Ian Hawkins

Ian Hawkins has been in the business of speaking and presenting for 20 years. He is author of Amazon Bestseller, Insider Secrets of Public Speaking.

On leaving university, Ian wrote for BBC Comedy shows including The News Quiz and Loose Ends before becoming an agent at the UK’s largest speaker bureau where he closed two of the company’s five biggest deals.

As well as speaking and coaching, Ian has worked as a professional stand up comedian, appearing on both sides of the Atlantic and studied improv at the UCB Theatre in New York. As a business journalist, he has worked on films for BBC World, Reuters and CBS on locations including Nicaragua, Morocco, Sweden and the United States.

Today, he is also an in-demand moderator for conferences and events in the UK, US and Europe, resident Quizmaster at The Ivy Club and is gaining a following on the storytelling circuit.

He is a long-term survivor of a rare congenital heart condition, which he credits for giving him license to rip up the rule book and explore all of life’s extraordinary possibilities.

Speaking topics   

KEYNOTE: CONNECT, INSPIRE, TRANSFORM

This highly interactive keynote pulls back the curtain on the mechanics of human influence. Ian Hawkins introduces the Three Golden Principles of communication, with examples showing how the world’s most influential people (many of them former clients) use them to change hearts and minds. Ian’s style is conversational and engaging, using audience questions and feedback as a springboard to demonstrate how these three principles apply to their exact, real-world workplace dilemmas. It is a session rich in takeaways, delivering high value that perfectly balances theory with live demonstration.

Takeways

Communication is transformed from a vague “soft skill” into a sharp strategic imperative. Leaders will walk away with three concrete, actionable principles to immediately cut through digital noise, overcome resistance to change, and drive authentic organizational transformation.

KEYNOTE: THE CALL TO ADVENTURE

When your people need a profound reset, The Call To Adventure delivers it through world-class storytelling. Ian Hawkins takes your audience on an 86-mile walking pilgrimage from his front door in London to Canterbury, sparked by three massive life shocks: losing his clients, losing his father and being held at knifepoint by four men.

Ian leans entirely into his mastery of narrative, weaving hilarious and touching moments into a gripping travelogue that asks the question: who needs to climb a mountain when adventure lies all around us? The room is left energised, laughing and ready to find their next adventure.

Your audience will walk out with a “back-to-basics” realisation: when the world strips away what you can’t control, you must master your own response. They will leave with the lasting mindset shift that adventure and opportunity don’t require perfect conditions; they start the moment you step outside your own front door.

KEYNOTE: YOU ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU THINK

What happens

When your afternoon agenda risks hitting a wall of cognitive fatigue, this 12-minute powerhouse talk is the thematic gear-shift your event needs. Ian takes the audience beat-by-beat through a dark South London street where he was held at knifepoint by four men. Without heroics or hyperbole, Ian details how he deployed his exact theories of communication and storytelling in the moment to walk away unharmed. It is a gripping, cinematic narrative that instantly commands total silence and focus in the room, acting as a profound emotional system reboot.

Takeways

Audiences leave the room with a renewed sense of personal agency. Even when the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against them, they will understand that the deliberate choices they make in communication give them ultimate power over their outcomes. They will leave reassured that they are, quite literally, more powerful than they thought 12 minutes prio