Speaker & Workshop Leader
Grit. Growth. Grounded Leadership.
Kim Liddell isn’t your typical speaker. She brings the rare combination of lived grit, business intelligence, and deep personal reinvention forged from a lifetime spent in the trenches—literally and figuratively.
From growing up in a tin shed to building a multimillion-dollar civil construction company while raising three children and managing her husband’s mental health crisis, Kim’s story is not polished—it’s powerful. She coined an industry term (Non-Destructive Excavation), grew a 20-plus-staff operation from her kitchen table, served on industry boards, and helped shift the culture for women in construction.
But her greatest evolution happened when life forced her to stop, recalibrate, and build an entirely new internal operating system. Today, Kim combines her DirtBoss philosophy with her Optimised Living Framework to deliver transformational messages on identity, resilience, leadership, and rebuilding yourself from the inside out.
She speaks with authority, humility, humour, and a clarity that cuts straight through to what matters. Audiences leave energised, grounded, and equipped to take meaningful action.
“I speak about resilience, leadership, and thriving under pressure – from the perspective of someone who’s carried
real risk and real responsibility.”
Keynote Topics for 2026
Built from the ground up: How real confidence is built: standards, reps, decisions, identity.
Leadership under pressure: How to stay clear, calm and decisive when everything’s moving.
Grit as a skillset: The practices that keep you steady, not hardened.
Visibility, credibility, influence: How to lead when you’re underestimated, interrupted, or outnumbered.
High performance without burnout: How to keep your edge without losing yourself.
These are keynotes that land because they’ve been lived!
Who I work with:
Leadership teams and executive groups | Conferences and industry forums | Women’s leadership programs | Entrepreneurial and innovation communities | Teams navigating change, growth, or recovery
What organisers can expect:
Language people repeat afterwards · Practical frameworks that are simple and implementable | A reset in standards, ownership, and self-leadership | The kind of talk that changes behaviour, not just mood
Format Options
30/45/60-minute keynote | Fireside chat or panel · Executive session (closed-room) | Keynote + workshop package
Book Kim to Speak in 2026
Download a copy of Kim's one-page speaker sheet.
Trust is the real currency. Everything else is paperwork.
Why Book Kim?
✓ Real lived credibility – not theoretical, not polished, not staged.
✓ High-impact storytelling that bridges business, life, and leadership.
✓ Practical tools audiences can apply immediately.
✓ A presence that shifts the room—grounded, brave, genuine.
✓ A voice for women in industries where women are rarely heard.
✓ A strategist’s mind wrapped in a survivor’s heart.
Kim speaks to leaders, women’s groups, corporate teams, entrepreneurs, and any audience navigating pressure, transition, or reinvention. Her message is universal because her experience is real.
