Testimonials  — What do his clients say about his Keynotes?

Note from Brad:   We are still waiting to get a polished testimonial video out with these testimonials.  In the meantime, here’s something to get you started.  Rough, I admit.  But it gets the point across.

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

For the rest of you readers, here is a transcript:

Next Speaker:    So I’ve seen Brad perform at ISTE technology training ( for educators and education) in Texas.  And then he came all the way out to California for us to do a presentation at a motivational session for all of our staff, approximately 200 staff.  And it has been fantastic both times.  Brad brought energy, he brought little common sense and wisdom for us to use.  What I told Brad earlier is he inspired me to do things a little bit differently in the region that I manage and just try to keep things light and have a good time and inspire others to do the same.  My name is Brad Shevesta and I’m the supervisor of the after school program in the San Juan Unified School District.

Next Speaker:    I am so glad that we invited Brad out to speak to our group.  I had the opportunity to see Brad at a conference Texas and I knew when I saw him that I wanted to bring that energy and that laughter back to our team here in the after school program and Brad did just what I expected.  So I am thrilled that we invested the money with a different kind of a training than we usually do.  We usually do our training most cost effectively as possible so it was something different for us to invest this kind of money into a speaker and I have to tell you that it was worth every cent of it and I would do it again in a minute.  So I really appreciate it.  He was able to relate to our entire team and really sent them off for the year with a positive attitude, understanding the importance of their role and how to have fun at work.  So I would tell that person that probably the most important thing about what Brad did is he was able to make it relevant for our team.  He was able to make it fit for after school and make every single person, no matter what their role was here feel like his message was for them.  He customized it to after school programs and I’m sure he would do the same with any industry.

Next Speaker:    Had I not seen Brad, this would have been scary to invite him to come here to have a motivational speaker, someone who is billed as a comedian and a magician to come and do a motivational training for our team.  And knowing that he was good at what he does, having seen him, knowing that he normally is funny and pretty good at magic but he really knows how to drive home the message of having a positive life, having a positive attitude and bringing spunk into whatever you do; life and work.

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

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Check out the very kind words they put down on video about the motivational seminar connecting humor and levity at work to maximum productivity:

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Learn more about the funny seminar I delivered here.
Related:
Details about the Laugh-O-Nomics humor-in-the-workplace seminar mentioned in the video.
See the video about Humor in the Workplace on YouTube

Interested in reading — or maybe you just hate YouTube? Here’s the transcription of the video:

Male Speaker: By far, one of the best, if not the best, training that I’ve ever had at my career at this High Tech company.

Female Speaker: Now, more than ever, what we need in this tough economy is we need to energize people and bring energy to their work, their lives, etc. and they’re more productive as a result, I’m very confident.

Male Speaker: And I’m on a team out in the field with M and I just attended Brad Montgomery’s training on Laugh-A-Nomics, and I have to tell you that, as we get together every quarter or every half a year we typically always have some type of four-hour training. A lot of times that’s death by Power Point or the speaker doesn’t really understand what our job is and if I can express to you that, you know, Brad took this training and it was completely different. It was a very positive experience, lots of positive energy –

Female Speaker: So, Brad is much more than a motivational speaker. He actually brings humor and energy in. We were actually thinking about, you know, is this the right investment, you know, budgets are tight, you know, maybe we should just bring in a trainer. But actually the truth is what we learned is that bringing humor in and teaching people how to just to kind of make the most out of their day, the most out of their life, enjoy work, it actually really does inspire people and –

Male Speaker: It’s kind of interesting because we spent four hours. First of all it didn’t feel like four hours and, even though it started off for a comedy type of session, it really turned into a learning situation, and at the end of the four hours I have a desk full of post-it notes because I was deemed one of the leaders so I was taking diligent notes, but literally I have about 12 post-it notes full of ideas. And I sit here and go, I didn’t feel like I was just in a four-hour training. Very interactive, very energetic, very positive !
Female Speaker: The energy in this room is unlike energy I’ve seen in this team for a very long time. So I’m super excited about that and so glad we chose Brad.

Male Speaker: So thanks again, appreciate it. I would highly recommend it to anybody who’s looking for some positive energy, some positive reinforcement. Thank you.

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Massachusetts Speaker Brad Montgomery

Note:   Terry was kind enough to record this kind testimonial about me as a motivational speaker.  We haven’t got the video edited, and thought this transcript would be the next best thing.

