Graffiti Artist, Author & Entrepreneur
Erik Wahl: Biography at a Glance
- Erik Wahl is an internationally recognized artist, TED speaker and best-selling author
- Erik inspires organizations to be increasingly agile and outlines how to use disruption as a competitive advantage
- He is the author of “The Spark and the Grind: Ignite the Power of Disciplined Creativity” and the best-selling “Unthink: Rediscover Your Creative Genius,” which was hailed by Forbes as "the blueprint to actionable creativity”
- Inspired by street art, he became an acclaimed graffiti artist—though he has since stopped selling his works for personal gain, and instead uses his art to raise money for charities.
Videos
Biography
Erik Wahl is an internationally recognized artist, TED speaker, and No. 1 best-selling author. His breakthrough experience as an artist and entrepreneur has translated into making him into one of the most sought-after corporate speakers on the circuit today.
On stage, Erik’s keynote experience creates a dynamic multidimensional metaphor for how to systematically embrace innovation and risk. His message: disruption is the new normal and businesses must embrace creativity in a wholesale fashion, or risk being left behind. Erik’s presentation inspires organizations to be increasingly agile and outlines how to use disruption as a competitive advantage. Some companies will be disrupted others will choose to be the disruptor. Choose wisely.
His new book, The Spark and the Grind, activates the essential components of translating ideas into action. His breakthrough thinking has earned praise from the likes of top influencers in both art and business.
Erik’s previous book, a bestseller called Unthink was hailed by Forbes Magazine as 'The blueprint to actionable creativity," and by Fast Company Magazine as “provocative with a purpose.”
Erik discovered an alarming truth early in his career as a partner in a corporate firm: organizations that encouraged the mental discipline of creativity did better than those that did not put innovation as a priority mission. So he set out to challenge companies to change their way of thinking.
In the meantime, inspired by street art, he became an acclaimed graffiti artist—though he has since stopped selling his works for personal gain, and instead uses his art to raise money for charities. His keynote is where his passion for business growth and art converge into a fascinating performance.
Erik’s list of clients includes AT&T, Disney, London School of Business, Microsoft, FedEx, Exxon Mobil, Ernst & Young, and XPrize.
Topics
The Discipline of Creativity
It’s one thing to understand the importance of creativity to the success of your business, but what most people don’t understand is to how to put a structure in place so that innovation can find its way. The paradox of creativity is that structure creates freedom. Even the wildest minds require extreme orderliness and attention to detail so that they have the space and discipline to create.
Consider:
– Beethoven sat down everyday at daybreak, regardless of season, and composed until 3:00pm.
– Kafka started writing at 11:30pm each night.
– Mozart taught lessons by day and composed only in the evenings.
– Picasso ate lunch each day with his family in silence and only allowed visitors one day per week.
– Mark Twain awoke at 5:30 am, ate a hearty breakfast, and wrote until 5:00 pm.
This program will allow your organization to:
1. Deconstructs the discipline of the creative process to ignite ideas to action.
2. Explores The Psychology of Success and the Science of Innovation to achieve superior levels of performance.
3. Harness The mental toughness required to navigate ambiguity and master complexity in a rapidly changing business environment
4. Disruption is the new normal. Are you creating or reacting?
The Art of Vision
The best sustainable edge in business is the ability to differentiate yourself from your competition. Through this entertaining and highly practical program, we will uncover new ways to make your organization more creative, innovative and profitable, but more so, help your employees see the need to become better storytellers within and for your company and industry.
By embracing innovative strategies, professionals at all levels can achieve superior levels of performance, by creatively and visibly differentiating themselves from the competition. No matter what kind of organization you have—from a small company to a large corporation—employees at all levels will better able to embrace the future by becoming more innovative, more productive and ultimately more profitable.
UNthink
Somehow we’ve come to believe that creativity is reserved for the chosen few- the poets, the painters, the writers. The truth is bigger and better than that. Creativity is in all of us. We simply need to rediscover the keys that will unlock our potential. UNthink is the keynote experience that will push members of your organization beyond their traditional thought patterns and habitual levels of performance. UNthink will inspire audiences to realize they are capable of so much more than they have been led to believe.
The UNthink program helps reframe your organization’s thinking so that new creative actions become possible. Learning how to UNthink will inject your daily grind with new passion, allowing employees to see how the organization wants and needs all of their talents and energies, not just the ones they’ve been using so far. You’ll begin the process of rethinking your life as a blank canvas of limitless opportunity on which to create your masterpiece.
The Art of Leadership
Today’s leaders face a pressure to innovate—or else perish—unlike any other time in history. Advances in social, mobil and cloud technology, coupled with fierce global competition has made the business landscape nearly unrecognizable from what it was a mere 10 years ago.
Erik Wahl’s entertaining and invigorating Art of Leadership presentation paints a compelling new portrait for what the successful leaders of tomorrow will look like. He inspires audiences to shed old ways of thinking and “business as usual” processes that are outdated, inefficient and detrimental to productivity. Audience members learn new ways to build an emotional connection to drive future employee engagement. Erik’s presentation stretches traditional assumptions on leadership. The end results include:
– innovative solutions to further your organization
– attracting and engaging quality employees
– new efficiencies and the end of detrimental redundancies
Growth and comfort cannot co-exist. When leaders come from a place of authenticity, curiosity, exploration and purpose, this leads to more meaningful connections among team members and with clients and customers—and ultimately, a more profitable organization. An engaged employee equals an engaged customer.
