418-SYB-Election-Results.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Carol Cox:
Is the morning after. And here we are again. Our thoughts on the election results from the 2024 presidential election. 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, joined today by our lead speaking coach, Diane Diaz. Hi, Diane.
Diane Diaz:
Hi, Carol.
Carol Cox:
I was going to ask you, how are you doing? But I know the answer right now is not great. We’re recording this on the morning of Wednesday, November 6th, 2024. It is shortly before 11 a.m. Eastern time, and about 5 or 6 hours ago, the Associated Press did call the election for Donald Trump, who is now going to be president once again. Definitely not the outcome we were hoping for or looking for I, Diane. I know we were watching yesterday on Election Day, and I said that not only was I cautiously optimistic, but I was nauseously optimistic because we knew the polls were close. Like we knew it was going to be a close race and it did not go obviously the way that we wanted to.
Carol Cox:
So we want to take this time today on this podcast episode just to talk about what we are seeing, how we’re moving forward to hopefully help you all. If you’ve been listening to speaking your brand for a long time, if you’ve worked with us before, you’re part of our community. If you’re new, welcome. We’re so glad to have you here. So let me just give you a quick recap of how I’m looking at the results from Election Day. And then, Diane, you and I can talk about what we’re seeing. So I was on the TV news last night and again this morning, the morning after the election. This was the fifth presidential campaign that I’ve covered on the news, the first 1 in 2008 with Barack Obama’s joyous victory to 2016, which was an utter shock. I remember being in the news studio when it looked like Trump was going to win, and how shocked we all were to 2020, which I did the the election coverage from zoom, because that was in the middle of the pandemic to now 2024. And again, I clearly disappointed, but not nearly as surprised as in 2016 because as I said, the polls were close. So I know that it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that America just will not elect a woman as president, or that voters don’t care about women’s rights. Now, there’s a lot to be said about that. And I know many, many opinion pieces and eventually history papers will be written about this election in 2016.
Carol Cox:
But here’s two things to keep in mind because I’m an eternal optimist. Yes. Things you know, things are good and bad. But I like to focus on the things that are good. So the first thing to keep in mind is in both Missouri and Arizona, which are red states as well as other states, both red and blue. Since 2022, when the Dobbs decision came down from the Supreme Court, amendments have passed in those states to counter very restrictive abortion laws. Now, unfortunately, in Florida, where Diane and I live, a similar amendment that was on the ballot did not pass because Florida requires a 60% vote and the amendment got 57%. So a good percentage, but not quite enough to hit the 60. But a similar percentage as in those other states that did pass it because they don’t have that 60% threshold. So what this tells me is that a very healthy majority of voters, both men and women in red states and blue states, agree that women’s reproductive rights are essential. So that’s the first thing to keep in mind. The second thing to keep in mind is that this was a very close race. We’re looking here at Wisconsin a difference of 30,000 votes between Trump and Harris. Same with a lot of the other states. We’re talking maybe a difference in the popular vote of a million votes out of an electorate that is tens of millions.
Carol Cox:
I forget what the number is, but maybe 80 million. So very close. Also, keep in mind that Kamala Harris only had about 100 days to do what most presidential candidates have two years to do, and 100 days, well, they had to put on a convention. She had to get ready for that presidential debate. She had to introduce herself to the American people to talk about who she is, what her story is. She had to talk about the issues that she would focus on as president. She had a contrast herself, not only with her opponent, Trump, but also with the incumbent President Biden, in an era of anti-incumbency sentiment across the globe. It’s not just here in the US. So she had to try to do all of that in 100 days. It’s really hard to have competing messages that you have to put out to voters, especially in seven battleground states. She ran a nearly flawless campaign. Everyone can agree on that. There were no missteps. They raised $1 billion. A lot of it from small donors. There was a lot of enthusiasm for her. I believe she simply ran out of time. I think if we had known now, no one would have wanted this election to go on for another few months. But I think if she had had more time, I think we would have been able to get more votes. All right. Diane. So what are you what’s your perspective on what happened?
Diane Diaz:
Oh my goodness. I don’t even know what to say. Are you not the.
Carol Cox:
Are you not the eternal optimist like I am?
