Some stories get applause. The right ones create movement.
Shaun McClure brings lived experience, mental health advocacy, justice-system insight, and hard-earned perspective into rooms that are ready for a real conversation.
No performance of perfection. No recycled motivational speech. Just truth, tools, and a reason to move forward.
Lived experience without the polished edges.
I know what it means to be talked about by systems instead of talked with. I also know what happens when somebody finally gives you language for what you have lived through—and tools for what comes next.
My path includes childhood trauma, addiction, more than two decades of incarceration, mental health recovery, peer leadership, advocacy, community education, radio, public speaking, CIT work, and the long process of turning survival into service.
The goal is not to impress a room. The goal is to reach the person sitting in it who has already decided nothing is going to change.
Built for rooms where the conversation matters.
Every audience is different. The through-line is the same: mental health becomes more useful when we stop treating people like case studies and start talking to them like human beings.
Schools & Youth
Age-appropriate conversations about mental health, stigma, help-seeking, identity, pressure, resilience, and what strength actually looks like.
Behavioral Health
Lived-experience perspective for clinicians, peer professionals, treatment providers, and organizations working where systems meet real lives.
Justice & Crisis Response
Human-centered insight into incarceration, reentry, stigma, crisis response, addiction, trauma, de-escalation, and recovery.
Conferences & Community
Keynotes, panels, workshops, nonprofits, leadership events, recovery gatherings, mental health conferences, and community conversations.
Talks built to stay with people.
These presentations can be adapted for keynote, workshop, panel, classroom, staff training, or community-event formats.
From Prison Bars to Purpose
A lived-experience journey through trauma, addiction, incarceration, mental health, recovery, identity, and rebuilding a life after years spent believing the story had already been written.
- Trauma and survival
- Addiction and incarceration
- Identity beyond your worst choices
- Recovery, service, and purpose
The Five Gears
A practical model for understanding change without pretending growth happens in a straight line. Participants learn how to identify where they are and what the next shift actually requires.
- Awareness & Acceptance
- Seeking Help & Research
- Discipline, Healing & Growth
- Purpose, Momentum & Legacy
The Warrior’s Mind
A conversation about masculinity, toughness, vulnerability, trauma, emotional literacy, discipline, and why asking for help can require more strength than staying silent.
- Strength versus emotional shutdown
- Anger, shame, and vulnerability
- Discipline without self-destruction
- Redefining what it means to be strong
Mental Health & the Justice System
What systems can learn from people who have actually lived inside them. A direct discussion about crisis, incarceration, trauma, recovery, reentry, stigma, and the moments when human connection changes outcomes.
- Lived experience and system contact
- Trauma-informed response
- Crisis intervention and communication
- Recovery and reentry
Not every room needs the same microphone.
Programs are shaped around your audience, time frame, goals, and the conversation your organization actually needs.
Keynotes
High-impact storytelling and practical takeaways for conferences, summits, organizational events, recovery gatherings, and community audiences.
Workshops & Training
Interactive sessions built around the Five Gears, lived experience, mental health, stigma, justice-system issues, resilience, communication, and recovery.
Panels & Conversations
Moderated discussions, panels, fireside-style conversations, school events, podcasts, radio, and community forums where dialogue matters more than a podium.
The Five Gears give people somewhere to go next.
A powerful story can open a door. A framework gives people a way to walk through it.
The Five Gears turn the lessons behind Shaun’s lived experience into a practical progression audiences can remember after the event is over.
Give planners a reason to say yes.
This section is ready for real event photos, video clips, testimonials, conference logos, podcast appearances, and organizations you have worked with.
Lived experience backed by real-world leadership.
Shaun’s work spans mental health advocacy, community education, crisis-intervention collaboration, public speaking, radio, peer leadership, and conversations with schools, behavioral-health professionals, nonprofits, justice-system partners, and community organizations.
Speaker Assets
If your audience is ready for a real conversation, let’s build one worth remembering.
Tell me about your event, audience, location, format, and what you want people to walk away with. We’ll shape the right presentation from there.
Available for keynotes, panels, workshops, school presentations, conferences, behavioral health events, justice-system audiences, nonprofit events, podcasts, and community conversations.