Experiences to DRIVE EXCELLENCE, engagement, and resilience.

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A FEW OF THE 800+ ROOMS I'VE BEEN INVITED INTO:

CHRIS in ACTION

READY TO INSPIRE CONNECTION AT YOUR ORGANIZATION?

MY SIGNATURE KEYNOTES

Earned Connection in the Age of AI: Why the Future of Leadership Isn't Faster, It's More Human

We are entering an era that industrializes humans out of systems entirely. AI writes the emails, optimizes the calendar, drafts the strategy. And in removing every friction, we've quietly removed the conditions required for trust, resilience, and meaning.

In this keynote, Chris introduces Earned Connection as the leadership paradigm for what comes next, not a rejection of technology, but a reframing of what humans are actually for when the machines handle everything else. Through story, research, and practical frameworks, leaders discover why the competitive advantage of the future isn't speed or efficiency. It's the willingness to be intentionally inconvenient in pursuit of what truly lasts.

This keynote reframes leadership not as control or performance, but as the courage to stay present when it would be easier to disengage, and to build the kind of organizational culture that can't be automated.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

  • Why speed is undermining trust: How optimizing for convenience unintentionally erodes ownership, judgment, and human connection.

  • Trust is not the starting point, it's the outcome: Why trust is forged through navigating friction together, not by avoiding discomfort.

  • The three pillars of Earned Connection: Presence, Coherence, and Intimacy, and how each is built through specific forms of designed friction.

  • PASTA the behavioral engine: A simple, repeatable model leaders can apply immediately to turn tension into trust and learning.

  • Why human presence is the ultimate competitive advantage: In an AI-driven world, the leaders who win are the ones willing to do the work the machines can't.

Earned Connection: The Dirty Work of Being Known

Most leaders are on a downward slope and don't know it. They've optimized for everything they were told to chase. They've succeeded at the game. And they're arriving empty. This keynote teaches the three pillars that move leaders into genuine connection, with themselves, their people, and what actually matters.

In September 2023, a concussion forced me into slowness at the exact moment I was preparing to launch myself to all new heights. I couldn't take the stage with the energy I'd planned. I was forced to retreat, to sit in a dark room, to listen to yoga nidra, to surrender the version of myself I'd been building toward.

What I discovered in that forced slowness became the architecture of this keynote. It's not a framework to optimize. It's a map for what happens when you stop pushing and start becoming. This is the journey from convenience to inconvenience. From doing 51% of the work alone to being the elder who holds space. From soul poverty to earned connection.

In a world obsessed with speed, efficiency, and optimization, this keynote gives leaders permission to slow down, go deeper, and build the kind of connection that actually outlasts their tenure. Connection is not another thing to optimize, it’s permission to do the inconvenient work that actually matters. It's the most counterintuitive and necessary move a leader can make right now.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

  • The Three Questions of Earned Connection: What would shift if you stopped trying to will your way through this? What version of yourself could emerge if you stopped protecting the old one? Who are you becoming as a leader when you move from doing the work to holding space for others?

  • A lived experience, not a lecture: Your audience will participate in the same methodology that has produced a 99.8% positive emotional transformation rate across thousands of participants.

  • A micro-commitment they'll actually keep: Every person leaves with one concrete, friction-based action they can take within 24 hours.

The world doesn't need more optimized leaders. It needs elders who've learned to hold space. Leaders who understand that the greatest competitive advantage isn't speed, it's the kind of human depth that makes people want to follow you. This keynote shows them how to become that leader.

  • “Chris Schembra's keynote at the Chase senior leadership conference was a transformative experience, weaving empathy, vulnerability, and gratitude seamlessly into our corporate culture. His ability to foster genuine connections left our executive team inspired and equipped with invaluable tools for fostering deeper relationships both within the workplace and beyond.”

    -Lisa Besserman, Head of Innovation, JP Morgan Chase

  • “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, 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

  • “Chris Schembra kicked things off and led us through a keynote focused on gratitude. The room hung on every word (not an overstatement) as he offered up tactical strategies for enhancing our emotional well-being and how to build community, and connection within our everyday work.”

    -Laura Hilton, Head of Talent, Bain Capital Ventures

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MY SHORT SPEAKER BIO

Chris Schembra is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, keynote speaker, and leading expert on the power of gratitude and human connection.

Creator of the 7:47 Gratitude Experience™, Chris has helped thousands of leaders and teams at organizations like Google, Microsoft, IBM, Dell, and the U.S. Navy foster belonging, resilience, and peak performance through scientifically-backed frameworks. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, USA Today, Good Morning America, and more.