Ross's Articles

On The Hook with Matt Wilson Ross Shafer: Emmy Award-winning TV host/comedian turned keynote speaker on recreating success. Drawing on the concepts presented in Matt’s book, Hooks: Lessons on Performance, Business, and Life from a Working Musician, Ross Shafer joins Matt to discuss Identifying and aligning skills for reinventing yourself professionally. Finding meaning within the…

Only read this article if you are a manager of people. I never thought rude and disrespectful behavior in the workplace would be tolerated. In the near past (say 5 years ago) tolerating rude and disrespectful behavior toward the boss (and your coworkers) wasn’t a thing. Why is it now? I have some ideas about…

I’ve got a cautionary tale for you about paying attention to your business. Recently I was at a board meeting where the Chairman was telling a story about a financial advisor who made a really dumb mistake. For the sake of this article, I’ll call this financial planner, Mr. Careless. One of Mr. Careless’s clients…

The #1 quality of a customer service superstar is the ability to think about ALL of the concerns of others rather than how you yourself might be inconvenienced dealing with them. Customer care is about listening well and solving problems in a humble manner. Think about the purchase process from the customer’s point of view.…

I have a favor to ask of you. PLEASE stop complaining about the service you get at hotels and restaurants (post pandemic). Here’s why. Mask restrictions are finally loosening up, so hotels and restaurants are trying to get back to business as usual. But it’s different now. Hotels say they are getting a lot of…

WHAT MAKES YOUR WORKFORCE MORE PRODUCTIVE? As a public speaker who has addressed nearly 3,000 audiences over the last two decades, I thought the “digital meeting” would decimate in person meetings. Since I had done a few meetings for Microsoft, I thought their software GoToMeeting would foreshadow the end of my career. Surely, Virtual meetings…

As much we hear about the labor shortage, competition for the best jobs is still very fierce. Leaders who want to grow an organization are always on the hunt for corporate rockstars. How can you get recognized as a rockstar? By creating your own Personal Brand. Here are (3) surefire actions that will differentiate you. Bring…

As a former college football player who has been a leadership consultant to Fortune 500 companies for 22 years, I view Quarterback Tom Brady, aka The GOAT (Greatest of All Time) as a case study in the difference between managers and leaders. Managers bark orders and expect the team to march and salute simply due…

After giving a keynote speech in Detroit, I sat down with a 61-year-old man. He looked fit and exuded an eternally optimistic personality. I wanted to chat him up because he had just received an admirable sales growth award for “Best in the industry.” For the purpose of this article, I will call him Mr.…

In the last 25 years, I have been fortunate to land some long-term consulting engagements. My definition of long-term is one year or more. I was the outsider…the hired gun who came in with fresh perspectives and suggested systems I already knew to be effective. The contracts were lucrative. And I enjoyed deeper client relationships…

Ross Shafer On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer Kristin Marquet for AUTHORITY MAGAZINE 2-09-2022 …I didn’t know that writing jokes and telling carefully crafted stories were being noticed by my heroes. So, I was blown away when The Tonight Show Host, Johnny Carson, sent me a handwritten note…

Ross Shafer On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis of Authority Magazine Consistency: I mentored a talented young speaker who was finally getting some companies to pay him to speak. When I first saw him, he was fun and articulate. I thought he had…

Forget the tired, old adage; “The customer is always right!” It’s just not true…or even relevant, anymore. Replace it with, “The customer is always…Vulnerable.” Customers feel vulnerable, helpless, out of control, and anxious. That was the clear message we got from them when we dissected 1,000 random customer complaints we found on customer complaint web…

Why in the world would I, an overweight, scraggly-bearded Pet Shop manager think I had the qualifications to compete (as a late night talk show host) against David Letterman and Johnny Carson? I just figured no dream was too far away. What would happen if I started to think bigger? After college, I cashed in…

Over the years I have been quizzed countless times, “Did you really invent the Science Guy?” The answer is “NO!” His parents, Ned and Jaqueline Nye, were responsible for that. However, I can lay claim to being the first guy to put Bill Nye on TV – and first coined the “Science Guy.” To be…

I have been a comedian and public speaker for the past 30 years. I’ve found that the best way to warm up an audience and get them on your in the first 30 seconds is NOT to tell a joke. I love jokes but the audience has to trust you before they will laugh with…

THE POWER OF PUBLIC SPEAKING IS OBVIOUS. There is no faster way to get ahead in your industry than to speak well in public. Look around. Great communicators are the ones who are getting ahead. They are the ones who get noticed and influence others to get use their ideas. Speaking with confidence in front…

In tough times, most companies become obsessed with their competition. They want to know if they are struggling, too. Progressive Insurance wants to know what Geico is doing. Macy’s wants insider information about Nordstrom. Ford wants to know Chrysler’s secrets…and so on. And, because I speak or consult with 70+ organizations a year (often your…

If you aren’t meeting your sales projections…or losing your market share, chances are you aren’t relevant to the most important sex. Women. Women. Women. So much has been written about the powerful female consumer you would think the “men folk” in your company would realize that women are the root of all profits. Yet, still…

Recessions come and go. Afterward, will you change the way you do business? According to the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) there have been nine recessions since l953. None have lasted longer than 16 months. And, they are always followed by a “recovery period” which leads to “tremendous growth.” So you can look forward…

Patients today live in a world of stress, heartache, and daily disruptions. Now more than ever, they need the empathy and understanding of their physicians, nurses, and healthcare providers. Who is Winning a Patient’s Trust Today? The hospitals and medical practices who continue to win market share and patient loyalty know something most don’t. When…

Dear Man, Woman, Relative, Teacher or Friend Who Wants To Speak Professionally, I’ve done a lot of seemingly dumb things in my life. Stand-up comedian, house painter, pet shop owner, TV host, radio personality, and spent most of those years…respectfully unemployed. But through persistence and dedication (to my core interests and values) I stumbled my…

WHO SHOULD READ THIS ARTICLE? I am writing this for motivational speakers who want to find an endless supply of stories they can use to encourage other people. I include in the list of “motivational speakers,” professional orators, pastors, priests, rabbis, attorneys, teachers, professors, lecturers, salespeople, parents, and anyone else who intends to influence behaviors…

Do you think you have what it takes to be a highly paid motivational speaker? If so, read this article to either confirm (or crush) your aspirations. You are probably hoping you will find the secret recipe for making a lot of money by standing on a stage, firing people up. You might even think…

I get a lot of requests from friends and clients who ask, “How do I write my own book? Where do I start.” Here goes (and it ain’t that hard). Since you are ready to write a self-published book, you must first realize there are no hard and fast rules. People write books in many…

I wrote a book titled, Behave Like A Startup because so many of my clients were frustrated that young startup companies were nibbling at their legacy market share. These Fortune 1000 clients found themselves puzzled because they remain convinced they were doing everything right. It’s very hard to argue against long track records. They worked…