Judi Holler of Haus of {&} On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

… Remember nerves mean you’re alive. You are alive, if you are nervous, great, you’re alive, you’re breathing oxygen. And is there any other better way to be? Another thing here, never forget that no one cares about you as much as they care about themselves.

At some point in our lives, many of us will have to give a talk to a large group of people. What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker? How can you improve your public speaking skills? How can you overcome a fear of speaking in public? What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker” we are talking to successful and effective public speakers to share insights and stories from their experience. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Judi Holler.

Judi Holler is an author, keynote speaker, thought leader, podcaster, improviser, and the creator and CEO of the Haus of {&}, a private label lifestyle brand that connects ambitious humans and their goals. Judi helps teams reconnect, fully engage, and uplevel their effectiveness through energizing keynote education and a proprietary methodology that leverages each team member’s unique skill set to execute and adapt better, reach new goals, and amplify their business.

Her top-rated podcast, “Yes, And” with Judi Holler, highlights her professional improv training, as an alumnus of Second City’s Conservatory in Chicago, bringing the improv mindset to you each week with a focus on mental health, high-performance habits, and spirituality.

For the last decade, Judi has worked with companies like Four Seasons, Zyia Active, Marriott, Bank of America, T-Mobile, The Boston Red Sox, The Ritz Carlton, and more teaching the power of the improvisational mindset. Each year Judi speaks on stages around the United States and beyond, to audiences of 10–10,000 sharing the power of the improvisational mindset with her interactive, high-vibe, and inspirational keynote speeches.

Learn more at www.judiholler.com or www.hausofand.com

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I was born and raised in St. Louis so I’m a midwest girl at heart. I’m the oldest of four, I had an awesome 1980s and 1990s upbringing. I grew up in a diverse area which I loved because it has given me some perspective. And I grew up in a low to middle class family but we had everything we ever needed. But it also plays to my work ethic because I started working when I was thirteen years old. I started in hospitality and banquets and worked my way up from bussing tables to doing banquets, to working at a deli, to bartending, to hostessing. Mainly because I was brought up through the Catholic school system and I wanted to go to the all-girl Catholic high school so badly, so I worked to pay for it. This certainly is a big part of my story because it introduced me at such a young age to so many different kinds of people and to what it looks like to really work for and invest in the things you want. If I wanted a dress for prom, I was going to have to pay for it. My family didn’t have that kind of money. So I worked hard for everything I had and I still do.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

If we look back at our childhood, there are usually signs there of what is meant for us. Ask yourself what are those things you did before you got embarrassed, before you worried about people not liking you, before you feared judgment? What was the thing that lit you up before the world told you to dim your light? For me it was speech meets. I was that kid in grade school that did speech meets, I wasn’t in sports. I would go to speech meets and I would pick a monologue, memorize it and then compete by performing it. I would travel all over Missouri, compete, and collect ribbons, gold ribbons by the way, for these speeches. I had an early love of orating, storytelling, and performing. It was an awesome way for me to express myself. I loved how the audience reacted to the story and I loved how I could change the energy in the room. So if you’re ever feeling lost, look back on when you were a kid before the world told you that you needed to hide and before you started fearing failure because there are scenes in there that can illuminate what you’re true calling is.

A corporate story or secondary story that set everything on fire was when I was taking improv classes at the Second City Conservatory in Chicago. I was working my corporate job by day and by night I was taking improv classes. I was learning so many things from improv that I wasn’t learning in the corporate world. At my improv classes, I was being told to fail, to make mistakes, to be myself, to embrace my fear, to be more present, and lean into the discomfort. And by day, I was being told to be myself but make sure to let us know first before you take the risk. By day I had to fit into a box but with improv I was breaking out of that box. I was learning the framework to embrace fear. I was really brave on the improv stage which made me brave in the boardroom. I started asking for what I wanted. I started going to events by myself, asking the guy out on the date, asking for the promotion, it made me really brave in my 9–5, it made me really brave in my life. That reset changed the way I showed up in all aspects of my life. I knew I had to start sharing what I was learning with anyone who would listen. I started a blog, and I asked my boss if I could lead the sales meetings with my ideas. It began because I was a personal branding speaker but what it evolved into was a conversation around courage. We don’t put ourselves out there because we’re afraid to fail, we’re afraid to be judged, we’re afraid to be seen. What began as improv classes turned into an experiment in confidence and reframing of failure and fear which led me to quit my job and do this full time and then write my book. Those improv classes were the catalyst because I started getting braver but really what I do now is very rooted in what I was doing in fifth grade but I took a few diversions to get here. And that’s our job, which is to be a hummingbird. A hummingbird flies around and hits all these different flowers to get everything it needs and that shows that we’re not going to have a linear path. In your youth, you might feel called to something but you’re going to go explore and you’ll be in your twenties, thirties, and forties and figure things out. Your job is to play in the world and explore so you can take that back to your work to season it and amplify it, to put your own unique spin on it. Improv is the lens through which I see the world, but the profession of orating and storytelling has been in my blood, I feel like I was born to do this and improv poured gasoline on it.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

