By Jed Lanyon
Yarra Junction resident Dr Louise Mahler has been chosen as the 2021 Keynote Speaker of the Year by the Professional Speakers Association, an international group representing the world’s top speakers.
Dr Mahler is a patron of Voice of Women in the Yarra Valley, is a foremost expert in body language, voice and human behaviour, with a PhD in business and degrees and masters in Organisational Psychology as well as Music.
She described being named as Keynote Speaker of the Year as a “great thrill and “terrific honour”.
“It means a lifetime of achievement. Only the best people get it and it has been those who I have been honoured by and been in awe of in the past, so it means a lot,” she said.
While, Ms Mahler said she enjoys interacting with people and an audience the most, it was her work speaking on Zoom throughout the pandemic that led to her achievement.
“The work I do has gone online so oftentimes you’re presenting to a blank screen for an hour or two.”
Ms Mahler described it as a “form of cruelty” for her.
“It’s very very difficult and not as rewarding, but that’s where your professional skills come in, you still have to engage and entertain. People still expect something they can be connected with and it’s hard work.”
In the process of completing her award-winning PhD, Louise observed a ‘missing ingredient’ in corporate leadership around the unsung wisdom of the mind-body-voice connection she calls Vocal Intelligence.
These blended skills bring powerful observation that elicits discernible, positive change and together with an understanding of the psychology behind high-stake engagements and the structures for handling emotion, combine to build the Mahler Method. The Mahler Method teaches you the vital techniques to ‘be heard’ in hostile environments.
Dr Mahler is a regular contributor to the media appearing on Australian television, appearing in print and radio and speaks and coaches worldwide. She is in demand through Adobe in the USA, India and the South Pacific, has travelled with Gartner to the USA and Europe and is a repeat guest for the elite Million Dollar Round Table Top Tables in the USA.
Her work as a body language expert has been used to analyse high-profile interviews and speeches such as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s recent interview with Oprah and addresses by Scott Morrison and Donald Trump.
She explained the process of analysing body language.
“I’m looking for patterns. What patterns are they doing on a regular basis, how are they breaking those patterns, what is the psychological impact of how they are breaking those patterns in certain situations.
“I’m looking at patterns in the eyes, head position, mouth gestures, breath. These are all things that will give away a lot of information and are very useful to help understand others.”
