Book More Speaking Gigs on Stage: Insider Tips from Aleya Harris

Confidence on stage isn’t just about knowing what to say—it’s about owning your story. In this episode, public speaking and storytelling expert Aleya Harris shares how authenticity and personal storytelling can transform your communication skills. 

From uncovering your unique message to navigating the speaking industry, evaluating opportunities, and leveraging video to amplify your presence, Aleya breaks down exactly how to position yourself as a sought-after speaker. Get ready to take action and step into your power as a speaker!

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The surprising power of sharing your "crisis stories" (and why they're gold)
• How to spot speaking opportunities that are actually worth your time
• Why paying to speak might be sabotaging your success
• A fresh take on using video that goes beyond basic recordings

Key Insights: 

"Speaking begets speaking" - The snowball effect of getting started 
"Collect your crisis stories" - Turn your challenges into your superpowers

We bust the myth that there aren't enough speaking opportunities to go around and reveal how to find stages where your ideal audience is already waiting. Plus, discover why those messy moments in your journey might be exactly what your future audience needs to hear.

Pro Tip: Don't skip the video strategy section at 30:07 – it's a game-changer for turning one speaking gig into many.

Whether you're hiding in the back of Toastmasters or already booking paid gigs, this episode serves up practical wisdom for making your next talk unforgettable.

Time Stamps: 

00:00 - The heart of impactful speaking 

02:09 - Crafting stories that stick 

05:59 - Mining your life for speaking gold 

11:54 - Navigating the speaking scene 

17:52 - Picking the right stages 

23:57 - Delivery that draws people in 

30:07 - Smart video strategies 

36:06 - Your next bold steps

• Learn the strategy to use an AI-powered video strategy to supercharge your visibility - Join my next FREE live training!
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• Download the prompts to create your perfect elevator pitch

Transcript

Shirlee Engel (00:01.172)
I'm thrilled to have you on the Camera Confident podcast, Alaya. Thanks so much for joining us today.

Aleya Harris (00:07.506)
Thank you for having me. It is my utmost pleasure to be here.

Shirlee Engel (00:11.64)
So what we always like to start with is your elevator pitch for those who don't know you, who are you and what do you do?

Aleya Harris (00:20.178)
Hello, hello, hello, everybody. My name is Aleah Harrison and like I like to say to people, I am the spark for your spark. I help business leaders overcome communication and differentiation challenges by sharing radically authentic stories that transform workplace culture and carve unique market niches. do that as a

international award-winning speaker, bestselling author, as well as a speaker trainer in my program, Spark the Stage, and a consultant in my strategic storytelling consultancy, the Evolution Collective.

Shirlee Engel (00:56.066)
Wow, that is a mouthful. One of the many things that impressed me about you, Aleah, was your command of the stage. And I know we were talking before we hit record that you're nursing a little bit of a cold. That's cool. This is what we do. We talk regardless and we show up no matter what. So I just wanted to acknowledge you and thank you for coming on despite the cold.

Aleya Harris (01:10.822)
Yes.

Aleya Harris (01:15.089)
Yes.

Thank you for having me. This is not quite as bad as what this I remember one time I was speaking on stage with a coffee cup of Theraflu. So this is not that. It turned out I had COVID, which I found out after that. But the show went on and actually I did record it on camera, got great video from the experience and the editor was able to edit out the coughing. So this is going to be better than that.

Shirlee Engel (01:32.554)
no, no!

Shirlee Engel (01:48.76)
I know it will and I think that's a great place to start because I think a lot of people think, my God, speaking on stage, I can't do that because I need my notes and what am I gonna do? People get all the feels about being on video and then there are people who get all the feels about being on stage. So first of all, let's just get that out of the way. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I really wanna, yeah.

Aleya Harris (02:09.841)
Yeah. No, it does not.

Shirlee Engel (02:13.774)
I really want to start at the beginning because one of the reasons that I thought it would be great to have this conversation from a visibility perspective, lots of entrepreneurs who watch and listen to this podcast are looking at 2025 at the time of this recording thinking, I want to get on stages next year. I want to be a speaker. Where do they start? And what do you say is sort of the first step to taking that step forward in your visibility journey?

