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- [00:04]
A
Welcome to Slay the Gatekeeper. I'm your host, Courtney Johnson and I am here to un gatekeep the gatekeeped. Thank you so much for being here. Enjoy. Welcome, Renee.
- [00:18]
B
Thank you. Thanks for having me. Courtney.
- [00:20]
A
So excited that you're here.
- [00:22]
B
I am so excited to be here and I'm glad that we got to do this in person.
- [00:26]
A
I know. Are you ready to be a Texan for the weekend?
- [00:28]
B
I. I am. I got my boots on. Every good agricultural girl has a pair of these boots. We wear this in the field.
- [00:35]
A
Is it steel toed?
- [00:37]
B
You know what, I don't think so. No. No.
- [00:40]
A
The first person I ever followed on TikTok was this girl that made like a cute steel toed boot company for people that work in. Yeah. In person. Isn't that like OSHA requirements for a lot of people?
- [00:51]
B
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So working whenever you're doing construction or in the field, that type of thing. I was, I was talking farming.
- [00:57]
A
Oh yeah.
- [00:58]
B
These are great for farming. Yeah, yeah. Have my steel toed boots also important. Yeah.
- [01:04]
A
Well, Renee, you have had a really interesting and incredible career and more recently, the last like year or two, a really incredible speaking career. And today I want to dive into what my audience can learn from you about speaking. I mean you've two TEDx talks in the last year. Like you're speaking like every other week multiple times. Like a lot, A lot.
- [01:29]
B
It's pretty overwhelming. I just try and think of one at a time.
- [01:32]
A
Yeah. Why, why did you, why do you want to speak? Like, what inspired that, Courtney?
- [01:37]
B
When I realized I wanted to speak, it actually just sort of fell in my lap. I was the sales director at a native plant nursery and I had someone from the Master Gardeners call and say we need somebody that could host a webinar and talk to us about planting native. And I looked around the office and realized that nobody there was as sort of extroverted as I was and liked to talk plants like I did to people coming into the nursery and such and realized that that person was me. So I volunteered to do that. And it scared me. But the idea is that if it scares you, that's when you realize that is for you. So I jumped in and I did my first webinar for the Master Gardeners in San Diego. And I loved it, especially because when you can see the reactions of the people that you're talking to and realize that, you know, you're sharing information that for me seemed obvious but wasn't and realized that they were learning about plants and that they were ultimately going to make a better environment for themselves in their own backyard. And what drew me to the career that I have now was to make environmental change. And one talk just built on another talk. Someone would invite me to something else. Someone invited me to something else. And before you knew it, I got my first ask to come to a native plant nursery and speak to their crowd. And it's the largest retail nursery in San Diego that I spoke with. And after that came a keynote speaking event. And it really was just falling in my lap. And I think the reason it started to fall in my lap is because I was finally aligned with where I was supposed to be. Being in fashion previously, I was feeling like I was especially having a daughter who was 16. I was feeling like I was teaching the wrong things. I was teaching this idea of, like, consumerism and this luxury that really was attainable to people only if they were putting it on their credit cards, spending lots of money on things for one day. And it felt so opposite of what my values were. You know, I'm first generation Polish. My parents have always been very, like, I don't want to say anti consumer, but Europeans just do not behave like Americans do. And it was always strange to them that we wanted to have as much as we wanted to have. And they were like, you could have just two pairs of jeans. You don't need to have as much as everybody thinks we need to have. And so I think that was ingrained in me. I never liked to see waste. I was always, you know, I don't want to say I was frugal. I just was very thoughtful in my purchases. And then when I started to get into nature, I realized that we need to have a bigger impact on our environment. And that is ultimately why I left my fashion business. And I was drawn to work with plants, but I felt like they were talking to me and guiding me to my approach. So when I started moving in that direction, things just started getting easy and just started falling in my lap so naturally. And I think when you align with what you're truly supposed to do, that happens.
- [04:58]
A
It makes things easier.
- [05:00]
B
Yeah.
- [05:00]
A
Your career has been so interesting. It's been really cool to learn about from fashion to science and your whole career arc. And I love that you share that story with others. And like I said, you've been really successful in your speaking career. And I want to go through some of the cheat codes that I learned from you that I've been implementing in my own speaking as I'm starting to do speaking. So Our Cheat code number one is applying for speaking opportunities on LinkedIn, even if it says apply on the website. How are you? How are you doing this? What's your method?
- [05:34]
B
So I think a large part of speaking is understanding that there's a lot of effort that you're going to have to make to find those opportunities. If you're lucky enough to find an opportunity where they're offering an application process, you always want to be thinking outside the box. You don't want to do what everybody else is doing. And yes, you do apply. You can send your application in if that's what they're telling you to do. But what I started doing is actually reaching out directly to the person that was the event Planner, or with TEDx, it was the curator. That was kind of the code word that I found. I think as women especially, we're really good at kind of being like FBI agents when it comes to using our social media. And I think you have to look at it in the same way. It's a game.
- [06:23]
A
Yeah.
- [06:24]
B
How can I find that person who's in charge of that event? And there's so much fear behind this, and I have to wonder why. Because social media is intended for us to reach out and be social. Why are people so afraid of it, especially in the science industry? I actually had someone tell me, renee, you can't just reach out to someone on LinkedIn. And I'd be like, why? It's a social media site. So what I would do, especially when I couldn't find the TEDx applications, they're very hard to find. I am not going to lie. It's a small window of opportunity. You have to know what the topic is. And then on top of that, find that little window of which you apply. I always say, even if you miss the deadline apply, there are always going to be people that are going to fall out of the lineup. And maybe your timing is just perfect. Maybe you hit it once, maybe you got turned down. I would still follow up with a hey, I'm still here. You know, people can appreciate that you're not annoying people by just asking. And that's another thought. I think we think that we're annoying people by reaching out. If you're an event planner, that is your job, to be social. How many event planners you know are introverted and don't want to talk to people? Right.
