About me
For your first impression of Jon Christoph Berndt
Those who actively shape the future know better what will happen and what they will get involved in; and shape their own future. But where to start and what to do in the age of too many possibilities?
Jon Christoph Berndt is the navigator in the process of transformation. In his speeches and workshops, he gives refreshing arguments for moving forward right now. And as an executive coach, he accompanies strong personalities all the way to the best version of themselves. Those who experience it stop talking about “change” and “disruptive” – and know exactly what it takes for them to be ready for the future instead. And go for it!
JCB lives what he says: “If you want to move people forward, you need to touch them!” And he knows that everyone can contribute something to the best version of his future. He brings these convictions to the stage. He does not speak to, but with his listeners – and makes them constructively affected at eye level: “He means me!” Exactly, who else?
JCB does not hold speeches and workshops off the shelf, after all, his audience is not. His conviction: “Who laughs, learns!” In a humorous way, he brings striking arguments for the new thinking and action of agile, forward-looking companies. With the focus on the people, who – especially in digital times – have to go there as inspiring as they are enthusiastic. Only who feels, thinks and acts will be successful. He then is future-proof, has the profiled face in the crowd and deservedly gets his share of what JCB calls “the strongest currency in the world”: real appreciative attention. Such companies and people are heard, make sense and sell better. JCB is making sure that it will come true.
JCB is often in the media and author of numerous non-fiction books and guides. (In doing so, his readers know that he writes each line himself.) With Brandamazing Management Consulting in Munich, he provides companies and their employees as well as self-employed and freelancers with more profile, attention and marketing success. And he is a lecturer in Personal Branding at the University of St. Gallen.
JCB is the leading specialist in profiling, getting attention and sales success. He speaks worldwide, in German and in English.
Belonging to a meaningful about page and first impressions is what my beliefs are. I stand for it, to
- give a face to all the agility, disruption, transformation instead of just talking about it
- lead people out of their “If I would” and “If I could” and into their conscious, planned and consistent actions
- inspire people so that they inspire other people
- effectively countering the “Faster-Upper-Wider“-Madness with purpose and content
- turn potential customers into real customers and then fans
- make companies and freelancers future-proof: they will become future-ready.
Anyone who walks with me takes it as much for serious then me. He will learn and grow (and find that all this is a lot of fun as well).
People open themselves up to the new, the uncomfortable, the astonishing, especially when they are touched as well as incited. Then their expression says, “He means me!” Then I say, sure, who else? That’s my mission – to touch people. To get them out of the comfort zone, away from the “actually” and “maybe”, from lateral thinking to lateral acting. The actor on television prefers to play in the theater. He then immediately gets all the reactions of the audience. Every reaction is a good one, even for me. I polarize, and while working with me, cuddle zone is elsewhere. I’m a keynote speaker because I move people to think and act for themselves. And to stop talking about “disruptive” and “transformative”, but finally to be like that!
Valuable impulses that promote progress must really be internalized and cultivated over the long term. Only if that succeeds, behavioral changes are permanent and people really make faster progress. A keynote speech and a workshop do important things here; they affect, break up and spur on. However, for departure and change not to be fleeting (or even a one-hit wonder), continuous training is needed. This needs to be attuned to the most diverse people in the organization with their respective situation and challenge.
Once started, the institutionalized, professional accompaniment of change must not cease. It ensures results and makes them measurable, sets new goals and ensures that both the person and the organization have a legitimate chance to become the best version of himself or itself. This advancement is as fascinating for me as it is again and again challenging. I strive for that – as part of my vocation. That’s what the client experiences.
Man is always the most important thing – not despite, but because of developments in algorithms, artificial intelligence and robotics. And he will always be. To find out which is his best way (and to make clear that all the other possible ways are not for him), he needs the sparring partner on an equal footing, who understands him and reflects, demands and encourages. It’s not about the perfect picture – it’s about the most personal picture.
I’m a coach because I want my client to find his way and his destination easier and faster than I did. In retrospect, from time to time, I would have wished for this one person to go with me, to point me ahead and to challenge and encourage me. I am the right person for people with a demanding CV and in leading position.
An “About me“ page with quality content needs the personal story as well. For me, it all starts in the Palatinate, where I grow up as protected as happy and satisfied: playing in the mud (and not on the Playstation), going to school by bike (and not in an SUV), returning home when the streetlights tackle (and not when the smartphone rings). Later on, I ride a moped and write for the local newspaper. Since you know your readers, many like everything about you, from the first sentence to the last word, and are pleased when once a great article about them appears. Sooner or later, this always happens … And I’m a projectionist, out of love for the cinema: for example, “Ghostbusters” (the theme song I still remember by heart), “Indiana Jones”, “Dirty Dancing” (the theme song a fortiori).
Everything great so far – and well-behaved. Therefore the idea: Maybe moving to Munich, to the German School of Journalism? The big step, 35 seats for 900 applicants, I’m in! My teachers are, for example, Günther Jauch and Giovanni di Lorenzo, German media gurus: sympathetic in their dealings, unbending in the matter, tip for tip the hard school worth. I work with great people for newspapers, magazines and TV stations. Then I study architecture and then stop again, study political science and journalism to the very end instead.
I join the advertising field in Düsseldorf and Michael Schirner ad agency. At that time, he ist the “Pope of Adverstising” in Germany. I work as a copywriter, conceptionist and consultant for clients like German Post, Nikon, Schweppes, Honda, Stern Magazine … and get my first own e-mail address! All that is perfect for a couple of years. Then there is the question of meaning coming up: always just that one idea, that one sentence in a 30-second commercial, the 2-page ad in a magazine, all these brochures tob e produced in 8 languages …? Staying or leaving? This is followed by stopovers in the ad industry in Hamburg, New York and Frankfurt.
2 main questions move me to the next, most important step:
- What comes before all advertising, marketing, communication? How does one find the basis on which a company takes on its right to exist? Its “For what” (the “Purpose”) makes that clear. In former time, that was called “the brand” (one can still call it like that today – or “the identity”).
- What is more important than all these smart buildings, all these black company cars, all these products and services? It’s the people! They should know, want and be able to – and turn the company they work for into something irrestistibly tangible and desirable. Then they become brand ambassadors and tell their strongest stories, on the basis of all their experience and with their own “For what”, their Personal Brand. They create the true and valuable content that makes others feeling touched – and buying.
From this follows my call-to-action: In the year 2005 the foundation of Brandamazing Management Consulting in Munich. There, our main focuses are
- to profile and brand companies like Swiss Life Select, Bauerfeind, Wolf-Garten
- to turn employees into ambassadors and therefore empower them to become the best version of themselves at work as well as in their private life; with keynote speeches, workshops, training and coaching.
(Hint: More about me my readers find in my books and – as well as my non-readers – in the social media.)
DOWNLOAD MY SPEAKER PROFILE
- Navigator in the transformation
- Leading specialist in profiling, getting attention and sales success
- Moves you forward
