From Introvert To Industry Voice with Bobbie Carlton

We talk with PR pro and Innovation Women founder Bobbie Carlton about how authorship and public speaking amplify each other, turn credibility into paid opportunities, and create real revenue beyond “visibility.” Practical tips cover calls for speakers, bulk book buys, workbooks, and building an audience‑first talk.

• five ventures spanning PR, events, speaking, and media
• social media amplification and Innovation Nights impact
• closing the “male, pale, stale” gap on stages
• how books boost credibility for speaking
• bulk book buys and alternative budget paths
• adding a workbook to raise value and fees
• PR as stage strategy and thought leadership
• finding calls for speakers and pitching outcomes
• avoiding salesy talks and serving the audience
• overcoming stage nerves and building a signature talk
• where to connect with Bobbie and Innovation Women

Join us at Speaker Friend Friday. It’s free and open to anybody who has questions about public speaking and anything related to public speaking.

Transcript

Meet Bobby And The Five Ventures

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello there and welcome back to the next episode of Overcome Yourself the Podcast. As you know, my name is Nicole, and I'm very excited to be here today with Bobby. And Bobby is a self-proclaimed introvert who now does one of the things that's becoming my favorite thing, and that's PR and public speaking. So so excited to have you here today, Bobby. Go ahead and take it away and tell us a little bit about who you are and who you help.

Innovation Nights And Social Amplification

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Absolutely. So I usually have to start off by describing my many jobs. So I started my first company in 2008 when the startup that I was working with ran out of money. Lots and lots of startups ran out of money then. And I started the first company, which I consider my day job, Carlton PR and Marketing. You'd think I would have a more creative name for it, but I literally thought that I was going to go off and find a new job. Not, and this was all going to be temporary, right? So Carlton PR marketing is the day job. And then in 2009, I was like, you know, I really need to find a way to experiment with social media because clients were asking for it. And there's one thing that clients really don't like, it's when you experiment on them. So I started something called Innovation Nights. And this was the night job, obviously. And Innovation Nights was a social media-powered event. The idea was to help local startups launch their new products and use social media to help promote them. And over 11 years, we did 130-something events and we helped launch over 1,500 new products that got more than$4 billion in funding, of which I got zero, but you know, that's all right. Um, the idea behind us social media was awesome because it really did put us on the map. We were driving between two and three million views every month by using a social media amplification program. So we've got the day job, we've got the night job, and then we have to, of course, have the dream job. In 2015, I started something called Innovation Women. And Innovation Women was completely born out of the fact that I got tired of going to conferences and events and seeing what I call the male, pale, and stale panels. The same four old white guys over and over again. There were no women on these stages. In fact, two-thirds of all conference speakers are men, and this leaves women out of a lot of career and business opportunities. So we've got the day job, we've got the night job, we've got the dream job, and in 2020, when the pandemic hit, I engaged in a little bit of retail therapy, and I bought two more companies. So one of which was a research service for speakers called My Speaker Leads, and the other one was a digital magazine for women entrepreneurs called Lioness. So we've got basically five companies, and that keeps me busy and out of trouble. Um, the fun part about this whole thing is, as you mentioned right up front, I'm an introvert. So the fact that I do all of the stuff where I'm hosting events and I'm running a speaker's bureau is kind of wild, not gonna lie.

Fixing Male Pale Stale Panels

SPEAKER_00 4:11

That's amazing. I love it. I love it so much. I love everything that you said. Um, I love how you saw the opportunity. It made me think of when I was writing my book, and the first time that I submitted my book to my editor, she was like, This is not a book, this is a research paper. You need to go back um and take out some of these quotes. And you know, we need your perspective on things. So, based on these findings, what what what's your conclusions? What's the stories? How did you even come to this? Um, and so I had to rewrite the whole book again, adding my own perspectives. Um, I totally forgot where I was going with that.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

But anyway, well, I mean, you're talking about authorship, and authorship and speaking go hand in hand. Like you get so many authors who are like, I just need to get speaking engagements so more people will buy my book. And on the other hand, you get speakers who are like, I need to become an author so more people get access to my ideas and more people want me to speak at their events.

Authors And Speakers Fuel Each Other

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yes. Oh, I remember where I was going with that. And when I read through it, one of the things that I noticed was, hey, everyone I'm quoting is a man. I was like, let me go through my books and see, you know, what research have I done by women? And I was like, I don't have enough books by women. And I went on a mission to find books that were written by successful women, and I found a lot, and they are quoted in my book, but I was like, that was a perspective shift that I really needed to have. Um, not necessarily all old, crusty, I don't remember the word jeez, boring white dudes, um, but still dudes. And so, yes, it we have to be very conscious of not just hosting events um with you know diverse speakers, but doing our research based on diverse speakers' views. Um, so I love that so much. So tell us more about this community, talk to us about public speaking. I know a lot of authors who want to be speakers, and I know speakers who want to be authors, right? I hosted a summit for authors, and one of the things they told us is having that book is is seen in the outside world as having like a PhD. Like you're basically like a doctor, right? It's like, oh wow. Um, and so can you talk to us a little bit about how speaking complements being an author?

Turning Visibility Into Book Revenue

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Absolutely. I do a lot of work with authors. Um, Innovation Women is an online speaker community, and weekly we have drop-in Zoom calls, anywhere between, I don't know, 50 and 100 people show up on a weekly basis to ask questions and just talk about all aspects of public speaking. And we've got about 3,000 innovation women members who are currently active, and of that, about 400 of them are also authors. So you can see like there's a huge correlation between speaking and authorship. And I think a lot of people think about authorship in terms of supporting a speaking career just for the credibility aspect of it. You know, it's like you literally wrote the book on that topic. Why wouldn't somebody bring you in to speak on it? We also see a lot of conferences and events and actually corporations too, who come to the Innovation Women website and they browse the bookstore. They buy a whole bunch of books for their members or their employees, and then they bring in the author to do a workshop or a presentation, and everybody gets to feel really special because they met the author. Like, oh, that's that's amazing. But it also, if you're an author and you add speaking to your repertoire, one of the things that you're going to be educated about is the speaking world is just absolutely rife with uh non-compensated speaking engagements, i.e., come up, speak to our audience for the visibility, right? And as they say, you can't pay the mortgage with visibility. But when you're an author, you have so many more interesting options when it comes to compensation. So, for example, hey, they might not have a speaker budget, but they might have a budget to buy swag, and they're going to buy a book and they're gonna put it in everybody's gift bag. And with a big enough audience and a big enough number of people getting gift bags, you could potentially have a bigger payday by selling books than you can by actually getting paid just to speak. Those books give you so much flexibility in your business model and your compensation model. Um, a lot of people tell me that they've come come to events, they've spoken at the event, and then they have um a table at the back of the room where they sell their books. And I'm like, you couldn't get the organizers to buy the books for everybody. That way, way you make one sale and you just do the back of the room where you're signing books, not having to sell them at the same time. Another idea if you're an author and you're looking to use books and your business model to get better compensated, is you can suggest to the organizers that when people buy tickets, they also have the option to buy your book on the spot. That way you know exactly how many books to bring with you to the conference or the event. So just being an author gives you a little bit of extra flexibility when it comes to your business model.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

That is amazing. I love that. And it it brings up such an important point. Something that you mentioned right there at the beginning is when we're talking to businesses, to corporations, they have different budgets for spending on different things. And so, like you said, maybe this year they don't have a speaker budget, but they're focused on something physical. You can sell them the book. And now you have a relationship with them. And maybe next year at the beginning of the year, they're looking for speakers and they're like, hey, we gave away these books last year. I would love for you to come speak. Um, and now you can have a recurring, you know, um, money coming in because now you have a relationship with them and you can switch out. Maybe next year they get your next book. Um, and so on, right? But that's so important that it's different budgets. Um, so you have options.

Workbooks, Workshops, And Pricing Power

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah. And another thing that I often recommend to people is if you're a speaker and you've got a book, one thing that you can probably pretty easily do is create a workbook that goes along with your regular book. So if you have a speech and you have a regular book, get yourself a workbook too. And workbooks are probably, you know, like a companion piece to your regular book. It gives people something to do, it's an activity as well. And, you know, if you're doing speaking engagements or you are selling yourself as a workshop leader, there's a lot of different options that you can get into in terms of the compensation if you have a book and a workbook.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Yes, I love that so much. And that's where that's where like it gets good, right? Is when you're helping them implement what it is that they're learning. Um, and I love that so much because when you can and then it also creates that sense of I need the whole set. Like if I'm gonna get the book, I'm gonna get the workbook, I want the whole set. Um, and so yeah, I love that so much.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

And workbooks are often more expensive than the regular book. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

And you get more value because you're actually doing the work in them and and you're processing and you're applying it to your own situation, you're thinking it through. Um, so yeah, I love that so much. Um, talk to us a little bit about what role PR plays in all this. So, like as I I wrote my book, I'm getting speaking engagements. Is that PR and how does how does that work? Yep.

PR, Stages, And Credibility

SPEAKER_01 13:11

And for background, Carlton PR and marketing is the day job. So we have clients as well as I do speaking engagements and I have innovation women members as um as customers for innovation women. But for Carlton PR marketing, we offer public relations services because my background is heavily PR oriented. And I'm gonna date myself here, but in 1994, I was faxing in my driver's license to buy the website domain for the company I was working with at the time. And I don't know, like I was hit by a bolt of lightning at the time. I said, Oh my goodness, if I can do this, anybody can do this, and anybody can put up a website. That means that the media's gonna die because we're all gonna be publishers and there's gonna be an incredible like influx of competition for the major media. Now, obviously, the media didn't die, but lots of things have changed in the world since 1994, it was forever ago, and it really did make a difference in kind of how I looked at my career trajectory. You know, I said to myself, I need to stop relying entirely on public relations, I need to look at a much broader view of the world, and what can I do that is unique or different? Well, a lot of my work had been putting executives on stages at conferences and events because they needed to be out in front of those audiences, and I knew that that aspect of public relations was it was a a specialty. It wasn't, you know, something that all PR people did. It was something special that I did. So at that time I said, okay, I'm gonna do general digital marketing, I'm gonna do public relations, and I'm going to do things related to getting people on stage. So those specialties really all do work together. But when you are on stage, you are so credible. Like people are physically often looking up at you because you're elevated and they think of you in a very different perspective than if you're sitting next to them whispering the same thing in their ear. If you're on stage, you're a thought leader, you're an expert, you're credible. So the things that you stay say from the stage have more weight. But this is so important when you're trying to like spread the news and you know, get people to really understand things. They listen to you better when you're on stage, you're making a bigger impression.

From First Talk Nerves To Paid Gigs

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Yeah, just like when a doctor walks in and they've got their white lab coat on, you've got an expectation. You're like, all right, this person knows what they're talking about. If you've got up on that stage, somebody somewhere deemed whatever you have to say worthy of being said from that stage. And so it carries that credibility. Um, I totally agree with that. Um, and to let's talk about getting on the stage, right? Because in the beginning, when you're just getting started and and you, you know, like first time I got on stage, I didn't plan for a clicker and I didn't plan for a microphone. And halfway through I realized my knuckles are white because I'm just holding on to this thing for dear life. I was like, you need to chill. Um, you know, and so it's good to have the opportunity to do some talks like that so that you can mess up, right? And you have that flexibility and you're like, okay, let me practice, let me get this under my belt. But after we've done some of those, we've got some experience, we've got our talk down. We want paid speaking engagements. So what advice do you have for us in that realm?

Calls For Speakers And Showmanship

Make It About The Audience

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah, I'm actually gonna just like take a step back and tell you about my first speaking engagement. Um, when I started Innovation Nights, I swear I just blanked out that I was going to have to be the host of this event. And, you know, this is I was a social media powered event, and we had about 200 people there, all helping to promote 10 local startups. And, you know, everybody's like, okay, you know, like be the host, like talk to us and stuff. And that first night, you know, I'd been there early. I'd been dragging in bottles of water and rolling out tables and everything like that. And I was a literal hot mess. Like, I looked frazzled. And of course, this is a social media powered event, so everybody's got their cameras and their phones with cameras on it, and they're taking pictures of me. And I look horrified. I've sweated through my blouse, I'm just absolutely dripping. And afterwards, I'm seeing all these pictures, and it's at that point you make a decision, right? You say, I either gotta stop doing this or I gotta get better at it. So I felt like I didn't have the option to stop, so I had to get better. And over time, I went to school. I watched, I went to school on other people. Like I would watch what speakers were doing, say, ah, that person's doing that really well. The funny part was earlier in my career, like I had been the person training speakers. Nobody ever asked me to do it, but I trained other people. And that training, you know, it kicks in and you just apply it to yourself. But yeah, you're nervous and you're scared, and you're like, what the heck did I just do? Why am I doing this? And you know, over time you get better at it. Um, one piece of advice I have for people who are just getting started is ask a question from the audience. Like when someone else is on stage and they're all finished with their presentation and they say, Are there any questions? At that moment, their heart is beating so fast because if there's crickets, it means nobody is interested enough in their topic to ask a question. So do them a favor, do yourself a favor and ask a question, stand up, say your name, ask your question. Yay, you are now a public speaker because you just spoke to the same audience that the speaker on stage spoke to. So that's a great way to get started. Now, if you're looking to continue the speaking and get more and more opportunities, you're probably going to go looking for things like then they're called calls for speakers. That's the basic currency of public speaking. Event managers, quite literally, will put out a request, a call, and you can apply, you fill in a form, you tell them what you're gonna speak about, and knock on wood, you get selected. Like that's how people get a lot of speaking opportunities. But there are other ways, but that's that's a good place to start. And when you've got that opportunity, put on a good show. Like, I'm not kidding, you're not just a speaker, you're not just sharing information, you have to be entertaining, you have to be engaging, you have to get people to like you. That is an important part of being a speaker. If people don't like you, they turn off. And you need to be likable, you need to be entertaining, they need to be able to hear you, to understand you. So let's make sure that your presentation is well organized and it's a presentation in service to the audience because people who get up on stage and give these like completely self-serving come buy my product presentations, people are bored by that, people are annoyed by that. And so that usually doesn't work out very well. So anybody doing a sales pitch from the stage, yeah, no, don't do it, don't go there, don't go there. When a good job, that's when people start hiring you to do speaking.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

I love that. Um, I love that's one of the things like when I when I'm helping my clients with copywriting, we we get it out, and then I'm like, how is this related to the audience? Why do they care? If I'm your client, if I'm looking, if I'm your audience, why do I care about this? How is it gonna help me? Because if it's all about you and you have a 30-minute presentation and 20 minutes about how awesome you are and how much credibility you have, I just I don't believe you anymore. Um you know, like what am I taking away from this? What can I implement? What can I test out? Um, and then hey, look, this worked for me. I'm gonna listen to you because obviously, and so when I'm doing presentations, that's what I try to focus on. I tell my story. I've got to really condense down to like two minutes. Um, but it's not about me. But like I want you to know my journey, but this is about you and what I can do for you. Um, so I love that. I love that piece of advice.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Yeah. And so I hope I hope that when people get up on stage, like that's if you can only remember one thing, that's it. Just don't be a salesperson on stage.

Connect With Innovation Women

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Yeah, it's about sharing, connecting, um, and drawing people in. And like you said, they'll come find you. Um, they'll, you know, if you have a memorable story, you set up your your signature talk, right? You should have a signature talk so you're not preparing slides the night before. Um and yeah, and then and then speak in a way, ask questions in a way that they're gonna come find you. And speaking of coming to find you, how can we stay in touch with you? Like how can we follow you on social media, visit your website, check out your what did you call it? Community.

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Community, yes. And I I think it's uh it's easiest to just send people to innovationwomen.com and you can find out. You can find me, you can sign up for our newsletter there and join us at Speaker Friend Friday. It's free and it's open to anybody who has questions about public speaking and anything related to public speaking.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

That is amazing. Uh, we'll be checking that out for sure. So thank you for sharing that. And um, as you guys know, all of the links are going to be available down below in the show notes in the comments. Well, in the show notes, um, wherever you're watching. Um, and how can we stay in touch with you on social media? How can we follow you?

SPEAKER_01 25:05

I am on LinkedIn, Bobby Carlton, B-O-B-B-I-E Carlton, or you can find me on Twitter slash X as Bobby C B-O-B-B-I-E, the letter C. Or you can follow women in O on Instagram or Twitter slash X.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

That is amazing. Thank you so much. And before we sign off, we want to know what's the million-dollar tip you've got? Like, what's that tip that you give your clients that it's like that big aha moment?

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Oh, just get comfortable with public speaking.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It's okay, it's not forever.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Yep, it's not forever. You will learn, you will get better, and sometimes it helps not to watch the video.

Imperfect Action And Closing

SPEAKER_00 26:02

It took me a good year to listen to the podcast episodes of my own podcast after they have been published. Um, so I totally understand that. Um, but yes, you don't have to watch the video after you record. Um, and you can even practice, record yourself and then delete the video. You didn't have to watch it if that helps in the beginning to get started.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

I love that. I do recommend watching your yourself on video, listening to yourself. You will learn a lot, but sometimes people just get too nervous and it becomes a little bit of a block for them. So I tell them you don't have to watch the video. Yes, you will learn something, but you don't have to watch it right now. Save it for later. Save it for later. Good idea.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Yes, I love that. And taking imperfect action because you don't know the right questions to ask until you're doing the thing, and then you're like, oh, wait, how do I do this? And that's you know, that's where you start getting into the meat and potatoes. So love that. Thank you so much for being here with us today, Bobby. Um, this has been an amazing episode, and thank you guys for joining. We will catch you guys next time on the next episode of Overcome Yourself the Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Bye. Thank you, Nicole.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Thank you. This was wonderful.