Workflow 1: New Inquiry, Instant Response

Purpose: Acknowledge every new inquiry within minutes, regardless of whether you’re available.

Trigger: Form submitted (your speaker inquiry form) OR New contact added via eSpeakers integration

Actions:

1. Add tag: source-[appropriate source]
2. Create opportunity in pipeline: Stage = “New Inquiry”
3. Wait: 0 minutes (immediate)
4. Send SMS: “Hi {{contact.first_name}}, thanks for reaching out about {{custom_field.event_name}}! I’ll review your inquiry and be in touch within one business day. In the meantime, you can check my availability at [eSpeakers profile link].”
5. Send email: Formal acknowledgment email with your bio, sample topics, and a link to your speaker profile (pre-written template)
6. Internal notification: Email or app notification to you with the inquiry details
7. Wait: Until business hours (critical, prevents automated messages firing at 2 am)

Exit trigger: Contact moves out of “New Inquiry” stage

Why this matters: The average business takes 47 hours to respond to a new lead. This workflow responds in under five minutes. That alone puts you ahead of the majority of speakers a planner might be evaluating simultaneously.

Workflow 2: Discovery Call Booking, Confirm, and Prepare

Purpose: Make every discovery call feel effortless for the planner and fully prepared for you.

Trigger: Appointment booked in HighLevel calendar (discovery call event type)

Actions:

1. Move pipeline to: “Discovery Call Scheduled.”
2. Send email (immediate): Confirmation with call details, Zoom/phone link, and a brief preparation note: “To make our call as useful as possible, I’d love to know a bit about your audience and event goals in advance. [Link to 3-question pre-call form].”
3. Wait: Until 24 hours before the appointment.
4. Send SMS reminder: “Looking forward to our call tomorrow at {{appointment.time}}, {{contact.first_name}}. Here’s the link: [link].”
5. Wait: Until 1 hour before the appointment.
6. Send SMS: “We’re on in an hour, see you at {{appointment.time}}!”
7. Internal notification: Reminder to review pre-call form responses before the call

Exit trigger: Appointment completed OR Appointment canceled/rescheduled (trigger separate rescheduling workflow)

Workflow 3: Hold Acknowledgment and Expiry Management

Purpose: Document every hold formally, communicate professionally, and prevent holds from expiring silently.

Trigger: Pipeline stage changes to “Hold Confirmed”.

Actions:

1. Add tag: hold-active
2. Send email (immediate): “Hi {{contact.first_name}}, I’ve placed a hold on [event date] for [organization]. This hold is confirmed through [expiry date, set as a custom field]. If you need to extend or confirm before then, just let me know. I’ll follow up as the date approaches.”
3. Wait: Until 50% of the hold window has elapsed (e.g., if a 14-day hold, wait 7 days)
4. Send email: “Following up on the hold for [date], wanted to check in on where things stand. Happy to discuss any questions before you finalize.”
5. Wait: Until 2 days before hold expiry.
6. Send SMS: “Quick note, the hold on [date] expires in 2 days. Happy to extend if you need more time, or to move forward whenever you’re ready.”
7. Internal notification: Flag to follow up by phone if no response

Exit trigger: Pipeline stage changes (either to “Contract Out” = hold converted, or back to “New Inquiry” / “Lost” = hold released)

Workflow 4: Contract Follow-Up, No More Waiting in Silence

Purpose: Ensure every sent contract gets a professional follow-up and doesn’t go cold.

Trigger: Pipeline stage changes to “Contract Out.”

Actions:

1. Wait: 5 business days (use business hours filter, do not count weekends)
2. Condition: IF pipeline stage is still “Contract Out” → proceed; IF stage has changed → exit workflow
3. Send email: “Hi {{contact.first_name}}, checking in on the contract for [event date]. Happy to answer any questions or adjust anything before you sign. Let me know how to help move this forward.”
4. Wait: 3 more business days.
5. Condition: IF pipeline stage is still “Contract Out” → proceed; IF changed → exit
6. Internal notification: Flag to call directly, do not send another automated message

Exit trigger: Pipeline stage changes out of “Contract Out.”

Important note: Stop the automated follow-up after the second touch. A third automated email starts to feel like pressure, not service. The internal notification in step 6 is a prompt for a personal call, which is a stronger close than another templated message.

Workflow 5: Pre-Event Preparation Sequence

Purpose: Deliver a professional, consistent pre-event experience for every confirmed engagement, without relying on memory.

