The Ability to Embrace and Create Change

Innovation is constant. And our long-term success is purely a function of how well we deal with it. Sterling's speaking and stories give audiences around the world the inspiration, tools and ability to not just embrace change, but to become people that actually create it. It has reliably left hundreds of founders, investors, retailers, brands and fortune 500 companies working towards a new future that looks entirely new and not just a slightly better version of the past. 

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SPEAKING

Sterling delivers impactful keynotes across the world from New York to Singapore making innovation both possible and accessible. Attendees are left with the ability to create change and the inspiration to make it real in their businesses and lives. 

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MASTERCLASS

Sterling's DeltaV Method is a masterclass on how to create change and open next-level thinking through story. Stand-alone or as a follow-up to his keynote, they are relied upon by businesses of all sizes and customized to produce breakthrough results.

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EVENTS

Sterling participates and hosts innovation-based events all over the world. Startups creating new futures for us to live into often participate and join the events. Join us in the movement of creating something entirely new!

Keynotes with Impact. Delivered by Sterling.

Sterling speaks around the world on innovation, the future of commerce and how to create personal and business change. He has hosted, moderated, and keynoted countless events including for client such as...

“Sterling combines powerful storytelling with meaningful information and tools leaving listeners excited and empowered to take action. He’s one of only a few speakers I’ve seen that actually makes a real difference. We’ll definitely have him back!”
— Michael Mikyska, Retail Managing Director, Innerworkings, Inc.
“Over my many years running events around the world, few if any of my 2,000+ speakers delivered as remarkable a performance as Sterling did at Seamless Asia 2017.”
— Oliver Arscott, Director, Terrapinn
“Thank you Sterling for a breath taking speech on Innovation!! Your mindset and delivery is epic and amazing and I am ever so grateful for your presentation at City Summit! Riveting!!”
— Ryan Long, Founder, City Summit & City Gala

Keynote Topics

When I show up to speak, I show up to deliver value to an audience. To give my all and really make a difference for attendees and make the conference director look like a rockstar for bringing me in. Specifics are customized to the audience for the most impactful experience possible and include technologies and demonstrations of 4th industrial revolution technologies as it forwards the intention. 

 

The Innovation Puzzle: Examine the puzzle of innovation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most businesses don't: people aren’t built for change.

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Sterling’s family grocery store went from a local market on to become the benchmark of innovation in the industry as the culture transformed to not just embrace change, but to actually cause it. Recognizing in a traditionally human-centric retail industry, where fear of change can be high and morale low, Sterling created an atmosphere of freedom to innovate with concrete methodology which not only encouraged everyday people to embrace change by involving them in the process, he ignited their spirit to actually become agents of change and facilitators of the innovation process to ignite the spirit in others.This moving talk is based on the lessons learned as Sterling worked to create a culture free to innovate first at his family’s store and then with leading companies around the world. Sterling learned along the way that before you can embrace change, you have to give up the status quo and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. 

 

Full “Creating the Future of Commerce” Keynote. Akolade Retail Fulfilment Summit. Melbourne, Australia. March, 2018.

Creating the Future of Commerce: In a culture of consumerism and technology, how did we get here and the surprising place we’re headed in the future to fulfill on our wants and needs.

Retail used to be different when Sterling was growing up in his family’s supermarket — it was all about customers and all about community. Walmart, Amazon and others broke that traditional mold making it all about scale, mass and technology.  With venture dollars and startups flooding the market, Sterling first worked in his family’s store and now across the global retail industry to shape how emerging technologies such as robots, drones, artificial intelligence and countless other technologies will transform how people fulfill on their wants and needs. For those in retail or interested in retail, this is a hands on roadmap of what technologies will be part of the future, who is using them already, and how to inspire a culture that that embraces change. His leadership and vision enabled retailers and their teams to step past the hype of traditional retail being dead to empower them to use technology to unify experiences and redefine what retail is. 

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Great Leaders Inspire Innovation (And Big Business Kills it): People aren’t built for change, they’re built for survival. In today’s fast-paced world, change is necessary and learning how to first accept it and get out ahead of it is the only competitive advantage.

The only constant is change. Sterling learned that first hand as he worked with retailers and brands to embrace the technologies of the 4th industrial revolution including robots, IoT and Artificial Intelligence. At the same time it required him and the companies he worked with to think differently to truly embrace technology coming together with humanity to unlock something new. And to do that, it was a special kind of skill to let go of everything we think we already know to discover what’s possible. He shows how inside of a leadership style that embraces change, transformational performance is possible and proven. Sterling shows audiences, by example, how to develop innovation thinking to gain perspective, clarity and take profits to the next level inside the 4th Industrial Revolution where anything is possible. 

Representation

Sterling Hawkins has become a master of innovation through massive changes and obstacles he has overcome in his own life. From flat broke to selling the first company he founded in 2004, from a broken family business to a successful one, and from fear of public speaking to keynoting at conferences around the world, Sterling’s story is a perfect example of how anyone can take any situation and create anything from it.  

As a business leader, entrepreneur investor and futurist, Sterling is an internationally renowned keynote speaker. As a 5th generation retailer and still very active in retail innovation, he has worked with the likes of Stanford, Cornell and the University of Texas to create the future of commerce, and today evaluates over 1,000 innovative technologies annually which are looking to dynamically transform retail and how people fulfill on their wants and needs. He has worked with countless startups, investment groups, retailers, brands and Fortune 500 companies including P&G, Mitsubishi, Zebra Technologies, Stater Bros. and more to ignite innovation and innovation thinking inside their organizations. 

Sterling has been seen in Inc. Magazine, The New York Times, ABC Money, AlleyWatch, Yahoo Finance, Forbes and other major media outlets. Living at the intersection of in-store, online and the 4th Industrial Revolution, Sterling is actively shaping the future of commerce by helping others create and respond to innovation in a way that betters businesses, communities and the human condition.

Micro vs macro ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ And I’m not talking about nutrition. I’m talking about the dichotomy of focus. So let me jump up on the soapbox for a minute. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ On one hand, details matter. Making every single component of a business, aim or goal as buttoned up as it possibly can be. Keeping everything in place, organized and on time. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ On the other hand, it’s all big picture. It’s who you are and your bigger “self” carrying out all those details that breaths life into any action. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Details without vision is lost and lifeless. Vision without details is a dream. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Bringing those pieces of our humanity together makes just about anything possible.
Congrats to ATSSA for kicking off a really great conference! It was a honor to be with the men and women that keep our roads safe to keep us safe.
Today is the slowest pace of change we’ll ever see again. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Every industry has this incredible opportunity to create new things, new experiences and new kinds of businesses. To innovate. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I'm speaking at the ATSSA Annual Convention & Traffic Expo this coming weekend as the things we used to think of as science fiction – robots, drones, artificial intelligence – are part of even the most mundane activities today. I can’t even navigate the streets of where I live in LA without AI directing me around traffic. Emerging technologies are shaping everything we do these days. Not just how we do things, but what we want to do and how we think. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ We see possibilities that we couldn’t have imagined a decade ago. Innovation builds on itself. Some of the most remarkable innovations of their time seem really simple in retrospect. Just in the roadway safety industry, take things like pavement markings. Stop signs. Street lights. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ We gather in these workshops, these conferences, these communities standing on the shoulders of the giants that created the innovation before us look into the future and take the next step.
Always. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Every time you betray yourself or others (no matter how small) you distance yourself from reality, from who you are and from the difference you’re able to make. Truth always 🙏
Choose your own adventure ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I used to love “choose you’re own adventure” books when I was a kid. After every few pages I was left with several choices that would all lead me to one of many different endings. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ But I was the kind of person that, when faced with the choice, kept my finger or a bookmark in that spot so if I didn’t like where I ended up I could always go back. The ironic thing is that I then didn’t even finish the books. After a few chapters it became unwieldy and confusing as to everywhere I made a decision I just threw in the towel. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ No surprise, years back I found myself trying to do that in life, too. Trying to keep track of everything so if it didn’t work out I could go back. But all it left me with was not fully committing. And therefore naturally not getting the results. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ It’s an illusion to think that we can go back. Only after totally embracing everything exactly as it is and all the choices and decisions we’ve made exactly as we made them can we affect real change. We can throw ourselves in and trust we’ll end up where we’re meant to be. Actually choose your own adventure. To join us on our adventures (next up Morocco & Portugal) link in bio :)
The only way to make sense out of innovation is to plunge into it and figuring out how to swim. It seems like there’s a critical mass of people that no longer will settle for what shows up. They’re ready to start creating whats possible. Creating what’s possible so we can all live in a world that's not just a little better than today but exponentially different. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I stand for supporting more people in doing that. More people standing for something entirely new. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Just released my latest speaking highlight reel. Check it out. Link in bio!
Committed action. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The other day I was speaking at an event hosted by @samsungus SDS, HARMON and Retail Innovation Lounge in New York City. I was there with the great @annemarie_ams, Denny’s Jason Braezeale, Gwen Morrison and several other speakers discussing innovation and it’s impact. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Jason has done something really interesting with @dennysdiner. They actually bring in outside speakers from schools and other affiliations to inspire new kinds of thinking in areas that they’re not already familiar with. It gets people thinking in new ways. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ As we were talking on the panel there’s another necessary step: committed action. Thinking alone is not enough. It’s in the conversations, interaction and engagement with others that new, innovative ideas are brought to life. It’s in the committed action that change happens. Denny’s made some changes with startup partners that nobody thought possible from a diner. By breaking the rules, standing for a vision and taking action, they’ve grown their online orders to 12% total sales. From Denny’s? Yes. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Innovation thinking needs the other side of the equation to be complete — we need to realize some of the thinking with committed action. In action, in the face of disagreement, in the face of what people will tell you, remember what’s really possible.
Innovation isn’t about technology. It’s about seeing something new as possible and then standing for its realization.
How can we transform ourselves and our businesses? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The answer is simultaneously simple and extremely profound: by taking new actions. Not just any new actions, but the things that confront us, scare us and usually occur as the things we don’t actually want to do. It’s by that playing that game that we grow ourselves and become true innovators in the world. Stories, case studies and how it impacts transactions today coming at TES Talks in Lisbon, March 1-4 if you can join us! Link in bio👆🏻
We helped put together food packages for children and seniors this morning with the @lafoodbank. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ There were about 100 strangers there at 9am this morning. Many just to volunteer. (Many wishing they had coffee). ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ And as the food package assembly lines got going, people started smiling and talking. Started realizing the impact we were making. And the boxes stacked up. Almost 3,000 of them. Strangers coming together to good. It was awesome. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I know a bunch of people wanted to join. I’ll coordinate so we have plenty of time next time :)
Finding the middle way is easy. But it’s a compromise that puts survival ahead of potential. It’s what leads to “fine” results, incremental growth and nobody looking bad. And there’s a place for that. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Where potential opens up is in choosing black or white. Choosing the courage to skip the middle way. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ There’s certainly risk. And we might be wrong. We might have to course correct. But by going all in, by risking what there is to risk, we literally push ourselves to figure it out. Then comes the reward.
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