Evan Austin
Evan Austin
Evan connects with audiences by discussing the struggles he faced growing up with a physical impairment and the resilience he had to have to become a Paralympic Gold medalist. His keynote is constructed to show audiences that there are many roadblocks and deterrents on one’s path to success. Evan leads listeners on an emotional roller coaster as he illustrates, through his own personal experiences, some of the toughest failures and greatest successes a human can go through in a lifetime.
Evan connects with audiences by discussing the struggles he faced growing up with a physical impairment and the resilience he had to have to become a Paralympic Gold medalist. His keynote is constructed to show audiences that there are many roadblocks and deterrents on one’s path to success. Evan leads listeners on an emotional roller coaster as he illustrates, through his own personal experiences, some of the toughest failures and greatest successes a human can go through in a lifetime.
Whether he is speaking to campus organizations, student-athletes or a ballroom full of people who just want to hear an inspiring story, Evan delivers an experience that leaves audience members filled with hope, a new perspective on not judging a book by its cover, and renewed belief in the ideal that hard work can make up for many things. Through his story-telling, Evan hopes audiences leave his program understanding that failure can be turned into fuel, that goals don’t just change but also evolve, and that in the end the process of pursuing a lifelong goal is in fact the greatest prize.
Evan is a 3-time Paralympic Swimmer, Team USA Captain, attended Indiana State University for his Bachelor’s degree in Recreation and Sport Management, and is a proud member of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. The now Gold and Bronze medalist is on the coaching staff of the Purdue University Swimming and Diving team as a Volunteer Assistant.
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PROGRAMS
The Wait of Gold: Sacrifice, Failure, and Resilience in the Lifelong Pursuit of Excellence
Keynote | Workshop | Virtual
In 28.98 seconds, Evan Austin etched his name in the record book as a gold medal Paralympian for Team USA.
28.98 seconds of determination, effort, and tenacity.
But this story isn’t about the wins; winning is the shortest phase of his journey. It’s about the losses that allow the wins to be possible. It’s about waking up every day and making meaningful progress toward his goal.
It’s about the wait.
Evan’s message of resilience focuses instead on the process required to work toward a distant, meaningful accomplishment. This keynote program is about how audience members can achieve greatness in their own lives through setting long-term goals, developing habits to build forward momentum, and learning to love the process of failure.
Ideal Audiences
- Greek Organizations
- Student Athletes
- Leadership Development
- First-Year Experience
- New Member Orientation
Audience members will learn…
Failure can be turned into fuel for success.
Goals don’t just change but evolve as we experience new things and grow as individuals in our failures and our successes.
Oftentimes in life, the process of pursuing and achieving a goal is more of a prize than accomplishing the goal itself.
Audience members will…
Explore the necessary elements for achieving mastery
Consider how balance in core areas of life is essential
Determine how leadership influences the potential for personal and organizational potential
Ideal Audiences
Leadership Development
First Year Experience
Distinguished Speaker Events
Fraternity and Sorority Life
Athletics
Stay In Your Lane!: Exploring the Best (and Worst) Advice I’ve Ever Received
Keynote
“Stay in your lane!”
Few phrases can be interpreted in completely opposite ways; it is either entirely deflating or empowering. It can deflate an individual because it can put limits and ceilings on them as they try to innovate and introduce new perspectives and ideas. It can be empowering to someone who is tirelessly working towards achieving a worthy pursuit and needs reminding that to accomplish such goals requires sacrifice and limiting distractions.
So, is “stay in your lane” good advice or bad?
In this intriguing keynote, Evan shares with his audiences the necessary balance needed to reach an accredited level of expertise in something and the process of strengthening our own leadership to make sure we are always trying to do what is right and not what is easy.
Evan leads audience members through different parts of his own journey as an individual with a physical disability and a multiple-time medal-winning Captain of Team USA. In doing so, he illustrates that accomplishing one’s goals and impacting others with leadership causes there to be a crossing point of staying in our lanes. At that intersection is where we can hope to become the best versions of ourselves and have the largest impact on others. Becoming an expert in anything takes time and rigorous discipline but it is not impossible.
As our dedication and drive towards accomplishing a goal so does our impact crater. The greater one works on themselves; the greater one can be for others.
We just have to have the courage to dive in.
