Unleashing Your Voice with Meridith Grundei | RR239

Janice Porter: 00:00:00

Hello, everyone and welcome to relationships

Janice Porter: 00:00:03

rule. I'm very excited this week to have my guest, Meredith

Janice Porter: 00:00:07

Grundy, who's here from New York, New York City, if I'm not

Janice Porter: 00:00:12

mistaken. Yes, yes. Yes. So welcome. First of all, welcome

Janice Porter: 00:00:16

to the show. Thank you. You're very welcome. Meredith is just

Janice Porter: 00:00:21

another beautiful example of someone I met on LinkedIn. And I

Janice Porter: 00:00:25

just love that right. I love Yeah, that, you know, we start

Janice Porter: 00:00:30

with a very small connection, will you connect with me, and

Janice Porter: 00:00:34

then have a conversation and it just worked. So I was so excited

Janice Porter: 00:00:38

to meet you. So what I would love for you to do, Meredith

Janice Porter: 00:00:42

first is just give my audience a little understanding of your

Janice Porter: 00:00:47

story, your background story, because what I'm going to say

Janice Porter: 00:00:50

first of all, is that Meredith went from acting to speaking but

Janice Porter: 00:00:57

in such a different way, and specializes now in public

Janice Porter: 00:01:02

speaking and presentation skills. And I'm ready to dive in

Janice Porter: 00:01:05

on that. But I want my audience to know your background where

Janice Porter: 00:01:08

how this happened. How did you go from that world of improv and

Janice Porter: 00:01:11

acting to being a speaker and a facilitator

Meridith Grundei: 00:01:15

of a very windy road? That's how

Janice Porter: 00:01:20

to be a squiggly line, very

Meridith Grundei: 00:01:22

much squiggly line? Yeah, with some loop de

Meridith Grundei: 00:01:24

loops in there. Yeah, I have always loved being on a stage, I

Meridith Grundei: 00:01:30

found it really liberating as a dancer, as a young kid. But I

Meridith Grundei: 00:01:35

was always that kid that was terrified of speaking up in

Meridith Grundei: 00:01:38

class because I was afraid of sounding stupid or saying the

Meridith Grundei: 00:01:40

wrong thing that happened in the answer, and so forth. And so I

Meridith Grundei: 00:01:43

really found liberation being on stage and just using my body to

Meridith Grundei: 00:01:47

tell a story, if you will, and the music and the choreography.

Meridith Grundei: 00:01:50

And there was one particular dance where my dance teacher for

Meridith Grundei: 00:01:55

a performance asked all of us to come up with a line of text,

Meridith Grundei: 00:01:57

which was what do you want to be when you grow up? And mine was

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:00

because I was obsessed with Wonder Woman. I said, when I was

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:04

when I grew up, I want to be just like Wonder Woman. And I

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:06

did this double turn and, and landed on both feet and said it

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:10

loud and proud from the stage. And it was from there that

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:14

someone came up to me and said, after the performance that I

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:16

should take acting classes, I think at the time I was about

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:18

12. So I was like, Okay, sure. But what I found in that was,

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:24

and it took me a while to kind of figure out that this was the

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:28

stepping stone for me starting to feel more confident, using my

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:33

voice. And I had, I had the script, of course, somebody

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:36

else's words to hide behind. But it still built this confidence

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:41

for myself. And then later on after college, and I danced my

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:46

whole my whole way through high school and college and did

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:49

theater and Beekman. It was after college, I went to

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:54

Chicago, I moved to San Francisco first then to Chicago,

Meridith Grundei: 00:02:57

where I was doing experimental theater, using improv

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:01

improvisational physical improvisational forms, and

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:04

devise to work which is making creating your own theatrical

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:08

projects. So I wasn't always working from a pre written

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:11

script. And then at that point, so I've had a very like, again,

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:15

loopty loop. I love a lot of different kinds of kinds of

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:21

theatrical expressions, if you will, on the forms within those.

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:24

But I got to Chicago and I moved there on purpose because I

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:27

wanted to study improv, I want to study specifically improv

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:32

comedy. So I interned my way through this place called IO in

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:37

Chicago, which is the home of the Herald. And I was also

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:40

teaching after school programs. And I happened to be co teaching

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:44

an after school program with one of the CO CO associated a co

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:50

founder, I don't know what her title was Associate Member,

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:53

let's say that of the Second City. And she said, Hey, we're

Meridith Grundei: 00:03:56

starting this Kids program at the second city, would you want

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:01

to be one of the new instructors that helps us develop the

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:04

curriculum for that. So then they brought me in, and I became

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:09

an associate faculty member of the Second City and I taught the

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:13

very first kids class that they ever offered there. And from

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:18

there, I started to really love teaching improv and not just

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:22

teaching it to kids, but teaching it to adults as well.

