Available to book
Nic Marks
Nic Marks helps organisations build happier, higher-performing teams through evidence-based wellbeing strategies. A statistician and workplace wellbeing pioneer, he is the founder of Friday Pulse and the Happy Planet Index, has delivered a viral TED Talk, and wrote the bestseller Happiness is a Serious Business.
Nic Marks is a statistician and pioneer in the field of workplace wellbeing, showing organisations why happiness is a serious driver of business performance, not a soft extra.
Nic read mathematics at Cambridge before training in organisational change and psychotherapy. He founded the Centre for Wellbeing at the New Economics Foundation, where he created the Happy Planet Index and the Five Ways to Wellbeing, and later founded Friday Pulse, a platform now used by hundreds of organisations to track team happiness.
Nic's research shows that happier employees are 20 to 30 percent more productive and considerably less likely to leave, meaning happy teams deliver more than twice the value of those merely getting by. His talks combine statistical evidence with warmth and humour, helping leaders see why culture and wellbeing belong on the same agenda as strategy and structure. An engaging speaker, his TED talk on the Happy Planet Index has been watched more than 2.8 million times, and he was shortlisted for the Booker's Choice at the 2026 Speakers Awards.
Audiences leave Nic's sessions with a clear business case for happiness at work, practical frameworks for building trust and engagement, and simple habits managers can use immediately to move teams beyond OK.
Book Nic to give your audience the evidence and the tools to build genuinely happy, high-performing teams.
Topics, sessions and talks
Most teams aren't failing, they're just stuck in OK: not unhappy enough to raise alarms, but not energised enough to thrive. Nic Marks shows the cost of this low-energy state, with OK teams facing twice the staff turnover, three times the burnout, and four times the risk of missing targets. Drawing on his book Happiness is a Serious Business, Nic sets out the conditions organisations can create to support happy, high-performing teams.
Artificial intelligence, political instability, and fast-moving markets are rewriting the rules of work. Nic Marks argues that as external conditions grow harder to predict, our inner world becomes the deciding factor, shaping how well we adapt to change. He shows why organisations with emotionally connected, resilient teams pull further ahead of competitors precisely when conditions get harder, giving leaders a clear reason to invest in people first.
Nic Marks sets out that happier organisations outgrow, outlast, and out-adapt their rivals because their people have the emotional reserves to cope when pressure rises. He reframes culture as one of the biggest hidden risks, and opportunities, on any leadership or investment agenda, leaving audiences with a sharper lens on where real risk sits.
Happiness at work is too often written off as a nice-to-have with no bearing on results. Nic Marks overturns that assumption, using data, real-world stories, and the frameworks from his book Happiness is a Serious Business to show exactly how happier teams outperform the merely OK. He gives leaders a rigorous, practical case for making happiness central to performance, retention, and long-term resilience.
High-performing teams are built through deliberate choices, not happy accidents. Nic Marks draws on years of research and his experience founding Friday Pulse to unpack the habits, conversations, and leadership behaviours that separate thriving teams from the rest. He leaves managers with practical, evidence-based tools they can apply immediately to lift their people well beyond OK, into territory where performance and wellbeing reinforce each other.
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frequently asked questions
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To book Nic Marks, email nic.marks@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Nic's availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
Nic Marks structures his talks around statistical evidence drawn from his own research and the Friday Pulse platform, presenting specific figures — such as twice the staff turnover and 20 to 30 per cent productivity gains — to build a business case for workplace happiness before offering practical frameworks managers can apply immediately.
Nic Marks speaks on the business cost of low-energy “OK” teams, organisational culture as a hidden risk, and leading people through uncertainty and change. His TED talk on the Happy Planet Index has been watched more than 2.8 million times, and he was shortlisted for the Booker's Choice at the 2026 Speakers Awards.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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