Motivational Speaker Goes Sour

Dagnabbit, I’m out of Airheads Xtremes.

I’m back from the Cincinnati, Ohio area where I was a motivational speaker for Perfetti van Melle. (This is the HUGE candy company that is famous in the USA for AirHeads and Mentos.)

I had a great time working with their team: we talked about ramping up the fun in the candy business, and connected that to increasing their bottom line. [Have more fun = Sell more candy.] It was a killer group of good people.

My favorite part of the program was watching this very weary, corporate group start early in the morning quite and polite. When I started, they barely laughed. Heck, they barely smiled. (This is predictable…they didn’t know there would be a funny speaker…and in fact have never had a paid professional speaker at these meetings.)

But sixty minutes later they were raucous, fun, participatory, loud, and very, VERY fun. It’s a fun process to watch; it’s a fun process to be part of.

The ONLY thing wrong with the whole event was that they sent me home with a briefcase full of their products. Mentos, Mentos Gum, (yum!), some Airheads (which my kids love) and my personal favorite, AirHeads Xtremes Sweetly Sour Belts.

Put away the crack. The heroin. The cigarettes. They mean nothing to me and never have. But HELLO MOM these things are good. Really good. I had planned on sharing with the folks on the plane, and of course with my kids. All I can say is that the kids got to try them, but the people on United Airlines had to fend for themselves.

Here’s the video: