Latest / WOC and Allies: Business and Career Realtalk with Elaine Lou Cartas / 98: How I Prepared for My Talk to a Full House of 200+ People, and How I Dealt with Speaker Problems

Transcript

98: How I Prepared for My Talk to a Full House of 200+ People, and How I Dealt with Speaker Problems · WOC and Allies: Business and Career Realtalk with Elaine Lou Cartas

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm back in my hotel room.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: It is 11 08 central time.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I was dancing my feet off.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Just came off this incredible dance party at Venbaxtep Summit.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: And prior to that, I spoke in front of 200 plus leaders.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Where it was more.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's 200 seats.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: People came that didn't sign up for it sitting on the floor.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: People were turned away.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like a majority of the staff were in my room.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: They had to close the doors and turn people away.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Which I am in complete disbelief in.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: And there were leaders from Coca-Cola, Accenture, Albertsons, Fairlife, Fetch, Hallmark, Killanova, Kierk, Dr.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Pepper, Nestle, Procter, and Gample, S.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: C.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Johnson, Target, Walmart, and more companies than I am missing is just in the top of my head.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm tired.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: I did not prep for doing this podcast interview.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I did know I wanted to do this podcast interview.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, share this with my podcast manager.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, I want to do an interview after my talk.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Can you do a fast turnaround?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: I know it doesn't necessarily meet your timeline.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it was like, yeah, that's completely fine, just because I know my audience kind of loves thing it when it happens the time it happens.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm Elaine Lucartas.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a business and career coach for women of color and allies.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: LA Weekly awarded me the number one thought leader, and Apple News named me one of the top five business coaches.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Done doing the most as a woman of color or ally, and you want to create your own definition of success and happiness.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, grab your coffee tea or boba and let's do some business and career real talk.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm still in adrenaline rush.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: And the talk was on owning the room you're in, executive presence.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you, this talk, I prepared for it.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: How I got this talk is I met with Jackie, who is one of the coordinators we are in this coaching certification program.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I shared this at my talk.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like she wanted support in something.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then I gave her support.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, what do you want?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like, you know what?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: I want to do more talks on executive presence.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, you should come talk.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I was there talking.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Here?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, this is like people are sitting on the floor, people being turned away.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: And what I want to talk about is how I prepared for it.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think so often people think, oh, that person just has it together.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: They have executive presence.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm prepared for it.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: And for those of you that are probably listening that came to my talk, like, I want the recording for it.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Don't worry, my team is going to be putting that together.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: But just give them time because as you know if you attended the talk, there were problems and issues.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking of which, on top of being a field germ, people having to turn it around.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: The speakers were making this horrible, like screeching sound.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I was trying to find a place to stand where it would stop.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: And finally, at the end, it's like, oh, like when we were doing QA, I finally turned off the mic and there was a sigh of relief, but I had to yell.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of beating myself over my head where I should have done that earlier.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: What's interesting is having that happen and that problem actually displayed executive presence, seeing what could happen when a problem happens and what to do about it.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, okay, you know, we're talking about executive presence.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: I want your feedback.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Where should I stand?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Here, here, here, thumbs up.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'll continue talking.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And because I turned off my mic when we were doing QA coaching, you know, I was coaching people, come up to the room, project out.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: I need you to speak louder.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't even realize I was doing it.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was just so natural.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, what's interesting is in this podcast, I usually have bullet points of what I'm gonna say.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: I have no bullet points.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Think of this like a late night zing or live journal entry, except it is audio because it truly is.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: I am sit up by my bed because there's soundproof walls.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: I feel bad because the walls are pretty soon.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: So the reason why I'm sitting by my bed is because it's more soundproof as opposed to sitting on my desk.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a cute angle.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I'll put this in video.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I will, just because it shows the realness.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, I'm here to talk about how I prepared for this talk.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: So the Next Up Summit, which is a great organization for women moving up in corporate America, who are leaders, and they provide a lot of training, a lot of experience and events, and there's chapters throughout the country.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll put the Next Up website in the show notes so you can check it out.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I knew that there were going to be these incredible leaders.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I knew that I didn't know it all.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: But what I can do is ask for feedback.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I sent out an anonymous survey because I wanted people to feel safe asking them, hey, like what's your challenge?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: What's your goal?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want to take out of it when it comes to executive presence?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Not all 200 people responded, which was completely fine.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: I knew that.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: But about I want to say it's late right now, 39, 39 people responded.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: In addition to that, because I got the list, there is about 200 people on the list.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: I personal, personally added, messaged everybody on LinkedIn saying I'm so excited to see you or the people who corresponded.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: I still asked, hey, what's your biggest challenge on executive presence?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to know because I'm preparing for my talk.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I received information.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think so often when we're preparing for a big talk or a big meeting, it's like, okay, I know it all.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: But like, do you have all the data, all the information to prepare for it?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Are you asking people for feedback?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: I asked for people.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, I had an intention.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be buying the script, but I have uh good path here picker snooting.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: I've been seeing pages in my script.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: People at my talk approached me and like, oh my gosh, you really did see that executive present.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And you're just like uh, you know, standoffish, but you're really approachable.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And in the top of my script that I printed out, it says, I will be funny, approachable, and executive.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: That was my goal for the talk.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Funny, approachable, and executive.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: And someone came up to me after the talk.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people came to the talk, said, Oh my god, you were great.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that was the best talk.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: I had so many people come up to me.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it's a networking event.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: So when I met with people and like, okay, what company you're in, and I'm one of the few that has my own business.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm the speaker that talked about owning the room you're in, executive president.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, you are the talk.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, you are the person, like, oh my gosh, I can't believe people are talking about it.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And even saying that it's like, okay, I'm having imposter syndrome about it.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, not necessarily imposter syndrome, but but that's what I actually prepared for.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted people to talk about it and not talk about it because it's me, because I know my shit.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I've been doing this for seven plus years.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: I shared at the talk, I was a director at 22, managing five men.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: I worked in American politics, local, state, and national.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: I've been bullied, unfortunately.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Went into the nonprofit sector, had an incredible ally, had an incredible team, had to navigate, had to be assertive, and learned things the way I learned things as a Frisian immigrant.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you need to pay attention to your elders, but you do.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like when you're a Frisian immigrant, you listen to what's needed to succeed, but you never ask the question, what do I want?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: How do I want to show up?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: And how I wanted to show up is I will be funny, approachable, and executive.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually want you to think about that.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Whenever you have a meeting, whenever you have a talk, how do you want to show up?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: What is your goal?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: What's the other person's goal?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want to get out of it?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what I did in coaching.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Legacy leader.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: I know what you're thinking.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Elaine, you have such good stuff here.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: I want more.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want more tips and advice for your business career in life, sign up for my gifts and gifts newsletter at ElaineLew.com forward slash join.
• 9:18
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• 9:19
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• 9:24
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• 9:25
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• 9:27
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• 9:31
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• 9:33
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• 9:36
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• 9:41
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• 9:43
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• 9:48
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• 9:51
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• 10:03
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• 10:05
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• 10:17
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• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get back to the episode.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: So the problem that happened.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: The sound was so bad.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that like loud screeching sound if you're standing in a certain place.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: It just had problems.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, unfortunately, the tech people couldn't fix it.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: And it eventually took a while for me to like, okay, let me turn it off.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I figured it out.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'll just turn it off and I'll just yell.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm surprised I saw a voice.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: I might not have a voice tomorrow, but I will say I did go to a VIP reception.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: I was networking with people and people couldn't hear me because I don't think I was talking loud enough.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say, I'm sorry, I was yelling at my talk because the speakers went off and I finally had to turn it off.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: What I didn't expect.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: So the talk was about an hour and 15 minutes.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: I spoke for a full hour.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then there was 15 minutes left, which I didn't realize, but I thought, oh, oh my gosh, I only went 30 minutes.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: There was no a person to give me a timer, which which I wish I had.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, okay, you have 15 minutes left or 10 minutes.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oh my gosh, what am I gonna do?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to coach.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I was on my feet.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: I actually did not prepare.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm being honest.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: I did not prepare to coach.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you know what?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be giving free coaching.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: So we did Q ⁇ A coaching.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: I know some people left because the sound was so bad, but for the majority of the part, majority of people stayed.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: People were even sitting, asking questions, coaching.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: I got to coach people, but more importantly, people received feedback from others.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it was interesting.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and people didn't even realize that that I still I didn't plan to have time for QA coaching.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And what is interesting afterwards, people came up to me, a lot of people came up to me and said, I really appreciate that QA coaching.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: It was not planned.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: By the way, I ended a little early.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: And sure, I stumbled some words when I was going through my present presentation, but you don't want to like focus so much on that.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: One person came up to me after the talk and shared, you know, I didn't get really overwhelmed.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like it was so great seeing you talk.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: How do you not focus on that?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like I have imposter syndrome.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it goes back to, well, what's your goal?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: What's that value add that you provide?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I know the value add that I provide, it's because I have coached, I think, with looking at my numbers because I have courses with LinkedIn, Penn, Brown, John Hopkins.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's like seven, is it 7,000?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's 8,000, 7,000 or 8,000 people now in 58 different countries.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: So no, like I said, did not script it.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just sharing reflections of my talk that I really prepared.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, I asked for feedback.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: I wrote a word towards script, and I actually presented my own IP talking about conscious conversations and a heart-shaped model that I created, my seven years of experience coaching, and the years before that.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone really resonated.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: I actually received good feedback.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: I love that heart-shaped model.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: I love how it is.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it was my first time presenting it into big crowd, and it was me testing and asking for feedback.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's another thing.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: People think all the time, oh, you have it together.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm constantly asking feedback and improving it and observing it.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, for example, I didn't plan the QA coaching at the end.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: People loved them like, okay, I'm gonna do this moving forward.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: People really loved it.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna keep this in the future.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: People love that other people got to share feedback on that.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'll continue doing that.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: What I learned is with sound, even though we tested it in the back room, did not test it while we were walking on the stage, did not test it with rooms next to me.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's not my job, I know, but I know that's necessarily the tech team's job, but I know that I will advocate for that.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And if all goes wrong, I will yell and making sure that I take care of my throat.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Drink lots of water if I have to turn off the mic.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: That is all feedback.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: There was things that went wrong in my talk.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yet despite it going wrong, I have had CEOs, VPs, directors come up to me if they came to my talk, telling me that was an incredible talk.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like I actually have a plan to implement, or that was the best talk.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: And even the people who I met with that didn't come to my talk heard so many great things.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: But that is because I prepared, asked for feedback, wrote the script, practiced it, practiced it in my heels, practiced the movements I was doing with my body.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I know I said all that, but even like mentally what I wanted, wrote an affirmation, I'll be funny, approachable, an executive.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: And going back to that heart-shaped model, my conscious conversations, what is your passion?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting because at the end of the talk, I talked about the reason why I do what I do is because two things.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: One, my grandmas, they passed away within a year from one another.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't learn about I mean, they raised me and all my parents went to work, but I learned about how I learned about how they both had their own businesses.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: One of them did hair, the other one rolled up tobacco leaves, cigarettes in Philippines, but they couldn't continue doing it.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I understand the privilege I have, the choice I have.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: And if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: And the best compliment I receive from my own clients isn't the isn't just the, oh Elaine, I got the new VP role.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, I have this job that's giving me 200, 300k.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Or I'm able to advocate for myself.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: I love it when I meet a client for the first time and they look at me, whether in person or Zoom.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's so nice to see someone who looks like me.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that's best compliment because I give them hope and let them know that it is possible.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: So that is my late night talk.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: If this is a live journal or saying uh live, let me know if I should do more of this.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: So if you like this and if you haven't yet, join my newsletter where I give fun gifts, free tips and advice.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm real and raw there.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that's email.com slash join.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's E-L-A-I-N-E-L-L dot com slash join.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: And if you want to be coached by me to create a more sustainable career in life that's authentic to you, then schedule a complimentary coaching call with me at elanelu.com forward slash call.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's E-L A I N E L U dot com forward slash call.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, I am tired.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's 1126.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's probably my quickest podcast episode.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: But your girl is tired.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Let me know what you took away from this episode.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Feel free to message me on LinkedIn.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'll add my LinkedIn here.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Or message me in my email newsletters.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, good night, and thanks for listening to my live journal Sena Live on the podcast.