Curt Steinhorst

Our teams are distracted. The science of attention is clear: the recent, historic shift in technology and communication is sapping our resources at every level. Individual information consumption has quadrupled since 1986—but our brains are not 4x faster at processing. This shift fundamentally alters the way people work, communicate, and relate. The poverty of attention breeds a work culture that values responsiveness over responsibility—and productivity dwindles.

In this practical, informative speech, focus expert Curt Steinhorst delivers a wake-up call. Standard self-help productivity tactics, alone, are deficient for a world so inter-connected. Focus is, in fact, a group activity—so our strategies must be inter-productive. Together, we discover the secrets of a focus-wise culture, meetings that actually work, and realistic solutions to help put “work” back in the workplace.

Curt’s speeches provide custom solutions for the challenges facing each unique audience.

Your customers’ brains have been hacked. Their limited attention resources are ever-more divided, devoured by clever psychological tricks, bottomless personalized feeds, and incessant alerts. This has dramatic implications for your sales approach.

In this market-focused speech, we learn how to reach distracted customers—and retain them. How to use technology to improve effectiveness—while maintaining control. How to leverage your customer’s distracted state to communicate more effectively. And the critical role of surprise and delight in the age of information overwhelm.

For the first time in history, we live in a world without any barriers to connection or communication.  This has fundamentally altered the way people work, engage, communicate, and relate to one another.  The same technology that simplifies processes compromises our focus and makes it ever more difficult to reach increasingly distracted customers.  Attention resources have never been more competed over, or more depleted.   We are asked to process four times the information that Americans dealt with in 1986, but with less space and time to actually think. Advertisements, alerts, emails, constant notifications—no wonder the average American struggles to make it three minutes without being interrupted!

In this intensely practical and informative speech, Curt Steinhorst discusses the great challenges we face in a constantly-connected world.  He pulls back the curtain to reveal: How did we get here?  How deep does this distraction issue go?  And where do we go from here?

Curt’s speeches provide customized solutions for the distinct challenges facing each unique audience.

Since most organizations today are passively going the way of distraction, the few who wake up to the gravity of the situation and learn how to take control of their attention will see their value in the marketplace multiplied.  You set the example for how to manage your attention in the workplace. You're also in charge of figuring out how to reach your distracted customer. This speech is directed toward leaders who watch as their bottom lines and employee engagement are negatively impacted by the always-distracted workforce.

In this leader-focused speech, Curt Steinhorst answers: How can you communicate with your team to create a focused environment at work? And how can you help your organization truly stand out from the noise?  What can you do to more effectively manage the rising demands on your own attention?

With communication barriers removed, the demands on today’s employees have never been greater.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of today’s organizations are upholding values, setting expectations, and relying on processes that actually contribute to the noise, stifling the productivity they are trying to create. The results are costly: 70% of today's workforce is disengaged from their work. That's dire, but it also means there's a huge opportunity for your team if you fix the problem from the inside out.

In this team-focused speech, Curt Steinhorst answers: How do you create organizational habits for open communication and highly-focused work?  How do you create environments and processes that actually bolster your capacity for focus rather than harm it?  How do you engage with emerging technology without letting it exploit you?

Are you afraid of the stage?  Have you been losing the battle to win your audience? This speech draws on the insights Curt uses to capture and keep the attention of the 50,000+ people to whom he speaks annually. Before his work through FocusWise, Curt was the founder of a public speaking consultancy called Promentum Group, which is still in existence today.  He’s served as a speaking coach and speech writer for top performers, from executives, TV personalities, and TED Talk presenters, to NFL hall of famers, Olympic gold medalists, and the Heisman Trophy winner.  

You might not plan to speak in front of thousands, but your ability to communicate will profoundly shape your success. In this illustrational speech, Curt confronts the mindsets, wrong beliefs, and fallacies that increase your anxiety, hold back your potential, and lose your listeners.  Curt has learned—no one is a natural born speaker.  All speakers face anxiety before taking the stage.  And everyone can benefit from learning how to conquer the enemies of successful communication.