In this episode, the guest shared insights into the power of small changes and the impact of morning routines on personal and professional growth. The discussion centered around building confidence, overcoming limiting beliefs, and the importance of authenticity, trust, and connections in public speaking and entrepreneurship.

Guest Bio:

Leslie Fiorenzo is a public speaking and networking coach, specializing in helping individuals conquer fear and transform their inner critics into inner champions. With a passion for empowering clients to find their voices, Leslie equips them with the skills and mindset to share their stories with confidence.

Key Points:

- 00:01:05 - The profound impact of a morning routine: The guest highlights the significance of reflection, exercise, and planning within the first hour of the day for personal empowerment and productivity.

- 00:04:23 - Overcoming the challenge of limitless ambitions: Discussion on setting priorities and focused goal-setting for entrepreneurs in managing overwhelming choices.

- 00:09:18 - Building trust and authenticity over content: Emphasizing the value of authenticity, genuine connections, and practical application of information for establishing trust and rapport.

- 00:12:35 - The power of incremental progress: Discussing the concept of continuous improvement, language choice, and embracing imperfection in the pursuit of excellence.

- 00:17:51 - Embracing mistakes and adapting in presentations: Encouragement for embracing flexibility, acknowledging errors, and the importance of genuine responses in public speaking.

Main Quote:

"Nobody knows what you're gonna say, so if you make a mistake, oh well. As long as you don't use profanity, don't let that stop you."

Guest's Website:

Find more about Leslie Fiorenzo and access her free download on public speaking tips at https://www.lesliefiorenzo.coach/.

Welcome to this week's edition of The One Small Change. You know

that I believe that life is a journey, and the best way to go through

a journey is to explore. And this journey is 1 that's gonna

help to help with your transformation. I'm your host, Yvonne

McCoy, and I bring over 30 years of entrepreneurial spirit

and experience to discovering growth through the power of

seemingly small changes. So thank you for joining me

and coming on this journey with me. And this week, we are

talking with Leslie Forrenco, and

she's gonna share a small unexpected or insignificant

decision that sparked a remarkable transformation and growth One

maybe had an effect on both her business and her personal life. So,

Leslie, thank you for taking this time out of your busy

schedule to share with me and my audience. Thank you,

Yvonne. It's my pleasure to be here. So tell

us, we're we're all dying to know what you do and what was the

small change that that made you go in that

direction. Well, for me, it was how I start

my day. So I worked with a coach, and 1 of

her 1 of the components in her coaching program

was your morning routine. To win the morning, win

the day, that kind of idea. And so, really,

the first hour of the day

is most impactful, at least in my opinion, now that I've learned this and

One learned to apply it. So 20 minutes

of reflection, meditation, prayer, whatever you wanna call

it, 20 minutes of stretching, exercise,

and then 20 minutes of planning, thinking about my day, who I'm gonna connect

with, how I wanna show up. Those 3 segments

in that first hour have made a tremendous

positive impact for me. And and, you know, I

think people underestimate. I mean, this is not an

an idea that's new. I often say there aren't too many new ideas under the

sun, because there was, a while ago,

there was, you know, the the all the rage was the power hour. Yes.

You know? The there was 1 about the

journey where you you journal the first thing in the morning. But I think,

you know, the essence of it is that it just gets

you focused, you know, so that you can

actually accomplish something. And if you're, you know, if you use

that to I mean, you know, I often say to people,

you know, it can be as simple as saying, what am I doing today

to build my business and and and have the life I want?

Yeah. You know? It doesn't always take a whole hour.

So tell me tell me how that got you focused on your business.

Well, The 20 minutes of preparation is

what do I need to accomplish, who am I connecting with, What else

do I need to do? I think the challenge that many entrepreneurs face, Yvonne,

and I know this is your expertise, so you probably have some insight into The.

But there's so much we could do, so many things

we want to do, and how do I fit that all in?

So if I'm focused on what are the 3 things

that I absolutely need to do today, and and if I

get those 3 things One, I mean, that's what I wanna do first thing. That's

what I Yvonne attack. So going forward with The?

Well, I think, you know, I I think the other thing is not only

as entrepreneur do we have shiny

object syndrome. Right? I think from a

society point of view, we are you

know, I say this almost every every podcast. So if you've heard it once,

you've probably heard it a bazillion times. Buckminster Fuller says

we're all born geniuses One that it's educated out of us. And that's

because our our education was built

to develop people who could follow instructions and

and and be managed. It was not built for people to be

creative and to be entrepreneurs. Yeah. And so

everything that you learned in school about how to

do things, is to your detriment as an

entrepreneur. So, Leslie, tell us what you actually do in your business

The this helps. So, Yvonne, I work with coaches

who are reluctant or fearful of

public speaking, creating video content, and networking. Frame

it,

One The

them change their inner critic to an inner

And One And so how does that practice that you talked about,

help help your clients or can help anybody? Because I

agree with you. First of all, I think, we wouldn't see

headlines like, are you the best kept secret? You know, that

kind of thing. If we weren't, I mean, again, from the educational

perspective, we're we're told to be part of a team. We're told

to, you know and as children, we're told to sit down and be quiet. You

know? And I often say in my story, it was

during a lot of civil rights upheaval. And so I

was always told you had to be the best, but you couldn't stand out. You

couldn't draw attention to yourself, which is kind of a hard thing to do

That's right. To do both. You know? So how do your people use that

to overcome some of their limiting beliefs? Well,

first of all, it's understanding that the feelings of

confidence come second. You have to take action first. If you

wait for confidence to show up, you're Yvonne be waiting

The rest of your life. It's not gonna happen. You've just got it. Like, I

always say, copy Nike's mantra, just

do it. So get out there, put yourself out there One

small steps. So if your goal is

to present at your industry conference let's say you're an accountant

One you wanna present at your industry conference,

Small, what's 1 thing you can do to move

yourself in that direction? Because because most likely, you're not

gonna call up that meeting planner and say, hey. I wanna present at your you

know, I wanna be the keynote. I have no experience, but I'm gonna be the

best keynote you've ever heard. You're probably gonna say, I don't

think so. I want some backup. I want some proof. So what's 1 thing I

could do to get that proof? And who can I connect with? Who

needs to help me? 1 of the challenges I think, Yvonne, that

entrepreneurs face is this idea that we need to go

it alone, and we don't. We need The continue. We

need supporters. We need to be able to reach out and say,

hey. Who do you know that might be helpful to me? How can

I make this work? Those kinds of questions. And so

creating a community around yourself to help you. And I

know you're a big proponent of that. I know you've been working towards that.

I I have you've said so many things that, you know,

I'm I'm gonna try not to take your time.

So the first thing is the thing about going

it alone. I don't know why I mean, I wish I had learned this

lesson decades ago. I think it comes from, you know, the whole

thing I am woman, hear me roar, I can do everything nonsense.

Right? Yeah. And, you know, I kinda felt like

community you had to be good at what you did before you went to a

community so you could give to the community, which is

absolutely asked backwards. You go to a community when you when

you're first starting out so that you can start to understand

if that's really even the right direction to go.

And you will find that you if you feel comfortable there

and things click and you're getting the help that you want, then you're in the

right place. So that's the first thing that you absolutely do not have to

go it alone. Your learning curve will be much shorter,

whatever. The other thing that you talked about is

is kind of that it's not perfection, it's Podcast, you know,

progress. And I think, you know, for me, that's why I think it's so

important to have what I you know, I talk about your vision as being dead

reckoning, that sailing term. You pick something that's far out because

you know you have to take steps along the way and adjust.

