Latest / Captivate the Mic: Master Public Speaking & Video, Build Confidence and Boost Visibility / The Power of Relatability: Why Humor and Vulnerability Win Every Time
Transcript
- 0:04Hello and welcome to Captivate the Mic with Elaine Williams.
- 0:08I am committed to having an entertaining podcast that also has great content and helps you be a better speaker, communicator, whether you're on stage, on camera, guesting, on podcasts, leading meetings, and everything in between.
- 0:24And I am so excited for you to listen to the interview today.
- 0:30I met this man.
- 0:31We met through LinkedIn.
- 0:33And do you ever just meet somebody and you're like, this soul, this human being is so precious.
- 0:41This man, his name is Salvato Manzi, and he is a corporate speaking.
- 0:48Expert and he helps purpose-driven leaders who are in big organizations who have big concepts to explain.
- 0:57He helps them speak in clear and compelling ways so that they are super effective with their communication and so that they're able to explain complex ideas and projects and issues and break them down.
- 1:14So that they can be effective leaders and fix whatever they're working on, and he has a book coming out in the fall, this man is a true master.
- 1:25I felt like I grew and upped my game in the very short.
- 1:29Interaction that we had.
- 1:31I am so delighted for you because I think you're gonna really love this conversation.
- 1:37And if there's anybody in your life who wants to be a more effective communicator, storyteller, whether they're speaking to one person, or thousands, please share this.
- 1:49Episode with them and please subscribe, rate, and review because that's how we get out more and that's how more people hear it.
- 1:56So thank you so much for being here and being part of the community.
- 2:00I'm so glad you're here and I can't wait to hear what you think about this amazing interview with Salvatore.
- 2:06Hi everybody.
- 2:07Welcome to Captivate the Mic with Elaine Williams.
- 2:10You are in for such a treat today.
- 2:13This guy is, I would consider a communication master.
- 2:17Oh, wow.
- 2:18So Salvatore Manzi, thank you so much for coming.
- 2:22Welcome.
- 2:22We're so happy that you're here.
- 2:24I think it is such a joy to be here.
- 2:26It is such a joy and your smiling face is just lighting me up already.
- 2:30Let's do this.
- 2:31Let's do this.
- 2:33So I am Salvatore and I met months ago and then, life happens and had a dozen, the family, and I'm so grateful I.
- 2:40That we were persistent and we kept, we were back and we ma we're making it happen.
- 2:45Salvatore, can you tell the listeners I would love to know how you got into the work that you do.
- 2:52You work with executive leaders with executive presence.
- 2:56I always love to know the story behind how you, how what started you.
- 3:01Thank you.
- 3:02Yeah.
- 3:02I work primarily with data-driven leaders who are trying to make complex concept clear and compelling, and which is the name of my book coming out in September.
- 3:12Clear and Compelling.
- 3:13Yes.
- 3:14I know.
- 3:15The idea being that a lot of these data-driven leaders have very complex data rich information.
- 3:24That it's hard to just like download onto people.
- 3:27And so with communication strategies, I help them to create, I.
- 3:32Start having engagement and start having impact and influence.
- 3:36So I work primarily with leaders and their teams to elevate communication so that they can have more inclusive, high performing culture and have more success with what they're doing.
- 3:46But to answer your story, I grew up in the speaking world.
- 3:50My dad was a communicator.
- 3:51He would go to conferences, speaking on finance.
- 3:55Budgeting, how to organize your budget, all these kinds of things.
- 3:58I was inspired.
- 3:59I got up in stages when I was in college.
- 4:02I spoke on what was then called multiculturalism.
- 4:06Now.
- 4:08I know, right?
- 4:08We've evolved so far.
- 4:09And now you can't say DEII know.
- 4:12It's God forbid, where are we?
- 4:14What is going on?
- 4:15Anyway I had a lot of fun up on the stages, but I, people keep coming up and asking me, how do you do it?
- 4:20How do you do it?
- 4:21And so I started sharing with other people and found.
- 4:24I found my passion really is in helping people find the ability to authentically express themselves and feel comfortable while doing so and evoking that sense of presence, that, that factor that causes people to lean in.
- 4:40And I know that we share a lot of work.
