Leah Johnson | Speaker • Artist • Author • Guide

Leah Johnson is a former politician turned painter, speaker, and author who helps people reconnect with their creativity, live intentionally, and co-create their lives with the Divine. After a 25-year career in politics—where she led with conviction, compassion, and a radical belief that change is always possible—Leah made the bold decision to quit. Not just her job, but the identity that came with it.

While still in politics, Leah experienced a profound breakdown. Burned out and untethered, she descended into deep depression and disconnection amidst the constant pressure to prove herself. But in the quiet of that unraveling, she began to hear something she had long ignored: her creative voice. What followed was a transformation that led her from public servant to spiritual seeker, from politician to painter. And in that transformation, she discovered her truest calling—not fixing broken systems, but helping people reclaim the joy, creativity, and connection that systems often strip away.

Today, Leah is the author of two books: Finding Fantastic Joy: How Building a Self-Advocacy Campaign Led Me Out of Darkness and the forthcoming Girl! Baptize Yourself. Her work centers on helping others shed the roles, expectations, and performative “success” that no longer serve them—so they can live with authenticity, alignment, and joy.

She speaks powerfully on transformation, quitting with intention, creative reinvention, and spiritual growth. Her signature keynote, Your Permission Slip to Quit, reframes quitting not as failure, but as a sacred, creative act of realignment and rebirth.

Leah also leads retreats in Teotihuacan, Mexico, where she guides women into deep spiritual and creative healing through ceremony, intentional creativity, and connection to the Divine Feminine. She has been traveling to Teotihuacan for over a decade and believes it holds unmatched ancestral and energetic power to awaken what’s been lost or buried within us.

Whether she’s on an inspirational stage, leading a retreat, or painting with her hands in a riot of color, Leah is animated by one unshakable belief: that joy is not a luxury, it’s a lifeline.

She lives in Colorado, is lit up by color, connection, meaningful conversations, and her number one job: being a mom. Nothing brings her more joy than creating alongside her children and embarking on wild, wonderful travel adventures with her crazy, love-filled family. She always says, “I live in the world as I want it to be—not as it actually is.” And she invites others to do the same.