Biography of Ross Shafer

Ross Shafer didn’t start out as one of the country’s funniest motivational speakers. He was reared in the rugged timberlands of the Pacific Northwest where his father worked for Arco and his mother had her hands full raising three boys. Ross made an unlikely student body president in high school and as an All-Conference football player, was awarded a scholarship to the University of Puget Sound – a small NCAA-II school where Ross was often the player voted most likely to be "shaken up on the play." He earned his BA degree is Business Marketing within four years…an achievement he's convinced is a football team record.

After college, Ross worked hard writing ad copy for desperate carpet companies ("3 Rooms for $399!") and blew his savings on what he was sure would be the "next big thing." Ross invested everything he had (and lost it) in "SOUNDS OK, America's Only Stereo and Pet Shop." Business failures aside, Ross started getting laughs at various comedy club open mic nights and won the 1983 Showtime Comedy Laugh Off. Soon Ross began to open shows for Dionne Warwick, Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle, Neil Sedaka, and other famous people with good voices.

In 1984, Ross was approached by Seattle television station KING-TV to write and produce a weekly comedy/talk show, and the concept took off! In the five seasons Ross was at the helm of Almost Live, the show won 36 Emmy Awards - six going to Ross for his work as Host, Actor, and Writer – as well as the prestigious IRIS award for the "Best Local Entertainment Series" in the United States. And it was during his time at Almost Live that Ross actually created Bill Nye, The Science Guy!

These were busy times; in addition to hosting a daily afternoon radio program on KJR-AM, Ross became a contributor to Dick Clark's TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes. He appeared with Dick as a guest when he led a campaign to change the official Washington state song to "Louie, Louie." Believe it or not, 5,000 people stormed the capitol...chanting Louie, Louie...forcing the governor out of his office to address this important issue. Esquire magazine named the campaign a "Dubious Achievement of the Year."

By this time, Ross was getting a lot of national attention and the USA Network hired him to host their game show, Love Me, Love Me Not. He also hosted game show pilots for NBC and ABC, wrote and produced two Ross Shafer Comedy TV Specials and had a recurring role on Fox Television's hit show 21 Jump Street. When Fox released Joan Rivers as the host of their flagship late night program (cleverly titled The Late Show), which competed against Johnny Carson and David Letterman, Ross was hired as the host. Still continuing to hone his stand-up act, Ross was a frequent guest star on shows such as Evening At The Improv, Comic Strip Live, The A List, and eventually moved on to a nightly ABC entertainment magazine where he co-hosted with Matt Lauer and Spencer Christian.

Surprising his associates and friends (and himself a bit), Ross became a published author. A far as we know, he invented the genre of comedy cookbooks. His book Cook Like A Stud featured 38 recipes men can prepare in the garage using their own power tools. He also wrote and produced the highly acclaimed comedy CD, Inside the First Family, which the White House Weekly called, "The funniest send up of the Clinton Scandals." One of his most proud achievements was the successful run as host of ABC-TV's New Match Game. The show still plays every morning on the Game Show Network.

Corporate and association audiences have become fascinated by Ross's story of

'Failed Pet Shop Manager turned Network TV Host.’ Now he is in demand as a Keynote Speaker, seminar leader and event emcee. In l994, he started writing and producing funny human resource films on the subject of customer service and motivation (14 to date); they are distributed worldwide in seven languages. After Ross spent time on the speaking circuit, he noticed a disturbing trend…a lot of the so-called 'motivational speakers' had never actually worked in the trenches! And they were preaching clichés, not truth. This prompted Ross to write the critically acclaimed book, Nobody Moved Your Cheese!, to encourage people to trust their own gut and be accountable for their own success. Ross reinvented himself and went from comedian to "expert," but he still maintains his electric sense of humor to this day. As his friend Jay Leno put it, "Finally a motivational speaker, without the speech!"

Ross’ latest books, The Customer Shouts Back! and Customer Empathy are a result of 11 years of customer response research. He recently founded The Customer Empathy Institute™ because he’s convinced the reason customer service hasn't improved, is because we haven't tried to understand the customer's emotional state before, during, and after the transaction. When you book Ross Shafer for your event, your audience is guaranteed to laugh, see their business in a new way, be inspired to trust their gut and fulfill their own potential.