#63 - Voice Reporting & Building Confidence with Ryan Caraway

Welcome to the Court Reporter Podcast, the space where court reporters are seen, heard, understood and supported.

I'm your host, Bryn Reynolds Seymour, certified life coach and proud to be celebrating 10 years as a court reporter in 2025.

This show is here to help you unlock your full potential, achieve the big goals you keep putting off, and step fully into the leader you were meant to become.

Let's get into it.

Hello.

Hello everyone.

It's ic Just me and a couple people and I.

That's totally fine.

I'm committed to joining no matter how many join, even if no one joins.

I was going to use this opportunity to just provide an update on.

It's been a little inconsistent.

So when I started working full time in court, I decided to just change the checkbox on the podcast platform that asks how often you're going to release an episode.

I changed it from every week to whenever I can because, you know, working full time in court with the commute and all, it was, it was busy.

But now with my flexibility back, I'm able to make my own schedule.

Right now my goal is to offer 10 hours of free coaching, completely free per week for two months.

And I.

The reason why I want to do that is because I have experienced the power behind coaching and the transformation and like, I just think it's something worth sharing with people now that I've got certified myself and that I don't want to keep it to myself, I want to share it with other people because I know how stressful it can be to be working as a court reporter, whether in the freelance world or in the full time world.

And in court, I went to the full time to work in full time court because I was trying to escape the.

Oh hi Ryan, Are you available to talk?

Yes, absolutely.

Oh, awesome.

Okay, great.

So it's not just me anymore, so I would love to get to know you.

Where are you from?

I am in San Antonio, Texas and I just started voice writing as a freelancer about six months ago or more in October.

Nice.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

How did you get into voice reporting?

I had studied or went to STEM school through brick and mortar back in 2018 pre pandemic and I tried it for about two and a half years, went to various school trying to learn the latest tips and tricks.

Meanwhile I had a full time career.

And so at some point around 16180 I was like, okay.

I just personally couldn't justify the time anymore and decided to go back to my HR career.

And then fast forward a couple years later, voice writers seemed to be Getting more and more popular.

And friends of mine who were both court reporters for about 35 years on the steno machine said, hey, try it again.

So I tried and it worked this time.

And I just wanted to hear more today about your talk topic and ideas we would have about enforcing these ground rules, if you will.

So your friends that were, they were stenographic court reporters and they.

Yes.

Recommended voice reporting.

Yes.

Because they knew it was growing.

Like, our local county doesn't welcome voice writers as much.

They do have a few that have broken down some barriers and gotten them in the courthouse.

But most of us are freelancing here in San Antonio.

Oh my gosh, San Antonio.

I love San Antonio.

I came to the NBRA convention last year.

Yes, thank you.

I.

I went to your session, so thank you.

Oh my gosh, that's awesome.

Yeah, I love San Antonio.

It was like I've never had.

Never been there before, but it was so beautiful.

So your friends told you about voice reporting?

The programs I previously went to probably didn't offer voice writing.

And so knowing that it was my second time around, I really focused on school.

Schools that I knew really provided not only quality education, but had the certified numbers, if you will, to back it up.

That I knew people were graduating and working.

That was really important to me this time around, knowing that there was some success before I even started, if you will.

And so I did it through International Real Time Court Reporting Institute.

Is there, like.

This might be a dumb question because I have always wanted to recommend voice reporting to people because.

Not because I don't support steno, but just because I know how difficult.

Like, I know that the graduation rate is pretty low.

Unfortunately, like, I guess 90% don't finish in the time that they're supposed to finish.

So I was one of the few exceptions that finished like, really quickly because I was so focused and I really practiced a lot.

But it also just came really naturally to me.

And I don't know if that's the case.

I guess that's not the case for everyone.

So sometimes when I have.

When I want to recommend it to friends, I kind of can't really recommend it with a.

Unless they have the time and the funds to invest in.

In school that might take three years.

So then I usually want to recommend voice reporting, but I don't feel like I know enough about it to really, like, point them in the right direction or to.

Even though I went to the NVRA convention and I even talked to Kim for a while and I tried to understand it But I didn't fully understand it.

Like, I guess it's basically like to put it in a nutshell and to put it in layman's terms and to explain it to anyone who might be interested.

