Host Laura Reid welcomes Leadership Coach, International Speaker, and Author Paul Larsen to the podcast to take listeners behind the curtain of his life and discover the secrets of conquering the fear that comes with being an introvert, and living life to the fullest. Paul has worked with Fortune 500 companies, coached C-Suite leaders, written a book called “Find Your Voice as a Leader”, and spoken on stages worldwide with the ability to bring audiences what they need to hear in the moment. He and Laura have a captivating conversation full of humor and insight.

Paul takes Laura deep into all aspects of his life and career by openly sharing struggles and triumphs encountered throughout his life. He shares secrets he uses to mingle and network as an introvert, and advocates for facing it till you make it, instead of faking the confidence needed. He tells Laura about the Three C’s that guide his daily life and how they pop up in other areas of difficulty to help him through, like during one of his more terrifying speaking mishaps in Mandalay, Myanmar. Tune in to find out Paul’s advice around imposter syndrome, what Intention Island is, why he embraced sobriety, and how every country he visits becomes his favorite.

About Paul Larsen:

A Wharton Business School Executive Coach and international speaker, Paul brings over 30 years of leadership experience with Fortune 500 companies, giving him a unique perspective on the challenges of overcoming Imposter Syndrome in today’s social-media-fueled world.

From flipping hamburgers on Main Street to leading HR for Wall Street, he has personally coached hundreds of successful leaders worldwide to find their unique leadership voice of self-worth and self-reliance so that they live purposeful and inspirational lives.

As someone who channels his imposter feelings into a superpower, Paul now coaches leaders and teams at Google, Electronic Arts, Apple, Walmart, and Microsoft. His former positions include senior-level roles at Charles Schwab, Adobe Systems, JPMorgan, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. As Chief HR Officer for a three-billion-dollar organization, he played a key role in helping team members expand their leadership potential while building an engaging and inclusive organizational culture.

He earned his graduate master’s degree in Organization Development through the University of San Francisco, and he has multiple coaching certifications from recognized organizations, including The Marshall Goldsmith Group and the International Coach Federation. His inspiring and real-world life experiences led him to author the award-winning leadership coaching book “Find Your VOICE as a Leader” (2016, Aviva Publishing, New York, NY).

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Resources discussed in this episode:

• “How to Love Yourself” by Louise Hay
• Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

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Contact Paul Larsen:

• Website: PaulNLarsen.com
• Book: “Find Your Voice as a Leader” by Paul N. Larsen
• Instagram: @FindYourVoiceAsALeader
• LinkedIn: PaulNLarsen

Contact Laura Reid | The Speech Slayer:

• Website: TheSpeechSlayer.com
• Facebook: TheSpeechSlayer
• Instagram: @Laura_InWonderland
• Linkedin: Laura Reid
• Book: “The Public Speaking Horror Show: 7 Secrets to Kill It as a Speaker” by Laura Reid

Host Laura Reid welcomes digital strategist and the founder of RBL Media, Pua Pakele, to the podcast. Pua is a rebel with the cause of entrepreneurship, and she leads clients into digital success with online courses and website designs that resonate. Pua is no stranger to speaking mishaps or to the nerves that accompany public speaking of any kind, including podcasts. She shares horror stories, online tips, and heartfelt advice with Laura.

Pua’s Killer 13 questions reveal her basic design necessities and the branding she most admires, as well as the celebrity she’d most like to interview. Laura follows that delightful thought up with exploring Pua’s nightmare public speaking event and the horror of digging a hole with too much talking when floundering. Pua shares the lessons learned from her over-talking experience before explaining what works and doesn’t work on websites, lessons also learned from experience, which she gladly shares with listeners. The inspirational way in which Pua imparts advice, her upbeat assessment of her own speaking nightmare, and the insight she has into staying rebelliously true to oneself in business make this episode unforgettable.

About Pua Pakele:

Pua Pakele is a creative director, digital strategist, and the founder of RBL Media. With over a decade of experience in the industry, she crafts digital experiences for clients, including website design and online courses. Pua believes all entrepreneurs are innately rebellious just by being in this startup space.

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Resources discussed in this episode:

• E77 “How to increase your organic SEO by 53% with Bernadette Marciniak” - The RBL Media Podcast
• S2 E14 “Turn Your Expertise Into Income: Why Every Business Needs an Online Course” - The RBL Media Podcast
• “Atomic Habits” by James Clear

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Contact Pua Pakele:

• Website: RBLmedia.co
• Podcast: The RBL Media Podcast
• LinkedIn
• Instagram

Contact Laura Reid | The Speech Slayer:

• Website: TheSpeechSlayer.com
• Facebook: TheSpeechSlayer
• Instagram: @Laura_InWonderland
• Linkedin: Laura Reid
• Book: “The Public Speaking Horror Show: 7 Secrets to Kill It as a Speaker” by Laura Reid

Host Laura Reid welcomes the Queen of Online Safety, Jocelyn King, to the show to talk about the terror of cybercrime and how to stay safe against hacks. Jocelyn was a victim of cybercrime herself and now she is named one of the top ten women in cybersecurity and is the Founder and CEO of Smarter Online Safety. Jocelyn shares the real-life horror story of the sanity-destroying cybercrime she was a victim of, how she rallied and became a cyber security expert, the power of neural sculpting, and surviving nightmare speech failures along the way.

