125. The AI tool that transforms your speaking

There's a new AI sidekick in my business and when it comes to practising speaking, reviewing videos and capturing coaching sessions, this technology is the bomb. My clients are loving it, I’m loving it, after hearing how it works, you’ll want to try it. In this episode I chat to the inspirational co-founder Esha Joshi about why she started the platform, the five main benefits I see in the features and why the name Yoodli. To watch this podcast in Yoodli click here

Transcript

Welcome to That Voice Podcast Episode 125. And it's about time I revealed my new sidekick in my business. They are the Yin to my Yang, the hardcore analytics to my flowy intuition. They work 24/ 7 and never make a mistake. I am talking about Yoodli. I am so glad I found this when it comes to practicing, speaking, reviewing videos and capturing coaching sessions, this technology is the bomb. My clients are loving it. I'm loving it after hearing how it works. You'll want to try it. Remember if you are in the Members Only Masterclass Vault, Speak Up for Your Business, or of course you're a private client, you have full access. All the benefits of this AI tool that honestly transforms your speaking.

And today I am very excited to chat with the incredibly inspirational co-founder of Yoodli, Esha Joshi. This startup based in Seattle is going from strength to strength, and I am not surprised. Their mission is one I share to help people communicate with confidence. Before we dive in, a small disclaimer for this episode, we recorded on Zoom so you can watch this whole episode on video, on Yoodli so you can see how it works in action. I'll have all those links in the show notes. So the thing is Zoom is not my usual podcast platform I normally use a platform called Squadcast. And while Esha is clear as crystal, my audio has come out a little like I'm underwater.

So if you're wondering if there's something off with your audio, it's me. All right. Are you ready to hear all about Yoodli, why Esha started it, the five main benefits I see in the platform and why the name Yoodli.

Sally: Esha Joshi, it is so fantastic to have you on That Voice Podcast. Welcome.

Esha: Hi, Sally. Thanks so much. I'm excited to be here.

Sally: Oh, it is such a brilliant tool that you have developed. I would love for you to start off by sharing with us what gave you the idea to create AI for public speakers?

Esha: I've been very passionate about this space for a long time. I have struggled with communication and public speaking my entire life.

And one of the things I've realized is there aren't a lot of resources for, for folks across the spectrum. I mean, there's speech coaches for folks who have the ability to, um, use that kind of resource and there are classes and there are Toastmasters, but what about students and other folks who may not have the time or the money to go out?

And so the thinking here is how can we supplement some of these other coaching channels through artificial intelligence as a way of you understanding what your speaking style is. So that in any, with any goal that you might have, whether it is acing that presentation or getting that job interview, or maybe even negotiating your salary, you have some kind of aid to help you, uh, understand who you are and how you speak so that you can get what you want.

Sally: Oh, it's so great. Can you remember the exact time when the idea dawned on you or was it over several moments?

Esha: It's been over several moments. The first time this idea dawned on me was when I was in college. When I was really struggling with my communication, I had just started, I was studying engineering and I was insecure about my skills and didn't know how to make friends. So I thought, how can I become a more confident speaker? That was point number one. Um, right after college, I started my career in big tech at Apple, and it was very intimidating being around smart people. And I saw folks, many minorities, struggle to speak up. They had all the skills, they had the intellect and the hardworking ability, but they really didn't know how to back themselves up when they spoke.

So that was point number two. And through, throughout the rest of the, the few years up until last year, I kept thinking, what can I do to give back and help people become more confident in the way they speak. And that's how that's how Yoodli was born. Just through a series of different, uh, events.

Sally: So great. Why the name Yoodli?

Esha: Good question. The, the name Yoodli has a lot of different origins to that name. Um, the first is it's a play on yodelling? So if we remember from the Sound of Music, "Odl lay ee odl-oo!" Hey uh, which is voice exercises and, and being able to take control of your voice Yodle is a little bit like that. So we thought that was a cute, uh, relation.

The second is as a word, it, it can pop up in your Google search very easily called Search Engine Optimization. So we thought that could be a quick one for us as we are scaling and trying to get more people to access Yoodli um, by their own volition. And the third, and this is kind of a personal story between my co-founder and me :it is a way that we'll greet our friends. Uh, there have been many times where we've been at parties, uh, at conferences, events, music festivals, and we've lost our people. And we've just yelled at the top of our lungs "Yoodli!", and that's been a way to find each other. Um, so there's a personal play to this and it's actually one of the reasons as to why we're so, so passionate about Yoodli because it's got a very personal meaning to us.

Sally: Esha, that is the best story ever. I love that.

Esha: Thank you!

Sally: Every friendship group needs like a, Yoodli! Like, it's like a little call to, to call everybody. I think a lot of parents would enjoy having that as well as a way to get their kids to come to them.

Esha: Absolutely. And it's so funny because our friends now they're like, how could you use this word? This was our word, but now you're using it for your company. So it's, we changed the meaning of it.

Sally: And we turn our, our word into a internationally successful AI platform. Oh my gosh. Before we get into all the features of the platform. I'd love you to share a little bit more about how you were struggling with communication or how you saw other people struggling.

So for example, was it freezing up, not knowing what to say, sentences coming out that didn't really make sense? What were the struggles?

Esha: Absolutely. For me in particular, one thing I've struggled with and still do is being in situations where there are people who don't look like me and finding the confidence to speak up.

Um, typically these are in rooms where there are more powerful folks and just finding the right words to say so that I am, uh, you know, maybe appearing intelligent or appearing knowledgeable. That's been a, that's been a tough one for me. Um, I think another point where I struggle is being interrupted.

That is, you know, I'm not the only one to come forward and say like, this is something that I struggle with. But I think in certain situations where that happens, how do you take control of the conversation and say what you need to say without feeling a little defeated? Um, that's the second and the third, and this was a, this was a few years ago when I was starting to discover this was being able to string, uh, coherent sentences together, uh, with like punchy transitions. I think it's still something that I work on with structure and, uh, and humor it'll always be a work in progress, but I would say those are the three key areas around how I've struggled with communication and what I do every day.

Sally: Well with the way you're so eloquently answering these questions, I feel like you have come such a long way. You are like the gold standard Esha in how to answer podcast questions.

Esha: Thank you. Thank you. When you work on a public speaking company, the pressure is very high to be a good speaker. So I'm glad I'm, uh, adhering to it.

Sally: Tell me about it. I can completely relate to that. This platform, as you know, I'm using it clients that I'm working with and I'm finding it so easy to use and fantastic. And the way it works is you go onto the platform and you can hit record, speak away. And then all of the transcript of what you've said populates and on the right hand side is a whole list of analytics.

And in that analytics, what have we got, Esha? We've got filler words. What else is.

Esha: Filler words like your ums and your uhs, hedging words, these are these crutch words that you should be using sparingly for emphasis, like basically, really, you know, we've got pacing.

Sally: Mine is “so”.

Esha: Mine is also “so”, uh, I tend to start sentences with so every once in a while, so it's something I'm mindful of. We've got pacing. How fast or slow you're speaking your eye, contact your posture. We've got smiles. Um, loudness. Non-inclusive language if you're saying words like guys, which could have gender non-inclusive meaning to it.

Sally: I said “Sheesh” the other time, the other day. And it was like, Ooh, swear word.

Esha: Absolutely. Absolutely. So the goal is to help you all, help users and folks become more aware of their speaking style by just in uncovering a few mechanics of your speech, um, so that you can course correct for the future.

Sally: Yeah, fantastic. So there are five main benefits that I'd like to share with you from my own observations and client stories.

So the first thing I love is using Yoodli to get the full transcript of sessions. So when I work with somebody one on one, Yoodli usually comes into the waiting room and at the end of the session, there is a full transcript. And so often people don't have the time to scroll that through a Zoom recording to find something.

Or if you are brainstorming on a particular speech and I'm a real freestyler, they'll be like, Oh my gosh, Sally, what did you just say? I, I didn't get that down and you can go straight into the transcript and literally cut and paste it.

