Key Executive Group

Wednesday, December 2, 2026 —  Alex Swire Clark

Program Description:

What’s poor communication costing your company? What’s it costing you personally?

Loss of top talent?

• Failure to consistently close sales?
• Disturbingly low team morale?
• Dysfunctional / non-productive team meetings?
• Increased drama and conflict?
• Strained relationships with your children?
• Perhaps even divorce? (Half your net worth!)

All these sources of pain are avoidable and are often linked back to ineffective communication. Sometimes we say WHAT we want, the WAY we want, but we’re still perceived in a way we didn’t intend. This program helps you identify your default style of communication, understand the styles of others, and transform your ability to effectively communicate with anybody, and everybody, in your life and business.

Participants begin this workshop with an introduction/review of the DISC model of human behavior from a unique and fun perspective. They are then led on a journey to understand the personalities/styles of others with the intent of discovering, “Why doesn’t everyone see the world the way I do?” They are given practical tips to help them adapt to the people around them to develop more meaningful and productive relationships.

Value to Members:

Participants will have the opportunity to receive their DISC profile scores. They will leave armed with practical, tactical knowledge and a desire to improve/develop/repair relationships in the workplace and in their personal lives. Where there may have been no awareness or traction before, they will leave with the power to make real change.

Biography:

Alex Swire-Clark is a five-year Vistage member and CEO of Solor, Inc. As a Certified Human Behavior Expert, he uses the powerful concepts from his presentation to recruit, build, and lead successful virtual teams all over the US. Prior to running his company, Alex spent eight years as a transformative educator, after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Alex’s style is fun and engaging. His unique approach to personality styles will have your members talking about the presentation long after the end of the session.

Wednesday, October 7, 2026 —  Stormie Andrews

Value To Members:

You’ll work directly on your business during the session, creating:

• Complete buyer personausing the World’s Best Buyer Persona System
• Strategic messaging frameworkthat attracts ideal customers while repelling poor fits
• Department-specific AI implementation roadmapshowing exactly how to apply concepts beyond marketing
• Actionable implementations planyou can execute before the end of the day.

The “Working ON Your Business” Promise

My commitment to you: In three hours, you’ll accomplish more strategic work than most leaders complete in three days. This isn’t theoretical—it’s hands-on business development that creates immediate value while building long-term competitive advantage.

Collaborative Learning Environment

• Interactive, small-group formatallowing for personalized attention and deeper exploration
• Peer collaborationwhere you learn from other business leaders facing similar challenges
• Behind-the-curtains accessto advanced AI strategies typically reserved for large enterprises
• Real-time problem-solvingon actual business challenges you’re currently facing

What You’ll Walk Away With:

• Strategic clarityon how AI can transform your specific business model
• Immediate implementation toolsthat work right out of the gate
• Department-specific roadmapsfor scaling AI advantages across your entire organization
• Competitive positioningthat sets you apart in an increasingly crowded marketplace

Three Core Promises

Promise #1: Measurable Progress

You’ll accomplish more strategic work in three hours than you typically complete in three days—and you’ll leave with tangible deliverables proving it.

Promise #2: Immediate Actionability

Everything you learn can be implemented immediately. No waiting for additional training, tools, or team development.

Promise #3: Long-term Strategic Impact

The frameworks and methodologies you’ll master create sustainable competitive advantages that compound over time, positioning your business for continued growth in an AI-driven economy.

Why This Matters Now

In today’s business environment, having a 2x AI advantage just keeps you competitive. Everyone is using basic AI tools for content creation and problem-solving. To truly grow and dominate your market, you need strategic frameworks that create 10x+ advantages.

This workshop shows you exactly how to make that leap—not through better tools, but through better strategic thinking about how AI integrates with your business model, customer experience, and competitive positioning.

Speaker Bio:

Stormie Andrews is a leading visionary in digital marketing and artificial intelligence. As the award-winning author and creator of The World’s Best Buyer Persona System, he has transformed the way businesses understand and engage with their customers. Stormie is a licensed practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a Forbes contributor, and recognized as a Top 50 Tech Visionary. His accolades include being named the American Marketing Association Member of the Year and an active investor in emerging technologies like blockchain, robotics, and Ai.

Persona Pilot™, Stormie’s latest innovation, is redefining how organizations create and leverage buyer personas through ChatGPT. This advanced tool offers unparalleled insights into customer behavior and profiling, empowering businesses to develop highly targeted strategies with exceptional precision. With a proven track record of producing game-changing results, Persona Pilot™ enhances buyer personas by harnessing the full capabilities of AI, making it an indispensable resource for organizations aiming to achieve superior outcomes.

Over the past decade, Stormie’s application of The World’s Best Buyer Persona System has led to significant improvements in customer acquisition strategies, reduced marketing expenses, and enhanced alignment between sales and marketing teams. His unique OUTSMART methodology continues to offer clarity and strategic direction, empowering organizations across diverse industries to outsmart, outgrow, and outmaneuver their competition.

Wednesday, September 9, 2026 —  David Friedman

Program Description:

World-class organizations have long recognized the powerful influence their cultures have on the performance of their people, and by extension, the performance of their companies. Not surprisingly, while most organizations allow their cultures to evolve naturally, top-performing ones don’t leave this to chance. Instead, they’re amazingly intentional about how they create and drive the culture they want to have. How they do it is the topic of this program.

This is not your standard abstract or theoretical program about the importance of creating a vision or mission statement. Rather, it’s a practical, actionable, no nonsense program designed to give participants the tools to leverage their corporate culture as a distinct competitive advantage. As a former award-winning CEO, David Friedman knows firsthand what it takes to build a high-performance culture, and more importantly, he knows the impact it can have on the bottom line. Delivered with his down-to-earth, yet passionate style, and filled with lots of examples from his 27 years of personal leadership experience, David’s program covers such topics as:

• The difference between a good cultureand a high-performance culture
• Why values are less important than behaviors
• Why vision and mission statements are often a mistake
• Critical mistakes most leaders make in defining their culture, and how to avoid them
• The role of ritual in sustaining a focus on culture over the long run

Value to Members:

While the content of this program is thought-provoking, and even inspiring, the real value is in the ability to take the concepts and immediately implement them at work. Most participants will describe this as the most practical and actionable program they’ve ever heard on how to build a high-performance culture; and every participant will leave with a specific game plan to better leverage the power of their own corporate culture.

Biography:

David Friedman is the retired President of RSI, an employee benefits consulting firm headquartered in Mt. Laurel, NJ. Under his leadership and direction, RSI grew from 2 employees to a staff of more than 100 professionals and annual revenues in excess of $16 million. The firm won numerous awards including being named one of the Best Places to Work in the Philadelphia region 3 times and one of the Best Places to Work in NJ 4 times. In 2006 RSI earned the NJ Governor’s Award for Performance Excellence – Gold Level, the highest award for total quality available in the state. In 2008, RSI became a division of Arthur J. Gallagher & Associates (AJG), one of the largest insurance brokers in the world. David served as the Area President for Gallagher until his retirement in July of 2010.

In 2011, David published his first book, Fundamentally Different, based on the insights he learned and taught during his leadership career. Today, he’s a frequent guest speaker and seminar leader (more than 80 talks per year) on leadership, organizational culture, and building high performance teams. He also serves as a consultant to dozens of companies around the country. David is a 1983 graduate of the College of William & Mary with a degree in philosophy.

Wednesday, May 13, 2026 —  Cassie Crow

Program Description:

This is an engaging and transformative workshop designed to help business leaders simplify complex relationships, repair trust, and foster authentic connections. In this session, you’ll explore the root causes of conflict, uncover unconscious projections, and learn a proven formula for repairing ruptures. Using actionable strategies, real-world examples, and interactive exercises, you’ll be equipped to handle workplace dynamics with greater confidence and ease.

Whether navigating team dynamics, managing client relationships, or resolving interpersonal challenges, this workshop offers tools to reduce drama, boost collaboration, and create an environment of trust and respect. Perfect for leaders seeking to enhance their emotional intelligence and organizational culture, this session is your pathway to healthier, more productive relationships that support your business goals.

Value to Members:

The value of this presentation to Vistage members lies in its ability to directly address one of the biggest challenges business leaders faces: navigating and resolving conflict in a way that strengthens relationships and drives results. By providing practical tools and insights, this workshop empowers members to:

1. Strengthen Leadership Impact: Learn how to lead with emotional intelligence by recognizing and addressing conflict patterns within your team or organization. This enhances trust, collaboration, and efficiency—key factors in successful leadership.
2. Drive Business Performance: Unresolved conflict can drain resources, derail projects, and hinder growth. This session equips members with actionable strategies to simplify complex relational dynamics, leading to smoother operations and more effective teamwork.
3. Enhance Personal and Professional Relationships: Members will gain tools to uncomplicate relationships, reduce stress, and build authentic connections, fostering an environment that supports personal fulfillment and professional success.

By participating, Vistage members can expect to walk away with skills that are not just theoretical but immediately applicable, adding measurable value to their organizations and their own leadership effectiveness.

Biography:

With 15 years of experience as a speaker, coach, and workshop facilitator, I am passionate about helping leaders uncover and live their truth. My background includes six coaching certifications, which ground my approach in proven methodologies and a commitment to transformative results. Throughout my career, I’ve guided thousands of clients through journeys of self-inquiry, self-awareness, and authentic growth, helping them align their actions with their deepest convictions. I bring a unique focus on discerning which thoughts to trust and which to release, fostering clarity and calmness. My work is dedicated to empowering individuals to lead from their core, cultivating lives of authenticity and resilience.

Wednesday, April 8, 2026 — Eric Kish

Program Description:

Scalability is not about resources, it’s about a mindset. An adaptability mindset. Organizations are complex organic living systems that can adapt and grow. Developing and sustaining adaptive capacity in organizations is the main job of a leader preparing to scale. Eric Kish was on the front lines of developing adaptive capacity, continuously experimenting with methods to create scalable organizations. Intent Driven Management™ is a methodology to build and sustain scalability in any organization. It is based on a leadership philosophy inspired from a 200 years old military leadership style, practiced with great success by the IDF.

After serving 10 years in the Israeli Armored Corps, Eric developed the methodology while leading 12 companies across 7 industries and 3 continents over 22 years. Two of them scaled from millions to billions in revenue and valuation.

The program introduces Intent Driven Management™ philosophy and its implementation methodology.

Value to Members:

Field tested methodology to build and run scalable organizations.

Biography:

Eric Kish is a Turnaround CEO with 20 years of experience in transforming organizations at various levels of distress. To date he has run 12 turnarounds and scaled organizations from millions to billions in revenue and valuation. Throughout his life and career Eric lived and worked in 11 countries and speaks fluently 6 languages. Eric is the author of Everyday Turnaround, The Art and Science of Daily Business Transformation, a book that introduces groundbreaking business execution methods and tools that are backed by scientific research in organizational dynamics.

Eric was born in Eastern Europe and emigrated to Israel in 1988. Upon completion of his military service in the Israeli Armored Corps, Eric started his career in the Israeli Defense Industry while also serving in the Israeli Reserves. He started his first turnaround in 1999, a bankrupt oil refinery, taking it private at $7m market cap and relisting it 3 years later at $450 million market cap. The refinery received the award of the Best Refinery in South Central Europe and the turnaround was considered the most successful turnaround in the history of the region, being subject of a full article in Wall Street Journal Europe. That turnaround was followed by 6 additional acquisitions/turnarounds that created the largest oil company in South Eastern Europe and was acquired in 2008 for $3.8Bn. In the last 20 years Eric led 12 turnarounds across 7 industries on 3 continents. He is a leading member of the US Association of Interim Executives and their Rapid Executive Deployment (RED) Team.

