Mark Black

Resilience Expert and the Only Man in History to Run a Marathon Using Someone Else's Heart and Lungs

Topics: Bullying, Leadership Development, Mental Health, Motivation and Inspiration, Resilience
Audiences: Corporate, Educators/Staff, Faith-Based, French Speaking, Middle/High School, Parents, University/College

WORKSHOPS
AND TOPICS

Do Tough Stuff

Format: Assembly Program or Workshop

Duration: 50-65 mins

Suitable for: Grades 7-12

We live in a world where convenience and ease are valued more highly than determination and grit. When students believe that better means easier they risk missing out on some of the best parts of life.

In this thought-provoking and inspiring program; Mark shares how the best things in his life came out of what initially seemed like terrible situations. Students learn practical strategies for reframing their challenges and embracing their flaws to become the best version of themselves.

Key Take-Aways:

  • Your results are created by your decisions. If you don’t like your results; change your decisions.
  • The best way to deal with your problems is to face them head-on.
  • It is great to dream and to have a positive attitude, but unless you DO something, nothing will change.
  • The most successful people are also the most determined: If you never quit, you succeed, or you learn.

Hold On

Duration: 50-65 mins

Suitable for: Grades 9-12 & University/College audiences

Teens are more anxious and stressed than ever before. 34% of high school students now indicate a moderate to serious level of psychological distress. Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in people aged 15-24, it doesn’t have to be.

Even while working as a “motivational speaker” Mark struggled with an anxiety disorder and depressive episodes for years. He has experienced how it feels, and he wants to help. Mark is not a therapist or psychiatrist. He is just someone who has been there and found a way out.

In this powerful presentation, Mark incorporates humour and humility to open an authentic and encouraging dialogue and provide a safe space for students dealing with depression and other mental health struggles. Students will learn practical strategies to cope and learn it is okay to ask for help.

Key Take-Aways:

  • Permission to talk: students will be encouraged to talk to people they trust about how they feel
  • Acceptance: teens need to feel accepted. Mark helps students accept themselves for who they are
  • How to get help: Posting the crisis / suicide hotline number is not enough.
  • Mark provides students with a number of resources and ways to get help after the presentation.

Level Up Your Life

Teens are at a critical time in their personal development. In “Level Up” Mark will use his life story of battling a life-threatening disease, surviving a Heart & Double-Lung Transplant, and running 4 marathons to help your students see new possibilities for themselves.

Key Take-Aways:

  • Discover what is holding you back from being your best
  • Stretch your vision of what is possible
  • Learn how to cultivate REAL motivation that lasts
  • Understand what drives you
  • If you need to stretch the vision of your organization and help your people set bigger goals, this is the program for you.

The Resilience Roadmap

You deal with adversity on a daily basis. In addition to the typical challenges you have always had to face, now there is covid-19 and all it brings. When faced with any adversity, people generally have two reactions: fight or flight. They either summon their resources and resolve, they retreat or sink into despair. Which will you be?

To succeed in the face of adversity, one tool is essential to have in your toolbox; resilience.  In The Resilience RoadmapTM Mark provides a framework for success despite the odds and provides a powerful dose of inspiration and excuse-eliminating motivation, in the process.

Using his life story of battling a life-threatening disease, surviving a Heart & Double-Lung Transplant, and recovering to run 4 marathons Mark will show you that you are limited more by perceptions than circumstances. But it goes far beyond emotions or attitude.

In this powerful and practical program, you will acquire skills you can implement immediately to improve your bottom line.

Key Take-Aways:

  • Re-frame challenges to create powerful opportunities for innovation and growth
  • Eliminate distractions and excuses that impede your success
  • Where to put your time and energy to impact the metrics that matter
  • Create milestones and goals that actually drive results
  • Develop an implementable action plan
  •  This program will not only provide your conference with a powerful experience ideal for beginning or ending your event with impact, attendees will leave with practical takeaways they can implement in their business the following day.

Live Today

Do your people struggle with stress, frustration, or worry? Have they lost some of the joy and passion for what they do amid all of the challenges and stresses they face? If so, Live Today is the perfect program to remind them how much their work matters and re-ignite their passion for doing it.

Live TodayTM is an inspiring and powerful way to open or close your conference with a message that will leave people inspired and rejuvenated. Through his powerful personal story, Mark will show your audience how to accept the things they cannot change, and focus their most precious resources – time and energy – on the things that matter.

  • Accept the things they cannot change, in order to
  • focus on what they can control
  • Re-discover the pride and passion they have for their work
  • Be inspired and motivated to be their best for themselves and their patients
  • Live Today provides your people with a fresh perspective on challenges and perceived problems and leaves them inspired and empowered to be their best.

Through Your Patients' Eyes

You care about your patients. You want to give them the best care possible. You can’t be expected to do that unless you know what really matters to them.

In this engaging presentation, Mark will the incredible impact made on him by the medical professionals who he lived with and cared for him as he faced the prospect of death. You’ll be inspired and affirmed in the value of your work. More than that, you’ll learn practical strategies to help you be a better professional, like:

  • The Do’s and Don’ts to ensure your patients feel cared for
  • The 3 things you can do to connect with your patients immediately
  • How to turn a patient into your ally
  • How to turn your workday into an energizing, rewarding and
  • fulfilling experience

Mark has worked with thousands of medical professionals, and spoken at dozens of conferences, including

  • Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses
  • National Emergency Nurses Association
  • Canadian Association of Health Care Auxiliaries
  • National Pulmonary Hypertension Association

This program is perfect for the opening or closing keynote for your healthcare conference. It is also available as a 90 min breakout.

Testimonials

Speaker Testimonials

“It is rare to find a speaker who is able to both connect with teens AND provide a meaningful message that can immediately help them in their lives. Mark is one of those speakers. If you have the opportunity to bring him to your school, do it. We booked Mark for three virtual programs for our students and parents during the pandemic. I was impressed with how he effortlessly mixed humour with his remarkable experience, to make genuine connections with the audience even through a screen. Using various engagement strategies from hand raising to Q & A, he kept students engaged throughout. Mark’s program was exactly what we needed. The resilience strategies he teaches give students the tools to be better cope with the multitude of challenges they face, and the unforgettable story he shares inspires us to take action. After hearing Mark, students realize their capacity to thrive despite their circumstances and are empowered to face whatever life throws at them.”

“Recently our students had the privilege of hearing speaker Mark Black. Mark was chosen by our Students’ Council after they heard him speak at the Ontario Student Leadership Conference in Niagara Falls. Right from the start of Mark’s presentation, students were engaged and remained engaged throughout the entire hour. Mark did a great job of combining humour and anecdotes relevant to our teenage students to hook them up, and to prepare them to hear his practical and powerful message of leading a life that is positive and purposeful. As a Guidance Counsellor and Students’ Council Advisor, I would highly recommend Mark for any speaking engagement. Using his own personal life experience, Mark is able to offer students practical ways to feel more optimistic, reduce anxiety and worry, and start a change process to reach their goals.”

Adam Rowden, Student Council Advisor, Wellington Heights Secondary School

“The saying ‘speak from your heart’ certainly suits Mark Black’s presentation! His honest, down to earth conversation with our students made a huge impact! We tied his presentation to our school Career Fair and his words hit home. It is rare to see a standing ovation in a high school, but there was no question: he deserved it!”

Sheila Chad, Principal, E.D. Feehan Catholic High School

“It is not easy to gain the attention of middle schoolers. He engaged our 7-12 audience with skill. His content was everything that we try to deliver in our grade 9-12 Healthy and Active Living curriculum. It’s inspiring to hear a “stranger” make these connections with the students: resilience, consent, respect and the Golden Rule, etc. We look forward to linking his talk back to our themes in the curriculum in the coming months.”

D. Kealey, Principal, St. Peter High School, Orleans, ON

“It is rare to find a speaker who is able to both connect with teens AND provide a meaningful message that can immediately help them in their lives. Mark is one of those speakers. If you have the opportunity to bring him to your school, do it. We booked Mark for three virtual programs for our students and parents during the pandemic. I was impressed with how he effortlessly mixed humour with his remarkable experience, to make genuine connections with the audience even through a screen. Using various engagement strategies from hand raising to Q & A, he kept students engaged throughout. Mark’s program was exactly what we needed. The resilience strategies he teaches give students the tools to be better cope with the multitude of challenges they face, and the unforgettable story he shares inspires us to take action. After hearing Mark, students realize their capacity to thrive despite their circumstances and are empowered to face whatever life throws at them.”

More Information

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