- [07:39]
A
None.
- [07:40]
B
Right. So what I did with the TEDxS is I knew I had a good application. I had done plenty of research to know what they're looking for. For an application. And then at that point, I think it's a numbers game and addition to that. You have to be what. I don't want to say what they're looking for, but they have a theme and you want to be able to fit within that theme loosely. They're curating an event, so they're going to have tastes maybe based on their location or the type of people that are local. They're going to have an idea of what they're looking for. So don't take it personally if you don't get selected. So I would reach out to that curator or the contact that I would find that I thought might be the curator, or maybe it was a few years past and I would ask them, having trouble finding the date, the submission, can you put me in touch with the right person? And then I also send my application to them. And I nailed two TedXs back to back within a week of applying. And I know both of them were actually pretty close, not within a couple of months of the actual taping day. So it was closer. They probably had quite a few of their speakers selected again. So I would say just be ready to go and continue to apply even if it's after that date, and start working on setting up those relationships. If you're not in this year, connect with them. Try and make some sort of personal connection so that when the application time does open the next time around, you'll know that because you know now have that connection. So that I think is the best way to be successful. But then there's also a few other tricks. These are my big cheat codes. People don't understand how important your LinkedIn is. It's another piece of marketing. So if you think a resume is important, that's just a piece of paper. Imagine that you could create this like, almost like living, breathing version of you. Whether it's your writing or whether it's in videos, however way, however you express yourself, photographs, if you put that on LinkedIn and you and I have this conversation with kids coming out of college, don't want to call them kids, but they don't understand how important that LinkedIn they think it's once they become a professional. But no, if people are looking at you to hire you for a job and I use this excuse all the time, or this example all the time. One woman told me, I'm trying to get into zoology and I found my dream job in zoology. And I said, okay, let's go to your LinkedIn right now. Would I know you're obsessed with Zoology. If I went to your LinkedIn and she went, no, I don't even know if I have a post up there. And following something you always say is look at your own behavior. When I go to LinkedIn, I sometimes have to review job applicants at my place of work. Right now I go to every person's LinkedIn. If they've listed it at the top of their resume, I Scroll down 1, 2, maybe 3 post tops, right. So if you're afraid you don't have a lot on there, you need three posts, three really targeted posts. So if I know that I have, I'm, I'm stalking someone and I am literally stalking them. I'm checking in on them every day so I understand what their interests are. There was a particular company I wanted to speak for, so I was looking at that page and I understood the types of things that they liked and I knew I could speak about what they were looking for, what I started to do while I, you know, connected with them. So they're going to see my posts, but in addition, I catered my posts specifically to what I thought they'd be looking for.
- [11:32]
A
Oh, that's so smart.
- [11:33]
B
And then I know they saw my profile and I, and, and so you could time it perfectly where you're reaching out to them, but you know, you just, that morning you put up the perfect post for them. It is, it, I don't want to say it's easy, but it is, it's, it's just a formula that's been very successful for me. My content will change and evolve based on maybe an opportunity I'm trying to get. And I think now, you know, I'm posting quite a bit now, so, you know, I have things that I'm interested in, things I just want to talk about. But when I'm going after something, I am catering my LinkedIn to be that marketing document. For me, I have gotten jobs based on them just looking at my LinkedIn. So if you think they're going to look at your resume first. I submitted the resume after they already committed to hiring me and I said, this is not an updated resume. And they said, well, you don't care, you're already hired. So my, my point is your LinkedIn can be more important than your resume. Again, your, everything on that LinkedIn shows your work experience and that's duplicated on your resume. And we have to deal with all of these algorithms and you know, these different, you know, computer generated application processes that could kick you out for any kind of reason. I will have people Reach out to me and say, I see that you've posted this job for your company. I'm interested. You know what that guarantees for them? That I look at their resume and I try to go one step further. I will tell them, hey, I'm pushing your resume ahead. Thanks for reaching out. Or thanks for reaching out. I looked at your resume, but you're missing this and this and this. So this is what we'd be looking for in the future. And the response back is like, wow. Nobody ever gives me any response or feedback. Thank you. I have even gone far as far as to then send other jobs I see posted with other companies that I know and send it directly to them. And they're always shocked that here I'm sending them opportunities. It's because they took the time to reach out to tell me to look at them as an applicant. And you would think that this would be something people always do. I think my company has posted. The company I work for has posted probably three different jobs in the time that I've been with them. So let's talk about, like, I don't know, 50 to 100 applicants. They haven't bothered to even see the part that we say, write a cover letter. That's your again, your marketing document to sell yourself. So it shouldn't be ChatGPT. That's a tool. It's not meant to write it for you. That's your opportunity to sell yourself, especially if your skills aren't a perfect fit to what the job app application is saying. But secondary to that is there opportunity just to reach out to me and talk to me. So it just puts you in such a better position out of, like I said, 50 to 100 people applying, I think I could count on one hand for three job opportunities how many people actually reached out to me. Those numbers are sad.
- [14:53]
A
Yeah. Yeah. Then it takes literally two minutes.
- [14:56]
B
Two minutes.
- [14:57]
A
Hey, I saw this job I applied. I think I'm a great fit because one sentence, that's all.
- [15:02]
B
Or how about stop stalking my profile and saying, by the way, I love native plants too. Which one's your favorite? This one's mine. Say something cheesy to me. I am listening. Yeah, I am listening. So just great. Cheat codes. They work. They really do.
