Presentation Skills Coaching with Michelle Hoff: Episode 6

In this interactive episode of Mic Drop Mindset, host Jenn Espinosa-Goswami welcomes a special guest into the studio for a live mini coaching session. Joined by virtual mindset decluttering coach Michelle Hoff, listeners get an inside look at how to refine a speaking message for both impact and business growth.

Michelle shares her unique A.L.I.G.N. Method™ and introduces her “team decluttering” approach—a collaborative model designed to transform client outcomes while helping professional organizers expand their services and revenue.

As Michelle delivers a 5 minute segment of her talk, Jenn provides real-time, strengths-based coaching, highlighting what’s working and where greater clarity, audience connection, and calls to action can elevate the message.

If you’re a speaker, coach, or service-based professional looking to sharpen your presentations and clearly communicate your value, this episode offers practical insights you can apply immediately—plus a behind-the-scenes look at coaching in action.

Want to get a copy of the Speaker Feedback form? Email Jenn at jegoswam@bweightless.com with Subject "Feedback form".

Enrollment is open for Mic Drop Moments! This is a rehearsal group for speakers with weekly practice on Tuesday mornings from 10-11:30 Central. In this small group, you’ll present a 10 minute segment of your speech with feedback from both the group and Jenn, an ICF-certified speaker coach and international speaker at corporate, association and entrepreneurial events. Enroll for 6 months or 3 months. 

View pricing here: https://calendly.com/jennchat/mdm?back=1&month=2026-03

About Michelle Hoff:

Michelle L Hoff is a Virtual Mindset Decluttering Coach. With 30 years of experience helping clients create a loved home - an owner of a cleaning business, landscape and interior designer, painter and Amazon Best Selling author. Her book “Compassionate Decluttering" and her proven framework, The A.L.I.G.N. Method™ empowers mid-life women to take control of clutter, get support, make lasting changes so she can have time and space to live with more ease and joy. 

Website: https://compassionatedecluttering.com/

Have a question or suggestion for a future episode topic? Email me jenn@jennspingo.com.

Ready to deliver mic drop moments in your next presentation? Schedule a call to learn more about coaching www.calendly.com/jennchat

Looking to book a speaker for your corporate or association event on topics including leadership and communication? View my programs at www.jennspingo.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Mic Drop Mindset Podcast. Today's episode is a little bit different from my solo episodes. Today I'm welcoming to the studio coaches. We're going to do mini coaching sessions on not just presentation skills, but also the business side of speaking. And my first guest today is somebody that I know and love, Michelle Hoff. Welcome to the studio. Thanks for having me, Jen. Truly a pleasure to be here. Well, first of all, I need to tell you a little bit about how cool Michelle is because I know her, but you may not know her yet. Michelle Hoff is a virtual mindset decluttering coach, and she'll share more with you about what that means exactly. She has 30 years of experience helping clients create a loved home, and she's the owner of a cleaning business, landscape and interior designer, painter, Amazon best-selling author. If you haven't checked out her book, take a look in the show comments. Her book, Compassionate Decluttering, which includes her proven framework, the Align Method. I have a feeling Michelle's going to tell us a little bit more about that today in the studio. She empowers midlife women to take control of clutter, get support, make lasting changes so she can have time and space to live with more ease and joy. Her website is compassionatedecluttering.com. Let's hear more from Michelle. So, Michelle, tell me who is this talk for?

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Well, it's actually for professional organizers, believe it or not, because I can't do what I do best with my line method without the help and support of professional organizers. The three of us together create an amazing structure and environment for change to really happen with clients that is really revolutionizing the decluttering landscape. So my clients tell me.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Very cool. So this talk is for professional organizers. And this is part of the work that we do in the speaking business is how do you know what audience your talk is for? So you've already done the hard part of identifying who your talk is for. Professional organizers. What type of setup would this talk be delivered in? Is it a keynote? Is it a breakout session? What ideal situation would this talk be delivered in?

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Well, it would be probably a keynote with other professional organizers. There's a national association of professional organizers in the United States that's really impacting the strength of and the visibility of organizers in the country. Not every profession professional organizer wants to work with a mindset decluttering coach and those who do and want to expand their business, and who do who doesn't want to expand their business? But you know, I do. If you're you're very happy in the business that you're running, great. But if you want to expand your business, those would be people I would like to talk to.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Wonderful. Well, thank you for being very clear with us and with our listeners here on who this talk is for. If you're listening and you are a professional organizer and you are looking for collaborations and opportunities to connect and collaborate with Michelle, this is your opportunity to listen in on her talk and perhaps make an introduction if it's a fit for your particular organization, event, or group. I know that Michelle will be willing and able to chat with you and talk about your event needs. Now, as a speaking coach here, I'm not going to tell Michelle how to do it the way I would do it. Again, we're going to hear a small segment of her presentation. Instead, I'm going to be using a form, and this is a form that I use with all of my presentation skills coaching clients. Michelle has her own unique strengths, and I want her to amplify those strengths. I'm not here to tell her how to do it differently. I'm here looking at what would the audience ask. And if you're listening and you're curious on Michelle's presentation, but something was a little unclear, we'd love to hear from you. I'm sure Michelle would love to hear from you. I would love to hear what's standing out for you, but I will be looking at Michelle's presentation as if I'm someone who's in her audience. So let's listen into that and recognize that I'm not gonna make Michelle feel like she's not up to par as a speaker. She's got many skills. Instead, we're gonna look at how can we make it more powerful, more impactful. So it is a mic drop moment. So, Michelle, this is your time to shine. Thank you. Let's get going. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Organizers, what's the primary reason people either stop decluttering or don't start decluttering at all? Sally, you got it. It's the emotional attachment people have with their stuff. It's such an emotional load. They just need help. And when they need help, they call you. You are a professional organizer. Naple is your certification avenue. You are an incredibly sought-after organizer. Because of your credibility, because of your skill and education and training, you automatically are a trusted source of support for a client who wants to hire a professional organizer. And it's incredible. When you come into their house, they begin to trust you immediately. You're invited into the most intimate spaces in their homes. The bedroom, the bathroom, and those closets. And immediately one-on-one, you're working with each other, and the space becomes transformed. The client becomes transformed. What's the primary reason people stop decluttering or don't even want to declutter? Yeah, Sally. Exactly. It's the emotional weight and attachment declutter that paralyzes clients. But one thing that you've got going for me for you is you are a national association of professional organizers, certified professional coach. You come to the table with a tremendous amount of cachet, of trust and professionalism. So when the client is ready, they make the call to you, when you walk into that door, you're immediately invited into the most uh intimate uh places of their uh and spaces in their home. The bedroom, the bathroom, and those big old closets. And you begin working with them one-on-one, which we've always done for decades, right? Side by side, transforming their living space. And really what you're doing is engineering change for that client. You know, when I think about engineering, okay, I have zero math prowess. My brother is a PhD in engineering. But what I love about uh math is the triangle. Yes, the triangle, it's the strongest geometric shape. And in that shape, anytime there's pressure on any one of these points, the whole structure absorbs that force. And it makes it harder to collapse. So working one-on-one with clients, you both are absorbing this incredible emotional load, right? Well, what if you had someone else to share in that role, that load? What if you had someone else to share in that load? I am a virtual decluttering mindset coach. And I love to be in the soup of the emotional aspects of decluttering. I help clients with using my align method to get clear about the vision they have for themselves when clutter is gone. I hold them accountable in decision making, building resilience around making choices. They become more confident, they lead with their personal values, they are ready to start decluttering. I created a trial here in Minneapolis with professional organizers, the client, and myself. The three of us created team decluttering. The effects of this have been mind-blowing, really revolutionary for the client. The client has come back to both the organizer and myself and said, I will never go back to the way I was living before. And to me, there's a lot of time when clients need more help. They need continuous help. Team decluttering is revolutionizing decluttering, and I want you to be a part of it. As a professional organizer, you are accredited through Naple with the accreditation of compassionate declutterings, team decluttering certification. You can grow your business. Here's how clients come to you ready to declutter. They're motivated, they're focused, they've got a lot of resilience. And when the two of you work together, you shorten the lapse of time between projects. Now you get more clients in within in your year, and now you get more revenue. And now you could be able to expand into other niches or other territories. And ultimately, the most beautiful thing is the client is your raving fan. And our raising raving fan, actually. And you've got free and fantastic marketing. So be a part of Team Decluttering. I would love for us to work together. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

