Mark Eaton is a legendary former NBA All Star, who was the most dominant shot blocker of his era, becoming the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year twice, and setting the record (which still stands today) for the most shots blocked in any season in NBA History, (456 – which is an average of 5.56 per game) and nobody has ever come close!
His bestselling book, “The Four Commitments of a Winning Team” – the foreword written by NBA Legend and Hall of Famer John Stockton – enables industry leaders, teams and individuals to outsmart, outlast and outperform their competition and achieve record breaking success.
Mark’s story is an incredible and improbable journey, which goes from a high school basketball bench-warmer to a 21 yr. old auto mechanic with no future in basketball, to ultimately becoming a record-breaking NBA player and All Star!
He is an expert on team building and business building, and teaches organizations how to employ the leadership principles and coaching techniques he mastered in his twelve year NBA basketball career.. One of which is knowing your limitations and becoming great at what you do best.
James Sun is a serial technology entrepreneur with several exits and is currently the CEO of Beautytap, and the Owner of Dramabeans. James was the first Asian male to land a spot on the NBC hit reality TV show “The Apprentice” in season 6, and became the first Asian finalist in the history of the show. After The Apprentice James became the host of his own TV show on The BBC, called “Sun Tzu’s War on Business” where he was tasked with and successfully accomplished turning around 12 companies in 11 different countries in a span of 18 months.
James is a champion of corporate diversity and inclusion, and an expert in the global marketplace and workforce, working with corporations to tap into their diverse employee cultures to not only empower them, but to give diversity cues to the company about how the products they sell are perceived, useable, and best presented to all cultures and ethnicities around the world.
Noah Wilson-Rich has a Ph.D. in behavioral ecology, is a viral TED speaker with millions of views, and a bestselling author. Noah founded The Best Bees Company which has thousands of beehives for research on corporate campuses and rooftops nationwide, as well as collaborations with MIT, Harvard, TED, National Geographic, and NASA. He’s also known as the ‘beekeeper to the stars’.
Each client beehive is a bio-indicator for environmental health, including acting as active data sources for NASA’s studies on pollinator populations and climate change, Harvard’s studies of pesticides in the environment, and National Geographic’s reporting of pollinator habitat.
As an academic scientist, Noah has held faculty appointments in biology at Tufts University and Northeastern University and his research focuses on what’s saving bees, rather than solely on what’s killing them. Using a custom-built digital platform to collect bee health data at scale, Noah makes an out-sized impact on the larger mission to save the bees while helping clients understand the quantifiable impact they have on the environment by opening their rooftops to pollinators.
Noah has been featured by The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Fortune, Business Insider, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and many more.
Sasha Strauss is perhaps the most compelling thought leader and expert on brand strategy in the world – as his resume will show, transforming major brands the likes of PayPal, Lego, Google, Disney, Adobe, Amgen, ADP, and more, at the C-Suite level. Sasha is a globally recognized and award winning builder of consumer and marketplace brand messaging, employee onboarding, internal organizational messaging on purpose, and bringing the various “silos” within a company to work together. Sasha focuses on how PR, Marketing, and Customer Relations all work together in a single, focused, and aligned way.
Years ago, when Sasha started delivering his “Rise of The Herogen” keynote (which has been delivered in 20 countries), he accurately predicted and defined the digital new world/ the new normal we now live in.
Sasha is an expert in: leveraging emerging technologies, understanding what the consumer wants and how they think, and defining an organization’s internal message and purpose – then getting that message out to the masses in a relevant way that resonates.
Sasha has taught brand strategy for the past decade to graduate students at the MBA programs at UCLA, USC, and UCI, where he remains one of the highest-rated faculty members.
Jay Samit is a serial entrepreneur and disruptor. He has worked with Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Paul Allen, the Pope, and the President of the United States. He’s the most recent former Vice Chairman of Deloitte. Over the decades Jay has built and sold many of his own companies, has been an executive or senior management at major companies including Sony, EMI and Universal Pictures. He has taken an equity stake in more than 80 companies, has raised more than $800 million for start-ups, has helped grow multibillion dollar juggernauts such as LinkedIn and eBay before they even IPO’ed, and has revamped governments.
Jay talks about the importance and practice of being disruptive in your industry, which is the mantra he has had for decades, himself disrupting and causing major changes in industry after industry. His international major bestseller, “Disrupt You!”, now in print in dozens of languages, is critically acclaimed and a must-read according to the heaviest hitters in business. His March 2021 release, “Future Proofing You: 12 truths for Creating Opportunity, Maximizing Wealth, and Controlling your Destiny in an Uncertain World”, is critically acclaimed and set to be another bestseller.
Jay has always been at the forefront of emerging trends and is today known as a world renowned expert in Digital Tech, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR & AR), Smart Wearables, The Sharing Economy, and Autonomous Tech.
Jay has been featured by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Economist, Bloomberg, CNBC, WIRED, Fast Company, The New York Times, The Economic Times, Ad Age, Investors Business Daily, Tech Crunch, The Los Angeles Times, Yahoo, and more.
Kenyon Salo energizes and inspires us to take more risks, to get outside our comfort zones, and to create more experiences that impact others – living our “Bucket List Life”.
Kenyon is a professional athlete, adventurer, and skydiver with over 7000 jumps – who has been flying via parachute into Sports Authority Field at 60+ mph, ending with a soft tip-toe landing on the ten yard line, for every Denver Broncos home game for the past 9 years as one of five members of the Denver Broncos Thunderstorm Skydive Team.
In his talks, he has a rare ability to capture and engage everyone in the room via his energy, his riveting storytelling, and even by creating content that delivers to each of the Four Color Personality Types by speaking to the core motives and natural talents that everyone experiences as human beings.
