Yasir Khan: Speak Like a CEO, a Masterclass on Effective Public Speaking | E320

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0:01:16 – When you open your mouth, that is your brand
0:01:19 because what you say is what is reflected
0:01:20 about your business.
0:01:23 Emotion creates devotion and storytelling.
0:01:25 That’s what makes people feel something.
0:01:27 How do you infuse storytelling
0:01:30 to get people emotionally attached to you?
0:01:31 – The three R’s to be remembered.
0:01:34 The first R is, so if you constantly need
0:01:36 to practice your public speaking
0:01:38 just to feel good about yourself,
0:01:39 that’s not a public speaking issue.
0:01:41 That’s a self-esteem issue.
0:01:43 For a lot of people, the fear doesn’t come
0:01:44 from the speaking itself.
0:01:46 It’s how they perceive themselves.
0:01:48 – How can you tell if people are engaged or not?
0:01:50 – If you want to transport people
0:01:52 somewhere in your story,
0:01:54 one of the most powerful words you can use is.
0:02:02 (upbeat music)
0:02:13 – Yeah fam, welcome back to the show.
0:02:16 And today we are focused on public speaking.
0:02:18 Now communication, in my opinion,
0:02:20 is the backbone of entrepreneurship.
0:02:23 Whether you are on stage, in the boardroom,
0:02:25 or simply on a Zoom meeting,
0:02:27 you really got to know how to communicate
0:02:29 if you want to be a successful entrepreneur.
0:02:32 So joining us today to talk about this is Yastar Khan.
0:02:35 He’s a public speaking coach with years of experience
0:02:37 and helping individuals and organizations
0:02:41 improve their ability to connect, persuade, and influence.
0:02:44 Yastar Khan is the founder of Speak Like a CEO
0:02:45 and he’s going to give us a masterclass
0:02:48 on how to be a more effective speaker.
0:02:51 We’re going to learn about pacing, volume, storytelling,
0:02:53 body language, and so much more.
0:02:55 I can’t wait to dive into it.
0:02:56 So without further delay,
0:03:00 my conversation with Yastar Khan starts now.
0:03:03 Yastar, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast.
0:03:05 – I’m really excited to be here, Hala.
0:03:08 And you might not know how I met you the first time
0:03:10 or how I found out about you.
0:03:11 It wasn’t about LinkedIn.
0:03:14 I was looking up how to start a podcast
0:03:17 and I stumbled on a speech of yours from MIT
0:03:19 from years ago.
0:03:21 And I thought it was going to be about
0:03:22 how to start a podcast,
0:03:25 but it ended up being about your personal story.
0:03:27 I watched the entire hour of it.
0:03:28 – Oh my God.
0:03:29 – And then I found you on LinkedIn.
0:03:31 And I still remember you had a quote in there.
0:03:33 You said something like,
0:03:35 “At the time I wasn’t young and profiting.
0:03:36 “I was young and pissed.”
0:03:39 And it just made me laugh in the moment.
0:03:41 And there was a connection I felt.
0:03:42 That’s why I went and looked you up on LinkedIn.
0:03:44 So it’s a pleasure to be here.
0:03:45 – Oh wow, what a compliment.
0:03:48 I mean, from somebody who’s such a great public speaker,
0:03:51 the fact that you listened to a whole hour of my speech,
0:03:52 that’s amazing.
0:03:54 That was one of my first speaking things
0:03:56 that I ever really did in front of a lot of people.
0:03:57 – And it worked.
0:03:58 You got my attention.
0:03:59 – Thank you.
0:04:03 So Yasser, you are an expert on public speaking
0:04:05 and this show is all for entrepreneurs.
0:04:09 And in today’s age, a lot of our communication is written.
0:04:12 So we’re writing in texts, we’re writing in emails,
0:04:14 we’re writing in DMs.
0:04:17 Why is verbal communication still so important,
0:04:19 especially for business owners now?
0:04:22 – Verbal communication is how you show up to the world.
0:04:26 When you open your mouth, that is your brand.
0:04:27 And you’ll be shocked, Hala.
0:04:28 In fact, you probably won’t be shocked
0:04:30 with the amount of people you talk to.
0:04:32 How many people are not careful
0:04:34 of the words that come out of their mouth?
0:04:37 Because what you say is what is reflected
0:04:38 about your business.
0:04:41 So if you knew that, wouldn’t you be a lot more careful
0:04:42 of what came out of your mouth,
0:04:43 what you said, what you wrote?
0:04:46 That’s why just having that finesse on your words,
0:04:49 making sure when you’re on stage, people remember you,
0:04:50 it’s more important than it’s ever been.
0:04:52 – And aside from speaking on stage,
0:04:54 because entrepreneurs, not all of us
0:04:57 are really gonna be on stage.
0:04:59 But there’s transferable skills
0:05:00 when it comes to public speaking.
0:05:02 Can you talk to us about that?
0:05:04 – Yeah, the definition of public speaking
0:05:05 isn’t just being on stage,
0:05:07 it’s talking to someone at some time.
0:05:08 If you are talking to someone,
0:05:10 which I imagine if your listeners are listening,
0:05:11 they’re talking to people, right?
0:05:14 Unless they’re locked in a basement somewhere,
0:05:15 you are going to do public speaking.
0:05:17 And every single time you do that,
0:05:19 you are representing yourself and your brand.
0:05:22 What do you want people to interpret about you?
0:05:23 How do you want them to perceive you?
0:05:25 How do you want them to perceive your company?
0:05:27 All of that is public speaking.
0:05:30 So you wanna treat the stage as your entire life.
0:05:32 Every single place you go, you’re performing.
0:05:34 So wouldn’t you wanna put up the best performance
0:05:35 wherever you go?
0:05:36 I think the answer is yes.
0:05:39 – I was really surprised to find out
0:05:42 because you come across very confident.
0:05:44 I was very surprised to find out that as a child,
0:05:47 even as a young adult, you were really introverted.
0:05:49 You were really shy.
0:05:53 You really struggled making connections and relationships.
0:05:55 And it wasn’t until your adulthood
0:05:56 that you actually cracked the code
0:05:58 when it came to public speaking.
0:06:01 So talk to us about how public speaking
0:06:03 is not something you’re necessarily born with
0:06:07 and share your story about how you became a public speaker.
0:06:09 – Yeah, I was the least likely person
0:06:11 to become a public speaker.
0:06:13 In fact, if you were in my classroom
0:06:15 when I was in third grade,
0:06:17 you would have seen me run to the bathroom
0:06:18 right before my presentation
0:06:20 and you wouldn’t see me come back out.
0:06:22 And that was a thing people knew.
0:06:23 Hey, Yasser’s turn, he’s not gonna show up.
0:06:25 And I started failing.
0:06:27 So it was really affecting my education.
0:06:29 And as I grew up, eventually my parents said,
0:06:32 this kid is just, he doesn’t say anything in meetings.
0:06:34 He doesn’t say anything in family gatherings.
0:06:35 What do we do?
0:06:36 Let’s send him to a different country.
0:06:38 That’ll open him up.
0:06:39 So now they spent thousands of dollars
0:06:40 sending me to Canada.
0:06:43 The only thing that opened up was their wallet
0:06:44 because I did not learn a thing.
0:06:46 I came all the way here in Canada.
0:06:49 I was still introverted, but now I had no friends.
0:06:53 So eventually you become so lonely
0:06:55 and the pain of it grows so much
0:06:56 that you become desperate.
0:06:57 You’re willing to do anything.
0:07:00 So I just Googled, how do I make friends?
0:07:00 That’s what I wanted.
0:07:02 I wanted friends.
0:07:03 And the first thing that popped up
0:07:05 was something called a Toastmasters Club.
0:07:06 Have you heard of that before?
0:07:07 – Yes, of course, of course.
0:07:09 – Okay, well, a kid from Pakistan, I hadn’t heard of it.
0:07:11 I thought it was one of two things.
0:07:13 One, a place where people sit in a circle
0:07:14 and make a toast or two,
0:07:15 a place to get a grilled cheese sandwich.
0:07:17 That’s what I thought it was gonna be.
0:07:21 So I show up, I walk in and there’s 35 people
0:07:23 all in their mid fifties.
0:07:25 And it says, Toastmasters, learn public speaking.
0:07:27 No, this is not what I signed.
0:07:29 I came here to make, no, no, no, no, no.
0:07:31 Public speaking, that’s not my,
0:07:34 I took the fastest U-turn you’ve ever seen in your life.
0:07:35 But then before I could leave,
0:07:37 the woman who was hosting the club
0:07:39 when it was Karen Knight, she saw me.
0:07:40 And she said, Hey, we’ve got a new guest.
0:07:42 Come on up and introduce yourself.
0:07:45 So there I am, new country, I don’t know anyone.
0:07:48 And you would have seen me sweating,
0:07:51 walking all the way to the front of the stage.
0:07:52 To this day, I don’t know what I said.
0:07:54 I blurt out four words.
0:07:55 I sat back down and I said, Yasser,
0:07:57 this is why you never leave the house.
0:07:59 This is why you should just get yourself a PlayStation.
0:08:01 And that’s it, that’s your personality.
0:08:03 But then Karen came back to the stage
0:08:05 and she looked at me and said, Yasser,
0:08:06 you’re in a new country.
0:08:07 You don’t know anyone.
0:08:09 This is the first time you’ve spoken
0:08:10 in front of an audience.
0:08:11 Congratulations.
0:08:13 And then everyone started clapping.
0:08:14 Now I’m new, so I’m thinking,
0:08:15 is this a Canadian thing?
0:08:16 I’ve heard these people are nice,
0:08:18 but did they listen to what I said?
0:08:20 ‘Cause that was pretty bad.
0:08:22 And afterwards, I’m still beating myself up over it.
0:08:24 And I’m gonna walk out the room,
0:08:25 never coming back.
0:08:28 And she just catches me right before I do.
0:08:30 And she says, Yasser, are you coming back?
0:08:34 And Hala, what do you say when we don’t want to say yes?
0:08:35 We also don’t want to say no.
0:08:36 We’re always in the middle.
0:08:39 I’ll think about it, I’ll let you know.
0:08:41 I’ll check my horoscope, ask my grandma,
0:08:43 check if the universe is perfectly aligned.
0:08:44 So I said all those things.
0:08:46 And she said, Yasser, when I was your age,
0:08:47 I was the exact same.
0:08:49 I was really afraid of public speaking too.
