Speak Up: Develop Your Executive Presence & Leadership Communication Style

Access your Executive Meeting Visibility Guide.

The 7-Minute Rule That Makes You More Visible in Executive Meetings

The executive meeting on your calendar may do more to shape your career than the presentation you spent three weeks perfecting. While everyone discusses the agenda, senior leaders are also noticing who has judgment, who can handle pressure, and who belongs in the next room.

For many high-performing introvert leaders, the hardest contribution is the first one. The longer you wait, the more room you give overthinking to take control—and the greater the chance that someone else will say the idea you were still rehearsing.

In this first episode of the five-day Q4 Visibility Challenge, Laura introduces the 7-Minute Rule: contribute something useful within the first seven minutes of an important meeting.

By the end of today’s episode you’ll know:

💰How to enter the conversation without forcing a brilliant insight

🧩Use the phrase “What I like about that is…” to add value rather than empty agreement

🎯Prepare one question or observation before the meeting begins

Speaking early makes the next contribution easier and gives senior leaders visible evidence of how you think.

Choose one important meeting this week. Prepare one useful contribution and deliver it within the first seven minutes. Then record what happened in your Executive Meeting Visibility Guide. Continue with Day 2 to make sure executives hear your best idea without having to dig for it.

To learn more visit www.speakupwithlaura.com. New Speak Up podcast episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday early in the morning.

The Speak Up Podcast helps high-performing professionals develop executive presence through strategic communication, executive confidence, and leadership influence. Each episode provides practical strategies to help you speak up in meetings, communicate with senior leaders, present ideas with clarity, build executive visibility, strengthen your leadership presence, influence without authority, stop overexplaining, answer difficult questions with confidence, and become a trusted executive leader.

Whether you're preparing for your next Vice President promotion or looking to communicate with greater credibility and gravitas, you'll learn actionable executive communication skills that accelerate career growth.

Topics covered in this episode:
Speaking up in executive meetings
Executive Presence
High-stakes conversations
Business leadership communication
Executive Presence Tips
Senior Leader Advice
How to speak up in executive meetings
How to communicate with senior leadership
How to develop executive presence
How to be seen as VP material
How to influence executives
How to stop overexplaining at work
How to answer executive questions concisely
How to handle pushback from senior leaders
How to increase visibility with leadership
Director-to-VP transition

Know Your Own Executive Presence Strengths & Opportunities:
Click here to pinpoint the specific area in your executive presence that’s keeping you invisible to senior leadership and guarantees you stay working hard as a pack mule who never gets promoted.

What if trying to always be right is actually weakening your executive presence?

For high-performing leaders, admitting you made the wrong call can feel risky. You may worry that reversing a recommendation, acknowledging a flawed assumption, or admitting someone else saw the situation more clearly will cause people to question your judgment. But executive presence isn’t about being infallible—it’s about how you respond when reality proves you wrong.

In this episode, Laura examines Chamath Palihapitiya’s public reflections on his mistakes during the SPAC boom to reveal what owning a mistake can teach us about authority, trust, and leadership.

By the end of this episode you’ll know:

🎯How to separate a bad decision from your identity so you stop hiding behind explanations and excuses.

🔥How to transform admitting a mistake into top value for your company.

4️⃣A simple four-part framework for communicating a changed recommendation.

Play the episode to learn how to admit when you’re wrong, revise your thinking with confidence, and turn mistakes into evidence of stronger executive leadership.

Access the Executive Presence Scorecard assessment here.

To learn more visit www.speakupwithlaura.com. New Speak Up podcast episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday early in the morning.

Sources and production notes:
Chamath’s statements about his SPAC incentives, insecurity and redesigned incentive structure: OfficeChai’s coverage of his June 2026 Axios interview.
The original interview and its framing of the SPAC chapter as the biggest “blemish” on his record: The Axios Show.
Leadership research: Jia Hu, Shuxia Zhang, Robert B. Lount Jr. and Bennett J. Tepper, “When leaders heed the lessons of mistakes,” Personnel Psychology (2024): research paper.

The Speak Up Podcast helps high-performing professionals develop executive presence through strategic communication, executive confidence, and leadership influence. Each episode provides practical strategies to help you speak up in meetings, communicate with senior leaders, present ideas with clarity, build executive visibility, strengthen your leadership presence, influence without authority, stop overexplaining, answer difficult questions with confidence, and become a trusted executive leader.

Whether you're preparing for your next Vice President promotion or looking to communicate with greater credibility and gravitas, you'll learn actionable executive communication skills that accelerate career growth.

