Tommy Spaulding

Tommy Spaulding is the bestselling author of It’s Not Just Who You Know and The Heart-Led Leader, and one of the most sought-after speakers on relationship-based leadership in America. He speaks on authentic connection, servant leadership, and building meaningful relationships that drive extraordinary results, showing audiences how genuinely caring for people creates lasting influence and organizational success. Tommy’s warmth, sincerity, and humor make his presentations deeply personal and transformative.

Leadership & Career
Tommy is the founder and president of Tommy Spaulding Companies, a leadership development firm based in Denver. He previously served as the youngest president and CEO of the world-renowned Up with People organization. His approach to leadership is rooted in the belief that the most effective leaders build relationships that go far beyond transactional networking, creating genuine bonds based on trust, service, and mutual respect.

Author & Speaker
Tommy’s books have become essential reading for leaders seeking to build organizations centered on authentic human connection. It’s Not Just Who You Know introduced his framework for elevating relationships from acquaintance-level to the deepest level of trust and impact. The Heart-Led Leader extended that philosophy into organizational culture and team building. His keynotes deliver powerful strategies for servant leadership, building authentic relationships, and creating cultures where people feel valued, connected, and inspired to perform at their best.

Leadership: A relationship between those who inspire and those who act

How do we accomplish extraordinary things as leaders? The quality of our relationships determines whether we simply reach a goal or inspire greatness. The success of any organization is grounded in the formation of sustainable relationships. In this keynote, Spaulding illustrates how to build relationship capital throughout your organization so internal teams maximize their potential and external constituencies and stakeholders share your vision. Spaulding also explores groundbreaking leadership techniques such as building “Fifth Floor Teams,” and leveraging the “Laws of Influence and Elevation.”

Customer sales and service: What does it mean to focus on ROR instead of ROI?

It’s impossible to build a successful client base in a silo. In other words, relationships are not optional. Though economists talk only of Return on Investment or ROI, Spaulding argues that profit and relationships are interdependent. “Return on Relationships or ROR” is the currency we should focus on rather than solely on ROI, because if we are truly focusing on relationships, the bottom line goals come more easily. In this keynote, Spaulding shares his secrets behind the notion of “Return on Relationships or ROR,” leaving audiences ready to revolutionize their old methods and reach new heights in customer stability and loyalty.

Team building: Improve employee morale, reduce turnover and mobilize your teams

Unengaged employees cost companies and organizations billions of dollars. Research tells us that employees who don’t have relationships on the job will negatively impact the bottom line. If we are to build sustainable organizations in a modern economy, we must differentiate ourselves by building meaningful ties with and among employees. Spaulding demonstrates a helpful “first through fifth floor” analogy for evaluating your business relationships and has audiences looking at their workplace with a different lens—a lens that sheds new light on how to mobilize their colleagues and inspire shared success.

Achieving organizational excellence: Empower and elevate yourself and others around you by transforming your approach with people

This is not a keynote address that espouses the merits of good networking. In fact, it discourages it. Spaulding provides real examples and strategies for elevating your current personal and business relationships and how to launch new ones in the spirit of giving rather than taking. In this keynote, Spaulding explores the nine essential traits that empower audiences to reach their full potential through a bold approach called “netgiving.” Netgiving is about intentionally making business personal and as a result, facilitating personal performance and realization of goals.

Custom Tailor: Request a custom keynote address drawing on different aspects of the keynote topics above that interest you

Tommy Spaulding is known for walking his talk—in other words, he likes to build relationships with his clients. No canned speeches allowed! Feel free to let us know if you have a specific interest area or would like to mix it up and merge topics. Tommy prides himself in creating a keynote that fits the audience.