If you spend much of your workday on Zoom or Teams, your camera presence directly affects how confident and credible you seem. Melody talks with Emmy award-winning journalist turned leadership communications expert, Karin Reed, about how to bring more presence and authority to virtual communication.

You’ll discover:

▪️3 must-haves of on-camera performance and how to use each to make yourself more magnetic without feeling fake

▪️ The opener to use at the start of every meeting that gets even camera-shy audiences to engage

▪️What to say when an executive wants to deep-dive on something only they care about — without alienating anyone else in the room

About Karin Reed

Karin M. Reed is an Emmy award-winning journalist turned leadership communications expert. A four-time author, she has been quoted as a thought leader by a plethora of media outlets, including Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, CNN and Business Insider and was named an “Author Who Inspires Us” by McKinsey and Company. As CEO and Chief Confidence Creator of Speaker Dynamics, Karin and her team have been the chosen communication training partner for some of the world’s most recognized companies – from Lenovo to Eli Lilly. She regularly teaches at Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford. https://speakerdynamics.com/

https://melodywilding.com/training

Connect with Melody:

1. FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work Weekly
2. Get on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™
3. Get on the Waitlist for Lead from Within
4. Get Melody's new book, Managing Up

End-of-year performance review season is here, and this is the moment to make sure the results you delivered in 2026 actually translate into recognition and rewards you deserve. This “best of” episode will show you how to make your impact impossible to miss, frame your growth in a way that positions you for advancement, and turn your review into a conversation about what you’re ready for next.

What You’ll Discover:

• Why your review has almost nothing to do with the past 12 months (and what it's REALLY about)
• The seemingly harmless 5-word phrase that's destroying your credibility in reviews
• What your boss is really thinking when they say you need to "work on your executive presence"
• Two quick techniques that turn ambiguous feedback into actionable clarity
• Why your "areas for improvement" are screaming “you’re not ready for a promotion” (and the simple fix)

https://melodywilding.com/training

Connect with Melody:

1. FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work Weekly
2. Get on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™
3. Get on the Waitlist for Lead from Within
4. Get Melody's new book, Managing Up

You blocked off three hours to work on that big project. Then a meeting ran over, two "quick questions" turned into forty minutes, and by the time you sat down, the day was gone. Sound familiar? My guest today, Fran Hauser, says the problem isn't your discipline. It’s that you've been taught to think about productivity in a way that guarantees you'll never have enough of it.

You’ll discover:

• The donation trick Fran learned from a friend that became her model for saying no before anyone even asks
• What to say in your next check-in so your manager helps you deprioritize work instead of piling more on
• How to run a 20-minute meeting that gets more done than most hour-long ones
• The one question to ask yourself when you catch yourself procrastinating (hint: it has nothing to do with your schedule)

About Fran Hauser

Fran Hauser is a leading career expert and vocal champion of women in the workplace, a former President of Digital at Time Inc., and a startup investor. She is also the owner of Bedford Books in Bedford, New York, and the acclaimed author of The Myth of the Nice Girl. Her forthcoming book, Twenty Minutes Is the New Hour, will be published by Penguin Random House/Crown Currency in September 2026. She has spoken at over 200 organizations, including Meta, Google, Unilever, BlackRock, Mastercard, and The Conference for Women. Fran’s insights have appeared in Fortune, CNBC, Fast Company, Elle, Refinery29, and Business Insider.

https://www.franhauser.com/

https://www.franhauser.com/twentyminutes

Sign up for the Psychology at Work Weekly newsletter:

https://melodywilding.com/newsletter/

Connect with Melody:

1. FREE NEWSLETTER: Psychology at Work Weekly
2. Get on the Waitlist for Speak Like a Senior Leader™
3. Get on the Waitlist for Lead from Within
4. Get Melody's new book, Managing Up