Speak With Courage, Not Perfect Confidence in your Online Business

Ever found yourself second-guessing everything before a big meeting or presentation—even though you know your stuff? 

That is something I’ve struggled with and today’s guest helps you silence that inner critic once and for all. 

I’m joined by Julie Campbell, also known as The Confidence Whisperer. She’s an Off-Broadway actor turned communication coach and the founder of Center Stage Connections, where she helps professionals speak like the expert they already are—and the leader they’re becoming. 

In this conversation, Julie shares: 

• The #1 mistake even smart, experienced experts make when presenting 
• How to shift from shrinking in high-stakes moments to showing up with confidence 
• Her deeply personal journey—from surviving domestic violence to empowering others through her signature Talk and Be You™ method 
  
  

Connect with Julie Campbell 

Julie Campbell, known as “The Confidence Whisperer,” is an Off-Broadway actor turned communication coach and CEO of Center Stage Connections. She’s helped hundreds of professionals and business owners learn to command the room using her Talk and Be You™ method—a simple, therapeutic-feeling approach that removes the dread from keynotes, meetings, and high-stakes moments. With her repeatable storytelling framework, Julie helps you speak like the expert you are and the leader you’re becoming.

Facebook |  LinkedIn | Instagram | Website

Book a free clarity call and talk about what working together could look like 1:1, with your team, or even Julie speaking at your next event. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Naming The Inner Critic
• 1:01 Meet Julie Campbell, Confidence Whisperer
• 1:34 Show Intro And Host Creds
• 3:11 Who Julie Helps And How
• 5:27 The Number One Presentation Mistake
• 7:52 Pump-Up Playlists And Nerve Reset
• 9:47 Confidence Versus Courage
• 12:21 Family And Familiar Audiences
• 13:32 Yes-And Mindset For Tough Rooms
• 15:07 The Tightrope Story Walk Strategy
• 17:50 Structuring Talks For Bigger Rooms
• 19:57 Choosing Your Starting Point And Why
• 21:53 Julie’s Pivot From Stage To Coaching
• 25:12 Flow State, Presence, And Impact
• 26:52 Final Tips: Do It Nervous
• 28:42 How To Connect With Julie
• 29:57 Closing Reflection And Resources

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:42

Ever found yourself second guessing everything before a big meeting or presentation, even though you do know your stuff? This is something I've struggled with in over 20 years, and today's guest helps you silence your inner critic once and for all. I'm joined by Julie Campbell, also known as the Confidence Whisper. She's an off-Broadway actor, turn communication coach and founder of Center Stage Connections, where she helps professionals speak like they are an expert that they already are and the leader that they are becoming. In this conversation, Julie shares the number one mistakes even smart experienced experts make when presenting, how to shift from shrinking on high-stakes moments to showing up with confidence, and her deeply personal journey. This episode is raw, real, and incredibly empowering, and we both even got chills while listening to each other's stories. So let's dive in. Struggling to turn website traffic into real sales, you're not alone and you don't have to figure it out all yourself. Welcome to Smarter Online Business, the podcast for course creators, coaches, and e-commerce entrepreneurs who want their websites to convert visitors into buyers without the tech overwhelm. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders, a website strategist and conversion expert with over 20 years of experience. Each episode delivers simple, proven strategies to help you generate more revenue and make your website your smartest sales tool. Welcome back to the show. Today we have a special guest with us, and her name is Julie Campbell. Many who know her know her as a confidence whisperer, as an off-Broadway actor, turned communication coach. She is now the CEO of Center Stage Communications. And I found this quote that she sent me pretty interesting. Apparently, a senior director at a Fortune 500. Apparently, a senior director at a Fortune 50 company said, if you want to be a better storyteller and a better presenter, you need to talk to Julie Campbell. There's no one else who does what she does. Welcome to the show, Julie. I think that's just such an awesome quote for you. I just find it so fascinating.

Julie Campbell: 2:47

Thank you, Carrie. It was a really lovely thing to be able to share that. And uh yeah, it's it's pretty cool. I I love what I do. And it's a nice thing when your work is resonating with other people and they come back to you with that terrific feedback. So thank you. Thank you for having me here.

Carrie Saunders: 3:02

You're welcome. And then so I just gave a little touch on who you are. Tell us a little bit more about who Julie is and how you came to doing what you do now.

