Bonita Norris

Bonita Norris is the youngest person ever to reach both the summit of Mount Everest and the North Pole.

She did this having never climbed a mountain before the age of 20 and then reached the summit of Everest only two years later at the age of 22.

This rollercoaster journey that taught her the power of taking radical responsibility - for our own mindset, for how we show up in our team, and for finding the resilience to keep moving forward in life’s toughest moments.

Bonita went on to climb multiple 8,000m peaks including - Everest (8,849m), Lhotse (8,516m), Manaslu (8,163m), has skied to the North Pole, and attempted to become the first British woman to successfully climb K2 (8,611m).

The barriers she broke through in the adventure world earned her a nomination for Cosmopolitan’s Woman of the Year Award.

In 2022, Bonita’s book - “The Girl Who Climbed Everest” - became a bestseller.

Bonita’s rich and diverse experiences in the mountains have honed her understanding of performance in the face of uncertainty - and now she shares these unique insights with audiences all over the world as a multi-award winning keynote speaker.

Bonita has 15 years experience as a keynpte speaker. She is a master storyteller and has delivered over 750 motivational speeches on conference stages all over the world. Her high energy keynotes are the perfect open or close to your conference, leaving audiences inspired, motivated and equipped to put into action their learnings from hey keynote and from your event.

We all have mountains to climb, whether that’s targets to achieve, uncertainty to navigate or setbacks to pick ourselves up from. These challenges can leave people feeling overwhelmed and at risk of losing sight of their own motivation and potential.

Bonita reminds audiences of the power they have within themselves to rise to these challenges, energising them to claim their agency and take action.

Bonita will work with you to understand the unique messages of your event and seamlessly deliver them through spellbinding storytelling and memorable takeaways your audience won’t forget.

Whilst inspiring, Bonita’s stories are relatable: she is the ordinary person who did something extraordinary, and this allow audiences to connect with her, her story and the messaging she shares.

If mesmerising storytelling, actionable lessons on marginal gains, mindset, teamwork and resilience are what you are looking for in a speaker, Bonita Norris is the perfect choice for your event.

MOUNTAINS OF THE MIND:
Inspiring Teams to Reach New Heights
To perform under pressure, we need to find daily resilience, motivation and confidence.

In Mountains of the Mind, Bonita shares how we can achieve extraordinary feats when we take responsibility for our inner world and learn how not to let excuses limiting beliefs and fears define how we show up for our goals, our teams and ourselves.

This immersive keynote is packed with actionable takeaways that audiences can implement immediately, leaving them motivated and inspired to conquer their own Everest.

Key Messages:
- Success by Smallness: If you want to solve big problems, focus on solving small ones.
- Focus not Fret: A formula for fearlessness that builds confidence and resilience.
- Be Great, Make Others Great: Understanding what matters when building a great team culture.


IN THE DEATH ZONE:
How To Utilise Fear To Achieve Success
We all hate making mistakes, and nobody wants to fail.

Yet, if we want to achieve extraordinary foals then both mistakes and failure are inevitable parts of the journey to success.

In this immersive keynote, Bonita shares her own personal story of how a simple mistake in the mountains led to a failure that she initially struggled to mentally recover from, until she understood that failure could be, and then later became, the catalyst for even greater success.

Key Messages:
- Growth Mindset
- Learning From Failure


DATA OVER DOGMA:
How Data Made The First Ascent Of Everest Possible

Bonita explores how the first ascent of Everest was made possible through data and Scientific rigour after 30 years of failed attempts on the world’s highest peak.

The story we all know and love about the first ascent of Everest in 1953 is that of man over mountain: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s superhuman effort to make it to the summit. But is that the whole story behind the first ascent?

This inspiring keynote tells of the unsung hero of Everest, Dr Griffith Pugh, who unlocked the mystery of how to get the two climbers to the top and back down again - alive, using data.

Today, we are grasping to understand how the data and AI revolution will transform our lives. Within this uncertainty, there is a reluctance to change, and a fear of leaving old ways behind. We wouldn’t be alone in feeling this way: 70 years ago the pioneers of Everest were grappling with much the same - their belief system, so closely held onto, was actually holding them back from realising their potential.

This keynote reframes the story of the first ascent of Everest as a triumph not of man over mountain but of data over dogmatic thinking.

Key Messages:
- Embracing Change
- Harnessing the power of data

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Clients often ask about purchasing books for giveaways and delegate packs. Below you’ll find a selection of products by Bonita Norris. Click the images to view on Amazon's website. For bulk orders, please speak with your Booking Agent.