7 Essential Questions for Your Brand Story with Elayne Fluker: Podcast Ep. 410

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410-SYB-Elayne-Fluker-v2.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Carol Cox:
Here are seven ways to rebrand your brand with your brand story with my guest, Elayne Fluker. On this episode of the Speaking Your Brand podcast. More and more women are making an impact by starting businesses, running for office and speaking up for what matters. With my background as a TV political analyst, entrepreneur, and speaker, I interview and coach purpose driven women to shape their brands, grow their companies, and become recognized as influencers in their field. This is speaking your brand, your place to learn how to persuasively communicate your message to your audience. Hi and welcome to backstage with Speaking Your Brand. I’m your host, Carol Cox. This is our live show where we take you behind the scenes to tell you how all the magic happens, whether it’s about public speaking, how to get speaking engagements, and today we’re talking about personal branding. Maybe you feel like it’s time for a brand refresh, and we’re not talking about necessarily your logo or your brand colors or the way that your website looks, although although obviously you can also do that as well. But today we’re really talking about those essential questions about your brand.

Carol Cox:
So this is your personal brand, but also how it comes across in your business as well. If you have your own business, how do people know who you are, what you stand for, what matters to you? Because all of those things get wrapped around into your brand story. So if you’re leaving a corporate job to become an entrepreneur, if you’re looking to expand your existing brand, if you’re an aspiring speaker or thought leader, which if you’re listening to this, you probably are, or if you’re a corporate professional ready to transition to the next level. My conversation with my guest, Elayne Fluker, is for you. Elayne is an experienced coach to executive women. She’s a prolific podcaster. Over 700 Episodes blows my mind with her podcast called Support is Sexy. I was a guest on it way back in the day. Actually, Elayne’s been a guest on this podcast also way back in the day. She’s the author of the book Get Over I Got It, published by HarperCollins leadership and was also named a Forbes Book of the month. Elayne, thank you so much for being here.

Elayne Fluker:
Thank you so much, Carol. You know, I’m always so happy to be with you.

Carol Cox:
Well, likewise. And if you’re watching us live on LinkedIn or YouTube, please say hi in the chat. We also want to take your questions along the way, so don’t be shy. Let us know what’s on your mind. So as we mentioned, we’re talking about reinventing your brand. Things change all the time. I know that for myself. When ChatGPT launched at the end of 2022, I have a background in tech. So I was all over artificial intelligence. I wanted to get my hands on it. So I’ve integrated that now, not only into my personal brand, but also for what we do and speak with speaking your brand. So that’s a great example of integrating and adjusting your brand with what’s going on. So, Elayne, let’s first talk about what does it mean to you to have a personal brand. How do you define that?

Elayne Fluker:
Yes, absolutely. So this is one of my favorite conversations. You and I talk about this online or offline on podcasts or podcasts. Right. This idea of a brand for me, your brand is really your reputation. So I talk a lot with, as you said, executive women, women in leadership at fortune 500 companies as coach and then women who have their own businesses. And usually they’re thinking of their brands as themselves. Right. So not necessarily a physical product, although obviously that’s a brand as well. But really, what is your reputation? And as you said, sometimes your brand, your reputation needs a refresh, not necessarily because something has gone wrong, but sometimes you’re going in a different direction. So maybe in some of the women I work with, it’s a new job or it’s a new position at the same job, or it is a new business or a new part of your business, like working with Carol and becoming a speaker and deciding you want to be a thought leader or known more as a thought leader. Right. So you want that to be a part of your brand. So that’s really how I look at it. Your brand is about your reputation and what you want people to know most about you.

Carol Cox:
Fantastic. I want to say hi in the chat here to Monica, Diane, Murtaza and Brittany. So great to have you here. And Brittany. I actually met recently at an in-person workshop we did here in Orlando, Florida, where I live, and she is all about the brand as far as the look of it. She’s an incredible graphic and web designer, so check her out if you need that side of it, because that is definitely not my wheelhouse.

Elayne Fluker:
I know mine either, but I do need a new website. So Brittany, I might be reaching out to you.

Carol Cox:
Yeah, definitely. So. And of course, Diane works with me here speaking to your brand and then. Hi, Monica. Pier powerhouse woman show. So nice to have you here as well. All right. So let us know in the chat. If you’re here, let us know what questions you have along the way. So Elayne, we’ve talked a little bit about why maybe we need to rebrand or refresh our brands. So let’s think about what are some of the questions that we can ask ourselves when we’re thinking about refreshing our brand story, or kind of making it more consistent with some of the things that we do now, which may not have been the case back when we last did this exercise.

Elayne Fluker:
One of the questions that I always like to ask clients when we first get started, which is funny enough, one of the hardest questions who are you? Who are you? Who? Who do you say you are? Right? People always like, um. Well, it’s almost like asking someone to write their own bio, right? There’s stuff you want to put in. Should you put that in things you forget about? What do you want to say? And one of the things I heard on a podcast many years ago, Carol, I wish I could remember it might have been the James Altucher Show. I can’t remember which podcast it was, but someone, the person speaking said that they happened to read. Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress. They met this and he this person, you know, Matt was their hero and they were so excited to meet him. And they went up to them. They were talking and of course they could talk all day about WordPress. But then when Matt said to this, this guest, oh, what do you do? Or what are you up to? The person said, he just, you know, fanboy babbled and didn’t know what to say and didn’t know how to communicate who he was and what he was up to.

