From Content To Stages: How Experts Get Found

Want more speaking invitations without cold DM spam or generic reels? We dig into a practical path that helps experts get discovered and choose stages that actually move their business forward. The conversation starts with a simple truth: searchable content is the fastest bridge between your expertise and the people booking speakers. By recording on YouTube or launching a podcast, you create a living speaker reel that shows how you teach, how you think, and how you perform on mic or camera. We break down how to repurpose video into audio with platform-specific intros, and how to craft episodes that answer real pain points your buyers already search for.

From there, we confront a harder question: how do you know if a stage is right for you? The answer lives in audience clarity. We share how tightening our focus led us to decline events that valued page views over products, and why our rebrand toward experts building offers changed the rooms we choose. You’ll hear a simple decision filter to avoid misaligned summits, plus the mindset that makes saying no less scary and more strategic.

We also map a research workflow you can copy today. Start with podcasts your ideal audience already loves, trace guest appearances to discover conferences and communities, and study how successful speakers frame their topics. Use that rabbit trail to build a hit list of events, refine your talk titles, and pitch with outcomes that organizers care about. We wrap with a focused exercise: define your blue ocean audience, craft a one-sentence promise, list five events and five shows they attend, and publish content that proves you deliver that promise.

If you’re ready to stop chasing random visibility and start stepping onto stages that convert, this guide gives you the plan. Subscribe for more practical strategies, share this with a friend who wants the mic, and leave a review with the stage you’re aiming for next.

Chapters

• 0:01 Two Big Questions About Speaking
• 0:17 Get Found Through Searchable Content
• 1:36 Show Expertise Without A Speaker Reel
• 1:58 Choosing The Right Stages
• 2:51 Declining Misaligned Events
• 3:16 Defining Your Real Audience
• 3:49 Research Where Your People Gather
• 4:19 Use Podcasts To Map Opportunities
• 5:28 Focus Exercise: Find Your Blue Ocean

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

I often get asked two similar questions, I guess. One is I want to be a speaker, how do I get found? And the second part of it is when do I set decide what is the right place to be speaking? So first I want to address the first part. If you want to be speaking, I believe that one of the best ways to get found is to be recording content through a podcast or on YouTube. That way it is searchable. It can be found. It can show what you can do, how comfortable you are in front of a camera. You don't have to have a speaker reel where you're speaking in front of audiences because a lot of people will say, Well, I don't have that experience yet. I want that experience. So think about how you could do a YouTube channel for yourself. Answering the pain points that your audience has and also potentially turning that YouTube video into a podcast. You can take the audio from a video and utilize it that way. You would just put an intro and outro into it that's meant for YouTube, and then one you would cut and put in so that you have one for a podcast. I think the more that you can show that you know what you're talking about, you can educate people and you're helping your audience, even if you're not specifically looking to speak in front of that audience, but you want to speak in front of the people that are higher up and going to be helping those people, the ideal way to do this is to create content where you are showing that you can naturally speak, that you're not necessarily feeling uncomfortable. They need to see that. So the second part to the question: when do I know the right places to speak? If it's right or if it's not. One of the things that you have to get clear on is you have to get clear on your audience. You have to know who it is that you are trying to attract and where they're going to be. Are they going to go to that conference? Are they going to attend that summit? One of the things in the beginning of the year you heard me talk about was that I got approached to speak at a summit. And when I looked at who they were trying to attract, I realized that's not who I want. Those are not my people. I did the same thing recently. I was invited to be an affiliate for an in-person conference. And in the past, it would have been the right audience. But it's they're teaching things that I, my audience that I have, that I have cultivated, that I have taught. Don't chase page views. Make sure that you have a product or service, run your business like a business instead of worrying about your visibility and your social media. These types of things, I realize it's not the right event. And I just declined. It's deciding upon and really getting honed in on your audience. Now, if I hadn't done that beforehand and I was kind of, oh, I can kind of talk to everybody, because in the past I have kind of talked to everyone. Anyone that wanted to run an online business, I was your girl. That's not who I want to work with. Because when you say online business, there's varying degrees of what that means for certain people. And as you have seen from the rebrand of the podcast to Practice to Profit, which launched on Sunday, which I'm super excited about. You know that I'm looking for the experts that are looking to really be able to dive in and create products and services for their audiences so that they can continue to help them. And in order to do that, I have to know who my people are. People are not necessarily those that just want to continue to get visibility and want to make affiliate income or sponsored income or add money. So my question to you is is it the right audience? Now, if you're not being approached and you want to get in front of these people to speak, you need to find where they are. What conferences are they attending? Where are they? What summits are they doing? What in-person events? Now, one of the people that speaks a lot about speaking on stages, um, has the mic drop workshop. That is her whole thing. And I'm trying to think of her name and it's not coming to my mind right now. Um, but she has written a book, bright, something bright, sunshine, bright, bright sunshine. She also has done like locks of love. That was her thing when she was in her early 20s. Um, so if you're looking, just search mic drop workshop. She talks a lot about where to pitch in order to get on stages. But again, it depends upon the stages that you want to get on because of the people that you're trying to get in front of. So you really need to dive into where are your people? Where are they, what, what are they attending? What are they looking for? And how do you potentially get in front of them? And this is honestly where if you're not certain, I'd be doing my research based on podcasts. Who already has a podcast that speaks specifically to that audience, and then look to see what other podcasts they've gotten on to. Because once you start to do that deep dive and it becomes this kind of rabbit trail of figuring out who's all connected, you will start to see where they are speaking and what they are doing so that you can also get in front of that audience. So I want you as an exercise to really focus in on who your people are. Don't have this big, broad red ocean. Get specific on that blue ocean of people that you are trying to reach and research those that are already speaking to them.