In this episode of the Foster Your Voice Podcast, Kristi continues the Familiar Anchors series by exploring the second anchor: WEALTH. She explains why financial themes resonate so deeply with jurors—not because of greed, but because money represents security, freedom, sacrifice, predictability, and survival. Kristi breaks down how trial attorneys can move beyond abstract dollar amounts and instead connect financial losses to relatable human experiences that jurors instinctively understand.

In the Communication Tip segment, Kristi tackles one of the most common courtroom communication struggles she sees in attorneys: under-animation. If your delivery becomes predictable, the brain assumes it already knows what’s coming next—and stops listening. Kristi shares why attorneys are far less likely to be “too much” than they fear, and how strategic animation actually improves credibility, retention, and connection.

LISTEN HERE...

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why WEALTH is one of the most universally relatable juror anchors
• How emotional profiles help jurors feel financial loss instead of just hearing numbers
• Why most attorneys are significantly under-animated in court
• Why predictable vocal delivery causes jurors to stop listening
• Why practicing “bigger” than you plan to perform helps offset nervous-system reduction during trial

Key Takeaway:

Jurors don’t emotionally connect to spreadsheets, wage calculations, or economic charts—they connect to what money means. When you anchor financial losses to security, sacrifice, future stability, and daily life consequences, jurors can internalize the stakes of the case. And if you want them to continue listening and learning, your delivery must create enough contrast and animation to keep their brains engaged.

Favorite Moment:

“If the brain thinks it knows what you’re going to sound like, then it thinks it knows what you’re going to say—and therefore, it no longer feels the need to listen to you.”

Links & Resources:

FREE Emotional Profile Guide - https://www.fostervoicestudio.com/opt-in-a73db0af-170f-425d-95d6-dfad8837db8a

FREE 30-minute Vocal Snapshot Session - https://calendly.com/fostervoicestudio/30-minute-assessment-clone

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And if you’re ready for personalized feedback on your vocal delivery, emotional expression, and courtroom communication style, schedule a FREE Vocal Snapshot Session with Kristi.

TRANSCRIPT:

Today we're taking a look at the second Familiar Anchor, which is WEALTH. Fitting, since today is when quarterly taxes are due for those of you running your own business. Oh joy!

Just a quick review if you're just joining the podcast. I'm doing a 4-part series on the Familiar Anchors of Health, Wealth, Family, and Identity. These are the buckets that you should draw your analogies from in your storytelling, and they're where you find your key principles that guide your voir dire questions. These anchors are designed to stick in jurors’ minds, and connect emotionally because they are highly relatable. They are topics that are common to humankind.

Money is one of those buckets that EVERYONE can relate to. When you have a lot of money, there are fears around losing it. When money is scarce, every penny makes a difference. I mean, I'm just thinking back to my early 20's, college and just post college-pre career days. Even if going to do something costs just $2—when you don't have $2, it might as well cost $2 MILLION. You're not finding that $2 no matter how hard you look. I'm bringing up my own PTSD (hahaha!)

The point is that, anchoring your case into WEALTH is not just about greed or income levels. It’s deeper than what a checkbook register says. Anchors about money tap into security, stability, freedom, fairness, and even future safety.

Again, money doesn't just represent figures on a P&L statement. Having money represents having:

1. options

2. safety

3. opportunity

4. protection

5. independence

6. years of work

7. sacrifice

8. predictability

Jurors can readily understand financial threat because nearly every adult has experienced some form of economic vulnerability, financial uncertainty, having to tighten up the purse strings.

When you can stop talking about numbers abstractly, just as data, and instead, start connect finances to lived experiences, and lived consequences...you have a more powerful connection point for the jury and more buy in and engagement from them.

Example

So, for example, instead of:

“He lost $280,000 in wages.”

Re-frame it:

“The retirement timeline he had worked toward for 27 years disappeared in six months.”

Or:

“Every financial decision became smaller. Groceries. Vacations. College help. Medical care. Everything.”

For those who are just listening to this episode and not watching, I'm also pairing this with nonverbal gestures. I'm creating an emotional profile that represents the fear and uncertainty of lost wages. With a well-formed emotional profile, now the juror can FEEL the shrinking of life. It's relateable. It's familiar. It draws on history and lived experience. THAT creates connection.

Here are a few examples that tap into fairness, loss, value, future security, livelihood.

1. “Imagine working for 40 years, saving every month—and then having someone just take that retirement from you.”

2. “It’s like buying a car and never getting the keys. You paid the price, but someone else got to drive off with it.”

3. “This wasn’t a windfall. It was what he earned. And now he’ll never see the return on it.”

4. “She isn’t asking for a handout. She is asking for what she’s owed.”

5. “If someone broke your phone today, they’d owe you the cost of a new one. But if they took your ability to earn a living—what is that worth?”

Whether you grew up with the phrase "Money doesn't grow on trees" and felt the scarcity of it, or whether you have always had the certainty that comes with having adequate funds or an abundance of funds...EVERYONE has some relationship to money. That's what makes the WEALTH anchor so powerful.

—BREAK—

There's a common theme among the clients I have coached, whether it's in my 1:1 sessions, or doing quick coaching during training calls or when speaking at a conference. There's one common communication struggle that I have seen in everyone, regardless of years of experience, wins under your belt, solo or work in a firm. And here it is...

You're not animated enough.

Let's just let that sit for a second. Take a second to grapple with it, and you tell me, have you ever seen a presenter at a CLE or someone on your trial team be TOO animated? Never.

Okay, so...let's me temper this a little bit. I am NOT wanting you to be TOO animated. I just want you to be MORE animated.

I just don't think a universe exists where you would EVER be too much. Years ago, and maybe you've done this too...You make a new friend, and you really like them. Then insecurity pops in, and you start thinking, "Maybe I like them more than they like me." So, then you start kinda measuring out how much friendship you extend because you don't want them to get annoyed with you for being too much. Has this ever happened to you? I don't know...this has happened maybe a couple times in my life. So, years ago...my friend Elizabeth gave me the best gift. I was feeling this way about her. She was just a little older than me, we were both music majors, and I just thought she was THE COOLEST. We ended up becoming really good friends, and I started worrying. So, I talked with her about it. She could sense that I was putting up some protective walls, so in a vulnerable moment, I just was honest and told her I was scared I was going to be too much. And she said, "Kristi, the very fact that you have any awareness at all about this, guarantees that you will never be too much. It's the people who aren't self-aware that end up overwhelming a friendship. That's not you. It can't ever be you, because you're aware of it."

That was SUCH a gift. And...a voice of wisdom.

So, I say the same to you. I know you're scared of being too much in court—too dramatic, too animated. But the very fact that you have an awareness of that barometer, that measurement, guarantees that you won't go over that threshold.

Not only that, but your nervous system also protects that threshold. When nerves kick in, that's precisely the time that everything reduces down. That's the result of nerves in action. So, I always tell people they need to practice WAY bigger than they think they'll perform/present it, because when nerves kick in, you[ll naturally reduce things down. If you've only practiced at performance level, then when nerves hit, your nerves will reduce more and now you're sub-standard, under-animated.

So, you're not in danger of being too much. And your jury NEEDS you to amp things up. Why? Because their brain power suffers when you don't.

We have all sat through presentations that feel more like lectures, where we check the clock and count down the minutes until it's over. And then, how much of that do we really retain? How much are we impacted? Now, the presenter is probably super smart, and considered an expert in their feild, but we just physically cannot listen.

We need CONTRAST to maintain attention.

In previous episodes, I've talked about how the brain's one job is to keep you alive, which means it wants to expend the least amount of calories as possible. It doesn't want to have to work. So, when the presenter isn't animated, doesn't create contrast, the brain checks out.

If it thinks it knows what you're going to sound like, then it thinks it knows what you're going to say, and therefore, it no longer feels the need to listen to you. I'm going to say that again, because this is a MAJOR takeaway moment and I want you to really take it in. If the brain thinks it knows what you're going to sound like, then it thinks it knows what you're going to say, and therefore, it no longer feels the need to listen to you.

Contrast is what wakes the brain up. Changes in pace, tone, emotional energy, even structure all keep the brain in this sense of "maybe." It can't predict what's coming next. It HAS to pay attention or it will miss something, and that notion poses a threat emotionally, psychologically, and socially. So, it stays at high alert.

Break up the monotony. It doesn't matter how prepared you are, how articulate you are, how dialed in you are, how much you can intellectually eviscerate your opposition witnesses...NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO TRULY HEAR YOU AND LEARN FROM YOU IF YOU AREN'T MORE ANIMATED.

Now, it's hard to gauge that for yourself. I get it. And again, because of your nervous system and the fact that going bigger is new for you, you'll unintentionally end up playing small. So, get some external feedback. Record yourself and watch it on playback. Try to be objective. OR...get a coach that can give you personalized feedback and encourage you to take some risks while creating emotional safety for you to do it.

I'd love to be that coach for you. I have a couple of open spots in my roster right now. You can start with a FREE vocal snapshot call. There's no obligation to sign up for anything, but at the very least, the vocal snapshot gives you some affirmation of things you're doing well and areas where you can increase your awareness and start taking bigger swings. I've put the link to schedule this free session in show notes. And I hope to hear from you.

Until next week, keep fostering your voice.