“Your requests for Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Oprah, and Steven Spielberg sometimes get heard.

Last week, a repeat Rave Speakers customer in the food services industry reached out to us with a Client Conference keynote speaker need. Her wish list: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Oprah. And its for a virtual meeting so she thought she could get lucky with an acceptance for one of these super keynote speakers.

You’d figure that one of these highest-requested speakers on the planet would take an hour to share their important views on life and business with a large audience of high level business leaders. But its just not that easy. Casey Neistat, a YouTube phenom and Influencer to many, once said that he just doesn’t have the time to meet, call, email, visit with, or speak for all of those who request him…unless he’s getting paid. Hard to expect Keynote Speaker Jeff Bezos to have a fee though.

Even getting paid doesn’t fly for Bill Gates, Tim Cook, Oprah, and Company. Because it’s not about the money; it’s about their time.

And you just cannot expect the leader of a global company to pause from that company’s direction to give a keynote speech. Sometimes it doesnt look good for shareholders or investors or even employees of their company.
Other high-profile CEO’s and top executives disagree. Danny Meyer is the founder of the international Shake Shack chain of restaurants and owner of 19 of New York City’s highest-rated eateries. When Danny accepts a speaking engagement, he sees this as his being an Ambassador to the Shake Shack brand. Danny knows that those who hear him speak are about to become Raving Fans.

But back to those superstar keynote speaker possibilities. A few years ago we had the distinct honor of booking Bill Gates for an event for our good customer at Wal-Mart. Microsoft had come out with a new software that they were in the midst of a major marketing effort for, and the only contractual requirement for Bill Gates’ keynote appearance was that when a customer walked into any Wal-Mart in America, the first thing they’d see would be a display with the new Microsoft product. THAT’S why we feel that sometimes your request will be heard.

So at Rave Speakers, we are prepared for your requests for Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Oprah Winfrey to keynote your next meeting. Our best preparation for you is not to set your expectation levels high for any of those names. Rather, its this list of backup options with high-profile name brands and powerful abilities at the podium. That list includes

Magic Johnson

Jennifer Lopez

Will Smith

George Clooney

Amal Clooney

Jessica Alba

Ashton Kutcher

James Corden

Richard Branson

Gwyneth Paltrow

Julia Louis Dreyfus

Brene Brown

Carly Fiorina

Mark Cuban

Ron Howard

Your caviar wishes of keynote speaker Oprah Winfrey or Leadership Voice Elon Musk may not happen exactly as planned. But your attendees will be tremendously pleased with the outcome.”