Motivation and Inspiration

Why organisations work with Laura Whitmore Live-television fluency. Six years fronting Love Island, plus stints on I’m a Celebrity NOW!, This Morning and Celebrity Juice, mean she handles unscripted moments, audience energy and tight cues without visible effort. Journalistic credibility on the topics organisations now have to host. She wrote, presented and associate-produced Laura Whitmore Investigates for ITVX, covering incel culture, rough sex and cyber-stalking in detail. A second register beyond entertainment hosting. The Laura Whitmore Show on BBC Radio 5 Live and her current BBC podcast Murder They Wrote demonstrate she can hold a long-form, substantive conversation, not only a stage handover. Public record on women’s safety and online harm. Her 2018 Huffington Post piece on upskirting and the #MeToo campaign was shared globally, and she went on to support the UK upskirting bill on national television. Range across formats. West End theatre (2:22 A Ghost Story), national radio, ITV documentary and primetime ITV2 hosting; clients booking her for an awards night, an internal town hall and a panel get the same person. Biography highlights Host of ITV2’s Love Island, series 6 to 8 (2020 to 2022). Presenter and associate producer of Laura Whitmore Investigates, ITVX, 2023. Former presenter of The Laura Whitmore Show on BBC Radio 5 Live. West End debut as Jenny in 2:22 A Ghost Story at the Criterion Theatre, 2022 to 2023. Spent seven years at MTV Europe after winning the network’s Pick Me MTV contest in 2008. Author of No One Can Change Your Life Except For You; viral 2018 Huffington Post piece on upskirting and the #MeToo movement. Biography A live audience reads a host within thirty seconds. Whitmore has stood in front of one almost every working week since 2008, first at MTV Europe, then on ITV’s Love Island, I’m a Celebrity NOW! and Celebrity Juice. The bookable quality is composure on a live mic, not screen credits. Her journalism degree from Dublin City University is doing more work than is typical for a presenter of her profile. She wrote, fronted and associate-produced Laura Whitmore Investigates for ITVX in 2023, a three-part documentary series on incel culture, rough sex and cyber-stalking. The series ran on the back of reported cases of cyber-stalking rising 300 per cent, and she sought therapeutic support during production. That work is a usable credential when a brief asks for serious handling of online harm or violence against women. She has carried similar substance into other formats. The Laura Whitmore Show on BBC Radio 5 Live demonstrated long-form interview range; her 2018 Huffington Post article on upskirting and the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns was shared widely and she publicly supported the UK upskirting legislation on Lorraine. Her current BBC podcast with Iain Stirling, Murder They Wrote, sits in a similar register. The West End run of 2:22 A Ghost Story at the Criterion Theatre placed her on a stage with a different kind of audience for four months in late 2022. Buyers booking her for an awards night, a women’s network event or a moderated panel on online safety are buying the same person across each of those formats. Key speaking topics Hosting and event moderation Awards ceremony presenting Panel facilitation Women’s safety and online harm Mental health in public life Media, journalism and broadcasting Live event presenting and emcee work Ideal for Internal conferences, town halls and awards nights needing a confident broadcast host Women’s network events, IWD programmes and gender-equity panels Wellbeing, mental health and employee-engagement events where a credible non-clinical voice is needed Brand activations and media-industry events where on-camera fluency matters Audience outcomes An event held together by a host who reads the room and lands the cues Panel conversations that move, with follow-up questions that come from journalism, not a running order Sensitive topics, including online harm and mental health, handled without slipping into either tabloid or training-video tone Audience attention sustained through the dips of a long agenda

Why organisations work with Jamie Theakston Heart Breakfast reaches a daily UK audience in the millions, which means an internal audience recognises him on sight and an external audience trusts the room he is in. He has hosted live network television in formats that test pacing and composure: Live & Kicking on BBC1, Top of the Pops, The Games on Channel 4. Long-form live experience translates directly to long awards evenings. His on-air partnership with Amanda Holden on the UK’s biggest commercial breakfast show is built on interview craft, which carries into panel moderation and senior interview slots on conference stages. He works comfortably across formats: awards host, conference MC, after-dinner host, panel moderator, all from the same booking. Biography highlights Co-host of Heart Breakfast, Heart Radio’s national UK breakfast show, with Amanda Holden. Co-presenter, with Zoe Ball, of Live & Kicking on BBC1, 1996 to 1998. The show won a BAFTA. Host of Top of the Pops, BBC1, 1998 to 2003. Narrator of Traffic Cops, on BBC and Channel 5 since 2003. Co-host, with Alexander Armstrong, of a wine podcast. Trained at the National Youth Theatre from age 13. Biography National breakfast radio is the hardest live shift in British media. Three hours, every weekday, with no script that survives contact with breaking news, traffic, listener calls or a co-host on a tangent. Jamie Theakston has held one of those chairs since 2005, currently alongside Amanda Holden on Heart Breakfast, the UK’s largest commercial breakfast show. Before