Aleya Harris (02:39.676)
The first place that you should start is with yourself. Most people start by Googling. So I want you to do me a favor, take your Google finger and put it away because it's not going to help you in the very beginning. All it will do is actually cause you to build up a nice, right, healthy sense of imposter syndrome. The best speakers, the ones that people hang on their every word are the ones who have something to say.

Shirlee Engel (03:00.664)
Hmm.

Aleya Harris (03:10.095)
It's not the ones who have managed to say something that is a regurgitation of somebody else's message. It's something that makes me feel something new, know something new, experience something new through the lens of the speaker's experience. So the very first thing I want you to do is to take an introspective look at yourself, get real with yourself and say, what have I experienced?

that could be of service to someone else. Now, at this point in time, almost every single one of my students, and I'm talking about military, Air Force commanders, lawyers, to after school curriculum developers, every single one of them says, well, do I have a story worth telling? And I answer you unequivocally, yes, yes, you do.

And because most people before I told them to put their Google finger away, they have already gone out and used it. And they're seen speakers that it's like, I'm a retired Navy SEAL who became a quadriplegic in a horrible surfing accident. But then I still train on the beach every morning. And I'm here to tell you how I do it. It's like these like totally larger than life, traumatic.

stories that are like the only person on earth that has ever experienced that one thing and people think in order to get on stage you have to be that person. And that's just not true. And I'm sorry if that described your exact situation which is highly unlikely but if that is you I'm gonna say something that's an unpopular opinion. A lot of those people don't actually speak very well.

Shirlee Engel (05:00.718)
Hmm

Aleya Harris (05:00.999)
So they kind of are like an audience letdown. So like on the billing, you're really excited to hear them because you've heard this grandiose story and then you see them and then they like tell you a historical recounting of the story. And you're like, so what am I supposed to do with that information? Cause I don't plan on being in a freak surfing accident tomorrow. So how do I apply this to my life? They have the story, but they don't have the structure. And that's the second thing that I tell people to do.

Shirlee Engel (05:27.374)
Mmm.

Aleya Harris (05:30.184)
Figure out your story, which I'm telling you is 100 % worth telling, and understand how to use story structure to bring it to life. Most importantly, understanding that your audience is full, and I say this with the most love, of narcissists with short attention span. Even me, and even you, Shirley, when you're in the audience, you're narcissist with short attention span. Is it about me? Can you make it about me? Yeah, my God, exactly.

Shirlee Engel (05:55.98)
like social media!

Aleya Harris (05:59.592)
Can you make it about me five minutes from now? Did you make it about me five minutes ago? Because if you didn't, I kind of need you to make it about me, like now. And a story structure does that innately. When you put it through a story and you think of a Joseph Campbell's hero's journey, for example, it's about the hero who is not you going on the journey. And you're guiding them by telling them how you've been there, done that, and how they can too. So.

Shirlee Engel (06:05.55)
Yeah. Yeah.

Aleya Harris (06:28.541)
Once you get it through the structure, then you think about how do I share it? How do I pitch it? And then I will allow you to take your Google finger back out, but not before then.

Shirlee Engel (06:41.324)
So, I mean, a lot of people, talked about imposter syndrome, but I think a lot of people will think, I'm just not that interesting. I know you said I have a story. How do I find my story? I'm just a regular Joe or Jane going about my day. I have a business. I want to get clients and I'd love to be on stage so that people can buy my stuff. So what do you say to people who are just not sure what their story is? My story is the stuff that I do to help people.

Aleya Harris (07:11.677)
That's everybody. To those people, that's all of the people. And it's so funny because I had someone come to my master class that was literally about to leave because she goes, this doesn't apply to me. Because I was talking about crisis stories, which I'm going to use to answer your question in a second. Because she was, what was she? Something that I didn't actually know what they do. Like, I like she said like an actuary or something like that. I don't actually know what an actuary does. Something where I'm just like.

Shirlee Engel (07:38.725)
How do I?

