HIGH-ENERGY, IMMERSIVE
KEYNOTE EXPERIENCE
Shawna shows small businesses how to turn their size, personality, and human connection into a powerful competitive advantage. Her keynotes, breakouts, and training sessions are funny, fast, and packed with stuff your audience will actually use on Monday morning.
Shawna doesn’t just study buyers, she was one. For over 15 years, she sat on the decision-making side of the table, reviewing thousands of pitches and deciding who earned the business. That’s why she’s known as THE BUYER INSIDER™.
“AS A SPEAKER SHE IS DYNAMIC, CAPTURING, AND RELATABLE. SHE INSPIRES ATTENDEES AND LEAVES THE AUDIENCE WITH IDEAS THAT MAKE ONE TAKE ACTION.”
MCKENZIE KAUFELD COUNTS, CMP
Senior Marketing & Event Manager
Signature Keynote, Based on Shawna’s New Book
Small Is Your Superpower!
How to Win More Customers in a Shifting Marketplace That Finally Favors You
Whether you're a retailer, manufacturer, or wholesaler, shifting consumer behavior is (finally!) giving smaller businesses new leverage. Small is having its moment, and you can take advantage of it if you understand what is getting attention and influencing today’s buyers.
Customers now discover businesses and develop trust in them in entirely new ways. This gives smaller brands more opportunities to compete using brand personality, flexibility, and strong customer relationships. More than ever, people want to know the humans behind the business. That’s your edge.
In this session, consumer behaviorist and small business champion Shawna Suckow will show you how to turn your size into your biggest advantage. You’ll discover inexpensive, manageable ways to stand out wherever you find customers: online, at events, or in your community. You’ll learn how to use Microstories™ to create connection and conversation, and give customers solid reasons to choose you even when you are not the lowest-priced option.
45–90 minutes or half-day workshop
- Recognize the changes in how consumers and buyers discover, evaluate, and choose businesses, as well as the opportunities those changes create for smaller brands.
- Get better traction without breaking the bank or turning marketing into another full-time job.
- Craft Microstories™ that create emotional connections, start conversations, and make your business easier to remember.
- Small business and entrepreneur conferences.
- Association events and cooperative networks.
- Marketing and customer experience tracks.
- Audiences who are stretched thin, burned out, or stuck and need fresh strategies.
- Keynote 45-90 mins
- Breakout 45-90 mins
- Half Day Workshop
- Virtual Session
- On-Site Training
Microstories™
How Small Stories Help Customers Trust, Remember, Choose, and Refer You
Your customers are surrounded by businesses making the same claims about quality, service, and trust. If your marketing sounds like everyone else’s, you become part of The Blandscape™. Customers may see you, but will they remember you?
Stories are up to 22 times more memorable than stated facts, making Microstories™ the #1 way to stand out, build trust, and stay in your customers’ minds. These short moments reveal who you are, why your work matters, and what customers can expect from you.
Consumer behaviorist and marketing truth-teller Shawna Suckow will show you how to find the stories inside your business and use them across your marketing, sales, and customer experience. You’ll learn how to leave The Blandscape™ and become easier to trust, remember, choose, and recommend.
45–90 minutes or half-day workshop
- Recognize where your marketing blends into The Blandscape, and how to escape it.
- Identify everyday moments within your business that can become memorable Microstories™.
- Use storytelling to build trust, strengthen your customers’ recall, and give them more reasons to choose and refer your business.
- Businesses of any size looking to stand out and connect better with customers.
- Marketing, branding, and customer experience tracks.
- Sales, entrepreneurship, and small business tracks.
- Keynote 45-90 mins
- Breakout 45-90 mins
- Half Day Workshop
- Virtual Session
- On-Site Training
CUSTOMER BRANDSHIPS™:
HOW TO OUT-HUMAN
THE COMPETITION™
Trust & Customer Experience Keynote or Breakout
Shawna Suckow’s research found that 98% of Americans distrust businesses more than they did 10 years ago. We are in a full-blown trust crisis, and that creates an advantage for you if you know how to earn what customers are reluctant to give.
Customer Brandships™ are the business version of friendships. They are built through familiarity, consistency, shared values, honesty, and the feeling that someone actually knows and cares about you. Your customers are not asking your business to become their new best friend, but they are looking for many of the same qualities they value in one.
In this session, consumer behaviorist Shawna Suckow will show you how to Out-Human the Competition™ by replacing polished promises with believable proof, creating more personal customer experiences, and removing the small trust-breakers businesses often overlook. You’ll learn how to turn transactions into relationships, occasional customers into regulars, and satisfied customers into people who defend, recommend, and rave about your business.
When trust is scarce, becoming genuinely trustworthy gets noticed. This session will help you build the kind of Customer Brandships™ that make your business easier to choose, harder to leave, and much more likely to be referred.
- Recognize the behaviors and business practices that weaken customer trust.
- Find overlooked trust-builders and trust-breakers throughout your customer experience.
- Apply simple ways to Out-Human the Competition™ through more personal interactions that customers crave.
- Turn everyday transactions into stronger relationships that encourage loyalty and referrals.
- Business owners and sales teams who want customers to remember more than their features, facts, and prices.
- Sales, entrepreneurship, marketing and customer experience tracks.
- Businesses of any size looking to understand, stand out and connect better with today’s evolving customers.
- Keynote 45-90 mins
- Breakout 45-90 mins
- Virtual Session
- On-Site Training
SMALL
[smawl] / smôl ▪ noun
A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE disguised as a company size, capable of out-humaning competitors with ten times the budget.
Based on Shawna’s New Book
YOU CAN’T SOLVE MODERN PROBLEMS
WITH A BORING LECTURE.
This is where the lecture ends and the transformation begins.
THE BUYER HAS CHANGED.
HAS YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY?
“Today’s customers don’t want to be sold to. They want to be understood.”
We are living in a trust-starved, noise-saturated world. Consumers have developed a finely tuned filter for overproduced hype and canned pitches. Being the loudest no longer wins. Being the most human does.
Modern buyers are exhausted. They’re navigating economic fear, digital overwhelm, and decision fatigue. Price and convenience aren’t enough anymore. In today’s reality, polished slogans fall flat, transactional tactics are resented, and generic messaging blends into what Shawna calls the “Blandscape.”
The businesses that break through are the ones who shift from hype to humanity. From one big pitch to a mosaic of authentic stories. From feature-selling to trust-building. From scripts to real conversations.
The only keynote experience delivered from the
CUSTOMER’S POINT OF VIEW.
Shawna has rethought the boring lecture format. Her sessions follow a proprietary, immersive format designed to deeply engage audiences, drawing on decades of speaking experience and deep knowledge of adult learning theory to deliver maximum ROI.
THESE BRANDS
TRUST SHAWNA
TO HELP THEM COMPETE BETTER
What Clients & Audiences ARE SAYING
Real words from leaders who witnessed Shawna's spark on stage
"Shawna got us standing and facilitated deep conversation amongst a crusty-eyed hungover group of natural product retailers!"
Independent Natural Foods Retailers Association
"I got my degree in Marketing but have been struggling to switch our message from old school 'salesy' marketing to professionally personalize our marketing. Thank you!"
NAPA NOW Independent Auto Repair Shop
"Absolutely amazing. She is very personable and great to listen to. Very interactive."
Tahiti Convention & Visitors Bureau
"This session made me think outside the box more and realize that all the stuff we've been doing really isn't much different than any other company out there. We learned how to step it up to make ourselves stand out!"
South Dakota Telecom Association
"I was inspired and can't wait to get back to work. My mind is swirling with ideas. I am confident I will implement many."
National Communications and Technology Cooperative Attendee
"I've booked some of the greatest speakers in the world, and SHAWNA IS ONE OF THE BEST, SHE IS SO, SO AMAZING!"
Northern VA Association of Realtors (NVAR)
"Shawna has the ability to hook you, engage you, and call you to action. You leave not just inspired, but empowered."
Int'l Food Distributors Association
"Having Shawna as our closing keynote was phenomenal! She takes a really unique approach and makes sure people are actually taking home what they learned and implement it."
Transportation Marketing & Sales Assoc.
"We had an amazing keynote with Shawna! She's a very creative person and it was really something different from a typical conference speaker."
Minor Hotels Europe/Asia Conference
“We talked about your small business marketing session until midnight! It gave us so many ideas!”
— FLORIAN GRÜNWALD
let's do this!
Bring The Buyer Insider™ Experience to Your Audience
3 simple steps to deliver a transformational experience your attendees will talk about for years.
START
Share your event vision, audience challenges, and desired outcomes. Shawna will explore how her immersive format can best serve your goals and align with your theme.
SHAPE
Collaborate on session focus, audience engagement strategy, and key takeaways to ensure the experience drives real impact — not just applause.
SPARK
Shawna delivers a high-energy, participatory keynote designed to challenge thinking, activate leadership, and create lasting momentum beyond the event.