The Remarkable Leadership Podcast

00:00:08:14 - 00:00:35:20
Kevin Eikenberry
As leaders, we are in the influence business, and one of the ways we are more or less influential is through our communication. Whether we are speaking in a one on one or in one of several, one to many settings, in person or virtually. We find ourselves speaking, and that plays a huge role in our ability to be influential and therefore to lead.

00:00:35:22 - 00:01:02:15
Kevin Eikenberry
Join us today as we talk about mastering our leadership and influence voice. Welcome to another episode of the Remarkable Leadership Podcast, where we are helping leaders grow personally and professionally to lead more effectively and make a bigger, positive difference for their teams, organizations and the world. If you are listening to this podcast in the future, you could join us live on your favorite social platform.

00:01:02:17 - 00:01:28:23
Kevin Eikenberry
You can find out when we're going live and get access to those live episodes. Interact with us and get the information sooner by joining our Facebook or LinkedIn groups. Two of the places where these are live streamed, I just go to remarkable podcast.com/facebook or remarkable podcast.com/linked in. And you get all of the scoop, all the inside stuff and find out when we're going to be live.

00:01:29:01 - 00:01:45:14
Kevin Eikenberry
If you like what you're hearing today and want to learn more about developing your leaders in your organization, let's talk reach out to us at info at Kevin, I can B.Com. We'll schedule a time to learn more about your needs and share how we might be able to help. With that, I'm going to bring in my guest.

00:01:45:16 - 00:02:12:15
Kevin Eikenberry
Here she is. Her name is Laura Sekolah. She is an executive communication coach, a three time TEDx speaker, and the author of Speaking to Influence Mastering Your Leadership Voice. She has over two decades of experience in helping professionals employ her proprietary vocal executive presence framework, which we're going to talk about today. She is a cognitive cognitive linguistics linguist.

00:02:12:20 - 00:02:41:00
Kevin Eikenberry
Let me do that again, everybody. She's a cognitive linguist by training and a former faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. She combines neuroscience, business strategy and communication psychology to help leaders go from being the brains behind the vision to the face and voice in front of it. Her TEDx talk has nearly 7 million views, and her client list includes Amazon, Intel, HP, Kaiser Permanente, and the US Department of Congress.

00:02:41:01 - 00:02:48:09
Kevin Eikenberry
Excuse me, U.S. Department of Commerce. And today, she's our guest. Laura, welcome. So glad to have you.

00:02:48:15 - 00:02:51:07
Dr. Laura Sicola
Thank you so much, Kevin. I'm so glad to be here.

00:02:51:09 - 00:03:07:02
Kevin Eikenberry
It is a pleasure. So, I'm glad you're here. And I want to start by asking you to share what you would say the big idea of the book is, because that's where we're going to frame our conversation today. So from your perspective, what's the big idea of the book?

00:03:07:04 - 00:03:40:03
Dr. Laura Sicola
The big idea of the book is that we tend to get stuck hearing, know a lot more than we want to and a lot more than we need to, because we don't realize how much we can adapt. The way that we communicate to still be ourselves, still be authentic, but get through to other people learning to speak their language and really finding our own true, unique and authentic sound of leadership.

00:03:40:03 - 00:03:44:21
Dr. Laura Sicola
Finding that leadership voice in a way that is still flexible and effective.

00:03:44:22 - 00:04:10:22
Kevin Eikenberry
So, when I first got the book, my first thought was, this is a book about public speaking, which it is, but it's not only about that. We're going to get to that a little bit in a second. From your perspective, what makes this book and your work different from the 100 other books people could pick up about leadership, communication.

00:04:11:00 - 00:04:39:22
Dr. Laura Sicola
From the what I have seen out there on communication. So to use your preface in many ways is the fact that it's not contextual in nature. It's not about in meetings. Here's how you're supposed to talk, here's how executives talk, or here's how investors talk. It's not just about a business pitch and trying to get investment funding. It's not a presentation skills book or a book on public speaking.

