Speaking With Confidence

Embracing Cultural Diversity for Powerful Public Speaking with Rebecca Williams

• Tim Newman • Season 1 • Episode 77

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Have you ever wondered how living and working abroad can radically transform not just your communication style, but also the way you guide and lead others? In today’s episode, we dive deep into the world of cross-cultural communication, public speaking, and storytelling with our guest Rebecca Williams, a true globetrotter and expert public speaking coach who has worked with everyone from Stanford MBAs to teams at Google, Meta, and Netflix.

Hey, I’m Tim Newman, and on this episode of Speaking with Confidence, we’re getting practical about what it really takes to show up with confidence and credibility in any communication setting whether that’s on stage, in a boardroom, or even navigating the cultural nuances of a meeting overseas.

Rebecca and I kick things off by discussing her journey from Wisconsin to living in places like Germany, Japan, Australia, Nepal, Spain, Portugal, and Mexico. She shares how her international experiences have planted humility and empathy at the heart of her coaching approach, reminding us that communication is never one-size-fits-all. In many countries, people speak two, three, or even more languages just to participate professionally, and often it’s those little cultural cues, not just words that make or break your message.

Here’s what we covered in this episode:

  • How living abroad shaped Rebecca’s empathetic, multicultural approach to coaching communication
  • What it means to be a “guest star” in the country of your audience
  • How to avoid cross-cultural blunders and build trust across cultures
  • The universal challenge of negative self-talk during public speaking and how to work through it
  • Rebecca’s “First Five Formula” for nailing your presentation opening
  • How specificity makes stories stick and how to find the right stories within your own life
  • The role of humor (and how even non-comedians can use it effectively)
  • The current and future impact of AI on communication, public speaking, and storytelling
  • Insights into Rebecca’s book “Presenting. Presenting.” and why it was designed as an interview
  • Where to connect with Rebecca and access her resources

This episode is jam-packed with real stories, practical frameworks, and a refreshing perspective on developing your own authentic voice whether you’re addressing an international audience or conquering your own internal doubts. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed this conversation with Rebecca!

Don’t forget to grab Rebecca’s book, check out more resources at speakingwithconfidencepodcast.com, and connect with us on LinkedIn or Instagram. Your voice really does have the power to change the world. Let's keep showing up and speaking with confidence.


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Tim Newman:

Welcome back to Speaking with Confidence, a podcast that helps you build the soft skills that lead to real results Communication, storytelling, public speaking and showing up with confidence in every conversation that counts. I'm Tim Newman, a recovering college professor turned communication coach, and I'm thrilled to guide you on your journey to becoming a powerful communicator. Today's guest is Rebecca Williams. Rebecca is a public speaking, storytelling and presentation expert who helps mission-driven organizations and purpose-driven overachievers change the world through effective communication. She has served as a public speaking coach at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and has trained professionals and teams at organizations worldwide, including Google, meta and Netflix. Rebecca is passionate about empowering dynamic, professional women to develop bold and confident self-expression so they can step into authentic feminine leadership. Rebecca, welcome to the show. I'm really excited about our conversation today.

Rebecca Williams:

Hi Tim, Thank you for having me. I'm excited too.

Tim Newman:

Oh, this is going to be fun and let's just go ahead and set the stage. You know right from the get-go and I'm not using stage as a pun you have that background in theater and all those things. I didn't do that on purpose, but that's it as a pun. You have that background in theater and all those things. I didn't do that on purpose, but that's it. You were born in Wisconsin, but you spent a good portion of your life abroad, in many different countries, which I think is awesome and I think it's great, and I don't think we as Americans do enough of that. What we can gain from that is a different conversation for a different day. But how has that shaped and challenged you in terms of being a communicator and how you coach different people?

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah, this is such an interesting question. I was actually just writing about this this morning. So, yeah, speaking to what you said, I was born in Wisconsin but my family and I quickly we moved to Germany when I was, I think, around one years old and my dad was an opera director, so we would move around quite a bit, so spent time in Germany and then when I became an adult, I lived in Japan for four years, australia. For two years I've lived in Nepal, spain, I now live in Portugal and I spent a lot of time in Mexico as well. And so I've had I've had a lot of different experiences and a lot of different cultures and with a lot of different languages and meeting a lot of different kinds of people, and really these experiences have influenced my coaching and my communication training career in, I would say, two main ways.

Rebecca Williams:

One is that they help me stay humble in the trade of helping other people communicate. So you know, of course, english these days is the lingua franca. It's what business is done in. It used to be French, now it's English, and I think many people forget that, and especially Americans forget that there are a lot of other languages spoken around the world and a lot of people, billions of people, are speaking two languages, three languages, sometimes four languages, because they need to participate in the world and in the economy. So I think it's dangerous to think that everybody is on the same playing field.

Rebecca Williams:

As a native speaker, and having had this experience of living abroad and working abroad has really kept me humble and which has also put me in a really deep place of service to my customers, my clients, because I understand I've had to.