Heart, he co-presented Live & Kicking on BBC1 with Zoe Ball from 1996 to 1998, the BAFTA-winning Saturday morning show that pulled twice the audience of any rival in its slot. He hosted Top of the Pops through its final mainstream era between 1998 and 2003, interviewing every major artist that passed through it. He has narrated Traffic Cops on BBC and Channel 5 since 2003. That mileage is the product organisations book. Awards evenings, internal conferences, customer events, after-dinner formats: the work that goes wrong when the host cannot read a room, cannot recover when an autocue fails, cannot move from a comedy bit to a moment of genuine recognition without breaking tone. Theakston has done that work on live national television and live national radio for nearly three decades. He hosts as a known quantity. The audience knows the voice and the face. The executive team gets a host who has covered everything from royal memorial broadcasts to chart shows and treats both with the same level of preparation. Key speaking topics Awards hosting Conference and event MC Panel moderation Senior leader interviews on stage After-dinner hosting Ideal for Internal awards and recognition evenings Annual customer and partner conferences Sales kick-offs and all-hands events Charity galas and fundraising dinners Audience outcomes A live event that runs to time, holds energy through the long middle section, and lands its key recognition moments cleanly. Senior leader interviews and panels that produce usable answers rather than rehearsed talking points. A familiar broadcast voice on stage that warms the room before the substantive content begins.

Why organisations work with Jeanette Kwakye A working national broadcaster, not a former athlete trading on past results. Buyers get a host who runs live BBC Sport and ITV current affairs every week, with the on-stage instincts that come with it. Rare credibility on women in sport and media. She broke a 24-year drought as a British woman in the Olympic 100m final, then became the first Black female UK presenter to front a terrestrial boxing production. Hosting and moderation experience with Google, Nike, BMW, the IOC and World Athletics, which translates into clean panel craft for senior leadership audiences. Direct, unsentimental on the transition from elite sport to a second career. Useful for talent, learning and DEI conversations that have grown tired of the standard sportsperson keynote. Biography highlights Sixth place in the 100m final at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the first British woman in that final since 1984. Silver medallist over 60m at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships, equalling the British record of 7.08. BBC athletics trackside reporter; host of BBC Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily podcast; co-host of BBC Radio 5 Live Weekend Breakfast. Co-host of The Martin Lewis Money Show on ITV1. First Black female UK TV presenter to lead a boxing production on a terrestrial channel, on Channel 5. Appointed MBE in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to sport and sports broadcasting. Loughborough University graduate in Politics and Economics; author of the children’s book Femi the Fox. Biography A British woman had not reached an Olympic 100m final for twenty-four years when Jeanette Kwakye ran 11.14 in Beijing in 2008 and finished sixth. The earlier rounds, not the final, are the part that matters. She trained at Loughborough, came through British championships in both the 100m and 200m, and took silver over 60m at the World Indoors that same year, equalling the British record of 7.08. The second career has the same shape. After retiring in 2014 she went through an NCTJ qualification, started in local BBC radio, and built outwards. She is now a BBC athletics trackside reporter, hosts the Football Daily podcast on BBC Radio 5 Live, co-hosts Weekend Breakfast on the same station, and co-presents The Martin Lewis Money Show on ITV1. In 2020, she became the first Black female presenter on a terrestrial UK boxing production. Her hosting and moderation portfolio outside broadcast covers Google, Nike, BMW, the International Olympic Committee and World Athletics. Senior audiences hire her because she runs a room cleanly, pushes panellists, and brings a working journalist’s instinct to questions of representation and performance rather than a retired-athlete reflection. She was appointed MBE in 2021 for services to sport and sports broadcasting. She is also the author of the children’s book Femi the Fox. Key speaking topics Representation in sport and media Women in broadcasting and elite sport High-performance mindset Career transition from elite sport Olympic preparation and selection Sports broadcasting and journalism Resilience after injury Ideal for Conference and summit organisers needing a host or moderator with senior on-stage credibility DEI, talent and people leaders running events on representation and women’s progression Sports industry, federation and rights-holder events Internal kick-offs and leadership offsites looking for an Olympic-finalist perspective on performance under pressure Audience outcomes A clearer picture of what representation actually changes inside elite environments, told from inside two of them A working definition of high performance that survives contact with injury, deselection and reinvention Practical ground for talent and DEI leaders considering how the pipeline into senior visible roles really moves A panel or fireside that lands cleanly, with a host who keeps senior speakers honest

Julie Gautier: an underwater storyteller Julie Gautier is a French freediver, filmmaker, model, and dancer, born on November 19, 1979, in Saint-Louis, La Réunion. Influenced by her mother’s passion for dance and her father’s underwater adventures from a young age, she developed a profound love for water and the ocean. Sporting career: Julie discovered freediving around the age of 18, initiated by her father, an avid spearfisherman. She gradually transitioned to competition and competed in her first world championships in Nice in 2000. Her sporting career peaked with the establishment of two French records in constant weight freediving, reaching impressive depths of -65 meters in 2006 and -68 meters in 2007. She met freediving world champion Guillaume Néry in 2000, marking the beginning of a fruitful professional collaboration. Audiovisual career: After retiring from competition in 2009, Julie dedicated herself to an artistic and audiovisual career. She creates captivating underwater films that convey poignant messages about the beauty and fragility of the oceans. Her collaborations with renowned artists such as Beyoncé, Raphaël, and Zazie showcase her exceptional talent as a choreographer, dancer, and underwater filmmaker. Among her most notable works are “Free Fall,” “Narcose,” “Ocean Gravity,” and “Ama,” each illustrating her ability to blend art, nature, and ecology. Recent / Flagship Projects: In 2018, Julie directed “Ama,” a poetic short film featuring her own underwater dance performance.  Considered her most personal work, the film celebrates women, their grace, sensitivity, and fragility. The “One Breathe” project is an artistic and environmental initiative led by Guillaume Néry and Julie Gautier, embodying the fusion of art, freediving, and marine conservation. Through this project, Julie explores the depths of the ocean with a single breath, capturing the beauty and fragility of this unique ecosystem. “One Breathe” is more than just an underwater performance; it is a call to action to raise awareness about the importance of preserving our oceans and respecting their delicate balance. More recently, she created “Bakélite” a dreamlike film addressing the issue of plastic pollution in the oceans. This project underscores her commitment to the environment and her use of art as a means of raising awareness. Environmental Commitment: Julie is committed to environmental preservation and uses her influence to educate the public about the challenges facing the oceans. Her artistic work and educational films highlight the urgency of protecting marine ecosystems and promoting sustainability. Julie Gautier is a versatile artist who continues to inspire and captivate with her unique underwater creations and her dedication to preserving the marine environment.

Why organisations work with Alan Stein Jr. Direct working access to Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Kobe Bryant during their formative years gives him firsthand observation of how the highest performers in modern basketball actually prepare, not the version told in interviews. Three published books (Raise Your Game, Sustain Your Game, Next Play) form a connected curriculum on individual performance, sustained output without burnout, and focus discipline. Leaders can extend a keynote into a longer programme. Translates athletic preparation into language a corporate audience already uses. Sales teams, retail operators, and frontline managers leave with habits they can run on Monday morning. Repeat client list crosses retail, financial services, healthcare, and franchise operations: American Express, Pepsi, Under Armour, Starbucks, Charles Schwab, Orangetheory Fitness. The material travels across sectors. Biography highlights Performance coach at the LeBron James Skills Academy and the Jordan Brand Classic Trained Stephen Curry in the month before the 2009 NBA Draft Author of Raise Your Game (Hachette), Sustain Your Game (Hachette Book Group), and Next Play (Amplify Publishing, 2025) Foreword to Raise Your Game by ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, who also features on the Next Play audiobook Corporate clients include American Express, Pepsi, Under Armour, Starbucks, Charles Schwab, Orangetheory Fitness Host of the Raise Your Game podcast Biography The best basketball players in the world are not the most physically gifted people in the room. They are the most prepared. Alan Stein Jr. spent fifteen years inside that preparation as a basketball performance coach, training Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Kobe Bryant during the years their habits were being formed. That access is the substance of his work. As a coach at the LeBron James Skills Academy, the Jordan Brand Classic, and Mike Jones’s DeMatha programme, Stein watched how elite players approached the unseen hours: warm-ups, recovery, film, the same drills repeated for years. The behaviours were unglamorous and learnable. He now teaches them to senior leaders and their teams. His three books map a single argument across individual, sustained, and focused performance. Raise Your Game (Hachette), with a foreword by ESPN’s Jay Bilas, sets out the habits. Sustain Your Game (Hachette Book Group) addresses stress, stagnation, and burnout. Next Play (Amplify Publishing, 2025) takes Coach K’s two-word philosophy and turns it into a discipline for what to do after a mistake or a win. Corporate clients use the material because it crosses sectors without losing specificity. American Express, Pepsi, Under Armour, Starbucks, Charles Schwab, and Orangetheory Fitness have all booked him. The vocabulary is athletic, but the application is operational: how a sales team prepares for a quarter, how a frontline manager recovers from a bad week, how a leader sets a daily standard the team can