The Keynote Curators Podcast

Some rules hold a business together. Others just hold it back. The hard part is knowing which is which. Business expert keynote speaker Leah Solivan calls them beams and barriers. Beams provide structure. They’re there for a reason. Barriers are different. They’re often old assumptions, inherited habits, or industry “rules” nobody remembers choosing in the first place. And because they’re everywhe...

“Great job” is lazy recognition. It sounds positive. But what exactly was great? Leadership expert Chester Elton has spent decades studying gratitude, recognition, and workplace culture, and his point is simple: If you want people to repeat great work, tell them what they did that mattered. For the 200th episode of The Keynote Curators Podcast, Chester and I get into what meaningful appreciation a...

Hope isn’t a feeling. It’s a behavior only the top leaders have, especially when people aren't sure about what comes next. Leadership expert Simon T. Bailey doesn’t define hope as believing everything will work out. It’s helping people see what they can control. And giving them the confidence to act on it. On The Keynote Curators Podcast , Simon and I get into what that looks like in practice:...

Not every workplace roadblock needs a new tool, process, or platform. Sometimes the problem is simpler. Two people don’t trust each other. Someone needs to be right. A leader isn’t listening. A difficult conversation keeps getting avoided. On this episode, change leadership expert Cheryl Cran and I talk about why the future of work may depend less on mastering technology and more on mastering ours...

When was the last time someone disagreed with you in front of your entire team? Corporate culture expert David Burkus says your answer tells him a lot about your company. Because trust isn’t something leaders announce. It shows up when someone takes a risk: Shares the weird idea. Admits they don’t know. Challenges the boss. And then watches what happens next. On The Keynote Curators Podcast, David...

AI will replace your job. Sam Richter says yes. If you define your job as updating the CRM, building the deck, writing the first draft, or finding information, AI is coming for a lot of it. But if you define your job by the value you create? That’s a very different conversation. On The Keynote Curators Podcast, Sam and I get into where AI ends and the human work begins: ✅ Information is easy. Kno...

Here’s some unusual advice: embrace change and take rejection personally. Feel the frustration. The anxiety. Then get curious about what it’s trying to tell you. That’s the heart of Cassandra Worthy ’s approach to change. On The Keynote Curators Podcast, Cassandra and I talk about using difficult emotions as signals, not obstacles: Recognize the signal. Find the opportunity. Make a choice. Inside...

Ask your leadership team, “How’s your company culture?” and their response will probably be, "Great.” Now ask the employees. That’s where things get interesting. Danny Goldberg talks with both groups before his keynotes. And 9 times out of 10, he finds a gap between the culture leaders believe they’ve created and the one employees actually experience. He calls it the perceived gap. On this ep...

Easy is hard. For the customer, great service should feel almost invisible: A short wait. A useful answer. A bot that knows when to hand you to a human. A problem that doesn’t happen again. Behind that simplicity? Training. Staffing. Better systems. Clear values. And a willingness to actually learn from what customers are telling you. That’s the territory Brad Cleveland and I explore on this episo...

Forget the career ladder. Melissa Proctor prefers the jungle gym. Sideways. Backward. Up. Over. Into a role you never planned on taking. Her own path started as the Miami Heat’s first ball girl, folding towels, sweeping floors, and talking to everyone in the building, and eventually led to the C-suite as EVP and CMO of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena. On this episode of The Keynote Curators...

Want to know what your business culture is really like? Don’t read the values on the wall. Watch what happens when someone makes a mistake. When life gets messy. When a new employee walks in. When a leader has the chance to trust instead of control. That’s the real test. On this episode of The Keynote Curators Podcast, keynote speaker and 4x best-selling author Chris Dyer and I talk about the ever...

You never know when a simple conversation with the person next to you might change your life. That’s the kind of networking that Laura Schwartz believes in. Not collecting contacts. Not scanning the room for the most important person. Not asking, “What can you do for me?” But instead: What can I do for you? On this episode of The Keynote Curators Podcast, Laura and I talk about networking as somet...

