166. How to Eat Like a Speaker
The way you SPEAK is only as strong as the way you FEEL.
And a big part of that is NUTRITION.
Welcome to episode 166 How to Eat Like Speaker.
My guest today is a high performance Dietitian, Coach and Speaker. She’s worked with Olympic athletes and national sporting teams and now brings that knowledge and expertise into helping high level executives in the corporate world.
Jess Spendlove takes us through –
What foods to avoid before speaking.
The biggest mistakes she sees people make on the day of their presentation.
How to put together an immunity pack for the first sign of illness – I was taking notes in this one.
Hacks to keep a routine even when travelling.
How she switches her food up on Speaking Game Day to avoid needing the bathroom so often, while staying hydrated.
Transcript
Hello, I'm Sal. Welcome to That Voice Podcast, especially if you're here for the first time. Welcome back if you've been here before. Today's episode is a foundational one. The way you speak is only as strong as the way you feel, and a big part of that is nutrition. Welcome to Episode 166, How to Eat like a Speaker. My guest today is a high-performance dietician coach and speaker herself. She's worked with Olympic athletes and national sporting teams. It's pretty cool and she brings that knowledge and expertise now into helping high-level executives in the corporate world. Jess takes us through a lot more than nutrition. We do cover what foods to avoid before speaking. We also go into the biggest mistakes she sees people make on the day of their presentation. She shares how to put together an immunity pack for the first sign of illness.
Believe me, I was taking notes in this one. What else does she share? Hacks to keep a routine even when traveling. And she also shares how she switches up her food on speaking game day to avoid needing the bathroom so often, while staying hydrated. And before we get into it, this reminds me of one of the main reasons to join Soul Speakers, my online community. So people think, Oh, it's a professional personal development thing so I can have the skills to make more money in my business, get ahead in my career, confidently engage an audience. And yes, it is all those things! And it's for your health and wellbeing. In Soul Speakers. You learn how to take care of your voice, how to warm it up correctly, how to use technique that ensures your voice is there for you in the long-term. So if health is important to you and continued growth is important to you, then Soul Speakers is definitely for you. And I run live interactive online classes so it's not more content to consume, it's focused action to take. The replays are in there of course, too, and the link to join is in our show notes. Okay, get your notebook out for this one. Let's dive into the episode.
Sally:
Jess Spendlove, welcome to That Voice Podcast. So great to see you. How are you?
Jess:
Sally, I'm so great and I'm really pumped to have today's conversation with you.
Sally:
Well, you know what, I almost canceled today because you might be able to hear, I've, my nose has been running like a tap and I thought, You know what, this is the perfect conversation to have right now because I feel like perhaps I've been burning the candle at both ends a little bit. I spent the whole weekend running speaker training and before that I was down in Tasmania running nude into the ocean story for another time. So what would you suggest I do or what do you think might be the cause of this?
Jess:
I'm sorry that you're sick, but it, as you said, it's kind of good timing in a way because one of the things I wanna talk about today for speakers is learning how to energy manage yourself and your life. So when we are giving a lot to other people, which we do when we are on stage, or if we are running trainings and then throw in the mix our amazing lives and things we wanna do, i.e., Tasmania. If we then don't have that rest period or those strategies to refill the cup, we live and we learn. I've certainly been there. I have, have gotten sick from overworking or definitely burnt myself out, which is why I do a lot of the work and speaking and coaching that I do today.
Sally:
Yeah, it is a big energy output when we're speaking, especially facilitating. So for me it was three days and after our beautiful chat this morning, I have nothing planned for the afternoon, so I'm definitely gonna be taking some downtime to recharge the batteries, having a little bit of a sore throat, a little bit of congestion. What are the kinds of foods that we should be eating if we feel this way?
