#95 How To Speak Like A Top 1% CEO

0:00This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, Everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. Hi, and welcome back to The Big Deal Podcast. I'm Cody Sanchez. If you want to be respected for your words to carry weight, then this episode is for you.

0:37I'm breaking down the communication techniques, the top 1 % used to get people leaning in, not tuning out. By the end, you'll know how to stop sounding like everyone else and start speaking like the leader people want to follow. So today, I want you to steal my confidence and respect.

0:58first speak in headlines start with the point not the preamble i obsess on my first sentence why executives don't waste time on throat clearing or setting up a big runway before they get to the takeoff by giving the headline first you frame the conversation and make people lean in instead of tune out this is also how you never have somebody repeat your idea to a group of people and be able to take credit for it again right when you speak decisively and you say something in front of a group, it would be ridiculous for somebody else to reframe your ideas and take them as your own. This is called decisive speech.

1:30Here's what that means. Clear, direct statements, limited hedging, and using few qualifiers or apologies. That's really signaling I am competent. Let's say you want to talk to someone for a few minutes. You're trying to get a few seconds with them, a boss, a coworker. I brought this up last week. And what I think we should do instead is probably talk about this a little bit more, or we could table it and talk about it later. Can I steal a few minutes? Is now a good time? Hey, can we talk about that? A good time for what? Why? Why do you need to steal my minutes? Where are they going? What you don't realize?

2:02Most people sound like that. You instead will sound something like this. I have a problem that is leading to misrevenue. Can we discuss no longer than five minutes? Or I found a problem. I have a solution. I need 30 seconds to get an okay for it. The formula is what, what's wrong? Why does the other person care? How long will you bother them? The real issue here is marketing. It's not moving fast enough. We need to replace these two hires. The budget is too low. If we do these three things, work in 24 hour cycles, spend one hour a day recruiting, increase the budget, we will win. That is how you get people to listen to you.

2:41Warmth and competence. It's not how smart, rich or pretty you are, respect is about how fast you can signal, I'm a friend, which is trust and warmth, and you can rely on me, competence. The faster you can signal those two things, the more people like you and respect you. I learned this from the number one behavioral psychologist I know, Vanessa Van Edwards. There are warmth cues, that means like smiling, nodding, for instance. A fun one is the slow triple nod, which is like this. The other person speaks 67 % longer. That's because it is a nonverbal way to say, I hear you. I see you. Tell me more.

3:19If instead you go, uh-huh, three fast shakes like that, what is that signaling? Okay, moving along. I'm ready to go. Let's keep talking here about something else. You do three little nods, a pause, and that signals, hey, I'm warm. I want you to keep listening. Another warmth cue is a head tilt. So you could say, I have some news. Straight shoulders, no movement. I have some news. That is a competent way to do it, but not warmth. A warmth cue would be like, I have some news. What are the two things that change? Head tilt and a lift to the shoulders. Now, more competence cues for those of you who are listening, which is probably the most important thing you can do, is confident posture.

4:04So that's standing tall, shoulders back, occupying space, shows certainty, credibility. Not hands below the table, hands in lap, hands hidden. Instead, hands on the table or the microphone showing straight up and shoulders back. Another way to show competence, steepling of the fingers. Hmm, I'm listening. I'm thinking about that. What do we think we could do there? It's not like this though, that looks creepy. This is a classic gesture. What it basically means is, hey, I'm self-assured. Next, cut words, add weight. You wanna use fewer words, but make them sharper. We'll double revenue in 12 months.

4:43Okay, that is better than we have a plan to increase revenue significantly over the next year. Like what's significantly? When next year? We want numbers, data, and credentials. So when we mention certifications, awards, supporting ideas with numbers, it reinforces our expertise. So we don't have to be better or smarter. The numbers do that for us. Data plus brevity signals confidence and it makes every word carry weight, which commands attention to us. So if I was a boss and I said, tell me what you're going to do about this problem, A bad example would be something like, well, I think maybe what we should do next is try new hiring processes, or maybe we could talk to so-and-so about that person that they knew last week.

5:32I'm not really sure. Can I get back to you? Bad answer. A good answer is pause. My gut reaction, which allows you to back out of it later if you find a better reaction. My gut reaction is first step, we go and we talk to this person. Second step, we write down the findings. Third step, we come back together in 24 hours for an assessment because I don't want to make too quick of a decision. What do you think? Great. You've basically non-committed just as much as the other person has, but you sound like you have authority even while you're saying, I don't know, I got to talk to a couple of people.

6:08It probably take me a day or two, right? Instead, we're pausing, we're framing, and we're saying we're going to regroup at a date, time, and checking for understanding. Speak like you want to be heard. This falls into three categories. I call it the get. Gestures, eyes, tone. So you get heard. So let's talk about gestures first. Gestures need to be precise. Using clear, purposeful hand gestures like finger steepling indicates deep thinking and self-assurance. So we want to really use our hands in an intelligent way. Authoritative vocal tone, speaking with a lower pitch, projecting the voice, avoiding filter words like, like signals competence and confidence.

6:53Narrowing your eyes briefly signals, I'm thinking about this. I'm really focusing on what you're saying. I've got active engagement and analysis. A bad example of a tone, especially for women, sounds like this. Hi, my name is Cody. I'm really excited to work here today. I have worked in marketing for the past 10 years. What am I doing there? Well, I'm getting an uptick at the end of each sentence. Very normal for women to do. Instead, what would I want to do? Hi, my name is Cody. I've been working in marketing for the past 10 years. I'm really excited about what we're going to do here next. I can still smile.

7:32I can still nod, but my tone is flat and a little bit lower than normal. If you hear me talk every single day, it probably sounds like, hey, what's going on? Hey guys, how are you? Like, God, I'm so excited to see you. This podcast is going to be so great. That's what I normally sound like. When I'm trying to be competent, I'm not going to be that. I'm going to be one octave lower, and I'm going to be a little bit flatter. When I'm talking to somebody, I'm not trying to be competent. My eyes are big. They're like, I'm curious. I want to know more about that. This face does not make you feel like I'm competent.

8:04This face does. So I am going to really focus in. I'm almost going to picture a pinprick of my attention going to that other person. It's signaling I'm listening, but you're going to have to prove to me what you're talking about. Next, master the pause. What to do. After delivering a key point, stop talking. This is where we let the silence work. Why? Pauses, they create gravity. They make your words echo longer and show you're comfortable owning the room without filling space. Let's try. Let's say you have something really hard to say to a group and you need to say something like, we're not talking about the right things.

8:48I might say something like, I think we all know we're not talking about what we need to. Pause, look around the room, get in people's eyes. At this point, most people keep talking because they're worried that somebody is going to jump in. You don't have enough competence or authority for people to wait for you to pause dramatically. So how do you fake that authority if you don't have it. You go like this. I think we all know we are not talking about the right thing. Put up a finger. This is basically telling them non-verbally to wait. And if you see somebody jump in, you just push the finger out a little bit more intensely.

9:28This allows you to hold the frame. If somebody starts to speak, you shake it a little bit more formally. When I do this in my head, I like the count to five as an example. So I think we all know that we're not talking about what we need to. One, two, look around the room, three, four, five. Uncomfortable. Then I give an example, then I release the finger and I keep going. Try this in your next meeting. It will blow you away by how much more people will actually listen to what you have to say. Next, tell stories, not stats. Use a narrative. We almost lost that company because of one bad hire. Is much better than, well, turnover rose by 12 % last year.

10:13Why? Humans follow stories, not spreadsheets. Stories are sticky. Numbers slide off. CEOs weave both, but stories always lead. Historically, we call this passing through parable. At my companies, I have a saying, which is show me, don't tell me, which means that I want to hear the story. I want to see the data and I want it backed by numbers. When you have those three, we can get to solutions, but I don't just want you to talk about it. I want you to show me. Let's say you're trying to get a friend to listen to you. You've talked to this person a million times about something that they should do differently in their life and they have never listened to you today.

10:52I would put a few of these into effect. Let me tell you what a bad example sounds like. Well, you've dated this guy a few times. Do you really think it's going to go well if you keep dating him? Don't you think we've learned our lesson here? Do we want to really date him again? What are we doing? That's like questions. You're not holding the frame. You're not pausing. What would a good example look like? Mary, I remember about six months ago, called me in the middle of the night crying. You were despondent. I could barely understand what you were saying, you really couldn't speak because you were crying so hard.

11:27I thought maybe somebody had died, but that was the night that you called and told me that he cheated on you and that she would never speak to that man again. And now here we are six months later when the tears are dried and you're going back to him. Do you feel the difference between the two? One is like, yeah, well, you've already done this again. Are we going back? Whatever. The second you will remember. So take a moment and become a storyteller. Over the past 90 days, we've grown by over 60 ,000 subscribers. Yay! Which is crazy. And still, less than half of our viewers are subscribed. So if you could double check your subscribe below, that would be incredibly helpful for the show.

12:05You truly are a big deal to me. Let's jump back in. Next. At the Home Depot, get up to 15 % off all installed carpet projects for a limited time. featuring brands like LifeProof, LifeProof with PetProof Technology, Home Decorators Collection, and Traffic Master. Take your pick of carpet built for real life and designed for real comfort. Plus, with installations starting as low as 49 cents per square foot and a free measure to get you started, we'll handle the hard parts for you. Offer valid July 16th, 2026 through August 2nd, 2026. Exclusion supply. For licenses, see homedepot.com slash license numbers.

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13:17Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a$75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Use the three-point rule. So what to do? Frame everything in threes. This one's super easy and super powerful, so use it wisely. If I wanted to get somebody to follow my framework on something, I might say, here's the opportunity, the risk, and the next step. I don't even have to say one, two, three.

13:52I could just show it with my fingers. But I know that it will frame my brain a specific sequence that other people can remember. Why? The brain loves patterns. And we like patterns of three. You know, the Father, Son, the Holy Ghost. it feels complete, memorable, and persuasive without overwhelming people. Really easy to remember three, hard to remember four, very difficult to remember five. And if you probably haven't noticed, I've been doing that a lot in this video. Anytime you can insert rules of three and what I call named and framed segments, your speech will be better. So let's say for instance, somebody is doing something really stupid and you want to tell them, wow, that's so stupid.

14:33and there are all these underlying reasons why that's so stupid and we should never do that. Instead, you might say, let's get to first principles on this. Let's get to foundational principles on what we're talking about here. You're basically saying, can we take a step back to really see what's going on? Let's get to second and third order effects, which is a fancy way of saying, what are the repercussions of the actions? If we do that, what's gonna happen next? I believe that what's happening right now is a lack of urgency bias. What you're really saying is, I think you guys are slow, like really slow.

15:06But because we frame it in this fancier way, it's harder to push back on. Next, command the frame. Define the lens others see the conversation through. Example, somebody says something to you and they're like, we shouldn't spend that money, I don't want to. Instead of saying, no, we should spend that money. No, I disagree with you. You say, this isn't about money. It's about survival. This isn't about cost. It's about happiness. This isn't about money. It's about our family. What are you doing? Well, whoever controls the frame controls the debate. In communication, this means not letting somebody else take your frame.

15:47You never want to respond with that. Not right. No, no, we're not going to do it that way. I didn't say that. Instead, you would say, that's a separate issue, Matt. Let's focus on the core problem. What you're basically saying is, I don't want to talk about that. I want to focus on this other issue, but you're doing it without ever having to debate and get into the, no, no, I disagree with you, which is really a childish way to try to communicate. The last part of this that's really important is the way you communicate when we are frame breaking. How people will not allow you to steal their frame is when you fake it.

16:22So be really careful about saying, let's focus on the core problem, Matt. It's not really that. This little side smirk here. This is an immediate signal of condescension. I don't like you. I think you're dumb. Or Matt, that's not really the core issue here. You know, what we're trying to do is something else. This is a fake smile and it's visceral. Like, do you guys feel it? Like, I'm so happy that we're hanging out. You're like, no, you're not. You hate me. Like you don't even have to say anything. Instead, you need to either turn it off or turn it on. Fake. I'm so happy to be here. No, you're not.

16:59I can tell. I'm so happy to be here. I actually have no emotional difference right now between the two. I'm just committed to the bit, right? I'm so happy to be here. And if you can't be happy in the moment, then think about something that makes you happy and plaster that on your face instead. But be really careful with the feelings of condescension coming out on your face. Next, project calm certainty. People trust leaders who seem unshakable. I find certainty to be contagious. Even if you're still figuring things out behind the scenes, be the duck gliding above the water, even though underneath you are paddling like a crazy motherfucker.

17:33Now, this is very unpopular for the internet, but I'm just gonna tell you the truth. There is no crying in business. Do not cry in meetings where things are going sideways. Do not believe the influencers that tell you that that's okay. Do not show weakness. From an emotional deregulation standpoint, it is not okay to cry. Now, if somebody dies, if you hurt yourself, perfectly fine. If you have something else in your life that just hurts in that moment, okay, of course. But you do not cry because you are frustrated like a small child at your inability to communicate properly in work settings. You allow somebody else to cry.

18:12You pass them the tissue. You say, hey, no problem, take your time. But that's not you because that is not a 1 % move ever. Every single leader that I have seen cry in business is not a leader for very long. Business does not allow for crying. You can hate me on the internet for this, but your bank account will love me. Next, name the elephant. Call out the obvious thing when no one wants to. So if you're sitting in a meeting, like I often am, and everybody's sort of talking around the issue, right? There's this big hairy elephant in the middle of your meeting room. I want you to try out saying it.

18:51Guys, are we not hitting our sales numbers because our product isn't good enough yet? That's phase one. We're saying it as a question. We also use the word guys as an opener. It's like, I'm not saying it. It's a question. Guys means it's a question we all have, isn't it? If you have a stronger frame and more authority, you can say, we're not hitting our numbers because our product isn't good enough yet. Now I did a couple really subtle cues there. I look to the side. I put up my shoulders. I do a little, all of that is a stage two. And if you want the highest frame, you would say, we are not hitting our numbers because our product is not good enough yet.

19:32Straight to frame, serious, no side. Anytime you lift up, side, side smirk, all of that, warmth cue as opposed to competence cue. Now, leaders earn respect by voicing uncomfortable truths. It breaks tension. It actually makes people believe in you more than anyone else in the room. You should really try it in a room where everybody else is doing the PC thing. If you can find that there is a truth that nobody is talking about, and especially if the truth maybe is on you, that's the ultimate, like, you know what I think the real problem is, guys? I think I made the wrong call on this. We should have done this.

20:06We did this instead. So I'm gonna have this outcome. I'm gonna take my burden of this. What else should we have done differently? If you are going to do this one, you better be right. And two, you need to find your ally who already wants you to say the quiet part out loud, but maybe is scared to do it or really needs somebody else to do it. This is also where power dynamics come in. So you're going to need to understand who your allies are ahead of time. Often in meetings, this means that you talk about the meeting before the meeting to game plan. Never feel bad at thinking that top 1 % communicators are born with it.

20:39That's not true. We prep. The way that you get to the top 1 % is you prep more than the other 99 % do. And finally, end with a command. Always finish with a clear action. Here's what happens next. By Friday, I want us to decide this. Why? Influence without direction, just noise. CEOs do not leave conversations open-ended. They move people to act. A little extra add-on for you guys. Ask dangerous questions. Lots of people ask safe questions. How's everyone feeling about this? How was your weekend? Instead, get a little sharper. What's the one risk that could kill this deal? Because real leaders don't just talk, they provoke thought.

21:25Questions like this make people take you seriously because they can tell you what the truth's, not just to dodge. Sometimes the most authoritative thing you can do is say, I don't know, but I think we can find the answer to this question, and if we do, we will find the answer to everything. That is a hard question. Also, if you don't know if you are competent or warm leaning, let me give you a little piece of homework. Let's say you can't tell if you're going to become a top one percenter because you don't know what you need to lean into more. Go to your email. I learned this from Vanessa. See how many warm versus cold indicators you have.

22:02What does that mean? In an email, look at the words. Warm words are words that trigger oxytocin, the happiness drug. So that's like cheers, collaborate, learn, emojis, thank yous, exclamation points, smiley faces. Competent words are words like achieve, mastery, results, outcomes, data, charts, graphs. The truth is that best leaders have both. They use warmth and competence and they use them like a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. But almost every person I've ever met has one side more dialed than the other. If you guys haven't noticed. I am high on competence. I actually am pretty low on warmth. I get serious.

22:39And when I'm serious about things, I have a very serious face. And so I kind of am thinking about things. I'm not smiling so much. I need to work on my warmth cues because people could be intimidated by me or scared of me, which I've heard. And so every single one of us is going to be somewhere on this spectrum. The top 1 % is both aware and then they prepare.

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