Susan At TED@2x

Speaking

Susan has spoken to hundreds of companies, associations, schools, and parenting groups all over the world with glowing feedback.

SpeakersOffice Inc. manages all of her in-person and virtual engagements, and you may submit an inquiry here. They’re incredibly responsive and will get back to you within one business day.

Spoken To

Speaking-logos

Speaking Topics

Bittersweet: The Secret Keys to Creativity and Connection

With her bestselling phenomenon, Quiet, Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an un­tapped power hidden in plain sight. Now she explores why we experience sorrow and longing, and how embracing the bittersweetness at the heart of life is the true path to creativity, con­nection, and authenticity. Susan shows how a bittersweet state of mind is the quiet force that helps us transcend our personal and collective pain. If we don’t acknowledge our own heartache, we can end up inflicting it on others. But if we realize that all humans know—or will know—loss and suffering, we can turn toward one another.

At a time of collective loss, profound discord, and personal anxiety, Bittersweet brings us together in deep and unexpected ways. Using her trademark mix of stories, research, memoir, practical tips, and inspiration, Susan will show you the power of a “Bittersweet” work culture, including:

  • How the expression of sorrow, as well as joy, is key to deep creativity and genuine connection.
  • Case studies of organizations, from hospitals to oil rigs, that have transformed their cultures—and smashed productivity records – by creating “bittersweet” cultures.
  • An analysis of everything from Harry Potter novels to fashion photography to reveal what creativity really is—including its surprising relationship to longing, sorrow, and rising above our limitations.
  • How you can use these insights and actionable steps to build true connection and foster a more creative and mutually supportive work environment.

Quiet: How to Harness the Strengths of Introverts to Change How We Work, Lead, and Innovate

Did you know introverted leaders often deliver better results than extroverted leaders do? That the most spectacularly creative people tend to be introverts? That the most innovative thinking happens alone and not in teams? One of the central challenges of any business is to bring out the best in its employees. Yet when it comes to introverts—who make up a third to a half of the workforce—our leadership strategy mainly consists of asking them to act like extroverts. This is a serious waste of talent and energy.

In her enlightening, relatable, and practical talks, Susan Cain shows us that introverts think and work in ways that are crucial to the survival of today’s organizations. How can you structure your organization so that the best ideas—rather than those of the most vocal and assertive people—dominate? How do introverts and extroverts solve problems and evaluate risk differently? What do introverts know about creativity that the rest of us should learn? Drawing on her original research and the latest in neuroscience and psychology, Susan will radically change your view of the best ways to develop leaders, manage teams, make smart hires, and stimulate innovation.

Acclaim for Susan Cain

Susan was great! Her presentation resonated greatly with our group, and it was surprising to find out how many introverts we have in a group of largely alpha males. Her book was also well received at dinner—all copies were gone!

Klaris Tamazian, Hightower

HOW Design Live couldn’t have kicked off with a more incredible opening keynote. Susan's session was incredible and was just so fitting for our crowd. She set the stage and framed the event and the sessions to come perfectly! I heard so many compliments from our attendees. I will stay in touch and we will see how things work in the future for Susan to possibly speak at another one of our events.

– Amy Conover, HOW Events

Last night was—in a word—terrific! You are truly remarkable in your ability to connect, be passionate about changing the way our culture values introverts, and genuinely cause people to THINK DIFFERENTLY. I have no doubt that your Quiet Revolution is going to be one of the seminal business/cultural shifts for this decade—and hopefully with lasting impact for many years to come. Thank you for sharing your warmth and enthusiasm with us: Womenetics and Porsche.

– Ellen Adair Wyche, VP Programming and Content, Womenetics

What an amazing event! Susan, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We continue to receive so many positive messages from all those that attended in reference to how much they appreciate this intimate moment with you. We will treasure and be positively impacted from this learning for the rest of our lives!

– Elida Pazmino Senior Manager, Diversity & Inclusion, L’Oreal USA

Susan was completely awesome today as I knew she would be. Everyone loved the session.

