Turning Real-Life Challenges into Thought Leadership: Live Signature Talks from Our Thought Leader Academy Grads: Podcast Ep. 471

471-SYB-LI-Live-TLA-Clients-Diane.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

471-SYB-LI-Live-TLA-Clients-Diane.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Carol Cox:
How do you turn your real life experience and story into a universal thought leadership message? You’re going to hear two of our recent Thought Leader Academy grads deliver a ten minute versions of the signature talks they created with us on this episode of the Speaking Your Brand podcast.

Diane Diaz:
Hi, and welcome to Backstage at Speaking Your Brand. I’m Diane Diaz, lead speaking coach at Speaking Your Brand. And I am so excited to bring to you two of our soon to be graduates from the Thought Leader Academy that most recently happened. And so if you are like me and you have a story to tell, which I know that you do, but you’re wondering, how can I share this story in a way that’s really going to resonate with the audience? Well, you are in for a treat today. You’re going to hear ten minute versions of the talks that our thought leader Academy grads worked on in their time in the Thought Leader Academy. So today we’re going to have with us speaking on the stage right here, Lauren Yankoff. Executive coach and certified caregiving consultant. And Heather Beebe, health and wellness education and experience designer. So as you listen to their talks today, listen for the stories that they tell. Look for the message in the story and see how it resonates with you, because you can really use this as a lesson as to how you can incorporate your story into your message, so that it really resonates with the audience and moves them to action. Now stick around at the end because after they both give their ten minute talks, we’re going to do a little roundtable discussion where I’m going to ask them some questions about their experience and Thought Leader Academy working on their talks together in their VIP days, so you can get some behind the scenes insight on that. All right. So we’re going to start today with Lauren Yankoff. So Lauren, let me bring your slides up to the screen. There they are. And then let me move you up there and you can take it away.

Lauren Yankoff:
Wonderful. Thank you. Diane, it’s great to be here and get to share my story with everyone. So welcome, everybody. And I am curious, how many of you know that there are 63 million Americans that are family caregivers in the US right now? That’s 1 in 4 adults. And of them, 94% of those caregivers are caring for another adult, either a spouse or an aging parent. I know this because I lived it. In 2018, I had just landed my dream job. I was traveling all the time. I had the big office, the big team, and big impact. But I was also a single mom of two boys, and I had asked my parents to move from Montana to California to come and support me. About six months after arriving. My dad, who’s pictured here with me, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. About six months after that, a Lewy body dementia diagnosis came along with it. And I did what every overachiever does. I doubled down on what it always made me successful, and I kept going, even as I saw his decline, even as I saw the toll it took on my mom. And even as I struggled at work, not understanding why I wasn’t feeling as successful as I had before. And what I would share with you is that. I got an executive coach, and I thought I was getting the help that I needed, but that just made me feel Even worse and I stopped going to the sessions. So fast forward five years or so to December 3rd, 2022. My mom called me from the emergency room and my dad had been admitted to the hospital with pneumonia.

Lauren Yankoff:
Everything accelerated at that point and we were making decisions in the middle of the night. I had to fill out a post. I didn’t even know what that was. Um, and I ended up taking time off from work. Uh, a leave of absence of about 4 or 5 months. At that time. I spent every day with my dad over the next 11 weeks until he passed away. And I’m really grateful that I had that time with him. I’m grateful that we had the legal and medical frameworks in place. I’m grateful that I knew what his wishes were because we’d had the conversations, the quality of life that he wanted, what he wanted his end of life to be. But what I didn’t know for most of his illness was what I wanted, how I wanted to show up, who I wanted to be in that season of life, and how I wanted to feel. And what I can tell you now. What I learned is that it wasn’t an optimization problem or a time management problem, or even an accountability problem. It’s this complete shift, and what I was trying to do was lead and live in a way that didn’t fit my current reality of life. So what happens when this story becomes yours? When all you want to do is show up well at work, care for the people that you love and not lose yourself or everything you’ve worked so hard to build in the process because you still have all of these expectations of yourself.

