Effective Communication and Solid Leadership with Greg Williams

Imagine captivating an audience, using words to inspire action and entertain. This week, seasoned speaker Greg Williams, with 25+ years of expertise, shares insights from transforming a nervous novice to a charismatic orator. As a congressional liaison for the U.S. Space Force, he emphasizes the importance of clear communication in bridging decision-makers and operators.

Our personal struggles reveal that public speaking goes beyond delivering lines—it's about listening, thinking on your feet, and managing anxiety. Greg's illuminating insights connect public speaking to everyday communication, focusing on knowing your audience, asking the right questions, and recovering from speech hiccups. We explore the overlap between great leadership and effective communication, drawing examples from history and personal experiences. Learn to handle jitters, recover from mistakes, and gain techniques for focused delivery. Tune in and let's conquer the stage together with Greg's wisdom!

NOTABLE QUOTES
"It really helps out as we educate [members of Congregss], they see what the needs are and then they're able to make some decisions based upon those needs and budget." – Greg
"There's an understanding element in communicating that closes that gap with regards to not only the person who's transmitting the information but, more importantly, the person who's receiving it." – Greg
"The power behind being a great speaker is when people recognize that you can speak well, they want to be around you." – Philip
"The more you can speak, the better you can speak, the more opportunities are going to come and the more impact that you can make by just speaking." – Philip
"A lot of good leaders are good speakers where they want to motivate individuals, where they want to inspire individuals." – Greg
“You should be communicating the way that they need to be communicated to." – Philip
"The most critical skill to learn is that of the conversational piece and it's a two-way street—to ask questions in such a way that will carry on that conversation and be able to give a response to those questions." – Greg
"I started making sure that I tried to be a lot more intentional in not just asking questions but also answering my own question for their behalf, and that way a conversation occurs." – Greg
"That ability to be able to think on your feet is probably a lot more critical for most of us than just having a prepared speech." – Greg
“A lot of times we tend to use our mouths a lot more than we do our ears, but I don't think it's an accident God gave us two ears. He wants us to listen more than he wants us to speak.” – Greg
“I tell people, “Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.” Know your material back and front.” – Greg
“The people who could give both good and constructive feedback to hold you accountable help you realize how to make that change.” – Greg
“A lot of times we don't listen to ourselves. We hear ourselves but we don't listen.”  – Greg
“Just pausing, allowing the audience to catch up with you, or, if you're making a strong point or a quote, stopping after that so that they can think through it and absorb it.”  – Greg
“Having that pause allows the audience's brain to catch up. It allows your brain to catch up.” – Philip
“The power of silence is key.” – Greg
“Go out there and embrace that fear [of public speaking] and get some practice.“  – Greg

RESOURCES
Greg
Website: https://www.gregvonwilliams.com/
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-von-williams-07ba974

Philip
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamphilipsessions/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipsessions
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-sessions-b2986563/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealphilipsessions

Transcript

Philips Sessions: 0:15

Have you ever wondered what a speaking journey looks like and how to get yourself to become a professional speaker? Well, today we are going to discuss that. What's up, guys? This is Phillip Sessions, your public speaking and communication coach, here with Greg Williams. He is from South Carolina originally, which is exciting, but he decided he wanted to go live over in Colorado about 25 years ago. He works as a congressional liaison for the United States Space Force and is a professional speaker and trainer with a focus on soft skills for leaders and high performers.

Philips Sessions: 0:54

Greg started public speaking in 1988 and is passionate about sharing with others messages that not only inspire or motivate them but, more importantly, transform their thinking and their lives. He has been a member of Toastmasters International since 1988 and in 2019, he actually won the district speech contest, beating out 600 other contestants. He is now a member of the Colorado National Speakers Association. Greg enjoys working out, playing tennis, reading, visiting different coffee shops which I like, visiting tons of coffee shops, too and watching old episodes on TV shows of Friends and the Andy Griffith Show. Greg's motto in life, and which he strives to live by every day, is the Latin phrase carpetium, which means seize the day. Greg, this has been a long time coming for us to get on this podcast. I know we've talked back and forth about speaking and everything like that, but I'm glad to have you on the show. Tell us a little bit more about yourself before we dive into our topic for today.

Greg Williams: 2:02

Well, first off, phil, I want to thank you for inviting me to be on your podcast. We met through Facebook several years ago, so it's exciting to be able to have the opportunity not only to be on your podcast but to see how your speaking, your coaching business is going. A little bit about me. I was actually born in Connecticut but I grew up in South Carolina. As you said earlier, they say you can take the boy out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the boy. Even though I live in Colorado, I still have a lot of southern roots there.

Greg Williams: 2:38

I attended the University of South Carolina, majored in marketing and finance. Then I worked in Columbia there for a while, working in banking, insurance and politics. Then, in about 1997, I moved out to Colorado Springs to work for a ministry called the Navigators A great ministry out here, headquartered here, worked for them for about four years. Then I worked for a US senator from Colorado for a while. Then, after doing that for a short stint, I moved over to the Air Force Academy where I did event planning and taking care of VIPs when they came to the academy. I did that job for eight long years. Love the Air Force Academy, but sometimes there was a lot of late nights, but it was a great environment being working with the cadets.

Greg Williams: 3:38

Then, in late 2009, I moved over to Air Force Space Command, which was a command under the Air Force that worked on space issues. I became what you said earlier, which is kind of a tongue twister congressional liaison, or sometimes we call it legislative liaison. Then, about three years ago, air Force Space Command became what a lot of people know now as the US Space Force that was set up about three or four years ago. I'm still doing the same type of work legislative liaison, congressional liaison for the Space Force and really enjoy it. Space is the new frontier, as you know from Star Trek or Star Wars. It's just exciting time to be a part of this new service here within the US. That's kind of my journey of growing up in South Carolina but now becoming a Colorado boy. But my heart is still in the great state of South Carolina.

Philips Sessions: 4:46

That's right. I definitely love it here. I moved here about eight years ago from the great state of Texas, or sometimes we refer to it as the great country of Texas, but I definitely miss my Texas home and the pride that's there.

Philips Sessions: 5:02

But definitely enjoy my time here in South Carolina for sure. I definitely understand what you're talking about there. Wow, there's so many different things. But I really want us to dive first into this liaison portion because when we think of liaison at least when I do I'm like okay, that kind of makes sense. You're probably the go between different people. Before we kind of get into the speaking journey, I really kind of want to just pinpoint on this real quick Talk to us what you can because I know it's with the government and everything what that liaison role kind of looks like and how you navigate working between the parties.

Greg Williams: 5:41

Yeah, so for most major commands in the military, if this being run or commanded by a general officer, typically they'll have someone in that command for two heads of legislative liaison or congressional liaison, and that liaison's primary responsibility is to be the go between the Congress and the command. As you know, with regards to the government structure, all military services are under the Department of Defense, yet Congress funds the entire DOD, and so sometimes that they request certain information that they might need from time to time, or they might request for one of the senior leaders to come to Capitol Hill to give a briefing or to conduct some type of hearing, or sometimes they want to visit your military installation, and so, as a liaison, I make sure that that coordination between the command and Congress works pretty smoothly, that all the eyes are dotted, all the T's across, that Congress gets what they need from the command in order to make the decisions that they need to make with regards to budget or legislation. So I'm kind of that go-between middleman between the command and also Congress.

Philips Sessions: 7:10

And so how do you navigate that? Because I think of this and related to middle management in the corporate world where you're not really the decision maker but you kind of are, maybe, but you're kind of talking between two different groups where middle management is a little bit different. You got senior management really saying what to do, but then you got to answer to the operators, the people on the ground floor, and you're trying to make them both happy, almost. So is that kind of the same thing or is a little bit different in your case?

Greg Williams: 7:40

Oh, as I was saying, is probably just a little bit different.

Greg Williams: 7:42

Even though we've got two to three parties you have Republicans, democrats and independents our primary focus is working with defense committees, and Congress runs this operation through committees and through subcommittees and, as a result, there's primary defense committees that we report to, and they they have both Republicans, democrats and maybe an independent. There's about three or four independents within Congress, and so we find that the defense committees, particularly overall, are pretty supportive of what the Department of Defense is trying to do, whether it's on land, sea or air, and so it's not a matter of trying to accommodate one party or the other, but it's making sure that we get them the critical information that they need in order to make the decisions that they want. We always say, kind of as a congressional liaison, we educate members of Congress and staffers on the need for space, and so it really helps out as we educate them, they see what the needs are and then they're able to make some decisions based upon those needs and based upon the budget that they're putting forth there.

