The Business of Speaking: Negotiating Fees, Building Relationships, and Getting Referrals with Teri DeLucca, PhD: Podcast Ep. 474

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Carol Cox:
If you want to know what it really takes to get paid well for speaking engagements and how to build your speaking career, you’re going to appreciate my candid conversation with return guest Teri DeLucca on this episode of Speaking Your Brand podcast. Hey there and welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I’m your host, Carol Cox. Today we’re talking all things speaking, especially the things that you don’t necessarily know about the speaking industry and have never thought to ask. I have back on the podcast, Doctor Teri DeLucca. She was on here last almost three years ago in episode 338. It is a must listen to episode if you haven’t already. I’ll put the link in the show notes because we talked about Teri’s journey from an academic presenter to a sought after speaker because she escaped what I call the expert trap. And Teri and I first met back in January of 2022 when I spoke at the She Is Fierce conference. And it’s funny because I did this presentation about women and thought leaders, and literally as soon as I sat down, I feel this tap on my shoulder and I look up and it’s this woman, this blonde woman, and, you know, Teri and she’s like, oh my gosh, that was amazing. I need to hire you.

Teri DeLucca:
I was like, I need you in my life now. Yes.

Carol Cox:
And then Teri went through our Thought Leader Academy and we worked together ever since. And so Teri, welcome back to the podcast.

Teri DeLucca:
Yes. I’m so excited to be here. This is my favorite podcast of all. I love it. Oh, well, thank you.

Carol Cox:
Well, thank you so much. Well, so you are the founder of a company called Impact Early Education. You’re a developmental psychologist. You have not one, but two PhDs. So definitely very much an expert in what you do, which we certainly need. But I know you’ve learned through working as with us, the power of storytelling and the power of really structuring a great talk. And now you are flying all over the place doing speaking engagements. We had dinner back in February when you were in Orlando, and you got to telling me things like, oh my gosh, I raised my rates. I’ve learned so much about speaking about like, whether I should sponsor and pay to play and all these different things. And I’m like, oh my gosh, yes, come on the podcast because I have a feeling that my audience will really appreciate hearing from someone like you who is, you know, on the ground doing this week after week. So, Terri, tell us a little bit about your speaking journey over the past couple of years. And then we’re going to get into your new AI venture that you’re doing. But first, let’s talk about the speaking that you’re doing. So what are your topics and who are your typical audiences?

Teri DeLucca:
Sure. Um, I have a really wide range of topics. And so my heart, my passion, my industry, my people are the early childhood education field. And so, um, I do the majority of my speaking with them. And so who that is, It’s primarily women dominating that field. It’s 93% women, and it’s a lot of business owners and leaders of what you would think of as preschools. So those that are serving primarily birth through kindergarten, they go up in age and for after school programs, but I also work with teachers. And so sometimes I’ll be speaking to an audience of teachers and leaders. Sometimes it’s just leadership. And the topics range from, of course, child behavior, classroom management things, but often it’s much more broad, not not the broad leadership, but more organizational culture, communication, personal leadership and personal accountability, because that’s where things really start to unravel. And that far extends education. So the other audiences I speak to a lot of women’s groups, um, I do a lot, some faith based conferences as well. And, um, it’s interesting how things have changed in our country over the last couple of years, and as things have become just heavier and more hard, more difficult, just life in general.

Teri DeLucca:
Um, a lot of the requests I’m getting, especially this year, have been focused on, um, nervous system regulation and rewiring your brain to deal with stress and staying ahead of the overwhelm. A lot of mental health aspects as well. Um, so those are it. I love all of it. Those especially light me up because you can just see the change. We do some activities. It’s difficult when you have 500 people in a room, but you can still do some activities with them. And to just see the relief and the to hear. My favorite part of speaking, believe it or not, is not what happens on the stage. It’s after. And so after I’m done, there’s usually a line or people want to talk after, you know, they make you, they kick you out because the next person has to get on the stage. So then you’re outside and you hear their personal stories, or even when I’m back, and then my inbox is full of people wanting to connect more and just saying how it changed them. And so that makes it all worth it.

Carol Cox:
What has been the biggest surprise or the biggest thing you’ve learned about the speaking industry that you didn’t know 3 or 4 years ago?

Teri DeLucca:
Oh, gosh. Do you have three hours?

Carol Cox:
Yes. It’s a podcast. We have as much time as you want.

Teri DeLucca:
I have so. Much I could share.

Teri DeLucca:
Two things immediately popped to mind that are probably a little different than what you would expect. And that is when I think of over the last, even five years, the change that I saw in my speaking journey really started with me, which is cliche, but I initially started off, um, I would get nervous beforehand and I was so focused on performance. And so I wanted to prove myself and prove that they made the right choice in picking me and someone else. And I wanted the audience to like me. I wanted to be invited back, and I wanted to know it was helpful. And I just I approached all of it with performance, like I needed to get up there and do a great job and wow and dazzle. And I don’t know what led to that shift, but somewhere along the way, probably, maybe about three, maybe it was probably, you know, I’m thinking about it. It was the thought Leader Academy. But when I, I just had this shift of going from needing to prove myself to it being about service and just getting. And once I started thinking about it more as how can I serve these people? And knowing, you know, the prep leading up to speaking, what do you want the topic to be? They pick from my menu. What’s the struggle? Especially if it’s with a team. Some of these are more national conferences, but just, you know, getting deep and and really thinking about that person who’s going to be in the audience and what are they walking in with? And then it’s crazy.

