Expo attendees at Monday’s keynote luncheon were highly entertained by author, comedian and world-class guitarist Mike Rayburn. But the true takeaway from the event was Rayburn’s talent as an inspirational thought leader.

Employing storytelling, humor and impromptu songs on his guitar, including the wild mix of a Led Zeppelin tune with Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham lyrics and an original twist on Taylor Swift’s You Belong With Me, he kept his audience engaged while serving up a deeper message—to never be satisfied with ‘what is,’ to always ask ‘what if?’

“Remember that there’s a purpose; you are serving a greater good. You are helping people to achieve their own goals. That’s something to take to work in the morning. Remember that you are working for a purpose rather than a paycheck. If we focus on that purpose, the paycheck takes care of itself,” he said. He urged his listeners to become possibility thinkers for their own teams, clients and for themselves.

As a check-in toward the end of his presentation, Rayburn he asked for a volunteer from the audience to share an idea of how he or she might use the information he’d been talking about. Dawn Hays, MAS, of Sunrise Identity in Nashville quickly stood up and shouted out: “What if you changed your verbiage to say, ‘we get to’ rather than ‘we have to.’

“Yes!” Rayburn said. ‘You’ve got it. You get to meet this person. I get to do this. Everything is about mindset. When you change your verbiage, you change your mindset.” (As a thank you, he gave her his back-up guitar along with a case and wall hanger—and said he would sign it after the session.) Now that’s a memorable speaker!