Diane Diaz:
I’m the. I’m. As you said, the nauseously optimistic, like, um, you know. No, it’s not that I’m not optimistic. It’s just that I. I think I’m just frustrated, you know, because we just find ourselves here again, and it just feels you know, it’s disappointing, right? You know, there’s this momentum and this energy and the joy. And it just feels like it feels like, um, anger and vitriol won out over joy. And I don’t I don’t like to think that that’s how our world is going to be. Right. So that’s, that’s that’s probably the most disappointing thing to me is that we chose the anger and hatred over the joy. And I’m like, well, okay. So but you know, I, I think the information that you shared, though is helpful to know because I, as you and I have talked about, we cannot move forward if we’re all just mired in our feelings of being upset and, you know, feeling like, not again and all those things. We cannot live in that space because we still have work to do, right? We still have things that we want to accomplish. And we we have to find a way to keep moving forward. And so knowing that information, knowing rational information like that does help me. So thank you for sharing that. So, um, you know, I guess I guess one thing that I could say is that I am heartened by seeing and witnessing the amount of people who came together in that short amount of time and the crowds and the support and the, you know, just the collective, uh, the collective joy that people had around an individual who we kind of sort of already knew from, like the Democratic standpoint, but who was new on the scene, running for president.
Diane Diaz:
But it was just so nice to see that community form and just feel like connected to people. I was on a walk this morning and just saw some people walking their dog that I always see walking their dogs. I see this couple walking about four dogs almost every morning, and I knew I was pretty sure they lived in a house that had a Harris Walls signs in the yard, and so I asked them if that was their house, and they said they put their hand on their chest and tilted their heads to the side and gave me like a yes, you know, like a oh my goodness. And so then we just we bonded over that and talked and they said, I’m so glad. We are so glad you said something to us because we have to find each other. Yes. Right. And so it was just so nice. You know, we commiserated a little bit and we did all the things that you do when you’re commiserating about something that didn’t go your way, but also it was just nice to bond over that. So I think that is that forming of community, I think is just something that I, I’m going to latch on to that. And knowing that that existed for that for at least this moment and we can continue that, that makes me feel good.
Carol Cox:
Yes. I think having that community, finding that community is essential. I sent out an email this morning to our past and and current speaking your brand clients, inviting them to an alumni community call that we’re doing in a couple of weeks. And so if you’re listening and you’re a past or current client, check your email inbox. And if you didn’t get it, reach out to us and we’ll send you the zoom registration link, because we would love to see you. And I know one of the things that clients tell us so much is that they love the community that we have created. And even though we don’t have a formal, structured community, for example, we don’t want to run a Facebook group. We do have a LinkedIn group, but LinkedIn groups don’t really do much. But but I just feel like women who go through our thought leader academy or come to our speaking workshops or come to our retreats, that they have that bonding moment with us and with each other. But it doesn’t just last for that one day or three days or the eight weeks, maybe the Thought Leader Academy. They connect with each other. They see each other when they happen to travel to cities where they live, or they are guests on each other’s podcasts. They do collaborative work together. And I think finding those women and and, and and strengthening those relationships is what’s going to help all of us. Because here’s the thing. They want us to feel powerless. Mhm. The other side, they want us to feel like we don’t have any agency. We don’t have any power, that there’s been some type of mandate that now it’s like my way or the highway.
Carol Cox:
But that’s not how our system works. That’s not how our government works. And so we need to make sure that we still have power, we still have agency, and to do what it is that we feel good about doing. One thing that you mentioned, Diane, about that walk this morning, and I feel like this is also where so much of this hatred and vitriol has come from is because of social media. Oh my gosh. And online, we know how much online interactions dehumanizes people because you’re not there in person with each other. You feel like you don’t really. The person is not real. They’re not a real human being. Versus if you see someone in person and you have conversations with them and you interact with them, it’s a completely different thing. And so for those of you listening, find those local groups in your community, go out, get involved in them, find organizations that you want to support and get involved in locally, as well as continuing to do what you do online with your online network. I know that’s what Diane, we’ve been doing a lot of in-person Person, local visibility and networking this year and I am so glad because now I have this bank of women that I can have, you know, do lunch dates with and coffee dates with and see and realize that, like, you know, there’s the world is not just all the political news, right? There’s just the thing that the day to day lives that we lead.
