E210 – Katy Dyzewska – Edutainer Extraordinaire, Saving People from Boring Workshops

Junaid Ahmed 0:00
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In the last episode, we got to speak with Christina days the inventor of a product of us has done to decorate medical boots, she created a brand new space in the industry. Nobody had a clue that this was needed. Christina became a do it yourself publicity expert. And with her first year in the market. She was able to get into 50 media outlets all for free. How did you manage this? Check out the last episode. But for now let's talk to Katie.

This episode, I get to talk to Katie from Luxembourg from her LinkedIn. She says she saves people from boring workshops, presentation speeches, and provide leadership and branding workshops. I recently met Katie and I decided hey, this is an awesome byline. I absolutely do not like boring workshops or presentations. So she can definitely help me figure out what it is that she does. So here is Katie. Hello.

Katy Dyzewska 1:55
I feel a bit intimidated with this presentation that you just introduced me that No,

Junaid Ahmed 2:00
no, not this is this is very simple. It's just like a conversation. I'm just introduced to my listeners.

Katy Dyzewska 2:09
So cool to to hear those things about yourself.

Junaid Ahmed 2:12
I know it is. It is. It's very different. Right. When somebody else introduces you. Yeah. What because you're used to introducing yourself on a daily basis or, you know, whenever you're giving a presentation introducing yourself. But then when you hear from somebody else, like Well,

that's what I do.

Katy Dyzewska 2:29
Exactly. That's magical. Yeah.

Junaid Ahmed 2:31
So tell me why. Why do you have a shoe on your head? You know, are you talking to you

Katy Dyzewska 2:39
as a phone actually know if this story is about this is actually my trademark.

My friends. And my clients told me that definitely the red shoes are your trademark. Because wherever you're popping in doing doing presentation, doing workshop doing public speaking, you always have those red shoes.

And so I was like thinking, yeah, that's actually a good idea. Good thing to make it my trademark. And then I was thinking maybe it would be nice to have my trademark on my profile picture. Absolutely. And, you know, I told it to the photographer and girls were like, how we can do it. And then we actually did a couple of shots with me having a phone next to my next to my ear. So I can only stand their normal talking. Yeah, no. And then one of them was like this changes for the shoe. And so we did. And so the there and I have to tell you this, it took me a while

since the moment that the picture was taken until the moment actually posted as my profile picture. Yeah, because I was afraid that people will think that I'm in show business. Yeah,

Junaid Ahmed 3:55
that's it. Yeah.

Katy Dyzewska 3:57
But it's like, in the end, it's actually pretty a nice start up conversations always. Because people do ask about that.

Junaid Ahmed 4:06
And that's a great icebreaker. Yeah,

Katy Dyzewska 4:08
exactly. It so it's like, I already I thought to myself, that it's actually exactly what I'm doing. So I'm already initiating the conversation without starting at ease. So that's, that's pretty cool thing. Yeah. So yeah, that was a long story about the fact that was just my

Junaid Ahmed 4:28
birth like story.

So how did you get into this? And, you know, how did you decide that, you know, you're going to help people save people from devoting workshops, presentations,

Katy Dyzewska 4:41
so that's going to be longer story. Definitely, I'll try not to bore you or the listeners of the podcast today. I'm really appreciative.

And so the A Tia like from the beginning because I studied economics, and I really was keen on doing things that finance and so on, and that's what I did. Yeah, but there was like, every time where if I went and I was doing the job, eventually, I was actually doing workshops for people or being a coach or mentor for the startup or for, you know, for those who just came to the company. Yeah. Then I had a team that I that I managed, which was also I was more guiding them and actually doing the job because they were there to do the job. So I was I was the coach I was to guide

also, the other thing is that I always love to talk my mom. It was always laughing that since I learned how to talk house talking 24 seven. So they were my Yeah, my, my family was very happy when they actually was so nice and quiet at home. Yeah. And, you know,

after about, I think, five or six years working in finance. I had a burnout. Yeah, I was for that we're dealing with numbers, the

things which were interesting, but I had a feeling that I already learned a lot and I felt stuck. So, you know,

