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How Vocal Delivery Shapes Leadership Perception in the 2024 Presidential Election

How Vocal Delivery Shapes Leadership Perception in the 2024 Presidential Election

It's not just the words, but how they say them…

As we head into the next presidential election you'll notice that the pitch, the pause, the rise and fall of a leader’s voice captures hearts and minds just as effectively—if not more so—than the words themselves.

As I’ve noted before, “The way you sound has a profound impact on how your message is received, often more so than the content of the message itself.” Do You Sound Like a Leader? explores this in greater detail.

As we look at the vocal delivery styles of 2024 presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, we find that the way a leader speaks can profoundly shape public perception. For leaders, experts, and entrepreneurs, understanding this dynamic can be the key to leading effectively and making your voice heard.

The Science of Persuasion: Why Vocal Qualities Matter

How Vocal Delivery Shapes Leadership Perception in the 2024 Presidential Election

Sure, content is king. But the crown jewels? They’re all in the delivery. Robert Cialdini, the godfather of influence psychology, points out that authority and likability are key factors in persuasion—and these often hinge on how a message is delivered. As Cialdini explains, “We are more likely to be influenced by people who are authoritative, who appear credible and knowledgeable, regardless of the content of their message.” A deep, resonant voice doesn’t just sound good; it signals authority, commanding respect and attention before a leader even gets to the meat of their message.

Lee Hartley Carter, a renowned strategist and author of Persuasion: Convincing Others When Facts Don’t Seem to Matter, has spent years advising Fortune 500 companies and political campaigns on the art of effective communication. Her work highlights the critical role that emotional resonance and authenticity play in leadership. According to Carter, a voice that truly connects with listeners can make all the difference in persuasion. And let’s be honest, we’ve all been in meetings where the speaker’s monotone droning put us on a one-way trip to Snoozeville. But with the right vocal techniques, you can keep your audience engaged and attentive.

When a leader modulates their voice—using strategic pauses, varying their pitch, and adjusting their pacing—they’re not just holding attention; they’re shaping perceptions. A well-timed pause can create anticipation and emphasize a point, while variations in tone can keep the audience emotionally connected. Sometimes, how you say something lands more impactfully than what you say.

With these foundational ideas in mind, let’s explore how current leaders like Donald Trump and Kamala Harris use their vocal delivery to influence public perception.

Trump vs. Harris: A Vocal Showdown

The 2024 presidential race isn’t just a clash of ideologies—it’s a vocal duel. Donald Trump continues to wield his voice like a weapon, with his recent speech at the 2024 CPAC showcasing his signature assertive tone. As he declared, “We will take back the White House,” his booming voice was designed to project strength and determination to his base. It’s no wonder Trump’s rallies and speeches still feel like rock concerts—he’s mastered the art of keeping the audience on their feet, even if it’s with the same chorus repeated a dozen times. But as The Washington Post pointed out in 2019, while Trump’s “booming and relentless” tone solidifies his image as a strong leader, it’s also divisive. To some, his aggressive style comes off as bullying, deepening the divide between his supporters and detractors.

On the other side of the vocal spectrum is Kamala Harris. Her speech on gun violence prevention in June 2023 is a prime example of her calm, deliberate, and empathetic tone. Harris’s voice flowed with measured cadence, her empathetic tone wrapping around each word like a warm embrace—inviting listeners in rather than overwhelming them. During this speech, her deliberate pauses and slower pace were used to emphasize the gravity of the topic, resonating deeply with her audience. However, Harris faces a different set of challenges—particularly gender biases. As The New York Times explored in 2023, Harris’s vocal delivery is often judged against traditional gender expectations. Some praise her composed demeanor, while others criticize her for lacking the forcefulness they expect from a leader—especially when compared to male counterparts like Trump. This bias reflects broader societal expectations, where women leaders are often caught in a double bind: be too soft, and you’re weak; too strong, and you’re shrill.

Critical Thinking: Separating Content from Delivery

So, how can you navigate the nuances of vocal delivery without getting swayed by style over substance? Here are some tips:

  • Focus on the Content: Pay close attention to the actual message. Is the candidate backing up their claims with facts? Are they providing clear, logical arguments, or are they relying on emotional appeals and repetition to fill the gaps?
  • Beware of Emotional Manipulation: Notice when a speaker uses tone and inflection to play on your emotions. While emotions are a powerful communication tool, they shouldn’t replace rational analysis. As Lee Hartley Carter notes, “The leaders who resonate most emotionally with their audience are those who can authentically project the emotions that match their message. It’s not just what they say, but how they make people feel.” Ask yourself if the emotional tone aligns with the facts presented. How to Free Yourself from Emotional Velcro and Create Psychological Safety in the Workplace offers insights on managing emotional responses effectively.
  • Consider the Whole Picture: Vocal qualities can enhance or distort a candidate’s perceived credibility. Look beyond the delivery to assess their track record, policies, and actions.
  • Check Your Biases: Be mindful of unconscious biases that might affect how you perceive a candidate’s voice. Gender, race, and other factors can shape our perceptions of leadership qualities in ways we might not even realize.
  • Diversify Your Sources: Engage with a range of news outlets and analyses to get a balanced view. Different perspectives can help you see beyond any single source’s bias and get a fuller picture of the candidate’s platform and delivery.

Next time you hear a political speech, ask yourself: Are you being swayed by the logic of the argument, or is the speaker’s tone doing most of the work? How does the delivery shape your perception? By sharpening these critical thinking skills, you can better discern the substance behind a candidate’s words, making informed choices that go beyond surface-level impressions.

Summary and Takeaways

In leadership, how you say something can be as important—if not more so—than what you say. As we’ve seen with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, vocal qualities significantly influence public perception, with societal biases adding another layer of complexity, particularly regarding gender. But by honing critical thinking skills and staying mindful of the difference between content and delivery, we can navigate these complexities and make more informed decisions. As the 2024 election approaches, let’s listen not just to the words our leaders speak, but to how they speak them. After all, it’s not just about sounding persuasive—it’s about leading with integrity. For more on this, see Strengthening Your Voice of Leadership in Uncertain Times.

And as we continue to explore the power of voice, whether in leadership or in technology like AI audiobooks, it’s clear that how we communicate can make all the difference.

What most surprised you, or what do you still want to know? Let us know your thoughts below!

About Tina Dietz:

Tina Dietz is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed speaker, audiobook publisher, podcast producer, and vocal leadership expert whose work and shows have been featured on media outlets including ABC, NBC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune, Inc.com, and Forbes. She’s been named one of the top podcasters for entrepreneurs by INC.com, and Tina’s company, Twin Flames Studios, re-imagines thought leadership through podcasting and audiobooks for experts, executives, and founders.

Reduce Stress by Taking An Emotional Velcro Vacation

We interrupt this Hot Girl Summer for an Emotional Velcro Vacation!

Thus far, 2024 has been characterized with the typical uncertainty we all experience during a presidential election year, regardless of politics. But add the extra seasoning of social and economic unrest, and that is one spicy meatball!

As a leader, do you feel like you’re carrying the weight of their world on your shoulders?

Need some quick ways to reduce stress without sacrificing productivity?

reduce stress by taking an emotional velcro vacation

What is Emotional Velcro?

Simply, it’s the stress, anxiety, and emotional baggage you accumulate over time when interacting with other people.

It’s the “waxy buildup” of emotional residue that you often unconsciously adopt when leading teams, parent kids, partners, friends, and so on.

Taking Your Emotional Velcro Vacation

It’s time for some much-deserved relief and rejuvenation.

When you are stressed, ask yourself, “Why am I feeling this way?”

Are you carrying the emotions of someone else, even by accident? Figuring out the source of the emotional velcro can help bring about immediate relief or at least help you get to the next step.

First, talk with someone else like a coach, counselor or other trusted source. Or simply spend some time in reflection and analysis to discover the truth inside yourself or about the situation.

From there, it’s time to shift your mental state, which is a lot easier said than done. Find out more about how to apply all three of these steps in this article I wrote for Forbes about creating psychological safety in the workplace by freeing yourself of Emotional Velcro.

Vocal Techniques to Reduce Stress Immediately

For some quick relief or practice, here are two vocal techniques you can use right now: sigh and rant. It’s like the “bend and snap” of 2024.

A deep sigh triggers your parasympathetic nervous system and your body’s relaxation response. It’s easy to do, and you can do this anywhere – which is why it’s one of my favorite techniques.

And the “rant” in question here is actually much less long-winded than it sounds. When I say “rant” I’m talking about unleashing a single word, done in a specific way that also has fantastic benefits for your nervous system.

Read more about these 2 vocal techniques for immediate stress relief in another article I wrote for Forbes, so you can perfect them in no time.

Remember, taking care of your emotional well-being is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. So, take that first step today and start shedding the Emotional Velcro that’s holding you back. Your future self will thank you.

Additional Resources:

How to Free Yourself from Emotional Velcro And Create Psychological Safety In The Workplace

How To Reduce Your Stress Immediately With 2 Vocal Techniques

What most surprised you, or what do you still want to know? Let us know your thoughts below!

