I was recently invited to do my funny motivational speaker thing in Washington for Microsoft.

After they booked me, I called the meeting planner and explained that, “I have some PowerPoint slides, but they are on a Mac.”   “No sweat, our creative people often use Macs…you’ll be fine.”

A different meeting planner instructed me NOT to bring my Mac when they hired me to speak in Dallas.

But this planner is mellow and fun, so I was good to go. I joked about the Mac a couple of times, and the audience loved hassling me about it. Also, I use music in my keynotes, and I use what is basically a tricked-out iPod for the music.  I had a small goof with that and just grumbled, “Freaking Apple.”

Speaking about using humor at work, and I knew they “got it” partly because they decorated my Mac by sticking a hand-written “DELL COMPUTER” sign over the obvious Apple logo.

They laughed. I howled. The only thing wrong with this killer idea is that I didn’t think of it first.

I’ve said it before: my favorite clients are the ones that teach me something. I learned plenty from the folks at Microsoft Finance North America. Thanks Kids!

Brad Montgomery
Washington Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Microsoft Fan

PS.  Hey Microsoft!  I’m typing this blog post on my new Dell with Vista! Really. No promise! Really!

PPS.  Big shout out to Alan for the Dell sign, the Sparky joke, and the laughs!