Empowering Your Voice: From Sports Leadership to Public Speaking Mastery

Tim Newman: 0:06

Welcome to Speaking with Confidence, a podcast that’s here to help you unlock the power of effective public speaking. I’m your host, tim Newman, and I’m excited to take you on a journey to become a better public speaker. If you are like most people, just the thought of speaking in front of a crowd or talking during an important meeting can trigger all kinds of anxiety. Trust me, I know what that’s like. I gave my first speech as a senior in college. I was so nervous that as soon as I got to the front of the room and opened my mouth to speak, I threw up. I have learned a lot since then and I’m here to help others overcome their fear of messing up or sounding stupid. In this episode, you’ll hear a different perspective on how to grow and develop your communication skills from Jess Huntley. Most of the time when you see or hear individuals that are strong communicators, you tend to think of people that are extroverts and people that tend to regularly speak out in a variety of circumstances. I’ve known Jess for a long time and she has always been the type of person to sit back to observe and listen to others. She talks about what it has been like to advance her career, growing professionally and flourish in a male-dominated field, all while staying true to her personality. She’ll share about how things have changed over time and some encouraging comments about how her voice is being heard and assessed more in terms of her accomplishments than from a lens of representing the voice of women. You’ll hear Jess talk about the role research and preparation take in terms of public speaking engagements and the importance of reading the room so you can change directions to meet the needs of your audience. Listen to the full episode for tips on how to engage with others and communicate effectively without changing who you are as a person or feeling compelled to be perfect. So, whether you’re tuning in from your car, your office or your living room, get ready to embark on a transformative journey with the Speaking with Confidence podcast. Together, we’ll unlock your full potential as a public speaker. Make sure you subscribe, like and download our podcast today. If this is your first time listening, be sure to catch earlier episodes. Sign up for special updates regarding the June 1st launch of the Formula for Public Speaking. Join our growing community of confident speakers and always remember that your voice has the power to change the world.

Tim Newman: 2:15

Our next guest is the founding commissioner of the Atlantic East Conference and she has served in that role since June of 2018. Before joining the Atlantic East Conference, she spent six years at the Centennial Conference. While at the Centennial Conference, she served as the Assistant Executive Director before taking on the Associate Executive Director position in 2017. During her time in the conference office, she was involved in the daily operations, including organization of 20 championship events, staff liaison to coaches, committees, administrator of the NCAA Division III Conference Grant Program, handling all officiating activities, awards administration and served as the administrative liaison to the Centennial Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She also coordinated special events, including managing all aspects of the NCAA Regional Rural Seminars in 2015 and 2018 at York College of Pennsylvania. Her experience stretches much further from what she acquired at the Centennial Conference, holding the position of Director of Division III for the Eastern College Athletic Conference, which moved her back to Pennsylvania. Additionally, she served as the Assistant Commissioner of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference, assistant Director of Athletic and Women’s Basketball Coach at Bay Path College and Director of Men’s Basketball Operations at Harbor.

Tim Newman: 3:29

She was a former Division III student-athlete. She was a four-year letter winner and captain of the York College of Pennsylvania basketball team and graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science in Sport Management and a minor in Business Administration. She also served on the NCAA Division III Student Athlete Advisory Committee in her times as Spartan. She continued her education at Boston College, where she received Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration in May of 2009. Furthermore, she’s a Disney Institute-trained ambassador for the NCAA’s Game Day, the Division III Way program, a member of the NCAA Division III Membership Committee and serves on the Sport Management Advisory Board at York College.

Tim Newman: 4:07

She’s also been a member of the NCAA Women of the Year Committee, ncaa Regional Advisory Committee for Women’s Golf and Afterschool All-Stars Philadelphia Advisory Board. In addition to that, she has also become an adjunct professor at York College of Pennsylvania, where she is teaching public and media relations. Please welcome, jessica Huntley. Jess, I can’t tell you how proud I am of everything that you’ve accomplished in your career. You’ve always, since I’ve known you, you’ve always been a leader, somebody who is willing to do what it takes to get the job done, and that really shows. So welcome to the show.

Jessica Huntley: 4:41

Thanks, Dr Newman. I really appreciate those kind words and I appreciate you having me on today.

Tim Newman: 4:47

Well, you know we’ve talked a little bit offline, you know about what we’re doing, but before we get into speaking in public and talking to people and those types of things, I just want to let our audience know a little bit more and kind of give them some perspective on you and the difference between what we see on TV and Division III. If you look at conference commissioners that we see on TV all the time, they’ve got big offices, they’ve got staffs At Division III level. It’s a little bit different. Where’s your office at?

