Ever felt the shivers before public speaking? Or stumbled through a presentation wishing you could command the room? This episode is for you...
We sat down with the incredible Montana von Fliss to crack the code on effective communication. Imagine conquering your fear, nailing presentations, and becoming a storytelling maestro. Montana, a top-notch speaker coach, spills the beans on transforming your communication game. Ready to bid adieu to presentation jitters? Dive into this episode now and watch your speaking skills soar!
ACTION STEP FROM THE EPISODE
Start practicing for your next presentation or difficult conversation today. Follow the tips from Montana and don't wait until the day of to say your speech out loud.
RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE
KICK YOUR WEEK OFF RIGHT!
SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE MAGIC MONDAY NEWSLETTER
Subscribe to the Magic Monday newsletter to power up your week with our best tips and tools for crushing your goals.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to help one million strivers take consistent action on their goals and live a life of greater freedom and contribution.
P.S. If you liked this episode please consider sharing it with someone and/or leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app.
CONNECT, FOLLOW, SUBSCRIBE
Ever felt the shivers before public speaking? Or stumbled through a presentation wishing you could command the room? This episode is for you...
We sat down with the incredible Montana von Fliss to crack the code on effective communication. Imagine conquering your fear, nailing presentations, and becoming a storytelling maestro. Montana, a top-notch speaker coach, spills the beans on transforming your communication game. Ready to bid adieu to presentation jitters? Dive into this episode now and watch your speaking skills soar!
ACTION STEP FROM THE EPISODE
Start practicing for your next presentation or difficult conversation today. Follow the tips from Montana and don't wait until the day of to say your speech out loud.
RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE
KICK YOUR WEEK OFF RIGHT!
SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE MAGIC MONDAY NEWSLETTER
Subscribe to the Magic Monday newsletter to power up your week with our best tips and tools for crushing your goals.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to help one million strivers take consistent action on their goals and live a life of greater freedom and contribution.
P.S. If you liked this episode please consider sharing it with someone and/or leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app.
CONNECT, FOLLOW, SUBSCRIBE
Welcome back to Habit Masters. I'm Jeff. I'm Sheldon. And this is the best podcast to bridge the gap between where you've been and where you want to go. And today. To help you do that, we have a very special guest, because if you're the type of person who would like to be able to present yourself better, either to your boss, to your family, to your spouse, to your kids, in any situation, be able to speak clearly and communicate in an effective way. This is the episode for you. And I know that public speaking and presenting can be the scariest thing in people's lives. Not anymore with Montana von Fliss, you will have all that you need. She's , a speaker coach, and she gave a presentation in Sheldon's. called how to present like a boss. Is that right, Sheldon? It was awesome. Yes. And then she came on our show and it was an amazing conversation. You're going to love it and it's going to help you. What did you say, Sheldon?. So it's all about the power of stories and presentation. And not all of us need to prepare for some presentation to a group or anything like that, but it's all about communication and the stories we tell others, the stories we tell ourselves. She gets some very concrete examples of how to improve that, how to grow, how to practice. I think anybody will find this very enlightening. Yeah. I always tell my kids, there's two most important skills. One is to learn how to read. And the second one is, and maybe this is goes first actually is. How to communicate effectively. Those two skills are the most important. She's going to teach you how to communicate effectively. So listen close and don't forget to practice, right, Sheldon? That's our biggest takeaway. I think we're giving it to you up front. Practice, practice, practice. You're going to love it. I introduce Montana von Fliss. Welcome Montana von Fliss. Okay, a little bit of context for my day job. She gave a presentation, which was so good that I reached outside to see if she would come on our podcast. So welcome.
Montana Vonfliss:Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. And thank you for the kind compliment. Oh, I'm so glad you were moved. You must have been moved to action.
Jeff Corrigan:Yeah.
Sheldon Mills:Yeah. So the coaching caused me to take action. So it was, it was that good.
Montana Vonfliss:That's great. Should we, should I fill people in on what the coaching was
Sheldon Mills:around? Yeah. How to present like a boss. Yeah. Go ahead,
Montana Vonfliss:please. Yeah. How to present like a boss is exactly the title of the workshop that you attended. That's what I do most often. I help people to step up on stage and Knock it out of the park. You know, a lot of people have such a hard time getting up in front of an audience and speaking, you know, that luckily that means I get to have the job of my dreams, but I, I really truly do love using my skills, my experience. and background to help others to get up on stage and say what they'd like to say in the way that they'd like to say it.
Jeff Corrigan:That's awesome. And I love it because like you said, I mean, that's probably a lot of people's, greatest fear is public speaking, getting up in front of a room of strangers. And talking about any topic, whatever that it may be.
Montana Vonfliss:Absolutely, there's an old statistic that is something like people fear public speaking more than they fear death. So, quite literally, they'd rather be in the casket at the funeral rather than giving the eulogy. Right? I mean, that's, yeah, pretty
Jeff Corrigan:incredible. Put me in the casket. I don't want to be the one talking. I
Montana Vonfliss:choose casket. Whoa!
Sheldon Mills:I'm lucky enough. I don't know about lucky enough. I have enough experience or my life where I'm actually presenting in front of groups, crowds a lot. So that fear, isn't there anymore? I just know if I'm that good at it yet. So, right.
Jeff Corrigan:Like I think Sheldon and I are in a similar boat where I've never really been afraid anymore. Yeah, exactly.
Sheldon Mills:Just want to get good
Montana Vonfliss:at it. That's a great tip though. I mean, right in there. Did y'all hear that tip that Sheldon was laying down? The more you do it, that reduces the fear. Absolutely. First tip in the . We've got it. We've got on the books
Jeff Corrigan:First tip. Yeah. So what would you say for someone who doesn't, isn't always in a position to give presentations? Like how do they, how do they even get into a position to give presentations? Alright, I want to get better at this skill now What? I mean, that's maybe a difficult question. What do you think? Montana Vonfliss: Sure. Well, I mean in, in any job, most jobs, maybe not any. But most jobs , there is a chance for public speaking, and so you've got to go ahead and ask for it, right, and, and so, or submit, submit a talk to a conference tell your manager, your boss, your mentor, this is what I would like to do, and ask for ideas and places where you could apply that. Outside of that, of course, there's Toastmasters. I've never... experience Toastmasters myself. And, , so I can't give you a personal endorsement per se, but I know a lot of people have done that. There's chapters wherever you live, and it's a great way to just get yourself, more times at bat, so to speak, more times trying it out and practicing the techniques and just. Quite literally going through the experience of the whole thing. Have, how, how does that feel to you? What do you do to prepare? How did it go? Debrief and try again. That's awesome. Great. That's great advice. Yeah. There's, there's all kinds of groups, right? It's so it's really not that hard. Wait,
Montana Vonfliss:wait. Another one. Sometimes people don't think of is. Join a local acting class could be just acting for beginners or a scene study class, or maybe an improv class, something where it could be a creative way to get you up and practicing speaking in front of a group of
Jeff Corrigan:people also good. That's awesome.. Sheldon Mills: Okay, so you, part of lot about the power of stories, right? I was wondering if you could, I don't know, synopsis, go into the power of stories and what that means. Whoa, that's,
Montana Vonfliss:that's a big question. It
Jeff Corrigan:is a big question.
