98: What Today’s Audiences Want from Leadership Speakers (But Won’t Tell You) with Paul Skewes

Most leadership talks try to inspire. This one actually changes how you think, because it starts where real leadership lives: in the messy, unfiltered truth.

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Most leadership talks try to inspire. This one actually changes how you think, because it starts where real leadership lives: in the messy, unfiltered truth.

Emerging speakers, lean in. This episode is a rare peek inside the mind of a leader who has lived the kind of career most speakers only reference in theory. 

Paul Skewes brings decades of military leadership, recruitment chaos, corporate politics, heavy-industry dynamics, and deep self-reflection into one conversation that every speaker obsessed with leadership storytelling needs to hear.

This isn’t a highlight reel of what he’s done. This is a masterclass in what you can take from his experiences to sharpen your message, elevate your authority, and build a keynote that doesn’t just inform — it transforms.

From the real cost of poor leadership, to the tiny behaviours that earn trust, to why audiences don’t need more models but more humanity, this conversation will reshape the way you think about influence, communication, and impact from the stage.

Whether you’re crafting your first signature talk or levelling up your leadership content, this episode hands you the insights seasoned speakers usually guard closely.

Inside, you’ll learn how to:

• Spot the leadership patterns your audience already feels but can’t articulate (01:08)
• Turn lived experience into teachable leadership insights and stories (03:59)
• Translate personal turning points into audience “aha” moments (07:34)
• Use vulnerability without oversharing (or performative authenticity) (09:24)
• Turn sprawling career insights into one-step-at-a-time clarity, exactly what your keynote audience needs from you (14:21)
• Read a room and recognise the human signals leaders ignore (17:58)
• Make your leadership message relevant to modern workplace realities (24:21)
• Understand why your keynote must shape how people think before how they act (44:34)
• Build engagement tools that pull audiences into your message (52:23)
• Embrace the constant evolution of your keynote and why the best speakers iterate, refine, and sharpen continuously (53:23)

If you’re an emerging speaker who wants to stand out in the leadership space, this episode is a masterclass in what actually moves an audience. Paul doesn’t just hand over theory – he hands over lived insight distilled into real, usable wisdom. 

Take these ideas, borrow them, reshape them, build on them … and let them sharpen the way you think, teach, and lead from the stage. Your audience will feel the difference.

QUOTES

“We’ve made leadership really complicated. It’s become complex. Leaders have become frightened in some areas. They’re frightened of what they can say, what they can’t say.”  – Paul Skewes

“It might not succeed. But if I don’t try it, I’ll never succeed.” – Paul Skewes

“Leadership is simple. It’s not easy, but it’s simple. And it makes sense. And as soon as people can see that it makes sense in what they do, people are more inclined to grab onto something.” – Paul Skewes

“If they haven’t been the good, the bad, and the ugly at some stage, they haven’t hung around long enough.” – Jacqueline Brooker

“We shouldn’t need entire organisations dedicated to teaching leaders about psychosocial safety just because it’s in legislation. We just shouldn’t.” – Jacqueline Brooker

“You can’t lead people off a cliff unless they trust every incremental step you gave them along the way.” – Jacqueline Brooker

RESOURCES

 

WHERE TO FIND PAUL SKEWES

• • Website: https://paulskewes.com/ 
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulskewes/ 

 

WHERE TO FIND JACQUELINE BROOKER

To connect and learn more about creating a Speaker Driven Business connect with Jacqueline on LinkedIn. You can also follow Jacqueline on Instagram or join the private Facebook group

Join the Speak More Collective.