What They Don't Tell You About Sponsorships: Lessons from Roberta Vigilance

Have you ever stumbled upon a simple change that unfolded a world of opportunity? That's what happened to Roberta Vigilance when she shifted her language from "invest" to "sponsor," a pivot that transformed her from an aspiring event host to a sponsorship virtuoso. In our latest episode, we sit down with Roberta, whose expertise in securing sponsorships for events is matched only by her indomitable spirit. She shares with us her insightful journey and the sales strategies that made her a sought-after mentor in the event sponsorship domain. Through her passion and dedication, Roberta exemplifies how the right approach can turn challenges into triumphs.

Life's hurdles can either forge or break our paths, and for Roberta Vigilance, it's been a story of unwavering resilience. Faced with eviction, battling health issues, and navigating personal trials amidst the pandemic, she emerged more tenacious than ever. Her compelling tale is laced with emotional depth, detailing her experience from seeking solace in a community garden to reconciling with her mother and writing her book "How to Secure a Sponsor Successfully." Roberta's narrative is not just about survival; it's a beacon of hope, illustrating the strength that comes from adversity and the power of love—particularly for her son—as a motivator to persevere and thrive.

In this heart-to-heart, we don't just observe Roberta's journey; we connect with the core motivations that empower us all. Our conversation shifts to the significance of lifelong learning and how assumptions of knowledge can be the silent thieves of progress. We recount tales of personal drive, where the dreams we harbor for our children and the legacies we yearn to leave become our guiding stars. Roberta's mission to help others through her book and seminars interweaves with a father's dream of providing a secure future for his child. Their stories, seamlessly entwined, remind us that it's not just about building a life but creating a legacy that endures beyond our footsteps.

Transcript

Baz Porter: 0:00

Good morning, good day everybody, and welcome to another episode of Rise from the Ashes. I am blessed to be here today with another expansive and exciting story, with another entrepreneur that I've met in my travels and reaching out to people and providing a little service. Her name is Roberta and I'm going to let her introduce herself, as always, because I always hash it up. If you know me that well, and you've not listened to this before, I'm dyspexic, so reading is not my forte. Roberta, please say hello to the world and the world. Please say hello to Roberta and give her some love.

Roberta Vigilance: 0:41

Absolutely. Hi world. How are you? As Beth said, my name is Roberta Vigilance, and the pleasure, the honor is mine to be among such an intelligent, witty and self-present person. But we all know Baz is the man and he understands the meaning between the words and in the story. So I'm happy to be here. Baz, thank you for sharing me with your audience.

Baz Porter: 1:10

No, the privilege and pleasure is mine, I will assure you and thank you very much. So tell the world a bit about yourself. What do you do? How do you show up for the people in your life?

Roberta Vigilance: 1:23

I show up by helping them secure sponsors for events, especially events that they are passionate about, because if they're not passionate as you know, baz, they will give up easily. And this is just based on my experience. I started in the late 90s planning events. I wanted to do something for students at the school I attended. I was a return student, so I was a bit older and I had some connections within the entertainment industry, and the students in the program at the school that I attended wanted to become models and singers but didn't want to compromise the morale to get into the entertainment industry. So what I did? I leveraged my contacts within the industry to plan seminars and showcases, fashion shows and such. So my first event was called the entertainment industry network seminar. It was to showcase the talent and the network that went industry professional.

Roberta Vigilance: 2:28

Now I did not know that events cost money. I jumped in hard first, never planned an event. I didn't know anything about that stuff, even though I come from a family who planned events. But they never told us. Because show up at the party, but money cost events. And I reached out to some companies within my community, one being a record label, and let them say hey, I have your audience Come, let them know that you do beats so that they can use your product or service. But I need money to do this event. So, in exchange for the money that you're going to give to me, I am going to provide you with visibility, I'm going to connect you with the audience. And they said yeah, and I did the same thing to companies within my community. All said yes and I got the money that I needed to fund that in the event.

Roberta Vigilance: 3:19

Then I went into. I started to plan more events. I went into the corporate branch now and I said the same thing and they all said no. I'm like what the frig was going on. Because everyone said yes. Mind you, I have a background prior to planning events. My background is in sales. I always sold something, whether it's websites or in the 90s, and that was new. But corporate said no, what's going on? But I realized that, as I was using the wrong word, I asked those companies to invest and investment flipping money In my community I used the same word invest, but it wasn't to flip their money was to give them benefits. So, moving forward, they said no.

Roberta Vigilance: 4:04

I realized what I think was Adidas, or someone of them said do you mean sponsor, sponsor? And when they, I guess they explained it to me. But the word sponsor or sponsorship came into my realm and I started to use that. I changed up my language and that's when the world of sponsorship opened up to me. So here I am now helping individuals with getting not only the money, but I realized you can get products and services as well, and it's a system very basic that you follow what you have to offer, what's in it, find a company that needs that offer them, and it doesn't matter what the cost is, if it's $100,000, a thousand millions or more. It's just one simple format to follow and you'll be able to secure as much on sponsorship funding that you need.

Baz Porter: 5:05

I love that story. Sponsorship is a very rare gift because it's such a complex environment and a very diverse with, especially within the business world. When you first started off, there must have been so many challenges that you were facing as a newbie in this environment. Is there one that stands out to you more than anything else that you was presented to as a challenge but ultimately you overcame?

Roberta Vigilance: 5:33

The challenge you're asking me about. The challenge was one of the challenges. I stood out yes, definitely the language. That was the barrier After changing up my language, asking the companies to invest, and change it up to ask them to sponsor. After that it was really easy. Easy for me because it's sales, it's telling something and coming from a sales background was not that difficult At that time, during the 90s, a lot of making contacts came from the phone, making a phone call. I would say over 90 percent of the deals I closed was via the phone. I wouldn't say that I can think of another hurdle other than it was the language.

Roberta Vigilance: 6:21

I always knew the value that I brought to a sponsor, which was my audience. I knew that Tommy Hilfiger, one of my men audience. Adidas, another one of my men audience. I always knew that I captured their audience. I have the relationship with the audience and that's what they spend millions and more to spend their money to connect with that audience. Pretty much Now I'm saving them the money. They don't have to spend so much money because I'm walking these warm leads to them, whether it's to reinforce their brand's identity, whether another company, a local company, might be to generate leads, whatever it is. I knew that I had that's. The one thing, from the very beginning, I knew is that I had their audience. Just like with the record label, I knew that I had their audience. It was only made sense for me to approach those brands that had my audience. Other than the language, I can't think of anything else. That was tough.

Baz Porter: 7:24

Other than the business, then is there anything in your life when you were transitioning into this that was holding you back or you faced a challenge transitioning into the business from where you were growing up or going into corporate, from the music industry into the corporate? Was there any challenges ready there or did it just run smoothly?

Roberta Vigilance: 7:52

Pretty much run smoothly. My challenges has always been my personal life, which actually seeped into my business life. But initially, when I started to plan the events, I was doing events back and back and back, believe it or not. Thinking now, my personal life did not have much interference because I worked 24 hours planning the events, simultaneously calling sponsors, then overseeing the events. I was always busy and I had a new child at that time too, my son. At that time I think he was maybe six years old or something, and I lost his father when I was pregnant.

Roberta Vigilance: 8:33

My life has always personal. Life has always been it's always been what's the word I'm looking for disrupt them. But when I slowed down, my person caught up with me and with that, I think, it interfered with the progress of my business. That's why I've said it's so important to be passionate about your event, because I think it was the passion in me. Something in me did not allow me to quit together, didn't allow me to quit when I was going through. When I went through everything that I went through, I did not quit. So that's the passion that's necessary.

Baz Porter: 9:18

When you say you were going through what you went through, are you able or comfortable to share what that was like being in corporate, being a business leader, owner, having a family, having children? And then the dynamics between just some of our listeners are like they're mom entrepreneurs and they're solo people who are just going. Oh my God, what am I doing here? And I think your story resonates with a lot of people who've had kids and they're transitioning from a life that is a job we'll call it a job and just leave it like that into self-sufficiency and generating an income that is solely reliant on themselves. How, what challenges did you overcome or what challenges did you go through as a parent or as a mother? That environment of growing up, partner, splitting up or losing your partner. How did that affect you? If you're willing to share that, Absolutely.