Andy Stumpf is a retired Navy SEAL who is highly decorated including Five Bronze Star Medals (four with Valor) and the Purple Heart. In Andy’s illustrious 17-year SEAL career he became a member of the most elite counterterrorism unit in the military, SEAL Team Six, which is a small unit that is tasked with some of the nation’s most critical missions, and which is the subject of countless Hollywood movies. One of Andy’s team’s missions was rescuing Jessica Lynch during the Iraq war. On another mission, Andy was shot at close range with an AK-47 by an Iraqi insurgent.
Andy executed hundreds of combat operations throughout the world in support of the Global War on Terror. He became a commissioned officer, the first E-6 selection commissioned through the Limited Duty Officer Program in the history of Naval Special Warfare.
Andy is also one of the top skydivers and base jumpers in the world and held the world record jump for longest distance flown in a wingsuit – which was a jump from 36,000 feet and covered over 18 miles distance.
Andy has his own popular podcast called “Cleared Hot”, and has been featured across all major media including on CNBC, Inc.com, The New York Times, WIRED, multiple appearances on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, and on CBS’ TV Reality Show “Hunted” as a hunter for fugitives.
Emily Harrington is a professional rock climber and adventurer who has been a prominent and leading figure in the climbing community since she was a teenager. Her early years were defined by her successes on the USA Climbing Team on the national and world competition circuit, including 5 US National Sport Climbing Championships and 2 North American Championships. Emily’s true passion lies with outdoor climbing and exploring the mountains.
Since shifting her focus from competition, Emily has established numerous first female ascents of 5.14 sport routes, summited Mount Everest, and has been on expeditions all over the world attempting big wall free climbs and high-altitude peaks in Nepal, China, Myanmar, Crimea, and Morocco. In 2020, Emily achieved a lifelong dream and a career milestone, becoming just the fourth woman ever to free-climb El Capitan in one day, and the first woman to ever do it via the famed Golden Gate route. El Cap is the largest piece of granite in the world and stands 3,200 feet tall. One of her two climbing partners during this incredible feat was El Cap “Free Solo” climbing legend, and her friend, Alex Honnold.
With a highly anticipated documentary about her story on the way later this year, only the sky is the limit for Emily. She has appeared on The Today Show, The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast, National Geographic, CNN, NPR, Sports Illustrated, The North Face and many more.
Scott McKain, the author of four #1 business bestsellers on Amazon, is known as a customer experience and distinction expert who teaches companies and people how to stand out from the competition.
He has played the villain in a Werner Herzog film that Roger Ebert called one of the 50 “great movies” in cinema history, he has been booked to speak by Arnold Schwarzenegger for an event on the White House lawn in front of the President of the United States, he’s been a successful entrepreneur, and has been the member of multiple Boards of Directors. The tapestry of Scott McKain’s distinctive experiences have blended to create the inimitable content that makes him one of the world’s most in-demand business experts and speakers.
Today, he’s a Corporate Educator in Residence at High Point University, a member of the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame, a member of the Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame, along with Zig Ziglar Seth Godin and Dale Carnegie, and his latest book titled “ICONIC”, was named by Forbes one of the “Top Ten Business Books of The Year” and by American Express as one of the “Six Books to Help You Innovate” through the pandemic.
Mark Scharenbroich is a bestselling and award-winning, author and speaker who is inducted in the National Speakers Assn Hall of Fame. He’s an Emmy Award(r) winning writer/producer and the recipient of several international film awards.
As a young speaker, Mark appeared in a Jostens award-winning film, “The Greatest Days of your Life…(so far)” which featured Mark speaking and has been viewed by millions of people worldwide. The film was awarded the Golden Apple and the Silver Screen Award.
Mark’s brand and his mantra is “Nice Bike”, and it’s more than just a compliment, or a metaphor, but a powerful engine fueled by the three actions of acknowledging, honoring and connecting with others, which he turned into his critically acclaimed, award winning, bestselling book: “Nice Bike – Making Meaningful Connections On The Road Of Life”, winning the Gold Axiom Business Book Award, and the Silver IBPA Ben Franklin Award.
Since 2013, Dr. Stephen Klasko has been the CEO of Jefferson Health and the President of Thomas Jefferson University, one of the nation’s fastest growing academic health institutions. Under his leadership and his vision of re-imagining health care, Jefferson Health expanded from three hospitals to 14, employing 35,000 people. Jefferson has also been one of the very best at protecting their staff and doctors, with a less than 1% rate of infection of COVID, where the nation’s average is at 3-4%.
Stephen’s track record of success at creating and implementing programs that are shaping the future of health care earned him a place among Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2018; He is also ranked #2 on Modern Healthcare’s list of Most Influential People in Healthcare. For 2018-19, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Thomas Jefferson University Hospital among the nation’s best in 10 specialties In 2020, he was named the first Distinguished Fellow of the World Economic Forum.
In 2020, Stephen published two books: “Un-Healthcare: From Sick Care to Health Assurance”, and “Patient No Longer: Why Healthcare Must Deliver the Care Experience that Consumers Want and Expect”. His best-selling 2018 book is titled, “Bless This Mess: A Picture Story of Healthcare in America”.
From his incredibly successful role on ABC’s smash hit, “Shark Tank”, to his distinguished status as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship for President Obama, Daymond John has become globally recognized for his relentless commitment to promoting and supporting entrepreneurs.
Daymond initially made his mark as the entrepreneur and branding expert behind the groundbreaking lifestyle brand, FUBU, which has eclipsed more than $6 billion in global retail sales.
In 2009 Daymond joined ABC’s “Shark Tank”. Now, after 12 seasons, multiple Emmy Awards, multiple Critic’s Choice Awards, millions of dollars in investments, and creating many millionaires, the show has become one of the most successful business reality series of all time. Daymond has been a mainstay of the cast of Sharks and is now affectionately referred to as, “The People’s Shark.” He also is the most successful investor of all the sharks!