- [15:20]
A
Yeah. I love the idea of just going to someone's profile if you're applying to a job and finding one thing you have in common, even if you maybe stalk them on Instagram or other platforms. Do you both like the same sports team?
- [15:31]
B
Yeah.
- [15:31]
A
Were you both in the same club in College, do they have a dog? And you can say, I love dogs.
- [15:37]
B
Right.
- [15:37]
A
Like literally anything.
- [15:39]
B
Send me a picture of that dog. I am looking at your dog.
- [15:43]
A
Picture, Anything. Yeah. I want to double down on two things or on one thing you said is that you're doing them a favor. Like by somebody reaching out to you and saying, renee, I saw that job posting. They're not being annoying, they're actually helping you.
- [15:56]
B
Yes.
- [15:57]
A
Because they're showing their intention or like speaking. You're, you know, they're reaching out to the curator saying, I would really like this. Speaking of event, whatever, they're literally doing, you're doing them a favor. You're not being annoying. And I also think it's really important. I'll just throw in like a mini cheat code to start to tell people you want a job. You want to start speaking post. Hey, one of my goals for 2025 is to speak at three events. Make a post about that. You never know who's going to see that. And maybe, maybe your audience doesn't have anyone that's organizing speaking events, but their company's doing a virtual speaking event and the friend of a friend knows someone and they remember that they saw your post. Like, be out with it.
- [16:36]
B
I think people too, they're, they're, you know, we are afraid to put ourselves out there, especially in front of people we know. There's this idea of like, I'm an imposter and I'm putting myself out in front of people that I went to high school with or this or that. Well, you know what? People grow up. Let's just start with that. People grow up. But let's also say, who better than to be saying to my network of people that I know I'm looking for opportunities to speak in this and this and this type of industry. If anyone has any leads from me, reach out and help a girl again, I will tell you. I have booked several events through, not even through LinkedIn, through Facebook. I have been hired for jobs. My current job, the opportunity came from a post that I made about growing a very specific plant for an industry in salt impacted and, you know, vital remediation type of work. I didn't know I was doing that at the time, but it caught the eye of somebody that I knew who was working in that industry. So you never know. Get in alignment, get out of your comfort zone and start the posting.
- [17:51]
A
It's so. Yeah, it's so simple. It is very simple. Another cheat code that you have that I love is like, you can only be a Speaker at one event. So you could swap conferences or use referrals. How do you use your referral network and how do you think about this cheat code?
- [18:07]
B
The most valuable thing that you could do is find people that are similar to you. And I don't mean similar as far as the way we look or what we talk about with your work ethic. So get a group of people together that are hardcore. Prepare like, look, we're all in the same situation. We need to make this work. We want to make this certain amount of money and we're going to be working a certain amount every week. Get people that are similar to you. Because I think this could be frustrating if say you feel like you're carrying the team. So build a network of people like you, like minded in your work ethic and the amount of effort you're gonna put into it. But don't duplicate efforts, but break up the country. Work in different segments, come up with a plan. If one person gets booked to speak somewhere, they're not gonna get booked to speak there again the following year. So the next thing that that person should be doing is after that event, hey, let me refer to you three other really great speakers. Again, you're making their job easier. You're giving them names in advance and then you move those leads over to somebody in your group and hopefully they're doing that same thing for you. So you're kind of removing redundancy and using that network. So that I think is just next leveling it.
- [19:24]
A
Right, so there's like underground, not public groups, communities, maybe slack group, maybe WhatsApp that you want to tap into.
- [19:32]
B
Absolutely. And I used to do this in fashion. Honestly, buyers, boutique owners, they would hide themselves from people. It was very difficult to break fashion groups. There's this aura of, you know, I'm sorry to say, but I'm too good for you. Don't come talk to me. That that's what you're trying to create is that aura. If you have your network, we would exchange and text each other, hey, the person you're looking for is here at this restaurant. Get over here. And vice versa, we use that network. So we put the feelers out across New York City during Fashion Week. And that is how sometimes you would find your people is from your network. So use it. Figure out what things that you're doing together. Hire one virtual assistant. Everybody shouldn't be hiring virtual assistants and doing redundant work. Get together with a group, come up with a plan and work it together. And you know what? It's, it's better when you have other people together. You don't feel so alone in this. And I think as an entrepreneur, like, you know, as this type of, if you're trying to get into speaking events, you do feel kind of alone because believe it or not, public speaking is one of the biggest fears that people have. It's like ranked like the top three. Someone Google it.
- [20:49]
A
I think it's number one.
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B
Number one.
- [20:50]
A
I think it's above death.
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B
Okay.
- [20:51]
A
Yeah.
- [20:52]
B
So it's not like every person you meet wants to be a speaker speaker. It's a very niche market. So if you, if you could develop that network, I think that could really pay off in the long run. I think you'll get there faster.
- [21:06]
A
That's so, so important. It really, really accelerates because also other people have already gone through the problem you're going through and they can give you the solution where that solution might have taken you three months to get there.
- [21:16]
B
And maybe, maybe you're really good at, you know, data mining. Yeah, but maybe I'm really good at process and maybe someone else is really good at cold call, reach out. And you're going to learn that from each other. So yeah, really important is, is to, is to use each other's skills.
- [21:34]
A
That is so incredibly helpful. Our third cheat code. You've talked about this a little bit, but building your personal brand. What would be the first step you would recommend to somebody building their personal brand, especially the science folks that are really scared to do it.