Regular court reporting, which is also hard to explain to people.

What, what exactly.

How exactly it works.

Writing on the machine, instead of typing with your fingers, you're repeating everything that they say.

And I listened to Kim's podcast the other day.

I just found out that she had one too.

That I guess she just launched one, and I was listening to it, and she was explaining that you also have brief forms.

So, for example, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we have brief form where you just type one thing and it's L, A, R, L, A, I, R, J.

And that's one stroke.

But for voice writers, it would be like Laird or, you know, however you.

Exactly.

I mean, I borrowed anything I could from dental school, so even I used to hit TM for testimony on my machine.

And so if I did enough jury charge practices in school, not so much freelance now, but in school, testimony was repeated a lot.

And so I would just say tm and I would have that coded in my software.

Just like a machine.

Right.

Or void to say tm.

Okay.

And is it.

I just.

Wow, it's just fascinating.

I don't think I could ever, like, understand it without doing it or hear seeing someone do it and also being able to hear what they're saying.

Like, if there was some way to, like, hook up a microphone system to hear what's going on in the room, what everyone's saying, and then what.

What the voice reporter is saying, like, that would probably be the best way to demonstrate it.

Do you think that's possible?

Sarah Flynn, who is the creator of the school I went to, has a video of that.

Exactly.

On YouTube.

So it looks like everything dropping into her software.

And then at second glance, if you will, it's her voice recording.

So you can see what's going on behind the scenes to create that trans explaining it on either side.

Because you knew what it took to go to steno school or what questions you may have asked to ensure that you picked the school that was most compatible with you and your desires.

So I think that's still very compatible for voice writing assist and a different takedown method.

Got it.

Okay.

Yeah.

So it's basically the same thing.

It's just a different way of quote unquote, typing the words down.

You're speaking them.

That's so awesome.

Well, thank you for.

For joining and Shedding that light.

So when we jump into the topic that I originally posted about, I'm assuming that's what you were wanting to talk about, which was confidence and mastering.

Mastering self confidence.

To speak up for the record, to protect the record, to enforce our boundaries.

And did you see my live video that I did on Facebook the other day?

I think that where you referenced Perhaps your like 8 by 10 sheet of rules about speaking confidently or one of those.

This is what I was showing.

Yes, exactly.

I brought it just in case.

Courtroom speaking rules.

And then I just.

So yes, just to recap for anyone who didn't see those videos on social media and anyone who might be listening to this, I.

One way that.

Okay, so one thing that I've struggled with that has kind of like deflated or what's the word?

Like eroded my self confidence, which I didn't realize was happening over the years of allowing people to kind of just like walk all over me, you know, not really knowing how to enforce the boundaries, thinking I'm being too much or just like not even trying.

Because when I sat in with court reporters during my internship, they also didn't like speak up really, like they would just get what they get.

And you know, I noticed that there were times where I couldn't hear what they were saying and the one that I was sitting in with didn't speak up.

So I just kind of got into that habit where I would speak up once in a while or when I had the confidence to, but it wasn't like a habit where I was doing it all the time.

And when I started working in court and kind of had the space to, you know, use the coaching tools that I had learned in my coaching certification and to really like take some time to think about why am I doing this to myself?

Why am I feeling so stressed out?

Why am I feeling so like it's just so difficult.

And internally this.

There's this internal battle going on.

And it's because what I realized, this is like the key here that I've figured out by experiencing it, coaching myself, doing thought downloads, learning what's going through my mind.

And what I realized is that we know that there are boundaries.

We know there are ground rules.

We know they're not supposed to speak at the same time.

They are not supposed to talk over each other.

They're not supposed to speak like really, really fast.

Of course that could be subjective, but a reasonable rate of speed and you know, there are the ground rules.

We all know what those are.

And if we don't Speak up and we continue to just let them break them or let's say we speak up a couple times, but then they ignore us.

So we feel bad about ourselves, we feel so small, we feel ignored and overlooked and we're just like, okay, I guess I should just be quiet and just okay, they get what they get even.

But then that makes us, then it doesn't allow us to do our, to do our best.

And the thing that I shared in one of my videos was like what makes it so stressful for us is that our accuracy levels and our success and ability to do our job right depends on the behaviors and the actions of others outside of our control.