0:08:51 But if you come back next week,
0:08:54 I think one step at a time, it might change your life.
0:08:55 Now I didn’t have friends, Hala.
0:08:57 So I said, okay, you’re my only friend.
0:08:58 I’ll come back, why not?
0:09:00 So I came back the week, the next week,
0:09:02 and eventually she says, Yasser, you’re making progress.
0:09:05 You want to try out that public speaking contest?
0:09:07 Contest, are you trying to kill me here?
0:09:09 I’m just here to make friends.
0:09:11 And I won the contest.
0:09:13 And that’s where it clicked, Hala,
0:09:15 that this is not my personality.
0:09:18 It’s a skill that I did not have.
0:09:20 Months later, I had done 40 workshops.
0:09:23 I became a TEDx speaker 10 years from that moment.
0:09:25 Now I’m coaching some of the biggest CEOs in the world.
0:09:27 So how did all this happen?
0:09:28 Complete accident.
0:09:31 And you just shared how awesome
0:09:33 your storytelling capabilities are
0:09:35 because I was thoroughly engaged in that story.
0:09:38 So we’re gonna pick your brain on that later on.
0:09:40 So something I just wanted to talk about
0:09:43 is the importance of somebody’s voice, right?
0:09:46 I am dating right now.
0:09:49 And there’s literally people where I’ll hear their voice
0:09:52 and I’m like, I just can’t deal with that.
0:09:55 Their voice is not something I’m attracted to.
0:09:59 So talk to us about how people can actually be attracted
0:10:01 to one’s voice.
0:10:03 – This is a topic very personal to me, Hala,
0:10:05 because a big reason why I got into public speaking
0:10:08 was all the rejection that I got in my dating life.
0:10:11 I still remember I went on this one date.
0:10:13 And first of all, it was extremely hard for me
0:10:15 to get a match at all on Tinder.
0:10:17 It was just, I could not get.
0:10:18 So when I finally got it, I was like,
0:10:20 “Hey, she has two eyes and a mouth and ears.
0:10:22 I’ll take it.”
0:10:24 So I showed up on the date.
0:10:28 I’ll never forget, she met me, she looked at me up and down
0:10:31 and we sat down, within the first two minutes,
0:10:34 she looked at me said, “Yeah, this is not really working.
0:10:36 Listen, I’m just gonna go.”
0:10:37 – Wow.
0:10:41 – Can you imagine being lonely, not getting any validation
0:10:43 and just being hit with that?
0:10:46 I was just sitting there by myself the entire day,
0:10:49 sinking in on just hating myself,
0:10:50 loathing myself the entire time.
0:10:52 And I couldn’t figure out what it was.
0:10:55 And after I got on a lot of the other days,
0:10:57 they said, “Some of the days I even asked for feedback,
0:10:58 believe it or not.”
0:11:00 I said, “Hey, there’s a lot of curiosity.
0:11:01 Why don’t you wanna?”
0:11:04 But you asked her, “You sound like you’re trying too hard.
0:11:06 You sound way too eager.
0:11:07 You talk too much.
0:11:09 You’re trying to impress me with your stories
0:11:11 and it’s just too much information, too fast.”
0:11:13 Just slow it down a little bit.
0:11:15 And when you were talking with the voice,
0:11:16 sometimes what happens with people
0:11:19 is they’re so eager to impress that they talk a lot.
0:11:21 And when they talk a lot, they talk fast.
0:11:23 They mumble, they go high pitch,
0:11:25 and they’re trying to get your approval.
0:11:27 And because of that, you could almost sense it
0:11:28 and you back off a little bit.
0:11:30 Even now I talk on the faster side,
0:11:31 but I’ve had to train myself,
0:11:34 “Hey, slow it down and be more sure
0:11:36 of what you’re talking about.
0:11:39 Be as sure as you are as the color of your hair.”
0:11:40 I used to say things like,
0:11:41 “Hey, so this is what I did.
0:11:42 Isn’t that interesting?
0:11:45 Don’t you find that I’m seeking your approval?”
0:11:47 But if I said, “I went to this thing.
0:11:49 I did this thing and that’s how I feel,
0:11:51 I’m so sure of the fact that I’m talking about.
0:11:52 I don’t question myself.”
0:11:53 But sometimes you can feel it.
0:11:54 You can probably tell me more
0:11:56 about your dating experience than I can.
0:11:56 Maybe that’s what you felt.
0:11:58 Who knows?
0:11:59 – Yeah, 100%.
0:12:01 Some of it is just like the tonality.
0:12:03 I don’t wanna listen to that voice forever.
0:12:04 You know what I’m saying?
0:12:07 Like the tonality, like all of it.
0:12:08 I just feel like people don’t realize
0:12:12 how much voice impacts attraction
0:12:15 and your perception of somebody’s confidence
0:12:16 and all that stuff.
0:12:17 – Well, think of it like this.
0:12:19 Take your favorite song, Hala.
0:12:22 Pull up the lyrics and just read the lyrics.
0:12:23 How good will the song sound?
0:12:24 – Not great, no.
0:12:25 – Terrible.
0:12:26 But that’s what most people do with their voice.
0:12:28 They just show up and say the words.
0:12:30 They don’t use their tonality at all.
0:12:32 And they don’t realize how annoying it might be
0:12:33 until they go on a date with you
0:12:34 and then they’d realize,
0:12:36 “Hey, why isn’t she texting me back?
0:12:37 Maybe I’m annoying.”
0:12:39 – Okay, we got a little side check.
0:12:42 But let’s talk about some of the common fears
0:12:45 and anxieties that people have with public speaking.
0:12:46 – Where do you want me to start?
0:12:49 There’s all kinds of public speaking anxiety.
0:12:50 Most of the ones that I feel,
0:12:53 they have nothing to do with public speaking itself.
0:12:56 They have everything to do with how we view ourselves.
0:12:59 One of the most influential coaches I’ve ever had in my life.
0:13:02 He said, “A lion doesn’t need to sharpen his claws
0:13:04 to know he’s the king of the jungle.”
0:13:06 He just knows he is.
0:13:09 So if you constantly need to practice your public speaking
0:13:12 just to feel good about yourself,
0:13:13 that’s not a public speaking issue.
0:13:15 That’s a self-esteem issue.
0:13:17 And I realized this when for four years
0:13:19 I’m learning all these public speaking techniques
0:13:21 and I’m realizing, “Hey, I’m on stage.
0:13:22 I’m doing well.
0:13:24 Why don’t I feel more confident?
0:13:26 Why do I still feel less confident?
0:13:29 I just have less filler words now.”
0:13:32 And the missing ingredient was I did not have self-esteem.
0:13:33 I didn’t have self-confidence.
0:13:34 I didn’t believe in myself.
0:13:36 So for a lot of people,
0:13:38 the fear doesn’t come from the speaking itself.
0:13:40 It’s how they perceive themselves
0:13:44 and therefore project what other people feel about themselves.
0:13:46 I guarantee you, if someone feels good about themselves,
0:13:48 they’re not afraid what other people think about them
0:13:50 because their opinion about themselves
0:13:52 is more important than the opinions of other people.
0:13:53 So that’s one.
0:13:55 And two, it’s just a skill gap.
0:13:57 If you’ve never done something before,
0:13:59 it’s going to be inherently scary.
0:14:00 And if you ask the average person,
0:14:03 how often do you do public speaking twice a year,
0:14:05 once a year, I do one meeting,
0:14:09 of course it’s nerve-wracking because we just don’t do it.
0:14:11 – So how did you yourself get better at public speaking?
0:14:13 What were the steps that you took?
0:14:15 – One of my ex-girlfarms actually really helped me out with this.
0:14:18 I don’t know why we’re going on this dating direction.
0:14:22 I used to get really, really nasty comments
0:14:25 about my teeth in the comments, like really, really bad.
0:14:26 So I have fine teeth now.
0:14:28 Thank you and Vizaline please sponsor me.
0:14:31 But before that, I had these crooked teeth in the front.
0:14:34 And all of the comments were just about my teeth.
0:14:36 And they were so disheartening.
0:14:36 “Hello, I would wake up.
0:14:39 I would not want to post a video, check my comments.
0:14:41 I didn’t want to make any content.”
0:14:45 And she said, “Yasser, are you doing this for praise?
0:14:47 Or are you doing it because you’re passionate about it?
0:14:50 You have to do this for purpose over praise.
0:14:52 Purpose over praise.”
0:14:53 And that’s when I realized,
0:14:54 if I really want to talk about this stuff,
0:14:57 if I’m really passionate, I have to go through that.
0:14:59 I have to go through it with grit.
0:15:00 I don’t have to worry about getting the praise,
0:15:02 getting the compliments, just do it because I want to do it.
0:15:05 And once I became more passionate about it,
0:15:07 I forgot about what they thought of me.
0:15:09 My message was reaching the right people.
0:15:11 That’s why I continued on this journey.
0:15:12 – And I’m glad that you continued on this journey
0:15:16 because now you have over a million followers on TikTok,
0:15:18 which is really, really impressive.
0:15:19 You seem surprised about that.
0:15:22 Did you not know you made a million followers on TikTok?
0:15:24 – 2.4 on Instagram.
0:15:25 That’s my main platform.
0:15:26 – Oh, got it.
0:15:28 Three million across all platforms.
0:15:30 Three million across all platforms.
0:15:31 So I was checking out your TikTok before.
0:15:33 That’s why I knew that number.
0:15:35 So you’re crushing it on social media,
0:15:37 but I was really surprised to find out
0:15:38 that it took you five years
0:15:42 to get your first 1,000 followers on YouTube.
0:15:43 – Right.
0:15:44 – So what changed?
0:15:45 What happened?
0:15:47 How did you go from struggling content creator
0:15:51 to now just dominating on Instagram and TikTok?
0:15:52 – Yeah, that’s the other thing.
0:15:54 I’m really passionate about talking about content
0:15:56 just because I’ve learned a lot about it.
0:15:58 Before we go into YouTube, Hala,
0:16:00 my Instagram has 2.4 million right now.
0:16:04 I created that account from scratch in May of 2023.
0:16:05 – Wow. – From scratch.
0:16:06 That’s a year and a half, right?
0:16:07 – Incredible.
0:16:09 – And TikTok, I think, was a year and a half.
0:16:12 So on YouTube, when I started, I didn’t have confidence.
0:16:15 I was just vlogging my daily experiences
0:16:16 as a student in Canada.
