Understanding Your Communication And Leadership Styles w/ Steve Gavatorta

Do you understand your communication style and that of others? How can you increase your level of self-awareness? Meet Steve Gavatorta!Steve is the owner of the Steve Gavatorta Group which specializes in empowering individuals and organizations in identifying, developing, and exceeding performance goals. He has coached and trained 1000s of high performers in industries including pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, healthcare, consumer packaged goods, finance, media, and advertising. From small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, he collaborates with organizations to build foundations, set goals, and eclipse their highest potential. Steve authored the bestselling, ‘In Defense of Adversity - Turning Your Toughest Challenges Into Your Greatest Success’. He is also a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA), a certified Myers-Briggs practitioner, and accredited to coach and train for Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Listen as Steve takes us through the DISC Assessment and the importance of understanding yourself and others.Key Points and Time Stamps:[00:04:32] - Can you run a successful business with no real world experience?[00:06:03] - Are you building relationships or burning bridges?[00:09:26] - How can training lead to lasting change?[00:13:16] - Self-awareness and emotional intelligence (EQ) in leadership[00:15:37] - Should you always accept that job promotion?[00:18:55] - The DISC Behavioral Assessment[00:22:15] - How to adapt your sales strategy to your customer's needs[00:23:18] - How does DISC help with teamwork and building a powerful team?[00:24:24] - The 4 DISC communication styles - Steve analyzes my DISC results[00:27:13] - How DISC is key to public speaking and making presentations[00:28:02] - Jeffrey Gitomer’s ‘The Sales Bible’ and his authentic public speaking style[00:30:09] - Does Toastmasters help you understand your communication style?[00:32:16] - How does DISC affect brain functionality?[00:33:04] - How do you overcome adversity? What is the impact of participation trophies?Connect with Steve:Website: http://www.gavatorta.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavatorta/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SteveGavatortaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/steve_gavatorta/?hl=enAdditional Resources:FREE e-book copy of “In Defense of Adversity: Turning Your Toughest Challenges Into Your Greatest Success” for listenersFREE Motivational Quotes dailyConnect with me:LinkedInFacebookInstagramLeave a rating and a review:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/understanding-your-communication-and-leadership-style/id1614151066?i=1000619353137Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/57akPjZkXJoIFJ2Zf65wyeYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7QpQsvQFjw

When I say EQ, I mean understanding yourself, knowing how you're motivated, knowing how you communicate, knowing how you behave, knowing how you make decisions, how you deal with adversity. Welcome back to the Speaking and Communicating podcast. I'm your host Roberta. If you are looking to improve your communication skills, both professionally and personally, this is the podcast you should be tuning into.
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And by the end of this episode, please log on to iTunes and Spotify and leave us a rating and a review. Let's get communicating!
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My guest today gave me a little bit of homework, part of which will be a conversation today regarding the system he has developed in order to create more self-awareness, in order to understand how you and others communicate. Steve Gavartota is the founder of the Gavartota Group and is here to share with us so many scientific insights on how we communicate and so much more regarding our behaviors.
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And before I go any further, please help me welcome him to the show. Hi, Steve. Hello, Roberta. Welcome to the show. Thank you for being here. Happy to be here. Love talking about my favorite topics. So I'm looking forward to this. I'm excited that you are as well. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Oh, I'm in Tampa, Florida. Lovely sunny Tampa, Florida. If I turn my camera around, you'd be very jealous of the view I'm looking at now.
01:42
Yeah, I'm originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I moved around the country in my corporate life. And when I started my business, I moved back down to Florida. And I just like the sun all the time and the low taxes as well too, was an incentive for a businessman. You make me jealous, I'm in the Midwest. Pick up and move, plenty of room down here. I love that. So tell us a little bit about you. Steve Gavottorta, owner of Steve Gavottorta Group. I've owned my company for about 20 years.
02:12
And I really pride myself on doing custom built programs. So what I really do is I analyze my customers, respective needs via working in the field with people, actually seeing them do their job or interviewing key stakeholders, then I build specific training programs relevant to the needs that I've uncovered and I've discussed with my client and the way to do the training can vary anything from workshop facilitation, speaking, coaching.
