Carol Cox: From stages to lessons here.
How our recent volunteer academy grads are
focusing on transformation, not just
information in their signature talks.
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 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.
Hi and welcome to backstage with Speaking
Your Brand. I'm your host, Carol Cox.
Today you're going to hear from three of our
recent Thought Leader Academy graduates as
they share a ten minute version of their
signature talk for the very first time
they've been working very hard for the past
eight weeks with us to develop their thought
leadership message and to create their brand
new talk. And here's the thing.
As I often say, the women that we work with
are incredibly smart.
They're incredibly capable.
They already create great presentations.
The reason they come to work with us is
because they know they're ready to step out
of the expert trap.
They want to go beyond teaching and training
and doing something more than that to
empower their audiences in a different way.
One of the best ways to do this is to think
about the stages that your audience's
audience goes through as they develop and
transform, or to think about key lessons
that you want to share with your audience.
And that's exactly what you're going to hear
today from our recent grads.
We have Wendy McManus, Nelly Somi, and
Heather Barrett.
So we're going to go the three of them in
order again, about ten minutes each.
And then we're going to have a round table
discussion with them afterwards about what
it was like to create and deliver this talk
here for the very first time, what their
experience was like in the Thought Leader
Academy, and what is next for them as
speakers and as thought leaders.
For the very first one, we have Wendy
McManus, who is a leadership coach based in
the Orlando, Florida area.
Wendy, I'm going to load up your slides here
and take it away.
Wendy McManus: Wonderful. Thank you so much, Carol.
I'm really excited to be here.
So I have a question for you.
If part of your job is to manage people,
here's the question.
Do you remember what it felt like when you
first got promoted from an individual
contributor to a people manager?
Do you recall those early days?
Were you excited?
Were you scared?
Were you thinking, Holy crap, I'm not sure
what I'm doing.
How am I going to figure this out.
I remember that day when I had my first
director report, my first role as a people
manager. And to tell you the truth, I was
excited because I had been told for most of
my life that I was a born leader.
So even though I didn't really know what I
was doing as a people manager, I just
reasoned that I would figure it out as I
went along and I really needed help.
I mean, I was drowning in work, so with my
first hire, it felt like I'd found the
release valve for the pressure that had been
building up.
Now I knew what needed to be done, but I was
pretty much clueless about how to guide this
other person to be successful in her role.
And for example, my approach to one big
challenge of leadership, which is
delegation. My approach to delegation was
what I would now call dump and run.
I was perpetually in a hurry to get the work
off my desk by dumping it on my team member
and then running as fast as I could back to
my stacked up workload.
I was constantly overwhelmed.
I was perpetually operating in crisis mode,
and as a result, I wasn't very thoughtful
about how I was leading my young team.
As a people manager, I was a naive newbie,
and looking back, I can see that my
leadership style was based on, honestly, gut
instinct and charisma.
I felt like everyone else had figured out
the secret to managing people, and I was the
only one who was floundering.
I wondered, like, do I need to go back and
get my MBA, go back to school?
Is there some book that everyone has read?
Could I find the answer at a conference?
Does any of this sound familiar or was it
was it just me?
Now I actually got positive feedback for my
leadership style. I'm pretty sure that was
because my first direct report, my teammate
Megan, she was so good that she made up for
my shortcomings.
She barely needed a manager, which was a
really good thing because I was barely a
manager. Now I knew that something needed to
change or I was headed for a very bad
outcome. It felt like I was going to drag my
team down with me.
I'm going to tell you all how all this
worked out later. Don't worry, the story
does have a happy ending.
So among our viewers today who loves the
feeling of being confident and solid,
feeling like I've got this right.
Me too.
I mean, who doesn't?
It's no different when you are a newer
manager. You want that feeling of confidence
that comes from being competent, from being
good at the job of leading and managing
people. You want to feel like you know what
you're doing, like you're not faking it.
And if your goal is to advance in your
career as a leader, you want to feel like
you're solidly on that path.
And if you are a senior leader, you want to
fill your leadership pipeline with
confident, capable people managers.
You want and need those managers to be able
to get great results from their teams.
And you want to have happy employees.
They enjoy reporting to those managers
because, you know, as the saying goes,
people don't leave jobs.
They leave managers.
So as a senior leader, you don't want to
lose good people because their managers make
it so hard for them to flourish.
But it's tough, right? Because even though
it's incredibly important, we generally do a
poor job of preparing new managers for the
role. What happens far too often is that we
have a rock star, individual contributor
that produces stellar results.
