Angelina “Strike” Stephens
Angelina “Strike” Stephens is a powerhouse keynote speaker, transformational leader, and unapologetic truth-teller on a mission to reshape how we lead in high-pressure environments. With decades of experience building elite teams, navigating global complexity, and leading through crisis, Angelina delivers keynotes that challenge conventional thinking and ignite cultural change.
Through raw storytelling and real-world insights, she equips leaders to break through fear, build trust, and foster environments where high-performing teams don’t just survive uncertainty—they grow through it. Whether she’s guiding an executive team through hard conversations or helping 3,000-person organizations move from silence to action, her message is clear: leadership in today’s world starts at the end of your comfort zone.
Her leadership has shaped outcomes in some of the world’s most volatile arenas. From aerospace and defense to intelligence, innovation, and international negotiation, she’s driven game-changing results across Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and Asia—advising senior leaders, directing complex operations, and leading culture shifts that stick. She culminated her military career as a strategic advisor to the Department of the Air Force’s most senior executives, helping steer a 300,000-member organization through its toughest challenges.
As a keynote speaker and trusted voice on modern leadership, she helps leaders navigate complexity with clarity—and create cultures where trust, truth, and performance are non-negotiable.
Angelina lives in Idaho with her husband, two kids, three horses, and a pack of dogs—living her message out loud: life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.
Presentation Topics & Descriptions
Beyond the Comfort Zone: Leading with Authenticity, Courage, and Connection
This keynote invites audiences to explore the pivotal moment of hesitation that lives between fear and growth—and how, by stepping past it, we can transform ourselves, our teams, and our culture.
In high-stakes environments, uncertainty can stall progress, limit innovation, and erode confidence. Beyond the Comfort Zone examines what it takes to lead through that uncertainty with clarity and conviction.
Built on lived experiences forged through decades of leadership under pressure, it challenges conventional ideas of struggle and strength, offering a powerful perspective on how resilient, high-performing cultures evolve when fear is a gateway, not a stop sign.
It isn’t just a story—it’s a call to action. With insight, empathy, and courage, this keynote equips leaders to shift mindset, strengthen connection, and fuel cultures that deliver under pressure. Because the catalyst for thriving teams begins at the edge of your comfort zone.
The Cost of Silence: Unleashing the Superpower of High-Performing Teams
What holds even the most high-performing teams back isn’t a lack of skill or strategy—it’s silence. In high-stakes environments, fear, stigma, and hesitation can keep critical insights, questions, and concerns locked behind layers of armor. When people hold back—not because they don’t have something to contribute, but because they don’t feel safe to share it—teams lose their greatest advantage.
The Cost of Silence reveals how courageous leadership and psychological safety unlock a team’s full potential. Through gripping stories, practical tools, and a powerful framework for change, this keynote challenges leaders to create environments where people feel safe to speak up, lean in, and unlock their full capability when it matters most.
This isn’t theory—it’s the foundation of performance in today’s workplace. With clarity, compassion, and conviction, this keynote equips leaders to break through barriers of silence, foster trust, and build cultures where open dialogue becomes the norm. Because the greatest superpower of any high-performing team isn’t the absence of fear—it’s building a culture where courage is the standard.