Carol Cox: When the stakes are high,
whether it's on stage or in a media
interview. How can you stay calm,
clear and confident?
My guest today is Jen Mueller,
a veteran sports broadcaster of the Seattle
Seahawks and the Seattle Mariners.
And she's giving us her tips on this episode
of the Speaking Your Brand podcast.
More and more women are making an impact by
starting businesses, running for office and
speaking up for what matters.
With my background as a TV political analyst,
entrepreneur, and speaker,
I interview and coach purpose driven women to
shape their brands, grow their companies,
and become recognized as influencers in their
field. This is speaking your brand,
your place to learn how to persuasively
communicate your message to your audience.
Hi there and welcome to the Speaking Your
Brand podcast. I'm your host,
Carol Cox. Have you ever had one of those
moments where all eyes are suddenly on you
and your brain decides now is the perfect
time to forget every word you were going to
say. Whether it's a big presentation,
a media interview, or even a meeting.
How we communicate under pressure can make or
break how we're perceived as leaders.
That's why I'm so excited about today's
conversation with my guest,
Jen Mueller. Jen is a veteran sports
broadcaster on the sidelines for the Seattle
Seahawks and the Seattle Mariners,
and she spent over 25 years covering some of
the highest stakes environments imaginable.
She's also the founder of Talk Sporty to Me.
I love that name, where she teaches
professionals how to communicate with
confidence, clarity and composure no matter
the situation. In our conversation,
Jen and I talk about what it means to be a
clutch communicator, how to use those high
pressure moments to showcase your expertise
instead of hiding from them.
How to prepare for spontaneity.
Yes, that is possible.
And how small everyday interactions can train
you for the big stage.
Now, I've also spent the past 20 years on the
TV news during election seasons,
so I know what it's like to be live and not
know what's going to happen next or what
you'll be asked. And I share in this episode
a story of what happened when I was asked a
question and I just totally froze,
but how I handled it.
So if you've ever found yourself thinking,
I wish I could stay calm,
clear and confident when the heat is on.
This episode is for you!
Jen, welcome to the Speaking Your Brand
podcast.
Jen Mueller: Thank you. This is going to be a fun
conversation. I like it when two media
members get together because I feel like I'm
a little less on the hot seat,
you know? Okay, like, you get me.
Carol Cox: I get you. And trust me,
I have my own stories to share about things
because those are the ones that stick in your
mind, right?
Jen Mueller: Yes. Yes they are.
Carol Cox: All right. So you have you spent a lot of
years reporting from the sidelines?
First tell me, how did that even come about?
Like, how do you get to be a reporter on the
sidelines of these big professional sports?
Jen Mueller: You know what? Mine is a little bit of an
unconventional path, and I call them bubble
gum moments. All of the little things that I
was doing in the dark behind the scenes to
eventually be considered on air talent.
I was never hired to be,
um, on TV. I never applied for the job of the
sideline reporter for the Seahawks.
What I am by heart, by nature,
and I think at heart is a producer.
So I spent a lot of years watching people on
TV and writing for people on TV,
developing my own style,
learning by watching them,
and then just positioning myself as somebody
who could step in and do the job of the on
air part.
Carol Cox: All right. So then so you get this,
this opportunity to be on the sidelines to
report what's going on in the games.
So what what is that like to be there on the
silence. Obviously, there's a lot going on,
right? The game's going on. All the players
are there, the coaches, the people in the
stands. Like, tell us what that environment
is like.
Jen Mueller: An NFL game is electric.
It does not matter where you are now.
They happen to be just a little bit more
electric in Seattle because the crowd at
Lumen Field is unreal,
but it is sensory overload from being so
close to the action and seeing how physically
imposing and strong and powerful these guys
are to hearing everything from the stands.
And the thing about being on the sidelines,
I love watching the game there.
You can only see a very small part of the
game, and that's where like the communication
and the questions and how you piece together
the story of the game is very different than
if you were watching from home or watching
from the press box, or even from the 200
level in a stadium, because you've got a
different vantage point than I do.
