How can booking agents level up their business?
This week, Sara Frasca spoke with Nona Prather, an entrepreneur and founder of Prather Marketing. Prather Marketing offers marketing and booking for keynote speakers.
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Sara Frasca is the founder and owner of Trasca & Co Eatery in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, an experienced and engaging motivational speaker, and the CEO of global business coaching firm Point NorthEast.
Transcript:
You're listening to level up your business, the podcast where we talk to hardworking business owners and leaders and help them solve real issues in real time. I'm your host, Sarah Frasca restaurant owner, keynote speaker and business coach. I've spent my career not only in corporate America but also as an entrepreneur, carrying on my family's legacy through my restaurant, now a business coach and consultant. I'm helping other businesses to use creative problem solving and innovative thinking to drive lasting change. Stay tuned to hear some inspiring guidance that will help you to level up your business. Well, hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of level up your business. I'm Sara Frasca with point Northeast, and I am joined today by Nona appraiser who I'm very excited to have on the show. No, no. Thank you for joining. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to talk to you today. Yeah, it's fun to see you again. And I'm sure it's been a busy start to the spring for you. Yes. Tell our listeners a little bit about you. And, you know, kind of where you've come from and the business that you've built. For sure. Yeah, it's sort of a long story. But I tell everyone, I've been in the industry for about a little over 30 years, because whenever I was eight years old, my dad started his professional speaking business. He, you know, worked at a company, they had him consulting a lot and doing doing presentations. So he was like, I can do this on my own. So he went out on his own started. And it became like a big family affair for me, my brother, my stepmom, we were all like engaged immediately with helping him find bookings. So like, we traveled with him, we went to NSA. He was a Toastmaster President Plus, he was president of NSA in our local chapter. So we were selling his books in the back of the room, we were answering phone calls, doing program agreements, helping him with his CRM, so everything. As a teenager, whenever I started driving, then I started helping other speakers in our community as well keep up with their, their details of their office, because a lot of speakers don't have the back the back help that they need. A lot of people think the speaker is they do it all themselves, when in reality, they probably have a team behind them, trying to help them land these opportunities, doing follow ups, and all of that. And then I managed the speaker Bureau for for a long time, and it was going really well. And then the pandemic happened, and I decided to instead of going back to a bureau to start my own agency, so the last almost four years, I've been doing my book booking agency for my, you know, for myself, so started my own business on my own, and it's been going really well. So that's kind of the short, short synopsis of my history. Yeah, and it's really great. I mean, I obviously have a lot of heart for people that have almost grown out of a family connection. Right. I mean, I, I think I mentioned to you, you know, my, my restaurant comes from my grandmother serving the same sandwich 50 years ago. And so I can really appreciate kind of starting to build that passion, and then, you know, taking it modernizing it, perhaps and bringing it into the future. So that's really great. Well, we are, you know, in, I would say in this podcast focused on helping people with their businesses. But I think before we go too far, I know the world of keynote speaking since I do a lot of keynote speaking. But maybe you could just tee up kind of, you know, I don't know that most folks recognize that this is an actual industry, and that there's actually people doing the booking. So maybe just back up even a step further, just to describe what it is you do, what is the product that you create? So whenever I'll have a discovery call, some people will say, Oh, I'm not I'm not a speaker, but in reality they they are. So it could be a consultant that's doing workshops. It could be someone who's a guest speaker, I mean, at their church or their local community, but you know, those are all speaking types. And there are different ways. So actually, my book is titled 24 ways to get paid to speak. Because there are several different ways to be a paid professional speaker rather than just keynoting. I mean, that is kind of whenever someone, okay, I have dogs too. Whenever someone says, I'm a keynote speaker, I mean, that's great. But you're really pigeon holing yourself into one area where there are expert panel. There are TED Talk type keynotes, there are breakouts, there are just so many different opportunities that you can actually grow as a speaker. And I say, there are there are speakers who want to do this as a living, they want to make their money being a keynote speaker, but