0:00

I'm sharing with you how you can

0:02

find and develop your big idea for

0:04

your thought leadership and signature talk on

0:06

this episode of the Speaking Your Brand

0:08

podcast. More

0:13

and more women are making

0:15

an impact by starting businesses,

0:17

running for office and speaking

0:19

up for what matters. With

0:21

my background as a TV

0:23

political analyst, entrepreneur and speaker,

0:26

I interview and coach purpose

0:28

driven women to shape their

0:30

brands, grow their companies and

0:32

become recognized as influencers in

0:34

their field. This is Speaking

0:36

Your Brand, your place to

0:38

learn how to persuasively communicate

0:40

your message to your audience.

0:42

Hi, and welcome to the Speaking Your

0:44

Brand podcast. I'm your host, Carol Cox.

0:46

We're going to be spending the next

0:48

four episodes talking about thought leadership, and

0:50

we're going to be releasing two episodes

0:53

a week for the next few weeks.

0:55

The reason is because I ended up

0:57

recording a lot of great episodes that

0:59

I wanted to make sure to get

1:01

out before the end of the year.

1:03

And I want to make sure that

1:05

these episodes are helping you to get

1:07

ready for 2024 with your public speaking

1:09

and your thought leadership. Today's episode is

1:11

all about finding and developing your big

1:13

idea. And I've been thinking more about

1:15

this since attending the TED Women Conference

1:18

last month and hearing all of those

1:20

speakers share their ideas. Make sure to

1:22

go back and listen to the episode

1:24

I did two weeks ago on seven

1:26

things the best speakers do that those

1:28

were my takeaways from the TED Women

1:30

Conference. Ideas are

1:32

incredibly powerful. Ideas can

1:35

live on for years,

1:37

for centuries, even for

1:39

millennia. Ideas can

1:41

spark movements for political and

1:43

social change. Ideas help

1:45

us as humans understand ourselves, each

1:48

other and the world around us. But

1:51

here's the thing, your big

1:53

idea doesn't have to be something

1:55

people have never heard of

1:57

before. That's unlikely to happen

1:59

as most. things have been talked

2:01

about before and that is okay.

2:03

It's actually completely fine that your

2:05

audience is already somewhat familiar with

2:07

your topic because then you can

2:09

consider it to be more of

2:11

a warm audience. They know where

2:13

you're coming from. But your big

2:15

idea is part of the four layers

2:17

of thought leadership that I talk about.

2:20

The bottom layer is your expertise. The

2:22

second layer on top of that is

2:24

your big idea. The third layer is

2:26

your story, your personal journey. And then

2:29

the fourth layer is the emotional courage

2:31

that only to dig deep into your

2:33

story, but really to put your idea

2:35

out there. Because you are the messenger

2:38

for your idea. That idea has come

2:40

to you for a reason. And now

2:42

I know you want to have something

2:45

interesting and unique to talk about. You

2:47

want to make a positive impact on your

2:49

audience and you want to develop your thought

2:51

leadership and having a strong idea is all

2:53

part of that. But like most of us,

2:56

you may not be sure which of your

2:58

ideas is the best one. You're not sure

3:00

what makes a good idea. Maybe it

3:02

all feels a bit messy and money.

3:05

You have a lot of ideas swirling

3:07

around in your head. Know that you

3:09

are not alone. This is most of

3:11

us. I also get stuck in trying

3:13

to figure out which idea that I'm

3:16

working on is the best one. This

3:18

is why our clients come to us,

3:20

because this is exactly what we help

3:22

them to do. We've worked with hundreds

3:24

of women entrepreneurs and speakers over the

3:26

years. I myself have given, well, over

3:29

my career, hundreds of presentations and talks

3:31

and keynotes. And you can kind of

3:33

think of me as your idea whisperer.