I'm not the type of pressure now to sit down and fall into depression. Yeah, I started looking for help support. I got myself a couple of coaches to go through certain things. And

I ended I ended up actually doing MBA and Masters in Business Administration is I thought to myself, I need to know, I want to know more than finance because there is more than finance in the companies to do and I can do more and first week first week, I remember was very intense. And we heard classes, you know, from nine o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock in the evening, seven days, the weekend, we had the seminar where we had, you know, frankly, more time to actually talk to each other, and everybody were like asking me, okay, so what's, what's your background, what you do, again,

i'm in finance. you in finance? no way

you're a people person, you know, you're a performer and so on, so on. And I think, you know, when 29 people who sits next to you repeat stuff to you for almost a year and a half, almost two years of studies, and you start understanding that there is something about it, yeah, and you start looking and thinking, so, after getting my MBA, also get some certifications as a coach as a business trainer. Yeah. And I started figuring out what I can do with the knowledge that I have. And now I can actually help people and the fact that I've actually been sitting in my life on several workshops, which were extremely boring. Yeah, and yeah,

I think that's, well, you know, just, you sit for the workshop that should teach you, you know, people management, yeah, and if you end up falling asleep in the middle of it,

Junaid Ahmed 8:25
it's not working,

Katy Dyzewska 8:26
it's not working. And I will not learn anything from that. And I think it's also a couple of ideas that I got from my, my MBA school that, you know,

things that we had their

classes and everything were very engaging your, of course, there were moments when you're sitting in the class, and, you know, jot down everything that was on the, on the blackboard, but most of the time, they were very interesting things. And

I remember even one of the examples, this was actually an acting exercise, you know, and yeah, that was the exam was actually to give to give a presentation in form of, you know, kind of a theatre play shortly to play to present a certain information from the book or from the article that we've been given. Yeah, and that was so awesome and I enjoyed that and I thought to myself like if they can do it why I can't do it of course for the smaller scale and not doing the NBA yeah but literally passing depth knowledge and that practice further and literally that's what I do I I engage people when I speak whenever I present workshop provide workshop, you know, PowerPoints is them probably just to time time to exercise that we doing

most of the time there other thing that I guess so let people dance. I let people walk around the office and pick up some things. And

sometimes we use balloon sometimes we forget the same thing to be his Lego blocks for the exercises. And it is amazing how people actually open up an Indian Have you get the information that Oh, yeah, that was a novelty. And that was amazing. And I remember this, and that, and I remember so much more, because it was so fun. Yeah. And so it's, it's this, it's, it's the moment when you in the end, you hear people saying thank you very, you know, big smile. And you can see that they really learn something and

they enjoyed it, you realize that you actually help See,

Junaid Ahmed 10:50
that's really amazing. This this awesome, thank you. You know,

what's funny is I spoke to another gentlemen last week,

tell me that he is he he's an advocate for ADHD. And I saw some of his videos and he was extremely engaging like people are not looking at their phones don't all looking at, you know, around trying to write something down there dueling because the speaker was so engaging that, you know, everybody was into talking about and they're paying attention. I was like, that's really cool. And that's, you know, that's something that I, I see a parallel with what you're talking about how you create your presentations interactive and in get, you know, bringing in different artifacts. Yeah,

Katy Dyzewska 11:48
it's a, I think it's one of the things I as I've been for that, like, been bored on several presentations, and several workshops. Yeah. And also, I found that it is my talents, to, to wake up people and to engage them. And even if I, if I do a short speech, it is something that I, I use the whole body to make a story out of it. That's what really people enjoy, because they're very often people are afraid to

do public speaking to things and mainly because they feel that they will look like a clown.

