My keynote speeches have helped sales teams, law firms, professional services companies, real estate agencies and many others to grow their communication skills and motivate teams to achieve.

About Jeremy

Spies are not who you think they are. While TV shows and movies like to feature spies in car chases and gun fights, the reality is that they are experts in developing relationships. Spies cultivate and influence people from a huge array of backgrounds and there are incredible lessons that can be utilized in our careers and everyday life drawn from how they employ these skills.  

My keynote speeches provide communication strategies and spy tactics to help you and your team connect quickly and deeply. Cross-fertilizing experiences and approaches from the world of espionage and business offers a chance to utilize outside-the-box methods that can unlock creativity at your event and motivate teams to grow relationships and communicate more effectively. I share techniques from the world of the FBI, Secret Service, military special forces, and other government agencies to provide additional critical insights into how to negotiate better, overcome challenges, and develop ethical leaders. 

My career has spanned multiple sectors and incorporated years of international experience resulting in unique insights and perspectives that I share in my keynote speeches.

I spent the first decade of my career overseas building the media association Project Syndicate while based out of Prague and Shanghai. I also worked as a freelance journalist writing on a variety of topics for dozens of publications around the world. I continue to write regularly for publications like Time, Fast Company, USA Today, Newsweek, and The Hill.

“Sell Like a Spy brilliantly illuminates two misunderstood skills: spying and sales!”

“Jeremy pulls back the curtain on effective spying to reveal thoughtful, empathetic people—the same kind we trust enough to buy houses, cars, and businesses from. A great guide to mastering the intensely human side of building trust that determines success or failure.” 

- General Stanley McChrystal (Ret.), New York Times bestselling author of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World 

Returning to my hometown of New York after my decade overseas, I have worked for well-known global consulting firms in the world of corporate security and intelligence for nearly two decades. These companies are staffed by former intelligence officers and I have collaborated closely with these former spies. I came to notice how good these individuals were at connecting with clients, how quickly they were able to establish rapport, put people at ease, and get them to open up.

In addition to former spies, my colleagues included former members of the FBI and the law enforcement community, the Secret Service, the military, the State Department, and other government agencies. I learned distinctive and impactful skills from all these former government agents, and I began utilizing the methods I picked up. I quickly noticed the tangible difference it made in my salesmanship and my ability to connect with clients. By practicing the same methods that government officials use to develop relationships and overcome a range of challenges, I have been able to both score the biggest sales of my career while also developing some of my best professional relationships.

I have synthesized these lessons from government service into exciting keynote speeches and share these strategies at events to help improve the ability of my audiences to connect with clients and colleagues, develop creative approaches to close deals, and overcome a variety of challenges.

Watch Jeremy

What People Are Saying

  • ”Jeremy provides impactful ways to utilize spy-craft in business across a variety of industries both by people at the beginning of their careers, as well as seasoned professionals. His keynote speeches showcase spy techniques rooted in behavioral science to analyze clients, assist in effective negotiations, and for nurturing client relationships. With real world examples from the intelligence and law enforcement sectors - including hostage negotiations - he keeps you engrossed with vivid descriptions and tips for translating these lessons to improve business acumen. Events with Jeremy are full of insightful, thoughtful, and deeply useful ideas.”

    Kate Kalmykov, Partner, Greenberg Traurig

  • "I attended Jeremy's talk and it was simply awesome and unique to all other business negotiations sessions I have experienced. I'm a seasoned negotiator with 15+ years in the game, MBA courses in practical and theoretical negotiation theory and have immersed myself in the classics like "Getting to Yes" and "Never Split the Difference," but let me tell you, this is a whole different animal. This talk helped me heighten my skills around the power of suggestion and using time and assumptive language as a power lever."

    Michael DeGagne, Senior Vice President of Global Sales, quantilope

  • "I thoroughly enjoyed Jeremy’s keynote speech at The NY Alliance. His delivery was so engaging that I lost all track of time. By any measure he is a very effective speaker and educator. I found his comments regarding Selling Like a Spy especially intriguing — I went back to work that day and started to use his suggestions — I truly enjoyed the outside the box ideas."

    Evan Friedman, Executive Vice President, Corporate Travel Management

  • “Jeremy did a phenomenal job with his keynote speech at our Annual Sales and Marketing Conference in Savannah, Georgia. His knowledge and experience on communication and connection is exceptional. Jeremy does a great job using his expertise from the world of espionage and tying it together with sales related tips. We have received great feedback from both of Jeremy’s general session presentation as well as his breakout session.”

    Heather Jenson, AgFirst Farm Credit Bank

  • Jeremy is a rare find as a keynote speaker with an incredible wealth of knowledge and amazing ability to translate the complex and nuanced world of espionage into simple actionable strategies that help our agents close more deals. Sell Like a Spy is simply a game changer for anyone looking to be more persuasive and get to their next level of success in sales and in life!

    Ida Elizabeth Fields, VP, Agent Marketing & Business Development, The Corcoran Group

  • “The lessons of espionage directly relate to sales: it all comes down to the art of human persuasion. That’s why having Jeremy as a keynote speaker is so useful and fascinating, because modern sales teams can adopt practices that have been employed by governments for years, not in a nefarious way, but in a way that actually builds trust. Jeremy's keynote speechs are hugely valuable and a lot of fun!”

    Sam Jacobs, CEO & Founder of Pavilion, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Kind Folks Finish First: The Considerate Path to Success in Business and Life

  • "Jeremy does an excellent job of identifying best practices in information gathering, understanding people, and assessing situations by honing skills from the intelligence and law enforcement world. He shares how to use these skill sets to succeed in all sorts of aspects of their lives. These are useful and fascinating lessons for just about anyone.”

    Mark Sullivan, former Director of the Secret Service

  • "I've had the opportunity to hear Jeremy's keynote speeches at multiple events and have consistently championed his involvement with our sales team. Jeremy brings an innovative, engaging, and unforgettable approach to sales that is adaptable across all domains. Working with Jeremy has been incredibly enlightening for me, enabling me to integrate many of his techniques into my sales growth. I eagerly anticipate further learning opportunities from Jeremy. I strongly endorse Jeremy as a speaker for any organization looking to enhance their sales training program."

    Erin Pollex, Regional Sales Director, Interface

  • “Jeremy's keynote speeches and training sessions provide an innovative playbook—really a master class for serious sales professionals looking to up their game and become elite in their field. Ubiquitous information, macro forces, and competition make selling harder than ever with every pipeline opportunity a mission and every negotiation a complex operation. Jeremy taps into the clandestine world of espionage to extract unique best practices, leverage proven techniques by arguably the world’s best sellers—SPIES,—to give any sales professional willing to invest in their craft a serious competitive edge.”

    Pat Donegan, Senior Managing Director, Blue Ridge Partners

  • “Jeremy Hurewitz spent years working side-by-side with CIA case officers, FBI agents, and other government officials. With Sell Like a Spy, he taps that unique experience to provide crucial insights that can help businesspeople develop relationships, collect information, and overcome challenges.”

    Gregory Zuckerman, Special Writer, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Times bestselling author of The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution

  • “Jeremy certainly captured students' attention as Guest Lecturer for my Ethnographic Research Methods class. Jeremy tailored his talk to an undergraduate audience and provided specific tools and examples for effective interviewing, connecting, observation and attentive listening based on his unique experience as a journalist and his work with intelligence officers in corporate security. The students refer to this discussion as they prepare for their research projects, now equipped to conduct interviews and record observations. Of course, the tools and techniques will be used well beyond this class and since Jeremy is such a dynamic speaker, there is no doubt that his presentation will be remembered.”

    Patricia Rauffer, Adjunct Professor, Ethnographic Research Methods, Kanbar College of Design, Engineering & Commerce, Jefferson University

  • “I just finished the three week Sell Like a Spy course through Pavilion and I've experienced education sessions via business school, seminars and conferences, and this was by far the most interesting course I’ve taken. Sell Like a Spy provided real-world application and ideas that I can utilize to connect with people more deeply in a variety of contexts. The course had my complete attention for the full 90 minutes each week which is a testament to the subject matter and the presenters.”

    Jon Moore, Vice President, Sales, ROLLER

  • “Jeremy had the room captivated during his keynote speech at our sales summit. His authentic stories and practical examples of elicitation are spot on. We loved how he challenged our team to lean into our superpowers. We plan to make Sell Like a Spy a part of our sales philosophy as we achieve our next level of success.”

    Ryan Akers, Regional Sales Director, Interface

  • "Sell Like a Spy offers unique ideas about connecting with clients and colleagues that any organization would benefit from. There is something for everyone in the book, in his keynote speeches, and in his training sessions. If you’re early in your career you will find useful tools to develop communication skills that will be so essential to your success. For those more senior, you will find outside the box ideas about relationship development, negotiation, and leadership that will be so valuable to anyone who wants to continue to develop professionally."

    Ryan Breen, Partner, KPMG