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Guy Kawasaki
Chief Evangelist of Canva
Brené Brown
Research Professor, University of Houston
Vulnerability · Courage · Daring Leadership
Speaking Fee
$75,000 – $150,000
Based In
United States
Signature Topic
Courage & Vulnerability
Format
Keynote
About Brené
Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston, where she holds the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair at the Graduate College of Social Work, and a visiting professor in management at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. She has spent more than two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy.
Her 2010 TEDxHouston talk, The Power of Vulnerability, became one of the most-viewed TED talks ever recorded and carried her research out of the academy and into boardrooms. She has written six #1 New York Times bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection (2010), Daring Greatly (2012), Rising Strong (2015), Braving the Wilderness (2017), Dare to Lead (2018), and Atlas of the Heart (2021).
She hosts the podcasts Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead, both launched in 2020, with Unlocking Us winning the 2021 iHeartRadio award for best advice or inspirational podcast. Her 2019 Netflix special, The Call to Courage, was the platform's first filmed lecture of its kind, and it was followed in 2022 by Atlas of the Heart, a five-part HBO Max series. Her Dare to Lead program now runs inside organizations worldwide through a trained facilitator network.
The reason her material lands with audiences that resist the genre is the method behind it. She holds a bachelor's and a master's in social work from the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD from the University of Houston, completed in 2002, and her work is grounded-theory research built from interview data rather than from a personal philosophy. When she says that vulnerability is the birthplace of courage, it is a finding, and she can say what it was found in.
For a booking, the distinction that matters is between the keynote and the program. The keynote works at conference scale and resets how a large room talks about courage and trust. Dare to Lead is a curriculum, and because certified facilitators can run it inside an organization afterward, a leadership cohort can carry the work on after the event rather than remembering it fondly. Healthcare, social services and women's leadership audiences book her most, and executive teams in the middle of a culture change are close behind.
Keynote Topics
The Power of Vulnerability
Dare to Lead: Choosing Courage Over Comfort
Trust, Empathy, and Belonging at Work
Atlas of the Heart: The Language of Emotion
Best For
- Leadership development programs
- Culture and belonging initiatives
- Healthcare and social-services conferences
- Executive and women's leadership summits
- Organizational change events
Booking Brené Brown: Frequently Asked Questions
What is Brené Brown's speaking fee?
Brené Brown's fee is typically in the $75,000 to $150,000 range. That is an estimate, not a quote: the figure moves with event date, location and travel, session length, whether a workshop, breakout or moderated Q&A is added to the keynote, and whether book copies or licensed follow-up material are included. Submit an inquiry with your event details for a current number.
What topics does Brené Brown speak on?
The power of vulnerability, Dare to Lead and choosing courage over comfort, trust, empathy and belonging at work, and Atlas of the Heart on the language of emotion. Her work is research-led, which tends to land well with audiences that are skeptical of motivational framing.
What size audience is Brené Brown best suited to?
Her material works at conference scale and in smaller leadership settings, though the two call for different framing: a large room suits the keynote, while a leadership cohort often gets more out of a session built around Dare to Lead. Tell us the audience size and seniority and we will recommend which format fits.
Can the Dare to Lead work continue inside the organization after the keynote?
Yes. Dare to Lead is a curriculum as well as a book, and a network of trained facilitators runs it inside organizations, so a leadership cohort can continue the work after the event rather than leaving it at the keynote. Tell us whether the goal is a single session or a program and we will scope accordingly.
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Brené Brown
Research Professor, University of Houston
$75,000 – $150,000
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