Asia-based motivational keynote speaker and adventurer Rob Lilwall shares mindsets that inspire audiences to be more positive, courageous and resilient.
Rob started his career as a geography high-school teacher in England. But after his transformational expeditions, he is now a sought-after keynote speaker with two books and two National Geographic TV shows.
His first big expedition, Cycling Home From Siberia, was a three-year, 50,000 km bicycle ride from the far edge of Siberia to London, via Papua New Guinea, Tibet and Afghanistan. On the way, he camped at minus 40, hitch-hiked by boat from Hong Kong to Australia, and cycled over the Himalayas.
His second major expedition, Walking Home From Mongolia, was a six-month, 5,000 km walk from Mongolia to Hong Kong, through the heart of China. This included walking across the Gobi Desert in winter, along parts of the Great Wall, and down the banks of the frozen Yellow River.
His latest and hardest expedition was a 71-day, solo walk across the notorious Taklamakan Desert in China. This involved hauling a home-made cart laden with water for 1,000km, crossing giant dunes, and swimming swollen rivers.
Despite all the challenges he has been through, Rob has not turned into a super-tough guy. But he has learned the difference a good mindset can make. He has learned that our abilities are not fixed, and that we can grow in many ways, including to become more positive, courageous and resilient.
As a passionate believer in our ability to grow and adapt, Rob is continually looking to push outside his comfort zone, and grow through whatever new challenges come his way. This may be through his motivational speaking, his writing, his charity work, or through his expeditions.
To read Rob’s latest reflections about how we can grow and challenge ourselves, please see Rob’s Journal.
“Amazing speaker, Rob engaged the audience with mastery and authenticity during a keynote around the topics of Growth Mindset, Courage and Collaboration. With his masterclasses, he was able to get deeper on the topic of resilience, considered as both the ability to persevere amid ongoing high-pressure, and the ability to bounce back from setbacks.”
“He drew clear points connecting his adventures with our business goals and did this with great humour, audience participation and tremendous spirit. One of the very best and memorable key note speakers we have encountered.”
“Rob brought home our key points of having a growth mindset, embracing challenge and change, overcoming fear, and resiliancy in the face of adversity in an extremely engaging and memorable way.”
“I would highly recommend Rob to anyone seeking to motivate their organisation to embrace change.”
“Rob was a pleasure to work with, and easily built our theme into an inspiring story that he delivered en pointe and with captivating ease, candour, energy, and enthusiasm. Rob immediately engaged with and connected the audience to one another, encouraging self-exploration that reminded us of our humanity behind titles, culture, and generation gaps.”
“Rob gave an inspirational keynote speech to close our event and had the C-level audience on the edge of their seats with his escapades, all the while linking his experiences back to a business setting… I cannot recommend Rob enough!”
“Rob became my benchmark on successful engagement during virtual events. His sessions are full of energy and all attendees get clear takeaways. His stories are very inspiring and helps to put our lives in a different perspective when facing challenging situations.”
“Rob’s humility, resilience and growth mindset shone through, and combined well with a wonderful sense of humour. His follow up materials have helped to re-enforce key messages that we will carry forward on our journey through 2021.”
“Rob’s enthusiasm is infectious. I have had the pleasure to attend two of his presentations, and in both instances, I have never seen a workplace more energised and motivated post his session.”
“Rob, you don’t realize how much you impacted our team in terms of mindset. I stopped counting how many times your name popped out, or how many times the analogy of desert and dunes was used. Thank you so much for your outstanding speech!”
“Perfectly showcasing resilience and overcoming obstacles; with take-aways that can be applied professionally and for personal growth.”
“Had the pleasure of watching Rob both at a live event and over a Zoom session… Finding it hard to decide which was better which just goes to say that his experience is so rich that it’s platform independent!”
“We invited Rob for our CFO summit in Jan’22 to talk to us about ‘Resilient mindset and Reframing challenges’. Rob delivered an absolutely engaging session virtually, that had the 50+ C-level executives hooked.”
“Rob shares stories and lessons learnt of his incredible experiences with a humble and genuine spirit that sparks powerful reflection and action.”
“Rob’s session set the direction not only for the three-day forum for our leader community, but also for the future plans for our business, and the content Rob shared for follow up will continue to drive engagement for weeks to come. Thank you!”
“Rob cleverly takes lessons from his adventures & applies them to business, whether it be management or sales. There are not enough original speakers with positive takeaways for their audiences, Rob Lilwall is surely one.”
“In previous years, speakers at Asian Private Banker’s Family Office Summit have included Kenneth Taylor (“The real hero of Argo”) and Al Gore (45th Vice-President of the United States). This year we had Rob Lilwall, and he certainly did not let us down. Through a combination of endearing humility and granite determination, Rob delighted and motivated a riveted audience.”
