Speaking Your Brand: Public Speaking Tips and Strategies

If you’re an analytical, left-brained thinker like me, this episode is going to give you a different perspective on your content, your speaking, and yourself. My guest Susan Moe is an MBA-trained former business executive who is now a clairvoyant reader who helps her clients understand themselves better through their own symbols and metaphors. Susan is a long-time and loyal podcast listener who did a reading for me back in December 2020 (the first one I’ve ever had). It was powerful and revealing - and I share a bit about it in this episode. You’ll hear in this conversation how I’m on my own journey to get more in touch with my intuitive, creative, right-brained side. I invite you to come along with me!   Susan and I talk about: Her journey to the work she does now The reading Susan did for me and two of the symbols that stuck with me The energy exchange we have with our audiences as speakers Releasing the need to please our audiences and feeling like they need to have a certain outcome How we can use symbols and metaphors in our presentation content to form a stronger connection with our audience At the end, I’m going to share with you a realization I had about one of the symbols after my conversation with Susan About My Guest: Susan Moe helps people find solutions to problems that they haven’t been able to see through traditional thinking. Whether it’s a relationship, career, parenting, or another dilemma, getting to the core of the issue is key to its resolution. This often requires “seeing” beyond the external circumstances and into the soul deep within. Susan has worked with people around the world for nearly two decades, empowering her clients and students to have sovereignty over their own well-being by teaching them simple, yet powerful, energetic tools and techniques. When not immersed in all things metaphysical, you will find Susan out in nature, relating to her family, or pursuing her other passion project, OneGreenSmoothie, where she promotes personal and planetary health through a plant-centric lifestyle.   About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it's through women's stories and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.  Links: Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/264 Susan’s website: https://www.ascendedpresence.com/  Download our FREE workbook on how to position yourself as a thought leader: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/guide/.  Schedule a consult call with us to talk about creating your signature talk and thought leadership platform: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/contact.    Connect on social: Carol on LinkedIn = https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcox Caron on Instagram = https://www.instagram.com/carolmorgancox  Susan Moe (guest) on Instagram = https://www.instagram.com/ascendedpresence/ Susan Moe (guest) on LinkedIn= https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-moe-580a1b2/  Related Podcast Episodes: Episode 263: Finding the Emotional Heart of Your Message with Carol Cox

Since we’re in the month of February, I figured it was a good time to talk about finding the emotional heart of your message. As speakers, we can get so focused on the information we want to share that we neglect emotions and feelings and making a heart-to-heart connection with the people in our audiences. If you want your talk to be memorable and impactful and you want to become a keynote speaker, be on bigger stages, deliver a powerful TEDx talk, you need to have an emotional heart to your message.   In this episode, I’m going to share: What I mean by the emotional heart of your message Examples ranging from Eliza Hamilton to Taylor Swift to a recent workshop I facilitated on storytelling You’ll hear a clip from my keynote about what happens when we find resistance in our purpose Question prompts to help you find the emotional heart of your message   About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it's through women's stories, voices, and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.  Links: Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/263/ Download our FREE workbook on how to position yourself as a thought leader: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/guide/.  Apply for our Thought Leader Academy: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/academy/  Schedule a consult call with us to talk about creating your signature talk and thought leadership platform: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/contact.    Connect on social: Carol on LinkedIn = https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcox Carol on Instagram= https://www.instagram.com/carolmorgancox    Related Podcast Episodes: Episode 197: What We Can Learn as Speakers from 'Hamilton' with Carol Cox Episode 244: Behind the Scenes of My Recent Keynote with Carol Cox Episode 262: The Four Layers of Thought Leadership with Carol Cox

