Are you struggling to think on your feet when you're under pressure?
In today's episode, you'll discover how to break free of the I need time to process trap and boost your executive presence.
Welcome back to Speak Up, the podcast for high-performing introverts, including you, social introverts where we reveal the charisma and communication secrets of A-listers so that you get the recognition and the opportunities you have earned.
I am your host, Laura Camacho, your magical executive presence godmother, coach, and strategist.
And by the end of today's short episode you will learn the real reason.
Your mind goes blank in unscripted moments.
The hidden cost of not speaking up and how they affect your career trajectory and your income.
Three practical tools to start building your speak on your feet muscle today.
So I know you've been there.
You're in this meeting and the room is filled with colleagues, maybe even your boss, maybe some higher level people, some key investors or something.
And the discussion is heating up a little bit and suddenly there's this moment where you know you have something valuable to contribute because you have experience.
You've crunched data.
You're an idea person and you know you could steer this conversation in a better direction.
But as soon as you get the opportunity to speak up, or maybe even right before that, your brain goes blank.
You freeze.
You can't think of anything to say.
And instead of speaking with clarity, you either don't say anything at all.
Well, I was just thinking this is frustrating because I know I just can't get it out.
You just ramble.
And so people start tucking their phones.
It's that off-the-cuff or in-the-moment pressure, the need to respond in real time and without a script or time to rehearse.
And the worst part...
You might actually be the person in the room who could help the most because of your expertise.
But in that moment, it's like under lock and key.
So, of course, you walk away.
You're kicking yourself, replaying what you could have said.
Maybe you keep doing that for years to come, if you had just had a few seconds to prepare your thoughts.
And this is not just about missing an opportunity.
It's about feeling like you're not playing all in, like you're just not fully participating when it matters.
It's funny because this is one of the questions that I most frequently deal with with clients.
And it's taken me 460 episodes to address it. but it's because that I need time to process.
Like I saw that as a fact and I do need time to process.
And I know that you do need time to process too, that we are much better when we have time to process, for sure.
But you can develop ways of dealing with that in the moment, where maybe it's a little bit different from how it would be if you had planned it.
But it can still be good.
It can still be good quality.
It can be a foot in the door.
It can even be better than what you were planning to say if you work at it.
It's a skill set.
That you need to develop and that other people may have been trained.
Other people may be just chatterboxes and it takes them a while.
I'm thinking that if it's a senior leader who seems to be speaking off the cuff so easily, it's because they've worked at that skill.
And if you don't, you're going to have this cycle of anxiety.
You're going to dread the meetings that you most need to speak up in.
You may avoid certain situations that require quick thinking and that can isolate you and can strengthen or lead to additional imposter syndrome, where every success that you have just feels like you were lucky.
And then every time you stumble, you confirm your fears.
I mean, you can even think that the fact that you said in one presentation was just catastrophic and probably nobody noticed.
In fact, I'll tell you, I stutter.
I listen to myself and all these podcasts and I edit it out.
But in real time, I stutter.
But you know what?
I just keep going.
So I want you to know that the I need time to process is true, but we're going to develop a skill set so that you can function at a high level even though you prefer to have time to process.
Here's the deal.
Is it really that you can't think on your feet, or is that you've convinced yourself that you can't because of past experience?
These are surface level limiting beliefs like I'm not a quick thinker or I need time to process.
And that can.
I'm not saying that it always does, but it can be hiding deeper feelings of inadequacies, because it's really not about processing time.
It's about a fear of judgment, a fear of sounding foolish and a fear that our ideas aren't good enough.
So here's a test for you.
Can you recall conversations outside of work where you could speak impromptu on any topic, literally all the time?
Like in social situations at home, you're speaking impromptu all the time.
Like if you have a kid and the kid's saying something and it's touching you by surprise, you don't say to yourself oh, I need time to process.
You're like stop doing that or that's a mistake, or let me talk to you about this.
Like you can think on your feet, you do have that ability.
It's just that certain situations seem to be freezing that.
But you have to get that distinction clear in your own mind because it's hurting your career.
You can be passed over for a promotion because you don't sound decisive.
You're not getting visibility.
Your contributions stay hidden.
And over years, that is extremely career limiting, especially considering your earning potential.
Like, why are you working, right?
I know we all want to do good things in the world, but we also have bills to pay and families to support.
So in a competitive workplace, executive presence is the impress.
So the good news is, and the core message of this episode is, that having executive presence means you can speak on your feet.
It is a totally learnable skill.
Yes.
Some people may be good at it.
Some people are born with perfect pitch.
But you can still learn to sing as I have without perfect pitch, without any musical talent.
I just get people to coach me and I go to choir practice.
And I practice.
It's like a muscle that you build with practice techniques and mindset shifts.
And there's a framework you might have heard me teach.
And we're not going to go into it.
But there are frameworks that are like templates, like goal, problem, solution.
And there are other ones where you just plug in the situation into the template and you spit out the result of that.
But I'm going to give you three examples foundational level questions and suggestions that you can use, starting today, to start thinking on your feet better and speak up and say the thing.
So yes, number one, Think about your regular team meetings or any meeting where you feel perfectly comfortable.
Are you not speaking off the cuff in those meetings?
Like.
That should be proof to you that yes, you do have the capability to speak well and that you can be trained to speak better under pressure.
And if you cannot even speak up in your regular team meeting, I'm going to assume that you're a junior.
This message is for people who have been in leadership or in management for a while.
You can still develop this because probably at home you have conversations where you speak up impromptu all the time.
So that's number one, to think about low stress situations that are still work related, where you have spoken off the cuff effectively.
Okay, so number two is to plan these meetings.
You generally not always, but generally know which are the ones where your brain is going to check out.
So think about it ahead of time.
What is it you'd like to say?
What are the topics?
What do you want to add?
Even if you're not sure, write down three possibilities.
If you have it written down, you're locked and loaded and ready to go.
So that's number two.
Plan something to say before the meeting.
And number three, I want you to ask yourself if this is a true statement.
Even though I am an internal processor, which is what happens if you need time to process.
I can still learn to speak up in the moment.
If that sounds like a reasonable statement, then I want you to go on to this next one.
And if not, I want you to repeat it.
Even though I'm an internal processor, I can still learn to speak up in the moment and play with that for a while.
But if you're like, yeah, that sounds that makes sense.
Then I want you to think about this statement.
I have valuable insights and I can share them imperfectly at first.
So the thing that might be holding you back is your ego more than your brain freezing.
Just throwing that out there.
And if it's been like that for months or even years, but you want to show up with clarity, confidence and influence.
That's why I created the Executive Presence Mastery System.
It's a 90-day executive coaching intensive.
It's designed to help high-performing introverts like you shortcut your way to speaking off the cuff with ease, without anxiety, self-doubt or fear of being judged.
So if that sounds like something that you could benefit from, Go to the show notes, click the first link, or go to my website at wwwspeakupwithlauracom and book a strategy call.
I'd love to help you unlock that executive presence and voice that you already have inside of you.
Have a tremendously wonderful day and I will catch you on the next episode.