So obviously, like the moment that I'm coming out, and I'm actually doing a bit of a clown presentation, sometimes take it relax, because they know that they can do more and further on next steps. They actually able to, to do something engaging on their own, you know, especially for managers that there was with later on the they can actually go and, and they do go and and further spread this kind of joy and having

amazing Yeah, yeah,

Junaid Ahmed 13:04
that's really cool. I I mean, I so public speaking is definitely some of the, you know, one of the scariest things like people are more scared of public speaking. And then death itself, right. It's okay. It's been talked about in many books, and many people, you know, claim that, yeah,

Katy Dyzewska 13:28
I've heard that. But I think like, literally last week, I realized that I am probably one of the rare very rare people that I was never afraid of public speaking. Yeah. And I remember I my first like, big speech when I was welcoming,

I wasn't eighth grade. And I was working with the kids who just started school and you know, the room is full of parents, teachers, and everybody. I have been a couple of sentences prepared, you know, scrap of paper. Yeah, and I remember that's the moment that I got out, two microphones started plugging is a big problem of it. And, you know, the technician started running around to fix the microphone, literally standing in the middle, and maybe I should probably run away or stress myself out. Yeah, but

there was a moment for me of being human, I think, for the third microphone, and it started causing as well as just move on the side from the microphone. And they use my ability and my strong voice to simply project and make people being so quiet, because I could literally hear the flies buzzing, you know, outside. Yeah. And it was an amazing experience. And I think I was about 14 at that time. So, you know,

that great experience gave me this confidence that if I can speak in front of I think it was about 500 people without the microphone. Yeah, I can pretty much do public speaking,

Junaid Ahmed 15:10
that's an amazing experience experience. Because, yeah, it's those experiences that build on, you know, you build on top of exactly, but if you know, somebody else, you know, if they've never had that experience, to speak in front of a large crowd without microphone, or, you know, just being able to do that, then, you know, that's where those things come in. And you realize, okay, this is, this is something crazy. Yeah,

that's awesome. Yeah,

Katy Dyzewska 15:42
those kind of moments, you know, like, you remember them sometimes, then you forget, because you're following somebody else's dream of you being like, for me, being successful in finance, that that didn't work that much for me. But then when you start working on yourself, and on what is actually why you're actually here on earth to do things, you finding out those those stories from the past and realizing that it was actually very strong experience and strong positive experience you can grow on and like, I remember when I first told that story to a couple of my friends, they were like, Oh, my God, it's so awesome. out. I'm like, Yeah, I could have freaked out. And I was a do remember that. I was stressing that. I think I was more stressed with the fact that the technician cannot manage the microphone. And the fact that I'm standing in the middle of the stage not doing anything, so yeah, but no, it was so cool. It was so great. And I remember, you know, people who I didn't know it all congratulating me on

making, you know, the whole crowd silence nice. And I wish that everybody has

Junaid Ahmed 17:09
those positive experiences. And then and then the, the crowd coming up to you and congratulating you, you know, it motivates you even more. And then you're like, you know what, I got this. This is, yeah,

exactly. So here, it says, You're also a brand developer, and you help

find your values critical. So how do you go about doing that?

Katy Dyzewska 17:32
Yes.

So it is a long process, it's happening in the day.

Now, that's some, some people actually think that, oh, yeah, can grant developments on like, we just, we do my LinkedIn profiles and payments, if you want to redo your LinkedIn profile, we can do that as well within the process. But first, we do civil exercise. And that's where my coaching knowledge is kicking in. And we go through the process actually, and physical exercises as well

on on defining devalued so definitely of things that people think that it's the value when they start really thinking about it. It's about things like even carrier success and money go on two sides to have values. Like for me, for example, my first main values is creativity is freedom. And it's my family. And whatever I do further, it's around those three values. And people realize that, you know, they always think that money is important for them. So it's the value but then they were when they start kicking in, you realize that actually, that is the least important thing. Yeah, yeah. And they actually cherish the fact of having stability or stability doesn't have the income that might, you know, have have a person you'll have the ability, you know, to,

