Kelly McDonald: Consumer Trends

Kelly McDonald is a bestselling author and nationally acclaimed keynote speaker on marketing, DE&I, and customer experience

Quick Facts:

Highlights:
  • Named one of the “10 Most Booked Speakers in the U.S.” and ranked #1 on “26 Hot Speakers” by Successful Meetings Magazine.
  • Delivered the keynote at the National Speakers Association Annual Convention, an honor fewer than 2% of speakers receive McDonald Marketing.
     


Formats Available: Keynotes (45–60 minutes) and customizable workshops In-person, virtual, and hybrid

Preferred Audience Sizes: Leadership teams, marketers, HR professionals, DE&I champions, customer-facing teams

Outcomes:
  1. Expanded cultural intelligence for customer and employee engagement.
  2. Tools for inclusive leadership and customer loyalty across diverse groups.
  3. Actionable strategies to embed DE&I into marketing, CX, and organizational culture.
Reviews: (0 reviews)
  • Travels from: Denver, Colorado
  • **Fee range: $10,001 - $20,000

Talent Services

Keynote Topics:

Corporate America is not very diverse; we’re a long way off from having equal representation of people of color in many organizations, especially in key executive and leadership positions. Many leaders want to create change, but don’t know how.  How do you know where your blind spots are that can create obstacles for diverse talent?   

And how do you address the issues and comments that come up when employees feel nervous, resentful or uncomfortable as you make headway on diversity, equity and inclusion in your organization?

Your intentions may be sincere and heartfelt, but intentions aren’t enough.  If you don’t know how you come across to others and you don’t know how to build bridges, people can be offended, jobs can be lost, and lawsuits can be filed. 

This session (and the book) does not approach this from the standpoint of social activism, political ideology or an HR perspective. This is the roadmap for how businesspeople can successfully create a fair and equitable workplace, one that recognizes diverse talent and fosters productive and constructive conversations across different perspectives that make business better – for everyone.

Not a bunch of theory, this session provides specific, actionable, no-cost tactics that you can implement immediately.  When it comes to talking about race at work, attendees will move from “uncomfortable and unsure” to “confident and empowered”, using proven tools that get real results.  And that’s language everyone values.

This session will illuminate:

  • The well-intended things people say that are hurtful or offensive to others
  • The excuses people use to avoid doing anything about diversity
  • Why your diversity & inclusion efforts haven’t done the job

You’ll learn:

  • ​How to talk about race in helpful and positive ways:  do’s & don’ts
  • Answers to tough employee questions or racist remarks
  • Where to start when you don’t know where to start – an 8-step  framework that will show you, step-by-step, how to become a more diverse and inclusive company, department or team.
  • How to effectively recruit, interview and support diverse candidates
  • How to build business relationships with people who are different from you
  • For leaders, how to set the example, reduce tokenism, and deal with naysayers and derailers. 
  • How to avoid “Launch & Abandon” with your diversity efforts.

Diversity in the workforce is a hot topic.  Many employers are under pressure to make sure their workforce and employee base is diverse, inclusive and representative of the customers they serve. The most progressive organizations value diversity because they realize that a diverse workforce has positive impact on the bottom line. Such a workforce doesn’t just lead to better decisions and solutions and innovation – it has been proven to grow business and profits. And a diverse workforce doesn’t just mean employees of different racial and ethnic backgrounds; it can also mean diversity of thought.

There are numerous ways we can be “diverse”: A new mom is in a very different place than one who is an empty nester. Someone with a master’s degree is very different than someone who went to a vocational/technical college. Someone who is foreign-born is different than someone who is U.S. born. “People not like you” takes away the baggage that is often associated with the word diversity and frames the subject in a more relatable way. We are ALL dealing with people “not like us”. Sometimes that can be frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be.

Learner Outcomes:

