The Genius Zone - Unlock Your Inner Genius

Ep. 4 – Tips to Transform Your Communication Style

• Catherine Mattiske • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Catherine gives you fresh insights into your Inner Genius, helping you enhance all forms of communication.

In this episode, Catherine discusses how to embrace differences in communication style, how to articulate your thoughts effectively, and how to foster meaningful relationships with others who may have different communication styles than you. You'll learn powerful tips on discovering and tapping into your Genius Zone so that you can confidently express your ideas, collaborate with others, and create deeper connections with those around you.

Tune in and get ready to:

  • Uncover your Inner Genius and the ways in which it can transform how you communicate
  • Identify communication styles of others to enhance collaboration
  • Explore real-world tips on expressing yourself with clarity and confidence
  • Connect with other participants who share different communication styles than you

Take your first step… Unlock your Inner Genius (GQ) today! Take the Inner Genius Profile here.

Learn more about the Inner Genius Profile on our website.

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Catherine Mattiske, best known for creating ID9 Intelligent Design & the Genius Quotient (GQ), is a leading light in the corporate learning & team-building industries. She regularly works with large & small organizations to help team members better understand one another while effectively collaborating & boosting individual & team morale & productivity in the workplace.

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Do you have a question about something you heard today, or would you like to suggest a topic? Do you know someone who’d be a great podcast guest? Or would you like to book Catherine as your guest? Contact Catherine

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SPEAKERS

Jayce Grayye, Catherine Mattiske, Carl Richards

Carl Richards  00:06

You've entered the Genius Zone where we explore the secrets to unlocking your Inner Genius. Your host, Catherine Mattiske brings her years of knowledge and experience in developing the  Inner Genius Profile. Let's dive in and see what's in store for today. This podcast episode is taken from a previous live event.

Jayce Grayye  00:27

All right, everybody wanted to thank you again for tuning in for another episode of Transform Your Communication Style. And today, we're gonna have a lot of expert tips from Catherine Mattiske herself. I'm your host, Jayce Grayye, I got Catherine Mattiske, here in the house. And with that being said, everybody, again, some house rules, if you think you're gonna take advantage of this and you find value, share this with those in your network that could get the same amount of value out of it. And with that being said, let's get this show on the road. Catherine, I'm excited to be here. So I'm gonna get right into it. What inspired you to focus on really helping people transform their communications?

Catherine Mattiske  01:03

Well, from my background is learning science. And I think that's the core of Transformation and Communication. But here's the deal. People don't know about that. And so I wanted to bring that to the fore. Because through my experience, as an educator, a professional trainer, a mentor, I've seen how powerful words can be and Jayce, people's learning preferences mirrors their speech. So let me just say that, again, people's learning preferences mirrors their speech. Now, for many people listening to this, they may have never heard that before. So by changing our words, depending on who we're talking with, can really supercharge our effectiveness when it comes to communication. Because when you change your language, depending on who you're talking to, it's like you're changing a mirror to reflect the needs and the preferences of your listener. 

So that's why it's important to use the right words when communicating with anyone, so that we can be more effective in our conversations. And by understanding this common language used by different people, we can then adjust our messages to better connect with them. And so I have seen people achieve huge success in all aspects of their life simply by changing their words.

Jayce Grayye  02:23

It makes total sense. So, can you just tell us maybe a little bit more about the science behind the whole, you know, Genius Quotient?

Catherine Mattiske  02:31

So for me, I've had my business for 29 years, actually, it's the anniversary of 29 today. So it just popped up on my Outlook calendar today, and it's 29 years today. I cannot believe it. So I started to realize way back in the beginning, because I started in computer training. And way back in the beginning, I saw people who were successful at learning, and I was training every day Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel. And I saw people coming into my training room every day who were across the entire spectrum of success. Some people were amazing. They picked up this new idea called computers. That's how old I am. And they just ran with it right? And then there's other people who were just struck by fear that even if they touched the keyboard, it would just blow up, right? And I started to think about why is this happening? Why are some people really high performance learners and other people are basically out for the count. And so I started to play this game of how can I get every day 12 people, that was my group size, 12 people to success, and I started to look at the science of adult learning. 

Now, back then it was really hard to research, I had to go and travel to different university libraries, I had to go to, you know, actual libraries, with books, and all of that stuff. So the science then started to come out. But no one had put that together of the learning science, and how it affected how we connect with people, and how we influence people and ultimately how we communicate with people. So I call that the Genius Quotient. And once you unlock that Genius Quotient, GQ inside you, you unlock your Inner Genius. And when you do that, lots of stuff happens, but the main thing that happens is you start to realize how you communicate to other people naturally and you've done it all your life. And then you start to realize, wow, other people communicate differently to me, and that's why we've got the gaps. That's why we've got the breakdowns. That's why we have the tension. That's why we have lots and lots of issues with other people simply because they're communicating almost like in a different language, but we might all be speaking English but within that, they're communicating in a different way. So that's why I said, Okay, I'm gonna pull this science together. And there's now a paper that I've written that says exactly what the science is. It tells what the major influences of science have been and then some other contributing scientific research, and then all the others that I research. And that's all now in one paper. So it really is the basis to everything that I do is coming back to this science piece.

Jayce Grayye  05:29

No, and I love that in depth. So where can our listeners find more about your research on the Genius Quotient?

Catherine Mattiske  05:37

On GQ Academy you'll see a section, there's all of the free blogs and podcasts and articles, but you'll see a section called science when you go there, that's got the White Paper there. It also has, I wrote up the differences between the  Inner Genius Profile which unlocks the GQ in somebody and all of the other profiles on the market today, DiSC, Myers Briggs, Insights, etc, etc. And just put them in a very pragmatic, let's use that word, paper to say, this is what each one of them does. And this is what's different about Inner Genius, so you can make the choice there.

Jayce Grayye  06:14

I love that. So granted, when it comes to communications, how does the focus of communication really relate to someone's like, Inner Genius Archetype? Because, you know, there's several Archetypes out there. So how do you, you know, focus what to relate to which Archetype? 

Catherine Mattiske  06:27

Yeah, exactly. So there's 12, Inner Genius Archetypes. And when we look at the communication, that's really important. So it's essential to be able to communicate your ideas, thoughts, feelings, effectively, in order to make progress and build strong relationships with others. We all know that. But communication can also help bridge those gaps between different points of view. So if you've got people with different Archetypes, and you know what someone else's Archetype is, or even if you don't, there's some tools that I've created to help you to create a better understanding between people, especially when they're different to you, maybe they've got different backgrounds or different experiences to you.

Jayce Grayye  07:08

And by the way, I have to ask, because what are some of these tools that they could use in order for them to relate this communications over to different Archetypes?

 Catherine Mattiske  07:16

So I've developed across all of the Inner Genius programs, you know, think of it like a cake shop full of cake big, you know, glamourous cake-

 Jayce Grayye  07:24

Oh, getting me hungry here.

 Catherine Mattiske  07:25

*Laughs* Imagine all these cakes, were there all of our programs. And across all of those different programs in the bake shop about 50 tools a bit more than 50 tools, there's two primary tools that no matter which program you come on to, you learn. And even when you do the profile, you get one of these tools. The first tool is the Inner Genius wheel. So what that does is helps you with any group communication, now a group is defined as two or more people. So a group could be your family, a group could be you're out to dinner with friends, a group could be a team at work, a group could be anybody, right, two or more people. And so what that tool does is regardless of who you are communicating with, in that group, it could be two or 100,000 people and whatever the number is, it helps you to write or speak one way one communication in one email in one presentation, in one conversation, speaking to all 12 in a genius Archetypes at once. It's magic. So you have your own Archetype. But here's the rub, you speak in your language of your Archetype. But what about the other 11. So this tool helps you to map out the conversation, the presentation, the email, the written communication, whatever it is, so that one communication goes to all 12 Archetypes at once. That's one tool, you get that tool. That tool is in my book, I published it. When you do your profile, and you open your vault of materials, you get the book, and you get the tool separately. Plus you get your Spotify playlist that works with your Archetype and Alexa skills and all of these other things when you do your profile. So that's the Inner Genius wheel. That's for group communication. Every program that people do, there's another tool called the Archetype translator tool. So that's for one on one communication. So I can pinpoint between me the Futurist and you, Jayce, you're an Explorer, so I can pinpoint using the Archetype translator tool, which by the way, is on my desktop at all times. I can pinpoint. I know, Jayce, that you're the Explorer. So I just talk in your language because I'm actually cheating from that tool on my desktop. And I'm whispering because I don't want anyone to know that right? So-

