FYV #42 - Talking With Your Hands: How Gestures Can Win or Lose Jurors
Foster Your Voice Podcast with Kristi Foster
Release Date: 10/27/2025
FYV #55 - How to Revive a Dragging Courtroom Without Saying a Word
Foster Your Voice Podcast with Kristi Foster
In this episode, Kristi explores how subtle shifts in presence—rather than words alone—can revive a dragging courtroom. Drawing inspiration from a Trevor Noah and Simon Sinek conversation, she reframes how attorneys invite juror participation by distinguishing between niceness and kindness. The episode then moves into a practical communication tip on using breath to regulate energy in the courtroom, helping attorneys re-engage jurors, manage stress, and intentionally shape the emotional tone of the room without ever calling attention to it. In this episode, you’ll learn: The...
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FYV #54 - How to Empower Jurors: Teaching Before Telling
Foster Your Voice Podcast with Kristi Foster
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FYV #53 - The Missing Signals: How Physical Transitions Help Jurors Stay With You
Foster Your Voice Podcast with Kristi Foster
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FYV #52 - Energy Mismatch: The Silent Credibility Killer
Foster Your Voice Podcast with Kristi Foster
In this episode, Kristi reflects on an unexpected insight sparked by a late-night podcast listen—and how it reshaped her thinking about goal-setting, motivation, and decision-making in business. Drawing from philosopher David Deutsch’s idea of “following the fun,” she explores the tension between long-term strategy and genuine curiosity. The episode then shifts into a practical courtroom communication tip, unpacking how mismatched vocal and physical energy can quietly erode credibility—and how trial attorneys can use intentional energy to help jurors truly feel the weight of...
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FYV #51 - The Breath Mistake That Keeps Jurors on Edge
Foster Your Voice Podcast with Kristi Foster
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Foster Your Voice Podcast with Kristi Foster
In this special year-end bonus episode, Kristi invites you into her personal annual process of reflection and intention-setting. She recaps meaningful moments from 2025 — professionally and personally — and shares how consistency, seasonality, learning deeply, and honoring life outside of work have shaped her year. This episode offers perspective for trial attorneys who carry heavy work, reminding you that leadership, growth, and sustainability are built through intentional reflection and aligned priorities. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why taking stock of where you are is...
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FYV #50 - Motivation Isn’t a Feeling: How Jurors Decide and How You Stay Grounded
Foster Your Voice Podcast with Kristi Foster
In this episode, we explore motivation from two critical angles: what motivates jurors to stay engaged and move toward a verdict — and what actually motivates you to show up grounded, prepared, and consistent in high-stakes moments. Jurors don’t get motivated in isolation; they respond to your energy, clarity, and intentionality. And before jurors ever lean in, you have to generate momentum for yourself. This episode bridges courtroom communication with personal practice, showing how relevance fuels juror engagement and how motivation is built through small, repeatable actions — not...
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FYV #49 - RBF, Thinking Face, and the Juror’s Subconscious
Foster Your Voice Podcast with Kristi Foster
In this episode, we zoom out from pure vocal technique and dig into one of the most overlooked communication tools in the courtroom: your face. With 43 expressive muscles firing even when you’re not speaking, your facial expressions reveal more than you think — especially to jurors who instinctively read micro-cues for safety, sincerity, and credibility. You’ll learn why your “resting face,” thinking patterns, stress habits, and unintended microexpressions can either support your message or sabotage it — and how to intentionally build a neutral, open, trustworthy facial baseline...
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FYV #48 - The Two Personalities That Shut Down Your Jury
Foster Your Voice Podcast with Kristi Foster
In this episode, Kristi unveils the two personality types that quietly shut jurors down long before your story ever gets a chance to land: the know-it-all and the chronic apologizer. Both create emotional friction that drains jurors' attention and engagement — just in opposite ways. Kristi breaks down how each style shows up vocally and nonverbally in the courtroom, why jurors feel instantly exhausted by them, and how even small shifts in vocal presence, humility, and breath-supported delivery can completely change how jurors perceive you. This is a mindset-and-voice tune-up every trial...
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FYV #47 - Cognitive Load in the Courtroom: How to Give Jurors a Fighting Chance
Foster Your Voice Podcast with Kristi Foster
Jurors don’t get real breaks. Not mentally, not emotionally, and certainly not socially. In this episode, we explore how cognitive fatigue shows up inside the courtroom and why even small, intentional pauses in your delivery can dramatically improve juror engagement and listening stamina. You’ll learn how micro-pauses, grounded transitions, and light moments of levity create essential “brain rest” for jurors—without derailing your momentum or weakening your command of the room. This episode reframes pauses from something to fear into one of your most strategic storytelling tools....
info_outlineYour hands are speaking in court—whether you mean for them to or not. In this episode, Kristi unpacks why gestures matter as much as words, how jurors process them as part of your message, and how you can use them strategically to reinforce rather than distract.
Learn how to balance movement so you look authoritative instead of chaotic or rigid, and discover how pairing tone with gesture creates courtroom communication that sticks.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
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Why psychologists call gestures “co-speech gestures” and how the brain fuses words + movement into one message.
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The difference between quick, sharp gestures and slower, deliberate ones—and when to use each.
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How mismatched or random gestures overload jurors’ working memory and cause distraction.
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Why purposeful gestures reinforce clarity and credibility while nervous energy undermines both.
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How to pair gesture with tone for maximum juror engagement.
Key Takeaway:
Gestures aren’t decoration. They’re part of your message. When used strategically, they amplify clarity and trust. When left unchecked, they create confusion and distraction.
Favorite Moment:
“This is not a question of style. It’s a question of cognitive load. Jurors only have so much working memory to process what you say. If you burn it up with mismatched or distracting gestures, there’s less capacity left for your actual case.”
Links & Resources:
Interview with Daniel Pollack-Pelzner:https://www.pdx.edu/news/genius-lin-manuel-miranda-qa-author-psu-scholar-daniel-pollack-pelzner?fbclid=IwY2xjawNKPSxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFaNER6WW13SDN3V3kxYnFwAR6I0Y_30ehGlq5b3-PMjgT2BDueRd_JGkRoeUmJRNIVFk5oaRj6XPpY12wgCg_aem_DSp-OrEtJxGQp2JSY2ICwQ
Book "Lin Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist": https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Lin-Manuel-Miranda/Daniel-Pollack-Pelzner/9781668014707
Top 20 Legal Terms to Avoid: https://www.fostervoicestudio.com/top20
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