3:35

Because when I work with you, when

3:37

we work with our clients in our

3:39

the VIP days to create their signature

3:41

talk in the Thought Leader Academy, I put

3:43

myself in the role of both the

3:46

audience and the event organizer. So I'm

3:48

thinking about how does this idea resonate

3:50

with me if I'm sitting in the

3:52

audience? And also is this idea appealing

3:54

to me if I was an event

3:57

organizer looking to book a speaker for

3:59

my event? So you're going to hear

4:01

in this episode, what I'm looking for

4:03

when I'm sitting in those roles. Now,

4:05

if you're interested in joining us

4:07

for our Thought Leader Academy, our

4:09

next dark date is in January

4:12

and we are enrolling now. So

4:14

we're accepting applications now and we're

4:16

having Zoom calls with women who

4:18

are interested in joining us. In

4:20

the Thought Leader Academy, we spend

4:22

eight weeks together so that you

4:24

can develop your thought leadership message,

4:26

create your signature talk, learn how

4:28

to tell great stories, learn how

4:30

to add layers to your talk

4:32

to make it more memorable and

4:34

impactful. We also talk about the business

4:36

of speaking and of course

4:38

preparing for and delivering your talk.

4:40

The Thought Leader Academy is

4:42

it consists of eight weekly group

4:44

Zoom calls. There's a small

4:46

group is limited to eight women.

4:49

And then you also get

4:51

a one -on -one or virtual VIP

4:53

day where we take you

4:55

through our entire framework to create

4:57

your talk from beginning to

4:59

end. If you would like to

5:01

join us, you can submit

5:03

your application today at speakingyourbrand .com/academy.

5:05

Again, that's speakingyourbrand .com/academy. On that

5:07

page, you can get all the

5:10

details, including pricing, as well

5:12

as the link, the button to

5:14

submit the application form. I

5:16

hope to talk to you soon.

5:18

Now let's get on with the show. What

5:24

exactly is a big idea? As I

5:26

mentioned in the introduction, your idea doesn't

5:28

have to be something that no one

5:30

has ever talked about before. Number one,

5:32

that's unlikely as most things have been

5:35

talked about, especially in this day and

5:37

age with the internet. Most people have

5:39

heard of things, but also it's actually

5:41

good that people are already somewhat familiar

5:43

with your topic because then you can

5:45

take them further than the otherwise

5:47

would be able to go. A

5:50

big idea is your angle on your topic.

5:52

So whatever your topic is, kind of your

5:54

big umbrella topic, what is your angle on

5:56

that? And I'm going to give you some

5:58

questions here at the end you. start thinking

6:00

about that. Your big

6:02

idea should add to the conversation

6:04

that is already happening and really

6:06

move the conversation forward or provide

6:08

a different lens or a different

6:11

perspective on that conversation. I think

6:13

about one of our recent Thought

6:15

Leader Academy grads. She's going to

6:17

be on this podcast in December

6:19

and her big umbrella topic is

6:21

around climate change, but then in

6:24

her signature talk, her big idea

6:26

is giving moms in particular a

6:28

framework for thinking about and for

6:30

addressing climate change, an issue that is

6:32

so overwhelming for most of us,

6:34

but then how can moms in particular

6:36

move that conversation forward, actually

6:38

do something productive for their households,

6:41

their kids, and in their communities.

