Penny Haslam

I’m Penny Haslam, an award winning motivational speaker who inspires audiences with keynote talks about communication and confidence. My career started at the BBC as a secretary. By the time I left, I was a national television business presenter and reporter. I’d made myself a little bit famous in fact.

When I was on TV, bringing the country the latest news from the world of business, I got up at silly o’clock for my early shifts on BBC Breakfast, the News Channel and BBC Radio 5 Live. I was just a jobbing freelance journalist, but I was at the top of the tree of national network broadcasting.

Before 2010, when I was first asked onto television, to present a couple of the BBC’s impressive investigative Panorama programmes, I was a senior producer on a personal finance programme on BBC Radio 4.

In 2013, WeightWatchers invited me to be one of its celebrity brand ambassadors for the year, and I left the beeb to do that. I had a lot of fun with WeightWatchers and went from a size 18 to a size 10, which was nice.

But when the year’s promotional activity for WeightWatchers ended, I was at a junction: go back to broadcasting or release my passion for helping businesses communicate well.

I chose the latter and now run my own business as a motivational speaker, delivering bespoke talks, keynotes, lunch and learns or plenary sessions for events. I also work with individuals and organisations to build their brand profile – through coaching and training.