Practice for success. The 4 Levels of rehearsing for live presentations.

What comes to mind when you hear the words role play, rehearsal and practice?

Do you get excited? I bet not. You probably roll your eyes, become a little dizzy, and come up with a list of other things that are FAR more important in your business.

The saying goes, practice makes perfect? Well, SCREW perfect. Nobody wants to hear or watch perfect. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t practice. If you want to show up with confidence and authority on your videos, webinars, live presentations and sales calls, practice is a necessity.

It’s how you show your audience that you value and respect their time. It's how you NOT show up like a robot. When you practice, you can become more intentional with capturing their attention at the right times so they’ll go running to sign up for your email list (and buy your programs).

But not all practice is created equal. In today’s episode I’m sharing my 4 Levels of Practice that you can incorporate into your day to strengthen your presentation muscles with your audience. 

EPISODE  SHOW NOTES👇

➡️ https://heathersager.com/episode4/

Transcript

Heather Sager: 0:00

You're listening to Finding Your It Factor. Episode number four, and today's episode is all about one thing that makes so many of us cringe. Practice, rehearsal, role play, whatever you u se to describe it. It's running through your live moments before they happen. And for some reason this conversation makes so many people uncomfortable. You know that saying, practice makes perfect. Well screw that screw. Perfect. Nobody wants perfect. And that is definitely not the goal of when you're practicing. I mean, let's think about it. When was the last time you saw someone who tried to be all perfect and proper in front of a group you cringed, you hated watching them, it just wasn't real. A nd the same thing goes for somebody who's just too perfect on video or on a podcast. I mean, that's one of the things that drives me crazy a s people who edit their podcasts so much that everything is so perfect. It's just not real. It's not attainable and it makes us feel like we're constantly failing. So let's get one thing straight practice. The goal is not to be perfect practice. The goal is for you to show up with competence, show up with certainty that you're able to create value for your audience because the practice creates more confidence. Practice creates this, this feeling that you care for your audience. Practice makes you more prepared so that you can show up to your videos, your webinars, your live presentations. You can show up to sales calls with more confidence and authority so that your audience pays attention, feels heard, feels values, field respected, and most importantly goes running to sign up for your email list and eventually buy your programs. So today we're embracing the idea of practice, makes prepare, and I'm sharing with you the four levels of practice, which will help you do just that. Here we go.

Speaker 2: 2:03

Have you ever wondered how some people just seem to have a way with words, they have this spark that lights you up when you're near them? They have the it factor. And while most people think it's something that only a few are born with, I believe that you can find it so it can become your super power to grow your business. It's about you bringing your brand to life by becoming a magnetic communicator in person and on camera, showing up with confidence, authenticity, and inspiration. So, are you ready to become magnetic? I thought so. I'm Heather Sager and I'd like to welcome you to Finding Your It Factor.

: 2:52

Welcome back. I am so like excited about today's episode and honestly I say that every, and it's just so true. Today is a special treat for a couple reasons. First, this topic that we're covering today is one of the biggest lists for me finding success in speaking in my career. And so I can't wait to share with you my approach around the, the different levels that you can bring into practice because it doesn't always have to just be roleplay or doing a rehearsal. So I'm gonna, we're going to talk about that. But I'm also excited because this is the first episode that I'm recording that I'm not in my home office. Uh, it might sound a little different. I'm trying not to be as loud as I normally am when I record because I'm sitting in a hotel room in Pullman, Washington. And I just needed to get this podcast episode recorded.

