Keynote · Well-being
Well-being isn't a perk. It's infrastructure.
Brad Hook is a wellbeing speaker based in New Zealand, speaking internationally. A decade in human performance, research from more than 20,000 assessments, and a keynote that treats well-being as the foundation that funds everything else — not a fruit bowl in the kitchen.
Why Brad
The science of energy, not the theatre of self-care.
Brad spent close to a decade at the Resilience Institute — as partner, Head of Innovation and, for a period, CEO — delivering well-being and performance programmes to organisations including PwC, Shell, Bridgestone, Fonterra and Fletcher Building. His book Resilience Mastery draws on a survey of more than 20,000 people, and sleep, vitality and presence sit at the heart of what it found.
Before that came a decade with Life by Design, the award-winning Australian employee-engagement company, working alongside founder and CEO Ian Hutchinson. Together they built lifestyle-design platforms like meCentral, reaching more than 100,000 people across Australasia and internationally — twenty years of evidence that well-being and engagement rise and fall together.
The keynote is built on one idea from neuroscience: the brain runs the body like a budget, constantly predicting what resources you'll need. When the budget runs in deficit — poor sleep, no recovery, relentless stimulation — mood, focus and health all pay for it. Well-being, properly understood, is keeping that budget in credit.
That framing changes the conversation. Instead of wellness theatre and laminated platitudes, audiences get the mechanics of their own energy — and practical, unglamorous tools that compound: sleep, movement, recovery, attention and connection.
What the keynote covers
The foundations that fund everything else.
The body budget
How the predictive brain budgets your energy, why modern work drains it faster than it refills, and what running a surplus actually takes.
Sleep, movement, recovery
The unglamorous foundations behind mood, focus and health — what the research says, and the smallest changes with the largest returns.
Attention in a noisy world
What relentless stimulation does to focus and stress, and how to reclaim attention without moving to a cabin in the woods.
From individual to climate
Well-being spreads through teams the way stress does. How leaders' nervous systems set the emotional climate, and what wellbeing looks like as a shared practice rather than a personal chore.
How it works
Keynote, workshop or both.
The wellbeing keynote runs 45–60 minutes and is tailored to your audience and industry — wellbeing days, conferences, safety events and leadership offsites. 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 so the ideas stick long after the applause. 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 wellbeing speaker: the practical bits.
What does Brad's wellbeing keynote cover?
The science of energy and sustainable performance: how the brain budgets the body's resources, the roles of sleep, movement, recovery and attention, and how well-being spreads through teams. It's grounded in research from more than 20,000 assessments and finishes with practical tools people can use the next morning.
How is this different from a typical wellness talk?
No wellness theatre. Brad spent a decade inside the science of human performance at the Resilience Institute, and the keynote treats well-being as infrastructure — the mechanics of energy, focus and recovery — rather than self-care platitudes. Corporate enough for a boardroom, alive enough that nobody checks their phone.
Who books this keynote?
Organisations running wellbeing days, conferences, safety events and leadership programmes. Brad has delivered well-being and performance work for organisations including PwC, Shell, Bridgestone, 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 and wellbeing weeks, 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 well-being.
Book the wellbeing keynote.
Enquiries and bookings run through FLAME. Tell us about your event and we'll come back within a day or two.