[ KEYNOTE · TRAUMA · RESILIENCE · REINVENTION ]
If you understand the first eight years of your life, you can master the rest of it.
A keynote about what happens when you don’t deal with your childhood — and what becomes possible the moment you do. Told through the true story of a man who had everything, lost all of it, and fought his way back.
ALEK MARTIN · BERLIN · ENGLISH / DEUTSCH / FRANÇAIS
Most people think a breakdown is something that happens to other people. It isn’t. Most of us are carrying something from the first years of our lives that quietly runs the show — the choices we make, the people we pick, the way we work, the way we fall apart. Some people crash in small ways, over and over, and never name it. Mine came all at once, and it nearly killed me.
This talk is the story of that crash — and what it taught me about resilience, about the cost of not dealing with your past, and about the one piece of work that decides everything else.
I had it all. Then one death pulled a thread, and the whole thing came apart in twenty-eight days.
[ THE ARC OF THE TALK ]
A story the room can feel — not a lecture.
01 / THE HEIGHT
Having it all
Decorated young, beautiful, successful — millions made across nine countries. The picture of a life going right.
02 / THE CRASH
One death, twenty-eight days
How fast a life can come apart when the thing holding it together — your resilience — is suddenly gone.
03 / THE PATTERN
Why it happened
The childhood wound underneath it all, and how it had been steering the wheel the whole time, unseen.
04 / THE WORK
Dealing with it
What it takes to face your past, build real resilience, and stop the small crashes before they become a big one.
[ TWO ROOMS, ONE TRUTH ]
For conferences & public audiences
The crash you didn’t see coming
A raw, funny, unforgettable hour on how the first years of life shape every year after — and why dealing with your past isn’t self-indulgence, it’s survival. People leave moved, seen, and ready to look at their own story honestly.
Ideal for: wellbeing & mental-health events, festivals, community and member organisations, education.
For leadership, HR & corporate
Resilience is built before the crisis
The people you lead are carrying things that shape how they perform, decide, and burn out. This talk makes the case — through a real, high-stakes story — for why the inner work behind resilience is a business issue, not a soft one.
Ideal for: leadership offsites, HR & people summits, culture and wellbeing programmes, change & reinvention themes.
[ WHAT THE ROOM LEAVES WITH ]
Takeaways
- Why the first eight years quietly run the rest — and how to start seeing your own pattern.
- What resilience actually is, and why it’s built long before the crisis arrives.
- The difference between the small, repeating crashes most people ignore and the big one that finally stops you.
- Permission — and a reason — to do the inner work: therapy, coaching, or simply facing the truth.
- That it’s never too late to deal with your past and take your life back.
[ PRACTICALITIES ]
Formats
Keynote (30–60 min) · fireside / Q&A · half-day workshop on request
Languages
English · German · French · Luxembourgish
Where
In person from Berlin · worldwide · virtual
[ BOOK ALEK · FOR ORGANISERS & AGENCIES ]
Bring this talk to your stage. And if you’re an agency — let’s talk representation.
Tell me about your event, your audience, and your date. I’m also actively looking for a speaking agency to represent the keynote and bring the message to more stages.