Motivational Speaker Sydney, Australia - Jonny Shannon
Motivational Speaker
Award Winning Speaker
Qualified Youth Worker
Real World Success
Background
Jonny Shannon is a International Tech entrepreneur & Motivational Speaker. He grew up in South Auckland, New Zealand and found school extremely difficult, having undiagnosed dyslexia and other disabilities which led him to failing all his subjects and being bullied. After overreacting too many times, Jonny was finally expelled for fighting too much & not showing up to school.It wasn’t until his last school that a counsellor took him aside to work through some of the key issues he was facing. The difference for Jonny was from “night to day”. He quickly turned his academic performance around and focused on his emotional well being. Surprised in the difference seeing a counsellor made, he committed to doing youth work to help other students like him in the future.
After a short time in the NZ Army, Jonny moved to Australia to become a qualified youth worker. He later took some time off and co-started multiple successful companies including being a pioneer of ‘Pushpay’, an app that helps people give to charities, now valued at over 2 Billion USD.
He took this success & resources to re-dedicate his life to full-time youth work, this time focusing on interviewing youth psychologists & speaking at schools on various health topics.
Australia's Motivational Speaker Of The Year
Since going full-time in 2013, Jonny has spoken over 3000 times to over 370 schools; speaking up to 27 times a week.
Speaking more than any other independent speaker in Australia in the same time frame. He has spoken at some of the largest events in the southern hemisphere including; National Young Leaders Day, New Zealand's Easter Camp, Universities like Massey & AUT, Educational Conferences, Cyber Bullying Conferences and Conferences alongside keynote speakers from Facebook & Twitter. He is represented by some of the largest speaking agencies in the world including global agency A-Speakers, agency Speakers Inc and Bookedout. He has been interviewed about various health topics from various papers including The Examiner, ABC, Gold Coast Bulletin, South Bulletin, Gazette, Goulburn Post and contributes to interviews, Podcasts, Audio Interviews, research, Youtube and books like "Hello GenZ". He has worked alongside some of the largest mental health initiatives in Australia such as RUOK?, HeadSpace, Young Minds Matter and is in partnership with BurnBright and Batyr under the Leading well-being umbrella. Jonny has partnered with Generation Next to speak at the largest professional development conferences around Australia including board-casting his anti-bullying message to over 15,000 students & 50 schools live.
All of his Health presentations have been checked & passed the Australian Educational & Analysis consulting standard. Jonny is 1 of 14 individuals who has been signed off through the E-Safety Commissioner of Australia for his work in Cyber Safety. His desire is to help young people make educated decisions based on what they want for their future & to seek help whenever they need it.
In 2021 Jonny Shannon renewed his partnership once again as eSafety Trusted Provider as well as been awarded 'Australian Motivational Speaker of the Year' as well as 'Best Virtual Health Presentation Provider' (Education and Training Awards 2020/2021 - Corporate Vision Magazine).
"GET HIM ALONG! HE WILL IMPACT YOUR KIDS AND GIVE THEM INSIGHTS INTO HOW TO MAKE GOOD DECISIONS LONG TERM."
DALE DEARMAN, HEAD COUNSELLOR. GRACE LUTHERAN COLLEGE, BRISBANE.
Tech Entrepreneur
Outside of speaking in Schools, Jonny teaches business at Universities like Alphacrucis among others. He has spoken at and received awards from Singularity University. He was the founder & CEO of Gamify; which has earned innovation awards from Microsoft & IBM. He was on Channel Ten's Shark Tank in 2018 and forwarded on by Entrepreneur Naomi Simson from Red Balloon. He Continues to developed game-based education programs for schools around Australia.
He started and is CEO of PostHarvest.com which won "best innovation" in Agtech 2021 and continues to lead this company when not speaking.
His life outside of speaking is lived in a way which is conducive to his motivational talks. "High school was a really dark time for me; I wish someone would've taught me basic life skills and the importance of strong mental health earlier. That's my motivation to continue speaking in schools" says Jonny.
Jonny is married to Grace Shannon who manages his speaking engagements. Together they have a beautiful baby girl called Pepper and two cats. Jonny has 5 brothers and a sister. His father runs a charity in India and his mother is a sought-after counsellor & speaker who works in maximum security prisons.
