Speaking and Communicating Podcast

This podcast focuses on improving your communication skills both professionally and personally

>> Robert Sandleila: Welcome back to the speaking and communicating podcast. I am your host, Robert Angela. If you are looking to improve your communication skills, both professionally and personally, this is the podcast you should be tuning into. Communication and soft skills are crucial for your career growth and leadership development. We are currently looking for professionals or entrepreneurs who would be willing to discuss their communication challenges on this show. All the details of booking a spot with me are found on the show notes and by the end of this episode, please log on to Apple and Spotify and leave us a reading and a review.

Christina Lopez is a former diplomat and a higher education consultant

Now let's get communicating.

>> Robert Sandleila: Now let's get communicating with Christina Lopez, who is a former diplomat and currently is a higher education consultant and an author. She's here to help us with our cognition skills, our writing skills and overall our personal effectiveness. And before I go any further, please help me welcome her to the show. Hi Christina.

>> Christina Lopez: Hi. I'm happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

>> Robert Sandleila: My pleasure. Thank you for being here.

You spent several years in the foreign service before becoming a higher education consultant

Welcome. Please tell us a little bit of your background.

>> Christina Lopez: I would love to. So, as you mentioned, I started my career in the foreign service. I have a master's in international relations and I joined joined the foreign service as a us diplomat when I was about 24, 25 years old. And it had always been my dream to go into diplomacy and I really enjoyed representing my country overseas. I was posted at the us embassy in London. I spent several years there working as a diplomat. And when I came back to the US, I went back to school, I started my own business and that's when I really got into higher education. I've been working in higher education for about the past 15 years or so and now I'm a consultant for universities. I'm a higher education consultant and I recently wrote a book called get the Degree without losing your mind. The busy students guide to study hacking. It's basically a book that leverages executive level skills for personal effectiveness, but it teaches them to a much younger demographic. So teaching students how to be better at managing their time, better at communicating career advancement, those types of things that students don't necessarily learn in school, which.

>> Robert Sandleila: Is what we always highlight here, that, yes, school is going to do its job and give you all the technical knowledge you need to do your job. But this extra soft skills, what we call them, is what you need to then invest in during your college years.

Being overseas can be an enlightening experience for any person

So you said you've always dreamed of working internationally and serving your country. What were some of the, again, skills that you learned being in a different culture? I mean, I know the UK, there's similarities with the US. But some things are different. What do you think makes any person successful once they are, uh, in a country that is not their own?

>> Christina Lopez: I think the UK is actually very, very different. We sort of speak the same language, but culturally, things are very, very different. And so I think being overseas can be such an enlightening experience because it forces you to really challenge your own assumptions about how people live, um, what is normal for day to day living and everything from the small things to the big things, how we interact and how we communicate. But I think that the experience of living abroad or traveling is a really wonderful way to build empathy, because I think that when you're forced out of your comfort zone, it makes you realize that people around the world, they live differently, they have different sets of values and beliefs. And so opening your mind to those things, I think ultimately, if you're doing it right, if you're traveling correctly, if you're really being open minded, I think it can make you a better person.

>> Robert Sandleila: And a more empathetic person, especially now that a lot of organizations are global, which means not everyone in your team is going to come from the same country, same culture. So those skills are very much necessary.

>> Christina Lopez: Yes, I agree 100%.

When you came back from international relations, you decided to go into education

>> Robert Sandleila: So when you came back, you decided to go into education. Is that too bigger change from the international relations work?

>> Christina Lopez: I didn't think so, because when I came back, I was actually teaching international relations at a college in Los Angeles. So it seems like a very natural transition. I was teaching international marketing, international business and international relations, and international communications course. So it was, um, a pretty natural transition. I think that government and, um, higher ed are very similar culturally also, when.

>> Robert Sandleila: It comes to relations.

Communication is probably the number one skill that is needed in diplomacy

What role does communication play in learning to get along with other cultures, internationally, with other people, and negotiate deals and be diplomatic if there's conflict and things like that?

>> Christina Lopez: Well, I think communication is probably the number one skill that is needed in diplomacy. That I think coupled with just being empathetic, you know, before you go into the foreign service, of course, you take a lot of classes. You take language classes. If there's a different language that you're learning, you take classes on culture and on etiquette. But I think at the end of the day, it really comes down to how open are you to new cultures, to new ideas, you know, can you observe, can you listen as much or more than you speak? And I think people think of diplomats as good communicators, and they are. But I think a truly good diplomat is somebody who is willing to listen, because then they can truly understand what the person on the other side of the aisle is really, you know, looking to accomplish. And I think you can be a much better negotiator if that's the case.

