KEYNOTE SPEAKING
Katie's program is 100% customized for your event or conference. Through personal narrative and exciting stories from the field, the audience can find moral and lesson within each anecdote and are shown relatable parallels in the office, with clients, through teamwork, and anything in between.
KEYNOTE SPEAKING
Katie's program is 100% customized for your event or conference. Through personal narrative and exciting stories from the field, the audience can find moral and lesson within each anecdote and are shown relatable parallels in the office, with clients, through teamwork, and anything in between.
Leaders & Teams
The Purpose Pipeline
New Currency for a Future-Ready Workplace
With AI projected to free up to 12 hours per week per employee, organizations have a unique opportunity to create purpose-rich and fulfilling work environments
Leaders & Teams
The Future of Leadership
Transforming Teams by Balancing Masculine and Feminine Leadership Principles
Discover how empathy, intuition, and authenticity are driving the next wave of high-impact leadership.
Leaders & Teams
Mastering Change
Leadership Lessons from the Field
In today’s fast-evolving business landscape, resilience alone is no longer enough—leaders must cultivate everyday adaptability and creativity to stay ahead.
University/College Students
Finding Your Compass
Building Purpose and Resilience as a College Student
Real Stories and Strategies to Help You Turn Setbacks Into Stepping Stones and Discover Your True Path During College and Beyond
Female Empowerment
Courageous Women
Trusting Intuition in the Face of Uncertainty
Discover the power to shape your career, relationships, and personal journey.
Entrepreneurs & Investors
Build a Lasting Legacy
Crafting a Future that Outlives You
In a world where wealth can be quickly generated, the real challenge lies in creating a legacy that endures.
Leaders & Teams
The Purpose Pipeline
New Currency for a Future-Ready Workplace
With AI projected to free up to 12 hours per week per employee, organizations have a unique opportunity to create purpose-rich and fulfilling work environments
Leaders & Teams
The Future of Leadership
Transforming Teams by Balancing Masculine and Feminine Leadership Principles
Discover how empathy, intuition, and authenticity are driving the next wave of high-impact leadership.
Leaders & Teams
Mastering Change
Leadership Lessons from the Field
In today’s fast-evolving business landscape, resilience alone is no longer enough—leaders must cultivate everyday adaptability and creativity to stay ahead.
University/College Students
Finding Your Compass
Building Purpose and Resilience as a College Student
Real Stories and Strategies to Help You Turn Setbacks Into Stepping Stones and Discover Your True Path During College and Beyond
Female Empowerment
Courageous Women
Trusting Intuition in the Face of Uncertainty
Discover the power to shape your career, relationships, and personal journey.
Entrepreneurs & Investors
Build a Lasting Legacy
Crafting a Future that Outlives You
In a world where wealth can be quickly generated, the real challenge lies in creating a legacy that endures.
KEYNOTE TOPICS
01
The Purpose Pipeline
The Key to Company Innovation, Retention, and Growth
With trends like The Great Resignation and quiet quitting dominating today’s headlines, it’s clear that the old strategies of retention and engagement are broken. Nearly 40% of employees are considering leaving their jobs because they no longer find meaning in what they do. It’s time to pivot from outdated motivators like salary alone and instead embrace purpose as the ultimate driver of fulfillment and performance.
Katie Hilborn’s The Purpose Pipeline™ offers a cutting-edge framework designed for today’s fast-changing business landscape. This keynote provides actionable insights into how purpose flows through every level of an organization, from individual well-being to company-wide growth. As 7x award-winning humanitarian recognized alongside the Dalai Lama, she draws on her extraordinary experiences—from leading disaster relief during the Nepal earthquakes to walking pumas through Bolivian jungles—to showcase how aligning with a greater mission leads to transformation on both a personal and organizational level.
