Carol Cox: Are you feeling stuck?
Or maybe you've hit a plateau with your
brand or visibility?
Well, it's time to break the rules.
That's what we're talking about 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 and welcome to the Speaking Your
Brand podcast. I'm your host, Carol Cox.
I have a confession to make.
I realize that I've diluted my brand
message, my brand style and my brand voice.
Now this has happened unintentionally and
inadvertently, but I've been sensing this
for at least a year.
But I kept powering through, creating new
podcast episodes, sending emails, posting on
LinkedIn like that proverbial hamster on a
wheel, churning out content that was good
and valuable and useful.
But I knew it was missing a spark, and I
felt this because I was getting bored and
burnt out.
But I thought, well, that's just what you
have to do when you have a business.
And yes, there is a certain truth to that,
but you still need that spark.
Now, I wasn't bored with the topics that I
cover on the podcast or on my email
newsletter or on LinkedIn.
I loved talking about thought leadership,
public speaking, how to help women escape
the expert trap and provide transformational
talks and content to their audiences.
But really, where I've been feeling stuck
and stagnant was in creating this content
every single week I've mastered these
formats and I realize that I'm ready.
I'm hungry.
I'm longing for something new.
And then a few weeks ago, after the
in-person speaking workshop we held in
Orlando, one of the women who attended said
to me, you know, Carol, you and Diane are
really fun and funny and personable.
And I hadn't realized that until I was with
you at the workshop.
You come across so buttoned up on your
website, but you're not.
And I realized that she was right.
And these activities, the podcast, email
newsletters, LinkedIn posts have become, I
realized, a bit of a compulsion.
Like I must keep doing it.
Kind of like a Snapchat streak where that
was a thing a number of years ago, where
people would have to do a Snapchat every
single day, otherwise they would break their
streak and these kids would do it for days
and weeks and months on end.
So these activities have become a bit of a
compulsion. It's actually hard for me to
imagine stopping them.
And they've also become a crutch, a crutch,
because telling myself I have to do these
things every week has let me off the hook of
doing other things I want to do, but that
are bigger, bolder, scarier, and out of my
comfort zone. So yes, I am very much fallen
back into the expert trap.
This happens to all of us, even with the
best of intentions.
And yes, I know that I could hire a
marketing assistant, a marketing person to
help me with this and I will definitely be
doing that. But before that, I recognize
that the content creation hamster wheel is
still in my brain taking up mental space.
I know I need to detach and detox from doing
it for a while, so that when I do bring
someone in, they can truly own that and take
it away from me. Perhaps you're feeling a
bit bored and burnt out, or stuck and
stagnant like I've been feeling.
Or maybe you're enjoying the content you're
creating in the topics you speak about, but
you've hit a plateau.
Your business is not growing as much.
Speaking opportunities aren't growing.
You're not getting higher profile keynote
speaking opportunities. And that's what you
really want. And most importantly, maybe you
feel personally that you've hit a plateau,
that you're not growing and your business
speaking and visibility opportunities will
only grow if you're stretching and growing
yourself. In order to do that, though, we
have to break some rules.
Rules that make us feel safe, comfortable,
and validated.
Now, I'm actually not really a rule
follower. I call myself a rule bender.
Maybe a rule breaker. Not nothing illegal or
an unethical or anything like that.
But I do like challenging the status quo.
I do like pushing the limits and thinking
where is something that we can do that's
different. This is like the innovative
aspect of my personality and my brand, but
this is where I realize I've been diluting
this again, not intentionally.
It's just kind of happened over the past few
years because of being on this content
creation hamster wheel.
So I'm going to share with you three rules
you can consider breaking or at least
bending in, why you should do that, and how
you can think about doing that for yourself.
I'm also going to share a big change, a rule
that I'm breaking. So keep listening to the
end. And I'm also going to share with you
the ways that you can work with this in
2025. Make sure that you're on our email
list, because that's where you're going to
get the most up to date announcements of
what we're doing, and you can join our email
list by going to speaking your
brand.com/join again that's speaking your
brand.com/join. Now let's get on with the
show. Here's the first rule to break.
Stop providing information and teaching and
training content to your audience.
Now I know this goes against all of the
advice that is out there that says, provide
lots of content to your audience, free
content so that they understand what you do
and who you work with and provide them.
With all of these tips and trainings and
resources, webinars and blog posts and free
downloadable guides and all of that.
Now, I'm not saying don't do any of that, but
you probably have already done enough.
