3 reasons why you should NOT hire Jason Romero as a speaker

1.     I don’t have the budget

A motivational business speaker with Jason’s credentials and story-telling capabilities is not cheap, but nothing important and valuable is cheap. 

What does it cost for your business to replace one key employee? The Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM) has studied this point and estimates that the recruiting and training expense of a salaried employee is 20% of the position’s salary – for a $60,000 per year position, the cost to the business would be $12,000. For highly compensated positions, it is estimated that the recruiting and training expense can be in excess of 100% of the position’s salary – for a $150,000 per year position, the cost to the business would exceed $150,000 in recruiting and training expenses. The true cost of replacing an employee also includes 1. Advertising, interviewing, screening and hiring for the position; 2. Onboarding expenses – training and management time; 3. Lost productivity – it can take a year for an employee to master their position; 4. Lost engagement by other employees – turnover of key positions cause employees to be less productive and engaged; and 5. Cultural impact – a new person brings a new culture and takes time to become accustomed to the existing culture, which impacts their team’s productivity.

A motivational business speaker is an employee benefit to your workforce - similar to compensation, a health plan, training, a retirement plan and tuition reimbursement. This is an experience that you give to your employees – an opportunity to learn from an expert, in a live forum. Almost no employee would be able to have this experience without the company’s sponsorship of the experience. Employee-centric companies with low turnover routinely choose to give this benefit as recognition to high performing employees. They bring in motivational business speakers on a quarterly basis for their executives – director level and above – as a perk to train, engage, retain and motivate key employees. They report that key employees feel an investment with the company when motivational business speakers are brought in to teach employees.

A great speaker is going to teach your team valuable business and life concepts, take them on an emotional journey and challenge them to excel. They should also receive an applause and standing ovation, if they do their job. When was the last time an internal speaker received more than a gratuitous clap for delivering a quarterly performance report? 

If Jason is able to motivate, connect with and retain 1 key employee for you, you will have more than recouped his fee by foregoing the expense of replacing an employee. Jason affects his audiences at a very deep level, and by partnering with him your employees will thank you for giving them such an experience – a benefit of employment with your company – and they will be better because of what Jason teaches them, and the motivation they receive. You can't afford to not hire Jason to teach, motivate and challenge your organization.

"Jason Romero is an amazing speaker. His story is not only personally moving but is full of great lessons for all management teams. After he spoke at our event, I lost count of the number of people who thanked me for having him speak. There was universal agreement that his presentation was the highlight of our conference."

- Steward Glendinning (CEO, Molson-Coors Int'l, currently CFO Tyson Foods)

"Jason spoke to our team today and was truly inspirational! Jason's personal story really connected and moved the team. I would strongly recommend Jason for any organization that is looking for not only and inspirational story but also one that truly moves people. My team raved about Jason all night long at our team dinner!"

- Michael Hafer (SVP, Western Union)

2.     I need a speaker who can teach business concepts, not just a motivational speaker

There are A LOT of speakers on the circuit who talk about things they have limited experience in, or have never experienced. Companies routinely hire out celebrity personalities, Olympians, YouTube sensations and hiphoppreachers (aka Eric Thomas) to teach and motivate their teams. Where does their knowledge come from if they don’t have personal experience in it? You should ask all of your business speakers this question.

Jason has a deep and broad business background with three organizations. In his 10 year career at General Electric he managed a $180 million financial services portfolio for the Eastern US and Canada. In this role he was responsible to facilitate sales and revenue through credit facilities. Jason also served as an ex-patriate operations leader in Latin America leading a 200+ person organization. In this role, he led an IT system conversation, a facility move that doubled the physical footprint of the operation, created a “center of excellence” for GE, and he gained conversational fluency in Spanish. Jason’s final role with GE was as the General Manager for a $400 million business division where he had P&L responsibility. He also led Global Core Operations for another Fortune 100 company where he was tasked with consolidating the processes and personnel of 4 global operation centers. He was also the CEO of a non-profit organization that helps children with Autism, where he transitioned legacy leadership, saved the organization from financial collapse and expanded the organization to new territories. He is a visionary, an expert in leadership and has a vast amount of professional experience. Prior to his leadership career, Jason was an attorney.

In addition to his professional credentials, Jason is the 1^st & only blind person to run across America (3,063 miles | 59.5 days | 51.5 miles/day | top-10 fastest foot crossing), a Paralympian, a national marathon champion, an author, the subject of a full-length documentary, is an IronMan triathlete, has completed more than 20 runs of 100 miles or longer (including Badwater, Leadville and Spartathlon) and holds 16 world records in extreme endurance athletics.

