You Don't Need a Bigger Audience. You Need a Borrowed One.
How speaking on other people's stages fast-tracked my growth as a widowed mom rebuilding from zero.
This one is for the coach, the speaker, the expert who has something real to say and is still waiting for the right moment to say it louder.
You've been told to grow your following. Post more. Be consistent. Build your email list. And you're doing all of that. But it's slow. And meanwhile, there are rooms full of your people listening to someone else.
Here's what I figured out the hard way:
You don't need to build the room. You just need to get in the right ones.
When I became a widowed mom of five and rebuilt my business from scratch, I didn't have time to wait for an algorithm to notice me. So I started doing something that most coaches overlook entirely.
I borrowed other people's audiences.
Podcasts. Summits. Virtual stages. Live events. Other people had spent years building trust with the exact women I was trying to reach. I showed up, served those audiences well, and let the results speak.
It worked. And it still works. Here's what I've learned.
1. Find the right rooms
Not every stage is your stage. The key is identifying who already serves your ideal client — someone one step ahead of where you are but speaking to the same pain points. That's your list. Start there, not with the biggest names, but with the most aligned ones.
These are the podcast hosts, summit curators, community leaders, and event organizers who have already done the hard work of earning the attention of the exact people you're trying to reach. When you show up on their stage, you're not starting from zero. You're inheriting credibility.
2. Pitch the transformation, not yourself
Most people pitch backwards. They lead with their bio, their credentials, their follower count. Nobody cares. Not yet.
A pitch that gets a yes is 80% about the host's audience pain and 20% about you. Lead with the problem you solve. Make the host look like a genius for putting you in front of their people. Show them exactly what their audience will feel differently after hearing you speak.
3. Deliver beyond the ask
Show up so fully that the host looks like a genius for having you. Give your absolute best on borrowed stages. That's how borrowed listeners become your people — not because you told them to follow you, but because they couldn't imagine not following you.
This is where most speakers leave money on the table. They deliver a solid talk and then disappear. The ones who build momentum are the ones who go above and beyond every single time, regardless of the size of the room.
4. Have a specific next step ready
Not a generic freebie. A clear, relevant invitation that meets your new audience exactly where they are right now. Give them somewhere to go — something that continues the conversation you just started on that borrowed stage.
When the next step is aligned and specific, conversion happens naturally. When it's vague or generic, people forget you the moment they close the tab.
This isn't theory. It's the strategy behind everything we teach inside Rockstar Speaker and the same approach that has taken coaches from invisible to in-demand without a massive following or a viral moment.
If you've been sitting on a message that feels too big for your current platform, I want you to hear this: the world doesn't need you to be more ready. It needs you to be more visible.
The rooms are already out there. The audiences already exist. You just need to learn how to walk through the door.
That's exactly what we're doing inside the Launch Your Speaking Tour 5-Day Live Challenge. Five days. Real strategy. A community of coaches and speakers who are done waiting and ready to move.
Come borrow a room or two. We'll show you how.
