Adam Kreek
Adam Kreek is a top North American leadership speaker and executive coach. He has trained and coached leaders at Amazon, Microsoft, Pfizer, Shell, GE, Mercedes-Benz, L’Oréal, YPO, EO, and dozens of Fortune 500 firms.
Event planners trust Adam because he doesn’t deliver hype or quick fixes. He inspires, yes – but more importantly, he equips. His Built for HardTM framework blends unforgettable stories with practical, values-based tools leaders can apply immediately, ensuring stage energy translates into real business outcomes.
A two-time Olympian and Olympic Gold Medalist with more than 60 international medals, Adam has proven himself in the world’s most demanding environments. He also made history as a record-setting ocean rower, the subject of NBC’s Dateline documentary Capsized.
What makes Adam unique is his dual lens: lived high-performance experience and deep business expertise. Few speakers can say they’ve both delivered under extreme pressure and coached leaders in the trenches of Fortune 500 companies. Adam leads strategic planning sessions, executive coaching, and high-performance training for organizations navigating constant change.
Speaking topics
- Values-Driven AchievementTM: The Foundation of Peak Performance
Lasting success isn’t built on motivation, strategy, or talent – it’s built on values.
After two decades powering peak performance inside Olympic teams, Fortune 500
companies, and front-line organizations, Adam Kreek knows this: the best leaders aren’t just
driven – they’re aligned. They know what they stand for, and they act on it consistently.This keynote strips the fluff out of “values work” and replaces it with straight talk and
practical tools. Adam shows leaders how to align personal integrity with organizational
mission, eliminate friction that drains energy, and build cultures of trust and accountability
that endure.Audience Takeaways:
● Identify the values that drive peak performance – and translate them into daily action.● Align personal purpose with organizational mission.
● Eliminate friction and burnout caused by misalignment.
● Build cultures of trust, accountability, and resilience.Key Message: Resilience starts with values. When leaders live their values, results last.
- Built for Hard: The World Is Hard. Let’s Build for It.
Leadership • Teamwork • Resilience • Change Management
In today’s disruptive economy, leaders don’t need hype. They need systems that hold up
under real pressure.Built for Hard reframes how teams approach challenge. Adam shows leaders how to stop
resisting difficulty and start using it – transforming obstacles into clarity, resilience, and
measurable results.Audience Takeaways:
● A healthier, more productive relationship with challenge.
● Renewed trust, focus, and energy across teams.
● Systems for clarity, execution, and sustainable performance.Key Message: Resilience doesn’t come from avoiding difficulty – it comes from systems
designed to thrive within it.- Sales Team Success: Proven Strategies to Align, Adapt and Achieve Results with Confidence
Sales is a mental game. The best reps aren’t just skilled – they’re resilient, adaptable, and
relentless.Adam, an Olympic Gold Medalist and business coach, equips sales teams with the mindset
and strategies to crush quotas, overcome rejection, and stay motivated under pressure.Audience Takeaways:
● Build an unshakable mindset for high-pressure sales.
● Strengthen resilience against rejection and market uncertainty.● Develop winning habits that fuel consistent top performanc.e
Key Message: Sales success is resilience + adaptability + the mindset to win.
- Built for Health: The Foundation of Leadership and Performance
This keynote reframes health as a strategic infrastructure for leaders.
Adam goes beyond habits and hacks. He shows how to align values with daily choices, build
sustainable health systems, and treat physical health as the foundation of focus,
relationships, decision-making, and impact.Audience Takeaways:
● Identify drivers behind health behavior – and remove friction.
● Build sustainable habits rooted in values, not guilt
● Strengthen resilience and decision-making under pressure.
● Treat health as the system that supports every goal.Key Message: Your body is the house that holds your mission. Take care of it.
- Teamwork for Engineers: Proven Strategies to Lead with Balance, Collaboration, and Influence
Technical skills open doors, but collaboration and leadership drive real success.
Adam equips engineers and technical professionals with tools to influence, communicate,
and build high-performance teams without losing their technical edge.Audience Takeaways:
● Bridge the gap between technical expertise and leadership influence.
● Improve communication for stronger problem-solving.
● Build trust-based, high-performing teams.Key Message: Great engineers don’t just solve problems – they lead teams that deliver.
- Sample Custom Workshop (Adam offers breakout workshops on all his topics)
Values-Driven AchievementTM: Motivation Fades. Alignment Doesn’t.
Motivation fades. Alignment doesn’t.This hands-on workshop takes Adam’s keynote principles and turns them into actionable
strategies your leaders can put to work the same day. It’s not theory – it’s a structured,
interactive session where teams define, test, and apply their core values directly to business
challenges.Leaders leave not only inspired, but equipped with simple, repeatable tools that drive
alignment, accountability, and lasting engagement. The result: energy that compounds,
cultures that strengthen, and performance that sustains under pressure.Audience Takeaways
● Define and operationalize core values that fuel decision-making and performance.
● Translate values into action by aligning personal purpose with organizational
mission.
● Build systems of accountability that connect daily behavior to long-term results.
● Reduce burnout and disengagement by eliminating the friction caused by
misalignment.
● Create a culture of trust and resilience where motivation compounds instead of
fading.Key Message
When leaders anchor work in what truly matters, motivation doesn’t fade – it multiplies into
trust, resilience, and results that last.Keynote or Workshop Formats:
● 30–90 minute keynote, customized for your audience
● 2-hour to full-day workshop
● Half- or full-day senior leadership intensive
Video clips
Speaker testimonials
WE WOULD HIRE HIM AGAIN IN A HEARTBEAT
“I highly recommend Adam! He is high energy yet calming, an engaging storyteller who has
lived his lessons, real, quick-witted, humble, succinct, perceptive and action-oriented. We
would hire him again in a heartbeat. Our leaders raved about him. Shine on, Adam!”
“There is no shortage of speakers available for business coaching. What sets Adam apart is
his genuine, down-to-earth interest in the success of not only corporate goals but personal
ones as well. Adam has provided us with the tools to take large, multi-year goals and then
work backwards to make the changes in our everyday lives in order to achieve them. I would
not hesitate to recommend Adam to anyone or group who is looking at understanding what
success looks like on their terms and what’s required to achieve it.”
Adam’s keynote was absolutely phenomenal and exceeded all of our expectations! Adam delivered on every single bullet point we outlined, and more. He masterfully tailored his presentation to the specific needs of our team, making it an incredibly memorable and impactful experience. The return on investment from Adam’s session is still evident as we continue to integrate his powerful concepts, like ‘noble failure’ and ‘Gold Medal moment,’ into our leadership team culture. His energy, commitment, and willingness to share his life story, accomplishments, failures, and even his actual Gold Medal, resonated deeply with our engineering leaders. We highly recommend him to any organization seeking a dynamic and transformative speaker.
Adam was a huge success at our event! His presentation was relevant to our overall conference theme and set the tone for the remainder of the day. I can truly say that he connected with all of our guests and made quite the impression.
I’ve seen dozens of Olympians speak at off-sites in the last 19 years, and Adam was by far the best. He was relevant to our business and had a fascinating story. He wasn’t spewing business dogma. He spoke to the people in the room, leaving a lasting and positive impact that traveled through our office.
Adam was masterful at integrating our core themes from the day into an energized, motivating, involving presentation. Hundreds of team members were committed to identifying and taking bold action towards their ‘gold medal moment.’ Adam was the highlight of our rally!
I have seen dozens of Olympians speak at off-sites in the last 19 years, and Adam was by far the best. He was relevant to our business and had a fascinating story. He wasn’t spewing business dogma. He spoke to the people in the room, leaving a lasting and positive impact that travelled through our office. I have heard nothing but rave reviews from all our employees.