And so, you know, if you decide you wanna talk, you

can start by doing a 5 minute live on Facebook, and

then you can do something else, and then you can do a half an hour

or whatever, and then you can do a, you know, a webinar. And if you

make your own stage, you can do it any way

you want to, which is your uniqueness will shine because it's the

way you want it to do. And I think,

you know, I I think 1 of the things that

was hard for me to to get my head around, so I'd like

you to speak to The, is how important is

building trust and authenticity over

content? I think, especially in

this day and age with all of the buzz about

AI, people want to connect with real

people. The challenge that I think social media

has presented to us is people put their best

face forward, if you will, but they also put things that are

artificial. We wanna look good. We wanna have this I I read

this on a I believe it was on a post

that someone watched a mom, a young mom with her

little, I don't know, maybe 18 One under

3, posing her on the beach,

and the poor could couldn't play in the sand. She kept I mean, it was

like The all the little girls wanted to do was play, and the mom was

trying to take these curated photos. We have

people want reality. Maybe that's why reality

TV is so popular. I'm not sure. Most of those I don't

watch a lot of them. Me either. But I think it that's

I think that's what people are after. Well, I think the other

thing is The is so much information

that's already out there. They don't actually need you so much for information

as they need you for implementation. They need to know

how to use the information. And I

think, you know, again, from that model of, you know, be part of a

team, do it the way we all do it, there

is you know, people don't

realize that they can adjust stuff so that it works for them. I you know,

I say you do the right thing in the right reason, the right way, it's

right time, and it's right for you. Mhmm. And so, you know,

I I'll share my story that I did a workshop once. I,

you know, I did my monthly workshop, and 1 of my clients

was my wing person who was letting people in and that kind of stuff. And

afterwards, she said, I don't know how to say this

except to be really blunt. The person that showed up and

presented that workshop is not the person I love working with.

Interesting. He said, I I don't you know, I what I see you know,

you're not even paying attention to the chat or talking to the peep. You're

just, like, going, like, at full speed just, you know, putting

facts and information and stuff. And and so somebody,

you know, graciously redid my workshop for me, and it had,

like, 78 slides. And I'm like, I'm not doing this. You

know, IIII went to 50 some slides and down

to 20, and now I think I'm down to 9. Because I

pay more attention to the audience when I do that, and I have exercises

that I want them to do. And so it you don't have to

sound like everybody else. You don't have to look like everybody

else. And, you know, the authenticity I mean,

the last 3 clients that I got said to me,

you know, I got such good feelings from you. I

really trust you, which is what I'm trying to, you know, get across.

And it's like, it's working. It's working. So I

think even when you are,

talk about the things people can do to bring that authenticity out The

whether it's in social media, in speaking,

whatever. Well, I I think having someone who's going

to be honest with you just like your colleague was was

brutally One, and I know that happened for me. It happened to

be my stepdaughter, and we were at a family function. And

I was think I was calling bingo or leading some game at a

shower. She afterwards, she's, why did you do that? I said, do

what? She was, you were so fake up there. What's with

that? Like, what? I mean, I it was a big

moment for me. And looking back, I was like, yeah. I was trying to

anyway. So being real, having someone

who will be honest with you. But then you've talked about the

the process, and I think it's doing it over and

over and refining. So are we gonna be

well, we're never gonna be perfect. Are we gonna be excellent out of the gate?

Maybe not. But striving for excellence, and

what's 1 thing I could do to level up? What's

1 small change I could make, 1 tweak, whatever you wanna

call The, next time I do this so that it

just gets a little bit better? I don't know if I'm a

big fan of James Clear and his work atomic habits,

and he talks about just 1% better every day gets you

this exponential increase,

and I think that's really true. We sometimes

look to say, well, I I want this goal, and it's out here. I wanna

just jump out there. It's not gonna happen. It's what if you

look at any athlete, right, they their preparation,

their, I'm

the word I want is not coming to me, but that taking small

steps and practicing and doing that over and over,

a lot of times it gets boring. And I have to do this

again? Yeah. You do. Well, you know, it's funny

because when I decided to do my monthly workshop, when I heard the idea of

doing the same workshop every month, I was like, oh my god. This

is gonna be so boring. Who's gonna wanna come to this? Right? Uh-huh.

And what I realized was Yvonne though the

framework was the same, the

for me, the stories and stuff are different. I mean, some of them are always

the same, but depending on what kind of mood I'm in, depending on what who

shows up. I mean, because 1 of the lessons that I learned

very early on because I did workforce development, and I had to go in and

do training, you know, in companies. Right? And I'd say, you know, what

do you think you're gonna get? And they were like, I don't know. And I'd

say, well, what would you well, you know, why are you here? Because they told

me I had to be. I'm like, okay. This is gonna be a winner. Right?

So I would say, alright. This is what I'm gonna be training

on. What would you like how would you like to use this in

your life so it'll improve your life?

Right? And then they got a buy in. So I you know,

for me, it's always like I kinda, you know, try to make the examples

match the audience that I've got as much as I can. You know,

acknowledging sometimes I don't know anything about that, you

know, And and and and being honest. I mean, I you know,

1 of 1 of my goals is that after I talk to you,

once we've talked together, that you leave better

than when we, you know, The we've than when we met. And,

so I had a guy that did a did a follow-up phone call One I

said, well, what, you know, what kind of business are you trying to put together?

