THE CAN MINDSET
KEYNOTE
The world has been telling Matt he can't for forty years. Every time, blind, he has asked why not. It has taken him to world titles in surfing and cycling, a Senior Executive career at Optus, and the biggest wave ever surfed by any para surfer. Backed by cinematic big-wave and freediving footage that puts the method on screen. Not inspiration. A repeatable method for resilience and performance.
Clients
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SEE MATT IN THE ROOM.
Matt's showreel is updated regularly. For a speaker-specific clip or a recording from a recent engagement, contact the team directly.
THE COST OF "CAN'T" IS INVISIBLE. UNTIL YOU MEASURE IT.
of employees report change fatigue, and quietly stop proposing new ideas.
When people stop asking why not, organisations stop adapting. The cost is the ideas that never make it into the meeting.
more likely teams default to the safe option under pressure, even when it's commercially inferior.
Under stress, teams don't make bad decisions. They make smaller ones. A competitor asking why not eats the market.
higher innovation output in teams that actively challenge "can't."
The best teams aren't smarter. They've built the habit of asking why not before accepting can't. This keynote installs it.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CAN'T. ONLY A CHALLENGE NOT YET NAMED. THAT IS THE CAN MINDSET.
Sources: McKinsey Organizational Health Index 2024 · Deloitte Change Fatigue Report 2025 · Harvard Business Review Innovation Research 2024
Matt inspired our team and clients with his story of setting audacious goals and how he achieves them. He left us with real takeaways and processes we could all use in our business and personal lives.
THE WORLD HAS BEEN TELLING ME I CAN'T SINCE I WAS FIVE.
At five years old, Matt was diagnosed with macular dystrophy. He was told he would go blind.Doctors told his parents he would never play sport, never hold a real job, never liveindependently. His parents asked the doctors a different question. Why can't he? Why not?
Those two questions, asked honestly and listened to carefully, became the operating systemMatt has run on for forty years. Every time the world has told him he can't, he has asked whynot. Every time, the explanation of "can't" has shown him the actual challenge. And everychallenge has had a solution. The method has been pressure-tested in the world's mostunforgiving environments. When it fails, someone drowns.
That is how a legally blind child played full-contact rugby against sighted kids. How the same child became a Cycling World Champion. How the same blind man was towed into a 51-footwave at Nazé, a five-storey building of water, and surfed it into the Guinness Book of WorldRecords. On the outside it looks like courage. On the inside, it is a method.
ASK WHY NOT. LISTEN TO THE CAN'T. FIND THE CHALLENGE.
When someone says "I can't," the explanation of why they can't is the most valuable data in the room. It names the specific challenge standing between them and the outcome. Most teams never hear it. As soon as "can't" lands, the conversation moves on. The Why Not? Method does the opposite. It asks why not. It listens to the explanation of can't. It isolates the specific challenge. Then it solves for that specific challenge, not the general problem. This is where psychological safety rises without a single safety workshop. And where culture shifts.
MATT”S BUSINESS TRUST FORMULA
TRUST
=
STANDARDS
×
CONSISTENCY
×
TIME
The multiplication is deliberate. If any variable drops to zero, the result is zero. You cannot shortcut trust. You cannot announce your way to it. You cannot buy it with a discount or a culture day. You have to do the work — and this framework shows exactly what that work looks like.
MATT GETS EVERY ROOM ASKING WHY NOT.
Every Can Mindset keynote includes live exercises that make the method visceral, not theoretical. Audiences are given real challenges, real "can't" statements from their own organisation, and walked through the method together in real time. These are the moments every audience member names when asked six months later what they remember. Not only because they felt lifted. Because they used the method on a problem in front of them and watched it work.
In February 2022, global media reported that Matt Formston, a blind surfer, was attempting to surf Nazé. Most reports agreed on one thing: he was going to die. Matt had spent months asking why not. Vision, solved by a tow partner and audio communication. Wave data, solved by an orienteering whistle and his team on the cliff. Breath hold, solved by months of training. Every "can't" was a challenge. Every challenge had a solution. He surfed the wave. He holds the Guinness World Record. The method didn't deliver courage. It delivered the specific answers. That is what this keynote puts in your team.
The organisations that teach their teams to ask why not stop losing opportunities to the can't reflex. Sales teams stop walking away from deals that were winnable with one more question. Leadership teams stop approving the safe option when the better option is one challenge away. Product teams stop killing ideas because the first obstacle looked permanent. Cultures lift because people feel safe naming what they can't do, and watch the team solve it together. Resilience stops being a poster on the wall and starts being a habit. This keynote is not a pep talk. It is an install of a specific mindset move. The Can Mindset builds it.
FROM THE ROOM TO MONDAY MORNING.
- The Why Not? Method
A repeatable mental move. Ask why not. Listen to the can't. Find the challenge. Every person in the room can use it on the next problem they face. - A shared team language
"Why not?" becomes the team's shortcut for challenging "can't" without being combative. Works in pipeline reviews, leadership meetings, product planning, and one-on-ones. - Resilience that sticks
Audiences don't just leave motivated. They leave with a language and a tool they will still beusing in six months. Resilience becomes a habit, not a poster. - The evidence stack
Three proof points, from a five-year-old's diagnosis to a 51-foot wave at Nazé, that prove themethod holds under the highest possible stakes. - Physical, out-of-seat exercises
Audiences get out of their seats, work in pairs, and feel the method work on a real challenge oftheir own. What you feel, you remember.
ONE KEYNOTE. BUILT AROUND YOUR BRIEF.
Every Can Mindset keynote is shaped around the event, the audience, and the specific "can'ts" your team is facing. Matt works directly with you before every engagement to understand what your people need to walk out able to do differently. Use the enquiry form below and Matt's team will scope the right format for your audience, venue, and brief.
Leadership teams, sales organisations, full-company conferences, industry events, and any audience facing change, pressure, or the quiet cost of "can't." Works in rooms of 20 and rooms of 5,000. Works for leadership-only days and all-company kick-offs. Built for teams who need a method, not just a motivational moment.
ORGANISATIONS THAT HAVE RUN THE METHOD.
Matt inspired our team and clients with his story of setting audacious goals and how he achieves them. He left us with real takeaways and processes we could all use in our business and personal lives.
Matt's extraordinary life story of determination, grit and self-development left us both humbled and inspired.
He's living proof that limits are rarely real, they're just stories waiting to be rewritten. His mindset is simple, powerful and contagious: why not?
BUYING FOR YOUR LEADERSHIP TEAM?
Why Not? is built for leadership teams reading together. The eight Hard Standards land harder when a team works through them in parallel — same book, same week, same conversation. Bulk orders available for executive teams, leadership cohorts, board offsites, and corporate book clubs.