729: A Veteran Broadcaster’s Top Tips for Great Listening and Speaking with Jane Hanson

Pete Mockaitis
Jane, thanks for joining us here on How to be Awesome at Your Job.

Jane Hanson
Well, thank you very much for inviting me to be here because, obviously, you’re awesome.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, well, thank you. And you have had an awesome career, and I kind of want to start by hearing, perhaps, one of your favorite or most thrilling stories from 30-ish years of being a news correspondent and anchor.

Jane Hanson
Well, I have to tell you that everybody always says, when you’re an anchor or a correspondent, your best story is the last one you did because there are so many you can’t even remember them all. But I will tell you one of the most awesome ones ever is the day that, because I worked in New York City for most of my life for NBC. And so the day that was sent down to interview a guy named Desmond Tutu, who worked with the apartheid movement in South Africa.

And he was in town, I think he was going to the UN or something, and so I go down to do this interview, I do my prep work, I start talking, and reporters are always like we always got to move, move, move, move, move, move, move fast. So, I get down and I’m sitting on this bench talking with him, and the people that were with him interrupted and said, “I’m sorry, we have to stop.” I’m like, “Oh, come on. I’m almost done. Please, just let me finish.” And they said, “No, you really want this to stop.”

So, they pulled him aside and they told him that he had just won the Nobel Peace Prize. So, he comes back and sits down with me, and tears are streaming down his face. I start to choke up and cry. It was just one of those moments where you’re watching this incredible human being, who had just been told that all of the work that he’s done for the people that he represents, for the good of the world is being recognized in that way.

And, of course, being the kind of person that he was, the awesome human being, he simply said, “This is all about them. I don’t deserve it; they all do.” And it’s a moment I’ll never forget because it was just kind of out of the blue but, there, you’re watching this incredible little piece of history being made in front of your eyes.

I saw history all the time but it’s the result of that, and the poignancy, and the beauty, and the knowledge of what somebody had accomplished, and me just watching it in that moment was probably one of the greatest things I ever saw.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, that is cool. Thank you. Well, now, I want to hear about some of the greatest things you ever learned in terms of anything particularly surprising or fascinating or counterintuitive that you’ve made about what makes for effective and powerful communication.

Jane Hanson
Well, one of the things that I’ll tell you is I think that great leaders are people who are much kinder and more thoughtful and more approachable than you can imagine. And I think that’s what makes them great leaders and great communicators. I also have discovered that people really like to be asked for help. You’re always afraid of asking somebody and saying, “Oh, no, they’re too big a deal. And what do they want with little old me? And I’m afraid to ask them because they’ll say no.”

But, again, back to the greatest people and the greatest communicators, if you are very specific in asking them for what you need in that moment, or would like to know from them in that moment, they’re extremely gracious about actually helping you and granting you that, and so don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to do that. I think that’s one of the best lessons of all. And then I think virtually the most important thing is listening. If you don’t listen well, you’re never going to get anywhere.

Pete Mockaitis
Wait. What did you say, Jane? Sorry.

Jane Hanson
Maybe if I say it louder. That’s the other thing. People think, “Well, if I just talk louder then maybe they’ll hear me.” It doesn’t work, so.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Well, let’s hear about listening first in terms of how does one listen well effectively versus kind of what do we get wrong about listening? Because I think we all say, “Well, of course, I listen.” Well, what’s missing, Jane?

Jane Hanson
What’s missing is we’re too busy thinking about our answer to really listen. So, for example, you have a conversation with somebody, and they’re telling you a story, and instead of really taking in that story, thinking about what it means, and maybe just having a little bit of empathy or understanding, we’re immediately thinking, “Oh, yeah, that happened to me,” or, “Here’s what I’m going to say back,” and we haven’t even heard the full story.

So, listening involves truly caring, truly having that kind of empathy, and truly believing that this person is important. And how many times have you been talking to someone when you can see that their eyes are glancing over your shoulders at somebody else or they’re not giving you that great body language that means they’re listening? Listening isn’t just about what your ears are doing. They’re about what you’re doing with your eyes and your facial expressions, and maybe you’re leaning in or not leaning in. There’s so much more to simply listening that has nothing to do with what’s coming in your ears.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay, that’s good. Thank you. And then, so a lot of that really seems to boil down to “Do you actually care? Is that person actually important to you?” And so, well, you tell me, Jane, sometimes you don’t care, you’re not interested, the person is not yet important to you. Not that you’re a sociopath who is like, “Everybody is a means to my end and move on from me.” But just sort of like, “I don’t know this guy yet. I’m not really captivated yet.”

