Speaking Your Brand: Public Speaking Tips and Strategies

What does the *medium* of email want in order to be the most effective? What do *we* want when we look through our inboxes? The answers surprised me! We’ve heard for years that it's important to build our email list.  Unlike social media platforms, you own your email list and can communicate with the people on it directly, without the filters of algorithms. However, just because someone is on your...

If you’ve ever thought that you’d like to be on TV as a contributing expert - or if you think you’re not qualified (you are!) - you’ll get so much out of this episode. We’re continuing our series “The Medium is the Message” and in this episode we’re focusing on TV as a platform that can quickly propel your visibility and credibility. Since 2005, I’ve appeared (too many times to count) on Orlando-a...

More and more social media platforms, from Instagram and Pinterest to LinkedIn, are encouraging users to create videos and prioritizing video in their algorithms. As entrepreneurs, speakers, and content creators, how can we effectively use different types of video formats for thought leadership, brand awareness, and sales? My guest is Stacy Mayer, a Certified Executive Coach and founder of Executi...

Did you know that public speaking is one of the fastest ways that you can establish your expertise, credibility, authority, and thought leadership? Why? Because of the intrinsic benefits being the speaker standing in the front of a room or on a stage conveys, before you’ve even said a word. This in and of itself is one of the best reasons to be a speaker. This is the second episode in a new series...

We’re celebrating 250 episodes of the Speaking Your Brand podcast! I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you lessons I’ve learned after hosting and creating 250 episodes, including what makes podcasting unique and different from video and writing and how it has impacted my business and thought leadership. This is the first episode in a new series we’re doing that I’m calling “The Medium...

We’ve been doing a series on in-person speaking, as more conferences and events return to in-person. Today, I’m talking about the relationship between speaking and performance. This episode was prompted by one of our Thought Leader Academy calls from a few weeks ago. I asked each woman to tell us what she liked to do when she was young and most of them loved performing, whether in school plays, si...

Whether you’re presenting at a conference or running a program or course, you want to make sure that your audiences and clients are learning and, more importantly, applying what they learn. My guest is Manja Horner, who has a deep background as a learning experience designer. She now helps entrepreneurs create effective and impactful programs and courses. Manja and I talk about: Mistakes we make w...

When you think about your thought leadership, one of the questions to consider is: What is missing in your field/industry? For my guest Katrine Marçal, the question wasn’t only “what” is missing, but “who” is missing and what the consequences have been for all of us. Katrine is a bestselling author on women and innovation and her second book just came out called “Mother Of Invention: How Good Ide...

We’re continuing our series on in-person speaking with this episode to talk about audience engagement strategies you can use and how you can give your audience an experience. My guest is Ramona J. Smith, who holds the prestigious title of the 2018 World Champion of Public Speaking from Toastmasters, only the 2nd Black woman and 5th woman overall to win this award. Ramona and I talk about: How she...

As the speaking season is ramping up (both virtual and in person) and conferences are planning for next year, how can you stand out and get selected as a speaker? Our guest is Sarah Soliman, who’s the founder of Soliman Productions, a full video content firm that produces videos and also manages and executes hybrid events and full virtual experiences from start to finish. Sarah is also active with...

I’m taking you behind the scenes to talk about the recent keynote I delivered, including how the event organizer found me, how I created and prepared for the speech, and how it went the day of.  It was my first in-person speaking engagement since before the pandemic and it felt so good to be back at an event! It was in Orlando, where I live, so I was able to invite my mom and sister along with Dia...

What is it like to create your signature talk in a day? Can it really be done? What are the results?  This episode is the audio from a LinkedIn Live we did recently with two women, Erin Austin and Casey Gromer, who’ve worked with us in VIP Days to create their signature talk. We take you behind the scenes to talk about:   Why they wanted a signature talk What the VIP Day experience was like How th...

