Matt Garman, widely recognised as The Corporate Adventurer, has built a reputation as an exciting and unconventional motivational speaker who challenges conventional thinking about leadership. His talks weave together gripping accounts of extreme expeditions with grounded insights drawn from years in senior commercial roles. The result is an invigorating experience that encourages audiences to view their own strategies, ambitions, and barriers through a more expansive and dynamic lens.
His journey began long before he entered the boardroom. Leaving home at sixteen, he joined a fishing trawler in the English Channel as its most junior crew member. The unforgiving environment taught him the value of resilience, teamwork, and sheer determination. These early formative experiences shaped both his work ethic and his appetite for growth. He progressed through corporate roles with increasing responsibility, eventually becoming Managing Director of ApexIS and later Group Commercial Director at dhc. He went on to create and lead GrowthEnabla, a sales consultancy that blends technological capability with practical enablement to drive organisational performance.
Beyond his corporate achievements, Matt has repeatedly tested the limits of human endurance. His relay swim across the English Channel demonstrated his commitment to teamwork and disciplined preparation, while his Atlantic row in support of Wolo HQ illustrated his capacity to endure prolonged adversity in pursuit of meaningful impact. His influence extends off the water as well. He has published three books on leadership and sales performance, appeared on BBC and ITV, and spoken for leading organisations including NatWest, Lloyds Bank, Carbonology and Juniper. Each endeavour reflects his ability to translate complex challenges into accessible lessons that resonate with professionals at every level.
Matt is hired as a motivational speaker because he speaks from lived experience rather than theory. He believes leadership is forged through real challenges, not abstract frameworks, and his audiences quickly recognise the authenticity behind his message. His style blends humility and candour with humour and practical guidance. He openly shares not only his successes but also the mistakes that shaped his growth, making his content both relatable and actionable. With a background that spans gritty early labour, senior corporate leadership, and extraordinary adventure, Matt equips audiences with a renewed sense of possibility and the confidence to pursue bold goals with greater resilience and clarity.