Julie Campbell: 3:12

So, in a nutshell, what I do is I make speaking and presentations, keynote addresses, pitches, meetings, networking events, whenever you have to show up and speak, easier and less stressful than you think it has to be. I work primarily with mid-to-senior level professionals, experts, and business owners who need to speak with more confidence and clarity, but they were never really taught how to do that. So, with my signature method called the talk and be you method, which is based on, as you mentioned in my intro, my decades off Broadway, I help you speak more concisely, more confidently, and more authentically when you have to show up to those high-stakes meetings, pitches, presentations, and networking events.

Carrie Saunders: 3:57

I just love that because as you're thinking, I'm thinking, wow, I've never been trained to do this. You know, even speaking on a podcast, you know, I had to do lots of practice and get better and better at it. And there's still total room for improvement on it. And whenever we do phone calls with clients too, you know, there are certain times I know I could be more concise and much better at my presentation delivery. So I could just see how your skills could really help pretty much anybody in our audience uh do a much better job at their job, basically, because we all have to do that speech at some point in time, whether we consciously think about it as a speech or not. Wouldn't you agree?

Julie Campbell: 4:35

It's true. I mean, we all have to talk about what we do and how we do it at some point, even if we have an online business and we're selling a lot of digital products, at some time we have to talk about what we do and how we do it. And the funny thing that you uh that you said right there when you when you first started to talk about kind of your own experiences, the reality is the only way we get better at speaking and being more concise and feeling more confident. And I can talk about that a little bit later, confidence versus courage. But the only way we get better at that is actually by doing it. It's like any other skill, it just doesn't happen overnight, and we have to do it more often. So there's not an easy pill to swallow for this. But um I've listened to your podcast, you're a terrific interviewer, and you got a lot of good things going on.

Carrie Saunders: 5:21

Well, thank you so much for that. So let's dive into some of the really juicy stuff, I feel like. So I feel like for those listening, they might be thinking, okay, well, I might not know what I'm not doing right if I don't know. So, what would you say is like the number one mistake most experts make when they're presenting or giving some sort of speech or discussion or talk?

Julie Campbell: 5:45

Yeah, so I know you have a lot of listeners out there who are experts at what they do. They might be solopreneurs, but they are, or they might be offering a service. But let's be clear, when we go to start our businesses, we're doing it for a reason. We're good at what we do. And the first thing that happens to us, though, is when we have to go into those situations where we're talking about those things. If we're feeling, if we haven't done it a lot, we might feel nauseous, we might feel our heart racing, we might feel our breath quicken. And those are the sorts of things that are top of mind for us very often when we're preparing to get in our way, and then also maybe right before we begin to speak. So what you have to do is you have to switch your focus. So the thing that most people don't do is they don't think about who they're talking to, which is their audience. And when you begin by focusing on your audience, that helps with shaping your content because you begin right away with what your audience most needs. So I did that a little bit, I hope, when you asked me that question where you said, you know, what are the things that we're not doing? So I know that you have an audience of online entrepreneurs. And I also know that you introduced me as an actress turned communication coach. So I'm going to assume that they kind of think they know what I'm talking about. So you put those two things together, and I started off with saying, all right, look, you have to talk about your business and you're nervous. So what do you do? So that's an example of that. As you shape your content, start from the very beginning with something that your audience most needs. So you're engaging them from the beginning. The second thing you can do, that's about the content, is shift your mindset. And remember, I mentioned it before. You are the expert on your material. Your audience wants to know about you. They're here to listen to you, and they and they want your information. So, how do you get rid of some of those nerves? It's like, okay, great, Julie. I got it. I'm gonna, I got the content. I know what I'm doing. I'm gonna start off with something really engaging, but I'm still nervous. What do I do? One thing anyone can do is create a pump-up playlist. Choose five songs that make you feel really good, make you feel happy, make you energize, make you kind of forget your worries, and you save that pump-up playlist for those high-stakes speaking moments. You don't listen to that playlist at any other time. Five minutes before you go on, turn on that music, dance, do jumping jacks, shadow box, jog in place. If you're in your car, I've been known to open my windows and wave my arms out the window or wave them through the sunroof. Get those stress hormones up and out of your body. And there's science behind why that works. That's something anybody can do.

Carrie Saunders: 8:34

I love that pump-up playlist. And I'm just thinking in my head as you're speaking here, like I feel like that also, besides getting the stress hormones out, I think in some ways it could get the stress hormones out, at least in my brain, by giving my subconscious something else to focus on, which is the music, not my fears or my thoughts behind, you know, the nerves or anything like that. I kind of feel like it kind of when we listen to the music we enjoy, it kind of zaps us out of that internal, maybe self-critic criticism. I can't even think of the right word.