So, how do you recommend we kind of get there because I imagine over the course of 30-ish years of broadcast journalism, there were occasionally times you weren’t feeling it. How do you get in the mood? How do you feel it?

Jane Hanson
Well, that gets back to, then, kind of “Why are you there? And why are you talking to this person? And what’s the purpose?” because purpose is a really big deal. I have had some of the best stories come to me because I actually asked someone a question, maybe in an elevator, maybe on a street corner, maybe because they were sitting next to me on an airplane, only because I just, I don’t know, I got curious about something weird, like maybe a tie, or a piece of jewelry, or a bag they were carrying, or a book they were reading, and I’d ask them a question.

And, all of a sudden, I’d hear, or they’d tell me this story, and I go, “Oh, that’s amazing.” So, yeah, there’s a lot of times that we really don’t care, but if you can find one little common thing, it’ll set you down a completely different path, and an interesting one.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Cool. All right. Well, so that’s the listening side of…

Jane Hanson
So, that’s like, look, I’m looking at you now, the audience isn’t, but you have an Illinois sweatshirt put on.

Pete Mockaitis
I do.

Jane Hanson
Now, I’d say, “Hey, did you go to Illinois?” and maybe you’d say, “Nope.”

Pete Mockaitis
I did.

Jane Hanson
Oh, there we go. Well, so, obviously, you lived in the Midwest, I lived in the Midwest. Oh, my God, we’re Midwesterners, right?

Pete Mockaitis
That’s true.

Jane Hanson
And then we could get into a whole long thing about complaining about the winter weather, or we could talk about how people…

Pete Mockaitis
New Yorkers.

Jane Hanson
Yeah, how they ignore us and how they think that the middle of the country is a flyover place, or we could get into a whole conversation because you’re wearing that sweatshirt.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s right, yes. And you have a monkey playing a cello painting behind you, or is it a vase?

Jane Hanson
Wait. On that side, I have one playing an accordion.

Pete Mockaitis
Yeah, so I’m curious about this work of art, and maybe it’s famous and I just don’t recognize it. But what’s the story here?

Jane Hanson
It’s actually a screen so you can take it off the wall.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, cool.

Jane Hanson
Use it as a screen. I happen to like monkeys and I have a lot of monkey stuff in my house, and so that’s just one of it. But I think it’s really funny because, first of all, do you know anybody who likes the accordion?

Pete Mockaitis
You know, I knew someone who was into dancing polka, but she didn’t explicitly say she liked the accordion. I just inferred that.

Jane Hanson
So, polka dancing, I mean, look, if you grew up in the Midwest, like I did, there’s a lot of polka dancing going on and there’s a lot of people that played the accordion. And so, I like having an accordion not because I like music so much but I think it’s funny.

Pete Mockaitis
Yeah, it is. There’s something comical about it. Like, Steve Urkel played the accordion and it just fits. There’s just something funny. I don’t know. There’s something funny about the accordion.

Jane Hanson
Right. It is.

Pete Mockaitis
Weird Al, Steve Urkel.

Jane Hanson
I mean, it’s goofy.

Pete Mockaitis
Goofy, yeah.

Jane Hanson
Plus, you’ve got to be really talented because you got to pull, you got have the air going so you got to pull it back and forth, and then use the hand to play the notes. It’s a lot of work to play an accordion.

Pete Mockaitis
It is. Well, Jane, this has been a really cool demo here because here we are, conversing about things, and I’m enjoying myself in terms of covering Illinois, Midwesterners, monkeys, accordions, so it’s good stuff just based on what was visually right there in front of us.

Jane Hanson
Which visual is really important, which gets me to the most, the stuff I like to talk about the most, which is about body language.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay, let’s hear it.

Jane Hanson
So, man and woman have been walking on Earth for, depending on who you believe, anywhere from 2 to 14 million years, but we’ve only had a spoken language for 160,000. So, how did we communicate besides a few grunts here and there? It’s all about how we used our bodies. And to this day, we still do it even though it’s so innate, nobody actually recognizes how much they’re doing it.

So, I challenge you to do, I challenge everybody who’s listening, to do, take a little test. Turn on your television set and watch a show but have the sound off, and you’re going to be able to figure out the bulk of the story.

