Founder's Story - From Employee to Founder | Ep. 30 with Gail Davis Founder GDA Speakers

Episode Date: August 1, 2020

This episode is brought to you by Wagner Spray Tech: https://bit.ly/2WNICDsGail Davis was tasked with finding a speaker for a corporate meeting so she found someone who she believed would make a difference to the company. This led her to founding her... --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ibhshow/supportOur Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to Inspired by Her, the podcast that will give you the inspiration, motivation, and tips for success from some of the top executives, CEOs, and influencers from around the globe. With your host, serial entrepreneur, and named one of the most influential Filipina in the world. We are live. Hi everyone, this is Kaye Hancock, and today I have Gail Davis. Hi Gail. Hello, how are you? Oh my God, Gail is the founder of GDA. I would love to hear about your company story.

Sounds amazing. And in 2011, the Dallas Business Journal honored her as one of Dallas' top 25 women in business. And Gail, she's a graduate of the Gaylord College at the University of Oklahoma, where she was honored as a Distinguished Alumni in 2018. Oh my God, Gail, that's amazing. Yeah, she's also part of the Entrepreneurs Organization, which I'm part of. Yes, so Gail, welcome. Welcome. Thank you. It's so great to be here.

Yeah, Gail, can you tell us about your company? For sure. So I own a speakers bureau, and that means that I, it's almost like you have a bureau that you open up the drawers, and inside the drawers are speakers of various categories and topics. And I match my client's needs with speakers. And up until March 12th, that was almost always an in-person activity that involves someone hopping on an airplane, checking activity that involves someone hopping on an airplane, checking into a hotel and being on a stage.

And my world has changed dramatically since COVID-19. So I'm really reinventing myself and reinventing my company. We're doing lots of things like you and I are doing right now where we're converting presentations to virtual or zoom calls. And so it's in a, it's in an interesting time in my industry, but traditionally it's been that I work with clients and I help find speakers for their sales kickoff meetings, incentive trips,

or maybe an organization like EO or YPO for their learning events, or maybe a large association for their annual meeting. Yeah. Wow. Now, Gail, what was your journey like to get where you are? How did it all get started? Well, when I graduated from college, I went to work for a serial entrepreneur. His name was Ross Perot. And Ross Perot founded a company called Electronic Data Systems. And I had the good privilege of working at EDS for 20 years. And it was such an incredible experience. I, you know, I got to travel and do lots of different things. The last 10 years, I was responsible for Inner Circle, which was the sales recognition event at EDS. And I had responsibility for selecting the location that we were going, all of the entertainment

and all of the speakers. And I really, really loved the speakers. Back in 1994, the chairman of the company issued me a challenge. He suggested that I try to find a speaker that was new and different, someone everyone would like to hear but no one had heard, and someone that was global in their appeal. So completely and totally unrelated, I picked up a video at the video store back when the VHS videos were on the wall. And the movie was called Alive, featuring the actor Ethan Hawke. And I took the movie home and watched it. And the person that I was with said, what about him for the speech? And I was like, Ethan Hawke? And he's like, no,

the real guy. And at first I was like, well, I don't know. But by the end of the movie, I thought it was such a good idea. I thought it was my own idea. And I first I was like, well, I don't know. But by the end of the movie, I thought it was such a good idea. I thought it was my own idea. And I went flying over to the headquarters and I went into the chairman's office and I said, what do you think about this? And he said, you know, I think you're onto something. I think it'd be really interesting. Well, the funny thing, Kate, is back in 1994, there was no Google. So you didn't just type in Nando Parado and find him. You had to go to all these speakers bureaus. And at that point, the model at most speakers bureaus was to represent a roster of speakers. And so when I would call and say, I've got this wild idea, why don't we try to

find this guy who lives in Uruguay? They would, you know, often the reaction was, that's not the best idea, you know, just because they make a movie about someone doesn't make him a great speaker, or just because they write a book about someone doesn't make him a great speaker. And you don't even know if this guy really speaks English that well. So you shouldn't do this, you should do something else. And I actually had rented another documentary called Alive 20 Years Later, and I had seen Nando interviewed, and I was like, no, I know this guy's the one. So it's a crazy story how I tracked him down by going through the Uruguayan embassy in Washington, D.C., getting a phone number, calling several places, and finally he answers the phone and he said oh thank you so

much for asking but I have no interest in speaking um you know it's just it was a horrible experience and I don't want to be on the speaking circuit well I didn't take no really easy you know so I just I started staying in touch with him sending him different information. And finally he said, well, maybe, and then maybe went from perhaps to a yes. And when he came and spoke, it was, it was just the most unbelievable thing. Granted, it could have been a disaster, but it was unbelievable. And I'll never forget after this rousing standing ovation, uh, the chairman putting his arm around me and said, you know what, kid, you should retire because you're never going to outdo this. So that sort of led to the idea of me leaving a 20 year career, 20 years working for the same corporation and going out and starting my own company. Wow. That's amazing. Now, where is that event took place? It was in Maui. So that helped me a little bit in selling my idea.

Wow. That's amazing. Now, um, tell me about that very first day when you started to open your own company. So what had happened is, um, shortly after I met Nando, I was a young, you know, a younger working mother and I had two small children. So I had negotiated a deal. I was like really a pioneer when it comes to like telecommuting or job sharing or trying to figure out the work-life balance thing.

And I had negotiated a deal where I only worked three days a week, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. And so I was trying to make that work. But then actually my mentor and my manager died of leukemia. And I don't know, I just felt like I had this chance to do something different. So I took a really big risk and started as most entrepreneurs do in my home with one speaker that really didn't want to speak that much. So it was sort of a, it wasn't the best business plan I've ever heard of, but it just started to grow because I, you know, today I, in my database, I have well over 4,000 speakers probably. So it's, it's great that I had worked at EDS and that I had worked in the

event space. So I was no stranger to who my client was. It was just building a business on your own. You know, when you work for a large corporation and your computer doesn't work, you dial a four digit extension and somebody comes running and solves it, you know? And right before we got on our podcast, you're like, oh, I have my technician here. Well, you know, when you first start up, you don't have any of that. So there were some interesting days in there in the beginning. Can you tell me who's your very first speaker and how did that first big event? Can you still remember?

Well, in the beginning, I really only had Nando. And actually, this is a great story. I had lunch with someone who said, you should call this woman, Elise Gooch. She does a large HR conference. And so I called her up. And, you know, anytime you can say, Joyce McKee suggested I call you, then people will take the call, you know. So she took the call and she had a very established conference. It was a three-day conference, big names. I mean, she'd had Margaret Thatcher. And I say, you know, I'd like to talk to you about Nando Parada. She was very nice. And she said, you know, it just doesn't have the name recognition, you know, but you sound very nice. If he's ever in town, I'd be happy to meet him,

but I don't think it's going to work. Well, at the time, that's all I had to offer. Well, he came to town and I called her and we met. And at the end of the meeting, she booked him. So yes, I very, very much remember that because it was a huge, big break. It was over in Fort Worth. It was a big conference of over 2000 people. And,. And I had just rented office space and I was a little apprehensive about how I was going to pay for it. And that afternoon, someone from the national organization had been at that conference and they called and said, we want to book him for San Francisco for next summer. So it really took off. And then just, you know, that expression about bamboo, like it takes a long time to get bamboo

to grow, but once it starts to grow, it'll grow right across the sidewalk. Well, I had been planting all these seeds and all of a sudden it just started to grow. And so it was perfect that I moved out of my house and then I started hiring employees and you know, you know how it goes. Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. Now I'm reading your bio. You, you, you know how it goes. Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. Now I'm reading your

bias. You, you signed him for yourself, like, like an exclusive just for you. Is that correct? It is correct. Except the funny thing is we don't really have a written contract. Okay. It's really a handshake deal. And we've been working together for 21 years. It just really speaks to who he is as a person and hopefully to who I am as a person. It's just, we have an agreement. We've never had a conflict. Of course, for each individual booking, we have a contract because, you know, I need to make sure he's going to show up, which he's never been late for anything or not shown up, but we never really signed an exclusive agreement. He is exclusive with me, but we just never signed one.

