11 Clichés We Learned Were True In Our First 10 Years in Business

Those who do not look back from where they come from, will not reach their destination.

July 1, 2019 marks 10 years since See Agency began.

What. A. Ride. We've learned a bunch!

Not surprisingly most of what we learned are things just waiting to be learned courtesy of those smarty-pantses who came up with snazzy quotes about it all.

Presenting 11 clichés we learned were actually TRUE.

#1:?The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.

Originating from a famous Chinese proverb, nothing compares to the visual of?Indiana Jones ?fueled by faith and necessity, putting his hand on his chest and stepping into a chasm to his sure death, only to feel his foot hit solid rock.

This, my friends, is the first step in an entrepreneur’s journey.

Sure death? or solid footing? You won’t know til you go.

It’s a leap of faith, no two ways about it.

#2:?Nothing to fear but fear itself.

Starting a business in 2009 during what was being called the biggest threat to the US economy since the Great Depression makes this phrase from the 1933 inaugural address of Franklin D. Roosevelt, with the nation in the grip of the?Great Depression , extra fitting.?

FDR went on to say that “We must act and act quickly.”

As was true for starting See Agency.

Speed would win, and you can’t go fast shackled by fear.

Courage fueled every move in the early days and contributed to See Agency’s meteoric first few years.

We went fast. Holy cow did we ever.

#3:?Any friend of yours is a friend of mine.

While I personally can’t read that quote without the Toy Story theme clicking on in my brain, the power of relationships and networking was the single-most powerful driving force towards success.

Having spent a dozen years in the speaking industry, there was barely a soul I didn’t know in the biz.

Those relationships unlocked opportunities and brought wisdom and guidance to decisions that would shape who we became over the next 10 years.

The words “let me know how I can help” should have been a drinking game for me. Darn.

#4:?Perception becomes reality.

American?political consultant Lee Atwater coined this phrase in the 1980s and it has spread far past the political borders to marketers and beyond.

Forget the facts: if you can make people believe something, it becomes a de facto fact.

Enter Social Media.

Nobody does de facto like de Facebook.

Using the power of our free marketing partners online was an absolute necessity.

And guess what?

It worked.

Like it or not we looked like a Big Boy company long before we were.

Thanks Zuck. Now about those ads…

#5:?A good man is hard to find.

Eddie Green’s song composed in 1918 was meant to bemoan the difficulty of finding a suitable male partner.

Over the years it could have become our theme song about finding good speakers.

It eventually evolved into us having impossibly high standards for the talent we accepted (or kept) on the roster.

We’ve been approached by hundreds of speakers looking for representation yet have integrated only a modest handful into our roster family.

When asked how many speakers we aim to have on our roster, our answer is always the same:?just the right ones.?

SIDE NOTE: Even harder to find? A good woman. But we found em!

#6:?Busy as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.

See Agency was born in Canada but reached full bloom in Texas, so this Southern expression couldn’t be more appropriate.

No real mystery here: We. Never. Stop. Working.

A friend from home came to visit and after a day or two of observing me work he remarked, “I don’t know what you do exactly, but the closest I can figure is Air Traffic Controller.”

My son’s crib was in my office, so I learned to type very quietly and watch speaker videos while nursing a baby.

Family road trips over many-a-mountain pass found red hot laptops whirring with copy writing, video editing, head-shot selection, and inquiry responses.

Smartphone plans went to unlimited data not a moment too soon.

I’ve made bookings and even signed speakers in carpool line (more than once).

No cubicle life for us cuz frankly we don’t have time to commute to an office that isn’t just upstairs.

#7:?Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.

This?famous quote has been attributed to Thomas Edison, who was by any measure a mechanical?genius.

Edison still credited much of his success in life to what he called “stick-to-it-iv-ness”.

If there is one thing that really has been proven around here, it is this: hard work > smarts.

Oh and also don’t quit.

Be like Thomas: work hard and don’t quit. Nuf said.

#8:?If you're going to talk the talk, you better walk the walk.

One time in the early days of See Agency, I was struggling on why one of our speakers was not producing like we had hoped they would.

Investigating possible angles we had missed on brand positioning, I asked the speaker, “Why do you speak on your topic?” to which they replied, “Because nobody else was doing it.” (gulp)

Immediately added to our list of must-have criteria “speakers who learned their lessons first-hand”.

Also, the words “platform of credibility” became a smart-sounding catchphrase we coined and use. A lot.

#9:?There's a God and I'm not Him.

Appropriately popularized by a character in the 1993 film “Rudy”, this nugget of truth was drilled sharply home when an unwelcome and mysterious domino effect completely transformed See Agency in 2017, radically changing the face (and faces) of our company.

The potential impact? Total devastation.

The actual impact 2 years later? Lean, mean, fast, strong, healthy, happy.

So ICYMI: what we think is the worst thing can really be - and often is - the best thing for us. #attitudeofgratitude

#10:?Sometimes you are the windshield, and sometimes you are the bug.

I heard this line first in a 1991 Dire Straits song called “The Bug”, and this is real life.

Both have been true – sometimes on the same day.

I’ve come to believe that whiplash-inducing ups-and-downs are the entrepreneur’s rite of passage.

They’re inevitable and only temporarily avoidable.

What is the last thing that goes through a bug's mind when he hits a windshield? His butt.

You’re welcome.

#11:?Necessity is the mother of invention.

This quote appears in the dialogue Republic by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.

Who would have guessed that a document written in 380 BC would be applicable to the shifting landscape of the speaking industry in 2019?

Since Day One, See Agency’s?only?outbound marketing has been to Speakers Bureaus.

Period.

However, the speaker sourcing process appears to be trending in a disturbingly DIY direction - sans bureau.

Plenty of recent data points to a high percentage of planners finding new speakers by relying on speaker suggestions from colleagues (72%) or from events they’ve attended (65%), and an alarmingly LOW percentage (14%) prioritizing their relationship with a speakers bureau when sourcing speakers.

Yikes.

Necessary for collective strength and growth is for See Agency to help bridge that gap between bureau and planner and our roster of speakers.

Moving into the next 10 years, we have created?Plan See ?to do just that.

That, my friends, is what the experts call "increasing value to customers".

[sneaks in one last cliché]

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Cheers to a GREAT 10 and many more to come!

Christa Haberstock, See Agency, President & Founder

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