Aleya Harris (07:40.926)
So you do something technical that I haven't had the need to buy the service of yet. It was something very technical. And she goes, well, I don't need, like my personal story has nothing to do with this. And the first thing that I want to say is we're going to look for stories and I'm going to talk to you about how unearthing, how to unearth those. But what you're actually looking for is common threads of human experience. So I've had people tell stories.

of traumatic brain injury from the stage. I've also had students tell stories of falling off their bike as a kid. And both, I'm thinking of two very distinct people in my head who are very, very different from each other. Both of them have the audience in tears in 10 minutes, right? So it's not about, again, you have to have some story that's...

either so fantastical or super related to, you know, being an attorney. The first person who has a traumatic brain injury, the change management consultant, and the other one who had a story of falling off her bike as a kid as an empowerment coach for kids. The change management consultant used her story of having a traumatic brain injury to talk about change. And the change is that she

to the depth of her soul experienced through the incident, the recovery, and how the change management curve, she was able to really bring that to life in organizations of change management consultants who have traditionally approached it almost as a academic exercise. The value that she brought through her story was actual lived experience and then tweaking their beliefs and having paradigm shifts along the way to make their work more effective.

the person who fell off her bike as a kid, her story was, yes, started off falling off of the bike as a kid, but when she fell off, her tooth came through her lip and there's blood everywhere, right? Right? And it was a story of really of the moment where she reached out her arms to her sister, who she was like seven at the time, her sister's only like 10, we're talking about kids here, and her sister backed away.

Shirlee Engel (09:47.778)
Yikes.

Aleya Harris (10:02.363)
because here's this little girl covered in blood and they're both terrified. But in that moment, the idea implanted in her head that she wasn't good enough, she wasn't worthy of love, she was untouchable and she was ugly. Keeping in mind, this woman has actually modeled before as she grew up. She's a beautiful woman, right? But that is actually the core of her story.

Shirlee Engel (10:14.056)
Aleya Harris (10:27.023)
and how she overcame that. developed a framework about how to become a possibilitarian, which is her word. And then using that to empower not only young girls, she empowers me, we're the same age, right? And to empower adults and using that in her work, right? So does the story, if you're an accountant, you have to be like, man, let me tell you about this one income sheet that I saw. No.

Shirlee Engel (10:52.866)
Hahaha

Aleya Harris (10:56.988)
But if you're an accountant getting up to talk in a room full of accountants about the difficulties of getting your clients to get all of their paperwork together, let's say that's very niche, random topic, but all you getting your clients to get all of their stuff together so you can get some clean books and maybe it's more bookkeeping than accounting. Well, you might want to talk about clients that you've gone to and you've helped more hands on.

And their psychology, because you went into their house and they were actually hoarders or their parents had just died and helping them overcome that experience to allow accountants have a more in-depth understanding of why their clients are not the villains and why they could actually come from a different place of service and how to do that. It's not just they're intentionally not getting their books and their paperwork together. Right. You tell stories that allow people to connect.

Shirlee Engel (11:47.391)
Mm-hmm.

Aleya Harris (11:52.228)
which is the purpose of public speaking. So the way that I tell people to do that is through collecting your crisis stories. What has happened to you that you have decided has formed you or an opinion about yourself or the world in some way? For me, it's everything from having postpartum depression to my parents getting divorced.

Shirlee Engel (11:54.19)
Mm-hmm.

Aleya Harris (12:18.481)
to being a beauty queen in high school, to being a state championship tap dancer also in high school. Didn't know that about me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Right? But all of the things that have happened to me, and then, you know, it was about all of the little things and the big things. I have never had, and I'm knocking on wood with full gratitude,

Shirlee Engel (12:24.002)
Congratulations! Super!

Kuh-huh.

Aleya Harris (12:47.536)
anything super traumatic happened to me. mean, besides postpartum depression, which is traumatic in its own way, but it's, I've never been molested. I've never lost a limb. I've never seen atrocities of war, anything like that. But again, it's not about that. When I say crisis, it's whatever caused you to form an opinion about a situation, a belief or an experience that you've lived through. Then you are able to articulate that crisis.

Shirlee Engel (13:09.87)
Thank

Aleya Harris (13:17.263)
And the crises that are valuable to tell from the stage are the ones where you've learned a lesson and you can articulate that lesson and how you learn that lesson to somebody else.

Shirlee Engel (13:26.614)
Mm-hmm. So demonstrating through examples and that makes you more relatable I mean if even if your goal is to go up there and attract clients and make sales You don't do that by saying here by my thing you see you do that by Opposite of what you want. Yeah, exactly. Can you imagine it's like yeah, can you sleep with me on the first date? I mean, whoa, we just met Right. Yeah, exactly

Aleya Harris (13:32.509)
Mm-hmm.

Aleya Harris (13:40.377)
No. In fact, that's the exact opposite way to not attract people!

Aleya Harris (13:51.768)
Exactly, exactly. We just met. I mean, however, Shirley, if they're real, real cute, I'm just saying talk to college me. College me might have had a different answer to that question.

Shirlee Engel (14:05.43)
Well, So, OK, you've got the OK, you're ready with the Google finger now. So, you know, you've got a story and maybe, you know, you got to do some work to figure out how you're to put that together. How do you find the gigs? Because one thing that has become very apparent is the commercialization of the speaking industry. And I know even from my own experience with speaking gigs, some of them you have to pay to play.

Aleya Harris (14:12.029)
Mmm.

Shirlee Engel (14:31.116)
Some of them you get paid. A lot of them are like, you don't get paid, but you get a free ticket to the event. Can you talk us through how to figure out where to speak and evaluate opportunities? And when you're brand new and have never done this before, you just kind of, whoever will take you or what's your best advice for that?

Aleya Harris (14:48.904)
so many places. The first thing that I want to say very clearly is that there are a lot of stages to speak on. There are more stages to speak on than you as an individual could possibly ever speak on in your entire life. So do not approach applying and being a speaker with a scarcity mentality that there's these three stages to go around and how am I ever going to get on them? my goodness, that is so far from the case.

I also want to tell you that it's actually relatively easy to get on a stage. I'm not saying that you're going to get on every single stage you apply to, but it's not an insurmountable task. And it's more about clarity of message and positioning and consistently applying than anything else. Addressing head on your, do I pay or not? As a rule, I do not pay to play. I do not pay to speak somewhere.

as a general rule. Now, I have been known to be a rule breaker. However, as a general rule, I do not pay to play because reference back to the first thing I said when I started talking, there are so many stages to be on. Unless that room somehow is able to promise me that if I pay $1,000, I will

be guaranteed five consulting clients and my consulting engagement start at 10,000. Unless somehow there's some kind of guarantee of that, I'm not going to pay. Spoiler alert, no one can guarantee that. So there are some, I want to also be clear, there are some pitch competitions where you would pay to play, where you're pitching to investors or you're pitching to sell your product. That's different. I'm not talking about that.

type of speaking. I'm talking about speaking to position yourself as a thought leader and to use that thought leadership platform to grow your business. Now, do you get paid with love? Probably not. So in the very beginning, I tell my speakers to get comfortable with the number zero. Now, am I going to stand between you and your coins? Absolutely not. If someone is going to pay you,

Aleya Harris (17:12.165)
Take the money! Right? Take the money!

Shirlee Engel (17:13.282)
Take the money, yeah. Don't pay, but don't expect to be paid.

Aleya Harris (17:19.405)
Exactly. Don't expect to be paid in the very beginning. And actually, that's okay. If you are doing smart pitching, you should only pitch. And when I say pitch, is you reaching out to conference and association event organizers directly with an email or with a LinkedIn message or applying for calls for speakers. That's when you get your Google finger out and you can Google calls for speakers.

And you'll see how many of them there are. You'll be like, yeah, this Aleya chip was right. There's a lot of places to apply. So it doesn't mean they're all the right places, right? So, and that's exactly where I'm going with this. You need to apply or pitch to speak at places where your ideal customer is hanging out. So if you are an accountant for small business owners, don't speak at large corporate events. That doesn't make

Shirlee Engel (17:52.344)
There's a lot of places. That doesn't mean they're all the right places. That's a whole other question. Yeah.

Aleya Harris (18:17.149)
to you. Your client's not there. Your client's not in the room. However, if you're speaking at the National Association of Women Business Owners annual conference, you should be giddy to pay your plane ticket there because you know you'll be in a room with a bunch of your ideal clients. And just because the conference organizer is not paying you doesn't mean you can't get paid. There are several ways to get paid. One, you're a

Shirlee Engel (18:32.046)
Yeah.

Shirlee Engel (18:35.63)
Mm-hmm.

Shirlee Engel (18:41.614)
Mmm.

Aleya Harris (18:46.064)
your presentation always needs to have a lead magnet in it. The lead magnet is a free piece of information that you give away in exchange for someone's email address. Think a guide, a quiz, a mini series, some type of free downloadable thing. And then through email sequencing afterwards, you earn the right to sell to them by giving away helpful information and being of service.

Shirlee Engel (19:04.814)
Mm-hmm.

Aleya Harris (19:13.661)
So that might not convert directly in the room, but it might convert afterwards if you're in the right room. Another way to make money is to coordinate with the event organizers to sell things in the back of the room. Sell your book, sell any type of product. You can also buy a booth or coordinate with the event organizer as part of your package. If there's some type of expo or trade show attached with your speaking, get a booth.

and then tell people, go meet me afterwards at booth, blah, blah. I'm there to talk to you. That is depending on the event is that's when you start getting the thousands of dollars of sales. If you're at an event is when they can speak to you face to face because they're there. The closer you can talk to someone after they have seen you speak, the more likely you are to close a sale. So if you can, I even will be like, Hey, I'm standing right outside.

Shirlee Engel (19:56.206)
Mm-hmm.

Aleya Harris (20:10.589)
I'm saying, there's no one in here in this room or coming in afterwards. I'm to be right here to answer your questions. Or what I've also done at a conference is I'll put a QR code on the screen with a calendar scheduling that will say, hey, I'm available. I've blocked off slots specifically for the people who showed up for this room. So I can answer your specific questions one-on-one and we can do strategy sessions. have 20 minutes slot, 30 minutes slots.

Shirlee Engel (20:26.03)
Mm-hmm.

Aleya Harris (20:39.794)
and they're all gonna be located in the foyer or at the Starbucks or at the wherever you're gonna get your space, book your slot here and show up. Those are sales calls, in-person sales calls. So there's lots of ways to figure out how you can get paid. And oftentimes when I've gone and I've spoken for free, because although I get my rate when people pay me is 10,000 and above, I've worked my way to that. But I will still...

to this day, gladly go somewhere to speak for free knowing that if I can get those clients, I might make $50,000 that day, even though that organizer didn't pay me. So keep an open mind around the payment situation.

Shirlee Engel (21:18.05)
Yeah.

So how do you know what events are worth your time? Because I agree with you. I mean, I've done this with clients. I've done this myself of just like, you can even ask Chad GPT, hey, I'm a so and so expert. Give me a bunch of places I can speak and Chad GPT will happily spit out a whole list of things. That doesn't mean that you should pitch all of those places. So how do you, I mean, you talked about having your ideal client in the room. Yes, that could be for some people, a lot of rooms.

So, given that time is our most finite and scarce resource, what is your guidance on prioritizing? What are the speaking gigs that you absolutely need to focus on if you're just getting started?

Aleya Harris (22:04.571)
If we narrow it down already to who your ideal client is, check. Then I narrow it down by proximity, especially if you're not planning on places that are getting paid. So like I live in the LA area. I look at LA area places. So I'm not going to get on a plane or train or on, well, yes, on automobile, but I'm going to spend an hour to drive three miles. But, yeah. But that's where I would also.

Shirlee Engel (22:24.846)
In your neck of the woods,

Aleya Harris (22:32.508)
think about it that way. would also think about the level and how much they match. mean, this is sort of the ideal converse client conversation, but also you think about how much they match the ability to spend on you. like, let's say that you have entrepreneurs or your ideal client, there's lots of entrepreneurial little groups getting together. A lot of them are for new entrepreneurs. So they broke with the most love and

Shirlee Engel (22:53.858)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Shirlee Engel (23:00.43)
You

Aleya Harris (23:01.083)
I do do things pro bono specifically to serve that audience because I can't afford the advice, right? But when I'm in a money mindset where I'm like, let's go make some money, I specifically look for groups where people are a little bit more advanced. So then you go on their websites and see like, is there a dollar threshold for them to participate? So like there is a group called the Dames, which is a-

a virtual group, but also they're based in Colorado, you have to have six figures above an annual revenue to join, right? Or you think of groups like the entrepreneur organization, EO, right? The groups where they have already cut off the, given a limit to the financial. Yeah, there's a bar. Thank you. Thank you.

Shirlee Engel (23:32.078)
Mmm.

