In this inspiring episode of The One Small Change, Yvonne McCoy sits down with Dr. Patricia Rogers to discuss the pivotal role of visibility, confidence, and authenticity in building a successful entrepreneurial journey. Dr. Patricia Rogers shares her personal experience of transitioning her business during the pandemic, the power of networking and collaboration, and actionable strategies for stepping into the spotlight—even when you feel nervous. Together, they debunk myths around public speaking fears, highlight the importance of showing up, and encourage entrepreneurs to embrace their unique gifts as the cornerstone of their brand and business growth.

Guest Bio:

Dr. Patricia Rogers is a powerhouse advocate for entrepreneurs, specializing in providing speaking platforms and promotional opportunities. With a background in empowering business owners to elevate their visibility both online and in-person, Dr. Patricia Rogers has been a relentless supporter of growth through speaking, collaboration, and authentic connection. Her work unites communities of professionals to help them gain leads, build relationships, and shine in their own unique way.

Chapters:

00:00 Entrepreneur Visibility Through Speaking

04:24 "Visibility Drives Entrepreneurial Success"

07:18 "Confidence Through Self-Belief"

10:49 Failure Builds Path to Success

13:49 "Owning My Space"

18:18 Authentic Networking and Relationships

20:12 Clarity Through Public Speaking Practice

24:42 March 20th Strategic Partner Event

26:40 "March 20th Event Reminder"

29:10 Embrace Nerves, Stay Curious

Quote from the Guest:

"My 3 things is going to be this: get up, suit up, and start showing up."

Links:

Complimentary Gift: Public Speaking for Success

https://drpatriciarogers.com/

Be Seen, Be Heard, Get Booked In 2026 Workshop - Complimentary Seats: https://ImpactSpeakers2026.eventbrite.com

Welcome to The One Small Change. I am thrilled that you've

taken time out of your life to be here today, and so we can be

on this journey of exploration and transformation with you. I'm your host,

Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience

and a passion for discovering growth through the power of one small change.

And I try to bring interesting people to you every week so that you can

expand your base of information and the things that help you

to to grow your business. And this week we have the amazing Dr.

Patricia Rogers, and she's gonna share with you

something that happened to her that makes her really good at what

she does. Hi, Patricia. Hi, I, I've gone. How

are you doing today? I'm great. I'm great. I'm so glad that you're here.

I'm really thankful. So tell everybody what it is that you do and

why you're better at it than most people.

Oh, wow. That's a good question. Okay, I'm Dr. Patricia

Rogers, and I am hailing all the way from McDonough,

Georgia, and by way of Florida. I grew up in Miami,

Florida, and I decided to move to Atlanta, uh, Georgia

area to, uh, build my dream home. Of course, every little

girl's dream, you know. So that's what I did, and I've been here for the

last 5 years. But what made it so special and unique,

Yvonne, was the fact that me having to make that

transition from Florida to here, it was not a problem. It

didn't interrupt anything because we were already online

living in a virtual world. We're already— the pandemic had already

set the stage for me, if you will. So all I had to do was

just continue to stay online. And no, my business was never

disrupted in the transition from one state to another. That's a

bonus. That's a bonus. Yeah. You know, because we complain about the pandemic, but

the reality of it is, I think right about now we all can say

that it has truly been an eye-opener and a door of

opportunities. And what I do is I serve entrepreneurs by

setting a platform for them to speak, promote their products and services,

increase their leads, make new connections so they can get

new clients. And how do we do that? We do that by setting these

speaking opportunities, whether it's a workshop, whether it's a podcast

interview, whether it's just speaking at an event conference, whether speaking

in person or or virtual. We have been doing that for over a

decade, setting platforms for entrepreneurs to speak, those who

understand that speaking is an investment into their business. And we take

pride in that. We make sure they look good, show up, we give them good

content, we promote them all across social media, and we

encourage them to do the same. Because, uh, if we're not there, as I

always say, nobody sees us. So with that, that's what I do in, uh,

in Unity in Service. And I have a social media team, and we

have a good time promoting entrepreneurs and

giving them more visibility on their

brand. So I just want to take a step back because you had a couple

of nuggets in there. So the first thing is, and I say this

all the time, your clients can't find you if you don't show up.

