Past Speakers at SEGC

Scott Welle ~ July, 2023

Scott’s 9 best selling books, articles, videos, podcasts and online programs inspire hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. He has a Master’s degree in Sport Psychology, is an adjunct professor at St. Olaf University and regularly consults with top performing executives, sales professionals and entrepreneurs, as well as elite athletes, all with one common goal: to OUTPERFORM. Fox 9 in Minneapolis-St Paul has called him a “Motivational Expert.” and he was recently named the 2021 Midwest Motivational Speaker of the Year. For “fun” (and because he’s a little crazy!), Scott has completed 33 marathons, 5 Ironman triathlons, a 100-mile ultra marathon, and serves others by showing them how to challenge their self-limiting beliefs and aspire to Outperform every day.

Dr. Terry Wu ~ June, 2023

2+ million people have learned the Neuroscience of Human Decisions from Dr. Terry Wu. Dr. Wu received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Vanderbilt University. In his studies of applying Neuroscience to strengthen leadership, Dr. Wu found that leadership development focuses primarily on teaching leaders how to lead, but not Why People Follow. He also found that leadership development relies on rare anecdotes and personal stories instead of science. These two weaknesses exacerbated the widespread leadership failures brought about by the pandemic. Dr. Wu’s research into the Neuroscience of Leadership has uncovered many unique and valuable insights that empower leaders to make their leadership more predictable and successful.

David Mann ~ May, 2023

David Mann teaches attorneys and business leaders how to make an impact by clarifying their message. David has taught case story construction and presentation to lawyers nationwide for over a decade. He has written or assisted in the creation of opening statements for both plaintiff and defense teams for civil and criminal trials including medical malpractice, trade secret theft, defamation, sexual assault, and securities fraud. He has taught at Loyola School of Law in Chicago since 2012, he has created innovative programs for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), and he has presented his CLE program in 14 states and three countries. David has also helped executive leadership clarify their live presentations and focus their marketing messages to tell engaging stories that resonate with clients and stakeholders.

Scott Plum ~ April, 2023

Scott Plum started his sales career at age 21 in 1987 selling real estate. He founded the Minnesota Sales Institute in 2002 to teach sales leaders and salespeople how to create collaborative and committed sales teams and individuals. He is Professor Plum co-host of the weekly podcast “Winning at Selling Podcast” and host of the podcast “What Salespeople Need to know About Selling.” And is the author of Taking Off into The Wind: Creating Lift Out of Life.

Pete Steege ~ March, 2023

Pete Steege is the Founder and President of B2B Clarity, helping B2B businesses build marketing engines that last. Pete has over 30 years of experience with a wide range of B2B technology and manufacturing businesses. Pete is a proven B2B marketing strategist and industry-recognized content leader that can help businesses untangle their marketing efforts and get them working to grow revenue. The best marketing strategy and tactics won’t help unless you anchor them on one thing: Meaning.

Paul Boehnke ~ February, 2023

As a classical musician, Paul Boehnke learned performers’ tricks to train his brain to think what he needed it to think, when he needed it to think it. And when he turned those same skills to taming the negative thoughts of his inner critic voice, he realized he had the power to not only transform his own life, but the lives of others as well. Paul Boehnke, PCC, is now a certified life coach helping people become more effective leaders, navigate transitions and specializes in turning negative self talk into unstoppable confidence.

Gina Davis ~ December, 2022

Gina was born and raised in Minnesota by a creative and inventive family. Her Dad is an entrepreneur and her mother an artist. She attended fashion design school in LA, and interned in NYC. Being an animal lover, she adopted her first dog as a freshman. She started her first business during college, and she started her 3rd business, “Dog Threads” with her husband at the age 25. During her talk, Gina will take us through her personal experience of the issues she faced with demand and inventory management.

Nicole Peternel ~ November, 2022

Nicole, is a Minnesota native and University of Minnesota graduate who now calls North Carolina home. She is the founder and owner of two successful public relations agencies, and she will help us understand how effective PR can be for all sizes of business. Her two companies are Rein Communications, which is a strategic firm with clients both nationally and internationally, and the newly launched Little Bit Publicity, which specializes in helping small businesses, start-ups and NPO’s heighten their presence within the local market.

Brad Lantz ~ October, 2022

Brad’s company, MindSync, shows clients how to defrag their minds to allow the software they were born with to run calmer with greater efficiency. They can then turn down their emotions in the moment rather than regret that time when they lost it. They can calm their minds to achieve better focus, health, reduced stress, and anxiety and achieve greater performance. He leads a proven nine-step program to better sleep, more energy, and less stress. It can even lower your golf score. And he is currently working on being certified in Mental Health in the Workplace.

