Janice Porter: Janice, hello. Hello, and welcome to this
week's episode of relationships rule. I'm Janice Porter, your
host, and I have a special guest with me again this week, and she
is Jen Mueller, and I'm going to say welcome to the show, Jen,
before I get into it, thank you. You're very welcome. I'm excited
to have you here. Jen is an Emmy Award winning sports
broadcaster, communication expert and founder of talk
sporty. To me, with over 25 years literally on the sidelines
of major sports leagues, including the NFL and the MLB,
Jen has mastered the art of building relationships in the
most high pressure, fast paced environments. She shares how the
technique she's used to establish trust in seconds with
world class athletes can be applied to business settings
where brief, meaningful interactions often matter most.
If you've ever wondered how to make a lasting impression in a
short amount of time than this episode is for you. Wow. Okay, a
lot to unpack here, because I know you sort of lead a double
life in a way, right, I guess. So, yeah, yeah, I never thought
about it until the second. But yeah, you're still doing the
sports broadcasting, and you are very busy doing presentations
and workshops and and conferences with business people
to share, to to transition that over to to business. So let me
ask you this, because I want to jump right in. So you're known
for making fast, meaningful connections. So what's the first
thing that you focus on in these interactions?
Jen Mueller: You focus on conversations that can take
place in seconds, not minutes. So I think a lot of times when
we think about interactions or networking or making an
impression, we're thinking about a conversation or a meeting or a
happy hour or a coffee that you're blocking out several
minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, even an hour. But if I'm
thinking about TV time, we measure conversations in
seconds, not minutes, literally the shortest amount of time that
you can pencil into a television script is 15 seconds. I can tell
you a story in 15 seconds. It's three sentences, it's not a lot
of detail, but there is an impact that is made in just 15
seconds. So if I am trying to make an impression, I need to
recognize that really all it takes is one word, one exchange,
one smile, one interaction. And if I'm looking at the smallest
measure of success in that moment, I'm looking for the
number of people who say hello, and that is my goal every time I
walk into a locker room or clubhouse, is to get at least
five guys to say hello.
Janice Porter: Okay, so my my thought process when you were
describing that went to and I think I've told you this before,
I watch more basketball games than I watch football games, or
definitely not baseball. It's not my thing. But anyway, so I
think of the sports reporter or interviewer on the on the floor
who, after even half time, maybe quarter time, even after the
game, has a few seconds with. Now you might clarify this for
me. Is it with the person that has been assigned to do that, or
the one you ask to come and do that. So
Jen Mueller: there's probably what you're talking about.
There's probably two different instances, okay, if you're
talking to a coach that has been assigned to you, so for example,
if it's a coach at halftime, the coach knows that they're going
to talk, and that's pretty standard across the board,
right? The head coach of an NFL team knows that they're talking
to the sideline reporter at halftime. Same thing with NBA,
okay, after the game, yeah, the player who gets interviewed that
is not predetermined, that is based on their performance in
the game. So it is my job to walk up to them, or that
sideline reporter's job to walk up and ask for the interview in
that moment. And that's another great example, Janice, of those
conversations that take place in seconds, not minutes. Because in
general, if you were to start a stopwatch, those interviews
probably last no more than 90 seconds, which for me, is three
questions. So you're looking at 90 seconds to two minutes. So I
guess you could measure it in minutes, but you're making a big
impact in a very short amount of time,
Janice Porter: right? So let's go back to the those 15 seconds,
20 seconds type interviews. I know it's based on you have to
be watching. Watching the game, you have to be looking at what's
going on. So do you have your questions pre determined? Oh,
you
Jen Mueller: do. Okay, I do. I do. So if I'm watching a game,
I'm taking notes the entire way, because you don't know if it was
that play in the first quarter or the ninth inning, that turns
out to be the difference. And there are different points in
the game that I will start to dial in those questions. And
there's a few reasons I do this, and I know that some people
worry about the authenticity in those moments. There is a lot
going on during a post game interview. If I am on a baseball
field, I am probably dodging some sort of Gatorade bath. I've
got teammates that are coming by and high fiving. I've got the
crowd yelling the interview is being played in stadium. So
there are a lot of potential distractions. I want to be
dialed in, because if I'm only going to get three questions, I
need to be really strategic. Those three questions have to
hit the mark, and if we're thinking about building
relationships in those moments. Some of these guys I have known
for the length of their career, some of them have just joined
the team in the last three days. That's what I was going to ask
you. Yeah. The difference Yeah, yep. And so if I am, especially
if I'm working with you for the first time, I want to make the
answer to that question, easy and obvious. I'm not going to
put words into your mouth, but for me, it's the difference in
saying what happened in the seventh inning, which could be
any number of things, two, what gave you the confidence to steal
second with two outs and a lefty in the box there's only rest
one. There's only one, but there's only one answer to that
question. There's only one. I don't know what the answer is,
yeah, but you know what the answer is. And when I do that,
and I make that answer easy and obvious, I just built trust,
because now you trust me to guide you through a conversation
that you have the answers
Janice Porter: to love it, yeah. Okay, so let's transition that
through to a business conversation, all right. So
liken it to something that would happen for a salesperson. You
work with salespeople, right? I
Jen Mueller: do work with some salespeople, yeah. So it's the
difference in getting people out of scripted and generic
responses. So here's what happens. We rely on conventional
wisdom and just conversational norms, and we have probably been
taught somewhere along the way that asking open ended questions
is the best way to get a response, because, in theory,
what you are doing is giving the floor to that person to answer
any way they want to answer. Right? What we're actually doing
is creating confusion, and anytime you create confusion,
you are going to default to the safest possible answer, because
nobody wants to look stupid, and nobody wants to give you the
wrong answer. And here's the best way. We don't even have to
get into sales. This is with anybody. Here's the best way I
can articulate that. Okay, if I were to ask you, how are you
What is your response?
Janice Porter: I hate that question. Just so you know, I
hate that question too. Yeah, I say something like, I'm doing
okay, right now, thanks. Or, you know, having a great day. I
actually try to be honest, but I personally don't pay attention
to it.
Jen Mueller: People don't pay attention. Part of that is
that's a that's a conversational norm, right? That's a script
that we expect. Now I teach ways that we can use that to our
advantage. But when I ask an entire audience with my
corporate clients, yeah, we default to the answer, good,
yeah, we're fine. We're fine. Right now, I want you to think
about what that question actually is. It is the biggest,
broadest, most open ended question you could possibly ask.
The reason we default to good and fine most often is because
we don't know what you're looking for. I don't know if you
want me to talk about the workout that I had this morning,
how my diet's going, how you know the family is, how the job
is, what my stress level is, and unless I'm brave enough like
you, Janice, to actually say I'm having kind of a cloudy, crummy
day over here? Yeah, I don't know what it is that you're
looking for. And so when we're in sales, right, we often don't
know what it is. It's easier to say what we don't like than what
we do want, right? So if we're opening it up by Hey, tell me
what you're looking for today, I don't know. Would it be way
easier if I was able to bring this proposition to the table to
you and say, out of these three things, efficiency, time, length
of time that you want to work with me, and profitability. Rank
those in order of importance for you. Well, now I'm. Starting the
conversation with a very direct, like question, but I make it
much easier to know what that starting point is anytime you
narrow that down and there's only one possible answer, and
it's not about the answer being right or wrong, it's just giving
somebody the confidence and what I consider the safe space to be
like, Oh yeah, I know the answer to that. I can raise my hand to
that. I got that. I know that one. So,
Janice Porter: okay, what percentage of time would you say
that you are talking to people you've never met before, or that
like they're brand new? Is it a lot or half?
Jen Mueller: Well, it depends on which setting. So I get to know
my athletes fairly well. Yeah, it's a great question in that I
talk to a lot of fans, or I will talk to scouts from the other
team, or I am talking to, you know, three year olds to 83 year
olds, depending on where you fall as a fan as a business
owner, and it's a great way to practice all of these skills to
make sure that you make somebody else feel comfortable in a
conversation.
