speaker-0: It's not about the communicator, it's about what happens to the listener. Your number one job as a communicator is not to share the information, it's to create that connection. Anybody who hopes to advance on top of the layer of AI is going to need to work on their communication skills. Confidence comes when comfort meets authenticity. Trust yourself to make those transitions.

speaker-1: Where do you usually find that problem starts and how do you usually begin your work with that person?

speaker-0: There is power in concision. Until you can tell me your idea in less than seven words, you're not clear enough yet to present it.

speaker-1: Most of us are using AI today to help us write our emails, the presentations, the proposals, and the scripts. But at some point, we're still gonna have to sit across another person and make the idea land. That might happen in a meeting, on a sales call, during a negotiation, or when somebody asks you a question that you didn't prepare for. And in those moments, having the right words written down or memorized is not enough. You have to understand where the other person is starting from, what they care about. how to make your point clear without hiding behind more information. So, what does it take to communicate in a way that people can actually hear, understand, and respond to? To help answer that question, I'm excited to be joined today by Salvatore Manzi. Salvatore helps leaders, technical professionals, and analytical thinkers communicate their ideas clearly, especially when the stakes are high and the message needs to connect with another person's world. In our conversation, we discuss why AI does not replace communication skills or the need for them. How to start with the listener's perspective in mind, why data needs to be paired with story, and how frameworks like his hip framework can help you respond clearly when you are put on the spot. If you get value from this conversation, be sure to subscribe and share it with a friend. And now please enjoy my conversation with Salvatore Manzi. Salvatore, thank you so much for being here.

speaker-0: It's a pleasure to be here again. Thank you for having me.

speaker-1: Absolutely. So Salvatore, you've spent more than twenty years helping leaders communicate their ideas more effectively. So from your perspective, why is being able to clearly communicate your ideas such an important skill?

speaker-0: Today, more than ever, AI can write the email, write the talk, write the presentation. But our ability to walk in and deliver that, to connect with the people, to have that conversation relies on our ability to be clear and compelling. We can't stop in the middle of a conversation about a a project or a salary negotiation and ask AI, okay, how do I respond to this? And We have to be able to deliver that in a way that effectively connects our message with their idea. And so I think that now more than ever, systems, organizations, anybody who hopes to advance on top of the layer of AI is going to need to work on their communication skills.

speaker-1: Absolutely. And you said something there that I find interesting because that's not something that I typically consider is connecting your information or what you're trying to explain with with their idea or maybe their understanding, like who you're trying to explain it to. So how does how do you need to take into account the person you're talking to and their interests and what they want into how you explain what you do?

speaker-0: For me, the number one principle of communication, I call it you, then me. I need to make sure that my listener feels heard so that they can then hear my side. Building relevance, start with why. It's been called other terms, but the idea is I need to connect what I have to offer with that person's world from the start before they're going to make any connections. It'd be like me. You asking me how to get to my house and wanting directions and me saying, okay, well I'm gonna start for where I I am at my address and give you the directions backwards. It doesn't make any sense. You would get lost. You then me, I'm gonna start where you are and give you directions how to get to where I am, and that's when communication happens.

speaker-1: Okay. So where the person is that you are communicating to, where they're at, is really where you need to start in the explanation of your idea.

speaker-0: Yes. Yes. And I do an exercise with a lot. I many of my clients are technical scientists, analyst, data-driven people who are very numbers-oriented, systems-oriented. And what I do to help them get into the shoes of the listener is to do an exercise, the you then me prompt exercise. It takes about five minutes and it's just putting yourself in their shoes. What are their hopes? What are their fears? What they want to get out of this? What's keeping them up at night? If everything goes well, what does that look like? When I can describe that, then I can say, hey, I'm glad we're having this conversation. I know that you've been thinking about this. And I know that this is also something that you're concerned about. If we get this right, I know that we can achieve this goal that you've been wanting. So would you be open to hearing some of my ideas for that? Boom, the door opens up, people will start to listen, the conversation gets going.

