Email Brian

Brian Lee CSP

Brian Lee is one of North America’s leading experts in the field of Healthcare Patient Satisfaction and Staff Engagement.

As a culture change authority, Brian leads a team of world class Speakers/Implementation Specialists, who facilitate their clients’ efforts to enhance the patient experience, inspire staff engagement and retention, and increase physician satisfaction.

For two consecutive years, the International Customer Service Association Conference has evaluated him as the number one rated Customer Service Speaker in the World.

Brian has been awarded the designation CSP, Certified Speaking Professional, by the National Speakers Association. Of the tens of thousands of Speakers in North America, few have been recognized as a CSP.

Brian is the founder of Custom Learning Systems (CLS) and the HealthCare Service Excellence Institute. With Headquarters in Calgary, Canada, CLS has been in business for 31 years, with the past 14 years devoted exclusively to Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations. Many CLS clients have earned regional and national awards for world-class customer and employee loyalty achievements.

Brian is the author of 6 books including “Essential Strategies to Become the Healthcare Employer of Choice” and “Keep Your Nurses & Healthcare Professionals for Life: The four imperatives of how to inspire, retain, motivate and empower patient-focused nurses (and everybody else!).”

He travels 150,000 miles per year, has spoken in every state and province in North America and in 12 countries worldwide.

Click to download a complimentary copy of Brian's Books: Satisfaction Guaranteed
and Keep Your Nurses and Healthcare Professionals for Life

Email Michael

Michael Bayer MBA, CSP

Michael, dubbed “The Info-tainer” because of his high-energy style, which ranges from the inspirational to the irreverent, leads his clients through a process of change that creates results.

Michael is the Vice President of Training and Educational Services at the Custom Learning Systems Winnipeg Canada office. He leads a team of dedicated consultants, referred to as “The Implementation People” who are dedicated in helping people and organizations change. In the last five years, Michael’s focus has been on healthcare.

His experience encompasses senior management and consulting positions in both public and private sector organizations including Human Resources Development Canada, NavCanada, and AT&T.

Michael is a University of Winnipeg graduate, holding Bachelors Degrees in both Arts and Science. He recently received his MBA and is currently pursuing a PhD in Management at California Coast University.

Michael is a member of The Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, The Canadian Association for Therapeutic Humour, The Society of American Magicians and The University of Winnipeg Alumni Association. He currently serves on the Board of Regents of the University of Winnipeg.

On a personal note, Michael loves perform as a professional magician and lives with his wife and two daughters in Winnipeg, Manitoba

Email Michele

Michele Matt CSP

Inspiring People with Practical Solutions for Positive Change, Michele Matt, CSP, one of CLS’s Master speaker/trainers, founded Inspiring Solutions in 1991 and is located in West Des Moines, IA. Each year, she inspires the attitudes and actions of thousands of people throughout the United States with a variety of customized learning processes.

Michele is nationally recognized for her expertise in long-term care. Since 1989, she has facilitated strategic planning, conducted leadership development and presented customer service training to over 80 continuing care retirement communities and assisted living facilities.

She has earned the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association, a master level of speaking competency earned by fewer than 10% of professional speakers worldwide.

Michele is known as “The Attitude Adjuster” and she has written several books and training resources on the topic, including the best-selling book Attitude: The Choice is Yours and the award-winning training video Bad Apples: How to Deal with Difficult Attitudes. She is a sought-after speaker at numerous state and national professional organizations. She served in a leadership position for the National Speakers Association and the American Society for Training & Development.

As an organizational development specialist, she has the unique ability to challenge the minds and at the same time touch the hearts of people at every level within a company, from the board of directors to the frontline staff.

Email Stephanie

Stephanie Staples CSP

Professional speaker, nurse and certified coach, Stephanie Staples is a woman on a mission - to reinspire, reenergize and reengage individuals to live their lives with full gusto!

She does that by connecting with audiences internationally and inspiring them to create “something more.” Stephanie is frequently featured on radio, television and in print focusing on her unique vision that redefines the typical approach to wellness.

In nursing for 25 years she has served in both acute and chronic facilities and has worked in community health and in leadership roles. Stephanie has founded three businesses and is a multiple nominee for Winnipeg’s Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award. She is the founder and owner of Your Life, Unlimited! She has blended her love of helping others with helping the nurses themselves and has developed the wildly successful ‘Life Support for Nurse’s Wellness Retreat,’ a unique, life-shifting professional development day that is changing healthcare, one nurse at a time.

Stephanie draws upon her background in nursing and her passion for personal growth to create an experience being embraced by people from all walks of life. Whether writing columns or conducting keynotes and presentations, she infuses humor and heart with practical, relevant and do-able content to activate everyone to leave with tools they can use immediately to improve the course of their lives, personally and professionally.

Email Tim

Tim Durkin CSP

Tim Durkin CSP, has been both a patient and a patient advocate. His personal experience, combined with a passion for helping people on both sides of the stethoscope, have made Tim one of the most sought after speakers in the healthcare industry.

As one of America’s leading leadership experts, Tim has spoken more than 500 times in the last five years to audiences worldwide, showing healthcare organizations how to embrace change, develop leaders, improve patient outcomes, increase staff engagement and improve customer service.

While new legislation, value-based purchasing, declining reimbursements, increasing paperwork, EMR implementation, and Meaningful Use may be day-to-day challenges of healthcare administrators, yet one aspect of the job trumps them all: people.

Employees, patients and patients’ family members often require more attention than any other part of a manager or administrator’s position.

Healthcare may have its challenges; people shouldn’t be one of them.

