Speaking services
Phil is passionate about de-stigmatising loneliness and helping all humans - however they identify - feel authentic connection.
You want Phil - a global loneliness and connection expert - to speak in your workplace, your conference, event or podcast.
You want Phil to share his own lived experience of loneliness and his insights on moving through loneliness towards feeling authentic connection with your audience.
Let's make that happen for you.
Phil's able to speak online or in person.
Photo credit: smb creative
Phil's current keynote topics
Phil has keynotes that are ready to support you, your conference, podcast or event:
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Learning the language of loneliness
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One of the reasons we don't talk about loneliness within ourselves is that we don't know what words to use. Moreover, we don't know how to sit with loneliness when others share their stories with us. Phil draws on his love of language and experience learning six languages (French, German, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and te reo Maori) and his initial difficulty to speak about his loneliness to help your audience talk about loneliness.
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Coming out as lonely
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If we are all to get the connection that we each need, we all need to own our loneliness and come out as lonely to ourselves and to those around us. Phil draws parallels between the power of coming out as gay as the type of vulnerability needed for your audience to own their loneliness and desire for improved connection.
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Our search for belonging
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All humans need to feel that we belong. We are all on a search to prove that we're worthy of love and belonging. Sometimes this search means that we get horribly lost and feel lonely. Phil shares his lifelong search for belonging as a beacon for your audience to recognise their own - and others' - search for belonging. Phil calls them home to feel belonging.
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Solving the global loneliness epidemic: perspectives from lived experience
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There are many reports highlighting the global loneliness epidemic in a post-pandemic societies. Phil gives his five tips to solve the global loneliness epidemic. These tips come from his own expertise in public policy development, his own perspective from lived experience, his work at The Loneliness Guy and The Lonely Diplomat since 2018. He links academic research and public policy responses to loneliness with the human whose heart, mind and soul are experiencing loneliness.
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Loneliness in middle-age: our inconvenient truth
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Loneliness feels like an unwelcome and inconvenient truth, because we live in societies which prize endless productivity and boundless happiness. Who has time to experience loneliness? As a result, we don't talk about loneliness. And because we don't talk about loneliness, we feel alone in our loneliness when it creeps up on us as we enter middle-age. Phil shares his thoughts about loneliness in middle-age, and about how slowing down and listening to loneliness as the way to get the connection we each need and position ourselves for our next stage of life.
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Three reasons why humans are lonely
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While there are infinite reasons why humans feel lonely, Phil provides the top three reasons why the humans in your audience feel lonely. He offers realistic steps for individuals, groups and society to take to support those feeling lonely to feel genuinely connected again.
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Have Phil support, inspire and lovingly challenge
the humans in your audience.
You need Phil's insight and experience
Phil is a global loneliness and connection expert. He's an articulate, affable, highly-educated and engaging speaker who makes the topic of loneliness relatable.
Phil's keynotes, talks and presentations pivot conversations and conferences about loneliness from talking about the concept – the problem to be solved – to impactful conversations about a human experience that every human has.
Phil has an academic background in public policy, community development and international relations. He was an Australian Public Servant - including an Australian diplomat - for 23 years. Phil spent many of those years working in environments where the pressure to deliver high-quality results was relentless. Success was expected at all costs, every time.
He knows how lonely it can feel to be unseen and unheard in the spaces where other humans live, work and play. He understands how crippling loneliness in middle-age can be. He also know that it's a valuable gift to help us make changes to live a more fulfilled life in alignment with our values.
Phil knows how difficult it is to ask for help and support. He also knows that the help provided sometimes does not actually help alleviate the thoughts and feelings of loneliness.
Phil developed and now provides the products and services he needed when first learning from his loneliness. He's now passionately de-stigmatising loneliness for humans worldwide.
Phil's difference
Loneliness is often discussed in a dry, conceptual way.
Statistics and academic reports and theories don’t resonate with the human experiencing the emotion. If we're to take real steps to solve the global loneliness epidemic we need people like Phil - his wisdom and insights - to connect with other humans' hearts, minds and souls.
Phil's keynotes, presentations and talks inject humanity into how we collectively respond to the global loneliness problem because they come from him and his experience of loneliness.
His talks and keynotes always support, inspire and lovingly challenge you and your audience. Phil shares insights from his life and life experiences in a way that humans (including professionals, parents, LGBTIQA+ communities, students) see and understand their own life experience.
While it always takes courage for Phil to share his experience of loneliness with others, he does so because he creates the discussion he wishes was happening when he realised that he was lonely.
Hundreds of thousands of people globally have benefitted from hearing Phil's story and having him facilitate kind and honest conversations about loneliness, connection and belonging.
Humans feel more connected and engaged to themselves and the world because of Phil's work.
Your audience needs - and deserves -
Phil's unique insights into loneliness and how we can all feel more connected.
Previous speaking events
June 2023
Phil was a keynote speaker at the Hull International Conference on Loneliness - The Search for Belonging on Tuesday 27 June 2023.
Hosted by MyBabble, the conference was held at the University of Hull and focussed on destigmatising loneliness and searching for belonging.
Phil spoke about his lifelong search for belonging and challenged the audience to stop hustling to prove their worthiness for love and belonging, too.
Phil joined other expert speakers working to reduce loneliness, including Dr. Adrian James (President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists).
MyBabble’s aim is to create connections and nurture conversations between people, in a bid to provide opportunities to connect using technology.
"What a wonderfully delivered touching personal journey you presented yesterday. I was captivated and inspired by your story. Thanks for sharing."
- John, conference attendee
received 28 June 2023
"Thank you for your inspiring talk. It was very moving and you told the story so well. Many people in the audience commented on how much it touched them."
