Dr Paul Wood : Keynote Speaker

Most keynotes use Paul’s own story of the journey from delinquent to doctor as a basis to communicate relevant key messages and insights. Example keynotes include:

Keynote/Topic title: From Delinquent to Doctor of Psychology – Better Never Stops

This keynote takes attendees on the inspiring journey from Paul’s youth as a drug-addicted high-school drop-out to a contributing member of society and doctor of psychology. It takes the audience through the self-defeating beliefs that held Paul back long before he ended up in prison, to the key moments and influences that helped Paul turn his life around and find hope and direction for a better life and future. It also covers Paul’s current life and development goals, including his insights into what it means to be driven by the unrelenting pursuit of excellence, and be focused on the goal of getting better. And the idea that Better Never Stops!

 Key Take Aways:

• Sometimes when you find yourself in a dark place, it feels like you’ve been buried, when actually you’ve been planted.
• No one is coming to the rescue, but if we take ownership of our own improvement plenty of others will be keen to help.
• Real change happens through small daily steps and disciplines.
• Our greatest challenge and opportunity for meaningful change lies in our beliefs and ideas about ourselves and the world.

 This keynote is leaves attendees feeling inspired and committed to take the small steps that will positively impact themselves and others. It leaves them feeling hope and optimism about their lives and potential to take on big challenges and goals. It is a great way to start, finish, or break-up the more technical presentations in a conference or offsite. Attendees will be talking about this for days after Paul is done!

Keynote/Topic title: Resilience, Wellbeing, and Grit through Mental Fitness

The struggle is real for many of us! For some that’s due to the stress of life’s demands and for others that’s due to the drive to pursue their potential. This keynote communicates the similarities between physical and mental fitness. It uses very memorable examples and lots of humour to motivate attendees to prioritise their own recovery, be proactive about monitoring their capacity, and be proactive about building resilience and grit while boosting wellbeing. Insights and tools covered go beyond the usual to include those from Paul’s work with the rugby franchises and Special Forces community.

Key Take Aways: 

• The Stress is Enhancing Mindset, which has been shown to increase resilience, reduce the likelihood of negative impacts from stress, and boost the dopamine required to remain motivated and engaged.
• The Flourishing Versus Fatigued Continuum, which is a tool for monitoring capacity versus the impact of stress and promotes both recovery and making use of resources such as employee assistance programmes.
• Tactical breathing as a method for coping under pressure and performing an emotional reset at home to ensure those who matter most don’t get the worst version of you.
• A gratitude practice for boosting serotonin, general wellbeing, and hope while also enhancing relationships and self-confidence.

This keynote is especially useful at the start or end of an event, like a conference or an offsite. It leaves participants feeling equipped to take on challenges and pursue their potential. It is focused on flourishing rather than deficiency and its evidence-based examples from elite environments help create buy-in from more cynical or resistant attendees. As a scene setter or conference farewell, it will leave your attendees feeling empowered, optimistic, and informed to apply insights for the betterment of their lives long after the conference has wrapped!

Keynote/Topic title: Leading for the Terrain

This keynote helps leaders motive and mobilise themselves and others to tackle big goals and navigate change. It uses the sliver fern metaphor and examples from Paul’s work with household names to communicate the need for leaders to cultivate courage, perseverance, curiosity, and connection to create followership and figure out the path forward. It also helps leaders gain insights and tools into recognising and adapting more effectively to the people they are leading and the terrain they are in.

 Key Take Aways: 

• Effectively leadership requires adapting your mindset and approach to fit the people, type of work, and circumstances you find yourself in.
• You need to understand whether you are attempting to engage in technical or adaptive work in order to adopt the most effective approach and realistic expectations.
• Leadership is defined by followership rather than designated authority.
• Leadership requires the ongoing cultivation of self-awareness, awareness of others, and the attributes required to meet people where they are at and forge the path forward.

This is a great keynote for leadership offsites or conferences that wish leaders to be able to step up to big performance goals and organisational outcomes. It is relevant for anyone who wishes to more effectively grow their own leadership capability while also facilitating performance in others.