Stress is not a threat to be avoided, but a challenge to be embraced.
Dr Paul Wood is an internationally sought speaker and best-selling author who has delivered keynotes for organisations such as Google, Nike, Converse, and the Obama Foundation. He has also delivered workshops to enhance performance, resilience, and capability for groups as diverse as Sony PlayStation and the Advanced Police Negotiation Team.
Yet as a teenager his life was completely off the rails. He wasn't coping with the impending death of his mother, he was dependent on drugs, and was an unemployed high-school dropout. Three days after his mother died he lost control when a drug dealer attempted to sexually assault him. Paul was convicted of murder and spent 11 years in some of New Zealand's toughest prisons. During this time Paul became the first person in New Zealand's history to progress through undergraduate and Masters degrees while in prison. He was also the first person to begin a Doctorate while incarcerated.
Paul’s story of transformation and expertise in resilience, emotional intelligence, and leadership allows him to communicate messages relevant to audiences and conference themes in an inspiring and memorable way. His journey is a great way to illustrate how to grow, succeed, pursue excellence, embrace change, become resilient, work more effectively as a team, and turn adversity to your advantage.
As a speaker Paul is authentic, insightful, engaging, and humorous. People will laugh, people will cry, and everyone will leave feeling challenged, entertained, and inspired. They will also leave with practical tools they can immediately apply in their own lives to improve personally and professionally.
If you're looking for a speaker who will challenge your audience and push the boundaries of the 'every day world we live in' look no further!
Talking Points
Keynote: Resilience, Wellbeing, and Grit through Mental Fitness
The struggle is real for many of us! For some that’s due to the stress of life’s demands and for others that’s due to the drive to pursue their potential. This keynote communicates the similarities between physical and mental fitness. It uses very memorable examples and lots of humour to motivate attendees to prioritise their own recovery, be proactive about monitoring their capacity, and be proactive about building resilience and grit while boosting wellbeing. Insights and tools covered go beyond the usual to include those from Paul’s work with the rugby franchises and Special Forces community. Keynote: Resilience, Wellbeing, and Grit through Mental Fitness
Key Take Aways:
• The Stress is Enhancing Mindset, which has been shown to increase resilience, reduce the likelihood of negative impacts from stress, and boost the dopamine required to remain motivated and engaged.
• The Flourishing Versus Fatigued Continuum, which is a tool for monitoring capacity versus the impact of stress and promotes both recovery and making use of resources such as employee assistance programmes.
• Tactical breathing as a method for coping under pressure and performing an emotional reset at home to ensure those who matter most don’t get the worst version of you.
• A gratitude practice for boosting serotonin, general wellbeing, and hope while also enhancing relationships and self-confidence.
This keynote is especially useful at the start or end of an event, like a conference or an offsite. It leaves participants feeling equipped to take on challenges and pursue their potential. It is focused on flourishing rather than deficiency and its evidence-based examples from elite environments help create buy-in from more cynical or resistant attendees. As a scene setter or conference farewell, it will leave your attendees feeling empowered, optimistic, and informed to apply insights for the betterment of their lives long after the conference has wrapped!
Keynote: From Delinquent to Doctor of Psychology – Better Never Stops
This keynote takes attendees on the inspiring journey from Paul’s youth as a drug-addicted high-school drop-out to a contributing member of society and doctor of psychology. It takes the audience through the self-defeating beliefs that held Paul back long before he ended up in prison, to the key moments and influences that helped Paul turn his life around and find hope and direction for a better life and future. It also covers Paul’s current life and development goals, including his insights into what it means to be driven by the unrelenting pursuit of excellence, and be focused on the goal of getting better. And the idea that Better Never Stops! Keynote: From Delinquent to Doctor of Psychology – Better Never Stops
Key Take Aways:
• Sometimes when you find yourself in a dark place, it feels like you’ve been buried, when actually you’ve been planted.
• No one is coming to the rescue, but if we take ownership of our own improvement plenty of others will be keen to help.
• Real change happens through small daily steps and disciplines.
• Our greatest challenge and opportunity for meaningful change lies in our beliefs and ideas about ourselves and the world.
This keynote is leaves attendees feeling inspired and committed to take the small steps that will positively impact themselves and others. It leaves them feeling hope and optimism about their lives and potential to take on big challenges and goals. It is a great way to start, finish, or break-up the more technical presentations in a conference or offsite. Attendees will be talking about this for days after Paul is done!