Topics covered in this episode:
How to admit you’re wrong without losing authority
Executive presence when making mistakes
How admitting mistakes can strengthen leadership credibility
How to change your mind without appearing indecisive
How to reverse a recommendation with confidence
Why defensiveness can damage leadership trust
How leaders can take ownership of bad decisions
How to explain why a decision failed without making excuses
The difference between confidence and executive presence
How to communicate a change in strategy to your team
How leader humility encourages team voice and learning
How to create a culture where employees speak up about problems
How to demonstrate intellectual flexibility as a leader
The relationship between executive presence, trust, and accountability
What leaders can learn from Chamath Palihapitiya’s SPAC experience

Know Your Own Executive Presence Strengths & Opportunities:
Click here to pinpoint the specific area in your executive presence that’s keeping you invisible to senior leadership and guarantees you stay working hard as a pack mule who never gets promoted.

What if the secret to becoming more influential at work isn’t talking more—but learning how to listen like a hostage negotiator?

Whether you’re asking for more resources, pushing back on a senior leader, dealing with an attack in a meeting, or negotiating for something you need, your ability to stay composed and understand the other person can completely change the conversation.

In this episode of The Speak Up Show, former Las Vegas police officer and Black Swan communication expert Annette Mullin shares lessons from 24 years in law enforcement, including her experience in investigations and crisis negotiation. She explains how tactical empathy, curiosity, preparation, and deliberate listening can help you navigate difficult conversations without becoming aggressive—or backing down.

In today’s episode with Annette Mullin you’ll discover how to:

👂Listen for someone’s internal logic and emotions so you can understand what’s really driving their behavior and build greater influence.

🔑 Stay calm when you’re challenged or attacked by using tactical breathing, curiosity, labeling, silence, and a controlled tone.

🧲Prepare for important negotiations through low-stakes practice, crisis rehearsal, and techniques such as labels, mirrors, dynamic silence, and summaries.

Play the episode to learn how to turn high-pressure conversations into opportunities to build trust, strengthen your leadership reputation, and negotiate with greater confidence.

Access the Executive Presence Scorecard assessment here.

About our guest:
Annette Mullin retired from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) in August 2021, concluding a 24-year career in law enforcement. Throughout her tenure, Annette specialized in Violent Crimes against Persons, dedicating over 20 years to various roles including Criminal Intelligence, Sexual Assault/Abuse, Abuse/Neglect, Internal Affairs, Force Investigations, and Homicide.
During her time with the LVMPD, Annette served as a Crisis Negotiator for nine years and led the Crisis Negotiation Team (CNT) for two years. In 2018, she was promoted to the rank of Director and spearheaded the Police Employee Assistance Program, providing health and wellness resources to LVMPD employees and their families.
Annette has also made significant contributions to education, teaching Sexual Assault Prevention, Sex Trafficking Investigations and Domestic Violence Prevention both locally and internationally, with engagements as far-reaching as Vietnam and Budapest.

To learn more visit www.speakupwithlaura.com. New Speak Up podcast episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday early in the morning.

The Speak Up Podcast helps high-performing professionals develop executive presence through strategic communication, executive confidence, and leadership influence. Each episode provides practical strategies to help you speak up in meetings, communicate with senior leaders, present ideas with clarity, build executive visibility, strengthen your leadership presence, influence without authority, stop overexplaining, answer difficult questions with confidence, and become a trusted executive leader.

Whether you're preparing for your next Vice President promotion or looking to communicate with greater credibility and gravitas, you'll learn actionable executive communication skills that accelerate career growth.

Topics covered in this episode:
How tactical empathy improves workplace communication and negotiation
The five levels of listening and how to practice empathetic listening
How active listening builds trust and influence with senior leaders
How to uncover someone’s internal logic and emotional motivations
How to push back respectfully when someone has more power
How to make someone feel heard without agreeing with them
How to stay composed when attacked in a meeting
How tactical breathing helps leaders regulate stress in real time
How tone, cadence, and silence de-escalate workplace conflict
How to use labels to address emotions and difficult behavior
Four essential negotiation tools: labels, mirrors, dynamic silence, and summaries
How curiosity reduces defensiveness, judgment, and assumptions
How accusation audits prepare leaders for objections
How to negotiate for resources, headcount, compensation, and executive attention
How crisis rehearsal and role-play prepare leaders for high-stakes negotiations

Are you Director or Above Who Wants Faster Promotions, More Influence, and Stronger Executive Presence?

Book a confidential Executive Presence Strategy Call to discover the communication patterns that help high performers get seen as senior leaders.
👉 Book Your Executive Strategy Call here

You can be the person doing the most important work in the room—and still be the person leadership forgets to invite into it.

