
Bruce Turkel
Bruce helps his audiences understand how to make their brands relevant to their customers and how to differentiate themselves from competitors.
Bruce is a sought-after speaker on the subjects of branding, creativity, innovation, and leadership. An accomplished passionate presenter, he gladly shares easy-to-follow, proven steps for building brand value with his audiences.
Bruce has an overarching theme for his talks: "it's all about them." Bruce instructs your audience members to focus on their customers, not their products or services, helping them to open their minds and discover their creativity. Drawing from his 30-plus years of ad agency experience, Bruce helps your audiences understand how to make their brands attractive to their customers, as well as how innovation can differentiate them from their competitors.
Bruce is captivating and insightful on stage. His unique presentations combine engaging wit, creative insights, thought-provoking ideas and smoking hot notes on his harmonica.
Satisfied audiences from Bruce's talks at MIT, Harvard, CHRIS and TEDx, and attendees at hundreds of corporate and industry events all agree that Bruce's message, entertainment value, and inspiration stick around long after the session is over. That's when your participants go back to work and think… differently.
Bruce was recently listed within the World's Top 30 Brand Professionals for 2021 by Global Gurus.
Bruce speaks with confidence and competence while triggering the audience to build solutions, which worked extremely well across our marketing organization.
Brand Director, Grey Goose Vodka
Bruce's presentation was spot on. It’s been a game changer. Taking his approach [already] fostered some truly meaningful engagement. I appreciated his commitment to helping all better ourselves and grow.
Compass
Many conference attendees commented on how much they enjoyed the presentation. What Bruce said had a profound impact on many people in the audience.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Walker & Dunlop
Sincere, entertaining, educational, and a real world way that our team really appreciated. We are beyond pleased that we selected Bruce to speak at our summit.
Chief Marketing Officer, Bacardi
Bruce was the highlight of our meeting! His subject was right on, and through our survey I received great reviews on his presentation.
COO, InterContinental Hotels Group
My speaking topics...
Is That All There Is?
How organizations can shift from The Great Resignation to The Great Retention
FORTUNE Magazine says the Great Resignation stunned business owners and employers. Today nearly two-thirds of U.S. workers are looking to change jobs or leave the workforce.
“Researchers have revealed turnover patterns that explain why so many are quitting in droves right now. Employers looking to stop the exodus should pay attention: Much of the onus is on them to give workers better reasons to stay. Research has shown that people tend to quit their jobs after experiencing a turnover shock: a life event that precipitates self-reflection… Shocks can be positive… or negative. Or they can be global catastrophes like COVID-19 that upend every aspect of daily life.”
Real estate professionals call these the Seven Ds—Divorce, Downsizing, Disease, Disability, Disaster, Debt, and Death. Besides the blessings of a larger family or greater income, they are the main reasons people sell their homes and move. They can also be the reasons why people decide to ditch their careers or their lifestyles, especially if you add two more Ds—Dissatisfaction and Disappointment.
Bruce Turkel explored this in his latest book, Is That All There Is‽ Bruce interviewed people who successfully pivoted to understand why, when, and how they changed their lives. His stories will clearly demonstrate how you and your company can move from uncertainty to clarity.
Your audiences will learn:
- Why workers are leaving their jobs in record numbers.
- What employers can do to stop the exodus and retain their people.
- How purpose drives retention in the new world of work.
- Proven ways to move from uncertainty to clarity in your business and your life.
Watch me...

All About Them
Less than 10 years ago the key to selling yourself was to promote how great you were. If you didn’t blow your horn, who would? And unless you could afford a robust advertising campaign, selling yourself was the only way anyone could learn about you.
Today everything’s changed. Today we each carry a thin wafer of silicon and glass that gives us immediate access to all the world’s knowledge. And all of your potential clients and customers have access to this same technology. This means they can know everything about you before they even step into your business.
Success today requires you to turn the lens around and focus relentlessly on your customer.
Bruce’s wildly entertaining presentation includes fascinating examples from Johann Sebastian Bach to The Wizard of Oz, from Andy Warhol’s excess to the Toyota Prius’ success, from the history of the Spanish Civil War to headlines ripped right out of today’s paper.
Your audiences will be enlightened, entertained, and educated by Bruce’s talk. They’ll come away thanking you for a great event AND a great plan for their future. And your audiences will learn:
- How to uncover the motivations of today’s consumer.
- The real leadership difference between features and benefits.
- The critical difference between content and context, and how it can multiply your sales.
- The special sales secrets that are hidden in plain sight.
- Why the traditional “Speeds & Feeds” sales strategy does not work anymore.
Watch me...

