There was only one thing I knew for sure when I first connected with Brandon Eastman about him being a guest on Speaking Influence, which was that we were going to have an interesting conversation. In fact, I would say this episode is probably THE most conversational episode I&apos;ve ever published and I felt like I was getting interviewed as much as I was interviewing, which is perhaps a testament to Brandon&apos;s natural skills as a podcast host himself.Brandon helps leaders and driven achievers break throughtheir limitations, perform at their peak and achieve their biggest goals. He is on amission to make a 1% difference in the world by empowering leaders to uncovertheir gifts and abilities and use them to positively impact others.He is the host of The Be Better Podcast which he kindly invited me on and clicking the link will take you to the episode of the show where we continued our conversation. He has many other great episodes to check out and is very active on LinkedIn, which some of my audience will know is one of my favourite platforms to hang out online.In this episode:Is college education a requirement for success?The dangers of modelling yourself on your heroesThe &apos;enthusiasm&apos; factor and why it mattersThe energy of successHow a lack of authenticity can block your progressWhy you should not try to over curate your physical gestures when presentingand more besides.Brandon&apos;s book recommendations were Rhonda Byrne&apos;s &apos;The Secret&apos; (and he distinctly says read the book rather than watch the film). Long time listeners will know I&apos;m not a big fan of &apos;The Secret&apos; but if you listen to our chat, you&apos;ll understand why I gave it a pass this time. He also recommends the book &apos;Your Next 5 moves&apos; by Patrick Bet-David. You can connect with Brandon on LinkedIn and his website https://bebetterindustries.comMake sure you tune in to my next show with expert Sam Knowles who shares how to deliver technical information without boring the pants off everyone and making data fun. In the meantime, go and make great things happen. Support the show (https://speakinginfluence.supercast.tech/)

The Loqui Podcast @ Present Influence

Modelling Excellence with guest Brandon Eastman

This was their moment of truth. They needed to face the biggest challenge their company had ever faced and it was going to take powerful leadership to bring them through it. As they entered the room for the emergency meeting, the CEO took to the platform, over 30 expectant and stress filled faces stared up at him, hungry for a morsel of hope and inspiration that they could get through this and win. He opened his mouth to speak and in a clunky monotonous voice said "Ummm.... erm... this is all quite challenging, isn&apos;t it? You&apos;re all doing a jolly decent job and if we&apos;re lucky, we might still all have our jobs next week. OK, well, chin up and off you go then." And that was it. No inspiration. The hungry were not fed but left wanting and it didn&apos;t need to be that way. If only he&apos;d known how to inspire confidence and to become a charismatic leader. My guest for this episode could have saved that poor CEO and spared those stressed employees from a limp and uninspiring talk and turned it into something uplifting, powerful and charismatic.  Kurian Tharakan is an expert in charisma when it comes to leadership and is the author of the book The 7 Essential Stories Leaders Tell which is available for free to Kindle Unlimited members.In this episode: Why stories are so important to leadershipThe power of storytelling in salesA summary of the 7 essential stories charismatic leaders tellStory examples of the 7 meta-stories in actionA unique offer from Kurian to 5 of our listenersWhy religions keep spreading fastWhy atheism often seems less attractive than religionThe stories that lead a team to victoryand more besides in this fun and informative chat.If you want to take Kurian up on his offer and you are one of the first luckly 5 to do so, make sure you include that you got the offer from the Speaking Influence podcast and send your email to kurian@strategypeak.com and be sure to check out his website too.If you got some value from today&apos;s show, please share the episode with your network and feel free to let us know. If you would like to support the show financially, please visit our supercast link. Go and make great things happen.Grow your list today Start growing your list today for free with Convert KitDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show (https://speakinginfluence.supercast.tech/)

