Keynote · Resilience
Resilience is a skill. Train it.
Brad Hook is a resilience speaker based in New Zealand, speaking internationally. A decade with the Resilience Institute, insights drawn from more than 20,000 resilience assessments, and a keynote that leaves audiences calmer, sharper and genuinely equipped for pressure.
Why Brad
A decade inside the science of human performance.
Resilience is Brad's home ground. He spent close to a decade at the Resilience Institute — as partner, Head of Innovation and, for a period, CEO — working alongside founder Dr Sven Hansen and delivering hundreds of seminars to organisations across the world, from PwC and Shell to Fonterra, Electronic Arts and Fletcher Building. Along the way he hosted more than 110 episodes of The Resilience Podcast, in conversation with the scientists, psychologists and practitioners shaping the field.
His book Resilience Mastery distils a survey of more than 20,000 people into the eleven factors that drive sustainable performance: focus, purpose, optimism, bounce, sleep, vitality, presence and more. The keynote brings that research to the stage — along with lessons from high-performance sport, positive psychology, ancient philosophy and the world's Blue Zones.
This isn't harden-up resilience. Brad's message is performance with care: the science of staying energised, focused and connected while doing demanding work — not toughing it out until something breaks.
What the keynote covers
From nervous system to Monday morning.
The predictive brain under pressure
Why brains treat inboxes like predators, and how to work with ancient hardware in a hyper-stimulating world. Includes the lion-and-zebra chase, live on stage.
Bounce: the skill of recovery
What 20,000+ assessments reveal about the difference between people who break, cope, and bounce forward — and how to move up that curve.
Energy before willpower
Sleep, movement and recovery as the foundations that fund everything else. A body budget in credit beats motivation every time.
Calm is contagious
How leaders' nervous systems set the emotional climate of their teams, and the practical skills of presence under pressure — sometimes demonstrated with a live heart-rate stress test.
How it works
Keynote, workshop or both.
The resilience keynote runs 45–60 minutes and is tailored to your audience and industry — conference main stage, leadership offsite or wellbeing day. For teams who want to go deeper, it extends into a half-day or full-day workshop built on the same research.
Every session is interactive and grounded in evidence, and every participant receives a follow-up resource pack so the ideas stick long after the applause. Virtual and hybrid formats are available for distributed teams.
Use the enquiry form below, or email brad@bradleyhook.com.
Brad delivered an engaging and insightful presentation on wellbeing and performance that resonated strongly with our audience. The session attracted excellent feedback from attendees, who valued the practical relevance of his FLAME framework and his engaging presentation style.
What sets Brad apart is his ability to translate high-performance concepts into something tangible and actionable. We've seen the impact firsthand — not just in the moment, but in how our people keep applying the tools in their day-to-day roles.
His ability to bring together science, storytelling and practical ideas made the session incredibly relatable. Brad introduced the idea of our ‘body budget’ and how the everyday things we do, like sleep, movement, connection, nourishment and moments of calm, can either add to or draw from the energy we have available. Our people came away feeling energised, reflective and, as one person put it, ‘fired up!’
Brad has a remarkable ability to take important and sometimes complex topics and make them engaging, practical and relevant to everyday working life. What particularly stood out was his ability to connect the content with our own organizational context, making the experience feel genuinely tailored rather than like a standard webinar. People left with practical ideas they could apply immediately, and many asked for more opportunities to learn with Brad.
The FLAME full day workshop was an extremely engaging professional development opportunity for our team. Brad's authentic approach, expert facilitation, and ability to read the room created an environment that encouraged genuine reflection, connection, and learning. The practical frameworks with real-life experiences made the learning both meaningful and immediately applicable.
Brad delivered an outstanding session for our team at our Connexa Connect Session. His content was engaging, practical and highly relevant to the challenges and opportunities our people face every day. He has a unique ability to make important concepts around mindset, performance and resilience simple, relatable and actionable. Our people left with practical tools, a shared language and plenty to reflect on. I’d happily recommend Brad to any organisation looking to build more resilient teams.