Teri DeLucca:
But I would switch from the anxiety feeling like that feeling I would have even on the plane of like, oh my gosh, I’ve got to do a great job to just so excited and just really like, I can’t wait to get up there. Like let me at it because I just, I cannot wait to help them and to, um, to truly to see change in them and that mindset shift. It’s not easy to get to, but when you make that shift, the amount of anxiety that just falls off your shoulders. And I’ve actually told plenty, this is what I truly believe. I’ve told audiences when I stand up, it’s like, this is what you know, we’ll talk about, but I’m not here to prove anything to you. I’m here as truly as evidence. I am proof that this stuff worked because it worked in my own life. And the other thing that changed was I got more comfortable with sharing the tough parts. So just like any adult we. I have walked or some. Unfortunately, children. I have walked through some very difficult things and I made a complete life transformation and I did not share the really tough parts of all of that for several years. Because, you know, again, perfectionism. I didn’t want them to think I don’t know my stuff or that why is she up here and that type of thing? But once I got over that and grew my confidence, um, it is, it just changes everything.

Teri DeLucca:
When you have, you can be confident and vulnerable enough to share that overshare, but you know, to go to go a little deeper with the audience and they trust you, you make a connection. And, um, in the end, they’re not going to remember the words you said. They’re going to remember how you made them feel. And so, um, that was a huge for me when I think of the industry. But the other thing that was huge That I think has led to a lot of success, honestly, is getting out of my own way when it comes to, I guess would come back to confidence with that too. But when it comes to being intimidated by sometimes I’m on the stage when I’m out of the industry, out of early care industry, and I’m on some of these other more broad stages with some pretty big names. And I just, I don’t know, everyone’s there, just people. We’re all out here trying to do a great job and we’re just living our lives. And so there are people just like I’m a person. And so, um, having the confidence to go up to someone, introduce yourself, talk with them, develop friendships, pour into the relationships. Um, because you can, of course, you can fly in, speak and fly out.

Teri DeLucca:
And sometimes that’s what you need to do. But you can also go to some of the different events that the conference is having and just really getting out of your comfort zone, getting to know some other speakers. That changed everything for me because first, I’ve got the most amazing group of speaker friends that anyone I will go toe to toe with, anyone who says they have better speaker friends than I do because I just they are genuine, good people who make me better at who I am. But we also help each other. We can share, hey, I struggled with this or this happened. Or have you ever had this happen? Or how did you handle this situation? We refer each other out. If I can’t do something, I have a short list of people I’ll suggest and they suggest me. Um, and we also can kind of give a little heads up on different event hosts and which conferences you may get more leads from than others, or which maybe if I can’t go to one and they’ve gone to one that I couldn’t attend, it’s like, just save your time. You don’t, don’t come, don’t come next year or something. Or, hey, it was amazing. You should have been here. So that itself. Um, it just made all the difference. And so those are two. But there’s so much there’s so many things I could share.

Carol Cox:
Well, thank you for those. And I appreciate that. And so let’s let me ask you this, because I think this is a question that many listeners have is, how did you get your first set of speaking engagements? So obviously you, you, you have a background in this industry, early childhood education, you have your degrees, you were working in it, but you weren’t necessarily known as a speaker, a speaker in it. So how did you go about getting those first speaking engagements? And then how has that shifted to how they come about now?

Teri DeLucca:
Okay. So I will tell you a little secret is I actually don’t even have a speaker reel. Can you believe that I still don’t. It’s on my list one day to make a speaker reel. So believe it or not, speaking actually was not really something I set off to do. It was not an original thing I wanted. It wasn’t a deep desire of my heart. It just happened. And, um, I, went, I heard you speak. And I had started seeing things on Facebook, just getting targeted by ads. And I was like, hmm, maybe I wonder if I could do that. Just that little stirring deep within of well, maybe that might. That seems fun. I wonder if I could, but then no, of course, fear. And you know, all of our we’re our own worst critic. And it was like, well, why would I think I could do that? Like I just started this company. I’d only had the business at that point for about a year. So I talked myself out of it. Um, and then I met you, I did the Thought Leader Academy and just really thought, okay, maybe I’m going to, maybe I really could do this. I felt a little more equipped. Um, and the first few that I got started with me just reaching out to people online. I looked at different events and then I found an email and I emailed and said, hey, are you looking for speakers? And unfortunately, a couple of them were like, sure, send us your speaker reel.

