The Power Table with Taylor Smith

The events industry is in the middle of a very public reckoning right now, and Taylor isn't staying quiet about it. In this episode, she breaks down two major event controversies making headlines, then shares her real predictions for where speaking in the B2B and entrepreneur space is actually headed, from the death of slide decks to what AI has done to the value of information itself. 

If you speak at events, want to, or you're trying to figure out how to get paid for it, this episode is the clearest picture you'll get of where things are going.

In this episode, we cover:

• The two recent event controversies that sparked this episode, and what they reveal about attendee expectations
• Why heavy slide decks are quietly hurting speakers, and what Power Table LIVE is doing instead
• How AI has made pure information worthless, and what's replaced it as a speaker's most valuable asset
• Why speaker sizzle reels don't work anymore, and what event hosts actually want to see instead
• How event hosts are starting to vet speakers, including letters of reference
• Why speaker fees are disappearing, and the real ways speakers are getting paid instead
• How to calculate the true dollar value of what an event hands you before you ever say a word on stage

Grab your ticket to Power Table LIVE 2027: https://www.thepowertable.co/conference

Join The Power Table Mastermind: https://www.thepowertable.co/mastermind

I love speaking on your podcast or at your event! Details here: https://www.taylorsmithonline.com/speaking

Send me a DM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowertable.co/

Join our FREE Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepowertable

Apply to Speak at Power Table LIVE 2027: https://thepowertable.co/speaker-application

The talk is only 20% of the job. In this episode, Taylor breaks down the other 80%, everything she does before, during, and after an event that actually drives ROI as a speaker. That includes the story of one off-stage coffee meetup, attended by exactly two people, that turned into a six figure ongoing brand partnership. 

If you speak at events or you're working toward it, this episode is the playbook for turning stage time into real relationships, sales, and opportunities.

In this episode, we cover:

• The six figure partnership that started at a coffee meetup nobody else showed up to
• How to prep before an event so your talk actually lands with the room
• Why showing up to registration, check in, and every "extra" event moment matters more than people think
• How to spot a warm buyer signal and turn it into a one-on-one conversation
• Why staying visible and present throughout an event builds (or quietly damages) your reputation as a speaker
• The follow-up habit that determines whether an event turns into real sales
• What Power Table Live expects from its speakers, and why that standard leads to five figure results

Grab your ticket to Power Table LIVE 2027: https://www.thepowertable.co/conference

Join The Power Table Mastermind: https://www.thepowertable.co/mastermind

I love speaking on your podcast or at your event! Details here: https://www.taylorsmithonline.com/speaking

Send me a DM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowertable.co/

Join our FREE Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepowertable

Apply to Speak at Power Table LIVE 2027: https://thepowertable.co/speaker-application

Two years ago, Taylor gave her first large keynote. Since then, she's spoken on over 100 stages and podcasts and become one of the most sought after speakers in women's entrepreneurship. In this episode, she's pulling back the curtain on everything that's happened since, the wins, the mistakes, and the lessons that actually moved the needle. 

If you're early in your speaker journey, thinking about stepping onto a stage for the first time, or already speaking and ready to get strategic about it, this episode breaks down exactly what it takes to turn visibility into real business growth.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why the actual talk is only 20% of the job, and what the other 80% looks like
• What to do when you get to an event and realize your talk doesn't fit the room
• Why audiences remember how you made them feel, not what you said, and how to build that into your talks
• The real numbers behind how speaking opportunities actually get booked, including how many are paid
• How Taylor prepares for a keynote, down to the exact number of times she rehearses
• Why the one-on-one conversations you have off stage matter more than the talk itself
• The follow-up habit most speakers skip that's costing them sales
• Why readiness is a decision, not a feeling, and how to move forward without it

Grab your ticket to Power Table LIVE 2027: https://www.thepowertable.co/conference

Join The Power Table Mastermind: https://www.thepowertable.co/mastermind

I love speaking on your podcast or at your event! Details here: https://www.taylorsmithonline.com/speaking

Send me a DM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowertable.co/

Join our FREE Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepowertable

Apply to Speak at Power Table LIVE 2027: https://thepowertable.co/speaker-application

In this episode of The Power Table Podcast, Taylor breaks down the exact strategy behind last year's Black Friday launch, one that blew past the sales goal she'd set for the weekend. She walks through why she avoided launching anything brand new that weekend, the offer she pulled out of the archive instead, and the simple upgrade that made it impossible to pass up.

Taylor also unpacks the psychology of real urgency versus manufactured scarcity, why discounting 10 to 15 percent almost never moves the needle, and how planning months in advance meant she barely had to touch her laptop the actual weekend of the sale.

If you've ever felt like Black Friday is something you dread instead of plan for, this episode will change that.

In this episode, we cover:

• The five offer types that actually sell on Black Friday
• Why launching something brand new that weekend can backfire
• The difference between ethical urgency and fake countdown timers
• How planning in September set up a stress-free November
• Why discounting less than 20 to 30 percent rarely moves anyone to buy

Grab your ticket to Power Table LIVE 2027: https://www.thepowertable.co/conference

Join The Power Table Mastermind: https://www.thepowertable.co/mastermind

I love speaking on your podcast or at your event! Details here: https://www.taylorsmithonline.com/speaking

Send me a DM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowertable.co/

Join our FREE Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepowertable

Apply to Speak at Power Table LIVE 2027: https://thepowertable.co/speaker-application

In this episode of The Power Table Podcast, Taylor walks through exactly what happens after you complete the Female Founder Economy Survey, from the anonymous collection window this September and October to the full 2027 Female Founder Economy Report releasing in January.

She also explains the goal behind the survey, reaching 1,000 female founders, why that number matters, and why women's voices, especially those running online and digital-first businesses, remain historically underrepresented in business data.

Take the Survey: www.thepowertable.co/survey

In this episode, we cover:

• Exactly where your survey answers go after you hit submit
• Why the data stays completely anonymous
• What's included in the 2027 Female Founder Economy Report
• Why 1,000 responses is the number this survey is built around
• Who this survey is built for, and why your answer counts

Grab your ticket to Power Table LIVE 2027: https://www.thepowertable.co/conference

Join The Power Table Mastermind: https://www.thepowertable.co/mastermind

I love speaking on your podcast or at your event! Details here: https://www.taylorsmithonline.com/speaking

Send me a DM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowertable.co/

Join our FREE Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepowertable

Apply to Speak at Power Table LIVE 2027: https://thepowertable.co/speaker-application

In this episode of The Power Table Podcast, Taylor draws on her academic background in cultural anthropology and behavioral science to break down the two dominant narratives currently shaping how the world understands female founders, the creator economy story and the traditional scale story. Neither one, she argues, actually reflects what most female founders are building.

This episode lays the groundwork for why The Power Table is launching its own research initiative this year, the Female Founder Economy Survey, and what it's designed to finally capture that existing data has missed.

Take the Survey: www.thepowertable.co/survey

In this episode, we cover:
• The two broken narratives currently shaping the conversation about women in business
• What the research actually shows about revenue, funding, and scale
• Why lean, profitable businesses are being read as failure to scale
• The gap in existing data Taylor is setting out to fix
• Why she believes the real story hasn't been told yet

Grab your ticket to Power Table LIVE 2027: https://www.thepowertable.co/conference

Join The Power Table Mastermind: https://www.thepowertable.co/mastermind

I love speaking on your podcast or at your event! Details here: https://www.taylorsmithonline.com/speaking

Send me a DM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowertable.co/

Join our FREE Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepowertable

Apply to Speak at Power Table LIVE 2027: https://thepowertable.co/speaker-application

In this episode, we're recapping the Hosting & Selling Events roundtable from Stand Out & Sell Out, digging into the real advice for anyone starting to plan their first, or next, event, from the earliest planning stages to actually selling it out.

In this episode, we cover:

• What to nail down first when you're planning an event
• Common mistakes founders make hosting their first event
• Real takeaways straight from the room at Stand Out & Sell Out

Guest Experts:
Whitney Robinson (@heywhitneybobinson)
Emily Shimwell (@_emily_wilder_)

Grab your ticket to Power Table LIVE 2027: https://www.thepowertable.co/conference

Join The Power Table Mastermind: https://www.thepowertable.co/mastermind

I love speaking on your podcast or at your event! Details here: https://www.taylorsmithonline.com/speaking

Send me a DM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowertable.co/

Join our FREE Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepowertable

Apply to Speak at Power Table LIVE 2027: https://thepowertable.co/speaker-application

In this episode of The Power Table Podcast, Taylor does a rapid fire walkthrough of every tool and system running behind the scenes at The Power Table, all 20 of them, across six categories. From content creation to client management to email marketing, she explains exactly what each tool does and why it made the cut.

One highlight: the project management tool in her stack, GetTasked, was actually built by a member of The Power Table Mastermind. Taylor also shares why she switched from ChatGPT to Claude, and the one automation platform doing the heavy lifting behind almost everything else in her business.

