We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gail Davis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Gail, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

We are a service company with an industry model that has established speaker fees. The speakers pay the same set commission to all bureaus. There is little room for negotiations. Unlike a company that manufactures a product, the margins are very low. That is our starting point. Then you add in the great resignation and the need to fairly compensate employees and provide competitive benefits….it requires steady growth to be competitive. Pushing for growth is not always well received by the team. Everyone is tired from the super challenging two year of dealing with the global pandemic. It was a very uncertain time with cancellations, reschedules and learning all things virtual. That being said, we are seeing a real shift and the excitement of in person events and the volume of requests is energizing.

Gail, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I founded GDA Speakers in 1999 after a wonderful 20 year career at EDS. Over the past two decades we have built so many rewarding and solid relationships with speakers and clients. Our model is very client focused. I often compare it to the real estate industry. Some like to be the listing agent and others prefer the role of buyer’s agent. At GDA Speakers we are client focused. Our goal is to be the “go-to” every time our client needs a speaker. It is critical that we maintain an industry reputation of integrity which gives us so much access for our clients. When we “co-broker” we make less money. I have never been concerned with the economics on a single deal. I like to step back and consider the long haul.

I am most proud of the quick decision making and resiliency GDA Speakers exhibited during the pandemic. There was no roadmap for us, speakers, or clients. We quickly adopted processes and learned everything about virtual. We maintained a forward focus and remained profitable. Our goal was to resolve each event impacted by the pandemic with empathy and fairness to both the speaker and the client. Solutions ranged from converting to virtual, rescheduling, or negotiating a cancellation fee. We still have 8% of the events that were impacts that are yet to be resolved. I have promised my team a huge celebration when all of these are in our rear view mirror.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

I once helped one of my primary speakers find a literary agent in NYC and subsequently went on all of the interviews with potential publishers. He wrote his first book and it debuted as #10 on the NY Times Bestseller list. After months of success, he got a letter from the publisher that, given the success, the decision was made to publish in soft copy. Then in small print it offered him an unbelievable price on all remaining hardback copies.

I knew how popular he was as a speaker and I knew almost every client purchased books so I took a risk. I bought all the remaining inventory! The truck arrived and there were pallets of books everywhere. My entire three car garage had books, my attic, my office it was unbelievable.

We developed a strategy that was a win win for GDA and for our clients. We sold the books at a deep discount from what was listed on the cover jacket of the hardback and at the same time we were making in some instances a 400% markup. I think it took years to sell the inventory!

How’d you meet your business partner?

A better question for me is how I met speakers.

Nando Parrado – I was issued a challenge by the Chairman of EDS in 1994 to find a speaker that was new and different. I watched the movie Alive and decided to find Nando Parrado who was portrayed by actor, Ethan Hawke. I went to all the speakers bureaus to no avail. It is a wonderful story about how I tracked him down in 1994 before there was Google. That started a relationship that led to me opening my business. He continues to be my #1 booked speaker.

Kristina Wandzilak and Constance Curry – I attended an event at my church in Colleyville. I heard their story and knew immediately it would have appeal to my clients. That was in 2008 and I have had the pleasure of working with them since.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gdaspeakers.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gdaspeakers/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GDAspeakers
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gda-speakers
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GDASpeakers
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/GDAspeakers/feed
• Other: Gail on Podcasts https://www.gdaspeakers.com/about/newsroom/