December 31, 2024 • 34 mins
Discover how branding shaped Zach Colman's TEDx journey beyond just logos! In this episode we go into the core of Zach's personal and professional brand! Whether you're aspiring to be on a TEDx stage or looking to elevate your personal brand, join me as I share pivotal insights and experiences that could transform your path.
Want to access to TEDx applications and opportunities? Go here: 👉https://RobinNathaniel.com
Zach's TEDx Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LA6JNgIQXo
Zach's Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/6sharRQYQAZtouvIecXpP6
We Support MOSAIC GEORGIA Go Here to Donate: 👉https://bit.ly/donatetomosaic
WATCH Robin's TEDx TALK Go here: 👉https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHtx1N9YWig&feature=youtu.be
Join our FREE Facebook Group: Go here: 👉https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToTEDx
Want Robin to SPEAK at your next event or support you with social media? https://beacons.ai/robbinmarx
Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Go here: 👉https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/red-circle-talk-by-robin-nathaniel/id1759246927
Let's connect on LinkedIn Go here: 👉https://linkedin.com/in/robbinmarx
Want to access to TEDx applications and opportunities? Go here: 👉https://RobinNathaniel.com
Zach's TEDx Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LA6JNgIQXo
Zach's Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/6sharRQYQAZtouvIecXpP6
We Support MOSAIC GEORGIA Go Here to Donate: 👉https://bit.ly/donatetomosaic
WATCH Robin's TEDx TALK Go here: 👉https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHtx1N9YWig&feature=youtu.be
Join our FREE Facebook Group: Go here: 👉https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToTEDx
Want Robin to SPEAK at your next event or support you with social media? https://beacons.ai/robbinmarx
Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Go here: 👉https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/red-circle-talk-by-robin-nathaniel/id1759246927
Let's connect on LinkedIn Go here: 👉https://linkedin.com/in/robbinmarx
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Delegate. Delegate, how all these people do this?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Create a logo, create create color schemes, create a website,
create this stuff, which that stuff's all needed, but that
stuff's not going to really go anywhere unless you understand
your own message and your own vision.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
We are back with my man, Zach Coleman.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
He's a brand strategist, actually one of the thought leaders
in this space when it comes to branding, design, advertisement marketing.
But also, as you know, he is a ted X
speaker and was so grateful to have him.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Zach, Welcome to the.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Show, man. I really do appreciate you having me on.
It's a pleasure.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yup, my honor.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
I know we had some time to connect after my
TEDx talk and I appreciate your time. And it was
in the time period before your talk you were in
preparation for your talk.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I remember just connecting with you.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
So since then you've landed on the stage delivered your talk.
Let's start from the beginning, though. Let's go to Genesis
chapter one, page one. Can you tell me about the
day that you decided, like, you know, what I want
to do that thing. Was it a talk that you heard,
was it something that's kind of always been on your
list of things to do. Talk to me about the
(01:19):
early beginnings of your of your journey of being a
teedech speaker.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
You know, honestly, I think it's a little bit. I mean,
I think we all have our own journey, right and
in mine, it seems so long ago now, it was
like two years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It wasn't necessarily me seeing their talks, which I've seen
plenty of talks before. It never really crossed my mind
during that point. But out of nowhere, you know, I
was just in contact with someone, I was working with someone,
and it just dawned on me, you know, with where
I was at my in my business and where I
(01:52):
was trying to get to that something was missing and
I couldn't quite like figure out what it was. And
I think, an, aha, Well, you could say that you
think a certain agenda is what you're trying to do,
but then once you start going into the journey of
ted X, you start like preparing, you kind of realize
what your real agenda is. And I think that when
(02:13):
I first decided I want to do a ted X,
it was hey, you know, I thought that I wanted
to find another way for me to be seen or
heard that's what I thought that I wanted. In reality,
as I duck deeper into myself and I was going
through the process, I realized I really just wanted to
become a better leader. I wanted to start leading a team.
(02:36):
My vision was I wanted to do better at leading
my team and being able to communicate with my audience
and my internal teammates. And so really I think that
that's what hit me to start start the process, was Hey,
I just want to be a better communicator and what
(02:56):
else to do? So then hit my biggest fear of.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Being on a stage in front of hundreds and hundreds
of people.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
That's good.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
That's good because one thing that I'm hearing from folks
is that something most of them had it like on
their vision board. A lot of people like my vision board,
my plans, like my bucket list, all of these kind
of terms. I had a couple of people that were like,
what was it? Well to tedex talk and didn't know
about it, But I think yours is interesting because you
(03:29):
did mention your business, and I know in this space
there is you know, I guess force fields that prevent
people from pitching or like you know, barriers in place
from pitching, and you didn't pitch, but you definitely had
keywords in the title of your talk aligned with your brand,
which I think is really dope that you took the
(03:50):
thing that you do for business but actually humanized it
to a sense where you made it more general available
for people to receive the message out necessarily talking about
your services or your or your expertise. So talk to
me a little bit about that, because the name of
the talk is how branding helps develop you talk to
(04:10):
me about that fine line and how you actually executed
it very well in terms of creating a message that
was aligned with your profession but also was general enough
where people could receive the message.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, well, if you wanted to go back a little
bit on my whole journey, you know, I got my
my bachelor's and visual communications, and so I was very
prone into the visual side of you know, like you said,
design and the development side that the tangible elements. That
(04:44):
funny enough, I think so many people just assume branding
is is that I was.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Growing my brand. My brand, I.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Kind of had to take a step backwards because I'm
a good delegator. I was in the corporate world for
you know, ten plus years before I went on my
own and I just got so used to delegating that
I never took time to realize that my own authentic voice,
in my own message was so powerful. And so I
(05:13):
actually went through the journey. As I was going through
the journey of the ted X experience, I actually learned
myself how to build a personal how how to build
my brand personally, and how I.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Had to take a step back to be able to
do that.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So many people just assume that hey, like just just
or delegate, delegate, How all these people do this? Create
a logo, create create color schemes, create a website, create
this stuff, which that stuff's all needed, But that stuff's
not going to really go anywhere unless you understand your
own message and your own vision. And so I started
(05:53):
to see this correlation. I started to see this correlation
between personal development and the mentality of people, and how
the CEOs and the marketing directors and the leadership roles
are really.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
The brand.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
They're they're what they do and how they do it
are going to be what moved the company forward. They're
they're going to be the essence of how a company
evolves with everything that they do and so as I
was going through my journey, that's that's kind of what
I started to see, is that personal branding and that
personal development side and how important it was and how
(06:37):
you know, it dawned on me. I'm like, this is branding,
you know, this is branding in a nutshell like it's
just from a personal level and finding your true authentic
self so that you can start taking that true authenticity
and start replicating it amongst team clients.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Whatever you're doing.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And so throughout my whole process, you know, I had
to be like, well, if I'm going to get up
on this stage and speak speak my message the best
way I can, the most authentic way I can, I
have to live through what I'm doing, you know, I
have to live through what I'm doing. And so through that,
(07:19):
through that whole process is how I came up with
my three basic branding principles of you know, connection, confidence,
and contribution. And I think that you know, all of
them have a sense of the tangible side of things.
