Popular author and keynote speaker Joe Calloway has announced the launch of his newest keynote, “Minds Wide Open: Creating A Mindset of Everyday Innovation, Ideas, And Improvement.” So far, the response from clients and audience members has been outstanding. From the presentation description:

For over 25 years Joe Calloway has worked with extraordinary companies and studied how they create a mindset of innovation, ideas, and improvement. And, no, it’s not rocket science. It’s about the power of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. That’s what creates differentiation and a competitive advantage.

“Minds Wide Open” is about:

• the passionate curiosity that drives people to look outside their comfort zone for new ideas
• a propensity for action that means we actually DO things instead of just talking about them and having meetings about them then having more meetings about them
• tearing down barriers like the resistance that most people and (virtually all committees) have to new ideas…the fear of risk…and the biggest barrier of all: “We’re Experts! We KNOW how it’s done!” (famous last words of soon-to-be-dying companies)
• the creative power that comes from not knowing what you can’t do (5 year olds are masters of this – we should be, too)
• seeking out and destroying complacency like the evil force that it is!
• knowing that the most important innovations are those that positively impact the customer experience
• and finally, knowing the point… having a clear sense of who we are, what’s important, and what we’re all trying to accomplish.

A new video to demonstrate this new keynote is coming soon. Until then, here is a comment from a recent client of Joe’s:

“You were amazing at our conference. It was truly a success because of you. You’ve touched the lives of so many Riverside employees by giving us a new way of thinking and an ‘I can do this’ attitude.” — Lisa Jensen, Vice-President, Riverside Bank

For organizations looking to create a mindset of innovation, ideas, and improvement from top to bottom, the “Minds Wide Open” program from keynote speaker Joe Calloway may be just the solution.

Posted under Speaker News

One of our speakers, Jeff Davidson, just posted some helpful information on his blog for meeting planners who need to negotiate with speakers to stay within budget. Fee integrity is very important to speakers – and to speakers bureaus and meeting planners – but Jeff lists seven instances where speakers can legitimately justify reducing their fee for engagements. Among them:

I have personally helped clients secure speakers at discounted rates on various occasions for those exact reasons. Recently, for instance, we booked a speaker to address several departments within a company over the course of a year for 25% less than it would have cost for each department to book him individually. And it wasn’t too long ago that we booked a speaker to speak in one of those slow months – January – for more than 50% less than his standard fee.

As they say, “results may vary,” and some speakers are rock solid on their fees regardless of the situation, but it is important that planners don’t overlook the potentially “perfect” speaker candidate just because his or her fee happens to be above their budget ceiling. Read Jeff’s “Bargaining with Speakers” post on his Opening Keynote blog for the full list of seven ways you may be able to negotiate with your next speaker.

Posted under Planner Tips

Dr. James Canton has been a respected business futurist for years and is especially well known for his insights related to technology trends. However, over half of the keynotes Dr. Canton delivers each month are NOT on technology! Demand for his other keynotes on health care, consumer trends, globalization and leadership have increased 60% over last year.

For organizations of all types seeking to better navigate change, consider these keynotes based on Dr. Canton’s latest research, insights and forecasts:

• The Extreme Future: The Top Trends that Will Reshape the World in the Next 20 Years

• The Future of Health Care

• Help Wanted: The Future of the Workforce

• The 21st Century Leader

• Consumer Trends 2015

• The Future of Globalization

• The Innovator’s Mindset

For more information about Dr. James Canton, please visit his profile page on The Speakers Group web site. Dr. Canton’s preview video can also be seen on Google Video.

Posted under Speaker News

Did you see Marcus Buckingham’s “I Hate My Job” interventions on Oprah on Friday? The show was essentially a follow-up report on four women who had been a part of Marcus’s strengths workshop and coaching in Chicago over the past few months. These women all faced different circumstances in their lives, but they were all “burned out” in one way or another before Marcus came on the scene. After he had helped them discover and pursue their strengths, though, it was amazing to see the change in their lives – more energy, more hope, more vibrance, more passion… more happiness!

Have you ever thought about how many of your employees may hate their jobs? According to the stats shared on that Oprah show, more than 80% of people are unhappy in their jobs. Odds are, some of those people work for you and your company.

As business leaders, we have a responsibility to take care of those who have placed their lives in our hands. And of course we have a responsibility to ensure that our business remains profitable and successful. But don’t the two go hand-in-hand? How successful can your business really be if 80% of your employees are dissatisfied at work? Or, how much more successful could your business be if 80% of your employees were satisfied at work? Perhaps that is the bigger question!

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days with Marcus Buckingham on his Go Put Your Strengths to Work book tour last year, and as I watched audience members stay “tuned in” throughout his presentation about the strengths movement, and as I saw people stand in line to meet him and thank him for the work he was doing, it was clear that this man was on to something that could change lives, and change organizations.

If you want to take your organization to new heights, sure, you should check your profit margins, rethink your marketing strategy, sharpen your sales tactics, and so on. But don’t overlook how much could be gained by taking the time to see if your people are working in areas of their strengths every day. If not, they’re likely to be unhappy and working at sub-par performance levels. It’s not easy to re-align people and their duties, but since when does being easy have anything to do with being right? When you set people up to play to their strengths every day, you’ll have stronger employees, who make a stronger organization.

Don’t take my word for it, though. Just look at the four women on Oprah. Look at Marcus’ research statistics. The proof is out there.

Posted under Keynote Speaker Reviews, Speaker News

Marcus Buckingham, best-selling author, popular conference keynote speaker, and leader of the Strengths Movement, will be on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday, April 18. How did this come about?

Last year The Oprah Winfrey Show called The Marcus Buckingham Company and asked what the “Strength Movement” was all about. To demonstrate, Marcus and his team went to Chicago, filmed a three hour Workshop and then coached the participants – talented women from all walks of life – over the following five months.

On The Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday, April 18, these workshop participants will share their stories of how they’ve been able to significantly increase their performance, at work and in life.

Here’s a preview of the show from Oprah.com:

Are you unhappy in your job? You’re not alone. Four out of five people quizzed in a CareerBuilder.com survey are unhappy at work—that’s 84 percent of the nation’s workforce!

Business expert and best-selling author Marcus Buckingham has helped millions of people reach new levels of success and happiness at work—including employees at Coca-Cola, Gap and Microsoft—with his radical “strengths training” approach. His key to success is simple:
Stop spending so much time trying to fix your weaknesses. Instead, focus on what makes you special and unique. “A strength is an activity that makes you feel strong,” he says. “If you want to know what your strength is, you’ve got to pay attention to how you feel. It feels like
focus. It feels like concentration. You feel invigorated. Energized.”

Another way to think of strengths training is to look at it as a report card. When a child comes home with a report card, Marcus says most parents would focus more on an F than an A. Really, they should give more attention to the A. “You grow the most in the area where you already show some natural advantage, some natural area of talent or strength or passion. That’s where you start,” Marcus says.

Marcus says being dissatisfied with work can filter into other areas of your life. “Your family [and] people that are the most important to you in your life are the ones that hurt,” he says. “If you’re going to win at life—if any of you or any of us are going to win at life—we’ve got to flip that switch.”

A YouTube video clip highlighting the show is available on the Marcus Buckinham on Oprah page on Squidoo.

Posted under Speaker News