About Dennis
I've spent most of my career figuring out one thing:
How do you get people to care enough to do their best work?
It's a question that has followed Dennis Ford through more than four decades in business—as a salesperson, sales manager, executive, entrepreneur, corporate storyteller, author, and keynote speaker.
What makes people want to give their best? What inspires commitment instead of compliance? Why do some organizations bring out extraordinary effort in their people while others struggle to get employees to simply do what's required?
Dennis has spent much of his career finding answers.
And it's been a rather interesting journey.
BUSINESS CAME FIRST.
Long before writing books or delivering keynotes, Dennis was building a career in commercial real estate.
Starting as a salesperson with CB Commercial (now CBRE), he learned the business from the ground up, eventually becoming Senior Vice President and leading the company's Phoenix office.
Under his leadership, the Phoenix office ranked #1 nationwide in income production during five of his seven years as manager, generating nearly a billion dollars in annual sales volume.
Dennis was also recognized as the company's top-rated sales and negotiation trainer.
But beyond the sales numbers, something else fascinated him.
Why did some salespeople consistently outperform others? What made certain teams work harder, collaborate better, and accomplish more? And how much of that performance could he positively influence in leading them?
Those questions would eventually shape an entirely different career.
THEN I LEARNED HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE LISTEN.
In 1992, Dennis founded Quantum Leap Productions, a corporate communications company with a rather unconventional approach to delivering business messages.
The challenge was familiar: Companies had important things to communicate, but getting employees to genuinely listen, remember, and act on those messages was another matter entirely.
Dennis believed there had to be a better way.
So instead of relying exclusively on traditional presentations and training programs, Quantum Leap Productions brought professional actors, comedy, original musical productions, storytelling, video, and interactive experiences into corporate meetings and training.
Even the most important message can be wasted if nobody listens, remembers, or acts on it. How you deliver that message can make all the difference.
WE DIDN'T CHANGE THE MESSAGE. WE RADICALLY CHANGED THE DELIVERY.
WHERE ENTERTAINMENT MEETS BUSINESS PERFORMANCE
For more than three decades, Quantum Leap Productions challenged the traditional corporate meeting model, transforming conventional presentations into compelling, entertaining, and interactive experiences designed to make employees think, feel, remember, and act.
The philosophy behind every production was simple: People learn more, remember more, and engage more when they're emotionally and actively involved.
THEATRICAL MESSAGING: ENTERTAINMENT WITH A PURPOSE
QLP created original, customized theatrical productions that transformed corporate meetings into memorable experiences. Through professional actors, music, comedy, compelling stories, and sophisticated production, QLP brought leadership messages, company initiatives, and business objectives to life.
These weren't performances designed simply to entertain. Every production was carefully crafted to make audiences THINK, FEEL, REMEMBER, AND ACT—while being wildly entertained.
Because when a message connects emotionally, it becomes far more powerful than information delivered from a podium.
INTERACTIVE TEAM-BUILDING: EVERYBODY PARTICIPATES
QLP designed more than 30 entirely original team-building formats and produced over 2,000 corporate team-building events over three decades—all built around one unwavering principle: EVERYBODY PARTICIPATES.
From customized quiz shows produced more than 500 times to immersive, high-energy team challenges, QLP's events turned audiences into active participants. In its quiz shows, even groups of 200 could compete individually and in teams, take the stage, hit the buzzer, and become part of the experience.
No spectators. No sitting on the sidelines. Everyone engaged. Everyone involved. Because participation creates connection, and shared experiences build stronger teams.
QLP's clients included Deloitte, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Motorola, Intel, and other Fortune 500 companies.
Through original theatrical productions, innovative training programs, and immersive team-building experiences, QLP reached more than 500,000 corporate professionals and executives—including 120,000 Deloitte employees alone.
AND THEN THERE WERE STORIES THAT NEEDED TO BE TOLD.
Documentary Filmmaking | 12 Regional Emmy® Awards
Beyond corporate meetings and training, Quantum Leap Productions brought its storytelling expertise to documentary filmmaking—telling compelling stories about real people, real experiences, Arizona history, the environment, and other subjects deserving of a wider audience.
That work earned QLP 12 Regional Emmy Awards for its documentary productions, along with dozens of Telly Awards for corporate video production.
On Stage, On Screen, and Behind the Camera
Dennis also brought decades of experience as a professional actor and director, working in film, television, and commercials—both in front of and behind the camera. He continues to work as an actor today.
But through all this, he realized the most important lesson wasn't about entertainment.
It was about engagement.
When people are emotionally connected to a message, they're far more likely to remember it, and do something with it.
And Dennis was beginning to recognize that the same principle applied to something much bigger than corporate communication.
It applied to the workplace itself.
Decades of creating experiences that moved audiences, inspired participation, and changed behavior helped shape Dennis Ford's understanding of workplace culture, leadership, and human performance—and the distinctive storytelling approach he brings to the keynote stage today.
