
Soulful Speaking
What if public speaking could be a transformative and soul-stirring experience instead of a nerve-wracking obligation?
Soulful Speaking features heart-to-heart conversations, breakthrough coaching calls, inspiring stories of transformation, and guest experts who do speaking and speaking related things a little differently.
You’ll learn how to show up the way you do 1:1 with your closest friends in front of soulmate audiences of any size: from TikToks to TED Talks.
Speaker, actor, author, and intuitive speaking and leadership coach Lauri Smith created this show to change the conversation - and your experience - around public speaking from one that’s rooted in fear, competition, and conforming to one that’s filled with transformation and soul so you can say YES to that voice inside you that’s calling you to create your legacy.
Soulful Speaking
Pivot Pivot Season 1 Mash-Up: When the Mic Gets Personal
What do 14 soulful speakers say when the spotlight softens and the mic gets personal?
In this special bonus episode, we’re mashing up answers from the “Pivot Pivot” lightning round—a series of rapid-fire questions inspired by Bernard Pivot and Inside the Actors Studio. From favorite words to how they hope to be remembered, this mash-up offers a glimpse into the hearts behind the voices.
As I edited, I was struck all over again by just how extraordinary these people are—wisdom, heart, soul, purpose, and presence, all wrapped in breathtaking humanity.
Take a listen. Let their answers stir your own reflections.
And maybe—just maybe—you’ll find yourself smiling (or tearing up) along the way.
Story Magic
A Soulful Speaking Playshop for loving rebels on a soul-driven mission.
Join me for Story Magic — a live, interactive Soulful Speaking Playshop where you’ll learn powerful secrets from the ancient art of theatre for telling engaging, dynamic stories.
Thank you so much for listening!
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And it's time to slide into our Pivo Pivot, pivo, pivot, pivo, pivot. I loved the TV show Inside the Actor's Studio when I was a child and the host, james Lipton, asked a series of questions that was inspired by a series of questions from someone else named Bernard Pivo. So I'm now. You know we're paying it forward with this. All right, it is time now for our Pivot Pivot, pivot, pivot, pivot, pivot. So beautiful. Oh, tears and the past couple of times I've got to this lightning round of questions. I'm starting to call it the Pivot Pivot because a few times it's been like we're in this incredibly deep thing, you're sharing this heartfelt and I'm like over here, crying, going. Okay, it's time for the PIVO pivot.
Speaker 2:I love it All right Hard pivot.
Speaker 3:Let's go, I'm ready.
Speaker 1:It's time for what I am calling the Pivo Pivot, pivo, pivot, pivo Pivot.
Speaker 3:Pivo Pivot. I like it.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, okay, woo hoo, woo hoo.
Speaker 2:Woo hoo, I think.
Speaker 4:I need to take a sip for this? Do I need to stretch for this? You can stretch.
Speaker 1:Let's take a little stretch Really.
Speaker 2:I'm like, okay, here we go.
Speaker 1:What is your favorite word?
Speaker 2:Life Flow Delight.
Speaker 6:Mama Mellifluous Succulents.
Speaker 3:Ken Fascinating, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4:Soup.
Speaker 1:It's in French Exquis. It means in French Exquis it means exquisite, Mmm, yummy.
Speaker 7:What is my favorite word? Let's do that. Who was the actor who did it? He was like I'm just going to get here. And just a favorite word Adventure.
Speaker 1:Oh, fuck, fuck, Fuck would be my favorite word.
Speaker 2:It's so personal. What would be my favorite?
Speaker 1:word. It's so personal. What is your least favorite word? Hate, hate.
Speaker 3:Hate.
Speaker 2:Confusion Should.
Speaker 8:Moist Can't. Can't this spreadsheet. Stupid Racism.
Speaker 7:Racism. Can't this spreadsheet?
Speaker 2:Stupid.
Speaker 1:Racism. What turns you on creatively?
Speaker 4:spiritually or emotionally, Late night chats with my husband.
Speaker 2:Adventure Laughter Womb work, especially dancing, dancing in nature.
Speaker 6:Being in nature, being in nature.
Speaker 2:Okay, I do have two answers for this, and it was speed round. One is sitting with cacao, which is chocolate, and two, this visual that someone just gave me recently for energy flow, so incoming energy coming up through your root chakra and through the rest of your body. There is such a turn on nature to the incoming energy coming up and flowing through you.
Speaker 1:I love that the incoming energy.
Speaker 8:A sense of connection to purpose.
Speaker 1:Seeing other people exhibit their talents Two things.
Speaker 3:Seeing other people exhibit their talents Two things.
Speaker 7:Challenge and an expansion of an idea that I originally had from someone else. Details and honesty.
Speaker 4:Joy Writing, definitely writing.
Speaker 1:Love. What turns you off? Ignorance, closed-mindedness.
Speaker 2:Rigidity, insecurity, settling.
Speaker 6:Too long in a city.
Speaker 8:Feeling restricted, feeling that I'm not in a state of empowerment.
Speaker 3:Confusion Mundane, yeah, mundane, we'll leave it at that.
Speaker 2:Administrative tasks.
Speaker 7:Well for sure, inauthenticity.
Speaker 2:Dishonesty.
Speaker 1:What's your favorite cuss word?
