Carol Cox 00:00:00  We need information, but we have an overabundance of information right now. We can find information all day long. What we want is we want people’s insights. We want those hard won life lessons. Like how did you get to where you were and what challenges you have along the way, and what was helpful to you to get past those challenges? So that’s why storytelling is such a key component, because that’s how as humans, we learn. We learn through each other’s stories.

Welcome to The Group Practice Exchange Podcast, where we talk about all things related to group practice ownership. I’m your host, Maureen Werrbach. This episode is sponsored by Therapy Notes. Therapy notes is my favorite EHR, and it’s one that I’ve been using in my own group practice since 2014. They’ve got everything you need to be successful in your group practice, and they’re constantly making updates and have live support. If you want two free months of therapy notes, go to Therapynotes.com/r/thegrouppracticeexchange.com. 

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Hey everyone! Welcome back to another episode of the Group Practice Exchange podcast.

Maureen Werrbach 00:02:25  Today I have Carol Cox back on. She’s been on with us before, but for those of you who don’t know her, she is the founder and CEO of Speaking Your Brand. It’s a coaching and training company that works with high performing, purpose driven women and entrepreneurs and professionals, helping them create signature talks and thought leadership platforms. She is the host of a weekly five star rated podcast called Speaking Your Brand. And during the election season, which I did not know about you, she serves as a political analyst on TV news. That’s actually really amazing, and I don’t think I knew that about you. Oh, that’s so funny.

Carol Cox 00:03:00  I’ve been doing it for almost 20 years. I was involved in local politics back earlier in my career, and I always say, once the media has your name and number, they’re going to keep calling you.

Maureen Werrbach 00:03:09  Yeah, that makes so much sense. Well, thank you for coming back on to talk about how to craft your signature talk as a way to elevate your brand.

Maureen Werrbach 00:03:18  Of course, you’ve done this with me a handful of years ago and just I really loved your process. So I want to make sure that we can share that with my audience, because it’s of course, a great opportunity to, like, elevate your brand by doing speaking engagements. So thanks again.

Carol Cox 00:03:33  Yes. Well, my pleasure to be back, Maureen. It was so fun to work with you a few years ago, and to really also dive into some of your stories and get you to tell more stories. And you can talk about that later, because that is a key part of thought leadership and signature talks as well.

Maureen Werrbach 00:03:45  Yep. And something that was very hard for me to do and still is. But little by little it gets easier as you do it.

Carol Cox 00:03:52  Yes for sure.

Maureen Werrbach 00:03:53  Okay, so let’s start with like the basics. Like why would a group practice owner who’s just trucking along and owning their practice? Why might they want to develop a signature talk? And what does it signature talk mean to? Maybe that’s an even more basic question to ask.

Carol Cox 00:04:08  Yeah, we’ll start there. Okay. So as a good marketer, which as CEOs we have to also have marketing hats on, I use the term signature talk because that’s the term that was in the marketplace. I didn’t create the term, it was just out there. And actually early on when I started speaking your brand, which I started in 2015, I would have women come to me and say, I want a signature talk. So they were asking for it and I was like, oh, this must be a thing, because I would just think of presentations and keynotes and Ted talks and they would say signature talk. I’m like, okay, sure, that sounds great. So how I define it, how I think they define it is they have a talk that they can know well. They get comfortable presenting it, they know the content really well, and they can present it whether they’re doing a local event or going to a conference. And so that the way they don’t have to constantly reinvent the wheel of creating new presentations all the time.

Carol Cox 00:04:56  Of course, with a signature talk, you can still adjust it if you’re going to. An audience is a little bit different than what you usually do. Change the questions you ask them. Maybe change a client example to suit that audience versus another. But I think the idea is that you have this intellectual property, this body of work that feels coherent.

Maureen Werrbach 00:05:12  Yeah, this is one of the things that when I actually started working with you, I didn’t have. And so you actually had to help me sort of like put this together, which was a really unique experience, just how you do that. So for those that are thinking about this, like, I guess you started this by saying that, you know, people will have kind of this topic that they talk about, that they have this experience and knowledge in, and that you help kind of support in fine tuning it, weaving in storytelling and personal experiences into it. What about people like me who maybe are like, I have a lot of like, knowledge, right on different areas of group practice, ownership and mental health related as a therapist.

