So here's a truth that still surprises even the highest performing introverts who listen to this show.
You can be brilliant at your job and still be playing way below your potential simply because you haven't learned how to develop that executive communication skill set.
Welcome back to Speak Up, the podcast for high performing introverts, including you, social introverts, where we reveal the communication, charisma and leadership secrets that make you impossible to overlook.
I am your host, Laura Camacho, your magical executive presence coach, godmother and strategist.
And by the end of today's 500th episode, you're going to know why your real job far exceeds simply delivering excellent outcomes and all those KPIs or OKRs.
How to clearly signal your unique value, even if you're quiet or self-doubting.
And the overlooked communication tools that make your insights memorable and actionable.
All right.
So executive communication, executive presence, means that you're stepping into your role as trusted advisor, you're signaling unique value and you communicate in a way that people remember.
So I can tell you, I'm sharing with you today, what I did not know 500 episodes ago, even though I already had my PhD, I had done a dissertation on the political rhetoric of Hugo Chavez.
I had taught Dozens, if not hundreds, of communication skills workshops, because that's how I started teaching the workshops.
And of course, teaching in the university for nine years.
So I'm sharing with you the big levers that will catapult you into the senior leadership suite.
Okay, so one of the things is that executive presence is not a personality.
It's a skill set.
It's something that you decide.
And it's also something that you may have presence in one meeting and not in another.
It's something that is not always on. is when you decide to speak like the leader you really are.
And in today's episode 500, I'm sharing the top three executive presence breakthroughs that have changed careers, confidence and lives.
And these come from real people, and I'm just giving you very few examples.
But who are the people that use these executive presence tools and breakthroughs and mindsets?
They're engineers scientists, IT and cybersecurity directors, vice presidents, marketing vice presidents founders, investors.
Lots of very smart people.
And you have to stop waiting to be discovered.
That is not going to happen.
All right, let's go into this.
Breakthrough number one.
You see it as your job to advise the top leaders of your company, or if you're already at the top of the company, then your industry.
It's not about doing more.
It's about advising better.
So I want to use this analogy because it's sometimes hard for those of you in the trenches to understand how to implement this.
So imagine you're in a war in this terrible battle and it's not going great.
It's not going terrible.
And you have two options.
You could speak to the person who knows the most about making your soldiers efficient.
Or you can talk to someone who knows all the strategies for winning in different scenarios.
So I think you're going to go with option B, right?
Like you.
Yes, you want your soldiers to be efficient, but not efficient doing the wrong thing, like with the wrong strategy.
So you have been in category A, like you're delivering and producing and giving results that make the company successful.
But what's going to make it successful in the future?
How does the direction of the company need to change with all the changes in the world?
So you're not there just to do the work.
You're there to advise the people who are shaping the future of the organization.
And these are very smart, talented, and overloaded people.
So the typical introvert does not see him or herself that way.
You know, we don't want to... annoy people.
We don't want to just speak for the sake of hearing our own voices.
Sometimes we wait to be invited.
Sometimes we don't speak because we're not 100% certain.
We feel more comfortable talking about tasks than shaping decisions.
But when you internalize that it's your job to advise, then your whole communication pattern changes.
Because you start framing issues at the strategic level.
You share what's at stake.
You propose pathways, not paragraphs.
It's like the roadmaps.
The roadmap is how to implement a project, but who decides what project to implement?
You see what i'm saying.
I want to give an example of quiet, super duper, smart senior engineer.
He made this shift.
He stopped just giving information and telling his engineers how to solve all the problems, because he knows how to do that and that's easy and it's often faster, But he started being more strategic in his communication, especially upstream.
In less than three years he went from the technical senior director guy to CTO of an AI company, without changing who he was at all.
In fact, it was so cool to witness this.
He was using more of his brain, more of his talent, more of his drive and energy as the CTO than he did as the senior engineering director.
Another listener from the world of agriculture, you know he realized that the state's farming economy needed some changes in its policy leadership.
And he was already in a large organization that deals with that.
But he really stepped up to the plate and ended up not only meeting with the governor of his state but the US.
Secretary of Agriculture.
To advise those people is not because he changed his personality.
No, he just saw his job differently.
And that's what I want for you to see your job differently.
All right.
Breakthrough number two is you've got to signal your unique value, or even think of it as the value of what you're saying.
Like I know none of us here want to be with a spotlight on ourselves.
But a lot of times we assume that people see the value in what we're saying.
And they don't.
If I could wave a magic wand and give all of you this one skill, it would be signal the value clearly, confidently and repeatedly.
Because guess what?
Nobody can see inside your brain.
