Episode #64 Own Your Stage with Elsewine Rietveld

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Today I am happy to have Elsewine Rietveld with me. Elsewine is a Presence teacher and trainer and kinesiologist from the Netherlands. She teaches entrepreneurs and professionals how to feel confident and make big impacts with their messages in all their conversations, presentations and on video. She teaches a unique set of practical tools that helps them own their inner power and speak in a way which is authentic and charismatic.

Our conversation today covers her childhood experience on debate teams, how she discovered the Presence method, and the difference it has made for her as an entrepreneur and in her relationship. She also shares her tips for making impactful videos, being a better networker and how to get to the bottom of your blocks through the basics of kinesiology.

Tips from Elsewine

1. Eye contact on camera

  • Try to look into the camera, instead of looking down or above and beyond.
  • Imagine there is someone in the camera eye, with the qualities of your ideal client avatar.
  • Trust you are the expert on the topic!

2. Networking

  • Be present and listen more, feel your feet on the floor. Other people love talking about themselves.
  • Try not to have an agenda.
  • If you feel a judgement, ideal or a solution coming up, let it go.

3. Limiting beliefs

  • Voices from the past, can influence you negatively throughout your life.
  • Write down the limiting beliefs that you have and you will start to see what lies underneath
  • If you think about each statement, it will likely trigger a memory and you can see where it comes from.
  • Start to tweak them gently to the positive.

Quotes

  • “A debate is not your personal opinion, it’s still safe, it’s not you standing there, speaking there.” – Elsewine
  • “It’s very important to know the technical part [of video], but the most important part is to know how can you be you on camera and look back and think ‘Ooh, I like her!’” – Elsewine
  • “It’s about coming across through the camera and having your presence truly meet them.” – Elsewine
  • “If you feel really anxious about video, I wouldn’t recommend starting with live platforms like Periscope or Facebook Live.” – Elsewine
  • “It’s about really regaining your feminine power, and if you are in your own zone of genius in that way, people will listen.” – Elsewine

Connect with Elsewine at www.elsewine.com.

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elsewine-06Elsewine is a Presence teacher and trainer and kinesiologist from the Netherlands. She teaches entrepreneurs and professionals how to feel confident and make big impacts with their messages in all their conversations, presentations and on video. She teaches a unique set of practical tools that helps them own their inner power and speak in a way which is authentic and charismatic.

Years ago, when she was a student, she was afraid to speak in front of more than two or three people at a time. So she decided to join a debate club, where she learned how to make a good speech, be convincing in her arguments and stand in front of an audience. She participated in various tournaments, nationally and internationally, and won a few prizes.

Once she even won a big tournament final, speaking in front of an audience of 150 people together with her debate partner (who coincidentally ended up being her life partner!). All of that has taught her a lot, but what she noticed was that there is a huge difference between defending a side in a debate (regardless of what you think about the topic) and telling your personal story or talking about your message to an audience of people you’d like to impress.

That’s where kinesiology and the Presence method made all the difference for her! With muscle testing (kinesiology), she learned the source of her blocks and how to overcome them. Through the Presence practices she now teaches in her trainings she learned how she could be authentic, confident and magnetic while speaking. This has really changed her life and she loves teaching this process and helping others become charismatic speakers.

Episode #63 Speechless No More with Linda Brogan

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Today we are taking a little break from talking about finances and I am happy to welcome the fantastic Linda Brogan. Linda is an award winning playwright, director and dramaturg. I met Linda in Selena Soo’s Impacting Millions Facebook group and we really connected over each other’s writing. She has been super encouraging of my writing and projects and I was really interested in hers.

Her professional bio is very impressive: In 1999 Brogan took part in the North West Playwrights’ course, and won the 2001 Alfred Fagon Award for her play The Well. This was followed by an attachment at the National Theatre Studio in 2002. Brogan’s first play What’s In The Cat was produced by Contact Theatre, Manchester and transferred to the Royal Court in 2005. Brogan’s other plays include Basil and Beattie presented at Royal Exchange/Liverpool Everyman, and The Very Thought of You, commissioned by Wolsey and Tricycle Theatre. Her last play Speechless did a critically acclaimed four star UK tour.

Her focus is in being born a slave to her colour, gender and class. The political, emotional and day to day ramifications of this topic are what we discuss in this episode, as well as her upcoming project with the restoration of the Reno Club in Manchester.

