And here’s another reason hiring a Colorado speaker is beneficial: my meeting planners ALL worry about Colorado weather. “Will weather impact Brad’s travel, will he make it to my event on time, or worse, what if he doesn’t show up?” I’m very proud to say that I have never missed an event in more than three decades, but still, my client’s anxiety about bad weather is real. Very real. So here’s the bonus: Colorado clients eliminate a huge anxiety.
And how does that help you? There are two reasons if you’re having your event in Denver or in Vail or one of the resorts in the Rocky Mountains. If you’re having your event in Colorado, there’s two reasons to hire a Colorado speaker.
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.
Number one, it saves you some money. Right off the top, you’re saving all the travel expenses and not always, but usually, the hotel expenses.
I just bought a ticket to Florida. I bought with plenty of advance notice, it wasn’t first class, it was nearly $1,000. Alright, so that’s just crazy expensive, I know. I know your conference is wildly expensive, but wouldn’t it be nice to save nearly $1,000 on the airline ticket? Sure.
But the other savings you’ll have is anxiety because I’ve learned, depending on your personality type, if you’re like most of my meeting planners, there’s always a tiny bit of anxiety that that speaker won’t make it because of some travel dilemma, some weather dilemma or something that’s outside of your control and then you’re looking at a blank stage, having to explain to your audience of 12 to 12,000 people why you don’t have a keynote speaker.
So when you’re booking somebody who doesn’t have to go through the airlines and just has to, you know my car can break and I could take a cab, I guess, right? I can get to your event if it’s here in Colorado. So one, saves money. Two, saves anxiety.
Alright, hope that’s helpful to you. If you’re looking for a Colorado speaker, I’d love to be your guy. If you’re looking for a motivational speaker who’s funny, who’s relevant, who can connect lightheartedness and humor to your bottom line, I’d love to be your guy no matter where you are. But if you’re in Colorado, I really hope you’ll give us a call.
You can learn more at https://www.bradmontgomery.com// Would love to chat with you. Give me a call and we’ll figure out how to make your event a rocking success.
Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.
Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Seminar Leader, Proud to call Colorado home
For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:
Hi, this is Brad Montgomery. I’m a Colorado speaker and I wanted to talk to you about what that means and why should you care.
Well, in my case, I happen to be a national speaker. I speak everywhere. I’ve spoken in all 50 states. I’ve spoken on four continents and I’d love to speak for you no matter where you are, no matter where your event is being held. Having said that, I happen to live in the very fine state of Colorado where it’s snowing outside, by the way, and if you’re planning an event in Colorado, well I really hope you consider me especially hard for that event. Yeah, no matter where you are, I’m interested, but if your event’s in Colorado, I’m double-interested.
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I recently worked as a healthcare motivational speaker for 250 nurses in a Colorado hospital. These nurses are doing a lot of amazing things dealing with change… And 
their leaders they asked me to come in to encourage them and help put all of the incredible changes our healthcare system in general, and their hospital in particular are going through into perspective. And to give their nurses some concrete suggestions and tactics to be both better leaders and to better manage change.
We had a great time. There was a ton of laughter in that room. But what I think is more important is that all of us left that event with new ideas we will incorporate into our jobs.These are some amazing people that make a difference every single day. With their permission I am sharing a little bit of their email.
It was most definitely epic! I loved every minute of it! I will be passing your info along to a couple other organizations in the Northern Colorado area. The questions were great and it was wonderful for you to have so much “insider” information into our organization. I bet even Chief Nancy was surprised by how much you knew! It was perfect! Our next team meeting is the 3rd week of May….I’ll email you back then with the group’s feedback.
Diana and Ruth are correct. I was shocked that Diana actually said anything. She is usually pretty quiet and reserved in large groups, but she must have really felt that the feedback about Ruth was important to share. It is those “little” moments in our days that can mean so much to patients and co-workers, and we seldom are aware of that.
