Latest / The Speaker Skills Podcast / Own Your Fear: What a Broadcaster Learned from a Stutter with Carl Richards | S01 E01

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Own Your Fear: What a Broadcaster Learned from a Stutter with Carl Richards | S01 E01 · The Speaker Skills Podcast

• 0:04
  Carl Richards: Welcome to the Speaker Skills Podcast.
• 0:07
  Carl Richards: Your host, Bette Elly, is a pioneer in her field, a presentations and executive voice coach, founder of Speaker Skills, and certified virtual presenter with over 30 years of experience helping professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and real impact.
• 0:21
  Carl Richards: Every episode, Bette brings you the conversations, the tools, and the insights you need to own your voice.
• 0:28
  Carl Richards: Here's your host, Bette Elly.
• 0:31
  Bette Elly: Welcome to the Speaker Skills Podcast.
• 0:34
  Bette Elly: I'm your host, Bette Elly.
• 0:37
  Bette Elly: For 26 years, I've been coaching executives, presenters, and professionals to own every room they walk into.
• 0:45
  Bette Elly: This show is my way of bringing those conversations to you.
• 0:51
  Bette Elly: The fear of public speaking is rooted in the human psyche as a generic form of anxiety.
• 0:58
  Bette Elly: It ranges from slight nervousness to overwhelming panic.
• 1:03
  Bette Elly: Take this simple test to determine if you suffer from a fear or phobia of public speaking.
• 1:10
  Bette Elly: On a scale of one to 10, where would you place yourself with your fear?
• 1:15
  Bette Elly: One being extremely mild, and 10 where you would actually pass out.
• 1:20
  Bette Elly: One to five is usually considered a fear.
• 1:24
  Bette Elly: Six to 10 becomes a phobia.
• 1:27
  Bette Elly: Both are treatable with lifestyle changes, relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, deep breathing, increasing physical exercise, and visualization.
• 1:40
  Bette Elly: Medications through psychotherapy are also available if a severe case is presented.
• 1:46
  Bette Elly: Psychotherapeutic treatment involves exposure therapy or cognitive behavior therapy under the auspices of a certified mental health professional.
• 1:57
  Bette Elly: Another name for a severe case of the fear of public speaking is called glossophobia.
• 2:03
  Bette Elly: Professionals using therapy as a treatment involves exposing individuals to situations that trigger their glossophobia.
• 2:11
  Bette Elly: This gives their mind opportunities to adapt to the triggers, enabling better management of their fears.
• 2:19
  Bette Elly: CBT focuses on changing individuals' mental, emotional, and behavioral processing of situations that could stimulate their strong fears of public speaking, at times also involving exposure.
• 2:35
  Bette Elly: There are anti-anxiety medications that may help prevent or control symptoms of anxiety or panic attacks.
• 2:42
  Bette Elly: A voice coach and trainer in presentation skills is often useful for exploring your trigger or path of fear, which is different for everyone.
• 2:53
  Bette Elly: Often, the fear surfaces in the preteen years or can suddenly appear during times of trauma or any situation that affects one's self-esteem or self-confidence Many people care what others think of them.
• 3:08
  Bette Elly: They do not want to be embarrassed or humiliated.
• 3:12
  Bette Elly: Defining your speaking fears.
• 3:14
  Bette Elly: What is it you fear about speaking in front of a group?
• 3:17
  Bette Elly: The common response is that I will make a fool of myself.
• 3:21
  Bette Elly: When I ask, "What do you think you would do that would make a fool of yourself?" I get various responses.
• 3:28
  Bette Elly: Forget a word, stutter, say something stupid, shake, turn red, sweat.
• 3:36
  Bette Elly: My next question is, "And what would happen if you did one of these things?" The typical reply is, "People would laugh at me." I check their assumption by asking the others what they think they would do if someone during a presentation forgot a word or stuttered.
• 3:53
  Bette Elly: The listeners indicate they would not wanna laugh any more than the speaker would.
