Category: Top Articles

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BigSpeak’s Hyper-growth Bumps the Company 613 Spots on the Inc. 5000 

For the fifth year in a row, BigSpeak Speakers Bureau has made the Inc. 5000—an exclusive list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies by Inc. Magazine. The annual list represents the most comprehensive look at America’s top independent entrepreneurs. In the 37th annual edition of the list, BigSpeak has moved up 613 spots to No. 2296.

BigSpeak shows no signs of slowing down and aims to emulate the success of industry giants who gained early exposure as members of the Inc. 5000, like Microsoft, Yelp, Pandora, Timberland, Vizio, Patagonia, Dell, Chobani, LinkedIn, Zillow, Oracle, Intuit and Zappos.

BigSpeak began in CEO Jonathan Wygant’s garage two decades ago and has seen extreme hyper-growth in the last six years. Known as the business speakers bureau, BigSpeak impacts thousands of companies and individuals each year with the spread of transformational messages. Wygant founded BigSpeak to address the unfulfilled need to provide top thought leaders, keynote speakers, and professional development programs that are uniquely customized to each client’s specific requirements.

This Inc. 5000 award is the sixth win for Wygant, whose previous company, Iris Arc Crystal, was ranked 281 in the Inc. 500. President Barrett Cordero and EVP Ken Sterling have been at the helm of the tremendous growth, focusing on client consultation, speaker representation, key investments, disruptive innovations and providing an exceptional work environment.

Within the last year, BigSpeak has shifted its internal structure to accommodate hyper-growth. The company created a new department focused on retaining the top talent across every industry with Blair Nicholas leading the team as Talent and Partner Relations Manager. In addition, BigSpeak has added a managerial level of talent to prepare for future growth.

Cordero says, “We believe Culture matters more than Structure. However, the structure of a team still matters! Promoting from our internal talent to a managerial level has helped us manage the chaos of change and growth while assuring our execution remains consistent, and most importantly, our people get opportunities to show leadership within their department.”

BigSpeak attracts the top advisors and operations team members with its core values that are demonstrated throughout the entire organization. Team members also enjoy flex-schedules, remote work, pet and child-friendly offices, HSA/FSA health plans, a pension plan, profit-sharing, and off-site team-building trips.

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Jessica Welch is the Content Marketing Associate at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, holding a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and Anthropology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Her business thought articles often appear on Business 2 Community, Born 2 Invest, and YF Entrepreneurs.

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Adam Cheyer has been named one of the Top Visionaries in Voice for his creation of Siri and his pioneering innovation in voice assistants. Cheyer, with co-founder Dag Kittlaus, led the voice revolution back in 2010 when they introduced the world to Siri. Siri, as everyone knows, was acquired by Apple and became a staple on all iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers.

Since then, Cheyer and Kittlaus have not rested on their Siri success. The two entrepreneurs founded Viv Labs, creating a second voice assistant, later known as Bixby. Bixby was acquired by Samsung in 2016.

Today, Siri and Bixby are two of the most widely used voice assistants in the world.

To read more about Cheyer’s accomplishments, read The Top 11 Visionaries in Voice 2019.

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Forget all the books you read about customer service, customer experience, and customer loyalty. You only need to know one thing for business success: Customer Joy. If you are not bringing joy to your customers, they will find it somewhere else.

Customer Joy Officer was not Ken Schmidt’s title when he helped turn around Harley-Davidson as they slipped farther and farther into collapse in the early 80s. Schmidt’s title was Director of Communication but without an advertising budget and competition that produced quality, lower-priced motorcycles, he couldn’t compete with cash.

Schmidt had to discover how to give customers the one thing they all want more than lower prices—joy. “We return to joy loyally until it fails us,” said Schmidt. Bringing the joy back, Schmidt rebuilt Harley-Davidson into an industry leader.

If you want to bring joy to your customers, here are three suggestions.

