Speaking
I don’t speak from a textbook. I speak from my earned wisdom — and from a lifetime of feeling like I don’t quite belong.
Is speaking about this easy? No. I wish I could have Lauren back and live a quiet life with my family in one piece.
But that is not possible. And I was blessed with a voice and an ability to speak and communicate. So now I feel a responsibility to help others with what I’ve learned – from my life and from my adversity. I know Lauren would want me to do this and it means her death will mean something.
I offer keynotes, workshops, and consulting across four areas.
Grief & Resilience
Diversity and Inclusion
Belonging
Grief in the Workplace
All of them come from lived experience. None of them come from a manual.
Grenades & Gold Bricks
Keynote — 20, 45 or 60 minutes — adaptable as a half-day workshop
When a grenade goes off in your life — and at some point, one will — you need more than grit. You need something real to hold onto.
This is the talk I built from the worst six months of my life. In 2023 I lost my daughter, my business, my home and my relationship. Not one after the other — all at once. And I had to find a way through with nothing but the resilience I didn’t know I’d been building for decades.
This talk is about what I lost, what I found in the silence afterwards, and the practical framework I developed — THRIVE — for navigating adversity and coming back stronger. It is not about toxic positivity or silver linings. It is about the core, deep capacity that every human being has but almost nobody knows is there. Not until everything else falls away.
I don’t pretend resilience is easy. I prove it’s possible.
Best for: Women’s conferences · Corporate wellbeing days · People & Culture teams · Leadership events · Mental health awareness days · Anyone who has ever had to rebuild from scratch
When You’re The Only One in the Room
Keynote — 30, 45 or 60 minutes — adaptable as a half-day workshop
Have you ever felt that you don’t quite belong? As if you’re on the outside looking in — a spectator rather than a participant?
The need for belonging is deeply human. Thousands of years ago, being cast out of your tribe meant certain death. That fear hasn’t gone anywhere. Psychologist Abraham Maslow placed belonging at the centre of his hierarchy of needs — because it is so foundational to everything else.
I know these feelings well. I have carried them for most of my life.
I was born in London in 1967 to Sri Lankan parents who had arrived in Britain in 1956 — a time of intense racism. By the time I was ten, we had moved to a small town near Oxford. I was the only person of colour in a school of 600 children. The question of why I didn’t belong felt written on my skin — visible, external, and impossible to ignore.
For decades I did what many people do. I copied how others dressed, mimicked how they spoke, changed myself to fit in. Until I understood something that changed everything:
“I had made myself so small that I had become an extra in my own life story rather than the leading lady. Now, I no longer apologise for taking up space.“
This talk is for anyone who has ever felt like the only one in the room — whatever the reason. And it is for the organisations and leaders who want to understand what that actually costs, and what genuine inclusion looks and feels like from the inside.
This isn’t a policy lecture. It isn’t a diversity tick-box. It is an honest, warm, occasionally funny conversation about what belonging really means — and what we can all do to build rooms where everyone in them feels like they matter.
Best for: Corporate Diversity & Inclusion programmes · Schools and universities · People & Culture teams · Leadership development · Women’s networks · Anyone who has ever felt on the outside
Working With Me
I’m available for keynotes, workshops, and full-day programmes across New Zealand and internationally. Both talks can be combined for organisations running wellbeing and D&I work together.
I’ve been featured in Metropol magazine — “Surviving the Unsurvivable” — and have appeared as a guest on the Bright Red podcast, The Marketing in Business podcast and Voices Unhindered podcasts.
To talk about availability, fees, or how a talk can be shaped for your audience — get in touch.
Contact MeGrief in the Workplace — Supporting Your People Through Loss
Keynote · Workshop · Consulting — half-day, full-day, or ongoing
Most organisations don’t know what to do when someone comes back after a loss.
There’s no policy. There’s no script. And so people grieve in silence, productivity suffers quietly, and good people slowly fall apart — while those around them don’t know how to help and are too afraid to try.
I know what it feels like to be that person. In 2023 I lost my daughter Lauren — suddenly, violently, without warning. I also lost my business, my home, and my relationship in the same six months.
For months afterwards I couldn’t work. Not properly. The brain fog, the exhaustion, the grief that sits on your chest at 3am and follows you into every room — it made sustained, meaningful work impossible. I was fortunate. I had the space and the time to heal at my own pace, doing freelance writing and some charity work when I could manage it.
Most people don’t have that. Most people are back at their desk in two weeks — or less — because they have no choice. Because the official policy is 3 days. 3 DAYS!
And when they get there, nobody knows what to say. Nobody asks how they’re really doing. They are given six weeks of EAP counselling, and then…nothing. The organisation has moved on. And the person is expected to move on too.
That is what I want to change.
I speak to organisations about grief in the workplace. I do it because I have the lived experience, yes — but also because I have the business background to understand what leaders are weighing up, and the communication skills to make this conversation accessible rather than awkward.
This is not a soft topic. It is a leadership and culture topic. The organisations that get it right retain better, perform better, and build the kind of human culture that people actually want to work in.
Grief cracks you open. And most workplaces have no idea what to do with what’s in the gap left behind.
This is a programme for organisations who want to do better. Not with a policy document — but with genuine understanding of what grief does to a person, what they need from their workplace, and how leaders and colleagues can respond in a way that actually helps.
What I offer:
A keynote or workshop for staff and leadership teams — what grief looks like in the workplace, what it costs the organisation and the individual, and what genuine support means in practice.
A consulting programme for HR and people teams wanting to build a grief-aware culture — practical frameworks, conversation guides, and leadership coaching on supporting grieving employees.
A bespoke programme combining both, tailored to your organisation’s size, culture, and needs.
Best for: People & Culture teams · Leadership development programmes · Organisations navigating staff bereavement · EAP providers · Any organisation that wants to build a genuinely human culture
Working With Me
I’m available for keynotes, workshops, and full-day programmes across New Zealand and internationally. Both talks can be combined for organisations running wellbeing and D&I work together.
I’ve spoken at conferences and workshops, been featured in Metropol magazine — “Surviving the Unsurvivable” — and have appeared as a guest on the Bright Red podcast, The Marketing in Business podcast and Voices Unhindered podcasts.
To talk about availability, fees, or how a talk can be shaped for your audience — get in touch.
Contact Me