Rebecca Williams:

I learned Japanese when I was in Japan. I gave speeches in Japanese when I was in Japan. That was really hard, and so those experiences remind me that, hey, what my clients are doing when they're not speaking their native language is even harder, and so it helps me be more empathetic and it helps me give them strategies to navigate the difficulties of not only speaking with confidence, but like just language and how to express yourself so your audience communicate with people. So not just empathy for other people communicating, but how to address an audience. So, for example, I'm teaching a workshop in London in July and I'm thinking a lot about my way of being as an American and how is what I'm saying going to land with native English speakers, but still native English speakers who are not Americans, and that's it's really important. It is also a kind of empathy, but it's just an awareness that's important to have when you're addressing any audience.

Tim Newman:

Yeah, that's such a wide breadth of international experience. You're still a guest in that country and it's important to make sure that we do our best to show that we're a guest and try to assimilate and use their terms, use their language, use their mannerisms so that you know, so that they feel that we actually care about who they are and their culture. To begin with, let's just put it that way.

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah, yeah, and I love what you say about like it's almost metaphorical. Right, you're a guest in their country.

Rebecca Williams:

And when you think about if you're speaking from a stage, if you're giving a presentation, sure, you are the star I'm doing air quotes for people who can't see me. You're the star of your presentation or of your talk or whatever, but you're a guest in the country. That is the audience, right? So you have to know your audience. You have to know what is acceptable and what's not acceptable, because if you break certain rules it's going to be tough for your credibility on that stage. Yes, and I'm not saying like, for example, I'm not going to go to London and try to speak in a British accent. You know that would be absurd and my British accent is terrible, by the way, but I do know some phrases that I wouldn't say there, that I might say in the States, for example. So it's, it's just having that awareness and being able to work with that in your repertoire of how you communicate.

Tim Newman:

Yeah, and, and you know, I I think about it again the cultures are very similar. You know, united Kingdom and United States obviously different, but a lot of similarities. But let's just say you go to the Far East, you've been to Japan, I've been to Thailand, I've been to Malaysia and those, the cultures there and mannerisms and language there, and things are so different and it doesn't take much you know from from that perspective, to to get off track and, um, inadvertently offend people with, with terms or or even mannerisms, um, so such as uh, first thing I did when I went to Thailand the very first time is I stuck my hand out to shake hands and no, that's, no, we don't, we're not doing that. And and, and so it's. It's those, those, those other things that you have to actually learn, that that help you become good communicators, if, because if they trust you, then you're going to have a much better time having good, open dialogue where you guys understand each other.

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah, yeah, I remember being in Japan and I wanted to do an English language teacher training outside of Japan for a month. It was like this intensive training, because that's what I was doing there. I was teaching English as a second language and I wanted to do it better, and I also wanted my board of education to not only let me take the holiday, but I also wanted them to pay for the training, because it was it was, you know, job training essentially and I thought, well, I'll give it a try. And so I I talked to my supervisor and this was all in Japanese, so I really had to practice and prepare for this conversation and she, she wasn't saying no. She wasn't saying no to my request, and so I kept kind of drilling in and drilling in until I could get her to a yes she.

Rebecca Williams:

Eventually I understand now that she capitulated because I wasn't getting the signals that her response was actually a no, because they don't actually say no in Japan, like you barely almost never hear that word, and so you just have to pick up on the cues like, oh, I get it, like their body language is this way and they're not saying yes, right, um, but yeah, she, she told me much later, like many years later, after we got to know each other better, she was like wow, you were, you were like a freight train, like I couldn't, I couldn't say no to you, like it was impossible. So I, I, I ended up getting that training paid for and it was impossible. So I, I, I ended up getting that training paid for and it was great. But more than anything, it was just such a lesson in cross-cultural communication.

Tim Newman:

That's awesome. That's a good story and a good point that people understand it's. You had to be able to pick up on those things but again, you have to know, to know and learn some things going into it and some of those you it's almost impossible to learn until you, until you get there and you're you're immersed in it, you know.

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah, yeah, and that's the fun part, right. Because, learning, learning as you go, that I mean. It's that's, I believe, the best way to learn.

Tim Newman:

Exactly, Exactly so what's your? What's your biggest public speaking fail?

Rebecca Williams:

Oh man, that's easy. I tell this story all the time. So it was probably, I think, at this point, like 10 years ago now, I was in San Francisco and it was International Women's Day and I had been asked to do a talk downtown on a stage in front of this audience of women. And I was really excited because I'm really passionate about working with women and I love presenting, I love being on stage, and it comes from my days of being on stage when my dad was an opera director, which is another story. But I was excited, so I really prepared for this talk.

Rebecca Williams:

I, I, you know, I wrote my talk and I, I, I was memorized it and, you know, rehearsed it many, many times and I even bought a new jacket this like I don't know if you know the, the designer helmet, but like really cool big shoulder pads, like it was a statement, you know. And so the day came and I got on the stage and I launched into my talk and I was really confident for the first two lines and like really nailed it. And then the third line, I just froze and I just blanked out and I just looked into the audience because there were about like 50 women in the audience like staring at me, and it was very quiet because I wasn't saying anything and they were waiting for me to say something, and so I just decided to start over. I started over again. First two lines were fine. Third line totally missed it and you know it's refined.

