Our formula for seminar, workshop, or speaking engagement success:

Deliver relevant, useful, and thought-provoking content – in an engaging, entertaining, high-energy experience – and with a laser focus on kinetics: commitment, action, and real results. 


John Doehring

John Doehring is an accomplished and admired speaker, known for his on-stage energy, enthusiasm, and audience-engaging style.  John is a maverick – a contrarian voice – who speaks with candor and humor about the realities of business today, but with a bold optimism for the enormous potential of our world ahead.  He speaks regularly on topics of individual and organization success: business strategy, growth, and profit; developing existing and next generation leaders; and operations excellence and transformation. Around the nation and beyond, John’s audiences have included hundreds of private client firms, conferences and seminars, and keynotes and breakouts for trade associations at local, state, regional, and national events. 

The Main Stage! The GeoProfessional Business Association, Annual Conference, Louisville, KY Fall 2019

Video Snip:  The Implications of Change



Program Formats

Most of our live speaking engagements are offered in one of these formats:

  • Boot Camps – longer form, comprehensive, and full immersion, highly interactive, typically 2-3 days, in person, (online version offered in multiple, shorter 2-3 hour sessions);
  • Seminars and Workshops – shorter form, still detailed, highly interactive, 1/2 day, 3/4 day, or full day, in person, (online version offered in multiple, shorter 2-3 hour sessions);
  • Keynotes and Breakouts – high-energy, engaging, entertaining – typically 45-90 minutes, in person or using online platforms;

Our content, materials, and subject focus can often be tailored to fit into one or more of these formats – an hour, a half day, a full day or more.  Let us know what you’re after – we’ll work with you to create a program that fits your team just right.


Testimonials

“Very energetic and very knowledgeable. Understands the business as an insider and is able to poke at its follies with credibility.” (President, large engineering firm)

“John could teach public speaking! Very engaging – made me feel like I was the most important person in the room.” (President, architecture firm)

“Dynamic and bold presenter (every time); he finds great connections between life and the material” (Director, engineering firm)

“Very dynamic – great speaker – lots of good [information], and relevant to actual, practical applications and solutions!” (President, engineering firm)

“Every architect on the planet should hear this stuff.” (Principal Architect)




Our Most Popular Topics Today
(Seminars, Workshops, Keynotes, and Breakouts):


The Principal’s Path:  (The Foundations of Management and Leadership Success for Exceptional Professionals)

What does it take to become an exceptional professional – and a principal – in the firm?  Our comprehensive, flagship course of foundational knowledge for current and aspiring principals and firm managers; an intensive, interactive, and immersive, deep-dive experience for cohort groups – covering a full range of topics across business strategy, firm operations, and people – essential for principal level success.

Excelerate!  (Essential Skills of Extraordinary Business Development Success for Seller-Doer Professionals)

Winning work has always been important -perhaps never more so than today.  Still, learning exactly how to do business development has long been a mystery for many professionals.  No more!  Our comprehensive, one and two-day offerings are highly participative, focused workshops for transforming professional doers into seller-doers, and equipped trusted client advisors.

Fast Future Rx! (How to Transform Your Business in a Radically Transforming World)!

The Fast Future isn’t just coming – it’s here – and over the next twenty five years promises to radically reshape virtually everything in our business and our lives.  The most relevant question today is no longer when, but what? What should we do about the inevitable, disruptive change – towards building an agile, adaptable, and resilient firm for sustainable future success?  

The Seven Crucial Questions of Extraordinary Business Success! (What’s Not Changing Much in a World Where Everything is Changing Now)!

With the Fast Future now arriving on the doorsteps of our businesses and our world – top firm leaders are taking aggressive action – asking and answering these seven fundamental questions – and building organizations and companies to excel – both today and tomorrow.

Worth It!  (Breakthrough Strategies to Get the Fees, Projects, and Clients You Want)!

You’re a professional, and really good at what you do, but in an increasingly noisy, rapidly commoditizing, hyper-competitive marketplace – you struggle to stand out, and capture the value you create for others.  But, why not?  There is a better way – and here it is.

