How We Create a Signature Talk in a VIP Day: Podcast Ep. 243

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Carol Cox:
All about VIP days, how we use them to create our clients signature talks, and how you can use VIP days in your own 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. Hi there and welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I’m your host, Carol Cox. We’re taking you behind the scenes to talk about how we use VIP days to create our clients signature talks. And last week’s episode, you heard from two of our clients who graduated from our Thought Leader Academy with that experience was like for them and how they’re evolving from an expert to a thought leader, from their mindset to the content that they’re putting out there. And today’s podcast episode we have joining us, two of our clients, Erin Austin and Casey Gromer, who have worked with myself and with Diane Diaz, our lead speaking coach in VIP days, to create their signature talk. So we’re taking you behind the scenes to talk about why they wanted a signature talk in the first place, where they were in their business and in their speaking.

Carol Cox:
Why they decided that this was the time with the VIP day experience was like for them. And then I explain a little bit about our process, our framework, our methodology that we use with our clients in the VIP day. Then we dig into how they’ve been using their signature talk since they did their VIP day. We talk a bit about why we like the VIP day process to give our clients clarity and momentum, and I share the history of how the VIP day developed at speaking your brand. It’s kind of a fun journey to think about the different steps that it took to land on what we do today, and then we also talk with Casey and Erin about how they’re using VIP days in their business, or how they’re thinking of using it in the future. And so then you can consider how you could offer a VIP day in your business for your own services. This audio is from the LinkedIn live that we did. You can watch the video replay on LinkedIn if you would like to. There’s a link in the show notes at speaking your brand.com/243. We do our backstage with Speaking Your Brand LinkedIn live show every other Monday at 2:00 pm eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific, so you’re always welcome to join us there. Live to say hi to us and to ask questions of us and of our guests. Let me tell you a little bit about our guest today.

Carol Cox:
Erin Austin is the founder of Think Beyond IP, which helps women founded professional services firms build and protect their assets. Erin was on the Speaking Your Brand podcast earlier this year in episode 221. Casey Gromer is the founder of She Sweet Boutique. She’s a fractional integrator, so she helps female founders who are ready to step away from doing the day to day in their business to think bigger picture. She’s also the host of the Female Founders Breaking Boundaries podcast, and Casey was last on this podcast and episode 202, which was towards the end of 2020. You can find these episodes links to connect with Erin and Casey on LinkedIn, and lots of other good stuff on our show notes page of Speaking Your brand.com/2 43 I also want to let you know that enrollment is currently open for our Thought Leader Academy. If you’re looking for a place where you can develop your thought leadership message and platform, create your signature talk. Work on your visibility and revenue strategy for speaking and for podcast appearances, and also work on your delivery both on video and for in-person speaking. This is the place for you. It’s an incredible group of women entrepreneurs who come together to learn and to support each other. And you have the option when you enroll in the Thought Leader Academy to add a VIP day to it. So that’s why this episode is so great, because it gives you the behind the scenes of what that VIP day process is like.

Carol Cox:
You can get all of the details about our Thought Leader Academy, and you can apply by going to speaking your brand.com/academy. Again, that’s speaking your brand comm slash Academy. Now let’s get on with the show. Hey everyone. Welcome to backstage with Speaking your Brand. This is your opportunity to go behind the scenes of what we do here at Speaking your brand as a business, and also to go behind the scenes of what it looks like to put yourself out there speaking wise and a visibility. Today we’re going to talk about VIP days. So we’re going to dig in first to how we use VIP days here at Speaking Your Brand to help our clients create their signature talk. And then we’ll also talk about how you could potentially use VIP days in your own businesses. That can be very powerful, offers that get your clients quick wins and also give them a lot of momentum and clarity. So if you’re here live, say hi to us in the comments. We can see your comments here. And if you’re watching the replay, let us know that you’re watching the replay. And we’re going to be taking your questions along the way, so make sure to put them in the comments. I’m Carol Cox, founder and CEO of Speaking Your Brand. With me today is Diane Diaz, our lead speaking coach.

Diane Diaz:
Hello everybody. So happy to be here.

Carol Cox:
And our two fabulous guests are clients of ours who have done the VIP day process with us to create their signature talk. We have Casey Gromer and Erin Austin. Nice to have you here.

