Carol Cox: When everything feels so uncertain.
You may have a tendency to hit pause,
to overthink, or to isolate.
But I invite you to think and act
differently. And we're sharing what we're
doing 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, joined by Diane Diaz.
Hi, Diane. How are you?
Diane Diaz: I'm good. Carol. Hi.
Carol Cox: We are recording this on Thursday,
April 10th, 2025.
So very fresh and new and we have been
chatting quite a bit in our own kind of
internal meetings here, speaking your brand
about all the uncertainty that's going on and
how that affects our own planning and the
goals that we have and things that we want to
do here at Speaking Your Brand. So we figured
this is probably on your mind too,
whether it's what's going on in politics or
the economy or even just with AI and how
quickly AI is evolving and all the different
changes that are happening in our industries
and our workplaces, it can all feel really
overwhelming.
And I from talking to,
you know, various women over the past month
or so, sometimes I get the sense that a lot
of people feel almost like analysis
paralysis, or they're not quite sure what to
do because things feel so uncertain.
And so yes, there, of course,
is a time and place to kind of pause and take
stock and to think about what to do,
but oftentimes stopping for too long.
You also then lose momentum and you also
potentially lose opportunities.
So we wanted to chat with you today about
that, to kind of give you just an insight on
how we are approaching this and maybe give
you some ideas for yourself as well.
So Diane, let's let's chat a little bit about
what what have you seen either for yourself
or for some of our clients or women that
we've worked with. And what are some of the
challenges they're feeling right now?
Diane Diaz: Yeah, it's a good question, Carol.
Um, the uncertainty for sure.
Um, you know, just I think just concern in
general for, you know,
things being uncertain and how that might
impact their business impact, their work
impact, if they work for a large company,
impact their role at that company.
Um, and just wanting to stay relevant,
wanting to stay connected.
So those are just some of the conversations
that I've been having with people.
Carol Cox: And, you know, it's I think back to five
years ago, which was April of 2020.
So we were basically about a month into the
Covid pandemic here in the United States.
And that was also a huge time of uncertainty.
We had no idea how the pandemic was going to
affect us health wise,
but also society wise.
Schools, businesses work.
I mean, we couldn't even go anywhere.
And so and I remember back then that,
Diane, we saw all of our clients who we were
running programs at the time,
and they would come to us in our weekly
mastermind calls and say,
oh, my speaking engagement got canceled for
May. Then my speaking engagement got canceled
for June, and then my speaking engagement got
canceled for August.
And so we very quickly had to pivot.
And we had to think about,
well, speaking, your brand.
Obviously, we were helping a lot of our
clients with in-person speaking engagements
because that's most of what we did back then.
Some virtual presentations,
but a lot were in person,
so we had to very quickly pivot and think
about how can we best help our clients with
where they are now to repurpose their
presentations for virtual not in person,
to help them find those virtual speaking
opportunities, to help them get more
comfortable presenting virtually.
So we had to listen to them,
have conversations with them,
change our messaging and our offers to
reflect what they needed,
but then also stay in community with them and
with other entrepreneurs who that who that I
knew and that I had been friends with for
quite a while. And I what I feel like,
what often tends to happen to me when things
are uncertain, is that I have a tendency to
isolate, to like, go quiet,
and to want to be by myself.
I am an introvert, so I tend to refuel and
get more energy by reading,
or being by myself, or listening to podcasts
while I clean the house.
But which is which is necessary.
But sometimes. But I think a lot of times,
especially those of us who are introverts,
tend to overindex on isolation.
And I feel like that's the last thing to do,
especially in times of uncertainty.
Diane Diaz: Yes, I would agree with that. I'm also an
introvert. I think it also if I'm just
digging into my therapy my therapist brain,
I would say that that is probably also partly
a protective mechanism because it's to make
ourselves feel safe. I remember during the
pandemic I was getting that anxious feeling,
you know, we didn't have any idea where it
was going or what was going to happen or how
it was going to unfold.
And I actually had to write on a post-it note
and post-it on my mirrors.
You know, you're okay,
you're safe, everything's fine.
Right? So, like doing a self-assessment,
I'm like, I'm okay, everything's fine. But I
think that for me, too,
I have a tendency to just want to kind of go
in my cocoon, stay in my house because I know
I'm safe here. Right.
And so. But it is sort of an avoidance
strategy, which I don't think probably from
the short term it's okay for the long term,
probably not healthy and does not help you
reach your goals if you continue to do that,
obviously.
Carol Cox: Yes. Oh, I completely agree.
It is a coping mechanism,
whether it's, you know, self-protection, that
sense of also giving yourself a sense of
control when there are so many things that
just are not possible for us to control
external factors. So what can we control?
