The Extraordinary Lens of Wine
Powerful Perspectives for Leadership and Life
Clarity · Courage · Conviction
Self-Empowerment For Life
Compelling keynotes for business leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals & growth-minded set
Keynotes with curated wine tastings for leadership retreats and business or alumni wine clubs
Voice of Experience. Soul of a Storyteller. Power to Move a Room.
“Powerful, relatable, and inspiring!
Wow! Wow! Wow! Stephanie’s parallels between wine and how we ourselves evolve are phenomenal. It is unique and so refreshing!” - Lynn Gillette
Stephanie draws on her wine career and expertise to bridge life and leadership insights - uncorked with depth and nuance uniquely her own.
I’m Stephanie Morton-Small, MBA, multi-accredited in wine, a wine business leader, keynote speaker, and award-winning songwriter. UK-born, I’ve lived on four continents and now call California home. Currently Principal, Strategy at Activequity, I’ve led global wine brands, founded ventures, created world-first wine concepts, and made bold life decisions.
As a speaker, I help business leaders, entrepreneurs, and growth-minded audiences unlock clarity, courage, and conviction. This is more than mindset. This is self-empowerment for life.
I draw striking parallels between wine and life. Through memorable metaphors and powerful storytelling, infused with insight, soul, and wit, my keynotes blend leadership and lived experience.
The result? Audiences walk away inspired, emboldened, and ready to act. Because when self-trust is ignited, everything changes - how we lead, to how we decide, how we grow.
Stephanie ignites clarity, courage, and conviction, catalyzing self-empowered leadership
After hearing Stephanie speak, audiences turn challenges into opportunities, decisions into momentum, and leadership into legacy.
Trust Your Instincts
Accelerate decisions & cut delays
Make Courageous Decisions
Unlock growth & fuel innovation
Lead Decisively in Uncertainty
Sustain momentum and focus
Inspire Trust and Alignment
Strengthen culture
Uncertain leadership drains energy, trust & progress. Clarity, courage & conviction drives momentum & growth.
Testimonials
"Completely Riveting”
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"The World Needs More of This!"
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"Her Wine Parallels are Phenomenal. Unique and So Refreshing!”
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"Extraordinary"
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"Wisdom, Courage and Joy"
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"Thought Leader"
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"WOW! Powerful, Relatable, Inspiring!"
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"Completely Riveting” ~ "The World Needs More of This!" ~ "Her Wine Parallels are Phenomenal. Unique and So Refreshing!” ~ "Extraordinary" ~ "Wisdom, Courage and Joy" ~ "Thought Leader" ~ "WOW! Powerful, Relatable, Inspiring!" ~
Book Stephanie for Keynotes, Leadership Retreats or Alumni Wine Clubs
Stephanie offers multiple keynotes, available as standalone presentations for conferences, or as a themed series providing inspiration for leadership retreats and multi-day events.
Stephanie delivers “Wine’s Unfiltered Genius” with curated wine pairings turning the keynote into an engaging, insight-driven experience. An exceptional opener or finale for leadership retreats, and for business and alumni wine clubs.
SIGNATURE KEYNOTE
“Wine’s Unfiltered Genius: Lessons in Life, Leadership & the Long Game.”
Stephanie’s flagship keynote Wine’s Unfiltered Genius, can be delivered as a stand-alone keynote, as a themed series for conferences and multi-day events, or as a keynote with curated wine pairings at leadership retreats.
Perfect for business leaders, professionals, entrepreneurs, WIB, audiences seeking fresh perspectives, and alumni or business wine clubs.
Emotionally intelligent stories that shift mindset.
A speaker who brings business credibility and soulful depth.
What if the finest leadership lessons weren’t in a book, but in a bottle?
Stephanie captivates as she uncorks the wisdom of wine to reveal life and leadership truths.
This isn’t a talk about wine it’s about what wine reveals. Through wine’s metaphoric genius, themes of courage, resilience, intuition, authenticity, self-belief and self-trust, come to life—showing us how to live, evolve and lead with purpose and how clarity, conviction, and courage drive momentum, growth and transform organizations.
Stephanie delivers stories that are raw, witty, and powerfully resonant, each wine-life metaphor paired with hard-won insight from her richly varied experience and global wine business career. From boardrooms to vineyards to creative breakthroughs and soul-deep clarity, she brings a perspective few can offer.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Don’t mistake the discomfort of transformation for failure.
• Great leaders pair instinct with insight. That’s strategic courage in action.
• Your authentic self is both your power and your contribution. Own it, live it, lead with it.
• Conviction doesn’t come from approval of others. It comes from inner alignment.
FAQ
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Stephanie’s inspirational keynotes resonate with business leaders and entrepreneurs because she is herself a global wine business leader, entrepreneur, and creative force with richly varied life experience.
Her talks stand strong as powerful one-off keynotes or as a themed series across multi-day events. She also offers a keynote paired with a curated wine tasting - perfect as the opening or finale of a leadership retreat.
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As a successful, highly respected and well-profiled businesswoman in the wine industry, Stephanie speaks from her three-decade experience, engaging her audiences on navigating business and life.
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Stephanie offers highly engaging, speaker-led wine tasting experiences that reveal the deeper wisdom of wine - where each glass becomes a metaphor for life. In her captivating talk Wine’s Unfiltered Genius, curated wine pairings turn philosophy into flavor and meaning, each metaphor illuminating a new perspective, uncorked through nuanced stories from her globe-trotting, richly varied wine life, while each wine echoes and amplifies that wisdom through its own unique story. These experiences weave storytelling, insight, and sensory discovery into a thought-provoking journey that goes far beyond the traditional tasting.
Tailored to your group, it’s ideal for business networks and private or alumni wine clubs seeking something elevated, meaningful, and memorable, an experience that lingers long after the last glass is poured.
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Stephanie is available as a panelist and speaks from her diverse life experience, which includes both business and creative worlds.
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Stephanie offers “Wine, Whisper & Song” is an artfully curated journey exploring life through the lens of wine and song, presented by a wine expert and an award-winning songwriter. This one-of-a-kind experience is an ideal offering for wineries to host or for wellbeing events at retreats, hotels or resorts in wine regions.
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Stephanie is a multi-award-winning lyricist and soon-to-be published author. Having established herself as a successful business leader prior to embarking on her creative journey, she understands how to balance diverse pursuits, how to chase your dreams, and how to get into the creative flow - all while keeping a roof over your head and navigating other challenges along the way.