Jeff Vankooten

Inspiring people to bounce back and thrive in life changing times

Jeff Vankooten
Helping people effectively migrate through the quandaries of contemporary change

“...absolutely perfect...enthusiastic, engaging, and thoroughly knowledgeable of the topic...energized, intrigued

and motivated our entire staff...brought back the fire in my heart...a crazily gifted communicator!...”

For over twenty years Jeff Vankooten has partnered with people and organizations to build their credibility and develop
internal intelligence to become wildly resilient in change.

A crazily gifted speaker who hits a home run with
every audience, every time
Jeff Vankooten attunes his speaking engagements to
meet the individual needs of his clients. He artfully
weaves each of his presentations into the objectives and
desires of the event itself.
His ability to integrate his message into the rest of the
meeting or conference means your audience members
benefit from the synergy of all the presentations they hear.
Jeff will work closely with your organization to identify the
specific requirements needed. These dynamic, integrative
and compelling programs provide both the motivation
and the strategies to excel in business and in life.
•Chevron •Chic-fil-a •Fort Dodge
•Credit Union Executives •Urbana
Core Themes
As a specialist on resilience, Jeff is able to outfit people
and organizations with the abilities and tactics to make
our current moment useful, durable, nimble, and
sustainable:
Robust Collaboration
Potent Communication
Persistent Adaptation
Vibrant Imagination
Whether you're looking for an opening keynote speaker,
closing keynote speaker or general session presentation,
Jeff Vankooten delivers a tailored program that will
exceed your expectations – guaranteed.
"Jeff was enthusiastic, engaging, and thoroughly
knowledgeable of the topic. His delivery style was well
paced, comfortable, and he personally appealed to our
audience." City of Colorado Springs
"Your speech at the dinner was absolutely perfect and
we've heard such amazingly positive comments. Thank
you!!" Tennyson Center for Children
"Your professional and entertaining delivery made the
crucial information enjoyable and easy to absorb. Your
contribution was a huge part of the overall success of the
conference." IBEW
Just a few fans:
•Hyatt
•IBEW
•Georgia Perimeter College •NSPRA

Contact Jeff at 720-891-9182 for details on how Jeff Vankooten can uniquely tailor his presentation to your specific needs or visit jeffvankooten.com
 Core Abilities
The change we are experiencing is not only relentless, but
discontinuous from previous known certitudes and
strategies. It demands completely new ways of being and
doing. We are living in the impact of the improbable — it’s a
whole new space - crunch time.

The migration through such space involves the

transformative movement from the way things are to the way
things ought to be. It can be a place of opportunity,
creativity, and transformation... Jeff outfits people and
organizations with four core abilities needed to leverage their
potential and move through the stresses of contemporary
change.

A robust collaboration

A potent communication

A persistent adaptation

A vibrant imagination

Over twenty years of research and real life application has

convinced Jeff of the critical need for these precise
competencies and has garnered him a reputation as one of
the very best in bringing them to life.

Contact Jeff at 720-891-9182 for details on how Jeff Vankooten can uniquely tailor his presentation to your specific needs or visit jeffvankooten.com
 presentation theme one
A robust collaboration

What's the most important relational skill you can have?

Hands down it's the ability to collaborate; to work in teams,
d i s c u s s , j u s t i f y, e x p l o re , s h a re k n o w l e d g e a n d
understandings. Nothing else even comes close.

It all starts with people. You, and the people you gather
about you, have to come up with everything else it takes to
build and run an an amazingly compelling team or
organization. Like a strategy, your unique offerings, the
money required to keep the place running, the ideas, energy,
and ambition that are needed. Every bit of this is born in the
hearts, minds, and day-to-day behavior of human beings. Featured Presentation

You are who you were when

The more collaboratively talented your people, staff, and
colleagues are, the better this “everything else” will be.
is a humorous, informative, and inspiring
presentation on the formative themes that
have shaped our unique generational
personalities. Loaded with anecdotes and
insights, participants will walk away with
discernment in the cultural predicaments
that shape us as well as practical skills in
richly relating across the spectrum of age
in our lives.

Contact Jeff at 720-891-9182 for details on how Jeff Vankooten can uniquely tailor his presentation to your specific needs or visit jeffvankooten.com
 presentation theme two
A potent communication

You don't have to spend a career presenting to full

auditoriums to understand the critical importance of
communicating with clear purpose and focused clarity. From
e-mails to phone calls, meeting agendas to your lesson
plans or public presentations, each day we deliver important
messages, vehicles through which we hope to effect change
or inspire action.

Though our culture has every communication convenience

readily available, truly effective communication is becoming
more difficult to find. And if you've endured being audience
to confusing, unfocused and flat communicators, or seeing
Featured Presentation
the diminished way people communicate during conflict,
Greatalk! chances are you want to do everything you can to keep from
Regardless of your chosen profession or pur- doing the same thing.
suits, it is possible to take the passion of your
message and express it in a way that is clear,
concise and leaves your audience inspired to
respond. Greatalk! provides a time-proven tool
that will not only reframe the way you ap-
proach communication, but will change the
way your audience responds to you.