Shirlee Engel (23:47.15)
There's a bar. There's a bar for them to be in the room. Yeah. It's almost like they're vetting. They're vetting your clients for you before you even get in the room. So like you said, happily, even maybe, maybe it is worth buying that plane ticket to be there, right? Because if they're going to have you on the stage, that could be great because people want to buy from people they know, like and trust. And what better way to establish that than to have that captive audience on a stage.

Aleya Harris (23:57.208)
Exactly.

Aleya Harris (24:02.429)
Exactly.

Shirlee Engel (24:15.638)
If you think about social media, what are the chances that you can have that kind of captive audience on social media? mean, yes, absolutely, there are opportunities, but it's harder and harder and getting them to stay because on social media, you don't know when they leave the room. They can just click away whenever they want. But when they're in the room, they have to physically get up and leave the room. Right. So, you know, it's it's such a great piece of that visibility puzzle.

Aleya Harris (24:34.236)
Yup.

Aleya Harris (24:38.768)
Yup.

Shirlee Engel (24:45.538)
that can really elevate your business. And I love what you're saying about, especially because a lot of people listening and watching have business owners or corporate people as their target audience. That's why a lot of them are on platforms like LinkedIn, where you know that people already coming to the table have a certain ability to invest as opposed to just kind of rolling the dice on some platforms where, like you said, I mean, you want to make sure that you're not trying to sell like Gucci handbags in a flea market.

Aleya Harris (25:13.731)
Right, right, right, exactly. No flea market speaking here. No flea market speaking.

Shirlee Engel (25:20.334)
Nothing wrong with the flea market, just don't try to sell a design, unless it's a knockoff. Unless it's a knockoff. Yeah, so okay, let's talk about, approaching, approaching. Let's talk about, okay, so you got the gig, you're on the stage, and I know this is like a whole other podcast. You have a course on this. I mean, this is, we are not gonna cover this in one answer. But maybe just a couple of high-level tips for how to give the most effective,

Aleya Harris (25:23.517)
Exactly, exactly. Yeah, unless it's a footsie.

Shirlee Engel (25:49.034)
speech from the stage and a lot of people talk about, I want to give a Ted talk or I have a keynote or want to deliver a keynote. What are your top tips for that?

Aleya Harris (25:58.232)
One, remember that it's not about you. People get very confused about that because you're the one in the spotlight with the really cute outfit on. It's not about you, it's about the audience. It's also not about one person, which is a slightly different thought. It's about a group collective experience that you happen to be leading. I have an expertise in certain areas and I'm on the stage to talk about that expertise.

Every single audience member also has an expertise. They just don't happen to be on stage at that exact moment in time. But I always view myself as speaking to an audience of experts. So I don't talk down to my audience. talk to them like I'm sharing this. And it's almost like in my mind, if like we were just gonna rotate in and then the next hour, Billy from the audience is coming up and he's doing his thing. So I make sure to...

come from a place of I'm sharing this information to help you, not sharing this to boost my ego, to make myself look better or more important than I actually am. My next thought, a tip from the stage is to think about the stage in 3D. There's forward and backwards and left and right. Most people move left to right on the stage and forget about the forward and backwards, moving further and closer away from your audience.

very intentionally to illustrate certain points. Like if you were moving further and further backwards from the audience, as you say, every step that I took in the journey of, I don't know, drug addiction, with every pill I took, I moved further and further away from my goal. And as you said that you move further and further backwards, you're now creating a visual cue to your audience that helps solidify a point. So the stage crashed.

of it makes the whole experience that much more cinematic. My definition of a public speaker starts off with saying that you are a performance artist who delivers helpful ideas from the stage. you at any given point in time, you're just like two coughs away from dancing because you are going to be interesting. You need to be

Aleya Harris (28:22.205)
worth me putting pants on to come and see you because in this virtual world didn't really need to put pants on to be here. Right. And that translates for the event organizer as you are the person that makes the conference in 2023 so good that people buy their ticket for 2024. Right. And

Shirlee Engel (28:33.397)
Right, yeah.

Aleya Harris (28:50.138)
If they can see you as that type of speaker or they know and you became to have a reputation for the reason why their conference is elevated as an experience that people want to leave their house for, then you will start to get more speaking case because speaking begets speaking.

