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

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

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

consistently visible, consistently allowing the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

trusted expert speaking confidently, clearly,

articulately with power with with enthusiasm. Many people

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

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

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

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

right before they got into the spotlight, they were somebody

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

create assumptions, create stories. Stories that may be

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

like for you to deliver a presentation tomorrow or next

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

team leaders could be the executive C suite or an

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

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

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

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

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

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

consistently confident? Can you rely on speaking and flow

speaking with your heart speaking with passion? Are you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

with you today on how to be consistently visible,

consistently confident, consistently visible, it's

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

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

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

administrative tasks are working behind the curtains, and people

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I realised is being consistently visible showing up anyways,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

your information you have everything down know being a

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

say breathe through it. Speak with confidence even in the

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

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

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

techniques will help you to be more consistently visible,

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

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

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

techniques to speak purposefully speak with power breathing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

positive difference in the world. Positive Change moving

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be consistently seen allowing people to connect with you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

do redoing these recordings, interviewing amazing leaders not

knowing whether anyone is listening. I continue to show up

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

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

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

impact for yourself and for others. Until next time