1182: Connecting More Powerfully in an AI-Driven World with Gina London

How to Be Awesome at Your Job

Gina London discusses how professionals can differentiate themselves in an AI-driven world by honing their communication presence and purpos

Key takeaways

• Confidence is an outcome of practicing communication techniques rather than a prerequisite.
• The 'three-legged stool' of effective communication consists of words, voice, and body (including grooming).

Main topics

• Communication in an AI world
• Building confidence through technique

Notable quotes

If you have a soul, now's your chance to make it shine.

Conclusion

The episode provides actionable advice for professionals to remain irr

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:09) I encourage people to look at their script or their presentation or their report like a conductor would for an orchestra. Where are the parts of that presentation that you need to have your voice get a little slower to show some seriousness? Where maybe you want to power it up because you're telling an energetic story of victory or maybe one that's more disappointing. Speaker 1 (0:40) That's Gina London. She's an Emmy award-winning journalist who also coaches high-performing professionals on communication, leadership, and influence. Most recently, Gina also published her first book, Amplify You, How to Connect More Powerfully in an AI World, which we're discussing here. So you'll learn one, the one communication skill AI still can't replace or replicate. Two, how to train your brain for more confidence, and three, the habits that undermine your credibility and presence. And if you want a quick summary write-up of the actionable wisdom that Gina shares here, I Speaker 2 (1:12) suggest Speaker 1 (1:12) you mosey over to awesomeatyourjob.com, sign up for the free Gold Nugget email newsletter, and you'll get that that-a-way. I'm Pete Bukaitis. This is How To Be Awesome At Your Job. And now, here's Gina. Speaker 1 (1:30) Gina, welcome. It's Speaker 2 (1:32) great to see you. Thanks so much. Well, I'm excited to talk about getting Speaker 1 (1:36) amplified and congrats on the fresh release of your book, Amplify You, how to power up your connections in an AI world. Could you start by sharing with us one of the most surprising discoveries you made while putting this together? Speaker 2 (1:49) Well, when I started this whole journey, because I work as a communications coach and trainer and speaker, I think the thing that continually... stopped me when I first moved in from being a broadcaster and a television journalist into strategy communications and transferring the skills is that it is a transferable skill because I thought, well, this is something everybody does and what can I bring to this? And one of my friends who actually worked for the BBC when I was at CNN, she said, Gina, you forget what the rigors of 24-hour news have done for you in terms of your story crafting and your vocal presence and the energy that you bring on camera is something anybody can learn for themselves, but most of them don't unless they have, like you're going to a gym, you're not going to just watch a YouTube video and then pick up the trap bar and do it properly. You need a coach to help you. And so as I was writing this, I thought, I want to give fundamental but essential skills. in a way that's easy to apply and have it stack one on top of each other in an incremental, developable way. So I can give people this guidebook that they can use to help them power up their connections and their humanness, especially when we got all this AI stuff making us feel somehow very replaceable. I want to help people to say, no, these are the tools that anybody can develop, but it does take some effort and it is a skill. So I'm surprised that we've got it all out here, but it goes from the way you talk to yourself, the way you talk to others, the way you show up, and then put it all together in some behavioral techniques. And I'm pretty proud of how comprehensive it is. So I'm really delighted that it's out in the world now. Speaker 1 (3:33) Beautiful. Yes. Congratulations. Thank you. Could you share with us a cool story of someone who indeed amplified themselves? They started from a spot where they... figured I needed some help and then what they did and what the result was. Speaker 2 (3:48) Yeah, I'm so grateful because I did start writing this column. I write in the Sunday Independent newspaper here in Ireland, and it's on leadership and communications. And so I got a note from someone who had read the column. He was the CEO of a big... engineering company here in Ireland, but he was also, he'd acquired a new company in the UK, and he was also requiring something in North America. And as these acquisitions were going through, he was going to be doing a roadshow to meet with the employees. And he said, Gina, I'm very aware that I'm a big guy. I'm a serious guy. And as I was watching him when we were having our initial discovery call, I said, yeah, and you're an intimidating guy. And if you're coming into my new company and I'm an employee, I'm going to be questioning, am I going to be made redundant? Does this guy really care about me? What is happening to my job? And so I put him on camera doing this welcome and here's the vision discussion that he would do normally. And then we played it back and I said, now I want you to do it again. And I want you to smile like your face is feeling like it's going to crack. And the big guy, Steven says, Well, I don't do this happy clappy stuff. I'm Speaker 1 (4:59) like, Speaker 2 (4:59) just work with me a little bit on this. And we played that second clip back and he watched it and he said, you know what? I can smile even more. And that's where that light bulb