6:43

Another recent Thought Leader Academy grad

6:45

signature talk is all around the

6:47

behavioral aspects of money management. So

6:49

of course, most of us have

6:51

heard about how much money mindset

6:53

or how we think about money,

6:55

the money stories we grew up

6:58

with, those behavioral things impact our

7:00

relationship with money. So

7:02

again, this is not a brand

7:04

new idea, but then she's tapping

7:06

into her unique story and her

7:08

experiences and the way that she

7:10

approaches this topic along with her

7:12

expertise, and she combines all that

7:14

into her big idea in her

7:16

signature talk. What I

7:18

see happen when I go

7:20

to conferences or I see speakers

7:22

speak at events is that

7:24

so many speakers get stuck in

7:27

topics and then in presentations

7:29

that are. superficial, like they

7:31

just, they don't go deeper into the

7:33

topic or into the conversation. They're kind

7:35

of the same old, same old that

7:37

we've heard before. And they're kind of

7:39

boring, really, because most of us again

7:41

have already familiar with these topics, or these

7:43

presentations just don't really represent who that

7:45

speaker is. They're kind of just parodying

7:47

what they see everyone else talking about

7:49

and not providing anything unique. And I

7:52

feel like so many speakers do this,

7:54

it's because they think it's safe, like

7:56

it's a safe way to go because

7:58

no one's going to criticize. them

8:00

or they're not going to be seen

8:02

as wrong or someone's not going to

8:04

point something out to them. They also

8:06

don't want to turn off anyone in

8:08

the audience so they feel like if

8:10

they just kind of do the same

8:12

old same old or just say superficial

8:14

that no one's going to be turned

8:16

off. But what happens is what I

8:18

call the expert trap is that these

8:20

speakers get so focused on just relaying

8:23

information that they're not providing transformation to

8:25

their audience. And as we all know

8:27

with all of the different information we

8:29

consume all day long on our devices

8:31

from social media feeds to the

8:33

news to podcasts to videos we

8:35

have enough information. What we need

8:37

are insights. We need transformation and

8:39

that's what you want to provide

8:41

with your idea and your signature

8:43

talk as well. Now you may have

8:45

lots of ideas or you may have

8:47

lots of parts of ideas and you're not

8:49

really sure which is a good idea

8:51

which one which direction should I go in.

8:53

So I'm going to give you a

8:56

handy acronym a framework that I created for

8:58

you to start thinking about how to

9:00

look at your different ideas and

9:02

determine which is the one that you want

9:04

to go with. So of course

9:06

idea idea is an acronym

9:08

that stands for something. The

9:11

I an idea is for

9:13

interesting. So yes your idea

9:15

needs to be interesting. It

9:17

should provoke curiosity. When you

9:19

tell someone your idea you want

9:21

the person to say oh

9:23

tell me more. Oh I hadn't

9:25

thought about it that way. You

9:28

know why why is that. So you

9:30

really want to provoke that curiosity. And

9:32

the way you do that is you

9:34

have that unique angle that unique perspective

9:36

on your topic. I'm going to give

9:39

you some examples here in just a

9:41

bit. So that's interesting. D

9:43

stands for

9:45

debatable and defensible.

9:48

Okay so you may be thinking well I don't

9:50

want to get an argument why would I

9:52

have to debate someone about my idea. Now I

9:54

don't mean you actually have to debate someone

9:56

about your idea but other people have

9:59

their own idea. and they probably have

10:01

their own ideas around your topic, so

10:03

it's kind of like your big umbrella

10:05

topic, like whether it's climate change or

10:07

it's about gender equality. So that's your

10:09

big umbrella topic, and other people may

10:11

have their own ideas, and it's okay

10:13

if not everyone agrees with you. I

10:15

actually think that's better, because like I

10:17

said, then you're adding to the conversation,

10:19

you're moving a different perspective on the

10:21

conversation. So your idea. should be debatable

10:23

in the sense that everyone's going to

10:25

agree with you, they have their own

10:27

ideas, but it also needs to be

10:29

defensible in the sense that you can

10:31

defend it through your own examples, your

10:33

own experiences, those of clients or colleagues

10:35

or people you know, also could be

10:37

defensible through a research and data. So

10:39

this may be research and studies that

10:41

you've done or research and studies that

10:43

other Well-known institutions have done that you

10:45

can pull from, because if your idea

10:47

is debatable and defensible, now that also

10:49

just makes it that much more interesting

10:51

and people kind of perk up and

10:53

want to hear more. The E and

10:55

idea stands for Empowering. You really want

10:57

your idea to help people see something

10:59

in a new way or a different

11:01

way for a positive benefit. So a

11:03

positive benefit for themselves, for their businesses,

11:05

their companies, their health, their relationships, their

11:07

society, their community, whatever happens to be,

11:09

it really should feel positive and should

11:11

feel empowering. So when you present your

11:14

idea, you want people to feel like

11:16

that this is something that if they

11:18

kind of... learn and adopt and latch

11:20

on to, that there's going to be

11:22

a benefit for them and for others.

11:24

And then the A and idea is

11:26

actionable. So not only can people hear

11:28

it and kind of learn it and

11:30

absorb it, but people also want to

11:32

be able to do something with it.

11:34

So they want to be able to

11:36

apply it to themselves. They want to

11:38

be able to build upon it. They

11:40

want to share. the idea

11:42

with others. This

11:44

is what I believe

11:46

makes great thought

11:48

leaders is that they

11:50

don't hoard their

11:52

idea and be like,

11:54

oh, this is

11:56

mine and no one

11:58

else can talk

12:00

about it and I

12:02

don't want to

12:04

share it and I

12:06

want to keep

12:08

it private and I

12:10

want to keep

12:12

it proprietary. Instead,

12:15

they share their idea, whether

12:17

it's through TED Talks or

12:19

books or through articles or

12:21

whatever they're doing online or

12:23

in person because they want

12:25

other people to take that

12:28

idea, build upon it, and

12:30

share it. As a thought leader, you want

12:32

people to spread it further because you can

12:34

only reach so many people, you need more

12:36

people to take that idea and spread it

12:38

to the people who they can get in

12:40

front of. So the idea

12:42

framework that acronym again stands for

12:44

interesting, debatable, and defensible,

12:46

empowering, and actionable. So let's take

12:49

a look at some examples. I'm going

12:51

to name a few people who

12:53

you probably recognize and then a

12:55

few of our clients and then I'll

12:57

also share an example for myself.

12:59

Brené Brown, I'm sure you're very

13:01

familiar with her and her TED

13:03

Talks. Well, her big idea is that

13:05

vulnerability is necessary for

13:08

connection, that we actually can

13:10

have true authentic connection

13:12

with others or really with

13:14

ourselves without vulnerability. And

13:17

then she says, but shame oftentimes

13:19

gets in the way. So shame

13:21

gets in the way of connection and

13:23

kind of vulnerability is the solution to

13:25

that. So that's her big idea. And

13:29

I'm sure there are people out there who

13:31

do not agree with her at all.

13:33

I'm sure you can find those critics online

13:35

somewhere, but that's okay because this is

13:37

her idea and obviously thousands and millions of

13:39

people have heard it and have done

13:41

something, it sounds something with it. It's

13:44

actionable to them and then they

13:46

have shared the idea with others. Another

13:48

thought leader that you may recognize,

13:50

Simon Sinek, again, a very well known

13:52

TED Talk around starting with why,

13:54

which he then turned into a book

13:56

and into an entire consulting company.

13:58

This is why ideas are so powerful and public

14:01

speaking is so powerful because it truly

14:03

can build a career. So his idea

14:05

was around this was starting with why

14:07

and he's explained that so many companies

14:10

focus on their what so what are

14:12

they actually what are they creating the

14:14

product or service maybe they look at

14:16

the how so kind of their value

14:19

proposition or what makes their product unique

14:21

but he says no no like they

14:23

need to back up even further and

14:25

start with the why are they in

14:27

the business in the first place what

14:30

is the bigger change that they want

14:32

to see so that was his big

14:34

idea And again, there may be people

14:36

who do not agree with him. I'm

14:39

sure there are companies out there who

14:41

just say, well, the bottom line is

14:43

profits and we don't really care about

14:45

our why or a bigger vision. We

14:48

just want to make sure that our

14:50

products get in the hands of as

14:52

many people as possible and we make

14:54

as much money as possible. So there

14:57

are those people out there, but Simon

14:59

Sinek is a thought leader because he's

15:01

sharing his big idea. Now, let me

15:03

give you an example of some of

15:05

the clients that we've worked with. Dr.

