Chris Widener
A Keynote Speaker Who Makes Your Event Extraordinary
When you choose a keynote speaker, you are not just filling a slot on the agenda.
You are choosing the person who can set the tone for your event, energize the room, reinforce your message, and give your audience something worth remembering.
Chris Widener has spent more than 35 years doing exactly that.
With more than 2,500 speeches delivered around the world, Chris brings the experience, energy, humor, storytelling and practical insight needed to connect with audiences and move them to action.
Leadership. Influence. Sales. Success.
These are not just topics Chris speaks about. They are the principles he has spent a lifetime studying, applying, and teaching.
Give your audience more than a speech.
Give them an experience they will remember—and ideas they can actually use.
You can contact Chris directly at 877-212-4747 or by email at [email protected]
WHY CHRIS WIDENER?
A great speaker has to do more than know the material.
He has to connect.
He has to read the room.
He has to make people laugh, think, reflect, and engage.
He has to understand the purpose of the event.
And when he is finished, your audience should be glad they were there.
Chris Widener has been delivering that kind of experience for more than three decades.
He has spoken to executive teams, sales organizations, entrepreneurs, associations and audiences of up to 25,000 people. He has worked with organizations including Microsoft, AT&T, General Electric, Cisco, Harvard Business School, the U.S. Air Force, Arbonne International and hundreds more.
His style is dynamic, engaging, conversational, insightful, and practical.
No canned motivational hype.
No endless PowerPoint slides.
No speech that sounds exactly like the one he gave somewhere else last week.
Chris works to understand your organization, your audience and what you want the event to accomplish. Then he delivers a message designed to connect with the people in the room.
YOUR AUDIENCE WILL LAUGH. THINK. LEARN. AND LEAVE WITH SOMETHING THEY CAN USE.
Chris believes the best keynote presentations accomplish four things.
They engage people emotionally.
They challenge people intellectually.
They give people practical ideas.
And they inspire people to do something differently after the event is over.
That combination has made Chris a trusted choice for world-class organizations around the world.
His presentations are built around memorable stories, humor, timeless principles and real-world application.
The goal is not simply to have your audience say:
“That was a great speaker.”
The goal is to have them say:
“I’m going to do something differently because I heard that.”
SIGNATURE KEYNOTE
THE ART OF INFLUENCE
How Extraordinary Leaders Earn Trust, Respect, Admiration and Loyalty
Everything in business rises and falls on influence.
Leaders need people to follow.
Sales professionals need people to buy.
Managers need people to perform.
Organizations need people to believe in the mission.
But real influence cannot be demanded.
It has to be earned.
Based on Chris Widener’s bestselling book The Art of Influence, this keynote gives audiences a simple and powerful framework for becoming the kind of person others naturally want to trust, respect, follow and do business with.
Chris teaches four timeless principles:
Integrity creates Trust.
Excellence creates Respect.
Optimism creates Admiration.
Service creates Loyalty.
These principles are easy to understand, easy to remember and immediately applicable to leadership, sales, management and everyday business relationships.
Your audience will leave with a new understanding of what influence really is—and how to increase their own influence by becoming better leaders, better professionals and better people.
Ideal for:
Leadership Conferences
Executive Meetings
Sales Conferences
Association Events
Annual Meetings
Corporate Meetings
Entrepreneurial Organizations
Management Retreats
BRING THE ART OF INFLUENCE TO YOUR EVENT
LEADERSHIP KEYNOTES
Great Leadership Begins With Influence
Titles can give people authority.
They cannot make people want to follow.
Chris’ leadership presentations focus on the qualities that separate ordinary managers from extraordinary leaders: character, trust, communication, responsibility, service, excellence and the ability to positively influence others.
Audiences leave with practical principles they can use to strengthen relationships, improve culture, increase accountability and become more effective leaders.
SALES KEYNOTES
Sell Through Trust, Value and Influence
The best salespeople do not pressure people into buying.
They become the kind of professionals people want to buy from.
Chris helps sales professionals understand the psychology of influence, the importance of trust and the behaviors that create long-term customer relationships.
His sales presentations challenge teams to raise their standards, improve their approach and become more intentional about how they create value for customers.
The result is a message that motivates salespeople without giving them another collection of gimmicks and closing tricks.
SUCCESS & PERFORMANCE KEYNOTES
Extraordinary Results Begin With Extraordinary Thinking
Organizations can provide opportunity, resources and training.
But ultimately, performance is personal.
Chris challenges audiences to examine the beliefs, habits, attitudes and decisions that determine their results.
His success presentations help people think bigger, take greater responsibility, raise their standards and become more intentional about what they want to achieve.
The message is positive, practical and challenging:
Your circumstances matter. Your choices matter more.
