Where Niche is King!

Here! Today! Now!

Seek niche ideas out, they are everywhere, anywhere and nowhere! Perhaps they are not as conspicuous as the real big dollar earners, they do exist none the less, are well worth the time spent researching and can reap great rewards. Form a habit of seeking "the niche"!

We run a two companies,  a Speaker Bureau, The Entertainers and a speaker management company Speakmark, two different beasts to be sure, hovering over the events industry and beyond.

The workload is often overwhelming, juggling the various aspects of running businesses, however always at the forefront of our thinking is "where are the niche ideas/speakers/events.?"

We are attracted to niche like a magnet, our conversation constantly revolves around it, we practice niche, we read niche, we spray it on like deodorant, we eat it for breakfast, niche is a habit worth forming!

Perhaps if I give you a first hand example of how this process worked for us recently.

While consuming the daily breakfast of fruit and coffee (my morning addictions), I mentioned to my wife and business partner Michelle Burgan that I had seen a LinkedIn post about a consultant by the name of Cynthia Dearin. I had admired Cynthia's presence and profile for a few years after coming into contact with the organisation that Cynthia was CEO of, the Australia Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

I said to Michelle, "I believe Cynthia works in a niche area of business and commerce, perhaps we should contact her and see if she has representation with regards to speaking engagements."

Founder of Dearin & Associates and certainly doing some niche work around building Australian businesses intentionally, I called to enquire.

I had done my research, I knew that Cynthia was working in a niche market, the question I asked was "Are you looking to do more speaking work?"

An emphatic "yes" followed from Cynthia, with an equally emphatic "we would love to work with you", which has formed into a tidy working relationship between Cynthia Dearin and Speakmark.

Now while it is true that I am shamelessly plugging the amazing work that Cynthia Dearin does, which is assisting businesses find opportunities on the international stage-

• Export strategy – helping our clients create or refine their export strategy so that they get the most out of the export         experience.
• Cross-cultural management -  training and problem-solving for companies working outside Australia or with clients       and counterparts from abroad.
• Strategic business connections – we facilitate links between projects and investors and put clients in touch with the       best networks and contacts in new markets.

- the real essence/lesson of this post is to always be on the look out for the  hidden gems which could be sitting right in front of our eyes.

Here is some good advice if you are struggling for ideas on how to create something from nothing.

Look up Nils Vesk, we have learnt much from both his teachings and his book Ideas with Legs, in fact buy the book it is just a fantastic guide to help you become upwardly mobile with your ideas. I guarantee that you will find ideas and methods in this book which will enable you monetize your ideas.

To sum up, with so much content coming at us from a a few dozen different sources, niche is definitely where it is at! If it is not niche then it is just harder, not impossible, to sell or market.

Look, look, look....try to see what no one else see's, this requires practice and you need to look harder to find the magic in the ordinary.

We live in a world where niche is KING!   Ohhh yes! Remember to look Cynthia Dearin up the next time you are looking for an excellent speaker!

Speaker Bureau Marketing - Don't believe the hype!

If you are like me, seeking the truth is high on your agenda.

If I may wax lyrical; Akin to the global effort to awaken from a deep sleep to realise all we are spoon fed from the media is far from the truth. We wipe the sleep out of our eyes to set our sails on the winds of change, seeking a fresh start allowing our conscious compass the opportunity to navigate out of perilous waters. With courage and a strength born of a desire for "deep change", the journey we are all on requires a curiosity, persistence and an undertaking not to be silenced despite our collective ambivalence. 

But hey....Speaker Bureau's have got to make a living right, so why not just carry on the charade while the world is busy correcting itself?

One of the great myths about Speaker Bureau's is that those who list with a Speaker Bureau are getting equal opportunity. This is clearly not the case!

There is a conundrum afoot here, which keeps this paradigm upright that is delicately illustrated by these words, "I dare not tell the naked truth to a King, my reward may be a hanging"!

Let me ask you if you have ever asked a Speaker their thoughts on Speaker Bureau methodology? I have!  Though each have their own opinions based on the experiences they have had with various Speaker Bureau's, the over riding consensus is not flattering. While I was having a conversation with a Professional Speaker recently they said tongue in cheek, "oh, I will have four enquiries to take care of from Speaker Bureau's when I get back to the office". Sarcasm perhaps, however the attitude of the individual is exemplary, however the undertone of these words highlights an inherent dissatisfaction with the current status quo.

Perhaps because my early experience of working for a Speaker has shaped my expectations and beliefs of the gratitude and respect that Speaker are deserving of. Maybe it is that I am an Alan Weiss fan, who I am told is loathed by Speaker Bureau owners, personally I am of the opinion there is much to be gleaned from his writing, which we put practice as part of The Entertainers cultural agenda on a daily basis.

The fact is that Speaker's are just not marketed effectively by Speaker Bureaus!

To say that "no" marketing is evident, would be a misinterpretation of the facts, however if you do some simple calculations on the number of Speakers listed against the staff members actively working on marketing individual Speakers the result is far from complimentary. The marketing that is done is reserved for the A-list Speakers who are in demand, hot, topical and basically easy to book requiring minimal effort. 

The Entertainers currently list approximately 100 Speakers on www.theentertainers.com.au. While this may appear insignificant to our competition, we have made a conscious decision not to follow the trend of loading thousands of Speakers onto a website and hoping for the best. Fire the shot gun, wait for the smoke to clear and see if we hit something, anything! Bugger the respect we owe to those we work with, "that's just the way we do things..."

SEO is where the bulk of current marketing efforts are concentrated with the emphasis on getting a Speaker to the top of search engine pages. The trick here is when someone is Google searching for a Speaker, the Speaker Bureau's appear on the top of the search page, this impression indicates to the person searching that the listing, which ever company it is, (unless it is the Speakers personal website) has a close association with the Speaker. While this is true in some cases, by and large it is inaccurate.

All is fair in love and war particularly when it comes to business, in fact The Entertainers has an active SEO marketing strategy in place and we enjoy the leads that are generated from this effective marketing strategy. This is how business is done and is a completely accepted and ethical way of advertising listing. The problem is that little else is done in most cases.

Traditional BIO and Pic listings are the standard format for marketing Speakers. Again we use this format with every Speaker we work with but that is not where it stops!

The Real Time video interviews we have been producing over the past year and a half are deliberate effort to "give back" more to the Speakers we are lucky enough to profit from. While the series is still in development as we get better at interviewing and producing the final product, we actively market each of the Speakers to a growing database with aim of delivering a much more effective methodology.

We do not have all the answers to this conundrum however, we continue to push towards a more mutually beneficial relationship with the Speakers The Entertainers work with. While not all the Speakers that we have interviewed and profiled have received work through as a result of the Real Time video interviews and the marketing we do around the interviews, the majority of our bookings now come from the interviews we do.

Our methodology is not something that become as effective as current practices overnight. We are "new players" in a competitive industry. We will continue our efforts as we build our business with mutual respect between the Speaker and the Bureau as the foundation of our culture.

Don't believe the hype, Speaker Bureau's need to do more for the Speakers they list! If they are not actively marketing you and you have not received an engagement for many a year, call them and tell them to take you off their web site and look for someone who will work with you to market your services. That is the only way change will occur!

There is so much more to what is "not" actually happening around marketing Speakers which I will continue to make commentary on as duty of care.

If you are Speaker looking to work with The Entertainers please contact us at enquire@theentertainers.com.au or call 02 8958 6482