A clear message opens doors faster than any pitch.

Kim Parkinson sits down with web designer and speaker branding expert Emma Bennett of StageFront Studios to explore how a well-crafted one sheet and intentional website design can attract the right speaking and podcast opportunities. Together, they share practical tips for simplifying your message, aligning your design with your essence, and creating a website that guides visitors straight to booking you.

Clarity, simplicity, and soulful design come together to help you get seen, get booked, and grow your business with ease.

Connect with Emma Bennett:

https://stagefrontstudios.com/spiritual-women

https://kpcreativemedia.com/growth-clarity-call

Welcome back to Podcasting for Spiritual Women.

I'm Kim Parkinson.

Last week, you heard my coaching conversation with Mary Ellen Lundy, where we refined her speaker one sheet so she could show up confidently, connect with her audience, and position herself for more podcasts and speaking opportunities.

So today, we're continuing that journey with someone who knows exactly how to turn that clarity into a stunning strategic design that actually gets you booked.

Emma Bennett is the founder of Stagefront Studios, where she helps professional speakers land more clients with an all in one, done for you website and booking system that makes the tech side simple.

With a background in theater, arts, administration and hr, Emma has always been passionate about helping people perform at their best and connect with audiences in meaningful ways.

After Studying more than 100 speaker websites, she's uncovered what truly helps speakers build trust online.

And now she combines storytelling, design, and human connection to help speakers save time, reduce tech stress, and focus on what they do best, which is delivering their message and changing lives from the stage.

Together, we're diving in to how to design a one sheet that feels aligned with your message, reflects your essence, and turns your visibility into real opportunities.

Welcome there, Emma.

I would love to start with the basics.

Are you ready?

Absolutely, yes.

Let's dive into this.

All right, so what exactly is a speaker one sheet?

Why does it matter?

And I'm going to mention, after my.

My conversation with Mary Ellen last week, I've already had people reach out and ask me this, so they really want to know, what is it?

What is that one speaker, one sheet.

Okay.

It is, in essence, it's a simple one page snapshot of who you are as a speaker and what you speak about.

You can kind of think of it as being similar to a resume in some ways, but much more focused on you and what you speak about in your topic and your messaging rather than your.

All the rest of the things you might traditionally think of it as in a resume with your background and history and those things.

And it's.

It's something that we use to get you in the door.

Almost like a calling card for your.

For you to be able to promote podcast hosts and people who might be booking speakers as a way to say, this is who I am.

This is.

This is what I talk about.

And just a really clear way of getting that message across to them in a.

In a short, sweet method, basically.

Yeah.

Yeah.

How important is it that it's just one sheet?

Pretty important, actually, I think.

I mean, it's not going to be.

His face is not really critical at the end of the day.

But I do think it is prefer if you can manage it to be on one sheet.

I think that is the best way to go because ultimately it's meant to be something there that adds clarity to what you're talking about.

And it is just a snapshot.

It's not the full talk or anything like this.

It is just for the person who might be booking you to be able to look at really quickly and.

And very quickly and easily surmise as to are you going to be relevant.

Is this the kind of thing that they're looking for?

And they're not going to have a lot of time.

So if you start spilling onto multiple, multiple pages, then they're just not going to get all of that information and something that might be really important to you is going to get missed.

Mary Ellen actually mentioned in last week's episode that she.

She struggled because she had such a wide variety of ideas in her one sheet.

And.

And I know that so many of us feel the same.

Right.

We can talk about, you know, I could talk about podcasting.

I could talk about business.

I could talk about crafts.

I could talk about all sorts of different things.

So how can we keep that one sheet clarified?

And do you believe that you should have more than one one sheet, depending on your topics?

Ooh, that's a good idea.

Okay, so for narrowing it down, I think you want to be kind of picking up the key messages that you want to be getting across.

So using bullet points is totally okay.

It's really just a few sentences about highlighting the main difference that you make the main topic that you talk about.

I think you could, of course, include multiple different.

If you have all the different topics you want to talk about, you could try and include those on the page because you are trying to be succinct about it.

But I think that you're probably going to be.

If, depending on the.

How cohesive those messages are, you're probably going to be better served by actually having slightly modified 1 sheets for each of the different topics that you want to talk about, because you don't want to be sending something out that's just too generic and doesn't quite hit the mark for any of the audiences that you're trying to target.

And by having something that's really tailored to each of those messages, I think you're going to have a much better chance of actually connecting with a host or someone who wants to book you, showing that you really understand that audience and that message and that this is tailored to what they need.

And I think you're going to be better served by doing that on multiple different one sheets.

Yeah.

In essence, you could probably get away with both ways, but I personally would probably ear on the side of.

Or on the side of.

Of tailoring each one.

Yeah.

Especially if you've got a wide variety of topics.

Right.

You know, I mentioned podcasting and crafts.

Right.

So that would be totally different audiences, totally different segments.

So I can see.

Yeah, yeah.

I think that if you have the room as well, you could always include like just a, like a bullet point list or something of other topics that you can also speak about or something like that.

So you can, if you feel you really do want to show you have the, the variety and breadth of topics that you talk about, there are ways to kind of include those as well.

But in terms of the actual details of the questions and you might want to be focusing down more on.

On one.

I think.

I love that.

I actually love that idea of like having just a small little segment of.

I can also talk about and have those other little, little bullet points too, just in case somebody wants to like, kind of kind of like quiz you on it.

Right.

It'd be like.

Right, I saw it on there.

That's a great.

That's like a little great segue of knowing more about the person too.

So.

Love that.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

They can always get in touch with you and quiz you a bit more about if something sparks their imagination, then.

Then you.

You have starter for them then as well.

Sure, sure.

So on the flip side, right, so what are a few things that you see that people actually do that hurt their chances of getting booked on a one sheet?

Yeah.

I think the danger that people sometimes fall into is.

Is really just trying to spin out the story a little bit too much.

Like putting long paragraphs in there that are people not going to have the time to actually really read through and understand.

So things get a little bit too wordy.

They try and put too much of the backstory in there and the actual details.

So I think that's.

That's one aspect.

Then also just using kind of the maybe too well worn generic phrases.

So it means that kind of things you're not really standing out, then it's stuff that people have heard before.

So I think that's an aspect there as well.

And all of that kind of comes together in terms of it all muddying the waters and kind of not lending itself to the clarity of really standing out to the host about what it is that you bring and why you want to talk this thing and what you can bring to, to the, to the audience that they have, that they're serving because it's, it's a two way relationship really.

Yeah.

Bring a little bit of your essence into it and make sure that it speaks like you, but also succinctly so super important.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's a fine balance as well.

Like it's, it's, it is hard to do to really get the.

Find that balance as you, as you say, because you do want to get you across, but you also don't want to the conversation starters rather than here's the whole package.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, conversation starters, exactly that.

I think that's, that's a really good point.

It's not supposed to be the entire conversation.

It's just supposed to be that glimmer of this is what I could talk about.

Let's kind of dive deeper into that.

Right?

Exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

Like just little windows, like window shopping kind of.

This is the suggestion of what we can talk about.

And these kind of things are now if you want to know more, you want to go inside and you want to actually find out more and start that conversation and explore from there.

But this is just the, the window dressing to start with.

Yeah, I love that.

Love that.

Okay, so what are the key elements that a speaker one sheet should have?

Okay, so there are some really obvious things that you want to make sure you're including.

Things like obviously your name and a way to get in touch with you.

And usually that's going to be email or a phone number.

I would include probably both.

Email is, I think is a, is one that's really important to, to make sure you've got on there.

And then a lot of people like to include a little profile photo because it just helps that little bit with the relationship building to know who's on the other, on the other side of this conversation.

And then underneath that I would usually have just like an introductory paragraph about you yourself.

This is kind of, this is your background, this is your story.

But it's going to be very short because again, it is just that here's a snapshot of who I am and why I can talk about these things.

So you're really only wanting a paragraph or two at most and not long paragraphs either.

And then the other things that are really important are things like your suggested topics, things that you can talk about.

That kind of little section we mentioned just now.

And in addition to that, it's good also to include some suggested questions as well.

So these might not be.

And probably won't be the questions that you actually end up being asked or talking about in the, in the conversation if you do get booked for a podcast.

But they are a great starting point for the host for them to have some ideas of the kind of things that you like to talk about and that you are knowledgeable about and it gives them a springboard as well then to, to be able to move from there and craft their own questions that come from that.

So they're still going to be well suited for you, but you're just putting that little bit of effort in for them as well so that they, there's a lot that they're going to have to do that's a lot going on behind the scenes.

So the more you can actually be helpful and show that you're kind of trying to do some of the work for them in advance, the more likely you are to, to stand out as a better candidate for best.

For want of a better word.

Because you can, it's, it's got to be two way and you want to make sure that that works for both of you.

And if you're going to make life easier for them, that's going to be such, such a good selling point to start with.

Yeah, yeah, I love that.

Now in Mary Ellen's episode, I talked to her very briefly about, she has some of her high resolution pictures on her website and I mentioned putting a little link on her one sheet saying that there were pictures there.

