Christina Harbridge

Keynote Speaker

Greatness Lies Within Our Physiology

Christina Harbridge’s behavior change philosophy is the product of her many eclectic life experiences. She has co-authored software, built a company that hit national revenue success, practiced acrobatic swing dancing, been a NASA test subject, and collaborated to design/weld several large-scale metal sculptures currently on display in San Francisco, Austin, and Toronto. Christina served on the board to make The Bay Lights project happen, a large light installation and art sculpture on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. Her new book, “Swayed: How to Communicate for Impact” recently hit #1 in the Conflict category on Amazon.

Christina has served on many boards. She was the president of her Entrepreneur’s Organization chapter, co-chair of the Global Leadership Conference, and founding Global Chair for Communications. She currently volunteers and serves Emerge America, New Leader’s Council, Ignite National, and Beyond Differences.

She calls herself a behavioral hack who believes humans are deliciously emotional and irrational and this reality requires new (non-fake) ways to influence others. One of her first career milestones came with the creation of a debt collection company that turned industry norms upside down. Collectors collected debt by being nice and were given bonuses based on the number of thank you notes received. The results: nice collected three times the industry average. They even got invited to weddings! Soon they were among the "Top 100 Fastest Growing Businesses in the Bay Area"--four years in a row--by the San Francisco Business Times. During this fast growth, Christina hired a lot of training companies to support her employees and soon realized that the enthusiasm post training rarely resulted in real behavior change. This got her curious and she began doing her own research on effective influence and behavior change. While still running her financial company, Christina began fielding requests from many high-profile politicians, business leaders, and TED presenters, coaching them on bypassing ideological drama and increasing influence. Soon, Christina’s passion for helping others develop into more effective communicators became her main focus.

In 2006, Christina sold the debt collection company and started a new company, Allegory Inc., to concentrate full time in helping individuals and companies uncover the underlying behaviors around communication that effect overall performance and happiness. She continues to work and live in the Bay Area with her young son.