Teri DeLucca:
And it was like, what’s a speaker real? I don’t know, I don’t have that. Um, okay. So let me get a speaker reel. Got a price for one that was just not doable when you have a brand new business. And I was like, okay, that’s not going to happen. Um, so I just kept putting emails out. It probably took 6 or 7 before one person wrote back and just said, hey, actually, yeah, we’re very interested. What do you talk on and what are your topics? And I got that first one and then, um, from there, believe it or not, I have not actually put out a proposal or anything for that. Um, since I’ve had plenty of referrals from other people. But what happens, at least in my experience is after you speak at a couple of these, um, your name starts showing up and people start looking and then when you’re someone like me who had that initial intimidation or the fear or whatever was holding me back, and you’re thinking, why would they want me? Like, what do I have that’s different? Because there’s so much out there already. Well guess what? They’re always looking for fresh and new because there’s the same faces are being, you know, people want fresh, they want new, they want new topics, new areas of expertise or experiences that you could share.

Teri DeLucca:
So for me, it started with just reaching out to a few people. I kept seeing the same people commenting, and I actually made great friends this way too, commenting on posts. So I just sent them a message and was like, hi, who are you and what do you do? Because I see you on everything and I’m new here. Like I’m new to this industry. This is my business, I need friends. It’s like high school. That’s what I literally was like. I’m just looking for friends in this field. So who do you what conferences should I look at? And that helped because it really steered me down this path of, here’s the higher quality conferences, here’s who you could talk to, ask this person or that person. And then again, stepping out on a limb and just saying, hey, could I use your name? Or would you mind making that introduction for me? And so you got to get a little outside of your comfort zone. But that’s the key is once you do just a little bit out of your comfort zone, your confidence grows. Then you do the next thing out of your confidence grows. And when you look back, it’s like you’re a whole different version of you than you were before you started. So, um, the whole speaking for free thing is probably something we should talk about.

Carol Cox:
Yes, yes I will. Well, I’m thinking about like coming out of your comfort zone. I know that you have been raising your speaker fee over the past couple of years and, and what you charge for workshops, learning that a lot goes into it, you know, travel, obviously, the days that you’re away from your business and your family and your home, plus all the value that you’re providing. So, you know, talk to us about speaking for free. Also, there’s this term called pay to play, which seems to be becoming more prevalent. And then there’s obviously getting paid to speak. So Terry, your experiences with those.

Teri DeLucca:
Sure. Um, the first few I did speak for free and um. Well, okay, my second one, I did not speak for free, but I also didn’t charge enough. And I remember sending you a message and I was like, Carol, when all is said and done, I basically made $283.

Teri DeLucca:
I remember that. Why did I even do this? Like why?

Teri DeLucca:
Because then you have to take it to the fact. So I am a single, um, at the same time I started my business. Fun fact, I also got a divorce. So that’s a special kind of crazy right there. Um, but I have to pay for someone to drive my kids around. I had to pay for dog boarding. And so the 283 that I made really just covered that aspect. So, um, I did start with this, you know, just show up and it’s the spot on the stage just to get your name out there. And there is value in that when you’re first starting out. However, I would not do much of that because it’s exhausting. It’s humbling whenever you find out how much the other people there are getting paid and you’re like, what? And I paid for my own hotel and I paid for all what? And you spent 3 or 4 days. So honestly, that epiphany, if you will, the hard truth of pouring myself in, I mean, I’m talking I poured myself into making sure my stuff was great. I had really great sides, great content. Um, I wanted to be disruptive a little and challenge people, but make it funny. And all the things that I learned from you to do. Um, and then to get there and hear how much the keynote made and how much this person’s making in their hotel, like some of you were complaining about something with their hotel.

Teri DeLucca:
And I was like, wait, I’m paying for my hotel, You know, and then the thing that got me is a different event. Someone was on stage speaking. And so my background, I’m a developmental psychologist and I have a background in cognitive neuroscience and I’ve done a lot of work. I actually look, here we go. I have the brain on my desk. It’s my thing. It’s my jam. I love the brain and I love studying the brain. So someone was on the stage speaking about the brain and they got it wrong. And I’m just sitting there like, what? That’s just not right. That’s literally wrong information. But you look in the audience and they’re taking notes and there’s, you know, in that moment, it hit me. It was like, what am I doing? Okay, so we are going to really, we’re going to think about this one, you know, and it’s like, I, I am here, I literally paid to be here. And this person is getting paid a lot more than I was. And it’s wrong information. So where is my boundary and what is this worth? And I had to really dig deep on why am I even here? Like, why am I in this room? Why did I leave my kids and my family? And, you know, and it comes back to obviously the name of my business making, you know, I want to make an impact.

Teri DeLucca:
I want to help people. So I just had to get real clear with myself on what is the cost of me being away. Because when I’m not, not just on the personal side with children and dog boarding and all those things, but, um, but when I’m not working in my business and I’m not on the call doing demos or discovery calls or, you know, working with the clients that I coach, um, that’s time away. So that’s, I’m not, I’m missing opportunities to bring in some large clients, you know, some big deals, some, some great revenue to go then do what? Grow someone else’s pockets so that they, especially when you start to have your name out there and people know that you have good quality, um, and that you will be, you know, engaging and all the things they want. And then your name is advertised, your picture, and they’re the one getting all the money, not you. And so that just really that hit me and it was like, okay, I have to get real clear on what my time is worth, you know, why am I doing this? What is my purpose? And then just really look at the ROI and I mean, full transparency.

