Speakers

The messenger is the message.

We don’t have a stable of go-to speakers. Our goal is to deeply understand your strategy and objectives, and find the person who embodies your message.

Invest in every word

The power of the spoken word at an event can’t be underestimated. We will work with you to identify a speaker who will adapt their presentation to deliver the right message for your audience. So you get a message that hits home and has staying power far beyond the event.

Start with the end in mind

We begin with a clear goal: bring your intent, strategy and desired outcome to life. Only then do we source a strategically selected speaker. And watch your message take on a life of its own.

Inspiring the hero in every person

We select speakers that fit your culture, your audience, your event strategy, and the overall experience.

FIND THE PERSON WHO SPEAKS YOUR BRAND LANGUAGE.

We leverage a speaker’s experience, insights, and talents to fit the crafted strategy for your event.

We’ll help you understand what is unique about each speaker, and shine a light on their latest accomplishments, experience and relevance.

And most importantly, we align all of that with your precise content objectives.

CHECK BACK EVERY MONTH TO SEE THE MOST RECENT, HIGHLIGHTED SPEAKERS.

Our resident “Speaker Expert”, Kris (Young) Campbell, will illuminate those speakers who are excellent on the platform, shine brightly in their area of expertise, and have relevant information for your audience. We’ll help you find the perfect speaker for your next event.

Daryl Davis

Musician • Author • Internationally Acclaimed Conflict Navigator • Compelling Unifier • Klan Whisperer

Daryl Davis is committed to helping people ignite positive change – using conversation to build bridges. His jaw-dropping experiences speak for themselves. For nearly 40 years, he’s engaged leaders of the KKK and White supremacist groups face to face to find the answer to a question: “How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?” That question stemmed from his first encounter with racism at age ten when he was pelted with rocks, bottles, and soda cans by a handful of White spectators while marching in a parade. Seeking to understand, not to change minds, Daryl met their hatred with civility, patience, and listening. Those conversations spawned genuine and lasting friendships with many who changed their own minds and disavowed hateful beliefs. Some even gave Daryl their robes and hoods when they did. As a speaker, Daryl is an extraordinary storyteller who inspires and empowers audiences with tools they can use to make better workplaces, communities, and relations with family and friends. Daryl’s work is chronicled in his book Klan-Destine Relationships and the documentary Accidental Courtesy. Daryl’s TEDx talk has over 12 million views.

Contact Kris

Amanda Brinkman

Producer • Film-Maker • Branding Expert • Public Speaker

Amanda is a producer, filmmaker, branding expert, and sought-after public speaker, sharing her “Do Well By Doing Good” philosophy on stages around the country. She demonstrates how companies and individuals can make a meaningful and positive difference in people’s lives while fostering their own success in the process. She believes that companies must not only identify their brand purpose but put that purpose into action.

Through her work, Amanda has defined what it looks like for brands to act “as publishers,” creating movements through their content strategy. In her most recent demonstration of this, Amanda was the Chief Brand Officer of Deluxe, where the brand challenge was to reach small businesses. The solution? She created, produced, and hosted their Emmy-nominated series “Small Business Revolution,” which streamed on Hulu and was named among Inc. Magazine’s top shows for entrepreneurs. Through this inspirational reality show, Amanda proved the model of authentic content stretching a brand’s spend by achieving 12x the reach through this series over traditional paid media. The program accumulated over 13 billion impressions, 6,000+ earned media articles, and 20 million content views (and counting). This work changed lives, families, small businesses, and communities across the country.

Amanda is a nationally renowned brand expert, Forbes contributor, and frequent on-camera personality for national news outlets and celebrity interviews, ranging from LL Cool J to Peyton Manning. She has appeared on CNBC’s “Cleveland Hustles,” in addition to hosting the online “Small Talks” series that features successful entrepreneurs across the country.

That’s all while charting an acclaimed career that spans groundbreaking campaigns for brands like BMW, Reebok, and Sony, in addition to her role as an inspiring female executive at Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies, such as United Health Group, Allianz, General Mills, and Deluxe. Amanda’s current and former board service includes the Children’s Cancer Research Fund, Make-A-Wish, the Children’s Theatre Company, the Ordway Performing Arts Center, Ad Council, ANA (Association of National Advertisers), and the Women’s Business Development Center. She also passionately volunteers for causes such as Special Olympics, Feed My Starving Children, Habitat for Humanity, and more. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband (who happens to be her best friend), her daughter (who is a small but mighty force of nature), and their puppy (who is, of course, adorable).

Engage with her on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook @amandakbrinkman

Contact Kris

Suneel Gupta

Expert, Connecting Well-Being and Performance • Healthcare Entrepreneur • Best-Selling Author • Host, American Express Business Class Docuseries • Visiting Scholar, Harvard Medical School

As the founding CEO of RISE, a breakthrough wellness company, Suneel Gupta helped thousands of people build better habits for life and work. Now as a bestselling author and Harvard Medical School visiting scholar, Suneel has taken his mission one step further – helping people achieve sustainable peak performance by bolstering emotional resilience and engagement. Suneel asks, “How can an organization excel on the outside if its people are exhausted on the inside?” Grit and hustle are simply not a long-term answer to dealing with non-stop change and stress. Suneel offers leaders and teams a better way to work; one that results in sustainable innovation, productivity, and fulfillment. He arms people with science-based habits that will avoid burnout, boost energy, and improve their professional and personal lives.

