Lenora Edwards, Chief Knowledge Officer at Better Speech, shares her insights on leadership through the lens of speech therapy. In this episode, Lenora discusses how effective communication is crucial not only for personal well-being but also for leadership in any setting. She explains the broad scope of speech therapy, which extends far beyond speech clarity to include cognitive skills, memory, and even swallowing. Lenora’s approach to leadership is deeply rooted in her commitment to empowering individuals, whether they are recovering from severe trauma or simply looking to improve their communication skills. Her work demonstrates that true leadership involves understanding and addressing the unique needs of each person, fostering their ability to communicate effectively and confidently.

Want to learn more about Lenora Edwards' work? Check out their website at https://www.betterspeech.com/.

Connect with Lenora Edwards on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/better-speech/mycompany/.

Key Points with Timestamps

• 00:01:17 - 00:03:16: Lenora explains the comprehensive role of speech therapists, from speech clarity to cognitive rehabilitation.
• 00:04:06 - 00:05:14: Discussion on the importance of swallowing and speech therapy in recovery, with real-life examples from Lenora’s experience.
• 00:19:25 - 00:20:38: Lenora shares her approach to communication coaching and its impact on leadership in business settings.
• 00:28:44 - 00:29:17: Lenora discusses the art of communication and how it varies across different cultural and professional contexts.
• 00:29:17 - 00:30:38: Lenora highlights the importance of clear communication for leaders and the signs that one might benefit from communication coaching.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment of my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on the show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;00;57;24
Craig Andrews
Today I will welcome back Leonora Edwards. She is a returning guest.

00;00;57;24 - 00;01;01;08
Craig Andrews
Only the second one ever. And,

00;01;01;08 - 00;01;07;26
Craig Andrews
well, Nora is just a delightful, delightful person, as you will see soon. Here. But,

00;01;07;26 - 00;01;17;05
Craig Andrews
what we're going to talk about today is she has a business called Better Speech, and she provides online speech therapy.

00;01;17;05 - 00;01;27;00
Craig Andrews
It's particularly interesting to me because I dealt with speech therapist when I was in the rehab hospital, and there's a lot of confusion about what they do.

00;01;27;00 - 00;01;48;18
Craig Andrews
So we're going to start off, we're going to talk about that. But let me tell you where we're going. If you have a business, this is something you want to listen to. If you're if you're in business at all or let me broaden it out. If you have a need to communicate with anyone, you want to tune in, because you're going to walk away with some practical applications and some new insights.

00;01;48;18 - 00;01;49;11
Craig Andrews
And so,

00;01;49;11 - 00;01;50;26
Craig Andrews
Leonora, welcome.

00;01;50;29 - 00;01;57;20
Lenora Edwards
Thank you so much for having me again, Craig. I so appreciate it. And I love spending time with you. So this is great.

00;01;57;23 - 00;02;09;19
Craig Andrews
You know, we ran into the same problem we did last time was we basically have already done a complete up. So just in the green room chat and back and forth.

00;02;09;22 - 00;02;11;13
Lenora Edwards
We are quite chatty, you and I.

00;02;11;15 - 00;02;14;26
Craig Andrews
You we are. And, you know, it's,

00;02;14;26 - 00;02;20;09
Craig Andrews
you know, it's fascinating. You know, one of the things,

00;02;20;09 - 00;02;30;12
Craig Andrews
one of the things that was really confusing to me and I had to see it kind of played out when I was in rehab. And so, you know, for those who don't know my story, I was in,

00;02;30;12 - 00;02;35;10
Craig Andrews
Yeah, I was in a coma for six weeks in the hospital for a total of three months.

00;02;35;13 - 00;02;55;14
Craig Andrews
And, you know, basically had to rebuild everything, including eating. Which speech therapist are responsible for including thinking? I've had to reconnect some memories. And it turns out speech therapists do that, too. And so it's a really deceptive term. What what is a speech therapist?

00;02;55;17 - 00;03;16;27
Lenora Edwards
You are correct. It is a little bit of a deceptive term. So as a oftentimes yes, we do call ourselves speech therapist. And we are also known as speech language pathologists. And what we help people do especially at that our speech, of which I just want to share that I do not own the company. I am the chief knowledge officer with the company.

