I lucked out when I met Meridith Grundei on LinkedIn. She is a former dynamo improv teacher (Second City,) an award-winning theatre director, keynote speaker, and presentation skills coach, and I’m thrilled to have her as my guest today.

Meridith and I unravel her journey from the dazzling lights of acting to the impactful stage of public speaking. She shares her unique approach to coaching, breaking down the barriers of fear, and unlocking the potential in individuals. We also touch on the intersection of improvisation skills and effective communication. Meridith offers practical advice on honing one's speaking skills, whether in person or virtually. She loves to empower individuals to own their own voices.

Join the conversation as we explore the winding paths of personal growth and the art of connecting through storytelling.

In this episode you will learn:

• How to overcome public speaking fears
• Meridith’s approach in helping tech people become speakers
• Tips for improving presentation skills
• How to enhance your virtual speaking influence and persuasiveness
• Common mistakes in presenting and speaking

Learn more about Meridith:

Email her: meridith@grundeicoaching.com

Website: https://www.grundeicoaching.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meridithgrundeicoaching/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meridith/

A little about me: 

I began my career as a teacher, was a corporate trainer for many years, and then found my niche training & supporting business owners, entrepreneurs & sales professionals to network at a world-class level. My passion is working with motivated people, who are coachable and who want to build their businesses through relationship marketing and networking (online & offline). I help my clients create retention strategies, grow through referrals, and create loyal customers by staying connected. 

In appreciation for being here, I have a couple of items for you. 

A LinkedIn Checklist for setting up your fully optimized Profile:  

An opportunity to test drive the Follow Up system I recommend by taking the  

10 Card Challenge – you won’t regret it.   

Connect with me: 

http://JanicePorter.com 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/janiceporter/ 

https://www.facebook.com/janiceporter1 

Thanks for listening! 

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Mentioned in this episode:

LinkedIn Ad

Hello, everyone and welcome to relationships

rule. I'm very excited this week to have my guest, Meredith

Grundy, who's here from New York, New York City, if I'm not

mistaken. Yes, yes. Yes. So welcome. First of all, welcome

to the show. Thank you. You're very welcome. Meredith is just

another beautiful example of someone I met on LinkedIn. And I

just love that right. I love Yeah, that, you know, we start

with a very small connection, will you connect with me, and

then have a conversation and it just worked. So I was so excited

to meet you. So what I would love for you to do, Meredith

first is just give my audience a little understanding of your

story, your background story, because what I'm going to say

first of all, is that Meredith went from acting to speaking but

in such a different way, and specializes now in public

speaking and presentation skills. And I'm ready to dive in

on that. But I want my audience to know your background where

how this happened. How did you go from that world of improv and

acting to being a speaker and a facilitator

of a very windy road? That's how

to be a squiggly line, very

much squiggly line? Yeah, with some loop de

loops in there. Yeah, I have always loved being on a stage, I

found it really liberating as a dancer, as a young kid. But I

was always that kid that was terrified of speaking up in

class because I was afraid of sounding stupid or saying the

wrong thing that happened in the answer, and so forth. And so I

really found liberation being on stage and just using my body to

tell a story, if you will, and the music and the choreography.

And there was one particular dance where my dance teacher for

a performance asked all of us to come up with a line of text,

which was what do you want to be when you grow up? And mine was

because I was obsessed with Wonder Woman. I said, when I was

when I grew up, I want to be just like Wonder Woman. And I

did this double turn and, and landed on both feet and said it

loud and proud from the stage. And it was from there that

someone came up to me and said, after the performance that I

should take acting classes, I think at the time I was about

12. So I was like, Okay, sure. But what I found in that was,

and it took me a while to kind of figure out that this was the

stepping stone for me starting to feel more confident, using my

voice. And I had, I had the script, of course, somebody

else's words to hide behind. But it still built this confidence

for myself. And then later on after college, and I danced my

whole my whole way through high school and college and did

theater and Beekman. It was after college, I went to

Chicago, I moved to San Francisco first then to Chicago,

where I was doing experimental theater, using improv

improvisational physical improvisational forms, and

devise to work which is making creating your own theatrical

projects. So I wasn't always working from a pre written

script. And then at that point, so I've had a very like, again,

loopty loop. I love a lot of different kinds of kinds of

theatrical expressions, if you will, on the forms within those.

But I got to Chicago and I moved there on purpose because I

wanted to study improv, I want to study specifically improv

comedy. So I interned my way through this place called IO in

Chicago, which is the home of the Herald. And I was also

teaching after school programs. And I happened to be co teaching

an after school program with one of the CO CO associated a co

founder, I don't know what her title was Associate Member,

let's say that of the Second City. And she said, Hey, we're

starting this Kids program at the second city, would you want

to be one of the new instructors that helps us develop the

curriculum for that. So then they brought me in, and I became

an associate faculty member of the Second City and I taught the

very first kids class that they ever offered there. And from

there, I started to really love teaching improv and not just

teaching it to kids, but teaching it to adults as well.

And then I started teaching in the corporate world. And I was

teaching improv on communication and heightened listening skills

and building trust, and all those awesome things that those

fun games teach that have actual, there's no real world

consequences, but all of the lessons learned are incredibly

applicable. And it was from there where I started coaching

people in public speaking. Wow, well, and I loved it. You

know, it feels like as as I've, as my

observation of people who do people who are actors, okay

actors improv people that generally they are camera shy as

themselves. And they don't like to talk about themselves and

they are in maybe not maybe introverted. I don't know if

that's the right term to use here, but, but when they are

somebody else as an in their acting, they become a different

person, because that's gives them the confidence that they

don't have as themselves, which I think is really interesting,

because it seems to me that you could be wrong, but you you are

developing those other skills as well about being confident in

yourself and looking at business at like, there's there's not

that direct line between improv at Second City and corporations

and standing on stages and teaching people to speak. That's

not a direct thing for sure. So were you taking business at

university as well or No, it just so what inspired that like

was it just,

I think my father, I grew up with a father

who had very much an entrepreneurial spirit, and he

was a financial manager. And he was very, very much in the

corporate world. And I remember, I remember once, when I was

living in San Francisco, he and his buddies, his colleagues, I

should say, and buddies, all came for some sort of a

conference, and they were all staying at the Marriott. And I

remember going up to the concierge room at the Marriott

to hang out with them. And I was really intrigued by what they

did for a living. And I was always really intrigued at why

it was so confusing. Well, I always, I would always hear

people titles. And I'm like, so you do what? And so I have

always been incredibly curious about that question of why is it

so complicated? Why do we and, and furthermore, I noticed that

not only does that get carried in the job descriptions when

you're applying for jobs and in the titles itself, but then that

also gets carried into how they present to customers. I love it.

You don't necessarily know what the heck they're talking about.

So I feel like my job is and I would say this, my dad all the

time when he was still alive. I'd be like, just talk to me,

like, I'm five, like, just break it down. And that was sometimes

really hard for him to do. And I think that's what's really hard

for a lot of people to do. And so it's not about talking down

to people or being condescending, it's just about

what's important.

Yes, yeah. That so what I was gonna say when you

mentioned your dad right away, I because I was thinking about a

different way of coming at it. But but when I was growing up,

my dad was always saying to me, do something you can fall back

on, you know, make sure you can, you know, fend for yourself and

look, right, because theater definitely probably wasn't it at

the time. God. Oh, I mean, my sister did a similar thing. She

went, she left here and went to use, she was always in Fine Arts

at UBC. She at university, she was acting, she was singing, she

was in a folk group and all of this stuff. And she went to LA

and she got her Master's in Fine Arts at UCLA, and she never came

back. Then she started, you know, pounding the pavements to

get auditions and so on. And she ended up in I think I asked you

about this Kentucky Fried Theatre, which is an improv

group out of LA.

Yeah, yeah. It asked me about that. So

she was doing that, and she was doing to

audition stuff. Essentially, in the end, she couldn't make any

money out and she didn't like the rejection. So she ended up

on the other side of the business doing. She was an agent

for kids for a long time. And then she was in another business

around that in the entertainment industry, but you know, it

everyone has to find their way. But it was that, you know, she

still lights up when she does things like that, you know, in

front of my granddaughter, you know, doing a puppet or doing

something you just see her light up with those kinds of things.

