How to Overcome Fear & Tell Impactful Stories | Public Speaking Coach Kristin Link
Description
In this conversation, Public Speaking Coach Kristin Link shares her superpower of helping leaders learn how to tell impactful stories. Whether it’s giving a speech or speaking up in a meeting, Kristin says, speaking with impact is more important than speaking with perfection.
And it’s by telling stories that we have impact through connecting with our audience’s hearts and minds.
So, what holds us back? What stops us from getting on stage or speaking up in the meeting?
It’s a limiting belief we tell ourselves that we need to be perfect.
And it’s also the fear. The fear of not being perfect or saying something that will proves what our internal saboteurs have been saying all along: we don’t belong here.
Well, there’s a reason the majority of us get invited on stage or are in the conference room, and Kristin has been proving it for over two decades with the people she coaches, from with Silicon Valley technology leaders, to TEDx speakers, and everyday professionals.
Kristin shares two simple frameworks with us, one for how to build our speech, the second for how to focus on the audience.
They are simple because Kristin stresses that simpler is better. Simple is comfortable, confident, and impactful.
In this episode, Kristin answers the following questions:
- How to tell an impactful story?
- How to be a better public speaker?
- How does a Public Speaking Coach help?
- What are storytelling techniques to telling an impactful story?
My favorite quote from the episode: “Impact not perfection.”
This speaks to me because many of us start with the idea we have to be perfect, and that is not the case. The beginning of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 speech at the Lincoln Memorial was not stirring the crowd, in fact, it was moving some to leave. It wasn’t until Mahalia Jackson, standing a few steps below the podium, shouted out “Tell them about the dream, Martin.” And you know the rest.
What I know to be true about the episode: Our biggest barrier is our ego, and Kristin’s stories just illuminate this even more. Limiting beliefs, fear of other people’s opinions, past experiences believed to be a predictor of future performance. Toxic mental sludge.
What I learned from the episode: Kristin shares that what gives her the most joy is not seeing a leader on stage crushing it, but instead, it’s that same leader months prior who was paralyzed with fear and ready to make a career-limited move and not get on that stage.
It’s her ability to move her clients from fear and into experimentation that is the biggest moment of joy.
Resources in the episode:
- Kristin’s company – Link Coaching: https://kristinlinkcoaching.com/
Music in this episode by Ian Kastner.
"What Do You Know To Be True?" is a series of conversations where I speak with interesting people about their special talent or superhero power and the meaningful impact it has on others. The intention is to learn more about their experience with their superhero power, so that we can learn something about the special talent in each of us which allows us to connect more deeply with our purpose and achieve our potential.
For more info about the podcast or to check out more episodes, click here:
"What Do You Know To Be True?" is hosted by Roger Kastner, is a production of Three Blue Pens, and is recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover the ancestral lands of the indigenous people whose land you may be on, go to: https://native-land.ca/
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