Adam Markel

Adam Markel, bestselling author, keynote speaker, and resilience researcher, guides individuals and organizations to tap the power of resilience to master the challenges of constant change. 

With 18 years as a trial attorney building a multi-million dollar enterprise and 10 years as the CEO of a leading personal development and business training company, Adam has much to share about resilience, culture, and change. Yet, some of his most enduring lessons came from his years as an ocean first responder - a life-and-death environment where Adam learned the importance of cultivating high-performance capacity and impeccable teamwork. 

In his latest bestselling book, Change Proof, Adam shows how those principles of resilience are equally relevant today for any business that wants to move beyond managing change to actively embracing it and using times of uncertainty, crisis, and chaos to create opportunities and stimulate individual and team growth. 

As one of Huffington Post’s top speakers to see and the #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Pivot, Adam’s messages have inspired tens of thousands worldwide. His keynotes, corporate workshops, and business coaching integrate practical business strategies, personal development insights, and a unique delivery style to create a high-energy and impactful learning environment. 

Adam is currently the CEO of the More Love Media Group, a TEDx speaker and influencer, and host of The Change Proof Podcast, facilitating insightful discussions with business leaders and social innovators and sharing strategies to fully embrace an uncertain world and build Change Proof organizations. 

Adam is continuously inspired by his wife of more than 30 years and their 4 amazing children.

Speaking Topics - 

The Way Forward: Going Back Is Not An Option, Here’s the Way Forward

Over the past year, leaders were increasingly faced with the challenge of optimizing employee performance while championing them through the very real issues of the pandemic and social unrest. According to the Harvard Business Review, employee productivity in most organizations dropped by at least 3 to 6 percent during COVID-19. Many of us are relieved at the prospect of getting back to “normal”. But let’s face it, these issues are unlikely to be resolved by going back to the way organizations used to function. We’re also witnessing a cultural shift where a large percentage of employees, in particular millennials, have new expectations about what is required to build a culture of collaboration and productivity.

The Way Forward is to become change-proof – to have the capacity to leverage uncertainty and change – whether it’s the new normal or the next normal – to build long-term growth. Resilience is the foundation, individually and organizationally. Research proves unequivocally that we are built to bounce forward, not back. Our brains can learn (at almost any age) how to process stress and turn it into strategy — by building the narrative of resilience. Individuals and organizations have the capacity for higher performance and engagement even under extreme stress. Resilient organizations enjoy 73% better health, 41% higher quality of life, 51% more energy, and 52% lower burnout – resulting in lower turnover and greater team innovation and productivity.

In this high-impact keynote, Adam shares innovative recovery techniques and impactful resilience-building rituals to help attendees immediately improve their capacity to address stress and avoid costly burnout. These tangible practices result in the ability to leverage the power of uncertainty to build long-term growth while becoming what he coins in his latest book, Change Proof.

Attendee Learning Outcomes Include:

• Developing a definition of personal and team resilience to deploy in daily leadership roles
• Understanding the importance of resilience as a predictor of the bottom line
• Identifying the most important causes of mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual depletion and what can be done to reverse the resulting productivity losses
• Gaining insight into case studies and research on the most effective recovery rituals and techniques to reduce performance depletion (mentally, emotionally, physically, and even spiritually), prevent fatigue, improve health, increase energy, elevate quality of life, and reduce stress and burnout
• Analyzing the proprietary Resilience Rank Assessment results for PPS
• Learning how to effectively deploy the 1% Factor to measure incremental gains and transform long-term results
• Creating a Recovery Map to improve MEPS performance metrics
• Evaluating recovery acceleration tools to boost effectiveness, in and out of work
• Understanding the 4 key objectives in operationalizing resilience training, including developing an accountability structure that supports individual and team resilience outcomes
• Discovering how to develop a “Got Your Back” culture of resilience vs. a watch your back culture of depletion
• Discovering an optimal paradigm to challenge the “status quo” and break through the fear of change

Got Your Back: Create a Culture of Care & Collaboration

Stress and overwhelm are even larger challenges for organizations today, making these questions ever more important: Are we too tired, busy, or burned out to think big? And if so, what do we do about it? With the pace of change only continuing to escalate during and after COVID-19, businesses must provide an optimal environment for people to be at their best.

