2485 - Guide to Finding and Booking Event Talent Without Breaking the Bank with Gigsalad's Mark Steiner

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0:46Visit podverified.com if you'd like to be featured as a future guest. I'm Josh Elledge. Let's get into it. With us right now, it's Mark Steiner. Mark, you are the co-founder and CEO of Gig Salad. You're found on the web at gigsalad.com. Gig Salad has been around for a long time in internet years. Yes. Three and a half years. That is something. So first off, congratulations on all that. We're going to be talking about Gig Salad and kind of the story and also for our friends that are listening, you know, how they might engage with you or get value, certainly, from what you've learned over the decades.

1:31But, Mark, before we do, you know, I always love hearing from high-level leaders, business leaders and founders, what they do for fun. And I understand you've done some road trip in recently. I have. I just got back from Colorado. It sounds like we share some how to go there with Colorado. It's one of my favorite states, but it's just one of the places that I like to frequent. I'm solidly based in the center of the United States here in Springfield, Mo. And so I have the ability within a day's drive and I can easily knock out 12 hours in a day of drive time. I can get to a lot of neat places. and I'm at a stage and age in my life now as an empty nester that I every every three or four weeks I get a little bit of wanderlust and I have to just sort of take off and sometimes I I will drop it on my girlfriend say hey are you cool if I drive to Mount Rushmore this happened two weeks ago on a Friday morning I said I think I want to do that trip and I left Saturday morning and disappeared for five days and went up to the other end of South Dakota.

2:44And I just got in last night from Colorado and Saturday morning, I'm going to drive to Toronto and be up there for about eight days. The destinations are great, right? And we're very lucky, I think, here in the United States that there are so many great national parks and great places to go and that sort of thing. But you know what I want to ask you about is the process of the drive itself. You know, because I think of the things that I am trying to do more of in my life. And that is, you know, you know, just where I'm not thinking and processing as hard that I'm spending maybe more time in reflection and contemplation and, you know, maybe just deep, deeper work and listening to longer form content.

3:28And, you know, because in our day-to-day life, especially, you know, with a, you know, a business founder that has just so many things going on, there's just constantly, you know, just all kinds of little activity that stresses us out or that competes for our attention. You know, and so I've been listening to more people that say, you know, listen, go out and intentionally make yourself bored for like 20 minutes. But Americans and people in general, just we don't experience boredom like we used to in the 80s. You know, it's like I'd have to wait for my mom and dad to come pick me up from the mall and I'd be sitting outside just sitting on a bench for like an hour waiting for mom and dad because we didn't know.

4:10You know, they didn't know unless I could call them from a payphone and stuff. So there was just a lot more, I'd say, downtime. There was unstructured. And driving kind of forces you into that. it is precisely why i do it i i got a late in life diagnosis of adhd me too is that three years ago so i'm i turned 60 this year and at 57 and a half uh i got this diagnosis and and the summary of this is i there's certain things that can shut it down for me um because i'm living in a very busy mind and uh precisely what you said windshield time for me is time and i i'll do road trips with others but there's also a time where i like to do them solo and i do a lot of it and some of it's you know i try to mix and mingle work and pleasure uh in most of my trips and i have been able to accomplish that but it is one of the few natural things that I can just veg out.

5:18And I can talk to people on the phone, I can listen to audible books, I can do podcasts, I can listen to music, I can just sit in silence and travel and look at the lines and just shut it down. And it's become increasingly more important to have that time in my life just my my health for for my holistic whole life whole health it's uh really important that i get that time and i think it's true that we all should yeah mark thank you so much for taking that little detour thank you to our listener as well for indulging us and you know i i actually get so much positive feedback from people talking you know uh this this first part of of the conversation you know just like you know how much we have in common You know, and, you know, most business owners as well are very multi-passionate.

6:13You know, they just, you know, the passion that led them to start a company is the same one that, you know, allows them to follow their passions outside of work. Mark, we need to talk about Gig Salad. Start with just an overview. What is Gig Salad? Gig Salad is an event marketplace. So we started conceptualizing this in 03, well before Airbnb, well before Uber, and these marketplaces that have become more part of people's understanding of the internet and the ability to purchase, find services or products for that matter. But as an event marketplace, it is a booking platform for what it started off was strictly entertainers, performers, speakers, those who do what they do on a stage with a microphone.

