Exploring Life & Business with Brittanny Kreutzer and Julie Homsey of The Speaker Exchange Agency, LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittanny Kreutzer and Julie Homsey. They and their team shared their story with us below:

We started in Julie’s basement, telling ourselves each day-keep your head down and sell, and all will be ok. This is us, the story of how The Speaker Exchange Agency came to be. Once upon a time (long ago), there were two bubbly twenty-something go-getters.

These two gals stumbled upon an interesting and exciting industry where their passion for helping others and their drive to succeed allowed them to start a career in the world of keynote speakers.

Julie, the older and wiser (at the time), had a few more years of experience in the wild industry of booking and selling motivational speakers, trainers, and celebrities when along came Brittanny, who was out to conquer the world. Julie did her best to help coach and show Britt the ropes, as many others had done for Julie when she started in the industry. Together, they challenged and complimented each other as they pushed toward record-breaking sales and growth. One day, Britt approached Julie with the idea of joining forces. Both were aggressive, passionate and worked extremely hard, but both also yearned for a family and a life outside of work (which isn’t often easy to do in an industry that is 24/7 ).

Britt proposed to a skeptical Julie they could achieve their goals better together than they could on their own. Julie’s skepticism faded as she trusted Britt and her passion for this idea. Sometimes in life, the best outcomes are unplanned and not foreseen but only accomplished by taking a risk and leap of faith. When changes at their company forced them to take a new path, they fully embraced the idea of becoming a team, and The Speaker Exchange Agency was born. The desire to work hard for clients, take care of their speakers, and have a company where work/life balance could happen was the dream. These two best friends are still going strong today, beating goals and setting the bar for excellence in a very competitive industry. Though the dream started as just the two of them, they soon learned that sharing the opportunity to work in this incredible industry with others with the same dreams has been one of their most proud accomplishments. They are blessed to have an amazing team of women who have joined them on this journey and also can do it all: work, take care of their families and strive to be the best by always growing and learning. The women of The Speaker Exchange love what they do and count their blessings daily. They work hard, they hustle, they always want the best for others, and by remembering to have gratitude every day, they believe their story will end happily ever after.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not a smooth road at all. Starting a business with little knowledge of what running a business means (not just making sales) posed challenges in the first year. It was like being thrown into the deep end of a pool without our floaties. We learned a lot of first-year business lessons along the way. While the first year was highly challenging navigating the waters of entrepreneurship – COVID was the hardest business year and a half of our lives. Meetings came to a halt. We had to quickly learn how to navigate a world without in-person meetings (our entire world), and everyone went virtual. Companies were asking for money back and to be released from agreements. Navigating legal clauses that had been in agreements for years but we had never had to use consumed our days. Not knowing when our industry could return to “normal” was stressful and scary. We are unsure we would have made it through without each other and our team to lean on. We all made sacrifices and did everything we could to keep the faith. Our team is truly unique. When one person was up, another might be down, but we stuck together and pulled through, lifting each other along the way.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We book motivational speakers, celebrities, entertainers, bands, and trainers for events. We are a boutique, Women Owned Agency in Kansas City, but we have booked talent worldwide. The most notable names we have booked include Kim Kardashian, Rob Lowe, Jocko Willink, Magic Johnson, Jay Leno, Derek Hough, Mel Robbins, and many more. However, our favorite speakers to book are the ones you might not recognize by name, but they will change your heart, mind, life, and soul. We consider ourselves to be just like a real estate agent, but for speakers, our goal is to find the perfect match for a client’s event! We take pride in developing long-term, personal relationships with our clients. When you work with us, we make you part of our “SEA Family.” We want to get to know more than just your event. We want to get to know you on a personal level. Many of our clients are our friends.

Please talk to us about happiness and what makes you happy.
Knowing what we do can change a person’s life and makes us happy. We love “matchmaking” and helping our meeting planners find the perfect speakers for their events. We are also delighted and proud we have created a company where we get to work with a group of women and create a space for them to make money. Lastly, but most importantly, we get to be around our kids, be at all the games and events, and not miss this precious time being moms! Family is the “why” in our lives always. And as we have worked together all these years, we consider each other family.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.speakerexchangeagency.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespeakerexchangellc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpeakerExchangeAgency/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-speaker-exchange-agency-llc/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AgencySpeaker

Image Credits
Kasey Gryszowka Harlowgray Photography for the professional photos.