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Josh Linkner

Award-Winning Entrepreneur & Creativity & Innovation Expert

Bio

Josh Linkner is a creative troublemaker. He passionately believes that all human beings have incredible creative capacity, and he’s on a mission to unlock inventive thinking and creative problem solving to help leaders, individuals, and communities soar.

A New York Times bestselling author, Josh is an internationally recognized expert on innovation, disruption, hyper-growth leadership, and applied creativity. His first book, Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity, became one of the most definitive works on the topic of innovation, and has since been published in 13 languages. His other two books, The Road to Reinvention: How to Drive Disruption and Accelerate Transformation and Hacking Innovation: The New Growth Model from the Sinister World of Hackers, have both received critical acclaim for pushing the boundaries of business leaders worldwide. His latest book published in April 2021 is Big Little Breakthroughs: How Small, Everyday Innovations Drive Oversized Results. He has invested in and/or mentored over 100 startups and is the Founding Partner of Detroit Venture Partners.

Today, Linkner serves as Chairman and co-founder of Platypus Labs, an innovation research, training, and consulting firm. He has twice been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and is the recipient of the United States Presidential Champion of Change Award.

Josh has twice been named the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year and is a President Barack Obama Champion of Change award recipient. He is a regular columnist for Forbes, The Detroit Free Press, and Inc. His work on innovation has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, CNN, and The New York Times.

Topics & Categories
  • Business Management & Strategy
  • CEOs & Business Leaders
  • Change | Change Mgmt.
  • Creativity & Innovation
  • Employee Engagement
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Future Trends
  • Human Resources & Workplace Culture
  • Leadership
  • Performance & Productivity
  • Sales & Service
  • Team-Work & Collaboration
  • TED Speakers
  • Virtual Presentations

VIRTUAL PRESENTATIONS

Inspiration and practical learning can still be enjoyed while practicing 'physical distancing'. 5-time tech entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, and professional jazz musician Josh Linkner has deep experience delivering virtual and remote keynotes, workshops, and training programs. Using the latest interactive, cutting-edge technology, Josh will ensure your group walks away inspired and better equipped by participating in one of his energizing and practical sessions. Even in these challenging times, business must move forward. Invite Josh to give your team a "creative upgrade", allowing them to use inventive thinking and creative problem solving to fight through adversity and seize new opportunities. It may be remote, but your audience will feel the energy and passion as they are moved to action.

KEYNOTES (all of the following can be delivered virtually)

BIG LITTLE BREAKTHROUGHS: How small, everyday ideas drive gigantic results +

The pressure to generate big ideas can feel overwhelming. We know that bold innovations are critical in these disruptive and competitive times, but when it comes to breakthrough thinking, we often freeze up.

Instead of shooting for a $10 billion IPO or a Nobel Prize, the most prolific innovators focus instead on Big Little Breakthroughs – small, creative acts that unlock massive rewards over time. By building a daily habit of creativity, leaders and organizations not only enjoy a high volume of small wins, but also the daily practice of micro-innovations — the fastest route to discover the massive breakthroughs we seek.

How did a convicted drug dealer use a Big Little Breakthrough to launch and scale a massively successful fitness company? Why was a nurse practitioner able to use daily micro-innovations to solve healthcare problems that the biggest corporations couldn’t crack? How did a tattoo lead to a 30% boost in performance for a publicly traded restaurant company?

Big Little Breakthroughs isn’t just for propeller-head inventors, fancy pants CEOs, or hoodie-donning tech billionaires. Rather, it is a simple yet effective method for all of us to cultivate the power of human creativity. Focusing on a simple and deliberate approach to daily practice, the system enables people from all backgrounds, training, and walks of life to expand their creative skillset and mindset. It helps everyday individuals and leaders unlock inventive thinking and harness innovation to tackle tough challenges and seize bold opportunities.

The Big Little Breakthroughs framework provides a specific and practical approach to unlocking dormant creative capacity. Instead of wild, risky and expensive moonshots, participants learn to unleash small, daily creative acts to drive gigantic results over time. In fact, cultivating high volumes of micro-innovations not only de-risks the creative process, it builds the much-needed skills that lead to colossal transformations...and the creative confidence to take responsible risks. --

FIND A WAY: How creative problem solving can tackle any challenge +

In uncertain times, we can no longer rely on the models of the past and expect the same results. Creative problem solving has long been the core ingredient in overcoming adversity and seizing new opportunities. In this inspiring keynote, participants will learn specific techniques and leave both energized and better equipped to conquer challenges and drive possibilities.

How can smaller organizations outpunch their competition and grow with limited resources? How can leaders bounce back and recover after facing painful setbacks? How can creative resilience be harnessed to conquer adversity?

In this high-energy session, participants will see how creative problem solving can become their most powerful resource. They’ll uncover specific techniques to unlock inventive thinking and win even against impossible odds. --

The 5 MINDSETS of INNOVATION: How the world’s most innovative leaders think and act +

Having interviewed hundreds of top innovators, leaders and organizations around the world, New York Times bestselling author and tech entrepreneur Josh Linkner uncovered the five most powerful mindsets that are the building blocks for jaw-dropping innovation. In this high-energy keynote, your audience will learn to embrace these powerful approaches in order to conquer adversity and fuel growth.

How did an oddball idea save the cattle industry over $1 billion? How did a large hotel chain create a new revenue stream and drive competitive differentiation without investing a penny? How did the leaders of a small organization stave off a near-certain extinction, even when they were overwhelmingly outmatched by a powerful enemy?

Each mindset is reinforced through surprising, real-world examples, laugh out loud moments, and practical takeaways. The five mindsets are portable and can be applied immediately to any role, job function, or industry. This memorable session will leave your audience inspired, moved, and better equipped. --

The CREATIVITY UPGRADE: Lead your team to the next level of innovation, growth, and sustainable success +

On a regular basis, we upgrade our cars, software, and wardrobe. But when was the last time you upgraded your imagination? Isn’t it about time to give your team a boost of inventive thinking, creative problem solving, and everyday innovation to drive better outcomes?

From your upgrade, you will:

  1. Learn and understand the mindsets of innovators
  2. Grasp the need for – and urgency – of change
  3. Become inspired to take action and forge a new path
  4. Acquire specific techniques for creative problem solving
  5. Leverage human imagination to outpunch the competition
  6. Understand how and where to use inventive thinking to fuel growth
  7. Discover fresh possibilities with heightened level of creative awareness
  8. Recognize that we are all creative, and that everyday innovation is accessible for every role and job function
  9. Demystify the creative process
  10. Emerge with specific tools to close the Creativity Gap to achieve full potential
  11. Launch a new version of you – as a powerful creative force

In this inspiring keynote, Josh will help your team grow, as both business leaders and as people. Your audience will learn to solve problems in creative, non-traditional ways and expand their creative capacity to drive growth and sustainable success.

Your group will laugh hysterically, feel thoroughly energized, get deeply inspired, and leave better equipped. Now that’s an upgrade that’s simply irresistible. --

THINK & ACT LIKE A STARTUP: How celebrity entrepreneurs generate game-changing solutions +

Have you ever wondered how Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg think and act behind the scenes? How do the billionaire founders we revere invent bold ideas, do more with less, and change the world as a result? What would happen if the founder of Snapchat or Zoom joined your organization?

Tech startups aren’t the only ones who can think differently. We can all use this same creative thinking in our own careers, companies, and communities.

In this energizing and surprising keynote, five-time tech entrepreneur and venture capital investor Josh Linkner demystifies startup thinking and shares a specific methodology that we can put into practice immediately. Audience members will learn to embrace the creativity, grit, and vision of a startup and then channel this approach to drive growth, innovation, efficiency, and customer delight. Participants get an insider’s look as Josh Linkner decodes startup thinking to help leaders of any size company in any industry or profession:

  • Understand how an entrepreneur would attack their organization with the specific goal of dislodging it
  • Reimagine their role through the lens of an entrepreneur
  • Harness the ferocity of entrepreneurial thinking
  • Embrace “startup speed” to increase velocity in their own organizations
  • Learn the five best approaches used by startups to create disruption
  • Avoid the weaknesses that plague entrepreneurs by exposing the four biggest startup death traps --

Additional Topic Examples:

FIND YOUR SPARK: INSPIRING GROWTH, INNOVATION, DISRUPTION, AND ACTION +

A spark. A flash of creative brilliance. A new beginning. The energy to forge ahead when things get tough.

What if we could cultivate and deploy this white-hot, mighty force? What if we injected sparks of innovation, competitive advantage, and sustainable growth into our organizations? Whether it’s mustering the courage to take that first step, or harnessing the creative soul of your team to ignite wide-sweeping transformation, it’s time to create sparks so powerful they can’t be ignored.

The long-awaited breakthrough idea. The inspiration to drive change. The unexpected solution to a burdensome problem. The beginning of unstoppable momentum.

In this inspiring and actionable keynote, famed tech entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author provides a memorable performance to help you cultivate those powerful, combustible forces. Through real-world examples, hysterically funny stories, and practical takeaways, Josh will help you and your organization find your spark.  --

HARNESSING INNOVATION: TURNING RAW IDEAS INTO POWERFUL RESULTS +

As a four-time successful tech entrepreneur and investor in dozens of startups, Josh Linkner has seen thousands of companies loaded with creative buzz and big ideas. How is it that some harness their imagination to create game-changing drivers of growth and innovation while others miss the mark?  The answer: the best companies have a systematic process to focus their team’s creativity into practical outputs – something Linkner discovered by founding and building companies that collectively sold for over $200 million. As a professional-level jazz guitarist, Linkner blends the improvisational qualities of a jazz ensemble with bleeding-edge business savvy to bring a completely fresh perspective on unleashing creativity in the organization.  His inspiring presentation delivers practical tools that can be used immediately to increase creative output and deliver bottom-line results.  You’ll learn to:

  • Use specific techniques to harness your most powerful ideas;
  • Apply creativity on a daily basis across all business activities and roles;
  • Break free from the three biggest blockers of creativity;
  • Apply best practices from the world’s most innovative companies;
  • Avoid the five biggest creativity killers;
  • Master the three most powerful brainstorming techniques that you’ve never even heard of;
  • Build a culture that celebrates fresh thinking and embraces new ideas. --

HACKING INNOVATION: THE NEW GROWTH MODEL FROM THE SINISTER WORLD OF HACKERS +

With intense competitive pressures and mind-numbing speed, leaders seek fresh approaches for growth and innovation. As old methods become commoditized, new creative problem-solving techniques are needed more than ever. Drawing inspiration from the unlikely world of hackers, NY Times bestselling author and 5-time tech entrepreneur Josh Linkner has discovered a new and powerful model for leadership and organizational success. The underworld of cybercriminals contains some of the most creative people on the planet, despite their illicit motives. In this thrilling and provocative talk, Linkner takes the audience on a mind-opening journey, showing how hacking techniques can be deployed to drive legitimate business outcomes. Learning how hackers would solve your most pressing challenges using unorthodox approaches will give you a new framework for creative problem solving, growth, and innovation. You’ll learn:

  • Specific tools and techniques from the Five Core Mindsets and Ten Primary Tactics of Hackers
  • Fresh approaches to complex problem solving
  • How a hacker would approach your work if he or she had your job
  • Why unorthodox moves can lead to the best business outcomes
  • How to protect yourself and your company from innovation hackers of all sizes and types --

THE GRAVITY-DEFYING LEADER: INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO HYPER-GROWTH LEADERSHIP +

With disruptive forces assaulting business from every direction, creativity has been labeled the single-most important business attribute.  To succeed, leaders must be focused on creating a resilient culture where everyone’s engaged; a torrent of fresh, creative ideas needs to flow from every level of the organization.  Top leaders then employ a secret weapon: a systematic approach to selecting and launching the ideas that will best drive growth and innovation.  Josh Linkner weighs in with a fresh perspective on this critical leadership challenge.  A highly successful serial entrepreneur and now a tech investor, Linkner shows leaders how to employ his simple but effective framework to ramp up the creativity and identify/launch ideas that will break through and defy gravity. This presentation will help leaders:

  • Challenge assumptions and conventional wisdom;
  • Build courage to foster responsible risk taking;
  • Authentically express your own creativity and tap into the hidden creativity of your team members;
  • Develop "everyday creativity" to attack business problems of all sizes;
  • Deploy creativity beyond R&D to reimagine processes, drive efficiency, and improve operations;
  • Uncover fresh approaches for reinvention and growth. --