Terry Pellorin:    Hello everyone.  My name is Terry Pellorin.  I’m the Associate Director of Facilities here at WPI in Worcester, Massachusetts.  I took a chance.  I got on the internet and I found this website of this gentleman, Brad Montgomery.  It seemed like a cool website and he seemed like a cool guy so I took a chance and I invited him today to our **** meeting.  Southern New England Chapter of APA.  Well I must say, he blew us away.  He was the coolest guy you would ever want to meet.  So I highly recommend him and if you don’t hire him you’re really stupid.  Good bye.  All right, I’m back on again because I forgot to tell you, not only did we have a wonderful time here but Brad’s relevance to a business, facilities, any type of work environment is unbelievable.  He ties in humor to the workplace, how to motivate yourself and to work with others in difficult situations.  So if you have difficult people have to deal with on a daily basis, you might like to bring Brad in.  And his humor might help you to deal with them more effectively and with a smile.  Thank you.

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event?   Contact me here.

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Testimonial about Brad Montgomery

Funny Health Care Speaker

Note from Brad:   Tim and Lucy represent Haven Hospice and were kind enough during a recent motivational keynote to record this testimonial into my video camera.  While we’re waiting for the editor to get the film done, here’s the transcription:

Lucy Lurs:    I’m Lucy Lurs and I’m Director of Human Resources for Haven Hospice.  And we just got done our annual employee day together and we had Brad Montgomery as our speaker and he was fabulous.  I can’t tell you enough.  Did research on several speakers and he did his homework.  He weaved in the company, what is happening with the company and he also weaved in what employees don’t like about their jobs and made humor out of it.  And the whole audience really enjoyed everything that Brad spoke about.  They really related and I can’t thank Brad enough for uplifting our employees spirits.  And he just did an excellent job.

Tim ****:    Hey, I’m Tim **** and I’m President of Haven Hospice (Florida) and want to enthusiastically endorse Brad Montgomery in his effort for our employee day away which is our annual retreat.  We had Brad on two days he gave an outstanding presentation.  We do this annually so we’ve had an opportunity to see other speakers.  Brad obviously was superior.  Great message, he was able to incorporate a number of things we do in our business to communicate a very effective message to our staff.  I couldn’t give Brad a higher recommendation.  And if you are like me and you choose him, you will be glad that you did.  Again, thank you for everything that Brad did for us and look forward to seeing him in the future.

Need a health care speaker? More info about my health care speaker offerings here
Contact me: http://www.bradmontgomery.com/contact

Related:
Sex, Beer and Death:  A blog post about a recent client of me as a hospice speaker.
Video testimonial about my work as a hospice speaker and health care speaker for Kaiser Permanente
My work as a Florida Speaker

My Motivational Keynote for One health care client on YouTube

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How Do You Know if Your Speaker is Any Good?   Check The Testimonials!

Note From Brad    We haven’t got these video testimonials about my keynotes up and polished.  So, for the meantime, please check out these rough cut videos.  They are note beautiful, but they get the message across. Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

For you readers, if you prefer to check out your motivational speaker by reading the testimonials, here is a transcript:

Joy Davis:    Hi.  I’m Joy Davis and I work for Garfield County Human Services.  And we had Brad come today and do a presentation for our small group of about 80 or 90 employees and he talked a lot about bringing humor and magic back into the workplace.  And we have a really stressful with dealing with child welfare issues and child support and always mean to people and doing things that are just not very well appreciated.  So we needed to have some humor back into our lives to deal with all the stress and issues that we deal with and also with each other, how we relate to each other because it can be quite a downer experience.  And he showed us how to bring a lot of the laughter back into our lives and into our workplace and gave us some good ideas on how to deal with all the heavy issues that we are dealing with.  So I highly recommend him if you are a small business person and I would hire him.

Lynn:    I’m Lynn and I work for Garfield County Department of Human Services.  And Brad Montgomery just finished a presentation and with break out sessions to my entire staff of about 90 people and what we do is very difficult, its very stressful, its a day to day crisis and the staff needed a moment to recollect back on who they are and what they do and what is important in life.  So anyway, it was a absolutely wonderful session.  The staff are all just smiling laughing and saying this is really what we needed, thank you so very much.  So I would say this is a perfect, perfect day for our staff.  So thank you very much.

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Thanks!

