I’m Kirsty Hulse.
I am known for my reliably funny, always engaging and powerfully practical talks.
(And my loud laugh).
The short serious bio
Written in 3rd person because we fancy 💅
Kirsty Hulse is an award winning Confidence Coach and motivational speaker. She founded her first company at 26, a marketing agency with global clients like Virgin Atlantic and IBM, which turned over nearly a million dollars in its first year of trading. She has delivered training programs at the world’s biggest companies, and her work has been described as “game changing”, “life changing” and from the thousands of people she has worked with, 100% of attendees would recommend her work to a colleague.
She has trained 40,000+ people to be more confident in companies like LinkedIn, Amazon and Spotify and has spoken in some of the world’s largest arenas in over 30 countries.
She is the creator of Confidence Live, a 1,300 delegate conference that attracts some of the world’s leading speakers, wellbeing experts, comics and poets.
She is a standup comedian having a sold out run at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe and brings this passion for humour into her work. Kirsty and her work has been featured on Forbes, Metro, Bustle, HR News, Happiful Magazine, Consultancy UK alongside many others. Her previous book, “The Future is Freelance” was a finalist in the Start Up Inspiration category in the Business Book Awards and she recently won “Most Inspiring Speaker” at the 2022 Speaker Awards.
The actual story
My first business was super successful
I don’t know about you, but I never really knew what I wanted to do when I grew up. I was never super driven or ambitious. I didn’t have a clear goal or a big hearted desire to be an entrepreneur.
That changed when I discovered digital marketing. My career began flogging shit on the internet, and oh how well she flogged that shit!
I progressed in my career, fast. Becoming a renowned thought leader and speaking on stages all over the world by my mid twenties.
At 26, I founded my first company. A marketing agency called Manyminds. Our first client was global airline Virgin Atlantic (told you I was good). And that was soon followed suit by brands like Avis, IBM, Claire’s Acessories and many more.
We had a large, global remote team. I wrote a book on how flexible, remote working was the future of work. One of my client’s at the time called me (and I quote!) an idealist little girl for this belief at the time. More than once, I have refrained from messaging him I told you so.
Anyway. That company was successful. I learnt huge amounts about business, the good the bad and the ugly.
And then…
I burnt out
Like, bad. I was in my late twenties going to the hospital for stabbing chest pains. I was getting increasingly anxious and panicked. The Dr told me I was stressed and suggested I should change something about my lifestyle.
So I did.
People always say, starting a business is brave.
Let me tell you, closing one is braver.
Then I became one of the world’s best motivational speakers
In 2017 I was speaking at a conference and this was the lineup.
See the problem? I started giving free presentation training to women to do my bit to level the playing field and thought…god I am good at this.
Companies started paying me train their teams. I started delivering confidence workshops and motivational talks all over the world.
When I was 8 years old, I was put behind in class because I “couldn’t read”.
One of my school reports from around that time says “Kirsty’s reading has been slow, but she is starting to read the text instead of supplying her own”.
I could read. But I just wasn’t interested.
I didn’t want to read stories. I wanted to tell them.
What made me “behind” as a child turned out to be my great gift.
And I guess that’s why you’re here, to read my story and see if I can help you.
I promise you I can
