Disruptive Influence: The Business Storytelling & Brand Communication Podcast · Jeff Abracen

Why You Need to Stop Performing and Start Believing with Annelise McCarthy

·53 min·3 clips

A lockdown mirror moment leads Annalise to start "mirror talk" and change her relationship with herself.

1. Disruptive Influence: The Business Storytelling & Brand Communication Podcast centers on Annalise McCarthy and her work around speaking, confidence, and communication. 2. Jeff Abrason introduces Annalise as the founder of Her Speaking Coach, a certified public speaking teacher, an emcee, and a workshop facilitator. 3. The episode asks what happens when someone stops performing and starts believing their own voice. 4. Annalise says she grew up with a speech impediment, a lisp, and "thrust tongue," which led to years of speech pathology. 5. She describes being a child in a dark therapy room with a large couch and weekly sessions focused on articulation, tongue muscles, and jaw muscles. 6. A teacher later pushed her into drama, poetry recitals, and impromptu speaking competitions so she could build confidence. 7. Annalise says she became a "certified speaking nerd," went to the world championships for public speaking, and served as public speaking captain. 8. She explains that a diploma to teach public speaking came through the Australian Speech Communication Association after 10 years of study and a difficult three-hour spoken exam plus a three-hour written exam. 9. While studying a double bachelor of law and Mandarin, she also taught in schools for five years and then launched AM speech in 2020. 10. She says Clubhouse became her early marketing channel because people heard her speaking in rooms and contacted her for coaching. 11. Annalise argues that communication still matters in the AI era because knowledge does not equal memorability. 12. She uses a 10-out-of-10 versus four-out-of-10 example to show that strong expertise is overlooked when delivery is weak. 13. She says memorability now depends on relevance, humor, storytelling, and attention management. 14. A conference in San Francisco or San Jose gives her a live example of timing, when she lands a joke after Jackie from Marvell jokes about tote bags and Oprah. 15. She says another memorable moment came in Irvine, California, when Sandy gave her a necklace after a workshop on assertive communication and speaking up in the workplace. 16. Annalise says the necklace now sits in a special place and reminds her why her work matters to women finding their voices. 17. She describes the deepest shift as moving from people-pleasing and self-loathing toward self-compassion, patience, and a quieter inner voice. 18. She says one of her core beliefs now is that "you don't need to be serious to be taken seriously," and that people now pay her to be herself. 19. Listeners who care about public speaking, self-worth, and confidence work would get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting fast tips without personal reflection may skip it.

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