Mike Veny

08/23/2026

08/21/2026

I’m sitting here feeling incredibly grateful.

Today, I had the opportunity to close the New Mexico Health Care Association’s Annual Convention and Trade Show at the Isleta Resort & Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

There’s a side of this work that people don’t always see.

Early morning flights. Changed flights. Delayed flights. Shipping books and instruments across the country. Figuring out how to get hundreds of percussion instruments onto a plane. And all the little logistical challenges that happen along the way.

Sometimes I wonder, Am I ever going to get tired of doing this?

For whatever reason, it never gets old.

Today reminded me why.

It’s one thing for me to step onstage and do everything I can to give an audience a meaningful experience. It’s something completely different when what I receive from the people in that audience is more than I could ever give them.

That happened today.

I met some incredible people. We had real conversations. I heard their stories. And they lifted my spirits more than they probably realize.

Healthcare is incredibly challenging right now. Burnout is real. Turnover is a serious problem. And behind all the statistics are human beings doing difficult, important work every single day.

We need them.

And we need to do everything we can to support them, take care of them, and remind them that what they do matters.

A special thank you to Tracy Alter, Executive Director of the New Mexico Health Care Association, for making all of this possible and for being absolutely incredible to work with.

I came to New Mexico hoping to give something.

I’m leaving with so much more than I brought.

Thank you. ❤️

08/18/2026

The Truth About Major Depression: Why It’s More Than Just Feeling Down
https://youtu.be/E4t5KJjL2UY

Understanding the difference between sadness and major depressive d...

08/17/2026

You already know the keynote will be forgotten by Friday.

There is a certain pressure that comes with booking a speaker for a national sales meeting or a POA. The room has to feel something. The session has to land. And then, inevitably, the field goes back to quota pressure and launch timelines and the burnout nobody names out loud.

A motivational talk does not touch that weight.

Pharma teams carry something specific. High compliance, constant change, a culture where mental health conversations feel risky to even start. That is a different ask than a standard corporate audience.

Here is what I bring instead... I put a drum in every person's hands before I say a single word about mental health. The room experiences something together first. The conversation that follows lands differently because of it.

I speak from lived experience with depression, anxiety, and OCD. Your reps need permission to be honest about what they are carrying. That is a very different thing than a slide deck.

If you are planning a session and you want it to be the one people are still referencing in Q3... reach out and tell me about your meeting.

https://www.mikeveny.com/pharmaceutical-keynote-speaker

08/16/2026

I spent years thinking I was just... a lot. Too heavy. Too hard to explain.

Depression was the word people used around me, but no one ever sat down and said what it actually felt like from the inside or why the body does what it does when you are living in it.

So I carried it without language. And carrying something you cannot name is its own kind of weight.

A few months ago I sat down with Dr. Mallory Malkin. She is a psychologist and my friend. We made a video about major depressive disorder together because I wanted to do something I never had access to when I was younger.

I share what it feels like to live inside it. She walks through the clinical side, what is actually happening, and why. Both perspectives, honest, in the same conversation.

I genuinely wish this had existed for me years ago. It would have changed how long I spent thinking something was just wrong with me.

If you are trying to put words to something you have been carrying... or you love someone who is... watch it here:

https://youtu.be/E4t5KJjL2UY

Send it to one person who needs to hear their experience named.

Understanding the difference between sadness and major depressive d...

08/14/2026

I am so grateful for the opportunity to have been the opening keynote for the 2026 Voice of Organized Independent Childcare Educators Conference here in Syracuse today!

08/12/2026

I sat down and interviewed my depression.

That is not a metaphor. In 2016, OC87 Recovery Diaries put me in front of a camera with Glenn Holstein, a documentary filmmaker, and we filmed a real interview... me, asking questions to the thing that has tried to take me out since I was ten years old.

Halfway through, my body stopped cooperating.

I do not even remember the exact question that did it. I just remember Glenn going quiet, watching me, and then asking if we needed a minute.

We took that minute. Probably more than one, honestly.

And I keep coming back to that moment... not the film itself, but the pause. The weight of sitting across from the thing you have been carrying since childhood and having nowhere to go.

For years I treated my depression like something to stay ahead of. On camera, with Glenn asking questions and the light on my face, I could not stay ahead of it. I had to sit with it. Depression is still with me. Always will be. But something shifted in how I hold it.

This film is a little uncomfortable to watch. That is probably why I still share it.

Watch it, then sit with whatever you have been staying ahead of.

What happens when you interview your own depression? Mike Veny demo...