So then we tap them on the shoulder, and we
reward that performance by promoting them
into management, which is an entirely
different job than the one they recently
excelled in, and most of the time we just
expect them to figure it out.
Is it any wonder that newer managers are
struggling? And if you're that person who
just got that promotion, you just got that
tap on the shoulder, you probably think that
you just need to learn more skills or get
more frameworks or tools in your toolbox so
you can be effective.
I wondered what book I needed to read, the
one everybody else had apparently read that
I hadn't. The one that would give me all the
answers. If you're a senior leader, you
might think you just need to offer more
training to these new people managers.
You might be caught in that same trap of
wanting to arm them with more skills and
more tools.
Or maybe you think they just need more
encouragement to bolster their confidence.
But somehow all those skills and processes
and frameworks, they don't seem to solve the
Problem and all the pats on the back and
those. Affirmative. You've got this
comments. They don't seem to make a
difference. It feels like something is
missing and indeed something is missing.
If you think about it, there are two
journeys towards mastery as a people
manager. There's the outer journey, and
that's all the stuff that people can see you
doing, stuff like delegating and giving
feedback and navigating conflict.
And then there's the inner journey.
And that's all the mindset stuff that
happens inside, like knowing your values and
being intentional about your impact,
recognizing the thoughts and the fears that
might hold you back.
Most of us tend to focus on the outer journey
and our quest to become effective people
managers. We focus on acquiring more skills
and frameworks for our toolbox, but there's
still something missing.
And that's the inner journey of mindset and
intentionality. And as a leader for nearly
two decades and a leadership coach for the
last six years, I've seen this story play
out countless times.
I've coached everyone from CEOs to first
time managers, and on the outside, their
challenges appear to be very different.
But peel back a few layers and the issue of
mindset turns out to be the real issue.
Most of the time.
And that's why I no longer teach the outer
journey stuff without the solid foundation
of the inner journey.
I no longer teach the skills without
addressing the mindset, because working on
the outer journey of leadership, without
addressing the inner journey, is like
building your dream home on a foundation of
sand. It might look good at first, but
before long the sand will shift and your
house will crumble.
Don't get me wrong, the outer journey is
important. You know, we were talking earlier
about delegation, so you're going to need to
know how to delegate in a way that someone
is engaged and excited and prepared to
handle the project.
But you'll also need to take that inner
journey. You'll need to take a look at how
you resist delegating in the first place, or
why you do that and what you can do about
it. You'll need to address the fears that
are holding you back before you can become
an effective people manager.
And that's what I cover when I give the full
version of this signature talk, we explore
how your mindset, including your thoughts,
your fears, your assumptions, and all that
stuff that people can't see is the bedrock
and the foundation for successfully doing
all those people manager things that people
can see in that signature talk.
We walk the path that most new managers take
from the naive newbie that is just winging
it, to the tool collector who's always on
the hunt for the next magical framework, and
finally to the intentional leader who has
both the skills and the mindset that's
needed to unlock their team's potential.
Now, remember in the beginning when I said
that my early leadership style was based on
gut instinct and charisma?
I promised you that that story had a happy
ending. I don't want to leave you hanging,
even in this truncated version of my talk.
What I learned along the way is that gut
instinct is a wonderful tool, and charisma
is a superpower.
But what I was really missing was
intentionality. When I became more
intentional and more self-aware, everything
started to change.
My team showed up differently because I
showed up That differently.
I asked more questions and let my team take
the lead more often.
I let go of my controlling ways and loosened
my death grip on how everything was done.
And once I did that, I noticed my team
beginning to shift.
They became more motivated and more engaged,
and they showed more initiative and more
creativity. And because I had more trust in
them, I was a lot less stressed.
So what would it look like for you to be a
more intentional leader?
And I encourage you to start with small
steps. Just identify one change that you
could make, and then pay attention to the
thoughts and the feelings that pop up when
you begin to put your plans into action.
The mindset is the real key to making the
change stick.
Maybe you need to ask more powerful
questions to bring out the best in your
team. Or perhaps you want to resist jumping
in with all the answers so your team has a
chance to think for themselves.
Or maybe if your path resembles mine, you're
realizing that you need to release some
control and show more trust.
You might need to let go of your death grip
on the details, so give it a try.
Find the courage to extend trust and see how
it goes. And if it doesn't work out, you can
always go back to the death grip.
But I have a feeling you won't.
I want to thank you so much for your time
and attention. I'm grateful for each of you,
and many thanks to Carole Cox and Diane Diaz
for this opportunity to speak today.
It's been a lot of fun.
Carol Cox: That was fantastic, Wendy.
Congratulations on the first time out with
your signature talk.
So well done.
And really the ten minute version you.
I've learned so much even just from this ten
minute version. You did a great job.
Still wrapping the end back to the
beginning, not leaving us hanging.
With how your leadership journey turned out.
You got the three stages in there.
Obviously, in the longer version of the
signature talk, you go into much more detail
of what those three stages look like, along
with audience activities and questions that
they can reflect on as well.
So, Wendy, let me ask you this before we go
to our next participant.
How did that feel to deliver that for the
first time? And tell us a little bit about
how the development of these three stages
happened in our VIP day together.
Wendy McManus: That felt amazing.
I needed the deadline, so thank you for
that. It was really, really good for me to
have a little bit of time pressure, um, and
developing the three stages.
Right. So I had this very big idea, um,
based on what what I teach and how I coach,
it's a very lofty idea about this inner
journey of leadership.
And I really wasn't convinced that it could
be the basis for a signature talk.
And when you and I got together in our VIP
day and you started asking me questions and
saying, like, what are the three stages or
what are the three steps?
It's like, Carol, I don't know.
But the more we talked about it, it just
like it all clicked into place and I
understood and could see my own journey more
even than my own journey.
I could picture clients when they first come
to me, the stories that they tell me, and
then that phase that they get in where
they're just like, oh, another book, another
podcast, another conference.
I can figure it all out.
But they're still not addressing their
mindset. And then where they end up, where
they really start making a big impact.
So you just asking me questions helped me
see what was right in front of me, and it
all just clicked right into place.
Carol Cox: Fantastic. Well, again, well done.
And for those of you watching or listening
to the replay on the podcast, think about
for your own talks.
Are there stages that your audience or the
clients that you work with go through?
What's that first stage when you first, when
they first come to you, or the first stage
that your audience is at. And then once that
second stage where they maybe they think
that they're there, but they're not quite
there because something is still holding
them back. Like in Wendy's case, it's the
toll collector where they're they think the
tolls are going to solve their problem, but
not quite. But it's really then getting over
the hump because it's hard like stage two to
stage three and whatever it is that you're
doing is the hardest.
That is the hardest challenge to get
through. But that's where you see that
transformative impact, like in Wendy's
example with that intentional leader stage.
Great. All right. Well done Wendy, thank you
so much for letting your slides were
beautiful. Very well done.
All right Nelly, you are next.
So Nelly Somi is the author of Making a
Difference. She is a serial entrepreneur.
If she sees an opportunity, she is going to
make it happen for real.
And so in this ten minute version of her
keynote talk, you're going to hear a little
bit of her story of how she became this
incredible entrepreneur and how she finds
opportunities wherever she looks.
Nellie, welcome to the stage.
Nelly Some: Welcome, everybody, and thank you so much for
having me. You know, today I will talk to
you about my two stories that have stuck in
my mind for a long time.
The first story is about me being raised up
in Kenya when I was two weeks old, since I
was two weeks old.
The second story is about me coming here to
Seattle, here in America.
You see, I was raised up in the countryside,
so being in the city is a big deal for me.
Leave alone being in America.
So you can imagine when I landed in the
America in the SeaTac airport in America,
first of all, when I arrived, I had my
backpack. I had two shirts, two skirts.
So with my lovely backpack, I was ready to
visit America.
Yes, I landed.
Everything was different.
You have to remember coming.
Being raised up in the countryside, in
Kenya, being around the city and all that
was very hard to me.
Leave alone being here in America.
So you can imagine when I landed in this
airport, there were lights all over.
The place was so clean, squeaky clean, and
there were so many machines running around
all over. I mean, it was this wonderland
that I remember when I was raised up.
I was raised up, um, you know, as a
Christian, I always read about the Bible
stories about how heaven looks like it's so
beautiful and all that.
To me, this sounded like heaven to me.
As I said, as I stood there waiting for
other passengers to go through the exit
door, I realized that there was this machine
that everybody was following and going
through it. This machine looks scary to me,
but everybody was smiling and enjoying it.
So I stood behind the line to wait for
everybody to go through.
And I think that machine.
Now I know the name.
Of course it's the excavator.
No, no, no not excavator.
Escalator. Escalator.
Yeah, that's the one.
So everybody went through this escalator as
I just looked at it and wondered how I'm
going to do that. At the end of the day, I
decided to be the last one so that I can
have the courage to go through it.
But even with that, I couldn't.
It was going so fast.
