# Speak Confidently with Senior Leaders (Without Shaking)

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** Linda Raynier
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY
- **Дата:** 15.04.2026
- **Длительность:** 24:04
- **Просмотры:** 7,973

## Описание

👉FREE COMMUNICATION GUIDE - If you want to learn how to speak up in meetings and deliver impactful updates, access my 'Speak Up Clearly in Work Meetings' PDF guide for free: https://bit.ly/stratapr26
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This video is sponsored by Sintra.ai, which is helping you build and scale your business with AI employees. Get your first 24/7 digital team that runs your socials, inbox, website, content, customer support, and business and sales operations without adding extra headcount at https://sintra.ai/linda or use a promo code 'LINDA' at checkout to enjoy an exclusive limited-time 72% discount on all plans.
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🗣 READY TO APPLY? If you want to go from quiet and shy to a confident communicator and leader at work, click the link below so we can schedule a time to see if we’re a fit to work together: https://bit.ly/stratapr26q

📙Hear more of my story and lessons learned in my new best-selling book “The Quiet Achiever” - available now! https://www.lindaraynier.com/book 
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Hard work used to be the primary currency for career advancement. But in today’s “visibility culture,” results without a voice are often mistaken for mere support rather than leadership.

If you are a Quiet Achiever, you likely find yourself in this cycle:
You do the deep work. You catch the details others miss. You are the backbone of the team. Yet, when the meeting starts and the stakes are high, your message doesn't land. Or worse, you stay silent, waiting for the "perfect" moment to speak that never comes.

For many of us—especially those from immigrant backgrounds—visibility can feel unsafe. We were taught to keep our heads down and let the work speak. But if you don't share your thinking, people cannot advocate for what they cannot see.

The shift isn't about becoming an extrovert or being "loud." It’s about moving from anxiety to calm authority. When you are regulated, your intelligence can finally be heard.

In this video, I'm sharing some frameworks to help you move from invisible to influential. It’s designed to help you structure your thoughts under pressure so you never have to "fight" for airtime again.
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0:00 – The frustration of "Invisible Excellence" at work
2:08 – Defining the Quiet Achiever: Why you observe first
4:29 – Why "Hard Work" alone won’t get you promoted anymore
6:40 – The Uncomfortable Truth: If you don't look calm, you look unready
8:32 – SPONSOR: Streamlining your workflow with Sintra.ai (Use code LINDA)
10:38 – Reason #1: How your nervous system hijacks your voice
12:55 – Reason #2: The trap of "My work should speak for itself"
14:25 – Reason #3: Why perfectionism is silencing your best ideas
16:30 – Ingredient #1: The 4-4-8 Breathwork technique for regulation
19:35 – Ingredient #2: Using Intuition to read the room
21:20 – Ingredient #3: Projecting energy and positioning your message
23:15 – A final word on why you must stop disappearing
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Interested in listening to my videos as a podcast? https://www.lindaraynier.com/podcast

CONNECT WITH ME: 
Website: https://www.LindaRaynier.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindaraynier 
Instagram:   /lindaraynier

## Содержание

### [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY) The frustration of "Invisible Excellence" at work

Have you ever walked out of a work meeting and thought to yourself, I know I could have explained that so much better. And deep down you know that it had nothing to do with you not understanding what you were saying. You knew your stuff. But when it came time to speak, it just didn't come out right. You start talking, but then you lose your train of thought. So then you keep trying to explain, but then it just comes out messy. And the more that you try to fix it in the moment, the more that you explain, the more details that you give, the worse it gets. And meanwhile, you're thinking yourself, I know this, but why does it sound like I don't know this? I get it. It's really frustrating. Because behind the scenes, you know that you're a solid worker. You've done the work, you've thought things through, and you know that you actually have good insights. But for some reason, in the moments that matter, in those high-stakes conversations with senior leaders, executives, with clients, with important co-workers, your message doesn't land. In those meetings, the conversations move fast. A senior leader out of the blue asks you a question, and suddenly all eyes are on you. And instead of feeling clear and calm, you feel pressure. So what do you do? You either rush through what you're saying, or you hold back completely. And then of course, someone else in the meeting jumps in. They say things more simply, and of course, they end up being the person that everyone listens to. And you're sitting there thinking, that's exactly what I meant to say. And if all of this sounds familiar to you, I want you to know this. It's not that you're not confident enough, or that you're not capable enough. Although the confidence does play a factor. It's that simply, you haven't been shown how to communicate your thoughts clearly under pressure. Because when it comes to being a leader, and I mean a true leader that others are influenced by, especially in corporate settings, it is not just about saying more. It's about being able to stay steady, to organize your thoughts quickly, and being able to say it in a way that people can follow. And the good news is, that's a skill that you can learn. If this video drew you in, it

### [2:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY&t=128s) Defining the Quiet Achiever: Why you observe first

might be likely that you're the type of person who tends to observe first, and you only speak when it actually matters. You're not the type of person who loves fighting for airtime in meetings. You don't want to be performative. You simply just want your work to be respected, and for your voice to be taken seriously. You are what I call a quiet achiever. And I know because I wrote an entire book on this topic called The Quiet Achiever: Your Journey to Authentic Confidence, and it's become an Amazon bestseller in several countries. And what I write about is that as a quiet achiever, you are typically the backbone of your team in your companies. You're the one who does the deep work. You're thoughtful. You're dependable. You catch details that other people miss. But here's the part that most people don't see. Quiet achievers often feel the need to be twice as prepared as everyone in order to be seen as half as credible. In other words, no matter how hard you're working, and no matter how good your work is, there's a part of you that still feels invisible. And this often causes you to feel anxiety on a regular basis, where you replay meetings afterward in your head over and over. You analyze your tone. You wonder if you sounded too soft, if your voice was shaking, or if you rambled too much because you got nervous. And especially if you are coming from an immigrant background, either you are a child of immigrants, or you're an immigrant yourself, or you come from an upbringing where you were taught to keep your head down, stay humble, don't speak out of line, respect authority, then visibility can feel very unsafe. Because for you, speaking up can feel like you're risking being judged, or misunderstood, or labeled. And you're at a point in your career where you've been doing the same thing. You've been working harder, you've stayed quiet, and you're hoping that your work will speak for itself. And sometimes it does. Sometimes you get that award or reward or acknowledgement, but it's hit or miss. And the truth is, in many workplaces, quiet excellence quickly becomes invisible excellence. So if this all resonates with you, and you're still left wondering, why do I feel so anxious when it comes to speaking up? You're not alone, and this video will help you. So here's the agenda for today's video. First, I'll discuss one of the most

### [4:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY&t=269s) Why "Hard Work" alone won’t get you promoted anymore

essential leadership skills that you need to develop if you are going to be a leader in today's corporate workplace, especially as a quiet achiever. Then I'll share with you three reasons why you struggle to access this particular leadership skill, even when you're prepared and feel truly capable in meetings. And finally, I'll walk you through the three ingredients that I teach in our program for you to develop this essential leadership skill. By the end of this video, you'll walk away realizing that you don't need to become more dominant or aggressive or louder to be seen as a leader at work. You just need to become calmer. Let's get into it. And just so you know where I'm coming from, this is not theory. Over the last decade, I have helped thousands of corporate professionals, quiet achievers, to advance in their careers, and to go from anxious, nervous, and afraid of speaking up, to being seen as calm, confident, trusted leaders in their workplaces. And as an example, one of our clients in our program, Atitune, shared how before joining the program, she felt that every single day at work, she was overly focused on how people perceived her. She worried that her accent and her background meant that she didn't fully belong in the room. And so she downplayed her value. And she assumed that people knew more than she did. And if you've ever been in that headspace where you're not just managing the meeting itself, but you're also managing and worrying over how people are perceiving you, that is extremely exhausting. But through our program, Atitune has gotten practice and learned how to speak up intentionally in meetings, and how to build stronger relationships with her co-workers in her workplace. And she now feels not only more confident, but more visible. And that is helping her to lead her career forward, rather than holding herself back. And this can happen for you, too. Now, before we go deeper, I want to make sure I give you something that you can use so that you can start implementing it right away. Make sure you type in the comments confidence, so that I can send you my Speak Confidently in Meetings PDF guide, where you'll be able to get the frameworks, the strategy, and the phrases on how you can speak up more confidently in your next meeting at

### [6:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY&t=400s) The Uncomfortable Truth: If you don't look calm, you look unready

work. All right, so let's dive into what this elusive leadership skill is that I've been kind of hinting at. That skill is the skill of being calm under pressure. Here's why calm is such a big deal right now. We are in something called a visibility culture at work. Now this is not a post online everyday type of visibility, but this is more about being visible in the room. In those important meetings. In those important high-stakes conversations. We're talking about you being visible when decisions are being made. Hard work alone used to be enough. And I will say it 10 times over, hard work alone is not going to work anymore. With AI jumping onto the scene, AI is now going to do a lot of the hard work. And that means for you, if your job is changing, it means that you need to start changing as well. And I know that this feels unfair as a quiet achiever, because for you, you've been working hard. You've been doing everything right. Everything that you were raised to believe about how to be once you got into your jobs in your careers, that was what you have been doing up until now. You've been respectful. You've been prepared. You've been humble. You've been consistent in your work. But if you want to get promoted, advance in your career, the conversation is no longer about who's worked the hardest. It's now about who can we trust under pressure. Who can represent us. Who can lead when things get messy. And here's the uncomfortable truth. If you don't look calm, it means you look anxious. And if you look anxious, people will assume that you are not ready. You're not ready for promotion. growth. You're not ready for leadership. Even if your work says otherwise. So to top it all off, calm is not just a vibe. Calm is career acceleration. It's career advancement, and it is also career protection. Now, before we get into

### [8:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY&t=512s) SPONSOR: Streamlining your workflow with Sintra.ai (Use code LINDA)

those three frameworks, I want to take a moment to thank the sponsor of today's video. That is cintra. ai. If you're like me, and you often feel as though you're juggling way too many tasks at once, you're going to love this platform. cintra. ai is an advanced artificial intelligence assistant designed to handle tasks just like a human assistant would. Think of it like having your own virtual AI team members. These AI team members will help you to run your work and your business more efficiently by analyzing data and automating workflows. And what's so great is that they have over 12 different specialized members to help you in every area of your work. You've got helpers like Soshi for social media, or Comment for e-commerce. It supports over 100 languages, and your data is always stored securely with cloud encryption. And personally, I've been using the SEO AI helper named Shiomi to level up my website, and the experience was seamless. It was incredibly easy to teach Shiomi the specifics of my particular business. And once she understood the specific goals of my business, and had that context, she was able to analyze my site, and provide detailed, specific insights on my business. For example, it gave me a list of quick and easy ways that I could use to boost my rankings, but it also gave me a detailed SEO strategy for the long term. So, whether you're just managing a small business or just trying to stay organized in your corporate job, these helpers are powered by some of the most powerful AI helpers and models that are trained on over 100,000 unique data points to give you professional-grade results. If you want to try it out, they offer a 14-day risk-free refund policy, so you can try it out today. Don't forget to sponsor Centra. ai at Centra. ai/Linda or use a promo code Linda at checkout to enjoy an exclusive limited-time 72% discount on all plans. So, now let's

### [10:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY&t=638s) Reason #1: How your nervous system hijacks your voice

dive into the three reasons why you struggle to feel calm in those important work meetings, in those high-stakes conversations, even though you feel competent, even though you know you are capable. Reason number one, your nervous system gets hijacked. In those important work meetings, when conversations are happening fast, when people are asking questions out of the blue, when people are sharing their opinions and ideas, what are you doing? Often times, I can guess. You are staying quiet. Now, as a quiet achiever, you're not staying quiet and freezing up because you don't know what you're doing or what you want to say. You freeze because you care, because you don't want to be misunderstood. You want to get it right. You don't want your credibility questioned. And so, what happens is your body really, truly goes into fight or flight. That's the racing heart, the heat in your face, the blank mind. And so, you know that you don't want to experience this in every single meeting, so for the next meeting, what do you do instead? You try to use your brain to solve a problem that your heart, that your body is having. So, what do you do? You over-prepare. You prepare all your notes, all your details, all your information. You write notes for every possible question that could get asked. You rehearse your sentence 12 times in your head, but then in that next meeting, the pattern repeats itself, because your body doesn't care about the notes. If your body feels unsafe, then your voice will not feel available. It will also be closed up, and that is why you will not be able to articulate in a calm, competent, composed way. So, to determine if this is you, ask yourself truly, pay attention before your next meeting, "What am I telling myself right now? " If the message that you're hearing is saying, "Don't mess this up. You're going to be judged. If you say the wrong thing, you'll lose your job. " I mean, if it's saying anything that's fear-based, then you know that this is what's going on underneath the surface, and this is one of the key reasons why you feel so anxious when it comes to speaking up, because of what you are telling yourself, what you believe about yourself at the deepest level. Now, let's talk about the second reason why it's such a challenge for you to access calm in these important meetings, and that is because you hold onto the idea

### [12:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY&t=775s) Reason #2: The trap of "My work should speak for itself"

that my work should speak for itself. Many of us quiet achievers were raised to believe, "If I'm competent, they'll notice. If I do great work, I'll be recognized. " And sometimes, you do get recognized, especially in the beginning of your career, those early years where effort, hard work, diligence, and being conscientious all play to your advantage. They allow you to actually move up in your career up until about the mid-manager level. That's when you start realizing that your quiet excellence, your hard work, is now just kind of background noise. And you're noticing that you're no longer being offered opportunities for advancement, and that's because people cannot advocate for things that they can't see. And what I mean by that is if you don't share your thinking, people will not fully see the output that you make. And output without visibility often gets categorized as support rather than leadership. You might be a really good support worker rather than a leader, because for them, you're more of a doer, and you produce output, you produce reports, you produce numbers, you produce technical tasks, but you're not being visible in what you think, in how you feel about certain projects or ideas or insights, and therefore, they do not see you as someone that they need to turn to for guidance, for direction, for leadership. And finally, the third reason why it's so challenging for you

### [14:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY&t=865s) Reason #3: Why perfectionism is silencing your best ideas

to access calm in these important meetings is due to you needing to feel perfect before you share your ideas. Quiet achievers often fall into this trap where they believe that their ideas are only worth sharing if they are 100% right or accurate or perfect, in other words. And so, if this is you, what happens? You wait. You refine. You hold back until you know that what you're going to say is going to be flawless. But that's not reality, and meetings do not reward flawless thinking. Meetings reward presence. So, while you're sitting back, waiting to feel perfect, someone else is moving forward and sharing their rough vision, their rough ideas. And next thing you know, your idea is now walking around wearing someone else's name tag. And in the long run, this actually backfires, because it teaches you and reinforces that you should never speak up, because someone else is just going to say what you want to say anyways. And that causes you to distrust your own voice and only keeps you in the quiet achiever trap of just working hard and staying invisible for longer. These three reasons were the exact same things that one of our clients, Iris, carried before she joined our program Quiet to Confident. Specifically, she learned to step into her authentic leadership, especially coming from an Asian background where she was taught to respect authority, keep your head down, work hard, stay quiet. She learned the communication skills that she wished she had learned earlier in her career. And once she started to address these internal struggles through our program, was when she was able to start coming across as more calm and more clear when speaking up in meetings. So, here's the good news. Just as Iris was able to stay authentic to herself and step into leadership, you can as well. And you don't need to change your personality, become an extrovert, you just need a calm authority system. So, your intelligence can come through in those high-stakes conversations and

### [16:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY&t=990s) Ingredient #1: The 4-4-8 Breathwork technique for regulation

meetings. So, let's talk about the three ingredients that you need if you want to become more calm at work in these important meetings. And the first key ingredient is what I call breathwork. Quiet achievers, this matters so much for you, because you tend to rely on preparation in order to feel calm. And preparation is good, but when you're dysregulated, you can't access what you're prepared. It's like your brain and your body are completely disconnected. But when you learn to master breathwork, it can shift you from feeling, "Ugh, I hope they don't call on me" to "I can handle this. " And that's because you can use your breath as your anchor. I have had so many clients who, before joining our program, they would tell me that when it came time to speak up in meetings, they would actually lose their breath. They would try to explain their concepts, share their details, and during those meetings, they would find themselves catching their breath as though they didn't have enough air or oxygen to take in. This is why breathwork is so key, because if you don't have oxygen, if you aren't taking in your air the right way, you're not going to be able to articulate your words. People aren't understand what you're saying, and of course, you're going to come across as anxious, fearful, and afraid. Knowing how to master your breath is going to create that internal safety for you. And so, something that you can start doing now on a regular basis, multiple times a day, is to inhale for four, hold for four, exhale for eight, okay? You're going to do that a few times before your meetings. You're going to do that in the mornings, maybe on the train going to work. You're going to do that before going to bed. You need to learn how to calm your nervous system, because that is the energy that is going to resonate with those in the room. People are going to be pulled towards you, magnetized towards you, if they find that you have this calm presence. But if you have this anxiety sitting within you, no matter what you say, no matter how perfect the details or information is that you have to share, you're not going to be taken seriously. Ask yourself, "What would it feel like to walk into your next meeting without having to fight your nerves first? " If you could literally go into a meeting feeling completely at ease, completely calm, and be able to speak up at the right time, say the things that are meant to be said, that are going to influence people, move things in a certain direction, how would that feel? Imagine that for yourself, and is that something that you want? Because if it is, then let's continue forward. And by the way, if you're thinking, "Okay, Linda, I get it. Breathwork is great, but I also need to know what to say in meetings," then make sure you type in the word confident in the comments down below, and I'll be sure to send you my speak confidently in meetings guide. Now, let's move on to the second ingredient that helps you to feel calm in meetings. This is something that not other communication coaches are going to talk about or share, but I will, because I take a very unique approach when it comes to this whole topic of communication and leadership. And that second ingredient is intuition. That is truly the quiet achiever's