Janice Porter: Okay, so I'm asking because yesterday I had a
conversation. It was like an intro call like you and I had
had before this podcast, and someone had pitched this
gentleman to me, and I didn't know that much about him, and
nor, nor would I at that point, right? I did a little bit of
homework, but he wasn't what I expected, okay, in the position
that he was in at, which was a high one, and he was very
humble, and he was a little bit awkward. And so I thought this
is a guy who's been in business for many years and is an owner
of a big company. And, you know, I had been sort of flattered
that that this had come my way, and I expected something
different. So I found myself a little bit I hate this term, but
it's, it fits here at sea. Okay, it's, it's a crossword term. I
think that's where I get it from. Anyway, yeah, and, and so
I was looking for that, something to bond with him. And
he started, I said something about the industry he's in which
he lit up. And then something came up about he had started his
career wanting to be a basketball coach. Well, that was
perfect for me, right? Because my husband had been a basketball
coach. We basketball family, and he just lit up. And so I found
it quickly, and I thought, wow, that's, you know, like, and from
then on, we were best friends, you know, in the conversation.
So are there like I do it innately, but most people don't
so and I'm not saying that I'm brilliant because I did that.
I'm just saying that it's, it's a challenge for me, that I like,
I like, to be able to find that commonality. So do you have some
strategies that you share with people, that you teach people
around that? Does that make sense?
Jen Mueller: Yeah, yes. So the number one thing I would say,
and I think Janice, you are describing also people that I
work with that are high performers, that are ultra
successful, and we have an assumption that when you reach a
certain level, that you want all the credit, all the glory and
all the accolades for everything that you accomplished, and not
all high performers are that way. I'm glad
Janice Porter: that you're comfortable talking about it,
bingo, right?
Jen Mueller: So a lot of people, when they see athletes who are
awkward on TV. It it's a little bit jarring. Sometimes they get
judgmental. And you got to remember that in every whether
it's locker room, clubhouse, boardroom, business setting,
you've got people who are introverts and extroverts.
You've got people who are comfortable being on the in, you
know, the front leading from the front, you've got people from
behind. So the first thing I would say is adjust your
expectations accordingly. Just recognize the human who's in
front of you, and you can't force them to have a personality
or an answer that they just don't have. That's not a failure
on them or you. This is just the personality that you're working
with. So that's kind of number one, recognize the human that's
standing in front of you. Number two, if I am looking for a
conversation starter, I always start with sports.
Janice Porter: Always do a lot of the times
Jen Mueller: I do and I do what most people would tell you not
to do. I ask a yes, no question, yeah, and it will be related to
something. So again, in my line of work, if I'm working with the
mariners every day, or if I'm working with the Seahawks every
day, did you watch the game last night? Right? Are you going to
watch the game on Sunday? Now there's only one answer, and I
really don't care what the answer is. I don't care if it's
yes or no. If the answer is yeah, I watched the game and,
man, that was tough. In the sixth inning, and now I know
that we can talk sports, and I can create an easy follow up
opportunity with you if you say no, now I've got this really
easy opening to say, oh, what were you busy with last night?
Yeah, I was watching the game, but, but what had you busy which
is a way easier way to enter that conversation then. So what
were you doing last night, right? Right comes across with a
very different connotation, and for people who are worried about
using sports as that starting point, because what if they're
not sports fans? Okay, more than half of all Americans, this is
what the Harris Poll study says. More than half of all Americans
identify as sports fans. So that's number one. Number two,
I'm just trying to cut through that awkward 20 question phase,
right? I just need to get you in your comfort zone. And again, if
you don't watch sports, you're going to tell me what you like
to do instead, and you're going to tell me your hobbies, your
kids, your dogs, your travel.
Janice Porter: I love it, yeah? Because, as I recall now, I did
say to this gentleman yesterday, did you watch the game last
Yeah? And he went and I made a comment about one of the
players, and he went on and on about him. So yeah, it's just
when you find it, you find it, right?
