Speaking Your Brand: Public Speaking Tips and Strategies

We’re finishing up our . When you speak at conferences and events, you want to do a great job, get great feedback from the audience, and get referrals and invitations to other speaking gigs. This is how I’ve gotten so many speaking invitations...

Show Notes

We’re finishing up our new podcast series called Speak with Confidence.

When you speak at conferences and events, you want to do a great job, get great feedback from the audience, and get referrals and invitations to other speaking gigs.

This is how I’ve gotten so many speaking invitations over the years - event organizers are oftentimes in the audience at events and they refer speakers to each other.

What kind of speaker gets the best feedback and referrals?

You may think it’s the most energetic speaker or the funniest speaker or the speaker with the best story or the speaker with the best slides.

But, that’s not necessarily the case.

In this episode, I share examples of speakers I’ve seen, what I’ve noticed about them, and the qualities they have in common.

I want you to be the best version of YOU as a speaker. That’s what’s going to set you apart.

Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/393/

Discover your Speaker Archetype by taking our free quiz at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/quiz/

Enroll in our Thought Leader Academy: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/academy/

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolcox

Related Podcast Episodes:

JOIN US: Our in-person Speaking Accelerator Workshop is coming up in Downtown Orlando on October 30, 2025. Create and practice your signature talk in one day using our proven framework, so you can confidently share your message and attract more opportunities. It's a fun, supportive environment where you get personalized feedback, professional photos, and more. Limited to 15 attendees. Get the details and secure your spot at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/orlando/.

What is Speaking Your Brand: Public Speaking Tips and Strategies?

It's time to escape the expert trap and become an in-demand speaker and thought leader through compelling and memorable business presentations, keynotes, workshops, and TEDx talks. If you want to level up your public speaking to get more and better, including paid, speaking engagements, you've come to the right place! Thousands of entrepreneurs and leaders have learned from Speaking Your Brand and now you can too through our episodes that will help you with storytelling, audience engagement, building confidence, handling nerves, pitching to speak, getting paid, and more. Hosted by Carol Cox, entrepreneur, speaker, and TV political analyst. This is your place to learn how to persuasively communicate your message to your audience.

Carol Cox:
What kind of speakers, get the best audience

feedback and referrals to more speaking

opportunities. That's what we're talking

about on today's episode of the Speaking

Your Brand podcast.

More and more women are making an impact by

starting businesses, running for office and

speaking up for what matters.

With my background as a TV political

analyst, entrepreneur and speaker, I

interview and coach purpose driven women to

shape their brands, grow their companies,

and become recognized as influencers in

their field. This is speaking your brand,

your place to learn how to persuasively

communicate your message to your audience.

Welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast.

I'm your host, Carol Cox.

We are wrapping up the series we've been

doing called Speak With Confidence.

My goal has been to get you to think about

speaking in a different way than you have,

and to improve your skills as a speaker.

Last week, I talked about why I no longer

teach from the stage and what I recommend

instead. The week before was about claiming

your identity as a speaker and your thought

leader. And then we started this series a

few weeks ago with impromptu speaking and

how to improve your impromptu speaking

skills. Now, I know when you speak at

conferences and events, you want to do a

great job. You want to get great feedback

from the audience, and you want to get

referrals and invitations to other speaking

engagements. That's how I've gotten the

majority of the speaking invitations I've

received over the years.

Event organizers are oftentimes in the

audience at events, and so they will then

come up to you afterwards or reach out to

you afterwards. If you do a great job and

invite you to speak at their event, they

also refer speakers to each other.

That's why it's so important to get on the

speaking circuit, to start speaking and to

do a great job.

So what kind of speaker gets the best

audience feedback and gets referrals to

other speaking opportunities?

Now, you may think it's the most energetic

speaker, or the funniest speaker, or the

speaker with the best story, or the speaker

with the best slides.

Now, those qualities are definitely

important, but that's not necessarily the

case. Great speakers spark curiosity.

They encourage their audiences to look at

things in a new or different way.

They're engaging.

They capture the audience's attention, they

hold their attention, and they're inspiring

and they spark new ideas.

So that's what we're going to talk about in

today's episode.

And this came about because a few months

ago, I was on a zoom call with a client.

I was helping her prepare a short speech she

was going to give at a ceremony where her

company was being awarded business of the

year, which is pretty amazing.

We were going through the remarks that she

had drafted and they were lovely.

She was centering the award on her team and

how much they've been there for each other

during all the ups and downs, as she

described it in the business that year.

