Anne: everyone, it is Anne Duffy and welcome to the Just Do It podcast. I'm so happy you're here.
And I'm very happy to have a special guest and a dear friend, a friend that we've gotten to know each other better. Actually, even this year, we've known each other for a long time, but she is the trainer of all trainers. She is the most well known and respected speaker in the industry of dentistry and beyond.
And also The most well known and sought after speakers coach in dentistry, and she has earned this title. Um, we just finished up and wrapped up our do life retreat in 2022. And if I looked around the room, the sea of faces and the sea of powerhouses in the room, I would imagine half of that room has been coached by this amazing woman in dentistry.
This amazing coach, please help me welcome Katherine Eitel Belt. Hello, Katherine. Hello, Anne. Nice to be with you. Nice to be with you too. Even we're on Zoom. We, we just, we had so much fun on the beach when we were at CE on the beach.
Katherine: I know.
Anne: And, uh, that was, uh, that was just fun, uh, sipping on our, um, Margaritas or whatever we were sitting on punch.
What was that? Yeah. What was it called? Uh, no, not Nova cane, but something like that. But it was fun and we had a great time with our husbands, but most importantly, I have just, you know, been looking at you from afar and knowing all the women that you've trained and the men that you've trained, um, not only on, um, first the of, uh, dentistry, but Stages beyond.
And tell us a little bit about your background and how you got where you are today to this, to this level of coaching.
Katherine: Yeah. Well, you know, I came from dentistry and, um, sort of worked my way up the ranks and eventually became a practice management consultant. And I did that for a couple of decades and it was great work.
Um, and then I got into my fifties and decided that I wanted to focus on the pieces of it that I loved the most, which was training communication skills. And in an. While I was a consultant, um, I looked for a way to get better results with clients and I took a train the trainer course. And that led to me applying those principles and getting a lot better results with my clients when I finally learned how to teach instead of just firehose people with good information.
Um, and so ultimately that led to me creating a course for people within the dental industry about how to train, um, adults. If there's something that, and we still do those courses today, but it was in doing those courses that people would ask, well, so is training the same as speaking or is it the same skills or, you know, does it apply?
And so we end in, and there is a lot of crossover. There are a lot of skills that you would use in training, like engagement, audience engagement is audience engagement, whether you're standing on a stage or you're leading a workshop or whatever. But there also are some very big distinctions, I think, between training and speaking.
And so from that course, we sort of, um, created this train the speaker, um, which was distinct from train the trainer. Many people in that audience have taken both, um, or gotten private coaching on one or the other. And, uh, Oh, we really do both. I mean, for me and the distinction between the two is outcome.
So if your outcome that you've promised to whoever hired you is any level of mastery, like they could do this thing you're teaching Monday morning with some level of mastery, then that is training. Because to get mastery, they need practice. They need you there to guide, to see what did they get? What did they not get?
But if your outcome is to shift the way they think, or to just introduce them to a new way of thinking about your topic or to see it from a different perspective, if that's your outcome, not necessarily mastery, then it's probably leaning more toward a spirit. what I would call a speech. And so in both of those, of course, we get, we look for engagement and audience interaction, but the, but we use the interaction for different purposes.
One on the speech side is just to keep their attention and on the training side, it's really to get understanding and, and mastery. So that's how I came to it. And now we do Private coaching, and we're getting ready to launch, uh, a video on demand video training series for speakers. Uh, we're very excited about that.
Anne: Well, that's exciting because you, you're, you're all the way on the West coast and I'm already in the East coast here. And so time is money, right? And so it's great to be able to, um, provide that for people that can't necessarily get where you are. And, and, you know, as we both know, you know, you're, you're kind of like, Around the country now.
So, you know, who knows where Catherine, I tell us, we'll have to have that. That'll be another fun game we can play. Yeah. Right.
Katherine: And it's true. And, and, and even beyond that, I didn't want to keep repeating the training because we're doing a lot of virtual. So you can definitely get this virtually. Um, although many people do, I'm getting ready to.
To train a very high profile dentist in our industry. And he's flying out to San Diego for the, for a day of training. So people do that in person and it's great. Um, but you can definitely get the training virtually. But what I found myself was that I was with individuals. I just kept repeating the same, you know, information about how to organize your content or how to find and tell good stories or.
Um, what to do with your body on the stage and things like that. And so we just decided, let's put all that in a, in short video content. So people can watch it, learn it, get it. And then when we coach them, we don't have to, we don't have to teach that stuff. We can get right into, let's look at your speech.
Anne: Well, well, that, that, that is genius because I'll tell you why you get the nuts and bolts, right? And then you have to hone it. Then you put that specials little sprinkle on it. And then that's where you come in again to like, okay, let's, let's make a, a good speech. Great. Great speech. Magnificent. And that's when it takes the, the, the one on one, but you know that the interesting thing, it's kind of funny.
I'll just share this story. Um, I just remember being at an all women's conference or like there were a few men there And the speaker. And I remember calling the person, um, and if he's listening to this, he will know who he is and saying, what the heck is going on here? Um, you have this 99 percent female audience in your hat.
You can't find a female to be a speaker. And so I was really, I was another Erin Brockovich moment. I had, and this wasn't that long ago, but you know, like what, why is the ability to become a performer? A powerful and persuasive speaker and essential professional skill for women, because sometimes we sit in the back seat.
How do, why is that so important?
Katherine: Well, I think women, um, you know, they have a different perspective. We have, I mean, as we should, and I love coaching men. And I think men have a very, um, You know, a big, we have, we have, they have a lot to say to this and be, you know, audiences beyond that. So do women. And I think the balance of those perspectives is important and I would love to be a force for getting more women on the stage.
I find women, um, You know, we're sometimes are uniquely challenged with all that we are committed to, uh, in our lives and, you know, finding one more minute to get trained as a speaker seems sometimes an impossible task, but it's easier than most women think and. I think we also deal, although men certainly do as well, but I think women deal a lot with imposter syndrome.
Um, you know, maybe if I think I have something to say, I'll get up there, but they'll realize that I don't know everything about this. And so it holds them back from sharing what they do know and what they have mastered and what they could contribute, um, in a really, in a really important way to our industry and to others.
In this industry. And so there's never been a better time to become a speaker, especially a female speaker in this industry. There's a great push to get, you know, at least equal voice for women. And so I, I think the skills are the same. But sometimes what holds us holds us back is different than what holds men back.
That's at least that's what we've seen in our experience. And so I think it's easier than you think. I mean, there are some really stunning ways to handle nerves and fear of the stage. Um, I, I take a very different approach than other speaker coaches. We, you know, I I've gotten coaching lots of good coaching in my career for my speaking abilities.
And a lot of the advice I got for handling my nerves was very much geared toward dealing with the symptoms of fear, instead of ultimately what I learned to do was deal with the cause. The cause is that primal fight or flight. The cause is that we framed the audience as a body of judgment, and our brain sees that as judgment.
And so it pumps adrenaline and that's the, the symptoms are the shaky hands, the sweaty palms, the dry mouth, the racing heart. Those are all symptoms of adrenaline. And I'm the kind of girl that says, well, why are we pumping the adrenaline in the first place? Why do we even have that reaction when we think of stepping on a stage?
And I have concluded that it's because we see. And have framed that audience as a body of judgment. So I work with speakers and myself, uh, on always reframing the audience. As something it also is, uh, it is also true that they are a body of need. They need, they wouldn't be there if they weren't looking for something to ease some discomfort, to make something.
More, you know, easier to make something more profitable to make something more balanced, um, to learn, to fill in a gap of knowledge. They can't quite close. There are people in the audience. That's the only reason they're there is to, they're there to close a gap of some kind. And if we have some ideas about how to help that, I sort of see it as like ointment for the wound or, you know, salve for the pain.
And it just. When I think of it that way, then it brings it from sort of the amygdala in the brain. That's the fight or flight primitive part that's pumping adrenaline. It moves it to the prefrontal cortex where we have empathy and executive function and strategic thought. But empathy is the key. When we engage empathy, we actually release serotonin and dopamine and all of those calming, happy hormones and chemicals into our bloodstream rather than adrenaline and cortisol, which is what the primitive brain is doing.
So it really is. Those are the kinds of things I love helping speakers to see that it's not as frightening as they think. And there's some simple tools that we can use to get you on the stage, feeling confident, um, and getting your message out there. So.
