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Motivational Speakers as an Investment

The meeting industry is being scrutinized more than ever before.  And that means YOUR meeting is being scrutinized motivational-speaker-audiencemore than a Presidential nominee…. How can we possibly consider any investment in motivational speakers worth while?

What?!  Your organization has suffered through lay-offs and you’re considering bringing in a funny motivational speaker?  He’ll make us laugh and somehow that’s good for business?  You’re kidding, right?

Nope.  Not kidding.  In this bad economy THIS is the time to invest in your employees.  They need help; they need motivation. And if you can do it with laughter, all the better.

Why?   Because the right* motivational speaker will increase your bottom line.

How?  Glad you asked.   Let’s face it, your people already know what to do and how to do it. But they aren’t working fast enough or well enough. They aren’t producing to their potential. They aren’t working at their top capacity.***

The difference between what they are doing and what they are capable of doing is motivation.   Your team is not fully motivated to work as hard, as fast, as creatively, and with out as much oversight as they could if they were highly motivated.

Good motivational speakers are black belts at getting your people back to a higher speed and level of production.

What’s the value of a speaker to you?  Do The Math.

Okay skeptics, this section is for you.  Let’s be conservative and imagine that the right speaker could increase the quality and quantity of your work product by just 2% for one week.    Add up the total value of your current work product.  Now calculate the value of a 2% increase for 7 days.  What is the monetary value of that net change? 

But let’s admit it, a 2% increase is pretty lame.  Do you think a great dose of motivation could push your group up 5%?  10%?  Sure.  And could that motivation last longer than a week?  Do you think we could make the message “stick” for 10 days?  A fortnight?  A month?  Six months? A year?  Heck yeah.   How do these numbers change your math?   Look down:   your calculator is shouting:  You can’t afford NOT to invest in a motivational speaker.****

Motivation and Lasting Change.

Let’s take it one step further to insure that your speaker investment pays:  what plans do you have to follow up on the message your speaker delivers?  My clients ask me to deliver a proven system of follow-up with their organizations to assure that the message lasts.  I use everything from return visits to tele-seminars to customized videos to audio magazine subscriptions to reaffirm and reinforce the message to make sure that what we do has some “sticking” power.

And, if you go back to your math, you’ll notice the monetary value of creating lasting change.  The more “lasting” the change is, the greater value of your investment in your speaker.

Motivational speakers have a (sometimes deserved) bad reputation.  We come in and fire up the group, make them feel like a million dollars, and then leave.  Then before the month is out that feeling is gone.  The net change is zero.  Right?  Wrong.  I have a great answer to this objection.  (Ok, I have three.)

1.  Motivation is like a shower.  Just because you’ve had a shower doesn’t mean you’ll never need another.  Showers are worth it.  And so are motivational speakers.

2.  For organizations serious about creating lasting change, I have a system for follow up to make sure the motivation lasts.  (Sorry, you’ll still need to continue showering.)  

3.  Because we can compute the value of even tiny and short-lived increases in personal motivation – and because even those small changes can result in HUGE financial gains, even poor motivation is a decent investment.  And excellent motivational speakers are an outstanding investment.

Yes, I know your budget is cut.  Yes, I understand that you need to justify your investments more than ever.  Yes, I understand that making your people laugh isn’t important when everybody is focused on your bottom line. But people are your greatest asset.  Your factories work.  Your machines are running.  Better office supplies won’t make a dent.  The best place to find increased profits and economic stability is in your people – and they need motivation. And because lately they’ve been feeling the stress too, they need to laugh.

Motivation + Laughter + A Plan For Lasting Change = Greater Productivity.

I’d love to be the one to help you make a difference.  Let’s talk about how to invest in your people today.  Go to the contact page.

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*  Yup, when I say “The right motivational speaker” I mean me. :)
** No, I haven’t been spying on you.   I’ve just read the studies.
***  No, your webcam isn’t on. Don’t worry.   I can’t see you or your calculator (or your jammies.) 

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Brad Montgomery is a very funny motivational speaker who believes that people who enjoy a great quality of (work) life produce a better quality of work-product.   And he shares this message in a laugh-out-loud funny way to organizations across the country and across the world.

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The Washington Post reported that AIG went through with a convention for their top earners.

Lawmakers fumed last week when they learned that the company paid $440,000 for a week-long resort retreat in California for top-performing insurance agents. The expenditure occurred just days after Sept. 16, when the government announced its $85 billion loan. This month, as AIG asked for an additional $38 billion in taxpayer financing, top AIG executives spent thousands on a hunting trip in England.

I cannot help to think that they must have had one speaker for that event.  Reward trips often hire motivational speakers and humorists…so it certainly is possible that one was hired for this event.

So the big ethics question for you is:

Imagine YOU were hired by AIG.  You see them go out of business…and be rescued with $85 Billion taxpayer dollars.  You know now that you are no longer being paid by AIG, but the taxpayers via AIG.   Would you take the job?

Theoretically you’ve had this keynote on the books for some time, you have turned down other clients who wanted to hire you as a motivational speaker, and because you’ve done everything you have been asked to do, you deserve the fee for you speakers services.

But now that it’s a taxpayer nightmare and Wall Street scandal, would you take the job?

Would ya?

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I usually hate stuff that is forwarded to me via email. But I thought this was interesting.

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheear ch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it

So. Can you read it?

What’s My Point?  I’m not sure I have any brilliance today, but I can tell you that this cool paragraph would make a fun and funny meeting warm up.  Do your meetings lag?   Find you team checking their watches a bunch?  Feel like you’re not getting the most creativity out of your gang?  Then meeting warmups might work for you.

This would be a cool thing to pass out at the beginning of a business meeting. It’s fun and funny, would get people in a creative frame of mind. Have your team — as a team — write out the goals for that meeting in this style. Then go for it…. my guess is that meeting will be way better than if you just launch into it.

As a side note…this “warm up” is a great way to start if you’ve never done anything other than, “Ok, let’s start,” at the start of your session.  Don’t try some of the more “risky” games at first. Let your team get used to the concept of you starting with something fun and mind-rattling.  Then you can move on.  This wacky paragraph is a easy, safe and fun way to get them thinking, “Ok, now I’m ready to work.”

Can you read it?

Do you think this type of warm up would work for your group? Leave a comment with your best meeting warm up.  I dare ya!  Tell me what you think!

 

 

Need a funny motivational speaker who can spark creativity and fun in ANY group — with or without funny paragraphs.  How ’bout bringing me in to speak to your entire staff?   Go to the contact page.

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