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Nick Sonnenberg

Founder & CEO, WSJ Bestselling Author, World Champion Chess Boxer

Travels From: New York, NY, United States

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Founder and CEO, WSJ Bestselling Author, and 2025 World Champion Chess Boxer Nick Sonnenberg shows audiences how to use systems, tools, and AI to save time, reduce complexity, and improve team performance.

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Meet Nick Sonnenberg

Nick Sonnenberg is the Founder and CEO of Leverage, a leading operational efficiency consultancy, and the WSJ bestselling author of Come Up for Air: How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work. A former high-frequency trader on Wall Street, he developed the CPR® Business Efficiency Framework to help organizations improve communication, planning, and access to resources.

Nick brings a practical efficiency lens to team performance, AI adoption, automation, and personal achievement. His presentations show leaders how to use the right tools in the right way at the right time, with the potential to increase output, reduce stress, and recover an extra full day of productivity per person each week. He’s even proven his own efficiency tools by becoming the 2025 Chess Boxing World Champion after only six weeks of preparation.

Nick Sonnenberg is available to be booked for corporate and private events. Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group today to inquire about Nick Sonnenberg’s fees.

Want to book Nick Sonnenberg for an event?

Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group at (215) 995-0905 to book Nick Sonnenberg for corporate or private events, keynote speeches, workshops, fireside chats, motivational speaking, or virtual appearances. Our agency will work directly with your organization and our keynote speakers to create an unforgettable event.

The Mollie Plotkin Group is the leading keynote speakers agency and entertainment bureau bringing excitement to audiences, clients, and employees. We represent subject-matter experts in every possible field. So whether we’re your partner in creating a memorable meeting or your meeting planner’s secret weapon in securing the perfect keynote speaker, we’re in this with you.

Biography

Pivot to Operational Efficiency

Before founding Leverage, Nick spent eight years working as a high-frequency trader on Wall Street. His background in financial engineering and quantitative finance trained him to recognize patterns, measure the value of every second, and build systems that operate with precision.

That perspective became critical when his original business faced startup failures, the departure of a business partner, and the threat of bankruptcy. To recover time and stabilize the company, Nick focused on three areas that affect every organization: communication, planning, and resources.

Those principles became the CPR® Business Efficiency Framework and ultimately changed the direction of Leverage. The company evolved into an operational efficiency consultancy that helps organizations implement better systems, reduce unnecessary work, and focus their teams on higher-value activities.

Nick and his team have worked with organizations ranging from high-growth startups to Fortune 10 companies. His consulting clients have included Meta, Exxon, and McDonald’s, along with Tony Robbins, ClickFunnels, Reckitt Benckiser, Benevity, Jay Abraham, Pourri, and Consensys.

Come Up for Air

Nick shares this framework in his WSJ bestselling book, Come Up for Air. The book explains how leaders and teams can reduce overwhelm by using systems and tools more effectively. The framework is designed to create greater output, less stress, happier employees, and the potential to recover an extra full day of productivity per person each week.

Inc. Columnist & Columbia Lecturer

Nick is also an Inc. columnist and guest lecturer at Columbia University. His current work brings together his quantitative background and more than a decade of operational efficiency experience to help organizations use AI more effectively. He focuses on practical tool selection, reducing hallucinations, lowering token costs, and helping teams understand when and how different technologies should be used.

A Chess Boxing World Champion’s Efficiency Mindset

In 2025, Nick represented Team USA and became a world champion in chessboxing at the World Championships in Serbia. He prepared for the competition in six weeks by applying the same efficiency principles he teaches organizations.

His preparation included a structured game plan, biohacking, weight management, and AI-assisted strategy. He also studied the relationship between the chess and boxing rounds, optimizing his moves to put his opponent under most pressure after returning from a boxing round.

More than the gold, the achievement gives Nick a distinctive way to demonstrate how systems, preparation, and strategic use of time can improve performance both personally and professionally. Whether he is discussing operational efficiency, AI, or chess boxing, he gives audiences practical ways to examine how they work and make better use of their most valuable resource: time.

How to Hire Nick Sonnenberg

To hire Nick Sonnenberg for an event, contact the Mollie Plotkin Group with the proposed event date, location, audience size, event format, and program goals. Nick Sonnenberg is available for corporate events, conferences, leadership meetings, private events, workshops, fireside chats, and virtual programs.

