This is not about you

It's my pleasure, Mick. Thank you.

Well, there's a story there. so I actually this is my second time starting Talk Talk. So the first time was about sixteen years ago, I started Talk Talk and went and got myself a divorce and at the time had a small kiddo at the time. So for those in your audience that have started their own consulting practice, know that they you're you've got some good months and some not so good months and with a little kid and a I I chose to go into the big consulting house because I had to, spent about, I don't know, about eight or nine years there. And I looked after the their leadership practice. And then I also looked after or was part of their employee engagement survey. So about six, seven years ago, like you mentioned, I found myself at a crossroads and said, I was getting older. I said, if I don't resurrect talk talk, it's going to be one of those big life regrets. And so made the leap. And fortunate for me that when I made the leap, some of my clients came with me, which made that transition a little bit easier. But I often say that, you know, if you ever find me back in one of the big consulting houses, that you have every permission to shoot me because it means I'm miserable. Like I think for me in this stage of life, in this part of my career. This is the only place that I need to be and the only place I want to be because it affords me everything that I wanted and and pr predominantly I would say creativity. So that's why I made the transition is 'cause I felt like I had to.

Yeah, you know, interesting, because I think each of the consulting firms are quite different, right? But if I look at the people that I know in those consulting firms, there is a through line. There is a competitiveness, a kind of a cutthroat nature to being in the big consulting firms, very much dog eat dog, right? This is my lane, this is mine, don't take my thing. and that's not me by by nature or by values. Right. I'm not a competitor with another human. I don't ever want to be in competition. I do believe that there's enough wealth out there for all of us. And I really go into the universe with that mindset. So I would say that for me, there that's one, the competitive nature. The other difference is is when you're in a big consulting firm. There's very much plug and play. You gotta do things the way that they want it to be done. It's someone else's brainchild, right? They've created this curriculum, they've created this survey. And there's not a lot of room for creativity or your own kind of way of thinking. There's a lot of groupthink, like everybody think this way. So when I break out into my own, if I'm really interested in a topic as an example, I could just go explore that. And not only explore that, I can create a a workshop around it, I can I can play around. And so the creative side of me, the right brain side of me loves that part. It's the very artistic part of me. So I would say to summarize, it's the competitive nature and the creativity that sets the two worlds apart.

Yeah, we yeah, we were talking about all my books. It's interesting. I was also saying to Mick that I have another library downstairs. I read about, I don't know, four or five books. And that by the way, I should let you know with your readers, they're not always cover to cover, right? Like sometimes I used to be very like linear about that. You gotta start from page one, finish to the end. Now I sometimes skim and that's enough. So when I say I read four or five, like that's how I get through that many. And it's just about being curious and interested. but how I spend my time to your original question, it really depends on what's going on. Like right now, I'm in the season of workshops and keynotes. So I have a keynote later this week. So this morning I was spent doing a little bit more research, and the topic is about psychological safety and storytelling. So I was doing a little bit more research on that. And then I've got some workshops coming up as well. And so a lot of that is just study. A lot of my time is spent in study. I know that sounds strange because I've been doing this for probably, I don't know, 25, 30 years really. You go, well, like how much more study can you do? but I came across a term not too long ago. I don't know if you've ever heard of this before, Mick. It's called autodidact, which means I know you mentioned you're in you in university. And a lot of us have learnt to go to universities such that we can get Some letters behind our name, right? Like I've got a BA or I got a PhD or I've got a master's or I've got whatever. And I've got some of that, but at the older I've gotten, I've been I'm I pull myself away from these letters and more about being autodidact, which is the the pursuit of learning for the sake of learning. I go down rabbit holes. I explore things and I don't know if everybody does that, but that's the way that I like to live. And so most of my time and my consulting practice is really about learning, studying, going down rabbit holes such that when I do get up in front of a group of people, hopefully I can be somewhat interesting.

I think we do education all wrong. If you want me to go down that rabbit hole, I think we all learn very different, right? And because I was a decent enough memorization, I could memorize easily enough, I did somewhat well. But was that real learning? Like if you told me a day after I crammed for exam, what were you actually cramming for? Probably couldn't recite that, right? It wasn't until I got into the later university years where I figured out that. Well, I'm actually kind of interested in this, right? Like I wanna I wanna really dig into that topic. I mean, what do you I mean, you told me that you're taking digital marketing. So obviously that's a a passion for you. Part of the reason why I'm I'm assuming you're doing these podcasts is part of part of that degree. So you too are just I think learning not from memorization, but learning because you're genuinely interested in it. It's very different.

