Erin Herman

When teams feel truly empowered to own it, change management initiatives are more likely to succeed. The CEG Method™ is a proven leadership framework that helps leaders inspire others through authenticity, confidence, and momentum that drives lasting, human-centered impact.

Change isn’t hard because it’s complex. It’s hard because it’s human. Even the best-laid strategies falter when trust is low, teams are stretched thin, or everyone’s quietly waiting for someone else to make the first move.

In this engaging and story-rich keynote, Erin Herman invites leaders to rethink how change really happens—and why trying to lead it alone won’t get you far. Drawing on two decades of global leadership experience, Erin introduces the CEG Method—Courage, Empathy, Growth Mindset—a practical, people-first framework designed to help organizations lead change that
actually sticks.

With a blend of humor, heart, and hard-earned insight, Erin offers leaders a fresh perspective on what it takes to create momentum—from the inside out. This keynote isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about showing up with clarity, connection, and the courage to build something better—together.

Attendees will experience an immediately applicable shift in their ability to:

• Activate trust at scale by building psychologically safe environments where people
contribute with conviction, not compliance.
• Break through change fatigue by shifting from directive leadership to collaborative
influence rooted in clarity, courage, and connection.
• Elevate team performance and resilience by modeling vulnerability, building
empathy into decision-making, and embracing purposeful risk.
• Lead adaptive transformation using the CEG Method—a repeatable, scalable
approach that aligns people, culture, and outcomes in real time.

Forget fake-it-till-you-make-it. This talk unpacks how to build unshakable self-assurance rooted in experience, clarity, and courage—especially when stepping into stretch roles or high-stakes environments.

Confidence is loud. But self-assurance? That’s unshakable.

In this empowering keynote, Erin Herman shines a light on one of the most underestimated forces in leadership and life: self-assurance. It’s not about being the most vocal in the room or having all the answers—it’s about trusting yourself enough to lead with clarity, calm, and conviction, even when the path ahead is uncertain.

With humor, heart, and hard-won experience, Erin helps audiences discover how self assurance becomes your internal compass—grounding you when things get messy, guiding you when fear creeps in, and freeing you to lead without the need for constant validation.

This talk is a reminder and a reclamation: You already have what you need. You just have to learn how to use it.

Audience Takeaways:

After this session, attendees will walk away able to:
• Recognize the difference between confidence and self-assurance—and why the
latter leads to deeper, more sustainable leadership.
• Trust their own judgment, especially in moments of doubt, resistance, or change.
• Stop outsourcing their worth and start making decisions from a grounded place of
inner knowing.
• Lead with quiet power, turning down the noise of imposter syndrome and turning up
their internal clarity and conviction.

This is a rally cry and roadmap for women ready to rise. Erin shares real stories and bold strategies to break through limiting beliefs, outdated systems, and every invisible barrier in the book. No ceilings. No walls. Just open sky.

This isn’t just a keynote—it’s a rally cry and a roadmap.

For every woman who’s waited to feel “ready,” who’s questioned her worth, or downplayed her voice to make others comfortable—this is your moment to rewrite the story.

In Glass Ceilings? We’ll Take the Whole Roof, Erin Herman challenges outdated norms and internal narratives that hold women back from owning their power. Through raw storytelling, bold humor, and deeply human insight, Erin introduces the 4Cs Methodology—Conviction, Courage, Clarity, and Confidence—a practical framework women can use to lead with
purpose and show up fully in any room they enter.

Because leadership isn’t about perfection or permission—it’s about presence. And it’s time to stop playing small in spaces we were born to own. No ceilings. No walls. Just open sky.

Attendees will experience an immediately applicable shift in their ability to:

• Turn self-doubt into conviction by shifting their inner narrative from “Who am I to
lead?” to “Who am I not to?”
• Act before they feel ready, using Courage as a catalyst for growth—not just a response
to fear.
• Get clear on their power and purpose, so they can lead with intention, not apology.
• Build authentic confidence that doesn’t require perfection—just the willingness to
show up fully.

This keynote invites anyone who’s been waiting for the “perfect moment” to take the leap. Through bold storytelling and real-world insight, Erin reveals how failure fuels innovation, strengthens resilience, and shapes us into the changemakers we’re meant to be.

Perfection doesn’t build leaders—failure does. This keynote is for anyone who’s been holding back—waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect plan, or the perfect version of themselves to show up. Spoiler: perfection is a myth.

And chasing it is the fastest way to stay stuck.

In Fail First: Because Perfection Is Overrated, Erin Herman flips the script on failure—revealing it not as a weakness to avoid, but as a superpower to cultivate. Through bold storytelling and real-world insight, she explores how failure actually fuels innovation, builds resilience, and accelerates leadership growth. Because we remember our failures more than our wins—not because they hurt more, but because they shape us more.

Erin introduces the FAIL Method—a powerful mindset shift to help leaders and teams move forward with more courage, more clarity, and a whole lot less fear.

The FAIL Methodology:

A practical mindset reset for anyone ready to leap:

• Focus on the lesson, not the loss
• Acknowledge the risk—and take it anyway
• Integrate the feedback without internalizing the failure
• Leverage the experience to fuel your next bold move
Audience Takeaways:
After this session, attendees will be equipped to:
• Redefine failure as a strategic advantage—not a setback
• Take action without waiting for perfection, knowing growth comes from
momentum, not mastery
• Build team cultures where experimentation is encouraged, and missteps are seen
as progress
• Let go of shame and self-doubt, and replace them with resilience, clarity, and
forward motion

We’ve all seen what happens when leaders design change from the boardroom instead of the breakroom, it fails fast.

Human-Centered Design isn’t a framework—it’s a mindset shift. In this keynote, Erin shows leaders how the most resilient cultures are built not through policies or processes, but through people. Drawing from two decades leading global partnerships with the United Nations, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital–ALSAC, and Fortune 500 organizations, she reveals the power of starting with people, building with them, and evolving alongside them. When leaders design with their teams, not for them, burnout turns into buy-in and strategy becomes shared purpose.

Erin brings Human-Centered Design to life through the everyday moments that shape culture: how you listen, how you run meetings, how you onboard new talent, and how you use feedback as a source of clarity rather than critique. Leaders learn to “listen like designers,” slowing down assumptions and trading top-down directives for curiosity-driven conversations that uncover what people actually need to do their best work. She shows how co-creation, inviting the people closest to the work to shape the solutions, deepens ownership and unlocks smarter decisions.

Through real-world stories and practical examples, Erin illustrates how small experiments can create big cultural momentum. From piloting new rituals to testing meeting redesigns, leaders discover how to experiment before investing, learn before locking in, and create feedback loops that strengthen connection and trust. This keynote reframes leadership as an ongoing rhythm of empathy, experimentation, and evolution—one where culture becomes something you tend to, not
something you tell.

Ultimately, attendees walk away with a human-centered blueprint for culture building: one rooted in
clarity, transparency, curiosity, and continuous learning. When leaders design with people at the
center, they don’t just create better strategies—they create better teams, better environments, and
better humans at work.

IMMEDIATE ATTENDEE SHIFTS

• Leaders move from assumption-driven leadership to curiosity-driven leadership.
• Teams feel ownership by being part of the design process, not just the rollout.
• Feedback becomes a trusted learning loop rather than a source of fear or friction.
• Culture shifts from a set of values on a wall to a series of intentional, human moments.

Culture isn’t built by slogans or strategy decks…
It’s built in the small, consistent moments that shape how people feel, act, and belong. Erin helps leaders design cultures rooted in trust, empathy, and shared ownership where people don’t just work together, they grow together. With humor and hard-won lessons from two decades leading global teams, she shows how everyday habits: feedback, recognition, curiosity, can turn any team into a thriving community. Because the best cultures don’t happen by accident; they’re built on purpose.

The strongest cultures aren’t accidental—they’re designed through the daily choices leaders make about how they listen, how they communicate, and how they care for their people. In this keynote, Erin shows leaders what it truly means to lead like a human: to build environments where people feel valued, trusted, and inspired to bring their best—not because they’re told to, but because they want to.

With warmth, humor, and two decades of leading global teams, she demonstrates how empathy, clarity, and authenticity create cultures where people don’t just perform, they thrive. Erin brings to life the idea that culture is built in moments, not mandates. From the way leaders open meetings to the way they respond to stress, she illustrates how small, consistent behaviors shape a team’s sense of belonging, safety, and purpose. Attendees discover how to create psychological safety in practical, tangible ways—inviting voices into the room, rewarding learning instead of perfection, and making room for real human experiences without losing accountability or results.

Through powerful stories from UNICEF, St. Jude, and Fortune 500 organizations, Erin shows how human-first leadership strengthens collaboration, loyalty, and trust across departments. Leaders learn how to build relational equity, how to communicate expectations with compassion and clarity, and how to model resilience in a way that encourages, not intimidates, their teams.

This keynote focuses on the human habits that turn culture from a buzzword into a daily practice: consistent gratitude, intentional connection, authentic acknowledgment, and the courage to show up real. At its heart, this session is about building workplaces where people don’t just work harder—they care more. Erin equips leaders with the tools to create cultures that people want to stay in, grow in, and contribute to. Because when leaders lead like humans, organizations don’t just survive the shifting world of work—they become places people are proud to belong to.

IMMEDIATE ATTENDEE SHIFTS

• Leaders adopt human-first habits that strengthen trust, belonging, and psychological safety.
• Teams experience a deeper sense of connection, making collaboration faster and more
natural.
• Performance becomes fueled by purpose and pride, not pressure or fear.
• Culture evolves from “how we work” to “who we are”—a shared identity people want to
contribute to every day.