One year of Talks

And learning that I have something worth saying

Late last year, I was in a café catching up with a uni mate named Grifty.

He used to grift a couple of bucks off us every night out, hence the nickname, and he’s the one responsible for dragging me into parkrun when I first retired.

We often texted about health and fitness and how to manage it with young kids, but he said he wanted to catch up to ask me something.

“Mate, I see you’ve been doing some well-being talks at KPMG. Could you come and do one for a co-working space I’m running? We’d pay you.”

“Really?”

“Yep. I’m trying to boost well-being there and think you’d be great.”

“What would I say?”

“Just share the stuff you talk to me about. About how you managed your energy through diet and sleep while you were playing.”

“Ah, ok. Who would it be for?”

“We have lots of small businesses in there, and I think they’d benefit from hearing from an athlete about getting the best out of themselves, because I think work is no different to sport.”

I agreed but was pretty nervous. I hated public speaking and I’d only talked as work favors for the bosses. Plus it felt like an extra layer of pressure to be paid to do one.

But the talk went great, as I shared how a coach taught me to prioritise nutrition and sleep over simply training hard, and how that helped me have a long and successful career.

I also shared how Grifty dragging me to parkrun helped me transition from sport, and was on a high for days after as I went back to work, thinking that was it.

But a few months later, I decided to leave KPMG to start my own business doing more talks.

Those initial talks helped me get over my fear of public speaking (along with addressing the masses at

Running for Resilience

), and I wanted to do more.

Fortunately, the first year of Ben Alexander Talks has gone great, and here’s a quick summary:

• Launched my website with some help from my good mate

  Running Rare

• Gave talks for CEA, Department of Defence, Matrix Physio, 3 sports clubs, and 1 school

• Presented at the Mental Health Services Conference

• Spoke on multiple podcasts and did a start up pitch

• Booked 3 more talks for 2025

• Partnered with Be Challenged

• Even presented to the career transitions team at the Melbourne Demons

A year of talks

All in all, a terrific first year and I want to thank everyone who supported me along the way.

Especially my wife who encouraged me to take the leap. Also to Grifty and my old bosses for asking me to share my story.

Because before then, I’ve never felt like I had anything valuable to share.

But this year has taught me that I do, and I’m excited to share more stories from my career to help more teams recharge so they can beat burnout and do great work.