Figuring Out Your Speaking Topics

One of the most important things any speaker can do is commit to a talk. I mean this as more than a rough area of expertise: Create set speaking topics that appeal to a variety of audiences.

When I work with one of my speakers, I usually recommend anywhere from two to four different talks depending on the flexibility of their expertise. This way, instead of creating a talk from scratch for every speaking engagement, about 80% is already complete with the flexibility to customize.

To figure out your talks, first figure out your audiences. Get out a piece of paper and scribble out all the different people who could benefit from your talks. (For example, if you specialize in the business of the food industry, your audiences might be entrepreneurs, aspiring chefs, senior management, nutritionists, and even doctors.) Once your audiences are written out, group as many together as you can and think of the message that audience would want to hear. Flesh out a title, bullet points, audience takeaways, and you have a talk!