As hard as life can get, believe that the best is yet to come.
Hamish Williams’ various roles in media have seen him work as a senior producer and field journalist for TVNZ, TV3, RNZ, NBR, Stuff and Mediaworks, covering news stories from all corners of New Zealand.
Hamish took the reins from Mike King in 2016 to become the host of the mental health-focused radio show The Nutters Club on NewstalkZB. Now in its 14th year of broadcast, the show is #1 in its time slot with a 50 percent audience share, and Hamish has racked up more than 800 hours live on air talking about every aspect of mental health with a truly nationwide audience.
In 2022 Hamish collaborated with the New Zealand Herald to produce a 25-part multimedia mental health series, Great Minds, looking at day-to-day mental health challenges and how best to understand them.
Hamish is the producer, director, and writer of Let’s Be Transparent, the transgender parenting podcast produced for RNZ. The podcast was runner-up for Best Podcast – Narrative/Serial at the New Zealand Media Awards and a finalist in the prestigious international AIB Awards for TV and Audio. It won the New Zealand Podcast Award for Rising Star and a Bronze Award at the New York International Radio Awards.
In his day job Hamish works as a media strategy consultant for clients that range from international companies to local grassroots organisations and some of New Zealand's most prestigious PR agencies.
Growing up in Otago and attending school in Dunedin and Oamaru, Hamish began his broadcasting career as a the dual-voiced presenter of The Murray Moa kids show at age 12. While studying political science at Otago University he joined local television show COW TV, and after graduating moved to Auckland and became one of New Zealand’s youngest-ever television producers with the C4 ratings hit Studentville.
An active sailor, Hamish owns and has restored a 1970s H28 yacht, which he sails to various New Zealand locations with family and friends. Hamish married his beautiful wife Yvette in April 2022 in a ceremony featured on the front page of Woman's Day. Hamish is stepfather to Yvette’s two teenage children and was elected to their high school’s board in 2022. The family lives on Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland.
Talking Points
The power of community and connection
This presentation will detail how Hamish has come to have spoken to people of all ages, locations and backgrounds, stories of overcoming mental health issues to start to reveal similarities in both causes and solutions. The power of community and connection
Overwhelmingly the common factors can be identified as the “C” words: Connection and Community. This topic draws on real-world examples of how the absence of these qualities in day-to-day life can be a root cause of mental illness.
Counter to that are the practical, everyday examples which show how investing in and strengthening connection and community in daily life can have positive flow-on effects in personal and professional settings. This topic seeks to inspire an audience to apply ideas that work in a results-driven environment to benefit all involved.
The key to good mental health
Mental health awareness and the destigmatisation of its effects on individuals, their family, and friends has become a national conversation. Despite much talk about and coverage of mental health, what ‘good mental health’ looks like remains an image that is elusive to many. The key to good mental health
This topic aims to define and discuss the basic elements of good mental health that can be applied today in small, practical, and realistic ways. Referencing real-world examples as experienced by the speaker, as well as those he’s met through his media work, this topic highlights the ability to make meaningful change in daily life, through ups and downs, with a focus and framework that is consistent, achievable, and adaptable.
Finding the value of life and living
Up until the pandemic, most career-focused individuals had a ready answer to questions about their five-year or 10-year plan: goal setting was seen as a standard to engage with and apply to life. In the wake of three years of universal upheaval and in the thick of the effects of climate crisis, how do you create a sense of purpose and pursue meaningful purpose in your life when the unprecedented and unpredictable has seemingly become the only consistency? Finding the value of life and living
This topic looks at real-world examples of how New Zealanders have cultivated gratitude in their daily life as a way of building resilience, and how they continue to strive for more without sacrificing the present.
Hamish was a MC and panelist host for TEDxAuckland in 2021. The event was attended by over 2,000 people showcasing some of New Zealand's most cutting edge thought leadership. Hamish’s Q&A pa ... keep reading TEDxAuckland
