speaking-your-brand__no-need-to-start-from-scr.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Carol Cox:
Here how you can repurpose one signature talk into multiple presentations for different topics and audiences. No need to start from scratch with my guest, Eloisa Marquez Gonzalez, 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. Welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast, Eloisa.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Hi, Carol. Thank you for having me.
Carol Cox:
Well, it is great to have you back on the podcast because you were on in May of 2024. So about a year and a half ago was episode 394, where you and another one of our thought leader Academy graduates share, Tim and versions of the signature talks that you worked on with us in our Thought Leader Academy. So we’re going to talk about that. You had gone through our Thought Leader Academy program in the first part of 2024. So I’m excited to get a update like, where are you now? Updates. Since it’s been about a year and a half, because I know you’ve been getting really good momentum on your speaking engagements. I also know that you have some changes that you’ve been making within your business, a podcast that you’ve launched, and a lot more. So let’s go back first to that LinkedIn live that you did with us, that ten minute version of the signature talk that you worked on with us in a VIP day. So that signature talk ends up being about 35 to 45 minutes long. And then we have all of our grads like you deliver a ten minute version on our LinkedIn live YouTube live show, because we want you to get it out into the world, you know, to actually deliver it live to an audience. And so tell us about how that felt to actually deliver that for the first time, that version of it. And then we’ll talk about your experience in the Thought Leader Academy.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Yeah. So those first ten minutes, ten minutes were, uh, were great. It’s the it was a springboard for pretty much everything that came after in the past year and a half. Uh, so at first it was when I was first developing the, uh, the talk, it was, uh, eye opening to go through the process that you and Diane, uh, walk us through and to help us distill our own framework. I had been I had been in business for, uh, at that time for about four years. And I had been, uh, kind of, uh, firming up my methodology, but I couldn’t really get there. And when I went into the, um, the academy, you help us really firm it down, bring it to life. And that does that makes such a big difference. So I was, um, enthusiastic, I was excited, um, a little bit nervous. It’s that’s that’s, uh, normal. Um, but I was very excited to actually be showing to the world the shape that my methodology actually took and how I was able to communicate it in a more, uh, in a more clear and even dynamic way.
Carol Cox:
So and what I really liked about your talk, Eloisa, is that even though it’s been a year and a half since I saw you deliver it, is that I still remember a lot of your talk and your slides. So definitely, for those of you listening, I’m gonna include a link in the show notes. You can listen to the audio version, but definitely check out the video version because you’ll see Eloisa in her slides, which are great because you talked about the story of when you went ziplining. I believe it was in Costa Rica and how that ended up birthing, like basically being the genesis of what you were doing. So can you tell us a little bit about that?
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Yes. Uh, in talks, I have been giving talks throughout my career. Uh, however, I always struggle on like the start in the beginning. And even when I was giving talks, um, it was always to audiences that knew my topic. It was not like I was talking to complete. Uh, um, how can we call it, uh, like newbies?
Carol Cox:
Like, like newbies to it?
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Yes. Correct. No newbies. They kind of had a sense of what I was going to talk about. So the, uh, when I was doing my talk, when I was designing the talk with Diane, um, she helped me define the story in the beginning of the talk and taking the essence of how I came up with the name of my organization, A Walking tree, and embedded into that and give it life, because any show exactly what we do as an organization, all these different things really were able to come together. And it just about the design of the of the talk. It’s so important. And it also I, I was so excited and surprised to see how much designing your talk mirrors the work that I actually do for my own clients. When I do operational optimization, it’s it’s about that design. Um, many times we think that just having initial bullet points for your talk, it will come. The talk will come out organically and it’s about the design. The intentional design of what I’m trying to to convey to the audience. How I’m going to convey, how I’m going to express it in a way that they understand it. So that’s how Diane was able to show, show me the steps in the light of how to bring in my ziplining story, connected to what we do and make it interesting. Actually, I have used that start and ending of my talk so many times, and people lean forward because it’s they don’t expect my picture of ziplining to show up first. So, um, it is a very engaging way of, um, of starting your talk.
