Experience belonging
—Social Wellness for the Modern World—Social Wellness for the Modern World
—Social Wellness for the Modern World—Social Wellness for the Modern World
Past clients
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Eli Walker is a world-class speaker, performer and social wellness strategist
who partners with leaders, teams and community gatherers to build engaged cultures by cultivating belonging as a daily practice - (not a one-time feeling). Through experiential keynotes, interactive mindfulness practices and her signature P.L.A.Y. Method, she teaches the art and science of sparking connection instantly, and equips her audiences with the tools they need to sustain it.
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Your People Aren’t Disengaged. They’re Disconnected.
We have a social wellness blind spot. We invest in physical and mental health, but leave our social well-being—the foundation of trust and motivation—to autopilot. Teams work together but don’t actually connect. People feel lonely in rooms full of people. This quiet erosion of belonging fuels burnout, disconnection, and cultural drift.
Here’s what that looks like inside even strong organizations:
We have gym memberships for our bodies and therapists for our minds, but no strategy for social wellness
Belonging is treated as a "nice-to-have" instead instead of the performance driver it actually is
Leaders talk about community but lack the concrete tools to create it
We're solving for productivity while ignoring the human connection that fuels it
Get over yourself. Engage community. Spark belonging.
Belonging doesn’t happen by default. It happens by design.
Engage your people
Modern society has lost the organic ways humans once formed community, and modern workplaces haven’t replaced them with anything intentional. Leaders assume connection will “just happen” when people share a room, but it doesn’t -(and it won’t).
Real belonging requires nervous-system safety, meaningful acknowledgment (ahem, conflict resolution techniques that actually work), and shared, playful rituals that inspire people to want to participate. Without that, even the best culture initiatives remain transactional.
I’m Eli Walker
I’m a world-class speaker, solo-performance artist and founder of the internationally acclaimed brand Drunk Yoga® (now The Uplift Center). I don’t just talk about belonging—I create it in real time. (It’s like, my whole thing.)
Keynotes
Live Experiences Designed to Shift How Your People Connect
Keynote 01.
The Art of Getting Over Yourself™
How to Build Belonging in the Modern World
Give your team what they didn’t know they needed: a live experience of belonging.
This keynote uses storytelling, interactive mindfulness practices, conflict resolution techniques and strategic play to help people get off autopilot and the present moment.
This keynote uses storytelling, interactive mindfulness practices, conflict resolution techniques and strategic play to help people get off autopilot and the present moment.
What people will learn:
How to get off autopilot to presence (plus participation)
Why connection feels hard today (and what to do about it)
How to [economically] facilitate belonging in day-to-day interactions (to improve collaboration and retention)
Practical, repeatable (and fun) P.L.A.Y. Method tools for real-time connection and conflict resolution
Keynote 02.
Work Hard, P.L.A.Y. Harder™
A Work-Life Balance Strategy That Actually Works
Balance isn’t created by rest alone. Play is also crucial.
This session shows teams how intentional play reduces stress, boosts creativity, and builds the psychological safety needed to get over ourselves, engage community and spark belonging.
This session shows teams how intentional play reduces stress, boosts creativity, and builds the psychological safety needed to get over ourselves, engage community and spark belonging.
What people will learn:
Why “balance” fails (and what to focus on instead)
The neuroscience behind play, creativity, and resilience
How to access joy and spontaneity under pressure
Non-cringey strategies for embedding play into team culture and daily routines to enhance relationships and ease conflict
Keynote 03.
Belonging
by Design™
Building Social Wellness as a Strategy
Belonging doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by design.
This keynote reframes social wellness as a core performance-driver and shows leaders how to build it intentionally (and economically).
This keynote reframes social wellness as a core performance-driver and shows leaders how to build it intentionally (and economically).
What people will learn:
Why social wellness impacts longevity, performance, and retention
How to leverage the P.L.A.Y. Method within live moments of connection, both virtually and in-person.
Why most connection initiatives fail (and what you should do instead)
How to easily integrate belonging into meetings, rituals, culture systems, and even casual conversations (and feel empowered to do it on your own)
Eli in action
The P.L.A.Y. Method
How P.L.A.Y. Drives Real Business Impact
Using my P.L.A.Y. Method framework (Place, Language, Acknowledgement, You), I help leaders, teams and individuals create playful, practical social wellness strategies by tapping into the power of mindfulness, creative thinking and live experience design within any environment.
The P.L.A.Y. Method
P.
Place
—
Intentional space + boundary design
Physical, virtual and figurative spaces can be optimized for belonging. From a bar-turned-yoga-studio (oh hey Drunk Yoga®) to an off-site or Zoom call, as well as co-creating healthy boundaries, well-designed “containers” create psychological safety where people take risks, laugh, fail, and try again.
L.
Language
—
Roles, tone + commitments
Words set the rules of engagement before anyone says a word.
Language is the tone, the framing, and the commitments you bring into a space —
authentic, clear, and approachable enough that people know it's safe to show up as themselves. When language is right, trust follows. When it's off, no amount of good intention can recover it.A.
Acknowledgement
—
Breaking 4th walls
The most powerful belonging move is naming
what everyone is already feeling but nobody is saying. Acknowledgment breaks the fourth wall — it dissolves invisible social contracts, surfaces unspoken tensions, and creates shared ownership of the room. This is the opposite of entitlement. When people feel truly seen, they stop protecting themselves and start actually connecting.Y.
You
—
The art of getting over yourself (+ into accountability)
You can't design belonging for others if you're running on empty yourself.
You is the practice of radical self-alignment — tending to your own needs, getting out of your own way, and showing up with enough presence that others feel safe enough to do the same. The most generous thing a leader can do is do their own work first.
Results
What Organizations Experience After
Implementing the P.L.A.Y Method
56% increase in job performance when people feel like they belong
50% reduction in turnover risk when individuals feel connected to shared purpose
Stronger psychological safety, greater engagement, decision-making, and trust (+ joy)
Sustainable culture change that lasts because it’s built into how teams operate day-to-day
Read the work
Off The Stage And On The Page
Drunk Yoga
Buy Eli's best-selling Drunk Yoga® book: "50 Wine & Yoga Poses to Lift Your Spirit(s).”
🔥 coming soon
P.L.A.Y. Book
This comprehensive guide combines practical social wellness strategies with fun "belonging hacks" and modern toolkit essentials.
Kill the
Buddha Script
Eli’s latest one-woman show about how belonging begins when you stop performing someone else's version of you.
Why work wth eli?
You're Not Booking a Speaker. You're Creating an Experience.
Eli doesn't just deliver keynotes. She’s a world-class performance artist, comedic storyteller and interactive mindfulness facilitator who creates live transformations where perspectives shift, strangers become community, and belonging is sparked in real time. Also? She’s a delight to work with.
Elite Performance Meets Social Wellness Expertise
With 20+ years of professional performance experience and NYU Tisch training, Eli knows how to command a room and create emotional resonance. She blends presence, vulnerability, and seasoned (+ comedic) storytelling to move audiences through felt transformation - (not just a slide show).
Drunk Yoga® Founder = Proven Belonging at Scale
Eli built a global movement that shows how play and intentional experience design can turn strangers into community in 90 minutes or less. (*Hair toss*) This tested, real-world methodology now powers everything she teaches.
Experiential Keynotes, Not Presentations
Every session is choreographed for impact through storytelling, mindfulness moments and [non-cheesy] interactive play. Her audiences don’t just learn belonging theory; they experience it in their bodies and ignite it in their relationships...like, immediately.
Built for Corporate, Community, and Every Stage
The P.L.A.Y. Method works at any scale: Fortune 500s, non-profits, festivals, and community events. Eli speaks the language of business outcomes with a fun, human [+ humorous] touch, creating sessions that deliver ROI and accessible joy.
Street Cred.
“Eli is an absolute light on stage — effortlessly captivating the audience with warmth, energy, and authenticity. She has the ability to make every moment feel engaging, down-to-earth, and connected. ''
Yif Chen
BRAND STRATEGY, TIKTOK SHOP
Ready To Spark Belonging That Sticks?
To learn more about Eli’s keynotes and availability, fill out the form below.
How to Book Eli
1.