- [21:48]
B
Oh yeah. You know, this has been an interesting ride for me over the past couple of years because I've always understood the importance of having the personal brand and I've always used social media as a tool and I think people just have an idea of what they think it is. Again, it's the TikTok dances. And I love to say this to people in the science field. Oh yeah, such and such is happening. Cause I saw it on TikTok and I just look at them because I love to see their reaction. And nobody has ever said to me, oh yeah, no, everyone just looks at me like I grew horns out of my head. Why, why is social media such a strange thing? This is the way we do things now. So to ignore social media is to ignore the Internet is to ignore the invention of computers. This is how we do business now. And if I can open my doors to people all over the world with a click of a button, why wouldn't I? I think in science we're afraid. We tend to be introverted and believe it or Not I'm very introverted. We tend to be very introverted and we don't want to share what we're doing or share a success we've had. And in my industry, oh, my gosh, it's hard for me to even read the posts that I see, because what I want to know is that amazing scientists, what are they thinking? What's their analysis of this thing that's going on? But instead, what it is in my industry is just like, I attended this conference. Here's our picture. Here's a cool picture, or here's a cool publication. It's interesting. And I'm such a troll. I'll go in on the comments. What's interesting about it? Finally face. Because I'm just trying to kind of nudge people to, like, tell us, like Elon Musk. We follow him. We don't follow Tesla. I want to know what Elon Musk thinks about something. So what I'm always saying is, tell me what you think about it. Post about your successes. I needed to do a restoration project in a very specific area with very specific native plant species. And I came across a random LinkedIn post from a scientist who has spent his entire life studying one particular tree species that I needed. Here's the wildest thing. Scientists are the nicest people if you're interested in their science. I sent him a message and I'm like, can we get on a call? He spent an hour with me, talking me through my process and talking to me about these trees and realized the way we were trying to plant the trees, we weren't having success. And he gave me a completely different way to do it and even gave me other people to contact. So he was in another country, too. So my point is, if you aren't talking about what you're doing or what your project is on or how do we know until it gets published? And let's be quite honest, most publications are behind a paywall. So are you spending your entire life working on stuff that no one ever knows about, or can you make some posts about the work that you're doing so that other people who are interested in that or interested in collaborating with that, or interested in providing you an opportunity or funding, even if they can see that they can assist you? So, again, I think it's just the way people think about it. They think if they work quietly, somebody will notice what they're doing. And that is not true. That is absolutely not true. You have to work loudly. You have to promote what you're doing. It's the future.
- [25:51]
A
It is crazy when people say like, oh, social media is not for me or marketing isn't. That's not for my business. That's the same thing as saying like, oh, finance isn't for my business. That's not really a part of my business I want.
- [26:02]
B
Accounting is not something I'm interested in.
- [26:06]
A
And okay, it's part of business. I don't really care about whatever. I don't really care about operations. Well, operations are going to be there no matter, like you gotta, you gotta do it if you want a successful business.
- [26:19]
B
Right? Right.
- [26:19]
A
Have to. Okay, cheat code number four. Build relationships with event planners, event curators. How are you building these relationships? You're just like finding people, following up with them, texting them, hanging out with them.
- [26:31]
B
Like how do you build going through that same process before you want to try to make some connection? I mean, if you're luck enough to get an introduction, that's a bonus. Right? But I wouldn't rely on that. Again, put the word out to your friends. This is what I'm looking to do. Who has ideas? You're going to be amazed at the ideas that are going to come back at you. So I think the most successful speakers can create opportunities on their own. Just talking to different. If you know people in certain industries, talk to them and say, who, who is in charge of this type of activities at your work? Or I see that you're a blah, blah, blah, female owned business and I see that it's the month of Women's Heritage Month, whatever kind of women's thing coming up. Can I come in and speak about this? I think the hardest part for people is just to get started and they just think they're gonna walk in on any big stage and, and handed over this money. No, you have to start small. You have to build those reps and you have to build the skills. So don't think of it as I need to find these big speaking opportunities. Start with small speaking opportunities and start to leverage those into bigger event spaces and develop those relationships and keep those relationships going. The right networking is reaching out to people before you need them. Right. Like you want to be developing a relationship before the ask. Well, before the ask, I think a lot of people think of networking. It's very one sided and it has to be more of a give and take. So you want to be very clear that you can offer them something that they need. Many different industries have, you know, let's just pick one. Nursing people burn out really fast. You happen to be an expert on fighting burnout, you're offering them something that can assist. Let me come in and give a free seminar. People work for free. Free for a while. You will learn more for working for free than you ever will. When you start getting paid work for free, you want to really understand what you're speaking about and what the response is going to be. And, you know, it's a lot easier when it's free. Once you get paid, the stakes go up, you know, so start where it's free. Start making those relationships give, give, and then give a little more. And when you feel like, now I'm good enough to be paid, then ask for the money.
- [29:08]
A
Yeah, I really recommend that people start identifying as a speaker as soon as possible, too. Like, go. Go talk to your fucking high school English class. I don't care. Just do something tiny. Go talk to. Literally what I. Go talk to a college. It's probably the easiest place to start, like finding a professor. You had if you went to college and going and talking to the. The class for 10 minutes. You did it. You talked to a class for 10 minutes. You're a speaker. Go put speaker in your LinkedIn. Put it in your Instagram. Start calling yourself a speaker. People are going to start reaching out. And I know it's gonna be uncomfy at first, but you're gonna start identifying with that title.
- [29:43]
B
But don't you think you're kind of stepping into yourself then, like, you're stepping into what you're supposed to be doing when you identify? So that's the first thing. Identify and then telling people, but totally agree with that is go speak to anyone who'll listen. Go talk to kids you want to talk. A really great audience who are appreciative that you're there. Start with children. And, you know, for me, it's like, I want to inspire people to change their environment. Some of the biggest impactful moments for me have been when I inspired someone young, because I'm basically putting someone out there into the world that's going to create so much change on their own. You know, it's much harder when people are set in their ways, but when you can talk to people when they're younger, for me, environmentally, more change happens that way. Like I said, just go out there and just start speaking anywhere. And Courtney, what if I do a webinar and only two people show up?