How can you evolve from being an expert to a thought leader? What mindset shift needs to happen and what does thought leadership message and content look like? This episode is the audio from a LinkedIn Live we did recently with two of the women who've graduated from our Thought Leader Academy , Emily Rogers and Jackie Roby. We take you behind the scenes to talk about: What it means to them to be a...

You’re an expert in what you do: you have work experience, skills, knowledge, credentials, degrees. You’re well regarded as an expert in your field. You enjoy presenting and training in your area of expertise. Being an expert is great for attracting clients who need your specialized services and for doing workshops and conference breakout sessions. And it’s holding you back. It’s holding you back...

Is there something holding you back from your thought leadership? If so, it just might be the way through. In the episode from 2 weeks ago with Betsy Jordyn, we talked about Betsy’s realization, which she shared in her Thought Leader Academy graduation speech, that “What I thought was *in my way* to my thought leadership was *the way* to my thought leadership.” The idea is that what holds us back,...

As a high-achieving woman and a left-brained/logical/analytical person, I've been perfectly comfortable living and working from my head. However, I’ve begun to realize over the past couple of years that leadership and coaching and, really, being human is about your heart. My guest is Emily Rogers, a high-achieving woman who has learned to tap into her somatic wisdom and helps her executive coachin...

This is an incredibly powerful conversation about owning and telling our story and what it looks like to develop into a thought leader. My guest is Besty Jordyn, who is truly a brand whisperer. She has a magical ability to understand who her clients are at a deep level and help them position their business and marketing. Betsy went through our Thought Leader Academy earlier this year and on our fi...

I know from first-hand experience how hard and scary it can be to be vulnerable sharing a deeply personal story that reveals something that shows you’re not perfect. And I also know how incredibly powerful doing so can be. Not only for those who hear it, but for yourself. This is the journey that our guest Cyndi Shifrel has gone through during the past year, as COVID dramatically impacted her even...

You know that including stories, especially personal stories, in your presentations is important to connect with and engage the audience. This is true whether you’re giving a keynote, a business presentation, or a training. Along with integrating various stories and examples throughout your presentations, you can also have one core story that illustrates your topic and why it’s important. This is...

Have you been getting the feeling that you’re ready to go bigger with your ideas and message? That you want to have a bigger impact and reach more people? This is what today’s guest, therapist Marisol Erlacher, started feeling last year, as she took part in conversations with other BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) women who were recognizing the role that trauma has played in their le...

The best way to describe this episode is to share what my guest, copywriter Ashleigh Rennie, wrote when she scheduled our podcast interview: “When I was growing up in South Africa, the country was in the darkest days of the Apartheid. It was the 80s. Nelson Mandela had been in jail for twenty years. We were on the verge of a civil war. My parents were liberals who voted for democracy. And I was ma...

In this episode, I share 3 types of thought leadership models: personality-driven, research-driven, and mission-driven.  A lot of times we see someone who we would categorize as a thought leader and think that we can’t do what they do - and you don’t have to be just like them.  You can see which of these 3 types most closely aligns with who you naturally are.  Just like your business model influen...

What’s the difference between an influencer and a thought leader? And what’s the difference between an expert and a thought leader? Which one you choose will determine the kind of content you create and where (what platforms) you should be spending your time and focus. Most likely, you’re currently in the expert category (which is great!) and perhaps you want to develop into a thought leader. Ther...

How can you get selected to speak at an event? What do event organizers look for in speakers? My guest is Kelly Youngs, the founder of global women’s network She Is Fierce!, which puts on in-person and virtual events. Kelly and I talk about the balance between inspirational speakers and expertise speakers, what kinds of speakers are inspiring to us, and how she curates the content and speakers for...

Have you ended up somewhere in life that you did not expect (or was not expected of you)? Do you have a life story that people have told you is inspirational? For my guest and client Tanea Smith, the answer to both of these questions is YES. In this episode, Tanea and I talk about how she’s using her life journey for her signature talk, including identifying her big idea, how we selected specific...