Episode 6
Season 2
How to Stand Out From the Crowd with Your Business
Welcome, Ziza Natur to Saturday Soundbites! Ziza is a multi-winning musician and writer, and a public speaking and vocal coach.
Ziza is not your regular coach; she is a wacky and vicious artist and entrepreneur who has stepped into her voice and now helps entrepreneurs and professionals learn how to shine and stand out from the crowd with their business.
Join Veronica and Ziza as they discuss how important confidence and voice are to your visibility strategy. Ziza also shares strategies on how to communicate powerfully and find a strong voice for your business.
Join the conversation and step into your business with energy and clarity!
Find Ziza here!
https://www.facebook.com/ziza.natur/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ziza-natur/
[00:00:00] Veronica: Hello. Hello and welcome to Saturday soundbites. I am your host, Veronica Sofer, and here at Saturday soundbites, we talk all things, visibility strategy that includes public relations, marketing, advertising, networking, and all the things you need to. Find your voice really make sure your brand is intact and you are living up to your promise with good strategies and techniques.
[00:00:23] And today I have a phenomenal guest that it's really going to help you find your voice and make sure that you are out there and showing up the way you need to show. Let me start by reminding you that if you are listening on the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes of Saturday soundbites.
[00:00:40] And if you're watching on Facebook, let us know where you're tuning in from. And if you catching the replay hashtag replay. So my guests and I can connect with you. We will go ahead and get this episode started. You are going to love it, and I'm going to bring on my guest. We've got these at nature.
[00:00:56] Joining us. Hello, welcome.
[00:00:59] Ziza: Hello. Hello. And thank you so much for having me.
[00:01:01] Veronica: Oh, fantastic. I am so excited about this. You are joining us from outside of the country and you are bringing some phenomenal tips and strategies that I know our guests are just going to love. So as these, uh, introduce yourself and tell us who you are.
[00:01:17] Ziza: Oh, that is a great, great question. So who am I? Well, I usually start by saying that I'm a public speaking and vocal coach. I'm also a musician and writer, and I do approach my work in a little bit more of a special way. Let's say, because to me it's not about. I'm learning all sorts of templates and frameworks and scripts.
[00:01:37] When it comes to just speaking in any environment, it's more about embracing who you truly are and getting the confidence to share it. No matter where you are, it could be on stage. It could be, let's say at a networking event, since you mentioned networking in any environment and to achieve that place where you can talk like yourself everywhere, because you don't have to change the way you speak.
[00:01:59] According to the.
[00:02:01] Veronica: Yeah. That's so, so true. And how did you get started? I mean, a vocal coach is a very specific, uh, you know, skill and, and, and space to be in. And, um, I don't hear a lot of kids saying when I grew up, I want to be a vocal coach. How do you, how did you get this?
[00:02:18] Ziza: Now that is a special journey.
[00:02:20] So I started when I was eight. That's the first time when I went on stage and I've been on stage ever since. And I started as a musician and singer later on, I've transitioned into theater and public speaking. So that's why I'm able to provide the support in this area of being confident in front of audiences.
[00:02:40] And obviously, uh, then I took the training to be able to provide voice training for other people. So my experience as a singer can help people with that. And later on, I've discovered that if I put together everything that I've learned, because I do have multiple degrees, one in theater, one in communication studies, and now I'm getting my degree in music and voice coaching.
[00:03:01] I can put them together into something very, very powerful. And then I've asked myself, who can I help with this? The most, because singers usually get that kind of stuff from school actors as well. But this thing is very useful to everyone. So I can realizing that there are so many people who are very good at what they do, but they don't know how to make that message impactful, powerful, or they don't have the courage to do it.
[00:03:25] So this is where I come in here. Oh, that's
[00:03:28] Veronica: fantastic. And super exciting. So someone with your credentials has got that onstage experience. They've got that onstage training. How do you feel like, um, or what do you think entrepreneurs are not doing well when they show up and they come to you for assistance?
[00:03:44] Cause clearly. Uh, being able to perform and being able to be on stage takes a little bit of something that I would think is inherently natural. But I'm wondering if there are strategies and techniques that you bring to the table that help people who aren't.
[00:03:58] Ziza: Yeah. I would say one of the biggest mistakes is, and they don't even realize they're doing it is trying on.
[00:04:06] Let's say strategies and ways of showing up that don't necessarily define who they are and they're doing them because other people taught them, they should do this and they should try this kind of approach you should do. For example, a webinar, or you should do, I don't know what kind of event, but maybe that one does not necessarily fit their personality and they feel uncomfortable while doing it because I know I've had this kind of, um, experience with my past clients and they kept trying and trying, and they were like, this is not working for me.
[00:04:34] I don't know why. And then I've asked. The normal question that anyone asks, are you sure this is the kind of approach that you would like to do in terms of connecting with your audience? Because some people can do webinars very well, but other people don't like people don't like the attendees typing their questions and they in the chat box, they want to talk to people.
[00:04:55] They want interaction. So that's why it wasn't working for them. So I always suggest choosing the thing that works for you in terms of communicating with your audience. And sometimes this cannot come without experimenting, all sorts of things. Yeah.
[00:05:09] Veronica: And how do you feel like people who might say, well, I'm an introvert and this is really difficult for me.
[00:05:15] And it goes against, you know, my, my natural state of being, how do you help people find ways to still become successful in their approach and in their, in their, um, aspect as, as they're showing up for their.
[00:05:30] Ziza: There is no one that can understand introverts birder better than myself, because I am shy at core.
[00:05:35] I'm an introvert. And I used to suffer from stage fright for about 15 or 16 years. So I definitely know how these people feel. And I know it's very hard to overcome that fear, that doubt that anxiety. And I always tried to explain to people that. In reality, it's not the fear of public speaking. That kind of fear does not actually exist.
[00:05:57] It's related to yourself worth. It means that you believe at core that you're not good enough. You're afraid to be judged or rejected by the community or to receive negative feedback. That's the fear that you feel. And the fact that you're speaking in front of an audience is just accentuating that fear, but it's most likely manifesting in your daily life.
[00:06:17] So it's a good idea to work on your self-worth at the same time and understand that you are very valuable with the knowledge that you bring to your audience. And then obviously you will have to embrace discomfort. It's normal. When you try something new for the very first time, your brain will just react with the mechanism of resistance.
[00:06:36] I don't want this. I don't know how I'm going to handle it. So it's normal to feel uncomfortable by embracing the idea of discomfort. It gets much easier. And then you also want to be able to understand that if you don't do this, your business is not going to grow or it's going to be very slow, very hard to grow your business.
[00:06:54] If you don't show up, if you don't work on that visibility strategy, this is what I understood because when I started my business, I didn't have too many social skills cause I was the introvert. Right. But then I realized that my business is going to die if I don't do it. So I forced myself to learn how to network, how to make friends, how to make business partners.
[00:07:13] How do we connect? I had no other choice, but to do that. So sometimes you want to just burn your boats and eliminate the safety net to be able to. Yeah. That's a little scary. The eye.
[00:07:24] Veronica: It really is. Yeah. So in thinking about you, you've, you you've worked with people who are maybe introverts or maybe people who enjoy and thrive being on stage, how do you help them?
[00:07:34] Um, really hone in on their voice. And I don't mean. Physiological voice, but the, the, the voice that drives their branding, the voice that drives their passion about their product or service, how do you help them kind of come in and find that secret?
[00:07:52] Ziza: Yeah, exactly. As you mentioned, the physical voice is actually intertwined with the one on the inside.
[00:07:58] So it's a great idea to try to bring that one first on the surface and then work on the, on the physical voice as well. They do work very well together and I use a combination of exercises and techniques, and many of them are derived from theater, from improvising nation. And I include a lot of fun and play in my methods because I've seen that this is the best way that people learn and they don't really.
