Shafer, Ross
ABOUT
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TESTIMONIALS
About Ross Shafer
Ross Shafer grew up in the Pacific Northwest and graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington where he studied business management and played varsity football (linebacker). After college, he took a job as a training manager for a department store (Yard Birds) and was able to save $10,000. He took that money and launched his life as an entrepreneur. His first venture was as the owner/manager of America’s only Stereo and Pet Shop in the small town of Puyallup, Washington (population 5,000 at the time).
Cleaning pet cages wasn’t as appealing as it sounded to Ross, so after 3 years he closed the store and took a job as an advertising manager for the 28 store Squire Shops retail clothing chain in Seattle, Washington. Writing ad copy and concocting campaigns paid the bills, but at night Ross haunted local comedy clubs in search of a career in joke telling. After years of slogging around the comedy circuit, he won the Seattle International Comedy Competition and immediately became an opening act for performers like Crystal Gayle, Eddie Rabbitt, Nel Carter, Neil Sedaka, and Dionne Warwick.
In l985, Ross pitched a TV show idea to the NBC affiliate in Seattle (KING). It was a risky idea to emulate a local Letterman-like comedy talk show. Regardless, ALMOST LIVE was born and for the next 5 seasons Ross hosted the show while he and his team collected 36 Emmys. They won the Esquire Magazine dubious Achievement Award one year for attempting to change the Washington State song to Louie, Louie. During those years Ross also hosted an afternoon drive radio show on the 50,000 watt KJR-AM.
In l988, Ross was wooed by the Fox network to take over The Late Show. The Late Show was a nightly talk show that competed with The Tonight Show and David Letterman. The show lasted a year and Ross next found himself in New York co-hosting Days End on the ABC network. It was here that he sat beside Matt Lauer and Spencer Christian as they interviewed the movers and shakers of New York and the world. Dick Clark told Ross, Always have a back up plan, my boy, TV is terminal and predictably Days End was cancelled. Ross always wondered what happened to Matt Lauer? Ha!
The next stop for Ross was hosting the revised Match Game on the ABC network. Love Me, Love Me Not followed and numerous TV pilot projects.
By this time, Ross was headlining all of the leading night clubs and casinos. He produced a highly acclaimed comedy album about the Clinton administration titled Inside The First Family. He also wrote a comedy cookbook that became a best seller; Cook Like A Stud – 38 recipes men can prepare in the garage with their own tools.
In 1994, Ross heard Bill Gates give a speech where he said, “Someday you will all be watching television on your telephones.” Ross took that message to heart and he made the decision to leave TV and get back to his corporate training roots. Human nature and the human condition were always fascinating to Ross because that’s what comedians do. They study the laughter and tears business. To date Ross has produced (14)
Human Resource training films on Customer Service, Motivation, Leadership, and Peer Pressure and has authored the business books, Nobody Moved Your Cheese, Customer Empathy, The Customer Shouts Back, Are You Relevant?
12 Reasons Smart Organizations Thrive in Any Economy and Grab More Market Share:How to Wrangle Business Away from Lazy Competitors.
Today, Ross is one of the most sought after Keynote speakers and seminar leaders on the subjects of Customer Empathy, Personal Motivation, and Business Relevance. The father of two grown sons, Adam and Ryan, he lives in in Denver, Colorado with his wife Leah and their daughter Lauren.
How to Be a Relevant Leader
Relevant Leadership is the Ability to Keep a ‘Fluid Focus’ on Your Business
We teach organizations to have an Ever-Evolving attitude for finding new revenue streams, controlling costs, and retaining the best talent. This keynote is custom-designed to provide you with the critical ‘elements of relevance’ you need right now…and to prepare you for creating an adaptive culture.
YOU Choose What You Want Ross to Tackle
Because the umbrella of Relevance covers a lot of territory, take a look at the Elements of Relevance list below and pick the 5-6 topic areas that you feel best serve your organization’s needs.
Absolutely Necessary Teams
This is a professional development program that will inspire your team members and associates to operate at peak performance. Ross Shafer will show your attendees how to remain innovative, responsible, and encouraging to others.
Integrating The New Gig Workforce
As you know, 53 million Americans are now part timers, at-home workers, freelancers, consultants, or specific talent “gig” workers who hop from project to project. While this exploding workforce dynamic controls labor costs by not offering healthcare, paid vacations, 401k’s or maternity care, the “gig” workforce still has to perform at peak levels and deliver on your brand promise. This keynote clarifies the tactics necessary to motivate, inspire, establish expectations, and (harmoniously) integrate your existing team members with your freelance staffers.
Attitude of Accountability
Even hardworking, eager-to-please team members can get frustrated by factors they believe are out of their control. Leaders have heard, “I could win this business if I had more resources or more time…” Ross insists that blame and excuses have no place in a top tier organization. Rather, team members must learn how to win with the resources they DO have. Ross’s case studies will encourage team members to make the most of what they CAN control – and how an attitude of accountability spreads like wildfire throughout a company culture.
How to Prevent Complacency & Stay Creative Under Pressure
Ross proves that team members become most valuable when they can manage stress, remain productive, and fend off complacency. Poor stress management can disrupt our ability to consider new ideas. Worse, complacency can cause us to default to what we know; which is likely to be counter-competitive. Ross can show your team how to:
(A) Tackle multiple demands with composure
(B) Find innovations in the most unlikely places and
(C) Locate competitors that are hiding in their blind spots.
Designing the Emotional Customer Journey
Beyond ‘Customer Experience Mapping’
The way customers now interact with technology (mobile, kiosk, digital push, ecommerce) has caused a tectonic shift in their buying habits. We coach organizations on the need to design, engineer, and execute a deliberate Emotional Customer Journey informed by those technologies.
‘The Dashboard’ Gets Turbocharged
The next generation of CRM analytics (customer relationship management) has evolved re: customer behaviors. 2020 companies are incorporating Social Listening, Predictive Analysis, Trend Spotting, Automated Marketing, Social Campaigning, Content Management, and Ethno-Analytics. These new tools can accelerate your revenue engine. Big Data and Digital Marketing will fuel your virtual sales force.
Where do we start?
We encourage organizations to build a Digital Relationship Engine; designed to leverage both inbound and outbound marketing. This engine creates demand, captures the customer, and retains the ‘asset’ – digitally and emotionally.
Leverage the inbound channels
Customer buying habits should be tracked by Curated information, LinkedIn, email, blogs, chat, ecommerce, mobile apps, and websites. Inbound channels are the source of collecting Big Data (at every touch point) that can be used to test new product and/or service offerings, as well as shape your new mobile apps.
Exploit the outbound channels
The digital revolution has enabled us to reach the customer faster, more efficiently, and (best of all) more emotionally. Outbound channels that drive demand for your goods and services include Videos, PowerPoints, Blog posts, Whitepapers, Infographics, Social media, Forums, and Ratings Sites.
The Effortless Customer Experience
While the task of designing and engineering a Next Gen CRM system may seem daunting, the effort has a highly profitable upside. You can eliminate the unpredictability of the customer experience. We can help you make transactions feel effortless. Developed by our consulting team at Future Point of View we now have the precise toolkit to create an individually designed “journey” where the customer feels respected, rewarded, and eager to return to you.
Nobody Moved Your Cheese
High energy and hilarious keynote – perfect for setting the opening tone or ramping up your conference’s closing message. Ross Shafer’s personal story will inspire your team members. He went from small town pet shop manager…to Emmy® award winning TV host…to renowned business author and Hall of Fame speaker. He accomplished ‘the impossible’ by being a fierce proponent of taking personal responsibility in your professional and personal life. Ross will teach your team how to become World Class.
The Take Aways
No Excuses. No Blame. No Surrender.
We can no longer blame “the economy” or “the competition” or “changes in management.” Personal growth and opportunity always emerge from realizing that nobody cares more about your career and success than YOU do. Be accountable and you won’t have to wait for anybody to elevate your position.
How Paying Attention to The Small Stuff Returns Big Rewards
Staying focused and “on task” promotes confidence in your coworkers and allows you to become a trusted advisor to your clients. You’ll see how the “world’s best” accomplish this feat.
How to Make Your Efforts “Go Viral”
Networking can be valuable but don’t solely depend upon “who you know.” Viral success comes from “who knows YOU.” Become a World Class performer and you will be able to transform your clients into unpaid spokespeople…for YOU and your organization. Exponential growth happens when your biggest fans insist their friends do business with you.
How to Keep Your Business and Personal Life in Perspective
Understanding the difference between Making a Living and Making a Life is what will keep you curious and excited about your profession; as well as securing your legacy in the world.
Testimonials
“Ross, thank you for your participation at Advantage 2006. Our participants greatly benefited from your presentation and enjoyed interacting with you.”
– Charles Schwab ‘ Co.
“I was sooooo delighted with Ross and deeply enjoyed the presentation… everyone was so engaged. I really appreciated how flexible and personable he was. BIG POINTS for mingling with people after the sound check. Ross asked great questions on the prep call and I loved the level of customization! I wouldn’t have changed a thing!”
– Washington Association of Mortgage Brokers
“Ross Shafer has a unique perspective on the customer experience and challenges conventional wisdom about what people want. His key thesis–that we all hunger for a connection with another human being, even during simple customer interactions–is an important one for businesses to understand. It is not enough to be effective in sales and service. Our customers need, deserve and respond to being treated like people with emotional needs.”
– Countrywide
“The feedback from your presentation has been excellent! Our Toyota dealers as well as our Toyota executives thoroughly enjoyed your speech. By taking the extra time to sit in on our group leader presentations prior to your keynote speech, you were able to further personalize your speech and really target the customer empathy message. You were funny, while at the same time, tied into our theme and customer satisfaction ‘ retention focus. You were the perfect ending to our 2 day business meeting.”
– Toyota
“Ross addressed our audience in a high-energy, thought-provoking manner. Here’s what a few of our attendees had to say—‘Entertaining, but also provided a thought provoking look at trends.’ ‘Ross was a super way to add a non-financial world view of what we do.’ ‘He was very entertaining and I came away with a few basic ideas and reminders.’”
– Smith Barney