Contact Jeff at 720-891-9182 for details on how Jeff Vankooten can uniquely tailor his presentation to your specific needs or visit jeffvankooten.com
 presentation theme three
A persistent adaptation
Many people react to difficult circumstances with a flood of
strong emotions and a sense of urgency.
Yet people generally adapt well over time to life - changing
situations and stressful conditions. What enables them to do
so? It involves a persistent adaptation, an ongoing process
that requires time and effort and engages people in taking a
number of initiatives.
These programs extract from studies in resilience as a
template for engaging change in our lives. They are also
based on an emerging new branch of psychology focusing
on the empirical study of such things as positive emotions,
strengths-based character, and healthy institutions.
Jeff’s programs will activate the deep strengths needed to
thrive during tumultuous change and richly engage our
circumstances in the process..
Contact Jeff at 720-891-9182 for details on how Jeff Vankooten can uniquely tailor his presentation to your specific needs or visit jeffvankooten.com
Featured Presentation
Ignite your passion
gnite your passion is a presentation that
honestly explores the deadening impact
of low mood and morale and counters it
by igniting within audiences the pilot
lights of passion. These lights are always
“on” deep down in our hearts but often
are not ignited.  Using a mix of cultural
insight, appropriate humor and applicable
strategies, this presentation is intended
to ignite the heart on fire.
Featured Presentation
Bounce back and Thrive
In this powerful primer, Jeff highlights the
resilient skills essential to moving suc-
cessfully through the dilemmas of
change. With an overarching vantage
point, Jeff enlivens these inherent skills
and outfits people with the where-with-all
to move successfully from a bewildering
place of disorientation to an exhilarating
location of a brand new orientation.
 presentation theme four
A vibrant imagination

The ability to change and be creative are two traits often

associated with successful people and organizations. Yet for
many these two attributes seem counterintuitive to the
needs, fears and demands of everyday life.

Indeed, for as much as we dream of change and the

creation of new ideas, life often remains the same until
someone or something changes it for us!

Jeff knows that creativity and attention to the “interior life” is

an essential part of innovation and invention and is important

Featured Presentation in professions worldwide. He respects the ambiguity and

multi-dimensional nature of creativity, the depth and mystery
Activate your Creative Thinking of our deepest selves, and the tantalizingly valuable
gives tested ways to think in new dimensions
and spur your mind to creative action. It also contribution they make in our lives.
introduces you to a person you know, or
ought to know. The creative person within
maintains the attitudes of the most creative
people in history and employs the organic
qualities that contribute most to creativity.
What is this person for you – a distant image
or a mirror reflection?

Contact Jeff at 720-891-9182 for details on how Jeff Vankooten can uniquely tailor his presentation to your specific needs or visit jeffvankooten.com
About Jeff Vankooten
A sought after speaker
Jeff Vankooten is consistently rated by his audiences as
among the very best speakers when it comes to the
relevant engagement and adaptive challenges of
contemporary change. Jeff’s candid and comedic
approach uses memorable illustrations to teach proven
principles that are guaranteed to strengthen and energize
any change initiative.
His superb storytelling skills and generous sense of
humor provoke healthy discussion and participation in
every single venue. Audiences regularly comment on the
Contact Deborah Bonner at 770-737-2152 for details on how Jeff Vankooten can uniquely tailor his presentation to your specific needs or visit jeffvankooten.com
deep conversations he has prompted days after the
program has ended.
An outfitter for change
Jeff Vankooten focuses tightly on four competencies
essential to bouncing back and thriving in change: a
robust collaboration, a potent communication, a
persistent adaptation, and a vibrant imagination.
He serves organizations and communities as a true
specialist, with unmatched depth, creativity and front line
thinking in his four practice areas. He partners with
people to build their credibility and develop internal
intelligence with the quandaries of contemporary change.
Jeff’s expertise comes from real world experiences as a
business consultant, entrepreneur, graduate student, high
school teacher, pastor, parent, and a voracious curiosity.
Because he’s had 22 years experience from the platform,
and because he’s just downright funny, Jeff will cause you
both to laugh and to learn.
Multi-faceted, versatile, & beneficial
Leaders and people of influence agree: Jeff’s training
and presentations are on the leading edge of
transformational excellence:
“Out of a possible score of 5 in three categories,
(objectives, work of presenter, & met my expectations),
you scored 4.8, 4.8, and 4.7, respectively. One person
even gave you 5+, 5+, and 5+!”
-Lisa Mull, Conference Coordinator
“Jeff’s presentation energized, intrigued and motivated
our entire staff. The language and mental constructs he
provided have allowed for mindful discussion about how
to best educate the upcoming generations. We are
looking forward to inviting Jeff back for future
presentations and workshops.”
-Philippe Ernewein, MA, Dean of Faculty Training &
Development, Denver Academy
"Jeff's training has brought back the fire in my heart to
get back up and continue what I know I need to do. This
was a new start to a fresh new beginning. Better than I
ever expected!"
-Kayla Bergholz, Actor - Writer - Model - Speaker