About this event
You can expect another full event this July at PSA Staffordshire including a keynote from
John Burns – From Stage to Stardom: How to build an authentic, profitable and sustainable professional speaking career
From Stage to Stardom is an honest, humorous and practical keynote about what it really takes to build a successful professional speaking career.
Drawing on his own journey from being a painfully shy communicator to becoming an international keynote speaker, John Burns explores the mindset, business strategies and practical disciplines that separate occasional speakers from professional speakers.
The session covers topics including authenticity, audience engagement, feedback, artificial intelligence, video marketing, publishing, mastermind groups, resilience and building the infrastructure behind a sustainable speaking business.
Packed with humour, personal stories and actionable ideas, this keynote challenges speakers to think beyond applause and build careers of lasting influence.
Participants will leave with practical ideas to help them:
- Understand the difference between public speaking and professional speaking.
- Build a speaking business rather than simply delivering speeches.
- Use AI to research audiences, improve presentations and multiply content.
- Understand why video has become essential for building visibility.
- Develop authority through publishing.
- Use feedback as a tool for accelerated growth.
- Build relationships through mastermind groups and professional communities.
- Turn life challenges into authentic stories that audiences remember.
- Create long-term speaking infrastructure instead of relying on short-term momentum. •
- Leave with a practical roadmap for becoming more intentional about their speaking career.
We will also be joined by Roger Harrop for a Keynote with Q & A.
More information coming soon – until then, book your Early Bird now!
Keynote speakers
Once shy, nervous, and allergic to microphones, John Burns somehow decided that speaking was a sensible career move and then figured out how to make it work.
Today, John is a professional speaker, author, and thought leader on uncertainty, career resilience, and the business of speaking. He’s the author of Prepare to Get Fired! – because nothing says ‘comfort’ like planning for uncertainty.
Known for his high-energy, interactive style, John blends humour, hard truths, real-world experience, and even a bit of AI wizardry to help speakers turn passion into a profession – and actually get paid for it.
A proud member of the PSA UK & Ireland, John doesn’t just talk about speaking… he talks about what happens after the applause.
Roger Harrop has spent over 25 years leading international businesses, including a Public Limited Company (plc), which puts him in a unique position to deal with present-day business challenges.
Based in Oxford in the UK, he’s an international business growth speaker who inspires and entertains audiences with his acclaimed Staying in the Helicopter® programmes. Over 30,000 CEOs, business leaders and others, across 50 countries, have achieved transformational change through his thought-provoking and entertaining talks laced with real-life stories and humour.
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Roger is also an author, business advisor, mentor, consultant and independent director.
He has unusually wide leadership experience: from small start-ups to multi-nationals and from high-tech products to basic commodities, people-based service businesses, and not-for-profit organisations.
Roger spent seven years as Group Chief Executive of a FTSE quoted, high-tech industrial group with 12 sites across four continents. The UK Government mentioned it in its ‘Competitiveness’ White Paper. Forbes Magazine in the US included the group among its list of the top 100 overseas companies. Two business schools have used it as a benchmark case study on culture change and business re-engineering.
Roger tutored on a leading leadership and team building programme for over 25 years.
He’s a keen mountain biker and classic car enthusiast.
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