see. Key speaking topics Peak performance habits for senior leaders Self-leadership and preparation under pressure Team cohesion and high-performance culture Stress, burnout, and sustained output Sales performance mindset Lessons from elite athletes for corporate leaders Ideal for Sales leaders and chief revenue officers running performance offsites CHROs and L&D leads building leadership development programmes Franchise and retail operations leaders running annual conferences Senior leadership teams resetting standards after a difficult quarter or year Audience outcomes A clear set of preparation habits modelled on how elite athletes actually train Specific routines for managing stress and sustaining performance over a full year, not a quarter A shared vocabulary for accountability and standard-setting that a leadership team can use the next day Concrete examples from named NBA players that make the principles memorable for frontline staff A reframe of “talent” as habit and preparation, useful for managers building younger teams

Why organisations work with Mark Millar He has run the project management seat on BBC One’s DIY SOS since 2006, including the Swansea build of the UK’s first adapted surf school for people with disabilities, completed in eleven days. That is a specific, televised record of delivery under extreme constraint. He brings the trade voice to corporate audiences. Manufacturers, merchants, installers and developers book him because he speaks the language of the site as well as the boardroom. His Channel 5 presenting work, Dream Kitchens and Bathrooms with Mark Millar and Build Your Dream Home in the Country, makes him a recognisable on-camera host for product launches, awards nights and trade conferences. He runs a working building firm in Bristol with UK and international clients, so the operating advice is current rather than retrospective. Biography highlights Project Manager on BBC One’s DIY SOS, on screen and behind the scenes, since 2006. Presenter of Channel 5’s Dream Kitchens and Bathrooms with Mark Millar (2021) and Build Your Dream Home in the Country (2023). Led the September 2020 DIY SOS and Children in Need build in Swansea of an adapted surf school for people with disabilities, completed in eleven days. Owner of a Bristol-based building firm with UK and international project work. Trained as a carpenter in Northern Ireland through a four-year apprenticeship. Recurring host and guest across BBC and Channel 5 entertainment programming, including Pointless Celebrities and radio appearances. Biography The Swansea adapted surf school went up in eleven days. Mark Millar ran the site as Project Manager for BBC One’s DIY SOS, working with Children in Need on a build that became the first surf school in the UK designed for people with disabilities. That kind of work, where the deadline is fixed by a broadcast date and the brief is emotionally non-negotiable, is the discipline he has spent two decades practising on screen. Mark trained as a carpenter in Northern Ireland and has been the project management voice of DIY SOS since 2006. The role has been editorial as well as practical: he has visited every site and shaped which stories made it to air. The show has accumulated audiences and BAFTA recognition over its run, and Mark is the figure most associated with its delivery rhythm. Channel 5 built two series around him. Dream Kitchens and Bathrooms with Mark Millar (2021) follows homeowners through the rooms they cannot afford to get wrong. Build Your Dream Home in the Country (2023) takes him to self-build projects across the UK. He continues to run a Bristol-based building firm with celebrity and international clients, which keeps the on-screen advice anchored in current site economics. The reason corporate audiences in construction, manufacturing, merchanting and home improvement book him is specific. He is one of the few public figures in UK media who can carry a room of contractors, hold a brand stage, and explain the trade view to a board, without losing any of the three audiences. Key speaking topics Project management on complex builds The realities of running a building firm Trades, training and apprenticeship Television presenting and brand hosting Charity builds and community projects Customer experience in home improvement Ideal for Construction, merchant and manufacturer audiences at trade conferences and dealer events Home improvement and KBB sector brand activations and product launches Corporate hospitality and after-dinner audiences looking for a recognisable TV host Charity and community fundraising events with a build or trade dimension Audience outcomes A clear, on-the-tools view of how complex builds get delivered to fixed deadlines A working perspective on customer trust in trades, told from the contractor’s side Recognisable broadcast presence for awards, panels and product reveals Stories from DIY SOS sites that ground discussion of community impact in specific builds