– Brendan Barnes, Founder, London Business Forum

Thank you for providing an amazing, invigorating, thought-provoking presentation—and leading such an engaging and interesting discussion.  I’ve received so many notes and in-person feedback (like never before) including: “Susan was outstanding!”, “The morning academic conference today was excellent.  I so enjoyed it.”, “It was a great lecture. Thank you for bringing it to HSS.”, “Home Run!”, “Thank you so much for this am conference, it was evocative and engaging with memorable stories”, and “Susan Cain gave a great talk this morning, glad we were able to have her.”

– Martha O’Brasky-Crawley VP, Education Institute

Susan was AMAZING and is as incredible as you said she was. Her message was so important and her delivery was spectacular. The audience continued to sing her praises through the whole conference.

– Kathleen Hassey DNP, M.Ed, BSN, RN, Director, Northeastern University School Health Academy

Within minutes, Susan Cain became one of my favorite speakers of all time. From the moment she stepped onto the WorkHuman stage, she displayed an undeniable range of knowledge, clarity, authenticity, and warmth. Best of all, she was the same in person. No surprise, the feedback from our attendees was off the charts. I cannot recommend Susan highly enough and can’t wait to have her back at WorkHuman!

– Kevin Mullins, Vice President of Global Communications, Globoforce

Susan was outstanding, and people were blown away. We’ve brought a long list of accomplished speakers and thought leaders to Mercer Island, and I have heard a number of people repeat that Susan was the best speaker we have ever had. I personally agree. Her message is salient, timely and crucial—especially for parents and teachers—and she is also warm, witty, engaging, and articulate. She not only speaks softly, but with such kindness and humility that even when she disputes the value of group work in the classroom, teachers and administrators fully understand her without getting defensive. Back in the day when I taught, my Dean of Faculty described his job as “trying to herd cats.” I truly think Susan Cain would be successful herding even the most independent-minded cats over to the side of our quieter kids. On behalf of the entire Parent Edge team and Mercer Island Community, please thank her for her time, energy, and passion.

– Jaymi Garvett, Parent Edge

You are an excellent speaker and your event was a huge success!  You make it look so easy. You were our most well attended Bing Signature Speaker to date.

– Laura Mallatt, Bing/Microsoft

Great public speakers believe their story, find their own style, and use intimacy, not intimidation (some thoughts on what makes Susan Cain such a great speaker).

– Amy Cuddy, Harvard Business School, via Inc. Magazine 

Your talk was remarkable. People loved it. You have the incredible and rare capacity to be 100% human and authentic; 100% interesting; and 100% entertaining. Many I spoke to described it as the highlight of the conference.

– Susan David, Ph.D., Co-founder, Institute of Coaching at Harvard Medical School

Thank you SO much for a fantastic webinar today. We have received amazing feedback already. You answered all the questions so thoughtfully and all of us found the topic super interesting. I do hope we have the opportunity to work together again in the future.

– Sarah Allen, Head of Talent Development, AXA Investment Managers

Susan Cain keynoted at our annual marquee event and was absolutely superb. Polished, relevant, and accessible, she connected with the audience immediately and held them in rapt attention throughout her presentation. Susan was our most popular speaker, and I would recommend her for any engagement. This was one of the best experiences I have had working with a keynote speaker.

– Rachael Feigebaum, SVP, Events Program Producer, The Advertising Research Foundation

Susan’s address has been talked about all week, throughout campus. I keep finding myself in conversations about it. We actually had a major department retreat and planning meeting the other day, and we referenced many of the principles she discussed in those meetings. So, so glad she was able to come.

– Jon McBride at a Major University

The panel with Susan Cain and the woman from LinkedIn was, for me, the highlight. I have attended many events like this, and hands down, Susan was one of the best speakers I have ever seen.

– Participant, New York Times Summit

The author of Quiet created a sense of intimacy and trust in a very short time. That’s the communication ability, as a leader, I want to have. I learned a lot from just watching how she did that.

– Participant, New York Times Summit

We were delighted to have Susan join us in conversation in our leadership festival. Even though it was digital, her presence felt like it came out of the screens, and her warm personality and interesting reflections really captured the audience. She really gave us something to think about, in terms of acknowledging both beauty and sorrow in our everyday lives!

– Torhild Eide Torgersen, Senior Consultant, Foundation Administrative Research Fund at the Norwegian School of Economics