• 3:58
  Bette Elly: They claim they would get tense and uneasy because they would feel bad for the speaker.
• 4:04
  Rule number one: others want you to do well.
• 4:08
  Rule number one: Your audience is rooting for you like they would for their favorite sports team.
• 4:14
  Rule number one: We all have our own unique journey into the world of public speaking.
• 4:22
  Rule number one: My journey began of being born into a family of musicians.
• 4:28
  Rule number one: My late mother was a concert pianist, and my late father was a percussionist.
• 4:34
  Rule number one: When I reflect back on my childhood, my earliest recollection is of sitting on my father's bass drum with two drumsticks, beating away out a pattern and a rhythm.
• 4:49
  Rule number one: As the years went on, I enjoyed very much anything dealing with speaking or theater.
• 4:58
  Rule number one: And as a teenager, when I was in high school, I really excelled in English, especially reading to, out to a class my dramatic passages of whatever book or play we were studying in the course.
• 5:17
  Rule number one: I found it was a very comforting and enjoyable experience for me.
• 5:23
  Rule number one: And as the years went on, I decided I wanted to enter a career in broadcasting, possibly radio and television arts.
• 5:31
  Rule number one: At that time, the Toronto Metropolitan University was called Ryerson, and they had a very well-known radio and television arts program.
• 5:40
  Rule number one: So that was my goal at that time.
• 5:44
  Rule number one: But then I found an interest in theater and performing, and was able to have a show at the University of Toronto West Side Story, which really triggered my creative choices in my life.
• 6:00
  Rule number one: That was the first year that the theater arts program at York University originated, and I auditioned for it and was successful in getting into the program.
• 6:12
  Rule number one: Well, I pursued that career in that course for four years, and in my fourth year, I pivoted, and I decided I wanted to be an entertainment lawyer.
• 6:23
  Rule number one: But there was a course that was being offered in the high schools called Dramatic Arts, and I thought that was very interesting.
• 6:32
  Rule number one: So I pivoted again and enrolled in the Faculty of Education at the University of Toronto And was on my way to becoming a high school dramatic arts teacher.
• 6:44
  Rule number one: I did that for 26 years, also in conjunction with my degree, which was in both theater arts and English literature, and I decided that I would embrace both profession, professional choices of being a theater arts teacher and an English teacher.
• 7:05
  Rule number one: I enjoyed my career for 26 years, and then I was introduced to a new direction with my career, and I decided to try opening up my own school on the recommendation of my students.
• 7:23
  Rule number one: My students sent me their parents, and their parents helped me form, with their expertise, a school in public speaking, and that's how Speaker Skills was launched.
• 7:39
  Rule number one: At that time, I had decided to go back to school and get my master's in education and counseling psychology, adult education, and community development.
• 7:50
  Rule number one: I enjoyed the program very much, and my professors were very encouraging about my new direction with my career.
• 7:57
  Rule number one: So I ended up offering my courses to the corporate sector, and it became very successful and enjoyable.
• 8:05
  Rule number one: So here I am now, many years later, deciding to pivot again and to see about starting a podcast.
• 8:16
  Rule number one: Now, for my very first guest, I wanted someone special, someone who's been quietly working behind the scenes helping me put all of this together.
• 8:27
  Rule number one: He's a broadcaster, a podcast strategist, and the man who has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs and experts find their voice and launch world-class shows.
• 8:39
  Rule number one: He's the host of Podcast Solutions Made Simple, and he is the reason you're hearing my voice right now.
• 8:46
  Rule number one: Please welcome my first guest, Carl Richards
• 8:50
  Carl Richards: Well, thank you, Bette, and what an introduction.
• 8:53
  Carl Richards: I feel like I learned more about you in the last, uh, few minutes than I think we've learned on all of the calls we've had up to now.
• 8:59
  Carl Richards: Uh, so much history that you have, and thank you so much for inviting me on to be your first guest.
• 9:04
  Carl Richards: I'm very blessed to be here.
• 9:05
  Bette Elly: Thank you so much.
• 9:07
  Bette Elly: So tell us about yourself and your journey.
• 9:10
  Carl Richards: Well, I know you shared a little bit there, but there is a heck of a lot more to it.
• 9:15
  Carl Richards: Uh, I was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario.
• 9:17
  Carl Richards: Uh, that's my, my home digs.
• 9:19
  Carl Richards: I now live in eastern Ontario, just outside of between Ottawa and Kingston, let's put it that way.
• 9:24
  Carl Richards: And if you're familiar with this part of Canada, podcasts being global, if you're listening and you're wondering where that is, we, uh, we border with upstate New York.
• 9:31
  Carl Richards: So growing up was definitely very interesting.
• 9:34
  Carl Richards: Uh, I know that, uh, you, you have some other questions that you'd like to ask me specifically about this, but as a kid growing up, I really excelled in music, like yourself.
• 9:44
  Carl Richards: Uh, I was very heavily involved in music.
• 9:45
  Carl Richards: All of our, all of our, our family sang, played an instrument, church choirs.
• 9:50
  Carl Richards: Uh, I played trumpet all through high school.
• 9:53
  Carl Richards: I developed a love of radio back in the day, and you would remember this, Bette, listening to radio, it was very exciting to listen to.
• 10:00
  Carl Richards: There were characters that were on the radio.
• 10:02
  Carl Richards: Y- it was an entertainment, uh, medium, more so than it is today.
• 10:07
  Carl Richards: So that was where my passion for radio stemmed from, and then I ended up eventually getting into radio and, and I love the journey.
• 10:14
  Carl Richards: I love the, the experience of being in the broadcasting space.
• 10:18
  Carl Richards: And, and here I am all these years later, uh, running my own business, and you think, "Well, why wouldn't you still be in radio?" Well, radio has evolved.
• 10:26
  Carl Richards: It's still a very viable medium, but this thing called podcasting has also come up and, uh, I love the work I do, helping a lot of people like yourselves, coaches, experienced, uh, entrepreneurs, subject matter experts, really find their voice and, and help them bring that voice, uh, forward, uh, so they can be seen as the visible go-to expert.
• 10:46
  Carl Richards: So that's a little tiny, tiny bit about me.
• 10:48
  Carl Richards: When I'm not working or Spending time with my 155-pound Great Dane.
• 10:55
  Carl Richards: Uh, I'm whipping up something in the kitchen usually.
• 10:57
  Carl Richards: I do have a passion for cooking as well, and can be pretty experimental there.
• 11:02
  Bette Elly: Oh, lovely.
• 11:03
  Bette Elly: It's interesting when you were talking about your journey, I clearly remember that I think the first, uh, step to getting involved in public speaking was the devotion I had for the very first tape recorder, I think, that was available on the market, and I used that all the time as a child, as a teenager, even as an adult.
• 11:28
  Bette Elly: I love tape recorders.
• 11:29
  Bette Elly: I, I think they're just a wonderful way to help you with your voice skills and, and help in so many different ways of, of communication.
• 11:41
  Carl Richards: Oh, I would totally agree, and I would say the, uh, the tape recorder now has been replaced with, you know, MP3s, with ways for people to record themselves.
• 11:50
  Carl Richards: Even voice notes you can record.
• 11:52
  Carl Richards: Here it is at the recording of this, it's 2026, and you know, back when you and I were younger, Bette, you had to record yourself on, in a tape recorder.
• 12:00
  Carl Richards: Uh, now you can re- record yourself using voice notes directly to your phone.
• 12:04
  Carl Richards: So it definitely has evolved, but it is a very valuable tool to be able to communicate with people and also even sharpen your own skills.
• 12:13
  Carl Richards: I think that's still a very valuable thing to be able to do.
• 12:16
  Bette Elly: Yeah, so what made you want to get into radio?
• 12:19
  Carl Richards: Oh, that's a very good question, and I, I knew you were gonna ask me that.
• 12:22
  Carl Richards: I, I loved radio.