Suneel is a business survivor and the author of the international bestselling book Backable (2020). That book is rooted in his inner journey from twice-failed entrepreneur to becoming a leader behind two IPOs and being named “The New Face of Innovation” by the New York Stock Exchange. The book reveals the mindset shifts and hidden habits of people who are extraordinary at pushing new ideas forward.

His next book, due in 2023, will unveil the habits of high-pressure performers, explaining why some people burn out, while others reach new levels of resilience, productivity, and momentum.

As visiting scholar at Harvard Medical School, Suneel researches and teaches the interconnection between inner well-being and outer leadership. He is also emissary for Gross National Happiness between the United States and the Kingdom of Bhutan.

As CEO of RISE Suneel helped thousands of people establish a way to personalize their physical and mental health journey while connecting with certified nutritionists and trainers at an affordable price. The company was named “App of the Year” and partnered with then first-Lady Michelle Obama before being acquired by the NASDAQ-listed company One Medical Group. In 2022, with its acquisition of One Medical Group, RISE is now part of Amazon.

Suneel is currently the host of Business Class, a docuseries created by American Express where he showcases entrepreneurs and business visionaries who embody struggle and resilience. He is joined on the show by guests like Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio, former monk Jay Shetty, and Martha Stewart.

He has partnered with The Second City comedy theater to teach students and executives how to innovate “on-your-feet” during times of rapid change.

Suneel has also personally backed ventures including Impossible Foods, AirBnB, 23&Me, and SpaceX. He was one of the very first investors in CALM, which now helps millions of people achieve a greater sense of work/life balance.

When a reporter once asked Suneel about his purpose, his response was to “find good people, and inspire them to do what inspires them.”

Contact Kris

Sebastian Terry

Inspirational Keynote Speaker • Best-Selling Author • TV Host • Founder of the 100things Movement

Inspirational Keynote Speaker, Best Selling Author, TV Host, & Founder of the 100things Movement Driven by a passion for seeing others achieve, Sebastian’s one-of-a-kind story has organically become a powerful catalyst for personal growth and organizational transformation.

Sebastian’s action-based keynote integrates individual evolution with professional development by leveraging the power of goal setting and striving as a vehicle to maximize mental wellness, individual productivity, and team engagement.

“Seb’s philosophies, tools, and processes will unleash anyone’s ability to put aside procrastination and prioritize what’s truly important to them in living a happier and healthier life. Time with Seb is a gift, and one my whole team and I will forever be grateful for – it’s nothing short of life-changing.”

– Nick Drake, CMO of Google

Shocked by the death of a close friend in his mid-twenties, Sebastian experienced a moment where he asked himself a simple question; ‘Am I happy?’

The answer was NO, so he created a list of 100 things he hoped would transform his life. For over a decade, Sebastian has been chasing the goals on his list and teaching others how to do the same. From marrying a stranger in Vegas (Goal #2) and delivering a baby (#23) to living on a deserted island for 1 week (#63) and even helping a quadriplegic man complete a half marathon by pushing him (#26), Sebastian’s story turned into a best selling book, his own reality show and a renowned keynote that has inspired millions of people around the world.

The impact of time and experience has helped shape Sebastian’s journey from pursuing fun and exciting life goals to realizing that these strategies transfer to the mechanics of organizational health.

Sebastian’s keynote blends masterful storytelling with processes, research, and data from the field to offer equal shots of inspiration, education, and entertainment, leaving his audience with a toolkit and mindset for ongoing growth. “Honestly, it was just great!”

– Nick Tran, CMO of TikTok

Often noted as the highlight of any conference he presents at, Sebastian’s keynote is an experience that will make your audience laugh, think, cry and ultimately take action.

Contact Kris

Ryan Estis

Keynote Speaker • Author • Sales Professional

Ryan Estis has over 20 years of experience as a top-performing sales professional and leader. As the former chief strategy officer for the McCann Worldgroup advertising agency NAS, he brings a fresh perspective to business events. As a keynote speaker, Ryan is known for his innovative ideas on leading change, improving sales effectiveness, and preparing for the future of work. He was recently recognized as one of “the best keynote speakers ever heard” by Meetings & Conventions magazine alongside Tony Robbins, Bill Gates, Colin Powell, and Mike Ditka.

Ryan delivers keynote speeches, courses, and online learning emphasizing actionable content to elevate business performance. His curriculum emphasizes emerging trends influencing leadership effectiveness, sales performance, and customer experience. Ryan helps participants prepare to thrive in today’s ultra-competitive, hyper-connected business environment.

Ryan supports leading brands, including Liberty Mutual, Darden Restaurants, Goodyear, the Dallas Cowboys, Medtronic, ECCO USA, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. He is a faculty member of the Institute of Management Studies, a member of the SmartBrief on Workforce Advisory Board, and a certified Human Capital Strategist.

Ryan and his team publish original research featuring client case studies to expand the live event experience. He is also the author of a popular blog on business performance. His writing has been featured in Inc., Forbes, Entrepreneur, FastCompany, SmartBrief, Business News Network, Crain’s Business, and Yahoo Business.

