299-SYB-Amber_De_La_Garza.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Carol Cox:
You’re going to be inspired by my case study with guest and client Amber de la Garza on the many ways she’s used her framework and her speaking and her business 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. How are you? One. Welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I’m your host, Carol Cox. I’m so glad that you’re joining me today. We are going to dive even more into frameworks on our conversation today with my special guest, Amber de la Garza. I’m going to have her have her introduce herself in just a moment. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about different storytelling frameworks that you can use as you think about integrating stories into your presentations. Today, we’re going to talk about creating your own framework that you can use not only in your presentations, but so much more in your business. And then next week on the podcast, I’m going to walk you through how you can actually develop your own framework and you’re going to be so inspired after you listen to my conversation today. So Amber de la Garza and I have known each other for five years now. We met at an in-person conference. I mean, those were so special.
Amber De La Garza:
Those were the.
Carol Cox:
Days. Those are the days. And we sat together and we became BFFs at that conference, came back the next year. And I think we’ve been to four or five different in-person conferences together and on each other’s podcast.
Amber De La Garza:
Yeah, we were running in the same circles pre-pandemic for sure.
Carol Cox:
And we’ve kept in contact ever since. Amber And you’ve done the podcast twice before. This is your third time to be on the podcast, so excited to have you back. Can you tell the listeners all the amazingness that you do in your business?
Amber De La Garza:
So I’m a productivity specialist and I coach a small business owners specifically around productivity time management, creating the work life balance they desire. And I do that through my one on one program as well as my group coaching program, Leverage Lab. I’m also a speaker. I also have a podcast called Productivity Straight Talk, and I and I write as well, all in the topics of productivity for small business owners.
Carol Cox:
And I know some of the clients that you have worked with and they rave about you and how much you have helped them to get their time back and to really focus on the activities that they should be focused on. And I feel like as entrepreneurs, when we start, we have to do so many things in our businesses because there is no one else to do them. And then we kind of get stuck there for way too long.
Amber De La Garza:
Yeah, a lot of the work I do is helping business owners learn to be more strategic, decisive decision making processes, systems all in the pursuit of making time for what matters most to them, both in their business and their personal life.
Carol Cox:
Well, let’s dive into frameworks today. Amber So we met back in 2017 and then I think we figured out it was in 2018. We both went to a podcasting conference called Podcast Movement. We knew we’re both going there. And so you decided to book a VIP day with me so that we could meet in person in my hotel room and work through your signature talk using my framework, which I talked about in the podcast here back in early August. So we walked through that. And so we worked on your content, we worked on your stories, but we also worked on developing your own framework. And we just had a conversation a couple of weeks ago on your podcast, and you shared with me how much that framework has impacted not only you’re speaking in presentations but has informed so much of what you do in your business. So before we talk about the long lasting ROI that it has had so far, what is the framework? And then we’ll talk about how it got developed.
Amber De La Garza:
Yeah, so I call my framework called the stop leverage formula stop. So that starts with how to leverage yourself, your time organization and people to be most productive in your business. You know, it didn’t start out as stops necessarily. And I did just I think we are going to talk about this.
Carol Cox:
Yes. Let’s let’s talk about what So Stop is an acronym, which of course, every all the listeners know how much that we love acronyms and alliteration here. Speaking your brand acronyms are great because it’s helpful for your audience, but really as speakers, it’s so helpful for us to remember our content to have an acronym. So tell us what STOP stands for.
Amber De La Garza:
Self Time, organization and people. And those are the four pillars to my framework. And in each pillar there’s three sections to those pillars. And it really starts off with starting off with the destination on the outside, actually. I mean, I have a corny picture like I’m talking with my hands, like, that’s going to help people.
Carol Cox:
Oh, that looks so nice. Okay, so for those of you who are listening to the podcast, if you want to see we have video. So you go to the show notes page for this episode, just go to speaking your brand to 99 and you can see the video and see Ambers diagram. Okay, hold it up for us again.