Wow, that's amazing. Now, if you don't mind me sharing, how much was that fee for him to get booked to an event at the very beginning? Yeah, I believe when I was at EDS, I think we paid him 45,000. Wow. Plus his travel from Uruguay. And then when I started working with him, it was really a hard sell because people just,

they were familiar with the story, but they weren't familiar with his name. So I used what I like to refer to as the Ouija board price setting. You know, you just kind of figure out a price amount and you say, well, let's try 10 for a while. And then we would book a few and we would raise it. But over the years, it's gone up a lot. But he's also had a New York Times bestselling book, which debuted as number 10 on the list.

And there was a History Channel documentary. I mean, there's just always something going on. And so, you know, it's increased over the years. Wow, that's amazing. Now, Gail, what is the highest ever paid speaker you've ever worked with? I think a lot of people are curious about this. Well, celebrities command the highest rate.

So it's just like anything. I mean, I will often use either the shoe or the handbag analogy. I mean, what is the purpose of a handbag? To carry your cell phones, your car keys, and your lipstick, right? Yes. very affordable but if you get it in your mind that you want Prada or you want Valentino or a Birkin there's a higher price so that is how the speaking business works as well if I if I say a household name it's going to command a higher price than if I say a name that maybe you haven't heard of. And that's to me, one of the great benefits of working with the speaker zero, they can listen to what you're looking for. And you know, anybody can Google keynote speaker and you're going to go to all the speakers

websites. And do they look like their headshot? Are they any good? Are they easy to work with? Are they generous with their time? There's a lot of unknowns, but we tend to work with speakers who are a minimum of $10,000. And then it's unusual that we would book people over a hundred thousand and I think our average booking I could put my hand on it but I think probably our average is in that forty five to fifty thousand dollar range you know you got some really high ones and

you got a lot of really low ones but that's probably about the average yeah now can you share me did you ever fire the speaker or like it didn't work out can you share me some story well I don't want to get in trouble mentioning any names but I can tell their names yes okay um one of the things that I take very very seriously is following up with the client to get feedback on the speaker and to get feedback on my team and our process because my goal is to keep the speaker for life. I mean, the client for life. So sometimes, not often, sometimes you'll call and they'll be like,

you might've been having an odd day, but this, this, and this. I don't like calling the speaker to give negative feedback, but I 100% think that's my responsibility. And I'm happy to say that most speakers want that feedback. They are committed to making the adjustment. And sometimes they'll even offer to do something to try to make up for it, whether it's a follow-up video or a white paper. If I run across a speaker that is not open to feedback and has no interest in hearing what the client's perspective was,

then I would not choose to recommend them in the future. So one time we had the speaker booked and something happened at the last minute with someone that was involved in television and something happened and they had to, it doesn't matter, this is, I can reveal the name, it was John Walsh, and something big news breaking thing happened and he had to go be on site. And many of the celebrity contracts or newscaster contracts will say something about override professional obligations. So that's clearly a situation where they just can't show up because their work is taking them somewhere else. Well, they wanted someone as their replacement. It wasn't someone that I recommended, but that's who they wanted. And so I just helped facilitate to make it happen. And as it got closer, they came to me and said, you know, we've been

watching some videos and this guy sometimes uses, you know, four letter words and that would not be appropriate at our conference. And so I called the office and I said, you know, this is an HR conference and you know, we need to make sure that you don't use four letter words. I've never, are we really live? Yes, we're live. Okay. Yeah. I'm trying to edit. I didn't ask you what I can really say. Anyway, he goes up to the podium and in front of everyone, the first word out of his mouth was the F word. And he did it for shock value. He just said the word. And then he said, well, now I've got that out of the way.

I was told you all don't like that. And then he went on to do his speech. But that would be someone that in my back office, if you looked up that person's name, it says, do not book C Gail. And there are only a handful in general. This is the most unbelievable industry with the most amazing people. But yeah, I would choose not to work with someone if they pull a stunt like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I'm not going to mention any event as well, but I remember we were also waited for this last finale keynote speaker, right? It was so, okay, so we're all excited, right? That's the last day of a big event. And then it got turned out so bad that slowly, like the back people were slowly you know and it was like so painful