Ask what they want.

Delete those surveys. If you’re using surveys to find out what your customers want, you’ve already lost the battle. Schmidt suggests you ask a customer when they are actually in your presence—before they hand over money.

Asking them at the point of sale if everything was fine—like they do at hotels or your local Trader Joe’s—is not good enough. Ask customers what they need when they walk in your door. Ask how you can help them when they are enjoying your service. You’ll bring more joy to your customers when they are in front of you than you will ever bring them when they leave your presence. Because once they leave unhappy, they probably won’t come back.

Tell a different story.

Don’t use the same language as your competitors. If you say the same thing as everyone else in your industry, your customers will think you have nothing better to offer. Companies that have nothing better to offer can only compete on price, and price is a losing battle when it’s pinned against joy.

However, if you sound different from your competitors, you’ll convince people you are better than the rest. When Schmidt was with Harley-Davidson, he changed the language of the company. No longer did Harley have customers or motorcycles. Instead, the company talked about disciples and lifestyle. Sounding different made Harley-Davidson fun again, it brought joy to their customers, and it helped turn the company around.

Exceed expectations.

Meeting expectations is a sure path to mediocrity. If you give people what they expect, you will not bring them joy. If you do the same things your competitors do—offer the same features and benefits—you are on a fast track to an abrupt stop at the middle.

Customers who have found joy in your product or service will tell other people about your product, and they will come back to use your service again.

At Harley-Davidson, the company considered three questions to help exceed expectations.

1. What are people saying about us?
2. What do we want them to say?
3. What are we doing to make them say it?

The answers to these questions will show your company how to exceed expectations.

If you want your customers to return again and again, then bring them joy each time they interact with you. Remember you can bring your customers more joy by asking what they want, telling a different story, and exceeding expectations.

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Kyle Crocco is the Chief Creative 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.

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At Bigspeak, we get asked if Elon Musk will speak at every event—from private school fundraisers to huge tech conventions. The answer 99.8% of the time is no. In fact, we’ve been in the industry for 22 years and every time we’ve reached out to him the answer has never been yes. This goes for Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos and all the other sitting CEOs of the biggest companies in the world.

There are a few reasons why.

***The following are blanket statements, and although they almost always apply, there are always exceptions to the rule.***

1. They’re busy.

To put it simply, they’re too busy running their companies to speak at events. Even if they could somehow manage to travel to an event, they wouldn’t be able to give their audiences the attention they deserve.

If you’re spending big dough to bring a speaker to your event, you want a keynote customized to your business. These CEOs don’t have the time to research your company, solve your problems, answer your staling questions, or package it up in a 30-minute personalized keynote. This is a lot of homework to pile on top of changing the world or making flame-throwers for the zombie apocalypse.

The best you’ll get from one of these CEOs is a story about their experience, a pitch for their latest company/innovation/product, or a mad-lib keynote where they fill in your company name on the dotted line to “personalize it.”

2. They don’t need the money.

These are some of the richest people in the world. Money is not a driving factor for them as it is for career keynote speakers. These CEOs generally don’t even look at offers south of $100,000 and if they ever accept an offer, it’s probably because they care about the cause or are doing a favor for a buddy or business partner.

3. Their hands are tied by law. 

Most sitting CEOs can’t receive payment due to legal obligations and stipulations imposed by the company they work for. The money gets tied up in legal fees and turns into a headache they’d rather avoid altogether.

Companies also place restrictions on what their CEOs can discuss. A big appeal of hiring a sitting CEO is the fascination with the company. You want Elon Musk to talk about the latest Tesla or SpaceX developments, but their legal teams probably won’t allow his public keynote speech to go any deeper than surface level.

At BigSpeak, we have points of contact for everyone you see on our site, including Musk the Myth. However, our consultants are here to guide you and help you make the right decision for your event. When a sitting CEO is unable to give you the time and dedication you deserve our consultant will be frank with you and help you find someone who will.