Jess:
Yeah, so I mean look, number one, we wanna prevent. So we will touch on that. But when we do feel that first sign of illness sickness coming on, we wanna really increase the hydration when we are dehydrated. And there's so many points to talking about hydration, we are more at risk of getting sick. So like the pathogens can essentially kind of transfer around our bodies. So one, hydration, two, we really, really wanna dial up the vitamins and minerals, the antioxidants, so all of those colorful nourishing foods, garlic, onion, these really prebiotic rich, antioxidant rich foods. But I have a couple of supplements that I recommend. You know, food first always, but first sign of illness. There are actually some really evidence-based supplements. So zinc is definitely one, 75 milligrams a day. It's a very specific amount because that's where the evidence sits to have like a therapeutic effect, which basically means to have effect.
Jess:
And when you look at a lot of labels, they will be a lot less than that. So they might be 10, 20, so you might have to take a few. Vitamin C, so looking at a thousand milligrams a day and also vitamin D. So a thousand international units, which is generally one tablet. So zinc though is the big hero there. When we start that straightaway, first sign of illness, it has been shown to reduce severity and reduce the duration. To be honest guys, that's a little immunity pack that I use with all my top performing athletes, but I now use that with all of the high functioning corporates and entrepreneurs and people like that, that I work with because you know, your best ability is your availability. And when we are sick, that really gets in the way of doing all the things. So that's a really great little immunity pack you can kind of have on hand, first sign of illness moving forward, jump on them and it'll just help knock it on its head a bit quicker.
Sally:
Oh, Jess, I can, I feel like I'm gonna be stopping this and going back to listen to that pack again. I love that. I love that quote as well. Your best ability is availability. How good is that?
Jess:
It's great. It's I took that one from an old mentor and performance manager that I used to work with because it just says it all. And people that I work with, they're motivated, they're driven, they've got all the things they want to do, all of the opportunities. It's getting them in their best shape and self to manage all of them. You know, performance for me used to be athletes on the field and, and that is still an element, but performance for me today is quality of life. It's being your best self to get the most out of your work and your career, but your life as well. You know, life is meant for living, not just working.
Sally:
Mm-Hmm. Absolutely. Amen to that.
Jess:
The more we can slow down often the more we can speed up. So that's where it is really having those routines and rituals in our day, the start of our day, winding down our day, but also those things that we have to do every single day for things. There's nutrition, there's hydration, there's sleep, and there's breathing. So if we can tap into these absolute non-negotiables of just living, when you learn how to put strategies in place there that just introduces you to a new level of how you even thought you could feel.
Sally:
Oh, so good. And you've got five things that you absolutely shouldn't do as a speaker.
Jess:
One is don't overdo the caffeine and the alcohol. Now to be clear, I drink caffeine. I'm team coffee you know, one or two a day. But when you are a speaker and particularly when you are about to speak, obviously we're all aware there is that kind of state of arousal that happens. You know, when we are getting ready to perform, we release more adrenaline. That's part of getting ready. Some people do have more of that than others. And if you are having your usual caffeine intake leading into that, then you may find that you're actually a bit jittery and you're a bit over kind of stimulated. So in that instance, it's really important coming back to just the day-to-day. When we think about like I, what I see a lot of corporate speakers, you know, busy, busy people doing is relying on coffee or replacing meals and snacks with coffee.
Jess:
So that's where the behavioral piece comes in. And then I guess the other piece of that is just thinking about our alcohol intake. So whether it's our day-today, just our life or definitely if we're at an amazing event and we're speaking later in the day and there's alcohol there, you know, day to day it's dehydrating. There's obviously negative health consequences if we're using that as our wind down because we are just so wired and we're flying here, there and everywhere, well then we need to be looking at some other strategies like a sleep routine or other rituals or practices that help us wind down.
Sally:
Yeah.
Jess:
That we're not just on the vinos.
