Deb Carr is a successful business owner and the founder of Voxy Lady, Australia’s only women’s speaker bureau. In this episodes Deb shares her business insights.
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Franziska: Welcome to another Basic Bananas podcast show. Today we‘ve got a very special guest with us, Deb Carr. Deb Carr is a serial entrepreneur and the Managing Director of Voxy Lady, Australia‘s only professional women‘s speaker bureau. She‘s also principal of Coyote Management International, the first bureau she has established in 2004. In 2009 Deb also established her own boutique recruitment company. Deb has been Founding Director of two registered charities and is currently serving on the Board of CAN, mental health, a position she took up to help increase the awareness of mental health issues. Deb‘s experience with mental health is dealing with her brother‘s suicide and the depression he suffered leading up to the catastrophic event. Deb also serves on the Membership Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce. Hi, Deb. Thank you so much for being on the show today.
Deb: All right thank you. I‘m very pleased to be here.
Franziska: Thank you. So can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and also about your business Voxy Lady. A very foxy name for a great business.
Deb: Well you‘ll have to remember the listeners to know that it‘s a “V” for “victor.” Voxy Lady in case they’re thinking anything else out there.
Franziska: It might be my accent, you know.
Deb: No, a lot of people get confused. It‘s Voxy which means vox is voice. So vox feminae is Latin for a voice of a woman. Personally I consider myself to be a very courageous person; I take a lot of risks… I persist in what I want to achieve and I have an unshakeable self-belief. That‘s me, the person. I guess that sums that up. I started in the professional speaking industry in 2004 with my first bureau which is called Coyote Management International. And round about 2009 I began to think, something‘s missing here; they‘re all men. Or most of my speakers were men… When there‘s nothing wrong with that… But, I get in the market so got to work starting a women‘s speakers bureau and now Voxy Lady is making quite a name for itself and we help speakers get on the circuit as well as put speakers into conferences and corporate training.
Franziska: Fantastic. So pretty much through already working in that industry you realized that there was a gap and so you had a desire to fill the gap and to help women become speakers, become better speakers and get exposure.
Deb: Exactly… And it‘s the diversity. It‘s not that we‘re raging feminists or anything like that… In fact we have quite a few men on our team. Not at all. It‘s just a gap in the market and from a business perspective, as you would know, niche market. The ones you go for.
Franziska: Yeah… Very powerful. And, you know, I know that those are just because I know you and I‘ve also seen your bio. I know that you are not very afraid of taking risks. Do you have any tips for our listeners on… Well, first of all, how do you take risks? But also, what comes with it a lot and what our listeners ask us a lot about how to manage self-doubt.
Deb: Okay. Now first, the risk taking has to be calculated… We‘re not talking about doing something really silly. Risk to me is wondering if you have the ability to keep yourself motivated through something that could be very hard to do. So that‘s the take the risk for me. How I got through some very tough times is what I call the flipped thought. So, when I‘m thinking of paying bills or I‘ve been worrying about how am I going to meet a deadline or whatever, I actually change that thought into the opposite. I think of it as the opposite. I guess you need to have a very good imagination… Negative thinking is your worst enemy. Negative thinking produces negative results, in my opinion. So I suggest to the listeners that you find some very good books to read where other people have gone through entrepreneurs and have made it. Listen. Find mentors. Do not, under any circumstance, listen to people who tell you that you can‘t do it. That‘s a big no, no. Just turn off. It‘s actually none of your business what other people think about you. And by that I mean if people think you‘re a nutter because you‘re trying to do something, it‘s probably because they‘re actually too scared to do it. So don‘t worry about it… It‘s not your business. Just get on and do it anyway.
Franziska: I love that. And I‘ve just spoken to somebody this morning actually about that and how important it is to… Well, first of all, to read books and have mentors and that‘s also what helped us be really successful and also the second thing that he touched on is about not listening to the people that are holding you back.
Deb: Exactly. Some of those very close to me… I can remember dad sometimes saying to me, “Go and get a real job.” I love that.. It‘s never going to happen Dad. I‘m unemployable. I have to work for myself.
Franziska: Exactly. You know a little secret here I can share with you and the listeners. When I quit my corporate job, I had a really great corporate job in advertising, making good money. I was the good daughter. I was going to climb this career ladder and become the CEO and when I quit my job I didn‘t tell my parents for quite a long time until my business was making good money and I was successful in my business. So I kept it as a secret because I didn‘t want to hear what they had to say. I knew what they were going to say. “Get a job. Are you crazy?”
