my new focus to prospects and even included bit and pieces in speeches I had already booked. I tried out new material. I did a few speeches for free. After 18 years away, I joined a Toastmasters Club and used it as a place to practice new material. I tried to leverage speaking engagements by offering to speak for civic and community groups. For awhile, I felt like I was moving backwards. Sometimes you have to do that to move forward. I began asking people about their views on richness. As I spoke with people, I heard incredible stories about people who had richness in ways money could never buy. I stared writing an article for a local newspaThis article is about the benefits, pitfalls and thinking that were involved in a building a new brand. While it’s my story of involving my speaking business, you should think about your own story, your passion, and what fits into your life. CAUTION: Realize this, it’s taken a LONG time, it was hard work, and it was painful at times. If you’re not willing to experience those things then keep doing what you’re doing.

Have you asked yourself these questions? Are you happy with the answers?

1. Are you working harder to secure fewer and fewer customers?

2. Are you finding price to be a MAJOR concern for your buyer?

3. Are you generating interest from clients but not having a good ratio of inquiries to closings?

IF you said yes to these questions, you may be ready for the journey of reinvention.

Two things drove me to reinvent my speaking business:

1) I longed for a unique message, a brand to differentiate me in a crowded market. It is not new news that there are hundreds or maybe thousands of people who can fill an hour on a conference agenda and who present similar things as you and I. I didn’t want to be a part of that. Perhaps you don’t want to be a carbon copy in your marketplace either.

2) I wanted to develop a business that would build value, something that was scalable and hopefully sellable IF and when I choose to stop speaking and do something else.

My story

Somewhere around the year 2000, I decided I was ready for a change but I didn’t know where to begin. A few years later, I had the good fortune of meeting Bruce Turkel, a branding expert. Bruce owns a branding firm in Miami and he agreed to help me create some new promotional materials which eventually led to creating a whole new brand. Bruce came to hear me speak; I heard his branding presentation. I read his great book Building Brand Value. We bounced some ideas back and forth over several months. Then EUREKA! Bruce had written down my name on a white board in his office. As he looked at it one day, a phrase knocked him over. Right in the middle of my name, Tim Richardson, was the phrase I’M RICH! The fire hydrant opened. Ideas began to flow. I holed myself up in a resort on the ocean for three days. I mapped out ideas, played with speech titles, wrote draft book titles and more. Over a hundred ideas came out of that time and great clarity for the topic.

That was the easy part (and getting there WASN’T easy). Included in the hard part, was leaving my old speech and beautiful marketing materials behind (more on that below). I started talking about my new focus to prospects and even included bit and pieces in speeches I had already booked. I tried out new material. I did a few speeches for free. After 18 years away, I joined a Toastmasters Club and used it as a place to practice new material. I tried to leverage speaking engagements by offering to speak for civic and community groups. For awhile, I felt like I was moving backwards. Sometimes you have to do that to move forward. I began asking people about their views on richness. As I spoke with people, I heard incredible stories about people who had richness in ways money could never buy. I stared writing an article for a local newspap

nerating interest from clients but not having a good ratio of inquiries to closings?

IF you said yes to these questions, you may be ready for the journey of reinvention.

Two things drove me to reinvent my speaking business:

1) I longed for a unique message, a brand to differentiate me in a crowded market. It is not new news that there are hundreds or maybe thousands of people who can fill an hour on a conference agenda and who present similar things as you and I. I didn’t want to be a part of that. Perhaps you don’t want to be a carbon copy in your marketplace either.

2) I wanted to develop a business that would build value, something that was scalable and hopefully sellable IF and when I choose to stop speaking and do something else.

My story

Somewhere around the year 2000, I decided I was ready for a change but I didn’t know where to begin. A few years later, I had the good fortune of meeting Bruce Turkel, a branding expert. Bruce owns a branding firm in Miami and he agreed to help me create some new promotional materials which eventually led to creating a whole new brand. Bruce came to hear me speak; I heard his branding presentation. I read his great book Building Brand Value. We bounced some ideas back and forth over several months. Then EUREKA! Bruce had written down my name on a white board in his office. As he looked at it one day, a phrase knocked him over. Right in the middle of my name, Tim Richardson, was the phrase I’M RICH! The fire hydrant opened. Ideas began to flow. I holed myself up in a resort on the ocean for three days. I mapped out ideas, played with speech titles, wrote draft book titles and more. Over a hundred ideas came out of that time and great clarity for the topic.

That was the easy part (and getting there WASN’T easy). Included in the hard part, was leaving my old speech and beautiful marketing materials behind (more on that below). I started talking about my new focus to prospects and even included bit and pieces in speeches I had already booked. I tried out new material. I did a few speeches for free. After 18 years away, I joined a Toastmasters Club and used it as a place to practice new material. I tried to leverage speaking engagements by offering to speak for civic and community groups. For awhile, I felt like I was moving backwards. Sometimes you have to do that to move forward. I began asking people about their views on richness. As I spoke with people, I heard incredible stories about people who had richness in ways money could never buy. I stared writing an article for a local newspa

, something that was scalable and hopefully sellable IF and when I choose to stop speaking and do something else.

