Benjamin Mee
Inspirational & Motivational Speaker
Testimonials
"Benjamin Mee has a wonderfully unique story to tell. An uplifting and inspiring story that resonates with everyone; the need to carry on despite adversity, to persevere against the odds, and to create a home for one's family. Combined with Ben's unwavering resolve and clear focus the learning that he weaves into his fascinating anecdotes of wolves and "big cats" can be readily applied to the corporate world of today. Ben is a charismatic and compelling storyteller and a genuine pleasure to listen to."
Andy Parker, Deputy CEO, Capita PLC
"Please pass on my sincere thanks to Ben for speaking yesterday. He was honestly the best speaker of the day and everyone really enjoyed his inspirational and exceptional story." Kirsten Sculley - Courses and Conferences Marketing Executive, R3
Please find here a selection of other feedback from delegates:
"I don’t normally come to R3 conferences to enjoy myself however I really enjoyed myself thoroughly due to Benjamin Mee."
"He was mesmerising and inspiring"
"Hugely interesting, emotionally engaging and a great insight into the challenges / pressures directors face when their business is struggling."
"I think he should have presented in the last session of the day- he left the audience feeling really energised and was a difficult act to follow!"
Please find here a selection of other feedback from delegates:
"I don’t normally come to R3 conferences to enjoy myself however I really enjoyed myself thoroughly due to Benjamin Mee."
"He was mesmerising and inspiring"
"Hugely interesting, emotionally engaging and a great insight into the challenges / pressures directors face when their business is struggling."
"I think he should have presented in the last session of the day- he left the audience feeling really energised and was a difficult act to follow!"
Conference feedback, R3 - Association of Business Recovery Professionals
"We were delighted when Ben was available to be our key guest speaker at our National Operations Conference in Crewe - November 2010. Ben immediately captured the 120 delegates with his sincere and engaging personality; the conference room was filled with a range of reactions from complete silence as they listened intently to minute's later raptures of laughter. Ben weighted his talk exactly right for the audience and the feedback forms post conference were all indicating that he was one of the highlights. Ben kindly stayed after his presentation and signed copies of his book which again was a lovely touch - we would definitely love to work with Ben again in the future and would recommend him highly."
Tanya Vigus, Head of Operations, Cats Protection
"Benjamin was a fantastic speaker - utterly compelling and totally engaging with a story that was inspiring, humbling, humorous and tear-jerking all at the same time. I think we all now want to buy a zoo or to live on his!"
Managing Director, HSS Hire
"Benjamin spoke to an audience of over 300 retail professionals with the utmost passion and enthusiasm about his story of buying a Zoo. His empathetic approach engaged the audience and they continued to listen to his every word. Benjamin has a natural ability to inject humour into his speech whilst at the same time delivering some very serious points on this amazing risk taking project. This is a unique story with many important business messages and one which the audience will remember for a long time to come. We look forward to working with Benjamin again in the near future."
Jan Jenkins, Managing Director, Room 54 Ltd - Tesco
'We asked Benjamin Mee to be a speaker at our Annual Event for 100 clients which is held at the BAFTA headquarters in Piccadilly. The theme of our Event was Adaptive, Responsive and Courageous Leadership. Benjamin’s story is both powerful and inspirational and he tells it with integrity, humility and humour. Benjamin spoke for 45 minutes and throughout this time the audience was captivated by the story of how he found himself to be the proud owner of a zoo with all that this brings. Benjamin has a natural storytelling style and speaks eloquently and from the heart. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak I would thoroughly recommend that you seize it with both hands, you won’t be disappointed.'
Gillian Carter, Marketing Projects and Events Manager, ASK Europe
Dear Benjamin, on behalf of the students and staff of Greensburg Community High School, I wanted to say thank you for speaking at our semi-annual Chautauqua event. Truthfully, merely to say thank you does not do it justice. You put aside your job and family, traveled half way across the world, just to inspire a group of 700 high school students from a small town in the middle of the cornfields of the USA-Benjamin, mission accomplished. The feedback that I have received from the students as well as the community has been unbelievable. Your message was filled with hope, knowledge, and the inspiration to help drive my students to the greatness that exists within each one of them. I think it speaks volumes that you would do this out of the kindness of your heart and to paid solely in gratitude, not in currency. Please know you will always be a part of Greensburg High School and if you ever desire to build a new zoo, you will be embraced in Greensburg, Indiana. Keep up your amazing work and please stay in touch.
John Pratt, Chautauqua Coordinator, Greensburg High School
"Without hesitation, I can say that Benjamin is a gifted speaker. We invited Benjamin to be the guest speaker for the annual evening for Gifted and Talented students at St.Luke's College, to an audience comprising over 350 students, parents and staff.
In previous years, we have been honoured to welcome other illustrious guests such as Paralympic Champion Liz Johnson and explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, (widely recognised as one of the best speakers in the world), so the expectations were high. Benjamin did not disappoint.
Benjamin spoke with humour and passion and had every single person gripped throughout. He had clearly worked hard to tailor his speech to our needs and exceeded my expectations for connecting with such a diverse audience. He has a uniquely dramatic story to tell, (one that Hollywood have now recognised), but the real skill was in bringing out the universal themes of ambition, adversity, risk and ultimately triumph.
Every member of the audience connected with the message and it was one of the most inspiring talks I have ever heard. This was backed up by the deafening applause, the fact that the boxes of Benjamin's book were woefully inadequate for the demand and in the numerous messages I received afterwards, congratulating me on my choice of speaker.It would be impossible not to be inspired by Benjamin's story, but he is also a born storyteller with a dry wit, a writer's flair for the dramatic and effortless charisma.
His impact was such that we now present the annual 'Benjamin Mee Award for Outstanding Contribution to English and Media' and he continues to be an inspiration."
In previous years, we have been honoured to welcome other illustrious guests such as Paralympic Champion Liz Johnson and explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, (widely recognised as one of the best speakers in the world), so the expectations were high. Benjamin did not disappoint.
Benjamin spoke with humour and passion and had every single person gripped throughout. He had clearly worked hard to tailor his speech to our needs and exceeded my expectations for connecting with such a diverse audience. He has a uniquely dramatic story to tell, (one that Hollywood have now recognised), but the real skill was in bringing out the universal themes of ambition, adversity, risk and ultimately triumph.
Every member of the audience connected with the message and it was one of the most inspiring talks I have ever heard. This was backed up by the deafening applause, the fact that the boxes of Benjamin's book were woefully inadequate for the demand and in the numerous messages I received afterwards, congratulating me on my choice of speaker.It would be impossible not to be inspired by Benjamin's story, but he is also a born storyteller with a dry wit, a writer's flair for the dramatic and effortless charisma.
His impact was such that we now present the annual 'Benjamin Mee Award for Outstanding Contribution to English and Media' and he continues to be an inspiration."
Torsten Payne, Co-ordinator, Gifted and Talented Programme
"Benjamin was truly inspirational, a story told from the heart and very different to the usual motivational speakers. It was the first time I have seen delegates queue to shake a speaker's hand."
Jill Leake, Royal Mail
"Ben Mee's presentation fulfilled our conference objectives, was entertaining and fun. He demonstrated that with persistence we can overcome the toughest of challenges. He was friendly, natural and unassuming. Ben was embraced by all - they loved his story and his style. Overall his presentation was excellent."
The Lord Kirkham, Duke of Edinburgh Awards
"We were lucky enough to get Benjamin Mee to speak for our zoo fundraiser in April 2014. From the first time of speaking with him on the phone we knew that he was going to be the highlight of the event. He did not disappoint. He was a fantastic speaker and had the crowd enthralled the whole time. He made himself available before and after his speaking and reached out to even more people during the night, helping our cause even more. In the couple of days that we got to spend with Benjamin we learned so much and he gave us a ton of encouragement. Benjamin is full of ideas and excitement and it rubs off on you. It is easy to see that he loves what he does. I would highly recommend him to anyone that is looking for someone to reach out and connect with people, create excitement and help you in any way he can."
Shawne Sheldon, Retail Manager, Washington Park Zoo, Michigan City
"Benjamin gave a fantastic speaking appearance at our zoo society's fundraiser. He was entertaining and motivating, the audience was captivated by his performance. When he finished speaking guests were more likely to up their pocket books to support our cause, they all wanted his book and a photo with him. Our zoo staff felt empowered by his challenging story and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to meet him. Not only did his visit help to get media attention and raise much needed funds; this visit also raised our staff morale and for me that was the most important part. It can be hard to keep working towards something when you feel like you can never get ahead, but meeting Benjamin and seeing how positive he is after facing so many challenges gives you the much needed energy to keep your head up and continue on."
Julia Dare-Cole, Society President, Washington Park Zoo, Michigan City
"Please pass on our huge thanks to Ben not only for his fantastic presentation which was so well received by the whole audience, but also for staying so long afterwards to talk with people who all wanted to congratulate and thank him. We ask delegates to complete a feedback questionnaire after the event, they are asked to rate the presentations, Ben received over 100% positive feedback! ... we all enjoyed meeting him and listening to his fascinating and at times, hilarious journey into zoo ownership. Our only problem now is that we will struggle to top Ben's presentation at future events!!"
Allie Clark, Economic Development Officer, Teignbridge District Council
"Ben, the feedback on all of the engagements was first rate. Our buyers were extremely pleased - and of course, that makes us very happy! Thanks for making us look so good!"
Sean Lawton, Keppler - US University speakers tour
“Thank you for taking the time out to speak at our Marketing offsite last week. The session was a great fit with our new vision of 'Finding Your Voice' and you really exceeded our expectations :) We received lots of positive feedback and everyone including myself thought you were interesting, inspirational, funny and were absolutely amazed by your positivity and future projects.”
Usha Mistry - Direct Marketing Manager, Churchill Motor and Green Flag, Direct Line Group
“Just to say thank you again for today. It went down really well with everyone. Your story is very fitting to ours - strange that insurance and zoo-keeping are linked at all but in the end it is all about human struggles”.
Mark Evans - Head of Marketing, Direct Line Group
"Having seen Ben Mee briefly on TV talking about the trials and tribulations he endured in rescuing Dartmoor Zoo, it wasn't hard to link his success in surmounting the difficulties he faced with our (Rotary District 1090) conference theme 'We Can'. It is, however, one thing having a great story to tell and quite another being able to craft the delivery to engage an audience as completely as Ben did at our event. Our audience of 800 were enchanted by his easy style and self-deprecating quiet inspiration. The success he seemed to be on the day was borne out by the post-event feedback where it was absolutely clear that he was the stand-out speaker of our weekend (against some stiff competition) with a more than 90% positive rating."
John Greening, Governor, Rotary International District 1090