The Introvert Leader

Executive Presence: What Is It and How to Build It

• Austin Hopkins

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In this episode, I’m breaking down executive presence—what it is, why it matters, and how to build it.

If you’ve ever felt overlooked or struggled to command respect, this episode is for you. I’ll tackle common myths, real-world examples, and simple strategies to help you develop a strong executive presence.



Timestamps
01:00 - Austin Update

01:47 - What Is Executive Presence: Defining what having executive presence means.

02:39 - Why You Should Care About Your Executive Presence: How executive presence influences your career growth, leadership, and how others perceive you.

04:12 - Benefits of Executive Presence: The key advantages of developing executive presence and how it can accelerate your success.

6:40 - Common Myths: Debunking the biggest misconceptions about executive presence.

9:43 - Common Challenges: Why executive presence can be difficult to develop and what prevents people from mastering it.

15:04 - Examples of Executive Presence/Real World Scenarios: Real-world examples of executive presence in action.

19:12 - How To Start Getting Better at Executive Presence: Actionable steps you can take today to develop a stronger executive presence.

26:00 - Story Time: A story about a time I had to act with executive presence.

29:49 - Challenge For Listeners: Take the 6-Question Executive Presence Audit to assess where you stand and what to improve.

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 Hello, this is your host, Austin Hopkins, and welcome to the Introvert Leader Podcast.

Welcome to episode 57. Happy to have you here today. We're going to be chatting about executive presence. Now, I don't know if you know this, but in order to make it to the top, in order to climb the ladder, you got to wear a suit and tie every day. You also have to talk the most during meetings and you've got to be the loudest in the room.

Psyche! None of that's true. In fact, this tie, this suit, it means nothing. Executive presence has everything to do with how you're perceived, how you show up, how you carry yourself. So today we're going to be chatting about all things executive presence. What are the common challenges, the myths, how to get better at it, all the best strategies I can think of.

Now before we do that, I want to give you a quick update on what I've been up to recently. Okay, I just got back from a cool mountain bike event on Sunday. I went with my dad. It was 25 miles in the foothills of Scottsdale. Amazing views, perfect weather. We had a blast. We did get lost, so we made for a fun adventure, but it was really, really enjoyable.

Now, I don't know if you've ever done one of these kind of physical challenges or kind of a big physical event. But for me, it's really, really fun. It's kind of something to look forward to push myself, get out of my comfort zone physically, and it kind of anchors the month or the quarter or whatever you're kind of doing for that year.

And it's something to look forward to. So if you haven't tried some sort of like physical challenge, like a race or a marathon or a 5k or something like that, it could be fun to try, get you out of your comfort zone and get you something to look forward to and train for. Okay, what I want to do today is I want to talk about executive presence.

So I heard this term when I first started my career when I was 18 years old in banking and I heard it all throughout my career and I saw some folks do it really really well and I saw some folks abuse it and do it wrong. And so today I kind of want to just share with you what I learned about executive presence and tell you why it's one of the most important things that you can focus on in your career.

So, Let's kick things off. What is executive presence? I really think executive presence is looking and sounding like a leader, right? It's the way you carry yourself. It's how you show up at work. It's basically separating yourself from the pack. It's the opposite of immaturity. At the end of the day, executive presence is the act of being confident and competent.

So, that's really what it is. You're showing others that you're confident, you're competent, and that you deserve a seat at the table. So, what I thought I would do is tell you a little bit about why you should care about it. Because you might think, well, I've heard the term awesome executive presence.

Maybe you haven't, but maybe you don't know why you should care about this. So, A couple of things come to mind when I think about why you should really care. Number one is when I think back to all the different strategies that I took in my career to get ahead, whether it be, you know, asking for promotions, taking on other work, dressing the part, all that kind of good stuff that goes into making a career.

The number one thing, the top of that list, the things that stand out more than anything else is executive presence. Which is kind of interesting, right? You may not think executive presence is the most important thing and maybe it isn't for you, but for me, it was very, very important, right? I started my career as a 23 year old.

I had literally no experiences as a leader. And at 23 years old, I was asked to be a leader for the first time. Now I think. Big reason they took a shot, you know, with me and took a chance on hiring a young leader was that I had executive presence, right? I didn't look and sound like a normal 23 year old.

