Speaking Your Brand: Public Speaking Tips and Strategies

Many accomplished women already have the expertise, experience, and authority their audiences need. The missing piece is rarely more knowledge — it’s connection.

Story is what bridges the space between expert and audience. It humanizes ideas, creates emotional resonance, and allows insight to truly land. When expertise is combined with purposeful storytelling, a talk doesn’t just inform — it connects, influences, and st...

What’s the difference between a presentation people forget in five minutes… and a talk that quietly reshapes how someone thinks, decides, and acts for months afterward?

It’s not more information and it’s not prettier slides (although pretty slides are nice!).

This episode is the audio from our Back Stage with Speaking Your Brand live show, where you’ll experience two powerful examples of what happens when purposeful stor...

Your story is not just your story. It's part of a larger narrative about whose voices are heard and whose are erased.

I’m thrilled to have Janice Gassam Asare back on the podcast. She's an organizational psychologist, equity consultant, and author of the new book Rise and Resist - and this conversation went places I didn't expect.

What struck me most is how Janice reframes resistance. Not as something dramatic or career-...

This episode is a rich and timely conversation about how we relate to what we know in an age of constant change and AI.

My guest is Dr. Laila Marouf, a former academic who spent more than two decades researching and teaching knowledge management before having a powerful realization during the early months of the pandemic: the systems and structures she’d been focused on were designed for stable times, not for the uncert...

What does it look like to turn an idea into a message, a message into a signature talk, and a signature talk into a published book?

In this episode, I sit down with Thought Leader Academy graduate Melania Murphy to talk about her powerful journey from spark to spotlight. 

Over the past couple of years, I’ve watched Melania take a deeply personal idea and transform it into a compelling signature talk—and now, a publis...

One of the most common mistakes I see speakers make is trying to deliver a six-week course or a full-length book in a 45-minute talk.

And then they wonder why:
 • the audience looks overwhelmed
 • the energy drops
 • no one remembers their message
 • leads don’t convert

Here’s the mindset shift that changes everything: Same message. Different medium. Different strategy.

When your message doesn’t match the ...

Have you ever hesitated to call yourself a speaker… or a thought leader… even though you know you have something important to say?

I see it all the time: brilliant women who have delivered keynotes, led workshops, facilitated panels, taught classes, and spoken on stages — yet still say, “I’m not a speaker.” Sound familiar?

So in this episode, I’m gently (okay, maybe a little lovingly persuasively) challenging you to reth...

Your personal brand isn’t optional anymore, even if you wish it were. In this episode, I dig into why your personal brand matters more than ever, especially in a world overflowing with content (and now AI-generated content, too), and how it connects to your thought leadership and your business 

I talk about a common hesitation I see with many women: the feeling that cultivating a personal brand is self-indulgent, unnecessar...

Hey there, it's Carol, popping in for a minute! I want to make sure you know about our 1-Day Master Your Message & the Stage workshop coming up on February 19th in Downtown Orlando, Florida.

You’ll go from having a rough idea (or no idea at all!) to building your talk using our Signature Talk Canvas® framework - and then practice delivering it with real-time feedback from us.

And here’s the thing = you’ll create a ta...

Have you ever heard a speaker share a story and have one of these reactions:

#1: Wow, I really feel connected to what this person is saying. I have a new perspective on my own situation.

-OR-

#2: Why is this person telling this story? I don't get how this relates to the rest of their content or why I should care or this feels icky.

You don't want to end up being the speaker where the people in the audience are ...

Today’s episode it’s all about finding and developing your Big Idea for your thought leadership and public speaking.

Ideas are incredibly powerful; they can live on for years, centuries, even millennia. Ideas spark movements for political and social change. Ideas help us as humans understand ourselves, each other, and the world around us.

Your idea doesn’t have to be something people have never heard of before; that’...

If you’re giving talks but not seeing leads or clients come from them, this episode will change how you think about speaking.

I’m joined by our lead speaking coach, Diane Diaz, for part two of our series on integrating speaking into your marketing strategy. We’re talking about how to approach your talks as a marketer — without turning them into sales pitches (because no one wants that).

We break down:

• Why “teaching everyt...

If your marketing feels like it’s working harder… but not necessarily working better, you’re not imagining it.

In this episode, I’m joined by our lead speaking coach, Diane Diaz, for part one of a two-part series all about why your signature talk isn’t just “nice to have” - it’s actually the foundation of an effective marketing strategy.

We’re seeing it everywhere: more content, more noise, more competition for attention...

What does it really take to create a keynote that inspires, connects, and builds your speaking career?

In this Back Stage with Speaking Your Brand, I’m joined by three incredible women who attended our recent Master Your Message & the Stage Workshop in Orlando: Kait Richardson, Alfarena (Alfie) McGinty, and Niki Ramirez.

You’ll hear:

• Why they decided to work on a keynote talk
• How they used our Signature Talk Ca...

When most people hear the word policy, they immediately picture Washington, D.C., marble hallways, and people in suits arguing on TV. But as my guest today so brilliantly reminds us, policy is simply how decisions get made - and you don’t need to be a political insider to influence it.

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Deborah Stine, founder of the Science and Technology Policy Academy, former Executive Director of the Presi...

Worried that giving the same talk more than once would box you in - or worse, bore you to tears?

I’ve been there. And if you’re a builder-of-slides-at-heart like me, the idea of sticking to one signature talk can feel a little… constraining.

But here’s the truth: the talk you give again (and again and again) is the one that becomes unforgettable - for you and your audience.

In this episode, I’m joined by Thought Leade...

Whether you’re in corporate aiming for your next big role or an entrepreneur looking to attract higher-value opportunities, this episode gives you the clarity and strategy to move forward.

I’m joined by my friend and career strategist Kate Wade, founder of Get Her Hired, who brings her signature mix of humor, candor, and deeply practical insight.

Together, we unpack why talented women get stuck, how to craft a powerful caree...

We all know that facts tell, but stories sell. And when you add a touch of humor, your audience doesn’t just listen… they lean in.

In this Back Stage with Speaking Your Brand LinkedIn Live, we’re joined by two recent clients of our Thought Leader Academy, Angela Gillis and Crystal Daye.

They each present a 10-minute version of their signature talk that they developed with us during their VIP Day and refined throughou...

Have you ever had one of those moments when all eyes are on you… and your brain suddenly decides to take a vacation? Whether it’s during a big presentation, a media interview, or an unexpected question in a meeting, how we communicate under pressure shapes how we’re seen as leaders.

That’s why I’m so excited for you to hear my conversation with Jen Mueller, a veteran sports broadcaster for the Seattle Seahawks and Seatt...