What is Your One Word? Focusing Your Area of Expertise

Whether you are just starting out your career or you've been at this for a while, being known for your area of expertise is a critical component to building your national reputation. And while it sounds like an easy thing to do, no one hands you the road map for this when you start your career. Add to this the need to build your practice, teach and mentor while integrating your work and home life, and the path seems murky at best.

For me, I started my career with a HUGE limiting belief. I didn't think that I could come up with ideas for research. I knew that I was really good at executing research studies and writing papers, but I was convinced that I was NOT the idea person. This belief kept me from taking the time to brainstorm and map out my research life until years later when I realized that I was just as capable as the next women.

This also resulted in a lack of focus as I partnered with multiple people to carry out and present research based on the varied ideas that were coming to me from friends and colleagues. Now don't get me wrong, I thought these ideas were interesting and I enjoyed working on them. However, they didn't necessarily tell my story and someone looking at my presentation record would not be able to clearly identify my clinical area of interest. This also made it really hard for someone to understand why they would invite me to be on a panel or write a chapter - items critical for my advancement and promotion.

Luckily, I got great advice from a dear friend and mentor who told me to focus my work on the area that I cared the most about. This should be the area that I wanted to be known for. And for me, it was also the area where I really focused my clinical practice - obstructive sleep apnea. As I thought through what my one word  or phrase would be, I decided that I would be sure that the word “sleep” was included in the title of everything that I did going forward. 

Now this may sound like it would be limiting and might cause me to say no to some of the collaborations where I previously would have said yes. This was true in some circumstances, but it also allowed me to get creative which I will get into a little more below. 

My challenge to you, is that you focus some time today to determine or reinforce what your word or phrase is. If you need a hand identifying one, I  will be  providing you with a step-by-step checklist that will guide you through the process of identifying, refining, and amplifying your specialized area of interest. By following these steps, you'll cultivate a distinct professional identity that sets you apart as an authority in your chosen field.

Know Your Passion and Expertise

The most important part of this entire process is understanding where you have genuine passion and deep-rooted expertise (or you are working on developing this). Take a moment to reflect on the topics that ignite your curiosity, the research areas that leave you invigorated, or the clinical challenges that drive you to seek innovative solutions. What do you enjoy thinking about even when the work day is over. 

Once you've identified these core interests, look to see if they align seamlessly with your broader career goals and vision. This may be a good time to enlist a friend, mentor or coach. 

From this exploration, intentionally select one or two words or topic areas to focus on. This is your marketing, so really make sure that these fit you! And then concentrate your efforts consistently on these focus areas, allowing your expertise to deepen and your reputation to solidify.

Consistency is Key

Consistency is the secret sauce that will signal to your specialty that you are an authority in your niche. It is important to also remember that your niche can be a disease condition, a research methodology, or focus on education or QI. Regardless of what you pick, make a commitment to publish and present exclusively on your chosen topic(s) for the first few years of your career… or whenever you determine what your area of interest will be. 

The other way that I think about this, is that you want to be able to tell a story with your research and academic efforts. If someone was looking from the outside, they would see a natural progression or story from the things that you have presented and published. When you include your concise niche phrase or keyword, the consistent branding will reinforce to others that you are an expert in this area and allow them to see how your work fits together. It will also make it much easier for colleagues and peers to associate your name with your specialized area.

At the same time,  I recommend that you practice the art of saying "no" to projects or opportunities that diverge from your defined path. I have literally had people I mentor and coach do this out loud (on repeat) so that they are ready for the next request. While it is tempting to work with friends on unrelated side projects, these diversions can dilute your impact and undermine your efforts to establish a distinct professional identity. They can also serve as an opportunity to sponsor a colleague who may be better suited to the topic. 

Creativity and Collaboration

As I mentioned earlier, I enjoy working with colleagues. A focus on your area of expertise may help open doors as you seek out strategic collaborations that can amplify your reputation. Towards this end, I recommend reaching out to well known experts with a similar focus. You can ask them for their insight on the gaps in research, opportunities for future study, and engage them to present together.  I have even asked people to include me in educational and research opportunities related to my niche. And this has resulted in dozens of opportunities to present on panels, and collaborate on manuscripts. 

Furthermore, seek out colleagues whose interests complement your own, fostering interdisciplinary collaborations that leverage diverse perspectives and skill sets. I've witnessed firsthand the remarkable synergies that emerge when experts from different specialties unite around a common goal, yielding groundbreaking insights and impactful solutions. I am still working with a fantastic aerospace engineer to look at airflow in obstructive sleep apnea patients!

I also want to give you a couple examples where this collaborative (but focused) approach allowed me to develop research that married my interests with those of a collaborator. For example, when working with a colleague whose focus is medical education, we decided to work on an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) of patients with obstructive sleep apnea. In another collaboration, I worked with an allergy focused colleague and we brainstormed overlap topics - eventually deciding to look at the relationship between allergic rhinitis and sleep disordered breathing. Both of these collaborations were fun and interesting and allowed both of us to augment our reputations in the areas for which we wanted to be known.

Embrace Your Niche, Build Your National Reputation

By following the steps outlined in this checklist – identifying your passion, maintaining consistency, embracing creativity and collaboration, and persisting (ie say no when you need to) – you'll carve out a space that is uniquely yours. And just as importantly, you will create the opportunity for others to understand your niche. 

Commit to refining your area of expertise, and watch as doors open, opportunities arise, and your impact echoes farther. Here is to your success!