And there's actually a lot that we can
control within our businesses,
within the work that we're doing.
And so that's what I tend to want to focus
on. Okay. So what are the things that I can
do when I can't control everything else?
Now I am also the type of person where I will
make decisions pretty quickly.
And I am very willing to experiment and try
new things. So even again,
back in that summer of 2020,
we we decided to put together this all day
live virtual summit with ten women speakers
who we coached on their TEDx style talks.
Basically, we had this idea and by October of
2020, the whole thing was live and it was
amazing. And I feel like sometimes we a lot
of people wait until, well,
let me just see what happens next month,
or maybe things will get better. Maybe we'll
get back to normal and then I can.
I don't have to experiment or I don't have to
shift anything that I'm doing,
which may be the case,
but also I like to look at this as an
opportunity to maybe now is the time to
refresh your offerings or refresh your
messaging, because maybe it's gotten a little
stale or a little stagnant,
or you've been doing the same thing for a
while, and now you can have conversations
with your clients or potential clients and
figure out what are they needing right now,
and address that instead of just kind of
recycling the same stuff that you've been
doing.
Diane Diaz: Yeah, that's a great point. And I think that
sort of speaks to the idea that,
um, you know, I think we've talked about this
before personally, is that these things
happen in the world, whatever things are
happening, Covid, whatever. We don't have
control over that. And really,
I've come to a place of like,
who do I think I am that I would escape some
something happening in the world, right? Like
from the beginning of time,
things happen in the world, right?
And so we aren't special that we're going to
escape things happening in the world. They're
always going to happen.
So we need to figure out how to keep moving
forward in that. And I think that idea of
pivoting, refreshing your message,
looking at what best serves your clients
right now, that's a good practice and builds
a good sort of muscle for doing that again
when the next thing comes along.
Because let's be real,
that is life, right?
Things are going to come along and change,
and so getting comfortable and then staying
stuck is not the answer,
but figuring out how you can pivot and then
being good at doing that.
Being good at pivoting is a good skill.
Carol Cox: Yes, absolutely.
And when doing the pivoting is also being
able to communicate that to your audience in
a way that that it that you're empathizing
with them, that that you are understanding
where they're at and that you're there to try
to help them to solve the problems that
they're having. Because if you think about as
a business, that's what businesses do,
is they help people to solve problems.
And so the the problems that your clients may
be having now could be different than what
they had a year ago or three years ago or
five years ago.
So thinking about what that is,
you could do a survey of your past clients,
send them an email and ask them to fill out a
survey. You can send out a survey to your
email list, kind of get a sense of what
they're working on. We did this back just a
couple of months ago to get a sense of where
people were at and what they needed.
We actually ended up putting together an
online workshop back in February to help
people identify and find speaking
engagements, because that was the top thing
that the survey respondents said that they
needed help with. And the second thing on the
list was to get help on creating their
signature talk. So we'll talk about that here
in just a little bit.
But before we get into the creating your
signature talk aspect of it is that,
again, a lot of times when things feel
uncertain and we want to either isolate or we
want to kind of press pause or say that we'll
do things later.
But actually right now is the best time to do
two things. And the two things are
contradictory.
But but they are both necessary.
The first thing is to double down on whatever
is already working really well for you,
in your business and in your marketing and in
your visibility.
And we'll share what is working really well
for us. We'll double down on what's working
well, because, you know, you're already
getting results from that.
But then the second thing which I mentioned
earlier is experimentation.
Pick 1 or 2 things that you haven't maybe
done before and start experimenting.
For example, you may have noticed that we've
been putting out video podcast episodes this
year because Diane and I have been we are
fortunate enough to be able to film in one of
the studios at Full Sail University,
where we both teach, and it's a beautiful
studio and we get and we give the students an
opportunity to get hands on experience doing
the filming. So that is something new that
we're doing, and then we're cutting up the
video episodes into shorter clips for YouTube
shorts and on LinkedIn.
So again, we're kind of experimenting in that
side of visibility.
But let's go back to what we're doubling down
on, and it is in-person events and in-person
speaking engagements because we're not in the
Covid lockdown. Fortunately,
we can go out and see people,
which is really nice. And so, Diane,
tell us about the speaking engagement you did
at the beginning of February and how
successful it was for us to get clients for
an in-person workshop, and why you think that
was?
Diane Diaz: Yes. So I spoke at a local women's group and,
um, for professional executive women and I,
that speaking engagement came to me by way of
a connection, who I met years ago at another
women's group who I hadn't frankly talked to
in quite some time. But she remembered that I
spoke on the topic of personal branding. And
so when that came up, when they were planning
their programming for the year,
she reached out to me. So this had been
planned last year.
