Meet Mitch Wallis
"Mitch is like if Brené Brown and Simon Sinek had a baby that looked like Justin Bieber but spoke with an Australian accent."
Mitch Wallis is a psychology thought leader and global expert in 'connection as a capability' through his work in Real Conversations®. His speciality is moving the audience beyond awareness, and into hyper-practical behaviour change, so they leave as different people than they walked in.
Most speakers have either the story or the framework. Mitch has the rare capacity to bring both at a world-class level. He is also a highly experienced business professional, as much as he is an expert in the mind. An even rarer intersection that's near impossible to find.
As a keynote speaker, author, and founder, his mission is to change the way the world feels. His ambition is to positively impact one billion people by helping them build life's most important asset: nervous system regulation.
He has been trusted to deliver talks to more than 200 companies by the likes of American Express, Amazon, Google, Allianz, and many more.
From a psychology standpoint – • Mitch holds a master's degree in clinical psychology from Columbia University (one of the world's most prestigious universities). • He has more than two decades of lived experience with severe anxiety, depression, and OCD - diagnosed at age seven with one of the worst cases doctors had seen. • He is the founder of Heart On My Sleeve®, a charity that has saved lives by helping people drop the brave face and be honest about how they feel.
From a corporate standpoint – • Mitch is the primary leadership learning & development provider to numerous Fortune 500 companies - from KPMG to Coca-Cola - empowered to shape their culture by setting the standard for healthy high-performing communication. • He worked at Microsoft for seven years - in Australia and the USA, holding global positions running an eight-figure business unit end-to-end. • Mitch holds a bachelor's degree in commerce from the University of Sydney, winning multiple awards for his academic achievements.
Mitch's work is centred on his core proprietary framework ELSA.B™ - the heartbeat of Real Conversations® - an interpersonal relationship framework delivered to 10,000+ people across four continents. In 2025, his book Real Conversations was named a finalist in the Australian Business Book Awards.
He has advised the United Nations on youth mental health, serves as an expert adviser to the Corporate Mental Health Alliance, and was appointed the first-ever Ambassador for the Australia and New Zealand Mental Health Association. He has been named GQ Man of Impact, Westfield Local Hero, and one of B&T's Top 10 Social Changemakers in Australia. His work has been featured across Sky News, The Project, Huffington Post, and global campaigns with Allianz and LinkedIn.
From people managers to parents, Mitch's teachings have been described as the most helpful framework for moving through emotional pain. At the core of his work is a simple but uncomfortable belief: real healing, real leadership, and real connection begin when we are willing to go toward the pain, not around it.
You won't find someone more thought-provoking, inspiring, and educational about the topic of connection than Mitch.
My Why
Help people understand themselves, connect with each other, and build resilience - so that they don’t have to go to hell and back (like I did) to find a life worth living.
My Accomplishments
✔️ Master's degree in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University, New York ✔️ Bachelor of Commerce, University of Sydney ✔️ Seven years at Microsoft in global senior roles before leaving to pursue full-time mission work ✔️ Creator of the Real Conversations® program (and author of the book of the same name) – shown to boost connection capability by up to 400% post-intervention ✔️ Real Conversations named a finalist in the Australian Business Book Awards (HR and Management category) ✔️ Trusted by C-suite teams at over 200 organisations across four continents, including KPMG, American Express, Microsoft, Lendlease, Baker McKenzie, and dozens more ✔️ Delivered Real Conversations to 10,000+ people globally; keynote audiences in the tens of thousands; digital content reaching millions ✔️ Founder of Heart On My Sleeve, a nationally recognised suicide prevention organisation ✔️ Host of a popular podcast featuring leading psychologists, cultural leaders, Olympians, and global change-makers ✔️ Expert Advisor to the Corporate Mental Health Alliance of Australia ✔️ Advisor to the United Nations on Youth Mental Health ✔️ First-ever ambassador for the Australia & New Zealand Mental Health Association ✔️ 20+ years of lived experience with anxiety, depression, and OCD – informing his work as a clinically trained psychologist ✔️ Recognised through GQ Man of Impact, Westfield Local Hero, B&T Social Changemaker, and Sharecare's Best Mental Health Video (in association with The Emmys) ✔️ Featured by Sky News, The Project, Huffington Post, Allianz, and LinkedIn ✔️ Formally recognised by NSW Parliament for contributions to mental health ✔️ Accredited in Mental Health First Aid and trained as a Lifeline crisis supporter
Fun facts
My great-great-great-grandfather was the leading minister in freeing the slaves in Sierra Leone and was knighted in England, memorialised next to Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey (and technically I can get married there)
> I was a DJ for 7 years and played the same venue as Calvin Harris
> I was born with my feet turned inward and my Mum put gumboots on the wrong feet as I learned to walk which naturally turned them back out
> I once did a headstand and pretended to be a kangaroo whilst beatboxing at 3am in front of a hotdog stand in Brooklyn New York to impress Cara Delevingne and asked her to marry me within 3 minutes of meeting her.
How I can help
Mitch is the #1 expert in Australia for ‘connection capability’, the most important skill for every workforce in the next decade (outside of AI). He shifts audiences beyond awareness into behaviour change. How?
Train leaders to handle the conversations they currently dodge or fumble: performance, mental health, conflict, change, burnout, grief which is key to reducing psychosocial risk.
Turning calendar moments like RUOK Day, World Mental Health Day etc. into cultural watershed experiences instead of tick-box initiatives.
Transforming Mental Health First Aid networks into true peer support systems by giving them non-crisis skills to match the 99% use case of a listening ear (not a 1% use case of emotional bleeding).
Equipping teams with nervous system regulation skills to stay grounded, productive and clear-headed through pressure, change and uncertainty.
More from Mitch Wallis
Watch Mitch Wallis in action ↗
Real Conversations® Workplace Program ↗
Used by Fortune 500 companies to transform culture by boosting connection as a core capability by up to 400%. Introducing a people manager training program that’s proven to work. A communication framework that leads to increased psych safety & productivity, whilst reducing risk. 40+ organisations on 4 continents at an average satisfaction rating of 9.4/10.
Mitch Wallis Keynote Speaking Showreel ↗
People aren't looking for your advice. They're looking for your care.
In a world drowning in noise and disconnection, the only skill that will matter in the next decade is connection. Research proves your manager impacts your mental health more than your therapist. Yet no one's teaching leaders how to actually connect.
That's what Real Conversations fixes. Mitch Wallis has spent his life learning - often the hard way - what it takes to have conversations that actually matter. Now he's brought it into a five-step framework that's changing how teams, leaders, and humans show up for each other.
If it's not stinging, you're not having a real conversation.
A short snippet of Mitch Wallis in action ↗
Mitch Wallis - Keynote Speaker
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