Robyn Benincasa

Robyn Benincasa

Speaker: Robyn Benincasa

CNN Hero, World Champion Adventure Racer, San Diego City Firefighter, Founder of World Class Teams, Flashover Seminars and Project Athena Foundation

Topics:

  • Ordinary People, Extraordinary Results: The Eight Essential Elements of Human Synergy
  • Extreme Change: Adapt, Overcome & Win as One
  • Extreme Performance: Why Winners Win
  • Lead Like Gumby: Flexible Leadership That Gets Results
  • Safety – Dangerous Attitudes, Deadly Consequences:  “Not Me, Not Now, Not My Job, Not My Place”

Robyn Benincasa accepts full blame for inspiring people to do insane things like climb Mount Kilimanjaro, run their first triathlon, start their own adventure racing teams, or start their own businesses. This is, after all, who she is and what she does: Robyn Benincasa inspires people to do amazing things.

Benincasa has made an art form of extreme performance by competing and winning at the highest levels of sport and business. Revered as one of “California’s Fittest Women”, she spent her youth competing at the state and national level in gymnastics, diving, cross country, and judo in which she became a national champion. Soon after earning a Marketing degree from Arizona State University, Robyn ‘started at the top’ Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company where she earned the prestigious “Rookie of the Year” award.

While consistently achieving top sales in her day job, Robyn completed six Ironman races, with two podium finishes. Then the adventure race bug bit.

In her 15-year career as a professional adventure racer, Robyn Benincasa has competed in close to 40 expedition-length events – gnarly, multiday, multisport killers such as Primal Quest and Eco-Challenge. She has biked through jungles in Borneo, climbed Himalayan giants in Nepal, trekked across lava fields in Fiji, rafted rapids in Chile – and racked up multiple world championship titles along the way. In her spare time, Robyn, is a full-time firefighter in San Diego, on the nation’s first all-female crew.

NBC, ABC, CNN, ESPN, USA Network, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Life Network, PBS and FOX have all featured Robyn and her amazing accomplishments. Add to those network credits editorials in Fast Company, Sport Illustrated, Vogue, Corporate & Incentive Travel, The New York Times, Outside, and Harper’s Bazaar.

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Results: The Eight Essential Elements of Human Synergy

Through her “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Results” keynote, speaker Robyn Benincasa imparts the attitude and mindset that allow groups of ordinary people to accomplish truly extraordinary things together.

Attendees will not only walk away completely thrilled with this visually and viscerally entertaining look into the world’s most amazing extreme teams, but they will also leave with some simple and applicable skills that will allow them to create “human synergy” with all of the teammates in their lives, from colleagues to spouses to family.

Benincasa will share the eight essential elements of human synergy, which are as follows:

  • Total commitment
  • Empathy and awareness
  • Adversity
  • Management
  • Mutual respect
  • “We” thinking
  • Ownership of the project
  • Relinquishment of ego
  • Kinetic leadership

Extreme Change: Adapt, Overcome & Win as One

Change is the only constant. It is our response to that change that dictates our success. How do the world’s most consistently high-performing teams always find a way to get to the finish line or achieve their goals against all odds? Are they lucky, blessed, or immune to setbacks?

No. The best of the best experience times of great turbulence and upheaval just like everyone else. It’s their attitude and mindset that make or break the team. Is your team ruled by the hope of success or the fear of failure? Winning and “not losing” are two completely different mindsets that lead to vastly different outcomes. In speaker Robyn Benincasa’s “Extreme Change” keynote, she shares incredible stories of triumph through adversity and outlines the simple and concrete methods that world-class teams utilize to shatter the norm, see challenges vs. roadblocks, and embrace setbacks as a chance to learn and excel.

Extreme Performance: Why Winners Win

In her “Extreme Performance: Why Winners Win” keynote, speaker Robyn Benincasa uses the model of adventure racing to highlight the mindset and common attributes of world-class athletes, teams, and leaders in their quest for victory— – and provides real-world guidelines and principles for reaching the top of the podium in any endeavor.

Lead Like Gumby: Flexible Leadership That Gets Results

In “Lead Like Gumby: Flexible Leadership That Gets Results,” speaker Robyn Benincasa combines respected academic research with amazing adventure racing and firefighting footage that illustrates great (and not-so-great) leaders in action in the most extreme challenges on Earth.

The result is an in-depth and powerful look into six distinct leadership styles that, when utilized interchangeably and judiciously, are proven to have a positive effect on the corporate climate and your bottom line. Your leaders will emerge with a deep understanding of the most effective way to engage and motivate their team.

Safety – Dangerous Attitudes, Deadly Consequences:  “Not Me, Not Now, Not My Job, Not My Place”

When it comes to on-the-job safety, the right attitude can save your life and those of your colleagues. The wrong attitude can have deadly consequences.

Using in-depth case studies from the world’s most extreme jobs and adventure sports, San Diego Firefighter, Adventure Racing World Champion, and NY Times Bestselling author of How Winning Works will take your group on a compelling and unforgettable multimedia adventure in which they explore the deadly consequences of the 4 Dangerous Attitudes:

  • “I’m a professional. Safety requirements are put in place for rookies. It won’t happen to me.”
  • “I’ve done it this way 1000 times with no problems. What would make this time any different?”
  • “Making this area safe is someone else’s responsibility. Not my problem.”
  • “I’m new here. Who am I to question the people who outrank me?”

In Robyn’s presentation, each of the 4 Dangerous Attitudes is tackled head-on and illustrated by video footage from actual preventable accidents, all of which could have been avoided with a SAFER mindset:

Synergy–Safety is a TEAM effort. If you see it, SAY IT.

Adapt–Safety Guidelines change constantly, based on new data and equipment. Old dogs MUST learn new tricks.

Follow Rules–They’re there because someone before you was injured (or worse).

Educate Yourself–Safety is up to you. Don’t wait for a class or a workshop. Learn about the new gear/equipment and be a mentor to others.

Respect–Sometimes safety is inconvenient and time-consuming. But respect yourself, respect your family, respect your company enough to do things right.



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