Speaking and Communicating Podcast

but no one's going to show up how you're going to show up. No one has your lived experience. No one has your exact knowledge. So your voice is needed. Welcome back to the Speaking and Communicating podcast. I'm your host Roberta. If you are looking to improve your communication skills, both professionally and personally, this is the podcast you should be tuning into. And by the end of this episode,
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please log on to iTunes and Spotify and leave us a rating and a review. Let's get communicating.
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And speaking of podcasting, my guest today, Kristin Quiroz-Bayona is a podcast coach, host of the Podcast and Amplify podcast, a content strategist who specializes in helping women, especially and entrepreneurs overall to start their podcasts and use their voices.
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Before I go on, please help me welcome her to the show. Hi, Kristin. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Thank you for being here today. Welcome to the show. Yeah, I'm happy to be here. Thanks, and please tell us a little bit about yourself. And I'm sure there's a lot more to your credentials than what I just mentioned. I live in the beautiful coastal town of Santa Cruz, California.
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I'm near the ocean, which I love. It's like where I get calm and centered. And then I'm also near the redwoods and I love hiking. I have a dog, dog mom and two cats. So I'm not a either or I love most animals and fuzzy things. I've been married for, I think we're coming up to 25 years. Wow. It's going to be a big one. Yeah, that's a big one. That's a little bit about me personally.
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And as far as my career, so I spent about 15 years in corporate marketing and communications. I worked for mostly design firms with clients that were large tech firms because I worked in right smack-a-lunola of Silicon Valley. So you throw a stone and you can hit one of the, you know, big tech companies. I love parts of my job there.
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But the corporate structure I realized wasn't really the best fit. I didn't really see myself climbing the ladder or politics I felt came along with being in that space. Um, but that was just me personally. So I was looking for something different. I started a travel blog in 2019 and I thought, Oh, this is great. I can have a creative outlet and kind of explore what's going to be my next step. I did that for about a year and I felt like I'm not connecting with anyone. And connections are real.
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important value of mine. I like to connect with others. I'm an introvert, but I really like the sort of one-on-one conversations, the real deep connections. And so I was furloughed in 2020 because of the pandemic. And I thought, I think this podcasting thing might be my next step. And I had loved listening to podcasts and I'd still love the fact that
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I connected so much with other people who I thought were so dissimilar to me through their stories. I would listen to guests and think, oh, they don't have anything in common. Like I don't know reference with this person and they would share something and it would just resonate so deeply. And I thought that is powerful. And that's the kind of connection I want to create. So I started my first podcast, the travel podcast, and I really focused on sharing stories.
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of travelers that I wasn't seeing necessarily. I was kind of seeing one note. There's so many other people who travel and have these experiences. How can I help promote that and share that to encourage other people to see themselves in travel? So then I realized through that experience, I really love podcasting. I have this comms background. I can actually help other people start podcasts. And one of the things that I did at my corporate job before I left was to help
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develop thought leaders and really sit with a leader, tap into what do they know, what are their strengths, what are they passionate about, and then help them share that message, get them more visibility. And so I thought, oh, I can do that with podcasts. I can help business owners, entrepreneurs to share their voice and their message through this one specific medium that I so love.
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And then I also have more business focused podcasts where I continue to bring on underrepresented voices just in this business space and the coaching sort of personal development space as well. When you talk about how you didn't feel like corporate was the place for you as a person, I always say everybody's different. Yeah, 100%. Where I'm at now, you know, I could see potentially doing maybe more consultant work or freelance work.
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Continuing the business, maybe working part-time at some place. Like I think what this experiment just opened my horizons to other possibilities. But I am someone who likes dynamic situations and I have very close friends, family in my life where this path is not for them. And I totally respect that. And I think you, everyone just needs to find the place where they feel they can be their best selves.
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but also knowing yourself and what your needs are. Yeah, self-awareness very key. And talking about traveling, I always say it's the best teacher. What has been your experience? Oh, I just love learning through experience. I am a learner at heart. It's what drives me in everything I do. And to be out.