In this episode, we cover:

• Every tool in the design, content, and website categories
• The systems handling client contracts, invoicing, and payments
• How automation connects every tool in the stack together
• The mastermind member whose business is now part of our own systems
• What's changed in the stack over the past year, and why

DESIGN & CONTENT
1. Canva. My daily driver. Social posts, PDFs, branded assets, lead magnets. If it doesn't need a full production, it's happening in Canva.
2. Adobe Creative Cloud Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere. For when a project needs more than a template.
3. Adobe Premiere. Where my Reels and TikToks get cut. If you know CapCut, the mobile app feels almost the same.
4. Claude. One podcast episode in, a week of social posts, emails, and hooks out. My repurposing engine

WEBSITE & SOCIAL
5. WordPress and Elementor. Where the website lives.
6. Metricool. Social scheduling and analytics in one dashboard, instead of five open tabs.

MONEY & CONTRACTS
7. Thrivecart. Payments, subscriptions, and affiliate tracking for the mastermind, conference, and events.
8. Dubsado. Contracts and invoicing. Sponsors, clients, podcast guests, speakers. Anything that needs a signature. Use code 'powertable' for 35% off your first month or year!
9. Adobe Acrobat. Where contracts and approvals get finalized with the team. Try Acrobat Studio for free!

OPERATIONS & SYSTEMS
10. Google Workspace. The central home for everything. If it's not in Google, it doesn't exist in my business.
11. Slack. Internal comms, organized by channel so nothing gets buried.
12. GetTasked. Turns my voice notes into assigned tasks automatically. My best ideas stop disappearing.
13. Zapier. The quiet workhorse connecting everything, so I'm not copying and pasting all day.

LIVE & COMMUNITY
14. Google Meet. Every coaching call and webinar.
15. Loom and Google Vids. Async video for feedback, updates, and SOPs. The meeting that didn't need to be a meeting.
16. Circle. Where the mastermind community lives between calls.
17. YouTube, unlisted. Free hosting when a video just needs a shareable link.

PODCAST & EMAIL
18. Riverside. Recording and editing this show.
19. Buzzsprout. Podcast hosting. Try it and get $20 off with our link!
20. Kit. Email marketing with sequences, automations, and sales pages. Six years running, still hasn't let me down.

Grab your ticket to Power Table LIVE 2027: https://www.thepowertable.co/conference

Join The Power Table Mastermind: https://www.thepowertable.co/mastermind

I love speaking on your podcast or at your event! Details here: https://www.taylorsmithonline.com/speaking

Send me a DM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowertable.co/

Join our FREE Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepowertable

Apply to Speak at Power Table LIVE 2027: https://thepowertable.co/speaker-application

In this episode, we're recapping the Leadership & Capacity roundtable from Stand Out & Sell Out, digging into the messy work of unlearning leadership habits that don't actually serve founders or their companies anymore, starting with how to finally stop people-pleasing in your own business.

In this episode, we cover:
• The leadership habits founders need to unlearn as they scale
• How to stop people-pleasing without losing your team's trust
• Real takeaways straight from the room at Stand Out & Sell Out

Guest Experts:
Taylor Murphy (@bytaylormurphy)
Fallon Jaye (@fallon__jaye) 
Relle Dixon (@bewellwith_relle)
Kerri Larose 

Grab your ticket to Power Table LIVE 2027: https://www.thepowertable.co/conference

Join The Power Table Mastermind: https://www.thepowertable.co/mastermind

I love speaking on your podcast or at your event! Details here: https://www.taylorsmithonline.com/speaking

Send me a DM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowertable.co/

Join our FREE Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepowertable

Apply to Speak at Power Table LIVE 2027: https://thepowertable.co/speaker-application

In this episode of The Power Table Podcast, we're recapping the DM, Sales & Engagement roundtable from Stand Out & Sell Out, breaking down how to actually start a conversation that leads somewhere real, without losing the human part of it in the process.

In this episode, we cover:
• How to open a sales conversation that doesn't feel like a pitch
• Where founders lose the human element in DMs and comments
• Real takeaways straight from the room at Stand Out & Sell Out

Guest Experts:
Lauren Najar (@laurennajar)
Christine Campbell Rapin (@christinecampbellrapin)
Zoë Dew (@zoerdew)

Grab your ticket to Power Table LIVE 2027: https://www.thepowertable.co/conference

Join The Power Table Mastermind: https://www.thepowertable.co/mastermind

I love speaking on your podcast or at your event! Details here: https://www.taylorsmithonline.com/speaking

Send me a DM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowertable.co/

Join our FREE Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepowertable

Apply to Speak at Power Table LIVE 2027: https://thepowertable.co/speaker-application