Jeremie Saunders

For most of us, the definition of success is accomplishing our goals. But often times these achievements in life are not possible without the support of others. In his keynote, Jeremie breaks down the importance of building community when striving for success and the vital role vulnerability plays in building the trust needed to strengthen the foundation of support we need as we strive to realize our goals.

Despite our differences, one thing we all have in common is death. One way or another, it’s going to get each of us. Jeremie has been forced to meditate on that reality and it’s had a profound effect on how he approaches life. In this keynote, Jeremie candidly and openly shares his story about growing up with Cystic Fibrosis and how he found laughter to be key as he shifted his perspective from seeing himself as someone who is dying from a fatal disease to someone who has been given the gift of a shortened life expectancy in order to make the most of it. As he sees it, his time on this earth really isn’t that much shorter than yours… so why don’t we all try living life this way?

Sitting down with hundreds of podcast guests for over an hour each and having conversations about their health issues and their most uncomfortable realities has taught Jeremie a huge and invaluable lesson – by allowing himself to become uncomfortable, he has become a more compassionate, empathetic person and a stronger leader. When something makes us uncomfortable, we do everything we can to avoid it. But what if we faced it head-on? What would we learn? How would we shift? Discomfort provides us with opportunities. Opportunity to learn. Opportunity to empathize. Opportunity to cultivate change. Opportunity to grow.