00;03;16;27 - 00;03;41;19
Lenora Edwards
We do provide online speech therapy service SES, and what that looks like is FaceTiming and zooming. So really we use a zoom platform and we have the ability to help people all over the world because we provide high quality speech therapy services that are affordable and convenient. So when it comes to speech therapy, we work from the neck and up.

00;03;41;24 - 00;04;06;17
Lenora Edwards
So yes, a lot of the time people here. Oh, your speech therapist, how clear is my speech? And while I do listen for the clarity of somebody's speech, we really do so much more. And this is why I say from the neck and up, because we do help people improve their swallowing. We help people with their voice. So sometimes we work with individuals who might be experiencing a voice difficulty or voice challenge throat cancer.

00;04;06;24 - 00;04;31;03
Lenora Edwards
We also work with individuals who have what we call oral motor weakness. So might be weakness of the lips, or the cheeks or the tongue or the mouth. And we'll help them build their skills, their oral motor strength, back up. We also work on their intelligibility so that clarity of speech, but also language, as in how well they understand something and how clearly they can express themselves.

00;04;31;05 - 00;04;40;26
Lenora Edwards
And then we also work on cognitive skills. So things like memory, reasoning, sequencing, conversation. So really then neck and up.

00;04;40;29 - 00;05;02;28
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Yeah I think the first two exercises, well the first thing that I learned about speech therapist was and they were my pathway to getting back to eating solid food. You know, I went from all of my meals, came through a tube in my stomach to they started let me eat crushed ice to I could have broth.

00;05;03;00 - 00;05;17;26
Craig Andrews
And I remember one day, they were doing x rays and they gave me, like, pudding or something. And it was the first thing I had had with flavor. And I was like, let me finish that. And they're like, well, it's loaded with barium. We probably shouldn't.

00;05;17;28 - 00;05;43;00
Lenora Edwards
So absolutely. So for individuals who don't know, people can have difficulty swallowing. And swallowing is a reflex. So as a clinician, I've worked in the neonatal intensive care unit, I worked in the pediatric intensive care unit and where you work, Deer Creek and the adult intensive care unit. And there's such a thing as difficulty being able to swallow your own saliva or difficulty swallowing nutrition safely.

00;05;43;00 - 00;06;10;15
Lenora Edwards
So oftentimes for babies will work on suckling, will work on their sex swallow breathe pattern. And it's really important because when we're swallowing the food and all your muscles coordinate very effectively to close off your airway and to transfer the food into your esophagus, which then goes down to your stomach. If there is weakness in your throat area, what can ultimately happen is food or liquid can go into your lungs.

00;06;10;15 - 00;06;35;11
Lenora Edwards
And that's exactly why they were very careful with what they gave you, because you might not have had the cognitive ability to safely consume nutrition, and you might not have had the literal physical ability to safely consume nutrition. So when they gave you barium, they also did an X-ray, and they were able to see if it was going into your lungs or if it was going down toward the esophagus the way that we all want.

00;06;35;14 - 00;06;44;02
Craig Andrews
When, you know, I still have a problem where I'll wake up in the middle of night choking, you know, something went down the wrong way.

00;06;44;04 - 00;07;04;28
Lenora Edwards
And sometimes, yeah, people will say oh I have phlegm in my throat. And it can be, sometimes it can be what we call pooling. And it might just be your saliva or mucus just hanging out in the back of your throat. And your muscles aren't transferring it down into your esophagus where it needs to go. And it might just kind of be sticky and hanging out there.

00;07;04;28 - 00;07;14;10
Lenora Edwards
Sometimes when you swallow, it will eventually clear it, or other times you might hear people throat clear or cough really hard to get that up and out of the way.

00;07;14;13 - 00;07;29;12
Craig Andrews
So the at the rehab hospital, you know, at that point, I think when I went in, I think I was on broth and then quickly went to everything I anything I pass through the blender first and

00;07;29;12 - 00;07;37;23
Craig Andrews
and I met this speech therapist named Trang. She was there for a week, and she was working on the cognitive skills that you were talking about.

00;07;37;26 - 00;07;40;06
Craig Andrews
But she also had me do,

00;07;40;06 - 00;08;01;05
Craig Andrews
this exercise, and I don't know what was going on, but I couldn't complete it because I would start and I would just start busting out laughing. And my wife liked it because it was the first time she had seen me laugh in three months. And but I had to do this thing where I would go eat, you know, something like that.

