Available to book
Jake Olson
Help audiences reframe adversity with Jake Olson, the first completely blind Division I college football player and eight-time cancer survivor. Jake works with organizations to build resilience, growth mindsets, and adaptability, delivering keynotes for clients including Google, Microsoft, and SpaceX.
Jake Olson became the first completely blind player in college football history when he long-snapped a successful point-after try for USC against Western Michigan in September 2017. His story has since been covered by outlets including ESPN, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, and many others.
An eight-time cancer survivor after losing both eyes to retinoblastoma as a child, Jake has gone on to become an author and adaptive golf champion. He graduated from USC in 2019 and has since spoken for hundreds of organizations, including Google, Microsoft, Bank of America, and SpaceX.
Jake blends personal stories, humor, and distinctive life philosophies to help audiences reframe how they see adversity, encouraging them to find the setup in the setback. His talks average eighteen laughs in fifty minutes while still delivering the practical mindsets and tools that help people grow through hardship and reach their full potential.
Audiences leave Jake's sessions with more gratitude and with a genuinely new way to perceive and tackle adversity in their own lives and teams. He tailors every talk to the client's event theme, ensuring the message lands exactly as organizers intend.
Book Jake to give your audience a story of perseverance that reframes how they respond to setbacks.
Topics, sessions and talks
Jake Olson has battled cancer eight times, lost his sight at 12, made history in college football, and won the USGA Adaptive Open. Drawing on personal stories, including encounters with Kobe Bryant and Tiger Woods, plenty of humor, and his own life philosophies, Jake reframes how audiences perceive adversity, showing that a setback handled the right way can become the setup for something greater. Audiences leave with more grit, sharper productivity, and a renewed sense of perspective and accountability.
Blindness reshaped Jake Olson's life at age twelve, but his determination to succeed never wavered. Jake shares how his drive inspired those around him to innovate: a math teacher devising new ways to teach him calculus, teammates building a unique system so he could play football, and his father guiding him to excel at golf. Leaders, managers, and teams leave with practical strategies for collaboration, creative problem solving, and inclusion that unlock possibility across their organizations.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
To book Jake Olson, email jake.olson@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Jake's availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
Jake Olson structures his talks around personal narrative, drawing on first-hand experiences — including encounters with Kobe Bryant and Tiger Woods — to illustrate a reframe of adversity as a precursor to growth. He integrates humour throughout, with his talks averaging eighteen laughs in fifty minutes, alongside practical mindsets and tools delivered to the audience.
Jake Olson speaks on reframing adversity, collaborative problem-solving and inclusion, and building resilience and accountability through setback. He became the first completely blind player in college football history when he long-snapped a successful point-after try for USC in 2017, a story subsequently covered by ESPN, The Wall Street Journal, and Sports Illustrated.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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