Meet Them Where They Are: Leadership Trainer Matthew Hill on Global Leadership Communication

In this exciting episode of "Humor in the C Suite," host Kate Davis welcomes Matthew Hill, a distinguished leadership trainer known for intertwining humor with actionable communication strategies. The discussion delves into how humor can transform work culture, augmenting communication with confidence and clarity. 

Matthew Hill shares his philosophy of enhancing communication skills within organizations by addressing confidence and humor. Highlighting his background, Matthew discusses his adventures in global leadership training, from Prague to Ethiopia, and how breaking bread can sometimes open doors to profitable connections. He emphasizes that humor is essential to bonding and building trust, particularly when introducing employees to unknown environments. Through engaging anecdotes and lessons from cultural interactions, this episode is a revealing look at the potent combination of humor and leadership skills.

Key Takeaways:

• Humor is effective in easing tension and fostering trust within diverse workplace cultures, helping to create a more dynamic and engaging environment.
• Engaging storytelling and relatable anecdotes can be more impactful than traditional joke-telling in presentations and workshops.
• Elevating team communication skills to an 8 out of 10 can significantly enhance an organization's collaborative potential and overall success.
• Understanding and leveraging cultural differences through humor can ease transitions and promote smoother intercultural communications.
• Using humor as a tool for self-reflection and feedback can help individuals and teams identify strengths and areas for improvement.

"Laughter is a social lubricant that helps people bond and connect on deeper levels."

Additional Links & Resources:

• Interested in being a guest on Humor in the C-Suite? Reach out to book a call with Kate!
• Learn more about me and my work at katedavis.ca

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Humor in the C-Suite! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the podcast, share it with your friends, and leave a rating or review. Your support helps the podcast continue to grow. 

Hosted by Kate Davis
Edited by Chris @ Wider View Studios

Transcript

0:00:03 - (Kate Davis): Hello, I'm Kate Davis and this is Humor in the C Suite, a show about how leaders use humor to create an extraordinary work culture. Hi everyone and welcome to this week's episode of Humor in the C Suite. My guest this week has a career that has spanned corporate boardrooms, global classrooms and stand up comedy stages. Matthew Hill brings a rare blend of witness, warmth and wisdom to the art of communication.

0:00:29 - (Kate Davis): As a leadership trainer, inter cultural facilitator and presentation coach, Matthew helps executives, emerging leaders and teams unlock confidence, clarity and impact whether they're pitching, presenting or navigating high stakes conversations. Having trained teams from EY to GE Capital and delivered workshops in more than 30 countries, Matthew is deeply versed in the real world dynamics of cross cross cultural communication and influence.

0:00:57 - (Kate Davis): His sessions are energizing, applied and always action orientated. He's especially skilled in flipping limiting beliefs, taking the I could never to transform it into watch me do it. Whether he's guiding a nervous speaker through their first keynote, coaching a CEO on how to not to bore their team, or mediating conflict with humor and empathy, Matthew knows how to meet people where they are and move them forward. He thrives in global settings, whether in person or virtual, and has built a reputation for helping professionals of all stripes find their voice, sharpen the message and lead with purpose.

0:01:34 - (Kate Davis): I loved having as a guest. You guys are going to love him too. It really, really just struck a chord because it's so hard to communicate with confidence. Confidence is something, you know, I've struggled with for a long time and it's hard to find your voice and he helps people do that. So please welcome my guest this week on Humor in the Sweetie, Matthew Hill. How are you, Matthew?

0:02:01 - (Matthew Hill): Never better. He lied. Fantastic.

0:02:04 - (Kate Davis): Thank you for joining me all the way from the uk. I know it's the afternoon there, so I'm so grateful for your time. I love what you do, who you are. I. You're Matthew with a double T. So let's start there.

0:02:18 - (Matthew Hill): No, exactly the, the second T. I had to pay good money for that. Someone else wanted it, I took it. But it is silent. So it's, it's a private thing. It's a private thing.

0:02:27 - (Kate Davis): The second T. Second T. I like it. Well, T for two. That's what they say in England, don't they?

0:02:32 - (Matthew Hill): Good.

0:02:32 - (Kate Davis): See, there you go. You know, it's, it's interesting because I've had a lot of different guests and different occupations on humor in the C suite, but I'm, I'm so interested in what you do, like building people's confidence and communication and all that. It's really an interesting angle. And coming from a stand up point of view, is that correct? Are you a stand up comic or.

0:02:59 - (Matthew Hill): Okay, mate, you're the real deal. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a faker, an imposter. But I will tell you a little bit about the stand up.

0:03:05 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, please.

0:03:07 - (Matthew Hill): I did it when we were both. Well, probably you weren't born. And I used to do the Daily News version of sort of mocking the Daily News. I think you've got an American version called Mock the World Week. I did a version of that way before. And that of course, when you've done the show, you walk away and you go, I've got no material for next week. So you start from a blank sheet. So that was fairly stressful and horrific recently.

0:03:27 - (Matthew Hill): Very quickly, my missus did a monkey see, monkey do with a friend who did a comedy course to make you funny. You can have your own opinion, Kate, whether that's ever going to work. She did this course not very well taught. So there was a crash and burn attendance. So by week three, 21 had gone down to five. So they said, does anyone else want to have a go? I foolishly stepped up with only two weeks to go, having not been in the saddle for decades.

0:03:56 - (Matthew Hill): And we did a show at a prop at a comedy club, quite a famous one in the uk. And I must say, Susie and I did pretty well. We were the best of the bunch and it was all good. So she's. He does. I'm a German. We don't have a sense of humor and all this. And I did my. Getting a hospital appointment and a colonoscopy.

0:04:16 - (Kate Davis): Nice.

0:04:17 - (Matthew Hill): I think I put people off bum cameras for life. It's all good. We got a few laughs.

0:04:23 - (Kate Davis): You know, you don't see him coming. But that's all I have to say about that.

0:04:26 - (Matthew Hill): That's pretty good. That's pretty good.

0:04:28 - (Kate Davis): You know, I, I try other than the stand up course that you took and I do believe comedy or humor can be taught. I, you know, it's. We find what we look for and I believe it's. Everyone can leverage, you know, humor to a certain extent. So can you tell me your story and what you do? I know you've been in a lot of C suites and boardrooms, but now you're training those people. So what do you. Yeah, who, who are you? Spy?

0:04:54 - (Matthew Hill): No, exactly. So here we go. So my philosophy is to spread out as much education and philosophy as possible possible based on communication and presentation, all that good stuff. Leadership as well. Imagine an organization, a listener, as I hypnotize you, what if all the people around you were at an 8 out of 10 level? For confidence and competence in presentation, communication, writing, for impact, influencing, bonding, networking, blah blah, blah. It would float your boat. Your corporation, your organization, your charity would really do amazingly well for retention of talent, happiness, engagement, success.

0:05:39 - (Matthew Hill): So that's the idea. And I do that. My story. I joined a headquarters, which sounded like the right thing to do. Thanks, Mom. And it was a cultural desert. All the love and all the money were going out to the field. So I thought, I've got to join the field. I asked my boss, who was later taken by U.S. marshals in chains across to America, Florida, where he spent Christmas. But we won't talk about that now.

0:06:06 - (Matthew Hill): And you can learn as much from a bad boss as you can from a good one. That's what I say. So I got the choice of India, Lebanon or the Czech Republic. All you guys stateside know exactly where the Czech Republic are and can easily point it out on the map. I'm sure the woman who went to India got seriously ill, so that could have been the end of me, but it was. Lebanon wanted a French speaking woman.

0:06:31 - (Matthew Hill): I had the language, but not the curves. So I went for the Czech Republic and it was like going back to the 1950s. I had a few friends there. I met that's Love Harvell, the very famous president, Queen Elizabeth ii. I met Margaret Thatcher on one of her last public gigs. That was a blast. That was weird. Every Czech prime minister, when you shook hands with the Czech prime Minister, you had to count your fingers afterwards, just make sure they were all still there.

0:07:00 - (Matthew Hill): And it was a village. You could walk across Prague, the capital, in 45 minutes. I knew anybody and everybody. This was my marketing trick. The food was a bit iffy, a bit dodgy, decades ago. So there was one French bistro near my office. So a new chief executive of a global corporation would turn up and I'd phone up and say, do you fancy lunch? And they go, well, I'm a bit busy. I said, trust me, I'll take you somewhere and you're going to remember it forever or certainly for your trip.

0:07:30 - (Matthew Hill): 2 hours, 3 courses, bottle of wine, $60. Best marketing buck you could spend at the end. I nearly always got a deal. Consultancy, this, that, the other, training. It was beautiful. It was perfect. Some of those guys are still my friends. So that was the. That was the idea. Then I. Yeah, so what do I do now. It is presentation skills. I'm doing it with the French, which is hilarious. I've done sessions this week with that and that's hilarious.

0:07:58 - (Matthew Hill): Geography. No, mate, geography. We're in London now and all this sort of stuff. So cultural differences, humor is built into French English training and then other stuff as well. So confidence. Earlier in the week I was with laborers or managers of physical laborers, the construction industry, getting them to manage and negotiate with people. So if I can float everyone's skill level up to 8 out of 10, I've done my job.