This particular story continues to stay with me every single day and will help people as performers, help calm nerves, and get out of your head. I was giving a speech to about 800 people five years ago, and I caught a face in the audience. That happens when you’re on stage, doing your thing and you catch a face which is when you lock eyes with people who are smiling, nodding their head, and really engaged. This woman’s face, I kept catching her face and she had a resting b**** face, it looked like she couldn’t stand me, and it looked like she just wanted me to get off stage. It made me so awkward and made me get in my head. I did have a group of girls that were smiling and really getting into my speech but this woman just did not look happy and I kept catching her face. Once I get off the stage, there is an opportunity for the members of the audience to meet me, take selfies, sign books, and the group of girls who I could tell were engaged with my talk, were in line and it was great. Then I saw the woman with the resting b**** face and negative cues in line and I got so nervous. I didn’t know what to expect but when it got to her turn in line, she grabbed my hands and said, “I just want to tell you how timely this talk is for me, I just lost someone in my family and I have been waiting to make changes, I’ve been feeling sorry for myself, putting everything on hold because of it. I am a victim of this experience and your talk woke me up to the fact that now is the time and I can’t let fear call the shots anymore. I was so moved by your talk.” This woman was in tears and gave me a big hug. I was on stage completely misreading this woman and what she was going through. I was blown away. After the meet and greet, I went to the bathroom and the group of girls who were smiling at me and engaged in my talk were in the bathroom saying mean things about me. I thought by their body language and their cues, I thought they loved my talk whereas the woman with the cold face in the audience was completely ready to change her life because of my talk. The lesson here for any performer is to be careful. We never really know what’s going on with people, be careful about how we receive and perceive the audience. Be mindful about misreading cues. We’re never as good as they say we are, but we’re never as bad as they say we are. You never know who you’re moving and connecting with.

The other lesson on a lighter note: try not to use the public bathrooms before or after a talk or speech so you can keep your head in the game and a comment doesn’t take you out of focus.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I spoke to Ohio State University’s medical staff. I did a workshop in the morning, stayed there for the day, and then in the evening I did an all-staff talk. In the audience were surgeons, nurses, doctors, and administrative staff. During a part of my talk, which is one of the things I teach from my improv background, “there are no mistakes, only gifts.” Then I look at the front row and there are ten surgeons just looking at me. I realized I didn’t do my homework. You have to know your audience because I could’ve flipped that but I wasn’t prepared. I could have found a way to make that lesson make sense. I could have said, “We’re all going to make mistakes so how do we train and empower our staff?” I’m sure surgeons can beat themselves up and can spiral when mistakes happen because in surgery you don’t want to make a big mistake. But surgeons are human too and they have to figure out how to recover and rebound when things don’t go as they should.

Moral of the story: Know your audience.

A secondary story: Get video of you on stage, hire a videographer. Back when I was first starting, I hired a relatively inexperienced videographer and I was wearing a bunch of chains and jewelry and when we re-watched the video, the audio was ruined because of the clanking chains and earrings I was wearing. We couldn’t use any of the videos. The videographer was inexperienced so he didn’t tell me to take it off, I was still a bit inexperienced as well so I didn’t know any better. So be mindful of your accessories while on stage.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

It has to be Amanda Zahner on my team, my first hire. We need to grow and hire. The faster you can do that, you can carve out the capital and space in your heart. I knew I needed to hire someone in order to get to where I wanted to go. I couldn’t do it alone, I was so in the weeds and I needed support. I put a feeler out in my community, my newsletter, and my social media. She was the first one to respond, we got over fifty responses and whittled it down to ten. I had a gut feeling it was going to be her who worked with me. Five years later, she’s still with me and she’s been here since the beginning. She is now my business partner, building the Haus of & brand with me, she is the chief integration officer, she’s my right hand woman and I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without her. The lesson here is to hire before you’re ready. Find someone who aligns to who you are as a human being and to the message you are putting out in the world. Amanda actually found me because she was in the audience at one of my talks, so she was already a part of my community. She ultimately took a risk by quitting her corporate, six-figure career to work with me full-time. We continued to grow from there. It’s a testament to look for help, look sooner than you’re ready, look inside your community. Get clear on what you’re looking for, find someone who is aligned on the message so they can build the future with you and become a business partner. Also, maybe find someone who doesn’t want to do what you do. I’m beyond grateful every single day for Amanda’s partnership, trust, and her dedicated support.

