This week’s episode of Good Girls Get Rich is brought to you by Uplevel Media CEO and LinkedIn expert, Karen Yankovich. In this episode, guest Karen Laos and Karen Yankovich discuss how to eradicate self-doubt and build your confidence.

Karen Laos, Communication Expert and Confidence Cultivator, leverages 25 years in the boardroom and speaking on the world’s most coveted stages such as Google and NASA to transform missed opportunities into wins. She is fiercely committed to her mission of eradicating self-doubt in 10 million women by giving them practical strategies to ask for what they want in the boardroom and beyond. She guides corporations and individuals with her tested communication model to generate consistent results through her Leadership Presence Keynote: How to Be an Influential Communicator.

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We want to hear your thoughts on this episode! Leave us a message on Speakpipe or email us at info@karenyankovich.com.

About the Episode:

Hey there, it’s Karen Yankovich, and I am so excited to bring you this episode where I had the pleasure of chatting with communication and confidence expert, Karen Laos. We dove deep into the world of building confidence and mastering effective communication in networking and business meetings. You don’t want to miss out on these valuable insights and practical tips that will help you boost your confidence and enhance your communication skills.

We started off by exploring the importance of overcoming self-doubt and building unwavering confidence. Karen Laos shared her own journey of battling self-doubt and offered fantastic tips like positive self-talk, affirmations, and seeking guidance from mentors. These strategies will transform your mindset and set you on the path to success.

Then, we shifted our focus to networking events and discussed strategies to navigate them with ease. Karen Laos emphasized the power of authenticity and finding common ground when approaching groups. We even shared some engaging introductions and conversation starters that will help you make meaningful connections beyond small talk.

Next up, we tackled the art of contributing to business meetings with confidence. Karen Laos shared valuable techniques to make a strong impact and effectively contribute your thoughts and ideas. From using strong vocal conviction to eliminating filler words, you’ll learn how to capture attention and convey your message effectively. We also dove into strategies to avoid rambling and get straight to the point, leading with a clear point of view and utilizing pauses to gather your thoughts.

I am truly inspired by Karen Laos’s mission to eradicate self-doubt in 10 million women by 2030 through her initiative, “10 and 10.” You can get involved as an individual or organization and access incredible resources like keynotes, online courses, and corporate training. Connect with Karen Laos on her website, Instagram, and LinkedIn to learn more about building confidence and effective communication skills. Let’s join her in empowering ourselves and others to excel in networking and business meetings.

I hope you’re as pumped up as I am after listening to this episode. Don’t forget to take action and implement these strategies in your own life. Remember, confidence and effective communication are game-changers in both personal and professional settings. Until next time, keep rocking those networking events and business meetings with unwavering confidence.

Episode Spotlights:

Magical Quotes from the Episode:

  • “Confidence is not about pretending to be someone else; it’s about embracing who you are and owning your unique value in networking.” – Karen Laos
  • “Effective communication in networking is not just about talking, but also about active listening and understanding the needs and goals of others.” – Karen Yankovich
  • “Networking is not about collecting business cards; it’s about building meaningful relationships based on trust, authenticity, and mutual support.” – Karen Laos
  • “Self-doubt can hold us back, but when we recognize our strengths and embrace them, we can truly shine in networking and make a lasting impact.” – Karen Yankovich
  • “Confidence and effective communication go hand in hand. When you believe in yourself and communicate your value with clarity and conviction, you attract opportunities and build strong connections.” – Karen Laos

Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

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Read the Transcript

Karen Yankovich 0:00
You’re listening to the good girls get rich podcast episode 241.

Intro 0:06
Welcome to the good girls get rich podcast with your host, Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are girl, stop being the best kept secret in town, learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies and make the big bucks.

