Keith Ferrazzi

Keith Ferrazzi is the world's foremost expert in relationships, bringing 20 years of research and experience to the art and science of business relationship development. His signature focus on success through relationships - a deeply energizing passion - has fueled his own incredible rise to prominence. Both Forbes and Inc. have called him one of the world's most "connected" individuals.

Ferrazzi grew up in Latrobe, PA, where his father was a steelworker and his mother a cleaning lady. He and his entire family worked double shifts to send him to the very best prep schools – and ultimately to Yale undergrad and Harvard Business School – imbuing in Ferrazzi a sense of gratitude that has deeply influenced his message: Generosity in relationships as the cornerstone of success. 

Ferrazzi has won a place as one of the top thought leaders in American business. His first book, Never Eat Alone, redefined networking today. His #1 NY Times bestseller Who's Got Your Back focuses on lifeline relationships, a narrow category of deep, trusting peer relationships that disproportionately affect our careers and well-being. Ferrazzi has been named a "Global Leader of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum, one of the top "40 Under 40" business leaders by Crain's Business, and one of the most creative Americans in Who's Really Who.

Ferrazzi moves audiences to action and has been enthusiastically recognized as one the world's most dynamic, engaging speakers. He has received accolades from an impressively diverse list of listeners: Meryll Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, the United Nations, Facebook, the World Economic Forum, Kraft, GM, Century 21, AT&T,  and Aon, to name a few. Ferrazzi is a frequent contributor to CNN and CNBC, and has been a guest on Larry King Live and Today Show. His writing has appeared in Forbes, Inc., Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, and the Harvard Business Review.

As founder and chairman of Ferrazzi Greenlight, a research-based consulting and training company, Ferrazzi provides corporate market leaders with strategic consulting and training to improve sales, performance, and team cohesion, with an emphasis on personal transformation. Ferrazzi launched his career as the youngest Chief Marketing Officer in the Fortune 500 at Deloitte Consulting, and was later the CMO at Starwood Hotels.

Ferrazzi's foundation, Big Task, applies his company's Accelerated Relationship Development (ARD) curriculum to aid corporate citizenship and education reform. At the annual Big Task Weekend, companies use ARD to create partnerships that benefit national health and wellness. More recently, Ferrazzi has brought the power of relationship mastery to students in pilot programs at Stanford and Beverly Hills High.

• 1. Relationships for Revenue Growth

  Did you know that the number of names in your address book can predict how much money you make for your company? That’s just one "wow" statistic from recent social networking research showing that relationships play a more profound role in individual financial success than previously recognized – except by Keith Ferrazzi, who has devoted himself to helping sales forces boost revenue through relationships since the publication of his bestseller Never Eat Alone. He is the world’s foremost expert on business relationship development and this talk distills 20 years of research, experience, and teaching.
  
  Revenue growth demands that sales forces be competitive in the art and skill of relationship building, now more than ever as products and services are rapidly commoditized. The one with the most relationships of the highest quality wins. To leverage relationships at that scale, sales teams need new mindsets, processes, and skills that will allow them to accelerate relationship development and then manage and maintain those connections with effectiveness and efficiency.
  
  Keith’s highly interactive, dynamic Relationships for Revenue Growth keynote provides exactly that, introducing groups to his proven Accelerated Relationship Development system. Keith is also available for breakout sessions and webinars on this topic, which can be customized for the sales force, executive leadership, or any division of your organization.
  
  Results for your business include increased customer loyalty and net promoter scores, a shortened sales cycle, more and stronger referrals, and increased ability to sell to the C-suite. To further improve results, we offer audience prep and follow-up, as well as a pre-survey to customize the keynote around your organization’s unique strengths and weaknesses.
  
  Takeaways of Relationships for Revenue Growth include:

  •    The #1 tool for relationship building to transform the way your sales team fill their pipeline
  •    Techniques that will instantly set prospects at ease and differentiate your team from the crowd
  •    The secret to productivity through relationships – how Keith’s system creates time and energy!
  •    A new accountability strategy that will enhance performance and commitment
  •    A relationship management system that your sales force will practice not only because it drives their numbers, but because they’ll have fun doing it.

  Participants leave the room energized, with a wealth of new techniques and processes to put into practice immediately to improve your business and their lives.

• 2. Relationships for Leadership Success and High-Performance Teams

  Research shows that high-performance teams are also the most highly committed teams. As you look around your organization, can you honestly say that your people are committed to not letting each other fail?
  
  The very best leaders know how to help their team build strong, engaging relationships. Keith Ferrazzi’s Relationship for Leadership Success and High-Performance Teams keynote provides the mindsets, processes, and tools to transform even the most conflicted team into a closely bonded working unit. After this keynote, leaders will understand that in today’s workplace, success isn’t achieved alone.

  This talk deeply leverages the consulting methodologies that have made Keith and Ferrazzi Greenlight the go-to firm for transforming company culture. Participants practice the techniques of Ferrazzi’s Accelerated Relationship Development system right in the room in the course of this highly interactive, dynamic seminar. They build higher levels of intimacy and trust as part of the roadmap that will allow them to move forward with faster decision-making, more robust problem solving, and innovative thinking among their team and the broad organization.
  
  To further improve results, we offer audience prep and follow-up, as well as a pre-survey to customize the keynote around your organization’s unique strengths and weaknesses. Keith is also available to lead supplemental breakout sessions and webinars.
  Takeaways include:
  
  •    The #1 mindset for relationship building that a team can implement immediately
  •    A process for accelerating intimacy so that colleagues display trust and candor in conversations with each other and direct reports, leading to better business outcomes
  •    A turbo-charged accountability strategy to enhance performance and commitment
  •    Greater transparency for increased alignment around decision making
  •    The ability to weather economic or external challenges as a unified team
  •    A renewed commitment to constant self-evaluation that will inspire change at every level of the organization
  
  Relationships for Leadership Success and High-Performance Teams will inspire your team to lead with passion and purpose.

• 3. Supercharging Networking and Creating Community (Associations Special!)

  A uniquely effective 4-part offering, based on the breakthrough program in Keith Ferrazzi’s #1 NYT bestseller Who’s Got Your Back, as seen on Good Morning America and Larry King.
  
  1.    PREP: FG guides association heads in the use of social media and rich content, such as our “Conference Commando"tip videos, to create lively conversation and member-driven community prior to the event.
  2.    PERMISSION: During Keith’s inspired keynote ; “Who’s Got Your Back: Supercharge Networking and Move from Membership to Community"; participants are given permission, safety and comfort to let down their guards down and be human – the key to unleashing the power in the seats.
  3.    PRACTICE: During the keynote, facilitated interaction allows members to taste the success of deepening bonds immediately. Participants begin to form the peer-coaching relationships that they’ll continue to develop throughout the conference. (Keith is also available for breakout sessions and webinars.)
  4.    PERMANENCE: Lifeline Groups create structured sustainability when members make specific commitments to each other’s success, a viral component that will continue through the year. Months after your conference, the event is still ongoing!

• 4. Relationships for Successful Project Management

  Extraordinary business success can be attributed to strong leadership and effective management and utilization of project teams.  In today’s fast-paced, competitive business environment, integrated and effective project teams are required to use cutting edge technology to achieve unprecedented financial earnings.  Often however, these projects fall victim to ill-conceived, poorly-executed business plans that completely ignore the importance of relationships among the people making up the project team.  To ensure corporate survival under these conditions, leadership must secure a competitive advantage.  As Jack Welch, former CEO and Chairman of General Electric simply stated:  “If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.”

  How can strategic project leadership and management deliver this competitive advantage?
  
  Relational Project Management, a 10-year study developed by relationship guru Keith Ferrazzi and his Institute for the Relational and Collaborative Sciences, delivers the solution.  It is one thing to come up with a good idea, but quite another to make sure that the idea is adopted throughout the team and organization.  Relationship building and consensus are critical to effective innovation, risk management and corporate growth.  Through his keynote address, Keith sets forth the characteristics and mindsets of a leader.  Originating from the historical aspects of human civilization, he reveals our natural instinct to thrive within groups by helping and protecting each other to ensure survival of the “tribe.”  The advent of modern society and the recent acceleration of technology in everyday life have moved us away from the historical “tribe” to groups of as few as one.  This modern experience runs counter to the very way we are wired to interact.  By re-engineering the way we think and designing our relationship strategy to include a collaborative team approach where all members contribute and “buy in” to the desired outcome, we can integrate our modern tools and technological advances with our natural instinct to team to create increased project management success.
  