Heather Sager: 3:44

So I brought my microphone with me. But I'm literally sitting in my hotel room, uh, in a very small hotel, very small city. I've been here the last know 18 hours at doing some stage coaching for the local college here, the local university, and helping them get their speakers ready for this big gala event that they have tonight. And so this topic is very timely because we've been doing rehearsals. We spent seven hours yesterday doing rehearsals with their MCs and speakers for their big gala event. And you know, it's funny, most people when they think about rehearsals, I don't, they just don't love it. People don't like the idea. And maybe you fall into this category of, of trying to pretend if you will, a pretend a fictitious scenario, uh, into existence. It just doesn't feel natural. We feel silly. Uh, have you ever tried to role play a conversation before? It feels a little awkward, especially the first dozen times, and maybe even more than that, that you do. It is, it just doesn't feel helpful because what happens is we don't think that the situation is real. So therefore we trick ourselves to not putting the time and attention into it and we don't take it seriously. So therefore it's not really helpful. But the idea of getting your ideas out of your head through your mouth and into the world before the real moment happens is so, so important. Because you know, so many of my clients that I work with, when we start working together and talk about practice and I ask the question, okay, so how many times do you typically practice a presentation? And they pause and they look at me and they're like, well, I probably not as much as I should. And I say, okay, so do it. Honestly. Tell me how many times. And they say, well, probably a few. And then I followed up and say, how many of those times were actually out loud? And they go silent, silent. Because the reality is most people don't practice their presentations. They're important conversations. There are webinars, they don't practice them out loud. They run through them in their heads. And well, that's better than nothing. It is not going to get you where you want to go in your business or your career. I would know it's uncomfortable. But spending the time and energy for practice is the way to get you there. So, okay, so let me talk about a few things here before we dive into the levels because you're probably have a couple hesitations around why you don't want to practice in. And even if you're like, no, I'm on board. Share me with the good stuff. These are probably gonna come up to you at some point. So I want you to hear some of these reasons around why we don't practice, because they're logical excuses that we create for ourselves in different scenarios that help us avoid practice. So again, practices that just have to be for a keynote presentation. Are you giving a a work or doing a workshop? It could be for a live webinar. It could be for a crucial conversation you need to have with an employee. It could be for a, an important conversation you need to have with a vendor. Maybe you're negotiating a contract. It could be a, it could be a sales call that you have coming up. Any, I would say important conversation or live interaction you have with another person. There's a big opportunity for you to practice how you want that to go before you get there so that you can show up with more confidence and be more prepared. So I don't want you to think about practice just in the context of giving presentations though. I'm going to hammer that one birdie yard because it's so important. If you want to build influence and use speaking to build your business, build your audience and your list, but know that these tips are going to apply to everything and therefore becoming more familiar with these excuses that we have for why we don't want to do it. Uh, those are gonna come up for you in some of these other scenarios. You see. So often we think, Oh, we need to practice for the big thing similarly to we think, okay, I need to practice for, um, uh, let's see. I've used this example a lot, but let's say you're a runner. If you have a big running event coming up, let's say you have a half marathon, you want to run, you know, you need to practice for it. Meaning that you need to train, you need to be running and constantly, but let's say you've been a casual runner on and off for years and you sign up for a five K race. The reality is if you didn't train for that race, you would be just fine. I mean, just fine. Sure. You might get a little winded. You're not going to have your fastest time. Uh, you, it's, it's just all gonna work out. Okay. But are you really going to show up if you were wanting to run that race and get a good time, are you really going to show up and do your best if you didn't train now and is the five K important? I don't know that's relevant to you, but just thinking about this is in our minds, we think about a big presentation as the half marathon or the marathon. So we put a little bit more time and energy into those and practicing and preparing. Though I would argue we spend way too much time on the slides and the finessing all the graphics and all of those things and not enough time into the actual practice, but beyond that, the other conversations, the other events happening in our business with our prospects and our customers, those are like five case happening all the time. Yet we don't spend any time training for them. We just treat them as these casual, fun runs and I don't know about you, but I didn't get the business to run those fun color runs. I got into business because I really want to succeed, which means I want to won these races. Okay. If you're not into running, you're probably like, okay, can we stop talking about that? The answer is yes, let's move on, but I hope you can understand this difference between don't just treat the big events, the big webinar launch or the big presentation that you have is the only opportunity for you to