Roberta Vigilance: 10:22

Sometimes I think it's only me. I'm the only one that had such a tough and rough life, so to share this part is not to ex-hitting anyone. I'm sharing my story. Let me start with the most recent. Where I am today is not exactly where I want to be. Let me just say this In 2020, in the heights of COVID, I was thrown out of my family home For no reason and I'm sleeping directly in a garden that my brother was at, a band, a lot that my brother built with his own hand, with the neighbors.

Roberta Vigilance: 11:08

Mind you, where I lived during that time, it became gentrifying, so people got it. Bill Gardens, bill. They got, people got it. He found his tribe and because of that he found his tribe, I was. I had a place to sleep when I and I'm, mind you, I'm in the middle or at the end, I should say the very end of writing my book how to Secure a Sponsor Successfully. I'm writing and I'm being tortured emotionally that and I just wanna tell you where I came from, to when back, how I ended back up in my family. So I'm sleeping in a garden with a mask on, all right, because this is the the.

Roberta Vigilance: 11:53

COVID.

Baz Porter: 11:54

The craziness. What's that the craziness?

Roberta Vigilance: 11:57

The craziness right, but the stress level was. It was. It's just crazy. I tried to do a shelter, but the shelter? You have to go through all of these tests and I'm like I just cannot take any more pain. And it happened that things worked out after the law got involved. They said, listen, you cannot do this, not during this time. What does she do? Nothing. It's just a relationship that I did not have a good relationship with my family with, specifically with my mom. I did not, so she didn't want me around. But thanks, baz, I must, if I can say this. I owe a lot to you for that breakthrough that I've had with my mom, where we can now communicate and communicate on a great level. Okay, so thank you for that.

Baz Porter: 12:47

You're welcome.

Roberta Vigilance: 12:48

Prior to moving back in the home with my mom, I lived one year with stranger friends, someone who we knew in school together, him and I. We had the same mutual friend. We connected on Facebook and prior to that moving in with him, he would come out to my son's football game. He does videos, he does movies and he does all these things. And he said, hey, he understood what went on with my family and he said you could come and stay with me for one year. So here I am, living in a stranger home one year. So I feel so uncomfortable, but still I'm still writing my book Now my book.

Roberta Vigilance: 13:34

During that time I was in the middle of writing my best. I could not stop. Okay, I could not stop writing. It was just amazing. I had to tell the story. I had to tell people how to stick in sponsors. I had to. I could not stop. I ended up in a hospital during the year of living there. I had to walk it out of the building and I just collapsed and this leave me on the camera and took me to the hospital. The doctor did it and they did x-rays brain. They can tell no one's what's wrong with you. No one can tell what's wrong with me.

Roberta Vigilance: 14:08

I went through a lot of those period for a very long time, leaving an abusive relationship abusive, emotionally abusive relationship. Somewhere in there, after I left my mom, I met someone who was a friend. I introduced me to him. It's just, I can go on and I don't need to scare anyone. Oh, my God, she had such a bad life Cause I think again, it's only me. It's just, it just kept happening and happening on these bad things and don't know why. But I tell you this if you were to ask anyone, what did Roberta do to you? What did Roberta vigilance do to you? I don't believe they have anything bad to say about me.

Roberta Vigilance: 14:56

Despite it all, I am still showing up. I was still doing holding seminars. I would still show up at new presentations so that I could share the good word of how you secure a sponsor for your events. I'm just trying to help you. I am the messenger. I'm just trying to share the message and I will show up, I will show, I will dress up and I will show up. And there were many times that I didn't get paid for showing up, but I will show up because I want to share this information.

Roberta Vigilance: 15:32

You don't know my person behind the screen. You don't know my living condition, you don't know what I'm going through. I show up and I smile and I show up, and I show up and I show up, while behind the scenes I'm getting kicked, not literally, but getting the worst treatment ever that I don't deserve and I didn't deserve. But I kept showing up. I didn't give up on myself, not to say I didn't want to. Yes, but I have one son. I have one child alive and he's going to be 30 December. Congratulations, thank you. And his father passed away. That's the one who's father passed away when I was pregnant. Why can't I give up? Yeah, I can't give up. If I'm giving up on me, I'm giving up on him.