Montana Vonfliss:Storytelling is incredibly powerful, and maybe the nutshell answer is, well, if you're not sure. You know, do you like books? Do you like movies? You probably have been inherently know how much you and every other human loves stories, but it's not just for entertainment, right? It's how we've been teaching each other and helping each other. Since before recorded time, you know, there's cave paintings that go back 40, 000 years or something, right? And so we know we've been doing it for a long long time and We now have a lot of great research that supports the power of storytelling They a good one is they put someone in an MRI machine and told them just plain text And it just lit up two little areas of the brain for decoding language But when they told that same person a story Their brain lit up all over the place, , and what I take from that is that the brain that's hearing the story that brain is behaving as if they're experiencing it, right? And how powerful is that to to have your audience feel like what you were feeling or, or, you know, the lows and the highs and, and all of that. And so they, they light up all over the place, which to me also means they're engaged, super duper engaged, I would say. And then also I think that's better certainly for memory and what is learning, but memory, right? So if you're doing a presentation where you're hoping to convince people or to help them to teach them to remember something, right? Tell a story. It'll be entertaining too, and more engaging, so why not? Hey, choose story. There, there's my little app for storytelling.
Jeff Corrigan:Choose story. Well, and And Sheldon and I, I think, we know the power of story, right? We see it. We feel it. We hear it. And at the same time, we also want to be better at telling stories on the show. And we've worked on it a bit here and there. And I think we're getting better and better. And it's, I've been a student of story for as long as I can remember, right? Something that I like studied deeply and I love, and I still don't know that I'm very good at telling stories. And so I would ask you, right, what are your suggestions for someone becoming a better storyteller? You know, what's the process? How do I get better at telling stories?
Montana Vonfliss:Good question. I think you'll hear me maybe say this a lot if you talk to me about presentations at all my first tip is always practice. Practice it. So instead of thinking, oh, I'm going to tell that story, whether it's inside of a presentation or in my podcast or in a, in a moment at a cocktail mixer, practice it. Why not, you know, practice it instead of just well, that's the story. I'll tell, then I'll just wing it and see how it goes. It will go better if you practice it. Cause you'll give yourself the opportunity to make some choices. And some of those choices I would say are, you know, pretty simple. One is consider having a structure. So the classic beginning, middle and end, that's a great one. The way that I make that a little more actionable is to think of it having. You start with a situation, usually a problem enters. This is classic, you know, hero's journey stuff. So situation, problem, solution. Or, you know, the turning point, the climax of the story solution, I call it usually, and then resolution. Now in, in business storytelling, I tend to call it achievement, meaning like by the end of the story, what does the hero now able, what are they now able to achieve now that they have this solution? So that is just a very typical problem. You know, situation, problem, solution, like the climax, the turning point, and then the resolution or like, where did the chips fall? What am I now able to, to achieve? So having a little structure and then, so making sure you have at least one story point for each of those Elements, right. And you can just jot that down on a piece of paper problem. Sometimes you don't even start with a situation, but it does help to set the scene situation, problem, solution, achievement, and then put down a little story beat there. And if you're missing one, that's your clue to fill that in. And you'll have a great story structure for most stories. We know, of course, there are tragedies, there are other story. Arcs and shapes. And and yet usually what we're trying to tell is that classic story. The other thing is you're going to want to make sure it has some critical ingredients. One being emotions go ahead and simply put in emotion words. How did it feel with the problem? Very frustrating, right? How did it feel after the solution? Oh, so relieved. I was so relieved or I was at peace. Just put those. Emotion words into the story and we will it will be more impactful. We will feel that also think about where could you add in a little detail, a little something paints the picture along, that story road and then practice it. Say it out loud three times. With, with someone you love or honestly on your own in your office. And then, you know, try it out, see how it works, learn from that and continue to iterate.
Jeff Corrigan:I love it. Great. Sheldon, do you have a question? I think yeah. Well, like burning,
Sheldon Mills:describing, you're describing like what makes a story powerful and you know, in the MRI machine, when the story was being told, it lit up everything emotion, just like the whole brain was involved. Right. And I couldn't help but think about I was in a mastermind group and someone was describing how they had a child who played professional soccer and visualization, like positive visualization was a huge part of, they felt like their success and they were basically saying, I feel like I'm, I'm not very good at that. And I didn't mean to like. So, I call him out by basically said, I think you're really good at it. You just call it worry and stress, right? And so, the stories we tell ourselves are powerful in part because stories are like it takes your whole brain like we've all had that argument. in our mind, where it feels like the real thing. You know what I mean? It's like, it's like the story we're telling ourselves, and whether that's helping or hurting, you know, is another discussion. But it's the power of that is our whole brain, our feelings, it feels real, even if it's just in our head.
Montana Vonfliss:Absolutely. That's a really good point. I would say the stories that you tell others are just as powerful as the stories that you tell yourself. Your whole system, your whole self is always listening. Right? So I'm going into another topic. It's about mindset. But when you notice, you brought, you brought up the stories you, you tell yourself, you know, when you notice that you're telling yourself a story that might not be helping you very much. Mm hmm. Why not, you know, make a new story, write a new story and replace it just right there. You can translate that. It's quite powerful, right? You can do that. Simply a simple example. I have that relates to presentation skills for the folks who do get really nervous. It's to just swap out the word. So instead of saying, I'm really nervous for that presentation coming up next week, you could just say, I'm really excited for that presentation coming up next week, even if you don't quite buy it yet, but really you could dig in. Well, okay. What am I excited? Is that true? Like, where could I find some truth, you know? So, am I, what? I'm excited to be with a large group of people. I'm excited to share what I know about and help maybe inspire someone in this way. I'm excited to learn. Every time I go up in front of an audience, I learn something new. So I'm genuinely excited to see what I have to learn this
Sheldon Mills:time. Awesome. What you're talking about now was something that I really, I actually wrote about when I wrote to you from your presentation that I really, really liked was this whole, like your whole system is listening. Right. And refraining from I'm nervous. I think what the words you said in that presentation was I'm feeling some adrenaline.
Montana Vonfliss:Yes. That's a good one too. That's another great word swap. It's just adrenaline, right? Nervousness feels I don't know, it might go on forever and then I might die at the end of it. I mean,
Sheldon Mills:Yeah. Can you talk about that a little bit? I think, if I remember right, you talked about nervous is a, is a label that like exists forever, but I'm feeling some adrenaline last for 60 to 90 seconds.
Montana Vonfliss:Exactly. That's about how long it takes to dissipate. And it's a chemical that gets released in our systems. You, in these, these kinds of circumstances, totally normal. It'll go away in about 90 seconds. So calling it adrenaline, I mean, immediately just feels more neutral, whereas for me, when I put in excitement, that then starts to skew towards the positive. And I find that really fascinating because if you think about nervousness and excitement, they're rather similar in how they manifest in the body. It's just that one is positive and one is negative. So why not go for the gold? Call it excitement. Or adrenaline if that works for you, but I'm going for the gold these days. That's, I'm going right for it.
Jeff Corrigan:I'm excited. Might as well. If you're going, go all in, right? So with that though, talking about story, I think this is a perfect time to kind of dive a little bit into your story some because you did, you mentioned a couple of things. You talked about dream job. You talked about loving to be around people. So was it always your goal to become? A coach of some kind or how, how does this journey go? Because a lot of what we talk about on this show I think habits are kind of the tools or like kind of the process we use, but in reality, a lot of what we're trying to help people accomplish is how to get from point a to point B, whether that's going from being. Someone who's nervous and scared to speak to someone who's no, I'm excited to go speak in front of these people and share ideas that I love. So where did you start? And then how did it come to be now? I'm a speaker coach. Tell us that story.
Montana Vonfliss:Yeah. I did not you know, at five years old say, I'd like to be a speaker coach when I grow up. I didn't know that job existed. I do think at a young age, I wanted to be a teacher. I loved school. I loved learning. That's always been in there. And then a little later on, but still when I was a kid, I, I became a professional actor. Just sort of fell into acting. That's a whole story in and of itself. Whoa. That, I fell in love with that. Yeah, that's another podcast. And then I continued with that all through high school, college, I majored in theater and women's studies, double majored. And then I, I went on to get my MFA master of fine arts in acting. And then I've been a professional actor still do that now and again, but I did that for a number of years. And actually right after I graduated from grad school, I was, you know, I was, Doing the thing where you, you get gigs and you piece it together. I was doing some teaching. I was doing, you know, some acting work as I could get it. And then a friend of a friend just said, Hey, I know this guy who does this speaker coaching work for places like Microsoft and other corporations. Would you be interested? He's looking for more coaches. And I said, sure, but I thought, Oh, here's another way to support my acting habit. Yes. And I, I, I went for it. So the goal was actor. And I fell in love. Yeah. The goal was
Jeff Corrigan:what? So the goal was actor. But then something came, an opportunity came along that really turned into more. It sounds
Montana Vonfliss:Yes. That's exactly right. I, the goal at the time was acting. And then when that fell in my lap, I, I just thought, Oh, there's a way to sort of. Make money. And I can do that. Or at least I can act like I can do that. I went for it. Good actor. I exactly I've used that skill number of times. Okay, just when in doubt, just act like you can do it. And, you know, I went in and from the first coaching session, I went, this is it. This is my calling. This is for me. And now that I think about it, it's kind of everything I love. It's my love of teaching, my love of helping people, and my love of storytelling and stepping up on stage and kind of seeing. You know that tried to unlock that puzzle of how could we make it work this time and what can we learn from that?
Jeff Corrigan:That is awesome Jinx We'll see and that's what I love about that And that's why I asked that question because I feel like everybody has this idea in their head that they know what they're calling is Right from the get go. They're like, oh, I'm gonna be an actor or I'm gonna and I know I've been like that, right? But along the way there's been so many other doors that have opened Because of the pursuit, right? It's Oh, I'm in this. And then someone's Hey, what about this? And Sheldon and I started out, so I had to give you a little random background here is we started out doing some entrepreneurial stuff together. That's how we got synced up. Actually, as we, we, we were neighbors and we met up for a family dinner and him and I just hit it off immediately talking about ideas. Cause we're idea guys, right? It's Oh man, ideas, dah, dah, dah. And then we decided well, . We've always actually wanted to put our ideas into practice. And so we're like, well, let's do it together. And we started have you ever heard of Kickstarter? It's yeah, crowdfunding site case. So back when Kickstarter was fairly new and just getting like big, him and I were like, well, let's do a Kickstarter. And we ended up doing a Kickstarter and it went fine. Right. It just never, it didn't succeed the way that we thought it would, but in the process, someone came along. And said to us, Hey we saw that you did a Kickstarter. We want to do a Kickstarter. Can you show us how? And we're like, well, we didn't, we didn't actually succeed. Right. But it was just funny that you, then you never know the doors that will open up. And it kind of reminded me of your story of I'm acting. And then someone comes along and says, Hey, do you want to do some coaching? This guy's looking for coaches for, to teach people how to speak like, Oh, sure. So I just, yeah. The path forward is, is never quite what it seems.
Montana Vonfliss:So, yeah. And that's, there's another good call out for listening, like sort of listening to the, the signs, you know, listening to what is resonating and moving forward with that, with yourself and, you know, with the world around you. For sure.
Jeff Corrigan:Yeah. That's, that's awesome.
Sheldon Mills:So if someone, okay, I think the power of storytelling is probably something that everybody innately knows, you shared some more thoughts on, on why it's so powerful. I think a lot of people have this self label I don't know how to tell good stories. Yeah. What's the first, what are some steps, what are some things you would give people to start to reframe that? I mean, you gave some examples of like good structures to follow, right? How do you help people change, their mindset and realize that they, yeah, no, we're actually telling stories all the time.
Montana Vonfliss:Absolutely. So when I coach people one on one, so I do group coaching like you experienced, but I also coach people one on one. But when I hear that in either setting the first thing I usually say is, well, okay, tell me an example of, , something that relates to the, the point in their presentation that we're working on, or, you know, something I'll be like, okay, well, tell me an example of a time when, you know, that service that you're talking about, how it really helps someone. Tell me an example of that. They, of course, proceed to tell me a story and then I, of course, say, ha, you've just told me a story. You totally can do this. Now let's talk about how we can uplevel it a little bit with putting in some structure and a few emotion words and then let's practice it a couple times. And there you go. You know, I think I often, you know, encounter that where people are like, oh, storyteller, that's not me. You know, that's my uncle Frank. And. I think that's, there you go, it's again a story that you're telling yourself that really is not serving you. And so, what if you at least start out with just noticing the times that you do tell stories? I believe that we tell ourselves and other stories all day long. What happened when you had to drop off the kids this morning? Oh, you know, you get a story. Even just what happened at the grocery store. Look, you look kind of down. There's a story. I mean, all day, all the time, we're telling stories. And we just don't really notice. And so maybe just notice that and how much we ingest stories back to the movies and books thing. When I painted that picture of the hero's journey, the typical hero's journey, it's, you know, the Lord of the Rings, right? Everything's great in the Shire problem. We've got to get this ring halfway across the world. You know, the big climax, the turning point, he puts the ring in and I even say what if the movie stopped right there? Yeah. What if the book stopped right there? Movie stops, he puts the ring in, and credits roll. You'd be like I mean, that's good, but then what happened? There's some
Sheldon Mills:movies that stop like that and I hate
Montana Vonfliss:them. Yes, there are. Right? It's so unsatisfying. And so that's why, you know, it's really great to have the resolution. Or what were you able to achieve now because of this? Great solution or this this climax this turning point. And so, you know, giving people a way in that they can understand and sort of, vibe with, right? So that could be everything from tricking them like I do into saying, Hey, just tell me an example. Just again, swap out the word. Yeah. Sorry, for example, if that's bothering you, just call it an example and go,
Jeff Corrigan:you know, Oh, we do. We get hung up on this idea of Oh, it has to be a story and we exactly,
Montana Vonfliss:exactly. And there's lots of forms of storytelling, right? There's anecdotes and analogies and examples and all sorts of things and different forms of storytelling. So, and then just opening up your awareness a bit to that, I think can be really fun too. Can you count in a day? How many stories you tell or that you tell yourself silently? That would be a fun exercise to start to shift your own mindset around that.
Sheldon Mills:That would. I think it'd be hard, difficult to I feel if you really boil it down, almost everything I tell myself is some kind of story. And trying to identify whether or not that's helping me achieve my, my goals and move me forward or whether that's hindering me, that probably could be a great exercise.