Karen Yankovich 0:24
Have you ever been in a room full of people or in a meeting? And you’re just not sure what to say? How to get in the conversation? How to kind of assert yourself in this meeting. I loved today’s conversation with Karen, to Karen’s favorite to Karen’s today, because that’s her area of expertise. You know, we talk a lot on the show about overcoming things like impostor syndrome, but Karen’s expertise really is what’s holding you back from getting what you want. What’s holding you back. What how are you? How can you communicate differently? How can you improve your ability to communicate so that you’re achieving what you want? I loved this show so much. I didn’t know Karen well before this. So I think there’s going to be a lot more of the Karen and Karen show in the future. And I I look forward to seeing what that looks like. And you should too because this is a really fun episode. So without further ado, Meet Karen. Okay, I am excited to be here today with Karen Laos and Karen is a communications expert and competence cultivator. She leverages 25 years in the boardroom and speaking on the world’s most coveted stages like Google and NASA to transform miss opportunities into wins. She’s fiercely committed to her mission of eradicating self doubt in 10 million women by giving them practical strategies to ask for what they want in the boardroom and beyond. She guides corporations and individuals with their tested communication model to generate consistent results through her leadership presence keynote, how to be an influential communicated. Now if you guys are longtime listeners of the show. Does that sound familiar to you? Because it’s so interesting. Maybe it’s the Karen, maybe it’s an encounter, maybe all Karen’s are committed to women really stepping into their greatness. But I’m so excited to have you here, Karen, because this is such an important topic. Yeah,

Karen Laos 2:07
I agree. Thanks for having me.

Karen Yankovich 2:09
Well, I’m so glad you’re here. So at the heart of really everything we do on this show, you know, the title good girls get rich, really. And I don’t think I explained this enough. Again, this is like episode 240. Something probably and, and so in the beginning, I talked a little bit about what I meant by good girls get rich, but maybe it’s time for a reminder, which is when you know what you’re good at, you stand in that power and what you’re good at, that’s where the abundance comes into your life. Right? When you just are confident in your abilities, and you just show up in a big way. This is where we this is where abundance comes in. And abundance is different for everyone. Of course, there’s monetary abundance. But you know, sometimes it’s time sometimes, you know, there’s a lot of other ways that I define rich as right. So I think it comes down to confidence. And I love that you are talking about this. So tell us a little bit about your history. Tell us a little bit about what brought you to doing what you do today.

Karen Laos 3:04
Yeah, I have to start with an example because of what you shared. Yes. So I am a TEDx coach, speaker coach for the Minneapolis TEDx event that’s happening this year, August 2023. And I bring this up, because at the very first run through of the speakers, where I was a coach, along with about eight others, I jumped in right away with my feedback after each speaker. And the reason I bring this up, it might sound well, of course, you’re a speaker, coach. That’s what you do. But there was something different that I noticed. And probably for any of us, when we are going through some personal growth, or we’re working on transforming ourselves, we don’t really notice the growth until we’re faced with a situation where we would have acted differently in the past. So in spite of being on stages, yeah. So being on these stages and doing these things. And yet, I still held back in a lot of situations, because I felt like, oh, maybe my ideas aren’t good enough. Or maybe people will think this, the whole people thinking that they’re being judged and all of that. And I remember how different it was, when I did that. And I thought, oh my gosh, I haven’t been in a situation like this for a while. And I feel completely confident. And it’s like, it’s just what you talked about, when you feel so confident. And you’re in your skin that just feel so comfortable with yourself and what you’re saying.