00:04:40:00 - 00:05:03:13
Dr. Laura Sicola
Yes, we do certainly address all of those contexts in different ways, and for that matter, personal. I mean, there are anecdotes in the book that are about my husband's. There are anecdotes in the book that are talking about my kids. But when they were teenagers and even a baby at that point. So what is but it's about recognizing the tools that we all have at our disposal to hear.

00:05:03:13 - 00:05:06:08
Dr. Laura Sicola
Yes, more often.

00:05:06:10 - 00:05:35:08
Kevin Eikenberry
Hearing yes more often. Something I think all of us would like to be able to say is true, which comes back to the key word in in our title and what I've already mentioned is that word influence. And of course, it's the key word in the title of the book as well. So from your perspective, and maybe you've just given the answer, but from your perspective, what's what is influence and why does it matter to us as leaders?

00:05:35:10 - 00:05:57:02
Dr. Laura Sicola
Influence is very simply the ability to have an impact on something. And it we can make it as big or as small as you want, but it is in the positive sense as well. Of course, we're looking for any tool from the internet to a hammer to whatever can be used to build or to destroy. So any tool can, in the wrong hands, can be used for evil.

00:05:57:04 - 00:06:26:06
Dr. Laura Sicola
So what? We're not talking about influence in the sense of manipulation. That's a really important point of distinction, that this is not what we're aiming to do. It's helping get more positive progress moving along. So there's it's all about small details, small changes that have huge impact, huge difference on what we want. So the influence that we want to have is you're the leader of your department, your vision.

00:06:26:06 - 00:06:34:20
Dr. Laura Sicola
And frankly, you don't have to be a leader in any literal sense to find this book valuable because you want to convince someone of something, you want to lead them in that direction.

00:06:34:20 - 00:06:57:09
Kevin Eikenberry
That's all when went up, because I have the chance. Not just for what I do, for myself, but what I do for the show, which is to read a lot of books and typically when I am reading a book, I'm thinking like, what's the one thing that I will remember from this book or what is? And I think it's a big part of your work.

00:06:57:11 - 00:07:21:05
Kevin Eikenberry
So I really want to focus on this idea of what you call vocal executive presence. So give us context for that. Because I want to use that as a jumping off point for a lot of the rest of our conversation. As you said, lots of different contexts. And you don't have to be an executive for this to matter, but I'm going to guess all of you that are here.

00:07:21:07 - 00:07:41:17
Kevin Eikenberry
In fact, I'm pretty confident all of you are here are either leaders by title capital leaders, or you are small leaders, which is where you are in the rest of your life when you are leading without position. So don't get don't get lost in her word executive. But given that, Laura, let's talk about what you mean by vocal executive presence.

00:07:41:19 - 00:08:08:18
Dr. Laura Sicola
Sure. Happy to the very simply, it is the three C's mastering the three C's and the ability to command the room, connect with the audience and close the deal. Those are the three C's, a vocal executive presence, and very simply what each of the means is a command the room when whether you click join meeting or you walk into a room or you walk into a stage or you sit down for that matter, there's something in the way that you carry yourself.

00:08:08:21 - 00:08:29:11
Dr. Laura Sicola
There's something in the way that you, your body language, your voice, even regardless of what your words are that compels people to pay attention. It holds the attention that captivates, that's commanding the room. And I hear people make excuses all the time and things like, well, I'm young, I'm I'm the only woman in the room. I'm this ethnic background.

00:08:29:11 - 00:08:36:18
Dr. Laura Sicola
I'm small, I'm petite. Look, I can wear high heels. No one can tell. It doesn't matter. So size is not on.

00:08:36:18 - 00:08:37:19
Kevin Eikenberry
Video like not on.

00:08:37:19 - 00:08:38:18
Dr. Laura Sicola
Video for short.

00:08:38:18 - 00:08:41:15
Kevin Eikenberry
Notice how tall you are, how short you are, how to teach you.

00:08:41:17 - 00:09:02:10
Dr. Laura Sicola
And yet I show up to do speeches or to do live trainings. And the first thing I inevitably see is people's faces. And they kind of like, look up and down and I'm like, you thought I was taller, didn't you? And I well, yeah, kind of. Oh, well. So command the room. It doesn't matter anything about your physique or how you physically show up.

