ROI OF WHY CONFERENCE 2026
The Conference for Purpose-Driven Business Leaders
May 27th-29th, 2026 | Omaha, Nebraska
SECURE YOUR SEAT
TOGETHER WE RISE
This year’s theme, Together We Rise, reflects the power of community, shared vision, and collective action. It’s a call to gather, grow, and build a future where doing more good is the foundation — not the afterthought — of business.
BUSINESS AS A FORCE FOR GOOD ISN’T JUST AN IDEA — IT’S A MOVEMENT.
You know there’s more to leadership than maximizing profits. ROI of Why is where values-driven leaders gather to explore what happens when purpose and performance go hand in hand. It’s real conversations, real transformation — and a community of people who believe in doing more good through business.
AT ROI OF WHY, YOU WILL
Rediscover the “why” behind your work — and walk away re-centered and recharged
Build authentic connections with leaders who want more than business as usual
Learn how purpose-aligned strategy creates sustainable impact and growth
WHAT PAST ATTENDEES ARE SAYING
Real stories from real people—founders, leaders, and changemakers who left inspired, connected, and ready to lead with purpose.
ROI OF WHY 2026 WORKSHOPS
May 27th, 2025
Constellation Lab Workshop
Tawnya Starr
Speaker: Tawnya Starr
Speaker Bio:
Tawnya Starr is a business consultant and executive advisor who works with entrepreneurs, CEOs, business leaders and executive teams to scale and transform organizations using applied analytical traits. When you identify the right talent for your business or organization, it can lead to your greatest P&L performance.
Session description coming soon
May 28th, 2025
Leading with Head and Heart: Advancements in Neuroleadership to Transform Your Own Life and the Lives of Those they Lead
Dr. Helen Fagan
Session Description:
This immersive three-hour workshop explores how healing and neuroscience intersect to shape emotionally intelligent, resilient leaders. Participants will discover how the head and heart work together to influence behavior, connection, decision-making, and team culture. Grounded in research from Neuroleadership, Psychological Capital (hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism) and Emotional Intelligence, this session offers practical insights and tools for transforming stress into strength and reactivity into presence. Through guided reflection, somatic awareness, and interactive dialogue, leaders will learn to regulate their nervous systems, build trust, and lead from wholeness cultivating a culture embodying people matter.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand the neuroscience of healing and its impact on leading
- Strengthen Emotional Intelligence and Psychological Capital for sustained resilience
- Learn practices that foster trust, creativity, and focus
- Create a personal action plan for leading with both heart and brain
Speaker: Dr. Helen Fagan
Speaker Bio:
As a leadership scholar, executive coach, and global strategist, Dr. Fagan equips leaders with the ability to unlock human potential while advancing meaningful results.
As the founder of Helen Fagan & Associates, she helps high-impact leaders move beyond checklists and competencies into true self-mastery. Her research and leadership development philosophy combines Emotional Intelligence, Intercultural Mindset, Psychological Capital, and the Neuroscience of Transformation to create lasting change in people, culture, and legacy.
Currently serving as Graduate Faculty in Leadership at Doane University, Dr. Fagan designs learning that challenges conventional leadership development models and raises the bar on what it means to lead with depth, discernment, and discipline.
Her upcoming book, Lead Like People Matter, is a memoir-meets-manifesto for those who refuse to lead on autopilot and are ready to do the hard. She has a PhD in Human Sciences (Leadership) with decades of experience designing executive-level programs, is a trained executive coach, and a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). Dr. Fagan has been honored with the 2020 Inspire Leadership Excellence in Education Award and the 2021 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Fulfilling the Dream Award.
Everything’s on Fire (So Let’s Do Improv!)
