Sterling Hawkins: Business Innovation

Innovation keynote speaker Sterling Hawkins equips leaders with actionable frameworks for resilience, growth, and discomfort-driven transformation that accelerates organizational innovation no matter what challenges arise.

Quick Facts:

Highlights:
  • International keynote speaker on innovation, resilience, and high performance culture
  • Creator of the No Matter What framework for breakthrough leadership
  • Author of the acclaimed book Hunting Discomfort
  • Entrepreneur with hands on experience navigating growth, disruption, and reinvention

Formats:

Keynote speaker and innovative leadership expert


Audiences:

Executive teams, change leaders, innovation departments, high growth organisations, and events focused on resilience, performance, and cultural transformation


Outcomes:
  1. Practical, actionable frameworks for leading through discomfort and uncertainty.
  2. Strategies for cultivating resilient, innovative organisational cultures.
  3. Renewed confidence to pursue ambitious goals regardless of challenge or disruption.
Reading time: 1 min
Reviews: (1 reviews)
Rated 5 out of 5
  • Travels from: Denver

Keynote Topics

Get unstuck and create a sure pathway to progress, regardless of the challenges 

In a world permanently transformed by tech upheaval, competitive pressures, talent shortages, and global instability, change and uncertainty have never been more intense. But here’s the truth: change is constant, and it isn’t the enemy. It’s our approach to it that leaves us afraid of taking risks, struggling to adapt and limiting our progress.

Sterling Hawkins shares how he went from multi-billion dollar startup success story to bankruptcy to growth leader and advisor to hundreds of leading companies. The experiences, research and real-world testing shared in this ground-breaking keynote will help you break through your own challenges by reframing your relationship with change. Sterling’s proven framework cultivates a resilient growth mindset that thrives in uncertainty by empowering audiences to commit to real progress rather than burning out or becoming crushed by it. 

With his No Matter What mantra, Sterling lights a fire within individuals and teams, uniting them to capitalize on their strengths. By fostering connection, breaking down silos, and empowering team members at every level to confront uncertainty, his system transforms any change into opportunity and any challenge into greater potential.

Outcomes: 

  • Activate High Performance: Empower your team with proven practices that drive high performance, regardless of challenges.
  • Transform Discomfort into Growth: Challenge the “survival” narrative and use discomfort as a powerful catalyst for impact, resilience, and transformation.
  • Accelerate Learning and Results: Embrace a science-backed approach to harness the unknown, accelerating learning and achieving outstanding results.

This inspirational keynote is designed for leaders who are:

  • Struggling to keep up with technology disruption, competitive pressures, and market shifts.
  • Disempowered dealing with unknowns and burned out from relentless change. 
  • Under pressure to deliver stronger results by rising to challenging circumstances or ambitious goals.

Realize the potential in yourself, your team and your organization with trust-driven leadership

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, there are few constants, leaving paralyzing uncertainty in its wake. It is the role of transformational leaders to build a clear foundation of what can be trusted, enabling growth and consistent success. 

From over a decade of exploring myriad growth modalities, Sterling Hawkins introduces a revolutionary methodology for transformational leadership centered on trust. Instead of focusing solely on goals and tasks, this method orients us to the real work of growth, aligns us to our ultimate goals, and connects us with what matters most. Modeled by leaders, these principles become the ground upon which transformation takes place. In practice, the principles inspire teams, win moments of opportunity, deliver differentiated solutions, and unlock greater potential.

This paradigm shift not only reduces turnover and stimulates breakthrough approaches, but also resonates positively with partners, clients, and stakeholders. Embracing trust-driven leadership doesn’t just improve the bottom line; this proven approach enhances the workplace and shapes the very essence of the organization. 

Outcomes:

  • Unlock Hidden Potential: Harness cutting-edge, research-backed methods to build trust, enhance learning, and reveal the inherent potential within your team.
  • Catalyze Transformative Action: Implement powerful, actionable leadership practices that drive immediate and lasting change.
  • Sustain Momentum: Create enduring performance improvements that continuously accelerate team momentum and organizational growth.

This transformational keynote is designed for leaders who are:

  • Called to lead in a meaningful new way to significantly improve morale and results.
  • Frustrated with surface-level approaches, lack of clarity and slow progress. 
  • Ready to truly align to produce breakthrough performance for themselves and their teams.

Build your capacity to grow by establishing a fresh relationship with change, control and uncertainty.

True growth comes from stepping toward a place that many fear: the unknown. High performing people and organizations must develop their relationship with the uncertainty that comes from unknowns to reach even higher levels of success. 