Montana Vonfliss:In fact, it is. I, I talk about that in, in regards to presentation skills, but it really is applicable to all of your life. An example is if you're trying to learn to ride a bicycle and you're, you're thinking, you know, don't crash, don't crash, don't crash and then crash, right? What were you focusing on? You know, it sounds like maybe you were telling a good story, but you're really kind of focusing yourself on the crash and then you manifest it. Right. So in that moment right there. You just go, that didn't work. What, what am I telling myself? First, just ask yourself, what am I telling myself? Then it was don't crash. So that's not working. Maybe it's focusing me on the crash. So what could I say? What do I actually want to do? And what could I say to support that goal? So, okay, how about cycle to the end of the street, cycle to the end of the street, cycle to the end of the street, you know, try that out and see how it works. Again, our whole selves are always listening, and you give yourselves instructions all day long, right? Pick up glass, take sip of water. We're very good at following our own instructions, so why not build and design. Instructions that are positive, true, possible, and constructive to get you to where you want to go. You can do that anytime! About anything. Certainly, , I put that into practice in presentation skills all the time, because people tend to really need help, whether it's, you know, in, in, in preparation, you know, like we were talking about before, I'm not a storyteller, and, and saying, wait, maybe I am a storyteller, too. Hey, I am a storyteller. That, is a simple translation to, you know, The moments right before going on for a presentation, whether large or small, many people have a pretty big burst of adrenaline. And so I say, hey, we write, we craft, we practice our introduction that we say out loud. Why not write and craft and practice the silent script for the few moments before you speak? And you practice that just as much as you practice the out loud bit. So it's there for you when you get hijacked by the fight or flight adrenaline mode. And, and you get to build that.
Jeff Corrigan:I
Sheldon Mills:like that a lot. I've heard this before, like race car drivers, the very first thing they get taught is don't look at the wall. Right? Because that's where you focus is where you go. Yep. My kids are in soccer and they, they play, you know, step up from, from rec league kind of like, kind of competitively. And the coaching styles of one child to the next is very different. And I was trying to figure out like why one of them really kind of irks me. And I narrowed it down to what they're always saying is don't stab at the ball. Don't do this, quit doing this, quit doing that. And I'm like, It's like telling them, quit thinking about a pink elephant all the time instead of showing them what they, you know, talking about what you want them to do.
Montana Vonfliss:Yes, exactly. That's exactly right. So why not build in, you know, the instruction that actually focuses you on the goal? Yeah.
Jeff Corrigan:I like it. Yeah. And so, you're coaching people a lot and everybody's a different place. I realize that, but I'm thinking about it and I saw like you do an online course now or you do one on one coaching for four weeks, right? In a four week coaching process with someone, how far can somebody get realistically, like when you start with someone and they get all the way through your program, like what's their, what's their journey essentially? Like they start like scared. I don't know what I'm going to do with this prison. Maybe some people are a little bit more Hey, I just need some help on figuring out what to say. Right. Or something like that. But where, where do you find most people end up after they've done your coaching?
Montana Vonfliss:Well, to be honest without bragging too much, I suppose, I, I can say with absolute honesty that they always end up in a better place. So they end up doing better presentations and feeling better about it. And that though is where the similarity ends. It can be all over the place. Everyone is incredibly different., there's so many factors involved, right? So for example, In the four week coaching program, how much are they practicing outside of our weekly one hour sessions?
Jeff Corrigan:That's always the question with clients, right?
Montana Vonfliss:That makes a huge difference though. And I, of course, I give them everything that they need and the, the, what, all the stuff I just told you about, you know, how practice helps everything. I even give them further tips about, you know, Build it into your calendar, build yourself a reward system. You know, all this, if you all know about piggyback it onto another habit that you've already had every, every habit till I have, I'm like, do whatever it takes to get yourself to do a daily run through, you know? And even if it's just. You have five minutes? Great. Practice the first two minutes, your intro, and your last sentence. That would be great. Or sew it in while you're doing something else, when you're taking a walk, or you're taking a shower, or you're cooking for your kids. Say your intro three times. Why not? Right? So, the more they do that, the further they will go in those four weeks. And , wherever someone starts, and , they can really come to me at any place. In, in the journey and I could get them further down the road, but how far they go is really up to them. And then , they come back the second week and , I see, okay, where are we at now? Right. And it's always through doing, and I think that's a key, right. Is that. I, I think it's key to remember that you become a better presenter by doing presentations, whether that's in front of people or it's in the rehearsal room or the practice space. Right. So , I don't just sit there and give people tips. In a, in a coaching session, I'm like, okay, let's do it. Let's do a little bit. I know it feels weird. So what, let's just get one. Let's just do one for warmup. Let's see where we're at. And then we do a little bit and then I can sort of gauge right where they're at, what they need. Of course, in addition to what they tell me about their goals, but then we shape it as we go and no one takes the same journey. It's always different. Truly.
Jeff Corrigan:Yeah. So what you're saying is Habits of practice are good. This is like, all right, you gotta have some practice habits. That's what we're saying I
Montana Vonfliss:mean, it really is my best piece of advice and Jeff it is also probably my most ignored piece of advice I find fascinating like it is practice really truly helps everything and yet So hard to make oneself do it. I find myself do it. I totally get it. I have to do all these things, you know, I don't get my second cup of coffee until I do my run through, you know, whatever. And but I just know having come from the theater, especially I just know in my bones that that. is the best thing to prep me to my best in that moment.
Jeff Corrigan:That's awesome. No, that's a great answer. I think, I mean, I felt you know, my question probably wasn't ideal, but I think you answered it better than, better than I could have asked it. So that was perfect. Oh, what do you mean? I
Montana Vonfliss:did. What? What?
Jeff Corrigan:Why? Well, it was a pretty like a pretty like broad question, right? It's hey, where do people end up? So in essence, I think you answered it perfectly. That was
Montana Vonfliss:great. That's okay. That's totally okay. And no, but it's a great question. There's a lot of people, especially the more analytical minds who come to me like, okay, exactly what exactly will I be able to do? We'll see. And I know it's hard to hear that, but it really is a journey. And of course, even when they. leave after working with me. It's they're still on that journey, still learning, still practicing, still trying out the techniques and seeing what sticks.
Jeff Corrigan:Yeah, and this maybe this is a hard question. Sorry Sheldon if you got one, but I want to follow up with this one Is so I know on your website and I think in general, you know A great speech really does move people to action, right? It's like it's it's helping them, especially if that's the goal It's hey, I want to help you do something right? We'll do something different do something better do something more So what do you feel are the elements? of a great speech, like a moving speech. Is, is there, and formulas are a little bit hard because it's not always perfect, but what would you say are the elements of a great speech?
Montana Vonfliss:Yeah. Well, first of all, I've seen so many great speeches or presentations and they're also various and vastly different. But some of the things that I, I think that have, that would put, be put in that category for me would be, you know, great storytelling. Engaging storytelling, absolutely would be one of them. I think someone who has stage presence and appears confident when they're
Jeff Corrigan:up there. We need, we need to stop there though and think about that. So what do you, what is stage presence? Because I think a lot of people may not know. They, I think they know it when they see it, but maybe they don't really know what that means.
Montana Vonfliss:My definition is being fully present. A performer or a speaker who is fully present in that moment has presence and, you know, as you know, that's a hard thing for most adults is to be present anywhere, anytime.
Jeff Corrigan:As I'm writing a note, but I'm writing a note because I am present. I'm listening.
