Transcription
00:00:06 Introduction
Welcome. You're listening to Links at Bain and Gray, a catalogue of podcasts centred on all things business support in the workplace. Our aim is to bring you interesting and relevant content that will keep you up-to-date and thriving in your role.
00:00:20 Emily
Hello and welcome to Links Presents. This morning we are talking with a remarkable person, Luisa Baldini. Welcome, Luisa.
00:00:34 Luisa
Hello, Emily.
00:00:35 Emily
Luisa is a trilingual former TV journalist and also founder of Composure Media. We have so much to talk about today. I don't actually know where to start, but I want to talk, to start off with, to actually talk about Composure Media, because I think it's so relevant to our audience and I think many of our listeners are going to be so intrigued and excited to know what you currently offer.
00:00:58 Luisa
Yeah. So, it's been an interesting career and this is very much my second career because I was on TV, reporting on the news and now myself with my business partner also called Luisa. We help people present and communicate to the best of their ability. So obviously, very much linked with my previous career and the reason that we set up this business was that actually, I used to get very nervous going on TV, even though that was my job. Can you imagine?
00:01:34 Emily
Did that not get easier?
00:01:35 Luisa
No, it never got any easier –
00:01:38 Emily
Interesting!
00:01:38 Luisa
- because each time I went on air, I was facing national or international humiliation, if I went wrong.
00:01:46 Emily
Yes.
00:01:47 Luisa
So, every time was a high stakes moment.
00:01:49 Emily
And did you ever go wrong?
00:01:50 Luisa
Well, there were, I had my moments. There was nothing that really ended up on the blooper tapes, luckily, but there was a moment, for example, where I was thrown onto the BBC Breakfast set live and I'd had no time to research this breaking story, and so I had, I think one line from Press Association to go on and that was it. And apparently my chin was quivering… live on air. That was probably the worst moment in terms of -
00:02:23 Emily
That is literally throwing somebody under the bus, though.
00:02:26 Luisa
Yeah. It was very, very daunting. It's very daunting doing any live work, but also any form of public speaking, and I know that a lot of people struggle with public speaking and find it incredibly nerve wracking. Which is only natural. So, I thought, well, I had to learn the hard way, how to manage my confidence, how to manage my nerves. And I recognised that what really helped me was having some structures and strategies up my sleeve.
For how to explain something that was quite tricky or technical, or a difficult story, or just how to tell a story in an interesting way so I thought well I learned the hard way, because you could either do it or you couldn’t at the BBC. I could do it, but I had to find my own coping strategies. And I thought, well, since I learned all of that the hard way, I it would be so fantastic to help people now. And so that's what we do with Composure Media. We help people become better presenters and communicators because they are learnable skills, actually. You may never love it, and that's ok, you don't have to love it. You can still do it really well. And so we love helping people learn how to become better communicators and presenters.
00:03:45 Emily
Well, I can't wait to hear more about these tips that you can share with us. But let's go back to the beginning. Tell me how you got into the world of journalism.
00:03:55 Luisa
I was in my third year at university year abroad. I was studying French and it was the days before email before you know the web and I felt really just detached from what was going on back in the UK, because I was actually in Brussels and I used to treat myself to The Sunday Times once a week. And I was just reading the Times and I suddenly had this Eureka moment, and it really was a Eureka moment of, that's it! I can travel the world. I can use my languages because I'm half Italian. So, I speak Italian. I'm studying French. I was, I loved writing. I loved English and literature. So, I thought I can travel, use my languages, use my writing skills and just be really nosy.
And so it was a Eureka moment. And then I went back to ni and that was it. I was blinkered and determined to become a journalist. But what's interesting is, I thought I would become a print journalist. I don't think I even realised that those people on the news were broadcast journalists. I mean, I was so just ignorant. And I thought I would write. And then I started writing for the university paper, and I loved the research element, but I didn't get that excited about seeing my byline in the paper. And then someone said, why don't you try the university radio station?
And I did, and I was hooked from the 1st time and actually looking back, it all adds up because I think I had a really good understanding of my personality traits and what made me tick. And I remember distinctly thinking there is no way I can have an office job.
00:05:41 Emily
But this is amazing that somebody, still quite young has got the foresight to recognise what's gonna work for them and what's not, because in my job, I spend all day, every day meeting people who are perhaps graduates or about to be graduates, or even further down their career still haven't quite worked out where they feel that their strengths will play into. So that's quite unusual.