0:08:29 - (Kate Davis): I love that because you're taking something that's out of the ordinary. Right. And. And there's nothing like, like bonding with people in breaking bread with them. So I love that. I love that you made yourself at home in Prague.

0:08:47 - (Matthew Hill): Oh, I know. It's my second home. Second. So I was there for five and a half years.

0:08:50 - (Kate Davis): Wow.

0:08:51 - (Matthew Hill): Whenever I get a training opportunity, I say yes. And then I afterwards ask, what is it? It's normally okay. It's normally great fun. Great.

0:09:00 - (Kate Davis): So, okay, so how do you use humor in your day to day life?

0:09:05 - (Matthew Hill): Well, my luck. Well, other than being British. No. Very good, very good. I tell you what, a British accent goes quite a long way. It goes quite a long way. And then you've got sort of the word understandings and the rest of it. Quite funny. The guy down the bottom of the road, I've just been there. Spin studio cycling. He's a New York Indian, failed medic spin instructor. And I'm teaching him in English.

0:09:30 - (Matthew Hill): Air heller. All right, mate. So that's all, that's all quite fun. Now how do I do it? The nearest I come to raw humor, I do writing for impact and I will give people a template and they will write a story and then we'll bring it to life with a bit of sort of role play or improv or this or that or the other. So it's an impactful, influencing sort of email or something and that just people riff on that and then they learn to improvise themselves, which is a way of just getting out of your. I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't. Self limiting into, wow, creativity.

0:10:08 - (Matthew Hill): And so that is a, that's a fun way of doing it. Or you will get, especially with the, the blue collars, you'll get some resistor if they are not a fragile, aggressive. If they're a good person with introversion on top of you really can get what we call in England the banter. So the to and fro. You really can start to zing and zang with that. And of course, that amuses everybody. And so you start with one person and then do it. Got to be very careful. Got to be very. In these modern. Very delicate, fragile.

0:10:41 - (Matthew Hill): Yeah, of course, of course. You know, you don't want the letter from hr.

0:10:45 - (Kate Davis): No.

0:10:45 - (Matthew Hill): You upset them. But, you know, in the good old days. In the good old days, you could do whatever you like. But.

0:10:51 - (Kate Davis): Okay, so you're. You're teaching people how to communicate and. And really with confidence. I mean, that's one of your.

0:11:01 - (Matthew Hill): Yeah.

0:11:01 - (Kate Davis): Key points. Are you finding. So within different industries, you're finding a different. But how are you bringing or really teaching them to have confidence in the humor part of that very.

0:11:16 - (Matthew Hill): I tell you what, they're very good. So it's the humor. Humor. Let's just look at confidence. Yeah. Low confidence, I would say. I'm doing a program for those guys. Add an extra. You know, in America, you have show and tell, and everyone seems to have the gift of the gab, as we say in English, the. A silver tongue in England. That's totally not the. We're an introvert nation. I don't want to speak up. I don't want to vote. I don't want to stand up. So really, my. My therapeutic idea is add a sentence everywhere as you walk down the street, say, hello. Imagine you're in a village, not a town.

0:11:48 - (Matthew Hill): Marriage. Imagine you're in America, not the uk so that's the add a sentence idea. So people are just taking baby steps out of their comfort zone.

0:11:57 - (Kate Davis): Right.

0:11:57 - (Matthew Hill): And so becoming more comfortable. And then we can blend that in with there. Then at the next level, you've got the sort of the alpha, the testosterone, the adrenaline types. And really, it is not, you know, can you just take your foot off my neck? You don't have to win. Can we engage? So there it's more tell to dialogue. And it's quite interesting. A lot of people who can tell and give commands are a little bit more reticent when it comes to dialogue, discussion and debate.

0:12:28 - (Matthew Hill): And then the top level is wonderful. I think it's called the fourth Ashram, but let's not get too philosophical and biblical. And that really is about giving away your power, becoming a guru, becoming one of these sort of helpers of other people. House of cards, passing the elevator back down, that sort of idea. So confidence comes in. But I tell you what, I get so many people who are on the presentation course. Shall I start with a joke?

0:12:57 - (Matthew Hill): No, Bob, you're absolutely not funny. And a joke. You. I've seen some of your stuff on YouTube. You know how to do it. It's not easy. Not everyone can do it. Yeah, but these people think I can just get a joke off ChatGPT and tell it. No, you can't. One, chat. ChatGPT has probably nicked it from someone else. And two, you don't know how to do that, especially not live with a few nerves. So it's. It's less jokes, by the way, it's more stories.

0:13:24 - (Kate Davis): Right.

