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.

 “The brightest stars don’t create the greatest teams. The greatest teammates create the greatest teams.”

Benincasa launched World Class Teams and its sister company Flashover Seminars to bring her unique and inspiring perspective on teamwork to the corporate world via keynotes, seminars and teambuilding programs. Starbucks, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Aramark, Honda/Acura, Tony Robbins, Allianz, Wal-Mart, Timberland, Napster, AT&T and Earthlink rely on Robyn’s "Extreme Performance: Why Winners Win", "High Performance Leadership" and her signature program “The 8 Essential Elements of Human Synergy”.  Her unforgettable presentations have taught countless high-performance leaders all over the world about “Building World Class Teams” and the ‘followership’ skills necessary for dynamic role shifting and true teamwork. 

Robyn Benincasa founded the Project Athena Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women who've endured medical setbacks achieve their athletic dreams, whether it means climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or running a local 10K. The goal? To encourage survivors not just to survive - but to thrive in the wake of their diagnoses.

“The biggest, strongest, and fastest competitors are not guaranteed a successful finish. It’s the teams that truly understand interdependence, have empathy for one another, share common ideals, manage adversity well, and check their egos at the start line that win these races. In my experience, the same is true in the corporate world.”

SPEECH TOPICS

TEAMWORK

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Results: The 8 Essential Elements of Human Synergy

What do the world's most successful teams have in common?  The ability to upgrade their "teamwork" to Human Synergy!  Through her Ordinary People, Extraordinary Results keynote, Eco-Challenge Adventure Racing World Champion and San Diego Firefighter Robyn Benincasa imparts the attitude and mindset that allows groups of ordinary people to accomplish truly extraordinary things together. Attendees will not only walk away completely thrilled with this unique visually and viscerally entertaining look into the world's most amazing extreme teams, they will also leave with some simple and easily applied skills that will allow them to create Human Synergy with all of the teammates in their lives, from colleagues to spouses and family.

The 8 Essential Elements of Human Synergy: Total commitment, Empathy and Awareness, Adversity, Management, Mutual Respect, ‘We’ Thinking, Ownership of the Project, Relinquishment of Ego, Kinetic Leadership

LEADERSHIP

Lead Like Gumby: Flexible Leadership That Gets Results

According to research from the Harvard Business Review, a company's profitability increases by up to 1/3 when managers create a more positive corporate climate through Flexible Leadership. In Robyn's Lead like Gumby: Flexible Leadership that Gets Results keynote, she combines well-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--the simplest way to increase the bottom-line. Your leaders will emerge with a deep understanding of the most effective way to engage and motivate their teammates: That is, leading based on THEIR needs in a constantly evolving and ever-changing world.

MOTIVATION

Extreme Performance: Why Winners Win

What are the 5 most common attributes of people who make a lifelong habit of winning? In her Extreme Performance: Why Winners Win keynote, World Champion Eco-Challenge Racer and Firefighter 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 some real world guidelines and principles for reaching the top of the podium in any endeavor.