Ken Schmidt
Authentic Leadership and Customer Loyalty Expert; Senior Role in Harley-Davidson Turnaround; and Author, Make Some Noise: The Unconventional Road to Dominance
About
It’s an impersonal world, where so many products and services are seen as easily-replaced, indistinct commodities. Whether you stand out or get lost in the crowd is a choice. A mindset. Ken Schmidt faced those same challenges himself and gained acclaim for his role in the extraordinary turnaround of the legendary Harley-Davidson Motor Company. That transformation was based on a change in mindset and a focus on answering three key strategic questions. While times have changed, what humans want and need from the businesses they buy from and work for hasn’t.
In his high-energy speeches, Ken inspires companies and individuals to shift their thinking and ride a path to success by becoming memorable – not for what they do or what they make, but for how they connect with people.
Ken is author of Make Some Noise: The Unconventional Road to Dominance. He’s also host of the Tailgating with Geniuses podcast and co-founder of Torque Sessions Leadership Training. In all of his endeavors, Ken brings an unconventional perspective that helps organizations and individuals reframe how they engage with their marketplace.
Ken Schmidt’s career in the motorcycle industry began in 1985 as a specialist in corporate positioning and media relations for the then-struggling Harley-Davidson. He was tasked with helping the company restore its image, improve its competitiveness, and create demand for its motorcycles. Within a few short years, sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles skyrocketed, and the company returned to prominence as one of the most respected, profitable, and frequently reported-on companies in the world.
In 1990, Ken became director of Harley-Davidson’s corporate and financial communications, serving as its primary spokesperson to the media and the financial communities. He frequently appeared in mainstream and business media to offer insights on nontraditional communications, customer attraction, and brand-building. His expertise and success at Harley-Davidson ultimately led to consulting assignments and speaking invitations from all over the world.
In 1997, Ken left Harley-Davidson to take an ownership position with a highly successful Chicago-based marketing firm, VSA Partners. In addition to Harley-Davidson, VSA served a virtual who’s who of the world’s best-known brands. In 1999, he sold his portion of VSA to start his own business, Ken Schmidt Company, to combine two of his greatest passions, motorcycling and speaking. He uses motorcycles as a metaphor to expose people to proven ideas and concepts they’ve likely never imagined.
After all he has accomplished, Ken remains committed to his philosophy of standing out, taking risks, and having fun in both his personal and professional life. He says, “Never do what’s expected, make yourself as noticeably different as possible, and have a lot more fun than you’re supposed to.”
Peter Sheahan
About Peter Sheahan – Bestselling Author on Innovation & Accelerating Growth
About
Talks about accelerating growth through transformation that outpaces the external changes that are constant in the business environment.
Audiences learn how to increase operational and organizational agility by compressing the time between becoming aware of necessary changes to be competitive, and implementing them.
Founder of the global business growth consultancy, Karrikins Group, with employees in 23 cities across 7 countries
Past clients include: AT&T, Apple, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo
Click Here to Watch Peter's Virtual Video
About Peter Sheahan - Bestselling Author on Innovation & Accelerating Growth:
Having grown his own companies by accelerating the growth and transformation for clients that include: Apple; Chick-fil-A; DeBeers; and AT&T — Peter will provoke you to get bigger, by getting better! When leaders are true to their purpose, they gravitate towards doing work that matters and solving higher-order problems. The journey to get there requires that they have the courage to tell themselves the truth, take intelligent risks, and assume ownership for driving the alignment necessary to build an organization which behaves in ways worthy of its leadership position.
In being true to his own ambitions and relentless pursuit of growth, Peter has published seven books, built three global companies and delivered more than 2,500 presentations in 40+ countries. Today he and his team at Karrikins Group are focused exclusively on inspiring leaders to do the hard work required to accelerate growth and transformation.
Scott A. Snook
Associate Professor at the Harvard Business School and Speaker on Leadership Development
About
Scott Snook is currently the MBA Class of 1958 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.
He graduated with honors from West Point earning the Royal Society of Arts Award for the most outstanding overall cadet in his class. Following graduation, he was commissioned in the US Army Corps of Engineers where he served with distinction in various command and staff positions for over 22 years, earning the rank of Colonel before retiring in 2002. He has led soldiers in combat. Among his military decorations are the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Master Parachutist badge.
He has an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he graduated with High Distinction as a Baker Scholar. Dr. Snook earned h is Ph.D. from Harvard University in Organizational Behavior winning the Sage-Louis Pondy Best Dissertation Award from the Academy of Management for his study of the Friendly Fire Shootdown in Northern Iraq. Until July of 2002, Colonel Snook served as an Academy Professor in the Behavioral Sciences and Leadership Department at the United States Military Academy. He also directed West Point's Center for Leadership and Organizations Research as well as its joint Master's Program in Leader Development. He is the primary author of West Point's Cadet Leader Development System - the Academy's philosophy on how to develop leaders of character for the Nation. Professor Snook's book Friendly Fire was selected by the Academy of Management to receive the 2002 Terry Award as the most influential book on managerial thinking published during the past two years. He has also co-authored a book that explores the role of "common sense" in leadership titled, Practical Intelligence in Everyday Life, available from Cambridge University Press (2000). He most recently co-edited The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being available from SAGE Publications (2011). Professor Snook has shared his leadership insights in formal executive education programs at Harvard and with numerous corporate audiences around the world.
Professor Snook's research and consulting activities have been in the areas of leadership, leader development, change management, organizational systems and failure, and culture. He currently lives in Concord, Massachusetts with his wife Kathleen and their five children.
Alan Stein, Jr.
Speaker, Author, and former basketball Performance coach on helping business leaders create high-performance cultures
About
Alan Stein, Jr. teaches proven strategies to improve organizational performance, create effective leadership, increase team cohesion and collaboration, and develop winning mindsets, rituals, and routines.
In his corporate keynote programs and workshops, Alan shares real-world lessons, illustrated by powerful stories, so that every audience can immediately put new ideas into action. He has a passion for helping organizations create high-performance cultures, and his clients include American Express, Pepsi, Under Armour, Starbucks, Charles Schwab, Orange theory Fitness, and numerous college athletic programs such as Penn State Football and UConn Men’s Basketball.
An acclaimed basketball performance coach, Alan spent 15 years working with the highest performing athletes on the planet (including NBA superstars Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Kobe Bryant). He transfers that knowledge to reveal how leaders and teams can utilize the same approaches in business that elite athletes use to perform at a world-class level.
The strategies from Alan’s book, Raise Your Game: High Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best, are implemented by corporate teams and sports teams around the country. His inspirational words are featured on a 12-foot mural outside the Penn State Football Training Center, so that players run past it on the way to practice every day.
About
Click Here to Watch Curt's Virtual Presentation
As the founder and CEO of Focuswise, he has consulted with North America’s top companies, such as Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, Nike, AT&T, and many more.
As a leader at Venus Aerospace, he is building a future-facing workplace that proactively fights to preserve a positive workplace, defending the organization against stress and inefficiency, the relationship between focus and accountability, and productivity.
As a frequent keynote speaker, he addresses the theory behind these ideas, but also presents practical applications that his audiences can put to use immediately.
As a writer and influencer, he shares his expertise on leadership strategy, brain science, generational differences, and technology trends through his podcast and regular Forbescolumn.
Curt Steinhorst grew up hearing that he talked too much, asked too many questions, and couldn't sit still.
It turns out, those quirks became his superpowers.
His insatiable curiosity has fueled a career that spans from publishing a bestselling book Can I Have Your Attention? to senior executive at a cutting-edge hypersonic tech company. Whether diving with sharks or shaping the strategy at Venus Aerospace, Curt moves fast - both literally and figuratively.
Curt started his leadership journey at Texas A&M University, where serving as class president set the stage for an impactful career. Since founding his first business in 2011, he ahs consistently been at the forefront of transformative projects. In 2013, he joined North America's largest generational research firm, where he honed his ability to interpret and anticipate workplace trends. By 2021, he was part of the executive team at Venues Aerospace, where he drives strategy and innovation in hypersonic technology, aiming to revolutionize global transit.
Curt is a prolific speaker and writer, with his insights featured in Forbes and delivered in keynotes to hundreds of thousands of leaders, including senior executives at the world's largest companies. His unique ability to connect disparate ideas and offer contrarian perspectives on leadership, innovation, and the future of work makes him a sought-after advisor an dynamic communicator.
known for his humor, empathy, and willingness to tackle challenging topics, Curt's engagements are transformative experiences that inspire leaders to break free from outdated paradigms and embrace a faster, more agile approach to leadership and innovation.
Robert Swan
Renowned Polar Explorer & Transformational Leader in Sustainability
About
With his presence and integrity, accomplishments and reflections, Robert Swan has an extraordinary ability to inspire and motivate audiences worldwide. Having experienced leadership and team cooperation in some of the world’s most hostile environments, Robert applies the leadership lessons he has learned to inspire bold management practices and effective communication styles. Robert’s talks are thrilling, uplifting and stimulating – all while fostering courage, vision and teamwork. His core themes are inspiration, leadership and future thinking for business, society and the environment.
30 years ago, French ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau gave Robert Swan a 50-year mission to save Antarctica from the realities of climate change. The 2041 Foundation was founded and through perseverance and dedication, Robert has helped inspire the next generation of leaders to take responsibility for their life paths.
As the founder of the 2041 Foundation, Robert has dedicated his life to the preservation of Antarctica and the planet through promoting renewable energy and sustainability to combat the effects of climate change.
Robert Swan has been working side-by-side with his son Barney for the past 5 years. On January 15th 2018 at the South Geographic Pole, the baton was passed onto Barney Swan, who, on that day, became the first person in history to journey to the South Pole powered entirely by renewable energy. This incredible feat marked the launch of CLIMATEFORCE, a 7 year campaign to remove 326 million tonnes of CO2 out of the atmosphere through effective solutions and education to encourage personal leadership in our carbon neutral future. CLIMATEFORCE continues to build on the 2041 legacy through action and personal leadership today and in the future.
This is not only an incredible story about a father and son, it is a legacy story of Robert Swan and the 2041 Foundation and their unstoppable commitment and leadership to preserve this earth for generations to come.
About
Nick talks about how we are wired to use the periods of change and upheaval around us to unleash growth inside us--growth in our teams, growth in our businesses, and growth in ourselves.
Audiences walk away from this dynamic session not just more knowledgeable, but also more excited about the hidden opportunities for growth right under their noses. Invigorated by a fresh outlook; connected by a common language; and armed with practical tools and clear decisions, your people will be ready to cut through the chaos with a laser-like focus on organizational objectives, team priorities, and personal growth opportunities.
#1 best-selling author of four counter-intuitive books on the art and science of making decisions and leading change, including: Ricochet: What to do when change happens to you
Past clients include: 3M, Best Buy, Cargill, Dell Technologies, Wells Fargo, RBC, Microsoft and Zoetis/Pfizer.
Click Here to Watch Nick's Virtual Presentation
Nick Tasler is an internationally acclaimed thought leader, organizational psychologist and the #1 best-selling author of four counter-intuitive books on the art and science of making decisions and leading change. He is also an expert writer for the Harvard Business Review and his work has been covered by The New York Times, Bloomberg Business Week, The Atlantic, Inc., U.S. News & World Report, The Financial Times, Fox Business, and Forbes; as well as NPR, the BBC, NBC, ABC, and CBS.
Nick’s original insights and dynamic style have benefited the world’s most respected organizations ranging from General Electric, Microsoft, JP Morgan, Novo Nordisk, Wells Fargo, the Royal Bank of Canada, and UnitedHealth Group to the Wharton School, Yale University, and many more.Nomadic by nature, Nick and his wife and their four kids live in…lots of places. Sometimes Minnesota. Sometimes Florida. Currently Puerto Rico.
Hamish Taylor
Award-winning CEO and Global Keynote Speaker on Entrenching the Customer in the Heart of All Activities by Creating The Customer Promise
About
Hamish Taylor has a CV that the Times describes as “takes some beating.” His energetic, thought-provoking and humorous keynotes are based on a rare combination of real stories - and a fantastic ability to inspire audiences with tailored advice and practical tools. Regularly featured in broadcast media, today Hamish acts as an advisor to some of the world’s largest companies (and even Governments) - assisting with specific innovation projects, customer focus and/or people leadership.
Hamish is an award-winning CEO whose career has taken him from the international consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, consultancy firm Price Waterhouse and British Airways - to become CEO of the channel tunnel railway Eurostar, and then CEO of Sainsbury’s Bank… all before he was 40! In all cases, he left behind a record of significant business growth triggered by a willingness to challenge the normal way of doing things - so much so that his advice and assistance is now sought by organizations all over the world in many different industries.
