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Tommy Spaulding        

Former President & CEO of Up with People, World-Renowned Leadership Speaker & Author of "It's Not Just Who You Know"

Tommy Spaulding is president of the Spaulding Companies Corporation, a national leadership development, speaking, training, consulting and executive coaching organization. A world-renowned speaker on leadership, Spaulding has spoken to hundreds of organizations, associations, educational institutions and corporations around the globe. His first book, "It’s Not Just Who You Know (Transform Your Life and Your Organization by Turning Colleagues and Contacts into Lasting, Genuine Relationships)," published by Random House in 2010, is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today national bestseller.

Spaulding rose to become the youngest president and CEO of the world-renowned leadership organization, Up with People (2005-2008). In 2000, Tommy Spaulding founded Leader’s Challenge, which grew to become the largest high school civic and leadership program in the state of Colorado. He is also the founder & president of the National Leadership Academy, a leading national non-profit leadership development organization.

Previously, Spaulding was the Business Partner Sales Manager at IBM/Lotus Development and a member of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program.

Spaulding received a BA in political science from East Carolina University (1992); an MBA from Bond University in Australia (1998), where he was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar; and an MA in Non-Profit Management from Regis University (2005). In 2007, Spaulding received an Honorary PhD in Humanities from the Art Institute of Colorado. In 2002, he received the Denver Business Journal’s “Forty under 40 Award.”

In 2006, Spaulding was awarded East Carolina University’s “Outstanding Alumni Award,” the highest distinction awarded to an alumnus of the university. In 2009, he was appointed the university’s first “Leader in Residence.”

In September 2012, Spaulding was named by Meetings & Conventions Magazine as one of the Best Keynote Speakers in the nation.

Speech Topics

Return on Relationships

Economists talk about Return on Investments or ROI - Spaulding argues that profit and relationships are interdependent. Spaulding proves that building a culture of authentic and genuine relationships, or what he calls Return on Relationships, will not only increase the bottom line but also transform the culture of any organization.

Heart-Led Leadership

Tommy shares stories and leadership lessons of heart-led leaders that inspire audiences to live and lead differently - business case studies that prove that living and leading from the heart will change your organization, your career and your life.

Custom Tailor: Request a custom keynote address drawing on different aspects of the keynote topics above that interest you

Tommy Spaulding is known for walking his talkin other words, he likes to build relationships with his clients. No canned speeches allowed! Feel free to let us know if you have a specific interest area or would like to mix it up and merge topics. Tommy prides himself in creating a keynote that fits the audience.

Achieving organizational excellence: Empower and elevate yourself and others around you by transforming your approach with people

This is not a keynote address that espouses the merits of good networking. In fact, it discourages it. Spaulding provides real examples and strategies for elevating your current personal and business relationships and how to launch new ones in the spirit of giving rather than taking. In this keynote, Spaulding explores the nine essential traits that empower audiences to reach their full potential through a bold approach called netgiving. Netgiving is about intentionally making business personal and as a result, facilitating personal performance and realization of goals.

Team building: Improve employee morale, reduce turnover and mobilize your teams

Unengaged employees cost companies and organizations billions of dollars. Research tells us that employees who dont have relationships on the job will negatively impact the bottom line. If we are to build sustainable organizations in a modern economy, we must differentiate ourselves by building meaningful ties with and among employees. Spaulding demonstrates a helpful first through fifth floor analogy for evaluating your business relationships and has audiences looking at their workplace with a different lensa lens that sheds new light on how to mobilize their colleagues and inspire shared success.

Customer sales and service: What does it mean to focus on ROR instead of ROI?

Its impossible to build a successful client base in a silo. In other words, relationships are not optional. Though economists talk only of Return on Investment or ROI, Spaulding argues that profit and relationships are interdependent. Return on Relationships or ROR is the currency we should focus on rather than solely on ROI, because if we are truly focusing on relationships, the bottom line goals come more easily. In this keynote, Spaulding shares his secrets behind the notion of Return on Relationships or ROR, leaving audiences ready to revolutionize their old methods and reach new heights in customer stability and loyalty.

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Leadership: A relationship between those who inspire and those who act

How do we accomplish extraordinary things as leaders? The quality of our relationships determines whether we simply reach a goal or inspire greatness. The success of any organization is grounded in the formation of sustainable relationships. In this keynote, Spaulding illustrates how to build relationship capital throughout your organization so internal teams maximize their potential and external constituencies and stakeholders share your vision. Spaulding also explores groundbreaking leadership techniques such as building Fifth Floor Teams, and leveraging the Laws of Influence and Elevation.

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