Jennifer Urwin is the founder of Speakers Club Representation and The ClubCalendar, with a background as a speaker agent and lifelong small business owner, she has worked within the speaking industry for many years.
Speakers can join her service, which in turn helps them grow their business and find the right speaking engagements. Every month she organizes events that bring associations, corporations and other groups, looking to bring in an outside speaker to address their organization on a particular topic, together with speakers, who can fill that need.
On a monthly basis she identifies over 200 events that need presenters that cover a variety of topics.
“I put speakers directly into a relationship building opportunity with event planners, with a full detailed list of who they are, what’s their mission, who’s the right contact? What is their newest topic list, or hot topics that they’re looking for?”
These relationships and speaking engagements are for opportunities six months to 13 months in advance of the actual meeting. It’s crucial that the pitch to planners be made during this timeframe.
Over the years Jennifer has also learned that it is important for her to limit the number of speakers that she works with.
“We maintain an exclusive speaker listing and limit it. We are more about providing a high-end service than we are about having a large number of speakers. We study every single event before we launch the new month to assure it is aimed at the right speaker for the right event, plus the dates are correct, before we release it.”
To keep everyone on the same page, she created ‘The Club Calendar’ to keep speakers and events organized.
Jennifer doesn’t require signed contracts from her clients. Her service is based on a monthly fee. During the summer months, when families want to take vacation time, subscriber numbers drop, but after Labor Day, speakers once again want to fill their calendars and her numbers increase accordingly.
“We work one-on-one and are extremely flexible. We can easily adjust to our client’s life changes. We talk with them and help them. We are a resource for speakers, as well. They can always call me with questions, plus we provide tutorials. It’s a one-on-one personal relationship.”
One of the add-ons that comes with membership in The Club Calendar is Jennifer’s tutorial called The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch. Many speakers send out a monthly newsletter, or engage in a marketing drip campaign that says the same thing to everyone.
“We recommend that each speaker customize their marketing approach. Before they do any outreach, we provide them with the information to be more successful, such as their prospect’s mission, problem areas, who did they hire to speak last year, etc.? Using this information, the speaker can capture the attention of the reader of their email (or the person on the phone line) in the very first paragraph.”
Jennifer also helps the speakers improve their presentation so that when they get a new gig, they actually deliver a worthwhile presentation, and that organization will want that speaker to come back for a future event.
“It’s not always about a website, or speaker one sheet. Can you speak on stage, what is your ‘proof of performance?’ What is your opening promise statement and is it on topic? What can you do for them? What problem can you solve for your audience? What are the key takeaways?”
Jennifer also recommends that any speaker create a short, three minutes, or less, video that shows who they are and what they can deliver to a prospective speaking engagement.
“Clients want to get a vibe for that speaker’s style and presentation. The video can be snippets of prior speaking engagements, but it must be well edited and fit together nicely. Maybe pieces of a Q&A at the end of a talk, not just talking, talking, talking. Keep it interesting.”
The ClubCalendar is mostly associations looking for speakers, but it also has industry and corporation opportunities. Both Healthcare and Sales organizations are constantly seeking speakers to educate employees on leadership, customer engagement, plus with the new post-COVID business help teach salespeople to meet, build relationships and sell via the internet.
The ClubCalendar provides three levels of involvement. depending on how much time and help the speaker would like to receive during each month. She suggests a new speaker come in at the first level, learn what is required and then move up as their business grows.
“We try and keep it simple for our speakers. We provide tutorials and explain that they must spend the time, follow the links, learn the information and educate themselves to build a successful speaking business. If they whiz through it and don’t work it properly, they will not be successful. Nothing is easy.”
Jennifer lived in Mexico for six years, but currently resides in Canada. Aside from working with her speaking clients, she loves to travel. She recently moved to a property with four acres to be able to grow more of her own food and become more self-sufficient. She is a fun-loving person, with an active lifestyle, who enjoys being outdoors.
Jennifer has worked in the speaking industry for several years and recognized that speakers need help finding engagements and to take control of their businesses. She also received an award from ‘Women Rocking the Web Issued by Women in Ecommerce.’
Our interview with Jennifer has many more tips for speakers. You can watch it on YouTube or listen on iTunes.
To contact Jennifer and learn more about The ClubCalendar visit the website: www.theclubcalendar.net.