Jen Mueller: Yes. And that right, there is such a nugget
that people miss in that part of small talk. So when you start
talking about a player, or, quite honestly, an outcome, a
coaching decision, all of this is personal branding, and
whether people re realize they're revealing this to you or
not, it is valuable if you are in sales. It is valuable if you
are trying to build a relationship, because a favorite
player is not an accident. You do not randomly choose to have a
favorite player and be engaged in that player's careers and
outcomes. There is something about their style of play, their
personality, their work in the community, that really resonates
with you, and when you start drawing that out. Now, I've got
a slightly bigger picture of who I'm working with and who I'm
trying to build this relationship with. I've actually
done this exercise with NFL rookies in a room to help them
get to know each other. And when you start talking about certain
positions on the field and certain Hall of Fame players,
the characteristics are really obvious, and it's very
interesting, what they find out about each other. When you start
realizing I really appreciate the guy in the trenches who
never gets any credit but just wants to grind every play of
every game, or I like the guy who doesn't mind talking during
the game and who doesn't mind being brash and who doesn't
mind, you know, being the sound bite, I like that confidence as
it comes through, so that what you did in that example is
perfect for developing a relationship, even if people
think you're just talking about sports,
Janice Porter: right, right? And that's how I saw it too, which
is, it's just to get him to open up and and to see his demeanor
change, right? And then you, yeah, that's, it's brilliant.
Okay, you got me thinking, I got questions here, but I go, I go
with the flow here. So something that came to my mind when you
were talking also, because you're around the the the male
athletes constantly. Do you have any experience with female
professional athletes? I do, and I do, how does that differ? Does
it differ?
Jen Mueller: Well, the actual environment differs a little
bit. So the way that it works when you cover professionals. So
we're talking major league baseball, NFL, NBA and NHL,
there is media availability that takes place in a locker room, in
a dressing room, in a clubhouse, when you cover the WNBA, at
least when I did a number of years ago, all of that media
availability takes place on the court or in a press conference
setting, so you were in a room, so you were never actually in
their locker room
Janice Porter: space. Was that by design?
Jen Mueller: Well, it is by design, and we can discuss
whether that's a good idea or a bad idea, right? But your locker
room, you're gonna have people that are dressing, undressing,
going to the showers, you know, coming from treatment, going to
hot tubs and cold tubs and things like that. So there are
just some differences there, and I totally understand why it's
there. I know people are going to have some strong opinions
about that, but here's what happens when I get to go into
your space and walking into a locker room or clubhouse, it's
very clinical. We're all there to do a job. They're sitting
there most of the time dressed at their lockers. And by the
way, if you see somebody who's getting ready to go to the
shower, you know what's going to happen. You just turn the other
direction and you walk the other way. But when you're in that
space, and I'll. Make the rounds every day, I'll make the rounds.
And whoever's sitting at their locker, I'm going to have a
conversation, probably for 60 seconds, but it's going to be my
touch point for the my day, and that's going to be the Hello,
right as I build the relationship. If I never get to
do that in a uniformed way, you've got to go about
relationship building differently. So now when you
come off the court, if my only chance to catch you is when
you're coming off the court or going on the court, I've got to
be even better and even more dialed in at recognizing the
work that you do and making an impression on you. So that means
I need to been paying attention to say I saw how many free
throws you hit in practice that was really impressive, or that
three ball that you nailed, I don't know how you did that. Off
balance. That's all I need to say, is they're off after
practice, right? I'm paying attention. I'm here for you like
I I want to know more about you.
Janice Porter: Love it. I saw a couple of clips on, I think it
was YouTube of a program that you do. You still do this
program, the cooking
Jen Mueller: show I do. It's called, I cook, you measure,
yeah. It is on YouTube, yeah. So I bring most of the time it's
professional athletes. Sometimes it's also media personalities
into the kitchen with me, and it is exactly how it sounds. I do
the cooking, they do the measuring, and to I would say,
varying degrees of success. Some of these folks have a lot of
experience in the kitchen. Others are learning how to use a
can opener for the first time. But the idea is we're going to
learn more about you in a setting that everybody is
familiar with. It is an icebreaker, and now it's the
athletes are humans too. Yeah, and also, we're going to learn
together on a few of these things and have some
conversations. How did you come up with that? Well, a dear
friend of mine who works on the mariners radio broadcast was
brainstorming with me when we were on a flight home. I think
it was from Cleveland a handful of years ago, and during the
pandemic, I, like everybody else, did a lot of cooking at
home. I would post a lot of pictures on Instagram. And she
said, you know, you need to come up with a way to make that work
for you. Like that needs to be something. And so a couple of
glasses of wine later, it was, you know, there's a cooking
show, and I have excelled at creating feature programming
around professional athletes for years. So it has been my job for
20 years to create that content that is memorable, that helps
you fall in love with your favorite player, that keeps you
engaged. So this is an extension of what I have been doing for
years, but it's in my own kitchen, cooking recipes and
doing something else that I love, outside of sports,
Janice Porter: that's fantastic. I love it. Now, you may have
answered this question, but I'm I want to just make sure it's
covered. What you talk about success statements, what are
they and how can professionals use them to build trust?