And that's what I realized.
I have done enough. I have so much content
out there, from this podcast to all of the
articles on the Speaking Your Brand website,
to all of the lead magnets and webinars we
that we've created over the years.
And if you've been listening to this podcast
for a while, you know that I talk about the
need to escape the expert trap to provide
transformation to your audience, not just
information, because that's how you're going
to step into thought leadership.
After all, it's not about how much you know.
It's about how you make others feel, think
and act. And this really crystallized for me
when I worked with my client, Julia Korn, on
her recent keynote. We talked about it in
the previous episode, number 422.
And listeners have loved that episode.
They've told me this on LinkedIn in an email
they sent to me. They loved it so much that
they listened to it twice, because there are
so many good things that we talk about in
that episode about how to provide
transformation and not just information to
your audiences, because that's what people
are looking for.
Expertise, tips, trainings, how to's are
plentiful on the internet.
From Google searches to YouTube videos to
asking ChatGPT your audience can find
whatever they're looking for, but instead
they want to hear from you, those hard won
life lessons.
They want that thought leadership of how do
you go from the stage that they're currently
in to the stage that they want to be in,
whether it's for their business, their
personal life, their relationships, their
health, their finances, whatever your
business and your topic happens to be.
So I want you to break the rule of just
providing lots of information and teaching
and training to your audience.
I really want you to focus on the change.
You want to help them to create, not just
the knowledge you want to share.
I invite you to share a personal insights
and stories with your audience, and also to
address your audience's emotions and
challenges and identities, not just their
how to questions.
Rule number two to break.
Stop playing it safe and trying to be like
the big players.
I really noticed in the past year,
especially that the online ecosystem,
whether it's YouTube, podcast, Instagram,
TikTok and so on, that it has become what is
called a winner take most.
And that means that the biggest players, the
biggest podcasters, YouTubers, influencers,
they're going to take most of the attention
from the people who are online.
If you think about podcasting, the
concentration of listenership is so high.
Of the 600,000 podcasts that produce content
every week, the top ten capture half the
revenue. If you have a podcast, you may not
be doing it for ad revenue, but just think
about translate that half that revenue into,
say, half of listeners time.
This winner take most ecosystem is for the
people who appeal to a lot of people and
have already established themselves.
You think about the Joe Rogan's of the
world, but say in an R space.
Business and marketing.
Amy Porterfield, Marie Forleo, Mel Robbins,
Brene Brown now these women are fantastic
and they provide excellent content, but they
really do have to be kind of all things to
all people. And you can't compete with them
by doing the same thing that they're doing.
They have to appeal to big audiences because
they are big players.
But you don't have to appeal to big
audiences, and you shouldn't Because you're
not in the same winner take most ecosystem
that they are. This means that you have to
be even more of you.
I know you hear this all the time, that your
personal brand and even your business brand
should reflect who you are, and we know
this, but we don't do it in a way that's
going to resonate with our audiences.
We still have a tendency to play it safe, to
do what is most palatable to the people out
there. Now, I'm not saying to be
controversial for controversy's sake or just
to do things to make people angry.
Not at all.
But I really want you to think about what
are those unique aspects of who you are and
your personality, and combine them and
incorporate all these different aspects,
even if they seem contradictory to each
other. Actually, that's a good thing because
it makes you more interesting.
What I've done recently is I opened up a
blank document in Canva, and I started
putting Different brands that I like,
different brands that have resonated with me
to get some inspiration.
And I realized when I did that that all the
threads have always been there in my brand,
but I had lost touch with them because I
forgot about putting them front and center
is what I talked about in the intro of this
podcast that I had inadvertently,
unintentionally diluted my brand voice and
style and message.
So on this brand board inspiration Canva, I
have things like Sara Blakely, the founder
and CEO of Spanx.
I follow her on LinkedIn and I see her
posts. And not only is she so fun and funny
and kind of silly, but she's also very
relatable and ambitious and very much a
feminist. So all of those things, I'm like,
yes, and that's what that workshop client
mentioned to me, this fun, funny aspect of
our personalities and our brands that Diane
and I have but isn't coming across enough in
our content. Then I also have Sydney Bristow
from the TV show alias, which I absolutely
loved. And so she's very different than
Sarah Blakely. She's she's also very smart,
but more mysterious.
And she's very adaptable and resilient, a
little bit techie, but she goes all around
the world. This is kind of like my spy
aspect of of growing up and loving to read
Nancy Drew novels when I was little, but
then studying the French Resistance when I
was getting my PhD in history.
