Ninety minutes that a room is still quoting in March

Keynotes and closing sessions on the conversations that decide whether strategy lands. I do about forty a year, I always do a pre-call, and I will tell you honestly if a talk is the wrong instrument for what you need.

Three talks

What I can come and do.

60–75 min keynote

Say the difficult thing well

The signature talk. The three moves, built live on a volunteered conversation from the room, ending with everyone writing the first line of theirs.

Whole-company kickoffs, conferences, leadership summits.

45 min plus Q&A

The meeting after the meeting

Why real objections surface an hour late and to the wrong person, what that costs in decision half-life, and how a chair can change it in the first five minutes.

Executive offsites, board and leadership days.

90 min closing session

Clarity is the kind option

For groups who have decided they are “too nice”. Feedback that is specific without being cruel, and why vagueness is the more expensive kindness.

People and HR conferences, values-led organisations.

The practical part

What organisers need to know.

Fee: From $12,000; Lower for non-profits and for anything within a train ride of New York. Ask.
Travel: Anywhere; Economy is fine under six hours. Costs billed at actual, never marked up.
Preparation: One 45-min call; With somebody who actually knows what is going on, not only the organiser.
What I need: A lectern-free stage; A handheld or lapel mic, and the house lights up enough to see faces.

What changed

The sentence people repeat back to me.

I had been circling the same conversation with my co-founder for eleven months. We had it on a Thursday. It took forty minutes and it was not even that hard — I had just never separated what I saw from what I had decided it meant.
Adaeze Nwosu
Co-founder, a Series B fintech
Cohort Seven
Our leadership team now has a shared phrase for the thing we used to avoid naming. That sounds small. It has changed how long our decisions survive contact with the rest of the company.
Marcus Feld
Chief Operating Officer, healthcare
Team programme
She did the closing session at our offsite and I watched two hundred people stop performing agreement. I have never seen a room turn like that in ninety minutes.
Priya Raman
VP People, global logistics
Keynote
The part I did not expect: it made me kinder. Being clear turns out to be the considerate option. Being vague was the thing that was costing people their time.
Tom Beaufort
Managing Partner, design consultancy
Advisory, 1:1

Enquire

Tell me about the room.

The more you tell me about what is actually going on in the organisation, the better the talk is. Nobody but me reads this.

Simone Hart — Advisory, Teaching & Speaking Hub Hub