But it's that intangible that I think people tend to
kind of miss and need to realize that, hey, this
(07:43):
is branding. And I think that that's what got me
to start to develop my message so that it just
you know, it's difficult, right they say, you know, you're
not allowed to go up on stage and pitch, and
that's not what I was trying to do. So I
had to do my best to I how to do
my best to be like, hey, how can I help
these people the best way I can so that they
(08:05):
can take away some actionable items? Because I am living
it every day. I am a business owner. This is
what I do, right, So I had to be able
to find a much more personal way to showcase these
branding principles and get people to kind of see that
(08:25):
it's the experiences in the journey and the learning that
help define you know where your brand's going to go.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Love that. Love that.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
So let's just before we go deeper into the Tedex process,
I want to stay here on branding for a second.
So many of the folks who listen to the show,
people who are on the mailing list for the show,
the speakers, aspiring speakers, establish speakers, and many of them
struggle with the concept that as a speaker, I'm also
(09:02):
a brand, right, So maybe take a second to apply
these three principles that you shared and and kind of
weave it into a new speaker's you know, you know,
formula of what they're trying to present as they go
through their journey.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I'm I'm a new speaker.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
How can I use these principal principles to apply it
to my developing brand?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah? Definitely.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Well, first off, I would say probably the one that
burns us out the most, I would say is, uh,
the branding principle of connection. And so if you're a
new speaker, you kind of have to tend to understand
that your values and what what you live by are
what are going to motivate you for the people that
(09:50):
you connect with, the people that you work with, the
people that your audience is.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
You always hear.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
That big, that big trope out there that you know,
it's always about money, right, They always say, hey, you know,
the more money you make you work with those types
of people, and it's like, no, really, it's you value
very similar things to the values of those types of people.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So I would say a good step for a beginner
speaker is just really sit down and really define your
personal values. What are your personal values, what do you
value in life? And how do you take those personal
values and not going to say, systematize them, but utilize
them to build your vision and build what you want
(10:36):
out of your you know, speaker career. Are you going
to have services? Are you going to create a SaaS product?
Like what is your overall goal? Is a speaker and
a potential CEO of your company? As you continue to
grow what you're doing as a speaker, and you know
you're just going to be a speaker, that's okay too.
You know, there's plenty of different directions you can go,
(10:58):
but they're all going to be kind of determined. Men
buy your values and the people that you connect with.
And so I use connection on a you know, a
daily basis, like I do these podcasts like this is
something of mine. I have an internal podcast as well,
and connection for me brings me alive, you know, especially
being in a in a field that is this very
(11:20):
heavily uh remote and digital, Like I'm like, hey, I
need my sense of connection, and so I make sure
that I'm on the daily trying to connect with people
and have conversations with people that have similar troubles, similar promise,
similar vision that I do. And so finding your personal
(11:40):
values I think are a good step. Now you may
excuse me, you may already have those values, or you
may have to look back and say, hey, what in
my life from a personal from personal experiences, any time
in my life have I been happy?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Like?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
What are times that I've been really just me, my
prime who I am? And find out what in those
scenarios really.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Drove you to be happy?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
And so leverage those experiences to think back and go, okay,
well that through that time. For instance, for me, I
value funny enough my core principles. Does that have became
my values in my brand and my business? But you
know I really value communication. I really value communication. And
(12:35):
so that goes back to hey, I'm I'm I'm only
gonna work with people. I'm only gonna work with companies
that really value that sense of communication. I'm only going
to I'm going to make sure that I'm having conversations
on the daily with my family and with my kids.
If it's from a personal that I'm communicating to them,
(12:55):
I'm making sure that we're having solid communication because to me,
communication is such a such a core value of mine personally.
And then number two, I would say is confidence. I
think it's very easy for all of us, entrepreneur or
(13:15):
not leadership role moving higher up wherever you're trying to go.
Is we build a sense of ego around what we do,
and there's a lot to unpack there for all of us.
I mean, we're all allowed to have a little bit
of ego in us. It helps push us. But I
try to refrain people from realizing that, you know, having
(13:40):
an having some ego is only going to hold you
back because it's going to stop you from innovation and
growth as a person. And so for me, it's all
about confidence. You know, it's all about hey, like, be
okay with failing, be okay with learning, be okay with
take making those failures and adapting them to reach a
(14:04):
successful point. And so confidence is really all about that
being able to accept, learn and grow from your past
failures knowing that you're taking that one percent every day
and that confidence is going to show forth. And you
know almost everything that you do, and you know the
(14:25):
way you talk, the way you present yourself, how authentic
you are and talking about your your own failures online
or in person, and how vulnerable you are with those
scenarios and even down to if you want to take
it from a branding perspective, and the principles of what
we do from the visual communication side and developing certain
(14:48):
things like I can tell pretty pretty fast when I
look at a company or I'm dealing with customer service
or I'm dealing with how comfor and they really are
in the growth of their own brand just by the
way they treat the other people around their organization, the
way that they spread their message. And so yeah, I
(15:15):
think that confidence is just something that we all can
kind of look at and say, hey, how do I
build more confidence in myself and allow that confidence to
be something that you continue to.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Grow on.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
A great example for me is taking the tech ex
journey right looking at a fear of mine of Hey,
I know, if I'm going to take it to the
next level, I need to start having better communication and
speaking and being more authoritative. And the only way I
can do that is by facing it head on and
knowing I'm going to have a lot of challenge. You
look at my YouTube channel from two and a half
(15:49):
years ago, and you can like I look at it
and I'm like, oh man, you can just tell I'm
reading from script after script after script after script, just
trying to do the hustle culture and I'm like that
didn't work. I wasn't an authentic I wasn't myself, you know,
But that was also a learning experience for me to
build confidence to get better and so be able to
(16:11):
allow yourself to continue to practice, learn and grow. Another
great example is these podcasts. You know, if you're taking
a tech ex journy, if you're going on a tech
ex journey, or you're going on the speaking route and
you're just starting out speaking, take your message and continue
to try to enhance.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
It, grow off it.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Learn what you say from podcasts, and get on podcasts
to use it as a testing ground so you can
get used to being face to face from a smaller aspect.