Thanks again for your message! I will be sending out occasional e-mails reminding the team of some of your content…especially the manifesto. Loved it!!!!
Enjoy your weekend with your family!
R.B., RN, BSN, OCN, CN III
Longmont United Hospital
Aw Shucks! If you are looking for a healthcare speaker; a motivational speaker who can fire up your troops, incorporate your message, and in the end, help your people to deliver better patient satisfaction, I hope you’ll give us a call.
Brad Montgomery
Health Care Speaker, Motivational Speaker, Funny Dude, Fan of Nurses Everywhere
I love being a speaker. But sometimes being a Colorado speaker is exactly what the doctor orders. No trip through Denver International, I get to hve dinner with my wife and kids, and best of all, I learn from some of the coolest local foks my home state has to offer.
Check out this recent video of a program I did from some cool government folks up in the Colorado Rocky Mountains:
httpv://youtu.be/aoum4UVBZpI
For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:
We often forget to laugh. We are overstressed and sometimes you are in that cycle where you are going, “I have so much to do. I can’t meet all the community demands” and this recognizes that we really do accomplish an enormous amount every day and it’s because of our kind hearts, our dedicated team and Brad helped elevate that energy and reminds us to laugh throughout the day, to recognize that we have a choice in the happiness and gave us some trigger points that we can institute this into our culture.
Hey it’s Brad Montgomery from BradMontgomery.com. I just was a motivational speaker for Eagle County, Colorado for the Health & Human Services. Oh, it was a blast; really great people doing hard work. They are underappreciated. They are overworked, they are under everything yet they’ve got one of the most important jobs in their county and it was just an absolute pleasure to be part of their team. Actually the feedback was pretty good so check it out. Thanks.
“For this meeting we brought in Brad Montgomery, a humorist and motivational speaker. He made us laugh, he made us recognize the great work that we do every day that serves our community at large and gave thanks to our great team members for their passion, excitement, dedication and commitment to community. I encourage all government agencies, especially Health & Human Services with the demanding stress loads and diminishing resources to bring Brad Montgomery in to really help raise the energy, remind us to laugh and recognize the great work that our team does every day.”
Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Seminar Leader
Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.
1) If your event is in Colorado, you can lower your stress by booking a speaker who is already there. To be honest, after doing
Colorado Speaker Brad Montgomery
this job for two plus decades, I’ve NEVER had a problem getting to a job. (Ok, one time…but only once.) But nearly every time my meeting planner clients are worried about my travel. Will the plane take off on time? Will there be a glitch with the travel? Will the weather cause cancellations? But when they know that I’m already in town, they can take a deep breath and worry about more important things.
2) You can save some real money on expenses and travel if you book a speaker who won’t have any. My travel and expenses range from $400 to $1200. That’s enough money to at least consider.
3) I live in Colorado, and I’m a darned good speaker with a long and solid track record. If you decide to book a Colorado speaker, you can book me.
Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.
Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Colorado Speaker, Motivational Speaker, Native Coloradoan
Related Links and Articles:
Brad’s Blog…read about Colorado Speakers there.
Colorado speaker on Brad’s other speaker site.
Colorado Speaker welcome on Youtube
Brad in the Coloradoan Newspaper: https://www.bradmontgomery.com///states/coloradoan
Colorado speaker
Preview video on YouTube
Brad worked for the Denver Broncos. See the testimonial video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr6chlr27ic
Colorado Speaker Home
I love being a motivational speaker, but one thing that I don’t love is that it is often a singular lonely job. 
Yes, we get to know our audiences. And yes, we often become close with the meeting planners.
But we rarely get to work with other speakers — people who KNOW what it’s like to be on stage regularly. People who know the joys and pains of earning a living “performing.”
