Eric Smith, also known as The Money Guy, also known as The Financial Literacy Coach, has been a professional speaker and presenter since 2009 and is passionate about teaching folks money skills either in person or virtually. After a 28-year banking career he decided to chase his dreams and passions and started a speaking business to impact the lives of others. In addition to presenting at many NFL rookie camps and NBA G League teams, he has served many of the Power 5 athletic programs across the country as well as serving many TRIO, student affairs and corporate groups. He has participated in countless conventions and conferences as well as presenting to over 150,000 students along the way. Like many speakers, he has spent thousands of hours emailing and calling potential clients trying to establish and then grow his own business. Along the way ,there were many times that he felt like giving up because of the frustration and long hours that it required simply to just get his name in front of potential clients. Starting out he did a lot of free programs just to be able to showcase his talent hoping that it would result in a “paying gig.” He always felt like there had to be a “better way” to promote his services and attract clients. He has met hundreds of other speakers during his career and many have shared their desire to find a more effective way of getting their names in front of potential clients and be able to secure more speaking gigs. The need for a “real” speaker registry or website devoted to connecting speakers with buyers has always come up in conversations. Eric Smith and Angie Hugdahl finally decided to do something about that need and combined their passions to create speakerlist.org.
Angie Hugdahl is the Immediate Past- President of the Wisconsin Association of Educational Opportunity Program Personnel (WAEOPP), Upward Bound Program Director, and has served as TRIO Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. She has been involved with the TRIO community for over 15 years. One of the frustrations that she has had for many years and has been magnified most recently is finding the best available speakers or presenters who are dynamic and engaging to serve the needs of her TRIO students. As many know finding the right speaker to meet the student’s needs and grant objectives can be very time-consuming and difficult. Due to COVID -19, Angie was determined to do something to deliver impactful services to her online students. Eric and Angie are both excited about launching speakerlist.org which they believe will greatly benefit all aspects of the TRIO community and beyond by creating a one-of-a-kind resource for identifying credible and impactful speakers and presenters. Designed to be a “one stop shop’ for showcasing America’s top speaking and presentation talent, speakerlist.org is a user-friendly source for hosting speakers and educational resources and connecting them with buyers in many different communities including not only TRIO but athletics, student affairs, Greek Life and corporate.
Angie and Eric hope that you will find speakerlist.org to be a trusted resource for finding just the right speaker for your next event. For all of you speakers looking for a better way to get business and position yourself for future success, we hope that you will find speakerlist.org to be a great tool for building your own businesses and increasing your impact.
