Habits and Hustle
Episode 427: Lisa Nichols: The Art and Science of Impactful Communication + Audience Connection Techniques
Tue, 25 Feb 2025
What does it take to be an unforgettable speaker who makes a lasting impact? In this Habits and Hustle podcast episode, I am joined by renowned transformational speaker Lisa Nichols who generously shares her hard-earned insights on the art and science of captivating communication. From the "audience connection formula" to the power of "verbal highlights," Lisa breaks down practical techniques that anyone can start using today to become a more effective and inspiring communicator. We discuss the importance of authentic storytelling and explain how to "scoop" the audience, bridging your message to their life experiences. Lisa also opens up about her own incredible journey from struggling single mom to influential speaker, including the health challenges she's faced along the way. Lisa Nichols is one of the world’s most-requested motivational speakers, as well as media personality and corporate CEO, whose global platform has reached and served nearly 80 million people. From a struggling single mom on public assistance to a millionaire entrepreneur, Lisa’s courage and determination has inspired fans worldwide and helped countless audiences break through, to discover their own untapped talents and infinite potential. What We Discuss: (00:00) Becoming Unrecognizable Through Life's Challenges (09:22) Discovering Authenticity and Overcoming Challenges (19:02) Transforming Into Unforgettable Movement Maker (35:08) Navigating Hope Through Life's Challenges (50:53) Crafting Unforgettable Speaking Skills (54:21) Mastering Audience Connection and Techniques (01:07:54) Unlocking the Power of Storytelling (01:16:42) Legacy Years (01:27:18) Mastering Speaking Techniques and Keynotes (01:33:23) Unpacking Storytelling Techniques for Impact (01:44:03) Mastering Art and Science of Speaking (01:49:44) Journey to Unforgettable Impact (01:59:15) Navigating Personal Growth and Development …and more! Thank you to our sponsors: AquaTru: Get 20% off any purifier at aquatru.com with code HUSTLE Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. BiOptimizers: Want to try Magnesium Breakthrough? Go to https://bioptimizers.com/jennifercohen and use promo code JC10 at checkout to save 10% off your purchase. Timeline Nutrition: Get 10% off your first order at timeline.com/cohen Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Bio.me: Link to daily prebiotic fiber here, code Jennifer20 for 20% off. Momentous: Shop this link and use code Jen for 20% off Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Find more from Lisa Nichols: Website: https://motivatingthemasses.com/ Books: https://www.instagram.com/lisa2motivate
Chapter 1: Who is Lisa Nichols and what makes her an impactful speaker?
So today on the podcast, we have the incredible Lisa Nichols. You guys, I am not kidding you. This woman, when she speaks, it is next level. You really are. Thank you. The word motivational speaker is such an overused, stupid hashtag. Thank you. It's horrible. Thank you. I hate using it. I hate saying it. I hate these like trendy hashtaggy words. Right.
But like, I don't even know the euphemism to describe what you talk about because I can go through and I don't ever do this. But the reason why I even like was so like adamant to get Lisa on this show.
And thank you for your persistency.
Like, how can I not be? It's because whenever I saw like randomly one time I was on YouTube and something that you did showed up just randomly and it was so powerful and so good. It was this clip that you were talking about, like someone's perception of you. Ain't none of your business. Is none of your business. And that I was like, wow.
And the way it's not even what you said, it's how you said it was so powerful.
The conviction.
The conviction is. The tone, the body language, everything about your speaking just like hooked me. And I went down that rabbit hole about you. And I'm like, oh my God, I need to meet this woman because she is like literally the real deal. Because in a world, and you know this. I do. Most people are not the real deal. There's zero authenticity in a world that's supposed to be authentic right now.
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Chapter 2: How did Lisa Nichols overcome personal challenges to succeed?
They market well. It's all marketing. They market well. But there's like no substance and there's no depth at all. Yeah. So, which is why I'm so happy you're on the show.
Everyone's snorkeling and you want to scuba dive.
Again, another – you should just write a book of great analogies. Yeah. So this before we even go into anything, like have you always had this gift of wordsmithing and creating these super impactful ways to resonate and impact people?
No. I needed to discover Lisa first. First of all, I just have to start and pay homage to you.
No.
Thank you for showing up, searching for authenticity. Thank you for being hungry for something deeper than surface. Because it allows us unicorns to find each other and go... okay, oxygen, you know, water, realness. So thank you because it gets lonely in the universe and amongst, you know, I always say, listen, I woke up a unicorn.
I just take my horn off and act like a horse so y'all don't feel so uncomfortable in my presence. And so when you get around another unicorn, you're like, oh, okay, hold on. Let me screw my horn back on so we can just sit and have a real conversation. So no, I wasn't always that. What you resonate with is the awareness of the work I had to do.
to get to my level of certainty, because you know you've been on that journey yourself. And so it's the, we have a soul connection of similarity that we haven't talked about yet. It's a natural draw. It's the pheromones of authenticity. It's just that thing thing, right? And so I can't say I've always been this way because I was busy trying to at one point get my own oxygen.
I was busy at one point trying to affirm that I was worthy of having a message like the one you saw, even in my mocha skin with my full lips and my round hips and my kinky hair in a world that didn't say I was beautiful. I had to discover and accept me and then give myself permission to have a voice of value. That was a journey.
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Chapter 3: What are Lisa Nichols' techniques for captivating communication?
Because I still had all my self-doubt. I still am dealing with the fact that at 25, I discovered that I'm functionally dyslexic. So my 12 years in school was hell. I bet. So I wasn't building on this great self-esteem experience. My math teacher at Dorsey High School gave me a D to pass me in math because he said I was nice. I took the D. Thank you very much. That's how much I struggle.
So here I am academically struggling my entire life, not knowing that I'm flipping all my words. So I'm not building this on, I see a gift in me. My first year, well, let me not mislead you, my first and my last year in college, I got a fail in English. And my English teacher said in front of the entire classroom, Lisa, you have to be the weakest writer I've ever met in my entire life.
And at 19, to me, she was really old. She was like 42. Wow. Right. She was a fossil. That same year, and I'm only telling this so you can understand what I had to climb over. My speech teacher that same year said, Ms. Nichols, quote unquote, I recommend you never speak in public, that you get a desk job, and gave me a D. Wow. So I didn't see, because I kept saying, I can't be this good.
And so as I began to open up, I went to this conference, and I'm at this conference, and I'm sharing a poem with someone. And the CEO of the conference is standing with an earshot and looks at me, a woman. She says, would you like to share that poem on stage? And I said, yes. And I shared the poem on stage. Now, mind you, there are 800 people in the audience. 760 at least are older white men.
My scary person for me. Older white men represented the educational system that wasn't kind to me and the justice system that wasn't kind to me or anyone I knew. So I'm in front of my scary, hairy person. And I do the poem. And I see people doing this, and I see a lot of this. And I wonder, what's falling from the sky? Like, what is happening? Only to find out later, those were tears.
First sign of the superpower. Then Jack Canfield comes to this event, and he sees it. And he begins to tell me, you got a gift. And I would not accept it. I can't tell you how long it took me to accept the fact that this was worthy of focusing on so that I can help you. My gift can be your skill set. It took me years.
I was at dinner once with Jack and he said, I wish I could know that I can inspire people the way you do. I said, oh, Jack. He goes, no, no, no, Lisa. I'd give my pinky finger to know I can do what you do versus wondering if I'm doing it. And I went, really? He goes, I would. And so I went in a cave and I said, God, show me what I'm doing because I don't want to die with this in my belly.
I don't want to be the only one to move and inspire people to be unforgettable. I'm not, I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I don't want to be an anomaly. There's no, to me, there's no grandioso in being an anomaly. I think that what I do, as many of us as possible should be doing it. Because quite frankly, I'm bored with everyone intellectually trying to tell me what they know.
But no one's moving my soul. Stir my soul. Expand my diaphragm. Take my breath away. Make me want to stand on my tippy toes when you finish speaking. I wanted to give that. And so to answer your question, I went away and I began to look at what I was doing every single time. Nothing was planned, but what was I doing? And then quite honestly, I looked at Nelson Mandela.
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Chapter 4: How can self-reflection improve your communication skills?
When they're really like hopeless, like I know a lot of people who are like in the outside they seem great, right? But they have no hope because they feel trapped. They feel stuck. They don't have the means and they don't think they have the means. They don't think they have the support to kind of get out of their own way until they stay doing something that they don't want to be doing. Yeah.
And, you know, it takes somebody who has a lot of self-worth, not self-confidence. Self-confidence is very different than self-worth. You can have self-confidence and be confident in one thing, but have really bad self-worth. Yeah, yeah. Let your life just kind of flail. So I think that to me is, you know, I don't know.
