About Stephen Warshaw
At the age of 12, Stephen's father brought home a number leather hides from a tannery in Northern Maine. The plant manager gave them away because they were supposedly unusable. Stephen and his Dad purchased some tools, materials, and a primer. A few months later, "Leathercrafts by Stephen" was entered in the Mattoon Street Art Show in Springfield, MA, with the slogan, "Let Me Belt You One!". Stephen cleared nearly $300.00 that weekend. But more importantly, he embraced a challenge and solved a problem - namely, what to do with all that leather. This early success lead to an oft-repeated pattern of turning allegedly certain failure into business success.
After dabbling with a career in politics and public service during and after college in the mid 1980's, Stephen instead chose to open a public relations firm in Boston. At the age of 22, he turned a chance pick-up game of racketball into an opportunity to plan the grand opening for the soon-to-launch Boston Marriott Copley Place. Stephen responded by suggesting that the ribbon cutting, media event and opening reception be held on the roof so that all the dignitaries could "look down on the smaller competition".
Stephen's firm, The Cheers Group would go on to design some of the most successful media campaigns and host some of the best events in the City of Boston. His success resulted from his fundamental belief in taking the opportunity to convert strangers into friends, then customers and ultimately--loyal, contented members of your tribe. Stephen went on to found and fund, "Moving Experiences", a relationship marketing firm designed to help companies solve a challenge: how to meet, greet and influence consumers.
Among his many successes were the promotion of GE Healthcare's new (and the first ever) digital mammography system. Rather than bringing oncologists and hospital administrators to Waukesha, WI, Stephen facilitated the creation and management of a traveling road show so it could be "experienced" by many more potential buyers. (For more on this, please listen to the audio testimonial from client Laura Bakosh, of GE Healthcare). Since then, Stephen has continued to help clients collectively meet, greet and influence hundreds of thousands of individuals at numerous high profile events, at sites ranging from Walt Disney World to the Winter Olympics.
Stephen chose to rebrand and reposition his business as Linchpin at Large after author and "change agent" Seth Godin's newest release Linchpin. In this book, Godin defines a "linchpin" as someone who "delivers a unique creativity; manages situations of great complexity; leads customers; inspires staff; and provides deep domain knowledge". In his latest endeavor, Stephen is offering clients his marketing acumen and keen ability to doggedly challenge-solve on a shorter term, objective-specific basis.
Stephen resides in Litchfield County, CT with his wife, Cynthia and young children, Anderson and Hannah, where he is also an Emergency First Responder for the Warren Volunteer Fire Company, and member of the Board of Directors of the Northwest Council for the Arts.