Dyanne Ross-Hanson ~ September, 2022

Dyanne Ross-Hanson is the President and Founder of Exit Planning Strategies LLC, and she focuses on helping business owners to develop written, intentional ownership transition plans. She is a published author in Star Tribune, Upsize Magazine, Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal, CFMA Building Profits, INC. Magazine and as well as other media. Dyanne’s talk is focuses on for most business owners what is The Single most Important Financial Event in Their Life.

Howie Milstein ~ August, 2022

Howie Milstein, Annoyance and Provocateur with the Institute to Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously, is determined to cultivate better thinking and behavior as an executive coach, leadership consultant, author, and Vistage peer advisory group Chair. Very early in his life he had the epiphany that conventional thinking is often a waste of time, and brings an entrepreneurial and creative spirit to strategies and solutions, a style that might drive others – particularly rule followers – crazy.

Ronn Lehmann ~ July, 2022

Ronn Lehmann is an adviser to organizations and leaders, focusing on the human factors that create culture and determine success, especially in the areas of Safety, Quality and Productivity. Ronn has worked with organizations in a wide range of industries to help them create cultural strategies that support their efforts to create a safe and successful workplace. Ronn conducts Cultural Audits for organizations, and has interviewed thousands of leaders and employees at companies across the United States. Ronn is the author of “Consulting Confidential”, a satiric look at the world of consultants. He has also contributed to several books, including “Even Eagles Need A Push” by David McNally, “Playing To Win” by Larry and Hersch Wilson, “Making the Grass Greener on Your Side” by Ken Melrose, CEO of Toro Corporation, and “Fire Yourself! Reignite Your Career and Live Your Life” by John Rusciano and Lisa Brezonik.

Nels Larsen ~ June, 2022

Nels is a CPA with a demonstrated track record of helping small businesses and their owners with their accounting and tax needs. He partners with business owners and provides freedom for them to focus on what they are good at instead of their finances, which they are often are not good at. He will cover the main entity types for small business, how they are taxed, deductions that are often missed, and provide some actionable takeaways for participants to use. He will take us through tax planning, and any potential tax laws that we need to be aware of for the year end.

Derek Sussner ~ May, 2022

Derek Sussner, Founder and Executive Creative Director of Sussner Design Company and StoryBrand Certified Guide, will show you how to clarify your messaging, and share examples of companies he’s worked with to help their brands stand out. Whether you’re working on your company, your team, or your personal brand, the steps and tools Derek will share will help you get your messaging right so your marketing is more effective. Learn how to reset your pipeline, tap into resources for solopreneurs and small businesses and how you can craft a creative solution to these new challenges.

George Dow ~ April, 2022

After 21 years as an executive career transition consultant at Right Management, George Dow started his solo practice in 2010. Since 1989, George has helped over 2,500 business, non-profit and government leaders improve their career transition effectiveness, ensure “fit” in their future direction, and review and help shape the strategic alignment of their chosen path. He helps his clients through assessments, identification of options, and coaching to achieve their desired outcomes, both professionally and personally.

Aaron Eggert ~ March, 2022

Aaron Eggert is the Founder and of Coalition9. Coalition9 was created around one simple premise. Bring good people together, regardless of their progress in the leadership journey, with a focus on our Key Beliefs. We strive to create a community where a diversity of experiences in business and life is celebrated. Our vision is to be the future of Minnesota business by building a transparent, Member-centric community. This program is integrated into the Coalition9 Member experience and Aaron enjoys sharing this culture communication practice called “Make a Difference – Are you a lion, camel, monkey, or turtle?” with others looking to enhance their internal culture.

Liz Diedrich ~ February, 2022

Liz Diedrich has over 25+ years experience as an entrepreneur and business leader. Through her career, she has developed and led businesses in strategic planning, sales, marketing and research. She has a reputation for generating innovative strategies that create competitive leverage and increased sales and revenue. She started her first company while still in college at age 20, where she invented and manufactured a product, which was sold to Tupperware. She has lived in Germany where she taught college for the United States Armed Forces for three institutions.

Alissa Daire Nelson ~ January, 2022

Alissa is a Certified Strengths Coach who is passionate about helping people see the greatness that exists inside of themselves and helping them leverage it to find their highest success and lead others to theirs. She is also certified in Xchange Facilitation and in Creating Positive Change, which focuses on engaging your team’s collective wisdom, catapulting success, and united purpose. She is highly goal-oriented, regularly taking on challenges such as bodybuilding, just for fun. She’s a devoted wife and mother of two teenage daughters. We are so looking forward to welcoming her.

