I love creating dangerously well-informed speakers.

Welcome! My name is Amy Gray and I’m based in the non-exclusive speaking mecca of Marblehead Massachusetts USA.  It is a gorgeous seaside town that borders the far more famous town of Salem, epicenter of all things witchy.  Marblehead is home to all the freelance private speaker’s agents in the world.  All one of us. 

That’s a lonely number, so writing gives me an outlet for my intrusive thoughts, non-snarky wisdom, candid advice, and self-deprecating humor. I hope it also serves as a carrier pigeon to reach more likeminded people.

People who can laugh at themselves and want to learn a whole lot about lucrative paid speaking in the process.  Sound like you?
Great.

The name of this blog borrows from the term ‘hot mic’ – a microphone accidentally left on, capturing information that the person near the mic didn’t intend to share with the world.  This information can be funny, endearing, destructive, and embarrassing – but it is always revealing.  When you peel away the shell of ‘public persona,’ the inner layer provides a more interesting twist.  So, in that revealing spirit, I’ll share info here that helps you optimize your paid speaking business.  Information you likely won’t hear anywhere else.  In fact, I might tell you something that another party wishes I didn’t – but you need it to be dangerously well-informed.

My favorite kind of speaker.
A dangerously well-informed speaker is one who possesses agency.
The ability to make informed decisions in their own best interest and act on them.

I wanted a blog name that could offer a laugh in a serious world

Let me know how I did.

what you’ll gain here

I’ll share my thoughts on lucrative paid speaking – and what truly works, vs. what is simply hype.  I’ll dispel some of the myths around professional representation, speaking fees, what constitutes a great speaker, and so much more. Most of all, I want to share content that you enjoy reading, learn from, and apply. My wisdom and perspective are hard won.  I’ve been carrying my shield into battle in the business world for more than three decades now — and it is banged up and scarred, yet still solid.

I’d like to think it’s better to listen to the warrior with the banged up shield — over the warrior carrying the pristine shield which implies they’ve never been tested.

my perspective comes from unusual sources.  Here’s the proof:

I’ve been accumulating insights around events since I worked at Babson College in the Office of Career Services as part of my work-study program.  Then, in 1994, as a recent college grad, I joined Peak Performance Development where I was (among many hats I wore)…..The Hose Girl.

I sprayed people’s feet with water at the finish line of Corporate Firewalks.
It was exciting and vital work.
So many people delighted to see me.

Especially the woman who forgot she was wearing pantyhose until she stepped on the coals and her hose burst into flames.
I was on it in a flash, and, thankfully, she did not need to be taken away in an ambulance.

My bosses were a pair of young entrepreneurial brothers named Mark and Scott Magnacca and together we ran a lot of those events.
Mark served as the hype-man keynote speaker and Scott ran the deal-making.

Until we received a Cease & Desist Letter from Tony Robbins International…. but that is a story for another time. 

I worked in events on the hosting and keynote buying side for consecutively larger events until I was the Director of Global Conferences at Giga Information Group with a large department in Norwell MA and a multi-million dollar budget for producing a slate of for-profit conferences.  After a few years, I decided to launch my own business and provided two-months’ notice before jumping into the fray as New Leaf Productions, a freelance conference production company.

My first official day in business was September 10, 2001.
9/11 happened the next day.

All the contracts lined up to cover me for the next year had Force Majeure clauses that allowed for cancellation due to acts of ‘war, terrorism, God,’ etc.  Overnight, I had no income and no idea how I was going to make it. No one was flying and no events were being held. Lucky for me, I had a friend, Kevin Mitnick, whom I hired to speak at a conference in 2000.  He spent 3 years on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and went to jail for nearly 5 years.  I hired him for his first paid speech.  The story for how I ultimately became Kevin’s personal speaking agent and built the business you see today is here.

Since then, I’ve specialized in building lucrative, selective paid speaking businesses for many VIP’s who love non-exclusivity and hate complexity, overhead, and getting fleeced.
People like Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple, Blake Mycoskie, Founder of TOMS, and TED All-Star, Aimee Mullins.  In all, that’s 31 years spent focused on lucrative paid speaking — as a buyer and as bespoke representation, working directly for a select few. What a ride it has been…and it is a long way from being over.

the journey has been, frankly, terrifying for years on end…but I’m a lunatic who doesn’t give up

The pandemic forced a full reboot of so many industries. By 2019, I thought my hungry start-up years were long behind me, and my most lucrative, productive years had arrived.  I was in for the most painful and arduous surprise of my career.

A few stats:
From 2020 – 2023, our household income dropped 90%.
I closed my office in Burlington Vermont.
I closed my office in Marblehead Massachussetts.
I reluctantly laid off the dedicated team I spent years building.
I raided my retirement funds.
I tapped into PPP government funding.
I borrowed money under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and my husband and I used our 2 homes as collateral.

I hung on, waiting for the pandemic to recede so business could resume as normal.
Events rescheduled, events cancelled, clients opted to retire, or hire a full-time person to manage their speaking as a salaried employee.

I remained hopeful.
In 2023, finally emerging from the long shadow of the pandemic, I realized that the business of representation and paid speaking had changed.

I needed to change.  But how?  I didn’t know.

I iterated.
I pivoted.
Some things worked.
Many, many things didn’t.

I was in start-up mode again. And again. And again.
But now, I was not a 29 year old founder with no mortgage, no kids and no spouse to support.
I was in my 50’s, the primary breadwinner, mother of a pre-teen son, with a spouse in his mid-70’s, two mortgages, and a lot of corporate debt.

I was terrified. Stakes were SO high.
But my determination was higher. 
Finally, slowly, over the past couple of years, things began to click again.  I’m still in active rebuild, but enthusiasm is afoot. I have a deep desire to spotlight the successes and struggles along the way – as a way to humanize and reassure. I’m filled with energy to share what I’ve learned to help others — with their paid speaking, their life restart, their business idea, or their career reinvention.

Come along with me?

If you like what you read, please consider subscribing to this blog, sharing posts with others who want to be dangerously well-informed, and meet me on Instagram or LinkedIn.