Thank You, BCD Meetings!

North Texas punt returner Keegan Brewer is a magician—a “sleight-of-body” magician. Here’s how he successfully used principles of magic to misdirect his audience (the opposing team) so that he could score a touchdown. (Spoiler: Brewer was successful because he understood in that moment that using an audience’s expectations to fool themselves is diabolically effective.)

After hiring Kostya Kimlat as a keynote speaker for her group for a third year, Karen Fauer, of UltraGroup Healthcare, discusses her expectations and reflections on his keynote presentations. 

I just started thinking about it, because we do our conferences every year, and I wanted to do something different. So I started researching him, looking online about him, and I just saw all these interviews with people who had just ...

The purpose of my keynote speech is to do what Seth Godin describes: “ to communicate emotion. To create tension. To bring change.”

This quote comes from a great interview in Forbes magazine by Michael Solomon. In the same article, Richard Schelp, co owner and CEO of Executive Speakers’ Bureau writes that “the biggest success is when the keynote speech inspires the audience to leave different than they came in.”

It’s taken me 15 years to develop my Keynote Speech and turn it into an hour long transformative experience. My journey to create an ideal keynote speech started with wanting to “do something fun and different” for corporate audience that had grown tired of the expected.

Magicians don't make the impossible possible; they just create the illusion that they do. This kind of thinking led a group of high school students to prank their school -- and not get in trouble for it -- by creating the illusion of a car accident that their local police department said was one of the best they had ever seen.

Many people have taken personality tests to tell them who they are. But very few people can instantly assess the personality style of someone they meet. Thanks to this magical system, you’re now equipped to do just that.

You don’t have to rack your brain to search for the right word to describe someone. The magician’s method of four suits is simple to learn and easy to use in the real world. When you’re in the trenches of a presentation or negotiation, meeting people and trying to understand them on the fly, utilize the four suits to identify personality types quickly and easily. And then, give them what their suit needs.

Did you know that research shows that your pet's presence can influence not just you, but other people's perceptions of you? As a business speaker and magician, I am fascinated by the way our perceptions are shaped in our personal and professional lives. Turns out that when we see a person with an animal, particularly a furry one, we automatically feel a level of trust. If you own a dog or cat, how can you use these research findings to shape and control the way you're perceived?

Overcoming objections in sales and business can be tough...I have to handle concerns and objections often just by virtue of being a magician. So, what's the solution? Transform what people perceive as your company's FLAWS into FEATURES.

Find out how to change people's perceptions—and Think Like a Magician™—in this blog, which profiles the way the Hell's Kitchen restaurant in Minneapolis turns the worst seats in their restaurant into the best.

I was trying to get electronic payments out to my partners and vendors before the end of the year. What should have been an easy process turned into a nightmare.

When I first signed up with my financial institution five years ago, the charm of a small, hometown bank drew me in. I was tired of being treated as an insignificant account holder at the major behemoths. There was one particular detail that made me happy each time too: the calendar date was always correct. 

As consumers, it’s important to keep these perceptual tricks of the trade in the back of our minds when we shop. As business owners, operators or managers, it is equally important to know when to use them and when to avoid them.

This post is about how organizations can create experiences for their customers that are positive, engaging and align with their brand. 

The three strategies I share can be applied by any business that wishes to create a more engaging customer experience.

Whether you’re operating an escape room, a performing arts center or a news organization that gives tourists a peek at what you do, here are three things you should do:

1. Meet expectations in a satisfying way.
2. Go beyond expectations; create surprise and delight via unexpected moments.
3. Connect the specific experience to the overarching brand promise or company mission/vision. 

Here is an example of how not to do this...

Every speaker loves audience participation and social engagement. It's wonderful to get off the stage and see that people are talking about your presentation online, sharing pictures and quotes from your talk. But it doesn't happen every time because every audience has a different relationship with social media.

When I am speaking to a room of engineers, franchisees, or insurance adjustors,  I don't expect lots of tweeting about my presentation. But when I was asked to speak at the 7th Annual Florida Blogger and Social Media Conference, I knew this would be different than any other speech.  I just didn't expect this much social engagement. 

I talk to business people about the role of perception in communication and interpersonal relationships. In performing magic, I bring about an awareness of how our perceptions are impacted, affected and easily misled and self-manipulated. When I perform magic it is to highlight the way people see the world and communicate with each other. 

While I was studying Philosophy at the University of Central Florida I became fascinated with Marshall McLuhan. His ideas ended up influencing my magic in an interesting way. 

Over the years I neglected to ask my clients for testimonials. I was there to engage the audience! I thought the only proof necessary of a job well done was when my clients hired me back a second time.

But you and I know that nothing can help us make a buying decision easier than social proof. So at a recent business meeting I asked the person who hired me, a Director of Training & Development, to share her thoughts after I finished presenting my signature keynote, Think Like A Magician.™ 

Scientists at NYU have proven what magicians naturally discover after performing a few shows—that laughter, surprise and joy create positive emotions that make occasions extra-memorable. Or in more academic terms, the researchers concluded that, “emotional brain states carry over and enhance future memory formation.”

This explains why the lessons I teach business groups are recalled so well when I return to those same groups, the following year. Because I start the meeting off with unexpected actions, phrases and ideas, I kick the audience into “an emotional brain state.”

As a magician, I specialize in surprises: creating unexpected experiences and memorable moments. While the unexpected is a great foundation to my art, it is a challenge for my business. People want to buy what they know; what they have seen, heard and touched.

Clients are hesitant to “buy the invisible” – as Harry Beckwith points out in one of my .

Most of the people who hire me, first see me perform at another event. They make the connection that what they have seen me do will be a perfect fit for their business or social event and they contract me to perform. About 80% of my contracts come from people seeing me in person. Booking these shows is a breeze. People have seen it, they know it, they want it, they get it.