And so confidence is the second branding principle and it
can be kind of seen in almost everything you do.
And I think, lastly is my contribution pillar from a
(16:54):
branding perspective, I like to I like to emphasize it
a little bit differently than than most people think. Most
people look at contribution and they think, Okay, I'm just
going to go out and I'm going to donate money
to this this charity, or I'm going to contribute my
time to help a local organization, which is all great
I say, everyone do that, but it's more of the
(17:16):
contribution on understanding who you're who you are contributing to
in the world. Who is your real ideal audience that
inspires you that you know that you can help the most,
and how can you help them? And on my on
my ted X, I talk a lot about you know,
(17:37):
this local pizza joint and a local citizen who came
up with an idea of contributing to their local community
by offering IOUs and free meals to help to help
the local the local community. So they were contributing, Yes,
they were doing they were giving meals away for free,
(17:57):
but they use the community of the people around them
to help emphasize this not just as a brand, but
as a local community. And so being able to find
ways that you can contribute and looking at it less
so as hey, this is just I'm just trying to
make money. I'm just trying to make money, which money
(18:17):
is important, it always will be, but looking at it
more as an energy and how can I really help
someone the most effective way I can? What is what
is it in branding that is your audience? So being
able to sit down and look at your values and
look at your vision and then really decide to say, hey,
(18:40):
who is that? Who is that audience? Who do I
feel like I can help the most? Who is going
to give me the most passion? Who am I going
to be able to look at and say, Hey, I'm
glad I was able to make a difference with these
people in my life and focus on allowing them to
be your overall all audience that you can make your
(19:02):
contribution towards YEP.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
I think one thing that you said that really stood
out to me was when you were talking about confidence,
about having confidence in all you do, but having confidence
and failure. I think that's really huge, especially you know,
I think about my own journey and as a professional.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Right.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
You talked a little bit about folks having almost like
their identity intertwined with their jobs and having that ego
built in because of that. I think for many years
in my career, especially moving up in leadership, that I
was my job, you know what I mean, and it.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Was like there was this whole.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Segment of my identity that was aligned with it. It
wasn't until my wife, she actually helped me with this,
right she said, she said, do what you are, you know,
as opposed to like doing a job.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
She's just be you and take that wherever you go.
So the job can change, but you won't change.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
The business model for my business might change, but I'm
still me and I think that's something I give her
credit for that because I hit a switch and it
happened around you know, two thousand, the pandemic, leaving my
job that I was at for ten years. You know,
I started from the bottom and moved up second in
command in one of the biggest nonprofits in the country,
(20:24):
and I felt like my identity.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Was stripped from me.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Zach I was like, like, who am I now? And
it took me that year or two to kind of
understand what it's like to be a free agent and
have options, but also to understand that I'm more than
my job. So I love that you mentioned that. So
folks will definitely want to know what your application process
is because that's kind of one of our traditions here, understanding, like,
(20:50):
you know, because people have different stories. We've had folks
on the show who were tapped, like, hey, we want
you to come do this talk, and we've had people
who've applied and applied got accepted to a talk in
London and flew to London and do that first talk.
So talk to me about your application process.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Well, yeah, first off, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be
very authentic here and vulnerable because my TED experience wasn't
probably the smoothest there could have possibly been. I had
a lot of hurdles I had to go through personally
because remember I wasn't really a speaker before I started
the process.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I didn't have any talks under my belt.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
I was a true definition of I'm going through this journey,
and I'm learning this journey as I go and learning
how to do it right. And so when I think
that when I first started the process and the application process,
I I think I hit probably about one hundred different
(21:50):
one hundred different applications that I that I went through
to do this, and and you know, I fumbled.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
I it was weird.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
When I was in the corporate world, I was great
at interviews, right, but for some reason, when I was
starting to go into these interviews for the tech for
the tetech experience, as you can see that throughout my
confidence pillar, I was still learning, I was growing and
I was pushing forward, and so I think I I
jumped on about three or four interview process. So you know,
I created my demo reel and I continue to improve
(22:22):
my demo reel of the organizations that fit the locations
that really fit, you know, places in my life that
I have been or that I have family at, and
then we just had to make sure it matched their
theme right. And so how brainding helps develop you is
was an evolving process that took me, I think around
(22:45):
a year and two months before I finally got my
teed X. There was one point. There was one point
where I was submitting applications. I had two or three
interviews at one I'd make it to the second round.
