Carol Cox: It's okay if your personal brand feels a bit
messy. That's a natural part of an authentic
evolution of who you are,
which is what we dive into today 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 there. This is your host,
Carol Cox. Thank you for indulging me in my
two month break from this podcast.
It was exactly what I needed.
And during that time, Diane Diaz,
our lead speaking coach, and I had an
opportunity to record some podcast episodes
in an actual film studio on the campus of
Full Sail University, where we teach business
and marketing classes.
You can listen to this episode audio only,
but I think you're going to get the most out
of it if you watch the video.
The video has extra clips in it.
When we're talking about different things, it
really is an amazing edit and I would love to
hear your feedback on it.
You can find the video on the show notes page
at Speaking Your Brand 424.
So the episode number Speaking Your Brand
424. In the show notes,
you can also find the direct link to the
YouTube video itself.
Now let's get on with the show.
Hi there and welcome to Speaking Your Brand.
I'm your host, Carol Cox,
joined by our lead speaking coach,
Diane Diaz.
Diane Diaz: Hi, everybody.
Carol Cox: Today we are filming in one of the studios on
the campus of Full Sail University,
where Diane and I have been teaching for 16
years in the digital marketing program.
We certainly have evolved over those years.
Everything from how has the internet has
evolved, as has AI.
And we want to talk today about reinvention
versus evolution.
I feel like a lot of times we are told that
we should reinvent ourselves,
that we should become someone new if we want
to take on different aspects of our career or
projects that we're working on.
But I'm not sure reinvention is the right
word, because I'm not even sure it's possible
to truly reinvent who you are.
I think it's more of an evolution.
So, Diane, thinking about your career that
you've had in marketing and branding,
including at the university,
how have you seen this idea of evolution play
out?
Diane Diaz: I agree with you that it is not really a
reinvention, because I think who we are today
is largely, obviously based on who we used to
be and things we've learned over the course
of time over our careers,
personal experiences.
And so I really feel like it's really just a
maybe coming into who you are and an
identification of all that makes you who you
are based on all those experiences that
you've had.
Carol Cox: I wonder if part of it is also an acceptance
of all these different aspects of ourselves.
I remember way back when I started speaking
your brand in 2015, 2016.
I was told by very well-meaning people that I
should not talk about my background in
politics, that it could potentially turn off
people if they weren't similarly politically
aligned. And I should just kind of ignore
that aspect of my career.
And I thought at the time, well, that doesn't
really make sense because it is a core part
of who I am, who I am,
who I always have been as part of my values,
the work that I do, the work that I like to
do with women, to help them use their voice.
But I'm sure that there's a lot of women out
there that feel like maybe aspects of their
career or things that they've done that they
have not embraced because they're afraid that
either it feels messy or like it doesn't feel
like it is as part of their overall cohesive
brand.
Diane Diaz: Yeah. That's true. I hear that from clients
sometimes, or even just in conversations with
women. And I think it's a it's a valid
concern. But what I would say to that is that
when we are trying to push down some aspect
of ourselves, like for you,
the, the political portion of your career,
then you cannot be who you truly are and be
your full self in anything that you do.
Right. And so I think that then colors how
you do what you do. But when when we just
bring everything about ourselves and
certainly whatever setting you're in,
whether it's a networking event or a personal
event, you're going to change how you convey
that. But when you bring your whole self and
all that makes you who you are, the politics,
even religion for some people,
hobbies, personal interests.
When you bring all of those things to the
work that you do and to your messaging,
that is truly what your personal brand is.
Right. And that's how we can feel more
comfortable living in our personal brand. It
doesn't feel like a disconnect between who
were saying we are and who we actually are,
which we don't want that disconnect.
Carol Cox: Well, I know that you are an iron man.
You completed an Iron Man.
This was in 2013.
Yes, yes. And so and that was a big part of
your identity. And when we started teaching
here at the university in 2009,
I was so inspired and impressed by these
triathlons that you were doing.
And so I started doing more running, and I
was like, I got to keep up with Diane and her
fitness. And then when you did the Ironman,
I was like, wow, I was blown away.
I mean, it was just such an accomplishment.
And I remember you telling me last year
you're like, well, that feels like it was so
long ago. Can I really still talk about that?
Or can I still include it in the talks that I
do? And I said yes, because that number one
shows so much about who you are and your
personality and what matters to you.
And yes, even though it may have been ten
years ago now, it's still something that
shapes, I believe, who who you still are
today.