Which like we can't control them, we can't force them to follow the rules.

We can try to enforce it, but it's only a matter of times before most court reporters just give up in enforcing the rules and just let them just kind of take the hit, just sacrifice themselves, just pour themselves out just like, okay, I'm a fly on the wall, I'm just gonna be quiet and just, just do my best.

And so that can really do a number on our self confidence over time when we don't realize like what we're doing to ourselves.

So and I'm not saying like we should be over the top crazy like you know, of course it depends on the situation, but I do think it's a good practice to decide, okay, what are my boundaries, when am I going to just let it go and, and then let, let people cross them with no consequences.

It that's what really makes our self trust go down.

We don't trust ourselves, we don't trust that we can control the room.

We don't trust that we can do anything.

Like eventually it seeps out into all aspects of life, time management, relationships, you know, following through on anything really like without realizing it, like we look great on the outside, we look successful on the outside, but internally there's something like going on with us where we're not fully trusting ourselves and therefore we can't fully run our businesses.

What are your thoughts on that?

So I think we all come from very different backgrounds.

Some people were court reporters right out of the gate for the Greer.

I worked 18 years in insurance and HR and my last boss, I joke and call her Miranda Priestley and it wasn't a joke that she was Miranda Priestley, but just a joke that that's how I would refer to her.

She was very challenging, very much made me feel like what you described in a non court reporting setting.

So When I came to court reporting, perhaps I was just a little bit more aware of that.

And after maybe working three or four months, I realized, you know what, I'm just going to start off every deposition and say, these are my two big tips.

And my two big tips that I need you to see clearly and articulately.

So I know I need to know if you said did or did not or, you know, I just give that example to make it quick.

And then I say there absolutely cannot be any crosstalk today.

Now I'm much happier with myself that I've started doing the tips instead of just going in blind like I did at the beginning of my career.

But like you said, people perhaps more nervous is when there's a videographer because now I don't want my voice all over that recorded deposition saying, please stop talking over each other.

Please stop talking over each other.

So if I've really been pressed, I'll just speak up and say one at a time.

I don't even bother saying sorry for the interruption or this whole long intro.

I just say, hey, one at a time.

And what they do is what they do.

But I'm just wondering how many times you tell them one at a time because eventually I do start fading into the background.

And then like you said, it produces more work on the back.

Yeah.

So that's when I, like when I realized that and I was like, I kind of put my foot down and I was like, I want to fix this.

And I think it would be really powerful to be able to enforce those boundaries.

So like you said, like having this sign for those watching on video, you can see it's like it's a table sign acrylic.

You can order these on Amazon.

But.

And it says courtroom speaking rules.

So this is the rules that I came up with on the spot.

I mean, I probably forgot some, I don't know.

But it's speak slowly.

Project your voice with confidence.

Only one speaker at a time.

Spell case specific names or terms for new reporter.

That's like in case they don't give us anything in advance or it would.

It's very helpful when they can spell the names.

And then number five, remember we're making a record smiley face.

So I find it very helpful to start off with some kind of an intro, which you said you started doing as well, right?

Yes.

So introducing yourself and explaining what might happen if they do break these rules and just letting them know why it's important from your non biased court reporter's perspective.

And you like we being the Most important person in that room.

Because we're capturing every single word.

I think it's important for them to hear it from us from the beginning so that when we do interrupt, they know what we're doing.

It's not like, whoa, what is she doing?

Who?

Where is this lady coming from?

Like, who is she anyway?

Why is she here?

Yeah, I'm so tempted, too.

And I don't know if this is a good idea, a quote unquote legal idea, but because I'm on the side of zoom where I could share my screen, I'm typically doing remote depositions and I almost want to start sharing my screen at the very beginning and showing a transcript, example, a few lines that look beautiful.

Everything is the same, just like, you know, your most perfect day.

And then scrolling down and showing the lines that show, like, your worst day, where they have interrupted the heck out of each other.

Words are now in discernible because somebody's voice was inevitably louder than the other and it just completely wiped out what the other person said.

Just things, etc.

So they don't just hear, like, my lips moving, so to speak, saying, please don't talk over each other.

