Still working with a client to hire multiple speakers for a multi-day event. I now have two problem children instead of only one. GAAAH!!Two of the speakers I’m working with are bigger problems than my very own two children!
One is pushy and one is non-responsive. Which is worse?
It’s a toss up! One speaker’s assistant asked me yesterday if she could get the booking completed faster by contacting the company’s executive instead of going through me (do it and you won’t get hired chick!). The other speaker’s assistant never answers calls or emails and is basically non-responsive. I waste so much time telling one to cool her jets — and waste a ton more time trying to get in touch with the other.
Performers are finicky.
Had a trip yesterday evening to attend a talent show in Indy and took the obligatory “car selfie.” One of these days I’ll learn to stop leaning forward so I look like a giant and the other person a mouse.
Colette sang some song I didn’t know and wouldn’t have chosen for her. She has her Momma’s voice — both have amazing singing talent. I’m telling you, if she would’ve sang a Disney song… she’d have brought down the house! But performers are finicky and do their own thing. 🙂
TIL (Today I Learned): William Shatner would hide Leonard Nemoy’s bicycle because Nemoy used it to get ahead in line at the commissary, going as far as tying it to rafters or placing it in a room with a territorial doberman.
If you directly deal with customers or clients are you wasting their time? The old saying that “time is money” is true — but even more important is the saying that “time is the most valued commodity.”
If you’re wasting my time, it takes away from other things I either need or want to do.
I mentioned before that I secure speakers for one event per year for a client of ours. Tasked with hiring 6 or 7 speakers, preparing contracts, coordinating calls, setting timings, verifying travel and securing ground transportation and more isn’t a cake walk, you guys. So out of 10 speakers proposed, only ONE has me pulling out my hair by the roots.
Sadly, it’s the EMPLOYEE of the speaker that is failing hard.
Each of the exchanges below took a separate email and resulted in over an hour of my time — and this is AFTER it took 3 emails and 2 unreturned calls to even get a response:
Her: Can we set it up for Friday afternoon at 3:30PM EST Me: That will work. Please provide the email address you prefer the MS Teams invite to be sent to. Her: What time did you confirm with them? Me: You offered this Friday at 3:30 PM ET (5/19/23). That works within my client’s calendar. Her: Ok, I just wanted to make sure!  Thanks for the clarity. Me: I still need the best email address please. And thanks! Her: I responded already, but here it is again: Me: As you can see by reviewing all correspondence between us below, I received nothing with those 2 email addresses until this most recent message. Thanks so much! Her: Yes, I’m sorry, I see that now, it was stuck in my outgoing/drafts.
I thought it was rude to say, “I responded already, but here it is again.” Even if she HAD provided the email address once — which she didn’t — it was still an ugly way to treat a person wanting to spend around $30,000.
The worst part of all?
The speaker we’re trying to hire is great on stage, and is a very nice guy.
Don’t be that ugly employee that is a poor representation of the company or person you work for or with. Don’t waste the time of people that pay your salary. Just stop it already! 🙂
If this sounds like you and you think you’re doing the best you can — or if you think that you don’t have to work for the customer and at the minimum treat them kindly — then I know who would be much better at your job than you are!
TIL (Today I Learned): Only a slim majority of Americans realize Puerto Ricans are American citizens.
I got a text from my favorite brother late last night concerning work. It basically said that he called the hotel that was supposed to have a reservation for him and was told he had none. Uh oh — less than 24-hours to his flight.
His text went on to say that the reservation we were provided by the client was 9 numbers — and the hotel only assigns reservations with 8. To make matters worse, they wouldn’t tell him if that was even the right venue for the event.
Enter poor chick tasked with fixing the challenge who might lose their job if Mr. Boss Dude didn’t have a room. That would be ME!
What I assume was a younger guy answered my call. First, I was told there was no reservation number matching the one I provided and there was no reservation match by name. Ok… so I ask if XYZ company is having an event there. He told me that because of privacy regulations, he couldn’t share that information.
Hmmm… strategic shift required.
I went through names of contacts I had in the company to validate I wasn’t making shit up — and asked would he pretty please check to see if maybe the reservation was off one number. I let him know how desperate I was. It wasn’t long before I found that they spelled Scott’s name wrong AND an extra 4 was added into the number the client gave me.
In another 10 minutes, I could’ve probably had a week’s stay for myself billed to the client’s account. 🙂
The lesson here (if there is one) is that you must first LISTEN to the person you wish to communicate with and adjust your behavior to best suit what they desire. He was a young guy that wanted to help but didn’t want to get in trouble. He needed reassurance that I was legit and that I NEEDED his help. He went above and beyond and I told him how appreciative I was. I even used the word “amazing!”
He was puffed up for a job well done — it made his night. And he made mine too. Strategic behavior for the win!
How about a beautiful day to boot!
TIL (Today I Learned): South Korea’s CIA recruited a suicide squad to kill North Korea’s dictator, Kim Il Sung. The squad mutinied, killed their commanders, hijacked a bus to Seoul, and were blown up by their own military. The survivors were then executed.
I secured an event for my favorite brother last week and the company hired an artist to create a document overview of his speech. The concept is that the ideas will be better understood and the concepts actionable by the audience.
Visual Notetaking…
My first email to my brother was to note the size of his nose. (Sisters love poking their brothers.) He replied back that he would never wear a plaid shirt, was more concerned about his receding hairline, but was happy he didn’t have a pot belly.
Next, I replied that the toothless woman that hasn’t seen her husband in a year made me chuckle. He wondered why they didn’t show her smile after it was fixed (the end of the story). So I then replied that I wondered why a gorilla was creating a clarity statement using a pencil.
Visual communication is powerful.
Even though we picked apart the visual note, it’s really pretty darned good. If the information above was in a formatted outline of a Word document, I would’ve skimmed.
Visual and conversational outlines get noticed.
TIL (Today I Learned): Lake Lanier in Georgia has had almost 700 drownings in its 70 year history, with an average of nearly 10 per year, 30 times higher than the national average of lakes in the lower 48 states.
Assisting a long-time client to secure speakers for a big event last year, I was given a significant budget to spend on 3-4 speakers. Of course, there are many requirements and requests that I won’t go into, but the main process is simple. I propose the speakers I think would be a good fit and once they are approved by the client, I make the offer to the speakers and get them under contract. I negotiate any contracting challenges prior to providing them to the client for signature.
I bring this up now because this client has asked that I do the same thing for this year’s event.
I’m excited, but I’m also a little nervous because I had one speaker last year that threw me a curve ball last minute.
No way would I ever mention a speaker’s name, so when I tell you what was in their formal contract, MY NAME and MY TITLE have been substituted within the speaker’s actual verbiage below:
When using Ms. Erwin’s name, please refer to her as: Shelley “the Queen” Erwin. You may also reference her simply as the Queen, but do not use Shelley, Shelley Erwin or Shelley Erwin aka The Queen.
I’m not kidding, you guys. It was IN RED. Right there with the hotel request for a suite far away from any ice machines or elevators and two bottles of room-temperature water.
Here goes… research starts tomorrow. 🙂
TIL (Today I Learned): The oldest known crocodile, “Mr. Freshie,” lived to be an estimated 140 years old after being captured and rehabilitated by Steve Irwin and his team at the Australia Zoo.