Why organisations work with Karim Ellis A John Maxwell Team founding partner, which puts him inside the most widely sold leadership development network in the US corporate market and gives buyers a recognised pedigree to point to internally. Corporate training experience across Ford, Honda, Toyota, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble, Kroger, USPS and the US Department of Defense, so he is calibrated for large, regulated, blue-collar and white-collar audiences in the same brief. A signature framework, GPS My Success, published as a book and built around five named principles for translating individual vision into action, which gives organisers a structured deliverable rather than a generic motivational set. A platform style trained directly under Les Brown, certified at Platinum level, which is what a programme committee is buying when they want an energising US-style closing keynote that lifts a room. Biography highlights Founding partner of the John Maxwell Team. Author of GPS My Success: The Address You Input In Life Determines Your Destination (2020). Two-time TEDx speaker, including TEDx Cincinnati. Les Brown Certified Platinum Speaker. 2022 Speakercon Motivational Speaker of the Year. Corporate clients include Ford, Honda, Toyota, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble, Kroger, USPS, SHRM and the US Department of Defense. Biography Large organisations spend significant budgets on leadership and engagement programmes that fail to move the dial on day-to-day behaviour. People are inspired in the room, then the routine resumes. The problem is rarely talent or content. It is the absence of a shared, repeatable language for what good looks like and how individuals contribute to it. Karim Ellis works in that gap. As a founding partner of the John Maxwell Team, he trained inside the leadership network John C. Maxwell built, then developed his own framework, GPS My Success, around five principles for turning individual vision into a destination the rest of the organisation can recognise. The book of the same name, published in 2020, is the spine of his corporate keynote. His audiences are mainstream US corporate: Ford, Honda, Toyota, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble, Kroger, USPS and the US Department of Defense, alongside SHRM and the National Urban League. The brief is consistent. Lift the room, give people a structured way to talk about ambition and accountability, and send them back to work with something they can use on Monday. The platform craft sits on top of formal training with Les Brown, where Ellis holds Platinum certification, and two TEDx appearances. Speakercon named him its 2022 Motivational Speaker of the Year. The work is built for events that need an energising US-style keynote backed by a defined leadership and personal-development model, not a strategy lecture. Key speaking topics Leadership development Vision and goal-setting Personal effectiveness and peak performance Motivation and audience engagement Communication and presence Sales and customer service mindset Ideal for Internal leadership development conferences and L and D programmes. Annual sales kick-offs and field-force events seeking an energising main-stage keynote. Diversity, employee engagement and culture events looking for a US motivational headliner with corporate fluency. Audience outcomes A named five-part framework, GPS My Success, that individuals can apply to their own goals after the session. A shared language for vision, ambition and accountability that managers can carry back into team conversations. A renewed sense of personal agency on performance, grounded in concrete principles rather than slogans. A high-energy closing or opening moment that lifts engagement scores for the event.

Why organisations work with Monty Criswell Five number-one country singles across three decades, including “I Saw God Today” for George Strait, “Five More Minutes” for Scotty McCreery and “Hell of a View” for Eric Church, give him a body of work most after-dinner speakers cannot match. His material is built around real songs played live, not slides. The performance element makes the resilience message land with senior audiences in a way a conventional keynote cannot. A stage 3 colon cancer recovery, tied to active support of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, gives the health and recovery thread substance rather than sentiment. Thirty years in a commercial creative industry, with named hits for George Strait, Eric Church, Trace Adkins, Scotty McCreery and Parker McCollum, makes him credible on the realities of sustained creative output under commercial pressure. Biography highlights Co-writer, “I Saw God Today” (George Strait, 2008), CMA Single of the Year; Grammy and Dove nominations. Number-one country singles include “Just Fishin'” (Trace Adkins), “Five More Minutes” (Scotty McCreery, triple platinum), “Hell of a View” (Eric Church, double platinum) and “Handle on You” (Parker McCollum). Two Grammy nominations for Country Song of the Year; multiple BMI and NSAI songwriting awards. Songwriter Session presenter at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Nashville. Publishing history with Hamstein Music Group, Sony/ATV/Tree and currently Spirit Music Group. B.A. American Studies, cum laude, University of Alabama. Biography Country music is one of the few commercial creative industries where the same writer can sustain hits across thirty years. It is also one of the most unforgiving. Hit songs decide careers, and most writers never get one. Monty Criswell has written or co-written five number-one country singles in four different decades, including “I Saw God Today” for George Strait, which won CMA Single of the Year in 2008 and was nominated for a Grammy. The catalogue runs from Trace Adkins to Eric Church to Parker McCollum. “Five More Minutes” for Scotty McCreery went triple platinum. “Hell of a View” for Eric Church went double platinum. The longevity matters more than any single credit. It is what gives him a working theory of how a person keeps producing under commercial pressure when the room around them changes. Halfway through that run he was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. He recovered, returned to writing, and continued to land number ones. He now supports Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and sits with his wife on Vanderbilt’s Canby Robinson Society. The