James Castrission

We can achieve so much more together than we can on our own.

Profile

James Castrission is an Australian thought leader in building leadership capabilities for leading high-performance teams and fostering an explorer's mindset for achieving the extraordinary. Cas is renowned as a World-Record-Breaking Aussie Explorer constantly pushing the boundaries of human endurance. He also spent five years as a management consultant at Deloitte.

Current Work

Cas is highly regarded as one of Australia’s premier public speakers, captivating global audiences with his insights on leadership, teamwork, risk management, and resilience. He is the author of two bestselling books: 'Crossing the Ditch' and 'Extreme South. His engaging and motivational presentations have reached over 920,000 people across 40 countries.

James Castrission’s unique approach to conferences involves immersive simulation-based learning, allowing participants to collaboratively navigate scenarios, make decisions, and learn from the consequences firsthand.

Previous Experience

Crossing the Ditch: In late 2007, Cas and his best mate, Jonesy, made history by completing the longest unsupported transoceanic double kayak expedition—a Guinness World Record. Over 62 days, they kayaked 3318km across treacherous seas, facing dwindling supplies, technical issues, 14 days trapped in a whirlpool, and two close encounters with sharks. After this endeavour, Cas spent a lot of time reflecting on his learnings, reinforcing his belief that every lesson can be applied to any difficult situation and to anyone striving to achieve something extraordinary.

Polar Expedition: Building on their Tasman Conquest success, they set out for another extraordinary journey. On the 26th of January 2012, they became the first to walk from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back unassisted and unsupported. In 100 years of polar exploration, no one had ever successfully achieved this feat. This historic expedition showcased their growth mindset, teamwork, and determination to turn audacious goals into reality.

Expertise

Talking Points

The Explorer's Mindset

Achieving two world-first expeditions was no accident. In his highly motivating story-based presentation, your audience learns the importance of embodying a growth mindset, resilience and effective collaboration in navigating uncharted waters, turning change into opportunities, and leveraging systems to achieve goals. Whether through a keynote or immersive simulation-based learning, Cas highlights the risks of assumption, cognitive bias in decision-making, and the balance of conflicting priorities encompassing economic, social, and environmental factors.

Learning Outcomes:
- Inspiration & Motivation
- Growth Mindset & Resilience
- Effective Collaboration and Teamwork
- Dealing with failure, fear and uncertainty

Collaborating to Win

Effective collaboration and teamwork have been integral to James’ record-breaking expeditions. In his engaging keynote, Cas reveals how he built and led a high-performance team to secure two Guinness World Records. Your delegates learn the critical steps to developing teams that prioritize collective success over individual ambition, emphasizing alignment and collaboration. This session offers insights into cultivating a culture geared towards team success and collaboration.

Learning Outcomes:
- Effective Collaboration
- Team Alignment
- Strategic Thinking

Mastering Change and Uncertainty

Your organisation's growth relies on the capabilities of your people. In this engaging keynote, Cas shares practical insights drawn from his extraordinary adventures and corporate experience at Deloitte. Audiences discover the art of resilience, innovative problem-solving, and effective leadership in the face of uncertainty. Equip your delegates with actionable insights and tangible tools to thrive amid change.

Learning Outcomes:
- Leadership
- Collaboration
- Resilience
- Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
- Change Management

Workshop: Unchartered Waters & Uncharted Ice - An Immersive Learning Experience

Teams are led through an HPT setup where they make decisions on scenarios (with footage) from world-first expeditions with each decision having consequences that impact their success.

This immersive learning experience is designed to help them develop the skills they need to succeed including learning how to make better decisions under pressure, build stronger relationships, and effectively manage risk.

The synergies between achieving a daring world record and managing a successful business are clear. Both require alignment, leadership, and teamwork. By the end of this session, your team will leave with proven tools and techniques that will help them achieve their goals.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- Decision-making in VUCA environment
- Effective teamwork/collaboration
- Foundations of the cohesive leadership team

OUR APPROACH IS DIFFERENT.

Cas is an expert in designing and delivering high-impact leadership journeys, combining different delivery mediums to ensure maximum traction of the development of your leaders.

One of his most sought-after delivery is Uncharted Ice, an immersive learning experience that takes lessons and footage from one of the most hostile environments on Earth. This session emotionally engages leaders and creates an unforgettable shared experience that will bring them together to act as a team.

During the workshop, they are encouraged to strengthen their communication and decision-making skills. They have the opportunity for healthy debate and shared problem-solving, which improves their team connection.

The interactive nature of Uncharted Ice is highly memorable and allows teams to retain key insights and behaviours for longer.

