IN OTHERS' WORDS

I am due to deliver a series of speeches in London this and next month and just received from the clients their proposed entry in the events programme.

Astonished am I, that from the little I had given them, the organisers have prepared this well researched introduction. It sells what I do better than I could ever do myself. So, why not?

Here it is in full.

One of Europe’s most exciting and persuasive speakers, guaranteed to create a surge of energy that stays on peak well after he has performed. Mike’s journey from busker to multi-award winning entrepreneur is a real tour-de-force and how he turns that learning into life-changing messages makes him a truly compelling keynote speaker or conference host.

On leadership, creativity, customer centricity and cultural transformation Mike has few peers. He switches between the humorous and the serious with consummate ease and keeps his audience transfixed and curious. He talks from direct experience – as a master of personal reinvention and a marketer and business owner who has helped create visionary change for brands large and small, national and global. 

 From 60s London to bombed-out Beirut and South African townships, his stories amaze and shock, his humour captivates and his insights inspire. Born to a Scottish father and Lebanese mother, Mike’s speaking apprenticeship started on the streets London in 1967 when, as a rough sleeper, he would captivate passers-by with an impromptu performance. His first invited speech was at the Institute of Cultural Arts in Pall Mall (a few hundred yards from where he once slept in a doorway) just nine years later - where he astonished a wide-eyed audience with his insights. From musician and actor to entrepreneur Mike has repeatedly reinvented himself. He has variously been dubbed ‘Champion of Ambition’ AND ‘Foreteller of the Future’

The breadth and depth of his insights and stories are extraordinary and his ability to stretch, raise sights and shift people into the ‘extraordinary zone is peerless.

 As a media commentator he brings sharpness and wit – achieving a first by delivering a live ‘Call to Nation’ on Fred Macaulay’s BBC Radio Scotland show. He regularly contributes through the media, creative ideas on how to use fun and incentive to address Europe’s big workplace and community challenges.