I recently was shared the platform — just for a few minutes — with fellow Colorado speaker Steve Spangler. He was doing his boot camp for teachers and invited me to come on stage to do a bit of comedy with squeakers. I taught how to use a tiny squeaker hidden in your hand to get some laughs at work and generally boost your fun-o-meter.****
I was only on the platform for a short time, but it was really fun because Steve and I got to vamp off each other. I teased him. He teased me. Together we worked through the squeakers. The audience was very kind, and that was nice. But having a chance to be on stage with somebody I like and trust — and somebody who is very funny as well was a treat.
My point? I’m not sure I have one. But darn! It’s fun working with other funny speakers. Thanks Steve!
Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.
Brad Montgomery
Colorado Speaker, Fan of Steve and Earl (read on), Secretly Eager to Be in a Comedy Team.
**** Both Steve and I learned about the squeakers from the master, Dr. Earl Reum who I’m pretty sure is the first one to figure out that these squeakers can be VERY funny. Earl is a hero to all Colorado speakers and magicians, all of the in-the-know Colorado speakers and to student council, educational and corporate groups across the country. Thanks Earl for sharing your secrets!
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Ok. That’s not funny. Yes it is. Well… it depends.
Humor is relative. (No, I don’t mean your relative is funny. I mean that what is funny to some people in some circumstances isn’t funny to others, and that’s OK.)
I recently spoke in Colorado for the Kaiser Permanente Palliative Care department. We had nurses, doctors, administrators, chaplains, and hospice partners… the whole team gathered for a day of celebration and a much needed dose of perspective—through humor.
This is hard-working team of health care professional who are constantly dealing with a difficult heavy job. And, judging by the laughter and volume from this particular group they really needed a break.
So we laughed. We joked about everything from what was served for lunch, to the party going on upstairs, to the fact that they had an off-site on a Saturday. But we also joked about the difficult and serious parts of their jobs. We even joked about death, hospice, and used a bit of black humor. (Maybe not black, but certainly 
very dark brown.)
In my job as a comedian motivational speaker, I’ve found that the groups with the most grizzly occupations are the quickest ones to joke about stuff that makes most of us blanch. Cops, firemen, ER nurses, — and hospice and palliative care folks not only joke about stuff that many people would find “crosses the line” of good taste, they HAVE to joke about it. It helps keep them healthy.
Humor helps with stress. And folks super stressful jobs will often turn to gallows humor to help them stay sane.
So, after agreeing that the jokes would “stay in the room,” we went for it. And the laughter followed.
Often people complain about humor that is “in bad taste” without understanding that often that humor is “in good health.” I once worked for a bunch of intensive care nurses who finally put up a plaque outside of the ICU that said something like, ‘If you see us laughing please know that this is not evidence that we are taking the care of your loved ones less seriously. It’s our way of dealing with the stress that is inherent with this job. And in the end, our laughter helps us provide the care that your family deserves.” Brilliant. Beautiful.
Back to Kaiser: I was impressed with how quickly this group was to laugh. But as I lead them through some exercises to help them connect humor and levity to increasing their ability to provide care and to serve their folks — and how keeping themselves sane in the end serves their patients, I was amazed at how quickly they got to the point.
In other words, this audience didn’t just run through the humor in the workplace exercises and try to move on. They lingered. They enjoyed. And they went deep. I think I might have learned as much as they did. Scratch that…. I definitely learned from them.
Thanks Kaiser Palliative Care. It was my absolute pleasure.
Are you looking for a health care motivational speaker, or palliative care / hospice speaker? I’d love to be your speaker. Go to the contact page now.
Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Palliative Care Speaker, Hospice Speaker, and Fan if Kaiser Palliative Health
Related:
Hospice video on YouTube
Kaiser Health Care Speaker video on Youtube
Sex, Beer and Death : A blog being a speaker for another Hospice organization
Funny Health Care Speaker home on my main website.
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My kids and wife wanted to go skiing. I didn’t. I’ve been on the road traveling as a motivational speaker to Florida and Pennsylvania, I wanted to sit home, eat Cheetos, watch the Olympics and veg out. But I’m glad I went skiing…my family was right. Doing ANYTHING beats doing nothing nearly all of the time.