But the improv thing I'm really fascinated about because I think

I'm very on is just as a word on animated, not an animated when

I'm on stage. And I've been on stage doing presentations, so

I've been scared stiff. And I remember thinking things like

find a face in the audience, you know, and just focus on that

person to that, you know, because then you can speak to

them and feel more comfortable and it does work. So when you're

taking Okay, wait, I getting all excited here. So I let's put

this into a real question. What are some common challenges or

fears that you've observed in your clients when it comes to

public speaking and how do you help them overcome these

obstacles? So that's the bigger picture of what I was trying to

say. Because I think yes, yeah,

the common obstacles and fears, I, I feel

that a lot of people come to me thinking they know what their

common fears and pain points are. But then when you start to

dig a little bit deeper, it's more than that. So I would say

most people will come to me and say, I need to get better at not

using filler words, or I have anxiety, which is real. And it's

so real, that it's paralyzing. I have people who have come to me

who are really excited about they can see themselves on a

stage and delivering that keynote. But I but what's

interesting to me is that I don't think people realize the

amount of work that goes into cultivating a presence in that

way. And it can start to feel really vulnerable and really

scary for people. And so there's lots of different layers. I

think that when I work with clients, some of its pretty

straightforward. Some people are like, just help me with my

presentation. I got, I got I got a I got it. You know, I gotta

have this done in a month. Yeah, thanks. I got some people who

are seasoned, and they just need me to help polish them. But and

then I have those people who come in there. And it's almost

like it's, it's a, it's a, it's a gentle approach to getting

them to where they want to be. So I hope that answered your

question. But I feel like sometimes it's much more

layered.

It does. But I'd love to hear a couple of

stories. So. So I know that you work a lot a lot in the tech

industry. And yeah, yeah, and I remember doing training, I'm

more of a trainer than a speaker. And I remember

training. A lot of people back in the day, it wasn't so much

tech as it is now. But it was like the the the engineers and

the implementers, at the telephone company, they had to

come and do this training with me, I worked at the telephone

company as a trainer. And we did some soft skills training, I

think it was and of course, they come in with their arms crossed,

and they don't even care, right, they don't want to be there

because it's like, but some of them then got to the levels

where they had to do the training. Flights my train of

thought those people are so not the, the build rapport kind of

people. So you must have that must be a big job to turn them

into speakers. That's what I'm getting at. Tell me about tech

people and how are you?

Yeah, for me, it's it's about first of all,

convincing them in a way, showing them that less is more,

because what I've and how to tell a story using data or using

the architecture or whatever it is that they're developing. So

for me, it's a couple of things that come in and I, I talked to

them about the importance of story, and how to incorporate

it, and that it doesn't need to be complicated. It could be a

very simple story. It could be a metaphor and analogy. It could

be something that will connect to the information, and really

hitting upon what that emotion is for the audience. Like what

is the audience's pain point? And how is what you're

developing going to solve that problem for them? I guess

telling them as a five year old would too. Yeah,

it's a five year old, I'm guessing because Yeah. The

biggest thing you just said for me there was knowing what the

audience's pain points are. So doing that homework and making

sure that what you have to say is going to answer that. Yes,

exactly. And you might have people of all

different levels in your audience. Some people might know

what you're talking about. And some people might be this is the

first introduction to what you're sharing in the audience.

So it's really important that it's not that you're talking to

the lowest denominator, but that you're just being thorough

enough, but not getting into the weeds to where everyone in that

audience can be a part of that conversation with you. So once I

get them convinced that story is effective and has impact, then

what I do is work with them through their deck. And that can

vary depending on the industry in which I'm working some some

companies are a little bit more flexible. Some companies like aI

works, sometimes with doctors and pharmaceutical companies.

And they everything is compliant, they have to use what

they have, they can't change even the order of things. So how

do you how do you work within those limits? So that being

really clear, and you're just focusing on what those key

takeaways are on each of those decks, or each of those slides,

I should say, and you're really clear with your introduction,

you're really clear with your call to action. And oftentimes,

those things the introduction this story, how you're going to

present your slides, and CTA can all be kind of muddied if

they're not well practiced and prepared. And then the other

thing I'll do is give them resources or tools or how to

practice because I feel that people get the advice often to

practice, practice, practice. But people practice differently,

we learn differently. I feel like my job as a coach is to

say, here are a lot of different ways that you can approach

practice, and I want you to try all of them. And let's just see

which one's going to work best for you. But obviously, what

you've been doing hasn't been working. So let's try something

different. And I love it. It's like, it's like taking it taking

something really challenging and sculpting it into something that

is tangible for people. It's like a little solo performances.