0:13:25 - (Matthew Hill): But also the idea of crashing concepts together is. Is quite a fun way of doing it in business because there's a lot of opportunity for that.

0:13:32 - (Kate Davis): Okay, so let's get into that. When you say crashing concepts together, can you give me an example?

0:13:39 - (Matthew Hill): My mind instantly goes blank. But, you know, now one. One guy said it was a brilliant. This was a brilliant guy. He goes, we've got some very accurate software which is very good at predicting future business and future returns. And we're not going too well, so our costs are exceeding our income. So I can tell you almost to the minute when we're going to go bankrupt. He said it in a real meeting. He was doing it for real. And of course it was very funny, but it was based on tragedy.

0:14:19 - (Matthew Hill): He did have the software. They were gonna hit a brick wall. He was telling them in this funny way. So everyone did this sort of. That was sort of change and impact wrapped in a thin layer of humor. I do quite like that.

0:14:37 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:14:38 - (Matthew Hill): The misdirection, the flip at the end. Exactly.

0:14:43 - (Kate Davis): No, absolutely. Are you finding humor really helps with team collaboration when you go into these rooms?

0:14:51 - (Matthew Hill): Totally, totally. If we are laughing together, we're creating happy chemicals. Oxytocin, the rest, we're bonding together. Also, laughter is this buffer. When we're laughing, we're not judging. When we're laughing, we're not hating. When we're laughing, we're not engaging. And so laughter is a sort of social lubricant and so forth. The bands, the band. So when people do team, I mean, you know this one, what two words does everyone hate? Role play.

0:15:20 - (Matthew Hill): And then you get them doing role play.

0:15:22 - (Kate Davis): Right.

0:15:23 - (Matthew Hill): Quite a funny one today. I'll give everyone a nice exercise. You draw a line, okay. And you have pairs across the line. The winner is the one who persuades the other person to come to their side of the line. And then everyone goes. Gets confused, and then they all start to bribe or throw, which is one of the techniques, and you've got them there. And so you've got the competitive chemicals, you've got the.

0:15:48 - (Matthew Hill): I don't know you, I better know you. And you know the answer to most of these things. Start a conversation, listen for drivers and values.

0:15:56 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:15:56 - (Matthew Hill): And humor is a wonderful way of finding people's laughter. Drivers and values. If you're laughing, you understand, if you are laughing, it is resonating on your frequency. So it's a very good audit tool. It's a very good survey and engagement tool. And that's how we could use it.

0:16:14 - (Kate Davis): That's so interesting. I love that as a survey tool. Are you. I know you do another thing with pitching without buzzwords. What do you consider the buzzword in.

0:16:30 - (Matthew Hill): Anything that's of the moment? So there's this thing. It's an Americanism. Oh, that tracks.

0:16:36 - (Kate Davis): Right.

0:16:36 - (Matthew Hill): So I understand what you've just said, and it might work. My office. Oh, that tracks.

0:16:41 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:16:41 - (Matthew Hill): So you hear it once and then you go, okay, that's, that's, that's. And then you have the. It's new, it's novel. And then it's peak. Overused cliche. And then we.

0:16:50 - (Kate Davis): Right.

0:16:52 - (Matthew Hill): You know, like. Like these, like these podcasts and so forth. They don't go out instantaneously. If. Or, you know, you're. A lot of people I know are traveling to different countries and speaking.

0:17:01 - (Kate Davis): Yes.

0:17:02 - (Matthew Hill): And you will have some places you go to Vietnam track hasn't happened yet.

0:17:06 - (Kate Davis): Right.

0:17:07 - (Matthew Hill): Then, you know, it's happening right now in America and it might be over somewhere else. So if we. If we debuz. Word. Elate. That's not a word. Then. I mean, I quite like. Plain and simple. A lot of my work is second language English audiences. Complicated audiences who might be from three continents.

0:17:25 - (Kate Davis): Yes.

0:17:26 - (Matthew Hill): By the way. Here we go. Here we go.

0:17:28 - (Kate Davis): Yeah. I love this.

0:17:29 - (Matthew Hill): Did a gig in Ethiopia.

0:17:31 - (Kate Davis): Wow.

0:17:32 - (Matthew Hill): Would you think I could make them laugh?

0:17:36 - (Kate Davis): I'm gonna. I.

0:17:37 - (Matthew Hill): Exactly. I don't know.

0:17:39 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:17:40 - (Matthew Hill): Not for the first day. We were there for two weeks. Not for the first day. I just don't think they could see this Londoner saying things.

0:17:48 - (Kate Davis): So you were training. You were training C suite people.

0:17:52 - (Matthew Hill): C suite. Going from one African country to continental Africa. However countries there, however many countries there are now. 55, 56. Yeah. Wonderful people. But I think it was the first day. Are we meant to laugh? Is this funny? Is he trying to be funny?

