Success isn’t about avoiding obstacles—it’s about navigating them effectively. This principle has shaped Brian Biro’s remarkable 49-year career. From his early days as a successful swimming coach to his evolution as a keynote speaker and leadership coach, Brian’s journey has been shaped by a passion for helping others to grow.
Brian Biro is a renowned business coach, keynote speaker, bestselling author, and event speaker. With over three and a half decades of experience, he has helped numerous companies, associations, and individuals to reach their maximum potential.
Helping People Unlock Extraordinary Performance
Brian’s passion for bringing out the best in people began when he served as a United States swimming coach, working with young athletes to reach their full potential. During this time, he realized he was coaching people much more than swimming. This eventually carried over into his corporate career, where he became the VP of Performance Planning for a leading transportation company. In this role he developed and delivered team-building seminars aimed at breaking down silos between sales, operations, and administration. This training ignited a tremendous, unprecedented turnaround and shifted the company’s culture from an “EGO” mentality to a “WE GO” mentality! Inspired by the impact of these events, Brian committed himself to helping individuals and organizations unlock extraordinary performance through his work.
Breaking Barriers
With his background in athletic coaching, Brian is passionate about moving audiences from the sidelines into the game. He envisions that every participant in his presentations should go home feeling like the star of the session. Through personal stories, interactive exercises, and unforgettable breakthrough experiences, Brian empowers attendees to take his key messages, learning points, and energy into their personal and professional lives.
The Notable Moment: Shifted Brian’s Leadership Perspective
Brian’s perspective on leadership was greatly influenced by his mentor, Coach John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach. What stood out to Brian was Coach Wooden’s humility, dignity, and respect for everyone. One key takeaway from their time together was his focus on controlling the controllable—energy, effort, attitude, and character. Notably, Coach Wooden never spoke to his players about winning or losing. Instead, he focused on doing his best and finding success in that process.
Common Pitfalls
According to Brian, the first major obstacle holding back companies and individuals is their limited vision. They often focus on what could go wrong instead of focusing on what they want to create. Changing that mindset opens the door to creativity and helps cultivate the culture of possibility.
The second obstacle to achieving a breakthrough is energy drains. Brian firmly believes energy levels are influenced by movements, purpose, and relationships. To elevate their energy, individuals must move with energy, stay connected to their ‘Why’, and distance themselves from energy vampires.
The Powerful Lessons in Coaching High-performing Teams
The most important lesson Brian has learned from working with high-performance teams and individuals is that there is only one unstoppable way to build trust and help others know they are important.
“When you are fully present,” he explains “You communicate to others that they are significant, that you truly care about them, and that you respect them.”
Building Resilience is Important
Brian believes two vital keys to fostering resilience within teams are crucial, especially in uncertain times. The first is to be a ‘blame-buster.’ Blame can quickly destroy team dynamics and trust. Instead of blaming, exceptional leaders clarify what went wrong, learn from it, and guide their teams toward better decisions and actions. The second is to focus on what you can control. By cultivating a culture where success is measured by effort, commitment, and learning, leaders can generate momentum, build confidence, and strengthen resilience across their teams.
Embracing Technology
Technology has enabled Brian to present more compelling, fun, and meaningful visual elements in his keynote speeches than ever before. He uses these images to complement his stories and key messages. Additionally, as a faculty member of FUEL, a cutting-edge micro-learning company, Brian has embraced technology to create brand-new motivational programs in bite-sized sessions. This format allows users to dive deep into these powerful messages frequently at their own pace.
Microlearning is the Next Big thing
Microlearning is becoming increasingly important in organizational training and development. Just as platforms like Netflix or Prime use AI to understand their viewers’ likes and interests, AI is now being used to help users of platforms like FUEL to guide users to access programs that align with their interests and needs.
The Future of Motivational Speaking and Coaching
With over three decades of experience, Brian believes that the future of motivational speaking and coaching is evolving in two major ways. First, Keynotes will be shortened. Presentations that were formerly 90 minutes will need to be streamlined to 60 minutes. So, professional speakers will be challenged to say more in less time. Second, speakers are now expected to both entertain and educate while embracing the concept of ‘edutainment’ effectively to connect and engage the audience.
The Impact of Virtual and Hybrid Events
Brian feels there is no substitute for the connection, energy, and spirit of live events- something he’s experienced deeply since the world emerged from the restrictions of the COVID pandemic. As a presenter, Brian finds virtual events less exciting and connecting. There is unique electricity that only fires up when the audience is together in mind, body, and spirit. In a virtual environment, disengagement is common; participants often turn off their video so they can multitask during the presentation or even slip away entirely. When Brian speaks in person, he feels as if he is directly addressing each participant, connecting with them, and resonating with their minds and spirits.
The Notable Shift
According to Brian, two major changes will have a significant impact on the corporate world over the next five years and beyond. The first is the rise of women in top leadership roles. For the past few decades, more women have been attending and graduating from top colleges than men. “The glass ceiling is becoming very, very thin. I have had the joy and honor of connecting and working with many tremendous woman leaders as a professional speaker and know that as more and more women move to the tops of their organizations, it will inject great energy, balance, and fresh perspective into corporate teams,”- he explains.
The second major shift will be a greater emphasis on company culture over statistics. Organizations will increase their focus on the factors that can be controlled rather than being fixated on uncontrollable metrics. “Culture is the key to helping every single team member feel important, appreciated, and valued. Only organizations that recognize that even with accelerating technology, they are in the PEOPLE business will thrive,”- he says.
Picture of the Future
Brian has delivered nearly 2,000 keynote presentations worldwide over the past 35 years. It took him 34 years to reach one million participants in his live events, but looking ahead, he aims to reach another million in the next decade. He has partnered with FUEL, a micro-learning platform, and has created five Breakthrough courses that will reach and impact people in the near future. Additionally, Brian plans to reach more readers for his sixteen books. Finally, though Brian has delivered keynotes in sixteen countries, he plans to expand his international speaking engagements further.