(Besides, there was powder. Lots of powder. : )
Check out my video message from ski slopes at Copper Mountain, Colorado:
Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.
Mobile Post: Posted on-the-go by Brad Montgomery from his iPhone.
For those of you who prefer to read, here is the transcription:
Hey, this is Brad Montgomery from bradmontgomery.com.
I got a message for you related to skiing. So, I’m in Colorado. I’m at Copper
Mountain. We’re at 12,000 feet. I just skied down that cliff. Check that out.
Okay, I didn’t ski down it well, but I did ski down the cliff and I had a good time.
Here’s my point. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to come today at all. If it
was my choice after being on the road in Florida and Pennsylvania, as a
motivational speaker, I was pooped and I really would have preferred to stay home
and watch the Olympics, drink hot chocolate, and, you know, read a cheap novel or
something. But because of my wife and because of my kids, we came up skiing
and Iím so glad I did.
So, here comes the message. I tell my audiences all the time this. What are you
going to do to create joy and happiness in your life starting today? What are you
going to do? And my choice was to do nothing and that was a mistake. I got here
and I had a good time and it’s awesome.
So, what are you going to do? Are you sitting around reading a book? Are you
watching the Olympics right now? Are you doing something that could be more
productive, that could be more fun? I’m pretty sure the answer’s probably yes. If
youíre like me, get going.
So, have fun. Make life fun. That means you got to actually do something to get
involved. If you like skiing, go for it. If you donít like skiing, find what you want
to do, have fun.
Looking for a motivational speaker?I’d love to be your guy. Right now, I’m
going down there. Take care.
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Just ask her pop. (Be patient; I’ll tell you about my daughter in a second.)
A while back I saw my old friend and fellow Colorado speaker Steve Spangler tear up a group of 
100 teachers. And by tear up I mean he was terrific… the audience loved him.
Steve and I have been friends since high school — which is fun partly because I’ve seen him grow from just a talented guy to a famous talented guy.
I stopped by to see one of his projects in person: he invites teachers to come to his Science in the Rockies program where he teaches them science tips and tricks, all backed by curriculum they’ll incorporate in the classroom. Sounds good to me.
But seeing the smiles on these teachers faces AS they learned was a good reminder of the importance of engaging an audience. They weren’t sitting taking notes: they were actively participating, laughing, talking to each other and to Steve.
It was a great reminder that people — even audiences — can multi-task. You might incorrectly connect a silent audience staring at the presenter with an audience that gives a darn. They might be deeply engaged…. or they might be quietly going over their shopping list in their heads.
Steve calls it “hands-on science.” His audiences learn AND have fun. (And you can bet your bottom dollar that because they are having fun, they retain more.) But professional speakers of all types — motivational, funny, whatever! — can learn from this Colorado speaker.
Our audiences can and should be engaged. They should be laughing. They should be saying to their neighbor, “Hey! That’s cool!” And at least some of the time they should be actively playing with some cool toy or thing. [Provided there is a concrete connection between the activity and the desired outcomes of the meeting planner.]
Why is engagement so important for speakers — and meeting planners looking to hire a speaker? Because, my friends, it’s 2009. Audiences just won’t sit still like they used to. In these days were 
distractions are plentiful (iPhones, Blackberries, wireless in convention hotels) and ROI needs to be extremely high, nobody can afford to plop a mediocre speaker in front of an audience who just barely cares enough to sit there.
Meeting planners demand results; results demand engagement.
My point? If you need a speaker ask this question: What specific activities will you do to physically engage my audience, and how to you plan to connect that engagement to what I’m trying to accomplish at the meeting.
Steve makes it work at his teacher boot camps; good speakers make it work in the corporate and association world.