Tim has worked for nearly 20 years teaching clinical and non-clinical staff how to better manage and lead their employees, patients and patients’ families. Through his unique, entertaining presentations, Tim shows audiences how to lead AND manage people both in and out of the office. Audience members love his high-energy style; Tim’s sharp insight and sense of humor keeps their attention as they learn how to implement best “people” practices and achieve better patient outcomes.

He is a ten term board member and current president of the National Speaker’s Association of North Texas. He has been a lecturer at Southern Methodist University Executive Education, and the Texas A&M Lowery School of Business.

Email Donna

Donna Manring DTR

Donna’s positive attitude and winning style makes her a popular choice to inspire crowds at keynotes, educational seminars, corporations, business lectures, community events and more.

Donna uses proven systems that include humor and a positive approach. Her programs receive high evaluation comments and event coordinators love to work with her. She adds quality to any conference setting or training program. Evaluations of Donna by conference attendees include; “able to apply systems and strategies in their own facilities”, “result driven systems”, “able to create action plans”, “funny, inspiring, enthusiastic, great speaker”, and “effective and has a unique way of motivating people”.

Donna Manring, DTR, Owner/Founder of Manring Consulting & Innovative Dining Solutions, has extensive expertise in training on leadership, management and team building resulting in superior customer service.
She has over twenty years of experience training on culture change, leadership strategies and employee relationship building. Donna has a unique perspective on training that promotes participants to learn,
build their skills, create action plans and be able to walk away with tips and techniques that can be applied immediately. Having worked in the health care industry for many years allows Donna the advantage to understand the challenges and rewards working in health care.

Donna Manring is registered with the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics and is Past President of the Wisconsin Academy of Nutrition & Dietetic Association. She is a member of the National Speakers Association.

Donna inspires, motivates and transforms people into action!

Email James

James Robbins

James is a rare mix of management consultant, change specialist, adventure and motivational speaker. He works with organizations worldwide, helping them create high-performing cultures by implementing proven processes that increase engagement.

In 2012 James wrote Nine Minutes on Monday; the quick and easy way to go from manager to leader. The book was named the 2012 business book of the year by Canada’s Globe and Mail and has since been translated into Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish. In 2013 the United States government recognized James as a person with extraordinary ability under their National Interest Waiver program, which expedites residency to individuals it deems an asset to the nation. This enabled James to bring his expertise and unique approach to organizations in the USA.

James works with hospitals to help them increase their employee retention and staff engagement by equipping their managers with proven tools that get results. His style of teaching has set him apart as a master communicator, combining stories from his adventures with practical truth that help audiences make simple changes that stick.

Email Andrew

Andrew Lewis M.T.S, BCCC, Q.Med

Utilizing the full spectrum of his career, Andrew combines his diverse background as a commercial pilot, minister, and professional mediator to help people look beyond their differences and function together with unprecedented efficiency.

Whether it’s helping teams navigate change, or tactfully dealing with the ‘Elephant in the Room,’ Andrew helps organizations break through roadblocks that are holding them back from firing on all cylinders.

Now as a Synergy Specialist, he inspires organizations to create high performing work teams.

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through the argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.”
– Colin Powell

Inspired by this quote, he founded Conflict Solutions Consultants. Supporting the under served (those experiencing economic, cultural and linguistic barriers), he is also a sought-after trainer and innovative subject matter expert in the delivery of solution-based services addressing diversity and race relations. His restorative justice lens and bridge-building framework have been used to train school resource officers, community justice partners, school administration staff, and non-profit organizations.

Email Richard

Richard Hadden, MBA, CSP

Richard Hadden is a Certified Speaking Professional who focuses on connecting people to profit. He is co-author of the popular Contented Cows leadership book series, including his latest book, Contented Cows STILL Give Better Milk, and also the book Rebooting Leadership.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from Jacksonville University, in Florida, and a Master of Business Administration in International Business from The University of North Florida.

Richard worked in leadership positions in finance, telecommunications, and software design, eventually serving as Director of Product Development for a software company, before setting out on his own as a leadership consultant, trainer, and speaker. During that transition, he taught software design, principles of management, and international economics at Jacksonville University.

Since 1995 he has spent much of his time researching the practices and value systems of some of the world’s most successful organizations, and has discovered a strong correlation between a strategy of employee engagement, and operational and financial effectiveness. His first-hand research adventures have taken him to such far-flung locales as the oil fields of Alaska’s North Slope and the factories of Tijuana, Mexico. Using his research, he’s delivered keynote presentations and training programs for more than 850 audiences on five continents over the past 25 years.

Richard has appeared on CNN and MSNBC, and his work has been featured in Business Week, Entrepreneur, and Inc. magazines, as well as many trade and professional publications.

Email Lynn

Lynn Sullivan CHRL

Lynn is a graduate from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in Social Organization and Human Relations. She also graduated from the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto with a certificate in Advanced Human Resources Management. Lynn holds the professional designation of Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL) with the Certified Human Resources Professionals (CHRP) of Ontario.

She has board level experience and diverse expertise in the design and implementation of impactful HR strategies in the areas of Employee Development, Talent Management, Employee Engagement and Total Compensation. Lynn brings a motivating, high-energy style to coaching, training, and leading others, in addition to being an engaging team player. She is a talented communicator and negotiator skilled at building strong cross-functional relationships, in order to ensure mutually beneficial outcomes and achieve departmental and corporate objectives.

Her past experience include training in the financial industry through Canada Trust, telecommunications industry with Bell Canada, and the insurance industry as a Corporate Trainer for the Allianz Management Institute where she was responsible for leadership development of high potential global managers. She’s had the privilege of training in Paris, Malan, Germany, and China, as well as Canada and the United States of America. Lynn has also been a Lead trainer for Stephen Covey’s, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.