Diane Diaz: Yeah, that's a good point. And it does. I
mean, it does from my side.
It does feel like a little bit of like a
statute of limitations has run out on that.
But I think you make a valid point,
because everything that we've done,
even things that we've done when we were a
child, come into our personal brand.
And so, yes, that does inform how I look at
the world. Right? Because I do,
even though I don't do triathlons anymore, I
do operate sort of in this world of doing
things that are healthy for me and help keep
me fit, which is a big part of what my
personal brand is about. So even though that
has changed what it is that I do to do that,
it is still my personal brand. But even
things from childhood that might have been
interests that we had,
hobbies that we had, those things still
factor in because who we are today is based
on experiences we had as children growing up.
As young adults.
You know that all of that informs our
personal brand. So I do still share anecdotes
about that experience and the lessons from it
that it taught me, which had enormous
lessons. I share those in my talks or with
clients because I think that not That not
only do they inform what my personal brand
is, but they're good lessons for clients to
sort of take away and apply in the work that
they're doing. So I try to still incorporate
that message.
Carol Cox: Well as a tease. For those of you listening
in another episode, we talk about stories
that we have learned about ourselves from
when we were younger. That very much informs
how we showed up as adults,
so stay tuned for that one.
But let's get back to the idea of reinvention
versus evolution.
And I think that one of the things that why I
find the Iron Man so fascinating is because
you were willing to challenge yourself in a
big way. It's not easy to do that.
It takes a lot of work. You have to be
uncomfortable, like physically uncomfortable.
But as you said, it's so much more as a
mental game, even more than physical.
And I think that we stop growing or evolving
when we stop challenging ourselves.
And there may be times in our life or our
career where like, okay, I have enough going
on, like I can't add more to my plate and I
have to just work with what I already have
mastered and feel comfortable with.
But I feel like for myself,
I get to a point where I'm like,
okay, I've mastered this thing. I understand
how to do it. I feel really good and
comfortable and I enjoy doing it now.
What's next? Like I'm looking onto the
horizon and sometimes I need a push,
like an external push from somewhere else to
push me into that, to get me out of my
comfort zone. And sometimes I can kind of
force myself to do it.
So have you had a time in your life where
that has happened for you?
Diane Diaz: Oh my goodness, yes. So before teaching at
Full Sail, I worked in land development for a
big corporation that was a national land
developer, and I was there for almost ten
years. And then the housing market collapsed.
Now, just to back up a little bit,
I was already ready to leave that job.
I felt like I had sort of outgrown it and was
ready to move on to something else, but I
don't think I would have had it had I not
been laid off. And so I think the push of
getting laid off from that is what got me
here and teaching, which I absolutely love.
And I felt I actually tell people when I tell
that story, I was like, I was lucky enough to
enough to get laid off because I am so glad
that I did. I would not have left that job
had it not been for that.
So that that's sort of that evolution.
It wasn't a reinvention. I didn't reinvent
myself into an educator.
I took all my experience that I had from the
past ten years and before,
and wrapped that into bringing that to the
classroom, the virtual classroom,
as it were, and using that to help inform how
I teach about branding to students.
So even those experiences,
it wasn't a reinvention. It was sort of an
evolution of who I am as a person and as a
professional.
Carol Cox: That's a great example, because that teaching
thread has been there ever since you were a
little girl teaching your stuffed animals. I
know you talk about that up through until
what you do today. And then I think about my
background in technology,
in software development, which I did many,
many moons ago. My first companies were tech
companies, and I really dropped that entire
aspect of what I did professionally because I
wanted to move into doing speaking your brand
and working with people, and less with typing
code on the computer screen.
But then when I really kind of came out with
ChatGPT. A couple of years ago,
I was immediately enthralled and could see
all the possibilities.
That could be done with it.
So I kind of like went back into my past and
pulled this. Like thread of technology and
then brought that back into the present,
which again, I think. Is more of this idea of
evolution. I didn't reinvent,
I didn't all of a sudden become. A tech
person. It was just that,
okay, I have this interest now,
let me bring it back. More into the
forefront.
Diane Diaz: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's true
too. If you look at just the.
Story that you brought up about me doing the
Iron Man, I grew up as a very uncoordinated,
not. Athletic child, and I had no athletic
bone in my body. And so you might say,
well, that was. Reinvention. But it really
wasn't, because it was me. Like you said,
you get bored and you're like, you want a new
challenge. And then I,
little by little, started doing little, like
five K's and different things. And it sort of
ramped up from there.