cancer story is not a frame for the talk; it is the second source of evidence behind it. “An Evening with Monty Criswell” is a live performance, not a conference session. He plays the songs, tells the stories behind them, and draws lessons on persistence, craft and recovery from a working life that produced both. For organisations looking for an inspirational close to a conference, an awards dinner or a leadership offsite, the offering is unusual: a credible commercial creative who can hold a room with songs the audience already knows. Key speaking topics Resilience and recovery after serious illness Sustaining creative output over a long career Storytelling as a leadership tool Persistence in commercially unforgiving industries Country music songwriting craft Faith and personal values in working life Ideal for Conference closing keynotes and gala dinners where an inspirational live performance is required Sales kick-offs and leadership offsites in need of a resilience and persistence anchor Cancer charities, healthcare audiences and corporate wellness events Audiences in the United States with country music affinity, including Nashville-based events Audience outcomes A live experience of how a hit country song is built, told by its writer A first-hand account of stage 3 cancer recovery and the return to high-output work Stories drawn from a thirty-year Nashville career, with named artists and named songs A close that lands emotionally without leaning on a slide deck

Why organisations work with Catherine Tyldesley A familiar face from prime-time British television, with seven years as Eva Price in Coronation Street and a Strictly Come Dancing run that gives her instant recognition with mass-market audiences. Comfortable carrying a live audience, drawn from arena work on the Strictly Come Dancing Tour, presenting on Lorraine, and winning All Star Musicals at Christmas in 2021. A documented personal weight loss and wellness journey, including a 12-week Ultimate Performance transformation, that gives her credible first-person material on body image, food and physical health. Speaks openly about the tension between career, motherhood and self-care, which lands directly with employee audiences for International Women’s Day, family policy and wellbeing programming. Booked equally for hosting, awards and moderation work, where the value is poise on stage and rapport with a room rather than subject-matter expertise. Biography highlights Played Eva Price in ITV’s Coronation Street from 2011 to 2018, with a return to the role confirmed for 2025. First leading role as Iris Moss in the BBC One period drama Lilies (2007), written by Heidi Thomas. Lead role as Karen Norris in the BBC One sitcom Scarborough (2019), created by Derren Litten. Cast member of Strictly Come Dancing series 17 (2019), followed by the arena tour. Other television work includes 15 Days (Channel 5), Viewpoint (ITV), McDonald and Dodds (ITV), A Good Ship Murder (Channel 5) and Cooking with the Stars (ITV1). Winner of All Star Musicals at Christmas (ITV1, 2021), and released her debut studio album, Rise, in 2016. Biography Coronation Street ran in 24 million homes a week at its peak in the years Catherine Tyldesley was playing Eva Price. She held the role from 2011 to 2018, returning in 2025 as the new landlady of the Rovers Return. That long run on prime-time ITV is what gives her the audience recognition that corporate event teams hire her for. Her acting work sits across several formats. Lilies, the 2007 BBC One period drama written by Heidi Thomas, gave her a first leading role as Iris Moss. She went on to play Karen Norris in the BBC One sitcom Scarborough, and has taken roles in 15 Days on Channel 5, Viewpoint and McDonald and Dodds on ITV, and the Channel 5 thriller A Good Ship Murder. Strictly Come Dancing series 17 and the subsequent arena tour added a live-performance dimension to her public profile. Outside drama, she works as a presenter, host and panellist across cooking, lifestyle and entertainment formats. She won All Star Musicals at Christmas in 2021, presents food segments on Lorraine, and has appeared on Cooking with the Stars and a range of ITV game and panel shows. Brand partnerships across Tesco, Matalan, Vodafone, Fairy, Symprove and others sit alongside the on-screen work. Her wellness platform comes from her own story. She has spoken openly about weighing close to 15 stone as a teenager and changing her relationship with food, exercise and body image over many years, including a 12-week transformation with Ultimate Performance in 2019. That material, alongside her experience of motherhood, IBS, and the practical demands of working in television, is what she draws on when she speaks at corporate events on wellbeing, balance and confidence. Key speaking topics Health and wellbeing Body image and confidence Balancing career and family Mental health and personal resilience Women in the public eye Event hosting and moderating Ideal for Internal employee events for International Women’s Day, family policy and wellbeing weeks Awards ceremonies, gala dinners and conference hosting where audience recognition matters Health, lifestyle and consumer brand events looking for a recognisable presenter Customer-facing experiences where warmth and on-stage poise carry the room Audience outcomes A relatable, first-person account of long-term weight management, body image and changing relationship with food. Honest reflection on the pressures of working in television while raising young children. Reassurance for employee audiences that wellbeing struggles sit alongside successful careers. A confident host or moderator presence that holds a room of non-specialist guests.