7:04And then shortly after our launch, we added other event service providers because we found event planners need other services, too. So it's also a place where you can find bartenders and photographers and anything that you need for an event you can find on Gig Salad. And we're just a conduit between the two parties, event planners and who we what we call our members are the PKs or the promo kits. And we just bring the two parties together. Wow. And then so structurally, how does that work? Like, how is it transactionally? How does that work? Yes. So it's a freemium model. So you can have a free listing on the platform and then there's paid membership similar to like a LinkedIn platform.

7:48uh and then so we have our paid members and then we also get a piece of the bookings that happen on the platform and i just for kicks um i just punched in dj uh in my area and boy there are a lot of djs in orlando is there well did they and are you on the platform or was that like a google search no no no no i'm i'm just on the platform right now and so this is great like as a consumer it's like, you know, if I'm putting on an event and I'm like, I could DJ, I don't want to DJ. I'd rather bring a pro that this is what they do on a regular basis. And so how convenient that is. Yes. Yes. Well, we're very, we've, our, our longevity was solely based on strong SEO.

8:36So people doing a Google search or a Bing search, putting in DJs in Orlando or book or hire a DJ in your area, we traditionally came up very high, often number one, but a minimum on that first page. Things have changed slightly between AI and other factors, but throughout our entire history, it's been strong SEO and word of mouth. It's only been this past year that we actually have leaned into digital marketing and paying for ads for the first time. Yeah, well, I could understand why. Like you've got a great reputation and like you've been the go-to for all things SEO. I think maybe just a little bit more of the contextual.

9:23So AI understands that you are not only kind of where everybody does business for this sort of thing, but also that you're the thought leader and you've got content around. Sorry, I don't mean to get too meta. No, bring it, bring it. Talking about strategy for podcast casting, but that's what I do for a living. So I know that world. Yes, just a quick plug for anyone listening. Yes, if you want to rank higher in AI, your media placements and your thought and your content out there on distributed networks is just so valuable. um now mark um obviously then there's this side you know for all of these creators that are out there um you know i just you know mentioned djing but um uh because that was the first thing you know i've done some amateur djing in my past um yeah entertainers speakers uh yeah tell me about the speaker side because i think a lot of folks uh in um you know kind of our world uh right are are corporate speakers.

10:29Yes. Well, I, so my background was I worked 10 years in the movie business and then I got into the booking side of talent. I worked for a small boutique agency in New York city for about seven years. And then I started my own agency booking agency that I was primarily music, but then I delved into speakers and started co-brokering with speakers bureaus. And when I launched my first website for Steiner talent, that's what has morphed that was the catalyst for gig salad. And so it was only natural to bring, you know, all the talent that I used to work with, introduce them to this platform. And speakers happens to be one of the higher level of

11:16of talent, because speakers, once they when a speaker can hone in on a particular subject or topic or they're published and or they're in the media etc etc those who you normally see on a on at a podium doing a keynote um have a you know media behind them and so it the way that it's a geocentric platform when you are searching for talent in your area up pops all those options in closest proximity in this for speakers what they will often do is select other locations and choosing the bigger markets or places where there are frequent conferences and conventions and trade shows and places where you would see speakers and hear speakers.

12:04Orlando happens to be one of them, Josh. I know you know. Oh, yeah. And so, yes, speakers do extremely well. We have some that make their full-time living solely off of gig salad bookings. They're not with a traditional speakers bureau. they're not getting leads from any place else they're they're they're making their entire career for on gig salad and that's not the case for everybody there's those who supplement their income on gig salad there's weekend warriors on gig salad they have other careers but they did they moonlight doing you know something else that's related to gig salad so yeah there's a place for everybody on there amateurs those who are just starting out you know it's uh it's there's a place for everybody on there.

