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- The speakers who changed how I think about my calendar & who I let near it.
The speakers who changed how I think about my calendar & who I let near it.
Two new speakers I'm working with, one on creating the moments that matter instead of waiting for them, one on the filter that keeps takers out of a 2,800-person network.
Noah Cheyer
August 04, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes
Matthew Spence has climbed 29,029 vertical feet in under 36 hours, four separate times. That's the height of Everest, once per climb.
Matthew is an executive coach who has spent more than 25 years developing leaders at Meta, Nike, Levi Strauss & Co., and Gap Inc. His own framing is that he's "an average guy who decided to do something really hard."
One of his keynotes turns on a distinction worth borrowing. The Greeks had two words for time. Chronos is the finite hours sitting on your calendar. Kairos is the small number of moments that actually decide things, the hard conversation, the chance to speak up when it matters. Most of us pour all our attention into managing Chronos and then treat Kairos as luck. His argument is that you can learn to see those moments coming, and that you can create them on purpose. His line about the cost of never looking up long enough to notice them: there is no medal for mayonnaise on your keyboard.
The keynote pairs with a half-day or full-day workshop. Here is what one attendee said afterward about what they were taking back to their team:
"There are two things I want to apply. First, continuing to raise the bar by channeling the team's energy into stretch assignments that turn tough challenges into deliberate growth. And second, breaking the habit of over-planning and just taking action, even when it's imperfect."
David Homan has keynoted, moderated, emceed, or joined panels at more than 350 events across the US, Canada, the UK, and Europe. His book Orchestrating Connection became a USA Today best-seller in 2025, and it codifies what he has practiced for two decades running Orchestrated Connecting, an invite-only network of 2,800+ vetted connectors. |  |
His most useful idea is a filter. Networks rot when nobody decides who gets in, and the takers who extract without reciprocating are the hardest ones to spot early. David's final test before he lets someone in: would you leave your kids with this person? His measure of a relationship is just as blunt. Trust is not warmth or rapport, it's an act of generosity, and the most valuable one is helping someone do what they could not do alone. He also has the best line I have heard on reputation: you have arrived when your name comes up in rooms you are not in.
He also won't give a talk about connection without an integrated trust-building workshop attached. Beth Kormanik of CIO Leadership Live described one: "Breakfast was packed, every table engaged, hanging on the disciplined and systematic way David Homan unpacked his best-selling book." Tobias Prestel books him again and again for family office forums in London and Zurich, and at the London forum this year David was asked mid-conference to add a second keynote to close day one.
I've only just started featuring both of them in the last few weeks, and in both cases the workshop was the deciding factor.
If either one fits something you're programming, reply to this email and let’s chat.
Till next time,
Noah
Do More With Less Using AI
PS: Know someone building a leadership offsite for Q4? Forward this along.
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