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in the world, physically, you know, in habit space, right? How you pick up on other people's energies. Every place has an energy to it. Tourist area, the energy is different in the summer than it is in the winter, right? When we have all these people here in this energy. So you go different places and you can tap into that from physically being there and just learning from other people. I've always been someone interested in other people's perspectives. I've been fortunate to have some really great experiences.
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living abroad and just traveling to some really great places and just kind of learning how to be a citizen of the world. I think that's really important to get outside of your area and understand other people. You have to agree with them, but you can just understand where they're coming from and how they move through the world. That's another reason to travel, right? To just go. That way you can see it through your own lens and make your own decisions.
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and not be so fearful. I think there's also a little bit of fear mongering there too, but the unknown can be exciting. You can reap a lot of rewards. The unknown, speaking of entering the entrepreneurial world, that's the unknown. So would you like to take us through your journey of living corporate and becoming an entrepreneur and deciding what it is that you wanted to do? Yeah. So I really didn't think I had any other path available to me when I was in my corporate job, I just.
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didn't see any other path. The pivotal moment was when I was sitting at my desk, I had this light bulb thought in my head, it's like, this is not where you're going to thrive. This space is not where you're going to achieve like your fullest potential. And that's what I want. It's like, why else am I here on this planet if I can't achieve that? And I just so clearly saw the disparity between
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who I wanted to be in this world and how I wanted to contribute and move through it and this space, it felt very confining and boxed in for me and how I wanted to show up. I hired a therapist, I hired a business coach. We did have these really fabulous wellness weeks where they would bring in like really healthy food and they would bring in masseuses and they would do fun classes for us. And I thought...
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Okay, this is going to be the impetus, because I've been thinking about it for a long time of, you know, I need to take care of myself, I need to figure out my next step, I need to feel unstuck. Okay, you're taking care of yourself now go get the support that you need. And through some of that work. That was in, I think, 2016, I started to realize that there were other opportunities available to me. And I started getting really curious about, you know, what could that look like?
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How could I kind of like step out out of this lane and pursue something different? So that's why the blog started, because I thought, well, start with your creativity, start with something you love. And maybe that will lead to something you don't know. The pandemic was a real, I technically still had a job. So basically it was almost like my job was on pause. They weren't paying me, but I was able to collect benefits. So I had this unique opportunity to not have to look for a job and
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be paid and I was like, wow, this is kind of what you've been asking for, for the past year. I kept thinking, what can I do with this blog if I only had more time? Let it rest in it. Yeah. So weird. I was sometimes a little funny saying that because I know the pandemic has been extremely hard for everyone. It's like this weird opportunity at this time that when I had been seeking it and I better make the best of it. And so I just kind of got to work and I knew there was something around podcasting and I started my first podcast.
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Completely uncomfortable. I wasn't used to being visible and using my voice. And I had struggled with it for awhile in my corporate job. I would, I did toast masters and I try to put myself in positions to speak or had to, because I knew it was hindering me. I could look around and see, Oh, people who have the confidence for the skill to show up in front of people and speak. They're being sought after. They're.
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getting opportunities. I couldn't deny that it was something that I had to work on. I think all that experience helped, but throwing myself into the podcasting world where I had to, it was my show. So I had to show up and do it. That definitely really helped me get comfortable using my voice. And then I realized, oh, I can help other people use their voice. And that's something I really love, love doing is helping to amplify other people's voices.
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because there's so much meaningful connection that can happen when you're sharing your story and someone else resonates with it. There's nothing like that kind of connection. So that's what I do now is I help people to create those podcasts that are gonna create community and really build aligned audiences that they can hopefully eventually become customers and clients. You have just outlined the very foundation of this podcast which was...
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Nobody tells you that when you think you're smart and you got A's when you were studying, you think it's just going to be this up going corporate life and finding experience. And it's not that way. Like I said, people who speak up, people who show up, because they are the ones who are remembered and that's what we keep emphasizing. Thank you for highlighting that, because that's what we always, always say on this podcast as well. So when it comes to amplifying voices, some of the entrepreneurs that we've met, what are the challenges when it comes to amplifying voices?