And then I think about other brands like
Virgin Atlantic, which I absolutely love.
They are innovative, they're bold, they're
irreverent, and they're upscale, but yet
affordable at the same time.
So I think about the brand for speaking your
brand. That's what we want to be premium,
high quality, high touch, but yet accessible
and also have this bold, innovative aspect
to what we're doing. Have you seen the TV
show The Good Place? I think it was out
2017, 2018.
Well, there's Janet, the character in there,
and then at some point in one of the
seasons, Bad Janet comes out and now I feel
like I look like Good Janet, but I
definitely have a rebellious side like Bad
Janet. I dressed up as Bad Janet for
Halloween back in 2019, with the black
pleather pants and the, you know, the all
black and black nail polish.
And it was so much fun because I do have
this rule bending, subversive,
non-conformist aspect of my personality.
This is where I came up with this idea of
escaping the expert trap and bending these
rules and breaking these rules.
So this is what I mean about really stop
playing it safe. Stop thinking like you have
to be like the big players.
Take inspiration from them, but find this
unique combination that you have and keep it
front and center with this.
Whether it's a brand board inspiration on
Canva or a Google Doc or things that you
that you print out or that you create so
that you know that every time you're
creating content or a presentation, that
you're making sure that what you're saying
and how you're saying it is reflective of
these interesting aspects of your brand.
Now, the third rule to break and this may be
the hardest. Stop doing something you've
been doing for a long time and have
mastered, and start doing something you've
either been neglecting or that will
challenge you.
Now, this is the hardest one because it
requires not only a shift in habits, which
is hard enough. Where I talked earlier about
this idea of this compulsion, like I feel
like I have to continue on this hamster
wheel. So we have these habits, but it also
requires a shift in your identity.
So I want you to think about what is
something you've been doing for a long time
and you've mastered it. Maybe you do have a
podcast that you've been doing for a long
time, and you maybe you're wondering, should
I try a different format or should I try a
different channel? Maybe you've been posting
on Instagram and LinkedIn for a long time
and you've mastered that, so maybe you want
to try something else.
Maybe you've mastered the standard
conference presentation format and the lunch
and learns or conference breakout sessions
where you give the audience certain
information and content related to your area
of expertise and you want to challenge
yourself to do something different.
Or maybe you've been thinking about launching
a podcast that's something that you haven't
mastered, that you haven't done before.
So start doing that one thing that you may
want to consider, which is what I'm doing is
stop doing so much online and shift some of
those efforts in that time to offline
activities. We are all sucked into spending
so much time online, and we think this is
what we have to do all of the time.
The email marketing, the social media, the
podcasts, the videos, the blogs and so on.
So what if you cut your online efforts in
half? What would that free you up to do
instead? An experiment and see what happens.
Track your metrics.
Track your time.
Maybe try this for three months and see what
happens. Now you may say to yourself, well,
it doesn't really take me that much time to
post on Instagram or post on LinkedIn or to
send an email newsletter to my list.
And yes, that may be the case and I've told
myself the same thing, but it takes up
mental space and it serves as a crutch.
So this is where we go back to requiring a
shift, not only in your habits, but also in
your identity and what makes you feel
comfortable. So if you think about if you
cut your online efforts in half, what would
that free you up to do instead?
Maybe things like attending local groups and
events, inviting people to coffee and lunch,
going to conferences, pitching to speak at
those local groups and conferences and
associations, hosting an in-person workshop
related to what you do in your business.
If you want to record a podcast or videos
instead of doing it from your laptop at
home, maybe go find a local studio.
Lots of cities nowadays have coworking
spaces that have podcast studios that
they've built, so maybe go book some time
there and record some interviews just to get
out from being sucked into spending so much
time online, and that's what I've decided to
do for 2025, is really shift the majority of
my time and efforts into offline activities
instead of online, and I'll never know
unless I try.
What this ends up looking like, and I can
always pick it back up again before I get to
the big thing.
I'm changing the rule I'm breaking regarding
the stop doing something you've been doing
for a long time, and start doing something
that you've been neglecting, or that will
challenge you. I want to let you know about
the ways you can work with us in 2025,
because now that we've broken or at least
bent the rules, we need to rewrite them.
Rewrite them for your personal brand, for
your business, for your speaking and
visibility, and most importantly, for your
personal growth. And here's how we can help
you do that.
