Josh Sundquist | Paralympic ski racer and Cancer Survivor

Josh Sundquist

Paralympic ski racer and Cancer Survivor

Josh Sundquist
Biography

Josh Sundquist is a Paralympian and bestselling author who has shared his story at events across the world. His high-energy blend of humor and inspiration motivates audiences to adopt his ski racing motto 1MT1MT (one more thing, one more time) to elevate their performance in sales, customer service, quality improvement, leadership, and more. Josh is Executive Producer and writer of "Best Foot Forward," an acclaimed family sitcom inspired by his childhood, now streaming on Apple TV+.

Josh studies your industry and organizational culture to create a customized keynote that reinforces your event's theme and feels personally relevant to each member of your audience. He tells stories about losing his leg to cancer, ski racing in the Paralympics, and playing jokes with his artificial leg to help your group:

- Be resilient during times of change
- Maintain a sense of humor within stressful circumstances
- Face adversity with strength and courage
- Reverse negative trends and rebound from disappointment
- Plan for the future with an expanded vision of what could be possible

Josh's life story is a reminder of how all our stories are interconnected, how even our smallest actions and decisions impact the world around us. People walk away with a fresh perspective on everything they have to be grateful for, with resolve to overcome whatever challenges they may be facing, and with a commitment to do 1MT1MT to reach their fullest potential. They carry Josh's empowering message of hope and determination in their hearts and minds long after the conclusion of your event.

Josh Sundquist
Featured Videos

Current: Speaking Reel

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Speaking Reel
Time 04:00
Best Foot Forward Trailer
Time 01:17

1MT1MT
ONE MORE THING, ONE MORE TIME

Josh's keynote presentations blend clean comedy with soulful storytelling. Hilarious audience interactions are punctuated by moments of profound silence. Your attendees experience a roller-coaster ride of laughter, tears, chills and still more laughter. His storytelling format engages, entertains, and instills hope in people who are facing challenges both personal and professional. Key takeaways include how to fall forward by learning from disappointments and failures, why our results are based more on our response to adversity than our response to success, and how to keep swinging when we feel like we have struck out.

HOW JOSH CUSTOMIZES

Josh will study the unique challenges and opportunities facing your audience to tailor his presentation for your event. If possible, he will attend your entire conference or convention up until his speech, sitting in on general sessions to hear speeches by your leadership and industry experts. He will take part in your social functions and chat with attendees in the hall during breaks. This cultural immersion allows Josh to give a speech that weaves together his own story with the story of your organization, to interact with members of your leadership team and individual audience members by name while he's giving his talk, and to impart relevant 1mt1mt's your audience can do to elevate their performance.

YOUR AUDIENCE WILL LEARN

1mt1mt
When Josh was training for the Paralympics, his motto was 1mt1mt—one more thing, one more time. What's the 1mt1mt you could be doing on a daily basis to get closer to the future you are training for?

Sometimes the path changes and we have to choose a new uniform
Josh had to give up his childhood dream of playing for the local travel soccer team. But as a result, he discovered something even better: The dream of a Paralympic uniform. When we accept change—in our lives, our workplace, and our industry—we create the space necessary for new growth.

You only strike out when you quit
Josh went up to bat in a softball game a month after his amputation. He got three strikes in a row. But his friends let him keep swinging. It took thirteen to get a hit. That game was a lot like life because in most endeavors, you only strike out when you quit. How many strikes are you willing to take?

Find your Larry
A turning point for nine-year-old Josh was meeting an amputee athlete named Larry. Twenty years later, they're still friends. Last year Larry made the Guinness Book of World Records for completing the fastest marathon on crutches. We all run faster if we have the help of a mentor who has already crossed the finish line we're aiming for. Who's your Larry?

Leadership is putting yourself in their boot
A ski instructor named Mark taught Josh to ski. Mark had two legs, but he took off a boot and balanced on a single ski to give Josh an example to follow. Whether you are a business leader, a community leader, or a student leader, this a perfect picture of effective leadership. Put yourself in their boot. And leave a trail they can follow.

The question is not whether you will fall down but how fast you will get back up
In his first ski race, Josh fell. Five times. In sports, in life, in business, the principle is the same—you will fall. The question is, how fast can you get back up? How quickly can you learn from a mistake and then recover by implementing that new knowledge?

When life gives you lemons, make Halloween costumes
We all have problems. We all have adversity. But sometimes within those situations we can find a bit of humor, and that can make the challenges a little easier to endure. (Check the blog section for pictures of Josh's incredible halloween costumes)

Stay connected to your opening ceremony
In 2002, Josh watched the Paralympic Opening Ceremony in Salt Lake City. That experience as a spectator motivated him to train for the next four years so he could be a participant in the 2006 ceremonies. What's your opening ceremony? What was the original vision that led you to your career, organization, or cause? Stay connected to that image. It's the fuel-source for your journey.

Shoe-swap
Josh has an amputee friend named Stephen—aka his solemate—who has the same shoe size but is missing the opposite leg. They get together regularly to swap shoes. Similarly, everyone benefits when teams collaborate, swapping ideas and resources, and when we recognize and celebrate the things that make us different from one another.

Josh Sundquist
Featured Books

Just Don't Fallby Josh Sundquist

Just Don't Fall

by Josh Sundquist

A disabled champion skier recounts the childhood sarcoma that cost him his left leg, his relationship with his pastor father and conservative home-schooling mother, and his inspirational efforts to participate in the 2006 Paralympics.

Semi-Famousby Josh Sundquist

Semi-Famous

by Josh Sundquist
Social media star and comedian Josh Sundquist takes readers on his hilarious journey to the fringes of viral stardom to discover if it's possible to be both very famous and very happy.

As a semi-famous internet creator, Josh Sundquist knows what it's like to chase fame, but he also knows that more fame usually means more stress. So he set out on a pseudo-scientific investigation to find out if there is any way for fame and happiness to overlap.

He attempts to define the word "fame"--hint: it's harder than you'd think. He turns back time to identify the first facially-recognizable celebrity (you might know his former BFF Brutus). He digs into the numbers to debunk urban legends associated with stardom (ever heard of the 27 Club?). He talks to other semi-famous people (from K-pop sensations to former child stars) and asks them: Is this fame thing making you happy? If not, why are you doing it? If so, what's your secret? All while recounting funny stories about his own cringy fame-seeking (like his many attempts, and failures, to get onto MTV).

Packed with playful diagrams, fascinating insights from celebrities, and embarrassing truths from Josh's experience with semi-fame, this is a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of becoming famous...or at least going viral on TikTok.

Love and First Sightby Josh Sundquist

Love and First Sight

by Josh Sundquist

In his debut novel, YouTube personality and author of We Should Hang Out Sometime Josh Sundquist explores the nature of love, trust, and romantic attraction. 

On his first day at a new school, blind sixteen-year-old Will Porter accidentally groped a girl on the stairs, sat on another student in the cafeteria, and somehow drove a classmate to tears. High school can only go up from here, right?

As Will starts to find his footing, he develops a crush on a charming, quiet girl named Cecily. Then an unprecedented opportunity arises: an experimental surgery that could give Will eyesight for the first time in his life. But learning to see is more difficult than Will ever imagined, and he soon discovers that the sighted world has been keeping secrets. It turns out Cecily doesn't meet traditional definitions of beauty--in fact, everything he'd heard about her appearance was a lie engineered by their so-called friends to get the two of them together. Does it matter what Cecily looks like? No, not really. But then why does Will feel so betrayed?

Told with humor and breathtaking poignancy, Love and First Sight is a story about how we relate to each other and the world around us.

We Should Hang Out Sometimeby Josh Sundquist

We Should Hang Out Sometime

by Josh Sundquist

Josh Sundquist only ever had one girlfriend.  
For twenty-three hours. 
In eighth grade.

Why was Josh still single? To find out, he tracked down the girls he had tried to date and asked them straight up: What went wrong?

The results of Josh's semiscientific, wholly hilarious investigation are captured here. From a disastrous Putt-Putt date involving a backward prosthetic foot, to his introduction to CFD (Close Fast Dancing), to a misguided "grand gesture" at a Miss America pageant, this story is about looking for love -- or at least a girlfriend -- in all the wrong places.

Josh Sundquist
Featured Reviews

My New Series "Best Foot Forward" in The New York Times

When I was 7 years old, I started a little something called Kids Newspaper, which reported on the local happenings of my neighborhood in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I sold copies...
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My New Series "Best Foot Forward" on Apple TV+

Hello, friends!It's surreal to announce the upcoming release of Best Foot Forward -- a new Apple TV+ series based on my childhood! I'm honored to have served as an executive...
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My Semi-Famous Signing at Book Soup

Hello friends!Join me at Book Soup in Hollywood on Friday, July 22 at 7:00PM to celebrate my new book Semi-Famous. I'll be reading a few pages, answering your questions and can...
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My New Podcast with Facebook

I'm pleased to announce a new podcast where I have hilarious and candid conversations with adaptive athletes about how they play the sports they love. The project is a...
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Josh Sundquist - Cancer Survivor and Paralympian

Introduction: Welcome to Beyond Speaking with Brian Lord, a podcast featuring deeper conversations with the world's top speakers. Brian Lord: Hi, I'm Brian Lord,...
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