Posts Tagged ‘Mike Abrashoff’

Well, as many of our readers may have guessed, there is no Commodore 64,  no slide rule, and no complex algorithm that we use to identify the 10 most booked corporate and association speakers. The list is developed over the course of the year, as a result of our interactions with thousands of meeting planners, executives, and speakers. While there is no real “science” behind our selections, there is one common denominator: all of these speakers give at least 100 commercial presentations during the course of the year. On the intangible side, they tend to be asked for by name, are rarely available when we check their speaking schedules, and their speaking fees are continuously on the rise.

A couple of notes before we begin:

  • These are all popular world-class speakers, but it does not mean that they are the right fit for every meeting or organization. Consult with a Speaker Bureau you trust before scheduling one of these speakers to make sure they can achieve your goals and desired outcomes
  • Charlie Cook is exclusive with Leading Authorities International.  They are your best source to schedule Mr. Cook.
  • The reader can gather more detailed background, contact, and booking information for these speakers by clicking on the links provided.
It gives us great pleasure to present our followers with the 2016 List of the 10 Most Booked Corporate and Association Speakers:
Linkner J-Photo

Josh Linkner – “Last year’s ASAE Keynote List. This year’s Most Booked List”

start

Magic Johnson – “Triple-double on the court and on stage”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robbins M-Photo

Mel Robbins – “A recognized authority on leadership development, employee engagement, and motivation

Knight

Jim Knight – “Hard Rock energy comes to the corporate stage”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cook

Charlie Cook – “Iconic Political forecaster in high demand during election year”

Scott Kelly

Captain Scott Kelly – “Back on Earth and at the podium”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daymond John

Daymond John – “Shark Week is not just for Discovery TV”

Levine A-Photo

Alison Levine – “Top of the Everest Speaking Mountain”

 

 

 

Abrashoff

Mike Abrashoff – “Third year in a row on ‘The List.”

Wahl

Erik Wahl – “The 3 E’s: Energy, Entertainment and Education”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion: 

Of course, it is impossible to identify the 10 most booked speakers on the speaking circuit, but you would have a hard time arguing with any one of the aforementioned speakers. The real trick is to target who will be on this list next year before it happens.

 

One speaker we feel to be a strong candidate is visionary corporate social entrepreneur Derreck Kayongo. In addition to being a compelling, engaging, and high-impact speaker, he will give the closing keynote session at the 2016 ASAE Annual Meeting this August in Salt Lake City. If past performance of ASAE speakers is an indicator of future corporate and association speaking demand, look for Derreck Kayongo to make this prestigious list next year.

 

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin

The Speaker Experts have fired up their Commadore 64 and dusted off their slide rule in order to determine the 10 most “booked” corporate and association speakers in the United States. These thought leaders all eclipse or come very close to the magical number of 100 presentations per year. To the average person on the street, these speakers have little name value BUT to those in the meeting planning and speaker bureau industries, they are legendary and almost mythical celebrities who are asked for by name. Despite a travel schedule that keeps them on the road hundreds of days out of the year, these speakers will never miss a speech and deliver world class presentations under any conditions.

  • We have provided a direct link to every speaker’s webpage where you can view steaming video and gather background information. We strongly suggest you work with an IASB-member speaker bureau to determine the right speaker from this list for your audience with the one exception being Jason Dorsey, who does not work with speaker bureaus.
  • Eric Wahl and Mike Abrashoff are holdover speakers from last year’s list. The already high demand for their speaker services has increased in the past year along with their speaking fees.
  • Robert O’Neill is exclusive with Leading Authorities; they would be your direct and best source to secure his speaking services.

 

Jason Dorsey
The Authority on millennials and Gen Y

dorsey

Even though he does not work with speaker bureaus, we still like him!

Seth Mattison
Trendspotter and workforce strategist

Mattison S-Photo

A 4th generation farm kid striving to make the work world more humane, empowering and engaging.

Alison Levine
Team captain of first American women’s Mt. Everest expedition

Levine A-Photo

An expert on leadership in extreme environments.