Amber De La Garza:
Okay. Okay. So it’s four pillars. And what we do is we’re moving through starting. I mean, from the outside here first, starting with what your destination is, where it is it that you want to go, what are your goals? What is your vision of success? And this really I mean, I don’t want this to a commercial, but ultimately our definition of productivity can vary in the sense of what you feel is your most productive self. And mine all depends on what your goals are. And really, when I work with my clients, we’re looking to achieve their goals. And sometimes you have to start with even articulating what it is that you want both in your life and your business. So that starts out with the destination by design and then you go through the self. For me, it was really, really important that that was the first pillar because this is actually first in my mind when I’m working with a client that you want to leverage yourself. So before you’re thinking of, Oh my gosh, I have to fix my business and my systems and my team members and you know, all of it that’s outside of you. It was really important that we figured out the framework that made sure that the self was being leveraged, maximized and in there is mindset, life by choice and health. As you know, we can only be our most productive selves when are healthy and our mindset is solid. And then it goes into time. Time is the second pillar and time is generally what is thought of as productivity.
Amber De La Garza:
What it was important for me when I created my framework was that I was coming from this from a very holistic way and bringing in things that I am always talking to my clients about. So of course time is in there, but it’s not always just time management. It’s not just like, Oh, you know, plan your calendar, make it to do list. Those are important, very important skill sets to learn. But it wasn’t the only thing, but it was important. It was the next pillar. So I guess what I am sharing this is when you’re thinking of your framework in your your acronym, you know, in your mind or in mind, I’ll speak for myself. I had these like things I knew had to be in there and like these parameters and like in my mind it made sense to be in a certain order. But then also you needed to spell a word like, You know what I mean? Like there was just all these sticking points and I’ll just finish them. The next one is organization, which is like your physical organization, digital organization and business systems. And then the last is leveraging through people. So that will be your dream team, your trusted advisory council think, you know, leveraging through coaches and consultants and your accountant. And then lastly, are the people in your personal life that support you as a business owner. So really taking it from one all the way from what is it that you want, leveraging yourself all the way through leveraging others is the framework.
Carol Cox:
I love it. Amber So you knew that Self needed to be the beginning of it. Now, did you know that you wanted to use the word stop because it stop started with an S or how did how did the word stop come into this?
Amber De La Garza:
No, I mean, honestly, I can’t tell you how it came in. I do remember it started with most I actually own the domain, like most method, like I bought the domain before I even had the framework thinking I can certainly make this work. And it just didn’t work. You know what’s interesting is you’re going to ask me very specific questions, and we’re talking for probably about four years ago I created this and it was such an evolution and there was like this tweaking and tweaking and tweaking that happened until I looked at it. I’m like, Oh my gosh, this is solid. And so when you’re trying in the moment, it feels paint a little painstaking, like, oh my gosh, But like, like having a baby, in my opinion, then you forget and you’re like, Let’s do it again. Let’s create another framework because you forget all the details of like how hard it might have felt in that moment. But I will say that once I, I do remember thinking that once I started figuring out some of the pieces, then it was like lock, lock, lock, like then it was just like falling into place for me. It was like getting going and wrapping my head around maybe the outline of the framework. And then once I had that, I was able to fill it in.
Carol Cox:
I do remember most okay.
Amber De La Garza:
Yeah, yeah. And that’s and so that’s a great lesson there is like, heck, I had a domain for it. This is what I thought it was going to be. And probably the big leap was saying, Oh, it doesn’t have to be that. If it’s not that, what’s better.
Carol Cox:
Yes. Like forcing it and just wasn’t working.
Amber De La Garza:
It wasn’t working. And you know, when I started it, I had to gather my thoughts and start becoming the observer of my coaching with my clients. So when I’m in a coaching session, it’s a very intimate experience and you’re 100% present. And that’s all I wanted to do for my clients. But I remember kind of preparing for this and knowing that I wanted to create a framework is that afterwards, when I was done with my notes, I would read the notes through another lens of, okay, what’s the pattern? What are the same questions that are getting asked? What are the same topics that I’m going over and coaching sessions? And then I just accumulated that. Until I could put that into a very solid framework.
