TRP 188: Executive Presence with Rich Bracken

[00:00:00] You're listening to the Rain Making Podcast, hosted by High Stinks Headhunter, author and

[00:00:19] professional speaker, Scott Love.

[00:00:24] You're listening to the Rain Making Podcast,

[00:00:26] and my name is Scott Love.

[00:00:27] Thanks for joining me on the show.

[00:00:29] We've got an interesting topic today.

[00:00:31] Today we're talking about executive presence.

[00:00:34] What does that mean?

[00:00:34] And how can that help you earn trust with others?

[00:00:37] Whether it's a client, a prospective client,

[00:00:40] or a colleague, that's something that you need.

[00:00:43] Our guest today is Rich Bracken.

[00:00:45] Rich is a professional speaker and consultant

[00:00:48] who talks about emotional intelligence

[00:00:50] and executive presence.

[00:00:52] He's got an interesting background

[00:00:53] because he comes from the law firm environment,

[00:00:56] especially when he did work in areas

[00:00:58] related to business development.

[00:01:00] I hope you get some great ideas

[00:01:02] for my conversation with Rich today.

[00:01:04] Make sure you check out his LinkedIn page.

[00:01:06] Also visit his website.

[00:01:08] And if you're ever looking for a speaker to come and speak at your event on those topics,

[00:01:12] I'd highly recommend Rich.

[00:01:14] Thanks for listening.

[00:01:15] As always, this podcast is sponsored by Leopard Solutions, legal intelligence suite of products,

[00:01:21] firmscape and leopard BI.

[00:01:23] Push ahead of the pack with the power of leopard.

[00:01:26] And now here's my conversation with Rich Bracken.

[00:01:28] Thanks for listening.

[00:01:29] Hey, this is Scott Love with the Rain Making Podcast.

[00:01:34] Our special guest today is Rich Bracken.

[00:01:37] And our topic is executive presence.

[00:01:39] Rich, thanks for joining me on the show today.

[00:01:41] Scott, it's a pleasure, man.

[00:01:42] I've been looking forward to talking with you.

[00:01:43] So here we go.

[00:01:44] Let's rock and roll. This is good. I've been looking forward to talking with you. So here we go. Let's rock and roll.

[00:01:45] This is good.

[00:01:46] I've been following you.

[00:01:47] I know we follow some of the same people

[00:01:48] or the people that I actually follow follow you.

[00:01:51] So it's nice to have somebody like you on my show

[00:01:54] talking about executive presence.

[00:01:55] And let me kind of get some working definitions here.

[00:01:59] When you say executive presence, what exactly does that mean?

[00:02:01] How would you define that, Rich?

[00:02:03] Sure.

[00:02:03] It's a group of skills and traits that any individual can enhance.

[00:02:07] And it ranges from everything from public speaking to self-belief and self-confidence,

[00:02:12] personal branding, self-improvement.

[00:02:14] There's a lot of different aspects that make up what executive presence is, but really

[00:02:18] what it boils down to is how are you presenting to an organization, to a team, to a client?

[00:02:24] What is your gravitas? How are you presenting to an organization, to a team, to a client? What is your gravitas? How are you communicating effectively?

[00:02:27] How are you persuading people to make a decision based off of what information you're sharing with

[00:02:31] them and how you're sharing it? So it's really, argue that person that moves a room. Are you

[00:02:36] that person that makes people make decisions in a certain direction and do people like you as well?

[00:02:42] Okay, good. Good. I mean, this is great. And this is just like the hokey-pokey.

[00:02:46] That's what it's all about.

[00:02:48] How do you get people to follow you and take your advice?

[00:02:53] And I can think of a couple of scenarios right now.

[00:02:55] Somebody's inside a firm.

[00:02:57] They're on a committee, or they're talking about a trial.

[00:03:00] And they've got something to say.

[00:03:02] And they might be the junior partner out

[00:03:04] of a group of senior partners

[00:03:05] or an associate for a second year.

[00:03:08] That's really, this is their first real trial.

[00:03:10] And they've got something to say in the group,

[00:03:12] how they're gonna be hurt.

