Posts

motivational speaker

 

How to Choose the Best Motivational Speaker

I just finished working for the State of Wyoming Department of Transportation or WYDOT, and I was struck with an epiphany when my meeting planner told me how he judges success for his professional speakers – the people that he hires.  And here’s the deal, it was a surprise to me.  What they hired me to do is the same thing that they hired every professional speaker that they work with to do which is first, to start with a motivational, inspirational keynote speech to open the convention.  So, I did that on Tuesday’s afternoon and then on Wednesday, they asked me to return to do two different breakout sessions twice which was pretty cool.

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.  

 

How do you judge success for your professional speakers?

I did Breakout Session A, two times and then I did, after lunch, Breakout Session B, two times.  And by the way, as an aside, I really love it when my clients work hard to get more value and more return on their investment when they hire me and having me do multiple programs is a great idea.  So, anyway, back to how you can tell if your motivational or inspirational speaker is any good.

The client told me that they judge success based on the attendance at the following day’s breakout sessions.  So, that means they look in the room and the chairs are full, they know the speaker was well-received, and if the chairs are empty, they know that the speaker was horrible.

So, happily, today it was great.  We had lines and the room was packed and, again, lines was a great sign.  The client told me when he saw people lined up waiting for the breakout session to begin, he knew that he had chosen the right speaker which, of course, was very flattering.  But, I had never thought about that as a barometer for success.

One of the things that I ask of my clients before the event is how do you judge success?  And I think that’s a good question because sometimes they want me to make sure the audience is happy.  Other meeting planners don’t care if the audience is happy, they want to make sure that their boss is happy, and if you think about it, that’s a pretty big difference.

Sometimes, I’m called in to deliver a message the audience doesn’t necessarily want to hear.  So, theoretically, it’s quite possible that you could do a great job for the boss and the audience wouldn’t like you.  Well, you know, and conversely, it’s important to know that if your job is to get the audience going and the audience happy and not the boss, well, that’s important to know.  But, I had never once thought that my primary mission was to make sure that the room is full the next day for my returning breakout sessions.  Pretty cool, huh?

So, if you’re looking for a motivational, inspirational speaker, I’d love to be your guy.  If you’re looking for a speaker who can do a keynote and then come back and do some breakout sessions, I’d love to be your guy.  And most of all, if you’d like to hire an inspirational speaker who can guarantee that the next day, people will choose to come to my breakout sessions as opposed to going to other ones, well, I’d love to be your guy too.

Wyoming Department of Transportation, thank you for hiring me.  We had a great time in Cheyenne, Wyoming; loved being part of it.  Thanks so much.

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

Brad Montgomery
Inspirational Speaker, Very Popular Breakout Session Leader
Fan of the Wyoming Department of Transportation

Related articles:

Choosing the Best Motivational Speaker
How to Pick a Keynote Speaker

/1 Comment/in /by
motivational speaker

 

No! You Want to be Positive….You Want to be Upbeat!

The science is clear that individuals can influence the dynamic of a group, or a team, or an organization. Scientists have created the following study: They add an individual to a team and then they measure the effect, and no surprise here, a positive upbeat person affects the team in a positive way. And a negative person influences the organization or team in a negative way. Again, not a shock. But here’s the interesting, and I think, sad part.

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.  

 

A negative person has a much greater impact on that team than a positive person. Well, this is interesting because it begs us to ask the following question of ourselves: What impact would we like to have on our organization or our team? I think it’s a cool question because even though it’s partly rhetorical, the process of answering that question helps us to live our life in a way that leads us to more happiness and more productivity.

So what do you want your impact on your team to be? If you want it to be negative and you are the person who goes in and is miserable and makes everybody around you miserable, well then, you’re an idiot and I can’t imagine anybody would really select that as their future, as their legacy.

I guess the other choice, besides being positive, the third choice, is to be neutral. In other words, you would select to go into your team and have absolutely no impact and again, who would choose that? Who would say to themselves, “Today I hope to make absolutely no difference to the people I work with and the people I work for.” Who would choose that? Seriously, who would choose that?