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comes to speaking up about their passions and how they want to impact the world. Yeah, I see two places where clients come to me and they feel overwhelmed. For podcasting, of course, it's gonna be the tech. That's gonna be one issue. But as far as using their voice, that's the second thing is feeling like they have almost like permission to share their voice. And it's so funny because I've worked with some really
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Some of them are already doing some speaking and it's something about the podcast where after we work together, they're like, I'm so grateful that I work with you because I'm still feeling like nervous about sharing their voice. And I've had a couple of clients say, it's the validation that you give that I should be sharing my voice. And it blows me away because I'm like a thousand percent you should be sharing.
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what you know because you're amazing. And you sound great to me, but it doesn't matter how accomplished we are. I think getting over that imposter syndrome can be really hard. Owning your space can be difficult, especially if you're from a community that hasn't historically owned your own space or been given the mic. I think that's another hurdle that some people face, some of the entrepreneurs that I work with face in not seeing yourself.
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In that space, it's really difficult to kind of be like, well, I guess I'm going to be the first one. You know, it's kind of hard to be first. So that's kind of one of the things that I definitely still see. And I love coaching people through that, giving that validation and being able to show people that yes, there may be a dozen podcasts that have a similar topic, but no one's going to show up how you're going to show up. No one has your lived experience. No one has your exact knowledge. So.
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your voice is needed, also be able to share data. You know, there's one study I found recently, it was like 40% of, I think it was women of color are, like they still don't feel like there's podcasts out there for them. And they want that representation, right? They want to see themselves in the podcasting space. So I just like to encourage people in life and know that your voice, no matter who you are, is important and it's needed.
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It's interesting that you say that and I started podcasting October 2021. You've actually just made me feel a little more confident that I should keep going because there are times when I think, you know what, I'm never going to rank as high as Joe Rogan or, you know, there's a million podcasts on Spotify talking about communicating and speaking. It's what am I doing? What's the point? Yeah. And I think what's so great about podcasting, it so lends itself to
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the smaller voices to the niche podcasts. And those are the people that are going to be really dedicated because you're speaking really specifically to them and their experience. So that's why I really encourage people to not think about, and then also, you know, comparing is always dangerous, but we all do it because it's a human thing. Yeah. It's because we're human.
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So, but I just encourage people to think more about like the impact and who you want to reach and how you can be the voice for someone who maybe doesn't have that voice or they're just looking for someone to validate their own experience. You can be that person for someone else. And then also podcasting, it's a fantastic piece of content that you can repurpose across all of your platforms. So if you're a business owner and you have social media and you have YouTube like you do and
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You have an email newsletter or you also have a blog, you have a website, like this content is gold. You know, you're starting with your voice, you're starting with something that you're really passionate about, then you get to share that in so many different ways. So that hopefully saves you some time. So if you're not on that content creator hamster wheel that we all dread and can sometimes be familiar with. Being a content strategist that you are.
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Since the pandemic, obviously, like I said, a lot of people felt this pressure, let me start an online course, I'm good at this. Have you noticed that there's just this more copy and paste repetition? Is that how it's supposed to be? Are we being too harsh by saying, wait a minute, everybody's starting to sound the same? I don't think so. I totally hear what you're saying and I've seen it too. I've seen over the last couple of years, I think...
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felt the exact same thing, like, oh, everything is starting to sound the same. And then you add in chat GPT, my prediction is that things will start to sound sort of homogenous, you know, the same again. And I think it's all pendulum swings or cyclical even. There are going to be times where people come out with fresh energy and new ideas. And then those people will start adopting those ideas. And then we all start to sound the same.
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And then you get another cycle of new, fresh ideas. I think that's just how things work. It makes sense because we can't always have new ideas. Like that's, it's not sustainable to always be innovating, right? And always have the fresh new thing. I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to do that constantly. And it's like, no, we need, we have cycles. We need to rest in between and go read a book.