I mean, if you are afraid of them, you know, seeing what

you look like, you know, hearing you speak, which makes

speaking like one of the best ways to grow your business. So do you want

to Talk about that a little bit. You know what you found about

that? What I found about people who don't want to show up. I want to

make sure you could take either side of the coin, how

people who show up and speak do better than people who don't show

up. So you can, you know, I think that the things, the things that

keep people from not speaking are really more in their

brains than they are for real, for the real

clients. Yeah, yeah, we're programmed by society, and society has

always said that public speaking is the nearest—

people would rather die than to be public speaking. Sometimes something like that they

say. That's the biggest fear is public speaking. People fear public speaking more than they

do dying. That's how I say it. But you're right, if we

don't show up— and I always believe that events allows me

to speak to more than one person at one time. And I get people

on LinkedIn per se, for instance, and they're texting me, sending

me an in, in a DM telling me about what they do. And of course,

because I have all these events and we've, we have at least 8 to 9

events a year, and then I have clients that I've trained to host events.

So even when you come to my event, you're gonna have other doors of opportunity

open to be. And visibility is everything. If we are

not there, nobody sees us. And people cannot support what they cannot

see. So if we're not using social media, and I say that because many,

many entrepreneurs do not like to use social media, what we have over

the whole world is on social media on one platform or another for

whatever reason, whatever reason it is. So my point is this: as an entrepreneur, I

have to go where the people are. So this is why I'm so visible on

social media and have been for years. And I feel my

conferences with people flying in even as far as London because I was visible

and we posted content about the conference. If you— again,

if we're not there, nobody can support what they do not

see. And we need to get over the fact that we're scared, we're afraid, we

don't know what to say, because just like I'm talking to you now, I get

on social media, all I got to do is do the same thing. Everything is

a conversation. So you agree?

I agree. And there are a couple of things. I think the

biggest thing that I see as a mistake

is that people do not focus on the one thing that

they're trying. They keep trying to change what they're saying, which

means the people who see them the first time don't recognize them the

second time. And you never build that confidence in

yourself and become that familiar with your material.

So, you know, the more you do the same talk and, you know, that doesn't

mean it's exactly the same. It can, you know, wiggle a little

bit. But that gives you the confidence to speak. The other thing

is, I think that a good speaker, the,

the energy or essence that you bring for one-on-one that

makes people like you is the same thing you're striving for when

you leverage that and speak to a big

group. And, and I made that mistake. I mean, I had a client actually tell

me I was speaking someplace and she goes, I don't know who that person

was. That's not the same person that I speak to every

week. Right? Because I had put on my professional speaking

thingy, you know? So talk about, talk

about, well, talk about some of the successes you've had and some of the things

that people have to overcome to be comfortable

speaking. Well, I'm glad you asked that because I was listening to what you just

said and I wanted to kind of tap into that. So you can't—

that was perfect. Authenticity is very

important. Mm-hmm. I cannot be you and you cannot be me. And God

made us all uniquely and he already has our gifts laid out for

us even before we was born. So what we— then that's why

we as entrepreneurs, you and I both know when we talk about that

term discovering our gifts, well, when we discover our gift, then

that's when we can be our true authentic self. I can't do what you

do better than you do what you do. Because you do you,

you know, you can't do what I do. But so if we just

understand that it's not about competition, it's not about who's the

best, because whatever your gift is, you are the

best. And you're the best because you say you're the best. So what we

feed our mind is what we believe. And

this is why it's important to build our confidence. And how do we build our

confidence? We do that by constantly speaking over and over and over and over and

over, whether it's a podcast Whether today I'm on this podcast, you think

I want to come to this podcast today? Yeah. Yeah.