Lauren Yankoff:
Your job still has all these demands of you. Your family dynamics are the same or even heightened in this situation. And now you’re trying to navigate things that you’re expected to be an expert in medical diagnoses, legal medical things. And you’ve got all of these emotions. And most days you’re just trying to hold it all together, but you end up feeling a little bit like this kind of crazy with all of these lines and interconnectedness that you don’t know what to do with. And the reason for that is that most of us look at our world in terms of work and life in balance or integration, as we call it now. But what happens when caregiving comes into it is, I think of it like this little balloon that just starts to expand and it fills up all of the space. It takes up all of the margin and all of the capacity until it absolutely breaks the way you’ve been operating in a way that completely shifts your world. So as caregiving consultants were educated around six stages of caregiving, and the reason for this is that caregiving may not necessarily show up when in in the same way for everyone. So you may move through these stages in a linear way. You may show up in one directly because you may get the call from the emergency room, you may get a diagnosis, or it may just start to show up over time. Or for me, it was kind of all three. But I want to orient you to these so that you have an understanding of them.

Lauren Yankoff:
So an expectant caregiver is someone who is understanding that it’s on the horizon, right? They’re gathering information, asking questions. They’re anticipating that it’s coming. A freshman caregiver is taking on added tasks, maybe an appointment that you’re going to with your parent here or there, or maybe they forgot a password and you have to help them recover it. An entrenched caregiver is when caregiving takes center stage. You’re in it and you’re doing it every day. A pragmatic caregiver is someone who has routines in place for caregiving, but you’re holding it together by sheer will, and you really don’t want to step out of your caregiving role because you’re worried it’ll fall apart when you’re transitioning. Caregiver. You know that the decisions are becoming much heavier. And often, you know, this is towards the end of life. A reflective caregiver is when your caregiving, your active caregiving has ended and you’re asking yourself, what’s next for you? So now that I’ve shared those six stages, I’m curious. You may not have identified as a caregiver before, but now that you know these six, how many of you see yourself as one of those 63 million Americans who may be caring for an aging parent? This is the reason why I do this work. I want people to operate with an inner compass during this time of their life. I want you to feel. I want you to imagine what it would feel like if you could take that caregiving out from that tight little space that it was in, and feel that trust.

Lauren Yankoff:
Make your decisions from a place where you know that you’re guided not by chaos, not by reaction, but by a way where you’re making decisions that are right for you and honoring your parents, where you’re responding and where you have that guide inside of you. And that’s why when you pull out that balloon and you give space for it, you create the infrastructure to care wisely. You renegotiate how you’re leading at work, and then you create an identity for the way that you live fully. You can create an ecosystem for all three, not separate challenges, but a way that they work all together, integrated differently. Instead of feeling like you’re squeezing that caregiving into the space of work life balance. And what I would share with you is that’s what I needed and didn’t have. So I created it. I’m taking the 20 years of executive coaching that I had a little bit of life coaching and then caregiving consulting to create this together for you. So what’s the way that you do it? The first step is to have the conversations that you need with your parents. And this isn’t just to get to, to get started. It’s the conversations around what’s most important to you. It’s the conversations around what do you want your end of life to look like? And it’s the conversations around what are the decisions we need to make before crisis hits. So it is those legal and medical and financial decisions. It’s also what roles are people playing.

Lauren Yankoff:
And it’s not to have them perfectly, but it is to have them. So how many of you have had these conversations? And it’s okay if you haven’t, because this is where a lot of people get stuck. And the reason for that is they’re not easy, right? These aren’t easy things to do. But also, we often don’t know where to start. Or more frequently, we just think we’re going to have more time. And what I can share with you is that waiting will make the decisions for you, because then you’re making them in crisis. And crisis can cost you time. It can cost you money, and it can cost you heartache. So what I encourage you to do is. Have those. And if you need help, like I said, this is the work that I do in order to support you. With that, I’ve created a guide. It’s the five conversations to have when caregiving arrives, and this can help you with those conversations with your parents. But more importantly, it takes it a step deeper. And it’s to get you started on the conversations to have with yourself and what you want your caregiving journey to look like. So I’d love for you to grab that there. You can go to my website. But most importantly, I believe that it’s pretty easy to take a step back and think that my story may not become your story. But all of us will have a caregiving story at some point. The question is. Will you step into that story by default or by design? Thank you.

