Finding Your Voice & Purpose – Trang Nova’s Inspiring Journey + Powerful Speaking Tips

0:02 Well, TR, thank you so much for coming on our podcast. I really appreciate it. Daniel, thank you so much for having me. I’m stoked to be here and to continue the conversation that we had from late last year when we did the summit. Absolutely. I really loved uh you as a guest speaker on the summit. So, um thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Uh I think most of the people in this audience don’t know who you are. Can you maybe give them a little bit context so they can better understand like Yeah, absolutely. Well, hello everyone who is listening. Thank you for tuning in. My name is Trang Nova and I am a speaker and speaking coach focusing on helping entrepreneurs to harness the power of their voice so that you can speak with confident authority and be recognized as a visible leader in and out of your business. Um, I’m sure we’ll dig into my story in a moment, but I have lived multiple lifetimes and tried out different careers and experienced many adventures in my time that have led me to where I am today. But I am so happy and I am so in love with what I get to do now.

1:15 Fantastic. So, yeah. How did you get to become like a speaker? Is that something you always strive to be? Not at all. Not at all. And I’m sure you could probably resonate. Life is such a journey that takes you on unexpected twists and turns. For me, I I’m Australian. If you can’t already tell from my accent, I’m Australian and I was born here to Vietnamese immigrant parents, meaning that I grew up speaking Vietnamese, not English. So when I was at school, I was that kid sitting in the corner on my own surrounded by other kids playing in what seems like an alien language. And there is no way I would have expected to be teaching people how to speak and to amplify their voice in English now. Um, but yeah, growing up because of the traditional Vietnamese upbringing and because my parents came from war and poverty, the career options presented to me were to become a doctor, a lawyer or a disappointment. And because I was quite sporty, I met them in the middle and I graduated uni as a physiootherapist. So over there we you you would call it physical therapist. and I worked as a physiootherapist for a few years until I went into this quarter life crisis. Um I was 24 years old. I’d been practicing for a few years. I was generally doing well. I was comfortable. I was, you know, successful. But then I was looking down the barrel of working between these four walls, having patients come in, out, in, out every 20 minutes for another four decades. And I thought I I I thought I think there’s something out there for me that I need to step into. There’s more that I could become, more that I can do. So I decided that I wanted to work with people more

3:10 comprehensively uh not just as athletes but as human beings. And that’s when I started my very first business as a life and mindset coach. So this was years ago. This was back in 2018. I started this business as a life and mindset coach and I started to get the most beautiful feedback from people working with them in this capacity. People would say to me, "Trang, you’ve changed my life." Or, "Trang, working with you has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. If it weren’t for you, there is no way that I would be here now." And I started to see how much I could touch these people, how much I could help them change the entire trajectory of their life. And I decided that this was it. This was my calling. So I left physiootherapy behind and I went all in on my business. And over the years as I started to build the business and I started to travel. I’ve traveled a lot. People asked me Tr how did you do it? You know, how did you build your business and can you share with us your secrets and how how it’s done? So I actually then started to expand my coaching into business coaching because I saw it as one it was something that I was good at and two business owners you know you would understand this Daniel business owners have so much capacity to spread their movements and their mission through their business. And I was like you could have so much impact and touch communities of people in your world that I would never be able to touch otherwise. So I saw working with business owners as a way to expand my impact even more. So I went into business coaching, did that for a few years and over these many chapters of my life of the different work that I did, I started to see that there was a common

5:01 thread, there was one greatest strength throughout all of these chapters, and that was my ability to move people through my voice. my ability to move them to take action, whether it’s to run a marathon or to build their business, to double their business or to speak in front of a thousand people. Like my energy and my voice had so much power that made me good at all these things that I did. So I decided to go all in on my superpower and that’s when I went into uh speaking coaching and speaking helping people to amplify their voice to lead powerful movements with their voice to fulfill their potential with their voice because I really do believe that in business and in our life we cannot escape speaking. Speaking is is a crucial part of our everyday life that allows us to negotiate any reality that we want to get the results that we want to build the relationships that we want to achieve the success that we want to be able to h uh impart our message and to create an impact that comes from our voice. If we look at the most powerful leaders in history who’ve changed the world, they’ve used their voice to speak with complete conviction, with raw emotion, with courage to lead these movements to change the world. So I decided that this was my calling. And ever since I have gone all in on speaking, coaching and and speaking, it has just lit up my world. It’s it’s what I’m made for. And I love seeing more people use their voice, more

