Registration is Open!

Sentenced to sixty-five years in a Texas prison, Damon West once had it all. At 20 years old, he was a Division 1 starting quarterback at the University of North Texas, when he suffered a career ending injury. He turned to hard core drugs to cope with disappointments of life.

Damon West, M.S Criminal Justice, is a college professor,
nationally known keynote speaker, and best-selling
author (with best-selling author and motivational speaker Jon Gordon) of The Coffee Bean: A Simple Lesson to Create Positive Change.  His first book and autobiography, The Change Agent: How a Former College QB Sentenced to Life in Prison Transformed His World, was published just three years after his release from a Texas maximum-security prison.

His life changed in prison when he realized that like a coffee bean changes with heat and pressure, he could change the environment around him.

MeriBeth McNeil is a Chick-fil-A Owner/Operator in Cordele, Georgia. She opened her restaurant in 2013 after three years of working for Chick-fil-A in Athens, Georgia, and corporate headquarters in Atlanta. What started as a college job has blossomed into leading 100 team members and $6 million in annual sales.

Her passion for the business is rooted in growing up as a coach's daughter. She learned many valuable lessons about leadership and culture watching her dad succeed on the gridiron.

Creating and implementing strategies for people to succeed is not only what she does daily in
the restaurant, but it has become one of her passions in life.