that I mean it was hard how you how do you recover from that like that's very tough but that could happen right so how do you yeah so what are your what i wanted to tell you is one thing i've seen over the years and this makes sense but the higher the fee the higher the expectations particularly if it's the first time for someone to really jump up so let's say because everything's relative so let's say someone's traditionally spent twenty five thousand dollars on a speaker. And then one year, for whatever reason, they jump up to a hundred thousand. The expectations are a lot higher. And sometimes, you know, it's hard to meet the expectation. Yeah. And I had a great lesson from an industry mentor once I called and I said, they're just so disappointed. You know, it just wasn't what they thought they would get for a thousand, a hundred thousand. And he said, did he show up? Yes. Did he give the speech? Yes. Was it on the

topic that was in the contract? Yes. And so this mentor said to me, you know, sometimes a play on Broadway, I'll get a lot of hype. Everybody, it's all the rage and you go to New York and you buy your tickets to that play and you just don't get it, but you don't get your money back. Yeah. Or everybody's talking about a movie and they think it's so wonderful. And then you go and you don't like it. So I can honestly say, thank goodness over 21 years, honestly, I had less than a handful of stories where it was really an issue. And one of the reasons I think that's the case is because I would prefer to only recommend to you someone that I've actually seen or that my company has actually booked. And I mentioned earlier that we have thousands of speakers. One of the things we did about four years ago was triage those. So what does that mean? We have high priority speakers and the high priority

speakers are people that we have booked and we have received positive feedback on. So I would like to book those all day long because it's very low risk. Then we have radar speakers. These are people we have not booked, but we've lost business to them or they have become highly recommended by one of our clients. I'm comfortable with that. There's a whole lot of others. I'm sure there's some amazing diamonds in the rough out there, but we just don't have the bandwidth to know them. And so we don't, we sort of, I'm not saying we avoid them, but we don't consider them like we do the high in the radar.

Gotcha. Yeah. And what are your process to vetting them? Like you have to watch what are, can you tell us? Well, um, obviously you can watch videos. I mean, that's one way. I prefer to see them live if at all possible. I would even prefer for them to come by our office. I can tell a ton by the way they interact with the team or have a client. Like if one of my long, I have some clients that have honestly been with me 21

years, but if someone, you know, that I've worked with over 16 years sends me a note, they take the time to send me a note and say, Gail, I want you to meet the speaker. I was in their audience the other day. They are fantastic. I take that very seriously. So it's a combination of all of that. That's amazing. Wow. Now, Gail, I want to know your story, your personal story. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Oklahoma, in the southwest corner of Oklahoma. It's a town called Altus. And I am one of these people that, um, I love my hometown. My mother is still alive, lives in my hometown. My brother lives there.

My sister lives there. I still refer, I have lived in Dallas since 1982. Both of my children were born here. Both of my children live here. But if I'm going to Altus, Oklahoma, I will say I'm going home for the weekend. So, um, I still go to the same church. I swear some of those people are still sitting in the same pews that they were several years ago, we'll just say. Okay.

But I have a great experience growing up there. I still have many, many friends. My high school reunion is this summer. And then I migrated to the middle of the state to the University of Oklahoma where I went to college. And then I went to work for EDS right out of college. Wow. This episode of Inspired by Her is brought to you by Wagner Spray Tech. For a while now, we have been wanting to paint our RV. Luckily, we came across this Wagner paint sprayer called the Flexio 4000. We had a blast painting the outside of the RV because it was 10 times faster than using a brush,

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Not a lot of fun. I had a job selling shoes. I was a winter sports cheerleader. I didn't have all the gymnastics you needed to be the football cheerleader, but I was a winter sports cheerleader and editor of the yearbook. I was a pretty good girl. Now, Gail, what is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur? I guess it's the opportunity to continually grow and continually reinvent myself. And I have to tell you, this COVID-19 business has been the ultimate test. We normally do 340 events a year. And March 12th is the last live event that we did. And I had over 125 events up to date that had been impacted by this. And to navigate, you know, all those contracts was really the challenge because what this falls under unfortunately i'm from a wonderful industry that's very supportive

