The In-Service Day Your Staff Still Talks About In March.
A session for teachers, paraprofessionals, coaches, and administrators that is not another initiative, not another binder, and not one more thing added to a plate that is already full.
Your staff walks into the first day back already doing math on how many minutes this will cost them. They have sat through the mandated training, the new platform rollout, and the consultant who had clearly never taught. Chris Sund opens by acknowledging all of that out loud, because a room of educators can tell inside ninety seconds whether a speaker respects what their job actually is.
Your staff is not short on training. They are short on someone telling them the work still matters and meaning it.
My KC Live, KCTV5 Kansas City →Show your staff who is coming.
Teachers get suspicious of an outside speaker for good reason. Send them a link before the day and let them judge for themselves. Chris has been on morning television in six markets and in Forbes, Inc., and the Midlands Business Journal, and every appearance sits in the media hub with video and transcripts.
Your teachers are not a difficult audience.
They are an experienced one. They have watched a lot of people stand at the front of a cafeteria and say things that had nothing to do with the job. Five reasons the last one did not land.
- It added something instead of removing something. Most PD arrives as one more system to implement. This session does not ask your staff to adopt anything, which is why they actually listen to it.
- The speaker had never done hard work with people. Educators can spot a career motivational speaker instantly. Chris runs organizations where retention is the whole ballgame, and he talks about it as someone who has lost good people and had to figure out why.
- It treated them like the problem. A session that implies teachers need more grit lands like an insult in a building that is already short-staffed. This one starts from the assumption that they are already giving more than the job pays for.
- It was scheduled at the worst possible moment. Hour six of a first-day-back agenda, right after the benefits presentation. Where a session sits in your day matters as much as what is in it, and that gets planned with you rather than around you.
- Nothing changed on Monday. The close is one specific move, small enough to survive a real week. Not a new framework to roll out. One thing a tired person can actually do.
On what the staff session is actually about
Four ways to use the time you already blocked.
Most districts pick one and pair it with a student assembly the same day, which uses a single travel day and lowers the per-session cost.
Opening Keynote
The kickoff session for a first-day-back agenda or a district-wide staff day. Sets the tone before the logistics start.Working Session
The keynote plus structured work. Staff name their own ceiling, and leave with one commitment written down rather than one they nodded at.Extended PD Block
Three hours with breaks. Adds the retention and culture material, which is built for buildings losing people they cannot afford to lose.Administrator & Leadership Session
Principals, APs, department chairs, and district office. Leading people who are exhausted, and what to do when you are one of them.Add a Student Assembly
Staff in the morning, students after. One travel day, two audiences, one fee structure.Virtual Staff Session
Live for districts running remote PD days or coordinating multiple buildings at once.The February Reset
Built for the point in the calendar where morale is thinnest and nobody schedules anything encouraging.Leadership Keynote
For district leadership retreats, board sessions, and cabinet days.Retention is the whole job now.
Every district in the country is having the same conversation about keeping people. Chris has spent two decades on the other side of that exact problem.
He built a place people stayed
As President and COO, he helped grow Uniti Med 10x in two years while the organization earned Fortune Best Workplaces recognition and Great Place to Work certification three years running. Growing fast and keeping people at the same time is the hard version, and it is the version schools are living.Healthcare workforce is education's twin
Understaffed, underpaid, mission-driven, and losing the people who care most. He has spent his career inside that, which is why the language lands with teachers rather than sounding borrowed from a corporate deck.No implementation, no rollout
He is not there to install a program or evaluate your building. He speaks, staff leave with one thing, and your administration is not left holding a new initiative on top of everything else.Four movements. Ten principles.
The staff session runs the same architecture as the book, which means anyone who wants to go further already has the whole thing in order.
The Foundation
Ownership and time. What is actually inside a teacher's control in a year where most of it is not.The Breakthrough
The comfort ceiling and the inner voice. The two that hit hardest with veteran staff who have quietly stopped expecting more from the work.The Standard
Truth over praise, and the hidden gear. What opens up in a building where people ask each other for honest reads.The Purpose
Finishing, and leaving people better. The close, and the movement that reminds a room why they chose this.Ten principles. Ten chapters.
The session covers the arc. A copy in their hands works each one.
Own It. Every Day.
What changes the moment a person decides the result is theirs to move.Time Is Your Edge
The advantage available to anyone willing to use the hours they already have.The Comfort Ceiling
How to find the level you settled at and choose a new one on purpose.Train Your Inner Voice
What you say to yourself in the ninety seconds after a mistake, and how to make it work for you.Relentless Improvement
Take the lesson and keep moving. The past is for lessons, not for residence.Seek Truth. Not Praise.
How to find the people who will tell you the truth, and what opens up when you do.Unlock Your Hidden Gear
The capacity that is already there, waiting on an honest look at what has been given so far.Lead Before You Are Asked
Why the most trusted person in any building got there without a title.Finish What You Start
How to stay in it through the exact point where things usually get set down.Leave People Better
The part that outlasts every result on the list above it.Send every staff member home with it.
A session gives your staff an hour. A copy gives them all ten principles for the year ahead, and a shared vocabulary that turns up in team meetings in November.
You Are Capable of More: A No-Excuses Guide to Becoming Your Best Self. An Amazon bestseller from Game Changer Publishing, with a foreword by Ben Newman.
Ten chapters across four movements. The free companion toolkit includes a discussion guide built for exactly the kind of small-group work a PLC or department already runs, plus a self-assessment and a thirty day challenge a whole building can do together. Nothing is gated behind an email address.
The feedback speaks for itself.
His engaging style draws the audience into the conversation, creating a relaxed atmosphere that encourages learning and reflection. You leave not only inspired but equipped.
Chris was an outstanding speaker and a highlight of our event. He took the time to deeply understand our organization and thoughtfully personalized every moment.
Chris consistently brings knowledge, insight, and practical advice. He led two impactful sessions and left everyone with tools they could use immediately.
Chris is a thoughtful, intentional leader who understands the influence he carries. His message challenged me to think differently about how I lead, serve, and influence others.
Chris energized the room, sparked conversations, and encouraged connections throughout the event, with a lasting impact on our future leaders.
His engaging style draws the audience into the conversation, creating a relaxed atmosphere that encourages learning and reflection. You leave not only inspired but equipped.
Chris was an outstanding speaker and a highlight of our event. He took the time to deeply understand our organization and thoughtfully personalized every moment.
Chris consistently brings knowledge, insight, and practical advice. He led two impactful sessions and left everyone with tools they could use immediately.
Chris is a thoughtful, intentional leader who understands the influence he carries. His message challenged me to think differently about how I lead, serve, and influence others.
Chris energized the room, sparked conversations, and encouraged connections throughout the event, with a lasting impact on our future leaders.
Days already on your district calendar.
He has been the one losing good people.
Chris Sund is an executive leader, keynote speaker, and bestselling author of You Are Capable of More.
As President and COO of Uniti Med, GQR Healthcare, and Nebula, he helped grow Uniti Med 10x in two years and earn the number three ranking on the Inc. Regionals list among the fastest growing companies in the Midwest, while the organization earned Fortune Best Workplaces recognition and Great Place to Work certification three years running.
He is a father of three with kids in school, a Maxwell Leadership Certified speaker, trainer, and coach, Vice President of the NATHO Board of Directors, and the founder of Amplify Speakers. He does not tell teachers how to teach. He talks about the part of the job that has nothing to do with content standards and everything to do with whether people stay.
Details your team will ask for.
Superintendents and principals ask these.
How much does a teacher in-service speaker cost?
Is this another initiative we have to implement?
Our staff is exhausted and skeptical. Will this work?
Where should we put it in the agenda?
Can he speak to administrators separately?
Can we add a student assembly the same day?
Do you do virtual sessions for multi-building districts?
Can our staff read the book together?
Do you evaluate our building or observe classrooms?
How do we start?
Other ways schools book him.
Same framework, built for the specific room you are filling.