Well, it's it's funny that you asked that question because I was talking to someone, I think it was yesterday or the day before, that I hadn't really even played with AI until about six years ago. And I was watching there's a Sunday morning program here, CBS, whatever. And they talked about an art AI application called, what is it called? it's escaping me. But you g basically go into this app and you say Create a Picasso version of a disco ball, and you add all these things. And so I created my first, it's called DAL E. and that was my first foray into AI, it was from this art center, not like a chat GPT thing. But soon thereafter, like me, like everybody else on the on the planet, we found it, and it becomes kind of like an assistant. That's how I would describe it to the work that I do. It becomes A thought partner perhaps. but someone on on another podcast was asking me, like, how has this affected how I get booked or how I do my things? And I think for what I do, which is speaking, we'd be hard pressed to find an AI person to do what a Carolyn Berglund does, just because I'm a human being standing in front of a group of people. I suppose you could get like an AI agent to stand in front of a group of people, but I don't know how interesting that would be. Today, it doesn't doesn't mean that ten years from now they they wouldn't develop something more interesting. But I think there are real implications to this whole on-demand world, right? When we got devices and all these things in front of us, I think it's it's pulling us away from human connection. And I think, Mick, that the the problem with getting away from human connection is is profound and deep and scary. and I think the more connected we are with devices, the more we are getting we're getting away from one another. And and that's really what living is all about. And so I know that sounds deep and philosophical, but that's what I believe. And I think we need to figure out how to put these devices down, not only AI, but just all devices, and learn how to kick it old school and doing what we're doing right now, looking each other eyeball to eyeball and having a conversation and musing and having you know, I think even, you know, conflict is is good. But we're we're forgetting how to do all of that. In fact, I would say some of the younger generation, not not you, Mick, but and I'm gonna use this word appropriately, they the younger generation in which I interact with have become quite retarded as it relates to interacting with another human being. They don't know how to do it anymore. They don't understand body language cues and tone and inflection and How do you make small talk? And is small talk important? All of that stuff is important, right? so we're losing a lot of that and it it makes me sad. And and I think my mission on this planet is to get us back to human connection. That's really the underpinnings of everything that I do. What do you think?

Yeah. We've just launched a n a new program with my organization with another one called The Art of Story. And so we we bring wannabe speakers or speakers through a program where they get up on stage and they deliver a talk. And I say and I've I writ I know this sounds fancy, but I did write a book called Three Hundred and Sixty Five Must No Talks of All Times, where I studied talks, not to get published because I wanted to put myself in that whole autodidact thing that we're talking about. I wanted to put myself through my own presentation skills university. And I think the singular difference between what sets apart if I had to distill all of that body of work down to a statement, it would be what separates like a a good talk from a superb one is the authenticity of the speaker. So we've all seen a speaker who is trying to Pretend to be someone else. They've got some kind of mask on. I want to be Tony Robbins. I want to be whatever. I want to be. And they come across as disingenuous. And you know that as the audience member, but you can't really put your put your finger on it. So the ones that are able to be authentically themselves in front of a group of 20, 200, 2000, 200,000 are the ones that are the most successful. They use their own examples. Their own life experience in of service. And this is really important, Mick. This is in of service to help. Someone asked me the other day. I did a very large keynote talk, and I was in the green room, so in the back. And someone said, like, how are you calming yourself down? And I do get nervous. Let's let's be very clear for anybody listening, because nerves just mean that you care. But There is one mantra that I say to myself right before I go on that will always bring me back down to ground zero, getting the the adrenaline and cortisol, you know, kind of down. And it is this is not about you, Carolyn. Even though you're the one in the front of the the group, your message and how you can help these people is why you've been asked to be here today. So you're of service to the people that are listening to you. So it takes the focus off of me, look at me, shiny object in front of the the the the group and puts the focus back where it should be on the people listening to you.

Yeah, and another thing you could you could think of doing, e if you're not comfortable putting it on the audience, like, you know, how can I be of service to the audience to say and I agree, fear is just another emotion, such as anger, such as all the things. Another thing you might want to consider doing around a pep talk is this is gonna be great. Your b your brain and body believes what you tell it. This is gonna be great. I'm gonna this is gonna be the best podcast we've ever done. Whether you even believe it or not, it's it's tricking your brain into into at least saying the words and and that sometimes will shift the fear and get those butterflies flying information, if you will.

Yeah, so you know, like every I think every small or medium business owner I set a vision for where we're gonna go. We're gonna continue to grow. So we have a a team at Talk Talk. I'm gonna continue to do more and more keynotes. That seems to be an area that I am really enjoying at the moment. I've done workshops for 25, 30 years and the keynote stuff I've always done, but I'm doing a little bit more and I'm really enjoying that. So that I can and that's not a place of arrogance so that I can again be the person in front of the room. Is I think I can reach more people with my message, which ultimately is around we're all human beings having a human existence. So to be anything other than kind is unconscionable. So if we can do more of that, I think in the world, I think and that message can get out a little bit more. I think I've done my little part.

You can find me on all the socials on LinkedIn, Carolyn Bergland. we have a website called talktalk.ca. The CA is cause I'm in Canada. and then obviously you can email me at Carolyn at talktalk.ca. Thanks.

Thanks, Mick, and good luck to you in university and all that's gonna happen to you in the future. Appreciate it.