So the date they chose was February.
And so I gave the talk on personal branding
to this group. I would say there were I think
there were 65 women in attendance.
Um, and they were engaged.
They were energetic, they were excited.
They were fun. They played along with all the
activities, which was fantastic,
and it was incredibly successful.
We got some really great footage,
and because the topic was personal branding
and storytelling and your brand voice,
we connected it to the workshop that we were
putting on at the end of February,
and we were able to get three registrations
from the women that attended my talk at this
organization that ended up attending our
workshop, which was great,
and they already knew they could see us.
Me, us speaking your brand in action.
How we do things. So they were super excited
to come to the workshop.
Carol Cox: Yes, and I 100% attribute that to being in
person and them literally seeing you
speaking, because we know when people see us
speak and because we do a great job at it,
that they're like, oh, I want to learn from
Diane, or I want to learn from Carol because
I want to have the same impact in the same
results from when I go and do presentations.
So yes, the timing worked out great for that.
And so even if you're so even if you're not
speaking coaches and people, I'm not going to
hire you because they see you speak.
But there is so much trust that is
automatically generated when you're with
someone in person, number one.
And that is whether you're a speaker or
you're just meeting someone out at an event,
or meeting someone at a lunch or a coffee,
there's instant trust when you're face to
face with people in real life.
And then when you are a speaker,
there's also instant credibility Ability and
authority because you're there speaking in
the front of the room or on the stage to that
audience. So you don't have to kind of prove
prove to the audience that you can do what
what you do in your business because you have
that instant credibility and authority. And
the third thing is that you're also in front
of an engaged audience who is not distracted
by a whole bunch of stuff on their computer
screen, scrolling through LinkedIn or
Instagram and all the emails that are coming
in and all the work that they're doing on the
different browser tabs,
they're there in the room with you paying
attention for 20, 30, 40,
45 minutes. That's incredible.
You really can't get that type of attention
from people online.
It's much, much more difficult to do that.
Except, of course, you're listening to the
podcast, which is another great way to do
that.
Diane Diaz: Yeah, I think they also the other thing that
they get in person that's unique to in-person
speaking engagements is they get the
collective energy from everyone around them,
which then fuels their excitement about it.
So it's it's like it feeds on itself,
which is hard to do virtually.
Carol Cox: Oh, that's such a great point.
Right. So they see one woman getting excited
or one person getting excited and interested
in what it is that you do as as a speaker and
business owner, then other people naturally
want to get involved too.
It's like that aspect of social proof,
but it's so tangible when you're in person.
And then I know that, Diane,
you've been doing a lot of in-person coffees,
and I go to a lot of lunches as well,
like reaching out to our network and really
just and it's not about a sales pitch or it's
not even like really a business development
conversation.
It's just to build those relationships and
then get back to feeling in community.
I know every time I go to lunch with a woman
that I know here in Orlando,
and we'll chat about kind of what's going on
in the world or in what's going on with our
businesses, is that I feel less alone.
I feel like I'm not the only one who's
thinking this or experiencing this and that,
and that I feel like lessens the anxiety and
gives me a much greater sense of,
yes, we're going to get through this and
we're going to get through this together.
Diane Diaz: Absolutely. I've gone to so many coffee
meetings lately, and I've also done some
virtually. I just did one this morning with a
woman that I literally just met yesterday on
a webinar, so invited her to a virtual
coffee, which was a great conversation.
Um, and it's it is it does make you feel less
alone. And I think it also makes you feel
like you are taking some action steps towards
building a support system and a community,
which I find to be empowering because I am a
person who tends to be more introverted and
am fine being alone.
But I know that I can't.
You know I need to get out there with amongst
the people, right? Like I need to be with
people. So I know that I need to do that.
So it helps me feel like I'm actually
building that network. And, and then I always
try to then connect them with other people,
because that sort of sort of furthers it and
aligns with the values of speaking your brand
and the values that I have.
But it sort of continues the momentum,
and I think it creates some good juju in the
world. Right?
Carol Cox: Well, I love that you just met a woman
yesterday in a webinar and invited her to
virtual coffee today. I think it's also that
taking immediate action or just going ahead,
like get it done, keep the momentum going and
try to kind of keep I try to keep focus on
what am I doing this week?
I try not to scroll away about what are
things going to look like in three months or
six months or a year from now,
or anything like that? I kind of try to stay
focused on the next week or two what's on my
calendar, and if I'm finding like,
oh, my Friday lunchtime is free.
