An event planner can now ask an AI tool, “Find five speakers who help healthcare leaders prevent burnout,” and receive a starting list in moments. That does not mean AI makes the final hiring decision. It means your digital presence may be helping you reach consideration before a planner contacts you, or quietly keeping you out of the conversation. In this week’s blog and podcast, I explain how planners are finding speakers in the AI era and five practical checks you can make now. Read and listen here:

Before you spend another hour cold emailing, ask this: If a planner searches for a speaker like you, can your website clearly explain who you help, what you speak about, and what changes for the audience? AI search does not replace pitching, relationships, or follow-up. But it can influence which speakers reach a planner’s starting list. I put together five practical checks to help you see what your digital speaker presence is communicating. Read and listen here:

The way event planners research speakers is changing. A planner can now describe the audience, problem, topic, or desired outcome to an AI search tool and receive a starting list of speakers and sources in moments. AI does not make the final hiring decision. But your website, content, proof, and speaker profiles may be evaluated before you ever know the search happened. Learn what this shift means and what speakers can do now:

Can planners and search tools quickly understand: • who you help • what you speak about • what outcomes you support • why you are credible • how to take the next step A green SEO light cannot repair vague positioning. The technology has changed, but speakers still need a clear, credible foundation. This new blog and podcast includes five practical checks:

An event planner may search for you before you ever know her name.

The way speakers are discovered is changing, but discovery is only the first doorway. Your message, talks, outcomes, proof, content, and speaker pages must help planners understand where you fit. Then you still need to pursue opportunities, pitch, follow up, and build relationships. The technology changed. The need for a clear speaker foundation did not. Read the full post at CharliJane.com/199.

An event planner can now ask an AI tool, “Find five speakers who help healthcare leaders prevent burnout,” and receive a starting list in moments. That does not mean AI makes the final hiring decision or that speakers should stop pitching. It means your digital presence may be helping you reach consideration before a planner contacts you, or quietly keeping you out of the conversation. In this week’s blog and podcast, I explain how planners are finding speakers in the AI era, what your online presence needs to communicate, and five practical checks you can make now. Read and listen here:

The Planner May Search for You Before You Ever Know Her Name

The way speakers are discovered is changing. Here is what that means for your message, your digital presence, and the work of getting booked.

An event planner needs a speaker who can help healthcare leaders prevent burnout. A few years ago, she might have started by asking colleagues, searching Google, contacting a bureau, browsing conference programs, or posting a call for speakers. She may still do all of those things. But today, she has another option. She can open an AI search tool and ask: “Find five speakers who help healthcare leaders prevent burnout.” In moments, she may have a starting list of names and sources to investigate. The people on that list may never know the search happened. They did not receive a notification. They did not necessarily pitch that planner. Their public presence simply gave the search tool enough information to connect their work with her request. That is a major shift, but I want us to be sensible about what it means. AI does not automatically make the final hiring decision. Referrals have not disappeared. Relationships still matter. Calls for speakers still exist. A strong pitch and thoughtful follow-up still open doors. What has changed is the starting point. Your digital presence may now be helping a planner discover and evaluate you before you ever know she is looking. The problem is not that you are new Speakers sometimes assume they are not being considered because they are not famous enough, experienced enough, or followed by enough people. Those things can add credibility, but they are not the whole story. A planner first needs to understand where you fit. Compare these two speaker descriptions: “I speak about leadership, communication, motivation, and success.” “I help healthcare leaders recognize and prevent burnout so they can retain strong teams and create healthier workplace cultures.” The first speaker may be brilliant, but the description makes the planner do all the work. It does not clearly identify the audience, problem, outcome, or type of event where the message belongs. The second description creates a much clearer bridge between the speaker and the planner’s need. That clarity matters to humans. It also gives search engines and AI tools better information to work with. A green SEO light cannot fix a vague speaker business I am all for using the tools available to us. Page titles, descriptions, indexing settings, and clean website structure matter. But adding an SEO plugin and turning all its little lights green will not solve the deeper problem if your speaker message is unclear. Your public presence should make it reasonably easy to answer: Who do you speak to? What challenge do you address? What talks do you deliver? What changes for the audience? What proof supports your expertise? Where and how can you speak? How can a planner contact you? Your website, speaker profile, digital one-sheet, video, articles, interviews, and other public content should support the same central story. You do not need identical wording everywhere. You do need consistency about who you are, what you do, and where you fit. Getting booked now happens in two directions This is the part I do not want speakers to miss. Being discoverable does not mean sitting quietly and hoping an AI tool sends a planner to your door. Getting booked now happens in two directions. First, you build a clear and credible digital foundation that helps people and search tools understand your expertise. That makes you easier to discover and evaluate. Second, you actively pursue fitting opportunities. You pitch, follow up, build relationships, and keep your booking pipeline moving. A speaker with a strong digital presence who never takes action may wait a long time. A speaker who sends dozens of pitches with a vague message may work extremely hard without giving planners a clear reason to choose her. The foundation and the action need each other. Discovery is only the first doorway Even if a planner finds your name, the decision is not finished. She may visit your website, watch your video, read your talk descriptions, look for testimonials, check your experience, and send your information to a committee. Your job is to make yourself easier to: Find Understand Consider Share Contact Then your positioning, proof, fit, and readiness help answer the bigger question: “Why should we choose this speaker?” Built to Be Found. Ready to Be Chosen. That is not a promise that an AI tool will recommend you or that a planner will book you. It is a practical way to prepare for how speaker discovery and decision-making are changing. I have watched this kind of shift before When I began helping speakers in 2002, the internet was changing how experts became visible. Speakers needed a foundation that Yahoo, Google, and event planners could find and understand. Today, we are facing the same fundamental challenge at hyper speed. The technology has changed. My core belief has not. You do not need to be famous or highly experienced before you can begin getting booked. You need to be clear, discoverable, credible, and ready to be chosen. Then you need fitting opportunities and a system for consistently putting them into motion. Do not panic and rebuild everything this afternoon. Start by reading your main speaker message. Review your talk descriptions. Check whether your strongest proof is visible. Search for yourself using the language a planner might use. Make sure the next step is obvious when someone reaches your page. One clear improvement at a time creates a stronger foundation. Ready to work both directions? The Charli Jane Speakers Club includes two paths inside one membership. STAGE helps you build and sharpen the audience, message, talks, assets, proof, and digital presence that support discovery and consideration. The Get Booked path gives you curated speaking opportunities, Opportunity Intelligence, pitching and follow-up tools, and the Booking Command Center to help you actively pursue fitting stages. Explore the Charli Jane Speakers Club here: https://charlijane.com/charli-jane-speakers-club/ If enrollment is closed, join the waitlist and I will let you know when the doors reopen.

An event planner can now ask an AI tool to find five speakers for a specific audience and problem, then receive a starting list in moments. The question is no longer only, “Are you pitching?” It is also, “Can planners and search tools clearly understand where you fit?”

AI discovery does not replace speaker outreach. A discoverable speaker who never takes action may wait a long time. A hardworking speaker who pitches with a vague message may work very hard without giving planners a clear reason to say yes. You need the foundation and the action.

In 2002, I taught speakers to build a platform Yahoo, Google, and event planners could find. Today, we are facing the same challenge at hyper speed. The technology changed. The need to be clear, credible, and findable did not.

A green light inside an SEO plugin cannot clarify a vague speaker business. Before worrying about algorithms, answer the human questions: Who do you help? What problem do you address? What changes after your talk? Why do you fit this room? Clear first. Optimized second.

Discovery gets your name into the conversation. Your positioning, proof, audience fit, video, and readiness help a planner answer the bigger question: “Why should we choose this speaker?” Built to Be Found. Ready to Be Chosen.

New blog and podcast for speakers: how event planners are using AI-assisted search to begin researching speakers, and five things you can check now.

If a planner searched for a speaker like you today, could your website clearly explain where you fit? I broke down what to check here:

The way speakers are discovered is changing. AI does not make the final hiring decision, but it can influence who reaches the starting list. Free blog and podcast:

A green SEO light cannot fix a vague speaker business. This new post explains what planners and search tools need to understand about you:

Quick five-second test for speakers: if an event planner lands on your speaker page, can she tell who you help, what problem you address, and what changes after your talk before she has to start digging? “Leadership speaker” may be accurate, but it still leaves the planner doing the translation. The same is true for broad labels like motivation, communication, wellness, sales, and change. This week's blog and podcast walks through the four pieces that make a speaker message easier to understand, plus a five-second test you can try on your own page. Read and listen here:

You can be excellent on stage and still be hard for a planner to place. Open the speaker page you send people most often. Look at the first screen for five seconds without scrolling. Then ask someone outside your business: “What do I speak about, and who should hire me?” If the answer surprises you, that is useful. You just found the gap between the message in your head and the message your public speaker presence is actually communicating. I break down how to fix that gap in this week’s blog and podcast

Can an event planner who has never met you understand what you speak about in five seconds? Broad topics such as leadership, motivation, and communication name categories. They do not automatically explain your audience, the problem you address, the outcome you help create, or where you fit. This week's blog and podcast includes a simple five-second speaker-page test and four pieces that help make your message easier for planners and search tools to understand. Read and listen here:

Being talented is not the same as being easy to understand. A clear speaker message helps a planner quickly recognize four things: your audience, the problem or need, your topic or approach, and the useful outcome your talk is designed to support. You do not need to squeeze your whole business into one clever sentence. You do need to give the right planner a clear reason to keep looking. Try the five-second test here:

“Leadership speaker” is not a complete speaker message.

A broad topic names a category. It does not automatically communicate your fit. Your speaker message should help planners understand your audience, the problem you address, your expertise, and the outcome your talk is designed to create. Try the five-second test in this week's post at CharliJane.com.

A speaker can be highly qualified and still be difficult to evaluate if the public message is too broad. “Leadership speaker” tells a planner the category. It does not necessarily tell her the audience, the specific need, the speaker’s approach, or the outcome the session is designed to support. That clarity matters for human referrals, directory profiles, search engines, and AI-assisted research. There is no magic wording that guarantees discovery, but clear and consistent public information gives people and tools a better chance of understanding where you fit. In #200 of the Charli Jane Speakers blog and podcast, I share a five-second test you can use on your speaker page and a simple audience + problem + outcome formula for tightening your message. Read and listen here:

You Know What You Speak About. Does Anyone Else?

A simple test for finding the gap between the message in your head and the one your public speaker presence communicates.

You have lived with your expertise for years. You understand the experiences, training, stories, ideas, and lessons that led you here. You know how your work connects. You know what changes when an audience hears your message. Then someone asks, “What do you speak about?” And you answer: “Leadership, communication, motivation, and success.” None of those topics are wrong. But together, they may not communicate what you think they communicate. They name categories. They do not tell a planner who your message is for, what challenge you address, what you help the audience do, or where your talk fits. You know the complete story because it is in your head. A planner, search engine, or AI tool only has the information you make public. The stranger should not have to solve the puzzle Imagine an event planner looking for someone to help first-time managers handle difficult conversations. She finds one speaker who says, “I speak about leadership and communication.” She finds another who says, “I help first-time managers lead difficult conversations with confidence so they can build trust and address problems before they grow.” The first speaker may have the perfect talk. The second speaker makes the fit easier to recognize. That matters because planners often begin with a need, not with your preferred topic label. They may be looking for help with burnout, retention, workplace conflict, customer trust, rapid change, manager confidence, team communication, or employee wellbeing. Your message has to build a bridge between their need and your expertise. Finish the thought You do not have to stop calling yourself a leadership speaker. You need to finish the thought. Leadership for whom? What leadership challenge? What becomes possible because of your talk? The same applies to communication, motivation, wellness, sales, culture, resilience, and change. Try building your message around four pieces: 1. Audience 2. Problem or need 3. Topic or approach 4. Outcome You can begin with this simple sentence: “I help [specific audience] address [specific problem] so they can [meaningful outcome].” It may never appear word-for-word on your homepage. That is okay. Its first job is to reveal whether your positioning is clear enough to explain. If you need six slashes, nine topic words, and the phrase “anyone who wants more,” your foundation is probably still trying to keep too many doors open. Specific does not mean stuck Many speakers resist specificity because they are afraid of losing opportunities. They worry that naming healthcare leaders will exclude educators. They worry that focusing on first-time managers will prevent them from speaking to executives. They worry that choosing one problem means abandoning every related idea. Specificity is not a prison sentence. It is a strong starting point. You can have several talks. Your audience can grow. Your positioning can evolve. But your first public message should give a planner a clear reason to continue. You can show her the rest after she takes the next step. The five-second test Open the main page you send to planners. Look at the first screen for five seconds without scrolling. Then ask: Who is this speaker for? What problem does this speaker address? What kind of expertise or talk does this speaker offer? Why should I continue reading? Then ask someone outside your business to do the same thing. Do not explain the answer first. Let the page speak. If that person describes a completely different speaker business from the one you intended, do not be discouraged. You just found the gap. Now you can fix it. Clear in more than one place Once you clarify the central message, check where it appears: Speaker website Short bio Talk descriptions Directory profile Digital one-sheet LinkedIn Video descriptions Podcast guest bio Blog and Substack content The language does not need to be copied everywhere, but the story should be consistent. When one page says leadership, another says personal development, and a third focuses on a completely different audience, people and search tools may struggle to understand your strongest fit. The technology changed. Clarity still wins. I began helping speakers build their platforms in 2002, when Yahoo and Google were changing how people found experts. Today, planners can also use AI search tools to help identify possible speakers. The process is faster, but the fundamental challenge is familiar. Can the person or tool searching understand who you are and where you fit? You do not need to be famous. You do not need a giant following. You do not need to pretend to have experience you have not earned yet. You need to be clear, credible, discoverable, and ready to be considered. Being found opens the door. Being understood gives a planner a reason to keep looking. Need help strengthening the foundation? The Charli Jane Speakers Club includes two paths inside one membership. STAGE helps you clarify your audience, message, talk, assets, proof, and public speaker presence. The Get Booked path helps you actively pursue fitting stages with curated opportunities, Opportunity Intelligence, pitching and follow-up tools, and the Booking Command Center. Explore the Charli Jane Speakers Club here: https://charlijane.com/charli-jane-speakers-club/ If enrollment is closed, join the waitlist and I will let you know when the doors reopen.

You know what you speak about because the complete story lives in your head. A planner only has the words, pages, videos, and proof you make public. Do those pieces tell the same story?

Leadership. Communication. Motivation. Wellness. These are real speaking topics, but they name categories rather than fit. Finish the thought: for whom, addressing what, creating which outcome?

Specificity is not a prison sentence. It is a strong starting point that helps the right people recognize where you fit. You can expand after they take the first step.

Try this five-second test: Open your main speaker page. Without scrolling, can a stranger identify your audience, problem, expertise, and outcome? If not, you found your next move.

Being found opens the door. Being understood gives a planner a reason to keep looking. Being credible and ready helps move you toward chosen.

One quick test that can help: open the main speaker page and give it five seconds. Can a stranger tell who the speaker helps, what problem the talk addresses, and why the fit matters? Wendi breaks that down here if it helps

Broad topics are not wrong, but they can leave the planner connecting too many dots. “Leadership” gets much clearer when it is tied to a specific audience, need, and outcome. This article has a simple way to test it

A useful clarity sentence is: “I help [specific audience] address [specific problem] so they can [meaningful outcome].” It does not have to become the final website headline. It is just a good way to find the fuzzy spots. More here

Sometimes the best website feedback comes from someone who does not know the business well. Let them look at the first screen for five seconds, then ask who they think should hire the speaker and why. If the answer is different from what was intended, that gap is useful. Wendi explains the test here