Dr. Jackie Freiberg and her husband, Kevin Freiberg, are authors of the compelling book GUTS! Companies that Blow the Doors Off Business-as-Usual. GUTS! follows the Freibergs' award-winning, national best-seller, NUTS! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success. NUTS! has sold over 500,000 copies worldwide.

Through her speeches, Jackie inspires audiences to get GUTSY by sharing first-hand business experiences, insights and strategies. Since the publication of GUTS! and NUTS!, Jackie has become a connoisseur of REALLY COOL companies - nationally admired organizations where people WANT to work and CHOOSE to stay. Jackie is passionate about equipping leaders at all levels with hope, ideas and practical tools to kick-start and re-inspire their journey toward becoming employers of choice!

Jackie's messages are designed around a series of powerful stories about REALLY COOL companies and GUTSY leaders. Her stories are both inspirational and very practical. They are loaded with unconventional, yet successful, business best practices from companies like SAS Institute, USAA, Southwest Airlines, Synovus Financial, Quad/Graphics, Ernst & Young, TD Industries and other companies that are admired for business, people strategies and leadership. When she's not speaking Jackie spends time inside these COOL companies learning directly from their leaders, employees and clients about what it takes to create an organization that is a magnet for great talent!

Prior to speaking and writing, Jackie served as a coach to executives, managers and front-line professionals on the results of the firm's organizational and 360-degree leadership assessments. She also served a similar role for the Center for Creative Leadership where she offered upward feedback to executives participating in the five-day Leadership Development Program.

Jackie is co-founder of the Family Business Institute at the University of San Diego where she was one of the creative forces behind the development of practical, research-based educational programs for closely-held family businesses. She also worked with MassMutual Life Insurance Company to design the first-ever CD-ROM training tool for family businesses and provided expert commentary on the complex business and personal issues faced by family businesses today.

Previously, Jackie was manager of Corporate and Professional Programs for the University of San Diego. During her tenure at the University, Jackie founded the Certificate in International Business Program and was director of the Institute for Quality & Productivity. In addition, she taught public speaking and communications courses as an adjunct professor. She received her bachelors degree in communication from the University of New Hampshire, masters degree in speech communication from San Diego State University, and she earned a doctorate in educational leadership at the University of San Diego.

• BOOM! : 7 Choices for Blowing the Doors off Business-as-Usual - BOOM! is the speech every leader wants to give, every organization needs to hear and every employee wants to live. BOOM! is the result of studying many of the most innovative businesses, gutsy leaders and accountable employees around. Jackie has distilled this collective wisdom into 7 essential choices that cause culture, service, success and business to BOOM! Dr. Freiberg uses a variety of powerful stories and examples to illustrate what it means to blow the doors off business-as-usual. She believes that an organization's success is as much the will of the people as it is the will of the CEO. Leadership is not for the faint of heart-no wimps, no whiners and no more moan'n and groan'n!
  
  
• GUTSY LEADERSHIP : Blow the Doors off Service-as-Usual - The challenges facing companies in a global economy will demand more than conventional thinking and business as usual. The world is not changed by those who are unwilling to take risks. It takes GUTS to move an organization in bold new directions, to get out on the lunatic fringe where new breakthroughs are found. It takes GUTS to blow up the old rules and free smart people from dumb processes that limit their potential. It takes GUTS to lead with love and trust rather than manage by abstract authority and fear. It takes GUTS to make work fun and not take yourself too seriously. Service leaders are gutsy, they have a "people first" philosophy. They know that when employees feel honored and served there is a reciprocal effect that causes them to provide extraordinary service to their customers.
  
  
• LEGENDARY CULTURE : Create a Workplace that Explodes with Productivity, Passion and Profit! - Leaders from the best companies around the world say that the single biggest predictor of overall success is a company's ability to attract, retain, and motivate world-class people. They went on to say that the most important lever in enhancing this capability is corporate culture. A legendary culture is a branded culture. A brand is a promise of a pending experience. It says to the customer: If you do business with us here's the kind of experience you can expect. It says to the employee: If you come to work here this is the kind of experience you can expect. When you deliver on the brand promise to your employees you have a much better chance of delivering on the brand promise to your customers. The message: The way you treat your people is the way they will treat your customers.