A new year is right around the corner, and the teams that start strong finish strong. A great kickoff builds belief that your team can deliver at the highest level, then sets the tone for how you execute all year.
We work with speakers who know exactly how to do that. They bring storytelling, energy, and real achievement. The kind that comes from actually winning. From Olympic medals to record quarters. From building something real to creating cultures that deliver results.
Here are 19 speakers AAE Speakers connects with organizations to do exactly that.
What Makes Them Different
They bring credibility grounded in real achievement. They’ve competed at the highest levels. They’ve built teams that perform. They’ve hit record targets. They’ve navigated pressure, scaled from nothing, and created cultures that deliver.
That credibility matters. When someone who’s actually been there stands in front of your team and talks about what it takes to win, people listen differently. The belief isn’t inspiration. It’s recognition that this is possible because this person did it.
These 19 speakers bring different angles: sales growth expertise, peak performance strategy, leadership and culture-building, negotiation and persuasion, innovation. All of them share one foundation: achievement that’s real and verifiable.
Featured Speakers: Peak Performance & Championship Mentality
Three speakers who’ve competed and won at the absolute highest levels.
Apolo Ohno is the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian in history with 8 Olympic medals across the 2002 Salt Lake City, 2006 Turin, and 2010 Vancouver Games. He won his first U.S. championship at age 14 after just six months of training and has earned over 100 World Cup medals.
A New York Times bestselling author of Zero Regrets and Hard Pivot, Apolo brings 15 years of broadcasting experience with NBC Sports and serves on the LA28 Athletes’ Commission and the board of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum. He has spent nearly 20 years working with high-performing teams across Fortune 100 companies and high-growth startups, delivering keynotes to audiences from 30-person executive offsites to 5,000-person sales kickoffs.
His keynote topics include The Gold Medal Mindset (performing under pressure and building mental clarity), Hard Pivot (leading change and reinvention), and The Five Golden Principles. Learn more about Apolo Ohno
Dr. JP Pawliw is co-author of the New York Times bestseller Performing Under Pressure: The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most, published in 65 countries and named one of Inc. Magazine’s Best Business Books of the Year.
He has conducted groundbreaking research published in the Harvard Business Review, including a 72,000-person study on high-performing culture. He coined the term “The Last 8%,” which refers to high-impact difficult conversations that move teams from good to great. His speaking focuses on building high-performance culture, leading through change and uncertainty, and team building. His clients include Goldman Sachs, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Salesforce, PepsiCo, the U.S. Marines, and Olympic athletes. Learn more about JP Pawliw
Garrett Gravesen is co-founder of ADDO Worldwide, a leadership consulting firm recognized as a Best Place to Work in Atlanta. He is the bestselling author of 10 Seconds of Insane Courage: How to Unlock Your Courage to Unleash Your Potential and has developed proprietary frameworks including “5 Zones of Courage.”
He co-founded Chick-fil-A Leader Academy, which trains 20,000+ leaders annually. After his father’s death from cancer, Gravesen visited all 197 countries and spoke in 100+ countries, earning recognition as one of the 10 Outstanding Young People of the World. His signature topics include 10 Seconds of Insane Courage, One Bold Team, and Hello AI, Goodbye Fear. Learn more about Garrett Gravesen
Featured Speakers: Sales Growth & Strategy
Two speakers with deep expertise in what actually drives sales growth and customer success.
Jeremy Hurewitz is creator and author of Sell Like A Spy: The Art of Persuasion from the World of Espionage, which applies CIA-inspired communication and relationship-building strategies to sales and business development. He is a foreign policy advisor and risk consultant with experience consulting alongside former CIA, FBI, military, Secret Service, and State Department professionals.
Hurewitz spent his first decade overseas helping grow Project Syndicate from a small regional media association into a network of 300+ newspapers across 100 countries. His speaking topics include Sell Like a Spy (covering rapport-building and creative deal-closing), Skills of Social Influence (drawing on FBI hostage negotiator and CIA techniques), and Use Your Superpowers (an interactive session on networking and conversation building). Learn more about Jeremy Hurewitz
Tiffani Bova has been ranked in Thinkers50’s Top 50 Business Thinkers for six consecutive years and is described by Forbes as someone who “reshapes our perception of growth.” She brings nearly 30 years in technology and is the author of Wall Street Journal bestsellers GrowthIQ and The Experience Mindset.
She was a Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce and a Research Fellow at Gartner, where she advised major technology firms including Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, SAP, and AWS on growing market share and revenue. She pioneered cloud computing in the late 1990s and early 2000s and helped a Fortune 500 division reach $300 million in revenue in approximately 2.5 years. Her speaking focuses on growth strategy, the link between employee and customer experience, and AI and sales transformation. Learn more about Tiffani Bova
Featured Speakers: Leadership & Culture
Two speakers who specialize in building the kind of leadership and culture that sustains high performance.
