Lori-Ann: I think really it comes down to, Who can keep you accountable? Who can keep you on track? No pun intended. I think you really need a good team. That is probably the hardest challenge right there, just finding people that think like you, people who think a little differently than you, people that have different strengths than you and where you can learn from them and it’s going to help move the business forward.

Barbra: What type of people do you have on your team, Lori-Ann?

Lori-Ann: It’s everybody. There’s not just, Oh, it’s about sport, that’s it, that’s all that we do. We have women in non-traditional trades. We have the media, two amazing women there, a couple musicians, Canadian icons. Carole Pope, as you know, she was from Rough Trade back in 1975 to ’85. They changed the music industry here in Canada but also in North America. There’s that.

There are also women who love to promote women, through performance, through excellence, through success coaching. Lynn Fraser, she does a lot of family issues, like if you’re the executive, how do you balance a career and a home life and how you make sure that the meals you’re putting on the table still are healthy and they’re balanced and they’re great. So where do you also find the time to make sure that you have that quality time? There’s quite a great range, actually.

Barbra: Just like women.

Lori-Ann: Exactly. You know, women do everything and we’re out there. A lot of times I find women are very shy. I like to call it, We’re a little too Canadian. And I want to say to them, It’s okay, go ahead!

I find that when you get one person, one female that starts and goes, You know what, you’re really great at this, I think you’d be fantastic at doing this, or, I could help you improve this or bring this up, it starts to become contagious.

I think that’s one of the elements and one of the strengths that I bring with Pure Momentum. You saw that I defied the odds in sport, but it’s not just in sport. It carries over into my personal life and also my business life as well. I think that shows in the cluster of amazing women that are onboard already and it continues to grow.

Each woman has a unique story. It’s not like mine, but there are so many similarities and parallels that it brings us together. I think that when other women and other men hear the stories, it gets you to take a step back and say, You know what, I think I could do dot, dot, dot. You get to fill in the blanks. You get to think maybe a little different or you get to hear a different story.

Barbra: What about someone who wanted to become a motivational speaker, Lori-Ann? What advice would you give them?

Lori-Ann: I think it’s not for everybody, but if it’s something that you’re thinking of pursuing, I know there’s different organizations out there. There’s Toastmasters and other organizations. I went back to the Metro Community College here in Edmonton and I decided, Okay, I was going to take the public speaking course to find out if there was something maybe I wasn’t doing or something that could help improve what I was currently doing right now.

So get out there and speak. Maybe start with some schools as opposed to going into the big corporations where you might feel a little bit more pressure. Going to some sporting organizations where your story can relate to what some of the others are doing. Just get out there and practice.

Learn as much as you can. Maybe have a tape recorder or have a video, someone video it for you. Then take a look at it and go, Hey, what was really good? What needs to be improved on? Did I get something out of it? Did I hear something? Was I trying to convey my message? What is my message? You need a starting point; you need an ending point. Then what is the middle part of your speech or your topic as well? So it’s learning a few of those things. Once you start, again, start simple and then as it goes, you grow and your story can also grow, too.

Barbra: I love that you use that word story because I think that stories are so compelling in a speaker.

Lori-Ann: Absolutely. I think motivational speaking - inspirational thinking - is really storytelling. You get to focus in on this person who is sharing something that they’ve experienced. It’s not necessarily for everybody or after hearing a story, you might go, Wow, I want to go out and try this, or, I want to start doing this

Barbra: I like your advice, Lori-Ann, to go to Toastmasters, take courses, record yourself, practice, practice, practice, speak as many places as you can. Then if a person doesn’t want to be self-employed, themselves, if they want to work for an agency such as yours, how would they go about finding an agency?

Lori-Ann: I think you can always Google. That’s always a good starting point. On the PureMomentum.ca website, I usually ask for a few things. I’d love to know a little bit more about you, I’d like to have a file, I’d like to have a history, and I'd also love to know three reasons why you would like to become a Pure Momentum speaker.

That usually narrows down the field of, Oh, well, I just want to become a motivational and inspirational speaker. If you have video footage or taped footage, I would also like to receive that as well. I might know your name or I might not know your name, but what is it that you do? What sets you apart from somebody here, somebody there across the country?

Barbra: That’s great. Thank you. You’ve talked about the people who are on your roster or on your team. I’m getting a sense of who your ideal speakers would be. What about your clients? Who’s your ideal client, Lori-Ann?

Lori-Ann: I like to keep the doors open for everybody. What I love to do is, I love to go into the schools, anywhere from junior kindergarten to university, colleges, that sort of thing as well as corporate Canada. So I’ve done a lot of speaking within the community. I’ve been to the East Coast; I’ve been to the West Coast. It really is open to everybody.

Barbra: So it sounds like you do school appearances, corporate, government?

Lori-Ann: Exactly.

Barbra: Great. If someone wanted to hire one of your speakers, how do they get in touch with you?

Lori-Ann: Well, the best way is to go to the website PureMomentum.ca. Then there’s a tab that says “Contact Us.” If you’re looking for a speaking engagement or appearance, there’s a section for that. If there is a school request, there’s a section for that. I’ve tried to make it really simple and really easy to navigate around.

Also, there’s a form that we ask you to fill out and that just helps me define what you’re looking for so that I can best put a speaker your way. Or if you’re looking for a specific speaker, then that is probably one of the easiest ways to go, Hey, we want Carole Pope or we want Carrie Doll, that sort of thing.

That really gives me a lot more information about what you’re looking for, what’s the venue, when is the event, the start time, the end time, how many people are coming, is it going to be a small group or is it going to be a large group, are there any special instructions, do you have a special message that you’re looking to get out or is there a theme for your event. It’s really, How can I best accommodate your request as well.

This concludes Part 2 of my interview with Lori-Ann Muenzer. Tommorrow I will publish the third and final part, where Lori-Ann describes how she ended up writing a book about her professional sports career, and what that involved (hint: it's my favorite part of the whole interview!).

Read Part 1 here