And you may be overestimating how much people are willing to think. actively use their brains in order to figure out what you're saying you know you're thinking that it's obvious it's in the data it's in the results it's in the deck no the results do not speak for themselves the numbers they do speak but it helps if you tell the story i worked early this year with a young real estate developer and he always thought that investors would just get the value of the deal right but then he started signaling the specific unique value that he brought to the table which was his ability he had worked representing tenants and if you're in a real estate it's certain area tenants are the ones that make you money because you rent your property your commercial real estate to tenants and he had expertise years of working with tenants so he knew that aspect of the business well guess what that aspect of the business is what makes real estate investors money and so once he saw that investors started coming to him he no longer was having trouble getting people to sign on to invest in his new company another brilliant introvert associate director at a super duper large defense contractor solid reliable smart she was always developing these technical tools and dashboards and she was also good at getting cross-functional leaders to collaborate and resolving tension across the silos but she had this doubt in the back of her head that it was kind of like dragging her down and it had to do with her growing up kind of on the wrong side of town and she thought she wasn't polished enough or sophisticated enough she came to see that background as a tremendous source of resilience grit resourcefulness and emotional intelligence when she started speaking from that identity she got promoted to director shortly thereafter because she was not hiding her unique value.
She no longer hesitated so much about speaking up.
All right.
Breakthrough number three you've got to use your tools to help people remember and act on what you advise.
The biggest thing that I see among my clients and listeners is that they're worried too much about sounding intelligent or sounding like they know what they're talking about.
And that's completely the wrong focus.
You need to focus on making it easy for the people to do what you want them to do.
It's not about sounding smart.
It's about helping people to act on what you say.
And there's a lot of tools that if you've listened to a few episodes, you've heard of these.
I'm not going to explain them, but I'm going to remind you, like structure and story and metaphor, and leading with the bottom line, and strategic brevity and pauses and identity-based influence, clear recommendations, the rule of three.
Asking more questions.
And in a few days you're going to hear about a new tool that I have invented called the wrong shoe theory.
But that you have to wait until Friday.
But anyway, you have to use these tools, folks.
They're there to help your audience.
It's about delivery.
It's about their point of view.
The best communicators are not obsessed with their comfort or themselves themselves.
They are obsessed with their audience's attention span and grabbing the attention of their audience.
Another client, you may have heard this amazing story.
She's a scientist with a nonprofit in Rwanda.
She learns to start talking about what she does. in a more big picture way.
Like she was very concerned about the natural resources and the trees, but she started framing it in the terms of the economy, the sustainable economy, a participatory economy.
She changed the way she talked about her expertise.
She started seeing the story and using the metaphor and sharing her vision in simpler language.
And she ended up being appointed Minister of the Environment.
Not because she changed her personality.
She was a soft-spoken person, but she started using her communication tools to help people act on her ideas.
That is executive presence.
That is influence through clarity.
That is being memorable.
People have to remember.
So, after 500 episodes of the Speak Up podcast, what I know for sure is that executive presence is not about being impressive.
It's about being helpful.
Helpful to leaders who need clarity.
Helpful to teams who need clear direction.
Helpful to organizations that need a vision.
So I want you to see yourself as the trusted advisor.
Signal your unique value, or the value of what you're saying proposing, and communicate so that people remember and act.
And that's the kind of leader that companies fight to promote today. investors want to follow.
People want to work for them.
You're not just that workhorse or the pack mule.
You're the leader who lifts the room.
So as we're celebrating episode 500, here's my wish for you.
I want you to give yourself permission to speak like that executive.
Take the calculated risk.
Say the thing that needs to be said.
Offer the insight that apparently only you see.
Advise the people above you.
Share your value.
Communicate so your ideas travel because we don't just need more leadership.
We need good leadership.
So thank you for being here for 500 episodes.
I doubt anybody has listened to all 500, but you've probably heard quite a few.
Thank you for choosing growth, courage, visibility.
And thank you for letting me be your guide, your strategist, and your communication godmother.
And here's to the next chapter of your leadership journey and the next 500 episodes.
And continue to speak up because your voice matters more than you know.
And heads up.
I've got a special gift for you starting next week.
It's called the 12 days of christmas holiday mini series.
It's a festive boost of charisma.
It's 12 five minute or shorter episodes designed for you to listen to over the holidays when you're busy with being with family and friends.
But you're going to get 12 little tips in less than five minutes each tiny habits you can use immediately the exact words or actions to try So that you go into 2026 with even more powerful executive presence.
And it's going to be a great year, 2026.
So that starts Wednesday, December 25th.
Have a fabulous day and I will catch you on episode 501.