Ben Utecht ~ December, 2021

Ben is a former NFL player and a highly accomplished singer. Ben was a tight end for the Indianapolis Colts and the Cincinnati Bengals. He was signed by the Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted free agent in 2004 after he played college football for our very own Gophers. His theme will be ‘The Champions Way’ and we are excited to have him join us. Ben has always chased his dreams, finding his way from a small river town in Minnesota to a Super Bowl championship field. Whether it was becoming a world champion in football, singing with major symphonies, serenading Muhammad Ali on his 70th birthday, or stepping into a national advocacy role, Ben has found success in many realms.

Daniel Pink ~ November, 2021

Daniel Pink is a celebrated American author. He has written six books, four of them The New York Times bestsellers. He was a host and a co-executive producer of the 2014 National Geographic Channel social science TV series Crowd Control. From 1995 to 1997, he was the chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore. His books are on many of our shelves and many of the titles will be familiar to you; “Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself, A Whole New Mind”; “Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko”; “The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need”; “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, To Sell is Human”; “The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing”.

Scott Plum ~ October, 2021

Scott Plum started his sales career in 1987 at age 21 selling real estate. He founded the Minnesota Sales Institute in 2002 to teach salespeople how to increase their closing ratio, generate more revenue and stop cutting their price to win the business. He is Professor Plum and host of the podcast “What Salespeople Need to know About Selling” and co-host of the “Winning at Selling” weekly podcast. He also the author of “Taking Off into The Wind: Creating Lift Out of Life”. Visit Scott’s website at: Minnesota Sales Institute

Paul Omodt ~ June, 2021

Paul is a frequent speaker at events throughout the country where his ability to connect with audiences and showcase compelling content make him a sought-after speaker.

In his presentation, “Claim It, Name It, Frame It: Making Crisis Communication Work For You” Paul shares three steps to help you own your crisis through the power of communications while also sharing his three secrets to making any crisis easier and the communications along with it, more impactful.

Paul’s crowd pleasing and engaging presentations on the use of body language and non-verbals have proven to be conference favorites. “Mastering Your Second Language” has proven insightful, impactful, and entertaining.

Bill Hellkamp ~ May, 2021

Bill is an accomplished speaker and always provokes new ideas about ways to sell, and this promises to be no exception. Bill is the owner of REACH Development Systems and he has dedicated the past 30 years to helping professionals maximize their capabilities. He is also President of The Twin Cities Professional Sales Association and co-hosts a popular podcast with Scott Plum called “Get in the Door”.

Bill’s theme for his session is titled “The Seven Deadly Sins of Selling” and he will be discussing with us how it is absolutely necessary to make the right moves at the right time with clients and prospects. But it is equally important to not act in ways that will hurt your sales process. In this interactive workshop he will explore seven different ways that sales professionals weaken or destroy their ability to make the sale. Fortunately, he will also discuss strategies to overcome these “deadly sins”, as well as helping us to develop a personal plan for overcoming such transgressions.

Nick Tietz ~ April, 2021

Nick’s Learning Hour is Titled “How To Make Crazy Ideas Work”, and he is going to help us understand, master and practice a process that will take those innovative brainstorms and convert them into a process that will make them come alive. How many times have our crazy ideas just died on the vine? Nick will help us take those ideas, create plans to execute them and then show us how to embed them into a Business plan.

So many of us solopreneurs lack a process to take our great idea to the next level and we lack the structure and know how to plan to make them work. Nick’s session should bring an end to that anguish and help us all deliver and make money on those great ideas that never to seem to go anywhere.

Jon Halleen ~ March, 2021

“Adaptive Capabilities—Using Multiple Intelligences”

Warren Buffet, America’s most successful financial investor believes the effort, time, and money you make in yourself will increase your future value. Our learning context is to go beyond personal investments in hard skills—by building the soft skills that allow us to change to be more psychologically and emotionally flexible.

But the long deafening silence was broken when Billy began a historic comeback. He was doing the unthinkable – relearning his songs one note at a time with his opposite hand. Billy began the unlikely journey of teaching himself to play in his signature style, left-handed! Warned by doctors of a higher likelihood for developing focal dystonia in his remaining good hand, Billy chose to press on towards an ambitious goal he had yet to achieve – to perform and record a new project with a string orchestra.

Billy McLaughlin ~ February, 2021

“A Conversation with Billy McLaughlin”

For twenty years, Billy McLaughlin astounded audiences around the world with his complex and rhythmic music. Then, at the height of his international recording and touring career, Billy was diagnosed with Focal Dystonia, a mysterious and yet-to-be-cured neuromuscular disorder that rendered him unable to play his own music. Despite every effort to combat his condition, soon Billy’s career was over. Capabilities are interpersonal skills a person acquires to function successfully within social structures, and to reduce conflict with others. Changes in social frameworks require a person to respond to feedback and adapt their people skills throughout life. We will learn from the behavioral, cognitive, and social sciences—framed within the thought leadership of Emotional, Social, and Conversation Intelligence. We will explore Adaptive Capabilities and highlight adaptive conversations as a core element for successful human interaction.

