Grady Jim Robinson is a writer, humorist and storyteller. His tales about growing up in Arkansas as the second son of a football coach have been published in Sports Illustrated, Reader's Digest and dozens of other magazines. Many of his stories share the common theme of a young boy struggling to find manhood, parental approval and acceptance through sports. He later played college basketball and semi-pro baseball. His experience as both a minister and standup comic ("As a minister I was way too funny and as a comedian I was way too serious") led to the lecture circuit as an inspirational humorist where he combined sermonizing and funny stories. He joined the National Speakers Association in 1979 and became a fulltime professional speaker and freelance writer. He has written radio scripts for legendary speakers Art Linkletter and Zig Ziglar. He also wrote a popular column for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Aware that his childhood stories connect with audiences at a mysteriously soulful level, he sought deeper understanding of storypower. Through a study of the work of Joseph Campbell, he found that his stories are exact psychological parallels to Hero's Journey myths; from Beowulf, to Star Wars to Lonesome Dove. His book "Did I Ever Tell You About The Time..." (McGraw-Hill 2000) explores the mythological and psychological impact of a personal story. He is also the author of "The InnerAxis Golf Swing", the story of his life long pursuit of the perfect golf swing. From the struggle with dozens of external physical components to the flow of the InnerAxis. Grady Jim divides his time between Palm Desert, Ca., where he plays golf and dreams of the senior tour, and the Arkansas Ozarks where he works in a garden and pursues big bass and a masters degree in creative writing at the University of Arkansas. Titles How the World Works One Leg at a Time The Reinvention of Work Leader as Hero and Helper Women are from Venus and Men are Still Hunting Big Game! Topics Humor, Communication, Motivation, Change Click topic above to see more speakers on that topic Speaker's Asking Fee Range $5,000 - $7,499 Click on fee range to see more speakers. This is the starting keynote fee range - other programs may be higher. State AR Click on state above to see more speakers from that state. Fees The fee range quoted means the speaker's fee starts somewhere within that range. Note that speaker's fees are subject to change and some speakers may have special fee quotes.