As you may know, MAY is Melanoma Awareness month. Each May, I put on my clergy rob and become the “Minister of Melanoma”. You might too if you lost your best friend to this disease as I did ten years ago. Although losing your best friend is about as bad as it gets in relationships, I ferverently believe that on the other side of adversity is always something better. The something better is his death is that many lives have been saved and many people educated about the dangers of too much sun exposure. Our melanoma foundation has cosponsored symposiums with leading melanoma researchers from all over the world attending. An association of melanoma researchers has been formed AND people are getting it.

In the last few weeks, I have traveled to Daytona Beach, FL where we held the 11th annual Rayz Awareness run. I have also traveled to Fort Collins, CO where I ran in the Bill Walter Melanoma Research 5K that was held at the school Bill’s son attends. It was cool to see his son up on stage talking, registering runners, and finishing 8th out of 200 runners (I surprised myself and finished 24th - not bad for a VERY occasional runner). If you happen to be local and want to help, please let me know. We are having a 5K and 10K run June 14th at the Rush Fitness Center. Soon details will be up on Rayz Awareness website.  

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.  

Tonight I ran a couple of errands and one was to a store to take back some items I had purchased at Black Friday sales. I wish I had taken a more thoughtful approach in my spending and NOT purchased so many impulse items. It was like I was drugged. I got caught up in the moment (which is exactly what they want you to do). My professional speaker colleague Beth Terry has a take on Black Friday and it’s well worth a read on this blog.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

At 6:00 pm on September 20th, Forbes magazine will release their annual 400 Richest People in America list. The usual names you’ve seen the past few years. One name you won’t see on Forbes list is Ed Payne who has multiple sclerosis though he has never allowed it to deter him from improving the lives of others. Payne has worked tirelessly to help others who suffer from MS for nearly 40 years. Payne helped put Fairfield County on the map for having the largest MS Walk Team in Ohio, generating more than $400,000 for the National MS Society. He and his wife Cheryl even serve as co-chairs of the Lancaster MS Walk. Payne was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1963, but he’s never let his own struggles stop him from doing things for others, according to his wife, Cheryl Payne. Ed said he missed being around people after he retired as a doctor in 1994. He decided to volunteer full-time at the Fairfield Center for Disabilities and Cerebral Palsy. Now he gets to meet people every day. That’s why he’ll never stop volunteering as long as he’s healthy enough. He has no use of his upper leg muscles,” Cheryl said. “It makes it difficult for him to even get around from the bedroom to the kitchen. But he would never tell me that. He would never tell you that. But you know that it is.” Cheryl has not heard Ed complain during the 40 years they’ve been married. It makes her feel a little guilty about complaining when she’s sick. But she’s proud of him for it. Doctors told Ed’s mother he should drop out of Ohio University in Athens when he was a student after he was diagnosed with MS. She refused to tell her son because she wanted him to achieve his goal of becoming a doctor, Ed said. Ed went on to become a radiologist and later a community activist and volunteer after graduating from OU. That’s rich!

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

With the incidents in Moscow, Idaho last weekend and the Virgina Tech shootings last month, I have myself asked lots of why questions lately. Is it that we are seeing too much of it on TV? According to a Harris poll, we are definitely spending too much time playing online games. My professional speaker buddy Eric Chester who speaks to corporations on employing Generation Y, wrote about kids missing in action on a beautiful day - a day he thought they should have been outside. A man named Tom Gray responded on this blog in which he gives details of a letter to the editor in the June 5th issue of PC Magazine. It appears a man wrote asking for help for his son who was addicted to Warcraft (WoW). His son, formerly a community volunteer and a twice published author (before graduating from High School), now spends 60 hours a week playing WoW online. In the process, he’s lost a girlfriend and a roommate. He’s constantly sick and about to flunk out of college.