And if that's happening to you, doing even better work probably isn't going to fix it.

You can be highly respected, trusted for your expertise, and responsible for strategically important work while still being excluded from the executive conversations that shape your next career opportunity. The problem may not be that you need to work harder or become more visible. It may be that senior leaders are experiencing you as the expert who executes the work rather than the executive-level resource they want helping them make the decision.

In this episode, you'll discover:

🧩Why being respected for your expertise does not automatically make senior leaders see you as executive material

🚫Why “I just need more visibility” is probably the wrong diagnosis

🪝What has to change if you want executives to start thinking, “We need her/him in this conversation.”

Play the episode to learn how to shift from being the expert executives know about to the strategic resource they believe they need in the room.

👉 Book Your Executive Strategy Call here.

To learn more visit www.speakupwithlaura.com. New Speak Up podcast episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday early in the morning.

The Speak Up Podcast helps high-performing professionals develop executive presence through strategic communication, executive confidence, and leadership influence. Each episode provides practical strategies to help you speak up in meetings, communicate with senior leaders, present ideas with clarity, build executive visibility, strengthen your leadership presence, influence without authority, stop overexplaining, answer difficult questions with confidence, and become a trusted executive leader.

Whether you're preparing for your next Vice President promotion or looking to communicate with greater credibility and gravitas, you'll learn actionable executive communication skills that accelerate career growth.

Topics covered in this episode:
How to develop executive presence
How to communicate with senior executives
How to communicate like an executive
How to get noticed by senior leadership
How to get invited to executive meetings
How to move from Director to VP
Why high performers get overlooked for promotion
How to demonstrate executive readiness
How to be seen as a strategic leader
How to stop being seen as only the technical expert
How to transition from technical expert to strategic leader
How to build executive visibility
How to communicate business impact to executives
How to build influence with senior stakeholders
How to become a trusted advisor to executives

Know Your Own Executive Presence Strengths & Opportunities:
Click here to pinpoint the specific area in your executive presence that’s keeping you invisible to senior leadership and guarantees you stay working hard as a pack mule who never gets promoted.

With only 97 days remaining in 2026, working harder probably won’t change that story. You need one unmistakable piece of new evidence. Today I give you 5 options to develop that evidence and multiply your influence.

In this Fun Friday episode, Laura shares five unexpected, research-supported moves that can change how senior leadership perceives you before year-end. From adopting a signature color and organizing a strategic lunch to recognizing overlooked talent, recommending what the organization should stop doing and claiming a problem nobody owns, each move communicates a different kind of leadership value.

By the end of this episode you’ll know:

🪝Create recognition through consistency. Learn how a distinctive visual or audio signal can make your leadership presence more memorable
🎉Demonstrate leadership by creating value for others. Use purposeful gatherings and meaningful recognition to become known as someone who connects people, develops talent and strengthens collaboration
💰Replace greater output with stronger judgment. Discover how eliminating low-value work or claiming an overlooked organizational problem can position you as an enterprise-minded executive

As of the release day of this episode, You have 97 days left in 2026.

That is 97 days to change how leadership sees you.

Access the Executive Presence Scorecard assessment here.

Studies cited in this episode:
Research on enclothed cognition
Workplace commensality study
Employee-recognition field experiment
Nature study on overlooking subtraction

To learn more visit www.speakupwithlaura.com. New Speak Up podcast episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday early in the morning.

This episode explores how executive presence, leadership visibility, and a memorable personal brand at work shape your leadership reputation and career advancement. Discover a practical Q4 career strategy for high-performing introverts who want to strengthen their executive leadership skills, workplace influence, professional visibility, cross-functional leadership, executive decision-making, and strategic thinking. You’ll also learn how employee recognition and intentional leadership development can change leadership perception—and how to get noticed by senior leadership for the right reasons.

Topics covered in this episode:
How to change leadership’s perception of you
Five high-ROI executive-presence moves
Using enclothed cognition and signature clothing at work
How consistent visual signals increase memorability
Organizing a cross-functional leadership lunch
The relationship between shared meals and team performance
Using employee awards to make invisible contributions visible
How specific recognition influences workplace performance
Why leaders overlook subtractive solutions
Creating a strategic stop-doing recommendation
Demonstrating executive judgment through prioritization
Identifying problems that fall between organizational silos
Taking charge without becoming the team’s permanent fixer
Moving from individual contributor to enterprise leader
Building leadership visibility without bragging
Choosing a Q4 action that changes your professional reputation