This workshop is also available virtually.

Workshop: Developing & Leading High Performance Teams

High-performing teams are SMART (think systems, processes, and strategy) and HEALTHY (cultivating a positive culture, trust, and collaboration). In this workshop, the participants explore the building blocks of a healthy organisation and team. It starts with building a cohesive leadership team, creating clarity on what they are trying to achieve, and then effectively communicating that clarity to the wider team and stakeholders.

Learning Outcomes:
- Leadership Development
- Team Building & Goal Alignment
- Conflict Resolution
- Organizational Health

Workshop: Energy for High Performance

This workshop addresses the challenges of sustaining high performance over time, especially when managing demanding projects and navigating change. Leaders, executives, and ambitious individuals often face burnout risks. This interactive session with Cas equips participants with a practical toolkit to understand and manage their mental, physical, emotional, and relational energy sources. By recognizing and nurturing these key areas, participants will gain valuable strategies to become more "burnout-proof" and achieve sustained high performance.

Learning Outcomes:
- Burnout Prevention
- Energy Management
- Maintaining High Performance
- Resilience

Grit

Fueled by the understanding that "grit" – perseverance and passion for long-term goals – is a key driver of success, James' workshop equips participants to assess their team's current "grit level" through a 10-question survey. Following this self-awareness step, the session delves into four actionable drivers that individuals and teams can leverage to cultivate and strengthen their grit, ultimately setting them on the path to achieving long-term goals.

Key Takeaways:
- Inspiration to action
- Understanding why GRIT is a key driver of success.
- Deal with failure, fear and uncertainty successfully

Growth Mindset

Individuals with a growth mindset believe their intelligence, aptitude and behaviour are malleable - through hard work and dedication. This trait of success is a learned behaviour. In this workshop, participants identify the differences between a Fixed and a Growth Mindset and learn how to develop a growth mindset. Through the process, they become more confident that they can acquire the skills needed to take on daunting goals and career progressions.

Key Takeaways:
- Define & identify beliefs and behaviours of having a growth mindset
- Distinguish differences between optimism and growth mindset
- Use the “Prism of Growth” to move from Fixed to a growth mindset

Guiding Principles for Success

In this workshop, participants gain a deeper understanding of driving performance through action-oriented, targeted behaviours. Through interactive exercises, they re-evaluate both individual and organizational values, shaping them into guiding principles for effective decision-making in a constantly changing environment.

Key Takeaways:
- Understanding where guiding principles fit into HPTs (High-Performance Teams)
- Define team success
- Reshape values to form guiding principles.

Team Building - Indoor Antarctic Survival Exercise

Based on a workplace collaboration survey by Atlassian, 86% of employees and executives cite the lack of effective collaboration and communication as the main cause of workplace failures. This team-building activity aims to address this issue by fostering team cohesion and getting individuals to work together as one. Participants are tasked with setting up a tent while wearing polar mitts and without verbal communication, simulating challenges faced during world-first expeditions. This team-building activity not only strengthens teams amidst adversity but also promotes camaraderie and boosts teamwork.

POWERFUL. INSPIRING. RELEVANT

A memorable keynote speaker does three things:
- Tells an incredible story;
- Has people sitting on the edge of their seats; and
- Shares highly relevant messages that audiences can truly connect with.

As well as being a record-breaking adventurer and entrepreneur, Cas has a background as a corporate executive.

Having a clear understanding of what it takes to survive in both worlds sets him miles apart from other corporate speakers.

Audience Size: 10 - 10,000
Duration: 20 - 90 mins.

The 6 Step Journey from Inspiration to Execution

In this lively keynote, your delegates will learn the six critical steps that helped Cas achieve two Guinness World Records.

Cas has developed a six-step model that can be applied to any organisation that is looking to achieve a big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG). This model will help your team build clarity and alignment, and achieve the impossible.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- Growth mindset
- Team/Individual assessment
- Vulnerability-based trust

Crossing the Ditch & Crossing the Ice

FEEL THE EXCITEMENT AND DANGER OF TWO OF THE GREATEST ADVENTURES IN HISTORY.

These two keynotes–Crossing the Ditch & Crossing the Ice are highly motivating story-based presentations.

Cas will take your audience on an audio-visual journey through two of the greatest adventures in history. With lessons learnt from the most hostile environments on earth, his keynotes will stick with them for years to come.

These international keynote presentations

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- Inspiration/Motivation
- Challenge/Adventure
- Purpose/Vision
- Overcoming adversity

Immersive Learning

A CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN-ADVENTURE EXPERIENCE.