practice because you should be practicing all the time becoming a better speaker. Becoming a better formulator of your ideas in two words. That is the thing that's going to strengthen your relationship with your audience, getting more people to buy into your ideas. So first I want you to embrace this idea of practice needs to be happening all the time because you can use it for pretty much anything. So some of the excuses that might come up for you, let's address those first. I don't have enough time. This is our excuse we use for everything and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna go into this one too much because I'm pretty confident you already know the answer to this. When you find yourself saying you don't have enough time, it just means that the thing in front of you is not the priority. So you need to sit back and say, what is the priority? If the conversation you have coming up, if the webinar you have coming up, if the sales call you have coming up the presentation coming up, if that has significant value to your business, you have to stop and ask yourself the question, what are the ramifications if I don't do it? Prioritizing it and time isn't gonna fall in your lap. You have to create it. So let's just leave that one there time. That's a BS excuse. You and I both know it. If it's important, you will find the time. So if you ever find that one creepy enough, you need to call yourself out on that. Look at your calendar. Get rid of the filler tasks that you're doing. A the redoing your Instagram bio for the 16th time a, the checking to see if anyone's signed up for your list today, reworking your welcome sequence, all the little things that do they really need to be done right now? No. If you want to put your energy and effort into revenue generating, put your energy and effort into that things that are going to help you show up to those revenue generating activities with more authority. So time excuse that, that's gone. Another excuse or objection you might have or something that's going to come up for you is this idea that practice makes us sound inauthentic. And what I mean by this is so many times I hear people say, I don't want to sound scripted. Is that you? Yeah. I don't want to sound scripted either. In fact, okay, let's use this as an example. Preparing for these podcasts. The very first podcast that I sat down, I wanted to make sure that I showed up really prepared and that I didn't just ramble. I have a tendency to have a lot of thoughts and get very excited and want to throw a lot at you and it can be a little overwhelming, so I thought, okay, let me write an outline and that outline turn into a script and then I recorded the podcast and listened to it. I was like, this is not, this is not going to work. Not going to work at all. I'm not actually talking to anyone. I'm just reciting. Nobody wants to sound like a robot. Just sound like they're scripted. So you have to figure out the process that works well for you. And, and throughout our episodes together, I'm going to teach you some techniques for how to not sound scripted, but when it comes to practice, practice is helping you sound more authentic and more precedent practice should be the opposite of sounding scripted. And uh, these MCs, I'll use the example of the gala I was at last night for the gala rehearsal I was at last night. This event is very, very scripted. They read from teleprompters to keep the, the night moving on. They have dozens and dozens of donors that are here that they're recognizing for their contributions to the university and they need to get through all of these donor recognitions throughout the evening, which means there's not a lot of time for extra commentary in the show if they're going to get everything done in a timely fashion. So I had to work a lot with these MCs and the president of the college president of foundation for their talks to make sure that when they show up and read a teleprompter, they don't sound scripted. And so that's why we ran so many rehearsals. We've actually been running rehearsals with them for weeks on a on video conference calls and the practice them showing up last night and having put in the work to practice, they actually sound sounded charismatic. They sounded prepared. And in this situation, yes, they are reading a teleprompter and there's not really a lot we can do to have it be not teleprompter re but they look comfortable. They're engaging their audience, they sound natural, they don't sound like they're reading a boring script. They're using them as cues and prompts and they're delivering incredible words to an audience to connect and, and have the audience feel valued, feel, seen, feel and appreciated for their involvement in the university. And that's what practice does practice. The goal isn't to sound like a robot, isn't to memorize practices so that you can show up prepared, prepared. That means you need to come with intention to help your audience feel the way that you intend them, whether you intend it to so you don't have to sound like a robot. And if you have had that experience in the past, I might challenge you in saying two things. One, it means that you are trying to memorize a script and you'll learn. For me, I don't think that that's the solution to go for. I think there are pieces in your talk that you should have down like a script, but they're more phrases, your opening story, your transition statements. These are things that I feel like you should memorize, but you practice them. So many times they don't feel like that. They just feel like go to language. Let's think about that for a second. We all have our language that we use very regularly. The words that we use, the phrases we use, uh, and they just are second nature and how we speak. When you practice enough, that's how this comes out. And so that's the second thing. If you, if you're feeling like you sound too scripted, it's because you probably haven't practiced enough. You ran through it out loud