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:25

And then I started teaching in the corporate world. And I was

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:30

teaching improv on communication and heightened listening skills

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:33

and building trust, and all those awesome things that those

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:36

fun games teach that have actual, there's no real world

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:42

consequences, but all of the lessons learned are incredibly

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:45

applicable. And it was from there where I started coaching

Meridith Grundei: 00:04:48

people in public speaking. Wow, well, and I loved it. You

Janice Porter: 00:04:52

know, it feels like as as I've, as my

Janice Porter: 00:04:57

observation of people who do people who are actors, okay

Janice Porter: 00:05:01

actors improv people that generally they are camera shy as

Janice Porter: 00:05:06

themselves. And they don't like to talk about themselves and

Janice Porter: 00:05:09

they are in maybe not maybe introverted. I don't know if

Janice Porter: 00:05:12

that's the right term to use here, but, but when they are

Janice Porter: 00:05:16

somebody else as an in their acting, they become a different

Janice Porter: 00:05:21

person, because that's gives them the confidence that they

Janice Porter: 00:05:24

don't have as themselves, which I think is really interesting,

Janice Porter: 00:05:28

because it seems to me that you could be wrong, but you you are

Janice Porter: 00:05:34

developing those other skills as well about being confident in

Janice Porter: 00:05:39

yourself and looking at business at like, there's there's not

Janice Porter: 00:05:43

that direct line between improv at Second City and corporations

Janice Porter: 00:05:51

and standing on stages and teaching people to speak. That's

Janice Porter: 00:05:53

not a direct thing for sure. So were you taking business at

Janice Porter: 00:05:58

university as well or No, it just so what inspired that like

Janice Porter: 00:06:02

was it just,

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:04

I think my father, I grew up with a father

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:06

who had very much an entrepreneurial spirit, and he

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:09

was a financial manager. And he was very, very much in the

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:12

corporate world. And I remember, I remember once, when I was

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:17

living in San Francisco, he and his buddies, his colleagues, I

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:20

should say, and buddies, all came for some sort of a

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:23

conference, and they were all staying at the Marriott. And I

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:26

remember going up to the concierge room at the Marriott

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:30

to hang out with them. And I was really intrigued by what they

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:36

did for a living. And I was always really intrigued at why

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:40

it was so confusing. Well, I always, I would always hear

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:44

people titles. And I'm like, so you do what? And so I have

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:49

always been incredibly curious about that question of why is it

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:53

so complicated? Why do we and, and furthermore, I noticed that

Meridith Grundei: 00:06:58

not only does that get carried in the job descriptions when

Meridith Grundei: 00:07:01

you're applying for jobs and in the titles itself, but then that

Meridith Grundei: 00:07:04

also gets carried into how they present to customers. I love it.

Meridith Grundei: 00:07:09

You don't necessarily know what the heck they're talking about.

Meridith Grundei: 00:07:12

So I feel like my job is and I would say this, my dad all the

Meridith Grundei: 00:07:16

time when he was still alive. I'd be like, just talk to me,

Meridith Grundei: 00:07:18

like, I'm five, like, just break it down. And that was sometimes

Meridith Grundei: 00:07:23

really hard for him to do. And I think that's what's really hard

Meridith Grundei: 00:07:25

for a lot of people to do. And so it's not about talking down

Meridith Grundei: 00:07:30

to people or being condescending, it's just about

Meridith Grundei: 00:07:32

what's important.

Janice Porter: 00:07:34

Yes, yeah. That so what I was gonna say when you

Janice Porter: 00:07:37

mentioned your dad right away, I because I was thinking about a

Janice Porter: 00:07:41

different way of coming at it. But but when I was growing up,

Janice Porter: 00:07:44

my dad was always saying to me, do something you can fall back

Janice Porter: 00:07:48

on, you know, make sure you can, you know, fend for yourself and

Janice Porter: 00:07:52

look, right, because theater definitely probably wasn't it at

Janice Porter: 00:07:55

the time. God. Oh, I mean, my sister did a similar thing. She

Janice Porter: 00:08:00

went, she left here and went to use, she was always in Fine Arts

Janice Porter: 00:08:05

at UBC. She at university, she was acting, she was singing, she

Janice Porter: 00:08:08

was in a folk group and all of this stuff. And she went to LA

Janice Porter: 00:08:12

and she got her Master's in Fine Arts at UCLA, and she never came

Janice Porter: 00:08:16

back. Then she started, you know, pounding the pavements to

Janice Porter: 00:08:19

get auditions and so on. And she ended up in I think I asked you

Janice Porter: 00:08:24

about this Kentucky Fried Theatre, which is an improv

Janice Porter: 00:08:27

group out of LA.

Meridith Grundei: 00:08:28

Yeah, yeah. It asked me about that. So

Janice Porter: 00:08:31

she was doing that, and she was doing to

Janice Porter: 00:08:33

audition stuff. Essentially, in the end, she couldn't make any

Janice Porter: 00:08:37

money out and she didn't like the rejection. So she ended up

Janice Porter: 00:08:39

on the other side of the business doing. She was an agent

Janice Porter: 00:08:42

for kids for a long time. And then she was in another business

Janice Porter: 00:08:46

around that in the entertainment industry, but you know, it

Janice Porter: 00:08:50

everyone has to find their way. But it was that, you know, she

Janice Porter: 00:08:54

still lights up when she does things like that, you know, in

Janice Porter: 00:08:57

front of my granddaughter, you know, doing a puppet or doing

Janice Porter: 00:09:00

something you just see her light up with those kinds of things.