And so I constantly feel like I am stumped on
the sidelines and am trying to overcome that
in the conversations I have during
interviews.
Carol Cox: So then tell us what it's like to do an
interview then.
So obviously you have to kind of tune out
everything else that's going on around you to
focus on the person that you're interviewing
now. Do you already have some questions that
you're running in your mind beforehand? Like,
tell us a little bit about the prep and then
what happens during the interview.
Jen Mueller: Yeah, I should have grabbed my pages of notes
that I take during an NFL game,
because when you're on the sidelines, you're
kind of on your own.
I've got my crew in the booth,
but they are dealing with their own,
you know, game calls, so they don't have time
to look things up just for me.
So I keep just a running tally of both plays
and questions, and I will start writing down
questions I might want to ask from the very
first play of the game,
because you don't know what's going to end up
to be most important at the end.
The other part of my job is the expectation
is that I will get between 4 and 6
interviews, Use regardless of the outcome.
If you need 4 to 6 interviews,
you can't be asking the same four questions
over and over and over again.
You've got to tailor those questions to the
person, to the position that they play,
to the time of the game that you're talking
about. And so I constantly have kind of these
running lists and various points in the game
that I'll start compiling that so that I can
be very concise and precise when I'm doing
those interviews.
Carol Cox: And also, I assume you want the interviews to
be interesting for the the people who are
watching. You can't just like, like boring,
dull questions that everyone always asks.
Jen Mueller: Well, and see, you just hit the nail on the
head right there. If I can guess what your
post-game question will be.
And I'm sitting on my couch and I only
watched five minutes of that game.
There was probably a better way to ask that
question. And one of the things I realized
very early on, and I know that you'll
appreciate this.
Our questions are part of the story as
compared to my counterparts who work in print
media, right? Who work for magazines,
who work for the digital side,
who work for newspapers.
They can ask whatever they question they
want, and their audience never hears it.
But my audience always hears the question
that I ask. And so it's my job to make that
question interesting, but also to make sure
that I am drawing out the very best piece of
information without tap dancing around and
taking, you know, forever to get to the heart
of what it is that we're talking about.
Carol Cox: Yeah, I can imagine that is it's a delicate
dance, and I assume that you got better at it
as you went along.
You know, the first few games versus after
you've been doing it for years.
Jen Mueller: Yeah, I've done this now.
I've been in sports broadcasting 25 years,
17 on the Seahawks sidelines.
And you know, they don't really teach you how
to ask questions in college.
You know, they they teach you the very
technical aspects of broadcasting.
And that's very helpful.
But if you are sent out there to ask
questions and to do an interview initially,
your standard is going to be too low.
In fact, I think a lot of standards are too
low when it comes to asking questions,
because we assume that if we get an answer
that it was a good enough question.
And that's not true, because most people are
kind enough and considerate enough to give
you an answer, whether it's a good one,
the right one, the one that you were looking
for, that is an entirely different story.
And so what I have gotten very good at is
asking very specific questions.
There is only one answer to that question.
And my athletes learn to trust me because
they know they are the ones that have that
answer. Right. I'm not trying to play this
like gotcha game.
I just want you to drop your guard and tell
me what happened on that play in the third
quarter, where you allowed them to convert on
third and 12.
Carol Cox: I love it. Now, I grew up watching football
because my dad and I, we would watch it,
you know, on the weekends. So I loved it.
I don't watch it as much as as I used to,
but it is a lot of fun.
So that is so cool.
I have not been into an NFL game ever in my
life, and that is something that's on my list
because I know how what an incredible
experience it would be.
Jen Mueller: It really is like you'll be talking about it
for forever because every sporting event is
an event, right?
There's food, there's entertainment, there's
people, there's a social aspect.
So whether you remember the details of the
game or not, boy, are there so many talking
points off of an NFL game.
Carol Cox: All right, Jen, let's talk about this idea of
a clutch communicator.
