4 Key Lessons from 15 Years in Business
by Christine Clapp, Founder & President
It’s never too early to start.
I launched Spoken with Authority before my 30th birthday. Some may say that I was too young and inexperienced. What could someone in their 20’s have to offer clients?
But when I started the business, I already had a transformational personal experience – failing at debate as a college freshman and then finding success throughout my college intercollegiate debate career. The experience made me passionate about helping others unlock their full potential through improved oral communication skills. I earned a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric and a master’s degree in communication. I also taught public speaking to undergraduates at two different universities, received my Distinguished Toastmaster Award from Toastmasters International, and worked in the communications office for a senator for two years and for a member of Congress for another three years.
I provided value to clients in those early days. And while services and offerings have grown and improved greatly over the years, I don’t regret starting when I did.
Lesson: Start when you have enough passion and knowledge to help others tangibly.
It’s important to have a team.
In the early years of my business, I did everything myself. This was initially a matter of practicality because there was no room in the budget to pay others when I was bootstrapping the business.
But the impulse to go it alone persisted too long. I thought, “Who can possibly do something in my business better than I can do it myself?” Turns out, there are many people who can do it better.
In 2015, I hired a virtual assistant to take administrative tasks off my plate so I could write the first of three books and systematize business processes. In 2016, I hired several trusted presentation skills experts to meet the demand for 1-1 coaching that I no longer had the bandwidth to take on myself. Today, I have an administrative assistant, a business manager, and six presentation skills experts on my team, not to mention the many incredible consultants we rely on for graphic design, bookkeeping, taxes, marketing, and other specialized tasks.
It’s always tough to delegate, but when you have stellar staff and strong systems, it leads to a better experience for your clients. For example, if it were still just me, we wouldn’t be offering our clients training on trial advocacy, support for neurodivergent professionals, accent expansion coaching, or online payment options – all areas of expertise that I don’t have but my team does. And, we would not be able to support a fraction of the professionals we currently provide group training and 1-1 coaching to (all while our team members and I have coverage to take vacations, tend to ourselves and our loved ones, and be in a position of health and wellness so we can effectively attend to our clients when we are working with them).
Lesson: Build a team to improve the client experience as soon as it is feasible.
It’s all about change.
In 15 years, we’ve made some seismic shifts in the business. The first was expanding the team – a process that continues today. Next was our realization in late 2016 that our business and business processes needed to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. We hired more diverse team members, revamped the ways that we assigned work and other business practices, and updated our approaches and materials to be more inclusive of a wider range of people and experiences – a process that continues today.
Since March 2020, we have embraced online and hybrid communication and have been using and exploring virtual reality (VR) as a tool to connect as a team as well as one that can provide our clients with more robust and inclusive training and coaching. Most recently, we have been purchasing carbon offsets for work travel to account for the environmental costs of our business as well as transitioning to e-handouts to reduce paper waste. We were slow to make changes initially, but we are getting better at being changemakers.
Lesson: Embrace change and evolution.
It’s all about our clients.
In 15 years, we’ve had the honor of facilitating over 800 group training and over 900 one-on-one coaching engagements. Many of our individual clients have worked with us through promotions, career changes, and even geographic moves, as well as through various speaking roles and goals they’ve had at different points in their careers and in the careers of people they supervise and mentor. We’ve kept in touch with others on LinkedIn and have celebrated their speaking successes and professional accomplishments in the months and years since working with them.
In terms of the law firms, associations, government agencies, and companies that have hired us, we have worked with many for years – through staff changes, mergers, new administrations, uncertain times, periods of rapid growth, and the use of new programs, strategies, and technologies. These long-term relationships are meaningful, gratifying, and make us proud. You are what drives us to continue to improve our client services, launch new approaches and offerings, and inspire the next generation of professionals to speak with authority. Thank you!
Lesson: Find great clients and thank them often.