Jen Mueller: That is your response to the question. How
are you this is where we take that if it's going to be a
conversational Norman script, because you and I both know it's
not a great question for any number of reasons, but we're
also not going to stop the question from happening, because
it's a default setting for us. And you know what? In some
cases, that's okay, but here's what we need to recognize, that
is the most pivotal moment in every single conversation. We
tend to treat that as the throw away, because we'll go through
the How are you good? How are you good? And then we'll sit
there and we'll wait for the conversation to start, yeah, why
don't we just get a running start on this and deliver a
success statement, which is a one sentence response to the
question, how are you that answers the question so you can
still be good, fine, great, trending in the right direction,
but we're going to go one step further and Say why I'm awesome,
because I am energized by the podcast that I take today,
here's what we have done. We have highlighted something that
we are proud of, that we feel like is an accomplishment, and I
have made the follow up questions easy and obvious. I
have taken that conversation and pointed it exactly where I want
it to go. If I'm talking to a manager at work, the
conversation sounds like this, I'm awesome and I am ahead of
schedule on the show that I promise to deliver next week. In
theory, any manager that I've ever reported to as a TV
personality knows that I'm showing up to work because I am
on TV, but what I want to make sure I highlight as a successes.
I'm actually ahead of schedule. I'm going to make your job
easier by keeping workflow on track for everybody else. If
we're thinking about advocating for ourselves in other ways, you
work in sales, you're reporting your quarterly results. I'm
awesome, and I have exceeded my second quarter goals by 12% And
nobody else is going to know this if you don't bring it to
their attention, and if they don't ask questions, it's okay,
because I just took that moment and I used it for me. I can walk
away from that conversation, and I know I made an impression that
I did the best I could to advocate for myself in about 15
seconds.
Janice Porter: Okay, that's very interesting to me. I'm glad I
asked it a different way then that you said that, because I
tend, because of that question, which, you know, it's
everywhere, like you said the default, I tend to turn it the
other way and say, I'll just, you know, brief, like I'm
thinking about sort of in the grocery store or in in a
networking event or something, where I might say, I'm doing
great. How are you doing? What's going on with you? And turning
it back to them and not advocating for myself, yeah,
Jen Mueller: and you know, there are absolutely times and ways to
do that. I'm not saying that we should never ask the other
person or
Janice Porter: open. No, I know you're not saying that, but, but
what you're saying is that it's an opportunity. It is advocate
for yourself. And I'm saying I don't, I never thought about
that.
Jen Mueller: Yeah, yeah. So if you were looking to book more
podcast guest, and you don't know where your next most
interesting you know interview subject is going to be if you've
always got it at the ready, because we can look at our
schedule and know generally where we're going to be. We know
who we're going to be in a meeting with, or we know that
we're going to the coffee shop or the grocery store. It's just
one line. I taped two podcasts today. I feel pretty good about
myself. Got it now, if they're interested, oh, you've had a
podcast, yeah. Oh, what's your podcast about? How often do you
tape? When do you have people on? And now you you're
prospecting clients or potential guests? Yes, without trying very
hard.
Janice Porter: Okay, so I noticed on LinkedIn that you had
done. Sorry, there's noise going on here. You did a post a week
ago. I don't get to avoid tough conversations after a loss. My
job is to conduct post game interviews, win or lose. Never
thought about it that way. Everyone gets a few minutes to
catch their breath, and then we dive into what happened. It's
performance review and a post mortem that plays out in front
of a large audience. What? What message did you bring to the
group you were talking to, which was a CFO round table in can you
share a bit of
Jen Mueller: that? Yes, so most people don't think about the
conversations that happen after a loss when they find out that
I'm a sideline reporter, it's usually like, oh my gosh, that's
so cool. Like, it must be so fun. It is most of the time,
most of the time, and the expectations don't change after
a loss. Here's what I tell CFOs, and I tell all of my corporate
clients in this setting, there's a few things that actually make
these conversations easy, obvious and expected. I would
much rather be talking about a win than a loss, but when I walk
in there after a loss, because of the way things have been
communicated before the game by coaches, GMs, front offices,
captains of the team, if they come up short, those players
know what exactly we're talking about. And so those tough
conversations, the ones that we try to kick, you know, down the
road in business, and we're just going to give them some time to
catch their breath, and we'll circle back around in a week or
10 days. Look, everybody knows what's about to happen, so let's
just hit this head on. My athletes want me to be very
direct. If you were the one that missed the free throw with a
chance to win it with two seconds to go, they know they
missed the free throw, and they know that you're going to ask
about it, because the expectation was it's your job to
make the free throw, right and so you just go right after it.
And you don't have to be you don't have to be ugly or rude
about it, but the kind thing to do is to walk right up and say,
We have seen you make that shot so many times. What happened on
that final attempt? Right now, I'm just going to open it up,
and I'm going to give you a chance to tell me the story of
that play. That's always how I'm thinking about a post game
interview. It's your chance to tell me the story of what
happened. We can agree or disagree as to whether that's
actually what happened, whether I think you should have hustled
hard or I think you should have done that, but this is your
chance to do this. The cool thing in sports is the objective
is very clear. In basketball, and this is going to sound
ridiculous in basketball, the objective is to score more
points than the other team. It is painfully obvious. That's the
objective. If you don't reach that objective, that
conversation about accountability and feedback is
actually fairly easy, because everybody knows we didn't reach
the objective. The waters get muddied in business all the
time, because what the CEO thinks is a success, or the CFO
thinks is a success is not necessarily. What your sales
manager thinks is a success is not what I think a success is.
And so we need to be really clear going in, so that when we
come out of situations, everybody is actually on the
same page, and they're expecting that feedback and that
accountability.
Janice Porter: So when you did this presentation last week, I
think you called it. Her fun and informative. Stories about
influential conversations. I talked to losers sparked some
great conversations. So did you? Are your presentations
interactive? Do you you must get a lot of conversation started.
For sure, we we
Jen Mueller: do get a lot of conversation started, and
there's a lot of thought around how to use our words in
different ways, how to use one word to change the conversation,
just overall feel and what we get out of it, the value that we
add to somebody. So we do spend time doing things like that.
Here's here's one that we did, in fact, actually in that same
session. So part of tough conversations, accountability
and feedback is giving accurate praise to begin with. We are
terrible at doing that in business, but coaches, great
coaches in sports and high performers are phenomenal at
giving accurate praise and feedback. We tend to default to
the same thing over and over again. We would say things like,
you did a great job, right? How was dinner last night? Oh, it
was great. Oh, how was your weekend? It was great. We use
great for everything, like a version of great for everything.
So what I'll have the audience do is shout out a few other
words of what actually was dinner, because a chef does not
want to hear that Dinner was great. I have done this exercise
with chefs. In fact, a few weeks ago, I did this with chefs, and
I had everybody in the room and I said, tell me how your dinner
was last night. We're sitting at the restaurant with the
executive chef, and they said it was great. And I turned to the
executive chef, and I said, is that what you wanted to hear?
And his shoulders are slumped over. And I said, No, it's not.
I said, Well, what did you want to hear? It was, well, I was
hoping somebody would say it was savory. It was memorable. It was
scrumptious. It was, you know, the flavors melded together. And
so now you start figuring out how to use your full range of
words. So we will do things like that, because one word changes
the entire feeling and meaning of a sentence. So you really
have to
Janice Porter: be present and take and and and think more more
deeply really
Jen Mueller: you do because it so. If you're just trying to pay
a compliment to somebody, you could say you did a great job.
Yeah, and I'll take a compliment like I will say, thank you so
much. I really appreciate you recognizing that now, if
somebody said, I can't believe how much time you spent
preparing for our conversation, I really enjoyed the connection
that's different. Or instead of saying you did a great job to
say you were well prepared, that doesn't sound like it's better
than great. Oh, wait, does that land so much more well, you did
a great job.
Janice Porter: You noticed something. You noticed
something, right? Totally. I get I love it. Okay? I think I could
talk to you forever, but I think I have to sort of round up,
round it up a little bit, and I want to ask one last question
around the work that you do and and maybe a couple of quick,
quick fires after that. If there's one actionable takeaway
that my listeners can try today to build can use today. I hate
that word try can use today to build better relationships. What
would it be if there's one actionable takeaway,
Jen Mueller: recognize the power of small conversations and
practice on somebody you don't know. Talk to somebody so that
that Hello gets easier, so that you can practice a success
statement in a low stakes environment. You are never going
to get good at the big conversations and those big
moments if you don't find small ways to practice and they are
everywhere.
Janice Porter: They are, they are. I love that. That's That's
amazing. Thanks. Jen, that's a great tip. I might have to use
that in my newsletter from you as well. Please do okay, um, all
right, so where can people find you? And it'll be in the show
notes. Yep,
Jen Mueller: you can. Find me at talk sporty to me.com Okay,
that's the easiest way to find me. Talk sporty to me on the
socials. And if you're interested in the cooking show I
cook you measure on YouTube is where you can find all the
episodes.
Janice Porter: And are you still found on on the field or in the
I
Jen Mueller: am you can still watch me on mariners baseball
games at home, and I am entering my 17th season as the Seahawks
radio sideline reporter,
Janice Porter: and if I turn on the mariners game, I wouldn't,
but my husband would I can say, oh, there's Jen. I know
Jen Mueller: that's right. I'll be dodging the Gatorade bath
after the game. Yep,
Janice Porter: I love it. Okay, so quick, quick fire for you.
You, you strike me as a very high energy person and a great
conversationalist. I've enjoyed talking to you both times. Now,
what do you do to you know, get away from your work. What do you
like to do when you're not working?
Jen Mueller: I will probably be cooking and having a glass of
wine. There's lots of great wine in Washington State. Yes, I
enjoy popping out to a winery and just having a glass of wine.
Janice Porter: Perfect. What's your favorite kind of meal to go
out to restaurant to? Oh,
Jen Mueller: that's a hard one. I will never say no to any
version of Tex Mex, Mexican food, like Southwest food.
Janice Porter: I thought that was going to be the answer. Oh
Jen Mueller: no, okay, it's the one that I'm probably not going
to make as well at home, like I can make it well, but there's
something about going out for Mexican food with the chips and
salsa. That's probably what I will do,
Janice Porter: what I expected. Okay, all right. And last
question, I like to I love the word curiosity, and I would like
to know there's no right or wrong answer, but there's two
parts to this question, and it will, I promise, be the last
question. Do you think curiosity is innate or learned? And part
two is, what are you most curious about these days? Ooh,
Jen Mueller: I I think we can learn to be curious. I think
some people are naturally curious, but I do think we can
learn to be curious. And what I am curious about right now,
quite honestly, is how to make a big transition. I watch athletes
do it all the time when they change careers, and there gets
to be a certain part point where you get curious about, hey, what
else could I be doing? And I'm really curious about how to do
that well, and how to find different ways to serve the
community that I haven't been able
Janice Porter: to do yet. Oh, you're on your way. I think,
well, thank you. I think so yes. So thank you for being here
today. I hope my audience enjoyed what your what you had
to say, and please remember if you do to leave a review, we'd
love that, and to touch base with Jen and follow what she's
up to. I think that her insights remind us that strong business
relationships aren't built on time. They're built on
intention. Whether you're at a networking event, a team
meeting, or making a first impression, the ability to
connect quickly and authentically is a true
competitive advantage. Jen's techniques prove that with the
right approach, even the shortest conversations can leave
the deepest impact. So thank you. Thank you for those
insights today, Jen, and appreciate you being here and
taking the time to be with
Jen Mueller: us. I really enjoyed the conversation. Thanks
so much. Janice,
Janice Porter: my pleasure and to my audience, remember to stay
connected and be remembered. You.