Did I feel like coming today? No, I want to still be in bed. But

guess what? How about that? Yeah, that makes two of

us. But the thing, I think the thing, you know, like

you said, I don't, I don't remember the word you use. The word

I've been using is we're conditioned, programmed is the word you

use. Right. We are programmed to kind of— I say

that we are programmed and conditioned to be

mediocre. People don't want people who have, you know, exciting

ideas or who want to do things differently and that kind of

stuff. And that's exactly what you bring

to your talk and to your clients that make them want

you. And like you said, I mean, I just want to reinforce These

are things that you were born with. You had them your

entire life. They showed up in school, they showed up with your

family, and every single one of those places, people probably said to you, we

don't do it that way, or for God's sakes, please sit still, or, you know,

stop interrupting with those ideas, or stop asking questions,

or whatever, you know, whatever it was. And I find that so

interesting because that's what I talk about in my workshop all the time, is the

gifts that you have, the unique powers that you have, that

combination is you, but everybody's tried to either educate it

or train it out of you, right?

Yes. And, and I know what you're saying, uh, and I think it was,

uh, Marianne Williamson said that there's nothing enlightened

about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around

you. And that phrase, when you made that statement about some people don't want you

to shine— I'm just going to use the word shine or or be,

be, you know, be, be energized. Absolutely don't want that.

But let me say something about that. That's very true. We know that to

be true. But what I want to tell my listening audience is, how do you

get over that? How do you get over that is

you don't want those people anyway. You don't need their seal of

approval anyway. Because see, the reason they want to water you down is because they're

not doing anything themselves. So you're making—

they're feeling insecure on their own free will because of what they

see you doing. They know they're capable of doing it, but they're not doing it.

So now they want to water you down. Well, let me tell you how to

fix that problem. When you, when you, when you network and you

network intentionally, and when you're out there building relationships, whether it's

online, in person, intentionally, you have to target your market. And

we hear it all the time. I don't even want to be around mediocre people.

I want to be around people like you said, Yvonne, they have the same

energy of more. That I'm

exerting. And I think when I say energy, I mean passion for your business. I'm

not talking about being all loud like I am and all, you know, happy, and

I'm just— this is just me. Yeah, I'm just me. No, I'm

talking about that passion that comes with running your

business. And the, the thing that I want to add to that

is I think you're absolutely right. There are people who are threatened by

you, um, you know, and you know, what you are capable

of. But I think that maybe the more

insidious is the ones that you got in childhood because

your parents actually and your family actually did that to keep you safe

because they loved you. Right. And, you know, the story that

I jokingly tell, one of the biggest things that I had to overcome was

the idea that I could— that failure was okay, that failure was

actually a step towards success, a necessary step,

Because my family was very much like, you don't do it unless

you can succeed and be like a shining light, right? And the story

that I tell is when I ran for student council, my mom said, don't do

this. And I'm like, why? She goes, you might lose. And I go, Mom, there

are 5 other people. There's an 80% chance I'm going to lose,

right? She did that because she loved me and she didn't want my feelings to

get hurt. Those are the ones I think sometimes that are a little bit harder

to get over because we don't realize how deeply ingrained they are.

But as an adult, you get a

combination of both. You get those childhood things and you get those people. And

I absolutely agree with you that you do not

need to be the person to put yourself

in situations where other people make you feel less. I think

Marianne Williamson said something about don't let your— or was it Maya? And, you

know, don't keep your light under a bushel basket. You

know, and, and I believe that that's true. And I

think when you can— tell me what you think of this, okay? So I think,

I think too many people do not realize that

their message is really going to

help somebody and change your life. It's going to save them time, it's going to

save them money, it's going to save their health, it's going to save

their business, it's possibly going to save their relationships.

That what you have to give is

important. That's right. That's

right. Yeah. And I think when you can— when you see that,

that gives you the confidence to know, you know, sure, I may not hit

it off with everybody in a, you know, in an audience, but if I

can help at least one person, yeah, then I've done

something. Yeah. And that's where we have to put our faith in to

action because God called us to do. He gave us the gifts,

and when we use the gifts to his glory and his honor, he will lead

us and direct us. You know, um, it's just like if we make our

kid a dress, you know, we made the dress, she may think

the dress is designed backwards, but we know we made that dress, we know how

that dress supposed to fit, and then when we turn it around, oh, okay, I

see, see. So when we trust the process, we won't have to—

we, we can get through all of that other stuff. Because I'm gonna tell you

something, I'm glad— I love this topic. Everybody not

gonna follow you anyway. Everybody not gonna follow me.

It's enough people out there to go around for everybody. But

I do want to own my territory, because if I don't own that

little space he gave me, he gonna give it to

you, and I'm gonna be 38 hot. So I'm going

to hold my space so he don't give it to somebody else,

and I'm gonna honor it. So whatever people he put in front of

me— that's why I say we can't look at people, uh, you know, I've

been trying to get 100 people on my platform since the pandemic. I think the

most I had was 80 on a virtual platform, okay,

that actually show up. I've had 100, 150 registrations, you know

how free events are, but they don't show up. So

I— and I've been asking God for that for the longest. I— every— I work

so hard every event to have have 100 people because we push, we push,

we push. I use text message, I use Facebook Messenger, I

use my phone, I pick up my 500-pound phone, I use my

DM on LinkedIn, I use my— I'm on TikTok, I'm on—

I got a team that push. And that has been my prayer for the

last few years, and I never get that 100, but I

get 150, 100. I've gotten 200 registrations

before. Yes. So this year I'm gonna say that— this year I'm going in, it's

a question you asked me, I guess I go ahead and tackle it now. What's

special thing that has happened to me that was new? Can I answer

that now? Yes, ma'am. That was a question

you had asked me the other day, and I'm— I want

to answer that now. What I did new and

different— I'd always network with, with, with, with

intention. I started putting it out on the platform. I'm looking for some co— uh,

people who host events. I'm looking for entrepreneurs who host event

hosts. That has a community because I want to

collaborate. I threw it out there a few times. Guess what? Nobody bit

the bullet because I network a lot, at least 4 or 5 times a week.

These little 90 minutes here, 90 minutes there, you know, whatever. But

guess what? It came to me in the most unexpected

way on LinkedIn. This guy accused me of taking his

platform on Meetup because they offered his

platform because they needed a leader. I answered the response and it was

a mistake. So he saw me on LinkedIn, he said, you

hijacked my platform and I want it back. I'm like, what is

he talking about? I ain't know what he talking about. I'm not even on Meetup,

but I just saw it come through my email. I was like, I don't know

who that was. Come to find out, he got it back and he texted me.

He said, hey, I got it back. And I said, I didn't even know what

you was talking about. Do you know me and that guy had a

one-on-one and he and I have collaborated.

We've met. He has a platform, Speakers Co-op. That's Eric,

uh, Jeff Klein. You may know that name. Yes, Jeff Klein

and I, we're combining our, our events on

March 5th. Then here comes Phil the Connector.

Yeah, these people have platforms, and these people,

when they met with me one-on-one, they saw the vision and they

said, let's do it. And this is separate, separate meetings. So all I'm saying is

that's what's new that we're doing this year. On March

20th, we're going to combine those platforms and communities.

I'm going to the events now. I dropped a little affiliate link in. It's just,

it's just, and it's a test. It's a test. I don't know them. They

don't know me. They don't know my work ethic. I don't know theirs.

But sometimes we have to step out on faith. And that goes back to what

you were saying earlier, getting over that

stigma or those misconceptions that our families have left

us with. No matter how we got in the funk, they always

told me it's up to me that I get out of it. How about

that? Okay. I want to— before we run out of time, there are a couple

of things that I want us to talk about again because I think they're

important. I think the first thing that I want

everybody to remember is that the best way to be

seen is to speak. And there are a multitude

of ways that you can speak. You don't necessarily have to start out

on you know, a big event as a, you know, a featured speaker. But there's

no reason why you can't, right, if you have a message.

But you— but I think speaking starts when you first start to

network. And, you know, one of the things that I found really interesting

was because I didn't really start networking until after

the pandemic. I never really liked it. I, you

know, but one of the things is when you show up regularly with the

same message, people in those groups. I mean,

I find it so amazing sometimes when people will go, if you haven't talked to

Yvonne, you need to talk to her. You know, that comes from nurturing

your relationships and being authentic.

