Month: February 2024

Ideal circumstances simply do not exist in the real world. No matter a person’s character and lifestyle, they will at times come up against hurdles that seem fully insurmountable.

 

With the right mindset, these obstacles are opportunities for growth, and a top overcoming adversity keynote speaker is the perfect person to help others develop the grit and resilience necessary to thrive in challenging situations.

 

Briana Scurry is a U.S. Soccer legend, brain injury awareness advocate, and overcoming adversity keynote speaker. After a debilitating concussion led to an untimely retirement, she pivoted, making use of her incredible willpower and harnessing the visibility she enjoys as a top athlete to educate and advocate.

 

Endurance athlete and Guinness World Record Holder James Lawrence is best known for the 50.50.50, an awe-inspiring feat of grit and perseverance that saw Lawrence complete 50 full distance triathlons in 50 states on 50 consecutive days. He is the expert on mental toughness and peak performance, and a go-to resource for audiences looking to awaken their own abilities to surpass their limits and overcome their fears.

 

Albert Yu-Min Lin is a research scientist, high-tech explorer and prominent amputee who works with Project Lim(b)itless to bring custom, affordable prosthetics to amputees worldwide.  Devoted to merging adventure with innovation, his trailblazing adventures have included searching for the tomb of Genghis Khan, remapping the jungles of Guatemala and the deserts of Jordan.

 

Molly Bloom is a top keynote speaker, entrepreneur and bestselling author. Her story of overcoming setbacks and achieving success in fast-paced, high-stress situations inspires audiences and has been adapted into an Oscar-nominated film.

 

Adventure racing world champion and top overcoming adversity keynote speaker Robyn Benincasa is one of the highest-rated keynote speakers in the world. A CNN Hero, bestselling author and full-time firefighter, she specializes in helping teams develop endurance and grit.

 

Chaunté Lowe is a overcoming adversity keynote speaker and 4x Olympian with a story of perseverance and strength. A breast cancer survivor, her speaking has been in high demand since her decision to continue her Olympic career while undergoing chemotherapy and a double mastectomy.

 

Mindset researcher and keynote speaker Lilly Tam specializes in developing high-performance cultures via helping people focus on their ability for growth and overcoming obstacles. A 2x TED presenter, she has worked with thousands of people at global organizations to level-up in their person and private lives.

 

Bestselling author and overcoming adversity keynote speaker Natalie Fikes is an empowerment expert dedicated to teaching others how to prosper. Overcoming an unstable, abusive childhood to become a top speaker and mentor, she is a beacon of resilience and success.

 

Cyclist and endurance athlete Lance Armstrong is also a podcast host and top motivational celebrity keynote speaker. With his compelling story of overcoming adversity and redemption after a life-changing mistake, he imparts audiences with the knowledge needed to lead and work as a team.

 

World-record holding explorer Colin O’Brady is a bestselling author and sought after keynote speaker. An expert on mindset and unlocking potential, he is the first person in history to solo cross Antarctica without the aid of any vehicles or resupplies.

Would you like to be more successful? Sometimes the difference between success and failure comes down to your mindset. In a Stanford study on grades and testing, researchers found embodying a ‘growth mindset’ closed achievement gaps between students by 30-50%.

If you would like to develop a more successful mindset, BigSpeak Speakers Bureau works with the Top 10 Black Motivational Speakers. These keynote speakers are athletes, thought leaders, company founders, and entertainers who have all encountered challenges in life and learned how to overcome them.

 

Top 10 Black Motivational Speakers

1) Cassandra Worthy

Cassandra Worthy is a top 10 black motivational speaker, innovator, and the world’s leading expert on Change Enthusiasm®  Cassandra inspires and empowers her audiences so they can shine and overcome any challenge in their life.

2) Simon T. Bailey

Simon T. Bailey is a top 10 black motivational speaker, Leadership Imagineer and the former leader of the Disney Institute. He has been named one of the top 25 people who will help you reach your business and life goals by SUCCESS magazine.

3) Vernice Flygirl Armour

FlyGirl is a top 10 black motivational speaker speaker, America’s first African-American female combat pilot, and author of Zero to Breakthrough. FlyGirl’s highly contagious energy, moving stories, and gutsy essence motivate audiences to action.

4) Daymond John

Daymond John is a top 10 black motivational speaker, founder of FUBU clothing, and a reality TV investor on Shark Tank. In his talks, Daymond shares his story of overcoming tough times to grow FUBU clothing from a garage startup to a multi-million dollar company.

5) Jade Simmons

Jade Simmons is a rockstar concert pianist and top 10 black motivational speaker. Her stunning mainstage presentations combine virtuoso performance with riveting storytelling to speak to the hearts, minds, and goals of a company’s most valuable resource…its people.

6) Magic Johnson

Magic Johnson is a world-renowned NBA Hall of Fame All-Star, philanthropist, and motivational speaker. His stories of overcoming challenges as an athlete, entrepreneur, and HIV survivor inspire corporate and business conferences around the world.

7) Chaunté Lowe

Chaunté Lowe is a top 10 black motivational keynote speaker, 4-time Olympian, 3-Time World Championship medalist, and breast cancer survivor. She has been in high demand ever since she decided to train for the Tokyo 2021 Olympics through Chemotherapy and a Double Mastectomy. Her story shows audiences the power of resilience through life’s challenges.

8) Butterscotch

Butterscotch is a top empowerment speaker and vocal percussionist virtuosa who uses her powerful voice to defy gender and music social constructs. She shares her story of how she overcame overt biases to become crowned the world’s first female beatbox champion.

9) Adolph Brown

Dr. Adolph Brown is a top 10 black motivational speaker and the Founder, President, and CEO of The Leadership & Learning Institute. Using stories, humor, and evidenced-based data, audiences come away from Adolph’s talks motivated and inspired.

10) Marcus Collins

 

Companies grow or lose business based on how they serve customers. A customer scorned will run straight to your competitor, according to Bain & Company. Bain & Company found if customers have problems caused solely by poor service (and were not price or product-related), they were four times more likely to buy from your competitor. On the other hand, when a customer was treated well they would give your company free word-of-mouth. In fact, 72% of customers said they would speak well about your company to others if treated right, according to a Salesforce study.

Whether you call what your company does customer experience, customer loyalty, or customer service, how you treat your customers is important for the success of your business. If you’re looking to gain an edge in your customer service, BigSpeak Speakers Bureau works with the top Customer Service keynote speakers and consultants in the industry. These keynote speakers know customer service because they have used it to boost customer loyalty to brand-name companies like Disney, Harley-Davidson, Salesforce, and Zappos.

 

Here are ten of the most in-demand Customer Service keynote speakers:

1) Tiffani Bova is a Customer and Employee Experience and Sales Expert, 2X Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author and Former Chief Growth Evangelist at Salesforce. In her talks, Tiffani shares how companies most prioritize the human elements of business to be successful. By becoming an employee-first organization, you could help create a more customer-centric organization that would drive your business growth.

2) Molly Bloom is a top customer service keynote speaker and the bestselling author of Molly’s Game. Molly helped turn a basement poker game into a multimillion-dollar business by creating a unique customer service culture for her players. In her talks, Molly shares how she trained her employees to deliver a personalized service that kept players coming back to her games for years.

3) Simon T. Bailey is a top business keynote speaker and the former leader of the Disney Institute. He has been named one of the top 25 people who will help you reach your business and life goals by SUCCESS magazine. In his talks, he shares how to engage all stakeholders and the five principles for keeping a customer for life.

4) Ken Schmidt is a top customer service keynote speaker and the former Director of Communications at Harley-Davidson Motor Company. He helped turn Harley-Davidson around in the 80s by driving up customer loyalty through excellent service. In his talks, Ken explains how people are not loyal to products but to people. He’ll show your team how to build customer relationships that could turn your customers into evangelists.

5) Duncan Wardle is a top innovation keynote speaker and customer service consultant. As the former Vice President of Innovation & Creativity at The Walt Disney Company, Wardle helped with many of their customer service initiatives. In his talks, Duncan shows how to take your company from a product focus to a customer focus, using some of the strategies that made Disney one of the most beloved companies in the world.

6) Robert Richman is a top customer service keynote speaker and co-creator of Zappos Insights. In his talks, Robert shares how Zappos became one of the top customer service companies in the world by creating a business culture focused on the customer. He teaches how to design great customer experiences while developing a company culture to sustain your high level of service.

7) Soulaima Gourani is a customer service specialist, corporate counselor, and an author with over ten years of management experience in multinational companies. In 2020, she won the Thinkers50 Radar Award. In her talks, she shows how you can turn customers into fans through internal cooperation in your company.

8) Erik Qualman is a 5x Bestselling Author and Motivational Speaker, Erik Qualman, has performed in 55 countries and reached over 50 million people. He was voted the 2nd Most Likeable Author in the World behind the Harry Potter series. He is a former sitting professor at MIT and Harvard’s edX labs and has received an honorary doctorate for his groundbreaking work.