Leaders will walk away with innovative strategies to create purpose-first cultures that spark engagement, retention, and creativity, while employees will learn how aligning their work with personal purpose—inside and outside the office—leads to enhanced well-being and long-term motivation. This keynote doesn’t just speak to today’s challenges—it offers a forward-thinking approach to building the workplaces of the future.
By aligning with current trends and shifting workplace needs, The Purpose Pipeline positions purpose as the most powerful tool for sustainable success.
- Forget the Old Playbook: The days of thinking money alone motivates are over. Purpose drives satisfaction and retention.
- The Purpose Pipeline: Katie shows how purpose flows through every stage, creating a culture where people love to work.
- Success Stories: Real examples of companies that embraced purpose, driving massive success.
- Take Action: Leaders will gain strategies to build a purpose-first workplace, track engagement, and measure growth.
- Purpose is Your Superpower: Aligning work with a mission brings personal fulfillment and makes employees indispensable.
- Own Your Influence: Purpose-driven engagement lets employees impact teams and company culture, ensuring growth and satisfaction.
- Well-Being Meets Purpose: Aligning values with work enhances well-being and loyalty.
- Grow with Purpose: Aligning career goals with company objectives fosters advancement and retention.
02
Mastering Change
Leadership Lessons from the Field
With 70% of change initiatives failing due to leadership gaps, this framework equips leaders to confidently navigate uncertainty, inspire internal innovation, and turn disruption into opportunity. This keynote delivers practical tools to help leaders build agile teams that thrive in dynamic environments, ensuring long-term success through adaptive, small-scale actions that create big results.
In this inspiring and high-impact keynote, 7x award-winning humanitarian and Anthem Awards Leader of the Year Katie Hilborn draws from her real-world experiences—delivering disaster relief during the Nepal earthquakes and conducting high-risk undercover missions to dismantle child trafficking rings—to demonstrate how everyday acts of resilience and innovation can drive transformative change over time.
Key Takeaways:
- Adapt or Fall Behind: How to leverage resilience as your superpower in unpredictable environments.
- Creativity Under Pressure: Unlocking your team’s best ideas when it matters most.
- Proactive Leadership: Develop foresight and craft game plans before disruption hits.
- Drive Momentum: Keep your teams energized, engaged, and focused during times of transition.
03
The Rebelution
How Women are Redefining Beyond the Glass Ceiling
In today’s evolving workplace, only 29% of senior leadership roles are held by women, despite research showing that organizations with more women leaders are more profitable and inclusive; and companies with more women in leadership roles are 25% more likely to have above-average profitability. Traditional leadership models no longer serve the dynamic needs of the modern world, and women leaders face the added challenge of breaking through systemic barriers while staying true to their values.
In this inspiring and high-impact keynote, 7x award-winning humanitarian and Anthem Awards Leader of the Year Katie Hilborn offers a fresh approach, drawing from her experiences of living with the Maasai Tribe in Tanzania, volunteering at a preschool in Uganda, and leading disaster relief in Nepal. In this keynote, she shares her framework for leading with empathy and intuition while overcoming the obstacles that women often face in leadership.
This framework emphasizes emotional intelligence, bold action, and personal authenticity. Attendees will leave with practical tools to INpower others, cultivate collaboration, and balance leadership with personal well-being. Women who embrace this approach are not only better equipped to lead but also redefine what success looks like for future generations.
Key Takeaways:
- Reimagine Leadership with Empathy and Intuition: Learn how to lead through emotional intelligence and intuitive decision-making, creating a more inclusive and supportive environment.
- Courage Over Confidence in Leadership: Discover why taking action, even before you feel ready, is essential to effective leadership.
- Break Traditional Leadership Models: Move beyond outdated leadership norms and explore how to build leadership styles that reflect personal authenticity and values.
- Empower Others through Leadership: Lead by empowering other women, fostering collaboration, and creating spaces where all voices are heard.
- Balance Well-being and Leadership: Learn how to prioritize mental well-being while leading effectively and fostering a culture of support.
