Desi Williamson
Overcoming Life’s Obstacles as Entrepreneur, Real Estate Investor, Motivational Sports Coach, Restaurateur and Author
Desi Williamson is a master of reinvention, leading a diverse career as a corporate sales and marketing executive, real estate entrepreneur, motivational coach for the NFL Minnesota Vikings, and restaurant franchise owner.
During his corporate career, he was an award-winning executive with Fortune 500 companies, such as Johnson & Johnson, Rain Bird Sprinkler Manufacturing, PepsiCo, and Dr. Pepper Seven Up, where he managed multi-million dollar businesses and developed the potential in people.
In 2005, Desi suffered a serious neck injury that forced him to undergo a risky surgery and months of rehabilitation to learn how to walk and move again. The experience inspired him to write his second book and planted the seed for what would become an entirely new direction in his career. In 2014, with healthcare becoming an increasingly critical initiative in society, he began pursuing his clinical license as an Alcohol and Drug Counselor at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, respected worldwide for its work in neuroscience, electrophysiology, and chemical dependency, where he specializes in group therapy and lecture. Desi’s goal for his patients is to achieve a higher quality of life by helping them identify their triggers for substance abuse and effectively deal with inner core issues, such as shame, guilt, anger and forgiveness.
As a speaker, Desi is focused on making an impact on audiences that will encourage behavior change and spark personal insight. He has dedicated over 30 years specializing in performance improvement, leadership, and change management. By giving people the resources to change their thinking and behavior, Desi teaches them how to become Emotionally Available (EA), so they can dig deep within themselves to cultivate resilience and accept accountability for their results. He is passionate about becoming a mouthpiece for an underserved segment within the healthcare industry, by helping organizations understand that, in order to change the course of healthcare for the better, it is necessary to properly treat emotional, mental, and physical health simultaneously. His backgrounds in business, entrepreneurship, sports, and clinical experience give him a wide variety of stories and examples to inspire audiences.
Desi is the author of two books, Get Off Your Assets! How to Deal with the Challenges of Life and Win and Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way! Succeeding in the Face of Turbulent Times. He is also the creator of “Empower Yourself to Succeed,” a video based learning system for personal development, utilized by more than 160 prisons nationwide. As the Founder of Impact!! Seminars Unlimited, Inc., he helps organizations increase productivity by empowering their people.
In 2004, Desi was inducted into the “Speaker Hall of Fame,” where he joined such notable figures as President Ronald Reagan, General Colin Powell, Zig Ziglar, and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. He also earned his CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) and CPAE (Council of Peers Award for Excellence), the highest designations awarded by the National Speakers Association. His client list includes United Healthcare, Medtronic, Pfizer, SmithKline, HFMA, Canon, Nationwide, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, Choice Hotels, Verizon Wireless, Sam’s Club, the Chicago Bears, and more.
Cultivating Resilience: Expanding Emotional Availability & Boundaries
In a world filled with fear and uncertainty, it’s more important than ever for people to become empowered to make a positive impact in all areas of their lives, whether it’s adding value in their work, community, or family. Cultivating resilience requires that people are able to bounce back from challenges and even failure, without losing their courage or enthusiasm. The past, which can often encompass shame and guilt, prevents people from going after the things that will bring them the greatest amount of joy and fulfillment. Resilience is about successfully dealing with the challenges and changes that life will certainly bring, and simultaneously addressing physical, mental, and spiritual roadblocks.
Learning Objectives:
•Examine shame, guilt, anger and forgiveness to maximize our own and others’ potential
•Recognize where core beliefs come from, and how they affect our self-esteem and outlook
•Uncover where thoughts, emotions, and behavior come from and how we can best manage them
•Identify core values and prioritize them for a stronger sense of purpose
•Develop clarity to increase the quality of our lives and swiftly transition through crisis or trauma
•Explore why our automatic conditioning for “Good, Better, Best!” can be dangerous to emotional wellbeing
Best Audiences: Healthcare, mental health, counselors, therapists, coaches, association members, general public
Leading Through Times of Change: Creating the Right Environment for your Team to Succeed
The best way to secure success in the future is to create it. A burning platform develops when an organization faces major decisions, in which the cost of remaining status quo can be detrimental to the very core of the business. Change is accelerating exponentially, requiring new models of thinking to capitalize from the volume, speed, and complexity of change in today’s fast paced world. The emotional state of people plays a critical role during the process of change and, when properly managed, organizations can make quantum leaps in growth to become masters of change, rather than victims of circumstance. A real leader builds nothing alone, they develop an organization and the organization builds the business!
Learning Objectives:
•Identify the two reasons why change often fails and why Emotional Availability is so critical
•Examine the eight steps to successful change management
•Strategize ways to foster a culture of engagement that enables change and sustainable contribution
•Grasp the importance of intentional and well-planned communication
•Recognize the four types of leadership and why each is critical to your organization’s success
•Understand the difference between Leadership vs. Management and Change vs. Transformation, and the roles they play in your organization
Best Audiences: Managers, executives, leaders, presidents, business owners, community organizers, board members, and anyone interested in leadership development
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way: Succeeding in the Face of Turbulent Times
It’s been proven throughout history that people can do the most remarkable things, if they have the right motivation. The first key is to understand what factors really inspire them to perform at their best. Secondly, their purpose must be clearly defined and they must learn the skills necessary to consistently raise their standard of performance while achieving their goals. Lastly, they must develop their will power and create an atmosphere of personal accountability necessary to perform at their optimum level.
Learning Objectives:
•Reignite your purpose and identify ways to consistently raise your standard of performance
•Overcome fear and help people program themselves for success through the process of CCM
•Set clear measureable goals and objectives that empower you and others for success
•Demonstrate to others how to develop their own uniqueness and increase their personal value
•Understand why benign neglect is a killer of productivity and leads to disaster
•Review the six most important questions in life
Best Audiences: general public, leaders, employees at any level, association members
The Challenge of Change: Tools for Transformational Thinking
Successfully leading anyone through change, including yourself, involves breaking the cycle of complacency and comfort. One must also develop the characteristics that allow you to remain on the cutting edge and become a benchmark of performance, whether as an individual or organization as a whole. This requires eliminating old practices that are no longer effective and developing new innovative approaches.
Learning Objectives:
•Understand why the transference of negative emotions happens without awareness
•Discover ways to eliminate the “Hamster Wheel Effect”
•Develop Emotional Availability to builder deeper and stronger relationships
•The critical roles of Self -Management and Transparency
•Understand the five drivers of change and use them advantageously
•How to utilize the right process of Feedback for powerful results
Best Audiences: general public, healthcare, corporate, and association members