Past speaking engagements
Testimonials
Charles has been a speaker to several cohorts at UC Davis over the years and we are always so thankful to have him inspire our students. He has a powerful story that speaks to resilience and the mindset all of us need to overcome challenges and those limiting beliefs that stop us from living our best lives. His speaking style is eloquent, compelling, and funny. He empowers us to see beyond our limits and motivates us to tap into our true potential.
Michelle Payne, MCC, Co-Director for Coach Certificate Program at the University of California, Davis
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It was truly inspiring to learn about Charles’ story from going to prison to working in corporate America. He showed us how we’re all capable of doing great things when we get out of our mental prisons. Hearing about the bias and discrimination he faced due to his criminal record gave us a glimpse into the overwhelming challenges newly released individuals are experiencing. I admire and appreciate Charles for making it his mission to use the hardship in his life to educate, motivate and inspire the people around him, all while not losing his sense of humor.
Claudia Lehmann, Senior Software Engineer at Google
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Charles presented his challenge to my class of freshmen criminal justice students: how are you going to escape your mental prison? Deftly and compassionately weaving his deeply personal story of prison and heartbreak with a message of hope and affirmation, Charles invited my students–many of whom come from underprivileged backgrounds and families marked by economic insecurity–to journey with him across the turbulent seas of bias and self-doubt. With the kind of humor and wisdom only obtained through hard work and hard knocks, Charles deftly led my students across these seas to the shores of self-confidence and transcendence, inspiring several students to approach him after his talk to share their own story of overcoming.
Blake Wilson, PhD, Department of Criminal Justice, California State University, Stanislaus
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Speeches
The Prison Inside My Head
This powerful signature keynote explores my incredible life story – from growing up in poverty to becoming an illegal drug manufacturer to going to prison to having a successful career in the technology sector. My prison experience became a catalyst for change and compelled me to transform my life in an extraordinary manner. This entertaining and deeply insightful speech will inspire people and companies to identify their self-limiting behaviors, take massive action, and begin reaching their full potential.
Takeaways:
- The different types of mental prisons that affect people and companies
- How mental prisons stop people and companies from growing, adapting, and becoming the best that they can be
- How to overcome adversity and turn tragedy into success
- How to escape from these damaging mental prisons
- Improve leadership, authenticity, and self-awareness
- Improve your employees’ performance, clarity, health, and fulfillment both at work and at home
Building Bridges of Acceptance
Despite the fact that companies are spending a lot of money on diversity education, anti-discrimination training, and other ways to combat bias and discrimination, they still exist at some level at virtually all companies. Bias and discrimination have a very devastating effect on businesses – they stop companies from retaining talent, create toxic work environments, destroy reputations, and create expensive litigation costs. This entertaining and insightful speech features masterful storytelling, current research in neuroscience and psychology, and insight into how to recognize and stop these destructive forces.
Takeaways:
- How unconscious bias has an unseen, but damaging effect on employees, teams, and companies
- An invisible bias that’s destructive, yet cloaked in kindness
- How to overcome bias and discrimination
- Improve employee engagement and culture, boost productivity, and stand out among your competitors
- Improve leadership, employee retention, and inclusion
Click the Play button below to see an excerpt from Building Bridges of Acceptance.
Social Responsibility: the New Path to Social Value, Happiness & Business Growth
After watching countless companies engage in greed, scandals, and corruption for many decades, consumers, employees and shareholders are now expecting more from companies and holding them to a higher standard. That standard is social responsibility. This speech begins with my journey to social responsibility—starting with my days as an illegal drug manufacturer to working in technology to finally becoming socially responsible by doing life-changing volunteer work. It also addresses the economic benefits of social responsibility and why it’s critical to employee engagement, business growth, and the creation of a better world.
Takeaways:
- The different types of social responsibility
- The rise of a new form of capitalism that generates money but also has a deep social purpose
- Why social responsibility is critical for business growth and employee engagement
- How being socially conscious creates happier employees, leaders and consumers