• 12:23
  Carl Richards: Believe it or not, my love for radio came from listening to, listening to radio programs when I was a kid- And there was a, there was a radio station that I grew up just up the road from you, where, where you live now.
• 12:36
  Carl Richards: The, the top station then was 1050 CHUM.
• 12:40
  Carl Richards: I grew up the road in Hamilton, where it was 1150 CKOC, and I grew up listening to that show and th- you know, the, the shows on the radio and thinking, "My goodness, wouldn't that be phenomenal, uh, to have some of those, uh, those moments?" I actually wanted to be an actor, but for every actor that makes it, there's 10,000 working the drive-through asking you if you'd like fries with that.
• 13:00
  Carl Richards: So, so I ended up- … shifting and saying, "You know what? I would love to have this opportunity to work into radio." And you think about it, there are a number of people in the entertainment world, and even thinking back several years ago, uh, br- uh, folks that, that made it in television who started on radio.
• 13:17
  Carl Richards: You know, Lorne Greene was the voice of Doom in the Second World War working here in Canada.
• 13:21
  Carl Richards: Um, Alex Trebek ended up being the host of Jeopardy! for I don't know how many years, uh, pretty much up until the day he died, um, but started working at, I believe it was CBC as well.
• 13:33
  Carl Richards: So there's a number of people who got their start in radio, and I thought, "Well, you know what? Maybe that'll lead to opportunities in, in television or at least maybe theater." And ironically, I never did professional acting.
• 13:46
  Carl Richards: Everything I did was on, was over the airwaves at, at radio stations.
• 13:49
  Carl Richards: But I did have the opportunity in the various cities and towns that I worked in to participate in community theater.
• 13:56
  Carl Richards: So I sort of s- satisfied both passions for communication and theater at the same time.
• 14:02
  Carl Richards: So that was sort of what got me into it, was this love for At the, at the time it was called, and still referred to, as Theater of the Mind.
• 14:11
  Carl Richards: Uh, not, not your theater that you see on stage, but theater of the mind.
• 14:15
  Carl Richards: That's why the voice is very powerful, and I'm glad we're having this conversation today.
• 14:18
  Bette Elly: Yes.
• 14:19
  Bette Elly: It's interesting.
• 14:21
  Bette Elly: When I think back of one of my opportunities I had, I acquired a summer job as a teenager at CBC, and I was given an opportunity to read the weather reports for Northern Ontario, and that was very exciting for me.
• 14:37
  Bette Elly: I was, like, 17, 18.
• 14:39
  Bette Elly: And sitting there in the cafeteria was Alex Trebek, and I went over to him and introduced myself and we had a very nice conversation.
• 14:49
  Bette Elly: Very brief, but it was, it was a nice conversation, and I, I really saw his genius and his, uh, ability to express himself so clearly, and I thought,"He's gonna go places," and he sure did.
• 15:06
  Carl Richards: Oh, he certainly did, and what's ironic is, you know, you mentioned reading the news for Northern Ontario.
• 15:11
  Carl Richards: My career journey in radio started in northwestern Ontario in Kenora, uh, which, you know, for a, with a, for a guy living and growing up in, down in southern Ontario, Kenora, it's not the end of the world, but it certainly felt like it- when I was starting my career up there.
• 15:29
  Carl Richards: So it's ironic that we have a very similar, similar journey or similar story of having done something or, or ha- doing something for the north.
• 15:37
  Bette Elly: Yes.
• 15:38
  Bette Elly: And, uh, who do you admire as a public speaker?
• 15:42
  Carl Richards: Oh, my goodness.
• 15:43
  Carl Richards: I would say… There's so many people.
• 15:47
  Carl Richards: And I know there's historical figures.
• 15:49
  Carl Richards: You know, I could say Winston Churchill, uh, the King of England.
• 15:52
  Carl Richards: Was it J- uh, J- uh, was it George?
• 15:55
  Carl Richards: George was the one who stuttered.
• 15:56
  Bette Elly: Yes, yes.
• 15:57
  Bette Elly: Yes.
• 15:57
  Carl Richards: Yes.
• 15:58
  Carl Richards: Uh, definitely admired him.
• 15:59
  Carl Richards: Loved the movie The King's Speech, uh, for sure, and all of the things that he went through and the, just the amazing story that he has.
• 16:05
  Carl Richards: But I would say that today- A person I really admire who's a speaker is a guy by the name of Mike Lipkin.
• 16:16
  Carl Richards: He runs his own company called Environics Lipkin, so it's a, it's a, it's a division of Environics.
• 16:22
  Carl Richards: And when you hear him speak, and I would encourage you if you're hearing this, if you're hearing the conversation Bette and I are having, to go and check out Mike Lipkin, because he just has such a way of engaging the audience.
• 16:32
  Carl Richards: His word choice, his passion, his, his presence, even on camera, let alone on stage.
• 16:39
  Carl Richards: On stage he could stand behind a lectern and not move, and you would be moved to whatever action is he's moving it towards.
• 16:46
  Carl Richards: Just a very powerful orator, speaker.
• 16:49
  Carl Richards: Uh, his word choice, his genius, the way in which he phrases things just really gets into your, not just into your mind, but into your heart.
• 16:57
  Carl Richards: And that's where I believe communication, really where it goes, is it's not just about people getting into our heads with, with the way that they speak or the way that they, they share messaging with us, it's really getting into their heart and engaging them that way.
• 17:12
  Carl Richards: So Mike Lipkin is a, is a pro at it, and I love the work that he does.
• 17:16
  Bette Elly: Yes, I agree 100% with, with what you just said.
• 17:20
  Bette Elly: I think emotion is, your ability to evoke emotion in a presentation is the greatest aspect of being an excellent communicator.
• 17:32
  Bette Elly: So that, that's very interesting what you said.
• 17:35
  Bette Elly: So do you have any interesting stories about your journey to share with us?
• 17:41
  Carl Richards: Uh, you had to ask that question, didn't you, Bette?
• 17:44
  Carl Richards: Um, I, I actually, I do, and I, I'm more confident sharing this now openly.
• 17:51
  Bette Elly: Yes.
• 17:52
  Carl Richards: And that is that I used to stutter when I was a kid.
• 17:55
  Carl Richards: Uh, so much so that I couldn't get three words out without st- st- stammering or s- s- s- stuttering and then n- n- n- n- not being able to get the words out.
• 18:05
  Carl Richards: And it was very… You, you mentioned it in your opening sequence there, that it's, it can be very, uh, terrifying, almost a phobia for some people.
• 18:16
  Carl Richards: I was deathly afraid to speak, and one of the things that I remember vividly was, aside from the typical, uh, we had to read it, read in class, you know, and, and the teacher would go around the, up and down the desks, the rows of the desks, and each student would have to stand up and read a paragraph from a book or something like that.
• 18:34
  Carl Richards: That was terrifying enough, but I remember being in church.
• 18:37
  Carl Richards: This was, I was probably about 12 years old And I remember reading a passage from the Bible at the front of the, the church.
• 18:46
  Carl Richards: And I don't know what possessed me to do this.
• 18:48
  Carl Richards: I must have volunteered, put up my hand, and said, "Yes, I'll read something, no problem." My parents thought it was a good idea.
• 18:55
  Carl Richards: Anyhow, I remember going to the front of the church.
• 18:58
  Carl Richards: I-- Don't ask me what passage it was, but I remember standing at the front of the church and starting to read this passage, and don't I start to stutter.
• 19:07
  Carl Richards: And I could just feel all of the eyes on me, and I felt embarrassed, I felt humiliated, I felt terrified.
• 19:16
  Carl Richards: I couldn't get through it.
• 19:17
  Carl Richards: It wasn't until the minister, who was sitting behind me, he stood up and then put his hand on my shoulder and started to read the words with me, that I was able to finish reading whatever that passage was.
• 19:32
  Carl Richards: And it was shortly after that that I ended up going to speech therapy.
