Caitlin Donovan
Keynote Speaker on Burnout at Cait Donovan LLC
Leadership
Education: Boston University / Penn State - Pacific College of Oriental Medicine
Little Falls, New Jersey, USA
Biography
Cait Donovan is a powerhouse keynote speaker and the voice behind FRIED. The Burnout Podcast. As the author of The Bouncebackability Factor, she’s on a mission to help professionals beat burnout and reclaim their energy. With degrees in Biobehavioral Sciences and Chinese Medicine, Cait bridges the gap between Western research and Eastern wellness, delivering cutting-edge strategies for resilience, emotional management, and burnout recovery.
Her dynamic, research-backed keynotes have captivated audiences at international conferences and top corporations—offering practical, game-changing tools that professionals can implement immediately. And the results speak for themselves: with over 1,600 attendees providing feedback, a staggering 99% say her sessions are valuable.
For event organizers looking for an engaging, insightful, and impactful speaker who leaves audiences energized and empowered, Cait Donovan is the expert you’ve been looking for.
Passion
Cait Donovan's passion is ending burnout culture.
She is deeply committed to helping individuals and organizations recognize, recover from, and ultimately prevent burnout. This passion comes through in everything she does—from hosting FRIED: The Burnout Podcast and writing The Bouncebackability Factor, to delivering transformative keynotes and workshops across the globe.
Cait combines a background in Biobehavioral Sciences and Chinese Medicine with lived experience and research to:
Promote emotional intelligence and resilience
Equip professionals with actionable tools to reclaim energy
Empower organizations to create healthier, more sustainable work cultures
At the heart of it all is her mission to #endburnoutculture by sparking honest conversations, challenging norms, and replacing hustle-for-worth mentalities with human-centered leadership and well-being.
Best Story
How I learned Resentment Is A Superpower:
Almost daily, the Prague morning tram would be full and the seat that is set aside for the elderly, pregnant, and disabled would be taken by someone who, at least on the surface, appeared more than able.
As the tram neared the next stop, I'd notice a 90+ year old woman, trekking some bags waiting to get on. As soon as I noticed her on the sidewalk, the righteous irritation would start to build. Would the healthy young person sitting in the seat offer up their spot? Would this woman with a cane, a hunchback, and a bag full of groceries be forced to stand?!
So, I’d swoop in as the savior and approach the person taking the designated seat if they could get up so my 90-year old bestie could sit down. (Internally, I’m praising myself for being such a GOOD PERSON). And the older woman would say, fairly frequently, “Oh, I’m just going one stop, it’s not a problem”.
As I went through burnout recovery, I noticed that in those situations the initial feeling that I was feeling wasn’t usually actually irritation but resentment. I felt that it was unfair that I was paying attention to the whole world’s comfort all the time and trying to take care of everyone and this person could just sit in a seat and ignore everyone. Why aren’t we paying more attention to each other? Why is everyone SO INCONSIDERATE?!?!?
And thus started my love affair with resentment. I started keying in to all the moments where I was feeling unfairly burdened, overly righteous, and ultimately - resentful.
And so resentment became my muse, my guide, my indication that it was time to return my attention to my own body, to my own physical and emotional needs, to start treating myself with a basic level of care and respect. Resentment shed a light on everywhere my boundaries were off and everywhere I was self-abandoning to tune into the people around me.
Allowing resentment to be my guide has enriched my life, shifted my internal judger, quieted down my moral superiority, and fueled my energy - so that when someone really does need my help I am energized and ready.
Origin Story
I got here the way a lot of us do—by burning all the way out.
I was running a wildly successful acupuncture clinic in Poland with a waitlist out the door. From the outside, I had built the dream. But inside? I was hollowed out. Resentful. Tired. Crying in the shower before work and pretending everything was fine because, well, people were counting on me and I thought that’s what strong women do.
Turns out, I was wrong.
I hit a wall so hard it knocked the hustle right out of me. I closed the clinic. Left the country. Moved back to the States. And for the first time in my life, I let myself unravel. That unraveling became my greatest education. I started researching burnout, resentment, emotional intelligence, the nervous system, boundaries—you name it. I didn’t just want to feel better. I wanted to understand the why.
That journey led to writing The Bouncebackability Factor, launching FRIED: The Burnout Podcast, and speaking on stages around the world. Now, I help high-achieving humans and the companies they lead understand that burnout isn't a personal failure—it's a cultural issue. And that healing is possible. Bold, brave, powerful healing.
