Meet Ed
Ed Stafford: keynote, after dinner, awards, personal appearances
#Survive #Thrive #Resilience #Motivation #MentalHealth #Challenge
‘In short, it was amazing. Everything about the session suited our team perfectly and everybody has been incredibly positive, inspired and taken plenty of learnings from him. Ed was incredibly open to the questions asked as well. Seriously, seriously impressed, so thank you and thank him. It genuinely lifted what's been a pretty tough year for some of our team.'
Recent testimonial for one of Ed's virtual talks.
Ed Stafford walked into the history books when he completed his epic trek along the length of the Amazon River. His Guinness world-record setting adventure took two and a half years and his success made headline news across the globe. His achievement is, as Sir Ranulph Fiennes put it: 'Truly extraordinary'. He has since gone on to inspire people of all ages around the globe through his survive and thrive TV programmes - all filmed in difficult, challenging environments.
Ed Stafford is passionate about encouraging others. He is honest and real about the challenges he faced: snakes, severe floods, electric eels, jaguars and the hostility of local tribes confronted with a tall foreign man in their midst. Ed's story has powerful lessons about motivation, resilience, working with others, respect for other culture and staying positive when things are relentlessly tough. Messages about success in the face of adversity, the determination to achieve targets and riding out tough times are delivered in a very entertaining way with a large dollop of self-deprecating humour.
Ed now has a new talk to share with his audience:
“Unslumping yourself is not easily done” [Dr Seuss] - A guidebook to Lockdown
Dealing with adversity for short periods is all well and good, but what if your negative situation just won’t end? Ed Stafford (somewhat optimistically) thought Walking the Amazon would take him a year - in fact, it took him almost two and a half years.
Ed draws on this epic and often life-threatening event and his nine subsequent Discovery Channel survival series to speak about how to manage long-term adversity. How to stay motivated, how to combat doubts and fears, how to stop chronic worrying, and how to quit blaming others and take back the belief that you are in control of your own life situation.
From mindfulness to book-ending your days; from being present to surrendering to external situations; Ed has gathered a unique tool kit of useful advice that can be used by anyone who is finding these uncertain times tough to navigate.
What Clients say about Ed's talks
'Absorbing, fascinating and thought-provoking - absolutely perfect for our audience - Ed crafted his presentation superbly. He is very engaging, amusing and talks about his amazing experiences in such a modest manner.'
Anglian Water
'Wow! Exceptional session. Fantastic, inspiring closing speaker. Sent everyone away ready for the next challenge and energised to get back to work.'
Rugby Football Union
Ed's 860 day expedition engaged followers all over the world, and when Ed lost his sponsor part-way through his expedition, support for the project raised through social media was significant in ensuring success. Ed's footage became an acclaimed documentary and was sold to over 100 countries and his first book Walking the Amazon was translated into several languages. Ed has since gone on to film a variety of hugely successful TV series for Discovery Channel and Channel 4 (UK).
Ed Stafford was awarded European Adventurer of the Year 2011. The Guinness World Records formally recognised Stafford's achievement: he appears in the 2012 Guinness Book of Records.
Ed intends to use his adventures to inspire adults and kids alike to get up off the sofa and go outside. He is a proud Scouts Ambassador. He also inspires young people through developing their bushcraft skills.
What Clients Say
'Ed spoke at our two-day Leadership Conference. Ed’s story and the humanity behind it resonated with each of us. His engaging and honest approach to storytelling captivated the audience and really lifted the energy in the room. We were with him every step of his journey.
'Ed received extraordinary feedback from the attendees - his story was so interesting and his style/manner of presenting was really genuine. People said he was the perfect end to the two days. On a personal note - he was just a really lovely guy to spend time with: I think his career will soar. Seriously, Caroline, I can't say enough nice things about him.'
WPP
'Taking time to understand the audience and our goals before the event, Ed delivered a fantastic session. His warm and relaxed style instantly engaged the audience and his inspiring story left the team on a complete high. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending Ed.'
Waitrose
'Truly inspirational, heartfelt, expertly delivered and closed out our conference on the perfect note. Customer feedback had a perfect score - you had all 5 out of 5 - an incredibly high score and a testament to the power of your story.'
Cognizant
‘A fantastic end to our Annual Conference, Ed Stafford provided a gripping account of his adventures and of the challenges he overcame. Providing insight into overcoming adversity, his speech resonated with the audience and was very well received.’
ARMA
'Excellent, and very motivational in an adaptive/changing environment.'
'Excellent and inspiring, brilliant way to leave conference.'
'Best Keynote I have ever heard!'
'Great story, really enjoyed the way he linked his lessons to our journey.'
'Unbelievably inspiring and humble insight into what was a truly magnificent achievement. It was nice to have someone simply chat to us about what they had done rather than make it a big lecture. Thoroughly enjoyed it and he also managed to make it relevant to us. Very emotional at the end!'
