Kate Davis
A comedian, writer, keynote speaker, mother of 3 and actress, Kate Davis has the unique ability to find humour in any situation.
She delivers powerful, humor-infused keynotes that equip organizations with strategies to foster joy, connection and resilience in the workplace. Kate’s generous insight and outspoken character, provides a powerful combination to help organizations empower their staff with effective tools for managing stress and sustaining motivation.
Theatrically trained in England, Kate returned to Canada to a successful run on the Canadian stage. From the theatrical stage to the many stages of motherhood, Kate found her newest passion at an open mic one night at a local comedy club. Now, a twelve-time nominee at the Canadian Comedy Awards including the prestigious Phil Hartman Award.
Speaking topics
- Stress Less, Laugh More: A New Approach to Work-Life Balance
The world is becoming more volatile, finding balance between our jobs, home, relationships with family, friends and co-workers can be challenging and overwhelming both in the workplace and home leading to stress, fatigue and low productivity. I mean nowadays we get stressed when our cell rings or excited when people cancel plans.
So, we stretch in every direction trying to satisfy and take care of everyone but ourselves. What if there was a simple way to bring more balance into our lives that didn’t require over extending ourselves, our resources, and helped us be more present in our lives. Something you didn’t even have to change into yoga pants for? Humour can do just that.
Grounded in two decades of research and development this award-winning author, speaker and comic teaches people how to lighten up and the power that humour and levity have on their day-to-day lives to create more Balance, stability and self-care.
Audience takeaways:
- Learning how to apply and use humour into their day-to-day life to keep them healthy, happy, and whole.
- They’ll learn practical techniques on how humour changes the chemistry of our brains and how to implement the benefits it has on stress management, human connection, and trust both at home and the workplace.
- They’ll learn what humor style they fit into and how use that to ease tension, create an innovative environment, and enhance communication.
- They’ll discover how humour and levity allow us to be more playful which leads to innovation and team collaboration.
- They’ll experience a great ab workout from laughing so hard.
It’s not about the next best joke it’s about lightening up and not taking ourselves so seriously and bring that to every area of our lives.
People, who attend Kate’s “Balancing Life with Humour” Keynote, leave with an understanding of practical techniques for refueling, rediscovering, and reengaging their true selves. Learning to use humor as an instrument of communication creates an atmosphere of compassion, caring, and increased productivity. Victor Hugo said that “Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face” – that’s why it’s so important for Canadians, of all people, to be funny.
- Connecting Through Humour
It’s never been easier to communicate and never been harder to connect. Between emails, virtual meetings, slack, social media, it’s no wonder that burnout, stress and loneliness are at all-time highs, and trust is at an all-time low.
Instead of hiring the latest strategic communications firm, or spending countless hours learning how to train AI bots to communicate for you, what if you could learn some simple and easy tools to implement immediately that would drive connection and results?
Research shows that laughter and levity are some of the most powerful ways to build meaningful connections, increase trust, reduce stress, and enhance employee engagement and performance.
In this engaging and enlightening keynote, veteran comedian Kate Davis demystifies what makes us laugh and provides practical techniques for using humour to truly make an impression whether it’s with clients, customers, co-workers, family, or friends. And if she makes you laugh in the process, it was almost certainly on purpose.
Audiences takeaways:
- Specific examples and techniques to bring more levity into the workplace and how to de-risk humour. (We’ll save impressions and prop work for the advanced class.)
- Ideas they can implement immediately on how to use humour to build trust with clients and colleagues.
- Research and examples showing the power that humour has on human connection which inspires and motivates people to truly live to their fullest potential.
- How to harness the power of humour to create an extraordinary work culture and collaborate as a team.
This keynote is good for any group that wants to empower their teams to improve their culture, grow sales, grow customers, or anyone who wants to improve their connections and most importantly anyone who wants to LAUGH!
- Back in Five: A Journey from Depression To Expression
Kate’s Keynote “Out of My Mind…Back In Five” explores techniques of managing our mental health and gives practical ways of staying healthy and positive even through the toughest times. Kate’s inspiring, humourous and sometimes touching stories take us on a journey from Depression to Expression. How she found comedy and how it helped her discover self worth, confidence and to fight the negativity in her own mind that was keeping her from living the life she deserved.
“Back In Five” explores the way we feel about ourselves and others, as well as our ability to manage our feelings and deal with everyday difficulties.
From practical methods like learning oneminute stress strategies that you can do at the office or home or breaking up the monotony with Rejuvenation 101 (That’s a long list). To the methods available to us for taking charge of our own mental health including: How we think about ourselves, being grateful, being in the present, sleep, diet, exercise to name a few. All these methods can ultimately boost our mood, build resilience and add to our overall enjoyment of life.
Audiences leave this keynote with the feeling that knowledge is power and that we all play a role in our mental health.
Video clips
Speaker testimonials
Kate was a pleasure to work with hosting our BUID Awards Dinner. She was well-organized and cared to ensure she could pronounce the trickiest names. As we’re a live show, the program flow can change, and Kate quickly adapted to ensure our very boisterous crowd was engaged and focused.
Thank you for an amazing presentation on Tuesday! When can most people say that they spent more than 3 hours laughing and learning? Rochester has a reputation as a conservative, dare I say “stodgy” place. You single-handedly took a wrecking ball to that! You’ve set the bar incredibly high for future presenters.
I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to be with us and present at the HRCC Conference. Your presentation was nothing short of OUTSTANDING!! The energy in the room was pulpable, we could feel the positive vibes emanating off one another. Your keynote was the perfect way to kick off our conference, and it is exactly what we all needed after a 3 year hiatus from in-person gatherings. You made a lasting impression on everyone, and I am still receiving the most positive feedback from your session. You are HILARIOUS, truly! It was our pleasure having you join us. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!
During her session, Kate’s unique blend of humor and insight provided a refreshing perspective that was much needed for our team, which had been facing significant challenges. Her ability to lighten the mood and make us laugh enabled us to see our circumstances in a new light, reducing stress and fostering a more positive and balanced outlook.
Kate emphasized the importance of maintaining a balanced perspective, both professionally and personally. Her strategies for incorporating humor into our daily routines were not only practical but also impactful. The positive effects of her presentation have been evident in our team dynamics and individual well-being.
Kate has made a positive impact on our team. Her session was not just informative but transformative, and we are grateful for the valuable lessons she imparted. I highly recommend Kate to any organization looking to enhance their team’s resilience and overall outlook through the power of humor.
I wanted to thank you for the very informative and entertaining presentation this morning. I love the idea of “using fun to bring everyone into the moment”, and reducing stress so that people bring their best selves to business challenges.
I was also absolutely amazed at your ability to sail through some brutal (and embarrassing on our part) audiovisual challenges throughout the presentation. Those distractions would have derailed many a speaker, but you made a few jokes and got right back on with the presentation like nothing happened.
I’m taking the “handout” home to read cover to cover with my spouse tonight (who is a facilitator and executive coach by profession), and can’t wait for the next opportunity to hear you present.
On behalf of York Region Public Health, Healthy Living Division, we all wanted to thank you very much for your fantastic keynote presentation last Friday! It was such a fun, authentic and insightful presentation on how we can all reconnect with each other and have some fun. After dealing with the pandemic for the last 2 ½ years, it was refreshing to just sit back and not only laugh but also hear how we can all balance life with humour, find our purpose and take care of ourselves too! As Sharon mentioned, we accept the challenge.
It was such a pleasure working with you. Thank you so much for all the hilarious stories, valuable tips and sharing your time with usJ. We have asked attendees to complete a short evaluation and will be sure to forward any relevant items to you.
Wow, wow, wow – Kate is a phenomenon!
We just wrapped up our meeting and I wanted to reach out to you while it was still fresh, and let you know that we are so pleased with Kate’s presentation today. Her keynote is exactly what we were looking for, light-hearted, funny, and had great key take aways on connectivity, inclusivity and balancing life with humor. I currently have a flood of emails in my inbox raving about her and how this was “the best meeting yet – just what we needed!”
Thank you so much for suggesting her – we will be recommending Kate to all of our affiliated agencies who are looking for this type of virtual meeting to help the staff recharge so they can continue to provide the excellence in the quality of care to our clients.
Just a quick note to thank you very much for today’s performance: very fun, but also inspiring, and with bonus takeaways! My spouse and myself *really* enjoyed it: you made our day/week!
Kate did a wonderful job for us! We really enjoyed having her as a guest speaker. None of us are quite certain as to how she did this virtually…must be so difficult without a live audience. Nevertheless, she did it so well! Thanks again for this recommendation and for the donation to Kids Help Phone.
I also have to thank-you for how organized you are – it kept things very easy for us. Having a guest speaker can be so stressful, and your clarity and reliability made things that much easier for Jennifer and myself.
Kate asked us to follow up with addresses for the books. They can be sent directly to our sites and I’ve attached the addresses below. Our team really appreciates this donation.
Kate’s presentation was phenomenal! She was funny, engaging and her stories were real – everyone could relate to them. As she shared stories with us, she imparted messages of hope and she communicated her wisdom to us …in order to be resilient we need to find joy in what we have today, in what we are doing today and on the goals for tomorrow. She definitely inspired us!
Kate is the complete opposite of boring. Her endless energy and positivity allowed her to easily engage her audience virtually and keep everyone involved and interested during the whole presentation, which we recognize is not easy to do! Prior to this event, she took the time to learn about our team and our interests in this topic and created a presentation that perfectly met and surpassed our expectations. Her passion about this topic really shined through in her stories and explanations of the importance of finding a way to connect with those around us and reflect on who we are. Kate clearly loves what she does and her passion in her work as a comedian and a comic shined throughout the whole presentation. We would strongly recommend Kate Davis to anyone looking for a bright and energetic encounter about humour and connectivity in the workplace.
Kate was so fun and friendly to work with leading up to the session and put our minds at ease in knowing the event was going to go well. And we were not wrong; our virtual attendees all indicated that the laughs were very much needed during these stressful times! It’s not always easy to see the humour in our daily lives, particularly for leaders in our industry that has been so impacted by Covid. Thank you Kate for the reminder to find what gives us joy, make ourselves a priority, and lighten up!
We absolutely loved Kate’s presentation at both of our sites. She was personable and easy-going in our chat prior to the formal keynote address. I appreciated her relaxed approach when we were unable to provide both types of microphones at each site!! She truly practices and demonstrates what she “preaches” in her talk – taking everything in stride and LAUGHING about life’s ups and downs.We received great feedback from both audiences and I was really quite pleased with the events from beginning to end. I would highly recommend Kate!!
On behalf of the Tillsonburg District Chamber of Commerce, I want to thank you for agreeing to speak at our Awards of Excellence event. The feedback from our guests has been overwhelming. They LOVED you! So many people took the time to grab me after the event was over to tell me how much they enjoyed having you there, and what a great addition you were to our program. On Friday, I received tons of emails saying the same.
I am the editor of The Mom & Caregiver Magazine, and recently sponsored Kate Davis to speak at the Total Woman Show (March 5, 2005). Kate’s lecture was Outstanding; her ability to relate to the audience was remarkable. The content of her material was articulate and informative, and very very funny!!! We loved her so much that we asked her if she would be interested in starting her own column within our Magazine called “Reasonably Sane”, which would bring out the humorous side of parenting.
It is a pleasure to provide you with feedback on Kate’s presentation. It was wonderful! She is a natural, very relatable, engaged the audience very well, light hearted but with serious messages about self care… plus had us up and laughing at some silly games. The audience loved it. Overall, she was a hit… and we’ve received nothing but positive comments about her from our staff… We would recommend her without reservation to others. Please pass along to her our thanks for helping to make our special event the success that it was.
I wanted to follow up anyways to let you know that Kate was fantastic. Our group really enjoyed Kate’s session – Lots of laughs, and really enjoyed the message. Kate was a pleasure – friendly and professional. Kate’s presentation was very appropriate for a corporate fun function – just the right amount of cheeky humour without taking it too far. Kate’s presentation exceeded my expectations, and I would definitely book her again or recommend her to others looking for a fun keynote speaker.