Elayne Fluker:
And that was an opportunity to share with not only just share with someone else, but someone who is your idol, who you respect, who might be able to give you some advice. And a lot of us don’t take the time to think about who am I today? Right. So if we’re talking about a rebrand, what you were doing yesterday or what you were up to yesterday might not be what you want to communicate today. One of the things that that podcast interview that came out of it, they said, Matt said to him, you should be able to say in ten words or less who you are. And we talked about that before, ten words or less. Right. So I will tell you all, I practiced this before I came on. I was like, I think I have it down to because I’ve always it’s been years if I think about that. So I coach high performing women transitioning to their next level.

Carol Cox:
Well done. You got it in ten words. Okay, I’m gonna go practice. Okay. All right. So we got two lanes. Now, for those of you who are here live or coming back in the replay, I want you to practice in the chat as well. Just just off the cuff. Think about what yours would be. I also want to say hi to Amber. Holly. I haven’t seen her in forever. She was our emcee for our live virtual summits we did during the pandemic. So, so great to see that. All right, so let’s think about okay. Who. So I usually say something like I’m the founder and CEO of speak. Yeah. So that’s a lot. All right.

Elayne Fluker:
No, stay. Say it. I’m going to count for you. I’m the founder.

Carol Cox:
Okay. No, no, no, let’s back up. I’m going to say, what do you focus on?

Elayne Fluker:
What do you do or like for who you are, like who you are or what you do or something very, you know, concise. Because if you try to say, I am this and I do that, it’s obviously going to be longer. Okay, ten words I.

Carol Cox:
Usually say, like I run a business that provides public speaking, training and coaching for women.

Elayne Fluker:
Okay, that was 12. Okay. So you instead of say I run a business, you could say I provide coaching, speaking and training. Training. What do you say for sure.

Carol Cox:
Yeah. Oh well, I said public speaking coaching and training for women.

Elayne Fluker:
I provide coaching speaking training And coaching for women.

Carol Cox:
Something like that.

Elayne Fluker:
I get all of them. I say I.

Carol Cox:
Don’t love it, right? Because I feel like. But I’m also a podcaster. I’m also a public speaker. Right. So it’s yeah, it’s hard.

Elayne Fluker:
That’s a no. I’m so glad you mentioned that. That’s a great point. So what I always like to tell people is it depends on the conversation you’re having. So if you’re talking to someone that you think might, it might be more important for them. So you can have multiple sets of ten. Let me say that right. Ten doesn’t sum up the sum of who you are. Obviously, we all could say thousands of words about who we are, right? But depending on your conversation, you might be. If you’re at a podcasting conference or you’re speaking to someone who might be a potential guest, you might have your ten words ten or less of what you do as far as your podcast or, you know, I have a podcast. My Speaking Your Brand podcast brings on thought leaders to share their wisdom or whatever that looks like. You know, something short and concise about that. If you’re talking about your your coaching or your speaking academy, it might be those ten words about that. For me, I’m talking about executive coaching. It’s one thing, as I just mentioned, working with high performing women. If I were talking to someone about my book or writing, it would be something else where I talk about the kind of stories or the women I connect with.

Elayne Fluker:
Highly successful women learning how learning, having it all doesn’t mean doing it all alone is part of my messaging or that kind of thing. So it’s sort of a fun it’s a good thing to have in your mind, right? And you’re not going to count it out when you talk to people, but it helps, I think Diane mentioned with having being concise, right. Being concise with your messaging, having this idea, especially when you’re going into networking kind of settings or in a meeting or whatever that looks like where you’re having conversations and someone says, what do you do? Right. That question always, who are you? Or what do you do? Is more likely it trips us up this way. You have those in your pocket, right? It’s like having your I don’t want to say holsters, saddlebags on the side. That could be right. Might not be politically correct. We don’t want that. Having your saddlebags. Having those in your saddlebags on the side and being able to pull them out. So who are you? Is one of the first questions you want to be able to answer?

Carol Cox:
I love that. Okay. So we have some women who are trying this. I’m going to bring them up here on the screen. All right. So we have April Peters. Hers is I help people mission map. I like the words mission map their lives to meaningful work and relationships.

Elayne Fluker:
April, you show off. That’s great. Right?

Carol Cox:
Yes, I love that.

Elayne Fluker:
I love April’s two, Carol, because it also makes people say, tell me more. Or what does that mean? What is mission? That’s another thing to think about, too. Sometimes you’re not trying to sell the whole story, right? What you really would love if people become curious about what you said.

Carol Cox:
Excellent, I love that. Okay, now we have Amber. Holly, I help neuro spicy business owners get shit done. Come on.

Elayne Fluker:
Neuro spicy. I love it, Amber. That’s great, I love it. That’s great.

Carol Cox:
But then again, the next question is. Well, tell me, tell me, tell me what? Neuro spicy.

Elayne Fluker:
Right? What kind of shit are we getting done? Like all that is good, I love it, so good.

Carol Cox:
All right, now we have Stacy Champagne. Okay. I coach women into positions of power in cybersecurity.

Elayne Fluker:
Wow. You know what? All these powerhouse women in here, I love it.

Carol Cox:
You’re so bold.

Elayne Fluker:
I love it, that’s great.

Carol Cox:
Yes. All right, we have Jenny Murphy. Here we go. Okay. Uh, she said this was one she came up with recently. My career is headed there. I’m the advisor for millennials navigating wealth for the first time.

Elayne Fluker:
That’s great. Jenny. That’s great. And that’s great. We’ll get into later. But being specific about your target and your audience. Right. Who are you speaking to? That’s that’s excellent. I love that too, because you’re incorporating that in there as everyone is.

