People walk out seeing their work, and themselves, a little brighter. It is the whole reason he does this: adding light to his life by adding light to others.
Keynotes · Workshops · Consulting
Add light
to the work.
Durran Cage speaks to corporations, schools and conferences about dreams, change, customer experience and the technology that gives people their day back. Every room leaves educated, inspired, entertained and a little brighter. Between stages he coaches real teams on six to seven live calls a day.
- 24
- years inside the customer experience
- 500,000+
- views on his RockED training content
- 15,000+
- people who have watched his lessons
- 7/day
- live coaching calls with real teams
General session speaker · NAMAD✦
Keynote speaker · NHADA✦
Speaker and panelist · ASOTU CON✦
Featured guest · CBT News · CBT Live✦
Training creator · RockED✦
Founder · CAGE Automotive✦
General session speaker · NAMAD✦
Keynote speaker · NHADA✦
Speaker and panelist · ASOTU CON✦
Featured guest · CBT News · CBT Live✦
Training creator · RockED✦
Founder · CAGE Automotive✦
The promise
Educated. Inspired. Entertained. Better than we found them.
A framework they can use on Monday, built from real teams and real numbers, not slides about the future.
A reason to stop doubting the dream, and the first move that protects it. Students hear it as a career. Leaders hear it as a company.
Music, humor, a jacket coming off, and the moment the whole room pulls out their phones and joins in. A year later, they are still talking about it.
On stage
From the showroom floor to the general session.
NAMAD · 2022 and 2023 · shot from the tables
One year he took off his jacket to make a point about rebranding. The next year the room was still talking about it. Then a whole ballroom held up their phones and recorded a customer video with him, live.
ASOTU CON · Sales & Culture panel
“You need to start talking about experiences. That's what you need to talk about.”
On AI taking the busywork so teams can focus on creativity, video and the human moments, and why nobody should ever apologize to a customer for their assistant.
- NAMADGeneral session speaker · 2021, 2022, 2023
- NHADAKeynote speaker · Family Camp
- ASOTU CONSpeaker and panelist
- CBT NewsFeatured guest, CBT Live · 2026
Who books Durran
Three kinds of rooms. The same light.
Corporations
Sales kickoffs, leadership offsites and customer experience programs.
For teams who serve customers and want the day to feel better on both sides of the conversation. He coaches six to seven live calls a day, so every story is current.
Start with Video Is the Handshake · Better at Being People · Rebrand Yourself
Plan a corporate eventSchools and universities
Assemblies, career days, business schools and student organizations.
Students hear from someone with 24 years in a tough, people-first business and more than eight as a founder, who will tell them the truth about doubt, dreams and showing up.
Start with Dreams & Nightmares · Rebrand Yourself
Plan a school eventConferences and associations
General sessions, opening keynotes, breakouts and panels.
Three years on the NAMAD general session stage, a keynote for NHADA and the ASOTU CON stage. He opens a room, and he keeps it.
Start with Dreams & Nightmares as the opener, any talk as a breakout
Plan a conference sessionConsulting
The advisor behind the platforms.
Before a company puts a product in front of dealers and their teams, it helps to have someone in the strategy room who has worked that floor for 24 years. Durran sits in that room for training platforms and automotive technology companies, shaping what they build, what they teach and how it lands with the people doing the work.
Case · RockED
On camera and in the strategy room while a new platform became an industry name.
Durran was one of RockED's early training voices. More than 15,000 people watched his lessons, for over 500,000 views on the platform. Off camera he worked as a consultant: helping orchestrate course chapters, bringing ideas for what to teach next and running strategy sessions with the team as it grew across the industry.
- Training creator
- Curriculum advisor
- Strategy partner
- 500,000+
- views on his lessons
- 15,000+
- people who watched them
- 1,000+
- rooftops reached
01
Strategy sessions
A half or full day with your leadership. Where the product, the content or the team is stuck, and the move that gets it unstuck.
02
Curriculum and content
Chapters, scripts and learning paths built from what actually works with real customers, recorded in a voice people finish.
03
Going to market with dealers
How to position a product so a GM says yes, from someone who has sat on both sides of that pitch hundreds of times.
04
AI, CRM and video infrastructure
The Four Cs applied to your company, with an owner, a number and a weekly review on every build.
Why a car guy
A dealership is the hardest customer experience lab in America. Long days, high stakes, a buyer who did their homework, a team that turns over fast. If a system holds up on a Saturday showroom floor, it holds up in your business.
Employee experience
Give your best people their hours back. Automate the busywork so the talent you hired spends the day on judgment, relationships and the work only they can do.
Customer experience
Faster, more personal, more human. Video that says their name, follow up that arrives on time, and a clean handoff from the machine to a real person.
The infrastructure
Video, CRM and AI wired together with an owner, a number and a weekly review, so the system is still running on day 31 when the conference glow wears off.
Signature talks
Two talks that inspire. Two that teach.
Every one is built to leave the room educated, inspired, entertained and better than we found it. Each is tailored to your audience, from a ballroom of executives to a gym full of students.
01 Dreams & NightmaresProtect the dream. Prevent the nightmare.
The talk that opened Durran's third straight NAMAD general session. Every room is carrying a dream and the noise that threatens it: a changing market, competition, the doubt that shows up at night. Durran names the nightmares out loud, then walks the room through the habits that protect a dream from them. Real talk, a soundtrack and some humor along the way.
The room leaves with the nightmares named, a plan instead of a worry, and the next move that protects the dream. For students, the dream is the career they want and the doubt standing in the way.
02 Rebrand YourselfGet uncomfortable on purpose
At NAMAD 2022 Durran told a ballroom that some of their stores had worn the same logo and run the same way for ten years. Then he took off his jacket to show them what change looks like. This talk is about the courage to change how you show up: your brand, your habits, the way people experience you, and the people who push you to do it. Some of the room will be with him and some won't, and that is the point.
The room leaves with permission to get uncomfortable and one thing to change this week, not someday.
03 Better at Being PeopleAI that gives people their day back
Most companies buy AI tools and wait for a miracle. Durran teaches the four layers underneath, the Four Cs: Context, Connections, Capabilities and Cadence. Then the 60 / 30 / 10 rule: about 60% of the work fully automated, 30% AI-assisted with a person checking before it ships, and 10% that stays proudly human. No jargon, no fear, and no robot villains. The failure is never the tool. It is the tool nobody trained.
The room leaves with the layer their team is on today, the one build that moves them up, and a clear line on what should stay human.
04 Video Is the HandshakeBe the person, not the message
Same store, same reps, same CRM, same 90 days. The follow up with a personal video sold 6.8 times the cars. Durran shows why a 45-second video beats a perfect email, for a sales team, a school front office or a nonprofit thanking a donor. At NAMAD 2023 he had the whole ballroom hold up their phones and record one with him, live.
The room leaves with their first video already recorded, and a simple way to send and measure the next hundred.
Try the model
Where does your company stand on the Four Cs?
Eight honest yes or no answers. The first layer with a gap is where your next build lives. This is the opening exercise of the Better at Being People keynote.
Your next layer
Answer the eight questions
Tap each statement that is true for your company today.
Bring this to your team-
4
Cadence
-
3
Capabilities
-
2
Connections
-
1
Context
The rule he teaches every leader
Every vendor is selling 100%.
100% is the red flag.
The 10% is the relationship. That part was never supposed to be automated.
Watch
Hear how he thinks before you put him on stage.
211 cars to 603 cars
Five minutes on the case study: one store, six months, nobody worked a longer day.
Ask Coach Cage
Real questions from leaders, answered in about a minute. Tap to play.
A day in the field
He doesn't just talk about it. He's in the store on launch day.
Balloons up, team on the lot, cameras rolling. Durran launches the playbook in person, then stays on the calls every week after so the numbers keep moving.
More on YouTube @DurranCage →“We have to have systems over stress.”
Durran Cage, answering a leader on the edge of burnout
Numbers from the floor
He brings receipts.
Every number below came from a client's own CRM reporting, measured year over year so the season is not doing the work.