Daymond has written five books and is a Three-Time ‘New York Times Best-Selling Author’… the only New York Times best-selling author of any of the Sharks. Daymond is a recipient of more than thirty-five awards, including the Brandweek Marketer of the Year and Ernst & Young’s Master Entrepreneur of the Year.
Paul Smith is one of the world’s leading experts on organizational storytelling. He’s one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers and the author of three Amazon #1 Bestsellers: “Lead with a Story” (now in its 11th printing, and published in 7 languages around the world), “Sell with a Story”, and “The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell”; in addition to “Parenting with a Story” and his newest work, “Four Days with Kenny Tedford”. Paul is a former executive at The Procter & Gamble Company and for the last decade+ has trained executives at international giants like Google, HP, Ford, Bayer, and many more.
Paul holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a 20-year veteran of P&G, where he worked mostly as the Director of Consumer and Communications Research for the company’s $6 billion global paper business where he led a research team across four continents. He also held leadership positions in corporate finance, manufacturing plants, and sales working closely with major global retailers like Walmart, Costco, and Sam’s Club.
After documenting thousands of stories along the way as research for his books, Paul has become a renowned expert on how to identify and craft an effective and compelling story. He helps companies and their leaders craft their corporate stories and teaches the art and science of storytelling and leadership so leaders and team members can be more effective at communicating and selling.
Mike Walsh is an authority on disruptive innovation, digital transformation, and new ways of thinking for the past two decades. A global nomad, futurist, and author of three bestselling books, Mike advises some of the world’s biggest organizations on reinvention and change in this new era of machine intelligence.
Mike’s views have appeared in a wide range of international publications including Inc. Magazine, BusinessWeek, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal. A regulator contributor to the Harvard Business Review, his writings explore a wide range of leadership topics including data-driven decision making, agile organizations, algorithmic management, and Arificial Intelligence ethics. Mike interviews provocative thinkers, innovators, and troublemakers on his podcast, “Between Worlds”.
His latest book, “The Algorithmic Leader” (2019) was selected to be given to the world leaders and executive attendees of the Ambrosetti Global Forum in Italy. “Futuretainment”, Mike’s first book Released in 2009, predicted how the smartphone would reshape the media and marketing industry, and the imminent rise of social media, digital influencers and streaming entertainment. In his 2014 book, “The Dictionary of Dangerous Ideas”, Mike anticipated breakthroughs in micro satellite networks, cryptocurrencies, remote work, digital protest movements, self-driving cars, drones and digital biology.
Tommy Davidson is a legendary comedian and one of the best multi-talented entertainers in comedy. His impressions, his dancing, his singing, his acting, and his stand-up comedy have filled up TV and movie screens since the 90’s.
A star of the legendary and breakthrough TV show “In Living Color”, he has gone on to appear in major motion pictures including “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls”, and alongside Samuel Jackson and Halle Berry in “Strictly Business”, as well as in many other movies. He starred in several of his own comedy specials, has had multiple recurring appearances on hit television series including Martin, MADtv, Everybody Hates Chris, Black Dynamite, I’m Dying Up Here, and countless more, and has appeared on several recent game/ reality programs including Worst Cooks in America and as the host of 37 episodes of Vacation Creation.
Tommy has made numerous appearances on the likes of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan Obrien, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The TODAY Show, The View, Wendy Williams, The Bernie Mac Show, The Aresnio Hall Show, and many more.
In Tommy’s 2020 critically acclaimed book “Living In Color – What’s Funny About Me” he reveals truths about his life that are unfathomable and nothing less than inspiring
Erik Qualman is a 5 Time #1 Bestselling Author of books on Digital Leadership including “Digital Leader: 5 Simple Keys to Success and Influence”. Qualman’s work from “Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business” has been featured on 60 minutes and The Wall Street Journal. His 2020 critically acclaimed book “The Focus Project – The Not So Simple Art of Doing Less” was released early due to popular demand during the pandemic.
A former sitting professor at Harvard & MIT’s edx Labs, Erik has been called a Digital Dale Carnegie and The Tony Robbins of Tech. NYU Stern signified Qualman is to digital leadership what Deming is to quality and Drucker is to management. Erik received an honorary doctorate for his groundbreaking work “What Happens in Vegas Stays on YouTube”.
Erik has put on performances in over 55 countries and has reached over 40 million people with his books and content, and was voted 2nd Most Likeable Author behind Harry Potter’s JK Rowling. He also owns a film and animation studio which has produced disruptive movies for fortune 1000 companies like Disney, Cartier, and Chase (one of these videos appears at the end of this interview)
Brent is the Chair of The Two Bit Circus Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization that works with educators and schools to bring STEAM (Science Technology Entertainment Art and Math) learning through exhibits and activities held in schools around the country.
Brent Bushnell is the CEO and Co-Founder and of the amazing Two Bit Circus. His is a huge name in tech, games, and building connective, fun, immersive environments. Brent’s award winning micro amusement park in the Downtown L.A. Arts District, Two Bit Circus, has won global recognition including being named by Fast Company as one of the Most Innovative Game Companies of 2020 and receiving Trip Advisors’ Traveler’s Choice Award – rated in the top 10% of attractions worldwide. Brent also won Popular Mechanics’ Breakthrough Innovator Award.
Two Bit Circus combines Virtual Reality, Interactive Gaming, Escape/ Story Rooms, a 100 seat interactive Game Show Theater, a Robot Bartender, and so much more! They’ve attracted huge celebrities and a ton of press, being featured on The TODAY Show, in People Magazine, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, WIRED, and many more.
