How Benjamin books life-changing keynotes (with the Primal Question)
6 ways the Primal Question transformed his keynote speaking career.
Hey friend,
Welcome back to the Primal Question Newsletter.
I know many of you are interested in speaking, so I want to tell you about my friend Benjamin Lundquist and the amazing ways he’s using the Primal Question to shift rooms as a professional speaker.
He’s been a pastor and speaker for over 20+ years.
He’s the host of the Top 1% Podcast, Rise and Lead, reaching 155 countries.
Now he facilitates Primal Question workshops and keynote messages for major organizations like Kaiser Healthcare, Nike, and more!
Here he is speaking about The Seven Primal Questions at the College Football Hall of Fame!
This story is special to me because it takes us back to the beginning…
Benjamin was in the room the very first time I spoke publicly about The Seven Primal Questions.
It was at the Thrive Conference at Bayside Church in the spring of 2023. There was no Primal Question PRO Certification yet. No online assessment. I don’t even think the book had officially launched.
These were the early days when I was still fine-tuning the model with my private clients.
I wasn’t even sure how it would land in a large setting, but apparently, it struck a chord.
Benjamin was there with his team of 30 to 40 ministry leaders. Afterwards, they couldn’t stop talking about it. For weeks, they kept bringing up their Primal Questions, over and over.
He realized something was happening in them that he hadn’t seen with any other framework. So he went all in.
At first, it had nothing to do with speaking or building a business. He wasn’t using it to coach clients. He didn’t even plan to bring it into his podcast or pastoring.
He started using it to work on his marriage.
“My wife, Kim, was trying to work through her complicated childhood and had hit a dead end as an adult,” he told me. “She didn’t have clarity - we didn’t have clarity. The dots weren’t connecting, and I didn’t have the answers to help her.”
They spent the next 3 months working on their marriage with the Primal Question.
It transformed their relationship so much that Ben reached out to have me on his Rise and Lead podcast to talk more about it. (You can listen to that specific episode here.)
After that one conversation, I knew he had something to offer the world. So I invited him to join the very first version of the Primal Question Coach Certification. He said yes, and the Primal Question started to transform his speaking and coaching in the same way it transformed his life and marriage.
The Primal Question, combined with his personal story of transformation, began to exponentially expand his impact and multiply his speaking opportunities.
When I asked Benjamin what made the difference, he gave me six things that stand out about the Primal Question framework.
6 Ways the Primal Question Transformed Benjamin’s Keynote Speaking
1. It will transform your life before it transforms anyone else’s.
Benjamin told me, “You can’t teach a framework to transform others unless that framework has first transformed you.”
This isn’t theory Benjamin memorized from me and repeated word-for-word. It’s the tool that transformed his own marriage. When a framework has actually changed your life, there’s a different kind of passion when you’re standing on a stage. Audiences feel that passion, and they find themselves in your story.
That’s what makes a keynote powerful.
2. It creates deeper impact than anything he’s seen in 20 years of speaking.
He told me, “The Primal Question framework has equipped me with teaching and workshop content that transforms rooms more than any other content I have shared in 20 years.”
That’s a bold claim from someone who speaks professionally.
To illustrate his point, he told me about a powerful moment from a recent workshop for Kaiser Healthcare.
After he gave his 45-minute talk, a man lingered in the back, clearly waiting to talk to Ben. Benjamin walked up and asked how he was doing. The man said the framework connected dots he’d been trying to connect for years. It was making everything make sense.
Benjamin asked what he did for a living.
The guy was a brain surgeon.
If a brain surgeon can be confused about what’s driving his life, so can anyone. That’s not a knock on him. It’s the whole point. This kind of confusion doesn’t care how smart you are, how successful you are, or how many degrees you have. It lives underneath all of that.
Benjamin’s talk cut to the core problem and created profound clarity.
Now Kaiser has hired him to give the same talk three more times.
3. It resonates with both faith and non-faith audiences.
Benjamin told me, “This is the only framework I’ve ever seen where it can be equally applied with great impact to faith and non-faith spaces.”
Before the Primal Question, Benjamin’s leadership content was primarily focused on serving faith communities. It worked beautifully in churches and ministry settings, but it didn’t quite translate to the corporate world.
Here’s what’s interesting…
The Primal Question has become the bridge for him between the two spaces. He told me, “Everyone is confused. Faith people are confused. And corporate people are confused.” Because the Primal Question speaks to this universal human experience of confusion, it serves every person in the room.
Case in point, Benjamin recently spoke at the College Football Hall of Fame - sharing the same stage with some of the biggest speakers in the world like Eric Thomas and Inky Johnson.
He taught the framework, and at the end, there was a spontaneous altar call. 250 people left their chairs and came to the front of the room. He told me, “I didn’t even ask for that. There was just so much resonance that people left their chairs and came up. The message gave people hope that clarity and transformation is possible for them,”
4. It creates massive value in the moment, not months later.
Benjamin told me, “The value-add is so instant. It’s not a delayed thing where you have to work on this for three, four, or nine months to see any results. The value is created in the moment. In the room. In real time.”
As he’s teaching the framework, he sees light-bulb moments coming on for people all over the room. He watches them start mouthing to themselves, “That’s it. That’s my question.” Or, “That’s my wife’s question.” Or, “This makes complete sense.”
Of course, there’s always more you can unpack after a keynote when it comes to application and integration. But that moment of instant clarity is what makes people walk out of the room and start telling other people about it.
5. It opens doors through coaching conversations, not marketing.
Benjamin told me, “The majority of my keynote and workshop opportunities have come from one-on-one conversations with decision makers.”
Instead of walking them through a pitch deck, he coaches them on their Primal Question. He’ll say, “Can we meet at a coffee shop for 45 minutes? Whether or not we work together, I’ve got something that’s going to transform your life.” By the end of that conversation, the executive has been deeply impacted.
He told me most people have the same exact response…
“I wish my team had been here for this. What would it take to bring you in for a workshop?”
Just like that, the door is wide open. The workshop leads to a rebooking. And the momentum keeps building because people get transformed.
6. It gives you permission to make the model your own.
When I asked if Benjamin had any final thoughts to share, he wanted me to tell you this:
“Mike is not inviting you to share Mike’s stories. Mike is equipping you with a proven tool that you can combine with your unique perspective and your unique stories in a way that will shift rooms and change the lives of people.”
He’s exactly right. I’m not looking for people to go out and be a second Mike Foster. I’m looking for people who want to take this framework, make it their own, and use their unique voice and experience to transform the people around them.
Benjamin is the perfect example of that.
And his story is one of many.
Every cohort, I watch coaches, counselors, pastors, and leaders take this framework and build something I never could. They bring their own stories, their own audiences, and their own calling to the table.
The Primal Question gives them a proven way to create the kind of impact they’ve always wanted to make.
I can’t wait to see what the next group does with it.
Warmly,
Mike Foster
P.S. Speaking of the next group, early registration for the March 30 cohort opens tomorrow at 9 AM Eastern. There are only 30 spots, and the last two cohorts sold out within 24 hours, so if you’re on the waitlist, be ready.
I’ll send a private link first thing in the morning.
If you’re not on the early access list, you missed the cutoff this time around, but keep an eye out for future cohort announcements.
P.P.S. Do you have a question for Benjamin?
Reach out to him directly on Instagram or inquire about booking him to speak with your team here.