Why organisations work with Julia Gentry A coaching track record concentrated in growth-stage businesses in the $10 to $100 million revenue band, where the founder and the leadership team are the same people and personal capacity is the binding constraint. A signature D.R.E.A.M. framework she uses with executive teams to close the gap between stated ambition and the daily decisions that contradict it. Direct authority with women leaders navigating the specific tension between professional ambition and the rest of their lives, written about in her book Dream – I Dare You. A strong following in the US residential real estate sector, where she is repeatedly booked back into the same firms and conferences. Biography highlights CEO and founder of The Dream Factory & Co., leading a team of eight. Author of Dream – I Dare You: A Wake-Up Call to Greater Alignment in Your Faith, Family, Career, and Community and the companion Dream – Workbook. More than a decade coaching executive teams at companies grossing $10 to $100 million annually. Co-founder of six businesses across 16 years as an entrepreneur, including a real estate operation. Named client engagements include Harcourts North America, Total Real Estate Group and Keller Williams agents and brokerages. Creator of the D.R.E.A.M. framework, used in keynote sessions, group coaching and an eight-week curriculum. Biography Most leadership burnout is not a wellness problem. It is a clarity problem. The leader knows what the next quarter requires, but cannot remember what the next decade is for. That is the gap Julia Gentry works in. She is the CEO and founder of The Dream Factory & Co., a coaching practice she built after a career in residential real estate that ended, by her own account, in burnout in her early thirties. Over the past decade, she has coached executive teams at growth-stage businesses in the $10 to $100 million revenue range, where the leadership group and the founders are usually the same small set of people. Her book Dream – I Dare You is the written form of that work. It argues that alignment across professional ambition, family life, and personal conviction is the precondition for sustained senior performance, not a soft add-on to it. The companion Dream – Workbook turns the same argument into a working tool for leadership teams and small groups. Her commercial track record is strongest in the US residential real estate sector, where firms including Harcourts North America, Total Real Estate Group and Keller Williams brokerages have brought her back to work with leaders and agents. The D.R.E.A.M. framework she developed is now used in keynote settings, in an eight-week curriculum, and in direct executive coaching with founders who have stopped enjoying the company they built. Key speaking topics Self-leadership and burnout recovery Women in senior leadership Purpose and alignment in growth-stage businesses Limiting beliefs in executive teams Leadership in real estate and entrepreneur-led firms Faith-aligned leadership Ideal for Founders and CEOs of growth-stage businesses in the $10 to $100 million revenue band Women leadership networks and senior women’s events Real estate brokerages, agent groups and franchise leadership conferences Faith-aligned corporate and entrepreneurial audiences Audience outcomes A clear read on where personal capacity is the bottleneck in the business, not the strategy Language for the gap between stated ambition and actual decision-making in the leadership team A practical structure, the D.R.E.A.M. framework, for resetting that gap Permission and a method for women leaders to redefine what success in the role looks like A direct challenge to grind-culture assumptions about what senior leadership requires

Why organisations work with Brickman Allen A specific, verifiable survival story: under 10% predicted chance of life, discharged nine days after the attack, marathon completed against medical advice. The narrative is his own, not borrowed. Author of The Bully Guard, a memoir and practical guide aimed at teenagers, which makes him a credible booking for schools, youth-facing programmes, and family-day corporate events as well as adult audiences. Runs his own businesses alongside the speaking work: president of EMC2 Group, an Arizona architecture firm, and owner of Tradelands Realty. The day job grounds the storytelling in operating reality rather than pure platform performance. Built around the #LiveOutside method, a personal framework on living outside expectations, limits, fear, and self. It gives audiences a single mental model to take away rather than a set of unconnected anecdotes. Biography highlights Survivor of a violent home invasion; defied a less than 10% survival prognosis and a predicted six-month hospital recovery, leaving hospital in nine days. Completed a marathon in early 2021 after medical opinion that he would never run again. Author of The Bully Guard: The Story of Acceptance and Friendship, available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. President of EMC2 Group, an Arizona architecture firm, with more than 15 years leading firms and teams in the US Southwest. Founder and owner of Tradelands Realty, established 2006. Member of the National Speakers Association, Arizona chapter. Biography A home invasion in his early twenties left Brickman Allen on life support with less than a 10% chance of survival and a predicted six-month hospital recovery. He walked out nine days later. Years on, he completed a marathon that doctors had said would never happen. That sequence is the spine of his speaking work. The point is not the survival itself, but what it reveals about decisions made under sustained pressure: how a person keeps showing up at home, at work, and inside an organisation while still healing. The #LiveOutside method, his own framework, organises this into four moves: living outside expectations, outside limits, outside fear, and outside self. He pairs the platform work with a working business life. He is president