 Jayce Grayye  09:51

*Laughs* I love it. I've seen this tool that she's referring to, and you're not seeing it for yourself. You're kind of skeptical in a sense because you don't know really know. But then once you start seeing the key words and your like, "well that makes a lot of sense." And you start pointing out, I was talking to Mel about this, and I told Mel, I was like, "Mel, are you sure I'm an Explorer?" And Mel told me "Well, the reason you're actually doing this makes perfect sense of why you are your Archetype." And we were laughing hysterically through this whole process. So if anybody out there wants that tool, Catherine, what can they do to get that tool on their end on their desktop? Because I feel like that's something everybody should have.

 Catherine Mattiske  10:25

Well, it is. And that would be my dream that everybody has that. So the most fundamental program is GQ Masterclass. It's a three week program once a week for three weeks. You get the Inner Genius wheel with your profile, that's part of signing up to that master class. And then you get the Archetype translated tool. And then in any other of the flagship programs, Sales Genius, Discover Your Genius Quotient, Professional Thrive, which is all about DEIB, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, The Executive Program, all of our programs have both of those tools. Plus, remember that two out of 50 so those flagship programs, say if you're on the Sales Genius Program, there's a whole toolkit for sales people, customer service people, if you're on The Executive Program, there's a whole toolkit for executives. But those first two tools are in everything. So GQ Masterclass, it's quick. It's $2,000. For that Masterclass, you get that tool and off you go.

 Jayce Grayye  11:27

Yeah, let's talk a little bit more about unlocking that Inner Genius through, obviously, communication. So in what ways do you believe communication can help us unlock our Inner Genius?

 Catherine Mattiske  11:37

Well, the first thing is to just level the playing field, we all have an Inner Genius within ourselves. And some people never discover it, they go from birth to death, never discover it, other people discover it super early. And then other people discover it really late in life. And some people think that they've latched on to it. But then something else happens. And they go, oh my goodness, this is what I'm about. And so we live at the moment in this age of information overload. And so, this idea of effective communication has never been more important. And it helps us to be heard, understood, and most importantly, respected. And so, if we communicate with clarity, and purpose, we can express then our thoughts and ideas in a way that resonates with other people, and ultimately helps us unlock our own Inner Genius. 

So we know that communication fosters collaboration, and that allows us to access this wealth of knowledge of experience held within our own circles of friends, colleagues, family, that communication piece, and that collaboration piece allows us to unlock other people's knowledge and experience. And so what we can do then, is we can effectively share information and exchange ideas and gain a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us. So if we don't have that communication piece, you know, there's lots of people in the world that I would love to meet. Like loads of people. If I made a list to do it, it would be absolutely huge. And I think how could I even reach out to those people. And yet, with technology, like look at LinkedIn, you can reach out to anyone, absolutely anyone. If they're on LinkedIn, you can send them a message. That was not available 20 years ago. That was not even available 10, 15 years ago. This information age right now is this communication tool, it's a really powerful tool. It helps us unlock our creativity, our innovation, our unique skill set. That enables us to reach our highest potential. So being mindful of the language that we're using, how we express ourselves, how well we listen? That good communication is truly a game changer, not only for helping other people, but unlocking our own potential.

 Jayce Grayye  14:05

I love this. And so with that being said, what are kind of like, the key steps someone can take to improving communication and unlocking someone's Inner Genius?

