The Social Media Takeaway - Louise McDonnell

Overcome Fear and Speak with Impact with Maureen McCowen

• Season 1 • Episode 69

Share episode

In this episode of The Social Media Takeaway, I sat down with Maureen McCowen, public speaking coach and founder of Soft Skills Success. We talked about how the fear of speaking up, whether in meetings, presentations or even casual conversations holds back far too many professionals. Maureen shared real client stories, practical strategies, and mindset shifts that help people go from staying silent to speaking with confidence and clarity.

If you're a coach, business owner, or professional who avoids public speaking (or dreads it!), this episode is a must-listen.

You’ll learn:
 ✅ Why fear of speaking is more common than you think
 ✅ How staying silent could be stalling your career
 ✅ Simple strategies to start building your speaking confidence
 ✅ The key difference between sharing a story and making it relevant
 ✅ How to present with more impact online and in-person

SHOW CHAPTERS
00:00 Speak Without Fear
00:18 Introduction and Guest Welcome
01:18 The Fear of Public Speaking
03:05 Practical Steps to Build Confidence
05:32 The Importance of Preparation
06:13 Set Your Intentions and Don’t Look For Perfection
08:22 Change How You Speak To Yourself
10:53 Common Mistakes in Presentations
12:04 Effective Presentation Skills
16:35 Handling Technical Difficulties
19:04 The Difference Between Presenting In-Person and Online
23:45 The Power Of Storytelling
28:21 Final Takeaways and Free Gift!

🎁 And if you’re stuck with your storytelling, Maureen has a free download full of storytelling prompts. Grab it HERE!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to my podcast because more like this is on the way!

If you'd like to book a call to see how I can support you head over to my website here. www.sellonsocialmedia.academy/hello

My 2025 Social Media Content Planner & Guide is now available! Packed with 400 content prompts, expert tips, and $377 worth of free resources to help you save time and get results in 2025.

Grab your copy now on Amazon!
Amazon UK
...

Louise McDonnell:

So today I'm very. Honored to be joined by Maureen McCowen. She is a public speaking specialist who helps business professionals and teams unlock their speaking confidence. She has worked with clients all over the world delivering one-to-one coaching, and she has also delivered team training in the UK, Europe, US, Latin America, and Asia. And Maureen's vision, and I love this, is that speaking moves from being a challenge to being a core asset for every client. You're very welcome, Maureen.

Maureen McCowen:

Thanks, Louise. Delighted to be here.

Louise McDonnell:

So I love that Maureen's vision footprint speaking, moves from being a challenge to a core asset. So many people are afraid of speaking in public, aren't they?

Maureen McCowen:

They are it's huge and it is different levels of that challenge area for people. But I see it all the time with clients, whether it is business owners who are holding themselves back and not going to networking events because they dread doing that 62nd pitch or having to speak about their business to people who are in organizations and it's holding them back from career progression because of that fear. So it is huge.

Louise McDonnell:

Wow. I did, I wouldn't have realized when we were growing up, we were always made to do the reading at mass.'cause my dad used to say, know it's good to be getting up in front to, it's good to be nervous, it's good to do it. It wouldn't have occurred to me that would be a case for people. So it really does hold people back. Wow.

Maureen McCowen:

Oh, hugely. Hugely. Even in the past week there, I've spoken to two individuals. Both working in organizations and both know that it's holding them back from career progression because they avoid public speaking. And typically , I've hidden from it up to now. I can't hide any longer. I've been avoiding it up to now. So that's the type of language that is used hugely and interesting when you were saying there about the reading at Mass, 'cause I would've done the same thing as a child, but a number of people when I asked them, when did this fear of public speaking start? Very often it started in school. Where they stood up and you had to read it, your little essay out loud and someone laughed or someone commented. And very often that's where it can start, with those challenges or in the workplace where a colleague or a boss has passed, comment on them and our confidence gets knocked so quickly.

Louise McDonnell:

Oh wow. So like first lesson for anyone you know is to be careful. Like what you, how you comment on even if you're making a joke or it's something lighthearted, that it can really crush somebody,

Maureen McCowen:

Absolutely. Yeah.

Louise McDonnell:

Okay. God, I hadn't even thought about that. For somebody who's listening in, who is in that situation, who avoids like speaking anywhere , and I suppose what you're saying is they know it like they know it's a problem. So is it possible for them to overcome this?