Shirlee Engel (29:08.014)
Hmm.

Aleya Harris (29:09.565)
Also, part of the performance artist piece, use your voice. That sounds so dumb, right? You're like, of course I'm speaking from the stage. What the hell did you think I was going to use? But I mean, I mean, use it as a tool, as an instrument. Think of yourself more like a singer than a speaker. Use your booming voice when you're trying to illustrate a point. Get quiet.

whisper, get close to the mic when something feels honest and heartfelt. Make sure you understand how to space your words, change the pacing of the quickness, when you talk with somebody because there's something that you need to tell people and then you might need to pull it back and add more space in between your words. You are controlling the pace, you are controlling the volume, you are controlling the experience by using your voice.

Always though speaking from your diaphragm so that you come from that center of power and you don't speak yourself worse, basically.

Shirlee Engel (30:14.318)
That's not how you got a horse. You got a horse with a gold. I love what you're about creating a cinematic experience. That is a very profound way of looking at it. That can also freak people out because they're like, whoa, wait a second. I'm just a doctor or an architect or a coach or a course creator. I haven't been, I'm not an actor. So.

Aleya Harris (30:18.685)
I got hoarse with a cold.

Aleya Harris (30:30.397)
Yeah.

Shirlee Engel (30:41.71)
But making it more accessible to the everyday person. We're not saying put on a show and be someone you're not. You're just saying make your words come to life. Right? So we do that.

Aleya Harris (30:53.406)
Yeah, and actually that's the opposite. like the type of speaking that I teach is called radically authentic strategic storytelling. So I'm not asking you to be someone that you're not. And I do teach little cheats. Like, yes, I'm telling you move left and right, but I also have the five slide switch rule. So like, if that doesn't come naturally for you, you can be like, click one slide, click two slide, click three, click four, click five. And now I walk to the left, five more slides. And now I walk to the right.

I also teach you to put visual clues that only you will understand on your slides. So on a slide where you want to make sure that you walk forward towards the audience or backwards, you could put a little star in the corner or something that fits with whatever your brand is and you're like, yeah, let me walk forward, let me walk backward. This is where I do the big thing, right? So it doesn't have to...

come from a place of you being, you know, you're in line to win a Tony Award here, right? I am, I'm a very larger, larger than life personality, but I was never an actor. I was a, I'm not gonna let you guys forget about my championship tap dancing. Yeah.

Shirlee Engel (32:11.805)
yeah, no, that's got, I'm gonna be getting my Google fingers out for that after this interview, I'll tell you that. No, it's not.

Aleya Harris (32:16.251)
Right. You're going to, you're going to see, I I wanted at the state fair. I sure did.

Shirlee Engel (32:21.096)
okay. Okay. So I do want to talk about, okay, so you've gotten the gig, you've done the gig with all those amazing tips. One thing that I always tell clients is, did you get someone to tape it? Because if you don't capture footage of yourself speaking, you are leaving a whole lot of not just money on the table, but content on the table that in today's day and age, you need to use to leverage your

Aleya Harris (32:37.564)
Mm-hmm.

Shirlee Engel (32:50.798)
ability to get on more stages because you can't just rely on who was in the room and who was at the event. If you want to pitch yourself to other, you know, venues, other stages, you want to show what you can be like on stage. So talk a little bit about the importance of using video to highlight your in-person speaking engagements because that that's content, but that's also a way to sell yourself to the next stage.

Aleya Harris (32:53.021)
Mm-hmm.

Aleya Harris (33:17.275)
Video is non-negotiable. So when you are applying, even for your very first speaking gig, figure out how to get a video. The video when you're using the apply could even be you talking directly to camera, not on a stage. But you you put your little lipstick on, do your little hair, put your little shirt on, and just give an overview of your topic or an overview of yourself or.

how you are planning to bring that experience to life using words like tangible takeaways, engaging, energetic, things that event organizers want to see. And then when you land that gig, let's say you don't have thousands of dollars to bring in a videographer, you better go on Amazon, get yourself a little tripod, get your little phone out and stick that sucker in the front row and get some footage.

