155. NLP - Your Speaking Secret Weapon
Completing NLP training in 2022 changed my life - and has taken my coaching and speaking to the next level.
So it is my absolute pleasure to collaborate with Australia's best Integrated NLP trainer, Elizabeth Anne Walker, to run intensive three-day Speaker Training - and chat with Liz on today's podcast!
Our next training is June 23-25, 2023. In-person on the Gold Coast or online. >>> JOIN US HERE <<<
Transcript
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to That Voice Podcast, NLP, your speaking Secret Weapon. We are up to Episode 155. So NLP stands for Neuro-linguistic Programming and becoming a master practitioner last year in NLP and hypnosis has been a life-changing role, especially for my relationships and my business, I am so much more aware of my language and the role it plays, the critical role it plays in the results I get. There are so many mind-blowing techniques that make such a difference when it comes to speaking. And I feel so privileged to have got my NLP certifications under a world-leading NLP trainer. She's the creator of the emotion change technique, which I use all the time with my one-on-one clients to rewire beliefs. She's a global speaker, like she's been on stages alongside people like Tony Robbins, Elena Cardone, Gary V, she's a bestselling author.
Oh, the list goes on. I'm talking about the amazing Elizabeth Anne Walker. And it is such a privilege to join Liz on stage to run our three-day intensive speaker training. It's in person on the Gold Coast or online. Our next training is June 23, 24, 25, and we are so proud of the results we get in our speaker training room. There are not a lot of speaker trainings that feature two heart-led, soul-driven women. That's us. And in our rooms, we get to the depths of the inner voice and the physical voice so you can have breakthroughs on the inside that really shine on the outside in the way your voice sounds as you're sharing your story. Yes, you do get to declare your voice and speak on stage. In our last training, I was brought to tears on the final day. People who could barely say their name on stage on day one were telling their story and moving every person in the room on day three.
Oh God, it was good to be part of. The link to join us in June and have your own transformation is in the show notes. Or just DM me @SallyProsservoice or @thatvoicepodcast, the new Instagram channel. Please follow us @thatvoicepodcast. So in today's incredible episode, Liz shares the story of how she went from using a wheelchair to walking across hot coals and never going back. We dive into the words that aren't helping you create the life you want words to banish from your vocabulary. And we share three practical ways you can use NLP techniques to drastically improve your speaking. Enjoy today's episode and see you in speaker training.
Sally:
Elizabeth Anne Walker, it is such a joy to have you on That Voice Podcast. Welcome.
Liz:
Oh, Sally, thank you so much. It's absolutely amazing to be here. I've listened to your podcast several times. I love you dearly. As you know, we now work together in a certain capacity and I'm super excited to be here.
Sally:
Ah, it has really changed my life since I did NLP prac, then we worked together one-on-one, then I did master prac and then now are working together with speaker training. It has been such a huge time of realization for me for people who are totally new to NLP. What is it?
Liz:
It's super interesting. So let's just start with the basic definition, which NLP, Neuro-linguistic Programming. So neuro meaning meaning the brain, linguistic meaning the words that we use both externally and internally, and programming being the programs that we've either accepted or had forced on us as children that we believe to be true in the world. Now that's the the scientific definition let's say, what I say NLP is because we teach integrated NLP is that it's an incredible system of communication with self and others that generates effective transformation, incredible access to resources and spectacular influence in order to reach your desired state or goal. Now, that all sounds like a whole lot of words. So we get stuck between this scientific definition and this, what does all those words really mean? It's basically how do you communicate with yourself to truly get what you want.
Liz:
Because a lot of people spend a lot of time saying, I want this. I really do want this. And every time I try to do it, it doesn't work. And yet in that statement alone, the word "try" is the problem rather than just doing their trying. And so what the message going to the unconscious mind is, is all we have to do this time is try. We don't have to succeed. And so the unconscious mind will then create reality according to the language that you use. And if the word is try, then all you do is try. You won't actually succeed. If you put in the message today, What we're gonna do is this, it's very definite, it's direct, it's towards what you want. Then you'll actually do. It sounds so simple that most people go, that couldn't possibly work. That's way too easy.
Sally:
Yeah. We speak our reality into existence, which is is why using words like I wish and I want is constantly telling the unconscious mind that you want to continue wanting it and wishing for it. You never actually want to have it.