Mr. Gray, discussed having a son who was pretty smitten with a game called Counterstrike. He says, “I can attest to the hold that these virtual environments can have on our youth (and a significant percentage of adults). They’re doing studies now that are demonstrating the physiological reaction of a gamer’s brain can exhibit the same activity levels and patterns as a heroin addict or alcoholic. With the rise of seemingly more benign online environments like SecondLife, we’re going to see more, not fewer addiction and behavioral problems arise. For all of the marvels that technology has provided, there has been a corresponding increase in the problems that it engenders.” Here are some resources courtesy of Dan Costas of PC Magazine to battle this problem — www.dailystrength.org and www.olganonboard.org. In Dan’s editorial in the April 24 issue of the magazine titled, “Turn it Off Kids”. (read this compelling article and forward it on to your friends). In it he states the need for strict parental limits on video games, and TV watching - essential if we’re going to help our children, and ourselves, replace the virtual with real life.

Reading these comments has changed some of my plans for this weekend. I’m unplugging and plan to get outside more this weekend with my kids. What about you?

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks
about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover,
increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies. He also is a leadership speaker, customer service trainer and sales motivator. For more information go to www.TimRichardson.com

I’ve been on an extended trip which included a speaking engagement in
Orlando, six days on the beach in a quaint Florida beach town, and running
in the Rayz Awareness 5K run in Daytona Beach, Florida in memory of Bill Walter my best
friend who died of cancer. The time away and the
things that occurred during this period caused me to ponder the value and
importance of time. It was on my mind a lot last week…Time remembering a
best friend who lived richly in his 36 years but sadly was taken in the
prime of life. Time with old friends and making some new ones. Time with
family on the beach building sandcastles and memories that I hope long
linger in the minds of my children. Time watching and listening to the surf
roll in and out. Time to hold loved ones longer and closer as the horror
unveiled on the VT campus.
It’s robbery to waste it on things that don’t matter.
Yet we’re all guiltyof too much time on the computer, too much time in front of the tube, too much time at work, too much time chasing things that might make us rich in finances but poor in spirit.

Each day is the same for everyone - 24 hours, 1440 minutes, 86,400 seconds. Seize each and every moment, making sure to include time to create richness
in your life and the lives of others. Write a handwritten letter to a
friend, do something kind for someone without an expectation for any return,
bake something for a neighbor, pick up trash on your street or in a park,
give sincere appreciation for a service provided, give a bigger tip to your
waiter, refer business to a company you admire. Hold those near and dear to
you a little longer and a little tighter today.

The clock is ticking..

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

I am sometimes guilty of rushing stuffing too many things into too short a
period of time. I love my work and my project to find the Richest People in
America is as gratifying and inspiring as anything project in my 18 years as
a motivational speaker. I must confess though that I occasionally miss the
true rich moments in life because I am working to get my message out in my
writing and professional speaking. As the father of five, there are lots of
rich moments in my house. This short video clip was yet another reminder of
how precious my little people are and how quickly life pass in the big
scheme of things.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

Forbes has done it again! They have hacked. me. off. I swear, they are giving me enough material to write and blog about for a couple of lifetimes! On CNN  recently, I saw that Forbes has released their list of the most expensive celebrity divorces.

Why are people so attracted to the every move of A-list celebrities? perhaps it is the so-called “Law of Attraction” espoused by The Secret. Are people are attracted to gossip and and others’ poor relationships because those two things are mirrored in their own lives?

The older I get the more grateful I become for the role models I had in my family… two sets of grandparents married over 60 years, my parents and my inlaws both have been married more than 50 years, and nine brothers, brothers-in-law, sisters, and sisters-in-law whose marriages total more than 150 years, and without a single divorce, I’ll add!

Maybe if someone writes a list of the longest and happiest marriages, celebs like Michael Jordan or Neil Diamond and their respective wives (their divorces both cost over $150 million) might have made it to their golden anniversaries.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

A few weeks ago I wrote about Team Hoyt. I was just blown away by the great love Dick has for his son. He is truly one of the Richest People In America. It seems many people feel the same way I do, including Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated. Here’s what he wrote about Dick….

See the video here.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

Below is a video that needs to be shown to the world. It features Carol Schillios who I wrote about on this blog recently. Her Fabric of Life foundation just sent me a link on youtube. (congratulations Carol for being the NCUF 2007 Herb Wegner Award)! You are an inspiration!

Note: March 8th, Forbes will release their list of the Worldest Billionaires. I’ve long thought there needed to be an alternative list so I have stated mine. Please visit www.TheRichestPeopleinAmerica.com on March 8th.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com