Rick Smith

Rick Smith Speaker Biography

Bestselling Author of The Leap

and Creator of the Primary Color Assessment

Rick Smith is the founding CEO of World50, cited as one of the world’s most influential senior executive networking companies. He is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal and Business Week bestseller, The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers, which has been sold into 13 languages and remains one of the top-selling professional career books of all time. His upcoming release, The Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career from Good to Great hit the shelves in September 2009 through Penguin/Portfolio.

A Universal Message. A leading commentator on careers and professional and personal success, Rick has been featured by more than 50 media outlets, including CNN, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Sirius Satellite Radio, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, Fortune and Chief Executive. Rickʼs message offers a fascinating and compelling framework for individuals to dramatically accelerate their impact in the workplace, unlock dormant potential and achieve great things for themselves and their employers.

Leading from Experience. Smith, himself, turned an ordinary career into an extraordinary one. A once struggling executive recruiter, he momentarily broke out of the pack with a successful book only to be fired in the aftermath. And thatʼs when the journey of discovery began. Smith revived an idea he had had several years earlier for top-level peer-to-peer exchange groups. The initial reaction was frigid, but eventually one key executive signed on, then another, and another. Soon, Rick was riding others’ enthusiasm and World50, one of the world’s largest, most successful professional networking organizations, was born. How did it happen? Why?

These are the questions that drove Rick to interview hundreds of people in fields as varied as healthcare, retailing, community service, and fashion to discover how they had turned their careers from ordinary to extraordinary. What Smith discovered is both dramatic and counterintuitive – that people who turn dull careers into deeply fulfilling ones, all follow a similar path. It’s this process that Rick shares with his audiences and it’s one that everyone can take.

Inspiring people in all organizations and at all levels to make their own leap is Rick Smith’s primary mission. Helping individuals improve their lives through work and unlock latent productivity is what he does best.

A serial entrepreneur, Rick is currently working on the launch of several new companies. He and his wife Lori live in Atlanta, Georgia, with their three children.

Rick Smith Speaking Topics

The Performance Leap: 3 Steps to Unlocking the Potential in Yourself and Those You Lead

In this program – based on the groundbreaking new book The Leap – he shows that guiding yourself and others toward roles that fully leverage your strengths and passions – not fixing weaknesses – will increase engagement and performance and accelerate development. He reveals how anyone can lead authentically, while leveraging the powerful leadership platform utilized by the most successful iconic leaders of the last several centuries. Finally, he shows how successful professionals develop and move forward by mitigating risk, not increasing it.

Take the Leap: 3 Steps to a Breakthrough Life

In this program – based on the groundbreaking new book The Leap – he shows that guiding yourself toward roles that fully leverage your strengths and passions – not fixing your weaknesses – will increase engagement and performance and accelerate individual development. He reveals how anyone can be true to themselves and lead authentically, while leveraging the powerful leadership platform utilized by the most successful iconic leaders of the last several centuries. Finally, he shows how you can open numerous new doors in your life while simultaneously mitigating risk, not increasing it.

The Patterns of Extraordinary Performance: The Guide to Uncommon Individual and Organizational Achievement

In this program – based on 10 years of research conducted for the new book The Leap, and the bestselling The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers – he shows that guiding yourself and others toward roles that fully leverage your strengths and passions – not fixing weaknesses – will increase engagement and performance and accelerate development. He identifies how professionals can greatly exceed expectations by breaking the “permission paradox” and focusing efforts on the most valuable activities. He reveals how anyone can leverage the powerful leadership platform utilized by the most successful iconic leaders of the last several centuries. Finally, he shows how successful professionals develop and move forward by mitigating risk, not increasing it.