Speak, Connect, Succeed: Aletta Rochat on Executive Presence, Confidence, and Career Growth

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Telling My Story, the podcast where we explore real life stories, career journeys, personal growth, challenges, and the lessons that can inspire others. I'm Henry Chiwetelu, and today I'm joined by someone who helps capable professionals become more visible, confident, and influential in their careers. Alita Rochat, did I get the name correct?

Yes, it's Alita. Yeah.

All right. An executive president coach, global speaker, author of Speak, Connect, Succeed, Build Your Reputation As You Speak, and a past international president of Toastmaster

International.

A letter works with professionals who are doing good work but may not recognize at the level they are capable of. Her work focuses on helping people communicate with clarity, build confidence, strengthen their influence, and positioning themselves for greater career opportunities. Today, we are going to talk about something many talented professionals experience but don't always know how to solve. Having the skills, doing the work, but still struggling to be seen, heard, or taken seriously. Aleta, welcome to Telling My Story and it's a pleasure to have you here with us.

Thank you, Henry. Very excited to be with you and your listeners. All right, Aleta, let's start

with your own story. What led you to focus your career on executive presence and helping capable professionals become more visible?

Henry, it didn't happen by design. Like many of us, life leads you down a certain path. I've always been lucky enough to be confident naturally. And I was a leader at school. So confidence was never something I struggled with. But that confidence I developed over many years of moving around from school place to place. My dad was in the mining industry and we moved extensively. So by the age of eight, I was on my third continent and I had to learn again and again and again to integrate into a new community, a new set of friends, a new school. And I think at a young age, I observed how people communicated and how that could help them integrate into a new group. And then many, many years later, I joined Toastmasters. And there I worked on my communication skills and my leadership skills. And people started coming to me for assistance with presentations, with interviews. And the more I did this work, Henry, the more I discovered that what I was teaching them was actually to build their confidence. It was less about the how to do a presentation and more about how to be confident about what you're saying and I've experienced it myself in the working world where I'd work hard and think I was doing a fabulous job only to get a performance appraisal that told me otherwise and then I started learning that my problem was I was working in isolation from other people and a key part of getting ahead in life is owning the value that you bring and communicating that to others so that others can see how talented you are and how you can contribute to solve a problem.

Aliceta is very inspiring and your journey too is very, very inspiring. So when did you first realize that technical ability alone isn't always enough for career advancement?

I could see it from day one. I mean, All of us have sat