Swim Coach & Motivator

One of Australia’s most successful Olympic coaches, Laurie’s unique style of motivation and guidance saw his star pupils break records in a number of gold medal winning performances. In his own sporting life, Laurie overcame the challenge of having a single lung, and asthma, to join the Wallabies and tour NZ in 1964. Today, he is a highly successful businessman, motivator and speaker who supports the “knuckles down the wall" approach in pursuing his personal credo of “Striving for Excellence".
Lauries's impact on the business community has been quite spectacular. He has proven to be uniquely capable of clearly drawing the parallels between business success and high sporting achievements.
 
As a motivator and entertainer he supports the "knuckles down the wall" approach in pursuing his personal credo of "Striving for Excellence". His track record clearly reveals that he practices what he preaches and yet Olympic success have tended to obscure his other achievements.
 
An educated person, Laurie Lawrence studied for and completed a BA degree at James Cook University; a Diploma in Physical Education from the University of Queensland and a Teaching Diploma from the Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education.
 
His love for Rugby saw him overcome the twin handicaps of having one lung, and being an asthmatic to fight for and gain selection in the Australian Rugby Union side which toured N.Z as the "Wallabies" in 1964.
 
Today, Laurie is a highly successful small businessman and close family man. He operates the now famous Lawrence Learn To Swim School which also specialises in teaching physically disabled as well speech and hearing impaired children.

Australia’s most Successful Coach

Laurie has represented Australia as a Coach in Brisbane's 1982, Edinburgh's 1986 and Auckland's 1990 Commonwealth Games, and also at the 1984 Los Angeles, 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. During those international contests Laurie's pupils succeeded in breaking many National, Commonwealth and World Records in a number of Gold Medal winning performances.
 
Laurie was the appointed Team Motivator for the Australian Olympic Team at Atlanta and at the Sydney Olympics.
 
During his distinguished career, Laurie has been honoured with many awards, including: 

• All Sports "National Coach of the Year" - 1988
  
• Australian Achievers Award - 1989
  
• Advance Australia Medal
  
• QLD Father of the Year - 1989

In 1996 Laurie was also inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an honour coach.

As a motivational and corporate speaker, Laurie Lawrence is in his element; his personality and good humour guarantee 100% audience involvement.

Presentation Topics Include

• Striving for Excellence
  
• The Will to Succeed
  
• Stuff the Silver - We're Going for Gold

Testimonials

So easy to speak with, he offers so much to everyone in the room. Extremely generous with his time, stayed for photos and individual questions. Just wonderful.
Flooring Xtra

A fantastic delivery. He knew his audience and we had great feedback from everyone who attended.
Nextgen Group Holdings Pty. Ltd.

Excellent, Laurie was fantastic and a true professional.We really appreciated being able to meet with him prior to our event to discuss our goals of his presentation and who our audience was.Laurie really stirred up emotion during his presentation and had our audience (who had been seated for many hours) up on their feet singing and dancing. It really was the turning point in our day! The way he integrated our key messages into his performance were exceptional, relevant and seamless.
Brisbane Airport Corporation Pty Ltd

“Excellent. The feedback from the meat industry in general was excellent. Laurie won them over and provided a heart warming 40 minutes to the conference attendees."
Visy Board Pty Ltd 

“Excellent. Unbelievable presenter. Extremely inspiring & motivational. He had the whole audience in tears. Laurie was given a standing ovation at the end of his speech & the delegates did not want him to go."
ITOA 

“Excellent. Lots of energy and very professional. Had a real passion for motivation."
Safeway

“Excellent. Laurie was excellent and very good as usual. His suggestion of guests photo’s with him and Olympic torch is typical of his initiative."
Heath Lambert 

“Excellent. Most delegates said Laurie was the most inspiring, entertaining & awesome speaker they’ve had the privilege of listening to. Worth every $. Received a standing ovation."
AFDA

“Professional & entertaining, a popular choice."
Sealcorp 

“Excellent. Very inspirational. Our delegates just loved him."
Gelco Consulting Pty Ltd

“Excellent. Laurence was both entertaining & informative. He gave us his time freely, arriving before our guests and only leaving when the photographers were complete."
Amcor Cartonboard Australasia