You can't change workplace culture consistently until you understand what's shaping it
Let’s Talk About the Patterns Running Your Workplace
Burnout. Gossip. Disengagement. High turnover. These aren’t just problems—they’re symptoms of deeper systems at play.
Most workplace trainings focus on what to do differently. I focus on why things happen in the first place—so we can change them for good.
Your team isn’t struggling because they don’t care. They’re stuck in patterns wired into them by both society and their biology. Until we are aware of these patterns and understand how they infuence our decisions, we keep repeating them.
I help organizations identify why they operate the way they do, so they can rewrite the program and create a work culture that actually supports productivity, collaboration, and well-being—not just short-term survival.
What Makes This Different?
Most corporate workshops tell you what to do. I help you understand why you haven’t been able to do it yet.
We explore the systems that shape your team’s behavior—both at an organizational level and in the way human bodies are wired.
We uncover why teams sabotage themselves (through gossip, burnout, disengagement, etc.) and address the real needs behind those behaviors.
I don’t just give you research and statistics—I give you awareness and tools to break free from patterns that were never yours to begin with.
We acknowledge both strengths and weaknesses, empowering people to consciously choose how they move forward.
Lasting change starts with awareness—not willpower.
From Kacie Dougherty and Heather Hansen - Managing Directors at Pacekids Programs
We have had the pleasure of having Avery facilitate training sessions on numerous occasions, and we cannot recommend her highly enough.
Her expertise in facilitating discussions on burnout recovery, building culture, leadership and enhancing communication is nothing short of exceptional. Avery has an innate ability to connect with audiences at all levels, whether working with large teams or smaller, more intimate groups or as a keynote speaker, speaking to leadership or frontline team members. Her sessions are not only informative but also engaging and thought-provoking. Avery creates a safe space where participants feel comfortable sharing their perspectives, which fosters genuine dialogue and collaboration.
The strategies and insights she provides are practical, actionable, and immediately applicable in the workplace and she goes a step further to offer follow up support for weeks after the sessions. Her passion for helping others thrive shines through in every session she leads.
If you’re looking to elevate your team’s performance and well-being, Avery is the facilitator to trust. She brings a wealth of knowledge, enthusiasm, and a genuine desire to make a positive impact. We wholeheartedly recommend Avery to any organization!
Key Topics & Workshops
The Truth About Burnout
Burnout isn’t a personal failure—it’s a systemic issue.
Most burnout workshops focus on stress management, but burnout isn’t just about stress. It’s about energy management, hidden cultural expectations, and how our nervous system responds to constant chaos.
This workshop takes a real, evidence-based approach to burnout by addressing why it happens, how it’s reinforced, and what actually helps teams recover and prevent it—without toxic productivity hacks.
What Participants Will Learn:
✅ The three types of stress (positive stress, typical stress, and moral distress) and how they impact burnout
✅ Why burnout is not just a work problem, but a biological and systemic issue
✅ How to identify covert vs. overt burnout symptoms before they escalate
✅ The four energy types that drive sustainable engagement—and how to replenish them
✅ The Burnout Recovery Course Correction Method—small, effective shifts that help teams recover without drastic overhauls
Why This Matters:
- Helps teams break free from the burnout-collapse-recovery cycle
- Provides real-world strategies that don’t rely on willpower or discipline
- Encourages organizations to recognize burnout before it leads to turnover
- Equips leaders with the awareness and tools to support their teams without overloading themselves
This workshop is about understanding the truth behind burnout—so teams can stop patching the symptoms and start making real, sustainable changes.
Available as a keynote, full-length workshop, or team training
Moving Beyond Burnout
Burnout isn’t a stress problem—it’s an energy management problem.
Most workplace burnout solutions focus on stress reduction, but that’s only part of the equation. In this workshop, we dig deeper into why burnout happens in the first place and how to create sustainable work habits that don’t lead to cycles of exhaustion, collapse, and recovery.
