by Dr. Vicki Matthews
To be your best speaker, it helps to know yourself. In my book, The Five Elements of Relationships: How to Get Along with Anyone, Anytime, Anyplace, I use the Five Elements model from Traditional Chinese Medicine to describe five basic personality styles that are hardwired into our being at birth. Understanding our personality type can help us be our best at everything we do, including speaking. They are:
Water Personalities excel as artists, philosophers, searchers, and creative people. As a Water Personality Speaker, focus on your ability to creatively mix philosophic wisdom with real world ideas.
Wood Personalities excel as business executives, athletes, trial lawyers, and generals. As a Wood Personality Speaker, focus on explaining to your audience where you’re taking them, then take them there with ease and certainly.
Fire Personalities excel as comedians, speakers, actors, and people who like attention. As a Fire Personality Speaker, focus on engaging with your audience and holding them spellbound as you speak.
Earth Personalities excel as nurses, teachers, counselors, and people who love helping others. As an Earth Personality Speaker, focus on demonstrating – through your topic – the caring you feel for others.
Metal Personalities excel as architects, accountants, corporate lawyers, and in the military. As a Metal Personality Speaker, focus on explaining in clear, precise, and logical terms the rationality and importance of your topic.
Understanding our personality style can make everything we do easier, including speaking to others. To determine your Elemental Personality, take a quick quiz here: https://www.drvickimatthews.com/discover-your-elemental-personality. Happy Speaking!
Dr. Vicki Matthews is an author, teacher, relationship coach, and naturopathic physician. She has been an outspoken advocate for healing and cultural understanding most of her adult life and has appeared as a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show twice to share aspects of this message. She is the author of the award-winning novel, The Goddess Letters, which addresses cultural imbalances in our world. Her new award-winning book, The Five Elements of Relationships: How to Get Along with Anyone, Anytime, Anyplace, is available on Amazon and Barnes and Nobel.
In addition to her Naturopathy degree, Dr. Vicki has a BA in Psychology and an MBA in Marketing and Consumer Behavior from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She runs a private practice, coaches, teaches and writes, writes, writes. A charismatic speaker, Dr. Vicki has been described as “the rare person whose style embodies her passion, knowledge, and expertise”.