We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Eduardo Placer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Eduardo, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I believe I get my work ethic from two things: my immigrant family and then being a competitive swimmer. When I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995, I moved to New York City with a dance belt, a diet coke and a dream. I had taken an emergency loan from Penn in order to receive my diploma and couldn’t afford to work as an actor because at the time non union acting work was paying less than $200 a week. I had a full time job on Wall Street in Human Resources, I I took acting classes at a local studio and I took 10 dance classes a week at Broadway Dance Center. In order to pay for the dance classes, I joined the janitorial staff which allowed me to take classes for $3. My parents and grandparents were immigrants and refugees, and although educated and professionals in Cuba, had to take on any job, however humble, to make ends meet.
I was also a competitive swimmer in High School and Varsity lettered in 8th grade. We swam 3 days a week at 5:00Am (before classes) and then had afternoon practices Monday-Friday. The discipline that I learned, waking up at 4:30AM in the winter, to then jump into a cold pool when the heater was broken, and then watch the sunrise while swimming back and forth is a gift that continues to give.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Second grade. Show and Tell. Pinewood Acres Elementary School in Miami, FL. I stand in front of my classmates, clutching a stuffed animal seal and share, “Seals are mammals. They live in the water. They eat fish. Sometimes they’re eaten by sharks.” In my mind I imagine that this is the greatest SHOW AND TELL of all TIME! My classmates are uninterested. I then utter, “And I named him after someone in this class . . . Brett.” What I chose to do in that moment was name the boy that I had a crush on, in 1986, Miami FL and it didn’t go well. It was the first time I tasted terror in my mouth.
There is a well known statistic that 76% of people suffer from speech anxiety and I believe everyone else lies. That incident was the beginning of my journey dancing with fear in relationship to my public speaking. As the Chief Story Doula and Founder of Fearless Communicators, our work is centered around two core beliefs. 1) Public Speaking is taught primarily as an intellectual exercise, not a physical, spiritual and emotional exercise. 2) Public Speaking is also taught primarily as performance of straight, white, male cisgender power. It is for these reasons that we don’t teach PEFORMANCE or PRESENTATION, we teach PRESENSATION. This methodology is sourced in being grounded in your BODY, present in MIND, leading from the HEART, and speaking into the SPIRIT of our shared humanity.
We have the privilege of working with both individuals and organizations. Our individual clients include Presidential candidates, UN Diplomats, Leaders of organizations, social entrepreneurs and activists. We work with our private clients on crafting and delivering Keynotes and other forms of thought leadership like TED talks, Podcasting, Networking, and other verbal communication opportunities they may have.
Our organizational clients include Bank of America, HBO, Victoria’s Secret, The Tory Burch Foundation, The Ad Council, Crisis Group and many others. We work with teams on public speaking training and storytelling.
This fall we will also be completing our 30th Group Program called, Fearless Fire: Public Speaking for Visionary Thought Leaders. In this 6 day intensive, individuals craft a 12-15 minute signature talk and then share it with an in person and virtual audience. We have over 150 human beings who have completed this program and have run programs in NYC, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and the Hudson Valley.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three qualities that I believe were most impactful to my journey were Curiosity, Gratitude, and Creativity.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
I feel like overwhelm is a constant companion to an entrepreneur/small business owner. One of the things that I have learned to let go of is my perfectionism. I often share that I’m a recovering achievement addict/perfectionist. I have a mantra that I have developed which has been a blessing . . . “Today I’m doing the best I can, and tomorrow is an opportunity to be better.” This allows me to let go of the pressure valve and continue moving forward.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fearlesscommunicators.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stand4fearless/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduardoplacer/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMYR9Vl49zNQmSURL_M1m1g
- Other: www.eduardoplacer.com is my personal brand/public speaking