12:50So what is the advantage to using gig salad rather than working through a speaker bureau? And I would say rather because they're not mutually exclusive. However, you know, and I'm curious, both from a, like, if I need to hire a speaker, why is it easier for me? And if I am the speaker, what are the advantages to just doing the bulk or the lion's share of my gigs through GigSolid. Well, back to that strong SEO, you know, unless you're a known speaker, somebody who's followed your reputation precedes you, then you're not likely to be found. If you're just doing a general search and putting in public speakers on, you know, in any search, what pops up will be overwhelming.

13:40And a lot of times people don't know where to start. They may have an idea of a particular person and then find out, oh, they're way out of our budget. Or they're looking for a person who speaks on a certain topic or subject. That's where a platform like ours comes in. And you're right. It's not exclusive. We have – it's not an and or it is an and. You can be – speakers, bureaus utilize our platform for their clients because it's just another opportunity to throw your hat into the ring and at least be a part of the conversation because you can't cover all the ground. You can't be everywhere. And we are.

14:24And I see that. So in terms of the platform, I see you've got some different levels. Starter, it's free. And then, you know, goes all the way up to like, you get featured and that's, it's still very accessible. I mean, as of when we're recording, it's under$200 for three months. And you get one gig and you've made that many times over, particularly as a speaker. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And the booking fees, what you're paying with a booking is a fraction. You know, standard booking, a commission for speakers in the speaker's world is 20%. And the way that's set up is if you're with a speakers bureau, they're getting 20 % if you go directly through that speakers bureau.

15:16But because you're so often co-brokering, speakers bureaus work with one another. They'll book each other's clients. There was booking agents like myself, which I wasn't exclusive with any talent. I worked with all the talent booking, all the talent agencies and all the speakers bureaus out there so that when I booked a talent through a certain, we would split that 20%. We're under 10%, well under 10%. And that's split. That's divided between the event planner and you. So it's just a fraction of what you would normally be paying out as a speaker. I have a suggestion for a new category in your events space.

15:59And that would be our event services. I run podcast booths for events. And so could I, yeah. And oh boy. And it's just bang for the buck, you know, like what you can get. You can sponsor the whole thing. Hey, we'll talk off air. We'll talk off air. Okay, Josh. But I'm going to get my own gig salad. Let's do it. Yeah, we're partnering. Pod verified. Yeah. I love it. I love it. I love it. Mark, the website, gigsalad.com. We've been talking about it all day, the whole, the whole event, or the whole conversation here. But what would you recommend next steps be for either, you know, meeting planners or folks that are looking like, Oh man, I could use professionals.

16:41I mean, there's really a lot of fun categories, everything from balloon twisters and petting zoos to bartenders. Of course, we were talking about speakers, entertainers, uh bands are on here wedding musicians uh very very cool um yeah for a friend that's listening what do they do next yeah so if you're in first off i believe everybody is a potential event planner i think i we welcome everybody to find something to celebrate in life to have a party you know you have guests over for your to your house for dinner backyard barbecue for for a couple hundred dollars hire a singer and guitarist just be in the corner and create some background ambiance music you know it's just so much it adds so much um and what a nice surprise to your to your guests but everybody's an event planner we we say cradle to grave from the moment that you you meet somebody and decide you want to propose to the your wedding to the first anniversary to the birth of children and birthdays and anniversaries and corporate events and funerals on and on everybody's an event planner if you happen to be somebody who is an entertainer or an event service provider of any sort uh gig salad is a platform for you as as was mentioned you can have a free listing on there dip your toe in see that it works upgrade if you want uh but it's it's we you know i'm a dreamer of dreams i i've also created this platform uh as a place to give people a chance to do what they love and what they've always dreamt that they've wanted to do.

18:17And that's what you'll find on there. They have about 500 categories to choose from. Half of them are sort of music related. But there's, you know, again, you don't have to be a full-time professional. If you're just looking for a couple weekend gigs, you can find it here. Yeah. Well, Mark, I got to tell you, as the co-founder and CEO of Gig Salad, if you ever throw a party, I'm coming to your place. Because I know it's going to be good. Come on. You're invited. Absolutely. You know a few people. I do. I got the best of the best. The creme de la creme. I love it. Mark Steiner, co-founder and CEO of Gig Salad, found on the web at gigsalad.com.

18:55Thank you so much, Mark. Thank you, Josh.

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