Roz Savage MBE – Ocean Rower & Sustainability Advocate

Roz Savage is an ocean rower, speaker, author, sustainability advocate, and thought leader on the big existential questions of the 21st century.

As individuals, organisations, and global citizens, who are we?

Where are we going?

What will be our legacy?

An Oxford law graduate and former management consultant, Roz has both theoretical and very practical experience of radical personal transformation.

An environmental epiphany led to a radical career change when she left her comfortable city life to row solo across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, using her adventures to inspire action on our environmental challenges.

She now speaks and writes on global issues, taking a systems approach to designing a sustainable and fulfilling future for our world.

An Environmental Epiphany

An environmental epiphany led Roz to a radical life change, leaving an 11-year career as a management consultant to become the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Through her experiences she has gained first-hand knowledge and insights into courage, resilience, leadership, teamwork and personal determination.

Her inspirational and highly motivational keynote speeches showcase her powerful advocacy for everyone to unlock their potential and pursue a purpose-driven life.

Her realisation of two profound truths are at the heart of her adventurous experiences and messages:

• we are all capable of much more than we dare to believe we are;
• any worthy endeavour requires an inspirational vision combined with a team that is coitted to maste

Roz loves sharing her insights on the power and benefits of living outside your comfort zone.

Her bold teachings across both private and professional spectrums reveal the tools for success to global corporate and academic audiences.

LIFE’S GREAT ADVENTURE

Her highly engaging and deeply personal keynotes offer practical tools for overcoming the fear that holds us back from true engagement and fulfilment.

Her central premise is that courage is not the absence of fear, but rather acknowledging the fear while being sufficiently motivated to move past it towards success.

Roz emphasises how vital it is to leap into life’s great adventure, striking the right balance between caution and boldness.

Companies and organisations that bring Roz in to speak see a huge return on that investment, which results in more committed and confident employees, who have a renewed sense of courageous leadership and strong determination to move past obstacles that had previously been holding them back.

GLOBAL CALL-TO-ACTION

In addition to being a speaker, author, and sustainability champion for environmental and clean ocean issues, Roz is the founder of the Sisters Global.

The Sisters is a global network of women, and women’s organisations, working together to create a more peaceful and sustainable future.

Roz is constantly collaborating with different Sisters to connect the issues from around the world with new combinations of pooled resources, much-needed skills, and focused time to change the world for the better.

Together, they are building a movement across the boundaries of nationhood, religion, ethnicity, and class, to amplify our collective impact

Roz was energetic, passionate, engaging and real. Her connection with both our employees and our clients, and the dialogue it sparked both within the room and beyond was tremendous. Everyone left with a little optimistic spring in their step, inspired to make changes.

Managing Director, Credit Suisse

Roz recently spoke to our employees about ways to face stormy seas on the path to transforming our business. Her lessons in grit and perseverance will help anyone navigating today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.

Maryam, CMO, Gannett Co Inc

STOP DRIFTING, START READING

Roz Savage sat down one night and wrote two versions of her own obituary: one for the person she was pretending to be outside, and another obituary of the person she was craving to become on the inside.

And it is from this experience and her search for happiness on the open water that Roz asks individuals and organisations today:

who are we?

Where are we going?

And what will be our legacy?

As the only woman who has successfully rowed across the ‘Big 3’ oceans (Atlantic, Pacific and Indian), Roz shares in her books the very practical experience and in-depth insights on how the psychology of self-functions can radically drive personal transformation.

In addition to her books, Roz writes for numerous magazines and websites including Virgin.com, Forbes and the Huffington Post, and has contributed to over a dozen books on oceans, conversation, adventure, personal development, courage and resilient leadership.

Voyages Between 2005 and 2011, Roz Savage became the first (and so far only) woman to row solo across the “Big Three” oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian. She covered around 15,000 miles, taking around 5 million oarstrokes, and spent over 500 days alone at sea in a 23-foot rowboat.
She holds four Guinness World Records for ocean rowing: first woman to row solo across the Pacific; first woman to row solo across three oceans; longest time spent at sea for a female ocean rower (individual voyage – 154 days); longest time spent at sea for a female ocean rower (cumulative – 520 days).

Mindset and Motivation

Taking on a big challenge – be it organisational change, project implementation, a complex negotiation, or an ocean – can be daunting. Motivation, courage and resilience are essential, but don’t always show up on demand, especially when external factors throw the best laid plans into disarray.
When Roz was making her maiden voyage as an ocean rower, across the Atlantic, she experienced a steep learning curve as she faced storms, setbacks, equipment failures, loss of communication, and her inner demons of self-doubt and self-criticism.
In this inspiring presentation, she shares the very practical tips she discovered on how to strengthen mindset and find motivation in even the most challenging of circumstances, ultimately enabling her to row solo across 3,000 miles of hostile ocean.

Motivation > Fear = Courage

Drawing on materials from a course she taught at Yale on Courage in Theory and Practice, Roz shows why the world needs courage now more than ever, as we face an increasingly uncertain future.

She offers practical techniques for overcoming fear to serve our highest purpose. Her central premise is that courage is not the absence of fear – in fact, there are times when fear is a perfectly rational response to circumstances – but when our motivation is great enough, we are able to move past our fear to courageously do what is right.

Roz often felt fear on the ocean, but was able to overcome her fears by reconnecting to her greater purposes – her environmental mission, and the desire to live her life as fully as possible.
This presentation will inspire audiences to step up into their highest potential as forces for good in the world.

The Best Way To Predict The Future Is To Create It

Creating a sustainable future for humanity has been a driving force in Roz’s ocean rowing career.
She advocates a “deep ecology” approach, likening these environmental threats to a many-headed sea monster; we can keep cutting off the heads representing plastic pollution, deforestation, ocean acidification, and so on, but the monster will simply grow new ones.

What we need to do is get to the heart of the monster – the disconnect between humans and nature.
Roz draws on her firsthand experiences of the awesome power and beauty of nature, coupled with her perception that our planet is surprisingly small.

She also reminds us that, just like the 5 million oarstrokes it took her to cross three oceans, one oar stroke may not get us very far, but millions of tiny actions add up to huge transformation.

Re-Thinking Reality: The Stories We Tell Ourselves

As individuals and organisations, even as families, communities, and countries, we hold an underlying story about who we are.

Consciously or subconsciously, for better or worse, we make true in our external world whatever we beliefs we hold in our internal world.

Sometimes these narratives only become apparent when we produce a surprising – even shocking – result.

The good news is that, once we become aware of these narratives, we can change them in order to craft the outcomes that we want. In her mid-thirties, Roz went through a major personal transformation.

She shares how she changed her operational narrative in order to create a life of achievement, meaning and purpose, and invites us all to reconsider the reality that we are creating for ourselves – and to take control of it.

VUCA: Leadership from the Inside Out

VUCA is a military acronym, meaning situations that are Volatile, Unpredictable, Complex, and Ambiguous – much like many business environments.

How can we thrive in such uncertain times?

By learning to lead ourselves with strength, courage and calmness, no matter what is going on around us.

Roz presents an alternative VUCA – Vision and Values, Ultimate Flexibility, Courage, and Awareness – to help business leaders keep themselves and their organisations on an even keel throughout the storms of change.

Testimonials

Roz recently spoke to Gannett employees about ways to face stormy seas on the path to transforming our business. Her lessons in grit and perseverance will help anyone navigating today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.

Maryam Banikarim, Gannett Co., Inc.

Roz was energetic, passionate, engaging and real. Her connection with both our employees and our clients, and the dialogue it sparked both within the room and beyond was tremendous. Everyone left with a little optimistic spring in their step, inspired to make changes and live their lives a little differently. It was an amazing experience to share her world for that hour.

Jill Ford, Credit Suisse

Women were still talking about you after the conference ended. What a tremendous inspiration you were, and are, to all of us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Amy Belivacqua, YaleWomen