Matt Hughes Book as a speaker/entertainer for your next event

Key Points for Matt Hughes

  • Matt Hughes is one of Australia’s leading resilience keynote speakers, delivering research-backed, practical sessions that equip audiences with tools they can apply immediately to stay focused, effective, and human in an AI-enabled world.
  • As Founder of Ripen, Matt has delivered resilience and performance programs to more than 2,500 teams across 30+ countries. His Resilience Online Training & Wellbeing Launchpad™ helps organisations measure, build, and sustain resilience at scale.
  • With a background in corporate finance, strategy, and management consulting across three continents, alongside degrees and qualifications in psychology, human resilience, lifestyle medicine and coaching, Matt brings both analytical depth and lived experience to every keynote.
  • Matt’s expertise has been featured across media, podcasts, and industry events. His sessions are trusted by leading organisations across private, public, and government sectors for their practical relevance, behavioural science foundations, and lasting impact.

Topics for Matt Hughes

  • Building resilience that actually works in the real world
    You can run 5km a day, eat well, and meditate but still be dangerously low in resilience. Matt cuts through the wellness noise to explain what resilience actually is, why it's different from wellbeing, and why it's the only foundation that holds when life gets genuinely hard. Drawing on his own journey with career setbacks, emigrating, major loss and building a family, Matt gives audiences a framework they can immediately apply. Audiences leave with clarity on their own resilience baseline and the tools to start building more of it.
  • Sustaining high performance under pressure
    High performance is easy to achieve temporarily. Sustaining it under constant pressure is the real challenge. In this keynote, Matt shares practical, evidence-based strategies to help leaders and teams maintain energy, focus, and performance in demanding environments. Audiences will learn how to recognise early signs of fatigue, avoid burnout cycles, and build resilience that supports long-term success, without sacrificing wellbeing or results.
  • Leading through change and uncertainty
    Change is constant, especially in an AI-enabled world, but most leaders were never taught how to lead effectively through uncertainty. This keynote explores how pressure, ambiguity, and change impact decision-making, team performance, and culture. Matt shares practical tools to help leaders stay adaptable, communicate with clarity, and create stability during periods of disruption and transformation. Ideal for team days, leadership offsites, and conferences where you want the audience to leave energised and self-aware, not just informed.
  • Preventing burnout in high-performing teams
    Burnout rarely happens overnight. It builds quietly beneath the surface, often within the highest-performing teams. Matt shares the hidden signs of burnout, why high performers are most at risk, and what leaders can do to create sustainable performance cultures. Audiences will walk away with practical strategies to improve energy, resilience, and long-term performance without relying on “push through” leadership.
  • Thriving in the age of overload
    Modern work has created a constant state of cognitive overload. Endless notifications, competing priorities, back-to-back meetings, and relentless change are leaving people mentally exhausted and struggling to focus. Matt helps audiences explore the hidden impact that overload has on decision-making, performance, and wellbeing, and why simply “working harder” no longer works. Audiences learn practical strategies to reduce mental fatigue, improve focus, protect energy, and perform sustainably without overload.

Testimonials for Matt Hughes

Matt has hosted several bespoke events tailored to WiseTech, sharing his deep expertise, extensive experience, and meaningful insights into mental health and wellbeing. His events consistently rank among the most popular and highly rated at WiseTech, a testament to his authenticity, depth of knowledge, and ability to engage audiences. What sets Matt apart is his unique ability to seamlessly integrate science, emotion, and practical strategies, enabling him to connect with participants on profound topics such as purpose, goal-setting, mental wellbeing, and resilience. I highly recommend him for any initiative focused on resilience, mental health, or personal development.
Organisational Capability Manager
WiseTech Global

I had the pleasure of having Matt Hughes speak at our Engage Conference, and he was an absolute standout for the day. His session, focused on resilience and well-being, was the highest-rated of the event and it’s no surprise why. Matt delivered a talk that was not only engaging but also deeply practical and insightful. Attendees praised Matt’s refreshing perspective and actionable takeaways they could immediately implement in their businesses and teams. His ability to connect with the audience and provide clarity on such an important topic was exceptional. If you’re looking for a speaker who can inspire, educate, and empower your team to tackle challenges with resilience and confidence, I couldn’t recommend Matt more highly!
Marketing Director
Bullhorn Inc

