Mastering Public Speaking with Grit: Insights from Betty Rhoades
Stop trying to avoid unavoidable judgment.
In this enlightening episode of Secrets in Medical Device Sales, The Girls of Grit are joined by Betty Rhoades, a professional speaker, career and leadership coach, and organizational consultant.
Betty shares her journey from being diagnosed with malignant melanoma at age 19 to being a young attorney often finding herself as the only woman in the room and to finally pivoting into her current career, empowering others to find their voice through public speaking.
As a person who loves to talk, Betty naturally found her strength in public speaking and communication and eventually used it as a tool to share that power and space with others. She shares her 'Savvy Speaking System' which focuses on the physical, social, and emotional aspects of public speaking.
Tune in for valuable insights on leveling up your communication skills and overcoming gender obstacles.
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
The Power of Authenticity: Betty emphasizes the importance of staying true to oneself in professional settings, especially for women in male-dominated fields.
Unavoidable Judgment: Understanding that judgment is inevitable and learning how to cope with it can be liberating.
Learning from Failure: Betty discusses the significance of embracing failures as opportunities for growth.
Role of Allies: The necessity of having both female and male allies in the workplace to combat gender biases.
Collaborative Communication: Viewing every interaction as a collaboration rather than a solo endeavor.
Continuous Improvement: The ongoing process of refining communication skills and the impact of even small improvements.
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
"Stop trying to avoid unavoidable judgment." - Betty Rhoades
"You can be authentically you and still be polished and professional." - Betty Rhoades
"Trying to be like a man in the room won't communicate what you want because it's not you." - Betty Rhoades
"In order to improve communication, you need to get clear on who you are and what your voice sounds like." - Betty Rhoades
"We all learn more from failure than we ever do from success." - Betty Rhoades
"If you can take a failure and find a lesson from it, it's no longer a failure; it's a learning opportunity." - Betty Rhoades
"As women, we need allies from all sides, both women and men, to understand and push back against gender biases." - Betty Rhoades
"Public speaking is rarely anything other than a collaborative experience; it's an exchange of energy and information." - Betty Rhoades
"Even incremental improvement in communication can be groundbreaking." - Betty Rhoades
Mentioned on the Show:
About Betty Rhoades:
Betty Rhoades is a licensed attorney who uses her two decades of experience in law, government, and nonprofit to serve people who want to influence positive change by speaking up and speaking out. She helps them craft and polish their message while ensuring that their authentic voices shine through – no matter the format, medium, or audience.
Betty has mastered the art of public speaking to influence government policy; to teach cross-functional teams to better communicate with and serve stakeholders; to convince donors and partners to contribute to impactful organizations; and to mentor countless other public servants and nonprofit professionals to make a bigger impact. Through She Speaks, she channels her deep experience and mission-driven background to help clients with impact leadership, meaningful career development, and authentically confident communication.
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A Team Dklutr production
Blog Transcript:
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Anneliese Rhodes: Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Cindy and all of our listeners out there. Thank you for turning into another episode of Secrets and Medical Device Sales hosted by The Girls of Grit.
Cynthia Ficara: Good morning, Lisa, and good morning, everyone. And good morning to our very special guest today, Betty Rhoades.
Betty Rhoades: Good morning, ladies. Thanks for having me.
Cynthia Ficara: Oh, we'd love to have you and we had a moment to kind of introduce you, but I would love for you to just go ahead and tell our listeners a little bit about who you are and your story before we dive into everything in our conversation today.
Betty Rhoades: Yeah, of course. Well, public speaking and communicating with others is going to be a big theme of our discussion today.
And I always sort of start the introduction by saying, I'm one of those weird people who loves to be in front of a crowd, loves to perform, loves to speak in front of people. My mother says I've been that way ever since I came out of the womb. But it really drove me and where I think it hit and really propelled me forward in my life and eventually in my career was when I was 19. I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, so I was diagnosed with skin cancer and at 19, that's a really challenging thing to be faced with. But I found that the biggest thing that helped me was talking to people about it, sharing the story. And so that really became something that was key to who I was as a person.