About Tina Dietz:

Tina Dietz is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed speaker, audiobook publisher, podcast producer, and vocal leadership expert whose work and shows have been featured on media outlets including ABC, NBC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune, Inc.com, and Forbes. She’s been named one of the top podcasters for entrepreneurs by INC.com, and Tina’s company, Twin Flames Studios, re-imagines thought leadership through podcasting and audiobooks for experts, executives, and founders.

Leading With Influence and Compassion, Not Just Management and Instruction

By Chris O'Byrne, CEO of JetLaunch Publishing

Two men working together at a desk

Leadership is no longer limited to a position or title. It’s a dynamic interaction that relies heavily on influence and compassion and goes beyond mere management and instruction. As industries evolve, the characteristics that make for successful leadership are changing, and the role of a leader is being redefined.

A leader’s influence includes authority over team members and the ability to inspire, motivate and guide them toward common goals. It’s about understanding individual team member’s unique strengths and needs and leveraging them to align with the organization’s vision.

Compassionate leadership adds another layer to this intricate balance. It recognizes the human side of business and knows that empathy, caring, and a genuine interest in the well-being of others can create a more positive and productive work environment. Combining influence and compassion in leadership goes beyond the traditional approach and paves the way for a more human and practical leadership style.

Building Influence in Leadership

Influence in leadership is an important trait that impacts how leaders manage their teams, interact with peers, and contribute to the organization’s success. Knowing how to cultivate and exercise influence is critical for seasoned professionals, especially those on the path from success to prominence.

Understanding influence

Influence isn’t just about wielding power or control; it’s also about knowing how to lead, inspire, and create positive change. It’s about being a role model, shaping opinions, and achieving results that align with the organization’s values and goals.

The importance of influence in leadership

Influence plays a critical role in leadership, helping to align teams around common goals, foster collaboration, build trust, and establish stable professional relationships. Effectively influencing others can make the difference between simple management and authentic leadership.

Methods for building influence

Building influence requires a combination of skills, behaviors, and strategies. These include clear communication, consistent action, integrity, active listening, and empathy. Building influence doesn’t happen overnight; it requires continuous effort, practice, and self-reflection.

Challenges in building influence

Like any complex skill, building influence has its challenges. These include overcoming skepticism, navigating organizational politics, or dealing with conflicting interests. To successfully build influence, it’s important to understand and prepare for these challenges.

Influence and ethical considerations

The use of influence must be based on ethical principles. This includes respecting the autonomy of others, being transparent, acting with integrity, and ensuring that influence is used for positive outcomes that align with company values.

Measure and evaluate influence

Measuring influence can be complex, but looking at results, feedback, team engagement, and alignment with business goals can provide valuable insights. Regular assessments and adjustments help to continually improve and build your influence.

Building influence is an essential component of effective leadership, including understanding, meaning, methods, challenges, ethics, and evaluation. Developing this capability helps leaders inspire teams, drive positive change, overcome challenges, and contribute to the organization’s overall success. This multi-faceted approach requires ongoing effort and commitment but is important for anyone seeking to build their authority and influence.

Compassionate Leadership

Compassionate Leadership is a philosophy that combines empathy, understanding, and genuine care for employees with the tasks and goals of the leader. In the following, we address the most important facets:

Understanding and empathy for employees

Actively listening to employees and being present is the essence of compassionate leadership. Understanding what your team members are saying, their challenges, and what they want and responding with empathy fosters a sense of appreciation and connection within the team.

Create a culture of well-being

Compassionate leaders value work-life balance and create an environment that promotes mental and physical health. They recognize the importance of well-being to overall performance and productivity and work proactively to create a positive atmosphere.

Recognition and appreciation

Recognizing and appreciating team members’ accomplishments is vital in compassionate leadership. Regular feedback, positive reinforcement, and celebrating successes large and small contribute to a strong sense of accomplishment and belonging.

Leading with authenticity and vulnerability

Authenticity in leadership fosters trust, and showing vulnerability makes leaders more approachable. Genuine interactions and a willingness to admit mistakes can build a deeper connection with team members and enhance the overall leadership experience.

Mentoring and supporting professional development

Compassionate leadership includes investing in personal development plans and providing opportunities and resources for success. These efforts demonstrate a genuine interest in individual success and professional development and align with the organization’s overall goals.

The far-reaching impact of compassionate leadership

Compassionate leadership impacts the workplace, community engagement, and organizational reputation. A compassionate approach often leads to long-term employee loyalty and contributes to the stability and success of the organization.

Compassionate leadership goes beyond mere management and recognizes that organizations are made up of people with individual needs and emotions. Compassionate leaders create an environment where individuals thrive by focusing on empathy, well-being, recognition, authenticity, and growth. This humane and effective approach fits perfectly with modern business values and can be a critical factor in a company’s success.

Practical tips for building influence through empathetic leadership

Building influence through empathetic leadership is a delicate balance that, when done right, can lead to remarkable results in an organization. Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman has been influential in understanding empathy in leadership (Goleman, D. 1995. “Emotional Intelligence.” New York: Bantam Books).

Here are some practical tips:

Build trust through transparency and integrity

Trust is the foundation of influence, and leaders can foster it through transparency and integrity. Honest communication and consistent action help employees feel safe and aligned with their leaders’ vision.

Empathy and connection with team members

Part of being an empathetic leader is understanding your team members and connecting with them personally. Leaders can create meaningful connections that increase their impact by showing genuine interest in their well-being and professional development.

Set clear goals and expectations

Clear goals and expectations help team members understand their roles and responsibilities. A shared vision promotes alignment and enables effective collaboration, strengthening the leader’s influence on the team.

Lead by example

Leaders who lead by example set a positive standard for the team. They demonstrate commitment and integrity by aligning with the team’s values and expectations, further strengthening their influence.

Promoting collaboration and open communication

Encouraging collaboration and open communication within the team creates a supportive environment where ideas can flourish. Leaders who actively engage with their teams foster creativity and problem-solving, key influence components.

Invest in professional development

Investing in team members’ professional development shows that the leader values their growth and success. Offering training and development opportunities can foster loyalty and engagement and strengthen the leader’s influence.

Meet challenges with empathy and determination

Meeting challenges with empathy and determination builds team resilience. Leaders who address problems with empathy and determination demonstrate strength and compassion, strengthening their influence.

Building influence through compassionate leadership is a multi-faceted approach that requires commitment, empathy, clarity, leading by example, collaboration, investment in growth, and resilience. By focusing on these practical tips, leaders can cultivate powerful influence that resonates with their teams and contributes positively to organizational success.

Wrapping it up

Leading through influence combined with the principles of compassionate leadership is a powerful paradigm for modern leadership. This article has shown that influence is about understanding, inspiring, and creating positive change. Compassion adds depth to this influence by recognizing the intrinsic value of people in the workplace and treating employees with empathy and care.

Experienced professionals will find practical strategies for integrating influence and compassion into their leadership style in this article. The path to success has many facets, from building trust and rapport with team members to setting clear goals and investing in professional development. It requires dedication, authenticity, empathy, and ethical consideration. Read The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey (Covey, S.M.R. 2006. New York: Free Press) to learn more.

The fusion of influence and compassion creates an effective human leadership approach. It recognizes that people with individual needs, emotions, and aspirations drive organizations. Leaders who take these principles to heart can inspire their teams, drive innovation, foster long-term loyalty, and contribute positively to organizational success.

Even as the business world evolves, influence and compassionate leadership principles remain relevant. They are consistent with today’s values and timeless qualities for those seeking to build authority, influence, and prominence in their industry. By embodying these principles, leaders make themselves successful and contribute to a more empathetic and innovative business world.

What most surprised you, or what do you still want to know? Let us know your thoughts below!

More About Chris O'Byrne

Chris O'Byrne is the CEO of JetLaunch Publishing and COO of the Strategic Advisor Board. He makes leaders influential by turning them into international bestselling authors and featuring them on the cover of Pivot, a leading business magazine that reaches over 30 million people.|

If you want to learn more about Jess Todtfeld, you can visit his company's website here.

Chris O'Byrne Headshot

The Four Critical Levels of Being a Great Communicator & Why They Matter

By Jess Todtfeld, President of Success In Media, Inc.

As we navigate the ever-evolving digital landscape, it's crucial to remember the significance of personal connection, especially in leadership roles.

After dedicating the past 18 years to teaching media training skills and presentation skills, I've come to realize that the essence of leadership is found in speaking – in connecting with people face-to-face, or in today's climate, virtually. Yes, we've adapted, we've embraced technology, but as leaders, we must not forget that at the heart of every interaction, there's a human need to connect.

woman speaking in front of crowd with a microphone

The modern world presents a unique challenge: How do we maintain this essential human connection amidst the screens and devices that dominate our lives? The answer lies in understanding the power of speech in leadership and harnessing it effectively.

Speaking as a leader isn’t just about giving orders or delegating tasks. It’s about engaging people, sharing visions, inspiring actions, and fostering a spirit of teamwork. And achieving these goals requires mastering The Four Critical Levels of Being a Great Communicator: Understanding, Remembering, Action, and Passing on to Others. These stages serve as the foundation of impactful leadership speaking.

  1. Understanding: The first step to effective communication is making sure your message is understood. This requires clear, concise language free from jargon or complicated concepts. As a leader, you need to deliver your message in a way that your team, clients, or audience can easily grasp. The clearer your message, the better the understanding, and the stronger the connection you can establish.
  2. Remembering: A message that's understood but quickly forgotten will achieve little. To make your message stick, stories are invaluable. They weave a narrative around your message, turning it from mere information into a memorable journey. Remember, people may forget statistics or figures, but they rarely forget a compelling story.
  3. Action: Great communication isn’t passive; it drives action. Once people understand and remember your message, they should feel motivated to act upon it. As a leader, your words should empower others, giving them the tools or knowledge they need to improve their lives or make a difference.
  4. Passing on to Others: The ultimate level of communication is when your message is shared by those who heard it. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful forms of communication. When someone shares your message, it signifies a deep connection – they found your words impactful enough to pass on to others.

In a world where face-to-face interactions are increasingly being replaced by face-to-screen encounters, the need for leaders to effectively communicate and connect with others has never been more paramount. True leaders don’t just speak – they connect, inspire, and motivate. They use their words to create shared understanding, memorable narratives, actionable insights, and messages that resonate deeply enough to be passed on.

Here’s some good news…

Pie Chart in newspaper with people looking from all around to see it

We have more opportunities than ever to speak and connect. These include:

Podcasts: In an era where multimedia content is increasingly popular, starting your own podcast can be a great way to share your insights, experiences, and messages. Podcasts create a personal, intimate setting, allowing for more in-depth discussions and providing an opportunity to connect with your audience on a deeper level. They offer a unique space where you can share your stories, inspire action, and get your messages passed on.

Social Media Videos: Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok have become vital tools for modern leaders. Social media videos allow for dynamic, engaging communication. You can share short motivational messages, elaborate on complex ideas, or give behind-the-scenes glimpses into your leadership journey. These videos are easy to share, increasing the chances of your message being passed on and reaching a wider audience.

Webinars and Virtual Events: As we adapt to a more remote way of working, webinars and virtual events have become commonplace. These platforms offer an opportunity to reach larger, global audiences. They also allow for real-time interaction, Q&As, and instant feedback, helping you gauge understanding and tweak your communication strategies accordingly.

Communication Apps: Apps such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom have revolutionized the way we connect with our teams and peers. These apps provide a space for both formal and informal communication, promoting transparency and fostering a sense of community.

Blogs and Articles: Writing blogs and articles for your own website or guest posting on other platforms is another way to connect. You can delve into subjects in more detail and leave a permanent resource for others to refer back to.

Online Courses and E-Learning Platforms: Sharing your expertise through online courses or e-learning platforms can help inspire action. You can educate your audience on a particular subject, provide them with the tools to make positive changes, and continue to foster their growth long after they've finished your course.

LinkedIn Live and Clubhouse: Platforms like LinkedIn Live and Clubhouse offer live audio and video broadcasting opportunities. They allow real-time conversations with audiences, which can lead to lively discussions, idea exchanges, and networking opportunities.

As leaders, it's our responsibility to bridge the digital divide and maintain the human connection that's so vital in our world today. By mastering these four levels of communication, we can transcend the boundaries of the screen and connect with people in meaningful, impactful ways. And in the process, we can redefine what it means to be a leader in the digital age.

What most surprised you, or what do you still want to know? Let us know your thoughts below!

More About Jess Todtfeld

Jess Todtfeld is the President of Success in Media, one of the leading communication and media training authorities in the U.S. With more than 15 years as a media trainer and consultant, Todtfeld helps CEOs, business executives, spokespersons, public relations representatives, experts, and authors to become more confident, more in control, and to create more results from their speaking engagements and media appearances.

If you want to learn more about Jess Todtfeld, you can visit his training site or his Guaranteed Publicity agency, Media Ambassadors.

Headshot of Jess Todtfeld smiling

The Leadership Paradox of Psychological Safety

You’ve probably heard the term “Psychological Safety” thrown around. But what does this mean for leaders, who are responsible for themselves and others? Is this a revolutionary belief, or simply a passing trend? With help from psychological safety experts Lisa Wimberger and Candy Barone, Tina explores how leaders can regulate their mental and physical wellbeing.

Don't miss our Leaders' Discussion Guide for this episode below – perfect for your next team Lunch & Learn!

Psychological Safety – Episode Highlights

  • Learn the scientific definition of psychological safety (4:40)
  • See the “warning signs” of a psychologically unsafe environment in yourself (15:58)
  • Discover the parts of your brain that determine your fight, flight, freeze response (16:55)
  • Learn tips and tricks from experts on how to regulate yourself back to a state of calm, and lead your team to success! (26:45)
  • Most common challenges in creating psychological safety in the workplace, and some “Sacred Cows” that need to be eliminated. (20:11)

Full Transcript

Tina Dietz  

Hello everyone and welcome. I'm Tina Dietz, and this is Drink From The Well. Today's topic: the paradox of leadership and psychological safety. For the first time in decades, we're seeing the pendulum swing in the world of business and industry from a focus on developing hard skills, like technical training, to soft skills, which I've always hated that term – let's call them something more accurate. People skills, human skills, what we actually need to communicate and thrive together. But one of the big reasons in this shift is the demand by workers and the absolute pile of mounting research and data related to something called psychological safety.

Voice Over (Audio Montage)

“The importance of psychological safety” 

“It’s amazing how much attention is now being spent on psychological safety” 

“Google built its culture on this idea of psychological safety” 

“I call these special workplaces ones that have psychological safety” 

“Building psychological safety on a team” 

Tina Dietz 

One of the basic tenets of psychology is mired in Eric Erickson's work from the mid-1900s, where he theorized that all humans go through a series of eight psychosocial stages. In the first stage a child goes through, and that's about birth to 18 months old or so, is determining whether the world that they live in is one that they can trust, and if they can indeed feel safe in that world. Another basic premise common to psychology is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And you may have seen Maslow's famous pyramid in a psych 101 class. This construct shows safety as a basic human need only secondary to food, air, water and shelter. So, today, we're exploring what happens when leaders are being asked to provide psychological safety for their teams, when they might not even feel psychologically safe themselves. We'll also be looking at the impacts of what happens when people don't feel safe in the workplace, and, of course, what we can do about it to move forward, to innovate and to help each other out. Today, we are joined by two fantastic experts. Lisa Wimberger is the founder of the Neurosculpting Institute and the co-founder of the NeuroPraxis app. She has a credible background educationally in neuroscience, visual perception, neurobiology and education, and is the author of seven books on neuroplasticity and stress management. She owns multiple companies, has over 60 international franchises and teaches in audiences ranging from corporate leaders to the FBI and the Secret Service. Candy Barone is also joining us today, and she is the CEO and founder of You Empowered Strong, a leadership development expert, a trainer and executive coach, and she is also a bestselling author and an international speaker. Candy’s also a Vistage executive chair and CEO peer advisory group facilitator and a member of the Forbes Coaching Council. She has received incredible numbers of awards in leadership. Candy has also been showcased on CNN, the US News and World Report, South by Southwest, Fast Company and many, many other publications. So, I am honored to have both of you on the show today. Lisa, thank you for joining us.

Lisa Wimberger  

It's great to be here. 

Tina Dietz  

And Candy, thank you as well.

Candy Barone   

It's my honor. Thank you for having me.

Tina Dietz 

Yeah, so, we really wanted to cover 360 everything having to do with psychological safety from giving leaders a basis to work from, because this keeps coming up in the news. It's coming up all over business. There's studies being run by Google and Gallup, Workhuman. The research really is mounting like crazy. But I think we really need to first, take a look at what is our working definition of psychological safety for our conversation today. And Lisa, I really love the one that you use. And I was wondering if you would share that with us.

Lisa Wimberger 

Yeah. For me, the way I like to look at it is psychological safety being our ability to regulate, in the moment, based on appropriate environmental, contextual requirements outside of our old reactive patterns, and really orienting towards listening, understanding and responding. It doesn't mean I always feel safe. It means I know how to guide myself back to some level of homeostasis so I can function in present time appropriately.

Tina Dietz  

So this idea that we can have the capacity to move ourselves towards regulation, no matter what's going on around us.

Lisa Wimberger   

Absolutely. We're not supposed to be stuck in regulation. We're supposed to always be able to orient towards it. That's what a mammalian nervous system is best at.

Tina Dietz

And we do have to keep in mind that we are mammals, and we are dealing with this mammalian nervous system. We do lose that in our day-to-day work. You probably see a lot of that, right?

Lisa Wimberger  

Yeah, we forget we're mammals. And so for all of you listening, I want to just sort of couch everything I'm going to say. When you feel yourself respond in this dialogue we're having with the, “Oh my God, that's me, and I'm broken.” And, “Oh, no, I've been doing it all wrong,” I don't want you to think that that's a bad thing. I want you to think, “Yay! I just saw my growth opportunity,” to be able to identify that. As mammals, we're all imperfect creatures whose best capacity is to grow from our awareness of dysregulation. So if you're one of those, “Oh, no, I'm screwed up because this is me,” you're ahead of the game.

Tina Dietz     

Yeah, 100% cheer for self-awareness for sure, right? Now, Candy, you’re really known in your – in the leadership circles for someone who shows people how to have uncomfortable conversations. So, what do you think is kind of the first rule for us entering into a conversation like this that might have leaders feel a little bit uncomfortable with approaching even the idea of, “How the hell am I going to create psychological safety for my team when I don't feel comfortable myself?”

Candy Barone  

Yeah, and I love what Lisa said, both in terms of the definition around what psychological safety is and talking about what happens when we feel that dysregulation, because one of the things that I talk to leaders about is the fact that in order to have the, what I call, the courageous connected conversations, we need the ability to create safe containers where people can be free to feel seen, heard, valued, loved and respected without fear of repercussion or judgment. And that is easy to say and very difficult when leaders have not been given the opportunity to get the- and I'm going to use the-  human skills required to have the level of emotional intelligence and capacity to hold that space, especially when they haven't been able to create it for themselves. And so, there is an aspect of a couple things that I think is really important. One is the ability to listen for understanding and vulnerability. Vulnerability still is such a dirty word in many business environments and seen as a weakness rather than, truly, the most critical aspect of an organization. 

Tina Dietz   

That's absolutely perfect. And I heard you both talk about one of my favorite topics, which is engaging the superpower of curiosity. And because curiosity does live in a different part of the brain than other emotions, a lot of folks don't realize that it's a great way to interrupt your patterning of going down a stress rabbit hole or a situation where you might be feeling incredibly vulnerable. I wear a lot of emotions on my sleeve. It's part of what makes me me. And in leading my team, sometimes in having those difficult conversations, I have to create all of this space for me to have those large feelings inside of me both simultaneously without vomiting all over my team, but also give myself the own space and grace that I could very easily get angry with myself about being emotional, which makes me more emotional, which makes me angrier. But leaving room for all of that space allows us to move through these challenges so much more quickly. So, we just jumped right into the thick of what it's like to experience all of these feelings and all of these emotions. And on that note, I just want to back up for just a moment, create a little context. I'm so excited about this particular topic, but I wanted to share a little bit about some of the things about the two of you, why I asked you to be here today and what makes you such incredible experts around this topic. Lisa, something that I know about you that really intrigues me was that when you were 15, apparently you were struck by lightning. 

Lisa Wimberger

Yes. 

Tina Dietz

And that had a real impact on you going down this path and studying the mammalian nervous system and the psychology around it.

Lisa Wimberger

Yeah, it screwed me up big time. I'll tell you, there's nothing glorious about being hit by lightning. I was hit in the base of the spine on my birthday and developed a seizure disorder, which was undiagnosed for many years, but it was getting progressively worse. So, I thought I was fainting. I was actually having grand mal seizures, I was flatlining, I was being resuscitated, I was ending up in the ER. And this got worse and worse. And I finally got a handle on it 15 years ago, and I was a single mom at the time. And I was like, “Nope, can't do this, can't leave my kid as an orphan.” So, I was studying neuroscience because I needed help and Western medicine couldn't give it to me. I wasn't epileptic, there were no meds. They said, “You just have to deal with this.” That was my very self-serving reason for studying neuroscience. Found the keys to the system to regulate, and that set me on the path of, “How can I teach other people how to regulate?” Because the core of my seizure disorder was psychological threat. It was a stress response. 

Tina Dietz 

Yes. 

Lisa Wimberger  

Right. So, the fact that I didn't have psychological safety with all of my education background and my 30 plus years of meditation – yes, I've been meditating regularly since I was 12 – did not provide me psychological safety. I had to work for that. I had to identify, learn, apply, integrate, digest, metabolize and continue. And that was provided to me by neuro-scientifically understanding what a mammalian system needs.

Tina Dietz

What's so beautiful here is that, I know that, Candy, your path towards working with leaders and regulating yourself also started fairly early in life with a desire to create more psychological safety for yourself. And can you speak to that?

Candy Barone  

Yeah, I would say that early on, there was a lot of fight, flight, freeze response due to just the abuse that I was surrounded with when it came to my dad, and a lot more psychological and emotional abuse, which then transcended into 20 years of a corporate career, which at the age of 35, put me in the hospital. And what happened was, I was in a space of where, I call the over syndrome, which is I was over-functioning, over-performing to the point where I was so over exhausted, over frustrated, over burned out, over beyond, my entire identity was attached to my over as a form of way to create safety for myself that it literally created a mass, a pain in my chest that doubled me over. So, I remember going to see – because I didn’t even have time to go see my doctor, even though I was having debilitating pain and space where I wasn't able to catch my breath. So, as I was sitting in the waiting room when I probably should have gone to the ER, I remember having a conversation in my brain that went something like,  “Candy, when was the last time you slept?” And this other piece of my brain went, “I'm not talking about when you passed out at your computer, when you had six martinis to take the edge off. When was the last time you had a real quality night's sleep?” I couldn't recall one in the last three weeks. And the moment I acknowledged that for myself, the wheels came off. Because then a barrage of questions, “Oh my God, my doctor is going to ask why I think I'm having a heart attack. Is it because of the binge eating or the alcohol, or this? Oh my God, I think I went shopping last week. And what did I buy at Ann Taylor? There's still a bag sitting in my hall.” And like my brain just took over, and absolutely, I was almost in the fetal position by the time the doctor came out to call me into his office. After a battery of CTs, MRIs, tests, colonoscopy, endoscopy, you name it, it finally came back that I had created – and I say that very deliberately – I created and manifested a mass in my chest that tripped a sliding hiatal hernia I didn't even know I had. And I manifested it because I had spent 20 years, well, actually, at that point, about 35, doing what I call the shallow, above the neck breathing, which was the holding my breath because of the stress that was constantly activated around me or the hyperventilating, which eventually caused all of that energy to trap in my body.

Tina Dietz  

And this is such a great example of – one of my questions has been, “How do you know you're not in a space of psychological safety?” That is a clear example. And there's all gradations of this. And my own journey with becoming a therapist, and then working with people in their businesses, working with teenagers, also came out of the sense of, I was never safe as a child, I was always at risk, one way or another, no matter where I turned, didn't have this like safe base that I could count on. And so, I had to create that for myself as an adult later on. So, this is a really common story. So, then we're all going into workplaces, carrying a lot of this with us. And no matter how much work we do, we're still dealing with being around other humans dealing with this mammalian nervous system. And this is something that out of Lisa's work, I'm familiar with, the idea of we go into a state of midbrain dominance when we're not in a space of psychological safety. So Lisa, could you tell us about midbrain dominance?

Lisa Wimberger  

Yeah, and Candy, what an amazing, hit the wall moment for you where it all got clear. And I just want to say, who better to teach people about creating psychological safety than those of us who had to find it and work for it and can give the ins and outs of how to do that. I want the people who've been in the trenches. You may not know you don't feel safe. But here's some things you can know. You can know if you have constipation or diarrhea. You can know if you're gaining weight inappropriately, or excessively, rapidly losing weight. You can know if you're breathing by inquiring. You can know if you're profusely sweating at all the wrong times. You can know if you have terrible circulation. You can know if you have inability to concentrate. You can know if you have dry throat, dry eyes, dry orifices. You can know these things. These are key indicators of dysregulation, that dysregulation may come from top-down, your perception of psychological safety. They may come from bottom-up environmental, experiential things you're feeling that then get translated as a psychological threat. Either way, you can know you're dysregulated far sooner than hitting the wall like I did and like Candy did, right? So, that's the first thing. But what happens in a situation like mine or Candy’s is that you are in fight, flee, freeze in order to function or in order to avoid the pain, right? That's a mammalian spectrum of responses. And we all have that. And every one of us here listening has had those experiences. But any of those will put you either in your midbrain dominantly as your neural functioning, or even more primitive, into your brainstem. And in that arousal and adrenaline and cortisol, you actually have anesthetized your body in a way so you can produce. So that's midbrain. Then you get to critical mass, and you go into shutdown. And that's the holding the breath part. And that means midbrain no longer can take it, it is now your brainstem running the show. And that's going to cause the holding the breath, the freeze, the immobility and the complete and utter shutdown. Some of us don't progress in that fashion. Some of us skip fight, flee, go right to freeze. I was freeze. So, now midbrain and brainstem are very efficiently taught and very amazing students, that they learn that they govern the show because it protects you. And the part of your brain that's supposed to be creating psychological safety for yourself, and then for others, the part of the brain that makes us all great leaders on paper, right, the ability to get our teams functioning, the ability to create safety, the ability to be innovative and compassionate and empathic and thinking and listening, and all of that requires prefrontal cortex resilience and activity, which is inhibited neurologically when we are in midbrain and brainstem dominance, a part of the brain we have starved, a part of the brain we have weakened.

Tina Dietz     

And so, when we're in this part of our brain, in the center of the brain and the brain stem, that's where we start to see these reports from, say, the Gallup study, that over 60% of employees are reporting that they're experiencing some form of burnout. And that means not just stress, but where they're actually starting to shut down and can’t access things. So, we're all still creating and doing and managing in spite of all this, which really says a lot about how resilient human beings really, really are. It is quite incredible what is possible, even in the face of all of this stress. I know for myself, one of my key indicators that I've slipped into the center of my brain instead of my prefrontal cortex is those accelerated thought processes. I get hyper vigilant or I start running scenarios. And I'm like, “Well, what if I did this? Or what if I did that? Or what if I do that?” and it just starts to feel way too fast. So, that is a key indicator that I've seen in clients and myself for years. I think we see that a lot in teams and companies. So, turning our attention to helping leaders identify what's happening in their culture that might be blocking psychological safety, Candy, you talk sometimes about something called sacred cows as one of the three most common challenges in company cultures that block psychological safety. What do you mean by sacred cows?