Jessica Huntley: 5:19

At my house. Yeah, so I actually work from home percent. I’m fully remote, pre-pandemic, post-pandemic. I do have a coworking space that I go to from time to time called the Candy Factory, but beyond that it is a hundred percent remote.

Tim Newman: 5:35

And how big is your? How big is the conference office staff?

Jessica Huntley: 5:38

Two individuals full-time myself and assistant commissioner and then we typically have some interns that work in our office. So currently we have three interns from our institutions that help out on a part-time basis.

Tim Newman: 5:50

Yeah. So if you just take the SEC, you know, compare, compare you to the SEC again. They’ve got a whole building. They’ve got 20 or 30, at least full-time, full-time people. Take that even a step further. You know, I think they only sponsor 14 sports and the Atlantic. Yeah, I mean, you guys sponsor, I think is it 20, 21, 20, that’s correct, yeah, 20 sports that that’s.

Tim Newman: 6:12

That’s insane, that that you know you can do what you, what you do, uh, on when that tight budget, which is you and somebody else you know doing all the same things, you’ve got conference championships and and rules, meetings and coaches and and sports and all these other things, and you all are doing it like that. I do want to mention a couple other things that really kind of highlight you and the things that you’ve accomplished. You were the very first commissioner of the conference. You’re also the first Division III conference that has a partnership with Under Armour and BSN Sports and I think, even more importantly, you’re the first conference that’ll be sponsoring female flag football.

Jessica Huntley: 6:47

Yes, yes, it has been a whirlwind almost six years now. Um, you know, when I started in June 2018, they had created this conference from scratch. Um, and I walked into, you know, not having a website, not having email, not having a PO box, I mean, you name it. They did do the foundational work to get the approval from the NCAA and all of those things, but from an operational standpoint, I had to really set up all of those things.

Jessica Huntley: 7:20

And, yeah, some of those things that were first and foremost to me were we actually set up a network, an Atlantic East network. That was one of the first accomplishments that, you know, I wanted to get under my belt right off the bat. And then, yeah, we did partner with Under Armour and BSN. That is coming up to our end of year, five year contract, so we’ll see what moving forward looks like. And, yeah, the most recent thing has been the female flag football, and I’m really, really excited about that and being the first in the NCAA to offer that for women, and I’m already seeing exponential growth and I’m really excited to be at the forefront.

Tim Newman: 8:02

Talk a little bit more about that and how it came about and your vision of why you wanted to do it and really get that ball rolling.

Jessica Huntley: 8:11

Yeah. So I remember it was gosh May or June of 2022 at this point and it was on the Philadelphia Inquirer, an article about high school flag football for girls in the Philadelphia and the Catholic League in the Philadelphia region in conjunction with the Eagles, and so we had this beautiful picture and they were all celebrating at the Eagles at Lincoln Financial. I was like, wow, that’s really cool and I just started to think, well, why can’t we offer that? If high schools are starting to offer it, maybe we need to add the option for collegiate options. So I ended up going down a road of research. So I have a colleague and a friend that’s at the Jets and he connected me with their community relations person who does their ground, the ground level work or ground work for flag football in the Jets and New Jersey region, and that individual helped connect me to the NFL, to RCX sports, who runs flag football for the NFL and then the Eagles.

Jessica Huntley: 9:20

So I did all this research and ended up getting connected with all the right people and the NFL and RCX have been fantastic.

Jessica Huntley: 9:30

They want to see this succeed. It has succeeded in the NAIA and continues to grow, and the junior colleges have started to offer it as well, and so when I called, I think the NCAA was where they were headed next. So we worked together to get this launched, and the Eagles have been a great support as well, just kind of connecting me and my colleagues to the flag football world, from officiating to coaching, all of those types of things, and so we did end up receiving a grant from RCX to get this off the ground, did end up receiving a grant from RCX to get this off the ground, and so we should be live in 2025 for varsity level. This year we’re going to just do kind of a club. We are going to name a champion, just a kind of a minimal year. Most of our schools have hired coaches and we’re going to do something at the NovaCare Center to kind of do like a clinic for the women that are interested on the campuses currently, and we’re looking at a date in April.

Tim Newman: 10:29

So how many schools in the conference are participating in this?

Jessica Huntley: 10:32

Four are participating right now.

Tim Newman: 10:34

That’s awesome and you know I think that you are kind of foreshadowing some of the things we’re going to talk about. You know the research that you’ve done in the reaching out to you know to different constituencies to you know to get the ball rolling and how important that is in not only the research part in terms of communication but getting to getting and accomplishing the goals that need to be accomplished. You need to be able to feel comfortable reaching out to people that you don’t know and starting conversations and having some hard conversations about that, and I guess we’ll talk a little bit as we go through about some of the hard conversations you may have had to have with college presidents of why this is important and what that could actually do for those institutions.

