Acclaimed in Ireland as the original ‘coach behind the Celtic Tiger’, international motivational speaker Kevin Kelly packs a punch. Those first hit by that punch discover an internal energy they didn’t know they had, and leave Kevin’s seminars with fresh ideas on leadership, entrepreneurship, motivation, communication, and managing change.

With three books and a series of CDs under his belt, this Ballintubber boy still displays seemingly unlimited supplies of enthusiasm, and has cornered the domestic market in effecting change in personal and business audiences.

Distance being no object, Kevin’s sights are now firmly set on taking his particular brand of change to the four corners of the globe.

“Over the past eighteen years I have delivered keynote speeches in the US and Europe, but am now much more focused on tackling the East – that’s where the real potential for my business lies.”

Kevin has been sowing seeds in Hong Kong and expects to include Korea, Singapore and China to his itinerary within the next two years. He also shortly embarks on Iran, where he will address large audiences of academics and business people.

“The Far East is an interesting business model. It’s very relationship-based, so it’s essential for me to be endorsed to the relevant ‘movers and shakers’. Eastern audiences behave differently to European ones and are much more deferential. Europeans and Americans want interaction and participation and will challenge the speaker.

“I’m very excited about my upcoming Iran trip. Each new country offers a fresh opportunity to learn its culture, and that’s a gift. I’m also informed that this audience is very open and very interactive, which suits my style of presentation.”

With self-help books bursting out the door of bookshops, one wonders how feasible it is to actually earn a living from addressing audiences, but Kevin is emphatic that whilst there is no shortage of motivational speakers in the world, only the authentic ones can or should survive.

“Unless speakers have ‘lived the changes’ they advocate, they will ultimately fail, as audiences will quickly see through them. It’s a privilege to address audiences; it’s a very powerful position to be in, and for these reasons it is vital that a speaker is genuine in both message content and approach. This is not showbiz – it’s people’s lives and organisations’ profitability we’re dealing with.”

It may not be showbiz, but the more evangelical motivational speakers are often the ones who are the greatest crowd-pullers. So does this mean a constant battle between style and substance?

“In truth, you need both. But unless there is solid material for the audience to take away at the end of a seminar or workshop or conference, it’s an opportunity missed for everyone concerned, and I provide tools to bring about tangible results.”

Kevin’s best-selling first book How, When You Don’t Know How attempts to demonstrate the resources necessary for unleashing personal potential, whilst his second book, Life: a Trip Towards Trust outlines his personal story as he travels the world and transforms his own thinking in the process.

His upcoming book, Basics Before Buzz: Managing in an Attention Deficit Society, is an electronic journal, geared towards the business sector, and is a synthesis of Kevin’s own business experiences and an ‘A-Z’ of how to run a business successfully.

“This book contains the most up to date research on best practice in industry. I’ve collaborated with a number of business people to produce meaningful and motivational information, theory and case studies. For instance, the head of thewww.greatplacetowork.ie shares research information on 30,000 employees in Ireland and offers fascinating insights.

“The book is based on three simple building blocks for successful business: maximise customer satisfaction, kick-start employee engagement and creativity, and finally, create owner self-awareness. The great leader creates great leaders at all levels, which is why leaders must be authentic in order for followers to trust them implicitly.”

Almost all large organisations stage annual conferences, which provide Kevin with the perfect platform from which to demonstrate his skills.

“I deal predominantly with HR/Training Managers and MDs who are keen to add a keynote motivational speaker to the line-up. Companies have found that employees are directly charged by a skilled motivator, and this can carry forward into their workplace.”

Spiritual as well as emotional intelligence in the workplace now has a sound following amongst forward-thinking companies, and while these terms may puzzle some traditionalists, Kevin explains that these can be easily embraced within a business lexicology.

“I interpret spirituality as contribution, and look at how many global corporations now budget for corporate philanthropy. This is my niche market – bringing my philosophy and skills into a business context.”

As a Marketing Executive in his previous life, Kevin utilises the power of his website (www.kevinkellyunlimited.com) more than most.