This is a phrase that you brought to me for
this interview. So what does that mean to be
a clutch communicator and why is that
important not only for reporters,
you know, on the sidelines or wherever they
happen to be, but for those of us who are
just doing presentations and panels and
podcast interviews.
Jen Mueller: Yeah, it's knowing that you are prepared for
any moment and that the uncertainty is
Minimized by the confidence you have in your
skills, right? Every time we have a
conversation or we ask a question,
we're really leaving things up to chance.
I might think I know the answer,
and I have a pretty good idea of how a
conversation is going to flow.
But in the back of my mind,
before I have entered this conversation,
whether it is an interview that I am
conducting or where I'm in this position,
I know a few things that I can do to minimize
my doubts and like the self-consciousness
that I might have, I know how to pivot out of
a of a challenging situation,
or when I've forgotten a word or lose my
train of thought.
And it's those sorts of things that make you
clutch. It's not saying the right thing every
time. It's knowing that you have something to
say and being confident enough in that
ability.
Carol Cox: Now, Jen, I know that a lot of the women that
we work with and a lot of women who listen to
this podcast, they like to be very prepared,
whether it again is for a presentation,
a talk. That they're delivering or a podcast
interview. And that is great.
Obviously we want to be prepared.
We want to to make sure that we are providing
value to whoever is listening to us.
But I feel like there are also a lot of us
who get very worried about getting a question
that they haven't prepared for,
and they almost they sort themselves out with
thinking that that's going to happen whether
it happens or not. So can you tell us a
little bit about what is going on there and
how how can we help ourselves with that?
Jen Mueller: Well, you've got to remember that you're the
expert. The reason that you are fielding that
question is because you have some version of
the answer. Most of the time,
people are not looking for the hard,
fast, truest answer that you could possibly
give. What they're looking for is insight and
perspective. So you already have that.
If you try to psych yourself out by thinking
about all the different ways you are not the
right person to be answering this question,
then try this.
In my experience now, I can't dispute that
because in your experience,
whether that is 25 years,
two years, you know, one month on this
project, six months is the CEO.
That's your experience.
And now we have framed this in a way where,
okay, I am seeing you as the expert and you
are giving me insight and perspective based
on that experience.
Carol Cox: Right? Like I as I say,
AI is not the ultimate expert.
It can tell you.
Google search used to.
Now you know, chatbots can tell you anything
you want to know about.
Anything you ask, whether it hallucinates or
not is another. You know,
we'll put that to the side.
But to your point, your audiences want to
know, well, how did you experience that?
What did you learn from that?
What did you what have you gained?
What are all these lessons and insights and
perspectives you've gained because of this
work that you've been doing for however many
years. Not like reciting off of a dictionary
or encyclopedia.
All the facts that someone could learn about
whatever the topic is.
Jen Mueller: And it's okay to ask a clarifying question,
right? I mean, you don't want to ask a
question to every question,
right? That gets a little bit tedious,
but it's okay to say, hey,
why do you ask? I want to make sure I give
you the best possible answer.
Or when people say something like,
hey Jen, tell me how you got to where you are
in your career. My first question back to
them will be, what specific part would you
like to know about, or what would be most
helpful for you to hear?
Now, I can be confident that I am giving you
the best possible answer.
It's okay to do that. The guys do that in the
locker room. To me, sometimes if I say
something that is slightly too general,
they'll say, oh, did you mean on that drive
in the third quarter? Yep.
That's exactly what I meant.
Nobody thinks twice about that.
We're just having the conversation.
Station.
Carol Cox: Yes. Yeah. Because and it's thinking of it as
a conversation. I like to say that even
public speaking, even when you're speaking
from a stage, I liken it,
you're still having a conversation with the
audience. Now, the audience is not
necessarily talking back to you every minute
like you would in a regular conversation, but
you're still sensing their energy.
Where are they getting you? Where are they
maybe a little bit lost or a little bit
confused, and then adjusting as needed based
on what you're getting back from the
audience?
Jen Mueller: Yeah. And it's trusting yourself in
interactions. Right.
So if it goes back to your original question,
if you can trust yourself to make small talk
with a stranger, you can trust yourself to
answer questions from an audience.
Carol Cox: Yes, I love that.
Now, Jen, you talk about this idea of
asserting your presence.
Can you tell me what does that mean?
Like what does it mean to assert your
presence? And how has that shown up for you?
Jen Mueller: When I first got into sports,
they were, let's say, allowing women to work
in sports broadcasting,
but they weren't really encouraging or
supporting. They really didn't know how to to
do that. And so it was up to me to grab those
really small moments.
I knew that I wasn't going to get an hour to
make a great impression.
I was going to be able to show up to a press
conference and ask one question.
Maybe it was just sitting in the press
conference was my way of being present and
asserting my presence.
And we overlook these little moments all the
time throughout the day. But I would show up
and I would make sure that I had on a
different color blazer that day.
Right? So instead of wearing black and
everybody's wearing black, I've got a teal
green blazer on so that when my hand goes up,
I'm the one that is going to get called on
when I get called on.
I've got the one question that it is that I
wanted to ask, and I will deliver that with
precision and with a confidence in my tone
that forces you to think,
oh, that was a good question.
Or ah, she was prepared for that moment.
And it's not about how many words you say,
it's about how you choose to show up and how
consistent you are with showing up.
People underestimate that part of it too,
right? If you were in a space where you were
seeing the same people all the time,
this is a huge advantage in how you want to
show up and assert your presence,
whether that is with a smile squaring your
shoulders before you walk in the room,
being very precise in how you greet somebody
or engage in small talk,
and just the way that you show up that is
asserting your presence.
Carol Cox: What would you say to listeners who are like,
well, I don't really feel like I have a very
assertive presence. You know, my personality
tends to be a little bit on the shyer side.
I don't really I don't have a big voice or,
you know, I don't really like taking up a lot
of space, but they still enjoy speaking.
What are some strategies or tips that could
help them.
Jen Mueller: It isn't about being somebody that you're
not. It's about maximizing where you see your
strengths, right? And maybe starting with the
smallest like measure of success to build
your confidence in that.
So my smallest measure of success every time
I walk into a locker room is how many guys
say hello. And it's always my goal to get
five hellos when I walk into a locker room or
clubhouse. Now, I am a typically very
outgoing personality.
You put me in a locker room with 60 plus
guys, all of whom are bigger,
faster, stronger, some of them louder and
more boisterous. Boisterous than I am.
And that's enough to make me go,
oh my gosh, what am I doing here some days?
You know, like the days that you're just not
feeling it. And so if I've got a really small
measure of success and all I have to do is
say hi back, I can do that.
And that is showing up.
Everybody can say hi or hello.
We skip over it a lot of times when we're too
busy, which is why it's a win.
But start with something like that.
Just smile at somebody.
You would be shocked at how far smile goes.
And I know because I get feedback from that
all the time from guys in the locker room.
But we skip past that in business all the
time because we take it for granted or we're
not tracking it.
If you start tracking those things,
you would be surprised at just how you were
showing up or how you can use those moments
to show up even better.
Carol Cox: Jen, how have you handled any sexism that has
come up and not necessarily directly with
people you have interacted with,
but maybe even online?
I remember when I've been doing election
coverage on the news for a long time,
and when this was during in the during the
2016 election cycle, which we know was the
start of very unusual politics.
And so at the time, the news station would
livestream what the news segments to their
Facebook page. That was really big at the
time. Facebook's would be their Facebook
Live, and of course all the comments would
come in. There are no comments of substance,
but their comments about me being a woman.
So I just ignored them because I'm like,
whatever. I don't know these people and I'm
not going to read the comments,
but I'm just curious, have you what have you
experienced and how have you handled it?
Jen Mueller: I have experienced various forms of that over
the years. Again, when you're a woman in an
NFL locker room 30 years ago,
that is a very different experience than
being in there today.
For a long time I ignored the comments,
and I have worked with some really awesome
people who came to my defense,
or guys who have been awesome to work with.
That helped build my credibility and my
reputation among the fans.
I did not engage with most of those people
online for years.
It has only been in the last 3 to 4 years
where I feel comfortable enough not only with
my position as I've got enough experience
under my belt, but also I am comfortable with
my voice in this space.
I'm comfortable with saying,
I don't like to hear every man talk about
sports, like it's okay if you don't want
women to talk about sports,
but you make the assumption, I want every man
to talk about sports.
That's not necessarily true either.
Now, that's about as combative as I will get,
and I will just kind of point things out
gently. Right. The assumptions that get made,
um, I do call people out,
but mostly because it's harmful to other
women in the industry,
right? Whether I can take it or not is
irrelevant, but it's harmful to other people
that I work with. And so now,
being at this stage of my career in my life,
I feel like it's easier to speak up for
people and to just kind of point out,
hey, maybe you didn't think about it from
this point of view. Uh,
and I'll pull back the curtain as much as I
possibly can on whatever it is that they are
commenting on. Um, but yeah,
that is that is one of the parts of the job
that is frustrating.
Some nights at the end of a long night or a
long homestand or a long game.
Yes.
Carol Cox: Well, Jen, thank you for sharing that. And
this is why I asked this question,
because I want more women to understand that
it's it's normal was the wrong word.
But it happens.
And not to feel alone or isolated or like
they they don't have someone to turn to if,
if they are feeling this way,
that it happens. Unfortunately, to many of us
in the public. I like to say women who have a
public presence and a public voice.
Eventually you're going to get some type of
feedback related to that that you're not
necessarily going to enjoy and is probably
unfounded, but just know that you're not
alone. And I like to make sure I have my
circle of women, women friends right to turn
to, to be like, okay, that is a whole that's
like my public facing persona.
And but but here is, here is what matters to
me.
Jen Mueller: Exactly. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Carol Cox: Well, Jen, let's talk about,
uh, situations that didn't necessarily go the
way that you wanted. I know I have had my
share of those. I like to say,
if you put in enough reps,
you're gonna have those times where things
are just like, no, I didn't that didn't go
the way that I wanted. Do you have anything
that comes to mind?
Jen Mueller: Oh, I have a handful of things,
but I'll tell you my job for 19 years on the
Mariners broadcast was to do the walk off
interviews after wins.
And some of them are, I'm going to say,
uneventful, right?
The game was already decided in like the
sixth or seventh inning,
so there's no real drama at the end of the
game. Those generally go according to plan.
It's the ones where it truly is a walk off.
Like they hit the game winning home run in
the bottom of the ninth.
Because now here's what's going to happen.
I will be in the middle of some sort of
celebration, and it probably includes a very
cold bucket of ice water or Gatorade.
And so while I am trying to dodge Gatorade,
I'm trying to ask questions and keep it a
secret and tune out all of the noise that's
happening in the stadium while looking at the
television camera.
And while I dodged most of them,
I did get squarely hit with a few buckets of
Gatorade. And I don't care how much you
prepare for that interview, it is so cold.
And quite honestly, the very first thing I'm
thinking when it happens is what does my hair
look like? And is my makeup running down my
face? Right. So now I'm totally distracted.
But in those moments, you're still on TV.
It is still being broadcast in front of
thousands of people in the stadium at that
moment. And so you've got to regroup really
quick. Finish that up and make sure that the
focus stays on the athlete that you're
talking to. The thing that I have learned is
to practice for distractions and to state the
obvious about whatever is happening.
So the bucket of Gatorade is really cold.
It will take your breath away,
and it will cause you to forget everything
that you were about to say.
I'm not going to pretend like it's not the
case, right?
I will say when I need to regroup.
Wow, that was cold.
Wow. Let's get back on track with this.
I'm just buying myself a little bit of time
to call my heart rate and to get back to it,
but everybody just saw it,
so I'm not afraid of acknowledging it.
And we shouldn't be afraid of acknowledging
when something doesn't go according to plan
in a conversation or an interview or a
presentation, it makes you human.