>> Robert Sandleila: Right? Listening, we always say two ears, one month, using proportion.

The biggest struggle that I found with graduate students was balancing all of

And then when you were asked to be an education consultant for college students, what did you find were their biggest needs in this regard?

>> Christina Lopez: So I started working with graduate students, um, about five or six years ago. The biggest struggle that I found with my students, they were fully employed. Graduate students was just balancing all of the things in their life. So not only did they have their schoolwork, their studies, but many of them had full time jobs and families. And while I was running a graduate, multiple graduate programs, I, too, was going back to school. I was getting my MBA and working full time, and I realized that I needed a better approach. I needed a different approach than the approach that I took when I was in my twenties, getting a master's degree and going to school full time. And so that's really where I developed the methodology that is in my book, get the degree without losing your mind. It teaches students more than just how to be effective in the classroom. It teaches them how to organize and plantain their time, their week, how to organize and plan their studies. But it also teaches them how to take care of themselves, to think about well being, about mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health, and how important that is to being successful in anything that we do. And I think that sometimes students, because they're so overwhelmed and stressed out and working so hard to get good grades, they'll often neglect the other aspects of themselves and of their personhood. But over time, that's really detrimental. And I think we see that as student, um, wellbeing and wellness disintegrates. And so, really teaching students at a young age to care for their own mental health and wellness, I think, is really important and to find balance in their lives. So the book gives a lot of tips on that, as well as just generally being more personally effective.

>> Robert Sandleila: Does it help if you truly love what you do based on just starting a course when you all of those challenges facing you? Yes, go ahead.

>> Christina Lopez: I think so. I think motivation is a big part of being successful. And the book actually starts chapter one. There's exercises in every single chapter, but the very first exercise is a visualization exercise. And I encourage students to know their why, because when you know what motivates you, you're more likely to complete it. And so I have them go through an exercise where they talk about what it is that they want to get out of the experience, what's driving them, what's motivating them, and then spend time actually visualizing that experience of completing whatever that goal is. And I found that when I was working on my MBA, that was a really effective tool for me because things do get tough. You do want to quit, but knowing why you're there and sort of visualizing that end goal is really important to, um, being able to complete it.

In my book, I have an entire section on writing skills

>> Robert Sandleila: Let's talk about one of the things. There's so many, obviously, one of the things you help students with, which is writing skills in America, there are so many essays that you have to write, and this was before AI, at least. There's so many essays in order for you to get to the school of your choice that you need to write to convince them that you're the right candidate and you deserve a spot, you deserve to be there. What are, ah, the key things that go into writing a really good essay and selling yourself?

>> Christina Lopez: In my book, I have an entire section on writing skills. And the reason that I wrote that section of the book and I wrote it prior to kind of this big explosion of, uh, generative AI, was because as I was managing the program with graduate students, professors were coming to me and they were saying, we need these students to be able to write at a graduate level before they come into the classroom. They have to have these writing skills because I don't have time to teach them how to write in class. I've got to teach them other things, but I need these essays to be written at a higher level. And so I started developing a workshop that I would give to students right when they entered the program on how to write effectively, how to write specifically for academia. So in my book, section two is all about writing skills, my best hacks for writing. And I've been a writer for two decades now. So 20 years that I've been writing in various capacities. I wrote for newspapers when newspapers were a thing back in print. I wrote for online blogs and newspapers. I wrote for the Huffington Post, and then obviously this book and I have a novel that I've been working on for a while. So I've long been part of this writing community and taken many classes. And of course, there's nothing that compares to just having the experience of and getting in the practice and habit of writing. So I share a lot of my best tips for just improving writing. I've got ten tips that I think if you follow those tips, your writing will improve exponentially. And I know that a lot of students today are using generative AI to write their essays. And I know that a lot of colleges are allowing it. For a moment, I almost took that section out of the book because colleges are allowing students to use AI. However, I left it in because after speaking to some of my fellow professor friends and just hearing their perspective on why it's so important for students to write, they agree with me that writing teaches you how to think well, it teaches you how to think critically, it teaches you how to organize your ideas and how to defend them. And I think until you have that opportunity to really go through the mental process of looking at loads and loads of information and being forced to organize it, to synthesize it, to find meaning, to create commonalities and themes, that's an incredible process for the brain to go through that I think is really important for young people to develop those critical thinking skills. I also know that a lot of professors now have tools that have caught up with AI that can detect whether or not AI has written the essays. So I just thought it was so important because I think regardless of how we will use AI in the future, what humans will always need to be able to use are their creative and critical thinking skills. So writing truly helps you develop those. So I do hope that students will read this section on my book on writing and really spend time, not just be lazy, but to continue to be mentally and intellectually curious. And I hope that people will still continue to write because I think that it's just a wonderful way to uncover what we believe. I think as we write, we start to really unearthed our beliefs and our opinions and our perspectives on things.