“My marketing is organic in nature, so other than personal contacts and word of mouth, most of my business comes through the website, which I update daily. It’s a terrific marketing tool, where I post articles for the benefit of users.

“In the early years of my business I travelled extensively abroad to gather the latest research information, but I find now that electronic researching and ‘the university of life’ provides all I need.

“For example, recent studies from the Business School at Columbia University have confirmed that 80% of business success is attributable to the exceptional execution of an ordinary idea, as opposed to an invention or innovation. Exceptional execution is within every company’s grasp.”

“In 2007 the Stanford Business School Advisory Committee stated that self-awareness was the key to good leadership and business practice – if we don’t know ourselves, how can we lead others? This report alone has led to an increase in the use of motivational speakers, who pose challenging questions to leaders.”

But just how much of motivational content is measurable?

“When sales groups use me they can clearly evaluate my contribution and give me feedback over time as to attendees’ performance and productivity levels. Other organisations may want their employees to be challenged out of their comfort zones, in which case the change is more subjective and cannot be measured quantifiably. But the changes will show up in increased staff morale and attitude.

At home Kevin has been engaged heavily over the years with Enterprise Ireland and Shannon Development, who use his skills specifically to benefit new and potential entrepreneurs.

“Shannon Development surveyed its own ‘Venture Start’ attendees and found that 20% became self-employed over a five-year period, which is high. I actively encourage people to live their dreams, even if it means leaving a comfortable job.”

This in fact is precisely what Kevin himself did, which is why he is so adamant that authentic speakers must ‘walk the talk’ in order to weave their magic.

After leaving NUIG with a Marketing degree, Kevin worked for three years in companies that used him to radically increase their turnover. He quickly realised that his own enthusiasm and energy was the recipe to business success, and this prompted him to go solo.

“In 1990 I started up ‘Advanced Marketing’ to help turn around small companies. At the same time I was investigating where enthusiasm and energy comes from – is it internal or external?

“By the late ‘90s I was ready within myself to pack in the marketing and go full time into motivational speaking. Dropping salary massively was a shock to the system, but I learned other lessons from that and I have since grown my business back to sound financial levels.”

“Although I am trained in NLP, I do not get involved in one-one development as life-coaches do; I always deal with groups, as I’m more comfortable and skilled with that dynamic. I do believe strongly though life-coaches must have ‘lived a life’ in order to offer an authentic contribution to clients.”

“I was reared in a shop/petrol station in Roscommon, which is still run by my parents, so I learned about real life business from the age of five.”

Complementing his training and speaking engagements is Kevin’s ‘Nationally Accredited Transition Year Module’, Looking Ahead and Living Now Programme for secondary school students, which has been running successfully in Irish schools for 15 years.

“I train the teachers, who then teach this Programme. It is my contribution to empowering our young people, making them more socially aware, improving their coping and problem-solving skills, and making them more responsible for their own actions. I had a major sponsor for the first two years, but am now looking for a new sponsor to help me extend this Programme.”

Overseas education is equally important to Kevin and his African ‘Gatoto Project’ raised in the region of €100,000.

“This was a sizeable amount, but unfortunately not enough to achieve our aim of building a secondary school in Gatoto, so what we did was to invest half the money in Gatoto education, and then joined up with ‘Plan Ireland’ to build two primary schools in West Africa’s Guinea-Bissau, one of the ten poorest countries in the world, and give 800 pupils a solid start in life.”

Globally, Kevin has pledged to raise more money for ‘Plan Ireland’ projects, and at a local level, he is actively involved in the construction of a youth centre for Barna/Furbo youth.

“Watching our first-born child Conor over the past eleven months has brought home even more to me the unlimited potential human beings possess.”

Addressing audiences in the energetic fashion that has become Kevin’s trademark requires a level of physical and mental alertness, and Kevin keeps himself fit by playing weekly soccer.

“I’ve been playing soccer since I was about eleven years old, and am still a passionate ‘Liverpool’ fan.

What I’ve got going for me though is that I don’t view what I do strictly as work. I absolutely love what I do, and as Confucius once quoted – choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

written by Alison Herbert, Advertiser Paper Group