Sally:
When you're at an event, you can tell the speakers who've had maybe one glass of bubbly and the speakers who've had maybe one too many of those glasses of bubbly. And for me, I am on the decaf now. Even when I was drinking caffeine, I would never have a coffee before speaking. I did it once and I, as you say, found myself too jittery, couldn't contain, couldn't harness that energy. And at events, what I find to be careful of, if you are speaking, people will offer you, Oh, you want a coffee or you want a glass of wine? They'll offer it to you as a way to feel like they're being hospitable. And especially if you're a people pleaser, you can be tempted to say, Oh yeah, that'd be great. It's important to say, No thank you. I'm great with water.
Jess:
Like saying what you need but also consciously going in with a plan, which is, you know, something which I think is so important, speaker, a corporate athlete, whoever, like being intentional in this space will deliver those returns. So yeah, when you're in the moment, you're a bit nervous, you're at an exciting event, it's easy to say yes, yes, yes. But just be careful and hopefully this conversation will put that on people's radars.
Sally:
I love that. Okay, so the first one is, don't overdo the caffeine or alcohol. What's number two? The number two don't.
Jess:
So the number two don't is don't skip meals. So I see this, you know, when I've been at events speaking, there's two camps. There's those deliberately restricting, which I have some interesting points on this maybe because they're worried about the nerves, they're worried about the need to go to the bathroom. So they're just, you know, I'll eat after I speak, which depending on when you speak that could be really inhibiting to how you actually deliver your speech. The second is those that just get caught up in the day, caught up in everything and like it's just not on their radar. So they may have like skipped a meal or maybe they've under fueled themselves. So coming back to a, in the moment of delivering your best speech, doing your best performance, but also in terms of managing your energy, your health and well-being and the bigger picture. If we're skipping meals and really erratic and if we're speaking a few times a week, that really is going to impact your overall health and wellbeing. It's really not too dissimilar to what I would talk to athletes about in a game day preparation. Obviously it's a little bit different. We don't need to carb load to go on stage or anything like that.
Sally:
Oh, why not?
Jess:
But, well maybe we do, maybe we do. But you know, having a balanced meal or some protein to satisfy some carbs for our brain, making sure we're hydrated. So whether it's for our vocal cords or our cognition and knowing, okay, two to three hours out I might have my meal and then I might have a snack a little bit closer.
Sally:
And I speak about the runway in terms of our speaking gig being like the plane taking off and we don't arrive at the airport at the time the plane takes off, we've gotta backtrack. And that really links to your third don't, which is don't eat too close to a speaking engagement. You've really gotta plan out the day. I ran training over the weekend and it was a bit different because we'd have a quick lunch break and then we'd be back straight into it. And I was finding, you know, straight after lunch there was a little bit, you know, repeating on myself, like it was coming up there. However I had to eat because it was a long day where I needed to sustain it. I find if you eat too close to the speaking gig, it's just, it's uncomfortable to speak, especially when you are expelling so much breath.
Jess:
Exactly. And this is, you know, these are all ideals. So again, it depends if you are facilitating a full day workshop, well you are a little bit more limited. Whereas if you're speaking at an event and you've got a set time and you might be right after lunch, well could you speak to the organizer and flag that you might wanna have your meal a little bit earlier. So that's where, you know, we take a bit of ownership where we can. But again, like you might be someone sitting here going, Oh my goodness, I do all of these things. I have all the coffee, I'm not hydrating, I'm skipping meals. So, you know, you pick your big rocks, we don't go and change all of them because that's a shock to the system as well. But yeah, overeating or eating too close to speaking and you're just aware of that heaviness in the stomach.
Sally:
Mm, absolutely. Okay. What are we up to? What's the number four don't?
