David Otey
- Guest Speakers • Motivational • Thought Leaders
Mental Health is Health
Culture in an organization is revealed by what people feel safe saying and what they don’t.
Follow David Otey
David Otey helps organizations replace silence with language, redefine strength at the leadership level, and create cultures where people speak up sooner reducing risk, saving lives, and enhancing performance.
David Otey — Professional Bio
David P. Otey is a professional speaker, author, and workplace mental-health advocate who has spent over a decade on stage delivering high-impact programs to thousands of professionals across three continents. Before stepping fully into speaking, David built a 25-year career in broadcast engineering, leading large-scale technical training initiatives and teaching more than 10,000 professionals how to adapt to disruptive change.
What sets David apart is not just polish or experience, it’s earned authority. Having recovered from depression himself and having walked alongside his daughter after she survived a suicide attempt, David speaks about mental health and suicide ideation with a rare combination of credibility, vulnerability, and precision. He doesn’t sensationalize pain or offer platitudes; he reframes strength, dismantles stigma, and gives leaders and organizations the language to address what too often goes unspoken.
Known for his clarity, depth, and interactive style, David helps organizations move beyond awareness to measurable cultural change, where people speak up sooner, leaders model asking for help, and lives are protected. His work sits at the intersection of leadership, communication, and suicide prevention, making him a trusted voice for corporations, associations, and public institutions navigating today’s mental-health crisis.
David is the author of multiple books on communication and storytelling, a two-time Toastmasters International semifinalist, and a respected voice within the professional speaking community. He holds degrees in Physics, Communication, and Business, and lives in the Denver area, where he continues his mission to replace silence with connection and isolation with hope.
Author & Speaker
Author of multiple books on communication, culture, storytelling, and confidence, plus contributor to industry-defining handbooks and publications
Two-time Toastmasters International semifinalist, ranking among the top speakers in one of the world’s most competitive speaking organizations
SPEAKING TOPICS:
Redefining Strength: The Key to Boosting Your Organization’s Well-Being (It’s Your Culture)
Six Words: A Survivor’s View
Speaking About the Unspoken: Making It Safe to Talk About Struggle
Redefining Strength: The Key to Boosting Your Organization’s Well-Being (It’s Your Culture)
Most organizations unintentionally reward silence. David reframes strength not as pushing through, but as speaking up early. When leaders model this behavior, cultures become safer, teams perform better, and risk drops.
This keynote shows leaders how culture is created in moments, not policies and how redefining strength at the top directly impacts retention, engagement, and well-being.
What Makes This Different
- Not “mental health awareness”
- Not therapy
- A leadership operating model grounded in real organizational risk
Key Takeaways
- How leaders unintentionally train people to hide struggle and how to reverse it
- Why “resilience” without safety increases burnout and attrition
- The specific behaviors leaders can model that make it safe to speak sooner
- How psychological safety improves focus, decision-making, and performance
- A practical definition of culture leaders can act on immediately
Best Fit:
C-suite leaders, senior leadership teams, organizations under sustained pressure, high-accountability environments.
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Six Words: A Survivor’s View
Six words can change or save a life.
This keynote delivers a rare parent–survivor perspective on suicide ideation that cuts through the silence stigma without shock or sensationalism. David shares how a single moment, a few words, and a different response altered the trajectory of his family and can do the same inside organizations.
What Makes This Different
- Authentic without oversharing
- Emotional without manipulation
- Human without losing credibility
This is not a statistics talk. It’s about how struggle actually shows up and how people often miss it.
Key Takeaways
- What suicide ideation really sounds like in everyday language
- Why most people don’t ask for help directly—and what they do instead
- The role of ordinary conversations in extraordinary outcomes
- How presence and listening matter more than having “the right answer”
- Why leaders and peers alike play a critical role in prevention
Best Fit:
All-hands conferences, associations, healthcare, athlete, students; organizations prioritizing human impact
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Speaking About the Unspoken: Making It Safe to Talk About Struggle
Silence is not neutral, it’s dangerous.
Organizations don’t fail people because they don’t care; they fail because they don’t know how to talk about struggle safely. David gives leaders and teams the language, boundaries, and confidence to address hard topics without fear of saying the wrong thing.
What Makes This Different
- Focuses on language and behavior, not policy
- Addresses fear of liability, HR missteps, and “opening a can of worms”
- Built for real workplaces, not ideal ones
Key Takeaways
- Why avoiding the conversation increases organizational risk
- What makes people feel safe—or unsafe—speaking up
- How to replace silence with simple, supportive language
- The difference between helping and unintentionally shutting people down
- How small moments of connection prevent bigger crises
David Otey’s program is best fit for:
- C-suite leaders prioritizing workforce stability, retention, and risk reduction
- Organizations facing high stress, burnout, or safety-critical decision making
- Leadership teams ready to address mental health without legal, HR, or PR missteps
- Conferences seeking a credible, executive-level keynote, not a motivational talk
- Cultures that want measurable behavior change, not awareness theater
David Otey — Key Accomplishments
- 10+ years as a professional speaker, delivering keynotes and workshops to thousands of professionals across three continents
- 25-year career in broadcast engineering, bridging technical rigor with human-centered leadership and communication
- Led and scaled national training initiatives, training 10,000+ professionals during a major digital technology transition
- Trusted voice on workplace mental health and suicide prevention, grounded in lived experience with depression and suicide ideation—his own recovery and his daughter’s survival
- Sought-after keynote speaker for high-stakes organizations, including global corporations, professional associations, universities, and government entities
- Recognized for executive-level clarity, known for helping leaders replace silence with language that reduces risk, strengthens culture, and saves lives
Conference Attendees Gain
Attendees leave with the clarity and confidence to speak up sooner—reducing risk, strengthening culture, and protecting lives.
Travels From
Denver, CO
DAVID OTEY is available for Motivational Speaking, Workshops, Panel Discussions, Spokesperson and International Conferences.