Whatever your theme or point of focus is for your event, our strategic consultants will be able to match you with a speaker who has expertise in the field. Oftentimes, that means former CEOs who have more clarity because they’ve had time to reflect and pull key lessons from their experience.

We know everyone wants to meet Elon Musk, but if he’s not the best fit, you may be wasting your time and money. Let our consultants co-create an experience with you that will be unforgettable without Musk entering on a spaceship, flamethrowers blasting in each hand.

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The content writers at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau are Experts on the Experts. They hold doctoral, masters, and bachelors’ degrees in business, writing, literature, and education. Their business thought pieces are published regularly in leading business publications. Working in close association with the top business, entrepreneur, and motivational speakers, BigSpeak content writers are at the forefront of industry trends and research.

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To celebrate the blood-thirsty entrepreneurial instincts of BigSpeak’s newest exclusive speaker and Shark Tank’s most notorious shark, Kevin O’Leary, we’ve sponsored and named a great white shark after him.

Meet (shark) Kevin O’Leary. He also goes by BigKev, Ocean Kevin, and Mr. Muncherfull. Although he doesn’t yet respond to any of his names, we’re working on it, and it helps to get his attention if you have some chum in hand.

After surveying the sharks available through the Marine Conservation Science Institute’s Name a Shark Program, BigSpeak decided on shark Kevin O’Leary because of his uncanny resemblance to human Kevin O’Leary—strong and fierce, yet a hint of a smile that lets you know there’s nothing to fear; he’s only out for blood in the boardroom.

Kevin O’Leary was first photographed at Guadalupe Island, Mexico in 2016, where he vacations from summer to autumn. He spends the other portion of the year in the middle of the Pacific Ocean hunting between Hawaii and Baja California. If we’re lucky (or unlucky) Kevin O’Leary may even pay a personal visit to the coasts of central and southern California, as is common for adult male great whites.

If patience isn’t your forte and you want to meet (shark) Kevin O’Leary, MCSI is leading a 2019 Guadalupe Island Expedition from October 30 to November 4 aboard the Nautilus Explorer where you can cage dive with great white sharks.

Our donation to the Marine Conservation Science Institute supports the institute’s meaningful research and conservation efforts. While we had A LOT of fun with our latest donation, it also supports our core values and our commitment to the community and the environment.

If you book Kevin O’Leary (the human) during August, the rightful month of sharks, BigSpeak will make a $100 donation to the Marine Conservation Science Institute in your name. Bring a BigFish to your next event by booking a shark, while also helping the environment and the sharks that are near and dear to our hearts.

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Jessica Welch is the Content Marketing Associate at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, holding a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and Anthropology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Her business thought articles often appear on Business 2 Community, Born 2 Invest, and YF Entrepreneurs.

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Stop waiting for experts to tell you what the future will be like. Learn to predict it. If you have always wanted to know where the world is headed (and it’s not “to hell in a handbasket” despite constant claims in the media), all you have to do is learn from a pro.

Keynote speaker Ben Hammersley is that pro. He has been predicting the future for years now. Not only do we have him to thank (or blame) for creating the word “podcast,” Hammersley has been an Editor at Large of UK’s WIRED magazine, and a consultant to the UK and US governments, helping them think clearly about the future. How does he do it, and more importantly, how can you start doing it?

If you want to better predict the future, use these four principal ideas.

Know technology is doubling in capacity every year or so.

You are probably familiar with Moore’s law which talks about the memory capacity of computers doubling every year or so. A similar technology law exists in every field. No matter what you’re looking at—from solar panels to lumens to performance to watts—you can find a law where the capacity for improvement is doubling.

Understand technology, politics, society, and culture all affect each other.

It’s not enough just to be strong in one field of knowledge. Knowing technology is doubling will not tell you where it is going or how it will be used. You must also understand trends in politics, society, and culture to know what the future holds.