Diane Diaz:
Fantastic job. That was so good. Your stories are incredible. And so first of all, let me just say thank you for having the, um, the bravery and the vulnerability to share those stories. Because I know that’s not easy. It wouldn’t be easy for anyone to share things that that deeply personal, but I know it’s needed. So thank you for that. How did that feel for you, Lauren sharing this for the first time?

Lauren Yankoff:
Yeah, it is the first time I think I shared with you. I said everybody had to get out of the house while I did this. Um, you know, I, it’s so important to me to share my dad’s story and, and share the impact of that experience because I do believe everybody will go through that. Right. We’re all going to, at some point care for, care for somebody or be cared for.

Diane Diaz:
Absolutely.

Lauren Yankoff:
And entering into it with intention, knowing how we can honor the person that we’re caring for and how we can honor ourselves throughout that experience is it’s a life changing experience. And like I said, we can either go into it blindly and not thoughtfully, or we can go into it in a way that will be transformative. And so I want to offer that to people because I think it can truly be a transformative experience.

Diane Diaz:
Yes. Well, thank you for that. That’s so needed right now. So well done on your talk. Your slides looked amazing. So thank you for sharing that.

Lauren Yankoff:
Thank you.

Diane Diaz:
All right. And now we’re going to bring to the stage. Well she’s already on the stage. I’m going to bring her slides to the stage. Stage. This is Heather Beebe. And so there we go. Let me make sure you are in the right position. There we go. We’ll take it away. Heather.

Heather Beebe:
Great. Thank you Diane. And I just want to take a minute and say to Lauren that that was fabulous. So you set the bar high. I will try to rise to it. Um, I want to say hi to the audience. Thank you all for being here. And quick question for you. Who can relate to ever feeling like this? Hopefully not today. Hopefully not right now during this talk. But I know we all have at some point. But maybe right now you’re having a day like this, I, I hope so. But you could be feeling a little anxious, a little stressed about something. You might also just be plain exhausted. Overwhelmed with life. We all have those days. We can all relate to each of these feelings, right? And that’s because life is always changing. And as life always changes, so does our capacity. So it makes sense that, you know, we’re going to feel a lot of different things and have a lot of different capacities as the days go by. Take a minute now and think about everything you’ve achieved. I know that I’m talking to an audience of high achievers. You guys are no strangers to setting goals and making those goals happen. You’ve probably set and achieved career goals, family goals, relationship goals, lifestyle goals. And I ask you this Where does wellness fit on that list? Does it feel like something that flows with your life, that integrates into your life, or does it feel like just another set of boxes to check off? Sometimes that’s I think that’s something we can all relate to, especially as women, you know, we have the family, the job, the obligations, all of the things.

Heather Beebe:
And then it’s really easy because we’re in that mode of like making sure everything gets done to also make wellness kind of fit that same format, right? And when we think about the wellness goals that we have, we ultimately, we want to feel, we want to experience more clarity. We want to feel more energized. We want to feel in control of the day. And I think the biggest one that most of us want to feel is we want to live sustainably, not forced. And the biggest piece to that, though, is we don’t want to achieve that sustainability like this with chaos, with another pile of things to track, to manage and, uh, feel like we have to be fitting everything in. Right. And actually, did you know that when you’re doing all of those things, you can often be doing more harm than good? I was that person. I was the queen of doing healthy. I did the meal prep. I did the hard workouts. I was the 5 a.m. workout person. I was all the things. And it’s not that any of those things are bad, but I had to learned how to do wellness as performance rather than a lifestyle. So it was not integrated into my life. It was absolutely a performance, and image that I thought that I had to fit to be healthy.

