Speaking and Communicating Podcast

Welcome back to the Speaking and Communicating Podcast. I am 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. And by the end of this episode, please remember to subscribe, give a rating and a review. My guest today, Susanna Lahteela, is a Finn who currently lives in Prague with her husband and their fur baby.
00:29
is a public speaking coach, a motivational speaker, and a keynote speaker, especially with corporate clients. And before I go any further, since she's the perfect fit for this podcast, please help me welcome Susanna to the show. Hello. Hi, Roberta. Thanks for having me. Thank you for being on the show. I absolutely love your energy. Happy to bring some. It's all good. I'm sure it's going to be felt through the audio as well once everybody starts listening to us.
00:59
So before we go any further, please tell us a little bit about yourself Susanna. Happy to. Yes, I'm Susanna, I said from Finland originally, have not lived there for a couple of years now. And yeah, I am a public speaker, I'm a huge advocate of Toastmasters, absolutely love the platform. Yeah, living in Prague, you kind of already told a lot about me. Yeah, my husband, my fur baby, everything is here. So yeah, that's in a nutshell who I am and I'm sure we're gonna go forward and you will learn a little more as well.
01:28
For sure, and we're looking forward to that. Why are you such a big promoter of Toastmasters? Well, Toastmasters has brought me where I am. Toastmasters is an absolutely great platform where you can just so safe environment, learn how to speak up, and you can really get so valuable feedback, and you can safely practice any speeches impromptu or planned.
01:54
It's just a platform where you don't have to feel afraid of speaking up because nobody's going to judge you. So it brings you so much in life. I love the platform. I could speak a full hour with you about Toastmasters, but I'm sure we're not going to have that in our agenda. And Nacho, that's why Toastmasters is so close to my heart. For sure. We can definitely speak for more than an hour because we're both members. And I always say the one thing about Toastmasters is it brings out the best version of each person.
02:21
when they're at the meeting and that's like there's encouragement, there's no judging. They do give feedback so you can improve and do better. I mean, have you noticed how your first speech is very different from the speech you give now? Because of the feedback you receive. You mean the amount of sweats or? Because definitely, no. Yeah, definitely. 100%. My speech two years ago, I would not even want to watch that. It would be very gringy and awkward.
02:50
But the feedback definitely has brought me where I am today. It certainly does. And speaking of your Toastmasters speeches, so on YouTube, I watched your humorous speech contest, which by the way, congratulations on winning the Eastern European division. So your humorous speech contest, Toastmasters has different categories of speech contests. So humorous and you were talking about how you were waiting for your husband to propose. Yes.
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True story, true story, every bits and part of it, true story. One, you sound like most women when you don't have the patience and you know it's coming. And then two, I love your storytelling skills. We emphasize the importance of storytelling here. You're welcome. I absolutely love how you tell the story. You are very clear with the emotions. You define the settings and the scene and around what was happening. How did you develop that skill?
03:44
the storytelling one, I definitely have to give most of the prop to my mom. My mom used to read us everyday stories when we were kids. And I know most of parents do that. I'm not saying my mom was a superhero for doing that. But what my mom did was every character that the book had, had a different voice. So then every time when we were listening to the books, it was really a story. It was going up and down and someone was whispering and someone was talking really...
04:13
and it brought the vocal variety in me, what I have today. That's 100% my mom. And then another thing that my mom did without realizing that she was growing a public speaker. She told me in school, I was horrible at school by the way, but she told me at school when I was writing an article and I was like, mom, I don't have enough words in here. They want a thousand words and I have only a hundred or something like this. And she said, always think what you can add for a sentence.
04:40
And to this day, when I write my speeches, I'm always thinking back to my mom's wisdom of that part. She always gave me this example of, just think, cat is drinking. And I was like, huh, cat's drinking? What mom, that makes no sense. And she was like, no, cat's drinking. That's a sentence and you know what the cat is doing. But what kind of a cat? Black cat is drinking. What is the cat drinking? Black cat is drinking milk. How is the milk? What color is the milk?
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Is the cat flurries? What is going on? What's around it? Where is the cat? Even though back then I was like, okay, mom, you're just a nutcase. Like this makes no sense. I, I'm not writing about a black cat that drinks milk. It really hit me years later when I went to these competitions and when I went through writing the speeches and everything, and I was thinking, Oh, my speech has to be minimum five minutes. And I have only two, three minutes. And then it hit me. Cat's drinking. I was like, okay, now let's start.
