3 Thought Leadership Tips with Diane Diaz
Branding with Friends | Episode 19
Featuring Expert Guest: Speaking Coach & Personal Brand Strategist at Speaking Your Brand, Diane Diaz
Watch or listen to the video interview below or scroll down to read the transcription.
Meet Diane Diaz, Speaking Coach & Personal Brand Strategist at Speaking Your Brand
Annie: I am so excited to introduce you to another one of my friends from the business world. If you have been thinking about thought leadership and wondering how you could use that to grow your coaching or consulting or service-based practice this, today's episode is truly for you. My guest is the wonderful Diane Diaz. Diane and I came connected many years ago through some of the work that she does, and she is a speaking coach and a personal brand strategist with Speaking Your Brand.
Speaking Your Brand, their mission is to help more women develop the communication skills, platform and confidence to step into thought leadership, influence and power on stages in the media, in business, on boards, and in politics, because it's through women's stories, voices and visibility, that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems to benefit more people. What a great mission, Diane,
Diane regularly speech speaks on thought leadership, personal branding, LinkedIn strategy, and women's empowerment. She currently teaches branding and marketing classes at Full Sail University. She holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of Central Florida. And she has many experiences, years of experience in branding, marketing, public speaking and education. Welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here.
Diane: Thank you so much, Annie. I'm excited to be here.
Annie: I feel like we sort of connected through the world of podcasts and all these things because I started listening to the Speaking Your Brand podcast and learned about Carol Cox, who founded that company. And you work closely with Carol. And we've just stayed friends over the years. And I know you were a very talented brand strategist in your own right. We were talking recently about, what are the things that coaches and consultants need to know. And this topic of thought leadership just comes up all the time.
When I build a website for a client, they think, oh I have to be a thought leader. So it's such a hot topic. And I know you know so much about it. How did you become passionate about the area of thought leadership? And could you briefly define it for all of us?
Diane: Yeah, that's a great point. To define it, I think helps people, a thought leader is someone who has a point of view on the topic, and then talks about it passionately and boldly, and kind of gets that idea out there. And in many cases, builds a movement around it. So thought leadership, it goes hand in hand with branding, I would say,
Annie: Absolutely. How did you become so passionate about thought leadership? Well,
Diane: I think it's a combination of things. I've been in marketing and branding for a really long time. I've watched business owners kind of work around different things, and even people in in corporate positions, work their way up in different roles. And it seems like, it's so much easier to build success, whether it's for your own business or for the industry that you're in, if you take a stand on something.
if you stand for something, and if you really build thought leadership and a platform around what it is you want to do, it's much easier, it kind of gets teeth, right? And then it can grow from there. So it's a passion of mine, because of the women that we work with as being your brand. We work with them on creating signature talk or defining their message. We really helped them step into that thought leadership. And when you see the change that someone can make, when they go from having just a message to having thought leadership and actually expressing that thought leadership, it is phenomenal to witness someone grow in that way.
Annie: It is it is such a wonderful thing. And I'm continually learning all about it, because it's sort of this ever-evolving idea. Sure, in the business world, especially but also in you know, as you well pointed out, if you're a professional who's listening to this.
if you're new to Branding with Friends, we do three tips. So Diane has brought three great tips today about thought leadership and being a service business owner. So we're going to share those first two, and then we're gonna save that third one for the end of the episodes and make sure to stay put because it's so much value today. And I know I'm learning alongside you guys. So then now that we know a little bit more about what thought leadership is, yes, what is the first thing the first sort of action items the thing we can take away about thought leadership if we are a coach or a consultant?
#1 Action TIP
Don't be afraid to challenge the status quo and assumptions in your industry
Diane: Yes, and this might be a little scary for some people, but you should not be afraid to challenge the status. quo and any assumptions that are in your industry. It's a little bit like going against the grain. And it can be scary. Because taking a stand sometimes means that not everybody's going to agree. And you might really be going against the grain in your industry because you might see something that really just is a pet peeve of yours in your industry. And you just wish it could be done differently, right? So it's important to kind of champion that. And but you have to have a lot of courage to do that. Because it can be very scary.