Heather Beebe:
And because I was doing all of that on top of, you know, my career, raising my daughter relationship, all of that. And so. To, uh, to look at me, it looked like everything was, was good. It looked like I was, you know, the image of healthy, but I was stressing my body out without realizing it. My hormones were all out of whack. I learned later that I had stressed myself to a level two, uh, stage two adrenal fatigue, and I was basically the definition of burnout. And I everything looked fine to look at me from the outside, I looked successful, I looked healthy, and then I went through a divorce, made the decision to leave a toxic marriage. And going through that process, I hit an emotional rock bottom. And the funny thing about rock bottoms is when you find yourself in one, it’s like an identity shift. You suddenly lose the ability to do all the things that you thought made you you. And I found myself there. I, I had this whole list of things that I thought made me Heather, made me healthy, made me successful. And all of a sudden I was not able to do any of them. And I found myself in a therapist’s office in tears, completely defeated, crying and saying, I don’t know who I am anymore. I, I can’t do any of the things that I used to do. To hell with meal prepping.

Heather Beebe:
I can’t even cook a healthy meal for me and my daughter, and I don’t know what to do. Like, this isn’t who I am. And she said, all right, what’s for dinner tonight? And I said, rotisserie chicken in a bag of salad. And to me, that was like the worst. That was like utter failure moment. Um, and she said, okay, so let that be enough. That is your capacity. Whatever your capacity is right now is enough because healthy is not a standard you perform. It is something you adapt to your life. And the crazy thing about life is life is always changing. And so if life is always changing and we set a standard way up here and life is meeting us right here. That’s not going to that’s not going to mesh. That’s not going to work out. That’s not and it’s definitely not going to be sustainable because we’re going to feel like we’re always striving for something. And so I, I found myself in this place of performance. I didn’t know I the performance wasn’t sustainable and I didn’t know what to do. And when we’re trying to check wellness off the list, it’s going to feel like a list of obstacles. And those obstacles might feel like, well, I don’t have enough time or I’m being pulled in so many different directions or what’s wrong with me? Like, I’m so disciplined in all these other areas. I’ve achieved all these other goals. Why can’t I achieve these wellness goals? Why can’t I stick with this? And one that I hear a lot is, well, I just haven’t found the plan that works for me.

Heather Beebe:
I’ve, I’ve tried all these plans or diets or workouts or whatever, and I just haven’t found the one that’s right for me. And those obstacles can be very real, but they’re actually symptoms of a much deeper root issue, which is we’re trying to escape our lives to find grounding instead of finding grounding within our lives. It’s it’s already here. It already exists. We’ve just gotten so far away from it. We have to find our way back. Because true wellness exists within the lives that we already have. It’s not something extra stacked on top. It’s not something that we have to create. It’s literally something that is available to us and it evolves. And we have to give ourselves permission to let it evolve as we evolve, as our capacity evolves. And also the pressure to for it to look a certain way, for it to look the same as maybe our friend or the social media or whatever. Give ourselves permission to find what wellness really is for us. Who can relate to the idea of perfection? I certainly can. Um, and true wellness is the opposite of perfection. And yet that’s the, the story of wellness that so many of us have been fed and tapped into for so long. Is that that version of perfection? Right? But true wellness is much simpler than that.

Heather Beebe:
It is flow and it is rhythm and it’s ease. And this is what caused me or brought me to develop my realistic framework, which is not another plan that you have to follow. It is Three very simple words return, regulate and rebuild. And we don’t have time today to dive into the whole meat of this framework. But I’ll give you a quick overview. Um, return is about coming back to your self awareness. Awareness of your truth, of your patterns of maybe the areas in your life where you’ve been performing wellness and coming back to your body, your needs, your biology. Because a lot of what we’re doing in wellness often goes against our biology and actually what we need physically and mentally and emotionally. And so it return is coming back to, to that truth for you individually, not what you’ve been told you should be doing. And once we have that awareness and we’ve come, we’ve returned back to the truth of ourselves, our authenticity. Then we can regulate. Regulate is a very important stage because it is where we are supporting our nervous system. And this is where so many people, uh, go wrong. We get excited and inspired and we jump straight to behavior changes. And what happens if we jump straight to behavior changes? Without a regulated system, the changes aren’t going to they’re not going to stick. Because when we have been functioning in overdrive for so long, our body is not going to feel safe in a slower state, a more steady state, even a more healthy state.

Heather Beebe:
It’s not going to feel safe there yet. So it’s not going to stay there. It’s not going to hold on to those changes without regulation. So we must train, retrain the body to feel safe, and then those changes are going to be sustainable. They’re going to stick. Then we’re able to rebuild. Rebuild a life that is real for us. Rebuild and shape our life in a way that supports us, supports our biology, supports, supports our emotional wellbeing, our mental wellbeing, and our spiritual wellbeing. And I will tell you, this is not going to be perfect ever. And sometimes it’s not going to be pretty, but it’s going to be fucking real. So we’re just going to put that there. This is the work that I do now. I am so passionate about helping women return to themselves, because I know what it’s like to be on the other side of that. I know what it’s like to feel lost and completely disconnected from who I am as a person. And I love to help women return to themselves and regulate their systems and rebuild a life that actually supports them. And I do this through coaching and through group experiences and through retreats. And I hope that I get to help you because the goal is not to become a whole new person. It is to finally support the one that you already are. Thank you so much.

Diane Diaz:
Fantastic. You did so great. Yay! How did it feel for you? It was amazing.

Heather Beebe:
It felt good. I mean, I felt ready and I felt it’s it’s. There’s something to be said for speaking your passion, speaking about something that is not just your story, but you’ve taken that story and it has become your life’s work and your passion. And so that feels that feels good.

Diane Diaz:
Yes. Yeah. Well, I’m glad you mentioned that because that kind of leads us into our roundtable discussion. Um, and obviously the title of this session is Turning Real Life Challenges into Thought Leadership. So, you know, you’re just like you mentioned, Heather, your, you know, the work that you do and your story, they all connect to what you’re passionate about. So maybe you can talk just a little bit about what it was like taking not just your story, but also then layering on the framework that you already had, by the way, and then creating a talk around that. What was that experience like?

Heather Beebe:
What was interesting to me was I felt like I was putting language for the first time to what I already do. So it’s easy to do what you do every day. But then actually what I really struggled with prior to this class was articulating that to people.

Diane Diaz:
Um.

Heather Beebe:
It’s like, well, I do this and I do this, but it didn’t always fit together. It wasn’t always cohesive. And so I feel like this really gave me the opportunity to put the language around that, give it some structure and kind of give structure to my message, so to speak. Um, and that’s what I feel like I have. And it also helped me, um, to let go of trying to say everything and focus on the message, focus on what moves people, what do people relate to and they don’t need, like all the details, all the pieces, but how do you, how do you like boil that down?

Diane Diaz:
Yes, that’s a really good point because, you know, as they say in branding and marketing, you know, you’re not really selling the service or the product, you’re selling the outcome, right? That someone gets from that. And that’s really what your story and your message are about is this outcome because you’ve been through it. And that’s what better way to illustrate that to your audience than through your own personal story, right? Yeah.

Heather Beebe:
There’s some vulnerability in that.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, yeah. Well, and so then let’s go to Lauren. Lauren, you know, you’re obviously your story is extremely vulnerable and it’s a very emotional topic, of course. But as you said, we’re all going to be at some stage of that caregiving, whether it’s us caregiving or, you know, on the receiving or on the doing end of it or on the receiving end of it. So it is such an important message. But I know you’ve probably shared your story with, you know, friends and things, but have you ever shared that story in a more public platform, like in a speaking engagement before?

Lauren Yankoff:
Um, I have yes. Short answer I have on a podcast.

Diane Diaz:
Um, okay.

Lauren Yankoff:
And I have shared a little bit, um, in various forms. I will say though, the first time I did like it, it’s overwhelming. Right? And so I think what this has helped me do is put it in a way where I, I’m able to, to manage some of that emotion that comes with it. Um, and it’s fine to be, I, I, I know it’s vulnerable. I, and I feel that part of the, the work of this is normalizing those conversations because I feel like we hide so much of that in the day to day, especially in our workplaces. And we need to bring those stories to the surface. Um, but yeah, I have shared it. Um, and I want to, I want to share the story more because it, it is so much more commonplace than we realize because we just don’t talk about it.