So, how did I get here? I burned out, burned it all down, and built something better. And now, I help others do the same—without needing to crash first.
Example talks
KEYNOTE / LAB: Dismantling Burnout: Empowering Leaders and Teams to Overcome Burnout Together
Burnout isn’t just an individual issue—it’s a systemic challenge that affects both leadership and teams. This talk breaks down the shared responsibilities of leaders and employees in creating a work culture that fights burnout from all angles. Leaders will learn how to foster environments that prioritize well-being without overstepping into the role of a therapist, while teams will discover their own role in managing stress, boundaries, and workload. By addressing burnout collectively, we’ll explore actionable strategies for reducing burnout culture and building workplaces where everyone thrives. This is about blame avoidance and mutual empowerment—leaders and teams, working together.
Takeaways:
1. Understand both the organizational and personal risk factors for burnout
2. Recognize the red flag signs and symptoms in self and others
3. Leave with action items to implement in situations where burnout is present
Handout:
Dismantling Burnout
The Dismantling Burnout Handout is a practical, actionable resource that reinforces key strategies from the Dismantling Burnout keynote. Designed to help attendees implement real change, it provides a clear breakdown of burnout recovery techniques, including top-down (for leadership) and bottom-up (for team members) approaches. This handout ensures that participants leave not just inspired but equipped with tangible tools to prevent and recover from burnout. It will be downloadable directly from the feedback slide within the presentation, making it an easy and valuable takeaway that extends the impact of the keynote long after the event.
KEYNOTE - Resentment Is Your Superpower
Description (for corporate):
Corporate leaders and teams are expected to perform at the highest level, all the time—but behind the scenes, burnout is taking its toll. What if the very emotions we’ve been taught to ignore are actually the key to sustainable success?
Resentment isn’t a problem—it’s a roadmap. It tells you exactly where your energy is being drained, where boundaries need to be set, and how to create a work culture that values performance without sacrificing well-being. In this high-energy, results-driven session, burnout expert Cait Donovan will flip the script on workplace stress and show your team how to reclaim their energy, engagement, and productivity.
Description (for associations):
In mission focused work, you’re constantly serving, advocating, and giving—but at what cost? When burnout creeps in, it’s easy to feel drained, undervalued, and stuck. The secret to reclaiming your energy? Resentment.
Yes, you read that right! Resentment isn’t just frustration—it’s a powerful indicator of where your boundaries need to be strengthened and your priorities realigned. In this engaging, eye-opening, and refreshingly practical session, burnout expert Cait Donovan will show you how to use resentment as a guide to better leadership, stronger teams, and renewed passion for your mission.
Takeaways:
Use resentment as a roadmap to energy management and boundaries
Rekindle your spark by leveraging the emotions you’ve been told to suppress
Transform resentment into a tool for stronger relationships and deeper community connections
Handout:
The Resentment Journal
The Resentment Journal is a step-by-step resource that guides you through resentment transformation. Having access to this handout post session guarantees that participants can actually implement the lesson without wondering if they are doing it correctly or if they’re on the right track. Typically, this sells for $33 per person on Cait’s website. It is provided free of charge when participants give feedback during the session.
FRIED. The Burnout Podcast
Top 1% globally • 250+ episodes • Listeners in 100+ countries
FRIED: The Burnout Podcast is a no-fluff, research-informed, emotionally honest show that helps high-achieving professionals recover from burnout and build healthier, more sustainable lives. Hosted by burnout speaker, author, and acupuncturist Cait Donovan, the podcast features candid solo episodes, expert insights, and raw interviews with people who’ve hit burnout—and found their way back.
From corporate leaders to caregivers, FRIED has become a lifeline for anyone who's ever felt like they were doing everything right and still falling apart. With over 250 episodes and listeners in more than 100 countries, it’s one of the most comprehensive burnout recovery resources available today.
Mission: To #endburnoutculture one honest conversation at a time.
KEYNOTE - Be a B.R.A.T. About Your Boundaries
Can you build boundaries using the acronym B.R.A.T?