I mean, there was a couple of times when I
even had it, an organization tell me, oh, we we can't.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Tell you you got it, but be happy.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
And then a day later I'd get like, a you
didn't qualify email and I'm like, dude, they just told
me that I got it. So it's just a it's
just a perseverance type thing. If you're you're doing it
for the first time and it's something you really want
to do, you could get it. You know, month one,
you could get it month two. If you've never been
(23:29):
in the experience before I look at it a lot
like I look at it a lot like you know,
finding a job that you're really passionate about, you know,
going through an interview process. But they're all different. All
of the processes each place you go to is going
to be a little bit different when you do your pitch,
So you have to be okay with you have to
(23:53):
be okay with kind of going with it and just
allowing whatever they want to be what they want and
enjoy it. And through that whole process, I was continuing
to evolve my speech. I was continue to improve it,
and I actually got to a point where I was like,
you know what, I'm getting ready to shift my whole speech,
(24:17):
do a whole different speech. And I actually did. I
started creating a new draft, started creating a new title
and getting ready to push that out there.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
And I got about.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Round two of my second version, and then my first
one got picked. So it was a process of like
looking at.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
It in the energy.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Now I'm like, oh, I'll be able to use that
second one for my next one, and it will come
faster because now I've been through the process and I've
learned from it, And I think it was an energy
and I like how at the beginning of this you said,
how we first met. I actually went and saw your
TEDx in Atlanta. Like, I went there and I got
(24:57):
I got selected I think three days after that.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Three days after that, so and it definitely helped push me.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Now, that process took forever, but I had two months
now before I was going to go on stage. So
once I was selected, you know, they approved my speech,
we went through the process. Here's the thing, because I
had so much preparation beforehand that the two months beforehand
was a breeze. I was pretty much done with my speech.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Now it was just.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Going through and improving and for me personally, just going
through the process. I mean, I bought a rug. I
practice on the rug. You know, I made sure I
practiced my speech every day at least two or three
times until I got to that point where I felt
(25:50):
very comfortable and.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
About a month.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
To the date, I was like, I'm pretty much good here,
Like I had it memorized. I was, you know, was
able to start practicing my tone and all the other
stuff that comes with doing the ted X naturally and
having it speak a little bit more better. And you know,
then I got there. I flew out there. I flew
(26:19):
out to mine was in California. I flew out there
by myself. My family was here, my my young three
kids and my wife stayed here. But then I had
my wife and my oldest flyout because he was my
motivation on that stage, and so I wanted my family
to be there, and they were there, and I'll say,
(26:41):
I'll say this, no preparation is going to prepare you
until you get it on that stage, you know. So
I made sure that I practiced on that stage for
what I can when it was open. Uh, I think
I got like five or six, which is a lot.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
I probably got pretty lucky.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I was the only one doing it, but I was
up there practicing it with the lights and the environment,
making sure the environment's really big for me.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
And then yeah, I think that was my overall process.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
I'll share something you talked about the lights and being
on the stage. So about a week before my talk,
my daughter had a dancer title. The dancer title happened
to be in the same venue that I was going
to speak at in a week. So, Zach, when I
walk in the joint, I'm like taking the energy and
(27:39):
you know, like, I'm walking down the aisles. We're sitting
probably in the third row. So what do I do.
I go out to the front of the of the
right in front of the stage. Mind, you know, my
family is not sitting there, right and my wife.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Is like, like, what are you doing?
Speaker 4 (27:55):
And I stand in the front, Zach, and I just
stand there and I soak it in. Before I even
came to dress rehearsal. One could say that you could
be embarrassed or whatever, but for me, I was so
locked in that I just needed to take that minute
for myself. So I can relate to that, Like, before
you get on stage, anything you can do, whether it's
buying a circular red rug, you know, you know, creating
(28:19):
some kind of space that will give you that feel,
I think it will help you out.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
I think environment is a huge situation, even to this point. Now,
if I'm pitching or trying to do workshops or presentations
somewhere else, I'm like, I want pictures. I want anything
that's gonna help me, cause I'm not just jumping on
a stage that I don't know, you know, So having
any sort of environmental help and understanding where people are
(28:48):
gonna sit, I think the hardest part is that they
are all different, right, Like I know that you had
a screen.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
I didn't have it.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
We had a projector come down with our stage, but
our projector was in a place where when we got there,
I had to make the conscious decision to cut my
whole my whole presentation, and I'm like, no, I want
to be the focus of this. I can do without
my presentation. And so I didn't even have a presentation
to allow my cues. And so I had to then
(29:18):
learn within the three days before, like, okay, make sure
I can now do this without a presentation, and I'm
good with it, and so being able to make small
pivots knowing that you're probably going to have to make
small pivots. But overall, I think that just I think
if I could give anyone advice that's looking to go
(29:39):
up on stage or looking to do the Tetech experiences,
really just enjoy it and be yourself, you know, because
my experience took so long, I got to the point
where I had I was putting a lot of pressure
on myself. You know, I had two years, two years
(29:59):
of thinking about this thing, and so I was I was,
I was, I was up.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
There like, oh here it is. Here it is.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
And nothing's nothing is going to stop you in your
tracks more. No matter how much preparations you do, nothing's
going to stop you in your in your tracks more
than yourself, you know, and being up there and being like, well,
here it is.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
So just having fun with it, learning the experience definitely helps.
And just give me like allowing yourself to know that
that's part of building confidence.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
I want to make sure we get to this before
we finish up. Talk to me about your transformation now,
So has there been a major transformation since you walked
off of the stage. Is there any difference in your
personal life your professional life as a leader?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Talk to me about that change. What what has life
been for you after ted X?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
You know, honestly, I think the experience itself of ted
X and the journey on getting there was more powerful
than being on stage, you know. I think that the
experience of learning my own going through my own TEDEX
(31:26):
experience itself allowed me to.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Live it, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
And so now now when I I watch my ted
X or I promoted out there to other people, it's
it's me being able to show them leading by example, right,
And I think that that's that's the biggest thing there is.
I am now able to tell my team like, hey,
(31:56):
I led by example, I did a ted X.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
I can tell my my prospects and my clients. Hey,
you know before we even have a conversation. You know,
I love for you to watch my teed X because
to me, that's if they don't match those values, they
don't match those they don't match that same type of
determination in themselves and that perseverance, then it's going to
(32:21):
be very hard for us to connect and work together.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
And I don't I don't like to work with people
that are not nice.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
So so so I think that the TEDx experience has
helped helped in that aspect as well. But I would
say overall, I would say it's the experience of the
tet X that I have seen the most impact from
allowing myself to continue to use those three pillars. Like
I said, they are now my values. So utilizing those values,
(32:57):
utilizing those values to be able to and implementing them
into me personally on a day to day perspective and
the growth of my brand has probably been the most impactful.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
Very nice, well, thank you so much for that, Zach,
and we appreciate you coming on. Before we get out
of here, I want to make sure I give you
a little bit of time to just tell to people
what you're talking about. I know you mentioned your podcast,
so if you want to just plug that, we'll also
have links to everything he talks about in the description
or show notes of the episode.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Flow is yours?