Then all of a sudden there were two parents
that came in grown ups with three kids with
ages around five and seven.
They just slide in that machine.
They were smiling, chatting with their
parents, and that's when I got the courage
to try myself.
I was like, if they can do it, that's easy.
So I went there, put my one step on the
escalator, not excavate the escalator.
And I was holding this.
Oh boy, did I know.
I didn't know what I had signed up for.
So one leg went to an escalator, one leg was
stuck behind, I was holding for my dear life
and I was being ripped literally apart.
This is a true story, by the way, and while I
was struggling there, there was some good
Samaritans that were trying to help me like,
hey man, let's help you. And I'm like, no,
I'm okay. Smile.
Smiling in my face but so scared in my
heart. You know what you don't realize when
you're an immigrant coming to America.
There are so many myths you're told and
you're, you know, everybody wants you.
And I had been told, be very careful when
you go to America. You have to know what
you're doing or else they'll take you back
in Africa. So at that moment, I was thinking
about that and I thought, if these people
help me, they will realize I don't know
anything about this machine and they might
take me back to Africa.
That's what I was scared.
The pain I was going through didn't matter.
I was thinking about, I'm not going to go
back to Africa.
So after a few minutes, literally, I think I
started bleeding.
One of the excavators cut my leg and there
was this guy that had they had that power
and I think he just felt sorry.
He just decided to act and help me.
He held my hand. She was like, ma'am, you're
bleeding. I'm not going to let you be
bleeding like that. Let me help you out.
She pulled my one hand backwards very nicely,
by the way, a very wonderful guy.
I took the scarf I had in my head, you know,
covered my bleeding, and he showed me the
stairs going down where I could use until
now. Let me tell you guys, I do not use an
escalator. My husband, the kids use it.
I always either go through the stairs or use
the elevator.
But when I went down.
Speaking of faith, sometimes when I went
downstairs, I had to look for a restroom
where I will clean my bleeding.
My my leg was bleeding bad, so I went to the
restroom to try to go clean it up.
When I arrived there, there was this
wonderful lady that talked to me, helped me
out and we started chatting and I realized
he she came from Africa, a different, a
different country from mine.
But she had a very heavy accent and her
English wasn't better than mine.
Mine was way better.
But as she continued talking, she told me
how she made it in America.
She had kids.
She was living good while working as a
janitor. At that point in my life, I
realized if she can do it, I can do it.
She talked.
She talked to me so many times about how
opportunities are there.
I ask her so many questions.
Remember back in Kenya, which I'll talk to
you about is I started becoming very
independent as early as four years old, and
I took as I took care of my grandmom when
she was sickly most of the time.
I learned very early to be a caregiver at a
very early age.
So caregiving was just part of me.
So when this lady went on and on, she told
me, you know what? The best job you can get
that African can easily get it is
caregiving. It just blew my mind.
And I continued asking so many times about
the caregiving. She told me so many things
about caregiving, how I can go.
She gave me a few contacts, some friends she
knew, and you know, me being very outgoing
as I've always been and that little survivor
I used to, this was a moment for me to suck
all the information.
Fast forward three weeks after that, 2 to 3
weeks after that, not only did I get a job,
but I worked four jobs.
I worked in a nursing home, two nursing
homes. I worked in a in a post office.
Priority mails to to be, you know, sorting
priority mails. And I also worked to King
County Library arranging the books.
You know, when I had those few hours with
the nursing home, I decided, you know what?
This was not enough.
I had all the time in my life to make it
work, to make a living and survive.
So I took every job I could get.
That's, I think, how my American dream and my
serial entrepreneur started.
But going back to my first story, um, you
know, I was raised up since I was two weeks
old. I was a product of an early teenage
pregnancy. You can call it.
I guess they were doing some trial.
My father and mother were trying some trial
and error while they were kids.
Well, here I am looking back.
I'm like, hey, but now I'm so grateful that
I'm here. But since my mom had to go back to
school, I was left with my grandmother since
I was two weeks old. So literally, I haven't
really been raised up with my mom, my
grandma, but her being older, she became
sickly. A lot of time.
God bless her heart.
She loved me, protected me, and provided me
everything I needed despite the fact that I
was very poor and she was very poor.
In fact, I, I started becoming an
entrepreneur at a very early stage.
I sold pineapple in the village, eggs in the
village, and moonshine, they call it
chang'aa. But here I realized the name is
moonshine. No no no no, don't look at me
like that. Yes. Moonshine made my life.
I'm proud to say that.
And that's how I really survived.
Over and over.
But you know what?
That survival skills.
