A Book Launchers YouTube interview (Julie Broad) with Carol Cox of Speaking Your Brand about turning a nonfiction book into a signature talk for TEDx or paid speaking gigs. They describe aligning a talk’s core message with the book, using three‑act story structure and the Hero’s Journey to build setup→confrontation→resolution, practical mapping (storyboard/post‑its), layering engagement elements, and common speaker mistakes (not customizing for the audience). The video includes promotional CTAs and resources.
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Authors do you want to do a TEDx talk or get paid to speak? If you want to craft a great talk that gets you on cool stages making some coin, this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie, the book broad from Book Launchers. We're your professional self publishing team helping you write, publish and promote a nonfiction book that will help you have a huge impact on your readers. And done right will help you grow your brand, build your business, and make you money. The best part? You keep all rights and royalties. At Book Launchers, we work with a lot of authors who are writing their book to expand their speaking opportunities or they want to evolve into being a paid speaker. Writing a book when you want to be a speaker is really, really smart. A book opens up a lot of doors for speaking and it gives you another tool to get paid. In a future video, we'll be talking about how to use your book to get paid to speak because our authors have done it in some really, really clever ways. And I can't wait that with you. But today I've got Carol Cox, founder of Speaking youg Brand, a coaching and training company that helps women find their voice and create a signature talk that gets them on TEDx stages or paid speaking gigs. And she's going to share some tips to help you create a great talk around your nonfiction book. So the first thing I ask Carol is how should an author figure out what their signature talk should be? If you've watched my videos before, you know I like to look at chapters as possible talk titles or even potential workshop titles. But does that mean if you have 12 chapters in your book, you could have 12 different signature talks? Let's ask Carol.
Hi, I'm Carol Cox, founder and owner of Speaking youg Brand. Your signature talk topic will be, and really should be the same as your book so that they reinforce each other. What is the core message of your book? What is the hook? What is the different approach that you have related to your topic?
What often happens after you develop a signature talk is that you now have that core story that you can use to plug into different lessons or training elements into your talks. So if you do have six chapters of your book, that would make great courses or workshops or standalone talks, you use that signature story to build connection with the audience while you teach them the steps or lessons that you have to offer. So, Carol, where do you start?
When you sit down to create your presentation, staring at a blank document or slide on your computer is no fun. Where do you start? What comes next? It would be so much easier if there was a step by step process. Well, there is. After working with many entrepreneurs on their talks, I developed our Speaking youg Brand framework. And it takes classic three act story structure in the Hero's Journey and integrates it with marketing and sales techniques.
Okay, let's pause here for a second. Just in case you're not familiar with the three act or the three arc story structure that Carol's talking about. The first act is the setup. This is the inciting incident. It's the thing that sets you off on your adventure. For Alice in Wonderland as an example, it's her curiosity that sends her off on the adventure. Another classic is Alec Baldwin's speech in Glengarry Glen Ross. Sell or be Fired. Always be Closing. Basically, it's that call to adventure that leads up to Act 2. Act 2 is the confrontation. This is where things get intense. It's often the midpoint, but generally it's when a lot of things just pile up on top of each other and really create a challenge that seems insurmountable or like you're just never going to overcome it. And then Act 3, the resolution. It's really the lead up to the resolution, the climax, the denouement. It's where everything gets ideally, in my world, wrapped up with a nice little bow. Carol also mentions the Hero's Journey. Our client, Scott McMillan put out this fabulous book right here. Be the Hero of youf Life. If you're looking to dive more into the hero's journey in your life, this is an excellent read. So now you've got that foundation. Carol's gonna help you apply it to your talk.
Why do we like to watch movies and TV shows and read books? Because they take us on a journey. They start us with a situation, something that is going wrong, some kind of tension, and then it builds up and then it resolves. That sit. Resolves that tension at the end. That's exactly what your signature talk can do as well. For your audience. Act one is where you set up the situation. In this case, what is the audience's goal? What do they want for themselves? Their lives, their career, their businesses, their health, their relationships? Whatever your area of expertise is, what is the obstacle that they see is in the way of them achieving their goal? But what is the real problem underneath that they may not recognize, but you as the expert, as the author on this topic, have realized is the real problem. Here's where you're creating that tension for your audience. And then an Act 1 is also where you bake in your credibility. Why you are uniquely suited to talk on this topic. Act two is your big idea. Your approach, your framework, your methodology, your solution to that real problem that you presented your audience with in Act 1. Because you've written a book, you already have a lot of content to pull from. If you have a framework or a step by step process that you lay out in your book, take a few components of that and put it into Act 2. Integrate some audience activities, questions, things that they can do, as well as client examples in your own stories to make it real for them. Act three is the resolution. This is where you give your audience next steps, things that they can do on their own, and then things that they can do with you. So your call to action will be for them to purchase your book. It could also be for them to hire you or or your company. And you want to make sure at the end of Act 3 to leave your audience with inspiration and motivation to help them see that better vision for their future that you see as possible for them.
Now, Carol has a really cool way of doing this with her clients. Check out the storyboard she uses to map out a talk and layer in cool elements that make a talk engaging.
You can see behind me and here, this is a poster board of one of our clients talks mapped out from beginning to end with these colorful post it notes. This is the framework that we use. You can grab a poster board, some post it notes yourself, and then map out your talk from beginning to end. You'll also want to add layers to your talk. Layers are things like enhanced stories, third party credibility, humor and emotion, multimedia. You can include video, audio clips and music, as well as props and costumes, which can be a lot of fun.
That's really cool, isn't it? You can see how your talk will take shape when you do it that way. Now my final question for Carol is what mistakes do you see authors making when they go to turn their book into a talk and start stepping on stages? Her advice here is gold. I hope you're listening.
The biggest mistake authors make, well, really speakers in general when they're invited to give a talk is to not ask for details from the event organizer about that particular audience. What does that audience want? What are their goals? What are their challenges? Where are they in their journey related to your topic? Because you want to customize your examples and the questions that you have for the audience. By doing so, your audience instantly recognizes that you appreciate and understand their particular situation, their goals, their needs, their desires, and what's in the way.
It's so true. When you listen to a speaker who gives you examples that are relevant to you or your industry or where you're at in your life right now, you're going to relate to that person so much more than the person who uses the same stories for every audience. Now, if you want to learn more about creating your talk, Carol has a great podcast called Speaking youg Brand and you can visit her at her website, speaking speakingyourbrand.com please smash that thumbs up button to thank Carol for her time and insights. Have you created a talk around your book? Let's chat about it in the comments below. And when you comment the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some sweet book launcher swag like our NoboringBooks mug and our oh so soft journal. We have new videos every Tuesday and Friday, except in the summer when we take a wee bit of a break. You're really fun. Do you want to keep hanging out? This video right here is one that YouTube thinks you'll enjoy. And this video right here is an author spotlight with Ryan Berman, who has some really cool advice for authors who are writing a book. To get paid to speak. Go ahead, click on the one that you want to watch. I'm going to put the coffee on and I'll see you over there.
