Why Your Best Talk is the One You Give Again (and Again) with Kelly Mallery: Podcast Ep. 453

453-SYB-Kelly-Mallery.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

453-SYB-Kelly-Mallery.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Carol Cox:
Think having only one talk is too limiting. Think again. You’re gonna love my conversation with Kelly Mallery on why your best talk is the one that you give again and again and again on this episode of The Speaking Your 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. Hi there and welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I’m your host, Carol Cox. Today we’re going to talk about how you can have one signature talk but use it for multiple events and multiple audiences. And the advantage of doing that is that you can continue to improve it and refine it. Now, for those of you thinking, but wait a minute, I have so many different messages to share. I have so many different ideas. How can I possibly put them into one talk? Or maybe you’re thinking and I must say, this is usually me. Why aren’t I going to get bored delivering the same talk over and over again? Well, this is why I have invited our thought leader, Academy grad Kelly Mallery, onto the podcast today to tell us how working with us on her signature talk did not constrain her, did not constrain her creativity or her desire to share her message with her audience, but instead did the opposite and has allowed her to improve it, refine it, and have a lot of fun with it. So welcome to the podcast, Kelly.

Kelly Mallery:
Hi Carol, I’m so excited to be here and talk about this really important topic.

Carol Cox:
It is because I must say, like I said in the intro, I confess that I of course, no surprise. This is why I started speaking your brand. I love to create presentations, give me a topic and I will create a slide deck for it. And so I know a lot of times we feel like, well, I don’t I can’t have just one talk, like, what am I supposed to do? Which is when talk, when I want to have different things that I say to different people. So have you felt that and then how have you come to where you are today? And of course, we’re going to dive deeper into what exactly your message is and the work that you do.

Kelly Mallery:
Yes, I absolutely felt that when I first started speaking a few years ago, every single conference I went to, I thought, I have to have some brave, like, bright new idea to make the audience feel like I’m relevant, like I’m continuing to bring new content and interesting things. And it was exhausting.

Carol Cox:
It is exhausting. I mean, okay, I must say it’s fun for me, but it does. It does take a lot of time. But then the problem is that you never really get to improve that particular body of work, because you’re always changing it, sometimes dramatically, and then you’re not really being able to see, well, what is resonating with the audience. And how can I do more of that, and how can I change some of the things that don’t seem to be landing as well?

Kelly Mallery:
Yeah, absolutely. And I know, thinking back to those first talks, I tried to go through some of those iterative processes of, okay, what worked or didn’t work and how do I change? But they ended up being much more generic and vague about, okay, how is my enunciation or my tone or my movement on stage, which are important, but I never got that opportunity to say, okay, how did this particular joke land? How did this particular line land? Um, and that now that I’ve given the same talk a few times, that’s the one big thing. I’m like, oh my gosh, I can actually make this genuinely better every time.

Carol Cox:
And so, Kelly, let’s talk about the work that you do. And then the topic of the signature talk that you’ve been delivering. And we met through Katie Anderson, who’s been a guest on this podcast a few times. And you are both in the continuous improvement lean space, which is how you two met. And it’s so fun because you two have spoken at some of the same conferences this year. And so Katie will text me photos of the two of you and and of you on stage, which is so fun because I don’t often get to see our clients actually speak. So I kind of I can now do it viscerally through other people. But tell us about what is continuous improvement. How did you get into that space and what is the work that you do now?

Kelly Mallery:
Awesome. So continuous improvement is really this methodology and thinking that any process that exists and yes, there is a process for everything, even if you don’t think there is, can always be made to be a little bit better. And by that thought process that every day, even if I just make something a tiny bit better over time, results will follow. And it’s really this core tenant that this is how business should be run. It started in manufacturing in Toyota, and then it’s kind of spread across different manufacturing industries and even into healthcare, government, education. Um, and it comes with a certain set of tools. But really it’s about the underlying thinking that we’re looking at systems and processes versus what are people doing. And it’s really ultimately about how do I make things better for everybody. And it’s the long term success over short term gains right now, which a lot of business decisions are very reactive versus, okay, this might hurt a little bit short term, but long term it’s the better move for the sustainment of the business. And I got into this, um, during my early career where I was, um, a project engineer at a solar startup, my very first job out of college.

Kelly Mallery:
And we were standing up our manufacturing. So we wanted to make solar trackers for people’s backyards. And in before that, we survived off of Department of Energy grants. So this was the first time we were actually going to have to make a product at scale. And I raised my hand and was like, hey, I’m kind of interested in this. I’d always been the kid who took things apart, put them back together with three or fewer screws. So to me, that was just an inefficiently put together product. And through that experience of trying to stand up manufacturing, I got to benchmark some other facilities and learn about the concept of continuous improvement and how that thinking happens. And it just clicked for me. It made so much sense. And the rest was history. I read every book I could find, I practiced as much as I could, and that is what led me to meeting Katie through her book. And then honestly, through her podcast. I heard about you, Carol, and the rest is history.

Carol Cox:
Oh, that is so fun. And and I know you started our Thought Leader Academy program at the beginning of 2025. So you did that program with us. You worked with our lead speaking coach, Diane Diaz, and the one on one VIP day to map out your signature talk and to think about how to put together the different pieces of your talk from beginning to end, including the framework that you had already started working on. And so can you tell us a little bit about this, your core message and and tell us a little bit about who your audience is at these conferences? Because I know since you’ve been in the continuous improvement space for a while, you can see the things that are tripping them up that are holding them back that they don’t necessarily always see. So can you tell us about that, what your thought leadership message is?

Kelly Mallery:
Yeah, absolutely. And I’m glad you mentioned that. I’ve been in continuous improvement now for like, my entire career ever since that first, um, introduction. And that spanned over ten years, six different industries. And I still work in that space. And what I started to see was that all many other continuous improvement practitioners would come up against the same kind of resistance, the same kind of challenges. And they were so exhausting. And I even felt coming home every day. I was like, ah, I am so beat. I have no energy for my family. And then I would drive into work dreading what I’d have to come up against. And in these kinds of roles. Right. We don’t necessarily have direct control or authority over making change, so we have to influence through others to make those changes occur. And everybody loves change, right? Everybody loves to experience that.

Carol Cox:
And so says Kelly sarcastically.

Kelly Mallery:
Right. What I what I started to realize.

Kelly Mallery:
Is that this it wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth the energy loss, the discomfort, the challenge with my family and the feeling. And I was at a point of considering leaving continuous improvement because it was just too hard. And then I found a better way. I was like, there’s got to be something. And so through several kind of light bulb moments, I found a better way. And so my core message for people is you don’t have to feel like you’re pushing the boulder up the hill, even though that’s what everybody says happens. That’s what everybody around you is doing. It does not have to be that way, because most often what actually is happening where We’re blaming all of these other people around us. Well, they’re pushing back. They’re resisting. I don’t get leadership buy in. The thing is, we don’t have control over that. We only have control over ourselves. And so the one area we need to focus on that we neglect is how we actually show up and approach those changes we’re asking people for. And once you start examining that, you notice we cause a lot of our own resistance and we don’t have to.

Carol Cox:
So your core message is about this idea of resistance, and that oftentimes we think is the other person or people who are the ones who are resisting us or getting in the way, but really, we need to hold up the mirror and look at ourselves and some of the things that we may be doing. So, which is great. I love again this as your thought leadership message is more than just here’s a bunch of continuous improvement tools or standard operating procedures or processes that people can follow because the tools don’t work if the people don’t work right. And so you’re getting to the core of it. But then you decide, okay, I’m not just going to talk about resistance and holding up the mirror, because no one really likes to do that. No one wants to think of themselves as the problem. So you found a really fun way to do this. So you can you tell us about the resistance bots, how those came about from your love of Transformers and like that? What was that light bulb moment where you came up with this idea of the resistance bots?

Kelly Mallery:
Yeah, I, I love this this story and this memory because I had gotten that exact feedback from a colleague I shared with them, hey, this is what I’m thinking and the work I want to do. And they’re like, that’s great. No one’s going to listen to that because nobody wants to hear that. They’re the problem. Like, we can play. I can play all the Taylor Swift like it’s me high on the problem. But like, it’s not going to happen. Nobody’s going to look in the mirror that way. And so I stewed on that for a while I’ll. And on my drive home one day, maybe a few months ago, I was thinking about, okay, there are these there are kind of characters that show up in us when we face resistance. And I thought back to people I’ve encountered and experiences I’ve had where I’ve done this. And the character started to take shape. And then there was this moment where it was like the idea came rushing into me and I was like, oh my God, I talk about Transformers, I love Transformers. What if the characters were like transformer robots? And I talked about them that way, and they just started coming, and immediately I had six different characters in my mind that I then went home and I after work, I generally try to not do any work. I try to give my time to my family. But I said to my husband, like, I need to do this. I have this idea. I’ve got to get it out. Um, and thus the resisting bots were formed, and each one kind of takes on its own character. Character type that demonstrates, you know, negative, um, behaviors that we can have during resistance that causes more resistance to occur. And then the really fun part was coming up with the names.

Carol Cox:
Yes, the creative names. And you even have imagery for like, you know, a graphic that represents each one, which kind of looks like a transformer, but it’s whatever their name happens to be. Which again, is so fun. It’s memorable. It’s unique to you, which is what I also really like, because the audience is going to remember that, and they can kind of see themselves in the different resistive bots without having to to feel that sense of, uh, like that there’s something wrong with them instead of like a collective, like we are all one of these. No one escapes being one of these. And so which one are you? Most likely. And then what can we do about it?

Kelly Mallery:
Yes, it definitely made it much more fun and safe to kind of raise your hand and say, ooh, I might have some of those. It’s much easier to self reflect critically on your own behaviors and beliefs when it’s through the lens of humor. And I found that when I introduced these characters, it made it so much easier for people to say, oh yeah, I’ve got that too. Instead of what had been happening, she was saying, oh, I know somebody like that. So now they’ve made the transition from external, which again, is exactly what happens when we face resistance to really saying, oh, I might have some of these roustabouts and that’s kind of fun.

Carol Cox:
And then so we think about the so when you worked with us in the Thought Leader Academy at the beginning of the year, you did your talk. I know Transformers was a part of your talk. I think it was in your opening this idea of, of, you know, something that was also personal to you because you grew up loving the show from the 80s. I remember I even remember the little song which I am not going to sing for you all, but I can hear it in my mind, so I know that was part of that, um, as well. So you delivered this talk a couple of times, including on our LinkedIn live show, and I’ll include a link to that in the show notes. For those of you listening, if you want to hear a ten minute version of of an early version of Kelly’s signature talk. So then you did that, but then you were refining it over the summer. So what prompted you to think about that? You wanted to add more to it, and then obviously the resistance came to you when you’re driving. But like what was going on with your speaking that you decided, okay, I feel like there’s something more here that I can work on.

Kelly Mallery:
Yeah. So I had just given a talk right after going through the Thought Leader Academy. I’d given a keynote and it was similar, but not exactly the same as my signature talk. And I had after that, um, I had gotten two speaking engagements back to back. So like one week apart from each other in two different conferences, and I was preparing for that and really wanting to land the message really effectively and thinking about what that looked like, what that could be even better for my signature talk. After the Thought Leader Academy and then having this idea of The Resistible come in, I had a moment where I was like, okay, I really want to nail this. I want this to be really effective for the audiences I’m going to be talking to. And I have this new idea. So that led me to reach back and say, okay, I could use a little more help in really making this punchy and land and incorporating this new idea, because I saw these two engagements, similar audiences, but a little bit different. Um, and it was the first time I was going to give the same talk two different times, so that I’d have that iteration in practice. And I wanted to make sure that I was really intentional with how I how I shared that message.

Carol Cox:
Okay, so before I ask you how those two talks went, either what you found that was similar between the two, even though they had different audiences, and what you found were different because every group has a different dynamic, as we know, as speakers, even with the same content, the same type of audience is like one group is so super engaged and the other one, you’re like, where are they? But so I want to hear about that. But before we do that, I remember when we worked together and this must have been when was this, in August about then.

Kelly Mallery:
Yeah.

Carol Cox:
Yeah. So sometime just a few months ago and you had, you had come up with a resistive boss of six different archetypes like these different character types. And so you had put together, you had updated your outline from when you were in the Thought Leader Academy. So you sent that to me, and you sent me your slides that you had worked on. And then I remember we did a session together. And one of the key things that we talked about, which I think is really important and a lot of times we forget, is not just who’s in the audience. But I know, Kelly, you’re doing these talks also for lead generation to attract clients for your consulting business. So it’s not just the people who are in your audience, but who is your buyer, which is sometimes different in the either the people in the audience are different than the people who need your help, because who’s writing the checks, especially when it comes to corporate, is often different than the people who are actually getting your services at the end. So can you tell me a little bit about if what you remember about our discussion about the buyer, and how that helped you to inform the content in your talk?

Kelly Mallery:
Yeah. And that that question about, okay, who’s your audience? But then who is paying for this? Who’s paying for your services? Was a question I had not even considered. Right. I was thinking about who’s physically in the audience, who are the key people I want to reach with my services. Um, not even taking into account that they aren’t necessarily the people who open the checkbook. And so doing that, taking that into account, really changed the level of persuasion that we entered in my talk. And it it honestly, it created the need for a totally new story in my talk that wasn’t there before. And it really forced me to think critically about who who am I really trying to reach here? Because on the one hand, I would I want to reach the people that I want to work with, but in the end, I need to also reach beyond them, to their leaders and their leaders, leaders and their finance people. Um, which isn’t something I had thought about. So it forced me to think more broadly about how my message connects to yes.

Carol Cox:
And this shows up quite a bit in in act one of our signature Talk Canvas framework, where we’re really trying to set up the situation for the audience to let them know that we understand where they’re coming from, the challenges they face, what they want, the goals that they have. And if we’re not quite sure who our ideal client is or who the buyer is, we can often miss the mark and we can talk right past them. And then they then are sitting in the audience feeling like, well, this presentation isn’t for me. Or the speaker doesn’t quite understand my role and what it is that I’m frustrated with. So I remember that we were I asked you some questions about when you were working as a continuous improvement, when you were actually working for a company, not just for yourself. And that story that we decided to add towards the beginning, because previously, had it been a story about coming home and writing and having your stepdaughter doing like some science experiment and you can tell the story a little bit. So we kept the story, but we moved it. And how did it feel when you delivered it in this new order?

Kelly Mallery:
It felt really good, and I think the main reason was we put a story at the beginning that built credibility, because it what I found out was I want to focus on my niche is helping women in continuous improvement roles. Um, however, not every woman in a continuous improvement role is paying for services. So I found out that I also needed to speak to operations managers, finance people like the people who actually support their development. And we realized that I had a story where I have operated both as a continuous improvement person and as an operations leader for the same team. And so the story I told helped show and demonstrate that I understood what they felt, because I had actually felt both of those sides of the story. And it was really fun to kind of open with this story and say, I will come back to this and then later on touch on the story about my stepdaughter, which also brought in the personal element. And it showed a little bit more about me as a as a person, a human being. And the vulnerability there, um, was good. And I liked that. We started with credibility. So it was like, okay, let’s build a little trust. You understand what I’ve been through, and then go into a truly human, vulnerable story about something at home, which really opened them up to hear the rest of what I had to say.

Carol Cox:
All right. So that’s a good segue. Let’s talk about those two speaking engagements that you had just a week apart. Tell us a little bit about those events, the audiences, and how you felt like the content resonated with them.

Kelly Mallery:
Yeah. So both of those were, um, lean and continuous improvement conferences. Uh, one in Michigan, one in Connecticut. And the audiences were both similar, where they were heavily made up of practitioners. Um, but on the Michigan one more consultants. So that was interesting. And then on the Connecticut one a little bit more operations team members and they went amazing. And they felt amazing. Um, the other big difference that was really interesting that you helped a lot with was I was giving the same talk, but in one condition. It was 20 minutes and the other it was 60 minutes. And that was a great skill to learn about how not only to take the same content you have and give the same talk and learn from that, but how to scale it, which I had no clue before coming into the conversation how it was going to do that.

Carol Cox:
So which one did you do first, the 20 minute or the 60 minute?

Kelly Mallery:
The 20 minute I gave the 20 minute twice, and then the next week it was the 60 minute.

Carol Cox:
Which one did you prefer?

Kelly Mallery:
Ooh.

Kelly Mallery:
I think that’s really tough. I. The 20 minute felt more quick and streamlined. Um, but what I liked about the 60 minute was it created more space to ask the audience more questions and have them engage more and to tell that additional story, because in the 20 minute version, I removed my story about my stepdaughter. So I think I liked both for different reasons, but I really I really liked having more opportunity for audience members to share their own stories and experiences with their resisting bots.

Carol Cox:
Yes. Well, and thank you for bringing this up, Kelly, because I think this is an important point for listeners to think about is that you can have the same talk, the same content, and expanded and contracted depending on the length of time that you have. And so thinking about a 60 minute talk and cutting it by two thirds to 20 minutes, and you say, if you’re looking at your slide deck and you’re thinking, how could I possibly cut two thirds of this content from my talk? But to your point, you know, the cutting, the the longer audience engagement activities still do some show of hands questions and things to kind of keep them engaged. But cut those and I think we’ll be also cutting a story. So if you have multiple stories figuring out, well, what is the what is the story that really needs to be here, especially for this particular audience and for you? It was that story that showed your credibility. And then I think the other thing we did was that you do have a framework that which is form, form, part of transform form, and I believe from the 20 minutes is that you kind of just gave a quick overview of all four, but then just focused on 1 or 2 of them in more detail. Is that is that correct?

Kelly Mallery:
Yes, yes. So I was able to really hit on like the two key ones. Breeze through the other two and then in the 60 minutes I had more time. So I went in depth on each one of the four.

Carol Cox:
Okay. That’s good. So so that is the thing to do is that, you know, think about when you have to contract is drop some of the longer audience engagement, drop a story or two. That is not quite as necessary. If you do have a framework that has multiple components, show a quick overview, but then just dive deep on 1 or 2 aspects of it. And then here’s the thing. But don’t skip or rush the opening or the closing. And I feel like this would most speakers, do they want to just kind of jettison the opening and closing so they can get they can get to their main content. But then I feel like the audience loses so much in the narrative arc when you’re just like, giving them a whole bunch of stuff without any setup and without tying it together at the end.

Kelly Mallery:
Yeah, I totally agree. And especially having now given the same talk in those two ways, I would not get rid of anything in my opening, even though during the 20 minute I did feel like I was like, oh gosh, I’m spending a lot of time here. But if I just jumped right into, oh, by the way, here are six characters resistance that you might have, nobody would have connected. And it takes that slow story building credibility and trust, building with your audience first before you get to your content for them to really listen and for it to be actually impactful for them.

Carol Cox:
And then you can give them their next step, which is maybe you have some type of document, you know, workbook guide, a copy of the slides, what have you something for, or a short video that explains further. They now they’re primed to want more from you versus feeling like, oh my God, I feel like I just was dropped into a middle of a lecture and I don’t even know why I’m here or what this is all for.

Kelly Mallery:
Right, right. And that did end up causing some of my audience members to ask for more after like, hey, I’d love a workshop on this. Like, I want to learn more about these. And so I put links in to my website. Um, and I have to tell you, I got a lot of traffic those couple of days.

Carol Cox:
That’s fantastic. And your slides look great. I really, I like those I love all the visuals, the imagery on them as well. And did did you end up using any props for these speaking engagements?