04
Fearless Women
Embrace the Unknown and Find your Courage
In today’s fast-paced world, over 74% of women admit to holding back on pursuing goals and dreams due to self-doubt and fear of the unknown. We often wait for confidence or the perfect moment, but that moment never arrives. The path forward is filled with uncertainty, rejection, and discomfort, leaving many women stuck in indecision.
As a 7x award-winning humanitarian recognized alongside the Dalai Lama, shares her personal experiences, from living with the Maasai Tribe in Tanzania to walking pumas in Bolivia. Her journey of following life’s breadcrumbs and trusting her intuition will help women understand how stepping into the unknown can open the door to growth and opportunity.
Through her process of discovery, she equips women with practical tools to take inspired action, even before they feel ready. She reveals how courage— not confidence— is the real driver of success. Attendees will leave with a framework to embrace uncertainty, turn rejection into progress, and confidently move forward on their path to fulfillment, no matter the circumstances
Key Takeaways:
- Embrace the Unknown: Stepping into uncertainty isn’t just an adventure—it’s the key to unlocking opportunities for personal and professional growth. Katie’s experiences with the Maasai Tribe reveal how the most unexpected paths often lead to the most rewarding outcomes.
- Follow the Breadcrumbs: Life doesn’t hand out roadmaps, but it does offer clues. Katie shares how small, seemingly insignificant moments can be the breadcrumbs that guide you toward clarity, purpose, and ultimately, your dreams.
- Rejection is Progress: Don’t fear rejection—embrace it. Katie explains how every “no” she encountered became a necessary part of her growth, proving that you’re taking the right risks to push beyond your comfort zone.
- Courage Over Confidence: Waiting until you feel confident will keep you stuck. Katie teaches why you only need the courage to start, and how each bold step builds the confidence to take the next one.
- Take Inspired Action: You’ll leave with a framework to take small but powerful steps toward your goals, no matter where you are in your journey. Courageous action is the key to breaking through self-doubt and moving forward in life, work, and relationships.
05
Building a Lasting Legacy
Crafting a Future that Outlives You
In today’s landscape of constant disruption, 68% of leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs recognize the importance of legacy-building, yet only 32% take action on it. The drive for short-term gains often overshadows the opportunity to create lasting impact. Katie Hilborn’s keynote addresses this disconnect, offering a fresh approach to success by focusing on the long-term legacy leaders can build today.
So, you’ve created wealth—what’s next? She invites you to go beyond profit, challenging you to focus on your mission, vision, and values to create purpose-driven, sustainable change. Her message? It’s not about how much you accumulate—it’s about the mark you leave on the world.
Her journey is proof of this philosophy. After being abandoned at birth and adopted into a Chicago legacy family, she watched her birth mother die when she was 21, confronting both privilege and mortality. This life-altering experience drove her to define her own legacy through global humanitarian work. As a 7x award-winning humanitarian recognized alongside the Dalai Lama, She has rebuilt communities in Nepal and established sustainable education systems in East Africa. Her story demonstrates that leadership isn’t just about milestones—it’s about creating an impact that outlasts you. Her framework INpowers leaders to turn challenges into opportunities for long-term growth and lasting significance.
Key Takeaways:
- Legacy Outlasts Profits: Learn how to transform short-term wins into long-term, generational impact.
- Actionable Legacy Planning: Get practical steps to start building your legacy today and ensure your influence lasts beyond your career.
- Turning Success into Significance: Discover how to leverage your professional achievements to create real, lasting change.
- Resilience as a Catalyst: Explore how to turn challenges into opportunities that strengthen your legacy in unpredictable times.
01
The Purpose Pipeline
The Key to Company Innovation, Retention, and Growth
Money alone doesn’t motivate employees—purpose does. Employees aren’t just working for a paycheck; they want meaning. Nearly 40% of employees are considering leaving their jobs due to feeling disconnected and uninspired. That’s a wake-up call.