 Catherine Mattiske  14:13

Well, I think number one is to develop a deeper understanding of ourselves. And you know, it's a throwaway line, right? Get to know yourself, but when you understand your own needs, your own values, your own beliefs, your own motivations, and your own way of learning. So many of you would know the Iceberg Model, which was a Carl Jung model, and the waterline of the iceberg denotes the difference between what the world sees, the top of the iceberg, and what's underneath the iceberg. And we all know that when we look at an iceberg, most of it is underwater. And so when we think about our needs, our values, our beliefs, our motivations, our way that we prefer to learn and take in information thats all below the surface. And so that's what the  Inner Genius Profile uncovers is what's underneath the waterline. Now for many people, they get their  Inner Genius Profile, and they send me a message, "what's the drivers to how you communicate with other people? What's your Archetype language and how that communication you're sending out?" You're below that waterline of the iceberg, then when we go above the waterline, this is how the world sees you. This is your conscious behavior. This is how you show up to the world. 

The second thing that you can do, after developing an understanding of yourself, is to learn active listening skills. We are never taught to listen. And for years and years, I've been teaching listening skills. And it's just amazing to me how bad we are at listening. How we can be on a call like this, and we're doing other things. And right now, there's a whole lot of you're listening to this, you're multitasking, which actually doesn't exist in your brain, there's a fact you can't multitask. You're just doing tasks in a linear order in a sequence of faster than normal. So multitasking doesn't exist, let's get that scientifically out there. And so when you are listening, the most important thing is that you are listening to what people are saying understanding their point of view and getting in their shoes, empathizing with them. So that's the second thing I would say is, if you really want to unlock that Inner Genius through great communication, then get good at active listening. And it's easy, you can just start right now you can actually stop multitasking right now. And actually listen right now, that would be a good first step. 

Third thing is communicate authentically. So being authentic, expressing your own truth, and also at the same time being respectful of other people's truths as well. But that authenticity, and I think that's showing up. As each generation moves through, like if we have a look at Gen Z, and then that group after them, I think there's a much more of alignment with authenticity than in my generation. And so I think that's a good thing, but also being respectful of other people's truths as well. 

And the last one I just mentioned on that vein, Jayce is practice being in the moment. And it's not just active listening, but it means letting go of any other preconceived ideas that you have, and focusing on what is actually unfolding in front of you. So really, listen, absolutely observe and reflect. And here's the big words; without judging or interrupting. And it's really hard to do. And I have a life of trying to just do this myself, being present in the moment. It's really hard because our brain is working so quickly. It's so quick to be you know, formulating your next question are formulating your comment, but just being in the stillness of being present in the moment. And that really helps us to let go of those preconceived ideas.

 Jayce Grayye  18:10

And honestly, it makes so much sense. So we spoke a lot about communication, unlocking, right, the Inner Genius beside improving the steps, but let's talk about some of the pitfalls, right? Are there any sort of common pitfalls or mistakes that people make when it comes to communications inside their genius profile?

 Catherine Mattiske  18:28

Absolutely. And I think the biggest thing is that when people have been used to doing other profiles, and you know, we've all done them during work, and I've taught some for years and years and years (as an) accredited trainer in many of them. It's interesting information. And so that's it, you go, wow, that's interesting, done and dusted. And I think the common pitfall, when it comes to people doing they're in a genius profile, is they do exactly that. They go, "that's interesting." Put away, and that's it. When you don't take action, after you do the profile, you're really missing out on that opportunity. So taking time, as I said before, to understand your inner self can help lead to a better understanding of yourself, as well as how you communicate with others. So it's important to take the time to reflect on your profile and how it relates to your everyday life, not just at work, because lots of people do it as part of their workplace, but it's part of your everyday life. How do you, you know, deal with your children? How do you deal with your siblings? How do you deal with your parents? How do you deal with your broader family? How do you communicate and deal with your friends, you know, and taking action is the crucial step in really using this information and making real changes to communication style. 

That being said, there is no demand on this profile for you to change. I did not create this profile thinking that anybody would change. Change is really hard. And so, I have this view that your Inner Genius is your Inner Genius, you're perfect how you are. And all we want to do is to say, let's elevate you in your own Inner Genius to be a better version of yourself. But you don't have to change. It's all about just facing the world thinking, "actually, you know what, I'm great as I am, I know what my Inner Genius is, I'm now going to propel that forward." But without taking that action, no matter how accurate the profile might be. And people say to me, "it's scary accurate." Like I say, "it's scary accurate, like looking in a mirror." And I just say, "well, maybe I'm a little bit psychic." I'm not really, but that's it's a good spin. The chances of your improving your communication styles are slim, if you do nothing with it, then the chances of improving are really slim.