First, we have our Thought Leader Academy,
which is a live online program, and we work
with you to craft powerful stories and talks
that resonate with your audiences and drive
action. We work with you to escape the
expert trap and step into thought
leadership, and we worked with over 250
women over the years, and they consistently
tell us that we get them to think
differently. We don't just dump a bunch of
tips and information on you.
Instead, we really get you to think
differently, to approach your presentations
and your public speaking in an entirely
different way. This is a live online
program, so we work with you in a one on one
virtual VIP day to create your signature
talk from beginning to end.
We work with you to develop your thought
leadership message, your story bank, how to
tell great stories, the business of speaking
and practicing your talk.
And we do this not only in that one on one
VIP day, but in eight weeks of zoom calls
with the small group that you're in.
You can get all of those details at speaking
your brand.com/academy.
Second, we have our next one day in-person
speaking workshop coming up in Orlando,
Florida on February 27th, 2025.
We spend the entire day with you in downtown
Orlando at the Citrus Club.
It's a beautiful venue, and you get to
practice your storytelling and your delivery
on the stage that we have there, set up in
the room, it looks like a speaking venue.
You get professional photography of you
speaking that you can use on your website
and social media.
And as our workshop attendees said two
episodes ago in episode 421, having that day
with us to get that on the spot.
Coaching and feedback 100 XT.
They're speaking in storytelling skills.
That's the power of being in person.
You can get all of those details as speaking
your Brand.com slash workshop, and if you're
feeling adventurous and ready for something
fresh, new and exciting, you can join me in
London, England for our Bold Brand retreat
in the summer of 2025.
You can listen to episode 416 with my
co-host Ashley Harvey.
For more about this retreat.
Because during our time together, we're
going to blend branding, storytelling,
history, and theatre into an experience like
you've never had.
We're going to spend three and a half days
together June 29th through July 2nd, 2025 to
build the vision for your brand, what makes
you stand out and how to own your unique
space? We're going to work with you to
discover your boldest voice with our hands
on workshops, one on one coaching, and of
course, being with the other women who are
there. You're going to develop and practice
delivering your signature story, and we're
going to immerse you in the best of a world
class city that London is.
We're going to take you on a women's history
walking tour to get inspired by women's
voices from the past.
We're going to go together to see a play at
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
You may have seen Shakespeare productions
before. If you haven't been to the globe,
you have never seen a Shakespeare play like
this. It is extraordinary.
We're going to infuse creativity, fun and
inspiration into every moment that we're
together. You can get all the details for
our London retreat, including pricing, dates
and FAQs about speaking your
brand.com/london. You're always welcome to
schedule a zoom call with us if you want to
talk about the Thought Leader Academy, the
Orlando Workshop, or the London retreat.
Now drumroll please.
Here's the big thing I'm changing the rule
I'm breaking.
I'm pausing this podcast, and I can't tell
you how weird and uncomfortable that makes
me feel to actually say this publicly.
It's been nearly eight years that I've been
doing this podcast. I launched it in
February of 2017.
It's been over 400 episodes and I've loved
it. It has helped me to develop my own
thought leadership. I love showcasing our
clients and the other amazing women who've
been on, and I thank you so much for
listening. Whether this is the first episode
you've listened to, the 10th, the 100th, or
even more, but I realize that I need to take
a break from the podcast to focus on other
activities and projects, including the book
that I want to write.
I've mastered this content form podcasting,
and now I need to step back from this kind
of content creation, the short form, every
single week, to give my brain the space to
focus on writing longer form content like my
book, and to work on some other creative
projects. I love podcasting so much.
I started listening to podcasts way back in
2008, so I love this medium.
It's so intimate.
I love listening to podcasts.
I feel like I know the podcast host.
Hopefully you feel the same way about me, so
I'll be back. But the show may look
different. I may do series or seasons and
then take a break.
We'll see what happens.
Make sure to continue to follow the show in
your podcast feed, whether you're listening
on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or somewhere
else, so that you know when the next new
episode comes up.
In the meantime, there are so many episodes
over 400 for you to listen to.
If you missed any of them when they came
out, or if you want to listen again, you can
find the episodes I mentioned today on the
Show Notes page for this episode at Speaking
Your brand.com/423.
And don't forget to check out our Thought
Leader Academy, our Orlando workshop, and
our London retreat and to get on our email
list if you're not already so that you don't
miss future announcements, you can get on
our email list at speaking Your
brand.com/join. And now go break some rules.
Your audience will thank you for it.
Until next time, whenever that is.
Thanks for listening.