I carried myself at a higher standard. I looked and felt like I was an experienced leader. So, you know, I want to ask you. Do you want to get a promotion? Do you want to make more money? Do you want to get tapped on the shoulder for the next project? Do you want people to come to you when they want problems to be solved?

Do you want to move faster than the people around you? If so, you got to care about executive presence. Today has got to be the day where you say, okay. I'm going to start thinking about how I'm perceived, how I show up at work. So I'm hoping I got you excited about why executive presence matters. Now I want to kind of transition a little bit and talk about like, what are the benefits?

Like, what do you actually get out of it? Right. If you put your time and energy into this, what is the outcome? So, you know, I think there's some big, really big, unbelievable benefits to executive presence. And I want to hit you with the biggest, most impressive ones. Okay. So number one, I already said it a second ago, but get promoted faster.

Leaders recognize you as someone who can get shit done and who can carry themselves a certain way. So they are going to want to take advantage of that. They're going to want to tap you on the shoulder because you are giving the, the clues and the cues that, Hey, this is someone who's valuable, who knows what they're doing.

Another one that's, I think pretty obvious that kind of goes with that is make more money. So when you get promoted, you're obviously going to make more money. And when you get high performance ratings, you're going to get more money. You're going to get more bonuses, a bigger payout at the end of the year.

And all of that. That can be tied back to how you show up at work. How are you perceived? Are you worth more money? Are you worth them giving a bigger bonus to? Are you signaling high value? And at the end of the day, I really think executive presence is showing your high value, right? Another one that I think is maybe not as common would be People trust you more, right?

So if you are projecting confidence and competence, people will trust you more. They're going to gravitate towards you more. They're going to be like, okay, this person knows what they're doing, right? They've got it figured out. Let me go see what Austin's up to. Another one I think is you show your credibility, right?

People are going to take you more seriously. If you take yourself more seriously and carry yourself that way, right? If you're an immature child at work, people are going to treat you as an immature child. But if you are a consummate professional. Someone who's a leader, who knows how to get stuff done, who shows up the right way, who's intentional with how they communicate and how they act.

Dude, people are going to think you are very credible, and that's only going to help you in the way you network and how you build relationships at work. So those are the main benefits and those are big benefits, right? So you can make more money. You're going to move up faster. People are going to trust you more.

You're going to be asked to do more meaningful work. I forgot to mention that one as well. I think cool work goes to people that are ready for it, right? Senior leaders, they don't just take a chance on anybody. They want to take a chance or they want to give work to people they think can get it done. And if you're signaling, Hey man, I got my stuff together.

I know what I'm doing. I'm confident. I'm confident. They're probably going to choose you for the next big project, right? For the next big piece of work. So, um, those are some of the big benefits, right? And there's some, there's some cool ones there. Now, obviously some benefits, but I don't know if you're like me, but a lot of times I hear these myths about things and I believe something for a long time.

And then something totally changes my mind. I hear a myth debunked. So I figured what I would do is give you some of the biggest myths that I've heard when it comes to executive presence. So first one. You can only get executive presence later in your career. You can't do that when you're 20. You can't do that when you're 25, you have to wait until you're 40, 50, 60 years old.

That's just not true. Executive presence can happen at any time to any person. So it doesn't matter how old you are. If you're young and you want to start projecting more strength, more competence, more confidence. You can do that right when you're young. Like I said, I did it when I was 23. I started that and it really, really helped my career.

So don't think you have to wait till the end of your career or even wait until you get a leadership or executive role. In fact, I think it shows a lot to have executive presence, even when you don't have the title. Another one that I hear a lot is executive presence means you got to put on an act, right?

You got to say and do the right things. You got to, you got to play the game. Well, I don't know if I agree necessarily. What I do think you need to do is make sure that you understand how to fit in within the culture and the company you work for. But what I don't think you need to do is pretend to be something you're not.

If you're a funny person, that doesn't mean you need to hide that, right? If you're a serious person, be serious. If you're a person that's really into data, be a person that's really into data. You don't need to change who you are in order to fit the corporate mold. Now, I will say this comes with a caveat.

