Antonio Saunders
Antonio travels the world speaking, curating events, and coaching business leaders. Based on his personal and professional experiences for 20 years, Antonio created the HFD Model (humanity, freedom, and dreams) which shifts paradigms from fighting injustice to create social progress to building our dreams to create social progress. Antonio is the founder of Kriseles, a startup that works with CEOs and executives to build future ready companies that experiment, adapt, and inspire their employees and customers.
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Building the World for All of Us
This keynote speech challenges the conventional belief that fighting injustice alone creates racial progress and proposes a paradigm shift towards building our dreams as a means to foster racial progress. It emphasizes the importance of us from holding responsibility to the past to equipping us to build our collective future.
CEO, executives, equity leaders and the funding space are experiencing the current state of DEI become polarizing, there is a backlash against it, resistance to it, and divestment.In this keynote, Antonio explores the journey of Black people and their expertise in navigating a world they never desired to exist.
How did we become experts in a world we don’t want to exist?
How do we shift paradigms from fighting injustice creates racial progress to building our dream creates racial progress?Based on his personal and professional experiences for 20 years, Antonio created the HFD Model (humanity freedom, and dreams) that uses paradigm shifts to redesign organizations to create social change. This speech is intended for individuals and organizations committed to racial progress, social change including organizational leaders , community leaders, educators, and policymakers.
In this keynote, Antonio uses personal and professional experiences, case studies, and stories to outline the key elements of how to Finish Building the world for all of us.
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Greatness Routines: The Problems You’ve Earned….How to Solve Them
Greatness Routines are a transformational business and leadership framework that enables leaders to engage their teams, build the capacity to solve complex problems, and implement change that works for all stakeholders. Using a leadership approach that balances support and challenge, Greatness Routines establish a cadence to workflows to help teams take on critical issues by performing experiments as they find systemic solutions. As teams build the capacity to find solutions, they are empowered to create the organizations they want to work for.
Leaders in business, non-profits, civic organizations, startups, and faith-based organizations are sensing their organizations need to evolve. Coming out of the pandemic, facing an uncertain economy, addressing environmental concerns, and incorporating diverse new perspectives as a response to massive social awakenings are all calling leaders to ask the same question:
How does space for leaders to go into not away from uncertainty and challenges to unlock employee potential, improve the performance and capacity of their teams, and transform entire organizations?
Based on decades of navigating high stakes crises and years of personal experience being the “first and only”, Antonio has developed a time-tested personal and business transformation framework – a set of organizational practices and “Greatness Routines™” that ignite consciousness in individuals, teams, and across an organization.
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Become The Person That Can Do Anything
Waymakers go on a daring journey to become the person that can do anything. This keynote speech focuses on transforming one’s relationship with uncertainty and empowering individuals to embark on a journey towards their dreams. It outlines four key phases: The Start, The Climb, The Fall, and The Rise, which guide participants through the process of personal transformation and growth.
In this speech, Antonio introduces the concept of becoming a Waymaker, someone who can overcome challenges and accomplish anything they set their minds to. The audience will learn how to shift from being held back by circumstances to being driven forward by their dreams. The speech provides a roadmap to navigate the journey of personal transformation and covers various industries, including personal development, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
Are you creating your life or are holding your other people or your circumstances responsible for creating your life?
Antonio developed the Waymakers Community which consists of e-learning products and a four step process after facing and overcoming unbelievable circumstances in his life. From his mothers near fatal car accident, to heart surgery at 17, and most recently the unexpected death of his younger brother, Antonio turned this tragedy into a meaningful and successful life leading his family and organizations to transformation and success. Annually thousands of people complete his four step process that guides them through moments of uncertainty to create their best life.
See Antonio Saunders in action.
Entrepreneur & Storyteller
Antonio never asked for permission to change inequitable systems. As a teenager, he became financially independent and the patriarch of his family, navigating through racial systems in Birmingham, Alabama.
For more than 15 years, Antonio has advised organizations across multiple sectors on race and equity to drive systems change. He works with chief executives and leadership teams in education, tech, and healthcare to apply a DEI lens on a range of issues that include strategy, innovation, and change management.
With deep expertise leading complex systems during uncertain or pivotal moments, Antonio developed an equity change process that has transformed organizational operating models, services, and performance by centering on the experiences of the global majority. Amid the pandemic, Antonio leveraged his insights on generational trends and the future of work to help organizations across diverse industries and geographies digitize their user experience by scaling new technology and platforms for thousands of educators and front-line workers.
Antonio host The Promised Land podcast and uses storyteller traditions passed down from his grandmother to galvanize audiences on topics that expand our collective consciousness and imagination. Antonio is currently in fellow with the Innovation for Equity in Leadership program. Antonio is leveraging his experience to design and launch an organization that curates reclamation journeys for Black people to experience their full humanity, freedom, and dreams.
