#1 Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author · #2 New TEDx Talk in the World
The keynote your audience uses on Monday.
Business is changing at a pace nobody has seen before. Companies are floundering to keep up — and the ones that aren’t floundering are silently dying. Getting people on board with change? That’s like trying to get a cat to take a bath: it might finally happen, but it’s going to get bloody. Terry’s two signature keynotes are about doing it without the blood. A lifetime of keynote stages. Named one of the 30 most impactful TEDx talks of this century — alongside Brené Brown and Sir Ken Robinson. Direct booking, no bureau in between.
What the people who booked him say
“Without doubt, the best speaker we’ve ever had. Terry got a standing ovation and set the tone for the entire conference.”
Executive Director, Central Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance
The reel
Watch him work the room.
A short reel of Terry L. Fossum keynoting live — stage footage from corporate and association events, audience reactions, and the energy organizers keep booking him back for. The first thing event programmers want to see before they call. Watch it, then read what nine organizations said after booking him.
As featured on
In their own words
The executives and conference directors who booked Terry — across nine very different rooms.
Manufacturing, finance, the food industry, academia, network marketing, association events, scouting. The same pattern in every one.
As the opening keynote for our Expo, Terry got a standing ovation and set the tone for the entire conference. Without doubt, the best speaker we’ve ever had.
Conney Edmondson
Executive Director, Central Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance
Terry was the single best speaker we’ve ever had at one of our events.
Adam Hutchinson
Executive Director, Northwest Concrete Masonry Association
Terry’s presentation was inspiring and uplifting, resulting in a standing ovation by all in attendance. I recommend Terry for anyone looking for a motivating speaker that walks the walk and talks the talk.
Craig A. Forman, CLU, ChFC, CLF
Managing Partner, New York Life
I am recommending Terry Fossum for any high-quality speaking engagement where you need a world-class speaker — and in particular when you want the speaker to get the audience to take action. He keeps you engaged from start to finish, and leaves you thinking… WOW, that was awesome.
Richard A. Castleberry, MBA
Director, Full-Time MBA & MS Business Programs, Texas A&M University
He was awesome! Terry captured the attention and imagination of the audience. Every member of the audience will enjoy the engaging presentation and leave with the determination to become their best self.
Jeff Phillips
President, Washington Food Industry Association
Terry’s delivery hits with impact and is powerful. He is great for a small group of 10 to 15 or for audiences over 1,000 — I have seen him connect with all of them.
Nathan Ricks
Founder, One Team Global
His energy, passion and storytelling style captivated everyone in attendance. Terry is definitely the best speaker we have had the pleasure to hear at this event in many years!
Adrienne Torre
Past President, Spokane Executive Women’s International
I spoke to a number of attendees who had been to many events with guest speakers — and by far Terry was the best they had ever seen and heard.
Stephen Hinger
President, Drum Rock Products
You bring an incredible amount of energy, optimism, and passion to your speeches. I enthusiastically recommend you to any group desiring an interesting and inspiring speaker.
Tim McCandless
Scout Executive, Boy Scouts of America
Built for
The rooms where this lands.
- 01Industry & trade association conferences
- 02Corporate leadership summits
- 03Sales kickoffs and national meetings
- 04Executive retreats
- 05Manufacturing & industrial events
- 06Financial services & professional firms
Two signature keynotes
One Terry. Two doors into the room.
Each keynote has its own deep page with the framework, audience transformation, and proof. Click through to the one that fits your audience — or call Terry directly and he’ll help you choose.
For sales-driven organizations
Never Miss a Goal Again
The keynote sales teams bring in when traditional training stops producing.
84% of sales reps missed quota last year (Salesforce, 2024). The cause isn’t intelligence — it’s the gap between deciding and doing. Built on the Oxcart Technique® and Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economics.
See the keynote→For leaders facing reinvention pressure
Throw Away the Box
Why AI will bury the companies that won’t reinvent — and what the survivors do differently.
Roughly 90% of the original Fortune 500 are gone from the list. The most dangerous force in a winning company is the gravity of its own success. Built on Terry’s original interviews with the leaders behind NASA, Tesla, The North Face, E!, and FANUC — and the commander of the International Space Station.
