Today's guest is Eva Rose Daniel, the Founder and Owner of The Speak Shop. With a background working with Dave Ramsey and his team of speakers, Eva is a public speaking consultant who coaches CEOs, professionals, and speakers to improve their content and delivery. She offers virtual and in-person one-on-one and group coaching. Tune in to learn more about Eva and gain tips on becoming a great public speaker.
Welcome back to the third season of She’s Wild, the Podcast for Women in Land & Development.
In this episode of She's Wild, the Podcast for Women in Land & Development, Eva Rose Daniel, the Founder and Owner of The Speak Shop, is the featured guest. Eva is a public speaking consultant who provides one-on-one and group coaching to help CEOs, professionals, and speakers improve their delivery and content. As the owner of The Speak Shop, she specialize in helping thought-leaders develop and deliver engaging content through presentation coaching, writing, speech writing, and content strategy. Prior to founding The Speak Shop, Eva worked with Dave Ramsey and his team of speakers as a Senior Speech Writer.
Tune in to learn more about Eva and learn how to Unlock the Secrets of Powerful Public Speaking!
Eva's Book Recommendations:
Chatter: https://a.co/d/fzpQla2
Humor Seriously -https://a.co/d/bRRcbPw
Making Numbers Count - https://a.co/d/0aiTxAG
Connect with Nancy:
Instagram:https://instagram.com/nancysurak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/
Website: www.nancysurak.com
Connect with Eva:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-rose-daniel/
Free Download: 12 Questions You Must Ask For A Killer Speech - https://thespeakshop.com/
She’s Wild Sound Production by: Luke Surak, Surak Productions: surakproductions@gmail.com
Nancy Surak00:00
Hello, welcome back to she's wild, the podcast for women in land and development. I'm your host, Nancy Surak. And I am excited to be kicking off season three of she's wild. Today's episode is part one of a series of episodes where we're going to be talking about different professional development activities that each of us should be taking, or at least thinking about taking as we grow our careers. I hope you enjoy the show, and the few that follow. Today's guest is Eva Rose Daniel, the founder and owner of speak shop. Eva is a public speaking consultant who transforms CEOs, career minded professionals and professional speakers, helping them to go from good to great by providing clear, specific kind, and actionable feedback that they can apply immediately to content and delivery. She facilitates virtual, and in person one on one and group coaching on public speaking. I had the privilege of working with Eva last fall, when I was preparing to deliver a keynote on the lessons that I had learned by being a host on this podcast. Eva, welcome to she's wild. Before we get into the goodies about public speaking, I would love for you just to take us through your own career story. Can you share your background and how you became a speech consultant?
Eva Rose Daniel01:34
Yeah, so thank you, Nancy, so much for just having me on this podcast. I love listening to it. I listen to it all the time. Even though I'm not in land development, I just learned so much from it, and just all the incredible women you have on the show. And yeah, a little bit of my background. So I'm now an entrepreneur, I've been an entrepreneur, the last six months, I just hit my six month mark, and I enjoy just sitting down and looking at all the things I've accomplished and all of the things I still want to accomplish. I jokingly say that sometimes I feel like I'm moving the ocean with a thimble is what it feels like just all of these goals I have for my business. But I do now, as you mentioned, do public speech coaching. Before that I was Dave Ramsey's speech writer and worked with his team of speakers, just really helping them on their stage content, coming up with those keynotes and also just had a deep background with podcasting and radio. And I just really felt it started kind of brewing in my late 20s, where I had this desire to start my own company, I had this experience where I would pre interview people to be guests on a radio program. And I realized they just really struggle, I think a lot of us really struggle with knowing how to share our stories and how to present publicly. And I just have such a passion to help people just share their content in a way that they feel confident delivering it. But also make sure that their communication and your message gets across to the people that they're trying to share it with. So that's kind of a little snapshot of my career background. And then I'm also a mom of four kids. So life is just crazy and busy all of the time. And then to just sort of add, you know, insult to injury, I got a puppy this last year, because I'm really crazy. So you know, probably all of your listeners right now should be trying to evaluate my sanity here. But it's been fun. It's been a fun journey the last year especially?
Nancy Surak03:30
Well, I think you're just such a great example of you know, women can do it. All right, you just can't do it all at the same immediate time. Exactly how to balance and figure that out. And, you know, that would make a great keynote for you of how do you balance your life and getting, you know, a new career or new business off the ground, but while also managing the chaos inside your home. So there's that.