02:41
general consulting or a combination of all those. So whatever fits the bill for my client, I try to build a relevant program to meet those respective needs. So I've owned my business for 20 years. Prior to that, I spent about 22 years in various companies in corporate America, primarily an industry called consumer packaged goods. So I used to sell things like toothpaste, coffee and cold items, mouthwash, film and cameras.
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to grocery chains or mass merchandisers like Walmart or Target or drug channels like CVS and Walgreens. So I spent roughly between 20, 22 years there in an array of sales, leadership, marketing roles. And that really gave me a good foundation for my business because I actually experience a lot of what the things that my customers experience, I experienced in corporate America so I can bring some real world relevancy.
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to each session, even though it might not be the same industry, I at least have sold before. I've worked in a marketing department before. I know what they need. So it was very influential in me being able to walk cold turkey and start my own business. That is so interesting. You talk about your products being custom built because we see so much of copy and paste. So I sell templates, everything is just repetitive. And then secondly,
04:09
some of those departments before you started your business. I remember I have a friend who had studied psychology, went to masters and then for PhD in order to study his practice. He went back home to South Africa and they said, you are too young to be counseling people. Even though you had distinctions, you still need life experience in order to counsel people. So I find that very interesting when you say that. Yeah. No, it's funny you're saying that.
04:35
One of the person, I think it's career development. I went to Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. And one of the context in career development that reached out to me recently wanted me to have a discussion with one of their students. I think he was a senior or junior at the time. And he was talking about training and developing entrepreneurs and helping entrepreneurs. And my advice was really go out and get some real world experience yet.
05:00
before you do that. Because if I'm an entrepreneur, nothing against a college graduate, maybe you're the smartest person on earth, but until you experience those world world scenarios, you're not going to provide me, I think a lot of practical advice. You can learn anything you can in a book, four years of college, get your doctorate, but until you actually experience these things in the world world and see how what you learned applies, or if it even does.
05:28
That real world relevant experience, in my opinion, is huge. I was fortunate to have 22 years on that and it enabled me to start my business, cold turkey and land clients right away because I at least had an established career with a lot of insights and value to bring at that moment. I totally agree. And networks as well. The relationship building you had during your 22-year career before starting your business, what would you say is important in...
05:57
building networks, not burning your bridges, even if you leave the company. Oh, absolutely. It's funny. This is a great story. It's funny you're saying that. My last corporate job was with Eastman Kodak. Well, maybe people don't remember they went the way of the covered wagon because they had their head in the sand about digital photography and whatnot. And I was there then. They just had their head in the sand. But I did leave on good terms. I left cold Turkey. I left on good terms. And
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Kodak was the first job that I had. I did a workshop for the former team I worked with at Kodak. So all my counterparts and colleagues and my boss attended my first workshop. That is amazing. Yeah, yeah. So to your point, leaving on a good note, you never know where someone else is going to land who can help you. 90% of my business is word of mouth. That...
06:52
word of mouth growth has been from people I've worked with in my past life to your point, I didn't burn bridges, or I've done a workshop with clients and I've done a good job and they recommend me elsewhere. So that's the most beautiful way of growing your business is word of mouth because you don't have to spend a dime on it. It's free and you're getting the recommendation for someone that someone trusts already.
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I got a call last week, one of my biggest clients was Stanley Black and Decker. They do the construction tools and drills and saws, and they have been the gift that keeps on giving. I received a call last week from one of the people that used to work at Stanley who got a call from someone he used to work with at another company who asked him, who would you recommend for sales training? And this gentleman, Dave recommended me. And now I have a new client potentially in the hopper.
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because someone else made that recommendation. So not burning bridges, doing a great job, showing value are ways you can grow your business without having to really cold call a ton, knock on doors or spend money advertising. It's a free way of gaining business and it's the most relevant because the people are getting a recommendation from someone they already trust. Now I'm not saying I don't cold call. I still have to cold call occasionally,
08:13
not as much. Again, 90% of my business is that word of mouth. And doing the best job you can even if you have one person in your audience versus a hundred, you still do the job as best as if there were a hundred people in the audience. Exactly. Like I said, you don't know that one person can be a seed. You know, I liken it to being a farmer. You prepare the field, you plant the seed, you water the fields and seeds, and you
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So if you planted that seed, that one person in a workshop loved what you do, you planted a seed. If they reach out to you, you reach out to them and stay in contact. You're watering that seed and hopefully that seed nurtures. So I take no one or no job for granted. Each job has the ability to be something great. That is very true. Now, when it comes to the trainings you conduct for organizations, like you said, it's tailor-made for their needs.
