In January of this year I gave a 1hr motivational talk at a conference in Tenerife, highlighting some pearls of neuroscience wisdom that everyone can exploit to optimise their brain performance every day:

It was a fantastic experience. I enjoyed doing the talk enormously and the feedback I got from the organisers, my co-speakers and members of the audience was overwhelmingly good.

Well… Are you?

My remit for this particular talk was to get a sales force “Ready To Win” i.e. to be more influential when dealing with customers and make more sales. So I outlined some of the latest brain scanning experiments that provide clues about how the human brain actually makes decisions.

I then explained to the audience, comprising 400 sales representatives for a leading European pharmaceutical company, the implications of this work in terms of how they could maximise their impact on their customers’ decision making processes. I can tailor this central 20mins of the performance to any specific need, topping & tailing it with my Top Ten Tips for Brain Optimisation.

The concept I conveyed in the main body of this particular talk was: the better you understand how your customers’ brains work, the better you can ensure that you make the best possible impression. I also explain why we humans are so loss averse and describe how to avoid accidentally setting off alarm bells in the customers’ mind, which can so often dash all hopes of sealing a deal.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to Adrian Webster (author of Polar Bear Pirates) and Martin Coburn. These two fantastic individuals were kind enough to share with me their extensive experience on the live speaking circuit. Out of the goodness of their hearts they provided me with guidance and advice that made my performance more interactive, better structured and ultimately a great success.

I now have a great live motivational talk that can be rolled out at any live event you might happen to be planning. In addition to material suitable for corporate audiences, I have also given motivational talks at several educational institutions (secondary school and university level) to help students learn more, faster and boost exam performance. I am also keen to engage older people having previously also given a talk at a charity for the elderly where the key message was that you can teach an old dog new tricks and that the effort that goes into learning new skills helps to keep dementia at bay.

In addition to these posts you can follow my daily #braintweets