I was recently in Illinois speaking at a teacher in service.  I LOVE speaking for educators!   And happily, this group was pleased to see me too.   How do YOU know if your motivational speaker is any good? There are several ways to guarantee success but one way is to hear from former clients. Check out this video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXgmkaq5xM4

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event?   <a href=”http://www.bradmontgomery.com/contact”>Contact me here</a>.

Brad Montgomery
Speaker for Educators, Motivational Speaker, Fan of School District In Services

For those of you who prefer to read, here is the transcript:

Brad:    Hey it’s Brad Montgomery from BradMontgomery.com.  I just worked in McHenry, Illinois as an Education

Colorado Speaker

Speaker; total blast.  They had me do three different sessions; it was sort of like a teacher in service, but they had everybody there, classified and non-classified staff.  It was a blast and the cool thing it went well, so let’s listen to see what my client Fred had to say about it.

Fred:    Hey I’m Fred Laudadio, and I am the Director of Learning and Technology for McHenry school district 15.  We used Brad Montgomery for our opening day, and our school district is eight schools; 5,000 students and about 500 staff members.  So, Brad did an excellent job.  He made people laugh until they cried and people just truly enjoyed his humor and his magic.  In making the decision to choose Brad, it really came down to who would be the best fit for our school district and truly somebody with a  vision, but also that uses humor that is important to a lot of people.  And we took a risk, because in previous years, the speakers we were able to go watch personally before we chose them and with Brad he was actually across the country, I believe in Mexico with his family at the time, and so we did a lot of work over the phone and we also called a couple of other school districts that he presented at.  And to no regret, Brad was phenomenal and I would recommend to anyone for educational presentation or any business presentation.  So thank you very much.

Brad:    No, thank you.  You said something that you’re already getting feedback, electronic feedback, personal feedback, can you speak to that?

Fred:    Yes, it’s only been about a half an hour since Brad spoke and we’ve gotten e-mails from teachers, we’ve had administrators already approach us, we’ve had even our Superintendent say to previous years’ speakers, we honestly don’t know how you can match one speaker from one year to the next, and you know, Brad has met the challenge to the tenth degree.  So everyone was very pleased and feedback is coming in via e-mail and even face-to-face from a lot of people.  So, whoo hoo.

Brad:      And one more thing, you took advantage and I thought were smart, to have me do multiple sessions.  Tell them what we did and how did it work.

Fred:    Sure.  This is our big opening day and so what we do is we meet with all of the certified staff, teachers, secretaries, any classification meets and so that is a huge presentation.  And so that is what we did first today and that was about an hour and fifteen minutes long and Brad completely nailed it which was fantastic.  Then, we met and we did something different this year and that was because Brad was flexible and agreed to that, was we took our administrative staff and we brought them into the learning center, and we have about 35 to 40 of them on our team, and Brad gave them a message personalized just for them and tailored to what we as leaders need to do as an inspiration for the people that work underneath us and that’s at all levels, from both a central office level and a school level.  And lastly we met with the food service team for the school district.  A team that not necessarily has ever gotten somebody to come and speak to them and motivate them; a particular team that has a lot of turnover and a group that needs motivation.  And so Brad came in and was able to speak with them and gave them a message that they were able to walk away with and even just five minutes ago we’ve had three or four food service people come up and thank him for the message that he gave them.  So three completely different crowds and three very inspired groups of people.

Brad:      Thanks.

Fred:      You’re welcome.

Brad:      **** as that, but one of the things that I wanted you to notice from Fred is that if you’re booking an education speaker, you might want to think about using me, taking advantage of me in a good way, the same way Fred did.  So, he had me do a key note speech for all of his educators, for classified and non-classified staff.  And then we followed that with that deal for the leaders, and that was a really cool moment where we took the administrators, put them in a small group, and then we shaped the message and kind of reminded them specifically as leaders how does this message apply to you.  How can you use levity and lightheartedness and happiness and joy to make sure that your job as an administrator is, you know, that you’re running at full speed.

And finally, how cool was it that he separated the nutrition folks, you know, they were lunch ladies.  They were surprised, totally surprised to have a speaker come in for them, and it was also fun, because they were really quiet, but in the end it was clear that that was a great investment of time and fun.

So, if you’re looking for a speaker to come speak to your school district, or your schools, if you’re looking for an educator speaker that’s funny and can still make it relevant, I’d love to be your to be your guy.  Come visit at BradMontgomery.com.  Thanks.

Texas Motivational Speaker Goes Batty?