Participants will learn how to stabilize the chaos, optimize their workload, and build a culture that supports energy renewal instead of burnout cycles.
What Participants Will Learn:
✅ The difference between stress, trauma, and burnout—and why they require different solutions
✅ Why negativity bias and survival wiring make burnout an organizational issue, not just an individual one
✅ How to apply the Burnout Recovery & Prevention Framework to prevent the exhaustion-collapse-recovery cycle
✅ How to recognize self-sabotage styles (perfectionism, overcommitting, procrastination) and shift them into sustainable work habits
✅ Practical tools for setting boundaries, managing cognitive load, and making real-time course corrections
Why This Matters:
- Prevents burnout-driven turnover and helps teams stay engaged
- Encourages leaders to create a workplace that supports energy renewal instead of running employees into the ground
- Provides practical, immediate tools that teams can apply right away
- Helps individuals and teams rebuild their energy, stabilize workloads, and create sustainable performance
This is not another workshop on “resilience.” It’s about understanding the root causes of burnout and making real changes that last.
Available as a keynote, full-length workshop, or team training
Stress, Burnout, & Trauma: Understanding the Difference & Choosing the Right Tools
Not all stress is the same—and not all recovery strategies work for every type.
Most stress management advice assumes that deep breathing, mindfulness, or taking a break will fix the problem. But if the wrong approach is used at the wrong time, it can actually make things worse—especially when trauma or burnout are in play.
This workshop helps participants differentiate between stress, burnout, and trauma, so they can choose the right strategies for recovery instead of following generic advice that may be ineffective—or even harmful.
What Participants Will Learn:
✅ The Differences Between Stress, Burnout, and Trauma – How each one affects the brain, body, and behavior—and why they need different solutions
✅ Why Some Coping Strategies Backfire – How meditation, mindfulness, and other popular tools can be harmful in cases of activated trauma
✅ The Three Recovery Paths – The best strategies for stress, burnout, and trauma, and how to recognize what’s needed in the moment
✅ How to Prevent Burnout Before It Starts – Small, real-time adjustments that prevent stress from escalating into burnout
✅ The Role of Decision Fatigue – How mental overload contributes to stress and burnout, and how to reduce it for long-term resilience
Why This Matters:
- Helps individuals and teams stop using the wrong strategies for their stress type
- Reduces frustration and guilt around recovery by providing clearer, more effective approaches
- Encourages workplaces to create environments that support long-term resilience—not just short-term stress relief
- Empowers participants to recognize their needs and choose strategies that actually work
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to stress. This workshop provides the clarity and tools needed to recover effectively—based on what the nervous system actually needs.
Available as a keynote, full-length workshop, or team training
Revitalize Your Workforce: How to Help a Burnt Out Team When You're Burnt Out Yourself
Leadership is about more than just driving performance—it’s about sustaining energy, preventing burnout, and creating a workplace that actually works for people.
This workshop is designed specifically for leaders and decision-makers who want to understand, recognize, and proactively address burnout before it leads to disengagement, high turnover, and cultural breakdown. Instead of reactive solutions, this workshop provides a clear action plan to support both individual and organizational recovery.
What Leaders Will Learn:
✅ The four kinds of burnout and how they show up differently in individuals and teams
✅ How to recognize burnout patterns before they lead to crisis
✅ Identifying organizational stressors that silently contribute to burnout culture
✅ How to create a leadership-driven burnout recovery plan that actually works
✅ The Burnout Recovery Framework—a structured approach to rebuilding energy and resilience at every level
Why This Matters for Leaders:
- Prevents burnout-driven leadership fatigue, helping managers sustain their own energy while supporting their teams
- Helps leadership teams address systemic burnout patterns, not just individual stress management
- Improves employee retention and engagement by creating a culture of real recovery and resilience
- Action-oriented approach—leaders leave with a customized plan to implement immediately
This workshop is practical, strategic, and focused on making real cultural shifts that support both leadership and employee well-being.
Available as a keynote, full-length workshop, or leadership team training
The Truth About Company Culture - Understanding the Rules of the Game
Workplace culture isn’t just inherited—it’s created, reinforced, and shaped by unseen forces every single day.
This workshop helps teams and leaders understand the real mechanics of workplace culture—how systemic structures, human wiring, and group behaviors interact to form the patterns that drive engagement, productivity, and burnout. Instead of trying to “fix” symptoms like gossip or disengagement, we go deeper to understand why these issues happen in the first place—so your team can break the cycle for good.
What Participants Will Learn:
✅ The biggest misconceptions about workplace culture and what actually makes a difference
✅ Why we’re wired to sabotage company culture—and how to shift those patterns
✅ The role of macro-culture vs. micro-culture—and why the small, daily interactions matter most
✅ How cognitive biases (like negativity bias and fundamental attribution error) shape workplace perception
✅ Practical strategies to course-correct culture in real time and create a psychologically safe environment
Why This Matters:
- Reduces misalignment between leadership and employees, preventing disengagement
- Helps teams recognize hidden cultural forces at play in their workplace
- Provides clear, actionable steps to create a healthier, more effective team dynamic
- Encourages both individuals and leaders to take responsibility for shaping workplace culture
This workshop isn’t about quick fixes or vague leadership advice—it’s about giving teams the awareness and tools to make real, lasting shifts in how they work together.
Available as a keynote, full-length workshop, or team training
Assertive Communication Framework - aka Mastering the Art of Difficult Conversations
Communication is the foundation of workplace culture—but most people default to passive, aggressive, or passive-aggressive styles under stress.
This workshop helps teams and leaders develop assertive communication skills, so they can navigate difficult conversations with confidence, reduce workplace tension, and build a culture of trust and collaboration.
What Participants Will Learn:
✅ The four main communication styles—and when they show up in workplace interactions
✅ How stress responses influence communication (and how to shift them)
✅ The Assertive Communication Framework—a step-by-step approach to handling tough conversations effectively
✅ How to anticipate and address triggers to prevent miscommunication and conflict
✅ Practical strategies for setting clear boundaries, giving constructive feedback, and speaking up with clarity and confidence
Why This Matters:
- Reduces workplace misunderstandings and unnecessary conflict
- Improves team alignment and collaboration
- Helps leaders and employees communicate with confidence—without being dismissive or aggressive
- Creates a psychologically safe environment where honest conversations can happen without fear
This workshop is interactive, practical, and designed for immediate application. Participants leave with actionable tools to implement right away and ongoing support to reinforce what they’ve learned.
Available as a keynote, full-length workshop, or team training
Advanced Communication Strategies for More Efficient and Less Frustrated Teams
Great communication isn’t just about what you say—it’s about how you navigate complexity, conflict, and uncertainty while keeping your team engaged and informed.
In high-stakes conversations, miscommunication leads to lost trust, disengagement, and unnecessary conflict. This workshop teaches advanced communication techniques that help leaders and teams communicate more effectively under pressure, handle difficult conversations with confidence, and create a workplace culture built on clarity, trust, and psychological safety.
What Participants Will Learn:
✅ Closed-Loop Communication – How to ensure critical information is received, understood, and acted on correctly
✅ What to Share, What to Withhold – The leadership guide to navigating confidentiality, transparency, and trust
✅ Regulating the Other Person’s Nervous System – How to de-escalate tension and keep conversations productive
✅ Navigating Conflict with Control – Techniques for managing difficult personalities and emotionally charged discussions
✅ How to Communicate Mistakes and Undesired Outcomes – Framing unanticipated changes in a way that builds trust instead of breaking it
✅ The Art of Repair – How to rebuild confidence and connection after communication missteps
Why This Matters:
- Reduces misalignment between leaders and teams, improving trust and engagement
- Helps prevent gossip, misinterpretation, and unnecessary conflict
- Equips leaders to navigate high-pressure conversations with clarity and composure
- Provides practical, real-world strategies to improve workplace culture through communication
This workshop is interactive, practical, and designed for immediate application. Participants leave with concrete techniques they can implement right away to enhance leadership, teamwork, and day-to-day communication.
Available as a keynote, full-length workshop, or leadership training
The Truth About Gossip and How to Stop It From Flourishing
Gossip isn’t just idle chatter—it’s an indicator of deeper communication gaps, trust issues, and unmet needs in your workplace culture.
Most organizations try to shut down gossip instead of asking why it’s happening in the first place. This workshop takes a behavior-first approach, helping teams understand what fuels workplace gossip, how to redirect it into productive conversations, and how leaders can build a culture where people feel safe enough to communicate openly—without backchanneling.
What Participants Will Learn:
✅ Why Gossip Happens – Understanding the human need for connection, validation, and information-sharing
✅ The Function of Gossip in Workplace Culture – How gossip compensates for a lack of transparency, trust, or psychological safety
✅ How to Identify Gossip Loops – Recognizing when gossip is reinforcing division, fear, or misinformation
✅ Turning Gossip Into Constructive Communication – How to redirect rumors into direct, productive conversations
✅ Creating a Culture Where Gossip Isn’t Necessary – Leadership strategies for improving trust, transparency, and open communication
Why This Matters:
- Helps organizations address the root cause of gossip, rather than just punishing the behavior
- Reduces misalignment, confusion, and workplace tension by improving direct communication
- Supports leaders in building a culture where employees feel safe speaking up
- Improves team cohesion and trust by addressing hidden patterns that drive disengagement
This isn’t about shutting down conversations—it’s about shifting how information flows so teams don’t need gossip to feel connected or informed.
Available as a keynote, full-length workshop, or team training
Identifying and Strengthening Your Leadership Archetype
Leadership isn’t about fitting into a mold—it’s about understanding your natural strengths, recognizing your blind spots, and choosing how you want to grow.
Every leader operates within a core archetype, shaped by their experiences, personality, and unconscious habits. But most leaders default to their strengths without realizing when those same strengths become limitations. This workshop helps leaders identify their leadership archetype, leverage their natural talents, and make intentional adjustments to lead with clarity and impact.
What Participants Will Learn:
✅ The five leadership archetypes—and how to recognize your own
✅ How your archetype impacts team dynamics, decision-making, and communication
✅ The strengths, challenges, and blind spots of each archetype
✅ How to adapt your leadership style to different situations without losing authenticity
✅ Strategies to course-correct when stress or burnout magnifies unhelpful patterns
Why This Matters:
- Helps leaders gain self-awareness, improving confidence and effectiveness
- Reduces leadership blind spots that lead to miscommunication, disengagement, or micromanagement
- Strengthens team trust and collaboration by creating leadership consistency
- Provides a clear framework for leadership growth and adaptation
This isn’t about forcing leaders into a “right” way to lead—it’s about helping them become more intentional, self-aware, and adaptable so they can lead in a way that’s both authentic and effective.
Available as a keynote, full-length workshop, or leadership training
Breaking the Self-Sabotage Cycle and Get Out of Your Own Way
Most people don’t fail because they lack motivation or willpower. They fail because they’re unknowingly working against their own wiring.
Self-sabotage isn’t random—it follows a predictable pattern based on your nervous system’s response to change, stress, and uncertainty. In this workshop, participants will learn how to identify their unique self-sabotage style, recognize when it’s happening, and rewire their mindset for long-term success.
What Participants Will Learn:
✅ The four main self-sabotage styles—and how to recognize your own
✅ Why negative self-talk and impostor syndrome aren’t the real problem (and what is)
✅ The three core fears that drive self-sabotage and how to address them
✅ Why “faking it until you make it” doesn’t work—and what to do instead
✅ How to create What-If Affirmations to reprogram limiting beliefs
Why This Matters:
- Helps individuals and teams break free from destructive thought patterns
- Reduces procrastination, perfectionism, and fear-based decision-making
- Supports leaders and employees in creating sustainable habits that stick
- Shifts workplace culture by helping people take ownership of their mindset
This isn’t another “just think positive” workshop. It’s a deep dive into how your brain resists change and how to work with it—not against it.
Available as a keynote, full-length workshop, or team training
How to Say No and Set Boundaries Without Feeling Guilty
Saying no isn’t just a personal challenge—it’s a reflection of how we’ve been wired to prioritize approval, productivity, and belonging over our own capacity.
Many people struggle with setting boundaries because they’ve been conditioned to see them as selfish, aggressive, or a sign of failure. But boundaries aren’t about shutting people out—they’re about setting clear expectations, protecting energy, and making intentional decisions that align with long-term success.
This workshop helps participants understand why setting boundaries feels so uncomfortable, how their nervous system reacts to it, and how to confidently say no without guilt or unnecessary over-explaining.
What Participants Will Learn:
✅ Why we resist boundaries – The biological & social wiring that makes saying no feel risky
✅ How boundaries impact workplace dynamics – Why teams function better when expectations are clear
✅ The “False Urgency” Problem – How pressure-based decision-making leads to burnout
✅ The Boundary Ladder – A step-by-step approach to setting boundaries without feeling like a jerk
✅ What to Say Instead of Just “No” – Effective ways to communicate limits while maintaining relationships
Why This Matters:
- Reduces people-pleasing, burnout, and resentment in workplace dynamics
- Improves clarity, productivity, and decision-making by eliminating unnecessary obligations
- Strengthens team trust and respect by reinforcing clear, direct communication
- Provides participants with concrete scripts and strategies to implement boundaries immediately
This isn’t about simply “standing your ground.” It’s about understanding why boundaries feel hard, shifting the underlying patterns, and learning how to say no in a way that actually sticks.
Available as a keynote, full-length workshop, or team training
3 Simple Shifts That Make it Easier to Navigate Change in a Chaotic World
Change isn’t hard because we’re bad at adapting—it’s hard because our brains are wired to resist uncertainty.
The human nervous system is designed to default to stress and resistance when faced with the unknown. That’s not a personal failing—it’s a survival instinct. But just because stress is the default response doesn’t mean it’s the only option.
This workshop teaches participants how to recognize their automatic resistance to change, reframe their fears, and shift from reactive to intentional adaptation. By understanding why change feels so overwhelming, they can move through it with more stability, clarity, and confidence.
What Participants Will Learn:
✅ The “What-If” vs. “Even-If” Shift – How to stop catastrophizing and start preparing for change with more resilience
✅ Emotions vs. Feelings: Learning to Ride the Wave – How to separate temporary reactions from long-term perspectives so change doesn’t feel so consuming
✅ The Choice Point: Disrupting the Default Response to Change – How to break out of resistance cycles and actively choose a different way to respond
Why This Matters:
- Helps individuals and teams respond to change instead of reacting to it
- Reduces anxiety, avoidance, and frustration during workplace transitions
- Encourages adaptability and problem-solving by shifting how people think about uncertainty
- Equips participants with clear, actionable strategies to navigate change with more ease
Change is inevitable. Stress doesn’t have to be. This workshop provides the tools to navigate uncertainty with clarity, confidence, and control.
Available as a keynote, full-length workshop, or team training
From Courtney McCarthy - CEO and Founder of LOYOBO Fit
What to Expect:
Customizable workshops tailored to your team’s specific challenges.
Behavior-first approach that addresses cultural and systemic patterns—not just surface-level solutions.
Follow-up programs included in every speaking engagement—because change doesn’t happen in a single session. Your team will have ongoing support to revisit, apply, and integrate what they’ve learned.
Real, actionable strategies that help teams create lasting shifts in how they work together.
Available for Virtual and In-Person Engagements
Let’s uncover the hidden patterns shaping your workplace and start creating a healthier, more effective culture today.
Understanding the problem is the first step—taking action is what creates lasting change.
If your team is feeling the weight of burnout, disengagement, or cultural misalignment, now is the time to address it.