Montana Vonfliss:Are you writing? I am present. I am present. I am present. I
Jeff Corrigan:am present. I'm writing. I was like, Hey, that's a great, I mean, obviously stage presence. That doesn't make sense, but I like your, I like your definition a lot.
Montana Vonfliss:Thank you. Yeah. I, I, I think, you know, I thought about this a lot going on stage a lot and yeah, cause I want it too. I'm like, Ooh, I see that. I want that. And I think, you know, it's, it's something we can practice. We have lots of outlets, I think, to practice mindfulness and inviting presence. And one way that I do that. In, in the context of giving a speech or presentation is part of my little silent sentence, the silent bit of the script before I begin speaking any speech, any, you know, intro to a workshop, I did it, Sheldon, in our workshop, I say silently to myself, I invite you to be here with me. While I am here with you so that I can help you to the best of my ability, which by the way is but from my beautiful mentor, Kathy Madden, and it's, it's essentially an invitation and a reminder of your deeper why, like, why am I doing this? But the invitation piece is critical for presence. So I invite you to be here with me, I think it helps me sort of take off some of that armor that loves to come in to try to protect me with that adrenaline burst. It's oh, I'm inviting them. It's like you're inviting somebody into your house. You're hosting dinner. Oh, I invite you in. Come on in. I invite you to be here with me. While I am here with you, that little short bit of the sentence, that's me truly inviting presence. I'm inviting myself to be here now, right there. Yeah. And then, of course, the next piece, you can, you can make that be whatever, you know, fill in the blank, whatever is your deeper purpose, your why, so that I can help you, so that I can inspire you, so that I can get you to, you know, sign up for a. Free download. Whatever, whatever you want. Getting you to write a review for our podcast. You know, whatever that deeper reason, remind yourself there, and you've got the thing of Like you're building it in. It's a process now. It's a system that you can just build it in. Every time I'm inviting them in. So I'm, ah, taking off the armor, inviting myself to be present. Ah, stage presence. There it is. And then I'm returning to my deeper purpose, which then, for me, acts as this lovely override switch. Oh, I can do that. Maybe I'm shaking or sweating or whatever's going on. Fine. The adrenaline is doing its thing, but I got to help that person. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to help at least one person in this audience. That's what I care about. That's what I'm here for. You show up,
Sheldon Mills:you show up completely different when it's right. Jeff probably probably knows exactly. I'm talking about the, one of the greatest sales. I mean, what's the name of that? Anyway, he talks about, it's before every call, he would basically do this run through of I imagine them rolling out the red carpet and just like applauding because what I have is a solution to their problems and just and how in this mindset, this mind frame of no, no, no, I'm not coming in, you know, thinking like, Oh, I have to convince them of something that they're annoyed. Or do you know what I mean? It's just no, what I have is what they want and what they need. And they're applauding for me.
Montana Vonfliss:I love that one. I, I heard a stand up comedian say another version of that, which is, imagine you've already done your set, and when, you know, when they're announcing you, and they're clapping like, and here's Montana Wounds Lips, and the audience like, you know, nicely claps. Imagine that that's you coming on for your encore. You've already killed. Like you did your whole set and, and that, that clapping is them going more, more. We love it, do more. So yeah, absolutely. And I think visualization is powerful. Why not? Why not? You know, but to go back to your, your question originally, Jeff, I know we got on a really lovely little tangent there. But I'm happy to go back to that, too. I love, I love all of this, as you can probably tell. This is what I geek out about the, what makes a great speech or presentation in my mind. I think a couple of other things come to mind, which is, I think it's great when I see a presentation that is clear. Concise and accessible and relevant, you know, but that the content has those elements. I think great writing great content in general has those elements. Now that but that can come in many shapes and forms and different voices right it can have humor, it can, you know, have all these different other elements that are right and that are authentic for that particular speaker. I don't tend to list. Authenticity in this, because I just think you are who you are when you show up. So I think that's most people that have that down, I would say. But the last one I would put in that category of what do I think makes a great presentation? I really love to see innovation. So for example, you know, I think most people when they're asked to give a presentation, tend to go about it. In the traditional way, like it's essentially a lecture. I'm asked to give a presentation. So I'm going to stand up and speak for 30 minutes and I will make slides. Read the slides. And then I, yeah, and then it gets worse from there, right? I'll just read the slides. Or read my whole script verbatim. Oh, that's rough. Yes, of course. But, you know, there's nothing in the rule book that says it has to be that way. Yeah. So. Why not mix it up? You know, I think it's so great when I saw a presentation once where the speaker he started from the back of the audience, like we could just hear him on the mic and everybody was like, Where is he? It was so weird and unexpected and fun. And, and, you know, and then he traveled, he got up to the stage and it was just delightful. I've seen you know, ones where people do various Types of interactivity with the audience and not just the raise your hand if you had to fly in from x miles, but like People up and doing right and Even more points if it helps to illustrate a point in the presentation like I don't know stand up if your birthday like I saw one that Where a guy said I want you to stand up. This was a, a, about let's see, context. It was a presentation about chronic pain. And he's going along giving this very clinical presentation. But at the top he said, okay, I want you to play a game with me. When you hear your birthday months, you're gonna stand up. And, and then I'll, I'll let you know when to sit back down. So he's going along giving his presentation, which was fairly standard. But then. Every now and again, he'd call out a month, June, stand up. Okay, thank you, June, sit down. And people were just sort of like, not knowing what was going on, but doing it, playing along, because people love games and they love mystery, right? And so it was fun. Then he started calling June more and more frequently. June, stand up. June, sit down. June, stand up. June, sit down. And finally, June, collectively, started to just stay standing. because they knew what was coming. He stopped the entire presentation. He said, that's it. That's how chronic pain works. When the brain sends the signal, the pain signal, enough times, and frequently enough, it just stays on. And the whole audience was like...
Sheldon Mills:I get it. That's a powerful story. That
Jeff Corrigan:is, that's cool.
Montana Vonfliss:Nobody told him, you have permission to get the audience to stand up, to illustrate your amazing point and you, you can go ahead and play a game, but he did it and it was awesome, right? So the fundamental things we know about humans, that humans like to laugh. We like to have fun. We like stories. We like games and puzzles, like even just. The little tip that I have, it's so easy, take a statement in your presentation and turn it into a question, right? So instead of mostly what a presenter is doing is statement after statement after statement, right? Just telling you things. Tell, tell, tell, tell, tell. Why not start by saying something like, you know, in what period of English is Shakespeare considered to be? Is it old English, middle English or modern English? Now, Sheldon, you can't answer because I think I did this in, in, in the workshop you were a part of, but right, Jeff, you're thinking about all, all of history, all of your history classes, all the history podcasts you've ever listened to. Where is Shakespeare? Old English? Middle English? Or modern English? Right? And your brain is on fire right now. Right? Trying
Jeff Corrigan:to figure it out. What is it? Yeah. It's what is that?
Montana Vonfliss:And you can, I'll give you a chance if you want to answer, but if you don't, I can just reveal the answer without. Come on, Jeff.
Jeff Corrigan:Come on, Jeff. All right. I'm, of course I want to answer. Let's see. Do it. You can do it. Well, let's go middle English.
Montana Vonfliss:Yeah, that's a good road. Most people do that. And it Modern English.