Eva Rose Daniel03:54
Yeah, and I'm not sure if we're managing it all, but we're trying?
Nancy Surak03:58
Well, I think look, we all try to do our best so that but that's awesome. I thought for some reason you had three kids, and I was like super impressed. But now I realized before like, oh my god, do you sleep?
Eva Rose Daniel04:08
They're just everywhere now? Not much. Not much.
Nancy Surak04:12
So in terms of speaking, right, like we interacted when our mutual friend introduced me to you, because I was freaking out about a keynote opportunity that I had that I wasn't going to pass up. Somebody had approached me and they said, Hey, we want you to come in front of this group, we want you to tell us about your experience with your podcast. And I certainly could tell the stories, right, but I really wanted to do it in a way that I would leave my audience members. incredibly impressed. I wanted to be able to launch that into other business opportunities potentially. And you were great. A great resource a great help. I'd love to take a step back and just say, you know, how do we encourage more women to raise their hand and be okay with speaking and be okay with getting training for speaking. What are some of the thoughts you have around that?
Eva Rose Daniel05:06
Well, one of the things and I think you, you know, get did such a great job in that talk, though, you know, we worked on, I've just encouraging women to raise their hand, if you just look at the speaking industry as a whole, three quarters of speakers are men. And that's, that's in the US just looking at that, that, you know, numbers. But I, I'm sure you've had the experiences, I've had the experience going attending conferences, and it feels like it's more like 9010. I've attended conferences, where it's 99% men and just like a small section of women, and sometimes it's just, you know, one woman on one panel. And I think a lot of it really gets down to raising your hands. And being open to it. I mean, I know I'm guilty of this, and I know you talk about this on this podcast, we wait until we feel 100% ready to say yes to being on the podcast to say yes to joining the panel, to just raising our hand. As far as just a very tactical level, I think sometimes we needed to be a lot more open to creating our own opportunities. A lot of times, we wait to be asked to be on the podcast or asked to be on the stage or asked to be part of you know, that the group discussion or leading the presentation at work in front of the eight to 10 people, but we need to do a little bit better job of advocating for ourselves, and raising our hand and also creating our own opportunities, if public speaking is something that you want to get better at? What would it look like for you to start creating your own content, maybe your start building your personal brand on social media, maybe you dive into creating a LinkedIn live show, or just little video snippets that you do. So we sometimes think of public speaking as his big things, but it can really start with just the way that we're communicating? What would it look like for you to volunteer at work to lead the group meeting? What would it look like for you to the you know, the CO project that maybe you've worked on with your manager or a team? Well, why don't you raise your hand and be the one that presents it to the larger team. And so start getting those reps in and start raising your hand would be some of the advice I have as far as just getting out there and making yourself just pushing yourself to say, You know what, this might be an area that's scary or intimidating to me. But I can do this, because public speaking is a skill just like any other, you get better the more you do it. And no one is born just being an incredible public speaker, the people that you see on the stages that are dynamic and influential. They've just been a lot more time working on and then you have and you can become a better speaker, no matter who you are and where you live, and what your circumstances are.
Nancy Surak07:41
I 100% agree with all of that, right? That is I mean, we're speaking from the same scripture,
Eva Rose Daniel07:46
That's why we're friends. Right?
Nancy Surak07:48
And, and that's why I, you know, I was like, hey, like, I can do this on my own, but I really want to be better. And it was huge for me, I had a conversation with a woman last night who I invited to be on the show. She said, My market, she is a developer for a national home builder. And I said, I want you to come on the show, I want you to share your story. And she said to me, I don't do public speaking. And I said, Well, it's a podcast. And she said, It's just not my thing. I'm much more comfortable being in the background. And I said, Why I understand that, but it's really like a conversation, I'm gonna get you on Zoom, and we're gonna have a conversation like friends, I have an editor, I'll cut out the arms, I'll try to present you in the best light that I can. And if fit, if I'm not happy with it, then we can rerecord I want you to kind of flex your muscle. And she said, I just it's not for me, I'm so afraid I can't. And I said and I said, I understand. And then I leaned into her. And I said, You are at this moment in your career were you about to take the next step. You have to lean into the the uncomfortable, have to do that for yourself. Because that's where the growth is. But I understand. So if I leave you with one thing, I just want you to kind of mull over that. And she just looked at me and smiled and I left her alone because I was like, I'm not gonna give you the hard push. But I feel like that's my that's my calling to tell other women in my industry in a heavily male dominated industry. Like it's okay to be fearful and afraid and to acknowledge that but we have to step. Take that step. So with that, what's some advice you could share with people who are just terribly afraid to be a public speaker? How can they I mean, you mentioned reps, how can they take kind of the first step?
Eva Rose Daniel09:40
Yeah, well, when it comes to nerves, and just some of the intimidation, a lot of it truly does get down to mindset and how we're thinking about the opportunity. And so a lot of times what happens if even just this woman you were talking about last night who you approached or her mind just kind of went off to the races and visioning probably all of the maybe All the things that could happen, you know, maybe she would make an idiot of herself. Or maybe people would think this of her or maybe she would stumble over words and her whole career would be ruined. And we do this snowballing, this negative snowballing in our mind. And so a lot of it when it comes to thinking of presenting and speaking in public is to really just start changing our mindset, and how we're thinking about the experience. And so I want to talk for just a minute about a couple of things you can do like way before you speak, and then as you're speaking or like right before you get really nervous. So like way before you're speaking, really having the mindset of you have been asked to do this thing. And it's not about you, it's actually about serving the audience, you're never asked to speak on a podcast or video show or in front of an audience. Because it's about you, they want to bring you on because they believe that you have something within you, that is worth sharing for the people you are asked to speak in front of. And so the more you can truly shift your mindset of being this is not about me, it's about them, and how can I best serve them? And what do they need to hear? What do they already know about this topic? How could I serve these people I've asked to speak on that can really start changing your mindset. And another thing within I heard this really interesting book a couple years ago, by Ethan Krause called Chatter, I don't know if you've read this book, Nancy, but it's about self talk and about just how we talked herself. And one of the principles in that book, I had kind of taken and adapted a little to public speaking, because he talks about the importance of speaking to yourself in third person. So instead of being like, I'm gonna get up there, and I'm going to make an idiot of myself. And I'm gonna say this, or oh, I always use so many filler words, or whatever the thing is, whatever your snowball sounds like, he just says to reframe it speaking to yourself in third person. So Eve is the kind of person that gets up there, and it confidently delivers her content, even as a really great public speaker. Or even switching to you language, how would you speak to your friend, you're going to get up there and you're going to do great, and you might stumble, but you have important information. So really reframing the way you're talking to yourself about the event, as you're thinking through it can make a big difference. And really one of the things we procrastinate, and the reason we get really nervous is because we're not actually working on the content. And so instead of focusing our energy and our mental effort of Wow, how can I create content that I'm proud to deliver, or what would be a great slide or visual to go with this content, instead of actually working on the content or worrying about the content. And so and we're worrying about our own performance. So if you can make that shift to just hey, I'm going to work on this content and make it be the best it can be, I'm going to work on practicing my delivery and running it through friends, so they can be the best that it can be. And really, action instead of worry can make a big difference. And then once you're actually on the podcast or on the stage or on the LinkedIn live, or whatever the scenario is, and you start getting yours, you start feeling getting really nervous, and just mentally pausing and kind of grounding yourself in the moment. And if you are, for example, on a stage, consciously, I'm going to plant my feets, I'm going to drop my shoulders, I'm going to smile, I'm going to open up my arms. And just really grounding yourself in the moment can help you feel more confident in that moment as well. I don't know if that answered your question. But those are just kind of a few tips are
Nancy Surak13:27
really great things to remember and great tips. So thank you for that. I know that you deal a lot with folks who are later in their career, right mid career all the way through CEOs. And I also mentioned in the introduction, people who do this as a profession, they are professional speakers, like Dave Ramsey, right? They're being paid in many cases to be in front of that room. For those folks who are they have experience, they know what they're doing. What are some things that you can suggest to them about going from being good to great? Like what should they be focused on the folks who are comfortable being up there?
Eva Rose Daniel14:06
Absolutely. Well, the three things I see that that the truly greats do that a lot of the rest of us don't do that and maybe even consider ourselves good. One is really focusing on your thought leadership. A lot of times, you know, people that are good, they, they can say things and kind of a generic way. But thinking through like what is my thought leadership? So instead of just saying, you know, you should be a servant leader. Let's just say you're talking about servant leadership. Well, that's a good concept, but like what would be a stickier way that you could say that like really developing? Like, what are your systems or frameworks around your content that makes it feel unique and makes it pop? And really doing the effort to dig deep on your content and really your thought leadership of how do I you know, what is my unique take on this? What are my thoughts on this? And so really leaning in and going deep in your industry reading the articles as they come out, reading the magazines, watching the shows that are relevant to what your content is. So really just being that deep industry expert and continual growth, not allowing yourself to be lazy. And then the other two things, I've noticed our storytelling, when we tell stories we can go through, we tell them very linear a happened, and then B happened, and then C happen. But any movie that we love dives right in on the action, it dies in an action point of the story. And so really learning how to tell stories, thinking them through your five senses, even of when this thing happened. What did i What did I see? And what did I smell? And what did I experience? And what did I feel and what did I think, and really pulling in some of those dimensions of storytelling, these a lot of times in our stories, whether there are stories or relaying the story of someone else, we tell them in a very factual way. And so if you can pull in some of those aspects of what makes a great story, and how do I tell it, it can really level up your entire speaking. And then that third component I have noticed is humor. Even if you're talking about a very serious topic, even if you're talking about something that can be heavy, there are still spots for levity within it. When I was working at Dave Ramsey's company, one of the speakers there, told me that he tries to get a humor or levity line every three to five minutes. And since he said that I've started observing just when I'm attending events and observing other speakers. And I've noticed that that seems to be pretty true. Every three to five minutes. Well, it's just a lightness that you can add to your talk. And one great way of adding humor that I encourage everyone to do is to keep a humor file on your phone. So literally just on the Notes app that comes on your phone just at the top right humor file. And as amusing or funny things happen to you throughout your day or your week, just jotting out a little line down. So then that way later on when you're trying to infuse some humor in your talk, you can look back at this list and say, Well, what do I find funny what funny things have happened to me lately? What could I incorporate this in? And these are simple things I have a lot of things I mentioned, I have four kids, you've everybody's probably heard them a little bit in the background. I mean, they were loud all the time. I have a lot of lines, and they're about my kids, you know, so just the other day my daughter was getting ready to go to preschool and they have this little they have a little yoga thing at the preschool. And she's like, she said, Well, I'm gonna go see my yogurt teacher and was like yogurt, you know, she loves a yogurt, not a yoga teacher. Well, that was just a cute little line. I jotted it down. You know. So just little, those little observations, those little moments that happen throughout your day, whether they're at work, or at home, just jotting them down. And infusing some more humor into your content really can take you from being that good speaker up to that great speaker. Because you know, we live in a world that's really hard, and people want to be able to laugh. And a lot of times we take ourselves and our content and even our presentations too seriously. But really looking for ways when before you're going to present are what are some natural good ways you can add in humor into your content.
Nancy Surak18:17
Yeah, I know you worked with me on that. And I, I admit, like I'm like, I'm not a funny person. I have not humorous by nature. Now. I'm but but you countered me with, you're incredibly animated when you say yes. And so instead of me focusing on telling a joke I focused on where I could take my natural animation and emphasize a point and maybe a funny way, like an eye roll or throwing my arms up. And that was super helpful for me, because now I'm like, Okay, I do that more like I naturally want to speak with my hands, while leaning into those things, right? Because I've also watched other professional speakers since working with you where I'm like, oh, somebody told them to do that. Like they're really opening themselves up themselves on stage or claiming the space, which I think a lot of women struggle with. We just we're you know, I see it all the time on social media, where people will talk about being sandwiched on an airplane and how they allow men to pour into their space and hear about it in conference rooms. I think just naturally speaking, we hear we don't want to take up a lot of space. So I know that was one of the things you told me to do. Like be okay, taking up the whole stage. Yes, using using at stage one end of the stage to the other end of the stage. I wish super helpful. You know, like even I did a presentation a few weeks ago, and I was not on an elevated platform. But I worked with the the AV folks and I'm like, I don't want to I don't want to be behind a podium. Do not put me behind a podium because then I'm fixated there and I can't really see the slides and I know the content but I feel restrained. And I don't want to feel that way. And so we had to improvise. Literally within minutes of the presentation, we sat a chair down because they didn't have a short enough table, I had my laptop there. And I could see just enough of the next slide that I knew what was coming next. But it allowed me to move about a much bigger space in the audience. And I felt like it allowed me to connect a little bit better to, which was super helpful. I just want to throw that in, even though I'm not the speech consultant. But I gained those things from working with you, even though, you know, I've been speaking for years. So with that, also want to talk about one of the things you pulled up in there when you talked about earlier, the fear that we have of not sounding good, or of maybe being perceived as not being educated. One of the things that you mentioned, was giving your opinion that you are the expert. And I had to learn this decades ago, after watching meetings and presentations, and I would sit in the audience, especially when it was my competitors, right male competitors up on stage. And I would say to myself, That's not right. That's BS, he's like making this up. That's not how that happened. I was part of that deal. And then I realized that some of these folks, these professionals will tell stories, then what really happened, because that's one way that they connect with whoever they're speaking with. And I leaned into, no one knows what I know. No one has the depth of experience in my field in my arena, like I do. And I'm going to lean into knowing that knowledge and and giving my personal opinion and not caring if somebody really disagrees. Want to be smart. Yes. But leaning into that. So I'm really glad that you brought those two things up. When you work with folks. Do you really focus on that to like, hey, like be okay, giving your opinion or giving a projection?
Eva Rose Daniel22:09
I do. I think when we have this resume, I think a couple of things. One, I think that fundamentally, we love people that have strong opinions, and that they share them that they say that that boldness and that confidence to share them. And you know, a lot of the biggest movers and shakers throughout history are those that are willing to take their educated guess to know the depth of their industry. And to give kind of a prediction about the future, and you can be wrong. But share your opinion, opinion, share what the world could be if people applied what you're saying. So if you are working on a presentation, a lot of times, you know, one of the biggest mistakes I see speakers make. And this is full confession time, because I gave a presentation earlier this week and I and I did this as well. I didn't have a good close to my speech. And that happens a lot of times with people is we struggle with the closing, maybe we ended lamely on a q&a, instead of coming back with a big close, which is the mistake I made this week even though I tell people all the time don't end on to q&a. And as I ended on the q&a, and you don't want to end on a q&a, just because you've given them that last final impression of your talk to the last question asker. And you know, you've taken q&a, it can be wildly harmless when people ask you, so instead, I encourage people to do the q&a, but come back at the end with a closed. But this week, I ended on a q&a and I didn't come back with a closed. But so you know, I'm a work in progress as well. But when you do come back with a close, you know, a great close for a talk can actually be you casting the vision of what you imagine the future to be like if everyone followed the advice of your speech. So let's say that you've presented some solutions, for you know, what it could look like in the, you know, land and development space. But what would the future look like and five or 10 years from now, if everyone were going to do what you suggested? And just paint that vision of like, I believe in a world in which and then you insert? What would your world look like if everyone did what you said? So maybe for you, it'd be, I believe in a world in which women are really running this entire industry and that we are stepping out and competence. We are stepping onto this state as we are stepping into the you know, this male dominated industry, sharing our voice, you know, more women more minorities, like maybe you in that case, would you just set that vision, like what could that vision be? And so one thing to just consider of getting that thought leadership out is what would it look like if you are giving a presentation? What could the world be like and just share for a couple of minutes and you can be wrong in your predictions. No one's going to be holding you to it and the world can have COVID happen and then the whole world shifts and changes and you might be wrong. But I really do think that fortune favors the bold so don't be afraid with your educated guess to just share the world in which you would love to live in and share that vision with others. Yeah, I
Nancy Surak25:05
love that I love bringing it back. And I and I've been guilty to of ending on a q&a. And now especially since working with you, I try to either bring it back to exactly what you said like, this is what I want or prediction or call for action. You know, the last presentation I did, or big keynote i did i After q&a said, okay, you know, as I wrap up, there are a few favors I need to ask of the folks here today. It wasn't, you know, 180 people in the room. And I asked him for three things. And I was like, go do this, go do this. And please do this. And it's been amazing. I'm still that was like a month ago, and I'm still hearing from people that are, you know, like, oh, you asked me to do this. I never got around to it. But I think about it all the time. And I'm like, That's pretty awesome.
Eva Rose Daniel25:53
It is awesome. And I think a lot of times, and I love what you just shared there as well without call to action. A lot of times, we this happens to us all the time we hear a presentation. And it might even be dynamic, it might be interesting. We lacked clarity of what we're supposed to do with what we've just heard. So as a speaker, you just saying, Hey, this is what you can do with what you just heard and giving that call to action to them with those clear, tangible steps. It really solidifies in the mind of the audience, what your presentation was about, and what they're supposed to do with it. Because they've been sitting there live that presentation thinking, what's in this for me? Why should I care? And so if you can answer those questions, especially at the end, just really punctuating your content of, hey, this is what's in it for you. And this is why you should care. And here's what to do with what you've heard. And you can just really elevate your entire presentation.
Nancy Surak26:40
Yeah, and I love all of that. I love it, all of it. If you have been really instrumental. There was one thing that you had me do, I hope I'm not sharing a trade secret here. But I think whether folks work with a consultant or they don't right, depending on where they are in their experience. Historically, I'm one of those mirror Proctor's I practice in front of the mirror. As I've gotten older, I will practice out loud when no one's around in my house, in my car, wherever. But I had never ever recorded myself until I worked with you.
Eva Rose Daniel27:17
It's painful, isn't it?
Nancy Surak27:19
It's horrible. And I've told you what the experience was previous podcasts. A few years ago, when I first started working on my personal brand, I did some videography work. And I had somebody interview me about just my practice and what I do and how I serve my clients. That was, I think one of the hardest things I've ever done in my profession, I had to get over how I sounded what I looked like the fact that even though I was not nervous, and this is just the thing with my body. I don't really get like butterflies or nerves. But I do get hives on my chest. And I'm fair complected and it goes up my neck. And so I look red under my chin. And I'm like I I'm not nervous. But my body is like fight or flight like it is fighting from the inside out, like get out of here. But I'm like I don't I'm not nervous. I don't know why that happens. But I had to get past that. I've had to say like, that's just who I am. And it is what it is. And maybe one day it won't happen. But right now like chances are nobody noticed. And if they did, maybe they just felt sorry for me. I don't know. Anyway, I want to talk about what you had me do. Because I think that's one way whether people hire you or not that they can actually improve. We have these great things just like this podcast being recorded on Zoom. I have since any presentation, whether that's a pitch to a client or a keynote, I will set up my computer and I record what I want to talk about. It's helped me just solidify the thoughts. But one thing that you also said as a follow up was to go back and listen super hard. Talk to me a little bit about why you suggest that we do that?
Eva Rose Daniel28:57
Well, it is hard and it is painful. We all hate the sound of our own voice. There's actually research been done that the way that our inner ear is structured, we hear ourselves differently than other people do. And we have this experience you think, do I sound like that? And even just when you do record yourself, you're gonna look back and you're gonna realize, oh, I use filler words I didn't even know I use for me personally, I use the word actually, literally, like, you know, so I'm a speech consultant who has a lot of filler words. And anyone listening to this thinks, wow, she uses a lot I do and it's very painful when you re listen to yourself or watch yourself. But the value in it can be tremendous, because to the point, if you don't watch you don't know. And it can really help you see how are other people seeing me and if you give yourself feedback, just thinking through if I was if I was not me and kind of stepping into that third person if I was giving feedback to someone else, what would I say? Well, I would say, Eva did a really good job of bringing a lot of information on why she present a lot of tactical practical things, she did this and this, oh, she used a lot of filler words, she interrupted Nancy a few times. So if I listened back through this, you know, I would have a handful of both positives and negatives that I could work with. And that can really give you a good basis for just how are you coming across to other people. And then I always say, if you really want to take it up another level, and this can be for anyone, no matter if you hire a speech consultant or not, but your first time giving a presentation should not be in front of the audience. At minimum, you should give it to at least one other person a friend, just say, Hey, friend, I'm going to be giving a talk next week, would you be willing to jump on a zoom with me for an hour, and listen to my presentation, or if they're local? Would you be willing to just have me run it through, I generally advise that you not give it to someone that you are married to, because your spouse won't necessarily feel the freedom always to give you real feedback, or they'll feel too much freedom to give you real feedback. And so usually, it's not your spouse. And a lot of times if you can give it to someone that is maybe a little separated from your immediate work. So let's say you work really closely, one on one with someone, maybe you're giving the presentation, but you've worked together on it, haven't give it to somebody that's a little outside of the scope that knows your content, is there going to be able to help you clarify what you said it was, did it make sense? Was it clear was were you using industry jargon? Or were you using things that just don't make sense, because we all have that curse of knowledge of our own content. And so we get so close, we're too close to our content, to even recognize if it's good. And so, yes, give your own feedback, watch yourself back, because you're going to even let's say you're giving a virtual presentation, you might realize, Oh, I didn't realize the plant behind me looks like it's coming out of my head, or the way that my microphone is positioned, it really covered my face. And you might not be aware of that if you don't watch it back. And so really taking that step, both self evaluation, and then whenever possible, especially the larger the group, the more you need to run it by someone else. But even if you're giving a presentation to five or 10, people, run it through someone else and just say, Hey, did that have good flow. And if you're giving in front of a really large group, let's say you, you're given the opportunity to be at a conference and you're speaking in front of three or 5000 people, maybe running that content through several times in front of just different small groups, so that you can iterate on it, you can become more comfortable, you can work on your own pacing, and your own delivery, and vocal variety, and all of those different things with the input from others.
Nancy Surak32:44
Now, those are all really fantastic tips. So we're at the point in the interview, where I start to hit you with some rapid questions, because we have a totally different format than what I normally do. But this this is exactly what I wanted. I wanted to talk about, like just public speaking, how do you get yourself better, right? But before we dive into the three questions I asked all the time, yes, I want to talk about your business for just a minute. So you left a salaried position with an established, well known company in your industry, to create your own consulting firm. Tell me a little bit about the courage that it took to do that, and how you arrived at a point in your career where you were like, this is the right decision for me.
Eva Rose Daniel33:30
Yes, it was a big, you know, it's a big jump. And it takes a lot of courage. And for any women in your audience who are thinking about making a jump to start their own company, or maybe even just jumping to a different company or putting themselves out there. It takes a lot of courage, and it takes a lot of guts and you're never going to feel ready. There's never going to be this morning where you just wake up and be like, I you know, like, I feel 100% Ready, and I'm gonna go for it, and it's going to work and it's gonna be wildly successful, that moment is never going to come. At least it didn't come from me. And it didn't come to anyone I know, I think we can get to the point where we're, you know, at 85% Sure, I think this is going to work. But at some point, you have to say, I'm going to make the jump and I'm going to go for it. And I would say I started it and anyone who's honestly thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, I was given the advice of when started as a side hustle, see, if you enjoy doing it, see, can you get clients? Do you like it? Is there a market for this, this product or this thing you're thinking about doing and if you can, try to get your side hustle up where it can replace half of your income is Have you gotten to where you can replace half of your income. That's a pretty good benchmark that if you were to jump and do it full time, that you'd be able to like make up your income. Now full conversion I only had one month which was a little bit of a fluke month because I had a few like a couple extra clients where i i made didn't make half my income. I was like if I can do it one month I can do this and So I did my side hustle for almost two years before making that jump. And I still jumped, not completely ready, because I don't think you'll ever be ready. But I think just just believing that in a worst case scenario, if you make the gentleman partnership or to another company or workout, York, you are competent, and you're smart. And you're, and you can always get another job somewhere else. So just really, truly believing that you can, you can do it. And if for some reason, it doesn't work out, you were smart, you can get something else. And you will have learned from it. I you know, the older I get, the less I believe in failure, the more I believe in learning, you know, we learned from that experience, and was it a failure, I don't know, because you learn something about yourself. And I would say on this side, again, for anybody thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, it's so wildly different, because you are your own everything. A couple couple of weeks in I was really struggling with some tech issues with my computer. And I thought, I just wish I could call it and I was watching YouTube videos and trying to watch a little bit of a video and apply what they said, and I was having so much trouble. And then I thought to myself, if I were attending a company, and I counted it, what would they tell me to do? And I got, they would tell me to restart my computer, and I restarted my computer networks, you know it so. But a lot of these experiences we have, you know, there are just these little challenges like that. And there's big challenges, but just sticking with it and believing that you can do it, I think makes a huge difference in just your success.