Liz:
Yeah. And rather than saying it is now the such and such date, and I be, do or have as opposed to I wish, want and hope, we create a completely different reality in our, in fact, our unconscious mind actually goes after what we tell it to want. So if we, if we desire something, we put that message into our unconscious mind using effective language. Like for example, say in six months time you want to have a business that's effective and effective for you means having 20 clients, for example. Then what we're gonna do is we're gonna go, Okay, cool. It is now the 14th of October, 2023 and I am serving 20 clients and they are happy and excited that they're working with me. That's a very definitive direct response for the future. And so what happens in our unconscious mind is it becomes attached to that outcome that it needs to achieve. And when I say need, cuz we're now, we're talking in the conscious mind that it needs to achieve by October. And our unconscious mind and conscious mind work together to make that happen. Because we've already placed it there, we've already created it in the future. But if we say, Oh, I'm gonna try and get 20 clients by October, then the unconscious mind goes, oh, that's the, you know, if we, if we do, we do. And if we don't, we don't. And it's all okay. And so we allow ourselves an out.
Sally:
Yeah. The language, everything we say is a command to ourselves.
Liz:
Yeah. Our brain is waiting to hear the command.
Sally:
Yeah. I love, it's like the spelling when we spell, we are casting a spell.
Liz:
Yes. Spelling's interesting because it's the only topic that has consistently been taught in schools and hasn't changed much over the invention of curriculum. So once curriculum came into schools spelling's, the one thing that has remained and spelling is, is exactly that we are casting spells on ourselves and we cast that through the language we speak both externally. More importantly the language we speak internally. So that little voice in your head that, you know, I I liken it to, for those people who are, listening in Australia, you'll know exactly what I mean. A mosquito that's in your ear on a summer's night, that's just going right. That voice in your head that's just like, You are not good enough. You can't do this. What makes you think you can do that? That kind of voice in your head is completely destructive and it's actually learned through a program.
Liz:
And often those programs start in school. So for example, you're at school, you do the drawing wrong in year one and you instead of drawing a house, you draw a boat and the teacher says, No, no, that's not right. Do it again. And the frame the child takes will depend on the frame that they've been brought up in. But if they've come from a house that also says, No, that's not right, you are not good enough. Then the teacher's telling them they're not good enough and they create that experience of I'm actually not good enough. And so given that you teach, like you help us teach speaker training and that your whole business is related to speech, how does that reflect when someone's actually speaking out loud on an interview or speaking out loud on a stage or something like that? They're gonna feel not good enough straight up because that's what they've always told themselves and that's what they've always been taught.
Liz:
So they've adopted that program. So now that's the P part of NLP, right? They've got a program that says they're not good enough. So now we need to get the brain and the words to connect to create that program differently or to disintegrate that program and create a new program which is actually, I deserve to be here. My voice is important. It's actually my time to be heard. I can be empowered through my voice rather than, you're not good enough who would listen to you? I don't know why you're even talking. What do you know? And those kinds of things that go through people's minds.
Sally:
Mm-Hmm. And that's why combining NLP in a speaker training setting is so powerful.
Liz:
Absolutely.
Sally:
I would love to get into how NLP makes as a better speaker. Before we do, I'm keen to learn, why did you get into NLP? What drew you to it? How did it help you?
Liz:
Right. So initially I went along to a Tony Robbins seminar, which I went to because I was wanting to kill myself. And I say that so nonchalantly now, but at the time I'd experienced a great deal of illness. I was very, very sick. I'd been sick for several years and I'd got to the point where I was like, there's no point in living. I don't wanna live like this. I don't wanna live with all this pain, this drama, the multiple surgeries. And I thought, you know, I just wanna die. And I stopped eating and thought that my husband wouldn't notice. Well, of course he noticed pretty quickly. And I had an opportunity from a friend to go to this seminar and I was like, I don't know about that. I can't afford it. I haven't worked for two years, you know, I've been so sick.
Liz:
And she's like, just, just come. You need to come. And my husband said, you know what? Let's just put it on the credit card and we'll work it out. I don't know how, but we'll work it out. You need to go. I was actually in a wheelchair at the time and unable to walk. And I got pushed into this seminar in a wheelchair and enjoyed the seminar. And at the end of the first day they had a fire walk and like they came and took my wheelchair and took me down to the fire lane. And I was thinking, you, you guys are nuts. I'm in a wheelchair. I can't walk. Like, why, why are you even taking me down there? But they're like, no, just come, it'll be fine. Just come. And I got to the end of the fire lane and I stood up and I walked across the fire and at the other end I realized I could walk.
