The Hub and Spokes of Your Thought Leadership Message with Christie Rocha: Podcast Ep. 270

The Hub and Spokes of Your Thought Leadership Message with Christie Rocha: Podcast Ep. 270 | Speaking Your Brand

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When you start putting your thought leadership out into the world, think of your overall message as the hub. You then have various spokes you can use to share the message and get others involved.

These spokes can include your own podcast; a LinkedIn Live or Instagram Live show; a challenge; speaking (of course!); podcast guesting; and events you host.

My guest Christie Rocha recently graduated from our Thought Leader Academy and we worked together on her thought leadership message and her signature talk.

Christie has a really important message to share, particularly to millennial moms, about mental health and self-care.

Christie has such a fun and vibrant personality, which comes across in her podcast “Sass Says” and in this interview.

In this episode, Christie and I talk about:

  • Why she wanted to delve into thought leadership
  • The container she chose for her thought leadership message
  • The many ways (spokes) she is sharing her thought leadership
  • Her experience in our Thought Leader Academy
  • Her awesome TLA graduation speech called “Give me the mic”

About My Guest: Christie Rocha is the host of Sass Says, a podcast to guide women on how to heal, educate, and empower themselves through therapy and real-life stories of perseverance. She interviews mental health professionals, experts, coaches, and women who share her mission to debunk the stigmas and misconceptions about therapy and mental health. Christie is known for asking the “but how” questions so that her listeners walk away from each episode with actionable steps on what to do next when it comes to relationships, motherhood, body image, ambition, and what she calls, the Intangible. Self-care is also a hot topic on her show. Christie and her husband live in New Jersey with their two toddlers. 

About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it’s through women’s stories, voices, and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com

 

Links:

Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/270

Christie’s website & podcast “Sass Says”: https://sasssays.com/

Download our FREE workbook on how to position yourself as a thought leader: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/guide/

Apply for our Thought Leader Academy: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/academy/ 

Schedule a consult call with us to talk about creating your signature talk and thought leadership platform: https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/contact

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Related Podcast Episodes:

270-SYB-Christie-Rocha.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

270-SYB-Christie-Rocha.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’s a way to think about the hub and spokes of your thought leadership message with my guest, Kristy Rocha. 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, Kristie.

Kristy Rocha:
Thank you so much for having me.

Carol Cox:
Well, I’m excited to have you on. You recently graduated from our Thought Leader Academy, and I enjoyed getting to know you over the four months that you are in the program. We work together one on one and in a VIP day to create your signature talk and your thought leadership. So I decided that this would be a good opportunity to bring you on the podcast to talk about the different ways that you are sharing your thought leadership message, because there’s a variety of ways that we can share it. And you have been such a good student and you hit and you hit the milestones that we laid out in the Thought Leader Academy, and you went out of your comfort zone and you did things that you hadn’t anticipated. So I was really proud of that, Kristie. And I would love for you to share with the listeners now. Tell us about your own podcast that you have and what led you to launch your podcast back in August of 2021?

Kristy Rocha:
Okay. Well, thank you for such a lovely intro. Nothing makes me smile more than hearing I’m a good student. It’s like the old overachiever in me just just flourishing at this moment. But my podcast is called SAS says SAS is kind of my alter ego that I was given the nickname of in college for being just that blunt friend. Tell it like it is kind of gal. And the podcast came to be mainly because I was struggling for a while with my mental health. I started therapy is the really short version. First I started therapy and I loved it. Like therapy changed my life in so many ways and I thought more people need to know about this resource and more people need to understand who therapy is for how it works, why it’s helpful. And I really saw that there was a lacking of information. You know, I’ve always been a person who was interested in relationships, interested in the mind and the brain and this and that. But I never understood that therapy could be for me. I thought it was for people who have only suffered the big T traumas in life. And, you know, overall, my life was pretty good, I have to say. So I just had no idea. And it made me think how many other women, particularly out there, also don’t know that it could be for them. So that was the initial like, Whoa, I have to get this message out here. And then through that, I’ve really made a focus on destigmatizing and debunking all as many as I can. All of this, all of the misconceptions about mental health and therapy. And I interview mostly therapists. I also interview coaches and experts and women who have a mental health story to share, whether they’re kind of still in the mud going through it, or they’ve come out the other side to a certain extent. Mental health is ongoing, but they have a journey and they want to share it.

Carol Cox:
So and Christi, you have a very particular perspective as a millennial woman and as a mother now of two children under the age of five. So you and I know that when we started working together, we started talking about this kind of romanticized vision that a lot of millennial women grew up with, that they can have it all, they can have the career, they can have the partnership, they can have the family. And yes, it’s supposed to be effortless and easy and we’re supposed to be ambitious. And then what happened to you, Christy, when you had the first baby and then the second?

Kristy Rocha:
My generation millennials really thought we were going to be the first gen to. Exactly. You said it be 5050 in the house, be 5050 with the kids, be 5050 with money. And, you know, thanks to all the women who’ve come before us, we are in the workplace. We are doing all the things. We’re graduating from the multiple colleges and multiple degrees and doing all of the CEO going. But the rest of life hasn’t quite caught up yet. We’re still carrying the mental load in our households. We’re still doing the majority of the child rearing. And we saw through the pandemic that women were most of the population to have to leave the workforce. So for me, I had a lot of change. When I first had my baby. I changed jobs, we moved. It was a lot. But yeah, I really just had no idea what I was getting myself into. I love my children. And I love them. I wouldn’t change it for the world. But, you know, we talk all about what’s baby going to need, what’s baby going to do, what’s you know, I don’t know. Pregnancy was all about how to take care of baby when it got here. And no one really talked to me about how to take care of mom, how to take care of me. And, you know, I was just really caught off guard by how lonely motherhood can be, how really, truly, I don’t know that I could have ever imagined the sleep deprivation and how much that affects your entire life. And I also I kind of I call it postpartum bitterness. You know, I was just bitter that my husband’s life kind of didn’t change all that much. He could still get up and walk out the door and not have to say, hey, someone has the kid, right? You know, I all of a sudden I needed another person’s involvement to just do the things that I used to do for me.

Kristy Rocha:
And so what happened was I stopped doing them. It just became too complicated. I became all about baby. And I didn’t know it at the time. But in hindsight, I definitely experience postpartum anxiety and depression. With my first, I didn’t leave the house for like three months and just kind of thought that was normal until I started seeing other people around me having kids and they were, you know, at the mall at eight weeks. And I’m like, No, no, no. We’re still working on like getting dressed and showered and and yeah, I had an experience with my husband that I didn’t remember until he reminded me of it. But late one night the baby was not sleeping again. She took until she was about a year old to sleep. Really. And I just was begging I was like begging him to take a shift of rocking her. And I just said to him, I’m like, if you don’t take this baby, I’m going to throw it over the railing. And he was like. Give me the baby. You know, and I don’t even I don’t remember that I have the memory now of him telling me that. And there was no part of me that was really going to throw her over, but. That dire, dire place of woe. I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t sleep. All I do is deal with this lovely, adorable baby. And I’m so tired I can’t even see straight. And everything makes me nervous. And everything makes me sad.

Carol Cox:
So. And, Kristy, I so appreciate you being so real about the experiences that you had and that I truly believe that is your your strength and your thought leadership that comes out on your podcast and your Instagram also is normalizing and validating these feelings that a lot of women, a lot of mothers have. But there is, like you said, there’s a lot of stigma around showing up, especially showing up publicly in some way, their social media or on a podcast and not feeling like you have everything totally together.

Kristy Rocha:
Yeah. And that’s where a lot of my work with you and the thought leadership came kind of married together because especially in early motherhood days, it’s it was rough out there on social media. You know, you go on social media and you see, I’ll never forget when I had my baby, it was the same time that Jessica Alba had her youngest. And like in the deep, you know, despair of a 3 a.m. feed, I’m scrolling and I see Jessica Alba posting that she’s at the office and how to work out and this and that. And I was like. What? I had to talk to myself and remind myself that she has trainers and nannies and, you know, all these things. And on a lesser scale, you see those pretty pictures of women and families with their babies out and about in matching clothes and. If I had taken a picture of myself at that moment, there for sure would have been spit up in my hair and on my shirt and just bags under my eyes for days. And so where I started and saying my thought leadership and my experience married here is that. I really want to change the narrative on self care and I want to change the narrative on how women and mothers are expected to take care of themselves. Because certainly for me, I had people around me saying, Take care of yourself, put mom first. Can’t pour from an empty cup. But how like, how was I supposed to go for a manicure or go take a bath? Like, I don’t want to take a bath, you know, like, I wanted to be a person. I wanted to function. I wanted to have normal thoughts and feelings. And I remember one time I actually did go get a manicure and I was sitting there the whole time just thinking about all the crap going on in my life, like, who wants to do this? So I really want to. I want to change all of that. Yeah.

Carol Cox:
Like the dishes are still sitting in the sink at home while I’m here getting my manicure.

Kristy Rocha:
Yeah, like that. It wasn’t helpful. It wasn’t. And you know what? We weren’t in a place where I could just go do anything and like. Like I couldn’t go shopping for all the things to get that hit of dopamine. And then I also was really uncomfortable in my body. So doing things that would have normally made me happy were different. And I had to take a lot of time to figure out what it is that I even like to do now. You know, I didn’t want to shop for clothes. I didn’t want to exercise the same way. I didn’t want to eat the same way. Like, I just was like a totally different person.

Carol Cox:
Yeah, it does sound like a shift in identity, but almost like a loss of identity of your old self. And then trying and like in this limbo period of need, you need to rediscover who you are or establish a new self. But you didn’t really feel like you had the time or the mental bandwidth to do that.

Kristy Rocha:
Yeah, and truly early on I didn’t even know that’s what I needed to do. I was just surviving or trying to. I mean, I’m here, so I did. But.

Carol Cox:
And your kids are surviving and thriving.

Kristy Rocha:
They’re alive and they’re fed.

Carol Cox:
Mission accomplished. They’re still alive, right? Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, Christie, you mentioned that you have your podcast essays and that you do a lot of interviews with guest experts, therapists, etc.. And in addition to bringing on some other mothers to talk about their experiences. And I know that when you started the Thought Leader Academy in October of 2021, you hadn’t yet done any solo episodes. And so that’s one of the things that I highly encourage you to do, because solo episodes is a way for you to put out your thought leadership message to your audience. And again, I am so excited that you did that. It came out in January of 2022, so January of this year. Can you tell us a little bit about the solo series that you ended up doing and how it felt to put that out?

Kristy Rocha:
It felt interesting. I didn’t want to at first, to be honest with you. And I think partly because, you know, my show is not about me being the expert. My show is about bringing experts on. So to have just me talking as my voice. Felt a little like that immediate imposter syndrome just kicks in like, am I? What am I going to say? Is it going to sound right? Is it going to you know, I don’t know. I also do struggle with my mental health. So it gave me a lot of anxiety. And but I did, you know, find that once I sort of put pen to paper on what I was going to say, it felt more doable. And my show is broken down into categories. I have shows on relationships, ambition, parenting, pregnancy, and something that I call the intangible, which is about mindset and spirituality. And so I kind of combined that with I didn’t kind of I did, I combined that with a self care challenge and it kind of helped me focus. So I took those categories and talked about how mainly through lessons that I’ve learned from people on the show, how I’ve implemented new and different ways of self care in all of those different areas. A lot of it has to do with communication and all of those areas.

Kristy Rocha:
So that was easy enough to talk about, but I did the challenge to which is the self care with SAS challenge and SAS, the acronym was an idea that I got from the Academy to use acronyms and even to do a challenge and to do the solo series. So I broke down different ways of self care based on 5 minutes or less, 10 minutes or less, 15 minutes or less. And, you know, they’re not there’s not a single suggestion of anything having to do with shopping or spa. And like I always I always really, you know, talk down about those things. I love them. I just when my kids are having tantrums in the middle of the day or like I shared with Carol before getting on here, I slept on my son’s floor for 3 hours last night. I’m not getting a manicure today. I’m not getting a massage. So I needed to figure out ways to self care that I could do from home, that I could do for free mostly, and that I could do in very short periods of time. And so that’s what I talked about on the solo series, was the ways in which I’ve done that based on the different categories of my show.

Carol Cox:
I love that Kristi and your Soul episodes were really good because because I know you, because we’ve done one on one calls and the group calls together. But your personality really came through your sense of humor, your directness, your sass, right? All of that really came through and just your vulnerable stories in the solo series. So I’m really glad that you did them. And so if we think about your thought leadership as a hub, right? So thought leadership is kind of the middle of the hub. And these spokes around the hub, you did your podcast solo series, you did your challenge, a self care challenge, which I know you promoted on the podcast and promote it on Instagram. You have your acronym SAS. Sas. So that was related to the challenge and to the podcast. And then you have your signature talk and then you also have an event coming up in the fall, which we’ll talk about in a moment. So if you think about it right there, those are five things, like five spokes related to your thought leadership. So now, Christy, tell us, what is the SAS acronym STAND for?

Kristy Rocha:
The SAS acronym is Stop, Assess, Simplify and share. So for me, usually I use the example of one of my kids is having a tantrum and I’m going to stop, I’m going to breathe, I’m going to assess what I need in the moment. I’m going to probably think of needing to get out of the house, but that’s not going to happen. So I need to simplify what I need, and that might be to go into another room for a few minutes or take a deep breath, or just close my eyes for a second and pretend I’m on a beach for 5 seconds. And then, you know, so whatever it is, whatever the example is that you need in that moment and then the sharing part is as far as the challenge was concerned, it was sharing it on social and with me because. Everything that I’ve implemented about self care has come from someone else sharing with me that it’s something they do. So I wouldn’t have come up with these on my own. And I give credit where credit’s due in all of my suggestions. But. There’s so much power in the sharing because the way someone else thinks about something and the way they’ve been able to incorporate a coping mechanism might not be something that you’ve ever thought of before, and I certainly have found that. So the sharing and then I think there’s one other spoke of the thought leadership is that through the Academy, I also was gently nudged and pushed in the best way possible to pitch myself for other shows, and that has been keeping me incredibly busy. So but I’ve also I’ve been able to make some great relationships with other podcasters because of it so.

Carol Cox:
Well, good. And again, you check that milestone off. You’ve you pitched yourself and you did your interviews. And I know they’re still ongoing. So I’m so glad because this is the one of the things that we talk about in on this podcast, but also in the academy is that when you have someone else interview you, they ask you questions that you wouldn’t have thought about in that way before. And then all of a sudden you’re sharing an answer and then you’re like, Oh, that’s actually something that I haven’t put together, those two things together. So that’s why I really enjoy doing guest interviews. Totally. All right. So then so then we also worked on your signature talk, Christie, in a VIP day. I actually have your poster board right here. So in this case, we focus a lot on your personal story, since that was really what drives so much of your thought leadership in the content that you produce. And then also taking the audience through the SAS strategy, the SAS that you just did and kind of giving them really, like I said before, like validation and normalization that what they’re going through is they’re not alone in it and that there is support out there. And then also rethinking this idea of self care, because, as you said, self care has become a really big business, a huge business. But is it truly helping people, you know? And. Right. And exactly. Yes. And and maybe maybe in some cases it’s helpful in the moment. But there’s there’s deeper work or deeper issues that go going and get a manicure isn’t addressing.