I remember last year I was doing some research and I googled “famous thought leaders.” Guess what the results were? All men. Now, we know there are women thought leaders: Brene Brown, Mel Robbins, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Minda Harts all come to mind. But, Google hasn’t caught on yet. Why not? Because we need MORE women thought leaders to flood the zone.  This is where you come in and this is why I’ve been talking a lot on the podcast about thought leadership and the role it plays in your business and for you getting bigger opportunities and the impact you want to have. It’s also why I created our Thought Leader Academy - to give women entrepreneurs and professionals a place where they can develop their thought leadership ideas and signature talks. In this episode, I’m going to talk about 4 key layers that make up thought leadership. These are layers I’ve identified as I’ve worked with our clients over the years on their keynotes, TEDx talks, and thought leadership messages and as I’ve worked on my own. Download our FREE workbook on how to position yourself as a thought leader: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/guide/.  About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it's through women's stories, voices, and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.  Links: Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/262 Download our FREE workbook on how to position yourself as a thought leader: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/guide/.  Apply for our Thought Leader Academy: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/academy/  Schedule a consult call with us to talk about creating your signature talk and thought leadership platform: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/contact.  Connect with Carol on LinkedIn = https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcox   Books mentioned: The Signature of All Things: A Novel by Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert KLF: Chaos Magic Music Money by JMR Higgs Podcast: A mind-bending, reality-warping conversation with John Higgs Related Podcast Episodes: Episode 241: The Expert Trap: What Holds Women Back from Thought Leadership with Carol Cox Episode 259: Connecting Your Business and Your Thought Leadership with Carol Cox

You won't want to miss the story I share in this episode that made me so mad at the time. About 5 years ago, I was attending an event run by a very prominent women's organization and I couldn't believe who they had on stage. Here's a hint: It has to do with our topic today, which is the gender speaking gap. Similar to the gender pay gap, the gender speaking gap represents the disparity between the number of women and men we see speaking at events, from high-profile keynotes to panel discussions (#nomoremanels). We know how important it is for more women to be visible and have a public voice, so I’m excited to have Kristin Oakley as my guest. Kristin is a professional speaker, emcee, on-camera presenter and Personal Empowerment Coach™ with over 20 years of public speaking and presenting experience across multiple industries. She’s passionate about closing the gender speaking gap, which I learned more about during the VIP Day we did to create her new signature talk. In this episode, Kristin and I talk about:  The gender speaking gap and what we can do about it Lessons she’s learned as a professional speaker for the past 20 years How the pandemic has changed what audiences want from speakers as in-person events are starting to return Why she decided to book a VIP Day and what the experience was like (This is the audio from one of our LinkedIn Live shows.) About My Guest: Kristin Oakley is a professional speaker, emcee, on-camera presenter and Personal Empowerment Coach™ with over 20 years of public speaking and presenting experience across multiple industries. She spent 12 years as an on-camera host and professional spokesperson, traveling throughout North America as a presenter for top brands within the automotive, technology, and financial services industries – and was even a guest presenter on QVC! She is a professional member of the National Speakers Association, and creator of the Unstoppable Speaker Program and the Unstoppable Speaker Challenge: 10 Days to Master Your Fear of Public Speaking. She was also named the 2020 Unstoppable Influencer of the Year.   About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it's through women's stories and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.  Links: Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/261 Watch the video of our conversation from LinkedIn Live: https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6866024667812032512/  Download our FREE workbook on how to position yourself as a thought leader: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/guide/.  Schedule a consult call with us to talk about creating your signature talk and thought leadership platform: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/contact.  Connect on LinkedIn: Carol Cox = https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcox Kristin Oakley (guest) = https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinoakleyspeaker/  Related Podcast Episodes: Episode 251: What Makes Public Speaking Unique as a Medium with Carol Cox and Diane Diaz Episode 243: How We Create a Signature Talk in a VIP Day

One of the side effects of going bigger with your message and putting yourself out there is self-doubt. Even when you’re excited about what you’re working on, self-doubt can creep in. Self-doubt can masquerade as procrastination, boredom, shiny object syndrome, distractions, filling up your to-do lists and calendar, even deciding to clean those areas of the house that never get cleaned. Self-doubt can also keep you stuck and not developing further as an entrepreneur, speaker, and thought leader. In this episode, I’m sharing my own struggles with self-doubt and specific things I do when it comes up that may be helpful to you.   About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it's through women's stories, voices, and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.  Links: Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/260/ Download our FREE workbook on how to position yourself as a thought leader: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/guide/.  Join our Thought Leader Academy: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/academy/  Schedule a consult call with us to talk about creating your signature talk and thought leadership platform: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/contact.    Connect on social: Carol on LinkedIn = https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcox Carol on Instagram = https://www.instagram.com/carolmorgancox  Related Podcast Episodes: Episode 127: Developing Confidence in Public Speaking Episode 131: Pitching and Negotiating for Bigger Speaking Opportunities with Maureen Taylor Episode 241: The Expert Trap: What Holds Women Back from Thought Leadership with Carol Cox

How is your thought leadership message connected to your business? Should it be related? I look at it this way: Thought leadership is the personal WHY to the WHAT (vision) and HOW (mission) that you have for your business. Think of your thought leadership as a parallel track to your business; it’s WHY you do what you do. I talk about thought leadership because it’s the way to get more of what you want: better speaking engagements, including paid ones, plus the way to reach more people with your message and create change.   In this episode, I talk about: What thought leadership is How thought leadership is different from your marketing and sales message in your business How to connect your thought leadership and your business My own thought leadership message The a-ha moment I had when I gave my keynote talk back in September Examples from some of our clients The biggest challenges I see when working on your thought leadership About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it's through women's stories, voices, and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.  Links: Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/259 Download our FREE workbook on how to position yourself as a thought leader: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/guide/.  Join our Thought Leader Academy: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/academy/  Schedule a consult call with us to talk about creating your signature talk and thought leadership platform: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/contact.    Connect on social: Carol on LinkedIn = https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcox Carol on Instagram = https://www.instagram.com/carolmorgancox  Related Podcast Episodes: Episode 162: Why We’re #ChoosingWomensVoices – and You Should Too with Carol Cox and Diane Diaz Episode 213: The V.O.I.C.E. of Thought Leaders with Carol Cox [Big Ideas Series]

Happy New Year! This is the 4th year in a row I’ve done a trends episode for the start of the year. What I mean by trends are not fads or cliches or gimmicks.  Trends are like currents or waves of energy that move through our society and affect everything from business and politics and the economy to popular culture and media. How do these trends impact our public speaking and thought leadership?  As speakers and leaders, our talks and messages have more of an impact if our audiences can see the bigger picture of what’s affecting them and the world around them. In this episode, you’ll learn 3 trends (and action steps for each) related to format, audience, and content that you can apply to your speaking and thought leadership, as well as to your business and visibility strategy in general.  About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it's through women's stories and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.  Links: Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/258/ Join our Thought Leader Academy: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/academy/ Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcox   Related Podcast Episodes: Episode 251: What Makes Public Speaking Unique as a Medium with Carol Cox and Diane Diaz Episode 241: The Expert Trap: What Holds Women Back from Thought Leadership with Carol Cox  

This is the final episode in the series we’ve been doing called “The Medium is the Message”. In this series, we’ve covered the mediums of podcasting, public speaking, video, TV, email, and social media - what makes each one unique and how to make the most of them. This episode is all about the medium of the book and my guest is author and book coach Tiffany Hawk. Writing a book allows you to develop your thought leadership in a deeper way and gives your ideas longevity. A book can also be an important asset for you to have as a speaker, especially if you want to be a keynote speaker. Tiffany and I talk about: How getting published is the ultimate vetting process and credibility marker What makes a book “a book” (the medium) The pros and cons of traditional vs. self publishing The timeline for writing and publishing a prescriptive nonfiction book The book proposal I’m working on right now with Tiffany as my book coach About My Guest: Tiffany Hawk is an author and book coach who helps leaders write agent-ready books and book proposals. Her clients have landed literary agents, traditionally published with big New York Presses and small literary presses, self published, won awards, and seen their stories in places like Harper’s, the Los Angeles Times, Narratively, McSweeney’s, and The Atlantic.   About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it's through women's stories and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.  Links: Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/257 Join our Thought Leader Academy: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/academy/  Tiffany’s website: https://www.tiffanyhawk.com/  Get Tiffany’s “How good is your book idea?” free assessment: https://www.tiffanyhawk.com/idea  Connect on LinkedIn: Carol Cox = https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcox Tiffany Hawk (guest) = https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanyhawk/   Good models for prescriptive nonfiction books recommended by Tiffany: Practical How-To: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz Mindset How-To: Rich As F*ck by Amanda Frances (also a great example of self-publishing the right way) Personal Self-Help: Finding Your Own North Star by Martha Beck  Scholarly Thought Leadership: Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses Related Podcast Episodes: Episode 186: From Hashtag to Podcast to Book: Developing Your Thought Leadership Platform with Elayne Fluker [Thought Leadership Series] Episode 250: Lessons Learned from 250 Podcast Episodes with Carol Cox [The Medium is the Message Series] Episode 256: Making the Most of LinkedIn as a Thought Leader with Tyrona Heath [The Medium is the Message Series]