- [30:38]
A
Two people. Yay.
- [30:39]
B
Yay. But did I host and create a webinar?
- [30:43]
A
Yeah. That's huge.
- [30:44]
B
Do I now have something on my resume? Yes.
- [30:46]
A
Yes.
- [30:47]
B
When I apply to a TEDx? Are they going to look more seriously at someone who has 15 to 20 speaking events, they don't know how big it was or are they going, you know, you just had one really good talk. So think of them that as like just reps, you know, every time I'm out there it's a rep. I'm getting a little bit better each time. Trust me, when you get to a big stage, you're dealing with a whole nother set of problems. Things are gonna happen physically that you can't control from fear and you're gonna wish you had had 10,000 reps by the time you get to bigger stages. That was a wake up call for me. For TedX.
- [31:27]
A
You said you felt like you're giving birth.
- [31:29]
B
Oh my God. So, so I, my first, well, my first two TEDxS were international and the curator really downplayed which, which I figured out is something that's very South African for them to downplay what they do, which is as Americans we're different.
- [31:48]
A
We do the opposite.
- [31:50]
B
We do the opposite. And they love us and we love them. So it's, you know. But now I know and I was really just expecting a small collegiate event with a lot of, you know, she did tell me there were 500 people, but I didn't really conceptualize what that meant. It was a lot more than that. It was a huge auditorium and it was next level. The production was incredible. I felt like I was on that show. The Voice, like the stage was so cool, but I had no idea what I was walking into. My flight was delayed for three days so I was jet lagged the night I had to perform. And they put that Britney Spears mic on your face and that's a whole new thing. And there's a red dot that you're supposed to stand on. That's a new thing. I mean who practiced is standing on a red dot? I should have, right? Duh. Learn that for the second one so you're already feeling weird. You got Britney Spears mic on, you've got red dot, you've got all the people, all the people in the audience who by the way, the energy from them is just like talk to me, talk to me. It's a wonderful energy. Very different from a science technical conference. But just when. And walking in there, I felt like I was choking. The minute I started talking, my throat was closed up. And I've never had that reaction before, ever. I've never get dry mouth. My mouth was so dry and I just had some water before I Walked on stage. But professionally I felt like I gave birth on stage. It was a culmination of everything that had been swirling in my head. And in this circular fashion. When I originally submitted my talk, they were like, this science talk is nice, but it's not really what we were looking for. We want you in this. We read your bio, we know your story. We want you. So when I wrote this, I probably, I don't know, did nine full rewrites. When I finally presented it to them, it was everything I ever wanted to talk about that evolved into my professional giving birth on stage. When I walked off stage, I was exhausted and I think the first instinct is to like, in the middle of my talk, I literally blanked out. And one of the things that coaches tell you is if you make a mistake, start the sentence over like, take a breath, it's fine, start over. And they'll edit it out. You notice why when you see TEDx talks there strangely there's no, there's no major mess ups generally. So I did exactly what they said. I looked down and I'm like, took a deep breath and I said to the audience, I'm sorry, I've lost my train of thought. Looked down, looked back up, which probably for me it seemed like forever. I'm sure for the audience it was a few seconds, but for me it seemed like forever. And then the words came back. And when I walked off stage, I expected to beat myself up. I think that's what people would do. I did this wrong. I did this wrong. And I said to myself, stop. You just did what this much of the population could ever do. You're going to own it. You're going to be proud of it. No matter what anybody thinks about it. You did something nobody else could do. And I was so proud of myself. Because what I showed myself is what I was capable of being able to perform to the best of what my body was willing to do on that day, put the best performance I possibly could put together and feel so proud of what I accomplished. Like I went to the super bowl of speaking and I Hope the next TEDx I did, I improved incrementally and I hope that my speaking improves incrementally from here on out. Because now I understand how watching every one of the speakers around me has a little nugget to give to me. And a lot of people skipped out on that opportunity to go to the practice. Sometimes we'll have a practice, sometimes a dry run. Some people skipped out on that practice and they really gave up the Opportunity to learn how each and every one of those speakers was going to get better from that rehearsal to the next night. And the opportunity of the people that are around you in that room is such a cool experience. You will feel like, what am I doing here? I don't belong here. But I do, because I was there and I got picked, so I belong there. And stepping into that and believing that you belong there, regardless of what your brain wants to tell you, that is the biggest thing now. I will never say to myself, I don't belong here.
- [36:52]
A
That's beautiful. What you're talking about, how they wanted you to incorporate more of your story. And when we're thinking about, well, what do I actually want to speak about? Like, how do I find my niche? How do I find what I want to talk about? What would your advice be? Is it like leaning into your story?
- [37:09]
B
That is a huge question for people. I think people. That is one of the biggest problems you have when you sit, when you decide you want to speak. And how do you figure out who. Who wants to hear you speak? Who can you help? And I think that's the question. When you've evolved a bit as a speaker, you stop thinking about yourself and you start thinking about your audience. And that's one of the biggest ways to get over stage fright is, you know what? It doesn't matter what my hair looks like. My hair's good enough. My outfit's good enough. I started getting to a point where it's good enough. I am here to help one person in this audience. If I help one person, then I will have done what I came to do. So you really have to stop thinking about yourself, and you have to start thinking about the crowd. And again, people, niche down. I think a little too much. If you are teaching about how to transform a certain part of your life or whatever that may be, everyone in that audience can identify with having to transform at some point in their life. Don't overthink it. And I think people also overcomplicate it. Less is more. You may have three or four ideas you think you could talk about. Make that three or four TED talks. Pick one. Expand on that. Speak slowly and thoughtfully about that. Use examples in your life. Remember, everyone connects to a story. So I always say, use a story. I go to technical conferences and use a story. I'm sorry if I'm breaking the rules.