Diane Diaz:
Yes. That’s a great observation because I think most of the clients that we work with do have some kind of a story that is something that maybe isn’t widely talked about or, you know, maybe not enough people are talking about it, but something like that where the really the message needs to get out because we’re all going to experience it. But it, I think because it is such a hard topic to talk about, of course, people shy away from it, but I think when someone like you can take that message and like you said, wrap it into something that yes, it’s still vulnerable, but it’s also got, uh, some sort of a, you know, here’s what you can do to make sure that this goes as good as possible. So it’s got some important takeaway for them. So yes, it can be upsetting. It can be all of those things emotional, upsetting, vulnerable, all of those things. But you’re giving people a way forward that we’re that we all need. So I think everyone has a story, and I think everyone needs to use their voice to tell it in whatever way makes sense. But for you, it perfectly aligns with the work that you do and how you want to help people. So, you know, I’m glad that you’re able to be able to have the vulnerability to be able to tell that story, because I think it’s going to help a lot of people.

Lauren Yankoff:
Thank you. Now, my my hard part is just not throwing all those statistics that I love so much that I shared with you, Diane.

Diane Diaz:
Yes, yes. Well, to that, to that point, because we are talking about real life stories and real life experiences and, and, you know, obviously storytelling, we talk about that a lot in the Thought Leader Academy. But I think you can see from your talk and also from Heather’s talk, how having some statistics can sort of beef up the message that you’re trying to share. But then the story is the thing that gets them. Because imagine for Heather, for example, imagine how many other women can relate to that, that experience, right? So I think being able to take the message and pair it with some statistics is very powerful.

Heather Beebe:
Absolutely. Yeah.

Diane Diaz:
Yeah. Um, so let’s talk a little bit about your frameworks because I think it’s interesting to me, I feel like most, I want to say most clients I work with come without necessarily a formalized framework already in place, but both of you happen to have had something already that you used in some version of your work or courses or what you do with your clients. So maybe, Heather, you can talk a little bit about what it’s like to sort of wrap your framework into the talk and into your message.

Heather Beebe:
That’s a good that’s a good question. Well, I think it all kind of it kind of happened as I got clear on what parts of my story I was going to tell because the the story, my lived experience, and then what I do with my clients, it’s full circle. And so as we kind of I remember, you know, working with you, Diane, and kind of picking out bits and pieces of my story and like, you know, kind of coming to life, like which ones were actually going to fit. And as those came in, it’s like, but oh, and that’s how my framework works. I don’t, it’s, it’s like, it just kind of. When the framework comes from my lived experience, it just one just kind of led into the other, if that makes sense. And I want to say that I wish that I had like an answer that was, well, this is it was this first and then this. I am not that structured of a person.

Diane Diaz:
That’s okay.

Heather Beebe:
But I think it was as I got really clear on how I was going to tell my story and what were the pieces of my story. And then even in, you know, the longer version of my talk, the clients that I’ve worked with and some more of those experiences, then it just kind of flowed right into the framework and created itself.

Diane Diaz:
Yeah. Well, no, it’s a good point because I think it is. It’s, you’re almost like describing sort of like that, like messy middle where we’ve, we’ve got these ideas and yeah, we have a framework. I’ll tell you some stories, but how, how does it all go together? And then I think that that’s sort of like the magic of the VIP day that we do together. And, you know, you both did VIP days, but I think the magic of that is that, you know, we have all these ideas, but unless we can have a sounding board for them, sometimes we I know I do it too, where I just keep circling, circling, circling like, well, which stories and which part of the framework and where does it go in the framework? And, you know, and so I think in the VIP day Having us working closely together. And just for everybody listening to this, you know, the VIP day is very intense three hour session where the client so Heather and Lauren do a lot of talking, and I’m listening for stories and threads and things that connect to the framework. And it’s, it’s intense. A lot of information comes out of it. But as Heather said, we take the most important bits and put them together. And then at the end of the VIP day, we have this talk. Of course, that’s been polished and refined, but I think that’s the beauty of of that VIP day is being able to look at all of your ideas, your stories, your content, your framework, and then say, okay, now how does this go together? Right? And it’s almost it feels almost magical sometimes. Lauren. What? Yeah. Go ahead.

Lauren Yankoff:
Can I just say the VIP day alone is worth the money? At least it was for me. Well. Thank you. Um, because. Well, I’m working with you, Diane, because, like, that’s what convinced me to do this was I, like you, have all those ideas. I don’t know about you, Heather, but it’s like you have all those thoughts and all that, and having somebody who, like, helps you just put it together in a way that you’re like, yes, that’s what I’ve been trying to say. But man, it’s been so discombobulated in my head. Um, is, is so helpful. So I, I just want to say it’s totally worth it.

Diane Diaz:
Yeah, no, I agree.

Heather Beebe:
Yeah, there was, uh, there was some, the VIP VIP day was great. And then afterwards getting the, the, the, the pictures of the storyboard with all the post-it notes. Because I’m a very visual person and a very, you know, like I, I like to touch things. So watching Diane, like do all the colors of the post-it notes and every color was something and seeing it on the storyboard, that actually helped me, even though she was doing it, and I was seeing it on the screen, that that’s how my brain works. So that. But then I was like, how am I going to. How am I going to transfer this into an outline? Like, am I going to know what, what, how everything flows? And then and then she, I don’t know the, the way they do it, you guys do it. Diane is so good.

Diane Diaz:
Oh thank you.

Heather Beebe:
Like it was really I was like, as I started putting it into the outline, I think that’s when I started to feel it coming together. I was like, okay, this does all like all these thoughts. Like you said, Lauren, all these thoughts and stories and experiences and the message it, it is going to come together like it’s yes.

Diane Diaz:
Yes. Yeah. I think sometimes it feels, I mean, the honest truth is, and, you know, because you, you’ve been in the VIP days, sometimes in the sort of halfway through can feel like mayhem and like, well, you know, we have because you have all these ideas and all these post-it notes, but because Carol and I have done this so many times, right? We know that it gets to that point. And then we sort of like cross this little threshold where then things start to gel. And so I just think for me personally, there’s so much benefit to talking through ideas with someone else. And so I think that that’s one of the benefits of that is that you get and then let’s talk about the practice sessions that we did in the Thought Leader Academy, because that’s another thing I think that’s beneficial is the ability to actually. Then you’ve now you’ve created this talk, right? You’ve done the outline and as we say, trust the process, right? We do the VIP day, then do the outline, then we give you feedback and then you have practice twice in the thought Leader Academy group calls. So Lauren, what was that like to actually say it out loud to people for the first time?

Lauren Yankoff:
So first of all, feedback is a gift. I will always say that yes. Whether it’s a great gift or a not great gift. But in this, In these moments. It was a great gift. Um, so I would say the practice is, is amazing. Slides can will be my nemesis. I think I just, I listen, we had a great practice with that. Then I had a not so great practice with um, but I the value of getting the, getting to go run through it and um, get the feedback, be able to enact the feedback I think is so helpful. Um, but also just you said somewhere you said trust the process. And as difficult as that is like today, what that meant was just having my slides and no notes. And I got to tell you that was scary.

Diane Diaz:
Oh.

Lauren Yankoff:
I had no, I, I had no notes anywhere.

Diane Diaz:
And look what you did.

Lauren Yankoff:
And I didn’t memorize it. I was like, these are my slides and those are my cues. And I’m. I don’t know when I watch it back what that’s going to look like.

Diane Diaz:
Well, I’ll tell you what it’s going to look like. It’s going to look amazing. You did amazing. You don’t need notes that came from the heart. And this is why we, Carol and I both, well, you know, you were there. We keep saying no notes, and we always get these faces of like, what? Like, wow. And we get it though, because we’ve been where you’re at. But but I think the difference is you just spoke from the heart. And, you know, even if someone messes up a little bit when you speak from the heart, it resonates so powerfully with the audience. So when you watch this back later, you’re going to see that because it was incredible. You did a fantastic job. Absolutely fantastic.

Lauren Yankoff:
Well, let’s just say I don’t know about you, Heather, but I was like.

Diane Diaz:
Medic! Yes. Heather, what was it like for you to practice it in the group calls.