speaker-1: Yeah, that makes total sense because they're just now more connected to whatever it is you're gonna say next, right? Because they hear they feel heard as you had mentioned, right? They can recognize themselves in what you're saying and they can connect what comes after your explanation of what you're gonna do to this outcome or to why it matters for them. And you mentioned that you work mostly with analytical, technical people. So why have you found that analytical, technical, or highly knowledgeable people often struggle with this being able to explain what they do clearly more than others?

speaker-0: I love this question and I noodle around this a lot in my mind. It does fall into different categories. We'll start with the first one, which is the curse of knowledge. The more I know about something, the harder it is for me to remember what it's like for somebody who doesn't know about this thing. So if I'm an expert in this technical thing that's very complex, I might jump in at a point that my listener is not aware of. It's very easy to explain something thinking that we're on the same level. The flip side of that is going into too much technical detail. I mean, I'm an analytical person. I'm convinced. If I give you all of the data, you will come to the same conclusion. I don't need to convince you. I don't need to influence you. I just need to lay out all of the evidence and you'll come to the same conclusion. It doesn't work that way. Unless that person's mind works the same way as mine, they're not going to come to the same conclusion. They're just gonna feel overwhelmed by the amount of data that I offered. So it's Finding the contextually appropriate information point to begin, that helps conversations move forward.

speaker-1: Yeah. And I could see, and I've definitely been at fault for this, where okay, I have all this data, I have all these benefits, I have all these things that I want to say. I'm just gonna dump it on them, right? I'm just gonna give it all to them right away. And then when I do that, they should be able to kind of piece that all together in the in the way that I do to see the logical conclusion that I see, which is whatever I want them to do, right? So it almost sounds like you want to structure your ex explanation with some very intentional. Parts to it, right? Where you have like this sequence of steps or sequence of a series of and how you lay out your explanation, right? Where you kind of start by connecting it to them and why what you're going to say is going to matter to them, right? We addressed that earlier on in our conversation. But then you need to start your explanation where they are at in their understanding. And you need to kind of walk them step by step through the explanation, like checking in with them every once in a while. Is that sort of directionally correct?

speaker-0: Directionally correct. And I think there's a lot of value to checking in along the way. Are we following? Do you have questions before you go? A lot of times people will turn on the PowerPoint and just push through and then get to the end and people are on their phones because they gave up trying to follow you. You do want to check in along the way. You mentioned something and I'll just call it out. I use frameworks. My book actually has five featured frameworks, but I offer more frameworks because what I find, especially for analytical or data driven minds. Is so much data comes to mind when you ask me a question, put me on the spot, ask for an update, ask me to answer from my area of expertise. So much variables come into mind. I can't focus into a point. A framework gives me an opportunity to, this is where I start, this is where I go. And I know because I've researched the neuroscience and the cognitive psychology, I know how the brain works with information. When you organize your content according to this framework. Your listeners are going to be able to repeat it back to you in a way that makes sense to shows that they understand. And if I could call out one specific piece in that, there needs to be a pairing between the data and the story. An example, a metaphor or an analogy. I like to say metaphors move minds. Data alone is not going to move your listener to action. But if you pair your data with some sort of visual, emotional anchor, then people will start to think, now I get what you're trying to say. I did it at the beginning with the address. I can talk to you about what you then me is, but when I made it visual for you, giving you directions from my house to yours makes no sense. That now, the data now makes sense. So When you are hoping to communicate and you have a vast amount of variables coming up at the same time, use a framework to know where you start. And that framework is always going to pair your data with some sort of a metaphor, analogy, or story so that the listener can both rationally understand it and emotionally, visually understand it and move forward.

speaker-1: You mentioned that you obviously have done deep research into understanding how the brain works. What does someone listening need to understand about how the brain works in order to really kind of place your frameworks, your teachings into the the right foundational context about how the brain processes information?

speaker-0: Everybody has a high filter up right now. Everybody, every listener, everybody you start to talk to, no matter how much they like you, no matter how much they look the topic, everybody has filters that they are filtering out what you're saying. Until you get those filters down, there's no value to explaining or giving them the best ideas that you have to offer. Your number one job as a communicator is not to share the information. It's to create that connection. Notice when you make that connection and then start delivering your expertise and the value. That's the number one thing to understand.

speaker-1: Hmm. So cool. So cool. I haven't done as much, you know, deep dives into neuroscience and psychology as you know maybe the other people that I've talked to on the show seem to have done and developed the expertise. A lot of that's grounded in that understanding. But the mind is a fascinating thing. But unbelievable. so most people might have an idea, like, okay, good communication, yeah, but like what do you think? find most people misunderstand about what it actually means to be a good communicator.

speaker-0: This is a question I'd like to pivot back to you and ask you when you say that, right there, that's a good communicator. How would you describe it? What and I'm not saying that you're gonna get this is not a pass fail. What is your impression of what is a good communicator?

speaker-1: Yeah. So when I kind of imagine or think back to the good communicators that I've witnessed, I see them speaking with a slower tempo. That they're kind of talking slower, more clearly. They're leaving more more room for pauses. I think the best communicators that I've witnessed again use story in a lot of their explanations of what it is that they're doing, or they weave kind of examples, stories in. And then I think, you know. the best communicators in conversations that I've had with other people on the top on the on the podcast about this topic, the best communicators are the ones that are able to create the outcome in the other people that they want. Right. They're able to affect the change in the individual they're communicating to or create whatever outcome they want by means of communication. But I think those two pieces are more like the tactical. Like I think I think the best communicators that I've witnessed speak with a slower cadence. Mm-hmm. Leave room for pauses and use story.

speaker-0: Yeah, I love I I would agree. There is vocal variety. The better a communicator is at communicating, the more range they're gonna use, both with the tonality with the cadence. You gotta be careful with cadence, the pause. Sometimes people think you froze, they'll be like, is this so on? Right? So but learning how to use the pause naturally, learning how to hold your space and hold that gravitas of the moment. The vocal variety is important. And good communicators do use stories, metaphors, analogies, because that's what really gets past the filters faster than anything else. Because the way our brains work, we are naturally able to understand stories, metaphors, analogies easier than just record data. The brain is not a re a precision recording device. It makes sense of things, and stories help make sense. I appreciate the question, like what makes a good communicator? Because it is a challenging thing to answer. Everybody has a different answer to what that is. My invitation to anybody out there listening, if you're wondering what's going to make you a better communicator, make a list of what you see other people doing that you like and imitate it. I call it spot it got it. If you're able to see somebody else doing something, that means you have the ability to do it yourself when you take the courageous step of trying it. And that's how you will become a better communicator for yourself. So from what I'm hearing, and if you don't mind me offering reflection, your cadence, your ability to hold the space of the question and the conversation is next level. You're really talented at holding that space and delivering your question in a way that has meaning and gravitas. So I would say by your own measure, you're doing great on the what makes a good communicator. For my answer to that question would be not about me. The measure of a good communicator is not about the communicator, it's about what happens to the listener. As a communicator, if I'm up there and I'm focused on my own perception of myself, how do I look? How do I sound? How's my voice? How do I look on screen? Is the lighting okay here? Boy, that lighting makes my hair look really great. It's true. I don't know why. More overhead lighting makes me great. Sidebar. If I'm focused on that perception, I can't communicate out. If I remind myself, none of what's happening right now is about me. It's about connecting my message. with the listener, that's what makes a good communicator. And the measure is when my listener can repeat back to me or reflect back to me some essence of what I was intending to convey, I have succeeded in my mission for that day. Will it move them to action? Perhaps. Depends on what my goal is. Everybody has a different goal when they start communicating. But my goal is to connect first, low those filters. and have my listener repeat back to me in a way that demonstrates they understood the heart of what I said.