Stories for charismatic leadership with guest Kurian Tharakan

What does making people laugh have to do with influence and persuasion? Quite a lot really. Comedy and humour can be very useful tools in your influence and persuasion toolkit when employed well and sadly, it&apos;s an area that is often overlooked in studies on influence and persuasion.It can be a powerful rapport tool. We tend to like people who can make us laugh and we are more likely to remember things when we find them funny. Being able to vary the emotional experience of your audience is one of the hallmarks of a confident and experienced speaker. Humour requires looking at the world a little differently.Not everyone will feel humour is for them but even a small chuckle or groan-worthy dad joke in a presentation can lighten the mood and expand the emotional journey of your audience. My guest Shaun Eli helps us out with some ways we can add some humour into our social, professional and public interactions. In this episode:The importance of being a clean comedian (if you can be)making humour through storytellingConnecting and engaging with people through humourHow to make your audience feel it&apos;s all about themSimple ways to add humour to a presentationWhy a comedy class could be just what you needThe big difference between a professional speaker and a comedianThe three steps to making a jokeand more besides.As Shaun states during the episode, our chat wasn&apos;t packed with jokes. We talked humour but not so much the jokes, so if you want to see Shaun in action, and he is indeed a funny guy, you can visit his website BrainChampagne.com and you can connect with Shaun if you&apos;d like him to help make your talks and presentations more entertaining.On my next show, we&apos;re talking about influential storytelling with the fantastic Kurian Tharakan. Don&apos;t miss that and other amazing guests coming up to help you master the tools of ethical influence and persuasion.You can support the show for as little as $5USD a month, helping me being more amazing guests to you and improving the production and editing quality of the show. There is also a membership level that gives you exclusive access to me and my guests and also sponsorship opportunities. If none of those options suits you, you can still support the show by sharing out your favourite episodes to your network.Support the show (https://speakinginfluence.supercast.tech/)

Make Them Laugh with guest Shaun Eli

What&apos;s the first thing you think of when you hear the word influencer? How would you feel about being described as an influencer?Is there a good side to being an influencer?My guest Whitney Lauritson could be described as an influencer but she won&apos;t thank you for saying it because it has come to have so many negative and often shallow connotations in the online world. When I think about the people who tend to describe themselves as influencers, they are people who have large online followings in places like Instagram and YouTube and are often putting out vacuous content featuring their attractive and often enhanced features and generally relying on physical attractiveness or being intentionally contrarian and controversial.Fortunately, Whitney Lauritson is not one of THOSE kinds of people. She&apos;s someone who cares about human connection and about putting good things out into the world and that&apos;s one of the reasons she is such a great match with this show, where we share those values. We talk about how Whitney prefers to be introduced and delve into the world of influencer marketing and what the future may hold.In this episode:is there a good kind of online influencer?WTF is influencer marketing and why should I care?Which is better: a bigger following or a more engaged following?Where does podcasting fit into online influence?What is the future of influencer marketing?Why we should stop getting hung up on vanity metricsand much more. This was a great fun conversation with someone who really knows the industry well and also deeply cares about people and connection. We went to some places I didn&apos;t expect but I did thoroughly enjoy the conversation and got some great perspectives on influencer marketing and how we can all be making use of our online platforms.If you would like to connect with Whitney, you can visit: http://whitneylauritsen.com/ and check out her podcast This Might Get Uncomfortable where she and her co-host explore mental health, mindful living, and sustainability. Whitney&apos;s book recommendations are Do Nothing by Celeste Headlee and Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle and I will definitely be adding them to my audible wish list.Make sure you&apos;re subscribed for future episodes and if you found the show interesting, useful and valuable in any way, please share it with your network.If you would like to support the show financially and help me make Speaking Influence bigger and better, please consider buying me a coffee for $5 on our Supercast page or our membership and sponsorship levels available there too. Have an amazing week and go and make great things happen.Grow your list today Start growing your list today for free with Convert KitDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show (https://speakinginfluence.supercast.tech/)