THE MUSIC OF BUSINESS: TRANSLATING IMPROVISATIONAL THINKING FROM THE JAZZ STAGE TO THE BUSINESS WORLD +

Be prepared to be amazed. Josh Linkner, a jazz guitarist since age 14, credits a musical background for giving him a different way of looking at business. In this stunning interactive presentation, a live jazz performance by Josh and his band is woven with stimulating dialogue.  You’ll actually hear, through their music, fresh ways to unleash your organization’s creative mojo.  In jazz, 99% of the notes are improvised; created in real-time. Yet it’s the structure of a jazz combo – not the inherent talent of individual musicians – that allows for such breathtaking creative expression. In today’s business landscape of dizzying speed, exponential complexity, and ruthless competition, we can no longer just play the notes on the written page. You will learn powerful lessons inspired by jazz musicians (a/k/a "real-time innovators") to help you:

  • Develop your own ability to improvise, no matter what job title you hold;
  • Establish team dynamics that foster creative thinking and risk taking;
  • Uncover fresh approaches to previously unchallenged assumptions;
  • Break free from traditional thinking and uncover vast new possibilities;
  • Learn 5 secret techniques used by jazz musicians to foster creativity, which can easily be adapted to your own organization;
  • Expand your ability to deal with ambiguity and recover from setbacks. --

Josh Linkner is represented by K&M Productions. For more information, Josh Linkner's speaking schedule, fees & booking speaker Josh Linkner, contact us.

What Clients are Saying

Thank you a million times over—you nailed it with the presentation yesterday and it was spot on for our team! You sparked so many follow-on discussions yesterday and were a continued theme throughout our meeting—people are already brainstorming great new ideas about how to implement small innovations and use your tips to break down barriers on our teams.

–American Express

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Thank you a million times over—you nailed it with the presentation yesterday and it was spot on for our team! You sparked so many follow-on discussions yesterday and were a continued theme throughout our meeting—people are already brainstorming great new ideas about how to implement small innovations and use your tips to break down barriers on our teams.

–American Express

The message about creativity and innovation was excellent. It was clear, well researched, engaging and kept the attention of the audience. Your use of stories, facts and humor made the time fly by. I had several people come up to me afterword and thank me for having you come in and speak to the group. They were energized and excited to put the principles in play.

–Quicken Loans

We truly appreciate how your keynote talk set the stage for the day and inspired the audience with innovative ideas, empowered them with the knowledge we can all be creative, and how you customized your session so we all felt that you knew FedEx intimately and were talking directly to us. Great job! Really enjoyed it.

–FedEx

I felt compelled to let you know how blown away I was by your presentation to us yesterday in London.  It was quite literally one of the most motivating and thought provoking 2 hours of my professional career.

–Heineken

Josh did a tremendous job and his creativity message resonated perfectly with the audience and was right on target.

–National Association of REALTORS

Thank you for not only a great presentation but for challenging our team to make that next step forward. I got stopped multiple times and the feedback was very positive, 'That was great', 'Wow – he really got us', 'A great wake-up call', 'Makes me want to do better’. A big thank you for your straight forward handling of the questions. Even the questions were a bit of a wake-up call for the team. Your energy, story, tips and drive were exceptional.

–Steve Smith, Vice President IT, GEICO

Josh has unmatched ability to embrace innovation. At his repeated visits to Viacom, Josh has consistently offered the strategic ideas and practical techniques necessary to drive creative thinking.

–Nia Bates, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Viacom

On a dreary winter afternoon, Josh raised the energy level at our quarterly team meeting with thought-provoking discussion on creativity and leadership. His passion is contagious. The concepts discussed were supported with both qualitative and quantitative data so it appealed to both left and right-brained colleagues. We were engaged throughout and left the meeting fired up!

–Deloitte Consulting

I just wanted to drop you an email to say a big thanks again for the input today. The feedback I have heard has been incredibly positive, and I think it really contributed to the strong outcomes for the real work we went on to do over the day.  It was definitely the first time I’ve heard someone from Sony Japan feedback to a room as Yoda! I also really appreciated how you tailored you message to the audience from the discussions in the weeks prior to the program.

–Sony

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