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or go watch a really engaging show or go travel so that we can refill our coffers, so to speak, and have something new to say and to draw on. So we might see even a little bit more of the same, but I think people are smart and we'll just start demanding, which I can feel we're doing now, we'll start demanding something different and maybe something fresh. And then some of us will rise to the occasion and start creating that. So that's my...
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view of it and just having been in communications for so long. I love your perspective. But then the question is if we all sound the same, how do you stand out? Yeah, that's a great question. It's important to draw on your specific experiences when you get really specific about your experience. Usually there are universal truths that come out that people can relate to. It's like, I can get really specific about my story and what
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going on with me, but like I mentioned earlier, the stories from people who I thought I had nothing in common with, there was that universal truth that resonated with me. So I think to really differentiate yourself, it's important to tap into things like your values, I believe you should leave with your values. And those might not be unique to you, but they're going to resonate with people. And then how can you layer in your own personal experiences, layering in any kind of growth that you've gone through?
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kind of meaningful moments in your life. Anything that sets you apart, you as a human, because you are unique, you have your own individual experience and perspective. It's kind of like that idea of going inward. Like you know who you are and you know what you bring to the table. It's just tapping into that and bringing that forward. You as a human, that's your most unique and your experiences is your differentiator. And so how can you bring that into
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how you share your message. I think a lot of us think, oh, leading voices are just how maybe these letters after their name or certain amount of experience, but there are so many other things like knowledge without wisdom is not very impactful, right? Or knowledge without perspective and experience. So I just think a really good way to differentiate yourself in a meaningful way is just to add depth and richness to what it is that you're saying.
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So coming back to that statistic of 40% of women of color feeling that a lot of podcasts don't cater to them. You can just start a podcast. You don't need capital for brick and mortar business. Is the solution for them to start their own podcasts and be the voices that they were hoping someone out there was already representing? If you feel compelled to use your voice in that way, podcasting is not for everyone. Not everyone wants to use their voice.
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know, some people want to show up differently, but if you kind of feel that call to podcast, that's who I work with. It's people who are like, I want to share my voice through this medium. I know this is how I want to show up. I mean, there's a reason why you're being called to do that. And you can, it's such a great opportunity to exactly what you said, create what you want to see. I know I did that with my podcast and, oh, I want to see more diverse voices. Okay, I can create it.
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and they can create the change that you want to see in the world. I mean, that's really powerful. So if you're feeling called to do that, it's a really impactful way to reach other people and to create that change. So you also do speaking as well. What have you found in your experience of the three top tips that distinguish a great speaker from a good public speaker? Yeah, I think someone who is really connected to their message. Like, it's so important for me to.
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have an impact when I speak, that was really hard for me at first because what I was kind of sold, what a lot of us maybe see as successful speakers are people who are really charismatic, like showmen, you know, and they're just like on and you're drawn in and that is one way to show up and it's one way to draw people in. But there's also a really powerful sort of magnetic quality in showing up like
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fully behind your message. And I find this when I speak, it's like when I'm just so deeply connected to what it is that I'm saying, and I'm speaking from the heart, I'm kind of like a truth seeker, so I'm kind of sharing those truths, as some people also lean in, but it's just like a different way, but they're like, yes, tell me more.
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it was hard for me to speak about things I wasn't super excited about. So I realized that's why I had so much trouble in my corporate job, it was because I was talking about things that I wasn't necessarily super excited about. And so when I started pursuing speaking around topics that I was really interested in, all those nerves and that anxiety that I felt, kind of feeling of not wanting to be seen, largely melted away. I mean, I had to do other work around confidence.
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And public speaking is a skill, right? That we can all improve on. But a lot of that other stuff that came up just really melted away once I was really connected to my message and what I was sharing with people, knowing that it was gonna have an impact. So when you host the podcast and amplify podcast, the entrepreneurs who you give a voice to them using your platform.
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What are some of the positive changes that have come from being given that voice? So much. The show lights me up. But what's also great about podcasting from a business standpoint is that it's a great networking tool. Yeah. So you really get the opportunity to continue those relationships. You get to sort of grow them organically, right? Because you have a focus about what you're talking about. But then so many of the people that are on my show.