Julie Campbell: 9:07

Absolutely, yes.

Carrie Saunders: 9:08

You know, type of um look upon ourselves and it helped help zap us out of that, which is I feel like part of where those nerves and the butterflies can come from is the imposter syndrome. And is this should I should I really be doing this? Am I good enough for this? Am I an expert enough? Right. I'm sure you run into that with your clients too.

Julie Campbell: 9:27

Absolutely. And what you said there too, Carrie, was that the loudest voice in our head is gonna be the voice that we're listening to right before we turn on that camera or before we sit down and we do a podcast or we go to a speaking event or we go to a networking event. So, how about this? How about we let the loudest voice in our head be the voice that tells us what's gonna happen if it all goes right? And we put on that music that makes us feel good. And yes, it absolutely gets us out of our head. And what you want to do in addition to that music, here's another little tip is that you speak with your first name in your your name, your first name, in the voice of your best friend before you go on there. And you can do it in your head or you can do it out loud. So for me, I'll be a little goofy here, and this is what it might sound like to me before I come on this podcast. Okay, Julie. I know you're a little nervous about this. You had some tech stuff go wrong before this, and there's a little funky things going on behind the scenes, but you're ready for this. For heaven's sake, you've been doing this for years. Your audience is there to listen to you. Carrie is a fabulous interviewer, you're gonna be fine. So there's a goofy, uh, a goofy example of what it might sound like, and you don't have to do it out loud like I did it. But the science behind using your first name and speaking to yourself in a way that your best friend would really works. And it's uh, you know, when I people call me the confidence whisperer, that was a name given to me by a marketing strategist, by the way. I didn't come up with that, but I told her what I did. And she was like, Oh my god, you gotta just call yourself the confidence whisperer. Because what I do is I ask people to not not just decide to be confident. People come to me and they say, Yeah, I need to have more confidence in what I do. But I say, All right, let's get rid of that word for a minute and let's just talk about courageous. Because that's something we can all do. You can choose to show up with courage, you can choose to show up even when you're nervous, even when you're scared, even when you think everything's going off the rails, you can stop for a moment and say, you know what? I'm gonna be courageous because confidence is something other people say about you. And if that's what they want to say about you after they hear you or see you, then great. But putting that label on yourself before you try to go do something and trying to behave a certain way that looks confident to other people, that's a really tricky, really weird, hard thing to do.

Carrie Saunders: 11:52

I feel like that is can really hit the nail on the head too, because like I'm thinking back, you know, it's been almost two and a half years since I started this podcast. And I had to, I really had to have the courage to just go ahead and do it and not worry about what people thought. And and for me, and you you might be able to relate, I'm sure you can relate to this with yourself and your clients, is I needed more courage around the people I knew versus the strangers listening, right? So I'd like I needed more confidence in doing this and not worried about what are my children gonna think? What is my husband gonna think? What are my friends gonna think? You know what I mean? It it wasn't I didn't really worry about the strangers that were listening that I didn't know yet. It was more about the familiar people to me. Do you run into that too? Whenever you're helping them get the courage up to absolutely.

Julie Campbell: 12:39

I mean, I can tell you, having been on stage for many, many years, it is much harder to um I wouldn't say it's harder to perform, but the nerves are definitely at a higher level when you know that your friends and family are in the audience, or when they're listening, or when you have that, particularly if you are you have a mentor out there who's listening. Um, it's whoever those those people are that matter to you, that their their opinion does matter. But what you have to find is you have to find when those uh in those moments, whatever your whatever your sticking point is for you, whatever your difficult audience is, is to rather than say, Oh, I'm just gonna pretend like they're not here, I'm gonna imagine that they're not listening. That takes a lot more energy than what I like to call, I shouldn't say I like to call it's a common phrase in the improv world, called yes and. So you say to yourself, yes, all right. Those people are listening. And I have a broader audience that I want to meet. I want to talk to them. So in in your example here, I want to talk to the small business owners that are here listening. I want to talk to those entrepreneurs who are who do value what I have to say and who are interested in that. Those are the people that I'm imagining out there as I'm speaking. Does that make sense?

