Authenticity and Confidence with Ashley Rowe
Host Chris McAuley introduces his podcast on how speaking shapes career, reputation, and opportunity, then interviews global speaker and New Leaf Collective founder/CEO Ashley Rowe, whom he first saw at Growth Day London. Rowe describes herself as multi-passionate—spanning marketing, speaking, personal training, and marathon running—and says her core focus is community and helping people feel seen. She shares how childhood public-speaking competitions led to loving the stage, and how she developed her keynote “Find Your Fire” to encourage non-linear paths and multiple callings. McAuley and Rowe discuss what “authentic” speaking means, closing the gap between performer mode and real conversation, and handling unexpected moments on stage. Rowe explains her framework-based talk structure, voice-note method for conversational stories, audience-specific tailoring, and engagement through flexibility and callbacks, plus her pre-speaking routine of grounding in simple personal habits. She notes she streams The Office, hopes to open a fitness studio someday, and can be booked at thenewleafcollective.ca.
00:00 Podcast Mission Intro
00:47 Meet Ashley Rowe
01:52 Ashley Background Highlights
03:51 Multi Passionate Origins
05:58 Finding Your Fire Talk
08:20 Authenticity Versus Performance
10:49 Closing The Gap Onstage
17:01 Handling Curveballs Live
18:56 Building Talks With Voice Notes
21:50 Framework Flexibility Jazz
24:29 Framework and Flexibility
25:19 Building a Modular Keynote
26:27 Audience Engagement Tools
30:05 Handling Unexpected Responses
32:59 Pre Speaking Routine
36:56 Nightstand and Reading Habits
37:55 Comfort Shows and Rewatches
39:09 Dream Job Fitness Studio
40:34 Community in Speaking and Running
42:32 Wrap Up and Where to Book
44:22 Final Sign Off
