Ant Williams

When I heard you speak at tedxmelbourne, I was particularly drawn to how you came to the sport of freediving, can you share that with our readers?

Growing up I loved sport, but I was never particularly good at it. I got in to coaching instead and trained as a Sport Psychologist. After years of working with athletes who competed in dangerous sports like big wave surfing, MMA fighting and motoGP I realised I was a fraud. Everything I was teaching these athletes came out of a textbook, none of it was based on my own experience. I believed that if I took up a dangerous sport, then I would become a better coach by understanding the fears my athletes faced.

What do you think is the biggest lesson that freediving has given you?

Humility. To successfully dive truly deep in the ocean you have to let go of your ego, your desire to be the deepest athlete, and allow yourself to relax and accept the immense water pressure bearing down on you. Sinking alone in the open ocean in deep water is one of the most solitary things you can do on this planet. The experience teaches you to believe in your ability to calmly handle whatever comes your way.

You talked about coming to melbourne, and how after a weekend here to feel the city out, you decided that this was home. Tell us about that and what it was that created that homely feeling?

My wife didn’t want to move here. We were very settled in Sydney and loved the lifestyle offered by the Northern Beaches. We came down for a long weekend and within 24 hours we had picked where we wanted to live and where we would buy our coffee from in the morning. There is something so inherently attractive about Melbourne. It’s vibrancy, energy, and warmth drew us in!

Over the last year, you have developed your own online business, Speakerbook, we are in a lift for 30 seconds, give us the elevator pitch.

Outside of freediving, I am passionate about keynote speaking. But for most people, booking a guest speaker is expensive and time consuming. We are solving this problem by giving event planners an online service where they can find and book Australia’s top speakers without the middleman. Called Speakerbook, it is Australia’s fastest growing speakers bureau.

Speaker book offers a two edge sword, what do you think the true value proposition is for an event manager and then for the speaker?

Event planners get a simple and safe way to book a speaker without wearing the cost of booking fees. Each speaker collects audience votes on to their profile page making it easier for you to comparebetween speakers. The site even has emerging speakers that can be booked for less than $1,000. Our speakers get a free marketing service that promotes them actively to event planners right across Australia.

Businesses create stories of their own, what is your favourite Speakerbook story?

We get to meet some very cool people! Olympians, The Block contestants, Big Brother housemates, TEDx speakers, celebrities and other wildly successful people. But a standout story for us was spending our entire marketing budget on a single event. It was crazy in hindsight, but we decided it was “win or bin” for us. We gave that event 100% and didn’t generate a single booking. It taught us an important business lesson that taught us toinvest every dollar wisely. This year we partnered with the event organisers, spent less money, and got our money back in sales within a week.

As someone who is consistently speaking in public, what are 5 tips to help our readers in their next public speaking engagement.

1. Preparation & practice is key. Anyone can be an engaging speaker if they put in the work beforehand. Begin by talking to people who will be in your audience and crafting your presentation around what their need are.


2. Ramp up the energy. On stage the “regular” you is just not high energy enough. It might feel weird, but your audience want you at your most engaging & energetic.


3. Go to the theatre. Actors are the masters of stagecraft. Watching a play will give you a sense for how actors hold the stage to create an impact with the audience. Look for where to stand, when to move, how to punctuate your talk with your body language. Learn to handle your nerves. Going on stage to speak can be a harrowing experience but don’t let your nerves get the better of you. Your audience wants you to be successful and enjoy yourself. So expect the nerves, but do it anyway!


4. Want to be a professional speaker? Then go out and invest in some high quality speaker training. People often approach us for representation before they are ready.

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