Teri DeLucca:
I didn’t get it right for a few years because I would still put myself out in situations thinking, well, this is worth it for, you know, to get a new audience. But then I would leave there and yes, I made great connections and it’s a new audience, but the event host is so heavily pushing their own services and their own product and their own, whatever they sell that are these huge $10,000 or 8000. No one has any money left to spend on the vendors that are out in the vendor hall, or the people who are speaking on stage, and you have your little QR code, it’s like, oh, that’s so great, I wish I could, but they’re dropping eight grand with this person. So that was very eye opening and it helped me get a lot more selective. And, um, and again, that’s where speaker friends come in. A few of us were talking and it was like, am I wrong on this? Like, am I, how do you think about this? And it’s like, no, it’s not right that we’re literally building other people’s pockets and not our own. And then there’s a big disparity. And I don’t know if you want to go there or not.

Carol Cox:
Yes, I do, yes I do. I know where you’re going. Let’s do it.

Teri DeLucca:
There is a huge disparity in what women what female speakers are paid versus male. And I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. Um, I have tried my best to be as positive thinking and not negative about that as I can, but it is very disheartening to show up at a place. And I, you know, I just don’t get it. You hear someone else speak and it’s like, what is the difference when you look at everything? Background, qualification, all the things. And he’s making more. I don’t I don’t know. I don’t know how to fix that. I don’t know why, but that is something um, that definitely exists and I would love to see make it a little more fair, um, equitable, whatever the right word is. And so, um, but when I mentioned at the beginning of our conversation about making friends in the industry, it is so important just for your own, your mental capacity, but those referrals matter because there’s often times, regardless of what field you’re in, there’s busy seasons for conferences and for events. And you’re going once you do start getting out, you will get multiple requests for the same certain weekends. So you, you know that you will be booked up a year ahead of a time. But, um, if you get a request that comes in and you can’t do it. Being able to refer someone and then they get the great fee, then they’re more likely to refer you the next time. And so, um, I think there’s great value in pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. I swear it feels like high school again when you have to walk up to a group of adults, it’s like, hi, are you going to dinner? I know you don’t know me. I promise I’m cool. Can I come? Can I join your reservation? I have done that before, but it works. It’s great you meet the best people.

Carol Cox:
Yes. And 99% of the time people will be receptive to it and really.

Teri DeLucca:
You know, not connected yet, right? Yeah.

Carol Cox:
I don’t yeah, I don’t think so. But so to your point about the gender pay gap between women and men, speaker, so obviously the gender pay gap is in across the board, right? All different levels of.

Teri DeLucca:
All levels.

Carol Cox:
Jobs and industries and all that. So it’s kind of not surprising that it shows up in the speaking industry as well. And that goes from Brene Brown all the way down. She’s talked about this on her own podcast a few years ago, when she found out what a male speaker was getting paid at the same event, and she was the headliner. Yeah, he was not. And he was making maybe double what she was getting paid, but she had no idea until an agent backstage told her that. That is why I talk about speaking fees, because I feel like it’s, you know, people don’t like I don’t like to talk about money, but we need to because we need to know what the going rates are. And I really would like more men speakers to talk about their rates and what they’re getting paid, because otherwise we’re not going to know.

Teri DeLucca:
Absolutely. And just talking with your own speaker friends about it, like within your own group, whoever it is, because that that was huge for me. I had a conversation with one person. I was like, okay, well, we both were booked for the same thing. Well, okay. And I said, do you mind me asking what your, what you propose? Like, what are you getting? And when she shared, I was like, oh, okay, well then I will too. I will get that too then. Thank you.

Carol Cox:
So and I know people are listening are going to be like, well, you know, I don’t know if they’re going to have a budget. I don’t want to end up not getting the engagement because I charged too high or I don’t know how to negotiate or, you know, all these things that go through their mind. So what advice do you have for them?

Teri DeLucca:
Sure. Well, first is really think of the ROI. To me, I try to think of that. And so that’s ROI, return on investment. And so if you know, sometimes you don’t know, you don’t. It’s a brand new group. It’s a brand new audience and you just don’t know. But for me, especially in our industry, I know it pretty well is just looking at what could I realistically get from doing that in terms of new clients, new customers? Who’s in the audience? Is it mostly decision makers or is it not? Because that matters too. Um, and that will, if I know that the audience is full of people who do have the decision making power to hire us to do something, and that’s going to lead to more than, okay, if there’s a budget and it’s a little less I can take, I can take a lower fee knowing that there would be something coming from that. So I think first would be just getting really clear on what do you need to get out of this to make it worth your time and worth your energy away from whatever else you have going on? Um, that’s number one.