Carol Cox:
Brittany. Let’s do one more. Here’s Brittany. I help women elevate their brands through compelling design. Yes she does.

Elayne Fluker:
Yes you did. You did that, Brittany. Yes. Excellent.

Carol Cox:
All right. And we got one more. We got Diane here. She says I help women make an impact through public speaking, which she definitely does. Yes. All right, I love it.

Elayne Fluker:
That’s great. Everyone says in here, laugh out loud. No to saddlebags, I know. Amber, help me out. What what.

Carol Cox:
What.

Elayne Fluker:
Pockets? I could have just said pockets. Right That’s.

Carol Cox:
Great. We need our. We need our handbags. Like our.

Elayne Fluker:
Something. I just needed something. You could draw it out really quickly. Yes. That’s excellent. Okay, those are great.

Carol Cox:
So we have our who are you? Which is a lot, I must say, a lot easier to write out than it is to say, off the cuff with no preparation. So you all did a great job. All right, let’s do the second question, Elayne, which is what do you want to communicate about who you are and what makes you so what makes you unique? Tell us about that one.

Elayne Fluker:
Yeah. What makes you unique? You know, sometimes I think we forget that we get focused, I should say, on how am I better than this? Right? I need to communicate how I’m better at this on social media, or I’m better at this with my speaking, or I’m better than. Well, I believe it’s more so thinking about how are you different, right? Maybe it’s your niche. If you’re doing something with business, maybe it’s your technique. If you’re in a leadership position at your company, maybe your approach to something you’re doing in business is different than the previous leader did. You’re trying something different. You’re bringing something different as an idea or a technique or a strategy that you’re using. Maybe it’s your message or your approach. Right? So there are a lot of ways to be different. And sometimes different is better than better. Now if you’ve heard that before right. So better is and better is so subjective different. You can kind of say this is different than that. So I always try to say if you’re communicating, you know, how do you communicate how what you’re doing that’s different than what’s out there now by different don’t do something that doesn’t make sense or that’s crazy, you know, just for the sake of, oh, but it’s different.

Elayne Fluker:
You want to still be able to have your reputation or what you’re offering or about your brand be something that resonates with your audience, which we’ll talk about more. So keep that in mind. But still, like, sit for a moment and think about what’s different. And that might take time and massaging. Just like your message. You try it sometimes and I always say that what we just did, the other exercise, say it out loud a few times too, before you know it sounds great in your head. Then you say it out loud and you fumble over it. It’s one of those things like a muscle. You got to practice and keep flexing it. The same thing about what’s going to be different about you. You kind of test here and there and get into the groove of what you think will be what you want to be different All right.

Carol Cox:
So let us know in the chat. What do you think makes you different or unique with the work that you do? And I’m going to ask Elayne now. Elayne how do you answer that?

Elayne Fluker:
I think what’s different about me in respect to my coaching is I unapologetically focus on women who see themselves as successful. I think sometimes, you know, we can get into the reasons why. But sometimes women are meant to be ashamed of success or of being ambitious, right? You know, I’m all about ambitious women and women who not to say that they’re quote unquote better, right? But there is an audience out there of women who, yes, they are successful, but they still need to. And I know we talked about this. My next book, learn how to have safe to be soft or to be vulnerable, or to say, I’m scared or I don’t know what to do. Or, you know, I’ve had women get on coaching calls with me and they’re in tears because sometimes it’s not even a sad thing. It’s just a release because they feel like they don’t have any other place where they can share what’s going on with them, and whether it’s at work or at home, because there the quote unquote strong one to everybody else. Right? So my thing is really making sure that those women who are often leaders in organizations or leaders in politics or leaders in business, leaders in all kinds of different areas, so important, just as are women who aren’t in leadership, but important. They need to have a space where they’re able to say, I don’t know what’s going on, or these are the microaggressions I had to deal with today, or this is a problem that I’m having. So I unapologetically focus on those women who are ambitious, successful, but still need to be reminded oftentimes that they need a space to be soft and to share what’s going on as well.

Carol Cox:
Oh, I love that, Elayne. And I know that you do such incredible work with them, so that is fantastic. All right. So if you. What about you? Yeah. Okay, so for those of you watching again, let us know in the chat what makes you different or unique. So I would say that because we are very women focused with the work that we do, 98% of the clients that we work with are women is that we take, you know, kind of the approach to public speaking. That’s very different than how it’s traditionally been done, which is, of course, we know if you think of a speaker on a stage, what image comes to mind? Usually a dude who’s standing there because that’s historically what has been represented as speakers. So there’s also a certain style of speaking that we think we have to put on in order to be a successful speaker. Like, we have to act like the guys on stages and we don’t. I really see speaking as a two way conversation with your audience, not necessarily because they’re talking out loud to you, but it’s an energy exchange and you are understanding them, empathizing with them, bringing that back to you. And I feel and this is again painting a broad brush. But I feel like that, like the sage on the stage where it’s the ego talking to the audience and lecturing them and letting them know how things are done. Versus my approach is very much like, let’s have this conversation and this journey together.

Elayne Fluker:
I love that, that’s beautiful. I say that something similar to when just talking about coaching, right? Right. Being the empathetic friend as opposed to a finger wagging expert. Right. Right. I love what you’re saying. Is sage from the stage and this idea that it’s an exchange, right? It’s not just outward. You just giving out whatever your your expertise, so to speak, is you’re having an exchange with the audience.

