Andrea Driessen

Business adviser, Business leader, Business mentor, Connector, Consultant, Entrepreneur, Global soul, Idea generator, Philanthropist, World traveler, Writer/Editor

I help people change the world with their words—as a copywriter for thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and subject matter experts. I also present interactive workshops based on my TED Talk about Gracenotes (“eulogies for the living”). After all, the words we say to one another…to the public….to our business and VC prospects…and privately to our SELVES.... can and DO change the world. What are YOUR words saying?

Helping others know, in their BONES, not just THAT they matter—but HOW they matter. And using my platforms to show how ALL the words we say and write to others and to ourselves--at work, at home, in cafes, in schools, with children, with our wise elders--matter too. Since 2016, I’ve also been passionately committed to serving as a hospice volunteer in Seattle. And for 8 years, I was on the core organizing team at TEDxSeattle.

Why are eulogies only for dead people? (the basis for my TED Talk in 2021)

I’ve been actively engaged in the TED and TEDx community since 2010. YUP: While some people go to rock concerts, I go to (and help plan) TEDx and TED conferences. This feeds me (and, I trust, the world) at a SOUL level. I spent 8 years as an organizer at TEDxSeattle in an effort to foster palpable and actionable levels of connection, societal change, and aliveness among tens of thousands of Pacific Northwesterners. I received all of this in return a volunteer, too. Indeed, TED and TEDx events are unlike anything else I have experienced ANYWHERE. After completing my TEDx volunteer efforts, I NEVER expected to end up on that same stage as a speaker to share the gift of my own idea worth spreading. The opportunity to share my passion about Gracenotes in what became a TED Talk has been one of the most moving, affirmative, and meaningful experiences of my LIFE. An average of ~7,000 people a day now watch the talk…and I know that a substantial slice of them are taking meaningful action as a result. Here at TED, I trust my small contributions within the TED ecosystem help realize the TED mission to positively repattern the future. And will help make up for all the doomsaying, negativity, and darkness over the last few years.

listening to people when they're in the midst of grief