6:54 people spreading their purpose and leading to humanity, spreading a greater purpose. And then ultimately, I really do believe that that’s going to change our world and our future for future generations. Well, thank you, Train, for sharing all of that. Um, that sounds like such an amazing story. Like when I talk to you now, do you come across as somebody really self-confident? Um first of all, like always like that self-confident as you are now. And like what about people like you know there’s a lot of people that I talk to that um want to speak but they’re either shy or like I meet a lot of people that they have a fear of being seen, fear of being heard. Yes. Like how how do you like overcome that? That’s a really great question, Daniel. And it’s one that is very very relevant. I think we all resonate with feeling self-doubt, you know, feeling imposter syndrome, not being sure uh if we want to be seen and heard and at the risk of judgment or hate. There are so many different angles that I could come at this from and there’s I could talk about this for hours and hours, but I’d like to actually share a a quick story to highlight this. So a few years ago just after co I remember I was doing a talk and this talk was live but also being live streamed because at that time people were still hesitant to leave their homes and halfway through this talk I had said something important so I paused to let that point land. In that moment, someone who was on the live stream, who thought they were on mute but weren’t, said out loud, "Oh, what a load of

8:45 bullshit." I died. The whole audience heard it. The organizer of the talk was sitting at the back of the room and he was running to the front of the room to try and desperately mute this thing. And in that moment, I wanted to disappear and never be seen again. I started to rush through the slides. I was panicking. I was skipping through slides just to get to the end faster and get out of there. And when I drove home that night, I I couldn’t help but cry. Like I was sobbing in the car because I felt humiliated. I felt awful. I I thought maybe this pathway, maybe speaking is not meant for me. You know, maybe I’m not cut out for this. But you know what? 3 days later, I received a message from someone else in the crowd at that talk. And she messaged me saying how much she loved my talk and how there was this particular thing that I had said that she needed to hear right in that moment. And it had shifted so much for her just from those last three days that she heard me say it. And that made me realize that we can be changing lives. We can be someone. We could be someone’s savior in a particular moment, right? Whether you’re a speaker, whether you’re a business owner, a coach, whatever it is that you do, you could be exactly what people need. And at the same time, there’s always going to be someone who doesn’t like your content, who doesn’t like what you have to say, and there’s always going to be haters. But what I say is for every hater that exists, for every person who judges you, there’s going to be another 10 who are going to be inspired by you. And where the hater

10:40 is going to judge, they’re not going to give you anything. They’re not going to pay you. They’re not going to fund your next holiday to the Moldes. So they are irrelevant. What about the 10 people who you are going to inspire, who you are going to change their life, who are going to love you and be loyal fans to you. They’re the ones who you need to focus on and serve. So what I say in overcoming fear of judgment, in stepping into more confidence is this. Focus on those who do need you. take the locus of attention away from oh you know what do people think of me are people going to judge me am I going to get cancelled if I say the wrong thing don’t don’t focus on that focus on those who do love you and you are going to inspire because the whole thing about lack of confidence is because we are overly focused on one thing we’re overly focused on ourselves we’re in our heads oh what are people going to think of me are people going to judge And of course, we’re going to feel nervous. We’re going to feel nervous to speak up. We’re going to feel nervous to speak our truth because there is our e our ego, our entire identity on the line. So, we’re going to feel nervous because we’re in our own heads. But when we shift that locus of attention onto those who we can help, on the audience we’re going to serve, on our message that we are going to share, then what is there to lose anymore? like our there’s nothing on the line anymore. There’s only something that we can give. There’s only a gift that we get to give. And there is actually a saying that I always repeat to myself before a talk or before even a a podcast recording that helps me overcome nervousness and feel more confident in my performance. And this is

12:36 the saying, your talk is not a performance to be judged. It is a gift that you get to give. And that is a saying by Lance Orred. He’s a TEDex speaker. He’s the very first um deaf NBA player. And that saying, your performance is not to be judged. You’re sorry, your talk is not a performance to be judged. It is a gift that you get to give. Like what is there to be nervous about anymore? You get to be the one who gives and gets to help. So that puts you in a place where you feel differently about what you’re about to do. You know, you feel more confident. You feel more excited and more drawn towards going in there and doing your best because there is nothing to lose. Well, that’s really amazing. I love that reframe and thank you for sharing that uh quote by Audrey. That’s really amazing. I never heard of that before and that’s definitely a great way of shifting people’s thinking because I may try that myself cuz sometimes I get numbers when I speak either on a podcast or in front of an audience. So just thinking that it’s a gift and not something that you know that really changes the game like the whole mindset about speaking that’s really amazing. Yeah. I wanted to ask you also is like there’s a lot of people out there that don’t like their jobs. They’re confused about their career, you know, they they they they want to do something else. How do they how do they know if speaking is right for them? When it comes to speaking, this is what I say. You You don’t have to be a speaker on stages in front of a thousand people to be considered a speaker. Because no matter what you do, whether