You Don't Need Social Media. You Need A Strategy
You don’t need social media. You don’t need a website. You don’t need mobile applications. You need a strategy. But before you create noise, you’ve got to know what you’re creating noise about and why anyone should care.
Bruce shows his audiences exactly how to build their brands online. He will show you how to take the best tools, tips, and techniques from the analog world and move them online where they will generate global interest and response.
Your audiences will learn:
- Why an unfocused online presence is like a tree falling in a forest.
- The danger of GMOOTs and how to avoid their traps.
- How to build a powerful brand that will make a difference online.
- How to tailor your message for each of the different social media.
- How to get the most bang for your buck and increase the echo effect.
Building Your Brand Value
Learn the seven simple steps to building, maintaining, and communicating a great brand. Bruce provides entertaining anecdotes and real-world examples to illustrate the finer points of brand building. Add significant value to your products by making your products more valuable to your customers.
In this talk, your audiences will learn:
- Why your brand is not about your company and why understanding this matters more than anything else you do.
- The critical secret to move your brand from company-centric to consumer-centric.
- How to determine your authentic truth and why it’s more important than the function of your products or services.
Watch me...

Defining Your Brand
BMW defines its brand essence with four words. Nike, GE and Wal-Mart use three.
Barack Obama sold the most powerful product in the world with two: “Hope” and “Change.”
In this multi-media speech, Bruce Turkel shows you how to reduce your brand message to its most practical, actionable, and compelling essence.
While they’re laughing, your audiences will also be learning:
- The three universal branding myths that are holding your company back.
- The simple difference that sets all great brands apart, and
- How to develop this game-changing difference for your brand.
Watch me...

See me...
https://www.odemanagement.com/presenters/bruce-turkel#sigProId2edbb8fb34

Is That All There Is?: What Are You Doing for the rest of Your Life?
Some of us work hard and achieve our dreams. We grow the business, raise and launch our kids, and settle in for the long haul. Some of us have our dreams interrupted - the market changes, a health crisis intervenes, we fail despite our best efforts, we make a mistake, or having reached our destination, we get bored. Whatever our circumstances, we inevitably find ourselves asking, “Is that all there is?”
Thus begins the search. Do we go back to school? Do we start a new business? Do we retire?
While the challenges are different for each of us, the question is universal. And Bruce Turkel has arrived with answers. Bruce’s widely-loved commentary and witty observations introduce a collection of engaging interviews with smart people who faced the same questions you are facing and are willing to share their experiences. You’ll discover personal stories of their own pivots - career changes, lifestyle shifts, and clever strategies for keeping life’s spark glowing. And every one of them are presented with the goal of helping you move forward in your own life.
Wondering what to do next? Start with this book!

Building Brand Value
Bruce Turkel explains how companies and individuals can build their brand value with simple, clear explanations, anecdotes, and illustrations.

Brain Darts: The Advertising Design of Turkel Schwartz & Partners
Turkel Schwartz & Partners is an advertising agency. Our clients pay us to get people's attention. Since 1983 we have been creating messages that catch attention and present ideas - no matter how busy or distracted our audiences are.Simple, powerful, often humorous messages break through the clutter and stick in the minds of the people we aim them at.We call this kind of communication Brain Darts - the simplest, most-powerful messages that talk to our consumers in a way that they'll understand, appreciate, remember, and act on.Easy? No.Exciting? Certainly.Successful? Absolutely.Come take a trip through this book and look at some of the brain darts we've created over the last 15 years.

New Design Miami: The Edge of Graphic Design
The New Design series celebrates some of the finest new design talents each featured city has to offer. This city-by-city tour is the insider's guide to dozens of design firms that are making an impact on the industry.
Selected by designers for designers, the work in these pages reveals what makes graphic design tick in the city of Miami. Fresh, new, and vital, this is a valuable collection for all design professionals, from advertising and media aficionados, to artists, educators, students, and all those with a strong interest in graphic design.

All about Them: Grow Your Business by Focusing on Others
The best companies and most successful salespeople live by a three-word mantra—"all about them"—because when they relentlessly focus their brand on their customers instead of themselves, their businesses flourish. All about Them shows readers how to use this simple but extremely powerful influencing technique. Bruce Turkel, who has advised some of the world's greatest companies, including American Express and Bacardi, lays the groundwork by relating his personal journey of discovery to the "All about Them" principle. He goes on to explore our technology-driven, hyper- connected culture; the power of storytelling (and story-selling); brand authenticity and transparency; and more.