Reinventing Your Career From the Ground Up

Debbie Fay is celebrating five years as a public speaking and presentation coach. It's a business she started from scratch, figuring out each step as she went along. Other reinventers would be well advised to take a page from her playbook.

A Venture Is Launched When She Couldn't Find a Job

"I began my dream business in August 2006, after a failed attempt at my 'safe' job, teaching high school history. As a single mother of three, I figured getting a job in a school would give me the same schedule as my kids, security, and something I really enjoyed; teaching," Fay says. Accordingly, Fay got certified to teach in Connecticut where she lives.

Then she looked for work. There were no teaching positions. This turned out to be an opportunity in disguise, the portal to her dream job. "I'd always wanted to be a public speaking coach. I loved performing, and for seven years I ran a talent program for 150 kids." Fay remembers crying on the phone to her boyfriend (now husband) when she couldn't find work: "I cannot wait one more minute for my life to start."

She took a deep breath and launched a public speaking consultancy. "It was nutty," she says. "Who would hire the talent show lady?" But she felt a strong calling to follow her passion. "When you're doing the thing you love, you feel a buzz. You think, 'This is exactly where I'm meant to be,'" Fay says.

Her first order of business was to name her company and create a website. "I began by sitting at my dining room table every day for ten days trying to come up with a name. Every idea was already taken, and copyrighted, by someone else. Finally I went to the thesaurus and found the word bespeak, which means to present. I fell in love with it. My company was Bespeak Presentations and my tagline was Be heard."

Fay hired a mom at her kids' elementary school to design a logo and create a website. "It had to look professional." She showed her designer three websites she loved. While the website was being built, Fay coached people for free. She trained friends and got experience.

How To Build A Customer Base

Once her business cards and website were ready, Fay began networking like crazy. She accepted any invitation to speak anywhere, any time. She joined business groups. At first she charged $50 an hour, eventually raising her fees to the going rate. The first year, she made $13,000. The second year, she made $35,000. Fay was on her way. A year into her new venture, she was offered a high school teaching job. She turned it down flat.

Still, there were lessons to learn. "Last winter my biz went dead. I realized I had neglected marketing. Thirty percent of my work consistently has to be marketing. Getting the fish in the boat. It's the only antidote to the feast-famine cycle," Fay says. She keeps her speaking calendar full, writes a marketing newsletter, and puts info sheets on the chairs whenever she speaks.

Her top tip to others building a career from scratch: "Find your niche. This is scary to do when you're new and your instinct is to cast a broad net. Remember this: you don't want to be the Chinese/Italian restaurant. My niche is public speaking. Clients have tried to make me a logo expert, a website expert. I tell them, 'I can give you an opinion but that's all.' You want people to put their finger on what you do, so when someone says,'I have to give a presentation and I'm terrified,' they say, 'Call Debbie Fay.'"