Philips Sessions: 9:01

Okay, and so then, how does that convert? Like, how do you navigate that conversation? Because, especially as you're taking information from one person, you're trying to educate another person that doesn't know as much. I'm sure there's maybe some tactics that you've used to help you be able to navigate these conversations more successfully and be able to actually transfer that information that's needed to be able to make an actual decision, and so how we're seeing right now with the house speaker is how they can't seem to get a house speaker. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Greg Williams: 9:33

Well, one of the beauties of it, you know, we don't see as many congressional members, but we see a lot of their staffers, and that's where I think a lot of the work is done. If we can educate the staffers of these senators and congressional members, then they take that message back to their members or senators, and we find that a lot of staffers are out there traveling. They come to see us or we might do a virtual teams call where we might give them a certain briefing of some time, but the primary communication might be them coming to us, taking visits, taking tours, getting briefings, setting down with senior leadership and trying to understand what the space assets involve, and then we find that they become the advocates for us when they go back to the Hill and talk to their supervisors, their bosses in Congress. So I think the key is the staffers who help us in communicating our message back to the Hill, because not that many members travel a lot and so they rely upon them with regards to communicating on our behalf what our needs are.

Philips Sessions: 10:53

That almost makes it more challenging, because now you're having to try and really, really educate somebody, because then they have to go regurgitate and actually will understand. So they can then go educate the Congress person.

Philips Sessions: 11:07

So, they'll make that decision based on that, which makes it tougher. But then you also have this committee member that you're letting them know. You've built up this rapport with them. So hopefully you've built up enough rapport and trust which they have. The trust from the council member that hopefully when they educate them they can make a good, educated decision, but they can also trust them. Which is a huge part in communication is building up that know-like and trust.

Greg Williams: 11:32

You're exactly right, it's really a lot of and you've mentioned it here it's about relationship building. A lot of these staffers we've had relationship with them for years and as we built that relationship then it's easier to not only communicate to them but it's also easy for them to communicate beyond our interaction with them to their members that they work for. So it's relationship building and it's clear and concise communication, whether it's verbal communication or written communication. And part of that communication, as you know, most people know, it's not only communicating but understanding what's been communicated. I think sometimes communication might get muddled and so are they understanding what you're intending on saying, or what you're intending to say and are saying? And so there's an understanding element in there that I think kind of closes that gap with regards to not only the person who's transmitting the information but, more important, the person who's receiving it. Are they hearing what you're saying?

Philips Sessions: 12:44

Yeah, yeah, hearing and truly listening to that as well, because, yeah, they can hear it all day long, cool, cool, cool. But then I don't know, I don't know what Greg said there, I don't know what Phillip said, like I don't know, it sounded kind of good, but yeah, I can't tell you Exactly. That's definitely not a good thing. So clearly, this is where you're at now, and so it's been quite a bit of time almost 30 years and so are you at 25 years. So you decided in 1988 that, hey, I want to start getting into public speaking. And so tell us about what was that desire behind that? What did you look like as a speaker at that point? Is I really want to paint this picture of how you can transform. Even like 25 years may seem like a lot of time, but it's really not a lot of time when you think about it, especially in the grand scheme of our lives. But I really want to unpack this. So let's start with you at the beginning deciding I'm going to speak and then getting into Toastmaster.

Greg Williams: 13:42

Yeah, I will go back a little bit for that. But when I was in elementary school I struggled with stuttering and I was probably more of an introvert at that time and I can remember there was a class and it was called speech class, but it wasn't for public speaking, it was for helping people like myself overcome speaking disabilities. And then fast forward to when I went to college at the University of South Carolina. I enrolled in a public speaking course and throughout high school I enjoyed being in positions of leadership and would speak to my classmates or whatever, and from the class. But it was in that public speaking course that a classmate of mine and a friend of mine his name was Jerry. I was 18, 19 years old and Jerry gave us speech that day. I can't remember what it was, this was before internet. Jerry's speech and his ability to communicate inspired me and I thought, man, I hope I can be like Jerry one day and giving such a motivation of speech.

Greg Williams: 14:56

Well, after I graduated, I worked in banking for a while and then I started working for an insurance company in Columbia, south Carolina, and one of my coworkers invited me to this Toastmasters Club.

Greg Williams: 15:11

I said what's Toastmasters?