[00:03:13] Or somebody's giving a presentation

[00:03:15] or they're in a group of prospects sitting on a panel.

[00:03:18] How do they communicate in a way

[00:03:20] that gets people to take notice?

[00:03:21] So how would you kind of break that down?

[00:03:24] Are there certain attributes or variables that we need to pay attention to when we're communicating to others?

[00:03:31] Sure. Oh, 100%. And that's a perfect setup scenario too, because so let's break it down from the

[00:03:35] beginning. So individuals sitting there, they have something to say, that's where self-confidence

[00:03:40] comes in. Because a lot of times in situations like that, and I've seen it from, from, we'll say, like a junior associate or a first year individual at a company all the

[00:03:49] way up to the C-suite. I just talked with somebody the other day out of large company who has a very

[00:03:54] impressive title that she said, when I get into a certain room, like I'm confident all day long,

[00:03:59] but in certain rooms, I don't talk. And it's not because she doesn't want to, it's because she doesn't feel like she can.

[00:04:07] And so this is not just the junior associate,

[00:04:10] this is not just the young employee,

[00:04:12] this runs the full get because we're all human,

[00:04:14] we all have our insecurities,

[00:04:16] we all have some dose of imposter syndrome

[00:04:18] that we struggle with.

[00:04:19] So the desire to want to speak up and actually do it

[00:04:23] is step number one.

[00:04:24] Step number two is, okay, what are you saying?

[00:04:27] How are you conveying it?

[00:04:28] How are you communicating it?

[00:04:29] And that comes anywhere from how are you delivering the content verbally?

[00:04:34] What is your intonation?

[00:04:35] Are you speaking too fast?

[00:04:36] Are you speaking too slow?

[00:04:38] Are you talking over people's heads?

[00:04:40] So how are you delivering the content?

[00:04:43] And then also within that, I had this term that I keep using

[00:04:46] called the conversational chameleon.

[00:04:48] So if you have something to share,

[00:04:49] let's just say you have this great innovative idea

[00:04:52] and you've got to share it with your CEO, your CFO,

[00:04:56] your CMO, maybe your legal team,

[00:04:58] those are gonna be four or five different conversations

[00:05:01] styles, you're talking about the same topic,

[00:05:03] but your CMO may wanna have a more lengthy conversational chat about all the different things. Your CFO

[00:05:09] who has no time or your COO who has no time wants just give me the bullets, give me the

[00:05:13] quick hits. I just want the, you know, give me the nitty gritty and get out of my face.

[00:05:17] Those are the people that, you know, you're going to have to change the conversation.

[00:05:20] You can't go in and have the exact same scripted out conversation because you're going to lose 80% of your crowd if you just hand your conversation. So the self-belief,

[00:05:30] how you're delivering it, and then how are you laying it into a fact where it's not

[00:05:34] me telling you what to do? And I'm a big fan. I don't know if you remember the old choose

[00:05:38] your own adventure books. Sure. Yeah.

[00:05:40] So, you know, for those that are maybe a little bit not as nostalgic as we are, those books where you came to a certain page and said, okay, if you want to go in the cave,

[00:05:48] go to page 14. If you want to go to the forest, go to page 47. So when we think about delivering

[00:05:54] content and persuading people, it's a matter of saying, what here are a couple of options,

[00:05:59] you can either do this, you can make this decision, you can make that decision.

[00:06:02] Here's what I advise, but it's completely up to you. So you're laying out the benefits, you're almost leaving the

[00:06:07] witness a little bit, but it's how are you persuading them to make the decision that

[00:06:11] you think is in their best interests?

[00:06:13] Okay, good. Good. So let me kind of talk about some of the things that you may have

[00:06:16] started to touch on and we didn't really cover it, but the idea I had is the personal bias that we have

[00:06:25] and how we see other people.

[00:06:27] And that could be gender, it could be diversity issues.

[00:06:31] Do you think that comes into this?

[00:06:33] 100%, 100%.

[00:06:34] And I will say the one conversation that I just talked about

[00:06:38] that I had was one of, I would say,

[00:06:40] five in a row that were all female executives

[00:06:43] at large, mid-sized companies.

[00:06:46] And so diversity, whether it's male to female, whether it's diversity in ethnicity, whether

[00:06:51] it's LGBTQ, plus it doesn't matter, maybe it's a generational thing.

[00:06:57] But absolutely, because I think we offer you, you often hear certain situations where, well,

[00:07:02] I explain this to Tom, but he's just too old.

[00:07:05] He didn't get technology.

[00:07:06] Well, that's not fair.

[00:07:07] You can't have that conversation.

[00:07:09] You're having your own personal bias

[00:07:10] of he should come to me to understand what I know

[00:07:14] rather than me putting it away

[00:07:16] that he can understand it better.

[00:07:17] So those personal biases have a lot to do.

[00:07:19] And in certain rooms, certain people will speak up more.

[00:07:24] If we're sitting in a room of people that look like us,

[00:07:26] we're more likely to speak up.

[00:07:28] When we sit in a room where nobody looks like us,

[00:07:30] we're less likely to speak up.

[00:07:32] And these women shared the same thing.

[00:07:33] There's one woman that I talked to that said,

[00:07:35] I have a board meeting with some of our executives.

[00:07:38] I am the only woman in the room and I do not talk

[00:07:41] because they just talk over me.

[00:07:43] Oh, wow, wow.

[00:07:45] How do you recommend somebody deal with that?

[00:07:47] If they are in a room where they are being talked over,

[00:07:50] whether it's a gender issue or just even

[00:07:53] you're with somebody that's talking over people,

[00:07:56] how do you recommend they deal with that?

[00:07:57] So a couple of different ways that I've coached

[00:07:59] and I've also heard it done.

[00:08:00] Number one, once you engage the conversation,

[00:08:04] so if you're, if you're

[00:08:05] in the minority for whatever reason in that room and you take the step to speak up, asking,

[00:08:10] you know, you don't have to ask necessarily for permission to speak, you just need to

[00:08:13] speak. You need to find a way to interject yourself into the conversation. Now, if you're

[00:08:17] delivering content and somebody is talking over you, it's quite a right to just to gently

[00:08:22] and for those of you that can't see me, just gently kind of hold your hand up a little bit

[00:08:26] and just say, you know, excuse me,

[00:08:27] I'm almost done, just hang tight real quick.

[00:08:29] And build that barrier within the conversation

[00:08:32] where you're not allowing them to walk onto

[00:08:34] what I call your conversational lawn,

[00:08:36] put that fence up and lock the door until you're done.

[00:08:39] That's your space, you're allowed to have the floor and talk.

[00:08:42] Now I've also seen situations that I've had this happen to me

[00:08:44] too, where I'll be delivering content. Maybe I'm giving a presentation to a team,

[00:08:48] and two people start talking and then they're in the back. And it's not like they're whispering,

[00:08:52] they're being a minor bit disruptive. I'll stop talking. And I'll just, I grin,

[00:08:57] I have a soft grin on my face, and I'll just look at them. And when they look at them,

[00:09:01] be like, oh, I just want to make sure you guys are done. And I don't do it in a condescending,

[00:09:04] snarky way,

[00:09:05] but in a way that lets them know

[00:09:07] that I've noticed that they've interrupted what I'm doing.

[00:09:09] Right, okay, good.

[00:09:10] But that's good.

[00:09:11] I mean, that's good that you can kind of maintain that,

[00:09:13] I wouldn't call it the control,

[00:09:14] but kind of the authority, the gravitas,

[00:09:17] to be able to kind of lead it in that direction.

[00:09:19] And as much as internally you want to say,

[00:09:20] shut the F up, like, don't, I highly recommend against that.

[00:09:23] That is not a tactic I teach.

[00:09:25] So let me ask you then, with the people that you've seen

[00:09:27] that do really well with the executive presence,

[00:09:30] what do you think the qualities are that they have in common?

[00:09:33] They have high levels of emotional intelligence,

[00:09:35] which is another topic I left talking about.

[00:09:37] And that plays into your executive presence.

