Mikah Meyer: Pride Speaker
- Highlights:
- Travels from: Minneapolis, MN
- **Fee range: $500 - $5,000
Keynote Topics
CARPE DIEM
ACCOMPLISH YOUR DREAMS BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE OFFERED AS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM
During finals week of his freshman year in college, Mikah Meyer lost his 58-year-old, travel-loving father to cancer.
After 11 years of taking an annual road trip to honor the retirement his dad never got, Mikah launched a once-in-a-lifetime dream in case his own life would be cut short.
The resulting world record road trip made Mikah the first person to visit all 419 National Park Service sites in a continuous journey (3 years nonstop). Having paid his own way through college and creatively self-funded this project, Mikah shares inspirational and practical ways for students to live their dreams–now.
- Do you want to travel the world?
- Own your own business?
- Design a life that follows your own path?
Learn how to make your dreams a reality before it’s too late, because as Mikah learned during his college years, tomorrow is not guaranteed.
YOUR DIFFERENCE IS YOUR STRENGTH
A GAY OUTDOORSMAN’S WORLD RECORD OFFERED AS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM
Have you been told being unique will limit your life opportunities? That being different will impact your ability to get a job or accomplish your dreams?
After growing up closeted in Nebraska, Mikah Meyer turned his struggles into triumph by becoming the First Openly Gay Man Featured in an Outdoors Recreation Campaign (sponsored by REI) in an industry that traditionally ignored LGBT people.
Through the lens of Mikah Meyer 3-year, nonstop journey to America’s 419 national parks, he shares how it is actually your differences, whether LGBT or other unique traits, that will make you successful and help you stand out in your career.
And how no matter who you are or what traits society says don’t fit their expectations (maybe you’re a woman majoring in engineering, or a minority working in tech), you can grow up to not only be ordinary, but extraordinary.
LGBT & CHRISTIAN?
ONE WORLD RECORD TRAVELER’S JOURNEY
“You can’t be gay and Christian, you have to choose.” Growing up the son of a nationally-recognized minister, Mikah Meyer heard this statement his entire life.
Yet after years of traveling the world and studying religion, his journey not only brought him to a place of acceptance for his unique identities, but allowed him to use the platform of his world record national parks project to be a light in the darkness for LGBT Christians around the globe.
Through founding the world’s largest regular gathering of young-adult LGBT Christians (“Queer For Christ”), thousands of media features, and speaking at hundreds of churches around the globe, Mikah Meyer provides a positive example of a gay Christian to people and places who’d never known it possible.
Learn how both Mikah’s gay and Christian identities played a vital role in the success of his national parks journey, what the Bible/Christianity does (and doesn’t) say about homosexuality, and ask questions about what it means to be a gay Christian in a culture where so many say that person can’t exist.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE: THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY
“It’s hard to be what you can’t see,” civil rights leader Marian Wright Edelman said to a crowd of 30,000 youth. Except it was not the 1960s; but 2015, and her call for authenticity spoke to the continuing need for leaders that inspire others to blossom.
One of the listeners in that crowd, Mikah Meyer, took these words to heart, and through a world record journey to all of America’s 419 National Park Service sites gained unique insight into the type of leadership a digital world is craving, and how to provide it.
Through the lens of his historic national parks road trip, Mikah shares the “Why” of the importance of leadership, the “How” of using one’s unique strengths to bring out the best in others, and the “Now” benefits of leadership that aims to serve others.
Read Full Bio
Road Trip and National Parks expert Mikah Meyer has been named a “Social Media Warrior” by MTV, honored by Late Night with Seth Meyers, and featured by NPR, The Guardian, Upworthy, and The Today Show among thousands of media outlets globally for his Travel beyond convention.
Called a “professional road tripper” by REI, Mikah Meyer 3-year, world record road trip to all 419 U.S. National Park Service sites made him the first to experience all parks in a single journey.
The project garnered over $10 million in earned media coverage (Meltwater), bestowed Mikah superlatives ranging from a “Best #VanLife Instagram” (Uproxx) to a “Sexy Travel Guru” (GayCities), and saw him make history as the First Openly Gay Man Featured in an Outdoors Recreation Campaign (with REI).
His work was additionally recognized by NBC during NYC’s World Pride 2019 as one of their Stonewall #Pride50 “innovators and change-makers” alongside the likes of James Baldwin and Marsha P. Johnson.
He’s continued that passion in the 2020s with the creation of the Outside Safe Space Program, which provides allies a simple way of making The Great Outdoors more accessible.
Since its launch in 2020 with a Run Across Minnesota, Mikah Meyer has raised awareness for the OSS through a Run Across Mississippi, Bike Across Oregon, and other “Across” projects. The symbol’s creation has also led Mikah to consult major brands on the design and implementation of their Pride products, and keynote speaking for Kansas City Design Week about inclusive marketing.
With an adventure ethos inspired by the loss of his road-trip-loving father to cancer at a young age, Mikah now uses travel to advocate for others and to take audiences on journeys that inspire them to live “beyond convention.”
Mikah Meyer
As an on-camera and live stage Travel Host, Mikah Meyer expertise ranges from media partnerships with the US federal government’s news agency to over 200 speaking engagements from New York to New Zealand.
Sought after for projects that focus on bringing cultures together, he is equally comfortable appearing from Iran to Japan, penning the first LGBT-focused op-ed for Outside Magazine, or creating multimedia campaigns like his “Rainbow Nation” series of LGBT flag photos with America’s most iconic natural landmarks (Instagram, 65k followers).
Combining these skills, Mikah is an inspirational speaker and comedic performer: encouraging others to follow their dreams before it’s too late, be comfortable with their unique traits, and use those diverse skills to change the world.
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