[00:00:00] Welcome to the Style and Strategy Podcast, where personal brand meets leadership and style. I'm Sonya, a personal brand and style coach who's been exactly where you are juggling career and business success. Personal growth and finding a style that truly fits. After decades in corporate leadership, I've learned that showing up isn't just about what you do, it's about how you align who you are and how the world sees you.
This season, I'm bringing you practical strategies, bold insights, and honest conversations to help you amplify your presence, unlock your next level, and lead with clarity and confidence. Let's dive in.
Sonya | Leadership Brand & Style Coach: so here's what they don't tell you from moving from expert to exec. Your capability isn't the barrier. Your track record isn't the question. The gap is how you're [00:01:00] being experienced, not what you are delivering. And the most frustrating part is you can feel it. You can feel it when you're making yourself smaller in meetings, , you can feel that moment when you are second guessing whether to speak up or not.
And you are overthinking everything from your presentation to your outfit. You know, you belong at the table, but something is not landing. Now I talk a lot about visual communication on this podcast, how your style, your presence, and the way you show up physically creates that first impression, and that's a lot of the work that I'm known for.
How, However, today what I wanna talk about is really the other side of the equation, and that's verbal communication. How you actually deliver your message, how your words land, how your ideas are [00:02:00] received. Because you can have aligned your identity, the outfit, and walk in with confidence and com and really own that room visually.
But if there is a mismatch between how you are designed to communicate and how your audience is wired to receive that information, your message won't land. This is about communication design, and it's the missing piece that explains why capable leaders still feel unheard.
So today I wanna talk to you about something that might surprise you, or you may have heard it before, you know, through studies, et cetera. But there are four primary ways that people predominantly process information. So four channels through which your audience is really receiving everything that you say, and in those high stake moments.
They're typically favoring [00:03:00] one of these channels more than the other. But here's what people don't teach you. You also have a natural communication to the way in which you are designed and built a way that you authentically wired to express yourself. And when there's a mismatch between your design and the audience's processing channel.
That is when brilliant strategy can get dismissed as not practical. that's when the detailed insight gets labeled as you year two in the weeds. and that's when you walk out thinking, I set that exact thing 20 minutes ago, but somehow it only landed when someone else said it.
I know you've been there. 'cause I have, this isn't about changing who you are, right? It is about learning to [00:04:00] translate between your authentic voice and how your audience receives that information. So you stop blending in and you start becoming impossible to ignore. This particularly matters when you are in those moments, like board meetings, strategy sessions, exec presentations, where you are delivering key things to and organization or for your business where, how your experience becomes as important as what you are delivering.
So let's break this down.
So professional coaching programs teach that, people process information through four primary channels, and in the moment you are presenting your strategy, pitching your idea, or sharing an insight, your audience is processing through one of these more than the others. So. Over time. The proviso here is [00:05:00] over time you learn to absorb many more of these.
But as a starting point, and for simplicity, I'm gonna talk about each one of these individually. So number one, visual processes. They need to see it. They are constructing mental images. As you speak, they respond to clear structure, visual metaphors, language, like picture this. Here's what this looks like.
When you say, imagine the landscape shifting, they are literally seeing that landscape in their mind. Auditory processes respond to how it sounds. They're tuned into your tone, your pacing, the rhythm of your words. It's not just what you say, it's how you say it. They pick up on differences immediately.[00:06:00]
They use language that like, that really resonates, or, I hear what you're saying. Kinesthetic processes need to feel it. They want tangible examples, action orientated language, something they can grasp. They respond to phrases like, when you implement this, here's what you will notice first. Or, let's get a handle on this.
They need to connect to the information physically or emotionally before it makes sense. Auditory digital processes need to make sense of it logically. They're building this mental framework in their mind. They're looking for sequence process criteria. They want your step by step reasoning. They respond to, here's how this adds up.