THEN CAME CULTURE.
After decades of working with executives, leadership teams, and employees, Dennis began noticing a recurring disconnect.
Companies were investing enormous resources in recruiting, training, technology, and performance management.
Yet many were overlooking something that profoundly influenced whether employees actually wanted to give their best effort.
The experience of working there.
And that experience was shaped, to an extraordinary degree, by the company's culture.
Did employees feel trusted? Respected? Appreciated? Supported? Did they believe their contributions mattered?
And perhaps most importantly, did their leaders understand how directly those experiences influenced productivity, retention, and business performance?
Dennis became convinced that culture wasn't simply about creating a pleasant workplace.
Culture was a business strategy.
That realization eventually led to his #1 Amazon bestselling book, Monetize Your Culture: How to Create a Passionate, Committed Workforce That Actually Increases Your Bottom Line...and Costs You Nothing.
It also launched a new chapter as a national keynote speaker, challenging leaders to rethink the relationship between how employees feel about their workplace and how they perform within it.
His message was straightforward:
Create a workplace where people want to do great work—and great work becomes good business.
THEN I WENT BACK INTO THE ARENA.
After years of helping organizations examine their culture and leadership practices, Dennis had an opportunity to return to the day-to-day realities of running a business.
He accepted a Chief Revenue Officer role with a major national remodeling company, taking on the challenge of strengthening a commission-driven sales organization.
The assignment involved recruiting, hiring, training, compensation, motivation, sales performance, and employee retention.
In other words, nearly every issue he'd spent years discussing with business leaders.
Only now, he was responsible for addressing them from inside the organization.
The experience reinforced something he'd believed for decades:
You can have great products, strong processes, ambitious goals, and talented people. But how those people are led—and the culture in which they work—can make an enormous difference in what they accomplish.
And that difference can translate directly into greater productivity, stronger performance, and increased revenue.
Today, Dennis brings that combination of real-world executive experience, corporate communication expertise, and culture-focused leadership thinking to the keynote stage.
He doesn't simply talk about business performance.
He's spent decades working to improve it.
AND THEN THERE'S THE FLYING TRAPEZE.
Yes. Flying trapeze.
When Dennis isn't speaking about leadership, communication, and teamwork, he's been known to practice them 35 feet above the ground.
As both a flyer and catcher with a flying trapeze team, Dennis understands that trust isn't just a corporate buzzword.
It's something you experience when you leave the safety of the platform, release the bar, and depend on another person to catch you. And catching someone else requires that same trust in reverse.
There isn't much room for poor communication, questionable timing, or a lack of commitment.
And there's an equally important responsibility on the other side: being the person someone else is counting on.
Trust. Communication. Preparation. Accountability. Having someone else's back.
The principles aren't particularly different from those that make great organizations work.
The consequences of getting them wrong are just a little more immediate.
AND BEFORE ALL THAT—ASPEN.
Long before his business career, Dennis spent several years as a ski instructor and racer in Aspen, Colorado.
Teaching thousands of people, from anxious beginners to experienced skiers, gave him an early appreciation for something that would remain central to his work.
People don't all learn, respond, or perform in the same way.
Some need encouragement. Others need a challenge. Some need detailed instruction. Others need the confidence to simply let go and try.
The best instructors—and the best leaders—understand the person in front of them.
They communicate in ways that connect, build confidence, earn trust, and help people accomplish things they didn't think they could.
Racing sharpened the other side of that work. Behind every clean run down the course was discipline, coaching, and careful preparation—because at race speed, performance under pressure isn't theoretical. It's the whole game.
Looking back, it wasn't such a different lesson from those he'd learn in business, on a mountain, onstage, on a film set, or even on the trapeze.
THE LESSONS ARE EVERYWHERE.
Some of Dennis's most valuable insights about leadership and human behavior have come not only from corporate boardrooms, but from places you wouldn't ordinarily expect: waiting tables, teaching skiing, performing onstage, and flying trapeze.
Those experiences taught him that how people are treated profoundly influences how they choose to perform.
Today, he brings those lessons to audiences through humor, storytelling, and interactive experiences that help people reach their own conclusions.
Because there's a difference between being told something is important—and discovering it for yourself.
THE COMMON THREAD.
Commercial real estate. Corporate communications. Executive leadership. Keynote speaking. Ski instruction. Flying trapeze.
At first glance, they might seem like unrelated chapters.
But for Dennis, they've all reinforced the same essential idea:
People do their best when they feel trusted, respected, appreciated, supported, and inspired to succeed.
And leaders have an extraordinary opportunity to create the conditions that make that possible.
That's the message Dennis Ford brings to organizations today—with real-world business experience, memorable stories, a healthy dose of humor, and a conviction that culture can become one of a company's greatest competitive advantages.
On Stages & In the Spotlight
Because culture isn't just about how people feel.
It's about how they perform.