Greg Williams: 15:14

And he said well, toastmasters is a club that helps you improve your public speaking skills and leadership skills, and so I immediately said sign me up, because I was the type of person who enjoyed being out in front of a group or an audience, encouraged them to kind of the cheerleader type, and so it was a corporate club. We met at lunch once a week, brought our brown bags in and different members would give speeches and then they would be evaluating them. And so that was kind of the beginning of now in my introduction to Toastmasters, but also just the whole arena to public speaking, that people would do this, whether it's for fee or for free, go out and just share their message with other individuals. And as a result of being in Toastmasters, especially at the insurance company, I had opportunities to and was invited to come and say, greg, can you give a presentation on this marketing product or can you help train somewhere else? And so it was there at the insurance company Colonial Life that I started with Toastmasters and started my journey in the public speaking arena.

Philips Sessions: 16:35

Wow, that's really cool. And what I thought right there at the end, that was probably the coolest thing to me and I've noticed in my life, as I've gotten better at speaking, more opportunities came up to do things, because everybody recognizes when you are the good speaker. They recognize when you're comfortable speaking in front of people, and so it's easy to say, hey Greg, hey Philip, can you come over here and speak, can you come over here and do this thing? And so you end up getting more opportunities and, especially for you in the corporate world or even you in the entrepreneur space, more opportunities will come your way because of you being that great speaker.

Philips Sessions: 17:14

And I don't think people quite grasp that ability there and that the power behind being a great speaker, because when people recognize that you can speak well, they want to be around somebody like that and, like you said, with your friend, you looked up to your friend and here you are 25 years later I guess a little bit more than that that you still think about him and just what's crazy is wasn't like he was trying to impact you directly, but yeah, it wasn't his message that did that, but just who he was, and the fact that he could speak well impacted you, which just goes into a whole another thing about why speaking is so great and why I want to encourage everybody to learn at least how to speak. You don't have to go be that professional public speaker that gets paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for one speech, but the more you can speak, the better you can speak, the more opportunities are going to come and the more impact that you can make by just speaking Exactly.

Greg Williams: 18:15

You look at a lot of our leaders from the past, whether it was George Washington or Martin Luther King or John F Kennedy. They spoke well. I'm sure that some of them were probably nervous too, but one of the things I've discovered as a speaker that a lot of good leaders are good speakers where they want to motivate individuals, where they want to inspire individuals. I think being a good leader, you have to develop that skill of good communication where you're able to motivate your employees, where you're able to inspire some of your senior leadership team, and so I think learning the ability not only to communicate in writing but, even more so, communicating verbally, is just so critical to being a successful leader.

Philips Sessions: 19:08

Yeah, I completely agree there. And yeah, if you can't transfer your information that's in your head, you can't communicate that. You know that's the transfer I'm talking about. Then it's really difficult to lead other people, and I've definitely been guilty of that myself as I build out a team for my business and everything and working with other teams and being the leader of that team, I noticed that I myself am somebody that can just figure it out. I'm more of a visionary. So you tell me kind of like hey, we want to go this direction, I can figure out what I need to do. I don't need you to tell me, hey, do XYZ to get to that end goal? Just tell me where we're trying to go and I'll figure it out where there's a lot of other people that need to know every single step along the way, if you're not one.

Philips Sessions: 19:55

One. You should be communicating the way that they need to be communicated to, but two if you're not just communicating more than hey, this is what we want to do, you're most likely going to lose a lot of people, because there's not a lot of people that are like us, and when we just think, oh, I'm going to speak my way, it goes to love languages too. There's so many different routes we can go. I'm going to love you the way that I need to be loved, and that means you're going to be loved. No, yeah. So same thing with communication.

Greg Williams: 20:22

Exactly, and the thing you probably have discovered this to being a coach, but some people just speak before they think, and I think sometimes we fall into the trap.

Greg Williams: 20:34

We realize we've said something like, oh, I shouldn't probably have said that. But I think when it comes to public speaking and our professional speaking is being intentional, is thinking through what you want to say to the audience you want to say it to and how you want to say it to them. As I said earlier, it's not just about the person who is transmitting the information, but it's also about the person who's receiving the information. So it's being very intentional in how you communicate and also what you're communicating to that audience. And part of two balls now is what is your purpose there? Is it to communicate information, is it to inspire or is it to motivate or is it to entertain like a comedian or something? And so communication has a pretty wide range of purposes, and so understanding what the purpose is, the audience you're communicating to, and how to best do that is probably one of the most effective means of being intentional there.

