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Startup Snapshots
Lawrence Watkins, MBA '10: Great Black Speakers
Seeking a passion pays off
Lawrence Watkins didn’t
start out as an entrepreneur.
Like his family, he
thought he was going to be
an electrical engineer. But
during his junior year at
the University of Louisville,
he suddenly realized
that although he might
become a decent engineer,
he would never be passionate
about his work.
At about that time, his
brother, Boyce Watkins,
a finance professor at
Syracuse University, proposed that Lawrence move to Syracuse.
Lawrence would help nurture Boyce’s growing career as a public
speaker, finding him media outlets and educational and corporate
venues. It was a big gamble, says Watkins; but, after graduating
with his engineering degree, he turned down multiple offers from
Fortune 500 companies and joined his brother. Reaching out to one
target at a time, Watkins built up a network of contacts and gained
valuable experience.
In January 2007, Watkins launched Great Black Speakers, a talent broker and agency that matches up
African-American speakers with corporations and schools. Undergrad
engineering had supplied Watkins with invaluable analytical
skills and a tough work ethic, but little exposure to entrepreneurship,
sales, and marketing. “I had to read a lot at night and test my
business theories during the day when I was growing my business,”
he says. After making a few mistakes, such as not keeping track of
his cash flows and realizing he had burned through nearly all of his
capital, Watkins began his MBA at Johnson in fall 2008.
“Having GBS established when I came to school meant that I
could directly apply what I learned in class to the growth of my
business,” says Watkins. After graduation, he returned to the business
with new skills and energy. He has since launched Great Pro Speakers, a companion site that helps speakers hone their marketing skills. Like many young entrepreneurs,
Watkins has learned to leverage new social-media tools to market
GBS, whose network of speakers and outlets continues to grow.
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