This is one of the best conversations I’ve had about how to use social media effectively as a thought leader. My guest is Tyrona (Ty) Heath, who is Director, Market Engagement, at The B2B Institute at LinkedIn. You’re getting the inside scoop of the big picture of how to make the most of LinkedIn. We get past the superficial tactics and really dig into what makes social media and LinkedIn in particular unique, how to showcase your body of work as a thought leader, and what your audience wants from you. Ty and I talk about: The ways social media, and LinkedIn in particular, can be used for different goals (e.g., brand awareness, lead generation, thought leadership) What entrepreneurs often get wrong about using social media and LinkedIn effectively What's working well on LinkedIn right now How LinkedIn content is similar or different from what other social media platforms prioritize (IG reels/stories, TikTok, etc.) The key ingredients to think about when posting content   This episode is part of the series we’ve been doing called “The Medium is the Message”. About My Guest: Tyrona (Ty) Heath is Director, Market Engagement, The B2B Institute at LinkedIn. Ty is passionate about connecting people with information needed to make intelligent decisions, studying the future of B2B marketing and decision making. With research, she engages and educates the industry in partnership with the leading marketing effectiveness thinkers. This effort helps better define the category, so customers can drive growth through marketing. Marketers benefit from Ty’s marketing experience at Google, consulting within IBM and leading her own B2B consulting practice. Ty serves on the Digital Marketing Institute's Global Advisory Council, on the Board of Directors for the American Advertising Federation and as an Adobe Insider with top executives and experts.   About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it's through women's stories and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.  Links: Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/256  Join our Thought Leader Academy: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/academy/ Ty’s website: https://tyronaheath.com/    LinkedIn resources: https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/linkedin-live https://members.linkedin.com/creators Connect on LinkedIn: Carol Cox = https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcox Ty Heath (guest) = https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyronaheath Related Podcast Episodes: Episode 252: Using Video for Thought Leadership, Brand Awareness, and Sales with Stacy Mayer  

We’re taking you behind the scenes to share what worked, what didn’t, and what’s next for us in the areas of speaking, visibility, and the business in general. Diane Diaz and I talk about: 🎉  10 things we’re celebrating that went well this year ❌  3 things we tried that did not go as well as we had wanted 💡  5 larger lessons we’re taking from what worked and what didn’t 🎯  3 strategic priorities for next year   I encourage you to use this template to reflect on and write down your own wins, experiments, lessons, and priorities. Applications are open for our next Thought Leader Academy group that starts in January. This episode is from a recent LinkedIn Live we did. You can watch the video replay at https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6871110343964323840/. About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox, joined in this episode by our lead speaking coach Diane Diaz. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it's through women's stories and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.    Links: Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/255 Apply to join our Thought Leader Academy: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/academy/  Connect on social: Carol on LinkedIn = https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcox Carol on Instagram= https://www.instagram.com/carolmorgancox  SYB on YouTube = https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS7AtXV0f_HL09mepAON65w  Diane Diaz on LinkedIn = https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianediaz  Related Podcast Episodes: Episode 201: 2020 Year in Review: What Worked, What Didn’t, What’s Next with Carol Cox and Diane Diaz