Keynote · High Performance
High performance, sustained.
Brad Hook is a high performance speaker based in New Zealand, speaking internationally. A decade in performance science, research from more than 20,000 assessments, and a keynote about how top performers update faster than their circumstances change — without burning out to do it.
Why Brad
Performance science, not hustle culture.
Brad spent close to a decade at the Resilience Institute — as partner, Head of Innovation and, for a period, CEO — where sustainable performance was the product. His book Resilience Mastery distils a survey of more than 20,000 people into the factors that drive it: focus, purpose, optimism, sleep, vitality, presence and more. That work took him into organisations like PwC, Shell, Electronic Arts, Fonterra and Fletcher Building.
The keynote is built on the predictive brain: the finding that brains don't passively perceive the world, they predict it — and that the performers who stay at the top are the ones who update their predictions faster than their circumstances change. It's the same idea that powers FLAME, Brad's human performance method.
And it's honest about the failure mode. There's a version of flow that feels productive and quietly costs you — Brad calls it shitty flow — and the difference between that and the real thing is where sustainable performance lives.
What the keynote covers
The edge, without the crash.
The predictive brain at speed
Why top performers are fast updaters, not just hard workers — and how to train the skill of revising your model of the world before it revises you.
Flow, including the shitty kind
The conditions that produce genuine flow, the trap of compulsive busyness that masquerades as it, and how to tell the difference before it costs you.
Focus as a trainable asset
Attention is the raw material of performance. What the research says about protecting it, single-tasking, and the recovery that deep focus actually requires.
Energy management over time management
What 20,000+ assessments reveal about the performers who last: sleep, recovery and vitality as performance infrastructure, not indulgences.
How it works
Keynote, workshop or both.
The high performance keynote runs 45–60 minutes and is tailored to your audience and industry — conference main stage, sales kickoff, leadership offsite. For teams who want to go deeper, it extends into half-day or full-day workshops built on the same research.
Every session is interactive and grounded in evidence — sometimes including a live heart-rate demonstration — and every participant receives a follow-up resource pack. Virtual and hybrid formats are available.
Bookings run through FLAME, Brad's human performance company.
Absolutely brilliant, engaging, practical, and energizing.
Outstanding presenter, facilitator, communicator and educator.
Genuinely helps people improve their wellbeing and health.
Trusted by leading organisations
Questions
Booking a high performance speaker: the practical bits.
What does Brad's high performance keynote cover?
The neuroscience of sustainable performance: how the predictive brain works at speed, the conditions for genuine flow (and the trap of the counterfeit kind), focus as a trainable asset, and energy management over time management. Grounded in research from more than 20,000 assessments, finished with tools people can use the next morning.
How is this different from typical high performance talks?
No hustle culture. Brad spent a decade in performance science at the Resilience Institute, and the keynote treats recovery, sleep and attention as performance infrastructure — the way elite sport does — rather than pushing harder as a strategy. It's high performance that lasts past the quarter.
Who is the keynote for?
Sales teams, leadership groups and conferences where the audience already works hard and needs an edge that doesn't cost them. Brad has worked with organisations including PwC, Shell, Electronic Arts, Fonterra and Fletcher Building, and tailors every session to the audience.
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 do I book, and how far ahead should I plan?
Bookings run through FLAME at flame.live, or you can contact Brad directly. 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 performance.
Book the high performance keynote.
Enquiries and bookings run through FLAME. Tell us about your event and we'll come back within a day or two.