Request Speaker

Keynote: $4500/exp
Half Day: $5000/exp

Wisconsin Based





   
Barry Eigen
Keynote Speaker, Banquet Speaker & Workshop Leader

"I've paid plenty of tuition in my life. Not just to universities, but the really expensive kind - out in the real world where some of the best learning takes place. This is what I share with my audiences. My experience. I figure if you only wanted book learning, you'd buy a book (even mine). But when you're hiring a speaker, you not only want content - you want real life. You want a thought-provoking, fresh perspective that's clear and useful and full of fun. You want it customized for your group. And you want it to be original!"

With no-holds-barred straight talk and humor that makes audiences roar with laughter, Barry Eigen teaches people how to create what every organization needs and deserves: Productive employees who love what they do. He explains how people come to believe in a work related myth — what he calls the most pervasive yet debilitating doctrine in the American workplace today — and details how it inhibits otherwise hard working, well-intentioned people from being as effective as they would wish by confusing perceptions of what their bosses (and customers) really want. He talks shows how to change this thinking and reviews the qualities the best managers look for in people they would promote — the characteristics that mark all top performers.

    Topics Include:

    • Exploding the American Workplace Myth
      • How to Develop a "Management Perspective" in Everyone!

    • How to Raise Service to Extraordinary Levels
      •  A Strategy for Helping Employees See Customers As People

    • Tackling the Toughest Sale... and the Easy Ones Too
      •  How to Court, Convince and Close 'em Like the Pros

    • Finding the Soul in Your Business Relationships
      •  How to Make Relationships with Colleagues and Customers Last and Prosper

    Get to Know Barry Eigen:

    Barry Eigen earned a BS degree from the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business, the University of Chicago.

    He is the founder, former President and CEO of HealthCall Corporation, a nationwide distributor of medical equipment and franchiser of medical retail stores. During his nearly 25-year tenure as president, Barry's company grew from a single location in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to outlets in 385 cities, in 45 states--from Maine to California, and from Alaska to the Virgin Islands.

    Eigen originated the Annual Sickroom Service Home Care Seminar and Exposition held at Milwaukee's MECCA and Arena which, over an 18-year period grew to become the largest, national home care focused medical products Conference and Trade Show in the country featuring three full days of classes conducted by a faculty of 45 health professionals, and a 500-booth exhibit hall. In it's last four years, the annual conference drew more than 2,500 people from all 50 states and Canada, and was listed as the 16th largest convention in Wisconsin.

    Since selling his company to a multi-national corporation in 1985, Barry wrote the award-winning employee motivation book: "How To Think Like A Boss And Get Ahead At Work," first published in hard cover by Lyle Stuart/Carol Publishing Group, New York, NY; on audio cassette by Audio Renaissance, Los Angeles, CA; and in paperback by Avon Books, NYC. Now published in five languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and English, Barry's book has been condensed in Reader's Digest, excerpted in Cosmopolitan, and Glamour, and featured in Boardroom Reports, Bottom Line-Personal, Executive Book Summaries and newspapers across the country.

    An inveterate educator, Barry has contributed thousands of hours teaching economics to high school students as a volunteer for Project Business, a national program of Junior Achievement. More than 5,000 students have participated in Barry's classrooms, and he has written several classroom exercises which are in use by J.A. across the country including one entitled: "Issue at Eigentown."

    Eigen is a member of the National Speaker's Association, Professional Speakers of Illinois and is past president of the Wisconsin Professional Speakers Association (WPSA). He is the winner of numerous WPSA awards including Chapter Member of the Year: 1993-94 and the Speaking Star Award: 1998.

    Barry Eigen is a full-time convention keynote and dinner speaker, a member of the National Speakers Association, Professional Speakers of Illinois and past president of the Wisconsin Professional Speakers Association. He is married, has four children and a dust mop his wife insists is a dog.


    Questions Most Asked by Meeting Planners

  • Are you funny?
    What a question! Look ashamed! Of course I'm funny. Always appropriate. Always clean. But always downright, belly-laugh funny. The fact is no professional keynote or dinner speaker can stay busy in front of today's sophisticated audiences if he can't make 'em laugh. While it's true every audience wants "take home" content, they also want to enjoy the speaker. I also know circumstances can vary. Sometimes the situation warrants a program that's mostly message, softened by a little humor. And sometimes it calls for 80% or 90% hard laughter-or more. SunScript Pharmacy Corporation said after one of my recent presentations, "This guy is Hilarious! He made excellent points, and his humor made those points unforgettable."

  • How can we know you're the speaker for us?
    In several ways. First, examine my academic background and experience. Review my topics and the summaries of my most popular programs. Take note of the breadth of clients for whom I've spoken, read their testimonial letters and then get on the horn and talk to a few of them. Finally, ask for a copy of my book, a video preview tape and an audio recording of a full program taped before a live audience. Or better still, come hear me speak in person. But before you make any decision, take the time to talk to me. Tell me about your group, the event you're planning and exactly what you want to accomplish and let me suggest a program that will really hit the mark. And if you're still not convinced, I'll be happy to direct you to any one of a dozen superb Speakers Bureaus who will provide you with a list of great speakers one of whom will most certainly fill the bill.

