Leland+ for Communication & Public Speaking

Why Strong People Start Looking Weak in New Rooms — And How to Fix It [7/22/2026] (Recording)

It is a painful irony: you are technically excellent, you have a proven track record, and you’ve earned your seat, but the moment you enter an unfamiliar professional culture or a more senior global room, you start sounding less clear than you actually are. This is the phenomenon of being "Badly Translated." When high-performers move into global teams (like my clients at Netflix APAC) or competitive international interviews, they often default to tactical, deferential, or over-explanatory habits that make them appear more junior than they are. This livestream is about reclaiming your signal. We will break down why your experience isn't landing and how to shift from sharing information to demonstrating judgment. By the end of this livestream, you will be able to: 1. Spot the Deferential Trap: Identify the specific linguistic and behavioral habits that make you sound like an executor rather than a peer in senior meetings. 2. Master Recommendation Language: Move beyond just asking questions or providing updates to using the phrasing that senior leaders use to direct attention. 3. Shift from Biography to Positioning: Reframe your self-introduction so that it highlights your judgment and impact rather than just a list of tasks you’ve performed. 4. Audit Your Visibility: Understand the Invisible High-Performer pattern and how to enter a conversation early enough to help define the question, not just answer it. Outcomes 1. The Senior Signal Toolkit: A set of 5 specific entry-lines and phrases you can use in your next global meeting to sound more strategic. 2. Interview Re-Framing: A new way to answer "Tell me about yourself" that stops being a history lesson and starts being a value proposition. 3. Confidence Audit: A personal diagnostic to see where your meeting confidence is dropping and whether the gap is lack of knowledge or a habit of seeking permission.

How to Interview for International Roles Without Sounding Generic [6/30/2026] (Recording)

If you're applying for international roles, getting the interview is only part of the challenge. The next step is knowing how to talk about your experience in a way that feels clear, credible, and relevant, especially in competitive processes where many candidates sound polished, qualified, and ultimately interchangeable. In this webinar, we’ll look at why strong candidates often come across as too broad, too rehearsed, or not specific enough in interviews, and what to do instead. We’ll cover how to give sharper answers, present your experience more strategically, and communicate in a way that feels confident without sounding forced. In this webinar, you'll learn: - why candidates often sound generic in international interviews - how to answer common questions with more clarity, specificity, and credibility - how to talk about your experience in a way that highlights relevance, not just responsibility - how to build stronger examples that show judgment, ownership, and impact - how to adapt your story for different roles, markets, and interview styles - how to sound more natural and convincing without over-rehearsing By the end of the session, you’ll leave with: - a clearer understanding of what makes interview answers memorable and persuasive - a stronger framework for structuring your responses - more clarity on how to present your background for international opportunities - practical ways to improve the way you speak about your experience in interviews This webinar is for professionals who: - are applying for international roles in English-speaking or global environments - feel their interview answers are too vague, too long, or not landing well - want to present themselves more clearly in recruiter screens and formal interviews - have relevant experience but struggle to communicate it with impact - want to sound more thoughtful, credible, and competitive in high-stakes interviews Whether you already have interviews coming up or want to improve before you start applying, this session will help you speak about your experience in a way that is more focused, more convincing, and more effective.

Why you keep dying in the first round: international interview positioning [8/12/2026] (Recording)

Most international candidates don’t fail first-round interviews because they lack experience: they fail because they’re badly translated. In the first round, you usually have only a few minutes to make your value legible, and if your story is too long, too generic, or too cautious, the room never gets a clear signal about why you’re a strong fit. In this livestream, I’ll break down how international candidates can position themselves more effectively in interviews, especially when moving across countries, cultures, or business environments. We’ll look at how to tighten your self-introduction, lead with the right proof points, and answer “tell me about yourself” in a way that actually opens doors. I’ll also cover the common traps that make strong candidates disappear early: overexplaining, permission-seeking, and failing to connect their background to the role in front of them. By the end of the session, you’ll understand how to: 1. Structure a first-round interview answer so your value lands quickly 2. Position yourself as a credible candidate in international settings 3. Avoid the most common communication mistakes that weaken your signal 4. Translate your background into something relevant, concise, and compelling 5. Build more confidence in how you present yourself under pressure This session is ideal for international professionals, multilingual candidates, and anyone interviewing across markets who wants to stop sounding impressive in theory and start sounding hireable in the room. Perfect for: International candidates, job seekers, and professionals interviewing across markets Focus: Interview positioning, first-round interviews, self-introductions, and international career storytelling Outcome: Leave with a clearer, sharper way to introduce yourself and explain why you belong in the room