And the event organizers, I mean, it needs to be clear, need to be able to hear you, right? But they're not even really super concerned that it is glitzy and super polished footage. They just need to be able to see you on stage. As you get further along, event organizers will send you their own footage. You'll be able to pay more to take your own. Then you can create better reels, et cetera, et cetera.

Video of you speaking any video really for the most part is better than no video. I do want to articulate the it's almost like there's an elephant in the room always when it comes to speakers bureaus because people it would be so nice and I understand you if you like I'm just gonna sign up for a speakers bureau and they're gonna cure all my ills they're not so let's just get that out of the way and

Shirlee Engel (35:06.894)
So what does a speaker know for people who don't know what that is?

Aleya Harris (35:10.513)
A speaker's bureau, people think of them like an agent, like a modeling agent, and they are and they aren't. So they, in theory, will get, well, and in practice, they will go and get speaking gigs for you. However, being a member of a bureau that has a thousand or more people in it, you are, until you are Oprah,

or Brene Brown or someone that has a name to them, they're really not going to pay you much mind. As you progress, you will need at least two types of reels. So I'm telling you this now if you're at the beginning of your journey so you can start to get footage that will help you get here. You'll need a reel that just clips five minute, three minute clips of you just speaking.

no glitz, no glam around it. That's for the event organizers. Then you'll also need like a sizzle reel version that as you grow in your fame, a speakers bureau will use when they do promote you to promote you. This is a video that you're going to spend some money on because you're going to use the speaking of you on stage is almost like B roll behind you.

talking to camera and walking up and down steps or doing whatever, you know, if you're a doctor showing some action shots of you doctoring, right? That is going to be your sizzle reel. I will tell you that most event organizers don't care about that sizzle reel. That's a speaker's bureau type of reel. They really just want to see you speaking. That's why I'm having you emphasize that one first. But

If you have the aim of getting booked by a speaker's bureau, then you will need both.

Shirlee Engel (37:09.88)
Hmm. That's great. So I know that there is so much information in this episode, but if there's something that you want to leave people with, sort of a final, if you take one thing away from this conversation, what would that be in terms of showing up on stages in 2025?

Aleya Harris (37:31.879)
Just show up. Many of the times, it's not a lack of knowledge that keeps people from the stage. It's a lack of confidence. And yes, confidence can be aided by getting the knowledge. But if we're honest, before I told you to put your Google finger away, you could Google pretty much everything you needed to know about getting on stage. You just need to do it. I invite you to challenge yourself. Apply to...

one speaking gig, apply to one a week, apply to one a day, put one foot in front of the other to make your dreams come to reality. Because listening to three more podcasts like this one is not gonna get you on stage. You now have the knowledge. I have given you on this singular podcast, everything that you need to start applying to get on stages. I invite you to just go do it.

Shirlee Engel (38:28.686)
Absolutely.

Shirlee Engel (38:32.27)
amazing. I love that and you know there will be people who are like who is this woman? I need to get in touch with her so how can people find you?

Aleya Harris (38:40.125)
I'm sorry, that should be everyone. Should be everyone.

Shirlee Engel (38:44.494)
you're good.

Aleya Harris (38:48.28)
You can find me at aleaharris.com. There you can watch a free masterclass if you want to have me break down these concepts even more. And this is not a masterclass where it's like, let me try to sell you something for 45 minutes, but in order to get the real thing that you need, you have to buy the thing. That's not what this is. It's an actual mini course that I've given for free. That's aleaharris.com slash masterclass. You can also buy my book, which is aleaharris.com slash book.

or everywhere books are sold, including Amazon.

Shirlee Engel (39:21.324)
And what's the book about?

Aleya Harris (39:23.236)
my bad. The book is called Spark the Stage.

Shirlee Engel (39:27.36)
Fabulous!

Aleya Harris (39:28.615)
The book is literally about helping you get on stage, craft your speaking platform. It is how to become a professional speaker from soup to nuts. So it's called Spark the Stage Master, the Art of Professional Speaking and Authentic Storytelling to Captivate, Inspire and Transform Your Audience.

Shirlee Engel (39:51.374)
Amazing. Well, Aliyah, thank you so much for your time today. This is exciting. I've been taking furious notes too. And I hope that everyone watching and listening that you've got your plans to get out there and pitch stages for 2025. You have no excuse now. You've got it all. So get out there and go do it. Thank you so much.