EXPERIENCE YOU CAN TRUST
When you hire a keynote speaker, you are putting part of your event—and part of your reputation—in that person’s hands.
Experience matters.
Chris Widener has delivered more than 2,500 speeches during a career spanning more than three decades.
He has spoken throughout the United States and internationally.
He has addressed audiences ranging from small executive groups to crowds of more than 25,000 people.
He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, the author of 27 books published in 14 languages, a member of the Motivational Speakers Hall of Fame, an Inc. Magazine Top 100 Leadership Speaker, a SUCCESS Magazine Top 10 Sales Speaker, and has been recognized by Global Gurus as one of the Top 30 Sales Speakers in the world.
At the beginning of his career, Chris had the rare opportunity to be mentored by and learn directly from two legends of the personal-development industry.
Jim Rohn chose Chris as his last protégé, and the two later co-authored Twelve Pillars.
Zig Ziglar personally selected Chris to co-host his television program, True Performance.
Chris brings all of that experience to the stage.
But when the lights come up, the presentation is not about Chris.
It is about your audience.
WHAT CLIENTS SAY
“He had all of us on the edge of our chairs. I highly recommend engaging Chris in any size forum to be a speaker at your next event.”
Jody Garcia, Vice President, AT&T
“Chris is awesome. He connects, inspires and entertains. As an event host he was amazingly easy to work with. Our decision to work with Chris was one of the best we’ve ever made. He made us look good to our attendees and he performed at the highest level.”
Kieran Murray, Ignite-U Leadership Conference
“Chris Widener is one of the best speakers in America today.”
Brian Tracy
“In my capacity as a faculty member of the US Air Force’s Air War College in the department of Leadership and Warfighting, I develop the curriculum for an instructional period entitled ‘Influence.’ He provided a dynamic, interactive, and insightful presentation to our students and faculty members, which yielded an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from all of the individual seminar directors. His presentation, based on survey feedback results, was well-received by the audience, and both the content and delivery of his message were relevant, recurrent, and on target. His experience and expertise make him uniquely suited to speak authoritatively on the topic, and that resulted in a resounding successful event.”
Scott Askins Captain, United States Navy, Air War College
“We recently had the opportunity to work with Chris Widener as a guest speaker for our company’s annual Leadership Retreat, and it was well worth the investment for our leaders to hear and learn from Chris. He brings a practical, engaging approach to his content that resonated strongly within our group. The ideas and message that he delivered were exactly what we wanted to give to our leaders, to not only help them grow as managers and executives, but also as people. No doubt this investment in training for our group will help strengthen and grow our business as well. I highly recommend Chris for your next event!”
Aaron Williams, PT, DPT, CEO and Owner, OSR Physical Therapy
“It’s not every day that we find leaders like Chris – a leader who possesses a true servant mentality, who has committed his entire adult life to helping individuals find success, a leader who understands the human spirit and, more importantly, knows how to lead others to perform beyond what they thought was possible. Chris Widener is that leader. He understands that in life, it’s more than just the destination that counts; it’s the journey that matters most. Chris is committed to making your journey the absolute best it can be.”
Greg Provenzano, ACN President and Co-Founder
SEE CHRIS IN ACTION
You should never hire a keynote speaker based on a biography alone.
Watch how Chris connects with an audience.
Watch how he uses humor.
Watch how he tells stories.
Watch how he turns ideas into memorable moments.
And most importantly, imagine what that experience could do for the people attending your event.
Every organization is different.
Every audience is different.
Every event has a different objective.
Chris does not believe your audience should receive a generic presentation simply because the title of the speech fits your agenda.
Before the event, Chris works to understand your organization, your audience, the challenges they face and the outcomes you want to create.
That allows him to tailor his stories, examples and applications so the presentation feels relevant to the people sitting in the room.
Your audience should feel like the message was delivered for them, not merely to them.
PROFESSIONAL ON STAGE. EASY TO WORK WITH OFF STAGE.
Event professionals have enough to worry about.
Your keynote speaker should not be one of those things.
Chris understands the importance of preparation, communication, professionalism and making life easier for the people producing the event.
He arrives prepared.
He understands the assignment.
He respects the schedule.
He serves the audience.
And he knows that his success is measured in part by whether you look good for hiring him.
Chris has made this promise for over 30 years: He will be the easiest speaker you have ever worked with!
YOUR EVENT DESERVES A SPEAKER WHO CAN DELIVER
You have invested too much time, money and energy into your event to settle for a keynote people forget before they reach the airport.
Give your audience a speaker who can connect with them, challenge them, entertain them and leave them with ideas they will still be thinking about long after the event is over.
Bring Chris Widener to your next event.
CHECK CHRIS’ AVAILABILITY
877-212-4747