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How to Find Your Specific Audience (And Why It’s Absolutely Essential)

Every great speech starts with one thing: knowing exactly who it’s meant to serve.

On Stage

Public speaking

Getting booked

New students

Writing

Katie

Martucci

Education Technology Manager

minute read

Published on

October 13, 2025

A speech is meant to be performed for an audience. To change hearts and minds with your speech, you need to clearly define the specific audience it serves.

You know the feeling: you’re sitting in the audience, smiling politely, nodding occasionally, but really, you checked out twenty minutes ago. As the minutes drag by, it only becomes more obvious. This speaker just doesn't understand what it’s like to be in your position, dealing with your unique challenges, and feeling what you feel on a daily basis.

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The speaker likely hopes the audience members will leave motivated and ready to put their ideas into practice. But honestly, all you can think about is leaving (period).

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As a professional speaker, you hold a kind of magic. Your words, your performance, your stories, they all have the potential to deeply connect you to each of the people in front of you. But that magic only works when it’s aimed in the right direction.

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First, you must know who your unique audience is. No matter how brilliant your ideas, how novel your solutions, and how captivating your stories, if they aren’t in service of a specific audience, they just won’t land.

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Many speakers brush past the essential legwork of ideation and audience identification. The result? Speeches that sound polished, but ultimately miss the mark. (It’s like serving a five-star meal to someone who’s not hungry, or worse, allergic to the main ingredient.)

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But when you do the deep work and get specific about your audience and what they truly need, the shift happens. You’re not just speaking, you’re transforming, inspiring, and igniting change.

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When you know your audience, your speech builds a bridge. One that connects, protects, and comforts. Every story, every idea, and every framework you share whispers: I see you. I’ve got you. Let’s achieve this together.

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Your Speech Is Not for Everyone

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Often, when speakers are asked who their message is for, they respond with “anyone” or “everyone.” While your ideas might be applicable to many people, you’ll deliver a better speech with a greater impact when you tailor it towards a specific group of people. Why? Because it’s easier to connect with a specific group of people than with the entire world.

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A speech for everyone is really a speech for no one. We often hear students say their audience is “women” or “anyone who’s ever felt self-doubt.” While these audiences are slightly more specific than “everyone,” they’re still not specific enough to create real impact.

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Half of the world is made up of women; what sets your audience apart? Are they women in aerospace engineering? Women navigating life with type 1 diabetes? Women raising children with special needs? Women in Mensa, the International High-IQ Society? Women in the military?

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A speech crafted for women in Mensa wrestling with self-doubt will be very different from a speech crafted for women in the military battling their inner critic. Different values. Different lived realities. Different vocabularies.

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The more precisely you can speak to their world, their struggles, and their experiences, the more your words will impact the ones who need to hear them most.

Full Transcript

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assume that your topic or situation is the exception to this rule. Every speech needs a clearly defined audience; writing your speech without one sets the stage for disappointment.

take the time up front to identify a specific audience for your speech (before you start writing it).

A speech designed without a clearly defined audience in mind will be less bookable, and less referable, and less effective at moving those who hear it.

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However, if you identify your audience at the onset of your speech writing process by delving into their world and discovering problems or setbacks they face, you will be able to craft a transformational speech that earns you referrals and expands your reach to other fractals (more on that later).

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There are two methods you can use to identify your ideal audience for your speech. In GRAD | Speech Writing Mastery, we call this the “Two Doorways” approach. Use whichever method works best for you, given your background experience and the resources available to you. Both approaches have the same end goal: uncover the audience you’ll best be able to serve and connect with through your transformational speech.

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Doorway One: The Problem-Focused Approach

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What problem stirs your soul? What unique challenge does your framework help solve? Who’s struggling with this problem right now? Who would benefit from hearing your perspective on this problem?

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To find your audience using the problem-focused approach, first identify a problem or challenge that you’re uniquely positioned to address or help solve in some way. Then, identify the people who experience this problem and dive into what they all share in common.

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For example, perhaps the problem you’ve identified is the detrimental effects of social media on mental health in teenagers.

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Look at all the potential audiences you might effectively serve:

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Parent associations navigating the teen years.
Religious organizations and youth groups aiming for deeper connection.
Education leaders and local school districts who see the problem’s effects every single day.
Mental health professionals, psychologists, and therapists who help teens understand their self-worth.

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When you identify the problem and understand how it shows up in real people’s lives, you’ll find an audience that’s already listening, an audience that’s craving what you will deliver. Then your speech becomes more than just a message. It becomes a moment that meets them exactly where they are.

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Doorway Two: The Audience-Focused Approach

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Perhaps you already have an audience in mind. Many consultants, founders, and leaders already know exactly who they serve.

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To find your audience using the audience-focused approach, start with the people you already serve (or the people you want to serve). Ask yourself: What would they say is their biggest problem? What challenges do they wrestle with before breakfast?

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For example, maybe you advise entrepreneurs and small business owners. You often hear—again and again—how difficult it is to find the right people to join their teams. (Bingo. That’s your audience and their problem, two essential elements you’ll use to craft your speech.)

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Now, this doesn’t mean you’re locked into that specific niche forever. Starting there simply gives you traction and direction. A strong, referable speech can unlock doors to many new, but related, audiences.

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Want to Be Referable? Narrow Down Your Audience

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As you build your audience profile, you’ll notice there are multiple groups that face the same problem and would benefit from your speech. Small-business owners aren’t the only ones who struggle to find ideal candidates to hire. The skilled-labor shortage? That’s a shared headache.

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Resist the urge to broaden your audience. Instead, narrow it.

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Getting booked and transforming your audience are difficult when your audience is too broad. When your speech is a buffet of ideas for everyone, it’s hard to earn stageside leads. Who do organizers refer you to? Who do audience members share your ideas with? When there are too many possibilities, no one specific comes to mind.

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Referable speakers have narrow, ultra-specific audiences. Of course, follow the Goldilocks principle here: your audience can neither be too broad nor too narrow. If you choose an audience so narrow you can’t find them or find opportunities to serve them, that won’t work either.

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For example, a speech about the skilled-labor shortage on family farms in rural Rhode Island might be very short-lived. However, a speech about the skilled-labor shortage in the construction industry can spread like wildfire in the construction fractal, then branch into other fractals like manufacturing, utilities, supply chain management, and beyond.

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(Fractals are what we call segments of an industry or profession that are easy to target as an audience. Once you identify one fractal, you can identify similar fractals who face the same problem, which opens up new speaking opportunities.)

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While you might have many viable options for your audience, pick the one you know the most about. As Lead Writing Faculty Andrea Lee often says, "choose what gets you booked and referred the easiest, because it will only lead you to more audiences."

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“Thank you, HEROIC, for the incredible community you've created. I've been speaking for 25 years and believe it's my responsibility to continue honing my speaking craft to serve my audiences. It's all about them—serving them, engaging them, and entertaining them. My experience with HEROIC has made me a better speaker and a better person.”

Christine Miles, M.S. Ed.

Keynote Speaker, Thought Leader, Author, Founder & CEO of EQuipt

The Hearts and Minds of Your Audience

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Regardless of the doorway you used to find your audience, once you’ve identified them, it’s time to dive deeper. Every moment in your speech must be in service of your audience, and to do that, you need to do your research.

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In GRAD | Speech Writing Mastery, reaching hearts and minds is one of many helpful guidelines for speech creation. It’s an invitation to consider your audience in every decision you make in your speech, and it’s key to ensuring your message resonates both emotionally (hearts) and logically/intellectually (minds). A truly impactful speech doesn’t rely on just one or the other—it weaves the two together so the audience both feels deeply moved and inspired to think in new ways.

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These questions can help you truly understand the hearts and minds of your audience:

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What do you have in common with your audience—either in the past, or now? (You don’t have to have something in common with your audience, but it can be helpful.)
What do they want? What’s standing in their way?
What aspiration does your audience share?
How does your audience see the problem? How does the problem impact them?
What fears, worries, and concerns keep them up at night?

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Take the time to investigate your audience thoroughly; dive deep into online forums, create surveys for your following, conduct interviews, and learn everything you can about them.

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If your audience is an earlier version of yourself, really think back to the specific challenges, feelings, and experiences you faced during that time. The more specific you can be, the better.

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Remember, specificity creates connection. By clearly articulating the problem they’re facing and by understanding the impact of that problem, you can show your audience you know them, you’ve been there before, and you know the way forward.

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Who Is Your Ideal Audience?

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Finding your ideal audience isn’t just a check-box on a to-do list, it’s an essential part of the creative journey. It takes time. As you navigate through the hearts and minds of the people you're meant to serve, you might uncover surprising clues and insights that ask you to rewrite the map entirely. And that’s a good thing.

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That’s why identifying your audience is an essential first step of the speech writing process (and the book writing process, too). It gives your speech direction, purpose, and fuel. And if your speech is already written, you can still tailor it to the audience you want to serve. The more you understand who you're speaking to—what they hope for, fear, and need—the more your message will land with clarity, connection, and power.

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Remember, a speech is for someone. If you’re white-knuckling what you think your speech should look like or be, you might suffocate the ideas your audience truly needs. So stay open. Stay curious. Use the map, but don’t be afraid to wander and explore. You might find that your best ideas are yet to be discovered.

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Helpful Links

Your road map to a referrable speech.

GRAD

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Speech Writing Mastery

One transformational speech can take you from good to extraordinary. Here, you can craft that speech: the one that speaks directly to your specific audience, gets you booked again and again, and skyrockets your speaking career.

Learn more

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A speech designed without a clearly defined audience in mind will be less bookable, and less referable, and less effective at moving those who hear it.

‍

Doorway One: The Problem-Focused Approach

‍

What problem stirs your soul? What unique challenge does your framework help solve? Who’s struggling with this problem right now? Who would benefit from hearing your perspective on this problem?

‍

For example, perhaps the problem you’ve identified is the detrimental effects of social media on mental health in teenagers.

‍

Look at all the potential audiences you might effectively serve:

‍

Parent associations navigating the teen years.
Religious organizations and youth groups aiming for deeper connection.
Education leaders and local school districts who see the problem’s effects every single day.
Mental health professionals, psychologists, and therapists who help teens understand their self-worth.

‍

Doorway Two: The Audience-Focused Approach

‍

Perhaps you already have an audience in mind. Many consultants, founders, and leaders already know exactly who they serve.

‍

Dont

Want to Be Referable? Narrow Down Your Audience

‍

Resist the urge to broaden your audience. Instead, narrow it.

‍

Don't

Christine Miles, M.S. Ed.

Keynote Speaker, Thought Leader, Author, Founder & CEO of EQuipt

The Hearts and Minds of Your Audience

‍

These questions can help you truly understand the hearts and minds of your audience:

‍

What do you have in common with your audience—either in the past, or now? (You don’t have to have something in common with your audience, but it can be helpful.)
What do they want? What’s standing in their way?
What aspiration does your audience share?
How does your audience see the problem? How does the problem impact them?
What fears, worries, and concerns keep them up at night?

‍

Take the time to investigate your audience thoroughly; dive deep into online forums, create surveys for your following, conduct interviews, and learn everything you can about them.

‍

If your audience is an earlier version of yourself, really think back to the specific challenges, feelings, and experiences you faced during that time. The more specific you can be, the better.

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