Erin Austin:
Thank you. Excited.

Carol Cox:
So, Erin, let me start with you. Tell us a bit about what it is that you do in your business. And I also want to let everyone know that Erin was on the Speaking European podcast a few months ago, earlier this year, talking in more detail about what she does in her business. But give us an overview right now.

Erin Austin:
So again, I’m Erin Austin, I am founder of Think Beyond IP. I am a business consultant and an intellectual property lawyer. And what I do is I help the female founders of B2B professional services firms build and protect the assets in their business so that the business is ready to sell when the founder is ready to exit. It’s been a lot of fun to work with women to help them understand how to build value in their businesses. Sometimes when their service based business, you think in terms of your time, but I want to help women think in terms of assets and using those assets to build wealth.

Carol Cox:
Incredible, Erin, that is so powerful. And Casey, tell us about your business and also about your podcast.

Casey Gromer:
Oh thank you. Carol. Um, hi, I’m Casey Gromer. I’m also a business consultant and I’m a fractional integrator. And what I do is I work with women who are ready to kind of get out of the day to day of the running of their business. And so everything that we do really helps them, um, with their strategy, their planning, their people and their processes so that they can successfully do that and still pay themselves and make a profit. And thank you for the opportunity to share the podcast. I have a podcast called Female Founders Breaking Boundaries, and we talk about all the ways, um, that running a business as a woman is has a different set of expectations and challenges and how we can walk you through that so you can be successful.

Carol Cox:
And I have to give a plug for Casey’s podcast. It has become quickly one of my go to favorite ones to listen to, and I love the format that Casey has. In the beginning of the episode, she’ll lift up a fellow female founder so this could be someone that she knows personally, or it could be someone that she’s seen in the news, and then she does the main content, and then at the end she does her rants or deep thoughts with Casey. And I really enjoy that. So you definitely check out her podcast, Female Founders Breaking Boundaries.

Casey Gromer:
I’m blushing. I’m blushing. Carol, thank you for the kind words.

Carol Cox:
All right, so let’s dive into VIP days and let me I’m going to, since we’re here on LinkedIn live and not on podcasts, I can actually like show a visual. So this is, uh, the framework that we use when we work with our clients on their signature talk. This is actually the one for my keynote that I’m delivering this coming Saturday. So I did a VIP day for myself because it works really well. And so we have three acts that we divide it out into. And then the post-it notes, there’s four colors and they stand for different things. And so what happens is that in a VIP day, either myself or Diane, we sit with you, the client, and ask you a bunch of questions. And we know what we’re asking because we’re driving for certain information, certain things that we’re looking for. And then we’ll pull on threads that we think are super interesting and go deeper there. And then while you’re talking, we’re writing on the post-it notes and kind of putting stuff in order based on this three act and this journey that we want you to take the audience on. And so then the of course, the beauty of the post-it notes is we can rearrange them as new information and new and new great things come about. So before though, we talk about your specific VIP day experiences. Erin, let me start with you. Why did you want a signature talk in the first place? How do you envision using it?

Erin Austin:
Yeah, well, for me, I mean, I’ve been practicing law for almost 30 years now. My evolution with Think Beyond IP is more recent. People knew me, you know, one way. And I really wanted to kind of build some visibility and authority for for them to look at me as more of a consultant and a coach and helping them with, you know, strategic transformations in their business. So it was really important to me to work on that thought leadership piece. And of course, speaking is one of the primary ways that we do that. You know, after talking to Diane and one of the things that I asked her was, you know, is it too soon, you know, because I’m, you know, I’m kind of early in my journey of, you know, this adding this piece. And she’s like, absolutely not. And she was right, because it really helped me kind of clarify some of my thinking around these things, you know, talk about the details of how it works. But but it really does help, uh, kind of flesh out some of, you know, the process of thought leadership and how you communicate that. So that was why I did it, you know, even though it was kind of early for me. Um, it really helped me kind of put, put a framework around some of the things I was thinking about.

Carol Cox:
Fantastic. And you mentioned frameworks. So we’re going to come back to that. Erin. All right. Uh, Casey. What about you? Why did you want a signature talk?