I was recently speaking in Texas and got a chance to see the famous bats in Austin.  Check out this short video I put together for you:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9iHKTyyLvw

My client was the University of Texas Health Care System.   Happy day… I am going back next month to work for them again.  Think I’ll get to see the bats?

Looking for a motivational speaker — with or without bats — for your event? Contact me here.

Brad Montgomery
Texas Speaker, Health Care Speaker, Fan of Bats

Related Links:

Texas Speaker info on Brad’s other work in Texas.
Texas Speaker See this video on YouTube
Health Care Speaker More info on Brad’s work in Health Care

For those of you who prefer to read instead of watch YouTube, here is the transcript:

All right, so it’s Brad Montgomery.  How is this for a day in the life of a motivational speaker?  I’m in Austin, Texas, its 8:30; right there in that bridge, 1.5 million bats.  Bats.  How cool is that, bats are about to fly out.  I don’t know, any second.

But, here’s the day I had.  So I started out, I left my house at 1:00 p.m., (its 8:30).  I just got here, gave the bellman a dollar.  I’m here working for the University of Texas Healthcare Medical System, and I’m late.  I was supposed to be at their big bash, cocktail party tonight, but I missed that because of Frontier Airlines. Pretty typical though, because I think so many people think motivational speakers speak.  What I think we do is travel a lot, and then we speak.

So I’m here now.  Good news, I get to see the bats.  Bad news, I’m here late, but, I get to see bats.  More later.

The bats?   yeah, there’s no bats.  Okay, I’m in the Hyatt now which is pretty groovy.  Let me tell you what happened with the bats, nothing, zilch, 1.5 million bats, I saw four.  I saw four.  Total bust.  So, I was out there for an hour and a half, supposed to be a million and a half bats, a mile long trail of mammals with wings.  What I saw was a million and a half mosquitoes, my legs.  I’m just telling you, I’m going to be scratching tonight.

But, all right, being a motivational speaker is cool.  Being in Austin, Texas is cool.  The bats were a total bust, I’m so bummed.  But, good news, keynote speech in the morning.  So, get a good night’s rest.  It’s kind of hot.  I just came up in the elevator right over there, with a whole bunch of conventioneers.  These are the HR folks from the University of Texas, and they’ve got these little blinky things on, and I think maybe they might have had an adult beverage and they didn’t see the bats.  Oh, I think they were drinking something.  But it’s kind of funny because I was asking about stuff and then they said, well who are you?  And I told them I was their speaker.  They said, “good, don’t remember us.”

I’ll see you tomorrow.

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

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.

In less than one minute I will show you what you’ve never seen from another pro speaker.

I can’ think of another speaker would expose themselves like this video exposes me.   Would you show the world your mistakes?

What do you think?  Leave a comment below.

Looking for a motivational speaker — who can actually complete a sentence? —  for your event? Contact me here.

Cheers,

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Comedian, Flubber-Upper

Let’s face it:  corporate meeting and convention audiences are filled with multi-taskers.  A short time go, our greatest distraction as meeting planners and speakers was USATODAY.   Now it’s the fact that there is free wireless in every ballroom, smart phones, and USATODAY.

That’s why this short email from Re/Max international made my day.  (I worked for them at their Colorado headquarters recently.)  It is absolutely current, and made me feel like a million bucks.  Aw Shucks Re/Max!

Brad, One of our executives came up to me yesterday afternoon and said – “Ya know, I judge speakers by the amount of times I look at my iPhone while they’re talking.  I did not look once – thanks for bringing Brad in, he was a great speaker and the timing was perfect – really enjoyed it”.

We’ve had lots of positive comments and in my HR meeting today with other HR Executives I will gladly tout you and your message.   Thank you so much!!

P.L

Senior Vice President, Human Resources

RE/MAX International, Inc.

Denver, Colorado

Aw Shucks, Re/Max   It was my absolute total pleasure.  Thanks for taking the time to make me feel great.

Looking for a funny motivational speaker to do your keynote speech? Looking for something different? Real Estate your biz or not, I’dI bet you want to create lasting change.  Want to make them laugh while they learn?  If you’re in Colorado or across the globe,  Contact me here.

Brad Montgomery
Real Estate Speaker, iPhone User, Fan of Re-Max

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I just got back form Richmond, Indiana (near Indianapolis, Indiana) where I spoke to the entire staff of First Bank Richmond.  They have been going through some tough times lately— and not just the general strife all of the banking industry is enduring.  They just updated some huge systems, and the process has been good but painful.  This group needed to come together as a team, celebrate their successes, and celebrate their conversion to this new complex software system.

(Check out the bribe below!)