[00:08:21] They learn so much. And I do adapt the methods to the input that I get from the person. So if they embrace the thing and if they do it, even if they're scared, that's fine, we can play around. But if they keep postponing it, I might lead them into the discomfort. It really depends on the input that I received from them.
[00:08:40] There are a lot of techniques that we can use from doing something without many, without much preparation in advance. If you see that you keep us. You're just going to dive into it, do that first attempt. It might not be great, but you need it. Other times it could be a little bit of a role play, practicing improvised speeches, just so that you can get used to the idea of letting your ideas flow, trying all sorts of ways of creative writing and journaling and listening to yourself, speed writing exercises.
[00:09:10] They contribute a lot to this ability to improvise and also improvising on topics that are outside of your comfort zone or that you don't know much. This will develop your confidence to speak about topics that you enjoy a lot.
[00:09:24] Veronica: Yeah, definitely. I think practice and building that confidence is key. Have there been any trends or any, um, patterns that you've seen since the lockdown, since we've been in COVID?
[00:09:36] I feel like, uh, those of us who were confident being onstage, um, really. Either seamlessly moved into a digital space, like the one we're in right now or have struggled. And, um, I think I'm probably one that struggled a little bit because while I was used to being physically with people, um, it was, I was a little more self-conscious and it didn't really work for me.
[00:09:59] How do you, how are you helping people through that? Because that's probably something a lot of entrepreneurs are struggling.
[00:10:05] Ziza: Yeah, definitely. So I've seen two patterns if I can call them like that. The first one would be the one that you've just mentioned moving into the virtual world and just being very visible on social media, adapting to the video format, going live because many people didn't do that so much before the pandemic came.
[00:10:24] And all of a sudden, all of these entrepreneurs had to move online and. You need to do videos, you need to do reels. You knew you need to go live every single week. And you're like, I don't know how to do this. How am I going to do this? What if people will judge me? I'm not so tech savvy, what am I going to do?
[00:10:38] So I know, I know it's a struggle and I always provide the support in terms of letting them know. The video is just one way to communicate with your audience. It's still that person in front of you, but it's a screen, but it's still people. And I always tell them the same thing that I tell them if they need to go on stage.
[00:10:58] For example, whenever they fear judgment. If you go to watch a show, for example, or if you tune into somebody else's life, you're not there to judge them. So why do you feel that people who tune into your life are there to judge you? They want to learn something from you or they have, or they want to have their hearts touched they're there because they want to bring support.
[00:11:20] And they also want to be empowered and to get value from you. They're not there to throw eggs at you. That doesn't happen very often. So this is one thing that we want to remind ourselves. And I also want us to remember. The ones who are the most focused on our mistakes are ourselves. So anyone else is just way too focused on their own mistakes.
[00:11:43] So we put too much pressure on the idea of making mistakes. If you make a mistake, just move forward. As long as you're providing value to your audience, that is that's the most important part. And people will relate to that and they don't even care if you make a mistake. And the second pattern that I've noticed, especially last year, People are craving, genuine human connection, more and more.
[00:12:06] Separate from their families, from their loved ones. They just don't want to have to click on so many buttons to be able to have access to you. They don't want to always type whenever they need to communicate with you. They just love conversations more. Even if it's in a virtual format, they're more open to conversations and I've started to notice that they enjoy the events with high interaction much more than before.
[00:12:32] Don't want to be someone in, in the audience who takes notes. They want to be a part of it. They want to be asked questions. They want to do exercises. They want to be given things to do. And that's where you keep them the most engaged right now.
[00:12:47] Veronica: Yeah, absolutely. That makes complete sense. And I think, you know, that's probably true for, um, well, we know it's true for our young learners, but it's true for adult learners, too.