Rebecca Williams:

Third line totally missed it and you know it was getting really, uh, challenging because I was really embarrassed you know, and I just I was making up stories that, oh my God, they think they think I'm a loser, they think I'm a failure. Why am I even on this stage? And I in my mind I was like, should I just get off the stage now? Should I just leave? Um, then I started over once again and I got through the third line and I made it to the end and you know, they gave me a round of applause and I just I just kind of like snuck away and I left the building because I was too embarrassed to chat with anyone after that. But I mean, the biggest, the biggest lesson from that experience was that. The biggest lesson from that experience was that and it's something that I've had to learn over and over again because again, I have this performance background I was on stages and my dad taught me how to make the audience laugh and essentially, manipulate the audience, and so I have this performer gene in me now.

Tim Newman:

but when you're doing a talk it's, it's not a performance.

Rebecca Williams:

Right, it's just like a different function. And so so I got up there with the intention of performing, but then I realized in the moment, like oh, it's actually not a performance, Like I'm here to have a conversation with them, and so that really shaped the way that I teach public speaking now, Because when you have an idea in yourself that it's going to be a performance, that causes so much anxiety Because who's a performer?

Tim Newman:

Like, very few people in the world are performers a performer like very few people in the world are, are performers that that's such a good story and and a good lesson to learn. Um, what, what about the voice in your head? Uh, the I'm a loser. Um, what all these people are thinking? You know I'm horrible. Um, how did you deal with that in, in the, in the moment, that's one thing, but in the. How did you deal with that in the moment? That's one thing, but in the aftermath, how did you deal with that?

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah, and it's really a great question, because I am really intent on helping people who engage in public speaking, helping them understand that that conversation inside your head it's a conversation that all of us have. I mean, I work with CEOs, I work with people who are very well-respected and revered even in their industries, and they also struggle with that voice and it's it's a unique thing that public speaking kind of kind of instigates this conversation, this internal conversation of you know, like bad vibes right, like when? When are the other times that we're we're having these negative conversations with ourselves? Oh, you suck, you should just get off the stage right now.

Rebecca Williams:

Um, and and I think what it is is it's really the ego is trying to keep us small, it's trying to protect us and, you know, say like, oh, maybe you should just not do this and um, but yeah, to answer your question, I mean in the moment, in the moment for that story, I just really focused my attention on like I'm committed to getting through this, no matter what, because there was an option to just walk off the stage, but that wasn't. It wasn't an option for me right?

Tim Newman:

well, isn't that always an option?

Rebecca Williams:

that's, that's always an option it's always an option, but it's always an option, it's all, but to me it's always an option.

Tim Newman:

they think I am whatever.

Rebecca Williams:

Insert negative word, right, they think I'm a whatever. They're not thinking that they are looking at you. Number one what they are thinking is wow, I'm glad that's not me up there. That's what they're thinking. And they're also also thinking like, oh, I, you know, I, I really want her to get through this. You know, like they are cheering you on because they know it's hard to do. So that's that's really number one.

Rebecca Williams:

And sure, yes, you always have the option to walk off the stage. But I think you know like this goes into a conversation of self-leadership. You know, is that really an option if you're leading yourself to grow? No, it's not. One option is to admit like, hey, I'm really struggling up here, I'm so nervous, and then probably what's going to happen is the audience is going to give you a round of applause because they want you to do well, and then you can start again. You might struggle a little, but you'll get through it, and then it's a triumph, right? So it's all in, like going through that moment of challenge and finding that wherewithal inside yourself to get past it.

Rebecca Williams:

And and then, as far as like, how do you, even before the moment, how do you tame those voices in your head. It's, it's positive affirmations, I mean, I think. I think maybe a lot of your listeners will have a personal habit of writing positive affirmations. I know I do. I write them every morning and I focus my attention on the good stuff and, okay, here's what I'm doing great. And you know, here's, here's the value I'm bringing to the world. And you know, the human mind is really good at telling negative stories and finding problems and it's up to us to train it to see the good, including in ourselves. And we can do that especially around the skills of public speaking and how we show up in the world.

Tim Newman:

Yeah, absolutely, and I'm glad you said that you know, because our brain it's it's designed to protect us and there's negative thoughts and that's what it thinks that it's doing, but it's, you know, from a realistic perspective, it's not statements or those positive ideas at the forefront, so that we can actually do the things that we know that we can do, that we know that we can be good at and work on things that we need to get better at. Definitely, you know when you, you wrote a book um presenting presenting which I thought was awesome.

Tim Newman:

I love the layout. I love the concept of the interview.

Rebecca Williams:

I'll show it. I'll show it as part of the that's awesome, yes. I know some. Some people reached out to me and they were like hey, um, do you know that you have the word presenting twice?

Tim Newman:

Oh, got it, that's the whole point exactly anyway but I love the book in for any number of different reasons. You know there were a couple pieces that really stood out. I'd like to kind of go through with you. I'm a systems person and anytime that we can have a system or an acronym that is simple and easy to remember, that you can put into practice immediately, I think it's really beneficial to people because it's something that's memorable and it doesn't take a lot of time and effort to be good at those things.

