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Dr. Robin L. Smith

Dr. Robin L. Smith

Thought Leader, Bridge Builder, Mental Health Champion, Transformational Speaker & #1 Bestselling Author

Dr. Robin L. Smith

Thought Leader, Bridge Builder, Mental Health Champion, Transformational Speaker & #1 Bestselling Author

Biography

Dr. Robin L. Smith is a globally respected authority on human resilience, organizational courage, and transformational leadership. Known for her fearless truth-telling and life-changing insights, Dr. Robin equips leaders and organizations to navigate disruption, foster psychological safety, and unlock extraordinary performance. Her work integrates cutting-edge mental health science with decades of real-world experience coaching Fortune 100 executives, workforce development leaders and global organizations.

A top performance strategist and trusted advisor, Dr. Robin is celebrated for her rare combination of warmth, candor and executive precision. Her high-impact keynotes and customized leadership experiences help teams convert adversity into purpose, burnout into sustainable wellness and conflict into meaningful connection. Her guiding philosophy and four-point model for success, Wake Up! Show Up! Grow Up! Rise Up!™, has become a blueprint for thousands seeking to lead with integrity, agility and humanity.

A #1 New York Times bestselling author, licensed psychologist, ordained minister, and acclaimed media personality, Dr. Robin uniquely bridges the worlds of psychology, leadership, culture, and spiritual well-being. She brings a healing, solution-driven lens to today’s most urgent issues: systemic racism and social justice; mental health and addiction; equity and belonging; grief, loss and trauma; and organizational recovery following crisis and change.

Dr. Robin partners with corporations, universities, and community institutions to design transformative, results-driven frameworks that elevate culture, strengthen leadership pipelines, and cultivate environments where people and performance can thrive. She provides organizations not only with strategic insight but with a human-centered pathway through complexity, fatigue, and division.

Her signature approach is rooted in Compassion, Curiosity, and Accountability—three tools she uses to help leaders transcend impasse, deepen connection and build teams capable of innovation under pressure. After surviving a life-altering car accident and traumatic brain injury, she developed her four-step model for truth and liberation, empowering individuals and organizations to rise above adversity, complacency and fear.

Dr. Robin is a familiar and trusted voice to millions. She recently concluded a four-year run as host of The Dr. Robin Show on SiriusXM Urban View and became a household name as the on-air therapist-in-residence on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Her reach continues to expand through keynotes, trainings, global media and her forthcoming video podcast series.

A respected advisor to C-suite leaders, sports and entertainment figures, and major corporations, Dr. Robin is known for delivering programs that spark breakthrough moments and measurable transformation. Her presentations consistently leave audiences inspired, renewed and energized to act.

She is the author of multiple bestselling books including:  the #1 New York Times bestseller, Lies at the Altar, translated into 14 languages; Hungry: The Truth About Being Full; Inspirational Vitamins, A Guide to Personal Empowerment; and her latest book, The Invisible Ache, Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power, co-authored with Emmy Award–winning actor Courtney B. Vance.

Based in Philadelphia, Dr. Robin holds a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Temple University, a master’s degree from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a bachelor’s degree from LaSalle University. In her formative years she attended Germantown Friends School, a Quaker community that shaped her lifelong commitment to integrating psychology, equity and spirituality into her work, mission and ministry.

If your organization is seeking a transformational voice who brings truth, strategy, and humanity to the moments that matter most—Dr. Robin L. Smith is the one.

Book her for your next conference, corporate engagement, or media event and experience her signature call to action: Wake Up! Show Up! Grow Up! Rise Up!™.

Speaker Videos

The Dangers of "You Complete Me"

Talks at Google - Dr. Robin Smith

Speech Topics

Transform Adversity into Purpose & Power

Wake Up! Show Up! Grow Up! Rise Up!™ was the prescription that came to Dr. Robin when she was at her lowest. These words, and the science behind them, helped inspire her to step into her power and start changing her life from within.

Today, The Prescription has helped hundreds of thousands of people around the globe create revolutionary and transformative change. If you have never worked with Dr. Robin before, this is the foundational speech your audience needs to hear.

The Prescription functions as a galvanizing and inspirational keynote because it leaves audiences feeling seen, understood, and ready to take action. It is a speech about acknowledging the pain of the past, the truth of the present, and using that as fuel to launch into an empowered and actualized future. Wake Up! Show Up! Grow Up! Rise Up!™ is more than just a mantra. It is a mindset. One that can, through science-backed daily practice, help launch anyone out of a rut and into their power and potential.

If you, your team, or your community have been struggling to break the cycle of stasis, sameness, or stagnation, The Prescription is the solution you need. 

