Over 27 years in the rooms where the hard calls get made.

Have you ever chased a goal for years — only to realize, somewhere along the way, that it was never actually yours?

We've all done it. Borrowed an ambition. Inherited a definition of success and built an entire life around it — one that looks right from the outside and feels hollow from the inside.

And an entire business can be built the same way: the owner so busy doing the work that the work the business actually needs never gets done.

Today's speaker has made a career of standing in those rooms — and asking the questions out loud.

David Swihart has been speaking for over 27 years, engaging audiences with a mix of storytelling, inspiration, and practical teaching that challenges them to grow themselves, build their businesses, and make the world around them a little better.

His mission is simple: to help people pursue their unique goals, live out their individual values, set their own priorities, and make an exceptional contribution to the world around them — because David believes everyone has a calling to leave a mark on the world, and that the choices made in every arena of life, not just the visible ones, are what make that contribution real.

He lives that calling across three arenas.

As a pastor, David sees faith as the foundation of a whole life — lived out in families, workplaces, and communities — and helps audiences live out their faith wherever they are and make an impact on the people around them, every single day.

As an entrepreneur, he's passionate about helping business owners and leaders strategically build their organizations, developing systems that move them forward one week, one quarter, and one year at a time — so the business works for them instead of consuming them.

And as an author and speaker, David inspires people to share their story — because their story deserves to be told well, whether in writing or from the stage.

His keynotes draw on the Maxwell Method of DISC behavioral analysis and the 6 Working Geniuses to help teams finally understand each other, an operating discipline that helps owners build businesses that last, and an honest reset on what "enough" looks like when you're the one defining it.

By the time he steps off the stage, his audiences leave with a playbook, not a feeling — the clarity to pursue their own goals instead of someone else's, a balance built on their priorities rather than the room's, the language to read their team and be read in return, and the conviction that the story they're living is worth telling, and worth telling well.

So if you've ever wondered whether the life you're building is the one you actually chose — you may want to pay particularly close attention today.

David resides in Springfield, Illinois with his wife Liz and their children, Ellise and Sam. He is the owner of Next Steps Coaching, where he helps businesses implement operating systems; a member of the leadership team at Kingdom Communicator, where he serves as speaking coach and mentor to Christian authors and speakers; and the pastor of Pawnee Christian Church in Pawnee, Illinois, where he helps the church develop and live out its mission in its community.