05:34
Exactly. So that's definitely one of the tips that I'm happy to share with anybody. Thanks. And Prick, shout out to my mom. That's definitely where it started. But Toastmaster really has just made it better and give me, as you said, the feedback that you give everything. It's so much valuable and you just always can build it up and up. So yeah. Because here's the thing about cat is drinking versus the color of the cat, what it's drinking, what that looks like. You give me a picture.
06:02
You take me on a journey and I can literally picture the entire scenario, the cat, what it's drinking, what that looks like on its bowl, instead of just say cat is drinking. Exactly. And you keep your audience involved. You're bringing them there. It feels like you're there. That's the beauty of storytelling. It is. And if we listen to one as well, you don't want the story to end. Have you noticed that? Yeah.
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Definitely. I'm like, oh, okay, keep going. I'm a huge fan of audio books and that's my huge weakness. Cause I'm like, oh damn, now I have to find someone who's as good of a storyteller because the book ended. Very enjoyable and very much a part of our human connection. Yeah. So you mentioned your schooling career. Tell us a little bit more about that. How was school like for you? Happy too. I'm sure there's people who can relate to me. I definitely was not great at school.
06:56
I went to school when I was seven, forced to learn English by third grade and I hated it and I was like, I'm never going to need this. And yeah, my mom, she's like, oh, you're never going to need it. And now you married an American man. And I'm like, oh damn. I have an ADHD and a dyslexia. So for me, it was always very hard. When I went to school years ago, it wasn't really a knowledge.
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that ADHD or dyslexia exists, or even if it was, it wasn't really thought as a real thing. At least in Finland, nowadays, completely different. I've heard great stories. My sister's a teacher and they really implement stuff to these kids nowadays. It was a pity that I didn't have that. So I had the same amount of time to do tests and everything with the other students. I'm not saying that was the reason why I got back grades. I'm just saying it was very hard for me. I had a very, very hard time with just focusing.
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and learning and studying and I just hated every part of it. And I've always been a person who learns by doing and that's why Toastmasters again, yet is great. So yeah, I went through school, completely graduated and everything. And then after middle school, probably in high school, yeah. So I went to those and after that, I said, not my thing. I wanna go to a school where I can learn something with my hands. And in Finland, we have these great schools where you can actually learn a degree for a job.
08:15
You can choose to be a chef or you can choose to be an electrician or you can choose to build or anything. And so I wanted to be a seamstress. So I learned how to be a seamstress. So I'm a professional seamstress nowadays and I do a lot of different stuff with that as well. And mainly fix my husband's clothes. But yeah, school really was like just the thing that I kind of want to forget. In the back, my grades were horrible. Everything was really bad. But that's when I realized that your grades really don't define you.
08:41
And I started to go to work. I have been working ever since I was 17. I went to multiple different jobs and I built that ladder to myself with all different jobs. I have had so many different varieties of job working in sales. I was working in multiple different areas and then I met my husband and I left everything behind. And then after that, I started working in a huge corporation. When we moved in Prague, I realized after two years that corporate wasn't really my thing for some people. It works for myself. I realized that.
09:08
That little box for me was just too little. I needed to break the walls and I needed more room. And I realized I need to become an entrepreneur. I wanna do something more. So that's where I am now today. As we said, a public speaking coach, wanna build for people more and I wanna help people more. And now I finally have the platform and the possibility to do so. Now, when it comes to having, like you said, you had dyslexia, did you feel any pushback from your classmates? Do they help you or do they feel like, oh, wait a minute, she has a problem, I don't wanna be friends with her.
09:38
Maybe it was a different era. Yeah. School is, it wasn't great for me. I didn't realize why it was happening back then, but I just felt like I was a weirdo and I'm very different from a normal Finn. If anybody's ever met a Finn, you will be like, Oh, is she really a Finn-ish? I'm not sure. Normally, Fins are very stereotypically silent and shy and not confident and so on and so I obviously don't fit in that frame. I would just still want it to be myself. And I got bullied a lot.
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I went through years of pushing back. I still wanted to challenge the people. I still wanted to tell in the beginning when I still had the energy to do that, I still wanted to tell, oh no, I'm just different. I'm not weird. I'm just different. And I remember doing that. I mean, I was six, seven, eight when I was challenging these people all the way throughout till I was 15, 16, 17. And those were the years when I just kind of felt like I'm tired of this. I give up. So then I really went into...