- 4:42We work with a similar audience and we coach along the same lines.
- 4:47It takes a lot to feel.
- 4:50Empowered to take up the space, to be myself, to let myself be seen and to go into that boardroom or office or whatever the meeting is and make my point and be there.
- 5:04I love it.
- 5:05I love it so much.
- 5:06Yes, and I always tell people, I work with a.
- 5:09A lot of females and if you're watching somebody who's good on camera, don't worry.
- 5:13They made a lot of bad videos that they have since taken down.
- 5:16Nobody rolls outta bed, da.
- 5:18And like Jerry Lewis, he was an amazing entertainer.
- 5:23He grew up on vaudeville.
- 5:25So there's, there's something about the mastery of it and it reminds me, Salvatore, I went to see this play in La Jolla at La Jolla Playhouse, and I was with my old agent and.
- 5:36And it was still being workshopped.
- 5:37It was in the previews.
- 5:38Got it.
- 5:39And it was this amazing plan, a lot of young actors, and you could feel they were still getting their sea legs for the characters and for the stage.
- 5:48And then the woman playing, the mother walks in and I was like, oh, she had this presence and she sat at the kitchen table like.
- 6:00Smoking a cigarette and you could just feel like it was mastery.
- 6:05Do you know what I mean?
- 6:05She was so good and it was just like everybody else was in black and white and she was technicolor, and that comes from years and years of being on the stage and being comfortable and working on your craft.
- 6:21And I like to tell people it doesn't have to take you years.
- 6:24And how do you get better at something?
- 6:26You keep doing it right.
- 6:27You practice.
- 6:29You gotta get outside your comfort zone.
- 6:30You've gotta make mistakes.
- 6:32You and I both, we do trainings.
- 6:33We coach people if they're not willing to go that extra limit to make themselves silly.
- 6:39I.
- 6:40In front of me, the coach or the trainer of the group.
- 6:42If they can't do that they're not gonna break out of the mold there, right?
- 6:46You're not gonna get from here to there by doing what you've been doing already.
- 6:49You've gotta use your voice in a new way.
- 6:52You've got to learn to.
- 6:54Move your body in a different way.
- 6:56See how it feels, right?
- 6:57And it's gonna feel awkward and embrace the awkwardness of it in the safe spaces, right?
- 7:04You can learn from it versus getting into a high stakes engagement and trying this thing for the first time, right?
- 7:11I'm gonna speak louder today.
- 7:13I'm like, no, not a good opportunity.
- 7:15Let's practice first.
- 7:17Yes.
- 7:17I love my, I love doing warmups, tip of the tongue, the roof of the mouth, the lips, the tongue and the teeth.
- 7:23And I'll be like, now do it Shakespeare.
- 7:26And just to get them to stretch now, do it little, do it bigger.
- 7:30I thought everybody knew how to warm up and then I realized nobody knows how to warm up.
- 7:35Nobody wants to warm up.
- 7:37But it's so good when you can get in that habit.
- 7:40My, my number one hack for my clients who have to deliver a keynote, I've helped a couple of people present at the United Nations.
- 7:49Oh my gosh.
- 7:50And that's a high stakes.
- 7:52You've got cameras, you've got a lot on, and they're how do I memorize my speech?
- 7:58Yeah, there's teleprompters, right?
- 7:59But you wanna, and I'm like, first of all, don't memorize it.
- 8:02Yes.
- 8:02That's the death.
- 8:04You'll forget one word and everything will fall down like dominoes.
- 8:07Don't memorize bullet points.
- 8:09Make your bullet points.
- 8:10Yes, use staging, but the best technique I've learned from memorizing, use a different accent.
- 8:17I.
- 8:18Go through and give your speech and a totally different accent that's out outrageous for you.
- 8:24What happens is it engages a different part of the brain to be engaged in that new persona that you've created, which allows the content to seep in deeper.
- 8:35You become more intimate with your content and you learn.
- 8:41Your presentation or speech in a new way, you'll actually find new like brush strokes to put into the speech.
- 8:49Oh, wow.
- 8:50I love that.
- 8:52I use a similar I say, chunk it down okay.
- 8:55Yeah.
- 8:55This first thing, what's one word?
- 8:57Intro or one word blue, whatever.