>> Robert Sandleila: It's funny, I'm on two minds on this, because first I heard that some, at least, like you said, the professors now have tools to detect whether AI wrote your essay. That some colleges, at least, if they can detect that's an f. Ah, they don't want you, they want you to think. Like you said, I'm 47, so I grew up in an where you go to the library, there was no Internet, there was no Google. You go to the library, you're going to, for your assignment, read different books on the topic. Whatever you copy or say, this is the one that's going to cinema assignment. If you code it exactly, you're going to mention your source, everything. We had to have those skills in order for us to complete our assignments. There's just so much that goes into that research.

>> Christina Lopez: Yes.

>> Robert Sandleila: Not just have the computer tell you what to write.

>> Christina Lopez: Yes. I couldn't agree more.

In academic writing, there is a hierarchy of information

And for that reason, I included a section in my book about the hierarchy of information, because now more than ever, it's so critically important that students understand, and really, any adult learner understands where the information is coming from. And you can't ever just rely on AI to give you reliable information. You want to check the sources as you always want to check your sources. But I think understanding that, especially in academic writing, there is a hierarchy of information. And I think what a lot of young people today have been programmed to do is just Google everything and assume that everything that Google pulls up is relevant and valid. But this hierarchy of information, and I talk a lot about the journalistic practices that I learned when I was writing for newspapers. What that is, what the highest level of information is, from academic journals to, uh, traditionally published nonfiction books to articles and newspapers. It kind of waterfalls down to the different levels. But a lot of people today, which is a sad thing, they're getting a lot of their information from social media posts, from blog posts, from information sources that are not vetted, and they're not of the highest quality. And so that is so important when it comes to academic research and academic writing, is that, ah, you're always choosing those sources of the highest quality, those peer reviewed journals and essays. And so I teach students, you know, the importance and the value there and how to look for those resources.

>> Robert Sandleila: Absolutely. As I said in our, uh, era, and it didn't mean that you agreed with everything you found in a book. Back to the critical thinking skill that you mentioned earlier.

>> Christina Lopez: That's right.

>> Robert Sandleila: Yeah. You would quote the author, and then you'd say, you know what? This part I agree with, and this is why. And this part I don't agree with, and this is why I support my argument. That whole critical thinking, sort of like being a lawyer in a courtroom and presenting evidence and why you feel a certain way. That was a skill that we grew up needing to have in order to do well in our classes and assignments.

How do current college students leave abbreviations behind when they enter corporate world

And back to writing again, the abbreviations, the texting language. How do current college students, how are they able to, when they get into the corporate world, leave that behind and actually write full words instead of these abbreviations of wid and all of that?

>> Christina Lopez: I know I'm tough on my team because, you know, and it's always so important, especially with acronyms. I think when you get into the business world, it's Alphabet soup. So many acronyms. And I tell my teams over and over again, you always have to define your acronyms. You have to understand that the person reading may or may not come in with the same background knowledge you do, and most of the cases they don't. So you don't want to completely alienate them with something that they can't understand. You need to define your terms upfront, tell us what the acronyms mean, spell them out every time, because it just makes for, you know, much better communicating. And it's, you know, the same goes for jargon. You want to try to avoid that, if you can, and just be very clear and concise in your writing. And I try to model in this book what I'm asking students to do. It's written at an 8th grade reading level, but I'm taking very complex concepts that are typically taught to senior executives and I've broken them down, you know, simmered them down to just the most basic, simple elements and communicate it to students that way because no one has time to read another textbook, especially if you're getting a master's degree, getting a college degree, getting a PhD, you don't want to read another textbook. So I made this book so simple and easy to understand, so easy to read. It's actually laid out like a workbook. So there's lots of white space. I made margins with space to take notes in the margins because I think that's really important for people to be able to take notes while they read. Um, it's very user friendly. I just wanted to make it so accessible for everyone.