Janice Porter: 00:09:03

But the improv thing I'm really fascinated about because I think

Janice Porter: 00:09:08

I'm very on is just as a word on animated, not an animated when

Janice Porter: 00:09:17

I'm on stage. And I've been on stage doing presentations, so

Janice Porter: 00:09:20

I've been scared stiff. And I remember thinking things like

Janice Porter: 00:09:27

find a face in the audience, you know, and just focus on that

Janice Porter: 00:09:30

person to that, you know, because then you can speak to

Janice Porter: 00:09:34

them and feel more comfortable and it does work. So when you're

Janice Porter: 00:09:38

taking Okay, wait, I getting all excited here. So I let's put

Janice Porter: 00:09:42

this into a real question. What are some common challenges or

Janice Porter: 00:09:45

fears that you've observed in your clients when it comes to

Janice Porter: 00:09:48

public speaking and how do you help them overcome these

Janice Porter: 00:09:51

obstacles? So that's the bigger picture of what I was trying to

Janice Porter: 00:09:54

say. Because I think yes, yeah,

Meridith Grundei: 00:09:58

the common obstacles and fears, I, I feel

Meridith Grundei: 00:10:04

that a lot of people come to me thinking they know what their

Meridith Grundei: 00:10:08

common fears and pain points are. But then when you start to

Meridith Grundei: 00:10:12

dig a little bit deeper, it's more than that. So I would say

Meridith Grundei: 00:10:16

most people will come to me and say, I need to get better at not

Meridith Grundei: 00:10:21

using filler words, or I have anxiety, which is real. And it's

Meridith Grundei: 00:10:27

so real, that it's paralyzing. I have people who have come to me

Meridith Grundei: 00:10:35

who are really excited about they can see themselves on a

Meridith Grundei: 00:10:40

stage and delivering that keynote. But I but what's

Meridith Grundei: 00:10:45

interesting to me is that I don't think people realize the

Meridith Grundei: 00:10:51

amount of work that goes into cultivating a presence in that

Meridith Grundei: 00:10:56

way. And it can start to feel really vulnerable and really

Meridith Grundei: 00:10:59

scary for people. And so there's lots of different layers. I

Meridith Grundei: 00:11:03

think that when I work with clients, some of its pretty

Meridith Grundei: 00:11:06

straightforward. Some people are like, just help me with my

Meridith Grundei: 00:11:08

presentation. I got, I got I got a I got it. You know, I gotta

Meridith Grundei: 00:11:12

have this done in a month. Yeah, thanks. I got some people who

Meridith Grundei: 00:11:16

are seasoned, and they just need me to help polish them. But and

Meridith Grundei: 00:11:18

then I have those people who come in there. And it's almost

Meridith Grundei: 00:11:21

like it's, it's a, it's a, it's a gentle approach to getting

Meridith Grundei: 00:11:27

them to where they want to be. So I hope that answered your

Meridith Grundei: 00:11:30

question. But I feel like sometimes it's much more

Meridith Grundei: 00:11:33

layered.

Janice Porter: 00:11:35

It does. But I'd love to hear a couple of

Janice Porter: 00:11:36

stories. So. So I know that you work a lot a lot in the tech

Janice Porter: 00:11:41

industry. And yeah, yeah, and I remember doing training, I'm

Janice Porter: 00:11:46

more of a trainer than a speaker. And I remember

Janice Porter: 00:11:48

training. A lot of people back in the day, it wasn't so much

Janice Porter: 00:11:53

tech as it is now. But it was like the the the engineers and

Janice Porter: 00:11:58

the implementers, at the telephone company, they had to

Janice Porter: 00:12:01

come and do this training with me, I worked at the telephone

Janice Porter: 00:12:04

company as a trainer. And we did some soft skills training, I

Janice Porter: 00:12:07

think it was and of course, they come in with their arms crossed,

Janice Porter: 00:12:10

and they don't even care, right, they don't want to be there

Janice Porter: 00:12:12

because it's like, but some of them then got to the levels

Janice Porter: 00:12:16

where they had to do the training. Flights my train of

Janice Porter: 00:12:21

thought those people are so not the, the build rapport kind of

Janice Porter: 00:12:29

people. So you must have that must be a big job to turn them

Janice Porter: 00:12:33

into speakers. That's what I'm getting at. Tell me about tech

Janice Porter: 00:12:37

people and how are you?

Meridith Grundei: 00:12:38

Yeah, for me, it's it's about first of all,

Meridith Grundei: 00:12:43

convincing them in a way, showing them that less is more,

Meridith Grundei: 00:12:48

because what I've and how to tell a story using data or using

Meridith Grundei: 00:12:55

the architecture or whatever it is that they're developing. So

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:00

for me, it's a couple of things that come in and I, I talked to

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:04

them about the importance of story, and how to incorporate

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:07

it, and that it doesn't need to be complicated. It could be a

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:10

very simple story. It could be a metaphor and analogy. It could

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:14

be something that will connect to the information, and really

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:21

hitting upon what that emotion is for the audience. Like what

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:25

is the audience's pain point? And how is what you're

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:27

developing going to solve that problem for them? I guess

Janice Porter: 00:13:31

telling them as a five year old would too. Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:13:34

it's a five year old, I'm guessing because Yeah. The

Janice Porter: 00:13:37

biggest thing you just said for me there was knowing what the

Janice Porter: 00:13:40

audience's pain points are. So doing that homework and making

Janice Porter: 00:13:44

sure that what you have to say is going to answer that. Yes,

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:48

exactly. And you might have people of all

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:50

different levels in your audience. Some people might know

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:54

what you're talking about. And some people might be this is the

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:56

first introduction to what you're sharing in the audience.

Meridith Grundei: 00:13:59

So it's really important that it's not that you're talking to

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:02

the lowest denominator, but that you're just being thorough

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:05

enough, but not getting into the weeds to where everyone in that

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:08

audience can be a part of that conversation with you. So once I

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:13

get them convinced that story is effective and has impact, then

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:19

what I do is work with them through their deck. And that can

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:23

vary depending on the industry in which I'm working some some

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:27

companies are a little bit more flexible. Some companies like aI

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:31

works, sometimes with doctors and pharmaceutical companies.

