Ross Reekie
Keynote Speaker, Creator of the Fun Jobs Project, Meaningful Work Expert
- Meaningful work expert – 20 years global experience helping leaders fundamentally shift how people think and feel about the work they do.
- Creator of the Fun Jobs Project – a real-world research experiment revealing playful curiosity as the core skill to meaningful work.
- Warm, emotionally resonant, insight-rich, and fun sessions that leave audiences visibly lifted, reconnected with their purpose, and ready to lead with new meaning
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Ross Reekie's 2025 Biography
Ross Reekie – “Reigniting the spark in your teams with meaning & purpose”
Ross Reekie was a meaningful work “expert” with one small problem: his own work had lost its spark. Despite 20 years of global consulting and research —helping leaders “make work awesome”—his own work led him to burn out. He realised something had to change.
So he did something radical. He wrote a list of “fun jobs” and started doing them. From Ski Instructor to Opera Extra to Stand-Up Comedian and more. That list turned into The Fun Jobs Project—a real-life experiment to rediscover what makes work feel joyful, alive, and worthwhile.
He discovered a new understanding of meaningful work and a surprising insight: Fun—not ping-pong tables, but deep curiosity, playful exploration, and the courage to follow our ‘sparks’ beyond comfort zones—isn’t the outcome of meaningful work or a great culture. It’s the core skill that creates them.
“Serious fun” is the mindset that reconnects us to why we work, helps us confront fear, and makes us feel alive in our work.
We all know the feeling when the spark is missing. People are drained, disillusioned, and disconnected. You feel it everywhere in the organisation—the energy is gone. Bold ideas take a backseat. Teams are just trying to get through the day.
The hard truth is that a bold mission statement means nothing if people don’t feel the point of their daily tasks. Disengagement spreads, performance suffers.
Ross helps leaders reignite the spark. Reconnect their teams deeply to the purpose behind the work and bring back the sense of fun.
Through warm, playful, and highly interactive keynotes and workshops, Ross doesn’t just talk about meaning and fun—he brings them to life. He takes audiences beyond knowing the science, inviting them inside the Fun Jobs Project—often literally—so they can feel and understand the impact of meaningful work. From live science experiments to “ski lessons,” from song-writing to photo-shoots, Ross creates interactive experiences and moments that spark a powerful shift in how people see their work.
People leave reconnected, re-energised, reignited—ready to lead with meaning.
Whether you’re facing burnout, disengagement, change fatigue—or just that stuck, flat feeling—Ross delivers the high-impact shift your team needs.
When the spark returns, people come alive—performance flows naturally.
Ross Reekie's 2025 Talks & Topics
What It’s About
This keynote is based on Ross’ story of burning out—despite being a global expert in meaningful work—and what happened when he set out to feel alive again by taking on a list of “fun jobs.”
He discovered a new understanding of meaningful work—and a powerful insight: fun isn’t a frivolous distraction from serious work. It’s our core skill for connecting with purpose, sparking creative energy, and driving real performance
Who It’s For
This talk is for leaders and teams who want to bring the spark back—whether things feel flat, disconnected, and stuck, or you’re ready to take a good culture to something more alive and energising.
The message works equally well for leadership groups or whole teams, and the context can be tailored to suit your audience.
Key Message
Serious fun—curious exploration, playful problem-solving, and getting out of our comfort zones—is the core skill for reconnecting your teams with the missing spark, a renewed sense of purpose, and the agency to shape their experience of work.
What It Covers
Ross’s radical story of losing—and then rediscovering—meaning through fun jobs
The science of meaningful work, plus a visceral business and human case for why it matters
A simple, powerful framework for making work feel meaningful
Interactive stories and insights from the Fun Jobs Project—from the opera stage to the ski slopes
The core insight: fun and playful exploration isn’t a distraction—it’s a skill
How to start applying serious fun immediately—in your role, your team, and your culture
What Your Audience Will Take Away
- A simple framework—and a felt understanding—of what makes work meaningful and how it drives culture and performance
- A clear sense of why this matters: both the business case and the personal inspiration to lead with authenticity, purpose, and spark
- Concrete tools to spark meaning and energy in their own roles and teams—starting immediately
Impact
- The outcome for the audience is a powerful reconnection: to why they work, to their organisation’s goals and mission, and to a genuine sense of agency and possibility.
- It’s a catalyst for clarity, connection, and meaningful change.
The Spark Series offers short, sharp, story-led talks that tap into the emotional core of meaningful work. Each session explores one powerful theme—delivered with energy, humour, and audience interaction.
High-energy and heart-opening, these talks are perfect for setting the tone, closing with impact, or injecting spark into culture-focused conferences, leadership retreats, and team events.
This energising, warm, story-rich talk invites the audience to reconnect with who they are, what lights them up, and how to follow that spark in their day-to-day work.
It’s an inspiring invitation to realign work with what matters—through a curious mindset -to create the building blocks of work that makes us feel alive.
This talk explores what belonging at work really means and how to create it—reframing it as a personal as well as shared responsibility. Through story, reflection, and interaction, Ross shows how connection, contribution, and shared voice create a culture people want to be part of.
If you want to feel you belong, you have to help build it
Fear shows up in work everyday—masquerading as control, perfectionism, or hesitation. But we rarely name it.
In this quietly powerful talk, Ross reawakens a spirit of childlike wonder—and invites the audience to ask, “What if?” Sharing stories and insights from teaching kids to ski to show how playfulness, curiosity, and a shift in mindset can reveal fear for what it is: a signpost you’re on the way to somewhere that matters.
This talk shows leaders how to spot fear, disarm it, and unlock achievement.
Even a Bunny Can Make a Difference to the World - How to connect your team to the feeling of purpose
Purpose is powerful—but only when people feel connected to it.
Ross creates a deep connection to purpose through warmth, humour, and raw emotion. With stories from his time as an Opera Extra (including a stint on stage as a giant rabbit), playful interaction, and thoughtful reflection, Ross shows leaders how to help their teams feel more motivated, fulfilled, and energised—by reconnecting them to the impact of what they do.
Looking for more than a spark?
Ross also offers deep-dive half- and full-day workshops on each of these topics—for teams and leaders ready to embed ideas, shift habits, and transform their culture.
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