It was a a hoot….check out a 1 minute sample:

Here’s my bribe: Hey First Bank Richmond folks!!!   What are you going to DO differently at work (and/or at home) based on our time together on Veterans Day?

I’d love to hear how you plan to “create stories” for your customers.  Sure, you probably can’t create an awesome customer service story for EVERY person who walks into your bank, but certainly you could create one awesome experience per day?

Personally, I think creating one story per day is a bit lame.   Can you do two?  Three?  Five?

And most importantly, how are you going to make the creation of these customer service stories fun for YOU?  (Remember, if it’s fun you’ll do it.  If it isn’t, you probably won’t.)  What systems or processes or rewards can you put in place so that these stories become part of your First Bank Richmond culture?

Use the comment form below to share your ideas and I’ll send you a gift.  No, not a pony, but still fun.

Thanks kids!

Do you need an outside speaker to help get your bank — or other organization — to where it needs to be? Go to the contact page now.

Brad Montgomery
Banking Speaker, Motivational Speaker, Fan of First Bank Richmond

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I was a fish out of water … and into the cow pie. It was Green Acres meets Tony Robbins. It was City-Slickers-meets-Deepak-Chopra.

Okay, it was none of the above. But it was fun.

I recently returned from Kansas where I was tasked with being a motivational speaker for a bunch of farmers — all members of Offerle Coop. I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t what they expected — fast talking jokester with a message about enjoying life. But I can tell you this: by the end of the night everybody — including me — was pumped. It was a good time.

They were celebrating their 100 year anniversary as a Grain Coop and invited me to address the Kansas group after a big dinner.

I loved it for a million reasons. Ok, maybe not a million; how ’bout five:

• I enjoyed my drive in. It’s a beautiful part of the country, and because I’m a city kid, I really enjoyed looking at the feed lots JAMMED with cattle. (Check out the video.)

Why else did I love being a motivational speaker at this Kansas event? Here are the remaining four:

• This audience wasn’t jaded. They didn’t come in with that Los Angeles or NYC attitude that they’ve seen it all. They weren’t a push-over audience; but they were open to giving the speaker a shot. That’s refreshing.

• It was a fun event, and I was proud to be part of it. Members of the Coop drove in from the entire region to celebrate, to get a steak, to meet with neighbors… and to hear little ol’ me. I think I’m not letting the cat out of the bag to say that not a Offerle Kansas doesn’t have a ton of entertainment options. So just the fact that they were having some dude from Colorado was news in itself. And we were in Dodge City… a fun trip for anybody in in SW Kansas!

• We got to poke fun at the farmers. There I was, this chatty, fast-talking speaker from Colorado clearly out of my element. So I made fun of me and how they barely let me in the door because I’ve never seen a true soybean. And I made fun of some of the men — good, hard working guys who are way more of the strong and silent type than I am. (There’s a shock, huh?) They answered my good-natured questions with one word answers which I accidentally (??) misunderstood. The women howled. The men thought it was hilarious. And I had one of the best nights of the year.

• It was a return trip for me. I had worked with Duane from the Coop a couple times in the past… years ago. It’s flattering to work for anybody. But being invited back (three times!) is five times cooler. (I know, I know. It’s weird speaker math.)

Thanks Offerle! I had a blast. And yup, the steak was delicious.

Brad Montgomery
Kansas Motivational Speaker, Fan of Coops, Fan of Offerle

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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. What to do? My client got creative, thought outside of the Budget Box and teamed up with his host hotel. He had hundreds of Airmen staying at the Renaissance Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. Between the meeting rooms, the hotel rooms, and all of the related expenses (room service, restaurant and coffee shop purchases, etc) he was a BIG client for the hotel.

He suggested to his hotel client that they partner with him, and have me speak to the hotel staff on the same day that I spoke to his military group.  I was speaking to the Air Force after lunch. My meeting planner knew that I’d fly into Missouri the night before… and would be free in the morning.

So he suggested that I speak to the hotel staff in the morning, and then work for him after lunch.

Bottom line: it worked perfectly. The hotel had an All-Manager meeting. They brought in all of the top folks from all of their departments from the Starbucks kiosk in the lobby to housekeeping to front desk to maintenance to the kitchens.

I worked ahead of time with some of their people so that, (as I do with all my clients,) I could come in prepared to speak to THIS particular audience.

[It was a special event; the hotel industry has been hammered, and this hotel, like so many others, recently went though some deep layoffs. The staff was in shock, scared, and nervous. The CEO gave them a sort of "State of the Business" speech which was both totally cool, and a bit scary. The news wasn't great. And then I was tasked with putting that bad news back into perspective and help them figure a way to work their morale (and fun quotient) back up to healthy and productive levels.]

