Creating extraordinary positive change, by helping people make ordinary positive change.
Regarded for his practical insights, relatable style, compassion and experience in the mental health, employment, education, development, equality of opportunity, housing, and social impact sectors - Josh Reid Jones is a master communicator and educator.
From the building site to the boardroom, and across a range of industries he brings practical experience to professional insight and deliver life-changing and eye-opening perspectives to people of all ages and walks of life across the world.
Current Work:
The Founder and Director of trailblazing social enterprise - The Just Be Nice Project, Josh works daily to engage businesses, schools, organisations, and communities in the process of creating extraordinary positive change in the world, through making ordinary positive change.
Educating and engaging people while managing the resources necessary to ensure that everyone has assistance in housing, employment, and positive mental health outcomes. A non-executive director of one of Tasmania’s largest social service providers, an RUOK Day ambassador and recipient of a range of awards and scholarships for outstanding contributions to social impact and non-profit leadership, Josh has been involved in, and responsible for, improving the lives of many thousands of people across a remarkable career that continues to go from strength to strength.
Josh holds a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Philosophy and Media & Communications, with an English Literature minor. He is also a qualified carpenter, with post-graduate qualifications in business - currently completing an MBA on a full scholarship for social impact and non-profit leadership.
He lives in Melbourne, balancing work with regularly undertaking physical challenges - including a 24hr run around Albert Park Lake and a 24hr Ski-Erg challenge - playing music and enjoying a laugh and casual drink with friends. He is a recipient of the Cranlana 2020 Scholarship for ethical leaders, offered to outstanding leaders from the not-for-profit, start-up, arts and culture, and community sectors who demonstrate excellence and courage in ethical leadership.
Talking Points
Mental Health
A supportive environment for mental health is so much more than checking in one day a year, and requires an ever-evolving combination of learning and paying attention. Mental Health
Combining expertise with lived experience to deliver relatable, practical and insightful keynotes tailored to your needs regarding mental health - you will learn;
- Understanding what we mean when we say Mental Health.
- How to create an environment that is supportive of good mental health.
- How to cultivate relationships and pay attention to people around you to better recognise and support those struggling with mental health.
Inclusion and Diversity
From the board room to cadets and the broader community, a need to cultivate diverse and inclusive environments and opportunities for those around us is an important goal for many. It's time to improve our practical understanding of how to create pathways and support for people from diverse communities. Inclusion and Diversity
Key Takeaways:
- Diversity and inclusion as a process as well as an outcome.
- How to interrogate your own knowledge gaps, biases and blind spots around diversity and inclusion.
- How to navigate the infinite kinds of diversity and inclusion challenges, while bringing people together and improving access to opportunity and understanding.
Social Impacts
We know that people want to have purpose in their lives and work, and overwhelmingly want to have a positive impact on the world. Josh teaches how to best educate and encourage people to understand what good social impact looks like. How to measure and achieve it, and the best way to create meaningful, purposeful impact in your life and business. Social Impacts
Key Takeaways:
- What is good social impact?
- How do we measure, implement and deliver good social impact outcomes?
- How do cultivate purposeful work, and make our current work more purposeful?
