A bold, emotional and original KEYNOTE SESSION that challenges outdated ideas of strength and offers a new blueprint for modern leadership grounded in emotional fluency, identity and courage.
REDEFINING LEADERSHIP
Hard As Nails is a national social experiment that asked a simple question: what happens when men step into that space and paint their nails? What followed surprised everyone. Men reported feeling more confident, more connected, and more emotionally open. Not just in the salon, but in their relationships, workplaces, and lives. A small aesthetic act triggered a big psychological shift.
Based on Sam’s award-winning national social experiment, Hard As Nails, this talk explores how redefining masculinity isn’t just a social issue—it’s a leadership advantage. Drawing from hundreds of anonymous male diaries, this session is raw, funny, and deeply human. It’s designed to open up honest conversations in places that need them most.
Features:
Real stories from frontline workers, fathers, creatives, and CEOs
Anonymous data collected from the campaign’s 300+ participants
A brave, unusual and disarming format (nail painting optional)
Takeaways:
A framework for emotional leadership in high-pressure roles
New language for identity, values and integrity at work
How to build teams where strength looks different—but performs better
Perfect for:
Leadership offsites and internal culture days
Organisations seeking to modernise their view of strength
Environments where emotional honesty is undervalued but needed
I was blown away by the fantastic keynote from Sam at the Richmond Events 2-day conference.
When I am coaching keynote speakers, one of my mantra’s is brilliant content, brilliantly delivered and Sam really delivered on that. My normal post would be to draw out his great body language and speaking skills that my followers could learn from, but on this occasion, the content was the key take-away for me.
Sam talked about the state of masculinity in the modern world and how he came up with the campaign title. After getting his own nails painted when attending a Harry Styles concert, he discovered he couldn’t easily remove them on a Sunday night. He had to confront the reality of having painted nails as a straight man in a responsible job.
His experience and those of other brave initial nail painters revealed multiple valuable insights about perception, masculinity and communication. I won't go into the details – Sam will do that so much better.
But as a father to a 15 year old son, the talk had a profound effect on me. Sam’s revealing that 18 men a day commit suicide due to the pressures of being a man in today’s society left me deeply reflecting my role shaping the man my son is becoming.