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For years, Jez Rose was the person companies called when they wanted to inspire and transform their people. A number one best-selling author and sought-after keynote speaker, he built a global reputation for high-impact talks on leadership, behaviour and performance.
At his peak, he had moved to America, bought a farm and was travelling the world, speaking to thousands at a time. His client list included brands such as Ford, Audi, Marriott, Volkswagen and Philips. He appeared on BBC, ITV, QVC and Discovery, delivered TEDx talks in both the UK and the US, and was named by Microsoft among its top 10 most sought-after business speakers. Earlier this year Jez was officially voted in the top UK motivational speakers by a poll of customer feedback, testimonials and live scores.
His business was earning close to seven figures. But the lifestyle behind that success was relentless. At one point, he spent nearly 250 nights a year in hotels. The pace was so intense that he would sometimes arrive somewhere new and quietly ask at reception what city he was in.
Then everything unravelled.
Today, that life is gone. In its place is something far simpler and, by his own admission, far more meaningful. Jez, who was born in High Wycombe then spent most of his life in Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire is rebuilding as a ceramics artist, while sharing the lessons from his lowest point in a new phase of keynote speaking.
Here, Jez, who now lives in Rutland in the East Midlands, tells his story in his own words.
“I didn’t decide to become a speaker. I fell into it accidentally, really. I hadn’t even seen a keynote speaker, or known what one was, until about four or five years into doing it. It was never a planned career.
A friend whose dad was very senior at Lloyds Bank heard me talking about Disney, customer service and leadership. He told me they were sending teams out to Disney in the USA and spending a fortune, and suggested I visit them and do the training for a lot less. Which I did. I delivered the session and had suggested he not pay me unless he thought it was worth it.
That was the beginning and, from there, it just snowballed. One client led to another, and I was just doing what instinctively felt right to me. I didn’t know what ‘good’ was supposed to look like because I hadn’t seen other speakers at that time, so I just did my thing. I think my unique style and take on delivering information is why people noticed me.
Before long, I realised it was actually a job. People were booking me to speak at conferences all over the world, audiences were responding really well, and I began to see that I could make a living from doing this thing that I was really enjoying.
I’ve had an eclectic background, having worked as a television presenter, first in children’s TV and then on shows like Saturday Kitchen, performed for 20 years as a magician, worked in the ambulance service, and, for a short time, trained dogs for TV and film. Part of what I brought to speaking came from those varied skills I had developed. The other part came from a desire to communicate properly and make learning enjoyable.
I remember sitting through dreadful mandatory training sessions in hospital and thinking, probably quite arrogantly, that I could do better than this. That pushed me to qualify as a further education teacher and properly understand how people learn.
Once the speaking took off, it moved so quickly. More than 80 per cent of my work came through agents, which is unusual in this industry, and the audiences were large very early on. One of my first major bookings was speaking to 1,000 people in Hall One at the ICC in Birmingham. Bigger conferences brought larger rooms and budgets.
At its peak, the business was generating close to seven figures.
But the lifestyle that came with it was often relentless.
In my busiest year, I spent 233 nights in hotel rooms. There were moments when I genuinely didn’t know where I was. I would go down to reception and try to ask, in a way that didn’t make me sound odd, what city I was in.
Delivering that many talks takes a toll. Your brain never switches off. You are constantly adapting, reading the room and adjusting your delivery in real time. The travelling is tough, but there is also constant pressure around meeting expectations. People have paid for you to be good, and that sits in the back of your mind all the time.
Looking back, the warning signs were there, I guess.
I remember driving to a couple of jobs and thinking I could just keep driving and nobody would know. That was when I realised something wasn’t right.
At the same time, as the business was growing, I made a decision that turned out to be a huge mistake. I stepped back from being so involved in running it so I could focus on speaking and let others handle everything else.
The truth is, no one cares about your business as much as you do.
In retrospect, I was naive and trusted people too easily. I was young, I was earning well, and I assumed the people around me knew what they were doing and would want me to succeed.
It didn’t turn out that way, unfortunately.
The consequences were severe. There was a £150,000 backdated tax payment I discovered after taking what turned out to be incorrect advice from an accountant, and, with that, I had to repay £80,000 in VAT within five days. I took out a personal loan just to cover it.