Casey Gromer:
Well, I had spent a lot of my career talking to really big audiences, but I mostly spoke to them about how tos and sharing educational information. And so when I launched my business, I knew I wanted to build some authority and talk to people about some things that I felt were missing and how businesses are operating today. And I, I mean, to be honest, I had no idea. I’m like, I have no idea what kind of cohesive thought I’m putting together. So, Carol, that’s why I wanted to work with you, because I, I knew that it’s I’m like the cobbler’s kids that can’t wear shoes or whatever. So pulling things out of other people comes really easy to me. But pulling things out of myself, I just I’m, I’m a fact finder, so I’m very analytical and I just think too much.

Carol Cox:
Basically, I’m a fellow fact finder. I am I cannot tell you how proud I am of myself of having done this for myself. Really. It’s so much easier for me to do it for someone else.

Diane Diaz:
I know exactly what you mean, Carol. When I have to do a talk and I do that for myself, I’m like, shush, let me just do this for a client. It’s so hard on yourself.

Carol Cox:
Yeah. All right. So actually, Diane, I’m going to hand it off to you. Why don’t you and Aaron chat about kind of how you approach the VIP day process? And I know that Aaron had a framework that she was coming in with as well. So I’ll let you two take it from here. Yes.

Diane Diaz:
Okay. Well, I know Aaron, you did come in with a framework, but I remember that when we first chatted, you had quite a long framework. And I know that we kind of whittled it down. So maybe you can talk a little bit about where it started, and then we can kind of chat about how the process went to whittle it down, but talk about your framework and kind of where it started. And we can talk about where it went from there.

Erin Austin:
Yeah, you know, it evolved and I think it was all over the place, honestly. But I think when I came to you, I, it was called applied I believe. So it was like seven steps or something like that. You really, you know, and and it was kind of I wanted to have like a step by step way that I could explain to people like how I would get you from point A to point B, and part of my issue was, again, like I was starting as a lawyer and I was trying to get you to this, like transformation that people don’t typically associate with lawyers. And so I had all the little pieces in there and like, like breadcrumbs basically was what my framework was when we worked together. First of all, you know, you didn’t like the applied, right? And, you know, it didn’t mean anything. It didn’t, you know. And so we kind of really worked out, kind of boiling it down to what the most essential elements were. And also that we would call it something that conveyed the message within the framework and the transformation that I wanted to to help take people through.

Erin Austin:
And so where we came to was give and so nice, sweet give and and it was really about, you know, one working with women and, you know, women entrepreneurs, a lot of times they use what they do in a way that may be different from the way that men do it, that that it’s more emotional for them. Um, they do it either, even if it’s not a lifestyle business, but they do it so they can work with people that they love, doing things that they love, you know, employees that they love. And so and when they think about the way that they’re going to use their wealth, they want to use it for good and for either for their families, for their communities. And so for, you know, to have give is the framework for them to think about, okay, this is not you know, we’re going to build a business that will help you give more, make more impact. So it kind of it was just a nice little package that way that we wrapped it up.

Diane Diaz:
Yes. I remember when we were talking when we first started out and we were chatting about, you know, I was asking you questions about what do you do and what is the process that you take your clients through. And we were going through that whole thing, and you were sharing all that with me, and you kind of had that framework, and I was trying to figure out how we could make it, like you said, more related to what you do versus just some, some word. One of the questions I asked you is, you know, what? What did you want the overall goal of the of your work to be? Because it’s not necessarily about the step one, step two, step three. It’s about what the ultimate goal is. Right? So we talked a lot about that. But I also remember after our VIP day because then we also do a couple of follow up sessions. I was on a walk and I was and I told you this, Aaron, I said I’m a word person. Once I start ruminating on what is the word? What is the word? What is the word? I can’t stop thinking about it and I will think about it in the shower. I will think about it on a walk. I will think about it before I go to bed. It’s in my head. So I was on a walk and I just started on my phone. I’m surprised I didn’t trip over something or walk into the back of a parked car because I was on my phone jotting down words that I’m like, oh, this word, this word, this word. And so I while I was walking, while I then emailed you to say, here are some words that might, you know, what do you think of? These words. And that is kind of how we arrived at that, at that give framework, because you really latched on to that one, which I love, because it’s then you take ownership of that and how that framework feels for you and how it fits with your content.