Brad Montgomery

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Note from Brad:   I recently worked for a wonderful group of insurance folks in Georgia.   My contact, Mary, wrote the kindest note and gave me permission to post it.  Thanks Mary!

We had Brad Montgomery as our keynote speaker for a group of 350 people for our company Southern Farm Bureau Insurance Company on May 4, 2009 at Savannah, Georgia.

Brad was an awesome speaker.  The value, substance, and above all laughs that he added to our meeting were fabulous business investment. Not only was his program an asset to the quality of our business meeting, it also paid off in positive terms for our people.  The morale and optimism about our work and goals were heightened as a result of what he had to say.  Coming away from a business meeting with increased energy and hopefulness about work and job satisfaction says a lot especially in today’s economic climate.

We highly recommend that you consider Brad Montgomery for your next corporate or association event.  His keynote speech hit on a topic that cannot be ignored in the current business downturn, namely that worker morale, self-esteem and confidence are driven from a place of job satisfaction and enjoyment.  Productivity relates directly to employee happiness, and bringing Brad in to remind us of how much satisfaction we can derive from our jobs with just some simple steps was a positive return on investments that will be felt for some time.

Brad also customized his program directly to our business and directly to our conference.  His lighthearted humor and gentle ribbing of our company CFO provided just the release that our people needed.  The laughs stayed with us for days!  Again, we cannot recommend Brad enough.  If you would like more details about the program he put together for our group and our positive reaction, please do not hesitate to call me.

Do YOU need a funny insurance motivational speaker? Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Thanks,
Brad Montgomery
Insurance Speaker, Georgia Motivational Speaker, Fan of Southern Bureau!

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Note from Brad:   We’ve been working on a video real of testimonials from folks, including these education / educators audiences.   The video is raw, but it still gets the point across.

Related: Check out my work as a motivational speaker for educators.

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.
And for the readers, here is a transcript.

You know this is like our 10th, 11th, 12th summer conference that we’ve done and you know we have had speakers from across the nation come in and talk to our teachers and by far this exceeded every other speaker we’ve ever had.  He gave immediate tools for the teachers to be able to use to add value to their own personal lives, to the lives of the children that they teach.  And it was just a win-win situation, it was just an absolutely amazing, magical day and the teachers were pumped.  We’re ready to go.

===

Hi, my name is Lisa McLaughlin.  I’m a principal here in Deer Park, Texas (near Houston)  and and our School District were planning a summer conference.  A way to really motivate our teachers, welcome them back to a great school year and we wanted the very best day possible.  A day where they can learn, grow and really take something back that’s going to make a difference in those classrooms and it was Brad Montgomery.  It was the most awesome day.  I know you’re probably working on a limited budget you know with time constraints but you won’t go wrong at all by investing in Mr. Montgomery’s presentation.  It was way better than anything that we could have possibly expected or imagined and anyway, if you need to know more feel free to call me, contact me but that he can make the day your staff development exactly what you need for your teachers.

===

And the transcript from the second video:

==

Speaker:    Brad did an excellent job presenting and joined his audience in keeping theme engaged.  He specifically was excellent in the education role in that he was giving us activities and ideas for kind of icebreakers with staff and faculty and also kind of you know, giving us things that we can do with **** that are hard to work with, staff that is less than cooperative and gave us some ****.  And so in the three hours we were with Brad we came up with some great ideas that we can do with our staff to kind of overcome those barriers and their resistance to change and get them on board with what we are trying to accomplish.  So the time was well spent.  It was very useful.  I highly recommend Brad for any type of educational training that you might want to do with your district’s leadership.  Thank you.

Richard ****:    My name is Richard **** and I am a Branch Manager for a school district in Denver, Colorado.  I just finished watching Brad do his presentation, his humorous presentation at our retreat.  And I would suggest his services because he was easy to relate to and I’m from the finance side.  He addressed principals, assistant principals, all the admin, superintendents and the fiscal **** people.  And we all were able to relate to his topics and he tied in all the things we have in common as being employees for the same school district.  He tied us together as a team, he grouped us together and he tied in topics we could relate to and make fun out of it.  So I suggest that you look into Brad’s work and I think you will get a hell of a lot of stuff out of it.  Thank you.

