A leading expert on emotional fitness and leadership, Nataly Kogan is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, and keynote speaker on a mission to activate millions of people to struggle less, thrive more, and embrace their Awesome Human!
Nataly immigrated to the US as a refugee from the former Soviet Union when she was 13 years old. Starting her American life in the projects and on welfare, she learned English by watching “Who’s the Boss?” on repeat.
She went on to reach the highest levels of success at McKinsey and Microsoft, as a Managing Director at a venture capital fund, and as founder or executive at 5 startups and tech companies.
But after years of chasing a non-existent state of
nirvana, Nataly suffered a debilitating burnout that led her to find a new way to live and work.
Nataly is a sought-after international keynote speaker and has appeared in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, TEDx Boston and SXSW.
She is the founder of Happier, Inc. and has worked with hundreds of top companies, teams, and leaders through her Happier @ Work and leadership programs.
Nataly is the author of HAPPIER NOW, GRATITUDE DAILY, and THE AWESOME HUMAN PROJECT and hosts The Awesome Human Podcast that people call their “best-self hour”.
Nataly began painting when she turned 40 and is a self-taught abstract artist. She loves yellow, overuses the word “awesome”, and is the funniest person in her family. (Just ask her husband and daughter, her favorite Awesome Humans.)
Challenge and change are constant. Struggle is optional.
Change is hard. It brings uncertainty and uncertainty is extremely difficult for the human brain to handle. So the human brain responds by increasing stress and over-focusing on everything that could go wrong, which drains our energy and prevents us from using our fullest capacity to move through change with a sense of purpose and possibility.
In this immediately actionable keynote, Nataly shares her science-backed T.H.R.I.V.E. blueprint for how to use emotional fitness skills to help your brain -- and yourself! -- struggle less so you can thrive and grow through adversity and change.
Key takeaways:
• The neuroscience of change (and why it’s so difficult for the human brain)
• 6 specific strategies to not just make it through, but thrive through change
• Powerful activational questions to move through change with more clarity, compassion, and a mindset of possibility
You are a leader if you positively impact other people’s capacity to thrive. And you can only do this if you positively impact your own capacity to thrive, first.
For 15 years, Nataly was a successful leader in tech, finance, and start-up companies. But, as she shares in this powerful keynote, by trying to be a servant leader she became a martyr leader, a mistake that not only caused her own burnout, but hurt her ability to be a compassionate, authentic leader who could successfully empower her teams to succeed.
Nataly shares specific lessons she learned and tangible, immediately actionable practices for leaders to improve their emotional fitness and optimize their ability to positively impact their teams’ capacity to thrive.
Key takeaways:
• Research about the direct relationship between leader well-being and their team's well-being and performance
• An innovative concept of the Emotional Whiteboard, and practices to improve emotional awareness and psychological safety
• A fresh take on self-care as a skill of managing energy and how to make it a realistic daily priority
Exhaustion, stress, and burnout are at an all-time high. We’re feeling less connected to ourselves, our work, and our colleagues. And constant change, uncertainty, and challenges have drained our energy reserves. But work doesn’t have to be an emotional drain or cause of burnout. As Nataly shares in this powerful keynote, it can be a source of meaning, connection, and joy -- yes, even during change and challenges!
With her signature contagious energy, straight talk, and plenty of humor, Nataly shares research from neuroscience and psychology, and her powerful, personal story of success and overcoming burnout. Using her science-backed Happier MethodTM, she activates you to strengthen your emotional fitness by integrating simple practices into your daily routine (please don’t call her a motivational speaker!)
Key takeaways:
• Emotional fitness skills to reduce stress and avoid daily burnout
• How to create a daily gratitude practice to experience more joy and satisfaction at work
• A fresh take on self-care as a skill of managing your energy and realistic ways to fit into your busy schedule
• How practicing Intentional Kindness can help you feel more connected and happier at work
Nataly’s science-backed method includes 5 Core Emotional Fitness Skills (Acceptance, Gratitude, Self-Care, Intentional Kindness, the Bigger Why) and she can focus her talk on a specific skill to best fit your organization’s needs and goals.
(Based on Nataly’s best-selling book HAPPIER NOW)
We’ve all gotten stuck in the “I’ll be happy when...” trap, believing that achievements, big life changes, or seeking perfection in ourselves and our lives will bring us happiness. In this vulnerable and practical keynote, Nataly, the founder of Happier, a company that has helped more than one million people live happier lives, and author of the best-selling book Happier Now, shares her lifelong struggle of searching for the elusive “big happy” through achievements and how she finally made the essential mindset shifts that allowed her to live with more self- compassion, joy, and meaning.
Nataly redefines happiness as a skill that anyone can cultivate. Using her science-backed Happier MethodTM, shares simple yet powerful skills and practices to activate the audience to experience more joy in everyday moments and get through tough times with greater ease.
Key takeaways:
• A fresh new mindset of seeing happiness as a skill you can practice and improve
• Introduction to the 5 happier skills, based on Nataly’s Happier MethodTM
• The power of gratitude to fuel joy and reduce stress
• How kindness and compassion can fuel your happiness by cultivating a deeper sense of human connection
• Strategies to be happier at work, even amidst challenges and constant change