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Customer to Producer
They spent sixteen years consuming a curriculum. Nobody’s writing one for them now.
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Clip Coming Soon
For Career Centers & Student Success Leaders
Ready for the interview.
Not for Tuesday.
You got them the degree, the resume, the internship, the offer. Then they walk in on day one and hit a second curriculum nobody handed them — the politics, the unspoken expectations, the reason some new hires rise while others quietly stall. Kevin Gosa and Bryan Horvath wrote that curriculum down. This is the live version.
“For twenty years as a professor, I’ve prepared students for ‘the real world.’ My part always ends on graduation day with a handshake and a wish I could give them more. Now I can.”
— Jonathan D. Fitzgerald, PhD
Keynote + Q&A · In Person or Virtual · Limited Fall 2026 dates remaining · Now booking Spring 2027
The Problem
The part the
syllabus skips
Your students are not underprepared. They’re differently prepared.
Years and years of mostly solo effort taught them to study hard, get it perfect, follow the rubric, and wait for the grade. Every one of those habits is rewarded in a classroom. Every one of them becomes a quiet liability in an office — where the work is shared, the real-world standard is often “good enough to ship,” nobody hands out a rubric, and the person who waits to be told is the person who gets passed over.
This is how things are structured. The university does its job. The employer does its job. There’s no fault in the equation. But there is a gap. And nobody owns it.
“This isn’t a generation issue. It’s a transition issue. And your students have almost no way to see it coming.”
— Kevin Gosa & Bryan Horvath
“I wish every intern and new hire had read this before they started with us. I absolutely can see this as part of every grad gift, right next to Oh, the Places You’ll Go.”
— Matt Kirkland, Co-Founder, Brand New Box
46%
New hires who fail within 18 months
Leadership IQ
89%
Of those failures are behavioral, not technical
Leadership IQ
−30%
The professionalism gap — how much lower employers rate new grads than grads rate themselves
NACE
58
Rules nobody put in a syllabus
46% and 89% from Leadership IQ’s study of 20,000+ new hires. The 30-point professionalism gap is from NACE’s 2024 Student Survey and Job Outlook 2025.
The Keynote
The rules
nobody told you
Why everything that made you a great student is working against you at work.
Keynote + Live Q&A · Auditorium, Classroom, or Virtual
Kevin and Bryan don’t simply motivate. They translate and activate.
For an hour, they walk students through the experiential realities of the workplace they’re about to enter — how people get evaluated, why effort isn’t the currency they think it is, what a manager is really asking for, and how to be visible without being obnoxious. Sharp frameworks, clear language, and ways to navigate challenges. Honesty about the workplace, including their own worst moments (and their funniest) because most of this, they learned the hard way too.
The Q&A brings the whole experience home. Students ask the questions they’ve been quietly wondering — about bad managers, promotions, salary, burnout, and how to be ready for work when they get their chance.
What students walk out with
The rewire.
The three student habits that quietly stall early careers — perfectionism, solo work, waiting for instructions — and how to drop them without losing what makes them good.
A working definition of success.
How professional environments actually assess people: visibility, relationships, and perceived value. None of which appeared on a syllabus.
One thing to do Monday.
A single concrete shift in how they show up — in a meeting, with a manager, in the first thirty days — that changes how they’re read.
Where it fits
- Senior seminars and capstone courses
- Career center signature programming
- Orientation and welcome week
- Graduating class events
- Student leadership summits
- Business school professional development series
- Alumni career programming
- Graduate and professional student onboarding
Need something longer or more hands-on? Kevin and Bryan also run extended workshop and full-class formats. Ask in the form and we’ll build it around your program.
Listen
Two clips from a conversation about the book — no script, no slide deck, no motivational jargon.
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Your Manager Isn’t Your Professor
The habits that earned your students A’s are the ones that will stall them.
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Clip Coming Soon
Who They’ve Worked With
Twenty Years in the Room Where It Happens
Kevin and Bryan have facilitated hundreds of leadership retreats, strategic offsites, company meetings, and organizational turning points for Fortune 100 companies, Forbes top 25 charities, international NGOs, government agencies, and universities. They’ve watched this exact transition go wrong from both sides of it.
Want to Talk to Someone Who’s Booked Us?
Kevin and Bryan are happy to connect you with past clients directly. Ask in the form.
Your Speakers
Kevin & Bryan
They present together. Twenty years working side by side, and it shows on stage.
Kevin Gosa
Strategic Facilitator · Co-Founder, NYC Meeting Facilitators
Kevin Gosa is a strategic facilitator and co-founder of NYC Meeting Facilitators, where he works with Fortune 100 companies, nonprofits, and government agencies to navigate high-stakes conversations and build organizational alignment. He holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Kansas and brings 20 years of experience reading what’s really happening in a room — and helping people move through it. He previously co-authored Fire the Foosball Table.
Bryan Horvath
Entrepreneur · Co-Founder, NYC Meeting Facilitators
Bryan Horvath is a facilitator, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Nonprofit Velocity and NYC Meeting Facilitators, where he has led high-stakes offsites for Forbes top 25 charities, Fortune 100 companies, and grassroots community groups. He has lectured for MBA programs, led nonprofit incubators, and advised boards and C-suite leaders domestically and internationally. His background spans engineering at General Motors, touring as a front man, launching a record label, and licensing his own inventions. He previously co-authored Fire the Foosball Table.
The Source Material
Welcome to Work
58 Unwritten Rules for Winning at Work · Octant8 Press
You did everything right. You got the degree, landed the job, showed up ready—and then realized nobody told you how any of this actually works. Not the politics. Not the unspoken expectations. Not why some people rise fast while others stay stuck.
Welcome to Work changes that. Kevin Gosa and Bryan Horvath spent decades in strategy, leadership, and talent development watching talented people stumble over the same blind spots—and wrote the book they wish everyone had from day one. 58 practical, honest rules. No soft-skills platitudes. Just the map they never gave you.
Welcome to Work is well-suited for course adoption, first-year seminars, and career readiness curricula.
Let’s Do It
Check available dates
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