Southwestern Speakers is comprised of top-producing thought leaders, authors, and experts who deliver dynamic presentations that shift the hearts and minds of audiences worldwide. Our team of experienced agents can assist in suggesting the right speakers for annual conferences, meetings, and events and will provide outstanding service from start to finish. Southwestern Speakers goes above and beyond to elevate each event and offers additional programs to extend the impact of our speakers’ presentations long after they have left the stage.
One of the most recent communicators to join our roster is “Identity Leadership” speaker and author, Stedman Graham. We were excited to officially welcome Stedman to the family and also kick off our new branding this past month with a launch party and a private book-signing event to highlight his newest book, Identity Leadership. It was an inspirational event, and we look forward to seeing how Stedman, along with our other exceptional speakers, continue to make an impact on the world. Please read below to learn more about all of our speakers.
STEDMAN GRAHAM
As a businessman, educator, and speaker, Stedman Graham presents, consults, and conducts training with corporations, organizations, and nonprofits on the topics of identity development, maximizing leadership, achieving success, and personal and professional branding. His corporate seminars are driven by the Identity Leadership Nine-Step Success Process, a life and learning management system designed to organize a person’s life around their identity. Stedman believes leadership is everything and that the needs of the 21st century cannot be met by followers.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Identity Leadership; Diversity: Leaders Not Labels; Build Your Own Life Brand; You Can Make It Happen; Move Without The Ball
LEARN MORE: Bio | Highlight Video
MAC ANDERSON
Mac Anderson is the founder of Simple Truths and Successories, Inc., the leader in designing and marketing products for motivation and recognition. These companies, however, are not the first success stories for Mac. He was also the founder and CEO of McCord Travel, the largest travel company in the Midwest, and part-owner and vice president of sales and marketing for Orval Kent Food Company, the country’s largest manufacturer of prepared salads. Mac is also the Founder of Inspire Kindness, a movement-based company whose mission is to motivate kindness in individuals and encourage others to act.
His accomplishments and knowledge in these wide-spanning industries provide some insight into his passion when speaking to many corporate audiences on a variety of topics, including leadership, motivation, and team building.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: 212 Degrees; 212 Degrees for Leaders; 212 Degrees for Service; Charging the Human Battery; The ROI of Kindness
LEARN MORE: Bio | Highlight Video
DR. RHEA SEDDON
Former astronaut, Rhea Seddon, M.D., is a national speaker, award-winning author, and veteran of three space shuttle flights. A woman of many firsts, Dr. Seddon was one of only six women in a class of 100 in medical school and the first woman ever accepted to her General Surgery Residency Program. As one of the first six women accepted into the Astronaut Corps, her marriage to fellow Astronaut Capt. Robert “Hoot” Gibson produced the first astronaut couple. She was the eighth woman accepted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame. Besides her space career, Rhea’s life experiences have led her from surgeon to licensed private pilot, healthcare executive, entrepreneur, business owner, author, and public speaker.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Opportunity; Teamwork; Leadership
LEARN MORE: Bio
MARK BROWN
Whether he’s working with leaders who want to improve their communication and presentation skills or learn how to get more out of their team members, Mark Brown teaches the principles of influence and inspiration. His audiences are inspired by the true story of how he emigrated from Jamaica to the United States at 18 years old with only $40 in his pocket and became one of the most popular inspirational speakers in the world today.
Mark is one of the only professional speakers in the world with a presentation that has been nominated for an Emmy Award. He has delivered more than 3,500 professional presentations to 1.7 million people from Boston to Bahrain, Alberta to Australia, Hong Kong to Halifax, and San Diego to Saudi Arabia.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Powerful Presentations; Inspire and Influence; Doing More with Less; How Leaders Get Things Done; The Dash Between the Dates; How to Be Your Best
LEARN MORE: Bio | Highlight Video
BRIAN BIRO
Brian Biro is one of the nation’s foremost speakers and teachers of Leadership, Possibility Thinking, Thriving on Change, and Team-Building. A former vice-president of a major transportation corporation in the Pacific Northwest, Brian helped lead a major turnaround that resulted in the company quadrupling in revenues, becoming solidly profitable, and being named the leader in the air freight industry for customer service and convenience by Distribution Magazine. In the last 28 years, Brian has delivered over 1,800 presentations to audiences around the world.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Breakthrough Leadership; Champions of Change; Controlling the Controllables; Silos to Energy; Building People; From EGO to WE GO!
