- Welcome to Counter Culture, a talk show normally in a diner.

- Your body temperature is normal.

- Tonight, I welcome inspirational speaker and author Bridgett McGowen... - Anybody can improve his or her speaking skills with just some small conscious steps on a daily basis.

- ..author of the Deception series, Richard Lyntton... - I just thought to myself at the time, "One day I'm going to write a novel that's set "in this setting because it's just so extraordinary."

- ..and the guide's guide to millennials, Dr Jennifer P Wisdom... - Underlying every single thing is, "How can we empower you "to make choices that help you live your values?"

- ..all right here on Counter Culture.

- Welcome to Counter Culture, a talk show coming to you direct from our studio kitchen at PBS39 in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm your host, Grover Silcox.

Tonight, we'll rise and sizzle with inspiration, explore international intrigue and dive into the world as our millennial generation sees it.

- My name is Bridgett McGowen.

And what I do is I help professionals be the most engaging, dynamic, incredible communicators ever.

- My first guest has spoken on programs alongside President Barack Obama, Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey and Sir Richard Branson and many other notable personalities.

She is the author of several books, including Rise and Sizzle.

And that's precisely how she'll make you feel.

Rev up and ready to take on the world.

So please welcome Bridgett McGowen to Counter Culture.

Bridgett, how are you?

- I'm doing fantastically well.

How are you?

- I'm good.

I'm good.

Why are people so afraid of speaking before a crowd?

It's always listed as the number one fear, right?

- It's the wildest thing in the world to me, Grover.

I've heard people say they'd rather be the ones in the casket than the one giving the eulogy.

- Right.

- You know, everybody has a genius and everybody has a fear.

For each one of us, each one is different.

And so for so many people, it's that stage that just gets them every time.

- When you were a kid, did you have a little toy microphone?

I mean, how did it start?

- I was the church school secretary.

I grew up in a really small town, Livingston, Texas, population 5,019.

But I lived on the outskirts of Livingston, with a much smaller population than that.

And I grew up in this church and I would give the report every Sunday.

I felt so important giving the report of what we had covered in Sunday school that morning.

And that was kind of my start, every Sunday morning, giving my church school secretary report, and it just kind of went from there.

I always felt so comfortable doing that.

And it was like a 30-second report, but...

I think it started there!

- Yeah.

Because early on, when you get affirmation, it's amazing how people get on a certain trajectory.

Do you think anyone can be a better speaker, at least, if not a great speaker?

- Absolutely, without a doubt.

And part of it is putting in practice on a daily basis just little different kinds of strategies to make you a more confident speaker, even if it's something as small as making sure you always give someone eye contact.

Whomever you're speaking to, whether it's the clerk at the grocery store, whether it is the teller at the bank, always give fantastic eye contact.

And when you do that, it makes you feel more confident.

So anybody can improve his or her speaking skills with just some small conscious steps on a daily basis.

- In your book, you write that it's not just an audience where you're at the podium and they're in front of you in so many different scenarios in life.

- Every single time you speak to whether it's one person or 1,000 people, you have an audience.

And an audience just means it's people who are listening and wanting to hear your message.

Every single time you engage with someone, even via email, right, you have an audience.

- Now, some folks may say, well, you know, "Bridgett was probably born to be a public speaker."

And what you're saying in your book and your other books is that you can learn.

- Absolutely.

You can learn almost anything.

Now, will you become an absolute expert?

Absolutely not.

Oftentimes, people feel like, "Oh, you have to be an extrovert, "you have to be an incredibly talkative person."

Quite to the contrary.

In fact, introverts make some of the better professional speakers and better public speakers than extroverts.

Here's a tip.

I am an introvert.

People are surprised when I tell them that, that I am an introvert.

So those people who want to shy away because they think, "Oh, I don't like being around people" and so on and so forth... No, it's about wanting to make an impact every time you speak.

And not just introverts are the ones who are able to do that incredibly well.

Extroverts are able to do it, too.

So everybody can just think about the importance of observation, the importance of practicing and wanting to make sure that you get your message down pat and just go out there and crush it.

