Keynotes · Workshops · Executive retreats

Put a Builder on Your Stage.

Your audience doesn't need another motivational speech. They need someone who has built it, run it on a live clock, and made it hold when everything was on the line. They'll leave knowing what to build next, and how to build it so it lasts.

Press The Wall Street Journal·Washingtonian·The Huffington Post·Martha Stewart Living·Martha Stewart Weddings·Redfin·LinkedIn News·Advisorpedia
0600What your audience walks away with

Stories They'll Repeat on Monday. Lessons They'll Use.

Founders and owners leave knowing where their business still depends on them, and what to build so it doesn't.
Leadership teams leave with a sharper standard for service, hiring, and decisions under pressure.
Everyone leaves with a story they'll tell their team, and a next step they can take that week.
0700Why these stories land

I Know the Other Side of the Stage.

I've built the event, walked every room, and held the run of show when nothing was allowed to fail.

I've done presidential advance, communications, and operations on White House, DHS, and HHS engagements, for administrations of both parties. I've run Fortune 500 campaigns on five continents, launched brands internationally before 500+ press, worked alongside legends of media and technology, and produced live national media with the biggest names in news.

I built my own service company to seven-plus figures, ran it through a health crisis from more than a thousand miles away, and sold it with the core team intact. Today I help small businesses across industries, from the skilled trades to medical practices, build companies that run without their founders.

The stories are big. The lessons are practical.

0800Signature talks

Four Talks. Every One Built for the Room.

01 · Lead keynote

The Founder's Ceiling: Build for the Day You Can't Show Up

Every founder will have a day they can't show up. I had a lot of them. I built my company on the ground. Then, just as we were set to expand into a new market, my health moved me more than a thousand miles away, and I ran it from there while fighting for my life. It had to run without me, and it did. That's what gave me a choice. A company that runs without its founder is a company someone else can buy. I chose my health, and I sold it. The core team is still there.

This talk shows founders how to find the ceiling in their own business and build past it before life forces the test.

Your audience will learn

  • Where decisions still route through them, and how to move them
  • The difference between a business that makes money and one someone will buy
  • How to build the structure once so it works in every city, every crew, and every season

Best for founder and CEO groups, trade associations, and ownership and succession programs.

02

Become the Four Seasons of Your Industry: Build the Bench, Stop Competing on Price

Every owner says the same thing: "I can't find good people." The best companies stopped looking and started building.

This talk is about the standard that takes price out of the conversation. Train people into it. Pay for the growth you want. Give good people a reason to stay. Then the customer feels the difference before they can name it.

Your audience will learn

  • How to build a hiring pipeline that grows their own skilled people
  • Why anticipating the need beats answering the call. If they have to ask, you've already missed the moment.
  • How to build a referral engine they own instead of renting attention with ads

Best for skilled trades and home services, medical practices, hospitality, pet care, real estate, and any service business.

03

Walk the Shot Again: Making Calls on a Live Clock

Diane Sawyer flew in by helicopter. The evening news was hours away. There was one narrow window for the shot, and a mic problem nobody wanted to raise. I asked her and the principal to walk it again. That shot opened the broadcast.

This talk is about the preparation that makes fast decisions possible, and the nerve to speak up when silence costs more.

Your audience will learn

  • The advance method: walk every room before anyone arrives
  • How to plan for every way the day can go wrong, and build backups for the backups
  • When to stop the line, and how to do it without losing the room

Best for leadership teams, operations and project leaders, women's leadership, and executive retreats.

04

Where AI Belongs, and Where It Breaks Trust

Most companies automate the wrong things. They save an hour and lose the customer.

This talk draws the line: what AI should run, what it should support, and the moments that must stay human. It comes from building AI into service businesses and law firms today, and from supporting what was then the largest billing system in the world, where scale teaches you exactly how systems break trust.

Your audience will learn

  • A simple test for what to automate and what to protect
  • Where AI belongs in hiring, scheduling, intake, and follow-up
  • How to use AI in regulated, high-stakes environments without crossing the line

Best for professional services, legal, medical practices, real estate and financial services, and any owner deciding what to automate.

0900Formats

Built Around Your Event.

Every talk is tailored to the room. Before the event, we'll talk about your audience, your goals, and what you need them to do next.

Keynote30 to 60 minutes, for conferences and annual meetings.
WorkshopHalf or full day, built around your audience's own businesses.
FiresideA moderated conversation with Q&A.
Executive retreatFacilitated working sessions for leadership teams.

Audiences: trade and industry associations · founder and CEO groups · ownership and peer advisory groups · women's leadership · medical and professional services · real estate and financial services · corporate leadership teams · conferences. Domestic and international travel.

1000For event organizers

Speaker Bio and Introduction.

Use these as written.

100 words

Jennifer Makeeff builds businesses that hold. She has done presidential advance, communications, and operations on White House, DHS, and HHS engagements for administrations of both parties, run Fortune 500 campaigns on five continents, worked alongside legends of media and technology, and produced live national media with the biggest names in news. She built her own service company to seven-plus figures, ran it through a health crisis, and sold it with the core team intact. Today she helps small businesses, from the skilled trades to medical practices, build companies that run without their founders.

50 words

Jennifer Makeeff builds businesses that hold. Presidential advance on White House, DHS, and HHS engagements. Fortune 500 campaigns on five continents. Live national media. Then her own service company, built to seven-plus figures and sold. Today she helps small businesses build the systems and teams to run without their founders.

Introduction, to be read by the host

Our next speaker has walked rooms before Presidents arrived, run campaigns on five continents, and produced live interviews with some of the biggest names in television. Then she built her own company, ran it through a health crisis from a thousand miles away, and built it to run without her. Today she helps founders do the same. Please welcome Jennifer Makeeff.

Speaker on podcasts, panels, workshops, and executive offsites.

1100Booking

Let's Talk About Your Audience.

Tell me about your event, your audience, and what you need them to walk away with. I'll tell you which talk fits, or how to build one that does.

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