speaker-1: Well said. and I noticed that you called back to bringing down the filters, right? Tying it back to your under like our foundational understanding of how the brain works. The brain is naturally in a state where it has these filters up. And it sounds like connecting it to the initial thing that we talked about, which is starting by connecting what you're going to say, your explanation to why it matters for the listener, somebody that you're explaining to, is going to serve that function of helping to bring down those filters. I love it. And then it's only when those filters are then brought down that people can really connect and understand and listen and hear what you're saying. Is that right?

speaker-0: Exactly. And great reflection back. And I love that you end, is you ended with, is that right? This is a simple engagement technique that I'm asking for a response from my listener. Did that land with you? And I would offer that it becomes a bit of a to some degrees if you drop it at the end of every sentence or paragraph. You haven't done this, Ian. I'm just saying in general. When somebody ends every paragraph, does that does that make sense? And doesn't wait for a response, then it becomes the i irrelevant, it becomes noise in the conversation. But you offered a great reflection of what I'm saying. And to answer your question, yes, it makes sense. Exactly.

speaker-1: Nice. Okay. I love it. So now if we could shift gears into talking to the listener who has a great idea and they have had struggles explaining it, right? AKA me, myself. When you have a really good idea that just not quite landing with other people, where do you usually find that problem starts and how do you usually begin your work with that person?

speaker-0: There is power in concision. Until you can tell me your idea in less than seven words, you're not clear enough yet to present it. Oftentimes I will work with a very smart founder who is pitching their idea to investors, and they haven't quite been able to narrow what the essence. Of it is into less than a sentence, what we would call a sound bite. When you can speak your idea in a sound bite, that's when you know it's ready to shop it around. Try it in low-stake situations first, right? Try this with friends. Try this with people who love you. And try this with people who have no idea what the context of your idea is to see how well it lands with them. Once you start hitting an average of 85 or above, then you're ready to move forward. Pair your sound bite with some background, with a story, and you've got a magical combination. That's a framework right there that'll help you speak up in a meeting, answer a question, be a great guest on a podcast. I hope I'm doing that. And using that framework, it'll help you keep your ideas to land more clearly with whomever listening.

speaker-1: Okay, I like that. So concision, seven words or less. That's definitely something that I need to work on. So you mentioned a framework in there, right? You have the sound bite with a little background and a little story. Can you dig into that a little bit more? So like what does that look like?

speaker-0: Yeah, I c it's the impromptu framework. It's hip. Headline, insights, picture, point. Headline, insights, picture, point. Headline, what's your sound bite? If you ask me any question, my goal is to start with a soundbite, a headline. It doesn't have to be absolute. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to be a diving board that I can jump off from. Once I've laid that groundwork, I want to give you some background, the insights, what's driving my headline to show up. Once I've got my insights, I've got you can giving you the data, I need to pair it with a metaphor, an analogy, or a story, a picture that's going to bring that insight to life. And you want to put it in a sandwich by having a point. The point can just be the headline repeated, or the point might be an elevated version of what you meant. I offer this especially to my clients who are often the smartest people in the room, but Can't get get concision fast enough. This hip framework will allow people to jump onto the headline, go into the insights, three points, nothing more, give a picture of what they're trying to talk about, and end with a point. It could be as little as four sentences, and you have conquered any fear of impromptu speaking being put on the spot. Practice it again in low stakes situations. For a lot of my clients, I tell them every morning before you leave the bathroom, you have to pick up something and do this framework. the telephone. We are more connected today than ever before. We have the internet, we have texting, we have email, and AI is doing all of that. Now, back in the day, we did long form. When I was in fourth grade, we had Pen pows, we would write letters to each other with stories about the Azaleas blooming and the walks that we took. Today, thanks to the phone, our communication is instant, which drives the importance of lowering those filters and making sure your communication lands. I give myself about an eighty five on that. You wanna try?

speaker-1: Grab an object. That's pretty good. Okay, let's let's see what we got. We got blue light glasses. These glasses help you to s protect your eyes when you're looking at screens late at night. So throughout history, there's been innovations have created innovations in themselves, right? Without before the the screens, right, there was no need for blue light glasses. Much like today, what we're seeing with the rise of artificial intelligence, it is creating opportunities for new innovations to help with our engagement of those ideas. I'm not sure if that how that I don't really know where I went. I was just kind of talking.

speaker-0: That was great. That was great. Your first run with that framework is meant to be clunky. If you hit it the first time, it'd be a little bit worried about you. Like, that's that's incredible. You want to iterate off of this. And are you open to a little polish here? You started great. You came up with a you you fearlessly grabbed something and went into it. It was gold. And then you second guessed yourself, I can't get to a picture. And that's where there was a little neurological problem.

speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely.

speaker-0: Where your brain started telling you you can't do this. And that started it lost the connection with your prefrontal cortex. You started wrestling with all of these things. I still say you got through it and you actually landed a really good point at the end. The piece that you missed was the picture. It's where it stopped here. What I would offer is next time, start with imagine and go from there. Imagine you're in late at night. And you've got a really important thing that you're reading. But you know, looking at this thing, and all of a sudden you're painting a picture of what the blue light blue light glasses actually resolve, then you've got it. So keep practicing it.

speaker-1: Yeah. I love Well done. So thank you. Thank you. So is the idea with that framework, like if we were to apply that framework to the blue light glasses, is there a way because I I do like the idea of like the blue light glasses kind of being the result like blue light glasses wouldn't mean anything without the other technology that we use today, right? Like screens, the phone, the computer.

speaker-0: And just to go, meta, all of your communication would mean nothing if you didn't bring meaning to it. I could read the email if you just want to send me the data, but you're delivering it. So you're bringing the meaning to it. Keep going.

speaker-1: Let's go. I love it. So is there a way that you could use that hip framework or maybe my headline? I'm using something like the blue light glasses, but then the ultimate point that I'm making is not necessarily related to these blue light glasses, but it's related to some other yeah thing that I'm make talking about. Yeah.

speaker-0: Absolutely. And this is what we learn from storytelling. As people will tell a story the first time, and it's rough. It's long. There's too much detail here. Some of it didn't connect, and then we got it. The second time, the third time, by the fourth time you've told that story, you know what the high bars are. You know what people are going to react to. And you begin to notice like I can pull this meaning out of the story and make it land here with the topic that I'm talking about. Yeah. You could use your blue light glasses to talk about your job. Use it as a meta for your job. These blue light lenses are like changing the way you look at the world and protecting yourself from all the things you don't need to. Bah bah bah bah and you just go through it.

speaker-1: Yeah, that's good stuff.

speaker-0: It's all about reps. And unfortunately it's all about reps. There's nobody's born a good communicator. It takes practice.

speaker-1: Yep. As with anything, right? Nobody's born really good at much, right? Like anything worth having is takes a lot of work to to get good at it. I think that's probably the most common theme in all of the conversations that I've had on the podcast, fifty conversations in, is okay, yeah, we can learn all of the foundational information from this expert that we bring onto the show, but every single one of them without fail, it's like, okay, you have this information. The only way you're actually gonna be able to put it into practice and get good at it is if you just rep and practice and practice and practice. Yeah. Are there any other ideas? Like I love that hip framework. I'm gonna start doing that. My mo like my my friends are gonna think I'm crazy when they see me walking around the place. It's like, let me tell you about these blue leg classes. But are there any other of those like practicing the

speaker-0: Iterate. What what I would add since you are already you got the framework down, it's time to add on the you then me. So before you drop your headline, start with one sentence. You then me. You likely have had trouble falling asleep at night. Probably due to your use of screens or screen time. And let me tell you, blue light glasses can change your life. Here's the data, here's a picture, here's the point. Boom.

speaker-1: Mm. I love it. Are there any other things that you give to your clients as far as like homework, like things that you can do to practice? Yeah, there you go. Yeah, get the book, kind of yourself.

speaker-0: Book is what I do. My my book, it comes out in October. You can open it to any page. Find a strategy. Find a communication strategy. Try it for the day. Try it with a barista. Try it with your Uber driver. Try it with your colleagues. Try it all in different contexts to see how it works and how it works for you. And then the next day, try another strategy and keep going.

speaker-1: Yeah. I love it. And that's clear and compelling. We'll have the link. Do you have a pre order link available?

speaker-0: Pre-order link is available. You can order it any any place that you order books currently, but you can go to clearandcompellingplaybook dot com. That'll drive you to all of the information. And you can download a free chapter from the book on the website as well.

speaker-1: Love it. We'll have all that linked in the description in the show notes. definitely gonna go check that out myself. Cause in my conversation with you here today, it's just re-emphasized how valuable a skill this is to be a clear and effective communicator because it's applicable across every domain of life, right? Like we're communicating with people constantly. Like every like there's some great quote about like, you know, everything that you want in your life is you know, gonna happen through someone else, right? And the only way that you can kind of engage other people and kind of get through to whatever it is that you want is to be an effective communicator. Like what do you see as like the the value? I know I started with this question, but I guess if we could go back to it again, like what is the value of being like why is being a great communicator so important?

speaker-0: Two things. One is if I don't practice and get better at communication, I will become lonely. I will become reserved. I will be I will miss the opportunities. It's a downward spiral. If I don't spend time working on my ability to communicate my ideas out, I will be leading myself into a world where I'm just communicating online or letting AI communicate for me. It's fine if you want to be a hermit, most of us don't. We all really just want to find better ways to communicate. Communicate with each other. The other thing is, communication is like electricity. And all of your great ideas and all the people that you are working with are like appliances. And if there's not communication going from one appliance to the other, you might have the world's greatest air fryer. But if you can't connect it to what else is happening in the system, your idea is not going to get hurt. And my mission is to empower. Empower those people who don't always feel they have a seat at the table or a voice at the table to use their voice. Your voice matters. Now, more than ever, your voice matters. And the communication skills that you develop through trying and error or by reading a book or however you're doing it is going to help you bring your ideas and make a better world for all of us. I'll get off.

speaker-1: No, I love it. Well said. And like one of my beliefs about the one of the major changes that is going to come from the rise of artificial intelligence is I think more people are going to be forced into a situation where they have to figure out how to create their own value for the world. Right. More people are going to be put into a situation where they're it's on them, right? Like they're not going to be able to just it's not going to be as easy to just go get a job, work for another company. I think more people are going to be pushed into a situation where they have to take advantage of. Like find their ability, build some kind of useful skill and go out and provide value, solve problems for others. I'm excited about that, because I think it's gonna lead more people into a situation where they're really engaged with the work that we're doing. Because I think for a long time, like people are just there's a lot of people that are just completely checked out with what they're working on. Right. There's a lot of people that just kind of punch in, punch out, do a job they don't really care about, right? They don't really care about doing a great job, which is just we're missing so much. We're missing so much that everybody, I 100% agree with you. Everybody Everybody's voice matters and I believe everybody has a a contribution that they were brought here to make. and I think a part of this evolution that we're going through is gonna kind of be a forcing function into making that happen for more people. But as we've talked about today, in order to create that impact, make this happen, you're gonna have to be able to communicate what you do clearly and effectively in order to convert clients or, you know, explain it to other people, get people to understand it, your marketing, right? Your sales. Right, all that stuff. And well beyond just the business application, right? Also like your personal life. So yeah, this is one of those

speaker-0: Absolutely. And I like your hopeful take on AI's impact. It's going to be disruptive. It's going to disrupt all of the comfort that a lot of us have spent a lifetime developing around us. It's going to disrupt all of that. And it's going to give us an opportunity to really stop and ask, what is the contribution that I want to make above and beyond? Now that I have the ability to eliminate all of the busy work and all of the administration and all of the whatever, what is the work that I want to truly bring out into the world? And a lot of us are going to take that opportunity and live our purpose more fully. I will offer that whenever I begin working with a client, I ask them to do the values quiz. It's also available on my website. When I'm clear about what my values are, that helps me determine the my course and my direction in life and the impetus of my communication with other people.