If you were doing things that signal immaturity or a lack of confidence, those things I would not bring to work, right? I would try to get past those things and grow from. Another one that I hear a lot is only extroverts can show executive presence. I am really happy to tell you that is debunked.

Debunked, not true at all. Introverts can show executive presence. It has nothing to do with your proclivity to want to be around people or not. It has nothing to do with how loud you speak or how aggressive you are. So if you're a quiet, shy introvert, totally fine. Absolutely fine. You can 100 percent show executive presence.

It's just gonna take a little bit more intentionality. And then I think the last one is executive presence is only about how you look and not your actions, right? You saw me wear a suit in the beginning of the episode and I did that as a joke, right? Because I think some people think executive presence is wearing a suit and I have to look the part and that's how people are gonna take me serious.

Well, here's the reality. I've seen plenty of people in the fanciest, nicest suits who are complete morons and I've seen people that are wearing nothing more than a sweater and show up like a freaking pro. It really has nothing to do with the way you look. But it's how you carry yourself, how you're perceived.

Now, again, I always say this, but I think this needs to go within good judgment, right? If the company expectation is that you're wearing dress clothes to work and you're coming in in shorts and a tank top, probably not a good idea. But, assuming you're within reasons and guidelines, dude, wear what you want to wear, be yourself, show originality, but just be cognizant of how you show up.

So we talked about some of the myths, right? Some of the things we debunked those, uh, I'm feeling like myth busters over here. Uh, what I want to do now is transition slightly and talk about common challenges. So growing and maintaining executive presence isn't easy. I'm going to be honest with you. It's not the easiest thing in the world.

It can be hard. It takes constant attention, confidence, patience, you name it. And to be honest with you, most people are not going to give the energy they need to their executive presence. It's an afterthought. So if you can do this, if you can separate yourself by showing up the right way, you're going to go a lot further.

Now, that being said, this isn't easy and there are some big challenges. So here's some of the ones that I have struggled with myself and hopefully they're helpful and give you a little insight of the things that you can avoid. So number one, being yourself while having executive presence. We touched on it a second ago, but I think it's worth kind of going a little bit deeper.

At the end of the day, when I think of the best leaders I've worked for, they weren't corporate clones. They were not people that didn't have personality. They had authenticity. So you cannot come across as fake. So if you're faking it, if you're saying the right things, if you're trying to act the right way, People are going to sniff that out, right?

They're going to be like, who is this faker? We're like, what are you, what are you trying to do, man? So I think at the end of the day, you definitely need to be yourself. And remember that's okay to be yourself at work. That's a great thing. You want to bring that authenticity, that originality to work. Well, your personality, how you act with your friends.

Again, if you're being immature at work, that's not okay. Right. I say this all to know you have to have a baseline of maturity and understand that, like you're there to get shit done. So next one, hanging with people. Who don't care about executive presence. Oof, this is a tough one. So you probably have some friends at work right now and they're cool people and you enjoy their company, but maybe they just don't see eye to eye with you when it comes to how to progress their career.

Maybe they make inappropriate jokes. Maybe they get a little too tipsy at, at corporate events. Maybe they, they walk that line of unprofessionalism. Well, if you're spending your time with that person. I hate to say it, but you're going to get associated with them. So that can be a real big challenge. If you're always associating yourself and hanging out with people that don't care about executive presence, number one, you're going to get lumped in with them.

People are going to see you as the same. And number two, it can also be really easy to kind of fall back into your old ways, right? Because you don't have good role models around you. And I think that's another one, which is staying consistent and falling back to your old ways. So I don't know if you're like me, but whenever I want to change something for the better, it can be a little challenging to stay consistent.

So like maybe it's a new diet, right? And I want to eat just clean, single sourced ingredients. Well, it's good for the first couple of weeks. And then week three happens and I'm like, ah, maybe I should just have like a couple of chips, like a couple of chips won't matter. And so then you, you kind of fall back into your old ways.

And then in a. You know, two weeks from there, you're eating crap again. Same thing with executive presence. If you're not consistent, it can be so easy to fall back in your old ways. So maybe that means making dumb jokes at work or texting during meetings, not being engaged, or again, drinking more than you should at a corporate event or gossiping, whatever your weakness is.