What executive presence is, or what it means is, your ability to command a room, your ability to walk into a room with your shoulders back and your head up and your chin out and your eyes are laser-focused, and there's everything about you that says, "You've got this."

- it's not just the words, but the whole package.

- You cannot show up and look like you just roll out of bed.

And you cannot act like you'd rather be somewhere else.

You have to give the audience the experience that you would want to get if you were sitting out there in their seats.

That's what I want people to always think about, is "What kind of presentation would I want to hear "right now?"

And then give it.

But you have to be there both physically and mentally.

And you have to turn it on whatever it is, the charm, the intellect, the humor, whatever it is that you have that makes you YOU, whatever it is that makes you sizzle, whatever it is about your personality that draws people in, you have to bring it.

The best speakers pay particular attention to that one part of practice and preparation, and that is thinking about where the audience is right now and where the audience wants to go.

They think in terms of past, present and future.

Where were they before getting into my presentation?

And not geographically, not physically, "Where were they?"

but mentally, in relation to your presentation topic, where were they?

Where am I going to take them during my presentation?

That's the present.

And then the future is "What will they know "or be able to do at the end of my presentation?"

That is where you are able to make magic happen.

- And the purpose, you know, knowing what the purpose... Why are you there?

Why are you having this communication?

- One of the best strategies that you don't hear much about is letting the audience know what they're going to get out of that presentation.

By the conclusion of this session, you are going to know the number one thing you must do in order to get adults to listen to you.

One of the phrases I insist that people use is, "By the time we're done, you are going to know A, B and C," and then that presentation gives A, B and C. You see, people are busy adults.

They have jam-packed calendars, and they're not just going to sit and listen for the sake of sitting and listening.

They need to know, "How is this going to make my life better?"

or "How is this going to make me money?"

or "How is this going to get me closer to a goal?"

And if you tell them in your opener how that's going to happen in that presentation, they're all ears, Grover.

- I feel like I'm ready to rise and sizzle, to be totally honest with you.

Thank you so much, Bridgett.

- Thank you, Grover.

Mission accomplished!

- Thanks so much, Bridgett.

- Bridgett McGowen, a woman who can tell it like it is and help you speak your truth with the power of a professional.

I know there's that fellow who some claim is the most interesting man in the world, but my next guest just might give him a run for his money.

My guest has served as a tank commander in the British Army, a UN military observer in Sarajevo, Bosnia, a liaison officer for the UN's refugee agency, which is when he was taken prisoner by warring factions.

He's also an actor and even a guest host on QVC.

And he still has time to write the Deception book series.

I just finished The North Korea Deception, and I can tell you firsthand it keeps you riveted to the very last page.

Please welcome the other most interesting man in the world, Richard Lyntton.

- Hello there, Glover.

Thanks for having me.

How exciting!

- It is exciting.

I can't believe you have filled all of these different roles.

And even now, you're a guest host on QVC.

- And I'm also actually an actor.

You may have seen, if anyone was watching The Equalizer, Episode 5, I had a wonderful scene with Chris Noth.

- What do you know about a British mathematician who might have overstayed his?

- I'm a retired antiques dealer.

Why should I know anything?

- Because you like to stay out of the headlines and I know a thing or two about killing a story.

- Wow!

Well, I read your book, The North Korea Deception, and of course, your protagonist, Jack Steele, is he in all of your books?

- Yeah, Jack Steele is like the hero, the protagonist.

He's in Book 1, North Korea Deception, and then loosely based on sort of experiences and events of my life.

So we're in Russia, London, Vladivostok and Pyongyang.

Not that I've been to Pyongyang, unfortunately, maybe one day, but then we go back.

Book two is back in Bosnia.

And it's based on my experience as a United Nations military observer, as you so eloquently summed up, Grover.

- And you speak Russian, right?

- I speak Russian, German, French and Bosnian.

And I was fortunate enough to spend an entire year in Moscow in 1988, the Reagan-Gorbachev era.

