Empowering Financial Services Leaders to Shine
Mark Mohammadpour’s exuberant and interactive keynote speeches and workshops motivate healthy, committed, confident, and empathetic financial services teams.
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The Two Trillion Dollar Question: How to motivate stressed financial services employees while experiencing record growth?
The financial services market is booming. AI could propel global banking industry profits to a staggering $2 trillion by 2028(1).
In a world in which relationship management, customer experience, and service are critical, you are trusting your team to play a significant role in that growth.
Yet the employees who are driving that growth are becoming increasingly exhausted.
A recent study found 31% of financial services and banking professionals are planning to leave the industry due to high pressure (2).
Healthy Teams = Healthy Businesses
When your financial services leaders prioritize their well-being, feel more confident, and communicate and lead with empathy, you’ll see happier employees, increased retention and productivity, a satisfied customer experience, and a positive balance sheet.
Helping you create this kind of culture is my specialty.
I’m Mark Mohammadpour, Your Chief Well-being Officer.
Advisor to financial services leaders on motivating healthy, committed, confident, and empathetic financial services teams.
Accredited communications executive, leading award-winning 8-figure budget global teams.
Reaching 200,000+ people annually on Employee Culture and Well-being.
150-pound natural weight-loss journey.
Situation: Mutual of Omaha is experiencing significant growth, which means a number of new employees are joining the company. Even though 93% of employees at Mutual of Omaha say it is a great place to work—compared to 57% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company.*—the company knew it needed to do all it could to future-proof its leaders and future leaders to meet its customers’ needs while being brand advocates.
Length of partnership: 12 months
Approach: To engage Mutual of Omaha employees more deeply, we implemented a “Three Point Impact” series of in-person and virtual keynotes. Topics focused on Leading with Empathy, Personal Well-being, and Team Leadership. Each talk utilized real-time polling for open-ended and multiple-choice questions throughout the conversation, the results of which were shared with Mutual of Omaha. We also reiterated relevant Mutual of Omaha employee benefits and programs such as employee resource groups.
Over the course of the three talks, Mark connected with more than 500 Mutual of Omaha employees.
Results: More than 95 percent of attendees throughout Mark’s three sessions gave them highly favorable ratings.
Quote: “Mark’s unique ability to take his approach to employee well-being, adapt it perfectly to his audience, and deliver a relatable, practical, and actionable approach that we can implement right away is inspiring. We needed a speaker who could engage with the audience while delivering value in a short amount of time. And Mark did exactly that. So much so that teams are more mindful of building empathetic relationships, watching the number of meetings they hold or participate in, and taking time to connect and check in with one another more authentically. Overall, more than 95 percent of attendees responded with a highly favorable opinion of the talks. We cannot recommend Mark enough for your team.” — Ashley Hickson, Mutual of Omaha
*Via Great Place to Work.
Topics Include:
The Buoyant Leader: the irreplaceable connection to healthy employee cultures.
It’s a peaceful Sunday morning. Coffee is brewing. The birds are making their presence known, but it’s welcoming.
Physically, you’re relaxing on the sofa. But where is your mind?
Are you nervous about Monday, worrying about work events out of your control?
Or are you in a state of buoyancy, feeling comfortable, relaxed, confident, and in control?
We’re at the start of an era of constant change for the finance industry.
How do we build up our well-being to show up for ourselves, our customers, and our employees? Join us for an inspirational and joyful discussion about equipping leaders with balance, purpose, and intention by putting themselves first! This data-driven, case-study-rich, and fully interactive conversation will teach you how to be a healthy and confident leader so you can be a trusted advisor to colleagues and clients and, most importantly, live healthy lives with loved ones.
Outcomes — attendees will learn:
1) The science behind how healthy, trusted leaders can prioritize their well-being.
2) How to be unselfishly selfish about your well-being.
3) How to positively influence your team to embrace your approach and adapt to their own.
4) The five things to do every Friday to prepare mentally for Monday morning.
The future of leading healthy, engaged employees: Your Culture of Well-being
Our experience with work comes down to relationships with a handful of people. The customers you’re building relationships with every day. The executive you respect and trust. The peer you count on for accountability. The up-and-coming leaders you’re motivating. They’re the people we work with the most, meet with, get information from, and know the most about our purpose. And it’s this purpose that impacts our confidence and productivity, our mental health, our physical health, and other aspects of our well-being.
This highly interactive and engaging conversation focuses on the proven Chasing the Sun CHASE Model™️, the five steps to creating a Culture of Well-being within your organization. These steps have helped shape healthy team cultures around the world.
Outcomes — attendees will learn:
1) The data behind healthy employees and bottom lines to secure buy-in from leadership.
2) How to redefine employee culture and well-being that works for your team.
3) The importance of a strategic communication campaign in creating a Culture of Well-being.
4) Through The CHASE Model, we’ll share the five actionable steps to help create a Culture of Well-being within your organization.
Building Winning Customer and Team Relationships with Empathy and Confidence
Understanding the perspective of others can make or break the relationship with those you manage, your leadership, your colleagues, and finalizing business partnerships. And yet, it’s one of the most challenging, misunderstood, and overlooked aspects of humanity.
Recent data suggests that 76 percent of people who experienced cognitive empathy from their leaders reported they were engaged.
This engaging and interactive conversation will use a series of proven leadership examples to show how to build trust with employees, earn respect from executives, and design a winning culture - empower leaders to use empathy to inspire their employees, teams, and executives to BELIEVE in an idea.
Outcomes — attendees will learn:
1) What is empathy, specifically cognitive empathy, and why is it important for relationships?
2) How to use empathy to manage up, down, and across their organization effectively.
3) Embrace the positive impact of bringing outside and unique perspectives into your organization.
4) Design a strategy to inspire employees to believe and buy into an idea.
Features
Our conversations ensure every attendee gains something from the experience. How? Read more to learn about our approach.
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We use Mentimeter and Talkadot software to ensure interactivity, inclusiveness, and feedback are delivered.
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No off-the-shelf materials here! We develop your session tailored to the specific challenges you’re facing.
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We’ve hosted sessions virtually and in-person, attendance of five to 1,000+, from one-hour to multi-day.
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We’ll spend time before your event to ensure we’re aligned on goals, expectations, and success factors.
We’ll also schedule time after the event to discuss feedback and immediate next steps.
Client Testimonial
“I’ve seen a lot of keynote speakers that promise to motivate, inspire, and provide concrete tools, but fail to deliver. Mark nails this in the first ten minutes.”
Additional Topics
These are topics to consider for workshops, webinars, leadership offsites, or staff trainings.
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Imposter Syndrome is defined as a psychological feeling of self-doubt and “not being enough.” We will discuss the common symptoms, different types, and warning signs, ultimately learning how to embrace and overcome this issue.
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Building virtual or in-person relationships requires preparation, establishing a presence, and building rapport. This session focuses on practical and actionable tips on being a trusted advisor with your customers.
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If you’re running a hybrid team, we will help you understand how to spend your time in the office vs. at home.
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A workstream expectations charter emphasizes the benefits of an equitable work environment and establishes agreed-upon expectations. This process demonstrates clear leadership and empowers employees to care about their well-being, reducing employee burnout and turnover.
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If you work with colleagues or clients who are constantly unresponsive or unavailable, then it's critical to take as much ownership of your journey as possible. Here’s how you can effectively manage up so you can be there for them while giving yourself a chance to flourish.
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Your experiences with those you work with today are merely the first chapter in a very long story. We'll talk about actionable next steps to ensure the bond you built has a special benefit for years to come.
Client Testimonial
“What I appreciate about Mark is he brings strong analytical skills to life and are wrapped in humanity that you not only get concrete, practical, useful counsel, and action steps, but you get them in a way that is heartwarming, affirming, energizing. Bringing Mark to my team I know people will be challenged to do their best but also feel encouraged and supported. Really beautiful combination of someone who gets sh!t done and does it in a way that shows they care about them.”
What leaders say about Chasing the Sun
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"If your agency is experiencing a challenge with turnover, managing a hybrid culture or employee engagement or are just ready to commit to an organizational well-being strategy, talk to Mark."
Rebecca Martin, SVP, Culture & Talent, Beehive Strategic Communication
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"Mark's planted some really practical seeds on how each of us can prioritize our health & wellness and debunk the idea that 'we don’t have time.' I’m excited to see how this comes alive in our daily lives and highly recommend his session for any organization committed to the well-being of their team!"
Renee Schlachter, VP People and Culture, Extensis
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"Mark’s superpower is empathy and that is the through line for all his passionate work. This empathy, driven by his own backstory, sustains his energy to keep enhancing his business to meet the ever-changing needs of his clients."
Sara Jackson, Director, Internal Communications, Park National Bank
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"Mark is a dynamic speaker. His personal story resonates with everyone who’s struggled to overcome challenges in their own lives. We would highly recommend Mark as a speaker with the ability to both elevate and motivate his audience."
Bonnie Gibson, CRIS, Sr. Account Manager - Supervisor, Woodruff Sawyer
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Mark Mohammadpour firmly subscribes to the time-proven Service Profit Chain: happy and healthy people = happy and healthy clients = happy and healthy businesses. Mark captivated our community of executives with his data-driven and people-centric approach to well-being. His deep agency experience allows him to authentically relate to agency leaders and the challenges they face as they work to balance the needs of their people, their clients and their bottom lines. Partnering with Mark is an asset for any company looking for a strategic employee well-being partner to reduce turnover and help meet their business objectives.
Kim Sample, CEO, PR Council
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“I’ve witnessed first-hand how business leaders can make real-time changes to positively impact their teams. Companies and their employees will benefit from Chasing the Sun to help them reach their business objectives.”
Sarah Burke, Enterprise Internal Communications, Rockwell Automation
Work With Chasing the Sun.
We look forward to learning more about you and your company and how we can play a role. Please fill out the form below, and we will respond to your request right away.
1. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/financial-services/financial-services-industry-outlooks/banking-industry-outlook.html
2. https://www.lemonedge.com/news/burnout-mounts-as-a-third-of-banking-and-financial-services-plan-to-leave-the-industry-due-to-high-pressure