“Dream, Dare, and Discover. Care, Share, and Inspire.”
~Debasish Mridha
Over time, we have discovered resources that help us provide services to speakers, meeting planners and authors. Never wanting to keep things to ourselves, this page contains links to those resources that we hope will prove helpful to speakers – whether you are one of “ours” or not.
Brian Deckardbrian@deckardandcompany.com
www.deckardandcompany.com
(941) 462-4546
Deckard & Company
There is just no way that this website would exist in its current form if not for Brian Deckard and Devard Web Solutions. (Plus, I would be completely insane!). Before starting on the website for AFS Speaker Management, I had hired Brian to work on four websites for our speakers as well as a website for an external business associate. So I already knew the level of expertise that Brian possesses and I knew that, because he is a WordPress Developer, he would create a custom template and we would end up the exact website I wanted. He understands what speakers need and he listened to me when I wanted some specific functionality. And even though I threw him some curves, he found out how to make things happen for me. I love the fact that I can get my domains from him as well as my hosting. And he is also a great resource for general graphic design for my business papers and speaker one-sheets, and if that wasn’t enough, he is also my print provider. AND can I say that he is one of the nicest people I have the privilege of having on the AFS team.
www.espeakers.comsupport@espeakers.com
Toll-Free: 888-377-3214
eSpeakers
The eSpeakers software program is, without question, one of the most important tools in my business. There are several functions of eSpeakers and I use them all. I first began using eSpeakers in 2005. Back then it was exclusively an event management program but they have grown beyond that. There is still all of the who, what, where, when, why, and how much for each individual event. The customizable Action Item function makes sure that nothing slips through the cracks. The Marketplace Profile that is generated as a part of each speaker’s subscription generates an outstanding bureau-friendly website. Meeting Professionals International started using the Marketplace Profile to populate their internal directory. The website for national NSA uses your profile as do most NSA chapters. If you aren’t using eSpeakers, you aren’t getting in front of the people who need to see you. Alliance for Success is using this same Marketplace Profile to generate our own internal directory as well. If you aren’t on eSpeakers, click here and you can try the Pro version for 60 days for only $10! We are NOT affiliates of eSpeakers. We could be but decided that since we require all of our speakers to subscribe, I didn’t want there to be a conflict of interest.
How we choose our recomended resources
Any resources we recommend in the spaces below are resources we have an affiliate relationship with. So, full disclosure, should you create a paid account with any of these resources, we’ll get a wee bit of money. All affiliate earnings are subsequently donated to the Blue Ridge Discovery Center in my late brother’s name. BRDC is a non-profit dedicated to exploring, discovering, and sharing the natural history of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Get 30 Days Outstand from Kate
Outstand (Formerly Ace of Sales)
Originally created as Ace of Sales by Jeffrey Gitomer. Now known as Outstand, it is a great tool that creates customized, personalized emails that make for a superior follow-up tool. It’s easy to use and it keeps my emails from looking like every other email that meeting planners get. I am an affiliate of Outstand and that means you get to try it for 30 days for free.
Airtable
Airtable is a fantastic collaboration tool for everything from social media planning to app creation. It’s a spreadsheet on steroids and it gives you many options to include photos, graphics, and automation. You can invite your team members and clients to collaborate with you and it’s FREE for the most part unless you have a lot of records to wrangle or if you need to upload attachments larger than 2gb.
This is just a sample of the resources that are used by the AFS team. More will be added soon! If you’d like an update when we add more resources, please fill out the contact form below. We will only update you once each month so as not to fill up your inbox!
If you are looking for something specific, please let us know!
Deckard & Company!