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John Naber

Olympic champion and network television and radio sports broadcaster, John Naber has observed and personally attained excellence and goal achievement throughout his 26-year professional career.

Olympic champion and network television and radio sports broadcaster, John Naber has observed and personally attained excellence and goal achievement throughout his 26-year professional career. Naber captured four Gold Medals, one Silver and broke four World Records in swimming at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. He has conceptualized an effective 8-step method called the “Gold Medal Process” by which all people can see their dreams come true. His wide variety of Olympic stories involving discipline, dedication, sacrifice and teamwork, can make anyone feel like “going for the gold”.

Naber uses his experience as an athlete and a television commentator to draw analogies between the graphic world of sports and the less easily seen battleground of business. Naber customizes his material for each new audience, and using humor, he shares the “behind-the-scenes” stories of the athletes and their accomplishments while matching his comments to the specific needs of his audience.

PROGRAM TOPICS

The Gold Medal Performance: Seeing Your Dreams Come True
What do the Olympians go through on their way to the awards platform? How can you feel like you are “gong for the gold” in your field? This eight-step process, using humor and Olympic analogies, will help anyone reach their own personal and professional goals.

Discipline: Keeping the Promises You Make to Yourself
Every Olympian must have it, but not every Olympian uses it outside their sport. What is this magic ingredient and how can we amplify its effect on a daily basis? A handful of skills can make any uphill climb that much easier. By keeping focused on the goal, the price is more easily paid.

Teamwork in a Competitive World
In many cases, the greatest challenge to an American’s hope for the gold is often another American. How do the great Olympic athletes achieve excellence without losing the ability to be good team players? Learn how members of your staff or co-workers can lift the whole division or company, while still seeking individual glory.

Motivation: The Feeling Before the Achievement
Some people think they are moved by money, fame, or power, but the wise managers are able to look beyond these three to the more powerful ingredient that these factors all have in common. They begin with a desire for a particular feeling. Here are a few exercises anyone can use to return to the nobler motives that produce more long-lasting results and increase the likelihood of the entire team’s success.

Character Driven Accomplishment
Winning doesn’t have to be sacrificed when we decide to play by the rules. Here’s how we can remain competitive in today’s cutthroat business environment, without sacrificing our ethics and character. It’s another way of looking at the ethical dilemmas we face every day.

Pursuing Victory with Honor
This keynote teaches audiences how to appreciate quality character and how to make the ethical standard a part of their everyday decision making process. Naber’s devotion to character building allows him to articulate the powerful and sensitive lessons of personal ethical development that are most visible in the sporting arena. By applying the same training method he used in sports, Naber allows audiences across the globe to appropriate the top quality decision making skills and let’s him share how to succeed in life without succumbing to the temptations that face us all.

Awaken the Olympian Within: On Your Marks…Get Set…Gold! Bring out the Best in Your people!
John Naber has created a “mock-Olympics” that puts fun back on the meeting agenda, with a collection of competitive activities that do not require athletic skill, but do teach attributes like teamwork, tenacity, lateral thinking, problem solving skills, performance under pressure, risk-taking and resource allocation. Local Olympic athletes join the fun as your team builds a level of trust and understanding, to increase productivity at the office, and for the rest of their life.

Eureka! How Innovation Changes the Olympics and Everything Else
“Eureka” is a study of innovations throughout Olympic history (i.e.: how Dick Fosbury created his famous Fosbury Flop, why swimmers first began shaving their legs, how the Dutch developed the revolutionary “Clap Skate” and many others). In my pursuit of the stories behind the innovations, I discovered the impetus and the common background that provided fertile soil for these innovations. In my conversations with many Olympians and corporate leaders, I also found that these similarities could be applied to the business world. The parallels between innovations in sport and innovation in business are striking. Because of my research and interviews, I isolated eleven ingredients that often lead to successful innovation and I can share various ways that companies can encourage innovation from within their ranks, as well.

Complete Biography

John Naber is one of America’s most successful Olympic champions. He was America’s most highly decorated Olympian at the 1976 Games in Montreal (the second highest ever, at the time) earning four gold medals in swimming, each in world record time. John Naber became the first swimmer in history to earn two individual medals on the same day of Olympic competition, and earned the Sullivan Award as America’s top amateur athlete of 1977. He is enshrined in various Halls of Fame and is one of America’s top Olympic ambassadors. John Naber earned four gold medals during his Olympic career. Now he teaches others how to think and act like Olympic champions.

John Naber is the author of Awaken the Olympian Within: Stories from America’s Greatest Olympic Motivators and is a contributing author to The Power of Character.

After his retirement from swimming, John Naber quickly entered the broadcasting field, serving as expert analyst, play-by-play host or sideline reporter for over 35 different sports, filing reports at eight Olympic Games. He has worked for all major networks and most cable outlets during the past twenty-five years.

For over a quarter century, John Naber has delighted audiences with his stories of ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary results. Standing ovations attest to his ability to customize his remarks with humor and personal anecdotes appropriate for each occasion. John Naber consistently receives “gold medal reviews” from each of his clients.

In 1977, John Naber led the USC Trojans to their fourth undefeated season and national title, while earning a record 10 individual titles and five relay crowns. He also earned the sport’s highest honor (the Robert Kiputh Award) on three occasions, and earned the 1977 James E. Sullivan Award as “America’s top amateur athlete.” John Naber was inducted into four Halls of Fame, served as a board member on the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, and carried the Olympic flag into the 1984 Opening Ceremonies in Los Angeles. John Naber was also selected to carry the flame in three different Olympic torch relays.

During John Naber’s climb to the top of the sports world and his subsequent role as a TV sports commentator and host, he has become an “observer of excellence.” John Naber shares this experience and the stories of his athletic triumphs as parables to achieving excellence in one’s personal area of emphasis. His keynote address, The Olympic Gold Medal Process has been heard by audiences of 25 to 25,000. Each customized speech includes humor and Olympic anecdotes that inspire and entertain, and always receive rave reviews and standing ovations.

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