Travels From Queensland
Categories
Health,Inspirational,Leadership,Mindfulness & Mental Health,Motivational Speakers,Resilience,Team BuildingSpeaker Topics
Built by Grit: How to Rise When Life Knocks You Down
A powerful message drawn from Jackson’s journey from injury to impact. This keynote explores the science and psychology of resilience, how setbacks can shape identity, build courage, and forge unshakable purpose. Perfect for schools and parents wanting to teach young people that grit isn’t inherited, it’s earned through struggle.
Read lessCommunication That Connects: Building Influence, Trust, and Team Culture
Great teams don’t happen by accident, they’re built through communication. Drawing from his coaching experience and leadership in youth development, Jackson teaches the art of communication that inspires, influences, and unites. Ideal for schools and parents wanting to create stronger team dynamics and deeper parent-athlete connection.
Read lessCreating a Culture for Success: The Hidden Force Behind High-Performing Teams
Culture determines behaviour and behaviour determines results. This keynote unpacks how to intentionally shape the environment where athletes thrive, teams bond, and values drive performance. Attendees learn how to design cultures that reward effort, accountability, and growth.
Read lessLeading from the Inside Out: Teaching Leadership That Lasts Beyond Sport
Leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice, it’s about being the most consistent example. In this session, Jackson helps students, coaches, and parents understand the traits of true leadership: integrity, initiative, and influence. Attendees leave with a clear framework for building leaders who lift others, not just themselves.
Read lessRaising Resilient Athletes: How Parents Can Instil Grit, Values & Growth at Home
A powerful and emotional talk for parents who want to raise confident, grounded, and mentally strong kids. Jackson shares practical strategies for teaching resilience through everyday parenting. How to balance support and challenge, how to model emotional control, and how to help kids find strength in adversity.
Read lessThe Belief Blueprint: The Science Behind Confidence and Self-Worth
Why do some athletes bounce back while others break down? Jackson reveals the neuroscience behind belief and how it shapes behaviour, performance, and identity. Audiences learn practical tools to rewire limiting beliefs, silence self-doubt, and build unstoppable confidence from the inside out.
Read lessJackson Silvester Lee
Founder of Rivals Athlete Performance Centre | Mindset Coach | Speaker on Grit, Purpose & Resilience
Jackson Silvester-Lee’s story isn’t just about sport, it’s about what happens when the dream you built your whole identity around suddenly disappears.
At 18, Jackson left his family and everything he knew in Canada to chase his dream of playing professional rugby in Australia. He went all in. Training harder than anyone, pushing through pain, and sacrificing everything for a shot at the top. But that same drive became his downfall. After years of overtraining, his back gave out completely.
He couldn’t walk for months. Couldn’t run for over a year. Couldn’t play sports for three years.
In that silence, without the game, the team, or the identity, Jackson spiralled emotionally. Feeling like he let everyone down, let himself down, and began to get resentful and frustrated with the world. He lost his purpose, his passion, and the fire that once got him out of bed in the morning.
But from that lowest point came something greater. He realised that if he couldn’t play anymore, he could teach others what he had learned the hard way.
At 21, with just $200 to his name, a push bike, and one athlete to coach, he started Rivals Athlete Performance Centre, a place not just to build stronger athletes, but stronger people. He rode 20km a day to coach sessions, sometimes went without proper meals, and kept his struggles hidden from his parents, afraid they’d worry or think he’d failed.
What kept him going wasn’t money, success, or recognition, it was purpose. The purpose to change even one kid’s life.
Seven years later, that one young athlete has become over 1,000. Rivals has grown into a thriving community of coaches, athletes, and families, helping young people discover the strength within themselves and teaching parents how to nurture grit, leadership, and resilience through sport.
Today, Jackson speaks to parents, athletes, and educators about the truth behind grit, determination, and mindset, that it isn’t built in comfort, but in the moments that test who we really are.
Because the goal isn’t to raise talented kids… it’s to raise resilient ones.