Can This (Work) Marriage Be Saved? The Bureau Perspective

"It is frustrating that our speakers don't understand the pressures we face," said Matt Delta*, Founder of Delta Speakers, "The pandemic was brutal on our entire industry, for years. We are still in rebuild mode. The industry has changed so much- it is tough to gain solid footing and know what the next 2-5 years will look like.

I nodded and said, "I hear you. These past four years have chewed up this industry and spit us out on the other side. We're still here....but at what cost?" I laughed a little to diffuse the tension, but also winced a bit. Those years were the darkest I had ever seen in this industry, and that was saying a lot. After all, I launched my business the day before 9/11, and watched it collapse as event hosts exercised their right to cancel due to 'Force Majeure.' I endured the tech bubble bursting, the implosions in mortgages and banking, and navigated the craziness of US Presidential election years. I had seen a lot in my 22 years as a personal speaker's agent.

"Right?" Matt agreed, nodding vigorously. "We are a stubborn group, aren't we? But 2019 was the best year Delta Speakers ever had. After a decade of constant growth, we were finally on cruise control. I signed 3 new superstars that year - all three from the TED conference and two of those released books that same year. That trio alone brought in more than $8,000,000 in gross speaking fees and that put $6.4 million into those speakers' bank accounts.

Ellen, Anjali, and Everett were dream additions to our roster - so easy to work with. They said YES to absolutely everything, never high maintenance, no fussy contract riders - just a pure pleasure to work with, start to finish.

I KNEW they would be big sellers - Ellen's TED talk blew me away. She had a winning style - calm, eloquent, funny, insightful. Her ideas around leadership were exactly what my corporate clients had been seeking. When her book became available for pre-order, my sales team had a field day promoting her new keynote and bulk book sales as a package deal.

Anjali was on fire, as well. Her counter-intuitive tools for boosting team effectiveness fueled by her data-driven research from HBS were another home run. And Everett - WOW. He was a perfect combination for us. He ticked all the boxes: Former CEO of a Fortune 50 company, tall, fit, silver-haired, and with a new book based on his pivotal years at the company released two months after his TED talk. We kicked him off at $100,000 per speech and the market couldn't get enough of him. It was a perfect triple play at 2019 TED."

Matt sat back on his bar stool, stirring the ice in his rocks glass, watching it melt into the last sip of whiskey, smiling to himself.

"We were printing money with those three. It paved the way to hire key staff, close a five year lease on our new office space, upgrade our custom software and workflows, invest in more search engine optimization and Google ads, and give some fat bonuses.

2020 looked incredible. My TOP VOICES OF 2019 LinkedIn post in December highlighted our 10 most widely booked exclusive speakers. Naturally, all three of my newly signed TED alums were on it - plus seven more from our core exclusives we had worked with for years. We finally had a deep roster of evergreen, exclusive winners. That post generated a flurry of inquiries for our sales pipeline. By the close of 2019, we had a ton of business closed and on the books for 2020 plus a backlog of serious booking inquiries for our agents to work through.

My wife and I celebrated New Year's Eve in Tahoe. Once the kids were asleep, I surprised her with a pair of diamond earrings. She was so shocked!"

A huge smile spread across Matt's face.

"It felt great to spoil her after all the lean years while I built Delta Speakers. We had finally made it, you know?"

His voice dropped off and I thought I detected a catch in it. If so, I certainly understood. I lived it, too.

"As I rode the chairlift the next morning, I called each of my top ten speakers, personally, to express my gratitude for their faith in me and my team and looked forward to our work together in the years ahead.

Ellen answered on the first ring. She was so enthusiastic. We did a virtual 'toast' with our coffees - hers in her New York City dining room and me in Tahoe with my travel mug."

I scanned Matt's face. He had a blissful faraway look as he recounted that moment on the chairlift, which quickly dissolved as he mentally replayed the horror show scenario a few short months later.

"I'm so sorry, Matt. It was a shock. To have worked so damn hard all those years, only to see it all collapse. It was awful. I understand completely." I said, remembering my dark days from late February / early March 2020.

My boutique business, although smaller in scale, had followed a similar trajectory of success as Matt's. We met at an IASB (International Association of Speakers Bureaus) conference and hit it off, despite being opposites in many ways. Matt's bureau frequently booked my clients and we had a long and positive working relationship together. Matt was an extrovert - often hamming it up on stage in front of our peers and preferring to do business by phone - while I was an introvert who preferred small groups and written correspondence around critical details. Matt's natural charisma, confidence, and drive impressed me. Over time, we grew to trust and respect one another and our close friendship allowed us to let our guard down and talk frankly - a rare gift in our industry.

I didn't operate a speakers bureau, but the industry didn't have a name for the model I created. My work was more akin to that of an elite sports agent, representing the best interests of the star athletes on their roster in all negotiations with sponsors and sports teams. I offered a custom blend of management and direct representation for a highly curated list of superstars.

The IASB was, and is, the only association for an increasingly diverse field of professionals who negotiate deals between speakers and event hosts --- including those who specialize in direct representation/management of the speakers themselves, like me. Paid speaking is a wild-west, unregulated industry undergoing massive changes.

From 2001 - 2023, I served as the 'fractional' personal speaker's agent to a small roster of in-demand public figures who wanted an independent, personal speaker's agent. That way they could remain non-exclusive and easily consider inquiries and offers from event hosts, bureaus and agencies, while still being expertly represented on all deals.

I built a reputation for excellent negotiation, integrity, kindness, being a details freak, and delivering bottom-line profitability.

Like Matt, I felt that the lead-up to 2020 had been filled with hard-won success. The reward after nearly two decades of excellent work. I opened my 'dream office,' and staffed New Leaf with well-seasoned, incredible, longtime employees. My clients thrived. New Leaf thrived. I could finally allow my shoulders to drop and relax a bit.

Not so fast. The industries that thrived on live gatherings were decimated......indefinitely. Busy calendars of paid speaking appearances were rescheduled, rescheduled, and rescheduled again. Negotiations done in 2019 were redone 3,4,5+ times. Addendums were issued. Funds were held in escrow with no earnings in sight - since commissions couldn't be earned until the appearances happened.

Honestly, it felt so hopeless....for years on end.

Virtual appearances were confirmed for pennies on the dollar. Many event hosts ultimately canceled or defaulted on their contracted bookings - leaving speakers unpaid, and speaking industry staff unemployed. Bureaus, agencies, and management companies folded or limped along.... fueled by savings of the principals, the occasional booking, PPP loans, EIDL loans (Economic Injury Disaster Loans), and the sincere hope that the roar of success in 2019 would return once conditions allowed.

What emerged from the scathing years of the pandemic was a paid speaking landscape with new rules, new players, and new models. For paid speaking to serve the needs of thought leaders, modern event hosts, and today's keynote buyers, everyone would need to revise their plans and discern a path forward.

But how?

Matt continued,

"And if the ice water bath of the pandemic wasn't bad enough, the immediate heat from all the exclusive clients wanting to jumpstart their speaking when in-person events opened up, was overwhelmingly INTENSE."

"They want us to promote them individually - yet cold 'pitching' a single speaker does not work. Event hosts want OPTIONS and to feel that a particular speaker is THEIR idea. Many hosts come to us with their speaker ideas already in mind - from an article they read or a podcast they heard."

Matt's voice grew louder and his speech became more rapid-fire.

"Many are angry that we are not generating more inbound business for them. Most have a contact form on their website and openly resent sending us those inquiries to handle. They seem genuinely angry that the majority of their paid speaking inquiries are coming through their site - not from us."

"I try to explain how the algorithm works --- and how their site, properly optimized --- will ALWAYS be favored by the algorithm. With 46 speakers on our site, and about 15 of them exclusive, we cannot outrank 46 other sites that are point optimized for an individual speaker."

"Sure, we can buy sponsored ad words, and do for our top-seller exclusive speakers --- but the reality is there are some 'mega spenders' out there now - dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars per year into those ad words, creating shell websites that funnel speaking inquiry traffic to their centralized entity to handle. There is simply no way to outspend them."

Matt continued, visibly frustrated, "And those entities don't even represent the speakers directly. They simply scour the internet to add key names and faces to their 'master site' - knowing that if they can capture the search engine results, they will get the event host inquiries and control the 'deals.' We've tried getting them to take our speakers' profiles off their site....but it is like Whack-A-Mole.....it comes off one, and gets placed on another. It's like shoveling water out of the ocean."

I knew exactly what Matt was dealing with. I dealt with the same issues. It was incredibly frustrating. It was also the new reality of our industry.

Matt's face was red now, and he threw his hands in the air.

"We are getting hammered from all sides. Unhappy speakers with unreasonable expectations, event hosts who increasingly send inquiries for the same speaker to every single bureau or agency that lists them - to see who replies first or offers the lowest price, buyers who only book their speakers directly vs. using a bureau, and speakers who want to chop our commissions down to bits."

Matt closed his eyes, his lips pursed in a tight line.

He let out a long, exasperated sigh.

"I'm beginning to wonder if this is a business I can continue with. It all feels like TOO MUCH."

I knew exactly how Matt felt. And I also knew there had to be a happy medium between professional representation and the speakers who trusted that work.

"Matt, I have some ideas for what 'success' could look like going forward. I've been trial-ballooning these ideas with my own clients and maybe they could help you and your clients, too. Do you want to meet tomorrow and discuss?"

Matt opened his eyes, a slow smile forming. "Sure. Let's get out of here and grab dinner.....and get back to this tomorrow."

This is the 2nd installment in a 3-part series. Part 3 will be the advice and guidance I'd offer to the speaker and bureau in this fictionalized case study.

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