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:35

And they everything is compliant, they have to use what

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:38

they have, they can't change even the order of things. So how

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:42

do you how do you work within those limits? So that being

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:46

really clear, and you're just focusing on what those key

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:49

takeaways are on each of those decks, or each of those slides,

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:52

I should say, and you're really clear with your introduction,

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:54

you're really clear with your call to action. And oftentimes,

Meridith Grundei: 00:14:58

those things the introduction this story, how you're going to

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:01

present your slides, and CTA can all be kind of muddied if

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:05

they're not well practiced and prepared. And then the other

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:09

thing I'll do is give them resources or tools or how to

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:14

practice because I feel that people get the advice often to

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:18

practice, practice, practice. But people practice differently,

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:23

we learn differently. I feel like my job as a coach is to

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:27

say, here are a lot of different ways that you can approach

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:32

practice, and I want you to try all of them. And let's just see

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:35

which one's going to work best for you. But obviously, what

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:38

you've been doing hasn't been working. So let's try something

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:41

different. And I love it. It's like, it's like taking it taking

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:46

something really challenging and sculpting it into something that

Meridith Grundei: 00:15:51

is tangible for people. It's like a little solo performances.

Janice Porter: 00:15:56

Well, yes, it must be really rewarding when

Janice Porter: 00:15:59

you know, do you when your clients has done the

Janice Porter: 00:16:02

presentation, and they come back and say, I did it, it went

Janice Porter: 00:16:05

really well. And now they're all excited about it. Not as afraid

Janice Porter: 00:16:08

to do it. The next time. Do you? I think you do one on one

Janice Porter: 00:16:15

coaching and you also do group coaching. Correct? Yeah. You do

Janice Porter: 00:16:18

improv with your with your people? Yeah,

Meridith Grundei: 00:16:21

I do. I do. i It depends on the room. But I

Meridith Grundei: 00:16:25

always like to do at least like a little icebreaker. And I don't

Meridith Grundei: 00:16:28

call it improv. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. So it depends on

Meridith Grundei: 00:16:32

who the audience is. But I just did one for the just this last

Meridith Grundei: 00:16:38

week, having a brain fart

Janice Porter: 00:16:41

League, that one

Meridith Grundei: 00:16:43

thing I guess wanted to say the league, it was

Meridith Grundei: 00:16:45

like, so thank you, the Junior League. In Jersey, I just did a

Meridith Grundei: 00:16:51

workshop for them. And that was fun. It was all improv it was

Meridith Grundei: 00:16:54

about owning owning your presence and owning your voice

Meridith Grundei: 00:17:00

and owning your story. And it was super fun. And they knew

Meridith Grundei: 00:17:02

they were doing improv and got up on their feet quite a bit.

Meridith Grundei: 00:17:06

And then I have an improv for speakers membership program,

Meridith Grundei: 00:17:10

it's called confidently speaking. And that attracts

Meridith Grundei: 00:17:14

people who are more entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, if

Meridith Grundei: 00:17:17

you will, who really want to start getting better at these

Meridith Grundei: 00:17:24

impromptu things that they're called to do like being on a

Meridith Grundei: 00:17:28

podcast, for example, or going to a networking event and doing

Meridith Grundei: 00:17:33

the one on one or even getting on a stage. And that's been

Meridith Grundei: 00:17:37

really cool. Because I've had members in that group for two

Meridith Grundei: 00:17:40

years now, some of them that have been there for two years

Meridith Grundei: 00:17:42

and to just see their growth. That's so cool. Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:17:48

it's not easy. Definitely. I've always like I

Janice Porter: 00:17:51

struggle when I have to actually have a script or a speech that,

Janice Porter: 00:17:56

you know, I should know it like by rote, but I don't I can't

Janice Porter: 00:18:01

study that way. I have to just learn my slides. I hate slides.

Janice Porter: 00:18:07

I don't like talking to slides. And that's a whole thing by

Janice Porter: 00:18:10

itself. Just learning how to, you know where this slide is,

Janice Porter: 00:18:13

and where you're pointing and not standing in front of the

Janice Porter: 00:18:15

screen? How many people do that?

Meridith Grundei: 00:18:17

I could talk about that for a while. Yeah.

Janice Porter: 00:18:21

Get away from that screen for God's sake, you

Janice Porter: 00:18:23

know, and, and then building rapport with the audience. And

Janice Porter: 00:18:31

those things are to me, just as in so much, it's so important to

Janice Porter: 00:18:38

the whole presentation. But it struck me I struggle with having

Janice Porter: 00:18:41

to study anymore. I don't know. Yeah. That becomes my blog. So I

Janice Porter: 00:18:51

do I just ad lib most of the time, or at least I think I'm ad

Janice Porter: 00:18:55

libbing probably not, but I'm taking what I see on that slide

Janice Porter: 00:19:00

and changing it each time I do it so to speak. Yeah,

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:04

yeah, it's, you know, the the advice I

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:06

always give my clients is to start first with in you

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:10

mentioned this beautifully, which is start with your

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:12

audience first and really identify who they are, what

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:15

those pain points are, and how you're going to solve that

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:16

problem, etc. And then once you've established that, then

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:20

you figure out what is your objective with this particular

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:22

audience? What is your end in mind? What do you want them to

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:24

to have by the end of this presentation or retained by the

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:28

end of this presentation? And then once you do that, you

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:31

figure out what are those key takeaways? So usually, people

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:33

can only retain three to five things. So you think, okay, what

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:36

are the three key takeaways that are going to lead me to that end

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:40

in mind to that objective? By audience I should say, and then

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:45

once you've established that outline, and you figure out

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:49

those things, then you look to your slides. And then you say,

Meridith Grundei: 00:19:52

Okay, what slides here are going to best support this message.

