The Sweeney Agency

About Ross Shafer - Entertaining Humorist and motivational Speaker:

Ross Shafer is an Emmy award winning network talk show host and comedy writer who has turned that same talent toward the corporate marketplace. He has written and produced 14 Human Resource training films on Customer Service, Leadership, and Sales.

Ross has also authored several business books, which include Nobody Moved Your Cheese, Customer Empathy, The Customer Shouts Back, and Are You Relevant? 12 Reasons Smart Organizations Thrive in Any Economy. His most recent book is Grab More Market Share: How to Wrangle Business Away from Lazy Competitors.

As his friend Jay Leno put it, finally a motivational speaker, without the speech! Ross Shafer didn’t start out as one of the country’s funniest motivational speakers though. After college, Ross blew his savings on what he was sure would be the next big thing. He invested everything he had in SOUNDS OK, America's Only Stereo and Pet Shop. Business failures aside, Ross started getting laughs at comedy clubs and his first big break came when he won Showtime’s Comedy Laugh Off in 1983. Soon Ross began to open shows for Dionne Warwick, Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle, Neil Sedaka, and other famous people with good voices.

Within a year, Ross was hosting KING-TV’s weekly comedy/talk show, Almost Live. With Ross at the helm, the show won 36 Emmy Awards and the prestigious IRIS award for the Best Local Entertainment Series in the United States.

Corporate and association audiences have become fascinated by Ross’ story of failed Pet Shop Manager, turned Network TV Host. Nowadays, he is in demand as a keynote speaker, seminar leader and event emcee. His clean, funny and relevant programs have made more than 3,000 meeting planners look like heroes and he’s worked with dozens of companies that span various industries, such as Microsoft, Toyota, Safeway, Nordstrom, GE, Pfizer, and Xerox. When you book Ross Shafer for your event, your audience is guaranteed to laugh, see their business in a new way, be inspired to trust their gut and fulfill their own potential.

What Ross Shafer Talks About:

Grab More Market Share
Culture shifts are accelerating - and causing faster upheavals in your target market's buying mood. If you notice these shifting trends (while your competitors ignore them) you will be in the best position to win the extra business. Organizations that dominate an industry pay obsessive attention to the ongoing evolution of humanity (as well as how quickly technology either leads or follows).

The world's best economists are predicting 1-2% average organic growth during this sputtering recovery period. However, if you don't want to settle for average then Ross can teach you how to aggressively take share from competitors who are either lazy or stuck doing business the old way. Ross will also show you how you can monitor the rise and fall of your competitors - on a daily basis - so you'll know which of their weaknesses to attack.

Are You Relevant?
This is the question that should keep you and your business up at night. They used to call it Change but that is too slow a word in this new global E-Driven economy. Because Ross speaks to over 100 organizations each year, he has a front row seat to both the best practices and the worst. He sees who’s failing and who’s succeeding. The organizations who constantly respond to their relevance...and keep reinventing themselves...spend a lot less time worrying about the competition and more time counting their profits. You’ll leave this session with the answers and innovative directives to stay relevant in your marketplace.

Nobody Moved Your Cheese!
According to Ross, success is your own fault. We shouldn’t look outside ourselves for quick answers or easy motivational formulas. This is a program about accountability and taking personal responsibility for your own success. Ross was a small town pet store manager whose dream was to become a network talk show host like his idol, Johnny Carson. In less than 6 years of focused effort, his dream came true when he was named host of the Fox Late Show – where he competed head-to-head in the late night wars against Johnny Carson and David Letterman. In this program you’ll learn: 1) Why the world needs focused experts like you. 2) How to exploit your hidden talents. 3) How to tap into the enthusiasm of your coworkers. 4) How to get your customers to accelerate your career, for you. 5) How to Self-Motivate by example.

Unconventional Thinking
Ross has discovered very early that nobody ever made big things happen by following conventional wisdom. Unconventional wisdom has NO competition, says Ross. He cites how he invented Bill Nye, The Science Guy...and won Esquire Magazine's Dubious Achievement Award as examples of swimming against the tide into a blue ocean of opportunity.

The Customer Empathy Solution
After 14 years of writing and producing Human Resource training films, Ross applies his independent research to this fresh, enlightening, and entertaining Keynote Speech & Break Out Session. He defines Customer Empathy as, the ability to identify, interpret and appropriately respond to the customer’s emotional state - before, during, and after the transaction. He reveals fascinating case studies of businesses who were blinded by hopeful sales goals, operational procedures, technology solutions, mission statements, and the corporate vision. Smart managers need to put their energy into teaching their people how to respond to the customers’ emotional reactions.