Laurie Guest
An entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author, Laurie Guest became known as a “go-to-resource” for customer service excellence during a successful career in the healthcare industry. In 1997, she channeled that expertise into Guest Enterprises, Inc., her own speaking and training company. For more than two decades, she has shared her practical point of view on customer service and staff development to audiences across the country, blending real-life examples and proven action steps for improvement.
Laurie is an award-winning columnist and the author of two books. With her latest, The 10¢ Decision: How Small Change Pays off Big, Laurie presents her most sought-after and impactful strategies to find and retain the best staff and highest-quality customers while delivering exceptional guest experiences. Laurie is a certified speaking professional, a designation held by less than 12% of speakers worldwide. She lives in northern Illinois where she is a wife, mother of two, lover of board games and below-average cook.
Jermaine Davis
Before receiving the prestigious College Instructor of the Year Award, Dr. Jermaine Davis worked in corporate America for IBM, Keebler Cookies, and Frito-Lay in sales and management. In 2003, Dr. Jermaine started Snack Attack Vending of Minnesota. After six-years of continuous growth, Dr. Jermaine sold his company and devoted his life to full-time speaking, teaching, facilitating, and writing. Now, he’s an award-winning Professor of Communication Studies at Century College and Organizational Leadership at St. Kate’s University in Minnesota. Dr. Jermaine has authored 10 books including, Get Up Off Your Butt & Do It NOW, Leading with Greatness, and Leading and Working with an Inclusive Lens. He is known across the United States for teaching his popular 3 C’s Approach: Dr. Jermaine helps teams thrive and flourish with effective Communication, Cooperation, and Collaboration.
Dr. Jermaine was raised in a drug- and gang- infested area on the West Side of Chicago. After the tragic loss of six family members to violent deaths, he enrolled in college to change the direction of his life. Dr. Jermaine holds a BA and a MA in Speech Communication, and a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership. Dr. Jermaine specializes in helping leaders, teams, and organizations develop healthy work environments so ALL employees can thrive and flourish.
Dr. Jermaine is an international speaker, leadership, and communication coach that engages audiences with his unique style of speaking and facilitating known as – EDUTAINMENT – a fun combination of education and entertainment. Prestigious organizations like 3M, Allianz, Best Buy, Sam’s Club, Prudential, Wells Fargo, West Point Military Academy, John Deere, Medtronic, Land O’ Lakes, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car regularly seek out Dr. Jermaine’s expertise in the areas of increasing employee engagement, leadership development, communicating with influence, and overcoming workplace burnout.
Most importantly, he still loves to eat his grandmother’s homemade Mac ‘n’ Cheese AND all-you-can-eat crab legs.
Laurie Brown
Laurie Brown has over two decades of experience as
a speaker, coach and trainer helping her audience improve their presentation, communication and customer service skills. In that time she has earned a reputation as a highly engaging, fun and effective professional, whose work gets results for her clients.
She has designed, delivered and facilitated virtual programs for years on many virtual platforms. Laurie has received kudos for her ability to provide facilitation that is engaging and effective.
A key asset that Laurie brings to her work is her range and depth of experience. She has an international clientele, having worked on four continents and numerous countries including the UK, Panama, Japan, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Australia and Thailand, and throughout the United States and Canada. Laurie has worked with culturally diverse audiences at all corporate levels, and her clients have included Fortune 500 companies, pharmaceutical companies, government agencies and small family-owned businesses. Her clients include Bayer, Accenture, IBM, KPMG, Great American Insurance, Ford Motor Company, among many others.
Amy McWhirter
Soulful and captivating, professional emcee and event host Amy McWhirter energizes and inspires audiences to connect and take action. Amy creates continuity and cohesion, drives deeper audience engagement and amplifies messaging by pulling threads together in a unique way so that audiences come away with deep value and connection.
Expert in emceeing live on-stage, in-studio, hybrid and virtual events, hosting and producing videos, Amy helps audiences get to the heart of every session, making sure messages are clear and compelling. Her effervescence is contagious and she’s adept at emphasizing key points from speakers, gracefully improvising with humor, focusing the audience’s attention and weaving in themes of the event.
She works with marketing and event planning teams to help craft scripting, content, interview questions and engagement activities that drive home the central themes of her client’s events and ensure that the audience is inspired, energized and ready to act.
Christine Cashen
People across the globe are raving about Christine Cashen and her refreshing take on everyday life. Christine is one of the few individuals to meet the rigorous induction criteria of the National Speakers Association, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame, and there’s no question that she deserves that honor; her effortless ability to pull in any audience with her remarkable insights on commonplace situations make her and her messages unforgettable. And, yes, she is also a Certified Virtual Presenter.
For 20 years Christine has shared her expertise on conflict resolution, stress management, and cultivating a happier more productive workplace.
Author of the award-winning books, THE GOOD STUFF: Quips & Tips on Life, Love, Work and Happiness and It’s YOUR Business: Good Stuff for Your Personal, Professional, and Funny Business. Christine holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication and a master’s degree in Adult Education. In 2016, she was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Central Michigan University.
Before embarking on her journey as a speaker, she worked as a university admissions officer, corporate trainer, and broadcaster. She is a mother of two, wife of a “hottie engineer,” and an average golfer.
Jack Stahlmann
Hi. I’m Jack. This is a bio I wrote about myself, but I made it look like someone else wrote it, so it doesn’t seem like I’m bragging.
Jack Stahlmann’s informative and educational presentations are built around his experiences in Los Angeles as an actor, producer, director — and of course, a waiter.
In Hollywood, he launched his own production company which created several films that enjoyed international success and was an Assistant Director for the Margaret Cho stand-up show, Cho Revolution.
As an actor, his shining moment came in a co-star role on the CBS drama Cold Case, where he played a wimpy park ranger. He also appeared on Days of Our Lives and several commercials.
Jack graduated with honors at DePauw University and has been a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. He currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Lindsey Seavert
Lindsey Seavert is an Emmy, Edward R. Murrow, and Alfred I. duPont award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker fueled by a calling to bring untold stories to light.
The legacy of teaching in her family inspires Lindsey to use stories as a vehicle to empower, educate, create empathy and spark systemic change. Her parents were Minnesota public school teachers who gave her the gift of curiosity, so with a book and pencil often in hand, she began writing as a young child, and hasn’t stopped since.
She worked as a reporter at five news stations stretching from Northern Minnesota, Nevada, and Ohio before coming home to the Twin Cities and working as a reporter at WCCO-TV and KARE-11 TV.
In 2020, Lindsey moved to a freelance journalist and filmmaking role after releasing her first award-winning documentary, Love Them First.
The feature-length documentary, created at KARE 11, features a courageous Minneapolis principal fighting to get her students off the list of ‘failing’ schools while grappling with Minnesota’s vast achievement gap between Black and White students.
Love Them First has received hundreds of screening requests from school districts across the country and continues to change the conversation among educators when it comes to racial inequities in schools, the injustices of standardized testing and the best practices to teach children experiencing high levels of stress and trauma.
The film, which received one of journalism’s highest honors with the 2020 Alfred I. duPont award, has been applied into collegiate educational curriculum, featured at national education conferences and utilized at countless education staff development workshops.
The impact is only beginning, and Lindsey hopes to continue this advocacy, raising consciousness about the intersection of race and education, as she explores future film projects. Her work often focuses on women, families and children in underrepresented communities. Much of her inspiration comes from her late father, who spent his career advocating for teachers.
Lindsey is dedicated to mentoring young journalists and volunteering in the Twin Cities community. Her hobbies include running, fitness and creative writing.
The greatest chapters of her own story feature her family, her husband Ian, her son Stellan and daughter, Phoebe. They live in southwest Minneapolis.
Sara Krisher
Sara Krisher is the president and founder of STAND TALL, a company that helps build confidence. Her extensive work in business-to-business sales and public speaking training has been developed from her twenty-plus years’ experience presenting to Fortune 500 companies and small to medium-size businesses.
She is an international speaker, narrative coach, and developer of the “Fearless Speaker” program and author of The Confidence to Speak, a book about the many fears of speaking. She delivers training programs to business leaders who want to lead from the front of the room with more confidence.
Sara’s passion for speaking her truth is evident in her candid approach to communications. Her clients like her fun, spirited, and encouraging personality. She is a champion of bravery and doesn’t just talk the talk. She continually demonstrates confidence building in her work and personal life. She stands tall at 6’1” and looks up to her fourteen-year-old daughter, who is 6’2” tall.
Colette Carlson
Colette Carlson is a human behavior expert and CPAE Hall of Fame motivational keynote speaker who teaches audiences how to transform relationships through the power of connected conversations. Colette’s presentations weave together powerful life lessons, research-backed strategies, and the call to action for personal and professional success. Audiences connect with Colette through her inspiring content, laugh-out-loud humor, and extensive customization.
With a Master’s Degree in Human Behavior and more than 20 years of experience helping individuals change behaviors that impact their success, Colette understands the psychology, mindset, and skills required to make positive, long-lasting change.
A Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), a designation held by fewer than 10% of the members belonging to the International Federation for Professional Speakers, Colette has shared her insights, observations, and research with thousands of people throughout the world. In 2017, Colette was inducted into the CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame, a recognition that honors professional speakers who have reached the top echelon of career excellence.
Her articles on connection, stress management, sales, and leadership have been featured in Success, Business Management Daily, and Working Mother magazines. Trusted clients include Boeing, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Fidelity, Great Clips, Federal Express, and the United States Government.
Liz Uram
Liz works with organizations that want to equip their supervisors and managers with the skills they need to Communicate Like a Boss for results, impact, and influence. Whether she’s training onsite at a client location or speaking at a leadership conference, audiences get practical solutions to everyday leadership challenges they can apply in the real-world.
After 20 years of practicing, studying, and teaching leadership skills, she’s developed a set of tools that work. In fact, she’s written 4 books packed full of strategies leaders can implement to get real results, real fast. As a result of her work, supervisors and managers are prepared to anticipate and solve problems, develop and empower others to find innovative improvements, and attract and retain top talent.
She lives in Minnesota with her husband and enjoys golfing, gardening, and spending time with her family.