The Prescription

Through a unique blend of fierce advocacy, tough love, humor, and personal storytelling, Dr. Robin will teach you and your audience a multi-step process to help you reframe harmful narratives and harness your momentum to create meaningful action and change on a personal, local, and global level.

Dr. Robin’s Prescription to Wake Up! Show Up! Grow Up! Rise Up!™ transforms lives. Your audience will walk away with tangible, replicable, and culturally competent strategies to step out of their negative and self sabotaging patterns and into confidence, growth, and power.

Learning Objectives

  • Learn a simple mantra that is the gateway to meaningful change.
  • Process how past struggles and trauma shape our current thinking-- and learn the steps to break the cycle.
  • Leverage the science of mindfulness and positive thought to influence our actions, mood, and efficacy.
  • Increase motivation for success and change.
  • Inspire a hopeful outlook about future possibilities.

Be Your Own Hero: Show Up for Yourself & For Your Community

This is a speech about relationships, teamwork, and healthy partnership. Our ability to form meaningful, connected relationships with others is a defining characteristic of the human experience. Couples want to know how they can feel closer and communicate better. Leaders want to know how to connect with and inspire their teams around common goals, and communities want to know how to come together with greater intention and purpose.

Dr. Robin knows the surprising secret to healthy relationships, and in this speech, she teaches your audience just that. Spoiler alert: it starts with YOU.

The most important relationship you will ever have is with yourself. So learning the tactics and strategies to show up and take initiative in your own life is your key to success at work, at home, and in community. So many of us seem to be waiting for someone or something to give us direction, hope, and/or permission to change. In this electrifying and inspiring speech, Dr. Robin will share her own hero’s journey: one that began with her feeling broken, insignificant, and powerless to make a difference. She will share the habit that helped her get where she is today and the mindset shift that helped her embrace her confidence, her voice, and her power.

Being your own hero starts with radical self acceptance, enduring self care, and unconditional self love. Your audience will learn tangible ways to identify and meet their own needs, set achievable goals, and to rise to the occasion. Being your own hero means learning to be in relationship with yourself-- a skillset that will revolutionize interpersonal relationships as well.

Dr. Robin has worked with thousands of couples, companies, and communities to help them heal interpersonally. She wrote a New York Times best-selling book on the subject. Dr Robin’s words, her compassionate and resilient outlook, and deep well of empathy will unlock untapped potential in your audience. Inviting her into your space to speak with your team will leave every person in the room feeling changed and inspired to be their own hero-- and their best self.

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the connection between the relationship with the self and relationships with others.
  • Ignite a sense of individual purpose and power
  • Learn the secret to healthy boundaries with the self and with others
  • Reinforce an enthusiastic workplace culture built on trust and understanding
  • Empower community members to take initiative
  • Supercharge productivity
  • Invite community members to harness their full potential

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

Build bridges instead of walls with people who might think differently.

A skilled bridge-builder, Dr. Robin leads by example and teaches you to convene a welcoming, safe space, where people of differing backgrounds and opinions can feel a sense of belonging, share their unedited truth, and remember our common humanity.

In today’s increasingly divided world, it is easy to let our differences drive us apart. We find ourselves at a cultural impasse. Do we retreat into our echo chambers, avoiding difficult conversations? Do we ignore important topics like politics, race, sexuality, and religion, deeming them off-limits? Or do we tear each other down in heated conflicts and arguments?

In this keynote, Dr. Robin presents an alternative and enlivening path: one that enables us to honor our own truths while preserving the relationships that matter. She understands that diversity is not a threat, but, rather, an invaluable asset that strengthens our teams and communities. Whether we gather in an office, a backyard, or a place of worship, we all share a common neighborhood—our shared home on this planet. And it’s time we all learn to be better neighbors-- not just so we can coexist-- but so we can start getting things done.

Dr. Robin has long been celebrated for her gift of convening— called upon to mediate and heal thousands of broken relationships, partnerships, and organizations across seemingly insurmountable divides. In this timely and necessary keynote, she will share the science behind why we build walls— and the tools that have helped countless leaders, community members and partners to dismantle them.

Tailored to function as a keynote, a round table, or leadership workshop, this speech will empower your audience to define and work toward unified goals while embracing diverse perspectives, voices, and opinions. It is the speech you need to hear if you are facing a difficult group decision, if your work environment has become icy and divided, or if your community cannot seem to heal from hurt. Dr. Robin has made it her life’s work to shine her light on these sensitive and tender places. Her expertise, compassion, and humanity will leave your audience changed-- and ready to have those conversations. 

Learning Objectives

  • Learn to create and maintain an inclusive environment
  • Recognize the value and the power of diverse voices and opinions.
  • Address conflicts through healthy dialogue
  • Understand the difference between walls and healthy boundaries.
  • Gain insight into how to effectively create common ground.