• 19:38
  Carl Richards: My parents found a very good speech therapist, put me in speech therapy, and after two years of speech therapy, things were, uh, completely different.
• 19:46
  Carl Richards: To say I outgrew stuttering would be, uh, untrue, because I don't think you grow out of being a stutterer.
• 19:52
  Carl Richards: I think you learn how to manage being a stutterer or being in control of your presentation or being in control of your speaking, but I don't think you ever fully grow out of being a stutterer.
• 20:03
  Carl Richards: Because really, everyone stutters.
• 20:05
  Carl Richards: It's how you manage those, those stammers, those, those things that you're trying to Say, and a stutterer, for all intents and purposes, should be called a blocker because they're trying to block stammering.
• 20:20
  Carl Richards: Um, so anyways, I learned a lot in speech therapy, and it was because of those two years in speech therapy I learned that I could be in control.
• 20:26
  Carl Richards: And that's probably, Bette, what gave me the confidence to do something like end up working in radio.
• 20:31
  Carl Richards: Otherwise, I probably would have run in fear of it.
• 20:34
  Bette Elly: Mm-hmm.
• 20:35
  Bette Elly: Interesting.
• 20:37
  Bette Elly: Yes.
• 20:38
  Bette Elly: A- as a side note, I found another passion throughout my life, which was writing, and I started getting into writing screenplays.
• 20:48
  Bette Elly: And my very first screenplay that I wrote, that I s- I took courses at the University of Toronto, and they were helpful, but I found a screenwriting coach that was tremendously helpful in launching somewhat of a small career in screenwriting for me.
• 21:08
  Bette Elly: And my first screenplay was based on one of my clients who-
• 21:13
  Carl Richards: Hmm
• 21:13
  Bette Elly: came to me and had an unbelievably severe fear of public speaking, and he wanted to get up in front of all of his wedding guests, his daughter was getting married, and deliver a speech.
• 21:27
  Bette Elly: So he came to me, and we worked together for quite a long time preparing for his wedding presentation.
• 21:33
  Bette Elly: And it was so fascinating to me, the journey that we took trying to get him to have the courage to stand up in front of… He had 400 wedding guests coming.
• 21:45
  Bette Elly: And what happened was that launched my career into screenwriting because I wrote a screenplay about the experience.
• 21:53
  Bette Elly: I thought I'd try to embellish a little bit of some of the some of the characters in the script, but when I finished it, I sent it off to a producer, and they liked it, and they said they wanted to option it.
• 22:09
  Bette Elly: So it was very exciting.
• 22:10
  Bette Elly: I was down at the Toronto Film Festival meeting producers, and they really liked the script, but then they called and said they had a problem with the script.
• 22:22
  Bette Elly: And I said, "What is that?" They said,"The King's Speech is, has just come out, and your script is too similar."
• 22:29
  Carl Richards: Oh, g- for heaven's sakes.
• 22:31
  Bette Elly: And I said, "No, no, no.
• 22:33
  Bette Elly: There's no similarity.
• 22:35
  Bette Elly: There's, there… it's just a, an everyday man who wanted to be able to deliver a speech successfully at his daughter's wedding.
• 22:44
  Bette Elly: How does that correlate with The King's Speech?" And they said it does.
• 22:48
  Carl Richards: Wow.
• 22:49
  Carl Richards: So- Isn't that, isn't that ironic that, that you created something not knowing, but you created something that was so similar to something that was already in creation or that had been created not knowing it.
• 23:00
  Bette Elly: Yes, yes.
• 23:01
  Carl Richards: Wow.
• 23:02
  Bette Elly: So what happened with that script was it, it took a different journey.
• 23:06
  Bette Elly: It started going into a musical because one of the producers recommended that I turn it into a musical, and I said,"Okay," and I'm still working on that.
• 23:16
  Bette Elly: And it's been many, many years.
• 23:18
  Bette Elly: So, uh, it's just interesting.
