Alex Banayan

  • The youngest bestselling business author in American history
  • Author of the #1 international bestseller The Third Door
  • Expert on exponential growth and high performance

Alex Banayan is the youngest bestselling business author in American history. The Third Door chronicles Banayan’s seven-year quest to uncover the definitive mindset of exponential growth and success. The book is a #1 international bestseller, has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and has been acclaimed by The New York Post as “a joy to read.” 

Over the course of his unprecedented journey, Banayan’s research led him to interview   the most innovative leaders of the past half-century, including Bill Gates, Lady Gaga, Larry King, Maya Angelou, Steve Wozniak, Jane Goodall, Jessica Alba, Quincy Jones, and more.

Named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and Business Insider’s “Most Powerful People Under 30,” Banayan is his generation’s leading expert in high performance and personal development, having been featured in Fortune, CNBC, Businessweek, The Washington Post, MSNBC, Fox News, and NBC News. A renowned keynote speaker, Banayan has presented the Third Door™ framework to corporate leadership teams around the world, including Apple, Google, Nike, IBM, Snapchat, Salesforce,  Delta Airlines,  Kaiser Permanente, Mastercard, and Disney.

 

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Past Hosts Include:
  • The Summit Series Conference
  • Reed Exhibitions
  • IBM
  • Harvard Ventures
  • Lamar University
  • Alabama YP Summit
  • K2 Elite Mastermind Business Accelerator
  • WeWork
  • Intuit
  • Comcast-NBCUniversal
Rave Reviews About Alex Banayan
The feedback about Alex Banayan's keynote has been off the charts. It was an outstanding event! Alex knocked it out of the park!

More rave reviews

"The speech was absolutely a home run. And it changed my life."

-Intuit

"After Banayan’s keynote at Disney, we sent out a survey to all the attendees. I must say, it was the best feedback we’ve ever received from any speaker. Hands down"

-Disney

"When Alex Banayan spoke at my department’s off-site, his energy was contagious, his stories were inspiring, and his ideas pushed my team’s leadership. If you’re looking for someone with insight and passion, then Banayan is your man."

-Nike

"Banayan is one of the most professional and polished speakers I’ve worked with. And his talk couldn’t have gone better. His stories were enthralling, his insights were incredibly tangible, and his message was spot on."

-Google

"Banayan’s keynote kicked-off our event perfectly! His charismatic personality draws you in, and then his insights and stories prove to be both immensely entertaining and deeply emotional. Whether you work in sales or marketing, every department will find tremendous value in Banayan’s keynote. On top of that, we then decided to gift copies of The Third Door to our top clients, and they all loved it. Once you start reading the book, you can't stop. The keynote coupled with the book is magic."

-Delta Airlines

"Banayan followed Valerie Jarrett and Arianna Huffington to keynote the Snapchat Women’s Group, and there was standing room only for his speech. He captivated the crowd with his incredible and unique story and journey. He answered questions from the audience with candor and insight. Everyone left the session feeling inspired, empowered, and even more equipped to succeed. Ten out of ten!"

-Snapchat

"For business leaders who want to inject entrepreneurial grit into their culture—Alex Banayan is who you’re looking for. His keynote was packed with hard-research, enthralling stories, and insights that created a real buzz and gave actionable steps to both employees and startup community members"

-Comcast-NBCUniversal

"Banayan’s keynote and Q&A was one of the best our organization ever had."

-Harvard Ventures

"Standing ovation! Banayan’s keynote was electric. He has a way of deeply connecting with the audience in a way I’ve never seen before. He is a master speaker who makes you feel like you are with him every step along the way. Alex was so powerful on stage that we hired him again the next year."

-The Powerful U Conference

"Alex Banayan is an unbelievable storyteller! His keynote was thoughtful, engaging, and dynamic. Banayan represents the voice of entrepreneurship, the power of hustle, and the energy of unlimited potential."

-Apple

"The Third Door is a favorite book of many employees in our company, so having Banayan speak at our headquarters was an amazing experience. The keynote was both down to earth and kept everyone wanting more. Banayan also stuck around after to meet and connect with each and every person. Having Banayan speak at our company was a giant success and employees ask to this day when we can have him back."

-Innovative Solutions

"Alex Banayan’s speech was the most talked about keynote of the day—with true inspiration and solid takeaways, wrapped in Alex’s signature laugh-out-loud storytelling. Banayan is a grand slam for any business event."

-EO New York City

"Alex Banayan is one of the most collaborative, inquisitive, and thoughtful people I've crossed paths with. I'm fortunate to know him and I admire his natural ability to inspire and motivate others."

-Dell

"Alex Banayan was absolutely fantastic! His energy and confidence knows no bounds. He got the whole audience engaged and interacting!"

-Reed Exhibitions

"Banayan’s keynote was remarkable – his underlying message of bridging your dreams to reality through grit and a ‘yes, and’ attitude really resonated with our employees around the world. He has a masterful way of bringing the audience along for a journey that encourages them to think about how to work and play differently moving forward. Out of all the speaking events I’ve planned at Ford, Banayan’s was one of the best."

-Ford

"Alex Banayan spoke to three hundred St. Charles leaders and we found that because of the turbulent and ever-changing health care landscape we are currently facing, his message of open-mindedness and finding creative ways to solve problems really resonated."

-St. Charles Health System

"It’s hard to express how many times over the last six months since Alex Banayan spoke to my sales team, all of the new customer meetings we’ve setup where my salespeople have used the Third Door framework! We finished the year on top and grew our business to the second largest in the company in recurring revenue terms. Thank you, Alex! I can’t wait to have you back to give another keynote to the team again!"

-Tanium

"Alex Banayan was the best speaker we've ever had. He brought a whole new element to our leadership offsite, unleashing the energy of our team in a way I've never seen before. His messages resonated deeply with our team, enabling us to continue to grow in the midst of uncertain times. I can't recommend him enough."

-Red Hat

"Storytelling is at the heart of marketing and sales—and Banayan’s storytelling is one of the best I’ve ever seen. His keynote deeply resonated with every department in our company. Just remarkable."

-Life is Good

"Alex Banayan’s keynote truly cracks the code and provides the transformational edge needed to succeed in today’s business environment. Any healthcare organization that wants to achieve exponential growth and reach their biggest goals needs to implement the principles contained in The Third Door today."

-Kaiser Permanente

"As the host and keynote speaker of our annual IBM Amplify conference, Alex Banayan’s passion was exactly what we needed to energize our corporation at such a pivotal time in our transformation"

-IBM

"Everything went very well yesterday; our leadership team as well as our attendees were all very engaged and impressed with Alex’s keynote. Alex truly went the extra mile by extending the timing of his book signing and having conversations with our attendees."

-Pfizer

"Alex was remarkable!... We are forever grateful."

-Mastercard
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Exponential Growth Through the Third Door: How to Think Differently, Transform Your Business, and Achieve Your Most Important Goals

We all face rejection. We all deal with fear. Whether it’s in our personal lives or careers, there are always dozens of obstacles holding us back from achieving our biggest goals. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are certain mindsets and tools that can not only clear the obstacles along you ...

We all face rejection. We all deal with fear. Whether it’s in our personal lives or careers, there are always dozens of obstacles holding us back from achieving our biggest goals.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are certain mindsets and tools that can not only clear the obstacles along your path, but can also add rocket fuel to your success. After spending seven years researching and interviewing the most successful people on earth, bestselling author Alex Banayan’s widely-acclaimed Third Door™ framework can help any organization achieve its goals and radically accelerate its overall success.

In this riveting keynote, Banayan takes audiences on an unprecedented adventure, from hacking The Price Is Right to chasing Larry King through a grocery store to the multi-year quest to learn from Bill Gates and Lady Gaga. Alongside these larger-than-life stories, Banayan takes the principles from his bestselling book The Third Door and pushes them  to a whole new level, making them practical and applicable for organizations of all sizes. 

This powerful presentation teaches you how to become:

  • More resilient
  • More persistent
  • More committed to growth
  • And more capable of achieving your company’s biggest objectives

This wildly-entertaining keynote is packed with insights and lessons guaranteed to transform any organization to believe that, no matter what obstacles it’s facing... there’s always a way

Third Door Storytelling for Business Growth: How to re-energize your sales, marketing, and business development efforts using the 5 keys of radically compelling stories

So how do you command the attention of your customers, sales prospects, or industry at-large? And once your have their attention, how do you transform those customers intolifelong advocates for you and your business? After a decade of researching the world’s most successful leaders and organizations ...

So how do you command the attention of your customers, sales prospects, or industry at-large? And once your have their attention, how do you transform those customers into
lifelong advocates for you and your business?

After a decade of researching the world’s most successful leaders and organizations, bestselling author Alex Banayan uncovered what the single most underrated skill is that
can radically boost the growth of any company’s sales, marketing, or business development efforts.

The secret is storytelling—but not just any kind. Banayan’s research led him to decode the keys to remarkably compelling, gripping, and emotional storytelling that can be used by businesses of all sizes to supercharge their goals. This is a specific, teachable skill set that can transform prospects into blue-chip clients and customers into evangelists, and can inject an entirely new sense of possibility into the DNA of your company culture.

Drawing from his years of research and the international success of The Third Door’s unique narrative style, Banayan distills in this keynote how anyone in your organization—from C-suite executives to your newest team members—can use these five elements to transform your business.

Because at the end of the day, everything in life and business comes down to a story.

And it’s time your organization uses that to its advantage.

There's Always a Way: How to cultivate resilient, focused, and energized teams during uncertain times

The pace of change in the business world is faster than ever before. It has never been more critical to an organization’s survival for teams to cultivate a DNA of resiliency, perseverance, and solution-orientated problem solving. In this empowering keynote, bestselling author Alex Banayan masterfull ...

The pace of change in the business world is faster than ever before.

It has never been more critical to an organization’s survival for teams to cultivate a DNA of resiliency, perseverance, and solution-orientated problem solving.

In this empowering keynote, bestselling author Alex Banayan masterfully decodes the most critical and elusive skills needed for any organization to cultivate the mindsets of exponential growth, particularly during times of rapid change and uncertainty.

After interviews with Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, and dozens more of the world’s most innovative leaders, Banayan uncovered that there are fundamental skills that every organization needs—but that most people don’t talk about—to achieve their biggest goals during disruptive times. This keynote covers it all, with lessons including:

  • How do you transform persistence from being an esoteric word to being a living, breathing part of your day-to-day culture?
  • What are the unspoken dangers of over-persistence and how can you prevent them at your organization?
  • Why is the opposite of success not failure—and how does that shift in mindset help your employees take more risks and grow exponentially?
  • What’s the surprising difference between fearlessness and courage—and why does that critical difference lead to consistent breakthroughs in organizations of all sizes?

If you care about elevating your business—if you care about your employees being more resilient, more courageous, and more capable of making smart, innovative decisions—this
keynote is what you’ve been waiting for.

The Third Door for Sales: How to Break Train and re-invigorate your sales team to find a way through any door.

  What happens when some of the hardest-to-reach people are your prospects? How does a sales team persevere through the inevitable onslaught of rejections? Sometimes sales pipelines feel like pipedreams.Often weeks and months are spent on a deal,only for it to fall through at the last minute.Over ti ...

 

What happens when some of the hardest-to-reach people are your prospects? How does a sales team persevere through the inevitable onslaught of rejections?

Sometimes sales pipelines feel like pipedreams.Often weeks and months are spent on a deal,only for it to fall through at the last minute.Over time,the sting of rejection can multiply until it becomes crippling.

After  seven years of learning directly from the most  successful entrepreneurs on earth, bestselling author Alex Banayan gained invaluable sales lessons from Microsoft founder Bill Gates,Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh,and dozens more.

In this empowering keynote,Banayan encourages teams to deploy new approaches to establishing relationships with leads so that you're more than just another name in an inbox,from re-imagining prospect meetings to making a lasting impression. His presentation also sheds light on new frameworks to view rejections and failures,offering surprising insights on what to do next.

Audiences come away with practical tools to apply the Third DoorrMframework to their sales process,including:

  • Finding your "Inside Man"
  • Overcoming "The Flinch"
  • Utilizing "Borrowed Credibility"
  • The surprising science of cold emails

From Larry King's interviewing secrets that help warm up prospects to Quincy Jones' key to continued growth and success,this keynote is for any sales team serious about taking their results to the next  level

5 Millennial and Gen Z Trends That Will Impact the Next 30 Years of Your Business

What will the world of business look like thirty years from now? And how will the nuanced, and often misunderstood, habits of millennials and Gen Z shape your company’s growth? In this wildly insightful and mind-expanding presentation, bestselling author Alex Banayan dives deep into topics ranging f ...

What will the world of business look like thirty years from now? And how will the nuanced, and often misunderstood, habits of millennials and Gen Z shape your company’s growth?

In this wildly insightful and mind-expanding presentation, bestselling author Alex Banayan dives deep into topics ranging from the pervasiveness of artificial reality to the automation revolution.

Weaving in examples from an array of industries, Banayan shows us how the products millennial are obsessed with clue us in to the habits his generation will perpetuate over the coming decades. This keynote is packed with surprising lessons, including:

  • Why is the underlying thesis of Snapchat the most important indicator for what your employees most want from your company?
  • Why is Tesla’s long-term plan going to effect the day-to-day workplace culture of your organization?
  • What about Airbnb demonstrates the most concrete trend of what the spending and buying habits of millennials will look like over the coming decades?

Whether you are a corporate executive looking to better understand your millennial employees or an investor searching for future market trends, Banayan’s keynote will provide you with the insights you want and the answers you need.

 

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Biography

ALEX BANAYAN is the youngest bestselling business author in American history. The Third Door chronicles Banayan’s seven-year quest to uncover the definitive mindset of exponential growth and success. The book is a #1 international bestseller, has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and has been acclaimed by The New York Post as “a joy to read. 

The day before his freshman-year final exams, Banayan hacked The Price is Right, won a sailboat, sold it, and used the money to fund his quest to learn from the world’s most innovative leaders. Over the course of his unprecedented journey, Banayan interviewed Bill Gates, Lady Gaga, Larry King, Maya Angelou, Steve Wozniak, Jane Goodall, Jessica Alba, Quincy Jones, and more.

Named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and Business Insider’s “Most Powerful People Under 30,” Banayan is his generation’s leading expert in high performance and personal development, having been featured in Fortune, CNBC, Businessweek, The Washington Post, MSNBC, Fox News, and NBC News.

A renowned keynote speaker, Banayan has presented the Third Door™ framework to business conferences and corporate leadership teams around the world, including Apple, Google, Nike, IBM, Snapchat, Salesforce, Delta Airlines, Kaiser Permanente, Mastercard and Disney. Banayan’s keynotes have had far-reaching effects, acting as the catalyst for a new way of thinking. The Third Door™ framework has helped individuals discover unconventional routes to achieve their biggest dreams and has aided Fortune 500 companies to take new approaches to sales, marketing, and exponential growth.

Since the publication of The Third Door, Banayan has brought his message of possibility to millions of people in more than one hundred countries. At the core of Banayan’s mission is his belief that, “When you change what someone believes is possible, you change what becomes possible"