Karen Yankovich 4:39
So do you find so what I find is when when we’re talking when I talk to a lot of women, we are the things we’re confident in, we don’t recognize as our opportunities, right? We just think we’re good at this. You know, I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine a bunch of years ago where I was just in this place in my life where life was crazy and haven’t be a really good cook, but I just didn’t have time. And I’m like, I just read, you just cook for me. And she’s like, That’s ridiculous. You can cook for yourself, why would you pay me to cook for you? I’m like, because you are good at this, you’ve got the time, and I’m going to pay somebody who might as well be you. But I couldn’t get her past that. And it’s a simple example. But it’s an example of what are you talking about, you can do this, like, I know, I can do it, but you’re a really good cook. And this is something you can lean into, you know, as a skill as a marketable skill. And I’m willing to be your first client, you know, and I just couldn’t get her there. I couldn’t get her there. So but I think that that’s common, right? Like when we, we are good things, we don’t look at them as, as something we can mark it. And then and then I, then we then I feel like we struggle a little bit, right? Because now I know, you know, learn new things. And unless I’m always learning, like I’m always about learning. Yeah, getting better at what I do. But yeah, I love that you talked about eradicated self doubt. Oh, I

Karen Laos 5:56
Yeah, it’s really, it’s, I’m super passionate about it. And what I love that you did in that scenario is that you gave her the opportunity to recognize that by saying, I will pay you for this, right? Many people would have just said, Oh, can you do this for me, or, you know, we do a trade or something like that. Right. And like you said, the marketable skill, and I want to share an exercise that I find really helpful. And also an example of me, where I didn’t think something was marketable until much later in life. And it’s, I call it five by five. And it’s asking five people for that, you know, interest for five positive qualities about yourself. And so often that lack can be one way people often ask, Well, how do you eliminate how in the world are we going to eradicate self doubt, and truthfully, I don’t know that we’re ever going to totally eradicate it. But it’s about the goal, it’s about the vision, and thinking about, okay, if I can get some external feedback from other people to help me identify some of the things that I do really well and see as strengths, it can help me to internalize that and like with any feedback, we get to decide we all anybody listening, you get to decide what you choose to believe, and hold on to. And my example is that when I was quite young, I’ve done this, this exercise a few different times in my life. But more importantly, even when I was in high school, people used to say, I’m so comfortable around you. And I always thought that was a nice thing to say, that’s probably the most common theme that I hear that and I love your energy is another one I hear. But it’s interesting, because so many of us look at tactical skills. And we need to start looking at character traits. And say, Here’s I do this, here’s my X years of experience in blah, blah, blah. And why people like working with me, is because I create environments where people feel safe to share, or I feel, you know, I create environments where I get it out, whatever it is, but most people aren’t thinking about that. And so when we communicate that, whether it’s in an interview, or whether you’re trying to influence somebody to buy into your project, or idea or LinkedIn profile, you know, any of these things, all these exposure example, or exposure touchpoints that we have with people is an opportunity to share that. But most of us don’t ask for it, you’re not going to have most interviewers saying, Tell me about a character trait. We have to tell people that but that’s how people those, you know, those are the issues that people companies spend nights, or people spend nights worrying about is the people issues, not generally the process or the systems.

Karen Yankovich 8:43
So true. That’s so true. So, you know, I’m sure that you’ve seen, like, there’s studies and I can’t quote them here now. But I know there’s studies that say things like if there’s a job posting, and there’s 10 qualifications for the job, a man will apply if he has sick four of them. And a woman needs all 10 plus 11 to 12, for good luck to be able to do that. And I think that comes down to the confidence, right? So so why do you think that is like what do you what is the first step you can take towards just having the confidence? And, you know, frankly, I think that that confidence, one of the most confident things I think you can say is I’m not really sure. Let me check it out and get back to you or I don’t know how to do this, but I’m gonna figure but I am confident that I can learn I’m sure that I can learn it. Like I’ve got these couple of things. Why do you think we struggle with that?

