After more than a decade in the trenches battling his own mental health and abuse demons, Johnny Crowder has emerged as one of America’s exciting new voices on resilience, support, and people-first leadership. He is a 30-year-old suicide/abuse survivor, TEDx speaker, Billboard-charting musician, mental health and sobriety advocate, and the Founder & CEO of Cope Notes®, a text-based mental health platform that provides daily support to users in nearly 100 countries around the world.
But in the years leading up to these incredible leaps in advocacy, every day was a battle against schizophrenic hallucinations and suicidal ideation. After a lifetime of resisting professional care and shying away from sharing his story, Johnny’s curiosity flowered, and the healing slowly began.
Armed with 10+ years of clinical treatment, a psychology degree from the University of Central Florida, and a decade of peer support and public advocacy through the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Johnny created Cope Notes in 2018. The award-winning startup continues to gain worldwide attention and adoption for its innovative approach to helping people from all walks of life build mental wellness daily. Since his first keynote in 2011, Johnny's refreshingly vulnerable and candid perspective has attracted praise from hundreds of outlets, including Upworthy, CNN, and Forbes.
With authenticity, well-placed humor, and unconventional wit, Johnny draws on his own experiences to provide hopeful and proven insights into building greater mental health and a deeper connection with those around us. Most recently, Johnny earned his CRPS certification (Certified Recovery Peer Specialist) in the fall of 2022.
Johnny gave a thought-provoking Keynote at the 2022 ICMA Annual Conference that gave this audience of local government officials and ICMA employees the reality check about mental health that we all needed to hear. Johnny tailored his talk to speak to our audience in a way that created the most impact, and he even took the time to speak with many of them afterwards as they eagerly lined up to engage with him. It is refreshing to see a speaker of his caliber take the time to interact with attendees in such an authentic way. Johnny was personable, kind, relatable, and compassionate to each conference attendee and staff member he interacted with, and was definitely a key highlight of our event.
Johnny gave a thought-provoking Keynote at the 2022 ICMA Annual Conference that gave this audience of local government officials and ICMA employees the reality check about mental health that we all needed to hear. Johnny tailored his talk to speak to our audience in a way that created the most impact, and he even took the time to speak with many of them afterwards as they eagerly lined up to engage with him. It is refreshing to see a speaker of his caliber take the time to interact with attendees in such an authentic way. Johnny was personable, kind, relatable, and compassionate to each conference attendee and staff member he interacted with, and was definitely a key highlight of our event.