Influencer Marketing with guest Whitney Lauritson

Could laughter be the thing that sets you free?It liberated my guest Bee Baumann when she discovered a gift for humourous speaking and found that it suddenly opened up a whole world of creativity for her. She&apos;s written a book called &apos;Gurrl, you ain&apos;t crazy&apos;, she&apos;s won humourous speaking contests (much like myself) and we both discuss how comedy is an amazing vehicle for truth and influence.In this episode:an exclusive excerpt from Bee&apos;s book read by the author herselfhow humour is a form of rebellionhow humour helps with communicationthe difference between humorous speaking and stand up comedythe different kinds of listening skills and why you need to know themlearn Bee&apos;s H.I.V.E. communication matrixand much more in a fun and lighthearted chat with the amazing Bee Baumann.Next episode is with Whitney Lauritson and she knows about influence. We talk about podcasting for brand development, influencer marketing and why she hates being called an influencer. Don&apos;t miss it.Remember, you can support the show by buying me a coffee for $5 USD a month. There are other levels of support available too and if you can&apos;t do that, you can still really help by sharing the show with your network. We&apos;re on the road to 10K downloads and I want you to join me in getting this show into the top 3% of personal & professional development podcasts globally. We can do it and together, we will do it.Support the show (https://speakinginfluence.supercast.tech/)

Liberating Laughter with guest Bee Baumann

Could laughter be the thing that sets you free?It liberated my guest Bee Baumann when she discovered a gift for humourous speaking and found that it suddenly opened up a whole world of creativity for her. She&apos;s written a book called &apos;Gurrl, you ain&apos;t crazy&apos;, she&apos;s won humourous speaking contests (much like myself) and we both discuss how comedy is an amazing vehicle for truth and influence.In this episode:an exclusive excerpt from Bee&apos;s book read by the author herselfhow humour is a form of rebellionhow humour helps with communicationthe difference between humorous speaking and stand up comedythe different kinds of listening skills and why you need to know themdeveloping creative habits and processesand much more in a fun and lighthearted chat with the amazing Bee Baumann.Next episode is with Whitney Lauritson and she knows about influence. We talk about podcasting for brand development, influencer marketing and why she hates being called an influencer. Don&apos;t miss it.Remember, you can support the show by buying me a coffee for $5 USD a month. There are other levels of support available too and if you can&apos;t do that, you can still really help by sharing the show with your network. We&apos;re on the road to 10K downloads and I want you to join me in getting this show into the top 3% of personal & professional development podcasts globally. We can do it and together, we will do it.Support the show (https://speakinginfluence.supercast.tech/)

Does your elevator pitch make your prospective customers and clients want to go up to the 6th floor with you?So many people are trying to speak like marketers instead of finding the genuine points of connection that will be music to the ears of your ideal clients and customers. My guest Mike Verret is an expert on making your pitch the right way, having years of experience with Hasbro Games where he was the guy they&apos;d send to make their pitches.  This is a show you might want to make some notes on (I am).In this episode:Mike&apos;s 6-floor elevator pitch strategyWhy too much info, too soon and too fast doesn&apos;t workMike&apos;s Unique and funny connection to Jurassic WorldHow to connect with your potential clients and customersWhere storytelling fits in pitchingThe 3 things Mike focussed on to grow his businessDon&apos;t miss out on the opportunity to connect with Mike and get some direct and free advice. As he says, it&apos;s only when he has to put pen to paper that he starts charging. Connect with Mike here:  https://www.verretandassociates.com/ and you can find Mike on LinkedIn too.Next time on the show, the incredible and delightful Whitney Lauritson will be sharing insights on influencer marketing and why so many businesses are missing a trick.Remember to share the show with your friends and if you would like to support the show, please visit the SuperCast page. Grow your list today Start growing your list today for free with Convert KitDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show (https://speakinginfluence.supercast.tech/)

Pitch Perfect with guest Mike Verret

Public speaking is undoubtedly one of the ultimate leadership skills and is also a meta-skill, as it prepares you for many other success elements. Being able to speak with influence can help you secure positioning as a key person of influence. There has never been such a vital time for people to learn the skills of presenting and speaking with influence and engagement. On the podcast, we will explore the ins and outs, do's and don'ts of speaking and presenting. We'll look at influence and persuasion skills and the ethics of it all. We'll also bring you special guests and some really fun and often profound chats. Subscribe now and never miss an episode!

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