Introducing the ‘Purpose Pipeline,’ a concept showing how employee happiness, driven by purpose, leads to increased productivity, company growth, and success. Purpose is the driving force behind retention, engagement, and the future of business.
In this talk, Katie shares funny and exciting stories—from walking pumas in Bolivia to disaster relief in Nepal. She learned true fulfillment comes from aligning with something greater than ourselves.
- Forget the Old Playbook: The days of thinking money alone motivates are over. Purpose drives satisfaction and retention.
- The Purpose Pipeline: Katie shows how purpose flows through every stage, creating a culture where people love to work.
- Success Stories: Real examples of companies that embraced purpose, driving massive success.
- Take Action: Leaders will gain strategies to build a purpose-first workplace, track engagement, and measure growth.
- Purpose is Your Superpower: Aligning work with a mission brings personal fulfillment and makes employees indispensable.
- Own Your Influence: Purpose-driven engagement lets employees impact teams and company culture, ensuring growth and satisfaction.
- Well-Being Meets Purpose: Aligning values with work enhances well-being and loyalty.
- Grow with Purpose: Aligning career goals with company objectives fosters advancement and retention.
02
Mastering Change
Leadership Lessons from the Field
As a 7x award-winning humanitarian and leadership expert, Katie delivers an eye-opening keynote that draws from her on-the-ground experiences navigating disaster relief during Nepal’s earthquakes and conducting high-risk undercover missions. In a world where 70% of change initiatives fail, Katie reveals the secret sauce for leading through chaos and thriving in disruption. With her dynamic storytelling, Katie shares how real-world crisis management translates directly into the corporate boardroom, offering fresh strategies that today’s leaders need to stay agile and ahead of the curve.
Why This Matters:
From digital transformation to market shifts, modern leaders are constantly juggling change. This keynote provides the playbook for leaders looking to boost adaptability, spark innovation, and motivate their teams—especially when the stakes are high.
Key Takeaways:
- Adapt or Fall Behind: How to leverage resilience as your superpower in unpredictable environments.
- Creativity Under Pressure: Unlocking your team’s best ideas when it matters most.
- Proactive Leadership: Develop foresight and craft game plans before disruption hits.
- Drive Momentum: Keep your teams energized, engaged, and focused during times of transition.
03
The Rebelution
How Women are Redefining Beyond the Glass Ceiling
Women are not just shattering glass ceilings—they are redefining leadership itself. In this powerful keynote, Katie Hilborn challenges the traditional view of leadership by showing how women today are leading with empathy, intuition, and boldness, paving new paths for success in the workplace and beyond. Did you know that companies with more women in leadership roles are 25% more likely to have above-average profitability?
This isn’t about fitting into old leadership models. It’s about creating a new framework that empowers women to lead on their own terms. Katie’s personal stories—from living with the Maasai Tribe in Tanzania and learning the strength of community, to volunteering at a preschool for orphans in Uganda, and leading disaster relief during the Nepal earthquakes—illustrate how heart-centered leadership and bold action create real-world impact. These experiences highlight how women can lead by example, combining empathy with decisive action to overcome challenges and build inclusive environments where everyone thrives.
The audience will leave with a framework for redefining leadership—a practical guide to embracing empathy and intuition while breaking free from traditional leadership constraints.
Key Takeaways:
- Reimagine Leadership with Empathy and Intuition: Learn how to lead through emotional intelligence and intuitive decision-making, creating a more inclusive and supportive environment.
- Courage Over Confidence in Leadership: Discover why taking action, even before you feel ready, is essential to effective leadership.
- Break Traditional Leadership Models: Move beyond outdated leadership norms and explore how to build leadership styles that reflect personal authenticity and values.
- Empower Others through Leadership: Lead by empowering other women, fostering collaboration, and creating spaces where all voices are heard.
- Balance Well-being and Leadership: Learn how to prioritize mental well-being while leading effectively and fostering a culture of support.