00:09:02:10 - 00:09:22:00
Dr. Laura Sicola
It's how you stand your presence there. That's command the room. Number two, connect with the audience. No matter what your backgrounds are, how different you are on one level, you need to identify where you understand me, that I understand you. That's how we're going to connect with the audience, and that's the trajectory that we're going to take moving forward together.

00:09:22:02 - 00:09:42:20
Dr. Laura Sicola
And then closing the deal is not necessarily a sales term. It can be if that's your role, business development of some sort. But really it's about just getting to, yes, coming to a mutual agreement about something, coming to an answer, moving the needle forward. I don't know about you, Kevin, but for my business, I mean new business development, it could be 6 to 12 months worth of conversations.

00:09:43:02 - 00:09:48:14
Dr. Laura Sicola
So closing the deal in any conversation may just be about agreeing on who I need to talk to next.

00:09:48:16 - 00:10:10:13
Kevin Eikenberry
You know, and when I think when I, when I talk with leaders about, the kinds of things we're talking about today. Laura, one of the things that, I find folks aren't generally even thinking about is this last part, this closing the deal part, like I say, like, what's what? What's the what's the most desired response? What do I want?

00:10:10:15 - 00:10:42:07
Kevin Eikenberry
What's the response that I want from them as a result of this conversation or this presentation or whatever it is? And it's the idea of closing the deal. And I love that you started with it. You're using sales language, and I don't even think that we should be, sorry to use that language. Right. Because it if influence at some level is about getting to yes, what is the yes we want and making sure that in our communication we are leading toward that thing.

00:10:42:09 - 00:10:44:11
Kevin Eikenberry
Right. It's super important.

00:10:44:13 - 00:11:02:19
Dr. Laura Sicola
Absolutely. What is your role in sales in some way, shape or form? Because it's all about convincing and it's not smarmy used car salesman kind of trying to convince people to buy something that they don't really want. That's not what we're talking about. Again, it's the positive. You have an important idea. You believe it's in people's best interest.

00:11:03:01 - 00:11:06:04
Dr. Laura Sicola
You want them to understand it. And welcoming.

00:11:06:06 - 00:11:32:00
Kevin Eikenberry
One of the things that I think is important for us to talk about at this point, is the idea of credibility. So where does credibility fit into this? I mean, because it's connected to all three of your other CS? Command the room, connect with the audience, and close a deal. Where does credibility fit in this? And what's your advice to those who are listening about how to build their credibility.

00:11:32:02 - 00:12:04:12
Dr. Laura Sicola
In addition to having the enough technical chops to be able to sound like you know what you're talking about from the content perspective, credibility is an image. Leadership is an image. Just like I. I need to be able to step up in a way that you can sense that, okay, I believe that she is confident. I believe that she is, clear in her ideas and that this is something I should pay attention to.

00:12:04:14 - 00:12:13:06
Dr. Laura Sicola
I can tell you I'm confident, but I can tell you I'm empathetic. I can tell you I'm whatever else. And what are you going? Are you going to go? Yeah, I'll be the judge of that one.

00:12:13:08 - 00:12:17:00
Kevin Eikenberry
Yeah. Like, let me be honest. Like, what were you before that ran.

00:12:17:02 - 00:12:38:20
Dr. Laura Sicola
Right. Exactly, exactly. So credibility is an image that first and foremost is about whether or not you are congruent when you speak. And when I say congruent, what I mean is whether or not you are in alignment with what you say and how you say it. Your words, your voice, and your body language are three different channels of speech.

00:12:38:22 - 00:13:04:06
Dr. Laura Sicola
Channels of communication that you are going to use all at the same time. And when they're all in alignment, that's when you you come across as being much more congruent and much more confidence to someone else, much more credible. If I said to you, oh, yeah, I'm, I'm glad to be here today. And, thanks for the invitation.

00:13:04:08 - 00:13:22:11
Dr. Laura Sicola
Looking forward to talking about my book again. Yeah. You're going to go up. What? I hear the words coming out of her mouth, but I don't understand, like something. I don't believe any of it. Right. Because I'm out of alignment. I'm not congruent. That's where credibility falls away.

