Creative Thinking Keynote Speakers
Founders, artists, researchers, and craft teachers who show business audiences how original ideas actually get made, sold, and scaled.
Creativity is not a personality trait reserved for the art department; it is the discipline behind every brand, product, and business model that ever felt inevitable in hindsight. The speakers on this page prove it from every angle. Mike Cessario turned canned water into Liquid Death, one of the fastest-growing beverage brands in America, on marketing audacity alone. Jesse Cole reinvented baseball with the Savannah Bananas and now sells out stadiums nationwide. Wharton professor Jonah Berger brings the research on why some ideas catch on while better ones die, and graffiti artist Erik Wahl paints the argument live on stage. Whether your audience needs a founder's war stories, a researcher's evidence, a performer's spectacle, or a practical toolkit for everyday innovation, the right creative thinking keynote speaker matches the way your room works and the change you need it to make.
Creative Founders and Brand Builders
Founders who built brands on pure imagination: Mike Cessario's Liquid Death, Christina Tosi's Milk Bar, and Jesse Cole's Savannah Bananas.
Mike Cessario
Founder and CEO of Liquid Death, the brand that turned canned water into a multibillion-dollar entertainment company. The definitive modern case study in creative audacity: no product advantage, just a wildly original idea executed without compromise. For audiences who need proof that imagination is a business model.
Christina Tosi
Founder and CEO of Milk Bar, two-time James Beard Award winner, NYT bestselling author, and Netflix host. Built a national dessert empire from one unconventional bakery by treating imagination as a daily discipline. Speaks on creativity, dreaming big, and building cultures where wild ideas actually get made.
Jesse Cole
Owner of the Savannah Bananas, the yellow-tuxedoed showman who reinvented baseball with Banana Ball and sells out stadiums nationwide. A masterclass in fans-first creativity: challenge every industry norm, make work theater, and turn attention into a business. Ideal when the room needs permission to be different.
Will Guidara
Restaurateur who helped take Eleven Madison Park to number one in the world and author of the bestseller Unreasonable Hospitality. Shows how creative, over-the-top gestures for customers become strategy rather than garnish. For audiences rethinking service, experience, and how imaginative generosity wins whole markets.
Daymond John
Founder of FUBU, star of Shark Tank, and billionaire businessman who turned a $40 budget into a global fashion brand. Embodies scrappy creativity: making outsized ideas real with no money and no permission. Brings founder-grade credibility and star power to any conversation about resourceful, inventive thinking.
Jamie Siminoff
Inventor and founder of Ring, the video doorbell company he started in his garage, pitched unsuccessfully on Shark Tank, and later sold to Amazon for over a billion dollars. A story about believing in an idea nobody else could see. Perfect proof that creative conviction outlasts rejection.
Chris Barton
Founder and creator of Shazam, the app that taught phones to recognize music and was acquired by Apple. Speaks on the creativity of committing to a problem years before the technology is ready to solve it. For rooms chasing breakthrough ideas rather than incremental improvements.
Johnny Cupcakes
Founder of Johnny Cupcakes, the world's first t-shirt bakery and a case study in cult branding taught at business schools. Built fierce loyalty on experience, scarcity, and joyfully weird details instead of ad spend. A high-energy lesson in how imagination beats marketing budgets.
Teachers of the Creative Craft
Practical creativity and innovation methods, from Josh Linkner's idea habits to Simon Sinek's why and Kindra Hall's business storytelling.
Josh Linkner
Five-time tech entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, and self-described creative troublemaker. One of the most booked creativity keynoters in America, translating jazz-guitar improvisation and startup practice into repeatable innovation habits for large organizations. The proven mainstage pick that still surprises.
Simon Sinek
TED phenomenon and author of the bestsellers Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, and The Infinite Game. Reframes creativity as clarity of purpose: teams generate original ideas when they know why they exist. Brings marquee name recognition and a rigorous framework to a creativity mainstage.
Kindra Hall
Strategic storyteller and bestselling author on the art of storytelling in business. Teaches storytelling as the most practical creative skill a company owns, giving sales, marketing, and leadership teams a craft they can use Monday morning: finding, shaping, and telling the stories that move buyers and teams.
Mick Ebeling
Founder of Not Impossible Labs, two-time SXSW Innovator of the Year, and world humanitarian whose team 3D-printed prosthetic arms for children in Sudan. Teaches commit-first creativity: take on an absurd goal, then figure out how. Deeply moving and genuinely instructive on creative problem solving.