Maureen McCowen:

It is, but it doesn't happen overnight. And it's one of those things that you need to take your time. So it's thinking of having those small steps that you're going to do. So if it's a case that you don't speak up at meetings, it was an organization I was working with and one of the ladies that was there told me she was similar age to myself. She had never spoken up in a meeting when she had a point that she wanted to make. She wrote it on a piece of paper and she passed it to a colleague. And it's just incredible to think that can happen, but it can happen. So if that's you and if you are in that situation what's the first step that you're going to take? And your first step might be as simple as, piggybacking on somebody else's and adding in a few words. And that's it. And not looking for those few words to be perfect and not to worry if your heart is thumping at the end of it, or if you stumble over it, that you've done those few words and then you build it up. And then the next time that I can say those few words, but I can be a bit more confident. The ground does not open up and swallow me if I say the wrong thing, but it can be starting as small as that and then gradually building up and availing of speaking opportunities. And it sounds simple and it sounds straightforward, but it is something that can really hold people back.

Louise McDonnell:

Wow. And I suppose somebody who's chairing those meetings or facilitating those meetings, that's probably something they need to look out for as well. That if there's somebody who's never speaking or if they're passing notes, like to try and encourage them and to congratulate them when they do.

Maureen McCowen:

It is and then it's getting that balance right as well. Because if you are the person who never speaks and you don't want to change and drawn to you, and then suddenly I'm saying, Louise. I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on that and you're going, oh my God. I dunno what to say. That can be a challenge as well. So quite often it can be maybe dealt with beforehand, speaking to the person beforehand and saying, or, speaking at the end of a meeting, say, so I noticed that you're quiet and I know you've got a lot of value to add and I'd love to hear what's being said. So how would you feel if I open up the opportunity for you the next time and opening that opportunity isn't saying, Louise, what do you think could be, have you any extra thoughts to add on this? What are your thoughts? And my thoughts could be, I agree with the comments that have been made so far. I don't need to add anything extra, but rather than putting somebody on the spot and having them panicking about it, but it can also be very simply for that individual, going into those meetings, it's what preparation can they do beforehand as well? And the preparation that they can do beforehand is having a look if there's an agenda that's going to be there, or they know the topics that are going to be discussed. What was the thought process the last time that we were discussing this? What questions do I have? What value can I have How can I listen carefully in the meeting? Because a lot of people are so caught up in their own fear of speaking that they don't listen properly or that they allow themselves to be distracted by having their phone checking messages and so on, on the phone instead of paying full attention. So if you're listening attentively and you are setting an intention that I'm going to speak at something, I'm going to add a contribution at some stage in this meeting, then you're putting yourself into the right zone for doing it. And like I said, not looking for perfection. It's first hurdle is to say something.

Louise McDonnell:

Wow. I'm wondering now, is it that they don't want to actually speak? Or is it that they're afraid that their contribution might not be taken seriously? So there are two different things for me that's putting forward my opinion is one thing, but actually verbalizing it is a different thing. So what do you think is the bigger issue?

Maureen McCowen:

It can depend on different people, but I know from clients that I've worked with, they always are knowledgeable on their topic. So it's never been a lack of knowledge. And the frustration is there that they're not able to communicate that lack of knowledge. It's that fear of all eyes being on you. It's down to that. It's that idea that what if they stumble over what they're going to say? What if they say the wrong thing. And you know that idea of making a fool of myself.'cause none of us want to make a fool of ourselves. But when we think about it, and one of the things when I say to people is have a think back over meetings that you've been to and people that are speaking at it. People stumble over their words. All the time. We interrupt ourselves all the time. It's all part of normal conversation. We expect perfection from ourselves. We don't expect it from other people. And if we stumble over a word and then that monologue starts up in the head thinking, oh, what I do that for? Oh, that was so stupid. And everyone's, what are they going to think? People aren't going to think anything they've forgotten about it, but it carries on in your own head. that's a huge part of, the initial reason why people can come to me. It was a client that I'm going to start work with shortly, but when we were having our call, he had middle management in his organization and he's at the stage if I don't do something about this, I'm going to have to change my career because it's having such a hindrance and speaking up at meetings, leading meetings, and delivering presentations. The three. Prongs of it were what he was being challenged with. It was hugely frustrating.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah, that actually for anyone checking in that it made me think straight away of Daniel Serpico was on my show about two or three weeks ago. And she's all about, was it NLP and the positive voices in your head. So that's obviously, that's also part, of what you do as well we need to change how we speak , to ourselves. Do you know what's so funny, Maureen? It's so funny, I have seen you on social media, see you on social media all the time. I see public speaking all the time. I did not think that's what you did. I thought we were gonna be talking about speaking from stage and speaking online and all isn't it funny how these are the snippets that people have and even I was preparing the presentations. I never thought that's what it was about. So it's good to know for, I suppose for people that are out there that are stuck, that there is help out there for that kind of thing.