Quotes

  • “Because I’m working class, half black, and because I was born poor, I have a lot of beliefs that make it difficult to work in the theater, even though those beliefs aren’t that strange.” – Linda
  • “Everyone in the theater was white and middle class, so even if they were being as nice as pie to me, I would take it as if they were trying to be nice to me because I was black.” – Linda
  • “I was talented and I tied that together with a ‘fuck you’ attitude.” – Linda
  • “All I’ve been saying since I’ve been a playwright is that black people have feelings too. Their feelings are intricate, they don’t just need to be helped, and they have every day lives.” – Linda
  • “You know, I’ve read loads of so called ‘authentic” slave narratives and there’s nothing about the people that they left behind… the upset that there must be about the brother or the sister, there are no feelings and no emotions. They are never allowed.” – Linda
  • “There are no authentic slave narratives, not a one.” – Linda
  • “I was on my knees to the arts, and I didn’t think I was, but I was, telling my story in a certain way.” – Linda

Connect with Linda Brogan: http://theagency.co.uk/the-clients/linda-brogan/

More about the Reno Club: http://www.mancky.co.uk/?p=4075

More about Speechless: http://www.sharedexperience.org.uk/speechless.html

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linda-broganManchester born Linda Brogan is an award winning playwright, director and dramaturg. In 1999 Brogan took part in the North West Playwrights’ course, and won the 2001 Alfred Fagon Award for her play The Well. This was followed by an attachment at the National Theatre Studio in 2002. Brogan’s first play What’s In The Cat was produced by Contact Theatre, Manchester and transferred to the Royal Court in 2005. Brogan’s other plays include Basil and Beattie presented at Royal Exchange/Liverpool Everyman, and The Very Thought of You, commissioned by Wolsey and Tricycle Theatre. Her last play Speechless did a critically acclaimed four star UK tour. Her focus is in being born a slave to her colour, gender and class.

Linda Brogan is a playwright of real significance.   Her plays capture the unspoken complexities of human relationships – the things we say, the things we hide, the secrets that shape us – in a way that few contemporary dramatists manage.  Immensely subtle and beautifully observed, Linda’s work gives voice to unforgettable characters and leaves us mysteriously changed.

 

Episode #62 Women in the IT Workplace with Cat Lam

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When it comes to women in the IT workplace, Cat Lam is here as living proof that it doesn’t take anyone especially talented, brainy, or extra-special to go into business for themselves as an independent IT contractor or freelancer. There is a way that you can use your current expertise, make a bunch more money, and have a whole lot more control over your own time and career.

This year marks her 12th year as an independent IT contractor / freelancer. She now call the shots. The day she became self-employed, and got that first contract, she instantly more than doubled her income, and was 100% accountable for her own career. Now, she assists others in finding their own way in that transition.

We speak about her career evolution, how she helps those starting out in an IT workplace, especially women going through the negotiation process, and the value of developing multiple income streams, no matter your industry.

In our conversation about negotiation and income equality, Jen mentioned the 3/5ths compromise, read more about that here.

Quotes

  • “I’ve actually had to learn a lot of stuff on my own.” – Cat Lam
  • “Being in IT, there aren’t a lot of “people” people, so if you have the soft skills you will be that much better than the rest of your peers.” – Cat
  • “Sometimes being a freelancer with multiple clients is more secure than having one job, because if you lose one of them, it’s not like a pink slip and all your income is gone.” – Jen
  • “It’s so easy online now to read bad reviews.” -Jen
  • “The art of the negotiating to being able to read people and figure out what is important to them in order to get what you want.” – Cat
  • “Pair your passion with money making potential, then you get to do what you love almost on somebody else’s dime.” – Cat

To connect with Cat Lam, follow her on her blog at itsolopreneurs.com, and catch up with her on Twitter or Facebook.

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Cat Lam 11Cat Lam is living proof that it doesn’t take anyone especially talented, brainy, or extra-special to go into business for themselves as an independent IT contractor or freelancer. There is way that you can use your current expertise, make a bunch more money, and have a whole lot more control over your own time and career.

When she moved from accounting into the IT workplace, it meant a big change for her. When you sign up for Oracle, or any consulting company for that matter, you sign up for 100% travel. It was fun at the beginning. But eventually, you start to schedule your life months in advance. Marriage meant a big change, and a break from consulting to work briefly with her husband and in the fitness industry. She grew bored of that and returned to her previous work as her own boss.

This year marks her 12th year as an independent IT contractor / freelancer. The day she became self-employed, and got that first contract, she instantly more than doubled her income, and was finally accountable for her own career. Now, she assists others in finding their own way in that transition.