After receiving your request, a Mollie Plotkin Group booking agent will review Nick Sonnenberg’s availability, discuss the event details, and get back to you within 48 hours with next steps for securing Nick Sonnenberg for your program.

Nick Sonnenberg Booking Fee

The cost to book Nick Sonnenberg depends on the event date, location, format, audience size, and scope of the appearance. Speaking fees may vary for keynote speeches, workshops, fireside chats, private events, corporate meetings, and virtual programs.

For the most accurate Nick Sonnenberg booking fee, contact the Mollie Plotkin Group with your event details. Our team will help confirm availability, pricing, and the best format for your event.

Speaking Topics & Programs

Hire Nick Sonnenberg

Nick is available for keynote presentations, virtual sessions, workshops, and fireside chats. His hands-on workshops allow teams to work through operational challenges, while his unscripted fireside chats draw on his ability to respond to detailed questions in real time.

Nick’s fireside chats allow for both open Q&A with attendees and a structured discussion that can hit on your preferred topic and themes. If you would like to discuss tailoring Nick Sonnenberg’s fireside chat to your audience, schedule a Zoom meeting between Nick and the MPG team – we’ll work closely with you to curate the perfect talk for your event.

Featured Client Reviews for Nick Sonnenberg

“Nick has cracked the code on operational efficiency. Come Up for Air should be required reading for any organization that wants to be high-performing.” – Tony Robbins, Multiple #1 Bestselling Author

“The CPR® Framework is a simple, repeatable guide for aligning teams and organizations that drives immediate results and creates sustainable, meaningful change by empowering all people to utilize their full talents and catalyze new ideas. It’s the foundation for building a resilient organization that will enable companies to successfully navigate through uncertain times now and in the future.” – Marissa Andrada, Independent Board Director at Krispy Kreme Donuts and Former CHRO of Chipotle Mexican Grill

“Nick has created the master playbook for how teams can successfully navigate today’s digital landscape. A must-read for employees at all levels who want to achieve their highest personal and business goals!” – Suzy Batiz, CEVO (Chief Executive & Visionary Officer) of ~Pourri

“I’ve spent my life creating a community of Nobel laureates, Olympians, CEOs, celebrities, and scientists—so when it came time to design our system it had to be both flawless and human. That’s where Nick Sonnenberg excels. He obsesses over the right technologies and habits that ensured my team was effective and my community was taken care of. That’s why, after almost a decade, I still work with him.” – Jon Levy, Behavioral Scientist and New York Times Bestselling Author

Books

Come Up for Air: How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work

Wall Street Journal Bestseller!

The practical guide to go from “drowning in work” to freeing up an extra business day per week for everyone on your team.

“There just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done!” Sound familiar? Forget the old concepts of time management and the hustle culture of working until you burn out. You and your entire team can get more done, in far fewer hours, with the right blueprint. Come Up for Air is that blueprint.

Through years of building a leading efficiency consulting business, Nick Sonnenberg has discovered the primary reason why so many teams are overwhelmed. It’s not because they don’t have enough time, managers expect too much of their employees, or there aren’t enough people. The problem is that everyone is drowning in unnecessary work and inefficiencies that prevent them from focusing on the work that drives results.

In Come Up for Air, you’ll discover the CPR® Business Efficiency Framework, a proven system for leaders, managers, and teams to maximize their performance and reduce overwhelm by using the right tools in the right way, at the right time. The end result? More output, less stress, happier employees, and the potential to gain an extra full day per week in productivity to use however you’d like.

You’ll learn the proven empirical strategies from someone who not only turned his company around when it was on the verge of bankruptcy, but has also helped thousands of organizations around the world become more efficient and leverage the right systems and tools for explosive growth. Come Up for Air is the employee manual you never received.

Turn to Come Up for Air to:

Gain an extra full day per week in productivity for everyone on your team.
Reduce stress and burnout by creating a more stable work environment.
Eliminate the 58% of employee time per day spent on “work about work” instead of being productive.
Improve company culture by empowering your team to spend their time on work that matters.
Save an average of two hours per week just by optimizing email with the R.A.D. System.
Stop wasting time on the “Scavenger Hunt” of trying to find where information is stored.
Increase employee happiness, satisfaction, trust, and retention by making work easier.
Stop wasting time in meetings with four proven techniques.
Supplement your learning with free content and in-depth instructions.