Speaking Your Brand With Carol Cox | Women Entrepreneurs | Public Speaking | Communications And Media | Presentations | Tedx

What does it take to do a TEDx talk? In short, a lot of work! But, as my guest and client Tammy Lally talks about in this episode, the process was tremendously rewarding and transformational. Tammy and I talk about the process we went through to create the talk, how she prepared for it, what it was like to be on the TEDx stage, what she learned about herself, how she opened the talk, and much more. About My Guest: In her work as a Certified Money Coach and Financial Planner, Tammy Lally helps couples and individuals achieve financial health and freedom. Since 2009, her ability to help clients succeed is based on her leading edge knowledge and unique approach. She assists them in digging in, questioning, and owning their money beliefs and behaviors and the impact they have on their financial, social, emotional and spiritual well-being.   Highlights: Tammy had the intention to do a TEDx talk in 2017 The importance of finding a good coach Determining what part of your story to tell Learning about yourself throu

If you’re interested in speaking at conferences and/or being a guest on podcasts, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. I met my guest Kerry Gorgone over 8 years ago and I’ve seen her influence rise, both online as she’s become the host of the MarketingProfs podcast and a contributing writer to well-known sites like Social Media Explorer and Entrepreneur.com, as well as offline through speaking and training. In this episode, Kerry and I talk about how she got started speaking, how she approaches creating her presentations and engaging the audience, what makes a great podcast guest, and much more. About my guest: Kerry Gorgone is the host of the Marketing Smarts podcast and Director of Product Strategy for Training at MarketingProfs. She trained as a lawyer and is now a speaker, educator, and contributing writer to Spin Sucks, Huffington Post, {grow} blog, Social Media Explorer, Entrepreneur.com, and more.   Highlights: Repurposing content from Q&A sessions at speaking engagements The value of meetin

Community has been the most important component for me in growing Speaking Your Brand over the past two years, from online masterminds I’ve been a part of to local women’s business groups I’ve joined. In this episode, my guest Kat Mendenhall shares how community and mentors have been instrumental in helping her with her businesses. We also talk about how to turn passion into a profitable business (and what the key ingredient is). Kat is the creator of a company that makes gorgeous cruelty-free cowboy boots and she recently opened a boutique in Dallas called Mend RT vegan retail therapy. Highlights: Turning passion into a profitable business The value of taking risks Saying yes to everything The different types of mentors you should have The importance of knowing your values and standards  Links: Kat's website = http://katmendenhall.com Kat's Instagram = @KatMendenhallBoots Kat's Twitter = @KickButtVegan Main Street Vegan Academy Join the free Speaking Your Brand community at https://www.speakingyourbrand.c

There’s a LOT of content out there competing for your (and your customers’) limited attention, from social media updates and blog posts to podcasts and videos. Is the answer to create more content or better content? My guest today, Jay Acunzo, believes that the answer is not “more” or “better”; rather, it’s to create exceptional content. What exactly is exceptional content and how can you use your intuition to create it? Listen to the episode to find out. Jay and I also talk how Jay approaches his speaking engagements and the importance of storytelling in business and presentations.  About my guest: Jay Acunzo is an award-winning show host and keynote speaker. Working as a digital media strategist at Google convinced him that the tried-and-true often leads to stale work. As head of content at HubSpot, he developed a passion to see marketing as a craft-driven profession. Now, as the host of the audio documentary series Unthinkable, Jay spends each week telling the stories of people and companies who break from

What’s wrong with being a good girl? What does striving for perfectionism and people pleasing cost us as women in leadership? How does it affect our message and our ability to have a greater impact? In this episode, my guest Regena Garrepy shares with us her journey to reclaim her essence - and the gremlins that keep us from doing the valuable work we should be doing. We also talk about the process Regena and I used to create her new presentation and when you need to mature your message to have a greater impact. I’ve gotten to know Regena over the past year as we’ve worked together on two of her presentations and she is a truly beautiful soul. I admire and respect her tremendously and love the power of her story and her message. About my guest: Regena Garrepy is a mentor for messengers, transformational facilitator, superwoman sanity saver and leadership coach. After working with hundreds of women and leading over 30 transformational events, she mentors and empowers women to reclaim, embody and express their

