Diana Alt [00:00:04]:
Hey, Diana Alt here. And this is Work Should Feel Good, the podcast where your career growth meets your real life. Each week I share stories, strategies and mindset shifts to help you build a work life that works for you on your terms. Hello there. Good morning, and welcome to Work Should Feel Good, the show where your career growth meets your real life. I'm your host, Diana Alt, and today my guest Aurora Gregory and I are going to be discussing how public speaking can help you level up your career from good worker to must have and must promote professional. Aurora Gregory transforms experts, entrepreneurs and authors into unforgettable speakers who captivate audiences and land stages of all kinds. And we're going to get into what we mean by all kinds, because when I first heard that kind of intro, I was like, what do you mean? She's a marketing communications expert and the host of the Stage Whisperer podcast where she shares tips for speakers at every level.

Diana Alt [00:01:15]:
Aurora equips her clients with tools and strategies to master their presentation skills, speaker brands, and their pitches. Her strategies have helped countless speakers elevate their careers and make a lasting impact. When Aurora is not working, she enjoys cheering on her beloved six zero Dodgers. As of the date that we're recording this, eating Rocky road ice cream and pizza, but not together. Hanging out with her family and reading good books. Welcome to the show, Aurora.

Aurora Gregory [00:01:47]:
Diana, I am so excited to be here. I'm excited for our conversation.

Diana Alt [00:01:51]:
I am, too. It's been way too long since we got to talk.

Aurora Gregory [00:01:54]:
It has been.

Diana Alt [00:01:56]:
I want to talk about this first time that you got into speaking. You shared this story on stage a couple times because where else are you going to talk about your first time speaking? But I would love to hear how you got into it because it's been a thing since very early in your life, right?

Aurora Gregory [00:02:15]:
It really has. My first, you know, powerful experience with speaking was when I was 14. I was a finalist in a speech contest as an eighth grader. And while I didn't win that contest, and interestingly enough, I can still remember what I did, that probably cost me the medal, I recognized much later, looking back on that experience, that it was that experience that taught me the power of the person with the microphone and the gift, that opportunity that that person has to captivate an audience, to share powerful stories and to really hold the attention of people who have come to hear what they have to say. And so now in my career that I get to coach speakers at every level and on every aspect of their speaking journey, I look back and I remind them regularly that you are the person at the microphone, you belong there, and people have come to hear what you have to say. So we gotta use that time and that position. We gotta use it well.

Diana Alt [00:03:23]:
Yeah, both from a, like, from a. You can impact and inspire people, but there's also a responsibility to it.

Aurora Gregory [00:03:32]:
Absolutely. Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:03:34]:
You can sway people to do anything if you're a good enough speaker.

Aurora Gregory [00:03:38]:
That's absolutely true. I think, you know, we as speakers build a relationship with our audience. It may be a relationship that lasts 60 minutes, but it could also cultivate relationships that last, have the ability to expand beyond the stage. And so when we're at that microphone, all of our values, our integrity, the way that we do business, the way we do our jobs, all of that comes through either in our presentation content or how we deliver our message. So it's important to have a good handle, a good sense of what your integrity and your values are so that you can incorporate and infuse that into your presentations.

Diana Alt [00:04:23]:
I think that's so important because so many people are afraid to actually do anything that could be polarizing when really like, taking a stand is what makes you actually be impactful. Even if somebody doesn't agree with you, they have likely learned something if you are an ethical speaker, but they will remember exactly nothing if you just try to blend into the wall.

Aurora Gregory [00:04:47]:
So, yeah, I think that's really true. And you know, we do, you know, live right now in kind of a, you know, polarizing world. And so I can understand people's, you know, fears and apprehensions about, you know, potentially doing something or saying something that could cause people to divide one way or the other about them. But I think when we share our perspectives, our ideas from a place of wanting to, to, to share that knowledge, we're not for everybody. What is it? I, you know, what's the, what does the T shirt say? We're not T. We're not for everybody. But we have that ability to attract the people that need to hear our message. And so as long as we do that with the values and the integrity that are true to ourselves, stages are important.

Aurora Gregory [00:05:35]:
And being at that microphone, you'll handle that responsibility well. Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:05:41]:
I gotta know, what do you think kept you from winning the competition back at age 14?

Aurora Gregory [00:05:46]:
Thank you for asking. So this was a competition? It was, I'm going to describe it as maybe a TED like talk for 14 year olds. If you think about a TED talk, you never see speakers have note cards in their hand. I was 14 a long time ago. So there were no monitors. We didn't have laptops. There was no screen in front of you. I had my note cards, which I didn't really need.

Aurora Gregory [00:06:11]:
I knew my presentation cold. And for some reason, two thirds of the way in, I. I looked down at my note cards and I. And I remember saying to myself, why did you just look down? You didn't need to do that. Well, of course my competitors didn't look down. And so I was. I was a runner up, but I wasn't a winner. And I'm pretty sure that was probably what cost me the win.

Diana Alt [00:06:34]:
Oh, wow. I am. I find that the whole topic of, like, memorizing versus bullet points versus note cards, like, all that stuff is super interesting because I'm not a memorizer. I'm not. I'm a. What's the story or the principle that goes behind the bullet point? And arguably the best talk I ever gave is one that I wrote at the very kind of last minute because I had gotten. I was speaking at the thing, Terry Weaver, and this was in 20. Hang on, let me math 20, 23.

Diana Alt [00:07:10]:
I had gotten Covid a couple of weeks before. And, you know, when I was crafting my talk, I always do a custom talk for his event. I basically just couldn't even do it.

Aurora Gregory [00:07:25]:
Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:07:25]:
So I wrote the whole talk, like, one afternoon sitting on Liz Wilcox's couch because I came down to Orlando to hang out with her for a couple days before the event. And I'm like, it's no cards or nothing, so. And it turned out to be like, um, it turned out to be one of the most impactful talks. So that just goes to show, like, it depends on the style and the vibe of the event. Like, I have a vibe that's like, I'm here to deliver. This is not polished, but I'm bringing it right. My vibe. Whereas other environments, you need to operate a little bit.