Reach Out
Fill out the booking form with your event details, and what you're hoping to create. Eli's team will walk you through next steps.
2.
Customize
We'll schedule a call to learn about your audience, goals and what belonging looks like for your specific event. From there, Eli will tailor the experience to match your vision (and bring it to life).
3.
Experience It
Eli shows up fully present, energized and equipped with the power of elite performance artistry and social wellness know-how.
Eli Walker
Top Speaker, Author, Solo-Performance Artist & Social Wellness Entrepreneur
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
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The P.L.A.Y. Method
Your Gathering Doesn't Have to Be Yet Another Event Where People Feel Alone Together
You’ve booked the venue, crafted the agenda, and sent the invites. But if your people leave feeling lonelier than when they arrived, your carefully planned gathering is just another checklist and missed opportunity for connection.
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Engage Your People
Our modern world isn’t built for belonging, it’s built for isolation. That’s why social wellness strategies are no longer optional. Belonging isn’t a bonus; it’s the point.
When you choose Eli, you’re not just hiring a speaker. You’re creating a live experience where walls come down, strangers notice each other through moments of laughter and belonging isn’t just talked about; it’s (joyfully) embraced and built to last.
More than a PowerPoint. More than theory. Live transformation.
This is what 20 years of professional performance, a proven global movement (ahem, Drunk Yoga®), and social wellness expertise (+ a lot of passion) looks like.
Feel genuinely seen and known — not in your head, but in your body and with those around you through interactive moments of connection
Access joy and play — remembering that belonging and engagement require lightness, vulnerability, and spontaneity
Experience nervous system shifts — from guarded to curious, from autopilot to present, in real time
Build sustainable belonging — not a one-time, happy-accident-feeling, but new practices embedded into how you and your people operate
Beyond Speaking
Need more than a belonging speaker? Hire Eli to create belonging for you.
Eli Walker In the Press
“It is precisely this dogmatic tendency that Eli would like to challenge: ‘We are creating a safe space here for lots of fun. Here the yogis can let go completely, not take themselves and others too seriously. And above all: not to take yoga too seriously.’”
“Eli Walker, founder of the sessions, told Popsugar, ‘Drunk Yoga, which involves adding wine to a beginner yoga sequence in class that takes place in a bar, was just another idea I had to make yoga more accessible and less intimidating to a certain population who might not otherwise try yoga at all.’”
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“‘It’s OK if you spill,’ says Drunk Yoga creator Eli Walker, 29, an actress and yogi who created the trademarked yoga brand in 2017.”
“Eli Walker, the yoga instructor who one day realized that the disinhibition of the bar was what it took to make people feel comfortable in yoga class”.
“Walker’s final rule for Drunk Yoga is that ‘you have to have fun and be happy by the time you leave.’”
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“Walker’s manifesto is unlike any other how-to-yoga guidebook on the shelf, because not only does it pair the Ayurvedic practice with alcohol, it’s also layered with jokes and stories to really hone in on her overall message: that life on its own is hard enough, but yoga doesn’t have to be.”
“This roving series aims to lift your spirits and create community around the potent union of yoga and social ritual…”
“…yoga instructor Eli Walker decided to open up a “Drunk Yoga” series to help beginning yogis relax with the idea that your body will become more flexible with some liquid courage…”
“Eli said it best: ‘When you’re playing with your body in time and space in a new way, surrounded by friends in a bar with a glass of wine, it’s hard not to enjoy yourself.’”
“In addition to yoga, she [Walker] teaches storytelling workshops for kids and adults that combine movement and theater.”
“Eli Walker, the yoga instructor who one day realized that the disinhibition of the bar was what it took to make people feel comfortable in yoga class”.
“Walker, 28, said she believed a jolt of liquid courage could help to make yoga more enjoyable for those too nervous to tackle it. “
‘‘That said, every yogi who has tried the class, and/or knows me personally, understands my mission has integrity, and my class is safe, effective and fun for the population of people I’m targeting,’ Walker says.”
“‘I've been a yoga teacher and a performer for a long time, and an entrepreneur at heart,’ Eli Walker – the woman behind the trend – told me when I approached her for this story.”
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