09:12
What would you say is key to that training, the lessons you teach them to that sticking? Because a lot of the times they get coached and then they go back to their old ways after the coaching. That's right. There are several things there. One, all my workshops consist of two parts. The first part would be practical application. The second part is real world applications. So let's just say I have a sales process that I do. It's a four step process.
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discover, plan, sell, execute. I will teach the skills involved in each of those steps. That's the practical side. What are the skills that you need to become good at discovering customers' needs? What are skills you need to become the best you can be at planning the call? What are the skills needed to make sales? And what's the skill needed to execute once that sale's done? Those are the fundamental skills. The four steps and the skills underneath that. Those are...
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steps that everyone, I don't care what industry they're in, I may teach those steps, whether it's pharmaceutical, consumer package, goods, or whatever. The real-world application is where it varies. So I might take the four steps in a sales process, teach the people that over and over again, however I will create real-world based studies, role plays, individual or team exercises relevant
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I've uncovered the needs, what do they need? What's the real world they engage with? So the skills in selling may be the same for a pharmaceutical company, but the dynamic of how it is involved is different than that of a consumer packaging company. Because in one instance, you're calling on a doctor, a physician, another instance, you might be calling on a purchase manager. So I build modules relevant to the issues and situations that my customers are facing every day.
11:09
So they not only learn skills, but they practice them in real world environments. That's where it sticks. So if I hypothetically come in and do one program fits all, that might be a nice to know today, but I want to know how's that helped me sell more of my product or how's that helped me with selling to a doctor or how does that help me selling to a C-suite person?
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I don't know that because I didn't learn that in training. And that's what I try to do is through that discovery phase that I do with my customers, I want to build modules, case studies, do role plays in situations they're facing. That allows that training to stick because not only do they learn skills, they see how those skills are going to apply in the world in which they engage in every day. If I don't see how these skills apply to me,
12:03
in my job every day, then it might be just a nice to know. It's gonna be, okay, yeah, that was nice. I'm never using it again. But if I could show them how those skills are applied through a case study or through a team exercise or through role plays, then it's gonna start connecting because they're gonna be actually hearing objections from a client or solving from a problem that they really face.
12:27
So they're gonna have solutions to some of these problems as well too. If I can't connect those dots, to your point, it's just a generic program. And that's where I set myself apart. When I was in corporate America, I was with some companies that really were great in training and development. But as I progressed, it was becoming less of a focus. And some of the consultants coming in and training us when I was in corporate, they didn't understand our business, the skills weren't relevant. So it was like, this was a waste of time.
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I started thinking I could do a better job because I know enough that I need to understand my customers and build something that they need to help them, not what a consultant thinks we need. You've been in your business for 20 years. How have you seen leadership evolving over that time period? I think leadership skills are more important now than ever. And I think it's a simple people skills need.
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that needs to be focused on more than ever. I talk about us being in a fast-paced, high-tech, ever-evolving world. Change is hitting us faster than ever. Adversity is striking us deeper. The speed at which we need to make decisions is getting tighter and tighter. This is the new way of the world. So we're in this stressful, fast-paced world. Change is hitting us. Adversity is hitting us. Uncertainty is hitting us. One of my clients always uses the acronym VUCA.
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volatility, uncertainty, change, and ambiguity. That's the new norm. So there's a new type of leader that needs to evolve in these worlds. And this leader needs to have what I call high emotional intelligence. They have to be very aware of themselves and how they function every day, but especially under stress. They have to really understand their people, whether it's their team, their colleagues.
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or their customers, they need to understand them better than ever. And they need to understand how them, they, their team, and their customers will function in this VUCA world. So raising the awareness of how our brain functions under stress and being able to self-manage through our high emotional intelligence, I think is the most important need of leaders today. I'm not saying that wasn't important in the past, it's always been important.