My story

Somewhere around the year 2000, I decided I was ready for a change but I didn’t know where to begin. A few years later, I had the good fortune of meeting Bruce Turkel, a branding expert. Bruce owns a branding firm in Miami and he agreed to help me create some new promotional materials which eventually led to creating a whole new brand. Bruce came to hear me speak; I heard his branding presentation. I read his great book Building Brand Value. We bounced some ideas back and forth over several months. Then EUREKA! Bruce had written down my name on a white board in his office. As he looked at it one day, a phrase knocked him over. Right in the middle of my name, Tim Richardson, was the phrase I’M RICH! The fire hydrant opened. Ideas began to flow. I holed myself up in a resort on the ocean for three days. I mapped out ideas, played with speech titles, wrote draft book titles and more. Over a hundred ideas came out of that time and great clarity for the topic.

That was the easy part (and getting there WASN’T easy). Included in the hard part, was leaving my old speech and beautiful marketing materials behind (more on that below). I started talking about my new focus to prospects and even included bit and pieces in speeches I had already booked. I tried out new material. I did a few speeches for free. After 18 years away, I joined a Toastmasters Club and used it as a place to practice new material. I tried to leverage speaking engagements by offering to speak for civic and community groups. For awhile, I felt like I was moving backwards. Sometimes you have to do that to move forward. I began asking people about their views on richness. As I spoke with people, I heard incredible stories about people who had richness in ways money could never buy. I stared writing an article for a local newspa

ce had written down my name on a white board in his office. As he looked at it one day, a phrase knocked him over. Right in the middle of my name, Tim Richardson, was the phrase I’M RICH! The fire hydrant opened. Ideas began to flow. I holed myself up in a resort on the ocean for three days. I mapped out ideas, played with speech titles, wrote draft book titles and more. Over a hundred ideas came out of that time and great clarity for the topic.

That was the easy part (and getting there WASN’T easy). Included in the hard part, was leaving my old speech and beautiful marketing materials behind (more on that below). I started talking about my new focus to prospects and even included bit and pieces in speeches I had already booked. I tried out new material. I did a few speeches for free. After 18 years away, I joined a Toastmasters Club and used it as a place to practice new material. I tried to leverage speaking engagements by offering to speak for civic and community groups. For awhile, I felt like I was moving backwards. Sometimes you have to do that to move forward. I began asking people about their views on richness. As I spoke with people, I heard incredible stories about people who had richness in ways money could never buy. I stared writing an article for a local newspa

my new focus to prospects and even included bit and pieces in speeches I had already booked. I tried out new material. I did a few speeches for free. After 18 years away, I joined a Toastmasters Club and used it as a place to practice new material. I tried to leverage speaking engagements by offering to speak for civic and community groups. For awhile, I felt like I was moving backwards. Sometimes you have to do that to move forward. I began asking people about their views on richness. As I spoke with people, I heard incredible stories about people who had richness in ways money could never buy. I stared writing an article for a local newspaper in which I profiled people who were rich in the ways that mattered. I pitched my book idea to an agent who loved the concept. I asked my speaker colleagues and clients about it. The feedback was dead on. JUST DO IT!

Pitfalls

As I mentioned, it’s NOT easy. Deep thinking about your business is necessary. It’s not fun. If you’re like me, you want success in a box. You want the great and you want it yesterday. Be forewarned, that the process of reinventing yourself might mean loss of business, clients, and productivity.

Make no mistake about it, I’ve have lots to learn. My journey of reinvention is still in its infancy. Here are some things that might get you started on your journey:

1) Get away. Clear your brain. Think. Reflect. Examine. Somewhere in the middle of my reinvention, I went to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park to get some answers. I returned with these questions:

1. Where and how do I begin looking at what’s next?
2. What is different about me, my message, my business?
3. How do I capitalize on these differences?
4. How do I monetize these differences?
5. How do I stop doing what I’m doing and start doing something else? (This last question frightened me the most.)

About a week after this experience, I heard Joe Calloway, author of “Becoming a Category of One”. Joe’s compelling argument left me shaken. It also left me with two directives:

1) Pick a lane
2) Let go

My career had been like a drunk driver on a ten lane freeway. I randomly shifted lanes in my topics with little regard for what made me tick or what a client might want. The letting go part inspired me to do something long overdue. I took my four-color brochure and press kit and tore it to shreds. Then I got a hammer and—in a bonding moment with my eight year-old son—smashed my demo video into a zillion pieces. As difficult as it was, that was the easy part. The hard part was what came next: no longer marketing my signature speech, watching business take a down turn, and trying to come up with something different. (Did I tell you, this is hard work?).

1) Trash your presentation. It might be your signature story, your stunning visuals, or your get-'em-all-emotionally-worked-up close. It’s very difficult to discover something new when you’re busy doing the old. Challenge every word. Your past success could be your biggest enemy to new discoveries.

2) Get help. Often we’re so close to our own businesses, that we can’t see the opportunity. I was very fortunate to meet and become great friends with Bruce (we h