Announcer: Welcome to behind the mic presented in part by CAPS, the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. This podcast is dedicated to recognizing excellence in speaking through fascinating stories and interesting conversations with the people who make the speaking world come alive. Now please welcome your behind the mic hosts Roxanne Derhodge and Carl Richards.

Roxanne Derhodge: Hi, everyone. It's our Roxanne Derhodge. Welcome back to Behind the Mite podcast. Today, have a very special guest, and I'm going to welcome my cohost, Carl Richards. I'm a CAPS member.

Roxanne Derhodge: I've been a CAPS member for about, oh goodness, almost ten years, and I'm a mental health and wellness strategist that loves the podcast environment, but also our CAPS people. So over to you to Carl, who's gonna tell you a little bit about Adara.

Carl Richards: I'll tell you all about Adara. Thank you, Roxanne. And, Adara, it's so great to have you on the show. Now, Adara is an award winning TV show host, director, and producer at create Spiro Creative Inc. She also received the Community Spirit Women of Worth Award back in 2023.

Carl Richards: As a marketing consultant, she empowers passionate, purpose driven entrepreneurs to elevate their businesses. Her best selling memoir, Free Spirit, explores the connection between self love, chaotic creativity, and leadership. With over twenty years of expertise in TV, radio, you say, I spent some time doing that, video promotions, marketing, and business, Adara has witnessed remarkable individuals hesitating to step up into the spotlight, which is sometimes hard to do when you're feeling a little bit trepidatious to do it. With infectious energy, she reignites passion, reaffirms unique gifts, and enables confident message sharing to reach wider audiences. Adara's transformative guidance leads others to fulfillment and contributes to reshaping the world.

Carl Richards: And we're so glad she's here today. Adara, welcome to Behind the Mic.

Adera Angelucci: Thank you. And that's reshaping the world for the better. I really want to create positive impact and change for everyone to feel accepted and loved for their uniqueness. And enough with being beige, okay, and following suit. Time to be your unique self, please.

Carl Richards: I didn't think it was making change in the world for the worse. Good. Great. We're good at doing it for the better. I'm so thrilled that you've got this passion and this energy behind you to empower people to do just that.

Carl Richards: What was it that led you to this media background place? I know what got me into media. What led you there?

Adera Angelucci: When I was in high school, I declared to all my friends that I was gonna have my own TV show one day, and they all laughed. And I was like, oh, no. I've got this. And I did a co op with Breakfast Television. I think Global they were under at the time.

Adera Angelucci: Or who did Breakfast Television? What was the anyway, Rogers maybe. Anyways. And I walked in there to the producer of BT and said, hey. I want my own show.

Adera Angelucci: This is what I have in mind. I was 21, and she was like, girl, go get some experience. Okay? This isn't how this works. And I was like, well, how does this work?

Adera Angelucci: And you couldn't go to, like, BCIT to become a TV show host. I was either, like, a newscaster, which I didn't wanna wake up at 2AM and get hair and makeup done and read off a teleprompter. I wanted to be myself. I wanted to get paid to be myself, and I didn't know where that opportunity was. Over the course of all the years and all the different things I did, which is all in my book, Free Spirit, I finally landed my own TV show at thirty.

Adera Angelucci: And it aired on Czech TV out of Victoria, and I had an 8PM time slot on Thursdays, which is the same time as Friends, so no one watched it. But it was amazing that I actually made my dreams come true. And then from there, now cut to fourteen years later, how did this happen? But I own my own video company now with my husband, Ryan, who I met through the TV process. It's all very documented inside my book.

Roxanne Derhodge: My goodness. My goodness. You thought about this enough to be able to want this in high school, right? And I think, I would say a lot of people don't have that kind of vision or sense of what they want to do. So you made it happen.

Roxanne Derhodge: What steps did you take? Because I met you, right, and spent, was it about three days with you, and you are the real deal. You are who you are.

Adera Angelucci: I am who I

Roxanne Derhodge: am. So how did you kind of channel that at an earlier age, Adara, to be able to be kind of landing where you are now, working with entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurs specifically to be authentically themselves.

Adera Angelucci: I think you're right, Roxanne. In school, I don't know if it was like this for you, but there just wasn't a lot of options of creative ways that I could put myself out there. I had ADD. I call that adventure, determination, and desire. I really wanted to try things and do things and learn things.

Adera Angelucci: And I I didn't wanna work for Safeway like the rest of my family for my whole life. And I didn't wanna be a dental hygienist, I wasn't gonna be a lawyer. I wasn't gonna go to school. I was acting kind of drama, and then you were trying to find something where you could just feel fully expressed in your work, which is really what I'm all about. And so it was a long road.