When Hammersley saw the hoverboard fad take place, he didn’t see a technology device that broke people’s legs or exploded into flames. He saw a technology where batteries had advanced in capacity and motors in strength. He also noticed a trend in young people moving to cities and advances in the technology of cars. This led to a prediction that transportation would change in cities. A few years later scooters started appearing on the streets of cities everywhere like magic (or a plague, depending).

Pick the right forecast horizon.

When technology was advancing less quickly, prognosticators could easily call out advances 20 years away. Now the forecast window for technology is limited to three years. However, for future movements involving technology, politics, society, and culture, Hammersley suggests windows of 2, 5, and 20 years.

For example, there are now mini-segway robots that can transport you or follow you around, carrying your belongings. Hammersley suggests this could be a device growing in cities because it can help older people carry groceries and travelers carry luggage. So then you might consider how airports and cities would have to be designed to accommodate more luggage robots in the future.

Consider constant, legacy-free reinvention.

Finally, when thinking of the future, ask yourself two questions that consider the principle of constant, legacy-free reinvention. First, Hammersley says observe every action you take during the day and look at the purpose of that action, asking, “What problem is this action trying to solve?” When you take a drink, you are fixing your thirst. When you send an email about a project, you are trying to coordinate work.

Next, consider if you had to solve that problem for the very first time with today’s current technology, how would you do it? Some problems you might find aren’t problems at all and you can discard them. For others, you might have to spend lots of time Googling things until you end up with a better way of solving your problem. That is legacy-free reinvention.

If you follow these four principles, you will be better able to predict our near future and provide tomorrow’s answers today. Maybe you’ll even invent a future business no one has thought of yet.

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

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Has someone close to you ever come to you hurting and you didn’t know how to comfort them and actually felt uncomfortable yourself? This is because for many of us being vulnerable and seeing vulnerability in others is a foreign and scary feeling.

Brene Brown is a well-known keynote speaker and researcher from the University of Houston. She specializes in the study of being vulnerable, finding courage, and embracing our flaws against today’s societal constructs. Her keynote on vulnerability is one of the most viewed TED talks on YouTube and her recent research talk on Netflix, The Call to Courage, has taken everyone by storm.

In her viral TED Talk, Brown gives us five ways we can bring joy into our lives by being vulnerable.

1. Be specific about people whose opinions matter to you

Brown states you cannot take personal criticism and feedback from people who are not invested in your growth. Take criticism and feedback from people who care about you because they know and appreciate your imperfections while wanting the best for you. They are the ones who know the whole you and have seen you be vulnerable and vice versa.

2. Take risks

Brown says it can be really hard to be vulnerable, but not as hard as ending our lives asking, “What if?” A lot of people would rather not take the risk of being vulnerable to avoid getting hurt. This mindset prevents us from ever feeling joy to its most extreme extent.

Brown uses an example that hits close to home for a lot of people—“What if I would have said I love you?” Allowing yourself to be vulnerable in situations like this opens your life up to possible heartache, but more importantly extreme joy.

Brown states we should always put effort into our work and take a chance even if it means being vulnerable. This is the only way we’ll discover creativity and innovation.

3. Never settle for comfortable

Comfort seems to be the answer for most people. However, the only way to overcome our shame, failure, and heartbreak is by choosing courage over comfort. Brown uses the concept of comfort to define vulnerability.

Vulnerability is having the courage to show up when you can’t control the outcome. It’s about stepping outside our comfort zone. Brown uses the example of diversity in the workplace and how organizations avoid the conversation because it is uncomfortable. Majority groups are responsible for stepping out of their comfort zone to deal with diversity issues minorities don’t have the privilege of bringing up.

4. Show gratitude

Sometimes, we don’t truly appreciate what we have until we lose it. On the other hand, we spend time worrying we’ll lose the things we love and enjoy: our friends, family, health. The answer is to be thankful and enjoy everything in the moment. Enjoy a morning cup of coffee, your friend’s laughter, or getting up early to go for that morning run. Don’t take things for granted because everything is temporary in our lives.