but we call this force majeure because there was a government restriction in place that didn't allow it to happen well the way the contract reads is it suspends your obligation, but it doesn't exempt. And the hard part is many of our clients are struggling and they don't know when they can reschedule, but yet we're a small business, we're struggling. And so I tell you one thing I know for sure, when you have a relationship with the client, those conversations are so much easier than if it's a new client and you don't have a relationship. So, um, but I'm going to stick with the answer. My favorite part is the ability to create your own destiny and to reinvent yourself. And I mean, that's what I'm doing right now. I mean, I'm learning all about virtual and I'm helping my speakers learn about virtual and

it's, it's going to be the wave of the future for the foreseeable future. And then I think there'll be kind of like a hybrid and I believe we'll get back to the in-person thing at some point, but it's going to take a while. Yeah. What do you think of this hologram, the feature of event? We've done, we've done a few of those. They're kind of complicated. It's interesting. We did one, and I originally suggested it because the speaking fee was about 50% of what the in-person fee was. And so we got that all booked. And then my client learned that instead of doing like this type of a Zoom or a live stream, she learned that the hologram was an option. And she did it. And actually, the technology's kind of expensive, you know. And so it ended up probably almost costing her as much as

if he had done it in person, but she did not regret it because she felt it was so appropriate for a futurist to be able to deliver a speech using future technology. And that is very different in a way because, you know, the speaker can look over here and talk to, you know, if someone over here is asking a question, they can talk to them and they can kind of work the room a little bit different in their gesture. So it's cool. It's not, I mean, it's an investment to do something like that, but it's very cool. I can imagine I, when, um, a GLC in Macau, we did a hologram, our last speaker, there was a little bit of delayed, like a second delayed.

So there was that gap of like a little bit of awkward moment, but it's cool. It's cool. Cool. Wow. Now, um, so you're pivoting to a virtual conference. What else are you doing now in this crazy time? Well, this is first time for me to say these words out loud to anyone else, but up until now, I put speakers for someone else who's putting on the event. And I'm now entertaining the idea of what would it look like if I hosted as GDA speakers, a virtual summit. So like someone like Nando Parado, the only people that ever get a chance to be in

his audience up until now are employees of a corporation or members of an association. But there are people all over the world on his Facebook page. When are you coming to Sweden? When are you coming to Bolivia? When are you coming to Omaha, Nebraska? And so one thing that I want to explore this summer is how I could put on maybe a half day virtual inspirational summit with three speakers and make it available to all people everywhere, you know, that wouldn't maybe typically get to do something like that. So that's one of the things that I'm kind of excited about. And then I developed some incredible software that's one of the things that I'm kind of excited about. And then I developed some incredible software that's really streamlined my business. And with the breathing room, I would like to take that to market. My industry is interesting because you could look at someone as your competitor,

or you could look at them as your colleague. And we tend to look at each other as colleagues. And I think as companies are trying to streamline, to be more profitable, reduce margins, there might be an opportunity for me to license the back office that supports speakers bureaus. Yeah. Yeah. I could, I could just imagine. I'm actually, right now I signed up for this mastermind class where it's actually amazing instead of going to a conference and you know

you separate it to each group I mean it actually worked and then I what I love about it so you can just replay whenever you feel like it right yeah so it's it can be done actually yeah I've encouraged everyone on my team to attend as many virtual events as they possibly can so that we can understand them all. And some of the platforms are unbelievable. There's a registration room, there's an expo hall, there's breakouts. I mean, you can create a virtual conference. It's really neat. Yeah. And I say to people, I feel like all these virtual platforms are filling a void not necessarily filling a gap but they're filling a void so let's embrace them right now because a hundred years from today people will be talking about 2020 and the global pandemic and

the whole virtual thing is going to be a part of that narrative so we might as well dive in and participate in it because that's, that's, this is what we're doing right now. Exactly. Right. It's either we embrace it or resist it and who's going to win. Yeah. Now, Gail, what was one of your deepest motivation in life? Hmm. Oh, wow. What would that be you know i think

uh i think maybe what it is is um after i started my company so i started my company in 1999 and, um, I had been in a longterm marriage that ended and I had two kids and I was just, you know, it was, it was a pivotal time. Like, okay, do I really believe in myself to move forward and make this company what it can be to its full potential? Or do I take the safe route? And do I call EDS back up and say, hello, what positions do you have available? And the security of a corporate job with benefits was very, very appealing, but the excitement and the thrill of being an entrepreneur was very appealing. And so what's the motivation? I think the motivation