And he said, farming. And I was like, oh my god. This is

gonna break my streak. I know nothing about farming.

But it turned out that once we got into it and once we dug into

it, it turned out that he was interested in aquaponics. And I actually

do know something about The. But more importantly,

he had come out of the service and had a background

in global and The, logistics, shipping

things. And, you know, we kinda started talking about, you know, all kinds of

stuff. And by the time he, you know, was gone, he was, like, really excited

about it. I was like, yes. You know? And so I think that

it's important, One, to acknowledge that you don't know everything.

Exactly. You know, if I used to say to my teachers, if you put yourself

on a pedestal, you're gonna get knocked off. I mean, you

know, so don't go there. I my thing is I don't know everything.

If you but you can ask anything, and we'll find the answer

together. Exactly. You know? So,

again, what other things can make you seem

more authentic? I mean, I have people say 1 of the things

models that I like is that I say, what other things

are do you like to do in your life besides business? So

mine is humor, weight loss, my family, and my

dog. Right? And so some of the

analogies that I give when I'm telling stories or doing

lessons have to do with those things. Like, so I have a post that's like

The dog that caught the car. You know? And

it's about, you know, you want more clients. Suddenly, you have more clients, but you

don't have the infrastructure to handle it. Yeah.

You know? So what kinda ideas do you have about things like that?

So, it is about thinking thinking

through. The the question I think that, we often

think in worst case scenarios. Yes. So when that

happens or or the question to ask is,

how would you handle it? If if that worst case so

you're on stage, and you totally lose your

place. What's the worst thing that's can happen?

Are they gonna boo you? Well, maybe. Most audiences are pretty

kind these days. They're not gonna throw rotten tomatoes at you. But, again, if

that happened, what's the worst thing that could happen, and how are you gonna

deal with it? So The other example that goes along

with that is if you were planning an outdoor wedding

in September, depending on where you live, I suppose if you're in

the south of the equator is different. But what's the

worst if it rains? What what would happen? Well, I can get a tent. Like,

what's my plan b if the worst case scenario happens? So thinking about

The, if I put a post out, if I make a video One

no 1 comments on it, What's the worst?

No no 1 commented on it. Okay. Does that mean no 1

liked it? No 1 maybe they didn't see it. It's The algorithms

of Facebook and LinkedIn and all The, like, kinds of things

always change. Who knows? Don't

let that stop you. Avoid letting that stop you.

So I just said the word don't. I changed it to avoid.

I'm really aware of language because language

can be so powerful. And years ago, probably in the

I'm not sure when the book was published. I'm gonna say late nineties, early 2000

maybe. There's a gentleman that wrote a book who is now

deceased, but don't no.

Remember the ice. The story is he went into a convenience

store in Phoenix, Arizona, the 4th July, and asked the young

man behind the counter, how's how are ice sales? And the kid's like, you know,

they're not really great, which is surprising because it's so hot to you know? And

the gentleman behind him on the counter,

don't forget the ice. He said, let me just change

that sign for you. And he crossed out the word don't and put the

word remember because our brain does

not hear that. So it was subconscious message,

forget the ice. So when it said remember oh,

we hear remember the ice? Oh, yeah. So avoid

those kinds of just the power in language. I

get to, I choose to, I want to

instead of have to, must, and should. Also also, I

think One that same thing is, you know, when I

taught money management, people would say, well, I I, you know, I can

only save a dollar. And I'd say, don't say only.

Say, I'm a saver. I saved The dollar. Yeah. Right?

It's not the quantity necessary the quantity as it is the

characteristic and the action that you want to

embed in what you're doing. And so, you know, I always say The

there are couple things that I say when I'm speaking. One is,

even though I know my material, I'm always I I

won't say nervous, but, you know, you know, how how can I make it

better? And I always say that's a good thing because if I don't feel

that way, then I don't really care. Mhmm. I'm not I'm not trying

to do my best. I'm like, I'm just I'm just wing it Small,

whatever. Right? So that to me is a good thing.

The other thing is that

I always do my presentation in a way that I feel like

like I said to you before, I try to connect with the audience so it's

relevant and give them a chance to, you know,

to do some feedback. But I have to tell you, I did I in 9th

grade, I did get up to give a talk One for the National Honor

Society, and the drama teacher pounded it and made

us rehearse. And I did a get up there and go blank.