0:16:19 I would talk about job searching for a bit.
0:16:22 Then I would talk about my journey, eating something.
0:16:25 It was all over the place, and that’s why I never learned.
0:16:27 And by the time I got to 1,000 subscribers,
0:16:29 I had some followers from this topic, from that topic,
0:16:31 and it was just all over the place.
0:16:33 So I started a brand new channel about four months ago,
0:16:36 and because of that one podcast
0:16:37 that I told one of your team members about,
0:16:39 I was on one podcast,
0:16:42 the guy had 4,000 followers on his channel.
0:16:44 The highest viewed video was 500.
0:16:45 I came onto the podcast.
0:16:47 It went live two weeks ago.
0:16:50 That video has 400,000 views on it now.
0:16:51 – Oh my God.
0:16:55 – And that got me 25,000 subscribers just from that podcast.
0:16:56 – Wow. – So Hala,
0:16:56 I know you’re getting excited.
0:16:59 Man, I can’t wait to upload this video.
0:17:01 Who knows, maybe that’s the same thing might happen.
0:17:03 But then now I know how to work social media,
0:17:04 so I’ve already worked on YouTube
0:17:06 and it’s working quite well now.
0:17:09 – Oh my gosh, yeah, you are doing an incredible job.
0:17:10 Let’s hold that thought
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0:21:53 (whooshing)
0:21:55 So let’s get into some actionable advice,
0:21:58 some fundamentals when it comes to public speaking.
0:22:00 Let’s talk about volume.
0:22:02 What do we need to know about volume
0:22:04 when it comes to the way that we talk?
0:22:06 – I’ve had a change of heart in this.
0:22:07 I used to think you have to talk louder
0:22:09 to be more confident, right?
0:22:12 But then I realized if you’re always loud
0:22:13 and just talking like this the entire time,
0:22:15 eventually it gets really annoying.
0:22:17 But if you’re always quiet like this all the time
0:22:18 and you look timid.
0:22:19 So the key is not just volume.
0:22:22 The key is variety in volume.
0:22:24 So you go up and down and up and down
0:22:25 and I do this exercise in my workshops
0:22:29 where I’ll ask people to give me any topic on the spot
0:22:30 and I’ll just start talking about it
0:22:31 and I’ll just tell them, okay,
0:22:34 I’m gonna vary my emotions and my volume
0:22:36 and you tell me if it sounds interesting.
0:22:38 So the best way we can do this is just do it right now.
0:22:40 You think you can prompt me with a quick topic?
0:22:42 – Sure, just any topic.
0:22:43 – Just give me the most boring topic
0:22:45 you can think of in the world, okay?
0:22:46 And before you do that,
0:22:47 just hold your thumb up like this
0:22:49 just so I can see it on camera.
0:22:51 When you do this, I have to be really high volume
0:22:53 and when you do that, I have to be really low volume.
0:22:55 And let’s see if I can make something boring
0:22:56 sound more interesting, okay?
0:22:57 We’ll do 30 seconds.
0:22:59 – Okay, washing dishes.
0:23:01 – Perfect, ready to go?
0:23:02 – Yes.
0:23:03 – Give me the thumb and I’ll know where to start.
0:23:06 Washing dishes is one of the most exciting things you can do
0:23:09 because every single day when I make dinner,
0:23:13 it makes me feel present in the moment
0:23:17 because I’m there feeling the water on my hands,
0:23:19 feeling the warmth on my hands.
0:23:22 And I love seeing all the little dirt go off,
0:23:25 the dishes down, the spiral.
0:23:27 And it makes me think for a moment,
0:23:30 how grateful I am to have that meal.
0:23:33 See what I mean?
0:23:34 – Yeah, I love that.
0:23:36 – So it’s the up and down and up and down
0:23:37 that’s what makes it interesting.
0:23:40 Not just high volume, not just low volume.
0:23:41 – Yeah, and speed is another one
0:23:43 where I think we need variety.
0:23:46 Now I have my own perspectives on speed.
0:23:48 I am a fast talker.
0:23:51 I do a lot of workshops and trainings
0:23:54 and my business partner, Kate, and I love her.
0:23:56 She’s not such a fast talker.
0:24:00 And I really truly feel that I’m more engaging
0:24:02 in terms of my enthusiasm.
0:24:05 I feel like people are just awake when I’m talking
0:24:07 and I can have like an eight hour session
0:24:10 and keep everybody engaged the entire time.
0:24:13 And I think a part of it is talking fast.
0:24:16 But I do feel like when public speaking folks come on,
0:24:19 they often say slow it down, you know?
0:24:21 So tell me, what do you think?
0:24:22 – Listen, I have ADHD.
0:24:24 I have a million thoughts running in my head
0:24:26 and all of them wanna come out at the same time.
0:24:29 So I’m just like you, I wanna talk fast.
0:24:31 I was once invited to do a seminar
0:24:33 on public speaking anxiety.
0:24:35 And I’ve done this seminar a million times.
0:24:37 So I show up with my 17 different things to do
0:24:39 to overcome your public speaking anxiety.
0:24:41 I present in front of 200 people
0:24:42 and immediately people say, wow, Yasha,
0:24:44 you covered so much information.
0:24:45 That was absolutely amazing.
0:24:47 One of the guys says, Yasha,
0:24:48 I’m about to go next after you.
0:24:50 That’s exactly what I needed
0:24:52 because I was so anxious in the moment.
0:24:53 I said, amazing.
0:24:56 So I went out, got some coffee, sat back in the room.
0:24:58 I’m waiting for him to pop up on stage.
0:24:59 He shows up on stage and Hala,
0:25:04 I can see the notes shaking in his hand in the moment.
0:25:06 So he slowly walks on to the lectern.
0:25:07 He puts his notes there.
0:25:09 He starts speaking, going through his slides
0:25:10 and he’s stuttering.
0:25:14 You know when you have this feeling in your stomach
0:25:16 where you know something bad is gonna happen?
0:25:18 The entire time I’m watching that,
0:25:21 my stomach is just turning inwards.
0:25:22 And then eventually he hits this word
0:25:24 that he can’t really pronounce properly.
0:25:25 – Oh God.
0:25:29 – And he just puts the clicker down and walks off stage.
0:25:33 And I’m seeing it and it’s just, I can’t understand why.
0:25:35 So afterwards I see him in the parking lot
0:25:36 and I say, hey, what happened?
0:25:38 You were just there in my presentation.
0:25:40 I said, oh man, I just, I got nervous.
0:25:40 I don’t know what happened.
0:25:43 You were in my presentation where I talked
0:25:46 about the 17 ways to overcome public speaking anxiety.
0:25:47 You were in front row.
0:25:48 What happened?
0:25:51 And Hala, he said, three words I’ll never forget.
0:25:53 I couldn’t remember.
0:25:54 I couldn’t remember.
0:25:57 And that’s when I realized what’s the point
0:25:59 of me talking fast, high energy,
0:26:00 covering these 17 points
0:26:03 when he couldn’t remember it when he needed it most.
0:26:05 That’s when I learned to slow it down.
0:26:07 So my coach has this great saying, Craig Valentine.
0:26:09 He says, I’d rather give you three things you remember
0:26:11 than 10 things you forget.
0:26:13 Three things you remember than 10 things you forget.
0:26:16 So I’ve really narrowed down the amount of material I share
0:26:19 but I also try to vary the pace a little bit as well
0:26:20 when I talk.
0:26:22 – So same thing with volume.
0:26:25 You also want to vary your pace.
0:26:28 So what is talking slow do versus talking fast?
0:26:31 Like what does it portray when people are listening to you?
0:26:33 – Talking fast builds momentum.
0:26:34 Like, okay, we’re going somewhere.
0:26:35 Come along with me.
0:26:39 I’m going, but then I want you to think about this for a second.
0:26:42 Then you slow the pace down.
0:26:44 And every time you want to make a point,
0:26:46 this is one of the biggest challenges people have
0:26:47 in storytelling.
0:26:49 This skip over the most important part of the story
0:26:51 because it’s going so fast.
0:26:54 So if you really want people to listen,
0:26:57 slow down and you whisper.
0:26:58 What happens when you slow down?
0:26:59 What happens when you whisper?
0:27:00 People immediately lean forward.
0:27:02 So if you look at any of my talks,
0:27:04 you’ll say I’m super high energy
0:27:05 and then I’ll immediately drop the energy
0:27:07 and then people feel it in that moment.
0:27:09 So you use pauses effectively,
0:27:11 but you know some people who are trying
0:27:12 to be good public speakers,
0:27:13 I’m sure you’ve seen them.
0:27:17 They are always trying to talk like this.
0:27:19 I have great pauses when I,
0:27:20 and then you’re listening to it.
0:27:22 You don’t sound like a human being.
0:27:25 It’s just a little too, too theatrical, too rehearsed for me.
0:27:28 So I’d rather you be real and have variety
0:27:30 than just try to be this choreographed speaker
0:27:31 that everyone wants to see.
0:27:35 And speaking of being authentic and real,
0:27:37 I know one of the things that you say
0:27:39 is that you shouldn’t really be memorizing your stuff.
0:27:41 You should just know your stuff.
0:27:42 So talk to us about that.
0:27:47 – Yeah, memorizing is you putting on a performance on stage.
0:27:50 I memorize every single word.
0:27:52 I’m here on stage just to say the word.
0:27:54 So I feel like I did a good job for myself
0:27:56 and then I can sit back in my chair.
0:27:57 You will be shocked.
0:27:59 Actually, you probably won’t be shocked
0:28:00 if you’ve ever been to college.
0:28:03 How many people are completely unaware
0:28:07 that their audience is uninterested in what they’re saying?
0:28:08 If you’re ever doing a pitch or a Zoom meeting,
0:28:12 the audience has been zoned out for half an hour,
0:28:13 but they’re still just going on and on
0:28:14 because where’s their focus, Hala?
0:28:16 I need you to get the words out.
0:28:17 That’s it.
0:28:20 So when you, instead of memorizing, you internalize,
0:28:23 meaning just say the words out loud.
0:28:25 And half the time when you do that, you realize,
0:28:27 oh, that didn’t come out, right?
0:28:28 That didn’t really sound good.
0:28:29 Even I can’t understand what I’m saying.
0:28:31 Let me rework that.
0:28:34 You know the structure and the flow of information,
0:28:36 but you don’t have every single word memorized.
0:28:38 So now what happens is, if I asked you, Hala,
0:28:40 tell me what you ate for breakfast, lunch,
0:28:42 and dinner yesterday.
0:28:43 If you remember, you can tell me.
0:28:45 You don’t have to memorize every single ingredient.
0:28:46 You can just tell me what you had.
0:28:50 So when you show up for your speech, you know the sequence.
0:28:52 And then what you’re able to do is you’re able
0:28:54 to be in the moment with the audience.
0:28:56 And when someone’s phone rings or someone makes a comment,
0:28:58 you’re able to go out of the speech,
0:29:00 interact with them, and come back in
0:29:01 and be present in the moment.
0:29:04 That’s the difference between internalizing and memorizing.
0:29:09 – I feel like that works in many most situations.
0:29:12 But sometimes, like for example,
0:29:14 I do this presentation called the IAB Up Runs.
0:29:17 It’s like the biggest podcast advertising event.
0:29:20 And I just have 10 minutes.
0:29:24 So for every other speech, I just know my stuff
0:29:26 and it’s really natural.
0:29:30 But for the 10 minute timed one, I need to memorize it
0:29:34 so that I can get every single point that I want to cross.
0:29:36 And I just memorize it and just do it
0:29:38 and try to be as engaging as possible.
0:29:39 What are your thoughts on that?
0:29:40 – Well, that depends on the goal.
0:29:43 If your goal is to get those specific words
0:29:46 in that specific order out, then yes, memorize it.
0:29:47 Like your elevator pitch, right?
0:29:48 – Exactly.
0:29:51 – If the goal is to engage in having a conversation
0:29:53 with the audience, which is most of public speaking,
0:29:55 then you should not memorize.
0:29:56 Imagine having a conversation with someone
0:29:58 who’s memorized every sentence of their conversation.
0:30:00 – Oh yeah, you could tell that in a sales pitch
0:30:02 and you’re like, oh my God, this guy is just so–
0:30:03 – Exactly, exactly.
0:30:06 So if there is a performance element to it, then absolutely.
0:30:08 As long as you don’t sound like you’ve rehearsed
0:30:09 every single word.
0:30:11 – Exactly, okay, cool.
0:30:12 Glad you’re aligned with that.
0:30:15 Pauses and breaths, how should we think about them?
0:30:17 – At the end of the sentence
0:30:21 and when you want to create anticipation.
0:30:22 So I try to use it at the end of a sentence
0:30:24 because if I don’t pause,
0:30:26 usually an um or a will stick in.
0:30:28 And you’ll find when most people have ums or us,
0:30:30 they don’t quite know what to say next
0:30:33 and they’re afraid of the silence in between.
0:30:36 So then they add a little um or a in there
0:30:38 and that buys them some time.
0:30:41 So that sounds a little bit like this.
0:30:45 Instead, so that sounds like this.
0:30:47 Just removing that and being comfortable
0:30:49 with silence really helps.
0:30:50 And then also what I like to do
0:30:52 is whenever I’m making a big point,
0:30:55 I’ll combine this with high volume
0:30:57 and then I will drop the energy and I’ll pause.
0:31:00 So for example, I was getting this birthday gift,
0:31:01 I was so excited about it,
0:31:04 I finally opened the gift and I couldn’t believe that.
0:31:08 It was a pair of socks, I always wanted.
0:31:13 High energy, pause, drop energy.
0:31:14 Can you see how much you felt that in that moment?
0:31:18 – Yeah, so let’s talk about working the stage, right?
0:31:21 How can we first of all tell
0:31:23 if people are unengaged and engaged?
0:31:26 And what are the ways that aside from what we’re saying
0:31:28 that we can engage people?
0:31:31 – The biggest mistake, or rather I’d say the biggest
0:31:34 missed opportunity for most people, Hala,
0:31:37 is getting off stage, on stage.
0:31:39 Now you might be thinking, what do you mean?
0:31:41 If you look at my last keynote,
0:31:44 I start the speech on stage, then I get off stage
0:31:47 and I start talking to people individually.
0:31:48 What happens then?
0:31:51 Now they know he’s not just gonna talk for an hour.
0:31:53 I am in his speech.
0:31:54 He’s going to ask me questions,
0:31:57 whether it’s raise your hand, nod your head.
0:31:59 What comes to mind when I say this word?
0:32:02 I’m having a conversation with them the entire time.
0:32:04 And you’ll notice no one else does that
0:32:05 because they come out of the stage,
0:32:06 they say their slides and then they hop off.
0:32:09 But the moment you step off the stage,
0:32:11 now you’re one of them.
0:32:12 Now you’re having a conversation,
0:32:14 you’re not, hey, I’m this mighty public speaker up here,
0:32:16 please listen to me, bow down to me.
0:32:19 You talk to them and then you go back up on stage.
0:32:21 So every single time I’ll talk about something,
0:32:24 I’ll ask a question, I’ll go off stage,
0:32:26 have a conversation, bring it back.
0:32:28 So for example, in one of my modules,
0:32:30 I’ll say, what do you think is the number one thing
0:32:33 or what mistake people make in their presentations?
0:32:35 Shout some words at me as I walk around.
0:32:37 I’ll get off stage, I’ll walk around
0:32:39 and I’ll collect all the words from them.
0:32:41 So I heard this, I heard that, I heard this.
0:32:42 All of those are great answers,
0:32:44 but that’s not number one thing.
0:32:46 And then I will go into my speech.
0:32:47 So how are they feeling?
0:32:50 Hey, everything that we said is contributing to his speech
0:32:53 and now it’s a conversation and not a performance.
0:32:57 – So let’s say this is a meeting or an investor’s pitch.
0:32:59 How can you tell if people are engaged or not?
0:33:02 And also talk to us about hand gestures,
0:33:05 like what can we do to make it more interesting?
0:33:07 – To answer your first question, do regular check-ins
0:33:09 and regular check-ins are just these quick questions.
0:33:11 Raise your hand if I’m on the right track
0:33:13 or nod your head if you’ve seen this before.
0:33:15 Just these really, really quick engagement points.
0:33:17 So you know they’re still with you.
0:33:19 If someone’s on their phone, at the very least
0:33:21 when they hear it, they know they have to be stuck back in.
0:33:25 Now a trick that I use is if I know the people in the room
0:33:27 and I wanna get their specific attention,
0:33:29 I’ll call them out by name.
0:33:30 So let’s say there’s 10 people there.
0:33:31 So for example, Michael, you remember
0:33:33 in our last meeting, right, we did XYZ.
0:33:36 So what I’m talking about here is immediately
0:33:38 when they hear their name, oh, okay.
0:33:40 Right like that. – I love that.
0:33:42 – You have to be attentive to people.
0:33:44 Now on Zoom, the way I would do this,
0:33:47 if I don’t know anyone, I see their names pop up.
0:33:49 So I showed up.
0:33:51 I had no idea who anyone was in the room.
0:33:52 I was really nervous.
0:33:54 Hala, what do you think I did in that moment?
0:33:56 Exactly, I was really nervous before my speech.
0:33:58 So I would just look at their name.
0:34:01 I would get their attention, I will place them into my speech.
0:34:03 That way they feel acknowledged throughout.
0:34:04 So if there’s 50 people in my Zoom call,
0:34:06 I will take many different names throughout it
0:34:09 so every single person feels recognized throughout it.
0:34:10 Remind me of your second question.
0:34:12 – Your body language in general.
0:34:14 Hand gestures, body language, what do you recommend?
0:34:15 – Yeah.
0:34:17 Does it aid the story?
0:34:19 Does it aid the purpose?
0:34:21 Body language can get very distracting as well.
0:34:23 I remember I used to do this entire play with my hands
0:34:26 and people had to tell me, hey, relax a little bit.
0:34:27 You’re putting on this.
0:34:29 It doesn’t contribute to your story.
0:34:31 So if it adds to the story, great.
0:34:33 I naturally use my hands a lot.
0:34:35 But in meeting specifically,
0:34:38 I’ve noticed that the more control your hands are,
0:34:40 the more confident you sound.
0:34:42 Because if you ask me a question,
0:34:46 Yasser, are you really a good public speaking coach?
0:34:48 Oh yeah, yeah, I’m a great public speaking coach.
0:34:49 I’ve done a lot.
0:34:53 You can see all this uncontrolled movement in the moment
0:34:56 and that shows you I’m not very confident.
0:34:59 Now, whereas if you asked me the same question
0:35:01 and I’d moved nothing about my body,
0:35:03 Yasser, why are you such a good public speaker?
0:35:05 I’m a really good public speaker because I’ve done this enough.
0:35:07 I didn’t move my body at all,
0:35:11 but that showed stability and calmness and composure.
0:35:12 So it really depends on the context.
0:35:14 It’s not just more or less.
0:35:15 It’s what’s the context?
0:35:17 What are you trying to communicate?
0:35:22 And I also heard you say the power of showing your palms.
0:35:24 Yeah.
0:35:26 What does that do for us psychologically?
0:35:28 Well, what happens when we can’t see someone’s hands?
0:35:30 Psychologically, we just don’t know
0:35:32 what they’re holding in their hands.
0:35:33 We don’t know if they’re holding a weapon
0:35:34 or what it might be.
0:35:36 If someone’s hands are under the desk
0:35:37 in their pocket behind their hands,
0:35:41 subconsciously, it creates uncertainty.
0:35:44 Hmm, I can’t see his hands or I can’t see her hands.
0:35:45 I wonder what they’re doing.
0:35:47 I wonder what they’re hiding, right?
0:35:49 So similarly, if someone puts on a hoodie
0:35:51 in the middle of the night and is walking down the street
0:35:53 and you’re walking towards them,
0:35:55 just because it’s dark, you can’t see them.
0:35:58 They’ve got a hoodie on, there’s uncertainty.
0:36:01 So that’s why when you reveal your palms,
0:36:02 it shows that you’re friendly.
0:36:05 It shows that there’s a lack of, I’m not hiding anything.
0:36:08 So open palm gestures tend to be much easier
0:36:10 in the eyes to perceive a message.
0:36:13 Okay, so we’re about to do a fun little segment.
0:36:15 It’s a quick fire segment.
0:36:18 It’s gonna be getting tips on delivering our content better.
0:36:21 I’m gonna rattle off a word like intelligence,
0:36:23 and then you can tell me how we can sound more intelligent.
0:36:26 I might even rattle off a celebrity name
0:36:27 or something like that, okay?
0:36:28 Let’s do it.
0:36:30 Persuasive.
0:36:32 Admit to your own limitations first
0:36:34 before you tell them what to do.
0:36:35 Give me an example.
0:36:38 So if I said, go vegan, it’ll change your life.
0:36:40 Your diet sucks.
0:36:41 You’re probably not gonna go vegan.
0:36:43 But if I said, man, I love eating meat,
0:36:46 but I for some reason when I would go to my jujitsu class,
0:36:48 my stamina would just run out.
0:36:50 Then I met this guy who said, hey, have you tried going vegan?
0:36:52 I said, are you out of your mind?
0:36:53 He said, I didn’t like it either,
0:36:55 but I tried going vegan, it really helped.
0:36:56 So I said, okay, I tried it for a month
0:36:58 and oh my God, did it help.
0:37:00 My stamina was through the roof.
0:37:02 So if your stamina’s an issue, give it a shot.
0:37:03 Which one was better? – Love that.
0:37:05 The second one for sure.
0:37:08 Okay, intelligence or smart?
0:37:11 – Count the number of things you will share.
0:37:13 So if I said, Hala, today I’m gonna share
0:37:14 a couple of things with you
0:37:15 that will help with public speaking.
0:37:18 Or, Hala, today I’m gonna share five things
0:37:20 that will help you with public speaking.
0:37:22 Which one sounds more intelligent?
0:37:23 – The five things.
0:37:24 – All I did was number it.
0:37:27 And it does so much because it makes you think,
0:37:29 oh, this person has thought about it enough
0:37:33 that they know how many numbers are tied to that equation.
0:37:35 Quick little tip.
0:37:36 – Love that.
0:37:38 Alex Hermosi.
0:37:40 – It’s funny, I was front row in his workshop,
0:37:42 so I got to see him live.
0:37:44 The one word that comes to mind with him
0:37:48 is he’s so real and authentic in the moment
0:37:50 that because he’s real,
0:37:53 whatever he says, it goes straight to our heart.
0:37:55 It’s not a performance.
0:37:56 He’s not reading off on his lies.
0:37:58 He genuinely feels anything.
0:38:01 And remember this, if they don’t feel it, they forget it.
0:38:02 If they don’t feel it, they forget it.
0:38:05 And every time Alex speaks, he feels.
0:38:06 And that’s why so many of us
0:38:08 remember so many of his quotes.
0:38:09 – Love that.
0:38:11 Imaginative.
0:38:13 – If you want to transport people
0:38:15 somewhere in your story,
0:38:17 one of the most powerful words you can use
0:38:19 is the word imagine.
0:38:22 And better yet, place them in your story
0:38:24 with a phrase so they can imagine themselves there.
0:38:26 Now, I don’t really know if you remember this, Hala,
0:38:29 but when I told you my story of when I came to Canada,
0:38:32 I said, if you were there in the room with me,
0:38:35 you would have seen me walk to the,
0:38:36 what are you doing when I say that?
0:38:37 You imagine. – Visualizing.
0:38:40 – Exactly, so when you’re telling a story,
0:38:42 don’t just say, I did this, then this, then this happened.
0:38:44 Now you’re telling a sequence of events.
0:38:46 Put the person in the room with you there.
0:38:47 Get them to imagine.
0:38:50 – Okay, last one, compassionate or empathetic?
0:38:52 How can we be more compassionate?
0:38:53 – I’ve got a TED talk on empathy,
0:38:55 so I’m gonna have to go empathy between the two of them.
0:38:58 But I had to run in with someone who,
0:39:00 it was a small town in Canada,
0:39:02 and I was doing door-to-door sales.
0:39:04 And I knocked their door and they opened the door.
0:39:06 And the first thing they said was,
0:39:09 get off my lawn, you effing Hindu.
0:39:10 – Oh my God.
0:39:12 – And that was four months in Canada.
0:39:14 Now you can imagine my reaction.
0:39:16 Now, at the time I was really traumatized by it,
0:39:18 but I heard it so much throughout the summer,
0:39:20 a lot of this racism that eventually just stopped
0:39:23 and asked him, hey, what happened?
0:39:24 Where did this come from?
0:39:26 And he told me a story about some guy
0:39:28 who looked like me, who broke into his car and stole it.
0:39:30 And about two hours later,
0:39:32 I ended up walking out of his house
0:39:33 selling him an alarm system.
0:39:35 And all of that happened because I was able to empathize
0:39:39 with someone who just hated the idea of my very existence.
0:39:41 So that’s how far empathy can take you
0:39:44 and expand more on that in my TED talk.
0:39:45 – Amazing.
0:39:46 So I’ll stick your TED talk link in the show notes.
0:39:49 Let’s double tap on intelligence.
0:39:51 I think people get a lot of things wrong
0:39:55 when it comes to trying to sound intelligent.
0:39:57 Can you talk to us about how we can make
0:40:01 really complex things easier to understand?
0:40:02 – I’ll give you a perfect example.
0:40:03 You mentioned Hermose earlier.
0:40:06 I was at Hermose’s workshop.
0:40:08 And one of the things they do in the workshop
0:40:09 is you have these round tables
0:40:11 where you sit with one of the people on his team
0:40:13 and you’ve got about 10 people.
0:40:15 And we have a minute to ask a question
0:40:18 and they give you a response and it’s the next person.
0:40:20 So I was noticing this person next to me,
0:40:22 he would ask a question.
0:40:23 So this is my business
0:40:25 and I’m trying to do this other thing.
0:40:27 And also, by the way, my wife does this.
0:40:28 And so five years ago,
0:40:31 he’s giving his entire life story
0:40:33 and then he gets the answer
0:40:34 and he’s not satisfied with the answer.
0:40:37 He does that two times and three times.
0:40:38 And I lean over to him and I say,
0:40:42 “Hey, listen, I don’t know what your question is.
0:40:45 I don’t know how he knows how to answer your question.
0:40:49 Why don’t you start by asking your question
0:40:52 and then providing the details and see if that helps?”
0:40:54 So the next round table he had was he said,
0:40:59 “Hey, I have a lot of followers, but they’re not converting.
0:41:02 For context, X, Y, Z, what do I do?”
0:41:03 And then he got a good answer.
0:41:06 And he said, “Man, what happened there?”
0:41:08 I said, “You know what happened?
0:41:10 You hadn’t processed your own thoughts.
0:41:13 You threw your unprocessed thoughts at the other person.
0:41:15 You were hoping they would untangle those thoughts,
0:41:18 find the question and somehow give you a good answer.
0:41:20 It does not make you sound intelligent.
0:41:22 Instead, it makes you sound lazy.”
0:41:24 So first think about what you want to ask.
0:41:27 Start with a point and then go into the details.
0:41:29 So if someone’s trying to sound more intelligent,
0:41:31 sound like you’ve thought about
0:41:33 what you’re about to say first.
0:41:35 – And then how about using big words?
0:41:36 Is that helpful at all?
0:41:37 – Not at all.
0:41:40 In fact, when I’m working with CEOs,
0:41:45 the number one thing I have to do is simplify everything.
0:41:48 I work with a lot of people in the web three crypto space
0:41:50 and they have so many terms
0:41:51 that they don’t want to throw at people.
0:41:52 And one of the clients just yesterday,
0:41:55 he was not even two minutes into the pitch.
0:41:56 I said, “Listen, you lost me.
0:41:58 I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
0:41:59 He said, “But these are important.”
0:42:02 I said, “Listen, do the people who are investing
0:42:04 in your business, do they understand this terminology?”
0:42:05 No.
0:42:08 Then simplify it, use analogies, use metaphors,
0:42:10 use stories to put me in the room.
0:42:12 That’s how you get their attention.
0:42:13 So yes, simplify it.
0:42:15 Don’t worry about the vocabulary.
0:42:16 – I know you have this great technique
0:42:18 called the PAM technique
0:42:21 to help people understand and simplify concepts.
0:42:23 Could you break that down for us?
0:42:25 – Phrases, analogies and metaphors.
0:42:27 So your phrases would be your one-liner.
0:42:30 So if I said, “I have a dream,”
0:42:32 who’s the person who comes to mind?
0:42:33 – Martin Luther King.
0:42:35 – If I said the name, Alex Hermose,
0:42:36 what’s the quote that comes to mind?
0:42:39 – Focus is more important than anything.
0:42:42 – So can you see how the moment you think of a person,
0:42:43 a quote comes to mind,
0:42:45 the moment you think of a quote, a person comes to mind?
0:42:48 – That’s the importance of having these repeatable quotes.
0:42:50 Most people don’t have them in their back pocket.
0:42:53 So earlier, like I said, purpose over praise.
0:42:55 That’s a quote, that’s a phrase.
0:42:58 So when you repeat these phrases enough times,
0:43:00 people associate that phrase with you.
0:43:02 So Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon,
0:43:04 one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
0:43:06 Tell me a single word
0:43:08 from the rest of his speech or transmission.
0:43:10 No one has any idea exactly.
0:43:11 Simon Sinek, start with why.
0:43:12 Tell me a single word.
0:43:14 No one knows.
0:43:16 So you have to have these phrases in your back pocket
0:43:17 and then you have to have analogies.
0:43:20 So for example, I like to tell people,
0:43:21 hey, if you’re gonna speak,
0:43:25 start with the gift, then the gift wrapped.
0:43:29 The analogy says, don’t tell me the 50,000 points
0:43:31 without the actual message and takeaway.
0:43:32 Tell me what the purpose is
0:43:34 and then give me the details.
0:43:37 Start with the gift, then find the gift wrap.
0:43:39 So can you see how the analogy
0:43:41 and the metaphor helps your understanding?
0:43:42 Take a familiar concept
0:43:45 and use that to explain an unfamiliar concept.
0:43:47 That would be your metaphor and analogies.
0:43:49 – So one other tip that you give
0:43:52 is actually listening to smart things,
0:43:54 listening to other smart people.
0:43:55 How does that help us,
0:43:57 especially in day-to-day communications?
0:44:00 – If you think about how we learn a language,
0:44:02 especially when we’re babies,
0:44:03 how do we learn?
0:44:04 We learn from our parents.
0:44:05 We learn from people around us.
0:44:08 We subconsciously absorb it.
0:44:11 How many toddlers are going to language classes?
0:44:12 I imagine not many.
0:44:14 Maybe Elon Musk did, I don’t know.
0:44:16 But we don’t learn through courses and classrooms.
0:44:18 We learn through exposure.
0:44:20 So similarly, what kind of material
0:44:23 are you exposing yourself to every single day?
0:44:24 What are you reading?
0:44:25 Who are you listening to?
0:44:26 If they’re listening to your podcast,
0:44:28 I imagine they have a very rich vocabulary.
0:44:31 The moment you start listening to all these things
0:44:32 and it’s sinking to your brain,
0:44:34 you won’t even realize,
0:44:36 you start saying things that you’ve heard in podcasts,
0:44:38 but you don’t even know you heard it somewhere.
0:44:40 Until someone says, oh, I’ve heard that somewhere.
0:44:41 Where did you say that from?
0:44:42 Because subconsciously,
0:44:44 all of this is sitting in your head.
0:44:48 So you have to really carefully guard what you allow in
0:44:51 and what you don’t allow in terms of your intellect.
0:44:52 – We’ll be right back
0:44:55 after a quick break from our sponsors.
0:44:59 – Hey, AppBam, launching my LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass
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0:45:11 I needed a monthly subscription option.
0:45:12 I needed chat capabilities.
0:45:15 I needed a laundry list of features
0:45:18 to enable what I was envisioning with my course.
0:45:19 But here’s the thing,
0:45:22 all I had to do was literally lift a finger
0:45:23 to get it all done.
0:45:26 And that’s because I used Shopify.
0:45:32 Shopify is the easiest way to sell anything,
0:45:34 to sell online or in person.
0:45:37 It’s the home of the number one checkout on the planet.
0:45:39 And Shopify is not so secret,
0:45:42 the secret is Shoppay, which boosts conversions up to 50%.
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0:46:23 Go to Shopify.com/profiting to upgrade your selling today,
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0:46:34 So something that I wanna talk to you about in detail
0:46:36 is storytelling.
0:46:38 Because I feel like storytelling is so important,
0:46:40 even when it comes to relationships,
0:46:42 we were just talking about dating.
0:46:44 I think being a good storyteller just makes you more
0:46:47 engaging, more interesting to people.
0:46:49 What are some of the ways that storytelling
0:46:51 helps us in our communication?
0:46:52 What does storytelling do?
0:46:55 How do people feel when they hear stories?
0:46:58 – The most important thing that I feel storytelling does
0:47:00 is just memorable.
0:47:02 People just remember for much longer.
0:47:05 So if I asked you, do you want people to remember
0:47:06 what you said?
0:47:07 – Yes, okay.
0:47:10 Do you want to share your message in a way
0:47:10 that people remember it?
0:47:13 Yes, then you must do it in a format of a story.
0:47:15 How many of your three-hour lectures do you remember
0:47:17 from college alone?
0:47:17 – Like none.
0:47:18 – Exactly.
0:47:21 How many movies since you were a child do you remember?
0:47:22 – A plenty.
0:47:23 – And all of those are stories.
0:47:25 I imagine none of those were 30 bullet points
0:47:26 from start to finish, right?
0:47:27 – No.
0:47:29 – So you have to learn to create imagery
0:47:31 and you have to get people to feel something.
0:47:34 If they don’t feel anything, they will not remember it.
0:47:36 I’ll give you a really strange example here.
0:47:39 When I was a kid, I had a costume party
0:47:41 when I was about seven years old at school
0:47:43 and I had this crush on a girl
0:47:45 and she was going to dress up as Pikachu.
0:47:47 So I said, okay, what goes well with Pikachu?
0:47:49 I’m thinking of all the best costumes
0:47:51 and for some reason I come up with Bugs Bunny, right?
0:47:53 So I show up as Bugs Bunny in the moment
0:47:56 and I’m trying to impress her and she says,
0:47:58 “Oh, Yasser, of course you’re Bugs Bunny.”
0:47:59 Like, oh, how did you know?
0:48:02 Oh, because of your two large ugly front teeth.
0:48:04 – Aw.
0:48:07 – And I didn’t forget that for 20 years, hello.
0:48:10 That one single sentence for 20 years
0:48:13 because of how she made me feel in that moment.
0:48:15 And the reason I say that is because that story,
0:48:17 I’ve told so many times to so many people
0:48:20 that, hey, the words that come out of your mouth,
0:48:21 they’re important.
0:48:24 What you say might not be what they hear.
0:48:26 You might say something as a joke to somebody
0:48:29 but they might remember it for a very, very long time.
0:48:31 That’s why when you’re telling a story,
0:48:33 similarly, you can have positive words,
0:48:35 positive phrases that people will remember
0:48:36 for a very, very long time.
0:48:40 For example, Karen in the first meeting that I ever met her
0:48:40 in Toastmasters, she said,
0:48:43 “It takes one small step to change your life.”
0:48:44 I still remember that.
0:48:46 It’s been more than a decade.
0:48:48 – So talk to us about how we can become
0:48:49 better story tellers.
0:48:51 Like, how can we start to infuse stories
0:48:54 and the things that we do and get better at it?
0:48:57 Is there a formula or like, how should we think about it?
0:48:59 – There are three things that I talk about.
0:49:01 The three R’s to be remembered.
0:49:04 The first R is your story has to be repeatable.
0:49:07 If I hear the story, can I hear it long enough
0:49:09 to then repeat it to someone else?
0:49:11 So if you’ve heard your favorite standup comedian,
0:49:12 you have this bit that you like.
0:49:15 Oh, he has a great bit on dating or great bit on whatever.
0:49:17 You can repeat it to other people.
0:49:20 If I can’t repeat it, I won’t remember it.
0:49:21 So first thing has to be repeatable.
0:49:24 Number two, does it relay emotion?
0:49:27 Do I feel something when I hear your story?
0:49:28 I can tell you about how I got into my car
0:49:31 and I got gas and I came back home.
0:49:32 What’s the point?
0:49:34 It’s a pointless story, but is there a point too?
0:49:36 And you’ll be shocked how many things
0:49:37 you can make sound emotional.
0:49:40 Like, earlier we talked about cleaning the dishes
0:49:41 and just with the volume,
0:49:43 we made it sound a little bit emotional, right?
0:49:46 Someone asked me in a conference of 500 loan officers,
0:49:48 napkins and we made napkins emotional.
0:49:51 So can you talk about that with emotion?
0:49:53 Can you resonate and relay your emotion?
0:49:56 And number three, I feel like this is the strongest thing
0:49:57 when it comes to storytelling.
0:50:00 Can you reframe an existing belief?
0:50:03 If your story tells me what I already know,
0:50:04 it’s not changing my belief.
0:50:06 Can you take me from point A to point B
0:50:09 and reframe how I look at the world?
0:50:11 That’s what a good story does.
0:50:13 So three things, it has to be repeatable.
0:50:14 You have to relay emotion
0:50:16 and it has to reframe your beliefs.
0:50:17 – It’s so true.
0:50:20 Stories really trigger our own emotions.
0:50:22 We feel more relatable to the person talking
0:50:26 and to your point, it helps us question our own beliefs.
0:50:29 And that’s the point, especially with social media,
0:50:31 gets people commenting and giving their thoughts
0:50:33 or agreeing, they’re disagreeing
0:50:35 and it causes a lot of engagement.
0:50:36 – Add one more quarter to that.
0:50:38 You said something really amazing there.
0:50:40 You said about how they change the belief.
0:50:43 A quote that I love, because I created it,
0:50:45 is good speakers tell you what to do.
0:50:48 Memorable speakers make you question what is true.
0:50:51 They make you change your beliefs.
0:50:52 And if they don’t make you change your beliefs
0:50:54 or you’re not gonna see the world any different.
0:50:55 – So I know we were just talking
0:50:58 about how you grew a great personal brand
0:51:01 on Instagram, on TikTok.
0:51:03 How do you infuse storytelling
0:51:06 to get people emotionally attached to you?
0:51:08 – I haven’t done a great job of that
0:51:10 to be very transparent with you.
0:51:11 I’m always talking about tips and tricks
0:51:12 and all of these things
0:51:14 that I never really talked about it much
0:51:15 until my clients started telling me,
0:51:18 hey, I love that one video you made
0:51:20 where you talked about your ADHD.
0:51:23 I love how you talk about, oh, you mean you actually like that?
0:51:24 That’s not filler content.
0:51:27 And then I started tapping into that quite a bit more.
0:51:28 I don’t know what it is with me, Hala.
0:51:29 Maybe it’s my childhood,
0:51:32 but I feel like if I tell people stories
0:51:34 where I struggled in the past,
0:51:37 it’s gonna be a downer and people will feel worse off.
0:51:40 But I’ve learned over time, if you share your pain,
0:51:43 it’s almost always in the audience’s game.
0:51:43 – Oh yeah.
0:51:46 – So now I’ve started leaning into it more and more.
0:51:48 So it’s only recently that I’ve been talking about
0:51:50 all the mess ups I’ve had with my clients,
0:51:52 all the terrible advice I’ve given them,
0:51:54 how I used to be anxious with my public speaking
0:51:57 and now people are starting to relate to it.
0:51:59 So I imagine my following might grow a little bit faster now,
0:52:01 but to give you an honest answer,
0:52:02 I didn’t use much storytelling
0:52:04 in all this content up until now.
0:52:05 – I love that you’re being honest about this.
0:52:07 Now, I also am very similar
0:52:10 where I’m always giving entrepreneurship advice
0:52:12 and interview clips of other people.
0:52:16 Now, whenever I replay something like my MIT speech
0:52:19 that you mentioned, where I’m giving my own personal story,
0:52:24 I get 10 times more DMs where people go out of their way.
0:52:27 Hey, I heard that and oh my gosh, I totally relate.
0:52:29 And I just want to say you’re doing such a great job.
0:52:33 So much more actionable things that people do,
0:52:34 like aside from just commenting,
0:52:36 they really go out of their way
0:52:37 and I get so much more engagement.
0:52:40 So it’s so important for you to share your story.
0:52:42 It makes people feel like they know you better,
0:52:43 you’re an old friend,
0:52:45 and then they support you more because of it.
0:52:47 – Emotion creates devotion.
0:52:48 – Mm.
0:52:51 – And it’s hard to relay emotion with tips and tricks.
0:52:53 When was the last time you gave your teacher
0:52:54 a standing ovation?
0:52:55 – I don’t know.
0:52:57 – Unless they share the story, never, right?
0:52:59 They’re giving you tips and tricks very helpful
0:53:00 that you won’t give them a standing ovation.
0:53:03 But when someone sings a song with their heart,
0:53:05 when someone delivers a performance, hell,
0:53:07 I’ve been in cinemas where a movie ended,
0:53:08 there’s no one there.
0:53:10 People will stand up and clap, why?
0:53:13 Because it’s the emotion that creates the devotion.
0:53:14 I was speaking with a coach
0:53:16 and I used to listen to his speech and I said,
0:53:18 “Listen, you always got a standing ovation at the end.
0:53:20 I’m doing all these workshops and public speaking.
0:53:21 I’m so valuable.
0:53:22 How come I don’t get it?”
0:53:24 He said, “Because people don’t feel anything.”
0:53:27 And storytelling, that’s what makes people feel something.
0:53:28 So try ending with a story,
0:53:31 end it with a story and guess what, standing ovation.
0:53:33 – So I’ve got some advice for you.
0:53:36 I teach personal branding and I help influencers
0:53:39 grow on social media and LinkedIn specifically.
0:53:41 And one of the things that I tell my students
0:53:43 is to create a story journal.
0:53:48 So everybody has 10, 20, 30 stories,
0:53:50 milestones that have happened in their life.
0:53:53 They got fired, they had a transformation,
0:53:54 they were an intern and they became a CEO.
0:53:55 Somebody died.
0:53:59 Everybody has big milestone stories.
0:54:01 But the problem is that when you tell them
0:54:03 to share their stories online,
0:54:05 they’re like, “Why don’t, I don’t have any stories.”
0:54:06 But everybody has stories.
0:54:08 You got to write them down
0:54:09 and then you’ve got to say them
0:54:11 in a million different ways.
0:54:12 So what are your thoughts about that?
0:54:15 Like how can people prepare their storytelling
0:54:16 and anything to add there?
0:54:18 – I love that, I love that.
0:54:21 So, okay, this is going to be a really weird example.
0:54:22 I’m going to tell you a really quick story.
0:54:24 I spent a month and a half
0:54:27 preparing the perfect intro for a keynote I had coming up.
0:54:30 I wanted to get, yeah, just the first sentence of it.
0:54:32 And the first sentence was going to be,
0:54:34 I have a confession to make.
0:54:36 You might have heard that I’ve got all these followers,
0:54:38 but there was a time that I wasn’t very confident.
0:54:41 And I was going to go into my speech about my journey.
0:54:43 Let’s start on a very somber note.
0:54:45 And the night before my keynote,
0:54:48 I’m having a dinner with the team
0:54:50 and they noticed that I’m not drinking.
0:54:51 I don’t drink.
0:54:52 They said, okay, you also, you don’t drink?
0:54:53 I said, no.
0:54:54 They said, oh, I also noticed
0:54:55 you didn’t drink any coffee in the morning.
0:54:56 How come you don’t drink coffee?
0:54:59 I said, oh, it was because it dehydrates me.
0:55:01 And then he said, so what?
0:55:03 And I was thinking, okay, how do I explain to them?
0:55:04 How do I say this?
0:55:05 So here’s the thing.
0:55:08 I make money with my mouth.
0:55:10 So it dehydrates me.
0:55:12 But before I could say the dehydration part,
0:55:14 everyone started laughing.
0:55:16 And then I realized what I had just said.
0:55:18 And they said, that’s what you should open your keynote with.
0:55:20 I said, are you out of your mind?
0:55:22 And they’re like, no, no, no, open with that.
0:55:25 So now I’ve spent a month and a half on that perfect line.
0:55:27 And the next day I said, okay, let me try it.
0:55:29 And I tried it and it killed.
0:55:31 It completely killed. – Amazing.
0:55:33 – So that was the story of just in the moment
0:55:36 how I came up with it because of what happened there.
0:55:37 And that was the story, right?
0:55:38 It was a quick little anecdote
0:55:40 that I pulled into the speech.
0:55:42 So every single day, like you’re saying,
0:55:44 you’re gonna have experiences that give you a story.
0:55:46 Lore the bar what a story is.
0:55:48 Yesterday I was in line for 15 minutes
0:55:50 for some new coffee shop that opened up.
0:55:51 That was terrible.
0:55:53 And I’m thinking, what’s the message?
0:55:54 Life’s too short to wait.
0:55:56 That’s the message.
0:55:58 You can just practice that with everything every day.
0:55:59 – Yeah.
0:56:00 And I love what you’re saying here
0:56:03 because you’re saying stories don’t have to be like long
0:56:04 and complicated.
0:56:07 Stories can actually be simple, right?
0:56:09 You’ve got this prep formula.
0:56:11 Can you go over what that is?
0:56:13 And then maybe can we do some role playing related to that?
0:56:14 – Sure.
0:56:15 And by the way, this is not my formula.
0:56:16 I learned it from Stanford.
0:56:17 So I want to give you the credit.
0:56:18 – Oh, okay.
0:56:20 So Stanford’s formula, but we’re learning it from yes.
0:56:22 – It’s point reason example point.
0:56:25 And it’s mainly for, let’s say you’ve got an impromptu speech
0:56:27 or you want to say something and make sense of it.
0:56:28 You give a point of something.
0:56:30 You provide an example of it.
0:56:32 Reason and example and then a point.
0:56:36 I do PRP or PSP point reason point point story point.
0:56:38 Just because I find that I naturally infuse
0:56:39 an example in there.
0:56:43 So why don’t you give me a random question
0:56:44 and I’m going to give you a terrible answer
0:56:46 and then we’ll try to implement it in there.
0:56:47 – Okay.
0:56:49 Why did you become a public speaker?
0:56:52 – Oh man, there’s so many reasons I became a public speaker.
0:56:54 You know, I always wanted to share my message
0:56:56 and there’s so many things I’m interested in
0:57:00 like a public speaking confidence and reading books
0:57:00 and mindful.
0:57:01 I wanted to share that with people.
0:57:04 And yeah, you know, it’s always been like a goal of mine
0:57:06 and yeah, that’s why I’m a public speaker.
0:57:07 – Pretty bad.
0:57:09 – All over the place.
0:57:11 Have you heard an answer like that before?
0:57:12 – Oh yeah.
0:57:13 – Nine times out of 10, right?
0:57:14 Now what I’m going to do,
0:57:15 I’m going to say the exact same thing.
0:57:17 I’m just going to structure it differently.
0:57:19 I’m going to pick one specific reason
0:57:20 and I’m going to go into that.
0:57:22 Okay, so ask me that question again.
0:57:24 – Why did you become a public speaker?
0:57:27 – I became a public speaker to show other people
0:57:29 how important their voice is.
0:57:32 Hello, when I grew up, I didn’t speak for 20 years
0:57:34 because there was a little girl who made fun of my teeth
0:57:37 and I was embarrassed to open my mouth.
0:57:39 But when I started practicing public speaking,
0:57:42 I realized how many more people were being affected
0:57:44 with the words that were coming out of my mouth.
0:57:47 So now it was my responsibility to open my mouth
0:57:49 and I want to show other people through my public speaking
0:57:51 that their voice matters as well.
0:57:53 That’s why I got into public speaking.
0:57:55 – I can imagine this could be really helpful
0:57:57 to prepare for networking events
0:57:59 ’cause everyone’s going to ask you the same questions,
0:58:00 like what do you do for a living
0:58:01 and what are you passionate about?
0:58:03 – Exactly.
0:58:07 If you just script three questions one time in your life,
0:58:10 it will make you successful in every single network.
0:58:11 Just what do you do?
0:58:12 Why are you here?
0:58:13 Tell me about yourself.
0:58:14 That’s it.
0:58:18 Just script them one time and then you will be good for life.
0:58:19 But you’ll be shocked how many times.
0:58:21 Like, so what brought you here?
0:58:23 You know, my wife dragged me down here.
0:58:25 I’m like, oh my God, why me?
0:58:27 And then you have to just move on to the next person.
0:58:29 And I’ve been to conferences
0:58:32 where people were representing their company Hala.
0:58:34 I said, hey, what are you finding interesting
0:58:35 about the event so far?
0:58:36 – Well, I guess it’s all right.
0:58:39 You know, I’m just here for a couple of hours.
0:58:40 – What, why are you here?
0:58:41 – Yeah.
0:58:42 – I didn’t understand somebody else.
0:58:43 – You’re fired.
0:58:44 – Exactly, exactly.
0:58:45 – Yeah.
0:58:48 So I know that you are coaching CEOs now
0:58:51 and I imagine that you are taking sales calls
0:58:53 and closing and pitching these CEOs.
0:58:56 What advice do you have for the entrepreneurs tuning in
0:58:57 for how to handle a sales call
0:59:00 and some communication tips around that?
0:59:02 – Hala, if you go to my website right now
0:59:04 and you go to coaching,
0:59:06 you will see one video of me that says,
0:59:08 I am completely booked.
0:59:09 I do not have time.
0:59:11 If you want to work with me,
0:59:13 here’s $2,000 an hour book a call.
0:59:15 That’s my funnel.
0:59:18 So there was a time where I was doing sales calls.
0:59:21 I’m no longer doing sales calls.
0:59:22 Fortunately, I have such demand
0:59:23 that I can’t afford to spend them.
0:59:24 – Yeah, content marketing is working for you.
0:59:27 – Yeah, you wanted two grand an hour, right?
0:59:29 But when I did have it,
0:59:31 I would often find that if someone’s in a position
0:59:33 where they want to work on a skill
0:59:34 that’s far in the future,
0:59:35 they have no urgency.
0:59:37 Yeah, I want to become a good public speaker.
0:59:40 Yeah, I’ll say with like 20 grand, I’ll let you know.
0:59:42 But if they have a presentation coming up,
0:59:45 hey, I’m pitching my product in front of 15,000 people.
0:59:46 I’ve never stepped on stage.
0:59:48 I don’t care how much you charge, let’s do it.
0:59:49 Now it’s a lot easier for me.
0:59:51 And I just prefer working with people
0:59:54 who have a specific end goal in mind
0:59:55 because skills take time.
0:59:56 There’s no urgency around it.
0:59:58 If you’ve got a specific presentation coming up,
0:59:59 it tends to be easy.
1:00:01 So I think the sales message here is,
1:00:03 find a way to add urgency into the process.
1:00:04 Full transparency,
1:00:07 I’m probably not the best salesperson in general to ask,
1:00:10 but my content does a lot of persuasion.
1:00:11 So by the time they’re on the call,
1:00:13 I don’t really have to do a whole lot.
1:00:16 – Gasser, this has been such an amazing conversation.
1:00:18 Do you have any last bit of advice for entrepreneurs
1:00:21 related to their communication and public speaking
1:00:24 that you feel like you didn’t get a chance to share?
1:00:25 – I’ll leave you with this.
1:00:28 I never wanted to implement any of the things
1:00:29 that we just talked about today.
1:00:30 I’ve heard them a million times,
1:00:31 but I never wanted to do them.
1:00:33 Oh yeah, sounds great, right?
1:00:35 A woman came to my workshop once
1:00:36 and she said, “Gasser, I’m not very confident
1:00:37 “teach me public speaking.”
1:00:39 And I got her to speak a little bit
1:00:41 and she said, “I’m a midwife and this is what I do.”
1:00:42 I said, “Okay.”
1:00:45 And then she stopped talking after 30 seconds.
1:00:47 But I said, “Okay, can you tell me something interesting
1:00:49 “that happened to you at work?”
1:00:50 And she said, “Yeah, as a midwife,
1:00:52 “I help with delivering babies.”
1:00:53 I said, “Okay.”
1:00:55 And one day a woman came in
1:00:56 and she was delivering a baby
1:00:57 and she delivered the baby.
1:00:59 But when the baby came out,
1:01:00 the baby wasn’t breathing.
1:01:03 So all the doctors immediately went,
1:01:05 they did CPR, tried to resuscitate the baby
1:01:06 over and over again.
1:01:09 They tried for 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds.
1:01:10 Eventually they had to call it.
1:01:11 So they looked at her and they said,
1:01:13 “Hey, Mary, it’s up to you.
1:01:15 “We did what we could.
1:01:17 “I know tomorrow Saturday, Sunday, you’re off,
1:01:18 “but do whatever you gotta do, we’ll meet on Monday.”
1:01:21 So the doctors left and Mary’s standing there in the room
1:01:24 and on one side you see a mother who just gave birth.
1:01:26 On the other side, you’re seeing a baby boy
1:01:27 who’s not breathing.
1:01:29 So in that moment, she just goes to the mother
1:01:31 and says, “Hey, can I just continue giving CPR?
1:01:34 “Can I just, like, what do I have to lose, right?”
1:01:36 So she continues giving CPR,
1:01:38 continues 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds
1:01:40 and the baby starts breathing.
1:01:41 – Wow.
1:01:44 – And immediately she wraps up the baby in a pink blanket,
1:01:46 runs down the pharmacist and says,
1:01:47 “Hey, I need medication right now
1:01:49 “to stabilize the baby’s condition.”
1:01:50 And the pharmacist says,
1:01:52 “Hey, you don’t have the authority for this.”
1:01:55 And she says, “Listen, this might not be my job
1:01:57 “but it’s my responsibility, give me the medication.”
1:01:58 She signed up with her own name,
1:02:00 brought the medication back.
1:02:02 Monday morning, all the doctors came in
1:02:05 and they see the baby breastfeeding.
1:02:07 And they’re like, “Did she deliver twins?
1:02:08 “What the heck happened there?”
1:02:10 And the mom just pointed at Mary and said,
1:02:12 “That’s the reason why my baby’s still alive.”
1:02:13 Because she was in the room.
1:02:17 She stayed Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday
1:02:19 to make sure my baby was still alive.
1:02:21 So I heard that story and I asked her,
1:02:22 “Listen, what made you stay there?
1:02:24 “You were off the weekend.”
1:02:26 Like, it was, everyone just made the decision.
1:02:31 She said, “Yasser, I realized that it was not my job.
1:02:33 “It was my responsibility.”
1:02:35 So the message I wanna give your audiences,
1:02:36 it’s not your job to rehearse.
1:02:37 It’s not your job to be prepared.
1:02:39 It’s not your job to have stories and messages.
1:02:41 But if what you’re talking about,
1:02:43 if what you say and do is important,
1:02:45 it is your responsibility to prepare
1:02:48 and rehearse for every single time you open your mouth.
1:02:50 – Oh my gosh, so good.
1:02:52 And such a great example of storytelling
1:02:53 and good storytelling.
1:02:54 Thank you, Yasser.
1:02:56 I end my show with two questions
1:02:58 and they ask all my guests.
1:03:01 The first one is what is one actionable thing
1:03:03 my young and profitors can do today
1:03:06 to become more profitable tomorrow?
1:03:08 – Tell the stories they wish they could have heard
1:03:10 when they were a child.
1:03:12 – Why when they were a child specifically?
1:03:14 – Because that’s where a lot of our trauma develops.
1:03:16 That’s where a lot of our needs and wants develops
1:03:18 and we don’t really visit them often.
1:03:20 If you look at public speaking anxiety specifically,
1:03:22 most of it happens because some teacher said something,
1:03:24 your parents were really scolding you.
1:03:26 So what would that person need to hear?
1:03:28 And then think of the stories that that person
1:03:30 would need to hear because all the adults
1:03:31 in the room you’re talking to,
1:03:33 they’re just growing up kids with the same exact drama.
1:03:35 So think of those stories and tell those stories.
1:03:37 – And what is your secret to profiting in life?
1:03:39 And this can go beyond business,
1:03:41 beyond the topic of today’s episode.
1:03:43 What is your secret to profiting in life?
1:03:45 – I’ll leave you with one last piece of advice
1:03:47 that my client gave me.
1:03:49 Are you familiar with the brand Lumi Deodorant Hala?
1:03:50 – Yes.
1:03:53 – The founder is one of our client of mine, Shannon Klingman.
1:03:54 She’s had the biggest impact on me.
1:03:58 In fact, I have her mail brand deodorant on my desk as well.
1:03:59 – Love it.
1:04:00 – When she got in a call with me,
1:04:02 I didn’t want to work with her because I was full.
1:04:04 I have no capacity.
1:04:06 And she said, whatever it is, let me know,
1:04:07 let’s just work together.
1:04:10 I said, listen, I just didn’t want to work with her.
1:04:12 It’s $5,000 a month.
1:04:14 I wanted to push her away.
1:04:16 And she said two words I will never forget.
1:04:18 She said, that’s it.
1:04:19 What do you mean?
1:04:19 It’s $5,000, that’s it?
1:04:21 That’s all you charge?
1:04:23 She was skeptical of me because of my price.
1:04:25 I have never in my life heard that.
1:04:26 After we worked together, she said,
1:04:28 Yasser, I would have paid you 25 grand
1:04:29 for the work we did together.
1:04:31 What the heck are you doing?
1:04:32 I said, listen, I’m on public speaking coach.
1:04:34 There’s a million of them out there.
1:04:35 Why would you pay me 25 grand?
1:04:38 She said, you know what made my brand successful?
1:04:40 I have the only full body deodorant in the world.
1:04:43 Everyone else has just the deodorant for the armpits.
1:04:45 The reason my brand was successful
1:04:47 is because I wasn’t trying to be better.
1:04:48 I was trying to be different.
1:04:51 So Yasser, be better at being different.
1:04:53 Be better at being different.
1:04:55 That’s why I went to working just with CEOs.
1:04:57 I bought the domain, speak like a CEO.
1:04:59 All my clients are just CEOs.
1:05:01 That’s how I profited in life.
1:05:03 So be better at being different.
1:05:05 – Yeah, so you dropped so many gems.
1:05:06 I feel like everyone learns so much.
1:05:08 Thank you for your time today.
1:05:09 Where can everybody learn more about you
1:05:11 and everything that you do?
1:05:12 – Speak like a CEO.com.
1:05:15 And if you wanna find me on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube,
1:05:16 it’s speaking with Yasser.
1:05:18 – Amazing, thank you so much.
1:05:19 – Thank you.
1:05:27 – While YAP gang, I hope you gained some valuable insights
1:05:29 into the art of public speaking
1:05:31 from my guest today, Yasser Khan.
1:05:34 Like he said, verbal communication is literally
1:05:36 how you show up to the world.
1:05:38 The words that come out of your mouth reflect on you
1:05:40 and your brand every day
1:05:43 and can have a profound impact on your success.
1:05:45 Yasser shared some great practical strategies
1:05:48 that can transform not just only how you communicate,
1:05:50 but also how you connect with your audience,
1:05:53 whether that’s in a boardroom or on a stage.
1:05:55 Here were some of my favorite pointers.
1:05:58 First, varying your volume and pace is essential
1:06:02 for capturing and maintaining your audience’s attention.
1:06:04 Slowing down your speaking pace allows your audience
1:06:07 to absorb information more effectively,
1:06:11 while fluctuations and volume can emphasize key points.
1:06:14 Next, make sure your body language and hand gestures
1:06:15 help the story that you’re telling.
1:06:18 Otherwise, it could just be distracting.
1:06:20 Often the less that you use your hands,
1:06:23 the more confident and in control you appear.
1:06:25 Also, when it comes to the words that you use,
1:06:28 internalize what you wanna say, don’t memorize it,
1:06:32 and avoid big words and overly complex language or jargon.
1:06:34 Keep things simple and use analogies and metaphors
1:06:37 to help others understand concepts.
1:06:39 By mastering basic techniques like this,
1:06:41 you can ensure that your message resonates
1:06:43 long after you finished speaking.
1:06:45 Thanks for listening to this episode
1:06:47 of Young and Profiting Podcast.
1:06:48 If you listened, learned, and profited
1:06:51 from the public speaking insights of Yostra Khan,
1:06:54 then why not let somebody else do the same?
1:06:57 And if you did enjoy this show and you learned something,
1:06:59 then please take a couple of minutes
1:07:02 to drop us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
1:07:04 or wherever you listen to this show.
1:07:06 I don’t think anything makes me happier
1:07:08 than getting a new review.
1:07:12 I read them every single day and they always make my day.
1:07:13 If you’re looking for me,
1:07:16 you can find me on Instagram @YapWithHala or LinkedIn
1:07:19 by searching my name, it’s Hala Taha.
1:07:22 If you like to watch your podcasts as videos,
1:07:25 you can find all of our episodes on YouTube.
1:07:26 And finally, a quick shout out
1:07:28 to my production team here at Yap Media.
1:07:30 You guys are all absolute rock stars.
1:07:32 Thank you for all that you do.
1:07:34 This is your host, Hala Taha,
1:07:37 AKA the podcast princess, signing off.
1:07:39 (upbeat music)
1:07:42 (upbeat music)
1:07:44 (upbeat music)
1:07:47 (upbeat music)
1:07:50 (upbeat music)
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