Jessica Huntley: 11:14

Yeah, yeah, I mean, and then I would be remiss if I didn’t mention you know, I also just intrinsically I think to be able to offer a sport like football for women is just something that I don’t think we’ve had the opportunity to have. And I was thinking kind of selfishly. I was like it because I would have liked to. And then the more women I spoke to they were like absolutely, I would have loved to as well. I mean, the NFL has a stakeholder on the US viewership and people love football in the United States. It’s 93 out of the top 100 viewerships in the media. So so you know, that was my convincing. To the presidents I said if the nfl wants this to happen, it’s going to happen.

Tim Newman: 12:03

Um, and let’s, let’s get in front of this right because, again, like you said, you’re better off being in the forefront than lagging behind and trying to play catch up. Let’s take a step back and go back to what, when you were a young professional. Yeah, you completed an internship with harvard men’s basketball team and then went on to the Greater Northeastern Athletic Conference as an assistant commissioner. What was your primary role and who were the main people or positions that you were communicating?

Jessica Huntley: 12:29

At Harvard I was an intern. That was actually what I did to complete my degree at York College. You know we all had to get an internship. That was for credit. So I did that at Harvard and I was working directly with the men’s basketball coaching staff. So there were three full-time individuals at the time and a volunteer assistant, so it was a five-person office and I did a little bit of everything with all of them. Whether it was travel coordination, we did a little. I did a little bit of everything with all of them.

Jessica Huntley: 13:03

You know, whether it was travel coordination, community service newsletters, so I kind of worked with each of them to help take some small part of their job off of their plate. I remember doing some film exchange. That was one of the things I did. So I would mail the DVDs out. I know that’s no longer a thing, but that was part of my role there, so working kind of with everyone. And then, you know, I did work with the external individuals to the basketball team as well, like the ops team. So whenever there was game day I would help work with the ops team and assist where needed. Same with the communications team.

Jessica Huntley: 13:34

So yeah, I got to work with a lot of different constituents in the Harvard, in the Harvard athletic department not only just the men’s basketball team and then when I transitioned to the great Northeast athletic conference, that was a two-year internship through the NCAA women’s and ethnic minority internship program. Yeah, it’s an amazing program. I highly recommend it to many people, you know, to anyone that’s interested in a career in this field. It’s an amazing program. I highly recommend it to many people, you know, to anyone that’s interested in a career in this field. So it’s a two year, it is a paid internship and they give you some professional development and all those types of things.

Jessica Huntley: 14:08

And so at the GNAC, that was my first exposure to conference life and I had a great mentor and supervisor in Joe Walsh, who remains one of my closest mentors and friends in the industry, and he kind of introduced me to everything conference life. He, you know website, we created a website while I was there. Thankfully social media wasn’t a huge thing at the time so I didn’t have to do too much in that area. You know, championship management, being in on the coaches meetings really exposed me to everything at the time it was just him and I, so really he gave me insight into everything going on at the conference office and I actually didn’t have an office. So, again, I’ve been remote a lot of my career and he had me go to each institution in the Boston area and have an office there for like a month at a time. So I got to work with all the different institutions and the ADs and just got to know everyone, which was really kind of a unique situation.

Tim Newman: 15:09

It’s also really a good idea to expose you to different people within the conference and like, say, get to know them and get to know their styles and those types of things. And like, say, get to know them and get to know their styles and those types of things. So what, if any anxieties did you have taking on such roles as a young professional?

Jessica Huntley: 15:25

I mean moving up to Boston. I’d only ever been there once in my life, so moving there just in general was kind of anxiety provoking, moving away the furthest I’ve ever moved from my family to a city that I hadn’t really been exposed to much. So those were some of the anxieties. But then, like from a professional standpoint, you know, working with four men and just myself as a 22 year old, that was definitely anxiety provoking, but they were fantastic. They made me feel right at home, like one of the staff. Frank Sullivan was the head coach at the time and he flew down to York to meet me in person and he, that’s how genuinely yeah.

Jessica Huntley: 16:06

Yeah, he genuinely wanted to know who I was and it was. It was a great. It was a great partnership and I never really felt out of place there. So the anxieties were were few and far between once I got settled in and same with the GNAC. I really liked going around to the different schools and meeting the different institution, meeting the different members of the institutions, and some invited me to lunch every day, some invited me to staff meetings, so it was just really everyone was so welcoming I really a lot of the anxieties were squelched pretty quickly.

Tim Newman: 16:41

But what about from a communication perspective? You know again, as a young professional you’re dealing with a lot of times in the roles that you were in individuals with with titles and power and influence. What types of of anxieties did you have in terms of communicating and sharing thoughts and ideas with them?

Jessica Huntley: 17:00

Yeah, I mean I feel like I at York I was set up pretty well to have conversations like that, you know, as I was on the national sack, the NCAA Student Athlete Advisory Committee, so in that role I was really kind of forced to speak to athletic directors and commissioners about NCAA legislation.

Jessica Huntley: 17:22

So that really was a good kickstart to my career. And just having the confidence to have those conversations I think if you know your material and you know what you’re talking about, I think the confidence just follows. So I think you know, being educated on what’s going on and just kind of being in tune really helps to have those conversations. And again, everyone I worked with I really didn’t have any experiences where I felt like anyone was speaking down to me or anything like that. It was genuinely good dialogue, good conversation. And again, I think just having the experience from being a student athlete being on the and again, I think just having the experience from a student, from being a student athlete being on the national SAC, and just having the knowledge that I gained from those experiences really set me up to have those conversations.

Tim Newman: 18:09

And again, you talk about the knowledge, but that also comes from you know, which already mentioned, research and taking the time to understand that research and how it actually, you know, affects or plays into whatever given situation that you’re dealing with.

Jessica Huntley: 18:25

Yes, absolutely, I probably researched all the people that I would go and work with. I probably researched, you know, and when we were on national, when I was on national SAC, we would discuss the legislation ad ad nauseum and we would go and present to the ADs and the conference commissioners and yeah, so I think that’s that’s been a huge key in my success from a communication standpoint is really just having the confidence, and confidence comes from knowledge, um, knowledge from research, knowledge from paying attention to what’s going on, those types of things.

Tim Newman: 19:01

Yeah, two really important aspects of the research and the whole paying attention piece, which we’ll talk about here a little bit as well. In your primary role now as a commissioner, who are you really communicating with on a daily basis?

Jessica Huntley: 19:15

On a daily basis I’m dealing with my athletic directors. Those are the constituents I am having conversations with pretty frequently, depending on the time of year, if it’s championship time or if it’s mostly around championship time. That’s when I’m speaking with them pretty frequently about things that are going on. But I’m also calling them about different ideas that I might have, whether it be flag football or streaming or whatever it may have Maybe. I’m picking up the phone and having conversations and I really want to know what’s going on. It’s, again, just kind of building those relationships and hearing the different issues or things that they’re dealing with. So I’m dealing with the athletic directors most regularly, but I do deal with the coaches from time to time. Um, you know we have preseason, post-season coaches calls and I sit in as on as many of those as I can because, again, I want to hear what’s going on, um, and I want them to know that I’m listening and that we’re trying to, you know, continue to evolve as best we can for the benefit of the student athletes. So dealing with the coaches not as regularly but definitely quite a bit of interaction.

Jessica Huntley: 20:22

And then you know president’s meetings.

Jessica Huntley: 20:24

We have president’s meetings about five times, four or five times a year, depending on what’s going on, and I so I’m meeting with our presidents, but I also meet with my boss, who is the president of the chair of the executive committee, and that is a sitting president at one of our universities and so I meet with her monthly, so that’s pretty regular as well. So it kind of vast variety of individuals. I mean we have communications directors that I’m dealing with as well, swas, so kind of just depends on where we are in the season and what situation we’re dealing with. And then I do have to deal with our assigners as well, the people that assign our officials for our games. Sometimes I’m talking to them a lot, depending on what’s going on. If there’s sportsmanship issues or anything like that, I’m having conversations pretty frequently with them. And then student athletes we do have a SAC meeting once twice a year and then, like I mentioned, we have interns that are students, which has been really nice about opportunity to still stay connected with our institutions and our students.

Tim Newman: 21:31

So you’re really changing hats. You know multiple times a day, every day, and what that does is. It goes back to the research and planning knowing who you’re talking to, knowing what the issues are for this conversation going to the next conversation. You know right on down the road.

Jessica Huntley: 21:47

Yes, absolutely, I, definitely, but I feel like it becomes pretty naturally at this point. Again, I think you know most people are people, right? So that’s what I have to remember. Like we all have things that are going on outside of our work life and trying to just build those relationships, so that it’s not even a. I don’t do it consciously, right, you know, it’s not a conscious effort anymore. It’s really just having real dialogue with people and talking about them, with the things that I need to talk to them about.

Tim Newman: 22:20

Right. What about problems? You know whether it’s rules violations or NCAA violations. What types of things are you dealing with from a commissioner’s perspective? You know, this past football season we saw a lot with Jim Harbaugh and the sign stealing types of things. Now you’re obviously not dealing with that, but I’m sure that you do have conversations and are dealing with some NCAA violations at some.

Jessica Huntley: 22:44

Yeah, thankfully we do not have any major violations that I’ve had to deal with. I should knock on wood. You know more of the fires that I’m putting out are typically around sportsmanship. Specific sports have more sportsmanship issues than others and I know that’s not unique to our conference as I talk to colleagues around the country, so I would say that’s probably more of the fires that I tend to deal with more regularly and just kind of, how are we going to, how do we go about them? And that’s something we put into place. We put in a policy that you know if there’s let’s use soccer red card, you know it goes to an ethics committee. They’ll review every red card. If it’s not the double yellow, you know there’s certain criteria that they’ll review and then we’ll talk about different sanctions and then I’ll write a letter and so you know those are kind of things that we do have to deal with more regularly than I would like, but that is definitely some of the more difficult conversations.

Tim Newman: 23:50

You know and we talked earlier, you know offline about. You know the NIL and how that’s affecting you. Know college athletics. How is that really affecting you in Division III?

Jessica Huntley: 24:15

NIL space. I haven’t been made aware of any large deals within the Atlantic East Conference. I do know some that have. I think every institution has had some small NIL deals, mostly the liquid IV, the. You say something or post something and I’ll give you the collateral more of those instead of the financial. So it has not.

Jessica Huntley: 24:33

It has not impacted us too much at this point, but I do find I do feel that we need to continue to educate our student athletes. That’s something I harp with all of our schools. You know this isn’t going away, and I think we should be educating our student athletes on how to be smart about it, how to potentially capitalize if they want to so, and you know there are tax ramifications potentially. So just continuing to educate them and let them know what’s going on in this space, I think it’s important, even if it hasn’t impacted us too much at this point.

Tim Newman: 25:08

Right and you know, with the court ruling came, came down a few days ago, with the NCAA being stayed from enforcing the 8-I-L rules that they’re trying to put in place, you know I see really big changes coming and you know it’s really even affecting all the way down to high school level, when the positives and negatives you know personally and with those with tax implications which I’m sure they really don’t understand, some of those issues.

Jessica Huntley: 25:40

Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. It is affecting everyone and it’s going to continue Like I said.

Tim Newman: 25:46

it’s not going anywhere.

Jessica Huntley: 25:46

We just need to continue to make sure everyone’s aware of the opportunities and the drawbacks.

Tim Newman: 25:55

Right, exactly. You know, in some ways the sporting industry has come a long way with women in leadership roles. You know, for example, let’s just look at the number of female commissioners in conferences across. You know all different levels, right? So Division One, fbs level, you know, out of 10 conferences there are only two female commissioners and neither one of them are in power. Fives At the at the SCS level, you know 14 conferences with seven female commissioners. So you know, that’s that’s half. At division two level. This to me was really kind of kind of interesting Out of 23 conferences, only five females. And and division three, 42 conferences with 20 female commissioners, which again, is is really pretty good. Do you feel like you need to make yourself as a female stand out more because you’re a female presenting? You know conferences at meetings.

Jessica Huntley: 26:46

Generally? No, I would say, especially with the room changing now. You know, just six years ago I think the numbers were were significantly lower and division three. So just six years ago I think the numbers were significantly lower and Division III. But I’ve never felt that in that room I felt always welcome and appreciated and never felt any kind of pressure to work in a different way. But now the room really has changed to, like you said, almost 50% female. So I mean we have just as much of a voice and no need to necessarily speak or feel differently. In my opinion, a job done.

Tim Newman: 27:33

That’s really. I think that’s where we’re, where we’re moving, to which we’re. I think we should, should have been all along anyway. But times have have changed and it to me it’s just kind of I don’t know what the right word is. You know, if you look two out of 10 at the FBS level, again, none of the power five, and why division two only has five of 23,. It’s that to me it’s just mind boggling. I don’t. I don’t quite understand that. But again, you know, if you, if you’re good at your job, get the job done, you know, I don’t see why, why, why it really matters anymore the way it used to. Let’s just put it that way.

Jessica Huntley: 28:06

Yeah, absolutely, and I get asked this question a lot and I and there definitely have. I don’t want to say there’s not been times ever where I felt that I did have to represent the female voice or that I may have been looked at differently, but I think you know, through proving myself and my work, that changes over time.

Tim Newman: 28:26

Just like I would say just like anything else, right, If a guy couldn’t get it done, then they’re not going to stay in that position any longer, either they’re not going to move up. So you know, at some point you either can get the job done and move the ball forward, or you can’t.

Jessica Huntley: 28:39

That’s right. You got to prove yourself.

Tim Newman: 28:41

So you’re also teaching a public community relations class right now. How’s that going?

Jessica Huntley: 28:45

It’s going really well. This is my first time ever teaching and I’m really enjoying it. Definitely some learning curves along the way, but for the most part it’s been going really well and it’s a fun it’s a fun class.

Tim Newman: 29:00

It’s one that you taught Dr Newman to me, so so what strategies are you using to teach the students? You know about talking and presenting and the importance of communications you know, especially in the field of public media relations, where that’s your job, that’s what you have to do.

Jessica Huntley: 29:12

Yeah, we haven’t. We haven’t gotten to that part of the coursework yet. But you know, on day one I had them do a, get a picture of themselves, put some adjectives on it and present it. And I said that’s what you’re going to be doing in this role is you’re going to be presenting and and and being the advocate for yourself or your company, whatever organization you’re working for. So you know, we did open the class that way and I do anticipate getting more into the communication part in the next couple of weeks. So, yeah, I mean that’s definitely we’re doing more of the writing and the behind the scenes right now, but we are moving towards that and it is a very important aspect of that role.

Tim Newman: 29:53

Yeah, as you’re working with those students and, like I said, interns, you know. Do you see a hesitation or the maybe lack of confidence in students and young professionals today to, number one, speak up. Number two, to share their ideas, thoughts and feelings readily in meetings and in you know, the interpersonal communications that you have with them.

Jessica Huntley: 30:16

Yeah, it’s hard for me to gauge that since I haven’t taught before, so I can’t like gauge it versus, you know, 10 years ago or whatever. But as somebody that was rather shy in class, I don’t feel like personally, I don’t feel like it’s much different. You know those, all the students came up and did their presentation at the beginning of class, you know, so I didn’t feel that way. They are very engaged. I only have 14 in my class so that probably gives a better dynamic for that engagement. So I haven’t noticed it, but I know lots of people talk about it as as definitely something that that is a struggle with with younger individuals.

Tim Newman: 30:58

How about the interns that you’re working with? You know, through the conference office.

Jessica Huntley: 31:02

They’ve been fantastic. Um. We’ve got some really great interns and you know they they we have a staff meeting once a week um, and they definitely contribute Um, and that’s they’ve grown over the last couple of months. Um, and they definitely contribute Um, and that’s they’ve grown over the last couple of months. Um. So I just got off of a staff meeting just a few minutes ago and they were, they were very engaged. What they had prior, like in the fall, maybe it was a little less engaged, but you know they’re, they’re seniors, um, they’re they’re confident in their ability and I again, I think you know we have an open relationship here and just open dialogue, so they’re confident in their conversation.

Tim Newman: 31:39

Yeah, but I also think that’s part of who you are as a leader allowing that confidence to build and to be able to share and not feel, you know, that whole idea of like they’re messing up or they’re stupid or this, that or the other thing that we all feel at times. You’ve given that, you’ve taken that burden off of them.

Jessica Huntley: 32:02

Sure, yeah, there’s probably some truth to that and you know I again. It’s just we’re all humans, so let’s treat each other like humans and I’ve said this to other people. You know I hire individuals that I trust. Until you break that trust, I’m going to give you leverage and give you the opportunity to grow and build and do things that you want to do. So you know, I do empower our employees, whether it’s my assistant commissioner or interns. So, yeah, hopefully that does help them in their confidence or interns.

Tim Newman: 32:34

So, yeah, hopefully that does help them in their confidence. Yeah, sure, how has your presentation style or approach or confidence changed over the years?

Jessica Huntley: 32:40

Yeah, as I mentioned, you know, as a student I was pretty quiet in class. I wasn’t always engaged, and you know I but that is also just my personality, it’s not necessarily shyness. I do really like to sit back and observe and listen, which I think has helped me become a better communicator Because, again, that experience and knowledge definitely has helped and I certainly have grown. I didn’t always love getting up and public speaking. I still don’t love it. It’s something I still have to work at every day and but with experience and practice and really, like I said, the research and just knowing what you’re talking about definitely helps. When I have to speak on something I’m not overly confident on or know a lot about, those tend to go worse. So the more prepared I am and the more knowledgeable I am, the better off those public speaking engagements go.

Tim Newman: 33:37

Right and, as I remember, where you may not have said a lot in class, when you got up in front of the class to speak, you were prepared and you did fine. It’s the whole idea of the research and being prepared. You know when it’s your time and I think you brought up a really good point. You know, to be a good communicator, you have to actually listen to what other people are saying and what they’re thinking, to be able to take that in so that you can form your thoughts to reply or not reply to what they’re saying.

Jessica Huntley: 34:07

Yeah, absolutely, you have to know the room and that definitely changes potentially how you’re going to speak to people and how you’re going to engage. You know, when I’m having my president’s meeting and having that conversation, it does tend to look a little different than when I’m engaging with my athletic directors. Yeah, so you have to know your audience and change accordingly from time to time.

Tim Newman: 34:29

So when you have to give a formal presentation, you know what’s, what’s your process, from the time that you agree to do the presentation until the time you step in in front of the audience.

Jessica Huntley: 34:39

It depends on the presentation. I guess If it’s, if it’s presenting about myself, like in this instance, for example, you know I look through the questions. I, you know, you and I had the dialogue about what some of those questions could look like. I’ll be honest, the preparation is fairly minimal because I know myself, I know my experiences, so those often are the easiest. But then you know, when I’m teaching the class and there’s a topic that I don’t necessarily know as well, I definitely can do my research, look at some options online of ways to present the material and just you know, really trying to for me with the class specifically is really having open dialogue, learning from them too. So really it just depends on what I’m presenting on and the audience.

Tim Newman: 35:31

So what’s been your most embarrassing moment when you presented, and how did you recover from that and move on?

Jessica Huntley: 35:36

Most embarrassing. This was more of a personal, but I was still speaking at my father’s retirement. This was years ago and I just could not stop crying. So I think you know anytime that it’s like an emotional connection. Those are really really hard for me, Like my sister’s wedding, um any of those like just where it pulls at your heartstrings. Those are um always very difficult for me and and probably always will be. And I, how did I recover? Um, I don’t know. I think I just walked off and I was like all right, I think I’m done here.

Tim Newman: 36:12

But but you know, even even in those, in those scenarios and those situations, you know, that really kind of really shows who you are as an individual and that’s really all that, all that you were trying to do and and who who your dad was to you and and and showing that love and support you know for him. So that really does kind of just adds to the message that you were saying.

Jessica Huntley: 36:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you absolutely have to be yourself. I mean and I think that that continues to reign true, you know, I’m still not like an amazing public speaker, but I think you know, people have come to know who I am.

Tim Newman: 36:48

So what presentation did you feel the best you’ve ever did after it was over, and why did you feel that way?

Jessica Huntley: 36:53

One of the better presentations I would say would be when I was presenting to our administrators and our presidents about fly football and so just feeling very confident in my research and what I felt was something that we shouldn’t really go after and then getting the agreement from the group to move forward. So some of those wins definitely are some of my better presentations, and it really is a sales pitch too right Like this is what I think we should do. This is why we should do it and hopefully you’re on board.

Tim Newman: 37:27

Yeah, and you’re absolutely right, it is a sales pitch, because that’s something that’s going to really maybe change the whole direction of the conference, yeah, the whole outlook and and it’s, it’s a big deal, it’s, it’s not. I just shook my head at this when I heard this one time when somebody said, well, it’s not like we’re just choosing the color of napkins, okay, but that’s you. That that to me means that you’re really diminishing the ideas and the roles that other people have suggested. So I’m not saying that. But you know, this is a big deal. It’s going to. It costs money, you’re going to cost resources, but on the back end, it could really change the whole trajectory of the conference Big deal.

Jessica Huntley: 38:07

Yeah, yeah. So that was probably one of the more memorable and more recent opportunities.

Tim Newman: 38:13

Right. So do you have a speaker that’s that has impacted you the most, or that that you really relate to the most?

Jessica Huntley: 38:20

This is going to sound very cliche, but I would definitely say some of my family members you know my mom and my sister are, you know we’re we’re very similar in our personalities and you know public speaking is not necessarily our, our best attribute, but one that we all, all three of us, are required to do often, um, in their roles they’re very different than what I do but, um, you know, I think just seeing them being real people and potentially having pauses or things like that, um, and they’ve gotten really, really good at doing public speaking they probably do it more often than I do and just seeing how they’ve developed and become more confident is pretty remarkable.

Jessica Huntley: 39:02

I mean, I would say my mom does not love public speaking, but she’s an executive director of a camp for kids with special needs and so you know she’s out speaking quite a bit publicly, like in front of a lot of a large audience, and so you know she’s out speaking quite a bit publicly, like in front of a lot of a large audience, and so just seeing her do that and my sister seeing similar thing, it just kind of is helpful for me to see them in those roles.