00:13:22:13 - 00:13:41:10
Kevin Eikenberry
And you just highlighted. Of course, not everyone is not. Most people over time will not be watching, but only hearing. And so you you got two of the three channels, that you just mentioned. You said what we say, how we say it, how we look, or in the book, you also talk about it as verbal, vocal and visual.

00:13:41:12 - 00:14:08:05
Kevin Eikenberry
Also let's, let's talk about I actually in verbal, one of the things I loved, I love the way you said it because I talk to people about this all the time. I often say that when people are giving a presentation and that they're they're trying to give a book report, you talk about the idea of relevant versus essential information, which is I love talking about it that way.

00:14:08:05 - 00:14:23:11
Kevin Eikenberry
So I mean, I really love that. So let's talk about that. Help people think about that because oftentimes you are the communicator because you have the technical knowledge. Yes, you know the stuff. And if you don't, you think you're supposed to.

00:14:23:16 - 00:14:24:03
Dr. Laura Sicola
Yes.

00:14:24:05 - 00:14:32:10
Kevin Eikenberry
So let's talk about this. And how do you help people or how can people separate the two. The relevant from versus the essential.

00:14:32:12 - 00:14:59:09
Dr. Laura Sicola
So relevant information very simply is all the stuff that's already in your head that helps influence your decisions and your evaluations assessments, etc. but it's all obvious to you. You have what I like to call the experts curse. You're too smart. You have too much experience in this space. You love all of your spreadsheets and all the data points and all the details and all the specs and all those.

00:14:59:11 - 00:15:31:11
Dr. Laura Sicola
The person you're presenting to a doesn't need to know all that stuff, doesn't already know. It isn't going to understand all of it anytime soon. And they're not interested. They have another objective and they're they are coming to you for information because they need you to help them achieve their objective. So in thinking the shift is the essential information is not everything you know about that particular topic that's relevant information.

00:15:31:13 - 00:16:02:03
Dr. Laura Sicola
What's essential are the couple of pieces that you're going to cherry pick and say, based on what I know of that person, what they are going to do or what they will be expected to do with whatever I share with them, they need to do X. All right. So what are the what's the 5% of information that I now know and can help them with that will be immediately necessary to help them do their job better as soon as they leave.

00:16:02:08 - 00:16:04:00
Dr. Laura Sicola
That's essential information. Yeah.

00:16:04:01 - 00:16:26:12
Kevin Eikenberry
Notice everybody, that Laura is shifting you from thinking about what you know to what they need. So it's this idea. It's not just of connecting with the audience, which we talked about, but it's also like being being focused on the audience. It's not about you and it's not about your information. It's about what they need, which will help you close the deal.

00:16:26:14 - 00:16:40:20
Kevin Eikenberry
If you want to think about it that way. So anything else you want to say? There's plenty. I know we could do the whole rest of our conversation on this, but there anything else specifically that you want to say about the verbal piece of this? The words themselves?

00:16:40:22 - 00:17:22:06
Dr. Laura Sicola
Yes. The one of the most frequent pitfalls that I see people falling into is the feeling of, well, okay. Yes, I love my content. This is what they're thinking as they're presenting, and they're trying to prevent any questions or any objections or anything that might not make them look and feel smart. And so they inform they speak with the firehose method meaning open mouth, turn on fire hose, drown audience in every kind of detail fact point possible, and then are surprised when the audience doesn't say thank you.

00:17:22:06 - 00:17:49:11
Dr. Laura Sicola
That was wonderful. So but they're trying to. It's the sire method. If you're familiar with that acronym, cover your assets and make sure that you try to sound smart. So you give all the detail, lots of acronyms and jargon and hope that I've just snowed everybody enough that there's nothing left for them to ask about, that I'm safe.

00:17:49:12 - 00:17:52:05
Dr. Laura Sicola
And that's not effective. That just glaze is.