- [38:46]
A
Rules scientists, they don't like you.
- [38:50]
B
It is not what you do. And I do put a little bit of my personality in it, because I remember going to A technical conference when I was in grad school. And I remember hearing this entomologist. He was talking about different invasive species that were coming into California. It could be a very dry topic for people who don't like insects. I do. But what I loved about this scientist is how enthusiastic he was about something he loved talking about. And he was, like, overjoyed to talk about invasive insects. And it made everyone in the audience stop and watch him and learn and leave. You know, you left with a moment of like, huh, I could really get into invasive insects. Like, so for me, I also would listen to this podcast called Ologies, where they just interview different PhD scientists. And what I loved about the guests she chose is how much they love that little thing that they study and they're expert in and the exuberance they would feel about talking about what they love. And I always thought to myself, everyone loves science. Why do we make it so intimidating? Why can't we connect with our audience in a little bit? When you connect with that audience personally, they can understand and they're open to hearing everything else. I think we're too intimidating in the way that we speak, and we don't speak to everybody. We limit the accessibility when we speak. Too complicated. We assume everyone in the audience has our level of understanding of something. And I think that's something we need to move away from. And something I do when I'm at technical conferences. And whether people like it or they don't like it, I keep getting invited back. So I'm going to just roll with that. Yeah. And I think I've lost my train.
- [40:49]
A
Of thought just asking, like, about stories, but that definitely.
- [40:53]
B
Right. So connecting the story, even if. Even if it's just a little smidget here and there. And then additionally, you know, when you do a TED Talk, they also like to see that you can scientifically back something up. Up. And that could be as simple as, you know, you found a really interesting Stanford study that talked about the topic. Like, I was. I was talking about how nature really changes, you know, the way you think and. And makes you happier. And I found a really great study on rumination and having people walk through urban areas versus nature areas and measured their brainwaves and saw that their brain waves were relaxing when they were walking through nature and did not have that same reaction when they were walking through the city. So it wasn't the walking necessarily. It was that environment. So you can find different. Again, if you don't have your own personal stories, just start reading and start searching for different studies that are interesting and back up what it is you're trying to get across to the audience.
- [41:58]
A
So you're saying you don't necessarily have to be the researcher, but you can.
- [42:01]
B
Find things you don't and just understand that there are going to be different topics for TEDx, I think that are going to be impacted by lots of people wanting to submit their application. For example, like in the motivation space, the self help space. I think right now that is kind of very popular. So you're going to get a lot of submissions down that track. If you could find a way to fit into one of the other tracks. So I applied in the science track and then they took my science paper and said, we're going to make this more personal. But, but do you see how that maybe is a cheat code too?
- [42:37]
A
Yeah.
- [42:38]
B
Is, is, is to fit into one of the other categories.
- [42:41]
A
That's.
- [42:41]
B
So make it work for you.
- [42:43]
A
Oh, my God. Okay. Another cheat code I find really interesting is negotiation. So what are some of the things that you're negotiating? And obviously you've been speaking for a bit. You, you have, you know, your examples, you have your speaking resume. You're at a point where you can negotiate some things.
- [42:58]
B
Sure, sure.
- [42:58]
A
What are you negotiating?
- [42:59]
B
Well, you may have an idea of what you think you should get paid or what your ideal price point is for that speaking event. Well, what if they don't have the budget for that? What other things can you negotiate that would make you happy? Is it, hey, I want really high quality video. So you're gonna have a videographer there. I want my talk recorded. Can you give me three really great referrals? I mean, what else is important to you?
- [43:30]
A
Travel.
- [43:30]
B
Travel. Can you. Because remember, they have different buckets of budget, so can they buy a couple boxes of your book to give to the audience? Different ways to negotiate to make it fit in their different buckets. You know, don't just say, okay, I'll do it. Say, okay, but can we do this, this and this? And all of those things should be in writing. And you know, I would have date stipulations on them as well. Protect yourself. In the fashion industry, when I came across this, people love to promise things and then they didn't do them. Get it written in your contracts. How about they give a recommendation afterwards or something? You know, write you something about your performance. So there's a lot of things you can negotiate. Look at what you need and try and kind of fill that in. Yeah, great.
- [44:18]
A
Cheat code.
- [44:19]
B
Yeah.
- [44:20]
A
All right. Cheat code number seven. Oh, I love this one. You're saying there's no magic bullet. And it's not. If I had a better website, so there's probably a lot.
- [44:30]
B
Oh, my gosh. Procrastination.
- [44:33]
A
Renee. Once I have a website, I'll do it.
- [44:36]
B
Once I redesign the website, I do it. Once I start the podcast, I do it. Once I write that book, I do it. It. You pick it. I mean, we all do this in life. Pick it. I. I love this. You. You talk about this all the time. Courtney is like, what is the most minimal thing you need to do to get out there and do it? What? What?
- [44:57]
A
Tell me with your phrase, minimum viable product.
- [44:59]
B
Minimum viable product. What is the least amount you have to do to just get started today? Remember, that is just a way to keep us. That's our brain's way of keeping us safe. Safe. The brain is scared. The brain wants to keep us safe. So you are constantly fighting against something inside here that's trying to keep you safe. And you have to say, it's okay. I know you're taking care of me. It's okay. We're going to do this. We don't need to redesign the website. Use the one you have. You go in there and change a couple words.