Baz Porter: 16:17

This is why I love doing this, because these stories matter and these stories aren't just a story. These situations are what people are living now Similar situations. Nothing's ever exact, but the key here is you didn't give up, you didn't look back. Yes, it was hard, yes, there were trying times, but today you're stood here in front of me, a successful business woman who is looking for that next level and looking, more importantly, to serve others. That's success and you didn't give up. If you had have done, you wouldn't be here today, you would have taken another path and someone else would have come on. So, every time, you don't give up. This is a lesson for everybody. Now who's listening going I'm done, I'm gonna throw in the towel.

Baz Porter: 17:10

Roberta is a key component and a stature and pillar of leadership in what she does, because she said no, I'm not giving up, even though she had every reason to being homeless, emotionally abused, mentally abused, the despair, the grief, the misunderstandings. But she said no, I'm gonna write my goddamn book, I'm gonna do it here. And this is what's gonna happen. When you don't give up, miracles happen, and the miracle that we sometimes don't remember is the one that's looking back at us in the mirror and I wanna thank you not giving up and being here today to share that message.

Roberta Vigilance: 17:53

Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to share that message. I can't believe I've learned it out and I just want to say, just in case my mom ever gets to listen to this and I believe she will, I'm not. Mom has her own trough that she had dealt with over her life. I've had my own trauma. I didn't take it out on my son. I could have taken it out on him, but I gave him more love, protected him because I did not want him to go through what I went through. So could she have handled it differently? Yes, but I'm not blaming her. She came from a different. So I just want to make it clear. I'm not saying mom is a bad person. I treated badly, but I'm not, and she's the same person who, would, believe it or not, best would give you her last, but when it comes to her children, Different story.

Roberta Vigilance: 18:48

Different story.

Baz Porter: 18:50

Yeah, now I completely get that and your mom, if she's listening, know that you are love and your story matters, and it's about your daughter leaving a legacy for your family as much as hers, so I hope she hears this. As we move forward in life, we always aspire to level up. Is there anybody that in your life you've aspired to be or you've modeled? That's taken place, and predominantly in what you do now.

Roberta Vigilance: 19:21

Having a hard knock life. There isn't any person per se, but I would admit that I grew up with my grandparents and what went on behind the scenes I don't know, but what I seen was this two people came together, did not argue with each other and where we live the house, we lived in downstairs. During the daytime they ran a business where they sold candy and soda and during the night they run a disco. Right Again, the planning of the events, right, I didn't see it. I was, as a kid, you just behind the scene and you're seeing what's going on, right, and it was really like family or it wasn't anything off the chain.

Roberta Vigilance: 20:13

I look for that type of relationship and that peace and that partnership where you can be successful but still maintain you could still be a lady, right, you could still be a lady, you could still be friendly If you my grandma she spoke to everyone in the village you'd stop high, right, very much and still be respected, right. I don't think it's because she had sons or the husband, but it wasn't. No, there wasn't any aggressiveness, so aggression around her, it was success. You could see the success in the home and how they lived and took care of our husband. So I like that. Even though I am a solo, I still like to serve and even with my husband like to serve. I picked it up by my grandma to make sure, but that's a mixture of my professional and personal life and guessing my side right to serve.

Baz Porter: 21:18

And that's important, because a lot of people, believe it or not, actually do use their grandparents as role models. So that's not very uncommon, especially being entrepreneurs, because sometimes we didn't have the role models that we really needed growing up, for whatever reason, and that is no blame to anybody. So we look outside of us and it's often our grandparents that provide them role models. So that's not very uncommon, so I thank you for sharing that.

Baz Porter: 21:49

Many of our listeners love stories of leadership and overcoming challenges but they really like stories of what in the important leadership lessons that you've learned, because leadership is very diverse and there's many levels of this In your version of leadership. Is there any lessons that you were so valuable to you? I think I know you shared one earlier on, with not giving up. Is there anything else that really resonates with you as a leader in your field that you use today?