Carol Cox:
Exactly right. That’s why we’re such big advocates of people sharing their personal stories, their personal journeys, because that’s how you connect with your audience. I love it. All right. So I love it. Okay. So we have some people in the chat. Diane says what makes her different? She can see how to thread the person’s personal story through their talk. Yeah, exactly. So how I can connect on the emotional level. And then Janet says that she focuses on first generation grads who are the first in their family to build wealth. So she’s actively doing it in her personal life. Yes. Good. So, yeah, walking your talk. That’s great. Love it. Let’s see. And we have Amber here. Who says that? She’s a neuro spicy therapist and a former.com marketing operations professional. She can help her clients address the emotional, psychological things holding them back. Yes, because you can see all those perspectives. Love it. All right. You all. You all are so good at this. All right. Love it.

Elayne Fluker:
Yes. And I love all of those are fantastic. And I think for Amber, it shows too. Sometimes that’s the thing that might make you difference is how you connect with your audience. Right? Maybe you’ve been there. I think a lot of people now are starting to talk about, yes, we can look at, you know, the sage on the stage or the guru or those people who are, you know, thousands of steps ahead of us. But a lot of us like to know what did the people who are just a few steps ahead of us, what are they doing? How did they get through this thing? Right? Or they recently went through it, or overcame it, or learned about it, or that kind of thing that we can learn as much from those people, if sometimes not more, because it’s, you know, as I call real time learning. I need to fix this thing now, and I need to know how this thing works, not when I get ten points down the line. So that’s great.

Carol Cox:
Yes, they’re more relatable to where their clients are in their journey. Right? Yes. All right. Let’s go to the third question. Elayne, do you want to share that one with us?

Elayne Fluker:
Yes. What are you up to? So we’ve sort of been touching on this with the other ones, but what are you up to? What are you excited about? Right. This is a conversation or a question I ask people a lot of times when I’m networking and just having like, oh, what are you excited about these days? What are you up to? What’s new with you or reconnecting? Carol and I reconnected again recently, and sometimes the email is just, hey, just checking in on you, seeing what you’re up to, right? So a lot of times we don’t remember. We don’t share what we’re up to, which is, again, what our brand is about, and letting people giving people a sense of what do you want to walk? Want them to walk away from you knowing right when they when you share what you’re up to. As we’ve talked about the who you are, knowing what makes you different. If that person walks away and has a conversation with someone else and says, oh, I just met Carol over there, you know she does. Can they fill in that blank? Right? Can they say what you’re up to or what you’re excited about? And again, I like this this question because the idea of we all have so much we can share, so many things that we’re up to, right. So again, it depends on the environment, what you want to want to communicate in that time. But what are you up to and what are you most excited about? Helps you gain focus when you’re having that conversation. So that’s something to think about with your brand. What are you up to? What are you. So for me, for example, with with coaching, right.

Elayne Fluker:
And branding like this is the thing I’m excited about, this is how I want to help women. This is what I want to continue to write about. So these are the things I’m going to make sure I communicate about my brand around this idea when I’m speaking about executive coaching, because that’s what I’m up to and what I’m excited about. And sometimes I will tell you all, we make a change or a transition. So people have known me as a podcaster now have known me working in media 100 years before, but then as a podcaster, right. Transitioning and doing video and some other things. But as far as being an executive coach, that might not be something that people who’ve known me for a long time, usually it’s the other people, right? Knowing me for a long time, oh, I didn’t know that you did that. I didn’t know that that’s what you were up to. So my LinkedIn, for example, reflects what I’m up to right now, which has information about a coaching or, you know, clients or companies I’ve worked with and those kinds of things, and creating a even on Instagram. Having coach at coach Elayne Fluker, I’m like, I’m going to focus on coaching on this one as opposed to my personal one, which is like, I went to Martha’s Vineyard, I did this, you know, I’m working out great, but that’s not what you know. So how do you align all your, your, the things you want to communicate and what you have out there about your brand? How do you put forth what you’re most excited about? So that’s the what are you up to? Question number three.

Carol Cox:
Oh, that’s such a good point. Also about LinkedIn and social media is making sure that your followers, your audience know what you’re up to. I know when we work with our clients and the Thought Leader Academy, one of the sessions that we do with them is on the business of speaking and making sure that at the minimum, on their LinkedIn profile, they put speaker or keynote speaker in the headline. And then obviously in the about section, mention topics that they speak on and then in their experience section as speaker or workshop facilitator or keynote speaker. Because, you know, when people come to their profile, if you don’t tell them that you’re a speaker, they don’t put two and two together.

Elayne Fluker:
Exactly. And also from an SEO. You know this as a tech person from an SEO or search engine optimization standpoint. A lot of clients for me come through LinkedIn, but they get to the LinkedIn because they’ve done a Google search for a coach, and the LinkedIn comes up because I have those terms. So if someone were looking for a speaker, for example, they might do a Google search first. And more than likely it might bring them to your LinkedIn. And then, as Carol said, you want to have that in there multiple times. Where have you spoken? Even if you’re not speaking yet, you’re a speaker and you aspire to speak at these places or this is your topic. What are the things you can share with people? Again, for them to know what you’re up to. And I think that’s what people don’t think about either, especially with, at least for me, LinkedIn is the one that comes up the highest in search, but probably because people are looking for that specific term that I have, you know, all throughout my my profile.