Maureen McCowen:

Exactly. And I work with people across the board, so there can be people who are presenting from stage and delivering, but they don't make up the majority of my clients, the majority of my clients are from one-to-ones are individuals like that who want to get better. They're not all at the stage where. They're afraid to speak up at meetings, but it could be that they're not comfortable or confident delivering presentations. They know that they can do better. I would have as well people who come to me and say, I could speak for Ireland, but my challenge is that I waffle and I ramble and my message isn't clear. So that's another area that we work on. And then as I said, there can be people who are speaking to large audiences as well, and then I deliver. To teams and in teams it's across the board. Quite often it can be for internal presentations. There's a company that I'm delivering full day training to next week, and it's their financial team that I'm delivering , so they aren't client facing at all. It's so that they can deliver better presentations to their board and that's the objective that they have because it's that interpreting the numbers. And very often people who have financial backgrounds or technical backgrounds, they get very trapped in the detail. And you almost need an interpreter then to interpret for the audience that they will understand it's been said and it's not going too much into the technical detail, so there's a whole range. It's a really interesting area. There's a whole range of clients that I work with.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah. We had a, we have this client and they have an ad team who present to us once a month on we do the meta ads and stuff, but they would do the Google ads for them and in the report like. It's just the figures are coming at me so fast and I'm like, I think my head's going to go. I think there's gonna be smoke coming outta my eyes. I just thought, I was like, you have to send this on to me in advance.'cause I actually cannot take in you're speaking too fast. Because they know this, the figures inside out. So completely get that. Okay. So when it comes to presenting what are first of all what are the common mistakes people make?

Maureen McCowen:

Common mistakes that people make. I think the most common one probably is getting totally zoned in on this is what I want to say. This is what I want to tell the audience. Instead of thinking about what the audience needs to hear. So that's probably the biggest one. If somebody is coming to me and they're working on storytelling and they're saying, I've got a really interesting story to tell people your story can be interesting to you. It's not necessarily going to be interesting to your audience until you make it relevant to them. So it's that idea, first of all, starting off with knowing who your audience is. So if you are delivering a presentation, it depends on who the audience is as to what level of detail you're going to go into, what information you're going to include. And you pair it back if it's a general audience or if you're presenting to a board and you've got different department areas within that board, they're all going to have their own agenda. Finance is going to be looking for their side of things. IT is going to be looking for their side of things. So you need to have a think about where they're coming from and how can you tailor what you want to say to that audience. So that's a big thing there.

Louise McDonnell:

So that's getting the content right. And then what about like presentation skills? Like where, what do you recommend in that area?

Maureen McCowen:

Yeah, so when I'm working with clients, we put a huge amount of work into the preparation beforehand because a lot of people feel that, if I'm doing a presentation very often it's open up PowerPoint, plug in all my information into that, and then that's what I'm focusing on. Whereas really it is thinking about who's the audience? What message do I want to deliver? What information do I need to include? How do I structure that in a way that is going to flow smoothly so that it's easy for me to remember it and for the audience to understand. So all of that work takes place long before you start thinking about the delivery of it or anything else. So there's a huge amount of work goes on in the background beforehand, and then it's, how do you. practice, how do you because it's not a case of starting at the beginning and reciting it off, if you've got a 40 minute presentation, you're not realistically going to have lots of time to practice that through from beginning to end. That's not feasible, but it could be that, your content, you know the points two and three really well, but you've got a different opening that you haven't done before. So you need to practice that and practice that several times so that you're really comfortable and confident with it. Practicing it out loud so that you know that the words flow properly.'cause something if you're, particularly if it's scripted, if you have something written down, it could read really well. And when you say it, then. It just doesn't work and you're stumbling over your words. Practice the bits that you're not so sure of. Test it out in different ways. And when I say practice, I don't mean learning it off by heart. It is that being familiar with your points so that you're able to talk around them rather than being able to recite it because you are keeping an eye on the audience and depending on the size of your audience. There might be audience engagement and interaction. Somebody might interrupt you with a question. You don't want to have to mentally go back to the beginning of your talk to see where was I, what's the next word that I have to say? So it's being familiar with your content, that you can talk around it and you can connect with your audience rather than reciting something.

