All Topics in Phoenix

• 

  Why Many Business Owners are Wealthy on Paper but not Financially Independent

  Anthony Perez, Founder, Harvest Wealth Strategies

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Financial

  Many business owners spend decades reinvesting everything back into their company, only to discover later that most of their personal wealth is tied up in the business itself. At the same time, rising costs, hiring challenges, and economic uncertainty are placing more pressure on owners to remain deeply involved in day-to-day operations. MORE >

  This presentation explores the unique financial planning challenges that business owners face compared to traditional employees or executives. Anthony Perez explains why traditional retirement planning strategies often fall short for entrepreneurs and how business owners can build a financial plan that does not depend entirely on selling their company at the perfect time.

  Topics include:

  - The biggest financial planning mistakes business owners make
  - How to turn business success into personal financial security
  - Strategies for creating optionality before a transition
  - Aligning personal wealth planning with the eventual sale or succession of the business

  The session helps business owners shift their thinking from “running a business” to building a business that can ultimately support their life after ownership.

  Request This Free Speech
• 

  Preparing Your Business for an Exit Before it’s too Late

  Anthony Perez, Founder, Harvest Wealth Strategies

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Business

  Millions of business owners are approaching retirement over the next decade, yet most have not developed a clear succession plan for their company. Studies show that nearly two-thirds of family-owned businesses lack a documented succession plan, which often leads to lower business value, delayed exits, or businesses closing entirely when owners step away. MORE >

  In this presentation, Anthony Perez explores what business owners should be doing three to five years before transitioning out of their company. The discussion goes beyond financial statements and addresses the key drivers that determine the value and transferability of a business—leadership depth, operational independence, customer concentration, and long-term strategic planning.

  Anthony also addresses the emotional side of transition, including identity, control, and the fear many owners experience when considering life after the business they spent decades building.

  Attendees leave with a clearer understanding of:

  - What truly drives the value of a business
  - The most common mistakes owners make when preparing to exit
  - How to align business strategy with personal financial goals

  Request This Free Speech
• 

  The Founder Trap: When You Become the Lid on Your Own Company

  John Wiley, CEPA, CEO, Private Equity Strategist, Navy Veteran, Author, John Franklin Wiley

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Business

  You started it. You grew it. Now it can’t grow because of you. It’s not a failure – it’s a pattern that hits the best founders. John Franklin Wiley has lived this as a CEO and helped dozens of owners break free of it as a strategist. In this candid, story-driven talk, John unpacks why founder dependency is the #1 value killer in small and mid-size companies – and what it actually takes to build something that can run, grow, and eventually sell without you in every chair. MORE >

  Your audience will walk away with:
  • The three signs a founder has become the bottleneck
  • Why “delegation” alone doesn’t fix it
  • What buyer-ready leadership infrastructure actually looks like Practical, personal, and jargon-free.

  Built for entrepreneur groups, peer advisory roundtables, and business associations.

  Request This Free Speech
• 

  From Military Service to Civilian Leadership: How Navy Discipline Translates to Business Results

  John Wiley, CEPA, CEO, Private Equity Strategist, Navy Veteran, Author, John Franklin Wiley

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Educational

  The transition from military service to civilian leadership is one of the most underestimated challenges veterans face. It’s not about losing discipline – it’s about translating it. John Franklin Wiley served aboard nuclear submarines, where leadership under pressure wasn’t optional. After the Navy, John applied those same principles to build companies, lead nonprofits, and navigate private equity deals worth tens of millions. In this talk, he shares what military leadership actually looks like in the boardroom, the jobsite, and the small business – and why the skills veterans carry are exactly what today’s organizations need. MORE >

  Your audience will walk away with:
  • Three military leadership principles that directly translate to business
  • Why “command and control” isn’t what you think it is
  • How to leverage veteran discipline without losing civilian buy-in

  Ideal for veteran groups, civic organizations, Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, and any audience that values disciplined leadership.

  Request This Free Speech
• 

  What’s Your Business Actually Worth? The Honest Conversation Owners Aren’t Having

  John Wiley, CEPA, CEO, Private Equity Strategist, Navy Veteran, Author, John Franklin Wiley

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Business

  Most business owners have a number in their head – what they think their company is worth. Most of them are wrong. Not because they’re bad at business, but because they’ve never looked at their company through a buyer’s eyes. In this straightforward, no-pitch talk, John Franklin Wiley – a Certified Exit Planning Advisor and strategist who has evaluated over $75 million in acquisitions – walks your group through what actually determines business value, and the one mistake that routinely costs owners 25–35% of their potential sale price. MORE >

  Your audience will walk away with:
  • The five factors buyers actually use to value a company
  • Three questions every owner should be able to answer today
  • Why the business you’d want to buy isn’t the business you’re currently running Educational, actionable, and designed for business owners at any stage.

  Ideal for chambers, financial planning groups, and professional associations.

  Request This Free Speech
• 

  You’re Not Broken – You’re Blocked: Rediscovering What Was Never Lost

  John Wiley, CEPA, CEO, Private Equity Strategist, Navy Veteran, Author, John Franklin Wiley

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Self Improvement

  The self-help industry has spent decades telling you something is wrong with you – that you need to be fixed, healed, or optimized before you can live the life you want. But what if the entire premise is the problem? What if you’re not broken at all – just blocked? In this thought-provoking talk, John Franklin Wiley draws on his own journey – from incarceration and transformation in his early twenties to leading companies, building nonprofits, and publishing a book on consciousness – to challenge the stories we’ve inherited about what’s wrong with us. This isn’t self-help. It’s self-recognition. An invitation to stop chasing arrival and start noticing what’s already here. MORE >

  Your audience will walk away with:
  • Why the “fix yourself” industry keeps you stuck by design
  • The difference between healing and remembering
  • One practice for reconnecting with the clarity you already carry For anyone tired of performing their way to wholeness.

  Ideal for wellness groups, interfaith gatherings, book clubs, and personal growth audiences.

  Request This Free Speech
• 

  Intuition as Strategy: Why Your Best Decisions Won’t Come from a Spreadsheet

  John Wiley, CEPA, CEO, Private Equity Strategist, Navy Veteran, Author, John Franklin Wiley

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Self Improvement

  We live in a world obsessed with data, metrics, and analysis. But the most consequential decisions – the ones that change a career, a company, or a life – almost never come from a spreadsheet. They come from the quiet knowing that something is right before you can prove it. John Franklin Wiley has spent 40 years operating at the intersection of strategy and intuition – as a CEO, a private equity strategist, and a leader who’s made high-stakes decisions by trusting what he calls “the knowing in your knower.” This talk explores how to develop, trust, and act on your intuitive intelligence – without abandoning logic. MORE >

  Your audience will walk away with:
  • Why the data-vs-instinct debate is a false choice
  • How to distinguish intuition from impulse
  • Three practices for strengthening your intuitive intelligence in daily life A practical conversation about the skill nobody teaches but everyone uses.

  Ideal for business groups, personal development audiences, and anyone who’s ever known something was right before they could explain why.

  Request This Free Speech
• 

  Second Acts: Why Your Most Important Chapter Might Be the One You Haven’t Written Yet

  John Wiley, CEPA, CEO, Private Equity Strategist, Navy Veteran, Author, John Franklin Wiley

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Motivational

  After decades of building, leading, and sometimes losing – what comes next? For many people over 50, the answer feels unclear. The career is winding down. The identity you built around what you did is shifting. And no one’s talking about it honestly. John Franklin Wiley knows that moment. He’s reinvented himself more times than he can count – from the Navy to business, from ministry to private equity, from loss to rebuilding. In this reflective and energizing talk, he shares what he’s learned about purpose, identity, and the surprising freedom that comes when you stop performing and start becoming. MORE >

  Your audience will walk away with:
  • Why retirement isn’t an ending – it’s a design problem
  • Three questions that reveal what your “second act” actually looks like
  • The permission you’ve been waiting for (and why you don’t need it)

  Especially resonant for audiences 50+, retirement communities, active adult groups, and life transition workshops.

  Request This Free Speech
• 

  The Art of the Pivot: How to Rebuild When the Plan Falls Apart

  John Wiley, CEPA, CEO, Private Equity Strategist, Navy Veteran, Author, John Franklin Wiley

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Motivational

  Every life has a moment where the plan stops working. A career ends. A business fails. A health crisis hits. What separates the people who stay stuck from the ones who rebuild isn’t talent or luck – it’s the willingness to pivot without losing yourself in the process. Drawing from his own experience rebuilding across multiple industries and life stages, John Franklin Wiley delivers a talk that’s equal parts strategy and soul. He shares the pivots that worked, the ones that didn’t, and the quiet internal shifts that made the difference. MORE >

  Your audience will walk away with:
  • The three stages of every successful pivot (and where most people stall)
  • How to distinguish between quitting and strategic retreat
  • Why your next chapter doesn’t have to look anything like the last one Practical takeaways for anyone in transition, starting over, or wondering if their best days are behind them. Spoiler: they’re not.

  Request This Free Speech
• 

  From Condemned Hospital to National Nonprofit: Leadership When the Odds Are Absurd

  John Wiley, CEPA, CEO, Private Equity Strategist, Navy Veteran, Author, John Franklin Wiley

  TOPIC CATEGORY: Business

  In 2009, John Franklin Wiley walked into a 150,000-square-foot abandoned hospital with no funding, no staff, and a vision that made everyone nervous. Within a few years, it became River of Refuge – a fully operational transitional housing campus for homeless working families. This talk isn’t about nonprofit work. It’s about what happens when you lead from conviction instead of a business plan – when the resources are thin, the critics are loud, and the only thing you have going for you is an unwillingness to quit. John shares the real story: the financing nobody thought would work, the volunteers who showed up, the moments when the project should have died, and the lesson that transformed how he leads everything since. MORE >

  Your audience will walk away with:
  • Why vision without a plan still beats a plan without vision
  • How to lead when you can’t guarantee the outcome
  • The one question that kept the project alive when the money ran out

  A leadership story for any audience – business, civic, nonprofit, or faith-based.

  Request This Free Speech