Carol Cox:
And I did the same exact thing, Amber. And I feel like this is this is exactly the way to start thinking about it, is what are those common questions you continually ask your clients or whatever it is that you’re working on, and maybe it’s internally in-house with the team. So what are those questions that you constantly ask? What is the information that you’re trying to get? What are those patterns that are developing? And that’s what happened with the signature Talk Canvas framework, that three story structure, the poster board that we used in your VIP day and that we still use to this day with our clients to map out, because I had worked with probably about six different clients at the beginning of this business, and I knew how to create presentations for myself because I just did it right out of my mind. But then having and then I would work, started working with clients like, okay, how do I get from them what I need to actually create a solid presentation. And then I notice, Oh, I’m kind of asking the same questions and getting to the same information with them. And that’s where the framework develops. So for those of you listening, start paying attention to those commonalities, those common questions, the results that you’re getting, those patterns, and then start kind of grouping them into different things, see if it’s their steps that are involved or can be pillars like amber, where it’s not linear, right? It’s not progressive. They don’t have to do one before the other. They may That’s.
Amber De La Garza:
A good point to actually show. No one has to, but I do teach it that way when I’m teaching it in my group coaching program. But I also it’s also flexible because then it becomes highly customized and then I diagnose where in the framework we need to start with private coaching clients diagnose based on what are the the challenges that are going to be coached on. And then eventually we get to the whole framework always. That’s just it just is because it’s a good framework from the work I do, but it’s so flexible in the fact that we actually created it so that it progresses. If I was teaching it in a video, you know, 13 videos to be exact, video trainings and master classes, or they can be pieced out and taught and coached in any any order.
Carol Cox:
Well, that’s a good segue way then, Amber, to the different ways that you’re using your framework. So you mentioned with your coaching clients, so can you tell us a little bit about the the group program that you run? I also know you do one on one and then other ways that you’re using the framework.
Amber De La Garza:
When I first did this framework, it was a framework so that I could use it as a tool. When I did keynotes to get business right, like to naturally showcase how I help my clients experiences that my clients have had through going through the framework of the stop leverage formula. It definitely use it in the keynote, that’s one. So I just want to touch on that for sure. But for me it was always going to be the backbone to a group coaching program and my group coaching program is called Leverage Lab. And so it’s how to leverage yourself, your time, organization and people. And in that scenario, the framework is broken down into master classes. We call them power sheets. I coach on each of these specific areas and so the actual design of the back end on demand part of my group program coaching program is the same framework. They see it every time they log in. This is how they can choose where they want to focus on or get additional resources is all through the framework. And then my private coaching clients, I use it with them all of the time as well. Whether I am saying okay, like this is totally a people thing, let’s dive into that. And here’s the thing. I created so many resources for my group coaching program and now through private coaching, it’s incredibly customized and prescriptive, meaning if there’s an issue, I’ll go grab resources from one of the modules and say, Go do this or take action here, or watch this part of the training to dive deeper on that concept that we talked about in coaching. And for them they are still experiencing the framework, but I am holding their hand and navigating through it.
Carol Cox:
Yeah, so you’re doing it for clients who come with you, do it for the keynotes and the presentations, and I know even the keynotes have been very successful for you because you have gotten clients from the presentations that you’ve done.
Amber De La Garza:
Absolutely. Before I had come to you, I had done speaking before and it was really the best way that I got clients, but it wasn’t polished and it wasn’t a direct into my offerings. And so I know that I loved speaking and when I decided to come work with you, it was kind of like, How do you double down on what’s working? You know, polish your skill sets, make it intentional and really make it seamless for them to be like, I can’t see not working with you, but something that was really important to me. While that is the goal we’re all business owners, is that I wanted that for the person that never wanted to hire me. Still felt like they got so much value from the actual keynote. Like, Right. There wasn’t. Here’s a little taste, but if you want more, you have to pay me. I didn’t want it to feel that way. And I feel like the framework gave that the framework. Let them really understand what I was presenting. And it also let them insert themselves in the examples, the stories, and see where they may be stuck in the framework, the framework in the way that I teach it. Not here where you ask me to explain it, that that was not the way I explain it in a keynote or anywhere else. I didn’t want it to sound like a commercial, but when I really explain the framework, what I have found and this was a sheer surprise, is that that’s the gift in itself for me to bring organization and structure to their challenges, maybe their chaos, the way that they’re feeling or they feel like it’s just them or they’re alone in their business with these challenges. When I can lay it out with a framework and be like, I got you, like this is what I specialize in, it makes them also feel better about asking for help. And that’s all from the confidence that I have in presenting a framework.
Carol Cox:
It sounds like it validates what they’re feeling and going through that. They’re not alone in this.
Amber De La Garza:
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s so specific, the framework and it’s such a representation of the work I do. It’s doing exactly what it should do. It’s going to attract the people that are like, yes, like they’re nodding their heads at the whole time when they’re hearing it or it’s going to repel the other people. And I don’t want to spend my time deciding if they’re going to be a good client. It’s actually good time management. No, they’re very efficient if they’re able to opt out, because I’m so clear about this being my lane. This is how I help people and I find that more people are like, Oh my gosh, like, I need that. And the truth is, is nobody wakes up and says, I need a productivity coach. Like, that’s not that’s not how you know.
Carol Cox:
Amber. I feel like I wake up on very many days. I think that question crosses my.
Amber De La Garza:
Mind, Well, because we’re friends and you even know a productivity coach exists. But but most people don’t know that there’s a coach that can help them. So what they would say is, oh, my gosh, like, I’m just so overwhelmed. Like, why did I become a business owner? Like, I’m so challenged. They’ll articulate their challenges by being able to share this framework. I believe it allows them to see how that help can help them clear and really define what a what this productivity I’m going to say all productivity, what this productivity coach can do to help them.
Carol Cox:
Okay. So that’s a great Segway. Again, another good Segway into how else do you use the framework. So let’s talk about I know your podcast, but then also surprisingly perhaps our listeners as a sales tool. So let’s talk about the podcast first.
Amber De La Garza:
My content manager and myself use the framework to determine the content that goes on the podcast. If you think of my podcast as being obviously I’m doing it for marketing, right, just like I would keynote. And so not that the framework is taught in every podcast, it is not, but every solo podcast is linked directly to the framework. So we actually have tags that say this episode is linked to leveraging self time organization and people, and nobody on the outside listening would know that. But for us, we’re always making sure we’re not doing like four episodes on self or three episodes on time that I’m really able to sprinkle in. And look, I’ve been podcasting for a five years and sometimes I just want to talk about other things a little bit. And so it also lets me make sure I’m staying in my lane. Can I tie the connection to productivity and my pillars? So we really use it as a guide for what goes in and what what goes out.
Carol Cox:
Love it. Okay, that’s a really great idea. I need to think about some of the frameworks we have at speaking your brand and connecting them more explicitly to the podcast, even just for myself.
Amber De La Garza:
Yeah. So for example, if I have a masterclass about I’m just going to dream team, right? How to build your dream Team, My master class and resources teach everything I want my client to know on how to build their dream team from A to Z. My podcast listeners, unfortunately, they get a lot of value, but that’s not how I’m going to serve it up to them because they’re not paying clients. And so we might say, okay, we want to do something around hiring. And so what we’ll do is make sure it’s not content that’s specifically in the training. It’s a piece that gets them ready for the training. So like or maybe it’s the mindset of hiring, or maybe it’s a process that you can do before you’re ready for the master class. And so for us, we’re looking at always providing value that it is helpful for them once they get into my coaching or my group coaching program and it’s not cannibalizing the content that I protect for my clients to really get great. Value from experiencing my programs.
Carol Cox:
Great idea.
Amber De La Garza:
I like it makes things easier. And then the next one, which was something I shared with you I think you were a bit surprised about, but I actually use my framework for discovery calls. And so if you imagine somebody is scheduling a call with me to find out if working with me is a good option for them. I’m also wanting to know if I’m not only have I a good option, but are they a good option to work with me because it needs to be both ways. And when I mean option, I mean, I need to know that I can provide value for their specific challenge. They could be a listener to the podcast. They can know they can like me, they can trust me. But my job on the discovery call, in my opinion, is to pull out the challenges that they want to solve. And when they’re talking to me, I’m listening to it through knowing what my lane is and how I help my clients so well through my framework. And so I’ll have a little steno notepad and I’m rapidly taking notes. That’s how I actively listen. And they’ll talk for ten, sometimes 15 minutes. I want to hear it all and I’ll ask one more question and I’m taking all these notes. And then on the other side of it, I will write myself a note as to either what pillar or what module. In the pillar there challenge falls under. And so then when I say, okay, so based on what you shared with me, thank you for sharing with me what I heard your biggest challenges are.
