Achieve High Performance Through Big Dreams
Achieve High Performance Through Big Dreams
UK
Inspire resilience with Elise Downing, the first woman to run 5,000 miles self-supported around Britain. Your team will learn to achieve the extraordinary.
Request fees and availability5 out of 5 stars
Elise is a charismatic, engaging and witty speaker. At the National Running Show, Elise was one of our most popular speakers and a real draw for visitors. She is a joy to work with.
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About Elise
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Keynote Speaker Elise Downing delivers inspiring and relatable talks that empower organizations to build resilience, embrace a growth mindset, and achieve high performance. Known for her humorous, down-to-earth storytelling, Elise engages audiences with lessons drawn from her remarkable endurance adventures and her expertise in delivering leadership training to businesses worldwide. By blending her experiences with actionable strategies, Elise equips teams with practical tools to overcome challenges, unlock their potential, and achieve exceptional results.
Elise is celebrated as the first woman to run 5,000 miles self-supported around the coast of Britain. Over the course of ten months, she ran up to 40 miles a day, carrying her gear and relying on the generosity of strangers. Despite starting with little experience, she succeeded through grit, adaptability, and perseverance—qualities she translates into powerful lessons for organizations. Her bestselling book, Coasting, was named one of The Times Best Sports Books, offering relatable insights into daring to dream big and taking the first steps toward achieving ambitious goals.
When you book Elise Downing for your event, you’re investing in a keynote that entertains, motivates, and delivers lasting impact. Elise’s ability to connect with audiences through humor and authenticity ensures your team will walk away inspired and equipped with practical strategies for growth, adaptability, and success.
See keynotes with Elise DowningWhether it’s running an ultramarathon or striving towards an ambitious business goal, the first step is daring to believe that it might be possible. There are thousands of better runners than Elise out there – the only reason she managed to be the first woman to run around the coast of Britain is because she dreamed big enough to begin.
Using real-life examples, Elise will share practical tips for developing a growth mindset and believing in your own potential. After all, in the words of Capital Sensible, “if you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?”
There’s one key ingredient present in every successful completion of a goal: not giving up before the finish line. This is even more pertinent when working towards long-term targets.
With examples ranging from sticking with it through extreme running challenges (from multi-month adventures to gruelling mountain races) to sitting still long enough to write the 80,000 words required for a bestselling book, Elise’s stories will inspire the audience to persevere through their on challenges (even when they really want quit) and illustrate the rewards that can be reaped when you do.
We often talk about ‘conquering’ our fears and overcoming our doubts. But if we’re always waiting to be a better version of ourselves (more confident, fewer nerves, less afraid) before starting something, most of the time it will never end up happening.
By sharing her own experiences with humour and vulnerability, Elise will demonstrate how we can do amazing things despite our doubts, even using them to enhance performance.
Elise is a charismatic, engaging and witty speaker. At the National Running Show, Elise was one of our most popular speakers and a real draw for visitors. She is a joy to work with.
Mike Seaman
We loved having Elise talk about her incredible feat of running the UK coast as part of our Company Growth Day! She delivered an inspirational speech that was hugely engaging and, although to most of us in the room completely unachievable, was so relatable! In a room full of people with hugely different backgrounds and hobbies, she was able to relate to everyone and was the standout highlight of the day for our team! Thanks again Elise and we hope to have you back soon!
Sara Richardson
Elise was the highlight of the event. Engaging, inspiring, authentic and hilarious.
Raoul Monks
Elise came to The Ministry of Clean to share her incredible story with the team. Elise was very relatable, extremely engaging and told her story in a very humorous way. We loved it! The office have since set up a weekly run club having felt so motivated by Elise to get out and run.
Sophie Panter
Elise was our VIP at the annual Duke of Edinburgh’s Award presentation evening. She presented over 100 awards to our Bronze and Silver award recipients, and delivered an inspirational account of her epic coastal run which had the students and their family members hanging on every word. Elise was able to relate her experience really well to the students’ own struggles on their DofE expeditions, and to inspire in them the idea that you don’t need to know that you are going to finish – you just need to take that first step. I have received numerous emails from parents and many corridor comments from students over the past few days saying how much they enjoyed Elise’s presentation.
Neil Dixon
Elise brightened up a dark, stormy evening in Edinburgh when she spoke about her epic run around Britain for the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. She is an enthusiastic, honest, self-deprecating speaker and her warmth, great sense of humour and drive to "keep it real" motivated the audience to quit the excuses and do more!
Rachel Hay
Elise gave an inspiring and engaging talk to our Sixth Formers as a way of setting the tone for the year ahead. The message was perfectly pitched as it showed how giving things a go can lead to amazing outcomes, and that not everything has to be planned to the nth degree for that to happen. She was warm and friendly and the students really took to her and her message. We’ll definitely be having Elise back.
Richard Pearce
It was a great honour having Elise speak at Oratory Preparatory School. Her achievements are immense and [she's] a funny and engaging speaker too. We loved having her.
Rob Stewart
We were delighted that Elise agreed to be involved in the Run Rabbit Trail Festival where she spoke about her running adventures. She really threw herself into the spirit of things and was engaging and funny. We can’t recommend her highly enough.
Brain Cocoran
Lieven is an experienced ultra-distance runner and the founder of Built For Endurance, a company focused on optimizing leaders' health, energy, and performance. He is passionate about helping others overcome their fears and reach their full...
Anne-Marie Flammersfeld is a record holding extreme athlete who discovered the joy of running quite late in her life at the age of 31. It was a chance encounter whilst she was on vacation in South America that she discovered the 'Racing The Planet 4...
Our keynote speaker Alastair Humphreys is one of National Geographic’s Adventurers of the Year, an accomplished speaker and a best-selling author. Alastair’s expeditions are deliberately varied but all are a call to arms that nothing is achieved...
Embark on a transformative journey with Charles Clark, three-time NCAA Champion turned motivational powerhouse. Unleash high-performance strategies, gain personal insights, and elevate your team's success. A trusted speaker for the US Army and Nike,...
Keynote speaker Cedric Dumont’s longtime fascination with flight led him to become a wingsuit flyer, base jumper and international Red Bull athlete. He shares with audiences what he learns from these extreme...
Luke Tyburski captivates, entertains, and leaves his audiences challenging their own mental health beliefs & personal limitations. His stories are mind-blowing & the actionable knowledge he delivers is truly insightful - Luke Tyburski is an...
Working for Peloton as a strength and cycle instructor, Ben develops his unique overall fitness brand, which combines performance athletics with extreme motivation to achieve total wellness. This inspirational combination influences his...
Sophie Storm Roberts is an adventure athlete, mindset coach, personal trainer, motivational speaker and Founder of TrailBlazers - building confidence and courage in girls through the transformational power of...
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