Where event organisers come across your name when looking for a speaker, what views are they likely to form about what you could speak about? Are you a gun for hire, regardless of the fight, or have you embraced the notion of niche speaking?

Truth be told, it’s hard to be all things to all people when promoting a product of any nature…

…So, why would speaking be any different?

It’s not.

Chances are, if you position yourself as a ‘Jack of all trades ‘speaker, you’ll be perceived as a master of none.

In today’s guest interview, you’ll find a fascinating discussion with keynote speaker and Sustainability Coach, Anthony Day on why thinking more niche about the topics you speak about can help you to become a more in-demand speaker.

Becoming Known As a Niche Speaker Doesn’t Have to be Hard – Read These 9 Tips

Listen in as we discuss:

• Why picking a niche speaking topic will set you apart from other speakers
• How to go about choosing a niche that’s right for you
• Why naming the solutions you offer audiences increases the perceived value of what you say
• The importance of developing and nurturing community to share your messages
• How membership of the Professional Speaking Association of the United Kingdom and Ireland can help to shape your speaking skills and acumen
• What it really takes to create visibility for your speaking services
• How to cope with nay-sayers where you chose to tackle contentious issues
• 3 Reasons why modern speakers must hone their ability to truly engage with their audiences via video communication, now
• Why you shouldn’t promote the notion that you can speak about ‘anything’
• And more

Over to You

If you speak on a regular basis, would you describe yourself as a niche speaker or more of a generalist?

And, if you’re not already sold on niche speaking – what’s stopping you or why have you chosen not to take this path?

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Interview Transcript

Eamonn: Today we are talking about the power and the importance of thinking niche as a speaker. And I’m thrilled to be able to welcome our speaker today of the Professional Speakers Association where we have Anthony Day with us. So, Anthony, you’re very, very welcome.

Anthony: Thank you, hello

Eamonn: And Anthony of course you are known as the sustainability coach, and so when it comes to things green, I guess you are their man.

Anthony: I hope so, yes. I talk about sustainable business, sustainable futures, and I talk to schools about sustainability as well.

Eamonn: Good, good. Well, today I want to, if you like, move away from the whole topic of green per se although we’ll come back to that in a moment and talk to you about the importance of being known for a particular topic. Why is that so important for speakers in general to pick a niche?

Anthony: Well, because that’s your product. And if people don’t know what your product is and they don’t know what you’re selling, then you’re not going to make any business, are you?

Eamonn: Yes, and what challenges does that present? Because trying to figure out what you want to be known for, how did you reach that point where you said, “You know what? I am the sustainability coach?”

Anthony: I reached that point when I realized that sustainability was an important issue. And I decided that I would promote myself as the sustainability coach. When I had done research and I had actually studied all the detail to find out what the issues are and when I identified the fact that it’s an important issue not just for society but particularly for business.

Eamonn: Yes, yeah. So it’s an important side you cited, but of course the other things is that when you think about things green and you think about whether people will sit up and pay attention to this, you’ve done something interesting. You talk about the perfect storm, which conjures up all sorts of images. Can you tell me briefly what is that? What is the perfect storm? What causes people to sit up and pay attention to this?

Anthony: Well, the perfect storm is being promoted by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, and they have made the point that if you look at the British industry, there’s almost nobody or at least a very small minority of organizations that have actually understood sustainability and have actually done something about it. It’s a perfect storm because if we don’t actually take it seriously, it will be a disaster.

Eamonn: And part and parcel of that, I’m interested by the fact that when you talk about these things that you talk about the importance of building community as a way I suppose of banging the drums and getting more people to pay attention. Tell me a little bit about your thinking and why community is so important as a speaker and also in the context of what you do.

Anthony: Well, I think it’s important for everybody because if we’re a lone voice, we’re a lone voice. If we are successful as speakers, we change opinions. We change outlooks. And I think that’s a measure of success as a speaker. And if you change opinions and outlooks, you encourage people to support your values and to share them with other people. And if you don’t get people in the community on board, then as I say as a lone voice, you won’t achieve anything.

Eamonn: No, and of course you need that voice to be heard. And speaking of voices being heard, you’ve been a member now of the Professional Speaking Association for 12 years.

Anthony: Yes.

Eamonn: So tell me about that journey and the kinds of lessons that you’ve learned along the way that have helped to shape what you do and how you say it.

Anthony: I think the most important thing about the PSA is that it is a community of like-minded individuals. And if you are a sole practitioner as many of us are, then being able to go to a local group every month or so is very supportive. And out of that of course there are the Mega Conventions where the whole PSA community comes together.

Eamonn: You better explain what a Mega Convention is, because many people watching this will have no idea of what we’re talking about. So this is the Professional Speaking Association. They have what?

Anthony: Well, this convention is a three-day event usually or at least a two and a half day event when everybody comes together over a weekend. We have workshops, we have key note speakers, and we have people from the top of the profession internationally. This year that we’ve just passed, we had Patricia Fripp, we had Alvin Law. And they share some amazing insights with everybody.

Eamonn: Yes, yes, which is fantastic as a resource. But if we switch if you like to the growth of a speakers business and you think about people gravitating towards your topic, what have been the greatest challenges that you’ve experienced in gaining visibility for your topic or indeed that you’ve seen other speakers maybe experience as they get traction?

Anthony: Well, I think the most important thing is defining the niche, is defining the focus and not only from the point of view of what I think the focus is, but explaining to the potential costumer what the focus is. Now you used the term green. The green has got a lot of connotations.

Eamonn: Yes.

Anthony: If you’re not careful, it’s beards, and sandals and polar bears, and that’s not what I’m about.

Eamonn: Yes.

Anthony: Sustainability is okay. It’s green issues like preserving the environment, but it’s climate change, and it’s population, and it’s water, and it’s resources, and it’s waste. And all of those things; they’re all together, sustainability.

Eamonn: And I’m glad you mentioned that, because of course necessarily they’re any number of people who I guess would be skeptics where if you put the word ‘green’ in the sentence, they assume immediately that you’re in the do good space as opposed to maybe doing something that really matters to everybody.

Anthony: Yes, you’re quite right.

Eamonn: How do you cope with those [inaudible 00:05:47]?

Anthony: Well, you’ve got to recognize that quite a lot of the denialists [SP] are really keen on business as usual. You can understand with the vast investment in infrastructure, the oil industry does not want to close down…

Eamonn: No, of course not.

Anthony: …and so on. People don’t want to have to do things differently. But also people missed the point to some extent. There are two sides to sustainability. On the one side, you can stop or reduce climate change if you take certain actions. When I say you, those actions are global. They’ve got to be carried out by governments. They’ve got to be carried out by governments in concert with governments. And they’re way beyond what you and I can ever conceive of. But on the other hand if climate change for example is causing floods, if it’s causing tornadoes, we can do something about that. We can nail our roof down. We can make sure that we don’t build a warehouse on a flood plain. We can actually react to what’s happening because it’s happening. We may not be able to change it and whatever is causing it we still have to deal with the consequences, and that’s what I think we should be doing.

Eamonn: Absolutely, but only of course if we’re aware of these things which is why what you do is so important. And I noticed and I was interested, when it comes to your speaking, that you give people the option of doing video conferencing which of course is very green. But as a speaker, tell me about your observations about how people react to that and how you can up your engagement maybe with people that you can’t see.

Anthony: Yeah, well, I suppose that’s difficult but I don’t think it’s any more difficult than doing a television program, because you can only see the camera, can’t you? I think that video conferencing and video presentations are going to become more and more common. They’re of an advantage to speakers because they don’t have to travel. They don’t have to travel inter-continentally or long distances.

But they’re a great advantage to the consumer, the audience as well, because not only do they not have to travel, they don’t have to waste time traveling. They could be sitting at the desk. At one moment, they can switch on a video conference and watch it for an hour, switch it off again. They’ve spent an hour and that’s all. So it’s a win-win to do it that way.

Eamonn: And they can see it again, again, again if it’s recorded, which is fantastic.

Anthony: Yes, yes.

Eamonn: Well, maybe we’ll round out then with one final question. So you’ve been involved with Professional Speaking now for quite some time. If you think about all the things that you’ve learned and you were to think, “My goodness! Top of the list, here’s the most important lesson that I have learned and can share with others,” what would be that number one?

Anthony: It’s got to be focus. I started off thinking, “I can speak about anything.” Nobody wants somebody who can speak about anything. They want a specific focus on something which will give them value. Once you’ve got that, then you’re close to focusing on the market. That’s what you’ve got to do.

Eamonn: Absolutely, the power of focus and niche. Can I thank you, Anthony? It’s been a pleasure. Thank you.

Anthony: Thank you.

Eamonn: And thank you. You have been listening to the Reluctant Speakers Club, and until next time, happy speaking.

Photo Credit: Dani Ihtatho