What do you think about something like that?

Absolutely, why not?

I think use that space in the best way you can.

I certainly wouldn't say put this all those photos in little snapshots or anything on the one sheet itself, but a link that's going to take up very little space and it's going to provide further more information and something that the host can go on to explore a little bit more.

So for example, if you have a website already, then I would include a link to that as well because that just, that lets you put more of that information out there for them to explore if they want to.

The one sheet kind of gets you in the door and then these links up to other areas can allow them to find out more about you should they want to.

Yeah.

That brings me to the second part of your business.

So it's not just one sheets, but it's actually creating speaker websites that just make that booking process simple.

And how does having a dedicated speaking page or website elevate somebody's one sheet?

Well, I, I mean, I'm biased obviously, of Course, yeah, I feel like it, it really rounds out the whole thing.

The one sheet is just one small part of the whole process.

So like I say, with the one sheet that gives you that kind of introductory window shopping, I guess, for the host, you can send out there to, to get them to find out more information about you.

The website itself then has a much greater reach in terms of being able to provide.

There's more space for you to put out more information about your stories and your, what you talk about and your offerings and services and those kind of things.

But more than that, it also enables you to build more of an ecosystem.

So you can use the website as a hub, but you can then build onto that newsletters and your one sheets and say like if you're doing sort of paid speaking gigs, like on a stage kind of thing, instead of necessarily in a podcast, it allows you then to create speaker kits for that.

So you again are going above and beyond to actually provide the information that's helpful.

And all of that in the way that I build them, at least all of that funnels towards actually calling people into action for actually picking up the phone or booking a meeting with you to actually start that conversation.

And so the website really just allows you to use multiple different tools and methods to bring people in to get them talking to you to see how can you help each other.

And so the one sheet is really important, but I see that as one part of a larger scale system.

How do we make sure that when they land on the website that they're actually going to get to your booking page?

That's a great question.

And it's so important because you really, you don't want it to just be a brochure.

You don't want people just to visit and say, oh, that was nice and bounce off somewhere else.

So what I think is really important is really honing every part of your website, be it part of your page or everything all together, is really wanting to lead that person through to, to your call to action.

So you're usually your booking page.

It's kind of like being at a party.

So people might come in through the, the front door, they might come in the back door or the side, I don't know.

And there's lots of different things happening throughout the house, but you really want people to make their way to the kitchen.

Like the, the best part of the party, where the, the food is, the conversation is like that's the area everyone to come in.

It doesn't really matter how they got there.

That's where you want them to end up.

And it's the same with your website.

So you want to make sure that you've got journeys that lead everyone back to your contact page or your booking page, per se.

Getting really into the heart of the kitchen.

And that's where the conversion is going to happen.

That's where you get people to actually reach out to you.

And there's lots of different ways to do that and bring them into that journey.

But you want to make sure they enjoy the best of the party.

That's always a good thing.

Right.

You want them to stay and enjoy.

I love that.

So for those women that may have a general business website, do you recommend adding a speaking page or creating a separate site for their speaker brand?

What is, what is your recommendation for that?

Yeah, I think the thing that I would really ask about first is which is the, which part of the business is the primary focus?

I guess is it that they want to add speaking in as a, as a service that's kind of an additional part to their existing business, or are they wanting speaking to become a larger part, like take up a larger percentage?

Is that going to be more of the main focus?

So if you have an existing web business that is really the core part of your messaging and offering, then you're probably going to be well served with adding a speaking page into that existing site.

As long as you are still using it and making sure it's going to be converting for you.

You want to make sure it's still focused on getting those conversations in.

Whereas if you are leaning more towards the speaking aspect of things as being the larger part of your business, then I would really recommend setting up a website that is specifically geared around that and you can probably make it work either way.

But for, for me, and particularly say, the way that I'm building them, I really focus on bringing all those aspects and that's harder to do when you only have a single page.

Sure.

So I feel that the, the speaking website as, as a dedicated thing is likely more.

Is not likely.

It is more effective at converting people into actually making bookings because you can address so many different, more aspects of the.

The questions that they might have and pulling and pushing gently through people, through the kind of the story and the messages that you want them to hear and gently leading them to actually making contact with you.

And the website gives you a much better variety of ways to meet them, where they're at and provide the information for them that they need at that moment, whether they're ready right now.

Or whether they need to just connect with you and find out more later down the line.

If you have just a single speaking page, then you just.

You don't have that flexibility to really pull all those aspects into it.

But if you already have an existing business and this is just one small offering that you're incorporating, then that might suffice for you.

Yeah, I feel like.

Yeah.

And actually I feel like there's almost two pieces to this.

Right.

So for last week, Mary Ellen is really wanting to be a speaker and occasionally a podcast guest.

She's really a good candidate for a speaker website, whereas a lot of my listeners have a podcast and maybe occasionally want to be a speaker.

So maybe right now they might be better off with just a single page on their existing website.

So there's definitely that difference there.

I can see that.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

It depends on how much you want the speaking part to kind of take over that side of your business.

If you want to be known as a speaker, you need a speaker website.

If you just want to be a podcast guest, then occasionally, then maybe you just need a single page.

What do you think?

Yes, yeah, absolutely.

You've put it perfectly.

Thank you.

Oh, yeah, sure.

Yeah.

Of course.

It's a teamwork here.

Teamwork, absolutely.

Even if you have a single page, though, there's still so much you can do with that page as well.

Like, you can still treat it like a landing page.

You can still take people through that journey and you can still link off to your one sheet or to your headshots and those kind of bits and pieces.

It's just not going to be as in depth as you can get with a.

With a dedicated speaking site.

Yeah.

So if you were to have just a single page, I know that the in depth would be for the speaker site, but if you were just to have that one page, you're not just going to put everything that's on the one sheet on that page.

You're going to go more in depth on some of the topics, the conversations.

Am I getting this right or.

Absolutely, yeah.

No, you're.

Okay.

You're spot on.

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah.

You have more room then for the story that you're so.

Whereas we've been talking about trying to keep it as succinct as possible on the one sheet.

You have just that much more license to be able to expand your story a little bit more.

You still got to obviously bear in mind that people are going to be likely skimming this.

They're not going to be reading in depth.

So you don't want to do to be too wordy, but it can be longer than your one sheet, and you do have then much more room to build your authority about the topics that you're talking about, like you, your background, what led you to these positions, what you do talk about and what services you offer within that, and just guiding people through the journey that you want them to take in order to ultimately book you as a.

As a speaker or podcast guest.

Yeah.

What would you say actually makes a one sheet a one?

Yes.

Like, is there a.

Is there like a special formula where people are going to have on their one sheet and it's a definite yes for the right fit person?

Is there anything that you think really needs to be stand out on those?

For me, it comes down to the clarity.

Is it really easy to garner who you are, what problem you solve, and what outcome you provide?

So, yeah, like, are you going to be a good match?

This is, this is ultimately, I think what is going to be looked for is like, are you going to be a good match for that podcast's audience?

Can you actually provide something of value?

And are you going to be easy to interview?

Like, is it going to be clear?

Like, are people going to understand what you're talking about?

Yeah, I think that's super important.

Yeah, yeah.

It's the clarity.

Right?

It's.

It's making.

Coming up with that, that, that message that really defines who you are infusing a little bit of your personality in there.

And, you know, one of the things we didn't even talk about, but making it readable.

Right.

Using the correct size fonts or fonts that are easy to read.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

I was just thinking about the white space.

People often talk about the white space in design, and I think that's really important for the, for the, the one sheet as well.

It might be only one page, but that doesn't mean you want to cram every possible bit into it and use up every aspect of that.

It needs to be easy to read.

Like you say, if people are skimming this and, and just looking for the highlights.

And then, yeah, you want to make sure that, like you say, the fonts are legible, that they're a decent size, that it's easy to read, not having to kind of peer at it.

And the same goes for the colors.

You want it to be easy on the eye.

You don't want there to be clashing colors or when you're putting different color fonts on different backgrounds.

You still need to pay really carefully attention to the legibility of it.

Maybe you think of yourself as being a fun, bright, bubbly kind of personality and that's going to come across to some degree in the one sheet.

But if you choose your neon yellow with a neon pink writing on top of it, you know your message is going to be lost.

No one's going to be able to actually understand that.

And it's going to be glossed over because they don't have the time to then be delving into that more to go finding out.

If and if this is how you're presenting yourself as your best dress window, then it's going to be hard to find more information behind that.

They have to really want to go and find out more then.

Yeah.

And let's face it, these are being read by actual people in most cases.

It's not a bot like a resume, you know, right now, if you go and apply, it's a bot that's reading your resume first.

But these are more likely actual people that are looking at them.

And put your best foot forward, your best message forward too, for sure.

Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's human first, I think, like, I don't know what will come down, down later down the line, obviously none of us do.

But right now it's, it's very human forward, like you say it is.

Real people that are reading this, real people who are going to actually be working through and finding they're not just looking for the odd keyword and that kind of thing, they're really getting the whole message from you and the overall feel of the one sheet and what you're bringing to the, to the table.

So if somebody wanted to get started, you just open Canva, get going right there.

Do you anything like that?

Would you, would you suggest that or a Word document?

How would you, how would you just tell them, get started to make your one sheet?

I think that you could go either of those routes.

Personally, if I was going to just be doing it myself, I enjoy kind of artistic sign things.

So if you feel that's part of your, your strengths as well, then Canva is a great route for that.

Even if you're looking at resume templates, you can, you can.

They have a host of different templates you can begin with, allow you to then take some of that design aspect away from your plate and allow you then to focus on, on getting your message across.

That can be really helpful.

And I suppose it depends on how confident you feel in dealing with these kind of things.

But I think Canva is a great place to start.

If you just want to do it yourself.

But there's nothing wrong with a good old Google Doc either, as long as you are making it presentable and legible as well.

Like, there's a lot can be done there too.

Sure, it's more about what you're putting into it rather than necessarily the tool, but don't overcomplicate it ultimately.

Yeah.

All right.

And so if somebody's like, nope, I'm not touching Canva, Nope, I don't know how to do this in a Canva Doc or a Google Doc.

Tell me what, tell me what you can offer to people and how can they reach out to you and how can you help them?

What, what do you help them with?

Okay, yeah, well, it is certainly, it is something that, that I offer.

They can reach out to me at, through my own business, which is stagefrontstudios.com and my main offering there is, is really focused around the, the websites.

And the one sheet is one critical part of that for sure.

But I also bring the, all the other aspects that I was mentioning before.

Like, I, I set up the newsletters.

I build the website, obviously, but I will then also set up the, the newsletter and a League magnet, which is like a, like a short kind of helpful tips kind of thing you can send out just to sort of intrigue someone and get them to, to introduce them to your business.

Like a little snippet of what you offer.

And I set that up for you.

So I create all that and then set up all the tech in the background to actually get that sent out to people.

And those bits and pieces, as well as all the booking and the calendars and all the different bits that kind of lead towards making that actual leap to getting you booked.

And the one sheet is very much one part of that.

I have set up a page for your listeners that they can actually get an example of that.

And they can see some of the bits and pieces that I feel are really important for websites.

And if they were going to stagefrontstudios.comspiritual-women then they can actually put their details in there and then send them an example of a lead magnet and that will get some kind of into my world.

And they can always just reply to any of those emails or click through on the contact pages or anything like that.

And then we can chat.

And I can always help them out, be that with the one sheet or with the website or whatever else they might need.

I think that is fantastic.

And I also think that a lot of my listeners aren't as Tech savvy.

So having somebody in their pocket to be able to do all of those things, just get that right off of their brain, get that right out.

So tell me that website again and I will put it in the show notes so that people can find you.

Yeah, absolutely.

So if you want to.

To sign up for the.

The little bit of information about the website, then that is stagefront studios.com and it's forward slash spiritual hyphen women.

Perfect.

That is amazing.

Yes.

And not only the website, but part of the package comes with the one sheet.

So if you get the whole package.

Yeah, perfect.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, no, I do all of those things.

So one sheet is very much included in there as well as, like I say, your newsletter and all the things.

I will create all of that for you.

You don't have to worry about any of that.

Wow.

What a weight lifted off of people's shoulders you're doing.

So I love that.

Excellent.

Yeah.

Right, Emma, is there anything else that you would like to share with the AUD audience today?

I think we've covered most of it, but it really is.

Don't be over complicating it.

I think it's easy to think this is the thing that's going out there and I need to make it perfect, but really it is just an introductory.

It's a conversation starter, as we mentioned before.

So don't over complicate it.

It's okay to use your bullet points, it's okay to keep it short.

It's going to be easier to read, really.

And if anything, that's a benefit.

So keep it simple.

I love that.

Yeah, keep it simple.

That's the kiss method, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, I love it.

Excellent.

Well, thank you so much for being on today, Emma.

I really appreciate it.

And I will leave the links in the show notes so people can reach out and I hope they do because you are amazing and I absolutely.

I've seen your one sheet and it is.

It is amazing as well.

Lots of great information on it, but still has your personality.

I saw the.

Saw the backgrounds and all that there too, so love that.

Thank you.

And I've seen a couple samples of your websites that you make too, so.

Yeah.

So if you are listening and you're interested in being a speaker and you think, I think I might need that website.

Reach out to Emma and let her know that you came from here and she'll help you.

She'll hook you up.

So please do.

I'd love to chat with you.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for having me.

It's been an absolute pleasure.

Thank you.

Thank you, Emma.

Talk to you soon.

Bye Bye.

Bye bye.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Podcasting for Spiritual Women.

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