Jeff Corrigan:That was my second guess. I was like, it's probably modern because it's a trick question. It
Montana Vonfliss:is a little tricky because it's still so hard for all of us. Even though I love Shakespeare, total Shakespeare nerd. It's still hard to decipher what he's saying most of the time. So wanna put it like earlier on, we're speaking modern English, right? So he must have been earlier. But the truth is, right, Old English is like Anglo Saxon and that went, was happening in the British Isles up until the Norman Conquest, the old French Conquest of 1066. And then it switched over to Middle English where there's the mixing of the German and the French. Then in 1500 it turns over to modern English because there was something called the Great Vowel Shift where we all just... Changed our vowels for funsies. And then Shakespeare was around 1600, a little before and a little after. So he's early modern English, but now I just want you to, okay. I went through all of that, but I want you to think about if you were in school or if you were going to a presentation on this topic, how would you normally have heard that information delivered to you? Boring
Sheldon Mills:statement.
Jeff Corrigan:Just say, Hey, it would have told me the story you just said and said, he was, this is modern English started in this date, right? That's
Montana Vonfliss:right. That's right. But by asking you the question as a way to tee it up, you were so much more open and interested in what the answer was. And, and I think I bought even a little another 30 seconds to tell you the longer answer of Yeah. Demarketed.
Jeff Corrigan:Right? That's true. Yep.
Montana Vonfliss:And so, I mean, that's simple. Anybody can do that. But you can take it further. I've coached clients who turn it into a full on pub style , trivia quiz. Right? And the whole presentation is like that. And it doesn't matter if the audience knows the answer. They're still going to try to figure it out. We love to try to figure it out. So, that's what I mean by innovative. I love seeing speakers who are doing something unexpected. Maybe it's interactive. Maybe it's just something fun. Like a game. You know, and, and I think that's something I'm, I'm really on a mission to help people like unlock, get them out of that box where they think they have to do it in the traditional way. So why not try something, you know, fun out of the box, unexpected. I think those are, those would be all my elements. I know that was a long answer to you. So wait,
Jeff Corrigan:let's go back. We need to remember them. So let's, for the re recap here. What were the elements
Montana Vonfliss:in? Do you remember any either of you?
Jeff Corrigan:Yes. There was a storytelling.
Montana Vonfliss:Storytelling, yes. Dinging, ding, ding. Stage presence. Stage. Presence and confidence. I'd throw in there.
Jeff Corrigan:Yes. Confidence. Got it. Okay. Kind of like, I think it was kind of go hand in hand somewhat. Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm.. And then was, no, that was part of sage presence. They invite them in. So it was a,
Montana Vonfliss:it was a, it was a long one about content. It was like, you know, concise, clear, accessible, relevant content.
Jeff Corrigan:Right. Content accessibility, essentially, it's like relevant, accessible. And then the last one, of course. Number four, innovative. Innovative. Yep. Make it fun,
Sheldon Mills:make it a game,
Jeff Corrigan:make it different. Yes. Very cool. I know! As a listener, because I know I got you derailed a little bit with my what stage presence questions. That's fine. But that's perfect. I love it. Shel, I know we've kind of, we've run up against our hour, but what do you... What's, what you got? Any final questions you wanna ask or how much time do you have?
Montana Vonfliss:I, my, my I've got time. I've got time. Okay.
Jeff Corrigan:Okay. We don't wanna keep you too long or anything, so, we're good. Be respectful of all people's time. Sheldon, what do you got next then? Oh, I was
Sheldon Mills:gonna ask, you know, if people would like to learn more quick look. How can they, they, you know, whether it's one-on-one coaching or you know, group stuff, how do they learn more about you?
Montana Vonfliss:Oh, that's a great question. My website, of course, montanavonfliss.com and Montana is in fact my real name,, and that's spelled like the state. Some people ask me how to spell Montana, which I find amusing.. And then Von, which you wouldn't know how to spell. V-O-N-F-L-I-S-S, so Montana von plus.com I. You can also reach out to me on LinkedIn. And Instagram and yeah, that's where I, that's where I live or my backyard in Seattle.
Jeff Corrigan:Nice. Oh, Seattle. All right.
Sheldon Mills:I can testify that our corporate presentations are really good.
Jeff Corrigan:yes. Well, and I think the cool thing about this too, you know, for those of you thinking right now that, well, I don't have a speech or presentation and I'm not planning on giving one. What would you say to that, Montana? I have my own thoughts, but what do you, what would you say to that person about this information? I don't
Montana Vonfliss:have a speech or a presentation? What do you mean? Who still want to
Jeff Corrigan:practice? Why is this still important? Why is this important to someone who's well, I'm not going to give a speech or a presentation? Why is this, why is this relevant for me?\ Montana Vonfliss: So, I would say... Just like how I would argue that, that you're a storyteller, even if you don't label yourself as that, I think you are a speaker and a presenter, even if you might not label something as a proper speech or presentation, you know, just giving an update to the team, if you're a part of a team and you have to give an update. You know, or update leadership, right? Or do you have to go into a negotiation? Do you have to speak in front of the whole preschool and say what your name is? There are many times when we are asked to speak in front of a group, small or large, right? And, and so I think that you can utilize this in any and all ways, many, many more ways. I guess I would broaden the definition of what is a presentation. Anytime you speak, talk to somebody,
Sheldon Mills:talk to yourself. You're starting to tell yourself,
Montana Vonfliss:that's a good point. People come to me even with Oh, I have a hard time just speaking to my manager or, you know, they come to me to hone their job interview skills. Or, you know, there are circumstances that are even one on one moments where they feel so sort of put on the spot, or maybe it has high stakes for them that they want to be able to practice some of those skills. So I would say there's lots of ways that you can apply this. And the truth of the matter is it matters. It just, it matters, you know, the, the, the way that you come across when you're communicating, whether it's one on one or one to many really has a profound impact on your life and your career. You can also be modeling this for your kids, you know, so I'd say go find an opportunity.
Jeff Corrigan:Right. Well, and I think at the core, right, and I'm so glad you answered the way you did because I was kind of the same thinking a lot lines. I think we're, we're presenting all the time. Right? Anytime we're communicating with anyone, we're, we're in essence presenting, right? And so being able to, and it's not just about being a speaker, it's you're presenting at all times in life when you're with other people or on a podcast show or whatever that type may be. So I think you're, the skillset that you're teaching is really at its core, just good communication. It's like, how, how am I going to communicate with other people and and do it in a way. That's impactful and meaningful, and I'm putting words in your mouth, but, you know, all the things you said, so I feel you
Montana Vonfliss:said it better than I did. Well said. Well said. Thank you. You're hired.
Jeff Corrigan:I'll be your PR person. All right, we'll do that
Montana Vonfliss:along those lines. You know, if I might add to that people often ask me what, what can I do? You know, so your question was more around what, like, why, why does it matter? But often people are asking me what can I do on my own? Right. To, to, to help myself get better in this way, like either, you know, my company won't pay for training with Montana or whatever. Right. And how do I just do this? And I would say the absolute best thing you can do is, of course, practice, but, but not to be cheeky, but find a way to do that. Right. So. You know, you have something like you have something coming up again, even if it's maybe just an update to the team. So build in a practice schedule for yourself and you can start small. You can practice right to the, the cereal boxes. They're very nonjudgmental. Then you practice right, like to the art on the wall, a little more judgment there. Maybe to one of your pets, you know, less judgment with the dog than the cat, right? And then to a human who loves you, right? And then, , build up to them doing a dry run in front of a colleague, you know, so build that in for yourself. Self working up to it, practicing, the other thing you can build into that practice schedule that will help you a thousand million percent, and yes, that's an accurate metric, video yourself and watch it back. I know, I know, everybody collectively went, oh, cringe, I don't want to do that, but I'm telling you, wouldn't you rather You know, watch it, feel a little discomfort, maybe even pain, you know, to watch yourself. But then have a chance to make adjustments and changes before you get in front of that audience. And you can, you could just hit record in a Zoom meeting by yourself. You can film yourself on probably every device that's near you.