to travel a bit or to have a house that the gentle and that's the stability for them. So we start with values and then we go further on what kind of message and what things they actually can do we also analyze

this day your strengths and their weaknesses and verify Okay, your image up like now, but it seems very simple that you're not so happy with Yeah, let's verify all those things to create a brand that you can literally sell further as as your career brand as an your next step into career. And the great thing that lately I've heard people saying that each of us is a brand and that that's true. Yeah. And it is even can even if, like, some people don't realize it. And I think the first thing is when you realize that you are a brand and the moment you're going for the interview or going to do business, you are this you're bringing value to people, that means that you have to know what you're actually bringing. Yeah,

and that is something when when people realize that, okay, so I actually don't want to work in this. But how I change I'm just let's start being true to yourself. Let's be authentic, let's be you

and his life example. From my own experience. I'm a person who's very energetic, bubbly, and I always I always wear colors, like the red shoe is why

I always have colors around. And

in finance world. It's not so

to have too many calories are appreciated. It's not appreciated and say like, if you have, you know, just earrings, which are colorful, but they're small and not noticeable. Yeah, that's okay. But when you come in a suit, which is I didn't know what a blue suit, for example, or you suddenly have a black suit. But you have a really red shirt. Yeah, that stands out. People are looking to my wife's, yeah, because that's me,

Junaid Ahmed 21:34
that's your

personality.

And that also makes you feel strong and confident.

Katy Dyzewska 21:40
Exactly. And that's, that's my part of confidence. That's my part of being nice. And yeah, so I, I can't dump colors. And okay, I have my dark days. And I tried to, you know, just wear black or gray. But I think it's also like, the more gray it's outside. Now we're getting into to enter the more grades outside, the more colors are aware

Junaid Ahmed 22:05
and mode, add color to the gray whether

Katy Dyzewska 22:08
exactly, it doesn't mean that in the summer that I'm turning on my clothes, or black or gray. I still I still work colors. But I think like most people, I don't stop doing that in in the fall. And in the winter. Yeah.

But again, coming back to this branding. I know this is a part of me. And and this branding thing is literally for me, me happy helping people to realize that it is the most the most important thing is that they know who they are, that they know how to present that and that they are then take and they are willing to live the life as they shoot instead of you know, getting in the box of this or that. Yeah, yeah,

Junaid Ahmed 22:58
that's amazing. That was a, you know, really inspiring story and how how, you know, about, you know, getting everybody up and engaged. So you mentioned that one of your hobbies that you wish or you practice, half of it.

Job is acting.

Tell me

more about that. You know, I recently

joined a group called backstage calm, and it is the premier location where actors, professional actors actually go to find their casting calls. That's what casting calls or, you know, put on for like, House of Cards, TV show movies, and stuff like that. So I joined backstage calm, and I got to do a small part in a commercial

two weeks ago. And wow, congratulation. Thank you little commercial for a patient, you know, I'm pretending to be an old patient. And, you know, I've got bad knee. So it's pretty funny. But it was a good experience. And I got to meet some of the other actors that were there who are also acting and I started talking to them, you're getting to know them a little bit. So backstage. com is one of the apps that's that's got that casting calls. So tell me a little bit, you know about your experience. And, you know, what are you planning to doing to actually

integrate,

Katy Dyzewska 24:33
I already during my life, I really did a bit of acting, it was not in commercial or not movies, maybe I will get there eventually.

I hope

I'm actually since I was a kid, I fell in love the theater. And

so the case was that my mom was a teacher. So whenever she was going her class to the theater, she was always too taking me along. And I enjoyed it a lot. She often organized also going backstage to meet the actors and talk to them. And it was always looking at them, like the, you know, just goofy eyes, like, Oh, my God.

And when I was when I was when I was a kid on when I was a teenager, it was a group of this kind of, you know, the small group of theaters for tier three or four kids where we can exercise things. And we had

a very cool guy who was who was teaching there. And one of the things he really like creating stuff on his own. He was creating some deeply for us that because pretty engaged and I remember, one of the great things was he combined couple of Shakespeare's plays in one. And we had some thought it was something like know, Romeo and Juliet, slash Mac bed, slash, Hamlet's slash, several other things I just managed to combine together, which created a funny story that kids could act and we could learn also everything or the momentum is, you know, especially in Hamlet, in my bed, amazing, amazing, amazing things that I really like to I like to adapt time to read and, and watch

and so I think he was engaging you already have the, especially the things like the poster is that you do that you should manage the your role and being to the role and prepare. Yeah,

it was, it was my first lesson, and my first touch or acting and presentations. And yeah, always, every year, we had the performance for all the other kids,

which was also very cool. Because, again, I'm on the stage and I exercise and I'm not afraid of going out in front of people.

And then then they stopped it for quite a while. I think that's high school and university time, it was the time when I was going through the idea, like a what's what to do with life, whether that's okay, then it was the idea of finance coming in. So I forgot about the theater. But so just just that, just so to tell you, I'm originally from Poland, and I actually moved to Luxembourg 12 years ago. Okay, and the first thing is really come to the totally strange country. Even though people around I wanted to know more people than just those friends that I met at work.

So I found a girl who was creating a Polish amateur theatre here and we were doing acting in Polish for the Polish audience here. And I think the first play that

was based was quite fun play at that time I have written by the Polish guy It was called testosterone that was you know, if his toaster play you had only say at seven characters which were only men Oh, interesting. And yeah, and in our group we only had two guys so it was very funny because we managed to actually ladies coming guys eventually and the funniest experience ever you know people people were asking me how do I managed to get understand Am I can actually getting on stage because they were pulling my character on this year so I even for the one to I will be pulled out so I that's no problem. And then just goes and it was very funny thing I remember ordinance was confused at the beginning because they sell women there, but they were the new things to play and what is developed or less. And then those women are guys. Yeah, yeah. So it was very, it was very quick things. But we literally turned around, you know,

the old Roman and Greek theatre went on. The men were playing memorably women. Yeah, here, it was the invasion

Junaid Ahmed 29:23
invasion. Well, you know, you have something funny. Tell me character of Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. Yeah. You know, that, that walks around with the costume. Yeah, is actually a girl inside. Oh, because men, you know, they're, they're usually not at that height. Usually men, you know, taller heights more, you know, they have more body mass. But women, you know, they're usually you know, they're skinnier, and they can fit into

Katy Dyzewska 29:53
Yeah, we can fit into that. Yeah,

Junaid Ahmed 29:55
so that's so

Katy Dyzewska 29:56
that's awesome. Yeah,

Junaid Ahmed 29:58
so all over the world. There's, there's no Disneyland Mickey Mouse costume

Katy Dyzewska 30:05
is a girl the girl that's great. Good for us. Women. Like Yes, we can do we can be a man. Yeah.

But it's like, I literally had yesterday the discussion about, you know, gender equality and all those things. And it's very funny thing. It's, for me, it's very important topic. But it's also a topic. Sometimes people tend to overwrite in the way that it's only about women and women being you know, that we need to be like men, but I don't want to be like, man, there are certain things that you know, I can use a hammer, but from the other side. I still like when my husband opens the door in front of me. And it's so so beautiful. Yeah,

Junaid Ahmed 30:48
so a really good connection of mine, Juliet. Herman on LinkedIn. She had a post, she listed all of the qualities of men and all of the quality woman and yeah, host was, you know, lessons from women and men on LinkedIn. Yeah. And, you know, lessons for a woman is, you know, they're intelligent, creative, innovative, combined leadership, with team player, spirit spirit. Yeah. Collaborative, collaborative, and willing to share knowledge multitask, aficionados, nurturing and recognizing greatness and others. Tremendous inner strength, persistent and able to break through barriers, unstoppable courage, education gurus, and the lessons for men were that, you know, strong and willing to go up against someone twice your size. Yeah,

ideas, they're pragmatic, gifted, problem solvers. Pursue despite the odds, laser focused practice, fake it till you make it

competitive, and believe they will win. And they visualize success. So I was like, Wow, that is a really great list. And both men and women there are different. And that's absolutely the nature of men and women. That doesn't mean that they're not equal, it means that they both bring the boat are compatible for each other, you know, the exactly, they fill in the gaps, the other doesn't have, you know, doesn't excellent. And that's the power of power of equality. So I will recommend that you connect with her. She's a awesome, you know, practice,

