Pinwheel Keynote

An Experiential Keynote to Guide
 Teams from Resistance to BRILLIANCE

Is your team struggling with uncertainty, resisting change, or feeling disconnected from the organization’s new direction? Do you sense hesitation, negativity, or a lack of alignment when new initiatives arise?

Drawing from purpose defining life experience, this keynote helps leaders and their teams break through resistance, shift toward optimism, and embrace change with confidence. Through inspiring insights and tactical tools, we’ll initiate  a mindset shift that fuels collaboration, resilience, and momentum—so everyone moves forward together with clarity and energy.

Meet John Cerqueira

John Cerqueira brings over 15 years of experience as a top-rated facilitator, master certified coach, and #1 revenue producer at a top 20 sales training firm. But numbers only tell part of the story. At 22, John escaped the collapse of Tower One of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001—helping a wheelchair user from the 68th floor along the way.

This revealed to him the power and fulfillment that comes with service to others and provided the opportunity to share this message through features on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, People Magazine, USA Today, The History Channel, and PBS.

Leveraging his MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill, real-world industry experience, and a heart for service, John offers a uniquely powerful lens on embracing change and stepping into our best selves.

Navigating Change with Confidence & Compassion

The Pinwheel Keynote at a Glance

❋ 60-90 Minutes ❋ A fully-interactive and engaging session ❋ Reframe “change” for your team

In today’s fast-changing world, we often default to fight-or-flight instincts that isolate us at times when collaboration and connection matter most.

A Pinwheel interactive keynote empowers organizations to cultivate alignment, collaboration, clarity, ownership, confidence, and focus—essential ingredients for effective execution and impact.

agenda quick look

Learning Objectives

Understand the fundamentals behind the psychological, emotional, and physiological impacts of change.

Learn a 3-step process for self-regulation and coaching of others during times of change.

Practice 3 exercises that participants can apply to themselves and their teams to navigate and coach others through change.

The inspiration behind the approach

In work, just as in life, the only guarantee is change. Goals will increase, markets will shift, and reorganizations are often required.

Unfortunately, change is often painful and tends to trigger our evolutionarily programmed “fight or flight” instincts—designed to keep us separate from others at the very moments when a heightened sense of awareness, alignment, connection, and collaboration are most needed.

Despite universal and time-tested wisdom pointing to the power and fulfillment of connection and service, our survival instincts cloud our thinking, preventing us from behaving as our best selves.

My own life experience highlights this disconnect.

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, during which I was fortunate to help a fellow human being down from the 68th floor of 1 World Trade Center, escaping just five minutes before the building’s collapse, I was asked to share my experience through national media interviews and documentaries. These platforms aimed to highlight the power of serving others. However, years later, when I faced another, less well-known setback, I struggled to apply this critical lesson and fell into an intensely dark period.

In that place, I resolved to develop a method that could be relied upon in times of change and uncertainty—an approach that reorients stress-induced, unproductive thinking back to a place of peace and balance, paving a path toward the next right thing.

If your organization could benefit from a reframing of current circumstances—with practical approaches to finding balance, connecting what is needed with what best serves the moment, and heading into the future with lightness and optimism—I would love to be of service.

Want to experience what it feels like to transform fear into purpose?

We invite you to spend a few minutes with this simple three step reflection, like those used in a Pinwheel Keynote.

sample exercise

From Resistance to Clarity

Step 1: Reality Check
Mentally focus in on a critical change happening in your organization and its impact on your team.

Step 2: Impact Awareness
Identify one key way this change is causing frustration or resistance in your work.

Step 3: Recognizing the Behavior Gap
Explain one behavior you’re exhibiting that differs from how you’d ideally like to respond.

Reflection:
Recognizing the gap between your current reaction and your ideal response is the first step toward realigning with purpose. In the keynote, we’ll explore how Gratitude, Service, and Abundance help reframe resistance into momentum, clarity, and effective leadership.

If you'd like to see your organization pivot from resistance to brilliance, I'd love to connect about how a Pinwheel Keynote session can help spark lasting change.

A Pinwheel Keynote session includes a 60–90 minute interactive experience led by John Cerqueira. Together, we’ll reframe your organization’s challenges into opportunities for growth, resilience, and genuine collaboration.

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