Liz:
And I never went back in the wheelchair again. And I was like, whoa, what magic is this? I, I did not know this magic. But what had been happening is the whole time on that first day he had been utilizing those NLP techniques and my brain had responded to it. And then all of a sudden I was able to walk and two years in a wheelchair, I left, I literally left the wheelchair at the event and never went back in it. And I've been walking ever since and I had a severed nerve in my right leg. So my right femoral nerve was actually severed and somehow my brain has repaired the auxiliary nerves and allowed me to walk again to the point that when I went back to the doctor, the doctor was like, this is impossible. And I went, Cool. I know that it's possible cuz I'm doing it and I'm not interested in that language, so I'm gonna stay with the, this is possible. I am doing it. I can walk and I don't need to see you anymore.
Sally:
Oh, Liz, it is such an incredible story and it's a lived example of how NLP is truly life changing.
Liz:
Yeah. And so from there I was like, well, not everyone can access these big seminars. Like not even everyone even knows who that person is. So how do we go about bringing this to real people in real ways? And so then I started my business and, you know, did a lot on social media, which allowed people to access me, which then got them in a room and allowed them to access the same kinds of results.
Sally:
And we've seen that story after story from people in your rooms for the, throughout the last couple of years.
Liz:
Yeah. It's been incredible. Like, you know, people walking, again, people repairing relationships that they thought were completely lost. People getting back in contact with kids that they haven't talked to for 20 years. We've had like people create who had a business that was sitting stagnant, suddenly creating multimillion dollar businesses. It's been incredible the like in every area of life, like relationships, health, like we've had a lady who was 60 and very similar story, heard my story and decided that she could just walk in our room and not only was she walking, she was dancing and at the end when she graduated she jumped off the stage and, and she was so excited. And every like every few months she messages and messages me and says, I just can't believe how great my life is. I'm so grateful. And I'm like, you did it like you did it. You we have all this in us already. It's just a matter of accessing it.
Sally:
Absolutely. And in speaker training, you know, seeing people who actually frozen with fear, not able to speak on the last day, not just standing on stage and speaking confidently, but speaking in a way that moved us to tears.
Liz:
Yeah. This, this is the biggest joy I have with speaker training is a lot of people talk about NLP being the full transformation, but speaker training is where they integrate all of it and they actually get to go, okay, now with everything I've learned, what's my message and how do I deliver it? And then they get to that point where they stand on stage at the end and we see them on the first day, you know, they don't wanna get on stage, they barely want to open their mouth, they like, they're worried about getting it right. And then on, on the last day, literally like that, moving us to tears and us being there, being so proud of how far they've come. And I know you're thinking of the same person I am thinking of at the moment and that person having been stuck inside that cocoon or that chrysalis for so long and on that last day, seeing that beautiful butterfly emerge and be fully in her own power and presence. It was, it's incredible. And it happens over and over again. And that's why I love the work. There's a bit of that dopamine hit of I get to see it again. I get to see someone have this great experience again and I get to see this person carry on for years afterwards continuing to live that great experience.
Sally:
Yeah. And if we are thinking of the same person, there was a couple in our training, that person has gone on to be a host of events and to do media interviews and to be appearing on podcasts and all of these kind of things. So it is, it's so transformational. It's worth noting as well. You do not need to have done NLP training in order to come to the speaker training. In fact, we had quite a few people who were at speaker beforehand and it is still absolutely transformational. It's not a prerequisite to coming along.
Liz:
And that's the beauty of what we get to weave together, Sal, is like both of us having had a lot of speaking experience and yours being in the teaching side of speaking and mine being like, and practical and then mine being practical in a very small arena. The thing is, is that these people come along and they get the benefit of both worlds because they get the language and the techniques and the experience and the embodiment. And that's the beauty of what we do together and weave together. And I think you asked before, how do we use NLP in speaker training? Like what, how do, how do we do that? Well, let's think about this. The first thing is, is that we have to have flexibility of behavior when we're speaking. So whether it's on stage, whether it's speaking to our family, whether it is using social media every time we speak, we don't know how the other person's gonna react.
Liz:
We don't know what frame the other person's coming into that conversation with. So take an example of someone's coming into a conversation with you to talk about whether you made your bed or not, right? You're a teenage girl, your mom's coming to you, did you make your bed today? Now you don't know whether that teenage girl has had a happy morning, whether she's been on social media and had friends picking on her that morning or whether she's got a boyfriend then she's madly in love. Like all of those experiences could be true. And so as the mother coming into ask the child, have you made your bed? You don't know what response you're gonna get, you're gonna potentially get the, Get outta my room! Or you could also get the Yeah, I did mom. Yeah, that's great. Or you could get Mom, come and sit on my made bed and talk to me about this boy who I absolutely love and I want to tell you about.
Liz:
And you never know the frame of the other people. So flexibility of behavior as the speaker is gonna allow you to speak effectively to all three versions of that teenager, right? Whatever example they're showing up in, you are gonna be able to deliver a message that they can hear clearly and effectively because you are gonna be flexible in your approach. You're gonna allow yourself to move through the different options that you have. And I liken it to having the doors always open, right? So we have resources in so many different areas of our life, but the reason that people don't do the things they wanna do is they become unresourceful. The resources are already there. What they're doing is they're shutting the doors to each room as they leave the room. But if you just leave all the doors open and your energy can flow through every part of your life simultaneously, then what you get to do is draw a resource from a room that you've already left because the doors open, you just reach out and grab it and pull it into the present. And that allows that flexibility of behavior. And we teach you how to do that in NLP and we also teach you how to do that in speaker training. So in speaker training, we're all about how do you leave the door open so that you don't have to shut it on this bit. Now you're gonna deliver with presence because you've left the doors open and your whole life experience can be ready for you to deliver on stage.
Sally:
Absolutely. I have so many clients who come to me with this, Oh, I'm okay with a small group, or I'm really good at what I do and I'm okay when I'm doing this, but when I do this, and it's like, open the doors, map that across, use the resources that you have in other areas of your life. And I'm so glad you started with that. That is my favorite NLP principle. The person with the greatest flexibility of behavior rules the system.
Liz:
Correct. And, and often when we say that, we say it's a person with the greatest flexibility controls the system or rules the system. Often when we say that people get this thing of, Well I don't wanna rule the system, but actually you wanna rule your own system.
Sally:
Yeah, I do!
Liz:
You wanna be entirely present with everything that you are so that you can have control. And when you talk to people who are experiencing challenges, especially in the speaking arenas, the challenges that they're experiencing is usually I'm not good enough and I'm not good enough comes from not having access to control, not having that ability to truly control. And so what people do is they try and force control by trying to control everyone else when actually the key is, look, if you just have flexibility of behavior, you're gonna control yourself. And if you can control yourself, you can handle anything. And then you get to show up with presence. And it's that rock solid stability. And this is something I love about you Sal when you are speaking on stage, is that absolute presence in the moment where people get lost within you and they come into your world for a little while and learn about their world through you. And that's the gift of a talented speaker is how do I learn about me through the speaker on stage? And the speaker themselves has to have that flexibility of behavior so that the audience can realize who they are within that speaker and recognize themselves in that moment. And that's what I love.
Sally:
Oh, Liz, thanks for that. And that's something that we do focus a lot on in our speaker training. So that's the flexibility of behavior. How else can NLP help with speaking?
Liz:
Yeah, so the next piece is we'll go to those limiting beliefs that people have and talk about how the map is not the territory. So when someone tells you their problem, chances are there's something much more under that. And so with speaking itself, someone will say something like, Oh, you know, I'm great with small groups, but put me in a large group and I'm not so great. And it's like, Okay, well is it that you're not so great with a large group or is there something underlying that that's a program that you've believed for a long time? So let's get underneath that and what's underneath that and what's underneath that? And let's get to the root cause of why you feel comfortable in small groups, but not in large groups. And it could be something so simple, it could be, you know, when I sat at my family dinner table, I was able to talk and I had free expression and everything worked well.
Liz:
Also my belief is that in a small group I can actually speak and then you put them in a large group. Oh, when I went to that family reunion, my mom let go of my hand and I got lost and I couldn't see everyone and I was stuck there feeling lost and unaware of what to do next. And it scared me. And then that program has been, you know, coming through, coming through, coming through. So they're fine speaking at a small group, which is like their family dinner table. And then they freak out when they get a big group, which reminds them in their unconscious mind of that large family reunion where they got lost. So if we get down to that first belief of, Hey, I'm actually frightened of being lost in the crowd, well then we can disconnect that belief, integrate it into the person, and then they'll be exactly fine because they've just opened that door to that compartment, they map it across and they go, okay, here we are. And this is exactly the same as a small group. I feel safe here now. And so bringing that safety by learning that the map is not the territory we get to go underneath what they say the problem is and find the real problem. Once we disconnect that all the problems disappear.
Sally:
Oh, it's unraveling that root cause. I love this. You know, nobody can be afraid of public speaking. Like you can't be afraid of speaking. People speak every day. It's not the speaking itself, it's the scenario which causes those other insecurities or or limiting beliefs to come to the surface. And when you can discover what that is, it's just so magical because it doesn't just impact the way you speak, it impacts the way you live your life across the board.
Liz:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And then the third thing that I think is really applicable to speaking from NLP is what we call the representational systems. And this is where I'll give you some practical tools that you can use. So the representational systems are how do we construct our language in our own mind as an individual? And there are many things that Im impact this and a lot of them is, are the programs that we've received as a child. So there are a couple of categories. So we have visual, we have auditory. So visual being what we see, auditory being what we hear, there's kinesthetic what we feel. And then there's what we call auditory digital, which is what we say to ourself in our mind. And if you think right now about the people you know that are visual, they're largely bright colors. They enjoy speaking really quickly, they're often very buzzy.
Liz:
They're the what we call pocket rockets often. And, and they're super fast. If we go to kinesthetic, they're the beautiful comforting people that really care about how you feel that want to give you a hug every five seconds. And if you're not kinesthetic, you might not enjoy that. And they want to really love you. And then we've got the beautiful auditory people who really love listening to the rhythm and tonality of a voice. They're usually wearing headphones listening to music or podcasts and hearing that beautiful rhythm and song that comes through an individual. And then you've got the auditory digital people that are great at thinking. They often are sitting in front of a spreadsheet or they're looking and analyzing some data. And all these people are completely valuable and have access to all of those rep systems, but usually choose to use one their primary rep system.
Liz:
So as a speaker, what we need to do is make sure that we are flexible enough to use all rep systems so that we are appealing to all different types of people in the audience. And when I say that, what I mean is if you are on stage and you are delivering data or statistics, and it's quite what we would call AD so it's thinking and analyzing, then you wanna be sure that you're wearing a beautiful, bright colored dress so that the people who are visual get to see the movement in your dress and get to see the colors and the patterns and they've got something else for their mind to do while they're listening to the bit that they find boring in the data. Equally, if you are gonna present something visual, you need to make sure that there's something intriguing for the thinkers.
Liz:
And I once saw a speaker who who came out on stage in a full three-piece suit and bare feet. And he was so fast, he was running around the stage talking a hundred miles an hour and I couldn't keep up, but I had his feet to focus on and I looked at his feet and I kept wondering, Why does he have bare feet? Why does he have bare feet? I wonder why he is wearing bare feet? And it was enough of a curiosity for me to think about that. It kept me engaged in his speech until he got to the bit about why he wore bare feet, at which point I totally engaged with the conversation and was really in it. So then there's the auditory people. If you are someone who's a little bit monotone and you're delivering a speech and people are wanting to hear it, we have to start putting in some tonality changes and things like, And then the door went Bang! And all of a sudden they're like that. It brings them back into the conversation.
Sally:
Yes, the vocal dynamics, this is my favorite part.
Liz:
Yeah. As a speaker, we need to appeal to that in audiences. Now, again, I'm gonna say like speaking, it doesn't have to be on stage, it can just be speaking in your family because what if you are a kinesthetic person and you like going slow and you like delivering emotion? Sometimes, people who are really close to you are gonna get, Oh my God, she's just gonna bring the drama again. Because kinesthetic people tend to be quite dramatic in the way that they feel everything, right? And so when you are on stage, if you wanna evoke emotion in your audience, then you bring out the kinesthetic rep system, you bring out the feels, you create the words in a way that allows people to experience those tears in their eyes or the feelings in their, in their tummy. And so by utilizing each of these different rep systems, you can appeal to a wider audience. And if you've got that beautiful fluid movement across all of them, then everyone in the crowd is gonna resonate with what you're saying and you'll never have to worry about, I don't know if they're listening again, because you know that you've covered it off in the way that your speech is designed.
