Building a business that does not depend on your mood
Audiences leave with a structure for delegating, sequencing, and measuring.
Kali Is Speaking
Need Kali in the room?
Keynotes, workshops, panels, hosting.
Sessions built for the audience in front of them — operators, teams, students, and community rooms. Practical, direct, and worth the seat.
Speaker
Who is on your stage
Kali A. Payton is the founder of Grassboat LLC, the host of Smoke In My Belly, and the person behind Smoke University. The through line is the same in every room: build something with structure, then bring people into it.
Talks pull from real operating work — coaching owners, running risk sessions, and building rooms that people come back to. No filler frameworks.
Audience fit
Owners, teams, students, community
Formats
Keynote · Workshop · Panel · Host
Travel
Regional and national
Topics
Signature topics
Each topic is adapted to your audience during a pre-event call. Outcomes are agreed before the date is confirmed.
Culture, rooms, and why community is a business asset
How gathering people intentionally compounds into revenue and retention.
Risk you can see and risk you keep ignoring
A practical way to name exposure before it becomes a crisis.
Telling the story of the business you actually run
Narrative work that holds up in a sales conversation, not just a brand deck.
Formats + logistics
What booking includes
- Keynote30–60 minutes, adapted to your theme
- Workshop90 minutes to half day, worksheet-driven
- Panel / firesideModerated or participating
- Host / emceeFull-program hosting and room energy
- Pre-event callAudience, outcomes, and tone alignment
- Promo assetsHeadshot, bio, session description, social cut
Speaking fee ranges pending approval
Proof
Reel, clips, and rooms
Kali Is Speaking3 min
Speaker Reel — Sample Cut
Stage footage compilation. Sample placement; final reel to be supplied by the team.
keynotestageaudienceApproved content needed
Kali Is Speaking42 min
Interview: Building Culture Around a Table
Long-form interview appearance. Source rights being confirmed with the host.
cultureleadershipcommunityApproved content needed
“He read the room in the first two minutes and rebuilt the second half of the talk around what our members actually needed.”
Check a date before someone else does
Send the event details and you'll get availability, fit, and a recommended format back.
Your next step
Date, audience, format — answered personally