  • You’ll learn why diversity at work is important, but why it seems so hard to work with people not like you. And why that makes you NORMAL, not a bad person.
  • You’ll learn why it often comes with stress, complex emotions and even fear for some people.
  • Specific tactics will be shared for how employees can succeed in today’s diverse workplace without losing their minds or becoming frustrated by approaches to work that may differ from theirs.
  • For those in leadership positions, or those who aspire to manage and lead others, three key steps to make a diverse team work more cohesively, more productively and enjoyably.
  • The four key words that will transform how you interact with your colleagues and associates in tough situations to get the best outcome.
  • How to troubleshoot the complex issues and address the “derailers” and naysayers that lurk within every organization and threaten its success.
  • It’s Time to Talk about Race at Work: Every Leaders Guide to Making Progress on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • How to Work With & Lead People Not Like You
  • How to Market & Sell to People Not Like You
  • Crafting the Customer Experience for People Not Like You
  • Transformative Women’s Leadership – How to Move the Business Forward with the Teams You Lead
  • Six Consumer Trends You Need to Leverage Right Now
  • Finding Future Hires in a Gig Economy: How to Recruit, Train & Retain Young Talent Now
  • The New Demographics & How They Affect Your Business, Today & Tomorrow
  • Marketing & Selling to Women: How to Win the Hearts and Reach the Wallets of Today’s Modern Woman
  • Come Together: How to Work with Someone Much Older or Younger than You
  • Disaster Recovery & Crisis Management Using Social Media
  • Social Media & Marketing: How to use It to Grow Business in a Low-Cost/No-Cost Manner
  • Tips & Tricks for Taking Social Media to the Next Level
  • Marketing 101: the Essentials of Advertising & Marketing and How to Implement Them
  • How to Connect with Others, Regardless of Age, Wage or Lifestage
  • How to Be a Culturally-Ready, Culturally-Friendly Employer: Insights Into Your Diverse Workforce
  • Relating, Not Translating: How to Market to U.S. Hispanics

Talent Short Bio

Kelly McDonald—founder of McDonald Marketing—is a leading expert on consumer trends, diversity, and customer experience. She is a 4× bestselling author whose books include How to Market to People Not Like You, Crafting the Customer Experience for People Not Like You, How to Work With & Lead People Not Like You, and It’s Time to Talk About Race at Work, the latter debuting as the #1 bestselling business book in the U.S. McDonald Marketing.

Her firm has twice been named one of the “Top Ad Agencies in the U.S.” by Advertising Age, and Inc. Magazine ranked it among the fastest-growing independently owned firms McDonald MarketingBigSpeak. Kelly has consistently been featured in major media CNBC, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, CNNMoney.com, and SiriusXM Radio

Kelly McDonald is a nationally recognized marketing expert, with deep specialization in diversity marketing and business trends. She was named #1 on Successful Meetings magazine’s list of “26 Hot Speakers.”

Kelly is the author of How to Market to People Not Like You and has been featured on CNBC, in BusinessWeek, on CNNMoney.com and on Sirius/XM Radio. She works with clients such as Toyota, Harley-Davidson, Sherwin-Williams, State Farm and Miller/Coors. Her company, McDonald Marketing, has twice been named one of the top advertising agencies in the U.S. by Advertising Age magazine.

As a professional speaker to businesses and organizations, Kelly shares marketing insights and teaches strategies and tactics for cultivating diverse consumers emotionally, rationally and with cultural relevance. Her topics are always customized to the specific industry and localized geographically as appropriate.

Kelly McDonald is high energy and high content. Her enthusiasm ignites audiences of every size. She is often chosen as an opening or closing keynote speaker to set the tone for a conference.

Repeat clients also choose Kelly McDonald for “after lunch” sessions when audiences need to be enthused and excited. Here are a few comments from attendees regarding Kelly’s style:

“GREAT speaker! Kept my interest the entire time.”

“I have been coming to this conference for almost a decade and this was, by far, the best session I′ve ever attended.”

“Kelly McDonald is terrific – her presentation style, combined with real world examples and step-by-step instructions on better marketing made this the highlight of the convention.”

“Have her back!”Kelly is a great fit for…

These Kelly McDonald program abstracts provide a general understanding of the topic and what audiences will learn. All presentations are fully customized to address a client’s specific needs, industry, geographic location(s) and business pressures. Length of presentations is also customized to meet clients’ needs.

Areas of Expertise: Advertising / Public Relations, Branding, Customer Service / Loyalty, Hispanic / Latino, Marketing, Sales

Contact us at Speakers Inc and follow us on Twitter

Talent Videos

Kelly McDonald Keynote: How to Work With and Lead People Not Like You

Kelly McDonald delivers a high-energy keynote on diversity, inclusion, and leadership, offering practical strategies to adapt, communicate, and thrive when working with people different from yourself.

Summary

Kelly McDonald opens her keynote with humor and interactive exercises, illustrating the many dimensions of diversity beyond race and ethnicity—preferences, lifestyles, work habits, and communication styles. She emphasizes that while teams may share technical expertise, differences in personality, background, or perspective are real and can affect collaboration.