### [19:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY&t=1175s) Ingredient #2: Using Intuition to read the room

advantage. All quiet achievers, whether you acknowledge it or not, in my mind, in my opinion, have this gift of intuition. Because as quiet achievers, we are naturally observant. We notice patterns. We can sense shifts and changes in the room when we're calm, of course. We're able to read people if we're really paying attention. We're able to see beneath the surface. We're able to hear and notice things that aren't being said. All of that at play is ultimately what intuition really is. It's about seeing beyond just the obvious. Seeing, sensing, feeling beyond what's already there. And that is also a quality that trusted leaders have. They have the ability to read the room. notice when there's tension. They don't just respond to words, they respond to what's underneath the words. So, instead of going into meetings thinking to yourself, "How do I prove that I belong here? " I want you to shift to start thinking in a way where you ask, "What does this room need right now? " Based on what I'm observing, sensing, based on what I'm seeing. Because when you can embody your intuition more, you are pulling yourself out of feeling self-conscious and directly into leadership. What also happens when you start using your intuition is that you will start asking better questions. Because leaders don't necessarily have all the answers, but they do have the ability to ask good questions. And when you can start asking the right questions, you'll be able to move the direction of the group in the way that you want. And that helps you to move up and advance in your career as well. All right, let's talk about the final ingredient when it comes to being calm, and that is projection. Projection is the part that changes how people experience you before you even speak.

### [21:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY&t=1280s) Ingredient #3: Projecting energy and positioning your message

And what I mean by projection is really projection of your energy. What is the energy that you are projecting to others before you even open your mouth? When you sit down in the room, or when you open up the Zoom call, what is the energy that you are projecting? Are you projecting an energy of grounded, calm, authentic presence, or anxiety, of nervousness, of feeling so lost in your head and constantly worrying about what everyone else is thinking about you. In our program Quiet to Confident, one of the things that I teach is this idea of positioning, framing. And that comes down to how you are projecting yourself before every meeting. You have to know how to intentionally prepare before the meetings so that you can frame your message and you can position yourself the right way. So, you're always going to be asking yourself, "Who is in the room? How am I sounding when I speak to these people in the room? What do I need to know ahead of time so that I can frame my messaging, my energy, and my positioning the right way? " And what happens is the more that you do this, project the right energy before each meeting, the more that you become unforgettable. And it's not by talking more, but it's that when you speak, your message lands to the audience that you're speaking to. So, those are the three reasons. Now, if you want help on how to put all of this into real meeting language, what to say, how to say it, and the best way to approach it, then type in the word confident down in the comments down below to get my Speak Confidently in Meetings PDF guide, where I'll share you the tips and the approach that I use and I teach my clients in our Quiet to Confident program. Now, I want to end this off with something that for you as a quiet achiever, I want you to hear. You don't need to become someone else to be respected, but you do need to stop disappearing. You need to stop

### [23:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjSBNNnxBY&t=1395s) A final word on why you must stop disappearing

shrinking. Because every time that you hold back, let your nervous system silence you, someone else take up the space that you earned, you're teaching people how to treat you. This is not about becoming louder or more aggressive. This is about becoming calmer, clearer, and more grounded. Breathwork gives you the regulation. Intuition gives the direction. And projection gives you the presence. And when you practice all three, you become the anchor in the room. You become the person that people trust, that people remember, and ultimately people promote. Be sure to type the word confident in the comments down below for the free guide, and watch this video next on how to communicate more confidently at work.

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*Источник: https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/49960*