14:28 you’re a teacher and you teach students, you’re a coach and you coach your clients, whether you are a mother and you’re raising your children, um a father raising your children, you’re a friend who reassures your friend over a heartbreak, whether you are a leader who has team members, whatever it is that you do, do you need to open up your mouth and speak to people and the answer should be yes. So anytime that you open up your mouth and speak to people then you are a speaker because in that moment the way that you speak has the power to completely touch the other person in one way or another. If you deliver what it is that you’re about to deliver well then you could inspire the other person. You could educate the other person. You could inform the other person, you could influence the other person in a really great way, but if you open up your mouth and you’re in your own head, you’re thinking about yourself or you’re in a bad mood and you’re not really talking clearly or you uh you don’t have the skills to be able to speak and to deliver your message with um clear articulation and with confidence, then your message and your influence will be stunted. And not only that, but your entire image will be impacted as well.

15:58 So, everyone needs to speak and that’s how I see it. You know, you don’t even need to be a speaker on stages to improve your skill of speaking. Let me let me show you a quick story actually. So, recently I had the honor of watching one of my friends present his thesis for his PhD in astrophysics at Harvard University. very intelligent man. And as I watched the replay, there was this older man who got up at the start to introduce my friend. I watched this older man speak and introduce my friend. And I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him because he seemed so nervous. He didn’t look comfortable. His speaking tone was uncertain. And he he had filler words every 10 seconds. I’m not even exaggerating. you know, every few words he would have an um uh uh and I texted my friend and I asked him, "Who was that who introduced you? Was that your supervisor? Cuz he seems really sweet." And my friend replied saying, "Huh, funny you call him sweet like he’s a gentle old man. You know, he’s the chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University. He is a professor of astrophysics.

17:15 He is one of the most famous cosmologists in the world and the smartest man that I know. And I laughed cuz I was like, don’t blame me. You know, I had a twominute impression of this man and that’s what I saw. So that’s the point. You could be the most knowledgeable or brilliant person in your field. You could be the most passionate entrepreneur, the most visionary um entrepreneur out there. But if you can’t confidently and clearly communicate your ideas to others, then you will only ever be perceived at the level of your ability to communicate. How others will perceive you is going to be capped by your ability to communicate. So that’s why I believe that speaking is such a core skill especially if you are an entrepreneur especially if you are in any field of work that you need to speak to people even if it’s not on a stage and you can’t escape it because sooner or later you’re going to need to use your voice and network to make relationships to make a sale to build um on the relationship that you have to influence team members to negotiate to um discuss a project in a team like whatever it is you’re going to need to use your voice. So that’s what I say to people who maybe not don’t want to be a speaker you can’t escape speaking and even if it’s in your relationships like how many marriages break down due to one thing that is lacking communication. speaking and communication is a core

19:06 part of our life. So that’s that’s my stance. But like you mentioned before like you did a lot of business coaching and now you do a lot of speaking. Do you only work with uh like business owners to improve their speaking or do you work with all different types of people? Like you mentioned like speaking applies to everybody, not just you know entrepreneurs or business owners? Yeah. Well, I I work with a lot of business owners. So soloreneurs, freelancers, coaches in my private coaching. And I’m not I don’t limit my coaching to that. It’s just who I attract because of my community and the years that I’ve spent doing business coaching. So I do work with a lot of entrepreneurs and and soloreneurs, whether it’s one-on-one or in my group program. Um, but the other part of what I do is I do a lot of corporate workshops. So we were talking just before we started recording that I’ve been very very busy this month uh this year actually this month extremely uh and a lot of that is because of corporate gigs and and corporate workshops. So whether it’s an accounting firm, whether it’s an engineer training institute, whether it’s a nonforprofit uh or like a co-working office, I am teaching everyone in that organization from leadership positions all the way to team members and new grads how to amplify their voice and speak with more confidence. So I do work with everyone. I don’t limit it, but generally who gets most attracted to to work with me privately are more entrepreneurs and business owners.