- [45:30]
A
Make it your. Just use your LinkedIn.
- [45:31]
B
But Courtney, I need a better picture.
- [45:34]
A
Go take a selfie, whatever.
- [45:37]
B
Call your friend that day. Come over. We're taking pictures. Yeah, there are a million things that will stop you from doing, but I need a. I need a couple speaking events before I can apply for that TEDx. Okay. Elementary school, middle school, high school, three events.
- [45:51]
A
Go to your kids school.
- [45:53]
B
Guess what? Now you're an educator.
- [45:55]
A
Yeah.
- [45:56]
B
You're a workshop educator. Make it work. Work. Yeah, make it work.
- [46:01]
A
I hear that excuse all the time. It's like, well, I need this first. Or it's like, I need this qualification. I need to finish my degree. I need this or that. You don't.
- [46:09]
B
I can't start my. My, my LinkedIn because I don't have anything to post because I haven't graduated yet.
- [46:16]
A
Yeah, post about what you're learning.
- [46:18]
B
Post about what you're learning.
- [46:20]
A
Yes. And if you're same with switching industries, a lot of people will be like, well, Courtney, I'm switching from healthcare to tech. I don't know anything about tech. What am I gonna post? Post about what you're learning. You're going to be. You're. You can learn in public, and that still shows your expertise, and that's still going to show how you're helping. All right, I have two more cheat codes that I've learned from you. One is seeing your audience as friends who want to see you succeed.
- [46:42]
B
Oh, my gosh. This is the biggest fear people have is stage fright. What happens if I mess up? Okay, get out of your head. It's not about you anymore. The first couple times, it's about you. Trust me, you're not gonna be able to do anything else but think about you after that. It is your time to rise up and say, it's no longer about me. It's what I provide for my audience. And when you see those and when I say that, big audience, the TEDx audience, I felt the energy and the love coming at me. So when I froze up, I looked out and just saw smiling faces that looked like they're like, yeah, they want you to succeed. We judge ourselves so much more than people judge us. Think about your own behavior. When you are scrolling through an app and you see someone without makeup on, do you look at them and say, they don't have makeup on? You're listening to what they say. I judged myself so harshly because I'm 51. There are a lot of things happening here that are different than when I was in my 20s, and I've had to wrap my mind around that and accept myself as what I am today. And there are millions of people out there that look like me at my age and need to see people like me. Not being afraid. I would use it as my excuse not to post on social media because, oh, I don't want my makeup done. Well, the biggest time that I had to myself and with my thoughts was my 30 minute walk that I did every single morning for 277 days last year. Okay, most time I spent was that 30 minute walk. And I realized if I was really gonna do any social media before my 9 o'clock work day started, it had to be then. And I was also terrified of being video recorded. The minute a camera comes, it comes out. I could feel it inside. I would kind of cringe, which is really strange based on the things I've done in my lifetime. Right, right. I know that makes zero sense, but the fear of that camera terrified me, and I would nitpick myself. So I used TikTok as my learning tool because, let's face it, nobody's looking at you, especially when you don't have any followers. Nobody's watching what you're posting. So I would just speak to the camera. And then there was this process of watching it over and over and over and hating the way I looked, hating the lighting, hating the way I looked without makeup on. And when you put it into TikTok and it comes back with the closed captions, I realized how much I said and I got got better so fast because of that time that I spent realizing I said, and I'm walking. So then I would be like, all we're doing today is we're going to try to not say so. I corrected saying all the time I got over the way I looked and just put it out there. Once you put it out there at that point, hey, if I ever look good when I'm on the camera, that's just gravy. And the funniest things were that these posts were the ones that got the most traction. And instantly because I connected every morning with, hey, it's snowing out here and it's cold and it's miserable and guess what? I'm hopping on a plane in an hour and I'm out here walking. Commit to yourself. And you get out there and walk, you know you want to. And then what started happening is people would start. The funny thing is very strangers comments. Your friends never comment. Your friends send you a direct message and they say, you've inspired me to start walking. Or I would get comments like, hey, I have arthritis and it really bothers me every day. But I see what you're doing to do it for yourself. So I'm doing it for myself. Then I started getting friends sending me their own walking video. So it really became a fun social hour. My brother in law always comments like to me, he's always like, how's that walk? You get in your 30 minutes. And you know. And so it was then a really fun thing with my friends and family. So use these tools that you have. Just put yourself out there. Be embarrassed. You get over it.
- [51:06]
A
Did you walk this morning?
- [51:09]
B
No, we didn't.
- [51:10]
A
But here we'll do a block walk before we go home.
- [51:12]
B
Yeah, we should definitely do a walk. But we didn't do it because so I did it for a full year and so this year it was. It's not my goal anymore. It's a habit and I do it all the time. But I am. There are days where rather than out in nature, you know, my sister had this awesome trampoline in her house. So I actually did it on the trampoline watching TV with her daughters. So it was like bonding time. But I was showing them, hey, still my commitment. I'm here doing my steps on the trampoline. So try to mix it up for myself, you know, out of, you know, just not wanting to do the same. Same thing.
- [51:50]
A
Yeah, well, you inspired me, too. I love going on walks.
- [51:54]
B
Yeah. 30 minutes. And, you know, it doesn't have to be first thing in the morning for me anymore. I'm trying to up my steps, so I break it up. So I will walk at lunch also, and then try and close up my steps, like, in the evening if I have to. So, again, I can do that now because I built the habit so I don't have to be so strict on myself. But before, it was a matter of, like, proving to my that I could stay committed. And the strange thing around that is I found that I got so much more organized because I had to organize my life around that event. So if I was going to fly out that day, I travel a lot for work. If I was going to fly out that day, everything had to be packed and ready to go days in advance, even leading up to that evening so that I could make that commitment to myself. It really just taught me how to be extremely consistent. And just a little bit every day. Gets you to the goal.