When I came here in America, those survival
skills really paid off.
It's funny how your childhood really can
shape you to become who you are.
Remember, I came here in America.
I didn't know anybody.
I had my step aunt who was picking me up in
the airport, and he was very late and I was
a little frustrated. But guess what?
Her being late made me meet with this lady
in the bathroom and all of a sudden meeting
that lady. Speaking of having people in your
life help us in our life to help you
through, to become who you are.
And speaking of having scenarios and
situations happening in your life that
sometimes you don't know why they are
happening, but they turn out to be meant to
be there. Okay, so my first lesson, um, you
know, after coming, I'll just make a
summary. I have the first dream coming in
America with all the hardship, but I
realized that I wasn't really good at
getting help. I'm talking about the
elevator. I'm talking about realizing that I
can really use some help in the bathroom
with this nice lady, then going back to
Kenya with all my life, having very hardship
life and, you know, struggling to survive
and depending on selling food, um, you know,
vegetables, pineapple, moonshine in the
street back in the day, since I was young,
you know, I thought that was very tough.
Little did I know that my childhood really
prepared me to be wherever I am now, a
serial entrepreneur.
I mean, I do own a few businesses from
construction, health care.
You know, I am an author to motivational
speaker and the and the list goes on.
My point is for everybody out there, please
do not do not give up on your dreams.
No matter what your life has been, no matter
how tough has been in the past.
Just think about it.
It might really be a way of that hard life.
It's a way of it preparing you to be a
successful person and to be whoever you are
to to be wherever you want to be.
To me, in my case, all that entrepreneur and
struggling when I was kid really prepared me
to be an entrepreneur.
When it comes to health, trust me all the
time during everything I've done from Kenya
and from here, it's taken a lot, a lot of
time for me to do that, but with help of so
many people along the way.
So please, please, please do accept help.
There are so much help out there if we can
just accept the help with me in the
elevator. You know I refuse the help because
I just didn't want to look, that I was weak.
But guess what?
That guy who decided to help me really
helped me a lot. Maybe I would have broken
my leg struggling there and then.
They helped that.
I met again, this lady in the bathroom, and
she was able to navigate and show me how to
navigate around. To be a caregiver is what
really helped me to get a job.
In the next three weeks.
After 2 to 3 weeks, I was working and that's
where my dream came in.
So my my advice or my my inspiration to you
is keep on looking for that help.
Keep on pushing for that dream because you
never know when you knock, whenever the door
will be open. Keep on knocking all those
doors with me.
I'll tell you that is a story for another
day. I have knocked so, so many doors that
have been closed. But finally, you know
there are few that open.
And guess what? It's really helped me to be
wherever I am now.
If you want to know more about me, uh,
please do uh, to visit, um, do visit the
website, visit uh w ww making a difference
with Nellie Dotcom.
You will know so much.
You will learn so much about what I do.
And of course we can always have one on one
virtual tours, virtual discussion.
So and also check out the book.
It's in Barnes and Noble and it's also in
Amazon. Uh, making a difference with Nellie.
And my name is Nellie Somi.
N e l l y s o m e.
People call me Sam, but Somi is okay.
Thank you so much.
Carol Cox: All right. Thank you so much, Nellie.
Fantastic. Let's go to Heather and then we
will do a roundtable discussion.
Heather. Heather Bright is the founder of
Skill Masters Market, and she works in the
learning and development field with
nonprofits. And she's going to share with us
her the ten minute version of her signature
talk. Heather, take it away.
Heather Burright: Have you ever tried to change a behavior or
create a new habit?
All right. Is it coming to mind?
What happened? Think about that experience.
Was it easy?
Were you successful?
Where did you stumble?
So I want to tell you a little story about a
habit that I had to create.
So last year, I went to my primary care
physician, and they did some blood work.
And the doctor called me after the
appointment to say everything looks good.
So I didn't take any action.
I didn't do anything different because I
wasn't aware there was any kind of problem.
Later in the year, I saw a specialist about
something else, and they pulled up my recent
bloodwork. Bloodwork as they do, And she
pointed out that my iron levels were
actually a little low.
And so this doctor suggested I take iron at
least every other day.
So I left the doctor's appointment.
I bought some iron.
I took it when I remembered, but I wasn't
super regular about it.
I didn't have a sense of urgency motivating
me to do it.
Then later in the year, I saw a different
specialist about something else, and this
doctor too, pulled up my bloodwork from
earlier in that year.
But this doctor paused.
You know that pause.
You don't like to have that pause at the
doctor's office?