The Reagan-Gorbachev summit, which was, I have to say, probably one most fascinating years of my life.

The book... And so the book sort of happened after an experience in Russia.

We went on a trip, a six-day journey, Trans-Siberian Express from Moscow to Vladivostok.

In fact, it wasn't Vladivostok.

Our KGB minder said, "No, no, we can't go to Vladivostok.

"It's closed city.

It's closed city."

And so he said, "We go Khabarovsk," which is very close by.

So we went on this incredible journey across in the wintertime.

It was Christmas time, I remember.

We got there to this little town called Khabarovsk, where in fact, there's a lot of news going on right now, funny enough, 30 years later, and you got off the train and there was this frozen river and the Chinese mountains were in the distance.

And this beautiful Russian guy was dressed in mink fur hat and mink fur coat.

And so I just thought to myself at the time, "One day, "I'm going to write a novel that's set in this setting "because it's just so extraordinary," because you had Russia, you had China and you had North Korea all in one area.

- I thought it was very interesting because Jack makes this observation that the Russians have two facades, one for their fellow Russians and one for foreigners.

- Absolutely.

Well, thank you.

You really did read the book, Grover!

Full marks!

I love it.

But it is fascinating, you know, the sort of national characteristics that people have.

And I really learned about that perhaps in Russia, when I met sort of American ambassadors and Russians and, you know, the North Koreans and the Chinese, but more so in Book 2, it comes up again, Grover, because Book 2 is just called Hyde Park Deception.

It's set in Bosnia.

And when I served in Bosnia as the United Nations military observer, you really saw... Because, you know, as people probably know, the United Nations Protection Force was made up of Russians, of British, of Egyptians, of Belgians, and then later Americans.

And what was fascinating is that you saw this sort of...

It was like a mini microcosm of the world when I lived in Sarajevo.

You know, there were shells, there was shooting, there was sniping, there were people dying.

But it was just fascinating.

And that's probably where my first sort of inkling to really want to write about this came, was when I was stationed in Sarajevo.

And I just... You know, it was literally a whole world was there in, like, one square mile.

It was really fascinating.

- Throughout your book, you know, it's one deception after another, leading to the grand deception, of course.

And without giving anything away, you know, your character finds himself in North Korea, and he runs into this very interesting character, Chen, who is kind of this wise, you know, Buddhist, I guess, wise man.

Was that based on anyone that you met or that you got to know?

- It was based on my interest in meditation.

In fact, when I actually came to this country in about 2000, you know, I started getting into the meditation thing.

And so I was lucky enough to be able to go and have done several silent retreats, so thank you for picking up on that, Grover, because, you know, it is... Spirituality in that sense is an important part of my life, and so I love that you picked up on that.

And I wasn't sure how I could weave it in, but I did.

- Yeah, you did.

You did it in a very interesting way.

And were you actually taken prisoner by one of the warring factions in that Bosnian conflict?

- I was abducted, actually.

That was kind of an interesting story, because in Sarajevo, my job was to go around to the different UNHCR, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, go and check their warehouses to make sure that they had the food that was coming in.

We went to one place and a shell landed about 30 meters away, and we thought, "OK, we need to get out of here."

And then we went down to this checkpoint.

And unbeknownst to us, the front line had literally moved, like, I don't know, 100 meters, 200 meters.

So in other words, it had gone across a road.

And we didn't realize because it had literally only happened in the last two days.

So there we were...

If you can imagine, we were going down this road, which we thought was Bosnian Muslim side but was really Bosnian Serb side.

So suddenly we hit this checkpoint and ten guys with machine guns appeared.

They took our weapons, they took...

They found the camera in my car and just said, "Oh, you're a spy."

And I remember getting a postcard from my mother, bless her, God rest her soul, from London that morning.

And I took out this postcard of the Queen, and I said, "Look, I'm not a spy.

This is my mom.

"My mom just sent me this postcard from London.

"I'm just a regular soldier."

And they went, "Oh, no, no.

"We believe you.

We believe you.

"Don't worry.

Be happy."

And they did eventually release us.

- Wow!

Maybe your next book will just be an autobiography.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

It's been an interesting ride.

The books, I have to say, really came about because of Covid, and I've had these two books sitting on my laptop for, like, ten years.

And last summer, I finally decided, "I've got to unearth these books and get them out there."

And it was...

I have to say, it's been an absolute blast finishing off a book and actually getting it published.

- Oh, yes.

Well, I recommend them.

I loved, you know, the North Korea Deception and I'm eager to read the other two I think you have so far.

- Yep.

The next one...

The next one is Hyde Park Deception.

And we go back eight years and it starts in London, on Queen's Life Guard.

The protagonist is back in the army, and he then goes off to Bosnia.

- Well, Richard, you certainly - like your main character.

Jack Steele - seem to do things your way.

- Thank you, Grover.

Thank you, sir.

- You're welcome.

Richard Lyntton, a man of intrigue who writes intriguing fictions while being the other most interesting man in the world.

- I think part of the reason why the baby boomers and the Gen Xers are so fixated on the millennials is because we see ourselves.

We wanted to change the world once.

Remember that?

We wanted to make things better and we didn't know how.

- My next guest is a clinical psychologist who has authored a series of books for millennials, a generation that can claim more controversy, perhaps, than even we baby boomers.

Her Millennials' Guide to Work has helped readers navigate through their careers with relevant advice.

I thoroughly enjoyed her Millennials' Guide to Relationships and even picked up a few tips myself.

When you're a millennial or even a non-millennial, who you going to call when you're winding your way through work and relationships and life?

You're going to call Dr Wisdom.

Who else?

Please welcome Jennifer P Wisdom, Dr. Jennifer P. Wisdom, to the counter.

I love saying Dr Wisdom.

- Thank you.

- You didn't change your name or anything, did you?

That is actually your name?

- That is literally my name, yes.

- You were born to be a clinical psychologist and to advise everyone, including millennials.

But how did you get started with millennials?

- I feel like I've spent most of my career, from when I started as a young person and to where I'm not so young anymore, working with helping young people figure out what to do next.

So I have mentored a lot of people.

I worked in academia for a number of years and worked with young people.

And honestly, on top of that, not only being interested in them as the next generation, but I'm a sucker for the underdog.

And I was really getting annoyed that all of us older people, people from Gen X and baby boomer generations, were really bagging on millennials.

And I wanted something for them.

I looked up what was available, and there were all these books for people of older generations on how we should deal with millennials but very little at the time on how millennials can deal with us and how they can be successful in a rapidly changing and completely different world than we encountered at their age.

Right.

Now, before you got into your writing career, did you counsel people?

Did you have clients?

- Yes, I did.

I've done a lot of things.

I started as an Army journalist and then I went to graduate school.

I was a therapist and clinical...

I worked as a clinical psychologist for a while and then moved into research, looking at how to make systems work better, health care systems and academic systems, work more effectively.

So I've always had this focus on how to help people navigate better, whether it's navigate a university as a student, navigate a health care system as a patient, and now how to navigate the world as a millennial.

- What constitutes a millennial?

- Millennials are people who have come of age around the millennium.

So right now, those people in that age group are 20 to 40 years old.

They've all come of age with the millennium and with the technologies, even though the older folks, the older millennials in their late 30s, have had a transition into technology and the younger ones have been with technology all their lives.

Both ways, they've got a lot of technology experience that many of us older generations have had to adjust to.

It's a generation, generally speaking, that doesn't want to settle in their job and in their life.

Like, they don't divide the two.

- Right.

Absolutely, and this is so important for the workplace.

And I know corporations and other employers are starting to pick up on this, which is wonderful.

I think baby boomers had an approach of "You work hard "and you get good things."

So you could have a four-person family where one person worked and that created enough money for the kids to go to college and for people to have a vacation once or twice a year and for a pension.

That worked.

Once Gen X started in there, things started crumbling a little bit.

And now millennials don't have that certainty.

There's absolutely no certainty that if you get a bachelor's degree that you are set with a job for life.