And it becomes that way of showing yourself
that you can take something from your past
and sort of rework it.
And it isn't a reinvention,
but it is evolving into understanding how to
attack new challenges, like taking what you
did in coding and applying that to the work
that you do with clients. It's different,
but it's it's different, but it's the same.
Carol Cox: Right, right. Well, and thinking about I,
I remember when ChatGPT came out and I,
and I was all over it and adding it to the
classes that I teach here and figure out how
to use it in speaking in your brand.
And I remember telling you about it.
And what was your response?
Diane Diaz: You had me come to your house, you showed me
all this stuff, and I was like,
well, I don't know what any of this is, but
let's do it.
Carol Cox: And I appreciate that because I think that is
a key part of evolution,
is being willing to say yes,
be adaptable, be open,
and not be so rigid.
I feel like for myself,
when I was in my 20s and 30s,
I had a very clear idea of like how the world
looked and worked to me and like how I wanted
it to look and work.
And it's almost like, okay, I was going to
make sure I fit everything into that that
viewpoint. And sure, it works a little bit,
but maybe it doesn't work as well as we
thought it did looking back.
But I think that especially when we get to
this point in our careers,
having this ability to be adaptable and
flexible and say yes, even to things that
seem totally different than what we've done
before, or things that seem really
uncomfortable or new.
Diane Diaz: Now, that's a really good point, because if I
look back on my younger self and my younger
days in my career and trying so hard to make
things happen, and now I look at myself now
and I kind of just go with the flow. But
things happen better and more aligned with
who I am and what I want.
So I think the pushing so hard sometimes you
actually set yourself up for a lot more
resistance than if you just go where the
opportunities are and say yes to things like,
for example, me doing a comedy set at the
beginning of the year. That isn't something
that I would have just signed up for,
but it sort of evolved from the fact that I
am a speaker. I am I am a speaking coach.
And then here came this opportunity to do
speaking in a different way. But I also love
comedy. I almost exclusively watch and listen
to comedy things.
So having the opportunity to do my own five
minute comedy set, it's like,
oh, that's kind of interesting and a
different way of looking at speaking. And
then of course, I get lessons from it that I
bring to clients. But so you can take all
those things and go where the opportunities
are and look for ways to say yes to things
that you even if you don't know. I didn't
know how to do that, but I said yes.
And then I figured it out because we're all
smart enough, we can figure it out.
Carol Cox: That's a great example. Another inspiration
to think about what is something that you
hadn't done before, but you have an interest
in and you said, okay,
I don't know how good I'm going to be at
this, but it doesn't really matter. I don't
have to be perfect.
I just have to be good enough to enjoy it.
And I think, again, like back when I was
younger, it wasn't so much that I wanted
everything to be perfect, but I had very,
very high expectations of what I wanted to
produce for myself.
Not for anyone else, but in my own mind.
And I feel like definitely I have lessened
that and think about, well,
what am I enjoying in this process and can
that be good enough?
Diane Diaz: No, that's a great point because obviously
nobody was paying me to win triathlons and I
was very slow, so that's fine.
But I loved it. And then when I didn't love
it anymore, I stopped doing it. Same with the
comedy set. It was it's not my job.
I did it for fun and I'm not going to go out
and I'm a daytime person,
not a nighttime person. So I'm not looking to
do comedy sets and comedy clubs at night.
But it was fun and it gave me lessons and a
new challenge and something to try with my
skills that I already have, but in a
different way.
Carol Cox: Maybe you need to create a lunchtime comedy
group.
Diane Diaz: I need to I need to open a lunchtime comedy
club where there would be nobody there.
Carol Cox: Other people like you.
Diane Diaz: Track.
Carol Cox: Track. All right, so for those of you
listening, really think about this idea of
reinvention versus evolution.
You're probably not going to wholesale
reinvent yourself.
No one really does.
But think about have you stopped challenging
yourself? Are you a little bit bored or
stagnant with things that you've been doing?
What are some things that you've been
neglecting doing or you've had just like a
little bit of glimmer like,
huh? Like a comedy set or an Iron Man
triathlon, or public speaking or launching a
podcast or doing a Ted talk.
And maybe you can take the next steps getting
you closer there.
But thanks so much for watching speaking your
Brand. Thank you, Diane, for being here.
Diane Diaz: My pleasure.
Carol Cox: And until next time, thanks for watching.