Adam May | Resilience & Leadership Keynote Speaker

WHAT AUDIENCES CAN EXPECT

Adam May, MS, LPC, brings together lived experience, clinical insight, storytelling, and practical application to create presentations that are engaging, challenging, and useful long after the event ends.

Adam has survived cancer, amputation, significant physical change, addiction, and the difficult work of rebuilding a life after survival. Rather than asking audiences to simply be inspired by what he has overcome, he uses those experiences to explore a more important question:

What are you going to do with the life, circumstances, and choices in front of you?

His presentations are honest, conversational, and grounded in the belief that resilience is not something you either have or do not have. It is something you practice.

Through storytelling and his A.D.V.I.C.E. model, Adam gives audiences a practical framework for taking ownership of what comes next.

THE A.D.V.I.C.E. MODEL

Accountability: Take ownership of your choices and actions.

Discipline: Continue doing the work when conditions are not ideal.

Vision: Keep a clear picture of what you are seeking.

Integrity: Align your actions with what you say matters.

Communication: Recognize when you need support and have the courage to ask for it.

Empathy: Navigate yourself and others with humanity.

CORE SPEAKING THEMES

RESILIENCE & ADVERSITY

Moving beyond simply surviving difficult circumstances and learning how to intentionally build what comes next.

IDENTITY & PERSONAL GROWTH

Understanding who you have become, who you want to become, and how everyday choices shape that identity.

LEADERSHIP & A.D.V.I.C.E.

A practical framework for strengthening accountability, discipline, vision, integrity, communication, and empathy in ourselves, our teams, and our organizations.

THE COURAGE TO ASK FOR HELP

Challenging the belief that vulnerability and strength are opposites while giving people a healthier way to communicate when they need support.

CHOOSING WHAT YOUR STORY BECOMES

Exploring how adversity influences our stories without having to determine their ending. Adam challenges audiences to consider the impact their choices, conversations, actions, and relationships can have long after a single moment has passed.

SIGNATURE PRESENTATIONS

HOW TO CHOOSE WHAT YOUR STORY BECOMES

Adam's signature keynote explores survival, identity, choice, and the lasting impact we have on one another. Through deeply personal storytelling, Adam challenges audiences to move beyond asking what happened to them and begin deciding what they will do with what happened next.

THE COURAGE TO ASK: HOW TO REACH OUT BEFORE YOU BREAK

Inspired by Adam's book, "A Fox in a Bear Trap: A Book on How to Ask for Help," this presentation examines vulnerability, connection, and how we can become better at both asking for and responding to help.

A.D.V.I.C.E.: A PRACTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR LEADING YOURSELF AND OTHERS

A keynote or interactive workshop built around Accountability, Discipline, Vision, Integrity, Communication, and Empathy. Participants examine how these six principles influence the way they respond to pressure, make decisions, communicate, and lead.

WHAT AUDIENCES LEAVE WITH

Audiences leave Adam's presentations with a practical framework they can apply to their own lives and organizations, a different understanding of resilience and adversity, greater awareness of how their choices affect themselves and others, and specific questions that encourage continued reflection after the event.

Most importantly, Adam does not ask an audience to become more like him.

He asks them to determine who they want to become.

Define your best self and defy it.

Adam May, MS, LPC, is a keynote speaker, clinical strategist, author, and upcoming TEDx speaker whose work explores resilience, identity, leadership, and the choices we make about what our stories become.

Adam’s perspective was not developed from theory alone.

At 17, he was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Treatment included extensive chemotherapy, prolonged hospitalization, and the amputation of his left leg below the knee. Survival gave Adam another chance at life, but it did not automatically teach him how to live it.

In the years that followed, his weight climbed above 300 pounds, alcohol became a way of coping, and the identity he had built around simply surviving began to fall apart. Eventually, Adam faced a different challenge: deciding what he was going to do with the life he had fought so hard to keep.

That question became the foundation of his work.

Today, Adam combines lived experience with years of clinical and strategic work to help individuals and organizations understand resilience as more than enduring difficult circumstances. His message focuses on rebuilding identity, taking ownership of what comes next, and developing the internal steadiness necessary to move through adversity without losing yourself.

Adam is the author of "A Fox in a Bear Trap: A Book on How to Ask for Help," an exploration of vulnerability, identity, connection, and what it takes to reach for support when you do not have the words.

He is also the creator of the A.D.V.I.C.E. model, a practical framework built around six principles:

Accountability: Take ownership of your choices and actions.

Discipline: Continue the work even when conditions are not ideal.

Vision: Keep a clear picture of what you are seeking.

Integrity: Align your actions with what you say matters.

Communication: Know when and how to ask for support.

Empathy: Navigate yourself and others with humanity.

Through keynotes, workshops, and conversations, Adam brings these principles to corporate teams, leaders, healthcare organizations, schools, universities, nonprofits, and communities.

His presentations are not built around asking an audience to admire what he survived. They are designed to make people examine their own lives, choices, relationships, and capacity to move forward.

Audiences leave with more than an inspiring story. They leave with questions worth asking, a framework they can use, and a challenge to take ownership of what happens next.

Adam’s philosophy is captured in a simple statement:

Define your best self and defy it.

Technical Requirements

Adam’s presentations are designed to be flexible and accessible. The following setup ensures the best audience experience:

Wireless lapel or headset microphone (preferred; handheld if necessary)

Standard audio amplification suitable for room size

Projector and screen for optional slide deck or visual materials

HDMI or USB-C connection to venue’s A/V system

Small table or podium for notes and display of books/materials

Stage or speaking area visible from all seating sections

Comfortable room lighting (no spotlight required)

Audience seating arranged to support engagement (theater, classroom, or round tables)

Optional (but ideal for interactive formats):

Whiteboard or flip chart with markers

Wireless handheld mic for audience Q&A

Adam adapts to in-person, virtual, or hybrid event environments.