Today we’d like to introduce you to Tina Leder.
Hi Tina, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Up until 19 years old, I couldn’t say “hi” to someone because I had such crippling social anxiety. It took me five years after that, with a lot of money, time, and energy to finally feel comfortable initiating a light conversation to a stranger at a grocery store without a second thought.
My interest in learning to interact socially, communicate, and even NLP (thought I didn’t know that I was doing that at the time) began when I was in Middle School. At the time, it was focused on boys because that was my teenage brain. So I purchased my first books on basic NLP (neurolinguistic programming).
Fast forward to 18 years old, I started working on sets (as a background actor) and quickly realized that if I didn’t get over my social anxiety, I’d be facing the reality of eating alone at lunch every day, as I was typically on a new set everyday dealing with different strangers.
I bought psychology books, attended workshops (improv Second City, on-camera workshops, etc.), and forced myself to be in new social environments.
Since then, I’ve spoken on stages in front of thousands for companies, taught workshops on public speaking to corporate clients, and now host my YouTube channel focused on this with 48,000+ subscribers.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The most memorable struggle was gathering the courage to say “Good morning!” to a group of strangers who would be my co-workers for the next 8 hours. I remember thinking, “I need an excuse to talk to someone as soon as I see people… what do I say?”
Then, I noticed another girl walk up to a group and say, “Good morning!” I thought to myself, “That seemed to work! I’ll use that!” With my heart pounding out of my chest and a very real fear of thinking these group of strangers will laugh at me for attempting to be like one of them I said, “Good morning!”
I’ll never forget when they casually all said, “Good morning” back to me. I thought, “Wow, this technique works!”
That’s when I started to see that maybe, I just need to learn more and eventually, I won’t feel this horribly everyday.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I teach corporate C-Suite Executives and thought leaders how to speak with confidence from presentations to negotiations through working on brain techniques for fluent speech, non-verbal techniques, and verbal hypnosis.
I’m most known for introducing Verbal Fluency to people. Verbal fluency is a cognitive function that facilitates information retrieval from memory. Basically, if you’ve ever in the middle of talking got “stuck” on that ONE word or phrase that was at the tip of your tongue, but you just couldn’t remember what it was exactly, that’s a sign of low verbal fluency. Great negotiators, corporate leaders, and politicians typically have high verbal fluency, and there’s a way to train for this.
I’m most proud that I help people newly in leadership positions find their voice, literally and figuratively. Most of my clients have a hard time falling asleep because of their anxiety level going from a technical job to an actively communication-oriented position. Social anxiety was always there, but it never had to be truly addressed until they were forced to step up or face letting everyone down. Thankfully, my clients are the type to step up and completely change not only their professional life but have their personal life flourish beyond imagination.
I have a course Verbal Power Academy™ for those interested in learning Verbal Fluency, Clear Speech, and Basic NLP techniques. I also offer tailored private 1-on-1 Zoom 2-month program for people in leadership positions. For corporate workshops, I offer private packages.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
We are living in a digital world and we must get used to it. I’ve been invited to older corporate companies requesting workshops on “Power Presentations Over Zoom”. How you present yourself in-person and online is equally, if not more important. I’ve helped my private clients curate their online presence to help them land an executive position which included the right headshot on LinkedIn, working on clothing choices based on psychology of authority, and creating a “brand” for their professional identities.
Pricing:
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Contact Info:
- Website: www.TinaLeder.com
- Youtube: youtube.com/tinaleder
Image Credits
UCI – Women In Leadership Club