It level sets everything,
and it gives you a chance to calm down and to
reset from wherever you want to start.
Carol Cox: Yeah, that's really helpful.
Just. Yeah. And acknowledging,
like you said, everyone could see it.
It's not it's not something that you can just
pretend didn't happen.
And so like kind of acknowledge it also just
kind of gets it off of their mind too,
because you've closed the loop, so to speak,
in their mind. And then you can go on.
I remember that, you know,
I've done lots of live TV and unlike you,
I'm the one answering the questions from the
reporter. So obviously we have the topics
that are probably going to be for that
segment and the segments are short,
you know, 3 or 4 minutes,
right, with myself, the reporter and the
other political analysts.
So there's three of us. So it's like boom,
boom, boom, right. Question,
short answer, you know,
next person, etc..
So I'll have my prepared notes,
just like you do on the sidelines of what
we're going to talk about, and some different
things that I've thought about in advance.
And I remember it was so again,
lots of live TV and I'm good at thinking on
my feet. And this was again,
election night. 2016 was not going the way
that I had hoped and we were taped.
Luckily we were taping for the next morning,
so it was like 1130 at night.
Close to midnight. We were getting ready to
wrap because we had just done the 11:00 news
hour and the.
So we were taping the segment,
not live, and the reporter asked me a
question and I literally,
I think I was in a state of shock and I took
me like 10s to answer,
which would never happen on live TV.
My brain probably knew we were taping for the
next morning because I probably would have
answered anyways.
But I remember I just kind of sat there and
for the first time there were zero.
Like no words would kind of come out of my
mouth. And then finally I just,
like, took a deep breath and I answered,
of course they cut it, you know, they slice
it up for the next morning,
but that has stuck with me so much because I
feel like no matter how experienced you are,
no matter how many years I have done this,
no matter how prepared I was,
sometimes like physically,
like your body physiologically is doing
something that you can't necessarily control.
It's human. Like, I was having a real human
moment and instead of beating myself up for
it, which I do not, I give myself a lot of
grace. And I think that's important for us to
remember, too, that we're not always going to
be perfect and to give ourselves grace when
things don't go the way that we would want
them to.
Jen Mueller: You want to know the most brilliant thing in
TV? You already know this,
but I'm going to share it with the audience.
The most brilliant part of TV is that there's
always another broadcast.
And so we joke about it all the time.
The worst is if you have that moment and then
you're not on TV for two weeks because you
went on vacation. Right.
The best part is you have a chance to go back
and do it again, probably in another 30
minutes. Right. 30 minutes or 2 hours.
And so I hate to say it's like getting back
on the horse, but it really is important to
go back out there and have that interaction.
And that's another one of those things where
I would just say, oh my gosh,
my brain went totally blank.
We've been talking about this all day.
Just buying myself a little bit of time.
Right. I have lost my train of thought during
an interview. I have had producers talk in my
ear while I'm doing an interview so that I
can't hear the person that I'm actually
talking to, and then I'm stuck because they
finish their answer and I don't know what
they just said, right?
And I have little phrases that I can get out
of that To say I was so caught up in that
answer I almost forgot my next question.
Now the the truth is, I did forget the next
question. I have no idea what they said,
right? But I've got the little ways to pivot
out of that, which once again,
it's level setting and stating the obvious.
I have also literally tripped into athletes
trying to introduce myself while they were
getting dressed. Those are moments I don't
forget. And you can't pretend like it didn't
happen because everybody just watched this
happen, right? Talk about a human moment
where your face goes bright red and you're
just like, okay, you know what I'm going to
do? Try this again tomorrow.
Um.
Speaker3: Well, hopefully they'll say they'll say hi to
you because.
Carol Cox: They remember you.
Jen Mueller: Yeah, well, I did make quite the impression.
I did, I did make quite the impression.
Yeah.
Speaker3: Mhm. Um, so.
Carol Cox: Jen talk to us about your company.
Talk sporty to me.
What do you do and who do you work with.