You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging and intimidating. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?

One of the big things I teach in my work is the improv mantra: There are no mistakes, only gifts. We don’t fail, we win or we learn.

You have to reframe your perspective on failure. The career of being a professional public speaker, success depends on the repetitions. The more you do it, the stronger you get. Like with a marathon, you have to train and start somewhere. You have to start with your first speech. You have to start so begin.

There’s a big misconception that improvisers just wing it and we go with the flow. And that’s the furthest thing from the truth. The only reason improvisers are able to improvise in the moment is because they have prepared for the moment. They have used their training to succeed on stage in difficult and unexpected moments. Improvisers are the most prepared people you’ll meet which allows us to improvise. This means be prepared and rehearse. Before I put any talk on a stage, I have run it dozens and dozens of times. Have an outline on the lectern so if the tech goes down, you can stay on track. Know your material. I was once told that how prepared you are, is a reflection of how much you respect your audience. I respect my audiences. I’m there to serve and provide value. To connect people to something bigger. To help them think differently. To share a story that can awaken them. That can only be done successfully through preparation. Know your stuff and rehearse like a beast. It will serve you well when, not if, when technology fails, when slides disappear, when you have to shrink your talk down. Things will happen so be ready. The only way you can fail is number one, not trying and number two, not preparing. Preparation helps us not feel so daunted by the prospect of failure. We can control how we show up. Prepare, trust yourself, and then let it go.

What drives you to get up everyday and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?

I am on a mission to get you to the other side of someday syndrome, that the transformative ideas and the empowering mindset from the improv theater can help you turn someday into today.

And you can do that by opening new doors. Now, today, and the story that I opened my keynote with is a perfect illumination of this:

This notion that my realtor sold a house to a widow who lost his wife in her sleep at the age of 53. And when they were signing the papers, she had a brain aneurysm in her sleep. And so when they were signing the paperwork around his kitchen table, when he was selling the house, he asked my realtor and everybody there, if they wanted something to drink to which they said yes. So, he went to the Wedding China cabinet and got out all the water for crystal and poured everybody drinks in Waterford crystal to which my realtor said, “oh my God, this is so fancy.”

And he goes, “it’s our Wedding China. I watched this Wedding China collect dust for almost thirty years. My wife was always waiting for a special occasion. I know today is the special occasion.” He said, “I drink my morning orange juice out of this crystal every day.”

The point is: use the crystal, light the candle, wear the good perfume. Do it now, because now’s the time. The problem is we wait for someday.

So the message I want to share is that someday needs to become today. You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time.

I’m on a mission to get people to move and to do that in a way that feels doable. That’s my message.

We’re combating someday syndrome.

You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?

Most certainly Haus of {&}, is the most exciting project that I’m working on.

It is a lifestyle brand rooted in the tenets of improv theater, fueled by the transformative power of &.

But most importantly, a lifestyle brand. I see myself working on my next book, growing a merchandise brand, a merchandise line, a physical store, live experiences, all wrapped around the transformational power of &, and how that idea can help people turn someday into today.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favorite quote is contrary to what we usually hear, “fake it until you make it.” My favorite life lesson quote is, “make it until you make it.” Cause I think there’s a lot of people out in the world that get so busy faking it, they never make it. And if we’re faking it, then we’re creating things that aren’t really who we are. And we end up miserable and jealous and overwhelmed and exhausted and deep in comparison, and we feel like an imposter. While we can’t avoid feeling those things, it is certainly not helpful to be anything but who you are.

And that requires you to go out and be a hummingbird in your life. Try a lot of things on, do a lot of things, meet a lot of people, get a lot of different perspectives and then make it until you make it, keep moving until you make it right.

Keep iterating and improvising and trying things until you make it. So that’s my favorite quote. “We make it until we make it.”

Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.

Number one: you have to have a great speech, a great speech that has heartbeats.

I was once told by one of my very early mentors and coaches that a good speech sort of resembles the EKG on a heartbeat machine.

So you’ll see it go up and you’ll see it go down. And this really plays to the heartbeats that our talk should have because 50% of your audience is going to learn with their heart and 50% of your audience is going to learn with their head.

A good talk dances between those two lines, we teach and tell stories and use anecdotes and interaction to play to our heart.

And then we also use science, research, stories and data to play to the head. And that really makes a beautiful talk.

Number two, storytelling is a big part of that talk. I think it’s always strong when you think of a good speech to have a very strong opening story, and then coming back to it at the end, again, to sort of call back, we do a lot of callbacks in the improv theater to call back to it and tie it up in a pretty bow.