20:50 That’s really interesting. So, like you’ve mentioned you evolved a lot like over the years. If you had to give like your um advice to like your 20-year-old self, what would that be? Oo, I love this question. advice that I would give my 20 yearear-old self, you know, like what I would say to her might be not what people expect because the first thing that comes to my mind is I would say, "Hey, Trang, you’re 20 years old and you’ve got all of these passions and dreams and and goals that you want to achieve, but just remember that you have already made it because at I was doing things that my 18-year-old self dream dreamed of. I was in a beautiful loving relationship. Not in it anymore, but it was loving and beautiful at the time. I was at uni studying physiootherapy, which was my dream, and I worked very hard for that. I was starting my business at the time. So, I had all these things that I was pursuing, but I had already made it because I’d achieved the things that my 18-year-old self dreamt of. And every step along the way, there are always more things that I want to achieve. It’s just part of my personality. And I think you would get it. You’re probably the same, Daniel. Um, but simultaneously, I have already made it. I’ve already achieved the things that I used to. I’m already living the life that I used to dream of. I am already in a position that most people in this world would do anything to have. you know, the fact that I have my health, the fact that I wake I’ve woken up alive, that I still have a future ahead of me. There are millions of people out there who would do anything for one day in my life. So I

22:43 would remind myself that success is actually realizing that even though there are always more goals, realizing that you’ve already made it and you can be content and so happy in your life as it is today while pursuing more. Because I had this realization the um the other month I was sitting on the beach in Bali. I was living there at the time. It was sunset time. The sun was coming down. This the sky was turning pink. And I was sitting over the horizon looking at how incredible my life is right now. And yes, there are more things I want to achieve. I want to build my business more. I want to make more money. I want to have all these milestones, right? But in another 15 years, even when I’ve achieved all of those things, there are things that I have now that I will not have then. In 15 years, I will do anything to have the youth that I have now, to have maybe the health that I have now, maybe the freedom that I have now. You know, I’m unattached. I’m I’m single. I don’t have children. Maybe I will do anything to have the freedom that I have now. So, I have made it. And I think that realization, going through life with that state of mind is the definition of success because we can finally be at peace and be happy every day. Well, that’s so amazing uh that you say that cuz like so many people I talk to complain a lot. You know, I ask people how they’re doing and including myself. I’m probably like the biggest complainer that I Yeah. People always say like, you know, I I should be doing this. I could be doing this or my relationships could be better. I could be making more money or things are getting too expensive or they don’t like what’s going on in politics or the weather or whatever. So that that’s such an amazing like your mindset. So can I

24:36 ask you like how did you get to you know who you are today with like your speaking your mindset? Did you I mean you was just born like a natural speaker and you had this mindset or did you go for like a lot of training? Yeah. Yeah. I can um I definitely want to answer that question. But before I do that, can I even expand on what you said before, Daniel? Yeah. About a lot of people complaining because this is something that I have looked into and I’m not perfect, right? Like there are times where I find myself maybe complaining or wishing for something different. But I think this is such an interesting conversation because I read something the other day that made so much sense and it explained all the reasons why humans we just struggle to stay happy. And I can’t even remember where I read this from, so I apologize because I won’t be able to give the reference, but the the source of this was talking about how as humans, we are wired to be unhappy, which sounds funny because it’s like why are we wired to be unhappy? So, think about happiness, right? Think about the moments where we are most excited or we are most happy. It’s often because we have achieved something or we’ve gained something that we have wanted for a long time. And the longer time that we’ve wanted something and we finally get it, the happier we are. So maybe it’s a car that we’ve wanted, a house that we’ve wanted, a career that we wanted, a business milestone, like whatever it is, or even like a sporting milestone. We’ve finally got abs or we finally hit, you know, 100 kilo squat or something like we’ve achieved something that we have wanted for a while. And that makes us very very happy in that moment. So by default in order for us to be happy, we actually need to be unhappy first. We need to not have the thing in order to get the thing and be happy. So

26:30 we need to go through cycles of not being happy, not being satisfied to then be extremely excited and delighted when we get the thing. And I was like, "Oh my god, this so makes sense." Because how many of us, we achieve milestones? And then we’re like, "Okay, cool. I’m not going to be satisfied with just staying like this. What’s next? What’s the next thing I’m going to pursue? What’s the next thing I’m going to have?" We do this to ourselves because that’s how we are wired. Like we need to go through cycles of being unhappy and happy. So that when I read that, it blew my mind because I was like, "This makes sense." And also we need to then acknowledge that the state of dissatisfaction, the state of wanting more is part of the equation of happiness. If we are feeling dissatisfied because we want more, we’re on the right track. We’re on the right track to happiness because it’s part of the journey. And it makes that uh that makes that moment where we obtain what we want even more satisfying. Um, and like look, this is not easy to achieve, right? You know, when we’re feeling dissatisfied and when we want more, then we it’s sometimes hard to get out of our head and to see it from a different perspective. But like I’ve got certain goals right now like I want to move and I want to have my dream high-rise apartment right in the city of Melbourne. And I don’t have that yet. And I’m finding peace with that within that because I’m like, "Okay, when I do get it and I’m getting closer to it, then I’m going to be so thrilled. I’m going to be so happy because I haven’t had it yet." But if we could all click our fingers and have everything in this world at any moment in time that we want, we’re going to become unhappy because life is going to get boring. I think at least some people might argue

28:24 otherwise, but I think life would get boring cuz there’s nothing else to pursue. like there’s nothing else to get excited by. You have everything that you want. Um, so I thought I’d share that because when I read that my mind was blown. Um, and I don’t know if there’s anything that you want to add to that, Daniel. I can move on to the next question now if if you’d like. Yeah, you can move on to the next question. Yeah. Yeah, sure. So, so to answer the question that you had asked before, Daniel, have I always been a natural speaker? Uh, short answer, no. No way. Hey, a lot of people they look at me now and they’re like, "Oh, TR, you’re such a natural. You’re so confident. You’re you’re so extroverted." And I say, "It looks like that, but it’s not been the case." Like I said before, I grew up speaking Vietnamese, not English. So, in school, I was the kid who didn’t have any friends, who was bullied because I couldn’t speak English. And when I started speaking, I had an accent. I didn’t know how to speak very well.

29:28 And as I grew up, I started to pick up English, so that wasn’t really a problem anymore. But I was still quite introverted. I still am now. I’m just an introvert who talks for a living, and I need a lot of time to recover at night. But I remember in high school when the bell rang for lunch, I would rush from the classroom to my locker before anyone else has even reached their lockers. I could grab my lunch. I could um disappear and eat and study by myself at lunchtime instead of having to sit and talk with people. Like I’ve I’ve always actually been an introvert to that degree. Like I I’m not a natural speaker. I’m I’m not uh an introvert. So I’m not an extrovert. I am an introvert. I’m not an extrovert. Even when I first started my business, I look back at the videos of me speaking and I cringe because I had no idea what I was doing. my speaking. It wasn’t it wasn’t smooth.

30:25 It was awful. So, I look back at those videos and I I’m like, "Okay, kudos to you, Tran. You know, you gave it a shot and you put yourself out there, but I wasn’t good at speaking." And yet now I am a speaking coach. I’m a TEDex speaker. Well, here’s my secret. I’ve simply spent more hours towards my speaking than most people would reasonably expect. And I am talking hundreds of hours practicing my speaking in front of a mirror. I’m talking investing time, energy, and finances into speaking coaching. So, yes, I’ve done coaching. I I’ve attended courses. I’ve gotten one-on-one coaching on not just speaking, but how to structure a a talk, how to write great content, how to be funny. I I’ve done standup comedy. So, I’ve invested time and energy into this skill. And that’s what it is. Speaking is a skill. And just like any skill, whether it’s riding a bike or playing the piano, you don’t have to be born good at it to get good at it.

31:36 anyone can learn, practice, and master a skill to get good at it, even if they’re not born naturally good at it. So, I really do believe that if anyone’s listening to this and they’re they’re not feeling confident that they can become charismatic or a good speaker or a confident speaker, I really encourage you to see it differently because I wasn’t. And a lot of speak even a lot of other speaking coaches out there, they weren’t. They they were introverted, they were awkward, they were shy. But through developing a different mindset and through developing the skill, you can absolutely transform your vocal presence. But what advice can you give to people who may be watching this that are like introverted or shy and they may be like, "Oh, I can never be as good as train." I mean what advice can you give them about how can they start the process of like breaking out of their shell like you know is there kind of like first steps should like be joining Toast Masters right away or should they start watching YouTube or Tik Tok videos or is there a particular book you recommend? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, of course, you know, get some coaching, maybe look at my group programs. Of course, like I would I would recommend that. But you know what? First, what I would say is this. I want you to just start by recording yourself. So before you even read any books or watch any YouTube videos, I want you to look at yourself versus turning your attention externally. Record yourself with your phone speaking for 2 minutes. And you can speak on anything. Maybe you introduce yourself, maybe you share a story, maybe you talk about how your day was. What? Record yourself speaking for 2 minutes and then watch it over. And there are a few things that come out of this one. You get to start

33:33 to see yourself through an external lens. People hate the sound of their voice. They hate how they look in video. Why? Because they are not used to it. How your voice sounds when you are speaking and you are hearing it as you speak is different to when you listen back to it. That’s why people hate the sound of their voice in a podcast or in a video because when you were speaking and you were hearing it, then you were hearing the sound waves like the sound vibrations through your ears but also through the vibrations of your own skull and your own facial muscles. But when you were listening to your voice over a recording, you don’t you hear it in a slightly different way. You’re only hearing it through your ears, not through the vibration of your skull. So it sounds different. And that’s why people hate the sound of their voice. So, if you hate the sound of your voice and if you hate the way that you look, then you’re already going to be very hesitant and very um you know, not not confident to do more speaking, to put yourself out there, to lead meetings, to lead teams, to launch your podcast or your YouTube channel. So, firstly, that’s going to help with that aversion. Secondly, watching over a video of yourself, you get to see things that you didn’t notice while you were speaking.

34:51 Maybe without even uh learning about speaking through YouTube or reading a book, you’re already going to start noticing things about yourself like you already have a certain level of knowledge about speaking. Maybe you look at yourself and you’re like, "Oh my gosh, I say um every 20 seconds." Or maybe you look at yourself and you’re like, "Oh, why are my hands being so awkward and why am I just, you know, keeping them in my pockets or why am I just fiddling with my fingers?" You’ll see these things, right, that you didn’t see before. Or maybe you look back over your video and you notice that you’re looking at the ground instead of looking up into the camera. So, you’ll start to already notice things about yourself. And you can pick out one, two, or three things and start to work on that already without having to even learn anything new. And I really encourage that because people can often use learning as a distraction, as a procrast procrastination method. Oh, I’m going to avoid actually working on my speaking by consuming 40 hours of YouTube content first and then I don’t end up implementing any of it. So I would really recommend start by just recording yourself and then yes of course there are fantastic resources on speaking you know podcasts YouTube videos books on on speaking there are so many out there and you can consume that and you already have plenty of information to go off but also what I say when it comes to speaking as a skill is I really do believe in the power of personal personal personal guidance. And I’m not just saying this because I am a coach and I’m biased. Maybe that’s a little bit of bias, but I have invested tens and tens of thousands on speaking coaches because learning about something is one thing. But then having an expert

36:46 look at the way that you do something and give you that guidance is another. Because you can learn about how to play basketball all you want, but if you go out there and you selfeach basketball, it’s always going to be slower and not as effective as if you had a world-class basketball coach pick up on all of your mistakes straight away and directly tell you what you need to do differently because different people they they do need to work on different speaking components. You know, what you read in a book is going to be general. It’s going to be general advice. But where someone needs to focus on their speaking volume and increase in their projection of their voice, another might need to do the opposite. Where someone needs to speed up their speaking because they currently speak really slow, another may need to slow down their speaking because they currently speak really fast and they don’t give anyone a chance to keep up with what they’re saying. So everyone has to focus on what they need to adjust in their speaking and that may be the difficult component of working on that skill because books and general resources are that they are general. I wanted to touch upon something you mentioned before about how a lot of times like relationships fail because of a breakdown in communications.

38:09 M I wanted to like ask your opinion about that. Like why do so many people especially like in relationships have that breakdown? Like why is it such like so prevalent? I mean it’s like it seems like 2025 shouldn’t we all be like on the same wavelength? Why is there so many like in relationships there’s so many breakdowns in communication? Why does it happen? Yeah. Okay. Well firstly I do want to put a disclaimer that I’m not a relationship expert. Um there are really great resources out there. I think some of the best um the best work that I’ve read is by the Gottman’s. So they’re a couple they’re they’re psychologists and they specialize in the field of relationship communication and relationships full stop. So the Gotman’s check them out if if this is relevant for you. For me, I can speak from communication skills standpoint and maybe from personal experience. So, I I’ll put it out there that I was in a 10year relationship and and we separated at the end of that. And in hindsight, firstly, like it wasn’t a failed relationship. I don’t see it like that. We had a beautiful decade of life together and and we went in different directions. But in hindsight, what I can see is this, and this is what the Gmans say as well. Relationships don’t break down because of one thing. It’s not one thing that someone did or one thing that someone said that will break down an entire relationship. That one thing that appears to break down the relationship is is actually the accumulation of many smaller things that have built up and then that final thing becomes the the straw that breaks the camel’s back. But prior to that, there were many months or years of slight miscommunication of slight neglect that

39:59 have led to the final shaw that breaks the camel’s back. There’s this concept called the one in60 rule and it’s used in aviation because when pilots are flying a plane, they need to navigate with immense accuracy. If they are flying and their navigation is off just by one degree, just by one degree, then after 60 kilometers of flying or 60 miles of flying, then they are going to end up one mile off from their original destination. So even if you’re one degree off in your navigation, then after 60 miles you’re going to be one mile away from your original destination. So what that says is we cannot neglect the micro.

