SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Socius Business Advisors have delivered keynote addresses at conferences, workshops, corporate meetings, and executive training sessions.To discuss scheduling and availability for your upcoming program, please contact Socius Business Advisors
SEMINARS – Examples of Seminars
Strategic Leadership & Transformation
Strategic Leadership & Execution
- The CEO Reset: From Frustration to Freedom
True leadership in 2026 isn’t a solo sport. Are your managers constantly reacting while your vision stays grounded? Move beyond the daily “firefighting” by bringing your key managers into a room of high-performing peers. This flagship seminar is a results-driven, immersive experience for busy executives who prioritize execution over theory. It’s not your strategy, it’s execution—align your entire leadership team on how to execute it before you leave the room. - The Mind is Like a Parachute… It Works When It’s Open.
In the fast-moving 2026 business world, the biggest risk isn’t the competition—it’s an outdated mindset. This seminar is a gut-check for CEOs and their teams to pull the cord on “how we’ve always done it” and open up to new ways of leveraging technology and protecting profit margins. Trade old habits for the mental flexibility needed to stay ahead of the curve. - Success is NOT an Accident
Success comes from preparation and learning—but those lessons don’t always have to be your own painful failures. If you’re facing complex disruptions like economic shifts or new regulations, we help you reimagine your business model and processes. Don’t navigate the hard work of growth alone. - Mastering Business Succession
Transitioning your life’s work to the next generation is a high-stakes challenge. Without a plan, family enterprises often face internal conflict and stalled decision-making. We provide a structured strategy for governance and mentorship to ensure a smooth hand-off that protects both the business and the family. - The Art of a Turnaround
If your business is still fighting to regain momentum, it’s time for a change in tactics. We break down the five essential steps to stabilize your operations and shift from survival mode back into a phase of profitable growth. - Transition & Succession: Your Path to a Win
Are you truly prepared to exit? Whether you are selling or passing the torch, over 60% of owners fail to position their company to attract the right buyers. If you are within seven years of retirement, this seminar gives you the answers needed to secure your legacy and your personal future.
Communication & Team Culture
- Start Communicating, Increase Sales & Grow
87% of business success is tied to communication skills, yet true communication is rarer than ever. We identify the barriers in your organization and provide actionable tips to ensure your message drives engagement and sales. - Lessons from the Brink: Why Healthy Companies Should Study Crisis
Even a humming business can be derailed by just two poor management decisions in a 60-day period. This sought-after seminar teaches you how to learn from distressed companies to “crisis-proof” your own and prepare for life’s curveballs. - Are You a Manager or a Leader?
There is a massive difference between supervising a team and inspiring one. We explore the unique traits that allow true leaders to accomplish what “managers” can’t, helping you evolve into a more effective, influential guide for your team. - Demystifying Millennials in the Workplace
Stop guessing and start engaging. We show you how to attract and retain millennial talent by understanding their motivations and turning generational differences into a competitive edge.
Entrepreneurial Mindset & Innovation
- Think Like an Entrepreneur
Successful serial entrepreneurs don’t just follow a straight line; they use “effectual” thinking to navigate uncertainty. This session provides exercises to help you develop the same mindset, turning obstacles into strategic advantages. - Entrepreneurship in the Context of Your Life
Being an entrepreneur impacts everything—from your risk tolerance to your work-life interlocking. This is a “reality check” session designed to help you build a venture that actually aligns with your personal motivations and lifestyle profile. - Managing Risk: Maximizing Reward without the Gamble
We explore the continuum between being risk-averse and risk-seeking. Learn how to maximize rewards through “affordable risk” strategies using industry-specific examples that protect your bottom line. - The Zen of Stuff: A Practice in Creativity
Retrain your brain to think outside the box. This seminar uses context-changing exercises to break old habits and open up new pathways for creative problem-solving. - Exploding Creativity through Deliberate Practice
Innovation isn’t a “eureka” moment; it’s the result of mindful practice. We show you how to foster a culture where innovation is a deliberate, daily habit rather than a happy accident. - Ready, Set, Innovate, Go
Prepare yourself to recognize your own “innovative genius.” This session helps you identify and enhance the natural instincts that lead to breakthrough ideas.
Operational Excellence
- What Would the Lazy Person Do? (Efficiency Redefined)
This isn’t about doing less; it’s about doing things smarter. We take the heavy theories of Six Sigma and Lean and translate them into easy, everyday examples of how to find the most efficient path forward. - Everything I Know About Leadership I Learned From a Vacuum Cleaner
Using a memorable analogy, we weave a story that highlights ten essential leadership traits. It’s a creative, engaging way to make sure these core principles actually stick with your audience. - The Yin of Sales & The Yang of Marketing
When Sales and Marketing clash, growth stalls. We promote mutual appreciation by formalizing interaction, coaching sales for strategy, and ensuring marketing delivers immediate value to the sales team. - Organizational Evolution: Breaking the Ceiling
As companies grow, they hit structural and personal barriers. We help you identify those bottlenecks and evolve your organization to meet the demands of its next stage of life. - Build a Stronger Salesforce, Build a Stronger Business
Your sales team is the front line of your success. This focused session provides the tools and strategies needed to strengthen your salesforce and drive consistent revenue. - Health Insurance Strategies: Save 10%–40%
Explore how large companies lower insurance costs significantly without cutting employee benefits. Learn the new procedures and programs that can improve your bottom line and the employee experience.