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:00

And then I always say, try to practice without the deck. And

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:06

get the end just and always be practice practicing out loud.

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:09

I'm always stunned at how many people still practice sitting at

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:12

their desk, just scroll through. Yeah. So always up on your feet,

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:17

practicing out loud practicing, often, my client right now who's

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:21

going to be doing this big speak event that I'm producing next

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:24

week, I said, Okay, you are at that point now where you can

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:26

just take the script, tape it on your kitchen cabinet, while

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:30

you're making pasta, I want you to, I want you to deliver your

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:33

presentation out loud as you're cooking. And if you need to

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:36

refer to that, because you're gonna get thrown off because

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:39

something's going to happen, like the pasta sauce is gonna

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:41

boil over or something, then you can refer to it, but it's just,

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:44

it's about memorization is about using different muscles and

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:48

memorizing in different ways. And it can be a lot of fun if we

Meridith Grundei: 00:20:51

allow it to be fun. Okay. All right.

Janice Porter: 00:20:54

Moving on. You got me over there. I was just

Janice Porter: 00:20:58

thinking back. I know I shared with you how I I'm obsessed by

Janice Porter: 00:21:02

this podcast called smartlace. And you said, Okay, well, a lot

Janice Porter: 00:21:08

of the people that they had on that they've had on that show

Janice Porter: 00:21:11

have been improv people from Second City from wherever else,

Janice Porter: 00:21:15

the Canadian one I forget SCTV I think it was called Groundlings,

Janice Porter: 00:21:19

the Groundlings, all these improv people who became

Janice Porter: 00:21:22

Saturday Night Live regulars in their specific times. And what

Janice Porter: 00:21:27

I've found fascinating is learning about how improv is

Janice Porter: 00:21:33

like, it's just so clever. Like I'm, it really is a whole thing

Janice Porter: 00:21:38

that most people don't understand. So what skills from

Janice Porter: 00:21:43

improv would you say, are the biggest ones that you take over

Janice Porter: 00:21:48

into what you're doing now? Because it is a whole thing,

Janice Porter: 00:21:51

right?

Meridith Grundei: 00:21:52

It's a whole thing. That's so many great

Meridith Grundei: 00:21:54

questions there. First of all, improv is like, I think it

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:01

should be a required course, in every school, I just really do.

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:09

It builds your adaptability muscle, so that you can think on

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:14

your feet if something goes wrong. It helps you build trust,

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:21

in a way because you're taking, you're taking risk. You are

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:27

sharing sometimes things that might feel a little vulnerable.

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:29

You're laughing with people laughter builds trust. It helps

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:37

with ideation and the brainstorming process. That

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:41

whole idea of Yes, sand. Yes, can be interpreted in a couple

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:45

of different ways in healthy ways, right? One is, so when

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:50

with ideation, it's like I can't tell you how many times I'll

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:53

talk to teams of like, okay, when you get into a, you're in

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:56

the brainstorm phase, but then somebody says, I don't like that

Meridith Grundei: 00:22:59

idea. And then it's no longer a brainstorm. That's not a

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:01

brainstorm would sense someone says, Yes, but judgment, right?

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:04

Yeah, right. It's about getting everything up onto that

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:08

whiteboard. Or however, you're doing that brainstorm, because

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:11

you never know, that bad idea might spawn the good idea.

Janice Porter: 00:23:16

So every idea counts. And we're brainstorming,

Janice Porter: 00:23:19

every

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:19

idea counts. It also helps with inclusivity.

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:23

So making sure that all the voices can be heard at the

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:27

table. I mean, it just has so many ways to find ways to

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:34

incorporate humor, for example, into your presentation. So maybe

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:39

you stand there with a recorder and you just off the cuff, think

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:43

of some things off the top of your head, so builds that skill

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:45

so that you feel more comfortable to have that ability

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:48

to do that. There's so many wonderful things that improv, it

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:53

helps you communicate better with groups of people. The other

Meridith Grundei: 00:23:57

portion of yes and is it's not about necessarily always

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:00

agreeing with the person that you're in a conversation with.

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:03

And this is great for q&a s for examples that you may not agree

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:06

with the point of view of the person asking the question or

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:10

the statement that they might have offered, but that you can

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:13

at least acknowledge them. So that too, I feel is like a

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:16

strong lesson. Hmm.

Janice Porter: 00:24:20

Interesting. Can you tell me a great story of

Janice Porter: 00:24:25

transformation of one of your clients, like Can you share any

Janice Porter: 00:24:30

same thing come to mind?

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:32

I well, I always I always talk about my

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:33

client, Tina, and she doesn't mind that they talked about her

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:36

because she showed up in confidently speaking two years

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:39

ago. And she lives here in New York City and she is a

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:44

entrepreneur, she and her husband co own a business

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:47

together. And the very first exercise that we did she just

Meridith Grundei: 00:24:52

shut down, shut down. But she kept showing up and She hadn't

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:01

been on a podcast. She hadn't been really speaking, she's

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:04

started to get really comfortable with networking at

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:07

that point. But she wasn't doing any of the other stuff to build

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:10

her business. And she had a goal and she was going to do it. She

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:13

wanted to do a TED talk. She has done her TED talk yet, which is

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:18

totally fine. Because she wrote a book. She did. She did a 15

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:24

minute talk. For her book launch. She has been on over 70

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:32

podcasts this year alone. She has done numerous LinkedIn

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:37

lives. She is about to do a speak event next week, where

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:41

she's going to stand on stage and tell her story for 10

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:44

minutes. And the woman is on fire. It's like a totally

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:47

different person. Double. Yeah. That's,

Janice Porter: 00:25:51

that's amazing. So the power that she has gained

Janice Porter: 00:25:54

as a person is well, confidence. Everything is just Yeah,

Meridith Grundei: 00:25:59

I love great. But I what I want to say to

Meridith Grundei: 00:26:01

that, though, is that she did the work. Yes. It's not an

Meridith Grundei: 00:26:04

overnight, quick fix. She does the work she puts in the reps.

