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How to Choose a Great Speech Topic Your Audience Will Love

Speak on any topic I choose? What's a speaker to do?

How do you choose a great speech topic that you and you're audience will love?

You’re an expert. You’ve got so much knowledge flowing through that your noggin that it’s hard to decide what to speak on.

You make a decision then second guess yourself. You find yourself going back to the speaking drawing board time and time again.

It’s time to stop struggling and get unstuck quickly. Follow this framework for finding a speech topic that matters to your audience (and can even get you booked to speak):

There is no best speech topic

Just like Sasquatch, zombies, Dracula and unfortunately unicorns, there is no mythical, guaranteed to be amazing, speech topic.

The perfect speech topic doesn't exist and neither do unicorns

There is no one subject that is going to interest every audience at every event. Selecting a topic is a personal journey. It's where you, your audience and your knowledge matter. Let's break down the process of finding the best speech topic when you are given the gift of choosing any topic you'd like.

Step 1: Who's in your audience?

It’s about your audience (and, hey, if you really want to get paid to speak, it’s also about the organization you want to hire you… but that’s ninja-level speaking that is beyond this article!).

If you don’t know who your audience is or you think your audience is everyone (spoiler alert: it’s not), the first decision to make is to find your audience. A speaker without an audience is like a unicorn without rainbow glitter, neither exist.

Once you decide who your audience is, it’s research time. Get as much information as you can about the demographics of your audience, what they believe, what they are challenged by, and what problems they have.

Your expertise needs to meet their needs.

Speaking of expertise…

Step 2: What do you know about?

Make a list of everything you know about. Do a brain dump or a mind map (I like using MindMeister for this). Get everything that you could speak about out on to paper so you can objectively look at it. Here's my list:

• Duran Duran
• London
• Zombies
• Cats
• Market Research
• Persuasion
• Twitter
• Blogging
• Surviving graduate school
• Loss and grief
• Loneliness

Once you’ve finished your mind map, take a break for 24 hours and let it sit.

Come back the next day and ask yourself, “Which of these topics best serves my audience?” or “What topics can get my audience results? (If you want to find out more about the results that you create for your audience, go here!)

Then, narrow that list down to three or four potential topics that you could speak on.

Then, ask yourself this:

Step 3: What do you love?

You have potential topics that you know your audience wants to hear. Now, ask yourself, “What am I most crazy and passionate about?”

If I had to spend the next three years talking about this and only this topic, which would I choose?

Whatever you most love to talk about and also serves the audience, that is the winning speech topic for you!

Step 4: Choose the best speech topic for the audience and event

You have potential topics that you know your audience wants to hear. Now, ask yourself, “What am I most crazy and passionate about?”

If I had to spend the next three years talking about this and only this topic, which would I choose?

Whatever you most love to talk about and also serves the audience, that is the winning speech topic for you!

Stop stressing to find the best topic for your speaking business. Focus on serving the audience, using your expertise to give the audience what they most need, and from there pick what you're passionate about.

Once you have your topic, it’s time to craft your 3 Word Rebellion, which is the ultimate speaking hook that encapsulates the change you want to create, the story you want to tell, and gets the audience to sit up and pay attention. Grab the 3 Word Rebellion playbook here.