Tim Newman:

Especially when it comes to communication and public speaking, those types of things are so important because a lot of times that we're communicating it's impromptu, it's off the cuff. We have to develop our thoughts and ideas almost in real time. But you came up with a couple of them. The first one is the first five formula, which which again, I thought it was great, and this is really kind of geared to the whole idea of public speaking, presenting, whether it's on a stage, in a meeting, what have you. Can you talk a little bit about that and what that is and how we go about doing that?

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah. So the first five formula is it's essentially your presentation, first impression. So whether and I say presentation in a lot of different contexts it could be like you're giving a presentation at work or doing a Ted talk, it doesn't matter, but you're presenting ideas to an audience, but you're presenting ideas to an audience, and what I found working with people is that the first, like that first bit of time when you're standing in front of people and you're launching into what you're going to say, is often the hardest part to do. It's the hardest part to craft, so to speak, because there are a lot of different ways that you can approach a talk. Um, and you know, that's great, and and I'm not, I'm not for rigidity in in a system Um, like, if you're going to do a presentation, you have to use this format. No, I'm not, I'm not about that, but what I found working with people over and over again is that they just they struggle so much like getting into it, and and that it prevents them from doing the iterative process that they need to do to get their ideas solid. So so what I created and this is it's been over many, many years now, I think I think I I've been developing that same first five formula for over 10 years at this point, and I tested it with a lot of different people, with leaders of companies, to individual contributors, to, just you know, individuals doing talks for fun, and I found that it's really bomb proof because this formula, it sets you up, it sets up the rest of your talk by connecting with the audience, hooking them with something interesting that they can lean into. They're automatically engaged. Presenting a point, a clear point, right at the beginning, introducing a problem which then makes the audience lean in, because when there's a problem, that's when we lean in becomes interesting. That's storytelling.

Rebecca Williams:

And then five is introducing this agenda, like, okay, this is what I'm going to talk about, which is basically, it's Aristotle, right, tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them what you told them. So it's five parts and it's meant to be done in the first five minutes of your talk. And so the five parts are connect, hook, point, problem, agenda. So connect by asking a question, hook by telling a story. Point state your point in a sentence or less very concise. Problem, introduce a problem that the content of your presentation will answer or solve. And then, finally, the agenda is hey, this is what I'm going to talk about.

Rebecca Williams:

So these five things in the first five minutes. They do a lot of things. They connect you to your audience, they engage them. It makes it really clear what you're going to talk about and it generates some interest because you've introduced a problem to talk about. And it creates, generates some interest because you've introduced a problem into the mix. And then it prepares them for what they're going to hear. So I I teach this to all my clients and to all the companies I work with, because it's I've never seen it not work, honestly, like for so many different um examples that I can share more about the examples, if you like, but it it just I like to say, like it's a slide into your content, like your content's this big pool of stuff. So how are you going to get into the pool? Well, you could, you could throw people in, but uh, you know that doesn't feel really good. A slide is kind of fun, you know, and it allows them to go in gradually and have an experience along the way.

Tim Newman:

Yeah, and again you bring up really good points and if you could give an example of one that worked, I think that would be great. The whole idea that you've got to connect and hook almost immediately or you lose them, I mean that that is, that is so, that's so important. But if you could give an example, I'd love to hear it.

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah. So of course I use this formula with all of my trainings and teachings and webinars, and so let's see, I'll see if I can remember one that I did. So it's going to be a little bit meta because I'm talking about presenting and public speaking skills. So imagine the curtain opens, the metaphorical curtain opens, the camera turns on and I lead with a question right. So again it's five points Connect, hook, point problem agenda. So connect.

Rebecca Williams:

What's your biggest struggle when it comes to giving presentations? What's your biggest struggle when it comes to giving presentations? Okay, and then I either have them answer in the chat or I, you know, get a few people to answer in the audience, or maybe it's rhetorical. You don't need them to answer, but just cuing that. It's a conversation, it's not just a monologue. So what's your biggest struggle when it comes to giving presentations?

Rebecca Williams:

And then hook, you tell them a story. So I, I, I often tell the story that I already told about that day, the international women's day in san francisco, point. Uh, what? What was my point? It was something like um, great leaders are great presenters, something like like a very simple point, but problem, many people have forgotten. Or I think it was great leaders are great storytellers, but many people have forgotten how to tell stories. And then the last point is agenda. So today I'm going to talk about basic story structure, how to tie up your story with a resolution and how to include storytelling in every talk you give. Let's get started Right, so it's, it's, I don't know. Is that clear? I'll let you respond to that.

Tim Newman:

So that to me, to me, that's really clear and I'm really glad that that's the example that you gave, because one of the things that I think a lot of people struggle with is how to tell a story, or where we get stories from, or how do we start the story, or I don't have this big, great, big, grand story. So what are some ideas or techniques that we can use? We can use to to help people become, you know, better stories, better storytellers.

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah Well, I could talk about this for days, for sure, but why don't I focus on two things right away? So number one there's this phrase that I always use, and it is specific, is terrific. So a storyteller is effective when they can really, like, make us feel like we're there.

Tim Newman:

Yes.