Brent is an Electrical Engineer, Software Developer, Immersive Entertainment and Human Engagement Expert, STEAM authority, and pioneer in Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality, (starting with some very early major VR projects many years ago for the likes of the NFL and NASCAR).
Brent was also the on-camera inventor for the hit TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”, and is responsible for well over 70 million views on the web working with major brands, including building a huge Rube Goldberg machine creating a viral music video for the band OK Go’s song “This Too Shall Pass”.
Brent is the Chair of The Two Bit Circus Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization that works with educators and schools to bring STEAM (Science Technology Entertainment Art and Math) learning through exhibits and activities held in schools around the country.
Erica Dhawan is the world’s leading authority on 21st century Collaboration and Connectional Intelligence. She is the co-author of the bestselling book “Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence”, which was named #1 on What Corporate America is Reading. Her much anticipated follow up title, coming out in 2021, is titled “Digital Body Language”, which decodes the new signals and cues of effective collaboration in a digital-first human workplace.
Erica was named by Thinkers50 as “The Oprah of Management Ideas”. She was ranked #1 on Women Keynote Speakers for 2020 by Real Leaders and was in the Top 10 Management Experts in 2020 by Global Gurus!
Erica speaks on global stages like The World Economic Forum at Davos and TED as well as to the biggest companies in the world. She writes for Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Fast Company. Erica has degrees from Harvard University, MIT Sloan, and The Wharton School. Erica challenges audiences and organizations to unlock the collective power of teams, business units, customers and other stakeholders both in person, and virtually.
Tom Edwards is a marketing and technology luminary with a deep understanding of technical detail who focuses on future-proofing the biggest companies and brands in the country. Tom was the Chief Digital and innovation officer of the #1 ranked Advertising Agency in the U.S. according to Advertising Age magazine. Recently, he has recently been recognized by Advertising Age as Marketing Technology Trailblazer, The 2020 Global Icon Top 50 Global Marketers by OnCon, The Professional of the Year Marketing & Emerging Technology, and Tech Titans’ Technology Advocate Award.
Tom regularly provides thought leadership commentary online driving millions of views with his viral Blackfin 360 blog and in business and advertising publications. His TEDx talk has half a million views.
Tom speaks regularly as a futurist on emerging technology and its impact on consumer behavior/ experience via data design, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, wearables, gaming, and mobile. He outlines the exponential acceleration of experience through technologies that empower consumers, intelligent systems that enhance, and contextual and ambient environments that will redefine our reality. This discussion highlights the convergence of experience and explores the evolution of mobile and our virtual assistant as well as what happens when it’s no longer just about
Dr. Daniel Kraft is a Stanford and Harvard trained physician-scientist with more than 25 years of experience in clinical practice, biomedical research and innovation. He is the Founder and Chair for Exponential Medicine, a program which explores convergent, rapidly developing technologies and their potential to reshape the future of health and biomedicine. In 2020 Dr. Kraft became the Chair of the XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance Task Force: made up of 60 leading Universities, Fortune 500 and startups, focused on catalyzing new and existing solutions.
As a speaker and thought leader, Dr. Kraft’s TED and TEDMED talks plus other speeches and interviews online have millions of views, as he offers a compelling fast-paced look at the present, immediate future, and next few years of innovations in healthcare and medicine. Dr. Kraft is passionate about new tools, apps, tests and wearables that by capturing our data combined with AI, are revolutionizing the way we monitor our health and draw a path to wellness – changing the health industry’s focus from reacting and treating sickness to preventing it.
Kraft has conducted extensive research in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine with multiple scientific publications, medical device, immunology and stem cell-related patents through faculty positions with Stanford University School of Medicine and as clinical faculty for the pediatric bone marrow transplantation service at University of California San Francisco. Kraft is the inventor of the MarrowMiner, an FDA-approved device for the minimally invasive harvest of bone marrow, and he founded RegenMed Systems, a company developing technologies to enable adult stem cell-based regenerative therapies. He is an advisor to the XPRIZE Foundation (where he conceived of the Medical Tricorder XPRIZE and is helping lead a new cancer-focused XPRIZE) and advises several digital health and life science companies.
Kraft is an avid pilot and served for 14 years as an officer and flight surgeon with F-15 and F-16 fighter squadrons in the Air National Guard. He has conducted research on aerospace medicine that was published with NASA, with whom he was a finalist for astronaut selection.
Dr. Pippa Malmgren is a multiple bestselling author who is an expert in the Economy, Leadership, and Technology. She is a former economic advisor to the U.S. President, The British Prime Minister, and to the National Economic Council. A two-time World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow, Pippa is an internationally regarded financial authority and trend spotter who takes on economics through a unique holistic lens, showing companies and individuals how they can extract valuable insights and economic implications by tapping into subtle signals strewn throughout our daily lives. Also a successful technology entrepreneur who exited from her robotics company, she shares her techniques for not only forecasting trends, but finding opportunities and fully capitalizing on them. Dr. Malmgren is one of the few experts who accurately predicted the 2007-2008 Real Estate Bubble, BREXIT, and Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Pippa is the international bestselling author of “Signals: How Everyday Signs Can Help Us Navigate the World’s Turbulent Economy”, “The Leadership Lab” (which won the Independent Press Award 2020 – Leadership Category and was the Business Book of the Year 2019 in the UK Business Book Awards), and “Geopolitics for Investors”. In her timely and critically acclaimed 2020 book, “The Infinite Leader: Balancing the Demands of Modern Business Leadership”, Pippa and her co-author argue that the spectacular leadership failures that we have witnessed in recent history, stretching across business, community life and politics, can be explained by a lack of balance.