Meridith Grundei: 00:26:09

Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:26:10

that's what it takes for sure. Now, with

Janice Porter: 00:26:12

everything, I know that, you know, since we've sort of come

Janice Porter: 00:26:17

back out of COVID, that everyone's rushing to go into

Janice Porter: 00:26:21

face to face things again, although I'm not that person. I,

Janice Porter: 00:26:25

I went out last night to play bridge. And we were at a room

Janice Porter: 00:26:29

with like, I didn't know, for about 50 people, 60 people. And

Janice Porter: 00:26:34

I didn't know a lot of them. And I felt like it was too crammed.

Janice Porter: 00:26:37

And I kind of wanted to leave I didn't but I felt uncomfortable.

Janice Porter: 00:26:40

So I still feel that sometimes. But anyway, my issue. So so some

Janice Porter: 00:26:46

of us are still still focused on the digital world. And that

Janice Porter: 00:26:50

seems to be enough and fine for me. What do you what advice do

Janice Porter: 00:26:56

you give to people who are looking to enhance their

Janice Porter: 00:27:01

influence and their persuasiveness as speakers?

Janice Porter: 00:27:05

Still virtual? Because? Yeah,

Meridith Grundei: 00:27:09

yeah, no, I think that's a great question.

Meridith Grundei: 00:27:10

Because I do think that things are going to still stay partly

Meridith Grundei: 00:27:14

like that I do. Because, for example, I've got two

Meridith Grundei: 00:27:18

organizations, the Junior League, and then her workplace,

Meridith Grundei: 00:27:21

which is a co working space here in New York City. Both of them

Meridith Grundei: 00:27:24

asked me to do a virtual version and a live version. So I think

Meridith Grundei: 00:27:27

that that's not going away, you know, the thing I always say to

Meridith Grundei: 00:27:34

the people that want to kind of stay in this virtual world, is

Meridith Grundei: 00:27:38

just make sure that you are showing up in the best way you

Meridith Grundei: 00:27:43

possibly can. Because even though you get to hide behind

Meridith Grundei: 00:27:48

the screen, your body language and all of those things still

Meridith Grundei: 00:27:53

matter. And not to get too relaxed, which I see often,

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:00

often, even to I mean, how many years later now is it that I

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:04

still will show up on calls and there's a doctor backlit and it

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:08

looks like he's in like, some sort of witness protection

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:12

program, you know. And so I just stress to people like your

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:16

posture still eats check your body language, check your

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:19

posture, check your lighting, check your sound. If you don't

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:24

have a desk that can raise up yet figure out how you can raise

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:27

up your, your monitor computer so that you're standing when

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:31

you're delivering makes a huge difference when you stand and

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:37

deliver versus when you're sitting. Yeah. So it's little

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:40

things like that. And then don't don't take for granted that

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:46

you're virtual. You still need to have story. You can't be

Meridith Grundei: 00:28:50

dependent on the slides.

Janice Porter: 00:28:53

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You know, it's funny made me

Janice Porter: 00:28:57

think, certainly, it was always interesting over than when you

Janice Porter: 00:29:01

watch the news broadcasts, local versus, say, CNN or something

Janice Porter: 00:29:05

like that, where, you know, everyone was for three years

Janice Porter: 00:29:09

behind, you know, on a zoom screen, and how some people I

Janice Porter: 00:29:13

remember when they were interviewing Pam Shriver was

Janice Porter: 00:29:18

before the US Open. It wasn't just this last season, it was a

Janice Porter: 00:29:21

couple years ago, and she was sitting in front of her closet,

Janice Porter: 00:29:25

and her closet was open. So that looked like a bookshelf or

Janice Porter: 00:29:28

something. It was just a disaster. But you know, that's

Janice Porter: 00:29:31

still happening, right news, people who've got this one guy

Janice Porter: 00:29:35

locally, he's got these, these bookshelf is bookshelf behind

Janice Porter: 00:29:38

him. And he's got stick up pictures from his kids and

Janice Porter: 00:29:42

children's books on on the it's the whole thing is just a mess.

Janice Porter: 00:29:47

They are I think that would have been a whole new career

Janice Porter: 00:29:50

actually, for people to go and, you know, stayed engaged those

Janice Porter: 00:29:56

rooms for these people that were on every day, but it didn't

Janice Porter: 00:29:58

happen but anyway, that's an Got the presentation skills? But it

Janice Porter: 00:30:01

did make me think of that. It's like, you're right.

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:04

Well, it is about presentation skills. I

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:06

think I think you bring up a really great point because

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:07

people get distracted by the littlest things. So if they're

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:12

like looking at post it notes and pictures of the kids, and I

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:14

bet you can't remember a thing that he said, But you posted

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:17

notes.

Janice Porter: 00:30:18

It's true. It's like my husband would never have

Janice Porter: 00:30:21

noticed the, the venue or at all, there were the the whole

Janice Porter: 00:30:25

picture. I'm so busy looking at what everything looks like, that

Janice Porter: 00:30:29

I'm not paying attention to what he's saying, because it's

Janice Porter: 00:30:31

boring. Anyway, the new Yeah, no, well,

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:33

it's, it's, you know, it's so funny, because

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:35

I go back and forth. I'm not a big fan of virtual backgrounds.

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:38

I am not either, I find them very, and a lot of people use

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:42

him and they put their company logo on there and the whole

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:45

thing disappears out and then their hand disappears, like

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:48

ghost out. You know, for the longest time I had my setup was

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:52

you could see my bed in the background. And I was, I saw

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:55

that I know. And it drove me batty, drove me batty, and I

Meridith Grundei: 00:30:59

tried all these different angles. So I have fixed that

Meridith Grundei: 00:31:01

since then. This is still

Janice Porter: 00:31:03

lovely. looks lovely. I've always wanted to

Janice Porter: 00:31:05

get a beautiful screen to put behind me and I just have never

Janice Porter: 00:31:08

found one. I've seen people do that very well. But because my

Janice Porter: 00:31:12

door look great. No, but my door shouldn't be there. And I have

Janice Porter: 00:31:16

the natural light is right here. And that's the best way for my

Janice Porter: 00:31:20

desk. But yeah, anyway, we all have I have

Meridith Grundei: 00:31:22

I have a New York City radiator? Ah, yes.

Meridith Grundei: 00:31:25

Created the bed in for a radiator. But, you know, it's

Meridith Grundei: 00:31:28

kind of nice. Okay, it's

Janice Porter: 00:31:29

all good. So I wanted to ask you, before we go

Janice Porter: 00:31:36

a couple of things. So I mean, I, I, I shouldn't do this on

Janice Porter: 00:31:41

this interview. I will do it separately, because I'm

Janice Porter: 00:31:43

fascinated with all the improv people and everything. So I

Janice Porter: 00:31:45

didn't really want to go down that rabbit hole, but but with

Janice Porter: 00:31:53

the people that you are coaching now, what would you say the

Janice Porter: 00:31:57

three biggest mistakes now that people are making them, we

Janice Porter: 00:32:00

should start looking at ourselves, you know, to improve

Janice Porter: 00:32:03

with our speaking and, and training and facilitating

Meridith Grundei: 00:32:09

the three biggest mistakes. One is that

Meridith Grundei: 00:32:17

people don't look at their presentation as a performance.

Meridith Grundei: 00:32:20

And it is a performance. It's a form of performance. So I always

Meridith Grundei: 00:32:27

say to people look at it as it's a composition, you're taking

Meridith Grundei: 00:32:30

people through a journey. People need to start really getting

Meridith Grundei: 00:32:36

better at their introductions, I would say most introductions you

Meridith Grundei: 00:32:40

have, we have very short attention spans. And so your

Meridith Grundei: 00:32:45

introduction needs to hook me right away and engage me right

Meridith Grundei: 00:32:48

away. So for example, instead of starting off with Hi, my name is

Meridith Grundei: 00:32:54

Janice Porter, and I'm here today. And so thank you for

Meridith Grundei: 00:32:58

having me, and I'm going to share with you the three

Meridith Grundei: 00:33:00

principles of LinkedIn. You could start off with a story and

Meridith Grundei: 00:33:07

share a story that has an emotional connect for your

Meridith Grundei: 00:33:10

audience, and then introduce yourself for the credibility

Meridith Grundei: 00:33:14

piece. And then I would say that, the other piece that I've

Meridith Grundei: 00:33:19

noticed is, people aren't very clear with call to actions,

Meridith Grundei: 00:33:24

either. So they can tend to and I'm guilty of this too, because

Meridith Grundei: 00:33:29

you get to the end of the presentation all of a sudden

Meridith Grundei: 00:33:31

you'll. And that's why I think it needs to be well practiced.

Meridith Grundei: 00:33:33

Yeah, it's, this is what I need you to leave doing or thinking.

Meridith Grundei: 00:33:40

Here's my one QR code to get in touch with me not like, Here's

Meridith Grundei: 00:33:45

my email, here's my LinkedIn. Here's my offer. Yes, exactly.

Meridith Grundei: 00:33:51

You know, part of it

Janice Porter: 00:33:52

is because we don't like selling, and it's

Janice Porter: 00:33:54

selling themselves. Right. And so that's part of it. But you're

Janice Porter: 00:33:57

absolutely right. I think those are all really key. And I, I

Janice Porter: 00:34:03

want to this isn't about me. Okay, so, um, I think I made me

Janice Porter: 00:34:08

think of one other question, though, when you were saying

Janice Porter: 00:34:10

that about the introduction. And that's one thing I did learn,

Janice Porter: 00:34:17

and maybe from reading some of your stuff, or an end or

Janice Porter: 00:34:21

somebody else's, because that's one of the things I remember,

Janice Porter: 00:34:25

don't start with the boring stuff about you, because they're

Janice Porter: 00:34:28

not they're really for that purpose, make it about them. And

Janice Porter: 00:34:31

that's really what I teach on LinkedIn, as well make it about

Janice Porter: 00:34:35

your audience so that they're hooked into maybe you're the

Janice Porter: 00:34:39

person that can help me, right. So they read on. So that's, I

Janice Porter: 00:34:44

think one of the big ones. So last question before I let you

Janice Porter: 00:34:48

go. And this is for me, this is selfish, because I love that

Janice Porter: 00:34:51

when you use this word earlier, but I love the word curiosity.

Janice Porter: 00:34:55

It's my favorite. And I am one of those very curious people.

Janice Porter: 00:35:00

Pull. So the question is two parts. First part is, do you

Janice Porter: 00:35:05

believe that curiosity is innate or learned? And what are you

Janice Porter: 00:35:10

most curious about today? That's part two. And there's no right

Janice Porter: 00:35:15

or wrong question.