- 9:00And then, and I tell, I always tell people, try to memorize the key word.
- 9:06Yeah, I love that.
- 9:07I love that so much.
- 9:09It's, and it's hard to get them to do it.
- 9:11We'll be proud.
- 9:12I'm like, just give me a southern accent or give me a New York accent.
- 9:15They're like, oh no.
- 9:16I'm like, why are you feeling shy?
- 9:17Go outside your comfort zone.
- 9:19We can feel so self-conscious if you're not used to it, so you help execs take up space.
- 9:26Yes.
- 9:27I love, we were talking about presence and the idea of taking up space.
- 9:31There's a song called Take Up Space, sis, I hope it becomes everybody's anthem.
- 9:35It's my favorite song out there.
- 9:38The idea being that physically people walk into a room and take up space, and we see them as more confident.
- 9:47We see them as having presence because there's an ease.
- 9:52A perceived ease that we judge they have if they're so comfortable just spreading out their shoulders, spreading out their elbows, keeping their elbows off their sides when they're gesturing.
- 10:03There's an idea of, not crossing your legs.
- 10:06What happens, and I put it in the terms of agency to relational.
- 10:12Where are you on that continuum at any moment contextually.
- 10:18One of those behaviors is gonna be more appropriate, right?
- 10:22We can all be the sovereign.
- 10:25We know how to show up with sovereign energy when we need to, when that moment calls forward, and we all know how to be the adjuster, we know how to bring some levity and ease to the situation, make people feel comfortable, use a lot of gestures, and make ourselves small to give them everywhere on that continuum.
- 10:44Is gonna be contextually appropriate for a different situation, right?
- 10:49So I need to read the moment, but here's the aha.
- 10:53We are conditioned throughout our lives how to behave.
- 10:58We were taught how to behave in certain circumstances and certain people among us because of systemic issues, racism, sexism, gender inequality, orientation, challenges.
- 11:13We have been conditioned to show up in a way instinctually that may not be appropriate.
- 11:21To the situation.
- 11:23So I have to become aware.
- 11:25I need to become a new sort of self-awareness of what, where on that continuum am I showing up and is it appropriate for what I wish to achieve in that situation?
- 11:37Do I need to show up with more space?
- 11:41Do I need to take up a little bit less space and finding the right thing and finding out what's triggering me?
- 11:47To show up in a particular way so that I can counter it.
- 11:51Oh my gosh.
- 11:53I'm like, salvatory, I wanna marry you.
- 11:56Like I'm just amazing.
- 11:58I can't wait for your book.
- 11:59We'll have to do another one when your book comes out.
- 12:02So many golden nuggets, right?
- 12:05Yeah.
- 12:05Think about it like inside voices we get put into this box, which is great if you're a student in elementary school and you need to write.
- 12:15And then if you have to walk in and present something and enroll people, how do you do that?
- 12:20I love so many juicy nuggets in there.
- 12:23Yeah.
- 12:24I.
- 12:24I have a whole chapter on my book devoted to this agency versus relational behaviors.
- 12:30The idea being that challenge yourself to reset to a neutral state.
- 12:36What's your neutral?
- 12:37Today's world, we go from virtual meeting to virtual meeting to virtual.
- 12:40Like we don't even have time to like.
- 12:42Check our lipstick.
- 12:43Oh yeah.
- 12:43I don't have my on today.
- 12:46We don't have any time to like actually check ourselves before the next meeting, but it's important to reset to a neutral space, take up space, remind ourselves our presence, fill in the space that we are, and then even bring our voice down into our body rather than yes.
- 13:06Like that little thing of becoming an embodied presence because that is what people lean into.
- 13:12They wanna be that presence.
- 13:15I love it.
- 13:16Who do we elect?
- 13:17We elect people with deeper voices.
- 13:20Who do we invest with?
- 13:21We like that woman who do Theos.
- 13:24You're this very affected deep voice.
- 13:26I think one of the reasons she got away with whatever, all the things she did,'cause she sounded so authoritarian and.
- 13:33People were like, okay, lemme give you billions of dollars.
- 13:35So I love that.
- 13:37Letting, allowing yourself to come more fully in and to tap into that, because we had it as kids and then we get socialized, especially for women.