Forbes has called @DrPippaM a “Must Follow” on Twitter since 2015. In 2019 Computer Weekly named Dr. Malmgren as one of the Most Influential Women in Tech in the UK. In late 2018, she was named one of the Fifty Top Inspiring Women in the UK and one of the Top 100 Women in Technology by @WATC_WeAreTech. In 2018 she was listed as one of the Most Influential Economists in the World, one of the Most Influential in Geopolitics, Top 100 Women in Blockchain, 5th Most Powerful Women in Finance, and the 3rd most important Influencer on Robotics on Twitter (2017).
Vanessa Van Edwards has made her life’s work investigating the science of people. She’s the bestselling author of “Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People”, which has been translated into 16 languages. Her videos online have been viewed by over 30 million people and hundreds of thousands of people have taken her communication courses online.
Vanessa has been featured on CNN, BBC, CBS, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today, The Today Show, and many more. She studies the hidden forces that drive our behavior patterns and she’s cracked the code! Vanessa works with small businesses, entrepreneurs, and the biggest companies in the world, teaching valuable shortcuts, systems, and behavior hacks for taking charge of our interactions at work or anywhere.
When you understand the laws of human behavior, you can get along with anyone, and your influence, impact, and income will all increase as a result! You will improve your interpersonal intelligence, make a killer first impression, and build rapport quickly and authentically in any situation – negotiations, interviews, parties, and pitches. You will never interact in the same way again!
Sekou Andrews is one of the hottest and most unique speakers in the business today. A Grammy Nominated Spoken Word Artist for his album Sekou Andrews and The String Theory. He is Forbes’ Defacto Poet Lauriet of Corporate America. You can find him presenting on the biggest corporate event stages in the world, or delivering a tear jerking standing ovation performance in Oprah’s backyard for Barack Obama or Maya Angelou. Quincy Jones is quoted saying, “Sekou is my secret weapon when I want my events to have that extra spark of distinction…my staff knows my mantra – ‘If I could have anyone perform at this event, I WANT MY POETIC VOICE!'”
A schoolteacher turned actor, musician, two-time National Poetry Slam Champion, entrepreneur, and the award winning pioneer of the cutting edge new speaking category, Poetic Voice Speaking. A new type of speaker and artist who seamlessly blends inspirational speaking with spoken word poetry, like a perfect mix of Hamilton meets TED.
Sekou talks about about the story of his craft, what audiences want, how he does it, and how storytelling can be lifted up into a new kind of art form that advocates for our organizations, and touches our minds and our hearts even more deeply.
At 18:26 Sekou performs his incredibly moving Grammy nominated piece, “Love Says”.
Jim Kwik is the world’s #1 expert in brain/ mind optimization, memory improvement, and causing accelerated learning. His Wall Street Journal #1 Bestseller, instant New York Times Bestseller, and #2 Bestselling Book on Amazon, “Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life”, is a blueprint for the brain and how to flip your mindset, ignite your motivation, and master the methods to transform and unleash the brain’s superpowers. The book is endorsed by an incredible list of physicians and business, sports, and celebrity personalities including Beth Comstock, Quincy Jones, Stan Lee, Maria Shriver, Will Smith, Jeffrey Cummings, Gerard Butler, Alex Rodriguez, Tom Bilyeu, Maria Shriver, Novak Djokovic, Dr. Daniel Amen, Natasha Bedingfield, Eric Schurenberg, Peter Diamandis and many more.
Jim’s acclaimed podcast “Kwik Brain with Jim Kwik”, is one of the most popular in the world, with tens of millions of downloads, and his online video content has in the hundreds of millions of views.
Jim is the brain coach to a who’s who of the top business magnates, pro athletes, political leaders and Hollywood elite, and speaks with the biggest companies on the planet. He’s been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., Business Insider, CNBC, and many more.
It all started with a major childhood brain injury which caused Jim to create strategies to dramatically enhance his mental performance. Since then he’s dedicated his life to helping others unleash their brain’s potential.
Kevin Brown is one of the most in demand speakers today. He is the author of the best-selling, acclaimed book, “The HERO Effect® – Being Your Best When It Matters the Most”. He is a branding and culture expert with a 30+ year career in franchise development. He spent the last 19 years of his corporate career as an executive that built a little-known family business into the #1 franchise in their industry with annual revenues exceeding $2 billion dollars.
Kevin has received numerous honors, including being named one of the ‘Best Keynote Speakers of 2019’ by NorthStar Meetings Group; one of the ‘Top 41 Motivational Speakers Who Can Energize Any Sales Team’ by Resourceful Selling.
Kevin is so well liked because he is as talented a presenter as they come, a riveting storyteller, very funny, and delivers real content that can change your life.
Steve Farber re-defines what it means to be a leader of substance, significance, and success. The Huffington Post named Steve the #1 Business Speaker To See and he’s one of Inc. Magazine’s Global Top 50 Leadership and Management Experts.
Steve is a multiple bestselling author including his first big success “The Radical Leap”, hailed as one of the 100 Best business books of all time. “Greater Than Yourself” is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestseller. In 2020, he released his latest critically acclaimed book, “Love is Just Damn Good Business”, endorsed by Jack Canfield, Stedman Graham, Sally Hogshead and more.
These bestselling, award-winning, critically acclaimed books put the principles of Extreme Leadership into easily understood terms and show us how to take the LEAP in business using Love, Energy, Audacity, and Proof.
Esther Wojcicki is known as The Godmother of Silicon Valley, a California Teacher of the Year award winner, a bestselling author of two books, “How to Raise Successful People” and “Moonshots in Education”, and a teacher whose many students, and her own three daughters, have gone on to change and impact the world greatly. Steve Jobs even made sure that his kids were Esther’s students.
She’s the mother of three incredible daughters: Anne is the Founder of 23 and Me, Susan is the CEO of YouTube, and Janet is a Professor of Pediatrics at University of San Francisco.