[00:09:38] So they are very, they're calm.

[00:09:41] They are ones that are great active listeners.

[00:09:44] They are ones that understand how to build relationships.

[00:09:47] Going back to the generational thing,

[00:09:49] somebody that's got a great executive presence would say,

[00:09:51] okay, I'm going to talk with Tom.

[00:09:54] Tom's a little bit older than me.

[00:09:55] He may not understand the technology,

[00:09:57] he may not understand this.

[00:09:58] So how can I fashion the conversation to match where he's at,

[00:10:03] but also bridge the opportunity for him to ask questions

[00:10:06] that I could bring him to my side of the knowledge as well.

[00:10:09] So it's that relationship management.

[00:10:10] It's asking people what they need and how they're doing.

[00:10:13] This is good.

[00:10:14] I think we just teed up our next three interviews

[00:10:16] with you in the future.

[00:10:18] Perfect, I love it.

[00:10:19] I love it.

[00:10:19] I love it.

[00:10:20] I love it.

[00:10:21] I love it.

[00:10:22] I love it.

[00:10:23] I love it.

[00:10:24] I love it. It's all intelligent, active listening, building relationships. Yeah. Well, I appreciate your active listening and hearing those cues.

[00:10:25] Yeah. And I liked what you said.

[00:10:26] Fashion, the conversation, what did you say to match the bridge?

[00:10:30] Or bring them back?

[00:10:31] To fashion the conversation to match the person where they're at,

[00:10:34] but build a bridge of knowledge and psychological safety

[00:10:36] to ask questions to bring them to your side.

[00:10:38] Because if we stand on the other side of the chasm of knowledge

[00:10:42] or generational difference, we're never gonna build the relationship.

[00:10:45] So you've gotta build that conversational bridge.

[00:10:47] I think that's great.

[00:10:48] And I think what you just said,

[00:10:49] that shows that somebody's selfless.

[00:10:51] It's not all about them.

[00:10:53] 100%.

[00:10:53] It's not, hey, it's all about me.

[00:10:54] And this is something even when I'm having people interview

[00:10:57] with my clients, with law firm clients,

[00:10:59] I'll tell them during the interview,

[00:11:01] you wanna ask questions.

[00:11:02] So they come to the conclusion

[00:11:04] that you're a giver and not a taker. You don't wanna say, hey, I'm a giver and not a taker. You don't want to say, hey, I'm a giver and not a taker. You want to

[00:11:08] ask questions such as, what are the opportunities where I can mentor other people? And kind

[00:11:12] of I like that through the questions you're bringing them in to build that bridge so that

[00:11:16] they see that they're a contributor to this conversation.

[00:11:18] Well, I think in your example was perfect too, that we feel psychologically seen and

[00:11:23] heard when people ask questions

[00:11:25] or when people inquire to us. Anybody that gets asked about themselves, and some will

[00:11:30] say, well, I'm an introvert, I don't want anybody talking to me, everybody likes feeling heard

[00:11:34] and seen at some level, whether it's loudly or softly, quietly in a one-on-one conversation.

[00:11:40] And so if you're doing those things, if you're asking questions, if you're just checking in

[00:11:43] with people, we psychologically feel better and we feel more emotionally connected and

[00:11:48] trusted to the individual that does that to us.

[00:11:51] So what do you think, because I know you speak a lot on these topics, you coach and consult

[00:11:55] the people on executive presence, what do you think the bigger challenges are that most

[00:12:00] people have from where they are today to where they want to be in terms of increasing their effectiveness at having executive presence.

[00:12:08] A lot of times it's the ability to ask or to seek out and ask for feedback because I will

[00:12:14] say this is that a lot of times when I have my foundational discovery call with my clients,

[00:12:20] we'll talk about like what do you think your blind spots are? What do you think your opportunities are?

[00:12:26] And then I'll ask questions and strike up conversation and I'm trying to get a little

[00:12:29] bit of broader knowledge about them from an observational standpoint.

[00:12:33] But I look at it as I call it the spinach and the teeth theory.

[00:12:36] You can be the smartest person in the entire world.

