The Power of the Podcast: Unlock Your Brand's Marketing Potential

🎤 Conquer Presentation Fear & Deliver IMPACTFUL Messages!

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Is public speaking or presenting on camera your biggest fear? Join Josh for a dynamic conversation with Stephanie Markovic, founder of Utmost Potential, as she shares her expertise on delivering impactful presentations.

Discover how to:

- Overcome presentation anxiety by focusing on connecting with individual audience members.
- Utilize the power of getting out of your comfort zone to enhance your presentation skills.
- Master the art of concise communication and avoiding information overload.
- Build instant rapport with your audience through strategic opening techniques.
- Develop a confident presentation style that showcases your expertise.

Plus, learn Stephanie's advice for navigating challenges, handling mistakes, and building a successful career around your passion!

#publicspeaking  #presentationskills  #communicationskills  #confidence  #businesstraining  #entrepreneurship  #podcast 

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We have all sat through terrible, terrible presentations and they usually seem to come from highly intelligent people in so many cases. This week's guest is Stephanie Markovich, and she works with people to make sure that they are not that person. She wants to make sure that your message is delivered with the utmost potential, which is the name of her business. If you want to learn more about making your message impactful while looking like a superstar doing it, you will want to stay tuned. Oh. Thank you for coming on. I appreciate this that you submitted yourself to this gantlet of, of, questions here. Super glad to be here. Good public speaking. And I'll kind of lump in being on camera with that too. Is there? They can there's there's a lot of parallels, like I'll say, it's a top fear for, a lot of people. I it doesn't bother. I have zero dignity, so it doesn't bother me at all. But there's a lot of people that does. What's something that you would suggest or tell people to say? Look, this can help you get past that fear. Ironically, one of the easiest ways to get past the fear is to look people in the eye when you're speaking to them. And when you say that that that sounds so incredibly counterintuitive. It sounds like the very scariest thing of I'm going to look at people, but it actually is, because you relax and you feel like you're just chatting with one person, and you don't think about the fact that, well, maybe there's 12 or there's 20 or there's 500 people in this room. I'm right now sitting here talking to Josh, so really finding one person and talking to them for a short time, a couple of sentences, is the number one way to relax. So just pick out one person at a time to talk to. Absolutely. Couldn't be easier. Interesting. No, I like that. So in terms of getting people comfortable, you've talked about getting people out of their comfort zone. And as soon as I say that the smile that you had, you're like, yes, this is this, this is the stuff. You know what I mean? First off, what's the benefit to that with with getting people out? Especially when it comes to presenting. I mean, you want you'd think you want to be as comfortable as possible, right? But how do we flip that? To say get out of your comfort zone to make you better at that? Well, even though after you learn some of these skills, I remember thinking, why didn't I figure this out myself? Because it's things like stand still. Look at people in the eye. Make sure you're loud enough. It seems so common sense, but it's really not. And when you're kind of learning this process, it is threatening. It is intimidating. I try to make the environment comfortable. And, you know, I try to be empathetic, but I try to push people because they're not going to get better unless they try things. And then my ultimate goal is at the end of the time that I'm working with them, for them to say, you know what? I feel so much better. I know I can do this now because I know the fear that people have around this and they don't need to. That's an interesting the so it really is, is it's I've got to make a weightlifting analogy here. So if I lift heavier and heavier, obviously that's going to get easier. And easier. It's the same principle. It's exactly the same. In fact, when I'm working with small groups, I'll have people maybe in their 40s or 50s and I'll say, how do you guys feel about presenting? And those that have been in the organization or in corporate America for a while? We'll say, well, when I was younger, I really hated to present, but I've had to do it so much. I now enjoy it. It is. It's like anything else. The more you do it, the easier it gets. And I also tell people, don't think of it as I'm doing a presentation. Think of it as a conversation. And that takes a little pressure off as well. That's interesting too. Making it that conversation. I haven't thought about that, but that's something like we do in the studio all the time. We tell people it's just a conversation. Yeah, you're just having a count. You're sitting across the table from someone just hanging