Anyone who talks with Annette Yashpon immediately senses how she captivates her audiences. The charismatic communication expert manages to do this whether in her role as a presenter, a speaker or as a coach guiding a workshop on leadership skills.
Annette also creates the WOW effect when she plays the piano during or after an event. And she can sing, too.
The lively, versatile personality speaks fluent English, German and French. She has always been fascinated by language and communication – both in the film industry, where she was at home for 10 years, and later, successfully proving her communication skills as a presenter and speaker in the event industry. Her assignments ranged from the USA to Dubai to Europe, including an audience of as many as 10,000 in the SAP-Arena Mannheim.
Meanwhile, Annette Yashpon has founded her own company. With No FoOol Communication she helps others to grow and prosper. We managed to speak with Annette about the role her dog, Ebony, plays in her work, and overall what Annette passes on to her audiences.
Annette Yashpon in interview
1. What are the core subjects of your keynote speeches?
My keynote speeches deal with Communication in its broadest sense.
I advocate that authentic powerful and effective communication cannot be achieved simply by learning ‘external’ communication skills, especially when adrenalin comes into play!
For this reason, Mindful Communication is a core subject I deal with in depth, supporting the idea of looking within and finding out who our ‘best self’ actually is, in order then to communicate this externally for optimum benefit.
This underscores the subjects of staying true to yourself and quality of life, plus stress, change and time management… avoiding being a ‘fake’ and communicating authentically for ultimate gain playing a large role here.
I go into detail about the much talked of subject, Charisma… what this is and whether it is in fact possible to learn. I use my No FoOol Communication formula, A-P-E, to support the objective with its highly relevant core subjects, Authenticity, Presence and Empathy.
And in this way, I also implement the subject of compelling, innovative and charismatic leadership, motivation and success, together with successful team communication and the all too necessary handling of crisis communication.
‘External’ presentation skills don’t get forgotten! … body language, vocal skills and rhetoric are core subjects too, amplifying everything that has come before.
I like to refer to all these core subjects or elements as colours in a paint palette. It is indeed intriguing how they may be combined and used uniquely and individually for highest quality communication results.
2. Which audience or which branch do you reach with your speech?
Well, put it this way: we all need good communication! I mean, we all communicate. Every single one of us.
Yet… do we?!
What I mean is: do we really communicate how we think we do and in a way which is advantageous to us and also to those around us?
So some individuals in the audience might wish to be a great public speaker, improve their presence or rhetoric, give fantastic keynote speeches or powerful presentations.
Some might wish to be a better leader, communicating more constructively and powerfully within their team or company.
Some could wish to reduce general stress from aggression surrounding them or misunderstandings caused by misleading communication at work or in their privates lives.
Some will wish simply to become a more popular and charismatic person.
These are just a few examples, but show how effective communication is a powerful tool to enhance many aspects of a person’s life.
In this way, as long as someone is open to growth, change and advancement, every individual, leader and team can profit from my talks.
3. Are you a PREMIUM SPEAKER? Where do you get your insights from?
As a PREMIUM SPEAKER I recognize the importance of giving value:
- giving value thanks to my many educational certificates and qualifications over the years;
- giving value by virtue of the diverse and first-rate experiences over the decades with numerous compelling professionals;
- giving value as a result of my long-standing stage career in front of thousands of people.
Yet value for me also means offering my audiences real-time benefit, a unique and compelling personality and authenticity.
As Oprah Winfrey so astutely once said: “Often we don’t even realize who we’re meant to be because we’re so busy trying to live out someone else’s ideas.”
It possibly sounds strange me saying this, but I feel extremely lucky that my life path was, at times, very rocky. My dog mirrored me. And I sure didn’t like the truths that were being shown to me by her reactional behaviour!… basically she sensed my constant impatience as I tried to imitate others in the race to become bigger and better. It was in this way that she turned out to be the best coach ever, helping me learn to pause in the Now and discover the power of my ‘unique’ self.
And at the end of the day, I believe this contributed greatly towards helping create the authenticity and personality that I now, along with the other values, offer my audiences as a PREMIUM speaker.
4. What will be in the future? Does «time» play an important role in your work?
Communication knows no time-limit. The cavemen and women communicated, as will Martians in hundreds of years to come! So unless we live as a hermit, the only way forwards involves effective communication.
The role of communication in the future must, however, adapt to the times. The way people think and what people want, changes. We only need to look at our digital age and social media to recognize this.
But it’s also about our increasingly challenging and demanding modern world affecting us as individuals, which goes on to affect our communication. Whether a private person, in a team, a manager or a leader, we are forced to adapt and cope. But if we don’t have techniques to help us in this regard, the communication suffers and goes on to fail accordingly.
Future and change play a huge role in communication and one that I address keenly in my talks.
5. Tell us your life motto? What do you want to give your listeners to take with them?
It’s your mindful communication that creates your world!
The greatest problem with communication is that we don’t really ‘understand’. We often think that communication is simply something we should ‘do’ with other people… but it’s only when we first look inwards and investigate what’s going on with ourselves and then outwards, truly listening in order to understand, rather than to react and answer, that a first-rate communication with others can be created!