Let me, let me reach out to someone and
schedule a lunch with them.
Diane Diaz: Yes, I love that.
Carol Cox: And so thinking about kind of what we've
talked about here so far is number one,
kind of re-examine your offerings and your
messaging. Think about what your clients need
right now, where they're are. Have some
conversations with them.
Do a survey with them.
Double down on what's working really well for
you right now in your business and marketing
and visibility. And then also add some a
little bit experimentation.
I we really, really feel like you cannot go
wrong with in-person coffees,
lunches, events, speaking engagements.
That really is going to accelerate that trust
and that sense of authority and credibility
and also attracting clients to you.
And then the other thing is that as you're
working on kind of thinking about,
maybe you do need to pivot your offerings or
your message a little bit.
It's don't try to just do this all in your
own head without a sounding board or feedback
from someone else, because raising my hand
from personal experience,
I mean, I have like pages and pages of
handwritten notes in Google Docs,
and I'll even will use ChatGPT as a thinking
partner to help me generate ideas.
And it's helpful to a point.
But honestly, then I get so overwhelmed
because sometimes it comes up with so many
ideas that I don't even really know what to
do next. And so that's why I'm so grateful to
have Diane, because we'll have our meetings
and we'll talk. We'll talk,
and then we'll just figure out what's the
next thing that we're going to do,
not the next ten things or not,
what we're going to do from here for the next
year. But like, what is the next thing that
we want to do and how can we help our
clients?
Diane Diaz: Yes. Yeah, I love that. I like that idea of
focusing on just the next thing,
because then you can always have a next
thing. There's always something that you can
do. So just what's the next thing, what's the
next thing, what's the next thing?
Carol Cox: And Diane, in the notes for our conversation
today, you you put in this and I love this.
You said AA has a saying about this.
Do you want to share what that is?
Diane Diaz: Yes. And this, by the way,
this comes from my being a rabid fan for the
Armchair Expert podcast.
This is where I heard it, because of course,
the host of that is is in AA.
Um, but I just they have a lot of great
pearls of wisdom from AA that they share,
and this is one that keeps coming up over and
over. And I love it because I'm a person of
action. It's that we don't think our way to
right action, we act our way to right
thinking. And you can apply that to anything,
right? We can say, I wish I had the
motivation to work out,
but guess what? The working out gives you the
motivation to want to work out right?
So it's the doing of the thing that creates
the action to want to do the thing.
So you actually have to do it even when you
like. If you're just thinking about doing,
you don't have to wait for some motivation to
strike you to go have coffee with someone.
Just do the thing.
And then the more you do the thing, the more
you'll do the thing.
Carol Cox: Right and well. And thinking about the work
that we do with our clients,
I have heard from so many of them over the
years who are have been hesitant to go and
deliver the first their talk for the first
time. So whatever talk that we've created
with them and then we're like,
okay, but you're never going to figure out
how to make it better,
or what you want to change about it until you
give it, because it's it is never going to be
perfect. And number one, it will never be
perfect. And it will change every single time
you deliver it. But you're never going to
know that until you go and actually do it and
deliver it somewhere.
Diane Diaz: Yes, there's so much power in action,
and I think we forget that,
which I think again, speaks to that idea of
just invite someone to coffee,
even if you just met them yesterday, invite
them to coffee. Reach out and connect with
them. Connect them with someone else.
Just taking that action of what's the next
thing can create more action.
It's amazing how that works.
Carol Cox: Yes, yeah. It's like it builds like the
momentum builds on itself.
So in in keeping in all the things that we
just talked about here today and we of course
want to walk our talk.
So we too have been surveying our clients and
talking with them and figuring out what is
the best way that we can serve you all.
So we are hosting another in-person workshop
in Orlando on June 5th.
So just coming up in less than two months,
we the ones we did last fall and then this
past February were so successful.
The women loved them so much.
It was so high energy.
It was so fun.
They had a great time not only building their
stories and building their messaging and
building their talks, but being able to
practice it on the stage that we have there
in the room in such a safe,
supportive, encouraging environment.
And they literally just love meeting each
other and getting to know this incredible
network of other women entrepreneurs and
professionals. So this workshop we're calling
narrative that sells because we know that in
these uncertain times,
what your business needs is to continue to
attract leads and clients to keep the cash
flow going. So we want to help you to do
that. Now, you may be thinking,
well, but you all do public speaking and
signature talks. And what does that have to
do with narrative that sells well?
What we haven't done a great job at messaging
to you all. Is that so many of our clients,
when they have they have their signature talk
created after working with us.
