Mars Chocolate Leadership Summit.
Big Inspiration in the Big Apple
By Jeff Bader
As an organization, Health Underwriters try to bring our members a variety of speakers and programs to promote professional development. The bigger the meeting, the bigger the speaker. The 2009 NAHU convention in New York was no exception with entertaining anecdotes and engaging themes.
Do your life experiences amount to baggage or a treasure chest? Keynote speaker Neal Petersen considered his poor upbringing to be an “advantage”. Born into apartheid South Africa, poor, black and handicapped, he went on to become a renown author and world famous competitive sailor. Hope is the tool which allows you to overcome adversity
according to Petersen whose infectious enthusiasm permeated his inspirational tale of sailing 27,000 miles around the world alone.
“We’ve dealt with hardships and can deal with what the future hands us,” Petersen said as he applied his life lessons to our industry and livelihood. “Your in the business of hope,” he proclaimed, to “not just survive but prosper.” Ask yourself these three questions about your career: is it right for you, is it right for your family and is it right for the community? My favorite advice from his talk: wise people learn from their mistakes, the smart person finds a wise person and learns from them so they don’t make the same mistakes.
Lenovo Sales Recognition Event.
Brandes Investment Partners, a San Diego based $250B company – had their WW conference attended by 450 WW investors each in for over 150M - Neal was the opening speaker - why, because they wanted someone with a great story on its own – but, also one that could relate and inspire the investors - who believe in the leadership skills of Brandes Investment Partners - Neal's keynote was so successful, that CEO, Charles Brandes, asked Neal to come to his office following the conference and do 2 more keynotes for everyone in his firm to hear and then asked ~ if he could go sailing with Neal.
Lenovo Sales Recognition Event.
Beckman Coulter Recognition Event in Hawaii.
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Fire fighters
"Neal, you should know that your session received the highest marks we've received for a keynote in the last several years. 93% evaluated your keynote as best speaker ever"
Maine Healthcare Assoc
The Military Men, Gitmo Cuba
Neal's Skippers Briefing following keynote to Gilbert Company
Beckman Coulter event leader
“Neal you have received our highest ratings ever for a keynote speaker, and this covers hundreds of events over more than a decade. Before you, we had never had a single standing ovation, yet I can't remember a time that you did not get one! You also go out of your way to spend time with attendees afterwards. You have a magical way of inspiring people.
We couldn't have made a better choice for our thirty conferences this year."
Jack Mortimer
Government Technology magazine
Neal Petersen spoke at the Million Dollar Round Table in June 2008 and captivated the audience with his life changing story. His use of humor and timing highlighted his presentation. A good speaker keeps the audience listening. A great speaker holds the attention until the message is heard. Neal was invited to the MDRT because he promised to deliver a great speech. He kept his promise.
Corry Collins, CLU, CHFC, RHU, CFP
MDRT 2008 Committee Co-Chair
"Over the last 45 years, I have heard many speakers but none better than you last week. You have a wonderful story with a great message and your ability to include relevant information about our company was impressive. Thanks for WOWing us all!" "I am a partner at IBM in Australia. I recently attended the Hundred Percent Club event in Bangkok. While in Bangkok, I was fortunate enough to hear Neal I would like to thank you once again for the inspiring and motivating presentation during Innoventure 2008. In over 30 years in industry, hearing dozens of motivational, academic, and informational speakers (many of them noted sports or media celebrities), I am hard pressed to name one that I was more impressed with or appreciated more. The connection with the audience, with salient and pertinent comments directly related to the conference, was superior. I am sure I am not alone in telling you that your story and the related message will have a lasting impact on my life. On behalf of Genentech, we want to thank you for delivering a very motivational, passionate, phenomenal keynote message. It was my personal pleasure to work directly with you from preparation through your final keynote delivery. Thank you for customizing your keynote messages to parallel with our business opportunities and challenges.
Don Lowe - CEO - Sir Speedy
speak, together with 500 IBMers. His speech was one of the best speeches I have ever heard. It was very moving and gave me some perspective on my own challenges in life."
Alex Massie
Fred Crowe
Crowe and Associates
Amanda Battle, Genentech
It was an absolute pleasure to have met you personally. We thank you so very much for your incredible presentation - and for taking the time to customize information within your keynote for Sun Healthcare.
I look forward to the opportunity to work with you on future projects.
Vicki McGurn
Leslie Benway IBM - Worldwide Events writes:
It is rare that I am asked by my senior management at IBM to immediately hire a keynote speaker when he is barely off the stage to give another keynote speech the following week - but that is in fact what happened with you Neal.
(Read full testimonial here...)
Senior Manager, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. attending National Governors Association meeting August 2006 writes
I'm a lobbyist and I've been going to legislative/government type conferences for about 15 years. You are the best motivational speaker I have ever heard. What you had to say can apply to everyone, both professionally and personally. I was just delighted to meet you and I hope our paths cross again at another conference - and hopefully one of my company meetings. Thank you.
"Neal's presentation at NASCIO was absolutely outstanding both from a content perspective & his ability to relate numerous inspirational messages to our conference themes."
Harry Raduege
Deloitte & Touche
Sherman College feedback via Eagles Talent
"Neal was fantastic! Our attendees.... said he was the best keynote speaker they had heard.....The evaluations received consistently rated Neal with the highest marks on the scale. Thank you for recommending Neal. He was certainly a hit!"
Paul Ginsburg - Mass Mutual
Thank you for the sharing the most enjoyable and truly inspirational speeches I have heard - and after being in the business world for over 35 years I have heard many. I have heard extremely positive feedback from many of our agents and staff members- When we receive the Platinum award, your comments this morning will have played a part.
"I was impressed with Neal's ability to link his experiences with the IT industry, a sign that he put a lot of effort into the presentation."
Shelly Person
Government Management Information Sciences
Susan Ditzel, ERA Franchise Systems
“Your presentation, “No Barriers", at our Beyond Excellence Conference in Bermuda was a highlight of the program. You started the upward momentum at our opening general session.”
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