An event has two agendas. The one you print: Keynote. Breakout. Lunch. Panel. Reception. And the one people remember: The conversation during the coffee break. The person they met between sessions. The room that made them want to stay. The speaker who gave everyone something to talk about afterward. That second agenda is where Carrie Davenport lives. On today's podcast, we talk about what chan...

Bad problem: How do we avoid change? Better problem: How do we get good at what comes next? That distinction sits at the center of my conversation with Jason Feifer , editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine. Jason’s argument is refreshingly freeing: progress doesn't mean finally arriving at a place where everything works perfectly. Every solution creates another problem. The goal is to keep e...

We've gotten very good at being independent. Building careers. Managing calendars. Solving our own problems. Maybe too good. Because somewhere along the way, a lot of successful people ended up surrounded by people... and still lonely. This week on The Keynote Curators Podcast, Liz Bohannon challenges the idea that resilience, success, and even friendship are solo pursuits. Real relationships...

A thousand people can share a room and still feel invisible. That's the real challenge of an event. Not getting people through the door. Helping them truly see one another once they’re inside. This week on The Keynote Curators Podcast, renowned photographer Robert X. Fogarty explores why the stories that connect most deeply rarely come from perfect performances. They come from honest emotion,...

Three realities about peak performance everyone eventually faces: • Plans will change. • Your attention will wander. • You will miss shots. The question is not whether those things happen. It’s what your mind does next. This week on The Keynote Curators Podcast, Dr. Jannell MacAulay explores how elite performers train for stress, recover from mistakes, and stay focused when the moment does not go...

Somewhere along the way, long-term thinking got demoted to a luxury. A lot of companies now call three years a strategy. Five years feels ambitious. Ten years sounds unrealistic. And that shrinking horizon changes everything. This week on The Keynote Curators Podcast, Nikolas Badminton makes the case for looking further ahead. Not as a thought exercise. As a leadership discipline. Because when tea...

You can usually spot the people who need this conversation most. They're the ones saying: “I’ll rest after this week.” “I just need to get through this month.” “Things will calm down soon.” But soon has a way of never arriving. This week on The Keynote Curators Podcast, Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe unpacks what resilience actually looks like in real life. Not as a badge of honor. Not as endless gri...

Success can be a dangerous thing for a business. It can make leaders comfortable. Slow. Certain the old formula will keep working. This week on The Keynote Curators Podcast, Robert Spector , the world’s leading independent authority on the iconic company Nordstrom, shares what keeps companies relevant long after their first big win. From Amazon’s “Day One” mindset to the danger of copying competit...

A packed calendar can look like progress. Until you realize it is full of things that used to matter more than they do now. This week on The Keynote Curators Podcast , best-selling author and innovation consultant Diana Kander explores how zombie work, outdated habits, and overloaded schedules quietly choke innovation. And why curiosity needs space before it can do anything useful. For event pros,...

Most leaders don't have a communication problem. They have a human problem. They keep acting like people make decisions logically. Like vague language is harmless. Like friction is normal. Like trust can survive confusion. It can’t. This week on The Keynote Curators Podcast, Melina Palmer unpacks why communication is never just about clarity. It is about psychology. About emotion. About the sm...

Customer service is rarely won in the big moment. It’s won in the pause before you respond. In the tone you choose. In whether the other person feels heard, respected, and understood. Today, I’m talking with Barbara Khozam about customer service, communication, respect, and why listening is still one of the most overlooked skills in business. Because people don't just remember what you said. T...

Success can be one of the easiest places to hide. Behind the wins. The promotions. The applause. The next big goal. Until one day you realize you've built a remarkable career... but never stopped to build yourself. This week on The Keynote Curators Podcast, James Beard-winning restaurateur Kevin Boehm shares a story that's less about restaurants and more about authenticity. What happens wh...

The more uncertain things get, the tighter most leaders squeeze. That's usually when things start breaking. Today's podcast guest, Meredith Elliott Powell , challenges one of leadership's most expensive habits: trying to control what can't be controlled. Because people don't need more management during uncertainty. They need more ownership. Inside our conversation: → Why fear c...