This experience emotionally engages audiences through metaphor, creating a shared platform to explore team dynamics, decision-making, and key insights applicable to life in the world.

This is an opportunity for organisations to further develop their understanding and application of high performance and teamwork.

Audience Size: 5 - 500
Duration: 3 hrs. - 2 days

Competing To Win

Effective collaboration is the most important element of success, whether you’re striving to grow a company or you’re voyaging across an ocean or tundra. Without real collaboration, both endeavors are bound to fail.

In this engaging workshop, your delegates will learn steps to create an aligned tribe that is working together, that supports each other and that doesn’t put personal ambition and success over that of the organisation. This is the perfect session on how to develop a “culture” that is geared towards collaboration, and ultimately:
success.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- Effective collaboration
- Internal vs external collaboration
- Strategic thinking

Team Building - My Adventure Race

The Premier Adventure Challenge Course and Corporate Race

My Adventure Race is a team-based adventure challenge course that will test your physical and mental skills. The race will feature a variety of obstacles, including rock climbing, abseiling, and group puzzles.

Each team’s objective is to be the first to arrive at the My Adventure Race finish line! To do this, they will need to follow a series of location clues that will lead to a variety of challenges. There will also be bonus challenges and time penalties scattered throughout the race. They will only receive your next location clue once you have satisfactorily completed each challenge.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- Teamwork
- Interactive Fun
- Effective Communication

Multi-Engagement Program

12-MONTH MULTI-ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE TEAMS

Engage in interactive and informative sessions that will transform your team into a high-performing unit.

This program is developed by Cas to help teams develop the mindset, skills, and tools they need to succeed. It is based on the real-world experiences of James Castrission, who has led two Guinness World Record expeditions.

Each session is designed to be engaging, interactive, and informative. It will challenge your team and help them grow as individuals and as a team.

Audience Size: 5 - 500
Duration: 12 months

Topics

Business

Lifestyle & Wellbeing

Mindset

Motivational Speakers

Media

Video

James Castrission | Speaker Reel | Saxton Speakers

Cas is highly regarded as one of Australia’s premier public speakers. He has written 2 bestselling books: Crossing the Ditch and Extreme South. Cas has now shared his incredible story with over 320,000 people around the world. Insights into leadership, teamwork, risk management, and overcoming adversity have captivated global audiences.

James Castrission | Immersive Conference Experience | Saxton Speakers

James Castrission: My Adventure Group

MyAdventure Group is known for its fully-tailored corporate team building. The premier adventure-based corporate development and incentive programs allow leaders and teams to step into the unknown and harness uniquely powerful lessons that can only be accessed outside of the office. Each program is designed to develop teams and give them a competitive advantage in one of the most confronting environments anyone will find; the business world. This is team building like no other. Your team will leave with actionable techniques and tools to help them work smarter together, feel 100% committed to what they are trying to achieve and emerge as the next generation of leaders.

Feedback

I've worked in the events industry for over 10 years and can honestly say this is one of the most unique and rewarding programs I have worked on, I would highly recommended my adventure grou ... keep readingp for anyone looking for something outside the norm! Congratulations and thank you to James and his team for all of their hard work Suncorp Bank

James was amazing, his experiences combined with his ability to involve you in the expedition was something we have not experienced with a keynote speaker before, our objective was to increase teamwork and his teachings achieved that perfectly 10/10 he was energetic, enthusiastic and engaging.

Pharmacare

James is entertaining, deeply engaging, vulnerable, and insightful, his educational methods have you deeply invested and engaged… And leave you with some great knowledge and learning experience that you can apply throughout your leadership journey.

Department of Housing QLD

His ability to package these adventures into a thoroughly unique and thought-provoking, engaging and raw presentation sets him apart from almost every other “motivational” presenter I’ve seen.

Andrew Wilkinson

Cas’ Keynote was amazing. It actually left me speechless for some time. Most importantly it was a very active, engaging, and deeply motivating keynote that I’ll still draw from for a while.

B Thriven

We’ve just completed an extraordinary leadership retreat with James as our facilitator, as someone who has participated in a number of leadership events and leadership training sessions, I can honestly say that I’ve never experienced anything like this before.

The Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ)

... the peak teams program was a great way to reinforce our team's commitment to short and long term goals and ultimately the success of the company

Beiersdorf australia

I was on the edge of my seat for the entire presentation. one moment in tears of laughter, the next tears of despair.

Travelscene/ American Express

Cas was absolutely awesome. He fulfilled his speaker brief perfectly and was inspiring and engaging. He had an audience of over 300 staff members spellbound.

Foxtel