Lessons from the Digital Empowerment summit

My First Speaking Gig Wasn’t About Me Being Smart

I didn’t put out a press release before the event. Didn’t tell the world I was about to be on a panel. I told a few people. In, like, two or three social media posts in the week leading up to the event. Didn’t shout “I made it!” from the rooftops. Because the win wasn’t in getting on stage. It was… but not really. The win was in what I chose to do with the mic once I had it.

On September 26, 2025, between 12pm and 12:45pm, I hosted a workshop at the Digital Empowerment Summit presented by Black Tech Saturdays. Brush Room of the Taubman Center at CCS.

A room full of Detroit founders, builders, and tech ecosystem partners. My topic was AI – and specifically, visibility engineering. But I knew early on this talk couldn’t just be about tools or trends. It had to land. And it had to serve.

🤯 The Temptation: Sound Smart

There’s this thing that happens when you’re a marketer speaking to a room of other marketers. You want to chop it up. Flex your knowledge. Get into strategy frameworks, funnel math, LTV:CAC ratios. You want to sound smart. But I had to remind myself over and over: “If I treat everyone like they already know what I know, I won’t be useful to anyone.”

So I built this talk the same way I build marketing systems: around pain points.

Multiple drafts. Iteration after iteration. Stripping away the fluff, the ego, the temptation to posture. StoryBrand lessons kicking in hard. Until what was left was lean, layered, and clear.

🎯 The Goal: Be Useful

I walked in with one mission: Introduce a new way of thinking about AI that’s accessible, actionable, and generous.

And I’ll be honest – part of me still wanted the nods from the techies. But my highest priority was (and is) the head nods from the solo business owner, the artist-turned-entrepreneur, the nonprofit leader trying to stretch 10 hours of capacity across 100 hours of work.

🦖 When VelociPastor Meets Victor Von Doom

Now, here’s the thing no one tells you about public speaking: When you hit your stride, bits of you leak out.

At one point, I framed a hypothetical about how you might feel about Marvel casting Robert Downey Jr. as Victor Von Doom. That got a small rumble of laughter – the kind you only hear from people who know that universe. After the session, I ended up in the marketplace area talking with one of the attendees who was eating a veggie burger. We bounced between AI and the MCU for a good while.

Another moment: I was talking about how recommendation engines work and mentioned that watching Jurassic Park marathons on Prime led to VelociPastor being served up.

I leaned forward and said: “That’s a real movie, by the way. About a priest who gets dinosaur powers.”

The crowd lost it. And more than one person came up afterward asking for the name of the movie so they could watch it later.

That’s when I realized the laughter, the Marvel debates, the real questions after the session – were signs that I had earned something deeper than attention. I had earned permission.

🧠 The Takeaway: Visibility Engineering Is Perspective Engineering

What I do in visibility strategy is often framed as engineering search and recommendation engines.

But what I really do is engineer perspectives.

• I plant ideas in the places and formats where they’ll be most palatable.
• I reshape how people talk about the topic. And sometimes how they even think about it.

That’s why I led my session by saying:

“I want to change how you think about AI.”

It’s not about the AI tools themselves. I’m not much of a tool junkie. It’s about the POV that surrounds them.

And sometimes, the POV that needs reshaping isn’t just external. It’s internal – inside the organization, or the founder, or the team that’s building.

This was my first official speaking gig. But it didn’t feel like the beginning. It felt like a moment that was always coming.

Not because I’m brilliant. But because I finally let the audience see enough of me to trust what I had to say.

That’s what visibility looks like when it’s done right.

Not louder. Deeper. Reach and resonance.