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Yeah, definitely, we do have our own We do have
our own podcasts. It's called the Jim break Cast. It's
where we just go to and talk about our visionary
type ideas that we all come up with during our
normal daily you know, Jim Break And I would also
love if anyone wanted to watch my ted X. I'll
give you mine and you can throw it in the
show notes. And how branding can help develop you and
(33:52):
no matter where you're at in your journey of growing yourself,
growing your brand, growing your business, I think it's definitely
it can definitely help you probably understand some things within
yourself that can help move you forward.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
All right, thank you so much, Zach. We'll see you soon.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Thank you
Delegate. Delegate, how all these people do this?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Create a logo, create create color schemes, create a website,
create this stuff, which that stuff's all needed, but that
stuff's not going to really go anywhere unless you understand
your own message and your own vision.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
We are back with my man, Zach Coleman.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
He's a brand strategist, actually one of the thought leaders
in this space when it comes to branding, design, advertisement marketing.
But also, as you know, he is a ted X
speaker and was so grateful to have him.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Zach, Welcome to the.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Show, man. I really do appreciate you having me on.
It's a pleasure.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yup, my honor.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
I know we had some time to connect after my
TEDx talk and I appreciate your time. And it was
in the time period before your talk you were in
preparation for your talk.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I remember just connecting with you.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
So since then you've landed on the stage delivered your talk.
Let's start from the beginning, though. Let's go to Genesis
chapter one, page one. Can you tell me about the
day that you decided, like, you know, what I want
to do that thing. Was it a talk that you heard,
was it something that's kind of always been on your
list of things to do. Talk to me about the
(01:19):
early beginnings of your of your journey of being a
teedech speaker.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
You know, honestly, I think it's a little bit. I mean,
I think we all have our own journey, right and
in mine, it seems so long ago now, it was
like two years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It wasn't necessarily me seeing their talks, which I've seen
plenty of talks before. It never really crossed my mind
during that point. But out of nowhere, you know, I
was just in contact with someone, I was working with someone,
and it just dawned on me, you know, with where
I was at my in my business and where I
(01:52):
was trying to get to that something was missing and
I couldn't quite like figure out what it was. And
I think, an, aha, Well, you could say that you
think a certain agenda is what you're trying to do,
but then once you start going into the journey of
ted X, you start like preparing, you kind of realize
what your real agenda is. And I think that when
(02:13):
I first decided I want to do a ted X,
it was hey, you know, I thought that I wanted
to find another way for me to be seen or
heard that's what I thought that I wanted. In reality,
as I duck deeper into myself and I was going
through the process, I realized I really just wanted to
become a better leader. I wanted to start leading a team.
(02:36):
My vision was I wanted to do better at leading
my team and being able to communicate with my audience
and my internal teammates. And so really I think that
that's what hit me to start start the process, was Hey,
I just want to be a better communicator and what
(02:56):
else to do? So then hit my biggest fear of.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Being on a stage in front of hundreds and hundreds
of people.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
That's good.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
That's good because one thing that I'm hearing from folks
is that something most of them had it like on
their vision board. A lot of people like my vision board,
my plans, like my bucket list, all of these kind
of terms. I had a couple of people that were like,
what was it? Well to tedex talk and didn't know
about it, But I think yours is interesting because you
(03:29):
did mention your business, and I know in this space
there is you know, I guess force fields that prevent
people from pitching or like you know, barriers in place
from pitching, and you didn't pitch, but you definitely had
keywords in the title of your talk aligned with your brand,
which I think is really dope that you took the
(03:50):
thing that you do for business but actually humanized it
to a sense where you made it more general available
for people to receive the message out necessarily talking about
your services or your or your expertise. So talk to
me a little bit about that, because the name of
the talk is how branding helps develop you talk to
(04:10):
me about that fine line and how you actually executed
it very well in terms of creating a message that
was aligned with your profession but also was general enough
where people could receive the message.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, well, if you wanted to go back a little
bit on my whole journey, you know, I got my
my bachelor's and visual communications, and so I was very
prone into the visual side of you know, like you said,
design and the development side that the tangible elements. That
(04:44):
funny enough, I think so many people just assume branding
is is that I was.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Growing my brand. My brand, I.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Kind of had to take a step backwards because I'm
a good delegator. I was in the corporate world for
you know, ten plus years before I went on my
own and I just got so used to delegating that
I never took time to realize that my own authentic voice,
in my own message was so powerful. And so I
(05:13):
actually went through the journey. As I was going through
the journey of the ted X experience, I actually learned
myself how to build a personal how how to build
my brand personally, and how I.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Had to take a step back to be able to
do that.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So many people just assume that hey, like just just
or delegate, delegate, How all these people do this? Create
a logo, create create color schemes, create a website, create
this stuff, which that stuff's all needed, But that stuff's
not going to really go anywhere unless you understand your
own message and your own vision. And so I started
(05:53):
to see this correlation. I started to see this correlation
between personal development and the mentality of people, and how
the CEOs and the marketing directors and the leadership roles
are really.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
The brand.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
They're they're what they do and how they do it
are going to be what moved the company forward. They're
they're going to be the essence of how a company
evolves with everything that they do and so as I
was going through my journey, that's that's kind of what
I started to see, is that personal branding and that
personal development side and how important it was and how
(06:37):
you know, it dawned on me. I'm like, this is branding,
you know, this is branding in a nutshell like it's
just from a personal level and finding your true authentic
self so that you can start taking that true authenticity
and start replicating it amongst team clients.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Whatever you're doing.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And so throughout my whole process, you know, I had
to be like, well, if I'm going to get up
on this stage and speak speak my message the best
way I can, the most authentic way I can, I
have to live through what I'm doing, you know, I
have to live through what I'm doing. And so through that,
(07:19):
through that whole process is how I came up with
my three basic branding principles of you know, connection, confidence,
and contribution. And I think that you know, all of
them have a sense of the tangible side of things.
But it's that intangible that I think people tend to
kind of miss and need to realize that, hey, this
(07:43):
is branding. And I think that that's what got me
to start to develop my message so that it just
you know, it's difficult, right they say, you know, you're
not allowed to go up on stage and pitch, and
that's not what I was trying to do. So I
had to do my best to I how to do
my best to be like, hey, how can I help
these people the best way I can so that they
(08:05):
can take away some actionable items? Because I am living
it every day. I am a business owner. This is
what I do, right, So I had to be able
to find a much more personal way to showcase these
branding principles and get people to kind of see that
(08:25):
it's the experiences in the journey and the learning that
help define you know where your brand's going to go.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Love that. Love that.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
So let's just before we go deeper into the Tedex process,
I want to stay here on branding for a second.
So many of the folks who listen to the show,
people who are on the mailing list for the show,
the speakers, aspiring speakers, establish speakers, and many of them
struggle with the concept that as a speaker, I'm also
(09:02):
a brand, right, So maybe take a second to apply
these three principles that you shared and and kind of
weave it into a new speaker's you know, you know,
formula of what they're trying to present as they go
through their journey.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I'm I'm a new speaker.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
How can I use these principal principles to apply it
to my developing brand?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah? Definitely.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Well, first off, I would say probably the one that
burns us out the most, I would say is, uh,
the branding principle of connection. And so if you're a
new speaker, you kind of have to tend to understand
that your values and what what you live by are
what are going to motivate you for the people that
(09:50):
you connect with, the people that you work with, the
people that your audience is.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
You always hear.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
That big, that big trope out there that you know,
it's always about money, right, They always say, hey, you know,
the more money you make you work with those types
of people, and it's like, no, really, it's you value
very similar things to the values of those types of people.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So I would say a good step for a beginner
speaker is just really sit down and really define your
personal values. What are your personal values, what do you
value in life? And how do you take those personal
values and not going to say, systematize them, but utilize
them to build your vision and build what you want
(10:36):
out of your you know, speaker career. Are you going
to have services? Are you going to create a SaaS product?
Like what is your overall goal? Is a speaker and
a potential CEO of your company? As you continue to
grow what you're doing as a speaker, and you know
you're just going to be a speaker, that's okay too.
You know, there's plenty of different directions you can go,
(10:58):
but they're all going to be kind of determined. Men
buy your values and the people that you connect with.
And so I use connection on a you know, a
daily basis, like I do these podcasts like this is
something of mine. I have an internal podcast as well,
and connection for me brings me alive, you know, especially
being in a in a field that is this very
(11:20):
heavily uh remote and digital, Like I'm like, hey, I
need my sense of connection, and so I make sure
that I'm on the daily trying to connect with people
and have conversations with people that have similar troubles, similar promise,
similar vision that I do. And so finding your personal
(11:40):
values I think are a good step. Now you may
excuse me, you may already have those values, or you
may have to look back and say, hey, what in
my life from a personal from personal experiences, any time
in my life have I been happy?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Like?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
What are times that I've been really just me, my
prime who I am? And find out what in those
scenarios really.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Drove you to be happy?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
And so leverage those experiences to think back and go, okay,
well that through that time. For instance, for me, I
value funny enough my core principles. Does that have became
my values in my brand and my business? But you
know I really value communication. I really value communication. And
(12:35):
so that goes back to hey, I'm I'm I'm only
gonna work with people. I'm only gonna work with companies
that really value that sense of communication. I'm only going
to I'm going to make sure that I'm having conversations
on the daily with my family and with my kids.
If it's from a personal that I'm communicating to them,
(12:55):
I'm making sure that we're having solid communication because to me,
communication is such a such a core value of mine personally.
And then number two, I would say is confidence. I
think it's very easy for all of us, entrepreneur or
(13:15):
not leadership role moving higher up wherever you're trying to go.
Is we build a sense of ego around what we do,
and there's a lot to unpack there for all of us.
I mean, we're all allowed to have a little bit
of ego in us. It helps push us. But I
try to refrain people from realizing that, you know, having
(13:40):
an having some ego is only going to hold you
back because it's going to stop you from innovation and
growth as a person. And so for me, it's all
about confidence. You know, it's all about hey, like, be
okay with failing, be okay with learning, be okay with
take making those failures and adapting them to reach a
(14:04):
successful point. And so confidence is really all about that
being able to accept, learn and grow from your past
failures knowing that you're taking that one percent every day
and that confidence is going to show forth. And you
know almost everything that you do, and you know the
(14:25):
way you talk, the way you present yourself, how authentic
you are and talking about your your own failures online
or in person, and how vulnerable you are with those
scenarios and even down to if you want to take
it from a branding perspective, and the principles of what
we do from the visual communication side and developing certain
(14:48):
things like I can tell pretty pretty fast when I
look at a company or I'm dealing with customer service
or I'm dealing with how comfor and they really are
in the growth of their own brand just by the
way they treat the other people around their organization, the
way that they spread their message. And so yeah, I
(15:15):
think that confidence is just something that we all can
kind of look at and say, hey, how do I
build more confidence in myself and allow that confidence to
be something that you continue to.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Grow on.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
A great example for me is taking the tech ex
journey right looking at a fear of mine of Hey,
I know, if I'm going to take it to the
next level, I need to start having better communication and
speaking and being more authoritative. And the only way I
can do that is by facing it head on and
knowing I'm going to have a lot of challenge. You
look at my YouTube channel from two and a half
(15:49):
years ago, and you can like I look at it
and I'm like, oh man, you can just tell I'm
reading from script after script after script after script, just
trying to do the hustle culture and I'm like that
didn't work. I wasn't an authentic I wasn't myself, you know,
But that was also a learning experience for me to
build confidence to get better and so be able to
(16:11):
allow yourself to continue to practice, learn and grow. Another
great example is these podcasts. You know, if you're taking
a tech ex journy, if you're going on a tech
ex journey, or you're going on the speaking route and
you're just starting out speaking, take your message and continue
to try to enhance.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
It, grow off it.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Learn what you say from podcasts, and get on podcasts
to use it as a testing ground so you can
get used to being face to face from a smaller aspect.
