Create an experience with Joel Sardi

Joel Sardi - Keynote Speaker & Resilience Advocate

Joel Sardi brings audiences on a profound journey through resilience, perspective, and renewal. A former Australian Army Rifleman with 5 years of service—including deployment to Afghanistan—Joel’s life was irrevocably changed on 31 August 2014 when a fall fractured multiple vertebrae (C2, C5, T3–T5), resulting in a C5 quadriplegic injury  .

Despite facing immense physical and emotional obstacles, Joel transformed his experience into a powerful message of strength and clarity. He offers audiences a deeply human and relatable presentation that moves beyond typical motivational tropes to evoke real change. Through storytelling, personal photos, and vulnerability, he shares what it truly means to harness the power of perspective  .

Joel’s wide-ranging experience as an advocate includes speaking to over 250 veterans and attendees at the inaugural ESO Summit in 2022, where he provided tools for reframing adversity and supporting veteran wellbeing  . As an inspiration to others in the spinal cord injury and disability communities, he is a dedicated ambassador for Forward Ability Support and BrightSky Australia  .

He now channels his message into education, not just motivation—empowering everyday people to adapt, persevere, and thrive. Audiences leave equipped with strategies like Joel’s “Perspective Project,” which helps embed cognitive reframing and long-term resilience  .

At home in Melbourne with his wife and two daughters, Joel offers a unique blend of authenticity, strength, and hope, grounded in his lived experience and his commitment to support others in emerging stronger than before  .

Joel speaks publicly about his story and life experiences. He shares experiences from his time in the Australian Army, deployment to Afghanistan and comparisons with life pre and post injury. He shares private photos and videos with his audience and speaks about the challenges he still faces. 

A workshop component is included in Joel's presentation that equips his audience in dealing with the day to day challenges of life and also provides an exclusive "Perspective Project" to take home and utilise continually...

If you, your workplace, school, sporting club, organisation would like to know more information, or book Joel for a keynote presentation, please get in touch - Pickstar manages thousands of speaker bookings and can move quickly for you.