were my boys, you know, wanting to do right by them and create a great life for them. And, um, that goes on, you know, no matter how old they get, you still, you know, you want to be someone that makes them proud. So family, and probably even when I was 15 working at the shoe store, I wanted to make my parents proud. So I think somewhere in that answer is, you know, wanting to make my family proud of me is a big motivation. And what is your greatest fear and how do you manage fear? Up until this year, I don't even know now that I've experienced this COVID-19. I think sometimes I worry,

did I really have the leadership skills that it took? Because as my company got bigger, more was expected of me as a leader and thank goodness I have gotten to know and work with and read everything that Brene Brown has written because it really allows me to tap into that vulnerability that I don't get it right every time yeah and I can now look back and say oh I, I wish I would have done that differently. But I do think I had some anxiety and fear around whether or not I actually had what it took to be respected as a leader. Now, with this COVID-19, I kept asking myself, what's the worst thing that could happen? And the worst thing that could happen would have been that, you know,

this industry wouldn't make it or that my company wouldn't make it. And then that means that your legacy sort of dies. And I didn't want to think about that happening. But when every single day, every email you get, and every phone call you get is another cancellation. It's hard not to be a realist and look at that possibility. Now I'm happy to say they've slowed down. And in the beginning when we would say, you know, what if we pivot to virtual people would be like,

that's not going to work for us. And now people are like, Hey, what are our virtual options? So it took a while that that probably was the fear. I don't have many fears because I feel so blessed, you know, with a great support system of family and friends and, you know, and also Nanda's message has always been a real inspiration to me of, you know, at the end of the day, it's not your bank account, it's not your business accomplishments, but it really is your family. So if you've done right by that, it can really all fall apart and you'll figure it out. Yeah, absolutely. Now,

what did you learn about yourself while dealing with this COVID-19? Well, I learned that I am a good leader and I learned that I can communicate clearly and I learned that I can have difficult conversations. I learned that being clear is kind and I became very skilled at talking about the reality with my team of what was happening, what our options look like. And I got very comfortable in saying, you know, when a business goes through a crisis, two things can happen. You can figure out a new way to supplement your revenue or you have to cut your expenses. And I'm really, really proud of the way that I've navigated that. And I learned that I can do it. That's wonderful. Wonderful. Now, how do you manage stress? What do you do? It's hard, right? I have myself like some panic attack here and there. What do you do yourself? Getting outside is so important and exercise is

so important. I raised my children in the suburbs, but I moved to a high rise, I don't know, seven, eight years ago. And I'm very near something called the Katy Trail. And every time I cut across the park, walk up the steps and get on the Katie Trail, I just feel like, oh, I love this place because there's other people exercising, there's birds, there's trees, there's just an overall vibe of fitness, vitality, and health. And so April 1st, I was like, I've got to quit watching so much news and I've got to move. So I downloaded the old faithful C2 5K, which stands for couch to 5K. And it's a guided program that helps be able to run a 5K. I've run one half marathon in my life. I don't know if there's another one of those in my future, but just the discipline of being out and having that plan.

Similarly to that in the past, not for COVID-19, but just in general, for me to have a goal out there that I'm training for has always really helped me keep things in balance. So once I trained to do the Grand Canyon from rim to rim, from the South Rim to the North Rim. And then last September, I went with another EO member from EO Austin, Renee Rouleau, and we went to Spain and we did the Camino de Santiago and I trained for that. So that's usually a key component. Like I have tons of business goals, obviously, but I try to have one goal out there that doesn't have anything to do with the business that allows me to plan and, and, you know, balance things.

Yeah. Wow. Now, what would you consider your greatest accomplishment so far? I think building GDA. The stats on female, well, the stats on entrepreneurs who make it, not a lot make it after the first three years. And then the stats on the number of female entrepreneurs that make it, it's even smaller. So to come into an industry that was well established and earned credibility, I eventually became the president of the International Association of Speakers Bureaus. And to build a business that has sustained and gone past 21 years is something that I'm very proud of.