Well, yes, it must be really rewarding when

you know, do you when your clients has done the

presentation, and they come back and say, I did it, it went

really well. And now they're all excited about it. Not as afraid

to do it. The next time. Do you? I think you do one on one

coaching and you also do group coaching. Correct? Yeah. You do

improv with your with your people? Yeah,

I do. I do. i It depends on the room. But I

always like to do at least like a little icebreaker. And I don't

call it improv. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. So it depends on

who the audience is. But I just did one for the just this last

week, having a brain fart

League, that one

thing I guess wanted to say the league, it was

like, so thank you, the Junior League. In Jersey, I just did a

workshop for them. And that was fun. It was all improv it was

about owning owning your presence and owning your voice

and owning your story. And it was super fun. And they knew

they were doing improv and got up on their feet quite a bit.

And then I have an improv for speakers membership program,

it's called confidently speaking. And that attracts

people who are more entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, if

you will, who really want to start getting better at these

impromptu things that they're called to do like being on a

podcast, for example, or going to a networking event and doing

the one on one or even getting on a stage. And that's been

really cool. Because I've had members in that group for two

years now, some of them that have been there for two years

and to just see their growth. That's so cool. Yeah,

it's not easy. Definitely. I've always like I

struggle when I have to actually have a script or a speech that,

you know, I should know it like by rote, but I don't I can't

study that way. I have to just learn my slides. I hate slides.

I don't like talking to slides. And that's a whole thing by

itself. Just learning how to, you know where this slide is,

and where you're pointing and not standing in front of the

screen? How many people do that?

I could talk about that for a while. Yeah.

Get away from that screen for God's sake, you

know, and, and then building rapport with the audience. And

those things are to me, just as in so much, it's so important to

the whole presentation. But it struck me I struggle with having

to study anymore. I don't know. Yeah. That becomes my blog. So I

do I just ad lib most of the time, or at least I think I'm ad

libbing probably not, but I'm taking what I see on that slide

and changing it each time I do it so to speak. Yeah,

yeah, it's, you know, the the advice I

always give my clients is to start first with in you

mentioned this beautifully, which is start with your

audience first and really identify who they are, what

those pain points are, and how you're going to solve that

problem, etc. And then once you've established that, then

you figure out what is your objective with this particular

audience? What is your end in mind? What do you want them to

to have by the end of this presentation or retained by the

end of this presentation? And then once you do that, you

figure out what are those key takeaways? So usually, people

can only retain three to five things. So you think, okay, what

are the three key takeaways that are going to lead me to that end

in mind to that objective? By audience I should say, and then

once you've established that outline, and you figure out

those things, then you look to your slides. And then you say,

Okay, what slides here are going to best support this message.

And then I always say, try to practice without the deck. And

get the end just and always be practice practicing out loud.

I'm always stunned at how many people still practice sitting at

their desk, just scroll through. Yeah. So always up on your feet,

practicing out loud practicing, often, my client right now who's

going to be doing this big speak event that I'm producing next

week, I said, Okay, you are at that point now where you can

just take the script, tape it on your kitchen cabinet, while

you're making pasta, I want you to, I want you to deliver your

presentation out loud as you're cooking. And if you need to

refer to that, because you're gonna get thrown off because

something's going to happen, like the pasta sauce is gonna

boil over or something, then you can refer to it, but it's just,

it's about memorization is about using different muscles and

memorizing in different ways. And it can be a lot of fun if we

allow it to be fun. Okay. All right.

Moving on. You got me over there. I was just

thinking back. I know I shared with you how I I'm obsessed by

this podcast called smartlace. And you said, Okay, well, a lot

of the people that they had on that they've had on that show

have been improv people from Second City from wherever else,

the Canadian one I forget SCTV I think it was called Groundlings,

the Groundlings, all these improv people who became

Saturday Night Live regulars in their specific times. And what

I've found fascinating is learning about how improv is

like, it's just so clever. Like I'm, it really is a whole thing

that most people don't understand. So what skills from

improv would you say, are the biggest ones that you take over

into what you're doing now? Because it is a whole thing,

right?