Amber De La Garza:
And then I repeat them and I say, What I’d love to do is share with you my framework on how I support my clients. And then if it’s true, only if it’s true, I’ll say. And really everything you shared with me today fits perfectly. So let me just go through those with you, Share with you how I support you. And then they’re like, Yes, because then they’re like, How did I fall into someone that actually has solutions for my my challenges, right? And then from there it’s like, okay, so are they a fit for my group coaching program to be supported through the framework that way, or are they a fit for being supported through my one on one coaching program, through the framework? And that’s really the end of the call. And then we go through pricing and the details of the offerings and and that’s it. But I use this framework to ground the conversation because rightfully so. When people call me, it’s it’s just a stream of thought when I ask them, what are your challenges? And so it comes out disorganized and chaotic and a lot of different ways. And it should it is it does feel that way. And so when I’m able to come back to them in a very organized way already with all their challenges, it makes for a very effective call.
Carol Cox:
And I imagine it’s very reassuring for them because they’re seeking you out, because they know they need that structure, they need that organization, or they’re feeling overwhelmed or they’re feeling like they they’re not sure where they should be spending their time or where they’re all their time is is rapidly escaping them. And to have you reflect that back to them, to know, to reassure them and again, again validate what they’re going through, but then already present them with a structure.
Amber De La Garza:
So that’s a lot of return. So like really this return on investment is that it was challenging to get it, but I knew the business needed needed it. And when you talk about our business as a service based business, having an asset, this is an asset that can be used. And I don’t see it ending here right now. This is not my business model and I don’t I’m not looking to do this in the near future, but I’ve already built the back end for a very replicable process to coach and train my clients, right all through the framework. I mean, my back end digital system is organized by the framework. So if you want a resource, you want a training, you want a video, you name, whatever I’m doing, it’s it’s labeled under self time health as well. It’s labeled under organization business systems. My team knows, oh my gosh, don’t we have a resource for that or I’ll get off of a call with a private coaching client. And I’m like, Hey, Liza, send everything we have under badass business systems to my client. Like they just know. And so even the back end of my system is organized into these pillars. And this framework, which I didn’t even think about before we jumped on this episode.
Carol Cox:
You know, I thought I was an organized person, but you definitely have me beat. Yeah.
Amber De La Garza:
See it? While it was challenging at the beginning again to, like, organize my thoughts, like, this is the thing I needed because this is the way my brain loves to work. The point is, is that if I chose to hire other coaches or people to support me in my business, to support my clients, it’s replicable. I have documented how I teach and what I believe on every there’s 13 modules here, and in those modules I can go deep, deep, but it’s all documented. And so really, is that not the basis of training someone that can come into my business if that’s what I chose? Again, that’s not where I’m at now, but that’s just one other place that I can see now for sure would be used. But I don’t think I’m done in finding ways to use the formula for sure.
Carol Cox:
That is such an important point. Amber and here are speaking your brand and we do have other coaches and they’ve all been trained in the frameworks that I’ve developed. They all use the frameworks that three story structure framework with the poster board and the certain colored Post-it notes. And the reason then that I feel confident in their ability like they’re great coaches and speakers, but I want them to use the methodology that I’ve created that I know works well with our clients. And if it was just all stuck in my head or just in Google Docs in various places, it would be understandably be very hard for them to figure out all that out and then do that work with our clients.
Amber De La Garza:
I think just one more thing to say. I actually did an Instagram live with someone I did a podcast interview with this morning and you know, sometimes it takes hearing somebody else say it. And she’s like, and Amber is framework and framework. And she said she was referencing three other frameworks that I shared on her podcast. None of them was the stop leverage framework. So if you think of my stop leverage framework as the master framework, then I’m like, This is really cool. So then I teach another thing in the framework and in that thing maybe it’s another thing. And so I have now learned the skill set of looking at something that is very abstract, not tangible, that I provide as a service and being able to create these frameworks makes it memorable and easier for my clients to learn, easier for me to talk about. And so just to say it’s like framework and then inside of it could be a framework and another framework on how I teach. Now, because of this.
