As seen on BigSpeak.com

50 Highest Points in 21 days 9 hours & 48 min

Motivational and Adventure Keynote Speaker Colin O’Brady took on the 50HP Challenge on June 27th at 4:06 pm Alaska Time at the summit of Denali. In 21 days, 9 hours, and 48 min O’Brady climbed the 50 highest points in each of the U.S. states. He shaved 20 days off the previous 41-day record and ended his trek on July 19th at 2:45 am PST at the summit of Oregon’s Mt. Hood.

Here are the highlights:

The Final Week July 12th-19th:

• 8 peaks (CO, CA, UT, WY, ID, MT, WA, OR) back to back through the night with time for fewer than 3 hours of sleep each night
• The climbs amounted to 150 trail miles and totaled 55,000 elevation gain, nearly two Mount Everests from sea level.
• O’Brady climbed four of the highest points with his father on his 60th birthday. The climb was a reminder to Colin to always stay adventurous.

Check out Colin O’Brady’s Instagram page to see highlights from his 21-day trek across America’s highest points: https://www.instagram.com/colinobrady/

As seen on BigSpeak.com

You may have heard about Sasha Baron Cohen’s latest prank—the one where he used a speakers bureau to fly Sarah Palin across the country for a fake interview he planned to feature on his new show Who is America. Regardless if you’re a Borat fan or not, no one would be happy about a 14-hour round-trip-travel to be punked for a TV show.

While such trickery is rare in the speaking business, something much more common and equally as frustrating is a last minute cancelation from a ‘big name’ celebrity. Most organizations working with a celebrity keynote speaker put all their eggs in Liam Neeson’s basket, and then when his daughter is taken and he can’t make the event… there’s no one to fill in.

We’d never put you through that. When you book (or are booked) through BigSpeak, we guarantee we have safety nets to catch you from even the biggest tumbles.

Our Speakers…

Will only ever be contacted about the most qualified events. We have a rigorous vetting process that starts as soon as a company reaches out to find a speaker.

All companies are immediately verified through database searches upon initial contact. From there the company works directly with a member of our sales team to fully understand the purpose of the event and the event’s requirements, restrictions, and needs.

After the contract is complete, our event staff organizes every detail alongside the company’s planning team to ensure there are no miscommunications… unintentional or otherwise.

It’s not rare for one of our experienced Agents and Consultants to scope out the event before the speaker even arrives. Often a member of our team will arrive early to an event, work out any foreseen issues, and fully prepare the event to the specified needs of each individual speaker. Our Agents and Consultants attend events to personally ensure our speakers receive only the best and that any complications can be handled on the spot, ASAP.

Your Organization…

Will never be left hanging. When booking a celebrity or “big name” speaker, you always run the risk of last-minute cancellations—it comes with the territory. But when you work with BigSpeak, you’re ensuring no matter how Brad Pitt’s schedule changes you’ll have an A-list speaker to replace him.

We also take the time to fully flesh out our speakers’ needs, so you’ll never be surprised with a speaker walking out on you because you forgot to separate all the green M&M’s.

Our Agents and Consultants attend events to advocate for you as well. We are dedicated to creating a copesthetic relationship between you and your speaker.

When you use BigSpeak, we guarantee commitment to you and your needs. We know that each event is unique and requires different customizations—that’s our specialty. BigSpeak isn’t just a speakers bureau. We’re peace of mind for you and your team.

As seen on BigSpeak.com

Technology is changing your business but not always in the way you expect. While some new technological methods increase your productivity and collaboration, other methods have the opposite effect, slowing down your workflow and inhibiting your interactions. When technology is so important for a competitive edge, what can your company do to get it right?

Whether you’re interested in how technology is affecting your business today or what will happen to your business tomorrow, future-of-work and organizational change expert Paul Leonardi provides insights to help your business understand and overcome these new challenges. Through his research, Leonardi has identified the best practices for businesses to improve collaboration, innovation, and the sharing of knowledge.

Paul knows first hand how technology is affecting the dynamics of your workplace. He has studied the effects of technology for years in over eight countries and in firms ranging from engineering to finance. He has examined how new technologies such as AI, digital simulations, machine learning, and social tools have affected the way your work gets done.