Deb: It‘s because we‘re not all the same personality. Some people are made to get out and do their own thing and they need to do that. Lots of people, their personality is more they support or they need that safety net of a job and there‘s no wrong or right. It‘s just what lights your spark and what lights my spark doesn‘t light other peoples‘ sparks.
Franziska: Exactly. And we do need the people that do love working for somebody because those are the people that work for us and that help us make a bigger difference. I‘m really glad that not everybody wants to go out there and take risks and build their own businesses because you also need the people that love the safety and love working for a great business.
Deb: That‘s right. Absolutely.
Franziska: And Deb, you juggle a lot of things with your different businesses. How do you stay motivated when things get a little bit tough?
Deb: Ah, yes. Well I think I have a very good imagination. And we go back to the positive thinking; So I always… I have dreams. I have had a vision board and I look at things and put them on a board. I check goals every day and I read the goals. In fact, I‘ve written as one of my goals at the moment is written out in the future five years time from now and it‘s a story which I read every day. The more you read that it sort of gets into your subconscious mind. At the moment, my sister-in-law and I have a big joke going on that I‘m going to buy a private plane for my brother who is actually an international airline pilot and set up our own business up there in the central coast. But it started off as a joke but the more we talk about it, we‘re starting to believe it‘s actually going to happen. So, imagination… You have to have a belief in yourself. I mean if you‘re doing something and you‘re full of self-doubt, it‘s going to be very hard to stay motivated. You need to have that belief in yourself, in what you‘re doing. I also think the thing that keeps me going is that I know that my business actually helps others. So, it‘s not a selfish business… I think that keeps me going. If I grow, I‘m helping other people grow as well. Again, I just think those thoughts. I don‘t entertain negative thought. I just flip them over to something positive.
Franziska: Yeah. Awesome… So vision board. I love a vision board. Setting goals every day. Also, I love how you have your big or your five year goal story that you read every day. That‘s so powerful. And I do that myself when I have a vision board and I set goals. I remember my husband actually, Christo, he wrote a couple of goals on the wall of his office maybe seven years ago. Probably about seven years ago when we weren‘t married yet. And on there, he wrote, and I was employed in the corporate world in advertising and he was running his own business, and some of his goals… one was to get married. I didn‘t know because I was actually in Switzerland. The one was to get married to me because with the monkeys he said he wants to get married to the monkey. He wants to have his own place on the beach. He wants to have a business that is mobile. He had that on his wall and we still have it now. We took a picture of it. Three years later he was married to his monkey. We own a place on the beach that we live in and we have a mobile business. So, I think that stuff for our listeners is so powerful.
Deb: It is powerful. I can‘t stress enough how powerful it is.
Franziska: You‘re also very passionate about giving back to the community and you‘re involved with a few charities and you‘re constantly giving back. How important do you think that is for a small business?
Deb: I think it‘s essential for a small business, for individuals and for corporations… For everybody. We are a community. I‘m on the board of CAN mental health that promotes mental health and helps support people who have been in hospital for problems and I got into that because my brother took his life many years ago and it had a great impact on me. It was the most devastating thing that‘s ever happened. So I want to help others. If I save one person‘s life by talking about the aftereffects of suicide then that‘s something I‘ve done. I just wanted to give a little bit more about giving. I was invited to a cruise on Wednesday with Tribal Warrior. Indigenous boat that takes people out. The most amazing day. And as I talked to the CEO, he told me that he‘d really like to get into the corporate world and have the boat for events and I volunteered straightaway and said “I‘m sure I can help you there. I‘m in the event industry.” So, I‘m going to give them a plug right here. It‘s tribalwarrior.org. Get involved. Absolutely fantastic.
Franziska: Awesome. And you know, I just love what you said because everybody out there, a small business owner or not, can make a difference, can do something. Be even spreading the word like you do right now. Or hands-on work or donating something. Everybody can make a difference and I think it‘s hugely important.
Deb: Absolutely. And also I have many mentors that I talk about, probably half of them don‘t even know that they‘re my mentors. But, they‘re people who are in my speaking industry who have mentored me and always give me advice. There‘s a man called Ian Berry who I‘ve known for a long time. He has a community called The Difference Makers and that‘s another organization. It‘s all about business helping. Giving back. I think it‘s absolutely essential going forward.
Franziska: Yeah. Awesome. I‘d love to talk just a little bit about speakers and how to become a speaker because you are the expert with your own two great speaker bureaus. What do you think makes a great speaker?