I just want you to keep in mind that it's still probably going to be there. Even if you make a decision to start really caring about your executive presence, you're still going to have those temptations and weaknesses. So keep those in the back of your mind. Make sure that when you see yourself sliding back, that you check yourself and remind yourself, well, what's the end goal?

Like, what am I trying to do? I want to get promoted. I want to move up. I want to be seen as a true leader and I can't do this anymore. So that's something that, that's definitely been a challenge for me is just staying consistent. Right? Um, I think another one, um, that can be kind of tough is it can take a while to see results or sometimes even hard to spot results.

So you're going to be doing little things every day to show up the right way to carry yourself. And all of those little things in the moment, you may not even feel any change, or you may not get any positive feedback from anybody, or it might not change your career in the day to day. But in six months?

Maybe somebody remembers how you showed up during a meeting, the way that you were engaged and you ask good questions. Maybe a year later, someone realized that work you did on that, that group project and was really impressed with how you collaborated and so they reach out to you with an opportunity.

You never know how long it's going to take. So a challenge can be in the moment is like. Well, why am I doing this? Why am I holding myself to a higher standard if no one else cares? And I'm not seeing any benefits. I just want you to realize you got to stay patient because executive president, it's not a one time thing.

It doesn't just happen one week, one month. This is your career. So it can take years sometimes before all of that builds up and people start to really realize, okay, this isn't a one time thing with Austin. This isn't a one time action. This person is really a different type of person. They hold themselves to a higher standard.

I think another one, um, and, and really the final one, the challenge that I've kind of messed up with in the past is recovering after you fail. No, I'm almost 100 percent certain that you're human. I think you are. Um, and if you're a human, you're just like me, which means you make mistakes, which means you are going to fail on your path, your goal of executive presence, you're going to make a mistake.

And that's okay. The end of the day, though, it's how quickly you can recover and how quickly you can get that out of people's minds. So if you do something, if you mess up, my suggestion to you is to freaking get some quick wins, some big wins, some quick wins to quickly associate yourself with something more valuable and to distance yourself of what you messed up on.

Okay, what I thought would be kind of fun would be to give you some actual real life examples of executive presence like some real world scenarios and kind of walk you through and so one that comes up quite often is speaking up and Defending others. So let's say you have a co worker that gets blamed for something you messed up on So your co worker gets blamed but you didn't so in that scenario, dude, you need to speak up and admit it That's what, that's what an executive would do.

That's what a real leader would do. Real leaders step up and, and take the blame when they make a mistake. So it kind of reminds me, I was, I was watching this masterclass with Bob Iger a couple of days ago. He's the former CEO of Disney. And he was talking about a pivotal career moment in which he was new in his career.

He was the most junior in a meeting. Everyone else was way, way more senior, maybe 20, 30 people in the room. And there was a mistake he made and it was brought up in front of the room. No one was asking who did it, but he felt the need to volunteer and say, Hey, that was my mistake. I messed up, but here's what I'm doing to fix it.

And it's funny. He tells that story and how people came up to him later and really respected it for him. And he believes that was a big reason for the success that he saw within the company. And it kind of reminded me of this one, just that, like, if you make mistakes, being. Confident that like, it's okay that you make mistakes and admitting them, such power in admitting your mistakes.

You know, I've did a whole episode on that, but I think that's really, really big. It's speaking up, defending others. If you do something wrong, own up to it, man. That's okay. So let's talk about meeting. So you're in a high stakes meeting at work, right? Do you sit quietly and kind of nod along? Or do you speak up?

Do you provide your perspective? Do you engage with the conversation regardless of who's in the room? I don't care if there's people that are higher ranking than you or lower ranking than you. You need to, in those moments, be confident to speak up and share your perspective. That's what executive presence is.

It's not waiting to be called on every time it's proactively speaking up when you feel like there's something you need to say, right? Another one, communication. So let's talk about communication. A couple of things that come up as examples of things that would show the opposite of executive presence. So, rambling, uh, over apologizing, softening your message with just things like just, or I think, or is it okay?

At the end of the day, you gotta get to your point. You gotta say what you mean. You gotta project confidence because you believe you deserve a spot at the table. A lot of times. Right? We kind of self silence. We hold ourselves back because we're not sure do I belong in this room? Do I need to be here?

Like, do I have a place to speak up? You need to believe that you do and when you believe that about yourself You're going to reflect that to others and they're in they're going to receive that in kind. So another one handling pressure I think this is a big one Executives, the real leaders, they handle pressure the right way.

They don't freak out. They don't blame others. They don't spiral. They just realize Pressure is pressure. I'm going to handle it. It's going to be okay. So I think it means handling big stuff the right way. So let's say it's Friday, it's 4. 30 and your boss is like, Hey man, I got a big project due on Tuesday.

I need you to work on it over the weekend. Now, probably not what you're excited to do to work over the weekend or to work, you know, late Friday night and early Monday. But at the end of the day, the work needs to get done. So do you, Do you snap back at your boss? Do you argue? Do you yell? Or do you just take a deep breath and say, it's part of the job.

I got to do it. So the last one, doing hard things, real leaders, they don't run away from the hard stuff. They run towards it. So I think executive presence means handling uncomfortable moments with strength. So that could be things like giving direct feedback when it's uncomfortable or holding someone accountable or delivering bad news.

True leaders don't avoid that kind of stuff. They don't ask somebody else to do it. They realize that's part of the job. I got to do it. So even if you're not a leader, those are the kind of things that I would want to be looking for. If I was hiring someone and I wanted to see if they had executive presence, I want to see, how do they handle the hard stuff?

Do they run away? Do they become a little shy, you know, hollow version of themselves? Or do they stand in their strength and say, you know what? I gotta do this. I gotta deliver the bad news. I gotta fire somebody. I gotta give you some tough feedback. So those are some, like, real life examples that I was thinking of in my own life.

What I thought could be interesting is to transition slightly and talk about the actual strategies on how to start getting better at executive presence. So all of us, again, regardless of our title, our background, our expertise. Can improve our executive presence. Even if you're an executive, you can still improve your executive presence.

So I want to cover a couple of the ways that I've gotten better at it. And I think at the end of the day, my big thing has been focusing on the long term and connecting it with my daily actions. So if I want to become a CEO, how does a CEO act? If I want to become a director, how does a director carry themselves?

And if I want to become a leader of a huge team, how does a leader of a huge team behave and how do they carry themselves at work? Right? So those are some of the things that I've always thought about is I start with the end of mind and I think about, well, what do I want to achieve? And what do I have to do to get there?

And so then my small daily actions reflect that big goal. So here are six or seven things that you can start doing today to get better at executive presence. So in no particular order, number one, ask for feedback. So after the big moments, after the big call, after the big presentation, after the big project, I want you to pull someone aside that you respect and ask them how you showed up, right?

Make changes. If you have opportunities, if there are things you didn't do well or that you could get better at, obviously make changes. But I think Ask for feedback is a really easy way because a lot of times we don't know how we're perceived, right? Even if you have the best self awareness, until you ask someone else outside of you, like, how did I do?

You won't really know. So that was a really big key for me is asking for feedback. Now, I don't mean in every scenario, but after the big moments, right? Maybe it's after you speak up during a big meeting or, um, maybe it's how you deliver something during a presentation. I don't know what it is for you, but ask for feedback.

You're always going to get some good information and you're going to get better. Another one for me has been observing others. So, here's the little hack for you. You don't have to figure it out all yourself. You don't have to be the trailblazer by yourself. But what you have to do is be a little bit more observant.

So what are the people around you that you respect doing? I'll never forget, I worked for this leader named Ariel. I've mentioned her before. She was amazing. She had the most incredible executive presence and what I loved about Ariel's She blended executive presence with being a human at the same time.

So whenever she would come into my location in my branch She wasn't like every other executive who just made it a show walked around and then left a couple of minutes later She would make a point to come and sit down with people and connect with them on a personal level Right? What were they doing?

What were they up to? What was important to them? And I think for me, I took a lot from that, and I really observed how she handled herself, and then I took that into my own career and tried to emulate it. So, I wasn't the master, but I found somebody else who was, and just took that and made it my own. So, observing others, really, really underrated.

If you're not really being observant, I'd suggest you start. Another one is practice it. So, when you recognize something you need to get better at, you gotta start practicing it. And let's say, for example, you have a habit of halfway through the day of going to the kitchen, the break room, and spending, you know, 30 minutes to an hour chatting with people during the middle of the day.

It's not your lunch, you're just chatting with people. Okay, what could you do better in that situation? You probably shouldn't be spending 30 minutes to an hour shooting the shit during the middle of the day. You probably should quickly go to the kitchen and then get back to work, right? Because they're not paying you to just chat for a few hours.

And how I'd practice that is next time when I go into the break room and I see all my friends and co workers, instead of spending an hour, what I might do is go in there for five minutes, grab a cup of coffee, say hello, make some connections, and then I'm going to get back to work. And right, that's how I'm practicing.

That's executive presence. So I realize in that moment. That's not how I need to be acting. That's not how I need to be showing up. So maybe I should just make a quick adjustment and put it into practice. Again, it's going to take time, but I think the only way we get better at something is practicing it.

So you can't just say to yourself, I want to be better at executive presence, you got to put in the work. Another one I think is core values. Now this is something that maybe is a little bit more advanced, but I think you can handle it. I think at the end of the day, if you're going to be a real leader, a real executive, you're going to move up in a company, you need to have something as bedrock, something as your foundation, something to keep you grounded, something that you're going to be known for.

So for me, I created my list of personal core values, the things that I was going to be known for no matter the role, no matter the situation. And for me, that really, really helped because as I did, My day to day work and I talked with people and communicated and worked on stuff I made sure to keep those core values in the back of my mind And I think people really appreciated me for it And in fact, you know, of course my whole team started to adopt that kind of stuff, but I think Leaders real leaders have something that they know and care about and something that makes them who they are and helps them navigate the world.

So if you don't have a list of personal values, of core values, of things you're going to be known for, I highly suggest that you put some time into thinking about those things. Because if you don't have those things, when work gets hard, when temptation comes up, when stress comes up, what are you going to have to fall back on, right?

You got to have a bedrock, a foundation of something that's going to keep you moving forward. Um, okay, another one. So meetings. Uh, way to show up in meetings, show up prepared. Make sure you know your numbers. Make sure you have good questions. You know who's going to be attendance, how you can add value.

Speak up. Do not stay silent. Executives, people with executive presence, leaders, they speak up. They're not silent. Um, I want you to stay off your phone. You should not have your phone at these meetings. It should be in your pocket. You should be engaged. Um, something else you can do too is kind of like help the presenter out.

If there's a lull and no one's talking. Help the presenter out, ask good questions, engage, give some feedback. I think that can really do a lot for folks. And it just shows you're a team player as well. And at the end of the day, I want you to remember to hold yourself to the highest standards of the company.

Something I used to ask myself quite a bit was if the CEO was in the room right now. Would I be proud of what I just said? Or I would ask myself, if this VP was delivering this message, would I have been the same, would I have been better? Would I have been worse? And so kind of, I don't want to say comparing myself, but trying to see through their lens has really helped me a lot communication.

We talked a little bit about it earlier, but write with confident language, speak with confident language, even if you're not confident. Like project that, fake that, right? That's okay. Confidence, a lot of times when communication for me is, it feels a little uncomfortable to be more direct, but it's something I know that I have to do to get people to follow me and to be able to, to feel my influence.

Right. Um, and then the last one I think that can really help in is doing a self check in, right? So if you're just going through the motions. And you're not taking a second to reflect or to kind of reevaluate where you've been and what you've been doing. You're missing out. So something that I would always ask myself, like I said, is what would the CEO do in this situation?

How would they act? How would they speak? Would they be proud of what I just said? That really, really helped me. Okay. What I want to do, transition slightly, tell you about a story. So it has to do with executive presence. And this happened. A few years ago, and I was looking for a company who had a broken sales process, right?

They had a large group of folks that were selling to their customers, but they weren't getting the results that I really thought they should, or that the executives really thought they should. So I did notice that our current clients really, really loved us though. They would rave and rant about how amazing our service was, but I noticed we were not tapping into their network.

So I'm helping you, Susie, and you're loving my service. Suzy, do you have a brother? Do you have a cousin? Do you have a friend who might also want that? Asking for referrals. That was something they had never done before. So I approached our retail executive and said, Hey, I'd love to hold a training for all of the retail staff and show them how to ask for referrals.

