Have you ever sat in a meeting and wondered why it feels like only two or three people dominate the entire conversation? These louder colleagues usually speak up first, share their two cents, and take up most of the meeting time. Before you know it, the meeting is over and you never said a thing.

As a global communications expert, I work with a lot of smart and talented people. Even among these skilled and capable professionals, the biggest frustration I hear goes something like this: “I work hard and deliver, but I still don’t feel like I get noticed for my efforts, let alone rewarded with promotions or other opportunities. Why?!”

In my new book, “Smart, Not Loud: How to Get Noticed at Work for All the Right Reasons,” I teach professionals how to unlock bigger opportunities by leveling-up this one skill: communication. It’s not about being assertive, dominant, or aggressive if that’s not your style. It’s about being intentional and smart so that when you do chime in, people listen.

Here are five phrases the most successful people use every day to help them get noticed and get ahead. 

Brilliant communicators know that in order for people to listen to them and their ideas, they have to make other people feel heard first. 

If you’re in a meeting and you want to jump in, instead of just quickly saying what’s on your mind, potentially cutting people off, listen carefully and wait for them to finish speaking.

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Then preface your comments with, “I hear what you’re saying.” 

These words will show the person that you’re acknowledging them and their thoughts, even if you have an opposing point of view. You don’t want the other person getting defensive, which can prevent them from considering what you have to say. 

Humans make decisions using both logic and emotions. However, people are far more likely to remember and be persuaded by stories than by facts alone. As the saying goes, they’re more likely to remember how you made them feel than what you said. 

To be a smart communicator, leverage emotion and incorporate stories in your speaking. This means using words like “excited” and “thrilled” to drum up support. Smile when you’re speaking or raise your eyebrows to magnify the impact. When signalizing urgency, use words like “worried” and “concerned” in a downward pitch to project gravitas.

Help people feel what you feel, leveraging your words, body language, and tone of voice. If you have a relevant story — an anecdote about how your product is being used out in the real world, for example, or from your past experience on a similar project  — share it. 

One of the most important things you can do at work is to ask for what you want. Another is to nudge strategically to ensure you get a response. 

Instead of just saying, “Hi, following up here,” which can feel pushy and ineffective, preface your follow-up with a new piece of information. For example, you might say, “Since our last conversation where I pitched X project, I found some interesting data that supports my hypothesis about Y. Here’s what’s new ….”

This strategy can take away some of the awkwardness you may feel, make your ask seem timely and fresh, and move the conversation forward. Getting the answers you’re looking for can help you accomplish more — and do it more easily.  

I’ve discovered — firsthand, and sometimes the hard way — that just because you’re talented, it doesn’t mean people will notice. Working hard and doing great work doesn’t automatically mean you’ll get, or even be considered for, a plum project or raise. 

Talking about your accomplishments can unlock more opportunities. But how do you do that without feeling like you’re bragging? 

Use the power of contrast to highlight the progress you’ve made and the impact you’ve had. For example, you might say, “The design changes we made to streamline the site made it so much easier to navigate. Now we’re seeing the average consumer complete the purchase process in under a minute, but back then it took twice as long.”

When someone helps you at work — endorses you for a project, lends a helping hand, makes an introduction — you might express your gratitude by saying, “Thank you.” But smart communicators know it’s not just about saying those two words; it’s about saying what you’re thankful for and why. 

Being specific can magnify your appreciation, make our gratitude feel more authentic, and lift the other person up. It leaves a positive impression and can make them feel more inclined to repeat that helpful action. 

As you think about using these five phrases at work, you might, for example: 

• Change up the rate of your words, sometimes speeding up when speaking, but then slowing down when you’re trying to drive a point home. 
• Use your hands. For example, lift them up and show your palms to signal trust or use your fingers to signal the numbers you’re talking about to give your words structure and emphasis. 

It may feel unnatural at first to incorporate these phrases and techniques, but they can help you highlight your brilliance. Because you can stand out in the workplace and get ahead in your career — even if being loud, brazen, and assertive isn’t your style.

Jessica Chen is a global communications expert, keynote speaker, and a former Emmy-Award Winning TV journalist. Her new book “Smart, Not Loud: How to Get Noticed at Work for All the Right Reasons” teaches smart professionals how to develop workplace confidence and build a career they love using strategic communications skills to stand out. Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn and Instagram. 

Want to be a successful, confident communicator? Take CNBC’s new online course Become an Effective Communicator: Master Public Speaking. We’ll teach you how to speak clearly and confidently, calm your nerves, what to say and not say, and body language techniques to make a great first impression. Get started today.

