Choosing Between a Topic or an Industry as a Speaker: START with Micro-Niching
One of the biggest challenges for aspiring speakers is deciding how to position themselves in the marketplace. Should you speak on a broad topic like leadership, motivation, or sales? Or should you focus on an industry, such as healthcare, finance, or manufacturing?
The truth is, when starting out, the best strategy is to do both—what I call micro-niching—where you combine a specific topic with a specific industry. This approach allows you to build credibility faster, become known in your niche, and create demand for your expertise.
Four Key Ways to Position Yourself as a Speaker
This article will explore four key ways to position yourself as a speaker:
- Choosing an industry based on your past experience or resume
- Choosing a topic based on past experience or positional leadership
- Finding the intersection of a topic and an industry to create a powerful micro-niche
- Becoming a celebrity speaker who can transcend industry and topic boundaries
Choosing an Industry: Leaning Into Your Experience
One of the easiest ways to break into speaking is to leverage your past career experience. Organizations and event planners want experts who understand their unique challenges. If you've spent years in a particular field, that industry can become your built-in audience.
Ask yourself:
- What industries have I worked in?
- Where do I have deep experience or insider knowledge?
- What professional associations or conferences exist in those industries?
Action item: Print out your last resume. Highlight the different industries you've worked in and the results you achieved within that industry. Now think about what you did to accomplish those outcomes. Are these transferrable? Can you create a framework to teach around these?
For example, if you've worked in healthcare for 20 years, you already understand the pain points, the lingo, and the decision-makers. That makes it easier to land speaking gigs within that field.
Speakers like Anne Guignon in the dental industry and Breeda Miller in caregiving have built successful careers by focusing on their specific industries. You may not know their names outside of their space, but within their niche, they are highly sought-after experts.
A Topic AUTHORITY: Your Area of Expertise
Another way to enter the speaking world is by focusing on a specific topic rather than an industry. This approach works well if you have deep knowledge, a strong perspective, or thought leadership in an area that applies across multiple industries.
For example:
- If you've led teams, leadership development could be your focus.
- If you've excelled in sales, you might speak on high-performance sales strategies.
- If you've mastered personal resilience, that could become your speaking topic.
This approach is particularly effective if you have positional leadership experience—meaning you've been in multiple leadership roles, taught on the subject, or have developed a framework others can learn from.
Many topic-focused speakers later grow into celebrity status within their space. Consider:
- John Maxwell – Started as a leadership expert and became the global authority on leadership.
- Brené Brown – Began researching vulnerability and became the leading voice on courage and authenticity.
Both started with one core topic and built authority through books, content, and speaking engagements.
Combine Industry + Topic: The Power of Micro-Niching
The most effective way to get booked faster and command higher fees is by finding the intersection of an industry and a topic.
This is the micro-niching strategy that I teach: instead of being just a "leadership speaker" or just a "healthcare speaker," you become the expert on leadership in healthcare.
Some examples of micro-niches:
- Leadership for Healthcare Executives
- Resilience in Law Enforcement
- Sales Strategies for Financial Advisors
- Customer Service for the Hospitality Industry
Why does this work so well?
- ✅ Less competition – Fewer speakers are targeting the same niche.
- ✅ Higher demand – Organizations want speakers who understand their world.
- ✅ Premium pricing – You're perceived as more valuable because of your specificity.
How to Identify Your Micro-Niche
- Write down your top 2-3 industries based on your work experience.
- Write down 2-3 topics you're passionate about and knowledgeable in.
- Look for the overlap—where one industry and one topic connect.
For example, if you have a background in finance and love speaking about leadership, you could specialize in leadership development for financial services professionals.
By becoming the go-to speaker in that space, you gain credibility and expand your opportunities quicker than being a generalist.
The Celebrity Speaker: The Exception to the Rule
While most speakers start by specializing in either an industry or a topic (or both), there is a fourth path—becoming a celebrity speaker.
These are speakers who are known because of a unique accomplishment or exceptional visibility. Because of their status, they can speak on almost any topic and to any audience.
Celebrity speakers fall into two categories:
- Famous for an achievement – Think of astronauts, Olympic athletes, or even a Black Hawk Helicopter Pilot.
- Celebrity due to a position or role - Politicians, Celebrities, or former CEOs of large well known organizations.
- Build celebrity status in their field – People who become the biggest names within an industry or topic.
Some well-known examples:
- John Maxwell – Became the go-to name in leadership.
- Brené Brown – Owns the conversation on vulnerability.
- Gary Vaynerchuk – Dominates marketing and entrepreneurship.
But you don't need to be a household name to achieve this. There are industry celebrities who are famous only within their space.
For example:
- Anne Guignon – A top voice in the dental industry.
- Breeda Miller – A highly recognized expert in caregiving.
- Tim Marvel - A innovative trainer in the automotive industry
You may never hear their names outside their niche, but within their industry, they are the go-to experts.
How to Work Toward Your Speaking Goals
No matter where you are in your speaking journey, you can start taking steps to position yourself strategically:
- ✅ Choose where you want to be – Industry, topic, micro-niche, or future celebrity speaker?
- ✅ Create valuable content – Write articles, post videos, and share insights on LinkedIn, trade association magazine or newsletters and other related platforms.
- ✅ Be active on social media – Show up consistently in the spaces where your audience spends time.
- ✅ Build relationships – Engage with industry professionals, conference organizers, and associations.
Over time, by showing up consistently and delivering value, you'll become known—whether within your industry, your topic, or as a broader thought leader.
Where Will YOU Start?
The key to a successful speaking career isn't being everything to everyone—it's starting with a clear, focused strategy.
So, where do YOU want to be?
- Industry expert? (Leverage your past experience)
- Topic leader? (Develop your expertise)
- Micro-niche authority? (Combine both for fast growth)
- Future celebrity speaker? (Build your brand over time)
The choice is yours— action is required. The more you show up, create content, and speak, the more you'll be recognized.
What's your next step?
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Why learn from Elizabeth?
Elizabeth McCormick, CSP is not here to tell you that business is all puppies and rainbows. She knows that business is hard - that you will get hit with challenges anytime you try to stretch beyond your comfort zone and soar towards something greater (and that’s in business and in life) and achieve meaningful goals.
As a highly-sought after keynote speaker, bestselling author, and media expert, she has:
• Been named one of the 30 best motivational speakers in the world - #13 by Global Gurus
• Earned numerous speaking credentials and certifications (CSP, CVP, CVH, Maxwell Leadership Certified Team Member and Corporate Facilitator, and more)
• Written a book with over 40,000 copies sold and over 18+ tip books in the Soar 2 Success series on entrepreneurial and leadership topics
• Been seen on ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, CW, MSNBC - OK- everywhere and featured in the Wall Street Journal
• Inspired more than 2,000 audiences to lead themselves and others to success in her 15+ years of professional speaking.
As a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in the US Army when less than 1% of the pilots were women, she:
• Served as the Rear Detachment Commander for United Nations Peacekeeping missions in Kosovo
• Received 8 awards, including the Meritorious Service Medal
• Earned the coveted Army Aviator wings
• Transported high level government VIPs including the Secretary of Defense
• And flew top secret military intelligence missions (Shhh! Don’t ask! She can’t share these stories…)