Ryan is an Ohio University graduate who resides in downtown Minneapolis. When he’s not traveling to speaking engagements worldwide, Ryan enjoys downtime with family and friends, practicing yoga, and cheering on his beloved Minnesota Timberwolves.

Contact Kris

Peter Sheahan

Keynote Speaker • Author • Entrepreneur

After decades of standing in the fire with leaders of high-performing organizations, Peter Sheahan has come to believe that an organization will only go commercially where its leaders first go personally.

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 dare to tell themselves the truth, take intelligent risks, and assume ownership for driving the alignment necessary to build an organization that behaves in ways worthy of its leadership position.

In being true to his 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.

Contact Kris

Josh Linkner

Five-Time Tech Entrepreneur • Hyper-Growth CEO • New York Times Best-Selling Author • Venture Capitalist • Professional Jazz Guitarist • Host of Creative Troublemakers Podcast • Keynote Speaker

Josh Linkner is a Creative Troublemaker.

He has been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which sold for a combined value of over $200 million. He’s an internationally recognized expert on innovation and is the author of four books on the subject, including the New York Times Bestsellers, Disciplined Dreaming, and The Road to Reinvention.

Josh is passionate about starting and building companies. He’s the co-founder and Managing Partner of Muditā Venture Partners – an early-stage venture capital firm – and was previously the CEO and founding partner of Detroit Venture Partners. Over the last 30 years, he’s helped over 100 startups launch and scale.

Today, Josh serves as Chairman and co-founder of Platypus Labs, an innovation research, training, and consulting firm. He has been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year twice and is a recipient of the United States Presidential Champion of Change Award.

Josh is also a passionate Detroiter, the father of four, a professional-level jazz guitarist, and has a slightly odd obsession for greasy pizza.

Contact Kris

Seth Matteson

Founder and CEO of FutureSight Labs • Author • Keynote Speaker • Expert on Workforce Trends and Business Performance

Seth is an internationally recognized thought leader, advisor, and top-rated keynote speaker on talent management, change and innovation, digital transformation, leadership, and the Future of Work.

His research, case studies, and thought leadership focus on inspiring audiences while sharing actionable strategies to drive meaningful outcomes for individuals and their organizations. Seth also coaches high-performing leaders with practical, life-tested ideas, concepts, and frameworks to elevate their impact and create lasting legacies.

Over the past decade, Seth has shared his insights with thousands of business leaders around the globe for many of the world’s most recognizable brands, including Mastercard, Johnson and Johnson, IBM, The Dallas Cowboys, AT&T, PepsiCo, GE Energy, E&Y, Caterpillar and The Walt Disney Company, to name a few.

Seth is the founder and CEO of FutureSight Labs, an organizational design and transformation firm that supports many of the world’s most inspiring leaders by helping them prepare for the future of work through research, training, advising, coaching, digital tools, and thought leadership.

Contact Kris

Erica Dhawan

“The Oprah of Management Ideas” – Thinkers 50

Erica Dhawan is a globally recognized leadership expert and keynote speaker helping organizations and leaders innovate faster and further, together. Named as one of the top management professionals around the world by Global Gurus, she is the founder and CEO of Cotential – a company that has helped leaders and teams leverage twenty-first-century collaboration skills globally. Her writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including Fast Company and Harvard Business Review. She has an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, MBA from MIT Sloan, and BS from The Wharton School.

Erica says we all have the power to drive innovation. She points out that we just need to get past the roadblocks we’ve created: endless meetings, cross-team dysfunction, resource-wasting duplication, and a lack of real, meaningful inclusion. How do we do that? By harnessing knowledge from the places we’d never thought to look.

We typically associate success and leadership with smarts, passion and luck. But in today’s hypercompetitive world, even those gifts aren’t enough. Erica’s book, Get Big Things Done, argues that the game changer is a thoroughly modern skill called Connectional Intelligence. Virtually anyone can maximize his or her potential, and achieve breakthrough performance, by developing this crucial ability.

So, what is it? Put simply, Connectional Intelligence is the ability to combine knowledge, ambition and human capital, forging connections on a global scale that create unprecedented value and meaning. As radical a concept as Emotional Intelligence was in the 90s, Connectional Intelligence is changing everything from business and sports to academics, health and politics by quickly, efficiently and creatively helping people enlist supporters, drive innovation, develop strategies and implement solutions to big problems.

Can a small-town pumpkin grower affect the global food crisis? A Fortune 500 executive change her company’s outdated culture through video storytelling? A hip-hop artist launch an international happiness movement? Or a scientist use virtual reality games to lower pain for burn victims? The answer, you’ll read, is a resounding yes. Each of these individuals is using Connectional Intelligence to become a power player to get big things done.

Erica Dhawan and Saj-nicole Joni’s Get Big Things Done unlocks the secrets of how the world’s movers and shakers use Connectional Intelligence to achieve their personal and professional goals–no matter how ambitious.

Topics

Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence

Learn new insights and tools to accelerate the connected power of teams, become more agile and innovative, and drive breakthrough ideas and outcomes in a digital workplace.