0:18:08 - (Kate Davis): Right.

0:18:09 - (Matthew Hill): They got the vibe. The rest of the. The rest of the two weeks were just delightful. And they. They were coming back with zings and zangs mocking me and. And pulling My leg. It was beautiful. It was beautiful.

0:18:22 - (Kate Davis): Do you find it's different when you're dealing with different genders? Male, female?

0:18:27 - (Matthew Hill): Okay, you. Well, you've got the. Yeah, you've got the intercultural piece, which is. Yeah, yeah. Different ways. More. If I say bance, that probably hasn't translated.

0:18:36 - (Kate Davis): No.

0:18:37 - (Matthew Hill): What would it be when, when blokey blokes have a blokey bloke lexicon and interaction, it can be like mockery, you know, when you're being rude to someone, it's an act of affection.

0:18:47 - (Kate Davis): Right, yeah.

0:18:48 - (Matthew Hill): You, you, you have a different dynamic with women. So you don't go sexual, you don't go physical, but you can still go business, you can still go intelligence. Yeah. You know, you can talk about the mind, you can talk about language. And so, yeah, there is a, there is a, there is a difference. I mean, basically with, with different. You have to test the waters these days. Know your audience was watching. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Due diligence. Due diligence, I mean, which is the, the essence of presentation.

0:19:16 - (Matthew Hill): It's not about you. You are the conductor of the orchestra. Beethoven wrote the material, you're delivering it and it's all about the audience. Are they going to laugh? Are they going to learn? Are they going to change? They're going to take action? Are they going to get it?

0:19:31 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, absolutely. So communication across cultures. When you're teaching that, how are you teaching that? And is humor a part of that? Or do you say.

0:19:40 - (Matthew Hill): Oh, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. So what am I doing? What am I doing? I'm doing a coat. I tell you what, I'm doing a coaching afternoon. This for some Americans who are coming over to a town in the north of England, okay? That's the definition of culture shock. They're gonna drink less and be rather polite and have much better teeth. They are going to have a fairly cultural. Oh, my word, what's happening here?

0:20:05 - (Matthew Hill): So we're, we're doing all of that. So I soften the shock and the drama and the difference by using humor. And that is. So there it is. What is it? It's ointment on the wound. It's a sort of dressing of the shock. It's. It's a softener. It's a softener. So when you, when you sort of mock. So I would do self deprecation. So here we go. So we have this free at the point of service health center. So one of my, one of my cultural briefings is, okay, you've got something wrong with you and you want to get an appointment. And you've got, you registered with the.

0:20:36 - (Matthew Hill): Your gp, your general practitioner doctor. This is how you do it. And of course it's difficult. They. They say, nah, broken leg, don't worry about it. And. And then you say, I'm, I'm literally giving them that. You will have to work hard to get an appointment. You will have to work hard at the doctors to see a specialist, you will have to work hard. Our ER is called A E. And you go there and you think you're going to be treated. No, it's triage. It's, it's, it's literally, er, you know, when there's, you know, there's a Chicago fire, it's. It's a mess and you have to do all of this.

0:21:09 - (Matthew Hill): So you. Humor softens the shock of. Actually, guys, you're gonna have to do something fairly real when you're in pain. Yeah. And so it. And, you know, so you. And that, that became part of my comedy routine of how to get an appointment at the nhs, the National Health Service.

0:21:23 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, of course. It's the same here. It's. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm dying. You're fine, go sit down, we'll get to you in eight hours.

0:21:32 - (Matthew Hill): Yeah, don't worry about. It's.

0:21:34 - (Kate Davis): It's fun.

0:21:34 - (Matthew Hill): Fill in the pool.

0:21:35 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, exactly. Hi, it's Kate. I can't believe you made it halfway through the show. Look, if you or anyone you know would like to be a guest on Humor in the C Suite, I would love to have you, so email me. Kate Davis, Ca. Have you ever had. Have you ever been somewhere and the humor's missed? And how have you gotten out of that?

0:22:00 - (Matthew Hill): Sweden, actually. Finland and Sweden. Oh, my God. We had this life sciences biology company, fairly famous. And they decided to switch off the old humor machine that day. So that was hard work. So I was doing quite cheeky chappie. I was. I came in very late. They were high energy. The room was massively over full. There was no way. There was sort of standing room only. And I maybe nervously just went into, you know, slightly comedy routine and they weren't having any of it.

0:22:33 - (Matthew Hill): I changed gear after an hour, but it was too late. Another one. Finland. Yeah, the ice was this thick on the way there. Judges, Judges aren't famous for having a sense of humor. Finnish men aren't famous for talking at all. So that combination was fairly painful. And I literally couldn't get a response out of them, you know, not even a laugh. Not even words.

