61. Three lessons learned in 2020

Woohoo! It's the Season Three finale! I'm sharing three big lessons I learned in 2020. 1/ How to deal with haters 2/ How to manage my energy and 3/ How to not let the little things get me down.

Thank you so much for your support of That Voice Podcast this year!

Transcript

Whoo pop the champagne. This is the season three finale of That Voice Podcast. 2020 is almost over can you believe?! I'd love to share with you three lessons I learned, which have helped my confidence, grown my business, and just generally helped me stay happier. And who doesn't want a bit of that?

I'm Sally Prosser, former TV reporter, former PR pro, and currently on a mission to help you find your voice and speak with confidence. You're listening to the season finale of That Voice Podcast, no matter who you are or what you do, your voice matters. So unless you've sworn a lifetime vow of silence, this is the podcast for you.

Woot woot. Thank you for tuning into episode 61 of That Voice Podcast, our season three finale. If you're new to the podcast. Welcome. Great to have you here. Hello and goodbye. For our final ep of the season, I wanted to share with you three big mindset shifts. I've had lessons that I've learned 2020, Oh, I mean, understatement of the year. It's been pretty crazy, right? You'd notice in your life. There's been a lot of change. A lot of time for soul searching. It's been a real reset year for a lot of people, myself included. I learned three important lessons around dealing with criticism, managing my energy and also finding the joy in every day.

But before we get into it, I would love to invite you to join our Members Only group. It's an online subscription-based membership to help give you all the knowledge, all the tools and support. So you can get out there and speak with confidence, you know, really own your voice and show up on video webcam, phone stage, all the places in a really effective way. So if building your confidence or improving your speaking was on your 2020 bucket list, all 2021, then get on it. And until Christmas I'm posting out welcome gifts for everybody who signs up, whether you go monthly, yearly, or lifetime it's gifts for everybody. So check out members only on my website or the link is in the show notes. So I would love to see you there.

All right. So here are the three big lessons. 2020 taught me number one, how to deal with criticism, like mean criticism. So you might've heard, I kind of went TikTok famous this year. I've got more than a quarter of a million followers and my profile has grown quite a lot in the year. And with that kind of visibility, yes, you're going to get haters. I got some pretty nasty comments and I had one guy Photoshop the poo emoji onto my head and make a video calling me the most condescending woman in Australia. On Instagram. I had a video where somebody had written - nice video with what I thought was the smiley face emoji, but it actually wasn't. It was the bearing the teeth sarcastic face emoji. Anyway, I didn't notice that. I just said, thanks very much. She then replied and said, no, your video is shit, it's not even funny. Yeah, it can hurt. I have pretty thick skin having been a news reporter, you kind of get used to people, not always giving you the nicest reception, but those comments do hit part of you. You know, when you're putting content out there, it is so personal. And I found myself starting to second guess myself, and generally just not feel that good about myself and Hey, ain't nobody got time for that. Right? So I needed to develop a really solid mindset plan for the haters. Now, when I get a negative comment, I'm grateful, grateful they're engaging with my content. Grateful I'm not just, people-pleasing. Grateful I don't get a big head. When I get a negative comment, I feel Pity, pity for the person writing that comment. Of course it says more about them than it does about me. How bad is their life that they felt the need to comment? I have a feeling they're not really living their best life. Right? I feel sorry for them. When I get negative comment, most of the main comments are quite funny. Like get off TikTok you're too OLD. And even that video with the poo emoji, it was very funny, especially considering I used to work for a sewerage company was just too good. And the girl who wrote that my video was . I had to look at her profile and it said something like year 7 for life So it's just kids. I have to laugh at this kind of thing happening. So yeah. People can be so cruel online, but I really feel like I now have a mental armor protecting me. And it enables me to keep going and not be phased. Many clients of mine have a fear of speaking related to something negative that happened or was said to them. And I see firsthand and dwelling is stalling. Dwelling is stalling. And you get stuck in a very unpleasant place. If you can shake off that sticky mud of people's opinions, you'll be able to get out of the swamp that they live in. And I don't know, move forward into the beautiful sun shower. I'm not sure about that metaphor, but you know what I mean? If you really get stuck in the haters in those negative comments, then you're not going to move forward.

That's the first lesson I learned now, the second lesson I learned was around energy. I've had a bit of a spiritual awakening this year. I'm feeling so much more in tune with my body and the world around me. Don't worry. I won't go full woo woo on you unless you want an episode on that. More than happy to talk about it. But the concept of energy has really transformed my mindset this year. I'm so incredibly conscious of filling my cup, keeping my energy where I need it. And that means prioritizing self-care prioritizing me-time and not feeling bad about it. That means I have so much overflow to give to my clients, like from a practical point of view, the days when I go live for my members only, or my six week voice make-over I try not to schedule anything the whole day, especially beforehand. So I give myself that free air to get my energy in the right space. I'd really suggest this for speaking. You know, how are you managing your energy in the lead up to the presentation or the speech or the interview? You know, if you've got back to back meetings beforehand, what does that do for your energy? How does that help you get in the zone? What does help you get in the zone? And this idea of energy transfer has changed my relationship with time. I no longer think, Oh, I need two hours to get that done. I just think, right. I need to jump into that energy zone to make it happen. And how do I do that? Exercise is a good energy jumper. Is it showering, putting on makeup? Is it a cup of tea? Is it cranking Dolly Parton? Is it dancing? Is it lying on the floor? Is it silence? Is it breathing for me? A mix of all of the above? You know, it's about finding out what works for you. For me, getting in touch with my energy has been a real game changer. I've been much more forgiving of myself. If I need an afternoon to chill on the couch and it's meant I've been able to harness the energy. I need to really show up for my clients, my courses, and the membership, the lesson, manage your energy and your performance will improve, manage your energy and your performance will improve.

Now the final lesson I actually took from Sarah Maddack, who I interviewed in episode 54 of That Voice Podcast. And it's the idea of Bummersludge - those small daily irritating things that can put you in a sour mood, tech problems, spilling your coffee on your new white shirt, a fire alarm going off in the middle of a webinar, the washing machine, breaking your rights, being do all those things that are not going to be in your mind when you are taking your final breaths. So when anything happens that irritates me, I ask myself, Sal, is this Bummersludge? Is this a little tiny minuscule, insignificant thing in the scheme life? And when things are tedious and frustrating, I think what my auntie once told me, Sal nothing is impossible. Some things just take longer. Nothing is impossible. Some things just take longer and approaching my day with that mindset has enabled me to find so much more joy in the everyday, because the way we spend our day is the way we spend our lives. Right? And so by letting little things affect me less, I've been able to stay in pretty much a consistently good mood.

So yeah, that's the three lessons that life dished me up this year. I learned how to brush off the haters. I learned how to really get in touch with my energy. And I learned how to not let the little things get me down.

So this is the season three finale of That Voice Podcast, but don't worry. I'll be back very soon with That Voice Podcast taster series, which will be five minutes snippets of the best parts of previous episodes with fresh commentary off the top and tail. Oh, bit of journalism jargon there for you. That just means the start and the end. So make sure you're all subscribed to get notified. Look, it might even be next week. Depends how my energy is going. Also, if you leave your email at thatvoicepodcast.com, you'll get an email with a description of each episode.

Thank you so, so much for supporting that boy's podcast this year. I really hope you've learned something new, loved all my jokes and of course, feel a lot more confident to get out there and use your beautiful voice until we meet on the airwaves. Again, I would love to see you in our members only. Bye.

Sally Prosser