Sam is the founder and CEO of SBR Worldwide/Know More. Through his in-person keynote presentations and online programs, Sam trains leading organizations and entertains tens of thousands of people around the world. Sam’s programs promise to be the highest-content, most take-home-value presentations attendees have ever experienced.
The National Speakers Association inducted Sam into the Professional Speaker Hall of Fame, where fewer than 300 professional speakers worldwide have been honored, and Sam also received the Association’s CSP Designation, reserved for the top 10 percent of the world’s professional speakers.
He was named one of the Top 15 Highest Rated Speakers for Virtual Events, one of the Top 50 Sales Keynote Speakers in the world, one of the world’s Top 100 Motivational Speakers, a Top Sales Coach by the Coach Foundation, and he is also a member of the Minnesota Speaker Hall of Fame.
Sam is the author of the bestselling book, Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling, considered the preeminent publication on finding information online and using it for sales success. Take the Cold was named “Sales Book of the Year” by the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals, and it was also named a “USA Book News Winner” and a “Sales Book Awards Silver Medalist.”
In addition to speaking and writing, Sam created numerous AI-powered technologies, including one of the world’s top prospecting/sales meeting preparation resources, the Business / Sales Intel Engines, a library of online intel tools at YouGotIntel, the Recruiting Search Engine, the veteran search engine YouGotHeroes, the financial advisor Find5500.ai program, the email list building resource Relevate.ai, and the SearchLink.ai family of custom enterprise business, sales, and competitive intelligence search applications.
Multiple times Sam was named by InsideView as one of the Top 25 Most Influential People in Sales, and he was also named as one of the Top Chief Marketing Officers on Twitter and has been recognized by LinkedIn as having one of the world’s most viewed profiles. Sam has been featured in thousands of television and radio programs and national and online publications.
For more than six years, Sam was president of the James J. Hill Center, a not-for-profit business library, where he led the transformation of an eighty-five-year-old private, non-profit business research organization into a nationally renowned institution serving entrepreneurs and small businesses via cutting-edge online resources. Sam also spent more than eighteen years in the advertising, public relations, and e-commerce/e-marketing industry owning his own firm and working for internationally recognized organizations as a creative director, group director, and marketing director. Sam has led product launches and strategic marketing programs for companies including Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Major League Baseball, Polaris Industries, and National Geographic.
He has won regional, national, and international awards, including Best of Show and Gold Awards at numerous sales and marketing competitions, Webby Awards, and a Gold Award at the International Film Festival. He’s also won a Retail Vision Award and a Codie Award – “the “Oscars” of the software industry” – for Best E-commerce Software. He is a member of the Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” and a past finalist for Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year.
Sam serves on the Boards of Directors for Brandpoint, one of the world’s leading content management platforms, and Argos Risk, a business financial health and credit monitoring software platform. He is also an advisor and partner at numerous technology, big data, and sales organizations.
Sam received his B.A. from the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication and was twice named Scholastic All-American while also a four-year player and a letter winner on the University of Minnesota varsity football team. His postgraduate education includes certificate degrees in Executive Leadership from the University of St. Thomas and in Corporate Boards of Director Ethical Leadership from Saint Mary’s University.
Sam lives in Minnetonka, Minnesota, with his wife and two children. He enjoys mentoring individuals in his community and volunteering his time working with non-profit organizations, including Mental Health Navigators, a national non-profit online community support and resource group helping parents of children experiencing mental health issues, where Sam built the nationally renowned Mental Health Resource Search Engine.