Pete Mockaitis
Yeah, my wife does this sometimes. Like, “Oh, someone is angry. Someone has discovered something surprising.”

Jane Hanson
But you can do it because it’s the body language. And the body language, like the face alone, for something like 10,000 different expressions that we can use, some of them really fleeting, but every single one of them has a meaning, which is the really crappy part every time when we’re anywhere we had to wear those masks. You’re missing people’s smiles. You didn’t know what people were really thinking because you couldn’t see their mouths.

But, anyway, all I’m saying is that our bodies say so much more. I can tell you stories about which way your feet are pointing when you’re sitting in somebody’s office. What does that mean? About how you’re using your arms, the gestures, there’s everything, has got inner meaning to it that we subconsciously read and we don’t even know it.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, that’s juicy, yes. Well, Jane, please lay it on us. We previously had FBI agent Joe Navarro, who wrote a great book about body language, What Every BODY is Saying, which we’ll link to, and he had some great nuggets. But you are offering from a different context than law enforcement. So, tell us, what have you found to be the most useful and reliable body language indicators of something useful or good? So, we talked about some feet pointing. Lay them on us. What are your, say, top five favorite indicators that tell you something useful?

Jane Hanson
Well, I have to say one of the first is exactly what Joe Navarro probably told you about eye contact.

Pete Mockaitis
All right.

Jane Hanson
Did he tell you about when people look up to the left that they were lying?

Pete Mockaitis
Well, he’s very nuanced and careful to not be as black and white about that. But, yes, that could be indicative, if I recall correctly, about, “I am accessing an imagined content in my brain as opposed to remembering factual content in my brain, so I could very well, potentially, be fabricating something.” And just to clarify, for listeners, is it their left or the left that we see?

Jane Hanson
It’s usually the left that we see.

Pete Mockaitis
The left that we see. So, if it goes left, as though we were looking at a piece of paper, and it’s on the left, that means, “Hmm, might be…”

Jane Hanson
They may not be telling you the truth or the absolute truth.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay.

Jane Hanson
Okay. So, eye contact is a really big deal because eyes are the gateway into the soul. So, when you’re talking to someone, and if you’re not looking them directly in the eye, they’re not going to trust you, they’re not going to believe that you really care, because I do a lot of coaching via Zoom now and via whatever other platform, and it’s hard because, in order to have good eye contact, you need to be looking right up into the little lens but your instinct is to be looking at the person that you’re talking to.

Now, when you’re doing a podcast, it’s much easier because you don’t have to look at anybody. However, you really need to think about having great eye contact because, if you don’t, people just don’t trust you. Okay, so eye contact is another thing. Another thing is crossing your arms. So, crossing your arms can mean several things. One of the things that it can mean is you really don’t care what somebody is saying, that you’re kind of bored, and it’s an indication that, “Hmm, okay. Fine. Mm-hmm, okay, whatever.”

It also can mean, especially for women, that you’re cold, because maybe the air-conditioning is on too much in a room, or maybe you need a sweater outside, so it means you’re cold. It can also mean, “Hmm, I want to get out of here. How am I going to do that?” So, there’s a lot of things with one gesture that can mean many things.

When you take your hands and hold them, what’s called the most visionary look is…you know, playground ball? Do you have kids?

Pete Mockaitis
Yeah.

Jane Hanson
Okay. So, the playground ball, they’re not the size of basketball, they’re not the size of a baseball, they’re kind of in between. Those playground balls, when you hold your hands so it’s like you’ve got that in the middle, that means that you’re being extremely visionary, that what you’re saying is kind of a very well-rounded thought that we should take in.

Pete Mockaitis
Or, you think it is maybe.

Jane Hanson
Or, you think it is. But it’s the way it’s interpreted by somebody who’s watching you.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay, so you’re saying that just by doing that, folks can assign more weight to what it is we’re saying.

Jane Hanson
When you hold your hands out and you’ve got that big wide gesture where your palms are up, kind of like when you see those preachers on TV, it may mean that you’re really asking for something, and maybe it’s asking for something that you might not want to give.

Pete Mockaitis
You’re asking for something you don’t want to give, like, “Who wants to sign up for this committee? I don’t.” Like that? “You want to give of your time to this thing that I don’t want to give my time to?”

Jane Hanson
Exactly. Exactly. All right. So, the way your feet are pointing, what I was referring to earlier, if your feet are pointed towards the person you’re speaking to, you’re being very open and you’re clearly listening to them. If your feet are pointed away, it means you’re not interested. Are you buying into any of this or do you think I’m just making it up? “I don’t know about you.”

Pete Mockaitis
Well, no, I think the feet are good. I guess I’m just recalling Joe Navarro’s rant about opaque tables in interrogation rooms and how that’s a travesty and need to be transparent. So, I was like tracking and I was remembering, so I was imagining an interrogation room as you’re speaking. But it’s clear that you’re observing my body language as we’re talking.

Jane Hanson
Well, I’m observing, like, obviously, I can only see a part of you, so it’s harder to observe it as such, but you look like you’re sitting up pretty straight. That’s another big one. It’s when people slump, again, that shows a lack of self-confidence. Slumping means you’re not very…you’re kind of down. You’re not enthusiastic, etc. If you think about it, if somebody walks up to you and they’ve got their shoulders slumped, you’re kind of going, “Do I really want to speak to that person? That person looks kind of…like, this is going to be a painful conversation.”

Pete Mockaitis
They don’t seem as open to that idea of talking to you.

Jane Hanson
Right. Exactly. But when you’ve got your shoulders back and you’ve got great posture…I have a wonderful little poster that has somebody standing up straight, and it says, “This is a good person,” and then somebody who is really slumped over, and it says, “This is an evil person.”

Pete Mockaitis
Well, yeah, you think about that. Evil people tend to be slouched over and stroking hairless cats as a general rule of thumb. Like, there’s your telltale signs, “Excellent. Excellent.”

Jane Hanson
You’re good because I love how you’re painting imagery in people’s heads because that’s a very big deal, too, is that we create the imagery because we may not be able to be showing it to them.

Pete Mockaitis
Cool. All right. So, you mentioned there are three core elements of speaking – what you say, how you say it, and body language. So, we talked about some body language pieces. Can we hear a little bit about the what you say and then how you say it?

Jane Hanson
Well, the how you say it is actually also having to do with body language because that’s about delivery, but a lot of that is about how we use our voice.
Voices, we barely use our voice. You have an excellent voice.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, thank you.

Jane Hanson
It’s nice and deep and solid, and that’s what we like. We like, think of hot chocolate, or bourbon, or things melting. That’s how we like voices. That’s how people have always done so well with commercials, how all those male voices have a really silky…that’s why we like them so much because we like those voices.

Women are usually told to use their lower pitches because lower pitches are considered to be more believable. We hardly ever use the full range of what we have. We need to think about things like pace, how fast are you talking. When you talk fast, or when you go like, “Well, let me tell you about this story because this story is really exciting. You’re really, really going to love it,” you think one of two things, either, “I’m so excited that I’m almost out of control,” or, “I’m so nervous, I don’t know what I’m saying.”

Then you think about your tone, which is really intended to be the interpretation of something. So, if I speak to you like this, and it’s important that you know this fact, you’re going to say, “Man, this is important because, listen to the way she’s saying it.” But if I say, “It is really important that you know this,” now I’ve taken an entirely different tone, and you’re going, “Nah, I’m not sure I’m going to care.”

Pete Mockaitis
Right.

Jane Hanson
Okay. So, volume, softness is being soft. It can be equally as effective as being loud because, in both cases, you’re making me pay attention in one way or another. Softness can speak volumes about credibility, about authority, and about leadership.

Pete Mockaitis
And as I think about softness, it’s not like…I’m thinking about that sketch with Andy Samberg, “Shy Ronnie,” where he’s just kind of mumbling really quietly, and so that’s probably not the softness that you’re talking about, Jane, I’m guessing. But, rather, like you’re deliberately bringing it softer, like there’s something sort of touching or emotional or some gravitas, some seriousness about a thing, and so you’re deliberately going there as oppose to you’re like scared to own your volume, and so you’re mumbling.

Jane Hanson
Exactly. It is about technique. It’s all about technique. You’re absolutely right. Because people who are very soft spoken, sometimes that’s just their natural way of speaking, and that can be to their own detriment because, then, if you can’t hear someone, and it’s not a deliberate thing, like they’re not trying to get you to pay attention but you can’t hear them, you’re simply going to dismiss them, because if you can’t hear it, it doesn’t matter what you said.