00;08;01;05 - 00;08;09;22
Craig Andrews
And all I could picture was alfalfa from The Little Rascals doing this little voice exercises, and I could never finish it.

00;08;09;22 - 00;08;23;21
Craig Andrews
And I knew it had to be important because, you know, there was trying to get my speech back, and, So what was that? What was the point of that exercise? What was what was she working on?

00;08;23;24 - 00;08;42;29
Lenora Edwards
So sometimes in this case, especially for individuals who had a trait. So for those who aren't quite sure what a trick is, they're the doctors will create an opening at the base of your throat, and they will put an apparatus or a trick in there to help you breathe, because you might not be able to successfully breathe through your mouth or your nose.

00;08;43;02 - 00;08;55;18
Lenora Edwards
So this device will help you breathe more easily. And sometimes you might be to a machine, and to that machine might be helping you breathe more effectively. Now, when there is a trick involved, ultimately there

00;08;55;18 - 00;09;13;14
Lenora Edwards
there is an interruption in the airflow that was there. So now we have to build that skill. We have to build those muscles, especially because of all the weakness that you experience in that you had as it result of staying in bed for so long, of not being able to do certain things for yourself.

00;09;13;17 - 00;09;35;25
Lenora Edwards
That also being said, just like your legs get weak, your throat muscles get weak, your swallowing muscles get weak, your vocal cords get weak, and we want to build that back up. So even in such an exercise as we eat, you're really working to shift your voice. But at the same time, your muscles are squeezing together and your vocal cords are coming back together.

00;09;35;27 - 00;10;04;18
Lenora Edwards
As we're talking. So everything that I'm doing right now is a considered the expressive part of language. So I'm talking but also my vocal cords are going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, opening and closing, letting my voice travel the way that it needs to when I'm breathing or when when I'm just listening. So when I'm not talking, my vocal cords are open, our vocal cords have to come back and forth, and that's how we also then get sound.

00;10;04;21 - 00;10;20;20
Lenora Edwards
So she might have been working toward building a strength up back in your voice, as well as the volume as well as the pitch and building that intensity. So there are a lot of things going on in such a fun little exercise. A v e.

00;10;20;22 - 00;10;41;06
Craig Andrews
So yeah, and that makes sense. And we were saying about the, you know, the actually the atrophy was so bad, it even impacted my vision in my eye muscles, you know, hadn't had the focus for a while and for it was probably it was close to a month after I woke up. Everything was blurry. And she actually got upset.

00;10;41;06 - 00;10;43;26
Craig Andrews
You know, I kept saying her name wrong and she's like,

00;10;43;26 - 00;10;59;26
Craig Andrews
look, you know, my name is Trang. I wrote it on the board and I was like, Trang, everything's blurry. I can't see. And she quickly turned. She's like, I'm sorry. And, she got very irritated by that. But yeah, that's how bad it is. But,

00;10;59;26 - 00;11;03;05
Craig Andrews
you know, most people that are listening haven't been in a coma.

00;11;03;05 - 00;11;21;07
Craig Andrews
I haven't had to trek, haven't had to do this. And but you help people who haven't had that trauma, you help people that might have otherwise normal lives. And and what what sort of help do they need? What? What's going on? Why did people call you?

00;11;21;09 - 00;11;42;22
Lenora Edwards
People call us for lots of different reasons. And in your case, especially with, well, some people I just want to make a note. Some people might think, oh, six weeks in bed sounds like a great idea. Not so much. A lot of atrophy does occur, a lot of physical weakness. So taking yourself to the bathroom, even standing up on your own is exhausting.

00;11;42;24 - 00;12;04;19
Lenora Edwards
If you've been in bed for a very long period of time, and the reason that people reach out to us, some people are not experience as in they didn't go through a coma. They didn't have the very, very long process of rehab that you had. Some people reach out to us, for example, one of my clients, the client, is in their 70s.

00;12;04;21 - 00;12;24;05
Lenora Edwards
Their loved one that I also see on the camera is in their 50s. And the reason that they reached out to us is because the older individual, the parent, is experiencing signs of dementia. So they're having memory loss, they're putting their milk in their cabinet, and they're putting their cereal in the refrigerator. Their keys are not going in the proper place.

00;12;24;05 - 00;12;56;21
Lenora Edwards
They're missing bills. So things like that to help people really keep their organization, but also to help keep their independence. We work to make things more structured, more organized for them so that there is routine. And that's very important because we have neurological diseases, which are very unfortunate, and there is a progressive decline, which is very unfortunate. That being said, we can still build in new processes and we can help individuals maintain their current skills.