As the self appointed “chief dumming down officer” in each of his roles, his approach is simple - but highly effective in delivering breakthroughs.
- The first thing that has to change is the way you look at your customers (both internal and external) - if you look at your customers the same way, you will get the same answers and keep doing the same things
- Secondly, you need to use your customer insights to create a new leadership tool - a simple “customer promise” as a platform for ALL future activity that puts customer benefit at the heart. Your customer doesn’t care about what you do, but about how they benefit as a result of what you do - so use this as your key purpose
- Thirdly, you must look to other environments and industries if you want breakthrough ideas - for product, service, process, leadership and much more. The Inspired Leaders Network dubbed Hamish the “Master thief” due to his track record in this area
- Concentrate your major energy on changing the way you engage with the team that will deliver the customer promise
Hamish’s keynotes will demonstrate the major breakthroughs that can be achieved by changing your approach. Hamish’s message can be tailored to a variety of topics and levels within an organization.
Eric Termuende
A Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum, Author, and Speaker on Optimizing Workplace Culture, Future of Work, and Engagement in the Workplace
About
Click Here to Watch Eric's Virtual Presentation
Eric Termuende is the Co-Founder of NoW of Work, author of Rethink Work, trusted advisor, and award-winning speaker on leadership, culture, and the future of work. His research into the DNA of top performing workplaces reveals the secrets of exceptional leadership and building resilient, forward-thinking teams.
Eric has worked with leading brands like Amazon, Coca-Cola, IBM, Zoom, and Toyota, helping them embrace the future with confidence and optimism. His expertise has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, and Inc., cementing his reputation as a global thought leader shaping the future of work.
As co-founder of NoW of Work, Eric drives workplace innovation and has been recognized as one of American Express’s Top 100 Emerging Innovators. His influence extends beyond the stage, helping organizations navigate change and build thriving cultures.
Eric’s keynotes combine entertainment, actionable insights, and practical strategies. Audiences consistently praise his talks as inspiring and immediately impactful, leaving them equipped to create and excel in the workplaces of tomorrow.
Sebastian Terry
Inspirational Keynote Speaker, Best Selling Author, TV Host, & Founder of the 100things Movement
About
Shocked by the death of a close friend in his mid-twenties, Seb Terry experienced a moment in his life where he asked himself a simple question:
‘Am I happy?’.
The answer was NO, and so, he created a list of 100 things that he hoped would transform his life. Dropping everything to pursue his list, not only has Seb’s life transformed through his incredible journey, but the ripple effect has gone on to help millions of people unlock limitless possibilities in their own lives, too.
From Marrying a Stranger in Vegas (Goal #2) and Delivering a Baby (#23), to Living on a Deserted Island for 1 Week (#63) and Helping a Stranger (#26) by aiding a quadriplegic man to complete a half marathon by pushing him in his wheelchair, Seb’s story has been turned into books, reality shows and is constantly featured by ESPN and Discovery Channel.
As an expert in personal transformation, peak performance and creating environments for success, Seb's commitment to helping others, has seen him share his message and frameworks with many of the world’s biggest organizations including Google, Berkshire Hathaway, Bank of America and McKesson.
Recognized for his unique approach in combining brilliant humor, piercing insight and real-time action, Seb’s revered storytelling and interactive teaching style has impacted millions of individuals and influenced thousands of organizations and Fortune 500 companies around
the world.
About
Jason Tharp is an inspiration expert, best-selling author, and illustrator who inspires audiences to embrace their authentic selves and collaborate towards success. With a focus on leadership and self-leadership, Jason's dynamic speeches share his personal journey of overcoming impossibles, such as brain cancer, obesity, negative self-talk, and self-doubt. His books, including "The Best You!" and "It's Okay To Be A Unicorn!", promote self-leadership, inclusivity, creativity, and self-acceptance.
Renowned for his interactive speaking style and impactful leadership advice, Jason has delivered numerous keynotes since 2015, providing audiences with a blueprint to break their own impossibles. His speeches emphasize teamwork and self-leadership, creating a bridge of empathy through vulnerability. Jason has worked with successful organizations like Better Business Bureau, Novocure, Sonova, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, NRG, Best Buddies, and MacMillan, and has been featured on major media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, USA Today, Washington Post, The Hill, HuffPost, CBC, and The Independent. Jason has also written many op-ed pieces for numerous media outlets.
Speech Thomas
2x Grammy Award Winning founder & lead singer of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
About
Speech was born Todd Thomas in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The youngest of parents Robert & Patricia Thomas. He grew up on two sides of life: the ghetto of Milwaukee (one of the nation’s roughest cities for African Americans) and (Wauwatosa) Milwaukee’s suburbia. Speech learned how to draw from the pains and beauty of both. He would absorb the plights of his people and the retreat of a middle-class black boy in a primarily white neighborhood. He lost his grandmother to a heart attack and his older brother, Terrence Thomas to an Asthma attack within the same week, and through spirituality, learned to recalibrate his inner anger through dynamic music. To celebrate the lives of those he lost, he coined his sound “life music”. Speech wrote the hit song Tennessee as a dedication to his grandmother and brother. In the early nineties, Speech and his mother started the Terrence Thomas Scholarship and to date, the scholarship has raised over a million dollars helping young black students further their educations.
Speech started and produced the hip-hop group, Arrested Development. Based in Georgia, from humble and rural beginnings; they became a pioneering force in the music world. Arrested Development received two Grammy Awards (Best new artists & Best rap single 1993) for the album, 3 years, 5 months, and 2 days in the life of…” Their second album “Zingalamaduni” was met with critical acclaim and was also nominated for a GRAMMY award.
In 1995, the group disbanded and Speech signed a solo record deal with EMI. His first single “Like Marvin Gaye Said” shot to #1 on the Japanese Tokio 100 charts for 7 consecutive weeks. Speech has released 5 solo albums since, all of which have spawned Top 10 hit singles in Japan. His album “1998 Hoopla” and Spiritual People” (2000) were certified gold. “Spiritual People” was awarded the Best black music album of the year 2000 by the acclaimed ADLIB magazine. Speech supported each album with sold-out tours.
Speech has also toured as a solo performer with the United States Vice President Al Gore, First Lady Hillary Clinton, Herbie Hancock, Chaka Khan, Youssou N’dour, James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, Jason Mraz, Hootie & the Blowfish, and The Roots.
In 2020 Speech partnered with Resonant Pictures and Pipeline Entertainment to release the full-length documentary “16 Bars” where Speech goes into a maximum security jail to write music with inmates. This stirring documentary has won numerous film festival awards and is now available through Lightyear Entertainment on streaming platforms worldwide
About
Mark is an expert on executive leadership, business strategy, and innovation who has spent over 25 years leading teams and building companies from the ground up. He delivers actionable, valuable and practical advice for leaders at all levels of an organization.
Currently a highly sought after executive coach and venture investor, Forbes called Mark one of America’s Top Venture Investors with the "Midas Touch." Mark was recently featured as one of the "World’s Top Executive Coaches" by the American Management Association and #1 Thought Leader on Innovation and Engagement. He was named one of the "Top 30 Communications Professionals for 2015" by Global Gurus. Mark advises top leaders in Fortune 500 and Global Fortune 1000 companies as well as the executive teams who are leading high growth startup companies in Silicon Valley today.
A New York Times bestselling author whose books include: ADMIRED: 21 Ways to Double Your Value; Now Build a Great Business; and Success Built to Last - Creating a Life that Matters, Mark is also an Innovation Leadership columnist for Forbes.com, Inc.com and FastCompany.com. His most recent bestseller ADMIRED is a primer on how the world’s "Most Admired Companies" achieve long-term success and growth as well as the qualities that are common to "Most Admired Leaders."
Mark has worked side by side with three of the world’s most legendary disruptive innovators: Steve Jobs, Charles Schwab and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson. He brings insight from decades of experience with these great leaders and research on the culture of companies and brands that achieve the highest levels of employee engagement, customer loyalty and continuous sales growth.
Mark was Charles Schwab’s former Chief of Staff and Chief Customer Experience Officer, and the Executive Producer of Schwab.com which today has assets over $2.4 Trillion. He is a co-founder of Sir Richard Branson’s Entrepreneurship Centers and an advisor to Virgin Unite Entrepreneurs.
Mark is a founding advisor of the Stanford Realtime Venture Design Lab, and is a visiting scholar at his alma mater, Stanford University. He has served as faculty at the World Economic Forum and World Business Forum, is a member of the Clinton Initiative, and an executive coach for TED Fellows.
A successful venture capitalist over the last two decades, Mark was as an early investor in companies like Facebook, Netflix and eSurance. He has been a Board Member for many well known technology, biotech and retail companies, including: Best Buy, Korn Ferry, and Interwoven (now owned by HP). He was the Chairman of the Board for Rioport, which popularized the MP3 player prior to the iPod. He is an investor in Cancer Genetics, a leader in DNA-based diagnostics for clinical management of cancer treatment.
Among Mark’s passions are music and Broadway. Mark serves as a founding Board of Directors member for Smule, the top music app company on iTunes which has over 125 million users worldwide. As a Broadway producer, Mark’s plays have earned five Tony Awards and a total of ten Tony nominations, including Peter and the Star-Catcher with Disney, and StickFly with Alicia Keys.
Mark lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Manhattan with two extraordinary women – his wife Bonita and their daughter Vanessa.
Dan Thurmon
Author, Hall of Fame Speaker, and a Recognized Expert in Delivering Peak Performances.
About
Dan talks about how organizations can meet the challenge of helping their employees bring more energy to work and not only embrace change but see it as an opportunity to lead.
Audiences leave his dynamic presentations understanding how they can manage energy and time more effectively and adopt an off balance on purpose approach as a realistic and empowering way to excel at work and life.
Dan is a world-renowned Hall of Fame keynote speaker, author, entrepreneur, workplace performance expert, fitness advocate, and acrobat.
Past clients include: AT&T, Bank of America, Marriott, Microsoft, WalMart, Honeywell, Chase, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.
Click Here to Watch Dan's Virtual Presentation
Dan Thurmon isn’t just a world-renowned Hall of Fame keynote speaker. He’s also an author, entrepreneur, workplace performance expert, fitness advocate, and acrobat who practices what he preaches!
Known for delivering powerful, customized, opening and closing keynotes in jaw-dropping style, Dan uses every bit of his passion and ability to educate and inspire his audiences. The results and experiences are unlike anything any other speaker can offer.
Dan is known for delivering powerful, customized opening and closing keynotes in jaw-dropping style. He does handstands on podiums while discussing balance. He juggles sharp objects to teach principles of performance under pressure. He weaves through the audience on a six-foot unicycle to visually amplify principles for navigating change. Dan has been transforming fortune 500 teams to see change as as ‘an opportunity to lean into’ for 25 years.
What started as a means to fund a business school grew into a seven-figure business across 32 countries and six continents. Dan began his journey as an acrobatic performer for corporate events over 25 years ago. He soon moved beyond performance to incorporate motivational messages tailored to solve real-world business problems. Word-of-mouth helped spread the powerful impact of Dan’s keynotes and workshops, and he’s established a long list of fortune 500 clients.
Today, Dan continues to work closely with his clients to truly understand their challenges in business, leadership and teamwork. For Dan, his role goes far beyond just an energetic start or end to a meeting. He serves as a catalyst to inspire significant change within a business, especially during times of transition.
In his programs, Dan drives to the root of what’s holding clients back, and he tailors every engagement to address the specific needs of every organization. Whether it’s a live event or virtual learning experience, Dan’s dynamic approach and unique point of difference sets his programs apart and keeps him in high demand all year long.
Dan is a dedicated family man currently living in the Atlanta area with his wife Shay and their children, Eddie and Maggie. He is passionate about health and fitness, and enjoys playing golf, reading, writing and music.
Rory Vaden
Self-Discipline Strategist, Best-Selling Author of Take the Stairs, and Speaker on Leadership, and Sales Techniques
About
Rory Vaden is the New York Times best-selling author of Take the Stairs. His insights have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNN, Entrepreneur, Inc, on Fox News national television and in several other major media outlets. As a world-renowned speaker, his Tedx talk has been viewed nearly 2 million times, he is a 2x World Champion of Public Speaking Finalist and he was recently named as one of the top 100 leadership speakers in the world by Inc Magazine.
He is the Co-Founder of Brand Builders Group and the host of the Rock Solid Reputation podcast, a forum in which he teaches people to build and monetize a rock solid reputation™.
Waldo Waldman
Former Fighter Pilot, Hall of Fame Speaker on Leadership, Sales, Teamwork and Change.
About
Talks about how leaders can build high performing teams through innovation, communication & a relentless commitment to excellence.
Audiences learn how to build collaborative cultures of trust, courage, motivational strategies and commitment in order to adapt to change, break performance barriers, and overcome adversity.