Deb: A great speaker can engage the audience in the first couple of minutes on stage. They‘ll be interactive. They‘ll be passionate. They will most likely take their audience on a roller coaster ride for laughter. Some get serious. They‘ll leave feeling fabulous. They want the audience to leave feeling fantastic and to have great content obviously and take home value. So I think a great speaker needs to be giving and contributing for their own stage for 50 minutes or whatever. But what comes after the event. So great follow-on material. Great handouts. Online courses, whatever. Give something extra because they get paid a lot of money to speak and I think it needs to be more than just on the stage. Just give me, give me, give me.
Franziska: Okay. That‘s great. So a great speaker is someone who can engage, who is passionate about what they talk about. And I love how you say they can take you on a roller coaster because some speakers, and I just listened to DiMartini the other week and John DiMartini, he does that. He takes you on a roller coaster. So he starts very slow and it‘s very soft and then suddenly the fire comes out and you feel it. You do feel after the presentation, you feel inspired. And then it‘s giving value at the end. Giving extra value. That‘s fantastic.
Deb: Yes. I think it‘s great. If they can offer something that the delegates can take home or download or… Give extra. Continue it after service is great.
Franziska: And because you, as a speaker bureau, you market speakers to companies and to events. So what makes a speaker easy to market?
Deb: Well it‘s obviously for the speaker that we‘re putting into corporate see want to have a good brand. They‘re well known. They‘ve got great testimonial. Great video that we can send to the clients. Their own presentation has to be really clever. We also help emerging speakers because it‘s often hard for them to get on to speaker bureau books. I‘m willing to help groom them… Help them with their printing. We‘ve got a whole range of services that can actually help speakers get out there and lift their own brand presence and with great, as you know, we‘ve formed alliances with people that can help us do that.
Franziska: I‘m super excited about that. Because I‘m excited about getting involved in Voxy Lady and helping speakers market themself. And it‘s great to have somebody like you, this experienced, to help people that want to become speakers become speakers and getting booked. I really appreciate that you have a business that does that.
Deb: Yes, again, I think it‘s giving back. And we‘re very excited to have you on board. It‘s a feel good business. We‘re in the motivational, helping, educating business. I just love what I do. I don‘t even consider what I do is work. It‘s just my passion.
Franziska: Yeah. And we were talking about that the other day weren‘t we? Because at like midnight or something we were both Emailing each other saying, well, we‘re both kind of working because it doesn‘t feel like work. It‘s just what we do. I prefer doing that than watching TV.
Deb: Exactly. It‘s fun. It‘s great. It‘s just great. I love it.
Franziska: Do you have any suggestions for our listeners on how they can get listed with a speaker bureau?
Deb: Well personally, I can only, of course, talk about my own bureaus. Anyone who‘s already on the circuit I‘d love to hear from them. They just need to get in touch with me and send me an Email and we‘ll check from there. Anyone who‘s wanting to become a speaker, they might want to enroll in some of our classes for presentation skills or we can help them build a website or get some printing done. We‘ve got a whole range of… Just contact me. I‘m an open door.
Franziska: Yeah. And we will share your contact details at the end, too. That‘s great. Also, one thing that really comes out talking to you is that you‘re very passionate about your businesses and very passionate about what you do. Do you have any tips for our listeners on how they can discover their own passion and follow their own truths?
Deb: I think we all… Most people, I‘m sure, have something that they love to do. And maybe if it‘s a hobby or something, that they might start thinking, well how can I be creative with this? How could I maybe make some extra income from this or do it to give back to the community or whatever. You have to find… You have to love what you‘re doing. If you‘re not loving what you‘re doing, you‘re not going to be engaged or happy. Are you? I fell into this industry by mistake in 2004 and I‘ve never left it. I just fell in love with it.
Franziska: How did you fall into it?
Deb: I was actually dating a speaker at the time. His name‘s Ron Lee. Known as the Corporate Ninja and she was invited to go to Fiji and was paid thousands of dollars to speak. Business conferences, blah, blah, blah. He said, “Would you like your partner to come.” And I said, “Oh, yes.” And while we were over there, about day 5, I sat on the beach with him and I said, “So this is work for you? Is it?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “Well how do I do it?” He says, “Well, you become a speaker or you start a bureau.” I said, “Okay. I‘m going to do that.” I actually did. I came back to Sydney not knowing what I was doing. Worked for the federal government at the time and I just went, “I‘m going to do it.” And I taught myself everything… From scratch. And here I am.
Franziska: What a great story. Here you are two speaker bureaus.
Deb: Yeah. Funny.
Franziska: I love it. How do you market your business? What are some of your most effective marketing strategies?