Eric is principal and partner at Kish and Partners Consulting, a Boulder CO – based Consulting firm that specializes In Business Execution education and Interim CxO services. He still runs or advises on turnarounds.
Eric earned his M.Sc. in Business from Stanford Business School and his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnics University of Bucharest. He also has a post graduate Advanced Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from MIT Sloan School of Business, an Executive Certificate in Industrial Administration from Carnegie Mellon University – Tepper School of Business and a Certificate in IP and Business Strategy from Harvard Business School.

Wednesday, January 7, 2026 — Christine Courtney

Program Description:

This session takes 20 of the most proven-effective strategies for managers and weaves them into one jam packed session. Participants will learn 20 techniques to successfully navigate the challenges of leading teams and people. The tips and advice include action steps that leaders can put into practice immediately to improve communication, engagement, morale, and all-around team performance. The session intertwines stories, research, interactive activities, and group best practices in one fast-paced and fun session.

Value to Members:

• Members will leave with more than 20 tools they can implement right away on the job with their direct reports and teams.
• Members can use tips to help develop their new and middle-managers.
• Members will learn more about their leadership strengths and areas for improvement.
• Members will connect with each other in groups and learn ideas and best practices from each other.

Biography:

Christine Courtney is a facilitator, coach and the President of The Leadership Program (TLP). TLP is a certified Women-Owned Business and provider of leadership development training and coaching that helps companies find dynamic ways to engage employees in continued learning and growth. Their clients include Tradeweb, Nuveen, PwC, Google, Facebook, Brooklyn Brewery, DBI Projects, Visa, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Mount Sinai, Universal Standard, and more. They also work with thousands of NYC public school kids every week, bringing leadership development into classrooms and after school clubs. Christine is a magical combination of educator, business leader, and performer. She began her career as an actor and teaching artist, opting to supplement her living working in NYC classrooms and in corporate HR instead of waiting tables. She worked her way up the ranks at TLP all the way to the helm and has been running the company for 20 years now. She manages an executive team of six who lead over 200 employees. Additionally, she facilitates leadership development workshops and offsites for companies, and coach leaders around the globe. Christine has an obsessive passion for helping people step into their leadership and make positive changes in their lives and in the world. She completed Stanford University’s Executive Leadership Program, is a longtime CEO member of Vistage and Chief as well as a graduate of The University of the Arts. Her other roles include soccer mom, hosting ridiculously awesome parties, and podcast host of Stepping Into Your Leadership.

Wednesday, December 3, 2025 — Katherine Jeffery

Program Description:

There is a huge generational shift taking place in the world. Some find this exhilarating while others are left scratching their heads not only wondering what happened but also trying frantically to figure out how to stay relevant. Millennials and Gen Z have upset the status quo that has existed for over half a century and organizations need to learn a new way of recruitment, retention, and engagement. This seminar will help you understand how we got here and offer practical steps to apply in your own organization. We will also look at the reactions of the generations to covid-19, remote working, stressors they are experiencing and what they need to hear/receive most from their managers.

Key issues covered include:

• How do we define a generation and why does it matter?
• How is each generation responding to covid-19 and remote working?
• What have the Millennials taught us?
• Who is Gen Z and how are they different than the Millennials?
• How do we recruit, retain, and engage these generations?
• How do we stay relevant as we market to these generations?
• In what ways is generational bias impacting the way we work?
• Practical applications to improve organizational effectiveness and business results

Dr. Jeffery will engage each participant in ways they can personally increase their understanding of each generation while improving communication and results across the generations. She will also facilitate dialogue around building a company culture that welcomes and engages members of each generation. With 5 generations in the workplace, the opportunity for bridge building is tremendous and can make a practical difference in the results you want to achieve as an organization.

Value to Members:

Members will leave armed with information and valuable insight about Millennials and Gen Z. This will include ideas on marketing, recruitment, retention, and engagement. Members will also have fresh eyes on how to build bridges across their generational workforce and increase organizational performance. They will have wrestled with how to empower the new without isolating the experienced. Hopefully, there will be a few laughs along the way.

Biography:

Dr. Katherine Jeffery is a culture-shaping leader, coach, and visionary with over 20 years of experience developing and studying leaders in a variety of holistic environments. Her doctoral research focused on the Millennial generation, their view of leadership, and the ways it is impacting the workplace today. She believes this generation has unlimited value when bridges are built in collaborative, empowered, and strength-based cultures with other generations where teams can perform at their highest level. Katherine is passionate about helping companies engage their Millennial workforce and increase their Corporate Social Responsibility while doing her part alongside her husband to help put a dent in ending poverty and slavery through their social enterprise, MADE FREE.

Wednesday, October 8, 2025 — Todd Cetnar

Program Description:

Mental Performance Coach Todd Cetnar uses cutting edge strategies to help you achieve an elite level Mindset, exceptional Leadership skills and a Culture of sustained excellence required to succeed at an optimal level in Business, Sports and Life.

Todd brings an elite level energy, music, persistent audience participation/interaction as well competitive games and exercises throughout the event to emphasize the main takeaways and crucial aspects of the talk. You will walk away with tangible strategies that you can begin to implement immediately both personally and professionally.

Value To Members:

Very few people on this earth have spent over 30 years constantly studying, researching, analyzing and understanding how the most successful people on the planet operate. Todd Cetnar has studied over 5,000 High Performers, Moguls, Executive Leaders, Entrepreneurs, CEO’s and the most world class people on the planet. Todd has revealed that these ultra successful people have 3 things in common:

1. An Elite Level Mindset
2. Exceptional Leadership skills
3. The ability to build and establish a Culture of sustained excellence that produces consistent results 

Todd Cetnar will EDUCATE, EMPOWER and ENERGIZE you to achieve transformational results by create winning habits, routines of excellence and an unshakeable mindset by mastering his signature model “The 3 Pillars of Elite Results”.

Biography:

Todd Cetnar is the founder and CEO of Cetnar Consulting Group and has 20+ years of leading strategic growth with prominent pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Most recently Todd was the Vice President of Sales at a global medical device company managing nearly $400 million dollars.

Todd was a standout basketball player prior to his corporate career. He was a former Division 1 and Professional Basketball Player who played throughout Europe. His success on the court led him to becoming a 3x Hall-of-Famer as he was enshrined in his High School, College, and the New York State High Basketball Hall of Fame, respectively. Currently,

Todd participates in the Ironman Triathlon circuit as an avid endurance athlete. Todd is the author of “Amazon’s #1 new release book, The 3 Pillars of Elite Results where Todd has taken all of his experience and combined the skill sets learned in each area of his life to formulate the framework around mastering an Elite Mindset, Elite Leadership Skills, and building an Elite Culture.

Wednesday, August 13, 2025 — Mike Goldman

Program Description:

If you want to create a growing, profitable business that positively impacts the lives of employees and clients, it’ll take more than leveling up your capacity and capabilities as leader. It will require a leadership team of A players who can work with you to create a vibrant, winning environment that cascades down through the organization.

Or, as Mike Goldman calls it: a breakthrough leadership team.

In this session, you will learn how to:

• Structure your team now and plan for future growth
• Get the right people on the team and the wrong people off the team
• Craft the right culture
• Develop your talent
• Execute with discipline and accountability

Value To Members:

With the help of a pre-session Breakthrough Leadership Team Assessment and several workshop exercises, participants will uncover, prioritize and begin working on opportunities to make significant improvements to their leadership team. The result is an action plan to better structure the team, find the right people, develop the right culture, execute with discipline and continue to develop and improve. 

Biography:

Mike Goldman is a leadership team coach and bestselling author of two books, Breakthrough Leadership Team and Performance Breakthrough. He’s a TEDx speaker and the host of the Better Leadership Team Show.

During his 30+ year coaching and consulting career he has worked with clients including Disney, Verizon, CHANEL and Polo Ralph Lauren. His insights have been featured in Forbes, Fast Company and Chief Executive Magazine and he is widely regarded by CEOs as the expert on building great leadership teams.

As both coach and speaker, Mike is on a mission to help CEO’s grow their business and have more impact while creating a more engaging, fulfilling environment for their team using his Breakthrough Leadership Team approach. Mike is a life-long learner. In fact, he often tells his clients that if he’s gone ninety minutes without recommending a book, they should dial 911 because there may be a serious issue.

Wednesday, June 11, 2025 — Hilary Blair

Program Description:

Interpersonal communication is the key to success in any organization or business. Hilary will share insights and strategies on how to cultivate an active presence that exudes confidence and authority. Leave with an understanding of the power of authentic presence and how it can transform the way we communicate and lead. Whether you are a seasoned executive or just starting out in your career, this talk will empower and equip you with practical tools to take your leadership to the next level.

This interactive session allows you to try out tools to deepen relationships, remain in open dialogue with others and bring your unique influence on all interactions. We will explore communication techniques for intentional connection to increase leadership presence, influence, and initiate more effective patterns that positively affect those around us. Gain the insight and self-awareness to tap into your vulnerability and transparency – the hardwiring of your soft skills for clearer messaging, stronger delivery, and greater connection.

Value To Members:

• Build stronger presence and connection with:
• Self-awareness of natural tendencies that are distracting from key message
• Increased ability to read audience and adjust in the moment
• Increased awareness of different styles of communication – which is most effective in each circumstance
• Understanding and effective use of non-verbal communication
• Effectiveness of prosodicelements (i.e., tempo, rhythm, range, inflection)
• Awareness of the impact on specific audiences
• Authenticity through breath and placement
• Increased flexibility through vocal control
• Heightened awareness of strengths for communicating and increased ability to play to those strengths
• Strategies and workarounds for areas of communication perceived as weaknesses or challenges

Biography:

As a CEO, leadership coach, and Emmy-nominated voice-over actor, Hilary Blair knows firsthand the importance of effective communication. With her electrifying energy and insightful approach, she helps audiences and groups navigate the complexities of interpersonal communication to build authentic human connections. Hilary’s practical communication tools empower top-performing leaders and teams to lead from new perspectives, create positive change, and move forward with renewed motivation. She is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), a member of the National Speakers Association, a member of VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association) and certified in Culture Talk and Conversational Intelligence. Hilary holds an MFA in Acting from the National Theatre Conservatory, a BA from Yale University and worked on a sheep ranch in Montana. 

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 — Derrick Mains

Program Description:

Business is not complex; it’s complicated, complicated by needless meetings, busy work, inefficiency and waste. Simply remove the barriers from your organization and you will dramatically improve your bottom line.

In this workshop Derrick will provide examples from his more than 20 years of process work and show how even the best run companies have 20,30,40 even 70% wasted energy and money being invested in things that didn’t matter and slowed down progress. From supply yards who saved 70% on their labor through heat mapping inventory, to hospitals that found that 56% of their back office work could be eliminated for $200 a month, to a company who discovered in just three hours that all of their margin was being destroyed because one step of their process was out of place and that one change got them to profitability when it had alluded them for nearly a decade.

Documents tell you why.
Financials tell you what.
Maps tell you how and where.

No one would go on a road trip without a map – yet executives flounder around trying to navigate a business with no direction.

In this session you will not only understand why you need to refocus your company on essentialism you will also come to understand that the old belief that you should be working on, not in your business, is flawed.  As Derrick likes to say, “the devil is in the details and your business needs an exorcism”.

Value To Members:

Process comes in two forms – that which was created by evolution and has mutated over time and that which is intelligently designed. If you can’t provide a map of where you are going, you are lost.

This workshop will show you how to get on the right path. How to adopt the philosophy of organizational essentialism, how to navigate the pyramid of priorities and how to wage war on wasted work in your organization.

Members will leave the workshop with a game plan to increase their profit immediately and make huge strides in manufacturing profit into the future.

Biography:

Derrick Mains is a Process and business storytelling expert with over 25 years of experience across over 200 companies.

He is the CEO/The Process Fixer & Host of The Process Fixer podcast (with over 2 million downloads)

Author of … AMP Your Outcome! The Lean Managers Playbook, The Frontline Managers Playbook, Adaptability, and Coming in 2025 – “The System”.

Wednesday, March 5, 2025 — Jan Lehman

Program Description:

Create a culture of productivity that eliminates unnecessary interruptions, emails, and non-essential work. Get everyone focused on their most important priorities and stop the highly reactionary behavior that has become the norm in business today.

Since productivity and employee engagement are tightly linked, this is a win-win for the organization and your employees. Lead by example by defining and following effective communication protocols across platforms and learning how to fully leverage your technology.

Learn how the technology you currently own is evolving. Join us for a tactical and strategic discussion on how to optimize your organization’s time, talent, and technology and help everyone work more effectively. 

Learning Objectives:

• Learn time and task management techniques that will revolutionize your business’s operations.
• Begin to lay the foundation for an effective business communication strategy to drive company-wide efficiencies.
• Gain a high-level understanding of how newer technologies like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are pivotal platforms to improve communication, collaboration, and accountability across your organization. 

Value To Members:

• Find time for you and everyone in your organization to focus on the top priorities.
• Improve communication across your organization
• Fully leverage the technology you currently own.

Biography:

Jan Lehman is a Vistage member and an accomplished technology executive who created and led highly effective teams with Fortune 500 companies.

Globally recognized as a productivity expert and international time management speaker, she has been featured in Forbes, Business Journal, and Entrepreneur. Her bestselling book Work Smart Do More was an Amazon #1 new release in Workplace Culture and Leadership and a top seller in Time Management. Jan is passionate about integrating the tools she has developed into the fabric of your company’s culture to create positive, lasting change—whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 10 company.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024 — Ian MacDougall

Program Description:

Corporations experience predictable patterns of behavior as they grow and develop. Unlike any living organism, they are faced with specific transitional problems as they progress through the various stages of their lifecycle.

Markets, industries, countries, and economies are experiencing accelerating change and increasing disruption. The success or failure of any organization will depend on its ability to meet these lifecycle challenges.

This workshop will address the following:

• What are the characteristics of an organization in PRIME – the optimal lifecycle stage.
• When an organization is in PRIME it is in a state of balance. The PRIME company is a dominant competitor in its space; it enjoys market leading customer demand; it is flexible, but it has discipline, it is financially strong, and it can show growth in both sales and profits.
• Why is that exultant equilibrium so hard to achieve and yet so easy to lose?
• What are the principal causes of organizational aging and atrophy; how to prevent it and how to reverse it?

Value To Members:

• Enables members to gain insight into normal versus abnormal problems across the lifecycle of their organization.
• Recognize the symptoms that indicate the ‘Founder’s or Family Trap’ and learn how to avoid or escape that trap.
• Recognize the symptoms of ‘premature aging.’
• What are the fundamental questions that leadership must address to maintain the vitality of PRIME (the optimum lifecycle stage)
• Understand the causes of organizational aging and atrophy and how these can be avoided or reversed.

Biography:

Ian MacDougal has been a Vistage resource since 1987.

He is the Founder of Corporate Lifecycles Inc. – a consulting firm which specializes in large-scale organizational change.

Prior to founding Corporate Lifecycles, he was President and Senior Associate of the Adizes Institute in Santa Monica CA.

The mission of Corporate Lifecycles is to change the way management is practiced and taught – one company at a time.

His clients have included the New York University Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Icelandair, Hunt Oil Company, Bank of America, U.S. Naval Weapons Research, Shell Oil, Charles Schwab & Co., Vodafone, UCLA Graduate School of Business, the National Power Company of Iceland, IKEA, and WEB.COM

His work has taken him to the mainland of China, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Canada, Spain, Germany, Iceland, South Africa, Scandinavia, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Israel as well as almost every state in the Union.

Ian MacDougall was born in Scotland, educated in Scotland, England and the United States and makes his home in Boca Raton, FL.

Wednesday, September 11, 2024 — Heather Anderson

Program Description:

In this presentation, Heather Anderson will facilitate an interactive workshop based on Emotional Intelligence/Emotional Quotient (EI/EQ) awareness and skill development. Key issues covered include:

• What is Emotional Intelligence — how EI/EQ differs from IQ?
• The business case for EQ — how developing it translates into bottom line results.
• your role as leader in developing your Emotional Intelligence — why should you?
• Emotional Intelligence assessment results — members will receive an EQ report providing them with a snapshot of their EQ — 15 EQ competencies will be measured.
• techniques to help you continually develop your EQ.
• How do you build EQ as an organizational capacity.

Research suggests that the higher you go in an organization, the more EQ matters. In a study or more than 515 senior global executives, the most successful had the strongest emotional intelligence. A recent Harvard University study reveals that up to 95% of success in leadership is attributed to EQ/EI.

Value To Members:

Members will leave with techniques, strategies, and an action plan to develop their EQ. The EQ report they will receive as well as developmental strategies, will allow members to continuously monitor and focus their EQ development to realize desired personal and business results. At the organizational level, members will learn how to assess their organization’s ability to develop emotionally intelligent leaders and will understand the impact of doing so as it affects their bottom line.

Biography:

What do a Vail ski instructor, a mother of two, an M.B.A. in organizational development and Vistage International Chair have in common with an Outward-Bound instructor, a business owner, a marathon runner, and a highly sought speaker on emotional intelligence?

They are all the same person: Heather Anderson.

As the female half of the first ever father-daughter Vistage Chair (Heather’s dad, Dr. William Amberg, was a Vistage Chair for 25 years), Heather has been working with CEOs and Key Executives on behalf of Vistage for over 18 years.

Heather designed the first ever Emotional Intelligence training programs for Fidelity Investments and GE and is now teaching those programs all over the world. To date, she has spoken to over 1,000 diverse audiences.

Heather lives in Stowe, VT with her husband Bob, their two children and their 3 very large dogs.

When she is not working, Heather’s favorite hobbies are ice hockey, skiing, mountain bike riding, scuba diving and water skiing. She loves to travel and has visited all 7 continents twice.

Heather loves to have fun when she works. Her dad bought her a sign for her speaking podium that reads, “I am an adult, just not a real adult” to help her clients understand her playful nature and the way she tries to teach. She truly believes, the more you laugh on your Emotional Intelligence journey, the more you will learn and ultimately achieve.  

Wednesday, August 7, 2024 — Andrew Louder

Program Description:

This presentation is highly engaging, highly practical, and not technical at all.  All levels of AI-awareness should benefit from this presentation, especially those with zero acumen of AI.

Artificial Intelligence has been in the mainstream for many years now, however, too many CEOs have no clue how it can help their business.  They either believe it can be a magic bullet solution for everything or it’s not even on their radar, so they have zero visibility into what it is or where to begin.  There are also so many misconceptions about AI today.  Many still believe that it’s too expensive, too challenging, or too intimidating to even think about using it for their business.

The days of AI being intimidating and unattainable are over, and this workshop aims to prove that.   AI should be viewed as a quick, practical way to increase profits by way of increased productivity and efficiency.
We conduct a live demo of ChatGPT, taking commands and prompts from the audience as they see it’s power in real-time!

This presentation equips Vistage Members with a basic knowledge of AI, so they know where to find opportunities for it in their business.  We discuss the differences between building vs buying AI with the greater focus being on how to buy off-the-shelf AI solutions that can benefit their business immediately.  We provide several videos so the members can see AI happening before their eyes and connect it to their business opportunities.

Value To Members:

Vistage members will walk away from this workshop with the following:

• Awareness into how easily attainable AI is so it can start generating increased profits right away.
• A high-level knowledge of what Artificial Intelligence is and how we’re all using it today.
• That the days of AI being unattainable, and intimidating is over.
• Ways in which they can implement readily available AI quickly and affordably with big ROI.
• Watch real examples of AI being utilized in businesses today.
• Determine what steps their businesses would need to take to be AI-ready.
• Walk away with awareness of the possibilities for AI in their businesses and confidence to move forward.

Biography:

Andrew is the founder and CEO of a boutique consultancy named Louder Co.  They help CEOs change the way their businesses operate so they can finally be more profitable.  Andrew has spent 16+ years in Management Consulting, where he’s previously worked for big name firms like KPMG and EY in their Strategy and Operations advisory practices.  Louder Co. takes his and his team’s big company experiences to help businesses of under $100M in annual revenues.  They do it by making operations more efficient and productive the old fashion way by making processes better, and the more innovative way by implementing AI solutions.  

In 2022, Dallas Business Journal named Andrew a 40 Under 40 award recipient for his achievements in business and in the community.  

Andrew graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in Business Management.  He has a wonderful wife and 3 kids (9, 7, and 2 years old) and they reside in Flower Mound, TX.  In his spare time, Andrew is spending it with his family, playing golf, or coaching his son’s select baseball team – the Texas Rattlers.

Wednesday, May 8, 2024 — Doug Butdorf

Program Description:

In this highly interactive presentation, Doug Butdorf launches participants onto a path to improve pricing, dramatically increase profits, and grow sales. He delivers impactful content in an interactive and entertaining format, using real-world stories and relevant exercises. Key topics include:

1. Power of Pricing & Discounting: Pricing has a dramatic effect on profitability. Discounting is the enemy of profitability, often used unnecessarily out of phantom fears of sales volume loss. Reducing unnecessary discounting can drive double digit profit growth. Real-world examples illustrate the power of price to lift margins.
2. Price Sensitivity & Segmentation: Not every customer and product or service is equally price sensitive. Leveraging variable sensitivity allows businesses to increase pricing in targeted areas for improved profit without volume loss. Even in highly competitive industries, there are pockets of unexercised pricing power.
3. Value-Based Pricing: Here’s a counter-intuitive truth: sellers are more focused on price than buyers. Relentless focus on understanding and communicating value allows businesses to increase pricing and grow sales. Doug’s style is very interactive, relatable, and favors high retention. He uses real-world stories, fun exercises, technology, and humor to keep his audiences engaged while delivering business content of great consequence.

Value To Members:

Participants will clearly understand how to improve pricing without volume loss. Audience members walk away with practical, ready-to-implement steps to take in their own companies to drive profitability through better pricing.

Biography:

Doug Butdorf is a Senior Pricing Consultant at Boost, a firm that helps companies improve profits through better pricing. He speaks about strategic pricing and trains teams to drive culture change and dramatic, sustainable results. Doug is seasoned in pricing, sales, marketing and business development at Fortune 500 corporations and start-ups alike. Doug has significant experience and expertise in a wide variety of business arenas, including business-to-business and direct-to-consumer e-commerce development, vendor managed inventory processes, construction and building products, warehousing, and capital raising. During his time in Corporate America, Doug successfully commercialized pricing optimization initiatives and led face-to-face nationwide pricing training across a national sales force. In each of his businesses, he has delivered strong growth and profit performance with optimum market pricing using Boost pricing methodologies. Doug holds a degree in Cultural Studies and Economics and is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt. He lives in Plattsburgh, New York with his family, where he is active in his local community.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024 — Matt Garrett

Program Description:

Building off his first presentation, Matt continues his Numbers series with an interactive workshop that focuses on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), profitability decisions and industry-specific benchmarks of each member’s business. This workshop is ideal for groups That completed of The Numbers Part 1. In 3 hours, Matt’s goal is to:

• Build on the accounting framework he taught in Part 1 and specifically target ways for you to increase profitability.
• Give you KPIs that will tell the story of how your business is doing based on your specific industry.
• Increase your profitability by at least $250,000, your cash by close to $400,000 and the value of your business by $1 million.

Value To Members:

Each member will leave with a new perspective on accounting and the power of how their numbers create business profitability through KPIs and industry-specific benchmarks.

Biography:

Matt is an entrepreneur who found out about the power of proper accounting and excellent financial management through the sale of his previous two businesses; one unsuccessful and one extremely successful. He aims to share those lessons with people to empower them to achieve financial freedom and peace of mind.

In 2006, Matt founded TGG, an outsourced accounting and business advisory firm. He started the firm to deliver financial information to small and mid-sized businesses to dramatically reduce the business failure rate.