Video
Josh Reid Jones | Saxton Speakers
COVID, Climate Change, Profit and Challenges ahead | Saxton Speakers
We have a fairly binary challenge facing the entire globe at once, in real time (COVID), and solutions to arrest it's spread and impact on hand (Vaccines). Yet we cannot even co-ordinate a global effort to ensure everyone, everywhere is protected - and in doing so better protect ourselves. Given this state of affairs, how are we to even contemplate dealing with more sophisticated issues like climate change and income and wealth inequality? There are only a handful of companies manufacturing Vaccines, and yet their profits are being protected at the expense of real human lives. Profits that are generated using science invested in by various sovereign states and tax payers. If we cannot commit to a 'greater good' strategy for something as cut and dry as pandemic vaccines for a handful of companies, how can we honestly expect to get every other organisation, government and community to engage in activities that mitigate the negative human impact on our global ecosystems? Let's align the aspirations we have for ourselves and those we care about most, with our aspirations for people across the globe and work to ensure that we support people, policies and organisations that are committed to developing opportunities and material, long-term help for everyone - regardless of where they are. Consensus is hard, but the challenges we will face without it, will be harder.Josh - you are a credit to the JBN Project - you made it look so easy. So impressive. Your nature and your speaking style is - to name a few things - inspiring, engaging, emotional, relatabl ... keep reading Auspost
Josh was a great inspiration to us here at DXC, highlighting the importance of looking after each other on a daily basis rather than pretend to care once a year. The whole room, full on consultants, was touched by his story, and how his upbringing helped shape him into the person he is today. It was the kickstart we needed in transforming the consulting culture in our organisation, prioritising our people at every stage of our business operations. We understand the importance of focusing on our people, and thanks to Josh we were able to take the first step in demonstrating it. Thank you Josh, for everything you did for us, and we look forward to having you back with us at the next event!
I personally wanted to “Thank You” for your time, commitment and dedication to supporting and, more importantly, speaking at PDS Group’s event in Melbourne. The feedback from those in attendance highlighted your genuine and authentic care for those impacted by mental health issues, your captivating “story” and how small acts of kindness can be life changing
We asked Josh to speak to our people at Peter Mac just after RUOK day but also in the context of ideas, suggestions and experiences with well-being and wellness through what is such a challenging time for those working in health through Victoria's numerous lockdown, and whilst case numbers escalate. Josh's easy-going but enthusiastic style, common sense approach but great insights and his honest self reflection was the perfect combination to share with our people in such a time of need. A pleasure to do business with.
Josh’s obvious passion and expertise on the topic of mental health resulted in a very engaging presentation. His insights and unique point of view were very thought-provoking and have encouraged positive discussion among staff in the studio. For a topic that can often be over-intellectualised, Josh was able to simply communicate strategies and ideas on how to work towards improving everyone’s experience in the workplace and in turn improve their mental health.
Thank you Josh!!! You were so excellent. I’ve had really positive feedback and I loved the way you talked about a topic that is often confronting to broach. - Nova 100 Dear Josh, Thank you so much for an incredible workshop and mentoring. We are feeling so pumped and inspired!
We had Josh Jones present at one of our Professional Development Days in Melbourne. Josh is a very inspirational and engaging speaker which made our audience not only think about their clients but also their family and friends wellbeing. This topic is always relevant and his guidance, ideas and subtle conversation techniques were key takeout’s for our audience on the day.
Josh had a way to connect with you on a personal level by making you feel like you knew him and experienced every emotion along the way.
Josh provided an engaging and valuable presentation for the projects team at Metro Trains on the topic of mental wellness. Communication was wonderful and there was nothing but positive feedback from everyone in attendance. The enthusiasm and passion shown really resonated with everyone and they have taken away a lot from the presentation. We would love to work with Josh again in the future
Josh is an incredible speaker and wonderful motivator when he spoke at our virtual morning tea for R U OK? Day. What the group really loved about Josh was his ability to use layman terms that all our team could understand. Josh is confident, funny, outgoing and was vulnerable enough to share his personal stories with a group of approximately 80 employees. We can’t thank Josh enough for sharing his recommendations and tips on how to ask someone “are you okay?” and would recommend Josh as a guest speaker at any motivational/mindset event.
As Editor-in-Chief of national publication STRONG Fitness Magazine Australia, I have worked with Josh on several mental health features for our print editions, and also enlisted his expertise at our recent mental health panel at The Fitness Show in Melbourne. I have no problem highly recommending Josh as both an expert media source and as a presenter. Well-read, articulate and charismatic, Josh has the rare ability to filter highly complex topics into easily understood and engaging copy and presentations. I hope to have him involved in our brand and magazine for a long time to come, and would encourage any other company that values physical and mental health to do the same.