[00:12:56] Those of us who had a lot of downtime, we're using this time to. Purchase courses, it could be in masterminds. And when you're just sitting and getting information, your brain, isn't always making those connections, but I love what you talked about, engaging folks and having that, um, you know, circle of, of learning and connectedness.
[00:13:16] And how do you feel like that shows up when, um, there is so much. Noise in a particular space. And I'm thinking about maybe like a coach, I'm a personal coach. How do you show up and stand out in front of a crowd with your voice when there are so many people saying similar things
[00:13:38] Ziza: by being yourself, that's the only sure way to stand out and to find your unique way to do that thing.
[00:13:44] Cause obviously. Th there's going to be thousands and thousands of similar approaches to the same thing, but there are no two people like you. So if you're able to exploit that unique gift that you have, that you've been given, that comes easily to you, that's your own approach to doing things. So for example, in my case, it's this fun side of things.
[00:14:05] I was always the entertainer. Clown of the class. Let's see. So I always bring this fun side of things to the way I create my events to the way I work with people. And I teach them through play. And this is my unique trait, and this is how I stand out through my work. Someone else could stand out by using different things.
[00:14:23] Maybe they like to create more intimate relationships with their clients, or maybe they like to be, it really depends on. Always ask this question. How would your friends define you in one word? Because some people say maybe you are the thinker, your, the Explorer, you're the fun one, the creative one, the leader, try to use that particular trait.
[00:14:46] That's your gift. And if it comes easily to you, if you have fun while doing it, if it doesn't feel like. That's your gift that you want to bring into everything that you do. And it's going to be much easier to stand out because you will feel confident cause it will come easy to you. You won't have to force it right.
[00:15:03] Veronica: Yeah, that's so, so true. And I, I know that people struggle with showing up authentically, especially when you're trying to sell a product or a service. So how do you coach people when they feel uncomfortable about the ask? Because we know, you know, as, as a, as an entrepreneur or is it traditional brick and mortar?
[00:15:22] The person with the background at the end of the day, your business will thrive because you've asked for other people's business. So how do you coach people through that part that might be really uncomfortable for
[00:15:33] Ziza: that? Oh yeah, it is. It always is. Usually when you feel uncomfortable to let's say, sell your product or service or share that asset that you have, it can be because it's not very clear in your head either.
[00:15:48] What's the benefit of. So if it, if you're like confused, I don't know exactly was the big outcome of it. So I'm a bit uncomfortable. Cause I'm confused as well. Or maybe you've created something that does not excite you. Because if it's something that really excites you, something that you yourself would invest in, you do become excited to share about it, and you are able to overcome the fear, but sometimes it's also confusion.
[00:16:14] Maybe you created an offer and you're not so sure about the big outcome. You cannot define it in two or three words. So obviously it's very hard to talk about it, cause it's a little bit foggy. So maybe you need some clarity.
[00:16:28] Veronica: Yeah, no, that makes complete sense. And a lot of us, once we've got a business plan or a blueprint, then it gets a little overwhelming, but I like what you talked about, and that is making sure that you're excited about it.
[00:16:39] Cause if you're excited and you're clear on it, then you'll be able to share it because it just becomes natural. Like you would with someone at the, at the market, you just get excited and start telling everybody
[00:16:49] Ziza: about it. Oh yeah, absolutely. Because more than half of the confidence, when you speak comes from knowing exactly what you want to say, No matter what that is.
[00:16:57] If you know exactly that you're, that's your right with what you're saying, that is your truth. And you're certain that what you're saying is perfectly valid is going to be much easier to share it
[00:17:08] Veronica: for sure. So how do your clients, um, how do they, what does it look like to work with you? I'm real curious for those people who want to connect with you, how do you work with clients to get them to any of the.
[00:17:20] Places cause some I'm sure some of your clients are maybe very articulate and very, um, progressed in their, in their business and others maybe just be starting and they don't know where to start.
