Keynote Speaking on Sustainable Performance & Health-Informed Leadership
I draw on over a decade as a professional dancer alongside my work as a health and performance coach, leadership facilitator, and Wellbeing Lead on major productions. I deliver thought-provoking keynotes that challenge burnout culture and help leaders and organisations build high performance without sacrificing health.
My Signature Perspective
In creative high-pressure environments, health is often outsourced to the individual.
People are told to be more resilient, more disciplined, and more adaptable, while operating inside systems that were never designed to sustain them.
My work challenges this logic.
I invite leaders to move the conversation from:
“How do we help people cope?”
to
“What are we asking people to cope with?”
My keynotes blend lived experience, behavioural science, and organisational insight to help leaders build environments where people can perform at a high level without burning out.
Flagship Keynote
Peak Performance Without Burnout
How health-informed leadership creates sustainable excellence
High performance and wellbeing are often positioned as competing priorities. I challenge this assumption and show how they are, in fact, deeply interconnected.
This keynote explores:
Why resilience alone cannot solve burnout
How high-pressure cultures quietly erode performance, creativity, and retention
What health-informed leadership looks like in practice
How leaders can make immediate, practical shifts without lowering standards
Audiences leave with a clear framework for sustaining performance while protecting people–and the confidence to move beyond surface-level wellbeing initiatives.
Additional Keynote topics
The Myth of “The Show Must Go On”
How outdated performance cultures normalise burnout, and what leaders can replace them with to sustain excellence.
Beyond Resilience: Why Systemic Change Matters
Why wellbeing can’t sit with the individual alone, and how leadership and culture shape performance outcomes.
Who I Speak To
I work with organisations and leaders in the creative industries, including:
Senior leaders and executive teams
HR, People & Culture leaders
Creative and cultural organisations
Education, sport, and performance-driven sectors
Organisations navigating burnout, attrition, or sustained pressure
My work resonates particularly with organisations seeking to balance ambition with sustainability.
What Audiences Gain
After hearing me speak, audiences:
Reframe burnout as a leadership and systems issue
Gain language and confidence to address health without stigma
Understand how culture, expectations, and communication shape performance
Identify practical leadership behaviours that reduce burnout risk
Leave with actionable insights they can apply immediately
Why book Crystal as Your Keynote Speaker?
✔ Lived experience in elite performance cultures
Former West End performer with six years in The Lion King, working inside environments where excellence is expected and burnout is normalised.
✔ Trusted leadership facilitator
Facilitator with Clore Leadership, supporting leaders to navigate complexity, pressure, and change.
✔ Embedded in high-pressure organisations
Wellbeing Lead with Applause for Thought, currently supporting major productions including Mary Poppins UK Tour and The Hunger Games: On Stage.
✔ Recognised thought leader in the sector
Invited Big Idea speaker at the 2024 Future of Theatre Conference, addressing burnout, performance, and systemic change.