Diane Diaz:
Yeah, it’s a good point because I think even even, you know, in the early days of social media, I think, or we were moving more towards this sort of like isolated, like, you know, not connected to our neighbors, like even if you, you know, didn’t have social media you, like, open your garage door, drive into your garage, close the garage door, you don’t even talk to your neighbors, right. And so I think and then, of course, social media has just made that problem even bigger, right? And then we really aren’t connected to anyone. And I think, like you said, moving, moving like over the last year, you and I have made a concerted effort to get more and more out physically to events, meeting people, doing coffee dates with other women, and I am so glad that we’ve done that, because, you know, it’s it’s hard to build a community when you suddenly find that you need one. It’s better if you’ve been doing it all along and then you can tap into it. Right. But if you haven’t been doing that, do it now. But it’s just so nice to know that we can now make these human to human connections. And I for one, I was already not really using social media. For the most part, I had taken it off my phone, but I also just last night deleted the YouTube app from my phone as well. And I’m making it a sort of a rule for myself that I’m not going to consume social media content because it I think it it can be useful in some instances of course, like if you, you know, if you love social media, great.
Diane Diaz:
But I just find that it disconnects me from the reality of my world and then, uh, creates almost a heightened non-realistic sense of what the world is and who people are, and I don’t think that that’s necessarily healthy. So, you know, if you’re able to balance that, great. But for me, I really just need to just turn it off. And so that is what I’m doing. And I’m leaning more into these in-person connections with women. I had coffee with a woman just this week that I met at an event, and it was delightful. We found out we were both half Italian, which was a lovely connection. I did not know that about her. And so it’s just these beautiful connections that when you do meet with someone in person or just talking to my neighbors who I have seen before and never said one word to them except waved hi, you know, you find out something about them, you found out you you find out you have commonalities. And even if you don’t have everything in common. But it is a nice way to connect with real people. And then you do have that community that you can tap into.
Carol Cox:
And you realize people are multidimensional. Yeah. And they have different aspects of themselves. And guess what? Not everyone has to agree with you and not everyone. You’re not going to agree with everyone, and not every person you meet is just going to be just like you, or have all the same ideas that you have. And that’s okay, because we can honor and respect each other for who we are. Yes. And, Diane, to your point about social media, I agree, after the the election in 2016, like I stopped checking the news and I don’t use any social media except for LinkedIn. I don’t have any of the apps on my phone because I got to the point where I was on, say, scrolling on Instagram. And sure, there’s like funny cat videos or, you know, there’s maybe funny jokes. Or maybe I would see a pithy quote, but I’m like, number one, is this a really good use of my time? Number two, I don’t really feel good in my body right after I’m done, even if I saw something funny and I laugh for two seconds. But what is the other side of that? And also, I just had this thought the other day because I was really thinking about like, what? What is it that I’m not liking about social media? And I think this is why I’m okay with LinkedIn. Is that on LinkedIn, the way the algorithm works, at least for me, is that I see people I know. Yes, I see clients, I see women I’ve connected with in the community, podcast hosts, etc. but they’re all women. I’ve had some type of interaction or relationship with. Right. If I go to Instagram and it’s even more so on TikTok, I know that the algorithm actually feeds you strangers. It feeds you the viral thing of the moment. I don’t really need to see a whole bunch of strangers contents, even if it’s celebrity content or what have you. Like, it doesn’t make me feel good because they’re not real relationships.
Diane Diaz:
Right? Right. I also, I think, you know, you can get into especially like with YouTube, when you start looking at that a lot and the algorithm starts to feed you things and then you start to, you start to feel like I have to know every single thing that’s going on in every corner of the world with every catastrophe. And listen, I’m not saying don’t stay informed on what’s going on in your world, but what I am saying is that you don’t have to know everything and every detail. I don’t, you know, before social media existed, we read our local newspaper and we might maybe it had a, a section in the newspaper on national news and you get the top things right. So you stay basically informed mostly on your local community and a little bit on the National Front. We didn’t learn every single thing that was happening, every kidnapping, every person who almost got in an accident or anything, every political thing that happened in every corner of the globe. We did not know those things. And I don’t think our brains were really meant to consume that much information, because really, at least for me personally, I don’t know about anybody else, but I would say this is probably also true.
Diane Diaz:
It just creates a helplessness because I can’t change most of it or any of it. I mean, really, the only place I can have an impact really, is just in my own circles and in my own community. Right? I cannot change all those things. Like I cannot change who was elected president, I cannot, I voted that’s that’s all I could do. So I don’t think we were meant to consume each and every single thing that a political person says and does. I don’t think we’re meant to know that, and so I am choosing for my own mental health, and also for my ability to best serve my clients right is to shut that part off and let my brain do what it was meant to do, which is to come up with great ideas, think about other people and care about them, and do all those things that are meaningful because none of that stuff matters, right? Exactly.