00:06:00 Luisa
Yeah. And it's interesting because I've just recently had an ADHD diagnosis, and I think looking back, it's interesting to see that. I obviously realised that I didn't have enough attention span to have an office job. I remember early on I was about 14 thinking I'd be a barrister and then very quickly realising there was no way I had the patience to do all that studying and doing all that reading. So yeah, I think I intuitively knew what made me tick and what worked for me, but I was very much lost until that Eureka moment. You know, those first three years of Uni, I was very much lost thinking “What on Earth am I going to do with my life?” So I was lucky to have that moment and have what turned out to be a vocation which suited my personality traits.
00:06:52 Emily
And it sounds like once you made that decision, you were absolutely determined to find that role and carve it out for yourself, which is amazing. And then so you had 12 years at the BBC. Umm, you were recognised as a TV correspondent, obviously covering major stories. So, I've got a list here, but I suppose that the really sort of well-known ones; the papal events at the Vatican City, the 7/7 bombings, then moved over to work as the deputy royal correspondent. Obviously the Amanda Knox case, which I think perhaps you're sort of, I suppose most well-known for really in your in your presenting career, journalist career. But I mean tell me, sort of out of all your career being in front of the camera. What's been the most difficult story to cover?
00:07:37 Luisa
Definitely Amanda Knox. So, Amanda Knox, for those of you who don't know it, Amanda Knox was a young American student who was studying in Perugia in Italy, and she was convicted of murdering her flatmate the British student Meredith Kercher, so really, really tragic story and I covered that first case where she was convicted and then two years later she appealed, and in those two years the story absolutely mushroomed worldwide because she was dubbed the face of an angel. She was very attractive. The media launched on this, though the Italian medium, you know, were printing all sorts of stories around it.
And it mushroomed. And there was this worldwide interest, and I was the only TV journalist for the BBC breaking the verdict live to the whole of the BBC's global audience. So normally you're broadcasting only to a domestic UK audience or to a foreign audience. Well, they knew that everybody was going to be interested, so they brought all that audience together. I never found out how many millions of people, but in those days on the 10 o’clock news, our audience was something like 8 million, I think.
00:08:57 Emily
Wow.
00:09:01 Luisa
So if you think of a global audience, it may have been double that. Who knows? And I had always got nervous before going on air as I said, but this time it was a total crisis of confidence and the reason was the enormity of this challenge before me. And I was really nervous because having covered the first court case, I knew the way Italian judges deliver a verdict, is not the simple way we do here, guilty or not guilty. The judge reads a Penal Code. If you don't know what the code refers to, you don't know what the verdict is.
00:09:35 Emily
Ah, how terrifying.
00:09:35 Luisa
Terrifying exactly. And I knew that at the height of broadcasting that I would already be speaking. I wouldn't, you know, there was an element of possibility of mishearing the code or not hearing it at all or misinterpreting it.
00:09:49 Emily
And how many codes can there be?
00:09:50 Luisa
I can't remember now, but I remember having to be very organised and I had to write down all these codes and all the different verdicts that they could have referred to so that I could quickly cross reference.
00:10:02 Emily
Ugh god, how awful.
00:10:04 Luisa
So yeah, and can you imagine if the BBC person gave out the wrong verdict? I mean, it really would have been the end of my on-screen career, so there was a lot riding on it and that morning I wanted to run away. I literally wanted to run away. It was like I've never experienced anything like it and it, it actually really did take a toll, I think on my health, the amount of stress that, that day, that whole story had on me, not to detract, obviously from the people involved.
00:10:37 Emily
Hmm. But for you and your journey, it sounds like it was a pivotal point for you. Where I mean, this sounds a further extension of sort of imposter syndrome, but it's so overwhelming, isn't it? When it when it gets you, where you're non deserving. The self-doubt kicks in -
00:10:53 Luisa
And all of that was going through my mind. I remember thinking, if I'm this much of a wreck over this, then maybe I'm not the right person for the job. Maybe they should have sent one of the guys, you know, all of these negative thoughts going through my head. So actually, in, in setting up Composure Media and thinking how can we help people? I really tapped into this experience and thought how did I get through that and still do a good job and in fact, how did I get through every single broadcast, even the two-minute ones on the 6 or the 10 o’clock news.
