At my first NSA national meeting in Orlando
in 2002, I experienced a breakthrough—
not as a speaker, but as a businessman. I
walked into a general session late. The room was full,
so I stood in the back and thought, “This is one of the
most fragmented industries there is. Everyone here
is a one- or two-person shop. The one who is going
to make all the money is the one who aggregates the
information they represent.”
BY CHRIS WIDENER
An idea was born. I began my dream to become “the” source for personal and professional development materials—both mine and everyone else’s.
Over the next few years, I grew my own business and worked on my idea. Fortuitously, I
was asked to speak at a men’s retreat. After a session, Bryan Heathman approached me and
asked if I would meet him for coffee in a few weeks. We lived in close proximity, so I agreed.
Heathman, who became a close friend, knew little about the speaking world. He wouldn’t
have known motivational speaker Anthony Robbins if Tony punched him in the nose. When
we met, Heathman grilled me on the speaking business, primarily regarding the distribution of intellectual property. He had been in the business of distributing pictures, video and
