Book Speaking Engagements Using LinkedIn (Borrow the Stage)

[00:10] Why “Borrowing the Stage” Is a Marketing Shortcut

Karen: Hello and welcome to the Good Girls Get Rich podcast. My name is Karen Yankovich, and I’m your host. Today I want to talk about how we’re using LinkedIn to book speaking engagements.

You’ve heard me talk a lot about “borrowing the stage,” right? I love being on stages for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that somebody else is putting me in front of their audience. It’s such a great way to market one-to-many, without slogging through one connection at a time.

So I want to tell you a story from a year or two ago. A client of mine was speaking at – or attending – a conference I had never heard of before. I started looking through it and thought, “Wow, they have a really interesting women’s track here. I really like that.” It was a financial conference, and I felt like it was going to be my exact audience – a way for me to get in front of people I wouldn’t have been able to reach otherwise.

[01:15] The Problem with Speaker Portals

You know how this goes: you look for the conference, find the speaker portal, submit the form, and then wait to be picked by someone who doesn’t even know you exist. You’re not sure if they pay. You’re not sure if you have to fly out or book a hotel. But you want to build your speaking career, so you do it anyway.

It’s a little bit like throwing your resume into Indeed. You have no idea how many other applications they’re getting. What I teach instead is: find the human behind that portal.

[01:45] Finding Katie – The LinkedIn Message That Started It All

Their website listed the name of the person in charge of the speaker portal and applications. So I moved over to LinkedIn and found her – I’ll read you exactly what I sent, because it really was this simple.

Her name was Katie. I messaged her: “Hi, Katie. I’ve been looking at your conferences, and wow, I’d love to connect and chat about possible collaborations.” That’s it. That was sent at 9:07 a.m.

At 9:08 a.m., I got a reply: “Great to connect, Karen.”

I waited an hour, then followed up: “Same, Katie. I love the work you’re doing around women in fintech, and I know there’s synergy. So many women aren’t leveraging LinkedIn because they’re worried about compliance, and they’re losing so much opportunity. I’d love to see if there’s a chance to get that message to your audience. Are there events coming up looking for speakers – virtual, in person? Maybe we can do something custom. I’m open to all ideas in the New York City area.”

I didn’t hear back. That was fine – I let it go.

[03:36] The Follow-Up (and the Ball I Dropped)

A couple of months later, I saw they had an event coming up in New York City, so I followed up again: “Hi, Katie, are you still looking for speakers for your fall event in New York City?”

She replied: “Karen, I am. Please email me topics you can cover.” She gave me her email, and I said, “Many thanks, Katie.”

Here’s where I have to be honest and a little vulnerable – I dropped the ball. I had a new team member at the time, and I asked her to follow up by email. She didn’t.

By the time I circled back, Katie told me the conference was already filled. But then, a day later, she messaged again: “Wait – I think I could put you on a panel. Would you be interested?” It was in New York City, about a 20-minute drive from me. I said yes immediately.

This wasn’t me pitching into the wind, filling out a form for an audience I didn’t know. This was me building a relationship with the person who actually books the conference. She didn’t know who I was before that. She saw my LinkedIn profile, I sent a real message, and that was the whole conversation.

I ended up on the panel, generated real business from the attendees, and built partnerships with other women on the panel too. That’s how simple this was.

[05:10] How to Find “The Human” Behind Any Event

Remember – we’re talking about using LinkedIn to get in front of audiences here. The key move is finding the human.

• If it’s a conference: check the LinkedIn “people” tab for titles like program director, content director, conference chair, curator, or track lead. Or find the email address on the call for speakers and drop it into LinkedIn to see if a profile comes up. Check for last year’s conference hashtag and see who used it.
• If it’s a podcast: it’s the host.
• If it’s a corporate event: look for someone in learning & development or education – not marketing.

Don’t take too long to do this. Some of these opportunities – especially the $20–30K keynote stages – take a couple of years to land, so give yourself real runway. If you can’t find the right person yet, set a follow-up reminder for a month out. Sometimes this year’s speaker call isn’t posted yet, or the organizing team has changed, so it’s worth checking back.

I think of the speaker portal as the void – it’s just a form. Most of the biggest stages I’ve spoken on didn’t come from a form. They came from relationships: someone who already knew my name, often from another event I’d spoken at. Fill out the form if you want to, but understand that doing that 20 times is basically posting into the void. Instead, take those same 20 applications and go find the humans behind them.

[07:11] What to Actually Say in Your Outreach Message

If you’ve done the work on your LinkedIn profile – if it positions you as a peer to the most influential people in your industry – you already stand out from every other application in that inbox.

Here’s what to say: a little genuine interest, not fake flattery. In my message to Katie, I mentioned something specific and true – that she had a women’s track, that I understood the compliance issues women in fintech face around LinkedIn, because I work with people in that space. That specificity is what makes someone pause and think, “Huh.”

Then, when there’s an opening, mention something concrete – an upcoming event, an easy logistical fit. Two or three sentences. Under a minute to write.

Then do nothing. Wait. I don’t mean disappear forever – I mean don’t send your deck, your pitch, or your talk outline unprompted. Instead, look for content to engage with. Comment when they post something. Comment when the conference or company posts something. Keep your name in their feed, but only when you actually have something to say. Once a week, every other week – that’s the whole maintenance plan.

These conference organizers are drowning in pitches and starving for normal human interaction. You’re not competing with other speakers. You’re competing with their inbox. Build a real relationship, not a pitch.

[08:50] Build Your Pipeline

Spend a day – or even just an hour – using your AI tool of choice to research conferences where your ideal audience shows up, stages you’d love to borrow. Find 10 organizers. That’s your pipeline.

Then do the steps: find something specific about the event that genuinely interests you, send a short, real message, and remember – you’re bringing value to their audience. This is a true collaboration. They’re not doing you a favor by putting you on stage.

[10:48] Get Ready Before They Ask

Understand that many people won’t respond, and some might not even be active on LinkedIn. But if you send 10 messages and book one gig, that’s still probably the best ROI in your marketing.

This isn’t a sales tactic – it’s a real conversation. And the truth is, people are more likely to pick you if you’re actually talking with them instead of just another form in the pile.

That said, you do need to have your stuff together before you’re asked – a speaker kit, your talk topics, answers to the questions organizers will ask. Nobody is born with a speaker kit. You won’t need it until someone asks – but when they do, you want to be ready.

This is why we cover it inside the Visibility Salon’s Borrow The Stage initiative (available on replay when you join). We help you build your speaker kit so you’re ready the moment someone asks.

[12:15] Your Move This Week

This week, pick one event you really want to speak at. Find the human. Send the sentence. Then leave it – and see what happens.

If you want help building your speaker kit, the full Borrow The Stage Masterclass is free at sheslinkedup.com/masterclass – links are in the show notes.

Borrow that stage. It’s the fastest way to get in front of a lot of people, and getting in front of a lot of people is the fastest way to bring more money into your business.

I’ll stay at the table. Let me know how this goes – I’ll see you back here next week.