Most speakers fall into one of two camps: they make audiences think, or they make audiences laugh. Drew Plant does both, helping leaders & would-be leaders navigate change through comedy, storytelling and executive communication.
For more than three decades, Drew Plant has helped executives navigate consequential moments – from communicating during uncertainty to rebuilding trust & helping organizations make sense of what comes next.
Then, in his late fifties, he did something unexpected. He started performing stand-up comedy. Exploring reinvention, identity, workplace culture, aging, recovery and the occasional absurdity of being a functioning adult in corporate America.
Audiences laugh. They reflect. They leave with ideas they can actually use.
Funny. Thoughtful. Credible.
He’s a communications professional who understands executives, organizations, leadership challenges and the stories people tell themselves during periods of change. Rather than a comedian who occasionally works with business audiences. Drew’s unique perspective enables him to connect with audiences in a way that is intelligent, relatable and refreshingly free of motivational-speaker clichés.
His midlife leap into comedy has become a laboratory for understanding audiences: Night after night, comedy clubs reveal truths about attention, authenticity, trust, vulnerability & human behavior that echoed everything Drew had spent his career observing in C-suites, board rooms & all-hands meetings.
Today, Drew brings those two worlds together via signature presentations combining executive communication expertise, sharp cultural observation, personal storytelling & humor to help leaders better understand the people they’re trying to reach – and trying to be. Audiences leave seeing leadership, communication and change a little differently. Because they recognized themselves
Audiences leave seeing leadership, communication and change a little differently. Because they recognized themselves.
Why organizations invite Drew
Today’s leaders don’t need another presentation about executive presence or authentic leadership: They need someone who understands what actually happens when people walk into a room carrying uncertainty, skepticism, fatigue, ambition, fear or hope.
Drew has spent decades advising executives through mergers, leadership transitions, crises, organizational change & high-stakes communications. Stand-up comedy gave him an exciting new lens and perspective to explore the surprising overlap between leadership, storytelling, communication & comedy – revealing practical insights about influence, resilience, audience psychology & what it means to remain genuinely human inside modern organizations.
No motivational clichés. No manufactured inspiration. Just thoughtful observations, memorable stories, ideas leaders can use the next time they’re standing in front of a room and, yes, laughter.
Signature Keynotes
The Room Is Smarter Than the Speaker
Learn from your audience and they’ll learn from you.
Reinvention Isn’t a Career Move; it’s a Leadership Skill.
Resilience is ultimately an acknowledgment that life is not going to be consistent, so we might as well laugh along the way.
From Resistance to Listening
Sometimes people have to laugh before they’re willing to listen.
Authenticity in Corporate Culture
Why people are exhausted by performative leadership, and what genuine connection looks like instead.
Midlife, Identity & Professional Evolution
Lessons from personal reinvention, career pivots & discovering that growth rarely follows a straight line.
Ideal Audiences
- CEO & senior leadership retreats
- Executive offsites
- Corporate conferences
- Leadership development programs
- Executive leadership teams
- Communications & public affairs organizations
- Financial services & banking
- Healthcare organizations
- Professional & industry associations
- Organizations navigating significant change
Speaking Formats
- Leadership retreats
- Executive offsites
- Conference keynote presentations
- Fireside conversations
- Executive interviews
- Conference emcee & moderator
- Customized leadership sessions
About Drew
B. Andrew (“Drew”) Plant is an executive communications advisor, writer, speaker & stand-up comic. For more than thirty years, he has helped executives, founders & organizations communicate through moments that mattered most. Today, he combines that experience with lessons learned on comedy stages to explore leadership, trust, communication, reinvention & the wonderfully complicated business of being human.
His perspective is informed by thousands of executive conversations, countless audiences & just enough nights bombing at open mics to know that the room is almost always smarter than the speaker.
Drew is not a corporate comic per se, but you also can learn more about and book his comedy performances.
When not huddled with an exec or on stage, Drew is at work on a book, Reading the Room, about how we craft our public selves at work, in leadership & beyond. The book was born out of Drew discovering that standup comedy was a second laboratory for studying communication, especially around earning trust from an audience.