Katy Dyzewska 32:34
definitely check her out. Yeah, yeah.

Junaid Ahmed 32:35
And

Katy Dyzewska 32:36
I also think that it's very awesome. We should not think about if we talk about gender equality, it's not about pushing ourselves to be, you know, I don't want to be like men, as I said, and I don't men being like me. Exactly. It's, there are so many things that I can learn from, from the guys around me. And I also find, like, I find also very good lot of barriers that I can learn from other women around me. We can, that's, that's why, you know, each of us is totally different. And not only, you know, gender wise, but also each person is different and has other qualities to share. Yeah, it is so awesome to, you know, to be able to talk to each other. And I have to tell you, like for me, late, late, my latest LinkedIn experience,

amazing. I'm connecting with people from all over the world. Yeah, I know, I have plenty of connections and which are not only connections, yeah, the number Yeah, but they are becoming good communication. People that we start talking, we, of course, we don't talk, you know, 24 hours a day. Oh, no, we talk from time to time. It's like, it's like, we're here. We've connected exactly started talking. And, and it's like, yeah, by the way, let's do this recording. Okay, why not? Why not? Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah. And, and that's exactly, that's exactly what for me is all about, you know, finding equality. But finding really not only equality, but finding learning points from each other, and being able to learn and be able to grow. And yeah, that's, that's so great. That's the world is so different. Exactly. And we can really grow, you know, thanks to other people who are around us. Yeah,

Junaid Ahmed 34:29
absolutely. Well, this was an excellent, you know, we had an excellent chat, and I really appreciate you taking the tower your day and coming on the podcast and, and teaching us a thing or two about how to be better at, you know, how to be not so boring when you're carrying presentations. Yeah,

Katy Dyzewska 34:50
and how to be how to be better at being us.

Junaid Ahmed 34:55
Yes, absolutely. But we all bring our own qualities and our own personal experiences to to the world. So tell the audience, where can they reach you? Where, where can they get in touch with you,

Katy Dyzewska 35:09
I do have a website. So on the side of finding me on LinkedIn under my family name, that's a bit complicated. My first name is Kathy kitty and my son named Dr. Scott it's written d y, Zed e w SK, I also have a website where you can find me at catty the entertainer.com

and there are my contact details my email you can reach me anytime preferably actually by email. And then we can I'm very happy to schedule with for with people the virtual coffee and and have a chat and see if there is no way that we can work together. And if I can help people being a better speaker, being a better leader and and feel those day. Awesome,

Junaid Ahmed 36:01
fantastic, that is perfect. I'll be sure to include the links to your website and the link to your LinkedIn on the show notes. And

then I will share a a blurb and they a

will or a better about the podcast on LinkedIn and Instagram as well so people can reach you. That's awesome. Many different social media networks

Katy Dyzewska 36:29
we have available I'm actually very excited for, for people to hear it and even for myself to hear the full conversation. It's so cool. Thank you very much for having me. It's been amazing. It's I think, the whole journey that I've been on since since couple years. It's getting me to the point to a very happy and very positive ones in my life. And I'm very happy that you're a part of that journey. Thanks a lot.

Junaid Ahmed 36:58
Thank you so much.

In the next episode, we get to speak with Maryland King. She's a message maker, entrepreneur, personal branding expert. She's the founder and CEO of the expert of choice where she helps engage with consultants, coaches and entrepreneurs. So tune in again tomorrow.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai