All Speakers, please read this page before contacting us. Short or long versions below:
Short Version:
-Talent relationships are the lifeblood of my business. I enjoy making new connections and cultivating the ones I’ve had for decades. That said, I wear a lot of hats and can’t be interrupted constantly by unsolicited pitches and “check-ins”. Like anyone, I need to focus on tasks, or may be on client calls or attending events. Or just having lunch, chatting with a colleague. Please respect the following:
-No cold calls accepted. I never make or take them.
-Have one or more sample videos. A must for all my clients.
-Kindly read below to see how I like to be approached (by email only) and what I need to know.
-Be easy to reach and responsive
-Be flexible when negotiating and onsite.
-Have quality virtual/online + in-person presentation skills, sales materials, home studio and modern technology savvy. We don’t recommend or book beginners.
-Promenade is a broker, which typically doesn’t exclusively rep talent. Some exceptions. If you need a dedicated agent, we can refer you to a few.
-Our event planning clients have stressful jobs with increasing demands from clients. My bureau is often in competitive situations to book talent. Please don’t have riders that impose extra staffing, financial or over-the-top “sustainability” burdens on clients. More on that last one below. If you do, I need to know them in advance as they will likely disqualify you from being part of our proposals.
-I provide formal advisory for speakers: Bureau Advisory for Speakers – A Paid Service
-A 2024 interview I did on the business of speaking, especially relevant for talent just getting started:
Here’s trends you can use to build your career:
Espeakers CEO Dave Reed: IMEX 2024 Trends for Speakers
Long version:
Unsolicited Speaker Introductions:
Please never cold call us to pitch yourself or the speaker you represent. Do not call to check just to “followup” or see if “we have anything coming up for you”. Emails only.
Please don’t hit us up on weekends or holidays.
To check status of a date hold we’ve made for a client proposal – please email us.
When we lose a proposal, we email all participating speakers so they can clear their calendars.
Please don’t ask to connect on LinkedIn unless we’ve booked you to speak – even then no assurances. Generic invites without a note of introduction aren’t usually considered.
Please don’t send a bunch of unsolicited books. 1-2 max. Ask for my physical mail address. It changed a few years ago. I’m no longer in Brooklyn, NY
Before contacting us, please read this section thoroughly and then e-mail us if appropriate. Just about any bureau will want something similar. Please include:
- a cover note that succinctly and clearly tells how you can build the business of our bureau and our clients. Claiming be “great”, “unique”, “motivational”, “want more bookings”, “want to get into the business” lacks credibility. Our only goal is to match our clients with the most appropriate speaker, not to get more bookings for any particular speaker.
- a link to a demo video of live and/or virtual presentations.
- highlight your virtual presentation offerings – video samples are highly encouraged so clients feel comfortable with this mode.
- clear, compelling speech topic descriptions (not just the title)
- What client problems do you solve? What solutions do you provide? What opportunities can you identify? More than ever, that’s what clients want to know.
- fee schedule (be clear on whether this is “net” or “gross/commissionable”.
- biography in paragraph form – kindly do not forward a resume, LinkedIn profile or C.V.
- bureau friendly (lacking your contact info) marketing materials/one-sheets.
- any special offers.
- do I book through you or a designated agent or management firm.
We strongly prefer Microsoft word format, not PDFs for documents. If PDFs, they should allow us to cut and paste to other documents.
Here’s something I never talk about in professional settings. Unfortunately, it’s an emerging reality of the 2023+ conflict between Israel versus Hezbollah, Iran and Gaza:
One of the biggest benefits of having your own business is choosing who you work with. I’m proud to be an American Jew and strong lifelong supporter of Israel. You could characterize me as Zionist. That’s sometimes reflected in my social media presence. For those few who advocate/excuse discrimination, boycotts, harassment or incitement to violence against Jews or Israelis, we won’t be working with each other.
Want to build a relationship?:
-Very occasionally, email us non-promotional content for our enewsletter, social media posts and other client communications. Please do not subscribe us to weekly or very regular e-communications/newsletters. Don’t spam us with communications that aren’t relevant to a bureau (e.g. asking us to attend your public seminar, get coached, buy your book).
-Do Introduce one or more of your clients to us who you didn’t get from another bureau. This is a two-way relationship. If you’ve been booked a lot, you likely have contacts we can cultivate too.
-Share our social media content with your business networks, kindly attributing to “Mike Taubleb, Owner – Promenade Speakers Bureau”.
-Invite us to participate in interviews, podcasts, related forums that will increase our exposure to potential clients or trade media.
-Have value added offers we can share with our clients who hire you, such as free books, free or lower-fee speeches with book purchase, free post-event webinars or other reinforced learning, coaching, etc. Be creative!
-Refer us to trade media contacts who can feature our bureau’s educational content (business, meetings and events, healthcare, insurance, financial services).
-Record short promotion videos when we ask you to participate in a proposal.
-Refer all spinoff inquiries to us from bookings we’ve arranged. I can’t overstress the importance of this expectation. This is industry standard and something we’ve earned. We’ll eventually find out when this has not been honored.
Here’s what kind of talent we work with:
1) Experienced speakers (minimum of 25-100+ paid bookings under your belt, $7,500 – $10,000+ fee/booking).
2) You should have quality sample videos sharable via link. It must show you delivering a keynote or workshop in front of a live and/or virtual audience. TV interviews, podcasts and self-recorded courses or tutorials don’t count. Please don’t have your contact info all over the video.
