226: Build Your Brand with Consistency and Authenticity with Sydney Cummings

Sydney Cummings is a YouTube sensation with over 1.1 million subscribers, which she built organically over the past 3 years by uploading a new workout every day (talk about consistency!)

Recently, Sydney gave a TEDx talk called “Resilience: How to Emerge from your Tragedies Stronger”, which was her first (!) experience with public speaking.

Sydney was invited to give the TEDx talk because the organizers at UC Davis heard about her and her story.

This is how consistency and authenticity can build your brand and lead to opportunities.

Our lead speaking coach Diane Diaz has been following Sydney for a while (doing her workouts!) and invited Sydney onto the podcast to talk about her TEDx experience and how she has built her brand.

Diane and Sydney talk about:

• Why Sydney almost said ‘no’ to doing the TEDx talk
• How she got the opportunity to do a TEDx talk
• How she came up with the specific topic and thread
• The importance of a strong opening
• Making your story relatable to the audience by taking your personal story and universalizing it
• How she leveraged the visibility from her TEDx talk
• The role of consistency and authenticity in building an audience
• Positioning yourself as a person, not a company (advice from Nike)

About Our Guest: Sydney Cummings is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Nutrition Specialist based in Charlotte, NC. She is a Women's Health Magazine Action Hero and is the owner and founder of Royal Change, a fitness media company alongside her fiance, Dustin Houdyshell. Sydney was a West Virginia University alum and national qualifying Track & Field high jump athlete who still maintains several school and state records for high jump. Royal Change has grown into a fitness brand that has successfully provided over 115 million free workouts to people from all over the world via their YouTube channel, titled "Sydney Cummings" and has a membership community and a merchandise and apparel line that helps people all over the world represent everything Royal Change is about; Making the changes to make yourself feel like royalty!

About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it's through women's stories and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.

Links:

Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/226

Connect with Sydney:

Her TEDx talk: https://youtu.be/HA-0rvrWu7c

Website: https://www.royalchange.fit/

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

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SydneyCummings

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

Become Bookable Live Online Workshop - April 15, 2026
If you want to speak more but you’re not sure where to start or your efforts haven’t produced the results you want, I’m hosting a live online workshop called “Become Bookable: How to Get Speaking Invitations” on Wednesday, April 15th.

A lot of brilliant women assume they just need to pitch themselves more. But the real reason speakers get invited isn’t because they pitch harder — it’s because they’re positioned as bookable.

In this 3-hour interactive workshop live on Zoom, I’ll show you how speakers actually get invited — and help you clarify the positioning that makes event organizers say yes.

As a podcast listener, use the coupon code “Podcast100” to save $100 on your registration.

Learn more and register at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/bookable