When people feel hopeless, I think that's when people really kind of go down a bad place. Yeah. So how do you inspire people to feel like, A, that it's not over till it's over, that they're not alone, that this is just chapter five in a chapter book that's 30 chapters. Yeah. Like all the things that you've done.
Yeah. I appreciate that question because I think you're reflecting on what my whole life has been. Right. Thank you. I just did a one-woman show on Broadway. Yeah, it's crazy. You did? I did. I know. It's the best-kept secret. When? In December of 2024. It was a sold-out show. 690 seats, not one seat open in the house. It was on Broadway. By the way, I never...
ever even have on any vision board that I'd be doing a one-woman show on Broadway.
Wow.
And I only say this to share that during that show, I told the stories. You would enjoy it. I may tell you about when I'm doing it again. Because it was storytelling. All I did was just theatrically told one story after another on the journey of Lisa. And I was able to full-on live in the theatrical world.
Yeah.
For the first time. I've never done that before. So freaking cool. I bet it was excellent. So freaking cool. Like, I was a little girl. But I say that to say, when I look at that, I look back at, it was just a journey of constantly keeping hope, giving hope, keeping hope, giving hope. So the reason why you make me think about that, because I was like, what was...
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Chapter 5: What is the 'Audience Connection Formula' and how does it work?
Bottom of your belly is, because abundance is your birthright. That's non-negotiable. You see the power?
Yeah.
Abundance is my damn birthright. Right? Like you feel it.
Okay, so give me an example of when you've done that. Because I mean, I've seen so many of your videos, right?
Yeah. Did you see me on the stage at Agape? I'm in the black dress. And I'm like, my English teacher told me.
Yeah, that's what I told you.
And I said, but other people's perception of you.
That was the one I said to you. Ain't none of your business. But I don't have, forget about me. People like don't have that flair, right? Like this is what makes you you, right? You're right. But you gave the story, like this is a couple things. You know how to pull stories. Like again, when you ask me and you can ask a million other people, they won't even know stories.
Like they've had a lot of life experiences, but they don't even know how to like extract them from themselves.
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Chapter 6: How does Lisa Nichols' personal story inspire others?
For a moment, I forgot. I'm going to be honest. For a moment, I'm looking at the good old boys. They're all wildly successful. And I'm going, you peon, you should be doing what they're doing so you can have what they have. So I go next to Jack, who Jack has always been my binky.
Yeah.
And he's always been my binky. And I'm like, Jack, I really should have a PowerPoint, shouldn't I? And I freak out and drive my assistant crazy. I'm like... Write something down. Give me something on paper. She's like, what? I'm like, the conversion rate from the Canadian dollar to the U.S.? I don't know. Write something down. And she writes down the conversion rate. I'm just freaking out.
I completely lose my core of confidence. And I go out on stage and I just start talking and I do my thing. And at the end of my speech, I get a roaring five minute standing ovation, like roaring. And as I'm walking off stage, Jack's walking up because he comes after me and he goes, don't you ever. Like he was like pissed. Don't you ever talk about needing a PowerPoint again.
And at the end of the night, we all have dinner together, and Bob Proctor comes over to me, and he says, I've never seen you speak, young lady, because I'm just trying to get into the club. I said, yeah, I've seen you speak. You're amazing. He goes, no, no, no. I'm good. You're amazing. I took four pages of notes. He goes, but you have a being. There's a being in your belly. A being.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He goes, and you offer your being to the audience. Bottle that up. That's what you're going to get paid for. It went on about the night. When I tell you every speaker I've ever admired... Because I'm young in the game. Like, not so much now, but back then. You go back to 2006, I was the youngest person by 10, 15 years. They had all been established.
I'm literally putting my credit card on hotels saying, run it for one night. at a time, like real talk. I'm there for five nights, but I'm like, don't run all five nights. It was very bootstrapped. Everywhere I went though, the speakers would look back and go, wow, do you know the torment that came with? I will go back to my room and I cry and go, what is it?
Because I don't know how to bottle it up and sell it. I don't know how to offer it. What are they seeing? First, I didn't know what they were seeing. And then I didn't know how to contain it. Then I didn't know how to articulate it. Then I didn't know how to shape it. Then I didn't know how to serve it to you the way I just said, do this technique. I didn't even know.
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