Andrew Pain

Andrew is a motivational and CPD accredited mental health speaker, a podcaster and award-winning campaigner for men and boys, leading in his work on men’s mental health, also delivering talks on burnout, community building and psychological safety. He’s a lived-experience speaker on domestic abuse and his popular TEDx talk is one of the only TED/TEDx talks exploring the topic as a male victim.

Andrew Pain is a Motivational Mental Health speaker, a survivor of domestic violence (in a former marriage) and podcaster. Andrew delivers keynote talks on men’s mental health, burnout, how to build thriving communities in the workplace and imposter syndrome.

His podcast, Men on Show, celebrates the stories of heroic men, also exploring their views on the challenges of modern masculinity, why men and boys are struggling and how to create healthy generations of young men.

Andrew Pain was once a master-procrastinator, chronic worrier and victim of an abusive marriage. He was a people-pleaser, he avoided conflict at all costs and his main goal in life was simply for everyone else to be happy: not exactly the kind of CV you might expect to see for a professional speaker!

But following the breakdown of his marriage and loss of his business in 2009, he rebuilt his life and is now thriving as a dynamic, down-to-earth and entertaining speaker, on a mission to prevent burnout, to create decisive and resilient communities of people and promote gender unity.

Working with diverse clients, including; Specsavers, Amazon, Crown Prosecution Service, OFWAT, Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Aston University, Lloyds, Birmingham City University, Public Health Wales, Chartered Institute of Marketing etc, Andrew delivers in person and virtually, working with group sizes ranging from 10 people to over 1000.

Andrew is also a father of 5, including 3 boys under 11, which means he’s a triage nurse, maid, cook, tutor, bribery and blackmailing expert, war zone reporter and peace negotiator. It also means his daily FitBit count is never less than 15K steps.

Reasons to book Andrew Pain

• Andrew is passionate about delivering fresh content, thought provoking insights and new strategies. Whether he is talking about men’s mental health, burnout, decision making, imposter syndrome or domestic abuse, he shares original ideas in an engaging style and it’s something which stands him out as a speaker.
• Andrew’s raw honesty as a speaker and his relatable nature means his talks are fantastic conversation starters for organisations looking to create change and improve the wellbeing of their team.
• Andrew tackles tough topics (men’s mental health and domestic abuse) but with an optimistic and energetic approach, which inspires hope and brings people together.

Born in the UK and raised as a brummie, Andrew has lived and worked in France, El Salvador and Mexico and is now settled back in Birmingham UK. With over 20 years’ post-graduate HR experience and 5 years as a professional speaker, Andrew uses his professional and life experience to campaign for gender unity, creating awareness around the impact of domestic abuse for all victims. As a result, alongside his work with corporate organisations, he’s a regular school speaker.

SPEAKING TOPICS: (learning points available on request)

• Burnout Prevention 
• Community/Loneliness
• Men’s Mental Health 
• Domestic Abuse / Gaslighting

Talks include –

Why burnout is not a badge of honour, and how to stop it.

This talk is delivered in three clear parts, first redefining burnout, debunking the myths, identifying unique red flags and knowing how burnout unfolds, then secondly, exploring the collective action to prevent burnout such as how to create psychological safety and why it matters, and how to communicate a grounded message of hope which doesn’t set people up to fail.

In the third part of the talk, we look at how to prevent burnout individually.  How do you develop GRIT and apply T.E.S.T, the language of elite sport? Why are marginal gains, the progress principle and happy anchors so important in keeping you on track in times of long term adversity?

Why men’s challenges are complex not toxic and how to solve them. 

Unpacking the historic and widespread challenges men face today, before exploring how to solve the issues, including; reversing the testosterone crisis, the role of men’s communities, allyship and psychological safety, embracing fatherhood and redefining how we think about masculinity.   

Signs we miss: A survivor’s guide to building abuse-aware workplaces. 

Drawing on my lived experiences and wider research, we put a spotlight on how people fall into abusive relationships, why they stay, how to reach out to people who may be the victims of bullying, how to spot the signs early, the reality of gaslighting, and how family court action impacts the workplace.

Crack the cliques: workplace belonging in just 3 steps.

The problem with a clique is that you can only spot one if you’re not in it! In this talk, we explore why community is so important for human wellbeing and innovation, the reality of loneliness and cliques, what prevents the development of thriving communities, how to become better community builders, both collectively and individually, which includes how to develop easy-to-use networking skills if it’s something you dread doing.