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Gary Kunath  

Founder & Former CEO of Summit Group, Author, Equity Partner in Bite Tech

Gary M. Kunath is the Founder and former CEO of the Summit Group, a company he founded and grew into a global enterprise. It is now recognized as one of the top sales training companies globally. He is widely respected for his expertise in sales, value creation, customer experience, and leadership. Kunath has received accolades such as the “Innovative Practice of the Year Award” from 3M for his value creation approach and was named Businessman of the Year in the United States, an honor celebrated at a dinner hosted by the President.

In addition to his business achievements, Kunath authored the book "Life…Don’t Miss It," which advises on achieving joy and contentment in life. He is also a knowledgeable speaker on topics of employee retention, leadership, personal growth, and sales, speaking at major events for companies like IBM, HP, Lockheed, and UPS. Kunath has lectured at prestigious institutions such as Duke University, Emory University, and Cornell University, contributing to executive education programs at universities and major corporations including Marriott and 3M.

Kunath is an equity partner in Bite Tech, producers of Under Armour's high-performance sports mouth wear, and co-owns several minor league baseball teams with partners including Bill Murray and Jimmy Buffet. These teams have been recognized among the top ten best service companies globally and are noted for their high attendance rates. Based in Georgia, he travels extensively, impacting attendees with his insights and helping to energize individuals for peak performance. His approach has significantly influenced corporate initiatives focused on improving employee and family well-being.

Speech Topics


Leading With Heart Leadership That Inspires Excellence

This talk is designed for elevating the people mastery of leaders today. They will learn how to inspire people to higher levels of innovation, natural productivity, and loyalty by moving the hearts of their people. We will apply people centric strategies to maximize the happiness, joy and contentment of the workforce and to dramatically impact employee and family well-being. This program was originally built at the request of senior leadership at Google and Cisco Systems as they wanted a vehicle to bring humanity back to business and to create the happiest, most productive workplace on Earth. It has been installed at many companies and also top business schools across the country.

The content features breakthrough thinking on maximizing happiness for yourself and for others. There is a subtle but monumental difference between good leaders and great leaders. Good leaders focus on and impact the professional well- being of those they lead. Great leaders go beyond and are able to dramatically impact the personal well- being of their people. Good leaders move people on the job, great leaders move people well beyond the job and even for life.

We focus in three areas. The first is to look at the current workforce landscape and why companies now are focusing on the feelings and emotions of their people and recognize that they are the true source of innovation, stress reduction, loyalty and productivity. We will look at companies that have happiness initiatives and the effect on bottom line results. Secondly we will learn and apply the top approaches to elevating happiness in the workplace and attendees will build action plans to apply these concepts directly to their own teams. Lastly, we will look at how to maximize the happiness, joy and contentment in the leaders themselves placing them in the best position to lead their people through maximizing their own personal well-being.

This cutting edge session and Gary’s captivating style make this a sure highlight of any conference or curriculum.

HAPPINESS is Calling….Energizing People for Peak Performance

This talk is designed for elevating the happiness of all those who attend. After all, who doesn’t want to maximize the happiness, joy and contentment in their lives? Happiness is the greatest gift you can give to someone. Happy people have richer social interactions, less stress, longer lives, better relationships, longer marriages, bolstered immune systems and stronger friendships. Not a bad return on investment for sure. Businesses are waking up to the importance of elevating the happiness of their employees. Research shows that happier employees are more innovative, more charitable, more helpful, have better coping abilities, are better team members, have superior customer relationships, are more productive, do higher quality work, are more loyal and more engaged overall.

Many people think that professional well- being drives personal well- being, but in truth it is the exact opposite. Achieving greatness professionally is accelerated through elevation of personal well-being. It is important to positively affect your own life before you can truly affect the lives of others. This talk has been incredibly powerful and impactful to audiences around the world. Focusing on positively impacting the lives of your people and sharing with them how to have the best life possibly can NEVER go wrong!! Past attendees have stated that this session dramatically changed their lives for the better and that it was the best “gift” their company has ever given to them. You will be provided with specific actions that can be immediately applied to your life that can elevate and maximize the happiness, joy and contentment in your life both at home and at work. A GREAT take away for sure!!!

Gary Kunath; celebrated speaker, former executive and author, takes you on a journey that is fun, moving and cutting edge. You will have never experienced a program like this and you will never forget it. He outlines a clear path on how to achieve greatness at home and at work and have the very best life possible…no matter what!!.

Book Talk Topics

  • Leading From Within: How To inspire greatness in yourself and in those you lead

  • Mastering Life Balance….Achieving Greatness at home and at work This talk is based on the book written by Gary Kunath entitled, Life....Don't Miss It. It shares with people how apply the life concepts Gary has learned and written about in his book directly to their own lives and to the lives of those they may lead and bring humanity back to the workplace.

  • How to dramatically maximize the joy and contentment in your life

  • The “Ten Points of Life” on how to achieve a high life worth and reconnect to what truly matters and how to apply them to your own life.

  • Threes greatest gifts to give your family

  • What factors drive high life worth, happiness and how to reduce the stress of life itself

  • Leaders learn how to increase the innovation, emotional loyalty and natural productivity of their people by positively impacting their lives “outside” the walls of the company.

  • How great leaders inspire action and greatness in their people at home and on the job.

  • The secrets to balancing work and home life

What the audience learns

These talks leverage the Best Practice approach Gary created around Value Creation that was awarded “Innovative Practice of the Year” by 3M and was acknowledged as a key factor in companies such as Ritz Carlton, Cisco Systems, MARRIOTT, HP, Xerox and 3M winning best sales practice of the year awards from the Strategic Accounts Management Association.

  • What the top sales people do better than others

  • Sales skills your competition is investing in to beat you

  • How to drive higher orders of value to your customers to increase margin and share

  • How to anticipate customer needs and bring them your best ideas and concepts before they know they need them

  • How to leverage organizational value into the offer

  • How to gain competitive immunity

  • How to elevate your level of business acumen

  • How to gain executive access and build relationships higher, wider & deeper

Sales Talk Topics

  • Mastering Life Balance

  • How To Matter More Through Creating Business Value

  • Sales Innovation

  • Executive Engagement

  • How Great Leaders Lead

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