LEARN MORE: Bio
DR. TERRY LYLES
Dr. Terry Lyles is the leading expert on delivering results in high-stress situations. Through a combination of biotelemetry and psychotelemetry, he helps audiences increase bottom line profits and deliver high performance productivity, and he reduces the negative impacts of stress on teams by helping people understand the difference between motivation and inspiration. He has worked with individuals and companies in some of the most intense and demanding fields, such as NASCAR drivers and pit crews, natural disaster emergency recovery teams, and soldiers coping with combat stress. He helps people overcome the fatigue and dejection that accompanies stress by implementing simple, tangible ways to not just manage stress but use it to their advantage. Terry is the perfect guide to navigate from stressed to super-achiever.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Performance Under Pressure: How Leaders Help Their Teams Win in High-Stress Situations; Cracking the Stress Code: Work-Life Balance and 4 Simple Steps to Stop Stress from Taking Over; Elite Athlete: The Science of Maximizing Physical Performance
LEARN MORE: Bio | Highlight Video
DAVE BROWN
Every day, millions of salespeople don’t reach their potential because they fall victim to call reluctance, creative avoidance, and fear of rejection. The result is that they struggle to remain focused and motivated for themselves and they cost their employers an unparalleled amount of potential profit. Most organizations have no distinct plan or process for coaching their sales team through these roadblocks. Dave Brown is the world’s leading authority and practitioner on prospecting and call reluctance. He can teach teams strategies and tactics to help them immediately increase their prospecting activity.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Painless Prospecting and The Answer’s Behind the Next Door: Exploring the Power of Personal Persistence
LEARN MORE: Bio | Highlight Video
GARY GARFIELD
Gary Garfield engages and educates audiences with the truly unique insight he gained first practicing law and then as the CEO who turned around Bridgestone Americas’ performance. Through his truly unique approach to culture change, Garfield refocused the organization, drove innovation and collaboration, and broke down silos. The result: the company pulled out of its marketplace rut and achieved record profits every year, which grew by more than 500% and outperformed the S&P 500 during Gary’s six-year tenure.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Culture First; Leaders Make the Necessary Changes; A Company as a Community Partner
LEARN MORE: Bio
EDIE ALLEN
Edie Allen’s life’s work is to uplift, inspire, educate, and entertain. A Happiness Coach with a passion for assisting anyone desiring balance and a more joyous life, Edie has always had a gift for seeing a person’s essence. With grace and a strong connection to spirit, she has also been blessed with the ability to help others see and embrace it for themselves. Through her own healing experiences, she has added quite a few tools to her belt, and sharing them has become her greatest fulfillment. While living out her dreams, Edie has had great opportunities to work with different kinds of people all over the world. Their one common denominator, Edie has found, is a strong desire to belong, matter, and live a happy life.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Finding your Superpowers; From Secrets to Support; From Wounded to Warrior; The Joy Journey / Crafting out a Life You Love; Living the Next Level Life
LEARN MORE: Bio
IRA BLUMENTHAL
Specializing in his own unique style of public speaking called “Edu-tainment,” Ira Blumenthal has delivered over 2,600 successful speeches on five continents to nearly 1.5 million people. As a best-selling author, the former CMO of a Fortune 100 company, former award-winning president of a $300-million public company, co-founder of a successful fund that provides resources to “at risk” girls, co-founder of The Pat Summitt Leadership Group, and a business development consultant who has counseled clients such as Disney, Walmart, McDonald’s, Nestle, American Airlines, Hilton, and The Coca-Cola Company, Blumenthal draws on his diverse, highly successful and honored career in speaking that provides audiences great stories, actionable messages, education, and inspiration. His style is high energy, and he always includes purposeful humor in his programs.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Change is Inevitable. Growth is Optional; Strength in Numbers; Brand Building for your Future; Managing Brand You; Myths and Misses in Marketing; Balancing High-Tech and High-Touch in Business-Building
LEARN MORE: Bio
FREDDIE RAVEL
Freddie Ravel is the internationally-acclaimed “Keynote Maestro” who blends his infectious passion for business breakthroughs and the power of music to unlock the minds, hearts, and potential of audiences around the world. He engages and reveals the Four Foundations of music—melody, harmony, rhythm and SCORE—to inspire and transform participants. In his dynamic multimedia “keynote concert” where speaking meets masterful piano performances backed by a full orchestra and legendary music icons, Ravel helps the audience unravel obstacles, enhance listening skills, and increase productivity to SCORE breakthrough success.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: The Rhythm of Success; Listen Up! The Key to Diversity, Inclusion and Team Success; The “Keynote Maestro” – Your Master of Ceremonies
