The Art of Leadership Communication with Vicki Noethling

FN Intro/Outro: Welcome to the Freedom Nation podcast with Jeff Kikel. On this show, Jeff shares his expertise in financial and retirement planning from a different perspective. Planning for Your Freedom Day, which is the first day that you wake up and have enough income or assets and do not have to go to work that day. Learn how to calculate what you need, how to generate income sources, and listen to interviews from others who've done it themselves. Get ready to experience your own Freedom Day.

Hey, everybody, welcome to the Freedom Nation podcast. This is Jeff here once again and today. I am a featured podcaster on the Podapalooza and my guest today is Vicki Noethling. Vicki is a speaker trainer, and has a really interesting background. So Vicki, welcome to the show today.

Thank you so much, Jeff, I'm happy to be here on the Freedom Nation.

I appreciate you being on it's really cool to hear about you what your pathway has been to get to this point. So why don't you tell us your story a little real quickly?

Sure. So I have been a exposed to corporate for over 40 years. And I work for an accounting firm, I work for a fast food, food chain corporate office. And I also work for a very large transportation company for 27 years and retired from there. And during that time, I was exposed to a lot of people who were not great speakers. And also, I had some great leaders and managers, supervisors and not so great. So when I retired and had spent a couple of years going on vacation and to the pool and playing with my grandkids, I decided I needed to do something to make a difference. That is the you know, and so I started my speaker trainer and coaching business. And shortly thereafter, I started my podcast, the Find Your leadership confidence podcast, and have been enjoying this life so much. And it's the podcasting, I think was a great add on to being able to really connect with people where you have, you know, it's not just that five minutes of telling people your story in a networking meeting, if you even get that. Yeah, it's really being able to connect and hear a person's story and see how can they help my audience. And I feel not so much an influencer as a connector, I want to be able to have you not feel isolated as an entrepreneur, be able to reach out to people that can solve problems that you might have, or hear things that you think oh my god, I didn't even know I had that issue. And now this person can help me. So that's a little bit about who I am or what I do.

So let's talk a little bit about I mean, that's really kind of two dissimilar path, I mean, sort of similar but dissimilar paths. So from the speaking perspective, you know, what do you see? And I can relate to having spent many years in the corporate world, what do you see are some of the biggest challenges people have when it comes to speaking, and getting their message across.

So just like you said, a moment ago, there really are two different aspects. Whenever I talk about speaking, it's speaking in person. We're speaking in this virtual world and what we learned, you know, COVID, was brought blessings as well as horrible things. And what we learned is that you can effectively communicate in this virtual environment, you can build relationships, and be able to reach and touch people across not only the state, the city, but across the world. But not everybody does it so well. So as some of the things I offer is like I'll give you a 30 minute checkup of your setup. You know, what is your lighting? Like? What is your sound like? What what is the, the where you're positioning yourself? Are you just like this head in this thing? No, that's kind of scary sometimes. Are you able to really make them forget that they are talking to a little.as opposed to in a being disconnected from your audience? Do you as you're speaking in this virtual world? Do you look away and disconnect? Whereas in person, you might not worry about as much the lighting and that if you're in smaller rooms and things but how are you having that engagement with your audience? And the way that you move around the room and the way that you have the the vocal variety and tones in any environment is important. But whenever you're in person you want to maybe be I always say it's like acting where you have to be bigger and bolder and brighter to make it really reached the people in the back of the room as much as the people in the front of the room. Well,

I'd say, Yeah, I'd even say on on Zoom or on virtual, you almost have to be much more animated because yeah, I'm across, almost very morose. If you don't go just over the top. Yeah.

And it's really, as a speaker, a trainer, a facilitator, you have to remember that the best way to engage and captivate is take them on that roller coaster ride. So you don't want to have that monk monotone. And you don't also want to be way up here the whole time, because that can be annoying. And you don't want to be so soft and so quiet, because that could put them to sleep. So it is taking them on that roller coaster ride. And so for me, my one of my keynotes is, it's just a conversation. All these years that I've been working with people, I found that when you forget that it's a speech of pitch, or any kind of presentation, and you try to have a conversation. Conversation is natural, it's authentic. It allows back and forth banter that makes that person feel part of the conversation, and unnaturally add in all of those different tonal changes the vocal variety, because it whenever you're in that casual situation, you don't want to think about it. You know, I always say you don't script going out to dinner with anybody, well, maybe some people do. But just show that. And you and you don't, you know, say, oh, wait a second, Can we pause while I get my phone, my presentation is here. And I need to refer to my notes of what I'm going to say next. We don't do that. And yet people generally stay with us and they enjoy and they laugh, and they have a good time. I always joke, it's like, you can even be funny in those situations.