I'm super excited, Michelle, that you shared more with us about the align method in your five-minute talk. Now, we all know that talks don't last just five minutes. So kudos to you for delivering a small segment of what is sure to be a bigger breakout session at many major events. I would typically look at all of your talk and not just one small segment of it. But for this mini coaching session, I will point out some of the things in my feedback form that I use with coaching clients. So if it's okay, Michelle, please we'll dive right into that absolutely. Okay. So first of all, I just want to point out the things that I always notice are amazing with you. And this is true of you who are listening as well. You have natural strengths, and I want you to acknowledge that before you start criticizing yourself because we all get into critique mode. I do it. I'm sure you do it too, Michelle. But first of all, I just want to say your energy was amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

We have people in the studio today who were listening, watching, cheering you on, and they said you were a magnetic and they couldn't stop watching you. You chose to stand today, which is great. As a speaker, you will be standing. So it was a good choice to stand because when we're practicing, we want to make sure we're practicing in as close to the condition as we're going to be on stage. Makes sense. That was a good selection there. Not that you can't practice while sitting down, but that's a different point of your rehearsal practice. I also noticed your gestures were very strong. Okay. And I think you're one of those people who is mute if you can't talk with your hands. I know that's certainly how I show up. Um, but yeah, you had very strong, what I would call presidential gestures. Ooh. The open palm leading towards each other, the steepling, the prayer position. These are very strong gestures. So that is something that you just naturally do. It comes just like breathing for you. Um, I also noticed that you are very grounded in your stance. Now, this is an important thing as you're on stage because if you're not grounded, it will convey in your voice. And I didn't hear that with your voice today. Your feet were planted, and when you were ready to deliver, you delivered. Okay. So great awareness of where you were and where you stood with that. Great, thanks. I also noticed you use a lot of you language.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Oh, okay. Tell me what's coming up for you on that. Oh, I didn't, it's unconscious. So yeah, tell me more.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

This is a good technique for you to say you because you're partnering. You're talking about the align method and how you want to partner with other clients, which is good because you want to incorporate them. Yeah. They're putting themselves in the shoes because you're saying, you can do this with me. We can do this together. So you language, we language, we're in this together, fabulous. But this is what we want more of in our presentation. So the audience wants to know you care about them and that you're thinking about their perspective. So I think, I mean, kudos to that because the more you can say you as opposed to I, okay, the more powerful the impact will be. I love it. Thanks for that. Mm-hmm. I also noticed some specific case study that you've listed. You said you've worked with someone and they said they will never go back to where they were before. Great case study. Okay. Um, definitely include those case studies, those examples of happy clients who've worked with you. So that was a great insert there.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

Great.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

And something that we sometimes forget to do in shorter speeches. So kudos on that.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Now, one thing that I was curious about, and again, this is just a small segment of your presentation, so I'm sure there's much more.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

But I don't really know what the triangle is. You kind of introduced it. Yeah. And you you had a certain way you did the triangle. Yeah. So I'm guessing this is a core part of your presentation, but I feel like I wanted more.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

I wanted to understand what was involved in the triangle. Like who are the people involved in the triangle? So you said Sally at one point. So if you have an audience of organizers, who might be some of those titles or those positions or things that they might call themselves? So just being a little more specific around, you know, who's part of this triangle and how we could partner beyond let's just have a conversation. And again, this is something you might address later in your speech.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Love it. Yeah, I it was obvious to me because, you know, uh, you're in my head, aren't you? But it's that client, the organizer, and myself.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Wonderful. Yes, that's what client organizer Michelle. Yes. That's in the triangle. Good.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Thank you for that clarification.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Yes. And so that's one thing to pay attention to. One other thing as well, in terms of your gestures. You sometimes did the pointing thing.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Do you feel like your mom's like in my face? Yeah, we don't like a leg. Your face. Um just be careful. Thank you. Um, because people feel like they're singled out. Talking to you, talking to you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Not at all. And it was interesting. I'm just looking at two people. I'm thinking it's two people, and maybe a lean, you know, lean my person as a pointer. That's a really good point. Subtle.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

It's a really good point. Pun intended. Exactly. Yes. Be careful of pointing. Maybe keep your presidential gestures. Or you don't want to be like this. We're not Khrushchev out here. But pointing with multiple fingers or or opening it up to other people. You're great at gestures. Just different selection of gestures.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

Wasn't mindful of it. Thank you for that. Really helped.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

No problem.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

No problem. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

We don't know necessarily what that next call to action would be. I'm guessing that you would refer people to a website, you would refer them to a phone call. What does that usually look like for you with your conversations?