211cars · Jan to Jun 2025
603cars · Jan to Jun 2026
One Kia store's internet department. No new hires, no extended hours, no change to the pay plan. Nobody worked a longer day.
+186%internet vehicles sold
2.7xfaster from lead to sale
11→16%lead close rate
6.8xthe cars when the follow up had video
Follow up with personal video140 sold
Follow up without video12 sold
90 days, same store. The team sent more emails without video and sold 11 times fewer cars.
In the room
The work happens with people.
About Durran
The coach in the room.
Durran Cage has spent 24 years in one of the toughest customer experiences there is: buying a car. For more than eight years he has run his own company, CAGE Automotive, coaching dealers, sales teams and the people who answer their phones, with the CAGE Method: Connect, Activate, Grow, Execute.
He has spoken at the NAMAD general session three years running, keynoted for NHADA and joined the stage at ASOTU CON. More than 15,000 people have watched his training, for over 500,000 views, across more than 1,000 rooftops. Today he runs six to seven live coaching calls a day, which means every story he tells on stage happened this month, with a real team and a real number attached.
He brings technology into a team the same way he coaches: one small step at a time, with a person checking anything that reaches a customer. Leaders outside automotive started asking for that thinking. Now he brings it, and the energy people know him for, to any room that wants to leave educated, inspired, entertained and better than he found it.
“Adding light to my life by adding light to others.”
Speaker kit
Everything your team needs to say yes.
Forward the one-sheet to whoever approves the budget. Bios, the host's introduction, photos and setup are all here, ready to copy.
Short bio
Durran Cage is a keynote speaker, coach and the founder of CAGE Automotive. He has spent 24 years in one of the toughest customer experiences there is, buying a car, learning how people, video and technology make the day better on both sides of the conversation. He has spoken at the NAMAD general session three years running, and his training has been viewed more than 500,000 times.
Host introduction
Our next speaker has spent 24 years in one of the toughest customer experiences there is: buying a car. He has spoken on the NAMAD general session stage three years in a row, delivered a keynote for NHADA, and his training has been viewed more than 500,000 times. He still coaches real teams on six to seven live calls a day, so what you hear today is happening right now. Fair warning: the last time he spoke at NAMAD, the room was still talking about it a year later. Please help me welcome the founder of CAGE Automotive, Durran Cage.
Long bio
Durran Cage is a keynote speaker, coach and the founder of CAGE Automotive. He has spent 24 years in the car business, one of the most demanding customer experiences in America, and more than eight years running his own company, coaching dealers, sales teams and the people who answer their phones. He still runs six to seven live coaching calls a day, so every story he tells on stage is current.
Durran has spoken at the NAMAD general session three years running, delivered a keynote for NHADA, joined the stage at ASOTU CON and appeared on CBT News. His training on the RockED platform has been watched by more than 15,000 people, for over 500,000 views. His talks cover dreams and doubt, personal change, customer experience and the technology that gives people their day back. Every one is built to leave the room educated, inspired, entertained and better than he found it. He lives by one line: adding light to his life by adding light to others.
Typical setup
- Wireless lavalier or headset mic. He uses the whole stage.
- Laptop audio and video into the house system. Talks use music and video.
- HDMI to a 16:9 screen, plus a wireless clicker.
- A confidence monitor if you have one.
- Enough house light to see faces for the interactive moments.
Virtual and hybrid sessions work too. We confirm the details with your AV team before the event.
Formats
- Keynote, 30 to 60 minutes
- Half-day or full-day workshop
- Breakout, fireside chat or panel
- Student assembly or career day
- Virtual keynote
Book Durran
Bring the light to your stage.
Conferences, corporate events, schools and universities, association meetings, consulting engagements and media. Tell us about the room and we will come back within one business day.
- Keynotes30 to 60 minutes, tailored to your audience
- SchoolsAssemblies, career days, business schools and student organizations
- WorkshopsHalf day or full day, everyone leaves with something built
- ConsultingStrategy, curriculum and go to market for companies serving dealers and their customers
- AdvisoryFor leadership teams wiring video, CRM and AI together
- MediaPodcasts, panels and live shows