Eric Alexander
Renowned Mountaineer, accomplished speaker, and celebrated author, Eric Alexander has been a pioneer and advocate for people with disabilities. Most notably Eric stood atop mount Everest leading his blind friend, Erik Weihenmayer to a successful summit of the world’s tallest peak, and was called Erik’s guardian angel for safely guiding his descent from the summit. This multi-record setting team has been called, by Time magazine, the greatest team in history to climb Everest, and this ascent ranked among it’s top 5 climbs ever by Outside magazine.
Climbing some of the world’s highest and most daunting peaks with people who have disabilities has set Eric’s climbing career apart and given him unique and innovative insights into the essence of leadership and teamwork. As a faithful team-mate, and as a leader of world class teams and expeditions around the globe, Eric captivates audiences worldwide through his engaging story telling, drawing his audience into these experiences, with emotion, laughter, truth and vulnerability in ways that will leave a lasting imprint on their lives.
Whether it’s business or personal, we live in a world of uncertainty where fear and doubt can get the best of us. Eric has pushed through his own fears and doubts having come back from near fatal falls, pulmonary edema, pneumonia, and tragic losses, to learn that it is not all about “my” summit, but about helping others to reach theirs. It is this principle, on which Eric speaks, that will help your team get to the top.
When engaging an audience Eric likes to share his “recipe” for success speaking of the fundamentals of team spirit (because it is more than just work), trust, courage, faith and integrity. Today, Eric continues to climb and look for new challenges both personally and in the outdoors while challenging people to overcome the “Everest’s” in their own lives redefining the limits of what we can achieve.
Mike McKinley
Mike McKinley has the experience and expertise that people in business need to succeed from his history as a teenage entrepreneur which led to leadership positions in manufacturing, retail, radio, television, and ownership of a multimillion dollar publishing house, professional speaking, and consulting business. Mike helps people recognize the challenges to success, open their minds to new ideas and current methods, and helps business maximize performance and profitability.
Hired for the fun but paid for the content, Mike entertains while he teaches – presenting as the keynote speaker at corporate trainings, in-house programs, and for professional association meetings. An example of his client list includes Great Clips, The Toro Company, Subway, Gillette, and American Family. Many clients have Mike return multiple times for their organizations. Hundreds of companies – from construction to healthcare, high technology to the auto industry- have relied on Mike for insight into furthering today’s business growth, innovation, and success.
Mike’s performance ingredients (topics) include Change, The Customer Journey, Maximizing Performance, Teamwork, Leadership, Motivation, and Balancing Work & Home. Working with Mike’s consulting clients and his vast array of businesses gives him a breadth of real life experience and business expertise on which to draw when he shares his ideas and performs for large audiences, individuals, management teams and boards of directors across the country.
Education and training on the customer journey, partnership advocacy, generational and diversity issues, leadership and day-to-day business operations is the heart and soul of Mike’s presentation. It’s time to think fresh thoughts and seek new perspectives. Mike uses real life photos for fun and humor yet ties them into serious points about life and changing business creating the easy learning transition. He works to share his message of maximizing performance and enjoying the ride!
Elizabeth Ries
Elizabeth Ries is a television and radio personality in the Twin Cities. She spent years as a news anchor/reporter, but is now the co-host of Twin Cities Live weekdays at 3 pm on 5 Eyewitness News (KSTP). She chats about pop culture, celebrity gossip and manages to get a few pro-kale statements on the air when she co-hosts the Margery & Elizabeth show on myTalk 107.1. Elizabeth also frequently contributes articles on food and urban farming to Edible Twin Cities magazine.
Elizabeth is an uplifting speaker who inspires attendees and she is an excellent Emcee as well!
Ian Leonard
Ian has been Chief Meteorologist at FOX 9 in Minneapolis since 2006. His science is the great outdoors and his passion is forecasting the weather. His passion has taken him from Alberta, Canada to Mississippi, Iowa and finally Minnesota. For over 20 years he has used the phrase “stay sky aware” to help viewers stay ahead of the storm. It now is a regular “hashtag” in Ian’s social media updates during severe weather season to his 35 thousand Facebook and Twitter followers. He calls his work at FOX 9 a dream job because of the 4 incredibly diverse and always entertaining seasons of the Upper Midwest. Ian graduated from the Broadcast Meteorology Program at Mississippi State University and is a member of the American Meteorological Society, The National Weather Association and The Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.
