“I help celebrities manage speaking in-house using my expertise, proven processes, and insider knowledge. I optimize, empower, and exit. Easy. Excellent. Awesome.”
Hi! I'm Amy Gray - and here are a few of the authors who've worked with me.
My clients are highly-visible VIPs who love independence
Attract attention and prefer handling your speaking in-house? My work makes it easy to skip the School of Hard Knocks and move from ‘winging it’ to world-class in months versus years. Since 2001, I’ve built bespoke, lucrative paid speaking businesses for high profile folks who wanted an alternative to traditional, exclusive representation. They leverage all the perks of non-exclusivity, gain protection from skimming, and understand how to optimize offers from event hosts AND the global bureau network. Once equipped, I exit and they reap the rewards indefinitely.
WHAT I DO
I specialize in self-representation/non-exclusivity for speaking and have spent 24 years using that wisdom to help high profile individuals – and their staff- handle their speaking in-house, with non-exclusivity at the center. I create individuals WITH agency: Their own. I join their team for a defined period of time, assess how speaking is handled now and develop a customized Bridge that takes them from where they are now with speaking to where they want to be. I optimize, implement, empower, and exit. My clients fly solo after that.
Who LEANS ON ME
Highly visible VIP’s who prize non-exclusivity and independence as an alternative to traditional, exclusive representation. They want to shortcut the lengthy School of Hard Knocks and get to the good stuff faster. My framework and deep industry expertise — from both the event host AND speaker agent perspective – ensures their speaking business operates at peer level, or better, than professional representation through a 3rd party entity.
Who respects mY WORK
All current and former clients, event hosts who’ve considered or hired my clients to speak, speaker bureaus, and talent agencies. Over the past 24 years, I’ve built an extensive network of more than five hundred individual agents from around the world. This network, plus my on-going membership in the International Association of Speaker Bureaus (even though I don’t run a bureau!) has provided thousands of inquiries and tens of millions of dollars in speaking deals for my boutique roster of clients. My process encourages inquiries and offers from event hosts and bureaus alike because I understand what each group needs from high profile speakers and their staff. My approach amplifies deal flow. As a result, my clients can be very selective and intentional about which opportunities to accept.
Who could benefit from my work?
Attract attention and love independence? You are my people.
I specialize in helping those who attract a lot of attention handle their speaking in-house vs. a traditional, exclusive bureau or agency model. My new Bridge Service gives them a time-bounded, efficient and effective shortcut around the lengthy and risky School of Hard Knocks.
If someone isn’t currently attracting the level of attention and in-bound inquiries they desire, the Bridge service isn’t right step. That’s where my Category of One service, described here and here, offers relief. That process offers laser focus on their ‘highest/best’ combination of expertise and obsession to discover their unbeatable lane for paid speaking- the one only they could provide. Clarity around their Category of One attracts attention, opportunities and increases speaking fees. I built my Category of One process after observing what led some of my clients’ to achieve multi-millions annually from selective, well-paid speaking, while others attained much more modest success.
Convert High Social Media Followership Into Lucrative Speaking
- 50k+ followers on Instagram OR LinkedIn – with focused content that provides your unique, proven relief to a ‘migraine-level’ headache faced by corporate audiences right now?
- 250k+ followers on any other social media platform – with focused content that provides your unique, proven relief to a ‘migraine-level’ headache faced by corporate audiences right now?
- 1M+ followers and clear mastery of your field – you might be an athlete, actor, musician, singer, writer, political figure, photographer, scientist, creator, restaurateur, shaman — really anything. Visibility attracts opportunity.
Publishing (but not self-publishing) A Non-Fiction Book that Solves a Painful Business Problem?
If you are publishing a non-fiction book aimed squarely at a ‘migraine-level’ headache faced by corporate audiences right now, the Bridge will allow you and your team to capitalize on the buzz and in-bound inquiry stream generated by that book. It is essential that it is not self-published, is being released in the US in the next 12 months, and features a title and cover that clearly signal a bottom-line oriented problem faced by a corporate audience.
Trusted by VIP's since 2001 (OMG)
Here’s a sampling of the amazing folks I’ve been trusted to handle this work for:
Apple Co-Founder, Woz
Referred by his friend, Cybersecurity pioneer and World Famous Hacker, Kevin Mitnick. I launched and managed Woz’s paid speaking career, centered around non-exclusivity, from 2006-2020. Woz graduated to 100% in-house representation in March 2020, hiring New Leaf’s former President, Seamus Collins, to run it for him and his wife, Janet.
TOMS Founder, Mental Wellness Champion, and Founder, ENOUGH, Blake Mycoskie
I became his personal speaker’s agent in 2018 after his trusted Chief of Staff found my contact details and reached out. Blake was previously represented by one of the largest & most prestigious speaker bureaus in the USA.
TED All-Star, National Women’s Hall of Fame Inductee, actor, model, prosthetic design muse, & Paralympian, Aimee Mullins
I became her personal speaker’s agent in 2010 after the creator of TEDMED asked Steve Wozniak for a recommendation. She was previously represented by one of the top speaker bureaus in the USA.
Wharton’s Co-Lead, AI for Business, Professor of Marketing,and author of A Human’s Guide to Machine Intelligence, Kartik Hosanagar
Kartik was referred by Adam Grant, best-selling author and fellow Wharton professor. I became Kartik’s personal speaker’s agent in 2020.
