Paul Osincup

Paul Osincup is a Speaker and Positive Workplace Strategist who helps organizations create happier, healthier, and more connected places to work. With a background in higher education leadership and administration, in his previous roles, Paul addressed high-risk behaviors and potential threats to college campuses. As a Director of Conflict Resolution and Associate Dean of Students, he investigated and adjudicated sexual assaults and domestic violence incidents, worked with students with severe drug, alcohol, and mental health issues, and taught graduate courses on communication and leadership. Paul was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education for his work in restorative justice, served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug, and Violence Prevention, and still delivers school violence prevention consultation across the country on behalf of several non-profit agencies.

Despite the serious nature of his work, Paul has also been a “Jack of all Jokes” since grade school. After building a comedy career—and even winning a stand-up comedy contest in Denver—Paul became interested in the use of humor to influence, lead, decrease stress, and boost resilience. Now Paul is on a global mission for workplace happiness that has provided him the opportunity to work with hundreds of organizations including Nasdaq and the Harvard Kennedy School of Leadership.

He is a content creator for Happify, an app that provides evidence-based solutions for emotional health and well-being for over 4 million users. Paul is also a certified Stress Mastery Educator with the American Institute of Stress, and a training partner with the international work culture consultancy, “Delivering Happiness.” His TEDx Talk: “Leading with Laughter, the Power of Humor in Leadership” is used in corporate and collegiate leadership courses around the world he is the President of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, an international organization dedicated to the study and application of humor to enhance health and human performance. Paul’s work has been highlighted in The New York Times, Forbes, and on his mom’s refrigerator.

Speaking Topics - 

Leading with Laughter

This high-energy keynote describes not only why humor is a crucial leadership skill, but also how to use it as a competitive advantage in supervision, networking, sales, and marketing—basically, interacting with other human beings. It’s like the extended version of my TEDx Talk: same level of fun, but more material and strategies you can use immediately.

Decrease Stress & Boost Happiness with Humor

Humor boosts our brain’s elasticity and increases our ability to navigate adversity. But nothing gets an eye-roll quicker than telling a stressed person to “cheer up” or “think positive.” I provide techniques for how to be positive when it’s hard and how to use humor to increase resilience.

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This talk is much more than just telling people they should use humor. I provide simple evidence-based strategies for building humor habits that will increase performance, decrease stress, and boost your happiness!

Battling Burnout & Compassion Fatigue

With disengagement and burnout rates at an all-time high, this is my most highly requested keynote. Here, I weave together humorous anecdotes, participant interaction (if desired), and captivating stories into best practices and strategies for implementation, resulting in a keynote that's packed with content and comedy.

Navigating Change

There are only two things guaranteed in life: one is change, and the other is me adding too much creamer to my coffee. Every. Dang. Time. While the creamer is just annoying, change is scary. It’s often the fear of change that is more taxing than the change itself. In this keynote, innovative strategies, real-world examples, and even some improv comedy turn hesitation into inspiration and motivation.

Creating a Culture of Fun

Since fun at work boosts productivity and innovation and decreases turnover, why don’t more workplaces use fun as an intentional culture strategy? Most tell me they just don’t know how or don’t have the time. This interactive keynote covers why a fun culture is good for your bottom line and provides an easy, HR-compliant, realistic process for adding more fun to your existing work culture.