Kurt Schoonraad is one of South Africa’s most instantly recognisable stand-up comedians and now Keynote Speaker on Sales.

With his earthy humour and comedic range he connects with audiences from every corner of South Africa, not to mention internationally, even making the front page of the New York Times.

The actor and comedian says that hailing from Mitchell’s Plain in Cape Town, one of South Africa’s largest townships, Kurt Schoonraad was highly influential in developing his sense of humour and comedy style.

Diversity

Google it. You’ll find that Google itself has no idea how to explain it. We are living in a world where we are not all cut from the same cloth. Everyone has their own cross to carry, a past, present and future.

Kurt would like the chance to share the importance of diversity in the workplace and why it shouldn’t just be ‘accepted’ or tolerated  but understood and celebrated.

Sympathy is no longer adequate. Empathy needs to become like second nature for us, so that we can allow ourselves to imagine walking in other peoples shoes.

Who is sitting at the desk next to you?
Do you know why your fellow co-worker is always coming in 10 minutes late?
Or have you written them off as lazy and lacking punctuality? 

Sales

Picking up the phone and hearing a call center agent say the very generic “Hello, how are you,” immediately results in irritable clients.

So how do you innovatively captivate the person on the other side of the line?

Kurt Schoonraad is confident that the planning system stand-up comedians’ use on stage can be implemented in sales and equate to an increase in business. channel