Carol Cox: I'm sharing with you how you can find and
develop your big idea for your thought
leadership and signature talk on this 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 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.
Hi and welcome to the Speaking Your Brand
podcast. I'm your host,
Carol Cox.
Today's episode is all about finding and
developing your big
Ideas are incredibly powerful.
Ideas can live on for years,
for centuries, even for millennia.
Ideas can spark movements for political and
social change.
Ideas help us as humans understand ourselves,
each other, and the world around us.
But here's the thing your big idea doesn't
have to be something people have never heard
of before. That's unlikely to happen as most
things have been talked about before,
and that is okay.
It's actually completely fine that your
audience is already somewhat familiar with
your topic, because then you can consider it
to be more of a warm audience.
They know where you're coming from.
But your big idea is part of the four layers
of thought leadership that I talk about.
The bottom layer is your expertise.
The second layer on top of that is your big
idea. The third layer is your story,
your personal journey.
And then the fourth layer is the emotional
courage that only to dig deep into your
story, but really to put your idea out there
because you are the messenger for your idea.
That idea has come to you for a reason.
And now I know you want to have something
interesting and unique to talk about.
You want to make a positive impact on your
audience, and you want to develop your
thought leadership. And having a strong idea
is all part of that.
But like most of us, you may not be sure
which of your ideas is the best one.
You're not sure what makes a good idea.
Maybe it all feels a bit messy and muddy.
You have a lot of ideas swirling around in
your head. Know that you are not alone.
This is most of us.
I also get stuck in trying to figure out
which idea that I'm working on is the best
one. This is why our clients come to us,
because this is exactly what we help them to
do. We've worked with hundreds of women
entrepreneurs and speakers over the years.
I myself have given well over my career
hundreds of presentations and talks and
keynotes, and you can kind of think of me as
your idea whisperer, because when I work with
you, when we work with our clients in the VIP
days to create their signature talk and the
Thought Leader Academy,
I put myself in the role of both the audience
and the event organizer.
So I'm thinking about how does this idea
resonate with me if I'm sitting in the
audience? And also, is this idea appealing to
me? If I was an event organizer looking to
book a speaker for my event.
So you're going to hear in this episode what
I'm looking for when I'm sitting in those
roles. Now, if you're interested in joining
us for our Thought Leader Academy,
our next start date is in January and we are
enrolling now. So we're accepting
applications now.
And we're having zoom calls with women who
are interested in joining us in the Thought
Leader Academy. We spend eight weeks together
so that you can develop your thought
leadership message, create your signature
talk, learn how to tell great stories.
Learn how to add layers to your talk to make
it more memorable and impactful.
We also talk about the business of speaking
and of course, preparing for and delivering
your talk. The Thought Leader Academy is it
consists of eight weekly group zoom calls.
It's a small group. It's limited to eight
women. And then you also get a one on one
virtual VIP day, where we take you through
our entire framework to create your talk from
beginning to end.
If you would like to join us,
you can submit your application today at
Speaking Your brand.com/academy.
Again, that's speaking your
brand.com/academy.
On that page you can get all the details,
including pricing as well as the link,
the button to submit the application form.
I hope to talk to you soon.
Now let's get on with the show.
What exactly is a big idea?
As I mentioned in the introduction,
your idea doesn't have to be something that
no one has ever talked about before.
Number one, that's unlikely, as most things
have been talked about, especially in this
day and age with the internet.
Most people have heard of things,
but also it's actually good that people are
already somewhat familiar with your topic,
because then you can take them further than
they otherwise would be able to go.
A big idea is your angle on your topic.
So whatever your topic is kind of your big
umbrella topic, what is your angle on that?
And I'm going to give you some questions here
at the end for you to start thinking about
that. Your big idea should add to the
conversation that is already happening and
really move the conversation forward,
or provide a different lens or different
perspective on that conversation.
I think about one of our recent thought
leader Academy grads.
She's going to be on this podcast in
December, and her big umbrella topic is
around climate change.
But then in her signature talk,
her big idea is giving moms in particular,
a framework for thinking about and for
addressing climate change.