And you don't know who you— what you

say that somebody will remember a year, 2 years,

3 years from 3 years ago. And I think that— so the

first way to show up is just, you know, go to networking

things, that kind of thing. The next thing

is, besides big events, what other

ways, you know, for me, one of the things I suggest is that you make

your own stage, have office hours or something where you can show up once

a month and people know how to find you, right? And when you're

networking, you say, oh, I have office hours, come and ask questions or

whatever. Um, and I'm sure there are a lot more ways, something between having office

hours and having your own workshop and doing a big thing. What,

What suggestions have you got for that in-between stage, if

any? Yes, that's right. And I'm going to add in too,

also, we already know podcasts is definitely a

speaking opportunity. Yeah, I was waiting. Yeah, we know that based on the

fact that we're here now. But I want to add also that every

time that we get a chance to speak, it's a speaking opportunity, which I'm agreeing

with you. So sometimes people don't count

certain things, but I want to throw in there magazines. When you

are in a magazine, a door of opportunity open,

take advantage of it because you have to talk about you,

what you do, and how you serve humanity. And

sometimes that helps us if we don't have our story together, it helps us

get it together. Anytime we put us on black, on black and white, put

it on paper, we are more clear. And I think I heard

you say that at your workshop the other day, something about clarity. You got to

be clear, you know. And so the more we do

anything like you're saying, for this public speaking, through networking,

definitely networking like you said, because most events

nowadays, virtual events, they're going to let you do a 60-second

infomercial, some 30 seconds that prepares you. That's

public speaking. My coach, Bill Walsh, Power Team USA, used to tell us all the

time back in 2017, He said anytime you do something about 100

times, he said you're an expert. Well, I done exceeded

that. And so I'm just saying, it's not just that being on a

platform public speaking, it's so many other ways that you are

publicly speaking. Even when you go live on a video, when I go live and

I'm out my car and I'm live, that's, that's

public speaking, you know.

So it's just so many ways to do public to get

your message out and get your face in the crowd like you're saying and look

the same wherever you go. That personal

profile should never change until— unless you change it one place, you need

to change it everywhere because you're right, you can, you can confuse the

people. So, so the thing that I'm going to say that I always say is

take some action, even if it's a small

step, because that action will lead to bigger actions. Because you take that

one step, you will become more confident. Opportunities

will open up for you and you will get better. And I think

that— yeah, yeah. And you're right, the more you speak it, the

better you sound, the more confident you feel, and the

better that you connect. You said something

that I really wanted to go back to, and now I can't remember what it

was. All right, so let's just do this just to kind

of recap all of this. You gotta show up, you

gotta speak. I know you talked about, you talked

about this very early about leveraging speaking to more than one,

and that's, that's really important. I think especially if you're

a solopreneur or you're just starting out, it is very hard to build a

business all by yourself. And so, and

so if when you collaborate with other people, whether it's affiliates

or you join other people's events and stuff like that, It will

help you grow your business so much faster

and it puts you in proximity of other experts.

It elevates the way that you come across by

the people that you associate with. I mean, do

you agree with me? Absolutely.

Absolutely. If you, you know, if you say, you

know, your, your audience knows you. So when I, when I promote

something, You know, I say I'm speaking, but I really want you to hear from

this person, this person, and this person, because that's going to

elevate me with the people that, you know, that I'm hanging out with. I'm

introducing my audience to new people so they can get new

ideas and, and, and get clearer on what they're doing. So just

real fast, before we run out of time, I had said to you I was

going to ask you 3 things that you think are important for people to

do. To help grow their business. And we're talking about visibility and speaking.

So whatever 3 things you think you want

people to take away. Actually, we've covered it

all. We have. We covered some great territory, you know, and I love it. I

love it. And so if I could just say everything that we covered, I'm going

to sum it up in 3 words, like you said, 3 things,

and it's going to cover everything that we've talked about. My

3 things is going to be this: get

up, suit up, and start showing

up. Okay, that's it, that's it. There's nothing else

to do. You already said it, you got to be on other people's

platforms. Doors of opportunity open when you go, go to these events because you're going

to get a chance to have your voice heard. When your voice is heard, people

see your face, they can put a name with a face. We've already covered it

all, so the only thing left for anybody that's stuck to

do is get up, suit up, and start showing up.

And start— and we want you to start on March 20th.

Okay, so let me ask you this, um, did you bring a gift for

us? Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Tell us about that because we definitely want

to get that. Okay, again, back to

March 20th. That's— this will be our second of 8 events for the year,

and we're going to be giving— having an event where we're bringing

4 strategic partners who have platforms. We're all coming together

and we're going to post that event together so that we can give our

entrepreneurs, our attendees, our speakers a bigger pool of

people so that we can make a bigger impact, you know. So this is

what we're doing. This is what our goal is. All of us have speaking

platforms basically, or have some type of, uh, a product

or service that will get you even more visibility. All of our

attendees will receive, as well as our speakers, a copy of the

actual email list of attendees if and when— if

they attend the event. So nothing for nothing leaves nothing. This is

a free event. Only way people get those bonuses, they're going to get

a copy of the replay. It's not an upsell replay. They'll just get

the replay because we want them to go back and look and hear those messages.

And definitely our speakers get everything, and all of this content, our

content They also receive a copy of the chat that has— that's going to have

at least 20 or more leads in it. Um, so we just want to

set everybody up as a win-win. And when we

collaborate, any of us, even you by yourself or me, when we host

these events like you hosted the other day, we always,

always are raising the value for those attendees who get up sooner and

attend the events. So that's what we're doing on May 20th. And if they want

to get a— wait, wait, wait, wait, did you say May or March? March. Did

I say May? Yeah, March 20th. If they— I'm— thank you for

catching that. If they get— look at that link below my video right here,

right here, the link right there below my video,

impactspeakers2026.eventbrite.com. That will take you to Eventbrite, book your seat, and come

on, y'all, let's shake up the house on May 20th from

45 You, you talk about me confusing you.

It's March 20th, right? Because you said May

again. And the only reason I, I want to correct you is because it's coming

up soon from when we are recording this. So I'm going to

put that in the Sunday Scoop so people will be able to see it that

don't see the podcast. And also, will you give us a link so

people can get to your website in case they can't make that event?

And, you know, or they get to it after the, after

the March 20th. My

website, you can give it to me afterwards because I'll put it in the notes.

But I just want to make— I just want people who may hear this, you

know, 2 months from now to know that there is a way to get a

hold of you anyway. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. All of my website pages have a calendar

link on it and they can go on the web page, they can They can

look at the speaking opportunities there. They can look at our past conference, that

in-person conference we had this past year in 2025. And

they can also select to be in the speaker

program that we offer them as well, so they can speak consistently for

the remainder of the year. Because consistency is

important. Very. All right, I got to do the ad. So for

all of you that are here, thank you. And I wish you would take another

step and subscribe, share, and engage on social media about

the podcast. You know, the reason that I did this was to help

you supercharge your business through connection and connect you with people

that maybe are not in your world right now. It's my way of giving back

to the community, and I hope it's also going to help

you to fuel your quest for growth and impact. And I hope you'll

continue to join me with the One Small Change and embark on

this journey, because we all want to help people with

monumental transformations. You can also listen to the first and

my individual podcasts that are sprinkled in there. And before

we leave, Patricia, I want you to reiterate as

your last words your 3 things.

My 3 things for success is to

get up, suit up,

and show up. OK. So that's easy

to remember. Everybody remember that and make that your marching

orders. This has been fantastic. And as always, we always run out of

time with our guests. I just want to say this as we end

up. Remember, the change is simple, but it's not always easy. It

requires courage, resilience, and a willingness to step outside your comfort

zone. If you're not feeling a little bit nervous, at least for me, if I

don't feel a little nervous, it means I don't really care. So I'm

just, you know, coming in on automatic. So don't

feel bad if you feel a little uneasy. Step out of your comfort

zone and continue to Join me on the one small change. And

until next time, stay very, very, very curious. Thank

you, Patricia.