See the keynote→With a Scouting America / BSA council? See Terry’s Scouting fundraising keynote →
Book Terry
Bring Terry to your stage.
Direct booking — no bureau in between. Tell Terry about your event, your audience, and your date, and you’ll hear back personally. 2026 keynote dates are limited.
Sharing internally? Grab the keynote one-sheets and full press kit →
Frequently asked
What people most often ask about Terry.
01What does Terry L. Fossum speak about?+
Terry delivers two signature keynotes, each built for a different buyer. Never Miss a Goal Again, built on his Oxcart Technique® and grounded in Nobel Prize–winning behavioral economics, is the keynote sales-driven organizations bring in when traditional training stops producing — insurance, real estate, financial services, dealerships, and direct sales. Throw Away the Box is the keynote for leadership teams, associations, and corporations facing reinvention pressure in the age of AI, built on Terry’s original interviews with the leaders behind NASA, Tesla, The North Face, E!, and FANUC — and the commander of the International Space Station.
02What will my audience walk out with?+
Not inspired for a weekend — changed for the year. From Never Miss a Goal Again, your audience leaves with a daily three-page ritual their team can run for the rest of the year, plus the behavioral-economics mechanism that makes traditional motivation finally work. From Throw Away the Box, leaders leave with the Box Audit — a tool they can run with their own team on Monday morning to identify the unquestioned assumptions putting the organization at risk.
03What kinds of organizations book Terry?+
For Never Miss a Goal Again: sales-driven organizations — insurance agencies and IMOs, real estate brokerages and team leaders, financial advisors and RIAs, automotive dealership groups, and network marketing or direct-sales companies. For Throw Away the Box: corporate leadership teams, industry trade associations, manufacturing and food and construction associations, and any organization confronting reinvention pressure. Across rooms as different as New York Life and Texas A&M, the executives and conference directors who booked him consistently rank him among the best speakers they have ever had.
04Does Terry offer workshops as well as keynotes?+
Yes. Each signature keynote is also available as a half-day leadership workshop — the keynote plus a deeper teaching of the framework with applied exercises for your team. Workshops fit naturally as the add-on to a keynote-and-leadership-offsite combination, or as a standalone development engagement for a sales leadership team or executive group.
05How much does Terry charge to speak?+
Terry’s keynote speaking fee is $20,000 and up, scaled to scope, travel, and added-deliverables like workshops or pre-event briefings. He typically books 6–12 months out for premium dates. Direct booking — no bureau intermediary. Speaking inquiries go to speaking@terrylfossum.com.
06Does Terry customize each keynote to my event?+
Yes. Terry researches each client’s industry, audience, and stated outcomes before he writes a word — your audience hears their own world described back to them, not a generic script with your logo on the title slide. Every engagement includes a pre-event call to lock the framing and any audience-specific stories or data you want him to draw on.
07How far in advance should I book?+
Premium speaker calendars typically book 6–12 months in advance, and 2026 dates are filling now. For peak-season events (Q1 sales kickoffs, annual conferences in the spring or fall), book earlier rather than later. For shorter-notice openings, reach out — occasional cancellations create windows.
08Does Terry work with a speakers bureau?+
No bureau intermediary. The person who answers your inquiry is the person who walks onto your stage, and he is personally accountable to you for how it goes. Direct booking keeps the relationship clean, the fee structure transparent, and the pre-event customization tight.
09What makes Terry’s frameworks different from other goal-setting or change speakers?+
Two things. First, the science: the Oxcart Technique is operationalized Prospect Theory — the behavioral economics framework that won Daniel Kahneman the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 — and the book’s foreword is written by Dr. Dennis Tansley, PhD (Dartmouth College), who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Prospect Theory. Second, the original interviews: Throw Away the Box is built on Terry’s firsthand interviews with the leaders behind NASA, Tesla, The North Face, E!, and FANUC — and the commander of the International Space Station. Other speakers cite those stories from secondary sources. Terry interviewed them.