Diana Alt [00:08:01]:
So thinking about. I want to talk about your business for a little bit, and then we're going to get into kind of this business aspect speaking and like, how. How this. Adding speaking to a person's repertoire can really help elevate their career. But you have been a business owner for a very new, very long time.

Aurora Gregory [00:08:22]:
Yep.

Diana Alt [00:08:24]:
With all kinds of expertise in marketing. Talk to us a little about the origin of your business, how it's evolved, and what are a few of the things that you do to make your business feel good to you. Because that is the name of the show works.

Aurora Gregory [00:08:39]:
You feel good work. And, you know, I'm thankful that my work does. It does feel Good. So I'm really thankful for that. But, yeah, I, you know, I started my business in the first.com.com, you know, 1.0. The Internet was, you know, was new and exciting. I love to tell stories to younger people. I remember when we didn't have email, and I remember when we didn't have Google.

Aurora Gregory [00:09:03]:
So as we, you know, as personal computers were becoming, you know, accessible to everyday people and having the Internet come into your house was becoming a thing. I took a long, hard look at my corporate career, and there was a. There was a path that I was on. And I realized, I don't think I want to take that path. I loved everything that I did, but there were certain parts of my job that I really enjoyed the most. And I realized there was an opportunity to do something that we called back then called freelancing. And I could freelance and just focus on the parts of my job that I loved. And I could go home to do it.

Aurora Gregory [00:09:45]:
Yeah, I could go home.

Diana Alt [00:09:47]:
Like, let's get into it.

Aurora Gregory [00:09:49]:
So I loved back then I was doing a lot of, you know, media relations and PR work. And so at the time, I loved pitching media. I loved crafting stories for, for clients and their products and services and helping the media understand why they were important to share. I love to write, so I loved writing at that time. We wrote a lot of press releases and, and, you know, background pieces for clients. I loved, you know, I loved the strategy of coming up with the actual campaign. What I didn't love was a lot of the administrative part of my job. I didn't like having to worry about whether I was doing enough to get promoted.

Aurora Gregory [00:10:30]:
I didn't like the pressure, you know, knowing that, you know, I had to work really long hours if I wanted to get ahead. I wanted more control over, you know, what. What I did with my time. And I remember one of the first things I did when I, you know, went out on my own is I decided that I wasn't working on Fridays. I was not available, and I didn't work on Fridays. And every Friday for years, I took myself out to breakfast to a little restaurant that was close to near the apartment that I had at the time. And, you know, back then, you know, we didn't have cell phones that, you know, had a lot of service beyond certain areas. There were no.

Aurora Gregory [00:11:09]:
We didn't have smartphones back then. Exactly. So I took my newspaper, my actual physical newspaper, and I went and had breakfast. But those were the things that I didn't, you know, I didn't want to do. And I didn't want the pressure of having to continue to climb to levels in a corporate organization that was going to take me farther and farther away from the things that I loved doing. So. And when I did it, you know, I. You know, I love to tell people I probably did it the wrong way.

Aurora Gregory [00:11:38]:
Like, if I had to. If I had read a book back then about how to launch my own business, I probably did everything wrong. But what I loved about that time is that it just. It was a season that felt full of opportunity. And I remember saying to myself, well, if it doesn't work out, what's the worst that happens? I go back and get another job. And I've been fortunate enough that I've never had to. I've never had to go back and get another job. There have been times when I've been tempted, but I've never had to go back and do it.

Aurora Gregory [00:12:06]:
So. So. Yeah. So what I really love about my business is that it gives me that opportunity to, you know, craft my life and to shape it the way that I want. I get to start my mornings the way that feels good to me. I get to take a lunch break in a way that feels good to me. Can make decisions about whether or not I work late. I can make decisions about whether or not I work on the weekends.

Aurora Gregory [00:12:32]:
And I love having that kind of control. So that's. That is what makes work feel good for me.

Diana Alt [00:12:38]:
I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. Now I forget, does your husband, Ken, he's your podcast producer and your resident. Does he also work for himself or does he work. No, he.

Aurora Gregory [00:12:52]:
He has a traditional job, so he's out of the house every. Every day. I think that's probably good for both. Both of us. I don't know. I think there will probably come a time when he will, you know, work from home as well. He, you know, his job, his. His.

Aurora Gregory [00:13:07]:
What I call his day job isn't related to things that he's super passionate about, like audio engineering and, you know, creating original music and things like that. So, you know, we continue to look for ways to make that more a bigger part of his life. So that comes. He can actually come home and then we'll, you know, have a downstairs office and an upstairs office.

Diana Alt [00:13:29]:
I am all about the side hustle as whether. Or the side interest, you know, whether it is monetized or not, to basically fill in the gaps. Like, there's this weird idea. I don't like the concept of a dream job.

Aurora Gregory [00:13:48]:
Interesting. Yeah, I. I Can see that.

Diana Alt [00:13:50]:
Because I think that it's kind of like someone wanting the perfect partner, like the perfect spouse or romantic partner. Like, yes, you want someone that aligns on all the right values and checks a whole lot of boxes. But when you put the responsibility for one human to fulfill everything, that's a problem. And I feel the same way about work. So sometimes I have a four, I have a four pillar model, like, or corners, whatever you call it, like cornerstones of an aligned career. And it centers around having the right work, the stuff that you're the most interested in. You get to use the skills you want. You get in a state of flow, all that, the right leaders, so your direct boss and then the kind of executive strategy of the company, the right environment, meaning that your life and your work work together.

Diana Alt [00:14:44]:
From a flexibility and a money standpoint, the vibes are right, the level of process is right, and then the right culture, meaning the values are, you see values that you care about in action, not just pasted on the, you know, break room wall. And I think sometimes you find all four. But if you don't have all four, you can look for ways to scratch the itch, other ways. The easiest one to scratch otherwise is work. So if there are skills you want to, want to acquire or use, and you don't get to use them very often, it's easy to find a professional organization or start a side thing or hobby or whatever. It's kind of hard to replace your boss with a side hustle. Although just having a little, just having a side business where you get to run it all can kind of mitigate anything that you have.

Aurora Gregory [00:15:39]:
It's really true. And I think if I, you know, if I look back even on the start of my own career, that probably would have been a great way for me to go. There were lots of things I didn't know, lots of things I didn't understand, you know, so there's, you know, working for yourself as a different. Has a different flow to it. You know, I remember those, those early days and, you know, waking up in the morning and recognizing no one is expecting me to be at my desk at 8 o' clock in the morning except me. And so that took. And that, that had been my whole life. Like, you know, your job expects you to be there at a certain time.

Aurora Gregory [00:16:14]:
And so that was a new, you know, that was a new experience for me. And so, you know, a side hustle might have been, you know, why it might have been good for me. But, you know, when you're young and dumb. You just. You try, you try things. I did. And so, you know, I'm just, I'm thankful, you know, you know, God protects children and fools and I was probably a little bit both at the time.

Diana Alt [00:16:35]:
Solid. How do you like to work? Like I, weirdly, I still am mostly like a Monday to Friday person. I work a schedule that looks very similar to what I did when I was in corporate. What about you? What is your schedule? You still not working?

Aurora Gregory [00:16:52]:
Yeah. So I, I do pretty much maintain like a Monday to Friday, you know, for many years. As I shared when I started my, my own business, I didn't work on Fridays. Interestingly enough, there was an experience that changed that, that I've. And I've never been able to get the Friday off consistently again. But what I have done is I no longer take meetings on Mondays or Fridays. I love that all of my meeting time into, you know, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays so that Monday can be a day where I can, you know, really focus in on what actually needs to be done. So I'm not have.

Aurora Gregory [00:17:30]:
I don't particularly like doing a lot of planning for the work week. On Sunday I can do. Sunday can be my rest day. And so that means on Monday, if I have no meetings, I, I can spend the time doing that and then Friday becomes that opportunity to, you know, to catch up, you know, tie up any loose ends from the week. And then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, I can, you know, just fill my schedule with, you know, different, different calls, meeting times, that type of thing. So that's something that I instituted, gosh, probably two years ago. And I, you know, I work really hard to hold on to that. Every once in a while I'll throw things on a Monday, but it's because I choose to, not because I feel like I have.

Diana Alt [00:18:12]:
Yeah, I have. I've got within, within my. Mostly Monday to Friday ish. I figured out a while back that I did not do very well with as many meetings. Like three day, three days in a row of lots and lots of meetings actually doesn't work very well for me energetically, especially when I'm coaching. Like if I have, if I coach more than three people in a day, I'm toast. I need to stare at the wall for the whole evening.

Aurora Gregory [00:18:45]:
Right.

Diana Alt [00:18:46]:
I spaced it out and I do Monday, it's Monday and Thursday and then either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on some things. Right now it's usually Monday, Tuesday, Thursday where I will have hours for coaching calls and I have two mornings where I have a couple hours Free, because I've got a couple clients in Europe. And I do morning. I'll do mornings then. But most of the time the mornings are for me. Yeah, Every week I'll have one or maybe two things that are between 10 and 12 in the morning and everything else with clients is in the afternoon. Yeah, I'm doing. I used to take pretty religiously.

Diana Alt [00:19:26]:
I would take half a day off during the week. So I have to work late.

Aurora Gregory [00:19:30]:
Right.

Diana Alt [00:19:31]:
I have to work, you know, 6:30 is when I try to shut it down. And I do pretty well at that, but that's still pretty long. So I gave myself a half day off a week. But then I enrolled in a, like a certification program, so.

Aurora Gregory [00:19:45]:
And that took that.

Diana Alt [00:19:46]:
Yeah, that's kind of gumming up the works for my half day off, but that's only for the next couple months, I think.

Aurora Gregory [00:19:53]:
Another thing that I, that I do that really helps, you know, with managing time and making sure that there's, you know, time for deep work and good stretches of. Of, you know, productivity is I kind of designate 9 to 11 in the morning is what I call sacred time. There are no meetings in those hours, and I use that time for, you know, any kind of deep work things. I have to really focus on deeper administrative tasks that require my attention. I block that time off on my calendar. So if you get my calendar link, you'll see there's Nothing available between 9 and 11 on Tuesdays, Wednesday days and Thursdays, or, you know, obviously on Monday or Friday. But having the knowing that I'm, you know, unless I choose to make a change in that, you know, that I have 9 to 11 to really focus in on work is really helpful too. That's a, you know, a scheduling trick that I learned from a coach.

Aurora Gregory [00:20:51]:
And so, you know, just for our audience, like, you know, don't be afraid to block time on your calendar as a standing practice. That gives you a chance to kind of focus in whether it's to, you know, manage your calendar or review or prepare for a meeting or, you know, whatever it might be. And you need that time regularly. You know, you might start with one day a week, you know, on Tuesdays. You don't take meetings between 9 and noon. Block that on your calendar and give yourself permission to have that time to focus on what you need to focus on.

Diana Alt [00:21:24]:
Yeah, I talk to people about that a lot. The two things that I talk about are trying to put deep work on their. On the calendar a couple days a week. And the way I look at it is have it standing. And if people are in a corporation, like sometimes you just gotta meet when the people can meet. Especially if you need a high up decision maker. If you look at that as time that you must figure out how to make up. So okay, you do it Tuesday and Thursday, but the vice president in charge of whatever can only meet during your block on Thursday.

Diana Alt [00:21:57]:
Great. Now you have the responsibility to move it to Friday or move it to Monday or move it to Thursday afternoon.

Aurora Gregory [00:22:05]:
Right.

Diana Alt [00:22:06]:
I actually track. There's a few things I do with my time that I track as a metric. Number one is I call those major plot project blocks and I actually have it blocked every single day knowing that my real target is about three times a week. If I fall below three times a week, I can tell that there's like everything in the business just feels slower.

Aurora Gregory [00:22:30]:
Sure.

Diana Alt [00:22:31]:
So I track that. I track how many days a week I work and I do it by half day. So anything under two hours doesn't count. If I'm cleaning out the email while I'm doing my laundry, then fine, great. That doesn't really count because.

Aurora Gregory [00:22:46]:
Right.

Diana Alt [00:22:46]:
This makes Monday better. But if I go between two and six hours, that's a half day and anything over six hours is a full day. And I track that. And I'm this year for the first time trying to work towards reducing that metric.

Aurora Gregory [00:23:04]:
That's great. That's a great goal. Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:23:07]:
So. And then I started tracking fun. So I wasn't doing enough social stuff. So I have started tracking my social engagements when I get the hell out of the house and human on my calendar. And I can tell how I feel based on how all those little metrics are. So. All right, enough about that. We've talked a lot about how we run our businesses.

Diana Alt [00:23:33]:
Let's talk about public speaking. Let's do it. So what, tell me a little bit whether you want to kind of speak globally or, you know, one single impactful example. Can you share an example of the kind of benefits you have seen or kind of transformation in a career that you've seen from somebody going from I'm never on stage to making a point of being out there as a public speaker?

Aurora Gregory [00:24:04]:
Yeah, so many examples. So in addition to the work that I do with entrepreneurs and experts and authors, I also have corporate consulting work that I do with what I call corporate speakers bureaus. These are, you know, internal organizations where, you know, people are kind of identified as speakers within their, in their organizations and they are given, you know, opportunities to present either at major internal events or at external, you Know, industry type gatherings, conferences and the like. And, you know, there's a woman that, that comes to mind. I'm going to call her, I'm going to call her Sarah because I don't want to divulge who her name, who she actually is. But she was just a really, just brilliant woman when it came to, you know, business and finance in particular. And she was getting, she was, you know, kind of identified as someone that, you know, what they wanted. The company wanted her to do more public speaking, but she had not done a lot of it herself.

Aurora Gregory [00:25:07]:
She had some very interesting, you know, vocal tick speaking issues that we kind of had to work through. But she, there was no doubt that she was brilliant and had had the skills, the basic skills to improve as a speaker. And so slowly. Yeah, she had that raw talent and she was willing, right? She was willing. As much as it was uncomfortable and scary to her, she was not, she was not someone who was used to, you know, being someone who wasn't fully in command of the subject matter. Right. And every other place in her life, she was, you know, fully in command. And this was a very uncomfortable position for her because she was new and at the beginning, you know, not, you know, not someone who was going to, you know, command a main stage at an industry event.

Aurora Gregory [00:25:58]:
But she leaned in and she was willing to take a lot of training, she was willing to take a lot of feedback, she was willing to take guidance on how to shape the message that was perfect for her to deliver from the stage. And so as she took on more speaking opportunities, whether it was being a part of a panel discussion at an event, which I love that for people who are not quite ready for all 200 eyeballs to be looking at them, but spread that around, or she was a standalone speaker, she used every opportunity to get better and to excel. And every time she took a stage, she was elevating her visibility. She was drawing more attention to what she knew, how she knew it, and what it was like to work with her. We share our personalities and our style from the stage, and when you do that as part of a corporate speaking opportunity, you're sharing, okay, this is the kind of person that I am. And so she finally elevated to the point where she gave a main stage presentation at a major event. I look back on that event and it was not her best performance, but it had so much courage and bravery associated with it because she was telling a part of her own personal story. And so while she was at that event, she was approached by another company to meet for coffee.

Aurora Gregory [00:27:40]:
And lo and behold, about eight months later, she, she left the organization where she had built her all of her speaking skills and training where she had done because she had received an offer from this other company who, who saw her on stage and thought she was amazing and invited her for coffee and, and hired her away at a great new salary. A big fat new title.

Diana Alt [00:28:05]:
Yeah, it's so interesting too. Like, she's very lucky that she had internal support for that. But I talked to a lot of people who, and I, I've been a little bit in this spot too myself when I was still in corporate. When you hit certain levels in companies, it become, especially in tech. I don't know what every industry is like, but I mostly work with people that are tech and kind of tech adjacent. When you want to try to go from like senior whatever to principal whatever you want to try to get into director, VP plus type ranks. A lot of times there are requirements to be recognized as a regional, national or industry wide thought leader in your space. And people often are like, how the heck do I do that? What do I do? Yeah, and speaking like content is the answer.

Diana Alt [00:28:57]:
So speaking on, you know, any type of stage, which we'll get to in a minute, is one of the ways to do it, as is blogging. I knew a lot of people that built a ton of visibility for themselves because they happen to work in product management or product marketing. They were kind of like the face of a product. And so they were partnering with Marcom to put content out. They might be on a stage yet, but that was enough to check that box for them.

Aurora Gregory [00:29:23]:
Well, and I think, you know, when I think back to the, you know, the woman that I just shared about, she obviously did a lot of internal presentations, right? She had elevated her, her visibility within the organization in order to be kind of identified for someone that they wanted to continue to elevate. So what I would, you know, encourage people who are looking to like, you know, continue to level up, like level up your visibility within your organization and let that be the springboard that helps you, you know, draw attention to the fact that you are someone who is worth investing in. Whether it's, you know, presentation skills, training that your company's willing to pay for or, you know, whatever it might be, sending you to a conference as a speaker, whatever it is. But if you treat every meeting that you have as a speaking opportunity, every opportunity that you get to, you know, provide a, you know, a project update as a speaking opportunity and you use it to hone your public Speaking skills with this small group of internal people, it will serve you really well. You know, the principles around public speaking are true internally as well as externally. So if being the person with the microphone is about elevating your visibility, it's true in your own organization the same way it's true if you were speaking at a conference. So if that's something that is, you know, is on your, you know, on your plate to accomplish, to get on that, you know, promotion track, then, you know, start, start thinking about every meeting that you go to. And it could be an over the desk meeting.

Aurora Gregory [00:31:07]:
You know, we're going to talk about different stage, different types of stages, but an over the desk meeting with a senior leader or your manager, you know, treat it like a speaking opportunity, prepare for it. Think about, think about the goals that you have for that, that quote, unquote presentation. And what are the messages that you want to deliver? Those are the core foundations of, of, of a great speaker, is that they are clear on the core message that they want to deliver.

Diana Alt [00:31:35]:
I was raised by an English teacher.

Aurora Gregory [00:31:37]:
Oh, I didn't know that.

Diana Alt [00:31:39]:
Yeah, my mom taught at the junior college level for umpteen bazillion years, and she hammered into me at the dinner table as a child that you have to know your audience so you know how to write to them. And everything that applies for writing applies for speaking too. It does. So I think that's, I mean, you and I had a conversation right before we got on here where I said, hey, I tweaked your bio a little bit because I'm more corporate heavy and your bio talks a little bit more like a little more entrepreneur. Ish. So those little bitty tweaks make you seem like you're highly personalizing. So let's talk a little bit about what are the types of stages that people might be looking at? Yes, the over the desk example, like, that's a great example of practicing. But really, when you go from, okay, I'm done doing reps with the vp, trying to act, you know, like I'm speaking to his problems and his or her problems and his or her level, what are the real types of stages that people should be looking at when they want to spread their wings?

Aurora Gregory [00:32:54]:
It's such a great question because I think pre Covid, when we talked about stages, we were always talking about a live stage, you in front of a live audience, all eyeballs on you. When Covid happened, of course, we all remember the world shut down and everything became virtual. So events that happened live and in person were now virtual events. Podcasting became super important. Live streams became super important because that was all we had. We couldn't go places. And what I really have so appreciated coming out of the pandemic is that those virtual opportunities have remained on the list of stages. And so what I like to tell people is that there's a stage that will work for everybody.

Aurora Gregory [00:33:41]:
If you're not someone who feels quite ready for a live event and being in person with, you know, everyone looking at you, then you are probably a great candidate to be a podcast guest. Because guess what, that kind of mirrors, you know, the presentation that you're going to have with your manager. That's. It's a conversation. Most of us can handle a conversation. There are virtual conferences, virtual events. Lots of industry associations hold host monthly webinars for their members. Because guess what? The other thing that we learned during COVID is that you don't have to travel to get things like continuing education credits.

Aurora Gregory [00:34:18]:
So they will host a monthly webinar event. Again, that's a great opportunity for people who aren't comfortable yet, aren't quite ready for that stage up.

Diana Alt [00:34:27]:
They see context. Like, one of the things I've discovered when I talk to people about being on stages, especially when I talk about like meetups, association meetings, like that kind of stuff is, well, oh my gosh, they must have plenty. Well, yes and no. There are a lot of people that want to speak and not a lot of them are high quality. So you can distinguish yourself by being a high B, like a good B plus in a local meetup. Because a lot of the people that are presenting at those organizations haven't had any speaker training. So even a minimal amount distinguishes you, which then gets you on the stage for the PMI conference with 300 people, which then catches your boss's attention because, you know, they're happy that, oh my gosh, now this person is representing our company outside our four walls at an industry association. And it kind of snowballs from there.

Diana Alt [00:35:25]:
But one of the things I love about podcasts is it's just a one on one person with a cool. With somebody cool. One on one conversation with another person. That's right. In service of an audience.

Aurora Gregory [00:35:37]:
That's right.

Diana Alt [00:35:39]:
I'm talking to my pal Aurora right now. We're gonna help some other people while we do it, but. Exactly.

Aurora Gregory [00:35:45]:
And I think that, you know, to your point about, you know, any time, any type of stage that you're going to pitch, one of the things that I think that, that people don't keep in mind is the actual pitch itself and how you deliver that and what the content of that pitch is. A lot of times people eliminate themselves from being considered because the pitch is not audience focused, it's self focused. I really believe that as speakers, what we're actually doing is serving an audience from the stage. We start doing that with how we pitch and what we write down about what it is we're saying we want to talk about, or we can talk about. It needs to be reflective of the service we want to bring to the audience so that that event host, the meetup coordinator, whoever it is, the podcast host can see, okay, you're here to help serve this audience. You're not here just to tout your own accomplishments, which is going to happen. You'll get that opportunity to talk about, you know, your credentials.

Diana Alt [00:36:50]:
Right. Program or the show notes. But let's dig into that for a second. So, because a lot of people struggle with that. What. I know, I know I'm really putting you on the spot with this, but hopefully you can roll with this. If you think about an example, can you tell us like a little couple sentence example of what would be not a very good pitch for something versus what would be. And if you want to, just take an example for me, like one of the topics I will discuss on podcasts sometimes is resume writing.

Diana Alt [00:37:24]:
So what would be a bad way to pitch myself to a podcast guest versus a better way?

Aurora Gregory [00:37:30]:
Yeah, I can actually absolutely do that. And I think you probably remember this, Diana, but I co authored a book. I think it might be the only book that's out there that talks all about how to create an amazing. What we call an irresistible speaker proposal or speaker.

Diana Alt [00:37:47]:
I forgot the name of the book. It's called Get Picked.

