If you’ve ever sat through a conference talk that felt like a live advert, you know exactly what you shouldn’t do.

Sadly, many well-meaning freelancers make the same mistake when they get the mic, they talk about themselves, their services, or their clever new framework, rather than offering genuine value to the audience.

Join Tom McDowall, Chief Learning Geek at Evolve L&D, for an honest and practical session on how to get real business value from podcasts, panels, webinars, conferences, and writing, without ever giving a sales pitch.

Tom will share real examples of how a “no-selling, no-promotion” rule for his own speaking engagements led directly to six new clients this year alone with a pipeline conversion of over 30%.

If you’ve ever wondered how to turn visibility into opportunity without turning yourself into a walking advert, this session is for you. Expect dry humour, practical advice, and a fair amount of myth-busting about how thought leadership actually works.

What you’ll get out of it

• Build credibility by giving away your best ideas without fear of “losing” them.
• Use intrigue and value to attract clients rather than chase them.
• Turn conference sessions and podcast appearances into ongoing conversations and consulting work.
• Structure your appearances so you leave people convinced you’re valuable — even if they can’t quite describe what you do yet.
• Understand the psychology behind why generosity and expertise outperform self-promotion every time.

Who should attend

This session is designed for freelancers, independents, and small business owners working in learning and development, whether your craft lies in instructional design, facilitation, consulting, coaching, content creation, or learning strategy.

About the speaker

Tom is an advocate for evidence-informed practice and experiment-led design. He founded Evolve L&D back in 2018, stepped away for a while, came back, stepped away again, came back again, but always kept it running and scaled it over time.

Whilst the majority of his work has been directly in and around L&D, he’s also worked in product management, development, and marketing with public speaking being a key role throughout his career, always with the view to generate new prospects and future sales.

As well as running Evolve L&D full-time, Tom hosts the instructional design tips YouTube channel and Substack, as well as the IDTX and upcoming evidence-informed practice conferences.