Known as “The Wingman,” Lt Col (ret) Waldo Waldman is a combat decorated fighter pilot, executive coach, Hall of Fame Speaker, and the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Never Fly Solo.
Past clients include: Hewlett Packard, Verizon, American Express, GE, The Denver Broncos, ExxonMobil, Merck, Johnson & Johnson
Lt. Col. Waldo Waldman - The Wingman.
- You want a leadership expert who can call on life experiences to show the value of committing to excellence, adapting to change, and building collaborative, trusting relationships
- Your audience needs an interactive, high-energy speaker who can bridge the gap between the highly competitive world of the fighter pilot and the challenges of business
- Real world sales experience, MBA, New York Times & Wall Street Journal best-selling author, member of the Speaker Hall of Fame
Known as “The Wingman,” Lt Col (ret) Waldo Waldman is a combat decorated fighter pilot, executive coach, Hall of Fame Speaker, and the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Never Fly Solo. He helps organizations build collaborative cultures of trust, courage, motivational strategies and commitment in order to adapt to change, break performance barriers, and overcome adversity.
In addition to his time in the military, Waldo has real world corporate sales experience and is an expert on change management and resilience – having broken through a lifelong fear of heights and overcoming claustrophobia as a fighter pilot. His compelling stories and techniques on overcoming adversity, performing under pressure, earning trust, and servant-based leadership are extremely relevant to organizations who seek to create a “One Team, One Mission” performance-focused culture of trust and collaboration.
“We Survive Solo but Win Together.” – Waldo Waldman
Waldo is a graduate of the U.S Air Force Academy and also holds an MBA with a focus on Organizational Behavior. He is an inductee into the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame, a prestigious award that honors speakers who have reached the top echelon of platform excellence and has been bestowed on less than 180 speakers worldwide. Waldo is also founder The Wingman Foundation, a 501(c)(3) whose mission is to build funds and awareness for veterans in need. He’s been featured on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Inc. Magazine, and The Harvard Business Review, and his clients include Hewlett Packard, Verizon, American Express, GE, The Denver Broncos, ExxonMobil, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and dozens of national associations.
Mike Walsh
Author of The Algorithmic Leader and Speaker on Change, Technology and Innovation.
About
Speaker on the Change, Technology and Innovation
Talks about a brave new world orchestrated by machines that think, and how tomorrow’s leaders can upgrade their capabilities to survive and thrive in an age of accelerating technology
Harvard Business Review columnist & CEO of Tomorrow, a global consultancy on designing companies for the 21st century
Past clients include: American Express, the BBC, Foot Locker, Fujifilm, L'Oreal, Principal Financial, Philips, and HSBC
Click Here to Watch Mike's Virtual Presentation
Mike Walsh is the CEO of Tomorrow, a global consultancy on designing companies for the 21st century. A global nomad, futurist and author of the best-selling book, The Algorithmic Leader, he advises some of the world’s biggest organizations on digital transformation and disruptive innovation in this new era of machine intelligence.
A prolific writer and commentator, Mike’s views have appeared in a wide range of international publications including Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, BusinessWeek, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. Each week he interviews provocative thinkers, innovators and troublemakers on his podcast, 'Between Worlds'.
His latest book, The Algorithmic Leader: How to be smart when machines are smarter than you, offers a hopeful and practical guide for reinventing leadership and organizations. By applying Walsh's 10 core principles, readers will be able to design their own journey of personal transformation, harness the power of algorithms, and chart a clear path ahead--for their company, their team, and themselves. Mike is also the author of The Dictionary Of Dangerous Ideas, a collection of the most challenging concepts facing business leaders at the dawn of the 21st century. At the intersection of emerging technologies and new patterns of human behavior, the ideas in the Dictionary have been chosen for both their potential to transform the way companies operate, and inspire new forms of thinking.
Mike travels over 300 days a year worldwide: researching trends, collecting case studies and presenting on the future of business and leadership.
About
Click Here to Watch Margie's Virtual Presentation
Dr. Margie Warrell brings sharp insights from her diverse global experience to inspire bolder thinking and braver action.
The bestselling author of five books, Margie’s ability to distill grounded research into actionable advice sets her apart on the global stage. A leading authority on courageous leadership, she has learned a lot about overcoming fear and embracing change since her childhood growing up on a small farm in rural Australia. She has spent the last 25 years working around the world - in Australia, Asia, Papua New Guinea and the USA - while raising her four children.
An honoree of the Women’s Economic Forum and CEO of Global Courage, Margie sits on the advisory board of Forbes School of Business & Technology and is trusted by global brands - NASA, Google, Deloitte, Dell, Abbot, UN Foundation and Salesforce - to deliver life-changing programs that accelerate growth, inspire braver action and better outcomes. Her latest book, You’ve Got This! The Life-Changing Power of Trusting Yourself has been hailed as a transformative book for these times.
Marc Wayshak
Author of multiple best-selling books on sales and leadership & Sales Strategist
About
Marc Wayshak is a sought-after sales keynote speaker who has trained thousands of salespeople across the globe. His company, the Sales Insights Lab, leads the industry in data-driven sales coaching, training, and mentorship. Marc’s Sales Insights MethodTM utilizes today’s most innovative, science-based tools for selling. His clients have grown their annual sales by more than $100 million to date.
LinkedIn designated Marc one of “15 Influential Sales Professionals to Watch” in 2019. His sales strategy channel on YouTube hit 140,000 subscribers in 2022, with viewership growing daily.
Marc has also published two sales bestsellers, The High-Velocity Sales Organization and Game Plan Selling. In 2023, he will publish his third, Sales Conversations, Mastered. Audiences around the world learn from Marc via his regular columns in renowned publications, including HubSpot, Entrepreneur, Inc., Huffington Post Business, and Fast Company.
As a speaker, Marc combines humor, storytelling, and hard-earned expertise to motivate and connect with audiences. His keynotes are steeped in the latest, most powerful data on what’s actually working for top performers today in sales.
Marc routinely analyzes cutting-edge research on selling—and then applies the takeaways directly to help his training participants gain real-world results.
Past events include keynotes for world-leading companies such as Siemens, Goldman, Lenovo, and Marriott.
Outside of sales, Marc kiteboards around the globe, plays rugby, and travels extensively. His true passion is making a positive impact on the lives of salespeople, every day. Marc received a BA in social sciences from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of Oxford.