10:36
very dark place and I kind of was like, okay, this is who everybody wants me to be. Years I've been told, you're too much, you're too loud, you have a horrible voice, you can't sing, you can't do this, you can't do that. And that's when I was like, okay, well maybe that is who I am. I started actually believing all of that and then I started building these walls around me without seeing them and I started horrible habits and it's a dark area. The confidence was just lost.
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I mean, I know right now it sounds like, okay, are you sure you went through that area? Like I can not picture you not being confident. It's a beauty of it because even though I hate that area, I love that I went through that because I don't think I would have as much confidence to this day if nobody ever pushed me down. But I break out of it. Eventually I started first faking it till I make it, which I hate that saying, but it's true. So then I just cried by myself at home because I was like, okay, I can't cry at school.
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I moved by myself in the age of 17. And then when I started building from there, living by myself and starting to work and seeing new people and seeing new groups, I started thinking of, oh, I'm going to build this new me. I remember feeling that. And now looking back, I'm like, what are you doing? Just be you. Like, you don't have to build anybody. So I was trying to build this person who everybody then would love and everybody would like fit into everyone's perfection. Do you know how many people suffer from that?
11:59
Definitely, definitely. And the more I talk with people nowadays, I realize, oh my god, I wasn't alone. But when I was 17, 18, there really wasn't podcast that I could listen to. There really wasn't anything like that. So for me, it was kind of just like, okay, I'm alone. It wasn't like all of that social media support that there is nowadays, which I'm so grateful for for everybody who is going through that. I went through that and years later and first big break for me was meeting my husband. He is this...
12:27
Typical American, I want to say, but very bubbly, very energetic. Just like you. Exactly. And I thought, Oh, this guy's like me when I'm not faking it. And I thought, Oh, maybe we can be weird together. And then when we moved to the States, I was like, Oh my God, everybody's like this. I love it. And he was just so tremendously great to see that there is a place where I belong. And I'm not saying necessarily the States, but I'm saying.
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the people around it and the new crew that I found. You were not told you were too loud and you need to hush. Exactly, exactly. Even though my husband is a volleyball player, so he is very tall and all of his friends are even taller. So even with them, nobody was calling me short or nothing like that. I was accepted immediately. And that's what I hope that everybody can find, like the group where you can be accepted, because that's where you can really build your confidence.
13:21
And then the second huge, huge stepping point was Toastmasters because I was nervous when I went to that first meeting ever, but growing and as we were talking about, getting that feedback, having those opportunities to just speak up, that's such a tremendous help. So that's where I kind of thought, I was like, now I'm just gonna break it all. I'm just gonna pull it all out there and whoever likes it, likes it, whoever doesn't, I'm not their cup of tea. That's where I then realized that I can be as confident as I want and some people will hate it.
13:48
Some people will like it and some people will learn from it. And I can support those people who wants to learn from it. I have a friend who says, you are not money. Not everybody's gonna love you. Oh, I love that. I'm gonna quote that. That's so true. No, I absolutely love that and agreed. Like you said, you need a sense of community that is gonna let you be who you are. 100%. We have a saying where you just have to be you. And I love when people...
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find their community and not just find their community, find themself in the community. Everybody always says, oh, I want to have the correct friend group. And it's like, yeah, you do want to have the correct friend group, but you want to be the person who you want to be. When you know who you are and you find your confidence, game over, you have a great life ahead. For sure. Why do you think sometimes the people who give you that type of feedback, what are they so uncomfortable with when it comes to you just speaking up? Good question.
14:45
Nowadays, looking back for the people who bullied me in school, who told me that, I think for them it was just jealousy for not being as confident as I was. I can't say that was the reason I have not talked to these people ever since. However, I do get this still to this day. So it's not really just children who says this to each other.
15:08
I still get it from people. People are still saying, oh, maybe you should really limit yourself. Maybe you should be a little less. Maybe you should be a little this and that. But every time when people tells me nowadays, maybe you should be a little less this and that, I'm always asking them a counter question. Why do you think that? And then every time when I ask, why do you think I, myself, how I am should be something else? Why? And every time when I ask this question, people are either struggling to answer and being like, oh, I don't know. It just, I kind of get that feeling.