 Jayce Grayye  20:51

Of course, like, you have to take action in order to improve right? No matter how painful it is at the beginning. Anytime you do something the first two weeks, first three weeks, first, maybe four weeks, it's gonna be dreadful. But then after that you improve, right. And that's ultimately the direction you want to go in.

 Catherine Mattiske  21:05

That's called Learning, Jayce. Like people say learning is really easy. From a brain function learning is really hard. You are rewiring your brain. You are connecting neurons on what I call a little cobbled path to make a superhighway out of those neurons. It's really hard work, it's much easier to stay where you are, let's face it, right? It's much easier to just do the things you were doing. To actually make new neural pathways is not easy. And as you said, doing it for a day, two days a week, you know, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, you'll go from that little cobbled pathway that's really hard, to then going "actually, I've got this!" That is called learning. And it's not easy.

 Jayce Grayye  21:49

It never is, Right? But that's the part of learning, right? It's constantly growing. So what would you say are maybe some of the biggest challenges people may face when they're just trying to communicate effectively, then?

 Catherine Mattiske  21:59

Well I think one of the biggest challenges people face when trying to communicate effectively is overcoming fear and hesitation. And I think we worry about what other people might think or how our message might be received. And that leads us to hesitate in expressing ourselves really freely and openly. And fear is a big deal, right? And another challenge is understanding the needs and perspectives of people that we're communicating with. And so we all have these Inner Genius Archetypes that are different that represent us in the way that we think and we interact with the world. So therefore, understanding how someone else's Archetype affects their communication can help foster those better conversations or email communication or written communication, presentations that you're doing. But I think lastly, it's really important to remember that communication is a two way street. And coming back to that listening piece. And being attentive is just as important as speaking clearly and bridging those what I call translation bridges between your Archetype and someone else's.

 Jayce Grayye  23:04

Catherine, I feel like you're just dropping golden dimes here for everybody to be able to take advantage of. So you know, Catherine, we're talking a lot about communication, but how about like maybe written communication? What's kind of the challenges there?

 Catherine Mattiske  23:15

Well, I think that those same principles of effective communication apply when you're writing. But writing is a time consuming task, you know, much more time consuming than verbal communication. So it's really important to take that extra time to craft the message that conveys the meaning that you're trying to get across really clearly and accurately. And I think that in this age of Slack, you know, and all of the chat stuff that's going on, it's really easy to just blast out a chat message. You know, we do it at work all day, you know, every day, we use Slack. And our messages just fly all day across the different channels. And then when you come to write an email or another form of digital communication, it's really important to sort of remember that tone and emotion because it's hard to convey that in words. So you've got to choose those words carefully. 

And that's where the Inner Genius wheel can really come into play. And it can provide you the insight into how to use those words on the wheel in a particular order of how those different Archetypes communicate through writing, which can help you to tailor your message. And so you're paying it much more closer attention than just blasting out an email, or perhaps you're blasting out a report or whatever you're doing, because we want to avoid those misunderstandings. And most importantly, we want to hook people into that communication. We want people to read our emails, you know, like what was that little acronym the too long didn't read the TLDR?

 Jayce Grayye  24:52

Something like that, yeah.

 Catherine Mattiske  24:53

 Yeah, yeah. So I got a couple of those from clients like on my emails. TLDR it's like "oh, great. Thanks." And it's like, so now we're saying emails have to be shorter, they have to be more concise. My inbox every day is absolutely like a snow storm. So everything has to be now to the point but also hooking in all those 11 Archetypes that are different to me, so that when somebody gets it, they go, "wow, this is written for me." It feels like it's written for them. It's not, it's written in a balanced way across all 12 Archetypes. And so therefore, it feels like that connection is high to who ever reads that email. But also underpinning that it has to be meaningful, it has to be positive, it has to be constructive. 

