When a Bad Assistant Costs You Your Spot

Have you ever had to dump a speaker or promotional partner because their assistant was unprofessional? I did.

This is the first time this has happened in four years in the business, so this is very uncommon, but I share this story because of how catastrophic a bad assistant can be if you let them handle all your relationships.

Storytime

I met Robinson (not his real name) a few months ago at a networking event. We had a follow up meeting and hit it off pretty well.

He seemed committed to the right things, and had a lot of expertise, so I invited him to speak at one of my summits, after which he handed me off to his assistant Dingbat (also not his real name) to deal with the details.

For those who are not aware, a summit is a self-reciprocating partnership. Speakers get on the stage in front of the audience in exchange for promoting and helping to build that audience. Remember that. It’ll be important later.

That’s Not How Summits Work

The first thing Dingbat said was that he needed me to promote their upcoming launch and that they would promote our summit in proportion. I explained that was not how summits worked, and that Robinson would be expected to promote just like any other speaker.

He agreed and filled out the application.

Then he completely failed to promote. A few days before the event, I reached out and asked what was going on.

“Oh, our promotional calendar is very full, so we won’t be able to promote, but Robinson will support your event by speaking at it.” (Emphasis mine)

Since my policy is that I don’t remove speakers from the stage for failing to promote (simply never accepting them to speak again), I politely explained to Dingbat (again) that this is not how summits work, but that Robinson could still speak.

Time After Time

Robinson was supposed to speak at 1 PM on the summit. 1 PM came and went, no Robinson.

Not a problem. My summits, being awesome and interactive, have all kinds of great stuff we can do with an open slot. In this case we were able to have a fantastic hotseat for an attendee.

At 3:55 PM, Robinson pops on. Turns out Dingbat hadn’t checked the time zone, in spite of the fact that the top of every schedule sent out has the words “all times Eastern”.

Fool Me Twice

A few weeks later, Dingbat reached out to me to tell me that Robinson would be interested in speaking on a future summit.

I replied that I had concerns about our previous miscommunications.

He assured me that he understood and that they would effectively promote the next time.

So, I gave him another shot.

10 days before the event, he had 0 registrations. Neither Robinson nor Dingbat had showed up to the speaker meeting, and I had heard nothing. So I asked if they were still in.

The summit was scheduled for the 11th (not the real date).

“We’re sending out a mailing on the 10th,” Dingbat told me.

The only reply I could muster was, “Is that a joke?”

Bowing Out

After telling me that my summits were the most complicated he’d ever worked with and that he honestly believed that the best time to promote a six-hour live event was the day before, he told me that they’d be bowing out of the event.

This was good as it saved me the trouble of kicking them out.

The Moral of the Story

Robinson clearly trusts Dingbat with all of this partnerships and communications as I don’t even have Robinson’s direct email. Robinson likely has no idea how many bridges he is burning or opportunities he is losing because of Dingbat’s attitude and behavior.

As you grow, it becomes necessary to delegate, and there are few lessons here:

1. Make sure that partners have a direct way to reach you in case of an issue.
2. Be careful who manages your relationships.
3. Make clear to them how you want partners to be treated (hopefully well).
4. Monitor their communications on your behalf.

Want to See Some Awesome Speakers Who Do Follow Through?

While Robinson is off the stage, we have some really awesome people on the stage across seven fantastic summits through the rest of 2024.

You can find them all and register for them at https://www.summits.fun.

P.S. Regarding when to promote, Chuck Anderson , one of the top people in the collaborative marketing space, has analyzed the numbers. It is true what most people think that later promotion has higher show up rates. What’s less obvious but more important is that earlier promotion has higher closing rates. Want freebie seekers? Promote late. Want buyers? Promote early.