Nancy Surak36:36
I love that. And that's why I asked you that. Okay, here we go on the rapid question. So yes, okay. This one you've talked about already, but I'm going to ask you to get, and I'm going to ask it through the lens. Even though I have a lot of male listeners, I'm going to focus on women, right, I want you to focus on professional women that are in heavily oriented, male dominated industries. If one of those women, let's say she's 25, or to reach out to you and say, What's a piece of advice you have, for me, as I look towards the growth in my career, and I want to raise my hand, what's something that you could offer me that I should be thinking about?
Eva Rose Daniel37:15
I would say, you can do it. And believe, you know, I know you talked about this, but but remind yourself of your successes, you know, keep that keep that file, keep that, you know, add a girl file that you can reference and start raising your hand, start working on your skills and start raising your hand.
Nancy Surak37:35
And don't be afraid I love it. Okay, that'll be number two. And you mentioned one already. So hopefully, you'll have another one. And it's okay, if you don't, is there a book or a podcast that you have listened to recently or read recently that you think is just really wonderful that you think everybody here today with us should take a peek and listen to or read.
Eva Rose Daniel37:56
One of my favorite books that I tell everyone to read is Humor Seriously, this is a fantastic read about humor in the workplace, and knowing your own humor style, delivering humor, and just kind of that port map myth that we have that we have to take ourselves really seriously. So that's one that I just love. Because it I think, again, if you can bring levity to your communication, everyone is going to enjoy it more.
Nancy Surak38:22
Awesome. Good tip, I'm going to make sure that we put the link to that book in the show notes. And the one that you mentioned earlier, so and I think I might even add another book that you had me read when we were working together about numbers and statistics, because so much of my content is heavy data orientation, you know, and so you were like, Oh, I forgot the name of it. But it was like
Eva Rose Daniel38:45
Making numbers count. That's a fantastic one. Because yes, you know, people can't comprehend big numbers. So it's how do you take these big numbers in your industry and make them in a relatable, easy to understand way? Yeah.
Nancy Surak38:57
Which is huge in my world, because people get caught up in numbers that they can relate to have so much impact to them. But when you talk, you know, multi multi 100 million dollars or a billion dollars, like they just get lost in that see. So it's important to be able to sort of break that back and tell people what it really means. So that was a great book. Okay, so final question is, I'm a huge fan. Okay. Not only did I get to work with you, but on LinkedIn, I'm a huge, huge fan, you have the best LinkedIn content. Oh, I have my setting on you. Like not only do I follow you, but I get like a ping whenever you post. It's like you've posted. So I see your content. And I really should comment on it more frequently, because it's always great. But for folks listening here today, other than LinkedIn, because we'll make sure that's in the show notes. Where else could they follow you keep up with your life or your business? Or is that the best place?
Eva Rose Daniel39:50
LinkedIn is the best place I really try to post public speaking content every Monday through Friday, and then you'll see posts about entrepreneurship or just my crazy life. with four kids kind of interspersed, but Monday through Friday mornings, you can rely on me to provide communication or public speaking content. And then the other is Thespeechshop.com. I just put a, just a free PDF up there of 12 questions, you must ask for a killer speech. And that's just a freebie for anyone who wants to go and download it. I promise I won't bombard you with emails at this point. I haven't even set up newsletters or emails following that up. But I wanted to create that resource, because so many people ask me, Hey, what's a good content checklist? And so that's really the the met the 12 questions I ask as I'm finishing one of my speeches and help their clients finished as well. So that's at the speech shop.com. And so anyone is free for that, to get that download.
Nancy Surak40:43
Awesome. Thank you so much for coming today. And sharing all of your knowledge here. You know, if for those folks who are here that are regular listeners, you know, like I'm a big, huge proponent of getting women up on stages. That's a big motivator of the whole podcast, I want to thank you for coming in and sharing all of your knowledge. And just being a part of my journey here and hoping to make an impact and making a difference in other women's lives. Thank you so much.
Eva Rose Daniel41:08
Great. Thank you so much. This has been so fun.
Nancy Surak41:10
Awesome. Thank you for joining us for another episode of she's wild the podcast for women in land and development. If you enjoyed today's show, please go out and rate us so that we can be found by other women in our industry. And if you know women who are working in land and development, please share this podcast with them. And if you know a total rock star woman, badass chick who is killing it in land and development anywhere in North America. I want to know who she is. Please reach out to me so that I can feature her on an upcoming episode.