Rebecca Williams:

Right, and the way we help our audience feel like they're there is by giving the details. And sure, we have to strike a balance of how many details do I share, because you could drown people in details and then it's not interesting anymore. But you do want to pepper your story with details. So, for example, the International Women's Day talk or story that I told you, how many people did I say were in the audience? Tim, let me give you a little quiz right now.

Tim Newman:

See what you remember About 50.

Rebecca Williams:

Okay, great. And what color was the jacket I was wearing?

Tim Newman:

Oh my gosh, I know it had big, big shoulder pads. It was designed Okay, it had big shoulder pads.

Rebecca Williams:

It was black with big shoulder pads. Yeah, so you remember that detail right. And how many times did it take me until I finally got through the talk?

Tim Newman:

Three.

Rebecca Williams:

Three, yeah, so all of that, like you could answer those questions because I gave you details there which is what makes a story memorable, like I didn't ask you to remember those things, but you remembered them because they're specific. So so that's the first key point is specific, is terrific, and vague is forgotten. If you're vague in your storytelling, if you say, for example, um, last week I went abroad and did a talk, you know like well, where'd you go? What did you talk about? Like, give us something, give us something, yeah. So so that's first as specific, as terrific.

Rebecca Williams:

And the second thing I'll say is that stories I mean our whole life is a story. Right, it's one long story which is made up of a lot of little stories and then stories within those stories. Like you know, for me, where I am right now, it's 245. In the afternoon I've already had a million stories today, like when my locker at the gym wouldn't open and when I got an unexpected email from the company I'm working with. Like those are all little stories. So we have to know what is the story we're telling and we have to tell only that story, because the danger and I've seen it happen over and over again is that people they don't know when to stop and they hook in all these other storylines and it becomes really muddy and messy. So it's really about clarity and being ruthless in your editing and forcing yourself to be succinct in your storytelling.

Tim Newman:

And that's what I guess, that's what helps you also be specific too, If you're not letting these tentacles go out with all these other different things. You really have that opportunity and the ability to drill down and be specific in some of these points.

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah, yeah, because if you're telling a story that's as big as Canada, then you're not going to have time to add specifics, because then it would be far too long, right? So go narrow and deep.

Tim Newman:

I want to go back to something that you said a little earlier, because then it would be far too long, right? So so go narrow and deep. I want to go back to something that you said a little earlier.

Rebecca Williams:

You said you, you like to make people laugh, are you? Are you funny? I think I'm funny, yeah.

Tim Newman:

I think I'm funny and that's there's a reason why I ask that question, because you know there's a lot of people who don't think that they're funny, but they're. They come off as funny. I mean, they make people laugh for whatever reason. It could be mannerisms, it could be the way they said something, it could be, it really could be. How do we, how do we infuse humor into our communication styles and into our presentations, into our really our basic interpersonal communication? Because I think you nailed it with humor is so important in how we communicate and how we get our message across.

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah, well, I think what I'll say here is that you know, there there's a continuum of what funny is, right, like there's there's me and then there's robin williams over here.

Rebecca Williams:

You know it's totally, totally a different league, um, but that's not to say that you know well where am I going with it. I really believe that everyone has the ability to have some humor and it doesn't mean that they have to again perform like Robin Williams. But I think so much of it is just being comfortable with yourself and having a laugh at yourself, you know, and not taking yourself so seriously, because I think a lot of my humor is self, you know. It's like I'm making fun of myself a lot, you know. Having the confidence to make fun of yourself, I think, is a great window and it gives, it gives other people permission to not take themselves so seriously. So it brings a lightness, like a it's a shift in tone, that is.

Rebecca Williams:

It's really valuable. When you are um steely faced and super serious and you're not allowing other people to be their quirky selves, then it it's like going to a wake, you know, like nobody's going to have a good time. So I think it it's super important to, number one, not take yourself so seriously, even if you're not, if you don't consider yourself traditionally funny. Um, bring some lightness into what you're doing by having a laugh by um. I think curiosity is one of the best ways to not take yourself seriously is get curious about what other people are thinking and saying either in the meeting, in your audience. Get curious to not take your ideas as paramount. I think that's really important too.

Tim Newman:

Yeah, you know, I'm really glad you said that. And again, there's a difference between being funny and being a comedian, right and and and I like that. You said uh, it's not a performance. I'm also someone who uses self-deprecating humor and I I agree with you.

Tim Newman:

I think it's so important that people can see uh see you making fun of yourself or making jokes about yourself, because it does open number one I think it gives you more credibility. It also opens them up to relax a little bit and to let their guard down a little bit, and I think once that happens, the communication process becomes so much easier. I think once that happens, the communication process becomes so much easier. You're not fighting the walls or the barriers and you can truly get down to whatever it is that needs to be done.

Rebecca Williams:

I just think that is so important. Yeah, have you ever seen Sir Ken Robinson's Ted talk on education?

Tim Newman:

Yeah, that to me is one of the best ones ever, and I you know. I actually use that and I've got a standard, standard presentation. It's kind of the I use that as a model and I talk about that all the time. Just go ahead. I'm sorry, yeah.

