Skillfully utilizing humor and the power of the story, John Alston is an internationally known keynote speaker and award-winning author who has traveled the world infusing knowledge and inspiration to 3 million people with his message of extraordinary performance.

For more than 20 years, John has been recognized as a premier presenter of keynote speeches delivering as many as 150 presentations per year to corporations worldwide including numerous Fortune 500 companies such as General Electric, Sara Lee, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, General Motors, U.S. Steel, Corning , Bank One, Sprint, and the U.S. Army and Marines.

John's trademark approach enables people, regardless of their workstation, to transcend mediocrity by empowering them with facts, tools, and skills to excel in the new Millennium marketplace.

Bringing unparalleled energy and insight to every meeting, John emphasizes character, integrity, and common sense as the cornerstones of his presentation. Why? John's time-tested credo is that happy, fulfilled, and motivated people become happy, fulfilled, and motivated workers. "You can be successful and be a good person," John encourages. "These are compatible values."

Even off the platform, John's insights captivate audiences through four books he's authored: Life is a Gift--Don't Trash It; Story Power-Talking with Teens in Turbulent Times; Goodness Must Be Taught; and his latest, Stuff Happens (Then You Fix It!).

John offers impressive credentials having earned the designation of Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), which honors speakers in the top echelon of performance excellence. He was also awarded the coveted Council of Peers Award for Excellence (CPAE) in 2001.

John's education background is extensive and includes a bachelor or arts degree from Chapman University, and a master's degree in counseling psychology at California State University at Hayward. He's an active member of the Josephson Institute of Ethics Corps and founder of the American Institute for Stress Management. John invests in the lives of students by guest instructing at Canada College, Chapman College , and the University of California Extension.

John's expertise has also thrust him into the medium of television. He has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show," and hosted two of his own one-hour specials on the PBS network.

• Finding the Gift: 5 Guiding Principles That Can Save Your Life - With only one life to live and many gifts to give, John Alston had many reasons to revamp his 1997 book, Life Is a Gift-Don't Trash It: 53 Things Everyone Should Know. As it happens, John is in fine health. Recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumor in the summer of 2008, it wasn't so difficult for John to identify the #1 principle that saved his life at a critical time.
  
  For his future audiences, John has distilled the 53 things down to five principles that will help anyone through life's difficult times, good times and transitions. If you want your organization to individually and collectively amp up their appreciation for all of life's experiences and use contingencies as lessons, this presentation has as its primary focus a set of principles and practices to make that happen.
  
  
• Stuff Happens Then You Fix It - Given the radical changes in our world today, people everywhere are looking for answers. Regardless of the sophistication of your current technology, hardware or innovative communications systems, the human element is the key to business prosperity. This presentation is a reality check on getting things accomplished using innovative and creative strategies for accomplishing goals, refining your system, fulfilling your mission, living your values and affirming your intent to meet the needs of customers, clients, patrons, patients, students, colleagues and all the stakeholders in your organization.
  
  
• From Ordinary to Extraordinary - After this interactive presentation, your staff will walk away with knowledge that improves their ability to infuse a new and uplifting spirit in the work, better relate to the people they serve and feel good about themselves and their workplace! Using insight, humor and energy, John will motivate and inspire attendees to move from ordinary to extraordinary and better yet, thrive, survive and succeed with grace and ease while knowing that they can and do make a difference!
  
  
• The Secrets of Extraordinary Leadership A Common Sense Approach to Dealing with Changes and Challenges - This presentation is for anyone who aspires to lead effectively. With humor and practical insight, John Alston addresses changes, challenges and common sense in a way that will make effective leaders out of anyone who will apply the skills taught. For any team, organization, municipality, state or nation seeking the attainment of any goal, extraordinary leadership is the key. It motivates followers. Without followers, you're not a leader. Leading effectively is the key to thriving, surviving and succeeding in any endeavor.
  
  
• Seven Strategies for Managing Diversity in the Workplace - The objectives of this presentation are to relate to differences in a volatile and changing world, to enhance relationship building skills fundamental to collaboration and the competitive edge and to impact performance (actions, behavior and conduct) that targets productivity and profitability. This presentation is made relevant from a particular organization's experience and perspective, whether preventive, intervening measures or reparative action is necessary. Every stakeholder in your organization, whether those are fellow employees, suppliers/vendors or customers - is integral to managing the success of these strategies.
  
  
• Seven Strategies for Accountability and Personal Responsibility: Closing Down the Complaint Department of Life - Adversity, problems, sticky situations. Call them what you will; most 'challenges' in today's workplace stem from the tendency to seek fault outside oneself... also known as blame or finger-pointing. And if not properly managed, its ripple-effect drains productivity from projects, teams, even entire departments. The Solution?... Accountability and personal responsibility! John Alston presents a mind-opening perspective on accountability and how to get beneath the root cause of virtually all workplace morale and communication dilemmas. John delivers empowerment with punch, side-splitting humor and practical tools that everyone can apply minutes after his presentation.
  
  
• Changes, Challenges and Common Sense You Can't Be Too Serious! - We are all confronted daily with the reality of changes and challenges. Change requires that we adapt. Sharing dozens of tenets to help you do this, John Alston lubricates the process with poignancy, humor and common sense to deal with changes. You'll laugh and learn as he affirms the greatest antidote for the bittersweet nature of life. Using thought provoking insights, audiences leave this presentation empowered, rejuvenated and able to focus on performance. You'll be infused with a spirit that will enable you to grow from the demands emerging from changes in politics, technology, economics, personal and sociological events.

• How to Survive the School Game (for General Youth Audiences) This program is John Alston's most popular program for student assemblies. John explores complications, changes, and opportunities as one grows from early experiences in kindergarten to challenges faced in high school and within our personal lives. Using poignant stories from his personal experience growing up as well as the lives of others, he places emphasis on the fact that life is a gift and must not be wasted. When the desire to be accepted is naturally inherent in people, John encourages young people to find and develop their gifts and then someday give them back to the world.
  
  
• Making America Work: Meeting the Challenges of Diversity through Leadership, Mentoring and Coaching (for Your Leaders) - This presentation specifically designed for youth leaders. Within this presentation, John challenges student leaders to lead themselves and cultivate character to meet the challenges of popular culture. He provides a provocative and inspirational keynote for all who seek to transcend mediocrity, cope with the obstacles on the pathway, lead others in a way that they may not even be able to envision and make citizenship, community and America work!

• You've Got Too Much Class - This teacher in-service program offers a real shot-in-the-arm for certificated and or classified staff (support staff). From his own personal experiences, John can relate to being underpaid, overworked and often unappreciated. John explores how educators and caregivers can make a difference in a world where change is rampant and character seems to be slipping away -- and the demands on us are multi-dimensional.
  
  
• Making America Work - Young people and American educators are the key to stimulating the vitality and success of America. Eventually, the majority of our students will bring the full measure of their values, experiences and talents to an arena where they can serve in making a diverse world a better place for humanity. The enormous challenge of education is to understand, accept and teach a population of diverse human beings. The students of today will soon be the productive citizens of tomorrow, working and living together in harmony -- to make America work -- or they may not, depending on what we do now.
  
  
• Stress, Strain and Survival - This is an interactive presentation, with a focus on managing stress, change and achieving balance in one's personal life. It is designed to "lighten things up", set a new mood and offer a refreshing tone. It offers much of the same material as in You've Got too Much Class, but with a greater emphasis on active movement and a focus on personal responsibility for one's health and well-being.
  
  
• The Educator's Instructional Forum - This workshop is limited in size and runs for six hours. Participants work together to spawn unity of purpose and affirm methods that work. It is customized per group and is designed to explore goals, objectives and to devise instructional systems and strategies that work in today's teaching environment. This is a program designed to strengthen teamwork and improve classroom performance by creating a culture of learning amongst the entire educational community.