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Desi Williamson      

Certified Dare to Lead Facilitator, Motivational Coach & Entrepreneur

Desi Williamson has a reservoir of resilience and is a master of reinvention. He has led a diverse career as a corporate sales and marketing executive, successful real estate and restaurant entrepreneur, motivational coach for the NFL Minnesota Vikings, and addiction counselor. In 2019, he became a certified facilitator of Dare to Leadä, an empirically based courage-building program based on the research of Dr. Brené Brown.

During his corporate career, Williamson was an award-winning executive with Fortune 500 companies, such as Johnson & Johnson, Rain Bird Sprinkler Manufacturing, PepsiCo, and Dr. Pepper Seven Up, where he managed multi-million dollar businesses and developed the potential in people. In 2005, he suffered a serious neck injury that forced him to undergo a risky surgery and months of rehabilitation to learn how to walk and move again. The experience inspired him to write his second book and planted the seed for what would become an entirely new direction in his career.

In 2014, with healthcare becoming an increasingly critical initiative in society, he began pursuing his clinical license as an Alcohol and Drug Counselor at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, respected worldwide for its work in neuroscience, electrophysiology, and chemical dependency, where he specializes in group therapy and lecture. Williamson’s goal for his patients is to achieve a higher quality of life by helping them identify their triggers for substance abuse and effectively deal with inner core issues, such as shame, guilt, anger and forgiveness.

As a speaker, Williamson is focused on making an impact on audiences that will encourage behavior change and spark personal insight. He has dedicated over 30 years specializing in performance improvement, leadership, and change management. By giving people the resources to change their thinking and behavior, Williamson teaches them how to become Emotionally Available, so they can dig deep within themselves to cultivate resilience and accept accountability for their results. He is passionate about becoming a mouthpiece for an underserved segment within the healthcare industry, by helping organizations understand that, in order to change the course of healthcare for the better, it is necessary to properly treat emotional, mental, and physical health simultaneously.

Williamson’s experiences in business, entrepreneurship, sports, and clinical experience give him a wide variety of stories and examples to inspire audiences. He is the author of two books, Get Off Your Assets! How to Deal with the Challenges of Life and Win and Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way! Succeeding in the Face of Turbulent Times.

In 2004, Williamson was inducted into the “Speaker Hall of Fame,” where he joined such notable figures as President Ronald Reagan, General Colin Powell, Zig Ziglar, and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. He also earned his CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) and CPAE (Council of Peers Award for Excellence), the highest designations awarded by the National Speakers Association. His client list includes United Healthcare, Medtronic, Pfizer, SmithKline, HFMA, Canon, Nationwide, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, Choice Hotels, Verizon Wireless, Sam’s Club, the Chicago Bears, and more.

Speech Topics


Dare to lead: Transform Your Business & Your Life

How to develop more daring leaders and courageous cultures.

No doubt we’re living in some turbulent times and that is why we must continuously reorganize, retool and rebuild our lives and businesses from the inside out. We must understand that where there are problems there is also opportunity. This requires daring, wholehearted leaders creating courageous cultures that allow people to thrive.

Desi Williamson brings more than forty years of business experience working with Fortune 500 companies, associations and civic organizations. He now combines that experience with Brené Brown’s twenty years of research and her work in Dare to Lead, helping organizations grow from where they are, to where they aspire to be.

Dare to Lead teaches us that courage is a skill set that is 100% observable, teachable and measurable. This skill set impacts how you show up as a leader and how well your team performs.

In this high impact keynote, Hall of Fame Speaker, Desi Williamson uses research, stories and examples to share the following concepts:

  • The skills needed for having tough conversations that can create a culture of change and transformation.
  • The difference between armored and daring leadership traits that either choke innovation or spark creativity.
  • The skills for creating values-driven culture that allows people to flourish.
  • The essential importance of trust and why is important to creating a courageous culture.
  • The ability to rise up after disappointment and failure and use those experiences to create a stronger culture of accountability and resiliency.

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