Sandy:    Hi, I’m Sandy.
James:    And I’m James.
Sandy:    And we are from Adams County ****.  And we just finished a morning working with Brad Montgomery with our School District Leadership Team helping us find fun in our work and how did that work with what we are working on the fiscal year **** education into our school district.
James:    As you can imagine with parents with students there is a lot of times that things aren’t as fun.  Brad had some great ideas.  I personally had four pages of notes of ideas that I can use in my job as Principal of the high school to lighten up the whole climate and work with my staff and work with students and parents as well.
Sandy:    And as the chief financial officer of our district this is the third time that I have seen Brad and I try to instill fun in every part of my life and there is always something new that Brad tells me every time I see him to help remind me of the importance of having fun while I’m at work especially in our environment that we work with every day.

Speaker:    Hello everyone this is **** school.  We are in Durango at our retreat we had for all of our school administrators.  And we took a chance this year and didn’t want to be quite as serious as we had been in the past.  So we asked Brad to come show us how to have some fun and it was great.  We did take a bunch of it back, implement it.  Take a chance.

Speaker:    What I appreciate about Brad coming to Farmington and speaking to us was he showed us how to increase our productivity while having fun.  Kids are going to want to come to school, teachers are going to want to come to school if they are having a blast and shows us little ways to make it more enjoyable.  And he did it in an effortless and more enjoyable way.  I think he made laughing and learning safe again.  I appreciate that.

Charles Dacker:    Hi, I’m Charles Dacker.  I’m the Chief Technology Officer for Farmington Municipal Schools.  And Brad came and spoke with our administrators and it was one of the best experiences we had at our retreats.  It was comedic, it was funny, it was entertaining.  But more importantly Brad showed us how we can take a lot of that information back into our workplace, make a better work environment for all of us not just us at the administrative level and how we are going to operate, for everybody that we are meeting and working with and working to create a better and collaborative team.

Elise Shepick:    I’m Elise Shepick and I’m Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for Farmington Schools in Farmington, New Mexico.  We have just completed the first day of retreat for all of the administrators in the school district and Brad Montgomery showed us a fantastic way to put humor in the workplace so that people are at work and they want to be there and they make a **** not only all of the workers but at our schools.  All of our principals enjoyed the day and I think found a way to motivate their faculties and try and have the teachers have a positive effect on our students.

Wendy Sheels:    My name is Wendy Sheels and I’m a Director for Human Resources Farmington Municipal Schools.  And human I think is our business.  And we work with kids.  And we need to see laughter and we need to see the lightness in some of the things that we do because sometimes the job can get really heavy.  And kids want to have fun and we need to have fun and Brad brought that to us and showed us how we can do that in all of our jobs, including the principals taking it right down to their teachers and down to the students.  I highly recommend it for educators.  Thank you.

Robert Emerson:    I’m Robert Emerson.  I’m Assistant Superintendent for Technology, Assessment and Accountability for Farmington Schools and we just finished our retreat with Brad Montgomery.  It was great.  Great experience.  As educators we face a lot of serious issues and they are serious and we are always under the gun but we can’t forget to use humor and to laugh and make the whole experience enjoyable for our kids and for ourselves and that is what Brad brought to us, how to do that in a serious environment, how do we laugh.  And we learned that.  Thanks, Brad.

Next Speaker:    We hate retreats.
Next Speaker:    We loved this one.
Next Speaker:    It is so insightful.
Next Speaker:    Brad made us laugh over and over and he even let us speak while.
Next Speaker:    We even got to make everyone else laugh and just a big ball of laughter.
Next Speaker:    Its really cool.  He gave us ideas.  He told us to go to the thrift store and take sneakers and we can make people laugh all the time.  Very motivational.
Next Speaker:    It was so fast.  You couldn’t even tell it was eight and a half hours long.  It seemed like 20 minutes.

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Related:
http://www.bradmontgomery.com/testimonials/industries/educator-speaker/
Education speaker for in services on youtube.com

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Joe Wilson:    Hi, I’m Joe Wilson.  I’m the President of Crane Wear and we just got finished with a session where we used Brad Montgomery as our motivational speaker and it was absolutely the right tone.

The fun that he brought to the group, the attitude that he created with all the people around the room.  You reach a point during a conference where everything gets a little flat and people are tired of looking at PowerPoints and all those types of things.  To bring in somebody that can lift the spirits of that team, get everybody excited about what they are doing and get them ready for the next thing they do that is probably going to be boring, it was just perfect.

