Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Celebrity Speakers With Scars Are Often Much More Interesting 5-20-25
Tue, 20 May 2025
In this episode, Scott Becker explores the surprising value of booking celebrity speakers who carry public controversy or personal setbacks.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. So today's discussion is celebrity speakers. that have some sort of stain on them and bear with me on this. And that's probably a horrible way of, of, of, of doing this, but I'll try and work on that title.
Chapter 2: What experiences does Scott have in booking celebrity speakers?
But, but here's been my experience in booking celebrity speakers for a hundred years, top in a hundred years, spent 33 years. I don't want to date myself, but we've been using speakers at events for a very long time. And, and, and this discussion comes a little bit out of, you know, this past week, Kevin Glantz Armstrong booked for the McGuire Woods Health Care Private Equity Conference.
Chapter 3: Which notable speakers have been booked in the past?
You know, over the years, we've had David Faraday speak. We've had Rick Pitino speak, Bill Clinton speak. Then we've also had lots of people that have not been particularly sustained in some way or another or marred in some way or another. Hillary Clinton, President Bush. Lou Alcindor slash Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and a host more that have not had particularly a knock on them.
Chapter 4: What challenges are faced when booking speakers with controversies?
So here is the great challenge in picking a celebrity speaker that has had some sort of knock on them. Rick Pitino had this whole scandal at one of his coaching jobs. People thought he would never coach again. Of course, he came back and has had this crazy success at St. John's this last year.
Chapter 5: How can a scandal enhance a speaker's appeal?
Lance Armstrong, the most decorated American cyclist of all time, turned out plenty of doping scandals and all kinds of things. And so that sort of took away from his reputation. But he came to speak last week. David Faraday had had some substance issues, some other issues, but just fantastic to listen to.
Chapter 6: What makes speakers with personal setbacks interesting?
Bill Walton over the years, a character of characters, talked openly about sometimes recording an LSD and announcing an LSD and no one better than Bill Walton. But what I have found fascinating over the years is the people that have a little bit of scandal, and regardless of how they handle it, whether they're overly apologetic, whatever their position is, they are interesting often.
And that's not good nor bad, but they are interesting. There are so many people that might have criticized the choice of Lance Armstrong as a speaker at the McGuire-Woods Health Care Private Equity Conference, but I can tell you this. The room was full. The room was explosive. Lance went and did a separate fitness thing at Barry's boot camp.
It was organized by Holly Buckley and Jeff Cockrell and team. And just was fascinating and loved and interesting. And I think sometimes these people that have been stained or scathed, You have a new humility to them, and particularly then, they're really sort of a pleasure in their own way, and they are interesting.
Like when you talk about the perfect person – and I'm not sure who the perfect person is – the perfect person is… And again, we've had Arnold Schwarzenegger speak over the years who might have thought it was perfect. People thought it might have been this perfect story of bodybuilder to movie star to governor.
But then, of course, it turned out he impregnated the maid and had a baby with the maid and ended up in a horrendous divorce. with one of the scions of the Kennedy family. And of course, makes Arnold bad, but also makes Arnold more interesting. Not good or bad, but interesting. And so anyways, this is my thought today. Like when somebody asked me, is it okay if we book Lance Armstrong?
You know, you always know you're going to get some criticism from people. And it can't be somebody who does things so bad. Like I would never book Kanye or somebody who's a racist or a hater or a horrible, horrible mean person.
Of course, you can't book those kinds of people regardless, not only because they're morally reprehensible, because they're morally reprehensible, but people that have had some scars, celebrities with some scars, often make the best speakers. And again, this is sort of the shout out to the job of the team at McGuire Woods who booked Lance Armstrong.
It's also the shout out to Lance Armstrong for being so engaging, willing to own whatever he owns, but really explosively interesting. God bless those choices. My own perspective is celebrities with scars are often far more interesting. Thank you for listening to the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the podcast. Thank you very, very much.
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