Kyle Scheele

Kyle Scheele has been called "the patron saint of crazy ideas". Whether he's having a Viking funeral for the regrets of 21,000 people, hosting the world's first fake marathon, or gaining a million TikTok followers in just 25 hours, Kyle is always on the lookout for crazy ideas that produce wildly outsized outcomes.
Over the last decade, his projects have been featured in outlets like Fast Company, WIRED, The Washington Post, Yahoo!, BuzzFeed, UpWorthy, Goalcast, and more. His videos have been viewed over 250 million times, and he has spoken to hundreds of thousands of audience members across the United States. More than anything, Kyle hopes that his story can inspire others to chase their own crazy ideas and become the people they were meant to be.

Jim Wiesemeyer

From his office near Washington, D.C., Jim Wiesemeyer contributes daily to Pro Farmer’s website, providing members with the latest information on agricultural policy and trade developments. He also is a twice-weekly participant in Farm Journal’s “AgriTalk” radio program and serves as a Washington analyst for Pro Farmer and Farm Journal. Since 1978, Jim has frequently reported on and interviewed senior government officials, including former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, as well as USDA secretaries since Earl Butz. Jim has traveled extensively in his assignments and is a frequent speaker on farm policy and trade issues. He rejoined Pro Farmer in June of 2018, after serving as their Washington consultant for 19 years while at Informa Economics and before that an employee of Pro Farmer. Jim is one of the writers for the Agriculture Letter, formerly the Kiplinger Ag Letter. Prior to Pro Farmer, he was a Washington editor with Doane's Agricultural Report and Washington editor and managing editor of the Washington Farmletter.

Vanessa O'Brien

Vanessa O’Brien is a world record-holding British-American climber and arctic explorer whose extensive international business experience affords her a unique take on the world. Having moved to live on her own at the age of 16, O’Brien developed a sense of responsibility early on. Determined to rise to the top, she worked extra hard “climbing” the corporate ladder, not knowing that the worst recession in living memory would lead her to face her biggest challenge yet: climbing Mt. Everest. Despite having no mountaineering experience at all, and after only two years of training, O’Brien went on to set the women’s speed record for completing the “Explorer’s Grand Slam”— reaching the geographic North and South poles, as well as reaching the top of the highest peak 
on each continent—in eleven months. In March 2013, she became the fastest woman to climb the seven summits, doing so in only ten months and being one of only 54 women in the world to accomplish such a feat.
O’Brien’s focus, enthusiasm, energy, commitment, and persistence were critical to her success in the business world. Using the metaphor of climbing, Vanessa O’Brien takes audiences on an audio and 
visual tour of some of the most challenging and remote places on the planet.

Mark Faust

Since 1990 Mark has run Echelon Management, a growth advisory firm. Mark has been an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio University and Northern Iowa University. He is an advisor on company boards and he has conducted hundreds of sessions for dozens of the worlds largest companies including Apple, IBM, P&G, John Deere, Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer Crop Science, CPS, almost two dozen seed companies and several larger ag retailers. Mark’s first book Growth or Bust! Proven Turanround Strategies to Grow Your Business was a best seller at Barnes & Noble in the business section and his newer book High Growth Levers is available at BarnesAndNoble.com Mark has monthly columns in periodicals from Farm Journal to Forbes.