Walter Bond
Walter travels the country speaking, coaching, teaching, and inspiring companies across a wide range of industries, from financial services to agriculture and franchising to real estate and many more in between. At any given time, you can find Walter leading a mastermind class, offering one on one professional development, hosting book talks, and coaching hungry business leaders and entrepreneurs towards success.
While many know Walter Bond as a former NBA player, more and more people know Walter as a passionate and motivated speaker, author, and business transformation coach with one goal: to help people see their full potential. Walter always focuses on mastering the fundamentals of business. The only way a professional can reach their professional potential. The benefit to the audience, is that not only is Walter a Hall of Fame speaker based on his platform skills that are second to none, he is also teaching as he is performing for his audience. Leaving an audience entertained and educated. A rare gift!
Joe Gerstandt
Joe Gerstandt is a speaker, author and advisor bringing greater clarity, action, and impact to organizational diversity and inclusion efforts.
Joe has worked with Fortune 100 corporations, small non-profits, and everything in between. He speaks at numerous conferences and summits. He is a featured contributor for the Workforce Diversity Network Expert Forum and his insights have been published in Diversity Best Practices, Diversity Executive, HR Executive, and numerous other print and on-line journals. He co-authored the book Social Gravity: Harnessing the Natural Laws of Relationships, and serves on the Intersectional Culture and Diversity Advisory Council for the social networking platform, Twitter.
A strong advocate for resetting the diversity and inclusion conversation, Joe sees this work as poorly understood and often misunderstood. His keynote messages and interactive workshops bring greater clarity, action, and impact to existing and new organizational diversity & inclusion efforts.
Ashley Rhodes-Courter
Since her first National Keynote at age 14, Ashley Rhodes-Courter has shared her story with thousands in the United States and in over 7 countries.
Ashley Rhodes-Courter, MSW, is the quintessential American success story. Born in 1985 to a single teen mother, by the age of 3 she was in Florida’s foster care system where she spent almost ten years being shuttled between 14 homes—some quite abusive—before being adopted from a Children’s Home at the age of twelve.
Despite her ordeal, she excelled in school because she believed that, “my education was the one thing nobody could take from me.” Early in her life she felt compelled to advocate for herself and the other children she lived with, particularly in the abusive foster homes.
Her efforts and academic achievements landed her Eckerd College’s Trustee Scholarship where she graduated with honors and ahead of schedule earning a double major in Communications and Theater and a double minor in Political Science and Psychology. Ashley then went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Southern California.
During her undergraduate studies, she was one of 20 college students selected for the USA Today All-USA Academic Team and was named one of GLAMOUR Magazine’s Top Ten College Women. She was also selected as one of the four Golden BR!CK Award winners for outstanding advocacy for community change by DoSomething!. As part of their campaign, she was featured on 25 million bags of Cool Ranch Doritos.
By the age of 22, Ashley had become a New York Times Bestselling Author. Her first book, “Three Little Words” is now an International Bestseller and has been published in at least 4 countries. Her second book, “Three More Words” debuted at #1 on Amazon Bestseller’s List. Both books are used in classrooms across the country in various community and First Year Experience Collegiate programs.
Ashley has received State, local, and National awards for her speaking, advocacy, and philanthropy. She has spoken on Capitol Hill and has been invited to the White House twice. “Three Little Words” is now being made into a major motion picture.
Simon Keith
Former pro athlete Simon Keith knows what it’s like to tough out the most dramatic surgery in the operating room and make a comeback—even after everyone said it was impossible.
The first athlete in the world to play a professional sport after undergoing a heart transplant, he was the #1 overall draft pick in the Major Indoor Soccer League just three years after his surgery.
But Simon’s legacy transcends sports.
After spending 15 years starting, growing, and selling multiple companies, he began to apply his competitive spirit and business acumen to push other leaders, teams, and enterprises past their limits. The result?
Multimillion dollar turnarounds at five consecutive companies.
Today, he helps companies drive unprecedented growth by maximizing the potential of their people.
With uncompromising focus, he sets high expectations for achieving results forged by his belief that, with determination, the best leaders can achieve ANYTHING they choose.
About Simon
First athlete in the world to play a professional sport post-heart transplant.
Expert in leadership development, organizational culture, and entrepreneurship.
Multimillion dollar turnarounds at five consecutive companies.
90-day roadmaps that push leaders and teams to achieve uncommon levels of success.
Motivational keynotes that inspire audiences to push past their limits.
Jason Lauritsen
Jason Lauritsen is a keynote speaker, author, and consultant who will challenge you to think differently. He is an employee engagement and performance management expert who passionately believes that work can and should be a fulfilling experience for every employee.
Jason uses a blend of research, practical experience, and storytelling to empower managers to have a more positive impact on their people.
As both a former corporate executive and entrepreneur, Jason has always been dedicated to creating organizations that are good for both people and profits.
Jason also led the research team for Quantum Workplace’s Best Places to Work program for three years. There, he studied the employee experience at thousands of companies to understand what the best workplaces in the world do differently than the rest to engage their employees.
Jason is the author of the books Unlocking High Performance: How to use performance management to engage and empower employees to reach their full potential and Social Gravity: Harnessing the Natural Laws of Relationships.
Gary Bradt
More than ever before, change and unrelenting disruption are causing employees to feel emotional fatigue, burnout, stress, anxiety, and myriad emotions that strip them of creativity, productivity and overall joy. Providing employees with more strategies to adapt to change with a growth mindset and resilient spirit are critical competencies that Dr. Gary Bradt has been teaching C-Suite leaders in Fortune 500s for 25+ years.
Today, he is being called upon by leading corporations to share his practical and actionable tools for change with employees at every level, so they can embrace change and create a positive path forward both professionally and personally.
Dr. Bradt’s unique background and perspective make him a one-of-a-kind speaker on emotional intelligence, change and leadership. As a licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Bradt shares relevant research from neuroscience and positive psychology to help leaders and people at every level approach change with a positive perspective.
As a business owner with 25+ years of experience coaching C-level executives, Dr. Bradt passes on practical strategies and tactics that businesspeople quickly comprehend and apply. As a thought leader on change and leadership, he is a contributing writer to Forbes.com and the author of three books on change.
Most importantly, however, Dr. Bradt is a father, who speaks from the heart about the tragedies, triumphs, and lessons he’s learned from raising a child with a chronic life-threatening heart condition.
It is no wonder, then, that the late Spencer Johnson asked Dr. Bradt to be the leading speaker worldwide for one of the bestselling business books of all time, Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese? More than 300 keynotes and twenty-years later, Dr. Bradt is as passionate as ever about helping people find the opportunity that change always creates. He will inspire and empower your audience to change and win today.
Bill Rancic
Entrepreneur, Award-Winning Author, Motivational Speaker & Media Personality
After bursting on to the scene as NBC’s first Apprentice, Bill Rancic has traveled to every part of the globe, sharing his life experiences and business acumen with tens of thousands of leaders, businesses and organizations on a variety of important topics. His expertise ranges from why some companies thrive in chaos — and others don’t — to the leadership behaviors needed in a world beset by turbulence, uncertainty and dramatic change.
What makes Bill so unique is that he is both a student and teacher of leadership and has a healthy obsession with what makes great companies and leaders tick.
Having invested nearly two decades living the topic, Rancic has authored four books. These include New York Times best-seller You’re Hired: How to Succeed in Business and Life, which examines how some companies and leaders make the leap to superior results; the enduring classic Beyond the Lemonade Stand which teaches young people empowers them with the value of both money and positive self-image. In addition, Rancic co-authored I Do… Now What? with celebrity wife Giuliana Rancic where they share secrets to a supportive love and true partnership in marriage. He also just penned his first novel, First Light.
Driven by a relentless curiosity, Rancic really began his business journey when graduated cum laude from Loyola University. He then went on to become a successful entrepreneur when he founded a monthly online subscription-based retailer. Since that time, he has inspired millions of people around the globe to work towards reaching their full potential, both in business and in their personal lives. He is currently co-owner of the RPM Restaurant Group and the Giuliana Prosecco.
Rancic appears regularly on numerous daytime broadcast and cable television programs such as Today, The View, Rachael Ray, Steve Harvey and various CNBC programs.
He currently resides in Chicago with his wife Giuliana and son Duke.
Ross Bernstein
The best-selling author of nearly 50 sports books, Ross Bernstein is an award-winning peak performance hall of fame business speaker who’s keynoted conferences on all seven continents and has been featured on thousands of television and radio programs including: CNN, “CBS This Morning,” ESPN, and Fox News, as well as in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today. Keynoting more than 100 live events globally per year, Ross’ passion is studying just what it is that makes the great ones great – and then translating that to business through his “Champion’s Code” program in order to help people not just win, but to win with integrity.
Lisa Ryan
As a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), an award-winning speaker and author of ten books, Lisa Ryan works with her clients to develop employee and client engagement initiatives and strategies that keep their top talent and best clients from becoming someone else’s.
Lisa’s expertise includes: strengthening workplace culture, improving employee engagement, increasing customer retention, and initiating gratitude strategies (“Grategies”) for personal and professional benefit. Lisa’s participants enjoy her high energy, enthusiastic delivery, and quick wit and they leave the session with ideas they are committed to acting on immediately to make positive workplace culture changes.
Lisa costars in two films with other experts including Jack Canfield of “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” She is the Past-President of the National Speakers Association, Ohio Chapter, and holds an MBA from Cleveland State University.
Jeff Havens
Jeff Havens is not your typical business growth expert. His uncanny ability to provide actionable answers to today’s business challenges in an undeniably entertaining and impactful way has put him in front of over 1,000 eager audiences across North America and Asia. Delivering well-researched and relevant business insight is something a lot of keynote speakers do, but combining that with the entertainment value of a comedy show is not. Engaging, charismatic, and full of energy, Jeff Havens is the only business growth expert who provides serious solutions in a seriously funny way.
But even more than that, Jeff makes things easy. All of us are constantly being asked to do more with less, so the last thing you need is someone to tell you how difficult your challenges are. Jeff has a unique ability to simplify seemingly complex problems in a way that will provide your audience with a fresh perspective, one that runs counter to the conventional wisdom of the business world. He’ll show you that we’re not actually creating a completely new type of person every 15 years, that being innovative is not something only a few special people know how to do, and that both exceptional leadership and exceptional customer experiences are built on surprisingly slender foundations. You will leave Jeff’s keynotes refreshed, relaxed, happy, and more confident than ever that you are prepared for the road ahead.