And I did the first, like,

phrase One I ran out of breath or whatever, and

I don't remember seeing the audience. I don't remember being on the

stage. I just remember leaving and crying.

And she said to me, she said,

that was great. I mean, I was like, what do you mean that was great?

She said, nobody knew that you didn't give your prepared speech.

Exactly. And after that, I never memorized my speech.

Nobody knows what you're gonna say. Right. And so if you make a mistake, if

you change some words, if you don't say exactly what you had

intended, oh, well. As I mean, as long as you don't use

profanity, although I know in some groups that's accepted, but I don't

think Well, I think and I think the other thing

is, you know, when you're talking to people,

you know, you just say, oops. Maybe I shouldn't have said that.

Yep. Or One you're gonna get a and if they're listening, you'll get a reaction,

and you'll know that they're they're engaged. But, anyway, Leslie, we we

are having too much fun. I know we are having fun. I wanna make sure

that you tell people what the you know, what we're putting in the notes, the

gift, and how they can connect with you. Sure. So they can,

visit me on my website, and I have a free download. It's a

ebook that's 5 tips to better public

speaking. That is not the exact name of it, but, we'll put that in

the show notes because I can't remember it off the top of

my head. And I have a book coming out soon. It'll

probably be another 6 weeks, but it's find your voice,

conquer your fears, and share your story with confidence. Because I believe

that every especially if you are an entrepreneur, you have

a story about why you started your business and why you're

an entrepreneur. That's an important story to share. You

shared a little bit about yours, the the idea that it was,

always to be better and to be the best, and you had to

overcome the but don't show off. Right? Don't don't don't put

yourself too much out there because so that

how do you work that? Right? Anyway, I think it's important

that people are able to share their story.

And that will definitely give them some steps of what they

Yeah. You know, some easy steps that they could take and get better almost

immediately. That's fantastic. That is so generous. Thank you so much.

Oh, my pleasure. And the question I always like to ask my

guests is, when was the last time you did something

for the first time? But the

the last time was very recently because my husband and I just completed

a 6, 000 900 mile road trip to the

Western United States to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. So

Congratulations. Thank you. I'm not sure we've spent that

much time alone together in a car

since maybe since our honeymoon. Anyway, it was a

we saw so many wonderful things. I know I know the world

has beautiful, beautiful places all over the world, but the

western US is particularly amazing.

I have not done a tour of the west. I something that my husband definitely

wants to do, and we will do it. So to

bring this to a close, I just wanna say, make sure that you

subscribe and share this on

social media with your friends. And for me, this is a way to

give back and to help the community, and I wanna make

sure that, you know, I bring exciting

and, impactful guests that are gonna fuel your quest for growth and

impact. So, Leslie,

give me your last words before we end.

If there's 1 thing, you know, a quote that can help people.

Well, 1 thing I always advise people to do

no matter where they're speaking, whether it's on a podcast or

in person, seated or standing, keep your

feet flat on the floor.

Anchor yourself. Now move move with purpose. You can

move the upper half of your body. You can step in. You can step

forward, but avoid pacing. And when you're seated,

avoid twisting in your seat or crossing your legs.

I just think you're much more powerful when you stand with your

feet flat on the floor. That makes your shoulders go back,

makes you look you know, that whole idea of posture.

And Mhmm.

Oh, you you stopped. It was like Yep. Oh, yep. That sorry. That was that's

it. I didn't I didn't Yep.

Just be powerful in your in your presentation One And

in your body. In your body. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

So you can you know that this was done live. Exactly.

The only thing that's missing, and I got my fingers crossed. The only thing that's

missing is the barking dog. So, Oh, well, I had that

earlier. Okay. So I want make sure you join us for next time

and listen to, the earlier episodes so that

you can dive into a world of, you know, bold visions and and

and innovative possibilities. But I I wanna remind you like I always do.

The change is simple, but it's not always easy. It requires

courage, resilience, and a willingness a willingness to step out of your

comfort zone. I can't say it. I'm so excited.

So I want you to join me for One small change.

And until I see you next time with our next guest, which you're gonna be

very excited about, thank you for joining us, Leslie. Thank

you for being generous with your time and sharing with my audience, and

I think that all of us know that we do

better when we are ourselves, when we're our better selves. So thank

you. My pleasure. Thank you.