PROFESSIONAL SPEAKING

Better conversations don’t happen by accident.

Anthony Stears is The Conversation Architect — a professional speaker who helps people understand what makes conversations work, why they sometimes go wrong and how small changes to the way we communicate can create very different results.

Known for many years as the Telephone Assassin, Anthony built his reputation helping people get through barriers, open doors, create opportunities and influence others into action. Today, his work goes much wider than the telephone, exploring how better conversations can improve customer experience, sales, leadership, confidence and the way people work together.

His talks combine practical ideas, emotional intelligence, real-world experience and plenty of humour. The objective isn’t simply to entertain an audience for an hour. It’s to get them thinking differently about the conversations they have every day — and give them something they can actually use when they get back to work.

EnterTRAINment

Because people learn more when they’re engaged.

Anthony describes his approach as EnterTRAINment.

The audience should enjoy themselves. There should be energy, interaction, stories and plenty of humour — Anthony is regularly asked whether he’s a comedian as well as a speaker.

But the entertainment has a purpose.

Anthony uses it to keep people engaged while introducing practical ideas they can understand, remember and actually use.

Anthony helps audiences understand why conversations work rather than simply handing them clever lines to memorise.

They’ll be entertained. They’ll be involved. But most importantly, they’ll leave with something they can use.

Talks designed around the conversations that matter

Every audience is different, so Anthony doesn’t believe in changing the logo on the first slide and delivering exactly the same presentation regardless of who’s sitting in front of him. Talks can be shaped around the event, the audience and the conversations that matter most to them.

Popular keynote themes include:

Making Every Conversation Count

How small changes to the way we approach conversations can build trust, create opportunities and produce better outcomes with customers, colleagues and teams.

The Conversation STEARS

Anthony’s practical framework for understanding what makes conversations work and helping people take action — without relying on scripts or sounding like somebody they’re not.

Inviting the Elephant to Dance

A practical and entertaining look at the conversations people often avoid: why we find them difficult, what may really be happening underneath them and how changing our approach can make them much easier to have.

Conversation Architecture

Important conversations shouldn’t be left entirely to chance. Anthony introduces the principles of Conversation Architecture — helping audiences understand how to design the structure around a conversation while still allowing the person having it to listen, respond and sound like themselves.

Service Drives Sales

How better customer conversations improve the customer experience while naturally creating more opportunities to connect, help and sell — without turning everybody into a stereotypical salesperson.

Communication Culture

How the conversations happening throughout an organisation shape customer experience, leadership, confidence and culture — and what happens when better conversations become everyday habits.

Twenty minutes or two hours — let’s make it count.

Sometimes an event needs a punchy 20-minute session that gets an audience thinking.

Sometimes it needs a keynote.

And sometimes there’s an opportunity to go much further.

With longer sessions, Anthony can take the EnterTRAINment further, introducing more interaction, exercises and opportunities for people to apply what they’re learning. Conversation Architecture™ workshops can run from around 90 minutes through to half-day sessions, allowing the audience to move beyond simply hearing the ideas and start experimenting with them.

And yes, when the audience and event make it appropriate, Anthony has been known to get people making real calls during the session.

Because learning something in a conference room is one thing.

Discovering that it actually works is considerably more powerful.

More than a speaker slot

Where the event format allows, Anthony prefers to be part of the day — not simply arrive, speak and disappear.

That might mean joining a speaker lunch table, contributing to a panel, running a breakout, signing books or staying around so delegates can continue the conversation.

He can also help before the event, recording promotional videos to build interest and get bums on seats, and afterwards, with a short video capturing the day’s gems or an optional follow-up webinar to help people put the ideas into practice.

For an organiser, that means you’re not necessarily booking Anthony for the 45 or 60 minutes his name appears on the programme.

You’re bringing The Conversation Architect into the event.

Not just a keynote. A conversation that continues.

It doesn’t have to finish with the applause

A keynote can create energy and give people new ideas. But some of the most useful questions only appear once they’ve tried those ideas for themselves.

For events where longer-term impact matters, Anthony can provide a follow-up webinar, giving people time to put the learning into practice before coming back to share results, ask questions and troubleshoot what happened in the real world.

He can even build a challenge into the event itself, giving delegates something practical to try before the follow-up.

Because a great keynote should be remembered. A useful one should change something.

From Telephone Assassin to The Conversation Architect

Anthony’s ideas didn’t start in a keynote presentation.

They developed through years of having the conversations himself.

Long before professional speaking became such a significant part of his work, Anthony worked as an outsourced sales and marketing manager for multiple businesses at the same time. He had to generate opportunities, get through gatekeepers, develop relationships and get people talking.

His unusual ability to get through barriers and open doors eventually earned him the nickname The Telephone Assassin.

But the more Anthony studied and taught those conversations, the clearer something became.

The telephone wasn’t really the interesting bit. The conversation was.

Why does one approach make somebody defensive while another gets them talking? Why do people trust one person and resist another? What creates confidence? What makes somebody comfortable taking a next step? And why do organisations leave so many important conversations entirely to chance?

Those questions eventually led to Anthony’s work in Conversation Architecture — helping people understand and design the conditions for better conversations rather than scripting exactly what somebody should say.

Today, as The Conversation Architect, Anthony applies those principles across sales, customer experience, leadership and business.

The mission behind it is surprisingly simple:

Improve the conversations happening in business — and see what else starts to improve as a result.

See The Conversation Architect in action

A speaker who knows the speaking business

Anthony is a Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association, recognition of his experience and contribution to professional speaking.

He also served as President of the Association’s London region from 2020 — just before Covid moved everything online — through to 2022, and has spoken to audiences at conferences, company events, associations, sales kick-offs and leadership events.

But credentials aren’t what Anthony wants an audience talking about on the way home.

He’d much rather hear:

“I’m going to try that tomorrow.”

What could The Conversation Architect bring to your event?

You might need twenty minutes that changes the energy in the room. A keynote that gives everybody something useful to take away. Or a longer session where people can interact with the ideas and start putting them into practice.

Whatever the format, we’ll start with your audience and what you want the event to achieve.

Then Anthony can architect the conversation around them.