Brandon Thornhill · Keynote speaker · Leadership training · Former Navy SEAL
Casualness creates casualties.
I speak at sales kickoffs, conventions and leadership off-sites, and I train management teams to lead without you in the room. 12 years a Navy SEAL. Then I built a sales organization with a team in 25 countries.
Watch me work a room.
2:53 from a live keynote. Real room, real crowd, no actors. Turn the sound up.
Why leaders pick me.
Plenty of people can give a good talk about leadership. Here’s what you get with me that you won’t get from them.
I’ve trained leaders where mistakes cost lives.
Iraq, Afghanistan, and three years as a BUD/S First Phase instructor running Hell Week. I know the difference between people who look ready and people who are ready, and how to build the second kind.
I’ve done it in business, not just in uniform.
My wife and I built a sales organization from 12 people in a room to a team in 25 countries. Same standards, same accountability, same weekly rhythm as the teams. I’m not teaching theory. I’m teaching what I ran.
You get a system, not a speech.
A keynote fires people up for a week. My programs run every week for a year: a short lesson, one order to execute on the floor, a written debrief, and a monthly muster. That’s how behavior actually changes.
We measure it, so you can see who grew.
Every leader scores themselves, then their team scores them anonymously. We run it again at day 90, day 180 and week 52. You’re not taking my word for it. You’re looking at the numbers.
It works wherever people lead people to a number.
Dealerships, solar and door-to-door, insurance, home services, healthcare, franchises and corporate teams. The frameworks come from the teams. The examples come from your floor.
Two ways to work with me.
Keynotes
I don’t tell war stories for applause. You get Hell Week, Afghanistan and ten years of building a business, pointed at the one problem your company needs fixed. Your people leave with something they can run on Monday.
Sales kickoffs, conventions, leadership off-sites. Rooms of 50 to 5,000+.Book me to speak
Lead Elite Academy
A year of leadership, one week at a time. Your managers watch a short lesson from me, run one order on the floor, and write up what happened. By week 52 they’re making the calls that used to land on your desk.
52 weeks. 13 missions. A 360 at day 0, 90, 180 and week 52.See the academyDownload the deck (PDF)BUD/S · First Phase
200 start.
That’s about how many men start First Phase. I was an instructor there for three years.
- ~200 start First Phase
- ~100 make it to Hell Week
- 15–35 finish it
The ones who finish aren’t the most talented. They’re the ones who did what was required, no matter how they felt. Build that into a team and it runs without you.
Five things I train every week.
- EEmpowerment
Give ownership on purpose, with clear limits, so people stop asking permission and start making decisions.
- LLeadership
Duplicate your leaders. Don’t hoard them. Your best people build the layer underneath them.
- IInspiration
Good leaders have vision. Great leaders give vision. Standards get set by example, every week.
- TTrust
Autonomy is earned. Trust, then verify. Inspect what you expect.
- EExecution
Weekly orders, written debriefs and a monthly muster. Follow-through stops being optional.
You can delegate responsibility. You can’t delegate accountability.From my keynote at Beyond the Mark
What is weak leadership costing you?
People don’t quit companies. They quit the person they report to. Put your own numbers in.
What people say.
“Brandon delivered an outstanding presentation on leadership and engagement to our group. His insights were highly relevant to our industry and incredibly motivating as business owners. His practical, actionable strategies made a lasting impact.”
“Stop barking orders and start duplicating yourself. If your team is failing without you driving, it’s because you failed them.”
“I was blessed to be coached by him early in my career. If you want to win, Brandon is the leader to get you there.”
The ELITE Leadership Blueprint
Everything I learned building leaders in the teams and in business, written down. It’s for owners and managers who are done with theory and want a system they can run. 5 stars on Amazon.
“You don’t rise to the level of your motivation. You default to the strength of your systems.”