Keynote Speaker
A Resilience Keynote Speaker Who Walks the Talk
Lauren Pires built her resilience by accepting her disability, not by overcoming it. Born with Central Core Disease and spending 30 years hiding it, Lauren discovered that real resilience has nothing to do with pushing harder. It comes from learning to find joy in the everyday, own your story, and show up without pretending to be someone you're not.
Why Lauren
Real resilience gets built by finding your Daily Yay.
Most resilience speakers talk about grit, hustle, or bouncing back from adversity. Lauren Pires talks about something different: the small moments of joy that, when you learn to notice and build on them, create a foundation strong enough to carry you through the hard ones. She has about 33% of the physical strength of the average person. Not 33% less. Just 33%. She has about 33% of the physical strength of the average person. Not 33% less. Just 33%.
Her Daily Yay framework grew out of necessity. Living with Central Core Disease, a rare neuromuscular disorder that limits her physical strength to 33% of the average person, Lauren spent years trying to appear normal. What she found instead was that the performance of normalcy was more exhausting than the disability itself. Someone told her in her early twenties: life is too short to not have a daily yay. It stuck. She built a practice around it, left an 11-year career in festivals and events, and now teaches it to organizations across North America.
Named #2 Inspirational Speaker of the Year at Speaker Slam 2023 and recognized on Diversability's D-30 Global Disability Impact List, Lauren brings both lived experience and a structured, repeatable approach to resilience that organizations across North America have described as genuinely useful and lasting.
Learn About LaurenThe Framework
The Daily Yay: Lauren's resilience framework
The Daily Yay is a three-step practice for building resilience that actually sticks, rooted in self-acceptance, joy, and showing up as your full self. It grew from Lauren's own experience, not from theory.
Own Your Story
The first step is acknowledging what you're actually carrying, without performing wellness or hiding the hard parts. Lauren helps audiences recognize the weight they've been pretending isn't there, and what it costs them to keep pretending.
Find the Yay
The second step is identifying small, real, repeatable moments of joy in your day. These are genuine moments that already exist and can be deliberately noticed and built upon. Lauren shows people how to do this practically rather than aspirationally.
Show Up Fully
The third step is using that foundation of self-acceptance and joy to show up in your life and work without hiding. Lauren's resilience framework is built around stopping the performance of strength, not perfecting it.
What to Expect
What a Lauren Pires resilience keynote actually delivers
A reframe that actually sticks
Lauren doesn't tell people to think positive. She challenges the idea that resilience means pushing through, and replaces it with something more honest and more useful. Audiences consistently describe it as a perspective shift they didn't expect.
Permission to be human
In corporate environments where people are expected to be "on" all the time, Lauren gives audiences permission to acknowledge what they're carrying. That permission alone shifts the energy in a room before the tools even begin.
A framework with a practical shelf life
The Daily Yay is a specific, three-step practice. Audiences leave with something they can use tomorrow, something concrete enough to come back to a week after the event is over.
Tailored to your audience
Lauren's resilience keynotes work for corporate teams navigating burnout, ERGs focused on belonging, students facing transitions, and healthcare workers carrying invisible loads. She customizes the framing to your people.
Inclusion built in
Because Lauren's resilience work is grounded in invisible disability, it naturally opens conversations about belonging, identity, and the hidden challenges people carry. The resilience keynote and the inclusion keynote reinforce each other.
Top satisfaction ratings
Lauren consistently earns top satisfaction scores across the organizations she speaks for. Her sessions are rated as genuinely useful, which is the distinction that separates a keynote people remember from one they forget by Monday.
Keynote Topics
Lauren's resilience keynotes
Available as a keynote, workshop, or panel, in person, virtual, or hybrid. Each topic can be customized for your industry, audience, and event goals.
Beyond What You See: Building Inclusion for Invisible Disabilities
Through personal stories and workplace insights, Lauren highlights the realities of invisible and non-apparent disabilities. She explores common myths, biases, and barriers, sharing practical ways organizations can foster awareness, empathy, and an inclusive culture so that all employees can thrive as their authentic selves. For corporations, government agencies, HR teams, and DEIA and employee wellness teams.
View full topic →Bias, Belief and Belonging: Rewriting Narratives on Disability and Acceptance
This keynote explores Lauren’s journey of embracing her invisible physical disability after 30 years, common biases and beliefs around disability, and the transformative power of disclosure in fostering personal acceptance, community, and workplace inclusion. For corporations, ERGs, education, and associations.
View full topic →Seeking Strength: How to Build Resilience Through Small Moments of Joy
Lauren shares her journey from hiding her disability to fully embracing who she is. Through personal stories, she reveals how the pursuit of normalcy holds us back from confidence and connection. She introduces a simple three-step framework to help audiences let go of self-doubt, own their story, and show up fully in their lives. For corporations, ERGs, and associations.
View full topic →Everyday Ableism and How to Recognize It
Through personal stories and real-world examples, Lauren breaks down what ableism actually looks like in everyday life, from comments made by strangers and loved ones to the biases we hold within ourselves. Students explore four forms of ableism, examine the prevalence of both visible and invisible disabilities, and leave with a clearer lens for recognizing and challenging ableist attitudes in their own communities. For high school students and educators.
View full topic →What Clients Say
Hear it from the organizations themselves
Lauren delivered a motivating and impactful speech to the Class of 2024 at our Annual Last Lecture event. She stayed to mix and mingle with graduating students to share her own personal experience at Guelph-Humber. Working with Lauren was seamless and fun. She followed the guidelines of what was requested and put deep thought into what she wanted to say. Lauren is a pleasure to work with and I highly recommend her for your next motivational engagement!
Through her authentic storytelling, the audience really appreciated her sincerity, relevance, vulnerability, and resilience. She was inspiring, innovative, and diverse with her delivery, and her desire to genuinely connect with the crowd was evident. Lauren is such a versatile communicator and an amazing human being in general. We look forward to having her speak to our school community again in the future.
I had the absolute pleasure of watching Lauren captivate the stage at the Archangel Summit this year. Her story is deeply inspiring, her energy radiates positivity, and she is easily one of my favourite speakers. Lauren won the hearts of everyone in the audience with her authenticity, relatability, and ability to make you feel empowered to overcome challenges and live a fulfilling life. She is the perfect example of resilience. I'm so grateful to have connected with Lauren and can't wait to see her continue to thrive and inspire the world!
Formats Available
Flexible formats for every event
Keynote (45–90 min)
A full keynote for conferences, all-hands events, ERG sessions, wellness days, and leadership summits. In person or virtual.
Workshop (Half or Full Day)
A deeper dive for teams who want to build the Daily Yay practice together. Includes reflection exercises, small group work, and personalized takeaways.
Panel & Podcast
Lauren is an experienced panel guest and podcast guest. She brings the same authenticity to podcast conversations and panel discussions as she does to the stage.
Explore More