Candy Barone    

Yeah, I mean two things. And I need to preface this because it connects to what you and Lisa just said around resiliency. And this goes into sacred cows. We think about resiliency, oftentimes, in corporations and organizations as being the ability to bounce back. And one of the ways I try to simplify this for people is I talk about resiliency being this space in between reaction and response. And I say that because, when we look at the sacred cows, and we talk about some of that resiliency and how it plays in, oftentimes, I see sacred cows showing up in one of two spaces. One is that person that is a trigger for that psychological unsafety, because they are someone who has been a legacy team member, they have been there 30 some years, and people say, “That's just Bob,” and because Bob doesn't have the same expectations to show up and regulate, that there are excuses made over and over again around why Bob gets to create these unsafe spaces and that everybody should suck it up and just move on. So, there's one side of the sacred cow that says, “Just bounce back, just get over it. Just trust that’s Bob.” And we put that resiliency on people instead of the ownership where it belongs. The other side of the sacred cow is for those leaders that are deeply empathetic, sometimes sympathetic, and they are two different things, but they love their people. And so, they oftentimes will see potential in people that either don't see it in themselves or have capacity to be the person they want. I see Lisa pointing to herself. And so, we create a sacred cow because we try to save somebody who's not our responsibility or our job to save. And what happens is that in and of itself creates more of that unsafe psychological space. And they don't even realize the energy they're putting into that. So those two sacred cows are dangerous in an organization in my perspective. 

Tina Dietz   

That's definitely dangerous. Do you run into situations where leaders even question that psychological safety is even, quote unquote, a thing?

Candy Barone

Yeah. That is one of the biggest push backs, where leaders are like, “Oh, that woo woo crap is a bunch of nonsense and that's just a bunch of BS, the new flavor.” And so then it is asking them very direct questions because, I know even yesterday, I posted something that says, “Do you even know if you're creating a toxic work environment?” Most leaders don't know. But here's the other side of that. The leaders that do get it, that can feel what's been happening, especially in light of the last couple years, one of the things, and it breaks my heart to hear them say this, I get leaders on the phone that will say, “Candy, do you want to know what my biggest fear is right now, and the thing that keeps me up at night, is that whenever we come through whatever this is, that I'm going to realize I did more damage than good to the people I care most about, my team and my family, because I didn't know, I didn't know.” And then they actually start to, and this is where we say leaders don't feel safe, where they literally, and I get very emotional saying this, because they will break down. I get men who are sixty years old, who will fetal position, completely shut down and finally release a weight they have been carrying on their heart because they are taking responsibility for something that's not theirs, because they don't know how to impact psychological safety and they feel the impact of what's happening because they don't.

Lisa Wimberger 

And Candy, for me, that is the power of vulnerability. So first, is the acknowledgement. Then, they move into the shame and guilt of having been an imperfect human, as though they shouldn't ever have been, which is ridiculous. And then, that's where the growth and learning happens. That is the pause that you said, that, I love that, the resiliency is the pause between the reaction and then the response, which moves towards solution and innovation. Neurologically, that is the space of learning. And learning only ever can happen from error recognition. If you're in a state of, “I'm doing it right,” there is no capacity for the brain to evaluate a gap and adapt and move on to something adaptable and learned. There are leaders who dismiss psychological safety as “woo woo.” That is as ridiculous as saying, “Yes, I concur. We are all mammals, but I'm the one mammal that does not function like all other mammals.” That makes no neurobiological sense to me. 

Tina Dietz  

No, it definitely does not. 

Candy Barone 

And yet, they say it. 

Tina Dietz 

Yeah, it comes up, and there is the human response of being afraid of being wrong, right? So, as much as we can create compassion for each other and leave a space for an opening and understanding where is somebody in midbrain dominance? If we can listen to each other a little bit more like, “You know what? They're in a fear response right now, let's let that subside or let's move into something that allows that fear to move through,” because once that fear response is on, it doesn't just shut off. So, let's talk about getting some regulation available for leaders to bolster them so that they can be more present for their teams, and I would love to do another episode with the two of you specifically around what leaders can do for their teams, but, let's look at leaders specifically, and starting to, from the biological side and the behavioral side, Lisa, first, I'd love to hear from you. You say that leaders need to understand the non-negotiable dynamics of the mammalian nervous system and value it. So what, very precisely, are some non-negotiable dynamics they need to know? And what do they need to be doing to regulate their nervous system?

Lisa Wimberger  

Yeah. So I'm going to step out of behavior completely and go to you’re a mammal. Here's what needs to happen if you want to access your prefrontal cortex, your leadership skills. You have to have a regulated nervous system, and the fastest way into that, there are two fast tracks in, somatically. One is to condition your vagus nerve daily. And I'm going to give you those practices. They take thirty seconds, and they're free. The second thing is to release the muscle contractions that we all have when we're stressed to micro and macro degrees. And those perpetual contractions send perpetual signals to the brain that say “You're not safe, you're not safe, you're not safe.” And that's white noise. So, those are the two fast tracks in. So, number one, how do you dissipate the contractions in your body, so you stop sending signals back up to the brain? You have to do neurogenic tremoring, which is the phrase “shake it off.” So a 10 to 30 second super vigorous, full body shake. Not a controlled shake. The kind where you feel that, “Uhh,” that chill run up your spine, and you induce that. And you do that with a lot of energy for 10 to 30 seconds. You're going to use up the energy in the muscles. They're going to start to soften through their own neurogenic tremoring. They're going to twitch, and then they're going to send feedback signals back up to the brain that say we're softening. Cats in the wild, when they're not hunting and in threat mode, they are soft and laying down and yawning. So, our nervous systems need the same thing, soft muscles. The other piece of that is the vagal toning, your vagus nerve. That's the thing Candy was saying was holding her breath, was creating that pressure in the heart. The vagus nerve innervates all the organs and it is a brain stem governor of our stress response. And so if you get that thing resilient, well, then you have the orchestra leader leading the band, right, with a beautiful song. So, how you do that is you create vibrations in the lower face and neck. And that is lip exercises like the blowing raspberry effect. That silly thing? Not so silly. Your lower facial muscles innervate the vagus nerve, you send vibration to that vagus nerve, and you are creating mild benign resilience stimulation. You can massage your inner left ear because the auricular path of the vagus nerve will innervate very quickly. So, the inner lower part of the left ear can create a lot of vagal toning, and then humming, singing or even more powerful, gargling. The more you condition your vagus nerve, the more you build literal long-term resilience in your stress response. These are the exercises I do every day, 30 seconds apiece. 

Tina Dietz   

Perfect. Just to make sure everybody knows, we will be having, not only bullet-pointed timestamped show notes of all of this, resources backed to everything that Lisa and Candy are talking about today and the transcript. So if you find yourself just you know pulling over in your car or sitting down because you're like, “Wow, that's fascinating and a lot of words, and I really want to understand this,” please know we've got all of that for you at DrinkFromTheWellPodcast.com. Candy, you also have some tips for leaders on the behavioral and educational side of things that you really want them to know to get started in how they're feeling vulnerable, creating their own psychological safety for themselves.     

Candy Barone  

Yeah, and I love what Lisa just said, because it adds into one of the pieces. I talk to people about the three ways they can create more balance. And oftentimes, that's that regulation. And it's how you start your day, how you end your day, and how you manage the middle. And what I mean by that is there is the more intention you have about creating space for yourself at the start of the day, whether it through movement, through activating your body, mind, and spirit, through being able to connect back to who you are, why that matters and just a sense of self, will put you in a position to be able to navigate and notice some of these unregulated areas faster, so that you can create those moments that Lisa’s talking about, which I will call the managing the middle. And then there's the ending the day. Are you giving yourself a clear way to clear the deck, so to speak, to unplug, to disconnect from all of the things that also add stress, the blue lights, the technology, the things that if you're already amped up in your nervous system, is very sensitive. Those things are just adding extra juice that giving yourself real clear ways to shut that down, to be able to journal, reflect on what you learn through the day, and setting your environment for sacred sleep. And the managing the middle is what Lisa's talking about. I talk to people about creating what I call CMTs: Conscious Mindful Transitions. And we have, probably, four major areas where we have transitions in our life: from sleep to activate. So from rest to actually moving our body, and there is a transition space, perfect time to do what Lisa just said. There is a transition space between leaving our home or space and moving into our workspace. So there's personal to work. There is solo work to teamwork. And then there's that space of closing out the day and shutting things down. And so when we look at, we have transition spaces that, if we can start to discipline ourselves and create habits, that we then use them as prompted triggers to practice more mindfulness, to practice the harmonic tools that Lisa's talking about, to practice our breathing. And we've capped off our day with those bookends, it's amazing. These are the skills that I had to learn. I can regulate and move in and out of stress much easier and quickly, because stress always happens, because I have the tools that are my daily practice no matter what.

Tina Dietz    

This is a masterclass in a half hour podcast session is really what this is. A couple more points I wanted to touch on, because we're really dealing, again, with the physical body, the emotional body, the psychological body, the environment. Lisa, and Candy, I know that you have had your own experiences, as have I, with, if you're not sleeping, pretty much anything else we say and do here is going to be 10 times harder to regulate. We can't regulate the hormones and metabolism, the digestion. Also, hydration and nutrition. Now, we run the risk, of course, we talk about all these things of, “Holy crap, I've got to do all of this. I've got to do it all at once. I've got to figure it out, or everything is going to go wrong.” And from my own experience as a therapist and my own journey, I can say that it's so important for us to understand as leaders to have more compassion for ourselves than anybody else. We have to start with that example for ourselves. So, maybe you're not sleeping well but you can do the tremoring and you can drink some more water. And you can take two minutes in between meetings to just take five deep breaths and to yawn a couple of times as I would do as a stress relief with some of my vocal leadership clients, right? Two minutes is all you need to start this process, to start regulating yourself from a biological perspective, and then from a behavioral, emotional perspective, having some room so that when you're feeling vulnerable, you can make it okay to be that way. And then fortunately, something else I've learned from Lisa, is that because human beings have this wonderful little thing called limbic resonance, we actually impact the people around us when we start to make changes. I see you nodding. I'm like, “Oh, I know there's so many more stories in this.” So we're going to have to continue this conversation, for sure. But for today, Lisa and Candy, I'd love for you to maybe share a parting tip, some words of wisdom for our leaders listening to just get them kind of started on the next phase of their journey. Candy, let's start with you.

Candy Barone   

I would say, I guess my takeaway from this conversation is that resiliency, real resiliency is born in the space between reaction and response, and the choices you make one by one, to your point, Lisa, that 1%, that starts to make a compounded effect that can change your life.

Tina Dietz  

Lisa?

Lisa Wimberger 

I would say that between what we three just talked about is the equivalent of having set up gas stations all along the highway. And you as a leader, wanting to drive your team to the successful end goal, have been running out of gas. You're not going to get to your end goal by driving faster with no gas. You're going to get to the end goal by pulling off the highway and filling up. And so Candy's techniques, what Tina was identifying and the things that I gave you, these are your gas stations. And if you don't take that time to regulate, to fill your tank, you're not going to get, not only you aren't going to get there, you're going to inhibit your team getting there. You will be in your own way and theirs, and you have all the skills and tools now to not do that.

Tina Dietz  

And there it is. I thank you both so much for joining me around the well today to refresh and rejuvenate the leaders listening and to have such a refreshing and rejuvenating conversation among us as colleagues today. I'm definitely feeling the limbic resonance happening in the conversation. So, thank you both so much.

Lisa Wimberger  

Thank you. What a pleasure.

Candy Barone   

Absolutely. Thank you.

Tina Dietz

Thanks for gathering around the well with us today, and I invite you back for another drink of our executive elixir as we bring the worlds of leadership innovation, creativity and communication together. Follow us on your favorite podcast app and journey over to DrinkFromTheWellPodcast.com for transcripts, show notes and links for all the wisdom in today's episode. We're always here to refresh and to entertain you anytime you need a drink from the well. 

Drink From The Well is an original production of Twin Flames Studios.

About our Guest Experts in Psychological Safety

Lisa Wimberger is the founder of the Neurosculpting® Institute and co-founder of the NeuroPraxis App.  She holds a Masters Degree in Education, a Foundations Certification in NeuroLeadership, and Certificates in Medical Neuroscience, Visual Perception, and the Brain, and Neurobiology. She is the author of seven books on neuroplasticity and stress management, including NEW BELIEFS, NEW BRAIN: Free Yourself from Stress and Fear, and NEUROSCULPTING: A Whole-Brain Approach to Heal Trauma, Rewrite Limiting Beliefs, and Find Wholeness.

She runs multiple companies, and has over 60 international franchises. Lisa still runs a private meditation coaching practice teaching clients who suffer from emotional blocks, stress disorders, and self-imposed limitations. She is a keynote speaker and a faculty member of Kripalu Yoga and Meditation Center, the Law Enforcement Survival Institute, Omega Institute, and 1440 Multiversity.

Candy Barone, CEO & Founder of You Empowered Strong, is a leadership development expert, trainer and executive coach, as well as an international speaker and Amazon best-selling author.

With nearly 20 years in corporate, combined with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, certification as a Six Sigma Black Belt, and MBA, she is a master at building exceptional, high-performing teams, maximizing and leveraging ROI, growing emerging leaders, creating metrics for greater accountability, and catapulting individuals to achieve explosive growth. 

Episode Featured Resources for Psychological Safety

Neurosculpting Institute Website

NeuroPraxis App

NEW BELIEFS, NEW BRAIN by Lisa Wimberger

NEUROSCULPTING by Lisa Wimberger 

You Empowered Strong Website

You Empowered Strong by Candy Barone

LEADERS' DISCUSSION GUIDE – PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

How to prepare to lead this discussion session with your team:
  1. Observe your ‘internal landscape' and notice where your nervous system is regulated and where you may have some dysregulation.
  2. Use the techniques in the episode (skip to minute 26) to help bring yourself into the present moment and find a deeper state of regulation/psychological safety in yourself.
  3. You may also use these simple, quick stress reducing techniques.
  4. Remember that in your conversation with your team, sharing your own experiences can help encourage others.
Questions to discuss WITH your team about psychological safety in the workplace:
  1. Have them listen to the episode first to create common ground and context for the conversation.
  2. On a scale of 1-10, on average how stressed or ‘dysregulated' does your nervous system feel during the workday?
  3. What do you find works well to help reduce your stress?
  4. Let's think about the times where we felt the most cohesive as a team – when were those times and what stands out about those times?
  5. ADVANCED: Do you think we have any ‘sacred cows' in our workplace?

Inspired to turn your Voice into influence and become a Thought Leader worth listening to?

Let's Talk

Introducing Drink From the Well

Replenish your inner leader with our executive elixir of wisdom, humor, and the power of human connection on the Drink From the Well podcast.

CEO and vocal leadership expert Tina Dietz and her expert guests guide you to ignite your managerial magic with diverse and entertaining discussions on the most important topics we're facing in the workplace today.

  • Leading in a Multi-Generational Workplace
  • Creating Inclusive Workplaces
  • Family of Origin Impacts on Leadership
  • Leading at the Intersection of Capitalism and Conservation
  • Psychological Safety in Teams and Leadership
  • Dealing With Mental Health and Burnout in Ourselves and Our Teams

About Your Host

Tina Dietz, MS is the CEO of Twin Flames Studios—a full-service, award-winning audio production agency specializing in podcasting, audiobooks, and content marketing for thought leaders.

More than 250 TFS clients from 30+ industries in 8 countries have been featured in such outlets as the WSJ, CNN, CNBC, Forbes, INC, and dozens more. Tina’s work and expertise has been featured by Forbes, ABC, INC, and Huffington Post, and she consults executives from known brands like Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, Aetna, Novo Nordisk, Modera Wealth, and UGG Boots.

Visit DrinkFromTheWellPodcast.com for episodes, transcripts, and resources or listen on your favorite podcast platform

How to Grow an Aligned Audience as a Thought Leader

By M. Shannon Hernandez, CEO/Founder of Joyful Business Revolution

Colorful hands raised on a pink background

If you're like most thought leaders, you've spent time developing a course or program that you were beyond excited to share with the world. It checked all the boxes:

  • It answered every question your ideal client might have. 
  • It solved a frustration or pain point your ideal client shared with you.
  • It aligned with your brand's core mission and values.

And you were SURE it would sell out in minutes.

…but when you announced your shiny new program or product…instead of sales, you heard the sound of crickets. OUCH. We have ALL been there.

Now, part of owning a business is taking risks. And while you can't eliminate every chance of disappointment that comes with running your business, you can lessen the risk of selling a whopping zero programs or products with a very simple (yet often ignored) tactic: testing your messaging. 

Instead of spending too much time thinking about creating a new offer or program…

Or spending months (or years) developing an entire suite of programs and offers…

…today, we are excited to share our tried-and-true method that will allow you to assess whether your idea is perceived as genuinely transformative to your audience – instead of just assuming that it will be.

Growing an aligned audience excited to learn from you requires cultivating a community eager to receive your wisdom, support, and guidance.

If you want to cultivate an aligned audience of humans who are excited about you and your business, you need to take a hard look at three key things:

  1. Your niche
  2. Your voice
  3. The Invitation

Once you master those three things, you'll find that selling your programs and products becomes more straightforward and practically effortless.

Know Your Niche

It's not enough to assume that you're “niched down” – you've got to go deep here because surface-level “knowing” is no longer enough.

While you can narrow your niche in many ways, you want to focus on the ways that will result in them being able to say, “OH, THAT IS ME,” followed by, “I BELONG HERE.”

And, no, targeting people based on their Netflix obsession or their passion for crocheting isn't going to work. You'll waste precious time focusing on these things.

Instead, please focus on the actions they would be taking before working with you.

Use Your Voice

Please note that this does not refer to your volume–and this is where using your Content Personality® makes a massive difference in the energy of how your message is received.

Person on stage in front of a large crowd with colorful lights

The internet is a loud place – and that's before we even take a peek at social media.

