Amina AlTai
Business and Career Coach & Chronic Illness Advocate
Amina AlTai
Business and Career Coach & Chronic Illness Advocate
Biography
Amina AITai (pronounced AH-MIN-UH) is a business and career coach, proud immigrant and chronic illness advocate. A leading coach to notable female leaders and impact-driven celebrities-Amina’s mastery is in connecting us to our brilliance and teaching us to live and lead from it each day. As a woman of color of Iraqi descent, she often works with underrepresented communities to help them realize possibilities in a way that honors their particular lived experiences. She’s a Success Magazine 125 Leaders Finalist, a Forbes Contributor, an Entrepreneur Magazine expert-in-residence and has been featured in The New York Times, goop, NBC, Entrepreneur and more. She is working on her first book The Ambition Trap in collaboration with Penguin and The Open Field and is the host of the Amina Change Your Life Podcast.
As a graduate of NYU with a degree in marketing and economics, she started her career with luxury brands and worked for companies such as Cartier, Dolce & Gabbana and Vera Wang before co-founding a marketing agency to work with emerging female entrepreneurs. She then went on to lead marketing for two wellness companies— Spafinder Wellness and Bliss. After spending a decade grappling with a fast-paced career in marketing and two autoimmune diseases, Amina hit burnout. In hopes of healing her own life, she sought training in coaching, nutrition, movement and mindfulness and her goal became to teach others how to balance a thriving career, body and mind. She takes a holistic approach to coaching¬ examining any blocks in the mindset, in our bodies and in how we lead.
In addition to her business, Amina lead Coaching with Inspire Justice as their VP of Social Impact Empowerment Coaching where she trained celebrities on how to lead more equitably. She is also a Founding Guide for Chief, the largest and most prestigious women’s leadership network in the country. For her corporate leadership training, Amina has partnered with progressive companies such as Deloitte, Roku, Snapchat, Google, Y&R, Outdoor Voices, NYU, HUGE and more.
Speaker Videos
Amina Altai explores when ambition stops helping and starts hurting
'The Ambition Trap' Author Amina AlTai
Use these tips to avoid burnout at work
The Ambition Trap: Why You’re Burned Out, Overachieving & Still Not Fulfilled with Amina AlTai
When burnout makes you sick
How to Stop Chasing & Start Living
How to Find Passion to Love
Creating a career you're passionate about and makes you feel fulfilled
76% of workers are battling stress study
Speech Topics
The Capacity Curve: How High Performers Build Career Endurance
Many organizations are exhausted by the conversation of burnout but the real challenge hasn’t gone away. It has simply evolved. Career endurance is the capacity to sustain meaningful ambition over time without depleting ourselves in the process. In this keynote, Amina AlTai reframes stress and overwork through the lens of endurance, drawing on research, coaching practice, and the ambition framework from her best-selling book, The Ambition Trap. Endurance goes beyond resilience. It is not only about how we bounce forward after setbacks but how quickly and skillfully we recover when pressure is constant. Participants will explore how unexamined ambition drives chronic overextension, why recovery is a strategic leadership skill, and how to design careers that allow for impact, adaptability, and longevity rather than cycles of collapse and repair.
Key Takeaways
- The difference between resilience and endurance and why endurance is the missing skill in modern careers
- How hidden ambition patterns quietly undermine long-term performance and decision-making
- Why recovery is a critical leadership capability, not a personal weakness
- Practical ways to build careers that support sustained contribution, adaptability, and growth over time
Leading Across Difference: Navigating Generations, Communication Styles & Power Dynamics in the Workplace
Today’s workplace brings together five distinct generations each with their own values, work styles, and communication preferences alongside a spectrum of cultures, identities, and lived experiences. While this diversity is a strength, it can also create friction, misalignment, and misunderstanding if leaders aren’t equipped to navigate it effectively. In this talk, Amina AlTai offers a practical framework for working across difference with curiosity, and accountability. Drawing on her experience as an executive coach and leadership trainer, she shows how communication frameworks like DISC, situational leadership approaches, and nervous system awareness can help leaders understand and bridge differences. Participants will learn how unspoken norms, power dynamics, and stress responses shape collaboration and how to turn these dynamics into opportunities for trust, innovation, and shared success.