Matt is a regular speaker across the country on behalf of Vistage educating business owners on the need for sound financial practices. He received his B.S. in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024 — Melanie Shaffer

Program Description:

Are you playing checkers or chess with your talent?   The talent game has changed, requiring new tools and strategies to inspire teams and individuals to execute their most important work.   In this program, Melanie Shaffer, award winning Vistage Speaker and President of Talent Suite, will provide new ways of thinking about how to provide your people the clarity needed to adapt to modern demands.   She will provide talent strategy and retention practices that are practical, low-cost, and immediately actionable to make a positive impact on the bottom line.  If you can’t always hire what you NEED, you must get better at individualizing how to optimize the talent that you have.

Value To Members:

This program delivers simple, practical takeaways using the member’s own behavioral data to learn the following:

• Why people are capable of far more than we think.
• How to develop your people and teams so that they can flex and adapt to change.
• How your leaders can identify and hire talent based on fit to current role AND future potential.
• How to scale a process within middle management that maximizes the potential of your entire workforce.

Biography:

Melanie Shaffer is President and Founder of Talent Suite, LLC, a business consulting firm that helps companies achieve measurable results through getting the right people in the right seats and developing leaders.  She is an expert in diagnosing talent related pain points that keep organizations from achieving their highest potential and designing solutions to impact results.   She marries data with proven methodologies to provide leaders clarity on how to attract and hire the best talent as well as how to develop their current talent to be the most productive.  Melanie has served hundreds of clients over the span of her career in talent management, business ownership and executive recruiting.  Companies she has served vary in ownership structures and sizes ranging from Fortune 500 to emerging businesses which allows her to translate best practices from large companies into viable options for the mid-market.  She consistently ranked in the top 5% of recruiters in a $1 billion, publicly held recruiting firm before moving to a Managing Partner role in the CFO Suite where she was a two- time winner for the SMU Cox Dallas 100 fastest growing companies award.  

Melanie is a graduate from the University of Oklahoma and is a Talent Optimization Certified Consultant, a Predictive Index Certified Partner, and a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach.

Wednesday, December 6, 2023 — Matt George

Imagine speaking about your company’s products or services and being  ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN you are engaging your customers or clients in the most compelling way possible.

Imagine communicating with your team and employees and being  SURE that you are motivating and inspiring them to reach their full potential.

Veteran researcher, social scientist, and executive coach Matt George guides you through The Communications Equation – an easy-to-remember formula to ensure that your messages are as persuasive and compelling as possible.

The program is a workshop where participants will learn how to craft their perfect “WHY” statements, analyze their own unique communication styles, and receive concrete and personalized recommendations for how to improve. Members will walk away understanding how to communicate, engage clients, and inspire their team more effectively.

Value to members:

Members will view REAL research results that provide insight on specific word choice and connotations.

Members will gain awareness of their UNIQUE speaking style, including tone, body language, intonation, and delivery. Members will see their own “About Us” statements from their corporate websites analyzed with suggestions on how to improve.

Speaker Biography:

As a social scientist, researcher, focus group moderator and executive coach, Matt has a deep understanding of the impact that message can play in your company’s reputation.  His track record of success includes the most impactful messaging strategies, creative concepts, and contextual audience segmentation analysis available on the market. His clients include Fortune 500 companies, education non-profits, entertainment creators, tech CEO’s and trade associations. He’s perhaps best-known for his work with HBO’s ground-breaking communications and market research. He has collaborated with The College Board, Facebook, AARP, Google, The Fred Rogers Company, UFC, Netflix, and many, more.  Matt’s research approach is grounded in attention-to-detail and a focus on understanding the context of why consumers behave the way that they do. His ability to create compelling narratives from data analysis and his love of quantitative research has constructed the strong strategic framework upon which many creative campaigns are built.

Matt attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he received dual bachelor’s degrees in film / video studies and political science, and has a Masters of International Security Policy Studies from The George Washington University.

Wednesday, October 11, 2023 — Hunter Lott

If HR isn’t considered a profit center, then you’re doing it wrong! Strategize HR like a general going into battle…like a coach planning for the big game. Execute HR with flexibility…like Elastigirl, the mom in the Incredibles movies. What got us here, will NOT get us there. For most of us, it’s not about going back to “normal,” but anticipating what’s next.

Key Decisions:

• Putting new employees on a probation or introductory period.
• Waiting to have an “honest” conversation until the exit interview.
• Driving Millennials and Gen Z out because that’s not the way we did it “in my day!”
• Your new employee is having a lousy first day.
• Keeping salaries, a secret.
• Having a corporate culture that treats everyone the same.

Value to members:

• Hire Fast…Be so well prepared you could make the offer at the first interview.
• Fire Fast…How many times have co-workers said, “What took you so long?”
• Please Sue Me…Discover the #1 legal risk and how it can be minimized.
• HR Freakonomics…What are the numbers telling us?
• Decision-Making… “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”  Roosevelt
• Leadership…Performance Management…Disruptive Innovation…Valuing diversity and inclusion…Leading employees and managing workplace behavior…Remote, on-site or hybrid.
• I Wouldn’t Do That…Old school HR practices that keep us in the baby-sitting business.
• COVID-19…Your top 5 pandemic related questions answered.

Speaker Biography:

Hunter Lott is employment law pain relief for business owners and management at all levels. Hunter alleviates the frustration and promotes better HR decision-making.

Hunter Lott is an HR problem solver. He has delivered over 4000 “on stage” events, over 17,000 presentation hours and reviewed over 1200 employee handbooks. Hunter won accolades as a senior course leader for the American Management Association and as a speaker with the Society for Human Resource Management. Hunter is a Millennium designated speaker with Vistage and has earned Speaker of the Year, Impact Speaker of the Year and Top Performer Vistage honors.

Hunter graduated from Iowa State and has a master’s degree in Employment Law from NSU Shepard Broad College of Law.

Wednesday, August 9, 2023 — Matt Garrett

In this highly interactive workshop given by Matt Garrett, he utilizes financial information and key financial benchmarks obtained from each member prior to the meeting to address specific finance and accounting problems they are encountering (both known and unknown).

In 3 hours, Matt’s goal is to increase:

• Your profitability by at least $250,000
• Your cash by close to $400,000
• The value of your business by $1 million

Topics that will be covered include:

• Understanding the key metrics and financial drivers of your business, including what you need to pay attention to and what you can ignore.
• Showing you how you can quickly improve the accountability of their organization, fine-tune pricing and gross margins, and quickly eliminate unprofitable business activities.
• Avoiding accounting fraud with a four simple step routine.

Value to members:

Matt approaches the issue of accounting and finance from an experiential standpoint and provides participants with specific techniques for improving business performance through effective financial management. Whereas other programs on accounting are filled with acronyms and academic jargon, this one frames the issues in understandable terms that enable members to grasp easily understood techniques and implement them within their organizations to see immediate results. Matt achieves this by teaching each member how to investigate their own numbers and find extra profitability, cash, and value.

Speaker Biography:

Matt is an entrepreneur who found out about the power of proper accounting and excellent financial management through the sale of his previous two businesses: one unsuccessful and one extremely successful. He aims to share those lessons with people to empower them to achieve financial freedom and peace of mind.

In 2006, Matt founded TGG, an outsourced accounting and business advisory firm. He started the firm to deliver financial information to small and mid-sized businesses to dramatically reduce the business failure rate.

He received his B.S. in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University.

Wednesday, June 7, 2023 — Scott Wozniak

Magic happens when you pair consistent excellence with unexpected delight. Some companies have figured out how to make this the normal experience for their customers. This workshop will teach you a system so you can make this your “normal” too. This goes beyond a marketing message or a script for phone reps. I will teach you exactly how great organizations, such as Chick-fil-A and Disney Theme Parks, operate their businesses. This workshop includes specific methods and practical tools. It’s a how-to workshop, not you-should workshop. If you are ready to have highly engaged employees, generate more sales, and build a community of brand ambassadors who can’t stop talking about you, you need to build a Raving Fans Engine.

Value to members:

Leaders will learn what is required to build a Raving Fans Engine and, as a part of the workshop, use that to do an initial assessment of how their organization is doing. They will learn specific ways that other companies have set up their systems and the principles behind those specifics so they can create their own systems. They will walk away with a comprehensive system for running a great organization, a system that comes from insider knowledge on how the best are doing this.

Speaker Biography:

Scott Wozniak, CEO of Swoz Leadership, has worked with leaders on six continents to help them thrive. He has been a speaker and consultant for senior leaders at multi-billion-dollar global companies, city governments, software startups, Ivy League universities, and healthcare facilities. Scott spent eight years as a full-time employee at the Chick-fil-A Corporate Headquarters, consulting directly with the founding family and executive team to design leadership development programs, set strategy, and lead company-wide initiatives. In addition to career work, he has started four organizations (two non-profits/two for-profits) and written three books. In his spare time, he enjoys adventures with his wife and four kids, designs board games with his fellow Mensa members, and pushes the limits in a variety of extreme sports.

Wednesday, May 10, 2023 — Joseph Rosenberger

Process Triaging is all about quickly understanding what’s happening in a business process that shouldn’t happen and deciding what kind of solution and level of effort solving this pain point requires.

Business processes break as they grow, so make dealing with it a competitive advantage.

By process triaging, equip any process’s expert team to handle maximum process stress and build a more cohesive, situationally aware, emotionally smarter team that delivers process scalability.

The Big Questions & Decisions:

• Consider your core business process – from customer opportunity, through service or product delivery all the way to posting cash:
• What does a culture of continuous operational improvement driven by those closest to the work look like?
• What is more dangerous to your core process? A design failure or a management failure?
• How might you prove your core process is scalable?

Every business has moments of extreme operational stress. How might you lead them through it?

Highest performing teams have clear situational awareness and a very high emotional IQ – they can “issue process effectively.” How do you build this kind of team?

Think about:

• What practices create a self-correcting core process?
• How to teach and practice effective issue nomination and triaging. C-Suite members (CEO/COO’s) should bring a guest who is an operations management (COO) understudy.

Value to members:

The talk and practical exercise present an issue triaging method for immediate use to improve operational decision making, understudy coaching, and core process team development, and business scalability.

The case studies (from Vistage member companies) show a very practical use of a process map to help issue processing.

The program has a very high affinity with branded operating systems such as EOS®, The Great Game of Business®, Gazelle® / Rockefeller, and the E-Myth®.

Speaker Biography:

Joseph (Rosey) Rosenberger’s three-decade career immersed in high performing customer-facing teams whose purpose is directly delivering an enterprise’s products or services.

Rosey’s Vistage Speaker focus is adding to or improving the Vistage member’s tool kit related to forming and leading self-correcting teams that deliver and continuously improve core business processes.

Rosey founded Process Triage® in 2009 after early retirement from Sprint® Corporation. He led and coached process analysis teams and managed a staff of internal consultants and facilitators supporting continuous process improvement.

Wednesday, March 8, 2023 — Jaynie Smith

In this workshop style presentation, Jaynie Smith clearly defines what is and is not a competitive advantage. She will quickly show members that they have many differentiators they likely are not be using.  When salespeople are armed with competitive advantages, a true value proposition minimizes price as an issue.   They must be able to communicate a compelling and consistent reason why customers should choose their product or a service. How can a salesperson compete without this information? Ms. Smith will reveal top findings from her 20+ years of research.

This presentation will show you the statistically valid evidence of this dangerous disconnect for most organizations. Without those, value propositions internally drafted are often vague and cliched.

Additionally, members will learn how to:

• Produce some serious “myth busting” about the role of differentiation in companies
• Participants will become aware that all strategic planning and leadership functions begin with this “stepchild” of business planning (it is the foundation for successful sales)
• Show how salespeople must be armed with that which distinguishes a company in a competitive environment. Management owes them that!
• Demonstrate that effective advertising and marketing campaigns depend on clearly defined competitive advantages, not just company strengths
• Operational decisions depend on this exercise, yet most companies never even consider it.

Members are asked to help each other uncover what they think differentiates them in their marketplace. The number one ingredient that Warren Buffet looks for in companies he invests in is “sustainable competitive advantage.” Most middle market companies are unarmed.

