Keynote Speaker

The talk your leadership team will still be referencing in their Monday meetings.

“Andrew absolutely captivates an audience! His engaging communication style, anecdotes, and frameworks come together in an inspirational growth and performance message that’s applicable in any organization”
Darlene Clark - International Operations Manager at UPS - Canada

“Andrew is an Inspirational speaker for growing businesses where good teamwork, transparency and innovation is high on the daily agenda. His work pays dividends to your organisation. World class!”
Andreas Karlsson - Group CEO at Sticks n Sushi - Denmark

"Thanks to his simple yet elegant frameworks, my team is now focused, motivated and making real impact.”
Sean Hudson - Global Head of Learning at Pfizer - New York

What happens in the room

• The room goes quiet
• People recognise themselves immediately
• Leaders stop performing and start listening
• Conversations begin that have been avoided for months

Four Signature Keynotes & Workshops

1. The Conversation You Can’t Have Anywhere Else

For corporate conferences, leadership off-sites, and founder events

45–60 minutes
Optional 2-hour workshop

The premise
Most leadership conversations are shaped by defence — the need to be right, stay in control, and manage perception. This talk makes the invisible visible.

The audience will

• Meet the Stag, the Rat, the Wren, and the River — and recognise themselves immediately
• Hear two dialogues read aloud that will make the room go still
• Understand why their best people have stopped being honest with them
• Leave with one question they can ask in their next conversation that changes everything

Best for
Leadership teams, corporate conferences, founder retreats, executive offsites.
Any room where people are performing more than they’re leading.

2. Three Voices and a River

How to Have Better Conversations: For entrepreneurship events, expat communities, and business networks

45–60 minutes
Optional 2-hour workshop

The premise
A practical, engaging talk about what’s really happening in your most difficult conversations. Andrew introduces the framework through live interaction — the audience discovers their own default voice under pressure.

The audience will

• Discover which voice runs their conversations under pressure
• Experience their own Rat in real time
• Learn the difference between asking to understand and asking to steer
• Leave with a shared language they can use with their team, their partner, and themselves

Best for
Entrepreneurship events, networking groups, expat communities, and coworking spaces.
Any room where people are building something and carrying the weight of it.

3. The Stag’s Journey

For intimate events, dinners, and small-group gatherings

30-minutes

The premise
Andrew reads The Stag’s Journey aloud — the fable at the heart of The River.

A stag who is tired.
Who walks away from his herd.
Who meets a Wren and finds a River.

And who says to the voice that has been protecting him his whole life:
I love you, Rat.

No slides. No framework. Just a story read in a quiet room.
Followed by the kind of silence that only happens when something lands.

Best for
Private dinners, intimate gatherings, book launches, charity events.
Rooms of 10–50 where something quieter is possible.

4. You’re Not Tired From Leading. You’re Tired From Defending.

For men’s health events, wellbeing conferences, and community events

45–60 minutes
Optional 2-hour workshop

The premise
A personal talk about what happens when a man builds his life around performance and forgets there’s a person underneath.

Andrew shares his story — losing his father at sixteen, nearly losing his marriage, losing his brother — and the walk by the Vltava that changed everything.

The audience will

• Hear a man be honest about what performing strength actually costs
• Recognise the voice that’s been telling them to hold it together
• Understand that the Rat isn’t the enemy — it’s a protector that never learned to stop
• Leave with a different relationship to that voice

Best for
Men’s health events, locker rooms, community gatherings, charity events, and wellbeing conferences.
Any room where people need permission to stop performing.

What Makes Andrew Different on Stage

He reads dialogues aloud.
The audience notices.
It starts the enquiry.

Four lines — the Stag, the Rat, the Wren, and the River — read slowly in a room full of leaders. The room goes quiet. People recognise themselves in real time.

That’s the moment they remember.

Andrew doesn’t motivate.
He doesn’t hype up the room.
He won't share five steps to success.

Andrew tells the truth about what leadership costs.

It's quiet.
And that’s where the real transformation happens.

He’s lived it.

This isn’t theory from a business school. It’s lived experience — An athlete, losing his father at 16, nearly losing his marriage, losing his brother in 2022, and finding something different by the Vltava.

The audience feels the difference.

The framework stays.

“That’s the Rat talking” becomes something teams say weeks later.
Not because they were taught it.
Because they recognised it.

That’s why organisations book Andrew.

Not for the hour on stage —
but for the language that stays in the culture.

About Andrew Sillitoe

Andrew Sillitoe is a British philosopher of leadership based in Prague. For nearly two decades, he has coached over 5,000 senior leaders at organisations including Google, Pfizer, Ericsson, UPS, and the BBC. He is a former international athlete and the head coach of Team GB.

He is the author of The River: Six Dialogues for Leaders Who Carry Too Much.

He now walks with founders and CEOs by the Vltava River, helping them have the conversations they can't have anywhere else.