Karl V

John Bates has always had the soft skills and was, for a long time, envious of those with the hard skills. That is, until he first attended the TED Conference in 2009 where he was absolutely astounded by the power of truly great public speaking.As he was volunteering for one of the very first TEDx events, TEDxSantaMonica, he had a light bulb moment. One of the speakers, who had all the hard skills, was so uncomfortable and nervous that everyone in the audience felt like they were going to throw up, because the speaker was so nervous. As the evil part of John laughed with schadenfreude, his good friend Michael Weiss walked over and said, "We've got to do something to make a difference for people like this…"It was a liminal moment for John as he realized that if he just got over himself, he could make a difference for people, especially people with the hard skills.Out of that experience John based all of his coaching and training in neurobiology and science so he could show people not only what works when it comes to communicating with human beings, but WHY it works, based in science. John is now one of the most prolific TED-Format trainers in the world. He works regularly with organizations like NASA, Boston Scientific, Johnson & Johnson's JLABS and he has so far coached the speakers for over 35 TEDx events, and counting.