Carol Cox:
And it’s memorable. Like I said, I remember it. And I’m sure a lot of people in your audience remembers it as well. And then hopefully they’ll think when they need something like that, you offer in your business that they’ll think of you and then come to you. So actually, let’s segue way into that. Tell us about what you do in your business. And then we’re going to talk about why you decided to join the Thought Leader Academy. Like what was going on? Where were you looking to do? So first tell us about your business.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
So I am a collaboration strategist and we do partnership optimization. So we help organizations that are coming together alliances, collaboratives. They are coming together to provide a value that they couldn’t do it on their own. We help them work together, create that structure so they can deliver the value that that they are looking to to provide. I like to think of us as the conductor of the orchestra, where every organization and every multidisciplinary team brings their own instrument, their own discipline, their own culture, and we help them play in harmony. So that’s. That’s what we are doing right now. That’s what we specialize and we do it in the clean energy space and social impact, uh, spaces. So.
Carol Cox:
So then, Eloisa, thinking back to the first part of 2024 and deciding to join the Thought Leader Academy, I think you came from listening to this podcast, the Speaking Your Brand podcast. And then what? Why was that the right time for you? What what was going on with you and your business? And why did you decide that the Thought Leader Academy and doing more with speaking was the direction you wanted to go in?
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
So I as I mentioned, I had been speaking for many years, for 20 years in my career. Um, however, I was never confident enough on just going for audiences that were not familiar, uh, with my topic. And how do I create a an engaging Presentation. And there’s so many, uh, examples out there that could be better. And it will make me nervous just to come out there and say, I’m going to give a presentation where I’m like, am I engaging them? I had all these questions because I, I felt that the audience is giving me their time and their attention, and I owe it to them to to deliver something useful, practical, valuable, entertaining, make it worth their while. And that’s where I had always been, um, in the back of my head where I wanted to speak more in public. However, I wasn’t completely sure how to go about it, and I was lucky enough that I found your podcast. And then I started following you, and, uh, and the third Academy. I came along and I said, like, well, let’s just do it, because if I’m not going to do it now when there’s never a good time. So let’s just do it. So that’s where I register. And, um, and it was a fantastic experience.
Carol Cox:
And, and I know that I hear this quite a bit from women where they ask me like, you know, I don’t know if this is the right time. I don’t know if I have enough time to dedicate to it. I don’t know how many hours per week is it going to take. So thinking back to your experience, and I know it’s been a little while, did the time commitment seem manageable and about how. And so it was. It was an eight week program. When you went through it, about how much time were you spending each week?
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
The time was manageable. It was very manageable. Um, maybe I was spending, um, 2 or 3 hours, including the including the meetings. Uh, I could have spent more time. I wanted to spend more time, but life happens. Um, and and as you know, there were times where I was scheduled to be at the session, but then I had to be somewhere else, so I don’t know if you remember. Sometimes I would join the call from the park and I would like try to find. It was, uh, one of those, uh, hot days I remember. So it was a really bright, uh, but you were very flexible. The group was very flexible on the fact that we’re just we’re doing our best, and we show up and we show up with the best intention and the best, um, uh, with our willingness to learn. So it’s what I would say to folks that are on the fence is just do it. It’s there’s never going to be a good time better than today. So just just get in there, start learning, and then we get access. Um, at least back then we had access to the materials afterwards. So I kept going back even this year. Almost a year after, I was still going back into the, uh, the library and looking at the videos, etc. so it’s completely worth it. It’s totally worth it. And having your support in Diane’s guidance is just invaluable.
Carol Cox:
Well, and that and that leads me to the next thing, which is that I know that you sent me and Diane a lovely email. It was in early February of this year. So again, maybe like eight months, 8 or 9 months after you had actually gone through the program and you were sharing with us your excitement about this, the speaking momentum that you were getting and the speaking engagements that you were doing, and I and so this is I think, an important thing is that when, you know, whatever coaching program someone decides to do, as long as what you’re learning is evergreen, right, in the sense that, like the fundamentals of how to how to make a great talk and how to present really well don’t really change, right? I mean, you can change your cultural references and things that are more current, right? Like that kind of stuff. But what you’re learning and what you’re building is, is those like fundamental skills and then being able to repurpose what you’re, what you built with your talk. So tell us about how did these speaking engagements come about that you started, that you started getting at the end of last year and the beginning of this year? Tell us a little bit about kind of what the events were like, what the audiences were like, what your goals were going into those speaking engagements, and then what you got out of them.