Diana Kander is a serial entrepreneur who launched 10 companies in 10 years during her first decade of work, generating millions in sales. A refugee from Ukraine who entered the United States at age 8, she teaches resilience and resourcefulness from lived experience.
She served as a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation and spent a decade coaching innovators and executive teams at large organizations, including leading a $100 million innovation project. She is a New York Times bestselling author of All In Startup, The Curiosity Muscle, and Get Curious & Grow—books taught in over 100 universities worldwide. Her keynotes focus on unleashing curiosity to drive growth and leadership, and breaking free from the “expert trap.” Learn more about Diana Kander
Alex Dorr is CEO of Reality-Based Leadership and holds a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) credential, placing him in the top 5% of speakers worldwide. His podcast, Reality-Based Leadership, reaches over 30,000 leaders weekly.
His speaking expertise includes reducing workplace drama, building team alignment, and leading teams toward greater achievement. He approaches leadership from the perspective of succeeding in current reality rather than arguing for a different one. His recent book, How We Could: The Framework to Lead Without Drama, Build Alignment, and Call Teams to Greatness (2026), outlines his framework. He has worked with major clients including Bank of America, Salesforce, Nationwide, John Deere, Washington Commanders, Medtronic, Kaiser Permanente, and Mayo Clinic. Learn more about Alex Dorr
Featured Speakers: Belief, Negotiation & Sustained Performance
One speaker who has built a career on helping leaders and organizations build sustainable high performance.
Molly Fletcher is hailed as the “female Jerry Maguire” by CNN. During her almost two-decade career as one of the first female sports agents, she negotiated over $500 million in contracts and represented over 300 of sports’ biggest names, including Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz, PGA Tour golfer Matt Kuchar, and championship-winning coaches Tom Izzo and Doc Rivers.
Today, Fletcher is one of the most booked female speakers in the world, helping leaders and organizations build sustainable high performance. Her TED Talk, “Secrets of a Champion Mindset,” has surpassed one million views. She is the author of multiple bestselling books, including Dynamic Drive (a #1 USA Today bestseller), The Energy Clock, and A Winner’s Guide to Negotiating. She hosts the Game Changers with Molly Fletcher podcast, where she explores the human side of high performance with guests including Matthew McConaughey, Simon Sinek, and Adam Grant. Learn more about Molly Fletcher
Additional Speakers
Eleven more speakers across sales growth, peak performance, leadership, and specialized expertise.
Jeb Blount — Author of 18 books, founder of Sales Gravy, prospecting expert & sales EQ strategist Learn more
Brent Adamson — Co-author of “The Challenger Sale,” complex deal strategist & customer confidence coach Learn more
Matthew Dixon — Co-author of million-copy bestseller “The Challenger Sale,” sales researcher & customer experience strategist Learn more
Paul Epstein — Former NFL/NBA chief sales officer, Win Monday coach & customer loyalty strategist Learn more
Mike Eruzione — 1980 Olympic gold medal captain (Miracle on Ice), teamwork expert & peak performance coach under pressure Learn more
Alison Levine — Everest expedition captain, polar explorer, West Point faculty & uncertainty leadership expert Learn more
Robyn Benincasa — Adventure athlete & firefighter, teamwork strategist, resilience & culture builder Learn more
Will Guidara — Eleven Madison Park co-owner, author of “Unreasonable Hospitality” & hospitality leadership strategist Learn more
Jon Dorenbos — NFL Pro Bowler, world-class magician, resilience coach & adversity expert Learn more
Ricky Kalmon — Mindset expert, celebrity hypnotist, growth trainer, peak performance & stress reduction coach Learn more
Kim “KC” Campbell — Retired Air Force Colonel & fighter pilot, leadership & resilience coach under pressure Learn more
Why This Moment
Q1 is when you set the trajectory for your entire year. Teams that start strong finish strong. The momentum, the belief, the tone. Those get set in week one.
The right speaker amplifies that moment. They build credible belief that your team can execute at the level you need. That belief comes from seeing someone who’s actually been there, delivered at that level, and knows what it takes.
These 19 speakers have earned the right to say these things because they’ve done the work.
Ready to Book?
Whether you need Olympic-level peak performance thinking, battle-tested sales growth expertise, leadership and culture building, or specialized angles like negotiation and persuasion, these 19 speakers deliver.
AAE Speakers works with each of these speakers. We’ll match the right one to your kickoff goals and set your team up for a record-breaking year.