There's no guarantee that if you work for a corporation, you're not going to get laid off in another year.

These folks saw their parents getting laid off after 20 years with a company.

That's rough.

So, of course, it makes sense that when they don't see the situation as having the same cause and effect process, that they're going to say, "Wait a minute, maybe "I don't need to work 70 hours a week because there's "no guarantee I'm going to get more for working harder.

"I'm going to work differently.

"I'm going to make different decisions."

And I think that's creative and innovative and wonderful.

At the same time, I think some of the baby boomers and maybe Gen Xers who put in the 70-hour work weeks and gave up time with their family are saying, "Wait, wait.

"I wanted to do that.

Why can't I do that?"

- Right!

So maybe there's a little jealousy in there.

- I think so.

- You know, the idea that, you know, they're criticized because they're "not loyal", you know?

Like you said, it's like, "Well, I don't see myself here "in ten years, 20 years or whatever."

- Right.

Right.

Absolutely.

And loyalty is a two-way street.

I mean, and all of the different policies that were enacted by baby boomers and by Gen Xers have had a huge impact on this.

Health insurance used to be something that employers provided to make themselves more attractive to potential employees.

And now that's shifting quite a bit.

It used to be a defined benefit for a pension plan, rather than a defined contribution where the employer puts in a certain amount of money, and whatever the market does, it does, and you're stuck with however it ends up.

It's a really different approach from the employer side on loyalty.

And, you know, it makes sense that there's a corresponding change on the employee side of loyalty.

- If you really want to understand this generation, you have to understand whatever generation in the context in which they live, which means you're there, too.

- Right, absolutely, and we may think...

Older generations may look at millennials and say, "Look at them wasting their time on social media," but honestly, that's the way people communicate.

I spent hours and hours on the telephone when I was a teenager, and that's part of how people communicate.

And you have to...

The social world is rough for young people, especially in the pandemic times.

And trying to make friends and date people... Like, that's rough.

And social media is how it's done right now.

So we're not going to blame them for their coping strategies.

This is part of how the world works now.

- In your Millennials Guide to Relationships, as I mentioned, there are some basics in there for any relationship, no matter what generation you're part of.

- The other author of that book, Kristina Hallett, she's the lead author.

She's a clinical psychologist as well.

She's been a family therapist for years and years.

And we have different life experiences.

She's been married for a long time.

I'm single.

We can provide a lot of different perspectives on different kinds of relationships.

We talk about friendships.

We talk about romantic relationships.

We talk about whether you should change your friendship to a romantic relationship and what happens if you break up.

We talk about co-worker situations, bosses, parents, how you deal with your parents now that you're a grown up.

How do you do that?

That's a transition.

And underlying every single thing is not telling people "This is what you need to do."

It's saying, "What are your values?

"What's important to you?"

And then, "How can we empower you to make choices "that help you live your values?"

- It seems like you've covered every aspect of living in your Guide series.

I mean, I see the ones behind you, Voting, Trade, Guide to Work, you know, and Relationships, Leadership.

- Yep, absolutely.

And there are more in the works.

Millennials are going to be 75% of the workforce in about five years.

And we all...

When we think about it, we know that millennials are going to be leading the world very shortly, so it's in all of our interests to help them learn - our tagline - "What no one ever told you."

So to learn the things that they didn't get told for whatever reason and to be able to provide them with skills and opportunities to empower them to live the life they want.

- Well, thanks again.

Good luck with your writing partner and your guides and all the help that you're giving all of us in every generation.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

It's a pleasure.

- Same here.

Dr Jennifer P Wisdom, a therapist for the ages whose very name is her calling card.

Well, that's all for this episode.

I want to thank my guests, inspirational speaker and author Bridgett McGowen, author, actor and spokesman Richard Lyntton, and clinical psychologist and coauthor of the Millennial Guide series, Dr Jennifer P Wisdom.

And thank you for spending your time with us tonight.

Don't forget to stop by next week for more fascinating guests and great conversation right here at the counter.

Now, stay tuned for More Than Money with our own Gene Dickison.