Bella Collins – OCEAN ROWER, STRATEGIST & PUBLIC SPEAKER

Inspirational Keynote Speaker -

x2 World Record Breaking Rows
Managing Director at Flexi-Hex
Named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 – 2021

Bella Collins Inspirational Speaker

Teamwork and Innovation Topics that Bella speaks about to audiences

  1. Keep learning and have a growth mindset – I wasn’t the sporty one at school or that practical (and therefore made for adventure) but anything is achievable if you have the right mindset and are open to learning and upskilling
  2. How to ignore the fear and build courage to say yes to new opportunities as you never know where they might lead you, even if you fail
  3. People aren’t perfect, understand their “red” and “green” traits, build team values and put your goals into priority order.
  4. Being vulnerable doesn’t mean your weak
  5. The quickest/easiest route isn’t always the best and often doesn’t lead to the result you want eg. We took the longest route to row across the Atlantic in my first row but we came 2nd out of 26 teams (all of which were male bar 1)
  6. Hard times pass, search for the positives and embrace gratitude’s
  7. There’s always a solution to every problem – know the tools at your disposal, understand your teams’ skills and prepare for every situation
Bella Collins Inspirational Speaker

About Bella

At the age of 21, Bella was asked to row across the Atlantic Ocean as part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.

Despite having never rowed before (the first time she sat in a boat, she rowed backwards!) and never competed in any endurance sport, Bella ignored the voice of fear and reason in her head and said yes.

Her team, Row Like A Girl, went on to break the record for the youngest and fastest 4 woman team to cross the Atlantic, simultaneously coming 2nd in a race of 26 boats.

This expedition ignited something in Bella; she started to realise what she was capable of and learnt to stop listening to the voice in her head that said she couldn’t.

To battle the lack of self-esteem, to simply say yes, approach opportunities with a growth mindset and see where it takes you.

In June 2021, Bella went on to row across the Pacific Ocean, from San Fransisco to Hawaii with the team Ocean Sheroes.

This new team went on to break the female record by over 2 weeks, taking them 35 days, 14 hours and 32 minutes.

Bella is also an ambitious marketer and business strategist, working within the Leadership Team at innovative packaging start-up Flexi-Hex.

Flexi-Hex, which is new and innovative plastic-free protective packaging solution.
Ultimately, in her talks, Bella inspires people to push themselves, to give them the confidence to say yes to their aspirations and show businesses how supporting employees outside the office ultimately benefits them too.

Bella Collins Inspirational Speaker

PUBLIC SPEAKING

From online “lunch and learns” to keynote talks and interactive Q&As, Bella is passionate about sharing her journey over the last 20 years.

Bella can tailor her talks around specific themes from how to build a campaign and lessons learnt from the ocean, to how businesses can benefit from supporting their staff.

PREVIOUS APPEARANCES

Over the last 18 months, Bella has shared her story through a range of mediums from podcasts and online Q&As with brands and their staff to a being a keynote speaker at The Blue Earth Summit and more intimate events with select groups.

Testimonials

We were so excited to have Bella come down to talk to the team at Wheal Kitty – by the end of it I think half of us were already dreaming about how we could organise a team row across the ocean!
More practically however, it really helped us reflect on the key attributes needed to build, strong winning teams and how we could translate this into everyday life at Finisterre.
Thanks Bella, for your inspiration and storytelling.

Finisterre

We approached Bella to speak to our team internally as part of a new initiative we’d launched known as Freedom Conversations, whereby we invite clients and friends of The Fry Group from sport, the arts and business.
Bella was extremely professional, delivering a well-balanced mix of inspirational anecdotes from her many adventures, whilst seamlessly relating her challenges and achievements to the world of business and our company core values.
A pleasure to work with, Bella left us all with an inspiring message and we would have no hesitation in recommending her as a speaker.

The Fry Group