- Matt, conference attendee
received 29 June 2023
"Your presentation to the conference was most inspiring. [You've an] eloquent way of presenting and a story with such power and relevance. Your excellent contribution and the angle taken on the loneliness issue was [...] inspirational."
- Nick, conference attendee
received 30 June 2023
March 2023
On Tuesday 7 March 2023, Phil shared his experience of loneliness and spoke on workplace loneliness and the loneliness experienced by LGBTIQA+ humans in society as part of a panel discussion to an internal audience of Medibank employees.
Phil was a panel member alongside Dr Michelle Lim (Scientific Chair and Chairperson Ending Loneliness Together) and Ms Liz Keen (Executive Producer – Audio from Headline Productions).
Medibank has a 10-year strategy on addressing loneliness and is raising awareness of loneliness as a key health issue in Australia. It’s collaborating to understand the most effective, evidence-based solutions to address loneliness and its impacts on health.
"You had [an] impact on our people!"
- Karen Oldaker, Senior Executive Wellbeing and Community, Medibank.
received 8 March 2023
"Thanks for coming along today and sharing your story! Have had a few people from our Pride Network reach out and say how thankful they were for your perspective."
- Nigel Davis, Head of Performance, Engagement and Community, Medibank, received 7 March 2023
December 2022
Ending Loneliness Together hosted a members-only webinar featuring Prof. Manuela Barreto from the University of Exeter in the UK on 8 December 2022.
Phil's spoke in his capacity of being a member of Ending Loneliness Together's Lived Experience Advisory Panel about his experience with the inadequacies of the language of loneliness.
English is a wonderful language and Phil uses it well. However, Phil says that the language is ill-equipped for conversations about loneliness. As a result, we must learn to listen for what people experiencing loneliness don't say as much as what they do say.
Phil's here to help us learn how to speak about our loneliness.
"Wonderful conversation, Phil. Insightful and eloquent. Thank you for being part of this national movement." - Dr Michelle Lim - Scientific Chair and Chairperson Ending Loneliness Together -
13 December 2022
October 2022
Phil spoke at the Canadian Human Connection Conference on: 'The courage it takes to come out as gay and as lonely: disrupting gay loneliness and reconstructing perceptions of connection in the community.'
See Phil's presentation here.
The event was hosted by the Genwell Project and the Institute for Social Connection.
Feedback: 'The highlight of the day was Phil saying that by speaking about loneliness we normalize it. I've never though of it that way before.'
Thank you to all involved for the opportunity to connect with others working on loneliness in Canada.
August 2022
Phil is a member of Ending Loneliness Together's Lived Experience Advisory Panel.
Phil shared some of his personal loneliness story at the launch of the Strengthening Social Connection to Accelerate Social Recovery White Paper. The event was held at Parliament House in Canberra and was hosted by the Parliamentary Friends of Ending Loneliness Together.
Phil shared the speaker's stage with leading global loneliness experts, including Dr Michelle Lim (Chair, Ending Loneliness Together), Dr Vivek Murthy (US Surgeon-General) and Dr Etienne Krug (World Health Organisation).
Thank you to Ending Loneliness Together for the wonderful opportunity.
Read Phil's speech here.
Phil and his work
in the media
As a global loneliness thought leader, Phil loves spreading messages about the importance of
de-stigmatising loneliness and promoting authentic connection for humans globally.
Here are some media programs and podcasts Phil's appeared on and articles he's written.
Phil appeared on a story on SBS World News as a loneliness expert. He shared some of his loneliness experience and offered an insight to help Australians feel less lonely as part of Australia's first Loneliness Awareness Week.
Phil appeared on a story on SBS News podcast as a loneliness expert. He shared some of his loneliness experience and offered an insight to help Australians feel more connected as part of Australia's first Loneliness Awareness Week.
Phil appeared on Camilla Quintana's 'The Empowered Expat Woman Podcast' to talk about coping with loneliness when living abroad
Phil shared some of his entrepreneurial insights as a global loneliness thought leader with Canvas Rebel.
Phil shared some of his story of loneliness and the wisdom he gained from it on SBS' Insight program on Tuesday 6 June 2023.
Join Phil and DrummondCulture for episode 251 of Positive Talk. Join us for a beautiful conversation about owning loneliness and using loneliness to get the connection we need. From IG Live, Tuesday 28 March 2023.
Phil's loneliness story and the reasons for starting The Loneliness Guy and The Lonely Diplomat featured on the ABC Story Stream on Monday 6 February 2023
Phil and his work featured in an article on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) News on 12 January 2023.
Phil joined Gayborhood host Ed Wilson for a chat about gay loneliness, shame, being a Daddy and how our harshest experiences in life can become your superpower.
I participated on The Roundtable with other loneliness experts. The Roundtable is a show on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National every Sunday morning.
I appeared on Michael Rhodes' podcast on helping men through divorce. It was a fantastic - and real - conversation.
I wrote an article on how your loneliness is a gift for a fantastic local LGBTIQ+ magazine here in Canberra. Go read it!
I came out later in life. Calan Breckon from the Gay Men's Brotherhood asked me to join a panel of other beautiful men who also came out later in life to talk about it. Watch this episode of Gay Men Going Deeper here
My friend Mike Campbell wanted to know the cure for loneliness. So I shared it with him. Come and join us for this chat and find out what cures loneliness!
Join my conversation about loneliness and belonging with my friend Michael DiIorio from the Gay Men's Brotherhood
Listen to my conversation with Alexander Gerard about overcoming loneliness and being a happy gay man