Bill Weingartner
Principal Consultant of The Table Group, Speaker on Leadership & Teamwork
About
Bill Weingartner brings a unique perspective and wealth of experience to the challenge of building healthy organizations and high performing teams. Interacting closely with The Table Group since 2013, he has had the great privilege of working regularly and directly with Pat Lencioni to positively impact organizational culture and health within hundreds of non-profits across North America. As a Principal Consultant, Bill delivers high-impact sessions that generate relevant and immediate outcomes for leaders of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.
Bill works regularly with leadership teams in quickly and effectively applying the concepts captured in all of Pat Lencioni's books, always ensuring that consulting sessions, speeches, and workshops are practical, engaging, and actionable. His clients span a broad spectrum of various industries, including financial services, health, medical, and service outreach organizations.
Bill’s 32 years of experience split between corporate America, small business ownership, philanthropy, and organizational health training underlies and drives his success as a consultant with The Table Group.
John Winsor
Innovator, Entrepreneur, Author and Speaker on The Future of Work
About
John Winsor is an entrepreneur, thought-leader and global authority on the future of work, open talent and remote work. John’s ideas, expressed through his writing, speaking, and the companies he’s built, have placed him at the intersection of innovation, disruption and storytelling.
John is currently the executive-in-residence at Harvard Business School’s Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH), which studies AI and Workforce Transformation strategies, and founder and CEO of Open Assembly, a company that provides content, community, and strategic advising to organizations, people, and platforms to co-create the future of work.
Recently, he has been leading a global industry coalition made up 4000 global leaders in the open talent and innovation industry to start a non-profit trade association, The Center for the Transformation of Work with the goal of Transforming work for a billion people by 2025.
In his past life, John was the chief innovation officer of Havas, when Havas purchased his open advertising agency, Victors & Spoils, in 2015. Winsor founded V&S after introducing the advertising world to the practice of co-creation in his role as vice president and executive director of strategy and innovation at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. Winsor had merged his company Radar Communications, the world’s leading open strategy and research company, with CP+B back in 2007. Other companies Winsor founded include Sports & Fitness publishing, sold to Conde Nast, and the Gravity Games, sold to NBC.
Winsor’s new book, “Open Talent: Leveraging the Global Crowd to Solve Your Biggest Challenges,” published by Harvard Business Press, comes out in the fall of 2023.
Winsor’s is also the author of “Beyond the Brand,” “Spark,” “Flipped,” and the best-selling “Baked In,” winner of the 2009 800-CEO-READ Business Book Award in marketing. Winsor is also an advisor to the Digital Initiative at Harvard Business School, and a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, Forbes and Digiday.
Winsor was an early digital nomad. Twenty years ago, he found a satellite dish, mounting it on his house in a village in Mexico and connecting in illegally to a network in Canada to communicate with the world. He has also worked on his skiing, surfing and climbing exploits from Fiji to Alaska.
Liz Wiseman
Leadership Speaker, Best-selling Author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter
About
Liz talks about how the best leaders bring out the best in their teams and get more done with fewer resources, develop and attract talent, and cultivate new ideas and energy to drive organizational change and innovation
Audiences leave with an understanding of the five disciplines that distinguish Multipliers from Diminishers and provide practice tips for leading like a Multiplier
Best-selling author, leadership researcher and CEO of The Wiseman Group, Liz is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and
Past clients include: Apple, AT&T, Disney, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Nike, Salesforce, Tesla, and Twitter.
Liz Wiseman is a researcher and executive advisor who teaches leadership to top organizations worldwide. She wrote the New York Times bestsellers Multipliers, The Multiplier Effect, and Wall Street Journal bestsellers Rookie Smarts and Impact Players.
Liz is the CEO of the Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. Some of her recent clients include Apple, AT&T, Disney, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Nike, Salesforce, Tesla, and X. Liz has received the top achievement award for leadership from Thinkers50. She has also been consistently named one of the world’s leading 50 management thinkers in its bi-annual ranking.
Liz has conducted significant research in leadership and talent development. She writes for Harvard Business Review, Fortune, and various other business and leadership journals and is a frequent guest lecturer at Brigham Young University and Stanford University. She is a former executive at Oracle, where she worked as the Vice President of Oracle University and the global leader for Human Resource Development. Liz holds a bachelor’s degree in business management and a master’s in organizational behavior from Brigham Young University.
About
John Wood is the founder of Room to Read®, an organization that believes World Change Starts with Educated Children. From its humble origins as a cash strapped and unknown organization, Room to Read has now reached over 10 million children in developing countries with a focus on literacy and gender equality in education.
At age 35, John left an executive career track at Microsoft to follow his passion that “no child should ever again be told they were born in the wrong place at the wrong time and therefore will not get educated.” The business acumen honed in the fast paced world of technology, combined with his passion to change the world, makes John a unique and inspiring speaker with broad appeal.
John’s award-winning memoir, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World tells how he raised over $400 million from a “standing start” to develop one of the fastest growing nonprofits in history. The book was described by Publishers’ Weekly as “an infectiously inspiring read.” Translated into 23 languages, it is popular with entrepreneurs, philanthropists and educators. Amazon named it one of the Top Ten Business Narratives of 2006 and Hudson Booksellers voted it to their Top Ten Nonfiction list. John’s author interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show raised over $3 million from viewers.
John’s latest book is entitled Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy. Kirkus Reviews called it “an absorbing personal account of a remarkable achievement”. It was endorsed by Bill Clinton, Melinda Gates and Sheryl Sandberg.
John is a five time winner of Fast Company Magazine’s Social Capitalist Award and is one of Goldman Sachs’ 25 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs. He was named an Asian Hero by Time Magazine, selected as in the inaugural class of Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum and is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Bill and Melinda Gates presented him with the first ever Microsoft Alumnus of the Year medal. Barron’s twice named John to their list of the 25 Best Givers. In 2014, John was awarded by Queen Silvia of Sweden with the World’s Children’s Prize. The WCP is often called the Children’s Nobel Prize, and in the same year Malala Yousafzai was a fellow honoree. He has also won the Asia Society’s “Service to Society” award and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Tribeca Film Festival.
Room to Read has been voted by the Young Presidents Association as their Social Enterprise of the Year, was awarded the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy, and was chosen as the inaugural winner of the Library of Congress David Rubenstein International Literacy Prize.