Esther has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, Wired, Time Magazine, The Financial Times, The LA Times, Psychology Today, Business Insider, and many more. She is the author of viral blog posts for the Huffington Post.
Esther has always been at the forefront of emerging trends in education and has been intimately involved with Google and GoogleEdu since its inception, where she was one of the leaders in setting up the Google Teacher Academy.
In this conversation Esther and Chris talk about her effective and widely respected approach of collaborative leadership and teaching. This style has led her to be widely recognized as one of the most important and impactful educators in our country.
Chris Voss is the author of the major bestselling book, “Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It”, which has been called one of if not the best books on negotiation of all time and was one of the top 10 Best Selling Books of all of the books sold on Amazon for over a year. His 2020 Masterclass has been one of the most popular Masterclasses on the platform, and his many videos online of his speeches and interviews have millions of views.
Chris was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the FBI, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group. Before that, he served as the lead Crisis Negotiator for the New York City Division of the FBI.
Chris has been featured widely by the media including with Anderson Cooper on CNN, on CNBC, in TIME magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Fortune, The Washington Post, and many more.
Derek Gaunt is the bestselling author of “Ego Authority Failure”. He was a commander of hostage negotiations teams in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, and today is a hostage negotiation and incident command subject matter expert who frequently speaks at hostage negotiations and SWAT conferences across the country.
Derek spent the majority of his law enforcement career in the Criminal Investigations Section as a detective, supervisor and eventually commander of major crimes. In 1997, he took his passion for interpersonal communications to the next level, becoming a hostage negotiator.
Derek Gaunt and Chris Voss have been friends for 20 years – which makes this discussion entertaining, collaborative, and quite memorable! They have been teaching, training, and giving people negotiation superpowers together for the last decade. Here, they deliver tangible takeaways and tools that you can use immediately to make you a better negotiator, communicator, and leader! Using Chris and Derek’s tools, anyone will learn how to get what they want in negotiations, but also how to communicate better with anyone in their lives – employees, teammates, children, spouses, clients, and customers!
Chad Hymas is called one of the “10 most inspirational speakers in the world” by the Wall Street Journal. He is a bestselling author – selling millions of books, and he is a quadriplegic wheelchair athlete who holds the world record for longest distance wheeling a wheelchair – 513 miles (from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas)! He is the youngest person ever to receive the Council of Peers Award for Excellence (CPAE) and the youngest ever to be inducted into National Speaker Hall of Fame.
In this conversation, Chad and Chris explore Chad’s moving life story and his areas of expertise: Change, Perspective, Leadership, Vision, and Safety. Chad is a master storyteller and speaks on how our thoughts and words create our future. His story of overcoming adversity, dealing with incredible change and circumstance is one you will never, ever forget!
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is the author or editor of 41 books, which have sold over 2.5 million copies, been translated into 32 languages and become listed bestsellers in 12 countries. Amazon.com recently recognized their ‘100 Best Leadership & Success Books’, and Marshall’s books, “Triggers” and “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”, were both recognized as being in the top 100 books ever written in their field. Marshall is one of only two authors with two books on the list.
Marshall is the only two-time Thinkers 50 #1 Leadership Thinker in the World. He has been ranked as the World’s #1 Executive Coach, Top Ten Business Thinker for eight years, and was chosen as the inaugural winner of the Lifetime Award for Leadership by the Harvard Institute of Coaching.
Dr. Goldsmith served as a Professor of Management Practice at the Dartmouth Tuck School of Business. His Ph.D. is from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management – where he was the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year. His MBA is from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business – where he was the Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year. He is one of a select few executive advisors who has worked with over 200 major CEOs and their management teams. He served on the Advisory Board of the Peter Drucker Foundation for ten years.
Marshall and Chris talk about leadership in today’s world and what leaders can to to improve themselves, their businesses cultures, and their subordinates’ success. This conversation is a great look into what he writes about, teaches, and how he coaches the top executives on the planet.
Wayne Hoffman is a multiple award winning performer and recognized as one of the top mentalists in the world. He is an in-demand television personality who tours the world with his stage show Mind Candy. He also authored a best-selling book, by the same name Mind Candy. He even has a captivating keynote called The Power and Potential of The Human Mind.
Wayne has been featured on: America’s Got Talent, Penn and Teller’s: FOOL US (where he was actually one of the few guests to ever fool Penn and Teller), The TODAY show, NBC’s hit show Phenomenon, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, HARRY (hosted by Harry Connick Jr), National Geographic, CNN Money, The Science Channel, and many more.
Wayne’s passion for the mysterious was sparked at a young age leading him to study the art of magic. Later, through extensive studies in sociology, psychology, body language, and human behavior, Wayne was able to develop the foundation of his skills today. Audiences rave about his dynamic and stimulating performances where they experience seemingly supernatural phenomena in a fun and upbeat way.
In this entertaining and quite intriguing episode Wayne takes pleasure in messing with Chris’ head several times by reading and controlling his mind – performing some mental hacks that are truly mind blowing and Chris verifies were real!
Dianna Cowern is the creator and host of the viral web series “Physics Girl”, sponsored by PBS Digital Studios. The channel has over 1.6 Million subscribers and her videos have received 120 Million views. The Physics Girl YouTube channel is a super entertaining resource and platform for physics experiments and discussions about all things physics.
In 2019, Dianna was named to FORBES 30 under 30 list. Before Physics Girl, She graduated from MIT, studied as a post-baccalaureate research fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and then worked at GE as a Software Engineer designing mobile apps.
Dianna is a very sought after science communication personality and You Tube Educator, as well as an in-demand speaker who is an expert on physics, STEM, the future of education, and presenting via online media platforms. Her fans range from kids to some of the biggest CEOs and leaders on the planet who all love Dianna because either they or their kids are hooked on her YouTube Channel! She has been featured in Forbes, Science Magazine, Popular Science, Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, Space.com, NBC, Vogue, HuffPost, and many more.