It really is 50% of the head, 50% of the heart. So do you, Bob and weave between those two things,

Number two preparation, someone once told me that how prepared you are, shows how much you respect your audience.

I think I talked about this in an earlier question. So make sure you are prepared, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, know your stuff.

Number three, check your ego at the door. I was once told by an early mentor, that you’re never as good as they say you are, but your hustle never is bad.

Don’t be a jerk. And to remember, don’t tie your self worth or yourself success to a standing ovation, standing ovations are amazing and they’re incredible, but all it takes is one person. It could be your mama in the front row and she stands up. Guess what the rest of the room is going to stand up. So it’s humbling, it’s checking your ego and remembering you’re there to serve.

And no one is better than anyone and live in gratitude for the fact that you’re able to do this work and that you were hired to serve.

And that you were able to begin, you were given the gift of speaking on a stage. So gratitude and check your ego at the door.

Number four, have a thick skin. When you speak on stage, you’re going to have to keep moving. Despite someone getting up and leaving, despite someone in the audience that has a weird look on their face, that you may be misreading, despite somebody not liking you, despite someone leaving a negative review, all of these things are going to happen.

You just have to have a really deep confidence in yourself and a really deep self-love. One of the things I say before I go out on any stage is, I tell myself that I love myself.

No matter what happens up here, no matter what goes right, what goes wrong at the end of the day, when I put my head on the pillow at night, I’m going to love myself regardless.

And when you really put yourself in that position of deep self love and gratitude for the work that you do, you can’t fail.

So competence, thick skin, and self-love is important.

Number five, last but not least, I think what makes a highly effective public speaker is having a body of work. I think my speaking career really elevated when I published my first book and truly, that’s why I did it. I knew that it would be writing a book. I knew that it would be the best business card I could ever buy for myself or invest in for myself because it is not cheap to write a book, to produce a book, to launch a book, and market a book and all the things.

But it is awesome because it really validates your intellectual property and gives your audiences tangible tools they can take home with them. There’s more after the speech. And that is a really powerful tool.

As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?

Well, number one, we need to realize that we will never overcome fear, but we can work with it.

So many people want to get rid of fear. You can’t, but you could work with it. So there’s some really powerful ways to work with your fear.

So number one, congratulate yourself. If you’re about to go speak somewhere, Congratulations! You have earned your spot on that stage. The bad news is that you can’t control or stop the nerves.

The good news is you can reframe it and make friends with it. So, here’s how you can do that. Number two, stop telling yourself you’re nervous and start telling yourself you’re excited.

Your brain doesn’t know the difference. So tell a new story. Nine times out of ten, by the time you put your little feet on the stage, and you’re 30 to 90 seconds into the talk, your nerves aren’t the star of the show anymore.

So write a new story, say thank you for the gift of being able to make an impact to share your story with others.

Lead with gratitude. Have gratitude backstage before you go onto that stage. It really helps me reset and reframe why I’m there.

It takes the attention off of me and onto the real star of the show, which is the value I’m going to provide to the audience.

Remember nerves mean you’re alive. You are alive, if you are nervous, great, you’re alive, you’re breathing oxygen. And is there any other better way to be? Another thing here, never forget that no one cares about you as much as they care about themselves.

Give them so much gold and realize you’re there to serve, not perform. And last but not least, I always anchor any scary thing that I have to go do with a fun treat on the other side. So after a talk, I always treat myself as something like a really good glass of champagne, a massage manicure, pedicure, a brownie. I’m always sort of anchoring something on the other side of my talk to reward myself for doing the scary thing.

And I think there are three things you can do before you get on stage to really reset your vibe. Before I get on any stage, I have a song I listen to. It’s unstoppable by SIA. I play a song that really gets me feeling confident while I’m doing that. I stand in a power pose.

So for the entire song, I am standing in a power pose. Google it. There’s a lot of science behind power posing. So that usually lasts a couple of minutes. And then, like I said, I tell myself, I love myself and I go out there and I do the work.

You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I would eradicate ‘someday syndrome’ from the world. I would continue to shout from the mountain tops that the transformational power of & is the cure for moving small daily actions, adding something new when you feel stuck are the ways we combat it.

We eradicate it and we begin to change our lives. So I think that’s the movement I want to inspire in the world.

I want to show you that you can use the transformational power of & to turn someday into today. And that is what changes the course of your life.

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens?

Yes. Amy Poehler. Let’s go.

Oprah too, but I feel like everybody says Oprah. Oprah, if you’re reading this, call me.

But Amy Poehler, for sure! I would love to talk about all things improv and comedy. And just basically become best friends with her.

This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!