Anne: Yeah. It's such a mind shift because, you know, it's like, Oh my gosh, I hope I don't forget what I want to say.
I hope they like what I'm doing. I hope I'm walking the stage. Right. I mean, all of those things, instead of thinking of just, Hey, they are here and I'm here to serve and to
Katherine: contribute, you know, I don't have all the answers. I don't have all the answers for my subject. There's lots of different ways to think about it.
But I do know I have some ways and I know they've helped some people. And so I'm just there to contribute to those people. And when I get that shift, then I don't pump the, then I don't have all the shaky nerves because, because I'm not framing it that way. And so that's an example of having a coach to help you get through that little minefield in our own minds.
And, um, And then get your message out there to the people. It would actually really encourage and help. And you've done a brilliant job of that. You are, and when you show up, you're Anne. And, and that's what we love about you. That's why we're drawn to you because you are so authentic in the way you dress, in the way you show up, in the way you speak.
And so I don't want people to become a version of Catherine. I want them to become the best version of who they are and feel solid and confident in that. Um, so that they just, their personality really shines on the stage and, and they have fun with it.
Anne: That's, that's so do like, do you, right? Be yeah. But Catherine, one thing that I have heard about you and this is you can, so, so what I would struggle with and I know, I know that I need some help in is the message.
And I have talked, like Deb carrier told me one time that you, she spent like a half an hour with you. And you got her so set on exactly how to structure what she wanted to say. I mean, like you pulled it out of her. So, I mean, I've got an, I've got notes and notes and notes that I write what I want to say, but then to be able to make it into a structure, um, that, that makes sense beginning, middle and end and lands and authentic at the same time.
That's what I think you are a genius at. I mean, that's what I've heard this. This is not me talking. This is like everybody that talks about you. It's like, they just need to spend some time with you to be able to craft really it's, it's like a perfect speech. And yet then they make, then you help them make it their own and then get up there and have the, the guts, the courage.
Not only the guts and the courage, but just the excitement. Like, look, I get to give this today. Not, Oh, golly, I, I've got to give it today.
Katherine: Well, that's why, you know, uh, back to your initial question of why should, you know, why should women have this as a professional skill? It's not just from the stage it's standing up.
And if you're a dentist standing up in front of your team at a team retreat or a team meeting, um, and leading them, that's a presentation. Um, if you are on a board. And you take the lead on a board. That's a presentation. So just having some training around how to take your I mean, don't we all have these like wild minds.
I mean, the reason we're part of do is because are we are smart. Accomplished women and our minds never shut off. I mean, you have to just go to sleep. Just the minute you're up, the mind is going and ideas and thoughts and, and all of this. And so, and so it is. important that we have the ability to say, what is my primary message here?
And how do I make hard choices? How do I take a sharp knife to this mess of ideas and thoughts in my head and craft it so that It lands very clearly with my on my audience. I think we use a formula we call the bookshelf formula, and it makes it really easy that the shelf represents the kind of elevator pitch of the speech like what's the bottom line of the speech.
Then we put the books on which are. Up to five containers for your content. It makes you forces us to organize our thoughts into five or less containers. And then we have an opening bookend and a closing bookend. And so all of those pieces, we do it in a certain order. And they're all, they all have their own little mini processes within them.
But when we teach people how to use that bookshelf formula, you can eventually use it on the fly. Like, if you said, you know, can you just jump up if you would have had a speaker at our last retreat last week? Um, fall sick. And you would have said, Kevin, can you fill in, fill, fill 15 minutes unprepared? I could have said, what's the subject.
Okay, I'll do it. And in my mind, I would have crafted a quick bookshelf and I would have known how to put those pieces together. So we want to teach people how to take something, learn it well. So that either when they have time to plan or when they need to do something impromptu, like. Like, maybe I was asked once, uh, not too long ago to stand up at a funeral.
I wasn't expecting to speak, but I was asked to stand up and say something. And so on, you know, with just a few minutes notice, I had to craft something that would land coherently with that, you know, With that audience and I so I think it is a really good professional skill. We're really thinking about it lines speak trying to get this into young people's hands, very early on in their college days or even high school, so that they.
Have this from the beginning, you know that you want to be known for someone who can clearly communicate.
Anne: That's exactly right.
