Don't ask, Don't get!

He was by far the scruffiest person in the Costa café at St Pancras station. I was killing time on my way to speak in Chatham, sharing a table with a stranger as the place was crammed full. As I sat eating my chilli panini I noticed this man, about the same age as me, who really looked out of place. He had a suit jacket on like me, but his jeans and Caterpillar boots with no laces didn't seem quite right with me. They didn't with him either as he was hobbling about.

He looked around for a few seconds and then homed in on someone at each table. "Could you spare a few pence towards a cup of tea," he asked, again and again. It was obvious this chap had fallen on hard times. I couldn't believe how everyone gave their excuses. I wondered how I would have felt if that were me.

I waited for him to ask me – I would have gladly bought him a cuppa. But he kept looking straight past me. Was I really that unapproachable? I was disappointed that he didn’t ask me. I love finding out about people and helping them if iCan.

I was beginning to get really disheartened for the man, then, as I got up to leave, a middle-aged lady stood up and offered him what looked like 70 pence. “At last,” I thought. This was just great to see. As I walked past him I gave him a smile and whispered “follow me” – which he did. I wondered if he thought I was about to arrest him.

I gave him a comforting smile as we stopped at the other side of the concourse. I discovered he was called Alfred and he had been in the UK for two weeks. He came from Nigeria and was such a softly spoken young man. I asked him why he hadn't asked me and he told me he thought he already had. I asked him what he wanted the money for and he said it was for a bed for the night, which was going to cost £18. I asked him how many people he had to speak to each day to get his money. “Hundreds,” he said. But he always got a bed for the night. This guy was an inspiration to me – as anyone who has ever achieved any level of success in the world will confirm - so I gave him £10 and asked for his picture.




Nothing in life worth having will be handed to you on a plate.

Like Alfred, anyone in sales knows that you have to work through the rejections. JK Rowling couldn't get a publisher for over a year. It took me months to get an agent interested in what was to be my Number One bestselling book. I did think about giving up, but I dug deep and kept going.

What is it you want to achieve?

Are you prepared to work through all the nos, the rejections and the setbacks to get it?

You can.


Richard McCann
p.s. If you would like to improve your communication skills then our next Speaker Bootcamp is on 22nd July in Leeds.
Click here now: The early bird price expired on 30th June however this will be extended for anyone on my mailing list - usually £247 reduced to £197 including VAT (Can be paid in two installments if it helps). ONLY 3 PLACES LEFT so FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED!!!

I almost ruined Christmas

Well Christmas is over and I hope you had a great time this year. I thought I had ruined everything for my children just a few days ago.

It all started around 6 weeks ago when I was asked a question that sent fear right through my veins. “Richard would you be kind enough to be Santa for the children at nursery 3 days before Christmas?”

‘Me! But I’m Ginger’, I thought. The staff at nursery our two eldest children attend convinced me that I would be perfect in the role, despite my attempts at finding reasons that I couldn’t do it.
Be Courageous

My wife Helen bought right into the whole idea and finally persuaded me to agree to it, and believe me it required me to dig as deep as possible and find the courage required to step outside my comfort zone. Of course, I could have tried to wing it, but there was so much at stake: Firstly I had the children within the nursery to deal with as well as my own children ages 4 and 3. If I got this wrong then I could shatter their belief in Santa and the thought of that really motivated me. And secondly I had to impress the parents with my efforts at trying to keep my reputation intact.

Now if you have heard me speak, Michael, then you will know that one of the things I include in my talks is that in order to achieve something we might not have done before we can:

Model Successful People

Which is exactly what I did. I decided to take my children to no less than 3 different Santa Clauses to see how the professionals did it. I noted the dialogue, the demeanor, the movement and began building up a picture of just how I should be on the big day. That helped to settle the nerves and as the big day drew close I began to believe that I would do a reasonable job. My main concern was that our eldest, Skye, just might work out that it was her father behind the costume, but I felt pretty good.

Two hours ago I found myself dressing in the Santa costume. Firstly the postbox red trousers and jacket, and before you mention it, yes I did have a cushion under the jacket. I’m not stupid enough to think that my slight frame wouldn’t ring alarm bells. Next was the white wig and beard, which once I had put them on, put my mind at rest. There was hardly any of my face on view by now. Next came the hat and last of all black over boots, which covered most of my shoes.


I was all set. I had an elf to help me with the names and to hand me the presents.

