I’ve been thinking about Africa lately.
When I was growing up, my parents ran mission trips, and nothing over there worked the way it does here.
You didn’t have the right tools. You didn’t have the right supplies. Half the time, you didn’t even have running water. And what I watched my parents do, over and over again, was get specific. Not broad. Not “we’ll figure it out.” Specific. This village. This well. This family. This need. Right here, right now.
That specificity is what got things done. Every single time.
I think about that when I work with speakers who are trying to get booked. Because the ones who are struggling, and I’ve walked alongside hundreds of them over 24 years, almost always have the same thing in common. Their topic is broad. Beautiful, but broad. And broad doesn’t book stages.
Here’s what I mean.
When an event planner is looking for a speaker, she’s not browsing. She’s solving a problem. She has a specific audience of nurses, women in leadership, sales teams, and small business owners, and she needs someone who speaks directly to that audience’s world. When she reads “motivational speaker” or “leadership expert” or “wellness advocate,” those words don’t give her anything to hold onto. They don’t answer her problem. They just… float.
But when she reads “I help burned-out healthcare professionals rediscover their purpose before they walk away from the career they love,” she stops scrolling. That’s her audience. That’s her problem. That’s her speaker.
The difference isn’t talent. It’s specificity.
I learned something in Africa that I still carry with me. You can’t solve a vague problem. You have to name the thing. Point to it. Say this is what we’re here to do. And the moment you do that, everything gets clearer. The path forward opens up.
It’s the same with your speaking topic. The moment you stop trying to speak to everyone and start speaking to someone, a real someone, with a real problem, in a real industry, the right planners start to find you.
Not because you got louder. Because you got clear.
This is what I call moving from marketer-first, speaker-second.
Before anyone can hire you, they have to understand exactly what they’re hiring you for. Your topic isn’t just what you speak about. It’s how you open the door.
So here’s the one question I want to leave you with today: if an event planner in your target industry landed on your page right now, would she know in thirty seconds that you were speaking directly into her audience’s world?
If the answer is anything other than a confident yes, that’s your doable momentum move this week. Not a rebrand. Not starting over. Just getting more specific about who you’re for and what changes when they hear you.
One page, not the whole book. But this page? It’s one of the most important ones.
Come do this work with us inside the Charli Jane Speakers Club. We have brand new AI-powered tools that help you find real opportunities and pitch with confidence once your message is clear and your topic is bookable.
We’d love to have you! charlijane.com