We selected Matt Hughes as our keynote speaker for our annual sales & marketing conference on the Gold Coast. His address on unlocking personal resilience was first class. The delivery & take away content was outstanding. The feedback from our diverse range of employees, managers, sales consultants and partners was overwhelmingly positive. Thank you for making our event such a success. I would highly recommend Matt for any speaking engagement on this important topic.
Director of Sales & Marketing
Niagara Medical Therapy

Matt Hughes is an excellent presenter. He has the ability to combine energetic storytelling with clear takeaways for the audience. Matt clearly is well versed on the theory, history and applications of resilience and resilience training. Importantly, was able to convey this in an engaging manner and provide immediately useful insights. Our delegates loved his presentation and were eager to learn even more. Above all, Matt is a genuine person with good intentions to improve the way we overcome challenges and achieve more, and this is something that comes across both in person and on stage. If you are looking for a speaker or coach to catalyse and see through real change, contact Matt!
Producer
21st Annual National Workers’ Compensation Summit

I have been working with Matt and the Ripen team for several years now, leading the implementation of Resilience talks with Matt and training programs across the globe as Group Capability Manager at Blackmores. Ripen’s learning journeys are great for meeting people and learners in their flow of work, the content is highly relevant in the current work environment and delivers tangible outcomes and results.
Group Capability Manager
Blackmores

One of the best things about working with Matt when you have a workshop is the energy and the games that he uses to bring the content to life. I still have staff coming up to me and talking about how great the session was, and that was 6 months ago, and we have slogans that we all agreed together up on our wall as a reminder every day.
Director Strategy & Planning
Australian Government

We recently had a keynote delivered by Matt Hughes at Ripen. We chose this training because we recognised that there was a need in the company, to share some insights and tools about resilient behaviours and how to apply this to our lives, both home and work. I would highly recommend Matt Hughes for such an initiative, as Matt is authentic and passionate and he is able to clearly articulate and highlight what resilience is, keep the audience engaged and help us identify tools on our resilience journeys.
Regional HRM (Australia, India, Singapore)
Church & Dwight

Thank you so much to Matt for leading this - a safe space for all to share and connect. I feel very connected to the team even more so than before. 
Head of the Dementia Centre
Hammond Care

I love the natural and calming way that you talk Matt, it's comforting, and I feel like I can fully relate to what you are saying.
Dementia Consultant, The Dementia Centre
Hammond Care

Matt you are a relatable storyteller. The examples are relevant, helped me to grasp the concept. The number of stories was spot on too - not so many I got sick of them and not too few when an easier concept was being taught that I could understand. To me it seemed like you told the stories for a concept that we might struggle to get our heads around. Well done - just the right balance.
Dementia Consultant, The Dementia Centre
Hammond Care

It’s been great working with Matt to develop tailored content for our accomplish award program, our students will really benefit from the Resilience talks and the practical self-awareness tips to help them manage their thoughts and emotions while at university and into their careers.
Employability Coordinator
University of Technology Sydney

We recently rolled out a Resilience session with Ripen. Ripen opts a very pragmatic approach to their training sessions and the content is high quality and easy to follow. The session provided our audience with practical tips to become more resilient and the feedback received was very positive. Matt has a wealth of knowledge on the topic and he connects very well with the audience. He is always flexible with the approach and ensures that the organisation needs are met.
Chief People Officer
Smartgroup

Superb! A very relevant topic to make me realise the importance of this aspect of life, especially in the fast changing global scenario and life getting challenging day by day, Resilience is going to be a game changer.
Head of Sales
Weir Minerals

Matt provided lots of tools to deal with challenges both expected and unexpected. Now I am aware of my thoughts, beliefs, emotions, behaviors, and how they are connected. -
Head of Human Resources (India)
Weir Minerals

I really enjoyed this and have taken some very practical tools away that can be easily used in the real world. Easy to understand, meaningful and pitched at the right level (not too long, not too short, etc.)
National Manager
Services Australia