Now… my daughter. I brought my 12 year old along to see my friend in front of an audience. Steve brought her up on stage to demonstrate to the teachers how they might teach a kid. (Lucky Steve, I basically brought along a prop.) The teachers had fun. But my daughter had a BLAST! (And best of all, Steve sent her home with an armload of goodies.)
She may not be the best scientist in Colorado… but by my eyes she’s the cutest. (Even when Steve startled her with some electric current.)
Need an engaging funny motivational speaker? Go to the contact page now.
Thanks Steve. It was a great day. [Note to readers: don’t go to Steve’s store. You’ll end up spending way too much time looking at all the cool stuff and you’ll end up buying stuff. Seriously. Don’t do it.]
Brad Montgomery
Father of a Scientist, Colorado Speaker, Fan of Steve Spangler
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Note: Dear Readers: Please comment below and tell me what you are reading now!
My pal and fellow Colorado Speaker Jay Arthur and I are in the same mastermind group. After a discussion about reading in one of our meetings, he wrote the following letter, and I thought it was absolutely right on. Check it out:
Years ago, I listened to a tape by motivational speaker Brian Tracy.
He said that if you read an hour a day, that in five years you’ll be a worldwide expert in your field.
I listened and adopted his advice.In 1976, my friend Dave told me that “Everything you need to know is written in a book somewhere; all you need to do is find an author who speaks to you.” At that time, I was three years out of college and hadn’t read a book since.
I listened and adopted his advice.And, I rarely buy a book anymore. I check them out of the library.
I found that too many books are “all feathers and no meat.”
Every once in awhile I find a book that’s really meaty and I buy a copy to highlight and review.I’m going to suggest, that if we aren’t reading in our chosen field and other fields that might have stimulating ideas, that we are becoming obsolete and irrelevant.
Jay
Then I responded:
I’d like to chime in. I second Jay’s advice. I read all the time. I love novels, but lately have read books about everything from Base Ball Strategy, gourmet cooking, New York chefs (—I was on a roll!), West Point, D-Day, and John Adams. I like them and feel that I’m learning about the world. I think this type of reading is important.
But at the National Speakers Association CSP/ CPAE summit
(I have at least one of those) my main take away might seem relevant. And I’ll save you the $1500 it cost me to get it: become a thought leader. This means reading in my field and related fields and then be able to think and write uniquely in my field.
Seriously, that was what I got out of the seminar. ALL of the people making big money are big thinkers. Period. Product, speeches, consulting etc follow….they don’t lead.
So I immediately bought six books. Four of them blow, but I’m going VERY slowly and carefully through the remaining two, which are awesome. (I need to start working the library like Jay). I’m on a roll and already have several other books cued up.
There are two immediate results from my reading:
1. I’m learning stuff that is applicable to my writing (blogs/books) and to my keynote. I’m taking organized concrete steps toward increasing my expertise and ability to be a thought leader.
2. I feel damn good about myself because I know this is a good idea. And I’m taking the time to read, take notes, highlight, try to think of it thru’ my eyes as a ‘happiness/humor-at-work guy.” Seriously, I feel great about doing this. I’m an idiot for not adopting it sooner.
I’m still reading about cool stuff that I love. And I still love novels. But now, as part of my work week I’m reading.
My main goals in my work day include only 4 things:
1. website improvement and maintenance.
2. Work towards being a thought leader. (Read now, write soon)
3. Work all incoming calls/email leads to death.
4. Build a herd.Everything else is either secondary or a subset of one of the top 4.
Thanks Jay for starting the conversation.
Brad
So my question to you is: what are YOU reading, and why? Can you learn, as I have, from Jay and others like him? Read now and you’ll be an expert before you know it.
Need an expert on how humor and happiness effect our productivity at work? Go to the contact page now.
Note: Dear Readers: Please comment below and tell me what you are reading now!
Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Reader, and…. Thought Leader!
PS. Sign up for Jay’s ezines at www.qimacros.com/freestuff.html and www.qimacros.com/freeknow.html
