Garret Biss
A former Marine pilot and recovery advocate, Garret Biss arms high school and college students with the practical tools to navigate pressure, burnout, and uncertainty—turning life’s hardest disruptions into lasting purpose, authentic belonging, and unstoppable growth.
TOPICS
- Leadership
- Student Success
- Values
- Belonging
- Veteran Affairs
- Resilience
- Authenticity
- Addiction
- Health & Wellness
- Mental Health
- Masculinity
- Personal Growth
KEYNOTES
- Direction Over Destination: Finding Your Internal Compass When Life Doesn’t Hand You a Map
- The Conditions for Growth: What Students Really Need to Thrive (Not Just Survive) Through Change
- Growing Through Adversity: How Hard Times Reveal Your Real Strength and Purpose
- Beyond the Uniform: Rebuilding Identity, Brotherhood, and Mission in Civilian Life
Getting to know
Garret Biss
Garret Biss is a retired Marine Corps officer, former KC-130J aircraft commander, TEDx speaker, and author who equips students and emerging leaders to navigate life when the map runs out. Over a 16-year enlisted-to-officer military career, Garret led high-stakes operational missions across Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa. Yet, his most demanding trial began after taking off the uniform.
What looked like a seamless civilian transition on paper quickly turned into a battle with anxiety, depression, alcohol addiction, and a shattered sense of identity. Confronting that crisis head-on sparked Garret’s deep dive into positive psychology, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. Rather than letting the storm define him, he developed a strategy to navigate through the massive disruption.
Today, Garret blends battle-tested leadership, scientific research, and vulnerable storytelling to help high school and college audiences calibrate their own internal compass. The author of The Spheres Approach to Happiness and Fulfillment and FIRST STEPS to Thriving in Recovery, Garret shows audiences that while adversity is inevitable, staying lost is not—giving young people the tools to turn uncertainty into purpose, authentic connection, and lasting growth.
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
To help you promote your event with Garret, CAMPUSPEAK has created promotional templates you can use. In this folder, you will find resources for social media, a promotional poster for printing, and press photos you can use for your event.
Link to Promotional Materials
LOGISTICAL MATERIALS
Below you will find logistical resources for the day of your event with Garret.
In-Person Event AV needs (PDF)
Speaking introduction (PDF)
KEYNOTES
Direction Over Destination
Finding Your Internal Compass When Life Doesn’t Hand You a Map
“You don’t need the next ten years figured out. You just need to know how to take the next right step.”
High school and college students face crushing pressure to know exactly who they are and where they are going before they’ve even had a chance to explore. Drawing on his experience as a Marine Corps pilot facing unpredictable storms, Garret Biss dismantles the toxic pressure of having to “have it all figured out.” He shows students that true resilience isn’t following a rigid map—it’s calibrating an internal compass built on personal values, strengths, and authentic meaning. Students walk away relieved of comparison anxiety and equipped with actionable tools to make confident decisions in the face of the unknown.
Learning Outcomes:
- Ditch the “Map” Pressure: Shift from paralyzing career/life anxiety to confident, iterative forward action.
- Calibrate an Internal Compass: Identify personal values and strengths to guide decisions when peer expectations fall short.
- Reframe the Unknown: View transitions and uncertainty as opportunities for growth rather than signs of failure.
Ideal Audiences: New Student Orientation (NSO), FYE / First-Year Experience, High School Assemblies (Juniors & Seniors), Senior Transition & Career Readiness, Student Leadership Conferences.
The Conditions for Growth
What Students Really Need to Thrive (Not Just Survive) Through Change
“When a plant wilts, you don’t blame the plant—you check the soil, water, and sunlight.”
When students burn out, disconnect, or struggle academically, conventional advice tells them to “just grind harder” or “find more grit.” Garret flips the script. Using a memorable natural framework, he reveals the three essential conditions every student needs to thrive: Connection (soil/roots that ground us), Authenticity (sunlight to be ourselves without a mask), and Meaning (water that fuels long-term motivation). This talk gives students a personal diagnostic to audit their daily habits, combat loneliness, and build campus communities where everyone actually feels like they belong.
Learning Outcomes:
- Diagnose Burnout Early: Spot when isolation, imposter syndrome, or disengagement stem from missing fundamental needs.
- Unmask Authenticity: Drop the exhausting energy spent “performing” for social media or peer approval.
- Build Culture from the Ground Up: Actionable ways student leaders and peers can foster real belonging in residence halls, clubs, and classrooms.
Ideal Audiences: Campus-Wide Wellness Days, Residence Life & RA Training, Fraternity & Sorority Life (FSL), Student Clubs & Council Leadership, High School Culture & Anti-Bullying Summits.
Growing Through Adversity
How Hard Times Reveal Your Real Strength and Purpose
“Resilience isn’t just bouncing back to who you were—it’s growing into who you’re meant to be.”
Failure on an exam, a bitter breakup, a broken athletic dream, or personal hardship can leave a student feeling like their story is ruined. Rather than offering empty clichés (“everything happens for a reason”), Garret brings the science of Post-Traumatic Growth down to eye level. Blending grounded research with lessons from his own journey through military adversity and addiction recovery, Garret teaches students that challenges don’t have to define them—they can refine them. He delivers a practical, judgment-free roadmap for turning life’s toughest hits into character, connection, and unshakable purpose.
Learning Outcomes:
- Bounce Forward, Not Just Back: Understand the difference between mere survival and transformative post-adversity growth.
- Process Setbacks Without Shame: Break negative self-talk spirals when plans fall apart.
- Activate Growth Levers: Apply concrete reflection and support practices to transform pain into purpose and leadership.
Ideal Audiences: Student Success Initiatives, Collegiate Recovery Communities, Student-Athletes & Team Resilience, Mental Health Weeks, High School Assemblies.
Beyond the Uniform
Rebuilding Identity, Brotherhood, and Mission in Civilian Life
“The hardest part of service isn’t taking off the uniform—it’s finding out who you are without it.”
Many student veterans step onto campus feeling like strangers in an unfamiliar world. The transition out of the military is often treated as purely administrative (GI Bill paperwork and class schedules), completely ignoring the massive loss of identity, daily structure, built-in brotherhood, and mission. Garret, a former Marine Corps Aviator, speaks candidly to the heart of the transition. He helps student veterans rediscover their mission on campus while showing faculty, staff, and non-military student leaders how to bridge the cultural divide and build a campus that leverages veteran strengths rather than reducing them to stereotypes.
Learning Outcomes:
- Navigate Identity Loss: Address the disorientation of moving from high-stakes military structure to unstructured campus life.
- Reclaim Your Mission: Translate military discipline and team-first values into academic and civilian leadership.
- Campus Allyship: Train campus staff and student leaders to support military-connected peers with empathy rather than pity.
Ideal Audiences: Student Veteran Organizations (SVA), Veterans Day / Military Appreciation Programming, Faculty & Staff In-Service / Professional Development, Non-Traditional Student Support.