Kristy Rocha:
It’s not addressing and it’s just not doable. I have my kids home with me today. If we’re having a great day, great. If we’re not I’m not saying they’re two and four. I’m not like, yeah, I’m, I’m leaving. Like, you know, I have to find ways to take care of myself that are doable. I just have a problem with the self care word in general. I think that it’s just become oversaturated in, in a very like marketing kind of way to describe it. I just I think it started with really, really solid intentions, but self care in a sense, when you see it marketed a certain way, it also becomes what feels like another way to feel like you’re failing. Because if you’re not blocking off huge chunks of time to go to a spa for a weekend, or if you can’t afford to join a gym and do a Zumba class like, okay, this is another way that society is saying, well, you’re not taking care of yourself, so that’s bad on you. You’re feeling. And that’s what it started to feel like too. I mean, I had well intentioned family and friends saying, you know, again, go take care of yourself. Go get something done, go, you know, whatever. I don’t know. Go for a walk, this or that. And I love that I walk. Even a walk is hard sometimes, honestly, when you have two kids and maybe it’s a blizzard. But, you know, I just I hated feeling like because my self care was usually associated with leaving the house and becoming a consumer of some kind, that because I wasn’t doing it, that I wasn’t taking care of myself. And that added to my feelings of depression and anxiety and and guilt.

Carol Cox:
But yeah, that’s a really great way of putting it, Christi. We do associate self care with consumption of some kind.

Kristy Rocha:
Yeah. So now you know, if I want to self care I when my I so my kids are getting a little older which is nice because I can kind of use I can kind of what Suzy at busy toddler says she calls it sitter rising like I need to be in the room somewhat supervising but I can sit I don’t need to be on them. Right. So now I will. Instead of sitting there scrolling, I read and even if it’s ten pages that I get done between the distractions and then needing of snacks and the fighting, it’s like it’s ten pages and I feel good about that. And I’m learning something or I’m in another universe in the book, you know, even honestly, what’s become self care is like scheduling doctor’s appointments. I hate getting on the phone, but I know I need to do it, so I’ll do that. And, you know, I’ve. Completely changed how for the most part I view exercise. Now I hardly even call it exer exercise. It’s just movement. And I don’t know. I don’t know if you do this, but it’s like I would always kind of like tally in my head like, och, exercise check, you know. And I would sort of think to myself like if I walked around the mall with the kids or something, I’d go. Does it count? And like count to who? Like who’s who? And now it’s like, yes, it counts. It counts as movement, you know. So just sort of having to like reframe how I think about things and things that I was actually already doing but didn’t take time to look at them as something that I was doing for myself. You know, I think that’s a lot of it, too, is how you think about it. Think about everyday tasks that you’re doing or even even emptying the dishwasher. Sometimes I’ll say, you know, future Christy will be happy that this is done like and that’s self-care now. So yeah, you know, it just reframing a little bit too.

Carol Cox:
Right. And making our own definitions. It, it reminds me. So I wear a Fitbit. I bought a Fitbit for years because I liked the simplicity of it. And obviously it tracks the steps. And so if I’m out walking or running, it’s very obvious that I’m doing steps. But there are times that, well, if so, if someone’s coming over to our house, we do a really thorough cleaning. It’s really an order for us, like incentivizes us to do it. They’re all cleaning. And when we invite people over and there will be and it will take us a while, and then I’m walking back and forth, I have to go get this. I have to come back. Yeah. I have done almost 10,000 steps in a day without ever leaving the.

Kristy Rocha:
House, and that counts just.

Carol Cox:
From that. And I’m like, that totally counts. I agree with you because it’s like.

Kristy Rocha:
Like I just at one point, I like, just like literally look at myself. Who’s counting, like, who’s looking, who’s watching, just, you know, like it counts everyone.

Carol Cox:
So however you get your your movement in, it all counts. Yeah.

Kristy Rocha:
And I have the I have the Apple Watch because I still like to know that some technology is saying it counts, too.

Carol Cox:
All right. So, Kristie, I mentioned that one of the other spokes of your thought leadership is an event. And I know we chatted about this in one of our one on one calls about about the idea of you hosting an event. And it looks like you’re going to be putting that on later this year in the fall. Can you tell us a little bit about what you’re thinking? I know it’s early, early days and planning, but what you’re thinking about for the event.

Kristy Rocha:
I think what I want to do is give some of the fabulous experts that I’ve had on my show probably first go around some of the local ones to me, because ideally I would like to do it in person. I may end up doing it virtually, but I think I want to do it in person and giving them a platform and a place to be in front of eager, eager women who need some help and guidance to share more of their expertise and more of what they do and give other women. See, my show is all me asking questions and what I want to know, and so giving listeners the opportunity to ask their questions and learn. And so I think what I would do is have a couple of maybe therapists or coaches experts in one of the categories that I have. Maybe it’s a marriage and family therapist, maybe it’s a parenting expert, have them come and have perhaps like a panel discussion or an open Q&A. And then I do want there to be a place for, you know, someone like me who’s listening to come to be able to have a platform to to share her story. Maybe it’s someone who has started therapy and really wants to share their experience. Depending on how many people we get, maybe there’s breakout sessions that, you know, you have a smaller group with each expert and and even myself, I’m not an expert, but we can just, like, swap more stories or something about, you know, our anxiety because that’s fun.

Kristy Rocha:
But it sounds terrible, but it’s so it’s so good for the soul to know that you’re not the only one, like, spiraling out of control, you know? But also to hear how you rein it in, you know, and how you cope and how you get through it. And yeah, I don’t know. I think I just want to bring women and listeners together with people who can help them in aspects of their life that you know, the other thing is that and it’s like a whole other podcast, so I’ll just say briefly, but therapy is not accessible to everyone. There’s a lot of there’s a lot of walls around it and I hate that. So if I can bring therapists to a stage or to a group setting that someone can access them and maybe understand better if it’s worth spending the money, if it’s worth looking into other options or just getting help in that moment, getting resources, sharing ideas. I don’t know, Carol. That’s all that’s that’s I’m going to end it there because I’m just going to keep going off.

Carol Cox:
I think it’s a fantastic idea, Christie. I think you’re going to have a number of women who are going to be very eager to come, especially in person, if you’re able to do it in person, to have that experience together.

Kristy Rocha:
Yeah, I’d really like to do it in person. I’m just I feel better in person. I don’t know. I just feel like especially to be talking about such potentially vulnerable topics. It’s so nice to have that real. You can feel the energy. It’s just different. Exactly.

Carol Cox:
All right, Christie, so how would you describe your experience in the Thought Leader Academy?

Kristy Rocha:
Oh, my goodness. Well, with you, Carol, I finished our hour one on one, the VIP day, and I called my mom, who also knows Carol. And she’s like, how was it? And I was like, she’s a wizard. She was like, What? I was like, I don’t know how someone can do what she does with another human watching them through a computer screen. I just. I was in awe of your process and in awe of your ability was so awesome because it’s so not my set of skills to see and to see you do that. So that was amazing just to witness. But overall, the whole experience was so much more than I expected because yeah, I thought I was just going to go and learn about giving a talk and how to write one. And I ended up doing all these other spokes out of them. The collaboration with the other women and coaches was awesome. I think my some of my favorite sessions were the breakout sessions that we had sort of swapping ideas and just learning about what the other women are in business and their thought leadership platforms and what they’re doing. So inspiring.

Kristy Rocha:
And I thought I got a lot out of it and I definitely pushed the needle forward on my brand and my vision because mostly, honestly, Carol, it’s because you’re just very nice and you look at me like, we’ll just do it. And I’m like, Well, okay, but it’s like not aggressive. It’s very hard to explain what you do, Carol. It’s just very like like you just you know what it is you and the other coaches and the other women, too, I think. And I had the experience as being, you know, someone else in the group, right? So when you hear another woman talking about what she does as like an outsider as someone listening, it is, it’s a lot easier to just go do it. Yeah, that sounds great. I love it. Go. You know. But for us, when we’re talking about ourselves, we get all scared and we get all in our heads, I guess. And so having that many women validate what you’re doing and say that it’s good and that you should keep going, or here’s what I, here’s what I would do a little differently is really, really valuable.

Carol Cox:
Oh, well, thank you for saying that, Christie. And I love seeing the collaboration between the women in the program and how you support each other. And I think it’s that we just assume we assume that you’re totally competent and capable and smart enough to do it. Of course you are. So now we’re just here to kind of, like, gently nudge you out of the nest to. To go and do it.

Kristy Rocha:
Yeah, but it’s not. It’s it’s so it’s so warmly done. Like, that’s what’s funny to me. But you know what? The other word that’s coming to mind as I was talking is there did feel. Like almost like a holistic approach to it, in the sense that in the early calls, particularly one on one of you getting to know me and getting to know what I’m about. In a way, they felt like therapy. It was like just talking about my my business and my brand and my vision and having someone just like you’re doing now nod and smile and encourage me or offer ways of tweaking. It was not just about the talk, you know, it always came back to that, but it wasn’t just about that. It was actually building you as a business person and as just a woman.

Carol Cox:
Well, again, Christi, I thank you. Thank you for those kind words. And I you know, I’m so proud of of all of you, you included, in what you’ve accomplished. Oh, and I remember that. So the last the call you give a graduation speech that each of the women delivers a short graduation speech based on what they learned in the program. And you had this great line called Give Me the Mic, and it was so good. Can you share where that came from?

Kristy Rocha:
Yeah. So I had gone to a Taylor Swift concert in my early twenties. I went with a friend and I was sort of hesitant to even go. But this was the 1989 tour, Taylor Swift album, and this was when she would bring her posse of like famous friends on stage, and she had the light up wristbands that the whole stadium would correspond to the music. And it just felt like I felt like I’d experience bigger than yourself kind of thing. And I just remember, you know, sitting there and being in awe. And what I shared in my graduation talk was that I wrote a blog post about it after the fact called Give Me the Mic, and I talked about how I was almost watching the concert as if I was taking notes for my future self. Like, Here’s what I’m going to do when I’m Taylor Swift. And, you know, I was really I was going to say a word that I shouldn’t say.

Carol Cox:
I know what that word is. You were you were feeling very confident.

Kristy Rocha:
Thank you. Thank you. I was feeling very confident, very sure of myself that I would somehow someday be on that level. And I wrote about not being intimidated by the experience, but feeling like, yeah, I could do that. And so I just I just wrote that I was sitting there watching Taylor Swift thinking, give me the mic, give it to me. Like, I don’t know what I’m going to say yet, but give it to me because I want it and I need it and I’ll figure it out. And and what I said in my graduation speech was that going through the course, it’s like, okay, now I know what I’m going to say, so give me the mic.

Carol Cox:
And you know you have the mic.

Kristy Rocha:
Now I have it. Now I have it. It’s right here.

Carol Cox:
That’s right. That’s right. All right. So speaking of the mic, for those of you listening, go check out Kristy’s podcast. Sass says Sass says in your podcast app that you’re listening to right now. And Christie also is very active on Instagram. What is your Instagram handle so they can go check you out there?

Kristy Rocha:
I’m everywhere at.

Carol Cox:
Sass. Perfect.

Kristy Rocha:
All the places, but mostly Instagram. Yes.

Carol Cox:
And so those links will be in the show notes as well as to your website, which is sassy. Sure is. Got it. I love I love the consistency.

Kristy Rocha:
That’s me.

Carol Cox:
Christie, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and for going through our Thought Leader Academy again. It was such a pleasure getting to know you and I always enjoy our conversations.

Kristy Rocha:
Thank you so much, Carol. I loved getting to see you again and I loved everything about the Academy. It was so worth it. And I am forever changed.

Carol Cox:
If you too, would like to join our Thought Leader Academy so you can work on your thought, leadership message and platform and your signature talk. You can get all the details and submit your application by going to Speaking Your Brand. Img Academy Again, that’s Speaking Your Brand. Img Academy. Until next time. Thanks for listening.

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