The tone was right, the message was exactly right.  He took a little bit of time to learn about who we are, how do we fit into our industry, who some of our competition was and it was – I couldn’t say enough about the job that he did for us in the very short period of time he was with us.  So, thank you again very much Brad and you are welcome to call me if you would like a recommendation.

Anne Marie Brown:    Hi, I’m Anne Marie Brown.  I’m the Vice President of Marketing for Crane Wear.  And Brad just finished his presentation for us and it was really fabulous.  I know I looked at lots of, lots of different people to come speak at our conference and finding Brad was the best thing we could have done.

Brad Montgomery took the time to learn about our organization and incorporate that into our presentation.  He was right on his messaging, everyone left with a great attitude and had a great time.  We are so thankful he was with us today.  Thanks.

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

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“Hi, my name is Pam Delaney, I’m Senior Vice President of Operations for a major health care company in this country.  We are spending a lot of money to bring in our medical directors and the staff from our field as well as our corporate executives and we are going through a lot of change right now; health care is going through a lot of change.

It’s a very important conference for us, we are bringing groups together that have never been together before and one of the things we wanted to do was make this conference very relevant to them.  We have a lot of business activities going on but one of the things we wanted to do was also make them taking care of themselves, having some humor in their lives relevant to them.  And we worked with Brad, he brought it down to our level, he helped even the medical providers understand how they can bring humor, relaxation to the work site and how that would help everybody in our company.

The feedback was phenomenal.  I was afraid people would say here we are at a business conference and you have us laughing.  They were laughing so hard they were crying.  And we had a great time that went too fast really.  So I want to have him back again, because he probably wants me to say that.  Absolutely I would.

— Pam Delaney, (Representing a Major Health Care Provider)”

Need a health care speaker?  More info about my health care speaker offerings here
Contact me: http://www.bradmontgomery.com/contact

My Motivational Keynote for One health care client on YouTube

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Brad’s History

Growing up in Denver, Montgomery did magic tricks in high school and during summers off from college. His venues ranged from children’s birthday parties to street performances to the Colorado Renaissance Festival, where he performed as a jester. “Looking back now, I was pretty bad,” he says with a characteristic laugh.

During that fateful year off after college, Montgomery entered a contest and won a booking at the renowned Magic Castle in Los Angeles. It was on the drive back to Colorado that he realized he wasn’t going to law school. He was having too much fun. Instead, Montgomery eventually entertained students at about 250 colleges across the country. He also performed on cruise ships and at nightclubs. As a magician and comedian, though, his act did not revolve around traditional sawing-a-box-in-half tricks; instead he performed less glitzy magic and incorporated humor. “My goal was never to be the best magician in the world,” he says, “but to use magic in funny situations and focus on audience participation.”

Bigger and Better Things

Ultimately, though, college clients and nightclubs didn’t provide the longevity or stability that Montgomery, a married father of three, wanted for his family. So he branched out into entertaining at corporate meetings. Billing himself as a “hilarious motivational speaker and corporate entertainer,” Montgomery has developed a successful niche by performing at conferences and other corporate events across the country. His clients have ranged from such large companies as Allstate Insurance and General Mills to such smaller groups as the Colorado Egg Producers Association. He tailors his programs for specific audiences, researching his clients and incorporating inside jokes into his act. One of his presentations is aptly titled “Stack Your Deck for Success: A Magician Reveals the Secrets to Getting What You Want Out of Life.” Another is “Presto-Change-O: A Magician’s Guide to Laughing at Change.”

Getting a laugh is not always easy: often his audiences don’t want to be there. They may have just sat through a boring presentation or been given bad news about layoffs. Montgomery considers it his job to help them see the lighter side of things and not take work so seriously. “Mostly, I’m telling people variations on the theme that life is fun,” he says, noting that he still uses magic and audience participation in his speeches. “If you can make people who work together laugh as a group, that’s huge.”

He adds that Brown prepared him well for his unusual career path. “The whole concept of learning how to learn, which you do at Brown, applies to being self-employed in a nontraditional job,” Montgomery says, noting that he had to teach himself to be his own Webmaster, marketing director, and salesman. “Brown helps you have confidence in your ability to go out and learn what you need to do to be successful.”

Brown Univeristy Alumni Magazine – The Corporate Magician

Brad Montgomery ‘88: When a hearty laugh is good for the bottom line.

By Carrie Printz