0:22:56 - (Kate Davis): No.

0:22:56 - (Matthew Hill): I think I Had to go on strike. I said, I'm not going on until someone speaks.

0:23:01 - (Kate Davis): That's so interesting, because I always find when I'm speaking, it's really about how I'm connecting at the beginning and how I'm starting it off. And. And I have had times I feel like almost like physically my throat will close if I feel like I'm not connecting with them.

0:23:18 - (Matthew Hill): Totally, totally. Right, well, here we go. This is the other idea. Yeah. Presentation skills. Do you feel nervous before? So I was in a gig. I went back to the Czech Republic. The Hilton Hotel, they're taking over the whole of the big hotel. There's two of them.

0:23:31 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:23:31 - (Matthew Hill): And I was 550 people, and we were going to do a negotiation exercise with real money. Try getting real 550 people to bring real money to a negotiation exercise. And I had a scary moment. I wasn't frightened, I wasn't nervous. I didn't have the juices flowing, and I thought, that's not good. So I sort of revved myself up. And then we had a. Then we had a good time. No, very good. You've got to. You've got to. Well, meet them where they are.

0:23:57 - (Kate Davis): Yes.

0:23:57 - (Matthew Hill): And then with presentation, you've got to interrupt. So interrupt, in presentation terms, is a positive word. So everyone's busy. No one's got any attention. Everyone's cynical, so it's got to be good. And negative is more effective than positive. So a bit of fear, a bit of risk, a bit of this. Bit of hell versus heaven.

0:24:18 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:24:19 - (Matthew Hill): Goes down quite a long way. And then you've got to repair, so you've got to connect, and then you continue.

0:24:24 - (Kate Davis): And how do you. How do you find. When you feel like people are pretty closed off, like in Finland, are you. And we are saying, meet them at their level. So are you just saying, okay, well, forget the jokes, or are you saying, oh, yeah, or you're just being your authentic self.

0:24:40 - (Matthew Hill): What did I do? I. Have you heard of Brexit? The Britain. Britain took a weapon and chopped her own toes off. That'll show you. Frenchies. I was doing a Brexit explainer in Austria who are very European.

0:25:00 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:25:01 - (Matthew Hill): And I was doing two cheeky chappies because I had my best friend there. So people from Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and I'm from England, so the United Kingdom was fully represented. And I was doing Cheeky Chappy with them, and they were laughing their heads off. And I suddenly realized I have utterly lost everyone else in the crowd. So my bad. I was doing a Cheeky chappie. Informal.

0:25:22 - (Kate Davis): Right.

0:25:22 - (Matthew Hill): When it was proper. So Austrians are famously formal. If you go informal too early, they're absolutely horrified. So there, I pulled it out of the bag and we just, I just had to sort of stop and go, right, let's continue.

0:25:36 - (Kate Davis): Okay.

0:25:37 - (Matthew Hill): And we, we managed to save that one.

0:25:39 - (Kate Davis): Is that your serious voice? Right, let's continue.

0:25:44 - (Matthew Hill): Let's be an adult for a bit and see what happens. No, it's. And you get it. It's, it's not real presenting and training. It's not real. You can play a bit of a game, you can put on a mask, you can change the thing, you can, you can do whatever.

0:25:58 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, well, and that's the thing. Have you found, when you have been dealing, do you have like tips or advice you're giving people when it comes to humor and in, in the C suite?

0:26:10 - (Matthew Hill): Well, yeah, don't tell jokes. Don't tell jokes.

0:26:12 - (Kate Davis): I mean, stories.

0:26:13 - (Matthew Hill): It's always the dad joke. It's always just this absolute seven year old in the playground. Please don't do that, don't do that. They're just going. And everyone's just doing this. Okay, Fixed grin. Oh dear. And their brain is going off to sex shopping. What's on Netflix. You've lost them. You know, we've lost people through. But I mean, I do like, you know that, that we're going to go bankrupt precisely on Tuesday at 12:34.

0:26:41 - (Kate Davis): Right.

0:26:41 - (Matthew Hill): I do quite like some catastrophizing or just, you know, brutal truth or whatever it is. I mean, that's quite fun. That's quite just, as you say, switch to the side with some sort of unexpected summary, some sort of reconciliation of what's been going on.

0:26:59 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:27:00 - (Matthew Hill): And remember, it's, it's also a test. If people aren't listening, they won't laugh. So there's a listening test and there's an understanding that if you do set up and punchline and people don't laugh, they're also not understanding what you're talking about. So again, we get the test through through humor. I mean, light humor is okay, just exaggerated. But everyone, it's rather like a best man speech. It's always the same formula and everyone is so bored with it.

