Award-winning keynote speaker Jason Reid delivers powerful, funny, and heartfelt talks on vulnerable leadership, workplace inclusion, and building trust in teams.

Today’s most successful organizations aren’t just powered by technology—they’re built on trust, inclusion, and human connection.

Jump to the Topic That Interests You:

• Leadership and Trust Building
• Theatrical Keynote on Belonging
• Neurodiverse Teams
• Psychological Safety

Most leaders don’t avoid uncomfortable moments because they’re weak. They avoid them because they’re human.

But the conversations we avoid, the truths we hesitate to say out loud, and the difficult decisions we delay are often the moments that define leadership the most.

In this funny, insightful, and deeply human keynote, Jason Reid explores how awkward honesty, vulnerability, trust, and courageous communication can transform workplace culture, strengthen teams, and drive performance.

Drawing from award-winning newsrooms, invisible disability advocacy, and real leadership experiences, Jason introduces Awkward Leadership™, a practical and refreshingly honest approach to leadership built around the moments most people instinctively avoid.

Jason Reid explores how awkward honesty, vulnerability, and courageous communication build trust, strengthen teams, and drive performance.

Get ready to laugh, learn, and maybe even rethink that last all-staff memo.

Join workplace belonging experts Jason Reid and Kristin Light for a fast-paced, funny, and refreshingly honest keynote that dives into one of today’s most important questions: What does it really take to create a culture where everyone feels they belong?

Over the past five years, organizations have made real progress in embracing diversity. But there’s still one tricky area we tend to overlook—the stuff you can’t see. Things like chronic illness, mental health, and neurodivergence. That’s where Jason and Kristin come in.

With quick wit, sharp insight, and a background in both showbiz and corporate leadership, they bring invisible disabilities into the spotlight—through a series of clever, comical, and sometimes painfully relatable scenes.

Together, they explore:

• Why the hiring process still leaves some of us out (even with the best intentions).
• How leadership culture can make or break a sense of belonging
• The subtle ways everyday communication either includes—or excludes—people.

Neurodiverse teams don’t just think differently—they perform differently. And when supported well, they outperform.
In this fast-paced and insightful session, Jason Reid and Kristin Light reveal how neurodivergent minds—those with ADHD, autism, learning differences, and more—bring extraordinary value to modern organizations. With real-world stories, strategic takeaways, and a touch of humor, they show how to identify, engage, and retain this often-overlooked talent pool.

This session is for leaders ready to stop leaving potential on the table—and start getting the best from every brain in the room.

Harnessing diversity is much more than just hiring people of different backgrounds and abilities. It’s about everyone in the organization feeling empowered knowing they have the permission to learn and make mistakes, as well as speak up – even when it goes against the conventional wisdom of the organization.

Studies suggest that psychological safety is not yet the norm in most organizations. Despite best intentions, the pervasive nature of unconscious bias related to sex, ethnicity, disability, and more can sometimes make employees feel that organizations are hostile to them or their ideas. 

Fostering psychological safety isn’t a DEI fad, it’s simply the cornerstone of good leadership. In this relatable, engaging, and highly practical program, inclusive leadership speakers Jason Reid and Zoe Mitchell will show you strategies to help your organization foster belonging, reduce turnover, and create a highly engaged and innovative workforce. 

The audience will learn:

• The four stages of psychological safety.
• To identify various ways unconscious bias emerges and learn how to combat them.
• To implement simple but ongoing communication and leadership strategies to encourage full engagement and innovation.

With a successful 20-year background in corporate finance,  psychological safety and inclusion expert Zoe Mitchell knows firsthand the impact that inclusive work cultures can have on engagement.