Notes for owners · Branding and communication
Speaking, podcasts and panels: which visibility is worth your time
Some invitations to speak flatter you without reaching anyone who buys. This post gives a four-question test, a comparison of stage, podcast, panel and webinar, and a rule for saying no.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
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The email says you have been selected as a distinguished speaker, and the event is in three weeks. Before you reply, score the invitation. Speak where your buyers sit and nowhere else. A room of thirty plant heads is worth more than a stage of five hundred students. A small podcast your trade plays is worth more than a famous one it ignores. A panel is worth it only if you get to say something an email could not carry. The rest is vanity, however kind the wording.
Score the invitation on four questions
Give each question 0, 1 or 2 points. Do it on paper, with the organiser's reply in front of you.
| Question | 0 points | 1 point | 2 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who is in the room, by job title? | "Entrepreneurs", no list | A list, but mixed | Mostly the people who buy what you sell |
| Can any of them hire me or send me someone who can? | No | One or two | Several, and I can name them |
| What will I say that they cannot find online? | A tidy version of the usual | Some of my own cases | A method or numbers from my own work |
| What do I get afterwards? | Applause | A recording | Contacts, or a way to carry on the conversation |
Seven or eight: say yes. Four to six: say yes only if it is cheap and near. Three or fewer: decline with a kind note. Zeros on both of the first two questions are enough to decline whatever the total.
Ask the organiser for the attendee list by role and company type, not the headcount. A serious one will have it. If the answer is a brochure, you have your score.
Stage, podcast, panel, webinar
| Format | Good at | Poor at | Take it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talk at a trade meeting | A room of the right people, questions, tea afterwards | Reach ends with the day | The meeting belongs to your trade or your buyers' trade |
| Podcast guest | Long-form trust; a recording you can send to a prospect | You rarely know who listened | The show's audience is specific and you can name it |
| Panel | Credibility by association | Little airtime; you are one of five | You see the questions in advance and hold a view |
| Your own webinar | You pick the audience and keep the contacts | You must fill the room yourself | You already have a list of people who know your name |
No format is a shortcut. If nobody knows you, your first webinar will be small. That is where you start, not a failure.
Three invitations, scored
This is an invented case, not a client. A dairy-plant consultant in Anand, who helps cooperatives and private dairies with milk-reception and cold-chain problems, gets three invitations in one month.
- A management college festival. Audience of students, a certificate for the speaker, no attendee list. Scores: 0, 0, 1, 0. Decline.
- A national start-up podcast. Large audience, mostly first-time founders in software. Scores: 1, 0, 2, 1. A total of four, so the consultant accepts only because an hour of recording is cheap and the clip can go to a prospect.
- A talk at a regional dairy technologists' meeting. Forty people, mostly plant managers and quality heads, and the organiser sends the list. Scores: 2, 2, 2, 1. Yes.
The first instinct had been to accept all three, because each was flattering. The better habit is to ask each organiser for the list before replying to any of them. The college gets a polite note and an offer of a recorded talk. The dairy meeting costs a day of travel and, in this case, brings two useful contacts and one person asking for free advice on a plant of their own. That is a decent result, not a rush of work.
Spotting a vanity appearance
Watch for these signs. The organiser charges a fee to be featured or recognised. The audience is mainly other speakers. Your slot is the last of the day, after the hall empties. The main promise is a trophy or a certificate for you rather than a result for the audience.
None of these is wrong if you enjoy the event. They are wrong only if you count them as marketing.
Here is a harder test. Imagine spending the same hours ringing ten former clients to ask who else they know who has your problem. If that would bring more work, the stage can wait.
When speaking is the wrong move
Skip speaking if your nerves show and you have not practised, since a weak talk can leave the room with a worse opinion of you than before. Skip it if your buyers decide by reading documents and never meet a speaker. Skip it if you cannot follow up afterwards, because most of a talk's value arrives in the conversation after it.
If you are a doctor, lawyer, accountant or another registered professional, your council may have its own rules on promotional talks. Rules differ by state and body and change, so check with your own adviser or regulator before accepting.
Making the one you accept count
Before you go, write one sentence that tells the room who you help. Carry one way to reach you, and keep it simple: a WhatsApp number or a short link. Decide the follow-up you will send to anyone who gives you their number, such as a one-page checklist.
Afterwards, note who spoke to you and whether any of them buys what you sell. After a few events that note tells you where to go again, and where not to go again.
Score your next three invitations before you answer any of them, and ask each organiser for the attendee list first. The personal branding hub covers the other routes to visibility. If you want a second opinion on where your buyers actually gather, tell us what you need.
