Felicity Ashley – Mother, Mariner, Motivator

Felicity embodies the essence of transformation and resilience.

As a mother of three, with a 20-year career in blue-chip marketing before founding a business, her journey took an extraordinary turn when she rowed across the Atlantic, battling cancer without her knowledge.

Felicity now inspires organisations, leaders and teams facing challenges or transformative change.
Her commitment to fostering resilience, inclusivity, optimism, and performance is anchored in her belief in the supremacy of mindset.

“Mindset over matter” is not just a philosophy for Felicity; it’s a mantra that has enabled her to navigate adversity, thrive through change, seize opportunities, and smash goals.

She tells her story of hope and perseverance with humility and candour, creating an instant bond with her audience.

Beyond the compelling tale of triumph against the odds, she shares actionable strategies to effect positive professional and personal transformation.

Felicity’s authenticity and relatability resonate deeply.

As a working mother who has navigated the highs and lows of both the corporate world and personal life, she is living proof that extraordinary feats are within the grasp of “ordinary” individuals.

Her message leaves her audience with the belief that they, too, can challenge their perceived limits and achieve so much more than they dared to dream.

Visionary Leadership

Felicity’s engagement with organisations and leaders facing formidable challenges or transformative change is nothing short of inspiring.

Her commitment to fostering resilience, inclusivity, optimism, and performance is anchored in her belief in the supremacy of mindset.

“Mindset over matter” is not just a philosophy for Felicity; it’s a practiced mantra that has guided her through life’s most daunting challenges, enabling her to navigate adversity, thrive through change, seize opportunities, and surpass goals.

Inspirational Journey

Her story is a beacon of hope and perseverance.

She tells her riveting narrative with humility and candour, creating an instant bond with her audience.

Beyond the compelling tale of triumph against the odds, Felicity shares actionable insights and strategies that attendees can immediately use to effect positive professional and personal transformation.

Authentic and Relatable

Felicity’s authenticity and relatability resonate deeply with her audience.

As a working mother who has navigated the highs and lows of both the corporate world and personal life, she stands as living proof that extraordinary feats are within the grasp of “ordinary” individuals.

Her message leaves her audience inspired to challenge their own perceived limits and with the belief that they are capable of so much more than they think.

Media Recognition and Speaking Engagements

Felicity’s remarkable journey and insights have captured the attention of a wide array of media outlets, including Lorraine, BBC South, BBC Sport and The Telegraph.

Her versatility as a speaker has made her a sought-after voice for diverse organisations such as Aston Martin, Centrica, Baringa, GSK and Wave Utilities, delivering keynotes, workshops, fireside chats, and lunch-and-learns that inspire and motivate.

Her ability to inspire and motivate her audiences to action have earned her ‘Highly Commended’ at The Speaker Awards 2024.

Talks & Topics

Dare to dream – achieving extraordinary goals

45-minute keynote

In order to survive and thrive in a competitive business context, organisations need to constantly evolve and set challenging business goals.

Whether sales, customer or colleague-focused, they often translate into ever-increasing targets for employees which can be overwhelming and lead to paralysis rather than progress.

To succeed, organisations need to support their people to develop the skills and mindset they need to embrace and smash their goals.

So often in life and business our achievement is limited by our ambition. And our ambition is limited by the expectations we have for ourselves, or the expectations that others have for us.

But what if we could remove those limits and raise those expectations? How much more could we achieve if we allowed ourselves to dream big?

What you can expect

Felicity delivers an uplifting and inspirational insight into how to unleash the shackles of expectation to look beyond current horizons and achieve extraordinary results.

She shares her own very personal and transformational journey of discovery which led her to complete one of the world’s toughest physical and mental challenges – rowing across the Atlantic Ocean – and she shares the lessons she learned along the way.

Felicity is a breath of fresh air in the speaking world. She shares her unique story with humility, candour and positivity.

As a working parent with a corporate background, she is entirely relatable and at the same time inspirational – showing how ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things.

She’ll leave a lasting impression on her audience – giving them food for thought as well as practical tools they can use straight away to expand their horizons and achieve their own goals.

Who can benefit from this keynote?

Organisations, leaders and teams facing or struggling to set challenging business goals, who want to support their people with the skills and mindset they need to succeed.

Organisations, leaders and teams who want to grow, or are facing an uphill battle, whose people may be feeling daunted by the size of the task ahead.

Organisations, including schools and universities, and leaders who want to inspire and motivate their people to be the best they can be and achieve their dreams.

What will the audience take away?

• They will learn how to adopt a growth mindset to tackle challenging goals and the power of saying yes.
• They will learn simple, practical tools and techniques that they can use straight away to help them achieve their goals.
• They will be more confident in their ability to achieve their dreams and learn that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

Crafting winning teams

45-minute keynote

Building inclusive, diverse, well-functioning teams is essential for any organisation to be able to compete effectively and achieve sustainable success.

Businesses today face multiple challenges, from creating diversity, to fostering a culture of inclusivity where every voice is heard and different perspectives are valued, and to ensuring cohesion and collaboration – so the team is greater than the sum of its parts and thrives.

‘Teamwork makes the dream work’.

Success is rarely down to an individual performance. It is almost exclusively the result of teamworking. Teams don’t ‘work’ without a ‘dream’ – a shared purpose that brings the individuals together and helps create cohesion.

And the most successful teams are those that celebrate and leverage the diversity within them.
What you can expect

Felicity delivers highly engaging, entertaining and inspiring insights into how to create successful teams, showing how to embrace diversity and create cohesion to drive success.

She shares her own experience of building her highly successful team – The Mothership – a crew of four mothers who rowed, unaided, 3,000 miles across the Atlantic.

A challenge which defeats many before even reaching the starting line, this was the ultimate, high-stakes test of teamwork, where survival depended on it.

Felicity is a breath of fresh air in the speaking world.

She shares her unique story with humility, candour and positivity.

As a working parent with a corporate background, she is entirely relatable and will leave a lasting impression on her audience – giving them food for thought as well as practical tools they can use straight away to transform their approach to teamworking.

Who can benefit from this keynote?

Organisations and leaders who are on a mission to improve the effectiveness of their existing teams, rebuilding teams or building new teams, and want to drive more successful outcomes.

Organisations who want to equip their leaders and managers with the skills needed to build high-performing teams

Organisations and leaders who are passionate about leveraging the diversity and experience within their teams and creating a more inclusive culture within their teams.

Organisations and leaders who want to increase the morale of their people through creating more inclusive, collaborative and effective teams.

What will the audience take away?

• They will learn how to create a more inclusive environment to help teams and individuals within them to flourish.
• They will learn how to create cohesion through a shared purpose to help teams navigate challenges and change.
• They will learn how to leverage the diversity within their teams and communicate more effectively for improved outcomes
• They will be given some simple tools and techniques that they can use straight away to improve the effectiveness of their teams.