You know, like, all of this stuff is a lot to handle when it comes to that written communication. And that's why I develop the tools, because there's not just, "oh, this is nice information about my profile." It's how do I use this in my next communication? How do I use it? And I thought, okay, so I wrote the book. And then I gave the book, actually, to my husband. And he said, "So what do I do now?" And I went, "what do you mean, what do you do now?" I said, "you just use the 12 Archetypes." He said, "how do I do that?" And so his Archetype is the Mason. And so the Masons all about practicalities and doing and I went, Oh, great. So I haven't quite finished. So then I went back to the drawing board, right? Okay, I've got to develop these tools so that people know they're how to put this into action. And then every time we created a new big flagship program, there's the tools of how to do this for each particular group that we're training. 

So I get it, that it's hard. And I just wanted to make it easier for people by saying, "hey! Use these words. Hey, put this on your desktop. Hey, when you're talking to someone, try using those words and see if that hooks them in see if that works for you." And magically, of course it does.

 Jayce Grayye  26:54

Honestly. That's amazing. So is there by any chance like, when it comes to communication, obviously AI now it's pretty big. How do you think technology is going to impact our ability to communicate with the Archetypes?

 Catherine Mattiske  27:07

It's absolutely drastically impacted our ability to communicate, but here's what's interesting. And I'm going to do this as a next little fun project. I'm actually going to use one of the tools, the AI tools like ChatGBT, and I'm actually going to analyze, just for fun because I'm a nerd, right? This is my scientific nerd coming out. I'm so boring. Does ChatGBT have an Archetype? And if so, if yes, here's the flowchart, right? If the science, if yes, then is that Archetype, the Archetype of the people that designed it, that's my bit of fun.

 Jayce Grayye  27:46

That's a good one to find out.

 Catherine Mattiske  27:48

I'll do it over the Easter break. Because in Australia, we get a four day Easter break so sensible. And so I'm just going to do that for fun over the Easter break. And I'm just going to have a little look at it. Because as soon as you see someone's written communication and ChatGBT is the same, right? It's just written communication. As soon as I see that, I'll be able to pick out the key words the language that it's using, and then say, okay, is that an Archetype? Because it would be amazing, what I'd love to do is create an AI engine that would communicate in a balanced way across all 12 Archetypes. Therefore, you could use that to support your writing, and not have to do the hard, heavy lifting of inserting all of those key words into like the Inner Genius Wheel. That would be amazing. And I'm just going to do that for fun. And see if-, so I'm going to answer the question by next week, does ChatGBT have an Archetype? And then I want to know, I'd love to know, the programmers Archetype behind the scenes of that tech team. Because I think it's the same. That's my hypothesis.

 Jayce Grayye  28:53

You gotta homework set out for you for that and it just sounds like a lot of fun and already trying to figure that out. So I know, we spoke a lot about different tools that are out there, right. And obviously the ones that are within your program, and one in particular for me, I wanted to ask, but like you do have the Inner Genius Wheel. So how can one use that wheel to really communicate better?

 Catherine Mattiske  29:13

Yes. So as I said before that, to that communication with groups, so two or more people, and it creates a framework for that idea of balance communication across all 12 Archetypes. And so, if you understand how each of the 12 Archetypes communicates, you don't actually need to know very much about other people. You just need to know about yourself, and then use that tool, you will then create those meaningful conversations and hook all 11 Archetypes in that are different to you, just by using that tool. And that really will resonate with anyone reading that communication that you've written or if you're doing a presentation or having a conversation they will be hooked in to what you're saying. So that has got to be a good deal. 

You know, like, if you've been presenting, for example, and you look out at your audience or you're on Zoom, and you feel like you're talking to a brick wall, that part of your life will go away. If you are in the business of Email Ping-Pong, you send out a message someone sends back, "what about this?" You answer them, they come back. What about this? Someone else asked question, "what about this?" And I call that Email Ping-Pong. And I wrote about that, and this article on email, ping pong, and you can get rid of email, ping pong out of your life. None of this backwards-ing and forwards-ing because you're hooking people in, you're communicating in a much more balanced way. And all of those issues disappear from your life promise. And so you'll never feel like you're talking to a brick wall. You never feel like you're missing a whole group of people when you talk to them and not knowing why. That's what the wheel does.

