Welcome to The Intelligentsia Agency, Inc!
On behalf of myself, my team, and the professional speakers and consultants that we partner with, I want to extend a warm and heartfelt welcome to you, our prospective and current clients, and professional speakers and consultants.
Before I got started in this industry some years ago, I was constantly listening to the inspirational and motivational messages of various speakers like: Les Brown, Zig Ziglar and countless others. Amazed at their insights, and profundity I began to be amazed at how I could learn something completely different from each different speaker. Each speaker seemed to be specifically wired to speak to an area of understanding that I needed insight into. Even if I didn’t need what a specific speaker had to say, I knew there was someone somewhere who did, and that’s when I started seeing speakers and consultants as small, but limitless and combustive gifts of God’s intelligence in human form.
I have always been entrepreneurial and a stickler for excellent customer service, and so starting my own agency was a very natural choice. I’m quite sure it won’t be the last entrepreneurial endeavor that I have.
My Start: Lily Of The Valley Speakers Bureau
My first agency Lily of the Valley Speakers had some success, but as I matured, obtained more bookings, and learned more from observation of the industry and my business mentor: (Mrs. Betty Garett, CEO of Garett Speakers International in Texas) I realized that my comprehension and understanding of the business quadrupled. It became apparent to me that there was a gaping need for innovation and better content in this small, hidden, but tenured industry. Thus, the small boutique agency that I had was outdated, in comparison to my present level of understanding. It was no longer an accurate depiction of what I understood or what I believed could really fill the gap, and the needs of corporate meeting and event planners on a global level.
OPTIMIZATION, DISRUPTION AND INNOVATION
I was able to clearly see that there was a need for innovation, because there was a blaring need in the industry for an agency that focused on three things primarily:
- Excellent, passionate customer service, and active listening being given to meeting and event planners. One of my personal pet peeves is poor customer service, or a customer service representative that cuts you off constantly when they should be employing active LISTENING. Everyone who works with me on my team knows that any form of rudeness or poor customer service will not be tolerated. We all must take turns being either the customer or the service provider at some point during our 24-hour day. When it’s our turn to serve, we should serve well.
- More accountability for professional speakers and consultants in terms of their content being up to date with recent and established developments in a particular industry, when applicable.
- More integrity. We respect professional speakers and consultants and the ones that elect to work with us. It wouldn’t be possible to have an agency like this one, without them. Yet, we are an agency that is client focused, and invite-only when it comes to professional speakers and consultants. We don’t accept any kind of incentive from a speaker or consultant to either commence working with them or to book them more like some agencies do. We do this for the purposes of safeguarding our integrity. In addition to that, we let the brilliant professional speakers and consultants that work with us know that we reserve the right to go over their content with them, to make sure that it’s up to par with what our clients need, and reflective of any new or recent developments in a specific subject matter when applicable.
- More awareness and insight on the agency’s part into those subject specific and global specific developments. There is no way for us to catch what may be missing from a speaker or consultants content, if we ourselves are not in the know and studious of the world around us, whether it’s in the field of science or politics or futurism or finance.
Introducing: The Intelligentsia Agency, Inc.
The Intelligentsia Agency, Inc. is a centralized place for the world’s greatest minds, contributors, and intelligence to be represented and connected to the world’s greatest and most intelligent organizations and companies.
We take pride and see it as our job to help you make your meeting and event attendees go “Wow!” There are multiple factors that go into making a meeting attendee go “Wow!” So many things factor into that moment. We pay attention to the details that factor into that equation. The power of observation, discovery, and research is something that I really believe in incorporating into this work. We take pride and see it as our job to help you equip your meeting and event attendees to the fullest extent of the intelligence that is available to all of us on this great planet.
My Promise To You
I look forward to serving and working with you and your organization, to give you the best possible professional speaker or consultant you could have, based on your meeting objectives, your budget, your theme, attendee demographic, and current organizational or team needs.
Be there or be square(d.)
In Gratitude and Service,
Candace G. Carson-Smith