Have you thought about writing a book to boost your personal brand, your business, or your speaking career (or probably all three!)? I know I have, which is why I got a lot out of my conversation with author, executive coach, and keynote speaker Jan Bowen. In this episode, we talk about why Jan chose to write her book "It’s Not That Complicated", how she selected her publisher, what hybrid publishing is, and whether the book has helped Jan’s speaking opportunities. We also get into a meaningful discussion about Jan’s signature talk topic and what happens when we don’t live our life purpose. As Jan says, "If we deny what we’re born to do, we just won’t thrive." I’ve gotten to know Jan over the past year and really admire her wisdom and focus and her authentic desire to spotlight the work that others do. Check out her Instagram and YouTube videos to see what I mean. Jan has been a high-level consultant and coach since 2003, leveraging her experience, skills, and knowledge to help executives and enterprises tra

As solopreneurs and small business owners, we often get stuck doing tasks that we really need to delegate or hire someone else to do. We tell ourselves that it only takes a few minutes, or we don’t have time to train someone, or we’ll do it later. The problem is that a bottleneck occurs (us!) that limits our business growth. As the business owner, we should be focusing on doing the activities that drive revenue.   My guest, Jamara Wilson, has a great insight into this and helps me through some of my own thinking on this topic. Jamara is CEO & President of Tuxedo Impressions LLC, a company whose mission is to help small businesses create efficiency in their daily operations to sustain growth by using technology that will support your company values and culture. In this episode, we talk about: When businesses come to Jamara (what are they facing) Symptoms vs problems in your business (this is a really key point) Resistance to change Finding the time to create processes As business owners, we need to focus

If you’ve listened to some of my other episodes, you’ve heard me help my clients with on-air coaching calls. Now, I’m turning the tables and having someone do a strategy session on me. My guest Carolyn Delaney is the founder of OurCraft.com, which helps creatives and makers by taking care of their technology needs and digital presence through email marketing, SEO, content marketing, ecommerce, and online advertising to amplify their message, reach more of their customers, and sell more of their products. In this episode, you get a peek inside the marketing and technology I’m currently using for my business and for this podcast, and Carolyn asks me insightful questions that you should be asking yourself and gives recommendations you can use as well. Highlights: The danger of the DIY entrepreneurial movement in technology and marketing Being intentional about technology and making sure it’s the right tool for what you need Working in your zone of genius and hiring experts to work in theirs Carolyn asks me what

This idea of empathy and sharing our stories, especially our deep and vulnerable ones, has been coming up a lot for me lately, from panel discussions on politics and social media I’ve participated in to podcasts I’ve been on talking about the power of public speaking to build trust and empathy. Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. I would add to that not just feelings, but their life situation and what brought them to where they are today. My guest today is Karen Millsap, the founder of The Grief Consultant, which helps organizations implement practical empathy in the workplace to strengthen engagement and improve overall performance. In this episode, we talk about: Why Karen started her company The impact of vulnerability in sharing your story What kinds of speaking engagements Karen has done and how she’s used them to build her business and network How Karen has gotten speaking engagements Her new podcast Invest Human and how she sees it aligning with her busin

As speakers, we want to use our voices effectively, feel confident, and project confidence on stage. In this episode, professional singer and vocal coach Freya Casey shares exercises we can do to improve and warm up our voices and how to reduce stage fright and project confidence. What I love about Freya is that she helps people discover the awesomeness in their voice and that she emphasizes mindset and personality as much as physiology and technique. We talk about using the energy of the audience, the benefits of being an introvert as a performer and speaker, what to do if we think our voices are too high pitched or low pitched, and much more. About my guest: Freya Casey is a professional singer and vocal coach from Germany. She studied opera at Southern Methodist University and at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart in Germany, has performed lead roles in opera productions in the United States and Europe, and has been a performing artist on cruise ships all around the world. Freya is also a composer and songwrite