Katherine: And not confuse people. So I think giving people that skill but you're right and you, you have a firework mind like a lot of women and do it because we have a lot of ideas. And so the ability to direct those ideas and not confuse our audience is a huge skill that I think all professional women should.
Anne: Should learn. Well, okay. So I'm excited because now I realize I can learn it because a lot of times I'll be talking and I have to say to the audience, stay with me, stay with me. Cause I'll get on different tangents. And I, and then I, and the message gets watered down and it's not as powerful as it could be because I don't take the time to create the bookshelf.
And so that is very, um, yeah. Poignant what you just said, like, okay, these are things you'd be like, somebody said to me one time, go slow to go fast, you know, and, and I, and I think it's great. I like, I say, well, I just, I'm not a speaker. I'm a talker, but I am losing. I'm just going to say this. I need to think of myself as a speaker and like, Put my big girl panties on and like, you know, take some time to learn the skill, you know, who better, who better to learn it from than the great, the great Catherine, the great, I love that.
Oh, that's hilarious. Oh, it's so true. It's so true. So what, okay. So what are the elements of mastering that persuasive public speaking? So what is you, you know, you get the bookshelf,
Katherine: so you got to organize your content, right? You use The bookshelf or some formula. Paul homily has a formula to that. He calls it the, um, red and blue spectrum of appeals.
So that's a great, that's a great framework as well. So find a formula that helps you organize your content. That's that's what we do. Number one, cause it doesn't matter how you physically deliver it, if it's a confused mess. So the first thing we do is get the thoughts out. Get it get it organized, then I believe you have to put color on the black and white logic so you get this outline done.
But now that's sort of black and white data or an outline. Now we need color color could look like story, it could look like humor. It could be. Costuming. It could be music. It could be video. It could be in the audience interactions. There's a variety of ways we can make it interesting. So those elements are the next piece we do or look at.
And then, um, then we look at performance aspects. So what do we do with our feet? What do we do with our hands? What do we do with our eyes and our smile and all? How do we use the stage? Whatever this, whatever represents the stage. Um, How do we use the room? Um, You know, and so just making sure that people feel natural and comfortable, but they look confident, um, and at ease on that stage.
So we work on some little tips and tricks about how to control your movement and still move, um, and how to connect with the audience. And then lastly, we talk about how to practice. Some practice tips and some, some tips to handle your fear day of, um, and just some, you know, AV kind of, uh, things. There's lots, there's lots of moving parts, but, um, but it all stems from a well constructed speech.
So that's where we start. And then we begin to layer on the performance aspect of it.
Anne: Wow. That is so cool. That just explains to me why, when you showed up at our retreat and the, the, um, we only had hand mics, right? We didn't have the lavalier. Then you're like, oh, it's going to be fine. And then it was like at the very end, when you wrapped up and just shout out to you, you know, we were running for late.
Running out of time. And you were just so calm and you still nailed it. You had like 10 minutes to wrap up. We thought we're going to have like 40 and it was just like, it was like you'd done that a million times. You had that whole thing planned. Everybody got so much out of it. It was, it was just remarkable how we sent.
How you sent everybody off, uh, for the next day, which I, I like to say was the first day of the rest of their life, um, out of this, uh, Charlotte area to, to go on and do their thing out in the world. So I just, I was amazed at what you did. Um, Impromptu. And yet, um, so at ease and beautiful and got so much out of it.
You're just eloquent up there and it just, um, just, I, you know, I think everybody in the, in the audience is like, I want to be like Catherine, you know, like that's
Katherine: a goal. That's a
Anne: goal. So
Katherine: I want, I hope that they, I hope that they want to be. As in their skin is Catherine. Yes. Yes. You know what I mean? Like not a copy of me, but just that comfortable.
And that's what happens when you understand a speech construct, like the bookshelf, you can, you can contract or expand it. Give it because if you're going to be a professional speaker, or even if you are, you know, a dentist or a clinician, a hygienist or whatever. Um, And you want to speak on the side, um, you, you will absolutely be faced with, um, not getting the exact time you were told more often than not, you'll get more or less time often less.
And so I always say, like, I just helped a bunch of speakers that had, um, raised their hand for dentistry's got talent competition and they have 10 minutes. If they go over 10 minutes. They're disqualified one second over 10 minutes. They're disqualified. So I said, we're not building a 10 minute speech.