In this conversation, Chris and Dianna discuss her story, her upcoming projects, education today, what is exciting and inspiring to her about STEM, and she even demonstrates a couple of really cool physics experiments that we can all do at home!
Dr. Kevin Elko is a nationally renowned performance consultant and bestselling author, who is well known as the most in-demand and probably the best at what he does in the pro and collegiate sports world. In his latest book, “Believing is Seeing – Ten Steps to a Mindset That Will Transform Your Direction and Your Life”, the forward is written by Steve Saban, probably the best college football coach in history.
As a team performance consultant, Dr. Elko has won a staggering 29 combined Superbowls and/ or National Championships! He has won the title with The Alabama Crimson Tide (5 times with Nick Saban) and also championships with the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles, Florida State, LSU, the Miami Hurricanes and many more.
Dr. Elko is an important part of a team’s success as he evaluates and selects players, gives speeches to the team, writes the speeches the coaches give, and he establishes the mantras and themes for the team to focus on for the year. There might not be anybody better at evaluating mindset, teaching leadership or focus, or establishing a culture.
In the business world, Dr. Elko is in high demand with organizations that deal with high levels of stress and difficult/ turbulent circumstances, as he works with people on: how they talk to themselves, how to get the most out of themselves, and how to deal with any adversity they will come across.
Join Chris as he and Kevin have a revealing and powerful conversation discussing Leadership, Culture, Teamwork, Mindset, and the Psychology of how we look at our circumstances, ourselves, and how we connect with the people around us.
The Passing Zone are two incredibly talented and hilarious guys (Jon Wee and Owen Morse) who Penn Jillette recently called the very best at what they do in the world. Their stunts are thrilling. They’ve been featured on The Tonight Show, The Today Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, were finalists on America’s Got Talent, and just appeared last week for the second time on Penn and Teller’s TV show Fool Us – performing with both Penn and Teller live on stage.
They have also been invited to perform for the White House, and in London for Prince Charles, and have made appearances in motion pictures like The Addams Family and The Aristocrats, and they have 5 Guiness World Records. At corporate events they deliver on the edge of your seat entertainment and expertly present on themes like collaboration, teamwork, execution, and communication!
This is a very funny episode, where not only does The Passing Zone actually perform on stage three separate times for us, (including an awesome Grand Finale at the very end), but they also use Chris as a volunteer in a couple of hilarious and innovative ways!
Nolan Bushnell is the founder of the legendary video game company Atari, and he is known as the Father of the Video Game Industry. He is the creator of the first coin-op video arcade games and the first in-home video game consoles, as well as the games themselves (from Pong to Breakout to Asteroids and many more). Newsweek named Nolan one of the “50 Men That Changed America”.
Nolan created a new Silicon Valley Culture, which was adopted by Apple, and still exists today across the valley. He famously was also Steve Jobs’ first and only boss, and after leaving Atari, Steve Jobs offered a third of Apple Inc to Nolan.
Nolan also founded Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theater, another brand that has endured for decades in American culture. He created 20+ other companies, including ETAK, which was the first company to map the world to within a meter, technology that is found today in Google Maps. In 2019, Nolan released his latest offering, St Noir, which is a board game for Amazon’s Echo, which has won many awards including “Best of Innovation” at CES.
Nolan is the author of the acclaimed book “Finding the Next Steve Jobs” and has been featured in hundreds of publications and many documentaries, including Tom Hanks’ recent hit documentary series “The Eightees” on CNN. Nolan has won numerous awards including the prestigious BAFTA, and is known as one of the most important people in the history of computer technology, and of course, video games.
Join Chris as he and Nolan talk about the history of Atari, video games, Steve Jobs’ working for him, and Nolan’s mind-blowing journey as an inventor and entrepreneur. We discuss topics central to Nolan like: Culture, Innovation, Creativity, Failure, and the Future of Society/ Technology/ Games.
Erik Wahl is an internationally recognized artist who ignites the stage with his incredible paintings, messages and energy. He’s a two time #1 Bestselling Author with “Unthink – Rediscover Your Creative Genius” – which CEO Reads named Book of The Year, and with his second title, “The Spark and The Grind: Ignite the Power of Disciplined Creativity”. He installed a 10,000 sq. ft Mona Lisa in a desert near L.A., created a treasure hunt game called “Art Drop” where he would hide paintings somewhere in a city for the lucky finder to keep, and Erik was selected as a TED speaker for TED2012.
His art is not for sale, but rather is auctioned off at his events, and his paintings have also raised over $1.5M for charities.
In this conversation, Chris and Erik talk about several areas that Erik is an expert in, including: Creativity, Innovation, Design, Adapting, Problem Solving, Risk, Anxiety, and reigniting our passion for life and our passion for inspiring others.
Vernice “FlyGirl” Armour was recognized as America’s First African American Female Combat pilot by the Department of Defense. As a police officer at the age 24, she decided to become an Officer in the Marine Corps and then a combat pilot, and only three years later was the United States Marine Corps’ first African American female pilot.
Vernice has appeared on Oprah Winfrey, CNN, Tavis Smiley, NPR, and many other media, and is a bestselling author and successful entrepreneur. Today, she sits on the Comcast/NBCUniversal Joint Diversity Council and was formerly a diversity officer liaison to the Pentagon. Vernice has been awarded as a pioneering pilot, including her commanding role in technology and engineering, and has received two honorary doctorates. She was also the first African American Woman on the Nashville Police Department’s motorcycle squad, and played running back for the San Diego Sunfire women’s professional football team!
In this conversation, Vernice and Chris talk about Leadership, Engagement, Overcoming Obstacles, Innovation, being Gutsy, and Diversity.
