Meet Carolyn Daughters | Brand Strategist, Writing Instructor & Tea, Tonic & Toxin Podcast Cohost

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carolyn Daughters and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carolyn, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
The more you act like a living, breathing human being and recognize others around you as living, breathing human beings, the more you and all those others reveal who you all are at your core. At the end of the day, people do business with people.

It’s all too easy to forget.

I’ve got to admit that I’m Zoomed out these days. When I have a chance to meet up in person with peers and prospects, I often suggest we ditch the “Nice weather outside, I had a good weekend, I’m fine, and how about you?” For the record, I can’t picture your “good” weekend, and you can’t picture mine. I like to dig a little deeper. Where possible, I often suggest we embrace the art of storytelling. Just for a few minutes. Just to make the conversation more memorable and more real.

I like the name game. (I have loads of stories about my name. You probably have loads of stories about yours, too.) And I like the “here’s what happened to me this morning” game. And the “here’s what makes me feel hopeful” game. And the “best book or movie I’ve read/seen of late” game.

A few years back, I remember attending a networking event where everyone in the room took seats at eight-person tables. The moderator told us to introduce ourselves and the services we provide. We each gave a 30-second pitch. We had ten minutes allotted, so I suggested that we circle back around and spend the remaining six minutes talking about our shoes.

When I lead in-person brand strategy and persuasive writing workshops, I often play the shoe game with attendees. It’s sort of complicated. First you talk about your shoes, and then … No. That’s it. You just talk about your shoes.

But because it’s really about the art of storytelling (and the art of what it is to be a human being and a human listening), it’s about the shoes and it’s about anything and everything but the shoes.

Always the schoolmarm, I modeled the shoe game for my table of eight. “I’m wearing 4″ brown leather heels with a platform sole and a side zip,” I said. “They are awesome. Not only are they fashion forward, but they’re also made with Nike technology. I could outrun y’all in these things like in that scene from Flashdance where Jennifer Beals tears up 20 flights of stairs past Michael Nouri, who’s having a heart attack on the landing below. ‘Yo boss man, seems you can’t keep up with the welder class,’ Jennifer Beals yells down to Michael Nouri before hurling a strappy pump at him in a failed attempt to restart his heart.”

At least that’s the way I remember the scene. It’s possible some or all of that didn’t happen. I have a lot of trouble recalling film plots.

Next, one by one, six of the seven other people at the table talked about their shoes. They had stories about wifely purchases and bargain buys and a desire to return to the velcro of childhood. One guy was wearing the shoes he’d worn at his wedding in his wife’s hometown just outside Nashville, Tennessee. One woman bought her shoes while on vacation in Italy and only wore them on carpeted floors (she changed into sneakers anytime she hit the pavement). One guy said he’d owned the shoes he was wearing for years. He’d purchased them on sight and though they turned out to be a little too big he’d never returned them. “I hadn’t really thought about it before,” he said, “but I hate these shoes. On the way home tonight, I’m going to buy a new pair.”

Table mate #8 seemed perplexed. He shrugged and said, “I’m wearing shoes. They’re just shoes. That’s it.” He then launched into a second marketing pitch about the wealth management services his company provides.

When #8 was done, the woman to my left turned to me and said, “Let’s play another round. Maybe this time we can talk about something we’re carrying in our wallet or purse?” “I’m in,” another woman said, and three other guys followed up with “sure thing,” “why not,” and “me too.”

But the art of storytelling be damned, the moderator turned everyone’s attention front and center and launched into a slideshow presentation.

“Thank God,” said #8. Because he couldn’t understand that people do business with people, and shoes are never just shoes.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
These days, I’m teaching in-person Persuasive Writing Engine courses and leading brand therapy workshops. I’m also continuing to build my online Marketing Boot Camp course offerings while serving as a fractional chief marketing officer for two growing businesses. I provide branding and marketing guidance and support for other small businesses as well. And I’m cohosting the fabulous Tea, Tonic & Toxin podcast with the equally fabulous Sarah Harrison.

