For the past several years, I’ve booked all the speakers and entertainment for one big event held at Disney World in Orlando. It concludes today but the majority of my work was finished last week. I swore I’d NEVER EVER do it again. It’s tedious and stressful. Not only because I’m spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of someone else’s money, but also because I want the event to be a huge success — no mistakes allowed.
I didn’t even reward myself with the trip to Disney this year, but Ben & Coco did. 🙂
They had a great time and I’m thrilled I could make it happen. If you haven’t been to Disney for awhile, you may not know that you better have $10K for the trip. I don’t see how families do it since it’s so crazy expensive.
Back to the never say never…
The guy I’ve worked with through the years for this event is retiring. Me too!! But then I got a call from a gentleman with an offer to do the big event next year that I’m not sure I can refuse. The money… the family experience… ARG!
I’ve got a couple weeks to think it over — and even negotiate for a better offer when the first one is already good. I may be eating those “never again” words because how can I say “no” to this?
I can say no because I don’t like what the speaking industry has become.
There’s a recent scandal that’s shed some light into industry challenges that involved ImpactEleven, a speaker training firm. ImpactEleven would charge speakers a $2500 onboarding fee plus around $1500/month to be a member. Their upsell was for a $35K+ sizzle reel (demo video) which is paramount to get companies to book you. ImactEleven would provide the location and hire actors that would give fake testimonials and standing ovations. The end result was a high quality video that LOOKED LIKE the speaker had performed in front of a large audience that loved him/her, when maybe they had yet to perform at Sunday School.
But then, because of financial irregularities within ImpactEleven, the actors didn’t get paid so they sued the fake speakers telling them they had to pay up or remove the video from public use. Even worse? It was exposed that bureaus and management companies were being paid kick-backs (double dipping to the umpteenth degree) to refer newbie speakers to them. If you don’t disclose a commercial relationship with a referral, that is unethical, right?
So now what?
Companies are left not knowing legitimate speakers from the fakes — and good speakers are competing for dates against slick imposters that are not only giving all speakers a bad rap, but are also bombing their performances onstage for companies that paid for a professional in good faith… oftentimes based on a video that is nothing but fabrication.
Throughout the years, I’ve experienced first hand a whole lot of actions that would cause me sleepless nights if I did them. I could tell you stories that would make your head spin. It started getting worse during COVID, and with AI now, it’s a battle to be honest and have a chance in the marketplace. I’m too old and too tired to fight it.
When asked by a reporter about the unethical practices of some bureaus, my older brother told the truth. He didn’t point fingers and only revealed a couple instances of questionable actions, but he didn’t lie. Here’s a link to the article.
Now you know: Five U.S. Presidents (Thomas Jefferson, John Q. Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, and Lyndon Johnson) didn’t take their Presidential Oath on a Bible.