Six speeches. Twenty minutes each. Built for founders, investors, leadership teams, business schools and corporate audiences who would rather be given something to think about than something to applaud.
I speak to founders, investors, leadership teams, business schools and corporate audiences on the themes that matter most to people building something serious: pride, leadership, character, due diligence, the psychology of risk and the practical wisdom that only experience provides.
My speeches draw on thirty years of building and exiting businesses, on the classics of literature and philosophy and on the patterns that repeat themselves across every generation of business and human endeavour. The aim is always the same: leave the audience with something they will still be thinking about on the way home.
I bring honesty, clarity, a dry sense of humour and a genuine belief that the most important ideas are usually the ones we already know but have stopped paying attention to.
Why wise leaders listen to inconvenient warnings and what happens when they don't. A speech on due diligence, denial and the danger of the story you want to believe. Draws on Greek myth to illuminate the most persistent failure mode in business: the warning we choose not to hear. Humour and weight in equal measure.
Drawing on Homer's Iliad, the oldest story in the Western literary tradition, to illuminate the timeless patterns of ego, leadership, grief and compassion. A speech on pride, people and the art of living well, built around three scenes that have survived three thousand years because they describe something we still haven't resolved. Suitable for any serious audience.
Eight character traits: clarity, responsibility, resilience, usefulness, courage, discipline, kindness and purpose, explored not as abstract virtues but as practical tools with direct applications in business and life. Each trait is illustrated with stories and evidence. A speech with genuine warmth and lasting weight; particularly effective for leadership away days and corporate audiences.
Why the quality of your questions shapes the quality of your decisions, your relationships and your life. A philosophical and practical speech drawing on Socrates, modern psychology and thirty years of business experience. Challenges the assumption that the job of a leader is to have all the answers but makes the case that the best leaders are defined by the quality of what they ask. Ideal for business schools, graduate events and leadership conferences.
There is a moment in every organisation when challenge quietly stops and approval becomes the only thing that gets rewarded. A speech on founders, boards and leadership teams: how earned trust curdles into immunity, why silence is rarely agreement, and why due diligence is less a finance exercise than a way of staying sane. Built around three practical disciplines for keeping reality in the room once you've earned the right to stop being questioned.
Every founder has a moment when the room goes quiet in the wrong way. This speech begins with one such moment: a pitch, a brutal dismissal and two very different verdicts from two very different men. It builds into a forensic account of how the stories we narrate internally shape what we do next. On confidence, criticism, resilience and the difference between an identity sentence and a work sentence. Particularly effective for entrepreneurship events, business schools and early-stage founder communities.
International engagements welcome. I am happy to travel anywhere in the world. Rates are tailored to the format, audience and location — get in touch and I will respond personally with a quote.
Tell me the audience, the format and what you want them leaving with. I read every enquiry myself and I will reply personally.
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