For years I smoked.
I don’t talk about it often but it’s true — and what I remember most about that season isn’t the habit itself. It’s how safe it felt. How familiar. You reach for the thing you know, even when you know it isn’t serving you, because at least it’s comfortable. At least it’s yours.
I think about that when I work with speakers on their talk titles. Because I see it all the time — speakers clinging to a broad, safe, familiar title that isn’t serving them anymore.
“Finding Your Purpose.” “Leading With Intention.” “The Power of Resilience.” Beautiful ideas. Genuinely. But as talk titles? They blend into every other speaker’s page like wallpaper.
The comfort of broad is real. I understand it. When your title is general enough to mean everything, it can’t be rejected for being wrong. But here’s the quiet cost of that safety — it can’t be chosen for being exactly right either.
Event planners are scrolling through speaker options the same way we scroll through anything online — fast, distracted, looking for the thing that stops them. A broad title doesn’t stop anyone. A specific, surprising, outcome-driven title does.
What Makes a Talk Title Actually Work
First, it needs to speak directly to a feeling or a problem the audience is already living in. Not a concept — a feeling. “Burnout” is a feeling. “Disconnection” is a feeling. “The gap between where I am and where I thought I’d be by now” is a feeling. When your title touches something the audience is already carrying, the planner immediately pictures her people in the room nodding.
Second, it needs to promise a shift. Not just name the problem — point toward the transformation. “From Burned Out to All In” does both in five words. “The Clarity Method” promises an outcome without giving away the whole framework. A great talk title is a door that makes people want to walk through it.
And third — and this is the one most speakers skip — it needs to be memorable enough to repeat. Event planners pitch speakers to committees. If your title is forgettable, it gets mangled in translation. If it’s specific and vivid, it travels exactly as you intended.
The Title Worth Putting Your Name On
The day I put down my last cigarette I remember thinking — why did I hold onto that for so long? The answer was comfort. But comfort and growth rarely live in the same place at the same time.
Your broad title has been comfortable. I understand that. But there’s a more specific, more alive, more bookable version of it waiting — one that actually sounds like the talk you give and the speaker you already are.
✓ Touches a feeling the audience is already carrying
✓ Promises a clear transformation or shift
✓ Is specific and vivid enough to repeat in a committee room
