Jaap Bressers
Humorous speaker providing individuals and companies with powerful insights on finding value in the smaller things.
Why you should book Jaap Bressers for your next event
- With over 15 years as one of the Netherlands’ most in-demand keynote speakers, Jaap has inspired thousands globally, from corporate leaders to frontline staff.
- His best-selling books and the concept of 'Carlos Moments' have become a movement, helping companies build cultures of care, empathy, and positive action.
- A globally recognized speaker, Jaap’s custom-tailored keynotes have moved diverse audiences across sectors, consistently rated as transformative and unforgettable.
Non-binding request for Jaap Bressers
Inspiration That Lasts Beyond the Event
Keynote speaker Jaap Bressers is an inspirational and humorous speaker with a remarkable life. His keynotes have their outset in his personal story which contains both major setbacks, challenges, and sheer luck, and Jaap is sure to inspire audiences with his humor and honesty.
'It's the little things that make a difference'. When an accident left Jaap Bressers paralyzed he realised that this is true. In his keynote 'The power of a Carlos moment' he shares with his audience why it is so important to find your personal strenghts. Where do you ad value? Where can you make a difference? Jaap shows us how you can create added value; at your workplace, within your company or in the lives of others. His message is clear: You can make a difference.
Jaap Bressers had one goal from childhood on: to get the most out of life. At 21 years old, he was in a diving accident which left him paralyzed from the chest down and bound to a wheelchair for life. Looking back, Jaap can say that in the end he came out stronger, and he uses his experiences from this tumultuous period in his life to inspire others.
Jaap even found renewed strength during his rehabilitation. He completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree almost cum laude, and developed a passion for sustainability while working as a student assistant to former Dutch minister Pieter Winsemius.
Today he gives keynotes on topics such as overcoming adversity, talent, leadership, and values. In addition to speaking, he is involved with projects that seek to make a difference in terms of sustainability and for people with disabilities or others who could use a helping hand. He believes that it is important not just to live for yourself, but to see opportunities and consider society as a whole.
Jaap has been through a lot but has also learned a lot. He enjoys sharing that knowledge on stage, where he can touch, entertain and inspire people. As he says himself: “I learned a lot because of my accident, it's just a shame that I had to break my neck for it.” His performances as a keynote speaker will inspire you to make a difference in your own life using the motto: “Small things matter and you are capable of much more than you think.”
Keynotes
Keynote by Jaap Bressers: Dealing with Change: Setback or opportunity for something new?
When you invite Jaap as a guest speaker at your conference or event, you are giving your audience much more than just an engaging and humor-filled talk. In an inspiring and visually expressive way, Jaap talks about realizing goals, chasing dreams, and dealing with setbacks. With eight years of experience as a “sit-down” comedian, he knows how to deliver a punch line that sends the audience into laughter at the exact right moment.
His talks move, entertain, and inspire people.
Everyone faces changes in their life. Some are planned, others completely unexpected. The same goes for changes at work. There are major changes, such as a restructuring or a merger, and minor changes, such as new working methods.
A change can feel like a setback. Will you desperately try to hold on to the old situation? Or will you embrace the uncertainty and even see it as an opportunity?
Jaap knows like no other what it is like to have to deal with a sudden change. Shortly after his accident, he tried very hard to hold on to the old situation. Soon, however, he learned that it only kept him in the past, while focusing on the future is so much more important. Accept the change and you will see prospects arise.
By linking captivating personal stories to the challenges your company faces, Jaap gets everyone to look to the future again. Why do you do what you do? What is your goal? And how do you get there? By celebrating your little wins, you will find the right track. If you have a shared goal you want to reach, the “how” will figure itself out.
Keynote by Jaap Bressers: Customer Focus: How to make a difference
Satisfied employees help produce satisfied customers. Enthusiastic employees create enthusiastic customers. And employees who are true ambassadors for the company can, through their genuine customer focus, also turn customers into ambassadors for your company. As it turns out, it’s the little things that are hugely important in making this happen.
Speaker Jaap Bressers knows like no other how to get people to experience that everyone is important in their own specific role and can make a difference for others. “Simply” by doing things slightly differently. With gripping stories, humor, and engaging examples instead of complex models.
Carlos moments for your customers.
“Carlos Moments” are what Jaap calls those seemingly small acts of kindness that have such great impact. Adopting a customer focus begins by truly seeing the customer and anticipating their needs. Very convenient for the customers, and it makes your job a whole lot more enjoyable as well. Especially when your effort does not go unnoticed. That’s when you enter an upward spiral of customer focus, appreciation, and positive energy.
With captivating personal stories linked to the challenges at your company, Jaap motivates his audiences to get more out of their lives and work. It will leave employees feeling that each and every job across the company has real impact and is meaningful for customers and employees. In a very simple way sometimes. It will reignite their passion for their job and turn employees into enthusiastic ambassadors for the company. After a talk on customer focus by Jaap, your employees will make a difference for customers with (even) bigger smiles on their faces.
Keynote by Jaap Bressers: Leadership: How to activate people
Running a company or department all by yourself, carrying all the responsibility on your shoulders, and staying on top of everything is virtually impossible to do, even if you’re Superman or Superwoman. Nowadays, we have to keep so many plates spinning that we can feel overwhelmed. There’s another way. If you harness all the potential in a company, you, the executive, will have more scope for your activities and a better overall view of operations, especially during busy periods. This will ultimately boost your profits. After all, two know more than one. And a hundred people know even more.
And yet, it is easier said than done in practice. All too often, procedures and protocols are sacred. And that while a protocol should just be a means to an end and not an end its own right. For proof that protocols often overshoot their purpose, just call any help desk and see how the person on the other end of the line merely goes through a list of possible responses, not helping you at all. Swap control for trust and be surprised by what’s possible.
Making a difference starts with you!
As a speaker on inspirational leadership, Jaap would like to help you get the most out of yourself and your employees or co-workers. In a humor-filled and inspiring way, he will show you how to set the right example and how to activate people. And he will hand you the tools you need to make the most of all the potential. You can do that by, for example, creating a safe and uninhibited environment where people have the confidence to come up with ideas to change small things themselves.
Keynote by Jaap Bressers: Sustainability: Go green with a smile on your face
Sustainability is potentially such a vast concept that you could easily get lost in it. Jaap triggers people’s curiosity about how to get started with sustainability. With small, simple steps that are easy to put into practice. A talk on sustainability by Jaap will set you thinking about what would work for you. What ways are there for you to do your bit for the planet? And how could you seize those opportunities?
Jaap enjoys getting your visitors, suppliers or employees to swing into action. Not because they have to, but because they want to do their bit. How do you help make a better world with a smile on your face? It all begins with you. Whatever your role, you can make a difference for the planet, and that begins with a very small step.
Sustainability is a topic that Jaap not only talks about with great passion but also lives by. His office, for example, is fully carbon neutral. But then again, neutral is just neutral. When you come home after a hard day’s work, you don’t say, “Work was very good today, my day was totally neutral.”
Jaap prefers to be positive. He takes going green to the next level. He doesn’t use natural gas and he feeds more power into the grid than he consumes. His is one of the Netherlands’ first energy-positive offices. Aside from that, there’s a charging station outside where guests can charge their EVs for free. There you go, Jaap is a speaker who will truly energize you, even when he’s not giving a talk.
Keynote by Jaap Bressers: Human-centered Healthcare: Make your health-care heart beat faster again
Human-centered health care, humane hospitals, patient-driven care... it’s entirely normal for us to put patients or clients first. But you can only do that if you, as an organization, also take good care of your workers. The workload in health care has grown considerably over the past period. Working more efficiently and more effectively is more important than ever, but so is working mindfully and appreciatively.
Based on his personal experience, Jaap knows exactly what genuine attention can do for you. How helpless you can feel when you are fully dependent on others. But also how the right help, encouragement, and your own effort will empower you to regain control of your life. And how “Carlos Moments”, which is what Jaap calls brief instances of sincere kindness, can literally and metaphorically save your life. The “Carlos” from Jaap’s “Carlos Moments” is the Portuguese nurse who cared for Jaap in hospital after his accident. While Jaap was surrounded by people he could not understand, it was Carlos who made him feel seen and understood again.
Putting patients first, how exactly do you do that? It starts with seeing the person behind the patient and genuinely taking their perspective. Especially given all the changes, high workload, and rules in health care, it is hard to truly put yourself in the patient’s shoes. Health professionals are sometimes so busy merely trying to hold their own that they lose sight of how much value they create.
But you really make a difference in your role. The question is:
- How to keep following your passion for health care without drowning in a sea of rules and reports
- How to regain that feeling that you are adding real value for your patients.
Jaap gives you breathing space and gets you to experience how to work from your heart again.
Workshop by Jaap Bressers: Interactive workshop: A valuable addition to the presentation
Want to get even more out of Jaap’s presentation? Add an interactive workshop! After Jaap’s presentation has revived your passion for your great profession, attendees will be treated to a workshop that will have them find ways to put that passion into practice.
Every single person in the room will experience what it is that puts a smile on their face in their work. And how to use that smile to spark joy in their clients, patients, or students. Sharing this with each other will multiply the joy at work. At the end of the workshop, we will go over some of the most engaging examples with the whole group. It will all culminate in a call to action for everyone to seize their role and actually start doing it.
Workshop results:
- Great team building, employees get to know each other in a different light.
- It triggers more focus on positive things at work.
- There are more valuable moments for yourself, your co-workers, and your customers.
- You learn from each other and won’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to customer focus.
- Personal attention and feedback make individual employees grow.
- More smiles across the organization (and that alone makes it worth the investment).
Masterclass by Jaap Bressers: Dive deeper with Jaap: Discover the core of inspiring leadership
As a manager, do you want to make room for the things that really matter? Go ahead, get to the core and continue working on it? As an individual or in a team? In your work as well as privately? Then choose the unique masterclass 'Dive deeper with Jaap'. In approximately four hours, Jaap takes you into the depths. An exciting strategic session follows full of interaction, individual attention and plenty of inspiration.
WHAT DO WE NOT DO?
The last thing you want is an exciting day full of beautiful words, which then disappear somewhere in the back of your mind or in a dusty desk drawer. Paper tigers that no one will ever hear from again. So we're not going to do all that. Jaap is a practical man and only goes for impact. He lets you experience that everyone can make a difference in their own way. Even when major challenges or changes come your way. From nice words to reality.
WHAT DO WE DO?
This masterclass is very suitable for an inspiring driving session, management meeting or leadership session. Not only a moment of reflection, but above all an opportunity to grow, inspire and connect. This is where the foundation is laid. By making an impact in one half day and making the right choices. With a touch of humor, Jaap provides a breeding ground in which managers find answers to what is really important or not at all. To get closer to achieving your goals as a team.
