The Laylee Emadi Podcast — For Speakers, Coaches, and Course Creators · Laylee Emadi

216: Behind the Scenes of Conference Speaker Selection with Kellie Penn

August 25, 2025·40 min·2 clips

Kelly Penn says Reset Conference runs on her family’s shoulders, not a corporation’s budget.

Laylee Emadi opens a new series built for speakers. She frames it around a problem she keeps hearing online, which is all the advice floating around Facebook, Threads, and Instagram about what hosts supposedly want. Kelly Penn joins as the owner of the Reset Conference. Laylee asks her to pull back the curtain on the speaker selection process, and Kelly is willing to do that. The conversation stays focused on what actually gets weighed when an application comes in. Experience level matters, but it is not the only thing that matters. Recent posting activity matters too, because someone who has not posted in months may not share much about a conference either. Kelly says she also looks at how people talk about other conferences or events and whether they are good at sharing when they have been selected. That matters because part of the job is helping the event reach a speaker's own community. Laylee pushes on the tension between visible audience size and real audience behavior. Kelly is ready to call out the difference between a big following and useful reach. A large number on a profile can look impressive, but it does not answer the deeper question of where those people came from or whether they will actually engage. Engagement comes into the picture for the same reason. A huge account with very low interaction raises questions, even if the raw follower count looks strong. Kelly is clear that the numbers are a weighing factor, not a final verdict. She keeps coming back to the idea that selection is more nuanced than a simple formula. The conversation also leaves room for the fact that good work can come from someone who has not been posting consistently. Life and business get busy, and that reality matters. Laylee and Kelly both seem comfortable saying that the process depends on context. That makes the whole thing feel less like a checklist and more like a judgment call made with incomplete information. The result is a practical look at how hosts think, how they interpret signals, and how speakers can better understand the room before they apply. It is candid without getting harsh. It is specific without pretending there is one perfect metric. It gives speakers a cleaner picture of what event organizers are actually reading between the lines.

As heard by us

A blunt, useful look at what conference selectors actually notice.

Conference speaker selection comes across as plain judgment work, not mystique. Experience level, recent posting, visible community presence, and follower count all matter, but only when they are read in context.

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Why you'd press play

See what conference organizers notice before they ever say yes.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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