Paul’s groundbreaking research on work and technology has earned him awards from a number of prestigious groups, including the Academy of Management, the National Communication Association, and the National Science Foundation.

Paul is the Founding Director of the Master of Technology Management Program (TMP) at the University of California in Santa Barbara. He is also the author of two books, Technology Choices and Car Crashes Without Cars, where he examined the effects of technological change on high tech firms and companies going through a digital transformation.

Paul’s most recent research has focused on how companies use enterprise social technologies, such as Slack and Jive.

Paul speaks on the following topics:

Preparing for The Future of Work, Today
What changes can your company make today to position itself for success in the digital future?

Leading Digital Transformation
How to prepare your managers, employees, and customers for the digital future by leading cultural change.

Going Social @ Work
How to use enterprise social media tools like Slack, Yammer, Chatter, and Microsoft Teams to increase collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation within your workplace.

Innovate With What You’ve Got
How to manage the social capital in your organization to generate and implement new ideas.

The Art and Science of Distributed Collaboration: Remote work and more
Learn the art of building successful collaborations across multiple geographies, time zones, and cultures.

Kyle Crocco is the Content Marketing Coordinator at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, and the lead singer of Duh Professors. He regularly publishes business book reviews and thought articles on Medium, Business 2 Community, and Born 2 Invest.

As seen on BigSpeak.com

Throughout Bradley Staats long career he’s jumped from industry to industry—from investment banking at Goldman Sachs, to strategic planning at Dell computer, with a detour in venture capitalism in Tampa, to becoming a business professor at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Along the way, he kept earning new degrees in different fields, papering his wall with a BS in Electrical Engineering from UT Austin, an MBA, and a DBA in Technology and Operations Management from Harvard Business School.

His wildly different career choices—from engineering to investing to academics—and multiple degrees probably don’t shock you because career changes have become the norm in our society. When the Bureau of Labor tracked people from aged 18-48 between 1978 to 2012, it found people had changed jobs on average more than ten times. Very few had the same job they started with.

This is because we now live in what Staats calls a “learning economy.” Due to changes in the demand for nonroutine cognitive labor, the rise of specialization, increasing globalization, and the need for scalability, we all must become dynamic and constant learners to survive and thrive.

The rise of nonroutine cognitive labor
With the rise of technology, work has gone out of our hands and into our minds. Literally. Over the past century, the U.S. (and the world) has witnessed a shift from agricultural labor to manufacturing to cognitive tasks. While the number of manual labor (manufacturing) and routine cognitive jobs (sales) have remained flat, nonroutine cognitive jobs (software design, content marketing) have exploded.

The rise of specialization
Specialization has also exploded. Specialization has been around for a long time, but never to the degree we see it now. For example, in the past, a doctor could know almost everything about medicine. Now there are 37 specialties and 132 subspecialties in medicine, which require years of training to master.

The rise of globalization
When the world was less connected, our competition didn’t feel as close. Companies might compete within a state or across the nation, but only the biggest companies had to worry about global competition. With the Internet, people can sell their goods and services to anyone and anywhere. Your competition for your next software assignment might be someone across the nation or across the world.

The rise of scalability
Work used to be limited to what one person could do. One salesperson could only sell to so many people. One doctor could treat only so many patients. Now one person with a website can reach millions of people.

With all these factors affecting the economy, how can one person stay relevant? According to Staats, in order to not only remain relevant but also thrive in this new learning economy, we must learn how to become better learners. In his book, Never Stop Learning, he outlines the eight concepts you need to embrace so you won’t fall behind.

1. Value failure: Be willing to fail in order to learn. People don’t learn by playing it safe.
2. Focus on process rather than outcome: Don’t focus on the end because with nonroutine challenges you won’t know how to get there. But if you focus on the process, you will eventually find a solution.
3. Ask questions rather than rush to answers: It’s okay not to know the answer to a new challenge as long as you can ask the right questions to find the answers.
4. Reflect and relax: Instead of always acting, take time to rest, recharge, and think. This will give you new insights for nonroutine tasks.
5. Be yourself: Progress comes when you stop conforming and are willing to stand out. People don’t find new answers by doing what everyone else has done.
6. Play to strengths: Instead of trying to make your weakness a strength, concentrate where you can get the most benefit. Playing to your strengths will help you overcome more challenges.
7. Specialize and practice variety: Go deep in one area and stay broad in others. This approach will help you find your own niche but also be able to adapt it to other fields.
8. Learn from others: People often don’t solve problems alone. You will learn more if you learn from the diverse expertise around you.

Kyle Crocco is the Content Marketing Coordinator at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, and the lead singer of Duh Professors. He regularly publishes business book reviews and thought articles on Medium, Business 2 Community, and Born 2 Invest.

As seen on BigSpeak.com

Business keynote speaker Henry Patterson started his first business when he was four years old. It was a spin on the old lemonade stand, but instead of serving up refreshing drinks he was selling horse manure from his family’s ranch because there was a greater need for horse dung than for sweet treats.

After he got tired of shoveling poop, he started business after business until one took off. He was 10 years old when his children’s book The Adventures of Sherb and Pip was turned into a brand called Not Before Tea. He brought his book to life with toys and home goods, creating a wildly successful company and making him a local legend.

But his intense success made a bigger wave in the entrepreneurial world. He was featured in Forbes magazine, named One to Watch by the Independent, appeared on The BBC’s Show with Richard Branson, and was the youngest person to ever be interviewed on CNBC’s business show Squawk Box.

He is continuously growing his business. His products are sold internationally and he recently secured an investment to further develop Not Before Tea.

At 14 years old he launched his first business book, Young and Mighty, where he shares his story and the lessons he learned in his jam-packed, 14-year career with young people looking to pursue their dreams. Sir Richard Branson and Mike Krieger both contributed to the book and strongly believe in Patterson’s drive to help others facing big issues like money, self-esteem, finding your voice, education, and creativity.

Henry Patterson speaks on…

• Finding your voice: Henry’s story from selling manure to battling with a stutter, being excluded from school, then going on to build a children’s brand, write a book with leaders such as Richard Branson, getting investments, and everything in between.
• Lessons he learned in business: Business advice as you have not heard it before. Sometimes all it takes is to see things through a child’s eyes to find the solution. You certainly will look at things from a different perspective!
• Sometimes you just have to jump: Overcoming adversity and breaking through barriers. What to do when everyone says you can’t? What to do when you get bullied so much you physically lose your voice? How do you cope when you read thousands of comments from people personally insulting you?

He now speaks to crowds of hundreds addressing workplace issues and providing his unique and fresh perspective. He’s delivered keynote addresses Lego, Clarkes Shoes, Company of Master Jewelers,  Avarto, Retail Week Live, Success Summit, Wealth Summit,  NatWest,  and Potential Plus. With the experience of a seasoned keynote speaker, he’ll wow any crowd with his tailored keynote addresses and fireside chats. Bring business keynote speaker Henry Patterson to your next event and see your company from a new perspective.

As seen on BigSpeak.com

To inspire your team like a hero, cultivate the five movie hero traits Matthew Luhn’s discusses in his new talk, “Effective Leadership, As Told by Movie Heroes.”

All stories—no matter what culture—have two things in common: a hero and a journey. A hero with a goal, overcoming obstacles, learning lessons and transforming in some way by the end. Mostly for the better, if it’s an upbeat movie with a Disney ending.

Matthew Luhn, former Pixar storyteller and animator, knows what it takes to create a great hero. For over 20 years, Luhn worked on Academy Award-winning Pixar films, such as Toy Story, Up, and Ratatouille, among dozens of others blockbuster films.

In his exciting new talk, “Effective Leadership, As Told by Movie Heroes,” Luhn teaches businesses and leaders how movie heroes show the same five traits time after time— vulnerability, likability, vision, structure, and teamwork—and how to cultivate these traits.

Cultivate your likability

Of these five traits, the most important for a great leader is likability. If we don’t like a hero within the first 10 minutes of a movie, we’re going to lose interest and stop watching. Likewise, if a team or client doesn’t like their leader, they won’t feel inspired to follow them or produce great work.

Luhn explains, for us to like a hero (or a leader in business), a hero has to do one of three things to create empathy: Perform an act of kindness for a lower status character, share a story of when they were a child, or position oneself as the underdog.

Perform an act of kindness

In the first 12 minutes of a film, heroes must perform an act of kindness for a lower status character to inspire audiences to like them. In Hollywood, they call this act of kindness “save the cat.”

For example, in the film Aladdin, Aladdin is an arrogant, cocky, street rat. We watch him steal bread and easily outwit his pursuers. But right before Aladdin takes a bite of his stolen bread he spots two starving orphans, and hands them the loaf. Now we know that Aladdin is not just an arrogant thief, but a good person who looks out for the little guy. He performed an act of kindness towards lower status characters and now we like him.

Businesses can also commit small acts of kindness by helping the environment, working for social causes, or advocating for the local community.

Show yourself as a kid

Another great way to get an audience to like a hero is by sharing a story or image of when they were young. We were all kids once, so seeing them brings a hint of nostalgia to the scene. From Brave, Monsters University, UP, and dozens of other Pixar films, many storytellers use this small trick to get the audience to like the main character.

If you really want to play it up, make them an orphan. When George Lucas wanted to create likability for Darth Vader in The Phantom Menace, he showed Vader as a young Anakin Skywalker who loves to build robots and podracers. And then right after you decided all you ever want to do is pinch his cheeks, Lucas orphans him.

As a leader, you can do the same. Whenever you share a story about something that happened when you were a kid, it shows you as being open and vulnerable, and thus, more likable.

Play up your underdog status

One final way to create likability as a hero is to be seen as the underdog. We always root for the underdog and empathize with this hero because we too see ourselves as underdogs at moments in our lives. This is why we like Remy the rat in Ratatouille. As a rat getting chased out of kitchens we see Remy as a vast underdog, so we root for him.

We also like businesses that are cast in the role of underdogs. That’s why many people rooted for Apple against IBM, Pixar against Disney, and Uber against taxi drivers.

If you want to learn more about how to lead like a hero, contact BigSpeak today to book Matthew Luhn to get the secrets behind the five steps on effective leadership as told by movie heroes.

Kyle Crocco is the Content Marketing Coordinator at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, and the lead singer of Duh Professors. He regularly publishes business book reviews and thought articles on Medium, Business 2 Community, and Born 2 Invest.

As seen on BigSpeak.com

They’ll be shaking up your business in 2018. 

The political landscape here and abroad is changing faster than you can update your twitter feed. High tariffs with China and Europe, threats to trade agreements in North America and big data breaches across the globe have everyone on high alert. Not to mention that countless industries were indefinitely changed from the recent healthcare reform and the legalization of marijuana 29 states and Canada.

Wherever you look, the business playing field is changing from drastic domestic and international changes. If you want to find out how to not only keep up with but stay two steps ahead of the political game, BigSpeak has top keynote speakers who are experts in the trends that are affecting you and your business.

Trade

Peter Zeihan is a keynote speaker with 20 years of experience, working and studying international issues and their effects on policy and business, such as our trade relationship with Mexico.

Why Mexico is important– Mexico has 130 million people, a $1 trillion economy, and is America’s top economic partner. We not only have a trade relationship with Mexico but integrated supply chains.

Areas of concern: Changes in policy between the United States and Mexico can impact immigration (and therefore labor), financial stability, supply chains, manufacturing attractiveness, wealth levels, drug policy, water rights, and agricultural markets.

Cybersecurity

Eric O’Neill is a cybersecurity keynote speaker who helped bring down the most notorious spy in U.S. history, Robert Hanssen, and helps protects others from cyber threats.

Why cybersecurity is important– As more and more of our lives and business are being shared online, our data becomes more vulnerable. Spies have learned to exploit this data in order to steal identities, intellectual property, and more. Furthermore, from 2015 to 2016 ransomware attacks increased 2,500 percent and cost consumers over $1 billion in 2016.

Areas of concern: Businesses and individuals need to be aware of how social media usage, phishing scams, email hacks, and ransomware can place them at risk and the steps needed to guard against them.

Healthcare

Vijay Govindarajan is an innovation keynote speaker and one of the world’s leading experts on strategy and innovation, who also speaks about changes in healthcare.

Why healthcare is important– Healthcare is at the center of every election cycle debate because changes to health insurance coverage and the cost of prescription medications can affect the bottom line of every business.

Areas of concern: Rising health care costs, overpriced medications, aging populations, and a shortage of medical professionals are just a few of the challenges facing the medical industry. However, there is good news. There are “bottom up” answers to healthcare issues coming from India that do not require a grand plan out of Washington, DC nor any agreement between entrenched political parties.

Marijuana

Ian Siegel is a business keynote speaker and CEO of ZipRecruiter, who has noticed the change in job trends affected by changes in politics and demographics.

Why marijuana is important– Since becoming legal in 29 U.S. states and Canada for either recreational or medical use, the marijuana industry has exploded. In 2017, the growth rate for marijuana jobs grew 445 percent compared to 245 percent for technology and 74 percent for healthcare.

Areas of concern: Jobs in cannabis are growing in all sectors from retail, marketing, agriculture, management, all the way to joint rollers. Many legal challenges still remain, not the least of which is cannabis businesses must use cash in most instances.

Kyle Crocco is the Content Marketing Coordinator at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, and the lead singer of Duh Professors. He regularly publishes business book reviews and thought articles on Medium, Business 2 Community, and Born 2 Invest.

As seen on BigSpeak.com

A Harvard education isn’t just about earning a degree, it’s about gaining a positive and challenging approach to life and business.

Harvard is famous for many things—its 75-year study of adult development, research on leadership, and the Harvard Business School, which has prepared many successful entrepreneurs. But Harvard can teach us so much more than just their research.

I met with Paul Moya, a thought leader on the future of work, CEO of Millennial Labs, and Harvard business speaker, who explained the successful mindset that Harvard instills in its students. He says the school teaches its future entrepreneurs to make a great impact by applying these traits–

Look to the future

“When the rest of the world was looking at the latest, greatest idea, we were always thinking, ‘Okay, but what comes next?’ Harvard taught me that you should always be looking around the corner, to spot trends, to determine where everything was leading.”

Be holistic in your approach

“At Harvard, we were very interdisciplinary. We looked at all fields for ideas: behavioral economics, psychology, finance, innovation, etc. You should take a holistic approach to business and industry. This cross-functional perspective has helped me to find solutions for many companies and determine what comes next.”

Take responsibility

“One word that I hear thrown around about Harvard is ‘entitlement,’ but when I arrived there, I didn’t find entitlement. I found humility and a sense of responsibility. We felt a responsibility to do more in the world. So don’t be successful just for yourself but be effective leaders that help change the world around us for good.”

Make an impact

“At Harvard, we didn’t measure success by the amount of money we could make. Success is about using your knowledge, skill sets, credibility, and platform to make an impact. The measuring stick is really about who have you impacted, what societies, what economies?”

Execution is everything

“The one thing I learned from Harvard is that ‘ideas are useless.’ Everyone has an idea about the next venture, fund, or disrupting the next market. What set my classmates apart wasn’t their ability to think of good ideas, it was their ability to execute them. If you want to have an impact, you need to put that idea in the marketplace, test it, revise it, and try again. Don’t be afraid of failure or worry about if you go in this direction, it gets shot down. You need to be bold to have an impact.”

Ask the hard questions

“One of the tenants we lived by at Harvard was ‘the best solutions start as the hardest questions.’ Leaders always want to jump straight to solutions and outcomes. The trick to having an impact is to be willing to ask the bold questions that no one will ask, so you can find the solutions no one else can get to. Ask the hard questions of your team, your clients, and yourself.”

Kyle Crocco is the Content Marketing Coordinator at BigSpeak speakers bureau, and a frequent contributor to Born 2 Invest,  Business 2 Community, and Medium.