Dec. 6, 2025

🌴341. When Speaking Up Feels Risky feat. Lisa Evans (Weekend Rewind)

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Show Notes

In this episode, I sit down with the delightful Lisa Evans, who went from midwife and neonatal nurse to executive speaker coach and “story midwife” in her forties. Lisa lost most of her hearing after a virus, had to walk away from a 25-year career, then rebuilt everything with a cochlear implant, public speaking and business storytelling. If you’ve ever told yourself “it’s too late” or “I’m not that type of person,” you need to hear this.

We get into the very real stuff that stops smart people from speaking up, contributing in meetings and leading conversations: self doubt, imposter syndrome, dodgy psychological safety and poorly designed meetings that favour the fastest talker in the room. Lisa also shares a much more useful take on introversion and extroversion, and why “I’m an introvert” isn’t a get-out-of-jail card for hiding.

We also pull back the curtain on how she actually designs workshops for technical leaders in mining and resources, how she works with hybrid rooms, and why “let’s just move it online” is often the worst sentence in L&D.

In this conversation, you’ll hear:

How a sudden, permanent hearing loss ended Lisa’s midwifery career and forced a complete reset in her forties
The moment a cochlear implant opened the door to speaking, storytelling and a new professional identity
What really holds people back from speaking up in meetings, presentations and virtual calls
Why psychological safety is not a buzzword, it’s a pre-condition for contribution
Lisa’s take on introversion vs extroversion, and why it’s about how you recharge, not whether you “like people”
How introverts can be powerful speakers and facilitators without pretending to be someone else
The specific challenges of working with technical leaders and engineers who are told “tell more stories” but don’t know how
How Lisa designs her workshops so they’re customised, story-rich and flexible on the day (including how she “over-prepares” her slides so she can cut and pivot live)

• • Why copying someone else’s high-energy style all day is a fast track to burnout and flat rooms

Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com

P.S. Ready to take things up a level? Here are some ways I can help: