Steve Baumgartner.Speaker · Trainer
Speaking

I don't speak about what I read.
I speak about what I've lived.

Keynotes and workshops for business conferences, leadership teams, churches, men's events and schools. Every talk is built for your room.

Steve on stage, mid-talk, in front of a Fix the Constraint slide
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Watch a full session

The whole talk.
Start to finish.

Lost in Translation, live at the Prometheus Group User Conference 2026. How operations and maintenance align around what matters most. Watch five minutes or the whole thing.

We've heard wonderful feedback from people who attended.

Noah MintonDirector of Marketing, Prometheus Group
On stage

From conference
halls to concerts.

A conference hall in Melbourne. A room full of reliability engineers. A crowd waiting on a rock band. Same message, built for the room.

Steve presenting on stage at the Mainstream Conference in Melbourne, Australia, to a seated audience
Mainstream Conference · Melbourne, AustraliaCrown Promenade, August 2024. Presenting to maintenance and reliability leaders.
4.73/ 5

"Maximizing the Effectiveness of External Partners to Drive Success"

4.55/ 5

"How Reliability Leaders Can Sell the Dream to CFOs"

Excellent scores from the folks who attended the session. We say anything over 4.20 is very good, so you really did excel.

Ian CollierHead of Content, Mainstream · attendee ratings, Melbourne 2024
Steve at the podium of the SMRP 29th Annual Conference
SMRP 29th Annual ConferenceSociety for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals
Steve in front of the Disciple stage set
Disciple concertSpoke at a concert by the Christian rock band Disciple
Signature keynote

Freedom.

Freedom isn't the absence of walls. It's knowing who you are, where you're going, and refusing to hand your say-so to anyone else, no matter what they're offering or who built the bars. Audiences leave with Position, Aim, Train, Hold: a simple, repeatable way to tell the difference between being released and being free, and one move to make today.

PositionAimTrainHold
More keynotes
Steve teaching a room of plant supervisors
Business keynote · 45 min

Lost in Translation

How operations and maintenance align around what matters most. The gap is rarely effort. It's language: different words, different scoreboards, different definitions of the problem. Leaders leave with the S.T.A.R.T. framework and a Monday-morning plan.

The best leaders are translators.

Steve speaking in front of a Becoming The Better You banner
Personal growth

Designed, Not Default

You are not who you came from. You are who you decide, deliberately and repeatedly, to become. Audiences learn to spot the parts of life they inherited by default instead of chose on purpose, and leave with one concrete move to start redesigning one of them this week.

Go build the blueprint nobody gave you.

Steve standing in front of a glowing furnace
Faith & men

Forged by Fire

For Christian men who are succeeding in the world and silently failing at home. Built on the FIRE framework: Fortify Faith, Ignite Man, Reclaim Home, Establish Legacy. Men leave with a wake-up call to lead spiritually, emotionally and relationally, and a simple framework to rebuild their home life.

Recorded live

He did just fantastic. And the reason he did so fantastic is because he actually cares.

"Men are going through two things at the same time: recovery and discovery. If you don't take care of your recovery zone, you won't enjoy your discovery zone."

Tim StoreyThe Original Comeback Coach. Recorded right after Steve's talk at an event where both spoke. Who is Tim Storey?
  • 30 years coaching entertainers, executives and pro athletes
  • 75 countries spoken in, to millions of people
  • Author of The Miracle Mentality, Comeback & Beyond and Utmost Living
  • Featured on CNN, Good Morning America, TODAY, People and USA Today
  • Endorsed by Oprah Winfrey, Steve Harvey and Robert Downey Jr.
In good company

Mentors, coaches
and shared stages.

The people who sharpened me, and the speakers I've shared rooms with, from Hollywood coaches to the top names in maintenance and reliability.

Steve with Jeff Hoffman
Jeff HoffmanPriceline.com founder. Mentor.
Steve with Anthony Russo
Anthony RussoEmcee of Big Noon Kickoff and speaker coach. We've shared many stages.
Nancy Regan, Steve Baumgartner, Rob Rieger and Dr. John Ross with speaker badges at the Mainstream Conference
Fellow speakers, MelbourneNancy Regan (RCM expert), Rob Rieger (global maintenance leader, Mars) and Dr. John Ross (Maintenance Innovators).
Steve with Brad Lea, Toby Potter, Brenda Ring Wood and Terrence Leftridge
BackstageWith Brad Lea, Toby Potter, Brenda Ring Wood and TEDx speaker Terrence Leftridge.
Topics

Two tracks.
One voice.

Pick a track, or tell me what your audience is facing and I'll build the talk around it.

Business & Industry

For leaders and teams

  • Lost in TranslationHow operations and maintenance align around what matters most. 45-minute keynote.
  • Fix the ConstraintEvery operation is held back by one bottleneck. Find it, fix it, and everything behind it starts to move.
  • Maintenance & ReliabilityFind what's costing money on the floor and build an operation that doesn't run on emergency fixes.
  • Turnarounds & OwnershipLessons from two multimillion-dollar plant turnarounds and 32 years in operations.
Faith & Life

For churches and men

  • FreedomThe difference between being released and being free. Built for reentry, recovery and men's events as much as leadership teams.
  • Forged by FireFaith, family and legacy for Christian men. The FIRE framework.
  • Designed, Not DefaultYou are not who you came from. Redesign what you inherited.
  • Listen to the Signal. Take the Risk.The nudge you keep ignoring is usually the one that matters.
  • Marriage & FamilyWhat it costs to win at work and lose at home, and how to turn it around.
Schools & Youth

For students and educators

  • Discipline & DirectionThe habits that hold up when life gets hard, taught by someone who started on the plant floor. Topics confirmed with each school.
Endorsement

When Steve takes the stage, audiences feel it. He speaks with the authority of someone who has lived it.

Kevin HarringtonOriginal Shark, Shark Tank
Formats

Stage, room
or screen.

In person in the United States, Canada, Australia, Africa and beyond, or live online.

01

Keynote

The main stage. One message your audience carries home.

02

Workshop

Breakouts and half-day sessions. Smaller room, more hands-on.

03

Training program

Multi-session leadership training, built around your people.

04

Virtual

Live online keynotes and sessions for remote and global teams.

For event planners

How booking
works.

Simple and fast. You'll hear back from me directly.

Send the details

Date, location, audience size and what you want people to walk away with. Two minutes.

We talk

A short call so I understand your audience, your theme and what's happening in your organization.

I build it for your room

The talk is tailored to your people. No canned speech.

Your event. Your team.

Bring Steve
to your room.

Tell me about your audience and your date. I read every inquiry myself.