Keynote: Leading for the Terrain
This keynote helps leaders motive and mobilise themselves and others to tackle big goals and navigate change. It uses the sliver fern metaphor and examples from Paul’s work with household names to communicate the need for leaders to cultivate courage, perseverance, curiosity, and connection to create followership and figure out the path forward. It also helps leaders gain insights and tools into recognising and adapting more effectively to the people they are leading and the terrain they are in.Keynote: Leading for the Terrain
Key Takeaways:
•Effective leadership requires adapting your mindset and approach to fit the people, type of work, and circumstances you find yourself in.
•You need to understand whether you are attempting to engage in technical or adaptive work in order to adopt the most effective approach and realistic expectations.
•Leadership is defined by followership rather than designated authority.
•Leadership requires the ongoing cultivation of self-awareness, awareness of others, and the attributes required to meet people where they are at and forge the path forward.
This is a great keynote for leadership off-sites or conferences that wish leaders to be able to step up to big performance goals and organisational outcomes. It is relevant for anyone who wishes to more effectively grow their own leadership capability while also facilitating performance in others.
Workshop: Influence like the CIA and FBI
This workshop teaches insights into human motivation and behaviour used by both the CIA and FBI. In this workshop you will learn about universal human drivers and how to apply simple techniques to better understand, connect with, and influence others. Workshop: Influence like the CIA and FBI
• Learn how CIA agents shift from their own perception to understand others' perspectives.
• Learn the neuroscience of what creates or diminishes trust, openness, and influence.
• Learn insights from the FBI's counterintelligence unit into how foreign agents create the sense of connection required to recruit human assets
• Leave with a game plan for applying insights to modify your own behaviour and be more rewarding to deal with and effective at influence.
Workshop: Special Forces Mental Skills for Performing Under Pressure
This workshop will leave participants with the insights, approaches, and tools used by the US Navy SEALs and NZSAS to cope with challenges and perform under pressure. Content is based on Paul’s research involving NZSAS training and insights shared by colleagues who operate as Special Operations Forces Psychologists within NZDF.Workshop: Special Forces Mental Skills for Performing Under Pressure
Participants will be able to:
• Describe the Prepare, Perform, and Recover model of stress inoculation.
• Demonstrate self-awareness of causes of stress and their reactions to stress.
• Apply insights into the Special Forces Big 4 Strategies for managing stress.
• Demonstrate “tactical breathing” and other ‘focus control’ strategies for reducing the impact of stress, improving decision making, and performing an emotional reset for a better life outside of work.
Workshop: Leading through Change
This workshop will help participants understand the challenge of change, the process people go through during it, and how to “meet people where they are at” to take them on the journey. A variety of different tools and models can be covered to help participants build the capacity to effectively navigate and lead through change, growth, and adversity.Workshop: Leading through Change
Participants will be able to:
• Apply tools and insights to mitigate the emotional impact of change on themselves and others.
• Describe their own and others positions on the change curve.
• Adapt their behaviour and approach to more effectively lead people through a change circle.
• Explain why people dislike change and who is most likely to struggle with it.
Workshop: Leading for Mental Fitness, Resilience, and Wellbeing
This workshop will help participants identify the signs and indicators that someone is experiencing the negative impact of stress and at risk of burn-out. They will also have the insights and tools required to effectively facilitate “duty of care” conversations with staff and support a proactive individual and team approach to building and maintaining mental fitness, resilience, and wellbeing. Workshop: Leading for Mental Fitness, Resilience, and Wellbeing
Participants will be able to:
• Apply insights into how to empower their teams and people to take proactive ownership of their own mental fitness, resilience, and wellbeing.
• Use the ‘Flourishing Versus Fatigued’ continuum (a measure of capacity versus in the impact of stress) and ALEC model to facilitate duty of care conversations.
• Describe the signs and indicators that people might be at risk of stress and/or mental health related issues.
Workshop: The Art of Feedback and difficult conversations
This workshop helps participants create learning cultures where feedback is business as usual for continuous improvement. The workshop focuses on different types of feedback, how to mitigate the psychological triggers that stop feedback from being effective, how to have courageous conversations, and effectively manage one’s own and others emotions during feedback.Workshop: The Art of Feedback and difficult conversations
Participants will be able to:
• Describe the ingredients of effective and ineffective feedback.
• Apply insights to mitigate the risk of strong or unhelpful emotional reactions to feedback.
• Adapt their approach to land feedback with people who are not hearing the message or emotionally impacted as a result of the conversation.
• Describe and apply 19 words that significantly increase the effectiveness of feedback.