It's a whole thing. That's so many great

questions there. First of all, improv is like, I think it

should be a required course, in every school, I just really do.

It builds your adaptability muscle, so that you can think on

your feet if something goes wrong. It helps you build trust,

in a way because you're taking, you're taking risk. You are

sharing sometimes things that might feel a little vulnerable.

You're laughing with people laughter builds trust. It helps

with ideation and the brainstorming process. That

whole idea of Yes, sand. Yes, can be interpreted in a couple

of different ways in healthy ways, right? One is, so when

with ideation, it's like I can't tell you how many times I'll

talk to teams of like, okay, when you get into a, you're in

the brainstorm phase, but then somebody says, I don't like that

idea. And then it's no longer a brainstorm. That's not a

brainstorm would sense someone says, Yes, but judgment, right?

Yeah, right. It's about getting everything up onto that

whiteboard. Or however, you're doing that brainstorm, because

you never know, that bad idea might spawn the good idea.

So every idea counts. And we're brainstorming,

every

idea counts. It also helps with inclusivity.

So making sure that all the voices can be heard at the

table. I mean, it just has so many ways to find ways to

incorporate humor, for example, into your presentation. So maybe

you stand there with a recorder and you just off the cuff, think

of some things off the top of your head, so builds that skill

so that you feel more comfortable to have that ability

to do that. There's so many wonderful things that improv, it

helps you communicate better with groups of people. The other

portion of yes and is it's not about necessarily always

agreeing with the person that you're in a conversation with.

And this is great for q&a s for examples that you may not agree

with the point of view of the person asking the question or

the statement that they might have offered, but that you can

at least acknowledge them. So that too, I feel is like a

strong lesson. Hmm.

Interesting. Can you tell me a great story of

transformation of one of your clients, like Can you share any

same thing come to mind?

I well, I always I always talk about my

client, Tina, and she doesn't mind that they talked about her

because she showed up in confidently speaking two years

ago. And she lives here in New York City and she is a

entrepreneur, she and her husband co own a business

together. And the very first exercise that we did she just

shut down, shut down. But she kept showing up and She hadn't

been on a podcast. She hadn't been really speaking, she's

started to get really comfortable with networking at

that point. But she wasn't doing any of the other stuff to build

her business. And she had a goal and she was going to do it. She

wanted to do a TED talk. She has done her TED talk yet, which is

totally fine. Because she wrote a book. She did. She did a 15

minute talk. For her book launch. She has been on over 70

podcasts this year alone. She has done numerous LinkedIn

lives. She is about to do a speak event next week, where

she's going to stand on stage and tell her story for 10

minutes. And the woman is on fire. It's like a totally

different person. Double. Yeah. That's,

that's amazing. So the power that she has gained

as a person is well, confidence. Everything is just Yeah,

I love great. But I what I want to say to

that, though, is that she did the work. Yes. It's not an

overnight, quick fix. She does the work she puts in the reps.

Yeah,

that's what it takes for sure. Now, with

everything, I know that, you know, since we've sort of come

back out of COVID, that everyone's rushing to go into

face to face things again, although I'm not that person. I,

I went out last night to play bridge. And we were at a room

with like, I didn't know, for about 50 people, 60 people. And

I didn't know a lot of them. And I felt like it was too crammed.

And I kind of wanted to leave I didn't but I felt uncomfortable.

So I still feel that sometimes. But anyway, my issue. So so some

of us are still still focused on the digital world. And that

seems to be enough and fine for me. What do you what advice do

you give to people who are looking to enhance their

influence and their persuasiveness as speakers?

Still virtual? Because? Yeah,

yeah, no, I think that's a great question.

Because I do think that things are going to still stay partly

like that I do. Because, for example, I've got two

organizations, the Junior League, and then her workplace,

which is a co working space here in New York City. Both of them

asked me to do a virtual version and a live version. So I think

that that's not going away, you know, the thing I always say to

the people that want to kind of stay in this virtual world, is

just make sure that you are showing up in the best way you

possibly can. Because even though you get to hide behind

the screen, your body language and all of those things still

matter. And not to get too relaxed, which I see often,

often, even to I mean, how many years later now is it that I

still will show up on calls and there's a doctor backlit and it

looks like he's in like, some sort of witness protection

program, you know. And so I just stress to people like your

posture still eats check your body language, check your

posture, check your lighting, check your sound. If you don't

have a desk that can raise up yet figure out how you can raise

up your, your monitor computer so that you're standing when

you're delivering makes a huge difference when you stand and

deliver versus when you're sitting. Yeah. So it's little

things like that. And then don't don't take for granted that

you're virtual. You still need to have story. You can't be

dependent on the slides.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You know, it's funny made me

think, certainly, it was always interesting over than when you

watch the news broadcasts, local versus, say, CNN or something

like that, where, you know, everyone was for three years

behind, you know, on a zoom screen, and how some people I

remember when they were interviewing Pam Shriver was

before the US Open. It wasn't just this last season, it was a

couple years ago, and she was sitting in front of her closet,

and her closet was open. So that looked like a bookshelf or

something. It was just a disaster. But you know, that's

still happening, right news, people who've got this one guy

locally, he's got these, these bookshelf is bookshelf behind

him. And he's got stick up pictures from his kids and

children's books on on the it's the whole thing is just a mess.

They are I think that would have been a whole new career

actually, for people to go and, you know, stayed engaged those

rooms for these people that were on every day, but it didn't

happen but anyway, that's an Got the presentation skills? But it

did make me think of that. It's like, you're right.

Well, it is about presentation skills. I

think I think you bring up a really great point because

people get distracted by the littlest things. So if they're

like looking at post it notes and pictures of the kids, and I

bet you can't remember a thing that he said, But you posted

notes.

It's true. It's like my husband would never have

noticed the, the venue or at all, there were the the whole

picture. I'm so busy looking at what everything looks like, that

I'm not paying attention to what he's saying, because it's

boring. Anyway, the new Yeah, no, well,

it's, it's, you know, it's so funny, because

I go back and forth. I'm not a big fan of virtual backgrounds.

I am not either, I find them very, and a lot of people use

him and they put their company logo on there and the whole

thing disappears out and then their hand disappears, like

ghost out. You know, for the longest time I had my setup was

you could see my bed in the background. And I was, I saw

that I know. And it drove me batty, drove me batty, and I

tried all these different angles. So I have fixed that

since then. This is still

lovely. looks lovely. I've always wanted to

get a beautiful screen to put behind me and I just have never

found one. I've seen people do that very well. But because my

door look great. No, but my door shouldn't be there. And I have

the natural light is right here. And that's the best way for my

desk. But yeah, anyway, we all have I have

I have a New York City radiator? Ah, yes.

Created the bed in for a radiator. But, you know, it's

kind of nice. Okay, it's

all good. So I wanted to ask you, before we go

a couple of things. So I mean, I, I, I shouldn't do this on

this interview. I will do it separately, because I'm

fascinated with all the improv people and everything. So I

didn't really want to go down that rabbit hole, but but with

the people that you are coaching now, what would you say the

three biggest mistakes now that people are making them, we

should start looking at ourselves, you know, to improve

with our speaking and, and training and facilitating

the three biggest mistakes. One is that

people don't look at their presentation as a performance.

And it is a performance. It's a form of performance. So I always

say to people look at it as it's a composition, you're taking

people through a journey. People need to start really getting

better at their introductions, I would say most introductions you

have, we have very short attention spans. And so your

introduction needs to hook me right away and engage me right

away. So for example, instead of starting off with Hi, my name is

Janice Porter, and I'm here today. And so thank you for

having me, and I'm going to share with you the three

principles of LinkedIn. You could start off with a story and

share a story that has an emotional connect for your

audience, and then introduce yourself for the credibility

piece. And then I would say that, the other piece that I've

noticed is, people aren't very clear with call to actions,

either. So they can tend to and I'm guilty of this too, because

you get to the end of the presentation all of a sudden

you'll. And that's why I think it needs to be well practiced.