40:54 Every little communication or miscommunication, every bit of neglect, every bit of interaction between a couple counts because even if you’re one degree off over time, over 6 years, over 16 years, you’re going to be in completely different places. And then you’re wondering why your relationship has no love or intimacy or closeness. And it’s because it started off by being one degree off. So, something that I’ve learned from my relationship and and from reading this is do not neglect the micro. You know, if there’s something that you’re slightly not happy about, if there’s something that you feel has been miscommunicated even slightly, you bring it up and you talk about it. You don’t neglect it because after after a period of time, it will become a big monster that you cannot contain anymore.

41:50 Well, thank you for sharing that. I mean, everything you say, you always have so much wisdom. That’s why I always love listening to you. And Daniel, but I wanted to ask you like, you know, you offer coaching, uh, programs, workshops. Can you share a little bit more about that? Like, you know, you’re based in Australia. Do you only work with people in Australia or do you work with people in other countries? Because I’m sure a lot of people from this podcast are are watching worldwide. Yeah, for sure. Uh yes, I’m based in Australia, but no, I don’t only work with people in Australia. I’ve actually um I’m very proud of this. Uh late last year, I achieved this this I wouldn’t say it’s a milestone, but I’ve realized I’ve worked with clients from every continent. So, every continent of this world, I’ve gotten clients from oneonone working with them intimately except Antarctica, but every other continent. Yes. Um so, yes, I work with people from all over the world. And whether that’s one-on-one coaching, you know, if you do want to do a once off coaching and strategy session on your speaking, I do that to five month containers of one-on-one coaching.

42:58 I find that of course the longer period of time that we have together, the more that you’re able to develop your speaking because it’s not just speaking delivery, but it’s maybe workshopping or structuring a talk that you have coming up. Improving on the way that you structure your podcast episodes like that is something that I’ve had training in. So that is something that I get to help my clients with. Because if you want to be effective in your communication, it’s not just the delivery. It’s it’s the how. It’s the structure of your talks. It’s the journey that you take people on in your talk. So, I I love doing that. I love the speaking training and then the workshopping together towards a common project, whether it’s a talk that they’ve got, a workshop they’re running, a big podcast interview they’ve got. Um, also, you mentioned Toast Masters before. I run a program called Voice for Impact, and it’s all about you using your voice for impact. And I liken it to Toast Masters, but more fun, maybe less sterile and more personalized. And what that looks like is it’s weekly online workshops. We get together. It’s semi-private, so a maximum of six to eight people per workshop. Um, and we get together where you practice your speaking. And there’s going to be things that you practice because there are weekly modules that you’ll get to work through. So you focus on different components of your speaking whether it’s storytelling or body language or speaking delivery with more articulation or more tonality whatever it is you go through the content and then we come together in the workshop and you practice that and because it’s semi-private there’s only six to eight people I am right there giving you live feedback and coaching on your speaking and people uh join as a membership and they get access to the weekly workshop shops. Um, and we come together and we

44:51 we continue improving. And through this journey, people have transformed their speaking because you go through all of the components of speaking. You have live coaching from me. You get to practice speaking under pressure because you’re speaking on the spot in front of other people, right? So, you’re developing all of these skills that people are often missing when it comes to speaking. how to speak with more confidence in front of a group. Getting live coaching on your speaking delivery and working on all of these different components like storytelling, body language, speaking delivery, humor, improvisation, all all the things. And yeah, people have transformed their speaking in as little as two or 3 months. Like I’m talking people launching their podcasts and YouTube channels, speaking in front of a thousand people, getting standing ovations. like these are big results. People people being able to lead their team at a completely different level, you know, like the feedback they’ve gotten, they they know at a tangible level, they are now leading their team at a higher level. Um, and this lights me up because business owners who I work with, and you don’t even need to be a business owner, but whoever it is that that um I work with, like everyone has a role in their life to touch and to create change in their world. And me seeing that they can use their voice with more confidence, with more power is my legacy. It’s me living out my purpose. Uh so it it really moves me that I get to do this work. Um and that’s that’s in voice for impact what I was talking about just then. I get to do this work and I get to help people at different levels because you know voice for impact the membership versus one-on-one coaching. There’s a variety