I've had the pleasure of working with Brad over several years while supporting the wellbeing and development of a globally dispersed organisation of around 160 people. Brad has a rare ability to combine deep expertise with genuine warmth and humility. From the resilience-based thinking that underpinned our early work together to the development of the Values Institute and now FLAME, Brad has continued to refine and strengthen his approach while remaining human-centred and evidence-based. I would recommend him without hesitation.
What an insightful and thought-provoking session. There are a lot of takeaways, and we’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback on the tips and tricks we can all apply in our lives.
Quite honestly, the star of the two days training. His subject matter expertise was exceptional; delivery style was masterful and was a true inspiration to witness speak.
Bradley delivered an engaging, informative, and practical presentation that held everyone's attention and gave us plenty to reflect on. We would be happy to recommend Bradley to any organisation looking for a professional, insightful, and engaging speaker.
What a presentation — I honestly was blown away. All of what you presented resonated with me and my journey so far, from professional sport to my vocational life.
Engaging, thoughtful and deeply practical. Everyone is still talking about it days later!
The majority of attendees rated the session a perfect 5 out of 5, and many highlighted Brad's content as a personal highlight of the programme.
Brad's stories are engaging, and certainly resonated with all of us. We can highly recommend Brad.
Absolutely brilliant, engaging, practical, and energizing.
Outstanding presenter, facilitator, communicator and educator.
A special shout out to Bradley Hook, whose presentation skills were on a whole other TED Talk level!
My biggest takeaway was learning about his FLAME Method, a clear, actionable framework designed to help us “burn bright, not out” by redesigning our habits for the modern world. This framework is exactly what we need to sustain high energy levels, perform at our peak, and most importantly, avoid burnout.
Genuinely helps people improve their wellbeing and health.
It was great to hear Brad talk, and I've had a couple of good wins coming out of the session. My three-year-old's sleep routine is down to about 30 minutes — it used to take a couple of hours!
Trusted by leading organisations
Questions
Booking a resilience speaker: the practical bits.
What does Brad's resilience keynote cover?
The science of sustainable performance: how the predictive brain responds to pressure, the eleven research-backed factors behind resilience (from a survey of more than 20,000 people), the role of energy and recovery, and practical tools audiences can use the next morning. It blends neuroscience, story and humour — corporate enough for a boardroom, alive enough that nobody checks their phone.
Who is the keynote for?
Leadership teams, conferences and organisations navigating pressure, change or growth. Brad has delivered resilience programmes for organisations including PwC, Shell, Fonterra, Electronic Arts and Fletcher Building, and tailors every session to the audience and industry.
Is Brad available outside New Zealand, or virtually?
Yes. Brad is based in New Zealand and speaks internationally, in person and virtually. Interactive online and hybrid formats are available, including live Q&A and digital resource packs.
How is this different from a typical resilience talk?
It's built on a decade inside the field — not a motivational story with the word resilience attached. Brad was a partner, Head of Innovation and CEO at the Resilience Institute and wrote Resilience Mastery, so the keynote is grounded in assessment data and delivered with demonstrations, audience participation and follow-up resources rather than platitudes.
How do I book, and how far ahead should I plan?
Use the enquiry form on this page, or email brad@bradleyhook.com. For major conferences, three to six months' notice is ideal; smaller events can often be arranged with a few weeks' lead time.
Go deeper
Brad writes extensively about resilience.
Book Brad
Book the resilience keynote.
Use the enquiry form below, or email brad@bradleyhook.com. Tell us about your event and we'll come back within a day or two.
- 1
Enquire
Send the form, or email brad@bradleyhook.com. Dates, audience and the question you want answered are the useful bits.
- 2
Discovery call
Twenty minutes with Brad to shape the session: your industry, your team's dynamics, what success looks like.
- 3
Confirm and prepare
A clear proposal, then a tailored session, with a resource pack for your people afterwards.