Before we get to the book review! You may have come to this page because you Googled “Keynote Speaker Foodservice” or “Keynote Speaker Cancer.”

Conor Cunneen is a former VP Foodservice Unilever who has worked in Ireland, UK and USA on blue chip brands – Hellmann’s, Knorr, Lipton, Ben & Jerry.

This award winning humorist (listen to Customer Service in San Quentin Jail) is a two time cancer survivor. “Having had a thyroidectomy and a prostatectomy, I now have a unique Irish condition known as 'There’s not much left-of-me!' " 

Keynotes for Foodservice conferences, foodservice sales conferences, foodservice leadership events include:

* Leadership Lessons from the McDonald’s Turnaround

* Why Ireland Never Invaded America and other Lessons to GROW Foodservice Profit

* The Gift of GAB: How Goals, Attitude, Brand can GROW Foodservice Profit

Watch Vision, A Strange Introduction!  Attitude

See the  Secret to my Irish Brogue

Keynotes for Cancer and Healthcare Conferences

* It’s Just a Flesh Wound!

Conor went into hospital for a recent prostatectomy with a newly purchased pair of Monty Python pajamas bearing the legend It’s Just a Flesh Wound!

* The Gift of GAB: How Goals, Attitude, Behavior provide a Top o’ the Morning Experience

Conor’s BRAND PROMISE is E4: Energize, Educate, Entertain AND Easy to work with.

Conor Cunneen’s clients endorse that he keeps his BRAND PROMISE - E4.

Energize:  “I have never seen that group so energized” – Right Management

Educate: “Conor Cunneen’s delivery may be from the Emerald Isle but his message is as practical in today’s business environment as if delivered from Wall Street itself (just a lot less stuffy!). ” Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance

Entertain: “I have never heard a speaker with the double whammy combination of humor and substance which I heard from you today". MHM

Easy to work with: “As the person who coordinates all of our speakers year after year, I want to tell you that you offered a very welcome breath of fresh air in booking and executing our keynote speech. Getting information from you was easy, you followed through on your commitments every time and you were an inspiration to our customers.” Insurance company.

Conor Cunneen would love to to speak at your next conference. Go on! Put a smile on an Irishman's face and Contact him now. 

And now the Book Review!

TALENT IS OVERRATED: WHAT REALLY SEPARATES WORLD CLASS PERFORMERS FROM EVERYBODY ELSE

TALENT IS OVERRATED: WHAT REALLY SEPARATES WORLD CLASS PERFORMERS FROM EVERYBODY ELSE

Author: Geoff Colvin

Enjoyable even inspirational read, the basic premise which is if you work really hard, I mean really really really hard from a very young age you might just become a world class performer. Colvin distinguishes deliberate practice and what most of us do. "Deliberate practice is hard. It hurts."

While it is possible to take issue with the simplicity of the argument, the author does provide compelling evidence that better practice does generate substantially better performance, e.g. every young violinist graduating from Juilliard can play Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, a piece which the famous violinist Leopald Auer said was unplayable when the composer gave it to him in 1878. Today's best high school marathoners beat the 1908 Olympic winning time by twenty minutes!

So what is deliberate practice? According to Colvin it is designed specifically to improve performance. It can be repeated a lot. Feedback is continuous. It is mentally demanding and it isn't much fun. He illustrates this with the ongoing routine development of comedian Chris Rock.

I like the author's efforts to show how the concept can be applied organizations and the innovation process although he does stretch the concept a little as in suggesting that a stretch job is similar to deliberate practice.

Colvin fails to convince me that talent is overrated, but he sure does convince me that you won't reach the heights without an incredible amount of hard work and consistent practice. I have got a lot of positive reviews about my book Why Ireland Never Invaded America but as I write more consistently I am sure I could produce a better edition of it today. He also reinforces my belief that for me to continue to develop as a motivational humorist and keynote speaker I just got to keep working and indulging in deliberate practice.

Favorite anecdote. Warren Buffet's comment in his 2008 shareholder letter, "I've reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death - abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term `thinking outside the box.' "

Also worth reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success.