You don't have to have that scripted, either you exactly

up yet. And some of the best podcasts I have are where, you know, we have a few questions, but then that question leads to another question to another question. And it just makes it so much more interesting.

Once again, it's just a conversation. Right? Right on the line, it's just a conversation. And that leads to wherever you want. So you know, I think, as I'm thinking through this, you know, okay, you've got the sheer communication of it, kind of tacking into your other side of what you do. Leadership, I'm assuming a big part of what you talk about on leadership is that communications ability and getting your message across

It is, you know, to be a great leader today, as we were talking before we got started is, you know, 21st century leaders aren't you can't, you can't use the rulebook that we had when I learned to be a manager or a supervisor or a leader in the 80s. You know, that was how big is your hammer, and it's my way or the highway, and you know, do it this way and speak and when you're asked to speak and don't share your ideas, and that's just doesn't work anymore. And we have five generations of people. So you can't be that managers. The one way is the only way, I need to get to know each of my people, which is more work. And nobody said being successful wasn't going to be hard. But it's more work because you need to be able to get to know them to see what motivates them, what persuades them, what's their triggers, to make them want to do more, you'll oftentimes have to be that constant cheerleader to really believe in them before they believe in themselves. So you have to have empathy. When you talk to them, they have to know that you understand. And if it if you don't, then you need to ask questions, to be able to gain understanding. And all of those things mean you have to be a better communicator, and everything that I teach and how to be a good speaker. makes you a better leader.

Yeah well, you're you're I think you're more aware of what you're doing at that point. If you're just getting up I mean, how many times have we sat through presentations from somebody you know, where they don't even remember what they put on their slides and then the slideshow blows up and then they're panicked and can't actually you know, add live their way through it a little bit. You You obviously don't even know what you're talking about. You're just relying on the slides to Yeah.

And that's really important too. I think one of the things I've also trained is that whenever you do a presentation or a speech, it's, it's better to ask, before, you know, come a little early and ask some questions of your audience. Because there have been times when I go to speak to somebody, and I see that what they needed to hear wasn't what I was going to say, but I could help them. And so I just then change things up. And, you know, I don't often use slides, if I do, it's pictures and names, because I think they're more memorable. And I need to be able to give them what they need, and not what I wanted to present.

One of my one of my mentors in the in the speaking world was probably one of the best speakers I've ever seen. He was inside corporate of all things, you know, he didn't really work outside of that. And he used to, he would when he would train us to go and speak like for community events, he would basically say, Okay, give me your presentation. Now, cut the slides in half. Now cut the slides in half again. Now cut the slides in half again, and get to the point where you are down to I think six slides was the maximum that he would allow us to go public, and do and it's amazing how you get create, what you have to do that, which ones you're willing to give up?

Yeah, and a lot of times slides, unless you purposely make them interactive, which I try to do. But they keep you from really asking questions, or really being able to be engaging with the audience. And so if you just talk, add people, and this is true in conversations, too, if you just talk at them, then they're not going to remember what you said, because they didn't connect, what they feel what they see what they hear with what you said. And so they're that back and forth is actually really making this conversation this talk memorable. And so, you know, it's, and that also by asking questions, gives you guidance in what they need to hear next. Because as I said, what, what you had to say next, may not be even on your scripts have what they need to hear. That's brilliant.

Well, let's now transition to the Fast Five questions here. All right, first question. You wake up in the morning, 500, read in your business is gone, you have 500 bucks in your pocket, a laptop computer a place to live, and food and clothing, what are you going to do first? So

I have a lot of skills. And so I and I have been in that situation. So what I'm going to do is just put myself out there, I can do put out a webinar that offers free something that can lead to having them being a coaching, I can offer my skills as a project lead, I can offer my skills as teaching them how to do great podcasts. So there are things that I can do. But it's really I think the key to that $500 scenario is that you have to do something. You can't sit and feel sorry for yourself. You can't sit and worry about it. And if you only say, well, I'll get more training I'll get. And if you don't do something, it's not going to change. Yeah.

Well, it's a way of hiding at that point. Yeah, I need more training. I can't do this. If I don't have the training. Well, no, you just gotta get out there and do it. Yeah. What is the biggest business mistake you've ever made?

