A lifelong student of resilience.

Leadership, learned on the sales floor

David has been a speaker, coach, and best-selling author for more than 25 years. Before building his career around gratitude, he spent more than three decades in the corporate and retail world, where he discovered one of his greatest gifts: leading and motivating people.

At Nordstrom, David began selling suits and steadily rose through the organization, earning promotion after promotion and eventually becoming the manager of a major store with hundreds of employees. He learned firsthand that great leadership isn't simply about being in charge. It's about setting the example, building a culture, developing people, creating belief, and helping others perform at a level they may not have believed possible.

The dream that would not disappear

There was also another thread running quietly through David's life. In 1969, at 19 years old, David told himself that someday he wanted to become a motivational speaker.

The dream stayed with him for decades. Through corporate jobs, entrepreneurship, marriage, parenthood, success, loss, and reinvention, that young man's promise never completely disappeared. Eventually, David decided it was time to honor it. He left the corporate world and committed himself to speaking.

The transition wasn't nearly as easy as he imagined. David learned an important lesson he now readily admits: having the courage to pursue a dream doesn't eliminate the need for patience, preparation, and sound decision-making.

But he kept going. He spoke wherever people would give him a microphone—Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, Chambers of Commerce, schools, hospitals, businesses, community organizations, and countless other groups.

One presentation became another. Then another. Then hundreds.

David has now delivered more than 850 speeches and workshops, sharing his message with audiences in person and virtually. During the expansion of virtual speaking, he delivered more than 150 Zoom presentations alone. He has traveled nationally and internationally with a message that has become the centerpiece of his life's work:

The message, in every medium

David has translated his gratitude philosophy into books, journals, coaching, videos, workshops, and keynote presentations. His published works include:

Along with additional books and resources centered on gratitude and personal growth.

As a YouTube creator, David has produced more than 1,800 gratitude videos, allowing thousands of people to engage with his message beyond the stage. His work has also been featured in Forbes, further expanding the reach of a message he has spent years developing and delivering.

Through his speaking and coaching, people regularly turn to David for motivation, perspective, encouragement, and practical ways to incorporate gratitude into everyday life.

One belief has never wavered

• It carried him through financial collapse.
• It carried him through career disruption.
• It carried him through the death of his wife.
• It carried him through relationship disappointments, business uncertainty, and the enormous disruption the pandemic created for his speaking career.

And it continues to drive him today.

David has no interest in treating this stage of his life as a winding-down period. Quite the opposite. He intends to continue speaking, coaching, writing, creating, and spreading the message of gratitude for as long as he is healthy and able—hopefully well into his 90s.

Because David believes that your age doesn't determine whether your most meaningful contribution is behind you. Your mistakes don't determine it either. Neither do your setbacks.

And David George Brooke—That Gratitude Guy—is still writing his.