How
to define
your own niche
Position yourself to become the speaker of choice.
If someone is already doing it - do something else!
 This is one of the hardest things speakers have to do - defining their niche, and in most
cases, it can stop them dead in their tracks. Inexperienced speakers have a
tendency to generalize themselves and that won’t lead to those successful paid
speaking engagements. You must be creative and innovative; find your own niche and become the most well known
speaker in that niche.
Defining your niche
- Define your audience: Decide who you want to speak to
mainly - who will be your target audience? Let's say that you have decided to
speak to women only, the next step would be to ...
- Develop your key topics: Now you want to build 1 to 3 direct topics
in which you have extensive experience and knowledge on, topics that you know
you can speak on with great passion and inspire your target audience. Let's
assume you have decided to speak on personal empowerment, the next step would
be to ...
- Narrow your topics down and become the speaker of choice in your niche.
You want to become an expert on this subject - you want to become the speaker of choice to the
point where everyone in the industry, women’s organizations, women’s
associations, and women owned businesses will know who you are; if they need a
speaker for their audience, event or workshop they will know exactly who to
call - you! But getting one booking is not enough, now you must ...
- Practice, expand and improve your topics continuously. Now that you
found your niche and are an expert on your topic, you must continuously practice your speaking skills,
update your material and presentations to keep up with the trends and changing
issues of today’s society. You want to get your clients to recommend you to others and
keep them coming back for more! Practice on your friends and family members -
their feedback will be invaluable to you, because they will be brutally honest
with you!
Developing your topics
You need to sit down with a pen and paper and make a list of what you really
want to talk about, what you’re really passionate about, and what you are really experienced or knowledgeable
about. Once you have made a list, start
narrowing it down until you have come up with your niche! You don’t want to
stretch yourself. Be as specific as possible. Below is just an example to help
you understand how to build your topics around your expertise and your audience.
Sample target audience: Women
Sample topic: Women’s personal empowerment
- Topic 1: From victim to personal empowerment: Deborah captures her audience
with her presentation on how to go from victim to personal empowerment and
independence. She shows her audience (you would fill in the rest of the
description. Don’t make it too long, just enough to “catch the eye”)
- Topic 2: Victim mentality – are you addicted?: Anderson shows her audience
how to tell if they are in a victim mentality or situation. She uses brilliant
visuals to show them if they are addicted to victim mentality and how to break
it ...
- Topic 3: Relationships 101 – work through your differences: A happy,
healthy, and successful relationship is a full time job for all of us and
working through your differences is sometimes easier said then done ...
Now, we have determined your target niche and have built
your topics around it. Once you have positioned yourself as an expert speaker
and everyone comes to you when they need your expertise, you can then start
building another niche and topic subjects to fit or compliment previous topics.
The number of keynote topics you will have in your portfolio is entirely up
to you, based on your knowledge and experience. Some speakers have only one
topic while others may have 10.
Speakers of choice get bookings and higher paying engagements!
If you need additional help with defining your niche please
contact us for
assistance.
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