SPEAKER • FACILITATOR • STORYTELLER
He doesn't just tell stories.
He hands you the tools.
Tim Spicer turns stories about leadership, education, failure, and opportunity into practical tools that help people recognize their influence, activate the resources within reach, and take ownership of what comes next.
10+ YEARS
Post-Secondary Education
2009
Introduced President Obama
SURVIVOR 46
CBS Castaway
TEDx EMORY
Speaker
MOREHOUSE
B.A. Political Science
GWU
M.Ed. Curriculum & Instruction
THE CENTRAL IDEA
Influence isn't a title. It's a decision.
Leadership doesn't begin when someone gives you a position. It begins when you recognize the influence you already have, and become intentional about what you do with it.
Tim helps people identify the relationships, resources, opportunities, and strengths already within reach, then turn that awareness into action.
Because opportunity only matters when you know what to do with it.
Influence
Recognize the ability you already have to shape the people and communities around you.
Activation
Put your relationships, resources, strengths, and opportunities to work.
Outcomes
Turn intention into action, and action into meaningful progress.
THE OPPORTUNITY IS ONLY THE BEGINNING
Access is not
the finish line.
Getting the opportunity matters. Getting accepted isn't the same as graduating. Having support isn't the same as using it. And having resources within reach doesn't matter if you don't know how to activate them.
Tim's work lives in that space between access and action, helping people take ownership of what happens next.
“What am I here to achieve?”
A question Tim first confronted after failing the first course in his major, and one he would return to years later on Survivor.
THE FLAGSHIP KEYNOTE
Surviving College
Getting In Is Only the Beginning
Students spend years preparing to get into college. Tim helps them prepare for what happens once they get there.
Drawing from his own experience at Morehouse College, more than a decade in post-secondary education, and lessons tested in an entirely different environment on Survivor, Tim explores what it takes to navigate setbacks, build meaningful relationships, advocate for yourself, use the resources around you, and keep moving when the plan changes.
RESILIENCE • SELF-ADVOCACY • COMMUNITY • RESOURCE ACTIVATION • PERSISTENCE
THE FRAMEWORK
Connection. Community.
Contribution.
Three principles that move people from simply having access to intentionally using what’s around them.
CONNECTION
Connect with yourself first.
Know who you are, why you’re here, and what you’re working toward. When the path changes, reconnect with your purpose.
COMMUNITY
Nobody succeeds alone.
Build relationships that support you, challenge you, expand your perspective, and remind you when it’s time to ask for help.
CONTRIBUTION
Turn influence outward.
Use what you’ve learned, accessed, and experienced to create opportunity and better outcomes for the people around you.
Hard work gets you moving. Heart work gives it meaning.
MEET TIM
Your name is all you have.
Your voice is how you give it meaning.
Tim Spicer grew up learning that how you carry yourself, how you treat people, and what you attach to your name matters.
But school didn’t always reveal everything he was capable of. Leadership did. Relationships did. Service did.
Those strengths eventually took him from serving as Senior Class President and introducing President Barack Obama to Morehouse College, a career helping thousands of students navigate post-secondary success, CBS’s Survivor 46, and the TEDxEmory stage.
Through every chapter, the lesson has become clearer: opportunity can open the door, but what you do once you’re in the room matters more.
WATCH TIM SPEAK
Surviving College and Beyond
In his TEDxEmory talk, Tim brings together lessons from college, education, community, failure, and Survivor to explore what it really takes to persist after access is earned.
THE DIFFERENCE
He connects the story to the tools.
Tim can find a story almost anywhere — a failed class, a leadership challenge, a relationship, an unexpected opportunity, or even a reality-TV island.
But the story is never the destination.
He uses storytelling to make complex ideas personal and memorable, then connects the lesson to practical tools people can use long after the room clears.
A story gets their attention.
A tool gives them something to do with it.
WHO TIM SPEAKS TO
Built for the people in the room — and the people bringing them together.
Tim’s work can meet students where they are while giving the educators, leaders, organizations, and communities supporting them a shared language for what comes next.
COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES
Student success, orientation, persistence, leadership and campus engagement
K–12 SCHOOLS & DISTRICTS
College readiness, student leadership and post-secondary planning
FOUNDATIONS & NONPROFITS
Access, mobility, youth development and community programming
YOUNG BLACK MEN & BOYS
Leadership, influence, post-secondary success and self-advocacy
FAMILIES & PARENTS
Preparing for the transition from access to independence
CONFERENCES & ORGANIZATIONS
Leadership, workforce development, facilitation and customized programming
AVAILABLE FOR:
KEYNOTES • WORKSHOPS • COACHING • BREAKOUTS • PANELS
BRING TIM TO YOUR EVENT
Give them a story they’ll remember, and tools they can actually use.
Whether you’re building stronger student leaders, preparing people for what comes after access, or creating a more intentional community, Tim brings the story, strategy, and practical tools to move the conversation forward.
© 2026 Tim Spicer. All rights reserved.