Karen Laos 9:33
Oh, gosh, systemic reasons, primarily, the system and the way it’s been set up, we’ve been culturally conditioned to second guess ourselves. And I love to focus on Well, what can we do about it? There’s an exercise that I call the Broadway musical, which is a great place to start because one of the things you mentioned is how do we get past that? And it’s simply starting with this strongest message of self doubt that you say to yourself, so most women, I would say at one point or another have said, I’m not good enough? Or it might be who am I to get this promotion? Or who am I to go for that or I’m not qualified or whatever it is pick your self doubt message. And then first of all, I don’t think we need to say it. But to make it to master the obvious here, when we say those words, it sounds very low energy, and pretty sad or depressing and just not uplifting. So the way from a neuroscience perspective, you switch this up in your brain, is to say it with a completely different voice. And I would suggest you sing it totally melted out like a Broadway musical. So what if I said, Who am I to be getting this promotion? Not good enough. Of course, we start laughing, it totally changes the synapses in our brains related to that same message. And that can be an immediate way to snap ourselves into a different thought. And I will tell you, this is not something that I would have thought necessarily on the surface would have worked when I first heard about it. And this was from a friend of mine named Rachel Brandt, a workshop that I went to. And I’m telling you, I have done this with so many people now. And I love the feedback that it’s getting. So that’s something right.

Karen Yankovich 11:24
Yeah, that’s awesome. I think we all should be trying that we should have our families in our houses and wish you doing up there in our office today. Right? Exactly. Wait too much fun at work today.

Karen Laos 11:36
Yes, you can go in your car, you can go to yeah, whatever, whatever you need to do to feel comfortable belting it out. But then you change that message. So that’s what I would suggest. Well, I also

Karen Yankovich 11:48
think it changes your vibe a little too. Yeah, he’s is your vibe. And I think that raising our vibe is something that I mean, I like to be intentional about that on a regular basis, because it’s easy to get caught up in all the things we have to do. And, and all you know, like, like, right now, as we’re recording this, I was I have one of those standing desks. And I actually was sitting when I was getting ready for you to for you to join me and I was like, I need to stand, I need to move I need to because I was in this like, I’ve got a busy weekend coming up. And I’m like, I’m in this like, overwhelm of lists of things to do. And I’m like, No, I gotta shift my vibe. And I need to do this, I raised my desk and stood up and moved around a little bit because it makes a difference in how we show up. And then and I think that in your confidence, right? Because you’re you’re feeling you’re feeling differently. I love that you approach it from a neuroscience standpoint.

Karen Laos 12:38
Mm hmm. Well, I’m thinking about I interviewed on my podcast, one of an award winning female poker player. And she talked about this is interesting. I love what she does. But it was actually a story she shared when she was on a plane to Hong Kong. She said the woman next to her was Chinese. And she said the best way to change your luck is to wash your hands. And it’s so simple. It’s one of those things where I don’t know if it’s true or not. But it’s something about changing up the energy. And I love what you said about the standing desk. It’s the same I was thinking about this yesterday where I was sitting all day. And when I finally just stood up and started working from my standing desk is my kitchen counter as fancy as I get. And I remember thinking, Oh, something feels different. And I do think that that energy shift the physical energy shift. And something so simple as washing your hands or walking the over to one side of the house or whatever it is right by the stairs can make a difference.

Karen Yankovich 13:45
I just want to take a minute to kind of just remind you that you’re hearing Karen and I talk a lot about stepping into your power and being competent and learning how to communicate confidently and these are all things that are truly at the heart and the foundation of all the work we do in our she’s linked up accelerator program. It’s a 12 week program that takes you from wherever you are now to landing a 10,000 20,000 50,200 $50,000 contract. And I want you to have that contract before the 12 weeks is over. And a lot of the work we do is on mindset because if your mindset doesn’t believe it can happen for you, then it’s going to be a lot harder for you to make that happen. But we teach you a magnetic strategy with you showing up like your best self, and people reaching out to you saying Tell me more. And this is how we are our students are landing these beautiful contracts with the most amazing people. So if you want to know what that looks like, getting some support with this. Let me know let’s talk go to Karen yankovich.com/call. Grab a spot on the calendar. We’d love to see your name there. We will chat for a little bit and for sure we’re going to give you some tips on how to move forward and if we think we can help you with that, I’m going to tell you what that looks like. Because I know if we tell you what it looks like that means we know that we see your paths a quarter million dollar a year business minimum, even if you don’t see that path yet. So, Karen yankovich.com/call, get to the calendar, I would love to see your name there. So, you know, a lot of the work that I do in my she’s linked up program and the private work that I do is I help women build relationships on LinkedIn, like who are the people that you need to get on the phone with? Not times a million, but times a couple, right? And the biggest challenge that I see is all the procrastinating that can happen and all the busy work they can do before they actually do that outreach. Right. They don’t have we have a lot of confidence in our ability to check off things on our to do list, right. But when I say no, no, I want you to actually do some outreach to them. You know, they it’s it’s such a, it’s I feel like I got a push them from behind to do that we’ve incorporated things like weekly accountability calls. And I say that not to, not to say Not to disparage it, just to say it’s so common, right, that we’ve built in things into our programs to help women with this. Because if you’re listening to this, you’re not alone. If you’re like what do I say? How do I just I can’t reach out? I can’t call them right. So what what are the things that you can say? Like, what are some things you can say when you’re speaking up when you’re reaching out to somebody that you can feel confident, and you can be like kind of showing up as peers, with the most influential people in your industry? How can you get started shifting your mindset and having those conversations?

Karen Laos 16:40
Yeah, the first thing that I would say is a simple affirmation, such as people love to hear from me. Mm hmm. It can be really simple, but it sets up specifically since you asked about the mindset. Yeah, that’s where I would start. And remember that it’s about having, like you said relationships, and recognizing that the number one human need is connection. And there are so few people making actual phone calls now that when you make a phone call, or you send a voice memo on LinkedIn, it’s such a different experience for people and it’s a welcome one. Now, sometimes when we’re nervous, let’s say you do leave a voice memo, or you’re calling sometimes we don’t sound as confident in our voice. So another thing to do is to smile, that also changes up our physiology. And this is also good when we’re having a down day we smile, it feels forced, but it can shift our physiology. And then breathing, remember to breathe and breathe from your diaphragm, which is that wonderful muscle right around your stomach rather than breathing from our throat, which is where we don’t get the depth and the richness of our voice. So those are some just very physical things that we can do. And I do think from an accountability perspective, probably like in your program, having a weekly goal or a daily goal. For me, I have a goal of 20 outreaches a week, where I either call or email and it or LinkedIn any any touch point with someone, or I’m reaching out. And I find that if you can make half of those phone calls, at least or maybe it’s five, just something is better than nothing. Yeah. And

Karen Yankovich 18:33
the consistency is more important than the number that that consistency with that. You know, when you were telling that when you were talking about what you’re just saying, it reminded me I was just last night, I watched the Brooke Shields documentary, pretty baby where they interviewed Brooke Shields about her life. And one of the things she said and this I think really ties into this conversation is when she went to Princeton, she was so lonely, because everybody was afraid to talk to her. Like nobody wanted to reach out to her. So here we are, you know, and and, you know, I think over time, she became more acclimated to it and joined, you know, theater groups and things like that. But it was such an eye opener, because I feel like that’s exactly what we do. When we’re marketing. We’re we don’t feel like you said people or people need that human connection. Right? Yeah. So so we worry about our, our self confidence and we have we have self doubt when it comes to reaching out to some of the most influential people that can change your business. Yeah, they might be sitting there like Brooke Shields going I got nothing to do. Right. And I don’t know how likely that exactly exact situation is. But I think that it was a really eye opening scene. Because we are so I think it really is it is a good example of us on having a calm people didn’t have the confidence to reach out to her because they didn’t feel like they felt like she was too big a deal. Like they weren’t on her same level or they didn’t have the confidence to to reach out to her and have a conversation with her.

Karen Laos 20:01
Yeah, that’s really powerful. And that is such a good reminder, it’s the same thing when we walk into a networking event that most people, even the most extroverted of people want to belong. And I think about a lesson that my mom taught me, and I didn’t quite value this until I was an adult. And I went back to visit her and she’s passed away now. But I remember us going to an event where there was it was a women’s breakfast, and there were tables with eight people around them, most of them. And there was one particular table with a couple of seats available. And my mom whispered in my ears, she had scanned the room, which I didn’t realize, but she whispered in my ear, practically before we were able to even put our names on the name tags. And she said, let’s make sure we sit over at that table, because there’s a woman that is not being included in the conversation. So let’s go over there and make sure that we talked to her.

Karen Yankovich 20:53
That’s very insightful, a very insightful way to work a room,

Karen Laos 20:57
isn’t it? Yeah. And I thought, isn’t that so interesting? And we’re so most of us are so self consumed. And I see this all the time with presentations, and it’s natural human behavior. We’re focused on ourselves. Yeah, I’m so nervous, what am I going to say, rather than what does our audience need. And if you think about it, at a networking event, or LinkedIn, wherever the situation is, where you have someone that you might be communicating with, remember to be interested, and stop being so worried about being interesting. And while of course, we want to be interesting and influential, and say things that are that are things people want to listen to. But if we can think about how we can be in service to others, and ask questions, and one of the questions that I would say, to help engage people, is to say, what are you looking forward to this year? Or what do you have coming up? That’s that and then that also positions people in a positive direction. So things like or even saying, Hey, have you had a recent vacation? Or have you done anything fun lately? Or what fun things have you done? That’s probably a better question, because it’s not closed ended. So those kinds of questions, what’s what are you looking forward to can be really helpful way to move the conversation in a positive direction?

Karen Yankovich 22:14
Yeah, I mean, let’s stay there for a second. So you’re in a networking meet? I mean, I love the idea of being in a networking meeting and looking for the people that are that are not having conversations, right? Because I think that that’s really, that’s, I mean, it is I love networking meetings, but I don’t love networking meetings where I don’t know people speak for that exact reason, right? Like, I’m I know, you know, I have like, give me a microphone, I can talk to a million people put me in a networking room with a bunch of people. And I’m like, Oh, I don’t know where to start. You know, so. So where do you start? Okay, well, that’s one way to start. What are some other networking tips? So you can have because networking is important? Yeah. It’s it’s an whether it’s in person or online or whatever, like, you know, I can, I can throw out all the your net worth is equal to your network or your you’re the sum of the five people that you surround yourself with, like, there’s that we know these things are true, yet. We don’t necessarily actively work on that. Right. So how do you actively work a room? Give us another tip or two? If you don’t want her? Yeah,

Karen Laos 23:15
so let’s, let’s say, here’s another common scenario you walk in, and everybody’s in their little pods talking to each other. And you’re thinking, how the heck am I going to interject in any of these conversations? So I, first of all, it’s always important to be authentic. But one of the things that I will say if you if you can find a group that seems to be at least smiling, having somewhat of a good time, I love the line to walk up and say, Wow, you look like a fun group of people, can I join you? Or don’t even worry about saying that a little that is a fun line. I’ve used a lot. I didn’t win it again. It started when it was truly authentic. And I hadn’t planned it. It just came out of my mouth. And then I thought, oh, that works. But another time is just simply saying, hey, may I join you? And that can be a great way to to insert yourself into a conversation. And then when you’re in the conversation, or as you approach people, that’s where I feel like just saying, hey, what what are you enjoying most about the event so far? Or very simple questions, like, where did you fly in from? Or are you Are you local, or something like that? These very basic questions, which they’re not super sophisticated. But at the same time, people connect with the simple and connect with often geographical or weather related things. That’s also why right, so sometimes I feel like seriously, are we talking about the weather? But on the other hand, I do think I love the saying small talk earns you the right to have a deeper conversation.

Karen Yankovich 24:45
Beautiful. Right. So now let’s shift the scenario from the networking room to like more of like the boardroom or in a meeting. Right. And, you know, I you know, I think one of the reasons that I do what I do is my background isn’t it? I’m a little bit older than social media. So I had to portray confidence if I was gonna get a word in edgewise, right? Because I was often the only woman in the room. And I had to kind of portray that confidence. And but it’s not always easy, right? It’s not always easy when a conversation is happening, and you have a point of view. And you want to you want to walk into that, you want to you want to leave that place, feeling like you contributed to that meeting. So where do you start?

Karen Laos 25:29
Yeah, for sure, I have to start, I have to say something because it came into my mind here, and it’s connected. And it’s confident expectation. So first of all, kind of related to the mantra of people love to hear what I have to say, expect that people are interested in what you have to say. And I was recently interviewed on a panel where they asked what is the number one trait that you would that you would say contributed to the success of your business? And, like three people said, tenacity, or something like, yeah, tenacity. And that’s what I was gonna say. So I thought, well, I have to come up with something different. And then I realized, you know, it really is confident expectation, I expect that people are going to like me, I expect that they’re going to like my ideas. And when we can come with that mindset, again, it might be a mantra, I know, it’s easier said than done. But that can be one thing on a very tactical level. Okay, so how do you get your voice heard? Number one, make sure that you have that breadth first, and then you jump in with strong vocal conviction. It doesn’t mean that you know, you’re speaking like this and yelling at people. But it means that you’re coming with vocal strength as opposed to being tongue tied and hesitant and halting and saying most the filler words, start strong, because people decide within nanoseconds if they want to keep listening to you. So a way that you can do that is starting with the breath. But also making sure that when you speak with your sentences that you punctuate, we’ve got to be careful about the up speak, because a lot of times we don’t put periods at the end of our sentences. That upset me because that slang term that we’ve all either done, or we’ve heard, but maybe didn’t recognize as such. It’s when people say a statement with a question or a comma. So the difference I always model is in an in an introduction, I see this all the time in introductions, all genders. Hi, I’m Karen Laos, and I’m originally from Minneapolis. But now I live in San Francisco. Versus Hi, I’m Karen Laos. I’m originally from Minneapolis. But now I live in San Francisco.

Karen Yankovich 27:42
Yeah, so it sounds the differences is striking,

Karen Laos 27:46
isn’t it. And it’s so simple. All of these things are so simple. But we don’t usually take the time to listen to ourselves. And this is why I’d recommend for everybody record yourself, I can’t say that enough, and then listen to a back voice For sure. But ideal video so you can see it. And people sometimes say well, what about in front of a mirror, you don’t get the same experience. There’s something about seeing it after and watching it as an objective third party that can make a huge difference. And then the other thing, a strategy that I recommend in meetings, is to make sure that you don’t ramble and get to make sure you get to the point. So I have a whole chapter, actually, in my book called How to stop rambling and get to the point. Because I’m a recovering Rambler myself. So what I recommend,

Karen Yankovich 28:37
I use that word twice today already. I wish I gave you a rambling answer, but it just edited down to whatever you need.

Karen Laos 28:46
I love it. I love it. Yeah, so one of the things is to make sure that you lead with your point of view, rather than all of the details. And so many of us do that, where we start with all of the data and the context. And we don’t get to the point. So the way if you notice that you’re rambling, stop and pause for a second to gather your thoughts and then say out loud, and my point is this that will help you focus it will help the audience. Oh, yeah. Oh, awesome. We’re all on the same page now. That’s awesome. That’s awesome.

Karen Yankovich 29:21
Okay, so I want to help you in your mission of eradicating self doubt in 10 million 10 million women. I don’t believe 10 million women will listen to this episode. But it might not be all that are listening. Share it with your audiences. So yeah, let’s start with that. But how can we how can we help you with that? How can I help you with that? How can our audience help you with that? And how can they learn more about you and what you’re doing?

Karen Laos 29:41
Thank you, 10. And 10 is the social initiative that is a dream that I have to reach 10 million women in the next 10 years. And technically that would be by 2030 At this stage, and we’re almost at 2 million now. And there’s three ways to get involved whether you’re an individual or an organization and one Other ways is completely complimentary. And basically what happens is you get resources, where that similar to the tips that I shared here, I’ve got some videos and PDFs that will help give you very practical tips to speak up and ask for what you want. And then from a corporation or organization perspective, there’s also the complimentary level. But there’s also two levels that give you access to me with keynotes, my online course and corporate training. And then what you get back are various things like a press release, saying that you’re part of the mission, and ever for every level, you your name would be on my website, saying that you are part of this mission to help eradicate that. And so the pain point primarily for people in organizations would be, hey, we know that we need to do more to elevate and advance women in leadership, but we don’t know where to start, call me. And I can help you because I’ve got this whole baked program that people can just sign on to and then launch it within their company.

Karen Yankovich 31:01
So that’s cool. So how are those on your website, which it is? Yeah,

Karen Laos 31:05
Karen labs.com. And the last name is Elle a OS. And you can go to the 10 and 10. Tab, or you can go to my Instagram, I’m there a lot as well as LinkedIn. Those are the two places.

Karen Yankovich 31:18
Yeah, beautiful. Now you also have a free gift. Oh, your audience. So tell us about that. I mean, this presents, this has gotten

Karen Laos 31:26
so much good. Yeah, I mean, definitely take this and enjoy it. Nine words to avoid and what to say instead.

Karen Yankovich 31:35
Beautiful. So you can go to my website. I’ll put the link to that in the show notes as well. So you can click on that. Karen, this has been great I am. It’s always great when I meet other women that have the same energy and aspiration to just really support other women. Because I feel like we get a bad rap sometimes. Right? Like women, I know women are always cutting each other down. I don’t find that to be the case. Almost ever. I

Karen Laos 31:57
have that experience. I know I’m so I’m so fortunate because I hear about it a lot. And I think yeah, yeah, so

Karen Yankovich 32:05
I’m definitely gonna check out your stuff even more. And I really appreciate you sharing this here today. Because I hope that our listeners got, you know, a couple tips to help them with that confidence. I know I did. So everybody else did, too. So thank you so much for being

Karen Laos 32:20
glad. Yeah, you’re so welcome. Karen is Karen not

Karen Yankovich 32:23
amazing. I mean, this woman, she’s just so she’s so brilliant. And she’s doing so much such brilliant work in the world. I’m so honored to have her acquaintance and to be building relationships with her. This is exactly what I want you guys to do right to find these brilliant, beautiful people in the world and start to build relationships with them. I hope you love this episode. If you did you know that I love to hear about that, right. So I’d love to hear I’d love a review. If you thought this was a good show. I’d love for you to go to Apple podcasts or wherever you listen and give us a review. Give us a rating, a five star rating would be really great. And I’d love for you to share this episode on social media, use the hashtag good girls get rich tag me tag Karen, all of the information on how to do that is in the show notes. And then we will be we will see that and we’ll be sure to share your post with our audiences. And that’s how we all get more visibility right in the show notes. There’s also a link for SpeakPipe where you can leave me an audio message I would love your audio message. Tell me what you thought of this show. Give me a suggestion for a new guest tell me what a topic is you’d like to hear me talk about whatever, you know, tell me how your day is going. So whatever that is, I listen and reply to every single one of those personally, I would love to hear your voice and you can find that link at Karen yankovich.com/two. For one, remember that we’re here to support you however you want to be supported. Grab a spot on the calendar, Karen yankovich.com/call get you to the calendar, if you want to talk about what it looks like to get some support from me and my amazing, beautiful team of Smarty pant women. And it’ll be in this gorgeous community that I am so honored and grateful to be in every single day of my life. Again, the link is in the show notes as well. So let’s lift each other up. Help me help you share this podcast. Take a quick screenshot tag me and Karen will share it with you we can all get more visibility and I will see you back here again next week for another episode.