We live in a world of endless meetings and emails and constant cross-team dysfunction, duplication and delays. Our collaboration skills aren’t working to unlock better value in our business. As radical a concept as Emotional Intelligence was in the 90s, Connectional Intelligence is turning people into superconnectors who accelerate innovation, break down silos and foster breakthrough top and bottom line impact.

Learning Outcomes

Learn successful tactics to address communication overload and create authentic digital and in-person relationships

Discover how to break down silos and keep teams aligned, accountable, and motivated beyond in-person meetings

Gain specific actions to foster loyalty, respect, collaboration and innovation across all stakeholder networks regardless of physical distance

Collaborate Faster and Further Together

Learn the new common-sense rules of effective communication on digital teams across business silos, levels, backgrounds and regions.

We all leave a digital impression on each other. If someone doesn’t text back for hours or even days, do you think they are being rude? Is using an emoji or LOL unprofessional, or creating a human connection with your team? What impression does your boss, team, or colleague think of that kind of behavior? Whether your team works on separate floors, buildings or even countries, they have to connect online in order to collaborate. These new misunderstandings are happening all day, every day. They’re reducing your employee engagement, morale, and team performance each time.

In this keynote, you will learn new rules and nuances of Digital Body Language, the new requirement to innovate faster and further together, led by collaboration expert Erica Dhawan.

Learning Outcomes

Understand your collaboration style and what digital body language signals you are broadcasting (even if you don’t intend to!)
Create cultures of maniacal clarity in email, phone, IM, text, video mediums and even live meetings in the new normal
Develop a collaboration strategy to create the highest performing teams and relationships

Maniacal Clarity: Reimagine Leadership to Drive Impactful Innovation

We used to think of leadership as constant hustle and grit – the leader that never slept, sent profits through the roof, and embodied the classic rags-to-riches story… But this tired playbook doesn’t seem to work as well as it once did. What changed? What makes a 21st century leader and a great team now? Is it their ability to tell stories? Their decision-making skills? Their communication style?

The critical missing factor is Maniacal Clarity. This is when leaders give their teams exactly what they need to do their absolute best work and enable them to be empowered to influence anyone, anytime, anywhere. Without it, even skilled, motivated and effective teams languish, with cross-team dysfunction, duplicative work, and unhealthy internal competition. Maniacal Clarity in our modern world delivers the ability to spark overarching optimism, inspirational imagination, continuous courage and fast focus.

In her keynote, WSJ bestselling author and world-renowned speaker Erica Dhawan constructs a new framework for truly shifting minds and changing hearts, in the office, across any distance and with customers. Based on years of research and advising the respected companies around the world, this keynote promises a ground-breaking look into the science, frameworks, and stories of how to inspire anyone, anytime, anywhere to deliver their best results.

Learning Outcomes:

Conduct your own clarity audit of your workplace and assess your own Maniacal Clarity habits
Learn the 4 foundations of Maniacal Clarity and how to bring it to everyone around you with optimism, imagination, courage and focus
Assess your strengths and opportunities to become a Maniacal Clarity change agent
Develop an action plan to inspire your teams, customers, and the world around you to drive performance, teamwork and innovation

Contact Kris

Jose Hernandez

Former NASA Astronaut • Entrepreneur • Farmer • Vintner • Author

NASA engineer Jose Hernandez wanted to fly in space ever since he heard that the first Hispanic-American had been chosen to travel into space. “I was hoeing a row of sugar beets in a field near Stockton, Calif., and I heard on my transistor radio that Franklin Chang-Diaz had been selected for the Astronaut Corps,” says Hernandez, who was a senior in high school at the time. “I was already interested in science and engineering,” Hernandez remembers, “but that was the moment I said, ‘I want to fly in space.’ And that’s something I’ve been striving for each day since then.” And now that hard work has paid off. He was selected to begin training as a mission specialist as part of the 2004 astronaut candidate class.

One of four children in a migrant farming family from Mexico, Hernandez –who didn’t learn English until he was 12 years old — spent much of his childhood on what he calls “the California circuit,” traveling with his family from Mexico to southern California each March, then working northward to the Stockton area by November, picking strawberries and cucumbers at farms along the route. Then they would return to Mexico for Christmas, and start the cycle all over again come spring.

“Some kids might think it would be fun to travel like that,” Hernandez laughs, “but we had to work. It wasn’t a vacation.”

After graduating high school in Stockton, Hernandez enrolled at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering and was awarded a full scholarship to the graduate program at the University of California in Santa Barbara, where he continued his engineering studies. In 1987, he accepted a full-time job with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he had worked as a co-op in college.

While at Lawrence Livermore, Hernandez worked on signal and image processing applications in radar imaging, computed tomography, and acoustic imaging. Later in his career, Hernandez worked on developing quantitative x-ray film imaging analysis techniques for the x-ray laser program. Hernandez applied these techniques in the medical physics arena and co-developed the first full-field digital mammography imaging system. This system has proven useful for detecting breast cancer at an earlier stage than present film/screen mammography techniques. Hernandez has won recognition awards for his work on this project. He has also worked in the international arena where he represented Lawrence Livermore and the U.S. Department of Energy on Russian nuclear non-proliferation issues.

