There is a guy named Chuck Mettler who knows how to follow his passion. He’s one of those fascinating guys who is always into something new. If you say, “What have you been doing lately?” to most people, they’ll come up with something lame.
“Same old, same old, ya know?”
Chuck doesn’t know. He is ALWAYS doing something new. Something [...]
Motivational speakers are a waste of time. Let’s face it, you’ve heard what they are going to say before they even step on stage.
After seeing hundreds of keynote speeches and gazillions (is that a number?) of motivational speakers, I can save you the time and tell you three reasons why NOT to hire one.
1. Your company president is [...]
I came across this photo from 15 L-O-N-G years ago when I presented a session in corporate entertainment to a business group. We used the “Let’s Make A Deal” theme and the crowd loved it! Although I had just a *little* more hair then, my solid applications using humor in the workplace have more than made up for what’s [...]
On a recent trip to St. Louis were I spoke to the Air Force, my client came up with a brilliant idea. It was so good I’d love to claim credit, but he reads my blog and he’d rat me out.
[See video from the hotel job here.]
My speakers fees were greater than the budget for this particular military event. [...]
How to Use Magic to Make Yourself Happy
Why is being a magician so cool? There are a few reasons, but one of my favorites is working for special people and wonderful groups.
I recently volunteered for the Jewish Family Services of Colorado and their residences at the JFS Group Home. It was just a casual deal with [...]
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
What to Do When Your Humor Fails
Here is Part 6 of the continuing series about how to be a motivational speaker. In this video, Brad Montgomery discusses adding humor to your presentation. (And if you want to be a paid professional speaker, you’ll need to be funny — if you want to get [...]
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 [...]
Ok. That’s not funny. Yes it is. Well… it depends.
very dark brown.)
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