Carol Cox:
Yeah, that’s for sure. It works. I’ve gotten paid speaking engagements from people finding me on LinkedIn. Our clients have gotten paid speaking engagements from people finding them on LinkedIn. Yeah. So if you haven’t done that already, for those of you watching and listening, go do that now. All right. We’re going to go to our next question. So for those of you who are watching, continue to follow along as we give you the prompts, but also let us know if you have any questions for Elayne or about anything that we’re talking about. We’re happy to answer those. So Elayne, let’s go to question number four for the seven essential questions to ask yourself when you’re thinking about your brand story.

Elayne Fluker:
Yes. So the next question is what do you want to communicate about what you’re up to. Right. So we say who you are. What do you want to communicate? What are you up to? And then what do you want to communicate about that? So one of the things I remember in my from my editorial days when I used to work at magazines, right, we’d have to come in and pitch a story around the tables. I think you should do a story. I was an entertainment editor for a while. I think you should do a story on this person. You know, this Alicia Keys person. She’s going to be really big. That was one of my pitches, actually. And she was. Or she is. Um, but there’s people like that you’d have to pitch. But at the time, the editors especially, I was one of the younger editors at the time, they would be like, why should people care? This is new. This is New York editorial. So there were no feelings and all this stuff, right? No politically correct business right? So why should people care? But that’s something that always stuck with me when I thought about sharing about your brand. Right.

Elayne Fluker:
What you’re up to. But then why should people care? So to put that in a nicer context, just how are you serving people? Most of us have brands, whether we’re speaking or we’re in a different position at a company, or we have our own businesses or whatever that looks like, a lot of us are in some way right, servicing people or giving someone else, as we said, maybe it’s a new strategy or a new technique or whatever, something new that you’re offering. Why should people care? What’s in it for them? Right? How will it support them in what they’re trying to accomplish? So speaking from a coach, of course, I think about what is the outcome that I want people to know that they’re at least aspiring to obtain by working with me. Right. This is why they should care. These are the things that others even have experienced in working with me. That would be a reason why they would care. So that’s something to think about for your brand, right? What’s in it for? For the people, my audience, whatever that audience looks like, what’s in it for them? How am I serving people and why should they care?

Carol Cox:
Okay, that’s a good. So this is a good one. Elayne, let me let me run by you. What? How I would answer that question and see if I’m on the right track or not. And then we’ll take Janae’s question. So how I would answer that is that I talk quite a bit on the podcast about this idea of the expert trap that as educated, accomplished women we lead with our expertise and our expertise has been rewarded in our careers and our businesses and very for very good reason. And as I always say, your clients or your workplace need your expertise, right? So do it there. But when it comes to being a speaker and being a paid speaker and a premium speaker, experts are commodities that are interchangeable. Instead, you need to elevate into thought leadership, which requires you getting out of teaching and training mode and into big picture vision mode. So that I talk about this idea of escaping the expert trap into thought leadership. So is that something about like why people should care about the work we do or about why we do the work we do?

Elayne Fluker:
Well, what do you think when you say escape? I love that escaping the expert trap. How does that. What does that look like in the world? Like, how does that manifest? Does that mean the way that people speak, the way they they structure their speech, will be different than someone who’s just, as you said, speaking as an expert? Is that is getting out of the expert trap, that exchange that you talked about, or is that like the content of our of our speech itself?

Carol Cox:
Yeah. So it’s both content and delivery of their talk. So the content in the sense of it’s not just teaching and training, it’s not like here are, here are three ways to do XYZ, but it’s more like how are you helping the audience think differently about your topic, having them see something from a different perspective. And then how does your personal story, your personal journey, inform why this matters to you, and then why it matters to the audience? So that’s the content side. But then the delivery side is what I call like active storytelling. Like using your body, using your voice, using the stage. It’s not just about you. Like behind the podium, like gripping, gripping in and reading your notes or reading your slides. But it is. It’s a little bit of edutainment, like you are there also to entertain the audience in a sense, because that’s how we remember and that’s how we learn. And then you want to be memorable as a speaker so that you get those future paid opportunities.

Elayne Fluker:
Yes. I think your, your, your technique answers the, the what’s in it for them kind of thing, right? As you said from the content side. But then luckily yours also answers the how right the how do I do that? Then how do I deliver? How do I connect in that way to let them know it’s about transformation. It’s about them thinking about something in a new way, and you’re giving people the idea of the best way to deliver that and to make that connection with the audience. So Carol’s giving you a double whammy there. Okay, great. All right.

Carol Cox:
Well, thank you for that. Let me we have a question here from Janae. Let me put it up on the screen. So she asks what content should career professionals share to keep their activity current if they’re still in the learning phase of their career? So not yet in mastery.

Elayne Fluker:
That’s great. And I would imagine this is on LinkedIn, probably because that’s what we were talking about or just maybe overall social media where you are. Yes So one of the things I think is a great technique that I’ve actually been using is sharing other people’s content. Other other people. Right. Opc, I guess other people’s content and sharing ideas. But putting so on LinkedIn, for example, I might share a video that’s from someone else. Of course. Give credit. Right? Say where you got it from, but then give your commentary on it based on your experience or your technique, or sometimes even posing a question to your audience of what do you think about this video about? So, for example, I just posted recently with Whoopi Goldberg, someone interviewed her and asked her, oh, what do you love about working here at ABC or something? And she said, getting paid. And the person, of course started laughing like, oh, okay. She’s like, I do love a paycheck. So I thought it was funny. And I posted it on Friday. You know, it’s sort of careerist. And I said, you know, sometimes the thing we love about the job is getting paid, and that’s okay, right? It’s okay to love the fact that your company pays you.

Elayne Fluker:
So that’s just obviously a silly example, but it’s not something that’s a deep, you know, deep knowledge about anything. It’s something that I thought was relative, but still something I could share and just sort of ask the audience or engage the audience in a way that’s not too heavy for you to feel like you have to be giving some expertise. I think going back to what Carol said, sometimes we feel like and because of, you know, the way things are set up now with social media, everybody’s an expert. Everybody is a coach, everybody’s a guru, right? Everybody’s a specialist, no matter their level of experience. What you got to be aware of. But sometimes the sharing is just a sharing. Or sometimes the sharing is asking a question of your audience. Or sometimes it might just be elevating something. Maybe you see a post of someone who you follow, who you really, you know, like what they are doing or what they’re up to. And it’s putting a post like, oh, I really love to see so-and-so doing this, or congratulations, what? You’re doing it as a new post and not just as a comment, right? So I’m thinking now that’s just LinkedIn focused. Obviously other platforms are different, but there are a lot of ways to still engage.

Elayne Fluker:
And I will tell you, I’m I have a couple of courses on LinkedIn, one on soft skills, one on what’s the other one, how to deal with a difficult boss. I have a new one coming up, how to choose an executive coach and another one on effective workplace communication. And one of the things that’s important with that is knowing how to be able to have people see what you’re what you’re up to and what you’re doing. As we’ve mentioned, these different kinds of things with being able to engage with you in different ways. And LinkedIn, actually, I get information from LinkedIn directly, and they say things like posting once a week, I think three no, taking three actions at least a week elevates your profile. And those actions could be a post, could be commenting. Right? Could be sharing. So there are three kinds of engagement on LinkedIn according to LinkedIn, right? This isn’t my own. According to LinkedIn, they send us different things about what ways to engage. So that’s something to look at too. So, you know, whether you have a course or you’re just commenting or sharing information, that’s something that could also help elevate your profile.

Carol Cox:
That’s a great idea, Elayne, to think about sharing other people’s content, because number one, it gives you something. It’s a piece of content to share, but then also you’re tagging them. So then hopefully you’re getting on their radar, especially if it’s something that you look up to or someone who you want maybe to not to ask them of something, but, you know, to like, diversify your network or enlarge your network so that they are now part of it.

Elayne Fluker:
Yes. Sometimes it’s a book that you’ve read. I’ve done that before. I’ve shared like I put three books down, take a picture of it, shared about those books, tag the authors. Sometimes they’ve gotten back to you and they comment. There’s a lot of different ways to do it that don’t have to be, as you said, about your your, you know, mastery in a subject, but still your interest in a certain subject. Keeping your brand in mind, though, so it could all be things that align with what you’re interested in or what you want to portray right now.

Carol Cox:
Mhm. Okay. So let’s go to question number five because this one is so good. Let’s share this one with us Elayne.

Elayne Fluker:
What message do you want to. This is your expertise right. What message do you want to put out into the world? So I say, what do you want people to say about you even when you’re not around? Right. So this sort of what we mentioned, your reputation. When people walk away, whether they’re talking about you from across the room or they’re being an advocate for you in rooms that you’re not within. Right. So we can talk about the sponsorship conversation. Right. The mentorship conversation. It’s important that people be clear on your brand so they can communicate about your brand when you’re not around. So this goes back to, again, that reputation. Your brand should sustain your reputation when you’re not in that room. So that’s the thing of thinking about what message do you want to put out in the world and all the ways we talked about before, right. How is it helping people? What are you up to? And then what is that actual message that you want to put out there? Carol, give us yours. I know you got a good one.

Carol Cox:
Yeah, well, you know, I would say that because of Speaking Your Brand has been around for almost nine years now. The podcast has been around for seven and a half years. So I feel like number one, we’ve had a lot of content out there and different formats. The podcast, the summits, write emails different, you know, LinkedIn. And I feel like one thing we’ve done really well is consistency in our message. We’ve always been about empowering women to find and use their voice to tell the stories that need to be told for positive change. That basically is kind of our tagline, and I know that I hear from so many women that they definitely pick up that message. It’s very clear to them that that’s what we stand for. That’s our mission in the world. And I love it when I have podcast listeners come to me and say something like, Carol, I really appreciate you talking about feminism, you know, on such and such podcast episode because, you know, it’s important to me to find women who are supportive of other women and empower other women and understand not necessarily not just our unique challenges, but how we want to show up in the world.

Elayne Fluker:
Mhm. Yes, absolutely. Yep. So that’s important. So thinking about your message, what message do you want to be out there. What do you want to be known for. What is your reputation when you’re not around. So you shouldn’t have to be in someone’s face all the time, right. For them to know who you are and what you’re up to, whether that’s in corporate spaces. Right. In those meetings, maybe you’re not in a certain meeting, but at least someone will know what you’re up to. Or maybe so and so can do this. Or this is the way opportunities and those kinds of things come up, because people are clear about who you are and what you’re up to and how and what’s in it for them or the audience that you’re serving.

Carol Cox:
Elayne, what do you want people to say about you when you’re not around?