Teri DeLucca:
But then negotiation is, I think, a lot harder for women in general, it seems. Um, but take the risk. I mean, worst thing is they say no and then you have, if they can’t do what you’re asking, then you still have power in that. Then you can decide, okay, well, do I want this or not? Because you could do it at a lower rate or not. And then that’s something that only you can decide. But no is not bad. No is just facts. They just sometimes don’t have it. And then you decide, well, you know, I think go ahead and pass that to someone else. I’ve I just can’t do it for that. And that’s not bad. That’s standards. And every time I’ve said that, they have come back for their next event and invited me for more. And so because they now know what your budget is and they’re able to do whatever they need to have that. And so I think it’s really important to try at least to negotiate and then make that decision.

Carol Cox:
Yeah, that’s a great point about maybe they don’t have it in their budget for that year’s event, because they just didn’t budget for that, or they didn’t get the sponsorship money for it, but that but now they know and they really like you and they know what your fee is. So now they’re going to make it happen for the following year. I love that.

Teri DeLucca:
It’s, it’s, it works. And it’s also great because you have, especially if you’re a returning someone, you have people emailing them and asking for you. And there’s power in that. It’s like, that is so sweet. It just, I can’t believe people would take the time to care enough, you know, to.

Carol Cox:
Have.

Teri DeLucca:
A request like that. So it helps.

Carol Cox:
Well, because you do such a great job, Teri, and everyone really enjoys hearing from you. And, you know, here’s the thing that I also think about when if you’re offered a speaking engagement and either they say, you know, it’s, there’s no budget, it’s free, or maybe it’s just lower than what you than what you can do, you know, based on, again, the time, effort, all of that. Is that how I look at it? Okay. If I’m, if I can’t do this, that opens up that date because maybe something else is going to come along that is a better fit and either a better fit speaking wise or business wise or even personal, you never know. Because then if you keep putting your making your calendar full with a bunch of things that either are free or low paid or don’t light you up, then you’re, you don’t make space for the better stuff that could come along.

Teri DeLucca:
Exactly. And something else that I have done too. If they have a lower budget and they can’t quite get to what I need, but they can still, you know, maybe, maybe, I don’t know, it’s like 2 or 3000 less than what I would want. Then I’ll say, okay, well, could I have a booth and then I’ll ask for a booth in their vendor hall. Could you throw that in? And I’ll have a booth and then I’ll get out. Now there’s pros and cons to that. It really depends on the event because I’ve had events where we’ve had a booth, I’ve paid, you know, my own team to come pay for their travel, their, their, and we’ve done really well. And then we have other times that we’ve paid and had a booth because you have to also, you have to buy the swag, whatever you’re giving out. And you know, it’s, it’s also exhausting when you’re speaking to. So I had one time when I was doing two sessions at an event, I think I was, I was keynoting and I had a workshop, um, and a booth and I was drained. That’s a lot of talking. And so, um, there’s some events that. And again, it helps to know others who have been. And especially if you can make friends with some people who are on the vendor side, um, because they really know the audience and know. So what I mean by vendor is just other companies that have booths there. Um, and they’ll tell you, oh, it’s more of a trick or treat situation or yes, you’re going to get a lot of a lot of leads. And so, um, it really depends on, you know, what you’re looking for, especially if it’s someone who has written a book, for instance, a lot of speakers have authored books. And so if you could have a table with books and book signing or something like that, that would be, um, something you could throw in as well.

Carol Cox:
That’s a great idea. Great, Teri. All right. Well, let’s shift gears and let’s talk about Luma, your AI product that you’ve built with your development team. And when you first told me about this, it maybe it was, let’s see, we’re in 2026. It must have been in 24, right? 2024. And when you first told me about this and described it, I think you showed me, I was like, oh my gosh, Terry, I cannot believe that you’re you’re building this because it’s so well thought out. It’s so cool. It’s so innovative, not even just for early childhood education industry, but just overall. So you can tell us a little bit about Luma. What does it do? Who is it for? What is its purpose? And then we’ll talk about how you’re expanding it.

Teri DeLucca:
Sure. So Luma is a thinking partner. That’s how I describe it. It’s human centered, AI thinking partner. And this first version of Luma by Impact, we created for the education space. And so it has a teacher experience and a leadership experience. The teacher side of things. I am huge on personal leadership, so it has a little section in there for teachers to stay ahead of the stress, to work on self-awareness of their role in whatever drama or situation that could be happening with a coworker. Um, then it has the aspect for the children. So helping with behavior solutions. Classroom management. It’s also positive. It’s not just on children who have difficult behavior, but it’s also looking at maybe the shy, quiet child who’s not really integrating with the others. What are some things they could do? And my whole purpose for Luma was building a solution. I say that closes the daily support gap because you can do a fantastic job with training. We do. We have an on demand platform that we have on demand courses. We go in person, we do leadership sprints, all kinds of training. However, no matter how stellar that organization is, whatever amazing leadership they have, you cannot be in every classroom helping every teacher as they need it. And on the leadership side, it’s difficult to get the support you need all the time too, because there’s just only so much we can do.