00;12;56;23 - 00;13;15;18
Lenora Edwards
And a lot of the time people think like, oh, I have Alzheimer's, or oh, I have Parkinson's, and oh, I go right into a nursing home. No, no, no, you do not you do not have to, you know, do not pass go and collect you and don't collect $200 and go straightly straight to there. You can find ways to keep your independence and to stay at home.

00;13;15;21 - 00;13;40;18
Lenora Edwards
Having online speech therapy services is one of them. There's also online physical therapy services. And the great thing is, is that when you have telehealth, which we are when we have telehealth practices, we get to be in the place where that individual is the most comfortable. Quite literally, we are in their home with them. We are a part of their daily routine.

00;13;40;21 - 00;14;01;07
Lenora Edwards
So rather than having somebody come up to the clinic where especially if you're 45 minutes away, that's a long drive, and now you're wondering, how am I going to implement this at home? When you have online therapy, especially with better speech, we zoom with you, you join our meeting and we have a designated time of when we meet on your schedule at times that are convenient for you.

00;14;01;09 - 00;14;13;18
Lenora Edwards
And then we can also hit the record button. So that way after therapy, if you're going, wow, that was a good therapy session. What did they say though? What was that part? I totally don't remember. You have the ability to

00;14;13;18 - 00;14;27;20
Lenora Edwards
or to go back to that recording and repeat the information, learn the information, integrate the information. And that's a beautiful thing of the many wonderful things that technology does provide us.

00;14;27;22 - 00;14;42;03
Craig Andrews
You know, you mentioned the, you know, the Alzheimer's patient and, you know, myself and I would imagine most people grew up being told that saturated fats are bad. And at one point,

00;14;42;03 - 00;14;52;04
Craig Andrews
in my journey, they said, hey, Craig, you should eat butter. And I was like, why? It helps your myelin sheath. Like, what's that? You know, like, doesn't matter.

00;14;52;04 - 00;15;15;27
Craig Andrews
It's important. And so what I was also trying to gain weight at the time. So I mean I put butter on everything. But apparently I mean, if I'm following, if I've been able to connect the dots correctly, butter, which is a saturated fat, actually helps. The myelin sheath is something white wrapped around their nerves. And it actually helps,

00;15;15;27 - 00;15;20;22
Craig Andrews
in things like Alzheimer's or, or just your general neurological help.

00;15;21;10 - 00;15;42;14
Lenora Edwards
Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of things, especially when it goes to nutrition. There's so many conflicting pieces of information. And when it comes to nutrition and how to have brain health, I am a big supporter of do the research. But by research I'm don't mean just watch a 20 minute, 20 minute episode of One Piece on the news.

00;15;42;14 - 00;16;04;13
Lenora Edwards
Do your research, get a book, go on YouTube, find other people, study the information. When it comes to nutrition, it's not something that we should be solving in 20 minutes. And then there we go. Then we have it. Allow it to be a part of your life because what you need it at 20 years of age, what you need at 30 years of age, is not the same nutrition that you need at 50 years of age.

00;16;04;15 - 00;16;29;19
Lenora Edwards
That being said, a lot of the food that we are having on our grocery store shelves might be processed food in such a way that it's not necessarily the most nutritious. Our culture is very big into low calorie, low fat, and replacing all of these things with other pieces of ingredients that might not serve our most optimal health.

00;16;29;21 - 00;16;49;03
Lenora Edwards
So really knowing what your blood work looks like, knowing how your body's operating, knowing what you need to sustain yourself to enjoy your life on your terms is the most important. So allow yourself to really explore what that looks like. And if having more butter is something that is hey, you know what? This is good for brain health.

00;16;49;03 - 00;17;05;16
Lenora Edwards
And this helps me that that data. Okay, great. I wouldn't necessarily sit there with a whole stick of butter in one day. That might not be the most nutritious, but integrating certain things into your nutrition plan is absolutely, vitally important.

00;17;05;18 - 00;17;14;25
Craig Andrews
Well, you know, one of the problems that we have, and I think this is one of the challenges with with the research, the origins of the whole thing about,

00;17;14;25 - 00;17;31;23
Craig Andrews
saturated fats being bad goes back to Harvard from the 1960s bunch of Harvard researchers published research saying butter is bad or saturated fats are bad. Turns out the people that funded that study was the sugar industry.