Louise McDonnell:

And what about like when somebody's on, let's say stage, so I tend to like to walk around. Is that good, not good, or.

Maureen McCowen:

It can depend if it is that walking without purpose. So if you're walking around for the sake of walking or walking, 'cause you want to use up your own energy, that's not necessarily a good thing to do. It can be very distracting for the audience if you are walking because you are making different points and you're using the stage effectively that way then that has a different impact. If it's on a very large stage that you have, you need to be engaging with the different parts of the audience, so the walking is going to come there. But one tip if you are walking is when you are making an important point that you've got yourself ground it, plant it, and if it's one of the central points to your presentation that you're delivering that right from the center stage. Because that's where you want the full focus to be on you for that. And it's delivering that from center stage. You're drawing that attention to where you are. And subconsciously what you're saying is this is important. You're highlighting it by standing there in the center.

Louise McDonnell:

Very good. Yeah. I know it's sometimes I do tend to like to move, but if there's a stage where your heels are making noise, I'm like, no, I can't walk.

Maureen McCowen:

Yeah. That's why it's so important to test all these things out beforehand. So if you're going into a venue, see what the room is like, what's the stage again, talking about wearing heels. How are you getting onto the stage? Are you coming from the audience up? If there are steps, what are they like? Are your heels going to be okay? And they might seem like small details, but they can cause challenges. I'm thinking of somebody that I was working with who was preparing a talk for a large rent in front of over 400 business owners, and it was a gala dinner type of event. And she was going to be wearing the long dress and the high heels and so on. So we went to the venue on the day when it was being set up so that she could see where she was going to be sitting walk across the floor. It was a wooden floor. And you know yourself, sometimes they can be slippery. Yeah. So you need to know these things beforehand. And when I suggested to her that we go and have that run through in the venue, she was so relieved.'cause one of her concerns was, what if I trip in my heels? So you try to remove those what ifs by thinking about what they are beforehand and what can I do? So if you are really concerned that I'm delivering a presentation on what if the tech lets me down, then you have to make sure that you're not depending on the tech, that you have your backup. And it could be a case that. You have your slides printed out, if that's what you need to support you going through, or if you want to have a copy for the audience or a way that they can access them if you need them to see them afterwards, but that you've thought through, okay, tech might let me down, but that's okay because this is what I'll do. And all of those things can help to reduce those worries and anxieties that we can have before presenting.

Louise McDonnell:

I was doing a master class last week in my own Kartra actually is the system that I use rather than Zoom. And there was like nearly 170 people there live in the room with me. And when I went to turn on, I had the chat beforehand, everything's going well. When I went to turn on the slides, they disappeared. And I just remember going into actual panic and so I tried to bring them back, couldn't find them, and then I said, oh, do you know what, I'll just share my screen and I'll just present sharing the screen. I had never tried that before 'cause I never had to, it didn't work when I turned on the slides, all I could see was the slides and I couldn't see the people. So I said, no, that's not gonna work. So I was literally seven minutes. Going through and it was, so actually I downloaded the chat afterwards and actually I'm going to show the chat afterwards and everybody stayed and everybody was like, that's okay, you're doing great and everybody was so nice . I just refreshed the screen and then the slides just showed up and I never. Felt so happy to see slides. I was like, just let me do it now. Just let me do it. But that, that's seven minutes. Yeah. But it just goes to show you the people are on your side as well,

Maureen McCowen:

Absolutely. They're not there finger pointing, saying, oh my goodness whereas back to the point that I was making earlier on in our own head saying, oh my goodness. Oh, that's awful. What are they going to think? That's so unprofessional of me, and we can start having this whole spiral going on where that's not actually what is happening. And people are the more stressed as a speaker that you appear in a situation like that, then that's going to transmit to the audience as well. Whereas if you are able to come up with a plan B. Okay. Your plan B didn't work, but you had a plan B, and then you tried something else and you got it working eventually. That's what people will remember, things went wrong for Louise, but she stayed so calm under pressure and she still delivered. And when she was delivering, nobody knew that she was after having all of this beforehand, that's what people will remember from it rather than the bits that went wrong

Louise McDonnell:

They were like, oh my God, you were so calm. I'm like, oh my God. Could you not see the color of my face? I was not calm, I was completely panicking. But do you know what , we got there in the end. So to speak to, of the difference between presenting in person and online. What's your take on that, Maureen?