In 2020, Kristina Knighten, 38, and her husband, Paul Cordier, 46, closed on their dream home in Lago d’Iseo, Italy.

They bought the two-bedroom house for 23,000 euros, or $24,973, at the time.

“It looked like a house you drew when you were a kid with the pitched roof, the door in the center, and the two windows upstairs,” Knighten tells CNBC Make It. “It was really cute and just steps away from the train, steps away from the lake. It felt too good to be true.”

The couple started renovations on the home in March of this year — it needed a new roof, for example — and estimated the renovations would cost about 100,000 euros or $108,578.

“It was going well, and we were making good progress but unfortunately, the costs increased by 25%,” Knighten says.

The couple decided to go the DIY route: “When we looked at the invoices, labor is the biggest cost, so if my husband can provide the labor, then maybe we’ll get this over the line.”

At the start of renovations, the couple was living in a nearby rental apartment and had hoped they’d be ready to move into their new home by the time the lease had come to an end. Unfortunately, that was not a possibility and the couple had to work fast to secure new housing.

At the same time, Cordier’s sister was getting ready to close on a home in Italy of her own.

“She wants to eventually relocate here as well, so we had been keeping an eye on properties for her,” Knighten says.

“Luckily, she liked this apartment, which happens to be across the street from our house.”

Cordier’s sister lives in Bangkok and never saw the apartment in person. Cordier acted as her power of attorney in Italy to help her close on the property. She bought it in an all-cash deal for 39,000 euros, or $42,604 and the couple moved in.

The apartment hadn’t been lived in full-time since 2002. The previous owners, who inherited the property, occasionally used it as a vacation house.

Some of the things the couple found inside were a calendar from 2006, a chest of drawers from the 1920s, old photographs of a competition the town used to host, and old bowls with recipes hand-painted on them.

“It was absolutely covered in dust and smelled very musty. It needed a lot of paint and the plaster was crumbling off the walls,” Knighten says. “Even after we had the electricity turned on, we had to make sure it was safe because it’s a very old building.”

The apartment’s layout is quirky, Knighten says. For example, the bathroom is an outhouse, with a toilet, shower, and tile.“We jokingly refer to it as glamping.”

The ground floor has an open living room and kitchen, but to access the two bedrooms, you have to go up an external staircase to the second floor. The bedrooms are railroad-style, so the couple has to pass through one room to get to the other and back out to the common areas.

One thing this apartment has that the couple’s house doesn’t is a backyard overlooking the lake.

“If this had been on the market when we bought our place, we would have bought this instead,” Knighten says. “We don’t have any outside space at our house and since we’ve been here, we go out and have a glass of wine. It’s just really nice.”

Cordier’s sister is saving up to renovate the old apartment and doesn’t plan on moving to Italy for another two years. She isn’t charging the couple any rent, and in return, they are fixing up the property as much as they can.

“We cleaned up the backyard, we cleaned all the furniture, we painted the walls and just trying to make it nicer while we are here,” Knighten says.

Knighten and Cordier hope to be moved into their house by Christmas but are thankful to have this current space just in case that doesn’t happen.

“We’re in a very fortunate situation where we can stay here kind of as long as we need for free,” Knighten says. “It’s not ideal. I don’t want to be having to go outside to pee in the middle of winter but we will do it.”

Conversions to USD were done on August 13, 2024, using OANDA conversion rates of 1 euro to 1.09 USD. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

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Ambitious workers get a lot of advice early in their career about how to get ahead. One common tip is: Be among the first to arrive at the office and the last to leave to show your boss you’re committed to the job.

Brianna Doe used to feel that way. When the marketing professional began her career about a decade ago, she’d often clock into the office early and work long hours “to show that I have the drive and the motivation, and that I want to grow within the company.”

Doe was eager to show her manager and people outside her department that she could “go above and beyond,” and she felt “a great way to do that is by being the first one to show up and the last one to leave,” Doe tells CNBC Make It.

That being said, “I also experienced such intense cycles of burnout by doing that.”

Looking back, Doe recognizes that the well-intentioned advice often comes with the caveat that working long hours shows your dedication to your work at the expense of your personal time and life.

“I didn’t have any sort of work-life harmony in my life,” says Doe, who now runs her own marketing agency, Verbatim. These days, she says, “I do believe that’s an outdated take, especially now that we’ve ushered in this new era of setting boundaries and prioritizing your mental health.”