there's a lot of opportunity out there as well, like for consultants who are speaking because they want to become the expert in their industry, and they're looking for events like Association events, where they're actually going to find more higher paying clients. So it's like like speaking is not only a way to make income, but it's also it's probably more of people who are looking for audiences that are going to grow their business in some way. So getting in front of a large audience is probably the best way to grow your business. And then people see you, they refer you they know someone who needs your help. So yeah, getting getting in front of those events. It's not always about the keynote speaker, but like, who's in the audience? How can they help grow my business? How can I connect with them? It's a lot of networking in this industry, for sure. That's great. Yeah, I think of it. I think I mentioned to you, I came from corporate America at General Mills, and working with retailers all over the country. And I would think about, you know, our sales meetings or our company meetings, and we were exposed to some of the best thought leaders out there. And really, you know, I think that's a tremendous gift in being a part of a big organization or associations that I would be a part of, anyway, you're doing the work, essentially, to match the need with the speaker. And so what I think is really clever about what you've done, and the book that you wrote, you know, it doesn't have to be just people who are in the business of speaking. And so that's really cool. Okay, do you do any speaking yourself? I'm curious. Yeah, actually, I have been getting asked to speak myself more and more. And I was always growing up, I was the one I was kind of the black sheep of the family. Because my, my brother, my dad, my stepmom, they were all really, and they still are, you know, like, I don't want to say enthusiastic because I am enthusiastic. But they're more of the ones that are out front want to be the star of the show type of people. And I'm more of the support system, I really enjoy being the support person. So if I have, I've been getting asked to speak myself. But of course, I want to sell my clients more than I do myself. So for me, I use speaking as an avenue of finding more leads, finding more events, fine, finding more clients, stuff like that. But I have been, I just left Las Vegas actually, it's funny I, I have my souvenir here. I just, I just left Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, because I spoke at game changers, which was, it was an event for speakers, people who want to be speakers and working on their industry getting tips, but also their materials and things. And then I'm speaking again in Orlando, May 27, as well at another event like that. So after my book came out, I've been starting to speak a lot more based off of this book. So that's another tip. Some people will say, do you have to have a book to speak, you don't have to, but honestly, it creates, okay. Obviously, I know what I'm talking about. I wrote the book about it. So people view you as an expert when you have, right. It's just it just kind of increases. And then you can ask for more more pay as well. And then you hand out your books as a like a negotiation tool, or just like a calling card that you can send to people. So I'm not trying to like promote writing a book, but it it does help. And I have seen myself getting a lot more paid speaking events for myself based on whatever since that came out last year. So yeah, in the last year, I've done speaking here and there. But in the last year, I've done more. Yes, I can imagine. It's really, it's it's a fun, I think way too, you know, become an expert to be to kind of build that, you know, they say that when you're teaching someone else you often are, you know, at a different level of expertise. And so you know, you think about that as a as a teaching moment, you're up on a stage or you're in a virtual speaking session, and you're telling everyone how to do something, how to. That's great. Okay, so where do you want to go with this business? I think at point northeast, we often are the shepherds to take our clients from where they've been to where they want to get to. So where is it that you want to get to? Yeah, for me in my business. So I have 20 speakers that are on my call center clients. But then I also have a set number of clients that also use me as their booking agent. And so they call me in whenever they need someone to come in, land, the land the opportunity, put the program agreement together, do the follow up afterwards to get testimonials and referrals to try to build off of that. So I actually really am working toward getting more and more booking agent clients. And it's been going really well over the last four years. So I've had like a handful of clients that have become really exclusive to me that want to use me all the time because I've been able to get them a higher paycheck. I just take care of the details for them so they don't have to do the back and forth and I would love I've been meeting as well like for Sherm. I mean they have reached out to me in the last three years to get their annual keynote speaker. So I want more of those. You know, I want to meet as many meeting professionals, people who hire speakers as possible because I mean, that's how my successes so the More I become a booking agent, the more I get known for the type of speakers that I that all of my speakers are amazing. So I've met them, make sure they're great, make sure they have all the materials that they're going to be really outstanding on the stage. So I just want to be known as that expert that people come to to find the best speaker for their event. So hopefully in about, you know, a couple of years from now, everyone's going to be coming to break their marketing, find their speaker, that's my goal. That's great. That's really great. How big is your team now? I think I have about 10, I've got a, I have a Philippine team that works in Cebu. And so they're actually getting ready to have their three year anniversary party of working with me for three years. And then I have my executive assistant, my social media manager, and my website manager and they all live in the United States. So it's definitely a mix. And if it wasn't for my team, there is no way I can grow this business. And then there's my husband in the background, who helps me with details. I'm more of the dreamer, and he's more of a detail person. So he helps me with my calendar, getting invoices out, you know, all of those little details. So he helps me with that. So that way I intern I can help our clients with their details. Because yeah, so I need someone to take my details as well. You built a family business to your your family did originally. Still speaking? Oh, yeah, he's still speaking. Yeah, he still does really, he's really popular with Electric Co Ops, manufacturing plants, because he's a safety guy. He wrote the book who is responsible for safety. And he has a workshop that he does 52 weeks of safety that he goes and doesn't for, like manufacturing plants or electric utilities to make sure they're ready for OSHA and that they are safe, you know. So his goal is to create zero injuries in any workplace. And so, yeah, he's still very active. There is no way my dad's never gonna stop. He says, I'm going to retire during the pandemic. And I'm like, Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it, because he's one of those people that never stops moving. So now he's actually also has he's an airplane instructor or like a flight instructor, airplane instructor. But yeah, he's a flight instructor as well. So he owns his own flight, instructing. Wow. Yeah, cool. So how are you planning to get more speakers and more event planners? Yeah, so it's just a lot of networking, being on podcast like this really helps I have this. One of the chapters in my book is The Speak monthly methodology. And I also practice what I preach as well, I'm trying to build my business the same way as I'm also helping and consulting with speakers, comedians, consultants, I'm also practicing what I'm preaching as well. So that comes down to a lot of relationship building networking, podcast, finding places for myself to speak as well, whether it's paid or not paid, just being active in the community, because honestly, things turn on a dime in this industry. So I mean, like, every, it seems like every season that comes like spring, fall, and then summer, it the hot topic of the moment changes. So you kind of always have to be involved in the industry, or else you get left behind. So yeah, lots of networking. Well, you Okay, so this is an interesting connection point for us, potentially, as a speaker, I have started a series of coaching for people who want to speak. And yeah, and so I was going to mention to you that, you know, as you get folks that might be interested in building a speaking business, I help coach folks. I run a class that takes about three months, and we build the content and we build, I would say the art of speaking and the business side. Yeah. With Yeah, you don't know what they need. They know that they could be a speaker, they've been asked, because a lot of a lot of speakers, especially ones that aren't just like the big motivational keynote. They start out by usually their company or someone starts asking them to speak and then they realize, hey, I'm pretty good at this. I could do this myself, but they just don't know where to start. So they need someone to help them say, Okay, you need a website. This is what needs to be honest. Let's focus on what are your audience learning objectives? What is your media kit need to have on it? What is you know, you need a demo reel to send out there? And then how do you find and foster leads? That's a huge part of it as well. So no, that's looking at this industry. It's not for the faint of heart and it's not for the any I mean, you really need to be passionate about what you're talking about. It's definitely a long game industry not a get rich quick industry. So it's it's take someone with persistence, tenacity, passion, for sure to make it in this business, but it's totally worth it in the end, like I'm loving, loving, being in the industry. Really great. That's really great. Well, I will be able to, you know, tell folks to go to you and if you come across folks that need help you send them to me and I can make we coach