00:17:52:08 - 00:18:11:13
Kevin Eikenberry
Absolutely not effective. You know, I often say if you're in a presentation and someone says to you, I have a lot of information to cover, so I better get started. You know, it's not going to go well. Like it's just not like this is going to be a snooze fest. Right? Because the the synonyms for cover are very hide and obscure.

00:18:11:15 - 00:18:32:18
Kevin Eikenberry
Just say it. So verbal vocal. One of the things you talk about here is what you call the vocal fry. What do you mean by, again, great language to describe something that I think most of us have experienced, but talk about what this is and how do we move past it?

00:18:32:20 - 00:19:00:23
Dr. Laura Sicola
Vocal fry, technically, is simply not having enough air breath support when you're speaking, but the way it manifests if you as opposed to listening to how my normal speaking voice is coming through. Now, if I were to have kind of this creaky, croaky, gravelly sound and a lot of people will talk that way, and it might be just because they're slouching and in their chair, or maybe they started okay, but then they kind of trail off at the end of their sentences because they haven't finished making that point.

00:19:00:23 - 00:19:16:18
Dr. Laura Sicola
But their brains already. Moving on to part two. Or maybe it's just that you're throwing yourself under the bus and basically telegraphing how utterly unconfident you are. You're going, oh, I have to tell you this, but I'm afraid you're not going to like it, so I'm just going to let it fall out of my mouth. What does it not say?

00:19:16:20 - 00:19:24:21
Dr. Laura Sicola
It does not say confident. It does not say credible. It does not say authoritative. It does not say leader.

00:19:24:23 - 00:19:44:14
Kevin Eikenberry
It does not. That's right. So we've talked about the verbal. We've talked about the vocal a little bit. Again lots more we could talk about, about both but we need to talk about the visual. That's the third piece. And so when you talk about the visual a couple, I don't think we can have the conversation about visual.

00:19:44:20 - 00:20:04:02
Kevin Eikenberry
And I know that this isn't only about speaking to groups. And yet that's one of the things we do as a leader. So tell us what you your thoughts are, about PowerPoint. Like, what should we be doing with PowerPoint? Well, I can tell you it's what most people aren't doing. But anyway, what should we be doing?

00:20:04:08 - 00:20:10:08
Kevin Eikenberry
What? Give us some. Give us some thoughts on PowerPoint and how it relates to our vocal executive presence.

00:20:10:10 - 00:20:25:10
Dr. Laura Sicola
If if no, if people remember only one thing from this whole conversation, Kevin, please let it be this with regard to PowerPoint, if you have to preface a slide with you probably can't see this, but.

00:20:25:12 - 00:20:27:09
Kevin Eikenberry
Don't show the slide.

00:20:27:11 - 00:20:45:23
Dr. Laura Sicola
Thank you. That's what I call an ego slide. That's for the presenters purpose only. It means I have to shove all that data on there because I'm afraid somebody might ask a question that I don't want to answer. So I'll just give them everything here. No one can see it except me, but. Okay. No, that's an ego slide.

00:20:46:05 - 00:21:11:00
Dr. Laura Sicola
Get rid of it. You just told people, oh, I'm not gonna be able to see this. Okay? I'll multitask. I will check my phone because it's going to be more interesting than whatever you're about to tell me, since I can't see it anyway. And by the way, Kevin, the new date, the 2020, whatever. Oxford English Dictionary. I'm pretty sure their new definition of multitasking is paying attention to everything except you.

00:21:11:02 - 00:21:44:10
Kevin Eikenberry
Unfortunately, we see it at dinner in every restaurant. Yes. When you're supposed to be really focused on the other person and instead you're focused on your screen. Well, other show, if you have it is except you have really vocal, executive presence that will happen less often. And in my yes, my view, one of the things that that Laura, at least in my interaction with you now, but certainly in reading the book, that I've found is that you've taken principles and given them words that are very, very helpful.

00:21:44:13 - 00:21:51:09
Kevin Eikenberry
And so I've done this. And the other two, I'll do it here, too. Here, I want you to talk about the 60 to 60 rule.

00:21:51:11 - 00:21:53:11
Dr. Laura Sicola
Sure. And this is what I'm super.

00:21:53:13 - 00:21:55:00
Kevin Eikenberry
Super important.

00:21:55:02 - 00:22:22:06
Dr. Laura Sicola
Yes. This is great for the beginning of any meeting or presentation of sorts. But the idea is that in the first 60s, you will set the audience's expectations for the value you're going to bring to the next 60 minutes. Plain and simple. Why is this important to remember? Because most people really, they put all their prep into their big content slides or their big points that they want to make, they don't think about how they open.

00:22:22:11 - 00:22:47:02
Dr. Laura Sicola
Oh, well, I'll just welcome people and maybe go through an agenda or something. And so they stumble, Bumble, fumble their way through everything, and then eventually get into a groove. Well, what is setting the audience's expectation? The stumble Bumble fumble stuff. And they're going to, oh, this is going to be a long meeting. That's not a good way to get them to look forward to paying more attention to everything else that you want to share.

00:22:47:07 - 00:22:50:07
Dr. Laura Sicola
You just cued them in multi-touch. Ask now.

00:22:50:09 - 00:23:14:04
Kevin Eikenberry
And Kara is reminding us, and I agree with her, that, multitasking does not exist. She says is distracted testing. I would say it's switch tasking. But the regardless, the regardless is that if people are switching, they're not with you and you want them with you. If you're saying something that's that you want them to know and understand, they can't get there if they're not listening.

00:23:14:04 - 00:23:37:00
Kevin Eikenberry
So, so, Kara, thank you for that. The thing I would add to what you just said, which is incredibly important, is that, the where people focus their practice or their prep to the degree they do it, is on the middle, when the most important parts of the of the presentation, even if it's just 1 to 1, is the beginning and the end.

00:23:37:06 - 00:23:55:21
Kevin Eikenberry
And so what we do in that first 60s, what we do in that first 90s is so important because, as you said, it sets the table for everything else. And it isn't just what we say, but how we show up, how we look, the visual component of that. Yes, super, super important. So we've talked about all of these pieces.

00:23:55:23 - 00:24:16:22
Kevin Eikenberry
And there's obviously plenty more we could talk about. We're talking with Doctor Laura Scola about her book. Speaking to Influence Mastering Your Leadership voice. Is there is there anything I didn't ask? I have a couple more questions for you, but is there anything else that I. Anything I didn't ask that you thought I would or hoped I would ask?

00:24:17:00 - 00:24:42:20
Dr. Laura Sicola
I think one point that I would love to have a chance to insert in here is the concept of the prismatic voice, which I believe we addressed to, or relatively somewhere in the middle of the book. But the prismatic voice is where the people get stuck about the idea of learning to expand your speaking style because they think, well, I got to be me.

00:24:42:20 - 00:25:08:23
Dr. Laura Sicola
I want to be authentic. So I can't change because I'd be changing who I am. No, you're not changing who you are. The whole idea is to be able to adapt your speech in a way that is context appropriate. But still, you and I use the word prismatic voice because, you know, the same way you've you've seen those little crystals or sun catchers hanging from the kitchen window or the rearview mirror, and the sun hits it and the little rainbow comes out the other side.

00:25:09:05 - 00:25:27:15
Dr. Laura Sicola
Well, in that we similarly, we are all white light and by the way, I'm a Jersey Italian. I don't do woowoo, so just go with the go with the analogy for a second. Humor me on this one. So but we've all got that we are white light. Okay, I'm Laura, you're Kevin, but we have all those colors in our spectrum.

00:25:27:21 - 00:25:49:19
Dr. Laura Sicola
So I'm here in my coach, in my trainer, in my podcaster mode. We'll call this my purple. And but I also have a nine year old at home. And it may not surprise you to know I don't talk like this to him. There's my mommy. Voice is different. There's happy mommy, there's not so happy mommy. But either way, we'll call that my yellow or my green.

00:25:49:21 - 00:26:05:02
Dr. Laura Sicola
Okay? It's not that one of these is the real me. And one of these is the fake me. It's that I know in this context, I need to turn down my yellow a little bit and turn up my purple. Whereas with him, I'm going to turn down the purple and turn up the yellow or the green. That's okay.

