A lot of times I write about the nuts-n-bolts of running your speaking business and building your speaking platform. Speaker websites.
Managing & finding leads. Hiring your speaker support team. And for good reason.
You have to focus on those two areas of your career, business & platform, to create a solid place to launch your success from, or it will not be sustainable.
You are a professional public speaker, but you are also a business manager and platform building coach, all at the same time. If you’re in this solo, meaning without an assistant or team, right now, you are wearing many, many hats. That might be overwhelming, or, it might be perfectly inside your wheelhouse.
Regardless of how well you’re handling – emotionally, mentally & practically – all the to-dos, have-tos, commitments and wish lists of running your career, there’s a wall out there waiting for you to hit it. When you do, you’ll do what everyone else does when they hit a wall. Crash into it & stop all forward motion & lose all momentum.
So, if you know there’s a wall out there for you, like everyone, what can you do to prepare for it, even if you don’t see it yet?
You can make one significant and powerful change right now that may very well make you crash proof.
Every speaker starts in one of two ways … they either have a fairly clear message on their hearts to share with others, or, they have a fairly clear idea of the audience they want to speak in front of.
Let’s not get into a chicken-vs-egg debate. Let’s just agree that to get started, you will have already gotten past the point of defining both these elements in your speaking career – you’ve crafted your message and you’ve identified your audience.
The thing is, that while you may think you have done a great job at both of these elements, you, like most speakers, have not dug deep enough to get laser-like specific.
A shorthand term for this process is Niche.
We talk about our niche in terms of who, how & why we serve. We look at our audience, our platform and our message as the who, the how & the why.
You may be thinking by now, well I’ve already gotten very clear on the above and time for me to click away. But, I will tell you, that if you’re like most speakers out there, you aren’t there yet. You haven’t gotten specific enough or defined your niche precisely enough. You may think you have, but I’m pretty sure it’s a no. If you’re not in the top 10% of recognized experts in your niche, then, it’s a no. Don’t lose hope, keep reading …
Think of it this way. You have a message that you are so sure is impactful for women business owners, because you’ve seen some promising early results. You’ve booked some gigs. You have a social media following that’s growing and you have a well-enough-read blog. “Women Business Owners” is a huuuuuuge market and a lucrative one to tap into.
So, it’s great that you’ve decided to be a part of it by helping them find solutions. Good for you. Here’s the thing that is already beginning to build that wall along your future path.
That niche is so non-specific and targets such an enormous audience, that you will get lost in all of the noise.
Like yourself, there are thousands and thousands of other speakers and coaches trying to tap into that market. Like yourself, those people all think they are laser focused and right on target to reach a pinnacle of success by speaking and coaching them. Like yourself, they are clamoring to get in front of those groups and individuals who need someone to present the solution to their biggest hurdles and problems.
Unlike yourself, for now, those speakers and coaches at the top of the game have niched themselves to such a degree that they are part of the go-to group of influencers that those women business owners rely on and are fiercely loyal to when seeking advice, coaching and speaking professionals.
They got there by digging down deeply to identify and carve out a niche so specific that they are no longer lost in a crowd and drowned out by competing noise makers. They are at the top of the search results when a woman logs on to browse to find a solution to her business issue.
And here’s why it works, because when someone searches the internet looking to help her business grow and be successful, she most likely knows what the problem is.
Not enough cash-flow, not enough time, not enough staff, not enough … and she’s going to ask the internet how to fix that (or those) problems. She’s going to be specific and look at the top 5-10 results only. You need to be in those top 5-10 results. You get there by being very specific in niching yourself and building your platform around that niche.
A tiny niche doesn’t equal tiny results. In fact, it is most often just the opposite. The expert who has taken the time and made the effort to pinpoint what makes himself or herself a standout in this challenging and overfilled industry, is the one who rises to the top, and stays there.
If you haven’t been able to clearly and specifically niche yourself as a speaker, or, you know you need to go even deeper and gain that much needed clarity of purpose and audience, then you might like my Define Your Niche and Find Your Audience course.
In it, I walk you through exercises and advice to lead you to narrowly (read successfully) defining your niche and give you tips and resources for turning that niche into a profitable and sustainable speaking platform.
You’re going to be overloaded with things to do to make this your “best year ever”. By now, you’ve probably given up on your resolutions, too. That’s okay. Most people give up right after January. But this isn’t a resolution – it’s a solution.
Get started today and have your niche so well defined that you’ll see it’s easier to find leads, create programs and services, and hone your message.
This is your year to become one those speakers in the top 10% of your field of expertise. This is how you create a crash proof future for yourself and your speaking career.
Join our fantastic *free* Facebook group “Grow Your Speaking Biz” to learn, share, grow and get connected today. www.SpeakingBizCommunity.com