Annie: I think that's such a really interesting first place to start, which is like, get out of your comfort zone if you want to be a thought leader. Right? You know, you can't be scared. And I've been thinking a lot about this because I think there's, I have been seeing with the branding that I do. I feel like the branding I focus on is very much about clarity and consistency, because that is what my clients have consistently come to me for. And I think what my gift is, but I think it's levels, right? So the first step you have to work on is being clear and understood.
How do you have a point of view if you don't have a solid foundation to place the point of view on? So how does someone go about? I think you make a great point about, you know, being bold, being brave picking something that goes against the grain, as you said, but how do you pick something that you're going to focus on for thought leadership that is going to serve your business? Because we could come up with something theoretically, that could really chase our ideal clients, that can align with their values and tank our business. So how do you pick that right thing?
Diane: Oh, well, that's a good question. So I would say, obviously, you don't want to just go find something as so out there that, you know, as you said, goes against what your clients even want, because then why are you even in business But by the same token, as the business professional in the the professional in the space that you're in, it is up to you, as a thought leader, to find those areas that maybe your audience isn't aware of, that are either sticking points or places where something can be done better, or something that needs to be said that isn't being said. And does that mean that some people in your audience might go away? Yes. But what I would say to that is, they are probably not your audience, they're not your ideal audience. And I think it's important as a business professional, to be true to who you are. So if there if there's something in your industry or in the space that you operate in, that is really important to you. And that really kind of is a platform that you want to stand on, you really have to put yourself out there, and some people won't like it. And that's okay. I know it's scary. And I know it sounds counterintuitive to say, Oh, it’s okay, if some of my clients go away, But trust me, the more specific and clear you are, the more of the right clients are going to get. And so it's important to know that.
Annie: I think there's a lot of bravery that comes with that. And conversations I'm constantly having with clients and prospective clients is that there's a lot of understandable hesitation to niche down. And then this level, I think of thought leadership we're talking about today, which is committing to a perspective, sharing who you are. And you know, sort of stepping up to the things that you're going to take a perspective about, and you're not going to be wishy washy about. But that is going to upset some people and being prepared for that. But I think that is that next level of brand thinking that comes with we know if you have a goal of say scaling to six figures, or multiple, six figures or seven, you know, people if you look around the people who are making that kind of money, they have a perspective about us, even if they don't have a blog, they have at least have a perspective.
Diane: It's so true. They don't they don't just talk about everything and try to appeal to everyone. We know in branding, that that's never the way to go.
Annie: Absolutely not the way to go. And that comes across in every Branding with Friends episode. You’re not for everybody. But it's you know, for your people.
I think I'm always trying to find better ways of explaining this. Because I know I was really, as I was getting started in branding my own branding business that I felt like, well, I can do all these great things for people. But yeah, it's not your job to serve everybody. Because you can only you can serve a smaller subset of people so well, that you can be that lighthouse for them. I think thought leadership is about like, sort of making that light brighter, you know?
Diane: It's not about making more lights. It's about making a brighter light
Annie: Right. Because different lighthouses for different people, different strokes for that. I think that's a great first place to start. What is the next thing we want to keep in mind as a second tip?
#2 ACTION TIP
Define your clear thought leadership idea and communicate it with boldness and conviction
Diane: The next tip that I have for building thought leadership is to define a clear, key thought leadership idea. And then really communicate it with boldness and conviction. You have to get ove the fear initially of standing out and saying whatever it is, it goes against the grain, but then you have to start communicating it, you have to get that idea out there. When you take a leadership position like that, you help others to be brave to do the same thing.
So if you have something that is really important to you, and it's really the thing you’re going to that put your stake in the ground, if it's going to be that thing, that's great. But if you're not going to share that, and if you're not going to stand behind it, you're not going to empower other people to get on board with that idea. Right? So you want to really kind of bring that out to the audience and stand behind what you say, and really be convicted about what you're saying and what you're believing so that you are empowering others, then it actually then helps your audience to not only say, yeah, you know what, I feel the same way. But it also helps them to take action. Taking action is where you start to get the movement. You literally create a movement behind what it is that you believe.
Annie: There's a great TED talk. I don't know if you've seen it, I'll try to find it. So we can put it in the show notes. But it's like how to start a following or how to start a movement. It's like three minutes long. Have you seen this?
Diane: I think I've heard of it.
Annie: it's like someone starts dancing. And then like another person, like it's out at like a festival before all this stuff happens. And we had to be six feet apart. But you know, nobody's dancing, someone else starts dancing. And then everybody starts dancing. And the point that they make is like the person who started that movement was actually not the first person. It was the second person. Oh, yeah, the person that added that that took action and was inspired to take action. So I think that really goes nicely with your point. So we'll look that I will put it in the show note but it's pretty awkward dancing. But it makes sense.
Your point of inviting somebody into something, right? What is conviction? If you're not talking about it, what is conviction if you're not showing up and using it, it's great to make that decision. Behind the scenes, I would say the same thing is great to have a beautiful website, colors, funds, logos, and things taglines. But if you don't go out and use them, what good is a hammer that you let sit in the shed?
Diane: It's true, it's true. So if you're defining this thing, that's your thought leadership idea, and you feel really called by it right, and you think this can really have a huge impact in my industry, you need to get it out there. Because number one, you won't see what impact it will have until you start putting it out there. And number two, like you said, you just need that one other person to get on to onboard with you. And then it becomes this movement, that's going to have so much greater impact than if you just on your own, tried to create that.
Annie: Thought leadership is one of those things where it's just a buzzword that gets thrown around a lot. And you've done a great job explaining it. Could you give us an example or two of what you're talking about when you pick sort of one clear idea of something you could get behind from a thought leadership perspective?
Diane: Yes, well, I'll give you two examples. One is a client or a former client. And another one is Brene Brown. Brene talks a lot about shame. She talks about this in many of her talks is that she had a lot of fear around that being her message, right? Because there's, it's shame because we're all ashamed to talk. So that kind of became her platform. And if you look at her content, much of it connects around that idea of shame. And what it what overcoming shame can do what talking about shame can do, it all kind of revolves around that idea. Right? And so it actually breaks down the walls and lets people feel okay, being vulnerable and talking about it, cuz she's given them permission to do that.
Annie: Yes, And so there's a great example that is a little successful.
Diane: Yeah. And I think I think that idea of being vulnerable is what goes along with this idea of being a thought leader is you have to be willing if you want to position yourself as a thought leader, and trust me, you do, because there's a lot more action behind that than just putting out all this content. You have to be willing to be vulnerable because as I said, some people aren't going to be aligned with your idea. And that's okay. And I guarantee you Brene Brown, and or anybody in a position like that has haters, so to speak, or people who don't agree. That's okay.
Annie: And she knows her talk. She has like a whole thing about how like the comment section about this?
Diane: Don't ever read the comment sections. The other example is, I'm Tammy Lally, who is one of our classes. And she did a TED talk at a local TEDx chapter here in Orlando, on money, shame, and she's a money coach. So her whole thing, her whole talk was around money shame. And this idea of how you know, if you get caught up in that it can kind of rule your life and I won't, you can go watch the TED Talks, I won't reveal what the sort of the short story but it was very personal, it's very vulnerable. And I'm certain, it's incredibly scary for her to share that in her TED Talk. But by doing that, she not only created momentum behind her message but she also kind of breaking down those walls, for others who might be dealing with a similar thing related to, you know, what their family might have taught them about money and how they deal with money and how that's impacting them. Right? So it kind of opens up the doors for your audience to have breakthroughs and to have movement on that.
Annie: Do you think that whatever you pick has to have some sort of an emotional connection for you? Diane: think everything any business should have an emotional connection. But that's because I teach branding. And, I know that branding is all about an emotional connection. And it doesn't have to be something so earth-shattering as money, shame, and the personal story that you would hear. I always use mundane examples. You could be, you could be a financial planner and there can be an emotional connection about that. You could be a CPA, I can find an emotional connection. I can find emotional connection about carpet cleaning, frankly. So I think if you can tap into the emotion of the audience, and you can sort of tell a story that brings them into it and kind of makes them feel like oh, no, I've experienced a similar thing. That's where you are, and you're able to create that that momentum in that movement.
Annie: I think that's, something I hadn't realized about thought leadership, as people are thinking through what topic they might choose, You're like, well, of course, it includes that. But I think some people like even me, who is this close to branding, I think looking for those things that draw a certain emotion, and you will let it have emotional resonance for you will likely have emotional resonance for others. Brene Brown has the shame spot taken. But you know, what is it about your perspective, and I think this comes back to if you've worked through professional branding, one of the things that I do with my clients is what are the things that really set you apart from your competitors? Who are the people you're most often compared to? Why are you different? There's something within that about a perspective of how you approach things that I think a branding person can help you see. So sometimes it's you know, if you were feeling stuck about that, that could be time for a conversation of what would be my topic.
But I love these tips so far. And I know we've got a third one that will bring it all together. But before we get there, I know that you have brought along something special for our branding with friends, folks, something coming up and as well, something if you've discovered it, past this great event you've got going on to tell us a little bit about what you have for our watchers and listeners.
Don’t miss this special opportunity for “Branding with Friends” fans…
Join Speaking Your Brand’s Live Virtual Summit: Brave. Bold. Beyond
Diane: The first thing I'm going to share is actually an opportunity to see some women being very vulnerable and getting on their soapbox and talking about something that will move the audience to action. And that is our live virtual summit. It's called Brave, Bold, Beyond. This session is happening on April 1. And it is an amazing full day and I'm just a block off your entire calendar that day, it's a full day of speakers that will actually have four different themes.
We'll have 12 speakers, and they'll sharing their personal stories, but there's a message behind each story. And the message connects with the theme of each of the sections of the day, but also with the overall theme of being brave, being bold, and going beyond what you think you can do. So I can tell you that these speakers come from all walks of life, all age ranges, very diverse backgrounds, just diversity all throughout and their stories are very diverse and I think it will be inspiring to kind of see how someone gets vulnerable and shares a personal story to a very large audience. This is all happening live so there will be no recording. So if you want to watch it, you have to come and see it. But you can go to speakingyourbrand.com/summit. if you'd like to register. So I would encourage you to do that. Because again, it's going to be very inspirational. So if you have something that you think is a thought leadership idea, but you're nervous about sharing it, come get inspired. This will make you not afraid.
Annie: And that's coming up in just a few weeks. And I know you brought something else along?
Diane: So for everybody who's watching this, you can download our free workbook that will help you develop your thought leadership message and your voice. So this is a workbook will be really inspiring for someone who watches this Branding with Friends and says, you know, well, I'm not really sure what my thought leadership messages, I'm not really sure what that means, right? And how do I find my voice so that I can share this with my audience. This workbook will walk you through that. And it will kind of give you a little bit of inspiration to come up with your thought leadership message and, and maybe help you feel empowered to share it and not as scared. I will say it's kind of fun to start working through that. And even if you're not ready to share it, at least working through it, to kind of have an idea where you might want to go is a great exercise to get clear on your message in general. So you can download that at speakingyourbrand.com/annie.
Annie: So wherever you're watching or listening to Branding with Friends, that link will be available to you. I do hope you check that out. I need to check that out myself. I get so many great downloads from Speaking your Brand. It's a wonderful podcast if you're at all interested in speaking on leadership or anything, I've binged episodes, many times have spoken to Carol a few times. She's just as wonderful as Diane. So definitely check out the podcast as well.
And if you guys have been listening, and you've been like thought leadership, I don't even know how to clearly say what my business does. That's why I'm here. That's where we're here together. If you want to talk with me privately, you can actually grab private time with me on my website at Greatest Story creative, just hit the big red button that says free consultation. And you can set a time to speak with me one to one.
And I'm so glad that you were here, Diane. The first tip, we need to stop being afraid to kind of get out there and be a thought leader and challenge the status quo and go against the grain. The second tip: is picking one clear idea. What’s your third and final tip?
#3 Action Tip
Create a thought leadership container - podcast, challenge, event - that's a tangible deliverable that has legs for your business
Diane: Here's the third thing. And this, this can be one of the maybe more difficult things to do. But it's figuring out and creating a thought leadership container for your idea. That could be something like this makes your idea kind of portable, so to speak. So this is something like a podcast, or you can create a challenge. We have a challenge for Speaking your Brand called Choose Women's Voices. We've done a challenge like that before. And you can do a challenge around anything. That's your thought leadership idea.
It could be an event, maybe you want to do something around empowering women or empowering teachers or whatever it is. You could create an event around that. Creating that container makes this idea tangible. It makes it portable and shareable so your audience can get involved in it. They help spread the word about it. They help to make it bigger, so they change it from a moment to a movement. Now I did. I don't know who said that. But somebody said it, somebody use it. It goes from a moment to a movement because more people get involved. They end up sort of exponentially helping it grow, right? And then the impact that you have becomes larger, right? Because now you're not just impacting one or two people, you're impacting many more people and your thought leadership idea grows, and that is what we want.