Elayne Fluker:
Oh that’s good. She tried. She’s getting me back because I didn’t have to prepare for that first one. What do I want people to say about me? Well, in relation to my my coaching, I am most I’m most honored when someone comes to me and says they were referred by someone who says what a great experience that they had, and that they are still using some of the tips or advice or insights that I may have shared with them from before. So the main thing for me is that they did experience that transformation that they were seeking. And sometimes, you know, another thing I will say, just in general, transformation doesn’t necessarily have to be this sort of 180 right of your life, your business or whatever you’re doing, your career, whatever you’re up to. Sometimes that transformation can be something gradual, a new way of thinking. At least this is my perspective, a new way of thinking about something, a new approach to something, someone. Sometimes people come and they’ve been trying to, you know, build this relationship with someone on their team or they’ve been having a lot of times there’s a lot of conflict resolution that has to go on, whether it’s manager to direct, report or between two team members. I’ve been brought in for situations like that. A lot of times it’s a misunderstanding and not an effective way for them to be communicating with each other. They have different communication styles and you know everything’s a problem. Everybody’s offended, everyone’s emotional. So for me, I really would love people to say for me that they experienced that transformation. That was part of my intention.

Carol Cox:
Mhm I love that. Yes, transformation is the key and I agree it doesn’t have to be like a wholesale change where all of a sudden the person is like totally different than they were before. And I think sometimes we, that’s, that’s how we think things are supposed to turn out.

Elayne Fluker:
Exactly. I have one real quick. One last thing. I had a client, for example, who talked about everyone keeps saying, everyone’s saying I’m direct, I’m too direct, I’m too direct. And I’m like, are you too direct? Or do we want to not be direct? Or do we want to think about ways to be direct? So maybe direct is, you know, in context, are you direct and correcting someone in front of a group of people? People can have an emotional response to that. People might be triggered by that. There are a lot of reasons. Are you direct in a way that it will help if you preface? Hey, I heard that you said this, and I just want to make sure this is clear. This is what I’m thinking or that, you know. So there are different ways to make change without completely changing who you are. If you know who you are is not the problem. And that is something that is part of transformation.

Carol Cox:
Oh yeah, that’s a great example. All right Elayne, question number six. Oh, this is a good one too.

Elayne Fluker:
What are you really, really selling. What are you selling? Right. So, Mike, we just talked about it. I’m selling transformation. Not really coaching. Right. Executive coaching is what I do. Working with high performing women is what I do. But really, it’s the transformation that is part of the quote unquote sell. So everything I communicate. Janae, you were talking about everything I communicate on LinkedIn, even, you know, my funny things and those kind of things, I still offer a way of thinking about something. It’s a new way of thinking about something or a different perspective. Or I ask other people what they think. But still, overall, it’s about the transformation ways you can make change. I shared another one that was about workplace communication. It was a video of saying, I used to say this and now I say that. And that post just went crazy when people were talking about it. But I talked about effective communication in the workplace. A lot of times this is the thing that brings up the issue. So that connects with people. And then saying, here’s a way to make some some small adjustments, right, to have transformation. So for me, for example, what I’m really, really selling or offering. Right. If you’re not selling a product or a service, what are you offering to your team? What’s the offer that you’re giving your, you know, your organization? If you’re in an organization? What? Think about that. What am I really really selling. Mhm.

Carol Cox:
And Elayne so yeah I want to chat with you about this Diane made a good comment. She said Starbucks doesn’t sell coffee. They share connection and community. Yes. That third place.

Elayne Fluker:
Example that look how even in Mexico.

Carol Cox:
Right. Oh there you go. They are everywhere. You cannot avoid them no matter where you go.

Elayne Fluker:
I know I walk into the store, they’re like, Hola, Elena. Like, Hola, chai, please. You know. So yeah, that’s.

Carol Cox:
Yeah, that’s a great one. Well, and Starbucks has been having some problems lately, so I think they need to get back to what they’re really, really selling because I think they got distracted by the 200,000 different variations people can order for their coffees. Yeah. Seriously?

Elayne Fluker:
Oh, I didn’t know that. See, now, that’s a that’s a branding problem. Trying to do too much. That’s a whole other conversation we could have, right. But I think what the questions we’ve been talking about have hopefully been helping you think of how to get focused. So concise right focused. Because especially nowadays, a lot of us can only handle information in small bites.

Carol Cox:
Mhm. Mhm. Okay. So I want to hear from you in the chat. What are you really really selling. Let us know in the chat what that is. And so Elayne said she sells this idea of transformation like helping the women that she coaches to get what they want right. In a way that’s going to best serve them and those around them. And so if I think about what the work we do at speaking your brand, so like we have this, you know, our framework with the poster board, with the post-it notes, where we map out our clients talks from beginning to end. And it’s so fun. And they light up when they see all of their ideas come in this, you know, this beautiful structure that they then can present. And so, yes, we give them those tangible deliverables, but we know what we’re really, really selling is that we validate their ideas and we give them belief and confidence in themselves that to put themselves out there in a bigger way.

Elayne Fluker:
Yes, confidence was the first thing that came into my mind. So if you weren’t in the room, for example, as we talked about, right. I would if I were talking about now I know more, but confidence was the first thing I would say if someone said, what is Carol really selling? Right? Which no one would phrase it that way, but confidence and helping, you know, women get up and be able to deliver their message and know that their message matters. And being able to connect with their audience, those would be the kind of things I would say and have said when you’re not, you know, not around. But I think that’s that’s an excellent example.

Carol Cox:
All right. Here’s some examples from women in the chat. So April, Peter says that her company, Landing on Purpose, sells clarity and confidence in decision making.

Elayne Fluker:
Excellent. Yes. Which we are all looking for today in a time of such uncertainty.

