BRAD'S BLOG

Learn the practical steps and expertise needed to become a motivational speaker in the UK. Expert advice on building your career in motivational speaking.

BRANSON, BEZOZ.

In the past 40 years, despite tech advances we haven’t upgraded our RAM speed. Memory. Our lives have transformed dramatically, with devices & screens… As a kid, we had no tech. The “wireless” radio, as my Gran called it a throwback from WW2. Tech wasn’t central to our lives or homes, people used to do things like talk to each other, draw, sing, dance without pointing at invisible answers. We had a telly, but 3 channels, 10h of generic “Blue Peter type British” programming. Now, our homes are tech hubs, wanting our attention. This influx of tech has bombarded us with too much info, turning our brains into overwhelmed processors. Our identity as people, is no longer our identity. It’s this mishmash of input, cultures, extremes, everyone’s a youtuber, podcaster, TV show, doing what they can to get our attention, you also have to keep up with music, fashion, brands, food… you get the point, unlike computers our mental capacity hasn’t evolved. This post and nice photo. Stopped you. Case in point. This overstimulation is like having too many windows open, or progs on a computer with limited (Memory) RAM, leading to a slowdown. We’re depleted before we get around to just being us. I’m working with biz owners of ALL size who come to me with a business problem. And more often than not the business problem, is them. They are OVERLOADED… working harder and harder, to get both demoralising & diminishing returns, walking wounded they start on a downward spiral of apathy “the stress is now impacting my marriage, i’m eating and drinking more. I’m just not happy.” They find themselves wanting to get away from the pressure, by scrolling at night.. disrupting sleep, and then too tired to find a way to stop, as they coffee themselves into their work more exhausted than the day before… It’s a cycle fuelled by the endless influx of pointless stimuli without the mental capacity to ever process it efficiently. If a computer slows down with a specific program, we stop running that program. I’m on to something here, this is a modern dilemma, too much input, not enough processing power. This overload now affects our choices, from disrupted sleep to reliance on coffee (i’m 5 a day still, so let’s not pretend i some saint. I’m not) and sustained and unhealthy eating which gets us into a cycle of being unhappy with our weight, and how we feel. It’s like we have become a hive mind. unable or willing to think for ourselves. We make short term choices based on what others do, not what’s necessarily what’s good for us medium/long term. Choose life. Your own one. If you are serious about wanting to fix your business problems. Maybe you start with fixing your problems first. You can’t increase your RAM speed. I’ve tried, and if you are giving it a go right now. You’re probably on the path to burnout. You need less input, to improve output. That. Is how you get out of the situation you currently find yourself in.

(& a wife Kerry Burton ) 

In these moments of collective adversity, such as the deflated atmosphere of defeat during the pandemic, the role of a motivational speaker goes beyond the stage. It becomes a mission to help rekindle the extinguished flames of hope and belief. Think about it, in an audience of 100’s everyone is going to be dealing with something or other mindset. life. business. As a speaker, the responsibility weighs heavily, to give just enough energy to uplift and not overwhelm or shut down someone down. It’s about reading the room, do these audience members know each other? What’s going on under the surface… understanding the delicate balance between inspiration and pressure to push an audience to make change. To influence positively and genuinely, to instil belief where doubt has taken root, is the art and the duty of a motivational speaker. I genuinely don’t know if anyone in the game takes it as seriously and looks as deeply as i do on my role. The impact of motivational speaking is not in the duration of the speech but in the message landing. The right words at the right moment can be the key to unlock the potential that lies dormant within someone. This isn’t just about jolting a short term shift in mood, it’s about doing something that causes a shift in longterm thinking, some kind of lasting change. I’m a motivational speaker but i’m also a motivational listener and reader. Of the room, my job is to empathise, connect in a room full of strangers. I now know that life changing can occur in an instant, with a message so sharp it bypasses the barriers that have been put up by individuals to “protect” themselves. And we start the process of unshackling. To give those sat in an audience the courage, the strength, to make change and start on the steps they need to, to get out of any mental maze they not so suddenly find themselves in. I know this because people approach me after a session, and bravely share their decisions to embrace change or release pain, it reaffirms my purpose. When i first started down this road, i thought shouting woooooo was “motivational”, i still of course do this. As you’d expect a motivational speaker to do. I am not sure you’d expect one to genuinely care about making a lasting and positive difference to a mindset, life or business. hashtag#NamasteAF 🦁 ✨

HAVING A COFFEE. REFLECTING.

He was firing back to someone in an online back and forth spat with some random.

Changing into a new outfit can instantly elevate confidence, reshape your demeanor and make us feel better. Changing into a more powerful mindset can revolutionise our entire being. The clothes we wear on the exterior absolutely impacts us, but our mindset the interior impacts even more. Mindset is the core of who we are. How we act. What we do. When we CONSCIOUSLY recalibrate our mindset, it's not just about altering our reactions or feelings it's about changing our very essence into something better. Something smarter. Something more appropriate. More powerful. And this is important more in control of all areas of your world. So, if you do really want to change your life… Your starting point, is changing your mindset. Start right now. Why wait? #NamasteAF 🦁✨ #BreakTheInternet

I’ve spent the last 2 years avoiding the news… Our minds are conditioned to seek clarity, to dissect things, experiences down to digestible bits of understanding. Yet, as we navigate life and even business we will on occasion encounter unprocessable situations that defy logic, evading the grasp of rational thought. When we attempt to process the mentally unprocessable, it’s like chasing the horizon, an endless quest that leaves us drained and no closer to an understanding. It’s futile, a discombobulating mind virus that the only thing it achieves is weakening all areas of your own power, own life, own humanity and it gets worse as it gets you no further to an answer. Confusion, unease kicks up a whole heap of more unprocessable questions to your initial unanswered one, just more questions, even more mental unrest. It weakens you. Over the years, I found myself in my own personal situations of chasing of horizons. The only way to get through these things is by never starting on a cerebral journey that you can never finish. Impact what you can. Ignore what you can’t. There lies profound wisdom that eluded me earlier in my life, in acknowledging the boundaries of our impact and comprehension. Nobody “wins” wars. Everyone loses. If you do want to make a positive difference today. Make the positive difference to your life. It doesn’t mean you don’t care, it means you can’t impact, you can’t influence. Being part of the solution, is by taking yourself out of the problem. Being outraged and amplifying any darkness that we see on social media doesn’t fix this. I wish I had answers. I don’t. Only unprocessable questions. My advice… Hug your children. Phone a friend. Hold the hand of your partner. Tell someone you love them. Namaste 💓