moment is where someone sees how others see them and they realize it's not fake. It's not manipulative, but it is an effort. And if you're unaware of what you look like when you're communicating, well. That's the first step to building your awareness. And then the second step is let's have a desire to amplify, not change you, but let's start taking more control of these things. So it's not just about smile more, but it's about are you aware of the emotions of what you're saying? Have you chosen words that are connecting with your specific audience? Do you have more control over the vocality to support those words? Is it energetic? Is it confidential? Is it... thoughtful? And then do you have the face and the body and the gestures and all of that integrated? So you're creating a real compelling connecting, and in this case with my guy, Stephen, reassuring communication experience. So it's reminding people that communications is not just a transfer of information. It's creating an experience with the big giant caveat that this is not manipulation and then fake and exploitation when you have mutually beneficial goals in mind and that it's heartfelt and driven by your values. So we get into that as well. Speaker 1 (6:29) Oh, Gina, I like that so much. There's so much goodness there. And so I like the way you said it with regard to amplify. You know, you're not some other creature. You are you. amplified because you're not aware of how you come across. And that is just eye-opening for people all the time. When they see themselves on video, I've taken video of friends and said, hey, watch out. Can you keep doing this thing where you're stroking your tie? He's like, what? No, I'm not. I was like, oh, wow. That's so weird. I said, you're just, you're shocked. Like you just, you can't believe it until you behold it. It was like, oh, well, well, there it is. Okay. That's the thing that's happening. Wow. Speaker 2 (7:10) Exactly. Because We have these patterns and habits of how we've been communicating up until now. Most of us are on default. And so we don't know. Maybe we might have been told, hey, you ramble. Or, hey, I don't know what you're saying. Or, hey, I can't actually understand you because you mumble. But then most of us stop right there and think, well, that's just how I am. That's just the authentic me. And I want everyone to understand that. Your self-acceptance and your self-development do not have to be at friction. You can still be who you are and you're a great human being and you've come as far as you have come. And you can also layer on some more intentionality of how you think about the other person, how you prepare for presentation or even just a one-on-one or casual conversation. This stuff matters. I think it really matters more than ever. Because we are becoming more and more dependent upon Claude and Gemini and ChachiBT to help us in our written words. But if we don't sound like we write or we don't write like we sound, that means we probably haven't taken enough control of who we are. And I think it's really important for us now to be irreplaceable as humans. So human up your skills, folks. And this book, I think, comes at a really great time. Speaker 1 (8:31) Human up, your skills. Yes, indeed. When you mentioned amplifying your facial expressions, your body language, your gestures, your vocal tone, and think about the emotions associated with what you're saying. That is the telltale sign for me with regard to, I'm thinking about YouTube. And if you're watching something, maybe there's no face and it's just visuals, or maybe there is a person, but like, that's how I tell that it's AI. And apparently, I don't know, maybe the comments are fake too, but it seems like it appears that many of these people, the comments are completely unaware that this is not a human being in front of them. But that is what does it for me. It's like that person is saying something sad, but they don't look sad. Their tone of voice isn't sad. Like that person is saying something really surprisingly powerfully insightful, but they don't look like they're saying it's just wrong. And so that's what does it for me. And what's funny is. A lot of humans are doing this too. Just before the land of AI, it's like, wait, you're saying something that's like really a big deal, but you don't look like you think it's a big deal. So now I don't know, is it a big deal or not? Or did I misunderstand you? What's going on? There's like a confusion inside of me when there is an incongruity, when things don't match up, assuming I'm paying enough attention. That's Speaker 2 (9:56) the Speaker 1 (9:56) other thing is like, maybe because it's incongruous, it's boring and I don't care. I was like, whatever. And so I'm not even paying enough attention to notice that it doesn't match up. Speaker 2 (10:04) You were so hitting on the incongruity and the lack of attention span that people have these days. So in the incongruity piece, I have an illustration in the book of a three-legged stool, words, voice, and your body. And in the body part, I would also include. your clothing and your wardrobe choices and your grooming and those sorts of things, because it's all giving that impression of who you are to that audience. But what we're talking about is a lot of people, especially in business, more formal settings, like my CEO guy, they're focusing on the words, but they haven't learned how to. integrate and connect the voice to the emotion behind those words. They haven't necessarily picked words that are warm or that can be reassuring or connecting in the particular situation to that audience as well. And then the body language piece, as I was mentioning, if it doesn't look energetic or urgent or sensitive, there is that lack of balance and that three-legged