Mike Barefoot · Speaker kit:Everything you need to promote the talk.

Mike Barefoot is a leadership speaker and coach based in Raleigh, North Carolina. He pairs 37 years of martial arts training, including a 7th-degree black belt in Karate, with a 27-year staffing career in which he personally placed more than 1,000 professionals and founded RedZone Resources, an IT staffing firm that stayed profitable for 15+ years. His keynote, KAIZEN: The Pillars of Success, shows leaders how small daily micro actions compound into elite results.

Mike Barefoot is a leadership speaker and coach based in Raleigh, North Carolina who has spent his life mastering two seemingly different worlds: the dojo and the boardroom.

After earning a Business Management degree from NC State and an MBA from Campbell University, Mike spent 27 years in staffing. He worked for three of the largest staffing firms in the world as a recruiter and account executive, earning Rookie of the Year, multiple Performer of the Year awards and regular President's Club honors. In 2010 he launched RedZone Resources, a boutique IT staffing firm that stayed profitable every one of its 15+ years before he closed it in 2025 to focus on speaking and coaching. Over his career he personally placed more than 1,000 professionals, and his insights have been featured 60+ times in outlets including USA Today and CareerBuilder.

Mike has trained in martial arts for 37 years and holds a 7th-degree black belt in Karate. From the martial artists' credo he built KAIZEN, a six-part system for continuous improvement. His keynote, KAIZEN: The Pillars of Success, combines stories from the recruiting desk with a live martial arts demonstration, and sends every attendee home with one micro action to commit to for the next 12 months.