3) You have both in-person and virtual programs and flexibility to transition from one to the other as unexpected (force majeure) circumstances dictate. Virtual pricing should generally be lower than in-person until the market recognizes the time needed to prepare them. Virtual keynotes tend to be shorter these days (about 30 – 45 minutes). You have a quality home studio for virtual programs and/or access to a local commercial studio.
4) Will work across the US and open to overseas bookings, easy to reach and quick to acknowledge inquiries (within 24 hours).
5) Charge clients same through bureau as client going direct to you. Aka: bureau-friendly.
6) Have interactive content formats for all formats – including Virtual, Hybrid and webinars. Know the differences. Have access to professional grade production studios, should the need arise. Make sure your virtual content and interactive elements are developed with intent for online audiences, not simply a superficially adapted version of in-person.
7) Refer spinoff business to our bureau. I cannot over-emphasize how important this is to maintaining trust and a long-term relationship. If you don’t, and I find out, our working relationship is over.
8) A fit with any of our major specialties is a plus – though not a must: healthcare, insurance, financial services, tech, the future, retail.
9) Offer something different than on our roster or at different pricing or address a hot topic.
10) Be flexible and easy to work with in preparation for the engagement and especially onsite. Unless you are being asked to do something that is a major breach of our speaking agreement with client, it is better to give the benefit of doubt to client. If you are not sure of how to handle a situation, please contact us at any time, including from the event. The professional courtesy extended to clients, should extend to their vendors and sponsors. Please do not make last minute, uncontracted requests requiring client to scramble (example – inviting guests, food and drink not previously requested, changing time slots, etc.). You could do a great job speaking, but if you are difficult to work with and throw in unwelcome surprises, we’re not going to work together again.
11) Please do not expect to sell your products or services from the stage (in-person or virtual). If you want to sell your products, we must first get explicit approval from client prior to our submitting the speaking agreement. Even, if they ok this arrangement, you should not be actively selling your products or services from the platform. Let the client mention you will be available after the speech for selling your product, where and when. You should devote as much time as needed to meeting the audience after your speech to talk about whatever they have on their mind – prior to proceeding to your product table. Under no circumstances are you to enlist the client or their vendors to help with onsite transactions. If you need an assistant to handle this, bring them in – at your cost. If the event is in NY City, I may be able to assist you ourselves.
12) If any audience member or client asks for booking information during or after the event, you should refer them solely to me. Our contact information should be on your handouts for this purpose. I will follow up any leads and manage bookings that arise. If non-speaking opportunities arise (e.g. coaching, master-classes, consulting, writing), we’ll review with you how to handle on a case-by-case basis.
13) Consider posting your profile on espeakers.com. For a nominal cost, you will get a professionally designed template with your bio, topics, testimonials, photo, calendar, video. Every time you update that info, we (and other booking entities) will automatically have access to it. Make sure you note your virtual programs. Visitors to our site will be much more likely to find you if you are on espeakers.com. Contact us for a link to get started.
14) If you are concerned enough about COVID or other communicable conditions to require all audiences and event/catering staff to mask, we must know that before pitching you to clients. You may have good personal reasons to be cautious. However, that kind of mandate is impossible to expect nor enforce in 2023 and beyond. We suggest you limit engagements to online-only until you’re comfortable in-person without mask mandates. An exception could be asking those who approach you 1-on-1 to wear a mask.
15) Do not require or ask clients to “consider” adjusting their event planning, staffing, production or budgets to meet your “sustainability” riders and/or ethical sensibility. It’s fine to ask for plant-based meals for yourself or advise your own use of electric cars, taking a train vs a plane, etc. But do not expect them to source, plan, produce, engage a “sustainability” expert or the like. If you have that kind of rider, we will not submit it to client nor expect them to comply. More importantly, you need to share that rider with us when we first approach you, before we propose you to clients.
Here are some recent examples of “sustainability requirements” that disqualify you not only from our bureau but probably most other corporate and association buyers: a carbon reduction plan, a power audit, zero waste to landfill plastic mandates, requiring all sponsors to be ethically aligned with speaker, client to provide carbon cost differences between transport/lodging modes, event team can’t eat offsite, etc. A better alternative would be you limit yourself to online-only forums.
Please note:
- We do not plan or produce events.
- We do not charge speakers, except when we book them. An industry standard commission is then deducted from each fee payment. That percentage may vary depending on circumstances. Over 20 years, we’ve invested plenty of time, funds and reputation developing opportunities and expect fair compensation.
- We are available to advise speakers on a paid basis: Bureau Advisory for Speakers – A Paid Service
- Our clients’ audiences are typically employees, leadership, their customers or professionals, not the general public nor those aged under 21.
- We do not guarantee any amount of bookings.
- We do not typically exclusively represent speakers. Promenade operates as a neutral talent broker, not an agent. If you need that kind of representation, we can refer you to some proven agents.
- We cannot meet speakers, except ones who have longer term productive relationships with us, regular bookings and who happen to visit NYC – with advance notice. Or maybe when we’re in your home city on business.
After you connect with us:
If there looks like a fit, we’ll contact you and may ask for more support materials. If not, we will try to reply but cannot promise to do so. If we don’t respond immediately, we may retain your info for the right opportunity, whether it is weeks or years later. We rely on several speaker databases. Similarly, we do not post web profiles for every speaker who contacts us, even if we intend to recommend you in the future.
*Contact us for Current Mail Address for 2022 onwards! (via US Postal Service or Overnight Deliveries)
*Please don’t use any Brooklyn addresses, verizon emls or 718 phone numbers. We no longer access them.
