STRATEGIC SPEAKING
THE CEILING MOVES
Kathleen Johnson delivers talks for business owners and founders navigating growth, leadership bottlenecks, and team dependency. Frameworks they can use. Not theory they'll forget by Tuesday.
HERE’S THE TRUTH
Frameworks. Not Theory.
Kathleen isn't a keynote speaker who Googled "business growth" last week. She's a founder who built a business that hit the ceiling hard. One business went bankrupt from a product recall. She rebuilt. She scaled another service business to six figures. When she was an SBDC advisor, she kept watching the same pattern on repeat: great operators owning a job instead of steering a business.
She left that role because the work was built around metrics and constraints that don't fit how entrepreneurs actually operate. Now she builds the frameworks that do - grounded in structural reality, not theory.
$500K+
Revenue Sweet Spot
15+ Years
Building & Advising
Built for Your Audience
Every talk is customized. Pre-event call to align on context, industry, and what success looks like. No cookie-cutter keynote
Implementable Ideas
Every session comes with take-home tools, not motivational quotes. Attendees leave with a decision-making framework, a role map, or a structural audit they can apply immediately.
Grounded in Experience
Kathleen speaks from rebuild, not theory. She's been the bottleneck, made the hiring mistakes, and had to learn what actually moves a business past the ceiling.
"I've tried to scale my business four other times over the last decade, and none of them worked. Working with Kathleen, I am now on the strongest path I've ever been on to operate at a CEO level."
— CEO, Digital Marketing Agency
SPEAKING SESSIONS
THE TALKS
Three signature offerings. Each stands alone. Each is fully customizable in length, depth, and content to fit your audience, industry, and event format.
SIGNATURE TALK
The Ceiling Moves:
Why Good Operators Stall
Most business owners assume revenue growth fixes everything. It doesn't. At $500K you were indispensable. At a certain point, you become the bottleneck. This talk walks through the exact structural shifts: decision authority, operational handoffs, leadership clarity. All required to move from "I run everything" to "I run the business that runs everything."
→ Why delegation without decision structure just creates more work
→ The three handoffs every founder resists (and why they matter more than revenue)
→What it actually looks like to stop being the operator and start being the CEO
KEYNOTE OR BREAKOUT | 30 - 60 MIN | CONFERENCE, ASSOCIATION, OR PEER GROUP
WORKSHOP SESSION
You Can't Hire Your Way Out of This
Hiring doesn't fix a broken structure. Kathleen has watched hundreds of founders hire "their first real manager" or a COO to take things off my plate, and still end up making every decision, approving every invoice, and working weekends. This session breaks down why hiring without role clarity, decision authority, and operational boundaries just adds payroll to chaos.
→ The difference between a hire and a structure (and why most founders skip the second part)
→ What decision authority actually means when you're used to being the final word on everything
→ How to set boundaries that don't feel like you're abandoning the business
BREAKOUT | 45–75 min | BUSINESS GROUPS, ASSOCIATIONS, RETREATS, EVENTS
INTERACTIVE SESSION
Owner to CEO:
The Structure Workshop
This is the working session. Business owners leave with a draft of their CEO role definition, a map of the decisions they need to hand off first, and a 90-day plan to start building the structure that lets them lead instead of operate. It's not motivational. It's tactical. Expect worksheets, hard questions, and a room full of people who finally admit they're the problem.
→ Live role-mapping exercise: What does a CEO at your revenue actually do?
→ Decision audit: Which calls are you making that someone else should own?
→ The first three structural moves that don't require hiring anyone
WORKSHOP SESSION | 90–120 min | WOMEN’SRETREATS, PEER GROUPS, BUSINESS INTENSIVES
WHO BOOKS KATHLEEN
BUILT FOR YOUR AUDIENCE.
Professional service firms & consulting practices
Home service businesses & trades specific
Contractor & construction trade associations
Regional & industry-specific networking events
Service Business Groups
Regional chambers of commerce
Small business & founder summits
Business growth conferences & expos
SCORE workshops & SBA-sponsored events
Entrepreneurship & Growth Forums
Industry-specific CEO peer groups
Midwest entrepreneurship conferences
Business growth & scaling events
Multi-chapter or regional networking conferences
Founder & CEO Forums
Women's leadership summits & conferences
Faith-based women's events
Professional women's groups & networks
Multi-day leadership retreats
Women's Summits & Retreats
FOR MEETING PLANNERS
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.
Formats & Length
Keynote
45–60 minutes. Opens or closes your event with a clear framework and immediate application.
Breakout Session
45–75 minutes. Focused on one framework, interactive Q&A, take-home tools.
Workshop
90–120 minutes. Working session with exercises, role-mapping, and tactical planning.
What's Included
Pre-event discovery call
30-minute call to align on audience, context, and goals.
Custom preparation
Talk customized to your audience, industry, and event theme.
Availability & Travel
Based in
Grand Rapids, Michigan. Available nationally.
Lead time
Minimum 6 weeks preferred for custom preparation.
Virtual options
Keynotes and breakouts available virtually. Workshops are in-person only.
"Tell me about your event, your audience, and what a win looks like. I'll build the right session around that."
BOOK KATHLEEN
LET'S BUILD THE RIGHT SESSION, TOGETHER.
Complete this inquiry form and Kathleen will respond within 48 hours.