“Sometimes feeling like things are falling apart is actually part of figuring out how the pieces fit together,” shared Keonté Beals, legacy leadership speaker. 

On September 26 (6 p.m.), at AST’s St. Columba Chapel, Beals, who is also a musician, producer, performer, author, and entrepreneur, is going to lead the AST community and others in a time of reflection guided by his keynote, “Passing the Torch: The Art of Legacy Leadership.”

“I want people to leave asking themselves questions they may not normally take the time to ask and, more importantly, to give themselves the space to wait for honest answers,” shared the motivational speaker from North Preston, Nova Scotia—the largest historic Black community in Canada.

“I want folks to walk away asking themselves, ‘Who have I been?’ ‘Who am I now?’ ‘And who am I becoming?’ Asking yourself these three questions will change your entire life, and I am living proof of that.”

As founder and CEO of KBeals Entertainment Inc., Beals combines powerful storytelling, lived experience, and leadership development to help organizations build stronger leaders and reduce leadership burnout.

He is the creator of “Passing the Torch: The Art of Legacy Leadership,” a keynote that challenges leaders to think beyond their title and focus on the people, opportunities, and values they leave behind. Through his leadership initiative, “The I Am Experience,” Beals has reached more than 50,000 students and hundreds of educators across Canada and the United States, helping young people develop confidence, purpose, and a sense of belonging.

We caught up with Beals ahead of the event, and here’s what he had to share about his upcoming keynote, his philosophy on legacy leadership, and how personal reflection fuels meaningful community impact. 

“Passing the Torch” centres on leading beyond a title. What does “legacy leadership” mean to you personally, and how has your upbringing in North Preston shaped that philosophy?

To me, legacy leadership starts before we ever pour into anyone else. It begins with learning how to pour into ourselves.

In “Passing the Torch: The Art of Legacy Leadership,” I talk a lot about the importance of leaders creating enough space to ask themselves the difficult questions and then having the patience to wait for the answers. Leadership requires reflection. It requires us to really look at who we are, what is driving us, what needs to change, and what truths we may have been avoiding.

A major part of legacy leadership is learning how to accept those truths without allowing them to take our power away. When we can acknowledge something honestly, whether it is a strength, a weakness, a mistake, a fear, or an area where we need to grow, we put ourselves in a position to make a conscious decision about where we go next. That is where our power is. We are no longer being controlled by something we refuse to face; we are able to use that awareness to move in a direction that is healthier and more positive for ourselves and, ultimately, for the people we lead.

Growing up in North Preston played a significant role in shaping that belief. I come from a community with a deep history, strong family connections, resilience, and generations of people who have had to survive through some of the most traumatic experiences one can face and still chose to push through all of the adversity and to thrive. That taught me that the only thing in this world that can stop you from being whatever you desire to be is you. That leadership is also about what you learn, what you heal, what you strengthen within yourself, and what you are then able to pass on to the next person. Before we can hand somebody else a stronger torch, we have to be willing to examine what we are carrying ourselves.

Atlantic School of Theology is a space dedicated to community, ethics, and service. How does your keynote message align with the mission of AST, and what do you hope the AST community takes away from the evening?

The message of “Passing the Torch: The Art of Legacy Leadership” aligns naturally with the mission of Atlantic School of Theology because community, ethics, and service all begin with how we choose to lead ourselves. It starts there. Before we can effectively serve other people, build stronger communities, or make ethical decisions as leaders, we have to be willing to look inward. Self-awareness allows us to make more intentional decisions about how we show up in the world and how our leadership impacts the people around us.

What I hope the AST community takes away from the evening is permission to reflect. I want people to leave asking themselves questions they may not normally take the time to ask and, more importantly, to give themselves the space to wait for honest answers. I want folks to walk away asking themselves, “Who have I been?” “Who am I now?” “And who am I becoming?” Asking yourself these three questions will change your entire life, and I am living proof of that.

You’ve inspired over 50,000 students through “The I Am Experience.” What is one recurring challenge you see in today’s emerging leaders, and how can we better support them?

One of the biggest challenges I see in today’s emerging leaders is the pressure they put on themselves to already know, to have the answer, to have the plan, to know who they are going to become and exactly how they are going to get there.

I think we need to give emerging leaders permission to be curious.

Curiosity gives us permission to listen, to learn, to try something new, to make mistakes, to change our minds, and to admit when we simply do not know. It allows us to walk into unfamiliar spaces without feeling as though being uncomfortable means we are doing something wrong. Sometimes feeling like things are falling apart is actually part of figuring out how the pieces fit together.

When I look at my own life, I genuinely believe one of the reasons I have been able to grow into the more whole version of myself that I am today is because I have been curious for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I was curious about everything around me. I was curious about my family and the people I loved and why they behaved certain ways, why they thought the way they did, and what shaped them. I was curious about different careers and dreams and what my life could potentially look like. I could even be curious about something as simple as food and what made something taste so good.