  • Are you more comfortable speaking to managers or employees?
    I love speaking to managers-everyone from supervisors to CEOs. I'm a former CEO myself and mine is straight-from-the-shoulder talk about what it takes to motivate employees deep down. But I also enjoy speaking to employees. It's the other side of the same coin. In fact my book, "How To Think Like A Boss And Get Ahead At Work," was written for employees. I recently spoke for the janitors, teachers' aides and kitchen help members of NYSUT, New York State United Teachers-the Union, and scored big. Now here's the best part, the part most Meeting Planners love: I love audiences that contain everyone from the top down.

  • Can we count on you to be a hit?
    That's an unequivocal YES! ...providing, of course, that your audience has not just come from a three-hour cocktail party. I've been speaking professionally for more than seven years and I know what works and what doesn't. I arrive early to test the house A/V equipment, walk the room and make the myriad of tiny invisible adjustments that help a program come off without a hitch. And finally, I prepare. I do my homework. I work very hard getting to know you and your group so I can tailor my presentation and make sure it really fits. My purpose is simple: to make the meeting planner a hero for choosing me.

  • What will you do if the program is running late? ...or early?
    Most professional speakers have learned to think on their feet and can adjust a program on the spot as available time dictates. I am no exception. For example, when a program is running late, just before I'm introduced I will ask the meeting planner if he/she wants the full hour (or 90 minutes, or whatever), or wants me to end my program at a specific time? It's my job to help the meeting be a success however the meeting planner defines it.

  • Do you give "canned" speeches?
    Yikes! No! Oh it's true I tell stories in all of my programs-most of them funny, some serious. I am a storyteller, after all. And certainly I've told some stories before-some of them hundreds of times. But that's a whole lot different than delivering a canned speech. In my brochure and Website, I describe four of the programs I do: one on Employee Motivation, one on Customer Service, one on Sales and my newest program on Making Business Relationships Last and Prosper. Even when not entirely new from start to finish, however, I customize each speech to fit the audience, the occasion and the venue so every audience will know I am speaking specifically to them.

  • Do you provide Handouts?
    I do! In two forms: First, I put all of my main points on cards which I give out during my presentation. I always bring enough for everyone and the cost of these "Main Point Cards" is included in my speaking fee. In addition, I prepare workbooks for my workshops and longer programs if requested by the meeting planner, and I do charge extra for these. A client may request a master (at a nominal charge) from which it can create its own handouts, or I am happy to print and bind workbooks. The cost will depend on the extent of material covered and the number of attendees for whom workbooks will be prepared.

  • What will you need from us?
    In addition to a signed Engagement Agreement and Retainer, I'll need a completed Program Development Questionnaire in which you tell me about the event, the time and place, your theme, your organization and the people who will be attending my program, and what particular messages you would like me to deliver. An Information Request Form, Engagement Agreement and PDQ are all included on this Website. They can be completed and e-mailed or faxed back to me or your Speakers Bureau.

  • Do you travel first class?
    No Sir-ee! I fly coach! If I were big I'd fly first class. Have you noticed coach seats seem to be getting smaller and smaller. And closer too. Yes, if I were big I'd probably fly first class. But I'm not. I had a chance to be big, but mom said I turned it down. So I fly coach.

  • Have you written anything?
    In addition to having published numerous articles in newspapers and trade publications, I am the author of an employee motivation book entitled: "How To Think Like A Boss And Get Ahead At Work." My book has been condensed in Reader's Digest and Executive Book Summaries, and was featured in Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Boardroom Reports and newspapers across the Country. It is available on the Web from Amazon Books (www.amazon.com) or can be ordered directly from me at 800-969-0133.

  • Will you sell stuff from the platform?
    Never! I think it's tacky. When I am asked to provide books and tapes for purchase by folks in my audience after I speak, I like to have a small autograph table set up somewhere in the back of the room. Then, rather than pitch my book from the platform, I simply include a single line in my printed introduction referencing the fact I have books available, which goes like this: "We've asked Barry to bring a few copies of his book and personalize them for any who might care to purchase one, and he'll be doing that in the back of the room after he speaks. And now, Ladies & Gentlemen..."

    The one question every meeting planner wants to ask, but doesn't:

  • Are you a Prima Donna?
    Let me guarantee you right out of the box, I am NO Prima Donna! I'll deliver a speech while hanging by my heels from the ballroom chandelier, if that's what you want. I fly coach. I eat hot dogs. Well... meat loaf, maybe. And I always take the least expensive transportation from the airport as long as it isn't the local camel. I'm the oldest of five kids. My father was a school teacher and my tastes are simple. I'm a simple guy. Honest. I curb my hunger for prawns and caviar and promise to continue to do so until another of my kids gets married. Above all, I promise that you will not squint when you get my invoice for expenses! I am no Prima Donna!
View

Promotional Info

Promotional.pdf

Multimedia Request