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Author:
Wendi McNeill

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.

Wendi McNeill is owner of Charli Jane Speaker Management Services. She markets, promotes, and consults speakers, authors, coaches, and entertainers worldwide. She is also the founder of Charli Jane Business Solutions and assists speakers with their administrative and management needs. You can sign up for her bi-weekly newsletter, Speak to Me and receive free Call for Presenter notices at http://www.charlijane.com or you can email her at info@charlijane.com

| Article Keywords: Professional Speaker

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Professional Speaker... Fear Of Public Speaking Social Phobia is an irrational anxiety brought forth by exposure to certain social situations, leading to avoidance behaviour. Specific Phobia is a persistent and irrational fear in response to some specific stimulus, which commonly results in avoidance of/withdrawal from that stimulus. It could be triggered by an insect or animal (zoophobia), by a situation like being trapped in an enclosed space (claustrophobia) or it could be a fear of disease (pathophobia). Though it feels real, the fear of public speaking or Glossophobia is what psychologists call "social construction". This means that it is not a natural phenomenon, but the result of something society has created. We expect it to cause fear and therefore, it causes fear. Unfortunately it is this "fear of the fear" which causes the problem to perpetuate, creating a vicious cycle. It is possible for a sufferer to change their attitude to public speaking and thus reduce their fear. If you can figure out exactly what it is about public speaking that scares you, then you can begin to see what you might be able to do about it. This analysis will help you to change your feelings. For example, if you regard the thought that people might laugh at you to be an important factor in your fear, you should ask yourself when they have laughed at you before. If they only laughed when you wanted them to, then your fear is unreal. Such reflection can make a positive change in your attitude to public speaking. About the author: Steve Hill discusses the fear of public speaking at: fears phobias information phobias advice Steve also has a website at: stammering info...