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Yeah, it's uh it's a website, it's uh lead magnet, it's uh or landing page and uh phone call. Or what do you call it? Uh discovery call. Discovery call. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Okay. So the next step, and this is important to you as you're laying out your presentation. A lot of speakers neglect what that path looks like for clients.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

So you're extending an invitation to clients. What does that invitation look like? You don't have to say exactly what you'll do and when you'll do it, but can you list a high level of first we do this and then we do this? Exactly. That way it's like anyone could say, let's talk, call me, you know, but it may not be something that they connect to personally and say, I need to do this right now. There's no sense of urgency around that. So for example, if you were presenting this in a room, come see me at the back of the room. I'm gonna be here till this time. Happy to say hi, and we'll talk about what the next steps could look like. Could be an opportunity for you. How would you like to see that happening?

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Well, I love one-on-ones because I think that's where I make the most connection and learn if we're the right fit for each other. Exactly. Pretty much right away.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Yes. So definitely a conversation with Michelle is the way to go. Now, one other thing that is a question in my mind, and I've I know Michelle, I've worked with Michelle in the past. She's a great person. I think it's rather new for you to say you're a virtual mindset declutter. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Is that rather new? Well, yes, I plus it's a lot of alphabet soup, you know, and it's a long title. Yeah, and I think I'm a little uncomfortable with it still.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Oh, yeah. Well, I appreciate your honesty around that. Yeah. I'm not here to say you should call yourself that or should not, that we're not gonna show down anyone here. What I would say is I don't know what it means.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

I don't know what it means to call yourself a virtual coach. I know decluttering is part of what you do with clients, but I don't know the rest of that. So there's some question marks for me. And if I were just to hear your bio or hear you speak, I may or may not discover that during the course of your talk. So if there's some way you can insert within your talk how that looks, like what virtual mindset means. Because especially if I'm a professional organizer, one of the things that comes to mind is if I collaborate with someone else, I might lose business because I'm partnering with someone. So, you know, more people involved, less money for me. That might be a question that comes up for people. How might that partnership look like? They might want to know more about your duties and what you would do as part of that work. Yeah. Getting really nitty-gritty and specific here. It may not be applicable for a general audience, but if I was a professional organizer and I'd say, I like that Michelle person, let's do something. I wouldn't know what that would look like.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Or where you would step in and where I would, where the handoff would happen, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Exactly. And that's where we would have need more time together.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Yes. And we're not trying to solve everything in five minutes because it's impossible. And I think what you delivered in five minutes gave us a good sense of who you are and who you want to partner with. Now, another thing that came up for me is the align method. I I know it's an acronym because that's how it's written. Perhaps that was beyond the scope of your talk today.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

So giving that Yeah, it was. And yeah, there's a lot. This was sort of a middle chunk of a larger speech. And you're absolutely right. There was so much context before and after that I now understand how I can fill in those before and afters a lot better. So it was great. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

This was just a short 10-minute coaching session. I attempted to stay away from do this, don't do that. I'd love to know, Michelle, what landed for you and what didn't land for you.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Uh wow, just the unconscious things that I was wasn't aware I was doing. I love the way that you brought out some of the positive things when in maybe in some way I didn't think it was as great as I wanted it to be. And the bullet points of how I could approve my speech made total sense to me. And I'm gonna anchor on those for the next conversation I'm going to have with professional organizers in a speech I'm gonna have in Florida. This is really exciting, and I really appreciate the coaching.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Of course. You are always welcome in my studio and within my inbox, within my Zoom sessions. I think it's important that you've already listed action steps. So if we were to be coaching together in a logger container, I would say, what do you see as your action steps? So people who've worked with me before, they know that I don't tell them what to do. They kind of self-select what makes the most sense for where they are and what they're hoping to achieve. So thank you so much for making my job easy today, Michelle. Sharing your line method and framework with us today and more about how you work and how you partner in that triangle with professional organizers. It's been a pleasure having you in the studio.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Likewise, pleasure to be here. Thanks for your coaching.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Thank you for tuning in to Mic Drop Mindset. If you enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to leave a review on Spotify, Apple, or share a comment over on YouTube. Stay tuned for bi-weekly episodes and subscribe to discover your own unique mic drop moments. Leaders don't just talk, they also listen. I'm listening. I'll see you on your next stage. In the meanwhile, don't forget to visit my website, Jen with2Ns, spingo.com