A NON - OBVIOUS KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Thanks to the past 15 years working in consulting groups and agencies, I have experience in almost every industry you can imagine. Here’s an example of some past audiences: medical device makers, CPAs, enterprise sales leaders, jewelers, rural broadband technicians, media executives, small business owners, higher education administrators, vodka producers, oil & gas industry executives, economic development boards, national governments and many others.

For the past decade, I have never been focused on a single industry vertical or topic. As a result, the perspective I bring to your event is based on *some* industry knowledge of your space, combined with the ability to make relevant parallels to other industries and an informed outside perspective to your event.

As you might expect, I do have some prepared stories that I reuse. Honestly, that’s better for everyone – since most event planners don’t want completely untested material. My aim is always to pair stories which have been tested to resonate with a live audience together with new original content. How much exactly is customized? I’d say most of my presentations have about 20% new and original content tailored specifically for an audience. That’s a guess, since we all know that 36% of all statistics are completely made up anyway … 🙂

While scholars have debated this question for many years – as an English major in college I have always believed in the power of stories to change culture. Swords don’t inspire people. Unless they are written into stories where they are pulled out of stones by kings.

I have performed on the big stage in front of audiences of 10,000+ financial planners as well as led a private executive trend briefing for a small room of 8 Latin Music executives right before a private performance by Latin superstar Juanes. I am also a regular at SXSW, where I once followed Elon Musk as a Featured Speaker (crazy story!) and have been invited to speak over the past decade at large and small events in 32 countries across the world.

I’m glad you asked! Speakers naturally have larger than normal egos, otherwise they wouldn’t thrive on the time they spend on stage. So, yes, I do have an ego — but it is not fragile or demanding. I never expect anyone to treat me like royalty and I always take the time to listen and learn from the people I interact with. And above all else, I aim to remain down to earth, approachable, and live up to what my business card promises … that I am indeed a nice guy.

Aside from making me easy to work with, it can be a lifesaver in the stress-filled environment of live event production. Need to find five extra minutes because your program is running long? No problem, I can shave a bit of time off my talk to get you back on schedule. Your MC had a last-minute flight cancellation? I can jump in to ad-lib and fill the spot. Looking for a speaker willing to try your sponsor's small batch tequila right before heading to the stage? I am up for it ... and yes, these are all REAL situations from past events. Ok truthfully, I might have volunteered for that tequila tasting. The bottom line is, I am ready to partner with your team to do whatever it takes to make your event successful.

Attendees love the idea of networking sessions at an event, but most people struggle to make authentic deeper connections. When the conversations stay on the surface, the networking is forgettable. The Non-Obvious 7 Minute Meetup is my solution, where I teach attendees a new way to start conversations with a different question: what’s something non-obvious about you? As part of a keynote talk, I am happy to host this session (no extra fee) and at over a dozen events it has been rated one of the favorite moments by attendees at any session.

Don’t worry, I’m not offended! The short answer is – my accent is what one event planner described as “Global American.” In other words, I was born in India but moved to America when I was very young and grew up there. Then after graduating I moved to Australia for five years where I traveled extensively across Asia. As a result, I definitely have an American accent, but I tend to speak more clearly (and slower!) than most American speakers and more than once have been rated as the #1 speaker at global conferences because of my ability to use more international English, avoid hard to understand slang or America-centric stories, and handle the complexity of live translation.

Ok, chances are you probably don’t. But no matter how long of a time slot you have open – that time is precious and there is nothing worse than a speaker who kills the flow of your schedule by going over time. You can expect I will stick EXACTLY to my time on stage (I often close with 20 seconds left on the clock!) and keep your event running smoothly.

In a typical year – I will usually deliver between 20 and 30 talks on stages around the world. This is on the lower end for professional speakers – and the reason is because I prefer to balance my speaking with my publishing, teaching and consulting work. I speak at events I have a passion for – but will sometimes decline a speaking opportunity or refer a fellow speaker if it’s not the best fit. Most of all, I do not speak so often that I’m likely to get burned out or force myself to resort to delivering canned, uncustomized talks.

Not necessarily! At many of the larger 4000+ person events I speak at, I may not have the same name recognition as a celebrity like Jay Leno or former NFL Quarterback, but I am regularly brought on at huge events as a second or third keynote speaker that can deliver an unexpected point of view. Not to put too much of a spin on it, but if your audience isn’t familiar with me – you can be the one who “discovered” me.

I pride myself on being flexible, but there are a few things you can expect me to never do. The first is that I’ll never use bullet points or pre-designed templates for my talks. I can use a customized branded cover, but my presentations are highly visual and don’t work on other templates. The second thing I’ll never do is sell from the stage. No one likes that.

If you are looking for something more customized or interactive, I will often facilitate masterclass style sessions or immersive workshops. For teams that want something other than a solo keynote-style talk, get in touch and we can talk about how I might customize something to fit your needs.

Over the past five years, Rohit has done more than 100 virtual sessions from his professional home studio. With updated stories (sometimes pulled from that morning’s news!), a charismatic delivery style, unique elements like a “choose your own adventure” format, hyper-lapse video, and audience polling – Rohit’s virtual keynote sessions are highly engaging and guaranteed to be MUCH more than just a traditional keynote talk delivered to video. Best of all, they are delivered in a friendly style that feels more like sharing a coffee with the audience ... with stellar audio and video quality, of course.

I live in the Washington DC area and travel from either DCA or IAD airports. For international event planners, I am a dual citizen of the United States and Australia. Please contact my team for information regarding travel fees for your specific event, as they may vary according to destination and time commitment.

I completely appreciate that model of event – but the truth is I have been doing less and less of these. The main reason is because speakers who focus on this type of event aim to use their time on stage to drive their own business opportunities. I know this because it’s what I used to do when I had a day job working at a large agency. My only goal now is to make sure your audience gets the most value … and not generating leads for myself. For that reason, with a rare exception, I typically don’t participate in events that are networking only.

I would love to try and make something work and support nonprofit groups as often as I can with mentoring or presentation at their events. Two causes in particular that I believe in and frequently support are helping to mentor and support more women in business, and encouraging more young people to be entrepreneurs or choose careers in business and marketing. If your event or audience fits either of those categories – you have a better than average chance that I may be able to make something work. Just get in touch and I’ll be happy to see what I can do to support your efforts.

You might have seen in my bio that I “actively hate cauliflower.” It is true that I generally find it disgusting … but that’s not the real reason why I choose to elevate it and make it a part of my bio. If you want to know the full story, you can read my cauliflower confession here >>