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And every time I answer, well, you know what? That feeling is actually something where you can find the answer within yourself. Because if you feel like I am too much, then that's maybe something that we have to talk about if we have to keep working together. When someone told me, oh, you're so much, like, and you're so much is a lovely sentence. I love it. You're so much. So much what? But every time when people say me that, and that was just a couple of months ago, when someone told me it, you're so much.
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And I told him, okay, well, you know what? Go find someone who's a little less. Brown people who are a little less. If that makes you feel better about yourself. Exactly, and I tell it every time, and this sounds harsh, I am sorry, but I'm not gonna limit who I am for your standards where you would like me to be. I'm not willing to do that. That's not what I'm here for. Most of the time it is jealousy. Some of the time it's confusion, and some of the times just energy don't match, and that's okay. That's okay. Everybody's different. That's...
16:35
What I've learned in my life, those would be my answers for that, definitely. Because the first thing when we started talking, I'm like, oh my goodness, I love your energy. So contagious. Cause when you are that excited, I get excited too. Yeah. No, I get that a lot. Every time when I join a meeting or everything, everybody's like, oh my God. And it's really, it's really funny. And everybody's always asking me like, what are you taking?
17:01
I'm like nothing, nothing, it's just me. Give us the prescription, Susana. Whatever she's having, I have double. It's just who I am and who I want to be. I also feel like it's just the buildup that years and years and years I was just holding it in. And now when I have the confidence, I'm not gonna hold it back one bit. One, I commend you for...
17:25
after having been put down all those years to find the confidence to cloud back up again and just say, you know what, I'm just going to be the Susanna that I know. The reason I asked that question, I don't understand why I must dim your light to feel better about mine. Yeah, that's another subject that we could talk for hours. I speak with a lot of people when I speak about motivation. I speak with a lot of people because they always say, oh, but you're like that. I can never be as good of a speaker like you are.
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Why would you want to copy me? And I'm always telling people, don't try to either dim people's light by the way you're saying it, but don't also try to steal their light. Don't try to do what they do. Try to do what you want to do. You can take tips and tricks. I for sure have watched my fair share of all videos of motivational speakers and everything and learn from them, but then build your own thing from it. And it works with anything in life, really. Career.
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relationships, family relationship, everything that you may think what you want to be. It doesn't need to be what someone else is, even though you might think, oh, that person is great or that energy is fantastic. We don't want 50 other Tony Robbins copycats. Oh, my God, I don't think this world would have enough energy for that. Good point. What we want is Susanna learning the tips of being a public speaker and then presenting Susanna to the world.
18:49
So when it comes to your coaching business, what do you share with them and what has been some of the feedback? I love talking about the people I work with. I have only started, so I have just a handful of people who I've worked with. However, I love every one of them. And because I have used the time now with them, I have gained so much valuable feedback. And I do wanna share with you one with my clients, first of all, for your first part of your question, what I do with them.
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is I am extremely and brutally straightforward and honest, which in my opinion is the best way of coach. Because if you go around the bush and you just kind of beat around it and you're not really tackling the points, it's impossible to be the best you. It's impossible to learn from your mistakes. It's impossible to learn from your weaknesses. So what I do with every single one of my clients, we do start by really finding the core problem.
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And why I am saying that is because I feel like that's extremely critical. And every coach who I have talked with before I started to be a coach, I always ask them, what do you do when you coach? Where do you start? Cause I wanted to learn. I wanted to gain all the knowledge and they always told me, Oh, I interview my clients and I'm like, interview. Okay. Uh, yeah. What do you ask from them? And so many answered to me, Oh, I just want to know what's their career. What's their family? What's going on?
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but this was all I got from them. And I was like, okay, yeah, I want to obviously know that too, but I need to find what I need to coach. So then going through, as I told you in the beginning, I went through a program where I'm learning like kind of all the logistical parts and they're true. That program, I was talking with the very experienced coach and he said to me that I really want to just find the core problem with the people.
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And I love that. And I go, Oh my God, yes, everyone has a core problem, but nobody wants to talk about it. So we find the core problem and we really gently touch base from it. And we really find it together. And even if people don't know that they have a problem, we all do. And where it stems from. Exactly. Now I'm not a therapist. So that's not where I get support. Exactly. So for me, it's more over going for why, where is that confidence?