>> Robert Sandleila: And so now they've solidified, obviously.

There is a section in my book about landing dream jobs

You said you work with graduate students, so they've already landed their dream jobs, at least. Do you help some of your clients to land their dream jobs after they graduate college?

>> Christina Lopez: There is a section in my book about landing dream jobs. I have to tell you, I'm not a career counselor, but I do have the experience of getting a few dream jobs. And so I share my personal experience. One of my dream jobs was becoming a diplomat for the us government at age 25. That took a lot of hard work. It was very intentional. And so I lay out what I did, my plan to pass the foreign service exam, how I kind of structured my study time. I had a dream to work for a big four consulting firm. That wasn't easy. It took weeks of dedicated research and study. I really just kind of lay out my experience. The, um, chapter is the career development chapter. And I talk not just about how to get a job, but more importantly, how to keep a job, because I think we need to be sharing that with young people, with young professionals, um, about how to act professionally in the workplace, how to advance and how to do it appropriately. I think it's not just about tooting your own horn. I think that we've kind of evolved beyond that, and it's really, you know, about the ability to mentor others, to be a leader at whatever level you are in the company. And so I talk a lot about those, um, professional skills, and I think students will find that really valuable.

>> Robert Sandleila: Absolutely valuable indeed.

Gratitude changes the state of our mind and helps students focus better

You've mentioned some of the practices you encourage them to act on in your book. One of the other ones is gratitude. I found that interesting because this is about studying. How does gratitude come into this equation?

>> Christina Lopez: I found it interesting, too. And I even say that in the book I mentioned, there's probably two or three different sections in the book where I talk about gratitude, having a gratitude practice. The reason that gratitude is so profound and the reason that it impacts studying and students is because the practice of gratitude literally changes the state of our mind. So it puts us in a very calm state where we're actually able to receive, where our brain is like a receptacle that can receive information and learn much better. I don't know if you've ever had the experience of being really stressed out, really overwhelmed. Maybe you feel sad or angry or emotional about something. When you're in that kind of a mental space, it's really hard to take in information. It's really hard to learn. I know there have been times where I've just felt so overwhelmed, I literally can't think straight. I can't even put a sentence together or figure out my next steps because I'm just in that state of overwhelm. When we practice gratitude and meditation, it's the complete reverse of that. It's the complete opposite of that. It calms down our nervous system. It actually clears the mind and clears the brain. It allows us to be able to focus better. So that's why I spend so much time talking about gratitude. And encouraging students of all ages to incorporate a gratitude practice into their lives.

>> Robert Sandleila: Certainly clears your mind because you want to absorb all this information so that you do well in your studies.

>> Christina Lopez: Yeah. You know what else clears your mind? Naps. Naps are fantastic before studying.

>> Robert Sandleila: Now, that's the irony, because when you say youre clients, they have families studying, working, all of that, they juggle. Then the first question they're going to ask is, Christina, when am I going to have time to have taken that, uh, 24 hours in a day is not enough for me already.

>> Christina Lopez: Here's the thing. When I was in this position working full time and getting an MBA, I did the math. And I came to the same conclusion you did, that there weren't enough hours in the day for me to do my full time job, commute to a job, go to the gym, see friends and family, do every single reading and homework assignment that was required of me for my classes and to not be a miserable person. And so I had to take a step back and I said, okay, if I can't do it all, then I have to do just the utmost important things. I really had to prioritize my time, so I went, you know, I would go through each syllabus and select what's the most important thing to read. How can I be more efficient at that? How can I not waste time reading? And, uh, there's a whole chapter on how to read very efficiently, but I had to prioritize. And then once I figured out what those key activities were, I truly had to focus my mind and my time on them. Because you're right, there isn't enough hours in the day. And if someone tells you that they can do it all, they're lying to you, because nobody can do it all. You have to pick and choose. So pick and choose wisely, and then focus on those things. And when you're done, rest. Because rest, which is also part of the book. Rest is actually really important. To be able to focus clears your mind, but it also rejuvenates you and it helps you stay in the race longer if you're not feeling like, um, you're completely drained. So rest in many, and there's many different ways that people rest, but rest is really important.