Robert O’Neill
Decorated Seal Team Six Operator

O'Neill R-Photo

If you have seen Zero Dark Thirty or Captain Phillips, you will recognize his team’s work

Carey Lohrenz
The first female U.S. Navy fighter pilot

Lohrenz C-Photo

Her office is an F-14 Tomcat

Simon Bailey
Former Sales Director for the Disney Institute
at the Walt Disney World Resort®

Brings the magic of Disney to your meeting kingdom

Walter Bond
Peak-performance expert

Bond W-Photo

Good NBA player, Hall of Fame professional speaker

Erik Wahl
Internationally-recognized graffiti artist

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The value of his paintings and presentations has increased since last year

Mike Abrashoff
Former Naval Commander and Author of It’s Your Ship

Donald M. Abrashoff (Mike)

His ship comes in well over 100 times a year

John Foley
Former Lead Blue Angel Solo Pilot

Foley J-Photo

Teamwork, trust, and high performance innovation

It is impossible to truly determine the 10 most “booked” corporate and association speakers in America. However, we have based our observations on market demand, inertia, internet research and interactions with thousands of meeting professionals over the past twelve months.

Check back next week when The Speaker Experts gaze into our magic crystal ball and identify 10 trending speakers who are candidates to make the most-booked list next year!

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin

In our inaugural post “Speaker Recovery Options in First Tier Markets”, we pointed out that despite the most careful and detail-oriented preparations and planning, speakers do get sick, or have family emergencies or travel problems that can cause them cancel. The Speaker Experts strongly recommend you have a speaker recovery plan in place before traveling to your meeting. While the resources in “Second Tier Convention Markets” can be scarcer than their larger counterparts, they are out there and available to the forward-thinking event planner. Here are 3 pre-event precautionary procedures you can undertake to help deal with a last-minute speaker cancellation:

  • Mine the local universities and television networks for talent. Often you will find a well-known, local celebrity who knows their way around the speaker stage. (A local or regional speaker bureau might be worth a call as they typically have a handle on this type of talent).
  • Hire a speaker to attend your event and be on stand-by. We recently worked with a major insurance company who was concerned about the logistics of getting their speakers to an obscure location. The solution was to hire a well-known NBA broadcaster to attend the entire meeting and be there on stand-by. While his skills were never needed, his presence provided a nice insurance policy for the event planning team.
  • Have a handle on professional speakers who live in the area or are a short drive away. Below is a list of popular second tier convention cities and a selection of high impact speakers who reside nearby:
SECOND TIER CONVENTION CITIES
Mobile, AL
Fred Haise
Apollo 13 Astronaut

Mesa, AZ
Captain Mark Kelly
Commander of Space Shuttle Endeavour

Vail, CO
Aron Ralston
subject of 127 Hours

West Palm Beach,FL
Jim Knight
frmr. Director of Training at Hard Rock Int.
Mike Abrashoff
frmr. Commander of the USS Benfold

Shreveport, LA
General Russel L. Honore
Commander of Joint Task Force Katrina

Baltimore, MD
Commander Kirk Lippold
Commander of the USS Cole

Jackson, MS
General Russel L. Honore
Commander of Joint Task Force Katrina

Indianapolis, IN
Derek Daly
Author and international racing champion
Scott McKain
customer experience expert, best-selling business author
Wildwood, NJ
Stuart Varney
FOX Business News Host of Varney & Co.

Albuquerque, NM
Mike Mullane
career NASA astronaut and author

Cleveland, OH
Jim Gilmore
author and sought-after consultant

Pittsburgh, PA
Rocky Bleier
frmr. Super Bowl champion

Columbia, SC
Frank Abagnale
subject of the film Catch Me If You Can

Salt Lake City, UT
Adrian Gostick
best-selling author of The Carrot Principle

Virginia Beach, VA
You are on your own!

Milwaukee, WI
Dan Burrus
best-selling author, business strategist and technology futurist

Providence, RI
Michelle Stacy
frmr. Green Mountain Keurig President
Mike Eruzione
Captain of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team and subject of Miracle

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

These preparations can be initiated with just a few hours of internet research or by reaching out to the IASB-member speaker bureau of your choice. On a closing note, congratulations to Elaine Howard of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. Her name was drawn from over 100 entries for the signed Billie Jean King tennis racquet!

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin

As the story goes, NBA Hall of Fame inductee and player Larry Bird signed with the late legendary sports agent Bob Woolf after interviewing a number of high-powered sports agents and asking them who he should sign with if not with them. Each agent answered Bob Woolf. The Speaker Experts are on the receiving end of this type of question occasionally, being asked “…if you were not with Keppler Speakers and were going to book a speaker, who would you work with?” Our thinking has evolved on this issue over the years, and today the answer to this question now is that it depends. There are really four agents that fulfill the answer to this question, but it depends on the question seeker’s position within an organization, their speaker needs, and desired outcome for the event. The following four agents represent the Mt. Rushmore of speaker agents, and if there were ever a speaker agent Hall Of Fame, they would be inducted immediately. Let’s take a look:

Stern D-Blog PhotoIf I am a CEO in need of a speaker to consult and advise at the highest strategic levels, I would call Danny Stern.

Mr. Stern was President of the Leigh Bureau from 1991-2002 and spent 12 years in the speaker industry prior to that. During his time at Leigh Bureau, Stern signed and managed some of the world’s great strategic thinkers. He consulted with Fortune 500 companies at the highest levels, helping them select speakers that would shape their corporate strategy for years into the future.

Where is he now? Stern is with Stern Speakers, a speaker bureau that represents some of the nation’s leading thought leaders including Clayton Christensen, Michael Porter, Dave Ulrich, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Michael Beer, Nicholas Negroponte, Dov Seidman, Jim Champy, and others. Stern is someone you should speak with if your organization seeks a world class thought leader.

Stern is the George Washington of the speaker agent Mt. Rushmore: invested in the cause and a visionary leader.

D'Amelio T-Blog PhotoIf I am a senior-level corporate executive in sales, marketing, or business development, my first call is to Tony D’Amelio.

Tony D’Amelio started his speaker bureau career with Lordly and Dame in the early 1980s and then spent 27 years with the prestigious Washington Speakers Bureau. D’Amelio worked his way to Executive Vice President by having a keen understanding of the needs of his clients, along with the abilities of his speakers, to perfectly partner presentations. He may be the single most prolific speaker agent in the history of the industry and was a cornerstone to the success, development and growth of WSB for almost 3 decades.

Where is he now? D’Amelio took time off after his tenure with WSB to pursue a different passion: education. He is the founder and co-president of the premiere city-wide college scholarship foundation in Stamford, Connecticut, called Stamford Dollars for Scholars. D’Amelio is still active in the speaker industry today as founder of the D’Amelio Network LLC. His clients include some of the nation’s most requested speakers including Mike Abrashoff, Geoff Colvin, Katty Kay and David Meerman Scott.

D’Amelio is the Thomas Jefferson of our speaker agent Mt. Rushmore: intelligent, determined, industrious and hardworking.

Check back next week when we unveil the remaining two speaker agents who complete the Mt Rushmore of speaker bureau representatives. One is an association specialist whose Abraham Lincoln-type qualities build consensus in the fractured Washington, DC landscape. The other is the industry’s Theodore Roosevelt and the one agent I would turn to if the fate of the world depended the success of one specific speaker.

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin

With Veteran’s Day right around the corner, the Speaker Experts have developed their list of the 10 most Popular Military speakers of the past 30 years. This list is only applicable to the commercial speaking circuit and it does not account for the dozens of highly sought after military speakers favored by military institutions and war colleges.

We input the following criteria into the Commodore 64 and, using a complex algorithm, gave weight to the following areas:

  • Longevity on the speaking circuit
  • Number of engagements booked throughout the speaker’s career
  • Speaking fee
  • Level of demand for the speaker
  • Historical significance in the military genre of speakers

 

THE SPEAKER EXPERTS TEN MOST POPULAR MILITARY SPEAKERS
Note of disclosure: Speakers outlined in red are represented by the Speaker Experts

General Colin Powell
Consistently one of the most in-demand speakers on the circuit

Captain Jim Lovell
Spoiler alert: Apollo 13 makes it back!

General Norman Schwarzkopf
Took the speaking circuit by storm at ground-breaking fee levels

Jim Murphy and Afterburner Seminars
Turned “Flawless Execution” into a brand

Captain Gerald Coffee
His reprisal of “Tap Code” will keep you riveted

Mike Abrashoff
100 + presentations a year, for over 10 years puts him on this list

General Tommy Franks
Led American coalitions to victory in both Afghanistan and Iraq

General Tom Kelly
Brought the Gulf War into our living rooms

Gene Kranz
“Failure is not an option”
Air Force Aviator and Apollo lead flight director

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Highest Ranking Military Officer translates
to popularity on the speaking circuit

Some of these heroes are no longer with us, and others are not as active on the speaking circuit as they once were. Nevertheless, the stories and lessons are timeless, and their relevance never wavers. There is no statute of limitations when it comes to the ideas and lessons of great military leaders.

Note to the reader: There are many speakers left off this list who merit consideration; they will probably be on this list five years from now. A few examples are General Stanley McChrystal, Marcus Luttrell and Captain Mark Kelly. All are highly demanded as military speakers but have not been on the speaking circuit long enough to rate as the most popular of all time.

On Veteran’s Day, the Speaker Experts are grateful to those who have served and therefore make it possible for guys like us to sit around and input information into an old computer to come up with a list like this.

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin

The Speaker Experts have assembled their list of the top ten most-booked speakers on the corporate and association speaking circuit (this list does not include the college or civic markets). There are no “Moneyball” type analytics or sabermetrics to determine the 10 most-booked speakers in America. This list is based on information gathered after interacting with thousands of meeting professionals, speakers, and speaker bureaus, along with market research (The Speaker Experts peruse a lot of websites) conducted throughout the year. Many of these speakers eclipse the magical 100 events a year figure, and the rest come pretty close to it.

A few notes:

– If the speaker below has an exclusive agency relationship, we have provided that bureau’s webpage address.

– If the speaker does not have an exclusive allegiance to an agency (otherwise known as “non-exclusive”), we have provided a direct link to the speaker’s  webpage. However, The Speaker Experts strongly suggest you work with your preferred bureau partner in scheduling one of these speakers.

Our Top 10 (in alphabetical order):

Mike Abrashoff

He has been on circuit for years, but his lessons are timeless.

 

 

 

Mike Abrashoff – Leadership Expert and author of New York Times Bestseller “It’s Your Ship”

Contact: www.glsworld.com 

 

 

 

Charlie Cook Head SHot

A first stop speaker for Fly-In & Legislative Conferences.

 

 

Charlie Cook – Editor and Publisher of “The Cook Political Report”

Contact: www.leadingauthorities.com

 

 

 

 

Still not sure which one is which, but they give so many speeches that the Speaker Experts feel there is actually a third Heath.

 

Dan and Chip Heath – New York Times Bestselling Authors of “Made To Stick” and “Decisive”

Contact: www.brightsightgroup.com 

 

 

 

 

Sally Hogshead

Check out her website; the tagline is priceless.

 

Sally Hogshead – Brand Innovation Expert, New York Times Bestselling Author, and Creator of the “Fascination Test”

Contact: www.sallyhogshead.com 

 

 

 

Daymond John

Don’t worry, it’s okay to get in the water with this shark.

 

Daymond John – Shark Tank Judge, founder of FUBU, and author of  “The Brand Within”

Contact: www.daymondjohn.com

 

 

 

High energy, high impact and fluent in Spanish!

 

Kelly McDonald – Multicultural Marketing & Consumer Trend Expert

Contact: www.mcdonaldmarketing.com

 

 

 

 

 

Dan Pink

His calendar is closed for the remainder of 2014 to focus on new projects – contact WSB for details about securing him for 2015.

 

Dan Pink – One of the world’s leading business minds and New York Times Bestselling Author

Contact: www.washingtonspeakersbureau.com 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Sheahan

Don’t let the laid back Australian accent fool you – Sheahan presents some of the most “tailored” presentations on the circuit.

 

Peter Sheahan – Business Transformation Expert and New York Times Bestselling Author

Contact: www.petersheahan.com 

 

 

 

 

Simon Senak

Cool eye glasses and an edgy message.  He makes the list.

 

Simon Sinek – Leadership Expert and New York Times Bestselling Author of “Start With Why”

Contact: www.caa.com 

 

 

 

 

Erik Wahl

The values of his paintings are rapidly approaching his speaking fee!

 

Erik Wahl – Internationally Recognized Graffiti Artist, New York Times Bestselling Author of “UnThink”

Contact: www.theartofvision.com 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are these really the 10 most “booked” corporate and association speakers in America? We can’t say for sure, but they’re pretty darn close. Of course, being on this list doesn’t make any one of these speakers the right speaker for your meeting or event. The Speaker Experts will address finding the right speaker in an upcoming post titled “The Perfect Speaker for Your Next Event…..Has No Name”

Gary McManis & Jay Conklin