What Jocelyn King learned about cybersecurity and what she now shares online was not available when she herself was a victim of cybercrime. As Laura says, Jocelyn needed her present self back then. The scary reality of being hacked and losing not just financial security and online privacy, but home security and physical safety is harrowing. But Jocelyn explains how it drove her to create the resources she needed and didn’t have. Being a podcast host, speaker, and former singer, Jocelyn also has a lot of public speaking experiences to discuss and not all of them went smoothly. Join Laura as she learns how to stay safe online, what neural sculpting is, and why Jocelyn says to smile and breathe when something goes wrong onstage.

About Jocelyn King:

Jocelyn King is the CEO and Founder of Smarter Online Safety, dedicated to empowering and equipping individuals and organizations with the knowledge to protect themselves in today’s evolving AI-driven cybercrime world. A renowned safety expert and educator, she has been recognized as a “Top 10 Woman in Cybersecurity” and is a sought-after keynote speaker and the podcast host of Smarter Online Safety. Her expertise has been featured on Dr. Phil’s prime-time news, morning shows, and international radio and podcasts.

As the creator of the Better Online Safety Simplified (BOSS) System, Jocelyn makes online protection as intuitive and simple as locking your doors and windows. What sets her apart? She isn’t just a cybersecurity expert—she’s a cybercrime survivor. After enduring a long-term, devastating hacker attack, she collaborated with top security professionals to master hacker tactics and protection strategies. Now, she uses her hard-earned expertise to help others stay safer and saner online.

Jocelyn holds a B.S. from the University of San Francisco and an MBA from Saint Mary’s College of California.

Host Laura Reid welcomes Monique Bradley, keynote speaker and former TV shopping host, to the show to talk about her storied life. From being bullied in childhood through acting, magic, and live TV, Monique has made public speaking her entire life journey. Laura finds out how Monique would sell an item spontaneously, what scares (or more accurately doesn’t scare) her, and why we need to reserve judgement about people when things go awry. Monique shares the highs and lows of a life in public speaking.

Monique Bradley survives Laura Reid’s Killer 13 rapid-fire questions with some impressive spontaneity and revelatory insights. She then shares her life story which is one of discovering herself and her true power of connecting with people through storytelling. At one point in life she says she became a magician “because you’ve got to keep earning money somehow”. Monique pulls speaking inspiration from her combined pakeha and Maori roots, talks about attending theatre school with Jemaine Clement, sings the praises of New Zealand, and divulges a public speaking horror story that ends in an important epiphany.

About Monique Bradley:

Monique spent my life studying and playing with words and stories, exploring their power and potential. Her training as an actor, speaker and singer began at the age of 8. As the youngest of 7 and born into a loud, theatrical, Radio and TV family, it was no surprise that she would end up either in leadership, sales, TV or the creative arts. In fact, she’s worked in all of them.

She has a degree in theatre and film from Victoria University, a certificate in film and TV production from the TV training school previously attached to TVNZ in Wellington, qualifications with Trinity College of London and the NZ Speech Board and is a Board member of the Professional Speakers Association of NZ. Monique is also currently doing a Masters in Creative Practice at Unitec, exploring the impact of speaking and storytelling.

Monique has been in multiple national and international films, TV commercials, MC'd and hosted numerous online and in real life events, worked as a voiceover artist for documentaries, commercials, animated films and games, recorded albums of music, worked as a TV shopping presenter, digital content creator and live streamer, educator, coach and even ran her own performing arts school. She has now clocked up more than 25 years of a creative career and the common thread running through it all is storytelling. Even working in retail and banking (of which she’s also done) was all about storytelling.

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Contact Monique Bradley:

• Website: MoniqueBradley.tv
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Contact Laura Reid | The Speech Slayer:

• Website: TheSpeechSlayer.com
• Facebook: TheSpeechSlayer
• Instagram: @Laura_InWonderland
• Linkedin: Laura Reid
• Book: “The Public Speaking Horror Show: 7 Secrets to Kill It as a Speaker” by Laura Reid

Host Laura Reid welcomes Army retiree and former Green Beret Pete Tingstrom to the show to talk about his scariest speech moment and current business, Aloha Oahu Weddings. Pete tells Laura about the frequent speeches he gives for military and veteran organizations and how a scary speech moment still caught up with him. He reveals profound thoughts on celebration and care, why he needs that speech outline, and re-thinks that opening hook with Laura.