maybe two, three, four times. But you probably used it with the script sitting in front of you or near you. So, even though you were speaking, you were still using that script. So of course you are going to sound scripted. So there's things that we can do to work on that, but the practice is not the reason why you're sounding scripted. The process is okay. So those are a couple of the excuses that those, the big ones that I hear that are probably going to come up for you. Um, let me hit on one more that I hear quite a bit. It's this idea that we feel like we are going to be more authentic and natural and that we do better live in the moment that you yeah. On my old training team, in my old job, this was something that the entire team embraced. We thrived thinking on our feet and that was kind of the badge of honor where those of us that could just impromptu give presentations. There was some secret bonus points that were given for that. Well, let me, let me make a little confession here. It's B, S, B, S. uh, this idea that we wear this badge of honor for being able to show up, live in the energy and deliver without preparation. Sure. It's a very useful skill that you can bring into the business world. And I have it. I, I'm very, I've worked really hard to get to that point. It didn't come overnight. It came from doing a ton ton, like a thousand live presentations to get to a point where I can show up and I can give a phenomenal presentation pretty much off the cuff. But here's, here's what I know now. It was one thing for me to do that as a corporate employee when I was influencing other people to buy into my training programs, to participate in the training that I was offering, but as a business owner now creating an audience that wants to work with me, that that consumes my free content, that uses it to create meaningful change in their businesses, that, that wants to work with me on private coaching, that, that wants to continue to follow me. This is, I mean, this is a business. You're running a business. Ultimately you want to serve people, but you also need to make a profit and support your life. Right now, if you have a business, the rules are different, so in the past have you been able to be off the cuff or just show up and do it? That's a great skill, but how much more impactful would you be? How much better would you be if you put any energy into preparing any more than you do right now? Here's the thing. I have learned this in the last couple of years that yes, I can show up and just fling into a presentation and do an awesome job, but when I spend time preparing, when I spend time practicing, I show up not only better in how I feel, I don't have those inner voices that are making me question myself or any of that imposter syndrome or any of those inner feelings that we have, this inner voices that we have. Those have calmed down. But more importantly, I know that I'm connecting the dots to my audience's true needs, not just what I want to talk about or what comes up naturally. I'm planning and preparing what my audience needs to help them get results. And that's critical when you're building a business. So if you have that mantra or habit come up that, Oh, I've done this before, or I'm really good at thinking on my feet, or I just like the energy of the live audience, I just want it to free flow, naturally work from that. That is a great skill to have. Spend a little time and energy to put just enough preparation into it so that you can show up more confident, more prepared, put more into it because the stakes are higher. It will show up for you. It will, it will be impactful for you, and you can create even more value for your audience. So, okay, so enough about that. If you find these moments where you're coming up with excuses or reasons logical or not for why you shouldn't practice, think about those inner voices. Squash them. Okay? And let's move on into the practice. So let me share with you my four levels of practice that you can apply into any situation in your business. Again, where you have a live conversation, level one, get all up in your head. Yeah. Okay. I know that I said thinking about what you're going to say in your head is not an effective strategy, but follow this with me for a moment. There have been multiple studies done that talk about this idea that when you truly visualize and imagine a moment your mind doesn't know the difference and the example I'll use for this. Ah, okay. So when I became a mom, many of you might relate to this first, some reason my mind instantly went to all of these crazy morbid scenarios of what's going to go wrong in my world, in my life. I knew, okay, this is not you. You're going to think I'm totally Tracy town. But I've talked to some other women about this and they're like, Oh my God, this happens to me. Do so I'm just going to share it at the risk of me sounding like a crazy person. So here it goes. I have these moments at times were in my head. Something happens and I imagine that my husband and my kids have been in a car accident. This happens all the time when they're running late and I haven't heard from my husband and I'm making dinner and at six o'clock and he supposed to be home by five 45 and I hadn't heard and all the sudden a matter of four minutes, kid you not. I have imagined that they have been in a deathly car accident and they are on their way to the hospital in an ambulance and my world is completely and totally over. I'm trying to figure out, okay, what's going to happen as a police officer going to show up at my door? I'm watching the driveway to say, when does that police officer coming up? What am I going to do? Oh my God, we didn't actually get the life insurance policy that we've been talking about. I'd be forgot to sign it. Like what's going to happen? Oh my God, what am I gonna do with this crazy house? And I, my mind just starts going in all of these scenarios that I literally am convinced that Mike, my family is dead. I know that sounds