Brant Menswar is one of the country’s most in-demand keynote speakers, and it’s little wonder. He combines a winning, animated presentation that uses humor, passion, and even music to deliver important insights on business culture and personal actualization. His presentations touch on topics such as building an unbreakable corporate culture; forging deeper and more meaningful bonds with clients and co-workers; and creating and capturing transformational moments.
Brant Menswar.
It was this last topic that Brant addressed in a presentation at a recent conference, and we were so impressed that we wanted to share Brant’s perspective and teachings with the entire Fox Tales readership. We were fortunate to catch up with Brant earlier this month. Here’s a transcript of our conversation.
Fox Tales: Tell us the core philosophy inherent in your speaking.
Brant Menswar: Keynote speaking is about capturing the truth in the room. You need to own your content to the point where you can focus on the performance and deliverables, and not on what you are going to say. Work within a defined framework rather than memorizing your talk and you allow yourself to capture that truth in the room, whatever it might be. That’s the moment that everyone will remember and talk about.
Fox Tales: Can you relate it back to your own experiences?
Menswar: Sometimes the truth in the room is like an OGRE. It’s a moment filled with an Overwhelming Gut Reaction of Emotion. OGRE moments are filled with the potential for massive impact. The emotional context allows you to reach people in a truly powerful way that can connect on a deeper level. Losing my son to a combination of Covid and cancer is hard to hear, but it allows me to reach anyone struggling right now on any level and give them a message of hope.
Fox Tales: You use music in your presentations. Tell us how that came about and what effect it’s intended to serve.
Menswar: Music is the universal language. It connects across generations. I spent 20 years in the music business touring with my band Big Kettle Drum. We played all over the world and got a chance to see how music can connect and unite people together no matter what their differences. How could I not use music in my talks to help unite the audience and connect with them in a way that is filled with emotional memories? Music has a power that is hard to compete with. It breaks down walls and opens us up to a higher level of understanding.
Fox Tales: Tell us about the genesis of Black Sheep Foundry. How did your career lead you to this profession?
Menswar: My last book was called “Black Sheep: Unleash the Extraordinary, Awe-Inspiring, Undiscovered You.” It helps people discover what I call your Black Sheep Values. Those are the deeply held personal core values that like a black sheep’s wool, cannot be changed. They are the values that separate you and make the 100% authentically unique person that you are. My wife, Sherry, and I have a company called Black Sheep Foundry that is an extension of the book. A foundry is where you apply heat and pressure to mold something into what you want. That is exactly what we do for leaders. We help them mold themselves into better leaders and more impactful humans.
Fox Tales: Are there any particular characteristics of your media-industry audiences? As compared to other audiences?
Menswar: According to our research, the five most-shared values in the media industry are Creativity, Family, Love, Authenticity, and Freedom. This differs from other industries in a very specific way. Freedom. Freedom is a value adored and required by creatives. It’s necessary to craft your narratives in the way you see fit. You don’t see that specific value in other industries. You see values like integrity and trust. I’m sure there is a deep conversation about that to be had! I would like to believe that it used to be that way back in the Walter Cronkite days. However, with the advancement in technology and social media, it’s all about gathering attention at any cost these days—whether it’s full of integrity and truth or not. We find ourselves at a frightening crossroads in the media with AI and deepfakes and the ever-increasing difficulty of determining what’s “real” and what’s not. This will end up being a true test of values. Do your values serve as something you stand up for and become the hill you will die on, or are they simply lipstick words that sound good and placate your audience? The truth is, we mostly all care about the same things. It’s how we believe we should honor those things that divide us.