Key Takeaways:
- How to recognize and work with generational differences to improve communication and collaboration
- Tools from DISC and situational leadership to navigate diverse communication styles without defensiveness or avoidance
- Nervous system–based strategies to manage tension and respond rather than react in challenging interactions
- How to hold boundaries while remaining empathetic and inclusive across identity, experience, and generation
- Practical approaches to turn friction into insight, learning, and stronger team performance
The Art of Genius Stacking: How Everyone’s Genius Drives Culture & Performance
Each of us brings a unique form of brilliance to the world, a combination of talents, experiences, and perspectives that, when fully expressed, can transform our work and our teams. This talk explores the concept of genius stacking: discovering your unique gifts, combining them in ways that feel authentic, and using them to create impact that is entirely your own. When each person knows their zone of genius, teams move forward faster, organizations innovate more effectively, and cultures of trust flourish. By recognizing that everyone has genius, we democratize brilliance and create environments where people feel seen, valued, and empowered to contribute their best work. Participants will leave inspired to cultivate their own genius stack while fostering environments where everyone’s gifts can shine.
Key Takeaways:
- How to identify your unique zone of genius and understand the impact it can have on your work and team
- Techniques for stacking your talents, skills, and experiences to work from your fullest expression
- How recognizing and valuing everyone’s genius strengthens trust, collaboration, and psychological safety
- Practical strategies to align your gifts with organizational goals to drive innovation and performance
- Ways to create cultures that democratize brilliance, where difference is celebrated and leveraged for collective impact
The Power of Purposeful Ambition: Lead, Inspire & Thrive
So many of us have climbed ladders only to realize they were leaning against the wrong wall. In this keynote, leadership coach Amina AlTai explores how to lead with purposeful ambition, ambition that is grounded in authenticity, aligned with values, and fueled by contentment. Drawing from her best-selling book The Ambition Trap and her experience coaching executives at some of the world’s most influential companies, Amina offers a framework for rethinking success and pursuing goals that truly matter.
This keynote is an invitation to do big things, from a place of clarity, alignment, and internal permission, so that ambition becomes a source of fulfillment, impact, and sustainable leadership. Participants will leave inspired to pursue success on their own terms and cultivate environments where ambition is purposeful, inclusive, and generative.
Key Takeaways:
- How to identify when ambition is driven by external expectations or unresolved wounds
- A framework for pivoting from painful ambition to purposeful ambition
- How to align personal values, strengths, and zone of genius with professional goals
- Strategies for leading and inspiring ambitious teams while fostering trust, inclusion, and collaboration
- Tools to cultivate sustainable ambition, honoring the natural cycles of growth, reflection, and recalibration
The Retention Revolution: How Great Leaders Inspire, Engage & Keep Top Talent
Employee disengagement and high turnover aren’t just HR problems, they’re leadership problems that end up costing companies in lost revenue and innovation. In this keynote, Amina AlTai dives into the specific leadership behaviors, communication patterns, and organizational dynamics that influence whether top talent stays, thrives, or leaves.
Drawing on her experience coaching executives at some of the world’s most influential companies, Amina provides a framework for retention-focused leadership. Participants will learn how to recognize and address the underlying drivers of disengagement, create cultures of trust and belonging, and design meaningful work experiences that align individual strengths with organizational goals. This keynote equips leaders with practical tools to inspire commitment, enhance engagement, and retain their best people, without sacrificing their own well-being.
Key Takeaways:
- How to diagnose the real drivers of disengagement in your team beyond pay and perks
- Practical leadership behaviors that build trust, psychological safety, and inclusion
- Techniques to align individual strengths, passions, and zones of genius with organizational goals
- How to create a culture of purpose and belonging that motivates and retains top talent
- Methods for giving effective feedback, recognition, and development opportunities that deepen commitment
- Strategies to retain high performers while maintaining sustainable leadership practices and avoiding burnout
The Leadership Edge: How Power Skills & Nervous System Attunement Drive Leadership Excellence
Peak performance isn’t just about strategy or technical expertise, it’s about how leaders think, feel, and bring your full leadership. In this keynote, Amina AlTai explores how power skills (formerly known as soft skills) and nervous system attunement can elevate leadership effectiveness, drive team engagement, and cultivate high-performing, resilient organizations.
Drawing from her experience coaching executives at global companies, Amina provides tools and insights to help leaders stay grounded under pressure, make clear decisions, and lead with intention. Attendees will learn how their nervous systems, energy, and communication style directly influence team dynamics, culture, and performance. This keynote empowers leaders to leverage both skill and self-awareness to drive sustainable results and inspire trust across their teams.
Key Takeaways:
- How power skills, like empathy, trust, and effective communication, directly impact leadership effectiveness and psychological safety
- Techniques for nervous system attunement to stay focused, creative and leader-full under pressure
- How to cultivate presence and energy that inspires trust, engagement, and collaboration
- Practical strategies to integrate self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and endurance into daily leadership practices
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