Esha: Absolutely. Absolutely. You completely nailed, nailed ahead on this one. One of the beauties of Yoodli is being able to improve your content over time, whether that's a speech, whether that is, uh, practicing a kind of a one-on-one conversation or doing role play for a mock interview, whatever it might be, you can use Yoodli as a way to not just practice, but get different, try out different speaking transcripts, if you will.

Um, you could copy it straight from the product, put it into a document of your choice and edit it from there and go it and practice again. And we'll show you progress on how you spoke with the mechanics, with the AI powered analytics, as well as show how the transcript is changing over time.

Sally: Yeah, I love that. And for somebody like me, who's quite auditory. I prefer to speak out my content rather than write it first so I can speak it freely, and then have a look. Oh yes. Good. As I said, I feel like I couldn't have written it yet. I could have easily said it. So it's such a handy tool to use. And I actually have a speech, um, tomorrow and I'm using it for that purpose.

Another thing we should mention is it gives you a timing at the time, which is so useful. Cause that's a big question when people are presenting is how long does it go?

Esha: Absolutely great point. One of the things is with each of your ums and us, we'll highlight those in the transcript. And if you're curious about where you saw that you can click on it and you'll see exactly the timestamp, um, and be able to see that in the video.

So it all kind of plays with each other, between the video and the transcript and the analytics. And additionally, as, as you said, Sally, we will break up the transcript into these nice bite size pieces so you can scroll through the transcript and listen or watch any part of it just by clicking on a timestamp.

Sally: Amazing. Yeah, so the first thing is the transcript's brilliant. The second thing I really love about Yoodli is it reveals habits that are in your blind spots. So for example, Oh my gosh. I was about to say, So for example, and I've realized after watching my coaching sessions, the analytics, how many times I say the word So. And like you say, it's not necessarily saying these things are good or bad, but it gives you awareness of something that you might not have previously been aware of at all.

Esha: On those instances where you're practicing that interview question or that speech you'll really get a sense of where your content may not be as strong if you're using several filler words like ums and ahs, or where you might be wavering back and forth. If your eye contact is meandering, or if you're swaying back and forth, we encourage everyone to watch back their speech and cringe, um, and see the analytics and in doing so it might sound weird at first, you know, to hear yourself, watch yourself back.

But when you do that, you'll be like, Ah, I didn't have to say that. Or I could have stood in one place in this instance, or I could have improved my posture another, and we really believe that that's the way moving forward. Um, Sally, one more thing I'll say per your original thought is it's not bad or good, but it just is.

We're actually introducing listening analytics soon. Uh, so on an instance where you're on a call, Yoodli call with multiple people, kind of like this one, what you'll see eventually is how much you spoke compared to the other person, whether or not you asked questions. Or whether or not you had a multi minute monologue.

And I think these are really important elements of communication as well, because they talk about the listening and like the emotional intelligence piece of communication as well.

Sally: Yeah. So if you get the transcript and you see that you are dominating big time, it might be a good scientist say, Oh, a bit more listening. Fantastic. The third thing I love, and this is linked to what you were just saying, is it ha is it gives objective feedback. So I had a client last week who said that she was so surprised to see on the right hand side, how positive her analytics were. She had no filler words. Her eye contact was good. Her articulation was 99% accurate.

When I said, Yes, I've been telling you how amazing it is there, but she's like, yeah. But you know, sometimes I think Sal that you just kind of feel sorry for me and don't want me to feel bad. She's like the computer doesn't do that. The computer's fully objective.

Esha: Absolutely, the computer doesn't lie and it's actually being trained on what you are saying. So it's more and more attuned to your speaking style, which makes it even more objective. I think we've seen a strong correlation between how objective these analytics are with the, with the person's confidence. Folks have said they've practiced. They've started off maybe with a couple of red light bulbs, which indicate on our product, that those could be areas of improvement based on what is socially acceptable based on linguistic research.

And they've practiced and practiced, have seen those scores gone up and they feel more confident about how they're coming off, how they're sounding, what they're saying and whether or not they're getting their message across.

Sally: Esha, I love that. And it was something that I was a bit skeptical about at first. My feeling originally was, Oh, no, you've got this computer saying, you said, um, 50 times, how is that gonna be for your confidence?

It's having the opposite effect. It is fantastic for confidence of my clients I'm finding. And also this is the fourth thing I love about Yoodli is you can practice as many times as you like with nobody seeing. So I send the link to my clients and if you're in any of my programs, you get access to this.

We are also recording this podcast, chat on you, Lisa. I'll be attaching the link to the show notes so you can see us speaking on camera and also see the analytics on the side first hand. And so clients can practice. As many times as they like, stop and start refresh, stop and start and not share it with anyone until they hit that share button.

So I find that that level of, of privacy can really help you experiment. And when it comes to speaking, it's that fear of, well, what do people think? And am I doing it right? Or am I doing it wrong? But when it's just you and Yoodli, you can be free to experiment.

Esha: Absolutely. I, I think that's a really important point, which is how can I practice my communication and my public speaking skills without the fear of an audience?

What kind of situation can I put myself in to practice and not face any judgment? And we think that's really important as you are practicing and practicing and increasing your confidence. Folks have said that they really like, that they're able to practice and restart and, and delete a number of times before they get to that rendition of their speech or their interview that they really like.

And as you've said, we make it really easy. For clients, for students to share their recording with their speech coach, their interview coach, maybe their career services, uh, counselor at school. So that person can come in. And, and so you can talk about this a lot more, but that person can come in and leave feedback at specific timestamps throughout the video.

That is a very nice way of asynchronously collaborating with your mentor, teacher, coach, and for you to see, Ah, coach told me at minute, 1:25 to stop scratching my nose. I can click on 1:25 and I'll see exactly what he or she was talking about. And that's a way that's something for me to be mindful of as a practice in the future.

Sally: And number five there's many benefits I can think of, but the five that I've gone through are the full transcript of the sessions. It reveals the habits in your blind spots. You can get objective feedback, the computer doesn't lie, you have that ability to practice and analyze alone. And also you can record live or upload videos. And Esha, this has been absolute gold. When I have clients, whether they're new or first inquiring saying, can you check out this video for me? And in the past I have been absolutely. I've watched the video and then given my feedback, it is so much more effective to be able to say, All right, let's see what Yoodli says, upload the video to the software.

And it's much easier for me to give feedback as well because I can time stamp it. So that ability to upload and record live is just brilliant.

Esha: Absolutely. If you've got a speech floating around or an interview or some kind of recorded conversation of you speaking, you can upload it and see instantly a transcript and your AI powered analytics.

You could record live as we've been talking about. And the third one, which is very new is you can bring Yoodli on your Zoom calls and get feedback on your everyday conversation. This one is particularly interesting because you'll see both parties or, or multiple parties speaking as well as their transcript split up by speaker.

And the analytics also split up by speaker. Um, this is where we'll be introducing the set of listening analytics. And really, any time you are speaking, whether it's every day on Zoom or for an upcoming presentation, or you're just curious about what your speaking style is, Yoodli is there to help you understand and, and grow and to be the type of communicator you wanna be.

Sally: Well, thank you so much for creating it. I'm so glad we've connected. I love using this tool. Anyone listening, who would like to check it out, jump on the link in the show notes, and you'll be able to see us having this conversation or get in touch in any of my programs, the Masterclass Vault, My Six Week Voice Makeover, working with me as a private client, of course, and Speak Up for Your Business.

Any of those programs you have access to using this tool as well. So Esha, is there anything else you'd like to add?

Esha: All I'd like to add is thank you so much, Sally, for being such a strong component of Yoodli. Sally is one of our top speech coaches. Uh, she's the absolute best. And we like to jam and come up with different ideas. So thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Sally: Oh my pleasure. And I should add that this isn't a sponsored thing. I'll also link to the Yoodli site. If you are a coach, I would highly recommend getting it for your own coaching practice. So we will link to that as well. And I'm sure Esha would love to have a chat with you.

Esha: Absolutely would love to chat with you.