TESTIMONIALS FROM YPO MEMBERS

“Simon was a keynote at our YPO Australia/New Zealand Regional event, Engage. He delivered a powerful and provocative speech that challenged and inspired our members. The feeling afterward was that for some he ignited a true sense of shared responsibility among business leaders to embrace the positive role business can and must play, and how to make it actionable in ways that scale impact and business growth.

His presentation at our RBM the day prior showed how engaging with members more personally is critical and it showed that Simon was deeply committed to engaging with members and adding real value to their leadership.”
Marc Flior – YPO Regional Chair – Australia/NZ

“Simon is that rare speaker who can translate complex concepts and emerging opportunities into actionable insights that truly add value to companies and organizations. As a highly awarded and seasoned practitioner of branding for many of the world’s top companies, he reveals what works and scales with great humor, integrity and engagement. Having seen Simon speak on several occasions and witnessed his deep commitment to the purposeful growth of companies, I highly recommend him and know that he would be a real asset to our YPO community, especially given our vision of YPO 3.0.”
Mark Van Ness, CEO, Real Leaders

“Simon is absolutely amazing! He is without question one of the best speakers of our times. He is relevant, engaging, high energy and offers extremely useful content. Simon is a world class story teller all geared toward making you and your company more successful. You will not want to miss any of his presentations. I walked away from the last time I saw him not only with huge take home value, but inspired, well informed, ready for action, and craving for more. Simon’s presentations are truly remarkable and he would be a benefit for any event.”
Steve Phillips, Phillips Associates

“I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Simon Mainwaring speak on multiple occasions, and wanted to share the influence and impact his vision has made within my company, Left Field Labs. As a member of YPO SMB, and CEO of a creative technology agency, I find that it’s increasingly important to look to new and progressive models of leadership in the business world. Simon challenges the status quo of global brands and companies by inspiring us to look at how we can embrace purposeful growth and lead the charge on implementing positive global impact, creating a new model for businesses to thrive in an ever-changing world. The impact to the culture of Left Field Labs has also been tremendous; not only do we attract and retain employees more successfully, we have happier and more productive staff as a result. I wholeheartedly recommend Simon for any upcoming speaking engagements at YPO. His purpose-driven vision and approach is as relevant for YPO members as it is vital to our shared vision for shaping the future together.”
Sarah Richardson Mehler, Left Field Labs

“Simon’s seminar was insightful, relevant and full of applicable examples. Most of the members talked about getting concrete ideas to apply to their respective businesses. The insights were relevant for both big and smaller brands across an array of industries. 90 minutes flew by and left us curious for more.”
Gonzalo Balcazar, Sydney Tan, Cheryl Ong, YPO Malaysia

“Simon was our keynote speaker at our recent YPOGLA president’s retreat. His presentation was insightful, dynamic, and thought provoking. Simon’s highly effective use of case studies brought a real world perspective to difficult business questions and his energetic interaction with audience members was invaluable to our retreat’s success.”
Craig Underwood, YPO Gold Presidents Retreat 2019

“I found your talk perceptive, nuanced, and eye-opening. Your ideas were a gift to our companies, a critical counterpoint to the “bits and bytes” of digital marketing they spend most of their time worrying about.”
Jay Sung, Brentwood Associates

CORPORATE CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

Todd LoFrese, Participate Learning
“Simon deeply inspired all of our employees at our annual meeting. He connected the importance of the current business landscape with critical social and environmental issues and linked it directly to our unique market opportunity. He developed and presented a new purpose statement that engaged our employees personally and energized them around our future direction. It is clear that We First cares deeply about our company and they are truly a great partner. We can’t recommend them highly enough.”

Michael Higgins, Thrive Farmers
“In the Hot Seat, Simon gives off-the-cuff, ready-to-roll branding advice that transforms people’s understanding of their company’s direction. Brilliant indeed! Simon makes branding seem like common sense. And it’s not!”

Sarah Grover, True Food Kitchen
“It’s one thing to inspire and motivate a room of leading industry professionals, and another to give them actionable insights to leave with. Simon Mainwaring over-delivered on both fronts, creating enormous buzz in the room and at the event. Generous with his time, he also engaged with attendees throughout the event sharing his expertise. His presentation was a huge success and I highly recommend him for standout presentations.”

Jill Novelo, VSP Global
“Simon did an amazing job as we knew he would, his presentation, demeanor and messaging was extremely well received across the board. His willingness to take the time to learn about our business and our objectives for the meeting were apparent by the quality of his content and customization to our corporate goals and vision. He is a true professional and an authentic business partner.”

Niels Schuurmans, Viacom
“Simon’s presentation was relevant and insightful into how brands think and work to get their message across to consumers. He had great real world examples which the audience was able to relate to.It was easy to see how these examples applied to our business and clients, and how we could use them to improve the value we offer. Attendees found it to be informative, clear, concise, and engaging, with many considering his presentation to be one of the highlights of the off-site.”

Ben Jones, Face 2 Face Entertainment
“Simon presented a talk on branding that inspired a room of 275 entertainment industry leaders to think beyond products and process to be inspired by impact and purpose. He’s an expressive visionary thinker with a rare intellect who presents fresh insights about generational brands and is able to seamlessly connect the dots for the audience to act.”

Ilze Melngailis, UN Foundation
“We First planned a tailored workshop for our member companies on elevating and aligning corporate purpose with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our event participants and I were all so impressed by their depth of expertise, attentiveness to the group, all offered with abundant warmth and humor. The We First team was top-notch and so professional at every step of the planning and follow up, and they successfully delivered on a densely packed, well-substantiated and above-all, actionable training session that our members are still talking about!”