[00:12:37] You could have the best slides in the world up on the screen.

[00:12:40] But if you get a big, a lot of spinach in your teeth from lunch, you're not going to

[00:12:44] have the same impact, but you also don't know that. So unless you ask for

[00:12:47] feedback, nobody can tell you, Oh, hey, Scott, you've got a little thing right here. You've

[00:12:52] got to ask for feedback to see where your blind spots are being observed by others.

[00:12:57] Yeah. And especially when I, when I, because I've coached attorneys too on, on client service

[00:13:03] interviews and, you know interviews and team feedback.

[00:13:06] And I tell people all the time, you may ask for feedback. But the only thing you can say in response,

[00:13:12] when that individual provides you feedback, whether it's a client or a colleague or anybody within

[00:13:17] your organization, all you are allowed to say is thank you. You cannot contest it. You cannot

[00:13:24] excuse it. You can't say, well, I was in a bad mood that day. And I'll just say, thank you. You cannot contest it. You cannot excuse it. You can't say, well, I was

[00:13:25] in a bad mood that day. And I'll just say thank you. Because not only does it take psychological

[00:13:29] safety and comfort and confidence to ask for feedback, but think about the person that

[00:13:34] you're asking the feedback from. They're probably going to deliver maybe a variety of pieces

[00:13:40] of information. It's not always going to be positive. Anybody that truly cares about

[00:13:44] you is not going to give you 100%. Like you're great. You're the best person in the entire world. You do

[00:13:47] nothing wrong. Have a great day. Let's go grab some coffee. They're going to say,

[00:13:52] I do notice from time to time when you're talking, you trail off or you mumble or

[00:13:56] maybe you don't make great eye contact when you talk with people. But that is something that

[00:14:00] somebody else can point out that you may not know that you're doing.

[00:14:03] Have you consulted to people on teams to do this?

[00:14:06] Like a group of attorneys working together

[00:14:08] about getting feedback from each other?

[00:14:10] Yes, I have observed teams.

[00:14:11] And what I love doing is really fly on the walling

[00:14:15] the first couple of conversations

[00:14:16] where I don't really do much.

[00:14:17] I just sit there and observe, I listen, I watch the dynamic.

[00:14:21] And then I will give some feedback at the end of it

[00:14:23] because what happens is if you go in and say, this is what you should do, this person should do this, this

[00:14:27] person should leave this, you can't nuance what's already there. It's a lot easier to

[00:14:33] work with what you've got than to go in and train everybody net new. So if I'm going into

[00:14:37] work with a group of attorneys or a team of attorneys that's maybe working on a specific

[00:14:41] client, I'll just sit in a meeting or listen in on a Zoom call and just listen to them talk.

[00:14:46] And I watch the power dynamics.

[00:14:47] I watch who speaks, who speaks when, who interjects,

[00:14:51] who brings ideas, who puts up a battle,

[00:14:54] or the people that are just sitting silently.

[00:14:56] And then I have all kinds of feedback.

[00:14:58] Why isn't Stacy talking?

[00:14:59] When is anybody ever asked her a question?

[00:15:01] Why is Mark taking over every single conversation?

[00:15:04] Why is Andy just sitting over to the side looking like he's playing Minesweeper, which

[00:15:08] just now dated how old I am that he's playing Minesweeper. I don't even think Minesweeper

[00:15:12] is a thing now. But he's over here distracted by something else. So me observing them allows

[00:15:18] me to say, OK, Andy, you need to be more tuned in. You need to get Stacy more involved.

[00:15:22] I think she's got some great ideas. you know, bringing that dynamic into more of a holistic approach as opposed to coming in

[00:15:28] saying, okay, everybody, everybody's going to talk 10% of the time. You may not talk

[00:15:32] more than three minutes apiece. Ready, go.

[00:15:35] That's interesting. So what have you seen then? What I want you to do, Rich, is tell

[00:15:38] me a story of somebody that you've worked with. You don't mention their name, of course.

[00:15:43] What were their challenges before you started working with them? What was the arc of their improvement? What did they do

[00:15:49] differently? And then how have they become more effective in executive presence?

[00:15:53] Sure. So I think one of the things that I work with quite a bit, and I can think of

[00:15:57] two people off the top of my head that I've worked with lately that have battled with

[00:16:01] this is a little bit of spoiler alert on some of the key takeaways is the idea that our calendars don't own us.

[00:16:09] We own our calendars and why that is so important.

[00:16:12] And I talk all the time about the concept of an adult passing period because in school, we had five, seven minutes, you know, between classes to go from science to English, switch gears, drop off our science book, grab our math book, talk to a couple of friends, grab some water, use the restroom, whatever. You're switching gears

[00:16:28] in between. Now as adults, especially as professionals, we're so proud of, oh my gosh, my Wednesday

[00:16:34] was back to back to back to back from like 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. everybody, like you deserve a medal for

[00:16:40] that. And what happens is we have this snowball effect of either

[00:16:45] you're running late, you're not dealing with the things that you're coming out of the meetings,

[00:16:49] but what you've talked about. And you're just running down this hill of lack of productivity.

[00:16:54] And then you get to the end of the day and you look back at your notes from that eight

[00:16:57] o'clock meeting and say, Oh, wait, what was that in context from? Or what was it that Scott

[00:17:02] said? Oh, God, I totally forgot. So if you block in those adult passing periods, five minutes, 10 minutes where you have them,

[00:17:09] you can digest what just happened in a meeting, but you could also turn and prepare for what's

[00:17:13] coming next.

[00:17:14] And I always encourage all my clients, like go to your calendar now and block five minutes

[00:17:19] before every meeting that you have.

[00:17:21] Find a way to do that.

[00:17:22] And if you've got back to back, just ask, can we shift this five minutes? I just need to have a little bit of time in between. Because

[00:17:29] we don't prepare for who we're about to encounter. So if you come out of a meeting that you're

[00:17:33] talking to a bunch of marketing people that's used in attorneys, an example. So if you meet with

[00:17:37] your business development and marketing team in one meeting, and then you're rolling into a

[00:17:41] class action lawsuit discussion for our client, you got to switch gears. You can't like, I've met some really talented conversational

[00:17:48] attorneys. Nobody's that good. You can't switch gears that quickly. You can't prepare

[00:17:52] for, oh, Scott's going to be in this next meeting. He's a little bit more of a short

[00:17:56] conversationalist. I just came out of talking with Rich who could talk all day without seeming

[00:18:00] like he's taking a breath. So I got to change my mentality. I got to prepare differently

[00:18:04] because the way you interact with me is going to be different than the way you

[00:18:07] interact with Scott, who's a short talker, you've got to be able to exhibit that knowledge

[00:18:12] of their conversational ability, the conversational chameleon concept to make sure that you're

[00:18:16] delivering the right content and the right way to make the right impact at every meeting,

[00:18:20] no matter who you're talking to. That's great. So when people are preparing, let's say the five-minute block for your meeting,

[00:18:28] how do you think people can best prepare for that meeting?

[00:18:31] Sure. So I think there's a couple of different things. One, what is the meeting about? What is

[00:18:35] your, do you have an agenda? What is the purpose of the meeting? How are you going into it from a

[00:18:39] mentality standpoint? Two, I recommend visualization all the time. And this sounds to you, somebody will say,

[00:18:45] you really want me to visualize a meeting

[00:18:47] about a marketing flyer?

[00:18:48] Yeah, I do.

[00:18:49] I want you to sit down and say,

[00:18:50] what does success look like coming out of this meeting?

[00:18:53] And how can we get there?

[00:18:55] Because once you visualize that going to a meeting,

[00:18:57] even if it starts going off the rails a little bit

[00:19:00] or maybe it's going a different route

[00:19:01] than you expect it to,

[00:19:03] you have that visual in your mind of what success looks like, you can get it back to center quicker. The other one, and this will,

[00:19:08] this will sing to my former college football playing days, is the scouting report. So,

[00:19:13] I look at the calendar hold of the meeting. Who's in the meeting? Okay, Scott's in the meeting,

[00:19:17] Rich is in the meeting, Sarah's in the meeting, and all three of these people I know.

[00:19:21] Or if I don't know them, if they're a prospect, go jump on LinkedIn and look at their LinkedIn page

[00:19:27] or go look at some content real quick,

[00:19:28] just to get a feel for them,

[00:19:30] learn something that you have in common.

[00:19:32] But if you use that scouting report mentality,

[00:19:34] you're going in with the advantage of knowledge

[00:19:37] and comfort of saying, oh yeah.

[00:19:39] So Rich is chatty, Scott is not, Sarah is very direct,

[00:19:44] but she seems like she's

[00:19:46] somebody who just really wants the nuts and bolts of things and doesn't have a real good

[00:19:49] conversational ability. I need to go in with that mentality of if I address Rich, this is fine.

[00:19:55] If I address Sarah, this is fine. And if I address Scott, this is fine. So if you have that

[00:19:59] scouting report and you know who the players are, that plays into the visualization too. You know

[00:20:04] how to control the dynamic.

[00:20:05] These are great ideas, Rich,

[00:20:06] because I think it's the confidence comes

[00:20:09] from being prepared.

[00:20:10] Whether you're giving a speech,

[00:20:11] you've done your homework,

[00:20:12] what are the problems this audience has,

[00:20:14] who are the key performers?

[00:20:15] Any time I give a speech,

[00:20:16] I always want to talk to two board members,

[00:20:18] and then the crankiest board member that they have.

[00:20:20] So I'm going to hear from the cranky person,

[00:20:22] what are the issues that really bothers

[00:20:23] this very vocal person? And at least I know I'm not going to have that person cranky person. What are the issues that really bothers this very vocal person?

[00:20:25] At least I know I'm not going to have that person heckle me because they've been hurt.

[00:20:29] But I think the confidence increases when you're prepared.

[00:20:33] And I think just this in itself is just a valuable tip.

[00:20:36] And I appreciate you for sharing that with us, Rich.

[00:20:38] So tell me this then.

[00:20:39] If somebody wants to go forward and they want to get really good at improving their executive

[00:20:44] presence, how would you summarize this in three action steps? go forward and they want to get really good at improving their executive presence.

[00:20:45] How would you summarize this in three action steps?

[00:20:47] What are three action steps somebody can take to really implement some of these ideas that

[00:20:51] you have?

[00:20:52] Sure.

[00:20:53] So number one, and I've given a little bit of spoilers in the previous amount of context.

[00:20:57] So I'll recap two of the things and there's another I'll add in.

[00:21:00] Number one is the feedback loop.

[00:21:02] You need to ask for feedback.

[00:21:03] You are not gonna get better

[00:21:05] if you don't exhibit the humility of wanting to know

[00:21:08] what you can improve on and what your opportunities are.

[00:21:11] But too, along with that,

[00:21:12] you need to put in a plan to improve.

[00:21:15] Nobody is perfect.

[00:21:16] Michael Jordan had a coach in his prime.

[00:21:18] LeBron James has a coach in his prime.

[00:21:20] Tiger Woods has a coach, Serena Williams, you name it.

[00:21:24] The top performers of all time, no matter what industry, Woods has a coach Serena Williams you name it the top performers

[00:21:25] of all time no matter what industry have had a coach but they've also helped them understand

[00:21:30] how to get at least 1% better every single day we can all improve well none of us are

[00:21:34] perfect and for some of you who are listening who think you're perfect I hate to break your

[00:21:38] bubble that's just you're not you're not perfect so ask for feedback and work on improving

[00:21:44] to figuring out what your adult

[00:21:46] passing period, what your pre meeting prep is, even if it's before the beginning

[00:21:50] of the day, if it's in the middle of the day in between these meetings, but being

[00:21:54] prepared ahead of time.

[00:21:55] I loved what you said too, that confidence is bread from that preparation.