All told, it’s a pretty swell gig I’ve got going. My Persuasive Writing Engine course is particularly near and dear to my heart.

The reason’s twofold. First, I’m a logophile, which is a full-on-geek way of saying I love words. Second, I, like most people, long to be heard and understood. Writing is intended to inform or persuade by helping readers understand important ideas, solve problems, or take action. Writing fails when the audience misunderstands the message, bristles at the quality of its presentation, or stops reading altogether.

While writing is a vital part of many professional positions, many individuals and teams lack the skills needed to target business goals and make sound, compelling business cases. My job is to show people how to use words to make their voices heard and communicate what they feel, think, and want.

I have 25 years of experience teaching writing courses at large enterprises, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Virginia, the U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon), and U.S. Air Force bases nationwide. This combination of academic and real-world experience matters.

In this interactive course, I focus on the art and science of effective persuasive writing. We spend a lot of time practicing critical thinking skills and crafting effective arguments that borrow from the structure of fairy tales. Teams come to understand the fundamentals of how to write outcome-driven proposals, business cases, reports, grants, employee reviews, and budget requests.

Attendees learn to connect with their readers where they live and breathe in order to win hearts, minds, deals, and dollars. I, in turn, get to watch attendees apply their newfound (or honed) skills in live small-group settings. The Persuasive Writing Engine is far from the same old-same old writing class many attendees have come to loathe. The proven models I use are clear and replicable, and attendees who are in it to win it consider the course a game changer.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love wandering – in Denver, throughout Colorado, across the country, and around the world. Wandering is the best.

If a friend visited for a week, I would start and end in Denver, and boy would we wander. For sure we would walk around Five Points. Once known as the Harlem of the West on account of its jazz legacy, this neighborhood has a connection to the Big Apple that’s audible on Friday nights at local venues. There are also loads of breweries, distilleries, and cool buildings. (On a related note, stop tearing down the good stuff and throwing up slapdash specials, Denver!)

Throughout Five Points, the street art (and alley art) are off-the-charts. We’re talking bona fide world class. If you haven’t seen the John Lewis and John Prine murals at 39th and Franklin, you should cancel your day plan and go straightaway. My in-town guest and I will probably see you there. I regularly walk a couple miles to see those murals and end the walk with a stop at my local, Tighe Brothers Distillery.

When friends are in town, I like to catch a cult classic film or a concert at Red Rocks. Or even get a workout in. One of my favorite area hikes is Bear Peak, near the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

I have quite a few bikes, so my in-town guest and I may bike the Highline Canal Trail or the Cherry Creek Bike Path in good weather. (I am increasingly less comfortable biking the streets of Denver, as in recent years I’ve nearly been hit by inattentive drivers a few too many times.) I also geek out over city walking tours. The Capital Hill tours are pretty awesome, as are the October Halloween ghost tours through Cheesman Park.

My favorite local museum is the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art – a shrine of sorts to Colorado painter Vance Kirkland and to functional design. I think often about William Morris’ quote, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” In fact, I bought a print of this quote from the museum, and I keep it in my kitchen as a daily reminder.

Outside Denver, we might hike near Evergreen and Idaho Springs. Afterward, we’ll check out some restaurants, antiques, art galleries – what’s not to like? We’ll grab Beau Jo’s pizza in Idaho Springs or swing by Little Bear Saloon in Evergreen. Once couple years, I also like to visit Bucksnort Saloon, something every person on the planet should do at least once.

If my friend’s a mountain town guy or gal (or a winter skier), we’ll visit Breck or Steamboat. If they’re looking for small town charm along with rafting and biking, we’ll spend a couple days exploring Salida. If they’re up for a bigger jaunt, we’ll make the 4.5 hour drive to Taos, New Mexico, which is my spirit town.

Some other loves of my Denver life: Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs (world’s best elk jalepeno cheddar dog), Linger (awesome menu with an equally awesome rooftop), British Bulldog (Denver’s amazing British pub), the Cruise Room (art deco grandeur), Ophelia’s (in-town guest worthy), Thin Man (my perennial favorite bar), and Little Man ice cream (line up outside the 28-foot-tall milk can).

So much fun. So much wonderful wandering to do.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my friend Sarah Harrison.

Sarah’s the owner of Grace Sigma (www.gracesigma.com), a small business that provides process engineering,
business process analysis, and Lean Six Sigma support to businesses. She’s also what you might call a book club rockstar. Sarah led the PORN reading program for roughly nine years. (PORN stands for “people obsessed with reading novels” – get your mind out of the gutter, people!) I joined PORN about halfway through its run, somewhere around 2017 or 2018. The PORN reading list included many of the best books authored by women, all chronologically organized.

One interesting thing about PORN was that you could show up to a monthly gathering even if you hadn’t read the book. Those who did read came up with questions inspired by the books, and everyone — readers and nonreaders alike — had the chance to dig deep and weigh in. In short, we talked about the books and the experiential questions those books brought to light.

Something that’s key to know about Sarah – she’s a scientist by nature, education, and profession. She’s passionate about analysis and efficiency, and she loves chronology and a sense of orderly progression. She loved tracking the evolution of the novel form at our monthly PORN gatherings.

When in-person gatherings became difficult during the pandemic, Sarah thought a book club/podcast combo deal might facilitate discussions about the ideas that great books inspire and give her the chance to engage in conversations with other introspective folks. Near the end of 2021, she told me what she was thinking and invited me to be her book club/podcast cohost.

I had been long been intrigued by the idea of starting my own podcast So when Sarah approached me about the cohosting gig, I was down. I knew next to nothing about what podcasting entailed, and I was thrilled we would sort through the chaos together.

Now, I’ve always loved mysteries and detective stories. As a kid, I swallowed entire series whole – Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, The Dana Girls, The Three Investigators, everything Ellen Raskin wrote. In my teen years, I added Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, man on the run thrillers like The Bourne Identity, and loads of other series and one-offs to the mix.

The best books set readers’ brains alight. They keep readers guessing and thinking and debating and reflecting long after the last word. Books are amazing. I own what weirdos call “way too many.” I feel simultaneously powerful and at peace knowing they’re on my shelves.

I love books so much that I studied Victorian novels for four years in grad school at the University of Virginia. That literature program was no joke. It involved some serious, seven-days-a-week work involving microscopic analysis of minutiae in the literature of the period. I loved those books, but I didn’t love the work. As challenging as that work was, it rarely felt rewarding. Or fun.

Here’s the thing about excellent mystery stories — the work is lovely. The reading, the analysis, the introspection, the “who, what, and why” of it – it’s all pure joy. So I asked Sarah what she thought about focusing our book club and podcast on mysteries, detective stories, and thrillers.

To my delight, Sarah was on board, and the Tea, Tonic & Toxin book club and podcast was born. These days, Sarah and I are spilling the Tea, Tonic, and Toxin during twice-monthly podcast episodes. We’re now in year two, and we’re going strong with 28 episodes for your binging pleasure. We’re covering the best mysteries and detective stories ever written, and we’re doing it in chronological order, 12 books a year.

We hope you’ll read, reflect, weigh in, and check out the podcast. You can learn more about the fabulous books we’re reading and discussing by visiting our website, teatonicandtoxin.com or our Instagram and Facebook pages @teatonicandtoxin. You can also listen to any (or all!) of our episodes and subscribe from our website or from most anywhere you get your podcasts. (You can find subscribe options here: teatonicandtoxin.com/subscribe/.

Thanks to Sarah for being the bee’s knees, coming up with such a swell idea, and inviting me to be part of the team. And many, many thanks to everyone who listens in!

Website: www.carolyndaughters.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carodaughters/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolyndaughters/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carodaughters/

Other: Tea, Tonic & Toxin Podcast: https://teatonicandtoxin.com