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But it's ultra important now because just the crazy times we're in, and it's just going to get even more crazier with the advent of technology, things changing, the ambiguity, and so on and so forth. So more that self-awareness, the ability to succeed under adversity is the biggest piece. Maneuver through these crazy times, I think, is where leadership has really traveled to in this day and age. And I think it'll be that way moving forward.
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Certainly human centered more than ever before, which then brings the question, when you are promoted to a leadership position, it's because you are very good at your job. Should everybody offer the promotion just because they're good at the job, accept the leadership promotion? Right. Well, there you go. That kind of feeds in what I'm saying. If I'm very good at my job, when I say EQ, I mean understanding yourself,
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how you're motivated, knowing how you communicate, knowing how you behave, knowing how you make decisions, how you deal with adversity, how you deal with change, risk and conflict. You have to be quite aware of that. So you function at the top of your game when all this adversity strikes or this uncertainty strikes. You also have to be cognizant of those same attributes in the people you're motivating or leading. And you have to, again, be able to function under
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stressful situations and you need to make wise decisions during adversity. You need to think creatively. You need to be able to solve problems. If you are technically excellent at your job, yet you have low EQ because you've never managed people before or you've never dealt with a changing environment, then I would recommend maybe a lateral move where you get some people skills experience.
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But if you are that calm, cool-headed person, you're known for excellent people skills, you interact with your colleagues very well, you're cool under pressure, then by all means, I think that could be an opportunity where someone could step into that role, if that makes sense. Out of college, my first job, I'd sell toothpaste to publics, grocery stores, each grocery store. Then my next job, I was promoted to headquarter account manager, where I sold to the corporate office.
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who sold our product to all the grocery stores. The next job I got was area manager, where I managed the people who caught on corporate and retail. So it was a logical sequence of experiences that I learned that prepared me for each job moving forward. Does that make sense? It does. Because to become good at a headquarter account manager, I had to understand what happened at retail. To become good as an area manager, I had to know the headquarter job.
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in the retail job. It was a logical sequence of learning and experience that prepared you for management or leadership down the road. Then after that, I might move into a marketing role. I would do a lateral move just to understand marketing. All these experiences prepared me for higher level leadership jobs because now I was able to experience a lot of the functions within the organization that made me
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potential to be a good leader, if that makes sense. Not saying people have to have that broad experience on everything, but they have to understand when they climb up that ladder, they're gonna be responsible for more people in other departments that they may not be familiar with. You can develop those leadership skills in any role. I would say if you feel you develop them, by all means keep taking leaderships moving up. If you don't think you've had the opportunity to do that, I would seek
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opportunities to learn that part of the job to help you when you bigger leadership roles as well. And then you have a survey that you sent to me, but please explain it to us first. And then we're going to talk about my results. Would you explain to us how it helps you become more self-aware and more emotionally intelligent? Yeah, I'm certified in multiple assessments, but the one you're talking about is most people listening this will know what this is. It's called DISC.
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It's a DISC behavioral assessment. I'm also certified in Myers-Briggs, which is similar. And I'm also certified in Baron EQ. But DISC is a very popular assessment used in corporate America. It's an acronym for four base communication styles. The D stands for dominance, I stands for influence, S stands for steadiness, C stands for compliance.
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So there's attributes associated with each of those styles. And what you do when you take the assessment, which is basically 24 short questions, you will learn what your disc style is, whether you're a D, I S or C. Typically people are not just one. They're a blend of several. You can be a blend of one, two or three. I'm a blended high. When I say high, it's what my style is high S style. I'm a high steadiness.
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with some high dominance style. So that's my blended style. The point of taking this assessment is just what I said, learning about yourself through your disc survey, you can learn more about how you communicate, how you behave, how you deal with change, risk and conflict, how you're motivated, how you make decisions. And now with that knowledge, you can become better at managing yourself.
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Let's say I find out I'm someone that doesn't like change or I don't like taking a risk. I may know that intuitively, but taking the assessment can validate that even deeper and help me learn how to become better at taking a risk or better at dealing with change. So through that self-knowledge, I can leverage my strong sides and I can pull up and pick up maybe my weak side. There's no
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right or wrong disc style. It doesn't mean because you're a dominant style, you can't be good at sales, or because you're a compliance style, you can't be a good manager. It has nothing to do with that. It's just self-knowledge, number one, then secondarily, knowing others. So what I typically do in a workshop, let's hypothetically say a sales team. I talk about three steps, learn, read, and adapt.
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Learn is basically, I will teach every participant in the workshop, all the attributes associated with a high D, I, S and C, and then each person will learn what their style is. And I'll share it with the team. And that's always fun because the team gets to see each other, it's styles and it's a lot of aha moments. It's like, oh, so that's what you, you know, it's, it's really fun. Then the second part of that is again, this is a sales example.
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I teach people to read the disk style of their customers. So through a process, I teach them, they can start saying this difficult customer I'm dealing with is a high D. I'm a high I, I like talking, I like building relationships, but this guy's a high D and he doesn't wanna talk. He wants to get down to business. He wants numbers, he wants facts, he wants figures. And then the third part, now that we know that, I teach them how to adapt.
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their style or their sales pitch or their presentation relevant to that other person. So it's learn, read, adapt. Learn about yourself, learn to read others, and then adapt yourself for effective communication. Say I'm a type A personality. I'm very aggressive, I'm forceful to the point, and my buyer, my key decision maker, is quiet, reserved, risk averse. There's a chance I'm gonna turn them off by being overly aggressive.
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If I understand that about myself, that I can be that way, that's raising my EQ, and I'm able to understand that other person that's raising my EQ from an interpersonal skills understanding others, I'm gonna be able to better engage with them. I'm gonna be able to better communicate with them. So that's really how I use this assessment with clients. So in a sales role, it would be profiling customers. Maybe it's a managerial team. I may help them.
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profile their team if they didn't take the survey, or help them profile their colleagues. It's really an engaging workshop, and it does touch that practical skill side, the learn, read, and adapt, than the real world application is doing case studies, practicing selling to a high D, or selling to a high I, or better motivating someone of a different style. So they're getting used to using these skills of learn, read, and adapt in the world that they play in.
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One of the things it says on the survey was, don't think about it. Just your first instinct when you arrange the answers from most likely to least likely. I'm in my late 40s. If you knew your 20s, the results are going to be different. But I remember this one question where patience was one of the options. They used to call me so impatient so much that it's stuck in my subconscious basically. I thought to myself, wait a minute, I'm not that person anymore.
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My mom used to say, you must Google the patient store so they can deliver it to you. I had that so stuck in my head. I almost read that as most likely when I'm not this person anymore. Well, if I remember correctly, I think you are a high S and I, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. It says I'm very collaborative. I'm very much a teamwork. Let's get together. Try to not be confrontational. Let's try and figure this out. Yes.
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that is a high S. So they are more patient typically. So you are right, things have changed through time. And so yeah, that makes total sense. So high S's are very collaborative, team oriented, methodical, great listeners, very loyal and very patient. So those are positive attributes associated with that style. I'll just run through them real quick. A dominant style, high D are very aggressive, forceful, competitive.
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direct to the point, no nonsense, make their decisions based off of facts and numbers. Influencers style is very people-oriented, gregarious, talkative, outgoing. They get their energy from around people. They make their decisions on the feel of a relationship. Steadyness styles, as I said, is very collaborative, methodical, calming, calm factor. Move at a little bit of slower pace, patient. And they make their decisions.
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through trust and again, the relationship. And lastly, the compliance styles, they are numbers-oriented, very risk averse, very conservative, asticulars. They make slower decisions, and they make their decisions based off of facts and numbers too. The difference between a compliant and dominant style in liking facts and numbers, a dominant style, if you're presenting to them, they just want the top line. They want facts, but just give me the top line. What do the top line numbers say? Yeah.
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Compliance style wants you to regurgitate all the numbers, all the facts. Also, another key thing to know is you go left to right on the spectrum. D I S C the willingness to make a change and take a risk diminishes as you go left to right dominant influencer styles are more willing to make a change or make a decision. Statings and compliance style is a little bit less willing to make a change and make a fast decision. So keep that in mind as well too.
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Yes. And then because we talk about speaking a lot, if you think of all those four styles, you have a speaker who would be more dominant and get the audience going crazy and jumping on their chairs, an influential one who's around people, a more collaborative one and the compliance one. Would you say there's a one way of being to be one of the best one of the ultimate speakers who draws your audience in?
