I'm going to say something unpopular in my industry.
Being seen is overrated.
You gave the talk. Maybe you won the competition, landed the TEDx, launched the book, or got the standing ovation. For a week, everything felt possible. Messages came in. People shared the video. Someone said, "You should be doing this professionally."
Then it went quiet.
Dan and I have watched this moment play out for a decade now. Most speakers misread it. They assume the win was supposed to change everything on its own, and when it doesn't, they go back to waiting for the next big break. The speakers who build real careers do something different with exactly the same win. They put it to work.
Views Are a Spark. Leverage Is the Engine.
Visibility matters. But a big audience on one night doesn't build a business by itself.
Visibility is attention. Leverage is what you build on top of that attention: media opportunities, long-term authority, paid speaking and clients. The speakers who built real momentum on our stages weren't chasing attention. They knew how to turn a single speech into all of those things.
Views are a spark.
Leverage is the engine.
A spark is exciting and brief. An engine keeps running because something keeps feeding it. So after any win, the real question is simple: what are you feeding it?
What Leverage Looks Like: Joze Piranian
In 2017, Joze Piranian won our Inspirational Speaking Championships. We didn't have any online media partners yet. There was no big video moment for him to ride.
What he had was a win, and he used it. He leveraged it onto a much larger stage, and that led to a TEDx. In fact, he's given five TEDx talks. He built those wins into a speaking career working with major companies. His story has been made into a CBC Gem documentary, Words Left Unspoken, and he recently published a book with HarperCollins.
Notice the pattern. No single step did all the work. Each win became the credential that opened the next door.
That's leverage.
What Momentum Actually Is
I became obsessed with the word momentum coming out of the pandemic. It's the name of my membership, our conference and our agency for a reason.
Here's how I define it: continually creating energy in our lives to step into visibility, opportunities and successes.
It doesn't come from one place. It comes through social media, award nominations, press and publicity, podcasts, blogs, documentaries, and paid and unpaid speaking opportunities. For experts who want paid stages, four of those do the heaviest lifting:
Press. A media feature tells event planners that someone else has already vetted you.
Podcasts. Every guest appearance is a long-form audition in front of people who chose to listen.
Awards. A nomination or finalist spot is third-party credibility that lives in your bio for years.
Stages. Every talk produces footage, photos, testimonials and introductions you can use to land the next one.
Stack them, and that momentum becomes the energy that moves you to the front of the line for speaking opportunities.
How to Turn One Win Into Momentum
1
Capture the Win Properly
Collect your assets while they're fresh: professional video, stage photos, a short testimonial from the organizer, a comment from an audience member. A win with no footage and no proof is a story only you can tell. If you need help turning that footage into something planners will actually watch, read what makes a great speaker reel.
2
Update Everything Within a Week
Add the win to your bio, speaker page, LinkedIn headline and one-sheet. Post about it with gratitude, and tag the people who made it happen. Attention fades quickly, so your materials should reflect the win while people still remember it.
3
Pitch One Rung Up
Use the win to reach the next level. A podcast with a slightly bigger audience. A regional conference. An industry association. A local news outlet. Joze didn't jump from one competition to a book deal. He climbed.
4
Stack Different Kinds of Proof
A stage leads to a podcast. The podcast supports an award nomination. The nomination gives a journalist a reason to call. When you spread across press, podcasts, awards and stages, each one becomes more believable, because planners see the same expert showing up in different places.
5
Get Your Message Clear First
Every one of those opportunities will ask, "What do you speak about?" If your answer is vague, the momentum leaks away. Your core message is the most powerful sales tool you have, so sharpen it before you push hard. And make sure you have the rest of the tools of the trade in place too. I lay them out in how to get paid speaking gigs.
Leverage Has Three Parts
I really get it. You have a burning desire to give a TEDx talk. You would LOVE to write a book.
But...
Who's paying you???
At the end of the day, none of these pieces are life-changing unless you leverage them. And when I coach speakers, leverage comes down to three things:
Your network. Building relationships with people who can provide you with opportunities.
Your credibility. Building your expertise and your proof so that you become a bookable speaker.
Your momentum. Building enough energy that people pay attention to you and recognize your greatness.
A TEDx, a book or a competition win can feed all three, but only if you put it to work.
Your Personal Momentum Begins the Minute You Start
Here's what stops most people. In my experience, the opportunities are usually there. What's missing is the belief that you're ready.
Imposter syndrome sets in, and suddenly the focus is on everything that's wrong. "My tech setup isn't good enough." "What if I freeze up?" So you wait. And waiting is the one thing momentum can't survive.
Get on podcasts. Write blogs. Get press. Put yourself in the spotlight, even when it's uncomfortable. Everything you need to get started, ironically, will come to you in the act of doing.
Momentum doesn't care how polished your first step is. It only cares that you took it, and then took the next one. Your personal momentum begins the minute you start.
So what will you build on your last win?
Keep reading: What Is a Positioning Statement and Why Every Speaker Needs One · Should You Pay to Speak at a Conference? · How to Get Booked for Corporate Speaking Gigs
Your Next Step
Momentum is the name of our membership for a reason. Inside the Momentum Membership, our speakers build their message and assets, get stage time through Speaker Slam®, and work on the press, podcasts, awards and stages that turn one win into a career.