Specialized Sessions & Exit Strategy
- The Business of Non-Profits
A mission-driven organization still needs a solid business engine. We apply key strategic planning concepts to help non-profits operate with the efficiency and foresight of a top-tier corporation. - Gender Issues in Entrepreneurship
We move past the myths to look at the realities of the “entrepreneurship gap,” addressing the unique challenges and opportunities currently facing different demographics in the business world. - The Steps to a Successful Exit
Selling a business doesn’t just “happen”—it requires intentional positioning. We cover how to maximize the value you keep (and keep away from Uncle Sam) while preparing for the reality of life after the sale. - Securing Significance Beyond the Sale
75% of owners regret selling their business within a year because they failed to build something significant outside of work. This session ensures your financial exit is matched by a personal plan for a meaningful “second act.” - The Five Pillars of Transformation
A deep dive into our core methodology: Elevate your perspective, Cultivate your talent, Scale your business, Expand your circle, and gain Succession clarity. This session ties all our principles together for a total business realignment.
WORKSHOPS- Our Workshops get participants fully involved in the learning process: small and large group discussions, activities & exercises, opportunities to practice applying the concepts that are presented.
Examples of workshops
- Take a Strategic Snapshot of Your Business- This ½ day workshops is a facilitated discussion and hands on exercise participating in a S.W.O.T and P.E.S.T analysis of your company. Consider what policies, procedure, initiatives and damage control should be implemented. When complete, you and your company should be better positioned for growth.
- Strategic Planning – These workshops are designed to facilitate a strategic planning effort for a for-profit or a non-profit organization.
- Writing a Winning Business Plan – This workshop goes beyond the basics of writing a business plan to cover strategic elements that win funding.
- Envisioning – This workshop is designed for entrepreneurs and helps them to focus on writing their personal vision and mission statements, their business vision and mission statements and taking steps to effectively mesh them.
- Scientists as Coaching Managers – Most scientists become managers much later in their careers than managers in other types of business so they face unique challenges in developing an effective style. The workshop guides scientists through a series of exercises to developing coaching as an effective managerial style.
- Entrepreneurial Leaders as Coaching Managers – The unique set of personal traits that characterize an effective entrepreneur are frequently in contrast with the traits that make a good manager. The workshop guides entrepreneurs through exercises to develop coaching as an effective managerial style.
- Work-Life Interlock – Work-Life balance is a myth. Work –Life Interlock, a three-legged race, is the new paradigm. This workshop addresses the challenges of designing career and personal life paths that maximize satisfaction.
- The Yin of Sales-The Yang of Marketing –Role clarity for leaders of Sales & Marketing.Expanded version of the seminar with more examples and hands on learning. Promote mutual understanding & appreciation: Formalize more interaction and mutual dependency; Coach Sales leaders for more “tomorrow” and strategy: vision and a plan for improving sales effectiveness; Coach Marketing leaders to deliver value to Sales “today” and have more direct touch with customers; Joint responsibility for New Business Development; Model Yin and Yang vs. Either/Or
- The Art of a Turnaround– Expanded version of the seminar with more examples and hands on learning. Thousands of small-mid size businesses are still trying to recover from the hole left by the recession and grow. Learn the 5 steps to turnaround your company. Fix and grow your company.
- Start Communicating & Grow Your Business– Harvard Business school reveals that 87% of ability to succeed comes from communication skills. Though we are talking more, we are not communicating. This workshop helps identify issues getting in the way as well as give you actionable tips on better communicating. Expanded version of the seminar with more examples and hands on learning.
- Mindfulness – Interactive exercises to increase mindfulness to enhance creativity and leadership.
- Pitching to Investors – An interactive, hands on workshop with a small group of participants to hone the elevator pitch and presentation. Be prepared to convince us
- Girls Just Wanna Succeed – Business still has “man’s rules”, especially in senior management. This workshop focuses on the subtle ways that women can hinder their progress, how to recognize them and avoid them.
- The Steps to a Successful Exit- In this workshop you will roll up your sleeves and walk through exercises to prepare you and your business for sale. Done right and you’ll ride off into the sunset with money and a meaningful life. Done wrong, and there is a 75% chance you will regret it in less than a year. The scenario may be familiar. A business owner works his/her whole life building a business and expects to get the most financial benefit from that exit. There are two key problems with this scenario. First, just like running your business…things don’t just happen. Putting a business in the best position for a sale takes planning and action. 88% those businesses with a solid plan are successful, but for the 84% without a plan they are successful only 12% of the time. AND Remember, it’s not what you sell the company for; it is what you get to keep. Done wrong and Uncle Sam may get more than half.The second problem is that one year after selling their business, 75% of business owners wish they hadn’t sold. Not because of money, but because they failed to build something of significance beyond their business. Only sign up for this workshop if you are ready to discuss real issues and are ready to plan for a successful exit.
Workshops are generally 10 to 14 participants, range from one half day to two days in length, and are very interactive and collaborative. For larger groups we require breakout sessions. Workshops are held at your location, or a location arranged by your organization.
Contact Socius Business Advisors at sociusba.com/Contact to discuss availability for your next program.
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Socius Business Advisors is a leadership coaching and consulting firm headquartered in the greater Chicago area, with advisors in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Denver, and Hong Kong and serving clients around the globe.
Strategy, Planning, & Execution
Executive Coaching & Executive Peer Groups
Executive Team Alignment
Business Assessments
Turnaround & Crisis Management
Interim Management
Workouts
Manufacturing Solutions
M&A &Post Merger Integration
Domestic & Asian Procurement
Family Business Center
Workshops & Seminars
Succession Planning & Exit Planning