Ian is an extremely active supporter of persons with intellectual disabilities. He is on the road every month supporting the incredible athletes of Special Olympics Minnesota. You can find him “freezin’ for a reason” on most late winter weekends taking the Polar Plunge into lakes across Minnesota. In the past 8 years he has plunged 103 times and helped raise over 15 million dollars.
Ian has had his share of personal storms – making it through a traumatic brain injury in 2013 and adding the line “cancer survivor” to his resume in 2016.
Ian is a humorous and impactful Speaker who motivates organization’s teams to move through their business and personal storms – toward finding passion and purpose.
His high energy and quick wit also makes him the perfect Emcee or Live Auctioneer for your next event. He has assisted organizations in raising millions of dollars at their Fundraiser Events over the years. Attendees love him!
Paul Douglas
Paul Douglas is Penn State meteorologist with over 45 years of television and radio experience. A serial entrepreneur, Douglas has launched 7 businesses. Founder and Chief Meteorologist at Praedictix, providing weather services, consulting and briefings for media and corporate interests. Developers and engineers create unique streams of weather data, imagery and API’s for corporations via AerisWeather. The latest science and models are leveraged to provide insight for corporations factoring climate trends into investment, resilience and sustainability via ClimaTrends. Douglas is a member of the Climate Science Rapid Response Team. In 2017 he co-authored a book on climate, focused on matters of faith and science: “Caring for Creation, the Evangelical’s Guide to Climate Change and a Healthy Environment”. A frequent contributor to MSNBC, Douglas was featured in NOVA’s “Decoding the Weather Machine”, Douglas has spent the last 25 years connecting the dots between climate volatility and weather disruption.
Paul uses weather as a metaphor to track the “storms of business”, telling his unique story, and the lessons he’s learned from starting up 6 companies – often the hard way. He is also the perfect Emcee for your next event.
Daniel Shannon
Throughout his meteoric rise with top companies in the CPG, Financial Service and Retail industries, Daniel has accumulated nearly two decades of executional and thought leadership experiences. Inspired by his desire to enhance the value proposition of spaces where he has influence, by leveraging his uncommon combination of professional and personal experiences, Daniel has developed an exceptional competency in the areas of B2B sales, marketing, business development, and an UNMATCHED expertise on matters of diversity, equity and Inclusion.
Daniel’s corporate successes translate beautifully into his work as a speaker. Carefully customizing each of his presentations, based on his clients’ specific needs and goals, his approach is reflective of actual experience and proven solutions, rather than theory. On top of that, Daniel is beloved by his audiences for his signature style, combining entertainment with tangible takeaways!
Richard Coffey
Richard Coffey is a native of North Carolina. A businessman and former professional athlete, Richard served three years in the United States Army as an Airborne Paratrooper-a member of the first to fight, last to fall 82nd Airborne. Richard is a former college basketball player with a degree in business. After graduating from college, Richard played professional basketball in the NBA with the Minnesota Timberwolves. After the NBA he continued his basketball career playing and coaching abroad in Europe and Asia. Following his basketball career, Richard worked as a leader in the corporate sales industry for over 20 years.
Richard is a dynamic and powerful speaker who is passionate about helping others reach the next level in their life, no matter what season they are in.
Richard believes every person should have a personal strategic plan. His wisdom and humor will enlighten and captivate everyone who has the opportunity to learn from him.
Through personal and professional reflection, Richard delivers a thought-provoking experience that challenges, inspires and motivates his audience to take the next steps in reaching their full potential. Through Richard’s background and experiences in the military, athletics and corporate America, he takes your audience on a thrilling, empowering and entertaining journey of self-discovery that is quite often described as life changing.
Steve Patterson
Steve Patterson is a veteran entertainment television and radio show host, whose energy and quick wit keeps audiences engaged from beginning to end! His ability to read a room and go off the cuff, combined with his skill to smoothly execute a show flow sets him apart as a truly unique talent.
Patterson hosts the long-running afternoon TV show Twin Cities Live, in addition to co-hosting the Donna and Steve radio show on MyTalk 107.1FM. He’s gained national recognition for his numerous appearances on LIVE! with Kelly and Ryan, where his subzero weather reports have gone viral. Before coming to the Twin Cities, Steve spent 4 years working for Hubbard Broadcasting in Los Angeles, California and Albuquerque, New Mexico for the company’s entertainment cable news network REELZ. During his time there, Steve served as a correspondent and anchor for the network’s daily entertainment news program, interviewing many of the biggest stars in Hollywood along the way.
Steve enjoys writing in the third person. He doesn’t think anyone actually reads an entire bio. So if you haven’t given up on this just yet, kudos! You done good, kid.
Joan Steffend
Joan used to be an actress, who studied at Warner Brothers. She used to be a national Emmy-winning news reporter and anchor at KARE-11(NBC) in the Twin Cities for almost two decades. She tried her hand as a television host of “Decorating Cents” on HGTV for ten years – hosting many “Dream Home” specials, and rating record setting “Christmas at the White House” specials. She was a guest on “Entertainment Tonight”, “The Today Show”, “The Oprah Show” and “Live, with Regis and Kelly.”
Today Joan speaks for organizations across the United States. She has a gift for lifting people up. She connects people to their own magnificence and to one another. A sense of community is only one of the many reasons to invite Joan to speak for your organization. One of her favorite topics is: reclaiming your most brilliant self…and using it to change the world for the better.
Joan is also encouraging others with her two books ( “…and she sparkled” and “peace in, peace out” ). Her non-profit, “peace begins with me” is her latest effort to ask the world (that’s you, by the way) to be a little kinder to itself.
When she heard that the Dalai Lama had said that the Western woman will save the world, Joan thought, “Let’s get started.”
Ben Utecht
It is rare to find a true Renaissance man anymore, but that’s just that you get with Ben Utecht. Ben has always chased his dreams, finding his way from a small river town in Minnesota to a Super Bowl championship field. Whether it was becoming a world champion in football, singing with major symphonies, serenading Muhammad Ali on his 70th birthday, or stepping into a national advocacy role, Ben has found success in many realms. He honed his already keen public speaking skills at the University of Minnesota, where he graduated with a degree in communications and even started a master’s degree in sports management before being swept up into the NFL.
Ben has established himself as a prominent national leadership and motivational speaker for corporations, conventions, and non-profit events. Both of his programs, The Champion’s Way™ and The MVP Program™, stem from lessons he learned in the locker room with Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy and in the huddle with future Hall-of-Famer Peyton Manning. The Champion’s Way™ spotlights and breaks down “The 4 Ls” of leadership: listening, learning, language, and love. The MVP Program™ comes from Ben’s experience with concussions. It inspires audiences to truly care about their minds and to discover how integral memory is to identity. Both programs illuminate dynamic ways to succeed in business and life.
I believe, as a speaker, that vulnerability equals connectivity. This is why I approach my keynote presentations with a mission of bringing you on an emotional journey through my life, into a hall-of-fame huddle, and onto a field of high-impact lessons. All our lives tell a story, and this is how I tell mine!
As an influential advocate for brain health, Ben served as the national spokesperson for the American Academy of Neurology and currently sits on the prestigious board of the American Brain Foundation. Ben was given the AAN’s most esteemed honor, the Public Leadership in Neurology Award, in 2014. Also at that time, Ben released a music video for his song “You Will Always Be My Girls,” written as a love letter to his wife and daughters with the goal of emotionally connecting people to the importance of their memories. The video has impacted the lives of many, garnering over 1.3 million YouTube views to date.
Ben can now add “author” to his résumé, with the release of his new book Counting the Days While My Mind Slips Away, published by Simon & Schuster. The book is the first memoir from a former NFL player who left the game as a result of concussions. It takes the reader on a heart-felt journey through the ups and downs of Ben’s life with faith, family, and football. Ben has a message of hope that has reached a nation-wide audience, inspiring people to value every moment to its fullest.