Maureen McCowen:

The big part, really is that energy, when you're presenting in person, you've got that energy from people in the room. You've got that, you get the feel, the vibe of what's in the room, and you don't have that online. And then, especially if it's one of those situations where people have cameras off, if it's a evening time that you're delivering a webinar or something like that, people are probably getting dinner ready or. Getting kids to bed, there's other things going on they're not going to have their cameras on. But from the presenter point of view, that's really challenging because you're presenting to a screen. So it means that every time you're presenting online, you need to have that extra energy. You need to be bringing that energy. You need to, imagine that person or people that you're speaking to, and that you're still focusing very much on them, even if you can't see any faces. And that is one of the big challenges. It's thinking about things like if it's a training that you're doing, you need to allow for extra breaks because people's attention, it's much harder to keep their focus and keep their attention. So it could be 45 minutes an hour in that just. That you're pausing just to give them five minutes to stretch to their legs. You need to get your content covered a lot faster. And then if it's a case that you know you're presenting and you're having it interactive, you need to allow extra time. So you've got great tools that are there, like using mentee or using Kahoot and so on, and they can really add to your presentation and that engagement and interaction. But it can take five minutes for people to get set up and you don't want people to be frustrated because they can't join whatever it is. So sometimes, it's keeping it really simple and it's back to the putting up three options on a slide and put A, B, or C into the chat because that's easier for people to access.

Louise McDonnell:

I actually, it's funny and what you're saying, I always find that if I'm, let's say like that, delivering a masterclass, if it's an hour, like I will come off that and it's like my batteries are completely drained because you do give so much. But it's funny how I can feel the energy in a room, even if I can't see anyone. I can feel it when you're presenting it, he might be presenting something for the first time and after I've done it once, I'll know that no needed to change that or I remember one time on, sometimes the tech can let you down. So I dunno if you remember this, Maureen, but there was a time in Zoom for Zoom webinars when somebody registered for your webinar, everybody got the same join link and then they had to just sign in their own accounts and then they came on as themselves. And then at one point, zoom changed it, and so that when you registered for the webinar, then the join link that you'd got was your join link. It was only you. So we never tweaked this on our team and we were doing a big webinar. And anyhow, what happened was somebody sent out, was it their join link? So everybody who came into the webinar was the same person, but it wasn't themselves. And I remember going oh, I know what's happened. And I was like, okay, that's fine. But it actually created such a weird atmosphere in the webinar because people felt completely weird that they were there as a different name. And that on another time we were connecting lead pages would say through Zapier to Zoom and somebody connected the wrong field. So everybody came in as a big, long number. That was the worst ever. It was like tumbleweed. Everybody sat there like they felt, I dunno what, all of those things actually can make a huge difference. And now when anyone new joins the team, I'm like, do not send them your link, be nice. Someone goes, I can't find the link. Here's the link. Another time somebody did it and they send them my link. So they ended up, I had all the presenters coming on and this one came on and she kept going. She kept shouting about her dinner. And I was like, I had to keep muting her but yeah, all of those things can really throw you.

Maureen McCowen:

All of the challenges that are there. And it is that, how do you react to them, and sometimes like that, it's if there is a mistake or something happens, it's calling it out for what it is. I remember I was. At an event, I'm a member of the Professional Speaking Association, and there was a colleague who was delivering a presentation one day, and this is in front of your peers. So it's, a high stakes audience, even if it's not necessarily high stakes results at the end of it, but she was delivering a presentation and as part of it, she said, today I'm going to talk to you about five things. And she went through 1, 2, 3, 4, and the fifth one, she got a blank, and that happens to us, but she handled it so well. She said, I have completely forgotten what the fifth one is, so you're going to have to come and talk to me afterwards about that. And because she handled it so well, instead of stressing and having herself, all worked up trying to remember what it was. I remember the way she handled it. The fifth point wasn't really that important. It didn't really matter, but how she handled it did and that's what people will remember.

Louise McDonnell:

Exactly. As you talked earlier on about storytelling, can you talk just a little bit about that?

Maureen McCowen:

So storytelling and I suppose through the whole social media side of things, you're going to be on board with the whole storytelling side of things and how important it is, but it's knowing what stories to tell, how to tell the right stories and using ones that are going to connect and engage with your audience. So you need something that's going to be relatable. So whether it is if it's a business owner, the reason why you set up your business, or it could be your own personal story and. That's highlighting maybe some of your values and the type of person that you are. Client stories, customer stories that are a really great way to showcase the way that you work, how you help people without it sounding like you're boasting. There's a lot of people come to me and say, I don't want to sound like I'm boasting. You're not boasting if it's telling the story of somebody else, but it's doing that in a way that is effective and that you don't go into lots of detail that's not relevant. If you've ever listened to friends or family members who are telling stories and they just go on and on, you're like, get to the point. It's the same when you are telling your story, you wanted to connect with the listener. So whether that is as part of a social media post, whether it's on your website that you're doing it, or as part of, presentation that you're doing at a networking event or something to that effect, but it's getting the essentials of what do you need to include, what can be left out and not relevant and that you're going to get the point across, and it's back to the starting point is always going to be, what's the message that I want people to take away from this? It's not telling a story for the sake of telling a story. What's the point of it? And you have to focus on that.

Louise McDonnell:

That's actually harder than you think, isn't it?

Maureen McCowen:

It is. If you're thinking I'm telling this customer story. Why? Because it highlights how we go the extra mile for our customers, for example and that reminds me of, a CEO of a company. They were celebrating 40 years in business and he was having a gala dinner and having a big audience and, quite high profile audience that was there. So I was working with him on getting his speech ready and he was talking about the team. He said, I really want to highlight the team because, they're great. They do so much. And I said what are you thinking of? And he said I want to say that they go the extra mile, but. They go the extra mile doesn't mean anything by itself. So I said tell me a little bit more about it. So he said I remember one year we were snowed in, and by the time I got into work, he said there were three of the team that were there. They were out with the shovels. They were clearing away the snow because they knew that the orders had to go out to the customers. So I said, that's the story to tell. You don't need to say we go the extra mile because your story is delivering that message.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah, it's listening to, there was a speaker at the LinkedIn Influencer Summit this week, and they were calling that signposting and that it's your signpost, it's like on the side of the road. So rather than saying, I work with CEOs, say, having worked with CEOs over the last 15 years, you said it in a way that doesn't feel boosty. Very subtle, but you're still seeing it,

Maureen McCowen:

You're getting the message across. And even from that, if you take from that example and that story that I gave you that was telling you about one of the types of clients that I work with, so it's the same thing, so you're subtly getting that message across without. Giving all of the information that's there. There's the a video that, that I would often show, and it's Brene Brown when she's talking her Ted talk, when she is talking the first Ted Talk that she gave and she starts off by saying that they didn't know how to introduce her, and she told this story, which had lots of humor in it, were very engaging. It was self-deprecating. But we knew from that she was the research scientist, that the type of work that she did, it was all woven into the story without saying I have studied here and I've done this and I've got this qualification. So back to that signpost and that you're talking about.

Louise McDonnell:

And actually the other thing that the speaker spoke about, so it was actually Yasmin Alex who spoke about that. If you check him out on LinkedIn, he was on about sign posting. But then what he also said, and again, go referring back to your TED talk, he said, what happens at the end of a TED Talk? Everybody gets, they listen to the last thing that you say, and then they clap the round of applause. And so what he was saying is that. When you're finishing off your posts, be mindful that's the last thing people read. And if you can say something really inspiring, the applause that you get online are comments. And comments are what drive the algorithm to show your content to more people. So yeah, it's really interesting, isn't it? So tell us, you have a free gift, so storytelling prompts, you were telling me about this earlier on and really sounds like an amazing bonus gift here for all the listeners. Tell us a little bit more.

Maureen McCowen:

Yeah, so a list. If people don't know where to start with storytelling, and that's quite often the case. I don't know where to start, where, what to do, or what stories people would be interested in. So I have a storytelling prompts pdf available on the website. So if you go to Soft Skills Success, ie slash storytelling prompts, you'll be able to download it from there. And it's a good starting point because very often we think, oh, I don't really have anything interesting. To say, but when you think about it, what do we like? We like learning about other people's journeys, lessons that they've learned, mistakes that they've made, how they succeeded. It's all of the simple stuff that we like to learn from others from that.

Louise McDonnell:

I'm going to download that myself. It sounds fantastic. Maureen, thank you so much for being an amazing guest. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. So where can people find you?

Maureen McCowen:

So I am on LinkedIn. You mentioned there earlier, Louise, that I post a lot, so I share lots of tips and advice on LinkedIn is my main platform. So that's Maureen McCowen and on Instagram it's Maureen underscore Soft Skills Success and the website is Soft Skills Success, ie.

Louise McDonnell:

Fantastic. Thanks so much again.