Jess:
Yeah, so the fourth don't is we don't wanna wing it. So, you know, you could probably see a bit of a theme here. It is about a bit of like being intentional, taking a little bit of ownership. When we are racing around, you know, like a chicken with the head cut off, like whatever we're kind of speaking about, it's not going to be conducive to us performing at our best in this sense. That can cause a bit of stress and anxiety. And you know, the other thing when we are performing and there is that state of arousal that I was talking about, you know, there can be that increased need to need to go to the bathroom, which is also why I see some speakers cutting and skipping meals because they don't want that. Probably an overshare, but I sit in that category like if I eat too close or eat the wrong thing, like I will be like, Oh, gotta go to the bathroom. And that can be really disruptive and if that happens to you, like you can kind of fear that, which makes it worse.
Sally:
And if you've already got your microphone on, make sure it's switched off before you go and do your eat.
Jess:
Exactly. It's all these little things that we need to be careful of, but yet if you are in the camp of, I get a lot of butterflies in my stomach and you've got some breath work and some meditation and that's still not really quite doing the trick, nutrition and what you're eating could really be a big point to that. So I'm gonna introduce a bit of a fancy term. It's called FODMAPs which just is talking about different types of carbohydrates. Now these FODMAPs are normally foods people with IBS are a little bit sensitive to. But what can happen when we're a little bit nervous, we become more sensitive to foods that we may normally tolerate. So this is again, where we might wanna test and trial some things out, but if you are in the camp of the speaker that's like, I need to go to the bathroom when I eat foods, I get nervous, then you may wanna try having like a lower FODMAP diet.
Jess:
If you're at an event you can order and just say, Look, I need a low FODMAP. It includes things like lactose, it includes things like certain like vegetables. There's a group called Polios. So I mean, given what I do, I'm obviously across it and I've been able to work out what mine are. So I'll give an example. Breakfast, most mornings I would have eggs on sourdough with avocado, maybe mushrooms. Mm yu delicious, satisfying all the elements. But when I speak I just have the eggs on sourdough because I've been able to work out that when I have too much of like the avocado and the mushrooms and that group, that increases the need for me to go to the bathroom. So, and please, I'm certainly not saying we have to go on a low FODMAP diet here, there and everywhere. I'm just saying if you are a speaker and you get nervous before you speak and you get the butterflies and you need to go to the bathroom, it's one strategy like the day of or the morning of that you may just wanna like manipulate what you have.
Sally:
So interesting. Okay, so what's number five?
Jess:
Don't let your good routine or your rituals or routines, behaviors, don't let them slip just when we get busy or when we are traveling, when we're not at home. So it can be really easy to have our morning routines and our different things. We like to do our Pilates classes and then if we're traveling or we're on the road next minute, we're doing none of them. Yes, that's me. So yeah. And look, this isn't about creating robots. This is about nearly you having, I like to think of it as a toolkit and we just have our strategies that we call out. So you might work out, okay, well when I travel, like I'm, and I'm gonna stick with the Pilates example, I can't go to my reformer class in the morning, but I can do a 20 minute little banded workout in my room and that just helps me do the things and prime myself, but also nourish ourselves and still have those rituals there.
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I know this episode is good and so are my Pep Talks in Your Pocket. These short audio tracks tell you exactly what you need to hear before speaking. So there's one to calm your nerves, one to warm up your voice, get your breathing under control and ditch the self-doubt that can creep in. So many of my clients have said, Sal, I so wish I had you in my ear before speaking. Well, now you can. It's like the ultimate hype girl right when you need it. And these are 100% free to download and keep forever. So you can have them handy before your next speech presentation meeting or hitting recall on the video. The link is in the show notes or head to my website sallyprosser.com.au and you'll see the link. Okay, back to the episode.
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Sally:
Okay. So don't overdo the caffeine or alcohol, don't skip meals and starve yourself. Don't eat too close to your speaking gig, don't wing it and don't let your good routines and rituals drop out. So what should we do? Are all of the dos, they're just the opposite of the don'ts?
Jess:
No, not all of them. I mean like, yes, to an extent. So look, let's go to the top, the dos, hydration. We want to be hydrated. Gosh, whichever way I talk about performance, well-being, behavior, immunity, protection or you know, prevention. We want to be hydrated.