And then she said to me, Carol, but there's

this guy who's going to be going up before

me at that event, and he's really

charismatic and high energy, and I just feel

like I have to match that, and I know I'm

not going to. And I looked at her and I said

to her, you don't have to be anyone other

than exactly who you are.

The very reason you're getting this award is

because of the caring, compassionate, down

to earth CEO and leader that you are.

That's your natural speaking style, and

that's what we want to come across.

We want you to be authentic to who you are.

And a lot of times as women, we think we

have to mimic men or mimic other speakers.

We've seen. And I talked about this on these

previous episodes in this series, and I've

worked with hundreds of speakers over the

years, from Ted speakers to keynote speakers

to women who do business presentations.

And what I have seen time and time again is

that everyone has a different speaking and

communication style.

And you know what? That is fantastic.

Otherwise, as audiences, we would be really

bored if everyone were exactly the same.

So we're going to talk about how to be the

best version of you as a speaker, not anyone

else. That's what's going to set you apart.

And at the end, I'm going to talk about the

very rapid advances in artificial

intelligence and how being authentically you

is even more important than ever.

I'm also going to talk at the end of the

episode about our Build Your Speaking

confidence workshop that we're holding on

June 13th, so it's coming up very soon.

I have a special coupon code for you to save

$100 on this online workshop, so I'll share

that at the end of the episode.

Now let's get on with the show.

At our in-person retreats and workshops.

One of the things we do is show clips from a

variety of women's speakers to show the

range of speaking styles and how effective

each style is, that you don't have to be a

certain mold of a speaker.

So we look at Amy Cuddy, who I call our

stellar scholar speaker archetype.

She's a Harvard professor.

She has a great Ted talk about building

confidence and power, posing in the research

she did around that and in the TEDx talk

that she gave, she's very amiable and she

jokes with the audience, even though she's a

stellar scholar. So she still brings those

elements to that.

Lilly Singh is a well known YouTuber.

She is our provocative performer, speaker,

archetype and her TEDx talk, she's wearing

this beautiful pink bright pantsuit.

She has props on the stage with a table and

a chair. She's incredible at telling stories

and also using humor to make her point.

And then we have Shonda Rhimes, the

showrunner from TV series like Grey's

Anatomy, and she is our spellbinding

storyteller speaker archetype.

And no surprise, because she is a show runner

and she writes all of those TV episodes.

But what's interesting about Shonda Rhimes

TEDx talk is that unlike Lilly Singh, who

was very interactive, she moves around the

stage a lot. Shonda Rhimes just stays in one

spot. She even says at the beginning of her

talk that she doesn't consider herself a

public speaker. She feels nervous about it,

but she's still really effective in her

speaking style because she uses the natural

storytelling strengths that she has.

And then, of course, there's Brene Brown,

who I would put under the fabulous

facilitator speaker archetype because she

does a lot of workshops, she does a lot of

trainings at companies, so she's great at

engaging the audience, but she also brings

in the storytelling aspects as well as her

research. So that's why I show these range

of speaking styles at our in-person events,

because I want the women attending to see

that they don't have to be like any

particular one.

They can take what they naturally do and

amplify that. And I'll include links to

those four TEDx talks that I just described.

I'll include links to those in the show

notes, which you can get a speaking your

brand.com slash.

393 now why are Amy Cuddy, Lilly Singh,

Shonda Rhimes, Brene Brown and other

speakers that you may have seen and admire?

Why do we resonate so much with them?

Because their speaking style is authentic to

them. It's authentic to that particular

speaker. So let's take a look at the

qualities that the best speakers have in

common. So I've already mentioned a few of

them, which is storytelling and humor.

No matter what speaker archetype you are.

And by the way, you can find out which of

the four you are by taking our free ten

question quiz and speaking your

brand.com/quiz. So no matter what archetype

you are, you want to always be leading with

story, incorporating story into your talks,

and finding places for humor.

Because humor is so important to either

lighten a heavier moment or a heavier story

that you just told, or just have that

bonding moment with the audience.

Also, the best speakers are conversational.

If you tend to write out your presentations

word for word, or you look at the notes on

your slides when you're presenting, you're

losing that conversational nature that you

can have with your audience.

If you think about if you're sitting in the

audience, would you rather have someone read

to you a paper that they've written, or

would you rather just have them have a

conversation with you? I know I would rather

have the conversation, so for sure, no

matter what your speaker archetype, no

matter what your natural communication

strengths are, you want to make sure that

you're making it conversational, that you're

incorporating story, and that you're

integrating humor where appropriate.

Now, here are the other things that the best

speakers have in common is they have clarity

in their mission, their values, and

therefore in their message.

So no matter if they have five minutes to

prepare to give a short speech or a TV

interview or a podcast interview, or they

have five weeks to prepare for a

presentation or even five months to prepare.

They are so clear on their mission and their

values that therefore they know that they're

going to be able to articulate their message

well. I was on the TV news the other week.

I was called in to talk about the

presidential election and the impact that

here in Florida, the abortion amendment will

have. So I knew going into that TV interview

that my message that I wanted to make sure

that I can conveyed was how important it is

that women have access to reproductive

health care and the fundamental right to

choose. So I made sure that the very first

question they asked me about that I put that

in and that the very, very end of the

interview, I made sure to mention that

again, because I was very clear on my values

and the message that I wanted to share.

So that's the first thing, is having clarity

in your mission, your values and your

message. The second thing, as far as the

quality is the best speakers have in common.

The second thing is belief.

Belief in themselves that they have

something important and helpful to share

with their audiences.

They believe in their message, and they're

also curious. They're curious about

themselves, about other people, and about

the world. I think about the Tedwomen

conference that I went to last fall, and the

30 plus women speakers who I saw on that

stage over those three days.

And you could tell because they were

standing there, a lot of them had written

books. They've been doing this work for a

very long time.

How convicted they were in their message,

the belief that they had of how important it

was, not in a dogmatic way, but in the way

of they were the messenger for this idea.

They're the messenger for this message to

share. So that's the second thing, is belief

in yourself that you have something

important and helpful to share.

The third thing which I've mentioned already

is authenticity.

The best speakers don't try to be someone

else. They embrace their natural style and

personality, but then they look to amplify

it. A couple of weeks ago, I had the

pleasure to see one of my clients, Katie

Anderson. She's been on the podcast a couple

of times before, and I'll include links in

the show notes. I had an opportunity to see

her deliver a keynote at a conference here

in Orlando, where I lived.

So she had flown into Orlando.

We spent the day together, so I watched her

deliver that keynote, and then she also got

an award that evening for a book that she

had written a couple years ago.

And after her keynote, it was lunch time and

she had to go to a book signing.

So I just went to the lunch line.

I was getting my lunch, and I and I found a

table just to sit with some people at the

conference and get to know them.

And so I was kind of listening for feedback

from the event attendees about what they

thought about Katie's talk, and what I heard

was how memorable her stories were time and

time again. That's what stood out were the

stories. And also I heard how fun it was,

how original it was, and how much it felt

like Katie, because some of the people in

the audience, they've known Katie for a

while from going to similar events.

So it really felt like Katie.

I think that's the best compliment you can

get as a speaker is that when you deliver a

talk, especially in front of an audience of

hundreds, that it still feels like you.

Now I'm going to contrast that with a online

presentation that I saw just a few weeks ago

by Tim Cook, who is the CEO of Apple.

This was for one of the Apple events where

they I think they were debuting their latest

version of the iPad.

As I was watching Tim Cook, all I could

think to myself was he was trying so hard to

channel Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs is well known for having been an

incredible presenter.

He knew how to pause in the right places and

how to bring the audience along the journey

and have them anticipate what was coming

next. Tim Cook tried to do that and it felt

really off again.

That was like cognitive dissonance.

It felt incongruent.

It didn't feel authentic to who he is.

It was almost like he had put on someone

else's clothes that didn't fit, and he just

kind of seemed uncomfortable, which made me

as the person watching it, uncomfortable.

That's why authenticity is so important,

because as humans, we can tell these things

even subconsciously.

They may not be conscious, but we can tell

these things if someone doesn't feel like

they are communicating in the way that is

their natural personality and their style.

This is why it's so helpful to know what

your speaker archetype is, so you can

embrace who you are naturally as a

communicator, and then seek to amplify it.

Add to those skills.

So let me go through the four speaker

archetypes I've identified.

You can probably pick out which of these you

are. You may be a combination of a couple of

them, but there may be one that really

stands out to you. The first one is Stellar

Scholar. This is what most of the quiz

takers end up with, because this is our

audience high achieving women.

As a stellar scholar, you like to identify

connections and find solutions to problems,

and you make things happen.

You're definitely an action taker.

Your big challenge is that sometimes you

might be a bit too technical and tactical in

your presentations by sticking only to the

facts. So what we recommend is incorporate

More episodes

Chapters

Show Notes

What is Speaking Your Brand: Public Speaking Tips and Strategies?