Drawing on U.S. Census data, Kelly highlights the accelerating pace of demographic change and the importance of recognizing diversity as a lasting trend, not a fad. She underscores how businesses risk missed opportunities if they surround themselves only with people who think alike, sharing case studies such as Skinnygirl Cocktails’ $100M acquisition after being dismissed by male-dominated liquor companies.

Through stories and research, Kelly demonstrates that diverse teams often feel less comfortable but produce better results. She introduces practical tools for leaders: breaking the ice with personal insights, adapting communication to fit different styles, and using simple, direct language to build trust. She stresses the value of “vulnerability trust,” honesty during hard conversations, and respecting differences without dismissing them.

Kelly also shares how brands are embracing authentic representation—Cheerios, Honey Maid, CoverGirl, Mattel, Brawny, and Gerber—proving that showing “the real real” resonates with consumers. She offers actionable advice: adapt to others’ preferences, give people what they want, replace “agree to disagree” with “I see it differently,” and replace “can you help me?” with the more powerful “I need your help.”

She concludes with five takeaways: expect initial discomfort, foster conversations not debates, adapt to differences, communicate simply, and collaborate through mutual help. Quoting an African proverb, Kelly leaves her audience with a reminder: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Key Moments

00:00 – Interactive icebreaker showing hidden dimensions of diversity
07:30 – Census data and the growing pace of demographic change
15:20 – Relationship “deal-breakers” then and now; shifting cultural norms
22:10 – Defining diversity beyond race: personality, lifestyle, and work style
30:00 – Marketing examples: Cheerios, Honey Maid, CoverGirl, Barbie, Brawny, Gerber, Target
40:15 – Case study: Skinnygirl Cocktails and the cost of missing perspective
46:20 – Social psychology research: diverse groups outperform, though it feels harder
52:00 – Ten practical strategies to work with people not like you
55:40 – Key leadership tools: trust, adapting, communicating simply
59:00 – Final five takeaways and African proverb close

Kelly McDonald, one of the nation’s top marketing and customer service experts, shares practical strategies for ag businesses to grow with new customers and market trends.

Summary

Kelly McDonald, founder of McDonald Marketing and author of three bestselling books, opens this keynote by reminding ag leaders that while their businesses are already successful, even greater growth comes from leveraging macro consumer trends.

She highlights the dramatic demographic shift in the United States one in three people is not white, and the census diversity index shows rapid growth in ethnic and cultural diversity. Diversity, she stresses, is not a fad but a permanent trend. Beyond race, she defines diversity as any way people differ, introverts vs. extroverts, creative vs. analytic thinkers, night owls vs. morning people.

Kelly demonstrates how brands like Cheerios, Bed Bath & Beyond, Honey Maid, CoverGirl, Barbie, CVS, Brawny, Gerber, and Target have embraced authentic representation and inclusivity, using “the real real” in advertising. Consumers, she notes, want to see themselves reflected in the brands they support.

She stresses recovering from mistakes with the phrase “We’ll take care of it,” keeping marketing messages short, and recognizing that social connectivity drives behavior. Kelly closes with five takeaways: relieve customer pain, use diverse imagery, apply consumer insights, clarify benefits, and emphasize helping over selling.

Key Moments

00:00 – Introduction: Kelly McDonald’s background and expertise
01:15 – U.S. demographic shifts and the Diversity Index
05:10 – Diversity beyond race: personality, lifestyle, and regional differences
09:20 – Marketing case studies: Cheerios, Honey Maid, CoverGirl, Barbie, CVS, Brawny, Gerber, Target
20:00 – Five strategies for ag business growth
22:10 – Strategy 1: Identify customer pain points (Safelite, Omni Hotels, IKEA)
30:40 – Strategy 2: Promote your FAB (features, advantages, benefits)
35:15 – Strategy 3: Use consumer insights (millennials, women, Hispanics, cultural values)
45:25 – Strategy 4: Give people what they want (choice differences between women and men)
52:40 – Strategy 5: Helping beats selling; building trust through service
57:15 – Recap of five immediate actions for business growth

Talent FAQ's

Yes. Kelly tailors talks to your industry, audience, and strategic goals—no canned scripts. 

Ranges vary by bureau: approximately $10K–$30K depending on location and format.  

High-content, high-energy keynotes, interactive workshops, and virtual e-sessions

Talent Resources

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  • Powerpoint Slide – For meeting and event planners
  • Gallery Images
  • High Resolution Images
  • PDF Files
  • Books and Magazine Links
  • Music List
  • Podcast Shows
  • Courses
  • + more

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