- [52:47]
A
Yeah, I love that.
- [52:48]
B
Don't I look a little skinnier?
- [52:49]
A
You look.
- [52:50]
B
I feel like I look a little skinnier. I do, I do. It took a long time for me to feel like that, but I feel like I turned the corner, you know, I'm like, I'm gonna get on top of this perimenopause thing if it kills me.
- [53:02]
A
Yeah, you really, really inspired me. Seriously, I walk so consistently now because of you.
- [53:09]
B
That's good. I'm glad to hear that.
- [53:11]
A
So we have one more cheat code, but before that cheat code, I want to share an anti cheat code. I have a mentor that does a lot, and she told me, courtney, like, celebrate the moment, like, before you do the speaking. Like, drink a glass of champagne, be, like, all cute, whatever. And I did that. But then I was, like, so bubbly that I was, like, burping in my speaking event. And I was like, that's terrible advice. Don't drink bubbly things beforehand.
- [53:36]
B
Oh, before, I wouldn't drink at all beforehand. At least not for me, because it doesn't take much for me to start losing my train of thought and that type of thing get a little too loose. So. So, yeah, I would wait until afterwards.
- [53:49]
A
That was do that. Okay, Last cheat code, and that is focus on changing one person's life. How do you think about this?
- [53:59]
B
You know, that is why I changed my life. It could no longer be about Making sure people were wearing the up to date fashions and spending money on very high end designer goods. I wasn't helping anyone with that. And I tried to tell myself that for years and I just found myself getting more and more unhappy. But I can tell you I did my TED Talk about changing one young girl in my audience, a Girl Scout named Maya. She was at my very first talk and I was developing quite an audience at this, this nursery location. And I changed topics somewhat and moved into trying to teach people to garden sustainably. And I went back to that nursery because I kind of want to give back to them because they launched my career really in a lot of ways. And I came back to speak and I was a little disappointed because there weren't a lot of people in the audience. And I was like, huh, I guess my topic wasn't that great. Sustainability hasn't caught on, which is weird in San Diego. And when I started speaking, I looked out in the audience and Maya was in the audience. And afterwards her parents came up and they said, Renee, Maya is out of control. She's like speaking at her Girl Scouts. She's speaking at school. She had initially wanted to just learn about water wise plants and then heard about planting native and increasing biodiversity. And so she started emailing me and was telling me she had been researching this and this and what more information could I give her. So I planted that little seed and Maya was just like exploding with knowledge now. And I just think about what that means in the future, how many people that she's going to go around and touch. And if it weren't for like, it didn't matter that there were not that many people in the audience, but she was, you know, and that is what I talked about in my TED Talk. It wasn't about me anymore. My ego was like, I don't have enough people in the audience, you know. And then afterwards I was like, that was like the best. Like, I'll never forget that. And she'd also grown like a foot. She was probably taller than I was. But her parents were just so proud of her, you know, and it was just, just to be a part of that. That's the one person.
- [56:38]
A
Is there one person that inspired you?
- [56:41]
B
Oh, wow. Well, I think we'd have to go back to the scientist that was so excited about his science and made me realize that again, you pick up nuggets along the way and you don't know how they're going to influence you until later. And sometimes I get pushback from people who want me to present a certain way. And in the back of my head, I said, no, I want to be that scientist that people feel is, like, accessible, like, you can come talk to me afterwards. Something I said inspired you. I didn't speak in a way that was too complicated. I made this a topic that everybody could understand on the most basic level. And explaining that to the curators of an event in South Africa, they actually, that was the reason they wanted me to be the keynote speaker for their event, is I told them I would speak very simply about this topic of phytoremediation and how microbes help the plants clean up contamination. And most people don't even know what it is. Even though we're an audience full of scientists and engineers and project managers, I said, I want to speak very simply about this so people understand. Understand this and are excited about this. And then they went, renee, will you be our keynote speaker? So, you know, I think when you know you want to be something, just be it. And people are going to tell you otherwise. If you believe in yourself, that's all you need. Just believe in yourself, and it's okay if it's not what everybody else is doing. Just follow your gut. You know your gut. Your gut knows before you do. Yeah. Before you know it, you'll be giving professional birth on stage.
- [58:33]
A
Yeah. Well, Renee, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Where can people find you, follow you, maybe seek some mentorship from you?
- [58:43]
B
Yeah, absolutely. So on LinkedIn, I am Renee Murphy. Just look for the environmental scientist. I don't think there's another Renee Murphy who does environmental science. But I am midlife farm girl. All one word on instagram and on TikTok. And I don't believe TikTok's going away. We can say that it is, but I don't think it's going to. I think it's. Something will happen. I agree.
- [59:06]
A
I think it'll come back.
- [59:07]
B
I agree. So I'm. I'm midlife farm girl there as well, and I post different content there than I do on LinkedIn, because obviously, we have to keep a little more professional level on LinkedIn for my field. So. So, yeah, I saved the sillier stuff for my. My Instagram and my TikTok. So beautiful.
- [59:27]
A
Thank you so much, Renee.
- [59:29]
B
Thank you. Thank you. And please, you know, reach out. I'm always. I'm pretty responsive and receptive to people.
- [59:35]
A
So, yeah, you're gonna have some. Some LinkedIn messages. Okay, y'all, if you like this episode, you would love, love my Patreon. Okay? You get exclusive access to me, exclusive content, tons of other resources and a lot of juicy. Okay? So I hope to see you on my Patreon.