Aurora Gregory [00:37:50]:
It's called Get Picked, that's right. So to use you as an example, as a resume writer, if you started your pitch with, I have helped hundreds of candidates update their resume and I have absolutely been instrumental in them, in 50% of them landing the job, their dream job. If the pitch starts with I, I have helped, then it's very clear to the, to the event host that you're there to talk about what you can do. But if you, if you flip the, the pitch and you, and you start with the problem and the struggle that the audience has, and you start at something like with start. Start it with something like one of the hardest things of the hardest parts of a job search is updating the resume. There's nothing worse than trying to capture all of your brilliance in three sentences or less to start the page. Here's the thing. It doesn't have to be that hard.

Aurora Gregory [00:39:01]:
There's a way that you can capture your brilliance in a con in a concise, compelling way that will absolutely attract the attention of HR recruiters.

Diana Alt [00:39:13]:
It's funny that exact way. Because I have a talk that I'm doing. This is why it's on my mind. I'm doing a webinar on Friday. And whenever you get to the point where you are crafting a talk, so maybe you're not just trying to get on a podcast, you're actually trying to do a webinar, a stage talk, whatever. I have. My webinar is called how to Write a Resume that Gets Attention. So, like, you know, your, your resume will make the, your email ding and your phone ring, like that kind of good old copywriting stuff.

Diana Alt [00:39:47]:
But that was the problem is everybody's like, how do I get attention? How do I get attention? And so even going down to naming your talk correctly so that it speaks to the audience is speaking problem can help reinforce that. Thank you for that example. I really appreciate it. So if a person is like, okay, Diana, I'm a senior, whatever, and I know that I have to start being viewed as a thought leader to become a principal, whatever, or to get the manager job, how does somebody get started, like, and we're talking somebody that maybe has not done much of anything except an internal meeting. What would you tell them to do?

Aurora Gregory [00:40:28]:
So one of the places that I love for people to start is right in their industry. Your, your industry, I don't care what it is that you do, has an industry association. It's the place where your peers in what you do get together and they go to learn, to learn how to do their jobs better. That's what happens at industry conferences. They're, they're there. And those industry conferences, those industry events, their primary goal is what I like to describe as peer to peer education. They want people from the stage who do the job to share their success and strategies with people who do the job, who are in the seats, who are attending the event. And so I would start there, find out what your industry association is, find out if they have state chapters or local chapters so that you can start to find out like, okay, so who speaks at those events and then who speaks at the state event and then who speaks at the national conference, and how do they choose those speakers? And generally speaking, they have what they host what's called a call for speakers.

Aurora Gregory [00:41:38]:
They open up a window of time. There's an online portal. They give you a form that. An online form that you need to fill out that will include your speaker pitch, a description of what it is that you want to talk about, and you submit, and they evaluate and review and they pick speakers. And that's where I would start. If you're wanting to, like, become a thought leader in your industry, I would also do that research work on what podcasts speak to your industry.

Diana Alt [00:42:04]:
Who.

Aurora Gregory [00:42:04]:
Who. What podcasts do you listen to, what podcasts do your peers listen to, what podcasts do your bosses listen to? And find out, do they take guests? And if they do, how do you become a guest? Do they have a portal where you can apply to be featured on the show? Do you send an email to the host? Is that how they do it? It's very, you know, you've got to do that research work. But those are the places that I would start because those are the places that are going to get you noticed. Those are the places that are going to matter to the people in your organization that are looking for reasons to elevate you. They're looking for reasons to promote you. And so you want to give them those reasons by becoming a force in the industry. You probably already are. It's just that nobody knows about it.

Aurora Gregory [00:42:52]:
And so we need to give you those. You need to find those opportunities. And speaking does that. I, you know, I tell people all the time, public speaking is one of the most efficient marketing tools you could ever hope to use, whether it's for your career or your business. You know, relationships are important in business, they're important in your career. And it's really hard to go to a conference as just an attendee and have meaningful conversations with everybody who attends. It's impossible to do. But when you put yourself out there as a speaker, well, guess what you're doing.

Aurora Gregory [00:43:27]:
You are now meaningfully engaging with every person who's sitting in that room. It might be 50 people, it might be 200 people, but they're all getting exposure to who you are and what you're about. You get to build relationships. And if, you know, when we do our jobs well from the stage, well, guess what happens. As soon as your presentation is over, there's a line of people who want to come up and meet you and take the relationship to the next level. And that only happens when you decide to take the stage and stand at that microphone.

Diana Alt [00:43:57]:
Yeah, I did a lot of that. I did my primary method when I very first started doing speaking, which had nothing to do with the work That I do now. Now or not very much to do. I was in. I helped found an organization in Kansas City called the IIBA International Institute of Business Analysis. I think it's funny how we forget what the acronym stands for 15 years later. But I was on the board of the original chapter, and we were doing chapter meetings, and we would source most of our speakers internally. I'd say, like, probably, I don't know, maybe half or two thirds were sourced internally.

Diana Alt [00:44:37]:
Either people directly that were members or someone from their job, you know, oh, you want to talk to someone that's a director of whatever, I'll ask my boss if they would be interested in it, that kind of thing. I did that for a long time and I did this kind of thing for. For years before I was ever paid to speak. Because that's a whole different ball of wax that we're not actually not going to have time to get into today. But even if you're just trying to elevate your visibility in the industry, something as simple as talking to 23 business analysts about a technique that you learned a month ago and just started using and it's going really well, can start to do that for you. So it doesn't have to be fancy as you do more of it and decide what you want to talk about. That's when you say, okay, well, now I have two or three talks that I can do and I can send in that email to the. Or, you know, submit two or three things to that call for speakers or have two or three topics to tell the podcast guests they can choose from or the podcast hosts they can choose from.

Diana Alt [00:45:40]:
So. And then when I first started getting paid, it wasn't very much. And I used to joke that I did all of my speaking. And then I made even more money doing continuing ed training different companies or through the local community college. I just did that to pay for professional development that my company wouldn't cover. Like, I didn't even care how much it was. Like, great, thanks. You're gonna pay for me to get my, like, Scrum Master certification because my budget.

