What Makes a Great Adventure Speaker?

While many of us may not be able to participate in heart-pounding, sweat-inducing, euphoria-building adventures due to our current obligations – work, family, friends – hearing about other peoples’ adventures can be just as inspiring. But what exactly makes a great adventure speaker? And what are the benefits of hiring these types of speakers, besides a slight yearning for an adventure? Keep reading to find out.

What Makes a Great Adventure Speaker?

A great adventure speaker is someone who has taken on and completed a grueling feat. However, an adventure isn’t always necessarily the Indian Jones-esque experience that comes to mind. An adventure may be as simple as achieving something that may seem out of reach to the ordinary person. A great adventure speaker shows that these experiences aren’t as far out of a person’s reach as they may think. These speakers even come in the form of sports motivational speakers and athlete motivational speakers and prove that although some talent may be required, most things in life can be accomplished with relentless dedication, motivation, and grit.

The Benefits of Hiring an Adventure Speaker

The benefits of hiring an adventure speaker to speak at your in-person or virtual event are endless. Some of these benefits include:

• Inspiring your audience to believe that what they put their mind to, they can achieve
• Increasing self-confidence
• Growing motivation
• Providing actionable resolutions
• Boosting employee morale
• Improving employee performance

Great Adventure Speakers

Ben Saunders

Record-Breaking Polar Explorer, TED ‘Master Storyteller,’ and Advocate for Future Pioneers

The challenges of leading and performing in isolation, something people all over the world over have been introduced to, are familiar terrain to Ben Saunders. Navigating and overcoming self-doubt, loneliness, uncertainty, and adversity in pursuit of a goal is what makes Saunders a record-breaking polar explorer, and an invaluable speaker in uncertain times.

Bear Grylls

British Adventurer, Writer and Television Presenter

Bear Grylls has become well known around the world as one of the most recognised faces of survival and outdoor adventure. His journey to this acclaim started in the UK on the Isle of Wight, where his late father taught him to climb and sail. Trained from a young age in martial arts, Bear went on to spend three years as a soldier in the British Special Forces, serving with 21 SAS. It was here that he perfected many of the skills that his fans all over the world enjoy watching him pit against mother-nature.

Tim Peake

First British Astronaut to the International Space Station

Tim Peake was the first British ESA astronaut to visit the International Space Station, where his work during mission Principia captured the hearts and minds of millions. He has a background as a test pilot and a British Army Air Corps officer and he is also a STEM ambassador and best-selling author. At age 13, Tim’s dream of becoming a pilot became a reality when he took control of an aircraft for the first time. By the time he was 18, he had already flown numerous solo sorties and been awarded a coveted position to join the British Army Air Corps.

John Volanthen

World Record-Holding British Cave Diver Who Played A Key Role In The 2018 Tham Luang Thailand Cave Rescue

John Volanthen is a world record-holding British caver and cave diver who has been involved in cave exploration over the last two decades. John began caving with the scouts at the age of 14 and has been at the forefront of cave exploration since combining caving and diving. In 2018, John played a key role in the Tham Luang Thailand cave rescue and was named one of TIME magazine’s “Heroes of the Year.”

Darcy Gaechter

Adventurer & First Woman to Kayak the Amazon River

An adventurer, record-setter, and boundary-breaker, Darcy Gaechter is best known as the first woman to kayak the Amazon River from source to sea. Her three-person team also became the first team to kayak the entire river, where all previous expeditions had either hiked around or rafted portions of the whitewater in the Amazon River’s headwaters. The journey required her crew to paddle over 4,000 miles across the widest part of South America, a voyage that took 148 days to complete. The successful traverse of the entire Amazonian watershed relied on Gaechter’s team’s ability to balance many factors: physical endurance, an ability to work with the locals to assuage their fears of outsiders, patience for interpersonal conflicts arising from three people spending every waking moment together for five months, and a mental toughness that allowed no room for quitting to be an option. Without a doubt, the Amazon was as much an intellectual and emotional undertaking as it was a physical challenge.

Steve Boyes

Conservationist and National Geographic Fellow

Conservationist, National Geographic Fellow, TED speaker, and Senior Fellow, Dr. Steve Boyes has dedicated his life to preserving Africa’s wilderness areas and the species that depend upon them. His work has taken him all over Africa – studying wildlife rehabilitation and biodiversity, fighting the wild-caught bird trade, planting thousands of trees in forest restoration projects, mitigating threats bringing parrot species to the brink of extinction throughout Africa, and working to preserve and protect Botswana’s uniquely pristine Okavango Delta and the vast Angolan watersheds on which over half of the elephants remaining on the planet depend – these are some of Africa’s last untouched, unpopulated wilderness.

Daniel Hughes

Expert on Leadership and Decision-Making in High-Pressure Environments

Having summited Everest, been one of the youngest ever to be “badged" into the SAS (UK Special Forces) and one of the top Duathletes in the world, Daniel knows what it is to exist on the edge of human endurance. He ascribes to the belief that; no book can prepare you for your mental and physical limits and once conquered, you can completely reset your boundaries of what you believed possible. As an active 787 Dreamliner pilot and entrepreneur, blue chip companies now send their senior executives to be coached in leadership and decision making in high pressure situations by Daniel.

Ranulph Fiennes

World's Greatest Living Explorer

Sir Ranulph Fiennes was, with Charles Burton, the first man to reach both poles by surface travel and, with Mike Stroud, the first to cross the Antarctic Continent unsupported. In the 1960s he was removed from the SAS Regiment for misuse of explosives but, joining the army of the Sultan of Oman, received that country's Bravery Medal on active service in 1971. He is the only person yet to have been awarded two clasps to the Polar medal for both Antarctic and the Arctic regions. Fiennes has led over 30 expeditions including the first polar circumnavigation of the Earth, and in 2003 he ran seven marathons in seven days on seven continents in aid of the British Heart Foundation, 3½ months after a massive heart attack.

Alex Gregory

Double Olympic Gold Medalist and Motivational Speaker

With two Olympic Gold medals and five World Championship titles to his name, Alex Gregory MBE is one of the leading rowers in the world. Further to this, Alex was a member of a World first arctic rowing expedition where he and an international crew of athletes undertook a new challenge—to row across the Arctic Ocean.

Erik Weihenmayer

World-Class Blind Adventurer

Erik Weihenmayer is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world. Despite losing his vision at age 14, he is an accomplished climber, paraglider, skier, and kayaker who never allows blindness interfere with his passion for pursuing an exhilarating and fulfilling life. Erik brings audiences a powerful message about harnessing the power of adversity as fuel for greatness, emphasizing the importance of building a strong “Rope Team,” and illuminating how to develop a “No Barriers Mindset.” Erik’s talks resonate with diverse audiences from graduating college students to large sales teams to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Erik’s speaking career has taken him around the globe from the 2005 APEC Summit in Chile to the 2009 Presidential Inaugural celebration in Washington, DC. Erik speaks to major companies in London, Dublin, Moscow, Berlin, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Abu Dhabi, as well as across the United States. Previously, he shared speaking platforms with luminaries such as Secretary Colin Powell, President Bill Clinton, and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

To see a full list of our adventure speakers, click here.

Hire an Adventure Speaker For Your Next Event

Ready to inspire and motivate your audience with an adventure speaker? Keep audiences talking long after your event.

For more information about our expansive roster of elite keynote speakers or to book one of these talented speakers for your next event or meeting, contact our team today. 

You can also email us, call 1-800-SPEAKER, or live chat with a member of our team right now.