Jeff Corrigan:Yeah, nowadays it's real easy, right? Yeah,
Montana Vonfliss:and you don't even have to do the whole thing. Film your intro. Film like the first two minutes. Watch it back. Make an adjustment, do it again. You've had a rehearsal or a practice that's less than 10 minutes and you've been able to up level it entirely by yourself.
Jeff Corrigan:I love it. Well, and if you really want fast feedback, talk to a kid, they'll, they'll either walk away or tell you exactly what they think about it.
Montana Vonfliss:That's such a good point. It's also good to note that you, when you are. Asking humans to watch that. You can always say, well, more so maybe to adults, you can request for how you would like to receive the feedback. You can say, let me know if there's anything confusing or what, you know, one other thing to look for is what was really impactful. What really hit you?
Sheldon Mills:Yeah. It worked well. Yeah. And if
Jeff Corrigan:it didn't,
Montana Vonfliss:all else. You know, we'll just leave that, leave that out. Leave
Jeff Corrigan:it out. Yeah. That's a good point. So, okay. Final two questions for you. Yes, please. And they'll be short ones. Actually, no. You just answered the one. You, you pre answered this question. I was going to ask you, what's one thing our listeners can do today to improve their presentation? I think you just answered that question. So, if you guys just heard that question, go back and listen to the last, you know, five minutes. Last question that I have, and maybe Sheldon has another one, is, Okay, if there was only one book you could recommend to us to be like, Hey, this is, this is the book you should read or listen to to help you with your presentation skills, what would it be?
Montana Vonfliss:I'd say put down your book and go practice. Go do it. All right. Because it's kind of like, imagine you had you were learning piano and you had, you know, a little piano recital with your piano class on Friday and you get your new music on Monday and every day you silently read your piano music and you just sort of imagined how beautifully you're going to play it on Friday at the recital and you never actually played it until the recital. That sounds... insane, right? I would never do that. I would be playing that piece every day. I'd probably hone in on the hard parts and play those even more frequently. Yeah. I would also probably have those little, I call them armchair rehearsals where you like, imagine how beautiful it's going to go. And you might want to read your music and think about it, but you'd never go to that recital without having played it out loud. And I think speakers all the time do just. The silent rehearsal! The imagining! Right? So do it out loud as many times as you can, and in front of people if you can,, and video yourself and watch it back. All of that will give you so much actionable information for everything. How to make your notes support you. How to, how to tell the story in a more concise way. Or vivid way, you know, where should the story go? You know, should I demo it? And how will I demo it? Will I call somebody out of the audience to help demo it? All of that will be revealed to you when you practice.
Jeff Corrigan:I love it. That was a, that was amazing answer. Thank you. So Sheldon, you got, you got anything else you want to ask?
Sheldon Mills:No, it's been a pleasure to have you on Montana. And no, this, there's so many nuggets in this. I, I was getting lost , in what you were sharing. About some of the things that I, you know, I'm, I'm thinking the certain situation in my, my church, my religion, where I present fairly often. And so all of a sudden I was thinking about how it's, you know, I feel very comfortable being up there in front of sharing ideas and things like that, but the practice piece I need to work more on no, no, no, I, I, I'm good at walking through visualization, but things I want to say, but like actually practicing.
Jeff Corrigan:Yes. Well, and I think the other part that you pointed out. Montana that I think is effective, not only for Sheldon, but for me is, is this idea of changing it up because there is a very like, Hey, this is the standard of how everyone prepares a speech, especially in a church setting or at least in a church setting like ours. And so it's kind of, it's really refreshing to think about it and say okay, how could I innovate on that? Right? And there's limits, of course, based on, you know, type of respect and whatever that you're trying to have there. But I think there's also a lot of latitude to be able to change it up and make it more interesting and make it more engaging. And I think we fall short of that a lot with the way that we present in church, especially or anywhere really, but in business, oh man, how many PowerPoints do you have to watch before you're just like, all right, I'm done with this. No more. So, sorry, went off on that, but agreed. That's. That's a good point, Sheldon.
Montana Vonfliss:Yeah, absolutely. And, and what would it get, what would it take to get you to practice? Everybody tends to think, Oh, I need more time, but do you, could you just practice your intro while you're showering? You could, you could take, you know, that two minutes, three minutes right there and, and, and say an intro out loud. And then say it again, making it better in one way or another, like whatever that is, maybe making it more concise, maybe making it more relevant to who your audience is, maybe making sure that the point is clearer, you know, and you can do that if you give yourself the opportunity, but I don't believe that you need to have some sort of magical time that, you know, that, that gets carved out to, to at least do a little bit of practice and have fun. I mean, yeah. You could do this, Sheldon, with your example, think of it like a scientist doing an experiment. Here's how I, how it went when I just thought about what I was going to say. Here's how it went when I thought about it and said it out loud three times. I like it, yeah. Monitor, you know, your results. See, and let that help you, inspire you to add that, you know, to the next time. You're
Sheldon Mills:curious. Okay.
Jeff Corrigan:I love it. Let's do it. The wondering.
Montana Vonfliss:And I hope you let me know how that goes too. I would love to hear the findings of this.
Jeff Corrigan:I will hold him to it. And then we'll tell you for sure.
Montana Vonfliss:That's great. I love it.
Jeff Corrigan:So anything else for us, Montana, what, what can we do for you? How can we be support in spreading the news about Montana Vonfliss and her amazing coaching abilities?
Montana Vonfliss:Wow. You can get me to, to start a TikTok which I'm loath to do. You can I, I don't know. My really, the thing that's helped me to grow in my business is, is number one, doing good work. And number two People talking about it. So you're, you're already helping me, frankly, just, you know, having more people, more ears, you know, hear about what I do, I think, , I should probably, let's see my, my business partner, who is also my life partner. My husband would probably want me to say Montana, you should tell them about, there's a, there's a do it yourself video course that is available on my website.
Jeff Corrigan:I saw that. It's your first one, right?
Montana Vonfliss:Yes, and we're so proud of it. My husband does is a musician and does video production. And so all the videos are super short and fun and funny and actionable, like you have a little, little, little homework, little thing that you can go and do to, to practice many of the skills and techniques that I offer in there. It was my, my goal to not make it like one of those long, boring, like video training courses, you know, a parody of that. So , we made the opposite of that, something that is fun and actionable. And so that lives there. And, you know, I love talking to people, so you can also find on my website, a little thing at the bottom to book a little Calendly. Meeting with me. If you want to just chat with me, please, you, Jeff and Sheldon, and you, all of your listeners, book meeting with me. Let's chat. As you can probably tell, I really enjoy talking about this. And if, you know, if there's other topics or really personal questions or challenges, I love to dig into that. So hit me up, contact me. I'm
Jeff Corrigan:here. All right. Well, we so appreciate you joining us and we think this has been an absolute. Smash. I'm excited to share it on our podcast. It'd probably be in the next few weeks here. And we just want to thank you one more time for, sharing your expertise and coming on board with us and having a fun hour and a bit here.