LEARN MORE: Bio
KATHLEEN HENSON
Kathleen Henson, the CEO of globally-integrated marketing firm Agency H5, and a mother of five, has built a corporate culture based on five core values: creativity, hustle, passion, integrity and, above all, kindness. With unrivaled energy, she expertly connects people, events, and ideas to generate maximum impact and inspires people to find the joy in their work, increasing morale, productivity, and enthusiasm.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Always Lead With Kindness; The ‘She’s Got It All’ Myth; Who Run The World; Find Your Anchor
LEARN MORE: Bio
GARY MICHELS
Having a positive attitude and living with positive energy matters more today than ever before. Gary helps others dig down deep and access the explosive potential of an adjusted attitude and re-energized life. Through a series of engaging stories and entertaining anecdotes, Gary equips teams with practical tools for increasing the energy and enthusiasm they live with each day. Gary’s message helps to create more employee engagement, boost team morale, and maximize productivity and peak performance. For those seeking a powerful pick-me-up, it’s time to “Turn It Up A Notch.”
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Turn it Up a Notch; Leadership vs. Management; Closing for Champions; Generational Leadership; Multiplying Time
LEARN MORE: Bio | Highlight Video
KATY KVALVIK
Katy Kvalvik empowers people all over the world to live their best lives and achieve optimal, lasting results. She is an expert in advanced communication skills for leadership and integrative health for elevated performance. Katy reveals key, time-tested techniques and step-by-step strategies honed by working with people from all walks of life and shares her own journey of having to rebuild her body after two life-altering accidents. Whether she’s consulting an exhausted working parent who needs to get a grip on his or her health or a burnt out executive aiming to build a more motivated and productive team, Katy will help them succeed and bring everything back to balance. Katy is also the founder and author of The Harmony Method, a comprehensive approach to women’s health.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Empowering Leaders With Advanced Communication Skills and Exhausted To Empowered: How To Achieve All-Day Energy
LEARN MORE: Bio
RON MARKS
Ron Marks is one of the most experienced sales trainers in the world. For 35 years, he owned a company that produced thousands of training seminars with Tom Hopkins, Brian Tracy and Tony Robbins, and inspired hundreds of thousands of sales professionals around the world. Since 2007, Ron has become one of the Partners at Southwestern Consulting, which is a multi-million dollar international training company that has helped over 7,000 leaders in 35 countries. Additionally, Ron earned his CSP (Certified Speaking Professional), which is the highest ranking designation awarded to professional speakers. Ron has worked with almost every type of professional selling organization. He is also the bestselling author of Managing for Sales Results, which was originally published by John Wiley & Sons.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Leading High-Performance Teams; Managing for Sales Results; Convert Customers Quicker
LEARN MORE: Bio | Highlight Video
EMMIE BROWN
Emmie Brown is one of the world’s most sought-after experts at helping leaders develop processes to build great teams and maximize overall performance. Her presentations share timeless and universal wisdom about the principles that make great leaders, managers, and personal producers. The insights she delivers in her trainings speak directly to what the leadership team needs to do to take the entire staff to the next level.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: WIN This Season; Managing Systems to Lead People; The People Business; Seek First Selling; How to Source, Select & Retain Talent
LEARN MORE: Bio | Highlight Video
GENA PARKER
Gena Parker draws her management and coaching experience from her time spent as a corporate recruiter and salesperson with Southwestern’s oldest and most recognized company: Southwestern Advantage. This is where Gena realized the value of schedule, habits, leading by example, and never asking anyone to do anything she’s not willing to do. After working with college interns in Southwestern Advantage’s program for six years, Gena discovered that she had the desire to work with salespeople who wanted to be “sales professionals.” Naturally, she teamed up with Southwestern Consulting. Gena speaks to help her audience see their natural proclivity to sales and thus captures their limitless opportunities. Gena proves that—no matter what someone is selling, where they’re selling, or how new they are to their market—good habits, a good schedule, and time-tested principles will lead to success.