[00:17:32] Ziza: I work in two formats and, um, I work in, in one-on-one formats and that is very intense because it's extremely personalized.
[00:17:41] It's for the person who. Who has been already doing this stuff for at least one year. And I combine the voice training, the physical part of things with the clarity, in your message and finding ways to do everything in a way that keeps your audience engaged. And that can be in any sorts of environments.
[00:18:03] So we do explore and provide speeches. We explore proper ways to network, to be on podcasts. Some people also want to create their own podcasts. So we work on that as well. We explore all sorts of ways that you can use your voice to promote and grow your business. And the second version of it is a. Group coaching combined with one-on-one.
[00:18:23] So we have group sessions and I also provide one-on-one support between them so that people can also get the personalized experience as well. And it's, it's kind of the same direction we work on, but we put more focus on bringing your authentic voice to the surface if you're just getting started with it.
[00:18:40] And you're not sure how. Bring it to make it visible to people. And we create strategies to get visible together. Everyone receives homework. So with every, every person that I work with, either if it's an, a group or one-on-one, they do get a lot of homework from me, they get a lot of tasks and support and supplementary materials.
[00:18:59] And that can be anything really. And if anything, from videos with voice training to book lists to meditation, to work out playlist. So they get a lot of support from me. And the group format is really great for people who, um, are just getting started with getting visible. Cause they get the accountability and the inspiration and the support from others.
[00:19:19] And I do tend to create these awesome communities where people are mega supportive with each other. And they're also super fun.
[00:19:26] Veronica: Yeah. Oh, it sounds like fun. So what's, what is a classic client look like? And what space are they coming from? Where, where are they based out of?
[00:19:35] Ziza: Well, most of them are, let's say coaches or other type of consultants and professionals, and they are fun at core.
[00:19:45] And they like to think outside of the box, But they feel they've been placed inside of boxes by all of the, you should do this. You should do that. You should say it like this, and now they feel they're not speaking like themselves anymore. That could be out of fear or just out of, let's say an improper piece of advice.
[00:20:03] And by working with me, they discover that you can do anything, basically anything, if it feels good to you, and if it represents who you want. Yeah.
[00:20:13] Veronica: Oh, that's so exciting. All right. So how can people connect with these AZA? They they've, they've determined that what they need is to find their voice and get connected.
[00:20:22] They want to improve their visibility strategy by making sure everything is aligned. How do they connect with.
[00:20:27] Ziza: They can reach out to me on social media. I'm basically everywhere from Facebook to Instagram, to LinkedIn, to clubhouse, they can send me a message over there or just send me an email. I always check my inbox is so they can be sure that I will respond
[00:20:42] very
[00:20:42] Veronica: good.
[00:20:43] Oh, that's so exciting. Well, I will definitely be making sure that on the show notes, we list all of your social media assets. We want people to connect with you and learn from, as you have been a fantastic guest. I learned so much and I look forward to entrepreneurs and traditional professionals connecting with their voice and reaching out to you for resources on how to improve that on their journey.
[00:21:07] Thank you so much.
[00:21:08] Ziza: Thank you for having me. All
[00:21:11] Veronica: right. That wraps up this episode of Saturday soundbites. There's always an email address right over here. Make sure you connect with her. She's got fantastic resources. Follow her on social media because you don't want to miss any of the information she shares because she's got a community of people who are putting their voice together and they are tapping into that confidence to grow their visibility strategy, because that's exactly what it's about.
[00:21:35] You've got to find what works for you. I always tell people if you're a true lifelong learner, you're learning from the, from the very start of your day, till the end of the day. So there's always room to learn and grow, and your visibility strategy is going to benefit from all of that knowledge. So with that, I'm wrapping up this episode of Saturday soundbites.
[00:21:53] If you are listening on the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes. And if you are checking us out on Facebook or on YouTube, drop us some comments and because the replay hashtag replay so that my guest and I can. With you with that, I will wrap up by sending you lots of positive energy and light.