventually shift to currency of money, dollars. But it's important that you as a business see all those transactions happening and value them for what they are. They are investing in you just in a different coin. Happy New Year, Yap, gang. I just love the unique energy of the new year. It's all about fresh starts.

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easily. And as you grow, Shopify can scale right along with your business. In 2026, stop waiting and start selling with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com slash profiting. Go to Shopify.com slash profiting. That's Shopify.com slash profiting. Yeah, fam, hear your first. This new year with Shopify by your side. I love that. I feel like that's such a cool analogy. I really like that. How about knowing more about our audience? Is it important to kind of discover who your audience is before you speak to them? And if so, like, how is that helpful?

The more you know who you're talking to, the more you're going to be talking to them. I'm bilingual, right? I'm going to give you a very specific and basic example. I speak English and Spanish. If I don't know what language in my audience is speaking, like literally, I can go to a Spanish event and speak in English and they're not going to get a word. So that's an extreme situation. But go down and think about it in the nuance of it. It's like you want to know as much as you can about the audience you're going to be talking to because you want to speak their language and

you want to meet them where they are. You cannot meet them where they are if you don't know who they are and where they are. So give us an example. Like let's say we are talking to a group of kids. Like, how would you meet them where they are? Like, give us a real example of how that's practical. Yes. So how do you meet them where they are? First of all, you ask questions. Let's say that it's kids and they're struggling, I don't know, with wellness. You're not going to talk about the dietary requirements of the government dietary and nutritional kind of suggestions. You're going to talk about, by asking the question, you're going to say, do you like chocolate? What vegetables do you like? What part of the day or meal do you like?

best. Like, you start asking them questions so they feel that you are talking to them. And then once they feel that you are in that room for their sake and that you are willing to listen, even if they don't answer, the audience is always answering by clapping or nodding or shaking their head, right? And so, but just those prompts of questions will introduce the subject that you're going to be talking about and will make them feel that you are talking to them. versus talking about them. Got it. And so I also know that getting emotion out of your audience is really important.

And that's important when it comes to engaging them, connecting with them. You really want to trigger some sort of emotion. So what are the different kinds of emotional triggers that we should go for? Is there ever a scenario where, like, fear is something that we should use? Or is there other emotions that often work better? How can we determine, like, what's the best emotion to trigger? Yeah, so it's not the best emotion is which emotion and when. So when I teach my speaking framework, it's all about the understanding that you're on a stage, you're sharing words, but you're also responsible for taking your audience through an emotional journey. And in the first beginning, you want to plant the seed of curiosity or maybe even hope by you introducing an idea that can solve a problem that people might have. And then let's say that you spend a couple of minutes talking about the severity of the problem.

Let's say that you're talking, I don't know, about COVID and what are the risks and what are the stats and this is what's happening. So there might be fear that might be felt while you're sharing that, but it's a fear that it's used to help them understand that this is serious. But then you go back and say, you know what, but you don't have to feel that way. And that doesn't need to happen to you if you practice this safety measures like a mask or social distancing or whatever. And so they go back to feeling hope. And then you invite them to take action. And so you're starting to get them excited and feel empowered. So it's not about which emotion works.

It's about understanding which emotion you want them to feel throughout the journey of the talk you're delivering. Oh, you know, that's so interesting. And so, and it's also the same way that people write to when you're writing a story. It's the same thing. You want to just like bring people through the ups and downs and really have them connect with what you're speaking to. And being intentional about that, I feel like can help you craft the right story that will kind of engage people in the most powerful way. So I think that's really cool. I'm glad that we talked about that.

How about body language? What's your tips in terms of the body language that you should have on stage? Is that also something similar in terms of emotions where it might change throughout your presentation? Or do you have like specific tips in terms of body language? I think there's basic rules like hands in the front, face your audience, don't give them back to the audience. There's some basic rules. But beyond that, I always coach my clients that if you are anchored solely in the message that you have, and anchored in the emotion and the intention behind it, your body language were reflected,

and I don't need to micromanage it as a coach. So there's all those basic no-noes, like don't give their back to the audience, don't hide your hands, don't cover your mouth, that kind of thing. But beyond that, I like the speakers to be as authentic as it can be. Yeah. A fun fact, it's not totally related to body language, but TED speakers, they don't use podiums because there's a barrier between the speaker and the audience. So that's really interesting. Is there any other like fun facts in terms of like? Yeah. So I like men to not wear ties. I love men with ties and suits. But on a stage, you don't want to wear a tie. You want to be a little bit relaxed. Maybe you can wear a jacket and a shirt with the top button opened up. Is it because they seem more welcoming if they're not wearing a tie? Yes. More open and more

relaxed, more at ease, more like having a conversation. Yeah. Obviously, there's moments that you must wear it. But especially for TEDxas, I always told my speakers, don't wear a tie. Wear a suit, but not a tie. Interesting. That's funny. Cool.

So how about just general mistakes that you see speakers make so that we can avoid them if we ever have a big speaking engagement? I think the number one is do not introduce yourself in the first two minutes. If nobody introduces you, then go on the stage, ask people a question or start with your presentation and then later introduce yourself because nobody really wants to know who you are until you give them a reason to know who you are. Yeah. And then I also know that the first 60 seconds of a speech is super important.

Can you tell us about that? That's exactly. Yeah. So do not use the first 60 seconds to introduce yourself, but use the first 60 seconds to engage with the audience by asking them a question or telling them a present tense story. Got it. So your recommendation to open up a speech is usually to tell a story, right? Either what we call resonant questions or a story in present tense so that people feel that you are in the moment in the scene right there. Yeah. Something else that I saw based on my research

is that you actually help people write a script for their TED talks, at least you previously did. And so... No, I do, yeah. You do currently. And I had other speakers on, like, Eric Admeadis. He's a speaker from Mind Valley. And when I was talking to him about public speaking, he was saying that, like, he never scripts it and you should never script it.

And basically, you should always tell stories from your heart so they seem authentic. And you might have, like, a story journal where you have, like, a list of all your different stories that you have written down somewhere. but when it comes to actually telling your stories in the moment, you should never be like referencing a script. It should always be kind of coming from your mind since you went through it yourself. So I understand both perspectives. Sometimes on my podcasts, I do more scripting. Sometimes I do it more freestyle. It just depends. So I understand both perspectives and see the benefits of both, but help us understand why you think that scripting is the right approach, at least for the TED Talks.

Yeah, so there's a difference between scripting and memorizing and scripting and rehearsing. So scripting, especially if you have not spoken before, you want to script because you want to organize your thoughts prior to your engagement. And then you start anchoring those thoughts in the points you want to make. But yes, absolutely, the stories will probably just flow because you had that experience. The thing with a TEDx is if you have only 17 minutes to talk, you don't want to be completely free flow because then you're going to be stopped mid story at minute 17. So it really depends on the context and the purpose of the speaking engagements. I believe that a story is an element in a talk, not the talk itself.

We select which stories you want to tell and then you might free flow through that moment, that two minutes of the story, but it is within a through line that you've set out to share. over the world. Yeah, I think that makes sense. And even for me, like, coming from podcasting and doing this, my best interviews are the ones that I've scripted out and then I don't follow the script. Or like, I follow the script, but like, I kind of know it. I kind of know what to say. Like, and I have all these ideas that I wrote down. And then in the moment, I'm natural. And I just kind of reference it. I don't read it. Those are always make for the best things. Because it's like you've just fully prepared. And so, like, your brain,

has kind of memorized the important parts. You kind of know your flow. I feel like it's, I feel like some people, they, they really stick to like no scripting, just all natural. I'm going to wing it. And I feel like those people, at least when it comes to podcasting, like they don't have a great show. And I think it's because they don't prepare enough. So the scripting is like a sandbox for where, from where you're going to play. And so if you done the job of scripting it up front, then you don't have to even read it. You'll remember that framework and you're going to follow it. Yeah. How about introverts? So me being an extrovert, I'm totally fine talking. I can talk all day. But there's a lot of people who have a lot of trouble speaking, even in a small group, even in a team meeting, they just have trouble speaking up.

So like, what are your tips to help introverts come out of their shell and, you know, not be so terrified about speaking up on stage? It's really about being so committed to your message. I've seen a lot of introverts wake up and kind of really blossom when their message becomes more important than their fear of speaking. And so it's really about why are you speaking? What is the purpose? And when you are so passionate about that message you want to share, while it still might be hard, you will overcome it for the sake of that. It's like a mama bear will get energy from somewhere when she needs to protect her cops. Yeah.

Well, thank you so much. This conversation was great. The last question I asked all my guests is, what is your secret to profiting in life? Oh, yeah. I know. Having fun. No fun, no profit. I love that.

And where can our listeners go to learn more about you and everything that you do? Absolutely. You can come to MastersInclarity.com and Masters in Clarity on Instagram. Follow me and yeah, that's where you find me. Awesome. Thank you so much, Dolores. It was a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks for listening to Young and Profiting Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or comment on YouTube, SoundCloud, or your favorite platform. Reviews make all the hard

work worth it. They're the ultimate thank you to me and the Yap team. The other way to support us is by word of mouth. Share this podcast with a friend or family member who may find it valuable. Follow Yap on Instagram at Young and Profiting and check us out at young and profiting.com. You can find me on Instagram at Yap with Hala or LinkedIn. Just search for my name, Hala Taha. Until next time, this is Hala, signing off.