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I swear to God, every single one of us, when we were born, we burst out crying when we came out. And that's it. We had the voice, we had the confidence to just scream. When we were children, we were crying, we were laughing, we were yelling, we were playing, we were doing all of it. It was all there. So the confidence is there. I promise you, every single one of us has a confidence.
21:27
Now, how you showcase your confidence is different. And that's what I do with my clients. We really touch base on where is your confidence and how can we bring it up more? Because for example, myself, I knew, I know now that what were those walls of mine? And I knew I needed to find those walls before I can actually break those walls. So that's what I kind of realized that that's what I want to do with my clients as well.
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And sometimes, as I said, it doesn't need to be that you were bullied throughout the school. It doesn't need to be that you have a horrible relationship in the back. It doesn't need to be any traumatic situation that made you that way. It can be just your life. Your life has molded you that way and you didn't even realize it. So that's where we start. And then we start breaking these taboos and all these walls and everything around it. And then after that, we start building to it.
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And that's when we start going through my program, which I've created. It's a seven module program that we work together and there's all these things. And it's really touching the basics of public speaking, but not only public speaking, it's the really core how you can add the confidence into the speaking. How you can add your audience awareness into your speaking. How can you add everything in it using your confidence?
22:38
Bringing your own personality into all of these tools. Exactly. And I hate this taboo that everybody has created of public speaking. A lot of people, when I tell them I'm a public speaker, and they're like, oh, so you speak to thousands of people. I told my friend and I said, well, hey, you public speak as well. And she's like,
22:57
No, I don't. What are you talking about? I'm like, have you ever had a presentation at work? And she's like, yeah, but it was just for 10 people. And I'm like, that's speaking. Exactly. Every time when I challenge these metaphors and everything, they're like, Oh, Lord, I didn't even realize that. Yeah, I do that. And then they don't think about it, because it's such a day to day to so yeah, but with one of the clients that I have a person that I've worked with, I absolutely love it, because I will give you a scenario of two, because they're just so damn different. Okay, I've worked with the woman.
23:26
who was 42 years old. And then I worked with the guy who was 21. Now, when I say 21, I do work with 21 year olds and I love that every time when I do come across with them, they have no issue. There is no point. They know everything about anything, which is great because the confidence is there. Yet still, it cannot be pushed to a speech. It cannot be pushed to a performance. It cannot be pushed to words. That's where it comes a little bit more of a core work with them.
23:56
However, with both of these people, this 42 year old who we work with, she has been in the same corporation for so long, same position, no stepping up in there, no challenging the bosses or anything because she was just happy there. The steady income kept coming. There was no problem. We went through, that's totally fine. If you want to be in that position, if you're really happy in that position and you are okay looking back 10, 20 years from now.
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that you were in this position for 15 years, go ahead, keep that and be there. However, if you want the promotion, if you want to build a little more, if you want to have something more, you need to ask for it. Nobody's gonna give it to you. That's the secret. Nobody's gonna come. Nobody's gonna give it to you. There is a very rare occasion when people just come and, hey, here you go. There is a perfect husband for you. No, you have to work for it. So...
24:50
I told her that and we went through this and we worked and we worked and we worked and we had meetings and we did all of it. And by the end of it and now looking back on it, she has got a promotion. She has really gone through the corporate ladder and it's so great to see that that person who was just saying, oh, but I'm okay. I'm okay. It's okay to be here. And I said, it's okay. But do you want to look back 10 years from now and still be there? Because we keep telling each other we're okay, just to avoid a conversation. Exactly.
25:17
And sometimes it's just words and it's actually not the meaning. So that's why I'm very happy that with her, we got to the point where she did feel more confident and she's now the president of our club. Like exactly, exactly. That is amazing. She used to have a secretariat or, you know, minor role in the Toastmaster, but she's the president now. So, and she's confidently that I went to visit them now.
25:42
She was in the end of the meeting owning the leadership. She was presenting to anybody and I was like, well leaders are made. Exactly. And yeah, definitely. And then with the 21 year old, a little bit more of a progress, definitely, but everybody takes their time. Confidence is not built for one day, no. So then it takes the time that it does take and it takes the exercises that it does take. But this person ended up leaving his corporate, which he hated, and he ended up moving away from his home country.