And so confidence is the second branding principle and it
can be kind of seen in almost everything you do.
And I think, lastly is my contribution pillar from a
(16:54):
branding perspective, I like to I like to emphasize it
a little bit differently than than most people think. Most
people look at contribution and they think, Okay, I'm just
going to go out and I'm going to donate money
to this this charity, or I'm going to contribute my
time to help a local organization, which is all great
I say, everyone do that, but it's more of the
(17:16):
contribution on understanding who you're who you are contributing to
in the world. Who is your real ideal audience that
inspires you that you know that you can help the most,
and how can you help them? And on my on
my ted X, I talk a lot about you know,
(17:37):
this local pizza joint and a local citizen who came
up with an idea of contributing to their local community
by offering IOUs and free meals to help to help
the local the local community. So they were contributing, Yes,
they were doing they were giving meals away for free,
(17:57):
but they use the community of the people around them
to help emphasize this not just as a brand, but
as a local community. And so being able to find
ways that you can contribute and looking at it less
so as hey, this is just I'm just trying to
make money. I'm just trying to make money, which money
(18:17):
is important, it always will be, but looking at it
more as an energy and how can I really help
someone the most effective way I can? What is what
is it in branding that is your audience? So being
able to sit down and look at your values and
look at your vision and then really decide to say, hey,
(18:40):
who is that? Who is that audience? Who do I
feel like I can help the most? Who is going
to give me the most passion? Who am I going
to be able to look at and say, Hey, I'm
glad I was able to make a difference with these
people in my life and focus on allowing them to
be your overall all audience that you can make your
(19:02):
contribution towards YEP.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
I think one thing that you said that really stood
out to me was when you were talking about confidence,
about having confidence in all you do, but having confidence
and failure. I think that's really huge, especially you know,
I think about my own journey and as a professional.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Right.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
You talked a little bit about folks having almost like
their identity intertwined with their jobs and having that ego
built in because of that. I think for many years
in my career, especially moving up in leadership, that I
was my job, you know what I mean, and it.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Was like there was this whole.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Segment of my identity that was aligned with it. It
wasn't until my wife, she actually helped me with this,
right she said, she said, do what you are, you know,
as opposed to like doing a job.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
She's just be you and take that wherever you go.
So the job can change, but you won't change.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
The business model for my business might change, but I'm
still me and I think that's something I give her
credit for that because I hit a switch and it
happened around you know, two thousand, the pandemic, leaving my
job that I was at for ten years. You know,
I started from the bottom and moved up second in
command in one of the biggest nonprofits in the country,
(20:24):
and I felt like my identity.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Was stripped from me.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Zach I was like, like, who am I now? And
it took me that year or two to kind of
understand what it's like to be a free agent and
have options, but also to understand that I'm more than
my job. So I love that you mentioned that. So
folks will definitely want to know what your application process
is because that's kind of one of our traditions here, understanding, like,
(20:50):
you know, because people have different stories. We've had folks
on the show who were tapped, like, hey, we want
you to come do this talk, and we've had people
who've applied and applied got accepted to a talk in
London and flew to London and do that first talk.
So talk to me about your application process.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Well, yeah, first off, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be
very authentic here and vulnerable because my TED experience wasn't
probably the smoothest there could have possibly been. I had
a lot of hurdles I had to go through personally
because remember I wasn't really a speaker before I started
the process.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I didn't have any talks under my belt.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
I was a true definition of I'm going through this journey,
and I'm learning this journey as I go and learning
how to do it right. And so when I think
that when I first started the process and the application process,
I I think I hit probably about one hundred different
(21:50):
one hundred different applications that I that I went through
to do this, and and you know, I fumbled.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
I it was weird.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
When I was in the corporate world, I was great
at interviews, right, but for some reason, when I was
starting to go into these interviews for the tech for
the tetech experience, as you can see that throughout my
confidence pillar, I was still learning, I was growing and
I was pushing forward, and so I think I I
jumped on about three or four interview process. So you know,
I created my demo reel and I continue to improve
(22:22):
my demo reel of the organizations that fit the locations
that really fit, you know, places in my life that
I have been or that I have family at, and
then we just had to make sure it matched their
theme right. And so how brainding helps develop you is
was an evolving process that took me, I think around
(22:45):
a year and two months before I finally got my
teed X. There was one point. There was one point
where I was submitting applications. I had two or three
interviews at one I'd make it to the second round.
I mean, there was a couple of times when I
even had it, an organization tell me, oh, we we can't.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Tell you you got it, but be happy.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
And then a day later I'd get like, a you
didn't qualify email and I'm like, dude, they just told
me that I got it. So it's just a it's
just a perseverance type thing. If you're you're doing it
for the first time and it's something you really want
to do, you could get it. You know, month one,
you could get it month two. If you've never been
(23:29):
in the experience before I look at it a lot
like I look at it a lot like you know,
finding a job that you're really passionate about, you know,
going through an interview process. But they're all different. All
of the processes each place you go to is going
to be a little bit different when you do your pitch,
So you have to be okay with you have to
(23:53):
be okay with kind of going with it and just
allowing whatever they want to be what they want and
enjoy it. And through that whole process, I was continuing
to evolve my speech. I was continue to improve it,
and I actually got to a point where I was like,
you know what, I'm getting ready to shift my whole speech,
(24:17):
do a whole different speech. And I actually did. I
started creating a new draft, started creating a new title
and getting ready to push that out there.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
And I got about.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Round two of my second version, and then my first
one got picked. So it was a process of like
looking at.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
It in the energy.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Now I'm like, oh, I'll be able to use that
second one for my next one, and it will come
faster because now I've been through the process and I've
learned from it, And I think it was an energy
and I like how at the beginning of this you said,
how we first met. I actually went and saw your
TEDx in Atlanta. Like, I went there and I got
(24:57):
I got selected I think three days after that.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Three days after that, so and it definitely helped push me.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Now, that process took forever, but I had two months
now before I was going to go on stage. So
once I was selected, you know, they approved my speech,
we went through the process. Here's the thing, because I
had so much preparation beforehand that the two months beforehand
was a breeze. I was pretty much done with my speech.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Now it was just.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Going through and improving and for me personally, just going
through the process. I mean, I bought a rug. I
practice on the rug. You know, I made sure I
practiced my speech every day at least two or three
times until I got to that point where I felt
(25:50):
very comfortable and.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
About a month.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
To the date, I was like, I'm pretty much good here,
Like I had it memorized. I was, you know, was
able to start practicing my tone and all the other
stuff that comes with doing the ted X naturally and
having it speak a little bit more better. And you know,
then I got there. I flew out there. I flew
(26:19):
out to mine was in California. I flew out there
by myself. My family was here, my my young three
kids and my wife stayed here. But then I had
my wife and my oldest flyout because he was my
motivation on that stage, and so I wanted my family
to be there, and they were there, and I'll say,
(26:41):
I'll say this, no preparation is going to prepare you
until you get it on that stage, you know. So
I made sure that I practiced on that stage for
what I can when it was open. Uh, I think
I got like five or six, which is a lot.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
I probably got pretty lucky.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I was the only one doing it, but I was
up there practicing it with the lights and the environment,
making sure the environment's really big for me.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
And then yeah, I think that was my overall process.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
I'll share something you talked about the lights and being
on the stage. So about a week before my talk,
my daughter had a dancer title. The dancer title happened
to be in the same venue that I was going
to speak at in a week. So, Zach, when I
walk in the joint, I'm like taking the energy and
(27:39):
you know, like, I'm walking down the aisles. We're sitting
probably in the third row. So what do I do.
I go out to the front of the of the
right in front of the stage. Mind, you know, my
family is not sitting there, right and my wife.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Is like, like, what are you doing?
Speaker 4 (27:55):
And I stand in the front, Zach, and I just
stand there and I soak it in. Before I even
came to dress rehearsal. One could say that you could
be embarrassed or whatever, but for me, I was so
locked in that I just needed to take that minute
for myself. So I can relate to that, Like, before
you get on stage, anything you can do, whether it's
buying a circular red rug, you know, you know, creating
(28:19):
some kind of space that will give you that feel,
I think it will help you out.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
I think environment is a huge situation, even to this point. Now,
if I'm pitching or trying to do workshops or presentations
somewhere else, I'm like, I want pictures. I want anything
that's gonna help me, cause I'm not just jumping on
a stage that I don't know, you know, So having
any sort of environmental help and understanding where people are
(28:48):
gonna sit, I think the hardest part is that they
are all different, right, Like I know that you had
a screen.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
I didn't have it.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
We had a projector come down with our stage, but
our projector was in a place where when we got there,
I had to make the conscious decision to cut my
whole my whole presentation, and I'm like, no, I want
to be the focus of this. I can do without
my presentation. And so I didn't even have a presentation
to allow my cues. And so I had to then
(29:18):
learn within the three days before, like, okay, make sure
I can now do this without a presentation, and I'm
good with it, and so being able to make small
pivots knowing that you're probably going to have to make
small pivots. But overall, I think that just I think
if I could give anyone advice that's looking to go
(29:39):
up on stage or looking to do the Tetech experiences,
really just enjoy it and be yourself, you know, because
my experience took so long, I got to the point
where I had I was putting a lot of pressure
on myself. You know, I had two years, two years
(29:59):
of thinking about this thing, and so I was I was,
I was, I was up.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
There like, oh here it is. Here it is.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
And nothing's nothing is going to stop you in your
tracks more. No matter how much preparations you do, nothing's
going to stop you in your in your tracks more
than yourself, you know, and being up there and being like, well,
here it is.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
So just having fun with it, learning the experience definitely helps.
And just give me like allowing yourself to know that
that's part of building confidence.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
I want to make sure we get to this before
we finish up. Talk to me about your transformation now,
So has there been a major transformation since you walked
off of the stage. Is there any difference in your
personal life your professional life as a leader?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Talk to me about that change. What what has life
been for you after ted X?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
You know, honestly, I think the experience itself of ted
X and the journey on getting there was more powerful
than being on stage, you know. I think that the
experience of learning my own going through my own TEDEX
(31:26):
experience itself allowed me to.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Live it, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
And so now now when I I watch my ted
X or I promoted out there to other people, it's
it's me being able to show them leading by example, right,
And I think that that's that's the biggest thing there is.
I am now able to tell my team like, hey,
(31:56):
I led by example, I did a ted X.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
I can tell my my prospects and my clients. Hey,
you know before we even have a conversation. You know,
I love for you to watch my teed X because
to me, that's if they don't match those values, they
don't match those they don't match that same type of
determination in themselves and that perseverance, then it's going to
(32:21):
be very hard for us to connect and work together.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
And I don't I don't like to work with people
that are not nice.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
So so so I think that the TEDx experience has
helped helped in that aspect as well. But I would
say overall, I would say it's the experience of the
tet X that I have seen the most impact from
allowing myself to continue to use those three pillars. Like
I said, they are now my values. So utilizing those values,
(32:57):
utilizing those values to be able to and implementing them
into me personally on a day to day perspective and
the growth of my brand has probably been the most impactful.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
Very nice, well, thank you so much for that, Zach,
and we appreciate you coming on. Before we get out
of here, I want to make sure I give you
a little bit of time to just tell to people
what you're talking about. I know you mentioned your podcast,
so if you want to just plug that, we'll also
have links to everything he talks about in the description
or show notes of the episode.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Flow is yours?
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Yeah, definitely, we do have our own We do have
our own podcasts. It's called the Jim break Cast. It's
where we just go to and talk about our visionary
type ideas that we all come up with during our
normal daily you know, Jim Break And I would also
love if anyone wanted to watch my ted X. I'll
give you mine and you can throw it in the
show notes. And how branding can help develop you and
(33:52):
no matter where you're at in your journey of growing yourself,
growing your brand, growing your business, I think it's definitely
it can definitely help you probably understand some things within
yourself that can help move you forward.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
All right, thank you so much, Zach. We'll see you soon.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Thank you
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com