 Jayce Grayye  30:56

Yeah, that's amazing. And when we're looking into that, from your perspective, what are some, like key components of a very healthy Communication Mindset, then?

 Catherine Mattiske  31:06

Well, I think it is a mindset. I think it is, as you say, it's a mindset. It's a mindset of self awareness firstly. It's a mindset of openness, a mindset of respect, and empathy getting in other people's shoes. But I see people who excel in communication. And so, I thought, "what are they all doing the same?" Okay, so of the 1000s and 1000s of people that I've trained over the last 29 years and beyond, because I had a corporate career before that. Now, that's how old I am. They have this communication mindset. And so I documented those eight things. Do you want me to whiz through them really quickly?

 Jayce Grayye  31:44

Let's do it. 

 Catherine Mattiske  31:45

Okay, so really quickly, the first one is Focus. And we mentioned that before about focusing active listening on what other people saying.

The second one is Asking High Impact Questions. Now, people ask really, really flimsy Low Impact Questions. So Low Impact Questions are often closed questions. They start with; is, was, do, does, should, would, could, all of those words that end up, if you start a question with those words, they end up with a yes or no answer. So High Impact Questions are big, open questions. And they start with words like; what and how, and when, and why. All of those big open questions, words, will then get you a long uninfluenced answer. So asking these High Impact Questions, and really thinking about the questions. And before you go to a meeting, just jot down some High Impact Questions that you want to talk to a colleague about or that you want to ask a client, High Impact Questions. Even a family member, even your kids, right? Ask them High Impact Questions. Rather than "did you have a good day at school?" The answer is going to be yes or no. It was- you might change that around to "what was the best thing you learned at school?" Now you have no idea of what the answer is going to be. And that child cannot answer yes or no to that. And so they might say, "well, I did a great painting today." "Oh, tell me more about the painting." Or "what was so good about the painting?" Or "why were you painting?" Or "what led you to do this painting?" Bam, you're in a conversation with a child, you're doing the same thing with an adult. Okay, so these big, High Impact Questions. 

The third thing is what I talked to you about before, is Listen, but there's another tail end to that. Listen and Be Silent. Did you know, Jayce, that if you juggle the letters of Listen, it makes the word silent.

 Jayce Grayye  33:42

 That's powerful. 

 Catherine Mattiske  33:42

He's being silent now. Okay, because he's listening. Silent and listen, have the same letters in them and when we are silent, I'm not just talking about closing your mouth, I'm talking about being silent in your brain, being silent in your body everything is aligned with this focus, as I mentioned is number one.

 But number four is Asking What If Questions. Like, even if that is not natural to you, now, if you're the Archetype, if you've done your profile, and you're the Futurist, Energizer or Explorer, What If questions come really easy. What about this? What about this? How about this? All these? What if questions, they come really easily but to the other nine Archetypes, that's actually not so easy. So practice using these What If questions when someone is talking or you're in a conversation. 

Dig Deeper is the next tip. Dig Deeper, and really get underneath of what is going on to understand why people's behavior is the way it is, okay? 

But next one, number six is Using Yes And. So, if someone presents an idea, one of the easiest reactions that we have is "no that'll never work." Or "we've done that before. It didn't work." Taking the time to listen to someone's idea and saying "Yes, and we could do this." Or "Yes, and what about this?" Or "Yes, and do that." It's that little phrase, Yes And. It is so reassuring to someone, you've actually agreed with them. And you're building on the next idea. 

Number seven is basic, and it's smile. If you're on zoom, put your camera on. People need to see you, and smile. Don't be a grumpy person, we talked about that in another one of these. Stop being grumpy and just smile. And by smiling you are opening yourself up, and you're saying I'm with you, I'm on the same track as you. Even if you're not, and don't do the fake smile, like that's so obvious, but just really kind of engage with people. And just kind of be happy a bit, you know, like, it doesn't take much. 

