| This article is about the benefits, pitfalls and | | | | Pitfalls |
| thinking that were involved in a building a new | | | | As I mentioned, it's NOT easy. Deep thinking |
| brand. While it's my story of involving my | | | | about your business is necessary. |
| speaking business, you should think about your | | | | It's not fun. If you're like me, you want success in |
| own story, your passion, and what fits into your | | | | a box. You want the great and you want it |
| life. CAUTION: Realize this, it's taken a LONG time, | | | | yesterday. Be forewarned, that the process of |
| it was hard work, and it was painful at times. If | | | | reinventing yourself might mean loss of business, |
| you're not willing to experience those things then | | | | clients, and productivity. |
| keep doing what you're doing. | | | | Make no mistake about it, I've have lots to learn. |
| Have you asked yourself these questions? Are | | | | My journey of reinvention is still in its infancy. Here |
| you happy with the answers? | | | | are some things that might get you started on |
| 1. Are you working harder to secure fewer and | | | | your journey: |
| fewer customers? | | | | 1) Get away. Clear your brain. Think. Reflect. |
| 2. Are you finding price to be a MAJOR concern | | | | Examine. Somewhere in the middle of my |
| for your buyer? | | | | reinvention, I went to the Great Smoky Mountain |
| 3. Are you generating interest from clients but | | | | National Park to get some answers. I returned |
| not having a good ratio of inquiries to closings? | | | | with these questions: |
| IF you said yes to these questions, you may be | | | | 1. Where and how do I begin looking at what's |
| ready for the journey of reinvention. | | | | next? |
| Two things drove me to reinvent my speaking | | | | 2. What is different about me, my message, my |
| business: | | | | business? |
| 1) I longed for a unique message, a brand to | | | | 3. How do I capitalize on these differences? |
| differentiate me in a crowded market. It is not | | | | 4. How do I monetize these differences? |
| new news that there are hundreds or maybe | | | | 5. How do I stop doing what I'm doing and start |
| thousands of people who can fill an hour on a | | | | doing something else? (This last question |
| conference agenda and who present similar things | | | | frightened me the most.) |
| as you and I. I didn't want to be a part of that. | | | | About a week after this experience, I heard Joe |
| Perhaps you don't want to be a carbon copy in | | | | Calloway, author of "Becoming a Category of |
| your marketplace either. | | | | One". Joe's compelling argument left me shaken. It |
| 2) I wanted to develop a business that would build | | | | also left me with two directives: |
| value, something that was scalable and hopefully | | | | 1) Pick a lane |
| sellable IF and when I choose to stop speaking | | | | 2) Let go |
| and do something else. | | | | My career had been like a drunk driver on a ten |
| My story | | | | lane freeway. I randomly shifted lanes in my |
| Somewhere around the year 2000, I decided I | | | | topics with little regard for what made me tick or |
| was ready for a change but I didn't know where | | | | what a client might want. The letting go part |
| to begin. A few years later, I had the good | | | | inspired me to do something long overdue. I took |
| fortune of meeting Bruce Turkel, a branding | | | | my four-color brochure and press kit and tore it |
| expert. Bruce owns a branding firm in Miami and | | | | to shreds. Then I got a hammer and--in a bonding |
| he agreed to help me create some new | | | | moment with my eight year-old son--smashed |
| promotional materials which eventually led to | | | | my demo video into a zillion pieces. As difficult as |
| creating a whole new brand. Bruce came to hear | | | | it was, that was the easy part. The hard part |
| me speak; I heard his branding presentation. I | | | | was what came next: no longer marketing my |
| read his great book Building Brand Value. We | | | | signature speech, watching business take a down |
| bounced some ideas back and forth over several | | | | turn, and trying to come up with something |
| months. Then EUREKA! Bruce had written down | | | | different. (Did I tell you, this is hard work?). |
| my name on a white board in his office. As he | | | | 1) Trash your presentation. It might be your |
| looked at it one day, a phrase knocked him over. | | | | signature story, your stunning visuals, or your |
| Right in the middle of my name, Tim Richardson, | | | | get-'em-all-emotionally-worked-up close. It's very |
| was the phrase I'M RICH! The fire hydrant | | | | difficult to discover something new when you're |
| opened. Ideas began to flow. I holed myself up in | | | | busy doing the old. Challenge every word. Your |
| a resort on the ocean for three days. I mapped | | | | past success could be your biggest enemy to |
| out ideas, played with speech titles, wrote draft | | | | new discoveries. |
| book titles and more. Over a hundred ideas came | | | | 2) Get help. Often we're so close to our own |
| out of that time and great clarity for the topic. | | | | businesses, that we can't see the opportunity. I |
| That was the easy part (and getting there | | | | was very fortunate to meet and become great |
| WASN'T easy). Included in the hard part, was | | | | friends with Bruce (we have even spoken |
| leaving my old speech and beautiful marketing | | | | together a few times). His insight and what he |
| materials behind (more on that below). I started | | | | saw in me and my presentation was a turning |
| talking about my new focus to prospects and | | | | point for my reinvention. I may have spoken |
| even included bit and pieces in speeches I had | | | | another twenty years and never seen what was |
| already booked. I tried out new material. I did a | | | | right in front of me all along. |
| few speeches for free. After 18 years away, I | | | | 3) Don't rush it. Quality takes time. |
| joined a Toastmasters Club and used it as a place | | | | 4) Don't be a copycat. Develop your own ideas. |
| to practice new material. I tried to leverage | | | | Combine two ideas to come up with some new. |
| speaking engagements by offering to speak for | | | | Be original. |
| civic and community groups. For awhile, I felt like I | | | | 5) Do something. The unknown is risky. Doing |
| was moving backwards. Sometimes you have to | | | | nothing is more risky. You know what happens |
| do that to move forward. I began asking people | | | | with that. Of course, the bigger the risk, the |
| about their views on richness. As I spoke with | | | | bigger the payoff. Take that to the bank. Literally. |
| people, I heard incredible stories about people who | | | | It might not be in your name as it was in mine. It |
| had richness in ways money could never buy. I | | | | might be in your background, a personality trait, a |
| stared writing an article for a local newspaper in | | | | life experience, advice your mother gave you, or |
| which I profiled people who were rich in the ways | | | | something a stranger said to you. Who knows, it |
| that mattered. I pitched my book idea to an | | | | might be in the fortune cookie you get next |
| agent who loved the concept. I asked my | | | | week. I believe it's there someone and you'll find it |
| speaker colleagues and clients about it. The | | | | ...but only if you look. |
| feedback was dead on. JUST DO IT! | | | | |