Heather Beebe:
I was actually more nervous in the in the practices than I was today. Um.

Diane Diaz:
You didn’t seem nervous today at all, by the way, so I wasn’t.

Heather Beebe:
And I can say that’s the first time I’ve ever in any type of speaking, whether that was stage speaking or podcast speaking or anything. It’s the first time I actually felt ready and, um, not nervous. And I think the reason for that though, is, and I think the reason I felt more nervous in the practice sessions is because my, my slides were just kind of in the development stage. I had my whole printed outline in front of me and that.

Diane Diaz:
Makes me nervous. I think like.

Heather Beebe:
So much in front of me that I kept trying to like follow along with and, and then, um, this week in practice was better because I didn’t have that outline. And my slides were done and they were they were good. So I felt more confident. So that’s what I’ve learned through the process is because I’ve always been like Lauren, I’ve always had notes and those I didn’t realize had really, uh, handicapped me in a way held me back. And so I think the reason I was so confident today is because I had realized you, I had seen that I could speak it just from the slides and I felt really fucking good.

Diane Diaz:
Yay! I’m so glad to hear that. Well, I think I’m glad you said that, Heather, because, you know, we have multiple conversations with clients, of course, because and I totally get it because I, I think I told somebody it might have been you a story of that, that I started out that way as well. And I felt I felt the same way like This notes actually did handicap me and it actually made me more nervous. And I almost I’m almost less nervous to mess up a little without notes than I am to be reliant upon notes and then forget where I’m at. Like, that’s scarier, right? So, so you did so beautifully today. And again, it, it, it came across so just like conversational, which is how the audience wants to receive it and it just lands so much better. And so I have to tell you, Carol says in the comments, no notes for the win. And then also Bruce says, Heather, you were fabulous too. So he has.

Heather Beebe:
To say that. Yeah.

Diane Diaz:
I just wanted to share that with you. Oh my goodness. All right. So let’s talk about what is next for both of you. Just, you know, from a speaking standpoint and as a thought leader. Lauren, what’s next for you?

Lauren Yankoff:
Um, I have been applying for different speaking opportunities so that, um, based on all the things that I’ve learned. So getting started with that, um, and then really continuing one with my podcast. So I have a podcast called work live care, the triple shift with my partner Denise Brown, who I got my, uh, caregiving consultant certification with. Um, so that will be continuing on, um, and just continuing my work. So as a leadership and caregiving strategist. So taking on both individual clients, as well as working with organizations so that they can keep their leaders in the workforce during this, this time of life.

Diane Diaz:
That’s so important. That’s great. Heather, how about you? What’s next for you?

Heather Beebe:
Um, I’ve been applying for speaking engagements as well. And, um, I haven’t, I saw an email before I got on here, so I haven’t opened it, but it was somebody inviting me to be on their podcast.

Diane Diaz:
Oh that’s exciting.

Heather Beebe:
Some more more appearances. Um, I want some larger platforms and I want to kind of expand. It’s funny how having like this talk now has, I feel it expanding into other parts of my work too. And so I want to expand it into some more writing and just some more stages and platforms and just continue my work as well.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, good. I’m so glad to hear that. I think that’s, that’s another thing that I think comes from being in the thought Leader Academy is, you know, you come in with this idea of, okay, I want to give a talk and so let me work on that. But then it ends up being so much more. And then it sort of takes on other forms and different types of content, different different types of speaking. And so we love to see it. So keep doing that and keep us, keep us posted on everything that you’re doing. And, um, I’m plugging in my computer because I realized I did not have it plugged in and it’s about to die. So there we go. So thank you both for coming on the show today. Thank you Heather. Thank you Lauren. Thank you for sharing your stories with everyone. And so for those of you who are listening and watching, please connect with Lauren and Heather on LinkedIn. Um, reach out to them. Let them know that you love their talk. I’m sure they would love to hear that. Also, if you are listening or watching today and you would like to work on your talk and have help with that, turning your message and your stories into something that’s really going to make an impact on an audience, please connect with us. You can check out more information by visiting speaking yourbrand.com/academy. Again, that is speaking yourbrand.com/academy. Until next time. Thanks for listening.

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