Mark Schulman

Mark Schulman is a monster drummer who’s toured the world with some of the greatest rock and pop performers – before crowds as big as 225,000. He’s played with P!NK, Billy Idol, Cher, Stevie Nicks, Foreigner, Simple Minds, and others over his 32-year touring career. Mark is also amazing on another stage – as a speaker, where he delivers a rock show disguised as a keynote.

“I’ve learned about the importance of attitude as part of the touring family with these great performers,” Mark says as he unpacks the secrets of rockstar performance. His presentations translate lessons learned during a remarkable career into valuable tips for organizations, teams, leaders, and those who want to be their absolute best. Mark Schulman is a brilliant storyteller and performer who inspires audiences to engage and unleash their inner rockstar. Mark’s first book, Conquering Life’s Stage Fright, shows people how to harness doubt, fear, and anxiety to perform at their best when it matters most. His next book, The Attitude Equation, is slated for early 2024 release. Mark is also a judge and coach on an all-new original music competition television show called BANDED on AXS TV.

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Mark Schulman grew up in Los Angeles and is a classically trained cellist. As a teen, he played with the Los Angeles Junior Philharmonic. He later even played cello on the 2009/2010 P!NK tour.

During his unprecedented career over the last 32 years, Mark has been a first-call drummer for world-class rock and pop artists. He was voted “Top 3 Pop-Rock Drummers” in the Modern Drummer Readers Poll in 2014 and was the featured cover artist in the May 2019 issue of Modern Drummer. Mark did four record-breaking world tours with P!NK over 15 years.

Mark’s resume reads like a “Who’s Who” of international rock ‘n’ roll royalty, including acts such as Cher, Billy Idol, Foreigner, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, Beyonce, and so many other world-class artists. He has drummed with Velvet Revolver at Ozzfest and for a crowd of 225,000 at Glastonbury Festival with Simple Minds. Mark has appeared on nearly every American, European, and Australian variety show including the Grammy Awards, Late Night with David Letterman, The Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, American Idol, The Paul O’Grady Show, The X Factor, Wetten, dass..?, the ARIA Awards, and more.

Mark’s fan base extends way beyond the rock ‘n’ roll stage. Fans of his other career, as a top motivational speaker, exist at companies and organizations he’s spoken for, including American Express, Microsoft, IBM, DELL Cisco, Aveda, Kaiser, NCAA, SAP, and more. To date, Mark has performed over 2,000 keynotes, 1,000 music clinics, and for over a billion people.

Offstage, Mark is passionate about teaching and helping others. He was the chairman of Create Now!, a non-profit organization founded in 1996 to help change troubled children’s lives through creative arts mentoring. A cancer survivor himself, Mark has also motivated children and teens through his work doing seminars with the Ronald McDonald House and benefits for the Teenage Cancer Trust in the U.K.

An active educator, Mark taught at the Los Angeles Music Academy and is one of the world’s most sought-after drum clinicians, hosting clinics around the world. Mark produced his first instructional DVD in his studio, A Day in the Recording Studio; A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Recording Great Drum Tracks for Drummers and All Musicians distributed by Hudson Music. The Mark Schulman Signature Snare Drum is one of the best-selling signature products in the history of GRETSCH.

Mark’s first book, Conquering Life’s Stage Fright, shows people how to harness doubt, fear, and anxiety as it relates to any performance or presentation and transform that into clarity, capability, and confidence. Mark has finished his second book, The Attitude Equation, which lays out a powerful path to happiness and achievement: Attitude x Behavior = Consequence. Mark and his writing partner Dr. Jim Samuels have interviewed rockstar performers across all industries about how ATTITUDE has driven BEHAVIOR to produce world-class CONSEQUENCES in their lives. The book is slated for release in early 2024.

In May 2023, Mark became a judge and coach for an all-new original music competition television show called BANDED. The show redefines the “build-a-band” concept and pairs up-and-coming artists with top coaches. Besides judging, Mark will coach one of the rock outfits.

Hacking the Rockstar Attitude

The rockstar attitude can be summed up in five words: There are no small moments. Every detail is critical. Everything you do matters. The world’s greatest pop and rock artists share that attitude – something drummer MARK SCHULMAN learned first-hand after years of touring with acts like Cher, P!NK, Foreigner, Simple Minds, Stevie Nicks, and Billy Idol. Great performers in business are called rockstars, but true rockstars can teach the business world a lot about leadership, teamwork, resilience, engagement, and performing at the highest levels. Mark’s ultra high-energy presentation is where music, video, audience interaction, and the secrets of rockstar performance collide. He inspires audiences to hack the rockstar attitude to discover the joy and success that comes when they’re fully engaged – on purpose. It’s as simple as ABC: Attitude.Behavior.Consequences. Mark shows how creating that attitude shift – and viewing what you’re doing everyday as a performance – will literally change your life.

Mark tailors his talk to meet every group’s individual needs. Sample takeaways:

– World class performance by rockstars is no accident; learn and apply their secrets.

– Techniques to immediately shift your attitude to achieve better outcomes.

– Bring rock ‘n’ roll confidence into your work and life.

– A simple pre-show exercise rockstars use to amp up performance and engagement.

– How to drive better performance in yourself and those around you

Songwriting Workshop (keynote add-on)

It’s your turn…are you ready to ROCK? Mark breaks people into random groups and gives each group a package. The package contains lyrics to one of four famous songs. The goal is for each group to re-write the lyrics to the song they’ve been given, drawing on work and life experiences and incorporating as much humor and irony as they can muster. Each group then takes the stage to perform their creation, with the new lyrics on the big screen for all the other groups to see! The goal is to have as much fun as possible and learn something about teamwork, collaboration, innovation, creativity, and leadership in the process.

“The transformation is always astounding. You break into groups often times with people that you don’t know. The experience of creating something together pushes your comfort zone and brings out your best team-building, cooperation and communication skills. When you get to perform the song that YOU have created, it’s cathartic, joyful and you get to experience overwhelming support from an audience of your peers. This program is always a favorite. You will never see your associates the same way. You all literally become Rock Stars! You are creating a new sense of warmth and comradery that sticks- it’s indelible!”

– Mark Schulman

The Rockers Collective (keynote add-on or as a separate show)

The Rockers Collective is your own private Rock ‘n’ Roll dream team. These all-star musicians come together to create musical alchemy and any event becomes an experience – not just a performance. Add in the special ‘jam with the band’ component and multi-media backdrop and you have a supercharged and riveting show that your employees, clients and colleagues will not soon forget. If one of our core Rockers is on tour (hey, when SPRINGSTEEN or P!NK calls, we roll!), Rockers Collective has a variety of featured vocalists and instrumentalists from well-known acts who rotate into our lineups.