Jen Mueller: So I do a lot of keynotes and I do a lot of
content around effective communication.
It's just like the conversation we've been
having today, pulling back the curtain on
some of these conversations to really dissect
how did we get there?
How do we make the most of really short
interactions?
How do we make sure that we're not just
asking for more communication?
We actually are giving the people around us,
whether it's our team at work, our team on
the field, what they need to be successful.
So I work with a lot of clients that are in
the financial space, um,
folks who need some additional tools around
those soft skills, right?
They've got the numbers down, but a little
bit of soft skills and,
um, inspiring some audiences to believe that
they've already got the answers.
They just they just need to elevate
themselves just a little bit.
Carol Cox: Well, what is what is something that
listeners can start doing today,
a habit or a strategy that they can
incorporate into what they're doing to help
them build this idea of confidence when
they're in high pressure situations.
Jen Mueller: Well, I would say a couple of things.
Number one, you could turn every situation
into your version of high pressure.
So here's what I mean.
You know that people are going to ask you the
question, how are you.
Multiple times a day, right.
Hey, how are you? How's it going today?
And we would generally answer with the same
script, whatever that is.
I'm good. How are you?
I'm good. Instead of delivering that same
line, deliver what I would call a success
statement, which changes that conversation.
It makes you vulnerable in the moment.
And it's going to create that,
that, um, a little bit more high stakes
because the person you're talking to was not
expecting that answer either.
And so now you get to practice in a real low
stakes moment, the same exact emotions that
you would feel in some of those more crucial,
crucial and critical conversations.
Does that make sense?
Carol Cox: Yes, yes. Like taking these daily
opportunities to practice?
Jen Mueller: Yes. So you would say something like I'm
fantastic. I loved this podcast episode that
I got a chance to talk to today.
Right. I answered the question.
I gave my success.
I love this podcast.
I just opened the door for a different
conversation.
I get to guide that conversation,
but I also get to practice some of these
skills because I don't know where the
conversation is going to go.
So use these little moments.
By the way, you're also advocating for
yourself when you do that,
but use the little moments to start building
up the skills and the confidence to use them
in bigger moments.
Carol Cox: Oh, I like that. Jen.
Where is the best place for listeners to
connect with you?
Jen Mueller: I would say LinkedIn and Instagram.
You can find me on Talk Sporty to me if you
like the videos, Talk Sporty to me on
YouTube. That is the website I will also
throw out if you are a sports fan and like
cooking, I have an entire show where I cook
with athletes called I cook,
You Measure, and that's a really fun way to
just engage on a different level in all of
those conversations.
Carol Cox: Oh that's fun. This is on YouTube.
Jen Mueller: It is on YouTube. Yep.
Carol Cox: Well, tell us some of the things that you've
cooked.
Jen Mueller: We have cooked any number of things from like
a taco, turkey mac to steak with chimichurri
to chorizo with eggs.
But the crazy part is figuring out what their
comfort and skill level is in the kitchen.
So you talk about vulnerability.
Tell you what, these guys are admitting that
they don't know how to use a can opener or a
knife. I think that takes a little bit more,
um, confidence and vulnerability than you
might imagine, but it also creates some
really fun and funny moments in the kitchen.
Carol Cox: Oh, that is fun. All right.
I'll make sure to put all of these links in
the show notes so that listeners can find you
on YouTube and LinkedIn and Instagram and
your website. Jen, thank you so much for
coming on the podcast. I really enjoyed this
conversation.
Jen Mueller: Yeah, it's been really fun.
Carol, thanks.
Carol Cox: If this conversation got you thinking about
how you show up when it matters most,
whether it's on stage,
in a meeting, on camera,
even on a zoom webinar,
and you want to elevate both your content and
your delivery. Join us at our next one day
in-person Speaking Accelerator workshop in
Orlando, Florida.
We have so much fun!
You create your signature talk and you get to
practice delivering it all on the same day.
That's why we call it an accelerator.
You can get all the details at speaking your
brand.com. Again, that's speaking your brand.
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thanks for listening.