So there I was, sat in position, and then the hoard of children and parents were brought in. Young Conner was first with his Crocodile T-shirt looking very enthusiastic.
“Hello Connor” I said.
“Hello, can I have a Headless Horseman” he asked without being prompted.
“I’ll see what I can do” I replied. “First of all can you tell me if you’ve been good this year”?
“Yes, yes, yes.” He must have been really good this year.
“Have you been eating your meals, brushing your teeth, stopping in bed when mummy and daddy put you there?” And on it went until I gave him a small gift to keep him going and my nightmare was over. I had done it and got away with it. I hoped that Connor couldn’t see the fear in my eyes as I spoke with him.

1 down and 49 to go.

Child after child was fooled. I think some of the parents were too. I even got past some children of some very close friends who stood to attention throughout. I was beginning to enjoy it and if I may say I was getting rather good at the role. My wife had cleverly left our own children until last. For my own children I had to change the voice as much as I could and Ellis our son didn’t suspect a thing. Brilliant! Now the tester: our daughter Skye who is so advanced for her age ;-) (My wife has said that about all three).

I went through the routine and within a few seconds my world caved in.

“It’s Daddy behind the beard.” She really was advanced for her age. She had seen through me within seconds. I tried to carry on regardless without giving myself away any more. I was disappointed with myself. I felt a failure. Had I spoilt the magic of Christmas for our 4-year-old?




I changed back into my clothes and made my way to my family, really puzzled as to how Skye had worked it out. My wife had already spoken with her about it and it was as simple as my shoes. She knew her Daddy’s shoes and it was them that had given me away. She also went on to say that she spotted my wedding ring and my ‘finger’. The middle finger in my right hand has the end missing. I learned a very important lesson today. I didn’t:

Go The Extra Mile

What I could have done was to wear some shoes that were not as noticeable as the ones I had. Maybe even wear someone else’s. I could have taken off the wedding ring and I should have worn some gloves. That would have done it. Yes, I felt a failure, but as a motivational speaker I have a few thoughts on failure. Courage is all about the risk of failure. We have to try things, despite the risk, but whatever happens in life: Failure is never permanent.
Hopefully Skye will believe our explanation that Santa got stuck in the snow and called me to ask if I would help out. And if she doesn’t buy into that, one day she will grow up and love her dad even more for putting himself through the whole ordeal for the love of his children.

Merry Christmas


Richard ‘Unemployed Santa’ McCann

p.s. If you would like to improve your communication skills and you are willing to be courageous enough to attend, you are willing to model other successful speakers, (I have given over 650 talks now) and you are prepared to go the extra mile rather than try and wing it the next time you speak, then our next Speaker Bootcamp is on 24th Feb in Leeds.

Click here: The early bird price expires on 31st Dec and there are only 12 spaces left.

Dont Cry Over Spilt Milk

Hi there, hope life is treating you well and you have not given up on the big dream. What, you don’t have a big dream?

One of my dreams as a young adult was to have children one day (Yes, Harriet Harman, I have 3 Ginger Children) and thankfully that dream became a reality and I absolutely love being a father and I’m learning so much by watching them grow.

This morning was nothing unusual, but I found myself learning something new once again. Ellis my son turned 3 this week and we have tried to teach all of our children to be independent and to do things for themselves. And from today that also includes pouring his own milk into his Mini Shreddies (product placement I know but it all helps).

“I’m doing it; I’m doing it, Daddy.” The look on his face was priceless. As the milk began to flow it eventually turned into what looked like Niagara Falls. “Ellis!!” I shrieked in an attempt to startle him and to get him to stop pouring. It didn’t work and the look on his face brought me back to my senses. I shouldn’t have shouted at him. It was a knee-jerk reaction and I knew that I shouldn’t have done it (I have forgiven myself).

Within a nano-second I knew that what was taking place was that my 3 year old son was growing. Not physically, but in trying to learn a new skill and pushing his boundary ever so slightly, his capacity to do things increased. Okay, it wasn’t perfect, but he had achieved what he set out to do. Maybe next time he would overfill the cereal again, but over time he would of course understand what he needed to do to get the right it right.



I learned a valuable lesson and it’s one that we all need to remind ourselves of. If we expect to get things perfect the first few times we do something and then give it up as a bad job, then none of us will ever come anywhere near to reaching our full potential.

As a Motivational Speaker it took me a good few years to become even reasonably good, and even after 600+ speaking engagements I am still learning. Last week I spent an afternoon with the wonderful Warren Evens who coached me some more on my new 3 hour session for Leaders (more about that later) as I want to make it the best that it can be (for now).

It Shouldn't Happen To A Speaker

Hi there!

You’ve probably here because, like me, you have seen quite a few speakers who you knew could have done a better job, or could have enhanced what they did, if only they had done this, that or the other. In fact, if you’re like me you have probably had something not go quite as planned whilst you were on stage in the past. For me, even though I have spoken professionally close to 600 times now, I am still surprised by what takes place, either when I am speaking at an event or if I am attending an event as a delegate. Whatever the reason for deciding to read this I hope that there might be something in there that will help you at some point in the future.

This is not an attempt to cover everything that a speaker might encounter, as it will only be those things that I’ve witnessed myself, and over time I will add my observations, confessions and suggestions to the next thrilling installment.

1) I’m not selling anything, promise

First up is not too bad, but it happened yesterday, so whilst it’s fresh in my mind I will get it down on paper (well on screen, but you get my drift). I was closing a conference for a Police Force and one of the speakers was covering personality types in his seminar. It was all very interesting, but when it came to one particular slide, which had a list of bullet points featuring what the outcomes could be when taking into account another’s personality type, the speaker read from the slide ‘Increased Sales’. There was no one in the audience that sold as they were members of the police force or support staff. The speaker did make an attempt at dealing with this by stating this could be replaced with ‘Better Communication’. It would not have taken him long to have replaced that bullet point to the one he spoke about. We must do all we can to keep as many audience members with us and a slight adjustment to the wording here would have stopped anyone thinking of anything other than what he wanted them to think about.

To download the rest of the FREE E-Book follow this link

What can we all learn from fish?

Fish: I love them and my wife does the most delicious fish pie too. Now, anyone with children might have the odd goldfish or two in the family home and we are no exception. We have two in our house and they go by the name of Wilma & John and they can eat for England. This morning was one of the days where I was not working in the morning so I could take it easy as I got myself ready. So there I was going through my usual routine of brushing my teeth first and through the mirror was Wilma and John trying to get my attention. There they were staring at me and moving both their noses (do fish have noses?) frantically in my direction. I ignored them. I went back into our bedroom and shortly after this I returned to get a shave, which I did in the sink. The same thing happened but I wasn’t having a pair of fishes (how many do you need to call it a school of fish) telling me what to do. As I had more time than I usually did this morning I decided on a bath rather than a shower. It was superb as I lay there, nice and relaxed, teeth cleaned, face shaved and……….hang on. There they were again. Wilma and John jumping about as though someone had dropped an electric iron into the bowl and were being electrocuted. I could take no more. I got out of the hot bath and reached over to where we kept the fish food, took some out and sprinkled some into the bowl. Peace at last.

Now I don’t know what it is you do or where you are in life, maybe you work for someone else, have your own business or its possible you are still at school. Whoever we are we need to get the attention of others. If we are in business we have to stand out from the competition. At work we have to be the one who goes the extra mile so when a promotion arises then you will be more highly thought of. If you are a young person then take a leaf (or possible a weed) out of Wilma’s and John’s book (bowl): get noticed.

As a motivational Speaker i'm constantly thinking about how iCan stand out and get the attention of those who might book me which is why I have recently had a new look to my website and a new speaker showreel.

Do have a great week and go on, get noticed.

iCan Speak

ICan Speak

One thing I was always told was that if there is something that I wished to do then I should find someone else already doing it successfully and model them. In fact it's what I have been doing a lot of my life. Whilst I was at the Yorkshire Post working as telesales canvasser I won an award for being the best on the team for the year. I won the award because I watched and listened to the best and essentially copied what they did. Of course with my own personality thrown in for good measure.

I now speak all over the UK, and in May the world (Switzerland) and many people contact me and ask me to help them along the way with their own speaking as I am now a very successful professional speaker. For that reason I have put my first 'iCan Speak' Training session together so that iCan not only share my presentation but also HOW I have managed to speak over 500 times since that journey begun in 2005.

It takes place on Weds 5th May at Shine in Leeds from 6-8pm. Click here for address.

There will also be representatives from The Professional Speakers Association and Toastmasters International, both of which were a massive help in my success, to say a few words about what they offer aspiring speakers.

Bonus Session: Lee Jackson will share his session "How to create exciting slides for your presentation".

If anyone is interested in attending and spaces are limited to 40 (and a number have gone already) then send an email expressing your interest to

Justine(at)Richardmccann.co.uk

Or register on Facebook here:

Or on Linkedin here:

Hope to see you there.