Speak Up: Develop Your Executive Presence & Leadership Communication Style

338: Why “Just Stick to the Facts” Is Ruining Your Leadership Presence and What to Do Instead

Dec 4, 2024

Ivan Ruiz, author of "End Boring" and founder of Public Speaking Lab, shares his insights on transforming leadership communication. He argues that excessive formality stifles connection and credibility. Learn how the “Uncertainty Principle” can energize your presentations. Discover the power of relatable personal stories to enhance likability. Ruiz also challenges traditional views on personality, emphasizing context over labels. With practical strategies, he makes it clear that engaging communication is key to effective leadership.

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ADVICE

Uncertainty Principle

Grab attention with an opening unrelated to your topic.
Then, reveal the connection for a dopamine spike.

ANECDOTE

Testicle TED Talk

Matt Walker started a TED Talk by saying, "Today, I'd like to talk about testicles."
He then connected it to sleep deprivation's effect on testicle size.

ADVICE

Start with the Conclusion

Start presentations with your conclusion, not the details.
Give a one-sentence summary upfront, framing the information for your audience.

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Formality is the death of interesting; facts are the annihilation of connection.

If you're memorizing scripts or delivering dry data points, you're not connecting—you’re losing your audience.

For high-performing business leaders juggling serious meetings and critical presentations, the pressure to appear formal and professional is immense.

But here's the catch: excessive formality could be silently killing your credibility and impact. This episode tackles how to ditch the boredom and communicate with tactics that build influence and likability without sacrificing professionalism.

By the end of this sparkling conversation with the master of audience engagement, Ivan Ruiz, you’ll know:

🌟 How to use the “Uncertainty Principle” to grab and hold attention—even in the dullest business updates

🌟 The magic of small, relatable disclosures that make you instantly likable in any situation

🌟 A framework to simplify complex data into a concise, memorable story executives won’t forget

🎙️ Don’t let another presentation or meeting fall flat—tap “play” now and start transforming your communication style for better influence and faster career growth!

If you want personalized help to be more interesting in your executive communication, our Executive Presence Mastery System, a 90-day intensive coaching program may be your ticket. Click here to set up a short meetup for us to chat about it.

About our guest:

Ivan Ruiz, author of End Boring: A Tactical Approach to Public Speaking and Communication is the founder of Public Speaking Lab.

Bio's are boring, here are some fun facts about Ivan:

🟠 A top-rated instructor on Coursera with over 160,000 learners

🟠A top-rated instructor on Udemy with over 60,000 students

🟠 The official host for the Invictus Games in 2017 & PanAm Games in 2015

🟠 The largest crowd he ever spoke in front of was 50,000 as the host of FIFA Arab Cup

🟠 Author of a book called "End Boring"

🟠 He can teach you how to salsa dance

In Speak Up communication and executive presence coaching, high performing leaders learn to enhance their influence and confidence, refining their communication style to increase visibility and effectiveness in promotion opportunities.

By honing communication skills and fostering a trusted advisor mindset, aspiring executives cultivate mastery in public speaking and beat imposter syndrome.