Speaking & media
Business education your audience will actually remember.
Watch it. Learn it. Apply it.
Grow.
Kat Shepherd brings twenty-five years of business strategy, marketing and entrepreneurship education to conferences, chambers, universities and economic development events — using storytelling and popular media to make business concepts stick.
People forget a presentation. They rarely forget a powerful story.
25+
Years helping entrepreneurs, nonprofits and professionals start and grow.
2022
Recipient of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s District Director’s Award.
1997
Business owner since 1997 — start-up to multi-million dollar enterprise, with training delivered for Fortune 500 clients including AT&T.
Thousands
Of entrepreneurs, students and service members trained, mentored and advised — in the classroom, the Air Force, SCORE and beyond.
Signature talks
30-minute talks that lead into BizFlixTalk™
Marketing & branding
- Why great products don’t always win
- Storytelling that sells
- Why people buy emotion first
- The five biggest marketing mistakes small businesses make
- Marketing without a huge budget
- Building a brand people remember
Leadership
- Leadership lessons from unexpected places
- How great leaders make difficult decisions
- Creating trust inside your organization
- The cost of poor communication
- Leading through change
- Veteran leadership lessons for business
Entrepreneurship
- Five reasons businesses stop growing
- Is your business ready to scale?
- The difference between being busy and growing
- Thinking like a CEO instead of an employee
- The three decisions every owner must master
- The entrepreneur mindset
Artificial intelligence
- Practical AI every small business can use tomorrow
- AI isn’t replacing you — it’s replacing certain tasks
- Prompt engineering for business owners
- How AI saves small businesses time
- AI and the future of entrepreneurship
- AI for small business in 30 minutes
Sales & customers
- Why customers say “I’ll think about it”
- Selling without feeling salesy
- How customers actually make buying decisions
- Customer experiences that generate referrals
- The psychology of pricing
- Negotiation basics
Strategy & case studies
- What every great business has in common
- Why Blockbuster failed
- The business of Netflix
- The business behind Disney
- Lessons from Apple and Amazon
- Innovation on a budget
Chamber & community favorites
Short, practical sessions built for chambers, economic development organizations, libraries and nonprofits — designed to fit a lunch slot or a members’ meeting.
- Marketing that actually works
- Avoiding the top ten small business mistakes
- Customer service that creates repeat business
- Business lessons from Hollywood
- The future of small business
- Women in business: lessons from film
- Veteran leadership lessons for business
- Family business success
- Building partnerships that grow businesses
- The entrepreneur mindset
The ones audiences ask for
Business lessons hidden in movies
Each of these takes a story the room already knows and pulls the business decision out of it. They work as a standalone talk, and they are the natural introduction to a BizFlixTalk panel or program.
- Five business lessons hidden in The Founder
- What Top Gun teaches about leadership
- Moneyball and data-driven decision making
- Barbie and brilliant brand strategy
- Air and the art of negotiation
- The Bear and operational excellence
- Hidden Figures and team innovation
- The Social Network: building versus scaling
- Fyre Festival: when marketing outruns operations
- The Devil Wears Prada: leadership or management?
Formats
How Kat works with an audience
- Keynote — 45 to 60 minutes, story-led, built around one business idea the room can act on
- Breakout or workshop — 90 minutes to half a day, with worksheets and guided discussion
- Panel moderation — drawing practical business lessons out of a conversation rather than letting it drift
- Multi-season cohort — the six-season Business Expansion Blueprint™ for a group of owners
- Virtual delivery — webinars and online workshops, delivered at scale
Audiences
Who she speaks to
- Chambers of commerce and business associations
- Cities and economic development organizations
- Banks, credit unions and CRA partners
- Universities, colleges and workforce programs
- Nonprofit and business support organizations
- Entrepreneur conferences and small business summits
About the speaker
Kat Shepherd
Business strategist • Curriculum developer • Educator • Leader
Kat Shepherd has taken a business from start-up to multi-million dollar enterprise, and has spent more than twenty-five years teaching other people how to do the same. She has been a business owner since 1997.
Her training career began in the United States Air Force, where she traveled as an Aeromedical Evacuation Trainer. As president and founder of The Ultimate Professional Inc., she designed and delivered training for Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike — including work with AT&T that expanded into a nationwide contract. She teaches at the University of California Riverside Extension, and has built courses in market research, digital marketing, persuasive storytelling, SEO and paid search, artificial intelligence for business, entrepreneurship, leadership and strategic marketing.
Her style is hands-on and interactive. Sessions are built around actionable, goal-oriented activities rather than lectures — which is why audiences of seasoned professionals and first-time owners both take something away.
She is an author, a mentor, and the recipient of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s District Director’s Award for her role in a COVID relief effort that reached thousands of business owners nationally and internationally. She is the founder of Improve Your Business Game and the creator of The Business Expansion Blueprint, delivered through BizFlixTalk.
Recent engagements
Where this work is happening
Maui Chamber of Commerce — The Business Expansion Blueprint
A six-week cohort for Maui business owners, delivered in partnership with the Maui Chamber of Commerce — three in-person sessions in Wailuku and three live online, with the program subsidized so local owners could take part.
“We’re pleased to partner with Kat Shepherd of BizFlixTalk to make this valuable experience available to Maui entrepreneurs.”
Pamela Tumpap, President, Maui Chamber of Commerce
“
Leadership is not about standing in front. It is about walking beside those you lead, lifting them up, and celebrating their triumphs as your own.
Kat Shepherd · Leadership philosophy
Invite Kat to your stage.
Tell us about your event — the audience, the date, the format you have in mind — and we’ll come back with a proposal that fits.