Jason is an accomplished story teller and uses his athletic adventures as the basis to teach business concepts like leadership, team building, problem solving, decision making, integrity, the power of listening, how to adapt, failure & resilience, and how to succeed. His second book, The Success Cycle, will be published in 2020 and has been the topic of many of speeches and seminars. Jason developed a step-by-step process that businesses and individuals can use to transform their dreams into reality. He argues for a paradigm shift in how we perceive success, and guides his students through a fresh perspective. Jason gives his audiences tools and strategies for how to overcome adversity, develop and implement plans, accept failures and grow resilience to eventually achieve their dreams.

"Jason is an absolutely amazing speaker who inspires, energizes and motivates teams to give their best. He is authentic and truly real. I highly recommend him to be your next motivational business speaker to help your team achieve their goals and work together in a cohesive way. Thank you Jason for being you and your service to the world."

- Suma Nallapati (Chief Digital Officer, DISH Network)

"Jason' Romero's story is as inspiring as it is unbelievable. Ibotta was fortunate to have Jason deliver a keynote at our Mobile Innovation Summit, where he inspired the audience by not only sharing his story of being the only legally blind person to complete a transcontinental US run in under 60 days (yes, that's 50+ miles of running per day with not breaks), but he also provided tangible takeaways based both on the run and his successful business career. I highly recommend Jason."

- Kane McCord (COO, Ibotta & Harvard MBA)

3.      I don’t know Jason Romero’s story

Jason has been covered by The Today Show, BBC, NPR, Forbes, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, Runners World and many other media outlets.

He is best known for being the 1^st and only blind person to run across America from Los Angeles to New York from March 25 – May 23, 2016. Less than 300 people have crossed America on foot in history. Jason ran 3,063 miles in 59.5 days averaging 51.5 miles per day, with no days off. His crossing ranks in the top-10 fastest transcontinental foot crossings.

 Jason’s journey began when he was diagnosed at 14 with a blinding eye disease, and was told to give up on a dream of becoming a doctor or attorney. He was the first generation in his family to attend University, and became an attorney 10 years after he was told to give up on his dream. After being a corporate attorney for several years, he embarked on a successful business career with Fortune 100 companies, and a non-profit. At age 44, his eye disease had finally rendered him legally blind, and this triggered a severe depression that left Jason unemployed, divorced, a single father of 3 children, applying for Disability and not knowing how to go on. At the lowest point of his life, Jason had a calling to run across America. For the next 18 months, he dedicated his life to training his body, planning and managing the logistics of the expedition, sought financial and emotional support, prepared his children to separate from each other, and set out to cross America on foot.

On May 23, 2016, Jason completed his transcontinental foot crossing and became the 1^st & only blind person to accomplish the feat. And at 51.5 miles/day, his crossing still ranks as one of the top-10 fastest crossings in history and is considered a “world class” speed crossing of America. After his crossing, companies began asking Jason to tell his story and this launched his career as an international keynote speaker. Jason authored his first book, Running into the Dark: a blind man’s record setting run across America, has plans to release his second book – The Success Cycle: a step-by-step process to transform dreams into reality and is currently working on a third book.

Jason has been hired by Amazon, Molson-Coors, Anthem, Western Union. The Boy Scouts, Goodwill, the State of California, Universities and non-profits to motivate and teach them about Success & Resilience. His personal story coupled with his engaging and humorous speaking style have riveted audiences around the globe. Jason also spends more than half of his time speaking free of charge to youth. He is on a mission to change the world for the better, and he likes to do this “one person at a time.”

Jason is an elite athlete and pioneer for extreme endurance sports for the blind. He holds 16 world records, and established 7 of them (Transcontinental run, 1000 mine run, 10-day run, 6-day run, 72-hour run, 48-hour run, 24-hour run, 100 mile run-trail & road, 100 mile MTB, 100k run-trail & road, 50 mile run-trail & road, 50 mile MTB and 50k trail run). He has been the US marathon champion, a Paralympian and placed 4th at the Paralympic World Marathon Championships in 2015. He has 20 runs of 100 miles or longer including the Leadville 100, the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon and Spartathlon to name a few. He has also completed the "Leadman Challenge" which included ultra-running and mountain biking events in Leadville, Colorado at 10,000' elevation.

"Jason Romero has one of the most remarkable stories you will ever hear.  Running across the United States in 60 consecutive days is only the starting point.  Factor in visual impairment, a miniscule budget, and a one-person crew, and you would pretty much say this venture was doomed to fail.  But if you know Jason at all, you would understand that failure was simply not an option. He has such an incredible huge heart, and he is passionate about making a positive impact on people and organizations.  I absolutely recommend that you find a way to put this man and his story in front of your team."

-       Michael Kragt, Ph.D. (Clinical Psychologist & Executive Director)

Find out more information about Jason at www.jasonromero.net for links to social media and media stories.