From Magician To Safety Speaker and Safety Professional

Back in the fall of 1989 I was asked to do a magic show for the Modesto Fleet Operations of Pacific Gas and Electric for their 1990 safety kickoff. Each year as part of their kickoff they brought in entertainment. The previous year for the same event they had a Dixieland Jazz Band. All they wanted from me was to use “Safety” as the magic word. I had no idea this was the beginning of my career as a safety speaker.

At the time I was doing many corporate trade shows and events. At those I specialized in putting the company logo, message, theme, or other information in the magic tricks I performed. I would create custom patter to go along with all the effects I did. I thought it would enhance the magic show for the safety kickoff if I did the same for them. I am known for providing clients more than they expect.

I asked them to send me their safety statistics for the previous year and one of their safety manuals. I took those resources and wrote three magic routines which taught the safety concepts they believe in.

They were thrilled! Fortunately for me they had a policy that each safety kickoff chairman was expected to attend several other safety kickoffs beyond their own. This meant many kickoff chairpersons saw my routine. They immediately asked me if I could do their kickoff. The answer was yes and a new career began.

As I did more and more of their safety kickoffs they started using me for their safety awards banquets. My show was about thirty-percent safety material and seventy-percent entertainment for the award shows. I kept building more and more safety content so after a short time my safety content was about seventy-percent and the magic was about fifty percent. Now I know you just realized that added up to 120%. The reason was that much of the content was taught though entertaining magic tricks and stories.

Thankfully throughout my career as a safety motivational speaker, my clients shared with their associates and friends in the field of safety my effectiveness and the business began to build. I did safety magic for the Sacramento Safety Center’s annual safety convention. Because of the Sacramento Safety Center my reputation spread to the Los Angeles chapter of the National Safety Council. Joe Kaplan gave my first big break which was to have me speak at his annual safety conference in Anaheim California.

Joe asked me to develop a course for safety professionals, volunteers and trainers on how to be effective in their safety communication. This full day class, “Mastering Safety Communication” was first presented at his convention and then I would come to Southern California as a safety speaker and do the class three to four times per year for Joe. Joe was a true safety professional and made my career possible. Joe is one of the fictional characters in my book, “Would You Watch Out For My Safety?®”.

Because of what I learned from Larry Winget at a National Speaker’s Association workshop on product I wrote my first book which took it’s title from my full day course. That book, “Mastering Safety Communication” has now sold over 80,000 copies, more than any other book in the field of safety.

With my book published I took my presentations national. I did my first national safety meeting for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City.

In the years to come I would join the American Society of Safety Professionals and the National Safety Council. I spoke at their conferences every year.

That’s how it all started. I will add more soon please come back to catch up on updates. If you email me at john@drebinger.com and let me know I will notify you when I update this story.