5. Love your livelihood

In order to have a joyful, happy life, we must enjoy our work because we are at work more than half of our adult lives. It can be hard to be vulnerable at work, but you have to be, or else you are going to feel isolated in the workplace. Vulnerability at work opens the door to friendships with coworkers, making this part of your life more enjoyable.

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The content writers at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau are Experts on the Experts. They hold doctoral, masters, and bachelors’ degrees in business, writing, literature, and education. Their business thought pieces are published regularly in leading business publications. Working in close association with the top business, entrepreneur, and motivational speakers, BigSpeak content writers are at the forefront of industry trends and research.

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Megan Rapinoe is not just a game-changer in professional soccer, she’s a disruptor in the fight for equal rights. Alongside her teammates, she claimed her fourth FIFA World Cup title. Off the field, she is a motivational and inspirational activist leading the way for change across a multitude of issues.

As the nation’s eyes fell on Rapinoe after the team’s victory, she used her stage to send a message of equality. She appreciated her teammates and everyone involved in their triumph but said, most importantly, she wants everyone to appreciate themselves and others. She hoped that her team’s diversity and wide array of races, sexualities, and appearances will inspire others to never put themselves in a box.

As a leader in the fight for women’s equal pay and gender equality, she is using her voice to make tangible change. Her message of loving more and hating less to create a more harmonious society is backed by her actions with the US Women’s Soccer Team in their fight for equality in their profession.

She believes in women’s empowerment and advocates for women’s rights, such as eliminating the gender pay gap. Shortly before the World Cup kicked off, Rapinoe and her teammates sued the US Soccer Federation for a wage equal to the US Men’s Soccer Team under the notion that professional athletes should be compensated the same for their performance. While the US women’s team has taken home four titles, the men’s team has only ranked third—and that was in the 1930s.

As a gay woman, her sexual orientation also plays a role in her outlook on the world of sports. She is proud to be a part of a league that supports gay rights and equality for all. Watching the acceptance of gays in the past few years within her sport has shown her the world is changing for the better. Megan is a phenomenal leader, inspiring us to stand up to hate and try to be our best selves with no shame.

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The content writers at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau are Experts on the Experts. They hold doctoral, masters, and bachelors’ degrees in business, writing, literature, and education. Their business thought pieces are published regularly in leading business publications. Working in close association with the top business, entrepreneur, and motivational speakers, BigSpeak content writers are at the forefront of industry trends and research.

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It was three weeks before the Christmas holidays in Australia and Matthew Pollard, author of The Introvert’s Edge, needed a job. He had told his parents he would find work after completing school and he wanted to be faithful to his promise…plus he had no money. The difficulty was very few companies were interested in hiring someone before the holidays; then stopped hiring at all during the holidays. The only job Matthew could find was in door-to-door sales.

After being briefed on the product, Matthew headed to the streets to start his career as a door-to-door salesperson. He found a nice long street with thousands of businesses on either side so he wouldn’t have to go very far to find his next client. As he approached the first door to pitch his product, he realized something important: he had no idea how to sell.

Matthew knocked on 93 businesses before getting his first sale, earning 70 dollars for all his hard work and trouble. He was ecstatic for a few seconds until he realized this rate of return wasn’t going to work in the long run. He chose to believe sales had to be a system, one he could learn and master and so turned to YouTube to discover the steps in that system.

Then he practiced. In a period of six weeks, he mastered each step of sales and dropped his number of attempts (and cold calls) from 93 to eventually just 3 businesses to find a sale. Then his manager pulled him into his office and told Matthew he was the number-one salesperson—not of the new people hired, but in the entire company—which was also the number-one sales company in the Southern hemisphere.