00;17;31;25 - 00;17;46;26
Craig Andrews
And they were trying to take the pressure off of sugar. And they just they just fudged the results and it shaped decades of medical guidance and it's just crap. It was they bought them off. They bribed them.

00;17;46;28 - 00;17;50;20
Lenora Edwards
There's a lot of very interesting things when you really start to dig down one of

00;17;50;20 - 00;18;19;21
Lenora Edwards
fantastic book that I have used as a great resource is Death of the American Food Pyramid. And it goes into the history of how the food pyramid was initially created. And that's why I really encourage people, you know what my parents learned in the 70s and the 80s, what I learned from my parents and then grew up with in the 90s and in the early 2000, is not the same information, and it's not the same food products that are on the shelf.

00;18;19;24 - 00;18;28;29
Lenora Edwards
It is something to really consider looking at and exploring and really being the detective of what your body needs.

00;18;29;01 - 00;18;34;16
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So let's go back to the speech part part of speech therapy.

00;18;35;29 - 00;18;58;12
Craig Andrews
And what and let's put this in the context of like the business settings because that's a of our audience here. From the outside perspective when you're looking into the business settings, what type of problems are you seeing in terms of communications and speech.

00;18;58;14 - 00;19;25;17
Lenora Edwards
When it comes to. So one of the things that we do a better speech is we provide communication coaching. And that is different than accent modification coaching. When we're talking about communication how are people interacting on the team? What is active listening really look like. And are people able to really effectively express their thoughts, express what their ideas are?

00;19;25;23 - 00;19;49;04
Lenora Edwards
And there is a difference between talking and expressing and responding to what somebody else said. When we're working to respond, we're more on the defense versus let me really make sure that I understood what you said. And one of the biggest takeaways and one of the biggest keys that I could ever share is when you're communicating. Yes, language is important.

00;19;49;07 - 00;20;19;26
Lenora Edwards
The words that you choose definitely important. But what's more important is the tone at which you share. There's a different way to say, hi, how are you versus hi, how are you? There's a different way that says, what are your thoughts on this? What are your thoughts on this? It really comes down to tone. So your biggest takeaway should be let me if I if I don't have time to have a communication coach and to really build these skills, let me do my best to notice.

00;20;19;28 - 00;20;38;25
Lenora Edwards
I don't want to be present when we're with people. We don't want to be looking at our watch and getting distracted by another pop up alert. And even on zoom. And huge thing I'm noticing on zoom is we can be having a conversation and somebody's eyes keep slightly darting, they keep slightly darting. They might be sending an email.

00;20;38;25 - 00;21;05;23
Lenora Edwards
They might be getting an alert of which, yes, that that's important. At the same time, you have a human in front of you. Let's be respectful to other people and really engage with them and be present in the conversation. So that way you can then consider yourself an active listener, but also somebody who's really working to solve the problem or to participate in the thought, to participate in the task.

00;21;05;25 - 00;21;11;09
Lenora Edwards
You're with other people. Allow yourself to be with other people.

00;21;11;11 - 00;21;18;14
Craig Andrews
And, you know, I looking at myself, I've slipped into some bad habits that I'm trying to get out of that when I'm. When we.

00;21;18;14 - 00;21;19;05
Lenora Edwards
All do.

00;21;19;07 - 00;21;35;12
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, I'm more human. I, I've started minimizing the windows. And because it's easy you know I, I don't perceive that my eyes are darting around now fortunately I produce a podcast and when I look at

00;21;35;12 - 00;21;41;07
Craig Andrews
I see myself moving my, keeping my head steady and moving my eyes actually looks a little bit freaky.

00;21;43;02 - 00;21;47;08
Craig Andrews
Yeah, it looks almost like Marty Feldman, you know, going around and,

00;21;47;08 - 00;22;10;24
Craig Andrews
but I think, well, you know, they're, you know, they're not noticing and it's, you know, I think it's I just think broadly, we've become a, a less considerate people. And I blame, you know, I spent 15 years in the mobile phone industry, and unfortunately, my work fueled a lot of that.

00;22;10;27 - 00;22;36;08
Craig Andrews
You know, some of the worse have. I was I was at Starbucks the other day, and this lady comes in with her phone on speakerphone. She's there with her husband, kids. She's ignoring them. She's holding this conversation. And everybody in Starbucks is hearing this conversation and she's present with nobody that's there.