[00:21:59] Cause I could tell you right now, if I told you that your next meeting is coming

[00:22:03] up and you have no idea who's in it, you're

[00:22:05] not really sure what you're talking about. Even that description alone brought somebody's

[00:22:09] anxiety up this listening to this, because nobody likes being unprepared. We don't want

[00:22:12] to go in blind to a meeting. Right. But if you know everybody, you've done your homework,

[00:22:17] you know the agenda, you know what's coming and what you want to get done, you feel a

[00:22:20] lot more confident going into it. Third, and this is one that we haven't quite touched on,

[00:22:25] is the idea of how do people like to communicate?

[00:22:30] Two, that is a great conversation to have

[00:22:33] as you're building relationships,

[00:22:34] which also ties into emotional intelligence.

[00:22:36] Scott, if you and I work together,

[00:22:38] and maybe I think Scott doesn't really care how I talk,

[00:22:42] or I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere with Scott.

[00:22:44] For you and I to sit down and say, hey, Scott, can we just grab coffee in the break room for a couple minutes?

[00:22:48] I just want to, I like your feedback on something.

[00:22:50] Okay, great. So we sit down and I say, Scott, you know, I'm kind of a chatty person.

[00:22:54] And I don't necessarily get the feeling that you are too.

[00:22:57] Can you tell me how best to communicate with you?

[00:22:59] Do you want me to come by your office?

[00:23:01] Do you want me to send you a bullet pointed email?

[00:23:03] Would you rather just me text you?

[00:23:04] Do you want me to do a dance on TikTok instead of to get

[00:23:07] my point of crime?

[00:23:08] Whatever your communication style is, and this is specifically important when you come

[00:23:12] to client communications because we're inundated with communication. And I will tell people

[00:23:17] out of the gate, text me if you need me. That's the quickest way to get my attention.

[00:23:21] That's great. I love it. This is great, Rich. So tell us about your offerings.

[00:23:25] What do you have? What do you do in terms of your services that you'd like our listeners to know

[00:23:29] about, Rich? Sure. Yeah. So the primary thing that I do is I speak with organizations, companies,

[00:23:34] firms across the country and around the world, both in person and virtually. I speak on emotional

[00:23:39] intelligence, executive presence. And then I've got some really fun motivational content as well.

[00:23:43] I even have an emotional intelligence presentation

[00:23:46] that I bring in my former life as a DJ.

[00:23:47] So it's music and emotional intelligence,

[00:23:49] which I think some people in law firms

[00:23:51] would have their heads explode if that happened.

[00:23:53] But then I also do the executive presence coaching.

[00:23:56] I do public speaking coaching as well.

[00:23:58] So I've worked with executives of all types.

[00:24:01] I've worked with some celebrities.

[00:24:02] Like it's a lot of fun to work with these people

[00:24:04] because I get to take their ideas to bring to fruition, find out how they can message appropriately,

[00:24:10] how they can incorporate storytelling, and then how they can tell an impactful, given

[00:24:14] impactful presentation to help persuade people as they deliver the content.

[00:24:18] That's great, Rich.

[00:24:19] We're going to put all of your contact info and your site link, also your demo video

[00:24:24] link and even your LinkedIn

[00:24:25] link. We'll put that on the show notes. So everybody that's listening, go to where you

[00:24:29] hear this podcast, go to the show notes, you'll be able to connect directly with Rich. Thanks

[00:24:33] again for being here, Rich. I'd love to have you back on the show talking about some of

[00:24:36] the other things we mentioned before, especially in emotional intelligence, how to build relationships

[00:24:41] and active listening. And we've got a lot more things we can cover in the future.

[00:24:45] The saga of Rich and Scott, I like it.

[00:24:47] Well, that's true.

[00:24:48] But I appreciate you, Scott, for what you're doing

[00:24:50] with this podcast, and I appreciate you having me on.

[00:24:52] Thank you, Rich.

[00:24:57] Thank you for listening to the Rain Making Podcast.

[00:25:00] For more information about our recruiting services

[00:25:03] for international law firms, visit

[00:25:05] our website at attorneyssearchgroup.com.

[00:25:09] To inquire about having Scott speak at your next convention, conference, sales meeting,

[00:25:14] or executive retreat, visit therainmakingpodcast.com.