Stop Eating Your Leaders!  (Get Going, Do What’s Right, and Ignite the Next Generation in Your Firm)!

Now one argues that leadership development and transition are not important – but many lack the priority, focus, and know-how for getting it done today.  Good news: there is a system – with defined and concrete components and steps – for creating and implementing a truly successful and sustainable leadership development program to ignite the up and comers in your firm today.

The Professional Procrastinators Guide to Dealing in Difficult Conversations:  (How to Listen, Speak, and Get Things Done When it Really Matters Most)!

All conversations that matter are difficult – that’s the nature of humanity.  Unfortunately, all too commonly we handle these situations poorly, or (more likely) avoid them all together.  Still, success in the firm (and in life) requires constant change and action – often achieved directly through active communication, mutual collaboration, and personal growth.

The BackPocket Business Plan! (Outrageously Simple Planning for Extraordinary Business Results!)

Most business plans are too long, too plain, and too boring – and they suffer from a myriad of common pitfalls and shortcomings.  These plans are designed poorly, written for the wrong reasons, and addressed to the wrong audience.  By contrast, a really great business plan is direct, compelling, action-focused – and strikingly succinct (three pages, tops).  Want to know how?

I’m a PM Superstar!  (The Seven Success Secrets of Extraordinary Project Managers Today)!

Managing projects is the core work of many firms, and project management expertise is foundational to firm success.  Still, too many organizations have either needlessly over-complicated their project management systems – or they virtually no systems at all.  The basics of effective project management are just that:  basic, focused, and elegantly simple. What’s more, doing it this way is straightforward, powerful, and learnable – now.

Listen, Learn, Speak!  (Because Great Communicators Always Make Exceptional Leaders)

Skilled communicators do more listening, learning, and talking – and this leads to stronger relationships, both inside and outside of the firm.  These relationships lead then to teams, and projects, and collaboration, and success.  Sustained, repeatable success leads to further interest, desire, and a following.  Thus, better communications leads to ultimately to better leaders – the magic path.

Rock the Room!  Essential Communication Skills and Strategies for Breakthrough Speaking Success!

Yes, public speaking is a major phobia for many – but it shouldn’t be.  Developing and sharing your story (and the story of the firm) is core to professional and organization success.  Learn to envision, craft,  and then confidently articulate your message – for a team meeting,  client interview, or that presentation on the big stage.

Best Team Wins! (Build, Engage, and Ignite the Team to Transformative Firm Success

In a professional services company, employees aren’t the firm’s greatest asset – they’re the only asset!  Still, too many organizations act otherwise – as though the staff are a distant second in importance (after clients).  Today the very best of companies, across many different industries, have cracked a new and different code:  breakthrough client experience and operational results through a focus on extraordinary employee experience.

90-Day Action Plans and the Five Inviolate Laws of Super-Execution! (Stop Whining, Get Going, And Get Stuff Done Now)!

“A good plan violently executed today is better than a perfect plan next week” – so said the wartime general George Patton.  Moreover, it’s not the ideas that count, but the execution of those ideas, that matters most.  Beyond the constructs of vision and strategy, tactical execution – especially over the next 90 days – is truly special, and helps professionals, principals, and their organizations to stand out in a world of timid spectators.

Pinstripes and Polka Dots! (Stand Up, Stand Out, and Win the Game of Professional Distinction Today)!

The comfort of fitting in  – and minimizing the risk of critique and failure – is powerful and compelling.  It’s also usually wrong.  In business and in life, those who stand out, and who chart a course different from others, often win and win big.  Distinction – standing out in a sea of average – is the real heart of differentiation, branding, and effective opt-in marketing.

What’s Wrong with Business Development in the Firm Today? (Common Mistakes that Top Firms Avoid in Marketing, Sales, and Growth Initiatives)!

As both producers and consumers, most of us understand the basics of effective marketing and sales – but then we come to work and lose our minds!  Way too many firms make the same sorts of mistakes in their business development efforts over and over again  – common pitfalls, stupid misses, too much of this and too little of that.  Stop it.


Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
(or, some of the places that we’ve been – so far …)