So I took that. And went to law school because where else do you go? If you're a person who likes to talk and argue with other people, you go to law school. And I did eventually graduate and pass the bar and become a lawyer, but it just really wasn't the job for me. Something else was pulling me. So I went into public service.
It was a true fluke, but I wound up in the Department of Veterans Affairs, and I spent 17 plus years serving the military-connected community, either in government or nonprofit and so many opportunities during that time frame to really speak out about issues that were important to speak out to try to get people on board important initiatives.
It really was something that was key to getting things done in my career. So when it was time for a pivot, when my family decided to move from the East Coast to the West Coast, it seemed like a natural time to pivot. So now what I'm doing, taking that same passion for public speaking, for communicating, for being in front of people to share a message. And I'm doing professional speaking, career and leadership coaching and organizational consulting. And again, all of that uses public speaking as a primary tool, because when we really step into ourselves as public speakers, as communicators, it is just a huge way to level up in life, in career, in all the things.
Anneliese Rhodes: Wow. What a story. So that's pretty young when you face something really traumatizing in your life. And I mean, just not that we need to concentrate too much on this, but that's a big hurdle to hit at a really young age. Who did you lean on during that time? And then later on in your life, I mean, was that something that maybe helped cultivate who you are now today, just because of the tremendous — I mean, that's a big hardship to face at a young age. Bet that really helped you look at life a little differently, look at situations a little differently. And ultimately, maybe that's what you were supposed to have so that you were able to really connect with people on different levels.
Betty Rhoades: Yeah, for sure. I lean on my family first and foremost. I have a small family, but we're very tight. We're very close. And honestly, they grounded me a lot in my life. So the cancer diagnosis was a bummer, obviously, but I do think that, everything that led up to that point and the way that we leaned on each other as a family just really helped me get to the point where I wasn't having a pity party.
I wasn't kind of in the “Woah, it’s me” part. I was more in the “Okay, well let's tackle this and then let's help other people avoid it.” And I think truly, when I think about the moment where maybe I catalyzed as a public servant, it was probably then, because again, talking about it was therapeutic for me, but it also was a way for me to help educate people on here's how you can protect yourself, protect your health, take care of the people that matter to you.
So I think that was the first step in a ladder towards just really wanting to help people.
Why Communication is Overlooked and Taken for Granted
Cynthia Ficara: And I think that,you just described really making an impact over anything else that you're doing and how you can take from making an impact into what becomes almost a career or became a career.
And, one of the things that you mentioned that was so important in public speaking was communicating. And I think that is something that we use every day to our — if you have a dog, I mean, you communicate with your dog if they want to eat — “It's time to eat. Okay.” But I think, and tell me if I'm wrong here, but I think communication is overlooked as being one of the one most important things to make an impact and grow wherever you are.
Betty Rhoades: I think you're exactly right. I think that, yes, everything that we accomplish, big, small, everywhere in between, really involves some kind of communication and understanding among people. And it's funny, when I was sort of figuring out what I wanted to do with my business with this sort of second chapter of my career, I initially really resisted calling myself a public speaking coach because nobody thinks they are a public speaker, except for the weirdos like me who go out and go on the road and get paid to speak. Most people do not describe themselves that way.
But let's think about all the different ways speak to other people in the course of just one day. Do you speak up in a meeting? Do you go to a networking event? Do you have lunch with a group of colleagues? Do you coach your kids' softball team after work? That's public speaking — every single one of those things. It really, for me and that's I think some of the biggest work that I do with clients, is really breaking this down and saying. “You got it. Stop thinking about public speaking as, Mel Robbins or, famous person up on the stage, giving a keynote to 1000 people.” Yes, that is one kind of public speaking, but really what it is when you strip it down. It's having a communication with another person. So it could be one on one. That's public speaking.
And so when you start to break it down and you start to reframe it, you can help people realize, “Oh, wow, I do this every day.” And then it stops being quite so scary. Still scary for a lot of people and there are lots that we can do to work on that, but even just that one reframe, I think, makes a huge difference. And it's critical when you think about all those different interactions. If you took them out of your day, would you be able to get anything done? Probably not much.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah. And in sales, I mean, we're constantly talking to people, right? I mean, that's our job is to be people, pleasers, and not really people, pleasers, but be a people person and be able to talk to them and connect with them.
And, I agree with you, obviously you're doing quote-unquote, ‘public speaking’ when you're calling on your customers, when you're calling on your manager, or your VP, or your colleagues, whatever it is. And I feel like that, and maybe I'm wrong here, but maybe that common connection is being personal with them and finding that personal connection so that they do truly feel you and they get that full experience versus just, “Oh, I'm just going to talk about a pie in the sky that I don't really care about. I have no connection with, and, oh, by the way, I'm going to sell you this product, but you can take it or leave it type thing, right?”
That's never going to work in sales because you need to have a personal connection with your customers, but also the product that you're selling, you need to have a passion for it.
And so I bet that you obviously found that passion early on and you realized that “How can I bring that out in other people?” Because I feel like that's a super key ingredient to being a good public speaker is, or anybody that's talking to someone is that whatever you're speaking on, it's gotta be passionate. You've got to have passion for it. You've got to have knowledge of it and probably personal experience as well.
Betty Rhoades: Yeah, the key is, and you nailed it — it's not transactional, it's relational, right? What you are doing in sales. Yes. There's a product. But at its core, what you're doing is building relationships with an audience that you feel would benefit from having this product. And it's your job to reach them in a way and help them understand how their life, the life of their patients, the life of their clients. Whoever their zone is important to them, why their lives will be made better because of that product. But if you take that relational piece out of it, if you make it just a transaction, it's not effective.
And, I think a lot of people who are outside of kind of the sales arena get very intimidated and scared and,grouchy whenever you start talking about sales, but really, it's humans building relationships with one another to try to help one another do better, do more.
How to Step into Publick Speaking the Savvy Speaking Way
Cynthia Ficara: So, you mentioned earlier about even saying public speaking, how sometimes that can just make people scared. I mean, that brings the fear because labeling that, but you just did a really good job of giving us an example of taking that label off and looking at it as a relationship-oriented conversation. So when you are working, like, let's say you are doing, public speaking, consulting for somebody in sales, what would some of the advice be for most people are outgoing in sales, but there are many who are not. There may be many that need to like, maybe present to a committee. So there's some that still hold that label fear of public speaking. What are some simple things or examples that you could give for them to start to get over that as a step one?
Betty Rhoades: Yeah, that's a great question. I leverage something that I've called the savvy speaking system. And it is just a way that I kind of break down the three biggest buckets of concerns of areas of stress when it comes to public speaking. And I kind of tackle them in increasing levels of difficulty, right? So the easiest thing to tackle is the physical, the actual environment in which you're going to be speaking.
Now, if you're thinking about a traditional keynote, sure, you're going to be thinking about a stage and a microphone and a big crowd and all that good stuff. But most of the time, that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about, “Am I going to be meeting somebody over a meal? Am I going to be meeting someone in their office? Am I meeting someone one-on-one, or am I meeting them in a group capacity?” Really getting comfortable with your physical environment, getting there in advance, if possible, understanding the acoustics, understanding the sort of physical culture, and it really is work that you can do kind of on your own ahead of time to just get comfortable in that space.
And a lot of this right now is getting comfortable with virtual spaces. We all have been doing this Zoom thing for what seems like 300 years now, but it really is still fairly new to our everyday lives. So it's no wonder that we're still struggling with it. So I advise on, what is your actual setup?
A lot of times we use the blur to avoid distraction, but if you don't have that, what is your background look like? Where are you in the frame in the square? Can you be heard? Can you be seen? What is your lighting? So really, those are the things that we may not have total control over them, but they're tangible and they're sort of tactical. So they're easy low-hanging fruit to tackle. So that's the first thing is the physical.
The second thing is the social. And this think is where people who excel in sales just kill it. This is all about your audience. It's knowing who you're going to be speaking to what's important to them. What language do they use? What are their values? What's their culture? And targeting your communication based on that information. And some of that information you're going to glean again over just having relationships with people. Some, there are ways that you can sort of do more direct research about your audience, whether that's surveys or informal, more anecdotal kind of research.
But this middle piece, it's tougher than the physical, but it's infinitely doable if you just take a little bit of time and put yourself in your audience's shoes. And I will say this also can really help those people who have nerves and anxiety around public speaking.
A lot of the reason that we have those nerves and anxiety is because we're worried about what people will think about us. But guess what? It's not about us. It's about our audience. And so the more you can really internalize that, the less nervous you'll be because it's not about you. It's really about how are you serving your audience?
So then, the last thing in the bucket is the emotional. This is the six inches in between your ears and that is the toughest thing to change. And this is a place where really it has to be personalized. It has to be something that works for you.
I really love an affirmation. I love repeating phrases that are positive and meaningful to me to kind of corral my thoughts and get into the right zone. Other people really like a power ballad, play a song that either pumps you up or relaxes you, whatever you need before you go into a meeting or before you step onto a stage. There's a million different sort of mindset exercises that you can do, but this is where we really hone in on what can you do to help quiet your mind and let the most important things come out, which again is what you're going to be giving to your audience. It's truly a gift to be able to have an audience with someone.
And so I really try to frame it in that way. That was a lot, but it really boils down to kind of those three buckets. And those are great ways to start taking control and feeling like you really have some structure around speaking versus feeling like you're just going to step into a room and sort of start flailing.
Anneliese Rhodes: That was really awesome. This is your system, I'm assuming. You said the savvy system.
Betty Rhoades: Savvy speaking system. I love alliteration. So anytime I can work that in, that is what I do. And yeah, it's simple and it's meant to be. Because it gives you a real framework to sort of start checking things off the list, and the more you do those things, the more you practice anything, the more natural it becomes, and then eventually, you don't need as many of the tools anymore.
Cynthia Ficara: That's awesome. Yeah. That simple system, physical, social, and emotional breaks down a lot. There was even building in confidence and, in sales, you need to be confident. And in medical device, when we talk about every day, it's who is your audience? Why are you having this conversation? If you don't know who you're speaking to, are you speaking to the right person? And then to back up one more, when you were talking about the physical, you mentioned something that really my ears were ringing when you said — one of the things in public speaking is about being heard.
How to be Heard as Women in Men-Dominated Spaces
Cynthia Ficara: So way back when Lisa and I started — not way back, one of our first podcasts was really talking about being females in a male-dominated space and about how it's harder sometimes for women to be heard. And we mean heard based on physical and tone and presence. So I'm very curious. Can you please let our audience know who are the majority women and what that really means about how to be heard as a female?
Betty Rhoades: Oh, boy, that's a big one, right? I mean, certainly, I have a lot of experience with this having spent so many years in the military-connected space. But as a young attorney, I also found myself in a lot of places where I was the only or one of very few women in a room and it's tricky right? So something that I'll sort of give you as a preface to this is something that I repeat to myself affirmation style as much as possible. I can't take credit for it. But there was a speaker, a while back in a community that I was in that said this and it changed my mind. “Stop trying to avoid unavoidable judgment.”
I'll see if I can dig up this woman's name, but I've been using what she said for so long. Now, stop trying to avoid unavoidable judgment. So part of the reason we get nervous and anxious about speaking up is because we are afraid of what other people will think or say.
So that's judgment, right? We do it all the time. It's human nature. Let's just like, get that out of the way. We are judgy creatures and right or wrong. It's just nature of the beast. So it's going to happen. But why do you care, right? So you have to care in sales, right? Because if the person that you're engaging with that you're hoping to get their business, obviously, you don't want them judging you in such a way that it's going to sour the relationship or it's not going to make either of you successful.
But you can move past it, and just acknowledge that it's happening, and just keep going. So I think that's the first thing: just understand that there's going to be judgment no matter what. And for 99% of the people out there doing the judging, you wouldn't ask them for their feedback. So you shouldn't care much about their criticism. But when it comes to rooms where you really do care about, the relationships, I think one of the things that I advise clients is really get clear on who you are and what your voice sounds like. Because I think a lot of the mistakes that we make, particularly as women in these very male-dominated spaces, is we try to be like a man.
Maybe it's in general or maybe it's a specific man. Maybe it's a specific leader, but that's never gonna fly. That's never going to communicate what you want it to communicate, because it's not you. So think about the communications and engagements that you've had with others that have been successful. What about them were successful and start pulling on those strings and figure out what makes you when it comes to your communication?
So this is where we talk about authenticity. And I think there's a real common misconception that in order to be authentic, you have to somehow be unprofessional, which I take issue with 100%. You can be authentically you, and still be polished, and still be professional, and still follow the norms of whatever your industry is, but, using vocabulary that you wouldn't normally use, or trying to modulate your voice or give yourself a pitch that you normally wouldn't have, because you feel like you've seen it on someone else, there's ways towatch other speakers and model after what they do, but you're not trying to become someone else. And I do think that's probably the number one mistake in these kinds of spaces. And I made that mistake. I can't even tell you how many times I made that mistake in my career, trying to be like the dudes in the room.
But that's not what does it. That's not what gets you respect. Being yourself and using your special gifts to be successful, that's what moves the needle. So it really is just a very personalized approach, but you'll feel it right when you are acting in a way that's not really you, that isn't really aligned. It feels bad, right? It doesn't feel good.
Anneliese Rhodes: Wow. I mean, you just hit a nail on right on the head, Cindy, didn't she? We did. We had an interview a little while back with a man and who was in a big-time leadership position. And one of the main things that he said is, “Don't change your femininity. Don't stop being a woman because you're surrounded by a sea of men. Instead embrace that. Embrace the gifts that you bring to the table.”
Practical Tips for Effective Communication
Anneliese Rhodes: But, you know, easier said than done, buddy. I can't tell you how many times I have been in situations where I feel like if I don't handle this like a dude, I'm not going to be taken seriously. They're not going to hear what I'm having to say. They're not going to hear me the way that they would hear my counterpart, who is a dude. Or I'm not going to get the sale because I'm coming across too female. So I would ask this back of you. How do we find that balance? How do we look for that? I don't know if it's key component or if it's just something that you got to play with a little bit to know finally, “Hey, we're okay with this.”
And then my second question, which is totally maybe off the beaten path of what we're just talking about but I don't want to forget about it, how do you talk to your peers? Because for me, I feel like speaking to peers is probably the hardest thing for me. So two things.
Betty Rhoades: Great question. I think that to your first question, yes, play with it. And we all learn more from failure than we ever do from success, right? So when you have those interactions that just don't go the way that you want, sit in that discomfort just temporarily and try to see what you can use. Because if you can take a failure and find a real good nugget or a lesson out of it that's going to make you better the next time, it's not failure anymore. It's a learning opportunity. And you can just move past it.
I also think something that's really helpful is, and this — you can engage your peers in this, as women, we need allies from all sides. So you need the women around you to also be committed to this concept of being authentically themselves, being authentically women, whatever that means for them.
So you need the women around to be behaving in this way. And so modeling that behavior is really important. But you also need the men that you work with to understand not only what you're dealing with, in as frank of terms as you can use, so that they get it because I think a lot of times they just don't get it unless you beat them over the head and you tell them, but you need them also step up and push back when other people start. Going down the road of, that isn't going to work or they can push back when others are behaving badly. I guess that is the best way to put it. It is really tricky. Those are conversations that are really specific.
I have clients all the time who asked me, “So and so interrupted me in a meeting for the 18th time. Like, how do I address that?” Depends on a lot of things, but you all know you're working environments better than anybody else. And so, you know the ins and outs, the little political ticks that exist in every workplace, in every industry all over the world. And if you have a good team around you, that are all kind of working towards that, that can go a long, long way in terms of improving things.
Anneliese Rhodes: That's a great answer.
Betty Rhoades: Did I hit both or did I just hit the first one?
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah, well, peers too, but I think that kind of just melded into it a little bit, but with the forming of the team. So what if you're speaking to your peers about something, whether you're teaching them something or you're just talking, you're giving your opinion on something, I find that talking to my peers are sometimes it's really easy if I may know something that they don't and I can teach them. But it's not so easy when everybody is talking about the same thing and you're just giving an opinion on it and you want that opinion to be validated, right? And you know that your opinion is solid, but how do you present that in a way that they hear you, they respect you? And yeah, you don't assume that they're just judging you for it — which I do everytime, everyday.
Betty Rhoades: Back to the physical. I think you just hit it right. Don't make those assumptions. Again, just like judgment, really, really hard not to do it because we're human and that's what we do. But, and I don't think this is unique to peers, although I do think it helps more with peers because I think, you're dealing with less of the sort of hierarchy piece, but I think it's just try not to make any assumptions about what someone may know or not know, or maybe feeling or not feeling.
And if you're going to make an assumption, make that assumption be that everyone is going into the interaction with good intent. Don't assign something to appear and then adjust your communication based on that assignment. You're taking signals and you're responding to them, but that may or may not be actually what that person is trying to put out there.
So, the fewer assumptions and judgments we make in advance, the easier those communications will be, I think. Training your peers to your point is really challenging because, like, you don't want to be patronizing, but you obviously have something that you want to share. That's going to help other people.
So I think the more you can decenter yourself. And bring it back to “This is how what we're going to do together today” is going to help all of us, rather than “I'm going to teach you a thing, and you're going to thank me for it.” I think that framework just starts you on a more collaborative note, and that's really what it is. It's just trying to remind everybody that it's a collaboration. It is very rare that a public speaking experience, whatever kind of public speaking it is, it's very rare that it really is going to be anything other than collaborative. There's an exchange of energy. There's an exchange of information. That's collaboration. And so it isn't just because I'm the one standing up at the microphone doesn't mean that it's not a group experience. And so anyway that you can sort of reinforce that would be helpful.
Cynthia Ficara: What you just described kind of brings us back to the very beginning of speaking with you when you talked about, the assumptions. Or I should say now it's ‘assumptions’, thinking back when you talked about public speaking, and I use the term ‘label’. You're afraid it's the fear of a public speaking, so then what you're talking about now when you put an assumption on something, it's the same thing. You're afraid of something that might not even exist.
So I am just so thrilled that we've had some chance to speak with you. Somebody who spends her time talking about public speaking all the time and helping people to communicate because I really feel that, well, there were many, many nuggets that we discussed today, but I think that what you just said is not something I've thought about very often. And that is assuming what the situation will be before it's just things you put on yourself and that's not fair. So that is something we all can take. And I'm thinking of a few situations where I already assume it's going to be harder than it really needs to be.
Betty Rhoades: Yeah, I just need to communicate better.
It's a lifelong process of improving communication. I can call myself a professional speaker all day long, but it doesn't mean that I don't make mistakes or that I don't get nervous or that I don't also have to sort of dip into some of these little buckets of tips and tricks to try to improve the communication.
It is something that even incremental improvement is potentially groundbreaking when it comes to communicating. Because think about all the great, amazing discoveries and breakthroughs that have come just frompeople talking to each other.
And we are in a time when communication is fraught. We are all bombarded with information so much all day, everyday. Screens in front of us, so many voices. But truly, it's those relationships and those deeper stories that end up kind of rising above and those are the things that people remember.
And so that's the other thing too: you're going to make a mistake. You're going to flub it. You're going to accidentally say something you shouldn't have, or you're going to forget to say something that you should have. Like, forgive yourself, give yourself a break, and take the learning lessons and then do it better the next time. it's incredibly rare that you would be in a situation where something that you said, or didn't say was going to mean that everybody dies. It's okay. Like, always the perspective is good. And if you get to a meeting and say something, or if you trip over your words, it's okay. Come back and do it again.
Anneliese Rhodes: I love this session. I've actually learned a lot. So thank you very much, Betty.
Oh, great. yep. I'm going to go back and listen to it again. But we always ask all of our spotlight series folks that we interview a couple of quick questions, which we think are important. Really means a lot because there's something about the books that you read or the quotes that you live by or the mottos, like you said, are affirmations that you tell yourself.
So really quickly, tell us maybe one or two books that either you're reading now or that you love and have really made an impact on you. As well as maybe some quote that maybe you live by.
Betty Rhoades: I'll tell you that the “Stop trying to avoid unavoidable judgment” quote is living pretty rent-free in my head these days. And it's something I have to remind myself. So I'm there with you enjoying that one.
Books? I'm really excited to be able to recommend this book. So we talked about women in male-dominateM spaces. And there's a lot of industries where that's still the case. my friends, Amy Diehl and Leanne Dzubinski, who are both PhDs researchers, they wrote a book last year called “Glass Walls: Shattering the Six Gender Bias Barriers Still Holding Women Back at Work.” And this is a game changer.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah. Hello. We need that.
Cynthia Ficara: I know. Just the title. You can't see, if you're listening, Lisa, my Facebook, we both made the same face. We both like, “Huh, I have not heard this.” Please continue.
Betty Rhoades: Glass walls. So they're both. scientists, researchers. So the book is impeccably researched, but really it's all about putting names to some of the things that women experience at work that we didn't know what to call it before.
But once you name something, it's real and we can talk about it. And at the end of every chapter, there are practical tips for how to move the needle, how to improve gender bias in the workplace. And the tips are given from the standpoint of the individual sort of employee or contributor, the manager and the peers.
So there's like all kinds of really good tactical advice for how to raise the issue of gender bias at work and then do something about it. So I could not recommend this book more. I've been wanting to like do like a book club with it because it is so good. And you know, as I'm reading and I'm thinking, “Yep, that happened to me. Yep. That happened to me twice. Yep. That's still happening.”
So it'll make you mad. Because you'll remember these things happening to you, but then it'll make you hopeful because you'll be able to really put words to it and then figure out how to address it. So I love giving Amy and Leanna a shout-out like that. Glass walls, 100%.
Cynthia Ficara: It's on our list. We be reading. Love it. I cannot wait. We're gonna call you and see if we can talk to them.
Betty Rhoades: When you're done reading it, give it to a man.
Anneliese Rhodes: Oh, they're gonna be like, “What is this? I don't understand. That's what I did.”
Betty Rhoades: As soon as I was done, I was like, “Hey, husband, guess what you're reading.”
Cynthia Ficara: I love it. Well, it also sounds like we could take a little bit of advice that you gave us all about communicating and speaking. And if we can address these things that you now name in the book, then maybe we can just go forward making things better. But I think as you let us realize that it all comes back to communication, public speaking as a big name. Or what we have in everyday conversation and interpersonal relationships. So I cannot thank you enough for bringing that to our attention because I'm now I'm really excited to read this book. Yes.
Anneliese Rhodes: And to learn more about your system so quickly. Betty, tell us how folks can reach out to you, contact you for consulting.
Betty Rhoades: Yeah, I am @bettyrhoadesspeaks on Instagram and LinkedIn. Those are my platforms where I'm pretty active. It's Betty Rhoades and Rhoades is spelled R H O A D E S. We had to get all the extra vowels in there. So, @bettyrhoadesspeaks on Instagram and LinkedIn. I love hearing from folks so people can comment or DM anytime.
My website is also https://www.shespeakscoaching.com/. Where I have a variety of offerings and information depending on kind of what you're looking for help with. But, I love hearing from folks. I'm pretty active, particularly on LinkedIn. So would love to hear from folks after they listened to this episode. Love it. Thank you so much,
Anneliese Rhodes: Betty, for joining us today. This has been enlightening and I can't wait to listen to it again. Have a great day.
Betty Rhoades: Thanks so much. Thank you. Bye.
