The cost of showing up and the power of coming back.
What happens when someone who has helped millions of people finally helps himself?
Jon Rose — former professional athlete, founder of Waves For Water, and frontline humanitarian in some of the world's most extreme disaster and conflict zones — tells a raw, vulnerable, and ultimately empowering story about what happens when purpose, pressure, and service collide.
In Healing the Helper, Jon traces his journey from childhood conditioning to perform and provide, through a decade of chasing fear and flow in professional surfing, into fifteen years of crisis-zone humanitarian leadership… and the moment it all collapsed. What emerged was a deeply human process of unwinding old patterns, reclaiming energy, and returning home to self.
This talk is both emotional and practical: a roadmap for leaders, caregivers, founders, and high-performers who give endlessly — and need to learn how to rebuild without losing their fire.
Most high performers share one thing in common: they know how to push, give, produce, provide, and show up. What they often don't know is how to pause. How to receive. How to protect the inner ecosystem that allows them to serve at a high level without collapsing under the weight of their own expectations.
In Healing the Helper, Jon Rose unpacks the universal, yet often invisible, journey of those who spend their lives helping others — caregivers, leaders, founders, parents, coaches, frontliners, and purpose-driven high performers. Jon's story begins in childhood, where he learned early that his value came from being useful, being strong, and performing under pressure. That wiring carried him into a decade-long professional surfing career defined by risk, flow, and an identity built around self-reliance and grit.
But the real turning point came after he founded Waves For Water, the humanitarian organization that has provided clean water to more than four million people around the world. For over fifteen years, Jon deployed into disaster and conflict zones — from earthquakes to typhoons to war-torn regions — where he navigated chaos, loss, and life-or-death decision-making with a calm, high-performance mindset. On the outside, he was the rescuer. On the inside, the cost was accumulating.
Eventually, the very qualities that made him exceptional — resilience, service, adaptability, intensity — turned into overextension. Like many "helpers," Jon didn't burn out from weakness, but from overdeveloped strength. And when the system finally broke, he had a choice: numb out and push harder, or turn inward and rebuild from the root.
Healing the Helper is that story — not of collapse, but of return. Jon shares the practices, frameworks, and emotional tools that allowed him to unwind years of armor, reconnect with his own nervous system, and rediscover the parts of himself he had abandoned in the name of helping others. From body-based healing to identity recalibration, from setting energetic boundaries to learning the language of his own emotions, Jon maps the inner expedition that changed everything.
Most importantly, this keynote offers a breakthrough perspective: you can lead, serve, and perform at the highest levels — without losing yourself. Healing isn't the end of service; it's what allows service to become sustainable, powerful, and aligned.
Raw, honest, and deeply human, this keynote meets audiences exactly where modern life has left them: stretched thin, overwhelmed, purpose-hungry, and craving a new pattern. Jon's story becomes a mirror — and his tools become a roadmap — for anyone ready to shift from chronic self-sacrifice into grounded, healthy, meaningful leadership.
Recognize the psychological and emotional patterns that drive chronic over-giving and over-performing
Learn nervous-system oriented practices and micro-recovery tools to move through burnout
Learn to lead without self-abandonment — service that doesn't require sacrifice
Replace 'performance under pressure' with 'presence under pressure'
Create boundaries without losing compassion or purpose
Rediscover who you are beyond achievement or utility
Cultivate a life rhythm that supports long-term leadership, creativity, and impact
Executives and managers navigating high-stakes performance and team wellness
Builders who pour everything into their vision and need sustainable patterns
Those who face trauma, crisis, and life-or-death decisions daily
Mission-driven professionals at risk of losing themselves in the work
Caregivers and healers facing compassion fatigue
Those who give endlessly to others' growth and development
High-performers ready to shift from chronic self-sacrifice to sustainable leadership
Full keynote presentation with Q&A
Conference kick-off format
Extended session with audience interaction
Optimized for online engagement
Hands-on session exploring personal burnout patterns and practical integration techniques
Leadership training for creating cultures that don't require self-destruction
Deep dive with leadership teams on organizational wellness and sustainable high performance
Leadership Lessons from the Frontline
High achievers often thrive in chaos—until the chaos starts driving them. Drawing from decades spent pushing the limits in unpredictable environments, The Adventure Paradox reveals how the very instincts that fuel achievement can also undermine clarity, stability, and long-term effectiveness. Jon guides leaders toward a more intentional, responsive way of operating.
Ancient Wisdom for Modern Burnout
We're trying to solve modern burnout with modern tools—and it's leaving us emptier than before. In this talk, Jon explores what happened when he stepped outside Western paradigms and immersed himself in cultures that still honor slowness, ritual, belonging, and the natural world. By integrating ancient ways of being into a high-pressure modern life, he reveals simple, grounding practices that help us recover our capacity, restore meaning, and move forward with wholeness.