Deb: Well firstly I think, like I mentioned before, I built my own personal dead car brand as someone who‘s not someone that you can go up and talk to and approach. I‘m very networked… I‘m a committee member of the American Chamber of Commerce. I go to a lot of networking events. Social media, of course, is very important. I have my own blog. I write articles for that and other blogs. I leverage off other people in a give-give situation. Like you could tell, we‘re going to do something. Form great alliances. Again, giving back and when I‘m networking, my number one goal is I‘m not there to sell to anyone. I‘m there to form a relationship and how can I help you. That‘s my attitude. That‘s basically how I market business.
Franziska: Yeah. That‘s fantastic. So some of your top strategies will be blogging and you write some fantastic content and you are a great networker. You‘re obviously focusing on building relationships, alliances and also giving a lot of value constantly.
Deb: Yes. Absolutely. It‘s all about giving. It‘s not about taking. I consider myself to be quite a good salesperson but I‘m never a hard sell person. People buy from me because we build trust. It‘s all about trust.
Franziska: I love that question. What‘s been the funniest or weirdest thing that has ever happened to you in your business? Have you got any funny stories for our listeners?
Deb: Oh, look I think every day is a funny story… I won‘t talk about a funny story. I‘ll talk about something some people might think as weird. I‘ll give an example. Recently, a couple of months ago, I went to New York because we were up for a finalist in the Stevie Awards. So I went to that awards dinner. And as I landed in New York and booked into my hotel room, I just felt on top of the world. I thought, wow, this is it. This is amazing. And I sat down in a chair and I received a phone call from my brother that mum just had a massive stroke. And I just thought to myself, ugh. How is this happening? What am I doing wrong? And it actually changed that whole trip. Mum‘s okay, by the way now. She‘s getting much, much better. But, it actually changed me because we have a recruitment business as well and I was trying to equally fill both of them at the same time and I just went, “No. I‘m not doing this anymore.” And ever since I‘ve changed my own thinking, had a different strategy, the most amazing things have been happening. Every day I meet someone like-minded, same values and we‘re helping each other build each other‘s businesses and helping everyone out. Some people might think it‘s weird or coincidence. I think it‘s meant to be. So I guess that… But every day I just… I probably couldn‘t name one thing. There‘d be too many.
Franziska: And you know what‘s interesting about your story and when I saw John DiMartini talk about values and he actually said that sometimes when we‘re feeling on top of the world and we‘re feeling like we are invincible and we can do anything, something happens or somebody comes along and takes us down. And, you know, the other way around. He said when you‘re down, something happens or people in your life husband or spouse or partner or wife or daughter come along and lift you up. What he said is that it‘s because we need to be in balance and the environment and universe just does that to us. So it‘s interesting how you say that. So did it make you focus more on one or two things rather than trying to do too many things? Is that what it helped you decide?
Deb: It absolutely did. I can remember my mother would ring me up in the morning. I‘d be on the ferry going over to the office and “I‘d be going, mum, mum, I‘m too busy, I‘m too busy. I‘m too busy.” And it actually made me step back and realize how important my mother is and that I was putting… I was not being true to myself. So without seeing my mother… Watching someone you love have a stroke is absolutely heart-wrenching. I can‘t even begin to tell you how awful it is. And to see her change and now, you know, Dad had to… Dad‘s 80 and he‘s her full time carer in the country where they live. It changed my whole way of thinking and that‘s when I decided I‘m only going to focus on my one true passion. Of course, I‘ll still recruit people who want my services in that area because of my networks, but, it‘s not building a recruitment business. I‘m doing what I really love doing and things are really for us now.
Franziska: Yeah. And that‘s a really great tip for our listeners to sometimes all you need to do is focus on the one thing you want to do instead of… And that‘s what entrepreneurs often do. They have so… I‘m a victim of that myself. You have so many ideas and so many things we want to do and so many great projects sometimes you just need to come back to yourself and focus on one thing and doors just open and good things happen.
Deb: That‘s exactly right. Yes. I‘m a great fan of John DiMartini as well. I know exactly what you‘re talking about. About the balance.
Franziska: Yeah. So hopefully we‘ll have him on one of the future podcast shows. I‘ll get him on the show.
Deb: Oh, do it. Do it. We‘ll all be listening. We love it.
Franziska: Yeah. He is fantastic. So, Deb, thank you so much. Where can people find out more about you and your business?
Deb: We have three websites. voxylady.com.au. And we‘ve got coyotekeynote.com.au and my own personal blog where I just share some very personal stories about my experience with Crohn‘s Disease and other tips is debbie-carr.com.
Franziska: Debbie, hyphen, C-A-R-R.com. Okay. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much Debbie. It‘s been fantastic having you on the show.
Deb: It‘s been such a pleasure to be here. And I‘m so looking forward to working with you and helping others. Thank you so much.
Franziska: Me too. Me too. Thank you Debbie. Bye.