Finding Clarity, Collaboration, and Purpose with “Yes, And…"
Timmy Tamisiea
Session Description:
When everything’s on fire—and it will be—most people reach for a hose. We reach for improv. In this interactive, laughter-filled session from Healthcare Improv, you’ll learn how the principles of improvisation can turn chaos into connection and confusion into clarity. Through playful exercises and thoughtful reflection, we’ll explore how to quiet the ego, focus on shared purpose, and build trust in both the process and the people around you. You’ll practice letting go of control, listening with intention, and saying “Yes, And…” to whatever challenge comes next. Expect insights, laughter, and maybe a little smoke as you discover that sometimes the best way to lead is to stop forcing the outcome—and start trusting the moment.
Duration: 60–75 minutes
Why attend:
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Discover how active listening (not just hearing) transforms team dynamics
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Learn to pivot with confidence when rules and roles change
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Replace ego with shared purpose for stronger collaboration
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Practice letting go and trusting the process (even when it’s messy)
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Leave ready to “Yes, And…” your next unexpected moment
Speaker: Timmy Tamisiea
Speaker Bio:
At Launch Leadership, my focus is on empowering and developing young leaders through innovative programs and strategies. With a rich background in the arts as an Independent Filmmaker, I blend creative storytelling with leadership training, creating an engaging and transformative experience for our participants.
Our team cultivates brand awareness and fundraising initiatives that amplify our mission. Leveraging my comedic flair and directorial skills from years in entertainment, we have fostered a culture of humor, resilience, and bold ideas that resonate with today's youth.
Team-Led Results™: Building Alignment, Trust, and Accountability for Better Outcomes
Joshua Berry
Session Description:
In today’s fast-moving environment, the best results don’t come from top-down directives—they come from teams who lead together. In this interactive two-hour workshop, you’ll explore the Team-Led Results™ model, a practical framework that helps leaders and teams strengthen trust, alignment, and accountability while driving measurable business outcomes. Through hands-on activities and real-world examples, participants will learn how to build clarity around decision-making, test new ideas quickly, and celebrate progress in ways that sustain momentum. Whether you lead a team or contribute to one, this session will give you tools to make change with your people, not to them—so that healthy teams become the foundation of high performance.
Why Attend:
- Learn a simple, actionable model—Groundwork, Alignment, Iteration, Celebration—to lead change with your team.
- Practice tools that improve trust, clarity, and accountability in everyday work.
- Discover how strong organizational health directly improves safety, quality, and business performance.
- Leave with one clear, Monday-ready action you can use to strengthen your team’s results immediately.
Speaker: Joshua Berry
Speaker Bio:
Joshua Berry is a world-class facilitator of change. As an author, speaker, entrepreneur, and director of Econic, Joshua has spent the last two decades evolving the what, who, and why of Fortune 500 companies and venture-backed startups.
Along with his team, Joshua has sparked change in organizations like US Bank, John Deere, Procter & Gamble, Nelnet, Ameritas, Omaha Public Power District, Farm Credit Services of America, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska, among others.
For employees and leaders looking to grow themselves and their organizations, Joshua speaks on overcoming limiting beliefs, adaptive leadership, and the innovation systems and mindsets that create engines for growth. Learn more at econic.co and joshuaberry.com.
Workshop Details Coming Soon!
Dan Lyons
Session Description Coming Soon!
Speaker: Dan Lyons
Speaker Bio:
Dan Lyons is a World Champion and Olympic rower turned leadership innovator who has spent his career helping organizations unlock the power of true teamwork. As the Founder and CEO of Team Concepts Inc., Dan has guided thousands of leaders and teams toward greater alignment, trust, and performance through experiential learning grounded in the principles of elite sport.
A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and former Navy officer, Dan rowed on seven U.S. National Teams, captured a World Championship title in 1986, and represented the United States at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. His athletic journey instilled in him a deep understanding of what it takes to perform under pressure — lessons he now translates into business and organizational excellence.
Through programs like Team Champion, Team Concepts’ signature rowing-based leadership experience, Dan helps participants feel what true collaboration and flow look like in action. His approach blends Olympic-level discipline with human-centered leadership, proving that when teams align around purpose and rhythm, extraordinary results follow.
Today, Dan is a sought-after speaker and consultant known for his engaging storytelling, hands-on insight, and ability to help teams move — literally and figuratively — in the same direction.
