Professional Speaker: April 2007 Archives

In Part 3 of my interview with Olympic Champion Lori-Ann Muenzer, we talk about her new book One Gear No Breaks and the documentary of the same name. Lori-Ann was 38 years old when she won a gold medal in cycling at the Athens Olympic Games, and she's overcome many obstacles in her quest for excellence. In addition to her new book and documentary, Lori-Ann has started a motivational speakers business featuring inspiring Canadian women from the sports, music and media industries. Image courtesy of 1GNB, Barney and Oscar films.

Barbra: Lori-Ann, I can’t let you go today without asking you about your book “One Gear, No Breaks.” Tell us about it.

Lori-Ann: That was an amazing experience. Steen Madsen, my coach and training partner is good friends with Karl Wilberg who is one of our best criminal lawyers here in the city (Edmonton). They were talking. He said that Karl probably should write my story because he does a lot of writing in his spare time.

Barbra: and then...?

Lori-Ann: So Karl and I started talking about it. We decided to move forward with that project. It was an incredible experience because after the Olympics I was working, doing speaking, doing appearances plus I was training fulltime and I was racing. On top of that, we were doing the documentary with Karl’s younger brother Chris.

I was spending six to ten hours every week from October until January with Karl. We were writing the book, “One Gear, No Breaks.” So it was an amazing journey because we started off going down this one path.

First Karl cross-examined me, then he interrogated me and then he interviewed me. The reason I say that is he is a criminal lawyer, so he has that courtroom training.

It was incredible. We’d start off at point A and I was thinking this is straight down the road and we’re going to get to point B. Next question we’d start into that question. Well, that wasn’t the case. We’d start off and then I would say something that would tweak him and he’d say, Hold on, we’ve got to back up a little bit. What about this or what were you thinking or what were you feeling? Where in the world were you traveling and how did things go?

This is Part 2 of my interview with Lori-Ann Muenzer, who won a gold medal in cycling at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Recently Lori-Ann retired from competition and she’s written a book and also started a new business. That’s what we’ll be talking about today. Images courtesy of PureMomentum.ca .

Barbra: Did you run into any roadblocks in setting up your business, Lori-Ann?

Lori-Ann:Roadblocks as in which?

Barbra: Let’s see, if I was starting a motivational speakers business, some of the roadblocks that I would run into would be, how do I get in contact with these people or how do I get my message out? Even setting up the website. How did those things go for you?

Lori-Ann: They went pretty well. It's not hard to get women to contact me. There’s not a shortage of that. It’s really getting out and promoting them. Getting the women that are onboard to talk about Pure Momentum, to get people to come to the website or to contact me to potentially book a speaking engagement. I think those are the hardest challenges.

Barbra: So have how you handled that?

Lori-Ann: I think that really comes down to networking, getting out there, being visible, being heard, and just driving the interest to my company, Pure Momentum.

One good thing is that I’ve been in the media for years. I retired at the end of October, so there was a lot of media around that, which was really great, it was really positive. And then just being involved in the community in different events, that really helps. They see you’re in the media again. Whether it’s television, it’s radio, it’s print. I think that really helped.

But of course with having a business it's all about finding the balance. You don’t want to do too much in one area and not enough in the other. Sometimes it seems like a juggling act or sometimes it seems like you’re putting out fires all the time.

Barbra: What has been the biggest help in achieving that balance?

Barbra: This is Barbra Sundquist from www.homebusinesswiz.com. I’m here today with Lori-Ann Muenzer who is a Canadian cycling record holder, two-time Olympian, and gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Lori-Ann has also been at the podium at countless world championships, world cups, and Commonwealth Games.

What’s really inspiring about Lori-Ann is that she was the underdog going into the 2004 Olympic Games and she ended up winning the gold medal in the sprints. Oh, and for anyone who thinks that you have to hang up your dreams when you turn 30, I’ll let you in on just one little detail. Lori-Ann Muenzer was 38 years old when she won that gold medal.

Recently, Lori-Ann retired from competition and she’s written a book and also started a new business. That’s what we’ll be talking about today. Lori-Ann, I’d like to welcome you and tell you that as a fellow Canadian, I remember watching you on television win that gold medal in Athens and it was so inspiring.

Lori-Ann: Awesome. Thank you.

Barbra: I understand that you’ve started a motivational speakers business. Can you tell us about that?

Lori-Ann: As a result of winning the gold medal in Athens in 2004, I had a lot of requests for speaking and appearances, that sort of thing, and from that is where Pure Momentum has grown from.

Barbra: So your motivational speakers business is called "Pure Momentum". I like that!

Lori-Ann: Thanks! I wanted to do something a little bit different, something that hadn’t been done before. Being the mature age of 38 and winning a gold medal, it kind of put things in a little bit different light because a lot of people think or have thought that to be successful or to win a gold medal, it’s usually the younger kids that get to do it. So my business is about what happens when you decide to defy expectations and you do something a little bit different.

Barbra: Tell us more about how your business works.