You know, an issue that is so overwhelming
for most of us. But then how can moms,
in particular, move that conversation
forward, actually do something productive
within for their households,
their kids, and in their communities?
Another recent Thought Leader Academy grad
signature talk is all around the behavioral
aspects of money management.
So of course, most of us have heard about how
much money mindset or how we think about
money, the money stories we grew up with.
Those behavioral things impact our
relationship with money.
So again, this is not a brand new idea.
But then she's tapping into her unique story
and her experiences and the way that she
approaches this topic along with her
expertise. And she combines all that into her
big idea in her signature talk.
What I see happen when I go to conferences or
I see speakers speak at events,
is that so many speakers get stuck in topics
and in presentations that are superficial,
like they just they don't go deeper into the
topic or into the conversation.
They're kind of the same old, same old that
we've heard before.
And they're kind of boring,
really, because most of us,
again, have already familiar with these
topics, or these presentations just don't
really represent who that speaker is.
They're kind of just parroting what they see
everyone else talking about and not providing
anything unique. And I feel like so many
speakers do. This is because they think it's
safe, like it's a safe way to go because no
one's going to criticize them,
or they're not going to be seen as wrong or
someone's not going to point something out to
them. They also don't want to turn off anyone
in the audience, so they feel like if they
just kind of do the same old, same old, or
just say superficial, that no one's going to
be turned off. But what happens is what I
call the expert trap is that these speakers
get so focused on just relaying information
that they're not providing transformation to
their audience. And as we all know,
with all of the different information we
consume all day long on our devices,
from social media feeds to the news to
podcasts to videos, we have enough
information. What we need,
our insights. We need transformation.
And that's what you want to provide with your
idea and your signature talk as well.
Now, you may have lots of ideas,
or you may have lots of parts of ideas and
you're not really sure which is a good idea.
Which one, which direction should I go in?
So I'm going to give you a handy acronym,
a framework that I created for you to start
thinking about how to look at your different
ideas and determine which is the one that you
want to go with.
So of course, Idea Idea is an acronym that
stands for something.
The I in idea is for.
Interesting. So yes, your idea needs to be
interesting. It should provoke curiosity.
When you tell someone your idea,
you want the person to say,
oh, tell me more.
Oh, I hadn't thought about it that way.
You know why?
Why is that so you really want to provoke
that curiosity?
And the way you do that is you have that
unique angle, that unique perspective on your
topic. I'm going to give you some examples
here in just a bit. So that's I interesting.
D stands for debatable and defensible.
Okay. So you may be thinking well I don't
want to get an argument.
Why would I have to debate someone about my
idea? I don't mean you actually have to
debate someone about your idea,
but other people have their own ideas and
they probably have their own ideas around
your topic. So kind of like your big umbrella
topic, like whether it's climate change or
it's about gender equality.
So that's your big umbrella topic.
And other people may have their own ideas and
it's okay if not everyone agrees with you.
I actually think that's better because like I
said, then you're adding to the conversation.
You're moving the conversation.
You're providing a different perspective on
the conversation.
So your idea should be debatable in the sense
not everyone's going to agree with you. They
have their own ideas, but it also needs to be
a defensible in the sense that you can defend
it through your own examples,
your own experiences.
Those of clients or colleagues or people you
know also could be defensible through a
research and data.
So this may be research and studies that
you've done, or research and studies that
other well known institutions have done that
you can pull from.
Because if your idea is debatable and
defensible, now, that also just makes it that
much more interesting and people kind of perk
up and want to hear more.
The E in idea stands for empowering.
You really want your idea to help people see
something in a new way or a different way for
a positive benefit.
So a positive benefit for themselves,
for their businesses, their companies,
their health, their relationships,
their society, their community,
whatever it happens to be, it really should
feel positive and should feel empowering.
So when you present your idea,
you want people to to feel like that.
This is something that if they kind of learn
and adopt and latch on to that,
there's going to be a benefit for them and
for others. And then the a an idea is
actionable. So not only can people hear it
and kind of learn it and absorb it,
but people also want to be able to do
something with it. So they want to be able to
apply it to themselves.