15:08

Christina Madison is a pharmacist. She was

15:10

on the podcast not too long ago

15:12

in September, and she did a TEDx

15:14

talk back in early 2022 about how

15:17

public health messengers need to look like

15:19

the communities that they're serving. Christina herself

15:21

is a pharmacist in public health and

15:23

she has been on TV news hundreds

15:26

of times since the start of the

15:28

COVID-19 pandemic. Not only has she done

15:30

that TEDx talk, she's also been invited

15:32

to the White House to serve on

15:35

a panel there along with a lot

15:37

of other visibility that she's done, but

15:39

her big idea is around how much

15:41

the Who is the messenger, especially regarding

15:44

public health? How that messenger looks like

15:46

and is from the communities they're talking

15:48

to is so incredibly important. Another example

15:50

is one of our clients, Tammy Lally,

15:52

who did a TEDx talk back in

15:55

2017, all around money shame. So Tammy

15:57

looked at Bernie Brown's work around shame

15:59

and vulnerability. And of course, Tammy,

16:01

like most of us, thought that it

16:03

was incredibly valuable. But then Tammy noticed

16:06

that Brene Brown didn't really talk much

16:08

about money shame. And

16:10

sadly, Tammy had a personal experience with

16:12

that in her family. So

16:14

we created her TEDx talk together all

16:16

around this idea of money shame.

16:18

And because it was so powerful and

16:20

this idea was very much unique

16:22

to her, it went on to have

16:24

over 2 million views. And it

16:26

really transformed her business and her life.

16:28

I think about the University of

16:30

California faculty who we helped

16:32

earlier this summer develop their TED

16:34

style talks. And again, we were

16:37

helping them to identify what

16:39

their big idea is from the

16:41

research that they do. And

16:43

remember one speaker in particular, she's

16:45

an engineer and does a

16:47

lot of research around cement and

16:49

concrete. I know it's so

16:51

specific. But her TED style talk

16:53

was about how we can

16:55

actually use building materials like concrete

16:57

to help the climate. Because

16:59

obviously, you know, we have all

17:01

this climate impact that we're

17:03

seeing all of the time. And so how can

17:05

we, we're going to be continued to build. And that

17:08

was her point, we're going to continue to build.

17:10

We need to build roads and houses and everything else.

17:12

But how can we actually use building materials to

17:14

help the climate? How can we look at what nature

17:16

is doing and do the same thing in our

17:18

building? So that was her idea. Now

17:20

for myself, I

17:22

have one idea that I developed

17:24

around a keynote that I gave last

17:26

year. Which is that as women in

17:28

particular, when we use our voices, we

17:30

go through three stages. The first stage,

17:32

it's all around the promise. We're very

17:35

excited about it. We have these things

17:37

that we want to share with our

17:39

audiences. And so we get a lot

17:41

of validation and cheerleading and support when

17:43

we initially go and do that. But

17:45

then if we kind of

17:47

challenge the status quo, which

17:49

I encourage you to do. But when we do

17:51

that, a lot of times we'll

17:53

get pushback or criticism. So that's

17:55

where for many of us we

17:57

interstage to that I call. We

18:00

feel vulnerable, we feel alone, we

18:02

feel uncertain, we don't know if we

18:04

should just kind of back off this

18:06

idea or continue to press forward. And

18:08

my argument and my big idea is

18:10

that continue to press forward because stage

18:12

three is what I call power. When

18:14

you do that, you actually develop a

18:17

sense of confidence and self -assurance and

18:19

you understand yourself in a way that

18:21

you didn't if you just stayed in

18:23

stage one. So I did a podcast

18:25

episode about this. I'll put a link

18:27

in the show notes if you want

18:29

to hear more about those three stages.