Sam Richter ~ December, 2020

“EVERY Sales YES Begins With a KNOW – Part II”

In a prospect or client meeting, do you talk mainly about you and your organization? It doesn’t matter if you have limited technical ability or if you grew up using the Internet, you will leave with new ideas that can immediately be put to use. This high energy, motivating, and incredibly high content presentation has a huge “WOW” factor – you will be shocked at what you don’t know (but soon will). LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Discover Web search secrets that you never thought possible; Find leads and tips and tricks to connect with just about every executive; Access and leverage valuable online information that is invisible to search engines and strategies to differentiate.

Jan Lehman ~ November, 2020

“Maximize Productivity in a Virtual World”

The world is changing. We all need to maintain (or regain) productivity despite ever-shifting requirements and circumstances. Jan Lehman of CTC Productivity will explore proven and emerging best practices in maintaining personal productivity in changing work environments. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Learn time management strategies to help you get your most important work done every day; Learn how to leverage your calendar as a communication tool to improve team collaboration; Learn task management strategies and tools to help keep you organized.

Gayle Noakes ~ October, 2020

“Lead Meetings People WANT To Attend”

Do you believe that you can lead meetings people actually want to attend? They arrive on time, are prepared, and have accomplished a result together by the end of the meeting. I can tell you from experience that it is definitely possible and not very hard. It happens when you CONSISTENTLY do a set of simple things, that most people are not willing to do. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: At the end of the session, you, the participant, will be able to: Set the stage to effectively involve meeting members; Use group decision-making tools for better decisions and implementation.

Melissa Harrison ~ September, 2020

“Best Practices For Digital Media In Times Of Crisis”

Customer communication has increased via social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your job as a business owner and as a brand is to be accessible. Engage. Monitor. Answer. While we are all going through the same pandemic, we are not all experiencing it the same way. The same holds true for your customers. Let’s talk about best practices in crafting solid messaging as we continue to use social media channels to grow our brands, how to be mindful of the current state of our environments and showcase examples of content and brands doing it well.

Ross Bernstein ~ August, 2020

“The Champion’s Code”

Ross’s program “The Champion’s Code: Building Relationships Through Life Lessons of Integrity and Accountability from the Sports World to the Business World,” will focus on not only how to stay positive and productive in these challenging times, but how to come out of this on the other side with MOMENTUM. Referrals, philanthropy, creativity, and empathy are going to be more important than ever in the new economy — and Ross will help you to think differently about your strategy to help your clients get through this. He is the best-selling author of nearly 50 sports books.

Bruce Strong ~ July, 2020

“Optimize the New Normal”

Bruce will address what help we can get with the “New Normal” and what resources are available for Recovery, Response, Resilience, and Recalibration and what we can do to help us build a successful small business or solopreneurship? Learn how to reset your pipeline, tap into resources for solopreneurs and small businesses and how you can craft a creative solution to these new challenges.

Erik Gabrielson ~ June, 2020

“Our Fear Never Sleeps”

Erik Gabrielson, co-author with his wife of the book “Our Fear Never Sleeps”. Erik has been a long time supporter of SEGC and has agreed at short notice to work with us on putting together a workshop that will be a learning opportunity for all of us. Our discussion focused on how we navigate the uncertainty and still take action within the fear that shows up for all of us. There were a few themes that stood out in the sharing portion of the meeting that each group discussed. Maintain humor, be patient, be empathetic, keep faith, use time to learn, have courage, practice flexibility and pivoting, focus on what you can control.

Marc Miller ~ February, 2020

“THE (new) HACKER, the DARK WEB and YOU!”

Access to data, drives our lives – both our personal and our business lives. This access is amazing and is allowing us to do things that were never before possible. It’s exciting and incredible … and unfortunately, it’s dangerous. We are up against a faceless enemy who grows more devious, more cunning and more dangerous every day. There is a lot of “noise” right now about the importance of Cyber Security. Because of this “noise”, many people and business owners have tuned-out and are not taking the appropriate action to keep themselves, their businesses and their employees safe.

Ursula Mentjes ~ January, 2020

“THE 7 SALES BLOCKS THAT KEEP YOU STUCK IN SCARCITY AND HOW TO SHIFT THEM!”

Most entrepreneurs and sales professionals struggle to reach their sales goals on a monthly basis, usually getting stuck in the same place. If you are ready to get to the next level—and let go of what’s been stopping you—then get ready to make a change! Ursula shares the seven sales blocks that keep you stuck in scarcity and what you can do to release them. This interactive and engaging presentation will demonstrate: Why limiting beliefs and fears keep you right where you are; The power of intention in everything you do; The importance of creating a powerful sales conversation; Why you must have a sales formula that works.