Workshop: Mental Fitness, Resilience, and Wellbeing
This workshop will help participants become insightful and proactive about building their own resilience and wellbeing. This is not a deficiency focused workshop, but rather one designed to equip participants to flourish at work and still have the mental and emotional capacity required for a truly satisfying personal life.Workshop: Mental Fitness, Resilience, and Wellbeing
Participants will be able to:
•Apply insights into the Stress is Enhancing Mindset to cope more effectively with stress, then recover, and grow more resilient afterwards.
•Describe their current location on the ‘Flourishing Versus Fatigued’ continuum (a measure of capacity versus in the impact of stress).
•Apply insights to take ownership of moving further towards the flourishing end of the continuum.
•Describe how they can do an ‘emotional reset’ to ensure they have capacity for their interests and relationships outside of work.
Online Programme - Mental Fitness
The perfect way to enhance Paul’s message following a keynote or workshop—this online programme provides your team with long-term tools to embed the learning, create lasting change, and continue building mental fitness at their own pace.Online Programme - Mental Fitness
A powerful, engaging course designed to build mental strength and resilience using tools drawn from elite military training and psychology. Participants will walk away with confidence, clarity, and practical strategies to face pressure head-on and avoid burnout.
Perfect for: Leaders, frontline staff, and individuals in high-pressure roles wanting to lift their performance and stay mentally strong.
Video
Dr Paul Wood Showreel
“Stress isn’t a threat to avoid. It’s a challenge to embrace.”Meet Dr. Paul Wood, one of New Zealand’s most powerful motivational speakers and a living testament to human transformation.Once a troubled drug addict who ended up in prison for 11 years after killing his dealer in the aftermath of an attempted sexual assault, Paul’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary. Behind bars, he refused to let his circumstances define him. Instead, he educated himself — ultimately earning his PhD in psychology while still incarcerated.In this unforgettable talk, Dr. Paul Wood shares:How stress and discomfort are signals of growth, not threatsThe difference between dreaming and goal-setting — and how to act todayThe power of incremental change in transforming your life and careerPractical tools to break free from the mental barriers holding you backHis deeply personal journey from prison cell to PhD and global speaking stagesPaul’s story resonates because it’s real, raw, and deeply human. Audiences describe him as one of the best speakers they’ve ever seen — delivering insights that stay with you long after the talk endsWhat's Your Prison?: Paul Wood at TEDxAuckland
Dr. Paul Wood - Client Testimonial Video
Dr Paul Wood was phenomenal - the way he took the time to meet our team and understand them as individuals + as a group was phenomenal, he really created that golden thread for our day! He ... keep reading Asahi Beverages NZ
Paul connected with the crowd very quickly and had them captivated with his remarkable story. His deep knowledge of psychology and coaching was woven through his presentation which appealed to the audience. The true testament to his keynote is not so much that I was more than happy with it, but the amount of unprompted feedback I received from delegates both in person straight after the presentation and then after the conference closed via email. I cant recommend Paul highly enough.
Paul was brilliant, he had clearly researched us and listened to our story and desired results from his talk and tied in what he said beautifully with our message. Paul was personable and stayed and chatted with our guest who all wanted to talk to him. His talked was totally engaging but also had some comic relief and an overall key message that came through loud and clear.
Paul was fantastic, he is a gifted story teller and related incredibly well to the mixed audience of students and teachers. He understood the brief perfectly and related his talk back into the purpose of our event. There was audience interaction and the students were completely engaged. He stayed for much of the morning, so also gave the audience time to talk to him during the break, which many wanted to do. I also appreciated being able to talk to him prior to go over the brief as this was the first event of its kind, so it was very important that our key note got it right. Thanks Paul!
Really inspirational. The most credible and authentic speaker I have perhaps ever heard.
Dr. Paul Wood was an absolute hit, a lot of people mentioned him as the highlight of our programme. He is an incredibly gifted speaker, delivering a powerful message in a very effective and engaging way. And to top it off, he's a great guy to deal with leading up to an event, by being very approachable and having a clear understanding of the brief given
I had previously experienced Paul's magic as a keynote speaker; highly motivating and real.' His change facilitation and workshop management are at a whole higher level. Paul had our group of 35 hanging off his every word and 100% engaged in thought provoking activities. Every motivational speaker gives a buzz.' Paul is into infinity and beyond! Days later I still have participants telling me about their old comfort zones and their new fearlessness, both professionally and personally. If you want to effect change in the resilience, courage and mojo of your peoplePaul is your man.
We couldn't have asked for more energy - he did so well to engage 500 people straight after lunch! People have already integrated his messages into their lives - excellent and real information. He was engaging and really promoted our audience - he understand teachers and worked incredibly well with our people. He was relatable and catered to our needs really well.
