Kevin Surace

SPEAKING.COM: What do you want people to learn/take away from your presentations?

SURACE: Action. I don’t give talks to have people say “oh that’s nice” and go back to work. Spending time with any presentation should invoke actions which positively impact their company and their lives.

SPEAKING.COM: What kind of special prep work do you do prior to an event? How do you prepare for your speaking engagements?

SURACE: I always spend time with the people who have set up the event: a company manager, CEO, VP, or whomever. I want to know what they want out of this. What will be the call to action? How do they hope their team members will change as a result of my talk? Then I use those as the outcome which drives everything backwards up the stack.

If the outcome is to invent more, or sell more, or have better teamwork or embrace automation, or whatever, I use that to craft the entire presentation to get to that final point and have people say “of course I WANT to do that or be that or feel that or live that”.

SPEAKING.COM: What types of audiences would most benefit from your message?

SURACE: I have spoken to politicians, sales teams, development teams, management, customers…you name it. People who are willing to embrace a little change and add some tools to the toolkit are great audiences. And if they don’t want to change anything, I will try and change their mind on that point as well. We can all grow and learn every day. No one should stop learning. When you do, you might as well be dead. If I can inspire people to learn more, and then teach them a few new things, we all win.

SPEAKING.COM: Which of your keynote speaking topics are your favorites and why?

SURACE: Automation is huge now. Every company is thinking about how they embrace it. I can help them see where they can automate processes and how that will produce a better outcome before their competitor does it.

And of course Silicon Valley disruptive innovation is a favorite topic – because everyone wishes they could innovate that fast and few do. They have brought in consulting firm after consulting firm and nothing really changed. There are just a few things people from the top down must embrace to disruptively innovate and I help them see that light. sometimes I will work with them longer term to continue to push the limits. This can change a company completely and it’s exhilarating to watch it happen and be a part of that change.

SPEAKING.COM: What inspired you to start doing speaking engagements?

SURACE: I have been on stage my whole life in theater and later was a regular on TV so being on stage comes naturally to me. Combine that with 31 years in Silicon Valley in senior roles plus tons of inventing and people just started calling me. We have all seen amazing content fall flat with a sleepy presenter. The one thing I hear is that I bring very high energy to a room. In the end, if the content is solid, it works, and you can deliver it with immense excitement, people are likely to retain a fair bit.

SPEAKING.COM: What are some of the successes you’ve helped clients achieve?

SURACE: Increasing sales is a big one. I’ve gotten teams excited and working together, with some new tricks, but I’ve also helped increase sales by talking to a company’s customers at say their annual customer gathering. As a 3rd party I can bring credibility to their offering and talk about it in a new way (of course I have to believe in what they have).

Another big one is helping companies embrace automation. I’ve watched several companies rush to start after sitting still for years doing nothing, and finally embracing a culture of disruptive innovation. This is absolutely critical for companies to thrive in the future and it is the hardest to achieve. I try and take what has come easy to me, embrace and instill many Silicon Valley tricks, and give their teams all they need to run. It is like a gift and it’s great to watch. And they do run and develop amazing product as a result, which is very satisfying to all of us!