Carol Cox:
Yes, yes, I completely agree. Our brains are not meant to know every single thing that goes on across the country and across the world, at every single moment. It’s way too much. We do feel a sense of helplessness and powerlessness, which does not serve us at all. And so what I had done earlier this summer is that I kind of made a schedule for myself and I, you know, tried to keep it as good as I could. And instead of checking the news headlines several times a day, which I would do, go to New York Times and The Atlantic, where I have subscriptions just to kind of see the headlines, maybe read an article or two. That seemed interesting. And again, I noticed I’m like, oh, I’m, I’m staying informed, but how am I feeling? And did I really need to know this information, write this detailed story, really help me in any way. And 99% of the time the answer was no. And so what I decided to do was I made a schedule for myself, and I said, I’m going to check the news once a week on Thursdays from like at noon, like when I’m going on my lunch break. I will check the headlines in once a week. That’s really. Other than that, if something major happens, I will find out. Someone you know, someone will tell me. I will find out somehow. I don’t need to be up to the minute on everything that is going on.
Carol Cox:
So for those of you listening again, just constantly check in what is feeling good to you and how is it serving you and the work that you’re doing? Because despite what happened with this election, despite how devastating it feels to us as women that once again, an incredibly capable, incredibly competent, incredibly accomplished, incredible, incredibly visionary woman was not elected president once again. Yeah, it feels like a punch to the gut. It’s devastating. It feels like, gosh, what more do we have to do as a woman to show that we’re capable of doing this job and doing this job incredibly well, despite all of that? Your voice matters. Yes. You matter. You as an individual matters. You as a woman matters. The work you do, whatever your industry is, whatever your business is, it matters. You being on stage, no matter your topic, matters. You serving on a panel matters. You doing interviews on podcasts in the media matters. You getting published matters. The work that you do with your clients matters. The community that you build, whether local or online, matters. The women that you support, the women that whose groups you go to, the women you invite to coffee and lunch, all of that matters. So yes, take this time like we are. Grieve, get frustrated, get angry. You know it’s raining here right now in Florida and we’re like, oh, this feels so appropriate.
Diane Diaz:
Like, you know, a pint of ice cream. Do whatever you got to do.
Carol Cox:
Do whatever you got to do. But know that, like we are here for you. Yes. Hopefully you have women close to you in your life who are here for you. Hopefully you have men as well. My husband is incredibly supportive of women in the work that we do, and I am so grateful for him. We have been together for. Oh my God. I think it’s it’s like 28 years or something. It’s a really since we were in college and.
Diane Diaz:
You’re only 30. That’s incredible.
Carol Cox:
I know. It’s amazing. Like, we weren’t, like, a prearranged marriage, and we were very. Oh, no. So I’m incredibly grateful. There are incredible men out there, incredible male allies. I’ve had them as professors, as colleagues, as bosses, as clients over the years. So find those people, look for them because they are there. And the more you look for them, the more you will find them and they will find you.
Diane Diaz:
Yes. And if you’re hearing this and you need a woman like that, reach out to us, email us, connect with us. Not on social because we won’t be there, But connect with us on LinkedIn or send an email to us. I would be so happy to have coffee with any of you listening. We can meet somewhere here locally at a fun coffee shop, have coffee, have lunch. Please reach out to us because we need now more than ever to find one another and support one another through this and through whatever else comes next, right? We’re still here. We’re still doing the work. We’re all still doing the work, and we all need to support each other.
Carol Cox:
Absolutely. And we can do virtual coffees as well. If you don’t live in the Central Florida area, reach out to us. We always love to get to know new women. I always love to hear from podcast listeners because I know you hear our voices all the time and and you feel like you know us, which I’m so grateful for. But I always love to meet you and to and to learn more about you. So definitely reach out to us. In the show notes for this episode, you’ll see the links to our LinkedIn profiles, because that is the social media platform that Diane and I are active on. So connect with us there. And also, if you go to the Speaking Your Brand website and go to the contact page, you can find our email addresses. So we would love to hear from you. Diane, thank you so much for all the incredible work and the support that you provide to the women and the clients that we work with. We have known each other for almost 16 years. You’ve been working with speaking your brand for over five and a half years, and I can’t imagine it being any other way.
Diane Diaz:
Yes. Well, thank you, Carol, for the opportunity to do this work that we do with women. And honestly, it’s in times like these that I appreciate it so much more because it is really the only one of the only things, aside from walking so far every morning that is keeping me sane through things like this. And I just love the opportunity to to get to work with you and for you and also with our amazing clients. So thank you. Yes.
Carol Cox:
All right, everyone, hang in there. And until next time, thanks for listening.
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