Pete Mockaitis
Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, so then we talked a bit about body language and then vocal bits, your volume and your pace and your tone. How about in terms of, I guess, the 7% or 8%, the actual word choice? What do you think about that?

Jane Hanson
Well, I don’t want anybody to think that it doesn’t matter what you say, because if you don’t have anything to say, who cares how you say it? So, content is important, and you’re usually speaking to somebody because of the content that you have in work, in a presentation, in a speech, in a video, because everybody’s doing videos these days. You’re doing it because you are the expert at something, because you have something great to say.

Now, how are you going to say, I don’t mean say, how are you going to give your best? So, you have to think about the message. And the message has to be really clear and concise. There’s a big movement out there to speak in threes, and I’m sure you’ve heard of this – three points. Okay, let me ask you a question. What’s nine times one?

Pete Mockaitis
Nine.

Jane Hanson
Not in messaging math. In messaging math, that’s zero.

Pete Mockaitis
Messaging math. Okay, so if I have nine points, zero are going to get through.

Jane Hanson
That’s right. So, you get one. You get one great point. In messaging math, three times three, you’d say it’s nine. It’s one, maybe two. So, if you have three points, and you say some three times, one or two of them are going to get through. So, the best thing I can say is to have a very clear message. And to make sure you get that message out there frequently by using other kinds of techniques throughout the duration of your presentation, such as telling a story, maybe giving a great fact. Whatever it is, you need to be sure that you don’t overwhelm the human brain with a bunch of different messages because it’s not going to work. They’re never going to remember it.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. So, one key message shared differently. So, maybe, could you give us an example of bad versus good here?

Jane Hanson
All right. So, it’s hard for me to do bad but I’ll try. Okay, so I want you to take away from this podcast that you need to make sure that you always use your voice in so many different ways that you never ever tell a story that’s more than 30 seconds long, that you always have three main points, that I want you to never forget about looking your audience in the eye, that I think you must always have perfect posture, that I think you must point your feet in the right direction, and I think you’ve got to make sure that your hair is always combed. All right, I just said like 12 different things that I want you to do. How many of those could you actually remember?

Pete Mockaitis
Well, yeah, almost none, kind of the last because it’s the last, comb my hair, and then my key, my toes pointed and my posture good. But, yeah, so not much.

Jane Hanson
Right. But if I said, “To be really an effective speaker, you must focus on how you’re delivering your message, and make sure that message has one solid point that’s very, very clear and concise.”

Pete Mockaitis
Okay, there’s one point. Thank you. Cool. All right. Well, so that’s one key thing is to be concise. Any pro tips on getting to that brevity and trimming things down?

Jane Hanson
Yeah, I love mapping, like taking a big whiteboard and writing all my thoughts on it, and I’ll pile a ton of them on it. And then I’ll circle the ones that really connect. Then I’ll draw lines between them, and say, “Okay, this, this, this, and this,” I shouldn’t be pointing like this because this is a podcast. I apologize. Audience, I’m pointing. I’m like going pretending like they’re all connecting.

And then I see what’s the common thread. And that helps lead me to my kind of bottom line. So, it’s really about, “What do I want the audience to walk away with? What’s my key point I want them to walk out the door thinking?” And I always have to get back to that. So, it’s, today, I want your audience to walk away thinking, “I can be a great speaker.”

Pete Mockaitis
Cool.

Jane Hanson
Now, how do I get them there? We’ve talked about how to use your voice. We’ve talked about how to use your body. And, right now, we’re talking about how to get to that key point.

Pete Mockaitis
Beautiful. Thank you. And so, now I’m wondering, any key things you recommend we stop doing, some communication don’ts?

Jane Hanson
Oh, yes. How about like, you know, maybe, so.

Pete Mockaitis
Vocal pauses, right?

Jane Hanson
My favorite new one is, “Yeah, no.” How many times have you heard people say that recently?

Pete Mockaitis
That is another one.

Jane Hanson
So, those are crutch words. And you ditch crutch words by taking a pause, because crutch words are fillers, and we don’t like dead air. We don’t like dead air on a podcast, we don’t like dead air on television, we don’t like dead air on a conversation. We always think we have to fill it up. You don’t. And you become more credible when you take a pause. And a pause is the length of time it takes to tap your foot.

Pete Mockaitis
Tap it once.

Jane Hanson
Yup. That’s it. It’s no big deal but it takes guts because we don’t like to do that.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s true, it does take guts. And I think there’s some fear that someone else is going to sort of like steal the stage or the microphone or the air time from you. If I’m saying something to you, Jane, and then I just pause, it’s almost like we’re worried, like, “Oh, I won’t get to say the thing that I want to say if I pause because someone else is going to take it, or people will think I’m dumb if I have silence.” So, it’s like there’s some internal fear or resistance to doing it. So, how would you persuade the reluctant pauser?

Jane Hanson
By telling them that if they do that, they will be considered a great talker. It will add volumes to their credibility. I dare you to watch any great speaker out there and note their pauses. Barack Obama, considered to be one of the greatest pausers of all time. I’m not kidding.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, no, it’s true. I was like, when I hear impressions, that’s kind of like what happens, like, “We hear a few words quickly, and then pause.” So, that’s kind of how it unfolds.

Jane Hanson
Right. Bill Clinton is a good pauser. He’s also a great gesturer. And one of the things that Bill Clinton was told early on was that he had to keep…he liked to take his hands and go…he had lots of gestures and really wild. It’s so funny because sometimes I work with people and they’ll say, “I have to gesture a lot because I’m Italian.” I’m like, “It’s okay,” but the more you gesture that isn’t in sync with what you’re saying, then people are distracted and they’re no longer listening to you any longer because they’re wondering, “What the hell are you doing with your hands?” So, Bill keeps his gestures inside a square box around his torso, and it’s made him really effective, and it helped him not do all the distracting gestures.

Pete Mockaitis
Beautiful. Well, Jane, tell me, anything else you want to make sure to mention before we shift gears and hear about some of your favorite things?

Jane Hanson
Well, I love a Winston Churchill quote, which is, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” So, always prepare.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. That’s a great quote. I was just about to ask. So, how about a favorite study or experiment or bit of research?

Jane Hanson
Well, I told you about like watching television with the sound turned off. I always like people to assess themselves before I work with them, and it’s really interesting how they are so self-critical far more than they need to be. So, I think if you asked people, when you’re there to help them, to give you a really solid decent assessment that it’s really good research into them, and it shows they’re willing to learn.

Pete Mockaitis
Cool. And a favorite book?

Jane Hanson
I’ll tell you an interesting book that I just read was Huma Abedin. She was Secretary of State Clinton’s right hand person, and she went through a lot in her personal life. That was pretty good.

Pete Mockaitis
And a favorite habit?

Jane Hanson
A favorite habit of mine is yoga. I do it virtually every day. And every single morning, I listen to some sort of an inspirational thing about gratitude.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s good.

Pete Mockaitis
And is there a key nugget you tend to share that really connects and resonates with folks; they quote it back to you often?

Jane Hanson
Yes, a Maya Angelou quote, which is, “People will forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel.” And the reason that’s so important, getting back to that idea of listening, you make people feel when you listen to them.

Pete Mockaitis
Amen. Amen.

Jane Hanson
And I think it’s really, I think that is. And it’s never been more important than it’s been in the last two years during what we’ve all been through because we all needed to connect more, we needed to feel more, and being able to help be vulnerable, to help be empathetic, to help show compassion, we’ve all needed it so much. And that just gets back to that notion of helping each other feel.

Pete Mockaitis
And if folks want to learn more or get in touch, where would you point them?

Jane Hanson
They could reach out to me at my website, which is JaneHanson.com, that’s H-A-N-S-O-N because, as any good Midwesterner knows, I’m Norwegian. And I’m really easy to reach that way.

Pete Mockaitis
And do you have a final challenge or call to action for folks looking to be awesome at their jobs?

Jane Hanson
Yeah, take risks. Dare to speak out. Dare to own your space. Dare to let your ideas come forth. Don’t keep them inside. What’s the worst that could happen? Somebody says no. But I guarantee you, they won’t. And the moment you start doing it, it only grows and you’re going to feel so much better about yourself.
And, also, I mean, even as simple as go onto a social media site, especially for business, like LinkedIn, reach out to somebody you don’t know and comment on something. Maybe you’ve seen something wonderful they’ve written or maybe they’ve gotten some…they have some huge accomplishment. Congratulate them. You can’t believe how many people and how many friends I’ve made by doing that. Just dare. Take a risk. It’s worth it.

Pete Mockaitis
Beautiful. Well, Jane, this has been a treat. Thank you. And I wish you lots of luck in your communications.

Jane Hanson
Thank you. Same to you. And you keep up the good work.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, thank you.