John holds a MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in finance from the University of Colorado, and honorary doctorates from McGill University, Westminster College, Wofford College and the University of San Francisco. At the invitation of former President Bill Clinton, he served three years on the Advisory Board of the Clinton Global Initiative. John is a frequent lecturer at Harvard Business School, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Policy. He is a former Board member of the College Advising Corps, Net Impact and the One Acre Fund, and serves on the Advisory Boards of Global Citizen Year, Possible Health, and the “Getting to Carnegie” competition.
About
Marc Woods competed internationally as a swimmer for 17 years; winning 12 Paralympic medals from 5
Games and a further 21 from either World or European Championships. In the past he has held world records
for 200m, 400m, 1500m Freestyle and as well as being part of the team that held the world record for 4 x
100m Freestyle. At the London 2012 Paralympic Games worked for the BBC as a commentator and presenter, as
well as performing in the opening ceremony.
Marc now spends his time presenting at business conference around the world. His speech takes you on an
inspirational journey - giving insights into personal
responsibility, leadership, teamwork and motivation. It is a journey that took him from cancer patient to multiple Gold
medallist. Along with some of the personnel now working with British Cycling he was a pioneer of the
notion of marginal gains.
Marc has written three books. Most notably Personal Best, a combination of his
inspirational life story and personal development advice, and more recently Beyond the Call, which
supported by research from New York University, looks at how to create conditions within an organisation
that make discretionary effort more likely.
Amongst other things he is an ambassador of Teenage Cancer Trust, a director of the Youth Sport Trust and
ambassador for CANSA (South Africa's Cancer Charity) and patron for Bone Cancer Research Trust.
His clients come from all business sectors and include IBM, Pfizer, Sainsbury, O2 and Santander.
About
Talks about how organizations can embrace a culture of change and engineer a resilient and inclusive work culture.
Audiences leave with an inspired perspective on change and the mindset, resilience, and tools to grow through change.
Cassandra has over 10 years of M&A experience and is a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 companies.
Past clients include: Procter & Gamble, Allstate, Jones Lang LaSalle, Centene Corporation, ConferenceDirect, and WeWork.
With contagious energy that radiates throughout every room she steps into, Cassandra Worthy is the world’s truly DISRUPTIVE thought-leader on CHANGE that companies need to build organizational resilience and adaptability. During times of major shift such as merger, acquisition, organizational restructure, new systems integration, and market disruption RARELY do businesses ever face the tumultuous emotional landscape of the organization head-on. Only 10% of successful change adoption is about know-how…the other 90% is squarely centered on an organization’s motivation and willingness to embrace the change. Without addressing the emotions standing in the way of motivation, any transformation journey is stopped in its tracks. This is where Cassandra steps in. She has created and cultivated the unique strategy of Change Enthusiasm® which is arming individuals around the world with the means to harness the power of emotion, a resource in infinite supply, to embrace and accelerate change and transformation journeys. Cassandra’s message nurtures highly resilient and adaptable organizations beginning at the heart of the individual.
Cassandra’s client base spans the Fortune 500 and larger all over the world including Procter & Gamble, Allstate, Jones Lang LaSalle, Centene Corporation, ConferenceDirect, and WeWork. Cassandra invigorates and inspires organizations, C-suite executives, and business associations alike going through significant change, disruption, and transformation. Cassandra’s customized keynote and workshop programs motivate the workforce to embrace Change Enthusiasm® and subsequently become self-actualized in working towards a change vision. In her leadership-centric presentations, she is not only sharing this unique strategy of Change Enthusiasm® but also 10+ years of M&A experience distilled down into the critical leadership traits required to lead with exception during high-stress times of change and transformation.
Click Here to Watch Cassandra's Hybrid Presentation
About
Click Here to Watch Garrison's Virtual Presentation
Talks about how understanding yourself could be the key to financial and business success
Audiences learn the self-sabotaging behaviors that get in the way of being financially and professionally successful.
Author of the Amazon bestseller The Real Truth about Success, the Amazon #1 bestseller The Cowbell Principle, and has been featured in Forbes & Inc. Magazines
Past clients include: American Express, Sherwin-Williams, Mass Mutual, Carrier, Walmart
With talents that established him as a Fortune 500 leader and professional stand-up comedian, Garrison Wynn, CSP, fuses comic timing and research to deliver motivational business expertise. For 26 years, he has given keynote presentations to clients (such as American Express, Amazon, Caterpillar, Walmart, Berkshire Hathaway, Intel, McDonalds, the NFL, and NASA) at corporate and association events.
He is also an Amazon #1 bestselling author who has been featured in Forbes and Inc. Magazines. In his teens he helped debut the world’s first video console gaming system (Odyssey) and as a young man spent 6 years as a pro standup touring comedy clubs with the top names in the business. He went on to become the youngest department head in a Fortune 500 company’s history where he researched and designed processes for 38 company locations nationwide, and developed and marketed products still being sold in 30 countries.
Heather R. Younger
Founder & CEO Employee Fanatix, Best Selling Author, Keynote Speaker on Workplace Culture
About
Heather taps into her own personal and professional experiences as well as stories of strength and perseverance to share empowering proven tools for resetting the resilience of every attendee.
Audiences learn the three steps to strengthening resilience & reframe adversity to unlock new mindsets for empowerment and positive self-worth.
Heather is the founder and CEO of Employee Fanatix, an International TEDx speaker on Adversity, Leadership Podcast Host, Business Coach, Facilitator and Attorney, who has earned a reputation as “The Employee Whisperer”. She holds a law degree, is a regular contributor to "Forbes" and "LinkedIn" and is the best-selling author of The 7 Intuitive Laws of Employee Loyalty
Past clients include: Harvard Business Review Brasil, FirstBank, Salas O'Brien, Stark Aerospace, and Colorado Bankers Association.
Click Here to Watch Heather's Virtual Presentation
Heather R Younger, J.D. is a trusted contributor to leading news outlets, like Forbes, Fast Company, Bloomberg, NBC and ABC and one of the world’s leading experts on Caring Leadership® and active listening at work. She is the visionary Founder and CEO of Employee Fanatix, a preeminent employee engagement and workplace culture consulting firm to Fortune 100 companies. Employee Fanatix conducts annual research on workplace culture, relying on employee voices for what is relevant now, to help companies redefine their culture strategy. Heather has personally read over 30,000 employee surveys and facilitated over 100 employee focus groups, including her signature “Art of Active Listening Sessions.”
With over 25 years of successfully managing teams, she has worked in customer experience, sales, and large account management for multi-million dollar accounts within multiple industries such as tech, staffing, healthcare, professional services, the public sector, and the financial sector. She's a renowned keynote speaker, drawing insights from current data and putting into practice what she teaches in her Caring Leadership Transformation Model™.
