He's not smarter, just louder 📣

Hey Reader,

Are you enjoying “Pumpkin everything” yet?

Today, I thought we’d cover why…

The bonehead got promoted again!

“Shy” is not a personality.

It’s a “habit”. A really sneaky one, because it feels like just “who you are.”

But it’s not. It’s a set of behaviors you’ve been practicing so long they feel permanent.

Think about what those behaviors actually look like. Quiet voice.

Small gestures. Eyes that find the floor during conversations.

Taking up as little space as possible, like you’re trying to not get charged for a seat.

And here’s the part that stings: those behaviors made sense at some point. They probably kept you out of trouble. Kept you from being embarrassed. Kept you safe.

But they’re also keeping you “Invisible”!

And invisible is a terrible place to be when the promotion list comes out.

You already know the guy. He’s in every office, every Zoom room, every team meeting. He talks constantly. Half of what he says isn’t even that smart. But he says it loudly, and he says it often, and somehow that’s enough.

He gets picked. You don’t. And you sit there going,

“That should have been me.”

And you’re right. It should have been.

But they didn’t pick him because he’s smarter. They picked him because they remembered he existed.

Here’s the thing nobody tells you: he’s not more talented…

He’s just more “visible”. That’s literally the whole game.

And “visibility” is just a behavior too.

Speak with more volume. Use bigger gestures. Don’t apologize for taking up space in a room. Do those things long enough, and something weird happens.

You start to feel it. Not fake it. Actually FEEL it.

The behavior comes first. The feeling follows.

So if “shyness” is something you practiced, “confidence” is something you can practice too!

Starting with your next conversation, your next podcast interview, your next time in front of an audience.

The (not so) secret is “repetition”. The more you practice, the sooner your nerves go away!

Anytime you have an opportunity to “speak up”, take it!

“Numbers” don’t matter. In fact, starting out, three people may be the perfect audience size for you.

Which is where I come in. I’ve spent 30-plus years on Major Market Radio, and one thing I know cold is how to show up in a room, hold attention, and sound like someone worth listening to.

If you do podcasts, run events, or want to be great at meetings… grab 15 minutes with me. It’s free, there’s no catch, and I’ll give you something real you can use right away. (link below)

You don’t have to be the loudest person in the room.

You just have to stop being the quietest one.

Stellar Marketing Quotes

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”

Jack Canfield

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

“Behind the Mic”

My Mom got me my first job

My bedroom was a “Radio station” before I knew what a Radio station was.

I had a turntable, a cheap mic, and a cassette recorder. I was “broadcasting” to my neighborhood through an old drive-in speaker hanging out my window. Pretty sure my next-door neighbors heard exactly nothing.

But I was convinced I was killing it.

Then came the field trip that changed everything. Junior high, local radio station, and I walk in to find this guy with his feet up on the console, cigar going, reading the newspaper like he’s got nowhere to be. Huge speakers blasting. The whole place smelled like someone had decided “Fun” was a career path.

I asked him, “You get paid for this?”

He said, “Crazy, huh?”

That was it for me. I was done.

So I upgraded the bedroom studio. Got an old turntable from the library. Made tapes of all the top LA jocks: The Real Don Steele, Bobby Ocean, Robert W. Morgan. I’d play them back and then do my own version, which probably sounded like a 14-year-old trying to be a 35-year-old who was trying to be cool. High ceiling on the cringe.

By high school I’d talked my way into building an on-campus “Radio station” inside the library. It broadcast over the hallway speakers.

I considered myself a professional.

Then I saw an ad in the LA Times. “Brand new station looking for disc jockeys.” I stared at it. I thought about sending a tape.

Then I thought about it more.

Then I chickened out completely.

Here’s where it gets good, Reader…

My Mom grabbed one of my tapes without telling me.

Wrote a note… Mailed it.

A week later, I got a letter asking me to come in for an interview!

The station was “Ten-Q”. It became a legend in LA radio.

And sitting across from me during that interview was Rich Brother Robbin, an actual legendary DJ, looking at this goofy kid who had the nerve to send in an amateur tape when the DJ lineup already included…the Real Don Steele!

I got the job. Sort of. They made me “Music Librarian”.

But they also had a Sunday public affairs show aimed at younger listeners, and since I was 17, I was apparently the perfect voice for it.

So at 17, I was “On the Air” in Los Angeles.

Thanks to my ‘duties’, I spent almost every weekday in the studio with

“The Real Don Steele”!

I like to joke that, “I started my career in LA and worked my way down ever since.”

The moral isn’t “let your Mom run your career”

(Though honestly, she might be better at it than you).

It’s that the tape was already ‘good enough’.

It just needed to get out the door. That’s how it works with your voice too!

You don’t wait until you sound confident to start talking.

You talk until you sound confident.