so morbid and honestly as I'm talking about this, my eyes are getting teary because it brings up a lot of emotions for me. And you're probably thinking, Holy crap, you're a crazy lady. But this is where my mind goes. And the reason why I bring this up is my mind goes crazy in those ways, but my body physically reacts to the emotion. I instantly start crying. I get this choked up feeling in my chest that climbs up into my throat and I'm thinking, Oh my God, is it actually happening? And the emotions that happen with that, my mind isn't knowing the difference. So my body is reacting to those raw emotions and I can't separate the two. And I run through these crazy schooly emotions for 10 minutes until I see my husband's Audi driving up the long driveway and the garage door opens. And then he comes inside to essentially me like freaking out on him because he didn't call and I thought they were dead. I know. It's so crazy. It's so, it's so crazy and every time he tells me I'm crazy, he says, woman, you're crazy and I, okay. Maybe that doesn't happen to you, but have you ever had those moments where you imagine something and in your mind, you know it's not real, but you start to imagine it so much that you start feeling the emotions that would be there. It's our minds. It doesn't know the difference. When we're visualizing. Now I bring that up because any level of practice, this is why it's level one is better than nothing. So spending time to visualize the conversation, spending time to visualize your time on stage, spending time to think about what you'd like to say that is better than nothing, but you have to take that with, what's the phrase? Take it with a grain of salt. Where what you imagine in your minds when it comes to your words, how you think you're going to say it, the connection between your brain and your ability to speak. The actual words that come out of your mouth, they are not the same. The only way you're going to get the words out, the way you want to is by practicing getting the words out the way you want to. But there is a lot of power in practicing in level one through visualization, through imagining what the moment looks like. And the benefit of this is you actually can be thinking about how you want your audience to feel. You can be thinking about what the room might look like. You can be thinking about how you see yourself moving around on stage. So level one practice is really about using the your mind to visualize your success, visualize the environment so you can bring the right energy. And that is something that even actually as I say this out loud, even even actually people who do real rehearsals might say real meaning like they stand up and they practice their presentations. They would actually benefit by bringing a little level one to the party in compliment to it. And I did this last night with my speakers where I talked to them about right before they go on stage stage, spent a full minute visualizing their audience and thinking about how they w they want their audience to feel as a gala to celebrate their donors. You can imagine they need them to feel, they want them to feel valued, feel appreciated, feel seen and recognized. So if they take a moment to really visualize and appreciate what the people in the room have done for the university, the energy and the tone that those speakers are going to bring is going to be far more meaningful and authentic. And so this first level here is something that can be extremely powerful for you. Bring in the right energy into your live interactions. So level one I think is something that we all should be doing, but we shouldn't stop there. Level two is all about getting your thoughts on paper, pen to paper. So another version of practice, especially if you don't have a tendency to practice your live conversations, your, your important conversations or your webinars or talks you, let's say instead spend your time thinking about the graphics or the PowerPoint, the keynote, all those things. This face here is all about outlining what you want to talk about and there's a lot of power in this. This is how I run my podcast episodes is I always do outlines to think about what are the things that I want to share with my audience. It's not a script, but it helps you organize your thoughts. And again, this version of quote unquote practice is not as powerful as getting your actual words out. However, when you have your thoughts more organized in your head, you are more likely to stay on track for your audience. So they're more likely willing to follow you in the conversation and be more forgiving. If you do get a little rambling because it comes back to a point because you have clearly thought about the journey that you're taking them on. So at a minimum you need to outline on paper your thoughts and then you can be running through them in your head. But this is a really powerful one to bring into important conversations. I feel like it's under utilized in that Bassett. A lot of people do this for giving presentations. Think about your sales conversations. Do you have an outline that you run people through? Key questions that you ask when you think about an important conversation that you want to give someone some tough feedback, have you thought about the order in which that you want to have the conversation with them? Outlining your thoughts can be a really powerful thing. It can be reflective for you to make sure that you're not missing something and you bring the right energy and intention into the conversation. So level two is actually get your thoughts on paper, organize them, and create an outline for yourself so you can show your audience that you're taking them through a journey, a very fluidly. Level three, say the words out loud. Okay. This is the one that I feel is a non negotiable, especially when you're giving life reason. Tations webinars or videos. I've already said this multiple times, but let's say it one more time. The words in your head are not the