Welcome to the first podcast of our Magicticity series. Magicticity is the magic that’s created when a speaker presents as his or her most authentic self and connects with the audience, whether presenting to one person or to many, formally or informally.

Why Us?

We are Carla Avila and Copie Harris, two professionals who have spent the last 25 years working with our clients to achieve the magic of being their authentic selves when presenting. We are very excited to share our accumulated wisdom with you via webcasts, podcasts and related articles for your enjoyment. And we’d like to connect with you, too. Please reach out to us, tell us your stories of Magicticity, and what would be helpful to you to learn

What’s in it For You?

You will find that these tips can immediately add to your effectiveness as a communicator. Over our combined 50 years of experience, our clients have told us that our tips, combined with practice, have improved their presentations and confidence while sharing their ideas. One client reported a greater than 40% increase in closed business after working to improve how they presented as a team.

How will we share our tips?

We plan a series of podcasts and webcasts, focusing on the importance of both non-verbal and verbal skills. Examples of non-verbal skills include: what should you do with your hands when presenting? Is there an ideal posture when seated and standing? How should you channel your nervous energy? When should you deliver your message? In fact, what is a message exactly? We plan to cover these topics and many more.

Our first tip: Use simple language. This is understanding your audience and speaking to everyone in the room so that you resonate with them. It is NOT “dumbing down” or assuming that everyone will understand what you will say. In fact, we believe that it takes a great deal of intelligence to simplify the complex. You also have a greater opportunity to achieve Magicticity if everyone in the room feels they can relate to what you are saying because they understand it. You also increase clarity to everyone by avoiding acronyms and terms that are specific to your industry or area of expertise. And don’t assume that people even IN your area of expertise will understand all the acronyms and details that go into your specific talk. Watch for getting “stuck in the

weeds” because of your impressive grasp of details. When explaining to someone else, you should start with the 30,000 foot view and use detail to support your view.

To enhance clarity, use what we call “verbal signposts.” Verbal signposts are phrases that point the way to what you’re going to say. Examples include: “Let me give you some background….” “My message to you today is ….” “We believe that it’s extremely important to ….”

True story

Carla has a client who has been working on using clear, simple language, where before he would have used industry-specific terminology. He’s reporting that he’s using this approach even for internal audiences, and he’s finding that his colleagues and clients are understanding him and appreciating his points better than before.

Who are we?

Carla Avila

Carla Avila has been working with clients for close to 30 years, mainly in the financial services industry. She is founder of Electa Partners, a women-run financial services platform. Carla’s multinational experience and deep business acumen bring rich experience helping clients define, articulate and execute strategies that drive growth. She has a long-standing track-record of building global networks, exceeding sales goals, doubling yoy, and raising over $10B in assets from investors. Her interests originate from a deep understanding of capital-raising, structuring, negotiations, capital markets and mergers and acquisitions.

She has extensive experience working with asset management firms, family-owned businesses, corporations and institutional investors, and is inspired by financial innovation, private markets, impact investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency, infrastructure and education.

Carla excels at revealing the essence of a firm through powerful memorable messages that allow it to deliver its competitive advantage to clients and investors alike. Her open inquiry approach has gained her a deep understanding of alternative, long-only, private and public investment styles. Her passion is to solve clients’ needs across business lines and geographies. She leads client-dedicated teams with experience at top-tier domestic and global firms, ranging from an economic think tank to a growth equity asset manager (Baron Capital), large multinational banks, (Banamex/Citigroup, JPMorgan, and UBS). She participates in industry events and serves as a panelist and moderator.

Carla holds a MBA degree from the Sloan School of Management at MIT, and a BA from Universidad Iberoamericana. Serves as an advisor to the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy; a financial services dedicated agency, madandwall; a leading fintech alternative credit fund, HCG Funds; and non-profit organizations.

Copie Harris

Copie is principal in Lilien Communications, LLC, a global communications skills company. She consults with executives worldwide throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, South America, and the United States.

For over 25 years as a communications skills consultant and strategist, Copie has worked with executives at all levels to clarify and deliver their message effectively to their audiences. She also helps non-profit organizations, including One To World (onetoworld.org) and New York Police and Fire Widows’ & Children’s Benefit Fund (answerthecall.org).

Copie’s expertise lies in not only identifying communications challenges and offering strategies but also putting people at ease so they are open to accepting and embracing new ways of approaching people and situations.

A keen listener and articulate communicator, she serves as a strong role model and knowledgeable resource.

Before joining Lilien Communications in 1995, Copie was a faculty member at Communispond, Inc., a leading business communications skills training company. There she worked with individuals and groups of all levels and backgrounds to hone their interpersonal skills and messaging. Earlier she was president and co-founder of an international mail order business, Kids at Large, which manufactured and distributed clothes for overweight children. Her experience overseeing this business from raising venture capital to serving as spokesperson informs much of her training.

We hope that you enjoy and find our tips to be useful to you. Please reach out to us!

To give us your feedback, and to learn more, please email us at contact@magicticity.com.

You can listen to our weekly podcast here: http://magicticity.libsyn.com