Keynote speaking

Bob’s keynote speeches are reverse engineered – instead of bringing pre-packaged stories to the table, Bob brings questions. Lots of them. Drawing on his corporate experience of organizational culture assessment, Bob meets the event organizers and leadership to learn, among other things, the following:

• goals of the conference or organization
• the state and “climate” of the relevant industry or ecosystem and how that impacts attendees
• specific concerns or barriers attendees are facing
• the work to be done or decisions to be made at the conference or in the organization
• what takeaways attendees would find most valuable
• the desired “vibe” of the keynote

From this assessment, Bob builds the “spine” of the keynote – the through-line and the themes that create value for the organizers and attendees. 

The spine is then supported with anecdotes and stories from Bob’s life of adventure and his work as a public servant, musician, entrepreneur and corporate consultant.  This entertaining content not only draws the listeners in, it addresses their concerns and issues while setting the table for the takeaways.

The final step is shaping this content into the format that will resonate with the audience – a classic narrative arc that captivates with humour, suspense, surprises, emotions and connections.

Bob’s 50 years of onstage experience ensures his custom-crafted keynotes engage, entertain and deliver the goods for the audiences and the organizers.

Keynote assets

Bob’s unrivalled breadth and depth of experience ensures each keynote is memorable and hits its mark. Highlight experiences include:

As a corporate consultant - With a Master’s degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology, Bob specialized in Employee Attitude research and Organizational Culture assessment, rising to Vice President of a boutique consulting firm. Succumbing to greed, he joined a multinational firm as the new “golden boy.” After a year, he failed and was fired, ending his career.

In the wild - Bob’s firing led him to spiral down into depression, denial, addiction and bankruptcy. In his darkest hour, a single sentence from a ragged, homeless stranger begging for spare change literally saved his life and set him on the path to rebuild it.

As an entrepreneur - From the trunk of his car on a gravel parking lot on the south side of Chicago, Bob built a guitar repair business brick by brick, repair by repair, into the largest volume independent repair operation in North America (130 repairs/week). His client-centric approach transformed the industry and led to an offer to franchise coast-to-coast. Thirty-five years later, the operation is still in business.

As a musician - Over a 22-year music career, Bob has had life-changing conversations with Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris and Keith Richards and performed for Prime Ministers, at the Olympics and for the troops in Afghanistan. He’s recorded on over 100 albums including for the Tragically Hip, the Cowboy Junkies and Blue Rodeo, and received the Governor Generals Award, multiple Juno awards and inductions into three Halls of Fame.

As a public servant - Bob left the music business to honor a long-ago made vow to “give back.” With a goal to remove barriers and create opportunities, he fundraised hundreds of thousands of dollars to build audio recording studios in a public library (available at no cost to the community) and instituted a 250-instrument lending library (also at no cost). He also aligned community partners in tech, construction, real estate development, financial services and social services to support innovative music and film programs for underserved youth.

Workshops and breakout sessions

Bob has considerable experience as a facilitator and focus group moderator from his days as a corporate consultant. Through his special interest research and reading, he keeps informed about organizational topics such as change, resilience, leadership, teamwork, motivation and is well-equipped to conduct workshops and breakout sessions to add value to his keynote speaking.