Rebecca Williams:

Well, so he he leads with the question and it is his question that he leads with is hilarious. He walks out on stage like Ted talk in front of all these hundreds of people and his question is how are you doing? Ask the whole audience, how are you doing? So, again, that's the first part of the first five formulas. Connect, like first connect. Ask a question, a question, like get, get into it with people, and and he is such a master at self-deprecating humor I mean, wow, what, how hilarious is he? But the thing is when, when people laugh, you know they're laughing because they're feeling something, and and when people feel things, they remember those things, and so humor is a huge part of what it should be. I believe it's a huge part of education and I also believe that, public speaking, it's a sort of education, a kind of education. So yeah, yeah.

Tim Newman:

I think we can go down some serious rabbit holes with that and I'm glad you brought that up because I 100% agree with you with everything you just said. And I think if we, from an education perspective, if we took a step back and made some adjustments, we wouldn't need our jobs would be very different.

Rebecca Williams:

Let's just put it that way, you know how we coach people would. Jobs will be very different.

Tim Newman:

Let's just put that way you know, the, the how we coach people would be very, very different, and I just think that, uh, from an educational system perspective, we've really missed the mark, yeah, and I I think it's.

Rebecca Williams:

It's worthwhile bringing up ai in the context of education as well as public speaking right now, because, you know, obviously we have this new technology and it's shaking up industries, it's changing the world and I think a lot of people are really they're scared of like, oh, is AI going to take my job and you know, how am I going to navigate this new landscape?

Rebecca Williams:

And how am I going to navigate this new landscape? And what I am 100% convinced of is that AI is going to force us to be better storytellers and it's going to force us to be better connectors, Because it's one thing to have information and share information with people AI is great at that but AI does not have lived experience. Sure, it can make up a story, but that's very different from hearing a human being's experience on the planet and how it changed them and what they learned. So we really we owe it to ourselves and to all of you listening. I challenge you to tell more stories and become more proficient at storytelling and use that to wield influence in your personal and professional lives, Because I really think that that's going to be the. It's going to be the thing that sets you apart as a professional as more and more as AI comes into our world.

Tim Newman:

Yeah, Again I love that you said that. Again, I agree. I look at it along the same lines in that, you know, I don't care what business or industry you're in, everything is still always going to come down to personal relationships and connections.

Tim Newman:

And if we can't build personal relationships, we can't tell those stories. If we can't communicate with individuals, we're not going to relationships. We can't tell those stories. If we can't communicate with individuals, we're not going to make it. So it can be AI. I mean you can have it, but you're still. You're still going to have to interact with people.

Rebecca Williams:

You're still going to have to have relationships.

Tim Newman:

You're still going to have to have to build those relationships and cultivate them and and and connect with people, and, and that that's where you know again yeah, definitely yeah, and I, I mean, I use ai every day.

Rebecca Williams:

you know, I have two ai platforms that I use literally every day. It's my assistant, um, but there are a lot of things I don't use it for. Like, I don't use it to help me with storytelling, right. Maybe if I write a story and then I need some help editing, I'm like, ah, you know, how can I make this more concise or how can I make this clearer? But I'm very, very careful, because it it works so fast, it can lose a lot of the nuance and the humanity of a thing or the turn of phrase. And you know, we, we, we owe it to ourselves to to be to pay attention to all of that stuff, because AI is not perfect, right, and we have skills that we still need to be developing. We can't just hand it all over.

Tim Newman:

Right, exactly, exactly. Yeah, I put something it was, it was like a, it was like a one page narrative into chat GPT and I and I I obviously didn't give it a really good prompt and that's it, that's the other piece to it. And when it spit it back out, I read it and I said you've, you've changed the entire meaning of it. Change the entire meaning of it. It doesn't sound like me anymore and and I was like well, well I just wasted all the time. I wish what?

Tim Newman:

two and a half minutes of doing, but you know but and you got frustrated so that's part of your time, yeah, but put you.

Tim Newman:

But again, part of it is the prompt I needed. I probably needed to give it a better prompt, but but I didn't. So I just scrapped that instead of going forward and I gave it to my wife to look at and edit and say, look, this is what I'm thinking. Is it getting that point across? Does it make that point Again? Does it sound like me, you know from? You know really from that perspective, you know really from that perspective, because not getting too deep, but my writing process is a little bit different. But I go from being very structured and professional and then I create it to make it sound like I'm actually talking, as opposed to you know, a written document.

Tim Newman:

Let's put it that way.

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, one of my favorite prompts is don't rewrite this, let's have a conversation about it. And that's helpful because it's yeah, it's really. Then it becomes your thought partner instead of your, your writer. Like, I don't really believe that. Um ai does a great job at writing quite yet right yeah, so, but but being a thought partner is helpful, that's, that's a I like it.

Tim Newman:

I really do. Um, yeah, I saw a there's. There's a youtube video about right it's. It's writing the best prompt ever to write a prompt.

Rebecca Williams:

Wow.

Tim Newman:

And and and it was. It was like a page and a half of of prompt telling it how it wants the other prompt to be. So I'm like that's, that's getting a bit too much for me, because if I'm doing all of that, you know I'll just go ahead and write myself anyway. But you're right, I think AI can really help and if we're not using AI, I think we're doing it wrong, because you better learn how to use it. There's a lot of benefits to it and I do think that. I think, I do think that I think I think the people that are afraid afraid that they're going to take their job or whatever reason I think if they were to just maybe learn a little bit about what, what it's doing and where it's going, they'll understand that, yes, it may take over some tasks, but it's not going to take over everything that it's portrayed, that it's going to take over because, again, it's still going to be that there's interpersonal relationships.

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah well, I really subscribe to what Scott Galloway says about AI, in that you're not going to lose your job to AI. You're going to lose your job to someone who understands and knows how to use AI, which is 100% true. And if you are one of those people who hasn't engaged with AI yet and either you're skeptical or fearful, or you're just not interested, I would just encourage you to get on the free version of chat GPT and ask it to help you plan a trip to Spain or wherever you want to go. Like, just start using it in your day to day life. So, number one, so you're more efficient, because it will help you be more efficient with a ton of different tasks.

Rebecca Williams:

Like, what did I ask it to do the other day? I think I asked it to I was starting this new like testing out this new eating regimen, and I said, okay, you know I'm I, I can only eat this stuff. Can you come up with a shopping list for me so that when I go to the grocery store, I know what to buy? And it just went and I was like, okay, great. And then out the door I went. You know, I didn't have to think about it, it was just it's my assistant, yeah, and, and you know, when you, I think, when you start using it in low stakes scenarios like that, you really start to understand how it can be helpful to you in your, in your life.

Rebecca Williams:

Because that's what technology is for. Like, we use technology all the time. Like this pen is technology, how would your life be different if you didn't have a pen? You know, like technology evolves us, it sparks our evolution. So, ignoring a tool, a new technology, it's, it's not, it's not a great idea because it's happening anyway. It's kind of like saying, oh um, you know, I understand that the car exists as a technology, but I'm not going to participate in that yeah, I'm out of automobiles, I'm out right, I'm just gonna bike everywhere and, hey, that's fine, like that's a choice too.

Rebecca Williams:

You're going to have great legs and a great butt. But you know, like, let's be real, like this is the way the world is is going exactly yeah, again, I did.

Tim Newman:

I love the ai conversation. I didn't what wasn't planning on going there, but it's so important and it's so important from the communication perspective that we talk about this and that people understand AI's role and how we can use it to help become better communicators.

Tim Newman:

You know there's so many things out there and I talk especially with you know people that are applying for jobs and young professionals going out to get the first job. There are programs and AI models out there where you can feed the prompt and it will give you a practice interview and can grade you on those things. So you know, there's ways that we can use AI to actually help us become better communicators as well. So don't be don't be so standoffish on it and embrace it, cause, like you said, it's here, it's not going anywhere.

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah, and I actually I have a platform that I use with my clients all the time. Excuse me, it's called Yoodli Y-O-O-D-L-I dot AI and it's an AI speech coach and there's a free version, which is really great, and I encourage you to check it out, where you can do interview role plays and it can give you speech feedback and stuff like that. But then I have a version that I use with my clients and I've trained it on my content. So, for example, it knows the first five formula and it knows all these different frameworks that I teach. And, yeah, it's a great way because look like working with a coach one-on-one.

Rebecca Williams:

It can be expensive and not everybody has those resources. So, using AI to improve your communication skills, like you said, it's totally on the table and it's really useful. It's really useful. I share all the time that studies show over and over again that communication skills are really the number one skill you need to advance in your career, you want to be in a leadership role. If you want to get promoted, if you want to raise, you need communication skills to not just prove yourself worthy, but you need communication skills to ask for the raise or ask for the promotion or, you know, or lead people exactly.

Rebecca Williams:

So, yeah, I can't stress it enough how important it is to practice these skills.

Tim Newman:

Well, you're using the AI for lots of good things. I'm using it to develop pictures of me going surfing. That's how I spent, you know, a couple hours on over the weekend.

Rebecca Williams:

How are you doing that? Like what, what's that?

Tim Newman:

Oh, so I can't remember the actual website, but it's, it's. So. Basically, what you do is you, you, you get high quality pictures of yourself, your face, your, your body, and you, you, you need about 30 of them and you put them into this AI system and I can't remember.

Tim Newman:

I'll text it to you and I'll actually put it in the show notes for everybody too, and it runs whatever it does, whatever it does. And then you can use that model and you can give it prompts. Model and you can give it prompts. So I said you know, have have me, um, and I gave my my age, height, weight. Uh, surfing in Hawaii wearing a, wearing a, a, a, a blue shirt and swim trunks or whatever. And it comes back and now some of them are very good, but some of them are really pretty good.

Rebecca Williams:

Wow, okay, so it's an image generator that you've trained on your, your own images. Yes, yeah, and it's okay.

Tim Newman:

And so, and the reason why I started doing it is because I making thumbnails for YouTube, you know, cause I have. I have some images that I use and that's great, but I want to be a little bit, start being a little bit more creative with it and and you can do all kinds of stuff. So I did one. My, my youngest daughter, got married a couple of years ago and when I sent them to my family I said, look, you know, do you guys, do you, do you all remember when we did this? And they're like when did we do that? I don't remember that at all.

Tim Newman:

So you tricked them, I did, I did and then, I sent them.