Erin Austin:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The slide was a bit tortured and it was it was literally okay, I got these steps and I need some letters to go with it. So it’s, you know and it was so. Yes. It really was so helpful.

Carol Cox:
Yeah. So Aaron, let me ask you this. Were you surprised that you were able you and I were able to get the talk done within the three hour time frame because I’m just curious, like how, you know, how does it feel when you’re initially are signing up for a VIP days? Is it like, how is this possibly going to happen in three hours, like you just did you just trust the process? Yeah.

Erin Austin:
I mean, you had to trust the process, right? I mean, I knew about you because I heard you, Carol, on a podcast before, and and it was years ago. Honestly, it took a while for me to, to get to, you know, um, signing up with you guys. And I knew that, okay, this, like, process makes sense to me. Like, it really made sense to me. I think I even heard you on a podcast. I didn’t see the board, but I knew about the board and and about the stickies and, uh, and, uh, so, yeah, it really is about trusting the process, seeing who you’ve worked with before, the results that you’ve gotten. And, uh, and, you know, and for me, like having a VIP day, like, you know, to say, have that focus time was super important for me. You know, there are other ways to learn, you know, but for me to have that kind of really focused time to dig in, you know, and stay like, right with it was very valuable for me. Great.

Carol Cox:
I’m Casey, I’m gonna come up to you now, and I want to remind everyone who’s either who’s watching live or on the replay, say hi in the comments, let us know that you’re here and also post your questions for us as we’re going along. Casey. So what about you? Talk about your VIP day experience? I was looking back at my notes and we did this almost two years ago, October of 2019 before Covid. So obviously with the with the idea of doing using this, I’m sure, for in-person speaking engagements primarily. So how did you feel going into the VIP day? And tell us a little bit about what we ended up focusing on and how the experience felt for you?

Casey Gromer:
Um, well, I was really excited to go into the VIP day because I always look, um, I think Aaron mentioned something similar where we just don’t take the time to sit and and do that thinking about our own business. So not only was I actually going to accomplish creating this talk that I wanted to create, but I was also going to spend a lot of really thoughtful, um, time thinking about what’s important and what people will find interesting and what they want to know about. And so, Carol, your process of the asking of the questions, I couldn’t have done it without that because I, I’m very linear. Right. And so I could have sat down and created something and it would have been like step one, step two, step three. But the process that you took me through was really about telling a story and making it interesting and incorporating examples. And that’s really what the VIP day added so much flavor to anything that I could have created on my own.

Carol Cox:
Fantastic. And I was looking back at the photos. So what happens is that obviously we’re doing this on zoom with our clients. And so once we’re done with the board, we take photos of it and then we upload them to the shared Google Drive folder. And then what you all do is then you take that and put it into an outline, transcribe it into an outline. So Casey, I’m looking back at the photo of it. And we have. So your framework, your acronym was easy. Um, and I don’t remember if you had come to our VIP day with that already.

Casey Gromer:
No, I had I had no framework. Um, and in fact, Carol, you had to even help lead me to what do you even want to talk about? Because, like I said, I just have this. I’m a very big picture person, so I’m like, well, Carol, I have like 6 million things that I can talk about. This process really helped me narrow it down to something that was unique and different, about the way I talk about what I do, the way I work with clients, the way we approach business. And it ended up coming out to, um, the customer journey that I use and how an entire business. Well, after we work together, I did create a separate framework, but so there’s two things in the business that I focus on almost exclusively. And the first is the vision of the business. But I mean, that’s we all know about that and the customer journey. So the customer journey really is something that informs almost everything that you do in the business, because if you don’t have a customer, you don’t have a business. And so we talked about the easy button and how that how that customer journey was an integral part of making business easy. And so then of course, the acronym went went on to define the experience of the customer, the aligning of the goals. The, um, the story that we tell about the customer. And then it’s not about you. It’s about the customer. So love it.

Carol Cox:
Yes. All right, so Holly has a question. She says, how much longer did it take to draft your outline in slide deck? So once we had the board done, how long did it take for you then to take this and put it into the outline and then from the outline into slides and then you have design support for the slides. So Aaron I’ll come to you first. Once you had the photo of your board and then you had to put in the outline, how long do you think you spent on that?