Carol Cox:
The frameworks end up having babies. Yeah, yes, I know it’s so funny because whenever I think of something like a new concept to teach on and train on, whether it’s on the podcast or within our Thought leader academy, my brain instantly starts working through what’s an acronym or an alliteration that I can turn this into.
Amber De La Garza:
And just for those that are listening to this podcast, let me tell you, when she first wanted me to do this, like I thought she had a third eye. I’m like, I can’t do that. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Like, this is so hard. And I’m glad that I had you to guide me. And I’m so glad that I was able to be persistent with it to get this return. But this isn’t naturally how I think, which is important because I want people to hear. Like, you don’t need to know how to do this, to learn how to do this. You know, you don’t need to have had it. Figure it out before deciding, Oh my gosh, my business would benefit from a framework and working with you. Carol.
Carol Cox:
Oh, well, thank you so much. I so appreciate that. All right, Amber, let’s dive into the three questions that we’d like to ask our guests. The first one is what’s a favorite book that you like to share with our listeners?
Amber De La Garza:
Yes. Okay. So I thought this would be a good book for your audience as well. It’s called Stories That Stick by Kendra Hall.
Carol Cox:
Great one. And no one’s mentioned that one yet.
Amber De La Garza:
Oh, really? Okay, so I have a funny little story. So I listen to this book, audio book in my car, and this was a couple of years ago and my son was ten and she was telling stories like, that’s how she teaches, obviously, in it. And we pull up to the house and he’s like, Don’t turn off the car. That’s how into this story. It’s an adult business book, right? My ten year old son was so enthralled, like he had to hear the end of the story. And I thought, oh, my gosh, this is such a great example of the power of story. So yeah, Stories That Stick by Kendra Hall.
Carol Cox:
And what’s a favorite? Tedtalk.
Amber De La Garza:
Yes. So it’s called We’ve Stopped Trusting Institutions and Started Trusting Strangers by Rachel Botsman. I just thought it was really interesting and her whole body of work is around understanding how trust in our culture is changing over time with technology.
Carol Cox:
Ooh, I’ll have to check with that one out. All right. And what’s a quote that you’d like to share?
Amber De La Garza:
This one. You don’t have to play Masculine to Be a Strong Woman. By Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Carol Cox:
Great. All right. I love hearing all of these responses, but I always learn new things, especially new TED talks to watch.
Amber De La Garza:
Yes. I’ll send you the link after to this episode. I mean, after we’re done recording.
Carol Cox:
Please do it. Amber. Please let the listeners know where they can find you, where they can connect with you and where they can, what they can do with you next.
Amber De La Garza:
Yes, absolutely. So I also have a podcast where Carole’s been a guest recently. Last week she was a guest here. And I want to make sure you go listen to her episode. And that’s over at Productivity Straight Talk. So wherever you’re listening to this podcast, just search productivity, straight talk. And then I’d also like to offer a free mini training. It’s called Take Back Your Time. And in 30 minutes I’ll teach you how in under 30 minutes I will teach you how to reclaim 30 minutes back each and every day. So compounded every day very specific and actionable strategies that you can walk away from and you can grab that at Amber de la Garza. Forward slash take back your time.
Carol Cox:
Perfect. I’ll make sure to include links in the show notes to those resources. Amber, thank you so much for coming on the Speaking your Brand podcast.
Amber De La Garza:
Absolutely. Thank you for having me again.
Carol Cox:
And everyone, make sure that you stay tuned for next week’s episode if you enjoyed this one. Hearing the case study of how Amber has used her framework in multiple different ways in her business and her speaking, next week is going to be the audio from a recent webinar training that I’ve done all about how you can develop your own framework. So I’m going to take you through step by step and how you can think about to do this for yourself. And of course, you can also do that in our Thought Leader Academy, which you can find out more information at at speaking your brand academy. Until next time. Thanks for listening.
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