Truly a Gold Medal Performance! Adam’s greatest strength is his authenticity. His enthusiasm is not rehearsed or forced – it is true to his personality and it is impossible not to be affected by his strong presence. Our attendees ranged in age from early 20′s to late 60′s, and they are all “hardened lawyers” – a tough crowd! Adam connected with each and every one of them, using a combination of humour, humility and inspiration. Weeks after the event, people are still talking about the retreat and Adam’s role in showing us how it takes different players to form an effective team. His message is that it is only through failure that we can find ultimate success. That we need to move past our comfort zone, was particularly resonant. In fact, several attendees were so impressed by Adam’s presentation that they prepared a follow-up seminar called: “What I learned from Adam” – This is unprecedented, and a tribute to the impact he had upon us, both individually and as an organization.” “Would we recommend Adam? Without reservation! His story is credible, relatable and his impact is tangible. Truly a Gold Medal performance!
Adam’s Keynote Set a Wonderful Tone! We were very pleased with Adam Kreek’s keynote at FCL’s Path to Performance event for 280 of our management employees. Adam took time, in advance, to get to know our organization, meet our leaders, and build relationships with our employees. He also incorporated our organization and its vision into his presentation. This went a long way to making the presentation unique and personal—we felt as though it was meant for us. Adam’s message about asking ourselves, “Will it make the boat go faster?” is a concept that really resonated with people and has been repeated by our CEO. Another concept that people took from Adam’s presentation and have been using it, “we need to focus on the things that we can control and not on the things that we can’t”. We would recommend Adam Kreek to others because his keynote set a wonderful tone for rolling out our new competency model. Adam inspired our management employees by sharing his own journey on his personal Path to Performance.
From the moment we hired Adam on to deliver the keynote address at our employee conference, we knew we had someone special. Our conference theme of Power with Purpose was strengthened with Adam’s complimentary and relevant presentation. Utilizing company specific examples, Adam had our 200 attendees captivated and engaged from the moment his multi-media presentation began. Illustrating relevant examples of how our day-to-day personal and professional lives can parallel the challenge and rewards of training and competing within a team, Adam’s alluring and inspiring tales of his own experiences not only held the audience to the edge of their seats, but provided inspiration and motivation to use the tools to reflect, learn, grow, and let it go in all areas of our lives. By tailoring and customizing his presentation, Adam ensured our corporate messaging remained on target. Truly a man of his word, Adam spent time with our team both before and following his keynote, intent on learning as much about our company as he could. Adam’s charismatic personality shines through as someone who is warm with passion and excited by life. This translated into several staff members speaking about him for days following the event; true evidence of a gold medal performance! Best wishes for continued success.
Adam was nothing short of spectacular. I’ve talked with dozens of people about his presentation, through whom I’ve gotten feedback from just about all the employees and guests that attended. Words I hear from them: “very motivational,” “inspiring,” “funny,” “smart”… They were thrilled that he shared his medals and the torch with everyone, too. It was a treat to have him join us for the entire evening – he was very generous with his time and attention to all who met him. I’m regularly hearing key words and ideas from Adam’s presentation in normal conversation here at Island Savings – “own it!” – and we all found his closing of the event with singing like Kreek an inspiration. It wasn’t just belting out our anthem, it was putting our arms around our colleagues and singing it TOGETHER that brought us the vibrations we’re still feeling today.
Not having seen Adam present I was nervous of what he would deliver. Now having seen his presentation I know to trust the online videos and recommendations. He was outstanding! Adam really captured the audience’s attention – they were riveted for the full hour he spoke. His stories and candid advice where highly appreciated by the 550 UK business people who listened intently. Feedback following the event called out Adam’s presentation as a highlight with many attendees saying it was the best keynote presentation they had heard!
Adam tailored his presentation to our audience and used light hearted humor throughout. Most impressively he asked 550 senior business people to join him in singing the national anthem… and they did it willingly and passionately! Changing gears from business keynotes to hearing stories of team and personal success resonates with successful leaders. Adam’s presentation created a great buzz and following the presentation it enabled attendees to connect and get to know each other better.
Adam was great to work with and we hope to work with him again in the future.
Adam was a huge success at our event! His presentation was relevant to our overall conference theme and set the tone for the remainder of the day… I can truly say that he connected with all of our guests and made quite the impression.