James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur and best-selling author, The Bottomless Cup, Kevin Boehm
Referred by Will Guidara, best-selling author, Unreasonable Hospitality. I became Kevin’s personal speaker’s agent in June 2025.
World’s Most Famous Hacker, Kevin Mitnick
I became his personal speaker’s agent after he left representation at a top talent agency in the USA. I originally created my framework centered on non-exclusivity for Kevin, and ran his speaking business from 2001-2012. He graduated to 100% in-house representation with a full-time staff person running it. We remained close friends until his passing in 2023. Kevin provided me with my ‘start’ in this industry and I dearly miss him.
Amy Gray, Founder, New Leaf
I teach celebrities & their teams how to fully leverage these benefits
- Speaking, selectively, as the foundation of a robust, profitable business the celebrity fully owns.
- Better deal flow through strong relationships with event hosts and the full global network of bureaus and agencies.
- Transparency on all contracts, financials, inquiries, and offers.
- Seamless integration of speaking with their calendar commitments, portfolio of businesses, sales of related products and services, bulk book sales, follower growth, customer and prospect database building.
- Dedicated staff who can expertly handle this work vs. relying on the part-time efforts of 3rd party who has many exclusive clients to support.
- Boosting their positive reputation and personal brand by handling speaking in a manner atypical of celebrities: With warmth, professionalism, consideration, and speed.
- Control over market positioning and pricing.
- Confidentiality and discretion around sensitive information: Inquiry volume, confirmed bookings, and overall availability. This privacy offers vital leverage in negotiations. Only their trusted internal team knows their calendar of commitments and bottom line financial needs.
Me and Woz on the steps at MIT after iWoz came out
My work protects celebrities from costly, damaging, and time-consuming mistakes
I know how to run ‘in-house’ speaking as a profitable business, and help celebrities and their teams:
- Protect themselves from skimming- a rampant, covert practice that targets speakers with high fees who are not protected by a professional agent.
I took a very well-known speaker booking entity through arbitration to recoup skimming losses on my speakers’ earnings. I won. In the process, I learned how widespread skimming is and, most importantly, how to protect others from this tactic. Skimming is RAMPANT in the high-fee speaking business – especially among non-exclusive / independent speakers. Those speakers lack speaking industry ‘insider’ knowledge, don’t know what to put in their contracts, or how to detect skimming. I do and I share my knowledge with clients. - Eliminate the ‘toxic celebrity’ reputation that kills deal flow, stifles high fees, and destroys positive reputation.
Many celebrities signal condescension, arrogance, and disinterest toward the person who inquires. For many, that’s fine. For my clients it’s not. They love being the atypical, positive stand-out in a sea of ‘same.’ Simple shifts profoundly boost positive reputation, attract higher fee offers and in greater numbers — so my clients have a better pool of offers to choose from. I bring a bespoke, hospitality mindset which fuels genuine rapport with buyers, prospects, and speaking agents. I ensure that mindset is held by those who respond on your behalf and that is embedded in the foundations of their in-house speaking business. - Shave 7-10 years off the typical, DIY School of Hard Knocks learning curve.
Building deep expertise requires years of effort and countless mistakes. The team learns the hard way how to set fees and commissions, negotiate, determine speaking topic(s) or keynote focus, create best practices for contracts, determine cancellation policies, finalize payment terms, understand what booking entities are reputable vs. ‘sharks,’ maintain a calendar of inquiries, pending, and confirmed speaking deals, nurture relationships with hosts and agents worldwide, and so much more. I have 24 years of experience creating streamlined systems, effective templates, industry insider status, and a personal email list of more than 500 speaking agents worldwide. I equip your team for success. - Reframe speaking from ‘reactive afterthought’ to ‘proactive, intentional and strategic.’
I assess what my clients want to achieve with speaking, what their current inquiry volume and financial performance is, and develop a customized strategy to achieve their goals. - Create compensation systems that encourage desired behavior and boost team confidence and competence.
Staff paid hourly, salary, or retainer typically operate with an ‘efficiency’ vs. profitability mindset. Adding a commission-based incentive can increase deal flow and motivation to cultivate a network of event hosts and agent contacts. Having ‘skin in the game’ creates energy around bottom-line performance and shape stronger offers vs. a good enough offer. There are many ways to leverage speaking as a turn-key, low-risk, high profit center for those who attract attention and I help my clients understand what levers will work best to achieve their desired outcomes from speaking. - Avoid hiring the wrong person or delegating this work to someone ill-suited for the role(s) required.
Hiring staff with paid speaking expertise is difficult. The vast majority of savvy speaking agents work directly for a top speaker bureau or talent agency and are tied to non-solicitation / non-compete clauses typically lasting a year. There is a work-around: Hiring for values alignment, character-based qualities, transferable skills, and work ethic – and training for industry knowledge I’ve built over the past several decades. I know what qualities and skills are essential and will search for your needle in a haystack. I know exactly what to look for after ten years as a keynote buyer and 24 years as an elite in-house agent. I help find, hire and train someone for you. Alternatively, if you already have in-house staff who handle this work for you, I can empower and educate them to flourish in this work.