Recap of Mastering Soft Skills: Confidence, Connection, and Communication

Mastering Soft Skills: Confidence, Connection, and Communication

On Wednesday, January 15, 2025, the Maker City hosted an insightful session on “Mastering Soft Skills: Confidence, Connection, and Communication.” This interactive workshop was led by Communications Expert, Martha Weeks and brought together makers, entrepreneurs, and community members to explore essential strategies for personal and professional growth.

Event Overview

The event focused on the main theme of creating presence while you talk about your business and story. Martha opened the event with a question to the participants: 

Who is somebody that has “presence” when they speak?

The participants answered with specifics, “Dolly Parton.” Some answered with generals, saying that someone who has presence is simply someone who has passion about what they are saying. 

Martha guided us towards becoming people who speak with presence by covering 3 key topics:

  1. Confidence: Attendees learned practical “confidence hacks” to enhance their presence and tell their stories with impact.
  2. Connection: Strategies for reframing networking into a creative and authentic process of building meaningful, reciprocal relationships.
  3. Communication: Tips on using body language and decisive communication to stand out and make lasting impressions.

Key Takeaways

Below are some highlights from the session, along with actionable tips shared during the event:

  • Building Confidence
    • Martha taught that in order to speak with confidence we must accept imperfections, we have to be willing to try and get better as we go! Practice builds confidence! Learn what to change as you go and adapt!
    • She also spoke about muscular language, explaining that we come off as more confident when we use strong language and cut out our “maybe’s,” “sorry’s,” or “I don’t know’s.” 
    • Martha encouraged participants to tame their imposter syndrome by being aware of the negative self-talk taking place and replacing it with positive mantras. 

 

  • Creating Connections
    • Martha led the room in an activity where everyone teamed up with one another and learned about their partner enough to give a one minute introduction of them to the room. 
    • Martha encouraged us to own our expertise. Sharing an anecdote from her friend, Mary Ellen Ruth Player, “When you bring all of your strengths to the party, you will be unstoppable.” Knowing your strengths shows great confidence and learning to share what you do with others can build important connections. 
    • Listen to feedback from trusted friends and mentors and then decide what to do with that feedback! 

 

  • Improving Communication
    • Participants were taught to BLUF in their communication and storytelling. 
      • Bottom Line Up Front
      • Don’t waste time, get right to the point of why you are communicating. 
    • Martha also taught the room to use the What, So What, Now What method when communicating their needs from an audience 
      • She stated in another way: “Here’s what I do, here’s why it is important, here’s how you can help.” 
      • She gave her own example: “I’m Martha Weeks, I’m a communications coach, I do this because I want to help others change the world with their ideas.” 
        • She defines What: I’m Martha Weeks, I’m a Communications Coach
        • Defines So What: I do this because I want to help others change the world with their ideas. 
        • Which opens the door for the Now What: Where she can inform the audience of her objective. 

We thank Martha for spending the day with us and teaching us some of her expertise. If you want to follow along with what she is up to, you can find her on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marthaweeks/

As always, The Maker City is committed to creating programming to provide education, connection, and inspiration to makers and creative entrepreneurs. We hope to see you at our upcoming events! 

What’s Next?

February 18th: Meet-In. Unlock Your Creative Voice: Artist Statement Workshop

March 26th: Maker Mingle at Relay Ridge

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