The Tribune

By D'ARCY RAHMING

I was at a conference in Chicago when the waiter heard me speaking and asked: “Where are you from?” When I told him the Bahamas, he said: “Be sure to say hello to my brother, Dr Myles Munroe. I’m reading one of his books now.”

This was not the only time this happened when I identified myself as a Bahamian. Time after time, persons would assume I knew Dr Munroe. I am somewhat ashamed to say that I never spent any quality time with him, even though I considered him the ultimate Bahamian Marketing Revolutionary.

Much will be said about him in the coming days, months and years. I have mentioned him as proof of my marketing strategies in this column before. And in this article, I will explain a little about his information empire and the strategies he used. I do this to honour him, because Dr Munroe was a teacher and preached that everyone should realise their full potential. He called it “dying empty”.

The first thing to understand is that he was very poor as a boy, and started from a disadvantaged position. So he had a right to believe that anyone can have success. In an interview I saw online, he recounted the story of how he was bullied by a racist teacher, and it caused him to question his own intelligence. This was a turning point for him, because even at that young age he realised that things were only going to happen for him if he made concrete steps and took responsibility for his own destiny. All the while respectfully acknowledging that God was an essential component in his successes.

He looked at the very successful model of Oral Roberts University, and decided to adapt this to his own vision. This is something you will see successful marketing revolutionaries do. They do not try to invent things from scratch, but are adaptive and often seek mentors, which saves them a lot of time as opposed to trying to reinvent the wheel.

There are many good preachers in the Bahamas, but very few are authors. This is one thing that set Dr Myles Munroe apart. He understood the power of being a book author. He leveraged that into speaking engagements, radio and TV appearances, becoming an international celebrity. He used the power of celebrity to attract other celebrities, and had an extensive network.

Dr Munroe was very focused. His specialty was leadership. It is hard to imagine that he could build an empire on such a broad topic where hundreds of books, videos and courses exist. Yet he became an international expert in the field. I was planning on inviting him to lunch one day to build a relationship with him. Instead, I will now have to read his books and watch his old interviews. Maybe that is the way it was meant to be. After all, that’s the true mark of a Marketing Revolutionary; you can learn from them long past their time on this earth.

• NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and has helped small and large clients, both in the Bahamas and internationally. Go to DArcyRahming.com and get his free video training series on How to Get a Paycheck From International Clients While Living in the Bahamas.