Created and field-tested alongside some of the world’s largest companies, Sterling Hawkins offers a proven methodology that doesn’t rely on working more or trying harder. Instead, he provides clear steps to radically rethink our relationship with the unknown and the uncomfortable. This shift builds trust that outweighs fear, courage that overrides worry and the capacity to shed our comfort zone and handle uncertainty.

No matter your current situation or level of performance, Sterling’s compelling data, moving stories, and high-energy delivery enable audiences to think differently, elevate conversations, and align to greater goals to maximize the impact of individuals, teams, and organizations.

Outcomes:

  • Master Uncertainty: Avoid common growth pitfalls and confidently navigate the unknown to propel your objectives forward.
  • Establish Psychological Safety: Apply proven practices to cultivate psychological safety within, unlocking dramatic new results in any situation.
  • Transform Your Culture: Shift from fear-driven reactions to proactive purposeful actions, fostering deep trust and maximizing long-term impact.

This growth keynote is designed for leaders who are: 

  • Ready to reach the next level of performance with a radical new approach. 
  • Seeking a framework to advance sales, business results or breakthrough performance. 
  • Inspired to make a bigger difference without sacrificing health and wellbeing.

Practical tools to build a culture of creativity, ingenuity and determination

With AI and other disruptive changes as the new constant, fostering an innovation culture is mission-critical to stay ahead. The catch is, our natural human inclination is to resist any change, seeking comfort in the security of familiar routines. 

Sterling Hawkins offers a fresh perspective on innovation built on launching, investing, and growing over 100 startups. He shares a science-backed approach to breakthrough innovation by coming from a place of curiosity, not certainty. To achieve the impact we desire in our businesses, communities and families, we need a complete perspective overhaul. 

Learn Sterling’s holistic approach for cultivating a culture of creativity, ingenuity, and determination across all areas of an organization. This keynote goes deeper than a motivational talk: it’s a transformative experience that shows you how to innovate and create from true inspiration.

Outcomes: 

  • Break Free from History: Identify and release outdated narratives that hinder team progress.
  • Cultivate a Culture of Innovation: Apply practical tools to foster an innovative culture that distinguishes your organization in a competitive market.
  • Embrace Failure to Succeed: Adopt a neuroscience-backed approach to break down silos, embrace failures, and uncover breakthrough opportunities.

This innovation keynote is designed for leaders who are:

  • Seeking a new approach to innovation that drives organic growth, competitive advantage and higher performance.
  • Looking to break free of legacy thinking, limiting beliefs and fear of failure to realize next- level breakthroughs.
  • Inspired to take smart risks, desire to embrace new technologies or approaches and need to collaborate in deeper ways.

Talent Short Bio

Sterling Hawkins is an internationally recognised speaker, innovator, and transformational leadership expert whose work reshapes how organisations build cultures of resilience and breakthrough performance. Renowned for his philosophy of Hunting Discomfort and his signature keynote No Matter What, Sterling blends research, entrepreneurial experience, and real world insights to help leaders and teams unlock their highest potential. His message is clear: growth, innovation, and meaningful change only happen when individuals and organisations are willing to embrace discomfort and move boldly through uncertainty.

Sterling’s journey began as a successful entrepreneur navigating the turbulence of rapid business growth, market disruption, and personal reinvention. These experiences provided him with a deep understanding of the emotional and strategic challenges leaders face today. Through his global talks, he delivers powerful storytelling and practical tools that organisations can implement immediately to foster innovation, strengthen adaptability, and elevate performance.

As the author of Hunting Discomfort, Sterling explores how reframing discomfort can unlock extraordinary outcomes.

Sterling Hawkins is a transformative figure in the realm of organizational culture and business innovation. Known for his groundbreaking work on creating cultures of innovation and resilience, Hawkins has emerged as a preeminent speaker and thought leader.

His signature speech, “No Matter What,” encapsulates his philosophy of overcoming challenges and fostering an environment where innovation thrives. As the author of the acclaimed book “Hunting Discomfort,” Hawkins provides invaluable insights into embracing and leveraging discomfort to achieve extraordinary results.

With a dynamic blend of practical experience and profound insights, Sterling Hawkins has captivated audiences worldwide. His approach goes beyond conventional motivational speaking, offering actionable strategies that drive real change within organizations.

Hawkins’s unique ability to connect with diverse audiences and inspire them to push beyond their limits makes him an indispensable asset for any event focused on growth, innovation, and resilience. Hawkins’s journey from a successful entrepreneur to a globally recognized speaker underscores his deep understanding of the complexities of modern business.

His experiences have equipped him with the knowledge and tools to help organizations navigate the turbulent waters of change and disruption, making him a sought-after speaker for companies aiming to stay ahead in an ever-evolving marketplace.

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  • Virtual speaking appearances are a cost-effective alternative to high speaking fees, often 10-50% cheaper than in-person rates.
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