How to Make Your Speech Stand Out in a Crowded Market

If you're a speaker, chances are you share a topic with dozens—if not hundreds—of other speakers. That’s just the reality of the speaking industry.

But here’s the thing… there’s a massive difference between being a commodity expert and being a referable keynoter.

Commodity experts blend in. Referable keynotes stand out.

The question is: How do you move from one to the other?

That’s exactly what we’re going to break down today.

Step 1: Analyze Your Positioning

Before you can stand out, you need to know where you stand right now.

Use the Visionary Quest Matrix from The Referable Speaker to assess your current positioning.

You want to move out of the “how-to” and into the “how to think” quadrant on that vertical axis. It’s also vital that you challenge conventional wisdom.

This excerpt from The Referable Speaker might help:

Ask yourself:

• Am I stuck in Expertville? Am I just teaching people how to do something instead of changing how they think?
• Am I challenging conventional wisdom? Or am I just repeating what’s already out there?
• Where do other speakers on my topic sit on this matrix?

Plot yourself against other speakers in your marketplace. You probably see them on LinkedIn, maybe you even know them. Look at their session descriptions. Where do they fall on the matrix?

Now, identify opportunities to move out of Expertville and into VisionaryTown.

This is where differentiation starts.

Step 2: Find Your One Question

If you want to be a referable keynote, you need to be on a quest to answer a question Google can’t answer.

That’s what sets visionary speakers apart.

There are two great ways to find this question: