"The Culture You Carry: Building Workplaces Where People Are Seen, Heard, and Backed"

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Think about the moment you felt most valued at work. Chances are it wasn't a new policy, a perk, or an all-hands announcement. It was a moment: someone noticed your effort, asked what you thought and acted on it, or cleared the way when you were stretched thin.

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That's where culture really lives. It means every person in your organization, whatever their title or budget, is shaping culture every single day, and those moments show up directly in retention, performance, and how well teams handle change.

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In this Day 2 keynote, Dr. Donte Vaughn takes the CultureCon community past the values statement and into the moments that make people want to stay, speak up, and perform at their best. Together, we'll explore three needs that decide whether a culture thrives or quietly erodes: to be Seen, to be Heard, and to be Backed, especially as change and AI reshape the way we work.

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Come ready to participate. Whether you lead HR, operations, or a frontline team, this keynote combines story, live audience insight, and shared moments designed to be felt with practical tools designed to be used. You won't just leave inspired. You'll leave with something to do on Monday morning.

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Participants will leave ready to:​​

1. Apply three practical, ready to use practices that help people feel seen, heard, and backed, regardless of role or budget.

2. Connect everyday leadership moments to retention, early problem solving, and performance through change, including AI adoption.

3. Measure progress using a simple three question team pulse before and after putting these practices into action.

4. Turn insight into action by making a specific commitment and identifying an accountability partner to help follow through.

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Speaker Bio:

Dr. Donte Vaughn works with founders, CEOs, and private equity–backed leadership teams when growth, change, or complexity begins to strain execution. His work is grounded in a simple conviction: most organizations don't fail because of strategy. They stall when leadership alignment, decision velocity, and operational discipline can't keep pace with what the business demands next.

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As Founder and Managing Partner of LightPoint Advisors, Dr. Vaughn partners with leaders during pivotal moments: rapid growth that exposes leadership gaps, post-acquisition misalignment, strategy that breaks down in execution, and cultural drift that erodes performance, trust, and retention. He helps executive teams clarify direction and decision rights, strengthen operating cadence, and translate intent into consistent, measurable results. Leaders bring him in when the stakes are high, internal alignment is fragile, and they need clarity rather than theory.

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He brings the perspective of a former CEO who led CultureWorx through its acquisition, along with more than two decades of operating experience across sales, operations, and organizational leadership. Dr. Vaughn is the Amazon best-selling author of From CULTURE to CULTURE and host of The LIGHTPOINT Podcast. He leads a Cultivating Company Culture group within the Forbes Business Council, serves as President of the Grateful Giving Georgia Leadership Council, and teaches business at Southern New Hampshire University. He also received the 2026 Culture Catalyst Award.

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Dr. Vaughn is no stranger to CultureCon, having previously spoken on servant leadership and the myths of the Great Resignation. Audiences know him for energetic, interactive sessions that pair big ideas with small, practical actions they can use right away. This year, he joins us as both keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, bringing practical tools that help leaders turn culture from an aspiration into a system.