Adera Angelucci: I'm not gonna lie. It took way longer. I thought I could get a TV show in six months of graduating high school people. It was a solid ten years of trying a lot of things. I had about 60 something jobs.

Adera Angelucci: I got fired from a lot of them too. And you know, it was a whole learning experience. But all of that collage of stuff I did led to this moment and led to learning that I really love video. I really love helping people feel comfortable in front of a camera. Video is so crazy good for explaining who you are and what you do in a way that you really feel connected to the human versus a still image.

Adera Angelucci: And it's way easier for me than speaking publicly, even though I do speaking. I really much prefer video. And I love teaching people about it and making them feel confident to show up that way because it's a fabulous way to get your message out, get that know, like, and trust factor to anybody in the world.

Carl Richards: And I wanted to mention too, you're right, that journey into conventional media, radio, television, it's a slog. Even if you've been to college, you're in all the right places, it takes for forever and a lot of people don't even make it. So the fact that you made it through other channels is phenomenal and you've landed in a spot too where there's no better time to be embracing, especially video, I'm in the podcasting space, but embracing video it's so top of mind these days for speakers, coaches, entrepreneurs to be putting their brand and their business face forward, not just print forward, but face forward.

Adera Angelucci: Mhmm. And video and there's so many stats about how when someone sees a video, they're, you know, 69% more likely to buy your service, how they feel more connected to the brand through video. You could go on and on. Look at those numbers. It works like a hot dang.

Adera Angelucci: And people just feel really uncomfortable speaking to a dead, like, lens that's, like, staring in your face. They can't seem to, like, connect to a human, and I teach different strategies on how to do that. Put up a picture of somebody you know by the camera, or don't, like, stare at yourself. A lot of people do that when they're speaking. They'll, like, look at themselves.

Adera Angelucci: And I'm like, no. You have to look at the blankness of that lens and somehow feel a heart over there that is listening to you. And the more you do it, obviously, the better you get, even though I've spoken for a long time and I feel like I get worse. But that's only because I just constantly go in thinking, oh, my talking points are fine. I'll figure it out, instead of actually thinking about what I'm going to say.

Adera Angelucci: Mind you, when you do do speaking on video, it is easy for most people to think of what they're going say in a concise way. It actually trains you to get your point across quickly versus yammering on like you can when you do a keynote per se. So I wanted

Roxanne Derhodge: to pick up on that whole concept, right? So we know the video, like I can think of the videos that I do in my business and how much eyes, impressions and eyes can But we were talking off camera just before we all got on about some people want, I want a brand, but maybe it's a little bit not them.

Adera Angelucci: It's all the time.

Roxanne Derhodge: Kind of branding, authenticity and video. Kind of what you see out there with people that are wanting to do more video, but maybe they have a little bit of an incongruence. How do you kind of work with people like that?

Adera Angelucci: Okay. First off, whatever you think you're supposed to be or however you think you're supposed to show up, it's all baloney. Just throw it out the window. You need to be you 1000%. And if you don't know who you are, go do some spiritual work, go figure it out, go find someone that can help you sit with yourself and really feel what it is that you're here to express on your time on the planet here.

Adera Angelucci: I'm big on this. I'm big on being able to understand what your expression is here to share so that you feel like you've had some sort of fulfillment or alignment in your life's work, what you were here to give others, how you chose to show up. You do not need to wear a blazer if that's not who you are. You don't need to say anything in any kind of way because of whatever sort of thing you think people want. What people want is your heart.

Adera Angelucci: They want your genuine self and you cannot be your genuine self if you're not being genuine and authentic. And people can't really connect to you truly until that happens. And I'll tell you, over the five or six years that I've been working with a lot of women, I just have the best relationships with the people that I work with. And I feel like that is because I show up as who I am, that gives them the space to show up who they are. And then we've created this like gorgeous synergy, sometimes collaborations on things.

Adera Angelucci: It's just a really beautiful, growing, evolving experience versus working with people that I don't connect with well, but we're in it for the money or there's like a transaction there. This is really like our hearts are aligning and we're doing work in the world that is hopefully elevating humanity in some capacity. So that's my tip there. And then just learning how to be yourself on camera takes practice. And I get this often from high paid speakers.

Adera Angelucci: They have this certain persona that they want to show and they don't want to show themselves in their comfies or with it not looking that brand. And I say that people can't really connect to your high heels and your Gucci bags all the time because it's not our life. Our life is real and it's a facet of emotion and spectrum of how we are. So you have to show all the dimensions of your humanity. You can't be this polished perfect piece.

Adera Angelucci: That isn't what a personal brand is. A brand is how you make people feel when you're in a room. It's how, when I leave your presence, how you made me feel. That is what a brand is to me in, personal branding, and that is only gonna happen if you're real with me.

Carl Richards: How hard is it though in your experience, Adair, for people to get there? I mean, I hear what you're and I'm assuming that everyone else is hearing what you're saying as well. And it sounds okay, it's all I have to do is be me, but yeah, how difficult really is it? And again, I come from a place where I spent a number of years in broadcasting and you want to talk about stepping into a persona, like you almost had to do that every single day and when I got into speaking people would say just be you and I'm like I am me. No, you're putting on your radio voice.

Carl Richards: So how hard is it for people to just allow themselves and I'll even go a step further and say especially women because I find that women are attached a lot to their families and their careers. Do you find it's really, really hard for them?

Adera Angelucci: Sometimes. I don't know why I have a way with people. I think it's because of who I am maybe, but somehow they do drop their barriers with me and they do allow me to do things with them that are more in alignment with who they really are. So they start to see it and then they start questioning if that's the right choice. And that's the piece where I think it's like stepping into yourself and being like, does this feel good to me though to say this or do this?

Adera Angelucci: Does this feel like we have to start thinking not about how it's going to land for others, but I know because we do spend a lot of time thinking about how is my ideal customer going to hear this? Or how can I speak to my ideal customer in words they understand? And I go against the grain there and I go, well, it's not connecting with you, then it's not going to connect with the person that you really want to serve. So if it feels fun for you, and you have this lightness about it, and there's this freeingness about it, and the way that you're showing up just feels really like juicy for you, then just go with that. Go with the good feeling.

Adera Angelucci: You put me in heels and a blazer, I'm just going be a miserable person because this is not who I am. I'm a boho chickee girl. I want to meditate and talk about that.

Roxanne Derhodge: You are on the West Coast.

Adera Angelucci: I am on the West Coast. Yeah, yeah. Do eat a lot of greens. And also, I was saying this last night at a talk I was doing about how I had this anxiety attack, panic attack, whatever you want to call it, right before I was about to speak to this huge group. And I didn't know why it was happening.

Adera Angelucci: And after I integrated the feelings, I realized it was that I wanted to be more spiritual in my business. I wanted to talk a little bit more about the connectedness of everything and the consciousness. I knew I was going to lose clients if I did this. And what happened was I did lose clients doing this, but I also gained new ones that were more aligned with my message and they saw the path to me more than they did before when I was not clear on who I worked for and with. And I've been able to cultivate cooler relationships with these people than I could have with the ones that I was working with prior to.

Adera Angelucci: So it takes a risk. Victoria Labalm talks about this all the time. Risking Forward, her book is amazing. And that's exactly what it is. It's uncomfortable and it feels weird.

Adera Angelucci: But when you start doing it, you allow others to start doing it too. And then we're not all kind of doing the same thing or acting in a way that we feel like we have to. I'm just I'm so over that.

Roxanne Derhodge: So the prescriptiveness that a lot of people would think, right? Yes,

Adera Angelucci: the prescriptiveness. Sounds like

Roxanne Derhodge: have to do this, and then I

Adera Angelucci: have to

Roxanne Derhodge: do this, or I often say, as a brand specialist, I think people should you should be the same identity, regardless if you're the hockey rink or if you're down at the local pub or if you're at the camp or whether you're speaking on stage or doing a coaching session. So sometimes I think people struggle with that. There's an incongruence with, I have to be a certain way because I think that's what the market needs to see. Now it's about resilience or now it's about burnout and people kind of try to morph. And I think to your point, what that does is it cuts off people from seeing who Adara or who Carl is because you're going to always find the people that really, really want to deal with you if you're truly authentic.

Adera Angelucci: And even last night, too, that's one reason why I don't like public speaking as much as I love video, because I can see in real time how people feel about me as I'm speaking when I'm talking to a group versus on video. I don't get to know if you liked me or not, or if this message resonated, and I don't care. When they're looking on their phones and stuff you're like oh I gotta pick it up like what can I say here to like capture these people's attention? But at the end of the day and the end of the talk I go you know if I connected with two people that want to work with me that's awesome and I hope inspired everyone in some capacity, but if, you know, they're not my ideal client, this is the way it is. I'm not going to impress and impact everybody.

