Speaking
Corporate Keynote Speaker: Blake Bolden
Blake Bolden is a lead analyst on Amazon Prime's Wednesday Night Hockey and for the PWHL. Before broadcasting she was a pro scout for the LA Kings, the second woman to scout in the NHL, and before that a two-time champion and four-time All-Star.
As a sports speaker for corporate events, she gives a leadership keynote and a resilience keynote drawn from a career spent performing under pressure in front of people. She has done it on the ice, in an NHL front office and on live national TV, and Sportsnet named her one of the 25 most powerful women in hockey.
Performance under pressure, three times over
Every topic Blake speaks on works for corporate and association audiences: leadership, resilience, inclusion and performance under pressure. She played in championship games, evaluated talent for an NHL club, and now calls games live for a national audience. Each job had a scoreboard.
Her resilience keynote starts with the hard parts. She was cut, called uncoachable, and spent years in a league where players rode buses home at 4 a.m. and went to day jobs at 5. Teams going through a hard quarter or a reorganization tend to hear themselves in that.
She is a good fit for association conferences, sales kickoffs, leadership offsites and luncheons. Blake is based in Southern California, so events in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego need no separate travel quote. She travels for events nationwide.
The format is flexible. Blake can give a keynote to a full ballroom, sit in for a moderated fireside chat, or take audience questions after the talk. For an association or conference, a keynote plus a smaller session with a women's network or a leadership group makes good use of one visit. Send your theme with the inquiry and her team will reply with what fits.
Topics
Her topics, framed for companies
Her six themes, aimed at teams, managers and executives.
- 01
Facing Adversity
Leading while carrying extra weight, from the first Black player in a league to an NHL front office.
- 02
Using Failure as a Tool
Treating a lost deal, a bad review or a missed target as information instead of a verdict.
- 03
Getting Used to Being Uncomfortable
Change is constant in her career. How to get good at starting over.
- 04
Trusting the Process
What daily habits look like when the payoff is a season away.
- 05
Following Intuition
Making career calls with incomplete information, as a scout does every night.
- 06
Taking Advantage of Your Current Situation
Getting the most out of the team, budget and role you have this year.
Speaker reel
Watch Blake speak
Two and a half minutes from one of her talks: learning to skate pushing a chair, being cut and called uncoachable, the call that brought her to the Boston Blades, and the young girl who told Blake she started playing because of her.
From an organizer
Blake's visit was a total hit with our community, and the kids especially got so much out of her talks. She's amazing in the way that she can command a full room and then also connect so deeply with a small group of kids around a lunch table. I really appreciate the time and effort she put into tailoring the message for different audiences; they'll take her advice into all the spaces they go, both in sports and in life.
Carly Rodriguez
Director of Communications, The Thacher School
Speaking fees start at $7,500
Travel outside Southern California is quoted separately. Multi-session visits are packaged on request.
Check availabilityQuestions organizers ask
Will a corporate audience relate to a hockey story?
Yes. The stories are about pressure, setbacks and teams. Nobody needs to know the rules of hockey to follow them.
Can she tailor the keynote to our theme?
Yes. Every talk is tailored, whether the room is staff or executives. Send your theme and what you want people to leave with.
Do you need a separate travel quote for Southern California events?
No. Blake is based in Southern California, so events in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego have no separate travel quote. Travel elsewhere is quoted separately.
What does a keynote cost?
Speaking fees start at $7,500.
More ways Blake speaks
- Women's Leadership Keynote SpeakerA women's leadership keynote for networks, conferences and leadership programs.
- DEI and Inclusion SpeakerA DEI and inclusion speaker who did inclusion work inside an NHL club.
- Black History Month SpeakerA first-person story of breaking barriers in hockey, for February assemblies and company events.
Bring Blake to your event
Tell us the date, the place and who will be in the room. Blake and her team read every inquiry.