speaker-1: Hm. Yeah. Values are a important an important thing because it's just the how you do what you do or it's the how you do anything, right? Is going to stem from your values. And, you know, the values that you set for yourself or the values you set for your business, right, are going to be the filter for how you and your team make decisions in anything, right? That or at least that's the function that values are supposed to serve. Right. So they're supposed to be able to decide how you do what you do.

speaker-0: And a lot of my clients who are mid-level management, people managers, are getting information from above that they have to disperse, but they feel a friction and they can't figure out why. It typically has to do with their values. There's an unconscious, unspoken value driving that person that makes the directional flow of information feel unright. And until they get clear about what their values are, they can't express the truth of the communication in a way that is authentic. And that is You know, it's an overused word right now. Authenticity, authentic, all of that. The goal of communication is expressing our authentic self out there. And the thing about public speaking, not a lot of us do public speaking, but we are always speaking in public. If I'm speaking to a person, it's public. When we want to be authentic in that expression, we have to be clear about who we are. And where we sit with the information, that person, the environment, so that we can communicate authentically with them. I'm kind of on a diatribe right now, but no I have all of

speaker-1: Values. Yeah, and you're completely right. I mean, being authentic, a prerequisite of being authentic is knowing who you are, who the authentic you is, right? And that shows up as your values. So it's required to know those values. If you want to show up authentically, you need to know who you authentically are, which are your values, which are going to kind of be the the foundation of that authentic you and how you do everything that you do, including how you communicate.

speaker-0: Yeah. And I like to say that people ask me, how do I get more confident? Confidence comes when comfort meets authenticity. When you can sit with your authentic self in a comfortable place, knowing where your limits are, when you can say, I don't know, and here's what I have to offer, then that's where confidence starts to show up. There is confidence built through repetition, right? The number of times that you have gotten up and spoken in front of somebody. or a group is going to help lessen the fear. Okay, I didn't die. I did okay, so I can try this again, right? It'll lessen the fear so that you can keep doing it. But confidence is built when you're very aware of what your values are, what drives you as an authentic person, and you're comfortable with the context of the situation, meaning the people you're talking to, the topic that you're talking to, and the environment in which you are. That's where confidence is built.

speaker-1: Mm. I haven't heard confidence defined that way before. I think that's very well said. And I think it's like I think the comfort, a part of comfort is also preparation. Right. And that's doing the reps, that's getting the experience, it's being prepared, ready to go, obviously. But I think you can bucket that into the comfort category.

speaker-0: Yeah. And my people, the analysts, the scientists, the STEM professionals out there, preparation is the key. That's how I'm going to make sure that I feel confident in this situation. Great. And what do you do if somebody asks you a question? Right? You can't prepare for the dynamic nature of a conversation. You can't prepare for the spotlight being put on you all of a sudden. And that's why we talked about the HIPAA formula, the impromptu formula. When you're prepared with a framework. You don't have to have all of your content prepared. All you have to do is remember the framework, flow through it, and you've nailed your moment in the spotlight.

speaker-1: Yeah. And I would imagine that having that framework prepared, like being more prepared to use a framework, is gonna be a lot more beneficial to you than being prepared with the exact words that you need to say throughout the whole thing, because the moment that you stumble in the exact word preparation, everything's gonna crumble.