Roberta Vigilance: 22:21

Absolutely. And just to jump back a little on the last the previous question I do look at people like yourself as who. They too have been through something and they are where they are today. In other words, they are not only at the top of their game in business, but they have the emotional intelligence to really understand success, work, but lack of better word in a one's personal life, in life in general, and you're not being selfish with what you've learned. I've seen people like that. They learn things and if you're just selfish, it will not pass it on and then we stifle growth and growth in the world. People who actually know their stuff stand on their stuff and the attitude is take me or leave me. This is who. I am not pretending to me. I do admire those individuals. I peek in A lot of people now. They are fake as whatever you want to call it. I don't want to say fake as hell, but they fake on the show. But when you find the real ones, it's a great celebration. I just want to say that's a rarity.

Baz Porter: 23:43

That's a privilege for you to say that. I want to acknowledge that and say thank you. That means a lot to me.

Roberta Vigilance: 23:49

Absolutely so. Leadership being a student for me, just my thing. I'm a learner, I love to learn. When I learn, I'm able to understand who the person is, understand their story. So I don't need to be in the lead per se all the time leading. I need to be a student so that I can mesh it with my knowledge and my insight to help them to achieve a goal, whatever that goal is. So being a student, I think that's one of the greatest to be a leader.

Baz Porter: 24:29

I love that. There's something that I heard many years ago that might help you with this. It would be a phrase called it'd be a steward of knowledge. So to what you were saying just then, it's about paying it forward, and your knowledge isn't your own. I love what you just said there about being an avid learner of different methodologies and different knowledge. Never stop learning, and it is a valuable lesson to never stop learning To your point.

Baz Porter: 25:03

People assume that's all there is and they've got all the knowledge, and that's when we start to lose our path or lose our way, when we assume we're at the top, and that assumption can often be the start of our downfall, when we assume we're at a point in our life, at the top, at a stage of it.

Baz Porter: 25:26

But a person that I was privileged to meet a few years ago told me he is very successful, literally at the top of his game.

Baz Porter: 25:34

I can't mention who he is, but while I sat with him and he said when you're climbing the mountain, always imagine you're climbing the mountain and you're always on that growth path.

Baz Porter: 25:49

Never assume you're at the top, because when you're at the top, there is always somebody waiting to knock you off, and I found that to be true within my experience and also listening to other people's experiences through these podcasts and through other people sharing with me, and I love what you just said about experience, the journey, learn, never stop learning, because that's a skill and it's there to be somewhat mastered and it's to do with your own self mastery as well and repetition of that. So I'm glad you brought that up there for people to hear a different perspective on a form of leadership. Bosses are leaders, but some of them most of them in their old school environments think they're above everybody else and not apart the team. That's not how you elevate a business, it's not how you elevate someone's life and you can't provide value that way. You provide value, like you just said, I've never stopped learning, so thank you for bringing that up.

Baz Porter: 26:48

Negativity can be often used as a failure, and negativity can often be used as detriment to self, but your journey has included a lot of negativity in one way or the other. What was the you said about passion earlier? What was a driving force behind that passion? What was the underlying fire within your soul?

Roberta Vigilance: 27:12

I believe it's definitely my son. I would like for him because he's a mini me, he's an extension of me and I believe that he is a good, a good man, good young man believe that I also believe in and I know this. This is why I feel that he too has been traumatized. But even through the trauma, he still says my keep the faith, my keep going. This is things. But I know that because it has been decade of his life. My trauma, what he's seeing with his own eye and his experience, affects him, even though he doesn't even know it, one particularly being that in particular being that his dad has passed on and he never got to see his dad. So I know that's trauma and he's around the family. I made sure that he stayed in contact, I contacted them and just made sure that I want to ease the burden from him or off of him, to show him so he can experience life in a good way, as any young man should be able to experience some good parts of life. It should not always be so intense. So what keeps me going is if I'm just able to do the one one thing for him say, son, here's a home, here's a home, take it and go start, you and your family, go start. Here's a home.

Roberta Vigilance: 28:45

Okay, I remember when he was younger, him and I, we drove through these neighborhoods and we would watch home. You look at homes and then he is just this little kid, curly hair. He's sitting in the car with my driving partner and he's oh, too small. I'm like too small, that house too small, and he doesn't know I'm driving and I'm like that's not what's that voice? Too small, I'm like boy. So he wants a football feeling. Come to find him. He plays football as well QB and running back. But that's another sign I want him to have. Even though I might not be able to find him the football field house I might be able to, who knows.

