Nov. 30, 2023

Unleashing Confidence: Mastering the Art of Fearless Speaking With Melinda Lee

Unleashing Confidence: Mastering the Art of Fearless Speaking With Melinda Lee

In this empowering episode of "Speak In Flow" with the dynamic Melinda Lee, listeners are taken on a transformative journey to conquer the fear of public speaking and embrace the art of confident expression. Melinda shares invaluable insights and practical tips to help you not just survive but thrive when all eyes are on you.

Key Takeaways:

Consistent Presentation:

Melinda Lee unveils three game-changing tips for delivering presentations with unwavering consistency. From mastering body language to refining vocal tone, these techniques are your keys to leaving a lasting impression.

The Power of Personal Narratives:

Discover the profound impact of storytelling on building your professional brand. Melinda emphasizes the importance of sharing your personal stories to connect authentically with your audience, fostering trust, and establishing a memorable presence.

Building Trust and Influence Through Consistency:

Melinda Lee explores the significance of creating a schedule for your speaking engagements. Learn how consistency not only builds trust among your audience but also cultivates influence over time, setting the stage for enduring success.

Confidence Unleashed: Box Breathing Technique:

Gain a powerful tool for cultivating confidence in the midst of fear. Melinda introduces the concept of box breathing, a simple yet effective technique to center yourself, regulate your emotions, and speak with unwavering confidence.

Confronting the Unknown: Do It for Someone:

Melinda Lee encourages listeners to embrace the unknown by finding motivation in others. Whether it's a mentor, a loved one, or a future version of yourself, discover the strength to speak despite uncertainties and fears.

Episode Highlights:

Melinda Lee shares personal anecdotes and real-world examples, making the episode relatable and engaging.

The episode explores practical scenarios where the discussed techniques can be applied, ensuring listeners can immediately implement what they've learned.

Each tip and strategy is broken down, providing a step-by-step guide for listeners to follow.

Join Melinda Lee in this transformative episode of Speak In Flow, where the fear of public speaking is transformed into an opportunity for personal and professional growth. Tune in and unlock the secrets to becoming a confident and influential speaker!

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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Transcript
Melinda Lee:

Welcome, dear listeners, I'm so glad you're

Melinda Lee:

here. Today, we're going to talk about being visible,

Melinda Lee:

consistently visible, consistently allowing the

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authority figures, the people around you, your community, your

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family members, to see you as the leader, the expert, the

Melinda Lee:

trusted partner, that you want them, to see you as they want to

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see you as. So how do we do that, we're going to go into

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some techniques to help you work through any of the blocks that

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you have, that may be preventing you from allowing yourself to be

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seen. Because right now, it is the most important time more

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than ever, to have leaders such as you rise to be seen, even

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when you're afraid. consistently being visible. That means to

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allow the eyes on you to allow lots of eyes on you and getting

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super comfortable with that. And I know that that's a big stretch

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could be a big challenge for some of you. And but that's why

Melinda Lee:

you're here. That is why you're here to learn more about that

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because we need you, your voice matters. So if 1020 People

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frighten you start was one, start with just speaking up in

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front of those meetings, start with speaking up to your manager

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to your boss, being visible, and allowing them to see you as that

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trusted expert speaking confidently, clearly,

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articulately with power with with enthusiasm. Many people

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want to as soon as they get into the spotlight, when all eyes are

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on them, I see them start to just shrivel away. Or they

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contract, right the nerves get in their body, and then they

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start to contract and be somebody else. And it's like

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right before they got into the spotlight, they were somebody

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different. They were just them being them. And then when the

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eyes are on them, they start to just contract and it breaks my

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heart, it saddens me, because I know that we are so much more, I

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know that your voice is a vehicle of impact a vehicle to

Melinda Lee:

connect with others. And so don't hold back. The challenge

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is most of us, we we have a lot on our plate. So being visible

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may get pushed to the side. Right, you may have good

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intentions to say I'm going to do more presentations. I'm going

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to lead team meetings. But then sometimes work. You go back to

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the office, there's ABC to do there's there's administrative

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tasks, and then you get to go home and take a walk the dog

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take care of the kids like there's a lot on our plates. And

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then we get we push being visible to the side. And then we

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work behind the curtains. And then sometimes when you're

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sitting so, so busy behind the curtain doing all these tasks,

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we some of your work may get unnoticed. People don't know

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what you're doing. Right and they and then they start to

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create assumptions, create stories. Stories that may be

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untrue stories that that they form, what they want to create

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in their mind. So there is huge repercussions and risks for not

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communicating who you are, the experiences that you're having

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what you are learning how you're overcoming challenges. Telling

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your story, the way you see it. so other people can connect with

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you and understand you and see the truth of who you are. Don't

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hold back and stay behind the curtains because you know what's

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going to happen one day, that curtain someone's going to knock

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on your curtain. And then they're going to say hey, I'd

Melinda Lee:

like for you to deliver a presentation tomorrow or next

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week. And I might be in front of really important people could be

Melinda Lee:

team leaders could be the executive C suite or an

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important client. Are you ready? Really think about that right

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now. If someone were to ask you to deliver an important

Melinda Lee:

presentation in a couple of days. Are you ready? What is

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happening in your body? Can you be as confident as you want to

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be feel that in your body? Feel that in your heart? Can you be

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as confident as you want to be? Can you rely on being

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consistently confident? Can you rely on speaking and flow

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speaking with your heart speaking with passion? Are you

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thinking about? Am I gonna say the right thing? Am I going to I

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probably will stumble, I probably will mess this up, and

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I gotta practice and practice and rehearse. That's just your

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inner critic, right? That's your fear mechanism. Because I know

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you don't have to practice that much. You if you've been asked

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to deliver a presentation, you know, your material. Telling

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yourself I need to practice more is just a defence mechanism.

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It's actually preventing you from really being the truth of

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who you are, and being in flow, speaking with ease speaking with

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confidence. So here are some techniques I'd like to share

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with you today on how to be consistently visible,

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consistently confident, consistently visible, it's

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three, right? Create a schedule, speak with confidence with

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power. And third is do it for somebody. So first, create a

Melinda Lee:

schedule. Like I mentioned earlier, sometimes we go back to

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administrative tasks are working behind the curtains, and people

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may not see what you're doing. So create a schedule for

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yourself. This week, I'm going to be visible one, two times,

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I'm going to speak in the meeting, I'm going to talk to my

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boss, or, or this week, I'm going to do a presentation. This

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month, I'm wanting to deliver a webinar and have a consistent

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schedule. I want you to know that this is not easy for me

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doing these podcasts, creating videos. Just curious, do you

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think this is easy for me? There was a moment in my past and I

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couldn't even look at my own photos. I couldn't even look at

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my videos, or I couldn't stand looking at them. But I worked

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through my doubt, I worked I found the root causes of my

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doubt work through them. And then now I'm here. And then what

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I realised is being consistently visible showing up anyways,

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works, right I started to become the expert, people started

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seeing me because they trust me. And then I build influence. And

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most importantly, I'm sharing the information and sharing what

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I love sharing what I know, to connect with others. So build a

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schedule that will keep you on track. And then to when you do

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show up, show up powerfully. Select a time during the day

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where you're not as tired, where you're feeling confident. Speak

Melinda Lee:

with power. So use the techniques that I've shown you.

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Take some breathe, do some breathing box, breathing, where

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you inhale for four, hold it for four, and then exhale for four

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and holds it for four. It's just like a box, inhale. Or hold it

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234 exhale 234, hold it 234 Do the box breathing exercise

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before you speak. And that will allow you to speak confidently

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passionately. And finally, third, do it for somebody. Even

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if you are not feeling well. Or even if you don't want to do it.

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Think about who you're doing it for whether it's your family

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member, whether it's your kids, if you're a minority out there

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and a leader because we need more leaders like you to rise.

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Do it for us. Do it for your fellow people. The people that

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need you to rise we need more minorities up at the C suite up

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at the seat at the table. More women. If you're a woman out

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there, do it for the rest of us women. Do it for somebody

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that will give you that courage to rise. Being a leader doesn't

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mean that you have all your ducks in a row and you have all

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your information you have everything down know being a

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leader is being visible even in the unknown. And that is why I

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say breathe through it. Speak with confidence even in the

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unknown. Do it anyways, do it for others do it for your

Melinda Lee:

people. But Phil, feel that courage inside of you, and

Melinda Lee:

speak, speak your truth, speak and flow. So using those three

Melinda Lee:

techniques will help you to be more consistently visible,

Melinda Lee:

consistently confident. All right, first, set a schedule, do

Melinda Lee:

it during a time during a day where you feel confident when

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you feel good, not tired, overwhelmed. Use some breathing

Melinda Lee:

techniques to speak purposefully speak with power breathing

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techniques, get your body into a state where it's ready to speak.

Melinda Lee:

Don't forget, your body's included. It's just not about

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read, writing, what am I going to say? Writing all the talking

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points. It's also including your body, getting into state using

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techniques such as breathing, then finally do it for somebody,

Melinda Lee:

do it for your fellow minority leaders, do it for women, do it

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for your children, do it for your family connects to somebody

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and do it for us. We need leaders more leaders who care

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about people. And not just money or the bottom line, right,

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that's just a symptom, that's just an outcome that naturally

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happens when you care to lift others up. And when you know

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that your voice is a vehicle for impact, you connect with others.

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And when you connect with others, you raise a you raise

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people up. And when you can raise people up, you're making a

Melinda Lee:

positive difference in the world. Positive Change moving

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the needle for the organisation for your community. And that is

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the power of our voice. And so being seen doesn't mean you know

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everything doesn't mean that you know what's about to happen.

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being seen as a leader means that you do it anyways, despite

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the uncertainty, the doubt the ambiguity, you do it, you go and

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use the tools and techniques that I've shared with you today.

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Be consistently seen allowing people to connect with you

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connect with your eyes, connect and be okay with all eyes on

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you. So okay to be in the spotlight. Because your voice

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matters. You matter, you matter to us. And use your voice as a

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vehicle for impact. Until the next episode, uh, dear

Melinda Lee:

listeners, I'm so grateful for you continuing to listen. I

Melinda Lee:

gotta notes that my this podcast has is a top 10% out of global

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podcast for downloads. I had no idea. I kept showing up anyways,

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do redoing these recordings, interviewing amazing leaders not

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knowing whether anyone is listening. I continue to show up

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be seen. And then here it is. Here's the the response that I'm

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getting. So I am so grateful for you. Grateful for you to be

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here. Continue to rise, speak in flow. When you do you're making

Melinda Lee:

impact for yourself and for others. Until next time