Welcome to Speak in Flow with Melinda Lee!
In today's solo episode, Melinda dives deep into the nuances of personal growth, emotional resilience, and the power of storytelling. Join her as she shares insights on breaking glass ceilings, overcoming barriers, and mastering the art of emotional management.
1. **Breaking Glass Ceilings**
- Explore strategies and mindsets to break through limitations and achieve your highest potential.
- Discover actionable steps to shatter barriers and pave the way for success in your personal and professional life.
2. **Overcoming Barriers and Propelling to New Heights**
- Uncover the hidden obstacles that may be holding you back and learn how to overcome them with courage and determination.
- Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and transformation, and propel yourself to new heights of achievement.
3. **Managing Emotions of Nervousness, Fear, or Anger**
- Gain valuable insights into managing and harnessing the power of your emotions.
- Learn practical techniques to navigate feelings of nervousness, fear, or anger, and channel them towards positive outcomes.
4. **The Art of Listening and Connecting with Others**
- Explore the profound impact of active listening in fostering meaningful connections and building strong relationships.
- Discover how the art of listening can serve as a powerful tool for empathy, understanding, and collaboration.
5. **Storytelling for Influence**
- Unlock the secrets of persuasive storytelling and its ability to inspire, motivate, and influence others.
- Learn how to craft compelling narratives that resonate with your audience and drive action towards your goals.
Tune in to this episode for actionable insights, empowering stories, and practical wisdom to help you speak in flow and unleash your full potential!
Don't forget to subscribe to Speak in Flow with Melinda Lee for more inspiring episodes and transformative conversations. Join us on this journey of growth, discovery, and empowerment!
About Melinda:
Melinda Lee is a Presentation Skills Expert, Speaking Coach and nationally renowned Motivational Speaker. She holds an M.A. in Organizational Psychology, is an Insights Practitioner, and is a Certified Professional in Talent Development as well as Certified in Conflict Resolution. For over a decade, Melinda has researched and studied the state of “flow” and used it as a proven technique to help corporate leaders and business owners amplify their voices, access flow, and present their mission in a more powerful way to achieve results.
She has been the TEDx Berkeley Speaker Coach and worked with hundreds of executives and teams from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Caltrans, Bay Area Rapid Transit System, and more. Currently, she lives in San Francisco, California, and is breaking the ancestral lineage of silence.
Website: https://speakinflow.com/
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/speakinflow
Instagram: https://instagram.com/speakinflow
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpowerall
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Welcome, dear listeners to the speak in flow
Melinda Lee:podcast. This is where we dive into the art of communication
Melinda Lee:and leadership development. I'm so glad you're here. Today's
Melinda Lee:powerful episode is about breaking the glass ceiling, and
Melinda Lee:how our communication can propel you to new heights. A glass
Melinda Lee:ceiling, we think about that when we're thinking about it's a
Melinda Lee:metaphorical barrier, right? When we're thinking about when
Melinda Lee:we're at work, and we're climbing up and trying to get
Melinda Lee:promotions, and then suddenly, there's a glass ceiling, the
Melinda Lee:system may not be set up to promote you. Many of us women,
Melinda Lee:minorities feel this the most, when I think about a glass
Melinda Lee:ceiling at a personal level, because it can affect us both
Melinda Lee:professionally and also personally, I think about my
Melinda Lee:grandmother, when she was 25 years old, she was sold into a
Melinda Lee:marriage to a man who's 35 years her senior. That means she
Melinda Lee:listened to her husband, and also three wives talking about a
Melinda Lee:glass ceiling. She had no saying lots of barriers, couldn't say
Melinda Lee:what she wanted, or get what she wanted, because she couldn't
Melinda Lee:even speak it. Most of our glass ceilings are actually they're
Melinda Lee:not as difficult and challenging as my grandmother. In fact, most
Melinda Lee:of our own glass ceilings are own. They come from ourselves.
Melinda Lee:And I call those communication barriers. These are the barriers
Melinda Lee:that sounds something like I don't know if I should say this.
Melinda Lee:I don't know if I have all the information. I better not see
Melinda Lee:it. I'm not ready yet. It's our own doubt, preventing us from
Melinda Lee:speaking up. Think about when you're in a team meeting. And
Melinda Lee:there's lots of people talking and they seem to know all they
Melinda Lee:have all the information and you're sitting there thinking,
Melinda Lee:Should I say something? Is that my time, I don't want to
Melinda Lee:interrupt them. So we place our own communication, glass
Melinda Lee:ceilings upon ourselves. So whether the system is not set up
Melinda Lee:for us, let's not consider that right now. But let's think about
Melinda Lee:our own because we can control ourselves. So what are our own
Melinda Lee:communication, glass ceilings that we want to break through.
Melinda Lee:Because when you do, you can start to be seen, heard and
Melinda Lee:respected as the leader that you know you are. So today, we're
Melinda Lee:going to dive into how to do this. I mean, this hits home for
Melinda Lee:me, I know this personally. And all too well. As I mentioned, I
Melinda Lee:was not given a good communication model, or role
Melinda Lee:model. And so when I went to work for corporate, it was hard
Melinda Lee:for me, I did what I was told and worked really, really hard
Melinda Lee:and, and then suddenly I get an email one day I've been into
Melinda Lee:this company, 15 years, I get an email, it was an announcement
Melinda Lee:that a new hire gets promoted before me. It was all of my
Melinda Lee:effort.
Melinda Lee:So all of my efforts went two ways. And I noticed that this
Melinda Lee:person that did get promoted, was a better speaker than me,
Melinda Lee:have the right connections, was communicating and meeting with
Melinda Lee:the right people putting himself out there. And at that point,
Melinda Lee:for better or for worse, it propelled me to get better as a
Melinda Lee:speaker. So I did not, I was not born with a gift to communicate
Melinda Lee:and speak publicly. And here I am. 20 years later, got all the
Melinda Lee:tools and techniques. And now here I'm sharing this from a
Melinda Lee:deeply rooted hurt. But now I have this passion to help so
Melinda Lee:many others. And so I encourage you to really take a moment and
Melinda Lee:take these tips for you today. Because I want you to break that
Melinda Lee:glass ceiling. So here's how to increase your communication
Melinda Lee:competence and influence. Self awareness, regulating your
Melinda Lee:emotion, listening to others, setting your boundaries and
Melinda Lee:communicating them and storytelling. So first self
Melinda Lee:awareness, having your own self awareness and having critical
Melinda Lee:thinking about it. Really asking yourself, How am I
Melinda Lee:communicating? Am I communicating like the leader
Melinda Lee:that I know that I am the leader that the organisation wants you
Melinda Lee:to be needs you to be? Am I avoiding conflict? Am I avoiding
Melinda Lee:opportunities to speak up, or on the opposite side, am I speaking
Melinda Lee:up and being aggressive, trying to demand my way. On both sides
Melinda Lee:of the continuum, I want you to just really do some self
Melinda Lee:reflection. And ask yourself where you are, because that will
Melinda Lee:give you the baseline, right, you're not going to change
Melinda Lee:overnight, but at least you can start to take steps. Once you
Melinda Lee:have acknowledged your baseline, and then you regulate your
Melinda Lee:emotion, to write emotion regulation, managing your
Melinda Lee:emotion, whether you are nervous, because you don't want
Melinda Lee:to speak up, or whether you're angry, because you're not
Melinda Lee:getting your way. Both you want to start to regulate your
Melinda Lee:emotion, using breath, right. It's a visceral feeling, it's so
Melinda Lee:instinctive. So you have to learn how to use your breath.
Melinda Lee:And I'm sure you've heard it all the time. But this is so true.