Maureen Werrbach 00:05:53  But just the art of like figuring out what your signature talk is.

Carol Cox 00:06:00  Yes. Right. Because well, and I have a number of different presentations and workshops and keynotes that I can give, but I like to think about it. They’re all under the umbrella of amplifying women’s voices, helping women, finding user voice. So that’s like kind of my umbrella. And I have actually a signature talk related to that. But then I also have talks that I do on storytelling or specifically more on personal branding or thought leadership. So for you, Maureen, and for those of you who are listening, think about kind of what drives the work that you do. Was that bigger mission you have? Why did you decide to go into this career? Why are you passionate about it? What’s the change that you hope to see not only in your clients, maybe in just kind of the broader community or even the industry that you’re in or even society as a whole. So like, think about that first and then think about who do you most want to reach with your message? Who was that audience? What do they need to hear? What’s going to be most helpful to them to get them to what they want for themselves? That still kind of aligns with your mission, because if they get what they want, it’s probably going to be good for your mission.

Carol Cox 00:07:00  So think about your mission, your audience, and then what specific topic would be most useful for them.

Maureen Werrbach 00:07:06  And then taking that a step further, what are like the main parts or key elements that make a signature talk be impactful? Because that was by far I think the biggest learning curve for me is putting those pieces together. What are those key elements that make a signature talk really impactful and memorable, especially in our field?

Carol Cox 00:07:27  Yes. Okay, so here’s what happens a lot of times with presentations when we’re in school and college on our career, we do presentations, but there’s just a bunch of information. We put together a slide deck, and because we want to impart some information to whoever the audience is and yes, information, sure, like we need information, but we have an overabundance of information right now. We have social media, we have YouTube, we have Google search, we have ChatGPT like we can find information all day long. Well, we want is we want people’s insights. We want those hard won life lessons.

Carol Cox 00:07:59  That’s what we want to hear from people. Like, how did you get to where you were and what challenge did you have along the way and what was helpful to you to get past those challenges? So that’s why storytelling is such a key component of signature talks, because that’s how as humans, we learn. We learn through each other’s stories, not through here. Do these ten things. When you go, you need to do XYZ.

Maureen Werrbach 00:08:22  I think that’s what you and I worked most on.

Carol Cox 00:08:25  Yes, the storytelling.

Maureen Werrbach 00:08:26  I am an information giver and so crafting my signature talk with you was I think that was the hardest part was humanizing just me in the talk, you know, putting me into it because I always thought like, nobody cares about me. They’re spending money because they want to grow their business or they want to gain more information. And so I remember that being such a just a key piece of my own learning experience in crafting my signature talk with you.

Carol Cox 00:08:54  Yes. Well, and as you mentioned, yes, your audience wants to learn how to grow their practice, to grow their business.

Carol Cox 00:08:59  It. Absolutely. So you should always think about what is your audience want. What are those goals. But then how can you share with them that you validate and empathize with what they’re struggling with? That’s where the storytelling comes in. So for example, on my podcast and some of my talks, I talk about some of the hard won life lessons I’ve had, where I’ve had times where I lost my voice at a certain point in my career, and then what happened and what did I do to regain it so that I’m still providing useful information to the audience to help them see themselves, perhaps in that story, and to know that how to do this for themselves.

Maureen Werrbach 00:09:36  I have a friend of mine, a Jetta Robinson, who she’s a speaker as well in my field, and I’ve been to a handful of different conferences with her where we were both speaking and a bunch of those times she was talking on a specific topic that she’s known for creating passive income streams. And as a person who’s a friend and a supporter of her, I go into them and I’ve every time and I don’t know why I surprised myself each time, but I’m always like, I’ve already heard this talk.

Maureen Werrbach 00:10:06  So like, it’s not going to be anything new, but I’m here to support her. And then every time I am surprised at how she’s like, girl, it’s the same presentation that I’m giving, but I gain new like nuggets of information and the stories are always different. And that’s what she was telling me too, is I have my talk and it’s always the same, and the slides are pretty much the same. But the stories that go with the content that she’s talking about are always changing. She’s, you know, got new clients that maybe use that content and see their businesses grow. And she’ll use their stories and examples and it totally it really changes the whole presentation and makes it feel different from the previous one. So I was just at a conference with her in Italy. Oh nice. September and just had this realization. I’m like, that’s someone who’s really good at speaking their brand and being able to craft a message that they can kind of replicate and have it still sound unique and different and new each time.

Carol Cox 00:11:03  Yeah, that’s a great example. And because also it keeps it fresh for us as the speaker. Because if you’re there are some professional speakers out there who were on the speaking circuit, that’s their career. And they will literally give the same talk, almost word for word, every single event that they go to and bless them. I don’t know how they do it, because for me, I would get so bored after probably the third time, I would have to change it up somehow. Yep.

Maureen Werrbach 00:11:26  I’ve been to many conferences where big name speakers literally have just memorized their signature talk or whatever, and give the same thing. And I’ve happened to be at multiple conferences where I’m like, I’ve literally heard this structure exactly this way, and it works for them.

Carol Cox 00:11:43  And sometimes that’s, you know, event organizers want that because it’s predictable. They know what they’re getting. And for those speakers, it’s good. So again, for those of you listening, if that’s your thing, if you want to just have one talk, get to know it really well and go deliver it for the next 2 or 3 years, go for it.

Carol Cox 00:11:56  If you’re like me and Maureen, we want to change it up. You can have the scaffolding of your talk, right? Like you said, you have your main points and your message, but then change out some of the things within it.

Maureen Werrbach 00:12:07  So to that point, like, what are some of the mistakes that you see practice owners needing to avoid when they’re crafting their presentation or their signature talk?

Carol Cox 00:12:16  Well, we’ve mentioned this a little bit, which is the information overload. I call it the Expert Trap, and for good reason. Because you know what? We should be proud of our expertise. We have a lot of experience in our fields. We have degrees and credentials, and we have a lot of insights, which is fine. And so we want to make sure that we are putting our expertise into the work that we’re doing and into our signature talks, but then everyone stops there and they don’t go beyond that into like we talked about humanizing it. So I’d say that’s one part. The second thing is that so I see really the content of the talk as half of the equation of what makes a compelling speaker.

Carol Cox 00:12:52  The other half is the delivery. You can have two speakers on stage who have literally the same words word for word. Maybe they have a teleprompter or something. One speaker will be really dynamic. There. Pause. You know, they have vocal variation. They’re moving around on the stage intentionally. Maybe they have some props, right? They’re having fun with it. They have some video clips. And then the other speaker just is flat, just like monotone and all that same content. But that’s what makes a huge difference how you deliver it. And I feel like a lot of times, for those of us who are high achieving women, we spend so much time in our heads that we forget about our bodies. So when we do our in-person workshops, we do improv exercises, we do dance parties. We make people move around to remember, like, you have a whole body to work with when you’re speaking. It’s not just about the content in your head.

Maureen Werrbach 00:13:39  That’s really good feedback, because throughout the years, as I’ve maybe I don’t even know, 5 or 6 years now been speaking, I’ve slowly gotten used to adding storytelling parts of me and not just creating content, but I think the other area where I can learn to grow a little bit more is in the delivery piece, because I tend through just nervousness, even though the content itself is like, I know it so well.

Maureen Werrbach 00:14:03  There’s just some, you know, amount of nervousness that I get speaking in front of a large crowd of people that I think I sometimes forget that my body is like literally there in that moment and to like, utilize it as a tool for my talk. So I’m thank you for bringing that part up. Well and.

Carol Cox 00:14:20  Awesome. And here’s the thing. I still get those butterflies before I started, especially an important talk. So I have learned to use what’s going on in my body, like the adrenaline rush and all that physiology, and use that to do more movement on the stage because it wants to flow in your body. So almost if you stay stagnant, it’s going to be worse than if you move around. So I’ll start with some show of hands questions, you know, like to the audience, because now I’m putting the spotlight on them instead of on me. I’m I’m moving my hand, probably walking around. I’m getting them to move around. So now I kind of warm me myself up, my body up, and then I can go into the rest of the talk.

Maureen Werrbach 00:14:56  That’s a great idea. Okay, so we talked a little bit about some of the elements that make a good signature talk, some of the mistakes that you’ve seen others make to be just aware of and careful of as you’re building your talk. For those that are really in those beginning stages of trying to develop their talk, what are some of the first steps that you recommend they take that would help them, like ensure that their talk is going to be effective and kind of align with their own goals.

Carol Cox 00:15:24  So even before creating the signature talk or in tandem with it is do podcast interviews. Yeah, that is such a great way to just get more comfortable talking about your material, talking about your message, talking about some of your stories, and also seeing what is of interest to the interviewers who are asking you questions, because you may be surprised you’ll do 4 or 5 interviews and you realize, oh, they all asked me this question, so this must be really important. Or this one person asked me this and that was totally out of left field.

Carol Cox 00:15:50  But actually, that’s a really great idea. I think more people would like to hear that aspect of it. So podcast interviews can be really helpful. The other thing is to I always say like, start with your local community, your local network. Sure, there are like those big conferences within your industry, your associations go to those. But if you as far as speaking, start with warm audiences, ones where it feels lower stakes, maybe it’s 30 women or 40 people in a room. It’s a luncheon learn, or some type of networking event where you get to know the people who run it and then say, hey, I’d love to come present on this topic. It doesn’t feel like as I mean, you’re still going to probably be nervous and want to do a great job, but it’s not like going to a conference with 5000 people there and having to do a conference session.

Maureen Werrbach 00:16:35  Yeah, that’s actually really smart, especially for those that are just getting into public speaking. So if people because I don’t actually know if you do the same kind of support that you did, you know, years ago when you worked with me, can you let my audience know if there is a practice owner who’s looking at kind of diversifying their income or up leveling their presence in their community, getting into thought leadership, what are the ways that you can support people now in 20, almost 2025? Well, and.

Carol Cox 00:17:04  Here’s the thing for group practice owners, the reason to do public speaking is visibility and networking within the industry so that you can get bigger opportunities, whether they’re speaking opportunities or other types of opportunities. The other thing is lead generation. Public speaking is great for attracting leads and clients if that fits what you’re looking to do. So that’s the reason. So to do public speaking. Plus it’s I feel like it’s so much more fun than social media. Yeah. Right. So I, I like being around people. So here’s how we work with our clients. We have our Thought Leader Academy, which is an eight week long program. And we work with women both one on one. So they do similar to what I did with you, Maureen, where we map out your talk on our poster board using our framework. And so you have your whole talk completed, and then we have the eight weeks of group calls where you learn things like how to tell great stories, the business of speaking, what to charge for speaking, how to find speaking engagements.

Carol Cox 00:17:56  We do practicing within the sessions. It’s a lot of fun. So that’s all online. We have clients from all over the world, and then we also do in-person workshops and events. So we have some that happen in Orlando, Florida, where I live. We also are going global, so we have some that are going to be both within the United States and overseas in 2025.

Maureen Werrbach 00:18:16  Oh that’s awesome. Congratulations. Yes.

Carol Cox 00:18:19  Thank you. We’re excited about it okay.

Maureen Werrbach 00:18:20  So for those that are interested where can they find you. And we’ll also put this in the show notes.

Carol Cox 00:18:24  Go to speakingyourbrand.com. And everything’s under there. And to work with us tab you can see the Thought Leader Academy as well as our in-person workshops and retreats. And of course also go over to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. Because I have over 400 episodes and counting, it’s really useful information. Start with the most recent, right? They tend to be the most current, and then you can kind of just scroll through and find the topics that interest you.

Maureen Werrbach 00:18:48  Awesome. Well, I appreciate you coming on again and sharing just your wealth of knowledge around public speaking and getting your brand out there. So thank you.

Carol Cox 00:18:57  Thank you so much, Maureen.

Maureen Werrbach 00:18:59  Thanks for listening. Give us five stars on whatever podcast streaming service you use, and I’ll see you next week.