When we talk about using your voice, we're talking about communicating your mission-driven message using your Content Personality® so that your narrowed niche can hear you, get excited, and get on board with your solutions, values, and more.

That is how aligned community growth happens!

Invite Them to Join Your Community

You may have already discovered this, but it's not enough to “post and pray,” hoping your aligned audience will find you as if by magic.

Instead of just hoping, be tactical with your messaging – invite your audience to share your vision for a changed world. This type of “leaning in” allows others to see you as human and amplifies the need to spread your message.

Suppose you're determined to create a lasting impact on your business and spread your mission. In that case, you'll need to become highly committed to being visible (using your Content Personality®), so your aligned audience can get to know you and cultivate a relationship with you.

Growing an aligned audience is possible, but it takes time, dedication, and courage!

When you share your mission and services with your audience in a way that is genuinely aligned with all the parts that make you UNIQUE, you'll earn their trust and create invaluable relationships (which will make offering your fantastic, ground-breaking, life-changing programs and products much easier).

The thing about growing an engaged, aligned audience is that everyone you're connected to absorbs and processes your messaging at their own pace. 

This naturally means that some of your audience isn't ready to buy…yet. As a business owner, it's important to realize (and accept) that if someone doesn't invest with you today, that does not mean they won't be ready to invest with you later (maybe tomorrow or next week!).

Don't assume that someone not clicking the “buy” button means they don't want to work with you – they may need to grow your relationship first.

But wouldn't it be nice to know if, next time, introducing your brilliant idea makes sense for where the majority of your audience is right now?

(Yes, yes, it would.)

Take Action

If you're ready to make an impact and share your vision for change, take some time to review those three key things that can make or break your next offer.

Ask yourself:

  1. Your Niche: Am I niched down enough? Is the audience I'm speaking to engaging and interacting with me?
  2. Your Voice: Am I communicating effectively so that the people who read or listen to or watch my messaging understand my point of view, values, and mission? 
  3. The Invitation: Have you given the humans who follow your content time to get to know you and grow into a trusting relationship that will naturally lead to them investing in your program or product?

If you don't score perfectly across the board, that's normal (and expected). Review some of your more popular posts, videos, or emails and note how you highlighted your niche, used your voice, and invited your audience to take action.

If you don't have any posts that seem popular, take a broad overview of your messaging and identify areas where you need to improve for clarity and understanding. A great place to start is by learning your natural Content Personality®, and lucky for you, we've created a simple, 3-minute (seriously) quiz to help you understand precisely what your Content Personality® is and how to best utilize your natural talents in your messaging.

What most surprised you, or what do you still want to know? Let us know your thoughts below!

More About M. Shannon Hernandez

M. Shannon Hernandez is ALL ABOUT THAT JOY in life and biz. She is specifically known around the globe for The Content Personality® Wheel and is the Founder of Joyful Business Revolution™, a business growth strategy and consultancy company that works with coaches, consultants, and service-based business owners. Shannon and her team specialize in organic mission-driven marketing and creative campaigns that help their clients grow aligned audiences and deepen community relationships, so they grow their business for GOOD, resulting in more joy, more time-off, and more profits with purpose.

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How Thought Leadership Archetypes Bring Magic to Your Message

We are all born with two voices: the one we speak with and the one that speaks to us inside. Our inner voice provides navigation through life, while our outer voice is the tool we use to guide, teach, influence, and help others. When our inner voice is aligned with our outer voice, true, authentic thought leadership comes forth.

While we can certainly argue the notion that we have many voices inside of us, (I’m the first person to admit that I have inner ‘board meetings’ sometimes with myself) the central premise here is that our communication becomes clear once we become more congruent and aligned with ourselves. We become more grounded and centered, and when we speak or write, that alignment comes through in all forms of our communication – vocal, physical, energetic, and in the words we choose.

You might have heard of Carl Jung’s 12 Archetypes, and how brands utilize them in marketing. According to Jung, the human psyche is predisposed to these archetypes and they are patterned into us inherently. Versions of these archetypes are found in storytelling across world cultures and through millenia.

We are always evolving our identity as thought leaders. By identifying our current primary and influencing archetypes, we give ourselves a space to check in with our inner and outer voices and ask ourselves: 

  • Is my voice and message consistent?
  • Do my words and thoughts reflect what is authentic for me at this time?
  • Does my message feel forced or awkward, or fluid and easy?
  • Am I enjoying and excited about my own thought leadership, and the messages I’m putting out into the world?

Utilizing archetypes as a guide enriches our content development by giving a natural and psychologically congruent place to develop and express one’s communication style. In essence, when you communicate using your thought leadership archetypes as a guide, you are perceived as credible, trustworthy, and authentic.

Read on with a curious mind and discover the magic of thought leadership archetypes.

The Seekers: Innocent, Explorer, Sage

While there are 12 archetypes, each fall into a quadrant of similarity. The Seekers are a quadrant defined by a need for knowledge, freedom, and safety.

The Innocent is well known for their optimism. They have the ability to comfort others through their “glass half full” mentality. Innocents can simplify complex topics easily, recognize opportunities others may not see, and bring forth an inspirational perspective that carries a team through tough times. While they may be perceived as naive or in denial, the Innocent’s deep faith and trust in life keep them going. 

The Explorer is the Indiana Jones of the workplace. Always looking to embark on the next adventure, the Explorer centers their thought leadership around the potential of unexplored avenues of inquiry, divergent thinking, and asking great questions that can lead to innovation. Explorers value autonomy and freedom over all else, which may lead them to feel trapped and easily bored.

The Sage is your quintessential thought leader. Sages are perceived as experts in a wide range of topics due to their love for learning, and therefore make excellent mentors, educators, and coaches. While they may not be the most charismatic, their ability to think critically and analyze data allows Sages to enjoy a high level of credibility amongst their colleagues and followers.

The Disruptors: Hero, Rebel, Magician

The Disruptors are those who leave a mark. They are courageous, provocative, and dynamic people who value liberation, power, and mastery.

The Hero inspires others with their stories of overcoming the odds and rising to challenges. They thrive in a competitive environment with a clear set of goals, and take pride in their dedication to their cause. However, this need to succeed may cause Heroes to disregard their personal wellbeing, as their strength comes not from themselves but who they are in the world. 

The Rebel has the courage to challenge the status quo. A positive advocate for change, Rebels are admired for their ability to speak out against inefficient systems and comfortably live in the uncomfortable. Their high tolerance for risk allows them to throw out the old in favor of the new, even if their recklessness comes at a high price.

The Magician is a charismatic miracle-worker. They use their charm and creative intuition to bring the seemingly impossible into fruition, because Magicians love to make dreams come true. Their spot-on hunches and ability to influence their adversaries may cause others to doubt the credibility of Magicians. In the face of disbelief, Magicians return to themselves and spiritual guidance to carry on. 

The Builders: Creator, Ruler, Caregiver

The Builders provide structure in an increasingly noisy world. They are creative, compassionate, and confident.

The Creator is powered by imagination. Their ability to see the final product in the raw material is what allows them to foster innovation and self-expression. Creators take an artful and individual approach to creative thinking and problem solving that motivates others to stretch themselves and see the creative solution. Like most artists and entrepreneurs, Creators have a flair for the dramatics and are prone to perfectionism in everything they do.

The Ruler is a natural-born leader who knows how to use power. They prefer to lead from within, utilizing their social organization prowess and networking skills to improve the world. They may be seen as domineering and tyrannical, but Rulers know when they should intervene with structure, rules, and decisions.

The Caregivers’ superpower is their empathy. Caregivers notice when others need help and support. They naturally foster peaceful and harmonious environments where all feel welcome and safe. While they tend to have poor boundaries, the Caregivers use their keen social intelligence to be the “glue” holding everything together.

The Connectors: Everyperson, Lover, Jester

The last quadrant of archetypes is the Connector. These are people who excel at connecting meaningfully with others in a fair, passionate, and funny way.

The Everyperson is a leader that’s hard to spot. They prefer to fit in with the crowd and be relatable, yet still inspire, advocate, and foster others like any other archetype does. This unique take on leadership comes from their steadfast belief in the equality of every person. They are loyal to humanity to a fault, and their realist approach to life may be mistaken as pessimism. 

The Lover seeks real connection in their life. With their charismatic, engaging, and beautiful personalities, Lovers excel at creating lasting relationships that are meaningful and abundant. They know how to incorporate the romantic, the cherished, and the intimate into their personal branding from wearing their heart on their sleeves their whole lives.

And finally, The Jester is proof that life is but a stage. Jesters know how to effectively use humor and performance to promote change. They encourage others to laugh rather than cry and foster high morale amongst their team, effortlessly creating an environment where people want to work. Jesters put the fun back into boring presentations, meetings or brainstorming sessions, as long as they stay away from mean-spirited or self-indulgent jokes.

We are each a blend of archetypes to varying degrees. Sometimes connecting to a different archetype than our primary is just what you need to spice up your thought leadership. Which archetype, or blend of archetypes, do you resonate with the most? 

At Twin Flames Studios, we’re developing a more powerful assessment (releasing later this year) to support you, your voice, and messaging of your thought leadership archetypes.

If you don’t want to wait to discover more about using your Thought Leadership Archetypes, meet with us to discuss how we can deepen your presence and grow your business and message with your voice. 

