Tamsen Webster

Empowering Keynote Speaker and Presentation Strategist

Don't just wow the crowd.
Change them.

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I change how people see. You can, too.

You’ve got a lot riding on your keynote speaker. They — their message, their style, their presence — all need to “fit” with you, your company, and the flow and feeling of your event.

I’ve been speaking professionally for close to 20 years. I’ve also been an event organizer, guiding the content and speakers for the high-stakes stage of the oldest independently organized TED talk event in the world. So I know how to tailor a message to achieve a business goal, because I’ve done it... over 3,000 times.

Whether in breakouts or ballrooms, over 3 minutes or 3 days, I know how to change how people see so they change what they do… and have fun while we’re at it.

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Training Opportunities 

Are you looking for full-scale message design training for your team? Do you want to learn the fundamentals so you can create the case for change for your company or organization? 

Let me craft special in-person trainings or virtual workshops for your team. Contact us to learn more about how we can serve your message design needs. 

TOPICS

Say What They Can't Unhear: How To Inspire Change That Lasts

In a world of constant change, how can leaders inspire transformations that truly endure? Tamsen Webster, acclaimed speaker and author of "Say What They Can't Unhear: The 9 Principles of Lasting Change," presents a groundbreaking approach to creating lasting shifts in organizations, markets, and individual lives.

Drawing from over 30 years of experience in message design and change communications, Webster challenges conventional wisdom about change management. She reveals why traditional methods often fall short and introduces a powerful new framework for inspiring change that stands the test of time.

Whether you're navigating a corporate pivot, launching a disruptive product, or seeking personal growth, this keynote will equip you with the tools to not just initiate change, but to make it last. Learn how to turn a momentary "yes" into an enduring commitment with ideas that resonate so strongly, they become impossible to "unhear."

Key Takeaways:

  • Understand why change is a reaction, not just an action, and how to align your approach accordingly

  • Learn to craft a case for change that resonates with your audience's existing beliefs and identity

  • Discover strategies to overcome resistance without relying on pain or pressure

  • Master the art of turning short-term agreement into long-term commitment

Built for Buy-In: The Fundamentals of Message Design

Getting your ideal audience to see your message as right for them—quickly—is critical, especially when there’s so much competition for time, attention, and resources. But what do you do when all the reasons your message is “right” aren’t right for those you’re talking to? In this practical and energizing presentation, 25-year message strategist and speaker Tamsen Webster will show you how to get people invested (literally and figuratively!) in all you have to offer, starting with the easiest storytelling elements for your audience to identify with: the principles that provide common ground for even the most uncommon messages.

 

After this presentation, you'll be able to: 
 

  • Understand why challenging people's beliefs is the enemy of action, and what to do instead

  • Clearly and quickly identify who is, and isn’t, an ideal fit for your message—and why—so you can focus your efforts where they’ll have the greatest effect

  • Follow a framework for simplifying them to their most important, and irresistible, elements and building in buy-in from the beginning

The Logic of Emotion: How to Make Inaction Impossible

You may have noticed a problem with the age-old “problem/solution” formula for driving action from your messages and marketing: it doesn’t always work! That’s a big issue when your job, and maybe even your business, depends on your content converting customers and clients.

Unfortunately, presenting only the audience’s problem and your solution misses an important fact about them: your audiences aren’t rational decision-makers, they’re rataionalIZING decision-makers. They tell themselves stories to justify what they do. That means your content needs more than just a problem and a solution, it needs to create a moment of truth in your audience’s mind—a realization that makes inaction impossible.

In this keynote, learn to use a simple structure that creates both the logical and emotional change you need for content that creates long-term change.

Getting the Green Light: How to build messages people say YES to

No matter your role, you're often in the business of changing behavior. Often that means you need to change beliefs first. Or do you? What if some of the age-old wisdom around driving action actually works against creating real change?

By the end of this keynote, you'll be able to:

  • Analyze your messages for the "red lights" that lead to "NO"
  • Identify the three key concepts every message needs to get a “YES" (and know how to find them in your own)
  • Tie those concepts to the "green lights" your brand is built on (and connect your audiences more tightly to them, too)

The Red Thread®: How to find and tell the story of your ideas

At the heart of business lies one seemingly elusive goal: how can we tell a story people actually want to hear? Thankfully, there’s a surprisingly simple answer, and it lies in how we come up with our ideas in the first place.

After this keynote you’ll be able to:

  • Tailor your story to the audience and impact you want
  • Identify the five building blocks of the “minimum viable message” (and how to find them in your own)
  • Organize those building blocks so you can tell your story in any format, and at any length

VIDEOS

Getting the Green Light

The best content gets audiences to say "YES" to something, like a change in thinking or a new behavior. Too often, though, we get a whole lot of "NO." Why? Because we try to get a "YES" to the hardest things for people to say "yes" to. In this clip from Content Marketing World 2019, Tamsen Webster, Founder & Chief Idea Whisperer at Find the Red Thread explains how to make it easy for your audience to say YES to your content… and just as easy for you to build it.

The full keynote can be viewed on Content Marketing World's gated site here.

How to Make Your Ideas Irresistible

At the heart of marketing lies one seemingly elusive goal: how can we actually get people to love our stuff as much as we do? Thankfully, there’s a surprisingly simple answer, and it lies in how we come up with our products and services in the first place.

How to Build Your Audience's Case for Your Ideas

You know getting your big idea out into the world means having to make the case for it. You need partners, investors, and eventually, clients and customers to see your idea as the right one for them. But even though you know it’s the right answer, how can you make them see that, too? Even more, how do you do that when time —and attention — is limited? You script the story they’ll tell themselves.

How to Bridge a Mental Gap

Tamsen Webster uses an ancient Greek myth (and modern science) to explain how to bridge the real-life mental gaps that keep us from achieving our goals. The answer lies in finding our "Red Threads," the combination of goals, problems, and beliefs that define who we are — and make inaction impossible.

PRESENTATION REQUIREMENTS

Antique illustration of musix box carillon dancing doll toy

 

If I’m using slides (and I don’t always — we can decide on our planning call), I will use my own laptop to present. I will also supply my own presentation remote and VGA dongle.

 

I will bring:
A MacBook Pro with VGA and HDMI connections.
A Logitech R800 wireless presentation remote
A desktop presentation using Keynote (if applicable) formatted for 16:9 aspect ratio

I need you to provide:
A wireless lavalier or headset microphone
AC power for her laptop
A small table or podium onstage to hold my laptop
A projector with VGA or HDMI input
A speaker system with a mini plug for audio output from the laptop

Contact for Speaking

The Message Design Institute Newsletter


Tamsen is excited to announce the founding of the Message Design Institute! The MDI newsletter is delivered bi-weekly to over 4,000 readers looking to design messaging strong enough to build on.

Sign up now, and get Tamsen's Buy-In Building Blocks Toolkit: a single sheet of paper that will help you create everything necessary to build any and all messaging collateral you might need to get the right people invested in your offering or approach—fast.