So that leaves the final choice, which is, “I would like to make a positive impact on the people I’m working with on my team, on my supervisors, on the people who report to me, on my clients, on my family; whatever the organization, I’d like to make a positive impact.” Kind of cool.

So what’s my suggestion to you? My suggestion to you is you ask that question. What do you want your legacy to be? What impact do you want to have on any given organization, be that your family, your soccer team, or your work team. My guess is you don’t want to be the negative loser who tries to bring everyone down. My guess is that having sort of a net neutral effect and that you make absolutely no difference to this team is not your choice either, and of course, that leaves the obvious solution, which is you want to be positive, you want to be upbeat, and you want to move the team forward. If that’s the case, that should help dictate the way you act. It should help dictate your mood, it should dictate your style of leadership and it should dictate your attitude, which of course ought to be positive.

Choose to be a positive influence in your life!

If you’re looking for a motivational, inspirational speaker to come in to talk to your group about how to make sure people are making the right choices about being a positive influence on your team, I’d love to be your guy and I hope you’ll contact me.

Brad Montgomery
Inspirational Speaker, Motivational Expert

“The kind of guy who makes a positive effect on my team.”

Related articles:
Laugh or Cry? Your Choice.

/0 Comments/in /by
motivational speaker

 

Hire a Certified Speaking Professional to Guarantee Your Success

Okay, maybe not guarantee but definitely improve the likelihood of your meeting being awesome.

What is a CSP?  Certified Speaking Professionals have earned the highest designation awarded by the National Speakers Association.

To be a CSP is a big deal.  You’ve got to do way more than just fill out a form.  They pretty much examine your career, they look at the number of jobs you do per year to make sure that you’ve done a lot, they look at the amount of income that you have earned through speaking to make sure that you are working professional events, and then, here’s the killer, they call an alarming number of your clients to make sure that you were delivering excellence.  When I earned my CSP I was told that fewer than 7% of professional speakers worldwide have earned their CSP.

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.  

 

What is the point?  The point is is that when you’re hiring a motivational speaker you want the very best.  And one easy litmus test that you could put up is to see if your prospective speaker has met the qualifications for this very straightforward designation.  If they have, you know a lot about them.  You know they’ve done a lot of work, you know they have a lot of experience, you know they’ve worked at a certain fee level which guarantees that they are not just working at the Optimist Club and the Lion’s Club, which by the way is important.

Just because somebody says that they’ve given a lot of speeches doesn’t mean they’ve given a lot of speeches in front of business audiences or audiences like yours.  What else do you know?  You know that somebody, at least one person, has checked up on the speaker to make sure that they’re not complete fluff – that it’s not just marketing.  You know that this speaker has met a certain level of professional success.

Make sure your speaker has the title, CSP after their name!

Happily, I’ve earned my CSP.  I’m proud of this!  It took hours and hours of paperwork.  My office went nuts for about six months trying to get this done.  Plus, of course, it meant an absolute headache with arranging a database.  But it was worth it to me because it is worth it to my clients.

Next time you’re considering hiring a speaker make sure your speaker has the initials CSP after their name.

Are you looking for a professional motivational speaker who also is a CSP, Certified Speaking Professional?  I hope you will contact me here.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Certified Speaking Professional, and proud of it!

Related Articles:

Can You Guarantee Success?

How Do You Know If Your Speaker Is Any Good?

Check Out Brad On YouTube

/1 Comment/in /by
motivational speaker

 

Can your motivational speaker also inspire your audience?   YES – and you should expect that.  Read on to find out why…

 

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.

Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Seminar Leader, Inspirational AND Motivational

For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:

Hey, it’s Brad Montgomery from bradmontgomery.com with a quick video about the difference between inspirational speakers versus motivational speakers.

So what’s the big deal with that in, it seems like we confuse them or we see the words related. They’re not quite the same, what’s the big deal? Alright, here’s how I see it. I’m a motivational speaker who is inspirational. Go figure.

Motivational speakers, what does that mean? Here’s the deal on motivation. I think motivational speakers address this issue: so many people in our society know exactly what to do, but for whatever reason or reasons, they’re not doing it. So what’s the problem? I’m thinking it’s motivation.

So all we have to do is figure out a way to get them to do what they’re not doing, get them to do what they know how to do but for some reason are failing to do and we call it a success. So for example, if your people are completely well-trained in customer service, but they’re providing crappy customer service, what they don’t need is more training. What they do need is motivation. Aha! Pakow! Motivational speaker.

So in this case, this motivational speaker, what I do is I use humor and levity to remind them of the power of customer service. I remind them how humor and levity and bringing your sense of humor to customer service will help make customer service more fun and if it’s more fun, my argument would be they’re more motivated to provide that which they already know how to do which is excellent customer service.

For crying out loud, we’ve all been around long enough to know what good and bad customer service is. Doing it isn’t that hard if you know exactly how to do it and my guess is you have already trained your people how to do it. What they’re lacking is motivation. So at least with customer service, there’s an example of motivational speaker.

So what’s an inspirational speaker? Well, I think inspirational speakers are people who have done amazing things and inspire you to do a little bit more, a little bit better, a little bit harder, a little bit stronger, whatever. So often, these are people that have done crazy things like they’ve climbed Mount Everest, they’ve run incredible Fortune 500 companies, they’ve done amazing things, right? And then by seeing them and hearing their story, maybe they’ve had some tragic accident in the past, whatever. By seeing them and hearing their story we’re inspired and we end up thinking, wow, if they can do that, those amazing things given their difficulties and their challenges, certainly I can do a little bit more given all the advantages I am blessed with right now. So I’m inspired, right? That is an inspirational speaker.

Well, I tend to think that you need to do both. To me, a really excellent motivational speaker is somebody who is also inspirational and in my particular case, here’s how I do that. I haven’t lived through some tragic accident. I have not climbed Mount Everest. I have not done some amazing thing. But on the other hand, what I feel like I do is I share with my audience and audiences, my story and my stories and generally speaking, my stories are sort of like, I’m like you, I have a lot of things in common with you.

Here’s how I’ve approached it and thought about it and I hope you come with me and hopefully that is inspirational and inspiring in a way to make them think, well Brad seems just like me. He seems to have handled this. Maybe I can do it too, a little bit different but still on target and then for my taste, we sort of lost it if we don’t add that motivational piece. If you’re inspired but you’re not motivated to change your behavior, if you’re not motivated to create lasting change, if you’re not motivated to change what you’re doing from point A to get to point B, then inspiration is nice, but if it doesn’t create action, it’s a fail.

A Motivational Speaker Who Is Funny and Inspirational

Alright, does that help? I hope so. So generally, my marketing stuff calls me a funny, motivational speaker. Whatever. I could be called an inspirational motivational speaker, but hopefully by defining those terms, it’ll help you to feel like your speaker.

While you’re searching for speakers, I’d love to be your guy. If you’re looking for a motivational speaker who happens to be funny and inspirational, I’d like to be your guy. There’s a link here, you can check my preview video. I’m currently filming this from a coffee shop. I’m on the road, trying to answer some questions and I was thinking about this and I wanted to just knock out a video.

Alright, contact us through bradmontgomery.com or funnymotivationalspeakers.com. If you’re looking for a speaker, one of the things you ought to do is ask them, what’s your take on motivation? What’s your take on inspiration? Where do you fall in that? And if your speaker has any experience at all and if they’ve thought about it at all, they’re going to have a darn good answer for that question.

Alright, love to chat with you and answer those questions in person. I’d love to find a way to customize a speech or keynote that fits you and your needs and your organization’s needs, whether or not you need motivation or inspiration. Have a great day! Cheers!

/0 Comments/in /by
health care speaker

 

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.  

Why do you need a funny motivational speaker?

If your group craves more than another forgettable keynote speaker, then you are in the right place. Are you looking for something this year that will create an experience that your people won’t forget?