Carrie Saunders: 14:08

It sure does. And actually, as you speak that, that makes me go back and think that's how I got through it. That's how I got the courage, is I had such strong conviction that I wanted to help those small business owners and those online entrepreneurs and e-commerce and um course creators and coaches have the tools they need to be successful online. And that's what got me past that fear of what are my friends and family going to think? And and really, I I don't know if you do this too, but like I basically taught myself, well, that's silly, that's not my target audience, isn't my friends and family anyway? So why would I worry about them? You know, and they're gonna love me anyway. So why would I do that to myself? But it's just so easy to do.

Julie Campbell: 14:52

Yeah, I mean, are the voices, the voices of self-doubt that creep into our head are um there's many, many more voices of that for most of us than there are than there is the one voice that's the wisest voice that said, Hey, listen into all that. And that's the voice you have to listen to is imagine. If you know if you don't find it in yourself, think about your best friend. Think about the person who who is the one who always is like, why are you talking like that about yourself? That's not who you are. You're so good at what you do. Go do it. We have to be that person for ourselves sometimes.

Carrie Saunders: 15:24

We really do. Um, and so then let's transition a little bit to a little bit different spin on this. So sure. Let's think about, you know, I feel like some of our listeners may have spoken in a small room or to a small audience, but they're looking to like take that next step and to talk to a little bit bigger audience. How do you teach them how to learn to lead that bigger room and can kind of feel confident and command it in an appropriate way so that they can get their message across?

Julie Campbell: 15:53

Yeah. So you mentioned too that you have, and I know this about you, that you have an audience of online uh people who might be ready to kind of create an online course, might be stepping into where they're reaching a broader audience. Maybe they're going out to more networking events, and those can be virtual or in person. But whatever it is, you're at a place in your business where you're ready to take it kind of to the next level with who you're talking to and who you're reaching with your business. And what happens when we do that is a couple of things can sometimes get in our way with that. We either start to think, ah, but yeah, what if my my message, my content, the what I do part isn't gonna resonate with that audience? What if I go off topic? What if I start rambling? What if someone asks me a really challenging question in the QA and I can't answer it and I'm blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm trying to find my words and I've totally make a total flop of myself. What's going to happen there? So here's a quick story of a recent client of mine who was in that exact position. She had the receipts, but she had already established herself as an online entrepreneur. She was uh working already with a team of six when she came to me, and she was in this very spot. She was ready to go out and actually start speaking at virtual events and conferences, and had just kind of gone um into um speaking in person at conferences in different parts of the country. And these were high-stakes moments for her. She knew she was good at what she did, but this was a new step for her to really go out and talk about her business. So here's what we did together. And I think it will resonate with your audiences who find themselves in that same position. The first thing we did was we applied my talk and be you method. I mentioned that at the beginning. It's not therapy, but I'm told it's deeply therapeutic. And that what we do with that is we get you stepping fully and completely into your story. A story that says to your audience, hey, I'm you. I've been there before. This is what I did in my business. This is what worked, and here's what I can do. Here's what I did, excuse me, here's what I did, and here's what you can do too to move the needle in your business. She got very honest about her fears and her internal voices of self-doubt. Again, not therapy, but therapeutic. I have an exercise that I do that takes you through those, like listening to those inner critics, and then we find ways to get past them. And the third thing we did that's really important is we used what I call my tight rope story walk strategy. That's a mouthful. And what that does is using the imagery of a tightrope and staying on that, stepping onto that tightrope and staying on that tightrope. You clarify the one core objective of your talk, of your introduction, if it's even something very small, or the core objective of the course that you're creating. What do you want your clients to end up with by the end of that course? You write it down into one sentence at the end of your tightrope. And then you structure your content into clear, intentional chunks that move towards that objective so that each section drives towards your audience's value. And here's what I know about how that connects to nervousness and feeling unsettled. What I see with a lot of my clients is their nerves come not just from those internal voices and whatever else is going on, but it's from a lack of clarity with their content and being very concise, having a concise approach and roadmap for where you are going. That does a whole lot to calm your nerves. So we did that. And then I trained her on how to stay grounded and present with techniques from the stage, how to manage that internal doubt and those real-time audience curveballs that sometimes happen in that QA that we're not expecting, but they do happen. And how you own the stage with confidence and clarity. So the results, what happened to her after we worked together? She never rambled. She had a process for how to calm herself before she came on stage and to keep that calm, even when she was feeling a little bit rattled. And the best part of this, she received rave reviews from her participants. And when she was done with her session, later that afternoon, the conference organizers invited her back for next year as a keynote speaker. So there you go. Having an approach, having a roadmap, having a system in place so that you can shape your content and deliver it in the way that resonates with your audience. That's what I do at um in my business.

Carrie Saunders: 20:42

That really sounds like I can just picture myself doing that. It really sounds doable. It sounds like something you can really grasp onto. And I can I can visualize myself like stepping along that typerope. That's such a great analogy there and coming to that end goal at the end to keep you aligned and not rambling. Um, it's just, I don't, I'm not, and it just kind of blew me away on how you talked about that because it's it's kind of parallel to what I teach in our course, the converting website, is we want to have kind of like a tightrope. Where do you want the where does the customer start and where do you want them to go to get to either buying your product or subscribing to your newsletter or getting that freebie? It's kind of like a similar thing here. We need to be thinking about where do we want that audience to be at the end of our speech? And I love how you talk about how we're stepping them along that tightrope to get to that end goal and making it relatable at the same time.

Julie Campbell: 21:41

Absolutely. And that um that's so cool that you just tied that together with because you're you talked about you were talking about what you do, and I'm like, yeah, kind of does apply to that. Absolutely. It's it's moving your story, having a clear direction, always moving your story forward and kind of staying on that tightrope. And you know, it's funny with the other thing with that, that the part of that tightrope too is that stepping onto the tightrope, right? Willing to say, all right, that takes a lot of courage. I mean, I might be called the confidence whisperer, but I gotta tell you, every time I come onto my own tightrope, I just have to say to myself, I'm gonna be courageous. And if I fall off, I'm gonna get back on because I know where I'm headed.

Carrie Saunders: 22:26

So I love that. And I what I would love to hear from you is um, you know, I've recently gone to podcast movement twice now. And, you know, sitting there in the audience and listening to other people speak, you know, there are some people that are like what you're talking about, super on point, super relatable. I can totally understand where they're going and I have a clear direction. And then there's those other ones that you just kind of like you start checking your phone because you just kind of aren't following them, and you're, I don't know, you get bored and scatterbrained. How do you help your clients then, besides like the tightrope, how do you help them? Maybe it would be decide what where where should they go with their talk? What what should that straight line start with? And this might be a little bit of a complicated question, but I'm trying to think, you know, if somebody wants to plan a talk, what's like the first steps to getting there?

Julie Campbell: 23:23

That's a bit it's it's a different, um, it's a very kind of personalized decision with that, with what's what your first step is. That in my mind, what resonates most deeply when I am listening to people when I'm going to those talks is the why behind people's businesses and why you're doing, why you're doing what you do, why it matters to you, why you started your business. Um, but also it's it's bringing that into what your audience needs. So even just saying that right now to say what interests me and what what I'm always captured by is the why people started their own businesses. If this you have to structure the talk with your strengths and also recognizing who are you going to be talking to? Right? So if I'm talking to an audience of entrepreneurs, or if I'm talking to an audience of a C-suite who are looking to prepare their own talks, it's a different, it's a whole different beast with who they're talking to. Do you speak specifically to the financial world? Do you speak specifically to the pharma world, or do you speak to entrepreneurs? So it's it's it's bringing that together when I was talking about in the beginning. It's not just your what you do, but also what your audience needs and trying to bridge that gap. Does that answer your question a little bit?

Carrie Saunders: 24:56

Yeah, I think so. I think that really makes sense and helps helps you try to think about how does your story relate to who you're talking to so you can make yourself more memorable. Um, because I feel like when when you reuse start your speech with something memorable, like your backstory, but then have it relate to the people who are listening to you, that gets their attention and then they can follow you the rest of the way on on the tightrope analogy that you like to have. Um, so yeah, I think that does answer the question pretty well. And I think that will help people who are listening kind of think of what's that first step. Because sometimes for me, the hardest step is that first step. You know, once I once I start figuring out where I'm going with like a speech or a talk or something, it flows a bit more better. But it's it's the first few steps can be very, very hard.

Julie Campbell: 25:43

It is, and that's where that's where um, you know, working, working together, that's where I come in with I'm I try to be in, so confidence was for somebody who finds you, helps you find your what's your story? What is the thing that really is um that's unique about you that differentiates you? What happens when um when I'm working with people very often is they there's there's that little, there's that thing inside them that that story that they want to tell. If they're talking about going out and kind of talking about their business and why they do what they do, it's like, well, it's really this thing, but I don't really like nobody's really gonna care about that. That's not really what people want to hear. And my answer is, oh no, no, no, no, no. That's exactly what people want to hear. Because when we're working, when we're out there speaking, we've got to engage people right away. And and we have these stories that we hold within us that we think are, eh, you know, it's me, it's too personal. It's I don't want to make it about me. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. If you're an entrepreneur, your business is 100% about you. I mean, you can't make it self-serving and all of that, but there's always a story there behind why we do what we do.

Carrie Saunders: 27:00

I think that really is so relatable. And it actually helps me transition to my last and final question, which I think might be a fun one, which is what was the moment when you knew you needed a pivot from being a full-time actor to being a business owner? So, what's your story behind your transition there?

Julie Campbell: 27:18

That's that's fun, that's a fun story to tell. So um, yeah, so a few years ago, I was opening an Off-Broadway play, and it was in this beautifully intimate theater, the kind where the audience feels like they stepped right into your living room. Broadway, off-Broadway has a lot of really small, lovely theaters. And the first few rows were arm's length from the stage. No lights to hide behind, no space to buffer you. And my character's entrance was raw. I had to walk on stage by myself onto the set very quietly. Nobody else was on stage with me, make a few small adjustments, step forward onto the lip of the stage, and gaze just above the audience's head as if I was looking out a window. And then I had to break down fully and completely into tears. I couldn't fake it. It was a it was and it wasn't a dramatic choice. It was something that was required in the script. And that script required also that level of vulnerability right from the very first moment. And I didn't think twice about it. But after one of one of the shows, a group of my friends who were not from the theater world came to came to see the show and they came backstage to talk to me. There was a friend of mine who's a physician, a lawyer, um, a couple small business owners from the town that I'm from and all that. Anyhow, they came backstage and they all asked the same question. How did you do that? How did you break down like that in front of all those people? And that moment stuck with me because to me, that's my job. As an actor, I'm required to invest myself fully in my story, moment by moment, beat by beat. And when I do that, I'm not second-guessing myself. We're in it together with our audience, step by step. We're sharing time and space. It's magical, it's transformative, and it's a real moment. When you forget yourself that way and not like totally forget yourself, because that would be something else. But when you're in that flow state, as it's been called, and neuroscience explains to us why this happens, you're fully in the moment. The audience is right there with you. And what I didn't realize until that night was that being that present and that emotionally available, that connected to your message is rare in most people's work lives. And I had people say to me, I want that kind of presence in my work. My, my team, I wish that I could get my team to show up with that sort of clarity. And if I had to do that, I would freeze up if I had to speak like that. And so that's where the dots started to connect with me. And as we know, as entrepreneurs, our work and our life and our family all kind of mold together. So at the same time that that was happening when I was when I was performing off-Broadway, my family was shifting. I had we have three kids. One was in middle school, two or going into high school. And my husband was traveling a lot, and continuing to work in the theater full time wasn't sustained, sustainable for me. But on the side, I was coaching and I was teaching because I was teaching middle schoolers how to shape and share their stories on stage. And then the final thing that happened was one day, in the midst of all of this, my husband, who was interviewing job candidates at his firm, came home. We were all sitting at the dinner table, and he said, These people I'm interviewing, they don't know how to communicate. They're brilliant. They're so smart. I don't know how I'm gonna train them to get in front of clients. And just like that, I saw the through line. There are so many smart, successful, well-intentioned, right experts out there, and they just don't know how to let they just don't know how to tell that story about who they are, about what differentiates their business, and they don't know how to access that story. They want to speak with clarity and with conviction and presence, but no one's ever taught them how. So that's the business that I built. I help professionals, whether you're stage shy or spotlight ready, you own your voice, shape your message, and show up with the kind of presence that moves people. Because here's the thing if you can move an audience, you can move a room. And if you can move a room, you can move the needle in your business.