of EMC2 Group, an Arizona architecture firm where he has spent more than fifteen years leading teams across the US Southwest, and owner of Tradelands Realty, which he founded in 2006. His book The Bully Guard sits alongside the keynote work as a guide for teenagers on bullying, depression, and self-acceptance, drawn directly from his own school years. For audiences, the value is a model for recovery that does not skip the harder parts. He talks openly about depression, suicidal ideation as a teenager, and the long return to function after the attack. The result is a session that lands with people carrying something heavy of their own, alongside leaders who want a vocabulary for resilience that holds up outside the slide deck. Key speaking topics Recovery and resilience after trauma Mental health awareness and suicide prevention Bullying and adolescent self-acceptance Loyalty, integrity, and trust in teams Vulnerable leadership Storytelling for purpose-driven audiences Ideal for Internal culture days, all-hands events, and family-day formats where teams want a human story rather than a strategic keynote HR and wellbeing leads commissioning sessions on mental health awareness, resilience, or suicide prevention Schools, universities, and youth programmes addressing bullying and adolescent wellbeing Sales kick-offs and team off-sites looking for a closing keynote on perseverance and integrity Audience outcomes A single named framework, the #LiveOutside method, that audiences can hold onto after the room empties A first-person account of recovery from extreme adversity that opens space to discuss mental health honestly inside the organisation Language for talking about bullying, depression, and suicidal ideation in mixed audiences without flinching from the subject A practical view of how integrity, loyalty, and self-reliance show up in daily team behaviour

Why organisations work with Nick Hutchinson He has spent seven years studying, at scale, what separates readers who change their behaviour from readers who do not. The pattern recognition is specific and rare. He brings the operating reality of a top 2% global podcast, with named guests including Grant Cardone, Lewis Howes, and Alex Hormozi, into a keynote on what actually transfers from reading to results. His framework in “Rise of the Reader” gives audiences over a hundred concrete reading and implementation habits, not motivational generalities. He built BookThinkers from zero to a seven-figure agency reaching over a million people a month, organically. The credibility on action-from-information comes from having done it. Biography highlights Founder of BookThinkers, a book marketing agency serving mission-driven authors, built organically to a reported reach of over one million people per month. Author of “Rise of the Reader: Strategies For Mastering Your Reading Habits and Applying What You Learn”, published by The Reading Revolution in 2023. Host of BookThinkers: Life-Changing Books, ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts, featuring guests including Grant Cardone, Lewis Howes, and Alex Hormozi. Founder of the BookThinkers Live event series, gathering authors and readers in the personal development community. Featured in Authority Magazine and Kirkus Reviews, and across podcasts including The Chris Voss Show and Laurie Ruettimann’s show. Has personally read more than 400 personal development books, the experience that produced the implementation framework behind his work. Biography Most professionals finish more personal development books than they apply. The shelf gets longer, the podcast queue refills, the behaviour stays the same. BookThinkers was built around this specific gap. The company connects authors with readers who actually want to act on the ideas, and the business case for the agency is that information without implementation does not change anything. The platform now reaches a reported one million people a month, built without paid acquisition, over roughly seven years. The podcast, BookThinkers: Life-Changing Books, sits in the global top 2% and has hosted Grant Cardone, Lewis Howes, and Alex Hormozi. The vantage point is unusual: hundreds of long-form interviews with the authors whose books are most often bought and least often acted on. “Rise of the Reader”, published by The Reading Revolution in 2023, distils that vantage point into a framework. Over a hundred specific habits across reading selection, retention, and implementation. The argument is that reading is a professional discipline, not a leisure category, and that the practical machinery of applying ideas can be taught. For organisations, the relevance is in workforce capability rather than motivation. Teams that read intentionally and act on what they read compound differently. The work he brings to a keynote audience is the operating substance of that compounding, evidenced by the agency he built using the same method. Key speaking topics Reading as a professional discipline Translating personal development content into action Building an audience and a business organically Personal productivity and habit design Self-leadership and continuous learning Author and creator economy operating practice Ideal for L&D and talent development leaders building reading and learning cultures inside their organisations Sales and business development teams whose performance is tied to ongoing self-development Founder communities, entrepreneur networks, and scale-up leadership cohorts Conferences and offsites where the brief is to convert inspiration into specific next actions Audience outcomes A concrete method for selecting books and content that match a defined professional goal A retention and note-taking practice that survives contact with a normal working week A short list of immediate behaviours to test in the week after the session A reframing of reading from leisure habit to professional capability A clearer view of how disciplined consumption of ideas compounds into commercial and career outcomes