Steve Pratt

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

• Enter the Attention Fort

  In the attention economy, consumer attention is under siege. We’ve built up “attention forts” to defend ourselves against the onslaught of messages and to protect our precious time and attention. As marketers, leaders, and communications professionals, how can we get inside the walls of the attention fort?

  In this perspective-shifting keynote, audiences will learn how to apply unconventional strategies that will get them invited into the attention fort with open arms.

  Key takeaways include how to:

  • Get invited inside: Instead of trying to force your way into the very well-defended attention forts of your audience, how can you get invited inside?
  • Balance the job and the gift: Marketing success comes from balancing the business outcome you are seeking with a valuable gift designed for the audience.
  • Focus on creating gifts that are from you, not about you.
  • Superserve the underserved: Superserving an underserved group is a powerful way to earn attention and build community.
  • Use creative gift wrapping (formats, storytelling, etc.) to make audiences excited to open your gifts.
  • Earn trust and build relationships: Patience and consistency underutilized superpowers.

• Be a Chicken Purse: The Power of Being the ONLY ONE

  What is a chicken purse? Why would you want to be a chicken purse? And what does it have to do with your brand, business, or creative work? All will be revealed in this fast-paced, fun, and highly practical keynote about the power of standing out in a world that rewards originality.

  When you’re doing the same things as everyone else, there’s no compelling reason to choose you. In today’s crowded and competitive marketplace, you can’t afford to fit in. It’s by being the ONLY ONE doing what you’re doing, you stand out from the crowd.

  Key takeaways include:

  • Quality > quantity: Why you need to prioritize quality over quantity with any communications, content, or marketing.
  • Memorable > disposable: In a world of disposable content, marketing, and messaging, being memorable matters. How would your approach change if the goal was to be remembered in a month? A year? Five years?
  • Authentic > generic: There is great power in owning what makes you weird and different (instead of hiding it).
  • Fewer > more: Better results often come from focusing on fewer people instead of more people.
  • Make your own rules > following the rules: Why you should consider giving away everything you know for free.
  • Unusual formats > popular formats: Focus on creating unusual combinations of elements to become the only one doing what you’re doing and truly stand out from the crowd.

  If you want to stop blending in and start being the one-of-a-kind standout your audience can’t ignore, it’s time to become… a chicken purse. Audiences will leave this session with concrete strategies to change the rules, find their differentiated voice, target unique customers, and generate ideas that people can’t help but talk about.

• Do the Opposite: The Magic of Being a Curious Idiot

  Conventional wisdom leads to conventional results. If you want extraordinary outcomes, you need the courage to be extraordinary and embrace “doing the opposite”.

  In this lively and candid keynote, Steve Pratt shares hilarious, eye-opening stories of bold missteps and unexpected successes — from creating the world’s dumbest music service to founding and selling the world’s dumbest podcast company. Audiences will learn why embracing curiosity, failure, and discomfort is the secret to building a life — and career — uniquely their own, and leave equipped with the mindset shift needed to make it happen.

  Key takeaways include:

  • Why “do the opposite” is a powerful strategy for getting extraordinary results.
  • How to embrace curiosity: What you’re curious about and what other people are curious about.
  • Why you should question the status quo: Are there other ways of doing things? What would happen if you did the opposite of everyone else?
  • How to get curious and dig into hard problems that other people don’t want to solve.
  • How to embrace vulnerability: Don’t be afraid to look like an idiot. Being vulnerable is a superpower.
  • Share what you think and know: Publicly share what you believe, how you think about your industry, and what you’ve learned (especially if you’ve failed!).