- 13:46Don't be bossy.
- 13:48Don't be too much.
- 13:48You're too much.
- 13:49You're too loud.
- 13:50Don't brag.
- 13:51And, but also read the room right.
- 13:55I love it.
- 13:55Hey, I, let's just be honest.
- 13:57Women have a no win game here, like it really is.
- 14:01It's threading the needle every time they open their mouths, every time open, showing up in a meeting.
- 14:06It's not fair.
- 14:08The men can cry in a meeting and still be seen as strong women are immediately labeled as emotional and dismissed.
- 14:16For a fair season or two of their career because they showed emotion.
- 14:21Like it's not fair what women have to overcome just to show up.
- 14:25But it's where we are for now.
- 14:27It's okay.
- 14:27That means you and I have worked we'll always be working.
- 14:30I had this other client tell me one time that when a woman walks into a room in a business situation, either she comes across as a loof.
- 14:40Competent and maybe the B word or warm and approachable, but less smart and underestimated.
- 14:50And I was like, I resemble that remark.
- 14:53And that is just an automatic way.
- 14:56And then luckily we get to break that hopefully, but that is an automatic listening for women in business situations.
- 15:05Do you agree?
- 15:07There's there, it's an art, right?
- 15:09It's an art in how we show up.
- 15:10Like how do I wanna be perceived and am I showing up intentionally?
- 15:15I.
- 15:16To the situation.
- 15:17Am I meeting the moment?
- 15:18What I recommend is to start with a neutral.
- 15:21What is your neutral?
- 15:23Somewhere between because male or female, we have the ability to show up in either one of the ways that you described, right?
- 15:29What is the neutral place between the two?
- 15:31Can I make my voice flat, but still engaging?
- 15:38While communicating what it is that I need to communicate.
- 15:41That way I don't come across whether aloof or overly warm, like how do I find the neutral part to, to start to set the dials and then work from there.
- 15:53Wow.
- 15:53It's not an easy game, but if I can find that neutral starting point and then meet the moment, I love.
- 16:01A OC has a, had a documentary, I forget the name of it down.
- 16:04Oh my gosh.
- 16:05I have to immediately go watch that.
- 16:06Okay.
- 16:07Yeah.
- 16:07Knocking down the house, I think is what it was.
- 16:09But she was talking about, she had to go into debate and she was doing all these motions and.
- 16:16And doing all this.
- 16:16And somebody was like, what are you doing?
- 16:18She, and she's I've gotta take up space.
- 16:19She's a small she's not a very tall person.
- 16:21She's small.
- 16:22And she had to go into this me like a debate with the other person and take up space.
- 16:28So she was physically preparing herself for that moment.
- 16:33Wow.
- 16:33Taking space, building herself up.
- 16:35I love it.
- 16:37I had the opportunity to facilitate a session at the World Economic Forum, and when I went into it, my imposter monster was in football rage mode.
- 16:47Okay.
- 16:47It was like, whoa.
- 16:49So I want everyone to hear that.
- 16:51Salvatore, you've been doing this forever and this was a next level, big time, world stage and you had imposter too.
- 16:59So everyone hear that?
- 17:00We all have it.
- 17:01So the imposter monster is always gonna be there, right?
- 17:05Dammit, but sorry, it's not going away.
- 17:09We just get better tools of how to manage, navigate, work with collaborate.
- 17:13Yes.
- 17:14Yes.
- 17:14Okay.
- 17:14I'm sorry, I interrupted, but I just thought that was like oh, that's yeah.
- 17:17Thank you.
- 17:18Okay.
- 17:18It doesn't, yeah.
- 17:19Yeah.
- 17:20Come on.
- 17:20I wrestle with, I named my imposter Monster Perry.
- 17:23I call him Perry, the perfectionist.
- 17:28I love it.
- 17:30I love it.
- 17:32I had to be perfect in order to be loved, in order to be enough, right?
- 17:36Yeah.
- 17:36I had to be perfect to be loved, and it, that Perry comes out every time I start to speak.
- 17:44Oh, you didn't say that right?
- 17:45Oh, you chipped over your words.
- 17:46Oh, you're not making sense.
- 17:47Oh, that person's giving you a look like, obviously they're confused here.