04
Fearless Women
Embrace the Unknown and Find your Courage
What do walking with pumas in the Bolivian jungle and living with the Maasai Tribe in Tanzania have in common? For award-winning humanitarian Katie Hilborn, they were both profound lessons in courage, discovery, and trusting the process. In this unique and engaging keynote, Katie shares funny, heartwarming, and powerful stories of stepping into the unknown and following life’s breadcrumbs, which led to accomplishing her dreams and making a lasting impact.
74% of women delay pursuing goals in their personal lives, careers, or relationships due to self-doubt. This keynote challenges the idea that you need to feel confident before taking action. Katie’s journey is a reminder that courage—not confidence—fuels progress, and by embracing risk, facing rejection, and leaning into uncertainty, you can uncover the process of discovery that brings you closer to your dreams. This talk is for women who are ready to stop waiting for perfection and start taking inspired action toward the life they’ve always imagined.
Key Takeaways:
- Embrace the Unknown: Stepping into uncertainty isn’t just an adventure—it’s the key to unlocking opportunities for personal and professional growth. Katie’s experiences with the Maasai Tribe reveal how the most unexpected paths often lead to the most rewarding outcomes.
- Follow the Breadcrumbs: Life doesn’t hand out roadmaps, but it does offer clues. Katie shares how small, seemingly insignificant moments can be the breadcrumbs that guide you toward clarity, purpose, and ultimately, your dreams.
- Rejection is Progress: Don’t fear rejection—embrace it. Katie explains how every “no” she encountered became a necessary part of her growth, proving that you’re taking the right risks to push beyond your comfort zone.
- Courage Over Confidence: Waiting until you feel confident will keep you stuck. Katie teaches why you only need the courage to start, and how each bold step builds the confidence to take the next one.
- Take Inspired Action: You’ll leave with a framework to take small but powerful steps toward your goals, no matter where you are in your journey. Courageous action is the key to breaking through self-doubt and moving forward in life, work, and relationships.
05
Building a Lasting Legacy
Crafting a Future that Outlives You
This keynote is designed for leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs ready to shift from success to significance.
In today’s world, success isn’t just about wealth or status—it’s about the legacy you leave behind. While 68% of business leaders consider legacy a critical factor, only 32% of organizations are actively building theirs. So, as you create investment vehicles and generate wealth, what’s next? Katie invites you to think bigger—about your mission, vision, values, and the lasting impact you want to make. It’s not just about profit, it’s about purpose-driven action that echoes for generations.
From her humble beginnings—abandoned at birth and adopted into a Chicago legacy family—to finding her own legacy through global humanitarian work, Katie’s journey is anything but conventional. From rebuilding communities after the Nepal earthquakes to creating sustainable education systems in East Africa, her story is proof that true leadership is about more than milestones—it’s about making a lasting mark on the world.
Key Takeaways:
- Legacy Outlasts Profits: Learn how to transform short-term wins into long-term, generational impact.
- Actionable Legacy Planning: Get practical steps to start building your legacy today and ensure your influence lasts beyond your career.
- Turning Success into Significance: Discover how to leverage your professional achievements to create real, lasting change.
- Resilience as a Catalyst: Explore how to turn challenges into opportunities that strengthen your legacy in unpredictable times.
REVIEWS FROM MY CLIENTS
“Katie is a true humanist in every sense of the word. Often we neglect those who suffer at the far ends of the Earth because we don’t encounter them day-to-day. Katie is not only involved in global humanitarian efforts but is able to transfer that understanding and sense of obligation to the people she speaks to.”
-Chris Ward, Audience
“She did an awesome job sharing with our students her energy, passion, and heart at Cherry Creek High School’s Global Awareness Day. She did such a great job inspiring them to care about our world. And I loved that she talked with them not only about Global Orphan Prevention but also about who they are and the role they can play in serving this world in a positive way.”
-Katie Gunneson, Teacher