In summary: Event organizers and clients are not only evaluating your credentials. They want to know that you understand their audience, challenges and priorities. These five practical strategies will help women speakers, authors and experts communicate that understanding, build trust and become easier to recommend and book.
When we talk about becoming more visible as a speaker, author or expert, much of the conversation focuses on demonstrating credibility. We are encouraged to share our qualifications, speaking topics, books, media appearances, testimonials and accomplishments.
All of those things matter, but they may not answer the first question someone is quietly asking: Does this woman understand the people I need her to reach?
An event organizer is not only looking for an accomplished speaker. She is thinking about the people who will be sitting in the room. A podcast host wants a knowledgeable guest, but also someone who will understand the listeners and contribute to a meaningful conversation. A potential client wants expertise, but she also wants to know that you recognize the realities, priorities and constraints she is facing.
Before people can fully appreciate what you know, they often need to feel that you understand what matters to them.
Expertise creates credibility. Understanding creates trust.
The 2026 Edelman–LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, based on a survey of more than 1,100 business executives across seven countries, offers an important insight.
When asked what aspect of thought leadership did the most to increase their trust in a company, 56% of B2B decision-makers chose content that demonstrated a clear understanding of their challenges, priorities and constraints. Only 14% chose content demonstrating the strength of the company’s products or services.
Although the research focused on B2B decision-making, the lesson applies much more broadly. People are not only assessing whether we have knowledge. They are looking for evidence that we understand the situation in which that knowledge must be applied.
A speaker may have an excellent presentation about leadership, but does she understand the pressures the organization’s leaders are currently carrying? An author may have written a valuable book about personal growth, but does the reader recognize herself in the book’s description? An expert may offer a proven solution, but does her content acknowledge why the problem has been difficult to resolve?
Understanding provides the bridge between what we know and why someone else should care.
Begin with the people you hope to reach
One of the simplest ways to strengthen your message is to look at where it begins. Does it begin with your credentials, your program or the subject you speak about? Or does it begin with something your audience is experiencing?
Consider the difference between:
I deliver presentations on workplace communication and leadership.
And:
Your managers are having more conversations than ever, but important messages are still being misunderstood, avoided or lost between teams.
The first statement identifies the speaker’s subject. The second helps an event organizer recognize why that subject may matter to her organization.
This does not mean hiding your experience or minimizing your accomplishments. It means giving people a reason to lean in before asking them to understand everything you offer.
Your LinkedIn profile is one of the places where this understanding needs to be visible. An event organizer should not have to piece together your headline, employment history and recent posts to determine whether you understand her audience. Your profile should create a clear connection between your expertise, the people you serve and the conversations you are prepared to lead.
Five ways to show that you understand your audience
1. Name the situation, not only the subject
Broad subjects such as leadership, confidence, visibility, wellness and resilience may help categorize your expertise, but they do not always show how that expertise connects to real life.
What does the challenge look like when someone encounters it?
A woman may not describe her problem as “low visibility.” She may say that she has spent years developing her expertise, yet people still do not understand what makes her work different.
A leader may not be searching for “resilience.” She may be trying to keep her team engaged after months of uncertainty and change.
A family may not think they need a presentation about boundaries. They may know only that helping someone they love has begun to consume their own life.
When you describe the recognizable moment surrounding the problem, people are more likely to feel that you understand what they are carrying.
2. Recognize the constraints around the solution
Advice becomes more credible when it respects the realities of the person receiving it.
It is easy to tell an aspiring speaker to become more visible, publish consistently, create videos, start a podcast and attend more events. It is more helpful to recognize that she may also be running a business, serving clients, caring for family members and working without a large marketing team.
Understanding those constraints does not require lowering the value of your advice. It helps you make the advice more useful.
Instead of offering ten things someone should be doing, you might help her identify the one action that would create the clearest next step. This demonstrates that you understand not only the desired outcome, but also what it may realistically take to reach it.
3. Translate your expertise into what it makes possible
Your audience may not immediately understand the significance of your process, methodology or credentials. Help them see what becomes possible because of your work.