While there are many important aspects to selling, Matthew found telling stories was the best way to connect with customers for a sale. Stories helped connect to people emotionally, made it easier to remember important details, and left people with the key idea of how the product or service could benefit them. Moreover, he found people would spend a few minutes of their life to listen if it was a story and not a sales pitch. And a few minutes was all he needed to make a connection with someone. Then just a few minutes more to seal the deal.

To improve your sales, Matthew suggests you craft stories of how you helped clients in the past. Your story should have four parts: problem, analysis and implementation, outcome, and moral.

4 Steps to a Good Sales Story

1) The problem

The beginning of your story always starts with a past client. In this story, there is a client who is confused, upset, angry, frustrated with the current state of things at his business, place of work, or home life. They have problems but no solutions. Or solutions they’ve tried but which haven’t worked. Make sure you emphasize the client’s emotional state as well as how much it’s costing them or their business, and clearly describe the circumstances that brought the client to their tipping point.

2) Analysis and implementation

Next, introduce the hero. You. Briefly describe how you analyzed the client’s problem, the solution you suggested, and include the “aha” moment that shifted the client’s perspective. This story is meant to inspire, amaze, and motivate your current prospect to action. Your prospect should identify with your past client’s situation because it is similar to their current situation.

3) Outcome

Once you have your current prospect intrigued, fast forward in time. Share how your product or service helped the past client by highlighting the ROI and their emotional state: happy, ecstatic, overjoyed, etc. Draw a connection between where the client started (angry and looking for answers) to where they are today (happy and making money).

4) The moral

Your story should make clear to your current prospect why they need the same solution, without ever telling them they do. Summarize the customer’s learning in the story, highlighting why you’re the right person to deliver those results to them too.

After writing the four parts to your story, take time to work on your delivery. A good story takes time to craft and perfect. You won’t get the story right the first time. It might go on too long, have too much detail, or not enough information where it’s needed. After delivering it a few times, it will get better. You’ll know your story is really working when those sales start increasing.

If you would like to learn more about how to craft the perfect sales story, contact BigSpeak Speakers Bureau to book Matthew Pollard for your next sales event or conference.

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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.

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Have you ever tried to shed an old and really annoying habit? Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution that you couldn’t keep? If so, welcome to the human race and welcome to your brain. The more we do something—eat chips while watching TV, ride a bike, play an instrument, study a new language—the more wired our brain is to support that habit.

If I continue my nightly TV-with-chips ritual, that habit will become wired into my brain. It literally changes the structure of my brain. This is a rather sobering thought because, in that sense, you are what you do … so be careful what you do!

The more you do something, the more likely you are to do it in the future. The habit-driven brain doesn’t distinguish between good and problematic behaviors; it just builds repeated behaviors, thoughts, and feelings and becomes wired to just continue with those routines.  So what’s a person to do? Are we doomed to live on autopilot, driven by our lower brain and our habits?

While my chips-and-TV behavior affects only me, other habits can cause damage to relationships, both at home and at work. If I repetitively treat my husband with disrespect, that behavior becomes a part of who I am in the relationship. If I repetitively dismiss other team members work at my workplace, it becomes an ongoing part of the way I am wired to act over and over again in different situations, without always noticing the pattern of what I am doing.

We do have a choice: we can mindlessly carry out the same old behaviors over and over again, becoming essentially prisoners of our own habits; or we can step back, use our higher brains, and reflect on our actions. After more than enough nights of chips-in-front-of-the-TV habit, I realized that I was acting on autopilot, and I didn’t like it. So I made a choice, using my higher brain, the part of my brain that allows me to think about what I do.

In my relationship, I work hard not to act mindlessly or to get caught up in habits of reacting carelessly. I don’t have to be a prisoner of my autopilot responses. I have learned to pause, take a breath, and think. I have the power to choose, and the ability to change when I fall into thoughtless autopilot habits.