If you’ve been giving presentations for awhile that are the typical 30-60 minutes in length, but you’re curious as to how to condense your idea into a speech that’s less than 10 minutes (it is possible!), you’re going to learn a lot in this episode. My guest, Tara Lynn Foster, is a leadership speaker and coach for women professionals and entrepreneurs. She spent her career in corporate America, dutifully climbing the ladder, until she realized she was on the wrong ladder. Earlier this year, Tara was invited to give a TED-style lightning talk at a conference for women entrepreneurs in Denver, so in this episode, I help Tara with putting that together. Since this call was recorded, Tara delivered her speech and I just watched the video. She did great, as I knew she would! We cover how to open and close the speech, what to cut to stay on theme with an 8-minute speech, what slides Tara should use, and how to prepare. I also go over my presentation framework and how it relates to Tara’s talk. You can download the

How can you get media coverage for your business? In this episode, you’ll learn common mistakes business owners make when pitching journalists, what to put in your pitches, how to show you’re an expert, and how the media landscape is changing. My guest is Christina Nicholson, an award-winning journalist with more than a decade of experience anchoring, reporting, writing, blogging, video production, editing, excelling in social media, photography, and live TV. She has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, the Huffington Post, and on CNN, WTVJ in Miami, WPTV in West Palm Beach, News 12 in New York City, and many other media outlets. Christina now has her own company called Media Maven and helps businesses with their marketing, PR, and publicity, through consulting as well as by teaching business owners how to do it themselves through her online course. Highlights: What got Christina interested in being a TV reporter and how she got started What to put in your demo reel The reasons to start small and local bef

How many of us wouldn't rather market and grow our businesses with heart rather than hustle? It’s exhausting trying to keep up with every new social media channel and tactic (Facebook Live! Snapchat! Instastories!), much less everything else that goes into running our businesses and working with clients. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. In this episode, Lisa Princic and I talk about why "hoping for the best and hustling" is not a sustainable business strategy and what to do instead. The place to start is by defining your value proposition: the unique combination of your attributes, your values, and the outcomes you get for your clients. Listen in for some examples of good and not-so-good value propositions. Let me tell you about my guest Lisa Princic: I know Lisa because she was my business coach. I hired her back in 2015 when I was starting Speaking Your Brand and needed to make sense of and prioritize all of the ideas I had. As I tell people, you can’t do this all in your own head. Even though I teach e

We're going behind-the-scenes to look at what it’s really like to prepare and deliver a keynote. Keynotes are meant to be inspirational and aspirational, which is different from a standard business presentation or breakout session where you’re sharing tactical, step-by-step things that people can do. In a keynote, you want to take the audience on a journey, weaving in your own stories and experiences, and sharing with them your big idea. In this episode, I talk with one of my clients, LuAnn Nigara, and we do a debrief of the keynote she recently gave at a large industry conference. You’ll hear about the process we went through to create the speech, how LuAnn felt on stage, and LuAnn shares with us some things she would do differently. I knew she would nail her keynote - and she did! You’ll love LuAnn’s energy - she was a lot of fun to work with and to have on the show. Let me tell you about LuAnn’s background: She is an award-winning window treatment authority, host of one of the most popular podcasts for the

If you've struggled with figuring out who your ideal target market is, what problems and needs they have, and what results you can get for them, this coaching episode is going to show you the process I use with my clients to help them identify this. We know that in our businesses and in our speeches, we can’t try to appeal to everyone, because then we appeal to no one. So, what do we do? We need to uncover our unique angle, our particular combination of experiences, expertise, approach, and worldview, and then identify the type of people who are attracted to who we are and what we stand for and who are ready and eager to hear our message and use our product or service. In this coaching call you’re about to hear, my guest Susanna Barkataki and I work on defining who exactly her target market is. Susanna is a gifted writer, speaker, educator, and yoga teacher trainer and recently founded the Ignite Yoga and Wellness Institute in Orlando, Florida. Susanna and I talk about how her approach to yoga, meditation, an

