Keynotes & Workshops
Lead What Comes Next.
Rya Hazelwood helps leaders and teams navigate adversity, uncertainty and change with greater clarity, agency and forward momentum.
Through candid storytelling, executive-level insight and practical strategies, Rya challenges audiences to rethink optimism, not as positive thinking, but as a disciplined way of seeing what is true, identifying what is still possible and choosing what to do next.
Optimism isn't the absence of difficulty. It's what you do with it.
Change is constant. Pressure is real. And leaders rarely get to wait for certainty before deciding what comes next.
Rya Hazelwood brings more than twenty-five years of communications, marketing and executive leadership experience to conversations about resilience, culture and change. Her approach to Relentless Optimism replaces platitudes and magical thinking with something far more useful: perspective, agency and action.
Relentless Optimism for Life & Leadership
What becomes possible when you stop waiting and start choosing?
Some of the hardest moments in life and leadership arrive without permission. Plans change. Relationships end. Careers shift. Confidence gets shaken. The question isn't whether adversity will happen. It's what we do once it does.
Drawing on stories from her own life, career and Relentless Optimism & Other Life Goals, Rya explores the difference between positive thinking and genuine agency, and why the way we frame what happens next can change what we do next.
Audiences will explore how to:
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Reframe adversity without minimizing it
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Recognize where fear or self-doubt is driving decisions
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Set boundaries that protect what matters
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Move from waiting for circumstances to change to choosing a next step
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Build resilience through action rather than wishful thinking
Relentless Optimism: The Leader’s Edge
Leading with clarity, resilience and momentum when the map disappears.
Today's leaders are expected to provide direction even when they don't have all the answers. Change moves quickly. Teams look to leaders for confidence and clarity. And the way leaders interpret uncertainty quietly shapes how everyone around them responds to it.
In this keynote, Rya reframes optimism as a practical leadership discipline: the ability to assess reality clearly, focus energy where it can make a difference and create forward momentum when certainty isn't available.
Audiences will learn to:
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Lead with greater calm and clarity under pressure
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Separate what they can influence from what they cannot
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Build trust through consistency, candor and perspective
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Recognize how a leader's mindset shapes culture and performance
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Create momentum even when the path forward is still evolving
Workshops & Custom Sessions
Keynotes can be expanded into interactive workshops and facilitated sessions designed around your audience, leadership team or organizational priorities.
Topics can include resilience, change, mindset, communication, culture and navigating uncertainty, with each session tailored to the goals of the event and the realities your people are facing.
Whether you are looking for a deeper follow-up to a keynote, a leadership-team session or a more collaborative experience, Rya works with organizations to create practical, engaging programs that move beyond inspiration and into conversation, reflection and action.
Our first Bookmark That! Author Series was incredible. I couldn't have asked for a better topic or author to kick things off. Rya's personal story is powerful, and how she connected it to living our daily lives struck a chord with me, and the many others who attended.
- Kim Miller
Founder of FemFoundry
In my line of work, I have the opportunity to work with many fabulous professionals. Without question though, Rya is in a class of her own. Besides being freakishly smart, Rya is kind, incredibly organized, thoughtful, supportive, responsive and everything that you could ever hope for ... To say that I loved my time working with her would be the understatement of the century. If you have the honor of working with Rya, you are in for a world-class experience.
- Shola Richards,
International Keynote and TEDx Speaker, Author of Civil Unity
I have known and worked with Rya for over 16 years and deeply value our professional relationship and more importantly, our friendship. Rya's determination and loyalty is second to none. She is passionate about her work, helps companies thrive and does it all from a place of service.
- Ashley Snyder
Principal at Cresa