Erin Austin:
Well, to make that outline, I mean it’s very comprehensive. What you, you have the, the sticky notes. Uh, I want to say I transcribed it in not more than a couple of hours, mostly because I had, you know, there’s some places to fill in, like add a story. So I had to think about, like what? You know, what the story was going to be. And, you know, there’s some places where I just didn’t had coming into it. I just had some blanks that I had needed to fill in. Um, so it could have been a little more than that, but, um, but not but not much more than that. And, uh, and I have not done a keynote speaking gig, so I’ve not done a slide deck with it. I have done a number of podcasts, and I’ve done some webinars. When I do do slide decks, I do get help, though. I will say that.

Carol Cox:
That’s always a good idea. Yeah. And I’ll say I have found that for mostly for lead generation presentations, whether they’re in person or virtual. So webinars and then in person lead generation like conference breakout sessions, I will use slides for keynotes. I tend not to use slides unless there’s something like I really need to convey in an image or something or a video clip. Like for the keynote that I’m doing this Saturday, there’s no slides and also just makes it so much easier not to have to to worry about that. Casey, what about you? How long did you do you think you spent once you had the board to do the outline? And then what did what do you do with your slides or how did you approach creating your slides?

Casey Gromer:
Well, the the work we did was so long ago, I was trying to remember like, gosh, how long did that take me? But so I’m going to, you know, I’m going to do my best to try to remember, but I’m actually, um, writing comes really easy to me. So I know that it didn’t take me more than 1 to 2 hours because, Carol, once you got me started, I was just, like, on a roll. And I was like, typing. But, um, so it didn’t take me very long to fill out the outline. And in terms of a presentation, I don’t love a lot of slides. And so my slide deck is very simple. I just use it as a visual interest kind of thing. And so I also, you know, in case anyone’s interested, I use a service called beautiful Dot AI for creating slides. And it’s like, um, it’s like a drag and drop builder for presentations. And it’s it looks beautiful and it’s very pretty. And there’s a free option and a paid option. And so I’ve been using that to do presentations. And um, it saves me a ton of time.

Carol Cox:
Oh good to know. Beautiful I I’ll have to check that out. Yeah. All right. Great. So let’s now kind of segue into VIP days in general. And you know, and so for those of you watching, if you have questions about VIP days, pop them into the chat. If you if you offer VIP days in your business right now, let us know in the chat what it is around the VIP day, what what the offer is. And if you’ve been thinking about it but haven’t been sure, also let us know that in the chat. So as I mentioned at the beginning, we really like VIP days because it obviously provides a lot of clarity for for you, the client who’s coming in with you’re far from alone, a whole swirl of ideas and content and stories and client examples. And it’s like, which ones do I pick? Which are the most impactful? Which makes the most sense? Which topic should I talk about? Which should be my key points? How do I add audience engagement? Right. Like all of those things swirling around. Hence, that’s why we’re your sounding board, literally to put all that together. But also we find it provides a lot of momentum. And when I first started speaking your brand and when work with clients, I like to say that I knew how to create presentations for myself.

Carol Cox:
So then I started the business and had to figure out how to create presentations with other people, not for them, but actually with them. And so initially we would spend like 6 or 8 sessions on zoom together and I would have Google Doc and like be writing, you know, asking questions, typing, writing, moving stuff around. And then it was with Tammy Lalli, who went on her Ted talk has now gone on to over 2 million views. She was the first person I did this process with, so she was kind of like my beta client to do this with. And once we did it this way, I was like, oh, this, this is the methodology, this is what makes sense. And so now I probably have done it, I don’t know, 100 times at least. And so it provides so much clarity. Size provides so much momentum in those quick wins. And then kind of gets you like off to your next thing. So Erin, let me come to you. Do you offer like any type of VIP day service in your business or have you if you don’t right now, have you considered it?

Erin Austin:
Yes, I am considering it where I am because. You know, a day I can’t do but an intensive like I can do. And so the first step in my process is an inventory. And, uh, and so that includes, you know, the kind of, uh, a form that the client fills out that does, you know, helps me kind of understand the background of the company and a preliminary inventory of their assets, to the extent that the way they look at assets and, uh, and then we work together to kind of refine that, find out more about it, and then I go back and kind of come back with my overall assessment of the assets in their business, which ones have the most value and what the next steps would be to make sure we’re protecting them so that we can maximize the value in the business. And so right now that is it’s not so tight as that, that I could call it a VIP day. Um, I think I can call it an intensive, but it will get there. That is where it’s heading. After I get, you know, dozen of them under my belt to, to make sure I kind of go, okay, this is that’s definitely where, where it’s heading now for sure.