Teri DeLucca:
So, um, what I did this is sounds like I always say I sound like Winnie the Pooh. I took myself to my thinking spot because I have a spot I go to on. We live by the beach. And so, um, I went and I just listed out on my notebook everything I wish I had when I was operating schools myself. And some of the main challenges we see working with teams around the country, the wins that need to be celebrated, but sometimes are missed because everyone’s so busy and the leadership struggles, just what would an ideal daily support look like? And then that’s what I set out to build. Um, my initial, like the, the just plan of it all. I shared with a few very, very select trusted friends who I value their input. They run high quality, um, schools and they’ve really got it going. Right. And when I first asked their opinion, um, one of them in particular, my friend Sasha, um, it actually wasn’t great. The feedback was not good. She was like, no, this is too negative. I wouldn’t, I would not personally want to use it because of these things. And so I share that to say there is so much value again, and having people that you can, I always use the term thinking partner.

Teri DeLucca:
So that can be your thinking partner and you can, you know, shoot ideas off because what if I had gone and built it without getting opinions? So there’s so much value in that creation process, whatever anyone is doing and humble yourself, be vulnerable and just put your thoughts out and get feedback. And so that input changed the complete direction of Luma, went back to the drawing board and decided, okay, how can we make this more positive? Um, what did I miss? And so that is where everything really took off. And so where we are now is we are in the early adopter phase. So we’re calling it early access. We have beta schools and they’re trying it, using it, getting the value out of it. It’s phenomenal. It’s amazing the things that, um, the leaders are telling Luma and getting feedback. So on the leadership side, it focuses on organizational culture. Um, they can look, we call it glows and grows, but they can look at some areas that maybe need a little extra support. It helps with, um, it’s like a cheat code really like fly on the wall of what’s really going on and who, who needs some support, who is frustrated and burnt out, but they, because you’re the leader who writes their paycheck, they’re smiley, they’re doing all the things they need to do to be a happy employee.

Teri DeLucca:
But really, they got one foot out the door. And so, um, it’s just designed to help give that support and help people stay over ahead of the overwhelm. And, um, it’s going incredibly well and we will be going to market soon. We are still, I, I want to get it just right. Get the feedback from the beta testers, um, before we do that. And then we have plans to expand this so that we’ll have families that will be using it. The whole goal of families is not to see what the teachers and the leadership see, but just to encourage more play at home, less screen time and more play. But play that’s centered on what the teachers are working on with the children. And then, um, we are working on some pilots that will down the line be expanding into foster care and some other, you know, taking it outside of the education space, just that leadership platform. Um, as I’ve shared it on a few other things, you know, people outside of education are like, well, we need that. And our alarm company recently, they’re like, how can we get that aspect of it? So, um, we are doing our best to stay focused on what we’re building with Luma by impact right now and make sure that is exactly as we need it to be before we go off into other directions.

Teri DeLucca:
But that’s, that’s what we’ve been up to. And it is the most humbling experience because I do not know all the terms that our engineers say and share. I often, almost every meeting I would say I have to stop and be like, I’m sorry, what? What does that mean? Or can you explain that again? Or they give me something to do and then I do it. So I think I do it and then we get back on and they’re like, well, that wasn’t exactly what we were wanting you to do. So if you could do that again, it’s like they’re the most patient souls to work with me. So it’s been fun. I’ve learned so much. But again, it, it’s important, I think, to do work that doesn’t feel like work. And Luma has been especially challenging for me because it’s hard to not work on it all the time because I love it so much and I want to be in there doing things. It’s like, no, close, close the laptop and go spend time with my family and walk away. It will be there tomorrow.

Carol Cox:
Yes. No, that that is true. Well, and I know that you had told me that back when you applied that there. Melinda Gates Foundation was putting together a grant for AI. So can you tell us a little bit about the grant and where you are in that selection process?

Teri DeLucca:
Sure. So, um, yes, this is called the win challenge, which is women in innovation. And um, there’s a few different categories. The grant that I applied for. So this is funded through, um, I think it’s Aspen pivotal. I might be getting that wrong, but it’s through the Melinda Gates Foundation and, um, the one that the little bucket of the grant that I applied for is for women who are creating AI to help women in the workplace. And, um, it’s shocking when you look at the stats on how many women are using AI significantly less compared to men and when they are using it, it’s more Google and like kind of things or just asking things like that instead of actually, you know, in ChatGPT, you can build skills or doing cloud work and just being a little more advanced with it. And so, um. When you think of what that means for the world and for our society in general. That’s a massive gap. Ai is changing every week. There’s new developments and you’ve. Got to have some of that risky. Try it out. If it doesn’t work, try something else and just stay current with it.

