CHARLIE BERENS is a comedian, New York Times Best Selling Author, Emmy-winning journalist, musician and creator of the Manitowoc Minute. He creates weekly content for his various social platforms and has amassed over 9 million followers.

In 2017, Charlie began hosting his weekly comedic online news show, the Manitowoc Minute. Since then, Charlie’s been creating Midwest-focused sketch comedy videos on his social media platforms. He’s also traveled the country with three sold out stand-up comedy tours.

In 2020, Charlie paired up with Horseshoes & Hand Grenades alum Adam Greuel to release the music/comedy album, Unthawed. The album, which is a mixture of bluegrass, country and Charlie’s comedy, hit #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass chart and #6 on the Bluegrass Comedy chart. The duo followed that up with Dive Bar Dinner in 2023, which also charted on the Billboard Charts.

Charlie’s first book, The Midwest Survival Guide, was released in November of 2021 by William Morrow/Harper Collins and immediately became a New York Times Best Seller! ABC is currently developing a half-hour comedy based on the book. His Midwest Survival Guide Tour sold over 150,000 tickets!

2023 also saw the release of his first stand-up special, Charlie Berens: Midwest Goodbye.

Charlie just launched his very own brandy! Berens Old Fashioned Brandy is being producing by the Dancing Goat distillery and is in stores now!

Charlie hosts the Cripescast podcast where he interviews musicians, artists, comedians, creators and more to talk about their story and connections to the Midwest. Guests have included Nate Bargatze, Michael Yo, Kim and Penn Holderness, Jeff Foxworthy, and Roy Wood, Jr.

In addition to Cripescast, Charlie co-hosts the Bellied Up podcast w/ Myles the You Betcha guy. Every Thursday, Charlie and Myles belly up at a small town bar and take live callers from all over the Midwest and rest of the world.

Charlie is currently touring America on his Good Old Fashioned Tour!

When it comes to scaling businesses, few leaders have been more impactful than Jon McNeill, CEO and Co-Founder of DVx Ventures, current board member at Lululemon, and former President of Tesla and COO of Lyft.

A visionary entrepreneur, investor, and operator, Jon has a proven track record of driving hypergrowth across some of the world’s most disruptive industries. A six-time founder, Jon has built and scaled companies that have created tens of thousands of jobs and delivered 9x returns to investors. At DVx, he’s launched 12 companies tackling large-scale market opportunities. He is exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speaker bureau.

As President of Tesla, Jon helped grow revenue from $2 billion to $20 billion in under 30 months. At Lyft, he served as COO during a critical growth phase, doubling revenue and steering the company toward its IPO.

In addition to serving on the board of Lululemon and previously serving on the board of General Motors (2022–2026), Jon is also a director of Asurion. He played a pivotal role in Lululemon’s turnaround, contributing to a 5x increase in stock value. He also sits on the Liquid AI Advisory Council.

A frequent speaker and guest lecturer at Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, and Stanford GSB, Jon is known for delivering practical, actionable insights on innovation, leadership, and scaling operations.

In 2026, McNeill published his first book, The Algorithm: The Hypergrowth Formula That Transformed Tesla, SpaceX, Lululemon, and General Motors, a USA Today best-seller published by Penguin.

Jon began his career at Bain & Company and is a graduate of Northwestern University.

Passionate, dynamic, inspiring, and coach of Duke University men’s basketball team who led Team USA to three Olympic gold medals, Mike Krzyzewski (known by fans as Coach K) is a master motivator – not only of teams, but of individuals and organizations, spurring them on to succeed beyond even their own expectations.

A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball, FIBA, National Collegiate Basketball, and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Halls of Fame, Coach K shows audiences how they, too, can compile winning numbers in both their professional and personal lives. Perhaps the most accomplished basketball coach in history, Coach K’s journey in the sport was unparalleled in many ways as he accumulated the following career milestones:

• MOST NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Victories (1,202)
• MOST Final Fours (13; five NCAA Championships, second all-time)
• MOST Decades with Final Four Appearances (five; 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s)
• MOST Olympic Gold Medals as a Head Coach (3; 2008, 2012 and 2016)
• MOST World Championship Gold Medals as a Head Coach (2; 2010 and 2014)
• MOST NCAA Tournament Victories (101)
• MOST NCAA Tournament Appearances by a Coach (36)
• MOST Games as No. 1 Team in the Country by a Coach (254)
• MOST Weeks as No. 1 Team in the Country by a Coach (127)
• MOST Seasons as No. 1 Team in the Country by a Coach (21)
• MOST Atlantic Coast Conference Victories (535)
• MOST ACC Tournament Championships (15)
• MOST NBA Draft No. 1 Selections (4)
• MOST NBA Draft Lottery Selections (29)
• MOST NBA Draft First Round Selections (46)
• MOST NBA Draft selections (73)

Coach K maps out a clear game plan for achieving success—motivating, leading, and providing powerful strategies for building confidence, trust, communication and teamwork. Like any elite coach, he scouts your organization to discover how to best inspire and renew your people. He is the author of two New York Times best-sellers including Beyond Basketball: Coach K’s Keywords for Success. His most recent book is The Gold Standard: Building a World-Class Team.

A 12-time National Coach of the Year, Sports Illustrated named Krzyzewski its Sportsman of the Year in 2011. Krzyzewski has been honored by USA Basketball seven times as the recipient or co-recipient of the USA Basketball National Coach of the Year Award. He is the only men’s coach to have won gold medals at the Olympics and the FIBA World Cup, while also possessing at least one NCAA Championship (he has five).

In addition to being a Co-Founder of the Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics, Krzyzewski serves as a Professor of the Practice of Leadership at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke. The Coach K Center at Duke has directly influenced the leadership development of more than 6,500 MBA students and executives since 2004. The Board Chair of the Emily Krzyzewski Center in Durham, N.C., Krzyzewski founded the center that has served more than 7,500 students since its inception in 2006. Coach K has been on the Board of Directors at the V Foundation since the beginning in 1993. Annually in Napa Valley, he and his wife Mickie host the V Foundation Wine Celebration, an event that has raised tens of millions of dollars in the fight against cancer.

Jonelle Marie Carter is a singer, songwriter, best-selling author, and speaker whose journey exemplifies resilience and authenticity. Her keynote presentations focus on mindset, confidence, and self-talk, equipping teams and leaders with practical strategies to overcome obstacles, foster positive change, and unlock their full potential.

A serial entrepreneur, Jonelle has established two brick-and-mortar businesses and multiple ventures in music, podcasting, and blogging. She sold her first service business after more than a decade with nearly 100% team retention and scaled her second business, a wellness company, to six figures. Her work emphasizes people-first leadership, courage, and trust, empowering individuals and organizations to cultivate deep confidence and a resilient sense of self-worth through the transformative power of the ASK method and positive self-talk. This empowers individuals to courageously launch their careers and lives forward, inspiring growth, leadership, and positive ripple effects that benefit not only themselves but also the lives of others and the wider community.

She has published three books that inspire and empower readers to embrace their true selves and go after what they truly want Currently, Jonelle is playing and recording full-time with her band, River Road Trio, co-hosting the No Stage Lights Podcast, and speaking nationally on confidence and cultivating a growth mindset.