Real Life Leading

You can expect high energy, laughter, and lots of stories in which the audience participates! I've been a high school teacher for years, and so I know what it takes to keep people interested, engaged, and wanting to learn. I believe stories are tremendously powerful, and so I involve audiences in the ancient art of story-telling in order to help them understand the main themes of my message in a way that stays with them long after the event is over.

You can expect your audience to walk away with at least three practical takeaways from every presentation, things that can make an immediate difference in the workplace and at home. The leadership principles I teach can be applied in any setting, and thus they are helpful to every audience member.

I have been fortunate to serve in a wide variety of leadership roles in my thirty-plus years. These roles include leading a family as a husband and father, leading various athletic teams as an assistant or a head coach, and leading classrooms and camps of students and athletes in both traditional and workshop settings. Through these different opportunities, I have developed a leadership style that can best be characterized in two words: “Courageous Humility.”

I come from a divorced home, and I have also been through a divorce as an adult. I am now very happily remarried, and I’m also very thankful to say that my wife and my ex-wife (along with her husband) all work very hard to do the best we can to take care of our two daughters. Having gone through the divorce process as both a child and as an adult, I’ve learned many valuable lessons that I love to share. My sincere hope is that my story can both encourage you and help you, and that message begins with the simple phrase (which is also our family’s motto): “Truth and love.”

In the keynote presentation, you can expect audience members to laugh while they learn, to participate while they listen, and to grow even after they leave. They'll learn the three key principles to Courageous Humility as well as various ways to begin applying them at home and in the office.

In the workshops, the participants will get even more hands-on leadership training, with activities and assessments designed to help them dig deeper in Courageous Humility and what it will look like in their specific situations.

Finally, you can expect me to be professional, responsive, and willing to do whatever it takes to make your event a complete success.

My name is Joel W Hawbaker, and I am a professional speaker, author, and coach. I have written an e-book and a full-length book on leadership, both of which became #1 bestsellers on Amazon, and I am currently working on a book about blended family life, applying the same principles of leadership in a very specific area. My goal is to help young leaders learn to put the needs of others first, and in doing so empower their teams to perform even better by focusing on building quality relationships of mutual respect.

I'm also a divorced and remarried husband and father of three daughters and a former high school teacher and soccer coach. I'm blessed to live in Alabama with my beautiful wife Maryellyn, our baby daughter, and our two rescue dogs, Bruiser and Butterscotch. It is a privilege to get paid to do things that I love, and so speaking and teaching are dear to my heart.

I have a lifetime of experience with blended families: I grew up in one (my parents divorced when I was in middle school); I have been part of one as an adult (since my own divorce over a decade ago); and I have worked with many, many different types of families in my work as a teacher, coach, and professional speaker. I have seen families that worked hard to get along and families who used false allegations to try to imprison former partners. I've seen families who held joint-family parties and life events (graduations, baptisms, etc.) and other families who had to have separate holidays in different cities. Unfortunately, there are numerous examples of how blended/stepfamily life can be done poorly. My aim is to help provide examples of how it can be done well and to share tips and resources to help improve any situation.

I was a history major in college, studying at both Covenant College in the USA and at New College, Oxford University, in the UK. As a result, many of the stories I tell are personal, but others are from various epochs of history. I believe there are a plethora of lessons that can be learned from the past, and so I love to share powerful stories from men and women of different eras.

Lastly, I'm a voracious reader, and I'm especially fond of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Rarely do I give a presentation without quoting one or both of those amazing authors. Thanks for taking the time to find out more about me, and please reach out and let me know how I can help you!

No special requirements necessary, just a willing audience!