Speaker Spotlight
Before One Franchise Conference, He Called Multiple Franchisees to Find Out What Was Actually Hard. Their COO Says He Was the Best Speaker They Have Ever Had.
Ryan Minton — 20+ Years Leading Hilton, Marriott and IHG · Global Gurus World’s Best Speakers in Two Categories · Forbes Business Council · Delray Beach, FL
Look at who has booked Ryan Minton and a pattern jumps out immediately. Taco Bell. Wings and Rings. IHOP Sunshine Restaurant Partners. Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken. The Maids International. Pink Zebra Moving.
Six franchise systems, all putting the same speaker in front of their operators. Franchise conferences are one of the hardest rooms in the business, because franchisees own their businesses, have heard every motivational speech, and can tell within a minute whether the person on stage has ever run anything.
Ryan spent twenty years as a senior executive across Hilton, Marriott and IHG. He has run the operation.
The Preparation Is the Product
The Wings and Rings testimonial explains the pattern better than any pitch could. Their COO notes that Ryan visited with multiple franchisees in advance to understand the business and the challenges they faced, then customised the content to address those issues, and left the team with straightforward action steps to take back to their restaurants.
That is not a nice extra. For a franchise audience it is the entire difference between a keynote and a lecture. Operators do not want principles, they want to know you understand why their labour model makes the principle hard.
Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken says something similar: they researched a lot of speakers, and his attention to detail in tailoring the keynote made everyone feel special. The Maids International calls it a home run and notes franchisees left with tangible tactics rather than energy alone.
The Crossover Most Planners Miss
His hospitality background travels further than the hospitality label suggests, and one testimonial spells out exactly why.
The Kansas Hospital Association booked him deliberately as an outside voice, noting that hospital associations are eager to hear from leaders outside healthcare who can draw parallels, and that hospitality offers clear connections to improving the patient and employee experience.
That is a genuinely smart booking pattern. Our analysis of first-year nurse turnover found the decisive retention levers are cultural rather than financial, and healthcare audiences are frequently more receptive to those ideas when they arrive from a different industry rather than from another health system.
The same logic applies to banking, retail and any user or customer conference. Harley-Davidson’s Director of Retail puts it plainly: bring him in.
He has three keynotes, all built on the link between employee experience and customer experience, and two workshops, including a 3.5-hour Power of Positive Leadership session he delivers as a certified trainer partnered with Jon Gordon. That workshop is the option to ask about if you want the message to outlast the conference.
Book Ryan Minton
Available for keynotes and workshops on customer experience, employee experience, hospitality-driven leadership and service culture.