Sally:
And it's also worth saying as well, it's, it's actually okay to need to go to the bathroom. You know, like I've heard someone who said that on a long haul flight they didn't wanna drink too much because they didn't wanna bother people to get out of the row to go to the toilet too much. That may or may not have been my beautiful boyfriend, but I'm like, this is ridiculous. You can't dehydrate yourself because of that. And also if you are speaking, I mean maybe in the middle of a keynote, you might not want to say, oh sorry, I need a bathroom break, which the adrenaline would be running so high, it's unlikely for that to happen. However, in my training over the weekend there was a time when I said, okay, we need a five-minute break. I need to go to the loo and nobody cares. People actually love those little breaks.
Jess:
Look, 73% of your brain is made up of water. So if you were dehydrated, your brain is dehydrated and therefore you are not delivering, performing, speaking from that focus, productivity memory point.
Sally:
Yeah. And when you're speaking, hot tip, always bring your own water bottle. So if it's a workshop or a speaking gig, even if you think, oh yes, there's gonna be water there, sometimes they give you this little glass, which is just ridiculous, you drink it in two sips. So I find if you travel with your own water bottle and you're self-sufficient, it will encourage you to drink it more. Amazing. So, so do hydrate. The number two do.
Jess:
Number two is you want to fuel your body and your brain through regular meals and snacks. So this is where it comes back to sustaining energy levels and particularly if we're talking a facilitated workshop, half day, full day, that is so incredibly important. What we're wanting to do is have, you know, from a meal point of view, it's about the protein, the carbs, the colors, and the healthy fats. So I've seen people bring their meals to get what they need. And I've also thought, Well, they're probably the people that may be a little bit sensitive, but if you're catering, just have foods there that cater for that. You know, a classic example is snacks being pastries and muffins. Well, can we have like a yogurt with a granola or can we have some sushi, which would have all of that? So that's if you're obviously catering.
Sally:
Mm-hmm. And if it's a workshop. So I run a lot of corporate workshops and they'll often, you know, cater for the group. I always bring my own foods. So I'll bring a maybe a cut up apple maybe a little thing of dried fruits. And the reason I do that is because often the catered food is quite high in salt I find. So it's very salty. So it'll make you even more thirsty or a bit kind of the stuff that gets stuck in your teeth, you know what I mean? Like, it's sort of a bit you know, after you eat you're thinking, oh my gosh, do I need to go and do a full floss and clean? Which can be a bit inconvenience. So having a few snacks in your bag is such a great idea.
Jess:
Yeah, definitely. If you're not doing it speakers, you should be doing that.
Sally:
Mm. So what are we up to? Number three: Do have a speaker routine that includes when you eat.
Jess:
Yeah, this is about not winging it and not being too close. This is where you need to go, okay, I'm speaking at this time. Well this is what my day looks like and counting back. So reverse engineering being proactive rather than that reactive and just going with what's there. Look, if it's what if we're talking a meal, like two to three hours is a good amount of time. And if it's closer to that three hours, you may find that you need to then have a snack before. So that's where you just really need to know yourself.
Sally:
So do hydrate, do fuel your body and brain by a balanced meal. Do include when you're gonna eat. And then this relates to the next one. What's our fourth do?
Jess:
Yeah, so this is kind of a nice continuation and this is particularly for those people who maybe skip meals or restrict because they're worried about how they will like digestively respond. This is where you wanna have--
Sally:
They will digestively respond, which is like the nice way of saying they're worried they're gonna have some kind of, you know, big bathroom episode right before they need to speak.
Jess:
Yes, that's exactly what I'm alluding to! You know, when we are introducing foods, particularly if we're eating foods that are just provided that we don't even normally eat, you throw into the mixed nervousness. Like that is just a recipe for disasters. So you wanna have your speaker day plan, this is like similar to the athlete and the game day plan. You wanna know what you can tolerate, know what fuels you proactively implement it, but also acknowledge it may look very different to what your day-to-day looks like or a version of it. So my example of the breakfast that I have every day versus days that I speak or run corporate workshops, that is literally an example of that.
Sally:
Yeah, absolutely. So when I'm doing full days, I make sure I have something for breakfast, even if it's just a piece of toast store, a piece of fruit, something because I know I'm not eating again until lunchtime and then that will be something small that I bring in my bag, like the dried fruits or some nuts or something like that. And then I make sure that I have nothing after the workshop so I can enjoy a really nice dinner.
Jess:
Yeah. And which probably brings us to the fifth point and kind of where we started, which is around managing your energy, prioritizing recovery, allowing for adequate sleep, and potentially that means blocking some time out. So this is where the more you do, the more you get to know yourself. But for some speakers, you know, it might be one of those workshops a week and then you know, it's chunking out a day and then it's other activities. So it can be really easy to just go, go, go when the opportunities are flying at you. Again, this may then mean travel, which then may mean those routines and rituals fall out. So it's just this little, I refer to it as the dominoes. And what we wanna do is push the dominoes in the positive direction to have that knock on effect. And that's where, you know, you come back to those four non-negotiables, the nutrition, the hydration, the breath work and the sleep.
Sally:
Yeah. That post speaking ritual is so important. And after three days of training I have this afternoon to be able to chill. It wasn't ideal that I was traveling from Tasmania to the Gold Coast in one day right before the training. However, it was the winter solstice, that was the day where the Nudie swim was on. So I really couldn't, couldn't move that. But generally I would give myself the day before and the day after and it's really managing what you need. So say it is a one-hour webinar, then you may not need a whole day off. You may just need half an hour with a cup of tea, but whatever it is, I find that the post speaking ritual, which is what I call it, and you would say that managing of your energy, it is such a commonly missed piece.
Jess:
Well, yeah, and I think it's, you know, what a great conversation to have and just to kind of put it back on people like speaking is an amazing career or amazing thing that you can do, do as part of your career, but it does take a lot of energy and you do need to take care of yourself if you wanna be in it for the long haul from a longevity piece as well.
Sally:
And a lot of people I know, many people I work with, they're not professional speakers yet they almost have a, a roster like it's a professional speaker roster moreso. So my high-level executives, they're often speaking almost every single day and then straight into other meetings. And it's, it's thinking about even if you don't speak professionally, taking all of these dos and don'ts on board, can we have a copy of these dos and don'ts? Is there a way for people to get access to that so they can print it out and have it at the ready?
Jess:
I'm creating a four download, so you'll be able to have a link within the notes which people will be able to download. And I'll also have a copy in my link in bio section in Instagram as well.
Sally:
Oh, and I would really encourage you to do that. Jess, you are so knowledgeable about this area. I learn something new, a lot of new things every time I speak to you. And it's that awareness and education when we become more aware of how we can get better sleep, better hydration, better nutrition, and then we learn what works for us. It is just such a life up leveler as you say, it's not just about speaking or playing sport, it's about being able to function at a higher level in everything we do.
Jess:
Exactly. And the way I think about it, for a lot of people, it's untapped. Like we don't, you don't know how good you can feel if you've never felt it. So and sometimes it's knowing which lever it to pull and there's all these things flying at you like ice baths and cold water immersion, which don't get me wrong or amazing, and people, you know, if that's your thing. But if you are not sleeping adequately, you're skipping meals, you're over caffeinated, like we need to start there because they are the big rocks. So it's nearly helping people guide them to that first domino that's gonna push things in that more positive direction. You know, if any of this speaks to you, please connect. DM me, I'd love to meet you.
Sally:
Oh, Jess, thank you so much for coming on That Voice Podcast.
Jess:
Thanks for having me, Sally. Feel better.
Sally:
Oh, thank you.