speaker-0: Double click on that. If if you are listening right now, listen to what Ian just said. No words truer the if you have memorized your speech, unless you are doing a poetry slam, do not memorize a script. Do not have a script. If you have a teleprompter, even the teleprompter doesn't need to go word for word. You miss one word, the whole speech goes down. The teleprompter guide is trying to figure out where are you going up and down? You watch the teleprompter going up and down. I don't know, now I'm lost. I gotta I gotta wing it from here on. It's disaster. Speak in bullet points. Prepare yourself in bullet points. These are the things I wish to cover. Trust yourself to make those transitions. And if you don't feel confident in making those transitions, practice your transitions. Practice connecting two things that don't really make sense. Until it becomes natural, right? It's all about that that's where the preparation comes in. Do not memorize a script. Thank you. That's my that's an one of my soapboxes right there.

speaker-1: Absolutely. And I've did that for a long time. And yeah, I mean it showed up for me in a couple of different ways. Like I had a whole workshop presentation and I repped, I practiced, I rehearsed, saying all the right things, all the right words. And then, you know, I go up, get in front of people and on slide three, a woman sits, raises her hand, asks a question, and now I'm just like completely lost. It's just like over. Like it's just yeah, now I'm just like completely off course. I have to go back a slide, kind of get back into my mojo, into my momentum, and then kind of Yeah, you're just very stiff, you're rigid, you're stuck into one way of doing it. And the moment that it doesn't go that way, everything starts to fall apart. And then it's also in like content creation, right? When I'm recording like a short form video or a long form video, having it all scripted out word for word, one makes me have to record it a thousand times. And then also two, when I'm watching it back, it's like, man, I am just this is scripted. Like you can tell. You can still absolutely. I love it. cool. And I guess just like one last thing to underline, just kind of going back to what we were talking about just a moment ago. I think in this new world that we're living in and can continue to live in with artificial intelligence, we have to spend more time thinking about like what are the uniquely human things, the uniquely human skill sets that we should be focused on developing. Like what are what are the skills, the abilities that are really gonna matter in the world of AI? And I can't think of one more important than the ability to effectively communicate. That is the most human thing. That is what makes humans special is our ability to communicate and, you know, unite and build community. Yeah. So I can't think of anything more important. So go by, clear and compelling. Check out all the resources from Salvatore. Salvatore, is there before I get to my final question, is there any other way that people should get in touch with you?

speaker-0: You can find me on LinkedIn as well. I love getting messages there. And the best way is through my website, salvatormanzie dot com or go to the website for the book, Clearand Compelling Playbook dot com. Comes out October thirteenth, my mom's birthday.

speaker-1: Amazing. Love it. We'll have everything linked in the description. But Salvatore, thank you again so much for the time. My final question for you is a recurring question that I ask every guest. If you had a giant billboard that everyone in the world could see for ten seconds, what would it say and why?

speaker-0: You don't have to be perfect. You just have to be present. When you let go of trying to get it right and just be present in that moment of communication, you'll see the right stuff show up, the right connections happen. So keep keep going.

speaker-1: Yeah. And if I could add a little to that, that is you know, from my own perspective, I learned that lesson or I'm trying to learn that lesson with being a podcast host, right? Like I don't have to be perfect, don't have to go through my s I've learned like okay, I can have like the first question ready to go and prepare, but then beyond that I just need to close it and just try and be present and listen.

speaker-0: You're doing a great job. Yeah. You're present. Your questions are present and I really enjoyed our conversation today. Thank you, Ian.

speaker-1: Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you for listening. The main thing I'm taking away from my conversation with Salvatore is that people cannot receive your idea until they're ready to hear it. Salvatore talked about this as lowering the listener's filters, the natural filters that our brain put up automatically. That means before you try to explain, pitch, teach, or persuade, you have to create enough of a connection for the other person to stay with you. That starts by understanding where they're at, what they care about, and what they are already carrying with them into the conversation. You have to begin your explanation by connecting with the listener. If you want to get connected with Salvatore, you can find the links to his website, LinkedIn, and pre-order his book in the description. And if you run a coaching program course or mastermind, or you have a book and you want it to make it easier for your clients and readers to get results, download the free program execution system toolkit in the description. It shows you how to install what I call execution infrastructure. Which will guide your clients step by step through doing the work that you assign to them, making it easier for them to get results. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you in the next one.