Kelly Mallery:
I did so I because of working with you and Diane through the Thought Leader Academy and going with the transformer opening, which I had no idea was going to happen, that came out of nowhere. Um, I bought a transformer toy and I now for the last year, I’ve given a few talks some more connected to this than others. I always bring that with me and I transform it on stage, and it’s so fun. Um, so I had that with me this time, and that was my main prop was using my little transformer.

Carol Cox:
Oh, that’s so fun. I love that, and I’m sure a lot of the audiences remember the Transformers the cartoon as well.

Kelly Mallery:
Yeah, maybe some of them even.

Kelly Mallery:
Have called me the Transformer Girl. And so I might need to get in touch with Mattel or something.

Carol Cox:
Yes, right, I love that. Oh, that’s so great. All right, Kelly, so tell us a little bit more about the work that you do with clients. So you know, for anyone listening who are in your space or who could use the type of work that you do, tell us about that.

Kelly Mallery:
Yeah, so I in addition to working in continuous improvement in a company, which I still do, um, so that I can stay fresh and keep practicing on the side, I also coach and support women in continuous improvement roles who are feeling stuck and struggling against resistance, and struggling to feel like they are a valued member of their team. And that often comes through in not feeling like you’re heard, not feeling like you have credibility or influence with the people that you’re working with or even your leadership. Um, and so I work with these women one on one, uh, through a minimum of 12 weeks, where we meet once a week for 60 minutes to figure out what is their particular challenge and goal that they want to achieve in the time. And then we go through my transform model together and really walk side by side on the journey to achieving what they want to, building that credibility, building trust and influence, which really does start with examining their own processes and behaviors and finding which resistible are coming out so we can address those.

Carol Cox:
And what’s next for you with speaking.

Kelly Mallery:
So I am very excited. I’m giving a keynote again in April, and I’m giving this topic as my keynote to a different audience, so I will be adjusting it to their needs. Um, and I’m also doing a breakout session at the same conference. Um, and I have just recently been applying to a couple of TEDx talks as well with this same topic. Um, and I’ve had a couple of people now reach out and ask me to come speak at their events. So I’ve got some filtering and figuring out and planning to do.

Carol Cox:
Oh that’s fantastic. I love it when the speaking invitations come to you. And this is what happens. I always say the more speaking you do, the more speaking invites you’re gonna get because people see you and then they want you for their event as well.

Speaker3:
Yes, yes.

Kelly Mallery:
And that has come true. And it’s it’s wonderful. But at the same time I’m like, oh gosh, now I have to like pick and choose and be thoughtful. But it does feel very, very good.

Carol Cox:
Well, you deserve it. I know you’ve been doing an amazing job with your speaking because I’ve had Katie, uh, there in the audience and she has told me about it. So congratulations on your success. I’d love to see it. And for those of you who are listening, if you would like to join us in our Thought Leader Academy, you can get all of the details and apply at Speaking Your Brand Academy. Again, that’s speaking your Brand Academy. Make sure to connect with Kelly on LinkedIn. I included her LinkedIn profile link here in the show notes. I also connect with me if you haven’t already, and you can also check out Kelly’s website in the link in the show notes. Kelly, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

Kelly Mallery:
Yeah, Carol, thank you so much for having me. I cannot recommend working with you enough. It has been such a wonderful, transformative experience, and I would really recommend it to anybody who wants to improve their messaging. And I’m just very grateful.

Carol Cox:
Oh well, thank you so much, Kelly. I it’s been so fun to get to know you over this past year. Until next time. Thanks for listening.

Sonix is the world’s most advanced automated transcription, translation, and subtitling platform. Fast, accurate, and affordable.

Automatically convert your mp3 files to text (txt file), Microsoft Word (docx file), and SubRip Subtitle (srt file) in minutes.

Sonix has many features that you’d love including automated translation, powerful integrations and APIs, secure transcription and file storage, generate automated summaries powered by AI, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.