• 23:20
  Bette Elly: You never know what direction you're going to end up with with all these creative projects that we delve into.
• 23:28
  Bette Elly: Okay, so let me ask you another question.
• 23:32
  Bette Elly: What s- strengths as a speaker do you feel you possess?
• 23:39
  Carl Richards: Oh, um, that's a really good question.
• 23:43
  Carl Richards: I feel that I'm I feel voice, and I know that sounds silly to say that as a speaker, of course you should have a good voice.
• 23:53
  Carl Richards: But there's something about, and again, I think it's years of training in radio, but quite often people will share with me that one of the things that they really appreciate is my articulation, my, my vocal inflection, all of those things.
• 24:08
  Carl Richards: And I think that is very powerful that I've been able to hone that skill and, and maintain it, I guess you could say.
• 24:18
  Carl Richards: Because not everyone does.
• 24:19
  Carl Richards: Some people will pick up a skill and then it, it slides after a period of time.
• 24:23
  Carl Richards: But I've been able to maintain it and, and I think that it's, it's very beneficial.
• 24:28
  Carl Richards: I think it's one of the things that, and not to toot my own horn, but I think it's one of those things that gets me speaking gigs.
• 24:34
  Carl Richards: Stage presence is one thing, and I, I think I have good stage presence as well, but I think the voice is what really moves my speaking forward.
• 24:44
  Carl Richards: It's how I articulate my message.
• 24:46
  Carl Richards: It's a dramatic use of pauses.
• 24:48
  Carl Richards: It's vocal inflection.
• 24:50
  Carl Richards: All of those things that, and, and diction, that I think are my strengths.
• 24:56
  Bette Elly: Excellent.
• 24:58
  Carl Richards: And I think that's why I think the podcasting space is, is good for me because at the end of the day, without audio there is no video, so even in a world where there's a lot of emphasis on video, the podcasting space is still heavily reliant on really good audio, a really good audio product.
• 25:15
  Bette Elly: Yes.
• 25:15
  Bette Elly: Yes.
• 25:16
  Bette Elly: Very valuable information to share.
• 25:19
  Bette Elly: The other interesting aspect of public speaking is that it, it is so vast and there's so many different types of public speakers.
• 25:30
  Bette Elly: I joined an organization called CAPS many years ago, I think when it first started, the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, because you see how it, it branches off public speaking into so many different areas.
• 25:44
  Bette Elly: And I found this organization over the years to be absolutely invaluable to me as a, as growing my business, learning, sharing.
• 25:54
  Bette Elly: It's a wonderful, wonderful organization.
• 25:57
  Bette Elly: And they have every year an annual convention, so that was, uh, something valuable to share also.
• 26:04
  Bette Elly: W- what I found, like, I have over the years, I've globally sought after clients nationally and internationally, including I've trained clients from Spain, Japan, India, Britain, South America, United States, and Canada, and they all share a similar goal of being, wanting to be heard by an audience and share their knowledge, their expertise, their passions, and it's, it's a wonderful field to, to be involved in.
• 26:41
  Bette Elly: So I wanna thank you very much for sharing today your story.
• 26:48
  Carl Richards: Well, thank you so much, Bette.
• 26:49
  Carl Richards: I was honored to be your first guest on the show.
• 26:51
  Bette Elly: And you can find all the links for today's guest, Carl Richards, in the show notes.
• 26:59
  Bette Elly: You can also find out more about Speaker Skills and Bette Elly, that's myself, at speakerskills.com.
• 27:08
  Bette Elly: Thank you so much, Carl, for being on the show today, and thank you to all my listeners.
• 27:14
  Bette Elly: I hope you enjoyed the show and found it very valuable.
• 27:18
  Bette Elly: Bye-bye.
• 27:18
  Carl Richards: You've been listening to the Speaker Skills podcast with Bette Elly.
• 27:22
  Carl Richards: If you enjoyed today's conversation, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review.
• 27:27
  Carl Richards: It helps more people find the show.
• 27:29
  Carl Richards: Until next time, keep speaking up.