Delivering speeches on resilience, identity, and peak performance.
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Adaptive Agency: Winning The Fight That Matters
You don’t get to choose every fight life puts in front of you. But you can learn to read the situation, adapt your approach, and make your next move count.
Drawing on his experiences growing up in public housing, boxing professionally, getting sober, and earning a degree in physics, Ed teaches adaptive agency: the ability to take effective action within your circumstances—and adjust when those circumstances change.
Through memorable stories and practical lessons, audiences learn four principles for moving forward when the path is uncertain and effort alone isn’t enough.
You can’t control every circumstance, but you can learn where your actions will make a difference. Ed shows audiences how to stop spending energy on what they wish were different and identify the options they actually have.
- Separate what you can change from what you must adapt to.
- Focus your effort on actions that improve your position.
- How to adjust your approach when persistence stops producing progress.
You can’t win a fight if you don’t even recognize that you’re in one. Through lessons from boxing and sobriety, Ed shows how an honest assessment of your situation gives you a better chance of changing it.
- Recognize when excuses are protecting a problem.
- Learn how protecting your ego prevents progress.
- Use candid self-assessment to unlock growth and resilience
Moving forward often means acting before success is certain. Ed shows how to take calculated risks, invest in your abilities, and build confidence through preparation and experience.
- Why a bet on yourself isn’t actually a gamble
- How to put the “house odds” in your favor when betting on yourself
- Why the biggest pay-off comes from going against the data
The person you’ve been doesn’t have to determine the person you become. Ed explores how changing the way you see yourself—and backing that change with consistent behavior—can help you build a different future.
- Recognize when an old identity is limiting your choices.
- Why you have to build evidence for who you want to become
- How to build your future by first building the version of yourself who deserves it
Audiences leave with four questions they can apply to a challenge in their own lives or work:
- Control: What can I influence, and what must I adapt to?
- Truth: What fact am I avoiding?
- Risk: What worthwhile move have I been delaying?
- Identity: What would the person I want to become do next?
Audiences love to hear Ed speak.
His story is a beacon of hope.
Kristen Mitchell
Executive director, Youth Future Shelter Homes
Such an inspiring journey.
Brad Buhanan
Director, Tech Ridge Development
Our group was into it from start to finish. Beyond his speaking talent, Ed was incredibly kind, professional, and easy to work with.
Ryan Hawk
Host of The Learning Leader podcast
Ed inspired me to keep fighting and to ‘bet on myself.’
Trenton Willson
Program coordinator, Utah State University
I especially appreciated how he embraced being on a non-traditional path, earning his degree later in life and proving that perseverance pays off.
James Jackson
Founder, J3 Motivation
Ed’s writing makes me think and has given me plenty of ‘ah-ha’s’ for my business. I highly recommend it.
Marc Mawhinney
Founder, The Coaching Jungle
A masterclass in resilience.
Alyssa DeHart
Executive director, Utah Advocacy Coalition
The entire time he spoke, Ed was in command of the room and the students were wholly absorbed by his words.
Tyler Stillman
Professor, Southern Utah University
It’s a killer newsletter!
Nathan Barry
CEO, Kit
What to expect when you book Ed for your event:
- A well-delivered keynote combining real-world resilience, intellectual depth, and lasting inspiration.
- True presence and engagement before, during, and after the talk.
- An experience tailored to your event and audience. (Want to include a boxing lesson for your team? Ed can do it.)