Inspired to turn your Voice into influence and become a Thought Leader worth listening to?

Let's Talk

How Do You Create Quality Content That Stands Out from the Crap?

Here’s some facts that might shock you. 500 million tweets are sent out daily, and the weight of that sheer amount of content can be felt. On top of that, 11% of these tweets come from bots, whose sole purpose is to generate content.

In a world of AI-generated content and increasingly cluttered digital noise, it’s more important than ever to have our authenticity and humanity be heard. But aren’t you as exhausted as I am with the notion that you must be EVERYWHERE in order to stay relevant and ‘top of mind?’

So, we can use technology to help us, right? Our tech tools are wonderful, but they can also go completely off the rails. Here’s a few entertaining but cringe-worthy examples of #MARKETINGFAILS. 

KFC had to apologize after sending a promotional message to customers in Germany urging them to commemorate Kristallnacht with cheesy chicken. Kristallnacht was a Nazi-era attack resulting in the death of 90+ Jewish people, marking the beginning of the Holocaust. Yikes. This PR meltdown started because KFC programmed a bot to send automated push notifications based on calendar events, including national observance days. 

In another notable campaign, Coca-Cola encouraged people to reply to negative tweets with #MakeItHappy, so a bot could transform the negative words of the tweet into a cute image. As things on the internet so often do, Coke’s innocent attempt at positivity went south as quotes from Hitler’s Mein Kampf were tagged with #MakeItHappy. The bot made positive images, one of them being a cat playing the drums, out of Hitler’s words. When technology tools go unregulated, we see these types of consequences occurring.

Inflation nowadays…

And yet, we must ABC! (Always Be Creating…right?)

The Thought Leaders, like you, that we work with every day have brilliant bodies of work through your audiobooks and podcasts that we produce with you.

BUT, what I hear most often from our clients is the experience of ‘content fatigue.’ This is the state of listening to their own message over and over again in their minds, on paper, in their emails, and in their courses and classes. Content fatigue is something that thought leaders battle every day.

Did you know, however, that our audiences don’t get tired of entertaining, interesting content? Particularly when that content is surrounding a focused topic. 

I never get bored of the antics of the Pearls Before Swine comics, or of JauncyDev, the content creator who famously creates videos giving human personalities to different dog breeds. Millions of people eagerly await every single derivative that these content creators bring to the table, month on month and year upon year.

We, as thought leaders, are no different. When we allow ourselves to go deeper into our content to find derivatives and angles on the topics we’re already in love with, our audiences come along with us.

3 Ways to Get Re-Energized From Your Own Message

The ‘Book Oracle’

Open your book to any page and read a couple of paragraphs out loud while running a voice recording app on your phone in the background. Then stop looking at the book but keep talking, stream of consciousness style, riffing on your own content. Transcribe what you say and see what new nuggets arise.

The ‘Indignant Response’

Set Google Alerts for keywords or topics in your book, and allow yourself to get catalyzed by what pops up. I used this method in the creation of this message- it’s a response to the article on AI generated content issues where I learned about the KFC fail.

The ‘Dear Abby’

Collaborate with a colleague, fan, or team member who is familiar with your work to send you a question each week for you to answer. These questions can be created for each chapter of your book, or episode of your podcast. Freely allow yourself to answer and ask questions as you capture this exchange in a document, in emails, or even in video or audio exchanges.

The last thing any of us need right now as humans, much less as leaders, is more noise. Focusing on content ‘craft’ vs. ‘crap’ is the gift we can give ourselves as a good use of our time, and the gift we can give the people we serve to make their time and attention worthwhile.

Inspired to turn your Voice into influence and become a Thought Leader worth listening to?

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3 Ways to Improve DEI Programs with Internal Podcasting

By Tina Dietz, CEO Twin Flames Studios

Twelve years ago, over 80 percent of Americans reported that they held companies highly accountable for promoting diversity, ensuring human rights, and educating employees to take action (ConeInc.com Who’s Responsible?, 2010). More than a decade later, how has that accountability translated? How can we continue to battle unconscious bias in the workplace?

DEI is not a new and trendy idea, nor is it a “nice to have.” A corporate culture that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion is an expectation-and for good reason. If your company is not diving in and doing the work to cultivate a culture where diversity is welcomed as the norm, you’re missing out. What gets unlocked with diversity is the endless innovation and creativity brought out by your employee’s authentic selves. 

The human voice has qualities that transcend demographics. Various vocal features such as the “contagiousness” of laughter, structures and themes in oral storytelling techniques, and the detection of when someone is trustworthy via someone’s voice are hardwired into us as humans. The implementation of internal corporate podcasts allows for the diversity in companies and organizations to flourish, to reinforce and develop company culture and values, and democratize leadership. 

But why podcasting? You might be surprised that research shows that audio-only communication can increase team-cohesion and productivity. 

With audio-only communication and internal podcasting your organization can:

  • Develop better listening skills
  • Cultivate an environment to form deeper connections 
  • Establish a culture of verbal equity
  • Decrease bias
  • Increase your team’s overall happiness 
  • Reduce stress levels
  • Create psychological safety

Many companies are implementing podcasting as part of their DEI programs. Here are three powerful benefits of internal podcasting to promote and develop diversity and inclusion in the workplace with specific examples:

  1. Podcasts give ERGs an opportunity to have a voice

Employee-led resource groups (ERG) promote diversity and inclusion by ensuring everyone gets an opportunity to have a voice. 

Some great examples include:

  • Sodexo Diversity & Inclusion is one of the company’s six strategic imperatives, including their DEI podcast, with 25 percent of the executive bonuses linked to diversity objectives. 

  • The Lehigh University podcast, featured in PodBean. When asked, “Is there a wider value to the podcast?” This was the response: 

“The podcast has allowed staff members’ stories to have greater reach than their normal range might offer. For example, one of the staffers is a role model to, and supportive of, the LGBT+ community at Lehigh. Students and faculty members who otherwise may not know, were made aware of this person's commitment to being an important resource. Another episode featured the story of the university’s performing arts center director. This story served both to highlight the diverse careers and paths to them at Lehigh and also to show people beyond the campus the many functions the university serves in the community,” Hillary Kwiatek.

2. Audio-only format decreases bias

Have you ever gathered with your team only to discover there are some who speak to one another more than others? They tend to seemingly speak one-on-one in meetings leaving several other team members out of the conversation. In other words, they dominate the meeting. As humans, we naturally tend to gravitate to those we like the most, whether intentional or unintentional. In-person and zoom meetings leave room for distractions from non-verbal queues to appearance. DEI in the workplace requires a multifaceted approach. Corporate podcasts decrease benevolent and unintended biases, as well as decrease the malevolent or discriminatory biases. Podcasts allow for us to become better listeners and establish a culture of verbal equity. Decreasing bias bolters company culture and creates new relationships. 

  • “We show that when interacting partners have audio cues only, the lack of video does not hinder them from communicating these rules but instead helps them to regulate their conversation more smoothly by engaging in more equal exchange of turns and by establishing improved prosodic synchrony. Previous research has focused largely on synchrony regulated by visual cues, such as studies showing that synchrony in facial expressions improves cohesion in collocated teams” (Physiology & Behavior).

3. Internal podcasting promotes psychological safety

Anxiety, panic attacks, and lack of confidence can hinder our ability to speak when all eyes are on us. Zoom and in-person meetings can produce visual distractions and unconscious bias. In audio-only mediums, like podcasting, employees feel psychologically safe from those hindrances. Research shows that eliminating visual distractions and nonverbal cues can help. When we turn off the camera and rely only on audio cues, the conversation flows and improves cohesion in meetings. The ability to identify others’ emotional states by simply listening is a powerful tool that few of us fully access as leaders. Internal podcasting allows us to create that safe space and prioritization of listening. 

The added benefit of internal podcasting in regards to reducing stress levels, is the ability of the listener to move while listening. Movement and exercise is important to manage and reduce stress levels, thus assisting in the prevention of or mitigation of anxiety and depression. Podcasting reduces stress levels, creates psychological safety, and improves your team’s overall happiness.

While podcasting as an audio-only format can remove unconscious bias, it can also highlight diverse voices (as we touched on in points one and two). 

When companies weave psychological safety and DEI together, employees feel safe to bring their whole selves to work. Having a diverse workforce improves productivity, innovation, creativity, and saves organizations money (Nathan & Lee, 2015). 

According to researchers from the University of Iceland, when supervisors actively listened to their employees, employees reported higher dedication and vigor. This correlated to an increase in reciprocal communication, more psychological safety throughout the organization and improved physical and mental health. Taken further, this indicates that when leaders establish an environment where everyone’s voice is heard and people engage in thoughtful participation, we create a climate where we can maximize strengths, address weaknesses and curb burnout. 

Valuing diversity leads to psychological safety within organizations, fostering more positive, open-minded, creative, and better-performing employees.

Corporate internal podcasts can increase team-cohesion, creativity, and productivity by championing diversity, equity, and inclusion. The audio-only format of podcasts removes distractions and bias, creates a stress-reduced space for everyone, and provides an efficient method to highlight diverse voices to your entire organization. Click here to learn more about how to use podcasting to promote DEI in your workplace.