Kyle Scheele
Professional believer in crazy ideas whose viral creative projects have earned hundreds of millions of views online. Funny, fast, and disarmingly practical about why bad ideas are the raw material of good ones and how to give teams permission to chase them. A fresh, younger creativity voice.
Alex Banayan
Author of The Third Door, the international bestseller built on a seven-year quest to interview Bill Gates, Lady Gaga, and other icons about how they launched. The book's premise is itself a creativity framework: there is always an unconventional way in. Resonates hard with ambitious younger audiences.
Pascal Finette
AI expert and lead faculty at Singularity University who has spent a career at the intersection of exponential technology and disruptive innovation. Gives leadership teams durable frameworks for building creative, future-ready organizations rather than one-off brainstorms. A substance-heavy pick for strategy-minded rooms.
Artists and Performers
Speakers who create live on stage: graffiti artist Erik Wahl, magician Jon Dorenbos, and keynote pianist Felipe Gomez.
Erik Wahl
Internationally known graffiti artist who paints giant portraits live on stage in minutes, then gives them away, while making the business case for creative risk. One of the most requested creativity keynotes in the industry because the message and the spectacle are the same thing.
Jon Dorenbos
Two-time Pro Bowl NFL long snapper turned world-class magician, America's Got Talent finalist, and author of Life Is Magic. Uses sleight of hand to show that perspective is a choice, wrapped in a stunning personal story. Creativity, resilience, and pure entertainment in a single booking.
Felipe Gomez
Keynote pianist, entrepreneur, and bestselling author who performs live at a grand piano to demonstrate attitude, virtuosity, and innovation. Turns musical performance into a memorable framework for creative excellence at work. A polished, bilingual pick with strong appeal for international and executive audiences.
Phil Hansen
Multimedia artist who developed a tremor that ended his pointillism, then rebuilt his art around the limitation, the story behind his famous TED talk Embrace the Shake. Creates art live on stage while teaching creativity inside constraints. Unforgettable for any innovation-themed event.
Jonathan Mangum
TV improv virtuoso from Whose Line Is It Anyway and Let's Make a Deal who turns yes-and thinking into a hilarious, fully participatory keynote. Improv is applied creativity: listening, adapting, and building on ideas in real time. Ideal energy for kickoffs and all-hands meetings.
Jimmy Yeary
Award-winning Nashville songwriter whose songs have been recorded by country music's biggest names. Deconstructs how a hit gets written, live with a guitar in hand, to show how empathy and word choice create connection. A disarming, musical window into the creative process itself.
Allison Massari
Artist, entrepreneur, and burn survivor who rebuilt her life and her painting career after two catastrophic accidents. Connects creativity to resilience: the same imagination that makes art can remake a life. A deeply human choice when the creativity conversation needs heart as well as craft.
Jeff Civillico
Longtime Las Vegas headliner whose comedy and juggling act ran for a decade on the Strip. Blends world-class stagecraft with a genuine business message about passion, grit, and engagement. The pick when a creativity program needs guaranteed entertainment value with real substance underneath.
The Science of Ideas
Researchers on how ideas work: Wharton's Jonah Berger, Atomic Habits author James Clear, and Google's first decision scientist Cassie Kozyrkov.
Jonah Berger
Wharton marketing professor and bestselling author of Contagious and Invisible Influence. Brings peer-reviewed research on why ideas catch on, spread, and change minds. The academic anchor for a creativity program: not just how to have original ideas, but how to make them travel through an organization.
James Clear
Author of Atomic Habits, the number one New York Times bestseller with over 20 million copies sold. Makes the research-backed case that creative output is a systems problem: small habits, environment design, and consistency beat waiting for inspiration. An enormous draw for any mainstage audience.
Cassie Kozyrkov
Google's first Chief Decision Scientist and pioneer of the field of decision intelligence. Shows how rigorous thinking and creative thinking are the same discipline: framing better questions, challenging assumptions, and deciding well with data and AI. Serious analytical credibility for innovation-minded rooms.
David Burkus
Organizational psychologist, Columbia University professor, and world-ranked business thinker whose book The Myths of Creativity dismantles the eureka moment with evidence. Gives leaders research-tested practices for how teams actually generate, judge, and champion ideas. The bridge between creativity craft and creativity science.
