Be a Superstar Communicator: How to Speak to be Noticed, Respected, and Heard with Susan Heaton-Wright

May 30, 2022

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How can we speak in a way that will drive people to easily listen and understand our message? Learn the art of communication with us today, so you can be noticed, respected, and heard as you speak!

Susan Heaton-Wright is the founder of SuperStar Communicator, where she helps empower individuals and teams to be impactful, and communicate with confidence, clarity, credibility, and influence in all business conversations. She created the SuperStar Communicator™ methodology and has supported clients globally to be better-spoken communicators.

Susan is a multi-award-winning business owner. She is the CEO of award-winning Viva Live Music, and is a former prize winning international opera singer. She has a podcast called SuperStar Communicator, and volunteers for Love without Borders, supporting refugees in Athens.

In this episode, Susan shares the 5 areas one should consider in being an effective communicator. She explains how to be concise and make information easily digestible in conversations, even for time-pressured executive leaders so that you can get your message across with impact. We also dive into unconscious bias and the importance of being aware of how this impacts our listening. This episode if full of practical tips and ideas to help you on your professional journey

"Speak, so it's as easy as possible for other people to listen and understand you."

– Susan Heaton-Wright

Listen IN Notes:

00:11 – From music to business conversations: Susan has always been aware of listening, with the awareness starting from her background as a musician

01:30 – Project to be noticed: Susan shares the story behind her dream to go to university

04:50 – A message to her 17-year-old self: "Own my success, and make sure that other people know about it."

06:17 – I Am Remarkable: How do you own your success, let people know, and inspire them through it?

10:54 – It is doable, therefore, possible: Self promotion as a fuel you can maximize to be known

12:27 – Five key areas to become a superstar communicator: Audience, content, preparation, performance, and voice

16:20 – On speaking to be heard: Keeping things concise and clear, and having a call to action

19:46 – Hard work makes people switch off: How to use your voice in a way that will make people listen to you

22:45 – A recording could help: Susan's thoughts on translating the key areas into written communication

27:12 – Clear the blocker: "We don't hear the same voice that everybody else does, because we are hearing our voice internally."

28:32 – How to communicate with busy people: Be brief and interesting

32:05 – A friend or a foe: Breaking the bias on selective listening by looking for common denominators

40:36 – A helpful tool: "Be present. Be in the moment."

41:45 – Today's takeaway: "Speak, so it's as easy as possible for other people to listen and understand you."

42:21 – Check out Susan's 10 top tips to being a SuperStar Communicator. Go to www.superstarcommunicator.com/ten-top-tips

Key Takeaways:

"There always has to be an audience in these business conversations. Otherwise, it's a fest of people talking over each other." – Susan Heaton-Wright

"One of the things about self promotion; a lot of people feel very icky about that, but then, look around the successful people – some of whom are really brilliant, and some of whom you might think, How did they get there?. It has been through self promotion. They know how to play the system. They know that it is worth their while making sure that they speak up, that they respond to what other people are saying, that they are doing extra things alongside their job. So then, other people within the organization begin to get to know them." – Susan Heaton-Wright

"We should speak so it is as easy as possible for other people to listen and understand us." – Susan Heaton-Wright

"Make sure that you understand who you're going to be speaking to in the meeting. Do some research. You might find out that you were at the same university. You might find out that you've got a mutual friend or you've lived close to each other or you've worked in a similar organization in the past. Those things, if you bring them up quickly in a conversation, those will push you closer together, because we get attracted to people that are similar to us because we feel safe around them." – Susan Heaton-Wright

"We listen best when we are in the moment, actively in the conversation. We're not listening exclusively, but we are also watching them." – Susan Heaton-Wright

Notes/Mentions:

#IamRemarkable: https://iamremarkable.withgoogle.com/
10 top tips to being a SuperStar Communicator: www.superstarcommunicator.com/ten-top-tips
SuperStar Communicator: https://superstarcommunicator.com/
SuperStar Communicator podcast: https://superstarcommunicator.com/podcast/

Connect with Susan Heaton-Wright:

Website: http://www.superstarcommunicator.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/susanheatonwright
Twitter: https://twitter.com/superstarcomms
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susanheatonwright1/

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