Cooper Chapman

Former professional surfer turned mental health educator, making wellbeing practical, human and genuinely engaging

Overview

Cooper Chapman spent over a decade as a professional surfer, reaching a global top-100 ranking — until his sister lost two friends to suicide in her final year of high school, and he watched his own father struggle with depression. In 2020, he stepped away from competitive surfing and founded The Good Human Factory, built on a simple but genuinely useful distinction: mental health isn't the same as mental illness. Only 20% of people will be diagnosed with a mental illness in a given year — but 100% of people have mental health, and Cooper's entire approach is built around making that 100% feel approachable, not clinical or heavy.

His method blends real science with real storytelling: five core values (responsibility, gratitude, empathy, mindfulness, kindness), delivered with the performance mindset he built over a decade of elite competition. He's since published The 1% Good Club, built on the idea that just 14 minutes a day — 1% of your day — genuinely moves the needle on wellbeing.

Career Highlights

• Founder, The Good Human Factory (est. 2020)

• Author of The 1% Good Club (2025)

• Former professional surfer — global top-100 ranking, represented Australia internationally

• Delivered keynotes and workshops to 50,000+ students across 80+ Australian schools

• Trained 20,000+ corporate employees across 80+ organisations, including Amazon, Red Bull, Telstra, McDonald's and Westpac

• Host of the Good Humans podcast, featuring 100+ expert interviews

Key Speaking Themes

• Mental health as a daily practice, not just a crisis response

• Building resilience through five core values: responsibility, gratitude, empathy, mindfulness, kindness

• Turning mental health awareness into genuine daily action

• Performance mindset and managing pressure (drawn from elite sport)

• Making mental health conversations approachable, not clinical

Signature Talks

• 5 Fundamental Values for Mental Health — his most-booked keynote: simple, science-backed values that shift mental health from an awareness topic into daily action

• Emptying Your Mental Health Bucket — practical self-awareness tools for recognising when you're struggling and what to actually do about it

• The 1% Good Club — how 14 minutes a day, consistently, compounds into meaningful wellbeing change

What Your Audience Will Gain

Audiences leave with simple, immediately usable tools — not just awareness. Cooper's genuine, low-key delivery and real personal story make a topic that can feel heavy instead feel approachable and, as he puts it, "cool" — particularly effective with younger and male audiences who often disengage from more clinical mental health content.

Best Fit

Schools, corporate wellbeing programmes, and workplace mental health initiatives — especially organisations wanting to reach younger employees or male-dominated teams where traditional mental health messaging often falls flat.