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Joe Robinson

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Joe Robinson is one of the country’s most quoted experts on work-life balance, mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, stress management, and the art and science of effective work. 

 

He has appeared on Today, CNN, NBC Nightly News, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, Forbes.com, and in the Wall Street Journal, Time, the Los Angeles Times, and dozens of others to share how to work smarter, break out of the stress and burnout cycle and build job and life satisfaction.

 

His articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fast Company, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, CNN.com, Men’s Journal, and many other outlets on issues from improving work-life balance to building mental health and wellbeing, managing time pressure, stress, and message overload, and increasing resilience, optimism, and quality of life outside the office.

 

As a keynote speaker and trainer, Joe inspires conference and workshop audiences with fun, interactive programs designed for engagement. Activities range from an exercise from a top researcher that shows in 10 seconds why we are lousy multitaskers to a fantastic tool from a University of Nevada expert that shows why we need to look at thoughts as thoughts, instead of from them, which is what drives stress. 

 

Turn off the false danger signal of stress, and the stress response stops in three minutes. Your group learn how to do that.

 

Joe has led programs for clients from Amazon to IBM, Pfizer, Nestle, Ocean Spray, Equitable, Siemens, Kohler, LEGO, the Reserve Bank of India, New York City Public Health, the University of Texas Medical Branch, Imagine Entertainment, and many more.

 

Joe’s latest book, Work Smarter, Live Better: The Science-Based Work-Life Balance and Stress Management Toolkit, charts a path to a smarter work style in an age of unbounded distractions and overwhelm. The book provides an arsenal of tools from his work-life balance and stress management trainings that he’s brought to workers around the U.S. and the world, from Mumbai to Bogota.

Speaking Topics

Work Smarter Live Better

There's a lot on everyone's plates these days. More and more messaging channels barking for our attention. Interruptions eroding impulse control and working memory. It's easy to get caught up in overwhelm and the stress it sets off, which is bad for employee engagement, satisfaction, mental health, and the work itself. The good news is that there are great tools to manage it all, which your group learns in the Work Smarter Live Better program.  


This fun and interactive session gives your audience the strategies they need to manage chaos,  keep stress, overwhelm, and burnout at bay, and build mental health, wellbeing, and better balance. 


In the sailing world, they have an expression, "You can't control the wind, but you can adjust the sails." We all have work we have to do--the wind--but HOW we do it, our work style, is where we can build in the adjustments to manage time, stress, email, distractions, and deadlines with proven practices we can all do. This gives your group a feeling of perceived control, which cuts stress and builds satisfaction and engagement. They no longer feel out of control.

 

Inspire, energize, and recharge your group with solutions they need to survive—and thrive—in an always-on world. They learn how to build a smarter, more sustainable work style, one based on thinking before autopilot reaction. The program shows through the latest research and best practices how to make adjustments to how we think, react, and do our tasks that make us more effective and less subject to stress and frenzy.

 

Participants learn how to manage pressure, multiple demands, devices, deadlines, and refuel the chief productivity tool: attention. They also learn how to put that attention on life outside work, find balance at home, improve wellness, increase optimism in their outlook, and build the keys to a gratified life. It’s a work- and life-changing experience that gives them tools they can use for a lifetime. They will be inspired!


Takeaways

  • How to manage demands and pressure, instead of having them manage you
  • Multiple stress reduction and wellness practices to promote mental health and sustainable wellbeing
  • How to control email overload, message apps, and distractions
  • How to manage emotions, reactions, worries, and thinking traps
  • How to build resilience through the science of optimism and positive emotions
  • Top strategies to recharge life, balance, and wellbeing and activate the fullest life

MENTAL HEALTH & RESILIENCE: MANAGE ANY CHALLENGE!

Stress and burnout are at all-time highs, reports Gallup, but when you turn off the danger signal that triggers stress, the stress response stops in three minutes. Knowing how to do that may be the best takeaway your team ever got from a conference. 

 

Is your dog still barking two months after a stranger dog walked on your sidewalk? No way. That's why your dog is smarter than you are. He drops the incident as soon as it’s over. Humans hang on to the stressful event, and that's what causes our stress. This program shows how to be as savvy as a spaniel, by dropping stress like an old chew toy, reframing, defusing, contesting, and disputing the bogus overreactions of a brain that thinks it’s 100,000 B.C.

 

Your group learns how to navigate pressure, workload, deadlines, difficult people and conversations, bounce back from negative events, prevent burnout, and build resilience. This is the missing manual we never got on how not to take the bait of stress.

 

Takeaways

• How to manage stress, pressure, and overwhelm, and prevent burnout

• How not to take the bait of stress by looking at the thought that causes it, not from it 

• How to leave work stress at work through the science of work recovery

• Multiple stress reduction tools to build resilience and manage any challenge

MOTIVATION & EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: Motivation 2.0: The Drive That Makes You Thrive

Studies show that employees who are intrinsically motivated are continuously interested in the work they are doing. That absorption and interest are the engines of employee engagement, which has been shown to triple shareholder return.

 

Give your organization the tools to unleash the extra effort in every employee. Drive self-initiative, trust, purpose, and results. Employee engagement can't be commanded, only enabled. This program shows how to do that by unleashing the little-known but most potent motivational system, Motivation 2.0, and the power of intrinsic motivation.

 

Takeaways

• How to use intrinsic motivation to drive optimal experience and full absorption in the moment 

• How to identify the right work goals needed for intrinsic motivation—excellence, service, craft, challenge

• Rationales that promote perceived choice and willing engagement

• Key strategies to unleash self-initiative

TIME MANAGEMENT: MANAGING CRAZY-BUSY WORK

Are information overload, interruptions, and distractions driving attention and productivity south? Get tools from this timely program proven to increase focus, manage distractions, and get more done.

 

Unbounded interruptions and intrusions erode impulse control and focus. The more you check email, the more you have to check it. You lose the ability to regulate impulsivity for not just email-checking, but also for Jim Beam, Sara Lee, or any other habit you don’t want. Control the crazy with strategies from the latest research.

 

Takeaways

• How interruptions shred your impulse control and discipline, and how to manage them

• Why multitasking thinking tasks is a myth, which we demonstrate in a fun exercise from the University of Michigan's David Meyer

• How rushing fuels stress and mistakes and why we need to be quick but not hurry

• Top time management tools, from the next physical action to base camps to order chaos and your priorities

LIFE BALANCE & HAPPINESS: THE SKILLS OF SATISFACTION

Scientists have found exactly what makes humans happy, but it isn't what we think. This inspirational program breaks down the skills we need to increase gratification, the long-term version of happiness.

 

Discover the strategies that create an extraordinary life. Some 60% of our potential happiness we have no control over. It's how we use the other 40% that makes the difference. Lift your audience sky-high with this popular program.

 

Takeaways

• The 7 key life skills needed for an extraordinary life

• How to satisfy the brain’s chief goals for long-term fulfillment: novelty and challenge

• The 3 Core Needs you have to satisfy to be gratified and the under-the-radar goal structure necessary to make it happen

• Why experiences make you happier than material things

Joe Robinson's Experiences

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Experience Details

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Testimonials

The team has raved about the sessions, and we are actively working on adjustments to operationalize the learnings! We would highly recommend the sessions to other companies.

Joe delivered compelling strategies for managing stress, fostering optimism, and balancing work-life health. His insights deeply resonated with our attendees, and the feedback has been very positive.

Your insights were very valuable and also incredibly motivating for everyone to hear. People have already expressed a strong interest to get a copy of your book after you high energy speech. They particularly appreciated how you tied your message to the principles outlined in your book, Work Smarter, Live Better. It’s clear that your approach to enhancing productivity and well-being resonates deeply with many of us. Thank you once again for sharing your knowledge and expertise. Your presentation will have a lasting impact on our team.

We looked long and hard to find the right speaker. Joe Robinson was the best choice we could have made. - Linda Sellan, Marketing & Sales Manager, Nestle Global

Our team loved the Work Smarter Live Better workshop. We all left with tools and tactics we could use immediately. - Brandon McNeal, Senior Director for Kohler

They loved your presentation. Wow! You were fantastic! - Shari Morwood, VP, IBM

Thank you for this life-changing session. It was great! Our employees want more sessions. - Diana Salah Eldin, Insuresoft

Joe was engaging and gave great tips on reducing stress and taking control of the day. - Katie Rothstein, Health Promotion Specialist, KeyBank

Joe, your presentation was very enlightening. Thank you for sharing many practical tools to help us manage our thoughts, lower our stress, and add more joy to our lives. - Dr. Joel Axler

I am writing to express my heartfelt gratitude for your remarkable presentation at our 2025 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Summit. Your insights, contagious passion, and genuine authenticity resonated deeply with everyone in attendance, leaving a lasting impact on our associates and encouraging meaningful discussions long after your session ended. It was truly inspiring to witness the rich conversations and reflections sparked by your session, “Work Smarter Live Better: Manage Any Challenge!” We deeply appreciate the time, energy, and expertise you shared, and we hope this is just the beginning of a meaningful partnership. We don't believe in one-hit wonders; we value ongoing collaboration and look forward to finding more opportunities to work together in the future. Thank you once again for playing such a pivotal role in making the summit a truly exceptional experience. We wish you all the best in your upcoming endeavors and look forward to reconnecting in the near future!

The Work Smarter, Live Better program was full of impactful information and inspiration. Providing our people with this training was a great investment into their productivity and their wellbeing. Our teams left the training in a better mindset and with many tools to improve their work-life balance

  • What is your favorite quote? Drag your thoughts from your troubles--by the ears, by the heels or any way you can manage it. -Mark Twain
  • Outside of your profession do you have any hobbies/interests? Adventure travel, jazz, R&B, Brazilian music, samba and salsa dancing, track and field, photography, hiking
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