Carol Cox:
Yes. All right. And so Janae Murphy says that she is really, really selling the ability to make her clients conceptual future a reality through comprehensive financial planning.

Elayne Fluker:
That’s a good. One.

Carol Cox:
Yes. Making the future a reality. Yeah. Because she’s like, we have this, like vision in our future or but it kind of like we can see it, but it’s also kind of vague how we’re going to get there. But Danny helps people get it done. Love it. All right. Anyone else want to share? Let us know in the chat. And so Elayne, let’s go to our seventh and final question. When you’re thinking about rebranding or clarifying your brand story, what does that seventh question.

Elayne Fluker:
Yes, that seventh question would be what action do you want people to take when they hear about you or your brand? Right. So what’s that? What’s that action? Where do you want them to go? Maybe you’re leading them somewhere, right? What action do you want them to take? Maybe they’re clicking on something and they’re going to your website. Maybe it’s a buy kind of action you want them to take. Or if you’re again, if it’s not a product or service that you’re quote unquote selling, if you’re within an organization, what action are we taking after this meeting? Right. It’s sort of having those action steps after me. What are we doing? Are we just walking away from this and not having any kind of direction? No, I would not advise that. Right. But what’s the action? What’s the plan? In fact, one of the ways the best ways to do that is to start the meeting with setting the intention, not just an agenda. What is the intention of the meeting? Right. Overall, our intention in this meeting is to find out whatever is to discuss this project or is to come to a solution on. So people kind of know. Then you have the agenda, which is what the points are.

Elayne Fluker:
Then at the end, what are we doing once we walk away? What is the action? So in my case, my action when I talk to you might be to go to the website or to schedule, more importantly, to schedule a discovery call so we can talk and see if we can work together or whatever the other action looks like. If it’s someone that I’m meeting who’s a new person when I actually coach people, the action is I send follow up notes after every meeting. Carol. And these are the commitments you made before we speak next time. So it’s not like homework. It’s just like, hey, these are the things we said we’re going to try because I’m outcome focused, right? I want you to have a good outcome and be able to say, we tried this, it worked. Or we tried this and it didn’t work. So having some sort of action or plan of action, this is what I want people to know, that some of the actions I know that they’re going to take based on their interaction with my brand, whether they’re already a client or a client, a possible client.

Carol Cox:
Mhm. Okay. That’s I love that. And I think for, for me here speaking your brand is to listen to the podcast, because so many of our best clients have come from podcast listeners because of course they get to know us really well. Our approach, our values, our methodology, the women we work with, why we do the work we do. And so I always try to point people to the podcast to.

Elayne Fluker:
Get media research shows that podcast audiences usually are the most active, like they’re the people who take action, who will buy the book, who will make, you know, click the link. Who will take the action. So that’s that’s understandable. That’s great.

Carol Cox:
Yeah. All right. We have Monica sharing about what she really, really sells. She says she sells her clients boldness in telling their story. Yeah I love that word bold boldness I love.

Elayne Fluker:
That love that Monica. Right.

Carol Cox:
Yeah. Yeah, that was Monica. And then Janet says that she loves the podcast. Well, thank you so much for being a listener. I appreciate that. I always love hearing from listeners. All right. So those were our seven essential questions. I’m going to read them again real quick as a recap for everyone. So question number one who are you? Boy that was a hard one okay.

Elayne Fluker:
Like 30 minutes on it.

Carol Cox:
Yeah. Seriously. Number two what do you want to communicate about who you are. So what makes you different and unique? Number three what are you up to? What’s new or exciting with you and your brand? Number four what do you want to communicate about what you’re up to? In other words, why should people care? Number five what message do you want to put out into the world? What do you want people to say about you even when you’re not around. Question number six. What are you really, really selling? And number seven, what action do you want people to take when they hear about you or your brand? Elayne, I love these questions. These have been so helpful. Like they are they’re very comprehensive, but yet they’re also very doable.

Elayne Fluker:
Yes.

Carol Cox:
Yeah. So all right. So then thinking about let’s well, let’s give our audience some action steps. What do you recommend that they do next based on what they’ve listened to us here today.

Elayne Fluker:
I recommend that you go through these questions, especially if you’re someone who’s rethinking your brand or wanting to or maybe just tweaking, you know, again, your personal brand, right? We’re not necessarily talking about a product. What what are the what are the steps that you would go through? What are the answers? I should say that you would give to these questions if you were thinking through. Even if I will say this, here’s the challenge. Even if you’re not rebranding, right. Even if you’re not rebranding, are you clear with the brand that you have on these different steps, especially the who are you? Question. So I would say just go through them, jot them down, think about them practice them out loud, and then try them out. Whether it’s boardroom events, wherever you are, kind of have conversations with people and test out the ways that you talk about who you are and your brand. So that’s that would be the action step. Go through the questions and then test it out. Give it a test run.

Carol Cox:
Yes, definitely practice it out loud I agree. And you know grab a friend, find someone even whether it’s in person or over zoom, and just practice out loud because it really does. Like it takes shape as literally as the words are coming out of your mouth.

Elayne Fluker:
That’s right. Absolutely.

Carol Cox:
Well, make sure to connect with Elayne on LinkedIn if you’re listening on the podcast, the audio of this on the Speaking Your Brand podcast, links to Elayne’s website and her LinkedIn profile are in the show notes, so be sure to connect with her there. Elayne, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast. It’s been such a pleasure to have you.

Elayne Fluker:
Thank you. Always a pleasure.

Carol Cox:
And until next time, thanks for listening.

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