Like, would they even care if they saw the outcome?

I think that's a great idea to bring something to have on hand just in, like, if it does start getting out of hand where they don't.

Where they don't follow the rules, even though you do interrupt and do say, like, you do remind them a few times and they're still not changing at all, that's when I would probably pull that out and be like, look, this is what's happening.

Do you want your transcript to look like this?

Like, this is how it looks when you do this.

And maybe it would be good to have like a printout of each different instance of breaking the different rules.

So if it's speaking over each other, this is what it's going to look like.

And something might be missing or if it's, you know, whatever the case may be, if it's not spelling or speaking too fast, like an example of like some egregious.

No, I mean, that might not be good, but yeah, like something that helps.

Them see, like, hey, this is reality of what, what discourse.

Right, exactly.

And so, yeah, I realized that, like, having this.

And I was talking about how in some states they train the court reporters to have that intro at the beginning, but in New York, it's like we just go in there and whoever wants to start can start.

Whoever wants to introduce themselves can introduce it's kind of just like, hello, like, here I am, I can speak up and say something and introduce myself, which I did train myself to be the one to take initiative, shake their hands, ask for their business cards for the moment they walk in, and also introduce myself, my role, and the importance of the rules to everyone once everyone's all seated, so they're hearing it twice, basically.

And I just think that makes it so much easier to be able to enforce your boundaries, because from the beginning, if you tell them, here's what's going to happen if you don't follow the rules, after three times, after me interrupting three times, and you can tell them how you're like, or on zoom, I'm going to turn the screen red.

Or, you know, whatever.

Whatever it might be.

Oh, and also one thing that you said about showing them what the transcript looks like.

I was thinking, like, you know, it would be great if we could all get our confidence up to be doing real time.

And then when we're doing real time, it.

The screen could just.

We could set it so that the screen just kind of like flashes red flashing, blinking light or something when they start breaking the rules.

I'm sure there's a way, there's gotta be a way to set that up.

Yeah, but.

Okay, I think I just went off on a, like a tangent where.

What was that, what was my original point there?

We were just talking about, like, what happens if they break the rules.

So, so tell me what you say if they do break the rules.

Do you say something like, well, we're gonna stop the deposition?

Like, what.

What can you say with the most force, but knowing at the end of the day we're likely still going to take this deposition?

Thank goodness, we're likely still gonna get paid for it.

But like, what, what do you say that put them, like, behind your rules so they know, hey, okay, so once.

They hit strike three, and you've already warned them in advance, like, if you hit strike three, we are going to take a break and we're just going to take five minutes to cool, like to just take a walk outside, remind yourself of the rules and.

Or just think about how much faster this could be done if.

Because sometimes they just want to go so fast, but that causes it to go slower in the end or it causes an inaccurate or messy transcript in the end.

So really, if we do enforce this, they will thank us later.

And I think if we can train them from the beginning, we let them know this is what's going to happen.

I'm going to give you three strikes.

That's maybe not use the word strike.

I don't know.

Three warnings, three friendly warnings and.

Or friendly reminders.

And after that they're going to be strikes.

But once they hit strike three or warning, friendly reminder number three, I would stand up and say, okay, we're going to take a break because.

And then at that point I would decide, like, go out and take a break, take a breather and really, like, decide do I.

Like, it's between you and your agency.

If you are the agency, if you are the boss and you're the.

That's your client, you know, you would decide, how do I want to handle this?

And if it's not your client, I mean, if it's through an agency, you would.

I might even want to call the agency and just, I mean, you know, it also depends if they're a nice person.

If they're a nice person, I might give some.

Give some leeway.

But if they're, like, really mean and really, like, grouchy and just refusing to listen and follow the rules, I might call my agency and say, it's kind of a situation.

You can feel it out.

Because some people are really and lovely and you just like, really like them.

But still, there has to be some kind of.

There has to be some kind of training because that will also help them in the long run to tr.

To respect the process and to respect the record, not only for us in that current moment, but even in the future, like their next deposition and down the line for future court reporters that are working with them or going to court or any time, they're going to have such a higher level of respect for the record and for the court reporter.

And I think it'll really serve them as well as us.