00:26:05:08 - 00:26:19:18
Dr. Laura Sicola
And anybody who says, no, I don't do that. But because if you got grandparents, you talk to them a certain way that I guarantee is different from here. Hanging out with your friends, watching a football game. And the number four letter words that probably slide out of your mouth when the ref makes a bad call against your team.

00:26:19:20 - 00:26:22:18
Dr. Laura Sicola
We all adjust those. We've all got our different colors.

00:26:22:20 - 00:26:44:10
Kevin Eikenberry
Yeah, it's and it as simple as this that we are more than our voice. Our voice is a part of who we are and how it's just about how we can express so that we can get to more. Yes is yes given the context, given the audience and get those things. So, just a couple of more things before we go.

00:26:44:12 - 00:26:48:17
Kevin Eikenberry
I'm curious, Laura, what do you do for fun?

00:26:48:18 - 00:27:01:05
Dr. Laura Sicola
Oh, for fun. I love to cook. I can't garden, have a total black thumb, kill plants. I think that's why God made me a good cook. Because plants are going to die in my hands anyway, so they should give their lives for a good cause. But, you know, I love the.

00:27:01:05 - 00:27:15:14
Kevin Eikenberry
First time you said that. I'm here to tell you no, you said that. And the other thing. Usually, if I have the chance to talk to someone, I had, I prepped this question, but I'm going to ask it anyway, all right. Because a useful question. And it's a question I ask everyone that I have on the show.

00:27:15:19 - 00:27:23:09
Kevin Eikenberry
And so I'm curious, what's your reading or what's something you've read recently that you might share with us?

00:27:23:11 - 00:28:05:19
Dr. Laura Sicola
Something I have read recently? Let's see. So I just finished my, master practitioner certification in neuro linguistic programing, which is a fascinating look at how language and the brain, pulled us back and propel us forward. Won't you learn different ways to unlock it? So the, I recently read Doctor Matt James's book on mental and emotional release, which is part of Neural Linguistic programing, or NLP as it's better known and, just really insightful into where we come up with stuff and how to release baggage and let it go.

00:28:05:20 - 00:28:08:03
Dr. Laura Sicola
And so it's been that really useful for my coaching as well.

00:28:08:05 - 00:28:27:08
Kevin Eikenberry
We will have that in the show notes. And we will also have obviously a link to Laura's book, Speaking to influence. But the question you've been wanting me to ask from the beginning is how can we learn more? Where do you want to point people? Where can people learn more? Get to know you, find out more, etc.?

00:28:27:10 - 00:28:46:06
Dr. Laura Sicola
Thank you Kevin. The I would love to hear from anyone who's on the call or tuning into the podcast later. We can by all means check out my website, which is simply Laura sekolah.com. Lots of information there, including links to the book and including, all sorts of other interviews and whatnot.

00:28:46:08 - 00:29:14:14
Kevin Eikenberry
Perfect. Laura sekolah.com s I c o l a.com. So now a question for all of you before we say goodbye. The question that I have for you is the same one that I ask in every episode, because it's an important question and that is now what what ideas did you get today that you will apply the questions or the excuse me, the ideas are fine, but the question of application is the thing that matters the most.

00:29:14:18 - 00:29:37:12
Kevin Eikenberry
So if you've got insights and ideas today, great. How are you going to turn those into doing something different? Whether that's preparing more for the beginning of how you're going to introduce your next, next conversation or your next presentation, whatever that might be, what are you going to do to implement that? Because until you implement something new, this was not much more than entertainment.

00:29:37:12 - 00:29:59:12
Kevin Eikenberry
And while we hope it was entertaining, that wasn't really our purpose. So I want to thank all of you for being here. Laura, thank you for being here. It was a pleasure to have you. And, before we go, everyone just remember this. If you enjoyed this, got value from this, have an action you're going to take from this, then you want to make sure you come back next week.

00:29:59:13 - 00:30:05:20
Kevin Eikenberry
Make sure that you invite someone else to join you next week. When we're back for another episode of the Remarkable Leadership Podcast.