Videos
-
Speaker Demo Reel | Morra Aarons-Mele -
SXSW Featured Session: Love Your Tricky Brain and Unlock Your Greatest Leadership Gifts
-
The Anxious Achiever | Morra Aarons-Mele | Talks at Google
-
Navigating Life's Disappointments with Jessica Turner
-
Morra Aarons-Mele: Turning anxiety into your superpower
-
Morra Aarons-Mele speaker's reel
-
Ep. 84: The Anxious Achiever with Morra Aarons-Mele
-
260: Are You an Anxious Achiever? Turn Your Fears into Your Superpower with Morra Aarons-Mele
Learn More About Morra Aarons-Mele
Morra Aarons-Mele is an expert in helping people turn hard things into leadership excellence. When leaders, teams, and organizations work with Aarons-Mele, they find the freedom to unlock hidden parts of themselves and become better leaders.
An anxious achiever herself, Aarons-Mele knows that taking your mental health seriously is a leadership strength. She’s passionate about strengthening workplace culture by integrating positive mental health into leadership, helping organizations build resilient, high-performing teams that thrive in today’s fast-changing world.
Aarons-Mele founded, scaled and sold Women Online/The Mission List, a marketing and advocacy consulting firm, delivering campaigns for organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CDC, P&G, President Obama and the United Nations. In her decades-long career as a political, public health and issue advocacy strategist, she has helped the world’s largest organizations change minds, hearts and behaviors.
Aarons-Mele is the host of The Anxious Achiever (LinkedIn Presents), a top 50 business podcast and Webby Award honoree, and her most recent book, “The Anxious Achiever” (Harvard Business Review Press), was named a Top 10 Management Book of 2024 by Thinkers50 and won the Axiom Award for Best Leadership Book. Her toolkit, book, podcast and training materials are used by leading organizations and business schools around the world. Recognized as a LinkedIn Top 10 Voice in Mental Health and shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement in Leadership Award, Aarons-Mele is passionate about helping leaders find their hidden superpowers. Her work has been recognized by Mental Health America with their Media Award (2023).
Aarons-Mele holds a BA from Brown University and an MPA from Harvard, and lives in Boston with her family and menagerie.
Morra Aarons-Mele is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Group®.
The Anxious Achiever: Understanding Anxiety Is A Leadership Superpower
Anxiety affects over one third of Americans. But anxiety at work has long been a taboo topic hidden in plain sight. Until now. In this session we will discuss:
-
Understanding and managing how anxiety shows up for you at work
-
How to use your leadership anxiety as an advantage
-
Managing perfectionism, impostor feelings, and the need for control
-
Creating guardrails that protect your boundaries, time, and energy
-
Managing anxiety in teams
Here’s the good news: Understanding what makes you feel anxious and burnt out is a leadership superpower! If you know how to manage it, anxiety can motivate us to be more resourceful, productive, and creative. It can break down barriers and create new bonds. It can help us find solutions in the toughest times and work through challenges. Morra Aarons-Mele helps you stop avoiding your anxiety and learn to thrive because of it.
Strong Feelings: Mental Wellbeing For Peak Performance
-
Uncover the strategic advantage of emotions, and why welcoming uncomfortable emotions is the key to strength and growth
-
Learn how the latest research on human flourishing and post traumatic growth applies to our changing, chaotic world of work
-
Create new skills and routines that boost mind, body, and spirit
-
Lessen the impact of stress, anxiety, and burnout
What Introverts Can Teach All Of Us About Becoming Phenomenal At Our Jobs
“Network your way to the top.” “Always say yes.” “Crush it.” “Get out there!”
If phrases like these- not to mention typical networking events on Zoom or IRL- make you want to hide in the bathroom, join Morra Aarons-Mele for a whole new outlook on introverted leadership, one that won’t make you want to hide. You’ll leave with new insights and solid skills to build a phenomenal network, grow your career, and define your success- for you.
It’s a myth that extroversion is the key to success. In this session, you’ll gain valuable insights and practical skills to
-
Identify your introvert superpowers
-
Communicate with confidence
-
Build a robust network and master networking events
-
Dazzle an audience, and lead with confidence—all without pretending to be an extrovert.
One of Morra’s most popular keynotes based on 17 years of research. If you’re a curious extrovert, bring an introverted friend and come along!
Neurostrong: Leading and Thriving When Your Brain Is Wired Differently
After decades of research and hundreds of hours of interviews, Morra Aarons-Mele discovered something unexpected: Many driven and successful people struggle secretly with their mental health. Maybe anxiety is your most loyal companion and your worst enemy. Maybe you’re neurodistinct, managing ADHD or a brain that just works differently, and you’re feeling stuck. Maybe you feel like you need to hide who you really are at work. In fact, every one of us has the version of us that we believe we are supposed to be, and other parts that we keep hidden. We hold ourselves to extremely high expectations and then punish ourselves for not measuring up. But here’s the TRUTH: The parts of us we are hiding are our gifts.
This session will help you discover how to turn your perceived leadership weak spots into your greatest source of empathy, authenticity, and impact. The anxieties, the challenges, the emotional sensitivities that you’ve spent years trying to suppress are actually your competitive advantage!
The key to unlocking your greatest potential as a leader lies in embracing those so-called “weaknesses.”
Join Morra Aarons-Mele, author of “The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears Into Your Leadership Superpowers” and host of the Anxious Achiever podcast for this interactive session.
Fireside Chat Format: Bringing Your Workplace to Life
Morra Aarons-Mele can interview one of your organization’s leaders or spokespeople as they share their own mental health journey and offer solutions for the workforce. This flexible, engaging format brings your company’s message to life with Morra’s expertise as an interviewer and podcast host.
The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower
(Harvard Business Review Press, 2023)
Hiding in the Bathroom: An Introvert's Roadmap to Getting Out There (When You'd Rather Stay Home)
(Dey Street Books, 2017)
Thriving in Uncertainty: Reframe Your Relationship with Stress and Anxiety
As a leader, you’re no stranger to pressure and high-stakes decision-making. What if the stress and anxiety that often accompanies leadership could be transformed into your greatest asset? Drawing from science and real-world examples, this session reveals how some of the most successful leaders leverage stress and anxiety to drive innovation, create more capacity, and achieve extraordinary results. You’ll discover:
-
How to reframe stress and anxiety: what the latest research tells us about the power of changing mindset
-
Strategies to turn anxious energy into a catalyst for success
-
Techniques to create environments that boost team trust, effectiveness, and productivity during chaotic times
-
Methods to enhance your decision-making by harnessing anxiety’s foresight
-
Ways to authentically communicate and connect with your team, even in moments of stress (without becoming anyone’s “therapist.”)
This workshop offers a unique opportunity to reframe your relationship with anxiety and unlock your full potential as a leader. You’ll leave with practical tools to not only manage stress but to harness it as a powerful force for positive change in your organization.