A speaker on communication might help teams address difficult issues earlier, before frustration becomes conflict. An author writing about career change might help a reader see that her uncertainty is not evidence of failure, but part of moving toward something new. A visibility expert might help an accomplished woman explain her work clearly enough to be remembered and recommended.
This is where your expertise begins to feel relevant. You are connecting what you know with something another person wants to understand, change or accomplish.
4. Let people experience how you think
Your biography tells people what you have done. Your thought leadership gives them an opportunity to experience what it might be like to learn from you.
Share the distinction you regularly make in your work. Explain why a familiar approach does not always produce the expected result. Offer a question that helps someone see a problem differently or tell a story that reveals what years of experience have taught you.
In my work with Women Speakers Association and through the many businesses and experts I have supported, I have seen how often women underestimate these observations. Something may feel obvious to you because you have spent years living and working with it. To someone encountering the challenge for the first time, your way of explaining it may provide exactly the clarity she needs.
Your expertise is not demonstrated only by having the answer. It is also revealed through the quality of the questions you ask and the details you notice.
5. Make your ideas easy to share with someone else
The Edelman–LinkedIn research also found that, among B2B decision-makers who shared thought leadership, 89% shared it privately through email, direct messages, work chats or meetings. Only 67% shared it through public channels such as social media.
This reminds us that meaningful visibility is not always visible to us.
An event organizer may forward your article to a colleague. A reader may recommend your book during a private conversation. Someone who has quietly followed your work may mention your name when a podcast host asks for a potential guest.
Ask yourself whether your message gives people useful language to carry into those conversations. Can they clearly explain what you speak or write about, who benefits from your work and why your perspective matters?
People can appreciate your work and still struggle to recommend you if they do not know how to describe it.
Does your LinkedIn profile communicate this?
Your message may be thoughtful and audience-centred when you are speaking, but does that same understanding come through when someone encounters you online?
Look at your LinkedIn headline and the opening of your About section. Would the right event organizer quickly understand:
- What you speak about?
- Who will benefit from your message?
- What challenge or opportunity you help address?
- What your audience may understand, feel or do differently?
- How to contact you about a speaking opportunity?
If those answers are difficult to find, your expertise may not be the problem. Your LinkedIn profile may simply need to communicate it more clearly.
This is not about repositioning your entire business around speaking. You may also be an author, coach, consultant, trainer, entrepreneur or corporate professional. Speaking can be one of the ways you share your expertise, build relationships and create opportunities around your work.
Your profile should help people see how those pieces belong together.
Let understanding lead
As women speakers, authors and experts, we have valuable knowledge to share. However, we do not need to demonstrate everything we know before we have shown people that we understand them.
An organizer wants to feel confident that you can connect with the people in the room. A reader wants to recognize that your words were written for someone like her. A client wants to know that your expertise can be applied within the realities of her life, business or organization.
Before sharing your next article, introducing your speaking topic or describing your book, consider one question: Will the right person feel that I understand her before I ask her to understand the value of what I offer?
When people feel seen, they are more likely to listen. When they feel understood, trust has somewhere to begin. That trust can become the conversation, recommendation or invitation that allows your message to reach the people who need it.
Does your LinkedIn show the expertise you bring?
This is exactly what Gail Watson and I will be helping participants work on during our upcoming Speaker Success Training, You’re the Expert. Does Your LinkedIn Show It?
This will be a hands-on session where you will make meaningful improvements to your own LinkedIn profile, including your headline, About introduction, expertise language, speaking evidence and inquiry pathway.
The goal is not simply to learn what a stronger profile should contain. It is to leave having made real progress toward helping event organizers, prospective clients and referral partners understand the expertise and value you bring.
Learn more and register for the Speaker Success Training
Women Speakers Association helps women speakers, authors and experts clarify their message, share their thought leadership and build meaningful relationships around their work. If you are ready to give your message a larger platform, explore Women Speakers Association membership.
About Tracey Ehman
Tracey Ehman is the co-founder of Women Speakers Association and creator of The Heart of Social Media. She helps entrepreneurs and experts strengthen their visibility, communicate their value and turn online connections into meaningful professional relationships.