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I continue to send them other podcast opportunities or we collaborate, we'll do a live, we'll do a share or something. And that's one of the best things about the podcast because not only am I amplifying their voice, but I'm also able to amplify them in all these other ways and then build the relationship. So for me, I didn't actually think about that when I first started my podcast. Then I started realizing, okay, that's like such a great added.
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Benefit as a business owner, it's such a great tool to have. Also, when I'm networking, I can say, Hey, you know, I meet someone really great. And I'm like, I really want to connect with this person again. I have something really valuable that I can offer, you know, and say, Hey, I think you'd be a good guest on my podcast. Obviously I'm choosy about who I invite on, but it's nice that I know that I have that in my back pocket when I meet someone really stellar.
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That is so true about the networking part. You know, the KLT principle, people work with people they know, like and trust. I've built some relationships and networks from the podcast where if somebody says, oh, there's a speaking opportunity here. I know Roberta, Roberta, contact this person. Or I'm thinking of doing this. Roberta, come with me, let's do a live together. Let's do a webinar together. It's based on the relationship we.
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built after the show, that's usually how, like you said, there's just this organic partnership, friendship. It's such a beautiful thing with some of the guests when you realize, wait a minute, we just, like I said, hit it off immediately, yeah. It's such a beautiful thing. Yeah, and it's like a year later, it's like, oh my gosh, how did we meet again? Like we're, now we're best friends. So last words of wisdom for anybody who,
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still doesn't fully grasp the magnitude of how impactful podcasts are, what would you say to them? Well, I talked about, you know, the ability to share your voice and connect through stories and help other people feel seen, which is really important. I also talked about having it be a content goldmine that you can use for your business or your brand. And I also wanted to mention too that, you know, for me, public speaking was difficult and I did do some trainings with people, but
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You're someone who feels like you're maybe you're hiding a little bit and you're not super comfortable. You're maybe you're an introvert like me or highly sensitive, empathic person. You know, podcasting was the thing that made me feel comfortable enough to apply for that national podcast speaking opportunity or that first paid speaking event because I had spent two years really honing my voice.
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I was practicing sharing through my content, in my solo episodes, I was practicing speaking. So I was doing that every week on my show. I was practicing with interviewing people and I was showing up. The podcast made me accountable to show up every single week. And that is a huge advantage and way to hone those skills because anyone can be a public speaker. I really believe that.
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It's just a skill and my path to speaking on stages was literally through podcasting. So I just want to mention that, you know, people are still feeling a little trepidatious about seeing themselves in front of people speaking. There are paths that you can take that don't look so traditional. You don't want to start your own podcast. Go on other people's podcasts.
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and just do that consistently and show up for yourself and learn these ways of speaking. That's the other power of podcasting that I really wanted to mention here because your path can look however you want it to. And just to offer my story as an example, like podcasting was my path to the stage. Thank you, Kristin, for highlighting that. As we always say, public speaking, practice, practice, practice, and...
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Standing on stage or looking in the mirror while you practice is not the only way anymore. You can just go and show us what it is basically storytelling. So if you go on different podcasts and you tell your story, that's good practice for eventually standing on stage. That's a very beautiful way in which you put that. So thank you for that. Making that connection. Words of wisdom from Kristin Quiroz-Bayona, the podcast coach, the host of Podcast and
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content strategist who works with entrepreneurs to amplify their voices. Thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you so much for having me. I really loved our conversation. I enjoyed it immensely myself. And before you go, we can refine you online so that we can continue to follow up and learn more from you. Yeah, so you can go to podcastandamplify.com. That's the website and then you can say hi to me on Instagram.
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at Podcast and Amplify. I'd love to hear from anyone who heard something here that resonated with them. For sure, podcastandamplify.com. Thank you so much, Kristin. Don't forget to subscribe, give a rating, and a review on iTunes and Spotify, and stay tuned for more episodes to come.