Do you think that humor is just what the doctor ordered? Think your group wants (and needs) to laugh? But you still need a keynote speaker who can deliver a valuable message that your people will use?

If you feel like your audience needs to hear a message of learning to “lighten up” and take themselves less seriously, while at the same time taking what they do very seriously, then you need a funny motivational speaker.

Then the Funny Motivational Speakers Company is the place for you. We feature the best funny humorist keynote speakers across the nation and across the world. Humorists and funny motivational speakers who bring laughter, lightness, and positive messages about living well and being well.

Visit our featured motivational speaker and humorist.

/0 Comments/in /by

In Wyoming recently, motivational speaker Brad Montgomery had a group of Construction Engineers lined up at the door waiting to hear him speak.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0MjjFsGLDc

Here’s a transcript of Brad’s video of his conversation with Jim and Russ at the Wyoming Dept of Transportation Construction Meeting.

Jim:     Doing this he is going to leave the best impression I’ve ever had out of all eight years; he is top notch.

Brad:    Hey this is Brad Montgomery from Brad Montgomery.com.  I’m on the way home, just having worked for the Wyoming Department of Transportation.  They asked me to be a motivational speaker; do some breakout sessions.  It was a blast.  It went really well and let’s see what they have to say.  Glad you’re here.

Jim:     Hi, my name is Jim Messing. I’m with the Wyoming Department of Transportation.  We are finishing up our 2011 Engineers Construction meeting and we’ve had Brad Montgomery as our main speaker and out of eight years of doing this he is going to leave the best impression I’ve ever had out of all eight years.  He is top notch.  If you ever have a chance to watch him, do it.

Brad:     Awesome, can you tell them a little bit about what we did yesterday and today?

Jim:     He did a two hour presentation, opened it up, kind of loosen everybody up, then he did a couple of one hour sessions with us and how to take laughter into your workplace, your family life and everything like that.  And everyone came out laughing.  We had people lined up at the doors waiting to get in to his session.

Brad:     Thanks.

Jim:     You’re welcome.

Russ:     I’m Russ Howe with the Wyoming DOT Construction Staff.  I’m a staff technician.  Just had the opportunity to see Brad Montgomery do three presentations or performances, whichever you prefer, for our 2011 Engineers Conference and boy if you need a good guy I’d definitely get him.  Very, very enjoyable.  Very pertinent things to say; made us laugh.  Made us feel good.

Brad:     How did it go compared to other years?

Russ:     I’ve only actually been to one other one and we had another guy similar to Brad and he was good but I have to say I really enjoyed Brad more.

If you want to get your staff lined up out the door to hear a keynote speaker at your next event, contact me here.

/1 Comment/in , , /by

Meeting Planners Have a Lot at Risk and Speakers Need to Understand It

I recently was a motivational speaker for a audience of 500 Foster Case Workers in Austin, Texas and my client came up to me afterwards and told me that one of his many jobs was to manage risk and now that the program was over he was able to be honest with me.  I started to get a little lump in my throat, but happily, this is when my client put on a huge smile and told me “Brad, it went great!”, so I was happy and I was relived but this is where the lesson started.

My client told me what I already know but is an excellent reminder for me and anybody who is either booking a motivational speaker or plans to be a motivational speaker.  He told me how important this event was to him.  He told me that he was bringing in 500 people away from their jobs for a 2 ½ hour event plus their travel time, so for many of them, this was going to be most of their day and that the opportunity cost was outrageously expensive.  He also told me that he was already thinking ahead towards next year’s event and that he worked hard to fill that room with 500 people who were very busy already and if this event was a turkey, he would have a next to impossible time getting equal numbers, much less greater numbers, next year.

So, what’s the point?  The point is that as meeting planners and as speakers and as general members of the meeting and convention industry, we need to understand that when we’re negotiating motivational speaker’s fees, it’s more than the money.

