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 personal stories and performance
aspects to your speaking so that you can
connect with your audience in a deeper way
and make your talks even more impactful and
memorable. And this is what Katie Anderson
has done since working with us, adding those
stories and performance elements.
The second speaker archetype is the fabulous
facilitator. If this is you, your empathetic
nature allows you to identify connections
among people rather than you being the
provider of the solutions.
You like to help people find the solutions
together. You probably really like
facilitating workshops.
Your big challenge, though, is that you're
so inclined to give the floor to others that
your audience misses out on the opportunity
to learn more about you, to learn about why
you care about this topic, what brought you
to this? So what we recommend is to share
personal. All stories. You're going to hear
this as a thread. Share personal stories and
lessons learned so that you can connect with
your audience in a deeper way and make your
presentations more transformational, not
just informational.
The third speaker archetype is the
spellbinding storyteller.
You already understand the power of sharing
personal stories and being vulnerable.
You're pretty good at this already, because
that's how you've learned to better
understand yourself.
You see what's happened to you as a way to
share life lessons and help your audience
realize they're not alone.
Your big challenge is that you love sharing
stories so much that you may miss out on the
opportunity to provide your audience with
your overall thought leadership message and
a strong call to action, so we recommend
that you share your bigger why of what
matters to you and the impact you want to
make on a bigger scale.
It's time to universalize your personal
story and connect it to your ideas.
The fourth speaker archetype is the
provocative performer.
If this is you, you're an entertainer at
heart. You love to incorporate things like
acting, comedy, dancing, singing, props and
multimedia into your speeches and
presentations and your natural performance
abilities and comfort on the stage make you
a really captivating speaker and you can wow
your audience. Your big challenge is that
you love performing so much that, like the
fabulous facilitator, you may miss out on
the opportunity to provide your audience
with your overall thought leadership
message, making that really clear with your
through line and giving them a strong call
to action. So make sure that you are
integrating your bigger why of what matters
to you, and use your talents to make your
message memorable and actionable for your
audience. You may recognize yourself in one
or a couple of these.
Find out for sure by taking our free quiz.
It only takes a couple of minutes.
It's ten multiple choice questions.
You can take that as speaking your Brand.com
slash quiz.
Again, that's speaking your Brand.com slash
quiz. You'll get your results right away,
along with my suggestions and a customized
podcast playlist just for that speaker
archetype. As I mentioned in the intro,
artificial intelligence is advancing really
quickly. You may have seen that OpenAI just
recently released its brand new chat GPT
model called GPT four.
Oh yes, they're not that good with with
naming things GPT four zero and basically
the movie her is here.
If you haven't seen the movie her, go watch
it. It's fascinating and I'll include a link
to the demo, the demo videos that OpenAI
released last week when they were showing
these new capabilities.
And basically their AI system can now not
only talk out loud, so talk back to you.
You can listen to you. It can see if you
have if you're using it on your phone and it
can see whatever you're putting your camera
on, it can distinguish between different
voices that are talking.
It can actually have AIS communicate back
and forth with each other.
It is incredible.
This is why we need human authenticity more
than ever. Yes, people are going to love AI.
It's going to be a fantastic assistant.
It's going to do so much for us.
But we also need that human connection with
each other. And people are going to want
more in-person experiences and more
in-person interactions, which guess what
means that they're going to need more
speakers just like you.
If you would like to build your speaking
confidence, I invite you to enroll in our
upcoming workshop.
It's on June 13th live on zoom.
Use the coupon code podcast 100 to save $100
on the workshop.
Again, that coupon code is podcast 100.
So altogether podcast 100.
To save $100, the workshop sign up page is
at speaking your brand.com/speaking-workshop
again that's speaking your
brand.com/speaking-workshop. The link is
also in the show notes.
You're going to learn our signature talk
canvas framework.
So you can prepare for any presentation,
speech or interview you have.
Whether you have five minutes or five weeks
to prepare, you're going to learn our ideal
story ingredients. You're going to work on a
key story, and we're going to get you to
practice. Speaking really does get easier
the more that you do it.
We're going to help you craft your brand
message and your story, and then you're
going to have time to practice it and get
feedback from us.
We're also going to give you strategies that
we use, and that top performers use to help
you to reduce your nerves and deliver with
confidence. Whether it's a one on one
conversation, a team meeting that you're
leading, or a keynote speech or business
presentation that you're doing, again, get
all the details at speaking your
brand.com/speaking-workshop and use podcast
100 to save $100.
And that workshop is coming up on June 13th
and the next two episodes.
You're going to hear from our recent Thought
Leader Academy grads.
They're going to deliver a ten minute
version of their new signature talks that
they created with us.
Until next time, thanks for listening.