Value to members:

Members will understand new areas and ways to communicate what they discover about their own differentiation. Members will also realize the value of measurements they don’t commonly have and may then implement new metrics which can help “sell” the company products/services.

Speaker Biography:

Jaynie L. Smith is the CEO of Smart Advantage, Inc., a sales, marketing, and management consultancy whose clients range from mid-sized companies to Fortune 100.She is the best-selling author of Creating Competitive Advantage. It has been ranked in the top 1% for many years and is now in its 19th printing. Foreign rights to her book were bought by China, Korea, India. Croatia, and had distribution in Africa and South America. She is also the author of Relevant Selling, and in its third printing.

She has been featured in Entrepreneur, Industry Week, Investor’s Business Daily, Profit Magazine, PGA & Business Strategies Magazine among many other magazines and newspapers.

She has appeared on ABC World News This Morning, Bloomberg News (radio and T.V.), FoxBusiness.com, NPR affiliate WLRN, WABC radio and scores of other local TV shows.

Wednesday, November 9, 2022 — Barry Deutsch

Why does research show that 56% of all executive hires fail in their first year to eighteen months? In our consulting and research with thousands of companies we’ve discovered that:

• Hiring tends to be the only process in the entire company that is not performed according to a documented process or methodology.
• They are using outdated sourcing, screening, and interviewing techniques that required no training or expertise.
• There is no uniform, specific process to assess candidates and evaluate them against each other.
• There is no marketing plan to attract good candidates.
• The companies concentrate mainly on applicants who applied after seeing an advertisement.
• There is no accountability for bad hires (or good ones, for that matter).
• They have no process for establishing goals for an open position beforethey hired the candidate.
• Hiring is far too important to depend on random luck or the flip of a coin.

Using the Success Factor Methodology, Vistage members can expect a dramatic improvement in hiring success from their companies almost immediately. Vistage members using and actively applying this methodology across a broad range of positions within their companies are bringing aboard extraordinary talent on a consistent basis.

Value to members:

Through this workshop on Success Factor Methodology, Vistage members will learn specifically how to design and put into place a hiring system that:

• Precisely identifies what quantifiable results you want from your new hire during the first year to eighteen months
• Mines deep for the best candidates, no matter where they are
• Structures interviews to predict the ability of a candidate to achieve the desired success
• Accurately assesses and moves only highly qualified candidates to the next step
• Results in offers onlyto candidates who are capable of meeting your clearly defined Success Factors

Speaker Biography:

Barry Deutsch is a well-known thought leader in hiring and performance management with more than 20 years of experience in the executive search field and hiring process improvement. He has helped to bring dramatic improvements in hiring to numerous companies, from multi-billion dollar Fortune 100 companies to entrepreneurial Vistage companies.

Deutsch’s executive search and consulting practice, IMPACT Hiring Solutions, includes workshop training for improving hiring success and dealing with non-performers on the job, coaching to define success through their proprietary SUCCESS FACTOR METHODOLOGY, and teaching companies how to fish for themselves in finding the very best talent available.

Deutsch and his partners have conducted workshops on hiring, interviewing, and performance management to more than 20,000 people in the last ten years. He has published numerous online and magazine articles about hiring and leveraging top performers. Deutsch is author of the shocking book that is breaking the tribal hiring paradigm, “You’re Not the Person I Hired.”

Wednesday, October  12, 2022 — Todd Musselman

Todd’s focus for the workshop is on creating a mindset of personal ownership to optimize each individual’s leadership skills, capabilities and results.  Todd utilizes the victim/owner distinction to demonstrate the profound difference between operating in the victim mindset (reacting to circumstances) vs. the ownership mindset (creating your circumstances) and the effect each mindset has on one’s overall performance as a leader. 

Using a series of distinctions, the presentation clearly defines and differentiates these mindsets, and demonstrates how to choose into the ownership mindset more consistently to produce lasting results both personally and professionally.

Examples of these distinctions include:

• “Have to” (victim) vs. “Want to” (owner)
• “Pleasing” (victim) vs. “Serving” (owner)
• “Interested” (victim) vs. “Committed” (owner)

In addition, the workshop provides steps to further develop each individual’s leadership qualities in six critical areas: trust, integrity, effective communication, acknowledgement/empowerment, accountability and collaboration. Using a dynamic combination of stories, humor and experiential exercises, Todd provides a fun, inspiring and highly interactive workshop that will leave each participant with the tools and the mindset to create powerful results in their lives. 

Value to members:

The primary value that each member will receive from Todd’s workshop is a greater awareness of how they are showing up as leaders both at work and at home.  Are they consistently coming from the victim mindset or the ownership mindset?  The training will clearly illuminate their dominate mindset and the effect it has on their leadership and overall performance. By gaining this awareness, each individual can then choose out of the limiting mindset (victim) and into the empowering mindset (owner) more intentionally. 

The workshop provides tangible strategies and action steps that demonstrate how to choose into the ownership mindset more consistently and by doing so greatly enhance their leadership capabilities.  In addition, each participant will walk away with tools that enable them to create greater value through their conversations at work and at home. The workshop has as much value to members in their personal life as it does in their role as a leader of their organization.

Speaker Biography:

Todd Musselman is the owner of Timberline Leadership.  Founded in 2009, Timberline’s mission is to be an agent of positive transformation for individuals, teams and organizations.  Todd is a powerful and effective leader who combines his background as a business owner, director of sales, and sales representative to produce strong, measurable results in the fields of cultural change, sales training, motivational speaking and executive/life coaching.  As an organizational/leadership trainer, Todd brings over 25 years of experience working in his family owned business.  As part owner of the company, Todd served in many different capacities.  His primary role was that of director of sales.  Todd was charged with managing 55 independent sales representatives across the US and Canada.  In addition, as a sales representative, Todd successfully created and maintained an account base of over 350 retail businesses. Further, Todd played an integral role in personnel management, product development, marketing/sales strategy, cultural initiatives and board governance.  Given his background, Todd is particularly adept in creating results in the area of sales, leadership development and cultural transformation. Todd graduated from Colorado State University in 1986 with a BA in Sociology.   

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 — Bill Graham

Communication is not a Two-Way Street. Nobody has to listen to you! They don’t have to meet you half way. It’s all on you. What can you do to improve your communication results?

• Improve your likeability. People listen to people they like. They don’t listen to people they don’t like.
• Craft your messages. If they remember your message, that’s good. They may buy what you are saying. If they repeat what you say, that’s better. They are marketing for you.
• Tell stories. Stories: testimonials, war stories, personal examples, are spectacular tools for helping your listener understand your value to their success.

This program breaks down likeability, messaging and storytelling into easy steps that will improve your relationships and your impact.

Value to members:

Would it be helpful for your members if they were more likable? People want to do business with people they like. Would it be helpful if their messages were repeatable? If people can repeat your message, they are marketing for you! Your members will learn (or re-learn), specific, simple steps to improve their likeability, messaging and storytelling. These immediately usable tools will help your members to better connect, engage and get results with their teams, their clients, and their customers.

Speaker Biography:

Bill Graham specializing in making the complicated simple and the simple powerful. He helps leaders and other business professionals be more engaging and successful communicators. Graham’s unique approach delivers specific tools such as likeability and storytelling. He delivers these tools with a big-picture mindset that also gives participants the mindset to embrace change.

Bill spent more than a decade as Director of Creative Affairs for Procter & Gamble Productions’ Guiding Light, As the World Turns and Another World. He trained writers, analyzed audiences, and delivered story notes for 7,000 hours of network television. Writers that he discovered and developed won Best Writing Emmys five of the last seven years he was at P&G. He has taught acting at numerous studios including Stella Adler Conservatory. Prior to his TV work, he was the producing director at Olney Theatre in Olney, MD.

Bill is on the faculty of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Organization Management, he delivers keynotes and training throughout the USA and around the world. He has taught leadership and organizational behavior at New York University’s School of Tourism and Hospitality and Sports Management. Bill trains legislators from over half the country for the Council of State Governments, and he is a Gallup-certified Strengths coach.

Wednesday, June 8, 2022 — Matt Garrett

In this highly interactive presentation, Matt Garrett utilizes financial information and key financial benchmarks obtained from each member prior to the meeting to address specific finance and accounting problems (both known and unknown) they are encountering.

Topics covered include:

• Improving accountability
• Knowing what is going to happen before it happens: Proper Financial Forecasting
• The three things you need to know: The Triple Bottom Line
• Avoiding accounting fraud: It happens to 49 percent of small business owners
• Making more money by improving the gross margin

Matt is a small business owner who approaches the issue of accounting and finance from an experiential standpoint and provides participants with specific techniques for improving business performance through effective financial management. Whereas other programs on accounting are filled with acronyms and academic jargon, this one frames the issues in understandable terms that enable members to grasp easily understood techniques and implement them within their organizations to see immediate results.

Value to members:

Members will gain four key benefits:

• Enhance Enterprise Value – By perfecting your business financial statements, you are creating a business that has less risk, and is therefore more valuable, than most competitors who have not. Perfect financials can provide a 1x to 2x improvement on the earnings multiple of your business, and that could mean millions of dollars in additional take home business value.
• Peace of Mind – By understanding the key metrics and financial drivers of your business, you will sleep better at night. Learn what you need to pay attention to and what you can ignore. Most business owners can deal with successes and they can deal with problems. It is the unknown that is the real business killer.
• Eliminate Fraud and Waste – Fraud happens in 49 percent of small businesses with an average loss of $114,000. With a four simple routines, you will learn how to avoid financial fraud in your organization.
• Enhance Business Profitability – By learning a few key financial metrics, business owners can quickly improve the accountability of their organization, fine-tune pricing and gross margins, and quickly eliminate unprofitable business activities.

Speaker Biography:

Matt is an Entrepreneur who found out about the power of proper accounting and excellent financial management through the sale of his previous two businesses. One unsuccessful and one extremely successful. He aims to share those lessons with your group to empower them to higher profits and improved business valuations.

As the Founder of TGG Accounting (formally known as The Garrett Group), an outsourced managerial accounting firm, Matt set out in 2006 to reduce the abominable small business failure rate in this country by helping business owners achieve their goals through excellent financial management.

Over the last 15 years, Garrett’s vision has evolved to bring accounting and finance to business owners without requiring them to learn accounting.

Matt holds a B.A. in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University. He was a finalist for “Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2006 and named one of San Diego’s Top 25 CEOs in 2013 by the San Diego Daily Transcript.

Each of the past four years, TGG was voted one of San Diego’s 50 Best Places to work by its employees, qualified as one of the 100 Fastest Growing Companies in San Diego by the San Diego Business Journal, and qualified for the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in the nation.

More importantly, TGG Accounting has had no clients close their business in the past 5 years, TGG has had 67 clients on these “fastest growing” lists, and TGG clients boast revenue and profit growth at 11 and 13 times the national average.

Today, Garrett is an active Vistage speaker and author contributing articles to Forbes, Entrepreneur, and various other blogs and publications.

Wednesday, May 11, 2022 — André van Hall

An organization resistant to change is destined to stagnation and eventual obsolescence. It used to be that if you always did, what you always did, you always got, what you always got. If it isn’t broken, but in today’s world, if you always do, what you always did….you are out of business!

In this workshop, we will delve into:

1. Change is not the enemy, but your attitude towards it certainly is!
2. Change is inevitable, but personal growth is optional.
3. When you judge change, you use your prejudices and preconceived ideas. Instead, you will learn why you should assess the situation.
4. Do you encourage team members to challenge the status quo?
5. Do you pave the road to facilitate change, or put up roadblocks?
6. Incremental change is no longer enough! You need to become a disruptor!

Value to members:

Individuals, and as a consequence, organizations, get complacent in their winning formula, working hard in the business, instead of working FOR the business. You know you are better than the competition.

The Coronavirus is not the enemy, but how you choose to deal with it is!

1. Create an environment open to new ideas and change
2. Learn to ASSESS a situation, rather than JUDGE IT
3. Understand that incremental change is just the price of entry!
4. Understand how to grow in the face of change
5. Implement a culture of CURIOSITY for yourself & your team

Speaker Biography:

A native of Argentina, André has worked at some of the most prestigious hotels in the world, to include the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Hamburg (once recognized as a one of the top ten hotel in the world), the Ritz in Paris and the St. Regis in New York. Additionally he has managed some of the largest hotels, including the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta and the Adam’s Mark in Denver. Before retiring, he was the CEO of the historic Denver Athletic Club. A graduate of the school of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, van Hall has held such positions as Director of Quality, Executive Assistant Manager, Rooms Executive, General Manager, Professor of HR and CEO. His volunteer activity have afforded him the opportunity to serve on boards of Chamber of Commerce, United Way, Convention & Visitors Bureaus, Rotary clubs, Urban League and many others. After suddenly losing his eyesight in late 2011, he started a new career as a Professional Speaker, with an emphasis on Motivation, Change Management and Staff Development. 

Wednesday, January 12, 2022 — Steve Yastrow

Each of the hundreds of interactions customers have with a Vistage member company combine to create their overall experience. Steve Yastrow argues that the best way to drive business results and motivate customers to buy is to ensure all customer touchpoints blend together to create a Unified Customer Experience.

In this latest update to Steve Yastrow’s marketing and branding workshop based on his book, Brand Harmony, Steve leads Vistage members through action-oriented steps to:

• Explore and clarify the brand stories they want their customers to believe about their company that will motivate customer commitment
• Identify the gaps in their current customer experience to determine the most important action steps required to deliver a Unified Customer Experience
• Focus on how to inspire their teams to deliver this Unified Customer Experience by embracing and living their brand every day

This highly-interactive workshop translates Steve’s breakthrough marketing, branding, customer relationship and employee engagement ideas into a learning experience that provides Vistage members with exercises, tools and resources to bring these revolutionary concepts into their businesses.

Value to members:

Vistage members will take home concrete tools to generate next-level business results by creating a unified customer experience and capitalizing on the connection between employees, customers and results.

Speaker Biography:

Steve Yastrow helps companies align their entire organization to create revolutionary marketing systems that yield major profit breakthroughs. In his presentations, Yastrow challenges audiences to reinvent the way they look at marketing, offering clear action steps to improve business performance through better branding.

The concepts behind Yastrow’s presentation of Brand Harmony were developed through his work as president of Yastrow Marketing, a consulting firm which has served such clients as Tom Peters Company, the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, McDonald’s Corporation, White Castle, Jenny Craig, Agilent Technologies, Cold Stone Creamery and Great Clips for Hair, among many others.

Prior to starting Yastrow Marketing, Yastrow was vice-president of resort marketing for Hyatt Hotels & Resorts. He earned an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a B.A. from Indiana University.

Wednesday, December 8, 2021 — Jon Colby

Improv performers are taught to look for agreement, problem solve, make decisions, listen carefully, think creatively, and encourage each other. Jon Colby offers workshop participants an opportunity to play various improv exercises and games. Each game is debriefed and has a powerful takeaway which can be put into practice with clients, employees, and even friends and family members. Everyone is participating during each exercise, so no one is put on the spot.

Value to members:

According the World Economic Forum, the top four skills that employers are looking for in their staff are complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and people management. This improv-based workshop will give members an opportunity to improve all of these skills.  Members participate in various activities and leave motivated with actionable takeaways that they put into effect immediately.

Speaker Biography:

Jon Colby has been empowering people with improv for over 20 years. From presenting to performing, his engaging, interactive approach has successfully helped audiences across the US to be better communicators, co-workers, teammates, salespeople, and doctors. Jon combines his master’s in education and his background in theatre to craft a meaningful and interactive experience where audiences have the opportunity to apply what they learn. As a graduate from the world-famous Second City Conservatory comedy program and an educator with 15 years of classroom experience, he is able to keep an audience laughing while sharing practical knowledge that they can put to use right away.  He has motivated and entertained hundreds of clients, including some of the nation’s top companies and organizations.

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 — Chalmers Brothers

Clearly, what constitutes effective leadership and management today is not the same as it was 20 or even 10 years ago. Many aspects of our overall business environment and individual workplace environments have certainly changed. With these adjustments come changes in the skills, tools and competencies required for successful leadership. This interactive presentation by Chalmers Brothers offers a powerful and innovative way of understanding the actual actions required for effective leadership, management and relationship-building – especially in times of seemingly constant change.

Maybe we’ve made things too complicated in how we approach leadership, management and the creation of organizational results. Maybe we can go a level deeper than all the models, techniques and fads of the month, and discover a new source of clarity and power.

This presentation begins by offering a new framework for understanding leadership and relationship effectiveness that is so close, we often miss it. Chalmers offers that leadership and management are primarily “conversational competencies” – that is, the actions taken by leaders and managers are actions taken in language. Effectiveness requires competency in certain conversations, in designing and convening conversations that matter. While this may at first seem obvious, Chalmers explores in a new direction, opening up a new way of understanding the entire domain of language itself.  Key topics covered include:

• Effective leadership and the creation of context
• A new understanding of language and its connection to leadership and management
• The difference between listening and hearing – and why it matters
• The power connected to different ways of observing
• Specific language actions and relevance for leaders
• Fundamental leadership conversations connected with context, corporate culture and “the essence of execution”
• The impact of moods, emotions and workplace culture on organizational results – and how to intervene in these areas effectively

Value to members:

Members will learn how to literally see themselves and their actions in leading and managing in a new and powerful way. This new perspective is the basis for members’ leaving the session with the ability to much more clearly understand and identify the sources of both poor performance and improved effectiveness. They will be able to immediately begin using new tools provided in the session to improve workplace communication, coordination (execution), culture and commitment to shared goals – within virtually every aspect of their organization. They will also be able to immediately apply this shift in understanding and new tools in order to improve their own emotional and physical well-being, their personal relationships and their individual productivity.

Speaker Biography:

Chalmers Brothers is a certified executive coach, leadership consultant and veteran seminar leader specializing in leadership development, personal growth and development, workplace effectiveness and teamwork. His 26-year consulting career includes more than eight years with Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and has given him the opportunity to work for public- and private-sector clients large and small, in a wide variety of industries. His 2005 book Language and the Pursuit of Happiness: A New Foundation for Designing Your Life, Your Relationships and Your Results is required reading within Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching program and is also the basis for the University Leadership program at George Mason University.

Wednesday, August 11, 2021 — Rob Teschner

Many organizations struggle with implementing system-wide accountability. Holding people accountable for their decisions is a challenging prospect for anyone, especially those who lack experience in this field. An additional pressure point is the prospect of accountable leadership in a rapidly-changing environment, in an age where disruptors are constantly emerging, challenging “the old way” of doing business. Organizations that thrive in this age of rapid change are those that have built processes and employ methodologies focusing on human interactions. Critically, they’ve adopted cultures that embrace improvement and value accountability in ALL aspects of their operations. Either by design or chance they are following the approach high-performing military teams take to enable success in complex environments the world-over. Learning from these high-performing military teams is a powerful option for any organization that intends to win despite disruptive change.

In his interactive program, Mr. Teschner will provide participants clear insight into how high-performing military teams teach leadership, practice accountability and deal with complexity in a program that includes the following:

• A brief history of the development of popular systems that promote innovation
• An outline of the core elements of The Debrief-Focused Approach™
• A case study of accountable leadership in action
• The steps for creating an Accountable Leadership process

Value to members:

Participants will leave with a clear understanding of how high-performing military teams organize and prepare for operations in Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) environments. They will gain a foundational understanding of the high-performing team Debrief model, to include an appreciation for the cultural requirements necessary for successful implementation. The backbone of the high-performing team model, The Debrief-Focused Approach™, will be presented in a readily-accessible format such that participants can immediately implement the most essential components in their own organizations.

Speaker Biography:

Mr. Robert “Cujo” Teschner is a retired F-15 / F-22 fighter pilot. He is also a former F-15 Weapons School Instructor, F-22 Squadron Commander, senior Joint Staff officer and combat veteran. He holds advanced degrees in Operational Art and Science and National Security Strategy, and has extensive experience in tactical planning and execution as well as organizational leadership. From 2004 – 2006 he served as the US Air Force’s expert in post-mission debriefing, the methodology used by high-performing military teams to self-correct and improve continuously. He retired immediately after pinning-on full Colonel due to complications from cancer-related care and started an international business consulting practice based in St. Louis, MO called VMax Group. VMax Group’s mission is to teach businesses how to thrive in a complex world by practicing Accountable Leadership and building high-performing teams. Mr. Teschner is a multiple award-winning fighter aviator, an award-winning writer and author of the national bestselling book, “Debrief to Win”.

Wednesday, June 9, 2021 — Harvey Goldberg

People are creatures of habit. This program’s main objective is to help people build new habits so that they will be able to both reach and sustain high levels of performance and develop more effective coping skills in the face of rapid change. We live in a rapidly changing world. If we approach new innovations with old ways of thinking, then we end up superimposing our old outdated models on new experiences resulting in an inability to grow with the changes. It is pivotal to be mentally agile, strong, and prepared.

In our study of extraordinary performers we have identified four characteristics they have in common contributing to their mental fitness: disciplined focus, accelerated learning, triggered state recovery and the “E” Factor. These characteristics can be translated into a specific skill set that can be demonstrated, learned, practiced and incorporated. These skills may be learned through daily practice.

Trained by Nikki Nemerouf (Starquest Inc.), Harvey Goldberg delivers this presentation to provide participants information and tools that may form the basis of a mental fitness program that can be practiced daily. 

Value to Members: 

This inspiring and informative hands-on presentation offers participants a working knowledge of several different mental fitness skills. They will learn

• the art of disciplined focus and positive mental rehearsal
• a new approach to giving and receiving effective feedback that inspires accelerated growth
• how to quickly regain perspective, balance and emotional well-being in the face of being negatively triggered 

Biography:

 Harvey Goldberg is a thought provoker. He doesn’t believe everything he thinks. He is more interested in thinking about and questioning what he believes. From Harvey’s perspective, this is the key to growth, continuous improvement and achieving peak performance results. Harvey has more than 30 years of experience in company ownership and management and more than 4000 hours of direct coaching of CEO’s and business owners. Currently, he is an advisor to an extremely diverse set of companies and non-profits, including the Washington Humane Society. Teaching principles he has learned and successfully executed in fueling the growth of his own companies is one of Harvey’s greatest gifts. Helping business owners grow and maximize their business and personal potential is his life’s work and passion. A former Vistage member, Harvey became a Vistage Chair after selling his business.

Wednesday, May 12, 2021 — Todd Musselman

Program Description:

Todd’s focus for the workshop is on creating a mindset of personal ownership to optimize each individual’s leadership skills, capabilities and results.  Todd utilizes the victim/owner distinction to demonstrate the profound difference between operating in the victim mindset (reacting to circumstances) vs. the ownership mindset (creating your circumstances) and the effect each mindset has on one’s overall performance as a leader.  Using a series of distinctions, the presentation clearly defines and differentiates these mindsets, and demonstrates how to choose into the ownership mindset more consistently to produce lasting results both personally and professionally. Examples of these distinctions include: “Have to” (victim) vs. “Want to” (owner), “Pleasing” (victim) vs. “Serving” (owner) “Interested” (victim) vs. “Committed” (owner). In addition, the workshop provides steps to further develop each individual’s leadership qualities in six critical areas: trust, integrity, effective communication, acknowledgement/empowerment, accountability and collaboration. Using a dynamic combination of stories, humor and experiential exercises, Todd provides a fun, inspiring and highly interactive workshop that will leave each participant with the tools and the mindset to create powerful results in their lives.  

