Steph KetronBook Steph

Keynote speaker and author of a forthcoming memoir

Fromthe barto the boardroom.

I became a mom at 16. At 18, I was behind a bar. Today I lead development for 8,000+ team members at the largest privately owned hospitality company in the U.S. I help leaders see the potential everyone else walks past, and build it.

Book Steph

Steph live at SHIFT

Steph Ketron in a purple suit, smiling
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Everything I needed to lead, I learned behind a bar.

Read the room before you say a word.

Great bartenders know what you need before you order. Great leaders do too.

Regulars are made, not found.

Loyalty comes from making people feel known. That’s not a perk. That’s culture.

Earn it every shift.

Nobody behind the bar cares about your title. Respect gets built one shift at a time.

8,000+
team members whose development I lead
Gold
Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Award
Partner
of the Year, 2026 GM Conference
Steph Ketron smiling on stage in front of a magenta curtain

Watch Steph work a room.

Real rooms, real reactions. This is what your audience gets: energy, honesty, and people who walk out ready to act.

Steph live at SHIFT

Keynotes that move the room.

Each one is tailored to your audience after a planning call.

  • Keynotes
  • Workshops
  • Fireside chats and panels
  • Virtual events

Signature keynote

From the Bar to the Boardroom

Before I ever had a title, I was running a bar three-deep on a Friday night. Everything I know about leading people, I learned there. This keynote runs like one shift, from open to last call, with the red pen story at its heart.

  • Don’t red-pen your pushers. The persistent person usually sees the problem first.
  • Build changes that outlast you.
  • Persistence is a skill, and it has a price. Pay it on purpose.
  • Lead in the chaos. A Friday double teaches what no offsite can.

Memoir keynote · working title

Not the Statistic

I became a mom at 16, and plenty of people had already written my ending. This is the story of rewriting it: grit, the people who bet on me, and how to stop letting your starting line define your finish.

  • Separate the story you were handed from the one you choose
  • See potential where the résumé doesn’t show it
  • Build cultures where nobody is defined by where they started

Leadership presence

Read the Room

Hospitality lessons for every leader. How to earn trust fast, make people feel seen, and stay steady when the pressure is on, whether you’re running a bar on a Saturday night or a boardroom on a Monday morning.

  • Read what people need before they ask
  • Build trust in minutes, not months
  • Keep your cool, and your team’s, when it counts

Five reasons to book Steph

  1. A story that lands.

    Real, unpolished where it matters, and built to move people from “that was great” to “I’m doing something about it.”

  2. She’s done the job.

    Steph isn’t a theorist. She leads the development of 8,000+ people and builds award-winning leadership programs for a living.

  3. Built for your room.

    Every session is shaped after a planning call around your audience, your goals, and your event theme.

  4. Experiences, not lectures.

    No forced role-plays. Steph designs moments where the lesson names itself, and the room remembers it.

  5. A dream to work with.

    She produces summits and conferences herself, so she knows exactly what a meeting planner needs, and shows up ready.

Steph guiding a participant through a hands-on activity
Hands-on, every time.
Steph laughing with a table of leaders during a session
Working the room, not the podium.
Steph Ketron on stage beside a lit podium

Hi, I’m Steph.

I became a mom at 16. Two years later, I was behind a bar, raising my son, putting myself through college, and working every shift I could get. A lot of people had already decided how my story would go.

By 35, I was a senior leader in a field where most of my peers are much older. Today I’m Vice President of Learning & Development at Westgate Resorts, where I lead development for more than 8,000 team members, and my team’s programs have earned national awards. I’m also co-founder of KBM Collective, VP of Operations for ATD Central Florida, and I serve on the DisruptHR and Camaraderie Foundation boards.

I don’t speak to impress your audience. I speak so they leave believing their story isn’t finished, and that the people around them aren’t either.

Book a discovery call
Steph as a teenage mom, holding her baby son
Me and my son, May 2008

The memoir is coming.

The full story, from behind the bar to the boardroom. Join the list for early chapters and launch news.

Let’s light up your stage.

Tell me about your event. I respond within two business days.