- 17:50I'm like, Perry enough.
- 17:51So turn the volume down.
- 17:53Okay, so I'm sorry, I interrupted.
- 17:55So you're speaking at this world.
- 17:57Oral economic forum, I'm facilitating in a session, and I was imposter monster raging.
- 18:02And I called my coach and he had me marching around the conference room and he was saying, why do they deserve to hear your voice?
- 18:12Why is your voice important?
- 18:13Why is your message important?
- 18:15And I'm like, marching around and it was like, do this, the, it having somebody support you sometimes or finding ways to support yourself.
- 18:25Yeah, asking those positive questions, those questions that point towards the positive that helps support you, get you in, into a generative, resourceful state on our own neutral, go to the one way or the other way depending on what the context calls for.
- 18:44I love it.
- 18:44And how did the talk go?
- 18:46Oh, it went really well.
- 18:48Someone told me, one person on their feedback, of course, I'm gonna call out the negative thing.
- 18:53Of course, we all, there's a hundred rave reviews and we focus on the one that.
- 18:57One person said this one thing.
- 18:58I'm like, I'm not even give air to it.
- 19:00No, it went really well.
- 19:02I got great reviews.
- 19:04One person had some critical feedback that I've incorporated into future sessions.
- 19:09We'll leave it at that.
- 19:10Okay, good.
- 19:11I get it.
- 19:13I, I spoke on college campuses for years and every once in a while I would have a student activities person who, and it was always a woman.
- 19:20And they would give me feedback.
- 19:23Whether I wanted it or not.
- 19:24And there were definitely a few times I was in my hotel room crying alone and tired.
- 19:29I'm sorry, it makes you stronger.
- 19:31And a lot of times I realized that was all about their stuff.
- 19:35They had projected onto me.
- 19:38And what a gift that I could receive it and then go, oh, you know what, I'm gonna give this back.
- 19:43Thank you so much.
- 19:44I'm, and I'm really good at.
- 19:46Yeah.
- 19:47Oh, I did that.
- 19:47Okay.
- 19:48I'm good at looking at my part.
- 19:50But every once in a while I'm oh yeah, that is, that's all you girl, you, And now a quick word.
- 19:58Are you an expert and you would love to be an expert on Podcasts as a guest, but you're not sure how to get started.
- 20:07Maybe you're a little nervous.
- 20:10Maybe you haven't done very many interviews.
- 20:13Maybe you've never even done media training.
- 20:15You're listening to my podcast and you know that I am a speaker and a speaker coach and a comedian, but I love to help people get comfortable and feel confident doing interviews because it's one of the best ways to grow your confidence.
- 20:30To grow your influence so if you wanna find out how to be a fabulous podcast guest, or even how to get started, let's set up a call.
- 20:40I know all the info will be in the show notes and I would love to just have a chat and see if it's the right fit and find out where you want to go with your speaking or podcast guesting and see if I can help.
- 20:53So now let's go back to the show That was a pivotal moment in my career.
- 20:58I was at an ice cream parlor.
- 21:00I'm gonna give you the whole story.
- 21:01Here it is.
- 21:01I want the whole story.
- 21:02I was in an ice cream store.
- 21:04There was a line of people and I just wanted ice cream, right?
- 21:07And I'm watching the line move and I'm watching the three assistants and they're back there.
- 21:12Finally got to be my turn, and the person comes to me and goes, what do you want?
- 21:17I was like, oh.
- 21:18Oh, this is my moment of joy.
- 21:20How could you, why are you, what did I do to offend you?
- 21:23If I've been too, IM impeachment.
- 21:25I must have been too.
- 21:25Im impeachment.
- 21:26I didn't smile enough, he's afraid.
- 21:28And I was like, wait a minute.
- 21:29This has nothing to do with me.
- 21:31This person's attitude, problem, all that.
- 21:34It's not about me.
- 21:35And it was a pivotal moment, not about me.
- 21:39Became my mantra before I go into a presentation.
- 21:42Yeah.
- 21:42Before I go into an important meeting, I say not about me 10 times to remind myself their reactions are on them.
- 21:52They probably have good feedback from me, but their reactions, their sour face, their confused looks like 99% of what's going on in their world is about them, not about me.
- 22:05And I, I can't take that personal and do my job.
- 22:10I love it.
- 22:10So about me became my mantra.
- 22:13I love it.
- 22:14I'm a big post-it note girl.
- 22:16And I need to do that again.
- 22:17And I tell my clients.
- 22:19Yeah it's not about you.
- 22:20It's about what's the value you're giving, what's the story you wanna tell to uplift, motivate, educate.
- 22:26It's not about you, but when you step into something new, it feels, it's very self-conscious, right?
- 22:32Yeah.
- 22:32I gotta ask you, I know that you have a gift for humor and you coach a lot of your clients in adding, infusing humor.
- 22:40How do you do that?
- 22:44It's I remind people, first of all, you don't have to be like me'cause I'm like over the top.
- 22:49I think everybody has the potential to be funny.
- 22:54It's, and to find your own flavor, because what is comedy tragedy plus time, right?
- 23:00And so if you're trying to be funny, sometimes it's forced or pushed.
- 23:05But if you can be truthful in the moment are you kidding me?
- 23:09So I, I try to help people find the funny in their stories or, can you insert something where you're laughing at yourself?
- 23:18Because when we can, I don't care what the topic is, right?
- 23:21But we, when we can share our humanity it helps people lean in and then they can hear you more.
- 23:28I had a client, she was perfect.
- 23:30She was like, size six.
- 23:32Gorgeous, brilliant scientist.
- 23:36Like beautiful.
- 23:38And I said, okay, if I'm a woman and I'm having a day, I don't feel good about myself, and you walk on stage in front of me, I'm gonna hate you for a minute.
- 23:46I hate to admit that, but there's that cave woman in me that's she's perfect.
- 23:51I hate her.
- 23:52And I.
- 23:53I think that happens for a lot of people.
- 23:55And so I said, if you can come on stage and make one self-deprecating joke about oh, you should have seen me 30 minutes ago, was covered in milk or something, so that we know you are human again, I can hear everything you're saying versus who is this lady?
- 24:11Oh my God, she's perfect.
- 24:12Look at what she's wearing.
- 24:13She's perfect.
- 24:14How does she have kids?
- 24:15She's, yeah.
- 24:15So that's something I just.
- 24:17Encourage people to do and it takes a little something and it's not for beginners for sure.
- 24:22This is something about presence, like the humanity is a part of presence.
- 24:26Because presence is the combination in my mind, presence is authenticity meets comfort.
- 24:32That's presence.
- 24:33And too many times people will get up there and they'll introduce themselves and they give you this entire encyclopedia of all their accomplishments.
- 24:40And now I'm, yes.
- 24:42And now let's get into the topic.
- 24:43And I'm like, okay.
- 24:44I.
- 24:45Stated by you, I can't connect.
- 24:48There's no mobility for me to connect with that speaker because they've positioned themselves up here in this lofty position.
- 24:56Yep.
- 24:56If you could say one personal thing, it doesn't have to be a really deep share.
- 25:03It could be something just personal that I can relate to them on.
- 25:07Yeah.
- 25:07Yeah.
- 25:07That makes the whole topic relatable.
- 25:11I love it.
- 25:12Yes, it's so true.
- 25:14And I think it's counterintuitive, right?
- 25:16Because the menu, you step in front of a group of people, you wanna look like I have it all together, I'm polished, right?
- 25:22I am.
- 25:22And so sometimes it feels so scary to be vulnerable.
- 25:26And you can be too vulnerable.
- 25:28Like I've made, yeah, I've made some mistakes.
- 25:31I was super vulnerable in Montana.
- 25:33Do not be vulnerable in Montana.
- 25:35Trust me.
- 25:36Noted Montana.
- 25:38Just avoid it.
- 25:39Learn from my mistakes kids.
- 25:41Don't tell too much.
- 25:42I get it.
- 25:42I love it.
- 25:43I love it.
- 25:44So you grew up like watching your dad and then did you study communication?
- 25:50I have to say my father spoke at conferences when I was a child and I never got to see him actually speak, but I remember him coming home from those events so lit up.
- 26:01It was just, it was he was and livened by the experience.
- 26:05I had to figure out what is that?
- 26:07And.
- 26:07Let's be honest.