They want to be able to build upon it.
They want to share the idea with others.
This is what I believe makes great thought
leaders is they they don't hoard their idea
and be like, oh, this is mine and no one else
can talk about it and I don't want to share
it, and I want to keep it private and I want
to keep it proprietary.
Instead, they share their idea,
whether it's through Ted talks or books or
through articles or whatever they're doing
online or in person, because they want other
people to take that idea,
build upon it, and share it.
As a thought leader, you want people to
spread it further because you can only reach
so many people. You need more people to take
that idea and spread it to the people who
they can get in front of.
So the Idea framework,
that acronym again stands for interesting,
debatable and defensible,
empowering and actionable.
So let's take a look at some examples.
I'm going to name a few people who you
probably recognize and then a few of our
clients. And then I'll also share an example
for myself. Brené Brown I'm sure you're very
familiar with her and her Ted talks.
Well, her big idea is that vulnerability is
necessary for connection that we actually can
have true, authentic connection with others
or really with ourselves without
vulnerability. And then she says,
but shame. Often time gets in the way,
so shame gets in the way of connection,
and kind of vulnerability is the solution to
that. So that's her big idea.
And I'm sure there are people out there who
do not agree with her at all.
I'm sure you can find those critics online
somewhere, but that's okay,
because this is her idea.
And obviously thousands and millions of
people have heard it and have done some,
some something with it. It's been empowering
to them. It's been actionable to them.
And then they have shared the idea with
others. Another thought leader that you may
recognize, Simon Sinek again,
a very well known TEDx talk around starting
with why, which he then turned into a book
and into an entire consulting company.
This is why ideas are so powerful,
and public speaking is so powerful because it
truly can build a career.
So his idea was around,
was starting with why?
And he explained that so many companies focus
on their what. So what are they actually what
are they creating the product or service.
Maybe they look at the how so kind of their
value proposition or what makes their product
unique. But he says no,
no, no. They need to back up even further and
start with the why?
Why are they in the business in the first
place? What is the bigger change that they
want to see? So that was his big idea.
And again, there may be people who do not
agree with him. I'm sure there are companies
out there who just say,
well, the bottom line is profits and we don't
really care about our why or a bigger vision.
We just want to make sure that our products
get into the hands of as many people as
possible, and we make as much money as
possible. So there are those people out
there. But Simon Sinek is a thought leader
because he's sharing his big idea.
Now, let me give you an example of some of
the clients that we worked with.
Doctor Christina Madison is a pharmacist.
She was on the podcast not too long ago in
September, and she did a Ted talk back in
early 2022 about how public health messengers
need to look like the communities that
they're serving. Christina herself is a
pharmacist in public health,
and she has been on TV news hundreds of times
since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic.
Not only has she done that Ted talk,
she's also been invited to the white House to
serve on a panel there,
along with the a lot of other visibility that
she's done. But her big idea is around how
much the who is the messenger,
especially regarding public health,
how that messenger looks like and is from the
communities they're talking to is so
incredibly important.
Another example is one of our clients,
Tammy Lalli, who did a Ted talk back in 2017.
All around money.
Shame. So Tammy looked at Brené Brown's work
around shame and vulnerability.
And of course, Tammy, like most of us,
thought that it was incredibly valuable.
But then Tammy noticed that Brené Brown
didn't really talk much about money, shame.
And sadly, Tammy had a personal experience
with that in her family.
So we created her Ted talk together all
around this idea of money,
shame. And because it was so powerful and
this idea was very much unique to her,
it went on to have over 2 million views,
and it really transformed her business and
her life. I think about the university of
California faculty, who we helped earlier
this summer develop their Ted style talks.
And again, we were helping them to identify
what their big idea is from the research that
they do. And I remember one speaker in
particular, she's an engineer and does a lot
of research around cement and concrete.
I know, like it's so specific.
But her Ted style talk was about how we can
actually use building materials like concrete
to help the climate, because obviously we
have all this climate impact that we're
seeing all of the time.
And so how can we we're going to be continue
to build. And that was her point. We're going
to continue to build. We need to build roads
and houses and everything else. But how can
we actually use building materials to help
the climate? How can we look at what nature
is doing and do the same thing in our
building? So that was her idea.
Now, for myself, I have one idea that I
developed around a keynote that I gave last
year, which is that as women in particular,
when we use our voices,
we go through three stages.
The first stage is all around the promise.
We're very excited about it.
We have these things that we want to share
with our audiences, and so we get a lot of
validation and cheerleading and support when
we initially go and do that.
But then if we kind of challenge the status
quo, which I encourage you to do,
but when we do that, a lot of times we'll get
pushback or criticism.
So that's where for many of us,
we enter stage two that I call peril.
We feel vulnerable.
We feel alone. We feel uncertain.
We don't know if we should just kind of back
off this idea or continue to press forward.
And my argument and my big idea is that
continue to press forward, because stage
three is what I call power.
When you do that, you actually develop a
sense of confidence and self-assuredness,
and you understand yourself in a way that you
didn't if you just stayed in stage one.
So I did a podcast episode about this.
I'll, I'll. Put a link in the show notes if
you want to hear more about those three
stages. So that's an example of my big idea.
Again, other people may have different ideas.
It could be debatable.
And but I have stories and experiences and
research to make it defensible.
I hope it's an interesting idea.
I hope it feels empowering and it also feels
actionable.
So here are some questions that you can start
asking yourself now.
You can write these questions down as I say
them, but you can just get them in our free
guide, our free workbook that we have at
Speaking Your brand.com/guide.
Again, that's speaking your brand.com/guide.
You can just go there,
put in your name and email address.
And it's a 24 page guide in workbook all
around thought leadership including these
questions. So here are the questions to
consider. What are other people saying around
your topic. So kind of your big umbrella
topic. What are other people saying about
that. And then what is your unique viewpoint
or perspective around that topic?
What do you do or believe that's different or
challenges the status quo?
What gets you riled up?
What gets you on your soapbox?
So kind of think about that.
And then what are people not seeing or
understanding that you do see?
And then what was your journey to see this?
So what happened to you?
Was there an experience you had that's
impacted what matters to you now,
and kind of the shift that you had?
You can also think about what's something
about you that many people don't know,
but it's revealing about who you are and by
extension, can help others learn more about
themselves. So this is where you're really
digging deep into that emotional courage to
reveal something that you may not want to,
or that you may feel like a little bit
hesitant about, but really,
you're helping others. This goes back to
vulnerability. You're helping others see
themselves. And then also consider what do
you want to be known for?
What's the lens through which you see the
world? So all these questions together can
help you to start finding and developing your
big idea. This is exactly what we help you to
do in our Thought Leader Academy.
We help you to develop your idea to validate
it, which builds your confidence in your idea
and putting it out into the world.
Here's what some of our recent thought leader
Academy graduates said.
One said that she joined the Thought Leader
Academy because she said,
quote, I had too many ideas swirling in my
head and I knew I needed outside expertise
and guidance to help me organize my thoughts
and create a cohesive narrative and signature
talk. Now that I've graduated,
I have so much more clarity on my core
message and my thought leadership, and I have
a cohesive signature talk and an actual
strategy for how to bring that talk to my
audience. Another recent grad said,
quote, The Thought Leader Academy is the best
online program I have invested in.
You really aim to ensure your students get
what they need to be successful.
I so appreciate this entire experience.
You can get all the details about the Thought
Leader Academy, including pricing and
speaking your Brand.com slash Academy.
Again, that's speaking your
brand.com/academy.
We are taking applications right now for our
next start date in January.
We only have eight spots available.
So this is something that sounds like you
want to do You want to really hone in on your
thought leadership, develop your signature
talk. Put yourself out there as a speaker in
a bigger way. The Thought Leader Academy is
for you.
So make sure to hit subscribe or follow in
your podcast app if you haven't already.
And until next time, thanks for listening.