Keynote speaker · Podcast guest · Creator of How Work Works™

What happens at work doesn't stay at work.

Every decision about how work is set up, and every message about it, ripples out to your people, your results, and your community. Lindsay Mastro shows leaders how to design change, communicate it so every level hears the same story, and turn it into steady teams and real returns.

Lindsay Mastro seated on a black wire chair, leaning forward
01 · Design

The plan

How roles, decisions, and the strategy behind a change are set up.

02 · Communicate

The message

PR for HR: every level hears the same story, at the right time, from the right person.

03 · Perform

The return

Retention, productivity, and dollars saved when people understand the change.

04 · Ripple

The community

Steady leaders and a supported workforce strengthen the places they live and work.

17 yrsin HR, 11 in HCM and small-business consulting
~1,000HR professionals trained and led nationwide
~$90Ksaved for one client by pairing a pay change with a clear communication plan
40+podcasts, press features, and stages since 2021
Featured by
SHRMPaychexRaganHR.comLeader's EdgeRochester Business JournalreWorkedWorkableCanvasRebelCentral NY MagazineSyracuse Woman Magazine
Stages & shows
DisruptHRWiSH Conference (CNY ASSP)Elevate Women's SummitCenterState CEO · Talk CNYINSPYRE Innovation HubLeadership Greater SyracuseHR Happy HourPaychex PulseWISE Women's Business CenterBlackstone LaunchPad at Syracuse UniversityIntentional Feminine

On stage

Keynotes, firesides, panels, hosting, and podcasts. Lindsay is as comfortable holding the mic as she is handing it off.

Signature talks

Every talk follows the How Work Works™ arc: how a change is designed, how it is communicated, what it returns, and how far it reaches. Each is tailored to the room and can run as a keynote, workshop, panel, or podcast conversation.

KeynotesFor conferences, summits, and leadership audiences
Flagship keynoteOrganizationsCivic

What Happens at Work Doesn't Stay at Work

How the way we design and talk about work shapes our people, our results, and our communities

Lindsay walks the room through the full How Work Works™ arc, from the plan to the message to the return to the ripple. Audiences see why a change that looks right on paper can still stall, and what changes when it is designed and communicated with people in mind.

  • The four stages every workplace change moves through
  • Why pressure builds quietly when the message and the plan don't match
  • How steady teams turn into a stronger local economy
Best for: leadership forums, conferences, economic development, and civic audiences
Signature keynoteLeadersHR

PR for HR

Managing perception when work changes

The problem usually isn't resistance. It's a missing message, or different messages at different levels, that leave people filling in the gaps with their own stories. Lindsay shows leaders how a simple communication plan for every change mitigates compliance risk and builds a team that feels supported.

  • Where false stories start, and how they turn into complaints and claims
  • Planning who hears what, in what order, and from whom
  • Keeping managers, staff, and leadership telling the same story
Proof: pairing a pay change with a communication plan helped one client save about $90,000.
KeynoteLeadersExecutive teams

What Leaders Amplify

How a leader's energy, habits, and words travel through a team

Every workplace has a hum: the mood and pace people pick up from their leaders, which the organization then multiplies. Leaders learn to notice what they are sending, read how it is landing, and adjust before it shows up in the numbers.

  • How behavior and tone spread through a team
  • Reading early signals and checking them against real data
  • Small shifts that steady a team during change
Best for: executive retreats, leadership programs, culture initiatives
New for 2027OrganizationsFuture of work

How Work Works in the Age of AI

Designing and communicating change when the tools change

New tools change the tasks, not the need for a clear plan and a clear message. Lindsay looks at how to set up roles and decisions, and how to talk about AI with teams, so new tools take weight off people instead of adding worry.

  • Where AI fits in the way work already moves
  • Communicating AI changes so people don't fill the gaps with fear
  • Fair, consistent expectations for how AI is used and reviewed
As quoted in: reWorked, on how managers weigh AI use in performance reviews (2026)
Workshops & breakoutsHands-on sessions, already delivered
HR, safety & legal

Who's in Charge Here?

Where HR, legal, risk, and safety overlap

Built from real workplace scenarios, this session gives teams a way to make decisions that hold up when the playbook runs out.

  • Compliance duties versus risk decisions
  • When an HR matter becomes a legal one, and who to call first
  • Documenting in a way that protects people and the organization
Delivered at: WiSH Conference, CNY ASSP (2026); fireside with an employment attorney at Elevate Women's Summit (2025)
Business ownersLeaders

The Ghosts in Your Business

It's never the first time. It's the next time.

The three patterns Lindsay sees most: the good intention that sets a precedent, the org chart nobody can see, and the hire that keeps costing you.

  • Why consistency matters more than any single rule
  • How unclear roles show up as "attitude" and conflict
  • What to know before you write the job post
Delivered at: Liverpool Chamber of Commerce (2026)
FoundersStartups

Building Your First Team

Hiring, onboarding, and growing without losing your footing

Founders leave with a working plan for their stage: who to bring on first, how to bring them in, and how to keep small issues small as the team grows.

  • Hiring for the work the business needs next
  • Using a new hire's first 60 days to set how work gets done
  • Simple check-ins that catch issues before good people leave
Delivered at: INSPYRE Innovation Hub by CenterState CEO (2025, 2026); CNY Women's Network (2024); WISE Women's Business Center (2025)
FoundersLeaders

Where Your Energy Actually Goes

Sorting the work that's yours from the work that landed on you

Most leaders Lindsay works with find that 40 to 70 percent of their week is work they never chose. This session helps them see it, sort it, and hand off what isn't theirs.

