Meaning of work Expert, Keynote Speaker, Explorer

Inspire your team, make work awesome
Real-life stories, empowering insights
Science-backed research, fun-packed delivery
Immediate inspiration, long-lasting impact
ROSS REEKIE

When work feels awesome, everybody benefits. Let's make it happen

The science is clear! When work has a sense of meaning, everybody benefits.

When we’re challenged in a healthy way, when we’re striving toward purposeful goals, when we enjoy trusted relationships with our colleagues, when we feel valued, when we are making a difference, and when we’re working with our passions, it gives gives so many benefits and it simply feels way more fun! We have more energy, we’re more productive, more creative, we’re happier, and more fulfilled. We bring home more positive emotions, and we’re healthier in nearly every way. Oh, and our businesses also make way more money. So, with so many benefits, why don’t we make it happen? If this sounds like a great idea, then let’s talk and make it happen together!

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Hi, I’m Ross. I’m a meaningful work expert and explorer with a mission to bring new perspective and possibilities to our relationships with work.
I speak on the topics of finding meaning, joy, purpose, and fun in work. I LOVE helping teams who are stuck, open up a conversation about their work, find new connection, and meaning. I love to help you to make your work more awesome.  Through my academic study and research, I have developed a simple model for understanding how our work becomes meaningful and I’ve researched how our relationships have changed through Covid-19. Through my consulting experience I have helped many organsiations and leaders to improve the big picture and everyday work lives of their teams.  I learned the most about work from my own real-life experience of a work-crisis-led burnout. My recovery path has taken me to Vienna, where I reclaimed my sense of self, my sense of purpose, and changed my work habits by doing a series of fun jobs.  I bring all of these experiences and knowledge together with my signature warm, playful, reflective, and fun style to deliver Keynote talks, workshops, and team coaching that make a lasting impact on you and your team.
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I love talking with people about how they feel about work. I mix warmth, playfulness, humour, and openness, with easy-to-understand research-backed models, live interactive science experiments, and inspiring real-life stories to open up a new conversation about what work means to your team. Stuck becomes unstuck, new possibilities open up, magic happens. Let’s create a new way of working and make work more awesome for your team.

Over the next year I’ll be exploring and researching the world of fun jobs. From Ski Instructor, Stand-up Comedian, Charity Work, Radio Host, Barista, Beat Poet, Youtube Star, to Photographer, I made a list (which keeps growing!) and I’ll be trying the best ones, one at a time and recording how each job affects me.

 

Immersive and interactive half-day and full-day workshops giving your audience immediate inspiration and clear guidance to excel in their fields.

 

‘Let’s make work awesome! How to lead and work with meaning.’

When work is meaningful everybody benefits. So why don’t we just make it happen? This keynote equips your leaders and teams with science-based knowledge, practical tools, confidence, and inspiration to make work more meaningful in your organization.


The science is clear. When work is meaningful we wake happier to go to work, we have more energy, we’re more creative, more productive, we have more impact on our communities, and it just feels, awesome! With so many benefits for individual workers, teams, organizations, and society why don’t we just make it happen? Well, the science and practice have all been messy, complicated, and lacking a simple, overarching framework, until now!


This keynote is for Leaders and Teams who want to know exactly how to make work feel more awesome. I will offer your team my easy-to-understand bubbles of meaning framework, show them how meaningful work vs meaningless work FEELS, help them to understand why it’s important using science, and inspire with real-life stories. We’ll do live science experiments together, reframe the way we think about work, and co-create an action plan for making work more awesome. This is all delivered in a fun, highly-interactive, and encouraging style.

This keynote equips your leaders and teams with science-based knowledge, practical tools, confidence, and inspiration to make work more meaningful in your organization.

The science is clear. When work is meaningful we wake happier to go to work, we have more energy, we’re more creative, more productive, we have more impact on our communities, and it just feels, awesome! With so many benefits for individual workers, teams, organizations, and society why don’t we just make it happen? Well, the science and practice have all been messy, complicated, and lacking a simple, overarching framework, until now!

This keynote is for Leaders and Teams who want to know exactly how to make work feel more awesome. We will offer an easy-to-understand overview, grounded in real-life stories, of the latest science, philosophy, and practical tools to help you make work more meaningful. This is all delivered in a fun, encouraging, interactive, and encouraging way.

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  • What exactly meaningful work is and why it is important
  • What it looks and FEELS like when we have it/don’t
    have it
  • The 7 key elements that make work meaningful
  • How you have accidentally been destroying meaning
    for your team 
  • The link between meaningful work and workplace
    well-being
  • Leaders and their teams who want to start a new
    conversation about work together
  • Leaders who want to change the way their team
    experiences work
  • Team members who want to take charge of their
    own work relationship
  • A powerful and simple framework for understanding
    meaningful work
  • A toolkit for starting conversations with your teams
    about making work meaningful
  • Inspiration from real-life stories and your own
    personal revelations
  • Confidence to make work more meaningful for you
    and your team
  • A new connection to what work means to you and
    your team

Let’s enjoy our work. What we can all do to make work more fun.

When you’ve lost the fun at work, results suffer. This talk will show your team how to find the “leichtigkeit”, reclaim a sense of playfulness, and reframe their purpose. 

This talk is for Teams and Leaders who want to radically change their way of thinking about work.  We’ve all experienced that feeling of been stuck in our work. We turn up, do our job, try to hit our goals and find ourselves existing from quarterly report to quarterly report. Somewhere along the way work stopped being fun. 

What if work could be different? What if we could reconnect with our passions? What if we could be more playful and reframe our challenges? What if we could create new connections with our colleagues? What if we could find new purpose in our work that reignites a flame within us? What if it could be fun again? 

After recovering from burnout caused by work stress I asked myself all of those questions and I decided to do something radical about it. I went in search of a new way of working by doing the most fun jobs I could think of. This exploration became the ‘fun jobs project’. >From Opera Extra to Ski Instructor I tried many roles…and found myself. 

This talk shares the triumphs and the challenges of finding fun and a new meaning in work. It is backed by scientific frameworks and I bring it to life with the inspiring stories of the people I met along the way. There is no hiding place in this talk. Your team will confront the way they approach work, bring out reflective insights, and equip them with the inspiration, new motivation, and tools to change their relationship with work.

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  • How to go from stuck to unstuck at work
  • How to change the way you think and feel about
    your work
  • How to find and connect with your passions at work
  • How to be yourself at work
  • A new way of framing the role of your work in your life
  • Leaders and their teams who want to radically
    change their work relationship 

  • Team that feel stuck in a rut and want to reconnect
    with their passions to reframe their purpose

  • Teams that want to have a giant mirror held up to
    their work mindset 

  • Anyone who harbours a thought: what if work
    could be more fun? 

  • A powerful human story(ies) for change
  • Insights and learnings about your relationship
    with work
  • Inspiration, tools, and confidence to reframe your
    work mindset 
  • A huge opportunity to open up the conversation with
    your team and colleagues about making work fun again

How to let go of fear

Fear is our biggest human and organizational inhibitor. It keeps us safe from dangers, but it also keeps us in our comfort zones, from making changes, and from reaching our potential. This talk is for leaders, teams, and organizations that want to know how to let go of fear and take a giant leap together.

Every meaningful thing that we’ve ever done and will ever do in our lives involves overcoming fear. Whether it’s approaching our dream love partner or tackling a big audacious work goal, our human fear instinct is there to get in the way.  100% of change projects, daring to be innovative, or simply speaking up and putting our ideas forward all involve facing and overcoming the hurdle of fear.

This talk is for leaders, teams, and organisations who want to learn how to overcome fear together and take a giant leap toward their potential.

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  • The science of how fear holds us back
  • Insights from the great philosophers in taking leaps of faith
  • A science/philosophy-based approach to jumping off the metaphorical cliff edge
  • What happens to our brains when we’re faced with fear and how to overcome it
  • Inspiration from real-life stories to take your own leap of faith
  • Confidence that you’ll be able to cope with any of the obstacles that come up
  • A practical tool-kit for working through fears
  • A light sense of relief that some of your fears about change have been taken off your shoulders already

Research

COVID-19 created a once-in-history global disruption to the way we live and work. It also created a unique opportunity for us to stop and reflect about what’s really important to us. I set out to answer the question: how has Covid changed our relationships with work?

COVID-19 created a once-in-history global disruption to the way we live and work. It also created a unique opportunity for us to stop and reflect about what’s really important to us. I set out to answer the question: how has Covid changed our relationships with work?

Radio & Podcast

Listen, as I explore how we can all make the future of work a little bit more awesome.

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ABOUT ME

Ross Reekie

Hi, I’m Ross. I help Organisations, Leaders, and Individuals like you find meaning in work. I’m a Keynote Speaker, Researcher, and Consultant in meaningful work.

I am passionately curious about people and their stories. In my consulting work and research I’ve interviewed thousands of people from Interns to CEO’s about how they find meaning and make work, work for them. I find my own meaning and purpose by sharing those stories and insights to inspire and enable others.

I believe that a curious and playful outlook is the best way to explore meaning at work and I bring that to everything that I do. I love to find fun ways to bring stories, concepts, and insights to life. Audiences regularly describe me as warm, funny (haha funny), insightful, refreshing, and kind.

I’m a regular subject matter expert and commentator in the media including FM4, the ABC, Sydney Morning Herald, Business Insider, and many more. My keynote speaking, workshop, events have included two TEDx talks (Glasgow and Mebourne), many blue-chip international companies such as Mirvac, Lloyds, Watpac, and government organisations such as the European Data Protection Board, the Australian government, and Sydney
Water.

I am also the Founder of Rise, Australia’s first consultancy focused exclusively on creating meaningful work.

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What others say

Meaningful Work

“It’s just so much easier and WAY MORE FUN to lead a bunch of people who are excited about a big audacious purpose” Evan, Young Fintech Entrepreneur of the year

When work is awesome it feels great and everybody benefits. We have more energy, we feel more alive, we’re more creative, we’re way more productive, and we have more impact on our community. There are so many benefits, so why don’t we just make it happen? The science of meaningful work has always been complicated…until now!

Research projects

Insights and tips from Ross’ explorations into how we find meaning and happiness at work

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How Covid-19 changed our relationship with work

Upcoming Events

Excited to learn more about meaning with work? Join one of my workshops, webinars, or clinics.

FM4 Radio Series

I recently recorded and produced a 5-part mini-series asking the big questions affecting the future of work. It was based on the insights of my global research project about how Corona changed our relationships with work. Listen below, as I explore how we can all make the future of work a little bit more awesome.

Episode 5
How can I find a job that I love
Episode 4
How can I make a difference to the world with my work

Podcast Series

Be inspired by these extraordinary  stories of ordinary people who found meaning and happiness in their work

Schedule time with us

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TEDx talks

ross reekie tedex

Taking Events

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Upcoming Events

Excited to learn more about meaning with work? Join one of my workshops, webinars, or clinics.

 

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Stay up to date with future events and workshops

Fun Jobs Project

Over the next year I’ll be exploring and researching the world of fun jobs. From Ski Instructor, Stand-up Comedian, Charity Work, Radio Host, Barista, Beat Poet, Youtube Star, to Photographer, I made a list (which keeps growing!) and I’ll be trying the best ones, one at a time and recording how each job affects me…..Read More

Articles

Ben the Performer

How would you describe your relationship with work? Do you feel like one of those couples in new infatuations where it’s all love heart emojis,

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Articles

Otto’s First Job

Why do you work? That’s a question I often use to open my workshop and keynotes. It’s a question we so rarely stop to deeply

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FM4 Radio Series

I recently recorded and produced a 5-part mini-series asking the big questions affecting the future of work. It was based on the insights of my global research project about how Corona changed our relationships with work. Listen below, as I explore how we can all make the future of work a little bit more awesome.

Episode 5
How can I find a job that I love
Episode 4
How can I make a difference to the world with my work

Podcast Series

Be inspired by these extraordinary  stories of ordinary people who found meaning and happiness in their work

As seen in