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Ian Mullen

Speaking

Ideas worth listening to.

Keynotes for conferences, leadership events and internal gatherings, in person or virtual. The job is to change how the room thinks about something, not to fill an hour.

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Ian Mullen delivering his TEDx talk on stage, with the red TEDx letters visible behind him

TEDx · Editor’s Pick

The talk

The Secret Rhythm Behind Every Great Story

Delivered in March 2026, the talk introduced Setup, Shift, Outcome to a wider audience: the underlying rhythm that makes a story, a pitch or a change programme make sense to the person receiving it.

TEDx selected it as an Editor’s Pick. It has not been published yet. When TEDx releases it, it will appear here.

Delivered
March 2026
Recognition
TEDx Editor’s Pick
Release
Publication pending with TEDx

Talks

Each talk is built around the audience, the event and what needs to be different afterwards. The titles are a starting point, not a menu.

01

Making Ideas Land

The problem
Organisations full of good ideas that never move anyone. More slides, more detail, less traction.
The idea
An idea only exists once someone else can hold it. Landing is a design problem, not a delivery problem.
The outcome
Audiences leave with a repeatable way to build any message around the change they want in someone's head.
02

The Architecture of Communication

The problem
Presentations assembled like documents: everything included, nothing load-bearing, no shape the audience can follow.
The idea
Every piece of communication has a structure. Most people never choose theirs. They inherit it from the template.
The outcome
A working structural model (setup, shift, outcome) that teams can apply to pitches, town halls and board papers.
03

Storytelling Without the Theatre

The problem
Storytelling has been reduced to an anecdote about a mountain. Audiences can smell the manipulation.
The idea
Story is a mechanism for attention and meaning, not a costume. Use the mechanism, drop the performance.
The outcome
A grounded, professional way to use narrative that survives sceptical, senior rooms.
04

Communication Is a Contact Sport

The problem
Messages sent, boxes ticked, and nobody checking whether anything arrived.
The idea
Communication happens in the gap between people. It is reciprocal, interruptible and occasionally uncomfortable.
The outcome
Leaders who read the room, invite friction earlier and get decisions to stick.

In practice

Built in real rooms.

This comes from doing the job. Strategy, sales, leadership and enablement, in organisations where the communication had to work.

5,000+
People developed through sales, leadership and corporate communication programmes.
Two decades
Working across industries. The communication problem changes, the principles travel.
1 to thousands
One to one with executives, leadership teams, and full conference audiences.
TEDx Editor's Pick
Selected by TEDx from talks delivered on their stages.

Got a date and a room?

Tell Ian who’s in the audience and what needs to be different when they leave.

Discuss an event