00;22;36;10 - 00;22;36;29
Lenora Edwards
Yeah.

00;22;37;02 - 00;23;01;11
Craig Andrews
And that's a little bit of an extreme example. But just you know checking text messages and what have you when you're talking with somebody it's you know what I found I don't know if I've ever gotten a text message. Maybe I don't know if I've ever gotten a text message that couldn't have waited 30 minutes or an hour to respond.

00;23;01;11 - 00;23;02;08
Craig Andrews
So.

00;23;02;11 - 00;23;30;09
Lenora Edwards
No, it's a very good point. And, you know, it's unfortunate because as as helpful as our devices are, they're also in training us that something else is more important than the person in front of us and train us to look for alerts. They want you on the platform, and there's so many fantastic things out there. And, you know, especially being a part of this culture, always understanding that there are two sides to everything.

00;23;30;11 - 00;23;51;22
Lenora Edwards
There is a wonderful side to technology. And there's also a not so wonderful side to technology. There's a wonderful side to doing certain things. And then there's also another side to it. You cannot find anything on this planet that you can only discuss one way. Everything has two sides complete. So really it's something to be aware of. And what what is important to us about communicating.

00;23;51;22 - 00;24;10;19
Lenora Edwards
Is it important that I send this email, or is it more important that I give this person the time? Now that being said, if I need to urgently send something, excuse me? I mean, I'm I apologize, I need to pause for a minute. Let me do this so that I can then give you my undivided attention.

00;24;10;22 - 00;24;25;21
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Now, when you were talking about ways of speaking, you know, the the thing that was resonating with me there is I grew up in the northeast, but except for when I've lived overseas, I've spent the majority of my adult life in the South.

00;24;26;18 - 00;24;46;01
Craig Andrews
And, and it's impacted how I communicate because in the northeast you just kind of you say what you have to say and you get it out there and you know, you just kind of take it at face value. There's no malice. You communicate that way in the South and you're ready to start another war.

00;24;46;04 - 00;25;06;18
Lenora Edwards
Very true. Especially where our culture is. And there are different parts of the world and different parts of the US where it's appropriate to say one thing and it's not so appropriate to say another thing. And that I think, is raising your awareness of how other people communicate. You know, you can go to eye contact. Some people you, you, we and in the US we engage in eye contact.

00;25;06;18 - 00;25;30;24
Lenora Edwards
You go into other countries, they don't engage in eye contact and it's a form of disrespect. So it's really something to be courteous of. How how does this person best communicate? How do they like to communicate? That being said, how do I like other people to communicate with me? If you go to somebody and you have a specific tone, they might not do anything with you because of how you approach them.

00;25;30;26 - 00;25;45;29
Lenora Edwards
When you approach somebody as, oh, you're a person, let me show you kindness and respect and then we'll talk. That is much, much more engaging than going up to somebody abruptly going, what were you thinking?

00;25;46;01 - 00;25;46;29
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah.

00;25;47;00 - 00;25;48;11
Lenora Edwards
Huge difference.

00;25;48;13 - 00;26;04;20
Craig Andrews
You know, the other thing I noticed, and it was really bad when I first moved to Texas, I, I moved here from North Carolina. And it's funny, all the Texans thought I had North Carolina accent. I'm like, I promise I don't. Nobody in North Carolina claims me. And

00;26;04;20 - 00;26;14;04
Craig Andrews
but I would you know, I went back I think, you know, there was a period of time I'd spend one week in Maryland over Christmas and one week and North Carolina.

00;26;14;04 - 00;26;41;20
Craig Andrews
I come back to Texas. And the thing I noticed was for the first 2 or 3 weeks, I had to say everything twice. I'd say something and nobody understood why. I said. And I slow it down and repeated again and they're like, oh, okay. And I'll give you an example, you know, so the name of my business is, I'm going to say it the way I say it in Texas, and they'll say it the way I say it with my home accent.

00;26;41;23 - 00;27;05;18
Craig Andrews
The name of my business is allies for me. Now, as a speech therapist, you probably heard me deliberately drag that e in. Kind of like I'm dragging a chain across the road. Because I, you know, the way I naturally says allies for me and and nobody understands me. They're like allies from me and like, no me there may.