Yeah, I think my takeaway that I would tell, like, new people just from listening to this while we're sitting here is, hey, yes, it's very subjective what's going to happen as a result of you stating your rules.

And P.S.

it's so subjective.

In the real world, nothing is black and white that we think is black and white.

It's very much like court reporting here.

So I think what's not subjective is just stating your rules up front.

So you may say, oh, it's not worth it, but I think it absolutely is worth it for the one or a few times or many times later that you see it working and just hold on to that and don't worry so much about how they're going to respond later, though.

You hope they respond the way you want them to.

Yes.

I think it really does wonders.

Like, it really eliminates a lot of those problems just by introducing it from the beginning.

And that way, when you do have to remind them, all you have to do is point to your sign and refer to it and just.

It's like just a quick, friendly reminder.

It's not.

It's not a whole speech in the middle of the deposition.

Another fellow court reporting friend has also mentioned, like, when we're stating these rules and we're doing it with an easy cadence, if you will, like if we.

If somebody was having to be the court reporter of us saying the rules, they kind of, you know, a great time taking down the record.

So you're really kind of already setting the tone for the witness.

We're talking at normal pace here.

We're not freaking out.

We're not talking over one another.

We're not speaking at the speed of light.

Like, this is just normal.

So hopefully, then when that witness starts answering questions later, like, they just realize, like, hey, this is not a hurried environment.

This is normal.

Yes.

And also sometimes the attorneys, they take it too far with the normal conversation and tell their clients, because they want their clients to be comfortable.

They tell them, like, this is just a conversation.

And that means that they can just treat it like a regular conversation, which is sometimes can be not beneficial because that.

Like a regular conversation, at least in America, maybe in the eastern countries, they're much better at waiting for each other to finish their sentences.

But here, it's kind of like we finish each other's sentences and we jump in before we even know what they're going to say, thinking that we know what they're going to say.

That's how regular conversation goes.

So, yeah.

So anything else on that topic?

The only other thing I would say, like, even today in my deposition, the witness threw out some medication that no matter how well I pronounced what she or repeated back what she said, I knew I was not going to find that on.

On Google easily.

And so I just piped up in the middle and said, hey, can you spell that?

And then to which she responded, hey, I need to go get the medication bottle, which is, you know, a few inches away from me.

Is that okay?

And so I just asked the attorney, is that okay?

So I think with time, obviously, our confidence builds.

So six months ago, Ryan wouldn't have said, can you sell that much?

Let's go get it.

And today I was like, hey, you know what?

This is normal.

The attorney is going to want it right later.

Anyway, so to speak up, obviously, when appropriate.

Yeah, it's always good to, you know, get agreement from the attorneys, but if they said no, I might be like, well, yeah, I know, but the thing about, like, waiting until the end, for me at least, like, I feel like sometimes I'll flag things and I'll, like, I've been advised to just find time at the end to ask and go back to those stars that I marked.

But sometimes I don't get the chance.

And then later I'm like, oh, no, I didn't get the chance to ask this question, even though I flagged it and marked it.

It's not always possible to later on, so sometimes it is best to just jump right in, in the middle and just ask on the spot.

That eliminates the possibility of forgetting later.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, that's really the key, I think, is.

Is just knowing and understanding that we cannot control act, but we can control how we respond when they break the rules and when they do, when they act crazy, we can control how we're going to respond.

So we need to decide in advance what is our response going to be.

And then we need to make sure we do it, like, when it.

When they take it too far, not when it's just like a friendly, you know, thing that can easily be overlooked.

And we can sometimes, we can easily deal with like a little bit of crosstalk.

I mean, I'm fine with typing.

Sometimes they're like, the court reporter can't type two people speaking at once.

And I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, well, you'd be surprised at how much that I'm actually able to get everything.

But no, but, like, when it gets out of hand, when you start feeling that stress, when you start feeling like, no, this is not worth it, then that's when you need to take the action of really enforcing what you said that you were going to do.

So deciding ahead of time, what are my boundaries, what is my reaction?

I'm not controlling them.

I'm not trying to control them.

I'm just, this is what I'm going to do.

I was also going to say it would be awesome, too.

I don't know if there's a resource already floating in some Facebook group of files, but, you know, we're all typically brief, hungry people reporting because we want to get things down as quick as possible.