Then Covid happened.
Everything collapsed at the same time. The work disappeared, the income stopped, and the lifestyle I had built vanished with it.
In the end, I had to sell everything, even the contents of my house. I used to joke that I was busy on eBay, but the reality was I was trying to sell things to pay the bills.
I had drifted a long way from who I was.
I can’t believe how different I am now and I’m almost ashamed to say this, but at one point, when things were going well, I was shopping in Fortnum & Mason and saw these beautiful silver pencils based on a Victorian design. They were about £150 each. I bought three, justifying it to myself by saying I needed one for the office, one for my bag and one for home.
That is how it happens. It becomes normal. Luxury luggage, expensive watches, all the things you think successful people are supposed to have. I used to collect watches. Some of them were incredible.
Now I have only one left and, really, why do we need more than one watch? It’s a simple watch that costs $20 and features Mickey Mouse. His hands rotate to point to the time. I get more comments about that than I ever did about a £5,000 Cartier watch.
Losing everything changes you and forces you to reassess what really matters.
For me, that came back to something I had promised myself when I recommitted to Buddhism. I said I would live my life by three values, in this order: joy, passion and purpose.
I wasn’t really living by any of them.
I’ve experienced a lot of loss in my life, so joy matters to me first. Every day, I make a point of noticing something joyful. Passion is about making a conscious decision to do things I love. That makes me come alive. That’s what working with porcelain does for me now. Then purpose. When I speak to groups of people now, I feel a deep sense of doing something meaningful, evidenced by their reaction and responses to my talks.
I learned through all of this that what we call success is often an illusion. I know people with huge amounts of money who are very unhappy in life.
Leaving America was another breaking point. I didn’t want to leave. I made great friends and was creating a life I loved over there, but the people I trusted to get me work didn’t deliver and it ruined my business. I simply couldn’t afford to stay and lost almost everything in my attempt to do so.
I was a speaker. That was my identity. But when you don’t have any work and aren’t speaking, I was left asking a difficult question: who am I if I am not that?
That identity loss was as challenging as the financial collapse.
The answer came from somewhere entirely unexpected. Ceramics.
I have done a lot of different things in my life, but this is the first time I have felt completely certain. It just feels right in a way nothing else ever has. Working with clay is immensely satisfying, soothing, creative and meditative. I don’t have to travel, don’t have endless meetings, and can fail as many times as I want without fearing fallout. It is utter joy. I’ve never felt so content.
Now, I split my time between selective speaking engagements, team-building workshops that use clay, and building a ceramics studio due to launch in 2026. I’ve built charitable giving into everything I now do, with a goal of raising £75,000 over the next year.
Speaking is still part of my life. I think it always will be. But it’s different now. I say yes to the right things, not everything.
Since I started talking more openly about failure and my personal reset, I have experienced such a strong response to my work. I think it’s because it’s honest. I am not telling people I climbed a mountain and they can too. I’m simply saying I’m human. I tried, it didn’t work, but the opportunity to start again never expires, so I’m starting again, but this time wiser.
The result of all of this is that my understanding of success has completely changed and I live a much simpler life now. On the wall where I make my ceramics, I have a writing from the late Thich Nhat Hanh, the Zen Buddhist monk of Plum Village, a tradition I follow, which says, ‘You have enough.’ I see it multiple times every day and it’s a wonderful reminder.
In practical terms, enough means my bills are covered and there is more money coming in than going out. That’s really all we need. But it also means something deeper. It’s about living in a connected, present and mindful way. While I’ve never been so financially vulnerable, I have also never been happier. Which is quite something, isn’t it? I wake up in the morning and feel grateful. Many people didn’t wake up this morning. I have had what some people would call huge success, and with that came the distraction of continuing to grow and reach for more success. But when you lose it all, you realise that was never the important part. The impact we have while we are here, that is what really matters.”
To find of more about Jez Rose visit his exclusive speaker agency https://speakout.uk/
Also read: International Speaker & Bestselling Author Jez Rose Signs with SpeakOut Speaker Agency
Image source: Jez Rose