So she said, yes. I spent the next probably month or so working with different people. I asked my. Best person to help with the presentation. We researched it. We practiced it, practice it, practice it. We asked for feedback. We recorded ourselves. I mean, we put a lot of effort into this, got up super early. I think we should to be up at five in the morning to give this presentation.

So this was a big deal. We really cared about it. Day of the presentation. I go into my thing. I go through it, give examples, lots of strategies. People are eating it up right after the calls. Then I get like five or seven emails. I am, I got a quick call. People all saying. Awesome. This was amazing. You guys killed it.

I love this. I learned so much. I can't wait to show this to my team. I can't wait for us to try this out. I'm confident it's going to work right. Just really positive things. So I left that call feeling like a million bucks. Well, 10 minutes later, that retail executive gives me a call and she says, Hey, Austin, how do you think it went?

So as soon as she gets on the phone, I can tell she's not happy. Like I can just tell already. She's not pleased so but I play along and I said, well, you know, I think it went well, you know No presentations perfect, but you know, here are the five or seven emails. We got I got a phone call We got lots of positive feedback.

So I think overall we did good and she said hey Austin. I don't think it went well She says I think you were inappropriate when you talked about the differences between millennials and baby boomers in the call. I had mentioned how sometimes millennials prefer communication. That's different. Maybe they like a text or an email.

And I mentioned that baby boomers may be more inclined to pick up the phone. Well, she says I was alienating our older employees and making them feel uncomfortable. And in that moment, I got to tell you, I was pretty frustrated. My initial reaction was to be like, dude, what the hell are you talking about?

You don't. No, you're wrong. I got all these emails like, I'm sorry you're wrong. But cooler heads prevailed. I took a second. I breathe. I did explain to her, Hey, here's what I heard from our employees. By the way, some of those five or seven emails were from older employees and they said they loved it. So while I hear what you're saying, I respectfully disagree, uh, with your feedback.

Now, she didn't like that, but she accepted it. We moved on and I think in that moment I felt. Pretty good, because I was standing up, speaking up for something I believe to be true. I was being respectful. I didn't snap. I didn't, you know, yell at her. I didn't storm off the call, but I gave her some data to back up my point and I was respectful.

Well, I share that story to tell you that I think at the end of the day executive presence is kind of simply put just doing the stuff that you know you need to do that's hard that not everyone else is gonna do, right? So it's getting out of your comfort zone. It's standing up. It's acting like Someone who deserves to be at the table, someone who deserves to have an opinion, deserves respect, all that good stuff.

And I think, again, it goes back to confidence and competence. Are you confident and are you competent in the work you do and the value that you add? So even if you have to back yourself when it's uncomfortable, I think that's, that's okay to do. So I hope that story was helpful. Hope it kind of tied together executive presence and kind of how to act in that moment.

What I want to do is wrap up with a quick challenge. We're going to, we're going to do a little different though today. I'm going to give you an executive presence audit, a little test that you can take today to see where am I at? What do I need to get better at? And depending on your answers, I want you to take some action, right?

So I want you to ask yourself these six questions. So number one, do I consistently speak up during meetings or do I hold back? Number two, when I'm in a tough situation, do I stay calm and composed or do I react emotionally? Number three, do people in my company naturally come to me to solve problems? Am I seen as the expert?

Number four, what would the CEO think of what I said or did? Right? If you're doing things that you think the CEO wouldn't approve of or the highest leaders in your company, That means you're probably not acting with executive presence. Uh, number five, when I send emails or communicate, do I use weak or strong language?

Right? Things like I just wanted to reach out versus I'm reaching out because, or I think versus I believe, or I know. And then number six, do I feel comfortable communicating with senior leaders? If not, what's holding me back? Again, I want you to realize executive presence, it does not matter what age you are or what experience you are.

You have the right, the ability, and I think the duty To speak up, to talk with other executives, even if you don't have the title. And if you're not feeling comfortable with those things, maybe you haven't believed you deserve a seat at the table or that you deserve their respect. And if so, I want you to start thinking about that and changing that.

So ask yourself one of those six questions. Let me know what you think. See if you get better. I want to say, thank you so much for listening. Make it a great day.