Dr Lauren Burns OAM

Dr Lauren Burns OAM's Biography

Elevating Potential - practical strategies to bring structure, balance and energy into lives, careers and businesses

Dr Lauren Burns OAM delivers powerful, engaging, and life-changing presentations. Lauren’s genuine passion for inspiring and empowering participants shines through her unique blend of humour, down-to-earth storytelling, and evidence-based tips for achieving optimal well-being and high-performance living. Her ability to captivate audiences with relatable anecdotes and practical strategies is what sets her apart.

Through her presentations, Lauren elevates the potential of each individual in the room, motivating them to take action and make positive changes in their lives.

She created sporting history by winning the first Olympic gold medal for Taekwondo when the sport debuted at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

She was one of only three Australian women to win an individual Olympic Gold Medal, along with Cathy Freeman and Susie O’Neill. Her amazing triumph at the Sydney Games was achieved against the odds – requiring enormous discipline, commitment, perseverance, and teamwork.

Since the Sydney Olympics, Lauren has emerged as one of Australia’s most sought-after speakers. She has been on the speaking circuit for over 25 years and continues to travel the country conducting keynote presentations, workshops, and masterclasses, all cantered around ‘Elevating Potential’ in individuals.

Lauren’s presentations are powerful and engaging. Her genuine passion for inspiring and empowering participants shines through with her down-to-earth storytelling and evidence-based tips for achieving optimal well-being and high-performance living. Her ability to captivate audiences with relatable anecdotes and practical strategies is what sets her apart.

She has a PhD in Athlete Lifestyle and Mindset and works closely with the Australian Institute of Sport, both with the Gold Medal Ready program and their research institute. Her doctoral work won the prestigious RMIT Vice Chancellor’s Prize and Deputy Vice Chancellor’s Prize for Research Impact and is published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals.

A best-selling author, Lauren has penned two books: Fighting Spirit and Food from a Loving Home. Lauren also shares her nutritional expertise by designing whole-food menu plans for a renowned Melbourne childcare centre. Additionally, she offers exclusive one-on-one executive-level coaching while balancing the joys and responsibilities of a busy family life.

Over the past 20 years, Lauren has combined all of her learning and experience into nine core elements, making up the Circle of Lifestyle.

Key Themes:

• Motivation
• Resilience
• Relationships and Connection
• Well-being
• Lifestyle and Mindset
• Strategic Planning and goal setting

These elements support well-being and are essential for mental health, thriving and performing under pressure.

Speaking Topics Include

Elevating Potential

In this tailored keynote, audiences will learn about:

• Transforming Lauren’s Olympic and life experiences into practical life strategies
• Lauren’s ‘Cycle of Lifestyle’ and how this impacts  performance, mindset, relationships, and overall well-being
• Practical strategies to bring structure, balance and energy
• The importance of interpersonal relationships for well-being, stress management, and peak performance.
• PLUS Audience participation through taekwondo moves, concluding with one person breaking a board on stage.

 

LEAP – Lifestyles of Elite Athletic Performers

• Learn from the world's best athletes and gain insights from Lauren's PhD research
• Discover the lifestyle and mindset factors that contribute to the success of Olympic and World Champion-winning athletes
• Explore psychological attributes such as intrinsic motivation, resilience, realistic optimism, self-regulation, and a thirst for knowledge that define elite performers
• Elevate potential by adopting the mindset and habits of successful athletes into daily life

 

Values and planning – the key to understanding individuals behaviour, decisions and attitudes

• The benefits of understanding your personal values are well recognised. Personal values are deeply held beliefs and principles that guide individuals’ behaviour, decisions, and attitudes.
• Lauren guides participants through the process of identifying their own personal values, what they need to add into their life to support their values, and what they need to change to reflect these values
• Using your values-based decision making has positive impacts on:
  • Health & Well-being
  • Decision-Making & Goal Setting
  • Work Satisfaction & Engagement
• Effective planning is key to both well-being and high-performance. Lauren empowers participants with strategies for short, medium and long-term planning – where they leave equipped with knowledge and recourses to continue incorporating planning into their life.

 

Workshop Topics Include:

Active Taekwondo Workshop

Make your event memorable – all participants break boards! An excellent way to kick-off or wrap-up a conference – with high energy and sense of achievement and purpose.

Lauren conveys key messages relating to self-belief, mental imagery, and incorporates the ancient practices of the martial art taekwondo, to cultivate the indomitable spirit.

The boards are a metaphor for Action, Commitment and Breakthrough.

Workshop includes:

• Simple, high energy taekwondo moves
• Focus on fun, teamwork, practical skills and key messages
• All participants breaking boards
• Signing of participants’ boards as take home memento

 

 

Mood Food Workshop - How food impacts our energy, mood & mental health

Lauren is a degree qualified Naturopath and Nutritionist and has always been passionate about complementary medicine and wholefoods.

She studied naturopathy alongside training for the Olympic Games and incorporated many principles and naturopathic teachings into her training and diet regime which she attributes to her success at the Games. Her cookbook Food from a Loving Home is a collection of her favourite recipes. Continuing her passion for food as medicine, Lauren has lectured Medicinal Food Science at Endeavour College

Focusing on the scientific link between food and mood, and Lauren’s take-home message of ‘Eat the Rainbow’, this presentation is fun and engaging. Participants learn life skills and knowledge they can incorporate directly into their own lives and kitchens.