Montana Vonfliss:Thank you so much for inviting me. This has been such a blast. And I just, I just find it to be such a huge compliment, Sheldon, that, you know, I had that kind of impact on you that, that you wanted to invite me here. That is such a great compliment. Thank you so much. Yeah,
Jeff Corrigan:he immediately was sharing me tips about, hey, this is how we can improve some, the intro on our podcast. I was like, all right, sounds great. Montana, thank you. I couldn't do that
Sheldon Mills:during the presentation because it was for work. I couldn't be like, oh, this is actually the podcast on the side. This is how I'm applying it, but it all connects. It all
Montana Vonfliss:connects. It all connects. And you can use it in all places. I mean, I snuck it in, but yeah, when you have to introduce yourself at those school moments, you know, whether it's on the playground or like a formal sort of now we're gonna go around and say our names, our, our child's names, and two things that make our child unique. It's alarm bells, alarm bells! Oh. You know, you can use this anywhere and everywhere. Practice, practice introducing yourself. Okay. Final tip. I love it. Lots in your life. Yeah. Is that you can say your name, maybe your role and what you do in, in, in your work and add in the podcast, add in, you know, things that you're proud of, but you know what I think is great. Tell me what you love about what you do. There's your homework. There's your assignment. That I'll leave you with,
Jeff Corrigan:right? You guys, you have one takeaway and for us too, that's my takeaway.
Montana Vonfliss:That's right. I expect to hear that on the next podcast. When you introduce yourselves. Oh, that's a good, I love throw that out. Then you get to fill in the blank.
Jeff Corrigan:Good. We'll
Montana Vonfliss:have to, you can do it if you want to, but it's fun. Cause people often are like, I don't know what to say. There's too much to say, or it sounds boring or I don't know what to share or not. And it's just a quick little. Trick.
Sheldon Mills:I love
Montana Vonfliss:it. There you go. I'm done. Good night. Thank you. No, you did great.
Jeff Corrigan:Until next time. You can re listen to this as many times as you want.
Montana Vonfliss:That's true.
Jeff Corrigan:It's out there on the web. So you can listen to it. Alright, well thank you guys. Yes. Thank you.
Montana Vonfliss:Have a good day. Thanks so much again for having me.
Jeff Corrigan:Hey, it was our pleasure and we'd love to stay in touch. So thank you so much. Email us whatever you need, right? We'll, we'll be
Montana Vonfliss:in touch. Yes, please. I'm now a fan. I'm a genuine fan. I'm
Jeff Corrigan:a subscriber. Hey, we'd love for you to send us feedback and be like, Hey, this wasn't working for me. Hey, this is awesome. Right? Or
Montana Vonfliss:whatever. Okay. Okay, guys. A little more concise. You know, I don't
Jeff Corrigan:know. Yes. Exactly. We love it. We know we, we know we can drone on. We're pretty we're, we're geeking out and other people are like, all right, we're done with this part. Let's
Montana Vonfliss:move on. Although that's really awesome though. Like really I love your, your, you know, the way you personalize it and humanize it. Like you were saying that that'd be, if I could go back and change something about my answer for when you asked about, what makes a moving presentation, I would, I would probably add to that. A human element, like a personal story, or it doesn't have to be personal to you, but it could be a, a, a real human vulnerable story like that is. What we, we love I love it when, when you two throw in a little moment of or this is how I use it at church or like Sheldon, I was, I was mentioning your example from, from one of my one of my favorite podcasts that you all did where you were talking about trying to stop eating ice cream late at night and maybe make a healthier habit for yourself. I was like, that personal little vulnerable, relevant. Detail that is storytelling and that brought me like it brought me so much closer to you and it made me feel so like it made me remember how you know my things like not that I not that I have any of those anymore but it made me think of those things for me and that's the power right of storytelling is really taking the chance to tell some of those little personal anecdotes So I guess I would add that back in. I love it that you all do that. So don't get so concise that you're, that you're taking those out. Cutting
Jeff Corrigan:out the good stuff. Yeah.
Montana Vonfliss:You really are good. Really, really good. Really, really just relatable. And that's lovely. That's a lovely quality that you both have. All right, my friends.
Jeff Corrigan:Appreciate
Montana Vonfliss:it. Thank you. Oh, I will go on. So I think you have to say
Jeff Corrigan:Okay, we'll cut it off here. Not because we want to we'd love to Continue this chat because we love talking to people obviously or else we wouldn't do this
Montana Vonfliss:Yeah, that is so clear. I love that you do this, too. This is just a wonderful gift to all of us, so thank you.
Jeff Corrigan:Yes, same to you. Well, you have an amazing day. Hopefully, it's nice weather there in Seattle. Is it? Is it ever? No, that's the question.
Montana Vonfliss:We have two seasons. We have summer and rain. Those are our two seasons. And we're, if you could see out my window. We're, we're in the rain, rain season.
Jeff Corrigan:We've hit the rain season. Yes. I was gonna
Montana Vonfliss:say, you hit rain. It's not called fall, winter, spring. It's just called rain. Oh, that's hilarious. And we love it. I love the rain. All right. Alright, you again, let me know if there's anything I can do for you as well,
Jeff Corrigan:so we really appreciate. Yeah, I mean. Share the podcast if you can whatever channel is possible and we'll get it to you. We'll obviously send you the video and you can slice it up however you want. If you want to cut out our faces and just use your amazing anecdotes and things, that's great. I'll
Montana Vonfliss:just, just me and like, and and this is just this voice of God like, Who's that? I don't know. I don't
Jeff Corrigan:know. We don't know who that was. It was just a response of, Mm hmm. No,
Montana Vonfliss:even better. That's like a laugh track or a, or a, or an applause, you know, you guys can add that in there. That's what you need to, to,
Jeff Corrigan:Some background noises, just
Sheldon Mills:people agreeing with me. Yeah. Yeah,
Jeff Corrigan:that's a good, that's a good thought. That's why Sheldon has me on, so he can say good things and I just agree with him.
Montana Vonfliss:Yeah, well said. Great point. We're laughing
Sheldon Mills:at our own jokes.
Montana Vonfliss:I love it. You guys
Jeff Corrigan:are great. You are too. Thank you, Montana. We're so excited for you and all the growth in your business, and we hope that it continues. Thank you. Out of this world.
Montana Vonfliss:Okay. God's ears,
Jeff Corrigan:right? Yes.
Montana Vonfliss:Always. Okay. All
Jeff Corrigan:right. Take care. Have a wonderful day. It's been a pleasure. See you. You too.
Montana Vonfliss:Same. Bye.
Sheldon Mills:Thank you for joining us. A wonderful interview with Montana. I loved it. Jeff, what was your biggest takeaway? Practice. You got to practice. No amount of study or book reading will get you there. Those are good to start, but then you have to put it into action. Practice, practice. Next step is always action. Yes. So we would invite you to act by either sharing this with somebody who you feel would love to improve on their presentation, storytelling skills, or to sign up for our newsletter or show that too. Yeah, we hope you loved it as much as we did time to start living your best life. He got it in before me.