Carol Cox:
Fantastic. And, Casey, what about you VIP days in your business.

Casey Gromer:
Yeah. So we I call them CEO days, and they’re very similar to what you do, Carol. So a lot of the consulting or the work that I do, if, if you’re not a retainer client of mine, you’re either going to be doing an advisory call with me or a CEO day with me. And if you’re someone who’s spent any time in corporate, you will resonate with the fact that when you’re in corporate, you spend a lot of time in meetings. And as annoying as they can be, a lot of work gets done in meetings because you’re collaborating, you’re making decisions, you’re mapping things out, you’re testing ideas, and you’re getting feedback. And so during our CEO day, that’s exactly what we’re doing. And I started out very similarly to you, Carol. So I have something called a business blueprint, which is basically, um, a business strategy on steroids. So if you think about a startup where you’ve got some bullet points about who your target audience is and what your vision and mission is, and we turn that into something incredibly powerful to really impact the decisions that you make for your team.

Casey Gromer:
So we I used to do that over 6 to 8 sessions. And what we found, the reason I did it that way was because, you know, zoom fatigue is real. And I thought, you know, after you spent an hour on the phone, your attention span is kind of wandering. You’re getting tired. But I actually found that it was better because if you break it out over eight sessions, it takes a heck of a long time to get to the end result. And who has time to wait eight weeks for a business strategy? And the other thing we found is once you stop and start, you know, you have to get back into the frame of mind all over again. So in fact, we we were by turning it into a three hour time together and we take breaks like we have bio breaks and a snack break. Whatever. But in that three hour time, we were able to stay really focused. And, you know, you get your end product within a week instead of waiting the eight weeks to the end of the session.

Carol Cox:
Yeah, that’s a great point, Casey. True that about getting it so much quicker than you otherwise would. And that in keeping that focus versus every week you’re starting again and you’re like, oh, where do we leave off and what are we working on next? And then so I remembered one other detail about how actually the VIP days came about. So I mentioned that the board process came from working with Tammy Lally, but that took us a long time. Like we spent many sessions together to really hone her Ted talk. So here’s what happened, though. I think it was later that fall, that year, 2017. So I got a client, a new client. So we were talking on the on the zoom console call, and she had a speaking engagement coming up that weekend. And I think it was like a Tuesday that we were talking and her speech was on a Saturday. And so I was like, okay, well, doing six sessions is probably not going to be the answer here. So I was like, okay, let’s try it. Let’s get let’s do three hours on zoom this Friday and we’ll go through the board and see where we get. And we did it. And that’s now remember that’s where the VIP day, it was like, this is like the mother of invention or like the value of constraints. When you’re forced to do something in a shorter period, you never know what comes out of it. So for those of you who are watching and listening, you may not think you could do your process your service in a shorter amount of time. But try give yourself that constraint and see what happens. You might be surprised, Carol.

Diane Diaz:
That’s one of the things also that I like about the VIP days, for us at least. And I’m sure this was true for other providers as well, is that, you know, you do get a quick resolution. So in this case you work on your talk, you come, you have a framework hopefully. And then also you’ve got your talk and then you can immediately go deliver it somewhere. And even if it’s not like Erin said, she hasn’t done a formalized speaking engagement. She’s done podcast interviews. You’re immediately using the work that you did to hone and whittle down those ideas. Years, you’re immediately putting those out there and you’re able to get feedback. Whereas if you did multiple sessions right, you’re it takes a lot longer to be able to see like, oh, does this work? But with the VIP day, you’ve got it, you’ve got the clarity. You can go out and start using that clarity and find out how your audience responds and then iterate from there. So I like the the ability to sort of get your, your idea, your talk, your podcast information whatever out there very quickly.

