72. Speaking as Marketing: Get Booked to Speak Without Cold Pitching
Episode 72 •
2nd June 2026 • Establish Yourself®: Clear Brand Messaging, Offers, and Systems for Coaches and Consultants • Annie Franceschi | Brand + Business Strategist
When you know you need clients but don’t want to spend hours making cold pitches, burning money on ads, or waiting for speaking invitations that never come… what do you do? For me, I always turn to my most reliable growth strategy — booking free speaking gigs.
But HOW do you get those speaking gigs on your calendar in the first place?
This episode is the first in a two-part,🏆 "Best Of" Clients From Speaking series, and we’re starting with the piece that comes before the talk itself: finding and booking the right rooms.
I’m pulling back the curtain on the repeatable process I’ve used for more than a decade, and still use today, to find and book free (and sometimes paid) speaking opportunities in front of rooms filled with potential dream clients.
Because speaking as marketing works best when it is not random. It works when you know who you want to reach, where they already gather, and how to make a warm, clear ask that makes it easy for organizers to say yes.
Whether you’re just getting started with speaking or ready to return to what has always worked, this episode will help you take meaningful action now to get in the right rooms and start building momentum.
🎯 YOU’LL DISCOVER
The 4-step strategy I use every time I want more clients from free speaking
What to do before you ask for any gig, or risk hearing crickets
Why warm-ish asks beat cold pitches, and how to make one
The mindset shift that changed everything and helped create a $20K room in LA
🙌 PUT THIS INTO ACTION
If this episode gives you good ideas, but you know you’d love help actually putting them into action, I’ve created a new private offer called Clients From Speaking Fast-Track.
Fast-Track gives you my proven Clients From Speaking system — including the repeatable roadmap, strategies, templates, and mad-lib-style pitch emails I’ve used for years — plus dedicated private time with me to implement it.
This is not a course you buy and never open. It’s the roadmap and the working sessions, the templates and my eyes on how to make them work for your business, your audience, and your goals.
Inside Fast-Track, we’ll choose up to two priorities based on what would help you most right now, such as:
Writing and refining your speaking pitch emails
Outlining your signature talk
Polishing an existing talk or slides
Streamlining your talk-to-consult process
Building a simple speaker presentation menu
If you’re a coach, consultant, or service provider who already knows free speaking could help you grow your business, but you want my go-to system and my help putting the pieces together, set a free time to talk with me:
