Speakers

Meet our speakers

Industry leaders and inspirational speakers to inspire and educate you on what you need to know.  Thank you to our business strategies speakers.

  • Royce Allen

    Speaker

    Royce L. Allen, Speaker, Royce Consulting Services (RCS) LLC, CEO has 25+ years of experience in Information Technology (IT) and Cybersecurity (CS), with more than 15 years participating and speaking on several technical topics surrounding in areas like Digital Transformation and IT Modernization. Her specialty areas consist of Cybersecurity (e.g., Policy, Compliance, Architecture, Assessment and Authorization, Privacy), and Information Technology (e.g., Networks, Cloud, Zero Trust, DevSecOps, Blockchain.

    Ms. Allen has led many teams over her career and has chaired several boards, wrote policy, and delivered analytic results. Under her leadership, Ms. Allen led one of the most diverse teams where they deployed over 150+ analytics capabilities and tools using cloud and traditional technologies. These tools enabled cyber missions that countered threats throughout the IC, DoD, and federal agencies.

    She has been teaching, lecturing, and consulting, and is known for innovative approaches to leadership and diversity in technology.

    Royce Allen holds a master’s degree in Security and Organizational Management from Webster University in St Louis, MO and a Bachelor of Science, Networking and Information Systems from Strayer University in Alexandria, VA. In addition, she has taken several technical and leadership courses over her career.

  • Mj Callaway

    Speaker

    Award-winning author Mj Callaway has three sweet spots: resilience, results, and revenue. As a two-time cancer survivor, she shares her trademarked strategy-driven techniques with organizations so that they can crush change, boost employees' resilience, maximize team results, and increase revenue.

    As a former corporate trainer, Mj knows first-hand the challenges and disruptions executives, managers, and teams handle daily. Mj’s sales experience includes being the only female sales executive to be a top-five producer of a national building company, selling three times her annual quota. As the Special Events Manager for a renowned museum, Mj has managed AV, security, catering, and maintenance departments while organizing the upscale events. Her events background includes working for a major healthcare system planning events to market the senior living division and she once spent a year as a travel writer.

    She’s a certified sales professional, certified virtual presenter, and certified in Holistic Resilience. Her current book,13 Simple Client Follow-Up Strategies is a result of a question she was asked during one of her Grapevine ABA 2022 sessions.

    Fun facts about Mj:

    • Sold a children’s game to Disney
    • Won four Gold Awards from Parenting Media Association
    • Zip-lined over gators in Alabama
    • Biked down a volcano in Hawaii
    • Played tug-a-war with a baby black bear in Michigan
  • Gil Cargill

    Speaker

    After concluding a spectacular sales and management career at IBM, in which he led his sales team from a dead-last rating among 220 branch offices to first place in less than a year, Gil Cargill launched his own consulting practice in 1978.  Cargill Consulting Group, Inc. was built on the same strategies that produced Cargill’s outstanding sales results at IBM.

    Gil Cargill has spent the past 44 years as a consultant, speaker, and trainer helping thousands of businesses achieve dramatic and permanent improvements in sales productivity.  Cargill has taught salespeople across diverse industries the importance of developing sales processes, the advantages of implementing new technology, and the benefits of tracking sales performance.

    Cargill is a frequent speaker at national conventions and meetings of Vistage Interna­tional, formerly The Executive Committee (TEC), and has been consultant to such organizations as Toshiba, ComputerLand, Micro Age, Apple Computers, Borg Warner Weyerhaeuser, and many thousands of growing small-to-medium businesses.

    In 1996, Sales & Marketing Management magazine named Gil Cargill one of the “Top Six Speakers in the Country”, and Successful Meetings magazine listed him as one of the “Hot 25 Speakers to Watch For.”  In 2015, the Sales Lead Management Association named Gil Cargill one of the "Top 10 Most Inspiring Leaders in Sales Lead Manage­ment.  Cargill has received numerous other awards/recognitions and is frequently quoted in leading sales and management publications.

    Forty-four years of success in business development consulting, coaching and training is proof that Cargill’s style of delivering information and defining proven sales processes has helped his audiences understand that there are better, more profitable ways to perform their sales tasks.

  • Chris Cheetham-West

    Speaker

    Chris N. Cheetham-West, MBA is an international speaker, author, and founder of LR Training Solutions. Formerly, he served in a position at Google where he managed the area of marketing key products. He helps teams save time and money by utilizing the best collaboration tools online. Chris is the author of Digital Marketing for Results: How to focus on what matters. His book is named as one of the best Digital Marketing books of all time by BookAuthority. Chris is certified in Google Analytics and has worked with teams at global brands such as: Lamar Advertising, Mercedes-Benz, Canon, and other companies. His business was awarded the Comcast Rise grant.

  • Kathy Gruver

    Speaker

    Dr. Kathy Gruver is an award-winning author, professional speaker, and ACC certified coach with over 30 years of experience in mind/body medicine and human behavior. An entertainer and educator imbuing all her programs with practicality and passion.   With a West Coast mentality and an East Coast delivery her humorous, down to earth, and engaging style has captivated hundreds of audiences on four continents, three cruise ships and a handful of islands. It’s been her true honor to have delivered two TEDx talks.  Kathy has written eight books which have garnered 12 awards, hosted a TV series based on her first book, developed a stress reduction program for the US military, and cohosts the Fire and Earth Podcast. She has penned countless articles and appears regularly as a guest on radio, TV and in print media. She recently appeared on the Dr. Phil Show. She has earned her PhD in natural health and has studied mind-body medicine at the famed Benson Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at Harvard. For fun and stress relief Kathy does flying trapeze and plays dungeons and dragons.    Her clients have included Raytheon, Merck, Southland Industries, American Heart Association, and the USPS just to name a few. Her topics include stress reduction, communication, mindset and positivity and ego state optimization where she creates space for both learning and laughter.     

  • Pamela Jett

    Speaker

    As an internationally recognized communication and leadership expert, speaker, author, and executive advisor, Pamela Jett works with professionals to better understand that choosing to be “Relentlessly Positive” even in difficult situations isn’t naïve… it’s leadership. Pamela is a true innovator who takes people beyond basic theory and strategy to an unparalleled level of application. If you are looking to navigate through change, thrive during challenging times, enhance employee engagement, or simply take leadership and communication to a more effective level, Pamela’s tools and innovative strategies get results.

  • Peter Shankman

    Speaker

    Peter Shankman is the top keynote speaker in marketing, brand building, social media and customer service. The New York Times has called Peter Shankman “a rock star who knows everything about social media and then some.” He is a 5x best selling author, entrepreneur and corporate in-person and virtual keynote speaker, focusing on customer service and the new and emerging customer and neuroatypical economy.  With three startup launches and exits under his belt, Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about the customer experience, social media, PR, marketing, advertising, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and the new Neurodiverse Economy.        

    In addition to his passion for helping people and companies find success, some of Peter’s highlights also include:    Founder of HARO – Help A Reporter Out, which became the standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources prior to being acquired three years after launch  The ShankMinds Breakthrough Network, an elite, online mastermind of thought leaders, business experts, and change makers  Faster than Normal – The Internet’s #1 podcast on ADHD, focusing on the superpowers and gifts of having a “faster than normal brain,” which has helped thousands of people all around the world realize that having a neuroatypical brain is actually a gift, not a curse.

  • Jonathan Stanley

    Speaker

    Jonathan Stanley is responsible for customer and employee experience. He creates, tests, and leads the implementation of short-and long-term brand strategy, creating alignment at all levels of the organization. Jonathan is the former CEO of AudioConexus, Inc., which Listen Technologies acquired in 2019. There, he invested time in learning the science of storytelling and how stories change attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

  • Brian Wagner

    Speaker

    Embrace your own personal blindness to drive better performance. That sums up Brian Wagner.  He is the founder and CEO of "A Radical Vision." His mission is to help people embrace their own personal blindness to achieve a greater vision for their lives. The process takes people from a point of blindness, into sight, and toward a greater vision.

    Brian was born and raised in Northwest Ohio as the son of a tomato farmer and the youngest of 10 kids. In 1977, at the age of 10, he was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, a brain malformation. Over the course of the next 33 years, he experienced several instances of medical issues resulting from this diagnosis. On March 4 of 2011 he woke up on the couch and wasn't able to see. For the next six months, he was b lind. Only brain surgery and multiple eye surgeries have allowed a portion of his vision to return.  Since then, Brian has become an author of the semi autobiography book "Sometimes It
    DOES Take a Brain Surgeon".

    Brian is the President for the National Speakers ’Association, Ohio Chapter.

  • Adam White

    Speaker

    Adam White is an in-demand national speaker, leadershipexpert, bestselling author, and one of the most inspiring,influential leaders in history. Society of GovernmentMeeting Professionals and Western Region InternationalProfessional Management Association has both namedhim one of the best and most articulate speakers they haveever heard.

    As one of the most requested motivational speakers,Adam has shared the stage with Mayor Garcetti of LosAngeles, former Mayor Goodman of Las Vegas, JohnMaxwell and many other great influencers of this era. Hislive seminar events are "must-attends and continue to be abreeding ground for leaders, entrepreneurs, authors,speakers, and influencers all over the world.

  • Barbara Wold

    Speaker

    Barbara Wold is an internationally known speaker and authority to the retail, consumer, hospitality and tourism industries. As the composition of American households continue to shift, so will the mix of retail and services, in order to succeed and connect with customers.    More than 40 years of firsthand experience in executive and sales management, marketing and repositioning. Barbara is an authority on building business through customer driven strategy and maximizing human assets. Ms Wold has taught in over twenty countries.