Diana Alt [00:46:10]:
This is amazing, and I really appreciate you telling that because it, it makes it seem a little bit more achievable for people because now we're not talking about, like, a speaker bureau and you're trying to make $25,000. Like, like, that's, that's honestly a model that's not even, like, it's a hell of a lot harder.

Aurora Gregory [00:46:28]:
Well, yeah, that's speaker.

Diana Alt [00:46:31]:
Than it was years ago.

Aurora Gregory [00:46:33]:
And, you know, just to speak to that a little bit. Just remember, nobody starts doing that. Nobody, nobody starts out as a $25,000 keynote speaker. It just, that's not how it works. It's a, it's a, it's a business. It's a career just like any other. And while, and I'm sure, you know, all of us had the entry level job that has got us to where we are, we happen to be now in our careers. So there is the entry level season of being a professional speaker.

Aurora Gregory [00:47:05]:
When we're talking about, you know, using speaking to elevate your career, your profile, to facilitate and support you being promoted within your organization or to support a job change. That's a, it's a, that you have a different goal there and you need to be very thoughtful about. You know, when you go into speaking, what is my goal here? What am I trying to achieve? Because it will then help determine, okay, do I, you know, is getting paid for that presentation something that really matters? If I get in front of a room full of the right people that are full of opportunities that I, you know, and relationships that I want to cultivate, then, you know, that room becomes priceless. There's no, there's no check that could give you those relationships. But if you wanted to, like, I, I, you know, if you wanted to go down like that professional speaker track, like, that's a different podcast.

Diana Alt [00:47:57]:
That was a different one. Maybe, maybe, maybe they need to listen to the speaker whisperer. Maybe, maybe to the stage whisper.

Aurora Gregory [00:48:05]:
Right, Let me write that up.

Diana Alt [00:48:08]:
I'll put that up because I'm enjoying learning about my little banners here. Hang on. We're not quite live, but that's okay. Be live next week when I live stream this. So, and you're on. Your podcast is all on all the podcast places, right? Yep.

Aurora Gregory [00:48:28]:
You can find it on itunes. It's actually called the Stage Whisperer. And what am I doing?

Diana Alt [00:48:33]:
I said the wrong thing.

Aurora Gregory [00:48:34]:
And yeah, you can find it on, on Apple and Spotify for sure.

Diana Alt [00:48:41]:
Cool. Hello? Okay, I fixed it. There you go. So I want to hit like a little lightning round. That may not be a lightning round. And then I'm gonna. I want to know from you what you're working on and how people can get a hold of you before we wrap up. So my lightning round is what is the worst.

Diana Alt [00:49:06]:
First question is, what is the worst piece of career advice you've ever received?

Aurora Gregory [00:49:11]:
Oh, gosh. The worst piece of career advice. Oh, I'm trying to think. You know what? As I think back to the early Days of my career, it probably was not. Not networking enough, not building enough relationships. I think early on in my career, that was definitely something that I was not encouraged to do. It's like, just stay focused on what you're doing here and speak for itself. Exactly, exactly.

Aurora Gregory [00:49:42]:
And it. And your work does speak for itself, but it doesn't always mean it's going to lead to a job opportunity. So I have.

Diana Alt [00:49:48]:
His work is out there speaking like the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

Aurora Gregory [00:49:53]:
And so that's exactly true.

Diana Alt [00:49:56]:
How to rise above. Who is the best speaker you have ever seen in person and what made them amazing?

Aurora Gregory [00:50:04]:
The best speaker I've ever seen in person, it is probably. I'm trying to think. There's a number of speakers that come to mind. There's a woman that I heard. I actually got a chance to hear her early in her speaking journey. It's a woman named Lisa Terkeurst, and she's actually a bible study teacher. But I heard her early in her speaking journey, and I didn't know at the time that she was going to become someone really notable and become an incredible author and, and, and just leader. But I remember hearing her and she had just such a perfect way of blending her message with her humor.

Aurora Gregory [00:50:48]:
She has a great sense of humor, and she had just a really brilliant way of keeping you engaged while also keeping you laughing. And, you know, not everybody tells a great joke, right? Some of us. Some of us listening know we're not the best joke tellers. We might not even be the best, best, you know, storytellers. But she really has a gift, and she had it very early on. And I heard her speak at a small church. And then, as, you know, her career kind of opened up and blossomed. I'm realizing, like, oh, my gosh, I heard you when you were just getting started and you were amazing then.

Aurora Gregory [00:51:24]:
And so she's, you know, she's. And, you know, she's continued to just do amazing work from this stage.

Diana Alt [00:51:29]:
That's fantastic. Let's see. What is a personal habit or mindset shift you've had that made a huge difference in your life?

Aurora Gregory [00:51:39]:
Oh, my gosh. Well, I, you know, can talk about, you know, one that I think I've been working on for probably the last couple of years. And, you know, that's, you know, kind of, you know, breaking free from a lot of, I guess, thinking that originates in some of my, you know, early childhood experiences that created a lot of limiting beliefs for myself. And so the process of breaking down some of those experiences, including you know, learning about the trauma of poverty and what it means to grow up in poverty and recognizing, you know, I think for a long time, I grew up with, you know, feeling that that was, you know, a bit of a badge of honor without recognizing the damage that it can cause on young children. And so, you know, I'm, you know, here at this age now and. And starting to recognize, like, oh, wow, I. There's a lot of things that I just, you know, laughed off for a big part of my life. And now I'm recognizing, like, oh, these.

Diana Alt [00:52:44]:
Are some really hard laughing off our trauma.

Aurora Gregory [00:52:48]:
We do.

Diana Alt [00:52:48]:
We do. Oh, that kind of ruined a few.

Aurora Gregory [00:52:52]:
Like, yeah, it's like, oh, no. That actually left a mark, and now we've got to work on healing that mark. So that's something. As my, you know, business has been shifting and changing over the last couple of years, and I've been leaning into building new things in my business. I've. Those things have been exposed, and I've had to really work on them. And so it hasn't always been fun, but I'm really grateful for the work, and I'm grateful for the people that I've had alongside me to help me with that.

Diana Alt [00:53:21]:
I've spent a lot of time on that, too. And it's. It's definitely like. It feels like infinite onion layers, but I guess, like, what else are we supposed to do in life?

Aurora Gregory [00:53:30]:
But it's good that you call it on the onion layers, because there have been a lot of tears. Very.

Diana Alt [00:53:36]:
That.

Aurora Gregory [00:53:37]:
That part. Yes, that part.

Diana Alt [00:53:39]:
What is something you've changed your mind about recently?

Aurora Gregory [00:53:44]:
Something I've changed my mind about. I think this is probably something that's kind of evolved over the last couple of years, like, last two years or so. So I'm going to use that as my recent. My recent. But it's probably that any one organization can meet all the needs that you have related to why you're there. And I think that for a long time I thought, okay, you belong to a particular group, and that is your community, and that's where everything should happen related to what you need. And I think in the last few years, I've recognized that, you know, the organizations and communities you belong to are not supermarkets. They don't have, you know, six different varieties of ketchup to pick from.

Aurora Gregory [00:54:37]:
And so if they don't, you got to go somewhere else to get the ketchup you want. And so that's been. That was, I think, probably a hard thing to come to accept, but it's Also, you know, when you do, it's opened up so many opportunities and I have some relationships, you know, because I've been willing to. To shift and go to places to get what I need. Whether it's emotionally, spiritually, you know, whatever it might be. It's opened up some really amazing relationships that I'm super grateful for.

Diana Alt [00:55:08]:
I. I feel like there's a certain amount of bravery involved in that. Like, I just last night I was on in a Facebook group where I. I have found a lot of different clients in this group because I worked in the Prof. It's a product managers group. And somebody posted about their friend that is doing X, Y and Z. And I was like, why is it name familiar? And I realized this person actually did was a PhD that did a bunch of research for a very important book in the career change space.

Aurora Gregory [00:55:44]:
Wow.

Diana Alt [00:55:45]:
And so I just said, hey, I have a new podcast. Do you think this person would be willing to be on my podcast that has, you know, not very many listeners because it's brand new and all of this? And the. The girl was like, yeah, I'll talk to my friend about it. Send me, send me the details. I wouldn't have had the nerve to do that because I would have thought I had to go about that right a certain way through certain channels and whatnot. So. And then my last lightning round is. What is a common misconception people have about your work?

Aurora Gregory [00:56:19]:
Oh, I think it's. It's probably that. That I actually pitch that I do like that I'm a speaker agent. That's probably. And I have to, you know, I pretty regularly have to correct people like, yeah, I'm not a speaker agent.

Diana Alt [00:56:37]:
I think that, like, people are like, are you going to get me a job?

Aurora Gregory [00:56:40]:
And I'm like, no, no, I'm not a recruiter.

Diana Alt [00:56:44]:
I will teach you.

Aurora Gregory [00:56:45]:
Yep.

Diana Alt [00:56:46]:
All I will equip you with information you need.

Aurora Gregory [00:56:49]:
That's right.

Diana Alt [00:56:50]:
Layer into your own life.

Aurora Gregory [00:56:51]:
Work together.

Diana Alt [00:56:53]:
So well, what is next for you? What are you working on? How can people connect with you? Tell me all the things.

Aurora Gregory [00:56:59]:
So I think the thing I'm most excited about that I'm working on in my business right now is my new course program called the Speaker Brand Academy. It's all about teaching experts how to brand themselves as speakers so that they can land stages. And over the first part of the year, like January to March, I got to teach a group of beta students to walk them through the program. It was a great success. I was really thrilled about it. So now I'M prepping for a full launch that should be coming up in June. Yeah, in June. So if anyone's interested in, you know, learning more about that, the thing to do is get on my email list.

Aurora Gregory [00:57:36]:
I have a great checklist that I'd love everybody to check out. It's how to create a speaker one sheet. It's probably the most foundational marketing tool that every speaker should have. A speaker one sheet. And so it's a checklist on how to create a great one. And inside the checklist is a link to a free canva template so that you can create your own and you can find that if you go to get picked to speak forward slash checklist, that will get you the. That will get you the checklist and get you on my email list and I'll be able to make sure that you know about speaker Brand Academy when it's ready to launch. There you go.

Diana Alt [00:58:13]:
Speak.com checklist. That sounds great.

Aurora Gregory [00:58:17]:
That's what I'm most excited about in my business right now.

Diana Alt [00:58:20]:
I just pulled it up. Well, Aurora, thank you so much for coming on. Work should feel good. Telling the people about how speaking can elevate their career a little bit about how to get started. It doesn't have to be that hard, but it can be very impactful. Even for some of the smaller, lower hanging fruit opportunities.

Aurora Gregory [00:58:44]:
Absolutely. Public speaking can feel good.

Diana Alt [00:58:47]:
So get, you know, give it a good. It definitely can. And we do more of it than we realize. So it's not.

Aurora Gregory [00:58:55]:
That's right, stretch.

Diana Alt [00:58:57]:
All right, well, thanks, Diana. Thanks a lot and everybody, have a great day. Want some more career goodness between episodes? Head on over to DianaAlt.com and smash the big green let's connect button to sign up for my newsletter. Let's make work feel good together. And that's it for this episode of Work should feel good. If something made you laugh, think, cry, or just want to yell yes at your phone, send it to a friend, hit follow, hit subscribe, do all the things and even better, leave a review if you've got a sec. I'm not going to tell you to give it five stars. You get to decide if I earned them.

Diana Alt [00:59:36]:
Work should feel good. Let's make that your reality.