Robert Safian
Former editor-in-chief of Fast Company, where he coined Generation Flux and interviewed the leaders of the world's most innovative companies. Brings a journalist's pattern recognition across hundreds of creative organizations to explain what actually separates them. Ideal as a big-picture opener or moderator.
Explore All Creative Thinking Speakers
Alex Honnold
The greatest rock climber of all time and star of the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo. His ropeless ascent of El Capitan is a study in imaginative preparation: visualizing and rehearsing a feat nobody believed possible. For rooms drawn to bold, singular achievement and fear management.
Amanda Gore
Communications and performance expert who has spent decades teaching how joyful cultures and people outperform. Connects positive emotion to openness, energy, and idea flow at work. A warm, high-participation choice when the real goal is a creative culture, not a creativity lecture.
Amy Jo Martin
Founder of Digital Royalty, bestselling author of Renegades Write the Rules, and a pioneer of personal branding with elite athletes and celebrities. Speaks on renegade thinking and human transformation. Fits when creativity means rewriting the rules of your own industry playbook.
Clara Durodié
Fintech strategist specializing in applied AI in financial services, advising boards on adoption and governance. Brings a disciplined view of how heavily regulated industries can still think inventively about emerging technology. Best for financial services audiences that want creativity with guardrails.
Erik Qualman
Bestselling author of Socialnomics and digital leadership researcher who helps organizations stay focused and forward-thinking amid digital disruption. Frames creativity as disciplined attention: choosing what not to do so new ideas get room to grow. A strong fit for tech-adjacent leadership meetings.
Heather McGowan
Workforce transformation expert and thought leader on how organizations adapt when learning outpaces knowing. Argues that the creative capacity of people is the core asset of the post-AI workforce. For leadership audiences connecting talent strategy to innovation strategy.
Mike Massimino
Former NASA astronaut who helped repair the Hubble Space Telescope, Columbia University professor, and media personality. His spacewalk stories are case studies in inventive problem solving when failure is fatal and the toolkit is fixed. Crowd-pleasing proof that constraints breed ingenuity.
Molly Bloom
Entrepreneur and bestselling author of Molly's Game, the memoir behind the Aaron Sorkin film, about building and losing the world's most exclusive poker game. A story of improvisational enterprise, risk, and reinvention. Fits creativity programs centered on audacity and second acts.
Nick Tasler
Organizational psychologist and author whose Year of Wonders research shows how windows of disruption accelerate growth for the people and teams who decide fast. Connects the psychology of change to creative momentum. A practical fit for organizations in the middle of transformation.
Ryan Estis
Hyper-growth entrepreneur, bestselling author, and former advertising executive who helps sales and leadership teams reimagine how they create value for clients. Brings creative thinking to the commercial front line where it converts to revenue. Best for sales kickoffs with an innovation theme.
Stacey Hanke
Communication expert and author who trains leaders to be influential Monday to Monday, not just on stage. Creative ideas die without influence; she teaches the delivery and presence skills that get them heard and adopted. A tactical complement to bigger-picture creativity keynotes.
Tim Gard
Hall of Fame humorist and stress-reduction expert who teaches comic vision: seeing the workplace through a lens that turns irritation into laughter. Playfulness is a trainable creativity skill, and few teach it better. Ideal for burned-out teams and service-heavy organizations.
Tyronne Stoudemire
Senior Vice President of Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Hyatt Hotels and a leading voice on inclusive cultures. Makes the business case that diverse teams out-create homogeneous ones. Fits creativity programs that want the innovation-through-inclusion angle from a practitioner, not a theorist.
This roster covers the full range of what creativity means in business. Founders like Christina Tosi, Will Guidara, and Jamie Siminoff built unconventional companies from scratch and can tell the room exactly what it cost. Craft teachers like Josh Linkner, Kindra Hall, and Mick Ebeling hand teams repeatable methods for generating ideas and getting them adopted. Performers and artists including Jon Dorenbos, Felipe Gomez, and Phil Hansen embody the creative act live on stage, while researchers like James Clear, Cassie Kozyrkov, and David Burkus explain the science underneath it all.
Creative thinking keynotes work across formats: an opening keynote that sets an inventive tone for a conference, a closing session that sends attendees home ready to act, an all-hands or sales kickoff that needs energy and fresh perspective, or a leadership offsite built around innovation. Rave Speakers handles the entire booking, from shortlist to contract to day-of logistics, and can recommend the right fit for your audience, budget, and theme.
Call (310) 614-8653 or email [email protected] to check availability and fees.
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