We now present the ninth in a series of video articles about: How to work with your motivational keynote speaker to get the most from your conference investment Selected Posts from Brad’s Past We found a few posts, videos and stories from Brad’s past, and thought it would be fun to re-publish them here. […]
We now present the tenth in a series of video articles about:
How to work with your motivational keynote speaker to get the most from your conference investment
Selected Posts from Brad’s Past
We found a few posts, videos and stories from Brad’s past, and thought it would be fun to re-publish them here. So pour yourself a cup of coffee, put on some classic rock, and check out this classic blog post from a decade (ish) ago.
Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.
Brad Montgomery,
Motivational Speaker, Keynote Speaker, Follow-Up Fanatic
Related Articles:
Brad’s books and other products for creating change
For those folks who would rather read than watch, here is the video transcript:
Hey, it’s Brad Montgomery. I’ve got another idea for you, another tip on how to work with your motivational speaker. One of the mistakes I see a lot of clients do is they don’t really fully invest in their hired keynote speaker and in lasting change, and by that I mean they fail to invest in resources or some type of follow up from their motivational speech.
So here’s the deal; I’m a motivational speaker. I love it when clients come in and say, “You got 45 minutes or 75 minutes or 90 minutes with my hour, go nuts.” I love it. And we can whip them up into a frenzy, we can give them specific ideas for creating change in their lives, and we can send them home with a ton of energy.
But having said that, I’ve never been to a course or any type of learning event where there was lasting change without some sort of follow up resource, without a book, without a packet, with some sort of accountability. Have you? I’m guessing you haven’t.
So what does that mean? I’m thinking it means you ought to be thinking about what can we do to follow up.
So here’s your homework: when you’re talking to your potential keynote speaker, motivational speaker, I want you to ask this question, “What could we do for follow up to make sure that your message, the one that we’re investing heavily in for you to come in and deliver to my audience, what can we do to make sure that there’s some follow up and stickiness with your message?”
That’s a great question, isn’t it? What are you going to do to follow up? What can your people leave with or what can you reach back and touch them with that message? I get a lot of ideas for all my clients, and we’ve had some really cool success with lots of different types of follow up. Not just product, but call us and we’ll tell you.
So I think follow up is important and I think additional resources are important, and I think to really get the most out of your speaker is up to you to say, “You’re the motivational speaker. You’ve done this before. What can we do to make sure this is not just a flash in the pan? What can we do to work as a team to create lasting change?”
All right, I’d love to be your guy. Give us a call. You can find us at funnymotivationalspeakers.com or bradmontgomery.com.Hope to see you soon. Give us a call. Let’s make them laugh, let’s make it meaningful, let’s make it last.
Hiring A Motivational Speaker | Don’t Be Fooled By an Edited Video
Given a good enough editor, I could make my grandmother look like a brilliant and funny motivational speaker. Let’s face it, if Hollywood can make it look like movie stars are falling off buildings, a video editor can certainly make it look like an audience is really laughing, there are 100s of people in a hotel banquet room (instead of a single family in the living room) and that any given speaker can hold an audience for more than a sound bite.
Selected Posts from Brad’s Past
We found a few posts, videos and stories from Brad’s past, and thought it would be fun to re-publish them here. So pour yourself a cup of coffee, put on some classic rock, and check out this classic blog post from a decade (ish) ago.
When you are considering which motivational speaker to hire, look closely at the video. Does it look like there is an actual audience, or was that edited in later? Does the audience look match the look of the stage? Is it real?
Are there long enough clips for you to tell whether your motivational speaker can hold an audience — and a thought — longer than for just a few seconds? You should be able to see full unedited clips if you ask for them.
Also, check to make sure there are MANY videos available of your prospective motivational speaker. In these days of $100 cameras and YouTube there ought to be several, if not hundreds of videos for you to preview.
So what’s my advice?
• Watch many videos. Not just one. Look for consistency.
• Look for unedited clips. I’m for editing quick and breezy videos too… but I also know that savvy buyers will want to see unedited clips of me before a real crowd. So I have a whole variety of videos. Does your speaker?
• Watch with a bit of skepticism. Ask yourself if the audience you are seeing matches the stage and venue you are seeing.
• Avoid hiring from a “speaker video showcase.” Inexperienced speakers will put together a video showcase. This means that a bunch of novice motivational speakers will rent a room, rent a cameraman, and then fill the room with…. themselves! Then they take turns on stage. And of course while in the audience they act very interested and very amused. But it’s totally fake. These videos are easy to spot…just look close and you’ll see them.
Are you looking for a motivational speaker for your meeting or your convention? I’d love to be considered. Contact us here, tell us what you need and what you’re trying to accomplish, and we’ll help make your event a huge success.
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Star of Many YouTube Videos, Expert in Speaker Preview Videos
Related Topics:
Learn more about Brad Montgomery
Three Questions To Ask Your Motivational Speaker (Before You Book One!)
Selected Posts from Brad’s Past
We found a few posts, videos and stories from Brad’s past, and thought it would be fun to re-publish them here. So pour yourself a cup of coffee, put on some classic rock, and check out this classic blog post from a decade (ish) ago.
When our office phone rings, plenty of times it’s a seasoned meeting planner inquiring about the possibility of engaging me. But often it’s somebody very new to the convention and meeting planning world who got tasked to hire the motivational speaker. If you’re in that second category, here are three questions you should cover to help you have a better gauge as to whether this person is THE person.*
1. Tell me about your track record.
You want your speaker to be a guaranteed success, and the best way to do that is to make sure your speaker has worked out the details several hundred audiences ago. Ask about when they got started, how many clients they work for a year. Where can you see a complete list of their clients? And how much have they worked for audiences in YOUR industry?
Clearly, you want a motivational speaker with TONS of experience. Make sure you get one.
2. How Do You Keep the Audience Engaged?
Not just listening. Engaged. Not checking their smart phones while they listen. Not reading the newspaper or the convention program. I’m talking ENGAGED.
I use humor — laugh-out-loud comedy — to ensure my audiences are listening to my business messages. I use audience participation, game-show segments, and mini-aciivites to change the pace and keep the learning on “fast.”
I could spend a few hours talking about this concept. Because I know that if we create an “experience” for your people and not just deliver a keynote they will be more engaged.
If we make it fun, they’ll learn more. If they laugh, they’ll learn even more. But most of all, if we do those things WHILE making it relevant the message will stick — making it engaging helps with retention.
If the speaker you are interviewing doesn’t have a long, detailed action plan for this question that makes sense and appeals to you, send up the red flag.
3. Will your message be relevant, valuable and helpful for my audience?
Oh, that’s a good one! Answer: customization.
My programs are pretty general. But your audience is VERY specific. How can we make sure that they fit? Easy…. ask.
Because I’ve done this job so long I have a big bag of tricks to make sure that what what I deliver is on target to my audience. And because my audiences change with each client, that means that I have to customize both my message and my delivery with every client.
I’ve turned down jobs before because I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to “fit” a given audience. I know if I can do it. And the speakers you are interviewing know it too.
Ask them. Listen to their level of confidence. Listen to their experience. And ask them about what “customizing” means to them. (Some speakers will drop in the name of the organization 4 times during an hour speech and call that customization. If you want more than that — and you should — you need to ask some very pointed questions about how your motivational speaker will customize their program to fit your needs, your goals, your desired outcomes and especially your audience.
I’d love to be on your team and would love to be of service for your meeting or convention. Are you ready to ask ME these questions (and a few of your own?) Contact me here.
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Funny Keynote Speaker, Astronaut**
* The secret fourth question should be, “What else should I ask you to help me decide on which motivational speaker to book?” If your speaker can’t go on….and on and on and on….with this question, you’ve found another hint.
** Ok, I’m not an astronaut. You caught me.
We now present the eighth in a series of video articles about:
How to work with your motivational keynote speaker to get the most from your conference investment
Selected Posts from Brad’s Past
We found a few posts, videos and stories from Brad’s past, and thought it would be fun to re-publish them here. So pour yourself a cup of coffee, put on some classic rock, and check out this classic blog post from a decade (ish) ago.
Looking for a custom keynote presentation for your event? Contact me here.
Brad Montgomery,
Motivational Speaker, Keynote Speaker, Customized Presentation Expert
Related Articles:
More from Brad about the art of Customizing and Tailoring a Keynote Presentation
Laugh-out-loud funny video of Brad interacting with his audience
For those folks who would rather read than watch, here is the video transcript:
Hey, it’s Brad Montgomery from bradmontgomery.com with another idea on maximizing your return on investment with your motivational or inspirational speaker.
So this tip is easy. Pick somebody who customizes their program for you. So why? Well audiences are hip right now and audiences can see through it if the speaker just kind of walks in and delivers a really canned over-prepared program. I don’t think today people want to see a presentation. They want a speaker who’s talking to them about their needs, their desires, their stresses, their problems and what solutions they can implement to get to where they want to go.
So that means for you, you got to make sure you hire a speaker that can connect with that audience and delivering a non-customized speech does not connect to your audience. And of course that connection is crucial. That’s why you’ve hired your speaker to come in.
A customized keynote presentation is more valuable to your group
You can just hand them a photocopied packet of information if you just want to deliver “Here’s the information we want you to have.” But that’s not what you want. You want someone to come in and create an experience that’s meaningful and valuable and has impact and is fun and will turn them into a team, right? I think you do. So if you’re going to do that, I think with today’s media savvy audiences, you need to make sure you get somebody to connect and that’s going to mean customize.
So a bigger speaker who’s going to customize, it makes a huge, huge difference. It’s worth it to you to make sure that happens.
How do you make sure you’re hiring a motivational speaker that will customize and not just tailor? Ask them.
It’s a great question when you’re thinking about hiring a speaker or you’ve just hired a speaker, “What are you going to do to customize your program to my audience and their problems? What are you going to do to help me deliver the message I have for my people? If you’re talking to somebody and, after you ask that question, if they start to squirm and wiggle and hem and haw, you got the wrong person.
All right, my name is Brad Montgomery. I’d love to be part of your team. I’d love to help you take your meeting or your conference and make it a rocking success. So give us a call, we’ll talk about how we can do just that. One of the things we’ll talk about of course is a custom keynote presentation.
Talk to you soon. See you at bradmontgomery.com. Have a great day.