At the end of this workshop, you'll be able to use B.R.A.T. to create clear, kind, and concise boundaries that are designed to help empower other people into action and save YOU precious energy. You will come away with a deeper understanding of what how intrapersonal boundaries are represented on a scale researchers call the Integration Segmentation continuum and a set of tools that will allow you to create both internal and external boundaries while still embracing generosity and a community spirit!
Takeaways:
🤬 A set of rules that make boundary building feel safer
🤬 Cait's B.R.A.T. tool for stating boundaries that are clear, kind, and concise
🤬 Feeling more empowered to create boundaries without guilt
Done with PepsiCo as a Keynote for their women's Pinnacle Group and at a leadership retreat for Beacon Hill Staffing.
This is best for female leadership retreats and HR conferences. Handouts available.
Cait Donovan Podcast Guest Spots
A Spotify list of Cait's podcast guest spots over the years.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/74znJXnUlJRaJORCNsrcti?si=xg_xmPKxS5ynnL6m3l9QLg
Featured Video
I am willing to travel
More than 100 miles
When it comes to payments
I always get paid for speaking
Topics
Best Story
How I learned Resentment Is A Superpower:
Almost daily, the Prague morning tram would be full and the seat that is set aside for the elderly, pregnant, and disabled would be taken by someone who, at least on the surface, appeared more than able.
As the tram neared the next stop, I'd notice a 90+ year old woman, trekking some bags waiting to get on. As soon as I noticed her on the sidewalk, the righteous irritation would start to build. Would the healthy young person sitting in the seat offer up their spot? Would this woman with a cane, a hunchback, and a bag full of groceries be forced to stand?!
So, I’d swoop in as the savior and approach the person taking the designated seat if they could get up so my 90-year old bestie could sit down. (Internally, I’m praising myself for being such a GOOD PERSON). And the older woman would say, fairly frequently, “Oh, I’m just going one stop, it’s not a problem”.
As I went through burnout recovery, I noticed that in those situations the initial feeling that I was feeling wasn’t usually actually irritation but resentment. I felt that it was unfair that I was paying attention to the whole world’s comfort all the time and trying to take care of everyone and this person could just sit in a seat and ignore everyone. Why aren’t we paying more attention to each other? Why is everyone SO INCONSIDERATE?!?!?
And thus started my love affair with resentment. I started keying in to all the moments where I was feeling unfairly burdened, overly righteous, and ultimately - resentful.
And so resentment became my muse, my guide, my indication that it was time to return my attention to my own body, to my own physical and emotional needs, to start treating myself with a basic level of care and respect. Resentment shed a light on everywhere my boundaries were off and everywhere I was self-abandoning to tune into the people around me.
Allowing resentment to be my guide has enriched my life, shifted my internal judger, quieted down my moral superiority, and fueled my energy - so that when someone really does need my help I am energized and ready.
Origin Story
I got here the way a lot of us do—by burning all the way out.
I was running a wildly successful acupuncture clinic in Poland with a waitlist out the door. From the outside, I had built the dream. But inside? I was hollowed out. Resentful. Tired. Crying in the shower before work and pretending everything was fine because, well, people were counting on me and I thought that’s what strong women do.
Turns out, I was wrong.
I hit a wall so hard it knocked the hustle right out of me. I closed the clinic. Left the country. Moved back to the States. And for the first time in my life, I let myself unravel. That unraveling became my greatest education. I started researching burnout, resentment, emotional intelligence, the nervous system, boundaries—you name it. I didn’t just want to feel better. I wanted to understand the why.
That journey led to writing The Bouncebackability Factor, launching FRIED: The Burnout Podcast, and speaking on stages around the world. Now, I help high-achieving humans and the companies they lead understand that burnout isn't a personal failure—it's a cultural issue. And that healing is possible. Bold, brave, powerful healing.
So, how did I get here? I burned out, burned it all down, and built something better. And now, I help others do the same—without needing to crash first.
Example talks
KEYNOTE / LAB: Dismantling Burnout: Empowering Leaders and Teams to Overcome Burnout Together
Burnout isn’t just an individual issue—it’s a systemic challenge that affects both leadership and teams. This talk breaks down the shared responsibilities of leaders and employees in creating a work culture that fights burnout from all angles. Leaders will learn how to foster environments that prioritize well-being without overstepping into the role of a therapist, while teams will discover their own role in managing stress, boundaries, and workload. By addressing burnout collectively, we’ll explore actionable strategies for reducing burnout culture and building workplaces where everyone thrives. This is about blame avoidance and mutual empowerment—leaders and teams, working together.