  Keith explains how businesses benefit when team leaders are not afraid to be vulnerable, transparent and accountable to each other. In a series of enlivened discussions and exercises, he skillfully introduces an approach to building these successful transparent relationships on a road map to successful project management.  This process of Relationship Action Planning sets forth an easily-adaptable method for project leaders to introduce the kinds of relationships that will drive revenue growth, shorten implementation times,increase team productivity, and improve quality of project deliverables in an atmosphere fertile with innovation and creativity.
  
  Relationship Action Planning consists of four powerful mindsets: intimacy, generosity, candor and accountability.  Cultivation of these mindsets is only possible within an atmosphere that fosters social familiarity.  When the project team members achieve interaction at this level, the shared commitment to excellence will create a dynamic work environment resulting in unparalleled success.
  Takeaways:
  
  •    Techniques that allow project managers to establish the most critical relationships to ensure team “buy in” and success
  •    Methods to ensure team cohesion by creating a “nobody fails” atmosphere
  •    Measurable definition of buy-in to achieve final outcome.
  •    Series of exercises that leaders can utilize to create a safe place where innovation and creativity flourish.
  •    Instruction on development of a Relationship Action Plan for your group to utilize with the top 250 relationships critical to your team’s success.
  •    Introduction of the building blocks to easily establish a systematic approach to relational project management and collaborative problem-solving.
  •    Identifiable steps to developing a Relational Culture by demystifying the 4 mindsets of Intimacy, Generosity, Candor and Accountability and making these mindsets of collaboration the cornerstone of the corporate culture.
  
  Building Relationship Teams for Successful Project Management will set forth the components of an actionabletemplate to allow managers to foster increased collaboration and teaming for greater corporate success.

• 5. Collaboration for Team Success

  Collaboration propels success. History is peppered with examples of groundbreaking collaborative accomplishments in all arenas: the creation and adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the discovery of radioactivity by Pierre and Marie Curie, and even the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates World Series Championship team, nicknamed “The Family.” It is difficult to imagine a world of successful accomplishment devoid of collaboration.
  
  Keith Ferrazzi’s Institute for the Relational and Collaborative Sciences has been studying the science of relationships for over ten years. During this “decade of optimization,” work processes were focused on completing tasks more quickly and efficiently, thus squeezing increasing wealth and profits from an organization’s resources while eliminating every conceivable form of waste. While this sounds like an admirable goal, corporations have begun to realize that this decade-old formula to business success no longer works. With competition maxed out on pricing and product features in nearly every industry, the key differentiator in many cases are relationships: both those that companies have with their customers and the relationships that employees have with each other. It is these relationships that are transformative and allow an organization the ability to retain loyalty and to innovate their products and services. Now is the time for groups to invest in building deep collaborative relationships both internally and externally. These authentic, non-transactional relationships form the key building blocks that allow companies to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.
  
  The corporate structure itself has undergone drastic change during the last decade, with the layers of middle and senior management flattening and teaming concepts increasingly gaining favor. Managers are now being asked to complete projects with less money, less people and in less time. These smaller teams present new challenges and opportunities, with individual personality quirks and flaws more influential and noticeable. It is critical to an organization’s survival to build strong collaborative relationships with their team members and business partners.
  
  
  In Keith Ferrazzi’s keynote, Collaboration for Team Success, the audience will be inspired to embrace a new set of four essential mindsets: intimacy, generosity, candor and accountability. His explanation and application of these mindsets to the corporate environment transforms human qualities into powerful business tools. Companies like Cisco, US Bank, Bank of America, Gartner, Lincoln Financial Group, Kraft and Accenture are rapidly adopting these mindsets to create a more successful and collaborative corporate culture.
  
