Robyn Benincasa

Book this keynote when your team:

• Needs to courageously and confidently embrace change as a springboard to future success
• Must elevate engagement and performance without more resources to reach a goal that a group of siloed individuals simply can’t accomplish
• Needs a toolkit of practical habits and takeaways anyone at any level can apply to act boldly and decisively to succeed as a world-class leader and teammate

Most organizations are running on teamwork that works well in normal conditions. Extreme Teamwork is built for next level challenges—when goals are huge, stakes are high, and the pace of change is a lot. Robyn Benincasa developed this operating system during 17 years of world championship adventure racing, where her teams consistently outperformed elite athletes—not through superior talent, but through a deeply connected culture. Fast Company highlighted them alongside NASA and Industrial Light & Magic as three of the world’s most consistently high-performing teams facing daily unrelenting challenges.

The shared secret was culture. For two decades, Robyn has been helping Fortune 1000 organizations build it.

Based on Robyn’s New York Times bestselling book Make Winning Inevitable, this keynote inspires the 8 elements of a winning culture through edge-of-your-seat storytelling and videos featuring ordinary people achieving extraordinary things together. Attendees see, hear and feel how life-affirming it is to struggle, rise, and succeed with a team—and they leave wanting these moments for themselves and their teammates.

Your audience will leave with:

• Empowered with a proven shared operating system: The 8 habits of Extreme Teamwork they can name and leverage immediately
• Working for each other instead of with each other—with proof that they can reach a bigger more meaningful goal than they ever imagined if they see themselves
  

Book this keynote when your team:

• Ignite bold leadership: step into change and uncertainty and take ownership of shaping the future while navigating AI adoption, restructuring, competitive disruption, etc.
• See they can get to audacious finish lines by uniting behind a new challenge or turning disruption into advantage: you want your attendees to embrace new approaches and create momentum instead of seeing change as an obstacle
• Build their own tailwinds: gain clarity, confidence and practical steps to move fast, think big and lead decisively

Organizations that thrive through disruption don’t wait for certainty—they act while others hesitate. They know speed and stability come from a connected, agile and resilient culture that moves together. That mindset powered Robyn Benincasa and her teammates through 17 years of world championship-level adventure racing—not because they were the best athletes, but because they shared an unmatched commitment to one another and the finish line. Fast Company highlighted their culture in its “Xtreme Teams” feature.

For more than two decades, Robyn has brought Extreme Teamwork to Fortune 1000 organizations and associations worldwide. Through powerful stories and visceral race footage, this high-energy multimedia keynote shows how ordinary people can inspire one another to achieve extraordinary results together.

Your audience will leave with:

• Using a shared playbook, language and identity as one deeply committed team that leans into each other’s strengths and challenges
• Ready to rewrite the rules: challenge dated norms, adopt new strategies that unlock opportunity, and see disruption as a launchpad
• Empowered to expect more: see innovation and unexpected approaches as tools to set new standards and achieve outcomes once believed to be impossible
• Confident and courageous: ready to make transformative decisions that others might avoid

IDEAL FOR AI TRANSFORMATION / INDUSTRY DISRUPTION / CULTURE RESETS | 45–60 MIN

Book this keynote when your team:

• In sales or a competitive environment where individual achievement is strong but collective results have untapped potential
• Full of high performers who need to be inspired to reach for a goal they can’t accomplish alone
• Under pressure to summit a challenging peak that requires teammates to rope up together to ensure success

Every quarter that Robyn Benincasa worked in field pharmaceutical sales, the same rep ranked at the top. Each week he emailed the sales force, telling them everything he’d learned. She couldn’t understand why he gave away his best intel—the reps were all ranked against one another—until he explained: every time he sent that email out, 20 or 30 reps replied with their best insights from the week, too. He knew what every champion eventually discovers: that roping up to others lets you aim higher and get there faster than you ever could alone and deliver results only possible with a collective effort.

Robyn has spent two decades helping Fortune 1,000 sales teams, competitive organizations, and high-performance cultures make that same identity shift—from winning for themselves to winning for each other—and unlocking what only a true team can accomplish together.

Drawing on two decades of building championship teams from individual competitors, this high-energy keynote is packed with real stories of how the world’s most consistent winners turn personal excellence into collective dominance. It leaves competitive teams fired up and ready to wrap their ego around their team’s success instead of their individual glory.

Your audience will leave with:

• A strategy that shifts mindsets from not losing to winning—and finding opportunity in challenges to create future success
• The drive to capitalize on collective resources and strengths, mitigate challenges together, and compound individual strengths toward bigger goals
• An understanding of how to create their own luck through opportunity plus preparation

BUILT FOR SALES MEETINGS / REVENUE KICKOFFS / COMPETITIVE TEAMS | 30–60 MIN

Book this keynote when your team is:

• Coming off a tough stretch—restructuring, cuts, leadership changes—and you need to restore energy without pretending it’s been easy
• Facing a challenge that feels insurmountable and needs a find-a-way-or-make-one attitude
• Tired of being told to be resilient without really knowing what that looks like

Real grit doesn’t come from just pushing harder alone. It comes from connection—to the mission, to the people beside you, and to the kind of leader you want to be in the chapters that define you. Robyn Benincasa has lived this throughout 17 years of world championship adventure racing, 23+ years as a San Diego firefighter, and as the founder of the Project Athena Foundation, where survivors of medical and traumatic setbacks take on team endurance challenges they once believed were impossible. Through deeply moving stories of ordinary people finding a way, or making one together, this keynote shows your audience where endurance actually comes from—and how to build it.

Your audience will leave with:

• A deep understanding of where real grit comes from: connection, not just willpower—and how to build it in themselves and their team
• The shift from surviving to authoring their comeback story, with the inspiration to be the leaders and teammates they aspire to be in their toughest chapters
• Renewed purpose inspired by proof that ordinary people can do extraordinary things together, even when the finish line seems impossibly far away

BUILT FOR TEAMS NAVIGATING ADVERSITY / TOUGH YEARS / STRETCH GOALS | 45–60 MIN