Signature talks
Four talks, each built for a business outcome
Every talk can run as a 60-minute lunch-and-learn, a conference keynote, or part of a three-session series. Content is tailored to your industry and goals.
5:00P.M.Resilience & leadership
The 5 P.M. Rule
The Year I Learned to Walk… Again
In his early 30s, Jefferson collapsed on a Toronto curb and was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a rare inflammation of the spinal cord. Over the next year he relearned how to walk, one deliberate step at a time, and learned how differently the world treats people whose bodies stop cooperating.
Your people leave with
- The 5 P.M. Rule: make room for the hard feelings, then choose forward motion.
- Afraid or unable? A question that reveals what is really stopping people during change.
- “Maybe this isn’t about me.” A Monday-morning empathy habit, and why to ask before you help.
Best for: leadership offsites, teams in transition, wellness and mental health programming, National AccessAbility Week, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and general inspiration for anyone and everyone.
Marketing & communicationsBrand trust
From Transaction to Transformation
How Purpose-Driven Marketing Drives Brand Equity
Audiences are done with the performance. Drawing on award-winning campaigns and global case studies, Jefferson shows why purpose-driven marketing now protects revenue, reputation, and your best people, and how to do it without the optics.
Your people leave with
- The 3 Bees: Be Authentic, Be Present, Be Prepared.
- The Baldwin Test for closing the gap between what you say and what you do.
- A business case your CFO and Legal Counsel will recognize: boycotts, reputation risk, and retention.
- Courageous Conversations: using Glenn Singleton’s framework to make the case for transformational, not performative, marketing with your leaders, your marketing VP, or your client.
Best for: marketing, communications, and agency teams; brand and creative leaders; conference audiences. Delivered at the 2026 IABC World Conference.
February · Tailored to youBlack History Month
Black History Month: What Changes on March 1?
A session built around your goals, not a calendar
Jefferson is not a historian, and that is the point. Each session connects Black history to what is happening in your organization now, so February leads to action instead of applause. Two popular editions:
Choose your edition
- Marketing edition: Black history through a marketing lens, from representation to brand trust, and what it takes to show up all year.
- Intersectional edition: Black history is queer history, women’s history, Canadian history. It is all of our histories.
Best for: marketing and communications organizations, 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations, ERGs, and any team ready to move past the box-tick. Delivered for Weber Shandwick and the Canadian Queer Chamber of Commerce (CQCC).
June · Year-roundPride & allyship
Ally is a Verb: Alphabet Soup
Decoding 2SLGBTQIA+ and turning allyship into action
For everyone, whatever their identity. 2SLGBTQIA+ is an initialism, not an acronym: each letter stands for a community with its own history. This interactive session walks through that history to the present day, decodes every letter and the plus, and shows how these identities intersect with race, gender, disability, and more. Ally is not a badge. It is something you do.
Your people leave with
- The initialism, decoded: what each letter means, from Two-Spirit to the plus, and the spectrums of gender and orientation.
- An intersectional lens: how being Black, Indigenous, disabled, or a woman shapes 2SLGBTQIA+ experience.
- Context from the HIV and AIDS crisis to today, and why stigma is the work left.
- Five tips to be an effective ally, starting the day after Pride.
Best for: Pride Month, municipalities and public sector teams, people leaders, and ERGs. Recently delivered for the City of Markham.