  Attendees will discover how these mindsets can spark the progression of a collaborative team internally that resonates throughout the organization and becomes a tool to reach out externally to clients and differentiate the corporate brand in the marketplace. This movement toward a more collaborative work style starts with changing corporate culture and then expands to shape not only the industry, but society itself.
  
  As the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work!”
  
  Takeaways include:
  
  •    A systematic approach to collaborative problem-solving.
  •    Definition of participant buy-in and a measurable method to determine final outcome.
  •    A series of exercises demonstrating the creation of a safe place where innovation and creativity can flourish.
  •    Instruction on development of a Relationship Action Plan for your group to utilize with the top 250 relationships critical to your team’s success.
  •    Identifiable steps to developing a Relational Culture by demystifying the 4 mindsets of Intimacy, Generosity, Candor and Accountability and making these mindsets of collaboration the cornerstone of the corporate culture.
  
  Attendees leave the presentation with a tool box of easily applicable human qualities and the ability to translate these mindsets into a successful collaborative environment within the organization.

• 6. Relationships for Success Through Diversity

  Relationships among individuals and teams drive business success. As our workplace grows increasingly diverse, coworkers may reach out first to those most like themselves. When co-workers allow differences to hinder them from forming relationships, employee engagement, productivity, collaboration and corporate growth suffer.
  
  Keith Ferrazzi’s Relationships for Success through Diversity delivers the tools you need to embrace the differences among your co-workers so together you can create a strategic, purposeful and authentic roadmap for success.
  
  This highly interactive keynote is truly transformative, teaching you the necessary mindsets, skill sets and actions to build deep relationships, which lead to a higher level of ongoing, sustainable change. Your employees will leave the room feeling responsible for each other’s success, what Keith Ferrazzi calls “lifeline relationships.”
  
  Through a series of exercises to shift mindsets from isolation to connection, Ferrazzi creates the foundation for two powerful tools for workplace excellence: candor and accountability, the keys to identifying problems, developing creative solutions, and then holding each other accountable for mutual success.
  
  Takeaways include:
  
  •    A process for accelerating intimacy so that colleagues display trust and candor in conversations with each other and direct reports, leading to better business outcomes,
  •    A team-based format for refining goals and strategic plans,
  •    Tools to identify and overcome career-crippling bad habits,
  •    Keys to sustaining a commitment to excellence and growth over time,
  •    A group commitment to not let each other fail.

• A speaker's success is is often judged by the sincerity and passion of the message. A coveted extra is how quickly his message is discussed and implemented. Keith provided our company with both. His messages were quickly implemented by many and still discussed due to his infectious sincerity and passion.

  Constellation NewEnergy

• Networking is not just trying to get something from someone else, but we often misconstrue that concept. Keith Ferrazzi puts a very refreshing and accurate perspective on networking as more of both personal and business relationship building. This is an invaluable perspective for our students.

  Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania

• Keith, you were able to help our students more in one-day than I've seen in my 20 years in career services. The tools, motivation and impact you made with our MBA students will help them in their careers and their lives in general.

  Penn State University

• Keith's passion and commitment to understanding the human condition and how we all can breakthrough to achieve personal success captivated the audience and had them the entire time. His unique relationship insights and expertise clearly had a powerful impact on our group of highly demanding Harvard MBA alumni.

  Harvard Business School

• Keith really changed the dynamic of the event and really connected disconnected parts of our team together. We have never seen so much energy in the room between these two internal groups that typically don't work well with one another.

  Fox Films

• Your presentation [at the World Business Forum] was more powerful, and helpful to me in my business, than any other speaker I listened to in that conference. It really was. I thought the conference was great and I got a lot out of it, but your message was concise and 100% relevant to me.

  DSI Entertainment

• Keith, the energy you brought in the hour that you were here is still felt with our team weeks after the event. You gave us a set of principles and strategies has brought a new level of motivation and charge to continue to grow our business nationally. Because of your relationship-building skills, you have helped connect us to many new partnerships in our national expansion. I am deeply grateful.

