Michelle Khare

We all have goals, both personally and professionally—but few of us understand how to set out a plan to achieve them. Fortunately, Michelle Khare does. As the creator and host of the YouTube series Challenge Accepted, Michelle has mastered countless ambitious challenges by systematically applying her framework to everything from training like a Navy SEAL to recreating Tom Cruise’s death-defying Mission Impossible stunts. In this talk, she breaks down her proven methodology, showing audiences how to set a goal, lay out a plan, and surround yourself with people who will help you achieve that goal.

With inspiring examples and down-to-earth practicality, Michelle explains how to build a team that will push you to higher performance: your coach (the expert teacher), your mentor (someone who’s accomplished what you want), and your cheerleader (the friend who cares about you, not just your success). She shares tips from her wealth of experience, like how writing a letter to your future self can be the difference between giving up and pushing through when things get difficult. And she reveals the power of fear—and how to transform it into your greatest superpower. Audiences leave equipped with a clear framework for tackling any challenge, and the confidence that their biggest goals are closer than they think.

Common knowledge tells us that being a specialist is better than being a generalist. But what if that advice is completely backwards for most of us? Michelle Khare argues that being a “jack of all trades” isn’t a weakness to overcome, but a superpower to embrace, especially in today’s rapidly changing workplace. Having mastered countless different skills on her hit YouTube series Challenge Accepted—from chess to competitive eating to hanging off airplanes—Michelle has discovered that the ability to learn anything quickly is more valuable than expertise in any single area.

In this talk, she explores the keys to rapid learning and adaptation, sharing stories from her most challenging episodes and revealing how the same learning framework applies whether you’re training like a Navy SEAL or negotiating a business deal. She explains why the best performers in most corporate jobs are actually good at many different things rather than the absolute best at one thing, and how generalists can synthesize information across domains to become more innovative and productive than narrow specialists. Michelle shares the complete version of the famous quote—”A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one”—and why this mindset is exactly what modern careers demand. Audiences walk away excited to embrace their diverse interests and equipped with the confidence that their varied skills aren’t scattered, but strategic.