May 29th, 2025
Workshop Details Coming Soon!
Tawnya Starr
Speaker: Tawnya Starr
Speaker Bio:
Tawnya Starr is a business consultant and executive advisor who works with entrepreneurs, CEOs, business leaders and executive teams to scale and transform organizations using applied analytical traits. When you identify the right talent for your business or organization, it can lead to your greatest P&L performance.
Session description coming soon
Unstoppable Together: Building Teams That Win
Molly Coke
Session Description:
Teamwork is the ultimate competitive advantage—so why is it so rare?
Join leadership coach Molly Coke for an interactive workshop on The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team. Through hands-on exercises, you’ll explore the key dysfunctions—Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, and Results—and gain actionable strategies to build a more cohesive, high-performing team.
Don't miss this opportunity to transform the way your team works together!
What You’ll Gain:
- Understand the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team—Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, and Results.
- Engage in interactive exercises that will strengthen team cohesion.
- Walk away with actionable strategies to foster a culture of collaboration and high performance.
Speaker: Molly Coke
Speaker Bio:
Experienced leader with a demonstrated history of building teams and setting benchmarks in the marketing and advertising industry. Client relationship professional skilled in team member development and client satisfaction along with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Marketing Management, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in an Agile Software development environment.
Pure Unlimited Love: Science and The Seven Paths to Inner Peace
Stephen Post
Pure Unlimited Love: Science and The Seven Paths to Inner Peace
Session Description:
Discover how the transformative power of love can positively impact your mind, body, and spirit—even in times of chaos. Drawing on over forty years of scientific and spiritual research, Dr. Stephen G. Post, PhD, explores practical pathways to cultivate inner peace, strengthen human connection, and foster ethical, compassionate care in daily life.
In this workshop, you’ll learn to:
- Give and Glow: Experience the unexpected benefits of kind giving on your well-being.
- Heal with Kindness: Harness the power of compassionate interactions to reduce stress and enhance healing for yourself and others.
- Follow Your Callings: Identify and pursue your unique talents to live a meaningful and fulfilling life.
- Raise Kind Children: Apply science-backed strategies to nurture empathy, resilience, and flourishing in young people.
- Know the One Mind: Connect inwardly to cultivate awareness, oneness, and lasting inner peace.
- Cherish Nature: Reconnect with the natural world to restore awe, wonder, and balance.
- Honor Freedom: Recognize freedom as the foundation for love, inner peace, and cultural renewal.
Whether you’re a leader, healer, parent, or seeker of personal growth, this interactive session will equip you with actionable practices to transform your life and your community through love, kindness, and conscious connection.
Speaker: Stephen Post
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Stephen G. Post is a pioneering voice in the study of compassion, purpose, and the science of giving. An internationally recognized scholar and best-selling author, Dr. Post has spent more than three decades exploring how kindness and meaningful connection enhance well-being, leadership, and organizational culture.
He is the Founding Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, where his work bridges the gap between science and spirituality. His groundbreaking research has been featured in publications such as Time Magazine, The New York Times, and Science of Mind, and his books — including Why Good Things Happen to Good People — have inspired audiences around the world to live and lead with purpose.
A frequent speaker for Fortune 500 companies, universities, and healthcare organizations, Dr. Post brings warmth, evidence-based insight, and profound humanity to every stage he steps on. His message is simple but transformative: when we act with compassion and align our lives with something greater than ourselves, everyone thrives.
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
ROI OF WHY 2026 SPEAKERS
Brett Hurt
Co-Founder and CEO of data.world
Kate Williams
CEO, 1% For the Planet
Dr. Helen Fagan
President and Chief Troublemaker, Helen Fagan & Associates
Dan Gordon
Executive Coach & Speaker
Stephen Post
Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics in the School of Medicine, Stony Brook University
Jay Wilkinson
Co-Founder, Do More Good® Movement
JD Messinger
Executive Director, Do More Good® Movement
Tut Kailech
Community Organizer
MORE SPEAKERS COMING SOON!
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