  Insurance Office of America

• Keith pushed us to think outside of the box and added more to our wallets! He gave us both motivation and tools to go out and apply his message in our everyday lives, not just with our clients, but with everyone in our lives.

  Goldman Sachs International

• Keith spoke to a group comprised of the top talent across Deutsche Bank from VPs and directors to mid level executives, discussing the importance of building relationships to engender personal and professional growth. In a short period of time, he provided these folks with the tool sets needed to cultivate and expand their current network relationships along with strategies enabling them to build new meaningful and personable relationships. Success from a corporate standpoint hinges on the efficacy and ability to communicate both within and across all departments. I think Keith was instrumental in addressing our goals as a corporation and we'd love to have him back in the future.

  Deutsche Bank

• You have a phenomenal message, tremendous business insights and a wonderful understanding of the human condition.

  Assante Wealth Management

• I truly enjoyed Keith's presentation. He is a humble man who spoke truth and enlightenment. He made a tremendous impact on our meeting. It was emotional and I knew we had made the right choice by inviting him to speak.

  Aramark

• The gift of Keith's message that he gave to our agents was very powerful and left them on their feet at his ability to create a behavior change within the room and all throughout the conference. I am confident that his presentation will become the new standard for relationship building at all of our conferences and I can't wait to bring him back to our next event!

  King Pharmaceuticals

• The Global Mentoring event was a huge success and I am glad Keith Ferrazzi was part of it. His energy is contagious. There is no question he is doing exactly what he was put on earth to do. He is amazing.

  Merck & Co., Inc.

• Keith's message came at a much needed time. While many of our realtors have adapted and outperformed the current market, their future long term success remains questionable in an industry of constant flux. We are in the business of relationships. Our success hinges on our ability to develop, nurture, and expand meaningful relationships both internally and externally with out clients. Keith has helped us bridge a gap to understanding the added value proposition of building genuine relationships that transcend the current transactional mindset indicative of this industry.

  Prudential Fox & Roach

• I am pleased to have worked with Keith Ferrazzi. Keith and the team at Ferrazzi Greenlight took the time to understand our business and more importantly issues we needed to address head-on in order to launch a significant change initiative aimed at our top clients. The program they designed helped us break down silos and achieved buy-in we hoped for. We moved from confusion and uncertainty to clarity. The methodology has enabled us to be more transparent with one another and helped our senior people focus on what they need to get done to drive our business.

  CB Richard Ellis

• The speech [Keith] delivered was one of the best I've heard in years at this conference. I knew that the brokers took more from both your presentations than any other speaker we've brought to our event in the years that I've been year. The feedback on your presentations was outstanding. You do a great job.

  Coldwell Banker

• Keith, your presentation was a real hit with the young professionals. They are a group that is not easily impressed and you certainly did that and brought real life lessos and value for the group to apply.

  Executives Club of Chicago

• Keith Ferrazzi is not a typical keynote speaker. He began his presentation off stage, down in the middle aisle near the audience, speaking directly to the attendees. Keith was engaging, candid and inspiring. Choosing him as our speaker for this first time event was an excellent decision that created a buzz during and after the event. Keith challenged attendees to go beyond networking, stop focusing on themselves and get out there and create meaningful relationships that will help take their business and personal life to the next level.

  Detroit Regional Chamber

• Keith Ferrazzi's keynote on -Unleashing the Power of Your Event - was the best session of our conference and I wish he could have continued longer. I wish he could have spoken all day.

  Council of Protocol Executives (COPE)

• Keith spoke at our Conference Kick Off last Tuesday with some of the greatest feedback we've seen at this conference's history! We're looking at working together again soon.

  Human Resources Professional Association of Ontario (HRPAO)

• You ABSOLUTELY triumphed as chairman. You brought an energy and excitement that was not only enjoyable - it added value to the experience and left people truly inspired. Many people can carry the role of chair - but you really soared. You are obviously very skilled and extraordinarily talented in pushing people beyond!

  Institute of International Research (IIR)

• We could not have chose a better way to kick off our conference than opening with Keith. He energized the audience, increased the level of engagement and connection among attendees, and provided important learnings that carried over through the balance of the conference. In fact, a number of other keynote and workshop speakers referred back to Keith's presentation. The feedback we have received since the conference has been outstanding, with Keith and his plenary noted as highlights.

