How do you actually find speaking gigs once you’ve decided you’re ready to become a professional speaker? A great website, speaker one-sheet, and clearly defined topics may help you look ready, but the opportunities don’t simply start showing up.
Kelly knows that feeling because she was there herself. When she decided to pursue a speaking career at 44, she was navigating major changes in her personal life while trying to figure out how to turn a powerful message into real speaking opportunities. Her first experience on stage showed her that she could connect with an audience, but it also introduced the question every speaker eventually has to answer: where do you find the gigs? Kelly shares some of the early ways she searched for speaking opportunities, what she learned about continually putting yourself out there, and why even established professional speakers never really stop looking for their next stage. That struggle ultimately inspired Landing the Gig and Kelly’s decision to go directly to event planners, speaker bureaus, and other industry professionals to learn what helps speakers get booked.
The Gig-Getting Insights Inside:
- The moment being “ready to speak” turns into the challenge of actually finding the stage
- A behind-the-scenes look at how Kelly began searching for speaking opportunities
- The shift from waiting for gigs to actively building a pipeline of possibilities
- Lessons Kelly picked up by listening to the people who choose and book speakers
- A reminder that finding the next opportunity stays part of the work, even as your speaking career grows
Resources
Mistakes Speakers Make and How to Fix Them is a practical mini-course designed to help speakers of all levels identify and overcome the common pitfalls that can hinder their success. Drawing on insights from Kelly Woodhouse’s "Landing the Gig" podcast interviews and her extensive experience as a TEDx and keynote speaker, and bestselling author, this course provides actionable strategies to enhance your speaking impact, open doors to new opportunities, and boost your revenue.
This mini-course is Free for 14-days and after that it will be $199. If you consume it in the 14-day period, then you can keep it forever. https://app.hiro.fm/channel/mini
About Kelly:
Kelly Woodhouse is an award-winning international speaker, bestselling author, publisher, and coach. A burn survivor since the age of 2 on 75% of her body, she transformed a story of near death into one of resilience and triumph. From being called the “scar-faced girl” to gracing the TEDx stage twice, Kelly’s journey has inspired millions worldwide. Her documentary Still Beautiful aired on TV, and her Goalcast video surpassed 10 million views.
Global TV named her one of the Most Inspirational People of 2020. You must ask yourself HOW? How did the scar-faced girl find the strength in her scars? Goalcast Video on fb which has received over 10 million views: https://www.facebook.com/dailygoalcast/videos/566114747146421/
https://www.KellyWoodhouse.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyfalardeau/
https://www.facebook.com/kelly.woodhouse.2025/
https://www.youtube.com/@KellyWoodhouse2
TEDx talk - U.G.L.Y. is Still Beautiful: https://youtu.be/KMBZvjetRqQ?si=V61xjiCxI5tNBL0F
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Music Credit
Our sincere thanks to Raquel Soto for generously allowing us to use "Raise Your Voice (Ink And Impact Awards Theme Song)" as part of this podcast. We are grateful for the opportunity to feature this inspiring music and appreciate her support of the show.