Pete Tingstrom has a wedding and event business called Aloha Oahu Weddings and it brings him great joy to share the beautiful location with people celebrating all manner of moments. Last October he organized a private cruise for a global gathering of Green Berets so they could all share some special moments together. In a pivotal speech to that gathering, Pete seemed to make eye contact with his wife while thanking someone else for their help. And then forgot to thank his wife. Laura and Pete discuss the horror of that moment, where to put thank yous in a speech to make sure they’re noted, and how to recover from a moment like that.

About Pete Tingstrom:

Pete is a 30-year Army retiree who served in the Infantry, Special Forces (Green Berets) and Aviation branches. Currently he owns a wedding and event venue in Kaneohe on the Island of Oahu with incredible ocean and mountain views. He has recently added a party bus and photo booth options for all events on his lush venue.

Pete spends a lot of time leading and working with many non-profit veteran service benevolent organizations, and a global peace movement called Live and Let Live.

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Contact Pete Tingstrom:

• Website: AlohaOahuWeddings.com
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Yelp
• Google

Contact Laura Reid | The Speech Slayer:

• Website: TheSpeechSlayer.com
• Facebook: TheSpeechSlayer
• Instagram: @Laura_InWonderland
• Linkedin: Laura Reid
• Book: “The Public Speaking Horror Show: 7 Secrets to Kill It as a Speaker” by Laura Reid

Host Laura Reid welcomes Divorce Coach and Yoga Instructor Audrey Alice to the show to talk about her scariest speeches and how she slayed her fear. After surviving Laura’s Killer 13 opening questions, Audrey shares her story of divorce, the speech that made her cry in the car, and how she learned to push through her fear. Laura and Audrey shine a light into the dark and explore Audrey’s new purpose in life and her current enjoyment of public speaking.

Audrey’s divorce and the challenges she faced after that significant change in her life brought her to a place where she needed to confront public speaking in order to promote her new business. She describes being so frightened she was shaking and crying in her car, too afraid to go in and face the 50 people she needed to address for 60 seconds. She did the 60-second talk anyway and lived to tell. Laura lets us peek behind the curtain of Audrey’s life to see how she became comfortable with public speaking and why it’s so important to her that her message of hope after divorce reaches as many people as possible.

About Audrey Alice:

Audrey Alice is a happily divorced mama of 3 sons. Going through her own divorce when her boys were 5, 8, and 11 made her realize that there wasn’t much out there in terms of support or information on how to navigate the next chapter, especially with young kids. And being the first in her friendship circle to get a divorce, she didn’t know many people who could relate to her story.

Because Audrey made mistakes and learned the hard way, she decided that no woman (or man!) would have to take the long road to healing, so she became a Divorce Coach to help others through divorce with grace.

When she graduated high school, Audrey wanted to study to become an international translator for organizations like NATO but her father convinced her that hospitality would be a wiser choice. She ended up working in deluxe 5-star hotels for 20 years before becoming a full-time mum when her second child was born.

After her divorce, Audrey originally trained as a Nutrition Coach but pivoted after a year to Divorce Coach. She is also a yoga instructor and reiki practitioner and has lived on 3 continents, in 8 countries and speaks 4 languages.

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Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Ann Voskamp
• Kona Stories bookstore

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Contact Audrey Alice:

• Website: IAmAudreyAlice.com
• Instagram: @IAmAudreyAlice
• Divorced AF podcast

Contact Laura Reid | The Speech Slayer:

• Website: TheSpeechSlayer.com
• Facebook: TheSpeechSlayer
• Instagram: @Laura_InWonderland
• Linkedin: Laura Reid
  
  

Laura Reid, known as The Speech Slayer, is here to take the terror out of public speaking! Author of The Public Speaking Horror Show: 7 Secrets to Kill It as a Speaker, stand-up comic, keynote speaker, and public speaking coach, Laura brings her one-of-a-kind approach to her new podcast, The Public Speaking Horror Show.

In each episode, she sits down with brilliant experts and accomplished speakers to share their nightmare experiences, terrifying presentations, and killer insights, all for your benefit. If you’re ready to become the final boss of public speaking and conquer stage fright, join Laura on The Public Speaking Horror Show. She’ll guide you through the hilarious, haunting, and hard-won lessons of addressing a crowd—and owning it.

About Laura Reid:

Having grown up with a stutter, social anxiety, and paralyzing fear of public speaking, Laura Reid, M.Ed., is an unlikely international keynote speaker, public speaking coach, and stand-up comic. But that’s what makes her uniquely aligned to help others break through public speaking fear and leave audiences spellbound.

Laura has received numerous awards for her speeches and presentations and won several storytelling competitions. She has a penchant for haiku and horror movies. Laura lives somewhere over the rainbow on the Big Island of Hawaii, where she relishes solitude and fends off wild pigs for excitement.

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Contact Laura Reid | The Speech Slayer:

• Website: TheSpeechSlayer.com
• Facebook: TheSpeechSlayer
• Instagram: @Laura_InWonderland
• Linkedin: Laura Reid