Pick a speaker that will guarantee a return on your investment

My client invested quite a bit of money in me.  He’s brought me in for one event and we’re duplicating the event next week in a different city in Texas.  So, his investment is pretty great, but he is looking at the big picture.  He sees that his investment in the speaker really is just a tiny piece in the puzzle and that when you add it up to all of the other things he needs to accomplish, he’s putting way more on the line.  He is risking way more on the line than just the investment in his professional speaking.  By the way, his attitude reflected this.  Some of my clients are freaking out about expenses and this and that and technology this or whatever, not this man.  He understood those tiny investments were absolute drops in the bucket.

So, next time you are looking to hire a motivational speaker and are interested about how to save money on speaker’s fees, I want you to remember all of the other things you’re investing into your meeting or conference.  It’s a huge opportunity cost for all of your people, huge meal cost for all of your people (in this case, my client bought a fancy lunch at the Austin Texas Omni Hotel, lunch for 500 people, I have no idea what the bill is but it was huge) but also the opportunity cost and the investment of momentum.

Next time you’re thinking about booking a speaker I want you to think about how much it will cost you to get the next level down speaker and how much you would save and then compare that savings to the cost of not having an absolute perfect conference.  Speaker’s fees generally reflect the level of guarantee you can expect.

So, can you save my money by booking a cheaper speaker?  Yes.  Can sometimes entry level speakers do a great job?  Yes.  Have you invested enough in your particular convention or meeting that you cannot afford anything but the very best?  If that’s the case, give us a call.  If you’re interested in booking a motivational speaker who has a high level of guarantee of success…my programs are fully guaranteed…I hope you’ll contact me here.

~Brad Montgomery~
Motivational Speaker, Texas Speaker, Guaranteed Professional Speaker

/0 Comments/in /by

I was recently in Detroit at 5 AM and had a remarkable interaction with a woman at Starbucks. She should be the motivational speaker…not me. Check out this video I recorded with my phone — which is code for, “calm down, I know the quality isn’t that great!”

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

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Inspirational Speaker, Fan of Detroit!

For people who prefer to read, here is the transcript:

Howdy. I’m Brad Montgomery. BradMontgomery.com. I’m still in happiness speakerthe Detroit airport. I wanted to put up one more video for you because I was struck yesterday with another person that really has figured out humor in the workplace. She works at Starbucks. She works in the airport. She works at Dallas-Ft. Worth. Alright, so you know how it is, you go to, we’ve all been to somewhere and boughten a drink. It’s no big deal. It is a big deal with this woman because she just made, she just owned this whole concourse. She owned the concourse. She was like the queen of Dallas-Ft. Worth airport. She was like holding forth at Starbucks and she was calling everybody up, “Hey how are you doing? Get up here! How are you? What are you doing? Where are you going?” Just a super unbelievably friendly woman. So as is my habit, I asked her, “What’s the deal? You know, how do you do this? How do you stay happy when it seems like people around you are not so happy with their job?” And she said, “Oh it’s up to me, baby. But really what makes me happy is making you happy.” It’s so simple, but it’s so cool. So social psychologists are going to call this flow, motivational speakers are going to call this motivation, customer service experts are going to call this, you know like “she’s in the zone, she’s doing her thing.” But I think what really struck me is that she knows what keeps her happy and she knows that when she invests in other people, the payback is twofold. Not only are her customers happy, I was thrilled. She called me baby. I loved it. “Okay, here’s your coffee, baby”. I loved it. Not only did she make her customers happy, but I’m in the airport, can you hear me talking? Not only did she keep her customers happy, but she keeps herself happy. By delivering service, she feels served. It’s just so, it’s such a basic truth, but it’s so easy to forget. So here is my challenge to you. What are you doing today to help others? And if you’re thinking you are having a crappy day, maybe the way out of your crappy day is to deliver excellent service to your teammate, to your managers, to the people who you’re managing, to your customers, to the people you are trying to sell. How can you make it better for them? And I think that what this woman at Starbucks is going to teach us is that by doing that, it will make it better for you. Happiness at work equals excellence at work. It’s so cool. Serve others, you become happy. Love it! Alright, Brad Montgomery. BradMontgomery.com. Thanks for being here.

/2 Comments/in , /by