>> Robert Sandleila: Mhm.

Sometimes we get trapped in what's important versus what's urgent will

When you help your clients with time management, do you sometimes suggest that, wait a minute, you're not going to do it all? Like you said, you can't have it all. But sometimes I think we get trapped in the what's important versus what's urgent will. And we don't know how to say no to some things that we could potentially delay for later. That's why we feel like the 24 hours in a day is not enough. How do we make that distinction and say, listen, this can wait. Right now, this is what I need to do.

>> Christina Lopez: And they call it the Eisenhower matrix. It was in Covey's book on the seven habits of highly effective people. So the urgent versus non urgent, important versus not important. So I include those quadrants in book because it is important to distinguish between the urgent and the important. And so we go through a process in the book on scheduling your time. And that's a great way to ensure that you're not just letting those urgent things come at you, you're actually making time for the important things. Quadrant two, if I'm not mistaken, is those important things and not just letting the distractions of the day take up all your time.

>> Robert Sandleila: Because, yeah, that's the one thing that we always feel like everything has to be done and that's not how it's supposed to be.

>> Christina Lopez: That's right.

>> Robert Sandleila: I mhm.

Do you have any last words of wisdom for anyone in college who needs to start working towards skills

Do you have any last words of wisdom for anyone in college who needs to start working towards these skills? Because in college alone, all they're learning is their technical skill. What is it that they need to do to invest in these extra skills as well?

>> Christina Lopez: Yeah, that's such a great question. So something I recommend in the book is to be intellectually curious to not just assume that going to class and doing your homework is enough. I think if you want to get the most out of your education, you have to be an active learner. So that means when I'm learning a new subject, I'm not just learning in the classroom, I'm talking to everybody that I know that does the thing that I'm learning about. I'm subscribing to podcasts on the topic. I'm subscribing to newsletters on the topic. I'm listening to audiobooks on that same topic because I want to be an expert. And I think this idea of thinking that as a student, your job is just to come to class and take in information, to be passive, that's the wrong approach. Your job as a student is to be active, to take your education into your own hands and to make the most of it in every way that you possibly can. And for me, that means being really active and intellectually curious about everything that I'm learning.

>> Robert Sandleila: Absolutely. Because there's so many changes as well. So to keep up with what's going on, if college or university doesn't do that for you, like you said, speak to people in the industry, keep up with what's going on. All the information is online, and then you help mid career professionals. What's the one thing that they can do in order to help accelerate their career growth as well?

>> Christina Lopez: I would say join organizations. Whether you're looking to make a career change or not, find groups and organizations that align with what it is that you want to do. I think it's a great way for staying on the cutting edge of what's happening in an industry. It's a great way to network, to meet people, and to hear about potential career opportunities. So stay connected beyond just university or college experience. But outside of that, in those professional groups, is a great way to start thinking about advancing your career.

Christina Lopez is a former diplomat and higher education consultant

>> Robert Sandleila: Words of wisdom from Christina Lopez, the former diplomat and higher education consultant. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us today. This has been very helpful and a lot of listeners will benefit from it.

>> Christina Lopez: Thank you, Roberta. It was lovely talking to you.

>> Robert Sandleila: My absolute pleasure. Loving talking with you as well. Before you go, please tell us where we can find you online.

>> Christina Lopez: Yeah, uh, absolutely. So my book, get the degree without losing your mind. The busy students guide to study hacking can be found wherever you get your books. So that's Amazon, Barnes and Noble, target, Walmart. Pre order your copy today and it'll ship in the new year.

>> Robert Sandleila: And do you have any websites or social media handles for us?

>> Christina Lopez: Uh, yes, you can reach me on my website. And it's just the same as the name of the book. It's www.getthedegree.com. you can reach me there.

>> Robert Sandleila: Getthedegree.com. christina Lopez, thank you very much for being on the show today.

>> Christina Lopez: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

>> Robert Sandleila: My absolute pleasure. Thank you for joining us on the speaking on communicating podcast. Once again, please log on to apple and sporty. Mhm, mhm, mhm, mhm.

>> Christina Lopez: Mhm.

>> Robert Sandleila: Leave us a rating and a review and what you'd like for us to discuss on the show that will be of benefit to to you. We encourage you to continue to get communicating and let us know how communication skills continue to improve your life professionally and personally. And stay tuned for more episodes to come.