But most importantly, I was curious about myself.

I wanted to understand why I was the way that I was. Why did certain things affect me? Why did I think differently about certain things? What was I capable of? What might happen if I tried something I had never done before? I gave myself the blessing of figuring it out rather than demanding that I already have myself figured out.

Sometimes the most powerful thing we can tell an emerging leader is, “You don’t have to know yet. Give yourself permission to discover what is possible.”

As someone whose work spans music, literature, and motivational speaking, how do you see creative expression and faith or spirituality intersecting to build stronger, more resilient communities? 

Creativity gives us a language for things that can be difficult to explain directly: hope, grief, identity, purpose, healing, and possibility. Faith can do something similar by giving us grounding, meaning, and the strength to keep moving even when we do not have every answer.

This is especially true for children. Kids do not always have the words to explain what they are feeling, so art can become that language. Through music, literature, visual art, dance, or other forms of expression, they can communicate what they may not yet know how to say.

Children also remind us how naturally creativity can happen. They create before they overthink, express before they judge themselves, and imagine without immediately questioning what is possible. Adults can find a lot of healing and understanding by reconnecting with some of that innocence.

That also connects to how I see faith. We often talk about having faith in God, but I believe faith in ourselves is connected to that. If we believe the Spirit lives within us and that we were intentionally created by God, then trusting ourselves can also mean trusting what God created within us.

That is where creativity, faith, and community become powerful together. When people are able to express themselves, reconnect with who they are, and believe there is purpose within them, they are better able to heal, connect with others, and help build stronger, more compassionate communities.

Leadership burnout is a growing crisis across many sectors. What is one actionable step leaders can take to shift from short-term survival to long-term impact without exhausting themselves?

For me, the actionable step is to quite literally build sustainability into your schedule.

Legacy leadership is about asking yourself questions, reflecting, listening, and making intentional decisions, but the reason we do that is because it creates a more sustainable way of leading. The question becomes, how do I continue showing up for other people while also making sure I am still able to show up for myself?

For me personally, I build reflection directly into my week. Wednesdays are my thinking days. My team knows that. I use that time to reflect on my life, think through projects, look at business strategy, and consider what is coming next. Unless something is urgent, that space is protected because I know I need it to lead well, and most days it’s done during a nice 2-3 hour walk or a boat ride on the ferry. I know myself enough now to know what spaces, places, and atmospheres create the space for my mind to open up and to think deeply, and that came from … you’ve guessed it … reflection, asking myself questions and tweaking my approach. Each time, I learned a new trick to encourage deeper thinking.

I do something similar on Saturdays. For the most part, I keep that day for myself. I stay home, clean, reset, do the things that make me feel good, and give myself space to recharge.

The important part is that I do not wait until I am exhausted to find time for myself. I create the time before I need it. I build it into my weekly schedule.

Following your keynote at St. Columba Chapel, you’re hosting a Soul Circle. What kind of dialogue do you hope to cultivate in that intimate space, and why is this style of conversation essential right now?

What I hope to cultivate in the Soul Circle is a space where people feel comfortable enough to be uncomfortable, to be honest, curious, and reflective without feeling like they have to have the perfect answer.

The keynote gives me an opportunity to share my experiences, ideas, and perspective, but the Soul Circle creates space for us to turn some of those questions back toward ourselves and toward one another. I want people to talk about what leadership actually feels like in their lives, what they are carrying, what they are learning, what they may be questioning, and even the things they have not completely figured out yet.

I think there is something incredibly powerful about being in a smaller space where we can listen to one another without immediately trying to fix, debate, or respond. I have always found that I learn the most when I listen without interrupting. Even when I disagree with someone, or when what they are sharing is completely different from my own experience, listening gives me the opportunity to understand where they are coming from and to have compassion for an experience that may not be mine.

You learn so much about people when you give them the space to fully express themselves, how they think, what has shaped them, and why they see the world the way they do. Sometimes you walk away realizing, “I feel exactly the same way.” Other times you realize, “I see this completely differently.” Both are valuable. Both teach you something. That, to me, is part of what real learning looks like.

I do not have all of the answers for everyone, nor do I believe I am supposed to. What I hope the Soul Circle does is begin a process, one that encourages people to ask themselves the difficult questions, sit with them honestly, and trust that life, experience, and reflection will reveal the answers in time. That, my friends, is the beginning of true legacy leadership.

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Event details

“Passing the Torch: The Art of Legacy Leadership” | Keonté Beals

Date: Sept. 26, 2026

Time: 6 p.m.

Venue: St. Columba Chapel, AST Campus

Tickets will be available soon. Stay tuned for more information.