  Boyden Global Executive Search

• Your speech was by and large the most discussed event at our conference! Your zeal and your enthusiasm was not only seen but felt throughout the entire audience. Your insight on how to turn an ordinary conference, a meeting, or any other type of corporate event into an opportunity to foster deep personal relationships provided our members with a refreshing new outlook that will forever change the way they conduct business. Your concepts of transparency and vulnerability allowed our members to immediately connect and interact with one another a level I thought was never possible. I still am receiving emails to this day recognizing the impact Keith's message has had on both their professional and personal lives!

  Meeting Professionals International (MPI)

• Keith's message was extremely empowering and insightful. He's ability to clearly communicate the strategies and practices critical for building deeper, more personal relationships provided our members a roadmap that will allow them develop meaningful relationships long after the conference. His messages on personal branding and individual currency helped our members shift their current perceptions about their profession on both a micro and macro level.

  Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals (SOCAP)

• Keith was the perfect opening keynote speaker at our conference. His energy woke up the room and got the Summit off to a sizzling start. You could see the audience perk up and hang on Keith's every word. His anecdotes from his years as chief marketing officer really resonated with this particular audience. People were inspired and energized by Keith's presentation. In fact, I had several attendees ask for Keith's contact information to secure him for their future sales and marketing meetings. In a day which also featured keynotes from Mark Cuban and CNN's Anderson Cooper, Keith was the conference's most talked about speaker.

  CNN International

• Wow! I was amazed by the impact that Keith had on our group at our annual meeting. He was able to take a group of already tight-knit individuals and help them to better the relationships that they have with one another. I have already seen our members start to apply Keith' s principles in with their teams and clients.

  Corporate Event Marketing Association (CEMA)

• 
  May 2009

  Who's Got Your Back: The Breakthrough Program to Build Deep, Trusting Relationships That Create Success - and Won't Let You Fail

  Disregard the myth of the lone professional "superman" and the rest of our culture's go-it alone mentality. The real path to success in your work and in your life is through creating an inner circle of "lifeline relationships" - deep, close relationships with a few key trusted individuals who will offer the encouragement, feedback, and generous mutual support every one of us needs to reach our full potential. Whether your dream is to lead a company, be a top producer in your field, overcome the self-destructive habits that hold you back, lose weight or make a difference in the larger world, Who's Got Your Back will give you the roadmap you've been looking for to achieve the success you deserve.
  
  Keith Ferrazzi, the internationally renowned thought leader, consultant, and bestselling author of Never Eat Alone, shows us that becoming a winner in any field of endeavor requires a trusted team of advisors who can offer guidance and help to hold us accountable to achieving our goals. It is the reason PH.D candidates have advisor teams, top executives have boards, world class athletes have fitness coaches, and presidents have cabinets.

  
  
• 
  February 2005

  Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

  Do you want to get ahead in life? Climb the ladder to personal success?
  
  The secret, master networker Keith Ferrazzi claims, is in reaching out to other people. As Ferrazzi discovered early in life, what distinguishes highly successful people from everyone else is the way they use the power of relationships - so that everyone wins.
  
  In Never Eat Alone, Ferrazzi lays out the specific steps - and inner mindset - he uses to reach out to connect with the thousands of colleagues, friends, and associates on his Rolodex, people he has helped and who have helped him.
  
  The son of a small-town steelworker and a cleaning lady, Ferrazzi first used his remarkable ability to connect with others to pave the way to a scholarship at Yale, a Harvard MBA, and several top executive posts. Not yet out of his thirties, he developed a network of relationships that stretched from Washington's corridors of power to Hollywood's A-list, leading to him being named one of Crain's 40 Under 40 and selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the Davos World Economic Forum.
  
  Ferrazzi's form of connecting to the world around him is based on generosity, helping friends connect with other friends. Ferrazzi distinguishes genuine relationship-building from the crude, desperate glad-handling usually associated with "networking." He then distills his system of reaching out to people into practical, proven principles.