DESIGNED FRICTION for teams, leaders, and the rooms that matter most.

I don't run team-building exercises. I build containers where people stop performing and start being known, using a methodology forged over 800+ experiences with a 99.8% positive emotional transformation rate. Every experience is architected around one principle: connection that costs you something is the only kind worth having.

THE WORK THAT CAN'T BE AUTOMATED

Hire me to design an IN-PERSON or VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE built around your people, your friction, and your moment.

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A FEW OF THE 400+ ORGANIZATIONS I'VE WORKED WITH

Intimate Team-Building Experiences

Your people don't need another icebreaker. They need a room that's designed well enough to make honesty feel safe, and structured enough to make vulnerability productive. Through the Earned Connection methodology, we design experiences that do what no offsite agenda, trust fall, or personality assessment ever could: they get people who've worked side by side for years to actually see each other. Every experience is customized for your group, whether it's ten people around a dinner table, a hundred in an auditorium, or a distributed team on a screen, and built on the same evidence-based framework that has transformed thousands of relationships across 800+ gatherings.

The format changes. The principle doesn't: make it cost something, and it will mean something.

Several examples include:

  • Virtual experiences for remote and distributed teams

  • In-person cross-team or leadership experiences

  • Executive off-sites and leadership retreats

Client & Customer Engagement Experiences

Your most valuable client relationships weren't built in a pitch meeting. They were built in the moments after, when someone said something real, when a wall came down, when the transaction became a relationship.

We design intimate client and customer experiences that transform your relationships from transactional to earned. These aren't networking events with name tags and cocktail hours. They're architected gatherings where the people who matter most to your business experience what it feels like to be known by you, not sold to.

The result isn't a lead. It's loyalty that compounds.

Several examples include:

  • Client engagement dinners

  • Customer retreats and advisory gatherings

  • Regional roadshows and intimate series

  • “In the span of a 90-minute workshop, Chris helped us build stronger connections with team members, find gratitude for people in our lives that we don’t typically thank, and feel more connected than we have in months. We got the chance to really talk to our coworkers and connect with them on a personal level. It was an emotional and uplifting experience.”

    - Jennifer Best, Head of Marketing for All American Entertainment

  • “Chris has a unique gift in connecting with others to help us be our best selves at work! His thoughtful and authentic focus on gratitude in engaging ways fostered camaraderie amongst the Citi team during our Gratitude Experience, building true connections and a meaningful shared experience.”

    —Morgan McKenney, Chief Operating Officer, Citi

  • "On the battlefield I've seen the effect that energy and enthusiasm plays as a force multiplier. Chris brings a level of passion that permeates his audience and positively affects the morale of everyone he comes in contact with."

    —Colonel David Sutherland (Bronze Star and Purple Heart Award, US Army)

  • “Chris is a fiercely committed person to what he believes in, the Power of Human Connection through his keynotes and experiences. He is a person who brings the good out in others and his positive energy is contagious from the stage!"

    —Michael Roberts, Former President and COO, McDonald’s Corporation

  • "A completely new way to connect with our customers, prospects, and teams, but more importantly - a way for them all to connect with one-another! Chris Schembra is the inventor of this type of human connection construct, and never before has this been deployed in the world of Enterprise Software / Cloud."

    —Tony Safoian, President, CEO at SADA Systems

  • "Many of our employees said this was the best 90 minutes they'd ever spent at Dell. I connected with someone that I had not before. It got deep and personal quick. We haven’t been able to connect like that, and people are really going through some things right now. The world is on fire right now and you're here to help them put out those fires."

    —Erik Day, SVP Small Business Dell Technologies

  • “Chris’ keynote at our Mastermind Summit helped me find gratitude for some of my greatest setbacks and adversities.”

    —Ryan Serhant

  • “Chris, you radiated authenticity. A unique trait I hope to grow and develop myself. I took away so many nuggets of wisdom pertaining to our field, but with that out-of-the-box perspective. Something I feel that everyone needs and can benefit from, but rarely receive. One of our biggest goals from the keynote address and you pulled it off!”

    — Alyson Stoffer, Co-Chair, North Carolina Philanthropy Conference

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING DESIGNED, NOT DEFAULT?

LET'S BUILD THE ROOM TOGETHER Tell us about your people, your moment, and what's at stake.

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LETS GO!

THE DIRTY WORK STARTS HERE. Book Chris for your next gathering.

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Let's connect