It turns out that despite being creatures of habit, humans are also creatures of change and adaptation. Our adaptability is the secret to our success as a species. The challenge is to use our already existing adaptability toward positive goals, to make conscious choices about who we want to be in our world.

Here are three tips that you can start using today, to create a lasting change. They are all based on one thing to focus on, to keep you clear and focused toward what you are targeting to change:

1. Change one thing in your environment

Your environment may manipulate your decision-making more than you think. Example: If you want to lose weight, decide on one change:  pick a smaller plate so you consume less food. Keep missing gym sessions? Put your gym clothes right at the feet of your bed at night, sneakers and socks included. Do you see where I am going with this?  Forget self-control and make your life easier. Manipulate one thing in your environment that will condition you to succeed. Once you change that one thing in your environment, you’ll retrain your brain and create new and healthier habits.

2. Change one bad habit that’s getting in the way. Just one.

Stop thinking like your whole world needs to be changed. Instead, focusing on fixing one thing at a time is the key to lasting change. You should think of change as a project where you spend a month to change something permanently. Give it a month, and move on to the next “project.” You’ll be reaping the benefits of this approach for years to come.

3. Pick one consistent way to reward yourself

You take on a new challenge or project, things seem exciting at first, and then the mundane start to set in. Before boredom strips all the joy away from your work, inject fun into your routine by rewarding yourself with one consistent reward when goals are met. Think right now, how can you reward yourself after a hard day’s work? Or when that quarterly project is finally over? What will you absolutely enjoy at the end of the road or when you reach the top of the mountain? A trip to some exotic place (the long-term reward)? Or a trip down to your favorite frozen yogurt shop (the short-term reward)?

Remember this always: you don’t have complete freedom to create yourself; you do come with genetic gifts and limitations, or temperament. But you have all the choice in the world to become the person that you want to be.

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This article was originally published by Dr. Michelle Rozen July 8, 2019.

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David Komlos and David Benjamin, Co-Founders of Syntegrity, want to make your life simpler. No matter what problem your company or team is facing, they can help you simplify it and move forward with speed and agility.

The Davids co-authored a business book, Cracking Complexity, that looks at how leadership can ease change and create more efficient processes through simplification. In their recent article published by Harvard Business Review, they divulge the trick to leading an effective meeting—tweaking the agenda process.

Read the original post to learn the 5 things you should do to get the most out of important meetings.

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In the world of public speaking, the Golden Gavel by Toastmasters is one of the most prestigious awards, only given to one recipient a year since 1959. Throughout Toastmasters International’s 15,900 clubs in 142 countries, they choose the most deserving speaker from the 345,000 members—one who best exemplifies leadership and communication.

This year, Jia Jiang has been chosen to be 2019 Golden Gavel recipient for his powerful message about moving past rejection to better yourself. His speaking has reached millions of people, Toastmasters members and business teams throughout the corporate world through his popular TED talk and his keynote speaking, which is in high demand within Fortune 500 companies across the globe.

Jiang is famous for his 100 Days of Rejection Challenge that set him on a quest to overcome his fear of rejection. Over 100 days, he set himself unusual tasks like asking a stranger to borrow $100. He then transformed the lessons he learned into Rejection Therapy, a website, game, and app (DareMe) that challenges you to move out of your comfort zone, face rejection, and grow from it.

He will be sharing his keynote, which is one of the most-viewed TED talks, at the 88th Annual Toastmasters International Convention in Denver, Colorado on Friday, August 23 to honor his Golden Gavel Award.

If you are interested in booking him for your next event to learn how you can free yourself from the crippling effects of rejection, contact BigSpeak at info@bigspeak.com

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The content writers at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau are Experts on the Experts. They hold doctoral, masters, and bachelors’ degrees in business, writing, literature, and education. Their business thought pieces are published regularly in leading business publications. Working in close association with the top business, entrepreneur, and motivational speakers, BigSpeak content writers are at the forefront of industry trends and research.