out, having a chat. Yep. Interesting. What about if someone's an introvert? Well, I'm here to tell you I can get them out of that box as well. Now, let me tell you that I. I think a little bit like you, Josh, I'm naturally outgoing, I love people. I don't mind being the center of attention. So by default, it's probably been a little easier for me than a lot of people. But again, it's just about learning the skills, learning what you need to do. And I actually video people as they're practicing presentations because you kind of see what you're doing well, what looks kind of crazy. And then as I continue to coach, you see that improve and improve. And that builds the confidence. I can stand in front of a room and say, Josh, that looks great. And then you might think, well, it's really weird. I bet that looked really stupid. But if I record you on your phone and then you go watch it, you'll go, oh darn it. Stephanie's right. I looked a lot more confident. I looked like I had more presence, and I was more credible by just standing still and not dancing around the front of the room. That credibility piece is something that's very interesting that you mentioned. Because I don't feel that people put enough weight behind that. Presentation skills are a huge piece of someone's career. Absolutely. If you cannot present your idea, you're you're not going anywhere. Yeah. With that, how do you find that balance between, like. I want you to grow, but I don't want you to hate me. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, there's a couple things. I'm very respectful with people. I. I let them get some positive feedback from the audience before I give any constructive criticism. So they're hearing, okay, I'm doing some things right. And then I very gently talk about this looks pretty good, but I think I can get it to look a little bit better. And then I say let's let's try it again. Let's try this. And so I'm respectful and and I never say Joshua you know that that was bad. That was bad. I try to do it very gingerly. Like I said, there's there's a fine balance between, you know, coddling people and being too rough on them that they actually, you know, you you can't learn if you feel under attack. So you have to feel that, you know, I can push you, but I'm going to do it in an empathetic way. Makes sense. Yeah. No, it's it's tough to coach someone that's in the fetal position in the corner. Yeah. And sometimes, sometimes you actually just have to let those people take a little bit of a break because you can just see it on their face. That doesn't matter what I say right now. They're, they're they're melting down and they just need a break. They need a break. Yeah. And check it out. So speaking of taking a break, there's there's something that, I mean, you said that I find interesting, and it's a philosophy that I also share in that less is more. I hear it all the time. People talk in podcasts. They're like, hey, look, we've got this, this and this and this. And it's like, what is the point? Yeah. I always tell people too, that when you're answering a question, answer the question first, then explain it. Don't give the explanation and then be like, so really it's a sort of kind of maybe, it, how do you get people to get the information across without sacrificing the message? Right. Certain groups are have a higher tendency to try to tell the audience everything. Individuals that are in highly technical careers, engineers, IT, accounting, finance, all those details are incredibly important. And they want to share them. And they have very good intentions. And they want people to understand and and they want to share everything they know. But you and I know if you overshare, the message is lost and you've just wasted everybody's time. So it's really important just to kind of pare things down. Have speaking points have bullet points, use visuals. But you really you really want to hone your message down to a few points. Because more than that, even if you're talking to a group of peers, if it's new information, they won't remember. Got it. So just keep it to the exact important things. Yeah. No, the other thing that I like, what that is, is, is that. No. The audience. Telling us about accounting things. You will find me in the back of the rooms, possibly snoring. Maybe. Maybe not. Yeah. I get that. If if someone hasn't had any presentation training, as a whole, what is the top thing that 90% of people can do to get better right off the bat? I would say if you have no access to any professional coaching, you don't have access to even a Toastmasters group. I would say record yourself the next time you have a presentation, you stand up, you get your phone out, you record yourself and you see what you got. Because first of all, there are going to be a number of good things that people do naturally. Or maybe they've learned. And then you'll see the distracting behavior, the the putting your hands in your pocket or twirling your hair, things you definitely don't want to do. It's so scary. Nobody likes to look at themself on video. Everybody thinks their voice sounds weird. But if you can video record yourself and look at it objectively and say, you know intuitively, you know what's distracting if you're moving around too much? If you have your hands locked behind your back because you're ex-military, you're and you're at ease, you're going to see that. So that's what you want to focus on. I love that. It is I always say that like I can always tell when I have ex-military in the room because that's a relaxed, literally at ease position. Yeah. But it's also a little bit, you know, unnatural. Right. Right. It's at ease for them, right? Not anyone else. Right, right. To kind of take it you have a marketing background? Yes. I mean, that's if I remember correctly, that's what you went to school for. That's you spent a lot of time kind of in that realm. You've told other people like, focus on their marketing, make sure that you're posting enough to stay in front of people. What is how do you help people in saying, look post but don't get too patchy. Yeah. How do you help people find that balance with stuff. Well I think when you post, you know there's a I can't think of off the top of my head, but there's every post shouldn't necessarily be about one of my services. Some of the post should be, human interest or current events or just some interesting fact. So your audience starts to know. You start to see what you're about. In fact, I posted this morning about an event, a client appreciation event that I went to last week that my financial planner hosted. And it was just kind of a shout out to her, because it was just a nice way to show her clients that she valued them. Has nothing in the world to do with my business, but it's just a little insight into me. And I think when people get to feel and this is for posting or presenting, you need to let your personality out. You need for them to kind of walk away going, I, I think I'd like that woman. I think I want to have coffee with her. You need to know who I am. And so it can't just be about I can teach you presentation skills. It has to be about getting to know me and then throwing in those tips. I can throw in a tip about eye contact. I can throw in a tip about the importance of a financial literacy, which is another program. So it it's the balance of not always pitching, but giving relevant information about what you do and then some just general human interest things make sense with that. You kind of talked about making sure that you're focused on the right things with that. We were talking just before we came on here to about how, look, you've started to focus down narrow things down to like, look, this is the section I really like. This is the stuff I really want to do. Here's where I really want to stay. Yeah. What really finally triggered that shift for you? Well, I think what I did was, is completely normal in anyone's entrepreneurial journey. Especially if you're a solopreneur. You're starting a business, you need money. So you take every client. And look, I've had great clients, but some of them end up with me teaching curriculum that I had to learn, which is something you don't get paid for and not necessarily content that I was excited about. Sure. And the pay wasn't what I was looking for. So I finally kind of said, I think I've got I think I've got a pattern here where I've developed a client base. They know who I am. I'm building that base and I'm not going to knock myself out anymore. Doing work that doesn't bring me joy, especially if it's not financially lucrative. It's funny that you say that too, because it is. It's about finding those, finding your people, finding the ones, finding that especially like you said, as solopreneur or whatever. It's a lot of work. Yep. It's a lot of time. If you do not love it, it's that much more difficult. Yes. When it comes to marketing. It's. To me, it also seems like too many people focus on talking to everyone. When that comes to presenting, typically if you're going to be presenting in a room full of people, they're going to have a common interest. Do you feel that? I mean, so many people try to present too much because they want everyone to like them in the room. Or do you feel that it's that that that's not as much of an issue? I don't think it's that people want everyone to like them. I think people genuinely think they need to tell people everything, and they think they're going to be judged. They think they're going to think that the audience doesn't, you know, that you didn't dive deep enough. And I tell people, keep it high level, hit your main points, throw some slides in an appendix. If you get those detailed questions, you can maybe go to those slides. Or if somebody wants more info, what are they going to do? They're going to stop you after the talk and they're gonna say, hey, can you tell me a little bit more about x, y, z? I'm telling you, you can't be everything to everyone and you can't tell us everything. It's it's impossible and it's ineffective. You know what? I'm sorry. And nobody wants that. And people are on their phone and they're not paying attention to you. Yeah. You don't want that. You don't want to look out there and see that you have the crowd staring at their wall and you're like you know, you know, you've lost. I need to pick this back up. Right. You've talked about too about how sometimes it's difficult finding that decision maker. Whether it be in marketing, what's a tactic that you've found that is an effective way to to reach those specific people and figure out who they are. Right. Part of it is, you know, I really use LinkedIn a lot. One of the things you can do is you find someone and you have no connection to them is maybe one of your connections. You know, some. And you can ask for an introduction. Also, you can join certain networking groups that you're going to be have face to face time with those people. And a really simple thing that I've kind of been bad about is when I have a happy client, I need to ask those happy clients, hey, do you have a partner in a company nearby that might be able to use my work? Because that's a gold mine and we frequently don't think about doing that. Sure. That one I guilty, guilty is a chance. What is something that you've been doing presentations for a number of years? What's something that you feel that you still need to work on when it comes to your presentations? I you knew I was going to give you a couple of fliers here. Yeah. What do I need to work on? I think if anything, when I'm teaching presentation skills, I love people. You you know, you spend a day with them, a day and a half, you get to kind of know them. I think maybe I drop, I drop my not professionalism, but sometimes I might get too relaxed. And because I love to make jokes and I think I do have to be careful because if you don't know me, you don't. You know, humor is humor is you have to be careful with it. And I think sometimes I get so comfortable and I really enjoy being with other people. Maybe I make comments that I should just keep to myself after I'm maybe once or twice you've done that? Possibly, yeah, possibly once or twice. In one of the classes that I teach, they have been thoroughly impressed that out of like the 50 people that have been through, I have only offended one. Okay, good. Yeah. So that's like a 2% to rejection record. Like, this is not what we expected. We expect and, you know, service to be Reagan. You know what Josh. Yeah. We're not going to be everybody's cup of tea. No no no I definitely not. Definitely not yeah. That's when you're presenting. What's something that like a lot of people feel like they have a difficult time building that initial rapport. What's a way to kind of come out of the gate with that and give the audience that, hey, I should probably listen to this person. Yeah, a couple of different things. When I get to a class and let's say it starts at nine, you know, people will start to filter in and I go up and talk to them and I ask, oh, what's your role here in the company and that sort of thing. So I have a sense of who they are, and I'm also letting them know, oh, she seems like a human being. You know, maybe she's not going to eat me up and spit themself out. And then another thing is I like to open with kind of a hook, a quote, a rhetorical question, something that is just unexpected because usually we stay home. Stephanie Markovich I'm here to train you on presentation skills. Okay, fine. But what if I start out with a good orator? It's both pointed and impassioned. And that's a quote from Cicero. And after 2000 years, nothing has changed. Your message need to be clear and concise, pointed and impassioned. You kind of connect with the room you got to connect with people. So that's how I usually start a program. And I think it's unexpected when people go home and then they check in. That makes sense that it's funny because that's and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on today, because there's parallels like that with the podcast, when we always tell people you need to start with that hook. If you just start with, hey, anytime someone starts with, hey, guys, I'm like, next, swipe right, we're at it. I don't know which direction and swipe and yeah, but it's it's it's getting swiped. Right. It's give me something interesting. Give me a reason to set the hook. Did you bring them towards the boat? Get them in the boat later. But get that hook in. You've been training people, like I said, for a while. What's kept you passionate and engaged in doing that? I think I stayed engaged because this is such a terrifying thing for the great majority of people. I've had people say, I was supposed to come to this class last time, and I called in sick because I was so scared, or I'd literally see it on their face when they come in, they won't give you eye contact. They're terrified. I mean, people are terrified, and I know there's a few easy things that they can be taught so they don't feel terrified. First of all, I want them to look better, but I want them to feel better. As you said, this is incredibly important. As you move up the ladder, you have to know how to do this, so you might as well learn it. And you might as well get comfortable with it because it's important. So here's a here's something that I've always wondered about. And you'll obviously I've told people my answer on this, but I'd like to hear yours when you mess up speaking to people care. Do you do people care when you mess up speaking? No. What do I say to people? I say take one of two approaches. Just pretend it didn't happen. Because in 30s you will be on a completely different point and no one will remember or make a joke about it. People in the audience here's here's something I think that's important. People think everyone's judging me. Everybody's waiting me for me to cough up. And that's so not true because people are giving you their time. They want you to give them something of value. So no, actually, first of all, your audience generally is not hostile. And if you if you goof up in what they're going to do, they're going to go, I've done that, man. It makes you actually look more human. It makes you look real when when you make a mistake. So it's don't let those little things blow you up. I it's interesting you said that. And the audience is not hostile. I've never looked at it that way. Those people are there because, I mean, they they want to get something from you, right? They're there for they want you to succeed. Yes. They do. Whether you're in person, on camera, whether they they want to get something from you. So they want you to succeed, right? Otherwise it's a failure for them. Yes. It's a waste of their time. Totally makes sense. I'm I'm seeing the light. And I'm pretty sure it's not a train either. You mentioned in one of the questions that I asked that your advice to your younger self would be, you are enough. How has embracing that changed your journey over time? And you pick the timescale there? Yeah, you know what? It takes so long to get to that point. For most people. I mean, a lot of my friends are kind of into personal development self-help because we know for so long, you know, you have to be this. You have to be that. And if you're not, it means that. And it's exhausting. And the other thing is all this that we worry about, we think everybody's judging us and looking at us. We're really not that important. Most people aren't paying attention to that. And when you decide who you want to be, it's so liberating because for a while, actually in my late 20s, I was in a position I was very unhappy in, but I had taken it because other young women in that field had kind of progressed down this same pathway. And I got myself there and I was miserably unhappy. And then one day I woke up and I go home. I'm 28. I don't have to do this anymore. And literally from that moment on, I've lived my life completely differently because you cannot go through life trying to be what you think you're supposed to be or what somebody else wants you to be because you'll end up miserable. That's amazing. And that's wonderful advice. I love that it's I had heard a quote basically that was alluding to the fact of you are so worried about how you appear to other people. And you shouldn't be because they're too busy worrying about how busy or how they appear to other people to worry about how you're appearing to them. Exactly. I was like, how you carry the one at the right time or two, right? There's not enough space for people to actually worry about how you appear to them. No, people don't care. No, they just don't. What does the future look like for utmost potential over the next, let's say, year for the next year? I'm going to actually I'm going to start offering a couple of new programing options, which I'm kind of excited about. And as I said, I'm just refining what I'm training people on because I do have a few other options other than presentation skills. Although presentation skills is my baby, so I really want to teach and facilitate on programs that have meaning to me. And work with clients that kind of are on the same page with me and just keep doing what I'm doing. Nice. If someone wants to get a hold of you, where is the best place for them to go? I would say they shoot me an email. My email is Stephanie STF and I at. Unfortunately along a long email I made the same mistake. They t at the utmost potential.com and you can certainly find me on LinkedIn. Awesome! I thank you very much for that. I thank you for the time today. This has been a lot of fun. I the the big thing to me is I've pulled a number of tidbits out of this, and I'm sure everyone that's listening has also. Well, thank you so much Josh, you are a just a joy to be around and thank you. This has been a lot of fun. Thank you for all of you out there. To me, the thing that I like with this is that there should be this amount of confidence that you're going to get from this and knowing that yes, you are enough. And presenting in that way and bringing that all together shouldn't be all that complex. It's about being yourself. It's about being comfortable, and it's about being succinct. Don't put yourself up there longer than you absolutely have to. That all being said, if you're willing, give us a follow up. Also. Any comments? We'd love to hear your comments on this if you could. We greatly appreciate a review on whatever podcasting platform you are listening on. As always, take care of yourselves and if you can take care of someone else, I will see you soon. If you. Me you go, hey everybody go!

People on this episode

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Josh Troche

Host
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Stephanie Markovic

Guest