Trigger: Pipeline stage changes to “Deposit Received” (booking confirmed)

Actions:

1. Move pipeline to: “Pre-Event Active.ve.”
2. Send email (immediate): Welcome and kickoff email confirming the engagement, next steps, and what to expect from you in the run-up to the event.
3. Create internal task: “Send AV/tech requirements checklist to event team”, due in 48 hours.
4. Wait: 3 days
5. Send email: AV and technical requirements (pre-written template with your standard setup, customizable per event)
6. Create internal task: “Schedule prep call with event organizer”, due in 7 days.
7. Wait: Until 14 days before event date (use date-based wait, not time delay)
8. Send email: Pre-event brief request, audience demographics, key messages, any sensitivities or context.
9. Wait: Until 3 days before the event.
10. Send email: Final confirmation, travel logistics, arrival time, green room needs, and schedule of the day.
11. Internal notification: Final prep reminder with event details summary

Exit trigger: Pipeline stage changes to “Delivered.d”

Customization note: The timing in steps 7–11 assumes a confirmed booking where the event is at least 3–4 weeks out. For last-minute bookings, build a compressed variation of this workflow with tighter timing windows.

Workflow 6: Post-Event Sequence, The 72-Hour Window

Purpose: Capture the highest-value post-event actions in the window when they’re most likely to succeed.

Trigger: Pipeline stage changes to “Delivered.”

Actions:

1. Wait: 2 hours (let the adrenaline settle before the first message fires)
2. Send email: Genuine thank-you to the event organizer, specific, personal, referencing something from the day. This email should not be automated wholesale; use a template that requires you to insert one personal sentence before it fires, or configure a 24-hour delay to allow manual personalization. See note below.
3. Wait: Until 24 hours after the stage change.
4. Send email: Testimonial request, brief, specific, low-friction. “Would you be willing to share a sentence or two about how the session landed with your audience? A quick reply to this email is perfect.”
5. Wait: 48 hours
6. Condition: IF tag “testimonial-received” is present → skip to step 8; IF not → proceed
7. Send SMS: “Hi {{contact.first_name}}, just following up on the testimonial request from yesterday, completely understand if you’re swamped. Even one sentence would mean a lot.”
8. Move pipeline to: “Invoiced / Payment Pending” (if balance invoice is outstanding)
9. Create internal task: “Send final invoice”, due same day
10. Wait: 7 days
11. Send email: Invoice follow-up if unpaid (connect to payment status if using HighLevel invoicing or Stripe)
12. Wait: 30 days
13. Send email: Re-engagement check-in, “It’s been a month since [event], would love to hear how the audience has responded to the material. Also happy to discuss any upcoming events if the timing is right.”

Exit trigger: Pipeline stage changes to “Closed / Complete.”

Note on the thank-you email: Automated thank-you messages that sound generic are worse than sending nothing. Build a workflow action that creates a task: “Personalize and send thank-you email to [organizer name]”, and keep the email as a draft in the workflow that fires only after you’ve added a personal touch. This takes 90 seconds per event and preserves the genuine human moment.

Workflow 7: Long-Term Nurture, Past Clients, and Warm Leads

Purpose: Stay visible to everyone who has expressed interest or worked with you, over a 12-month horizon, without manually managing individual outreach.

Trigger: Tag added: “warm-lead” OR “past-client.”

Actions:

1. Wait: 30 days
2. Send email: Value-based content email (topic insight, industry trend, short article you’ve written), NOT a pitch.
3. Wait: 30 days
4. Send email: Social proof email (recent testimonial, event recap, notable engagement)
5. Wait: 30 days
6. Send email: Soft check-in, “Haven’t been in touch for a while, wanted to see if you have any events coming up where a [your topic] keynote might be a fit.”
7. Wait: 30 days
8. Send email: Value content (different format, short video, resource, relevant industry news)
9. Wait: 60 days
10. Send email: Re-engagement offer, “I’m opening my calendar for Q3 events. If you’re planning anything where leadership/culture/AI [your topics] would resonate, I’d love to reconnect.”
11. Wait: 90 days
12. Internal notification: Manual outreach prompt, phone, or LinkedIn, for contacts who have been in the sequence for 12 months with no response

Exit trigger: Contact books an engagement (moves into active booking pipeline) OR responds to any email (remove from automated sequence and handle personally)

Key principle: This sequence runs quietly in the background for 12+ months. Its only job is to keep you present in a planner’s mind without being annoying. The emails are spaced far enough apart to feel like genuine check-ins, not a drip campaign. Every email provides something useful before it asks for anything.