The last one, number eight is to Take Notes. I cannot believe the number of people who do not take notes in a meeting. Like I don't care if you're writing it down on a journal, on a piece of paper, on a post-it note, on your screen, whatever, take notes. And even if you're not a note taker, become a good note taker. People sit next to me in conferences, I Mindmap. Okay, I have coloured markers because I do a lot of art. I have coloured markers. I'm very visual, I Mindmap everything. And every time I'm in a face to face conference, you know, in the old world before COVID, the person next to me would always say your notes are amazing. And that's just the way I take notes, I found a method. So I turn around to them and go "Oh it's just the method I use. What do you use? End of conversation. Because they don't use the method, right? And then they say to me, "do you mind if I take a photo of your notes?" It's like, go away, make your own notes, right? This is annoying. And that's how, I don't say that out loud. I don't think "go away." But in my head, I'm going "really? You sat there and listened, you were on your phone, you were doing whatever. You didn't take any notes, you weren't focused, you weren't silent. You know, you weren't in this at all. And now you want my notes? It just grinds my gears. So usually I just say "yeah. Ok, take the photo." Right? Cause I'm just being nice. But Take Notes is so important. 

So there's the eight things, I'll run through them again, Focus, Asking High Impact Questions, Listen and Be Silent, Ask What If? Dig Deeper. Yes And, Smile and Take Notes. And I'm hoping that lots of you listening actually took notes and wrote them down, because that would be a miracle. And you can go back to that later and go, "how am I tracking with this? How am I going with those eight things?" Because that's what I see people who excel in communication, they're all doing that stuff. So let's kind of say "if they're doing it, and they're successful, hey, we can learn something from that and just get into our own Communication Mindset."

 Jayce Grayye  37:57

Oh, I hope everybody was taking notes on that one, Catherine, that was powerful. I hope everybody's enjoying this because I know we only got a couple minutes left. So I guess as we start wrapping this up, where can our listeners find out more about you and your research.

 Catherine Mattiske  38:11

So the first thing is, the website is Thegeniusquotient.com, Thegeniusquotient.com. And if you want to have a look through there, you can certainly do the profile there, you can read about me and so on and so forth. You can also get access even without doing any of that you can get access to GQ Academy. So GQ Academy, right now is free to join. Okay? And so, maybe down the track, we'll charge for that because GQ Academy has a new science section on the main menu and I'm hoping that in the event chat, we can just pop in, please the link to the science section. And that's where you can see all of that research the evidence inside on The Genius Quotient. And also, you'll see a free section there as well. And if you go to free, you can get access to all my blogs, you can get access to all the press articles where this has been published. And there's loads of those and all of the podcasts that I've been a guest on. So you can do all of that. And so go in there and explore. By all means, connect with me on LinkedIn. I publish every week to the GQ Playbook on LinkedIn, subscribe to that. There's a couple of thousand subscribers there. Join that GQ Playbook. You'll see that in my profile. And then if you want to have a coffee chat with me, send me a message in LinkedIn and say "hey, Catherine. Can we have a coffee on Zoom?" I will show up. That's what I do. All day, every day, I'm on Zoom, having coffee with people talking about their Inner Genius.

 Jayce Grayye  39:47

Final question I have for you Catherine. What do you hope listeners will take away from today and transforming their communication styles.

 Catherine Mattiske  39:53

I think the most important lesson is that we need to embrace everyone's unique differences and celebrate them. Everyone, as I said before, I think everyone is perfect how they are; with all their own individual quirks and traits that make them special. If we focus on understanding people for who they are, rather than trying to fit them into a certain mold by respecting each other's uniqueness, we can then learn to communicate more effectively, and as we've been talking today, about fostering stronger relationships. No two people, Jayce are the same. And it's so important to recognize that there's not a one size fits all approach when it comes to communication. And so we need to be open to these different perspectives. We need to look to find common ground. And we need to bridge those communication gaps. If we did that, the world, Jayce would be a different place.

 Jayce Grayye  40:50

Amen. So with that being said, Catherine, we've already been here for an hour. So thank you, everybody, for tuning in. I hope everybody had an amazing time here with all these golden nuggets Catherine shared with us today.

 Catherine Mattiske  41:01

Thanks, everyone!

 Carl Richards  41:06

Thank you for joining us in the Genius Zone. We hope this episode has ignited your Inner Genius. If you liked what you heard today, leave us a comment or review and remember to follow Catherine on social media. Until next time, stay curious, stay inspired and continue exploring the Genius Zone.