Keynotes and workshops that change how leaders see their business
Every talk is built for self-recognition - leaders leave seeing the business they built more clearly. Dave speaks to family business centers, peer groups, and association conferences on the challenges that define privately-held companies: leadership, strategy, succession, and the dynamics that make family businesses unlike anything else.
A keynote that changes how leaders run their business
Dave's talks are built around original frameworks and client cases. The goal is self-recognition: audiences encounter a concept and immediately see themselves in it. That's what creates the conversation leaders have with their teams after the talk.
All four talks scale to half-day workshops for leadership teams and peer groups who want to go deeper with the material.
Private companies where the work is personal.
Dave's clientsare owners and leaders of private companies: family businesses, closely-held companies,and founder-led firms where decisions carry real weight and relationshipsmatter. Not publicly traded. Not on a venture capital timeline. Running on thefounder's conviction, the leadership team's trust, and years of built equity.
These are $1M to$20M companies. Thirty employees or a hundred. Services businesses,manufacturers, professional firms. What they share: a leader who takes the workseriously, cares about the culture they've built, and needs a thinking partnerwho can hold up in the room.
Keynotes | Workshops | Peer Groups
Keynote
45 to 75 minutes. Built for conference main stage, family business center events, and association programs.
Includes a diagnostic or assessment tool that creates an entry point for follow-up conversation.
Half-day workshop
Each talk architecture scales to a half-day workshop with additional framework depth and working time.
Suitable for leadership teams, board retreats, and peer group deep dives.
Peer group session
Tailored 90-minute format for Vistage, EO, YPO, and similar peer groups.
Structured for the working-session format those groups use, with discussion built in.
Four talks built for strategic action and self-recognition
Strong & Wrong: The Hidden Cost of Your Greatness
The thesis
The hardest vulnerabilities that show up in a business are generated by the leader's greatest strengths, not their weaknesses. The capabilities that built everything they have...are what hold them back from more.
Who it's for
Family business owners and leaders who have built something real and are beginning to sense - or are being told - that something about how they lead is becoming a constraint. Strong for peer groups where self-recognition across multiple members is valuable.
What audiences leave with
A strategic framework for identifying the strengths operating in their business and where they are likely creating invisible vulnerabilities. A way of seeing what success has made hard to see.
Emergent Power: Building Strategy Muscles for the Moments That Matter
Cultivate your team's strategy muscles so that you can control and capitalize when the moment is right
The thesis
Most small businesses can thrive for years without a strong strategy muscle. 1% better each month can get you a long way. Until can't anymore. And when that time arrives, you'll need a way to build strategy into the daily habits your team has built.
Who it's for
Small business owners and family business leaders who are operationally strong but haven't built a deliberate strategy practice, and leaders who sense "1% better each month" won't be enough anymore.
What audiences leave with
A strategic operating framework that meets your team where they are and can begin immediately. A playbook for building the capability your company will need to navigate growth.
Haviland China: Strategic Lessons in Family Business Innovation & Longevity
The thesis
The companies that last across generations are the ones that cultivated the capacity to evolve while staying anchored to what made them matter. Innovation and tradition aren't opposing forces; the tension between them is where longevity lives.
Who it's for
Family business owners and next-generation leaders navigating the intersection of family dynamics and strategic direction, particularly those approaching generational transition, partnership disagreements, or market evolution that challenges the founding model.
What audiences leave with
A strategic lens for reading their own family business dynamics: a framework for distinguishing personality conflict from strategic disagreement, and a playbook for building the governance and decision-making capacity that makes multi-generational success possible rather than accidental.
Leading Your Legacy: A Playbook for Succession Readiness & Business Success
The thesis
Succession is the result of a decade of intentional decisions about leadership, ownership, and strategy. The leaders who navigate it successfully didn't plan their succession; they built businesses and leadership teams that were ready for it.
Who it's for
Family business owners within 5 to 15 years of a potential transition, next-generation leaders preparing to step into ownership or leadership, and peer groups where succession is a live topic across multiple members.
What audiences leave with
A succession readiness framework: a way of building the business, leadership, and ownership conditions that make transition possible. The goal is a company that's ready before the moment requires it.
Family business centers, peer groups, and association conferences
Dave's primary speaking venues are organizations serving family business owners and closely-held company leaders: university family business centers, EO, YPO, and Vistage chapters, and regional and national conferences for privately-held businesses. He also speaks for professional associations whose members serve this market - attorneys, accountants, bankers, and advisors who work with family and closely-held companies.
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