With an estimated $62 billion being spent each year in corporate health and safety costs alone due to exhaustion and burnout, leaders must develop the organizational capacity to not only perform under stress but to thrive in the face of it.

In this virtual, high-energy, and interactive talk, Adam explores the critical factors necessary to build higher performance capacity and resilience through a Got Your Back Culture. Your team will leave with tangible takeaways for a lasting impact well after the event is over.

Change Proof: Leveraging the Power of Uncertainty to Create Long-Term Resilience

Unprecedented, chaotic, overwhelming, exhausting. These are the words most frequently used today to describe our personal and professional lives. Let’s face it though, this is not the first time – nor will it be the last – that we will be challenged on a mental, emotional, physical, and yes, even a spiritual level. When we’re not at our best in these areas, we just don’t perform well, leaving creativity, flexibility, and innovation on the table. The impact? Our key performance indicators suffer, including revenue and profitability.

Today’s imperative is for our organizations to cultivate our ability to become Change-Proof: having the ability to not just ride the waves of change… but to shred them and stay on top for the long ride! Resilience is the foundation, both individually and organizationally, for maintaining performance. Research shows that when we develop, practice, and invest in the skills of resilience, the results are improved health, more energy, passion, and engagement, lower turnover, and greater team innovation and performance.

In this virtual, high-energy interactive talk, Adam teaches simple, usable daily practices to improve our levels of resilience and how to leverage the stress of uncertainty and change to build long-term growth.

Create High-Performance Leadership Like A Lifeguard: Resilience as the Unsung Hero of Your Business

With 18 years as a trial attorney and 9 years as the CEO of a large training and development company, Adam Markel has much to share with audiences about leadership and resilience. However, his greatest and most enduring lessons came from the 7 years he spent as a lifeguard on the beach in Long Island.

In this high-energy talk, Adam will share what he calls the “Resilient Leadership Model” to help create high-performance results — where team members are mentally, emotionally, and physically bought into the same mission. Adam helps his audiences understand that resilience is a lot more than endurance and that leadership means more than simply being in charge. His heart-centered leadership techniques help organizations understand how to nurture their teams so they can outlast the competition and go the distance.

Through a combination of audience participation and powerful stories straight out of today’s headlines, Adam Markel shares:

• How transparency creates trust — the most critical element in developing a high-performing team.
• How to hold team members accountable from a place of love versus judgment.
• A game-changing feedback system to encourage more authentic, fast, and effective communication.
• Systems that encourage healthy risk-taking and create a got-your-back culture vs, a watch-your-back culture.

Use the P.I.V.O.T. Formula To Create A Culture Of Creativity: Embracing Change & the Path to Innovation

Disruption is inevitable. If your organization is not prepared to manage and make the most of change – or clings to the status quo because of the perceived risk, your days may be numbered: 88% of the Fortune 500 companies from 1955 are no longer in business. Without a pivot-ready culture, businesses run the risk of mediocrity creeping in, threatening an organization’s long-term profits and its very survival. Our ability to reinvent and innovate – what Adam Markel refers to as “PIVOT-Ability” – is critical to business longevity. Pivoting requires vision, agility, resilience, and the ability to utilize change to its fullest.

Through a combination of foundational principles, stories, and interactive exercises, Adam Markel will help your team:

• Embrace the law of small changes to increase productivity and operational longevity.
• Leverage a 4-part Resilience Regeneration process to build top-down and bottom-up resilience into your
• organization.
• Shift from an old paradigm success formula to one that encourages your team to reach new heights while
• learning from “great mistakes”.
• Breakthrough the fear of change and the challenge “status quo” results.