Speaking Your Brand: Public Speaking Tips and Strategies

Join us for a powerful conversation with Karen Williams, also known as the Black Visual Queen. Karen, a skilled photo director, sat down with our lead speaking coach, Diane Diaz, to talk about her journey from corporate life to entrepreneurship, her advocacy for more diversity in the photography industry, and her experience in crafting her impactful keynote talk during a one-on-one VIP Day. Spoile...

You love speaking, so you’re happy to say “yes!” when someone invites you to speak. It feels great connecting with the audience and hearing how much they enjoyed your presentation. Yet, are you getting an ROI from it? Are you generating leads and/or getting paid directly to speak? I’ve been speaking throughout my career, in various industries, from small workshops to big stages. Early on, I didn’t...

Today we’re talking about how to handle when things go wrong or unexpected or when you can’t plan every last thing. The more you speak, something will go wrong or something will happen that you didn’t plan for. The A/V doesn’t work, so you have no slides to show. You get asked a question by an audience member during Q&A that stumps you. You’re on a panel and you feel like your responses just a...

We’re continuing our podcast series to help you Level Up Your Speaking in 2024. As you work to build your speaker brand and begin applying and pitching to speak at more events and conferences, there are two things that will be helpful for you to have - one is a speaker video reel and the other is a speaker page on your website. You want to make sure your speaker reel and your speaker page showcase...

I’ve been there: Standing in front of an audience or being on live TV with my heart pounding, butterflies in my stomach, and my body a bundle of nerves. I’ve also had speaking engagements and TV appearances where I’ve felt in the flow and completely comfortable and confident. What made the difference? That’s what I’m going to share with you in this episode. It’s normal to feel nervous before you s...

Do you sometimes wonder if your presentations are boring? Perhaps you have dense material you need to get through (hello, academics and scientists!). Or perhaps you’re afraid everything’s already been said on your topic, so you don’t have anything new or interesting for your audience. I promise that you can make *any* topic interesting to your audience. In this episode, I share 3 things you can do...

You’re going to love this episode with my guest and Thought Leader Academy grad Erica Hall! If you’ve ever felt like you shouldn’t show your real personality to your audiences or that people expect you to be a certain type of person, this conversation is going to be validating and revealing. Before we get to that part of the conversation, Erica shares her perspective on money mindset and money beh...

As we embrace the excitement of a new year, it's the perfect time to strategize about your speaking journey. Are you wondering where to make your mark this year?  Let's delve deeper because the art of creating a robust speaking and visibility plan transcends merely scouting for random events, conferences, and podcasts. Here’s what you’ll discover: Identify Your Speaking Goals: Understand the diffe...

Happy New Year! This is the 6th year in a row I’ve done a trends episode for the start of the year. 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. As speakers, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders, these trends will impact our thought leadership, our content, and our marketing. I...

I’m taking you behind the scenes to share what worked, what didn’t, and what’s next for Speaking Your Brand in the areas of speaking, visibility, this podcast, and the business in general. I also reveal what I’ve learned from reading and watching Marie Kondo and how I’m applying that not only to my house (my holiday break project!) but also to Speaking Your Brand. With that in mind, in this episod...

If you think your stories and experiences from long ago aren’t relevant to what you do now, what you speak about, and your overall thought leadership message, this conversation will show how much our past experiences shape who we are and reflect what matters to us. Our lead speaking coach, Diane Diaz, sat down with Samantha Irwin, a recent graduate of our Thought Leader Academy and a seasoned entr...

Speaking and books go hand in hand. Many authors are public speakers and many speakers have written books. What does it look like to take your thought leadership message and turn it into both a signature talk and a published book? That’s what we dig into with my guest and Thought Leader Academy grad Cara Houser. Cara recently published her best-selling book “Burned Out to Lit Up: Ditch the Grind a...

Many speakers use public speaking as a way to build awareness for their business and attract leads and clients. Speaking is an excellent way to do this because you automatically have credibility and authority by standing in front of a group of people. However, an opportunity I see speakers miss is that they forgo thought leadership when they’re delivering presentations on behalf of their business...

Do you have giving a TEDx talk on your list of goals? Many speakers do - and for good reason! Those 10-minute talks are a powerful way to share a message and give the audience a way to think about a topic differently. Being a TEDx speaker is also a credibility marker and an opportunity to get seen by more people. How do you land a TEDx talk? What should you include in your application? What are ev...

There are always going to be other people who do what you do and talk on the same topic. Have you ever collaborated with someone who’s in your same industry, who does similar work? It may seem counter-productive to do this because they’re kind of competitors, after all. But what if you could change your perspective on this? Having a thought partner who’s in the same industry can be very beneficial...

Whatever your opinion is about AI, it’s being integrated into everything we do, from what we see on social media to how facial recognition systems work to how decisions are made about you by companies. I personally enjoy using ChatGPT and find it incredibly valuable, but I also want to make sure I’m using these AI tools responsibly and ethically. This is why I invited Juliette Powell, co-author of...

If you’ve listened to the recent episodes we’ve done on thought leadership, you know that I’ve been working this year on positioning myself as a thought leader in the AI space. I want to make sure there are lots of women talking about and being heard on this topic because this technology is going to have a huge impact on our society. This episode and the next one are with women who are thought lea...

How can you accomplish what you want, from the small to the big? As we gear up for the new year, I’m sure there are things you have on your vision board and list of goals you want to achieve. There are practical, tangible steps you can take (the what and the how). There’s also WHO you want to be, the identity you want to shift into, which is essential to aligning your actions to what you want, cre...

We’re continuing our new podcast series on thought leadership . We’ve talked about finding and developing your big idea and what your signature talk should be doing for you. Today we’re diving into what you can start doing now to position yourself as a thought leader. Yes, you can absolutely be a thought leader - and we need you to be! Thought leaders have an interesting idea and they're willing t...

We’re continuing our new podcast series on thought leadership. Today we’re going to take a look at what exactly a signature talk is and what it should be doing for you. Any presentation you give *should* be a signature talk. Why? Because any presentation you deliver should be a combination of your expertise + your thought leadership + your personal brand. Your signature talk isn’t a bunch of infor...

Today’s episode it’s all about finding and developing your Big Idea for your thought leadership and public speaking. Ideas are incredibly powerful; they can live on for years, centuries, even millennia. Ideas spark movements for political and social change. Ideas help us as humans understand ourselves, each other, and the world around us Your idea doesn’t have to be something people have never hea...

Many accomplished professional women come to a point in their lives where they struggle to balance their personal and professional responsibilities.  Whether it’s their high-pressure career, raising children, caring for aging parents, or all of the above, it can often feel like you lose control over your lives and yourself in the process.  On this week’s podcast guest, Sharon Ehrlich, a former hos...

I recently had the honor of attending the TEDWomen conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Over 3 days, I heard 35 speakers deliver their TED talks, on topics ranging from democracy to abortion rights, menopause to artificial intelligence.  Of course, as I was sitting in the audience, I was taking lots of notes on each speaker, how they structured their talk, the elements they included, and how they deliv...

From Barbie and the Super Models to Beyonce and Taylor, women and the influence they have on culture and the economy are being seen and talked about everywhere. Since here at Speaking Your Brand we're all about amplifying and championing women's voices and advocating for gender equality, we figured it was time to give our own hot takes. Along with all the positive gains women have made, we know th...

In the last episode, I talked about connecting your personal brand and your thought leadership Your stories and experiences are integral to both. Your stories connect you with your audience. Have you ever heard a speaker share a story and have one of these reactions: #1: Wow, I really feel connected to what this person is saying. I have a new perspective on my own situation.  -OR- #2: Why is this...