Meridith Grundei: 00:35:16

Is it innate or learned? I think I Well, it's

Meridith Grundei: 00:35:26

so funny because I think I'm a special snowflake.

Meridith Grundei: 00:35:30

Course. Because I was raised with two very pragmatic parents.

Meridith Grundei: 00:35:35

So I was that's where my brain went. I, I would say for myself,

Meridith Grundei: 00:35:40

it was innate. I don't think I learned it. I think I was born

Meridith Grundei: 00:35:45

into this world with a creative sensibility. And creative types

Meridith Grundei: 00:35:48

tend to be curious souls. So that is a fantastic question. I

Meridith Grundei: 00:35:55

do however, feel that curiosity can be learned. Okay. But one

Meridith Grundei: 00:35:59

needs to want to learn it. And then the second part of that

Meridith Grundei: 00:36:06

question, what am I curious about today? i The Okay, I'll go

Meridith Grundei: 00:36:13

with I always say first thought best thought which is an Allen

Meridith Grundei: 00:36:15

Ginsberg quote, I will say that I am curious about how in my own

Meridith Grundei: 00:36:22

life, I can simplify my own curiosities even more, because

Meridith Grundei: 00:36:29

I'm so curious, I tend to get involved in many, many things.

Meridith Grundei: 00:36:34

Because I genuinely want to know more about whatever it's not

Meridith Grundei: 00:36:41

about FOMO it's just genuine curiosity about like, what would

Meridith Grundei: 00:36:45

that be like? What if I say yes to that?

Janice Porter: 00:36:48

I love it. Because I think that way, too. I

Janice Porter: 00:36:50

think that's brilliant. Because yeah, I can learn more I can be

Janice Porter: 00:36:53

you know, like, Tell me more, but it for me, sometimes it's

Janice Porter: 00:36:56

going down those rabbit holes, a little bit too much. But I love

Janice Porter: 00:37:00

that answer. That's, that's amazing. Thank you. For me, that

Janice Porter: 00:37:04

all started with a book that I read by because I tend to ask

Janice Porter: 00:37:08

most of my guests that question. And it's been fun and a book I

Janice Porter: 00:37:14

read by Brian Grazer. Called a curious mind. Do you know you

Janice Porter: 00:37:21

know who Brian Grazer is?

Meridith Grundei: 00:37:22

I know him. I know his name. I haven't read

Meridith Grundei: 00:37:24

that book. Okay. Brian Grazer,

Janice Porter: 00:37:26

Ron Howard imagine entertainment as a

Janice Porter: 00:37:29

producer and director. Friday Night Lights splash A Beautiful

Janice Porter: 00:37:34

Mind and I you know zillion movies. He's he's really

Janice Porter: 00:37:37

brilliant. But it's an intro. It's his story. But it's really

Janice Porter: 00:37:41

all stemmed from curiosity. And it was really fascinating

Janice Porter: 00:37:43

because his grandma is Bubba. Back in the you know, in the day

Janice Porter: 00:37:48

his little Jewish grandmother taught him to be curious and are

Janice Porter: 00:37:53

so either taught him to be curious or crit influenced his

Janice Porter: 00:37:59

his curiosity and it influenced it. So encouraged it that's a

Janice Porter: 00:38:07

word of encouragement. And so he does a lot of interviews with

Janice Porter: 00:38:11

people what before he became famous and learns from all of

Janice Porter: 00:38:14

them, and it's really fascinating. But anyways, fun.

Janice Porter: 00:38:17

So that's where that came from. So thank you for participating

Janice Porter: 00:38:20

in that. And thank you for being here. Thank you for your wisdom

Janice Porter: 00:38:24

around speaking and, and being the best person you can be.

Janice Porter: 00:38:29

Because when you can learn to do those things. I think you just

Janice Porter: 00:38:32

totally improve yourself in so many ways. So and we're always a

Janice Porter: 00:38:36

work in progress, right? So always Yeah, it's really fun to

Janice Porter: 00:38:41

talk to you and and appreciate your time and where can my

Janice Porter: 00:38:45

audience find you? Well,

Meridith Grundei: 00:38:47

they can find me on LinkedIn at Meredith grand

Meridith Grundei: 00:38:50

die. You can also find me at grande coaching. And I have

Meridith Grundei: 00:38:54

several Tik Tok videos. If your listeners or Tik Tok fans, you

Meridith Grundei: 00:38:59

can find me at grande coaching.

Janice Porter: 00:39:01

I'm afraid to go there, because I'll never put

Janice Porter: 00:39:03

them out. But I have to go look at them now. Yeah, I seriously,

Janice Porter: 00:39:08

but it's such a fun place. So and I do recommend to my

Janice Porter: 00:39:12

audience that you visit. Meredith website. It's a

Janice Porter: 00:39:15

beautiful brand new website that she has, and there's lots of

Janice Porter: 00:39:18

opportunities there to learn from her with her blog. And if

Janice Porter: 00:39:23

you're you do mostly in person training, or do you do online

Janice Porter: 00:39:28

training as well, you both everybody, they're perfect.

Janice Porter: 00:39:32

Again, thank you so much. And thank you to my audience for

Janice Porter: 00:39:36

being here. And I've just lost that is so weird. The recording

Janice Porter: 00:39:43

button has moved. It's disappeared. totally

Janice Porter: 00:39:46

disappeared. There we go. Okay. It did. So, thank you for being

Janice Porter: 00:39:53

here and remember to stay connected and be remembered