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“Tom Begert-Clark, 53, professional speaker and founder, Even As We Speak®”
Tom Begert-Clark tired of being in a corporate environment, so he
did something most folks wouldn’t even consider: he launched his own speaking business at age
fifty-three. Today, he travels around the country, speaking to groups on issues ranging from elder
care to developing your business.
“I was speaking while I was working for a corporation, and I was getting a lot of calls.
‘Gee Tom, can you come to our conference, consult with us,’ and so on. But my corporate job didn’t
allow that,” he says. “So I decided if I was going to make the change, I’d better do it now. So I
left the security of corporate America, and it’s been just unbelievable.” Begert-Clark has
(written) a book he’s had in mind for years, and he maintains a relentless positive attitude while
building his corporation and brand and speaking across the country. But that doesn’t mean he
received universal support when he announced his decision. His employer was shocked.
“Professionals said to me, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ ‘Do you know how many businesses
fail?’ Always negative,” he says. “But friends and family said, ‘Well, it took you fifty-three
years to decide that it was right for you to do this; what took you so long?’ They knew it was
the right decision for me before I did.”
Begert-Clark says that friends tell him now that he looks happier than they have ever seen him.
And while he took an income hit in the beginning, savings got him through the early period, and
he has a plan to get back to the level of income he was at in his corporate position.
“I want money. Everybody wants money,” he says. “But I was making good money, and I wasn’t happy.
And that was affecting everything I was doing. Am I ever going to retire? No way. You never know
what’s going to develop tomorrow.”