We're building a nine minute speech, maybe eight and a half, because we just don't want to get anywhere close to that 10 minute Mark and we want to, it won't matter to have 30 seconds less or 45 or a whole minute less, we can still make this impact, but it's worth nothing if we go over and you have to allow for.
False starts or audience laughter or audience participation there. All of that gets thrown in the mix when you're looking at time. So it's such a great feeling to be able to say to your host, I've got you. We're running a little behind. I'll get you back on track.
Anne: Oh, I was so happy.
Katherine: Yeah. Knowing that bookshelf was like, I can do this.
I was already, as I was sitting there going, okay, I just won't do that. I won't tell that story. I've got this, you know, and I'll get us out on time. And so. That's the sign of someone who really knows their content, has a bunch of little things in their hip pocket that they can pull out that might be better in the moment.
And, um, that's what gives you confidence is knowing that you can flex. That you can flex, that
Anne: you know it is true. It is the confidence at the end of the day. It's the confidence that you have. In what you're going to say and how you're going to say it. And then when you do it with grace and poise, you get asked back.
And that is the goal of all the speakers, because we all have a message and we want to get it out. And I, and I love that. And women that are listening, women are, you know, we are, we are starting to find our place in dentistry. And I'll just use dentistry. And I remember when I first started do Catherine, I had quite a few, uh, females, uh, who were That would say, I would have my hand up in the meeting and I'm sitting, I'm waving my hand and they called it all, all the men.
And we, and again, I, you know, you and I both, we love men, we got great guys and in our lives, but that's changing, right? We are going to be called on and we need to be ready when we are called on me so that we can bring the next generation along with us and it's going to make a difference. So I am very excited to have you on this podcast today.
Uh, anybody that's out there that's thinking of, Not just even, you know, getting up in front of big crowds, but small crowds be able to speak in front of your morning meetings. I mean, there's just so much goodness that comes from being able to communicate well and to get your point across when people listen and people will listen and take that point.
And, and, um, and take it in. So Catherine, how do we get in touch with you and, um, give us your, um, your, um, your contact information and then I'm gonna have you back on and we're going to talk more about your next, um, big adventure with, uh, lion speak. That'll be really, yeah,
Katherine: no, I'd love to, um, you can contact me.
Well, first of all, our website is lion speak, L I O N S P E A K lion speak. net. We. The winery has the lion's peak winery has the dot com so we teasingly say if you want wine go there, but if you want communications coaching unscripted communications coaching come to line speak dot net and you can reach us at info at line speak dot net and that will get you in.
I would also encourage anybody who's wanting to just. Follow us and see when the new products will be released. We're hoping to get it out on a, for sure by the end of the year, the speaker's video. Um, we're hoping we're shooting for a Black Friday presale. So we'll see if we can get the final videos edited before then.
Um, but if you want to be on the list to be notified about that, then the best way would be to join our Monday morning stretch list. It's a blog I write every Monday morning. For the last 20 years. Um, that's a lot of writing. You're a writer, and so that's a lot of writing. Um, so join that. It's free. Uh, you'll get my, my Monday morning stretch every Monday morning, but definitely we'll be announcing, um, all of the new video products, uh, in that newsletter every Monday.
So, um, so stay tuned for more. We're super excited. It's going to be super accessible and affordable for people to. To get and do at their own pace, um, which I think will be great. And then if they want to reach out for coaching, then they'll already have the basic knowledge and, and then we can fly from there.
So I'd love to get more women on our stage. Um, men also, um, and, uh, young people, we really want to make an impact there so that people start out their careers with these skills. Um, so yeah. Yeah. And just
Anne: think, just think if you started out. And when you were young and where that would take you, right? Oh, so that's, that's a, that is just such a great thought.
Katherine: Great thought for
Anne: our, for our industry and for the world. And so Catherine, thank you so much
Katherine: for
Anne: being here. Shout out. I love the morning stretch, by the way, that Monday morning stretch. Oh, you just, you just nail it every Monday. So it's a great way to start our day. And. And um, and thank you for all you do for the industry.
And if anyone, you know, is out there, remember the most important thing to do is to keep doing you. Thanks everybody. See you next time. Bye.