Let me break this [00:07:00] down systematically for you. Now here's what important research from professional coaching programs show that people dynamically shift between these processing channels, depending on the context, which means that in high stake moments, your audience is typically favoring one channel over the other.
And when there's a mismatch, that's when brilliant ideas can get dismissed. Detailed strategy can get labeled as two in the weeds and the capable leaders walk out feeling unheard. Please note and hear me here. This is not about labeling someone as your visual, your kinesthetic. It's not that, but in the moment.
In that board meeting, in that pitch, in that high stakes conversation, your audience is favoring one of these channels. And if you are not speaking [00:08:00] to that channel, your message is not going to land. And here's where this shows up. You deliver detailed, logical analysis to a room full of kinesthetic processes who need to feel the experience.
They're gonna dismiss you as two in the weeds. You share the experiential story driven insight with an auditory digital processor who needs systematic reasoning. They're gonna see you as not strategic enough. You speak with emotional resonance and tone to the visual processes who need that clear structure, yet they can't see what you are saying.
The message is brilliant. The delivery is authentic, but there is a translation gap, and that gap could be costing you influence. Now, here's where most communication training, I could [00:09:00] say gets it wrong or maybe don't, doesn't necessarily give you the whole picture. They teach you to communicate like someone else, be more concise.
Lead with the bottom line, cut the detail, get to the point. But what if the point is for you, the detail? What if your natural design is to communicate through precision or through a story or through emotional resonance? What if you are? When you try to force yourself into communication patterns that contradict your natural design, three things happen.
One, you feel authentic like you're putting on a mask or you're performing. Two, you are exhausting to listen to because your audience can feel the disconnect. Or three, you [00:10:00] get the feedback. That doesn't actually help. Be more strategic, be more concise. You know you've been there, but no one tells you the how while staying, staying true to who you are.
So here's what I've learned after working with so many female leaders, you have a communication blueprint, a natural way you are designed to express yourself. Some leaders are naturally designed to communicate innovation and what is possible. You see the future before others do.
Perhaps it's leading through emotional resonance and tone. Your voice carries the meaning beyond the words. Maybe it's about sharing that refined expertise and mastery. You bring depth and that precision. You speak from spontaneous, present moment insight. Your best thinking [00:11:00] happens in real time. Maybe you distill com complexity into elegant simplicity.
You know those people, right? You make the complicated accessible, you inspire through maybe focused vision and you rally people both. Towards what's next. Or maybe you teach through integrated, you know, experience and wisdom and reflection, and you share what you've learned through experience. Perhaps it's connecting through that experience, through storytelling, right?
You illustrate concept through a narrative. Or it could be translating precision into clarity through organizing information so it makes sense. You might be guiding through, resources. You lead between by knowing really, what is needed and when. [00:12:00] You might be hearing one of these and thinking, oh, hang on, that's me.
I default to that. Or maybe actually, I think a bit of a combination of these two. Most leaders have never been taught that you actually have this natural communication blueprint, and when you try to park that blueprint to one side and fit yourself into this mold. That isn't naturally yours. When somebody told you that to communicate like a good leader, you should communicate like this.
That's when you end up feeling like you've got the mask on. You don't feel like you, you're getting dismissed as not ready. You're told to work on your presence or your gravitas. You are walking out of meetings feeling like you didn't show up as yourself. This is specifically [00:13:00] critical when you are in that transition from expert to exec, from expert business owner to CEO.
From behind the scenes to the front of the room, from respected to remembered, because at that level, how your experience becomes as important as what you deliver. So here is the breakthrough. You don't need to change who you are. You don't need to. You know, do this switcheroo, right bait and switch, or perform from a different personality.
You need to understand three key things. One, what is your natural communication design? How are you authentically wired to express yourself? Two, remember those four processing channels, How different audiences receive information. [00:14:00] Three, how to translate strategically between your design and their channel without losing yourself. Let me show you what this might look like in practice. Let's say you are naturally designed to communicate through detailed precision that is your authentic voice.
That is your value, your ability to see what others miss, to bring the detailed thinking, to articulate the complexity. But when you are presenting to a room full of kinesthetic processes who need to feel, experience and action orientated language, here's what doesn't work. Abandoning your precision. Let's say dumbing it down, cutting out the detail that makes your insight valuable.
Here's what does work. Maintaining your detailed insight while translating it into their [00:15:00] processing channel instead of the data shows that 23% variance in quarter three metrics X. Correlating with implementation timelines suggests that you need to revisit something you say. when you implement this, here's what you'll notice. First, a gap between what we expected and what's actually happening in quarter three. That gap tells us to adjust our approach before we move to that next phase. Same precision, same insight, same strategic value, but it's translated into a language that kinesthetic processes can grasp, or maybe you are naturally designed to communicate through storytelling and the experience narrative.
That's how you make sense of the world. That's how you teach. But speaking to an ad processor who needs logical sequence and systematic reasoning. Here's what doesn't work. Launching into a story without [00:16:00] structure, what? Meandering through a narrative without a clear framework. Here's what does work.
Using storytelling while giving them a logical architecture that they need. So here's a bit of an example for you. First, second, third. Here's what these examples tell us about the approach we should take. Same story time telling, same narrative, but it's framed in a way that auditory digital processes can follow.
That is strategic translation. Not faking it to you. Make it not switching up who you are. You're still staying true to your design while meeting your audience where they process information. And this is particularly important when you're in those rooms that matter, board meetings where you have limited time and every word counts.
Strategic sessions. When you are no longer the expert, [00:17:00] you're setting the direction, executive presentations, where you are being evaluated, not just on content, but how you are being, how you are showing up in that room, those. Key moments where perception becomes as important as the performance. But here's what happens.
When you don't know this, you walk out thinking I said that and it didn't land. You got feedback. Maybe it wasn't strategic enough. Two in the weeds, like I've said before, you start second guessing yourself and making yourself smaller. Overthinking every word because you can fill the gap, but you don't know how to close it.
So if you're still with me, back to where we started, you know you are capable. You have that track record, you've delivered those results. But there's [00:18:00] this gap between what you're delivering and how you are being experienced. And you can feel it. You can feel yourself making yourself smaller, second guessing whether to speak up, overthinking everything from your presentation to the outfit.
And here's what I want you to know. Gap is not about your capability. It's not even about your confidence. It's not even about your presence, at least not in the way that you have been taught. There's this other element, which is the communication design and both sides of it. The visual communication, how you show up, how you're seen, that first impression, how you create is the work that I'm known for, and we talk about that a lot.
But don't forget the verbal side, how you deliver that message. How your ideas land, how you translate that natural design to meet your audience where they are before you process, and when you can align all of [00:19:00] these, when you are really showing up in a way that visually matches your leadership level and brand and communicating in a way that lands with your audience, that's when you stop blending in and start being impossible to ignore.
From valued, for execution, to positioned for strategy. And if you are in that transition right now from expert to strategic leader, from behind the scenes to really front of the room, delivering results to setting that direction, and you're tired of feeling like something is not quite landing, this is the missing piece.
DM me. Drop me an email and let me know. And, let's get into a leadership presence conversation. And so we can actually step you forward to map what is your natural communication design? How are you authentically wired to express yourself? How do we identify the specific [00:20:00] rooms where the gap is costing you?
The board meetings, the strategy sessions, the exec presentations. And then really building and translating that strategy so you can walk into these rooms and be impossible to ignore without most importantly, changing who you are.
if this episode resonated with you, Tag someone who needs to hear this. Share it with another. And if you're not following the podcast, drop me a follow. Drop me a DM on Insta or LinkedIn. I'd love to hear from you because the more that hear this, the more of you who move forward and feeling like you're now impossible to ignore.
I'll see you in the next episode.