You are going to get so much out of my conversation with Donna Cravotta, who is a social media expert and founder of Social Pivot PR. This episode is part coaching - I give Donna feedback on her presentation content and how she should position herself. And then it leads into training. Donna is so good at what she does with social media that I couldn’t help but ask her questions I have and that I knew you would benefit from. Donna gives us some fantastic tips and tools for how to use social media, as speakers and thought leaders, to build our personal brands and connect with fans and influencers - without spending a lot of time or getting distracted. Highlights: The importance of listening on social media Donna pivoting her business from a volume-based business to a handful of clients All of her new clients came from speaking engagements she did in the fall of 2016 and what had changed Audiences wanted less training and detail and more focus on story and what’s possible The framework I use for presentations M

What kind of topics are worthy of a keynote versus a presentation you would do in a workshop or breakout session? How can you position what you offer so that clients see you as a go-to expert rather than a one-time or infrequent purchase? Both of these questions are key if you’re looking to expand your business and get paid as a speaker. My guest, Danielle Liss, is a lawyer, but don’t worry - she’s not like the attorneys you’ve met at your typical chamber of commerce or networking meeting. Instead, Danielle and her partner have been called “cool lawyers”. That’s because they understand online entrepreneurship and the new economy. In this episode, I help Danielle come up with a messaging strategy to make legal topics less boring and more appealing when she’s pitching to conferences, especially for keynotes, and to podcasts. I also put my business hat on and help Danielle think about a way she can increase her own company’s revenue by offering a new type of service to entrepreneurs who are in a growth stage. We

How can you set yourself apart from others in your field? What makes your approach different? We all have something that is unique to us, but it’s hard for us to see it in ourselves because we take it for granted - it’s with us all the time, after all! In this episode, I coach my guest Puja Madan to help her find her unique message to stand out, so that’s she’s attracting the right clients and creating content that reflects what’s different about her and her approach to productivity and time management. Along with hearing the questions I ask my clients (and which you should be asking yourself), you’ll get some excellent tips on how to structure your day and your week for improved productivity and creativity. Here’s a hint - as women, we need to do productivity differently from men. Let me tell you about Puja Madan: She is the creator of Wild Radiant Woman and coaches high-performing, heart-centered women entrepreneurs to help them create more time and ease in their business by teaching them a system of profit

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, an executive, or a professional, you’re a leader, especially if you’re speaking in front of groups of people. It’s important to be aware of the diversity (or lack thereof) in our businesses and in our networks - it's good for us as people and it's good for our company's bottom line. As we sum up at the end, "It all starts with people." We cover a lot in this conversation, from imposter syndrome to what it means to be approachable as a leader to how diversity of both people and ideas impacts your workplace and your business’s bottom line. About my guest: Loren Margolis established her expertise at Columbia Business School in New York City as a leadership coach and career strategist for global leaders in Investment Banking, Management Consulting, Consumer Goods, and Technology. Loren then led executive coaching and large-scale management development programs in the healthcare sector before launching her own company, Training & Leadership Success. She is a contributor for Forb

It seems counter-intuitive, but it's true: the narrower the niche for your business (or podcast), the more successful it will be. In this episode, I talk with my guest Edie Berg about her shift in focus from strong women to strong Jewish women, some of her concerns in making this change, and why she ultimately decided to do it. We cover a lot, including: Why you need to niche down in your business Why Edie decided to shift from talking to all business women to focusing on Jewish women One of the reasons that almost kept Edie from making this shift How being open about your identity and what matters to you gives validation and permission to others How Edie’s online summit is set up and her business model for it What Edie looks for in selecting podcast guests When pitching for podcasts or speaking engagements, why what you do isn’t as important as your bigger message The angle I used to get on podcasts last fall and why it worked How Edie can pitch sponsors for her online summit My advice for creating an eleva