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Yeah. So I as we said, life happens. So there was a little bit of a pause on my momentum last late 2024. However, um, starting I think it was December when, um, I got a call for a, um, for a panel and I said, like, yes, let’s I’ll do that panel. And then I’m also an advisor in a couple of groups for entrepreneurs. And they asked me if if I knew AI. And I say, yes, I do know AI. So okay, would you do a would you do a talk and would you be part of a panel first? I’m like, yes. And then from there evolved. And they said, okay, well now I need you to be the keynote speaker. I’m like, okay, well, I’ll do that. And at the same time, in parallel with someone else, uh, reached out and asked me to do a talk on, uh, operational excellence, so I did. I also put that into the roster, um, into my schedule. And from having those conversations, someone said like, hey, we need someone in sustainability to talk about sustainability or sustainable operations. Do you know anything about that? I’m like, yes, that’s exactly what I do. So I got into that conversation, and from those three first three conversations, what happened was that as I was preparing for that conversation, for the talks, and I was having conversations with the with the organizers, they, um, they first of all, they told me that my questions were before the talk were very insightful because I asked from demographics like, I need to know who what are the ages exactly, for example, for AI or even for sustainability? Everyone cares something about something different.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
So, um, I asked about the room, uh, about the technology. So I asked all these questions and they were like, these are so insightful. Some things they have not even thought about. Um, so I had not even given talks yet When the organizers recommended me for other talks, it recommended me to other people because of how my questions, um, they like the preparation that I was putting into the talk. It wasn’t just like, oh yeah, I’ll go and say something, you know? It was very obvious that I was preparing myself, that I had a structure. I talked about objectives for their audience, objectives for the organization, if they wanted to promote something. Um, so I, I was looking at all stakeholders, um, that were going to be in the event that that day. So from there, uh, they recommended me to other, uh, organizations, some to private companies to give, uh, talks inside the company. Um, so that’s how my momentum started. I ended up giving, uh, six talks in five weeks, which SH it I. It was, uh. It was crazy. It was very, uh. It was. I had never given so many talks in such a short period of time. So it was a very different, uh, experience.
Carol Cox:
And were these in-person, virtual accommodation?
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
It was a combination. Um, I had three in-person. There were actually 50, 53 in-person and three remote, so.
Carol Cox:
Well, I’d love to hear. I love hearing that the event organizers were so impressed with your preparation, with the questions that you were asking, that they went ahead and referred you to other speaking opportunities even before they heard you speak. Because like to your point, it shows that you cared. You cared. You wanted to make sure that the event in the audience had a good experience with you. And so one thing that we do in the Thought Leader Academy, for those of you listening, is that we have a checklist of questions to ask the event organizer ahead of time, whether it’s about the AV, the audience, what the room looks like, what to expect. So that way you, as the speaker, can prepare, you know, in your mind visually what it looks like and you know you have everything. But oftentimes even organizers are very impressed because not that many speakers ask them those things, and then they feel relieved that, you know, you know, at least you have your part covered and they don’t have to worry about you then.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Correct. And there was one of those talks that, uh, was for a Hispanic audience. And, uh, so I, we talked about doing it in English. So. Okay. And if someone has a question in Spanish, I’m happy to switch to English or Spanish. And it was uh, it was funny because when I first got there, one of the other organizers said, oh, so you’re giving the talk in Spanish? And I was like, wait, what? Like. And I said, like, I prepare for English, but I can just run it in Spanish. That’s no like, I will do it. That’s no problem. But I ended up delivering it in English. Um, and uh, but yes, it is one of those where you have to think on your feet and hey, if it happens, I’m ready. I’ll just, uh, maybe I’ll pause a little bit longer than in some occasions. Um, but it can be done, so.
Carol Cox:
Okay. Hold on. I gotta ask you about this now. This is fascinating to me, Eloisa. So Spanish is your. Is the language you learn first, right? When you were growing up.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Correct?
Carol Cox:
Correct. So obviously you speak fluently in English as well. So is it the case that if you are preparing for a talk that is supposed to be in English, that switching at the last minute to presenting it in Spanish would feel, I mean, obviously you could do it because you know, Spanish fluently, but would it? But does it feel different, like weird not to have prepared for it in Spanish originally?
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Uh, yes, a little bit because of the cadence. Um, we also our sentences are much longer in Spanish, so I had not timed myself up to the set amount of time that I had for the talk, so then maybe I had to cut some things. And also the punchlines. There’s always like a delivery, something that you wanted to make it memorable. Um, those punchlines. I had not prepared them in Spanish so I could deliver the message, but I’m not sure if they would remember it with such an emotion. I guess if I would, if I would hit their emotions as I wanted to do so.
Carol Cox:
Oh, that is so fascinating. All right. I just I just had to ask you that because I, I mean, I studied French for eight years because I studied French history, but I definitely was not I could not speak it fluently at all. So I just, I just I just find that fascinating. Okay, so tangent aside, we’ll come back to that conversation.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Conversation.
Carol Cox:
Okay, so you gave these six talks in five weeks, which is great because talk about building your speaking muscles, right. Like continuing to do it now since they were all on somewhat different topics. I mean, they were they’re all related to the work that you do, but every topic was a little bit different. So obviously you had your signature talk from the VIP day that you did in the Thought Leader Academy. So I assume that you probably took bits and pieces from that, like maybe the opening story with the zipline or something like that, but then I know you probably had to then put new content in as well. So how did you approach creating these different presentations?
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
So the, uh, so this is the beauty of the, of the framework that, uh, and it has really and this, uh, I’ll tell a story later on related to my niche. But they all these talks are actually related because to be Sustainable. You need to have good operations, you have to have good processes. And then the technology enables that operation and enables that sustainability. So there are all linked. What I did is I took the um the Optima framework, which you, you all help me name, and I just gave it the lens of sustainability. So and I took that lens also from the organisation. So I was talking to a university. So how I made all the examples very much relevant to, to the university. I talked to an engineering group. I made those examples very, um, relatable for the engineers. I changed the language actually. That was a very interesting experience because most of my talks are for, um, the business in general. And here I was talking to an Engineering group. So I my background is in industrial engineering. So I pull all my lingo. I pull the punches like no, no, I put everything in engineering. So that was part of, um, them knowing that I was the real deal, that I knew what I was talking about. So I purposely changed my lingo, changed the way that I spoke to cater to that audience.
Carol Cox:
So okay, so you took your your main framework, Optima, which you had created with us and, you know, you had already had it, but kind of streamlining and naming all that. So you kept that. And I love this, but you gave it a different lens or a different emphasis depending on whatever the main topic was or whoever the audience was at the time. And so I think that’s something also for for those of you listening to think about is that you could you could have your core intellectual property. It could be a framework. It could be a methodology. It could be just something that you do and think about how it the same framework or IP can apply to many different types of audiences and many different types of events and even topics. But you still bring in your intellectual property because that’s your thought leadership. That’s what sets you apart from other speakers who are also talk about sustainability or operations or AI or whatever it happens to be. But you’re bringing your unique thought leadership and intellectual property into your talk so that then they remember not only that, but then remember your stories as well. How you know how connecting your stories to the overall thought leadership message that you’re sharing.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Absolutely.
Carol Cox:
All right. Eloisa, so you mentioned to me when we were scheduling this podcast conversation that you decided to niche down in your business, which I know from having been in business for over 20 years. It is something that everyone says to do, right? Niche down. Niche down. Niche down. But it also feels really hard to do because, you know, you think about, well, but I but there’s clients over here who I can serve. And you know, I don’t want to exclude them. Right. So it’s kind of like this tension that all entrepreneurs walk between, you know, figuring out how far should we niche down or which niche niches should we focus on. So tell me about that experience for you.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Yeah. So as you said, it’s it’s scary. It let’s start with that. Uh, we’re not we’re not going to say it’s not. Um, however, it’s, it’s about defining what you’re going to say no to at the end of the day. How are you going to just as you said before, I had so many different topics I was talking about. And while they are related, I had to be Switching contacts. So that is. It’s tiring. Um, but it’s doable. So, uh. Uh, so what happened here was, uh, in January of 2025, there were two main events. The first 1st January 15th. We all know what, uh. What happened? We have a new administration. And for the dear listener, uh, my organization focuses on on the clean energy industry, social impact. And we help we have other clients that do good to the world medtech, but ed tech and biotech. So all those industries got a hit. Um, and then the second, uh, the second event that happened was I was having a conversation with a young professional. And when I mentioned I my organization does sustainability, operational excellence and technology. Her reaction was like, whoa, those are such a different, um, different topics. And that made me pause, because from the expert side, I see everything is interrelated. Everything plays with each other, and you have to have a balance around those areas. However, from my audience perspective, those are disjointed. So I took the moment to to think through how I could best service, how can my organization best service, the industries and the customers that I want to serve? How can we keep moving the needle on the good work that all these organizations in the clean energy space and the social impact space are doing? And that’s where after, um, doing some analysis of all the projects, the work that we had been doing, I came to realize that we really excel on, uh, on helping optimize the work of multidisciplinary teams.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
So organizations, either organizations that are bringing very different, uh, disciplines together, sometimes you have engineering with editors or creatives and with financials, and they are just their conversations are just going, uh, not, not, uh, coming together as they should. Um, or we have a coalition of companies that are bringing in their own, their own vision, their own culture, their own ways of working, their own ways of using technology. And AI is one of them. And they are trying to create value that they couldn’t create on their own. But it is difficult when they don’t when when In the this coalition of organizations is these partnerships are um, they come in with with the strategy of hope thinking that the processes in the way of working will organically happen. And in reality, you have to design it, you have to design how you’re going to work, how you’re going to, uh, govern the the work that is being done, the value that is being created. Um, I can go on and on. But this is how I decided to move the organization and and focus on the partnership optimization and the clean energy space and social impact. So that is where I niched down. And that’s that’s the focus that we are having right now. We are, um, starting to give more talks about it and, and also optimal Methodology. The framework is being carried over. Now we have an optima for partnerships. So it is it is the same work. We are just deciding where we focus, where we put our energy so we can help the industry move forward.
Carol Cox:
Mhm. I love that Eloisa. And that really does I think, reflect so much of what you care about your mission and helping because partner collaborations and partnerships are going to make both entities stronger going forward. And so, you know, taking your skill set and your expertise and your background as an engineer and everything that the work that you’ve done and then focusing on that, like you said, to make the message clear to the people on the other side, because I’m with you, I do the same thing. Like, I can see how everything is interrelated to what my interests are or what I do is it’s it’s, you know, crystal clear to me. But I can see from someone on the other side who clearly does not live in my, my mind to them. They’re like, okay, how do all these things fit together? And I think as individual humans, it makes us interesting. But as businesses, we have to make sure that our messaging is really clear so that our prospective clients figure out, okay, yes. Like they’re the they’re the business for me because they understand my problem and how they and how they can solve it for me.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Correct. Absolutely. And I have been doing part of my niching down. I have been doing a listening tour. So I’m having conversations with many companies. And when I explain what we do, the focus that we have, I’m getting so many reactions of, oh, I didn’t know someone did this type of work. I needed your help. Three months ago, I needed your help six months ago. And so it’s it’s now it’s becoming, um, memorable. So.
Carol Cox:
So, so keeping these things in mind, the direction that you’re going with your business, what is next for you? What types of speaking engagements are you looking for? And any projects that you’re working on?
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
So, uh, I am looking to do more talks on on partnership optimization, just in partnership in general. Um, and we have, uh, one going on in the works for a webinar. Uh, and I also have a couple other podcast appearances that will be happening. So I am trying to, uh, gain regain that momentum with this new topic and, uh, streamline my own speaking engagements to by focusing niching down on also what I’m speaking about. Um, yes. And as we move into the end of the of the year, the second half of the year, I’m looking to have more of those conversations to start supporting those, um, more partnerships because they are being built, especially here in Massachusetts. There’s a lot of partnerships happening, and we want to make sure that they are strong so they can deliver the value that they want to and that they will need as a society. So it’s um, yeah, it is. It is about moving forward, uh, and having those conversations. So if anyone has questions about partnership optimization or how does that work? Because it’s I’m also working with, uh, having conversations with the lawyers, um, because they look at the legal perspective. But if the organizations don’t have that structure, that system, then the legal agreement cannot hold. They cannot actually comply with that legal agreement. So it’s about having that balance between your legal agreements are very important, but also your structure, your system on how all organizations are going to work together. It’s very important. So, um, if if anyone has questions about how does that work? Like just give me a call.
Carol Cox:
So okay. Great. And we’ll have links in the show notes to your website and to your LinkedIn profile so that listeners can connect with you there. Eloisa. Well, thank you so much for the important work that you’re doing and the clean energy space around and around climate change. We certainly know that we need to keep moving forward on that, regardless of other factors that are going on. The climate doesn’t care. It’s going to keep doing what it wants to doing. And and also, like, I want my energy prices to go down and wind and solar and other forms of renewable energy are going to help make, uh, make energy more, more cost effective for all of us. So thank you for that work. And thank you so much for being part of the speaking your brand community for being a graduate of our Thought Leader Academy and for coming back on the podcast, I so appreciate it.
Eloisa Marquez-Gonzalez:
Thank you Carol, thank you for having me and for all your support, because I keep going back to my notes, keep going back to the videos, and it has been so helpful. Um, I highly recommend, uh, the Academy for anyone who wants to, um, have a speaking career or just have a clearer thought on how they impact their organization, how they impact the world. Uh, you help us bring clarity to our thinking. So thank you.
Carol Cox:
Oh, well, thank you so much. And if you’re listening and would like to learn more about our Thought Leader Academy, you can get all of the details at Speaking Academy. Again, that’s speaking your brand academy. Until next time. Thanks for listening.
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