She paused, and she told me that my iron
levels were actually really low, and that if
I didn't get them up, she would want to
start me on an IV to give me iron.
Well, that's a completely different picture.
And do you know what I did?
I started taking my iron, but it wasn't
until someone made me aware of the problem.
They gave me instructions on how to fix it
and made me uncomfortable thinking about the
alternative, that I decided to change my
behavior. And even then, I had to set an
alarm on my phone to remind me to take it.
Behavior change is a funny thing.
Taking iron is a simple task.
Yet I needed awareness, a sense of urgency,
and a prompt to do it.
So why are we surprised when we want our
learners to change something and they don't?
Even a simple change can feel really
complex. And we have to be intentional as we
design for behaviour change at every step in
the learning and development process.
And that's what we're going to explore
today. Here's the challenge.
Knowledge doesn't equal behaviour change.
Yet most of our training focuses on what
people need to know and maybe do.
If we're lucky, they don't actually account
for the behaviour change.
So I'm Heather, I'm an LD pro, I have about
20 years in the field, and I've worked
internally at a national nonprofit for about
eight years, and now I consult with some of
the US's largest nonprofits on their
training and leadership development needs.
I know what it's like to be asked to create
a training because someone thinks the
learner needs to know something, and I'm on
a mission to change that.
I'm the host of learning for good, a top 2.5%
globally ranked podcast where I explore
trends, lessons learned, and real world
experiences related to L, D, and I formed a
private community for nonprofit and
association L and D pros to learn and grow
together. And I'm also a contributor to many
industry organizations organizations such as
Chief Learning Officer and Training
Industry, Inc..
I've been at this for a while, and I'm on a
quest to always do it better because the
people we serve deserve it.
So as we head into this talk and we lean
into the conversation, I want you to have a
specific change in mind.
What is one change you need a key audience
to make? And then how will you help them
make that change?
Historically, our answer has been training.
In fact.
My slides are going a little too fast.
In fact, the Harvard Business Review found
that companies spend $350 billion globally
on training every single year.
And here's what typically happens.
Someone in your organization thinks we have
a problem, but they say we need a training
and they schedule a meeting with a learning
leader who schedules a meeting with the lab
manager, who schedules a meeting with the
instructional designer, who then reaches out
to the subject matter expert.
It's like playing a game of telephone when
the gossip wasn't even accurate in the first
place. And the training doesn't always work.
Traditional training focuses on knowledge,
not behavior, and it crams too much
information into one solution.
It isn't based on behavior change
principles, and it doesn't account for
external factors like supervisor buy in or
existing systems and processes that the
person is going to have to deal with.
It isn't personalized for the learner and it
often just doesn't work.
So why do we always go with training?
As American rapper Cheryl James said, change
is not an event, it's a process and training
is an event.
So I want us to shift from training an event
to a human centered process.
And today we're going to cover the first of
three keys to help you get there.
The three keys are context change and
community. So we want to avoid the telephone
game. Instead, we want to go get first hand
information and experiences from the
intended audience.
This is the context these conversations
provide us with the context we need to
inform how we design for behaviour change.
And there's two components to context.
The first what is happening inside the
organisation or even potentially outside the
organisation that's driving this need for
behaviour change.
So here's an example.
I was working with a client who had tons of
staff changes happening, and one team in
particular had experienced a lot of
leadership turnover in a span of 6 to 12
months. The new leader's goal was to create
a team that would really work together in a
more collective impact approach.
They had traditionally worked with external
partners on a very transactional level, and
to achieve the organisation's strategic
goals, they needed much deeper partnerships
in the communities they were working in.
So the organization's strategies in this
case were driving that change.
The other component of this is what is the
day to day experience of the learner.
What might motivate them or discourage them
from making this change?
For this client in particular, the amount of
leadership turnover had impacted morale.
Staff didn't feel seen, heard or valued.
Why should they put a ton of effort into one
executive's vision? When history told them
they were going to get a new one in just a
few short months?
On top of that, the team had other work.
They had enrollment quotas they had to meet
because on top of creating these
partnerships, they were responsible for
enrolling students into their programs, and
so they were both real and perceived
barriers to this change.
And if you had asked them why they weren't
creating deeper partnerships, they would
have told you, I'm busy working.
So at the beginning, you identified a change
that you need your audience to make.
Now I want you to empathize with them.
Put yourself in their shoes.
Think about their daily experiences at work.
What might motivate them to make that change?
What might prevent them from making that
change? Wendy, I think about your talk and
the leaders that you're coaching and what
might motivate them to make that change.
Maybe they're just tired of it feeling hard.
They're tired of feeling overwhelmed.
And they want some solution, right?
If they're in that, they're collecting all
their tools.
They want a solution.
There is a motivation and a desire to
change. But what might prevent them from
making that change?
I would say you're probably going to face a
couple of things.
One, they're busy, which is why they're
having a hard time doing it to begin with.
And so that will also be something that
could be a barrier for them.
Or it might be that they haven't bought in
to mindset because they're so focused on the
tools and the skills.
And so at this point, really this is all
just a guess.
But these are things you can discover when
you spend time with your audience.
And this will give you the context.
You need.
Context is just one of the three CS, and
it's the only one we're going to explore
today. But when you use the three CS, you
can create the play by play for your
learners, and then they can get out on the
field with their team and win.
And really when you do this, when you focus
on these three CS, there is no limit to the
impact you can have.
You're doing important work.
You're a strategic partner to others in your
organization. You're helping people navigate
change and show up as their best selves
every day.
You're building the future leaders of your
organization. You're amplifying the work of
your nonprofit, accelerating its impact and
making a difference in communities around
the world. A couple of years ago, I created
a learning experience for a client.
We knew that postpartum death rates were too
high, and this organization was committed to
bringing those numbers down.
They saw doulas and midwives as the conduit
for this. So we set out to create a behavior
change. We needed them to build a great
relationship with their clients, and we
needed them to recognize urgent warning
signs in postpartum women.
We needed them to leverage the relationship
they were building to encourage their
clients to seek medical care.
And so we designed an experience to help
create this change.
A few months after we launched, we heard
from one of the learners.
She had done it.
She had recognized something that was going
on with her client, and she got her to seek
care. She was right.
She probably saved a life.
All because we were intentional about how we
designed that experience.
Do you want to have that kind of impact?
And that is what we have today.
I invite you to create that kind of impact.
Thank you, Carol, for this opportunity.
Carol Cox: All right. Congratulations, Heather.
Well done.
Well done. Really. You did a great job with
that. And you know, here I'm going to ask
you a question. Then we'll open this up to
the roundtable. So first, Heather, how did
that feel delivering this ten minute version
of your talk for the first time?
Heather Burright: Um, it felt fine.
I feel like I have I have shared pieces of
that, but never everything together.
So it felt good to do it.
Um, it feels really bad that the internet
isn't working great.
It's been a two week battle at my house,
but, um.
That's all right.
Yeah, well.
Carol Cox: We manage, we manage. We can still see you.
It's okay. All right, so then let me ask you
this, Heather. So I know that when we work
together on your VIP day, clearly, because
you create trainings for a living, right?
That is that is your business.
That's the work that you do with the
nonprofits that you work with is you create
these training experiences for them.
So that I knew when we were working together
on your signature talk, that it would be
very easy for you to do a training for your
audience, conference, presentation, whatever
it happened to be. And so I knew we needed
to pull back and think about the bigger
thought leadership and what makes your
approach different.
And that's where in all my questions during
our time together was was deciding on the
three C's, the context, the change, the
community because and for the audience who
are watching and listening.
So this is what I want you to think about is
like, Heather's not there at the conference
to teach the audience how to create a
training. Like that's not her role.
Her role at that conference is to help the
audience see maybe where they're getting
stuck, maybe why things aren't working as
well as they could be, and what can make the
difference. And then obviously, why Heather
is the go to expert because she's still the
expert. Why?
Heather is the go to expert in her company
is to help them navigate that journey that
they want to for their learner population.
So then, Heather, so let me come back to
you. How did you feel when I suggested that
you open with that story about needing to
take iron and that habit not taking, you
know, not taking hold until that third
doctor that you saw?
Heather Burright: Um, I mean, it felt it felt natural, I think,
in that, um, we use stories and training to
as, as a learning tool, but I hadn't really
figured out how to pull all the pieces
together. And so I knew that the story was
relevant. I wasn't sure how to, um, create
all those connections because I hadn't
really labeled my three CS.
I hadn't really thought through how all of
those pieces were connected.
So I knew it was a good example of behavior
change. I just didn't know exactly how to to
tie it together yet.
And that's really what you were so good at,
is helping us kind of frame, um, you know,
what are those stages or what are those, you
know, things that people are going to go
through the the steps and the process.
Um, and then connecting those dots so that
that story has a through line throughout
the, the talk.
Carol Cox: Yeah. And, and this is why, when you think
about opening your talk for the three of you
here and for the rest of you listening is
you could start with audience questions.