same as the words that when they come out it just, it's just doesn't flow the same. Now the more you do it, the closer connection you can get between your thoughts and your and your verbal, verbal delivery. For most people there is a big disconnect there which causes a lot of frustration, a lot of self doubt, a lot of that imposter syndrome sneaking up. So Practicee in that muscle connection between your brain and your words. Really important. So, and I talked about all of this back in episode two about how to get your ideas out of your head and in into the world. So if you need some help with this, go back and listen to that one. Cause I talk about the process of how to actually do that. But when it comes to practice for a, a presentation, a webinar, a live call, whatever that looks like, you need to spend time saying the words out loud. You cannot get around this. And if you take your business seriously, if you take your customers seriously, you will create the space to do that and needs to be more than once. So you should be practicing multiple times with my clients, we're running their presentations together in pilot sessions at least six times before their talk. But between that, they're practicing them over and over and over and over and over again. So couple of things to consider. You practicing your presentation out loud or practicing your webinar loud, you do not have to do it from start to finish. In fact, that's a little deflating and exhausting. And while you should do some pilots, which is that whole start to finish, at least like I said, six times, I, I practice my presentations at least 20 times before I give them soup to nuts. So start to finish. But between that and as I'm preparing for that, I've chunked out my presentation into small increments. Three minute stories, five minutes sections. I practice transitions. So take parts of your presentation and practice them. Do not try to practice the whole thing because honestly it's not going to be as helpful. So just take little pieces and practice them out loud and you'll start developing your confidence in closing that gap between how you're thinking about saying something and how you actually say something. Okay, the six mean today to last level here at level four, this is being cognizant around standing up and actually delivering the talk like the presentation or the webinar itself. So it's one thing for you to be in your car and saying the words out loud or sitting in your bed and saying the words out loud or sitting on the couch and say it in the words out loud. All those things are important and that was level three. But level four is you standing up and visualizing. There is an audience in front of you, uh, standing up and visualizing that you're on camera, uh, getting your office all prepared, getting your hair and makeup done and getting on camera to practice your webinar or zoom session or whatever that looks like. Level four is putting yourself in as close to the real scenario as possible so you can jump into the mental game and really, really practice. And last night I did this with the speakers. We did level three where we've been practicing the words over and over again. And last night we got on stage and we practiced for about an hour. And then I had them go put on their gowns to the MCs. We rented gowns from rent the runway. So I had them go back in the dressing room, put on their gowns and come back out. And the transformation of how they carry themselves on stage was incredible. It was incredible. And it was so great. We had such a good rehearsal and as we were walking back to the dressing rooms, they looked at me and they said, Oh my God, this was so much easier than I had built up in my head. Oh my goodness. Putting on these dresses like it made it real. It made a difference. Like I really felt that and I was like, yes. It's so true. When you put yourself in as real as possible situations and kind of recreating the reality beforehand, you're going to set yourself up for success. So when it comes to practice, you can see these levels escalate and I believe that you should be using all four, all four for any significant important conversation. If you can't use all four you, you can't use the excuse of, I don't have time to practice because you can't do the all in level four. You can do some of these other levels in small increments and show up even a fraction of a percent of more prepared. And at the end of the day, honestly, when it comes to building our business each day, if we're showing up a little and a little better, that's that's what's going to make the difference. That's how you continue to move forward. You keep showing up. You just don't stop. That's what's going to make you successful. So let's recap those levels real quick. Level one was it was all in your head thinking about what you're going to say before you say it and visualizing the moment. Getting present with how you want your audience to feel, what the room's going to look like. Just really getting present to that and thinking through your message. Level two is outlining your thoughts on paper so you have a clear structure or a clear framework that you're guiding your audience through. You're guiding the conversation through so that you're not just waiting through the darkness, trusting your intuition. You need to have a game plan. You're in business, you're taking people on a journey. Level three is saying the words out loud, and again, this can be in the shower, it can be in the car. It's just getting comfortable connecting that muscle between your brain and your mouth so that you actually say what you're intending to say and again, if you need some help with that, go back to episode two because I'll help you with that a lot. And lastly, the level four is putting yourself in as lifelike or as real situation as possible so that you can practice. So standing up, getting a stage ready, putting on the clothes, getting on the actual zoom software that you're going to use, creating