The Speak Up with Laura Rebranding Story

This is what the Speak Up with Laura website looks like!

The first thing my business coach told me (in 2009) was to change the name of my business.

“Mixonian Institute” has no meaning. “No one knows how to spell it or say it.” These wise words were repeated since then. One friend admitted, “It’s so bad that it actually works.”

The name “mixonian” reflects my early love for the Smithsonian Institute. With my last name of “Mixon” - it seemed the logical name for my business. 🤓

Now that Mixonian Institute is about to celebrate its 14 years of life, I’m changing the brand to Speak Up with Laura.

I still work for Mixonian Institute and that entity will continue to invoice everyone. And pay t$xes.

Here’s the story of the new name:

I kicked off the Speak Up with Laura podcast, probably around 2014. The initial versions featured me reading my weekly blog post. 😀 It was a service to people who prefer to listen than to read.

Later, the podcast would include interviews with my friends. (Thank you friends, and sister!) That was around 2018.

In February 2020, I met with another business coach in fancy Manhattan/ After eyeing all the business pieces, we decided to drop the podcast. Too little ROI. I had just interviewed a famous copywriter and planned for that to be the closing episode.

Mid-March 2020, my email began to blow up. Upscale PR folks representing authors, consultants, business owners and executives, ivy-league instructors, and so forth, were begging moi to interview them for the Speak Up podcast.

Then someone at Feedspot informed me that Speak Up was ranked #9 in the world for communication skills podcasts. Unbelievable. World changing. I became a big shot. haha

Now Speak Up with Laura Camacho is #3 in the world in its category. I extended that name to the new website and brand.

Doing the work always pays off. Usually in ways you aren’t expecting, and not in the way you had planned.