Josh Linkner Speaker Biography
NY Times Best-Selling Author, Tech Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist and Innovation Expert
Josh Linkner, a dynamic innovation speaker who began his career as a jazz guitarist, embodies creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. He has founded and served as CEO for five technology companies, achieving a combined sale value exceeding $200 million. As a prominent innovation speaker, his diverse background enriches his insights.
Books
Josh has authored five books, including two New York Times bestsellers. First, Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity offers a practical framework. Second, The Road to Reinvention: How to Drive Disruption and Accelerate Transformation explores strategies for change. Additionally, his latest book is Hacking Innovation. Furthermore, he is the Founding Partner of Detroit Venture Partners, an organization that invests in and mentors over 100 startups. His most recent publication is Big Little Breakthroughs: How Small, Everyday Innovations Drive Oversized Results. Consequently, his literary contributions establish him as a thought leader in innovation.
Accolades and Awards
Josh has twice been honored as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Moreover, he is a recipient of the President Barack Obama Champion of Change award. Additionally, he is a regular columnist for Forbes, The Detroit Free Press, and Inc. Magazine. His expertise on innovation has been featured in esteemed publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Furthermore, his work has been highlighted on CNN and The New York Times. Interestingly, he continues to be a skilled jazz guitarist. These recognitions underscore his significant contributions as an innovation speaker.
Keynote Speaker
As a sought-after keynote speaker, Josh Linkner leverages his unique and varied experiences to help organizations foster creativity, drive innovation, and enhance performance. Indeed, he inspires immediate and significant results. Moreover, he demonstrates how to unlock hidden creativity and fresh perspectives in various settings. This includes routine staff meetings, major innovation workshops, and the development of groundbreaking new products. Consequently, organizations learn to access a wealth of inspiration and novel ideas, any of which can lead to substantial improvements in leadership, innovation, and overall performance. People become more engaged as their curiosity and sense of wonder are stimulated. What once seemed ordinary transforms into an opportunity for new discoveries, guided by this insightful innovation speaker.
Detroiter
Deeply committed to his hometown, Josh plays a vital role in the widely discussed revitalization of Detroit, Michigan. As a multi-generational Detroiter, he actively contributes to the reinvention of his city. Therefore, his passion for Detroit further exemplifies his entrepreneurial drive and innovative spirit, qualities he also brings to his work as an innovation speaker.
Josh Linkner Speaking Topics
BIG LITTLE BREAKTHROUGHS: How small, everyday ideas drive gigantic results
The pressure to generate big ideas can feel overwhelming. We know that bold innovations are critical in these disruptive and competitive times, but when it comes to breakthrough thinking, we often freeze up. Instead of shooting for a $10 billion IPO or a Nobel Prize, the most prolific innovators focus instead on Big Little Breakthroughs – small, creative acts that unlock massive rewards over time. By building a daily habit of creativity, leaders and organizations not only enjoy a high volume of small wins, but also the daily practice of micro-innovations — the fastest route to discover the massive breakthroughs we seek. How did a convicted drug dealer use a Big Little Breakthrough to launch and scale a massively successful fitness company? Why was a nurse practitioner able to use daily micro-innovations to solve healthcare problems that the biggest corporations couldn’t crack? How did a tattoo lead to a 30% boost in performance for a publicly traded restaurant company? Big Little Breakthroughs isn’t just for propeller-head inventors, fancy pants CEOs, or hoodie-donning tech billionaires. Rather, it is a simple yet effective method for all of us to cultivate the power of human creativity. Focusing on a simple and deliberate approach to daily practice, the system enables people from all backgrounds, training, and walks of life to expand their creative skillset and mindset. It helps everyday individuals and leaders unlock inventive thinking and harness innovation to tackle tough challenges and seize bold opportunities. The Big Little Breakthroughs framework provides a specific and practical approach to unlocking dormant creative capacity. Instead of wild, risky and expensive moonshots, participants learn to unleash small, daily creative acts to drive gigantic results over time. In fact, cultivating high volumes of micro-innovations not only de-risks the creative process, it builds the much-needed skills that lead to colossal transformations...and the creative confidence to take responsible risks.
Find A Way: A proven innovation framework to solve problems, accelerate opportunity and sustain growth.
As we enter a new era of business, 50% of leaders in the United States have lost confidence in their ability to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. The level of disruption, technology threats, and volatility can be paralyzing. We are in a leadership crisis and must embrace a new model to meet today’s challenges. Prolific entrepreneur, venture capital investor, and innovation expert Josh Linkner helps you Find A Way™ through his proven 5-step innovation framework for cultivating full-organization ingenuity. Whatever outcomes you crave the most — from sales growth to competitive advantage to employee engagement — you’ll walk away with specific tools to drive sustainable success. The Find a Way™ framework prioritizes agility over brute force, creativity over hustle, and improvisation over perfect planning. Leaders who embrace the model are inspired and better equipped. They feel confident to move forward into the darkness and have a newfound capacity to win consistently, no matter the circumstances.