them into the business. Yes, absolutely. So any thing that is keeping you up at night? No, no, I just want to brainstorm in the moment with you. And we haven't rehearsed this answer yet. But I loved this is one of my passion areas. I talk about myself as a positive disrupter. I love helping people with their challenges. So this is the first time I've asked you this, what is keeping you up at night so that I can maybe offer some suggestions? Oh, gosh, okay. Yeah. Let's see what's keeping me up at night. Other than I'm trying to think there are always ways to help someone getting connected as as many times as, you know, as many conversations as possible with like, meeting professionals. So it's always who else can I connect with? Who else can I promote? Who else am I going to be able to sell the speaker, that speaker which comes down to a lot of preparation? And so sometimes I'll be laying in bed and I'll think, Oh, I forgot to ask this person about that, or this person about that? You know, I'm definitely one that I like checklists. So I have, and sometimes it's harder, some, some clients will have all of their stuff ready to go. Some of them need a little more coaching. So I'll send them to you, but the people who need a little more coaching, I would rather send them to an expert like you because I'm so cuz I don't want to be up at night. Yeah, so I work well, of course, everyone does I work well, I've worked better and it works better with me whenever they are prepared to tell them what they need. So we'll, we'll have a discovery call and say, Okay, here's some homework that you need to work on. But we're not going to do it for you. So then I have to send them to experts, like someone to help them edit their demo reel, or put together one sheet or whatever. So yeah, those types of things keep me up at night, because I was like, Are they gonna get that done, and I see them as a really big seller. You know, like, there's, I see a lot of possibility with this person, we just need this last this last bit to get ready to sell them out. So yes, yes. Okay. So I, I love checklists also. So I was trying to think of a way that, you know, what, one of the ways that we often at point in our feast help clients is to help them realize that they can get control of their processes and systems, generally, 80% of the work, you know, is, is able to be kind of documented kind of, encapsulated in, perhaps its one point lessons, perhaps, you know, some people call them like an SOP, a standard operating procedure, whatever it is, and it's documenting it, and it's maybe taking screenshots or whatever. But on the on the kind of the point that you are making, it's pretty much like, We don't ever want anyone to be reliant on their memory. Yes, shoot, I forgot to do X, Y, and Z, we want it to be distilled and documented, so that you have almost like a, it's almost like having training wheels, right, you're not going to fall and hurt yourself, because you have something to help you remember, especially the most imperative, you know, questions or pieces of information that you'll need. So, you know, it actually reminds me when I was back at General Mills all those years ago, we had, you know, certain call centers, our internal folks would have to answer consumer questions and they would call and they would say, I have a question about my Nature Valley granola bar or whatever it was. And we had to have kind of an FAQ document. You can never come up with a list of the answers to every question because you never know. But we were able to get it down to these are the most frequently asked questions right? And then you could you know, come up with so I do think you can get yourself a pretty you know, pretty close I also think you know, bringing your team in with a little bit of vulnerability to say gosh, I can't remember everything so I'm relying on you team to help me remember to ask the people this and to you know, again, I think you can let them in on kind of the I can never remember quite everything helped me by and my team does the same both of my team is used to that by now I'm like, Oh my gosh, what did that person you know, what did that person want to talk about again? Can you remind me in my in my executives is still be like, Oh, she's a potential speaker bobble I'm like, okay, Yuri, you know, you sent me a little text about the person right before I get on a call. Because sometimes I have back to back calls and I don't have time to research someone right before and if I research someone five minutes before the call, I forget if I do it earlier than that. Totally. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It definitely helps me with that. There'll be like, Okay, your next call is with this person hears about them. I'm like, okay, great. Thank you. That's so lovely. I wouldn't be lost with help my team as well. So I can relate. Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, I definitely I think, you know, having a little bit of a, I don't know, I was thinking of a crutch or a training wheel to lean against is a good idea. You know, there's also some tools that are continuing to gather some momentum like AI, like, I mean, some of the digital, you know, systems. But, you know, I think allowing, again, your team to be a part of the solution is one of the best ways that I found and you do have to have, again, that vulnerability to say, I can't do this without you. Yes, we find a lot of business owners, a lot of business founders believe that it is the the converse, that if they tell people, I can't do it all, I don't know all the answers, I'm afraid that I'm going to miss something, that that vulnerability will push people away and make them you know, and it's the opposite. So I think, you know, it sounds like you've done a great job with that. It makes you relatable, you know, like, there was this the talk I went to in Las Vegas, there was a couple of I was the first speaker, and then there was a couple other speakers. And they actually had people get up beforehand, because it was all speakers in the room talking about like their bubbles or mess ups or something started out the event was, we just want you guys to know that it's okay to mess up. And honestly, you are the most pressure on the stage. People don't know that you forgot a story or that you, you know, said something before you planned on saying it. Nobody knows that, but you. And it's okay to have bubbles and mess ups. And it actually makes you more relatable. If someone sees you as perfect. 24/7 they're intimidated by the approachable. That's great. I'm so glad to hear you say that. I mean, it's I've had so many bubbles, I am so relatable. No, me too. Yeah, I have had a couple of funny ones. One time, the sound wasn't connected properly. And I had to actually talk through the videos. So oh, gosh, not my favorite. But it went fine. And the audience loved it. So it was pretty fun. Well, I really appreciate the chance to get to know you and to talk to you. I mean, I hope that you know, in your, in your future, if you need help, you'll remember me. And if you're out there listening and you think you want to be a speaker, I mean Nona is one of the best. And we'll take good care of you as you get your business started. So let's, let's actually tell them good. How to find you. Yeah, there you go. Calm. Yeah. Good. Yes. And, you know, I think any area of speaking and any topic, is that true? Yes, I have a, I have a big list of different ones, I want to be an all in service. So I mean, we have of course, we have leadership, but diversity and HR specialists and all kinds of different ones that I always say the riches are in the niches. So we really specialize with experts in particular industry. So it's people who have a niche, and then an audience that they want to get in front of more. So that's really my perfect client is an expert in a particular industry, because then we know a direction on how to help them mature. So that's really great. That's really great. Well, for for one reason or another, I've become an expert in the law space. So are you Yeah, you'll know, you'll know. It's you never know sometimes like so I had this one conflict resolution speaker Gary, and we sold him to the asphalt and pavement association of Indiana. And he was like, well, that's kind of an odd one, you know, like, asphalt pavement Association. But I tell you, there's an association out there for absolutely everything. And he became their expert. And he ended up at their annual event, he ended up doing their quarter of quarterly events, we made so much money on that asphalt and pavement Association. And so much, and you would think it was so odd, like we sold to the coin laundry association for a client who really loved her and astronaut the next year. So don't be afraid if you think it's too outside of your box. Don't be afraid to think outside your box either. And see what sticks because like you said, you know being in law industry is like you probably you might not have thought that that was a a, an area that you would be speaking to, but you never know what's gonna hit. So you know, kind of try it and see what happens and then go with it. Yeah, I've become an expert on the business of law. And yeah, so that's been pretty fun. So, um, okay. Well, I again, just want to thank you for being a part of this. And, you know, we'll put your website in the show notes so people will have the ability to get ahold of you. And thank you for being such a supporter of speakers like myself and also have clients that are needing some expertise and needing some help to inspire their team or give their team ideas give their team Tools. Those connections are so important. So yeah, well great. Well thank you everyone for listening. Thank you Nona for being here. I hope everyone has a wonderful day. And if you do need help with your business out there, please let me know I am happy to help at any moment you're not alone. It's hard to be an owner. It's sometimes lonely at the top but our point ne team and even just me I'm I'm here to help. So thank you, Nona. Thank you, everybody. Have a good day. You as well. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of level up your business with me, Sarah Frasca. If you have a problem in your business that's keeping you up at night. Please join us in a future episode so we can help get you unstuck. Just clicking the link in the show notes and send us a message. Please remember, stay innovative friends