  • A two-week look at where your time really goes
  • What drains you, what fuels you, and what you could hand off
  • Where your strengths meet what the organization needs from you
Drawn from Lindsay's Leadership Alchemy program
FoundersTalk + conversation

Founders Without Founders

Building a business without a family safety net

For founders who built without family support, financially, emotionally, or both. Lindsay names what that carries into a business and opens a conversation where founders find belonging, not just advice.

  • The realities of building without a safety net
  • How those patterns show up in hiring, risk, and delegation
  • Support and a community to come back to
Delivered at: Intentional Feminine (2026). Lindsay is a Certified Grief Coach.

Podcasts, video & press

An easy, unscripted guest with real stories from inside hundreds of workplaces, and a go-to expert source for national HR media.

Lindsay Mastro speaking into a microphone on the Talk CNY podcast set
Podcast guest

Talk CNY, CenterState CEO

Season 4, Episode 6 (2026). Building ConsciousHR, why small businesses need people support, and why community drives her work.

"Community is the reason I do everything we do."

Read the episode →
Lindsay Mastro speaking into a microphone during a live podcast recording
Live podcast

Live from the DisrUpstate Leadership Summit

With Peter Ward, co-founder of Making the City Smaller, recorded live in Old Forge, NY (2026), on relationship-first leadership and why a transactional approach to networking undercuts the opportunities it's chasing.

Watch the video →
Lindsay Mastro at her podcast microphone
Podcast host

This Is Off the Record

Lindsay created and hosted this podcast for "people with HR on their plate, whether they like it or not": real talk about work, leadership, and running a business. She knows both sides of the mic.

Recent stages

Conferences, chambers, accelerators, panels, and community events across New York State.

2026

  • WiSH ConferenceWomen in Safety & Health, CNY ASSP
  • Leadership Greater SyracuseEducation Day, panel moderator
  • DisrUpstate Leadership SummitHost and live podcast, Old Forge
  • Intentional FeminineFounders Without Founders
  • INSPYRE Innovation HubFounder workshops
  • Liverpool Chamber of CommerceCoffee Talk
  • CICheckedPanelist
  • Lions Den & Comedy ThrowdownJudge

2025

  • Elevate Women's SummitFireside with an employment attorney
  • WISE Women's Business CenterHR Power Hour panel
  • INSPYRE Innovation HubScaling your business workshop
  • DisruptHR Syracuse & North CountryFounder and host

2024

  • DisruptHR SyracuseSpeaker: Not Your Mother's Industry
  • CNY Women's NetworkBuilding Teams & Scaling Businesses
  • NYSCA WorkshopPrepping Your Practice for 2025

2021–2023

  • Book releaseBecoming Conscious in a Corporate World
  • Blackstone LaunchPad at Syracuse UniversityMarketing a New Business workshop
  • WBOCMember spotlight talk
  • Paychex expert sourceSHRM, Ragan, HR.com, Leader's Edge, RBJ
She builds stages, too. Lindsay founded DisrUpstate, the regional home of DisruptHR, a movement in 250+ cities. She grew Disrupt Syracuse to 140 attendees (180% growth in one year), took Disrupt North Country from 40 to 65 attendees, and launched a three-day Leadership Summit in Old Forge. She knows what event organizers need from a speaker because she's been the organizer.

Formats

  • Keynote30 to 60 minutes, any size room
  • Workshop or breakout90 minutes to half day, hands-on
  • Fireside or panelPanelist, co-presenter, or moderator
  • Leadership team sessionPrivate, in person or virtual
  • Podcast guestInterview or co-hosted conversation

For podcast hosts

  • What does "what happens at work doesn't stay at work" mean for a community?
  • What is PR for HR, and why do most changes stall in the message?
  • How do false stories start inside a team, and how do you stop them?
  • What's the "ghost" most small businesses don't see coming?
  • How do you build a business when you had no safety net growing up?

About Lindsay

Lindsay Mastro is the creator of How Work Works™, a model for leading change from the plan, to the message, to the results, and out into the community. She is the founder and CEO of ConsciousHR, a Syracuse, NY consultancy that partners with mission-driven, community-minded organizations on organizational design, change communication, and leadership development.

Her career covers every seat at the table: 17 years in HR as an in-house leader, consultant to hundreds of small businesses, and national trainer and strategist leading roughly 1,000 HR professionals, including work alongside attorneys on workplace risk. She has been an expert source for SHRM, Ragan, HR.com, and Leader's Edge, is the author of Becoming Conscious in a Corporate World, founded DisrUpstate, and is a graduate of Leadership Greater Syracuse.

On stage, she is direct, funny, and practical. Audiences leave with tools they can use Monday morning.

Lindsay Mastro laughing with arms crossed
  • Based inSyracuse, NY · travels for events · virtual anywhere
  • CreatorHow Work Works™
  • CredentialsPHR · SHRM-CP · Certified Professional Coach · Certified Grief Coach · Master's in Adult Education
  • AuthorBecoming Conscious in a Corporate World (2023, Top 20 Self-Help)
  • FounderConsciousHR · DisrUpstate · People on Purpose Inc.
  • RecognitionCenterState CEO 2025 Small Business of the Year finalist (ConsciousHR)

Press photos

This page is Lindsay's press kit. Use any photo for event promotion, programs, and show notes. Click a photo to download it.

Lindsay Mastro headshot, black blouse, chin on hand Lindsay Mastro seated on a wire chair, chin on hand Lindsay Mastro holding a microphone Lindsay Mastro full length in a black dress beside a wooden chair

Bring Lindsay to your stage or show

Share your event or podcast, your audience, and your date. Lindsay will shape the talk to fit the room.