Do you have a friend who has made your life better, richer or fuller? Someone who has seen promise and potential that you didn’t even know you had? That kind of friend is priceless and I am fortunate, as I hope you are, to have a friend like that - my friend is Bruce Turkel. Now, I have had some worthless friends along the path of life - “friends” who influenced me in ways that weren’t positive and in some cases tried to steer me into activities that simply were’nt right. “Nuff said. However, my life is definitely richer because of Bruce. He called me yesterday while I was in Memphis to tell me about a speech he is giving today for the American Society of Association Executives. The title of his speech is “Worthless or Priceless - The Value of Ideas”.  (Note added on Saturday: As I suspected, Bruce rocked the house, as he’s received rave reviews online - see GIC: Live Blog 2 at the ASAE blog).- Thursday afternoon I spoke on a similar topic yesterday for the Memphis VA, however Bruce IS the master of that topic and he presents it with style and substance. Today he is going to teach nearly a six hundred or more aeople strategies to increase the value of ideas (and he’s written a great article about it click here to read it on Turkel Talks, his blog or here to read it on the ASAE website).  At the end there’s a full band to back him up as he wails on his own mouth harp and teaches others to play. How cool is that?

Bruce can’t help his coolness. He lives in Miami, works in Coconut Grove, travels the world to speak and work with leading companies, and he writes great books. He also plays harmonica and trumpet in a blues band - with a former member of KC and the Sunshine Band -  is married to Gloria, a beautiful Hispanic American woman from Cuba, and most importantly (to me), Bruce knows how to find cool eateries with character. When Bruce speaks, I listen. Whether he’s suggesting a hole in the wall places that look dumpy on the outside but make your insides sing - like Rendevouz where I ate in Memphis or an author, musician or business suggestion, I listen and act. Bruce tells it like he sees it and he usually sees it totally right through very cool lens. His cool factor also has him as an Apple icon, as he may be the first person in the free world to simultaneously own the following: an Apple computer, an Ipod, an Iphone AND an I-Potty (I am NOT making that up…see his December 3rd post). Bruce also owns a branding firm in Miami and speaks to major corporate clients and associations in the travel industry on building brand value. Obviously he also speaks on incubating ideas and he has had more impact on my current and future success than ANY of the mentors or speakers I have heard in my twenty year membership in the National Speakers Association (my REAL Richest People in America project came as a result of spending time with Bruce).

Bruce and I disagree on lots of things but fortunately we agree on more things than we disagree on. He challenges my thinking and position on lots of political and social issues and I hope I do the same for him. But what we do agree on strongly is the value of ideas and the value of friendship. That is truly priceless.

**** an article I wrote about how Bruce helped me rebrand my professional speaking focus is printed below ****

Coming attractions:

Meet me in Memphis - Everything I needed to know in life I learned from the Memphis VA hospital

 Rendevouz How “chance” meetings changed me. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas (and that’s not necessarily a good thing).

Here’s the article mentioned above:

This article is about the benefits, pitfalls and thinking that were involved in a career reinvention. While it’s my story of reinventing 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. If it’s not working, or not working well, and you’re thinking about reinvention, please read on.  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 started 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 had lots to learn. My journey of reinvention is still in its infancy. Here are some things that might get you started on your journey: 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 have even spoken together a few times). His insight and what he saw in me and my presentation was a turning point for my reinvention.  I may have spoken another twenty years and never seen what was right in front of me all along. 

3. Don’t rush it.  Quality takes time.   4. Don’t be a copycat. Develop your own ideas.  Combine two ideas to come up with some new ones. Be original. 5. Do something. The unknown is risky. Doing nothing is more risky. You know what happens with that. Of course, the bigger the risk, the bigger the payoff. Take that to the bank. Literally. It might not be in your name as it was in mine. It might be in your background, a personality trait, a life experience, advice your mother gave you, or something a stranger said to you.Who knows, it might be in the fortune cookie you get next week. I believe it’s there somewhere and you’ll find it …but only if you look.