Sally:
Yeah. Oh, so great. And learning as well that it's not just about saying, right, I'm auditory, so that's just how I am, but learning how to not always be in your default and access those other areas.
Liz:
When we run speaker training, that's what we do, right? People come in in their main rep system and we're like, your content, like most people can write a speech, like you said before, people aren't actually afraid of speaking. They're afraid of the stories around that. And it's the same with writing a speech. Most people have a story to tell, most people have a set of information that they want to express. And so when we hear these people and they're super amazing and their the content is great, but it's just boring and it's boring because there's none of that utilization of multiple rep systems. There's none of the flare and the excitement and the, the joy that might come through or the deep, connected heartfelt pauses where people just dive into the middle of you and feel like they really feel you. That's not present, then the speech sort of flops. But when you can move through all of them and you get, you know, you're going and going and going and it's really fast in one bit and then it just slows down into that beautiful feeling space, people are, they're transported on a journey with your words. And that's really what you wanna do in a speech, right? So this is how those techniques in NLP can help with speaking.
Sally:
Oh, so great. And this is getting me really excited about our next training, June 23, 24, and 25.
Liz:
I'm super excited about it.
Sally:
Me too. I can't wait. What would you say to anyone thinking, Hmm, maybe I'll give this a go, maybe I can come along?
Liz:
I wonder what they're thinking first of all. So it's may, it's they're in the maybe, right? So they're thinking so straight away from they're in the, maybe I can come along so they're thinking. So I would say, How about you just check in with your heart? Is it something that's important to you that you really wanna feel great about speaking? Okay, tick. So I want it in my head. I want it in my heart. Okay, let's, let's look at, is it practical? Well, yes, I haven't, you know, I like investing in myself. When you invest in yourself, it's the only thing that you pay for that no one can take away. You know, you've gotta, it's in, it's in part of you, it's embodied in you, it's beautiful. And, and when I think about, you know, why should they come to speaker training?
Liz:
Every single person is so unique. There's a one in 3 billion chance that you get the genetics that you've got and that shows how unique you are. And everyone has a unique message. Everyone has a way of saying something that impacts someone else, that inspires someone else, that delivers information to someone else. And if you are sitting there thinking, well, should I come along to this? My question is, is how can you not, how can you not allow your expression to be at its best? How can you choose to then go, okay, you know what, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna express myself. And whether that is expressing yourself in a small family situation or just to your partner, or whether it's on social media or whether it's for your business or whether it's on global stages, your voice gets to be heard. Your voice gets to be heard in a way that is important to you and in a way that's important to others to hear it.
Liz:
And I know that there's been times in my life where it's been one sentence that's made all the difference, and yet if that person didn't speak that one sentence, I may not have ended up where I am today. And so I feel like we have a role to share our message. There's a reason we were given a voice. We weren't just given a voice to complain or ask for things that we want. We were also given a voice to share what we know, to share who we are, and to share how we be. And I really love that. And that, that's my biggest thing about speaker training. So if you are thinking about it and you're listening to this, like both of us are happy to have conversations with you about it, we're happy to jump on a call, have a chat, and help you to get into that room so that your message gets expressed in, in your highest intention in the way that you want it to be heard.
Sally:
Oh, Liz, so beautifully expressed. We will be in the room in the Gold Coast, on the Gold Coast. However, we also have a virtual option for June. So if for some reason you're unable to get to the Gold Coast, then get in touch with one of us. I'll put all of those links in the show notes or you can DM us. I'm @sallyprosservoice and Liz, what's your Instagram?
Liz:
So my Instagram is @elizabethannewalker_. So, and you can message me there. I run all my own DMs, so you'll get the real me
Sally:
Likewise.
Liz:
Yep. Get to chat you, Sally. You have the same. And yeah, you get to chat to us there in real life.
Sally:
Oh, so exciting. Liz, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and I can't wait for our training in June.
Liz:
Oh, it's been a pleasure to be here, Sal. Thank you for having me.