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or just be with your style, understand how you communicate, understand your audience, and just go with the style that you are. Go with the style you are, hands down. I'm gonna tell you funny stories. When I first walked from corporate America, I looked into doing public speaking. That was one of the first things. I was primarily doing workshops, but I also want to look into being a public speaker as well too, and it does tie to the workshop too. But I went to my first National Speakers Association meeting.
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big conference, big convention, and they have the great speakers up there. Yeah, and they're like, the speakers are very polished, announcing their words or being very dynamic. And I thought to myself, that's not me. Yeah, I couldn't do that. I'm not going to go out and be dramatic or I'm not a massive rah-rah guy, especially stuff I don't believe in. So that bothered me a little bit.
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Then I went and saw someone, I'm not sure if you're listeners or you have heard of his name's Jeffrey Gettemer. He's known for sales. I think he wrote a book called, it's a best-selling book called the Little Red Bible of selling. You'll see it in airport. They're little books like this. Yeah. But the Jeffrey Gettemer, I saw him speaking. He walks down the aisle just talking, BSing, you know, he'll tease someone here. Someone, he'll ask him, do you want a book? He'll throw him a book.
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He's just let's it out there and hang. It's him. And the biggest lesson I learned from watching him was just that, be yourself. Be comfortable with who you are. If you're confident about what you're talking about and you're passionate about it, it will come out. If you're faking something, people are going to know. I've done workshops like where someone has brought me in to do content that isn't mine. I don't like it because it's not my content.
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and I'm not passionate about it. The passion doesn't come out. So when I believe in the content, it's mine and I know it works, then I just flow. It comes out naturally, I'm passionate, and I can connect dots. And I, like you, am a high S. And high Ss, believe it or not, are a little bit more on the introverted side. Not that they don't like people, not that they can't engage like I am now, not that they can't do a good workshop.
29:23
But after a workshop and a speaking engagement, I don't wanna talk to anyone. I wanna go by myself, I wanna go take a nap. I have a good friend who's a high DI. Gorgarius, talkative, forceful. He and I have done workshops together. Same workshop, different rooms. After the workshop, oh God, he'll go to the bar, grab dinner, take work, talk to everybody in the bar, have some beers, I'll go back to the room by myself. He'll come the next day and perform better than me.
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Because at that bar, he's a high D and I, he gets energy being around people. He likes being around people. He likes that after I'm done speaking, I want to be alone. But I can deliver the goods during the facility. Required. Yeah. And nothing wrong with that. Yes. A lot of people do things like toastmasters. I don't want to do that because I think I have good stand up skills and I'm not interested in presenting stuff that isn't mine or I'm not interested in because.
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that doesn't do well for me. Another thing that scares the heck out of me in speaking or a workshop is a podium. I move around, I'm Italian, the hands gotta fly, the hands. So if I'm stuck behind a podium, so I'm always restricted, give me a lavalier, Mike, let me go to town. But long story short on your stuff, if you're passionate and you believe in what you do, and you're good at what you do, it'll come out naturally. There might be some speaking skills you want to know and learn. I wouldn't say no to that. Be yourself, be who you are.
30:50
the most important piece of advice I'd give there. And I learned that myself. Be yourself. That's always my philosophy as well. Like you said, you can learn some of the skills, but incorporate them to your message and just being yourself and things that you believe in. I just go to town out there. It's amazing. I do believe I'm doing what God has wanted me to do, because when I'm in workshops, when I'm speaking, just stuff comes to my mind or a story that will be relevant in that moment.
31:18
I'll remember and I'll share that story. Or, you know, I have a way of connecting the dots. I truly love what I do. And I do topics I'm passionate about. When that happens, it all flows. The stories will come. The connection will come. The quote will come. The metaphor will come. But if I had to present something that I don't know or I'm not comfortable with, I couldn't do it. Some people can. I can't. So again, my advice is speak about what you're passionate about and just be yourself.