Tim Newman: 39:24

That’s awesome Because again it comes back to they’re probably passionate about what they do.

Jessica Huntley: 39:28

That’s right.

Tim Newman: 39:29

And then they’re just being themselves, and that’s that’s also part of it. And if you think back to some of the things that we’ve talked about over the course of your career, especially when you were a student, you have to know who you are as an individual. Before you can do and be good at really anything else, you have to know what makes you tick, what drives you all those things. You can’t move forward until you know those.

Jessica Huntley: 39:52

Yeah, absolutely, and I think you know I again maybe cliche, but I think those are some of the things that sports teach you.

Tim Newman: 40:03

And that’s why I have been so driven towards sports. When I ask people why they get so nervous when doing, you know, different types of public speaking, most time they say they don’t want to sound stupid or they don’t want to mess up. What would you tell someone who says they don’t want to sound stupid or mess up?

Jessica Huntley: 40:14

Some of the advice I would say would be A people are probably not paying as much attention as you think and I don’t want them to sound terrible, but at the end of the day, they’re not catching all the intricacies that you’re thinking about Like, oh, I shouldn’t have said this, I should have said that, and they probably didn’t. Most people probably didn’t even pick up on it. So, just being realistic with what your audience is hearing, I think that would be really helpful because, again, most people are not paying 100% attention. Especially with phones, people are probably half paying attention. So you know you’re your own worst critic. So they’re not. They’re not going to critique you the same way that you’re critiquing yourself. That’s probably number one, number one thing I would say.

Tim Newman: 41:00

That’s awesome, Cause you’re. You’re absolutely right. They’re not paying attention, but they’re also looking at you because they want you to educate them. You’re the expert and they want to hear what you, what you have to say.

Jessica Huntley: 41:11

Yeah, absolutely, and I, I, I think I said this to you before offline, you know it’s just, somebody had told me once when working with presidents, Right, it’s of the day, you know, no one’s perfect. So I think we have to remind ourselves of that and if you’re trying your best, if you’re prepared, if you’re authentic, I think those things shine through and, again, I think that’s perfect.

Tim Newman: 41:48

Being prepared and being authentic at least in my opinion right now, that’s something that young professionals could really hang their hats on. Be prepared and know who you are as an individual. Those are two of the number one, one A, one B pieces of advice I’d give any of them?

Jessica Huntley: 42:02

Yeah, absolutely I agree. So where can people find you At the candy factory? No, where can people find me? I do have a LinkedIn profile. Beyond that, I’m not super engaged on social media. Maybe I should be.

Tim Newman: 42:19

Maybe you shouldn’t, because I mean, you’re you, if you’ve got enough things going on in your life, you’re, you’re, you’re busy.

Jessica Huntley: 42:25

You don’t have time to mess with that other stuff, but I it’s it’s it’s hard to stay engaged as much as I would like to be. So LinkedIn is probably the best way and I do try to keep that up to date more than probably any of my other social media. We do have an Atlantic East website and Atlantic East things, so those are certainly ways to stay in touch with what’s going on in the Atlantic East, but from a personal standpoint, linkedin is probably the best way to see what’s going on.

Tim Newman: 42:56

Well, jess, thanks so much for taking some time with us today. I really do appreciate it. Keep doing great things and obviously I’ll be following and can’t wait to see how the flag football turns out.

Jessica Huntley: 43:05

Thanks, Dr Newman. I really appreciate you inviting me on today and I wish you the best of luck with your podcast.

Tim Newman: 43:10

Thanks so much. Take care. Let’s take a few minutes to reflect on a conversation with Jess and the things she covered about communication. She talked about the lessons she learned through sports experiences gleaned from being a part of a family of public speakers and having a firm grasp on what makes herself tick as a person. It does not matter if you are a young professional or a seasoned career executive. Credible public speakers need to be able to communicate content in a way that is both approachable and relatable. Her insights about being your own worst critic and reminders that nobody is perfect are keys to speaking with confidence.

Tim Newman: 43:43

Jessica’s use of research, planning and preparation apply to nearly all careers and circumstance. To me, steve Jobs exemplifies this concept, since he was known to practice the content and delivery of each Apple presentation for months. While I am not advocating anyone spend that amount of time on any one speaking engagement, I do advocate combining the practical strategies Jess recommended with her advice to be authentic, as these methods can take you far in growing as an individual and professional. Please make sure you visit the Speaking with Confidence website and join our growing community. Sign up for special updates regarding the June 1st launch of the Formula for Public Speaking. Also be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss any episodes. You can download, like and share the podcast with friends. Always remember your voice has the power to change the world. We’ll talk to you next time, take care, thank you.