Tim Newman:

I did one my daughter. My daughter got married a couple of years ago, and I said, beth, you don't remember me giving the speech at your wedding. And she thought to herself oh wow, is I that drunk already? Exactly, here's the thing, though, and if you have anybody else in the picture, though, so like in in the wedding ones that I did, uh it, the it confuses it, so it puts you in the other people's positions. So I was in that picture, like three other times, with your other people, so it had to picture me standing up with a microphone, speaking, but people in the background were actually me so that's creepy.

Rebecca Williams:

Oh, I love it. Yeah, please share that with me. I'm going to spend hours on that, I'm sure.

Tim Newman:

Yeah, and it's cheap too. So so you pay for you pay by picture. It's like three cents a picture.

Rebecca Williams:

Oh wow, that's great, super accessible.

Tim Newman:

Yeah, so we went down that rabbit hole. That is what it is. Let's get back to talking about your book, I think that's sure. Anyway, you know, again I told you I really like the layout and the interview format. It's it's really really unique. How did that come about, and can you give us a bit more detail on the book and where they can get it and those types of things?

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah, so. So the book, the format, as you said, it came about because, so for for, for those of you who haven't seen it, which is probably most of you, the book is done in an interview format. So my friend, jeff Goldsmith he used to work at Wired Magazine years ago and he was, he was a writer but also an interviewer. So he would go interview famous people, like he interviewed Cheech and Chong, he interviewed Allen Ginsberg, and then he would turn those interviews into content for the magazine. And so I I've known Jeff for years, um from San Francisco, and he reached out to me one day and he said hey, I have this idea. He's like what if I interview you about what you do and we'll turn it into a book? And I thought, oh, that's great, because number one, I I love writing number one, but number two, I have to say, like it's pretty selfish, I was getting tired of saying the same things all the time, you know, like I just wanted to codify everything so I could say, oh, go read chapter two, you know. So there was a little self-purpose in there.

Rebecca Williams:

But so we set out on this project and what we did is we did about two years, it took two years and we probably met every other month or something like that, and we met over Zoom and he would interview me and he had access to a lot of my documents that I use in my work in my business, training people and communication skills, and so he would look at those and then ask me questions based on what he was finding there, to try to unpack what I do and my methodology.

Rebecca Williams:

And so what became of that was just a very interesting conversation between two friends about public speaking, and after those interviews were all done, we we took it and we had all the interviews transcribed and then, and then I took it and I edit, I entered into the editing process, which you know, the editing process can be quite hard because you're you're trying to tell a story with a lot of content that's seemingly on the same level, right, so you're trying to figure out what's the beginning, what's the middle, what's the end, and and so it was a super joyful process because I I love I think one of the reasons why I love teaching and coaching communication skills and especially storytelling, is because I love structure and I love things to be in place so that they have a function and so they're meaningful, and so taking all of that information and then putting it into a structure that has meaning for people was really a joyful process for me. And yeah, and that's what came out of it is this book and, um, yeah, you, you read it tim I did.

Tim Newman:

Yeah, I I really enjoyed it because, again it it flowed really nice. There were a lot of stories in there, which which again made it a real easy read. You know, it was something that I could relate to a lot, a lot of really good points and, um, I would suggest, I would suggest people just pick it up and read it, because it's easy to read. It's not a hard book to understand. There's a lot of really good information there that you can use again, like right away you read it. Oh, that's a good idea. You can start using it right away. It's not something that you have to work on or plan for weeks or once at a time. You read it and you can start using it right away and start becoming better today and not have to wait.

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah, yeah, I take pride in being a practical teacher, so it's very practical. Lots of super clear tips and strategies for how to be a better public speaker, how to be a better storyteller. And yeah, I, I, I guarantee that you will. You will learn something and that you remember a lot. And you know there's a lot in here, too, about, about mindset and about you know some of the things we've talked about, like don't take yourself so seriously and have fun with it. And you know we're all making these mistakes and you know it's not, it's it's not priming you to give a Ted talk per se, but it's it's encouraging you to raise your voice and take the microphone and engage in that, because it really really does matter to share what's on the inside of you with with other people. So, yeah, you can pick it up on Amazon and, yeah, I encourage you to grab it. It's a great resource.

Tim Newman:

Absolutely, and where else can people find you, to connect with you?

Rebecca Williams:

Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram at RealRebeccaWilliams, and you can also find me on LinkedIn at RebeccaWilliamsWorks, and those are the main places. I also have a YouTube channel I think it's at Rebecca dash Williams or something like that, but I encourage you, just reach out to me on LinkedIn and Instagram and say that you heard me on on Tim show. That'd be great. I'd love to connect with people.

Tim Newman:

That's awesome. I appreciate it. I'll put all those links in the show notes for everybody so that they have it. And, Rebecca, thank you so much for for joining me today and spend some time with us. I really do appreciate it.

Rebecca Williams:

Thanks, tim. Yeah, it's been a pleasure, Great conversation, thank you.

Tim Newman:

Take care. Be sure to visit speaking with confidence podcastcom to get your free ebook the top 21 challenges for public speakers and how to overcome them. You can also register for the forum for public speaking. Always remember your voice has the power to change the world. We'll talk to you next time, take care.

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Tim Newman

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