31:48
Take the disk survey and be more self-aware. Is there anything I didn't ask you that you were willing to share with our listeners today? My book, In Defensive Adversity, Turn Your Toughest Challenges into Your Greatest Success. It does cover a lot of the disk information in the book. You can get it on Amazon. Again, it's called In Defensive Adversity, Turn Your Toughest Challenges into Your Greatest Success. And in the book, I also apply
32:14
the understanding of brain functionality, how people's brains function when they're not stressed versus when they're stressed, and how through that knowledge, they can better self-manage. And I connect that dot with the disc styles as well too. So the more self-knowledge you can have, the more you're gonna also understand how you deal with adversity so you can deal with it better moving forward. And that's the crux of my book.
32:41
And just one last word on adversity. It's not just personal adversity, but we're facing the technology challenges, everything moving so fast. We had mental health issues because a lot of us are not coping. What is the one piece of advice you could give to somebody who's listening and is struggling with adversity? Adversity is meant to be put on our lives for a reason, to help us grow, transform, and evolve.
33:08
Our trials and tribulations are there to help us grow. I get discussions with a lot of people about the participation trophy. Have you heard, you know what a participation trophy is? Cause when I was growing up, only one winner and then two runner-ups, but now everybody gets a trophy. Yeah. And I understand the theory behind giving everyone a trophy, but I also think you're robbing people of the experience of not winning or what did it take to win or what could I have done?
33:38
better next time. Through those failures, through the adversity, through not winning, you learn lessons if you're willing to learn it. So there's two parts of the brain I talk about, the cortex and the limbic system. The limbic system is the part of our brain we're born with. It doesn't grow, transform, and evolve through time. When we're stuck in the limbic system, our response to adversity is going to be freeze, fight, or flight, or a combination of those. The cortex part of our brain...
34:06
does grow, transform, and evolve through time, through our life experiences, good and bad, through our training and development and work, through our education system. So the more we can build our cortex muscle, so to speak, the better we are going to be handling real world situations. So when we're robbing people of building our cortex muscle,
34:31
Our response to adversity is going to be freeze, fight, or flight are one of those three, and it's not a positive place to be. So that's what I'm saying that adversity is meant for us to experience, to learn a lesson from it and grow from it. If we didn't overcome it, let's at least learn from it. What lesson did I learn from that situation? So if and when it happens again, I can handle it differently this time. I think also if you look in Mother Nature that it's proven a beautiful diamond.
34:59
it's actually a piece of coal that becomes a diamond through years and years of pressure. You know, I think that's Mother Nature's way of telling us that through our pressure and friction of life, we can go from a piece of coal into this beautiful diamond as well too. So adversity is meant to be in our lives again to help us grow, transform and evolve into the people we were meant to become. I don't know if maybe this is a different philosophy in the States, but
35:30
I trust that you can do this. But if I give you a participation trophy, I'm not trusting that you can work and put the effort to eventually deserve to win the trophy. That's right, that's right. What did I do to succeed? What did we do wrong? What could we done better? You know, that's learning. I teach that for leaders and managers or even salespeople when they're working alone. But whenever a manager is observing one of his or her people.
35:57
you know, whether they succeeded or failed, they should debrief that situation. You know, what did you do right? You know, that was a great call. What things did you think you did right in that call that was successful? Or you didn't make the sale. What would you do next time to help you maybe make that sale? You know, that allows people to re hard wire their brains. Why did I succeed and let me keep doing that again? Or why did I not succeed? And what can I do different next time? So I am successful.
36:25
every situation is thrown in our lives to help us grow, transform, and evolve. Again, I think especially the adverse ones is when we can really learn the most. And I have a ton of stories I can share for another show if you're ever interested. And you must come back. I hope you remember that. I'd love to. Love to. Yeah. Words of wisdom from Steve Gavartota from the Steve Gavartota Group. Thank you so much for being on our show today. And before you go...
36:52
Where can we find you on the socials and the interwebs and the book as well? If you Google my name, Steve Gavatorta, that's Steve G-A-V-A-T-O-R-T-A. If you Google me, there's plenty of information out there. You can visit my website, you can find all my social media sites, and I have a ton of good content on YouTube as well too. And you can even find my book in defense of adversity. So just Google my name and there's plenty of stuff out there and you can look for yourself.
37:20
Excellent. Steve Gavatorta, author of In Defense of Adversity. Don't forget to subscribe, give a rating and a review on iTunes and Spotify, and stay tuned for more episodes to come.

Understanding Your Communication And Leadership Styles w/ Steve Gavatorta
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