So I guess the biggest business mistake I made was, it kind of goes back to that coaching and training where I was, I connected with somebody that I didn't resonate with, okay, and cost me a whole lot of money. And, and I didn't have I didn't really believe that I knew what I knew. And so I'm not to say that I didn't learn from that individual. But it just put me in a bad financial way that I should not have, I should have seen that coming in. And you know, you get that gut feeling. And that's part of what I teach to is

Usually when you have the gut feeling. Yeah, pretty much people that are better listened to. Yeah, what's a good book that you'd recommend for our audience?

So one of my favorite books, I have a couple but because I also recommend you read 10 pages of good book every day. Nice, but the slight edge is one of the books by Jeff Olson that just talks about how everything you do the small wins really compound over time to get to your big goals. And I think a lot of times the key things that keep us stuck is that we're trying to do big, audacious goals. And we don't realize that, you know, the pathway to that big, audacious goals is just a little bit out of time, that are not overwhelming. And that can be fun. And oftentimes, it's, you know, when you reflect the week, what did you get accomplished? And you see what I did all these things. That big goal gets closer, and you didn't even know it. Yep. And so you know, it helps with stress.

I run I run in my life, personal objectives and key results, I basically have a ginormous board on my wall with sticky notes on it. And I just every day, as I accomplish something, I peel those sticky notes off over a 13 week period. So yeah, it's just dense, the little things.

Yeah, I do just a whiteboard with bubble charts.

Same difference. Yeah, it's just, you have to do something that helps you just look at those little small changes every day. Yeah, for sure. Cool. What is a tool that you use in your business every day that you might recommend?

There are a lot of tools out there, I think the thing that I use every day, is I have two monitors. And, and so it's it's funny, you probably think, Oh, she's gonna give me software things. You know, I'm discovering AI and loving all of that. But really, the thing that was from an efficiency standpoint for me is, I have two monitors. So that as I'm doing my podcasting, the prep as well as the post, I can get this down to like 1520 minutes to get something done. Because I use my two screens. When I had the one screen it was, you know, I had to go back and forth. And what did that say? Or that, you know, so investing in two screens is not a huge investment. But it's really a good investment. If you're trying to be as efficient as you can.

I took it to another level on I have three screens, plus my wife, two screens, plus my laptop, so can totally relate. And once you get to the point where it's like, okay, I can put certain things on certain screens and then leave them there. It just makes your life so much easier. Okay, good.

No, I was just gonna say that, that's, you just have to say you're worth that investment. There are some things you should invest in your business that will help you.

That's a that's a pretty low cost investment in your business. And I think your sanity in the end. Yes. Okay, last question for you, what is your definition of freedom.

So, my definition of freedom really centers around the fact that what makes me happy, and, and so I love doing what I do right now. And so keeping that going, and finding ways to monetize it, is what makes me happy. But really, all the things that I do, are to allow me to be able to spend time with my family. And my grandsons, I'm 65 years old, and I want them to have me as an example of someone that I Old age is just a number. And it is really important that you do what you like, and what you love. And always learn, continue to learn. So you know, this old lady's continuing to learn every day. And that's exciting. And it's interesting. And, and I love I one of my talks, I talked about having that four year old innovation and creativity, that any challenge is like putting together a Lego set. You know, you don't know what you got until you start putting it all together.

It's a shame that I think that our school systems beat the creativity out of. That's a lot of gates.

And that that is so true. And I work with the youth too. Yeah, just for that reason to try to bring them back to that innovation. Well,

Vicki, I can tell you, I would have never guessed your age by any means. And I've always said this of people, there are the I've met some of the youngest nine year olds and the oldest six year olds, and I think it's a state of mind and it's it's keeping that sense of wonder about you and you definitely have that.

I also am anti aging and wellness person.

I'm gonna do whatever.

So if you know like this business, you know, just visit me on my other one better, you know,

And it's working for you. So where you will go with that, Vicki, if somebody wants to find out more about you and connect what's the best way to do that?

So I send everyone to right now to my findyourleadership.com website. In a about a month I'll have an app, which is under my name, thicken methylene And you can connect with me and do all kinds of fun things on my app. But right now, you can just go website worms.

Yeah, that looks great. Awesome. We'll include that in the show notes. So, Vicki, thank you very much for being on the show today. I appreciate it.

Thank you for having me. It's been a great pleasure. And I love talking about freedom.

I love it, too. So folks, if you enjoy this, make it a point to share Vicki story with somebody in your world that could use that. And they could chance say, hey, let's subscribe to the channel. Wherever you're listening or watching this at, make sure you subscribe to the channel and hit that little like button so that we know that you're out there. So thanks a lot. We do these shows three times or two times a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays for you. And we will be back here the very next time.

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