RETHINK. REBOOT. REINVENT. An innovative framework to navigate volatile times
The COVID pandemic sent shock waves through our economy, supply chain, and workforce, ringing in a new era of accelerated transformation. The successful models of the past have been rendered obsolete, requiring leaders to rethink their strategy in this defining moment. In this inspiring and actionable keynote experience, 5-time tech entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, venture capitalist, and world-renowned innovation expert Josh Linkner helps leaders respond to volatility with creative confidence. Exploring the core mindsets, habits, and tactics of the most innovative leaders on the planet, Linkner leaves audiences with an elevated capacity for inventive thinking and creative problem-solving through his battle-tested Reinvention Framework.
THE MUSIC OF BUSINESS: Problem solving, collaboration and agility from the dangerous world of jazz music
Be prepared to be amazed. Josh Linkner, a jazz guitarist since age 14, credits a musical background for giving him a different way of looking at business. In this stunning interactive presentation, a live jazz performance by Josh and his band is woven with stimulating dialogue. You’ll actually hear, through their music, fresh ways to unleash your organization’s creative mojo. In jazz, 99% of the notes are improvised; created in real-time. Yet it’s the structure of a jazz combo – not the inherent talent of individual musicians – that allows for such breathtaking creative expression. In today’s business landscape of dizzying speed, exponential complexity, and ruthless competition, we can no longer just play the notes on the written page. You will learn powerful lessons inspired by jazz musicians (a/k/a “real-time innovators”) to help you.
THE INNOVATIVE LEADER: A modern framework to lead with confidence in the face of uncertainty and change
The business you're running today isn't the business you'll be running next year. In this moment of volatility and uncertainty, we are being called to lead in a radically different way… more decisive, creative, and adaptable. So how can we use this defining moment to ensure relevancy, sustainability, and success in the future? In this inspiring and practical keynote, battle-tested CEO, venture capital investor, and leadership expert Josh Linkner delivers a modern and accessible framework to help leaders thrive in the face of uncertainty and leverage their skills to move into uncharted territory with confidence. You’ll learn how to unlock inventive thinking, creative problem-solving, and ingenuity in every box of the org chart. The most successful leaders today help everyday people become "everyday innovators." They make sure that innovation is an everyday business. This can’t-miss session goes way beyond the future of work. This is the future of growth, the future of relevancy, the future of leadership, and the future of success.
DISCIPLINED DREAMING: A proven system to drive breakthrough creativity
In our modern AI-driven world, creativity has become the currency of success. It’s the one thing that can’t be outsourced or automated; the indisputable competitive advantage. We are all hard-wired to be creative, yet most of us have underdeveloped creative skills. And today, more than ever before, creative problem-solving and inventive thinking are crucial to overcoming obstacles and seizing opportunities. Based on the breakaway New York Times bestselling book published in 19 languages and globally recognized by over 2 million readers as the definitive work on applied creativity, author and creativity expert Josh Linkner takes the audience on a journey to unlock their dormant creative capacity. Inspiring stories, surprising truths, and instantly-applicable solutions make this keynote both energizing and actionable.
Josh Linkner Books
Big Little Breakthroughs: How Small, Everyday Innovations Drive Oversized Results
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Hacking Innovation: The New Growth Model from the Sinister World of Hackers
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Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity
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The Road to Reinvention: How to Drive Disruption and Accelerate Transformation
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Josh Linkner Articles
Josh Linkner Speaker Testimonials
“Josh … I’m sure I speak for everyone in the GEICO IT organization when I say that we thoroughly enjoyed your presentation. Your talk was both inspiring and motivational; and far exceeded our expectations. Thank you again for doing a great job and it was a pleasure to meet you.”
- | GEICO University
“Josh Linkner made a huge impact on our organization. His message on creativity and innovation was spot-on and his work has had a lasting effect. After hiring him for one conference where he was voted the top speaker by far, we promptly invited him back to present to a larger audience. His keynote was high-energy, interactive, and left us with specific tools and techniques to improve our creative output.”
- | Mercedes Benz
“Josh has unmatched ability to embrace innovation. At his repeated visits to Viacom, Josh has consistently offered the strategic ideas and practical techniques necessary to drive creative thinking.”
- | Viacom
“Josh, everyone had nothing but great things to say about your presentation. You did a wonderful job at entertaining and enlightening the crowd with your message. Thank you so much!”
- | Visa