You could start with a story I always like
to think about. Where is the audience at?
How can you get them not only interested in
your topic, but validate probably what
they're already experiencing?
And I know all of us have tried to form new
habits, and we probably have been successful
at some have failed at others.
And so right away I'm like, oh yes, like I,
I'm there, I'm there with you, Heather,
because I have probably been in a similar
situation. And so now I even though I don't
do anything with L and D in that industry
like you do. I'm still interested enough in
your topic to to want to listen to the rest
of it. All right. So let's open it up to the
rest of you, Nelly. Let me bring you in.
You can unmute yourself.
Tell us a little bit about what the
experience was like for you going through
the Thought Leader Academy.
Nelly Some: You know, when I came to the Thought Leader
Academy, as much as I'm so successful on
other businesses, I wasn't really I didn't
know that I had, um, the courage or the, you
know, or the material rather, or the
confidence to become a motivational speaker.
I used to talk to people a lot, to my to my
staff and all business acquaintances.
But in, in terms of just inspiring people, I
used to do that on one on one, but really on
this level of motivational, motivational
speaker with your training.
Carol, thank you so much.
Because now not only do I have confidence on
doing it, um, um, you know, in front of
bigger crowd. But I also have the I'm
confident about my material, but I can now
even stick to my script because I'm coming
from Africa. Trust me.
I remember when we started Carol, I was
giving you a story like almost two hours
now. I know you always told me, Nelly, you
know, try to, you know, and you taught me
how to navigate, to really stick on my
script and really realize what kind of
audience to to really talk to, to identify
their audience. So thank you so much.
I couldn't have done better than that.
So thank you for you.
And of course, thank you for all the
supportive women on this, on the on this
program that have really supported me along
the way. Wendy, thank you so much.
And Heather.
Carol Cox: Fantastic. Nelly and Wendy, let me ask you
what is next for you as a speaker and as a
thought leader?
Wendy McManus: What's next? I can frame up by kind of
looking back.
As I've been on stages in the past, I've
always been in that teacher expert space.
And so that's really what why I joined
Thought Leader Academy.
And the big shift that I made was figuring
out how to take my big idea and craft it
into a talk.
So what's next for me is refining that talk
and getting out there and starting to pitch
it. I live in Orlando.
There are loads of opportunities here.
I just have to go out and make it happen and
and find them.
Carol Cox: Yes, I know you are ready for keynote
opportunities. You are excellent at
workshops and all the conference sessions
that you have done, and I know you provide
so much value to your audience and I, I'm
excited to see you as a keynote speaker,
gracing bigger and bigger stages as time
goes on. Me too, me too.
All right. And, Heather, what about you?
What's next for you as a speaker and thought
leader?
Heather Burright: I have a couple of things I want to continue
refining in my talk.
Um, there's a couple of things I want to
build out a little bit more in the community
section, because I think the relationship
piece, the social influence piece is a huge
part of someone's success with behavior
change. So I want to do that and then I will
be pitching it to conferences as well.
Carol Cox: All right. Fantastic. And Nellie, I know that
you are on track to be an incredible
motivational speaker.
Audiences are going to love to hear your
stories and your lessons, so I'm excited for
them to do that. And Nellie and Wendy are
actually going to be at our in-person
speaking workshop that we're holding as of
the date of this recording in mid-October in
Orlando, Florida. So it'll be great to meet
them in person.
For the rest of you who are watching and
listening, if you would like to join us in
the Thought Leader Academy so you can
develop your thought leadership message,
create your signature talk, and learn the
business of speaking, you can get all of the
details and join us at Speaking Your
brand.com/academy. Again, that's speaking
your brand.com/academy.
And be sure to connect with Wendy, Heather
and Nellie on LinkedIn.
All their links to LinkedIn and to their
websites are in the show notes for the
podcast episode. If you're listening to this
later on the podcast.
Of course, if you're listening to this on
LinkedIn live, you can connect with them
right there on LinkedIn.
Wendy. Heather, Nelly, thank you so much for
joining us today on our backstage with
Speaking Your Brand. Congratulations again
on the debut of your signature talks, and I
can't wait to see what's next for you.
If you two would like to develop your
thought leadership message and framework,
create your signature talk.
Learn the business of speaking, practice
your delivery and join us on a LinkedIn
live. We do all those things with you in
small group calls, as well as a one on one
VIP day and our Thought Leader Academy.
Get all of the details, including pricing
and how you can join us at speaking your
brand.com/academy. Again, that's speaking
your brand.com/academy.
Until next time.
Thanks for listening.