To what attribute is success? I won the birthright lotto. I have the most amazing parents. And that's not lost on me you know I I can get very philosophical when I look at people that are born into different situations you know and I just think when you're when you are lucky enough to be born into a home of two parents that want you love you encourage you and believe in you you you better do something with that because that's really a gift. And my mother and father always instilled in me that I could do anything I wanted to do. So I have to give credit where credit is due. Oh, wow.

Now, Gail, what advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur? Don't give up. It's not easy. Follow your passion. Be kind to yourself. Be real with yourself. Have trusted advisors, whatever that looks like.

For me, my business coach is incredibly important to me. I've worked with her for three and a half years. She gets me, she holds me accountable, she challenges me. So that relationship's important. I've had the same CPA for over 20 years. That relationship has been very, very important to me. I'm also a joiner, if you will. So joining EO was so important to me. One of the things I'm so proud of is I got my PPP application in the very first day and I was funded by April 9th. And I say that's all because I'm a member of EO

and I was getting all the information, listening to it, hopping on the Zoom calls, you know, that people were giving me the information I needed to be right there where I needed to be. So EO, you know, like-minded colleagues, I think so important, forum, so important. And then in my industry, the International Association of Speakers Bureaus, those are my colleagues. The reason I had to delay our call today is one of my colleagues was celebrating 40 years in the industry. And honestly, when I was on that Brady bench zoom call, and I saw all these people that, like I said, you could call my competitors, but they're really my colleagues. And we were all there to congratulate him on his success.

I was kind of getting weepy during it because I'm like, this is a cool industry. So I think just finding the right support, believing in your passion, and not giving up. Absolutely. Now, what have been the most influential experience in your life? Most influential experience in my life. I'll tell you one. Uh, it's a good one. Yeah. So when I got my first job, I was trying to learn how to budget money. Yeah. And I was pretty stressed out cause I wasn't making very much money. I wonder how much money I made that first year. I think it was honestly, I think it was like 13,000 or something. I mean, it wasn't very much. And we had this credit card bill. It was about a thousand dollars. And I called my mom and I was just like, I mean, how was I ever going to pay it? And she was like, honey, don't worry. I'm

going to send you the money and we'll work out a payment plan and you can pay me back. And I was like, man. And she called me back 15 minutes later and she said, I can't send you the money. I said, why? She said, well, I was talking to your dad and you won't learn anything if I send you the money. So you're going to have to, you need to call the company, you need to come up with a plan, you need to pay it off, but you have to get yourself out of this. I can't rescue you. I did not like that phone call, but I'm here to tell you, I have never had a credit card debt since. My accounting personally is stellar. I have the highest credit card score you can have.

My company accounting is squeaky clean. I don't take my profit till the day it plays, which is why losing 135 events, even if most of them are being rescheduled, is a bit of a challenge. But I'm really glad that my dad did that. And I'm glad that my mother honored that and didn't sneak me the money on the side because it made an impression. I've told that story a hundred times. Yeah. Wow. That's powerful right there. I know. Are you going to do that to your kids? Well, I've had to learn how to do that. Yeah. I, I, I've tried to take the great things that my parents did and tried to pass them along. Yeah. It's easy in an abundant society.

Moms want to rescue, but kids don't want to be rescued. My boys are both, I'm happy to say, very independent, have their own jobs, do their own thing. So I love that. Now, Gail, if you could do it all over again, would you do the same thing? Yes. And Gail, how do you want to be remembered? I want to be remembered as fair. I want to be remembered as funny. Sometimes when I get a

little under stress, a more intense side of my personality comes out, but I really am funny. And I want to be remembered for that. I want to be remembered for somebody that had a vision that was determined and somebody that really loved to share inspiring stories. Wow. Gail, where can they find you? What's your handle? Well,

our website is GDA speakers. So the GDA stands for Gail, where can they find you? What's your handle? Well, our website is GDA Speakers. So the GDA stands for Gail Davidson Associates. So GDA Speakers and GDA Speakers is on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. And then personally, I think almost everywhere I show up is Gail Prevett Davis. Well, thank you so much for your time. I enjoyed talking to you. You're great. It was super fun. Thank you so much. Thank you. Have a wonderful day. Stay safe. Bye. We hope you enjoyed the show. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. And visit katehancock.com so you don't miss out on the next episode.