- 26:08Getting on a stage is like setting yourself on fire, right?
- 26:12No more no.
- 26:12More so than comedy.
- 26:14Can we talk, right?
- 26:15Can we talk a minute about it?
- 26:16Because I did take a standup comedy just to see.
- 26:19I wanted to find out like, what is this standup comedy thing?
- 26:23So I took a standup comedy CL and I swear it was like I was on fire.
- 26:26I went into the, I went onto the stage and I was just like, please laugh.
- 26:34Okay.
- 26:34It went really, I'll be honest, my first set was just, I crushed it, we were in a course, we spent six weeks preparing our five minute set.
- 26:42I crushed that.
- 26:44Then I got invited to do it again for another audience.
- 26:48Did not pivot or change the jokes at all to meet the audience where they are and it, oh.
- 26:54Bombed.
- 26:55It tanked so bad.
- 26:56Woo.
- 26:56So I've had the high and the low on the standup stage, and I have full appreciation for what you do in your craft.
- 27:04It is an art.
- 27:05It is definitely an art.
- 27:06It is such an art and it's so hard.
- 27:08But gosh, I love it.
- 27:10I can't, I took a break while I was caretaking for my father.
- 27:13But I've been writing and I'm so excited to get back on stage soon.
- 27:18Yeah, what people kept saying, Elaine, you're funny.
- 27:20And I was newly sober and new in New York City, so I was like, what do you mean I'm not supposed, I'm supposed to be the next Meryl Streep.
- 27:28And I wasn't trying to be funny, but I was like this angry victim.
- 27:31And people kept saying, you really?
- 27:33So I took a class and I was horrible.
- 27:35I was horrible.
- 27:36I would get crickets.
- 27:38And I was like, just finish the darn classy Elaine.
- 27:40Just finish it.
- 27:41And then when I got to the dysfunctional family stuff during the showcase, the whole room like lost it.
- 27:48And I thought, oh, light bulb moment, I'm supposed to help people.
- 27:53And my life made sense, like on a whole other level.
- 27:56I appreciate that.
- 27:57I love that you found your voice in, through the trial.
- 28:01Like you, you stuck it out and you went all the way through it, and then you found the moment that was able to like blossom into a whole expression of your purpose and the way you wanna show up and the message that you have for the world.
- 28:14And that's beautiful.
- 28:16That's really beautiful.
- 28:17Oh, thank you.
- 28:18Thank you so much.
- 28:19If people wanna know, so your book's coming out in September, and if people are curious or oh my God, you need to meet my boss, or We need to bring you in, how can people find you?
- 28:29Salvatori?
- 28:31I would love to meet your boss.
- 28:32I'd also love to meet you, by the way.
- 28:34I would love to connect with people.
- 28:35I wanna find out what works, what doesn't work.
- 28:37What does your imposter show up?
- 28:39What strategy have you found that work really well?
- 28:42Contact me at LinkedIn.
- 28:43That's okay.
- 28:44LinkedIn, salvatory Manzi.
- 28:46And I'll have the, I'll have all that in the show notes.
- 28:49Yeah.
- 28:49And I'm actually, I'm coming to Colorado twice.
- 28:53And once in August and once in September.
- 28:55So that would be really cool to meet you in person.
- 28:58It would be fun to see you if I'm here.
- 29:00I'm always traveling.
- 29:01You travel a lot.
- 29:02So in wrapping up, Salvatore, what is one final super tip for somebody if they know they wanna work on their communication?
- 29:13Or they know they need to work on presence or in anything you wanna leave with, leave us with.
- 29:20I like to leave with spot it.
- 29:21Got it.
- 29:22That is my principle for you have an ability to, I.
- 29:27Do whatever you see somebody else do that you think is great.
- 29:31If you can recognize this, somebody else did something that is quality, you have the ability to do it yourself.
- 29:37Just takes the courage to get out there and try it in a safe space first, then try it in the high stakes place.
- 29:44But if you spot it, you've got it.
- 29:47I love that.
- 29:48I love that.
- 29:49And thank you.
- 29:50That is a perfect ending for this amazing episode.
- 29:54Thank you so much for joining us.
- 29:56Thanks everybody.
- 29:58All right, take care.