Value To Members:

The primary value that each member will receive from Todd’s workshop is a greater awareness of how they are showing up as leaders both at work and at home.  Are they consistently coming from the victim mindset or the ownership mindset?  The training will clearly illuminate their dominate mindset and the effect it has on their leadership and overall performance. By gaining this awareness, each individual can then choose out of the limiting mindset (victim) and into the empowering mindset (owner) more intentionally.  The workshop provides tangible strategies and action steps that demonstrate how to choose into the ownership mindset more consistently and by doing so greatly enhance their leadership capabilities.  In addition, each participant will walk away with tools that enable them to create greater value through their conversations at work and at home. The workshop has as much value to members in their personal life as it does in their role as a leader of their organization. 

Biography:

Todd Musselman is the owner of Timberline Leadership.  Founded in 2009, Timberline’s mission is to be an agent of positive transformation for individuals, teams and organizations.  Todd is a powerful and effective leader who combines his background as a business owner, director of sales, and sales representative to produce strong, measurable results in the fields of cultural change, sales training, motivational speaking and executive/life coaching.  As an organizational/leadership trainer, Todd brings over 25 years of experience working in his family owned business.  As part owner of the company, Todd served in many different capacities.  His primary role was that of director of sales.  Todd was charged with managing 55 independent sales representatives across the US and Canada.  In addition, as a sales representative, Todd successfully created and maintained an account base of over 350 retail businesses. Further, Todd played an integral role in personnel management, product development, marketing/sales strategy, cultural initiatives and board governance.  Given his background, Todd is particularly adept in creating results in the area of sales, leadership development and cultural transformation. Todd graduated from Colorado State University in 1986 with a BA in Sociology.   

Wednesday, February 10, 2021 — Linda Schwefel

Linda Schwefel teaches how the Insights Discovery System, developed in 1988 and now experienced by more than five million people, can be applied to improving leadership effectiveness, developing better managers, improving teams and increasing sales performance. Using personal preference data collected in advance of the session, Linda Schwefel will help Vistage members to identify their own personal communications style using the Insights Discovery Profile.

This session begins with an introduction of Jungian psychology, starting with perception, and key exercises that enable CEOs, leaders, managers to realize that most of their work environment is a function of their perception. Participants will then experience an increase in awareness of their own conscious and less conscious states, and begin to differentiate between the behaviors associated with both. Each participant will then receive a 22-page individual Insights Discovery Profile created from online responses gathered in advance of the session. Participants then engage actively with each other to put their knowledge of self, combined with their new understanding of others, through various personal and workplace scenarios.

Value to members:

They then learn how to leverage this knowledge to:

• Better lead their organizations
• Better manage stress and improve personal wellness
• Quickly develop their emerging managers
• Improve team performance
• Increase sales
• Improve their personal relationships

Speaker Biography:

Linda Schwefel, Managing Partner of Discover Yourself, brings over 20 years of training, keynote speaking, coaching, and professional selling experience to her role as speaker, facilitator and Vistage presenter. She has been a Sales Manager, and Top Salesperson with Xerox, where she was the Marketing Representative of the Year Nationwide for her first year. Linda later worked as an Account Manager for Versyss Corporation (OEM for IBM), where she was ranked 2nd nationally out of 700 Sales Representative 5 years in a row. Today she delivers keynotes, teaches and coaches using the Insights Discovery System. Linda delivers and engaging and informative session. She lives in Excelsior, MN.

Wednesday, September 2, 2020 — Irina Baranov

Leaders serve many roles – visionary, motivator, manager, problem solver… but what about the role of coach?

Sometimes this one’s the hardest. We’re not naturally inclined to do some of the counterintuitive-but-so-valuable work of coaching. It’s much easier to answer, solve and move on. But that doesn’t help people grow and develop. It doesn’t move them forward. It doesn’t expand their thinking and ability, and in the long-run, doesn’t build your company, family or community.

Here’s where the art and science of coaching can help. Ready to help people become genuinely better at what they do? Ready to have significant impact? Ready to see better results than ever before?

Get ready for an unforgettable workshop of learning, laughing and building some new coaching muscles!

Value to Members:

In this fun and highly interactive workshop, participants will learn how coaching is different from other forms of leading and managing, and the key elements of coaching well.

They will learn and practice techniques that they will be able to use immediately themselves, as well as teach them to others on their team.

Everyone will leave with better coaching skills and better connection to each other.

5 Keys to the art and science of coaching:

• The coaching state
• Powerful questions
• Creating new possibilities
• Taking action
• Creating an accountability and feedback loop

Speaker Biography

As a certified executive coach, Vistage Master Chair, faculty member and speaker, Irina Baranov works with CEO’s, leaders and organizations – taking them from good to great. In her 1-on-1 work with the top 1%, as well as with groups and audiences around the world, she helps create awareness and lasting/meaningful change in how leaders communicate, and specifically in how they coach others to greatness.

In her workshops, keynote presentations and corporate training seminars, Irina delivers a blend of warmth, wisdom and humor. Her stories and exercises are designed to inspire insight, real learning and sustained action. Her expertise has been featured on CBS, NBC and ABC, as well as in numerous print and online publications.

Wednesday, December 2, 2020 — Corinne Hancock

In business and in life, we’re put to the test not when things are going right, but when they get chaotic. How we react can be the difference between success and failure, and determine whether our team comes together or falls apart. Learn strategies to adapt your thoughts and plans on a moment’s notice, lead through uncertainty, and thrive in chaos.

Using Corinne’s Chaos Ready Framework, we’ll explore how to get your company chaos ready and how to stay in a mindset focused on solutions when chaos hits. We will explore what you do, how you respond and who you are as a leader during times of chaos.

Participants will gain practical tools and ideas for how to rise to the occasion and to empower others, regardless of their chaotic situation.

Value to members:

• Understanding and clarity on how your thoughts, actions and language influence others, and impact your ability to lead and thrive in chaos.
• A tested framework to prepare your company, your team and yourself to thrive in chaos, no matter the environment
• Tools and exercises you can immediately use to engage and inspire both yourself and your team regardless of situation.

Speaker Biography:

Corinne Hancock is a globally recognized expert in building world-class leaders, effective teams and cultural diversity, in chaotic environments. With over a decade of international aid and development experience working around the world developing bold leaders, building highly effective teams, delivering medical trainings and delivering medical care.

Corinne not only challenges the status quo in international development and relief, but also pushes her own participants to achieve growth beyond their expectations. She has worked on over 50 international projects with leading organizations across for-profit, non-profit and governmental sectors such as US Department of State, USAID, Project C.U.R.E., Newmont Mining, Kinross Gold, Bold Leaders, State Civic Design Team, Raising Malawi, Mountain 2 Mountain, Edge of Seven, Valor Bridge and more.

Corinne was on the front lines, building teams in high-pressure, stressful situations around the globe as the Director of Clinics for Project CURE, and as a contracted State Department leadership coach. She brought together multi-generational, multi-cultural teams to create new community based projects, open hospitals and clinics, and deliver medical care in some of the most remote locations on the planet.

Most recently, Corinne directed leadership and entrepreneurship programs for one of Colorado’s leading edge private schools. Her programs included professional leadership development for the entire teaching and administrative staff, hosting educational workshops for the school community and even teaching leadership and mindfulness classes to middle school aged children.

Wednesday, November 11, 2020 — Jill Campen

Service excellence is much more than smiling faces and please and thank you. There is both an art and a science component to service excellence. This requires a mindset of “always” service rather than “sometimes” service. It can’t “depend on who you get”.

You see… Service excellence is a “process” not a “program”. Processes have continuous loops of reengagement…programs often come to an end. There are no quick fixes. The concept of excellent service is simple…the practice is not easy.

Learn how to Engage, Prepare, Ignite and Connect your team to sustain loyalty with both customers and staff.

Value to members:

Every organization provides service to someone. As the leader of your organization, you will learn the commitment required to become EPIC and walk away with a roadmap to sustained service excellence and customer loyalty.

Speaker Biography:

Jill Campen, CAMPEN GROUP INC., is passionate about performance improvement focused on sales, leadership and customer service. Jill has trained over 10,000 individuals around the globe for more than 20 years, connecting with associates and executives at all levels of the organization. She has facilitated workshops in many industry settings, including medical, retail, banking, education, and luxury hotels. Jill has worked throughout her career with well-known brands such as Pebble Beach Resorts, Microsoft, Accenture, Walt Disney, and The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.

Wednesday, October 7, 2020 — Marcey Rader

Do you have trouble prioritizing and focusing on income-generating activity?

Do you need ways to be more efficient at work and home to have more free time?

There’s no winner in who’s the busiest. We want to work on our business, not our busyness.

Topics covered include distraction management, setting boundaries, and getting focused. Then we step into action with prioritization, using a task management system, and outsourcing both professionally and personally. This workshop gives clear, actionable steps on what to do with that never-ending task list and how not to just be productive, but effective at our job. Leave busy behind.

Value to members:

Marcey gives each participant an electronic resource guide with links to all the references, programs, and tools she covers in class. All attendees are asked to make one commitment in the next 30 days and share that commitment with one other member to hold them accountable.

• Prioritize your list to focus on tasks that move the needle
• Automate to rest your brain and reduce anxiety
• Outsource creatively within your personal and professional budget

It’s never just the system, but also the behavior, that makes task mastery effective. Getting tasks done is not the answer. Getting the right tasks done at the right time, efficiently and effectively, is what matters.

Speaker Biography:

Marcey Rader’s an award-winning, top-rated, high-energy speaker who packs presentations with actionable advice and real-world wisdom. Her #1 mantra? You can reach peak productivity without sacrificing your health to get there. You’ll notice a new vibe around the table once she’s inspired your Vistage group to Work Well and Play More!

Marcey’s the founder of the Work Well. Play More! Institute, where entrepreneurs, business leaders, and entire teams sail to seek out peak productivity and health to improve performance. Clients learn to maximize their time and energy to leave burnout in the dust, decluttering the mind, body, and business, one habit at a time.

Wednesday, August 12, 2020 — John Boyens

This highly interactive seminar includes the sharing of sales and sales management “best practices” information from a variety of industries across the globe. Attendees will walk away with tools, processes and concepts that can use in their business right away.

Key topics include the:

• Nine keys to productive selling
• Four reasons why people don’t buy
• How to overcome them Secrets of selling value, not price Keys to differentiating your company from your competition in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage in your marketplace Importance of creating an objection response library

Value to members:

Members will be able to increase the productivity of their sales and marketing teams by instituting a consistent sales and sales management process that is specifically tailored to their industry and the unique needs of their organization. Further, they will be able to establish a common language and selling philosophy among their team in order to present a professional and coordinated selling effort.

Speaker Biography:

John Boyens is a sales productivity expert and business strategist as well as the co-founder and president of the Boyens Group, Inc., a sales and management consulting and training firm.

Customers worldwide trust the Boyens Group to help them increase the productivity of their sales, service and marketing teams; improve the effectiveness of their management team; and optimize their business strategy. What makes them unique is that they custom-design all of their programs (speaking, training, consulting or coaching) based upon the unique needs of their customers, the markets that they serve and their budgets.

Since the formation of the Boyens Group, John has had the privilege of interviewing and coaching more than 25,000 salespeople, sales leaders and business executives from a variety of industries worldwide. This “real world” experience has enabled him to identify the nine keys to productive selling. In addition to his “best practices” research he’s interviewed more than 3,500 companies and asked each to describe the best salespeople ever encountered and what it was that set them apart from the others. John then combined his “buyer based” interview data with his “best practices” research to create a set of sales and sales management tools, processes and concepts that became the backbone of their best selling “Creating a Productive Selling Zone” program.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020 — Craig Weber

Tom Peters has said that management enemy number-one is misinformation. This is especially true for CEO’s. Their effectiveness is contingent on the quality of the information used to solve problems and make decisions, and CEO’s are largely dependent on their subordinates for the accuracy and timeliness of this information. Yet because the CEO is the pinnacle of authority in an organization, people are often reticent to speak candidly and directly about tough issues affecting the business. As a result, CEO’s are often subject to high levels of information cover-up, distortion and misinformation. This problem tends to increase precisely when it is most problematic: when a pressing organizational issue demands timely, accurate, clear information.
In this highly interactive workshop, Craig Weber works with members to help them learn a rigorous, highly useable method for crafting conversations that answer this critical question: “how can I be honest, direct and authentic in confronting tough issues in a way that actually educates and encourages others to do the same?”

Value to Members:

This workshop is valuable for anyone interested in taking personal responsibility for creating more robust and highly effective patterns of communication in the business. A strong emphasis is placed on using these skills in the workshop so that members walk out with a strong conceptual framework and tangible new skills.

Members will learn to:

• Promote rigorous conversations about tough business issues that generate openness and trust.
• Work more effectively with difficult people.
• Increase the quality of collaborative problem solving and decision making.
• Create conditions which enable the people around them to act with higher levels of candor, respect and responsibility.
• Moderate crippling psychological binds that hamper executive effectiveness.
• Work with an extraordinary “presence of mind” when facing stiff challenges.
• Help your team more effectively navigate non-routine problems and complex issues.
• Decrease the counter-productive politics, game-playing and one-up-manship that hampers personal and organizational performance.

Wednesday, November 6, 2019 — Eric Keiles

This introduction to “Reality Marketing” will give you a new perspective on how to market your company in tough times. Your companies are not Fortune 500 companies, so they shouldn’t advertise like one! This workshop will show you effective techniques for marketing your companies including unique discussions on “The Blue Red Test,” “The Purple Cow,” “The Scratch Out Drop In Test” and building a powerful “Marketing Machine.” This might possibly be the most effective time you’ll ever spend on marketing your business through experience, best practices, and many case studies and examples. Key objectives in the presentation include: Case studies on migration to Reality Marketing techniques Best practices of growing companies faced with recession Understanding how to build a low-cost marketing machine Positioning your company as “Remarkable” and get many more referrals Eliminating marketing tactics with low ROI.

Value to Members

Vistage members can expect to learn: Multiple ways to market to new prospects and clients Common marketing mistakes of small- to mid-size companies and how to avoid them How to build a robust prospect database How to use “low-risk” and “no-risk” offers How to slash your marketing budget How to build a “Marketing Machine”

Speaker Biography

Eric Keiles is a four-time entrepreneur and author of the book Reality Marketing Revolution. He has created four businesses during his career, and the latest, Square2 Marketing, helps business owners bring their sales and marketing to a level that they need in order to achieve their goals. He earned a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and MBA from Temple University.

Wednesday, September 11, 2019 — Dave Nelsen

The rate of change in the business world is accelerating exponentially. When Darwin observed that “It’s not the strongest or most intelligent that survive, but those that adapt to a changing environment most quickly,” few people could have appreciated how precisely this would describe the world of business … on a hyper-accelerated timescale.

It was just Christmas Day in 1990 when MIT computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee connected two computers together, for the first time EVER using a protocol called HTTP and addresses beginning with “www.” Look at what’s happened to us since then.

In this engaging and hands-on presentation, longtime CEO and Vistage Speaker of the Year Dave Nelsen shares with executives his personal tips and tricks for using technology effectively. Grab your iPads, smartphones, notebooks, or just the seat of your pants and learn how to take your performance to a whole new level.

Key topics include:

• New brain science linking “executive function” with sleep and exercise
• Working the right priorities (and a lot less e-mail) using Things or Wunderlist
• Signing onto all of your accounts via LastPass
• Eliminating clutter while providing instant access to everything from everywhere with Evernote (an amazing app, it will become “your second brain”)
• Countless other practical apps with clear, concise descriptions including TripIt, LogMeIn, FollowUpThen, DragonDictate, CardSnap, and even WinePicks 

Value to Members: Participants will leave with practical takeaways on how to:

• Improve memory, accelerate learning, and enhance mental stamina
• Retake control of their email inbox
• Select and apply a handful of new tools to save time and money, while getting more of the right things done

Leading a business today while ignoring the latest personal productivity apps and technologies is like running a farm using an ox and plow. It can be done but it can’t be fun.

Biography: Dave Nelsen is president of Dialog Consulting Group, a boutique consulting firm that has helped more than 50 organizations develop strategies to enhance the conversations with their most important internal and external customers using proven social networking, social media and mobile communication tools. Dave has more than 30 years of telecom experience and has been at the leading edge of the social media revolution since founding TalkShoe in early 2005. He’s been recognized as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, as Tech Council CEO of the Year and as Vistage Speaker of the Year.

Wednesday, August 7, 2019 — Brandon Miller

Gallup Certified StrengthsFinder Coach, Brandon Miller presents an energetic and informative workshop adapted from the bestselling book, Strengths Based Leadership. In this training, Miller provides a perfect blend of leadership development principles for today’s business leader as well as insights for how to be a more effective leader of individuals and teams. During the interactive presentation, Miller shares the three key findings from Gallup research on the qualities and practices of the most effective leaders. Key takeaways for participants include:

1. Awareness of personal leadership Strengths.
2. Application of Strengths as a leader of executives, managers and teams.
3. Achievement of goals and objectives through a Strengths approach to business outcomes.

Value to members:

Members will participate in the StrengthsFinder assessment and gain a deeper understanding of their personal talents and how to build and maintain strong partnerships and teams. The StrengthsFinder is an instrument designed to identify natural talents within people. Over 13 Million people have learned their strengths and 94% of the S&P 500 use the StrengthsFinder within their organizations.Members are also given a lifetime voucher after the workshop and may take advantage of the following:

1. Electronic copy of the handouts.
2. Free one hour executive strengths coaching session.

Speaker Biography:

Brandon Miller is the CEO of 34 Strong Inc, a company focused on Strengths Based Organizational Development. He utilizes the Clifton StrengthsFinder as an important tool in working with leaders to understand and invest in their personal strengths and the strengths of the people they lead. His expertise is in architecting an organizational foundation whose core is strengths focused. Since 2003, Brandon has coached 1000+ people through their StrengthsFinder results and facilitated trainings for hundreds of teams in 100+ organizations in government, corporate and non-profit organizations. Some recent clients Brandon has had the honor to work with include: Johnson and Johnson, Tesla Motors, Plum Organics, Douglas County Chamber of Commerce, Bank of America, UC Davis and The FDA. Brandon is the author of the e-book: “Play Like a Team, Win Like a Team” which provides insight into working together as a team from a strengths perspective.

Wednesday, May 8, 2019 — Greg Bustin

Accountability is one of the biggest challenges business leaders face. A six-year study by Greg Bustin of more than 6,000 CEOs and key executives worldwide confirms that “lack of accountability” is the single greatest barrier to achieving consistently high levels of organizational performance. To help Vistage members gain fresh insight into building, nurturing and sustaining a culture where accountability drives high performance, Greg interviewed senior leaders at some of the world’s most respected companies in manufacturing (Nucor and Herman Miller), technology (Sony), distribution (Southwest Airlines), retail (The Container Store) and professional services (Marriott and Ernst & Young). He also interviewed dozens of Vistage-member CEOs in the United States, Canada and the UK. Greg discovered how these companies succeed in good times and bad, and he developed a new way to think about accountability. His insights form the basis of this workshop and his groundbreaking book on accountability. Dan Pink, bestselling author of Drive, says of Greg’s book, “If you’re looking for new ways to drive accountability and improve individual and organizational performance, read this book.” Greg’s video interviews with leaders of these high-performing companies anchor a compelling workshop that explores The Seven Pillars of Accountability. Each workshop is tailored to address the areas of most impact to each group based on an online 10-minute accountability assessment each member completes in advance of the meeting.

Value to members

Members will take away:

• A new way to think about and approach accountability
• Insights into their organization’s overall performance strengths and weaknesses
• A counter-intuitive approach for addressing accountability with an under-performer

Speaker Biography

Greg is a Vistage Master Chair in Dallas with two CEO groups and a Key Executive group. He’s delivered more than 500 presentations on five continents. Greg led the turnaround of the Dallas office of Edelman Worldwide, achieving record success. He founded his own marketing management consultancy in 1994 so he’s made plenty of tough decisions. He’s worked with leadership teams at multi-national companies, including Burger King, Fujitsu, PepsiCo, Phillips Petroleum Company, Prudential, Nucor, Quaker, Sony, Verizon and Trammell Crow Company and he’s led more than 200 strategic planning sessions. Greg has dedicated his career to working with CEOs and their teams. His fresh approach to conflict resolution and passionate probing of difficult issues has led to insights that have helped these leaders achieve immediate, tangible and sustainable performance improvement. Greg’s views about leadership have been published in The Wall Street Journal, Chief Executive, Fast Company, Forbes, Inc., Investor’s Business Daily, Leader to Leader, Texas CEO and other major publications. He’s written five books, and Accountability: The Key to Driving A High-Performance Culture (McGraw-Hill) has been selected by Soundview as a Best Business Book. Greg’s newest book — How Leaders Decide: A Timeless Guide for Making Tough Choices — examines leadership lessons of history’s greatest triumphs and tragedies, and will be published by SourceBooks in April 2019. Greg’s new workshop draws from How Leaders Decide debuts in 2019.

Wednesday, March 6, 2019 — Kathleen Quinn Votaw

Recruiting and retaining top talent will be increasingly difficult in 2019 and beyond, based on research from Vistage and the National Center for the Middle Market.

And, in survey after survey, executives list attracting and retaining top talent as their #1 issue. Most CEOs agree that people are their most valuable business asset. People are critical for growth and success. Yet many executives struggle to find, keep and grow the best. They lack an overall strategy as it relates to their people.

Kathleen’s workshop features key ideas from her book, Solve the People Puzzle. Participants receive a copy of the book, powerful insight, and actionable advice. She works in concert with Vistage Chairs to provide content and delivery that is customized for each group.

Her areas of expertise include:

• Talent Strategy
• Employee Engagement
• Employment Trends
• Attracting the Right Talent
• Employment Branding
• Recruitment and Retention
• Onboarding and Training
• Millennials in the Workforce

Value to members

As detailed in the Vistage eBrief, SMB CEO Projections for 2018, a tight labor market, coupled with expectations for increased hiring, means that recruiting and retaining top talent will be increasingly difficult in 2018.

“While adding headcount is essential to growth, retaining, developing and engaging existing talent is critical,” says Joe Galvin, Chief Research Officer for Vistage Research. “It forms a foundation for adding new people. Just as you are looking for the best talent, so is everyone else — and they are looking at your people, too.”

These findings from Vistage are echoed the National Center for the Middle Market, which just released its Middle Market Indicator Data from fourth quarter of 2017. Middle market companies report accelerated revenue growth, moderate employment growth and peak levels of confidence. Tom Stewart, the Center’s Executive Director, states that finding, developing, and keeping talent has become the middle market’s biggest challenge.

Kathleen offers relevant data, expert perspective, engaging stories, and actionable advice on the topics of talent and culture.

Speaker Biography:

Kathleen Quinn Votaw is a long-time Vistage Member and Founder and CEO of TalenTrust, a consulting firm that is revolutionizing how companies across the U.S. recruit, retain, and engage employees. Kathleen’s passion and expertise allow her to connect business leaders with the right people and ideas to drive faster growth. After nearly two decades of earning accolades in the staffing industry, Kathleen determined that traditional models don’t always serve the best interest of clients—especially rapidly growing companies. She launched TalenTrust in 2003 and her firm now serves clients across the U.S.; employs a team of 25+ people; and has been named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 list for high-growth companies. Kathleen leverages this expertise in her book, Solve the People Puzzle: How High-Growth Companies Attract and Retain Top Talent, which is a must-read guide for C-level executives. She is a compelling thought leader who helps executives find and keep the best talent for their growing companies. Kathleen offers expert perspective on addressing immediate hiring needs; finding and keeping Millennials; dealing with turnover; understanding and improving your company’s reputation; and determining your overall talent strategy.