Teri DeLucca:
Or. That gap widens between those who are using it and those who don’t. And so when we think of what that means for women, um, in the workplace and how we’re using it, there’s, um, this huge effort to put some money behind projects that are focused on engaging women. And so that’s what Luma is doing is getting a whole field of educators to use AI to help them with their daily, um, decision making and thinking and just to make their lives easier. And my ultimate goal, and we did just save our first teacher, which is huge. Um, but my ultimate goal is to keep Educators in the field, because our early education field is in a little bit of a crisis where we have a mass exodus. People are leaving and we need them to stay. And so my hope is with daily support, um, Luma could play a role in keeping people in the field and just getting them to be better at who they are by managing stress and life in general.

Carol Cox:
Well, and to your point about wanting to encourage more women to use AI, and I’ve also had seen, um, a study, this was maybe like a year or so ago that they said that women workers are going to be much more impacted, they believe, by AI, automation and AI taking a lot of aspects of jobs because so many women are kind of like office management type of roles, which AI can very easily automate. And I feel like there’s so many people who just see AI, like ChatGPT is, oh, I can write a blog post for me, or I can write an email for me, but like Claude Cowork Claude code code X by OpenAI. I mean, these are getting very sophisticated AI agentic capabilities that, like you said, every week it blows me away what is coming out and what the capabilities are.

Teri DeLucca:
Right? And it has become a huge passion of mine just because honestly, because of applying for this grant and learning what I did just through the application process, um, these stats about women, it just, it lit a new fire under me to get the word out. I’ve encouraged. I’m actually offering a lunch and learn for my friends. I was like, you got to start using this. So they asked if I would give them a lunch and learn. I was like, sure, I will teach anyone. Like, so.

Carol Cox:
We all need to become friends with you so we can get invited to your lunch and learn.

Teri DeLucca:
I am just, I’m really passionate. It’s a new, a new passion of mine. Um, and I’m excited. My big news I found out yesterday is that I am now a finalist for the Melinda Gates Foundation grant for the wind challenge, so I am remaining cautiously optimistic. Everyone listening please. Good thoughts, prayers, light a candle. Whatever you do that we will get this. It would be huge. Um, it would allow us to bring some lower income, underserved, um, schools into the platform to develop the peace for families. There’d be so much that we could do. So.

Carol Cox:
Well, you deserve it. I’ve seen the video that you put together. I know you talked to me quite a bit about the application, so I really do hope that they select you because you deserve it and you’re doing incredible work. So yes, keep us posted on that. Thank you. So Terry, I know that, you know, we’ve talked quite a bit about the work that you do in early childhood education, but you’ve mentioned a few times that it’s not just for that particular industry. A lot of what you do transfers just to leadership in general. So can you tell us a little bit about that and some of the keynotes and workshops that you have available, and what types of companies or conferences would be a good fit?

Teri DeLucca:
Sure. So any company that’s looking for someone to come help with, um, any aspect of organizational culture, leadership, um, I have some fantastic work that we do on communication and just understanding differences in how we feel appreciated at work and in having hard conversations, learning how to as a leader, how to hold your team accountable in a way that does not, um, cause them to be on the defense. And so, um, lots of different opportunities for in-person work that I could come do with teams, but also leadership sprints virtually. Um, really any team, regardless of the industry, I have done a lot of speaking engagements, um, at general leadership, um, just entrepreneurial conferences, um, faith based conferences. Uh, I will be speaking to a group with involved with foster care and that I haven’t done that yet, but I will. I actually, believe it or not, Dance Moms, that was a new one for me, but I did one for Dance Moms. I am not a dance mom, but I enjoyed that experience. Um, but I love to work with women especially. So any organization, um, that is looking for someone to come in and help with leadership to help with the communication aspect would be an excellent fit. I mentioned that I also have some work on nervous system regulation and rewiring your brain to deal with stress. And so, um, there’s a whole menu of topics and services. And, um, I thought of one other thing. Do we have time for one other thing?

Carol Cox:
Yes.

Teri DeLucca:
Yeah. Before we finish. Okay, so and this just came to me and mentioning one of the groups I worked with. So for those who are interested in getting out and speaking, but feel a little held back like I did, you know, at the beginning when I felt, you know, what could I really do? There’s so many other people doing great things. It’s just if you feel that stirring within yourself and you feel that that tiny little calling, if you will, to it to get out of your own way and take whatever that first step is. For me, it was just sending a few emails or DM’s on Facebook and just, hey, could we hop on a Zoom and I’ll, I’ll send you a coffee gift card if you could give me just a little of your time, but just whatever that first tiny step is, don’t look at it as this giant big, oh, I need to have contracts in place and I need it, like, don’t make it so big. It doesn’t have to be a huge, big thing. It’s just make the first introduction. Because I do believe that if you feel that calling within you, there is a voice for everyone and there is abundance of audiences and people who need great speakers, and I could have the same message as you, and they won’t reply to me or respond to me, because they need your voice and your stories and your experiences you’ve been through, whereas mine would speak to someone else, you know? So I just, I encourage anyone out there who’s listening and thinking, I’m not quite sure, I’m happy to talk with you if you need some, a little guidance.

Teri DeLucca:
But, um, I highly suggest Carol because she’s had such a role in my journey and my career. Um, but just take that first step and then the getting over the anxiety part. I’m going to speak to that a little bit to the confidence. And so I have learned that confidence really is believing, or actually it’s knowing that you are still going to be okay when it all falls apart because it will. So any experienced speaker can share a story, I’m sure, or more than one of times when the tech failed, the slide decks were. Maybe the slide on the screen is not actually what you sent them, because some people want your slides two weeks, a month ahead of time and you’re still tweaking. And so if that’s the case, just side note, I do always, I prefer Canva. Maybe that will change with all the AI out there. But right now my preference is Canva because I can go in and keep tweaking. I’m a tweaker. And the night before.

Carol Cox:
Me too, me too. I’m the same.

Teri DeLucca:
I get massive anxiety when they want it so early because I’m like, well, you don’t know what kind of stories are going to come into my mind before then. And so, um, so fight for your preferred method. I do, I say, okay, you want me to put in my PowerPoint deck? Well, here’s in the PowerPoint. When you open it, there’s one thing and it’s a link to my canvas slides.

Carol Cox:
I love that.

Teri DeLucca:
Because I, and the reason I share that is what I have learned is it helped me in reducing anxiety to control the controllables. And so what that looked like was all the different things that have gone wrong. So my luggage, one time I arrived in, um, New Mexico and my luggage was still in Jacksonville, and I had to be on stage at 8 a.m. the next morning, and they were going to deliver my luggage by 10 a.m. and I was like, no, no, no, no, no, that doesn’t work for me. It got resolved, but that experience was like, from now on, I will give myself more time with my flights, especially the way airlines are now. So I make sure I schedule my flights with enough time that if there’s a delay, if this, you know, one time I came in like six hours after the event started for flight drama. So I scheduled my flights in a way that allows for mishaps. And if things go smoothly, guess what? You get hotel time, which is a gift in itself. Or you can go sightsee or do whatever. So that and then also Overpacking. I know my cousin is probably going to kill me because she always does that I overpack, but I do overpack I bring an extra outfit, an extra stage outfit in case I wake up loaded or whatever.

Teri DeLucca:
So that helps. So when I these are little tiny things that I’ve learned. And so I actually am my phone. I have an event packing list that I created for myself in my notes app with little dots that I check and I uncheck and I use the same list every time. That helped. Um, what’s something else? Oh, here’s the big thing for me that I started doing two years ago. Your sound tech guy, whoever they have for you, is your best friend. And so whenever I arrive, usually they’re setting up the room, um, the night, especially if you’re keynote and you’re opening in the morning, they’re going to be setting up usually the day before when you get in, I always peek in even if it’s not ready. I like to see the room beforehand so I can. That reduces anxiety to see, okay, that’s the stage. That’s where I’ll be if I can. And there’s no one in. I go stand on the stage and I look out like, oh, this is what it’ll look like tomorrow. Um, I pray over it, but whatever you’re comfortable with. But that’s what I do. And then I ask, who is my tech contact and if I can meet with them that night. Usually you can’t, but sometimes you get lucky. Um, but then I make sure whoever my point of contact is for the big day, the day of I get with that tech person beforehand, I get their cell phone number if they’ll give it to me.

Teri DeLucca:
And I like to make sure at least, you know, an hour before, but as early as you can that my sound works. I always have video or you taught me have multimedia in there. So I make sure that we can hear it, that it plays well, like eliminate all the tech glitches that you can beforehand. So that is a big one. Um, I’m trying to think of any other things like that, but that alone, just having those few little things and then that mindset that it’s, you’re not performing, you’re there to serve. Those are what have grown my confidence. And, um, you know, whenever it does happen on the stage, like slides not right. Or I don’t know, I’m, I turned 46 and I can’t see anything and I need readers, but I don’t have readers yet. And so I was on a stage and I had a diagram of something and the little screen is way down there and I couldn’t. I was like, y’all have to forgive me. I cannot read that. Can someone please tell me what is the bottom? Because I added it last night and I can’t remember. And so they were like, you know, they like real people like, yes.

Carol Cox:
Yes.

Teri DeLucca:
They don’t want polished. And so just be real and have fun. But that is my, my parting words. And I’m happy to talk with anyone who would like, um, to talk one on one, share any other things that any of my journey to help anyone else have less stress. I’m happy to share.

Carol Cox:
That is so generous of you, Terry. And there will be links in the show notes to Terry’s website and her LinkedIn profile, so definitely reach out and connect with her. And thank you so much for those insights and those lessons. And as I always like to say, you are the messenger your audience is waiting for, which you beautifully described as well. So Terry, thank you so much for coming back on the Speaking Your Brand podcast. This has been a lot of fun.

Teri DeLucca:
Yes. Thank you for having me. It really is my favorite.

Carol Cox:
And for those of you listening, if you would like to join us in the Thought Leader Academy, you can get all the details and apply at speaking your brand.com/academy. Until next time. Thanks for listening.

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