Anese Cavanaugh

As leaders, we work hard to inspire others, build meaningful relationships, and create lasting change within our organizations. Yet, despite our best efforts — whether through learning new skills, launching initiatives, attending therapy, or doing all the “right” things — we often find ourselves overwhelmed, reworking tasks, burning out, and unintentionally damaging relationships. In our rush to improve, we frequently overlook our most valuable leadership asset: our presence.

Your presence is your impact, and when you reflect on challenges like burnout, rework, lost time, misalignment, conflict, poor results, or feeling unseen, a lack of presence is often the root cause.

Fortunately, by activating your Intentional Energetic Presence® (IEP), you can regain control, improve relationships, and lead more effectively.

In this experiential keynote, Anese leverages insights from her book Contagious You to explore the concept of presence and its critical connection to leadership. She dismantles the three biggest myths that hinder presence, explores how presence is tied to your relationship with yourself, and demonstrates how strengthening your energetic presence helps you build resilience from external pressures and supports your ability to effectively inspire yourself and influence others.

You’ll learn how presence impacts teams, relationships, and everyday interactions — from boardrooms to personal dynamics. Anese will share practical strategies to quickly recover from energetic misalignment, navigate low-energy environments, and align the collective energy of teams. Her message is clear: when you own your energy, align with yourself, and approach leadership with intentionality and presence, you can transform your impact.

• Available Components: Keynote, Conference Breakout, Group Resource for Follow-Up, Executive Special Session

• Companion Book Options: Contagious Culture, Contagious You, The Leader You Will Be (to be determined based upon venue, desired impact, and audience).

• This is a core keynote session, however, please note that each presentation is custom-tailored to meet the specific needs of your audience and participants. The topics covered will be adjusted based on the desired length and focus areas.

• This keynote is available in 20-, 45-, and 90-minute versions, depending on the depth and level of detail you’d like to explore.

The true pulse of your company’s success can’t be measured by engagement surveys — it’s driven by the energy and vitality of your leadership and workforce. While many companies rely on engagement metrics to assess workforce health, they often miss three crucial truths: engagement is a lagging indicator (by the time you measure it, the damage is done); energy can be shifted instantly to create a more engaged and productive future; and it’s up to every leader to create true culture transformation.

Year after year, organizations invest billions in engagement initiatives and training programs, yet continue to face losses from disengagement, eroding trust, and declining retention rates. To cultivate a truly healthy organization that drives sustainable innovation and results, leaders must move beyond surface-level programs and quick-fix culture solutions, and adopt a fresh approach that builds deeper trust, transparency, and collaboration.

In this inspiring session, Anese Cavanaugh introduces a forward-thinking approach rooted in the IEP Methodology, designed to break through outdated practices, help leaders to grow and perform better, and create lasting culture change. You’ll discover how to activate your own leadership energy and identify the culture and innovation blind spots you may not even realize exist.

• Available Components: Keynote, Conference Breakout, Group Resource for Follow-Up, Executive Special Session

• Companion Book Options: Contagious Culture, Contagious You, The Leader You Will Be (to be determined based upon venue, desired impact, and audience).

It’s a common misconception that leadership development and culture change can be transformed through strengths assessments, feedback frameworks, or an emotional intelligence workshop. While these ‘outside-in’ approaches are marketed widely, they rarely lead to lasting leadership behavior changes or genuine culture shifts. True and sustainable transformation begins from the inside out — through how you show up every day and the Intentional Energetic Presence® (IEP) you bring.

In this insightful session, Anese dismantles the three greatest myths that undermine sustainable organizational health today, showing how to foster a contagious, positively contagious culture — whether in person or remote. You’ll learn how real culture change starts with you, and how the IEP Method® creates energy accountability that drives collaboration, open communication, trust, and resilience.

With transformative tools and frameworks, this session equips you to position your culture for long-term success, ensuring authentic positivity and resilience across your organization.

• Available Components: Keynote, Group Resource for Follow-Up, Executive Session

• Companion Book: Contagious Culture

Does life happen to you or for you? Do people follow you because they want to or because they have to? When leadership and life get tough, do you react with frustration, or do you respond thoughtfully and take the opportunity to regroup and reset? We believe that every challenge presents a choice to elevate your leadership and impact, and the decisions you make shape both your results and the leader you’re becoming.

In this memorable session, Anese shares a captivating, personal story about how an unexpected sheep invasion became a powerful lesson for her, her family, and her organization. Attendees will leave with an inspiring metaphor for leadership growth, along with five key takeaways on what to know, do, and embody when “Sheep Happens.”

• Available Components: Keynote, Executive Integration Session

• Companion Book(s): Contagious Culture, Contagious You

“Showing Up” is the foundation of effective leadership — and a fulfilling life. But what does it truly mean to Show Up, and how can you cultivate this as a key competency for yourself and your team? When life is busy and complex, how do you become the leader you’re meant to be?

This special talk, which can be delivered as a 10-minute performance or a full keynote, explores the journey of “becoming” a leader within your organization. Drawing on Anese’s leadership storybook, first brought to the stage in 2018, the talk weaves her core message, customized to resonate with your organization or industry. It can also feature elements such as the “7 Essential Promises to Self” or themes from her “Becoming” talk. To make your event truly memorable, the session can conclude with a custom poem written specifically for the occasion.

• Available Components: Integrated into Keynote, Custom Performance

• Companion Book(s): The Leader You Will Be, Contagious Culture, Contagious You