18:32

So that's an example of my big

18:34

idea. Again, other people may have

18:36

different ideas. It could be debatable. But

18:39

I have stories and experiences and

18:41

research to make it defensible. I hope

18:43

it's an interesting idea. I hope

18:45

it feels empowering and it also feels

18:47

actionable. So here are some questions

18:49

that you can start asking yourself. Now,

18:51

you can write these questions down

18:54

as I say them, but you can

18:56

just get them in our free

18:58

guide or free workbook that we have

19:00

at speakingyourbrand .com/guide. Again, that's speakingyourbrand .com/guide.

19:02

You can just go there, put it

19:04

in your name and email address.

19:06

And it's a 24 page guide in

19:09

workbook all around thought leadership, including

19:11

these questions. So here are the questions

19:13

to consider. What are other people

19:15

saying around your topic? So kind of

19:17

your big umbrella topic. What are

19:19

other people saying about that? And then

19:21

what is your unique viewpoint or

19:24

perspective around that topic? What do you

19:26

do or believe that's different or

19:28

challenges the status quo? What gets you

19:30

riled up? What gets you on

19:32

your soapbox? So kind of think about

19:34

that. And then what are people

19:36

not seeing or understanding that you do

19:39

see? And then what was your

19:41

journey to see this? So what happened

19:43

to you? Was there an experience

19:45

you had that's impacted what matters to

19:47

you now and kind of the

19:49

shift that you had? You can also

19:51

think about what's something about you

19:53

that many people don't know, but it's

19:56

revealing about who you are. And

19:58

by extension can help. others learn more

20:00

about themselves. So this is where

20:02

you're really digging deep into that emotional

20:04

courage to reveal something that you

20:06

may not want to or that you

20:08

may feel like a little bit

20:10

hesitant about, but really you're helping

20:13

others. This is going back to

20:15

vulnerability. You're helping others see themselves.

20:17

And then also consider what do

20:19

you want to be known for?

20:21

What's the lens through which you

20:23

see the worlds? So all these

20:25

questions together can help you to

20:27

start finding and developing your big

20:29

idea. This is exactly

20:31

what we help you to do

20:33

in our Thought Leader Academy. We help

20:35

you to develop your idea to

20:37

validate it which builds your confidence in

20:39

your idea and putting it out

20:41

into the world. Here's what some of

20:43

our recent Thought Leader Academy graduates

20:46

said. One said that she joined the

20:48

Thought Leader Academy because she said,

20:50

quote, I had too many ideas swirling

20:52

in my head and I knew

20:54

I needed outside expertise and guidance to

20:56

help me organize my thoughts and

20:58

create a cohesive narrative and signature talk.

21:00

Now that I've graduated, I have

21:02

so much more clarity on my

21:04

core message of my thought

21:06

leadership and I have a cohesive

21:08

signature talk and an actual

21:10

strategy for how to bring that

21:12

talk to my audience. Another

21:14

recent grad said, quote, the Thought

21:17

Leader Academy is the best

21:19

online program I have invested in.

21:21

You really aim to ensure

21:23

your students get what they need

21:25

to be successful. I still

21:27

appreciate this entire experience. You can

21:29

get all the details about

21:31

the Thought Leader Academy, including pricing

21:33

at speakingyourbrand .com/academy. Again, that's speakingyourbrand

21:35

.com/academy. We are taking applications right

21:37

now for our next start

21:39

date in January. We only have

21:41

eight spots available. So this

21:43

is something that sounds like you

21:45

want to do for 2024.

21:47

You want to really hone in

21:49

on your thought leadership, develop

21:51

your signature talk, put yourself out

21:53

there as a speaker in

21:55

a bigger way. The Thought Leader

21:57

Academy is for you. Speaking

21:59

of talks in the the next

22:01

episode, I'm going to talk about

22:03

what a talk is is it what

22:05

it should be doing for

22:07

you. So make sure to hit

22:09

in your follow in your podcast you

22:11

if you haven't already. And

22:13

until next time, thanks for listening.