00:11:29 Emily
Would you say it was that time that actually provoked you then to have a change of career? Almost were you coming to the end of your career in broadcast and felt, or was it combined with moving and having a family or did it all come at the same time?
00:11:40 Luisa
Yeah, I had a few more years at the BBC, but I remember live broadcasting just became more and more arduous and I'd always been nervous about being able to do it really well and enjoyed the exhilaration. And then I think I was getting more and more tired because my kids were young and you work some very unsociable hours in that industry.
00:11:59 Emily
Yeah, I was about to ask that actually, how did you manage? I mean, you know, lots, lots of us men and women working full time. But I think this role like you said, is quite unusual, unsociable hours. And also I'd imagine from what you were doing, you have to drop things quite quickly.
00:12:14 Luisa
Yes.
00:12:14 Emily
So how did you, how did you juggle that?
00:12:17 Luisa
So, the only way we could make it work was getting an au pair. Having an au pair living in, because my husband also worked in TV news.
00:12:23 Emily
Yeah.
00:12:23 Luisa
So, although he was behind the scenes, he had more regular pattern of shifts. But yeah, the only way for me to be able to do the foreign assignments, which are what you wanna be doing, I mean, you know, there are some great UK domestic stories, but the fun is when you get to travel, when you get to experience…
00:12:42 Emily
Get on the ground, mm.
00:12:42 Luisa
Exactly. So yeah, we managed with an au pair and it was quite good cause I wanted the kids to learn Italian. So we always got Italian au pairs.
00:12:49 Emily
Yeah, sounds great.
00:12:53 Emily
So, we then I'm gonna sort of fast forward a little bit, Composure Media. So, I've read it as this sort of presentation, communication and corporate media training. But can you sort of bring that to life a little bit in terms of what you offer? What's the different sides of the business that you offer? Because to me, hearing about you and knowing you and looking at your website, I would love to do so many of your courses, but what, break those down for, for our listeners to understand where they could benefit from them.
00:13:26 Luisa
The first thing is just realising that whatever industry you're in, whatever sector you're in, whatever level you're in, in your career, communication and presentation skills are absolutely vital because what is the point of you doing a really good job day in, day out if you cannot communicate your knowledge? Your expertise? Whether it's communicating it internally or externally, or both. So if you think about it, good presentation and communication skills are really vital for everybody. So, in fact, that's great for us because it means we get to work -
00:13:58 Emily
With everyone!
00:13:59 Luisa
Exactly. We get to work with everybody and it's just really helping people understand, you don't have to sound like a corporate spokesperson. You ideally, you wanna sound human, as well as knowledgeable, also another really important thing is helping people understand. You can't put it all in there. You can't communicate everything at the same time.
00:14:26 Emily
Mm-hmm.
00:14:27 Luisa
So, helping people understand what is vital to communicate in this moment, and what shall I just keep up my sleeve?
00:14:31 Luisa
Also, the confidence piece really helping people with their confidence. I really love that because I suffered so much with my confidence during my career. So I love helping people understand. Actually, I can learn how to boost my own confidence and also understanding that with public speaking of any kind, 50% of the battle is confidence.
00:14:54 Emily
Hmm.
00:14:55 Luisa
So as long as you are looking and communicating with confidence, however you're feeling inside -
00:15:03 Emily
You're winning.
00:15:04 Luisa
You're winning! Exactly.
00:15:06 Emily
Yes, yes. And OK, this would be a timely moment then to say, could you give me for, well, me and our listeners, give me a couple of sort of key sound bites or tips there there's some real tricks that you have all used yourself that you now roll out. What are some good advice?
00:15:20 Luisa
Yeah. So the first one is to do with your content and what you're going to say. So you will feel so much more confident if you have spent some time working out, how are you going to start? What are your opening words? What you're then going to go on to communicate… maybe three main points, and then how you're going to conclude. Because a lot of people find public speaking daunting because there is that element of flying by the seat of your pants. There is that element of anything could go wrong, with me or with the situation.
So, encouraging people to feel in control before they even open their mouths. So having that structure of content is going to make you feel more confident.
00:16:09 Emily
Absolutely.
00:16:13 Luisa
Rather than knowing you've got all these different messages to communicate. But they're not in a logical order. Then you're all over the place. In your own mind, and that's when you feel quite insecure. So structure of content is absolutely key. And you can do that walking from one meeting to the next, you know, in in the space of a short walk, you can just be going through, in your mind “OK, this is what I need to communicate. What's my opening line on that to really engage people? What are my three key points and how can I just wrap up on that?”
So one is content, really important. The next is delivery. So, performance and delivery. Now in terms of performance in business, we're not talking showbiz, are we? So, but the way you communicate is so important. So, slowing down, umm people, especially when you're nervous, there is a tendency to talk really quickly. So, if you just slow down, you give yourself a bit more time. You come across with so much more gravitas, and if you just pause a little bit more, it communicates confidence and again it shows that you are communicating with gravitas.
00:17:33 Emily
I think I need that.
00:17:36 Luisa
So, and you can, you know, lots of these tips and techniques maybe where you can action them straight away actually. But literally overnight, you can revolutionise the way you are perceived as a speaker by slowing down and pausing more and also if you pause more you give yourself more of a chance to reach for a pause instead of reaching for a filler.
00:17:54 Emily
Mm-hmm.
00:17:56 Luisa
And it's really important that you understand whether you're using a lot of filler words or filler phrases, because they do, they do undermine you and what you're saying ultimately.
00:18:08 Emily
That’s brilliant advice. Gosh, that's what you can give me in 3 minutes. Heaven knows what you can do in three hours. I love those. But it's also true as well. I'm definitely a waffler and a filler. I hate silence, but it's like you said, it's absolutely it's very obvious when somebody is pausing and people listen much more as well, don't they?
00:18:29 Luisa
Exactly. I think you just come across as a more considered, thoughtful speaker to yourself in that moment you might think “Ohh my goodness, I sound like I'm talking really slowly and really plodding along”, but actually it's better to sound like that as long as you're not sounding quite as stilted as I did just then.
00:18:32 Emily
Yes, yes.
00:18:49 Luisa
Then it's better to sound like that than talking really quickly and peppering. Yeah, what you're saying with the loads of fillers.
00:18:52 Emily
Definitely. And the type of people that book your courses. Are they, the varying sort of senior leadership teams or can it be all employees just about internal comms or is it, what's your sort of classic client?
00:19:10 Luisa
We work with graduates all the way up to CEOs because, as I said at the beginning, whatever level you're at in your career, it's so important to have good communication and presentation skills. So, we've worked with senior people who say I wish I'd known all of this when I started out in my career, so it's so valuable to offer these skills and these learning experiences to junior employees and graduates and right the way up to CEOs because no doubt they're good communicators, otherwise they probably wouldn't have got to that level.
But actually, just refreshing the way they communicate or understanding actually, maybe how I haven't been thinking about my audience in the right way or I've been thinking too much about myself and what I want to say, instead of thinking more about the audience, how is it landing with the audience and or also maybe encouraging, I think one of the most difficult thing is things is encouraging more senior people who really need to communicate persuasively and really instil that trust lower down the organisation is using more stories.
00:20:23 Emily
It's so interesting as a founder of a business with the team of nearly 20. Everything you're saying resonates with me internally, externally and it's so important and there's definitely been occasions in my career where I could have really benefited from that. So I'm so excited to do a deep dive into Composure and see a little bit more about how we can hopefully work together.
00:20:47 Luisa
Well, that's very kind of you. We you know we can work with big groups and do an interactive workshop or just a webinar or a face-to-face talk. All the way to working with smaller groups where we're really, really diving a bit deeper, working more one-to-one with people to really help them and then we get people to do 3 minute pitches to us. And the other thing we do, which is really exciting, is the elevator pitch and whatever level you're at in your career, you ideally need a good elevator pitch up your sleeve, whether you're networking, whether you're meeting new clients or even maybe for that job interview. And it's fascinating when we work on that because we, we get people to do an elevator pitch right at the beginning, which is a bit mean.
00:21:35 Emily
So mean!
00:21:36 Luisa
We drop them in it, in the deep end and we record them. You see, we record them on our laptops and then we go through the learnings and how do you do it well and then they practise and then we record them again and we edit take one and take two back-to-back, so that they can see for themselves the difference that it makes when you use the correct structure when you think about your audiences in the right way and how to engage your audiences. And then they can see for themselves the progress they've made in maybe just a few hours.
00:22:12 Emily
Gosh, you're getting me so excited. I want to do all of this.
Luisa, thank you so much. It's been absolutely fabulous talking to you today.
00:22:20 Luisa
Thanks Emily.
00:22:22 Emily
Thank you.