“Rob was a fabulous keynote speaker for our 2017 Global Summit in Shanghai. He brilliantly tailored his themes around embracing challenge and collaboration to suit our global audience, and his captivating personality and story ended with a standing ovation from the room. We couldn’t have asked for better!”
“Rob’s talk exceeded all our expectations…Rob pushed us to explore outside our comfort zone, by showing us the different between Growth vs. Fixed mindset and how to leverage stress rather than be constrained by it.”
“Rob is able to translate and relate his experiences into impactful learning for all. Rob understands how to inspire and motivate his participants by pitching his talks to the different levels of audiences. I like the worksheets that he prepared for the participants – a practical takeaway for everyone.”
“The key learnings that Rob presented were a great asset and nicely supported our overall message of the conference. Our audience of start-ups and investors had a clear benefit in the transformation from travel and adventure to founding and financing start-ups!”
“Rob has that rare ability of articulating the courage and discipline gained from his remarkable adventures to a corporate setting, resulting in an inspired message which was highly motivational, uplifting and engaging. Rob is a great presenter and a wonderful person.”
“Rob rocks. So happy and lucky to have Rob speaking to actuaries and accountants who are all embarking on a once in a life time journey. Rob’s able to adapt, engage and tailor to the messages that are highly engaging and inspiring to all. All of us are now motivated to rise to the challenge and achieve the impossible.”
“Well, boy did Rob deliver! It was funny, heartfelt, and 100% relatable to bankers, even though he was talking about trekking for 1,000s of miles. His compassion and way of engaging the group was amazing. Keeping 120 bankers engaged for an hour is difficult! He left us wanting more! Thank you, Rob!”
“Rob comes across with passion and engaged our audience with humour and empathy which were both appreciated. Since his talk, we have had several discussions where we have referred to his own safety ‘principles’ and his stories have ‘stuck’ far more than any statics or numbers could.”
“I have had the pleasure of working with many international speakers over the years and Rob ranks among the very best. His speeches on the topic of resilience and mental toughness have influenced many who have heard him. He is sincere and clearly genuine in every regard.”
“Rob’s inspiring presentation was a great start of our Mercer HR conference in Hong Kong and set the tone for the conference participants to embrace a growth mindset and learn from one another. I would certainly recommend Rob for any large conference where you bring together people that may not know each other yet.”
“Amazing speaker, Rob engaged the audience with mastery and authenticity during a keynote around the topics of Growth Mindset, Courage and Collaboration. With his masterclasses, he was able to get deeper on the topic of resilience, considered as both the ability to persevere amid ongoing high-pressure, and the ability to bounce back from setback.”
“Rob spoke at our Town Hall meeting in Hong Kong this week, and the feedback from our staff has been extremely positive…Rob brought home the key points of embracing challenge, overcoming fear, having a collaborative mindset, and staying positive in the face of adversity in an extremely engaging and memorable way.”
“Rob was able to get our guests to participate and join him in his adventure as he speaks… Our guests were left with lots to ponder and reflect on – what’s the adventure going to be for the profession and how are they going to explore the unknown in the face of a fast changing world.”
“Rob’s presentation was very inspirational. His stories about his growth journey and how he dealt with and embraced change was something our associates could all relate to. If you are looking to provide your audience a different perspective through storytelling, reach out to Rob.”
“Rob spoke to 1,200 of our EMEA Commercial team in Dublin and engaged the audience with his passionate, funny and very insightful experience. He drew clear points connecting his adventures with our business goals and did this with great humour, audience participation and tremendous spirit.”
“I found the session to be very useful because it was different from the usual motivational speakers and involved the Agents very effectively. Rarely have I seen all the Agents so engaged with the speaker, as they were with Rob, myself included!”
“We concluded a long day of internal meetings and presentations with a dinner followed by Rob’s 30,000 km presentation. It was one of the highest rated events that we had at our two day conference – and lawyers tend to be tough graders.”
“Rob’s ability to intertwine themes that are so important to thrive in the corporate world be they a growth mindset, perseverance, focus, partnership, balanced risk were very resonant. I would highly recommend Rob.”
“I highly recommend Rob if you are looking for a keynote speaker who would take speaker brief seriously and could inspire a large group with tailor-made content! Thank you Rob, your professionalism and charisma were truly impressive.”
“Rob brings a degree of authenticity that is difficult to find these days. His message is grounded in humble personal experience and connects some very real and essential elements of human nature to the business world. Refreshingly different!”
“His style, his content, and his character captivated the room, and the level of engagement was palpable. He made every person feel as if they were having a personal conversation with him, and the result was 100% delivery on the intent of his message. I encourage anyone looking to produce these types of results to connect with Rob and share your needs; I guarantee he will deliver beyond expectation.”
“Rob Lilwall’s journey is amazing. His story is a great way for organizations to deliver a unique way of thinking, focusing on the growth mindset, the importance of clear goals, self-focus, reflection, perseverance, connections, risk-taking and problem solving.”