Adera Angelucci: You're not for everybody, and that's okay. There's enough of us to go around that we can own our own uniqueness and expression and way of showing up that is true to who we are and know that there is enough misfits for me. They're misfits. They're ones that want to push against the grain that are trailblazing that will find me. They'll be so grateful for me because they can attach themselves to me and think, Oh, I'm not alone on this crazy entrepreneurial ride that I've chosen to sign up for, which I call the biggest personal and spiritual journey of all time.

Adera Angelucci: And I have somebody that's kind of doing it too, and we can do it together. You'll always find your people when sit in your uniqueness.

Carl Richards: And I think you've hit on something big there because we see that in CAPS. We see people who are we're all a group of misfits. Guess maybe a good way to put it is we all bring our uniqueness to the table. Some are really good at platform speaking and they love it and they thrive on it and they're really good at it. Others are great with video.

Carl Richards: You know Roxanne's good with what she does on her podcast. There's so many different ways to look at this and bring those unique gifts forward and not say, I have to if I'm speaking on a stage, have to do it like this because that's the how the way you speak on a stage. And be in that place of, shall we say comfort? I know that's a bad word to say in business, but you need to be comfortable in your skin and in what you're doing and know that you're making that connection and you're making a difference.

Adera Angelucci: I wanted to just share one story with this woman I'm working with. She came to me through my marketing consulting with her research that she had done around the demographic she's trying to attract. So she's trying to work with like 55 plus women. And she went on Google and asked what kind of colors they were attracted to and asked what kind of verbiage they're into, and she's an exercise therapist. And I was like, but do you like any of these colors?

Adera Angelucci: Does this resonate with you? And she's like, not at all. I hate it. She's like, I'm a hot pink teal kind of girl, and the colors were recommended like a dark blue and something else. And, anyway, her website just looked bland.

Adera Angelucci: And I was like, this isn't who you are. I'm like, you're vivacious, and you've got this energy, and nothing is showing this to me. And so we whipped up some new looks for her, and she was so nervous about putting it out there because she's like, what if nobody likes this and blah blah blah. Anyway, cut to a week later, and she's like, everybody's oh my god, this is amazing, and you know, I didn't know you did all of this, and it's like, duh, why would you not do something and show up as something that feels so good to you, right?

Roxanne Derhodge: But I think as women, though, Adira, you know, we're socialized to such a point to be a certain way, right, to show up in a certain way, and I have to act in a certain way, and I have to wear the pumps and the pencil suit at the corporate meeting, and I have to wear this suit if I'm on the stage. Oh, there's all these con-, and we have to act a certain way as women. We- It's unfortunate. Working with female entrepreneurs, what you're, I would say, it sounds like you're doing is deconstructing what the societal norms are and saying

Adera Angelucci: Patriarchy. Right.

Roxanne Derhodge: Who are you? Who really are you? And what do you want the world to see? Because they will come if you believe who you Yeah.

Adera Angelucci: And think about it. I have this one indigenous client who has to wear the Manolo Blonix or whatever and have the Louis Vuitton handbag because otherwise she won't be taken seriously. And I think, god, that is just such a shame, and it hurts my heart. And it's not like that, obviously, for everybody. But I do want to break that, Norman.

Adera Angelucci: I do want to break that stigma that we have to show up as any way. Because the more we do that and the more we speak this way, the openness, the acceptance, allowing people just to be who they are and be enough, right? Goddamn it already. You don't need to do more to be more. And then it's going to break down little bitty bits everywhere.

Adera Angelucci: And then everyone can just be free to be them and be appreciated for what they bring to the planet. I think that's where I want to be. That's the world I want to live in.

Roxanne Derhodge: Sounds like an amazing place to hang out.

Adera Angelucci: I know, right? Come to my events. Yeah. For everybody to stay. Come to the events.

Carl Richards: Exactly. CAPS has

Adera Angelucci: been so lovely. If you're not in CAPS and you're a facilitator or a trainer or a podcaster or a speaker, it is such a cool group of folk who really do support each other and lift each other up. That's been my experience anyway, and I just am a full CAPS fan and a president, a mini president of the BC chapter.

Roxanne Derhodge: A mini president. A president of the BC chapter who has brought such breadth and depth to CAPS.

Carl Richards: What is a mini president?

Adera Angelucci: It's like a mini banana, a little mini banana. That's an inside joke for anyone.

Carl Richards: Okay, I'm like, what's a mini president? Okay, you're not the big, the grand president of the

Adera Angelucci: No, not the grand president.

Carl Richards: You're the mini banana of the organization in BC. There are some great things that are coming out chapters all across the country, having an impact on not only our stages across Canada, but on global stages. And not just stages, I mean, say stages meaning not just the physical, but virtual stages, workshop facilitators that are coming in, who are in caps and do some amazing things in the world too. So thank you for your contributions and what you do and how you continue to inspire people as you go. Tell us about the book a little bit before we go.

Carl Richards: I want to dive into the book.

Adera Angelucci: Oh, wow. That's so thoughtful of you, Carl. This took me like forty years to write, and basically it was so hard to write a book. You really have to sit down when you've got ADD and just focus. But I did it, and it is such a cute little read.

Adera Angelucci: I've been told many times that they kind of polished it off in a weekend or at the pool or whatever, and it's a laugh out louder, which is fun. But it literally is my story of being a child with just a curious mind and being reprimanded so often by authority because I always wanted to challenge the status quo, and I didn't know why we were doing the things we were doing. Then how you take this little person and try to fit her in a box, and that wasn't going to work. And then all the cool experiences that I had that led me to where I am now. And, yeah, that's basically the story.

Adera Angelucci: And I'm hoping every little chapter asks you questions about your life. And what I'm trying to do is uncover your leadership style and who you are meant to be and who you're here to serve in the world through reading it. So, yeah, that's the book.

Roxanne Derhodge: So it's pretty amazing. I listened to your path. This little girl, I can't imagine what a little button you were, found the path. And my hope is to anyone listening that's out there, and let's say you're starting in the speaking field, Adara is a good example of following the pebbles in the road. Because if you have a message, which we all do, and you want to share it, I'm going to invite you to come and hang out with us.

Roxanne Derhodge: Meet someone like Adara who can get you more authentically connected to what you need to put out. Carl can teach you the speaking voice of being on radio and doing it so well. But there are influences. There's people that are doing consulting, training, speaking, and, like we said, keynote speakers. It's a place to hang out for the spoken word.

Roxanne Derhodge: We have a lot of fun East to West Coast with chapters throughout Canada.

Adera Angelucci: So good. And I just want to say in closing, because I was hearing you and thinking, entrepreneurs or people, who have dreams and desires to experience things, there are so many avenues in which you can go and you can always see what other people are doing and think to yourself, Oh, I should be doing that. Or like, How come I'm not figuring that out in my business? Or how come I'm not making that much money? And I should be I should be and blah, right?

Adera Angelucci: It's crazy. And what I what I've noticed over all the years that I've been entrepreneur is you have to constantly just kind of keep checking in with yourself and being like, but am I enjoying what I'm doing now? And is it it doesn't look like that person. And that's okay. It's okay for wherever Lane it's just constantly being okay with where you're at, and your own path.

Adera Angelucci: And I think CAF is a great way to see so many different avenues and ways that people are working their speaking business and finding yours, right? Like you do not have to follow anyone else's way. And you can just learn, just learning the confidence and the real steadfast in your own heart that what you're doing is enough. I know I said that already, but it's really important that you know that you both are enough as you are, and so am I, and it's good.

Roxanne Derhodge: And if we need to get it along the way, we have other people reminding us that we are enough because it's such a beautiful community. So I'm just going to tell you if you can get ahold of us, then I'm going to let Carl send us off with a couple of last words.

Adera Angelucci: If you

Roxanne Derhodge: wanted to come and find out more about CAPS, go to canadianspeakers.org. It'll tell you everything. We have a phenomenal academy. You'll see all the podcasts. You'll see we have monthly events.

Roxanne Derhodge: You can gain so much information. And if you're ever just looking to see another role model that may be speaking in the area that you might want to speak, go check them out. So Carl, I'll hand it over to you and we'll send our lovely guests along her way.

Carl Richards: Yeah. Thanks, Roxanne. It's been an amazing conversation. Adara, you are a gem. It's always a pleasure to see you, to chat with you, be at convention with you.

Carl Richards: It's always a blast every time you're here. So thank you for taking the time out of your day to share your message with us. Hey, we post content for the podcast every single month. So we have inspired you. As Roxanne said, do reach out and we're looking forward to seeing you.

Carl Richards: Thanks again, Roxanne, for joining us on yet another edition of Behind the Mic. We'll see you next month.

Roxanne Derhodge: Take care. Bye, everyone.

Adera Angelucci: Bye bye.

Announcer: Thanks for listening to behind the mic presented in part by CAPS where members are driven by the four pillars of Learn, Share, Grow, and Belong. If you liked what you heard today leave us a comment or a review and so that you never miss an episode please subscribe to our channel. Be sure to join us again soon for the next edition of Behind the Mic.