Philips Sessions: 21:39

Yeah, and really knowing your audience is an important thing. I think I can't remember what president was it Bush and I can't remember if it was senior or junior, but they went to Australia, I believe it was, and they put up the peace sign and it was basically like flipping them off. So knowing your audience and what things mean which that's like oh wow, I can't believe that. Like who would have known. But yeah, there you go, Something like that. And then there was another presidential. I think it was an election or it was a debate at that point, but this was, I want to say, back in the 60s or something. So TVs weren't in every household and so there was a lot of radio and, depending on how you watched it, you thought that debate one of those presidential candidates won. I can't remember which race that was, but I remember hearing about that, yeah, and so it's just.

Philips Sessions: 22:29

It's interesting that not only what we say, which, when I talk to my clients, I say the first thing when you work on, like what you're saying, like let's get your story down. Let's get down like what you're trying to have the person understand or know, or you're trying to inspire, motivate, just teach, make them laugh, like what's the purpose behind this and what's the message and the stories you want to share, and then we can go back in and get your vocal variety. We can go back in and make sure that you're using your hands and you're getting expressive, you're walking across the stage, but if your message is not on point, it really doesn't matter.

Philips Sessions: 23:03

Like you know all, the other things right, but if you're not actually communicating properly and communicating what you want to communicate, you're not going to get anywhere. Anyways, exactly, yeah, and go ahead.

Greg Williams: 23:16

You reminded me of. You know, president Reagan was known as the great communicator A couple of things that I thought he did really well to be labeled a great communicator. Not only did he give great and passionate speeches, but one of the things that Toastmaster works on, too, is what's called table topics, where you're given a question, you have to think of your feet, and President Reagan was an expert, especially during the debates, and responding to questions many times with great humor, and so he was able to captivate an audience, not only with his inspiring speeches, but coming back answering your question or objection from his opponent with tact but also with humor. That, I think, endeared a lot of people to him. And so, yeah, being a great communicator, I think, has a great value, not only for the person who's speaking but hopefully more so, for the audience.

Philips Sessions: 25:09

Yeah, and that makes me think of a question I want to ask, and I've seen this in Toastmasters before, where we have people that when it comes to a prepared speech, they are polished, they are great, and it's like, wow, they are an amazing speaker.

Philips Sessions: 25:26

And then you go to table topics and you hear um, um, um left and right because it's an unprepared speech and so, yeah, so I see you laugh. It's so clearly. You've seen that within Toastmasters as well, and not that we're laughing at the person, but it's just crazy how you can go from being like why you are one of the best speakers, at least in our club, or maybe even that I've seen but then you go over here to table topics and it's like what happened to you? Like did you just start? Like you would never guess that they are as polished as they are because of how they react within table topics. But my question here to you is if you had to say one's more important than the other being a great prepared speaker or being more of a off the cuff conversationalist type speaker, being better at that, which one in our everyday lives do you think would be more beneficial? Or even like a corporate career or something?

Greg Williams: 26:21

I think for the ordinary person, you know, man, woman or whatever most of our discussions are. You know around the coffee pot, at work or in a social environment, at a reception, maybe before dinner, or even you know at an event where it's a set down dinner, luncheon or whatever. And so I would say probably the most critical skill to learn is that of the conversational piece and it's a two way street is one learning to ask critical questions and not asking just our yes or no question, because if you ask a yes or no question, the person will give you a yes or no and they're waiting for you to probably say something, but to ask questions in such a way that will carry on that conversation, and so one is asking good, solid questions, leading questions, but also is critical, I think, to be able to give a response to those questions, so that you're carrying over a conversation.

Greg Williams: 27:32

A friend of mine years ago, man, he called me on the mat. He said Greg, I guess I'm going to share with you. He said you've got a strength and a weakness. I said okay. I said what's the strength? He said you are a very good listener and you ask really good questions. And I kind of pat myself away. But thanks, good, good, good, he said. But here's your weakness. He said we never find out anything about you based upon the questions you have, and I thought, wow, they're looking to learn more about me as I am looking to learn about them in a conversation, and so I started making sure that I tried to be a lot more intentional in not just asking questions but also answering my own question for their behalf, and that way a conversation occurs.