the environment that you're going to have as close to as possible in the life scenario and running through that again and again so that you are more prepared when you show up for game day. That's how you start bringing more authenticity, more authority to your live interactions and help your audience feel the way that you intend them to. I want to leave you with this last thought here because when it comes to practice, it's easy to not do it because at the end of the day, let's be real. Race day is going to come and you're going to run it regardless of whether or not you trained. Uh, here, I'll give you a, that actually happened to me. I signed up for half marathon. I didn't train it right in any ways and it was terrible. It was totally terrible and I was really sore for days. But you're not going to do that, right? So you need to put the time and energy into the big moments, but also to see even the little moments, and I want you to think about this. If you want to become a successful personal brand and business owner, which I know you do, it's the reason why you're here. When you think about the type of business that you want to have one year from now, think about the type of business owner, the type of leader, the type of influencer that you need to be for that business, and pretty much guarantee that that person has to be a magnetic communicator. If you want to attract the ideal audience you want to work with, get rid of the draining clients, the draining work that you don't want to do. If you want to work with people that light you up, you have to attract them. And here's the deal. If, if you're not at that point with how you communicate and how you show up today, if you don't, if you're not 100% in love and just happy with how you're showing up, that's okay. You can change it. But I want you to think about this. I'm going to borrow this idea. I heard it from my, uh, my mentor, James Wedmore. He talks about this idea that you can't outsource your pushups. And uh, I changed a little bit because I'd like to talk off it about Ryan Gosling's abs. So let's use that one. You can't outsource your crunches. And what I mean by that is if you want to have like a delicious six pack one year from now and that delicious six pack, just super, super clear right now is you becoming that magnetic communicator to attract your ideal audience and you're showing up comfortable on camera. You're giving presentations that attract people to your email list and you're selling your programs and you can show up on Instagram stories and lives and you'd just feel totally comfortable and you feel like a rock star if that's where you want to be. Okay? That's your six pack. The difference between where you are now and where you want to be is doing the crunches and you can't outsource your crunches. You can't just think about your crunches. You can't just be like, Oh yeah, I'm going to add the conscious of the calendar and then not do them. You don't get points for that. The only way for you to get the six pack is to do the crunches and this episode, this episode right here, is all about doing the freaking crunches, so don't dismiss it. Don't undervalue the idea that you need, like, Oh, practice, I'll have time for it later. No, you're not gonna do that. No you're not. If you keep saying I'm gonna do it later, not going to do it later. So here's what I want you to do right now. I'm giving you a big fat call to action. I want you to pause what you're doing. Open up your calendar and find one thing over the next week that you have one conversation, whether it's an Instagram story or a Facebook live or an important conversation, or maybe you're giving a presentation. I want you to pick one thing on your calendar that you would like to show up more prepared and own. You want to rock that conversation, rock that meeting, whatever it is, pick it out. And then I want you to block out time on your calendar leading up to it. So maybe 15 minutes today, 20 minutes, two days from now, whatever that looks like. Block out two sessions, just small increments for you to apply these four levels and get yourself more prepared. And when you do this, I want you to take a screenshot of today's episode posted on Instagram and say, Hey, I'm applying the four levels of practice or I, Hey, I'm doing it. Heather tag me.(@theheathersager) Tell me that you're doing it. I want to know how you're applying these. And more importantly, what are you using it towards? So come say hi on Instagram. Tag me, follow me. I would love to hear from you. It's so fun to connect with many of you and follow you along on your journeys to becoming a more magnetic communicator. This is just so fun. So thank you so much for following with me today. I have to shut down now. Get all packed up and check out of my hotel room. I am on the road to Buffalo, New York where I am going to a conference, the legendary life event with my friends, Tarzan Kay and Sager Polaris and just could not be more thrilled. So I'll tell you more about it over on Instagram and also next week, but until then, go get some practicing on and we'll talk soon. Bye

Speaker 2: 39:37

[inaudible] guys, thanks so much for listening to finding your it factor and Hey, if you have a talk coming up, you have to check out my free resource. It's called nail your next talk. 10 must ask questions before taking the stage so you can show up as an authority and turn that talk into future business. These are the questions that I use myself to prepare for my live talks, and they're going to help you ask the right questions of the person who booked you for the event. So the meeting planner or the client, and it's going to help you serve your audience to the best way possible. It's going to help you anticipate potential tech or AV snags. Turn the Q and a time into a strategic place for content and make this speaking opportunity, a lead generator for your business. So go get it now. What are you waiting for? It's over at heathersager.com/10 questions