26:11
He's 21 and he just goes, he's like, I'm just going to do it. I'm just going to leave and I'm just going to do it. And I was like, Oh, all right, let's go. Let's give it a shot. Let's do it. And yeah, he's living with his girlfriend now in the new place, new area and has a new job, has everything new. It's crazy to see both of these because it's such a different pattern that happened. And now I'm not saying I'm the main reason neither of these happened, but I'm saying that was one of the things that I saw as an outcome after.
26:39
we were working together. And I saw the impact that I could put on people and I saw them coming back to me and saying, "'Susanna, I cannot believe I'm in this position now' or, "'I cannot believe I feel like this right now' or, "'I cannot believe I can have this good of a speech right now'." And...
26:56
love every time when I can see the influence that I have gone to people and that's why I don't take multiple clients at once because I feel like it would be selfish for me and that's why I want to work with just a small amount of people at a time because I really want to focus on that individual and I really want to focus on those different times and on those different platforms that we go through. So yeah that's my work right now and that's why I'm so happy that next week I'm launching
27:25
hold on and not really put everything out there marketing wise, because I have felt like it would be cheating towards my future clients if I would say, hey, let's have a call. Maybe I will roll you in and then I don't have the time for them. That has been one of the reasons why I've been holding on and I've been thinking, okay, take your time, really started right. And that's why I'm so grateful that now I can start it with full on as my nine to five day to day life.
27:50
and not wait to hear what I can do for the future people in my life. I'm very, very grateful for the future to come. Look at the transformations that you're bringing in people. And the thing is, like you said, they already had the confidence in them. You just brought it out of them. And when you are confident, that's when you realize what you are really capable of. No limitation to what you thought you could do. In both cases, that's exactly what happened. 100 percent, 100 percent.
28:18
Now for the next few minutes, just tell us about the corporate workshops that you do as well. For sure. So I work with corporates. I have created two different workshops with them. I have the third one going, but it's not yet finalized. So for now I have two. So I have two different workshops. One is about team building and this lovely pandemic that we had. We kind of all lost team building and we kind of lost the team.
28:42
that we used to be, there is no events anymore. Some corporate studios that nowadays, which I'm very grateful for to see. However, there used to be so much more going for dinners, going just for casual beer after work or so. So I realized myself working in the corporation back then, I was looking around and I realized we had two new people on our team. I didn't even know their name. I was like, who are you by the way? I have no idea who you are. And we were every week in sitting in these meeting rooms.
29:09
And I was like, I still don't know where you came from, which country you're from. What's your background? I don't know you. And I feel like that's just missing in so many places because we have forgotten when we are in hybrid. And we're forgotten when we're just in home office, maybe not even wearing pants. When we go to a work meeting, you know, all of this stuff that it's a little bit too comfortable. And that's why I work with corporates. And I want to point that out. I want to point that pain point that corporates has forgot to build that team. So I have a workshop with.
29:38
corporate where we do focus on team building. I start the day with just having a keynote speech about how important and why is working in a team important. Then after that, we have some exercises, then we have a break, and then we continue with those exercises and we really touch base on why is it important. Then I have a different corporate workshop.
30:00
which also starts with the keynote in the beginning. And then there's a workshop and then a pause and then a separate workshop in the afternoon. And that one is about the confidence. And I see this often where people don't have the confidence to speak up. And now I can give you an example when I worked in the corporation, I started in a very, very entry level and I was in one of these very corporate Zoom meetings that had 200 people and huge management level was there.
30:30
my camera on. Obviously, I was one of 20 who had their cameras on including the high management who were talking. And then one of my friends is message me, wow, you're so brave for having your camera on in this meeting. And I was like, how is me showing my face making me a brave person? I was like, I and I told my friend and she died laughing. I don't have any here to show you. I literally will have a napkin. I had a fabric on me. I went to a meeting with her and I was like, what time did you go to our face to face meeting?
31:00
before COVID in something of a different phase. Like, when did you do that? And she was laughing and she was like, what are you talking about? And I was like, you're hiding yourself if you don't have your camera on. Exactly. And she was like, okay, well, yeah, but everybody is on the room. And I was like, okay, if everybody would have had their camera on in this 200 people meeting, granted Zoom may have crashed, but everybody would have had it on.
31:21
We all would have saw on each other's faces. It would not be just me who's highlighted there. It would have been everybody. And that's where I kind of realized that, wow, confidence is missing. And then I realized it the second time when I was only a year in the company. And I realized I want to do more than this. I want to do more than the central level. And I told that to my boss and he said, that's ridiculous. Susanna, you've been in this company only for one year. And I said, what does that matter?
31:49
I've been in my role, I've proved myself, I'm a great worker and I know what I want. I want more. And yeah, I know there's corporate ladders, but I love to challenge. So I ended up challenging enough and I ended up challenging with my confidence and I actually got a promotion where I missed about four steps in between. Wow. Congratulations on that. Thank you. And then when I talked with people and I got a lot of hate from it.
32:15
And a lot of people who were three steps ahead of me were like, wow, you took that role away from me and I got where they get from with that comment. I was like, I understand why you feel like that, but why wouldn't you go for the one steps higher? Why would you need this role that I have right now? Why wouldn't you use your confidence to go one higher? And they said that's not possible. Why do they think it's not possible? Lack of confidence. Exactly. So then when I saw that.
32:42
over and over again and people coming to me, wow, how did you get this role? And I was like, I proved my point. I made my case and I told them I'm worth it. And I had the confidence to do it. And I got it. And people were like, no, that's not how it happens. What did you do? And I was like, what does that mean? I got so many people asking me, did you blackmail someone? Did you tell the corporate you're going to play golf with the CEO?
33:11
Exactly. It was ridiculous. And I was like, Oh my God, this is wild. And I just told everybody, No, no, no, no, no, no. Or were you best friends with your boss? Like stuff like that. It's great what we tell our brain, but then not seeing the reality of being jealous for each other, but not doing it for ourselves. So that's when I realized confidence is missing. And I see it everywhere where I go. And people are telling me all the time, Oh no, I'm good in my job. And I'm like,
33:38
but do you want to be in your job? And they're like, no, but I have been in the company only for one year. And I'm like, who cares? Who cares? They're not confident they can go up. Exactly, exactly. So that's why, even though it's not only about pushing for promotions, building the confidence, it's not about really challenging the corporate. That's not what I'm doing. In the workshops, what we're doing is more mostly building the confidence so that we can bring new leaders in the corporate. Because everybody is...
34:06
erasable eventually and nobody is an individual that can be replaced. Yeah, exactly. So for me, I realized that it's needed and that's why I wanted to build this confidence workshop for corporates so that so many corporates could have the situation where they could have enough supervisors, they could have enough leaders because they have the capacity from their house. The people there are willing to take on the responsibility because they have the confidence to do that.
34:32
And that's why, because I see so many times that people are leaving, people are not wanting to stay because they don't have the leaders to support them. We cover that so much on this podcast, the leadership and how the more you go up, you need to now manage people. You don't do much of the technical. And so many people came in with technical skills and they don't know how to now transition to managing of people. Because sometimes they don't have the confidence to do so.
34:59
Exactly. Exactly. And that's normal. That's totally okay. But that's what I want to bring in my workshops that even though if you are the shyest person who decided to join the workshop, but went to the back of the room, you have the confidence to run this webinar as well. It's insane what you see when you go through all the trainings and everything and see the build up and see the effort. It's tremendous to see for myself because I love bringing that out from people. As we said before,
35:27
You have it, everyone has it. We just don't know it's there. I love my job. So I can tell by your energy. Absolutely amazing. Your energy is so contagious. And I'm not the first time I say that. Well, Susanna, please can you tell us where else on social media we can find you? Definitely, definitely. You can find me from LinkedIn, of course, Instagram.
35:52
And then you can find me from YouTube. I do have a channel, as you said, my Humare Speech is up there. So I am available if there is any of your followers who just wants to reach out and wants to see, we can have a call and see how I could help you or how I could help your corporate or anything, your work area, any part for that matter. I wanna help as many people as I can. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. And your work really is transformational. Thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you so much to invite me.
36:22
We're binging so much energy, like I said, it's so contagious. I absolutely love chatting with you. We could go on for hours if we didn't have time limits. I was going to say, I think we could go on. This has been so amazing, Susanna. And hopefully this is not the last time you are on the podcast. We'll definitely invite you again. I hope so too. I'm absolutely loving this, this conversation between us. So this is great. Absolutely amazing. Thank you.
36:50
You already have the confidence within you to create the life that you desire. And Susanna Lahteela has shown you that there are ways to bring it out of you because you already have it. Don't forget to subscribe, give a rating and a review, and we will be with you on the next episode.