
Image Copyright: © Neil Laughton

Neil Laughton
Neil was a child patient at Great Ormond Street Hospital but dreamt of joining the Royal Marines as an officer. He needed to pass some exams including Maths GCSE but recorded a U grade (Ungraded). His Geography teacher reported “Neil is trying very hard but achieving very little.” And Geography was his best subject!
In Person
£3000 - £6000
Price based on UK delivery
Virtual Event
£2000 - £4000
Categories
Despite his academic challenges, Neil joined the Royal Marines at 19 as a 2nd Lieutenant but after passing the gruelling Commando Course, his father died from Cancer. He lost his mojo and was dismissed from the Marines. A few years later, he volunteered for Selection with the SAS Regiment and served for 12 years becoming a Troop Commander with the rank of Captain.
He started his commercial career as a Sales Manager but lost three employed positions in quick succession. His first CEO was defrauding HMRC and the company was dissolved. The Directors’
at his second company spent all the profits on fancy cars and the company failed. In his third position as Sales & Marketing Manager at a commercial interiors business he contributed to increasing the company’s turnover from £1m to £15m in 18 months but was given his P45 without good reason. He later learnt that the Managing Director’s best friend had wanted his job.
In frustration he set up his own commercial interiors company with a £2,000 investment and started employing and looking after his staff as he would like to be treated. The business grew to
£15m turnover but then one of his clients failed to pay for their restaurant refurbishment leaving a massive £240,000 bad debt which nearly broke the company. He re-built the finances with some multi-million pound projects and after completing the largest interior refurbishment project in the UK and reaching an annual turnover of £40m the company was sold to a FTSE100 for circa an eight figure sum.
With a passion for travel, sport and adventure, Neil set his sights on becoming a 7 Summiteer, climbing the highest mountain on each of the seven continents which had only been achieved by
a handful of people. He attempted Mt Everest but was lucky to survive two days and nights in the ‘Death Zone’ during the worst storm in 100 years that killed eight and injured many. He returned two years later and reached the top with Bear Grylls. Since then he has organised and led more than 50 expeditions on 7 continents by land, sea & air.
Some of his expeditions have included skiing to the Geographic North Pole where he played golf and skied to the Geographic South Pole where he organised a game of cricket. He has navigated
a tributary of the Amazon River on a paddle board and was the first person to circumnavigate the UK & Ireland on a jet-ski. He piloted a para-trike 1,000 km across Kenya with a double amputee navigator and was chief pilot of the world’s first road legal flying car on a 10,000 km journey across the Sahara Desert. Neil’s book of his expeditions called ‘Adventureholic’ was published in October 2023 and became an Amazon No. 1 Bestseller.
With his somewhat eccentric hobbies including tin tray racing on ice, extreme golf and penny farthing polo, Neil entertains his audiences with honest, no nonsense and insightful ideas that
inspires attitudinal change, a positive mindset and strategies for success and happiness. He has spoken at conferences of more than 2,000 delegates and for organisations including Accenture, American Express, Astra Zeneca, Bank of England, B&Q, British Airways, BP, Centrica, Coca Cola, Cunard, Eton College, Fitness First, McKinsey & Company, NHS, RNLI, Royal Geographical
Society, TEDx Brighton, UK Sport, Virgin Atlantic, Vistage, Winchester College, and Xerox.
Neil’s most popular talks:
- ‘Developing an Adventurous Mindset’ – When someone believes in themselves, is prepared to take calculated risks, looks for ways to be innovative, create strategies for success, learns to work in a team and adopts an optimistic attitude, then they will have developed an adventurous mindset. In this talk, Neil explains how everyone can develop an adventurous mindset.
- ‘When disaster strikes and all hope is gone’ – When everything goes pee-tong and disaster strikes then its time to “get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton”. In this talk, Neil reveals some great stories of heroic endeavour delivering success from the jaws of defeat and what can be learned from them.
- ‘Becoming a 21st Century Explorer’ – When Neil Laughton got bored doing a 9 to 5 job, he decided to travel the world, play sport and be adventurous during extended holidays from work. In this talk, Neil explains how to design, plan, fund and lead teams safely on amazing journeys around the world.
Quick Quote
Neil Laughton