9) Johnny Cupcakes is a top branding keynote speaker, CEO of the World’s First T-Shirt Bakery, and award-winning entrepreneur. With global store openings, thousands of customers with his logo tattooed on themselves, people who camp out for his products, and high-profile collaborations with giants such as The Simpsons, Power Rangers, and Nickelodeon, Johnny was named America’s #1 Young Entrepreneur by Business Week, Top Innovator in Retail by The Boston Globe, and featured in INC magazine as the CEO of one of the world’s fastest-growing independent businesses. 

10) Nikki Greenberg is a world-leading futurist and innovation strategist, focussed on preparing organizations for a tech-enabled future. She helps leaders reimagine their businesses to bring them into alignment with the increasingly digitized way that people live, work and communicate today. She has held leadership positions with Fortune 500’s, and most recently served as the Head of Technology Strategy at QIC, an Australian investment manager with a $65 Billion portfolio of assets under management. She is the founder and global ambassador of Women in PropTech and former three-term co-chair of the Technology & Innovation Council for ULI in New York City. Holding Master degrees in both Architecture and Commerce, Nikki’s approach brings a balance between pushing possibilities, and practicality. Nikki is a highly regarded thought-leader, frequent speaker at leading global conferences, commentator in the press, and recipient of numerous international awards.

In businesses around the world, people are working to create inclusive, open cultures in which employees and accepted, supported, and feel able to broach their issues transparently. A major factor in creating this sort of environment  is consideration of mental health, both in personal lives and in how the workplace can be a root cause of serious stressors.

This remains a prickly and difficult matter, with lingering stigma and lack of understanding around mental illness, burnout, and stress. A top mental health keynote speaker handles sensitive topics with grace, and can be the educator and guide a company needs when considering how they will address and combat mental health issues and related difficulties.

Bill Benjamin is an emotional intelligence and top keynote speaker specializing in leadership and peak performance. With a brain science based approach to learning to perform under pressure and embrace empathy, he works frequently with senior leaders at Fortune 500 companies.

Emotional intelligence speaker and thought leader JP Pawliw-Fry is also a bestselling author and performance coach for Olympic athletes and executives at Fortune 500 companies. He has been helping audiences understand and manage their emotions for over 20 years, providing real tools to help them leverage the power of empathy.

Hip-hop artist Ahmen Sivaloganathan is a social activist and mental health keynote speaker devoted to education, justice reform, and wellbeing. An orchestrator of sustainable transformation, he leverages the power of culture to educate and empower his audiences, encouraging them to focus on both compassion and excellence.

Entrepreneur and prominent mental health advocate Metta World Peace is on a mission to normalize discussing mental health issues. Openly sharing the story of his own struggle with depression and anxiety, he raises funds for nonprofits providing therapists and services in underprivileged areas.

Amanda Lipp is a social entrepreneur, mental health keynote speaker and filmmaker focused on producing films on youth psychosis and schizophrenia. Working at the intersection between mental health, storytelling and technology to create art that educates, she currently serves on the Mental Health Advisory Panel at Google, among other committees and alliances.

Organizational psychologist and top mental health keynote speaker  Melissa Doman calls upon her work as a licensed therapist in private practice, employee-assistance programs, and university settings. With a practical, solutions-based approach, she aims to equip people to have constructive conversations about mental health in the workplace.

Mariangela “M’ Abeo is a mental health advocate, podcast host, and photographer with a focus on suicide prevention and overcoming the stigma around sharing stories of loss and grief. A community leader whose work in the field is considered to have created essential healing spaces, their work as both a speaker and artist provides space for celebrating resilience and survival.

Jeff Sparr is an artist, empowerment expert, and mental health keynote speaker working in the intersection between art and wellness. As the co-founder of PeaceLove, he preaches on the importance of creative outlets for those battling mental illness, standing as a symbol of inner peace and self-control.

Wellness educator Koya Webb works to promote daily self-care. With over 15 years of holistic studies, a yoga practice, and a history of activism, she is a mental health keynote speaker who has been featured on multiple major media outlets and starred in the reality TV program “Yoga Girls.”

Sheryl Ziegler is a thought leader and top mental health keynote speaker focused on preventing and reducing stress and burnout. Active on an international level, she is one of the most sought-after voices on the subject of pandemic-related burnout and the lack of fulfillment and appreciation employees feel, and how this will ultimately shape workplace cultures and business as a whole.