But I would love if I knew somebody had written down just a few quick lines based on the record.

Like, for instance, I had the witness and both attorneys talking way too Fast.

A month or two ago, my software saying they're going 250 words a minute or higher, and I'm just like, I just can't even breathe.

Trying to get it down because I don't want to fix it all later.

I want to try to get it right now.

And so I'm texting a group of reporters saying, hey, how do you say it the most correctly, if you will, on a videographer deposition to say, slow down.

Because if it was not videoed, I don't think I'd have a problem just typing up and saying, hey, slow down, please.

But I don't want to sound like that on a video that a jury potentially is going to want.

So somebody said, just a counsel, we need to protect the record.

Please slow down.

Well, that's all I needed.

I just needed a few keywords so that I could feel confident saying something in front of the group.

Yeah, that's great.

Yeah.

Just having that extra.

That extra little few words.

Yeah.

Form a complete sentence can really help with the confidence too.

And really feel like it's more official.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I read through your stuff.

I don't know if Olivia on here wants to chime in.

No.

Oh, no, she's our.

She's working.

She just told me she was working.

But yeah, it's with you and me now.

But for everyone else.

Yeah, this.

I'll release this as an episode.

So you'll have to send me your.

Your headshot so I can put you at the.

Okay, so the coaching.

But I would love to know, like, what is your.

Like, have you ever explored coaching at all?

Like, do you know what it is?

Yeah.

So my life coaching.

So my background, I don't know, is more or less conventional than other court reporters.

I spent, I don't know, 12, 15 years in HR.

So a lot of our focus was coaching our employees and especially some uncomfortableness as far as how do I coach up to my manager or how do I coach peer to peer because I'm maybe a higher level on my team, etc.

I think coaching is very familiar for me personally, being a few months in, I'm going, oh, do I even need coaching?

Do I want me.

A lot of times what I really want to know is a lot of the tips and tricks on the technology side.

And so maybe I haven't thought so much about the non technology side.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

Tips and trips, tricks on technology.

I would love to do like a series on technology, and I think that's so important for all of us.

To know how to keep up with the latest innovations and really stay sharp with that because that will save us a lot of time.

And I'm all about saving time and just like that's a great way to have your mental peace and well being.

But okay, so coaching, it's, it's a little different from.

Because a lot of us have goals and we have personal, personal goals.

Whether it's relationships or money management or like emotional wellness relationships.

Sorry if I said that already.

You know, the, the wheel of life, all the different aspects of life.

There's so many different things that we, that we're trying to.

Many of us like you know, we have self improvement goals or, or maybe we have like a big goal that we're trying to accomplish and we just don't have time and we keep saying we want to do this thing and we never end up actually making.

I think this is most of us as court reporters because it's like we don't realize how much work we're diving into and how it's.

We think that.

Well, at least I thought when I first got into it that I was just going to be typing all day and like I didn't realize how much goes into running a business and like, like how a team is needed if you want to have any time for yourself.

Even if like even me as a clean writer, I've always been known to my professors in school as being like that, that all star student that just like zoomed right through it.

I finished in 13 months and like with very clean notes all the time.

But even me as a clean writer who should be doing real time every job I am, well, I do real time for myself.

But I should be providing and like getting paid for it.

I feel like my professors were so shocked that when I went back to visit and they found out that I'm not like a real like really providing real time because I never really got that opportunity or never created the opportunity, I should say.

But like, yeah, there's just so many goals that I had and not enough time or management of my time.

With all the different little things that go into a court reporter's like job description and the team that I had, like, even when I was using it, like I was always using courtroom even the process of reaching out to them, waiting to hear back if they're available and then sending the transcript once you've confirmed that they're available to take it.

It's like there's just a lot and it's kind of overwhelming and when you're overwhelmed.

No matter how much time you have, even if you have, let's say you have three hours to spare, you have three hours of free time.

But if you're feeling like really overwhelmed, then you end up not getting anything done even in those three hours.

Even if you have a list of things that you want to get done.

Like usually if you're spinning in overwhelm, it's like you just want to like lay down and just like shut it all out.

So.

So the coaching is really to learn the tools to manage your mind and emotions that come up that we.

That are so sneaky, that kind of block us from getting the things, from doing the things that we want to do, from taking the actions we want to take, from reaching the goals we want to reach.

Like it kind of slows us down and holds us back.

Like our brain is really trying to protect.

You can think that we're in danger when we, when we do something outside of the norm, when we want to do something different or put ourselves out there or like, you know, any idea that we have any, anything that we want to do.

The brain is very good at convincing us it's a terrible idea.

And so the coaching is like basically the model goes like this.

So you have the circumstance which is the, it's C, T, F, A, R, so circumstance and then the thought about that circumstance and then how you feel when you think that thought about the circumstance and then a is action.

What actions do you take when you're feeling this way because of the thoughts that you're thinking about the circumstance and then what results are you creating from that whole cycle?

So there's a certain result that we're creating and we don't realize the power that we have in creating that result.

So we often think that it's just like as a result of our circumstances.

But the circumstances have nothing to do with it because every thought that we think, we can easily shift it.

But sometimes we don't think, we don't realize that.

It's like the thoughts just kind of go on default.

So if we don't have those, the tools, the skill set of managing those emotions and managing those feelings and those thoughts and really being gaining that awareness.

That's what I have learned and found so valuable when I learned like the self coaching model.

So that's why I'm wanting to like my goal is to provide free coaching for 10 hours a week.

10 hours a week because I think that If I do 10 hours a week for free in addition to any other, you know, clients that I have.

But I just think like, it'll.

I'll become such a great, like a great coach.

So it's like a great practice and I just would love to help.

Like, actually my true and ultimate goal is to help.

I'm choosing five.

Five court reporters.

I mean that I'm just choosing a number.

I'm hoping to help five court reporters by the end of this year, like, completely transform and really like reach their goals and up level.

So that's why I'm doing the free coaching.

And I think you already.

You have the business diet down so well, especially from reading about your prior things, about having your.

I forget the exact title you used, but basically a transcript manager or somebody who can really do some heavy lifting to lighten your load.

So that coupled with what I'm going to call the more emotional side of the coaching, I think all of that is a great package together to really make a dent.

And not even a dent like a true change in someone's working professional life and therefore carry over to their personal.

Yeah, exactly.

That's one of the biggest things that I help people with.

Before I started working in court, I was.

When I was like first starting the coaching and then I kind of stopped for a while just to see, like, what is it like to work full time in court.

But at that time I was like, really helping people to build their teams and find the reliable people to work with because that really makes all the difference.

So it's so important.

Yeah.

The other thing I was just thinking, I think you even helped me indirectly through this coaching side, if you will, because I have this inner critic that's always like, Ryan, you should be working in person, or Ryan, you should be doing XYZ so that someday you could become an official.

And I'm like, where does this voice even come from?

Like, I am having a great time, time working from home.

I am making more than I ever anticipated and I'm doing great.

So I need to squelch this inner voice that is like contradicting the choices that I'm making that I actually like.

I think it's just like on autopilot or the default from other life experiences.

So even recently, I know this may not have been where you were going, but to hear you say, like, hey, I did this and I even went to the Supreme Court court, and this was, you know, the outcome and here's where I'm at now.

That was just a helpful reminder.

So thank you.

Yeah, of course.

Yeah.

It's so funny how we have that inner critic.

And it's like, it's just.

You're like, okay, thank you for your opinion and I'll just continue to move on because I know that you're just looking out for me.

But, you know, you don't have to worry because we're good.

Just get along for the ride and be quiet.

Instead, it's been Zach.

Thank you to everyone who's listening to this podcast.

And thank you, Ryan, for joining and for sharing your insights on voice reporting and confidence.

For speaking up and protecting the record.

Are you online?

Anywhere that anyone can connect?

Absolutely.

On Facebook, on LinkedIn.

I don't know why we court reporters.

Don't use LinkedIn more.

But you know, I'm out there in most of the Facebook court reporting groups.

So anywhere and happy to help even with the little that I.

We can end early today and I'll just continue to do this.

I'm gonna open up a zoom room every day for office hours, Q and A different topic discussions, coaching.

If anyone wants free coaching and hope you can join again.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Nice to meet you.

Bye.

Bye.

Sam Sat.