0:27:26 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:27:26 - (Matthew Hill): And every keynote speaker goes at 2, at 2 2pm oh, you probably had a heavy lunch. You want to sleep now. Oh, God, we've all heard it a thousand times.

0:27:37 - (Kate Davis): No, are you, are you finding within your, your groups that you're visiting? Are you, are you finding personal benefits for yourself.

0:27:49 - (Matthew Hill): When you Oh, I love it. I do it. I say this and I actually mean it.

0:27:54 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:27:55 - (Matthew Hill): I say to a sophisticated group of which there are many, many, many that I've been involved with, I will get them as much out of today as hopefully you will receive.

0:28:06 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:28:07 - (Matthew Hill): I get my stories. I get my. I get my humor. I get the fatherly buzz of watching them, these little Chiclets, grow into beautiful swans and flying off.

0:28:19 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:28:20 - (Matthew Hill): You know, literally, with presentation, we do. I do a self rating. I did one this week. I did many this week. Oh, I'm a four. And at the end of our coaching, they're an eight. You go proud dad moment.

0:28:32 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:28:34 - (Matthew Hill): Or, you know, the Czech Republic, you know, the. We had 35. We had dozens or so people who learned to earn a living post Soviet empire as capitalist. I mean, that's fantastic.

0:28:44 - (Kate Davis): It's so rewarding and. Yeah. And the politics, when you're dealing with that, and people coming from different.

0:28:53 - (Matthew Hill): Oh, yeah.

0:28:54 - (Kate Davis): Governments or situations or.

0:28:57 - (Matthew Hill): Yeah, yeah. Well, if you have someone good comes to England, I offer them a job. Prime Minister.

0:29:05 - (Kate Davis): Prime Minister. Pm.

0:29:06 - (Matthew Hill): Love it. Yeah.

0:29:09 - (Kate Davis): Are you. Are you finding that in terms of your speaking and your coaching, what do you prefer to do? Speaking or coaching? Do you love it?

0:29:18 - (Matthew Hill): Both. I love guesting on podcasts. I like a keynote speech. Yeah. But my thing, my thing. Did you ever get this? Sometimes my brain just empties like a flushed toilet. And you're going, oh, here we go. I'll be paid quite a lot of money to speak for 45 minutes, and they don't want me using notes. So you'll, you know, you'll do the whole thing and then your brain is gone. And then. But I tell you what, every single time, by the way, I saw Whoopi Goldberg fairly recently and she just lost the plot twice. Where was I? Everyone shouted it out and it works. I.

0:29:53 - (Matthew Hill): Where was I? Yeah, everyone shouts it out. So that's. That's a great. So I wouldn't want to do keynote speaking every day because my love.

0:30:01 - (Kate Davis): The coaching.

0:30:03 - (Matthew Hill): The coaching. What have I got next week? I've got sort of one o', clock, two o', clock, three. I've got. I've got five in a row. Five in a row. Five in a row. So that gets a bit much as well. I tell you what, a day's training with a nice group of people, a modest number, 8 to 14.

0:30:19 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:30:19 - (Matthew Hill): And you really can tailor it for their needs. Warm them up, get them to do some homework, buddy up and continue. And you know you've done something Pretty beautiful.

0:30:31 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:30:32 - (Matthew Hill): Of value. And you walk away also. You walk away and go, okay, that's done. Next. So that's quite nice.

0:30:38 - (Kate Davis): And it just seems like humor is such a big part of building people's confidence in being great communicators.

0:30:44 - (Matthew Hill): Very good. So they're under, they are, they are understanding the structure of language when they laugh at a joke. When you continue and you use different types of humor, which is, which is fantastic or just energy as well. And if you look at it, you can do word emphasis, you can do word selection, you can do contrast, you can do various rhetorical or oratory structures of heaven and hell or whatever it's going to be, or quick reverse or.

0:31:13 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:31:14 - (Matthew Hill): Something, you know. You know, a Hollywood V. Steven Seagal is happily married. His wife has been killed. He swears to get revenge. He goes and he messes it up, whatever it is. It's a, it's a story structure or something.

0:31:27 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, well. And I, I just love the fact you said it's such a listening sport. Right. It's all about listening and it's, and that's what communication is. It's all about listening. It's not what you're saying, which is why I love improv as well. Because it really, you know, it's. Yes. And it's, it's continuing. It, it's, you know, it's being applicable, but it's also staying curious and, and all those great things that make us.

0:31:52 - (Matthew Hill): No, I think, I think presenting will keep you young.

