Meaningful Meetings With Marvelless Mark Kamp: Whats the Anthem of Your Organization

The speaker Marvelless Mark Kamp doesn’t need to change his format to ensure that what he does can’t be done on a Zoom. His “rock star” theme and use of drumsticks at events can only be accomplished live, he says.

Key Insights

• Rock music is a powerful metaphor for unity and teamwork that also makes people feel good, Kamp says. The rock star dynamic tells a story that people can identify with that helps tear down silos to realign and re-engage teams. “As a leader or sales contender, we can accomplish more as a band that plays the same song at the same time and plays it loud. The rock band analogy helps people visualize and internalize what it is to be a rock star in a way that can be applied to their lives,” Kamp believes.
• The rock music story helps people understand how to stand out in an industry, remain relevant, and “be heard above the noise. When you increase your level of performance you enhance your results. Now more than ever, your teams need to achieve boldly. Like rock stars. The key to safeguarding your organization's future is to jumpstart people with motivation and then instill the success habits to keep your teams going. Celebrating big and little wins along the way for fuel.”
• No one remembers a boring meeting. Companies are spending large sums to bring people together for a purpose. “There’s a lot of science and psychology to support the use of drumming to make a point, as it releases nature dopamine and oxytocin which makes people feel good.”
• A key to long-term memorability is to create an experience, he underlines. “When you get a roomful of engineers who are not used to having fun together and you put drumsticks in their hands, they become like five-year-olds when they start beating them on the table—almost automatically unifying everyone whether they are left- or right-brain thinkers.”
• The release of energy involved with the experiences Kamp creates by weaving drumming into the sessions he says aids in the subconscious retention of the message days later when people are back to their lives. To reinforce that, everyone is invited to take the drumsticks home with them and to feel free when not disruptive to drum for a minute, which of course reminds them of the meaning behind the message.  “That’s the trigger that will be memorable to participants.”
• The rock band is an easy-to-understand framework for any type of team, he says, because everyone plays a different role. Yes, there might be a few stars, but all of the backup players are equally important, as are the production or road crews, for a concert to reach the level of a Taylor Swift, he explains. “It helps people understand that they don’t have to have the spotlight on them to make critical contributions.”
• Music helps unify in a memorable way with international appeal. It can get the “entire audience to come together with one purpose in mind, all singing what becomes an anthem in effect related to the theme of the event that might be played from time to time throughout the program.” (Note, Swift is known to generally reward everyone on her team after each tour.)

Recommendations

• Be bold with your organization’s brand. Bands such as the Rolling Stones and Kiss became legendary not only by their music but their imagery. “I could have just called myself Mark Kamp,” he explains, but that just lumps him with an array of other professional speakers; hence, Marvelless Mark.
• Referring to statements by Jeff Bezos and others, “your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.”
• Don’t be shy about building fun into your events. “There’s a lot of evidence that organizations that build fun into the workplace and their programs generate higher levels of performance from their people.”
• For post-keynote breakout sessions, consider creating teams challenged to come up with an anthem for your organization, which can be updated each year based on new goals, objectives, and circumstances. After writing their anthems, each group presents it in a plenary with an audience vote for the best. The anthem can then be incorporated into organizational events throughout the year.  (Note: This process can help detect potential cultural disconnects, if people come up with anthems that  contradict the purpose, goals, objectives and values of the organization.)
• For other breakouts, use the rock star analogy to help people better understand their role in the team, which helps everyone understand that the “star” is helpless without the support of the entire team. Who is the rock start at the table and what are the roles of others, and how does that relate to peak performance?
• Just because you’re not a rock star now, doesn’t mean you can’t be one, because there’s a role for almost every type of person in a band and its support team.
• The world of social media has made it more important than ever for people to consider their own personal brands. “Today’s young buyers are checking people out on social media, so the way you build your social brand can actually affect whether you can get 15 minutes of face time with them.”
• When planning an event, ask some attendees the name of the previous year’s keynote speaker for an idea of how memorable it was.

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