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Who Charles speaks to

The Right Keynote for the Room You’re Bringing Together.

Whether you’re planning a CEO retreat, an industry conference, a corporate leadership summit, or a sales kickoff, the best presentations start with the challenges your audience is facing.

Charles Gaudet brings a fresh perspective on AI, changing buyer behavior, and predictable growth, tailored to the decisions your audience needs to make next.

Your audience. Their challenges. Ideas worth acting on.

Find the Right KeynoteDiscuss Your Event
Charles Gaudet coaching founders at the 2025 Board of Directors Offsite

Find the right keynote

Start with the people in the room.

Seven kinds of audience. Each one faces a different challenge, so each one gets a different recommendation.

Founder & CEO Communities

Your members have built successful companies. But success creates new challenges.

Growth slows. The founder becomes the bottleneck. And adding more people, more tactics, or more hours doesn’t always solve the problem.

Charles challenges CEOs to rethink what’s actually driving growth, identify the constraints holding their companies back, and build businesses that can scale beyond the founder.

Ideal eventsEO, YPO, Vistage, CEO conferences, founder retreats, and executive peer groups.

Audience takeawayA clearer understanding of what’s limiting their growth and where to focus next.

Recommended keynote

The Growth Trap Why More Tactics Won’t Fix What’s Broken

AlternativeStop Buying AI. Start Leading the Work.

Explore This Keynote Discuss Your Event

From an organizer who hired him more than once

“We hired Charles Gaudet multiple times, and he’s, by far, our most popular speaker!”

Ashley Grant, Managing Director, Forbes Councils

Corporate Leadership Teams & Summits

Your leaders are being asked to deliver more, adapt faster, and figure out where AI fits without losing the people, judgment, and accountability that make a business work.

But buying more technology doesn’t automatically improve performance.

Charles challenges leaders to rethink how work gets done, how people and AI agents collaborate, and what it takes to build teams that perform at a higher level.

Ideal eventsCorporate leadership summits, executive retreats, management conferences, and company-wide leadership events.

Audience takeawayA fresh perspective on using AI to strengthen people, improve execution, and create accountability.

Recommended keynote

Stop Buying AI. Start Leading the Work.

AlternativeThe Growth Trap: Why More Tactics Won’t Fix What’s Broken

Explore This Keynote Discuss Your Event

Industry Associations & Trade Conferences

Your members are dealing with customers who research differently, compare more options, and increasingly use AI to help make buying decisions.

What worked to attract customers five years ago may no longer be enough to earn their attention today.

Charles reveals how the buying journey is changing, why companies are losing opportunities before their sales teams ever get involved, and what it takes to become the obvious choice.

Ideal eventsIndustry conferences, trade associations, professional associations, and annual member meetings.

Audience takeawayA practical understanding of how changing buyer behavior affects their industry and what companies can do to remain competitive.

Recommended keynote

The Invisible Shortlist How Buyers Choose Before They Contact You

AlternativeThe Pre-Sold Buyer: Turn Content Into Trust Before the First Call

Explore This Keynote Discuss Your Event

From an industry association’s annual conference

“Charles Gaudet’s keynote was a standout highlight of our annual industry conference, which brought together top manufacturing CEOs.”

Don Jacobson III, President, SMI

AI & Future-of-Work Conferences

Everyone is talking about AI tools.

Far fewer are talking about what it takes to lead the people and intelligent agents using them.

Charles challenges the idea that adopting more AI automatically creates a competitive advantage.

He shows business leaders why the future belongs to organizations that rethink how humans and agents work together, with clear responsibilities, stronger systems, and measurable outcomes.

This isn’t about replacing great people.

It’s about making great people better.

Ideal eventsAI summits, future-of-work conferences, business transformation events, and technology leadership forums.

Audience takeawayA leadership-focused perspective on AI that goes beyond tools, prompts, and automation.

Recommended keynote

Stop Buying AI. Start Leading the Work.

Explore This Keynote Discuss Your Event

From the producer of an AI summit

“Charles Gaudet was one of our featured speakers at our “Get Up to Speed with AI” Summit, and his session provided massive value for our audience.”

Amy Yamada, Founder, IdealClient.ai (at time of event)

Sales & Marketing Conferences

Your audience knows how to generate traffic, launch campaigns, and create content.

But activity doesn’t always translate into customers.

Today’s buyers form opinions long before the sales conversation begins. The companies that win understand how to build trust, create demand, and become the preferred choice before prospects ever make contact.

Charles challenges traditional lead-generation thinking and introduces a different approach to building buyer preference.

Ideal eventsSales kickoffs, marketing conferences, revenue leadership summits, and growth-focused business events.

Audience takeawayA new perspective on creating demand, building trust, and making sales conversations easier before they begin.

Recommended keynote

The Pre-Sold Buyer Turn Content Into Trust Before the First Call

AlternativeThe Invisible Shortlist: How Buyers Choose Before They Contact You

Explore This Keynote Discuss Your Event

Agency & Professional-Services Groups

Referrals are great. Until they slow down.

Many successful agencies and professional-services firms build their businesses on relationships, reputation, and the founder’s ability to bring in clients.

But when growth depends on unpredictable referrals or one person’s network, scaling becomes difficult.

Charles challenges founders to rethink how they create demand, build authority, and develop a more reliable path to winning customers.

Ideal eventsAgency owner conferences, professional-services associations, consulting communities, and business development summits.

Audience takeawayA clearer understanding of how to reduce referral dependency and build greater trust with future buyers.

Recommended keynote

The Pre-Sold Buyer Turn Content Into Trust Before the First Call

AlternativeThe Growth Trap: Why More Tactics Won’t Fix What’s Broken

Explore This Keynote Discuss Your Event

Private Masterminds & Investor Communities

Your members aren’t looking for another motivational speech.

They want fresh thinking, practical insights, and conversations that challenge how they run their companies.

Charles brings real-world experience from building businesses and working with more than 1,000 founders.

He challenges successful entrepreneurs to identify what’s holding them back, question the assumptions behind their growth strategies, and rethink what it takes to build a more valuable business.

Ideal eventsPrivate masterminds, investor communities, executive retreats, and invitation-only business groups.

Audience takeawayNew perspectives on solving growth constraints, strengthening operations, and creating businesses that depend less on their founders.

Recommended keynote

The Growth Trap Why More Tactics Won’t Fix What’s Broken

AlternativeStop Buying AI. Start Leading the Work.

Explore This Keynote Discuss Your Event

From a private mastermind

“We brought Charles in to speak to our mastermind members of top business minds in our area and he broke down so powerfully yet so simply how to turn up our businesses regardless of the market we are in.”

Arel Moodie, Co-Founder, Profound Mastermind

What event organizers say

From the people who put him on their stage

From an EO chapter working session

“We brought Charlie and his team in to present on predictable profits, and where so many presentations sacrifice details for engagement, Charlie managed to offer a working session that was both deeply engaging and rooted in real-world application and next steps. All of our members walked away with clear action items and, maybe most importantly, confidence that there was a path forward to reach their goals. Highly recommend working with Charlie and his team if you feel stuck in your business.”

Mary Finch, EO Washington DC

From an investor community

“Charles delivered a fantastic session that was engaging, well-structured, and tailored perfectly to our Lifestyle Investor community. Our members especially loved the workshop-style approach, which made the content immediately actionable. It was a clear value-add across the board, and we would definitely welcome him back anytime.”

Phoebe Mroczek, Director of Marketing, Lifestyle Investor

Past stages

  • SMI
  • Forbes Councils
  • Entrepreneurs' Organization
  • Profound
  • YEC
  • WSIA

Tailored to your event

The Best Keynotes Start With the Audience.

No two rooms are exactly alike.

A CEO retreat has different priorities than an industry conference. A sales kickoff has different challenges than a corporate leadership summit.

Charles works with event organizers to understand their audience, the issues they’re facing, and the ideas that will have the greatest impact.

The result is a presentation built around the conversations that matter most to the people in the room.

Discuss Your Event

Let’s find the right fit

Tell Us About Your Audience. We’ll Help You Choose the Right Message.

You don’t need to have the keynote figured out before reaching out.

Tell us who’s attending, what challenges they’re facing, and what you’d like them to think or do differently after the event.

We’ll help you determine which of Charles’s presentations makes the most sense.

  • 60 min keynote
  • 90 min or half-day workshop
  • In person or virtual

Based in Jupiter, FL. Available worldwide.

Discuss Your Event Explore All Keynotes

You’ll hear back within 24 hours, Monday to Friday.

Or write to Charles@CharlesGaudet.com

Speaking kit

For event planners