TOP REQUESTED TOPICS: Natural Born Salesperson; Leadership Management
LEARN MORE: Bio | Highlight Video
MIKE WEBER
Mike Weber has been a beloved speaker and teacher for the past 35 years and in high demand with school business officials, educators, healthcare, banking, insurance, and non-profit groups. Mike has motivated and inspired people at conferences from Maine to California to push through towards their potential. His high-energy and interactive style engages audiences both intellectually and kinesthetically. Mike drives home principles and ideas that will transform how you approach and interact with others. He’s a masterful speaker and has a wealth of insightful tips and information for his audience.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Breaking the Unwritten Rules; Breaking the Unwritten Rules of Leadership; Filtering the Static; Life by Design; Putting the Bounce in Bounce Back
LEARN MORE: Bio
RON ALFORD
Ron Alford is an expert when it comes to recruiting, sales training, and coaching individuals and teams to reach higher than they ever imagined. As an endurance athlete having completed many marathons, triathlons, and ultramarathons, he lives with the strong belief that true success and enduring joy comes from principle-centered living—that’s the foundation, and everything else flows from there.
Ron’s compelling keynote program helps teams rise above negative circumstances, negative thinking, and negative odds to break belief barriers and accomplish new heights in both personal and professional endeavors. A true practitioner, Ron teaches about the five components that move people to achieve their true potential. If you want to break through barriers, destroy complacency, get to the next level, and create explosive growth, then partner with Ron Alford.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Rise Above; Redefining Possible; Principle Centered Leadership
LEARN MORE: Bio | Highlight Video
DANA POTTHOFF
As an experienced coach, trainer, and speaker, Dana has worked with thousands of individuals to inspire their fullest potential and encourage them to not just work harder but work smarter. She believes that the foundation of all growth lies in helping people find their passions, purposes, and callings—to turn their everyday tasks into extraordinary paths of impact. She believes that “success” is the pursuit of excellence in every area of life and that empathy is the key to unlocking understanding.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Thursday Night is Own Your Seat
LEARN MORE: Bio
DUSTIN HILLIS
Dustin Hillis, CEO of Southwestern Family of Companies, teaches salespeople and sales leaders about the psychology it takes to become a true top-producer and leader. His keynote presentations are engaging, practical, and actionable. Because he is a real-life, personally-producing sales practitioner and leader as the Co-Founder of Southwestern Consulting, his insights are rooted in what works in today’s economy. He isn’t teaching the typical tired and timed-out strategies that most sales experts pitch. After hearing Dustin’s message, the audience walks out feeling inspired, educated, and empowered to go out and immediately close more sales.
TOP REQUESTED PROGRAMS: Navigate: Selling the Way People Like to Buy; Redefining Possible
LEARN MORE: Bio | Highlight Video
If you would like more information on how to bring one of our inspiring presenters to your next event, please email us at [email protected]
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