Carol Cox:
And it really does such a great foundation. We’ve had clients use their board for email sequences like and once they had their outline, like, they’ll take pieces and use for email sequences for social media content. Yeah. Workshops, you know, webinars. So that’s really why we like it. Like we can expand and contract the content and the amount of time based on what you need to use it for. So, Casey, what what are some different ways you’ve used the material from your talk?

Casey Gromer:
I was just going to say, um, you know, we mentioned my podcast and when I’m thinking all of the ways I can take little portions of the talk that I worked on their whole episodes in themselves. And so I can probably have 35 episodes of podcast content that I can use. And in addition to that, we we’ve made portions of my talk into a product so that it’s a template that you can purchase, or it’s a CEO day or an advisory session that you can book with us to work through a specific resource that I’ve mentioned in the talk.

Carol Cox:
Oh, I’d love to hear that. And what about you, Erin?

Erin Austin:
I use it, uh, as as a foundation for all the the interviews that I’ve done. I’ve done a number of them this year, and I even use them in my one on one conversations. You know, part of kind of my process this year has been lots of one on ones with people. And, you know, talk about getting that feedback. You know, every conversation informs it and makes it a little bit better. And so it has been invaluable for kind of always making sure, you know, Diane, you know, one of the things, you know, I’m like, well, I just got the podcast. What do I do? You know, she’s like, you know, you make sure you have those three points that you want to make sure that you get across. And I’m like, I guess I got my three points. And that’s important both in the podcast interviews and in, you know, having networking conversations with people as well. So it’s been great for that.

Carol Cox:
That’s fantastic. It really does have a long shelf life, you know, and the way and even if like you may decide, oh, I want to go a different direction with my content or my topic, what I tell people like just change out, act two, like your middle content and kind of adjust your questions maybe on the act one and act three, but really like like why you do what you do and your credibility and act one and then act three, like the next steps kind of stay similar and then you just switch out the middle part as needed. Let me mention to all of you who are watching and listening that our thought Leader Academy is now open for enrollment the month of September. And so we are taking applications right now. You can get all the details and you can submit your application as speaking your Brand.com slash Academy. Again, that’s speakingyourbrand.com/academy. There’s different tiers that you can join at. And so the first tier is the academy. So you get all of the group calls. You get two one on one coaching calls with Diane to talk about your thought leadership message and your topic and your signature talk and your visibility and revenue plan. So you get all of the group calls that last for four months. And then in tier two, you get all of that, plus a VIP day with Diane to work on your talk.

Carol Cox:
So then you have your very own board with all the post-it notes on it. And then tier three is is all the academy plus a VIP day with me so that we’ll work together one on one on that, because we have really found that having that one on one time in the VIP day really does accelerate your results. And so you get trained on how to do it yourself in the Thought Leader Academy. But if you want that one on one help from us to do it, we are happy to do that. So you can you can get all the details about the Academy at speaking your brand.com/academy. Submit your application form. Because then what we’ll do is we’ll read it over and schedule a zoom consult call with you to talk about your goals and answer the questions you have about the Academy and make sure it’s the great fit for you. I am so excited about the women who have joined already. We are almost halfway full and we still have three weeks of enrollment left, so I have a feeling we’re not going to, uh, we’re going to be full before that time comes. Casey. Erin, let the watchers and listeners know where they can find you and learn more about you. Erin, I hang.

Erin Austin:
Out on LinkedIn, uh, mostly, and, uh, I’ve been on there so long, I’m the original Erin Austin, Sarat, Austin. And, uh, and then also my website is Think beyond IP com.

Carol Cox:
Fantastic. And Casey.

Casey Gromer:
Yes, I also like to hang out on LinkedIn. So if we are not already connected, I would welcome an invitation from you to connect. And also, um, please come over and check out the podcast at Female Founders Breaking Boundaries. And I really want to encourage listener participation there. So when I’m done with my, um, Deep Thoughts section at the end, if you want to send me a message and, you know, kind of continue. Need a conversation. Please do that. I am, uh, at she sweet boutique com. If you want to find out more about how we might work together.

Carol Cox:
Fantastic. Casey. Erin. Diane, thank you so much for coming on backstage with Speaking Your Brand, our live show that happens every other Monday at 2 p.m. eastern time, 11 a.m. Pacific, right here on LinkedIn. All right, everyone, thank you so much for joining in. And we’ll see you next time.

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