0:31:55 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:31:56 - (Matthew Hill): Or it'll finish you off. Know, you'll either retire immediately, but I love it. I love it. And, you know, reentering, putting her foot back on the stage as an oldie is quite an interesting one at all because everyone looks at you and you, I'm, I'm just like, who the hell is this?

0:32:10 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:32:11 - (Matthew Hill): So that's quite fun. And I do have a lot of energy. And so you come in.

0:32:16 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:32:16 - (Matthew Hill): And you, you just go for it. And you do get this, you know, some 25 year old looks up at you like, shouldn't you be sitting down? Yeah. So that's quite, that's quite fun.

0:32:25 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, I love it. Okay. I always love to end the podcast of what is the funniest thing that's ever happened to you? Can you give us a story?

0:32:35 - (Matthew Hill): My breath, my brain instantly goes instantly.

0:32:39 - (Kate Davis): It's not a clean podcast. Everyone's like, no, well, no, let's not go there.

0:32:43 - (Matthew Hill): Let's not go there. Why don't we talk about the Margaret Thatcher moment? I just Observed. Okay, so I'm in Prague. Two English people get an invitation to the opening of a Winston Churchill statue. Okay, so that sounds good. I feel totally. I was on a Saturday, I don't know when I had a party back at my house.

0:33:02 - (Kate Davis): This is in the 80s, early 90s.

0:33:05 - (Matthew Hill): This is in the late 90s. Okay, yes, yes, I'm that old. Stop. So there's a couple of things that happen there. And it was so funny and I just laughed and it was just a real. And I get to spoke. I got to speak with her later as well. She's there and there's a translator and they haven't found the money to get the bronze Winston Churchill statue. They're renaming the square, says she's opening a paving stone, she's opening a nothing.

0:33:36 - (Matthew Hill): So that's one thing that was quite funny. Two, she did this weird logic. She said, I knew Winston Churchill who died in 19. 1965. We'll just really get it confused here. In 1941, he was writing a speech at his desk in Downing street and she made it sound like she was standing next to him. So she would have been five years old. Yeah, well, it's lucky, isn't it, that you stayed a Conservative for all that time and became Prime Minister. You took his job letter. So that was quite funny.

0:34:04 - (Matthew Hill): And then she did this weird thing at the end. So she was doing subtle English and the translator was doing fairly basic check. I will start to wind up now. And so the translator said, she's finished. So everyone started to clap. What did she do? She. Her health wasn't 100% at that time. She came back just with Margaret Thatcher's 200% energy. I haven't finished. And then the poor translator, oh, I've messed this one up.

0:34:41 - (Matthew Hill): So he goes, guys, just bear with me. She in check. You know, bear with me. We'll just see what's going on here.

0:34:48 - (Kate Davis): Oh, and we did the whole thing.

0:34:49 - (Matthew Hill): And then we spoke and we did this, we did that. And it was just freaked out and scared of her. So she was 80 something. She was still powerful, she was still scared. And I've dined out on that story and a few others, meeting these various people.

0:35:03 - (Kate Davis): So great, so great. Are you. How many languages do you speak.

0:35:10 - (Matthew Hill): Kate? You are insulting me. I'm British. We only have to speak the 1 1.

0:35:14 - (Kate Davis): Okay, okay, no, no, I know you're.

0:35:17 - (Matthew Hill): Thinking with my, with my multi country here.

0:35:20 - (Kate Davis): Yeah.

0:35:25 - (Matthew Hill): For the 1% of your audience who is Slavic, they will get that. Okay, I do my pauvre francaise. Malapresment. I do a lot of work in Paris. Okay. There I did just a quick one. These. These blue collar Frenchies. Yeah. And they go. The rude name for a Brit is a roast beef. A roast beef. You know why? Why? We tan badly and look like rare.

0:35:50 - (Kate Davis): Wow.

0:35:51 - (Matthew Hill): We have the same pink as rare roast beef. It's the raspberry. And they will be nasty for 15 minutes.

0:35:57 - (Kate Davis): Yeah, yeah.

0:36:00 - (Matthew Hill): Because they don't want to speak English in a less than perfect form. So that's always a right. That's always a thing.

0:36:07 - (Kate Davis): The perfectionist always stops me. It stops me from doing so much.

0:36:12 - (Matthew Hill): I know. Well, the American thing is fun. I love America. Everything the best of America is the best in the world. But there is this language thing where you just. Maybe you're expecting more Brits. Just don't have to. My wife speaks five languages, which I find incredibly awkward and incredibly useful. So it doesn't help. Doesn't help.

0:36:32 - (Kate Davis): You know, it's always. I live with a brainiac as well. I get it. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much for being a guest on Humor in the C Suite.