46:41 of investment levels. So it’s accessible for anyone who who wants to work. Uh so yeah, it lights me up and and I’m so grateful to be able to do what I do. I mean how can people get in touch with you if they have any questions or they want to reach out to you and get some coaching or training? Yeah. Uh multiple ways. I have a different platforms that you can contact me on. So if you are active on LinkedIn which I am becoming more and more active on then you can find me as Trang Nova. So that’s T R A N G Nova like the star N O V A. Um, on Instagram I’m trang_nova. Um, or you can check out my website trangnova.com and there you’ll find my email. So, if you want to get in touch in any way, then please feel free to reach out and I’d love to get to know you and have a chat. I I just had a couple more questions for you uh real quick. So, uh, you mentioned like, you know, you spoke on on TEDex. I I’ve met people that they that’s like a goal they want to get on. I was just curious to know is that something like difficult to do to to get on a TEDex? Do you have to do like a lot of preparation or is it something like somebody can just like hey I’m signed up for TED X and a week later they’re on TED X. Can you maybe share a little bit for people who may be interested in doing something like that? Yeah. In short, my first journey was oh it was a challenging journey. I’m not going to sugarcoat that. But it was one of the most fulfilling journeys that I have been on. So what I’d recommend is if you do want to to if you do want to do a TEDex talk, the first thing you need to do is to get aware of all the events in your area because these TEDex

48:32 events, they are looking for speakers almost half a year in advance before they even advertise that the event is happening. So you need to be really switched on and that’s how I did it. I subscribed to all the email lists, all of the social media platforms of the local TEDex events in my city, and there’s probably at least a couple in your city because it’s a worldwide phenomenon. There are events in in every country. No, not every country, but many countries. So, subscribe to their social media, to their email list so that you can be the first to find out when speaker callouts happen. That is the very first step. You need to be aware of when speaker callouts happen because as soon as speaker callouts happen, the process is timesensitive. It is competitive. So you want to be aware so that you can work on your application. You can get to know what the theme of the event is. Every event has a theme and you need to plan out your topic so that you can pitch it in the application. That is very important. uh the topic of your TEDex talk is something that you do want to plan out meticulously because that’s what they’re going to be looking at in your application and TEDex has these regimented guidelines of topics. You know, it needs to be a unique idea. It needs to be innovative. It needs to be different. You can’t just talk about the same ideas again and again. You can’t talk about how to be more confident or how to find your purpose in life. like people have already talked about those things and in the in the application there’s going to be thousands of other people probably pitching the same idea. So you need to share an idea that is unique that is progressive that is innovative for society or for the world.

50:14 Um and that’s that’s what I would recommend for you to get the journey started. I actually um if if I’m allowed to Daniel like I actually did recently do a series on my podcast and my YouTube about this. It was a four-part series on how to become a TEDex speaker, and I walk through all of these steps in great detail, sharing my experience as well as what I know about what TEDex is looking for. So, yeah, if you’re interested, then um there’s more detail in there. But I really recommend that you get prepared in advance because essentially it’s a competitive process. But is that something like you can help people with through your coaching and training? Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, like I went through the process myself and I’m not like I I do want to say that I’m not a TEDex uh like employee. So I’m not uh like I’m not in that realm but based on my experience yes I can I can share what worked what doesn’t work what I know that they are looking for what they don’t accept what they accept the writing process of the talk because that was the hardest part for me you know going back and forth over I think six weeks of so many additions so many iterations of my talk getting my talk rejected time and time again because there are regimented guidelines of what is accepted I thought that I was not going to make it. I thought I wouldn’t be able to pull together a talk in time for the deadline, but finally I did and I am very very happy with how it uh how it evolved and my performance and my delivery on the day. I really do believe it is one of the best performances that I’ve ever given. Uh, and yeah, I would I I love this whole journey cuz it was such a long time dream of mine to become a TEDex speaker and I know that those who do want to achieve that, it’s really close to their heart as well. So, yes,

52:07 the answer is I can’t help with that. Oh, that’s really amazing. I know we have like a few more minutes left on the podcast. Was there anything else you’d like to share with our audience or about yourself? Hm. Let me finish off by saying that remember speaking is a skill and you don’t have to be born a natural or extroverted or confident speaker to get good at it. Anyone can learn, practice, and master that skill. Well, Train, thank you so much. I I mean your story is so inspiring and just really matches the whole theme about the podcast of inspired and impact. You do both and uh I’m sure a lot of people in the audience can be touched upon like this uh interview here. So thank you so much for coming on. I can’t I I say this sincerely like you’re really an amazing person with everything you’ve been through and your story and so incredible and your life like you always have so much wisdom like everything you say. So, thank you for sharing everything and um you know, I’ll definitely like you know, stay connected and everything. Um thank you so much for being on this podcast and everything and um I was up for a wonderful day. Yeah, thank you Daniel.

53:25 I’ve enjoyed this chat immensely. So, thank you for having me on the show once again.