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Vickie's Background
Vickie Sullivan is nationally recognized as the top market strategist
for experts on the professional speaking circuit. She speaks throughout
the U.S. and Canada about speaker selection trends in high-fee markets
and strategies that position experts for those venues, and is one
of the top-ranked speakers at Mark Victor Hansen's "Mega Speaking"
events. Her market intelligence updates are distributed to experts
in the U.S. as well as 17 different countries. Sullivan has served
twice on the editorial board for Professional Speaker Magazine ,
and her articles about the speaking market have been published in
other publications such as Presentations magazine and the Handbook
of Business Strategy . Sullivan also has been quoted in mainstream
media such as Fortune.com, The New York Times and Investor's Business
Daily. Her groundbreaking work has earned her an appointment on
the Kennedy School, Women's Leadership Board at Harvard.
Vickie opened the doors of Sullivan Speaker Services in February 1987, in search of experts who make the world a better place. With her background in positioning political issues, fundraising and creating a corporate speakers bureau for a non-profit healthcare association, Vickie found her niche in packaging the brilliance of experts to make a bigger impact. Want to know the inside scoop? Below are commonly asked questions about Vickie and her background.
How did you get into the speaking industry?
In my previous life, I worked on ballot campaigns for a health association in Arizona. I started out in public relations, establishing a speakers’ bureau and a rapid response system for media coverage for my organization. After a year or two, I moved to government affairs and spent a lot of time at the state legislature where I headed up grassroots efforts and made complicated political issues easy for people to act on.
After four years, I wanted to be an advocate for something else, a cause that would help more people. I saw an ad to be an agent and promoter for a personal growth speaker and got that job. Within a week, I knew I had found my passion: being an advocate for the messengers. Within three weeks, I had begun working with two speakers full time. And the rest, as they say, is history…
So you began as an agent. Why did you decide to become a consultant to experts?
After being active in the marketplace for three years, I noticed trends no one else talked about. I would give advice to prospective clients about how to position their expertise based on this information, thinking they would hire me as their agent. Instead, a few adopted my strategies and hired a teenager to make sales calls. Until that happened, it never occurred to me that someone else could implement my ideas! So in 1990, I decided to separate the “advice” work from the “agent” work. By charging fees for this new positioning, I didn’t take it personally if an expert wanted to implement without me.
Why didn’t you become a speakers’ bureau instead of an agent?
Bureau folks are great and I respect what they go through to get bookings. They are more focused on the buyers, the folks who hire speakers, than they are on the speakers. I wanted to focus on the experts themselves and work with those I felt passionate about.
Are you still an agent?
No, I gave up agenting for consulting full-time in 1998. It was a HUGE change for me personally. I loved being an agent, but found that my consulting clients generated three times more revenue by implementing my positioning themselves than what I could bring in working the phones for speakers. (I’m so bad at math, it took me almost a year to run the numbers and compare the outcomes.) I realized I would never be able to duplicate the results the consulting clients were getting by dialing for dollars.
It was a tough decision, leaving the comfortable, steady work of agenting for short-term consulting projects. Yet it has turned out to be the best decision I ever made. Because of it, I now know how my clients feel as they hover in mid-air without a safety net.
What did you learn from making that change?
I learned that if I let go, I could find so much more than I had before just waiting for me.
How did you decide to start a business?
Decide? It never occurred to me to start a business. I just assumed a speaker would hire me. But once again, I benefited from a happy accident.
I had agented for speakers as an independent contractor for two years when my only client at the time decided to not pay the $25,000 in commissions she owed me. That taught me up-close-and-personal what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket.
I needed cash in a hurry, so I sent out 100 letters to speakers I knew announcing that I was available to take on new consulting clients. Unknown to me, many speakers knew that my work with a former client led to a tripling of her fee in six months. So within 24 hours of sending out my letter, my phone began ringing. And within a couple of weeks, my schedule was booked with four speakers. That’s how Sullivan Speaker Services was born.
What keeps you working with experts?
Two things: variety and research.
First, I love the variety of my work. No two clients are alike, so I’m never bored. And our gifts can be used in so many ways. What a client wants from their expertise points down a path that works uniquely for that person. The fun begins when I get to find the single most profitable path and positioning for that expert.
Second, I’m an information junkie. I love to learn and there are so many brilliant people out there to learn from. So clients get the help they need from me and I get to learn from them. A match made in heaven!!
What do you like the most about experts?
I love their optimism. There is no other profession more trusting in the human spirit as experts who are willing to share their message with others. I also admire their courage. Experts are willing to do what everyone else dreads – step into the spotlight and convey their true message. It’s a vulnerable place up there to be so open and public with their own truth.
What exactly do you do for your clients?
As a market strategist, I help them get more value out of their expertise. I intersect their message, linked to who they are, with what the marketplace wants. I live and breathe the marketplace so my clients can use the latest analysis to make business decisions about how their "expertise empire" can work for them. I also have tools and processes that help them implement that strategy and generate revenue quickly.
Bottom line: I make sure the marketplace serves the expert as much as the expert serves the marketplace.
Why is that important?
First, I believe in the power of reciprocity. When one person gives, he or she should also get. That exchange creates the tide that lifts all boats. Because many experts either aren’t clear about what they want or don’t think they can get it, they tend to settle for less.”
Second, everyone needs someone who believes in them, who is willing to go to bat for them. My job is to be their advocate, to make sure they get what they want out of the deal. And the best way to get what they want is to make sure they give full value to their most profitable market.
You advise experts on making changes to create more value for their audiences. What have you changed to offer additional value to your clients?
For many years, there were only two ways folks could work with me – (1) the “do it yourself” way through product development or (2) the “let Vickie do all the work” way through an intense “turbo-charge-me” project that defined the most profitable path to get there.
In 2001, I finally understood that many experts needed something in between these two. So, I’ve lightened up and have created more options. The in-depth project is still my most popular offer and my market assessment is doing well, too.
The biggest change is how I’m working with clients on an ongoing basis on implementation issues, which has really helped my clients in this changing marketplace.
Yes, the world of expertise is changing. What lies ahead?
Two major forces have already turned the market on its ear – and I think the churning isn’t over yet.
First, experts who speak and write for free and bank on back-end product and service sales have many organizations believing they don’t need to pay experts. But attendees and readers are getting too used to being pitched, so I look for fewer experts to get good results from their pro bono speaking and writing.
Second, corporate America is using speaking as a branding tool, so I see more PR firms getting into the speaking business and even helping experts get more bookings.
Professional speakers are going to have a harder time getting paid if they don’t get more cutting-edge and more visible. And that’s where I do my best work!
There is more to life than business. Do you have hobbies or other interests?
When I got married in 1994, I discovered a life beyond working 24/7. My family is very involved in crafting, so I started there to find a hobby. Nothing really captured my passion until I stumbled onto scrapbooking in 2000. Now I’m addicted, and have made tribute scrapbooks for family members and a “love story” book for my husband Larry and me about our dating years. It’s a lot of fun and allows me to put my other passion – photography – to good use.
Also, I developed a love for cooking in college and now grow my own herbs and vegetables. And Larry brought cats into my life, so now I have two “babies” Tigger and Jaz. Between them, my family and friends, my business and scrapbooking, my life is fabulously full.
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