Category: New Speaker

“Tessa West combines easy-to-apply tips with relatable, funny, and shocking stories that will have you taking notes. Anyone regardless of industry or level will benefit.“—Jonah Berger, bestselling author of Contagious

Tessa is the author of Jerks at Work, “a breezy and fun read for anyone who wants happier and healthier relationships at work” (Annie Duke, Quit), as well as the forthcoming Job Therapy, a leader’s guide to making sure your employees are not only happy, but fulfilled.

We all face uncomfortable situations at work. But Tessa can show you how to communicate well in these situations and actually turn them to your advantage, gaining outsized increases in creativity, collaboration, and innovation.

A friendly and engaging speaker, she offers a wealth of real-world stories and scientific strategies that you can apply broadly to any company or context. She shows you:

• The 5 causes of employee unhappiness that are making your company bleed talent—from the “identity crisis” to the “underappreciated star”—and what you can do to boost fulfillment and retain your best performers;
• How leaders can invite honest feedback from their teams (try starting with something non-threatening);
• How to manage conflict early and often, and create structures for healthy teamwork and decision-making;
• How to read other people (really!);
• And much more.

“I want audiences to walk away confident that they can actually improve communication in their workplaces,” Tessa says. “I’ll give you concrete action items: what you can do right now to facilitate change in your teams. It doesn’t matter if you’re shy, or think you’re not charismatic. These are tactics for everybody.”

“Mary inspired all of us doing mindset research to study how we could help create these cultures—by setting out to develop and rigorously test practices for teachers or managers.“—Carol Dweck, author of the multi-million-copy bestseller Mindset

Mary C. Murphy is the author of Cultures of Growth: a transformative look into how an organization’s mindset culture is the key to success both for individuals and for the company as a whole. One of the most anticipated releases of 2024, it’s a revolutionary shift in our understanding of growth mindset and in our ability to implement it in our organizations.

Mary has spent over a decade researching growth mindset in organizations and working with Fortune 500 companies. In practical and down-to-earth talks, she draws on her book to guide organizations through a Mindset Reset. You’ll learn:

• How to avoid common pitfalls, like the belief that you can succeed by just trying harder;
• The four “mindset triggers” that can help you move yourself and others from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset;
• How building a Culture of Growth can help you hire and retain more diverse talent, implement more effective DEI initiatives, and boost trust and commitment across all your teams;
• Simple and concrete ways to build the mindset culture you want for yourself, your teammates, and your organization as a whole.

“Even though, as individuals, we are powerful, we can only do so much alone. The best and biggest work of our lives comes from collaborating with others to realize our fullest potential collectively,” Mary says. “The very nature of a Culture of Growth is to strive for growth for everyone.”

Watch Mary discuss how the science of belonging can help us build stronger and more growth-oriented organizational cultures.

“LGBTQ+ folks aren’t some hypothetical person in your audience that you need to pander to,” says Raquel Willis. “Your company actually has these folks internally. So there’s a shift in culture that needs to be happening.”

In inspiring talks for Pride, Black History Month, DEI events, and much more, Raquel draws on her singular experience—encapsulated in her forthcoming memoir, The Risk It Takes to Bloom—to show how we can achieve real belonging in the workplace for everyone. She explains what she calls “the three C’s” of real DEI: commitment, culture, and content (and a caveat). She demonstrates why you need to develop a company culture of real inclusion and solidarity, and shows you practical ways to ensure everyone at your organization can be their true self and do their best work.

This trailblazing Black trans activist grew up in the South, in a Catholic family. Over the course of her groundbreaking career, she’s become a crucial voice in the conversation around the intersections of gender and race and the fight for true diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition to her positions at the Ms. Foundation and Out Magazine, she was the national organizer for the Transgender Law Center and has contributed to several anthologies including Ibram X. Kendi’s Four Hundred Souls.

“I want people to walk away with a curiosity about how the world could be better,” Raquel tells Lavin.

Watch an exclusive Lavin interview with Raquel, where she explains how we can use our different interests as a “painter’s palette” in our fight for equity.

“AI is the most transformative technology of our generation,” says Michelle K. Lee, “and it’s ripe for application now.” Michelle has a wealth of experience from the highest levels of both industry and government. She has held executive positions at tech giants Google and Amazon—she was Vice-President of the Machine Learning Solutions Lab at Amazon Web Services, where she helped companies identify and implement their most impactful AI opportunities. On the government side, she was the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where she brought AI and data analytics to the 200-year-old, 10,000-person agency.

Her unique and varied experience allows her to cut through the hype around AI, bringing the high-level talk down to reality with concrete examples and practical strategies for every industry—including yours. Drawing on her years of experience, she’s developed a 7-step process that any company can use to incorporate AI and outperform their competitors: starting from developing a data strategy and identifying your highest ROI opportunities, all the way to retraining, updating, and maintaining your AI tools.

“Even the most AI-forward companies are only just scratching the surface on using AI in their businesses,” Michelle says. “AI solutions get better over time and with more data—so the time to get started is now.”

Watch a Lavin-exclusive video where Michelle explains how data and AI helped Domino’s Pizza revolutionize their customer experience and get ahead of the competition.

As the former Artistic Director of Cirque du Soleil, the largest contemporary circus in the world, Caitlan worked on almost every groundbreaking show from 2000 to 2020. Out of over 4000 employees from over 50 countries, she’s one of only a handful of experts who have contributed to the Cirque’s creative process at such a high level and on so many shows. She led all the artistic coaches and coaching, working with her team to choreograph the acrobatic acts for all the shows, and taught creativity to world-class Olympians to transform them from athletes into artists.

Her two decades at the Cirque have taught her what it takes to develop creativity and foster collaboration in intense, high-pressure environments. Creativity not only helps us innovate better, Caitlan says, it also helps us to boost resilience and stay open to changing circumstances. “In today’s world of constant change, creativity has never been more important,” she says.

In her talks, Caitlan demonstrates the power of creativity and shows you practical ways to develop it in yourself and your teams. Drawing on her unique experience, she shows you how to balance the freedom and structure you need to be creative; how to maximize the creative potential of teams of all sizes; and how to leverage creativity to develop cutting-edge ideas.

Eddie Huang has never hesitated to step outside the mainstream. He first broke onto the cultural scene with his Taiwanese restaurant Baohaus, which he opened to tell an underrepresented story through food. He went on to write Fresh Off the Boat, the bestselling memoir which The New York Times called “a book about fitting in by not fitting in at all,” which was then adapted into the hit sitcom of the same name that featured the first all-Asian American cast on network TV in two decades. He hosted Huang’s World for Vice, and has written and directed multiple feature films.

But the secret to this incredible creativity and daring isn’t simply defying the rules that don’t work for you. “If you don’t like the rules of the world—cool! Be an iconoclast,” Eddie tells us. “But you have to create your own rules. That is your responsibility.”

In his smart and hilarious talks, Eddie shows how you can build the discipline and self-leadership to succeed wherever you are. The insights he offers from his dynamic and wide-ranging career are invaluable no matter who you are—whether you’re a leader looking to increase the creativity of your organization, an educator hoping to inspire and motivate students, or a student interested in pursuing your dreams and forging your own path. Eddie will show you how to find success and tap into high performance and creativity, all while embracing your differences and staying true to yourself.

Watch a Lavin-exclusive interview with Eddie about diversity, the Asian American community, and what the next steps are for achieving real equity and justice in America: