The Art of Trusting the Unfolding: How I Created a Keynote from the Unknown

Two years ago, I spoke at a Lean In Circles event for speakers and coaches.

Nancy Marmolejo was the circle leader and in the audience. She'd invited me to serve for the group.

Last year, when I applied for the Take Charge Conference, I didn't get selected—and honestly?

It was my own fault. They asked for a speaker reel (optional), and even though I had a speaker video, I didn't submit it. Sometimes we self-sabotage in the subtlest ways.

But here's what I've learned about life outside conventional scripts: Nothing moves in straight lines.

This year, as soon as conference organizing began, Nancy called me directly.

She didn't need to see a speaker reel. She sponsored me, vouched for me, and invited me to be the closing keynote—the only visible AfroLatina on the speaker lineup.

Plus, this year came with a stipend that wasn't available before.

The spiral had brought me exactly where I needed to be, with more significance and support than the "linear path" would have offered.

Picture this: I'm about to close the 7th annual Lean In Latinas Take Charge Conference, wearing a custom-designed outfit in my branding colors, with my mom witnessing me step into a space my father could only dream of.

No pressure, right?

What Is an "Outside-the-Scripts" Calling?

Before I dive into how I created this keynote, let me explain what I mean by an "outside-the-scripts calling"—because understanding this context is crucial to everything that follows.

Within-the-Scripts Calling: You operate inside existing structures (corporate ladders, traditional career paths, established industries). The goal is to master and express your fullest self within familiar forms. People "get it" because your path mirrors stories they already know.

Outside-the-Scripts Calling: You're building something that doesn't exist yet, often challenging or dismantling inherited structures in the process. Your path requires you to:

• Survive uncertainty with no blueprint
• Endure relational drift (your choices no longer fit others' frames)
• Translate your work so others can trust, fund, or follow it
• Handle mixed public reception—admiration, curiosity, and sometimes rejection

My entire journey—from PhD to "Embodied Liberation Guide," from corporate consulting to Queen Mindset Leadership®—has been outside-the-scripts. And when you're asked to keynote about "taking charge," but your version of taking charge looks like creating entirely new lanes? Well, that requires a different kind of speech preparation.

Building a Speech Like Building a Ship

When I first approached creating "The Throne is Yours: Soul-Stability in the Face of the Unknown," I went full cerebral.

I needed to understand every intricate element I was discussing to ensure it would translate to my audience. I made detailed outlines, structured frameworks, and logical progressions.

I had beautiful slides, a clear three-act structure, and every transition mapped out.

And then I practiced it. And it felt... flat. Rehearsed. It was like trying to fit my lighthouse into someone else's blueprint.

Here's where my daily practices saved me. See, I don't just teach soul stability—I live it through very specific rituals:

My Soul Stability Toolkit:

• Daily meditation (every morning, non-negotiable)
• Morning pages (three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing)
• Frequent journaling (processing everything in real-time)
• Whiteboard tracking (mapping patterns, insights, progress)
• Regular therapy (because healing happens in relationship)
• Coaching support (even guides need guides)
• Chakra-based daily focus (each day corresponds to a different chakra for sustained alignment)

These practices kept me grounded as I realized: The keynote creation process needed to mirror the content itself.

Practice Round 1: The Academic Approach

I stuck to my outline. I explained my framework methodically. I sounded smart, prepared, and completely disconnected from the fire that originally inspired this work.

Practice Round 2: The Personal Pivot

I started weaving in more personal stories. The manifestation stick appeared (a physical prop that makes desire tangible). The energy shifted, but the structure still felt forced.

Practice Round 3: The Embodied Truth

The scuba diving story emerged—that moment when I was 60 feet underwater, my breathing apparatus malfunctioning, and I had to trust my inner compass to survive.

Suddenly, the keynote wasn't about concepts; it was about lived experience.

Practice Round 4: The Storytelling Integration

Everything clicked. I realized this wasn't just a speech about taking charge—it was about how to create your own path when you're literally creating your own path.

And more importantly, how to coexist with the fear that comes with that.

The unknown isn't just "you don't know what will happen"—it's "you don't know what you'll discover about yourself, and that's terrifying and beautiful."

My role as the closing speaker wasn't to give them answers; it was to show them how to dance with the questions.

What Fear Becomes When You Coexist With It

Here's what became crystal clear through this process:

Fear isn't the enemy—resistance to fear is.

When you're building outside existing scripts, fear is your constant companion. The question isn't how to eliminate it, but how to let it inform you without controlling you.

My daily chakra practice became essential during keynote prep:

• Monday (Root): Grounding in my why—why this message, why now
• Tuesday (Sacral): Connecting to the creative flow of the speech
• Wednesday (Solar Plexus): Building confidence in my unique perspective
• Thursday (Heart): Opening to receive the audience's energy
• Friday (Throat): Practicing authentic expression of my truth
• Saturday (Third Eye): Trusting my intuitive knowing about what to include
• Sunday (Crown): Surrendering to being a channel for this message

Translation became sacred work. How do you explain quantum consciousness to corporate leaders? How do you honor ancestral wisdom in academic language? How do you teach "soul stability" to people who've been rewarded for perpetual motion?

The answer: You become a living demonstration of what you're teaching.

When Your Process Becomes Your Teaching

By the fourth practice round, I realized I was living the very framework I was teaching:

1. Creative Awakening: Recognizing I needed to build this speech differently than I'd been taught

2. Creative Liberation: Excavating the academic conditioning that was limiting my voice

3. Creative Sovereignty: Trusting my inner lighthouse to guide the creation process

The keynote wasn't just content I was delivering—it was a demonstration of what happens when you trust your light to build something that doesn't exist yet.

The deeper lesson: When you're called to create outside the scripts, your methodology must also be outside the scripts. You can't use traditional preparation methods to build revolutionary content and expect it to land with transformational impact.

What This Means for Anyone Building in the Unknown

Whether you're crafting a keynote, starting a business, or redesigning your life, the process is the same:

• Honor the spiral, not just the line (last year's "rejection" led to this year's bigger opportunity)
• Build your soul stability toolkit before you need it
• Let fear be information, not instruction
• Trust that your lighthouse has been guiding you all along
• Practice coexisting with the unknown until it becomes your creative partner

The throne isn't a destination you arrive at—it's a frequency you remember you've always carried.

And sometimes, the most powerful way to teach soul stability is to practice it in real time, in front of 300 people, while wearing a custom outfit that represents everything you've refused to shrink to fit.

Nancy Marmolejo saw something in me two years ago that I'm just now stepping into fully.

That's how outside-the-scripts callings work—the recognition often comes before the readiness, and the readiness often comes through the recognition.

Want to experience this keynote framework in action? You can catch more of my work on LinkedIn where I document the real-time embodiment of building outside the scripts, my Instagram for daily transmissions of Queen Mindset Leadership®, and my Cosmic Love Letters newsletter for exclusive insights on creating from the unknown.

To anyone preparing to step into their own lighthouse moment: The light you're following has been calling you your whole life. Trust the unfolding.

Dra. G out!