Drink Like a Lady Podcast

A Peak Inside the Writing Exercises My Mastermind Will Be Doing In 30 Days In Tuscany

April 18, 2023 Joya Dass Season 5 Episode 5
Drink Like a Lady Podcast
A Peak Inside the Writing Exercises My Mastermind Will Be Doing In 30 Days In Tuscany
Show Notes

I run the Samita Lab Mastermind for women leaders. All eight are working on building a powerful personal brand in 2023, culminating in them giving a Tedx style talk on a New York City stage on November 16th (I've applied for the official Tedx license.) I can't think of a quicker way to build a personal brand than having to get on a stage in front of 200 people I never met and give a talk from my zone of genius. It's like personal branding, put on steroids. 

The fear is real. When I first announced to the group they were doing this, two flat out said, 'no.' 

  • There is the fear of being judged or not taken seriously
  • There is pressure to perform, present or speak in a certain way
  • The Imposter Syndrome is real. Women doubt their own qualifications or ability to speak on a topic, even if it is in their zone of genius.

I want to acknowledge and address these in order for all 8 to confidently and authentically deliver their TedxTalks November 16th.

One of the exercises they will be doing is called "Your Life is a Wealth of Knowledge" from a book by Lawrence Block's book.  Block hosts seminars for people suffering from writer's block. He designs weekend seminars to get folks  'get out of their own way.' One of his exercises is called:

YOUR LIFE IS A WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE

Women love to tell me, "Who would listen to me?" or "What do I have to say that hasn't already been said."  Aha. But there in lies the gold. A recent attendee of my April event spent 22 years as a corrections officer at Rikers Island. In her retirement, she decided to launch a business: A luxury perfume, made in France, and retailing for $200. 

Okay, there are literally thousands of perfume brands peddling their wares to the world. ChatGPT tells me so. 

However, there is only one person who can tell a story of functioning as a woman at one of the highest security prisons in America. And only one person that can connect the dots between a very 'masculine life' to her decidedly feminine offering now.

Most think that public speaking is about confidence. I think public speaking is about the other C word: Courage. It takes real courage to dig deep inside and tell those personal stories. 

A student in my Public Speaking Masterclass was interviewing for jobs and couldn't get past the first interview. For weeks, we had been working on digging deep for those personal stories. She just couldn't get there. In week 4, we had a breakthrough. She told a story about being homeless as a teenager.  She said, she didn't want pity, or handouts. More than anything in the world -- she wanted options. The secret: She suddenly started to showing up more authentically to her job interviews. Today, she not only has a new job she loves, but got a 15% pay bump from her previous role.

So this is the exercise: Listen to the audio to hear it.

One Public Speaking Tip

If you regard everything you do as groundwork for a story you may tell someday, you might be inclined to pay more attention to it. What's the story you could tell from this day?

For anyone who may have a heavy heart with all the violence in the world, I share this TedxTalk. Matthew Dicks talks about his nightly habit of reflecting on his day in a journal. At 6:00 minutes in, he talks about a paradigm shift that resulted from engaging in this habit daily.

I do this each night. Write reflections on my day and what I'm committed to being tomorrow. Sometimes it's a list. Sometimes it's just words. Today, it will be a story, because I did something that lights me up.

Take a listen at 6:00 minut

Joya is currently enrolling members for international (Europe) and domestic (NYC) strategy days. She also leads a year-long intensive mastermind of C-Suite level women, which is accepting applications for 2024.

https://www.joyadass.com/

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