'Outstanding. Made me realise that sometimes it is about dealing with what’s in front of you, you have to find a way to make it happen and you have to leave the disappointments behind.'
'FANTASTIC!'
A Selection of Comments from England Rugby Conference, RFU
‘Ed delivered an absorbing, fascinating and thought provoking presentation that was absolutely perfect for our audience. Our brief to him was slightly different to his usual motivational speeches but he crafted his presentation superbly, it was very relevant and created the inspirational start to the conference we were looking for. He is very engaging, amusing and talks about his amazing experiences in such a modest manner. Next time we will make sure we allow more time for him to speak as our audience were captivated which was apparent afterwards when so many were keen to speak with him.’
Anglian Water
'You could not have hit the mark more completely with what you said. Not only was the content of enormous interest in its own right, but your delivery was extremely moving and I think touched everybody on a personal level.'
Ernst and Young
'You think you've heard all the motivational speeches there are to hear, then someone like Ed proves you wrong. Hearing his tale of determination put any challenging experiences we'd ever had in the workplace into perspective.'
The Oxford Union
'I just wanted you to know that the team have given you fabulous feedback: "raw" and "real" were the most frequent words used. Thanks again.'
Financial Times
‘As for Ed Stafford - the feedback was brilliant. His session really lifted the afternoon and the feedback was fantastic. His down to earth approach and the story he told was well received. I think he gained a few “fans” on the day and our guests left on quite a buzz.'
2Plan
Profile
Ed Stafford walked into the history books when he became the first man to walk the length of the Amazon River. His epic adventure took two and a half years and his success made headline news. His achievement is, as explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes put it: 'Truly extraordinary'.
Ed Stafford is passionate about encouraging others. He is honest and real about the challenges he faced: snakes, severe floods, electric eels, jaguars and the hostility of local tribes confronted with a tall foreign man in their midst. Ed's story has powerful lessons about seemingly impossible challenges, resilience, risk, working with others, respect for other cultures and the natural environment, and of course, motivation and staying positive when things are relentlessly tough. Ed’s style of delivery ensures that messages about success in the face of adversity, the determination to achieve targets and riding out tough times are delivered in a very entertaining way with a large dollop of self-deprecating humour.
Ed filmed and blogged about his expedition and engaged followers all over the world for two and a half years from the heart of the Amazon. His tale of true grit, bravery and determination to succeed against all odds has led to him being described by The Daily Mail as; 'Britain's most intrepid hero since Scott of the Antarctic,' and 'A true hero' by The Times.
Ed's footage was made into a Discovery Channel documentary and was sold to over 100 countries. His acclaimed book, Walking the Amazon has been translated into Mandarin, Ukranian, Polish and Spanish as well as being sold to the USA. In this book, Ed writes on completing his journey: ‘It was over. Nine million-odd steps; over 200,000 mosquito and ant bites; over 8,000 kilmometres walked over 860 days, 733 of them with Cho [Gadiel ‘Cho’ Sanchez Rivera], about 600 wasp stings; a dozen or so scorpion stings; 10 HD video cameras; six pairs of boots; three GPSs and one Guinness World Record.’
News that Ed had succeeded against all odds caught the imagination of the world’s press immediately: his story featured in over 900 articles and on news channels worldwide.
Ed Stafford was awarded European Adventurer of the Year 2011. The Guinness World Records has formally recognized Ed Stafford's achievement and Ed also received an award for outstanding bravery from Sir Ranulph Fiennes and the Transglobe Expedition Trust.
Following his epic walk of the Amazon, new challenges and opportunities were to follow. Ed filmed himself surviving on an uninhabited island for 60 days – a tough project testing Ed in many and often unexpected ways. The resulting series ‘Naked and Marooned with Ed Stafford’ was shown globally on Discovery Channel during 2013 and Ed’s book about his experiences was published the following year. He continues to work on acclaimed television projects: Ed’s subsequent survival series ‘Marooned’ was shown worldwide on Discovery in 2014. In remote and extreme environments, Ed filmed himself alone for ten days learning to survive (and attempting to thrive) in different remote, extreme environments. His latest series with Discovery Channel is 'Into The Unknown' (2015). With photographs of Earth – taken by spy satellites and the International Space Station – showing strange and unexplained markings in some of the most remote and inaccessible places on the planet, Ed returns to his roots as an explorer as he explores extreme terrains to solve the riddle. From investigating gigantic white lines popping up on satellite images in remote West Papua, to a strange pattern of circular dots in the middle of the Danakil Desert, each astonishing image captures something hard to classify, previously unseen or anomalous. Ed continues to work on exciting TV projects in 2015.
Ed intends to use his adventures to inspire adults and kids alike to stretch their horizons and believe that they can do so much more.