Carrie Saunders: 31:50

That's what I do. Really, really, that's really powerful, Julie. I just that I could just visualize everything you said. It's so obvious that you're so good at telling stories and connecting to the other person on the other side of currently the screen, since we're not in person, but like I could just so picture like all of that. It was like I was reading a book, you know, and when you get engrossed in a book, it was like I was reading a book and I in my mind's eye I could see it all. That was just absolutely wonderful. Um, and it reminded me of this one time, and I'm a musician, I don't know if you know this. I play piano, I've played it since first grade. I also play clarinet and several other instruments, but it reminded me of several months ago. I've always been very nervous when I go and play in front of other people, even though I had my own senior piano recital, short, long story short, I had to see my own senior piano recital for an hour long as a senior in high school, and I was really nervous. And I will say that the first time that I've ever really, really gotten in the flow was just a few months ago. My youngest child and I were playing in an open mic night. Uh, we were playing fun fact Great Big Gig in the Sky by Pink Floyd. I was playing it on piano, and he was playing the singing part on recorder. And he can play a recorder so beautifully it sounds like a flute. I mean, it's really, really crazy beautiful. And he was playing like an alto, so a little bit lower tone of uh flute or recorder. And I was in such a flow, I didn't see the rest of the room. It was just me and him sitting next to each other, having such a good time, just like we were in our own house, just practicing and playing music together. And when you talked about your story and how you came to this and came to doing what you're doing now, it just reminded me of that flow state I was in with my son and playing that music. And if if we as entrepreneurs and business owners can get into that flow state more, just think how easy our businesses are and how easy our communication would be. And like you said at the end, you know, how we can really move that needle forward. So I just love that story. It was just so relatable to me.

Julie Campbell: 34:04

Oh, thank you. And you made me teary eye telling me that story. So there you go. I mean, I'm a sucker for uh I'm a sucker for those those hard on your sleeve uh kind of stories when I when I um and you gave you gave a terrific example there, Carrie, because you just told a story that if you have an opportunity to go out and speak and uh you know connect that to the work that you do, that's the story that you need to tell because it's so it was concise, it was beautiful, and it was you. It was you fully stepping into your own kind of authentic moment there and it connects with your audience. And yeah, you gave me the chills, and yes, it's such a wonderful thing when you can be when when you as a presenter, as a speaker, even if you're just walking into a room, walk into the room like you already belong there. And if you've created your business, you are already doing an amazing thing. So turn on that camera, unmute yourself, and sit down there or stand up there or walk in there like you belong there. That's the first thing. Shift your mindset in that, and then you can start to get into that flow, like you said.

Carrie Saunders: 35:16

I love that. And so I was actually just gonna ask you, like, you know, what's your what's what's the last little tidbit you want to give us? But I feel like you just did. But is there any other additional little tidbits you want to give us before we wrap up our interview today?

Julie Campbell: 35:31

What I would add to that is that little bit of self-belief. It just matters more than than really anything else is that just that shift that you just have to say to yourself, I got this, I'm prepared. You do have to be prepared. You have to have your content ready, you have to know what the heck you're doing. Let's be honest about that. And just go do it. Do it nervous. Here it is. Here's the last tip. I had to kind of wind down to it. Do it nervous, do it scared, do it afraid, do it with a little bit of self-doubt, but just go do the thing because the more that you do it, the more you speak, the more you share your story, the easier it does get.

Carrie Saunders: 36:21

Wonderful. That's so wonderful. Now we will have all the information on how to connect with Julie on our show notes. But Julie, do you want to give us a little shout out as to the best ways to get a hold of you if somebody's interested in having you help them take that next step with their business by being able to communicate better? What would be the best way to get a hold of you?

Julie Campbell: 36:39

Absolutely. Absolutely. You can find me Julie Campbell, the confidence whisper. I'm on social media, on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. And you can also find me at my website. But just DM me confidence, DM me Carrie, since I'm here on your show, and we'll connect and we'll find a way to talk and see if um, see how I can help you, or if I can help your team, or even me speaking at your next conference or event.

Carrie Saunders: 37:03

I just love that, Julie. It has been such such a pleasure talking to you today. I mean, I I've come away with this with a bit more confidence and courage um to do the things that are scary for me. And I really appreciate the stories you had to share with us and all the wisdom you had. So thank you so much for being on our podcast today.

Julie Campbell: 37:21

Thank you, Carrie.

Carrie Saunders: 37:23

I just absolutely love this conversation with Julie, and I hope you do too. Her perspective on unlearning how we shrink and owning our space is something every entrepreneur needs to hear. If you've ever felt like you freeze when the spotlight hits, or you want to lead bigger rooms, whether that's virtually or in person, with more ease and authenticity, check out Julie's work and links in the podcast description and show notes at SmarterOnlineBusiness.com. Thanks for listening and we will see you next week.