Yeah, it's, this is what I need you to leave doing or thinking.

Here's my one QR code to get in touch with me not like, Here's

my email, here's my LinkedIn. Here's my offer. Yes, exactly.

You know, part of it

is because we don't like selling, and it's

selling themselves. Right. And so that's part of it. But you're

absolutely right. I think those are all really key. And I, I

want to this isn't about me. Okay, so, um, I think I made me

think of one other question, though, when you were saying

that about the introduction. And that's one thing I did learn,

and maybe from reading some of your stuff, or an end or

somebody else's, because that's one of the things I remember,

don't start with the boring stuff about you, because they're

not they're really for that purpose, make it about them. And

that's really what I teach on LinkedIn, as well make it about

your audience so that they're hooked into maybe you're the

person that can help me, right. So they read on. So that's, I

think one of the big ones. So last question before I let you

go. And this is for me, this is selfish, because I love that

when you use this word earlier, but I love the word curiosity.

It's my favorite. And I am one of those very curious people.

Pull. So the question is two parts. First part is, do you

believe that curiosity is innate or learned? And what are you

most curious about today? That's part two. And there's no right

or wrong question.

Is it innate or learned? I think I Well, it's

so funny because I think I'm a special snowflake.

Course. Because I was raised with two very pragmatic parents.

So I was that's where my brain went. I, I would say for myself,

it was innate. I don't think I learned it. I think I was born

into this world with a creative sensibility. And creative types

tend to be curious souls. So that is a fantastic question. I

do however, feel that curiosity can be learned. Okay. But one

needs to want to learn it. And then the second part of that

question, what am I curious about today? i The Okay, I'll go

with I always say first thought best thought which is an Allen

Ginsberg quote, I will say that I am curious about how in my own

life, I can simplify my own curiosities even more, because

I'm so curious, I tend to get involved in many, many things.

Because I genuinely want to know more about whatever it's not

about FOMO it's just genuine curiosity about like, what would

that be like? What if I say yes to that?

I love it. Because I think that way, too. I

think that's brilliant. Because yeah, I can learn more I can be

you know, like, Tell me more, but it for me, sometimes it's

going down those rabbit holes, a little bit too much. But I love

that answer. That's, that's amazing. Thank you. For me, that

all started with a book that I read by because I tend to ask

most of my guests that question. And it's been fun and a book I

read by Brian Grazer. Called a curious mind. Do you know you

know who Brian Grazer is?

I know him. I know his name. I haven't read

that book. Okay. Brian Grazer,

Ron Howard imagine entertainment as a

producer and director. Friday Night Lights splash A Beautiful

Mind and I you know zillion movies. He's he's really

brilliant. But it's an intro. It's his story. But it's really

all stemmed from curiosity. And it was really fascinating

because his grandma is Bubba. Back in the you know, in the day

his little Jewish grandmother taught him to be curious and are

so either taught him to be curious or crit influenced his

his curiosity and it influenced it. So encouraged it that's a

word of encouragement. And so he does a lot of interviews with

people what before he became famous and learns from all of

them, and it's really fascinating. But anyways, fun.

So that's where that came from. So thank you for participating

in that. And thank you for being here. Thank you for your wisdom

around speaking and, and being the best person you can be.

Because when you can learn to do those things. I think you just

totally improve yourself in so many ways. So and we're always a

work in progress, right? So always Yeah, it's really fun to

talk to you and and appreciate your time and where can my

audience find you? Well,

they can find me on LinkedIn at Meredith grand

die. You can also find me at grande coaching. And I have

several Tik Tok videos. If your listeners or Tik Tok fans, you

can find me at grande coaching.

I'm afraid to go there, because I'll never put

them out. But I have to go look at them now. Yeah, I seriously,

but it's such a fun place. So and I do recommend to my

audience that you visit. Meredith website. It's a

beautiful brand new website that she has, and there's lots of

opportunities there to learn from her with her blog. And if

you're you do mostly in person training, or do you do online

training as well, you both everybody, they're perfect.

Again, thank you so much. And thank you to my audience for

being here. And I've just lost that is so weird. The recording

button has moved. It's disappeared. totally

disappeared. There we go. Okay. It did. So, thank you for being

here and remember to stay connected and be remembered