00;27;05;18 - 00;27;29;11
Craig Andrews
I'm like, no. And, you know, and this is I think this is a, a a challenge. And it's again, we've, we've moved out of the clinical. This has nothing to do with spending three months in a coma or six weeks in a coma, three months, but all and going through atrophy. This is just the accent that was common where I grew up, but it's creating a barrier between.

00;27;29;11 - 00;27;31;02
Lenora Edwards
Me a dialect.

00;27;31;05 - 00;27;32;20
Craig Andrews
Yeah.

00;27;32;22 - 00;27;33;19
Lenora Edwards
Yeah.

00;27;33;22 - 00;27;52;11
Craig Andrews
And so I guess here's a question. Obviously communication is important at the same time. And nobody wants to totally surrender their own identity, their own heritage. And so how do we navigate that.

00;27;52;14 - 00;28;17;17
Lenora Edwards
I would say to navigate it in the most kind way, but also in a way that is important to you. So when we're navigating, it really depends on where you are in your culture, where you are at work, what are the themes like and really being able to be observant and take into consideration what I lovingly refer to as the art of communication.

00;28;17;19 - 00;28;44;13
Lenora Edwards
We do communicate very differently with our parents versus at work. We communicate very differently, differently with our significant other versus somebody at the checkout. So it really is important to notice how you communicate, but also that you're communicating clearly so that not only can the other individual hear you, but you can also get your wants and your needs and your thoughts expressed clearly to other people.

00;28;44;16 - 00;29;17;11
Craig Andrews
You know. Well, as we wrap up and we've covered live ground, I'm everybody would agree that clear speech, clear communications is important. If you're in business and it's important for you to be a leader, what would be let's say, you know, three five symptoms that people would notice, that would tell them that they probably need to give you a call.

00;29;17;13 - 00;29;37;13
Lenora Edwards
3 to 5 symptoms. And when communication coaching, if you find that there is a big breakdown in communication where you work and people don't necessarily come to you, but things always get back to you, there's a reason that people aren't necessarily approaching you. And if there's more than one or 2 or 3 people, it might be you.

00;29;37;13 - 00;30;16;18
Lenora Edwards
And that's okay. Allowing yourself to recognize that communication is ever evolving, and our ability to communicate more effectively with other people and always be built upon when it comes to other individuals, if they're noticing, you know, maybe I want to improve the way that I speak so that my filler words aren't necessarily there. If you're noticing ums, ahs, and likes occurring more than 10% of the time when you're talking, even if you talk and you record yourself for two minutes and you just ramble and see what comes out, notice how many ums and likes there are in those two minutes.

00;30;16;18 - 00;30;38;04
Lenora Edwards
If there's more than ten, you probably want to speak with somebody and see if you can build that, build those skills up. But that being said, is it important to you but important to you? Then that's not necessarily worth your time and your investment. Another one would be, if you're noticing, mean. I am just not as clear as I used to be.

00;30;38;04 - 00;30;59;20
Lenora Edwards
I am not on the ball or something's wrong. Reach out, talk to somebody. Reach out to professionals. Professionals are different than friends. Professionals will give you their ethical, moral opinion of where you are at. That point in time, what your goals are and if they can provide you information, and if they can provide you support, that's great.

00;30;59;20 - 00;31;01;28
Craig Andrews
And how would people reach you?

00;31;02;00 - 00;31;06;28
Lenora Edwards
Best way to reach us is to visit our website at Better speech.com.

00;31;07;00 - 00;31;12;07
Craig Andrews
Well Honora, this has been the delight yet again, thank you for coming on Leaders and Legacies.

00;31;12;10 - 00;31;19;24
Lenora Edwards
Thank you for having me again, Craig. It was so wonderful spending time with you again.

00;31;19;24 - 00;31;46;18
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Alize for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;31;46;18 - 00;31;48;13
Craig Andrews
episode on social media.

00;31;48;15 - 00;32;11;27
Craig Andrews
Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend, or posted on the socials. If you know someone who would be a great guest, tag them on social media and let them know about the show, including the hashtag leaders and legacies. I love seeing your posts and suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content to make sure you don't miss anything.

00;32;11;29 - 00;32;20;04
Craig Andrews
Please go ahead and subscribe your thumbs up! Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show. It means a lot to me.

00;32;20;04 - 00;34;22;09
Craig Andrews
It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Alize for me.com. or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.