Takeaways:
1. Understand both the organizational and personal risk factors for burnout
2. Recognize the red flag signs and symptoms in self and others
3. Leave with action items to implement in situations where burnout is present
Handout:
Dismantling Burnout
The Dismantling Burnout Handout is a practical, actionable resource that reinforces key strategies from the Dismantling Burnout keynote. Designed to help attendees implement real change, it provides a clear breakdown of burnout recovery techniques, including top-down (for leadership) and bottom-up (for team members) approaches. This handout ensures that participants leave not just inspired but equipped with tangible tools to prevent and recover from burnout. It will be downloadable directly from the feedback slide within the presentation, making it an easy and valuable takeaway that extends the impact of the keynote long after the event.
KEYNOTE - Resentment Is Your Superpower
Description (for corporate):
Corporate leaders and teams are expected to perform at the highest level, all the time—but behind the scenes, burnout is taking its toll. What if the very emotions we’ve been taught to ignore are actually the key to sustainable success?
Resentment isn’t a problem—it’s a roadmap. It tells you exactly where your energy is being drained, where boundaries need to be set, and how to create a work culture that values performance without sacrificing well-being. In this high-energy, results-driven session, burnout expert Cait Donovan will flip the script on workplace stress and show your team how to reclaim their energy, engagement, and productivity.
Description (for associations):
In mission focused work, you’re constantly serving, advocating, and giving—but at what cost? When burnout creeps in, it’s easy to feel drained, undervalued, and stuck. The secret to reclaiming your energy? Resentment.
Yes, you read that right! Resentment isn’t just frustration—it’s a powerful indicator of where your boundaries need to be strengthened and your priorities realigned. In this engaging, eye-opening, and refreshingly practical session, burnout expert Cait Donovan will show you how to use resentment as a guide to better leadership, stronger teams, and renewed passion for your mission.
Takeaways:
Use resentment as a roadmap to energy management and boundaries
Rekindle your spark by leveraging the emotions you’ve been told to suppress
Transform resentment into a tool for stronger relationships and deeper community connections
Handout:
The Resentment Journal
The Resentment Journal is a step-by-step resource that guides you through resentment transformation. Having access to this handout post session guarantees that participants can actually implement the lesson without wondering if they are doing it correctly or if they’re on the right track. Typically, this sells for $33 per person on Cait’s website. It is provided free of charge when participants give feedback during the session.
FRIED. The Burnout Podcast
Top 1% globally • 250+ episodes • Listeners in 100+ countries
FRIED: The Burnout Podcast is a no-fluff, research-informed, emotionally honest show that helps high-achieving professionals recover from burnout and build healthier, more sustainable lives. Hosted by burnout speaker, author, and acupuncturist Cait Donovan, the podcast features candid solo episodes, expert insights, and raw interviews with people who’ve hit burnout—and found their way back.
From corporate leaders to caregivers, FRIED has become a lifeline for anyone who's ever felt like they were doing everything right and still falling apart. With over 250 episodes and listeners in more than 100 countries, it’s one of the most comprehensive burnout recovery resources available today.
Mission: To #endburnoutculture one honest conversation at a time.
KEYNOTE - Be a B.R.A.T. About Your Boundaries
Can you build boundaries using the acronym B.R.A.T?
At the end of this workshop, you'll be able to use B.R.A.T. to create clear, kind, and concise boundaries that are designed to help empower other people into action and save YOU precious energy. You will come away with a deeper understanding of what how intrapersonal boundaries are represented on a scale researchers call the Integration Segmentation continuum and a set of tools that will allow you to create both internal and external boundaries while still embracing generosity and a community spirit!
Takeaways:
🤬 A set of rules that make boundary building feel safer
🤬 Cait's B.R.A.T. tool for stating boundaries that are clear, kind, and concise
🤬 Feeling more empowered to create boundaries without guilt
Done with PepsiCo as a Keynote for their women's Pinnacle Group and at a leadership retreat for Beacon Hill Staffing.
This is best for female leadership retreats and HR conferences. Handouts available.
Cait Donovan Podcast Guest Spots
A Spotify list of Cait's podcast guest spots over the years.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/74znJXnUlJRaJORCNsrcti?si=xg_xmPKxS5ynnL6m3l9QLg