WATCHTIME

How To Be More Confident with Alekandra King

August 20, 2020 Aleksandra King Season 2 Episode 6
WATCHTIME
How To Be More Confident with Alekandra King
Show Notes Transcript

In this weeks epsidoe we learn more about the host of the show, Aleksandra King and hear her insights on confidence, assertiveness and how to use these soft skills to find more success in your career, professional and personal lives.

Aleksandra's career has spanned management consultancy, lecturing on branding, personal selling and marketing through and incorporated an appereance on the UK's version of The Apprentice.

The WATCHTIME podcast is is hosted by Aleksandra King, sponsored and produced by Digital Agency, MintTwist and Broadcast PR Agency Shout! Communications.

Aleksandra (00:03):
The WATCHTIME show sponsored by digital agency MintTwist. Welcome to WATCHTIME. The show for marketing industry influencers, looking for creative and digital ideas. We'll be exploring new technology developments and sharing the stories behind high profile industry players. I'm Alekandra King from MintTwist and this is the WATCHTIME show.

Elliott King (00:32):
Hello, my name is Elliot King. I'm a producer of the watch time show and I'm the CEO and cofounder of MintTwist the digital agency that sponsors and producers that the show. Now this week, as Alexandra has been called on to some other duties, I thought it might be a good idea for us to get to know the host behind the show. So that is Alekandra King, and in order to do that, we thought would show some prerecorded video where she was asked to share some insights on confidence and assertiveness and how these sorts of soft skills could be used to assist in sales and communications. But before we go into that, let me just give you a bit of background. I co founded the MintTwist along with my school friend, Alexis Pratsides, but behind the scenes both Alexis's wife and Alexandra King (my wife) have played a significant role in assisting us in all aspects of starting and growing and developing our digital agency business.

Elliott King (01:43):
She's got a wealth of experience from working with us and driving us forward on that journey. But in her own capacity, she's got a significantly varied and very interesting career. She was born in Poland. She grew up in South Africa and graduated from the university of Pretoria with a degree in business management. She then traveled back to Europe and worked for a number of years as a, as a management consultant, traveling all around Europe, working on projects, focusing on change management it analysis projects and towards the latter end of her career as a management consultant, working in mobile billing projects so pretty technical) and certainly lots of customer facing and sales and communications required. She then went to live in London and continued her work as an it analyst before branching out as a freelancer specializing in marketing and communications, she then found herself (in what she's most notably known for) appearing on the BBC Apprentice.

Elliott King (03:05):
So this is the UK version of the American apprentice show, and she made that parents in 2016 as a result of coming on that, going on that show, she was then afforded a number of opportunities to work on marketing branding, content creation projects. She was also worked as a visiting lecturer delivering training courses on branding and communications, and a number of those courses were really focused on how professionals people of all types can motivate themselves by generating in a confidence and then using that confidence to be more successful in their careers, in the interviews, in, and even in their personal lives. It's, it's a well known well, it's, it's a little known fact that Alexandria has every single interview she has ever been on, including obviously the, the extensive interview process for getting onto BBC apprentice. She's always been successful as a, certainly from my perspective, she is the world's leading expert at getting through interviews, which obviously involves an extensive amounts of communication skills.

Elliott King (04:24):
So during her, her, her time of, of fame, I guess when she was on BBC apprentice, she was interviewed by a number of media outlets. And one of the magazines that was running an article on her, asked her a number of questions and asked her to send in prerecorded videos. So the show that the episodes that we're going to show today is, is a completion of those recordings. And it's really four key questions that she was asked. The first one was how can one, can we, as individuals become more confident versions of ourselves? Secondly, she was asked how you can be more assertive too, to get the things that you want in your business life and your personal life and appropriate assertiveness is what we're talking about here. The third question was, was really how a specific one on how to open a speech. So if you're going to make a presentation, whether it's a sales presentation or any sort of speech to public, how do you, how do you go about starting that? How can you, how can you set yourself up for it to work? And then the final question was, was around, how do you sell yourself? How do you sell yourself and all your business? And we probably all heard about the elevator pitch and Alexandra will give her a particular take on that. So without further ado, let's get in to the show ...

Aleksandra (05:58):
So I want to talk about confidence today. What it is, is a different way of looking at confidence, because I think we tend to think of confidence as almost like this gear that people go into some of the most confident people you will ever meet, or some of the most insecure people. So if I think about myself, most people would think that I'm very confident, but but I can tell you something, I am, I have almost two States that I'm in and those States work in equilibrium with each other. So I am both insecurely confident and confidently insecure. And what I mean by that is, is that I never ever take my confidence for granted and think that when I'm feeling confident, that's going to last. So for example, if I've confidently won a contract with a client, I don't sit back and think that that client will have this great opinion of me for forever.

Aleksandra (07:10):
I work to maintain that confidence through things like comfort zone challenges and pushing myself beyond my abilities so that I am always challenged. I'm also confident insecure. So there are some things about myself that I know I'm not very good at, or, or let's just take the obvious ones. So, I'm not this tall blonde bombshell. I'm not and I won't ever be I'm not Usain Bolt, I can't run a hundred meters as fast as he can, but, you know, I am confident about that (about who I am). I have no expectation to be that nor do I even want it to be that. I am confident in myself (and even) my insecurities about things. If you recognize that there is an 'insecurely confident' and a 'confidently insecure' side of yourself, and you juggle those, you can find this happy medium. Certainly disappointment and lack of self esteem comes from unrealistic expectations or realistic expectations, but not having met them for whatever reason. Once you have recognized what you have the power to change - strive to change it. And what you don't have the power to change - just enjoy who you are and accept it. So, if you 'look' a certain way and you are insecure about that - let's own it! If you can people will gravitate towards you and they will love it because you're loving it. I hope this puts some perspective on confidence. If you have any questions, just pop them down in the comments section below. I wish you a wonderfully confident day.

Aleksandra (09:16):
Hi everyone. So I thought I'll do a little video on the power of the little word: 'No'. In today's society, most of us are trained to be 'Yes People'. 'Yes' Is a very people pleasing word. It's very easy to say, yes, society likes yes. Saying no is much more difficult. It requires courage to stand by your convictions. It takes a lot out of you. It isn't an easy thing to say. However, when you do say it, and if you say it for the right reasons, you know, because it's you feel that something isn't in line with your beliefs or values, then no is an incredibly empowering feeling. It's an, it's an incredibly empowering word. And it gives you this immense sense of freedom. And you feel like you're doing yourself justice, right. And when you say no to something that isn't right to you for you, it opens up a yes somewhere else.

Aleksandra (10:21):
So I feel that we should say no more often, because then by saying yes to the things you really want, and no, to the things that we don't want, and aren't going to work for us, we're actually channeling our lives more in the direction of our own success. So it's just something to think about next time you feel obliged to say yes, and you don't want to really say yes in your heart, say no and see what happens. Good luck!

Aleksandra (10:52):
Let's talk Kennedy sweep. And what that means when Kennedy used to do speeches, even before he opened his mouth, he would walk in and he would scan his audience. He would look at them quite intimately, and then he would speak and his speech would follow up that intimate connection. And those people that he was speaking to felt as if they were the only person in the room with him.

Aleksandra (11:28):
And they were hanging on to each and every single word that he said. Now that is the power of proper public speaking. It's connecting with an individual as if they're the only person in the room, the same way that I'm speaking to you. Now I'm connecting with you and only you. And if you could this, right next time, you are presenting a speech or you're at a wedding, whatever it is, if you can connect on an individual basis successfully, then you're taking things to the next level. Good luck. I would like to debunk a common myth about the elevator pitch or the 32nd pitch. Now I'm sure you've heard about it. And it's a super way of selling either yourself or your product or your business, but you see hearing highs the conundrum because the 32nd elevator pitch has very little to do with you or your product or your business. And it mostly has to do with your listener and their needs and about what you can bring to the table for them. So next time you're writing your elevator pitch, try to write it from their perspective, put yourself in their shoes and make sure that everything you say meets their potential needs. If you can speak to them from their point of view, from their point of need, then I can tell you that they'll be listening.

Aleksandra (13:15):
And that completes today's episode. I hope you've enjoyed it. And if you have, do subscribe to get subsequent episodes automatically. In the meantime, if you'd like to find out more about digital marketing, please visit minttwist.com. Thanks so much for joining us and see you again soon.