Stacie Haller, chief career advisor at ResumeBuilder with over 30 years of recruiting experience, agrees.

“I think people are savvy these days enough to know that just because you sit in the office eight hours a day doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a productive employee,” she says.

Instead, there are plenty of other ways to use your time to show you’re excited about your job and want to grow.

“Establish relationships, find a mentor, get to know a team,” Haller says. “Observe the successful people, see how they work and operate, and ask for advice.”

Gen Z workers, in particular, are in a good position to prioritize building work relationships that can help them years down the line, Haller says: “That’s what you should be doing in the office. Don’t focus on getting there early and staying late just to make believe you’re a hard worker. That is not going to cut it.”

That message also has to come from the top. Doe believes bosses should re-assess their expectations if they’re focused on an employee’s time spent at their desk rather than what they’re completing or how they’re expressing their ambition.

“If your new employee is doing great work, and they ask you for more opportunities and want to be on different projects, that should speak more volumes than somebody who just stays later than you,” she says.

All of this being said, Haller adds that it’s important to follow your team’s lead in terms of when to show up and when to leave the workplace.

Adhere to the culture: Be on time, don’t be late, don’t miss meetings and “don’t have lame excuses,” Haller says.

Ultimately, she says, “If everybody’s there 8:30 to 6, be there 8:30 to 6. But if you’re showing up at 7 just to make some point to nobody but yourself, that’s a little crazy.”

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Jessica Jackson was afraid of heights when she first started her job as a wind turbine service technician — now, she spends most of her days working 300 feet in the air.

Jackson, 37, is a technician at Vestas, a wind turbine manufacturer, in Bee County, Texas, and earns $73,000 per year.

Climbing the turbine tower “isn’t as scary as you’d think,” she tells CNBC Make It. The tallest turbine on the wind farm Jackson works on is about 350 feet above the ground. It takes her less than 10 minutes to get to the top.

“Once you’re up there, you get to see the best views: You’re watching birds fly, eagles, hawks,” she says. “You get to see planes fly by. You get to see as far as you can see. It’s beautiful.”

Jackson has one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. The Labor Department reports that wind turbine service technicians have one of the highest rates of injury and illness of all occupations.

It’s also the fastest-growing job in the U.S., with employment in the sector expected to almost double over the next decade.

“Working in this field is hard, but it’s rewarding,” says Jackson. “I love what I’m doing, so it makes the job not seem like a job as much.”

Here’s how Jackson earns $73,000 a year as a wind turbine service technician in Texas.

Before she became a wind tech, Jackson was a stay-at-home mom for 10 years.

After she and her husband separated in 2019, when her youngest child started school full time the following year, Jackson decided to return to the workforce. But she was worried her opportunities — and earning potential — would be limited without a bachelor’s degree.

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She enrolled in college online part-time in 2017 but didn’t finish her bachelor’s degree in environmental science from the University of Arizona until 2022.

“Not having a college degree [yet] and being a single mom was hard,” says Jackson, who has four children between the ages of 10 and 21. “I was getting passed up for jobs that I had the experience and skills for only because I didn’t have that degree.”

Jackson’s ex-husband was working as a wind tech and recommended her for a job at Blattner Energy, a renewable energy contractor in northern Texas, installing tower wiring.

While you don’t need a bachelor’s degree to become a wind turbine service technician, some jobs might require you to complete a 2-year technical program or apprenticeship. Others, like Blattner Energy and Vestas, will provide on-the-job training for new hires.

Vestas’ training covers best practices for the turbine’s electrical equipment, technical procedures like bolt torque and tensioning as well as first aid and safety protocols.

Jackson quickly fell in love with the hands-on aspects of servicing the turbines, the quiet peace of working in the wind.

“It felt good knowing that when a turbine was fixed or ran more smoothly, you did that, just seeing the immediate results of your efforts,” she says.

Working in a field that aims to help the environment was another perk that attracted her to the job.

“Wind turbines produce clean energy that goes to a grid, which then powers your homes, businesses, cell phones, TVs .. it’s awesome,” says Jackson. “I tell my kids all the time: Do something you love, but also do something that helps others and helps the environment.”

That job introduced Jackson to Vestas, where she started working in February 2020.

Jackson gets to work at 7 a.m. and ends her shift by 5:30 p.m. She works five days a week.

Every day on the job is different but starts with a problem.

“What I’m working on changes every day depending on what error code, or problem with the turbine, you’re coming in to,” Jackson explains. “The wind turbines are smart, they’re basically computers and constantly communicating to us what is going on with them.”

Comparable to cars, wind turbines have sensitive electronic systems, generators, pumps and other critical components that are susceptible to freezing or breaking down. Jackson’s job is to inspect, maintain and repair such parts as needed to keep the turbines running and producing power.

Vestas has 66 turbines on the farm where Jackson works. She’s typically responsible for one turbine per shift, but some days, it could be several.

The hardest part of her job is the climb. Jackson has to scale a narrow, metal ladder inside the turbine and pull herself through a hatch at the top to access the turbine’s nacelle, which sits atop the tower and contains the machine’s main parts. It’s a vertical climb nearly 30 stories tall.

“Cutting any corners with safety could be the reason why I don’t go home that day,” says Jackson, who wears gloves, glasses, a helmet, harness and other protective equipment on the job. “Once you’re up there, you’re in your office and ready to work. Everything else is easier.“

She might have been scared of heights when she first started, but after practicing the same climb nearly every day, sometimes multiple times in the same afternoon, Jackson says she started to trust her equipment and “got a lot more comfortable climbing such high heights.”

Jackson plans to work as a wind turbine service technician until she retires in her 70s, if not sooner.

The job might be physically demanding, but Jackson says spending so much time outside on the farm — and climbing the towers — has helped her feel “stronger and healthier.”

She’s working toward getting promoted to a level-three technician at Vestas, a role that pays about $80,000 a year, then will train to become a lead technician after that, a role that pays about $100,000 a year.

“Having this job has given me financial stability and freedom, enabling me to afford activities that will make my children happy, like signing up for a basketball league, while still saving money every month,” she says.

As Jackson continues to climb the ranks in her career — both literally and figuratively — she hopes more women and non-degree holders will join her field.

“I’m extremely grateful for my job, I love what I do,” she adds. “If I was doing something else, I probably would not be as happy.”

Do you have a creative or nontraditional career path? We’d love to hear from you! Fill out this form to be considered for a future episode of “On the Job.”

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The foods in your daily diet play a major role in how healthy you are and how long a life you live. In fact, one of the key practices of people living in blue zones is eating a diet of mostly plant-based foods of fruits, vegetables and nuts.

In past interviews with CNBC Make It and other publications, many centenarians credited their diet for living a long, healthy life.

Here’s what four people, ages 99 and older say they always eat and also what they never do.

Elizabeth Francis, the oldest living person in the U.S. who is 115 years old, told ABC 13, that she eats “everything.”

But Francis “always grew her vegetables in the backyard. I never saw her go to a fast food restaurant as much like Chick-fil-A and all the places I liked to go. She never did that,” her granddaughter, Ethel Harrison, told TODAY.com.

Francis has also never smoked and doesn’t drink alcohol, Harrison noted.

At 102 years old, Deborah Szekely still helps to run her fitness resort and spa three times a week. Szekely has followed a mainly plant-based diet since her childhood.

“I’m a pescatarian. And I actually have been fortunate of never eating meat because of my parents,” she told Make It.

Her typical breakfast, lunch and dinner looks like:

• Breakfast: Yogurt, a banana and whole grains.
• Lunch: Salad at home, she said, or lunch at restaurants.
• Dinner: A meal of fish, salad and a baked potato or she tries something new.

Her diet is very similar to the Mediterranean diet, and it includes fish, whole grains and fruits and vegetables.

Shirley Hodes, who was 106 years old when she spoke to Make It in March of last year, said she aims to limit the animal fat that she consumes and only drinks skim milk.

“I did like to eat a simple, balanced diet without too much sweets,” Hodes said. She was adhering to the guidelines she was taught in the Red Cross nutrition course she took during the Second World War.

When Forbes spoke to Daisy McFadden in 2010, she was 99 years old. She shared what she usually ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Her meals usually included:

• Breakfast: Oatmeal, cranberry juice and a banana.
• Lunch: Salad with beets, cucumbers, tomatoes and chicken or fish
• Dinner: Lean meat and steamed vegetables
• Dessert: Fresh fruit

“I don’t drink soda at all, and never have,” McFadden told Forbes. She drank water, juice, milk or iced tea instead.

Want to be more successful and confident with your money? Take CNBC Make It’s new online course. Our expert instructors will help you master your money and discover practical strategies to boost your savings, reduce debt and grow your wealth — in a way that works best for you. Enroll in ”Achieve Financial Wellness: Be Happier, Wealthier & More Financially Secure″ to start your journey to financial freedom today! Get a 30% discount with the coupon code EARLYBIRD until September 2, 2024.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.