047: Creating Better Audience Engagement and Learning with Amy Lang

As a speaker, you’re only one-half of the equation. The other half is your audience. Particularly when you’re doing workshops and breakout sessions with smaller groups, you want to make sure that the audience is engaged, interested, and learning.

My guest Amy Lang is an experienced speaker and workshop facilitator and she shares with us strategies she uses, from stories and humor to flipcharts and breathing breaks, to engage adult learners.

We also talk about how to manage introverted and extroverted workshop participants, how Amy got her first speaking gigs when she was starting her business, and our mutual love for alliteration and acronyms.

This is a very lively conversation that I know you’ll enjoy!

About My Guest: A nationally-known sexuality educator, speaker and author, Amy Lang helps both parents and professionals who work with kids discover talking about sexuality, bodies and safety doesn’t have to be scary or overwhelming. Her engaging, humorous and inspiring style shows adults how to turn conversations and situations they dread into something they can handle like a pro. Her clients include the US Air Force Youth and Family Services programs, Boys & Girls Clubs and thousands of parents around the world. Amy holds an MA in Applied Behavioral Science and her focus was in adult education and group facilitation. She decided to combine her love of sex talking and her love of working with adults and started Birds & Bees & Kids in 2006.

Highlights:

• Getting referrals from current and previous clients, and how important they are to grow your business
• How to get your first speaking gigs
• Keeping your presentation content fresh
• Specific strategies for connecting with and engaging introverts AND extroverts in your audience
• How to connect to your audience with real stories, humor, and wacky teaching styles
• Holding space for your audience and being their guide
• The importance of tweaking your content to different audiences so they are engaged and actively learning

Links:

Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/47

Check out Amy’s website at http://birdsandbeesandkids.com/

Amy’s Facebook Group Birds and Bees and Kids

Find Amy’s book Dating Smarts on Amazon

Interested in working together to create your signature talk? Email me at carol@speakingyourbrand.com.

Join the free Speaking Your Brand community at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/join/ or text the word SPEAKING to 444-999.

Say hi to me on Twitter @CarolMorganCox

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Become Bookable Live Online Workshop - April 15, 2026
If you want to speak more but you’re not sure where to start or your efforts haven’t produced the results you want, I’m hosting a live online workshop called “Become Bookable: How to Get Speaking Invitations” on Wednesday, April 15th.

A lot of brilliant women assume they just need to pitch themselves more. But the real reason speakers get invited isn’t because they pitch harder — it’s because they’re positioned as bookable.

In this 3-hour interactive workshop live on Zoom, I’ll show you how speakers actually get invited — and help you clarify the positioning that makes event organizers say yes.

As a podcast listener, use the coupon code “Podcast100” to save $100 on your registration.

Learn more and register at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/bookable