Melinda Lee:If this helps I take cold showers, because it forces me to
Melinda Lee:be uncomfortable. And then I do deep breath, I do the box
Melinda Lee:breathing technique in before, hold it for 234 and all the cold
Melinda Lee:water is dripping on me and I'm freezing and I just exhale to
Melinda Lee:try to slow down my nervous system. So whether you're
Melinda Lee:nervous or angry, you're slowing down that nervous system,
Melinda Lee:slowing down the emotion, calming it, and then in before
Melinda Lee:hold it for for exhale for four fold for for just like a box. So
Melinda Lee:that will allow you to calm your nervous system as much as
Melinda Lee:possible, then this opens up your brain to free to free
Melinda Lee:itself from the cloudiness of that emotion and then you can
Melinda Lee:communicate more effectively. Then once you're able to
Melinda Lee:communicate once you have communicated more effectively
Melinda Lee:using respectful words, you move on to the next step, which is
Melinda Lee:listen, listen to others. Listen, carefully understand
Melinda Lee:where they're at. And the other day I was in a workshop and the
Melinda Lee:facilitator did this beautifully. She knew where the
Melinda Lee:people were at, she just did an exercise and activity, people
Melinda Lee:were speaking and she was trying to close up the exercise. And a
Melinda Lee:person in the audience just kept on speaking, kept on talking.
Melinda Lee:She's trying to reconvene people. And so she walked up to
Melinda Lee:that person and says, Hey, I know it's frustrating, you're
Melinda Lee:speaking and you're engaged in your conversation. It's
Melinda Lee:frustrating to have to stop. I understand. It can be
Melinda Lee:frustrating. And that's part of the exercise. And I want you to
Melinda Lee:know that you can speak again or you can continue the
Melinda Lee:conversation later. For now, let's all reconvene. So notice
Melinda Lee:that the facilitator address the person's frustration or the
Melinda Lee:feeling so listening to other people, knowing where they're at
Melinda Lee:calling it out, and then bringing it back to what you
Melinda Lee:need. clearly, concisely, which then brings you this to the next
Melinda Lee:point, which is know your boundaries.
Melinda Lee:Far, and has have no regrets and no apology to communicate that
Melinda Lee:if someone is giving you too much and burnings too much with
Melinda Lee:more tasks, more things, your kids your boss, you can kindly
Melinda Lee:say, Hey, I cannot possibly take on this I want to you can
Melinda Lee:acknowledge the importance of the tasks I know this task is
Melinda Lee:very important. And I cannot take on this task without
Melinda Lee:sacrificing my own energy or without sacrificing the quality
Melinda Lee:of the other things that I am committed to doing. And not
Melinda Lee:apologise. And lastly, you storytelling. Storytelling is a
Melinda Lee:powerful communication technique. Most people want to
Melinda Lee:just take just say it like it is here are the facts. This is what
Melinda Lee:we need to do to demand it. Or you can inspire action with
Melinda Lee:stories. Imagine being able to tell your team, if you're stuck
Melinda Lee:in a project and not knowing what to do, maybe you're set the
Melinda Lee:client. And you don't want to tell the client what had just
Melinda Lee:happened. You can bring in a narrative, a project where you
Melinda Lee:did communicate with the client communicated with the client
Melinda Lee:effectively immediately and the lessons learned around it. So
Melinda Lee:communicating and telling a narrative is better than you
Melinda Lee:going into your team and say hey, talk to the client right
Melinda Lee:now. You're all in trouble. Right then the team feels
Melinda Lee:contracted telling us your narrative inspires action
Melinda Lee:because the emotion around it excites your team because it's
Melinda Lee:been done before. So tell it with the positivity and the
Melinda Lee:excitement that is possible inspires action. So using
Melinda Lee:storytelling is a powerful way to communicate with influence
Melinda Lee:and leading people. So those are the key tips on how to break
Melinda Lee:your own communication barrier. Know yourself know how to manage
Melinda Lee:those emotions of fear or aggressiveness. Right. Listen to
Melinda Lee:others. Communicate your boundaries, and storytelling,
Melinda Lee:for inspiring action and others. I hope that you will go and
Melinda Lee:implement these techniques to break your own communication
Melinda Lee:barriers and that glass ceiling, propel yourself to new heights
Melinda Lee:expand to new heights and lead people in a way that is positive
Melinda Lee:and inspires change. Until the next episode, I am your sister
Melinda Lee:in flow. Take care. See you next time.