Roberta Vigilance: 29:26

The point is, I want him to have something of his own when no one can kick him out, and he just has that. And that is what keeps me going. I can do that one thing for my son. For many me I'm good, like it's been good to me, right. So that's why I keep going and he DJs, he emcees at events and he's trying on his own. But I just want to get that burden off of him so then he can get a girlfriend who is gonna make his wife, as I tell him, and bring me some grandchildren. I wanna see them. I wanna see some grandchildren, some other me, and that's what keeps me going.

Baz Porter: 30:10

That's an amazing thing to look forward to every day, and I want thank you for sharing that, because he brought the vision home for a lot of people. I think People say on this what you're working towards is something that I'm very passionate about, and that's legacy, and that's what you're doing. You're building legacy, you're paying it forward, and you're doing that in different ways every single day. So thank you for doing that, the moving forward and looking, as you just mentioned there, you want to build a legacy for your son. Is there anything that you would love to share with the audience, like a go-to or call to action, your book, for instance, whether we can find you and what I can expect from that book?

Roberta Vigilance: 30:53

Absolutely. The book, as I mentioned, is there to help get funding for events. Funding meaning money and resource. That's what the book is. It's a very simple book. It's called how to Secure Sponsors Successfully. It's on Barnes and Noble. You can find it on my website at eventsandsponsorscom. It's on ebook. It's also in print. This is the first edition. At the very end when I mentioned to you what I went through in 20, staying with friend in 2019, I was writing the third edition revised and that was a metric that I came up with. But that's way ahead.

Roberta Vigilance: 31:32

What entrepreneur or non-profit whomever is listening that's planning an event and seeking funding? Or maybe they have a non-profit organization and seeking fundraising ideas, or they have a business and they look into launch a product and they're seeking funding for it? Whatever you are seeking funding for, a sponsor will cover that cost. It doesn't matter what that event is. A cyclist in England had passed away His fiancee at the time when he was alive. She held a memorial for him and had that sponsored. So it doesn't matter what type of event it is whether it's for saving a life or name it you can get a sponsor.

Roberta Vigilance: 32:19

The book how to Secure Sponsors Successfully focuses on three areas in sponsorship. These are the. I call them the foundation of sponsorship. I also call it the three pillars to secure a sponsor. So our successful sponsorship. Those three areas include understanding sponsorship. That's so important. A lot of people don't understand it. They still think it's a donation and such forth and it's not that. So understand the sponsorship. The second pillar is communicating. Knowing the sponsorship language. That's what changed it. For me, communicating is so important when to send your sponsorship proposal, things like that. And the third one is selling how to write a good win sponsorship proposal that a proposal that doesn't only talk about me when I would have sent it for me, but a win and how to present it. What's in it for them is the sponsor as well. So those are the three areas that the book covers.

Roberta Vigilance: 33:20

It also has a quiz in there to jog your memory with the answer page. What's a little fun quiz in there. Now, if someone is feeling like I want more information, I will then send them to the third edition, which is like a textbook. It has the same information as the first one that I mentioned Understanding, communicating and selling. The third one has evaluated, like how do you evaluate the questions? Now? I used to coach clients through the process. So what I've done was take those questions that I would use to coach clients and put it in my book. Of course it's general questions, but those are questions to get a person started. From planning the event to securing the sponsors, like what to do next is very helpful. So that's like more so of a textbook style of sharing information. Yeah, I like that.

Baz Porter: 34:22

These links will be in the description below of this. Whether you're on YouTube or whether you're on one of the other channels, I highly suggest you go and acquire that book, either from the Begers website or, equally, amazon. Balsam Noble on their inner world, so it is. Sponsorship is on, I know for a fact very powerful. So thank you for being here with me today and thank you for your most valuable asset, which is your time.

Roberta Vigilance: 34:51

Thank you, I agree with you. Likewise Beth Mutual.

Baz Porter: 34:55

My friends, my followers, my passionate leaders. Thank you very much for joining me today and Roberta, in this conversation. Please subscribe, please share and inspire someone else's life, because you may change it, and sharing stuff is completely free. Please subscribe to the channel and make sure you have a blessed day Until the next time. Please, my friends, lead with purpose and inspire with legacy. Be safe and always be blessed.