They use it, yes, for their speaking
engagements, their business presentations and
their keynotes and conference sessions,
but they actually end up using it for so much
more. They use it for email nurture
sequences, copy on their website,
social media posts, podcast episodes.
If they have their own podcast,
they use it for stories and their thought
leadership, for podcast interviews or doing
other people's podcast.
They use it in sales conversations because
now they can understand for their audience
and for their potential clients what
challenges are they're facing,
and then how do they, as the business owner,
as that expert and thought leader, help them
to get past those challenges so it makes them
stand out and differentiates them from other
people who do very similar things that they
do. So our work has always been about this
idea of, I guess persuasion maybe is is a is
a good word, but I really want to you all
listening to think about this idea of
narrative that selves is how can you get
people interested in what it is that you're
doing, whether you're attracting leads and
clients for your business,
you want to attract more speaking engagements
and opportunities, maybe media and podcast
opportunities.
So that's the work that we're going to do
with you in the full day workshop in the
morning, you're going to actually create your
signature talk using our signature Talk
Canvas framework.
So I have it. If you're watching the video of
this episode, you can see it here. So we're
going to supply you with the poster board,
all the post-it notes.
And then we're going to walk you through step
by step how to fill it out for yourself.
And the same process we use in the VIP days
that we do with our clients.
So we're going to give you the same prompts,
the same questions.
You're going to fill it all out.
Then we're going to have lunch together. And
then in the afternoon we're going to talk
about delivering your message.
So how do you embody your message.
So yes, for speaking engagements,
but also when you're meeting people at
networking events, what is that elevator
pitch, but in the best way,
like in a conversational way?
How do you tell people what you do?
How do you how do you embody that sense of
confidence that you have in your business and
the work that you do with your clients?
So that's what we're going to get you on the
stage and where you're going to have you
practice a story or have you practice a
portion of your talk.
It truly will accelerate your messaging and
your speaking delivery skills.
With this one day workshop,
you can get all of the details as speaking
your Brand.com workshop and as a podcast
listener. You can use the Coupon Code podcast
200 to get $200 off the price.
So the coupon code is podcast 200.
So altogether podcast 200 to get $200 off.
And that's at speaking your brand.
Com slash workshop.
And of course then you're also going to be in
a room full of other amazing entrepreneurs
and professionals.
Diane, what's your favorite part of these
in-person workshops?
Diane Diaz: I think the connection and just seeing seeing
the attendees, sort of the light bulb moments
of when they really get whatever the thing is
we're talking about and it really sinks in
and how they can use it.
And I want to add to just I know some people
are going to hear this podcast episode and
think, oh, but I don't want to be a speaker.
You don't have to want to be a speaker for
this to help you if you do sales calls with
potential clients, if you,
um, network, which we all do,
right? If you do, if you do anything to
promote the company that you don't work or
that you don't own, right.
Any of those things, if you're promoting
anything of any kind to anyone,
even just yourself, promoting yourself to
other people, this is the workshop for you,
because you are going to have those light
bulb moments of like, oh,
that's how I can say that.
That's how it's going to resonate with
someone. That's how it's really going to sink
in. So they understand what I do and how I
can help them. So I just wanted to share
that.
Carol Cox: Yes. Thank you so much for adding that note.
So if you are, whether you're a business
owner, if you are in marketing,
if you're in sales, if you are a in a
nonprofit and you're doing fundraising
development or you're doing business
development for a company or an organization,
understanding how to explain what it is that
you do and why you do it is absolutely
essential. And I know that for those of you
listening, you probably do this already.
But then like like we've been talking about.
But as things change externally,
we also have to we have to refine and we have
to change how we talk about what we do.
And you need that sounding board of other
people, especially other people who are not
within your company, organization or your
industry to give you that feedback.
Because a lot of times we're in our bubbles
and we understand what we say really well to
the people who are around us in our companies
and organizations, because we all understand
the same things. When you go talk to someone
else who's not in your industry or doesn't
work in that nonprofit space,
and they're like, what? I don't really
understand what it is that that you're doing
or what you want me to do next.
So again, get all the details of Speaking
your Brand workshop.
We would absolutely love to have you here.
In our last workshops,
we've had people fly from Los Angeles,
Seattle, Washington, DC,
Texas all throughout Florida to come here to
Orlando. So you don't have to be in the
Orlando area or in Florida.
You can come from anywhere.
It's on a Thursday, so you can come and stay
for a long weekend and enjoy the sunshine and
the beaches here in Florida as well.
All right, Diane, well, thank you so much
once again for joining me in this
conversation.
Diane Diaz: My pleasure.
Carol Cox: Until next time. Thanks for listening.