This is the third lesson of the 'Get Started As A Speaker' email course.

Today, we'll look at how to identify who your ideal audience is so you can start speaking to them and sharing your message.

---

Alright, so far we’ve talked looked at two key questions that every speaker must answer...

1. Why do you want to speak?
2. What do you want to talk about?

Today, we’ll explore a third question that will help finalize your foundation as a speaker and get you on the right track to not only getting started but getting paid (that’s why you’re getting this email course, right?!

Let’s answer this third question...

Who do you want to speak to?

Now there are a lot of different types of audiences you could speak to, so let me give you a few possible categories...

Demographics/Age - Perhaps there’s a specific age group you want to speak to. I started my career primarily as a youth speaker, so I spoke largely to high school/college audiences (although that has evolved to include more businesses and entrepreneurs events). So perhaps you’d like to focus on youth, college, Gen Y, Baby Boomers, etc.

Profession/Industry - Maybe you want to focus more on audiences within a certain industry. You could focus on speaking to people in healthcare, insurance, sales, publishing, entrepreneurship, media, or education. If you want to focus on speaking to within a specific industry, it’s generally one you have some experience in or have come from.

Interest - You could focus on speaking to people interested in the same type of hobby, sport, or leisure activity. Maybe you want to speak to people interested in scrapbooking, running, losing weight, nutrition, gun safety, or some other type of interest people have.

Topic - Finally, maybe you’re interested in speaking to audiences looking for help on a specific subject. You could focus on people looking for help with starting a business, marriage, personal finance, parenting, marketing, dealing with divorce, or overcoming obstacles. By focusing on a specific topic, it means you could speak to a variety of different professions, industries or age groups.

A key thing to remember here is you can’t start trying to speak to everyone on anything. The reality is if you think you can speak on anything, you really can speak on nothing.

Here’s an example…if you had some niche plumbing issue in your bathroom, are you more interested in the general handyman who works on anything or the speciality plumber who focuses on your exact issue?

Also, keep in mind that why you want to speak (remember from lesson #1?) may affect who you choose to speak to.

Let’s say you want to speak on overcoming obstacles and it’s a message that could be shared with a variety of different audiences. Here are some audience options based on why you want to speak...

Goal to sell more copies of your book? Who is your book written for? Who are most of your readers? Where do they gather? There’s your speaking audience.

Goal to make money? Who is paying for speakers on your topic/subject? You’ll earn more focusing on businesses or corporations vs non-profits or education.

Goal to increase your online audience? Who makes up your current online audience? What types of events do they attend?

While I want you to be clear on who you would like to speak to, I know what you may be thinking...

But Grant…there’s a bunch of different audiences I’m interested in? How do I pick just one?

You can speak to more than one type of audience, but remember, the wider you cast your net, the more watered down you can become.

Let me give you permission to take some of the pressure off yourself. You’re not making a lifetime commitment to only speak to this same audience forever and forever.

Speakers are always reinventing themselves and finding new topics to speak on and fresh audiences to present to.

But for now, you just need a starting point.

---

By getting clear on your answers to the why, what, and who questions to being a speaker, you’re light years ahead of others. Instead of just throwing spaghetti at a wall, now we can get really focused on finding and booking engagements.

And while we’ll get to the marketing pieces very soon, you first have to have a great product to offer.

If you’re a great marketer but a crappy speaker, you won’t last long. If you’re a great speaker but nobody knows you exist, you won’t last long either.

So in the next lesson we’ll talk about how to bring both the sizzle AND the steak to the stage

Really proud of the progress you’re making as a speaker.

Let’s keep that momentum up. Here’s your next homework assignment...

Lesson 3 Worksheet: Who do you want to speak to?

Copyright © 2015 BookedAndPaidToSpeak.com