“It is critical that our digital impression is a good one, reflecting your personal leadership brand and your corporate brand,” says Karin Reed. Is your digital impression a good one? In this episode, Karin delves into the importance of creating a strong digital impression and maintaining a compelling virtual presence. She shares insights from her TV journalism career, illustrating how appearance and presentation impact audience perception.

Karin emphasizes that a good digital impression isn’t about vanity but about respect for the audience and distraction-free communication. She offers practical tips, covering essentials like background setup, lighting, audio quality, and camera positioning. Karin highlights the importance of an uncluttered background, proper lighting to allow the audience to read your facial expressions, clear audio, and eye-level camera placement. Additionally, she addresses the challenges of maintaining a strong digital presence while working from various locations, offering a bonus video on her website for finding the best lighting in any space.

This episode can be a comprehensive guide to improving your digital impression and virtual presence, with actionable tips for professional communication. Tune in to Speaker Dynamics for Karin’s expert advice on making a strong digital impression.

Quotes

• “First impressions matter. They matter a lot. And oftentimes, that first impression is delivered digitally. With us showing up so often via webcam, it is critical that our digital impression that we are giving off is a good one, that it’s a good reflection of your personal leadership brand and a good reflection of your corporate brand.” (00:00 | Karin Reed)
• “Be aware that people are more tolerant of poor video quality than they are of poor audio quality. So if there is a place to invest your time and energy in improving, it would be in your audio.” (09:33 | Karin Reed)
• “We’ve talked about your background, we’ve talked about your lighting, we’ve talked about your audio, we’ve talked about your camera position. All of this is critical for you to ensure that your digital impression that you’re giving across is a good one, because you want to make sure that it is a great reflection of your personal leadership brand and that you have presence in the virtual room.” (18:04 | Karin Reed)

Links

Connect with Karin Reed:

Website: www.speakerdynamics.com

Speaker Dynamics University: https://university.speakerdynamics.com/

Speaker Dynamics on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speakerdynamics/

Karin Reed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karin-reed/

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” asks Karin Reed. She argues this question is just as relevant for adults as it is for children, leading to a discussion about balancing immediate productivity with strategic, long-term goals. In this episode, Karin talks with Wall Street Journal bestselling author Dorie Clark about the critical practice of long-term thinking in a society fixated on immediate results.

Dorie, known for her work in the Harvard Business Review and Forbes, shares insights from her book, “The Long Game.” She highlights the struggle of finding time for strategic thinking in our busy lives and emphasizes the importance of structural changes for sustained success.

Dorie provides practical advice for leaders to foster a long-term mindset despite short-term pressures and introduces the concept of “optimizing for interesting”—pursuing meaningful activities that lead to fulfillment and success. Her personal anecdotes illustrate how small, consistent steps yield significant outcomes. She also discusses how to effectively communicate strategic visions, balancing humility with necessary self-promotion. Her straightforward approach helps listeners share achievements without boasting.

Dorie’s advice emphasizes the power of small, consistent steps and pursuing meaningful activities to achieve long-term success. Tune in to gain invaluable insights from Dorie Clark and learn how to develop a strategic mindset and optimize your path to fulfillment and achievement!

Quotes

• “I’m always interested in questions about how people make meaning in their lives. And it seems like in our modern society, there’s really kind of two pat answers that, in the discourse, are often viewed as diametrically opposed… You optimize for money or for meaning. And I actually think that there’s a useful third way that we can be thinking about, which is optimizing for interesting. (08:29 | Dorie Clark)
• “If you’re optimizing for money, a lot of times, we know, culturally, people can be quite unhappy. Money gets you to a certain place, but it doesn’t get you to the finish line. It is necessary but not sufficient. But if you’re optimizing for interesting, you’re choosing things that are genuinely meaningful and cool to you.” (09:18 | Dorie Clark)
• “It’s important to remind people: It’s not that whenever you were pursuing whatever goal it was, or career it was, you weren’t just sitting eating bonbons. You actually did things. You met people, you made connections, you learned skills. And many of those skills and many of those connections are probably transferable. It also means that you see the world in a slightly different way, which sometimes can be extremely helpful.” (25:13 | Dorie Clark)
• “One thing that I want to encourage people to think about—and this is a concept that I share in the long game—is that, ultimately, if we’re all sort of suffering under the yoke of being pulled in too many directions, having too many things to do, we have to recognize that, inevitably, there are going to be times and there are going to be moments when that is necessary. About short term results, sometimes you gotta just make it happen. But it’s also true that if we want to be smart about long-term thinking, we can’t always be doing that.” (27:44 | Dorie Clark)

Links

Connect with Dorie Clark:

https://www.dorieclark.com/thelonggame

Connect with Karin Reed:

Website: www.speakerdynamics.com

Speaker Dynamics University: https://university.speakerdynamics.com/

Speaker Dynamics on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speakerdynamics/

Karin Reed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karin-reed/

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

What we say and how we say it matters, whether we are speaking over the airwaves or in front of the boardroom. In this episode, Karin Reed shares how the lessons she learned as an award-winning broadcast journalist shape her approach to her work today in the business world—lessons that you can apply in your role as well. Whether she is pointing out potential pitfalls or highlighting how you can communicate to inspire, this episode offers a series of lightbulb moments that you can put into practice.

Karin’s top five lessons are:

1. Technology is fickle. Always have a backup plan when dealing with technology.
2. Butterflies can be a good thing. Nervous energy can enhance performance.
3. People move people. Focus on personal stories to create strong emotional connections.
4. There can be unexpected blessings. Embrace the unexpected rewards that come from your work.
5. There can be unexpected consequences. Deliver news with empathy, understanding its impact on others.

By applying these lessons, listeners can become more empathetic leaders and communicators, adept at creating meaningful connections in every interaction. Let’s take these lessons to heart, recognizing the influence our words can have in shaping our relationships and environments.

Quotes

• “There can be unexpected consequences of your message. I share this with you because I think it was valuable for me to learn it in my career as a reporter, and perhaps it’ll be valuable for all of you who are listening in your sphere of influence.” (12:19 | Karin Reed)

• “That was a hugely impactful day for me as a reporter because I realized these aren’t just stories. These aren’t just messages that we are delivering in a vacuum. All of the things that we say, whether you’re a reporter, whether you’re a leader delivering a tough message to your team, that has a direct impact on the people you’re delivering it to. And it made me a much more empathetic reporter after that day.” (13:33 | Karin Reed)
• “If you are hearing this message, and you are a leader, and you are charged with delivering some difficult news, always keep in mind that what you say impacts people. And you want to keep that in mind so whenever you deliver it, you can deliver it with empathy and you can be that empathetic leader. So, I wanted to share these lessons with you because hopefully you will find that they resonate in your world in some way.” (14:13 | Karin Reed)

Links

Connect with Karin Reed:

Website: www.speakerdynamics.com

Speaker Dynamics University: https://university.speakerdynamics.com/

Speaker Dynamics on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speakerdynamics/

Karin Reed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karin-reed/

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm