Meet light
Light Watkins has frequently been described by clients as “the embodiment” of his message.
For over two decades, Light has helped leaders and teams embed presence into how they live, lead, and connect. His approach elevates performance not by pushing harder, but by helping audiences show up more fully. The result? Clearer decisions, a stronger culture, and teams that thrive from the inside out.
Light is the author of five bestselling books on happiness, mindfulness, minimalism, and transformation. His TEDx Talk on rethinking mindfulness is approaching a million views. He hosts The Light Watkins Show, a top-50 podcast featuring stories of luminaries who’ve found purpose by following their inner voice. And for five years, he traveled the world with nothing but a backpack—proving that presence isn’t the destination. It’s the path.
Known as “The Presence Whisperer,” Light delivers keynotes that are humorous, heartfelt, practical—and unforgettable. Audiences leave not only inspired, but changed.
Because when your team starts showing up with more presence, everything shifts: retention, trust, creativity, connection. And he helps you realize it was there all along—hiding in plain sight.
Across hundreds of global talks Light blends story + experience to help audiences unlock the hidden power of presence.
my longer story
I grew up in Montgomery, Alabama
Which was a place rooted in faith, but not exactly known for mindfulness or inner work. I had lots of questions—about purpose, fulfillment—stuff that really mattered to me—but left others scratching their heads. So I craved exploration, thinking that the answers were found elsewhere in the world.
I landed my dream job
…In the creative department of an ad agency in Chicago. Little did I know, it would be my first and only “real” (i.e., corporate) job—lasting only a few months. It wasn’t that the job was bad. I just still had questions, and something told me the answers wouldn’t come from sitting behind a desk. I figured the job would always be there. I needed to go find life.
how can i get paid to travel the world?
I know—I’ll become a model, I thought—even though most people who model get discovered, Didn’t matter. I decided to discover myself—which led to years of working odd jobs before finally gaining traction in New York City. But many billboards and magazine spreads later, I realized that modeling wasn’t the answer either. I was starting to realize that chasing fulfillment through external achievements wasn’t the answer. Maybe the answer was within...
then, one night at the gym…
I noticed a group of attractive women heading into a fitness studio, and my hormones told me to go in that room and see what they were up to. That’s how I stumbled into my first yoga class. And I hated it, I kept going back, and I eventually fell in love with the practice—or more accurately, with the idea that inner fulfillment is within. That curiosity led me to meditation, which I also hated the first time I tried it, but that’s when I finally found what I had spent my life searching for.
At first, it was all just theory
Then the universe handed me a devastating breakup—and suddenly, I was forced to make the concepts I’d been studying real. That experience inspired a leap of faith from New York to Los Angeles, to become a full-time yoga instructor. And that’s when I met my spiritual teacher—on a “random” night in February 2003. He taught me how to find joy in the practice of meditation and shortly after, I recognized teaching as my highest calling.
cut to: a few years later…
I’m in India, learning the ancient ways of teaching meditation. Turns out, I was good at teaching it—and not because of some natural talent, but because I had struggled so much myself. So I knew how frustrating meditation could be, and therefore I met people where they were with a simple, “meat-and-potatoes” approach to inner fulfillment. Soon, people were lining up outside my apartment to learn how to meditate.
that led to my book, bliss more
…Which was named the “Best Meditation Book of All Time” (Book Authority). From there, I started getting invited to speak about inner fulfillment—and its most powerful byproduct: presence. One of those talks, a TEDx on the biggest misconceptions about mindfulness, has since reached over a million people. And that’s when it clicked: I wasn’t just teaching meditation. I was showing people how to find fulfillment in everyday life—no matter their title, industry, or circumstances.
I began working with organizations
Showing them how to optimize their greatest asset—their people and their culture—for more presence. By rethinking mindfulness. By making it practical. Accessible. Undeniably useful. I showed companies how to gain an edge not by grinding harder, but by becoming more present—with their clients, with their teams, and with themselves.
over the past decade…
I’ve written several books on wellness and personal growth. I host a top-ranked podcast (which I started while living out of a backpack). And I travel the world delivering keynotes to Fortune 500 companies. My purpose now is simple: to show you how to access the hidden power of presence.
that’s how you light your Unique path
When you optimize for presence, your unique path, voice, and contribution—the thing that makes you a category of one—will begin to emerge. Slowly at first. Then suddenly—like one of those old Magic Eye posters. And when you finally see it, you’ll know it’s yours, because you’ll be the only one who can see and understand it clearly. Speaking of which: this photo was taken on the day in 2018 when I moved out of my place in Venice, CA to go nomadic. I ended up living from a single backpack for those next 5 years! Didn’t see that one coming!
Beyond the keynote Speaking…
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My name, Light, was born out of a conversation where I was making fun of people who changed their names. (So yep, that backfired.)
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I’ve meditated every day for the past 25+ years—which is over 10,000 hours spent literally doing nothing.
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Based on the items that I’ve had the longest (even after purging everything in 2018), it would be my Pooja kit (for teaching meditation), and my meditation shawl from India.
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In 2018, I moved out of my 2-bedroom place in Venice, CA and started living nomadically from a single backpack and no storage. That experiment lasted for five years.
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Walking. I’ve walked 12,000 steps a day, every day, for the last 5+ years—which is the equivalent of walking from LA to New York City—and back—TWICE!
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I love making origami paper cranes and butterflies.
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I drink copious amounts of green tea each day, and I’m a big lover of Ethiopian cuisine.
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I wrote my latest book in one weekend—after hearing a story about a man who challenged himself to run 100 miles alone.
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My favorite sports team is the Alabama Crimson Tide—Roll Tide!
MY PATH
In 1999, my girlfriend at the time kept inviting me to her yoga class. I resisted—inconvenient time and location. But she kept insisting that I’d love it. So one night, I said f-it and went. And she was right—the teacher was incredibly inspiring. Still, I never went back… just too inconvenient. Fast forward three years: I’d just moved from NYC to LA and randomly bumped into that same teacher. We became best friends, and he was the one who introduced me to my spiritual teacher—a person who would completely change the course of my life. Funny how life keeps trying to navigate us to our purpose, even when we’re resisting.