Annie: Yes. I love that. You talked about that. I love that you introduced this idea of a container. I was thinking something like a Purpose Pyrex, because I'm not a branding person. People share it. But I love that you just illustrated I think a common misconception around thought leadership.
I think people hear thought leadership and I know my clients are constantly like, I have to blog. I have to blog. I have to blog and I set up a blog for them and they blog three times they never blog again, because it's hard and takes time. It's a really long game strategy. Yes. I did it myself for many, many years. And like we diligently once a week I didn't see the results. I was writing about the wrong things. You know, super-serving one audience and doing all the wrong things. I did what I thought the marketing gurus were saying I had to do it So you're the perfect Branding with Friends guest because you come on with a lot of permission to do it in your own.
Diane: That's a good point. Because some people love to write, that's great. Then write a blog. Some people don't like that, right? So don't do that. Don't pick something that you can't stick within also that you don't enjoy. Because I mean, gosh, life is way too short to not be enjoying what you're doing, right? Yeah, maybe it's a podcast, maybe you like to talk. So you could create a podcast, maybe it's a video series like this, maybe it's a webinar series, right? There are so many different ways you can get your thought leadership message out there and a container that you can choose for it. You don't have to do something that you don't enjoy, pick something you love. But put it in a container and start getting it out. And so you can get other people involved in it to help you share that message.
Annie; I think that's such a great point. And I've been doing a lot of consulting, which I call clarity, consulting, and helping people figure out if you don't have a strategy for your marketing that you actually enjoy, you won't do it or you won't do a lot. It's as simple as that.
And if you don't have a system, you won't be consistent, so it won't really exist. And that's how we're here on like, I think episode almost 20 of Branding with Friends, which started as a container strategy. Because I was going to go on maternity leave. And I didn't want you guys to forget about me. So with Branding with Friends, I put a bunch of episodes together before I left. But then when I was on maternity leave, an episode come out every three weeks, I was with my little boy just been born didn't have to think about it. Get to share audiences with amazing folks like Diane. So you know, containers can look like lots of different things. And if you have to set up yourself with a system and a strategy, and a perspective, which is I think, a great word from today, perspective, Is there anything else you would really want us to know about thought leadership for today?
Diane: I would say that just in general, it can be scary. But give it a try. Because I think what you'll find is and we've found this with our clients, once you start defining this thought leadership message and you kind of dip your toe in the water and start putting it out there. Even if it's something very personal and revealing and vulnerable, you're going to get so much support that you're going to think you know what, I'm so glad that I did this. Yeah. Because yes, it is scary. But people want you to succeed, they really do, and they're out there, your ideal audience is out there that's going to help you get this message out. So just give it a try. I trust me it'll be okay.
Annie: So you're gonna say give it a try. And I'm gonna add hang in there because nobody saw if you tried it twice, maybe two people. Keep going do it for a little while before you see if it had results in it. Like it or not. Diane, thank you so much for being here. We hope that you enjoyed another episode of Branding with Friends today. So many thanks to Diane for joining us.
I hope you tune in next time when we're going to tackle yet another great topic where branding meets business. Until then, I'm Annie Franceschi of Greatest Story Creative. Tou can find more episodes, branding resources and so much more on our website greateststorycreative.com. Take care.
“Branding with Friends” Episode 19
Show Notes + Resources
Here are 3 key tips for thought leadership to grow your service business:
Don't be afraid to challenge the status quo and assumptions in your industry.
Define your clear thought leadership idea and communicate it with boldness and conviction. And inspire others to take action and to be self-reflective - learn more about themselves and how they relate to the world.
Create thought leadership container - podcast, challenge, event - that's a tangible deliverable that has legs for your business.
TED Talk Annie referred to during this episode
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To learn more about thought leadership or to seek Diane’s help:
• Visit Diane at speakingyourbrand.com
• Email her directly at: diane@speakingyourbrand.com
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• Follow her on Instagram: @dianediazspeaker
• Register to attend her free Brave. Bold. Beyond. live virtual summit: speakingyourbrand.com/summit
• Download her free workbook Develop Your Thought Leadership and V.O.I.C.E. at speakingyourbrand.com/annie