You have a message worth sharing, but landing the right speaking opportunities takes more than being great on stage. Welcome to Landing the Gig, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the speaking industry, I'm your host Kelly Woodhouse, and each week I bring you honest conversations and practical strategies to help you strengthen your message, stand out to event organizers, and turn more speaking opportunities into impact and income. Now let's land the gig. Hey there! Welcome back to Learning the Gig, and I'm Kelly Woodhouse. I will never forget when I had
Kelly Woodhouse:finally made the decision that I was going to be a speaker full time, and when I made that decision, you know, the first question I had was, "How do I find the gigs? And you know, sometimes what happens is we build a website, we build our speaker one sheet, we figure out what our topics are, and then we're like, okay, I'm ready. And then we think, where's the gigs? Because here's the thing: they just don't magically appear. You have to actually put yourself out there, and I didn't really know that. I don't know why I didn't really know that, but I mean that was 16 years ago, and I was
Kelly Woodhouse:really kind of stressed out at that time in my life because I was contemplating going through a divorce, and you know we were also almost bankrupt, and I just you know, I was going through all these massive life changes, and I still remember when I went home and I told my husband-he's now my former husband-and I told him, I said, "I'm going to be a speaker, and he said, "Who's going to listen to you? And I was like, "I don't know, but it's gonna happen. And sure enough, that's when Charmian said to me, "Come on, Cal, I'm gonna get you on a stage with me. We're gonna do an Ellen show, and
Kelly Woodhouse:we're gonna do this. And I was like, "Okay, great, let's do this thing. I'm scared because I'm thinking I don't know how to do this, and anyways, so she got me on a stage with her, and I noticed all these people crying when I was telling my story. And I was like, "What's going on? And I'm looking around me because I thought maybe someone had fallen or something. And then I hear that little voice in my head say, "They're crying at your story. I had just told the story about my dad passing away, and his last words to me were, "Go get him, Tiger. And so then I keep speaking, you know, and
Kelly Woodhouse:Tremaine's asking me questions, and I'm and I answer another question, and I'm talking about this story, and all of a sudden everybody's laughing, and I was like, "Oh my gosh, what are they laughing about? And again, I'm looking around on the stage and I'm thinking, what's going on? Like, does someone have a clown nose on their face or something? Like, why are they laughing? And again, I heard that little voice in my head say, "Silly, they're laughing at your story. It's funny. You really are an engaging speaker, and I thought, oh my God, this is crazy, right? This is just crazy. Like I
Kelly Woodhouse:wasn't expecting that, but I thought, okay, what the heck? What are we gonna do? And when I got finished speaking, all these people would come up to me, and they would say, Kel, you are so inspirational. We just loved your story, and I can't wait to hear you do more. And all this stuff was going on, and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, this is so crazy, and I just loved it. And I still remember going home to my, you know, my former husband, and and just saying, oh my god, this is crazy. I just love this, you know. And he's going, well, who's going to listen to you? Because he didn't
Kelly Woodhouse:see me as being an inspirational person, he saw me as being a someone that just wasn't really making it in life, and I was 44 at the time when this all happened. And so, anyways, I told him I'm doing this, whether you like it or not.
Unknown:I'm doing this, and he kept telling me how hard it would be to be a speaker, and I kept saying, "I don't know how it's going to happen, but it's going to happen. But again, of course, it's all about the gigs. How are we going to get the gigs? And I still remember Jack. Okay, and Jack and I we connected on Facebook, and Jack said to me, "Kell, you now have to become a hunter, and I was like, "What do you mean a hunter? And he goes, "Well, now it's your job to find the gigs. And I was thinking, "Okay, well, how am I going to do that? And like I mentioned in one of the other videos,
Unknown:you know, I just did the normal thing by going on Google and googling women's conferences. But that wasn't enough, and then I went on Eventbrite, and I was looking for women's conferences there, and then I was reaching out to people on Facebook and saying, you know, do you know of any speakers or any events that need speakers? And it just felt like it was such a struggle to find the gigs, but then I found some ways that worked for me, and then that's why I wanted to do landing the gig, the podcast, because I thought, why not go right to the source? Why not find out what are the speaker
Unknown:bureaus looking for? What are the event managers looking for what are we doing wrong? I ask every single person that I interview, what are speakers doing wrong? Why are they not landing more gigs? And you are going to find out some of the most incredible secrets that all of these event planners are saying that we're doing wrong, and they also tell us what we need to do right. So if we want to land more gigs, don't you think it makes sense that we go right to the source instead of us trying to fumble around trying to figure out how to get more gigs? And there's millions of ways to find gigs.
Unknown:Google is not the only way to find gigs, and especially now with AI. Well, we're having AI help us find the gigs too, so it's easier than ever to find gigs. The whole trick is to keep doing it, keep finding gigs. I know speakers who have been in the business for 2030, years who are still plugging away on computers looking for more gigs. So it never stops. We're always going to be looking for gigs because the more speaking you want to do, the more gigs you're going to need. So, I hope you really enjoy the the episode that we do where I interview all these people to talk about what are speakers
Unknown:doing wrong and what do they need to do right, and they share their secret and their likes and dislikes. They even share some of the pet peeves they have. So there you go. I hope you enjoy learning the gig, because I know I learned a lot, and I know it's helping me to put myself out there and get more gigs.