Jon Dorenbos played in the NFL for 15 years and made two Pro Bowl appearances. He’s also a master magician who was Simon Cowell’s favorite contestant on America’s Got Talent, ultimately coming in third place in the finals in 2017. Jon is also one of Ellen DeGeneres’ favorite guests on the Ellen Show – appearing over 25 times.
His story is riveting as he survived an unbelievably tragic childhood, losing both of his parents, when his father murdered his mother at the age of 12. His life was again changed forever recently, when the Philadelphia Eagles, the year they won the Superbowl, traded him to the New Orleans Saints… In the medical evaluation for the trade they found a major problem with his heart’s aorta, needing emergency life-saving surgery within 48 hours, forcing him to immediately retire from football.
Triumphing over difficult circumstances and achieving greatness in everything that he has done, You will find Jon to be transformative, if not one of the most inspiring people you have ever met. In this conversation, Chris and Jon tackle themes Jon has mastered, that have made him a very in demand speaker, including: leadership, mindset, perspective, self-talk, forgiveness, and greatness.
Kenny Aronoff is one of the world’s most influential, in demand drummers in rock and roll history. Rolling Stone Magazine named him one of the “100 Greatest Drummers of All Time” and the readers of Modern Drummer Magazine named him the #1 Pop/Rock Drummer and #1 Studio Drummer.
The list of artists he’s worked with on the road and/or in the studio is a who’s who of the music industry’s top talent. He’s played on records that have sold over 300 Million copies. 1300 of those records have ended up as Gold, Platinum, or Diamond RIAA Certified. And he has played on many #1 Hit singles. His latest record is Joe Satriani’s album “Shapeshifting”, a 2020 release that entered the Top 100 Albums chart at #8.
Kenny’s winning approach to drumming and life is a testament to his mastery as a team player, a leader, and a communicator who also has an incredibly strong work ethic. Qualities that have earned him a lasting career for several decades with more recording studio and live performance appearances than perhaps any other working drummer in history. Known as the Hardest Hitting Man in Show Business, and one of the most impactful, creative drummers in the recording industry, Kenny has created some of the most iconic drum parts in rock history.
Join us for a conversation where Chris and Kenny dive deep into themes of teamwork, leadership, survival, greatness, and work ethic. Defining Kenny’s mindset and outlook that has led to his enormous success.
Dr. Jenn Mann is one of the most well-known psychotherapists in the country, and one of the most sought-after thought leaders on communication and relationships.
Dr. Jenn is perhaps best known as the host and therapist for VH1’s hit shows “Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn” and “Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn”. She is a popular national radio host and is known for her radio show “The Dr. Jenn Show” which has aired on Sirius XM for five years, and has appeared as a guest expert on hundreds of TV shows including: The Today Show, Good Morning America, Dr. Oz, The Doctors, Steve Harvey, and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
She has a weekly column in In Style Magazine called “Hump Day with Dr. Jenn” and is the author of many best-selling advice books including: “The Relationship Fix”, “SuperBaby”, and “The A to Z Guide to Raising Happy Confident Kids”.
In this episode Dr. Jenn and Chris discuss: family and work relationships, the relationship we have with ourselves, dealing with the stress and anxiety of living in a pandemic, becoming more motivated and productive, resetting ourselves and becoming more goal oriented and fulfilled, and being better family members at home and more effective leaders and team members at work.
Pablos Holman is one of the most renowned hackers in the world, an inspiring technology futurist, and an inventor with over 70 patents. He has a unique view into problem solving and breaking, then building new technologies – talents he used for more than a decade at the Intellectual Ventures Lab in Seattle, where 150 scientists and engineers are inventing solutions to world’s biggest problems.
Pablos’ TED talks have gone viral totaling over 27 Million views. He has spoken for the World Economic Forum at Davos, the United Nations, and many other world famous events.
Pablos has worked on a wide variety of futuristic impact invention projects to solve world-sized problems, including: for Bill Gates, a machine to suppress hurricanes and a device that shoots mosquitoes out of the sky with lasers to help eradicate malaria. He also built spaceships with Jeff Bezos, invented the first 3D printer to ever print food, and helped create the #1 selling 3D printer in the world, the Makerbot.
In this conversation, we dive into the innovation mindset for businesses in today’s world as well as discussing powerful technologies including: Space Travel, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Modeling/ Big Data and how it will soon help businesses greatly, Blockchain, Crypto-Currency, and Cyber Security.
Dr. Stephen Klasko is an advocate for transformation in our systems of healthcare and higher education, and is the current President of Thomas Jefferson University and CEO of Jefferson Health, overseeing 35,000+ employees. He has led Jefferson to become one of the fastest growing academic health centers, expanding from 3 to 14 hospitals and growing revenues from $2.2 Billion to over $6 Billion in 2019.
Dr. Klasko was named one of the “Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company (ranking 21 out of 100 – the only physician on the list) for making large-scale healthcare personal. He was also ranked #2 of the “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” by Modern Healthcare in 2018. He was appointed as the first Distinguished Fellow at the Davos World Economic Forum, and in 2020 will co-chair the World Economic Forum board of stewards. Dr. Klasko is a bestselling author and has two much anticipated books coming out in 2020.
In this conversation, Dr. Klasko and Chris discuss: the coming vaccine (which his team is working on), opening back up society, disruption, the consumer revolution, and the future of healthcare – which is not just Telehealth (which he is a leader in), but rather, Healthcare With No Address, which he describes as health assurance at home.
CAL Entertainment Virtual Speakers
These exceptional, relevant speakers are all very in demand virtually around the world, and are equipped to deliver either a keynote speech or moderated conversation or combo of both for your virtual event, or as a virtual guest joining a live in-person event.