Speaker 6:oh, I'm old school on this one. I don't think you can go past the mouth feel and the versatility of fuck, oh fuck fuck fuck fuck, fuck man, fuck, fuck.
Speaker 2:I feel like a little kid. Fuck man, fuck, fuck. I feel like a little kid. In that way right.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, I'm saying fuck on a podcast.
Speaker 4:Oh, I'm laughing because my husband always is trying to get me to kiss and I'm terrible when I say it. There's no like infinite Shooty poops, cheese and crackers or biscuits, shit, shit.
Speaker 7:Bullshit, fuck, fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck it's. It's so versatile, it, it, it. It can be all kinds of different. Fuck, it's so versatile, it can be all kinds of different. Love it, use it all the time.
Speaker 1:What sound or noise do you love?
Speaker 7:I love, honestly, I love the sound of silence-ish it's not quite silence, but like being out on the porch and just listening to the wind and the quiet and the rain. Oh my god, I love the rain. And the last but not least, I love the sound of a really hot mic, when, when somebody's playing like a really intimate acoustic, the singer-songwriter, that sense of that they're leaning in and just getting really intimate and real. I love that feel.
Speaker 4:Oh, my favorite sound in the world is the sound of the breeze going through the tree leaves that leaf clapping sound.
Speaker 5:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4:I love that sound.
Speaker 1:The wind through a forest of bamboo.
Speaker 5:Birds yeah, hummingbird and just most birds. I love their sound.
Speaker 2:Right now, I really love Alchemy crystal sound bowls and gongs. G-o-n-g-s gongs my dog sighing.
Speaker 4:I love that sound so much.
Speaker 8:I kind of love when my dog sneezes.
Speaker 2:Baby laughs, boom, shakalaka.
Speaker 6:I love when I'm in bed and there's rain on the tin roof and there's nowhere that I have to be and nothing that I have to do, and it just melts me.
Speaker 5:I was going to do like my sound I make to myself, like ah.
Speaker 3:I love when somebody I love says my name.
Speaker 1:Candice, see, it's so good.
Speaker 3:My wife's laugh.
Speaker 2:This is so cheesy, my husband's singing so cheesy.
Speaker 1:It's better that that's not the answer to my next question. What sound or noise do you hate?
Speaker 2:My microwave beep. I hate my freaking microwave beep. It's the worst beep. It's so hard.
Speaker 4:The sound of fingernails on the chalkboard or styrofoam rubbing together Leaf blowers.
Speaker 7:Oh, together Leaf blowers. Oh, fuck leaf blowers. And drones Lawnmowers.
Speaker 5:Really squeaky dog barking, honking of horns, like in New York City.
Speaker 3:High pitch, super high pitch noise.
Speaker 2:Screeching.
Speaker 8:Oh, I have tinnitus. I do not like that at all. It's constantly ringing in my ears. I would say that's, that's up there this is easy.
Speaker 6:Anything repetitive, anything that just goes over, and including my children singing, drives me insane the sound I hate most is there's a particular tone in people's voices when they repeat with conviction the lies they have bought and sold themselves. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me.
Speaker 5:People screaming um in in ways that are very not present.
Speaker 1:What profession other than yours would be fun to try?
Speaker 5:Anthropologist.
Speaker 3:Professional wrestling.
Speaker 5:Trapeze artist.
Speaker 6:Musician.
Speaker 2:Talk show host A marine biologist.
Speaker 4:Psychology. I think a diver would be fun.
Speaker 5:I've always wanted to work at a donut shop. I'd love to be a voice actress for erotic stories.
Speaker 7:Roller skating derby, what profession would you not like to do? Anything whose primary purpose is just to make money, and immediately. Anything that's in a cubicle, any kind of like computer desk job all day, every day.
Speaker 4:Sitting at a computer all day and hearing data.
Speaker 5:I would not like to work at the sewer system, having to be with our excrements. Bus driver.
Speaker 1:Lawyer.
Speaker 3:I would not like to be a lawyer.
Speaker 1:Accountant. Anything with sports.
Speaker 3:Telemarketing.
Speaker 1:And last one what do you hope people say about you on your 100th birthday? You're so young at heart.
Speaker 7:Thank you for your wisdom. Well gosh, I hope I get to see 100. That's a really interesting question. Laurie, that's you, that's not the Bernard Pivot. That was a good one, I think what I'd like to have people say is is is thank you for seeing me. And and the other thing that came came up just then was that was more funny I went my hundredth birthday. I like and be like man. You sang the shit out of that song just then.
Speaker 6:She put me in touch with my true nature.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh that I always saw them and loved them for exactly who they were. She was so fun, full of joy, and she brought a smile to my face. She's still really cool.
Speaker 5:She loved and she lived with heart and all things sparkle.
Speaker 4:She made a difference in my life.
Speaker 5:Thank, you for doing life together. She saw me, she listened, she made me or helped me see myself more fully.
Speaker 1:She was just a blast to be around.
Speaker 8:I hope they say that I was a person that lived in his truth and, as a result, impacted everyone that he met.
Speaker 3:He asks the right questions that shifted thought patterns, that created wellness in humanity.
Speaker 2:I love them. That's all. And or? That motherfucker was a badass bitch.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much.