Greg Williams: 28:29

So, as you ask, is it more about being a prepared speaker or more of a conversational table topics where you can ask someone something or you being asked something and give a response? I think that's probably more critical because the majority of us tend to be in that setting. More often than not, it could be in the line at the grocery store. You know a long line and you strike up a conversation with somebody. How do you carry yourself? What do you bring up? What topics do you stay away from? What topics are good to discuss with a complete stranger? So I think that ability to be able to think on your feet, the prompt to thinking, is probably a lot more critical for most of us than just having a prepared speech.

Philips Sessions: 29:18

Yeah, and I would agree with you there and notice that I've had some conversations with people that get very difficult to have, because you'll ask a question and even if it's a yes or no or not, a yes or no question, they'll still manage to give you like two sentences. And I've definitely been back in my dating years. So those dates were terrible, like, yeah, how's your day going? Oh good, did you do anything? Exciting day? No, but yeah, you're trying to and I know those weren't the best questions, but you're trying to like find ways like to bring some conversation out. And yeah, they won't even at least ask the question back.

Philips Sessions: 29:56

And then in those situations were a little bit different. But you kind of feel like a loser because like, well, let me tell you about me and yeah, but it's kind of the same thing and I use that same tactic when I'm talking with people. I like to listen a lot more and I agree that, well, maybe, maybe I agree, maybe you agree with this, but that people love hearing themselves and love talking about themselves. So as you ask more questions, they do feel good and I do like to do like you're starting to do now, where you go in and you'll give kind of your two cents. If you will on, like the question you asked, you'll go oh yeah, you know that's that this is what I like to do, or something. Even if I don't ask you, you'll kind of throw it in and then you'll ask them another question, kind of thing.

Greg Williams: 30:37

So there's still getting a little bit, you know. That reminds me. You probably heard those saying you know, God gave us two ears and one mouth. A lot of times we tend to use our mouths a lot more than we do our ears, but I don't think it's an accident. God gave us two ears. I think he wants us to listen more than he does, wants to speak and you know, as I alluded to earlier, sometimes we tend to speak faster than we think. We tend to say things that we probably shouldn't have said. Then we realize, oh man, I shouldn't have said that. So I think, being intentional, thinking about what you're going to say before you say it, will get you a lot of booby traps and situations.

Philips Sessions: 31:18

Yeah, and that actually makes me think of another question. I've gotten this several times, but I would love, from your professional speaking perspective, what do you think about this. So I'll give you the. I got two questions. So the first one you're on stage speaking and you kind of get lost in your train of thought. How do you get back on track? What's something that maybe you do and maybe you haven't noticed before, so maybe you're more just suggesting some things to do. But if you were to be on stage and get lost in your train of thought and you don't want to sit there and like oh I forgot, or look really awkward, how do you help get yourself back on track? Or what are some of those things that you do to make sure that, if that does happen, you can get back on track?

Greg Williams: 31:59

Well, you must have been in one of my keynote speaking events I had a couple of years ago there in Colorado Springs, because that happened to me. And so what I've learned is first, I've got to be prepared with my message. And a friend of mine asked me great, how often do you practice or rehearse your message? And she was looking for a number or answer or whatever. And I told her I said I'm practicing or rehearsing, even up to the point I go on stage. Okay, and so my first thought is I've got to practice and I know my material very well. Now I tend to be a speaker where I'm very bulleted. I'll give you three points, and it may be an acronym or an acrostic, but I tend to be very logistical in the points that I give. That not only helps the audience, because I tend to take notes, and for a speaker to be able to say point one, point two, point three is these are meant to take notes, but it also helps me to know where I am in my speech.

Greg Williams: 33:18

Well, two years ago I was giving a keynote message to a Chamber of Commerce here. Now I was giving a story and I realized I had jumped pretty early in my keynote towards the end of the story, okay, and it caught me off guard. Now the thing I've learned is one don't panic, okay. Two, don't apologize. And three, as I'm doing my points here, the audience did not know that I had skipped to the end of my speech in that story, okay, and so I just kind of graciously moved back to the beginning of the story and kept on with my message. I wouldn't have been able to do that if I was not prepared and rehearsed numerous times in order to know the flow of my message or my speech.

Greg Williams: 34:31

For some reason, the circuit in my brain skipped in that message. But it made me realize too, hey, you're not where you should be in your message. And so I just graciously went back. I didn't apologize, I didn't panic, and they didn't know the difference, oh yeah. So for me I tell people rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, know your material back and front. Two if you get lost in there, don't panic Because the audience doesn't know where you are in your speech. Now if I told the audience, I am so sorry, I completely went to the end of the story of my speech and I need to go back. That draws attention to the speaker and makes you look like. Apparently this person did not practice well enough.

Philips Sessions: 35:28

Yeah.

Greg Williams: 35:29

So for me, that's how I have overcome being able to adjust to those times where I might mess up and just get back to where I should be.

Philips Sessions: 35:44

That's great and you're right. You have to be prepared and then really know having those points too. That's definitely what I've suggested, and one thing I'll add to that is that I always tell people know where you're trying to go. At the end, it's just like having a GPS. I've got my phone here. I've got Google Maps going, because I like Google Maps over Apple Maps. It's superior.

Philips Sessions: 36:06

But, okay, I want to go to Colorado. Okay, well, there's plenty of ways to get there. So if I happen to take a detour by accident, get off the road, guess what? Google Maps is going to reroute me back to where I need to go to be able to get back on track. And so when you know where your end destination is in your speech, you can also reroute yourself there. Yes, it may not be how you've prepared, and so if you have a slide deck, unfortunately if you jump ahead, yeah, you're going to have to kind of backtrack a little bit because of that, but if you don't, like you said, that's the beauty Nobody knows what your speech is going to be like no one knows.

Philips Sessions: 36:44

No one knows, so yeah, you just kind of move it on back and don't say anything and just go right into it. Yeah, because the worst thing you do is say something and point out that you messed up. You start losing credibility with that.

Greg Williams: 36:58

And that event planner who invites you is probably stretching their heads like, hmm, maybe I shouldn't invite that person back. Yeah, exactly. They don't know the material well enough in order to deliver. So, yeah, don't panic, get back on track, don't draw attention to the fact that you may have jumped ahead, and so that's my encouragement to people.

Philips Sessions: 37:20

That's great, and so the other part, or the other side of this question I want to ask is you were talking about like getting ahead of yourself? A lot of people ask me that question as well. What do I do to help myself slow down? I feel like I run a million miles a minute and then I start again. I start to lose my train of thought, and so how do I slow myself down? Yeah, so how? Would you go about slowing yourself down?

Greg Williams: 37:43

That's a great question. My Myers-Briggs for the people who are familiar with it is ENTJ. I'm an extrovert, but ENTJ people tend to be fast, they want to get things done fast. They're quick, they're speedy, and I remember reading a quote about a year ago and it said the advice to ENTJ is slow down. And I pondered that for a while and realized, yes, now, not all ENTJs may be fast and even non ENTJs tend to rush things or whatever.

Greg Williams: 38:25

It goes back really to what I said before and the first question is it really takes practice and rehearsing. That's one of the beauties of being a Toastmasters is getting immediate feedback, but also coming back to a meeting two or three weeks later and incorporating the feedback that you got from the previous speech into your current speech. Now, if someone's not a part of Toastmaster and yet they're giving a presentation, you know as a coach that you've got to give that feedback and the feedback can't be all good. I've seen some Toastmasters after a speech they'll say, man, that was the best speech I've ever heard. You did nothing wrong. I mean, your pacing was good, folk of variety, great, your hand gestures, everything, awesome speech. Nothing of helpful criticism from that or critique. There's been some other evaluators who are just the opposite. Greg, you didn't do anything good. No hand gestures, your monotone, you're kind of boring, the topic wasn't relevant, you really need to probably go back and practice again. Then you're just kind of despondent, it's like I did nothing right. But what we found is that the people who could give both good and constructive feedback, especially in one or two or three areas to help you improve and to hold you accountable and improving there, then you realize okay, I'm making that change. As you know, as a coach, it's not going to occur overnight, but if you're intentional about it, if you realize okay, philip told me last time I was speaking very fast, so I need to slow down, I need to breathe.

Greg Williams: 40:23

The other part too is and as I have talked to employees about public communication, I told them to not only think but listen to themselves, because a lot of times we don't listen to ourselves. We hear ourselves but we don't listen. And so for a lot of people like myself, who are fast speakers, I had to slow down intentionally and listen and realize Greg, you're speaking too fast, so take a deep breath, slow down and then get evaluation or feedback from a coach like yourself and say okay, how did I do on this speech compared to the last one? Did I slow down any? Did I take a deep breath?

Greg Williams: 41:10

And another thing we teach too is the power of what's called the pregnant pause Just pausing, allowing the audience to catch up with you, or, if you're making a strong point or a quote, stopping after that so that they can think through it and absorb it. And so to kind of I'm sorry I was long, answer no, no. Answer your question, I would say one. It takes requirements of rehearsing and practicing. Another aspect, too, is making sure you get feedback from a coach or an evaluator. A third aspect is listen to yourself, take a deep breath, slow down, but also, in your speeches, pause. And when I prepare for a speech, I put in there certain places where I have to pause and I'll put in brackets as I'm writing down say, greg, pause here. And that gives me time to prepare for I'm gonna say next, but also helps me slow down as a result.

Philips Sessions: 42:18

Yeah, and when you're not used to doing those pauses, it can feel really awkward and feel like it's such a long time and we are as humans. We don't like quietness. I mean, we don't like silence. But we don't like silence exactly, especially when you're in a conversation or you're speaking in front of a group. You don't like that silence. It is awkward, especially when you're on stage and you've got 100, 1000 people just staring at you because they're paying attention to you. It's kind of awkward when you just sit still.

Greg Williams: 42:48

Yes, yes.

Philips Sessions: 42:48

But having that pause can create so much power in a speech, especially if you just gave a specific point that's like, hey, you wanted people to hear this and emphasize it, put that pause in. It does that. But it allows, like you said, the audience's brain to catch up. It allows your brain to catch up and I mean you got to breathe at some point. So even if you take a breath in real quick, I mean I don't like literally like breathe in, like showing your breathing in too, but people aren't going to think it's awkward, you don't have to run out of air the whole time.

Greg Williams: 43:23

Exactly, and you know you bring a good point in the sense of. In the sense of we are uncomfortable with silence, but the power of silence is key A lot of times. You probably remember, maybe in elementary school, a number of our teachers would get our attention if we were talking as a class by just standing up there and being silent until they got our attention and we became silence. And I think, even standing up on stage, a lot of speakers might start out with silence or they might include silence or a pause in their speech and it captivates the audience because they're waiting typically to hear what's that person going to say next, and so we are uncomfortable with the silence, but there is a power behind silence, of the pause, that I think we need to start incorporating more in our messages or our conversations.

Philips Sessions: 44:28

Yeah, I completely agree with you on that and thank you so much for sharing that. But I do want us to get to our last question here, and that is if you only had one message that you could share for the rest of your life, what would that message be?

Greg Williams: 44:44

Wow, just one.

Philips Sessions: 44:46

Yeah, just one.

Greg Williams: 44:46

I know, Greg.

Philips Sessions: 44:47

I know it's tough talking to a speaker saying you got only one thing you talk about.

Greg Williams: 44:53

Well, here's my thought. And you know Jerry Seinfeld said, you know people say the number one fear of people is public speaking, speaking in front of an audience or crowd. The number two for a lot of people is death, he said does that make a lot of sense? And then he goes on and says that means for the average person at the funeral they would rather be the one in the casket than given the eulogy. And so here's my advice to people who struggle with the fear of public speaking is one, go out there and embrace that fear and get some practice.

Greg Williams: 45:45

Join the Toastmasters Club, find a coach, because in most companies or organizations you might have to speak in front of a crowd or an audience. But two, the reason you're speaking is mainly to bring value to others, whether it's inspiring them, motivating them or encouraging them. Our words have power. And so I just want to encourage people that if you have a fear, go out there and embrace it. Don't be afraid of it, but realize it's not just about you, it's about the value that you're bringing to others in that conversation or on stage.

Philips Sessions: 46:29

I like it. That's a great message that so many of us need to hear, especially when we're first starting out, because we do think about ourselves, but we're there for that audience and when we pour into that audience, it will turn around and be a lot better for us, because it'll be received a lot better than when we just focus on ourselves first. Greg, this has been a great time. I appreciate you coming on. If people want to follow you and see what you got going on and, as you're speaking on more stages, perhaps get you on stage, where is the best place for them to follow you and reach out to you?

Greg Williams: 47:02

I would suggest a couple of places. One they can go to my website, just gregvonwilliamscom. And then I'm very active on LinkedIn, so type in Greg Williams Monument, Colorado, which is right outside of Colorado Springs. But yeah, go to gregvonwilliamscom. They can email me there or find me on LinkedIn and be more than happy to engage with their audience.

Philips Sessions: 47:31

All right, cool. Well, greg, once again, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, and we're just thankful to have you here to share all that knowledge that you did.

Greg Williams: 47:39

Thanks for having me.