During the astronaut application process, Hernandez had to meet with a review board. That’s where he came face-to-face with his original inspiration: Franklin Chang-Diaz.

“It was a strange place to find myself, being evaluated by the person who gave me the motivation to get there in the first place,” Hernandez says. “But I found that we actually had common experiences — a similar upbringing, the same language issues. That built up my confidence. Any barriers that existed, he had already hurdled them.”

Hernandez smiles. “Now it’s my turn!”

Topics

Reaching For Your Own Stars: A Recipe To Succeed In Life

Jose Hernandez’s talk is an effective motivational talk where individuals leave so inspired, they re-evaluate and upgrade their personal and professional goals in life. This is accomplished by empowering attendees through his anecdotal stories of hard work and perseverance. He shares a simple yet effective recipe that serves as an effective tool in the empowerment process.

Reach your full potential
Dare to dream big and be willing to work hard for it
Re-evaluate and upgrade your life goals

Thriving In Today’s Challenging Environment

Jose shares his experience as an astronaut. He tells his story and focuses on the importance of goal setting, hard work and perseverance. Finally, he shows a short video including a summary of his 14-day mission into space as the flight engineer aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery – STS-128 mission.

Contact Kris

Rene Rodriguez

Best-Selling Author • Keynote Speaker • Leadership Advisor • Transformational Speaker Coach

Considered by many as the leading authority on leadership and influence, Rene Rodriguez is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, leadership advisor, and transformational speaker coach. For the last 27 years, René has been researching and applying behavioral neuroscience to solve some of the toughest challenges in leadership, sales, and change.

As an entrepreneur and CEO of multiple companies, Rene integrates a practical business approach that inspires his audiences to take action. Through his keynote, bootcamps, workshops and proprietary Amplifii™ course, he helps us own our backstory to build the frame for not only our unique value propositions but also a beautiful picture of life.

His audiences describe him as “powerful”, “thought provoking”, and “authentic”. They say things like, “you could hear a pin drop as everyone was so captivated.”

The result: greater influence, personal transformation, and immediate results in business and life by engaging with courage and grace.

His Best Selling book AMPLIFY YOUR INFLUENCE can be found on Amazon and all major retailers.

Topics

AMPLIFY YOUR INFLUENCE

René breaks down the neuroscience of influence. He personally guides you step-by-step through methodologies that create influence from the front of the room, in meetings and one-on-one. You will learn – and put into practice – Rene’s proprietary 3-step process to become a more powerful presenter, communicator, and influencer. Highly interactive and immediately applicable.

A complete transformation of how you speak at meetings or in front of audiences
A powerful 3-step approach to influence behavior and drive action
The secrets to powerful storytelling
Inspiration and understanding of how to lead and communicate more effectively

ENGAGE THE POWER OF TRUST AND TEAMWORK

The world is embracing new interpersonal dynamics in business. To succeed, leaders need to understand and leverage the hidden drivers of behavior in a way that engages not only their people, but their customers as well. René will provide actionable insights that can be immediately adopted. As a result, you can expect new behaviors, new results, and new revenue – that lasts.

An applicable understanding of the neuroscience of leadership
Specific tools to take back to the workplace and home
Proven methodologies that inspire deep engagement
Simple ways to create trust quickly

AWAKEN YOUR SALES CULTURE

Somewhere out there, your competition is planning their attack. Are you prepared? The world of selling has changed and old tactics/techniques won’t cut it in today’s marketplace. People don’t want to be seen as consumers. They are much more savvy and the bar has risen to be successful in the modern sales. This awakening’s objective is to link recent brain research findings with practical tools and underlying wisdom that can be used in any selling situation to maximize results.

Six Money Making Activities
Understanding how the brain helps or hurts the sales process
Research-based methodologies for driving action
Sales wisdom and philosophies
Differentiating between an order-taker and sales professional
Goals for every client interaction
Hidden drivers of buying behavior

Contact Kris

Jason Sudeikis [In Partnership with UTA Speakers]

Emmy-Winning Actor • Comedian • Writer • Producer

Jason Sudeikis is an award-winning actor, comedian, producer, and writer who stars as the buoyant optimist Ted Lasso in the widely popular Apple TV+ series he co-created. Good to the core, its first season was honored with the prestigious Peabody Award “for offering the perfect counter to the enduring prevalence of toxic masculinity, both on-screen and off, in a moment when the nation truly needs inspiring models of kindness.” The series garnered 9 Primetime Emmy Awards after being nominated for a historic 20.

In 2021, Sudeikis was the recipient of two Emmy Awards, “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series” and “Outstanding Comedy Series.” He was also awarded a Golden Globe for best actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy, a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series, and a Critics Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. The Writers Guild of America awarded Sudeikis and the show “Best Comedy Series” and “Best New Series.”

And most recently in he won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for the second time (2022), and Ted Lasso won best Comedy Series also for the second time. Ted Lasso, the show, follows the adventures of a small-time college football coach from Kansas hired to coach a professional soccer team in England, despite having no experience coaching soccer.

Jason is actively involved with The Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City as well as other charities. He currently resides in New York City.

TOPICS

A Conversation about leadership with Jason Sudeikis

The series not only imparts much-needed lessons about the power of kindness and doing the right thing, it share some important lessons about leadership – and leadership types. Many of the shows characters are leaders in their own way, despite their flaws and challenges.

As head coach, Ted Lasso is the show’s most obvious leader, but the more we learn about Lasso the more he morphs from underestimated caricature to a more complex character who forges ahead despite his own challenges. His commitment to treating others with dignity and respect and doing what he thinks is the right thing, transforms the people around him into better human beings. And he does it all while navigating his own heartbreak and mental illness. Lass is the leader who holds onto his vision and hope, even when he’s facing the kinds of personal obstacles that could derail others.

Contact Kris

Cassandra Worthy

Keynote Speaker

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 em- brace the change. Without addressing the emotions standing in the way of motivation, any transforma- tion journey is stopped in its tracks. This is where Cassandra steps in. She has created and cultivat- ed 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 organiza- tions 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 invig- orates and inspires organizations, C-suite executives, and business associations alike going through significant change, disruption, and transformation. Cassandra’s customized keynote and workshop pro- grams motivate the workforce to embrace Change Enthusiasm® and subsequently become self-actual- ized 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 trans- formation.

Why Cassandra Worthy?

Unparalleled Energy:

Cassandra lights up any room she walks into. She has an inexplicable radiance that captivates and mesmerizes any and every audience. Known for this energy and presence, she is often a top-rated conference presenter.

Corporate Savvy + Engineering Mindset:

As a chemical engineer having worked nearly two decades in the CPG industry, Cassandra speaks the language of your audience. Leveraging her pragmatic, engineering mindset she has created a way to talk about how to harness the emotions of change in a practical, non-WOO-WOO, actionable way.

Relatable Messaging:

In Change Enthusiasm®, Cassandra is bringing something truly unique and fresh. This strategy is taking the business world by storm, for the first time simplifying how to shift the macroscopic cultural mindset to embrace change through motivating the individual at the microscopic level.

‘Perfect-Fit’ Customization:

Cassandra works with every client to intimately understand their unique change challenges and tension points to ensure maximum resonance of her message.

Contact Kris

Eric Termuende

Best-selling Author • Keynote Speaker • Entrepreneur

Eric Termuende is a best-selling author, internationally recognized thought leader, and keynote speaker on all things future of work, leadership, workplace culture, and talent management. After years spent studying the world’s greatest places to work, he has deciphered what sets amazing leaders apart from the rest, and what it takes to build incredible teams that are resilient, innovative, and ready for the future.

His research and insights have inspired category-leading companies like Amazon, Coca-Cola, Nationwide, IBM, Zoom, Nokia, John Deere, and Toyota, to name a few. Eric’s perspectives and accomplishments have also been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., and many other prominent publications.

In addition to the hundreds of keynotes he has delivered around the world, Eric is an entrepreneur and leader in his own right. As co-founder of NoW of Work, Eric has been named one of the world’s Top 100 Emerging Innovators by American Express, making him a trusted resource as we collectively navigate the future of work together.

Eric’s keynotes aren’t just engaging and insightful, they’re a fun, practical journey loaded with actionable takeaways that audiences can implement right away. Those that attend Eric’s keynotes often share that his refreshing, down-to-earth messaging not only gets them excited about the future, but also provides the practical tools and know-how to build teams and thrive in it.

Contact Kris

Ally Love

Founder & CEO of Love Squad • Peloton Instructor • Host of the Brooklyn Nets • Keynote Speaker • Adidas Global Ambassador

Ally Love is the CEO of Love Squad, Peloton instructor, host, inspiring speaker, and adidas global ambassador who can be seen wearing a multitude of hats, from the bike to the floor of the Brooklyn Nets arena, where she serves as host. Ally who was born and raised in Miami, Florida, headed to New York City to pursue and eventually receive her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Fordham University, and minor in Theology. As a dancer for the New York Knicks and participant in contemporary ballet companies throughout North America, Ally began exploring her career in performance.

In 2015, Ally founded and created the Love Squad community to empower women through the facilitation of motivational and educational conversations. Inclusivity, boldness, respect, and authenticity are the values that Love Squad strives to instill in women everywhere, both personally and professionally. Love Squad gets real about topics from negotiating salaries to fertility, tackles the realities of running a business while raising a family, and encourages women to boss up and take control of their lives.

As an empowering speaker and writer, Ally created her video series, The Basics of Bossing Up, where she discusses key virtues and presents tangible takeaways for her viewers to implement in their own lives. Instead of getting caught up in the buzzword of the moment, Ally takes it back to the basics of how to execute success, and ultimately create the life you want to live. Signed to top agency CAA, Ally has been the co-host for the ESPYS, the US Open morning show “The Warm Up”, host for the inaugural Jopwell Talks Featuring Gayle King, WE Day Official for the United Nations, as well as moderator of Chicago Ideas Week. She has inspired audiences from major global corporations including Google, JP Morgan, Amazon, Salesforce, and many more. Ally has been featured in Vogue and the New York Times as well as appearing on various shows including Good Morning America.

Ally embodies the concept of the slash -generation, with a well-rounded knowledge and experience in sports, fashion, faith, fitness, public speaking, wellness, and activism. Dedicated to empowering people in their pursuit of natural wellness, Ally is a Certified Health Coach from the Institute for Integrative Medicine. As a Peloton instructor, Ally’s mission is to empower, encourage and uplift. Ally motivated Peloton members, Nets fans, and avid followers of her social media to seek collaboration over competition and show up to tackle the goal of progress, not perfection. Business owner, host, motivational speaker, ambassador, fitness instructor, and boss, Ally Love is an inspirational powerhouse, using her authentic passions to create avenues for those who engage with her to succeed and prosper.

Contact Kris

Damian Hughes

Best-Selling Author • Keynote Speaker

Damian Hughes is a bestselling author who combines his practical and academic background within sport, organisational development and change psychology, to help organisations and teams to create a high performing culture.

He is the author of eight best-selling business books, including Liquid Thinking, Liquid Leadership, How to Change Absolutely Anything, How to Think Like Sir Alex Ferguson and The Five STEPS to a Winning Mindset.

His latest book, High Performance: Lessons from the Best on Becoming Your Best, has been a number one Sunday Times best seller. His work has been translated into ten languages.

He has also been nominated for the 2007 William Hill Sports book of the year award for Peerless, his biography of boxing great Sugar Ray Robinson. In 2009, he co-authored a critically acclaimed biography of boxing legend, Thomas Hearns in Hitman: the Thomas Hearns Story. In 2013, his latest biography, Marvelous Marvin Hagler became the UK’s best selling sports biography.

He was appointed as a visiting Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Change for Manchester Metropolitan University in September 2010.

He is the co-host of The High Performance Podcast, an acclaimed series of interviews with elite performers from business, sport and the arts, exploring the psychology behind sustained high performance.

He has served as a member of the coaching team for England Rugby League, England Roses, Scotland Rugby Union and a wide range of international and national sporting teams.

Contact Kris

Neil Pasricha

Author • Journalist • Keynote Speaker

Neil Pasricha thinks, writes, and speaks about intentional living. All his current work focuses under themes of gratitude, happiness, failure, resilience, connection, and trust. Neil is the author of nine books and journals including: The Book of Awesome, a spinning rolodex of simple pleasures based on his 100-million-hit, award-winning blog 1000 Awesome Things, The Happiness Equation, originally written as a 300-page love letter to his unborn son on how to live a happy life, Awesome Is Everywhere, an interactive introduction to guided meditation for children, Two-Minute Mornings, his simple daily morning practice, and You Are Awesome, a nine-step guide to building resilience told through stories and research. Neil’s books are New York Times and #1 international bestsellers, have spent over 200 weeks on best-seller lists, and have sold over two million copies across dozens of languages.

Neil also gives over 50 speeches a year at places like Harvard, SXSW, and Shopify. His first TED talk “The 3 A’s of Awesome” is ranked one of the 10 Most Inspiring of all time and his second is called “How do you maximize your tiny, short life?”, an artistic side-project called the world’s first TED Listen, composed entirely of questions. Neil gave the most attended feature keynote at SXSW 2019 called “Building trust in distrustful times”.

Neil hosts an Apple “Best of” award-winning podcast called 3 Books where he is on an ‘epic 15- year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world.’ Each of the 333 chapters discusses the three most formative books of an inspiring person like Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, Roxane Gay, Cheryl Strayed, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Kevin the Bookseller, Seth Godin, David Mitchell, Mark Manson, or Judy Blume. 3 Books is recorded live and in-person and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each chapter dropping on the exact minute of every single new moon and every single full moon up to September 1, 2031 at 5:21 a.m. Neil shares his current writing on this blog and in a series of newsletters read by over 100,000 people.

Neil’s pro bono work focuses on literacy, bibliophilia, and mental health. Neil has degrees from Queen’s University and Harvard Business School. Neil lives in Toronto with his wife Leslie and their four boys.

Contact Kris

Liz Bohannon

Founder & CEO of Socially Conscious Fashion Brand Sseko Designs • Best-Selling Author of Beginner’s Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose & Impact Now

Liz Forkin Bohannon is the founder of Sseko Designs, an ethical fashion brand that works to educate and empower women. In four years, Sseko has grown from three women making sandals together under a mango tree to an international fashion brand that provides employment, educational opportunities, and entrepreneurial training to over 50 women in East Africa, enabling them to continue their education and become leaders in their country.

Organizations continue to face rapidly changing work environments, sales teams who are stuck in analysis paralysis, and the urgent need to rethink business models, products, and services to meet the changing needs of their customers. But what Plucky Leaders know is that inside these challenges you can find the greatest opportunity to pivot, progress, and innovate, and that’s exactly what Founder and CEO of Sseko Designs did and how she and her team created a massively successful turnaround story in the height of the pandemic.

Like many businesses experienced, March 2020 showed record low sales and revenue for Sseko Designs. But by May, not only was Sseko back up to baseline, but they had also surpassed their revenue goals by over 100%. How was this possible?!?! By taking her team through the principles in her bestselling book Beginner’s Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose & Impact Now, Liz helped her team reclaim their Pluck by choosing to get curious and tap their inner beginner.

Organizations around the world are using Plucky Principles like Dream Small and Own Your Average to smash sales goals, drive innovation, and build teams focused on passion, purpose, and impact.

She now splits her time between Uganda and Portland, Oregon, where she and her husband, Ben, run Sseko Designs.

Topic information • Beginner’s Pluck: A Roadmap to Success in Highly Uncertain Times

When we are starting on any journey, there are things that we will do as beginners more naturally that will help us become more creative, innovative, and ultimately, more successful. Even uncertainty becomes something that we look at with curiosity instead of fear. This is a little something Liz Bohannon calls “Beginners Pluck.” By embracing your status as a beginner or diving deliberately out of mastery and back into the magical land of beginners, you will achieve goals you never imagined.

Through exploring some of the 14 principles from her bestselling book, Beginner’s Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose & Impact Now, Liz will challenge your team to dream small so they can start doing instead of dreaming, show them how curiosity over criticism fuels innovation and set them on the ultimate path of success by weaving passion and purpose into every goal.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Become a Problem Finder – If you understand your customers’ lives at a granular level, you can look for other problems you might be able to solve for them, rather than searching for ways to make them comfortable with business as usual.
Be a Doer, Not a Dreamer – Just like start-ups who go from dreaming to doing, iterating and testing, you need to apply a beginner’s mind.
Reconnect your Sales Team with their Purpose – This is why purpose is so important. When unexpected curveballs are thrown your way that all but decimate your organization, the strongest unifier and innovation-inducer is purpose.

* A journalist-gone-shoemaker, Liz shares her passion for social enterprise, conscious consumerism, social justice, creative leadership, gender equity, risk-taking, (pause for deep breath) ….and empowering women.

Contact Kris to learn more about Liz and her extraordinary journey.

Contact Kris

Riaz Meghji

Author • Keynote Speaker • Broadcast Television Host • Philanthropist

Riaz Meghji is a human connection expert and author of the book Every Conversation Counts: The 5 Habits of Human Connection That Build Extraordinary Relationships. His insights have been featured in Fast Company, Harvard Business Review and Financial Post. After one conversation led him to take a dramatically different career path that changed his life for the better, he became dedicated to exploring the ways that authentic human connection can change lives and organizations.

In addition to being a respected thought leader and author on the topic of human connection, Riaz is also an accomplished broadcaster with 17 years of television hosting experience; he has interviewed experts on current affairs, sports, entertainment, politics, and business.

Riaz has hosted for Citytv’s Breakfast Television, MTV Canada, TEDxVancouver, CTV News, and the Toronto International Film Festival. He is a natural storyteller with a proven ability to conduct engaging, in-depth conversations across various disciplines.

Off-camera, Riaz dedicates himself to philanthropy and causes he cares about including Canuck Place Children’s Hospice and Covenant House. He holds a degree in business from Simon Fraser University and studied leadership communication at Harvard Extension School and the Canadian Management Centre.

Contact Kris

Denise Soler Cox

Award-Winning Filmmaker • Top-100 Podcaster • Keynote Speaker

Denise’s award-winning film, Project Eñye, has one single and simple purpose… to transform how we think and speak about culture, identity and what it means to belong. And it’s amazing.

In 2020 Denise was recognized as a “Featured Host” by Apple Podcast North America for her podcast “The Self-ish Latina” which has listeners in 32 countries. Denise has been invited to speak to some of the world’s most recognized brands: Progressive, Microsoft, AARP, Facebook, LinkedIn, JP Morgan Chase, Salesforce, Proctor & Gamble, Dow Jones, Eli Lilly, KPMG, Starbucks, VaynerMedia, and SONY to name a few.

Her work with Project Eñye has been featured on Forbes.com, CNN, NBC Latino, Chicago Tribune, Telemundo, Univision, Fox News Latino, HOLA and the Huffington Post.

Denise is currently in production with her second feature length documentary (Fall 2022) and also working on a new book about Belonging (Spring 2023).

Whether she’s keynoting an event, conducting a Q&A or participating on a panel, Denise communicates about emotionally difficult concepts in a way that makes people feel validated, understood and yet profoundly challenged to be a better version of themselves.

Topic information

Through the power of film and an interactive conversation, Denise Soler Cox takes audiences on an emotional journey of understanding the most inherent human need—belonging.

Simply put, Denise brings clarity to what is happening underneath the surface so that attendees from all cultural backgrounds, nationalities, and ethnicities, walk away feeling personally understood and professionally empowered to be more impactful leaders.

Denise distills learning compiled over the course of eight years into an interactive and authentically delivered keynote that inspires a new way to think about culture, identity, and what it means to belong.

Participants will understand that the ultimate expression of diversity is the individual. Each of us must learn to embrace our own story. Only then are we free to share who we are with others. That authenticity is the first building block of belonging.
Participants will experience psychological safety, which is the key ingredient groups need, to tackle meaningful professional challenges as a team.
Participants will better understand how their cultural past shapes their perception of today, and their vision of the future. In a refreshing and fun process, each person will begin to build the “scaffolding of belonging.”

Denise’s presentation illuminates how each of us want to be seen, heard and understood.

Video: Watch the trailer for her award-winning film here.

*Want to see the entire film or hear how it’s being used powerfully in both live and virtual events?

Contact Kris