Heather’s strategies yield tangible business results, including heightened employee engagement, unwavering loyalty, seamless collaboration, and robust connectivity. One of her clients, a leader at a bank, continues to win Top Workplace awards, and the feedback from employees is that they are connecting the dots and making employees feel informed and engaged. Another one of her clients, a leader at an oil and gas company, says employee feedback shows an increased sense of trust about voicing concerns without fear of negative consequences. This all results in better outcomes in our everyday work.
Heather is a former practicing attorney turned award-winning leader in the area of Employee Engagement as recognized by Inspiring Workplaces, is a LinkedIn Learning course partner, 3-time best-selling author, TEDX speaker and host of the popular, Leadership with Heart podcast. She is also an Adjunct Organizational Leadership Professor at University College at Denver University.
Her accolades include being a best-selling author of three books: "The 7 Intuitive Laws of Employee Loyalty," a Forbes Must-Read List topper for HR professionals, "The Art of Caring Leadership," wherein she shines a spotlight on the radical potential of compassionate leadership, and her latest best-selling book, "The Art of Active Listening," through which she equips individuals with the interpersonal skills required to make others feel seen, heard, and valued.
Heather's personal journey, rooted in her challenging experiences growing up as the only child of an interfaith and interracial marriage and being excluded because of her race, fueled her unwavering determination to ensure that workplaces around the world make both employees and customers alike feel heard, valued and seen.
About
Benjamin Zander is the conductor of The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and a guest conductor around the world. With London's famed Philharmonia Orchestra, he is recording the complete cycle of Mahler symphonies for Telarc, recordings which have been received with extraordinary critical acclaim and several awards. Their latest recording of Bruckner's 5th Symphony was nominated for a 2010 Grammy, and has received critical acclaim both for the performance and Zander's now famous full-length disc explaining the music for the lay listener. They recorded their next release, Mahler's 2nd Symphony, in January 2012.
In 1967, Mr. Zander joined the faculty at New England Conservatory, where he taught an interpretation class, conducted the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, and conducted the conservatory orchestras. For the past 28 years, he was the Artistic Director of the joint program between New England Conservatory's Preparatory School and The Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts in Natick, Massachusetts.
Benjamin Zander has an extensive speaking career, traveling the world lecturing to organizations on leadership. He has appeared four times as a keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he was presented with the Crystal award for 'outstanding contributions in the Arts and international relations.'
A true renaissance man, Benjamin is also co-author of The Art of Possibility, and holds a degree in English Literature from University College in London. As world-renowned leadership coach and highly in-demand keynote speaker, his presentations are interactive and innovative, and most of all - fun.
Zander was awarded the 2002 'Caring Citizen of the Humanities' Award by the International Council for Caring Communities at the United Nations.
Joel Zeff
Humorist, Author, and Dynamic Speaker on Teamwork, Change, and Leadership
About
Click Here to Watch Joel's Virtual Presentation
About Joel Zeff - Dynamic Collaboration, Leadership, and Change Speaker, Improvisational Humorist, and Author:
Since 1997, Joel has inspired audiences from Wells Fargo to Samsung to KPMG and even the IRS. Yes, the IRS. Joel is a masterful public speaker and a nationally renowned motivator, lifelong humorist and improvisational actor.
He connects to his audience with humor that has them laughing so uncontrollably that their mascara runs, their cheeks hurt, and their bellies ache. And he doesn't do it alone. Volunteers from the audience join him on stage and play an integral role in an improvisation game in front of hundreds or thousands of people—something the audience members have never done. He expects nothing less than their success. He expects the volunteers to focus and work together as a team; communicate effectively; positively support each other; and take responsibility.
Joel makes his audience laugh so hard that they forget about the corporate nonsense of conference calls, "strategic deliverables," PowerPoint presentations with upside-down triangles, or "paradigm shifts in a cross-functional organization." Make the Right Choice is conversational, funny, and very informative. Yes, Joel will make you laugh, but he'll also make you think. This presentation delivers a combination of inspiration, essential business knowledge, and significant ideas to help audience members reconnect with their own passion and success.
As discussed in his book, Make the Right Choice, Joel believes that we all encounter choices in our careers. We always have the opportunity to make the right choice to live a more creative, passionate, and productive life. How do you “make the right choice”? You can choose to provide opportunity. You can choose to provide positive support. And along the way, you can choose to have fun. It’s really that simple. Joel teaches us just how easy it is to make these choices.
When he is not speaking, Joel expresses his creativity as an actor, writer and comedian. He started performing professionally in 1992. In Dallas, he was co-host of The Movie Zone on UPN 21. He has appeared in dozens of commercials for numerous clients, including the Dallas Cowboys, Harrah's Casino, Mydiscountbroker.com, Time Warner Cable, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Eagle Country Markets, and Extraco Bank. He has appeared in hundreds of corporate videos. He has also appeared on CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. He has been featured in The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, The Kansas City Star, and many other media outlets.
Penny Zenker
Leadership Keynote Speaker, Bestselling Author, and Productivity Expert
About
Penny Zenker (AKA “The Focusologist”) is a sought-after international leadership speaker, 2x bestselling author, and former C-Suite executive of a global top-five research company. Over the past three decades, she has built and sold multiple multimillion-dollar companies—including an award-winning tech firm she founded.
Throughout her career, Penny has been responsible for hundreds of employees and millions of dollars in turnover, initiating huge organizational changes and business turnarounds to service their competitive advantage. She has worked with countless CEOs, leaders, and teams to develop the strategies and critical skills needed to create healthy cultures, huge profits, and sustainable growth.
Today, Penny speaks to organizations around the world about how to navigate change, challenge, and uncertainty with greater ease, creativity and focus. She helps people and companies reach their potential and achieve seemingly impossible goals. Penny has shared her expertise with industry giants like Deloitte, Pfizer, SAP, Samsung, and NASA, and been featured by NBC News, ESPN, FORBES, INC., and many more.
She has written two best-selling books: The Reset Mindset (USA Today Best Seller, Success Magazine Top 10 Business Books), redefining our approach to how we work, live, and lead, and The Productivity Zone to help people stop their tug of war with time. Her popular TEDx talk, The Energy of Thought has surpassed one-million views worldwide. And her podcast, Take Back Time, ranks in the top 2% worldwide, reflecting her commitment to helping others regain control of their focus and achieve peak performance.