The hotel was thrilled because they got access to a speaker they might not otherwise be able to afford. And they felt that helping such a huge client was good for them as well. And the Air Force was thrilled because they were able to get the speaker —that’s me! — they wanted and meet still meet their budget.

And I was thrilled because I got to work with two awesome groups, enjoy St. Louis, and work with with a fun and creative meeting planner who had an awesome idea.

What’s my point? Are you short of money? Looking to hire a Top Shelf speaker but are suffering with a reduced budget? Consider partnering with your hotel. If the Air Force was smart enough to figure it out, the rest of us ought to be smart enough to “borrow” their concept.

(Hey Bruce… I know you’re reading this. Thanks for the killer idea, and for making it happen.)

Are you looking for a motivational speaker? Go to the contact page now! (And we can talk about partnering with your hotel if you like.)

Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Missouri Motivational Speaker, Military Speaker, Hotel Speaker (All in One!)

Related:
See the St. Louis Speaker video on YouTube
Speakers Rates & Fees Explained
Does Brad Charge By the Hour? (More on Fees)

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Ok, perhaps I should explain.  I just did a full-day seminar / training for the support staff at Colorado Mountain College.  This is a great group of folks that run the many campuses all over the state.

I commonly take groups for a 1/2 of training and motivation.  But I was lucky to get this group for a fully day.  (From a guy who used to do 20-minute magic shows, this is a big change.)  But with a full day, we’re really able to create some lasting change.

It was an absolute hoot for a dozen reasons.  But top on that list was that this group of folks were ready to commit.  They were ready to give what I had a try.  And the result was awesome.

Not all groups are so willing.  With most of my seminar and training clients it takes me a while to get the group to trust me and to be comfortable.  Sometimes that takes a ton of time and energy.  Don’t get me wrong;  I love a challenge, so wary and skeptical groups bring their own rewards.

But this group from Colorado Mountain College was gung ho (whatever that means, but I’m pretty sure it means they were up for anything that seemed fun and valuable) from the start.  Heck, they were laughing while I was being introduced.  (It’s disturbingly hard to take credit for that…. but I’ll find a way.)    They were kind enough to write a very cool leter.  Check it out:

Hi Brad,

I had several people tell me that our retreat was the best ever. One woman told me she had been to 18 of them and this was the best ever. Everyone had such a great, fun and valuable time. I owe most of that to you. Thanks – you’re great.

While we had only two people in the whole room that sit on the “president’s staff” I thought it was hilarious that you managed to pick them both – our CFO within the first few minutes and then our head of HR, Kelly, who will now forever be known as Ruth.

Today was our president’s time to present to the group. He asked our VP of Academic Affairs, Brad Bankhead, to assist. This guy was not invited to attend the retreat -(there is a “student services retreat” that is geared to those who work more on the academic side.)

He was asked to be there at 10am. He arrived to hear everyone raving about the great day we had with you, the great dinner, the belly dance lessons, the magic, the hot tub parties, card games and the great breakfast this morning (more than the cheesy thing). He got up on stage and started pouting saying “thanks for inviting me to your retreat and be here at 10 after the great dinner, belly dancers” ….etc….. “I had to get up really early and drive 3 hours to get here by 10 . . . . .” and simultaneously our group yelled out “lame!!!”

After looking a bit startled he continued and said, “yeah, you all had this great breakfast and I get here for my choice of soda or water……” and our group simultaneously shouted “how cool is that?”

Again he looked pretty baffled and everyone laughed hysterically.  Brad continued on with his PowerPoint presentation with several somewhat boring slides of statistics and the audience of 1/2 hung over people were fidgeting in their seats and then one slide came up with one sentence that said “the success of our college is measured by the success of our students” and our group simultaneously shouted “How cool is that?”

You made a lasting impact.

Thank you.

Mollie

[Note:  I have learning-sections in my training titled "Cool or Lame?" and another called, "How Cool is That?!"   She was referring to those segments in the seminar.]

Aw Shucks.  I’m absolutely thrilled it went so well.  And to hear those words, “You made a lasting impact” is like winning the Olympics (except without the medals, endorsements or Wheaties box.)

Thanks for taking the time to let me know, Kids.  How cool are you?

Do you need some teamwork and fun for your group or organization.  Are YOU reading for a lasting impact that will energize and motivate your team?   Give me a call!  Go to the contact page.

Cheers!

Brad Montgomery
Keynote Speaker, Colorado Mountain College Fan, Proud That it Went Well!

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